Posts

R.I.P., John Updike. The links are plentiful and ongoing (especially as compiled by David “Greatest Aggregator in the World” Hudson) but the pieces I keep fixating on are the two he wrote …

After weeks of rumor-mongering, hand-wringing and aborted attempts at “petitions”, what the literary world’s suspected for some time has finally come to pass: The Washington Post …

By now the news has pretty well made the rounds, but the morning after it’s still damn sad that Sara Nelson, editor in chief of Publishers Weekly since 2005, was laid off yesterday, the very day …

NYTBR: Marilyn Stasio reviews new crime offerings from Charlie Huston, Andrew Martin, Jack Fredrickson and Michael McGarrity; the Wednesday night book talk at the Tribeca B&N’ is …

Thanks to Stieg Larsson’s THE GIRL WITH PLAYING WITH FIRE reaching #1 on the UK hardback lists and the Kenneth Branagh-starring adaptation of the Inspector Wallander novels by Henning Mankell, …

(Editor’s note: Howard Unruh died on October 19, 2009 at the age of 88, about nine months after I wrote this piece.)

On September 6, 1949, Howard B. Unruh, 28 years old, a mild, soft-spoken …

Every year since 1993 the International Mystery Booksellers Association has given out an award – named for the founder and first proprietor of the late, lamented Murder Ink bookstore – …

Tom Nolan celebrates the 75th anniversary of Dashiell Hammett’s THE THIN MAN by asking why we’re not taking the book more seriously.

One of the things I forgot to ask Patricia Cornwell …

Congratulations to all the nominees!

BEST NOVEL

Missing by Karin Alvtegen (Felony & Mayhem Press)
Blue Heaven by C.J. Box (St. Martin's Minotaur)
Sins of the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno (Simon & …

The former barrister, satirist and creator of the much-loved RUMPOLE novels has died at the age of 85. Tony Lacey, Sir John’s publisher at Penguin, told the Times of London that he died at 6.30 …

Sometimes you have to go with the obvious, and since Tuesday is the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s birth and the Edgar Award nominations are slated for announcement later this morning, …

The mystery and thriller world knows David Ellis for writing five novels, including  the Edgar-winning LINE OF VISION, the retrograde narrative IN THE COMPANY OF LIARS and EYE OF THE BEHOLDER. …

If you’re in Philadelphia tonight, do not miss the Great Poe Debate at the Philly Free Library. The Inquirer previews the fun and games of the Poe Wars.

Michael Carlson talks Scandinavian crime …

The Crime Writers’ Association announced that their annual award “for sustained excellence in crime writing” for 2009 goes to Andrew Taylor. Among Taylor’s many fine novels are …

As Quercus, the most recent UK publisher to get in on the ground with genre fiction, faces cutbacks and shortfalls, their former editorial director moves to Atlantic Books to start up a brand-new …

The fourth and final part of my ongoing series on historical mysteries at the Barnes & Noble Review (Go here for parts One, Two, and Three) runs this week, zeroing in on recent and upcoming novels …

NYTBR: Caleb Crain looks at radical Marxist literature for children; Jacob Heilbrunn on a spate of books and films that romanticize or embellish on the horror of the Holocaust; Matt Ruff digs Josh …

So word of my freakish reading ability got around and Carolyn Kellogg, Jacket Copy’s ace lead blogger, engaged me in a Q&A about the nuts and bolts of it:

Jacket Copy: So how do you do …

Janet Maslin extols the virtues of Charlie Huston while Patrick Anderson is not so impressed with Ira Berkowitz.

Michiko Kakutani is wowed by Jayne Anne Phillips’ long-awaited new novel LARK …

The Bookseller reports even more sad news. Murder One, the independent mystery bookstore that has occupied several locations along Charing Cross Road for the last two decades, will shut its doors at …

Karen Spengler, proprietor of the independent bookstore I Love a Mystery in Mission, Kansas, died at her home in Kansas City on January 1 after a long battle with cancer. She was 56. Spengler was …

My newest column at the Baltimore Sun has a neophyte feel to it because all three of the books I review, by Leonard Downie, Malla Nunn and George Matras, are debut novels.

Regis Behe chats with …

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Donald E. Westlake, the incomparable writer of a great many fine crime novels – including the Dortmunder series under his own name and the Parker novels as Richard Stark – is dead. He …

Hope your 2009 has gotten off to a great start. I certainly feel ready to get back to things (especially after 2008’s last inauspicious moment) and get the year off on the right footing.

The …

The Observer serves up a preview of books published in 2009, marveling at the number of big names coming out with new novels in the UK like Amis, Pynchon, Waters, and some guy named Bolano.

One of …

Hillary Waugh died earlier this month and I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve never heard of him. That’s entirely my fault, but considering he wrote LAST SEEN WEARING (1952), which is …

Tomorrow is the last night of Chanukah, so that means this rendition of “Ocho Kandelikas” from my choir concert last Wednesday still applies.

To each and every one of you I wish the happiest of holidays. The slowdown has begun, and since I’ve more or less vowed to take a breather from all things Internet and social media for the …

With the new year approaching I felt like going with a different color scheme for Confessions, so voila. And so full Weekend Updates will not resume until ‘09, but content yourself with this …

The January/February issue of Poets & Writers (which has an absolute must-read cover story featuring four of the best up and coming agents going right now) also includes a short Q&A of mine …

My newest LA Times column travels back in time to the 1920s, when Earl Derr Biggers started writing a sextet of novels starring Hawaii-based Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan. Then it jumps …

So earlier this week, police in Hollywood, Florida closed the Adam Walsh case. 27 years after the six-year-old was abducted from a shopping mall and murdered (though only his head was found, a couple …

Deadlines are beat. The plate is clear for now. And to tell you the truth, I am rethinking the whole “link journalism” thing that blogs, especially litblogs, were built on the back of. For …

Over the weekend the Times of London engaged in something of a parlor game, printing an excerpt by an “undisputed great of British literature” without revealing who that great is. Editor …

Apologies from this corner for the paucity of posts: it’s been a deadline-packed week and the pace won’t ease up until early next week. Which is why I’m late on directing you to …

The crime writing team of Michael Gregorio conduct a fascinating interview with Giancarlo de Cataldo, known here as the editor of CRIMINI.

It’s official: Reed can’t find a buyer for its …

The Calendar section of the LA Times runs my piece on the bestselling thriller writer, which is as much about the runup to her new novel SCARPETTA as it is a wonkish look at her contributions to …

From a narrative standpoint, Sunday’s literary smackdown developed in the best possible way. PEN shot out to an early lead, held on as tough question after tough question stumped both teams, and …

Because honestly, this week it’s all about Best of Lists and you can find them all in one place at Largehearted Boy. But there are other links to be had, like:

Marilyn Stasio’s crime …

This weekend the Los Angeles Times runs its annual Favorite Books issue with the following categories represented:

Fiction & Poetry

Nonfiction

* Paperbacks (Richard Rayner) * …

If you happen to be in midtown this weekend, you’re well advised to check out the goings-on at the 21st Annual Indie & Small Press Book Fair, taking place at the General Society Building on …

Andrew Wheeler has the clearest summary of what some call Black Wednesday (I prefer Bloodbath Wednesday myself), which now encompasses more layoffs at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Simon & Schuster …

I am about to pick my jaw up from the floor, but here’s the summary of a press release Random House CEO Markus Dohle just sent out:

• The Random House Publishing Group, under the leadership of …

And after a glorious week away, the news is all doomy and gloomy! Well not all, but a whole lot of it, alas.

After the publishing news heard round the world, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt publisher Becky …

Okay, so a while back I wondered whether it was such a good idea to place James Wood on a pedestal, and that knowing what he thinks on or does with things that have nothing whatsoever to do with …

Here’s to good food and cheer to distract from stormy economic times. And when Black Friday rolls around, how about hitting up your nearest independent shop and buying a book or few for friends …

It’s the news heard ‘round the publishing world (so of course, it happened while I was traveling.) There’s lots of panic and teeth-gnashing, but Colleen Lindsay also advises some …

Over at his blog, Art & Literature, Art Taylor talks with Charles Ardai about his new and charmingly clever novel FIFTY-TO-ONE, the first under his real name and #50 published by Hard Case Crime. …

Because at this rate, it might be the only way to iron this mess out…

NYTBR: George Packer on the V.S. Naipaul biography;  Charles Taylor digs the new short story collection from Stephen King; Kevin Kelly examines the way screens are changing the printed word; …

My newest column at the Los Angeles Times has a missing persons themes running throughout, looking at new and recent books by Stewart O’Nan, Jennifer McMahon and Johan Theorin. Here’s how …

For the first time since 1978, Mystery Writers of America will have two Grand Masters for 2009: James Lee Burke and Sue Grafton. From the release that went out today:

At the 2007 London Book Fair, UK literary agent Ali Gunn was shopping around a book proposal with the tag “What PRIMARY COLORS was to Capitol Hill, EGO will be to the media world.” For a …

For all your National Book Awards recap needs, including links to other stories and the view from the press corps, check out my twitter feed. Ed Champion provided live podcasts and Jason Boog got …

George Chesbro, the author of the “Mongo the Magnificent” series of detective novels (as well as many other works of crime fiction) died yesterday after a short illness. He was 68. His …

The newest podcast at CRIMEWAV features “Blooming”, a short story of mine that appeared in A HELL OF A WOMAN.

Is Barack Obama the new Oprah?

Val McDermid will now be a children’s …

And it’s an abbreviated one this week, so bear with:

Marilyn Stasio gives the business on recent crime fiction by Reginald Hill, Christopher Fowler, Pablo De Santis and Jeffery Deaver, not to …

Jesus, this is horrible:

Life was imitating art when crime novelist Laura Caldwell lay face

down on a Lincoln Park street holding pieces of her shattered teeth in

her bloody palm.

Her upcoming …

At NPR, Martha Woodroof reports on how the global success of Stieg Larsson’s THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO translated very well in the United States:

Knopf Editor-in-Chief Sonny Mehta, who …

First up, The Gumshoe Site reports that the Mystery Writers of America  chose The Edgar Allan Poe Society and The Poe House

in Baltimore, Maryland, as the 2009 recipients of the Raven Award for …

At the fifth annual Tony Hillerman Writers Conference, Roy Chaney was awarded the Tony Hillerman Prize (sponsored by WordHarvest and Thomas Dunne Books/Minotaur Books) for the best unpublished …

As one of the 2666 skeptics, it is only fair I judge the book on its merits, which I hope to do now that a copy has landed in my mailbox. But Levi Stahl has worthy commentary on the reviews so far. ( …

As reported this morning over at BookBrunch:

Val McDermid has left HarperCollins after 17 years and gone to David

Shelley at Sphere/Little, Brown. The two-book deal, for an undisclosed

sum, ends …

….well, I’ll just quote Ruth Jordan, who buried the lead in her report on Murder and Mayhem in Muskego over the weekend:

And at the end of the day, in a fabulous interview by Michael …

NYTBR: Jonathan Lethem spent ecstatic days with Roberto Bolano’s 2666 and pretty much declares it the novel to read; Richard Parker looks at the Great Depression and what it might mean for …

Kyle Minor is the author of In the Devil’s Territory, a collection of stories available this week from Dzanc Books. His recent work appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2008, Random House’s …

I have lost count how many talented, brilliant, notable people have died this year. But goddamn, losing John Leonard hurts. Critics are a hard group to love, but Leonard’s writing made it easy. …

A few folks have wondered if I had anything of substance to say about Michael Crichton. And the truth is, not being nearly as familiar with his work as I should, it didn’t seem right. What …

The bestsellling author is dead at the age of 66 following a long and private battle with cancer. Wow.

UPDATE: Obits from HarperCollins Canada, Wired News, Phoenix New Times, AP, NYT, National Post, …

So now we know. And yes, it isn’t perfect (Prop 8 WTF? And same to you, AZ) but it’s damn good to feel hopeful instead of nervous, optimistic instead of fearful. Plus I can play this all …

Today’s the day. If there ever was an election I wished I could vote in, this was it. Even getting free ice cream and coffee isn’t enough to overcome this wish. So don’t let rain or …

The Barnes & Noble Review runs a long and a short piece of mine this week. The long piece is a review of Louis Bayard’s historical thriller THE BLACK TOWER:

Writers of historical fiction …

A few things from me to kick off this Weekend Update after we turned the clocks back. My new column at the Baltimore Sun looks at new mysteries and thrillers by P.D. James, Christopher Fowler and Jon …

The legend has passed. He was 96 and packed zillions of lives into a single one by reaching out to people of all stripes – rich and poor, black and white, male and female, old and young, …

Happy Halloween, everybody. A few choice links on this candy-filled day:

At the WSJ, Laura Miller dissects the still-burgeoning appeal of vampires.

Kelly Link picks five spooky books for Halloween. …

The cover story of this week’s Metro Times features Loren Estleman, billed as “MIchigan’s Other Crime Writer”:

On a drive through Indiana two years ago, Michigan-based author …

Laura Wilson has won the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger for her WWII-era novel STRATTON’S WAR.

Ex-SAS man and thriller writer Chris Ryan is now writing saga fiction as Molly Jackson. No, …

Criminal Brief posts the news that Elaine Flinn passed away last Saturday from pneumonia, complications relating to a long battle with cancer. I,too, had heard at Bouchercon that Elaine was diagnosed …

Tony Hillerman, the award-winning author of many works of fiction and non-fiction – primarily the Leaphorn/Chee novels – passed away yesterday. He was 83, and the cause of death was …

NYTBR: This is about as sycophantic a review I’ve read in ages, so of course it has to grace the cover; Terrence Rafferty makes a welcome return by looking at female horror writers like Sarah …

It was clear that he was loved, and that even though they might not have understood him fully, they loved him in return. It was clear that his intellect was giant enough to write a book on Infinity, …

My newest Dark Passages column at the Los Angeles Times turns the clock back all the way to 1865, when John Babbington Williams’ LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NEW YORK DETECTIVE” was …

Signs I am a mystery geek of insane proportions: I have been clicking refresh on Jiro Kimura’s The Gumshoe Site ever since I got back from Bouchercon in hopes that he would post his Rogues …

One of the UK’s leading literary agents, Pat Kavanagh, has died from complications of a recently diagnosed brain tumor. There’s more on Kavanagh’s death over at Bookbrunch, a new …

NYTBR: It’s more than a bit meh this week at the Book Review – or just puzzling –  but one can always read Marilyn Stasio’s column, looking at new crime fiction by Michael …

When I first heard that Leonard Cassuto, a professor of English Literature at Fordham (and not Hofstra, as it reads in the piece) was writing a book about the links between hardboiled fiction and …

Jennifer Jordan took this picture of me and my two Anthony Award nominations after the awards brunch was over on Sunday afternoon, making this one of the many, many ways in which I cannot possibly …

Rae Helmsworth, who is chairing the 2010 Bouchercon in San Francisco, passes along word of the confirmed Guests of Honor:

Toastmaster:  Eddie Muller
International Guest of Honor:  Denise …

Thanks to the dedicated crowd who turned up at Scandinavia House yesterday evening to hear your gravel-voiced moderator lead Val McDermid, Jeffrey Frank and Edward Kastenmeier in discussion of Stieg …

• The first of my Bouchercon dispatches is up at Jacket Copy, even if my med-addled status made me mix up my comic book characters on t-shirts. 
  • PW’s Jordan Foster has a quick overview …

I have no voice and I have a pretty good suspicion whatever is ailing me must be cured with some variant of penicillin, but suffice to say that this year’s Bouchercon is going to be talked about …

I arrived early so I could prepare for this – but once the fast is done on Thursday night, then my Bouchercon begins.

Already there’s plenty of pre-game to go around the blogosphere, and …

Since Ali Karim was kind enough to trumpet this event over at the Rap Sheet, I ought to make it as official as a blog notification can be. On Tuesday, October 14 at 6:30 PM over at Scandinavia House, …

Though the news was allegedly embargoed until tonight, The Bookseller has announced the winners of these brand-new awards, given out last Friday at a star–studded gala ceremony:

The literary …

And of course, it’s the pre-Bouchercon update, seems fitting to note that the Baltimore Sun’s Read Street blog will be on hand for the convention and will provide daily updates. The paper …

Bouchercon is less than a week away. Early next week I’ll do some serious previewing (and if there’s anyone who needs further information about options with regards to the Yom Kippur fast, …

I can see how this would happen, but come on, this is funny:

Two notices were delivered by GEZ, a licence-collecting agency,

which threatened to mount legal action against the literary hero, who …

RIP, Olsson’s Books & Records. That you will be missed is an understatement. WaPo’s Bob Thompson has a nice appreciation of the now-closed indie chain.

Another RIP for the New York …

The Crime Writers’ Association has announced the shortlist for the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger:

Ariana Franklin, The Death Maze, Bantam Press

Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame, Quercus

Andrew …

Keeping it short, keeping it mostly crime fiction-centric:

The Missoula Independent collected a ton of wonderful tributes to the late James Crumley by James Lee Burke, Chris Offutt, George Pelecanos, …

My newest Dark Passages column at the Los Angeles Times compares and contrasts Katherine Neville’s international bestseller THE EIGHT with its sequel THE FIRE, two decades in the making and due …

Even though I first learned about this book deal in open court more than a year and a half ago, the news is now official, I guess, since Variety is reporting it: Guillermo Del Toro, the now …

Publishers Weekly reported this afternoon that NYT bestseller Tami Hoag, who has been publishing her work with Bantam since she was writing romance novels for their defunct Loveswept line, is …

Maxim Jakubowski and Mike Ripley remember James Crumley.

The Times’ Ben MacIntyre visits with Elmore and Peter Leonard.

Oliver Sacks talks to the WSJ about music and the mind, his daily swims …

Karen Matthews at the AP writes up the opening of a new exhibit centered around Irene Nemirovsky that opens today at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park. I took my visiting mother to …

At Time Out Chicago, book editor Jonathan Messinger looks into how Richard Stark’s Parker novels ended up with the University of Chicago Press. Actually the main answer lies with this guy… …

My review of Dennis Lehane’s THE GIVEN DAY runs in the Los Angeles Times today. I’ll get to that in a bit, but it seems fitting that it runs just as that old literary/genre saw gets …

NYTBR: Seth Mnookin goes inside John Darnton’s murder mystery version of the Times; Tom LeClair has some grievances with MAN IN THE DARK; Christopher Hitchens on BHL; and Amy Finnerty has her …

The New York Times profiles Jessica Stockton Bagnulo and how close her dream of opening a bookstore in Brooklyn is coming to reality.

Also in the Times, Dennis Lehane garners a rave from Janet Maslin …

James Crumley, one of the most influential crime writers upon the current generation of working writers, has died at the age of 68. The Missoulian has more:

Missoula author James Crumley, 68, died …

Just this afternoon I was thinking that there hadn’t been a sit up/take notice kind of book deal, one that might have some relevance to the crime fiction world, in a long time. So of course this …

….but this is pretty damn clever. (via)

Naturally pretty much the whole world is reviewing INDIGNATION right now – Christopher Hitchens at the Atlantic ain’t impressed, plus …

This is the first day of the rest of America’s financial life. And anyone who says this is not a depression economic concavity is fooling themselves.

There’s been a lot of dissection over …

As both the Telegraph and the New York Times report, a trove of recordings featuring Agatha Christie has been unearthed – recordings no one knew existed before:

Her grandson Mathew Prichard …

NYTBR: Michiko Kakutani offers a heartfelt tribute to David Foster Wallace; Bruce Jay Friedman on Al Silverman’s oral history of publishing’s Golden Age, which I MUST get a copy of ASAP; …

David Foster Wallace hanged himself last night. He was 46. As I write this the news is the most popular item on Twitter. And I can’t help but think that beyond the absolute loss of a great …

_(This is the sixth and last part in a multi-part series examining publisher

imprint brands in an informal, opinionated manner. Part I, focusing on

Macmillan, is here, and Part II, focusing on Simon …

The Guardian’s Alison Flood wonders at the UK prospects of Muriel Barbery’s surprise long-running international bestseller THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer …

Gregory Mcdonald, best known as the author of the FLETCH novels, died on September 7 in Giles County, TN. He was 71. Edward Champion confirmed the news tonight with the Giles County Ambulance Service. …

_(This is the fifth in a multi-part series examining publisher

imprint brands in an informal, opinionated manner. Part I, focusing on

Macmillan, is here, and Part II, focusing on Simon & …

The Booker Prize shortlist is announced, and the usual suspects aren’t on it – no CHILD 44, no NETHERLAND, and no ENCHANTRESS OF FLORENCE. John Sutherland, your YouTube moment awaits! And …

_(This is the fourth in a multi-part series examining publisher

imprint brands in an informal, opinionated manner. Part I, focusing on

Macmillan, is here, and Part Ii, focusing on Simon & …

My occasional series on historical mysteries continues at the Barnes & Noble Review, with part III concentrating on the Victorian era:

While every historical era has its unique appeal as a …

Boy, was that some nutty rainstorm yesterday!

NYTBR: Well, before we get to the Book Review proper, it behooves me to point out two separate items: Ian Urbina’s piece on the Poe Wars between …

_(This is the third in a multi-part series examining publisher

imprint brands in an informal, opinionated manner. Part I, focusing on

Macmillan, is here, and Part Ii, focusing on Simon & …

Read Dennis Lehane’s lips: no new Patrick and Angie. Oh, and he talks up THE GIVEN DAY a great deal with USA TODAY’s Bob Minzesheimer.

The paper does its fall preview and also chats with …

They’ve just lost another author:

New York Times

bestselling author Jacqueline Winspear’s seventh and eighth books in

her series featuring psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs, …

(This is the second in a multi-part series examining publisher imprint brands in an informal, opinionated manner. Part I, focusing on Macmillan, is here; others will follow.)

It’s been about a …

It is not news that the publishing industry is in flux and in dire need of some new directions and definitions. It is not news that there will be more changes, more angst, more doom, more gloom, and …

Oh, that Stephenie Meyer. On the one hand, it sucks someone leaked a partial first draft of her new book to the Internet. OTOH, was it really necessary to declare the book is on hold indefinitely and …

In this week’s issue of Maclean’s, I profile David Rotenberg, author of several Shanghai-based mystery novels who now takes a more panoramic, James Clavell-esque view of the city in his …

And like everyone else, fingers crossed Gustav’s damage to the Gulf Coast is minimal and survivable.

NYTBR: Joyce Carol Oates on Curtis Sittenfeld’s supposedly controversial AMERICAN WIFE …

My newest “Dark Passages” column at the Los Angeles Times is now up, mixing together reviews of Andrew Pyper’s THE KILLING CIRCLE and Guillermo Martinez’s THE BOOK OF MURDER in …

I am going to say from the outset that I want lots of comments on this post, because I think it will be warranted. And also because I am not quite sure what I think about it. But to sum up, CSI …

They are now posted at the Charmed to Death panel blog, broken down by date:

• Thursday
• Friday
• Saturday
• Sunday

My own panel is bright and early on Saturday morning, talking about the business of …

Well, not for the guy who tried to set his up, I suppose:

A man who chose "Lloyds is pants" as his telephone
banking password said he found it had been changed by a member of staff
to "no …

The Banffshire Journal meets Shona Maclean, newly minted historical crime writer.

Oline Cogdill on perceived gender disparities in mystery awards.

Leon Neyfakh chats with new Faber US head Mitzi …

It even has third-act plot twists:

PORTLAND, Ore. – When Susan Kuhnhausen

returned home from work one day earlier this month, she encountered an

intruder wielding a claw hammer. After a …

NYTBR: In what seems to be less space, Marilyn Stasio crams in reviews of new crime novels by Louis Bayard, Debra Ginsberg, Marcus Sakey, Bill Loehfelm and Michael Harvey; Paul Berman on Norman Mailer …

Damn, what a shame. The Rap Sheet has the news from editor Michael Langnas on why the magazine is shutting down after just two published issues:

We tried very hard in 2008 to keep Murdaland going
as …

Deadline hell is nearing an end, as is my Olympics obsession, just in time for some light travel. So for those wondering about the loss of the Weekend Update, it’ll be back in earnest after …

…well, pick your superlative. I’ll go with really, really good swimmer for now.

The coverage is pretty all-consuming, of course, but I find myself curious, so soon after number eight, …

When MURDER INK was published, Marilyn Stasio was about a decade away from taking over as the New York Times Book Review’s mystery critic, and was still working at Cue Magazine as its theater …

As Mystery Scene puts it, Jim Huang is having a very bad business day: “The power’s out in our building,” Huang writes in a note posted on the magazine’s blog. “It looks like …

One of the reasons for my somewhat pre-emptive post earlier in the week was my lack of trust in the postal system here. But lo, it has come through, and a rather good-conditioned copy of MURDER INK: …

While it’s not quite nothing to see here, posting will definitely be on the light side between now and the end of August. Between subbing in at Publishers Lunch for the next couple of weeks, …

In Act One of this story, a 57 year old woman has her dead pitbull, Booger, cloned in South Korea. Five times over.

In Act Two, the story is reported all over the world, and Bernann McKinney attracts …

At the Washington City Paper, Mark Athitakis comes to terms with Pelecanos’s way with DC details in a most unusual manner – crafting a glossary of sorts:

The stuff that George Pelecanos …

Thriller writer Mark Arsenault profiles fellow thriller writer Michelle Gagnon.

Swati Padney meets Zoe Ferraris, the author of the excellent debut mystery FINDING NOUF.

John Darnton talks up BLACK, …

The Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) is proud to announce [the nominees for the 27^th

annual Shamus Awards]1, given annually to recognize outstanding

achievement in private eye fiction. The 2008 …

Eddie Muller’s new Guilty Bystander column looks at recent books by Nina Revoyr, Denise Hamilton, Loren Estleman, Matthew Stokoe, Jerry Kenneally and Adrienne Barbeau.

Oline Cogdill also …

At the LA Times, I use my unabashed love for Iain Sansom’s Mobile Library novels (THE CASE OF THE MISSING BOOKS is genius and the new one, THE BOOK STOPS HERE, is just as good) as a means of …

Lots and lots and lots on George Pelecanos as THE TURNAROUND is released this week. Paper Cuts asks for his current playlist, the Philadelphia City Paper has a lengthy Q&A (with tidbits on his …

The longlist for the Man Booker Prize is…well…you be the judge. NETHERLAND is a total shoo-in for the shortlist. John Sutherland won’t have to curry his proof copy of THE ENCHANTRESS …

Much linked to already, but Motoko Rich has kicked off a series on the future of reading.

Booksquare’s Kassia Kroszer and ex-LATBR editor Steve Wasserman debated the demise of the Book Review …

If you’re registered for Bouchercon 2008 (or are about to be) this post is important and should be disseminated to as many people as possible. There are many reasons, from when to expect to hear …

NYTBR: Marilyn Stasio reviews new crime offerings by Karin Fossum, James Lee Burke, Will Thomas and Jincy Willett; Rachel Donadio on the author lecture circuit; and Tomi Ungerer is back in print! O …

In honor of Raymond Chandler’s 120th birthday yesterday, Carolyn Kellogg at Jacket Copy asked a slew of folks, including Tod Goldberg, the Mystery Bookstore’s Bobby McCue, Denise Hamilton …

Read on at Vulture to find out.

Marc Weingarten chats with Craig Johnson at the LAT about ANOTHER MAN’S MOCASSINS, which publisher Viking wants to be his breakout crime novel.

Also at the LAT, David Ulin reveals his book …

Leon Neyfakh’s piece on James Wood in this week’s Observer probably couldn’t help turning out to be a little odd, what with the premise being something along the order of “will …

For the travel-minded crime fiction reader, the Independent lists 80 destinations, from Dublin to Jeddah to Greeland to Bangkok, well-depicted by genre offerings.

LA Observed reprints an open letter sent by former book review editors Digby Diehl, Sonja Bolle, Steve Wasserman and Jack Miles protesting the termination of the LA Times Book Review as a standalone …

The Washington Post has a great piece on George Pelecanos, and while it doesn’t reveal a lot that’s new, it does illustrate a divide between where Pelecanos wants to go and what his …

The LA Times runs what it wants to think of as a serious investigative piece on the reliability of current DNA testing practices. And while there’s plenty of investigation, it’s also …

The Harrogate crime festival has just about finished up, and for those who couldn’t make it, these links are worth checking out:

• A slew of podcasts from the Festival by the Yorkshire Post, one …

In this weekend’s Los Angeles Times Book Review I offer up my take on Denise Hamilton’s new standalone mystery, THE LAST EMBRACE, which uses the 1949 disappearance of Jean Spangler as its …

NPR’s Morning Edition revives its “Crime in the City” series for the summer, having spent all week with:

• Robert B. Parker in Boston
• Julie Smith in New Orleans
• Chelsea Cain in …

Earlier today I was a guest on New Hampshire Public Radio’s “Word of Mouth” program, hosted by Virginia Prescott, talking about audiobooks. I’ve been on radio before but this …

In reading her review today of Tana French’s THE LIKENESS, it’s pretty clear to me Ms. Maslin expected one thing and when she got another, it confused her. But that still doesn’t …

If the tone’s been a little downbeat of late, so be it, but things are starting to turn. Hence, more links:

Dennis Lehane previews THE GIVEN DAY to the Dallas Morning News.

Julie Kramer …

They called it Black Monday for a reason. 150 people on the editorial side of the Los Angeles Times, taking a buyout or waiting for the axe to fall. Today some of the names of those leaving have …

• PW’s Jordan Foster has the scoop on ITW’s waiving of fees for active members
  • The Globe & Mail’s Simon Houpt offers general comments on the weekend
  • Pictures and more from …

The Observer’s Leon Neyfakh embarks upon a new project in light of Publishers Weekly‘s dual, and related decisions to slash the freelancer rate to $25 per review and list reviewers’ …

Despite only attending ThrillerFest for one day, the recovery period is taking as long as it would for full conference attendance. Go figure. Here’s who won the Thrillers, and what others had to …

Announced earlier today at an awards dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel in Park Lane:

The Duncan Lawrie Dagger: Frances Fyfield, BLOOD FROM A STONE
The International Duncan Lawrie Dagger: Dominique …

David Montgomery takes stock of the first half of 2008 in mystery, and finds it somewhat wanting:

It seems like a so-so year thus far. I’ve read some good books, but

nothing that’s …

Last night at a cocktail party held at the Midtown Executive Club, the 1st annual Strand Critics Awards (made out of unique, imported handblown glass) were given to Laura Lippman and Marcus Sakey for …

With the Tribune instituting a bloodbath of layoffs across their newspapers, one of my first thoughts was to wonder what that would mean for Oline Cogdill, the Sun-Sentinel’s mystery columnist, …

There’s no denying how crazy that Lee Abrams memo is on Tribune matters and especially his thoughts on what to do with Book Reviews (holding up Borders as a model for book sections emulate, when …

Though so far there’s nary a peep in the English-speaking world, the Literary Saloon gleans from Dutch reports that Janwillem van de Wetering, one of Holland’s greatest crime writers and …

The Baltimore Sun ran my newest crime fiction column yesterday, featuring new releases by Stephen L. Carter, Tana French, Nigel McCrery, Kathryn Casey and Michael Genelin.

And as part of their …

Any fence-sitting on posting the Weekend Update disappeared with yesterday’s epic barnburner of a fantastic match. Is it the greatest tennis match in history? I wouldn’t dare to make such …

Why does this seem to me the perfect story right before a long weekend?

Police say an Appleton family is
still recovering from a scary incident early Wednesday morning when a
man covered with …

Which is to say after this roundup, nothing until Monday.

Tuesday was Canada Day, the anniversary of the birth of my native country, and the Globe and Mail’s James Adams gets some “new …

Up a bit early because of the holiday weekend is my newest Dark Passages column, which has a bit of a serial theme going on:

The serial novel conjures up images of a bygone century, of a time when …

The town of Gerald, Missouri was one of many small towns struggling to overcome the scourge that is methamphetamine. So when a stranger with a Federal badge came to town, the higher-ups welcomed him …

At least on a temporary basis, as Lee Child has been awarded a visiting professorship from his alma mater, the University of Sheffield. From today’s press release:

“I took up the …

Patrick Anderson deems Robert Crais’ CHASING DARKNESS to be “first-rate entertainment.”

Also in the WaPo, Jonathan Karp writes of the disposable book and why quality is better than …

My review of Lewis Shiner’s new novel BLACK AND WHITE runs this weekend in the Los Angeles Times Book Review. It’s exactly the kind of book review I love, focusing on an underappreciated …

What with this year being the 100th anniversary of ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, L.M. Montgomery has been on the minds of many – including me – throughout the year. But those moved to reread the …

Ian Rankin is about to join a labor commission to look at declining literacy standards in Scottish schools.

Laura Lippman and Fran Liebowitz are among those talking about the enduring quality of …

As presented by the Mystery Readers Journal. The winners, too, will be announced at Bouchercon:

Best Mystery Novel:

• Reed Farrel Coleman: Soul Patch   (Bleak House)
• John Connolly: The …

Jerry Rodriguez, whose crime novels THE DEVIL’S MAMBO and REVENGE TANGO were published by Kensington Books, lost his battle with cancer on Sunday. He was 46. The New York Daily News has the …

But lo, it happens in real life, too:

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — A Macedonian journalist jailed on

suspicion of murdering at least two women in crimes he wrote about for

his newspaper has been …

Part two of my occasional series on historical mysteries runs this week at the Barnes & Noble Review.

In this week’s Publishers Weekly, James Grippando pays tribute to his longtime editor at HarperCollins:

“I’ve been orphaned,” I said to myself as I hung up the

telephone. I had …

So instead, just links of the mystery-related variety:

At the Washington Post, authors like Janet Evanovich, David Baldacci and Diana Gabaldon discuss what makes for a good beach read.

The Irish …

Sometimes the freelance gods decide that a whole bunch of pieces turned in at wildly different times should all run in the same 24-hour window. First up is “The Permanent Prince,” a news …

Yesterday’s hour-long stint on WILL’s Focus 580 with David Inge was great fun, and thanks to those who listened in and called with book recommendations (one all the way from Belgium!) For …

I’m going to crib from Jiro Kimura first:

Dennis Richard Murphy died of lung cancer on June 15 in Toronto,

Canada. He was a Canadian documentary filmmaker for Discovery, History

Television, …

Posting will be on the very, very light side this week, mostly because I’m putting together Publishers Lunch (regular and deluxe versions) while Michael Cader is on vacation. But there will be …

The Washington Post Magazine’s Laura Wexler has written an excellent profile of Jody Arlington, an accomplished DC career woman whose childhood trauma, under her birth name Jody Gilley, is being …

Oddly enough, my latest Baltimore Sun is available not on the Sun’s website, but at Newsday’s, where it runs today a week or so later. In it I review new crime fiction by Don Winslow, Meg …

The Times asks a number of writers about their eating and drinking habits while they write their books. Here’s Alexander McCall Smith’s answer:

The first writing session in the morning …

Last December, Irish noir thriller writer Adrian McKinty went to Cuba and visited Ernest Hemingway’s house. The experience, as he wrote about in the Times earlier this week, was rather strange: …

His work is dark, obviously, but straight up noir didn’t seem to be part of his fictional arsenal – until now, as per the NYT:

Beginning with its July issue, which arrives at newsstands …

Yes, it’s another reminder and more blatant self-promo, but come one, come all – or at least, those in the vicinity of midtown Manhattan – to hear Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi …

I had bookmarked this and forgot until Euro Crime reminded me, but thriller writer Peter James has come up with, well, what the subject header says:

A police force has taken delivery of a new patrol …

Late last month I interviewed Kathryn Harrison about her latest book WHILE THEY SLEPT: AN INQUIRY INTO THE MURDER OF A FAMILY. Classification is tricky – is it a true crime book, a memoir, …

The name Bennett Cerf conjures up a lot of different things. There’s the guy who edited book after book of jokes, puns and other funnies, and by virtue of growing up with those books, …

The Boston Globe’s David Mehegan highlights one of genre fiction’s truisms, and perhaps one of its key problems: the expectation that writers must deliver a book a year: …

It figures that there are all these great links accumulating post-Weekend Update. So let’s start this still-sweltering Monday morning with some choice crime fiction-related fare.

First, ah, you …

Okay, so I am a negligent hockey fan who doesn’t even live in Canada anymore. But HOW HOW HOW can “Hockey Night in Canada” exist without its theme song? This is an outrage!

A …

New York’s 90 degree-plus summers are back in full force, oh yeah…****

NYTBR: More buzz about Charlotte Roche’s WETLANDS, which will hit US shores next year; Robert Pinsky finds the …

My newest “Dark Passages” column at the LA Times shifts away from crime fiction into crime non-fiction:

WHEN I WORKED at one of Manhattan’s independent mystery book shops a

few …

The Crime Writers of Canada has announced the winners of the 25th annual Arthur Ellis Awards last night in Toronto, and The Rap Sheet has the full list of winners.

The New York Daily News talks with several writers of a Latin American bent, including Jerry Rodriguez, Michele Martinez and Steven Torres, about a recent influx of Latin American crime fiction:

For …

The Duncan Lawrie Dagger was announced in advance, but now all the other Dagger shortlists have come in:

THE DUNCAN LAWRIE INTERNATIONAL DAGGER

Andrea Camilleri, THE PATIENCE OF THE SPIDER (Picador) …

Since today is the publication day of Lee Child’s NOTHING TO LOSE, it’s no surprise Janet Maslin is madly in love with Jack Reacher, but I wasn’t expecting the full profile treatment …

The big news today is the Anthony Awards, but that’s for a separate post. Also, although I am 99% glad I elected to pass on BEA (catering walkouts? labor disputes?), Michael Cader’s …

Are available right here. And I have to say, by and large I’m pretty damn pleased with the lists.

It’s also cool of course, to be nominated – twice. For Special Services, I am so …

Though the official announcement of all the Dagger Awards won’t be made until Tuesday June 3, the Times has an exclusive preview of the world’s richest crime fiction prize as given by …

Deadly Pleasures announces the nominees for the 2008 Barry Awards:

BEST NOVEL (Published in the U.S. in 2007)

SOUL PATCH, Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House)

THE UNQUIET, …

But the story comes damn, damn close:

A JAPANESE man puzzled by food
mysteriously disappearing from his refrigerator got a shock when he
discovered a woman had been living in his home for …

On the occasion of the publication of his first young adult novel LITTLE BROTHER, I spoke with Cory Doctorow over at emusic.com. The conversation was fairly wide-ranging, talking about the …

It would be damn near impossible to link to all of the articles published today in the wake of the release of DEVIL MAY CARE by Sebastian Faulks, but I can give it a college try. To wit:

• Carlin …

Since Gregory Beyer’s NYT piece last weekend posed the question of whether mystery writers face a challenge in depicting murder in a rapidly gentrifying city, I wonder if this photoessay, …

To kick off the Update, I encourage everyone with even the slightest interest in crime fiction to read Gregory Beyer’s article in the Times’ City section on the relationship between crime …

Tucked in the middle of this week’s Artvoice interview with Lawrence Block, which focuses primarily on his screenplay for the Wong-Kar Wai movie MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS, his Buffalo background, and …

One of my favorite noir fiction writers, Massimo Carlotto, moves back a few hundred years for his new novel CRISTIANI DI ALLAH. Amara Lakhous at Reset DOC interviewed Carlotto (the whole thing was …

Effective December 31, Marie Arana will no longer be the editor of the Washington Post Book World. She tells the Maynard Institute of Journalism‘s Richard Prince that she will still write for …

I can imagine the mood at Random House this morning is akin to an entire coop of non-kosher chickens running around with their heads cut off now that CEO Peter Olson’s departure has been …

THE GIVING TREE is not one of my favorite works by Shel Silverstein. In part because, as the man himself put it, “It’s just a relationship between two people – one gives and the …

NYTBR: Dwight Garner waxes serious rhapsody over Joseph O’Neill’s NETHERLAND, but all I can do is speculate on why the Book Review’s deputy editor – who, granted, last reviewed …

When Patti Abbott asked me to contribute to her fine project, which rotates around various blogs every Friday, several books came to mind. But in the end, after I’d settled on the one I wanted …

Canada’s crown jewel in PI fiction is Benny Cooperman, the amiable Toronto investigator created by Howard Engel. But both author and protagonist alike have been through some major changes as a …

At the Guardian, Chris Wiegand talks with two crime novelists mining very different mean streets in Istanbul: Barbara Nadel and Mehmet Muran Somer:

Crime fiction aficionados know Istanbul as the …

The Detroit Free Press profiles Peter Leonard, son of Elmore and crime novelist in his own right.

Leonard the younger’s debut novel QUIVER gets a mixed take from Patrick Anderson.

This, my …

The NY Daily News remarks on a publication story that is both remarkable and heartbreaking:

Auxiliary cop Nicholas Pekearo was gunned down on a Greenwich Village street days after he finished his …

..which has now arrived.

NYTBR: Rachel Donadio time-travels to 1958 and the raging war of intelligentsia; Jennifer Senior considers Masha Gessen’s examination of genetics in contemporary …

My newest “Dark Passages” column for the LA Times Book Review – which now has a handy archive page for previous months, hurray! – blurs the line between life and art by looking …

Referring, in this instance, to Evelyn Nesbit:  turn-of-the-20th-century starlet, objet de notoriété,and the subject of Paula Uruburu’s fascinating new book AMERICAN EVE. My Q&A with …

The Joseph Fritzl case in Austria is a horrifying train wreck that I can’t stop reading about. But today’s story takes the cake, what with Fritzl complaining about poor media coverage from …

The Wall Street Journal has a big feature on the James Bond franchise, continuing with Sebastian Faulks’ DEVIL MAY CARE at the end of the month. Also, the limited edition features a secret car. …

Charles Ardai was on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday to chat with Terry Gross about Hard Case Crime, pulp fiction old and new and his own pseudonymous work as Richard Aleas. (hat tip)

My review of Tom Rob Smith’s debut novel CHILD 44 runs today on the Barnes & Noble Review. And in a bid for transparency, I turned the piece in almost two months ago and long before the …

The author of the fabulous, recently reissued THE DUD AVOCADO died on May 1 at the age of 81. The news comes by way of Terry Teachout, who wrote the introduction to the NYRB edition of the novel that …

Eighty years ago, S.S. Van Dine – a pseudonym for Willard Huntingon Wright and the author, most notably, of the Philo Vance detective novels – came up with a list of twenty rules for how …

Indeed, almost immediately after going home from the Edgars, some vicious flu decided to take up residence in my body and head, which is why I had to skip pretty much every PEN World Voices event on …

And this new one has some degree of muscle, what with it being the ITV3 Crime & Thriller Awards and the brainchild of Cactus TV’s Amanda “Richard & Judy” Ross. More from the …

…it’s right here, and will be updated as much as I can from 7:30 PM onwards.

UPDATE: And that’s a wrap! The final list of winners is now up and I suspect the celebrating will go on …

For the first time ever, Booklist is running original fiction in its pages. Keir Graff, the trade magazine’s chief mystery reviewer, explains the story behind “Reading Is My …

Shannon Byrne was taking pictures at the Mysterious Bookshop’s party for BLUE RELIGION and presents them in a Picasa album.

Sandi Ault has won the Mary Higgins Clark Award.

And Sue Grafton …

This week’s big true crime story is highly speculative: could a nationwide gang of psychopathic serial killers, linked by a “signature” of smiley face graffiti, be responsible for …

On the awards front, St. Martin’s Press and the Mystery Writers of America announce the inaugural winner of their First Crime Novel Competition: Stefanie Pintoff, a Westchester-based …

And that means another Girl’s Guide, though belated since the fun has already begun…

Today kicks off the MWA’s annual symposium, now expanded to two days and dubbed “Crime …

Or, to get all 1337-speak, my reaction upon reading this LA Times article by Scott Timberg was on par with OMGWTFBBQ!!!!111!!!:

With the explosion of computer viruses, identity theft and Nigerian …

The Rap Sheet has your Agatha Award winners.

At the Boston Globe, Hallie Ephron reviews crime fiction and related books by Karen Joy Fowler, Peter Abrahams and Jane Haddam.

Marilyn Stasio has her …

The LA Times Festival of Books is done. I have a godawful early wake-up call for my flight back to New York tomorrow and about a day or so to recover before Edgar Week is in full swing. So the short …

Day One of the LA Times Festival of Books is wrapping up. The sun is bright and the temperature is high, leaving this LA neophyte in a state of sweat-soaked overload. So of course I can’t wait …

If this week hadn’t been so travel-heavy I would have cobbled together a “Girl’s Guide to the LA Times Festival of Books” of sorts, but with Callie Miller and Tod Goldberg on …

Lee Child talks up his business side of writing to the London Times.

Marilyn Stasio takes a genre-centric approach to THE SILVER SWAN, and Mark Sarvas takes issue with Stasio as a result. Me, I guess …

For those keeping score, Crais’s last three books – which include July’s CHASING DARKNESS – were published by Simon & Schuster. Before that, LA REQUIEM through THE …

Publishers Weekly’s bi-annual feature on crime fiction has a UK-centric feel to it, as Jordan Foster explains:

“We have the rope of Agatha around our necks,” notes Scottish

crime writer Val …

Passover pre-empts the Weekend Update, but before I go gorge myself on Seder food, it’s worth pointing to the London Times’ special on the top 50 Crime Writers, not only because it will …

Greetings from my hometown, where I’ll be for the next few days to celebrate my favorite example of obsessive-compulsive disorder gone wild. In fact, thanks to this wondrous holiday, I have …

Reuters talks with Karen Joy Fowler about the writing life, genre vs. literary and her new novel WIT’S END.

Clea Simon has a positive view on Michael Stanley’s delightful debut mystery A …

LJ editor Wilda Williams conducts an annual survey of the current mystery market with a twist – this time her focus is on audiobooks and large print:

This June, mystery authors and fans will …

At the Barnes & Noble Review, I take the long view on Joseph Wambaugh’s career as a novelist and chronicler of the Los Angeles Police Department in order to properly assess his new book …

Catherine Price’s Salon article really could have come in handy last year, but at least I’ll reference it for next year:

I could never be happy in a traditional job. I hate fluorescent …

One of these years I do hope I can swing a trip over to London in time for the Book Fair, which kicked off earlier today. Then again, considering how crap the US Dollar is against the Pound, this may …

Photo editor and writer Antony Bennison had some fun and produced the following bit of awesomeness:

:

Talk about seriously cool. I also think this might be a new meme….in which case, I tag …

The header should be a dead giveaway as to how I spent much of this week. The rest of the time, a bunch of deadlines came to fruition and so there’s an unusual amount of BSP to kick this update …

USA TODAY’s Binzesheimer, along with AP’s Hillel Italie and David Segal, NY1 and the NYT,

cover yesterday afternoon’s loooooooooooong Norman Mailer tribute at

Carnegie Hall. Both …

Meet Matt Hilton, the UK’s newest six-figure crime-writing star:

A former Cumbrian police
constable has landed an £800,000 five-book deal as a debut author,
fulfilling a lifelong dream to …

Yes, I love these kinds of stories. And this one is both a doozy and heartwarming:

A baby with two faces was born in a northern Indian village, where

she is doing well and is being worshipped as …

Because if this was fiction it sure as hell would be:
 

Terry Cottle and Sonny Graham never met, but the two men shared two very important things — a heart and a wife.

They also died the …

First, though I only spent a day at NoirCon, I had a blast – thanks to all who attended my somewhat spastic talk on Dorothy B. Hughes (yes, do read IN A LONELY PLACE and then track the rest of …

NYTBR: Liz Phair (?!?!) reviews a rock ‘n roll romance and talks about “Exile in Guyville”;  Liesl Schillinger succumbs to the prose stylings of Jhumpa Lahiri; and just when you …

It seems fitting that as NoirCon gets underway today, today’s big film news is that Ken Bruen’s LONDON BOULEVARD will be adapted for the big screen by Oscar-winning screenwriter William …

Kyril Bonfiglioli always seems to fall out of favor, come back, fall out of favor in a repetitive cycle. At the Guardian Books Blog, Alex Larman does his best to cement the author and his witty …

When true crime writer and Crimerant co-blogger Gregg Olsen thought of ways to get the word out about his just-published second novel A COLD DARK PLACE, the idea struck him to conduct a Q&A over a …

The Pioneer Press chats with Raymond Benson about his talents in many writing and musical spheres.

The Hartford Courant profiles pediatrician Karen Laugel, one of ten finalists for Amazon’s …

I’ve been on a bit of an international pop star kick of late, and the recent death of Jules Dassin had me hunting around on YouTube for clips of his son Joe, a massive star in France in the …

The AP has an extended piece on the Doe Network, whose mission since its inception in 2001 is to highlight missing and unidentified persons and do their best to resolve such cases:

Today the Doe …

NYTBR: First up, the new Grisham novel makes the cover – two months after its release date? David Orr returns with a look at Mary Jo Bang’s recent poems; Pamela Paul investigates Mary …

At the Barnes & Noble Review, I kick off an occasional series on historical mysteries by starting at the beginning of time – or at least going as far back as ancient periods.

In a slightly …

Three years ago I blogged about “Joseph Newton Chandler III”, an elderly gentleman who shot himself in 2002 and left behind a slew of troubling questions when the name he lived under for …

Chetan Bhagat is India’s bestselling novelist – a task he accomplishes in his spare time from investment banking.

Scott Timberg remains on the rediscovery beat, talking with American …

Michiko Kakutani generally likes Colin Harrison’s THE FINDER but finds the plot rather preposterous. All I know is that the book entertained me immensely over the weekend.

Hillel Italie pores …

J. Kingston Pierce has written the most amazing tribute to Arthur Lyons, author of several P.I. novels featuring Palm Springs-based detective Jacob Asch. Lyons, most recently a city councilman and …

PW’s Edward Nawotka has a great writeup this week about David Thompson and McKenna Jordan, the dynamic duo at Murder by the Book who have big plans over the next year:

Talk about being married …

The annual festival announced its full schedule late last week, and as always, the crime fiction track is substantive and looks to be very entertaining, indeed.

It’ll be my first time at the …

NYTBR: This is pure conjecture on my part, but I can’t help wondering if Colm Toibin’s review of HUMAN SMOKE adorned the cover only at the last minute. Maybe because it’s not as long …

This is one of the damned saddest news I’ve had to report here. Thriller writer and military veteran Andrew Britton, whose third nove THE INVISIBLE was published earlier this month, died this …

I know, it’s yet another award nomination list, but this time the Strand Magazine has assembled an impressive list of judges including David Montgomery, Hallie Ephron, Patrick Anderson, Dick …

It would be rejected on the grounds of sheer unbelievability.

My review of Elisa Albert’s THE BOOK OF DAHLIA is now up at JBooks.

The Thriller Award nominations are out, and to circumvent the expected sniping and grumbling, here’s some boilerplate …

It’s the title of Michio Kaku’s book, yes, but right now that seems an appropriate way to sum up trying to blog here this week. Between pinch-hitting and scouting and other deadlines, …