All Clear for Sunday Smatterings
Marilyn Stasio pays tribute to Donald Westlake and the Dortmunder novels in her NYTBR review of GET REAL.
At the Daily Beast, David Montgomery rounds up new crime fiction by Joseph Finder, Daniel Silva, Robert Ferrigno, Karin Slaughter and Chris Mooney, who really must be published in the US again soon.
The Boston Globe’s Hallie Ephron reviews recent mysteries by Sophie Littlefield, Jason Starr and Linwood Barclay.
Adam Woog looks at Aaron Elkins’ newest archeological adventure SKULL DUGGERY for the Seattle Times.
Bill Kent digs deep into Declan Hughes’ ALL THE DEAD VOICES for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Times’ Peter Millar has his say on recent thrillers by George Dawes Green, Jeffrey Deaver, Frank Schatzing and Charles Brokaw, while John Dugdale does the same for Ian Rankin’s new crime novel THE COMPLAINTS.
Rebecca Armstrong also puzzles out her feelings about Rankin’s new protagonist, Malcolm Fox, for the Independent.
And Rankin himself reveals some surprising things to the Independent on Sunday’s Katy Guest about cutting back on alcohol, famous friendships and – gasp – hanging it up after he turns 50? Nope, not buying it.
Deutsche Welle meets up with Marek Krajewski, a Polish crime writer who writes of the country’s darker histories.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Jason Steger reports from the Ned Kelly Awards, where Shane Maloney won a lifetime achievement award.
The Stranger’s Paul Constant is a huge fan of Darwyn Cooke’s graphic novel version of Richard Stark’s THE HUNTER.
Michael Berry reviews recent SF/Fish work by Lev Grossman, Richard Kadrey and Ian Rankin (by virtue of his graphic novel DARK ENTRIES.)
Hugh Andrew and Denise Mina debate James Kelman’s wrongheaded comments about Scottish fiction going to hell as a result of genre fiction, or something like that. Well, I guess you know whose side I’m on here.
John Banville talks with the Irish Times about his new novel THE INFINITIES, and his alter ego as Benjamin Black. Which leads me to wonder: which identity will he be remembered for more after his passing, and if it’s Black, would that be such a bad thing?
Janet Evanovich talks a bit more about her upcoming venture into graphic novel territory with the LA Times’ Mindy Farabee.
Brent Ghelfi is interviewed by the North County Times about his Volk novels and the challenges of sticking to a book-a-year schedule.
Anne Emery gets the Q&A treatment from Paul Fiander at the Halifax Chronicle Herald.
Margaret Carroll explains to the Detroit Free Press how family tragedy spurred her to transform herself into a romantic suspense novelist
Henry Perez chats about his debut crime novel with the Chicago Sun-Times’ Jeff Johnson.
Kathy Reichs discusses her newest Tempe Brennan novel 206 BONES with Kerry Lengel at the Arizona Republic.
Lev Grossman extols the virtue of storytelling in an op-ed for the WSJ. Matt Cheney rather handily decimates the piece in response.
Kaylie Jones talks about her amazing memoir LIES MY MOTHER NEVER TOLD ME with Rege Behe at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
And finally, just because Philip Garrido, Jaycee Dugard’s kidnapper, read a lot of horror and science fiction (especially the novels of Dean Koontz) let’s not fall into the canard of equating fiction and reality, shall we? The man committed monstrous acts throughout his life, and just because he’s a probable paranoid schizophrenic who may well evade trial (I’d say it’s 50⁄50 at this point) doesn’t mean there are easy answers for why he did what he did – especially when it’s also likely there’s quite a lot more still to emerge.