Olympic-Tinged Sunday Smatterings

Marilyn Stasio looks at recent crime fiction by James Hall, Charlie Huston, Elly Griffiths and Robert Crais.

Oline Cogdill reviews P.J. Parrish’s newest Louis Kincaid novel, A LITTLE DEATH, in the Sun-Sentinel.

The G&M’s Margaret Cannon has her say on new mysteries and thrillers by Ann Cleeves, Leighton Gage, James Thompson, Judith Alguire, Charlie Huston, and Paco Taibo II.

The Seattle Times’ Adam Woog rounds up new crime offerings by Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbo, Henry Porter and Dana Stabenow. 

Tom Nolan delivers his verdict on Henning Mankell’s THE MAN FROM BEIJING in the Wall Street Journal. Mankell talks more about his newest novel to the Scotsman.

Tom and Enid Schantz look at new mysteries by Mark Mills,  Marjorie Eccles and Parnell Hall in the Denver Post.

Peter Millar at the Sunday Times looks at two new thrillers by John Burdett and Mo Hayder.

Julia Keller explains why mysteries matter in the Chicago Tribune.

Daniel Mallory – who is about to start a new job at Little, Brown UK as a crime & thriller editor – reviews Mark Mills’ THE INFORMATION OFFICER for the LA Times.

John Timpane at the Philly Inquirer throws in his two cents on Henning Mankell’s THE MAN FROM BEIJING.

Dennis Lehane tells the Boston Globe that if he doesn’t get “weirded out” anymore about people like Martin Scorsese adapting his novels into films (including the just-released SHUTTER ISLAND), there’s something wrong.

The secret skill of Jeff Lindsay, the man behind the DEXTER novels? He’s a pretty good cook and baker, evidently.

Stephanie Merritt looks at the ever-blurry divide between literary and crime fiction, a line she herself straddles with her new historical thriller HERESY, written under the pen name of S.J. Parris.

Noomi Rapace, who does a masterful job playing Lisbeth Salander in the film version of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, talks with the Times of London about her role, the books as cultural phenomena, and why she’s more or less moving on to other projects now.

Yes, Martin Amis stirs up quite a bit of controversy, understandably. But his musings on the Fourth Estate are pretty damn on-target.

Kevin Sampsell is going to be hard to top in terms of how to make your book tour stop incredibly special. 

The Independent looks at the handful of men who, pseudonymously, are “taking up Barbara Cartland’s baton” or more realistically, writing romantic fiction because they want to and it makes money.

The world of ghostwriting gets another hard look from the Chicago Sun-Times.

And finally, the Blackberry has a new use – stopping the path of a speeding bullet.