Sunday Smatterings in Extremis
Margaret Cannon’s latest crime column features new titles by Steve Hamiton, John Burdett, Stephen Hunter, James Hall, Jonathan Kellerman and Cora Harrison. The column, as has been widely reported by now, exclusively available online as of the beginning of the year, and while I get the outrage, as someone whose work, with some exceptions, now more or less appears only through online conduits (regardless of whether big corporations or well-funded startups are involved) I’m having a hard time getting worked up about the switch. Sure, the most reader email I’ve received were for pieces that ran in the Wall Street Journal and The Believer, but it just feels like another round in an argument that feels tired, dated and in a stalemate, because its roots are in a dying industry that will never recapture its former glory and heyday. Print isn’t better or worse than online; it’s different, and there’s an adjustment period, but a Facebook group isn’t going to put Cannon’s column back in the Saturday Globe.
There’s any number of commentary and analysis on Amazon pulling all Macmillan titles for direct sale (my own should show up tomorrow sometime) but Andrew Wheeler gets at the root of much of the issues at hand.
Randy Michael Signor has his very positive say on T. Jefferson Parker’s new thriller IRON RIVER in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Rege Behe compares and contrasts two very different L.A. visions by Robert Crais and Charlie Huston.
Leonard Cassuto has many thoughtful things to express about Robert B. Parker, the hardboiled professor, in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Joan Brady tells the Independent on Sunday’s Danuta Kean why she’s made the permanent switch to thrillers, and still retains a sense of righteous anger.
The Financial Times plays the Q&A game with Richard Powers now that GENEROSITY is available in the UK.
Finally, goddamn, Rip Torn.