Sunday Smatterings Look for Meaning

Marilyn Stasio reviews new crime fiction by Stieg Larsson, Karin Fossum, Steven Thomas, Margaret Maron and Matthew Dicks for the NYTBR.

Oline Cogdill takes on Joseph Finder’s new thriller VANISHED in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Paula Woods has her say on Joe Lansdale’s new Hap & Leonard novel, VANILLA RIDE, for the LA Times.

In the Chicago Sun-Times Jeff Johnson reviews Marcus Sakey’s THE AMATEURS, Carlo Wolff extols the virtues of THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE and Laura Caldwell’s RED WHITE AND DEAD gets examined by David Montgomery.

In the Guardian, Laura Wilson rounds up new crime and thrillers by Camilla Way, NJ Cooper and Rosemary Furber.

The Times’ Peter Millar looks at recent crime novels by George Pelecanos and Sean Black.

Michael Dirda is greatly entertained by Donald Westlake’s GET REAL, but sad that this is the last Dortmunder novel.

Laura Lippman pens a thoughtful essay in the Washington Post about the balancing act between series and standalones and how much longer she can keep writing about Tess Monaghan.

The National Post’s Mark Medley talks with Linwood Barclay about his internationally bestselling thrillers, including the latest, FEAR THE WORST.

Barclay also writes an essay of his own writing life for the Toronto Star, where he’d been a columnist for years.

Colin Harrison describes his Sunday routine – baseball, map collections and breakfast – to the NYT’s Michael Wilson.

Why is Dan Brown such a mega-success and cultural phenomenon? The Times of London tries to find out (and they won’t be the last to do so.)

John Sutherland reviews Nicholson Baker’s THE ANTHOLOGIST and Sam Savage’s THE CRY OF THE SLOTH in tandem for the Times, which is kind of a no-brainer to my mind because I loved both books and they are about literary failures (a type I’ve had to deal with a lot the last few days…)

Baker’s book also gets the review treatment from Andrew Motion at the Guardian and Simon Schama at the Financial Times, who begins his review with some verse (!)

True crime author Dale Hudson has been missing since Wednesday.

And finally, so how much does a first edition of the first Archie comic go for? $38, 837, as it turns out.