Serious Stuff
Leaked: Confidential Amazon memo reveals new software to track unions
Indie bookstores launch anti-Amazon ‘Boxed Out’ campaign
The next economic crisis: Empty retail space
MI5 boss says Russian and Chinese threats to UK ‘growing in severity’
Russia planned cyber-attack on Tokyo Olympics, says UK
Powerful New Video From Bruce Springsteen And Don Winslow Hits Trump In Key State
Best-selling crime writer Don Winslow on why he turned his sights on a new ‘criminal’ – Donald Trump
The gangster vanishes: twist in hunt for world’s largest haul of stolen art
The So-Called ‘Kidnapping Club’ Featured Cops Selling Free Black New Yorkers Into Slavery
Why Coroners Often Blame Police Killings on a Made-Up Medical Condition
How The 1969 Murders of a Labor Leader and His Family Changed Coal Country Forever
The True Story of Min Matheson, the Labor Leader Who Fought the Mob at the Polls
This Is How The FBI Says A Network Of ‘Boogaloo’ Boys Sparked Violence And Death
Coffins unearthed as the search for victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre continues
Violent criminal groups are eroding Mexico’s authority and claiming more territory
Words of the Month
dread (v.): From the late 12th C., “to fear very much, be in shrinking apprehension or expectation of,” a shortening of Old English adrædan, contraction of ondrædan “counsel or advise against,” also “to dread, fear, be afraid,” from ond-, and- “against” (the same first element in answer, from PIE root *ant-) + rædan “to advise” (from PIE root *re- “to reason, count”). Cognate of Old Saxon andradon, Old High German intraten. Related: Dreaded; dreading.
As a noun from c. 1200, “great fear or apprehension; cause or object of apprehension.” As a past-participle adjective (from the former strong past participle), “dreaded, frightful,” c.1400; later “held in awe” (early 15c.). [thanks to etymonline]
Strange Stuff
From cut-out confessions to cheese pages: browse the world’s strangest books
Unseen spoof by Raymond Chandler shows writer’s ‘human side’
Chandler and the Fox: The Mid-Century Correspondence Between Raymond Chandler and James M. Fox
The Strange Poetry of a Notorious Gangster’s Last Words
The 12 Greatest, Strangest, Most Transfixing Dance Scenes in the History of Crime Movies
The Strange History of Mickey Spillane and New Zealand’s “Jukebox Killer”
Italian police seize 4,000 bottles of counterfeit ‘super Tuscan’ wine
I Didn’t Set Out to Write a Book About the Argentine Scrabble Mafia But That’s What I’ve Done
Why Americans Fall for Grifters
Jeffery Deaver: ‘I can always find solace in Middle-earth and Tolkien’s imagination’
Local Stuff
Spokane author Jess Walter talks about his new novel ‘The Cold Millions,’ set in his hometown
Jess Walter is getting a ton of national critical praise for his new book. The Washington Post reviewed it as “one of the most captivating novels of the year” and The New Yorker called it a “masterful novel“. Congratulations to Jess!
Seattle writer receives $50,000 grant as one of 20 Disability Futures Fellows
Words of the Month
mumpsinus (n): One who stubbornly adheres to old ways in spite of clear evidence that they are wrong (Says You! # 223)
Awards
Here are the finalists for the 2020 National Book Awards
Louise Glück: where to start with an extraordinary Nobel winner
Here’s the shortlist for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction.
Here’s the shortlist for the 2020 T. S. Eliot Prize.
Here’s the longlist for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction.
Book Stuff
Bestselling author Tana French talks about what makes a good mystery writer and her latest novel
How Elmore Leonard Really Wrote His Novels—According to His Characters
A Shakespeare First Folio sold this week for $10 million.
The Westing Game may be a murder mystery—but it’s also a ghost story.
The Agatha Christie Centennial: 100 Years of The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Crime novelists dish on writing about cops in a moment of reckoning
How bookstores are weathering the pandemic
The Unlikely Detectives: Unlicensed, Unqualified, and Fully Invested
Edgar Allan Poe and and the Rise of the Modern City: “The Man of the Crowd” was arguably Edgar Allan Poe’s first detective story. It’s also one of his strangest.
Other Forms of Entertainment
In the Nixon Years, Conspiracy Thrillers Reflected Our Anxious Times. Where Are They Now?
Errol Morris Responds to the “Wilderness of Error” Finale
In 1983, Roger Moore and Sean Connery Squared Off in ‘The Battle of the Bonds’
With Iron Man Behind Him, Robert Downey Jr. Plans MCU-Like Universe for ‘Sherlock Holmes’
New ‘Dexter’ Limited Series Headed to Showtime in Fall 2021
7 Great Heist Novels, Recommended By An Art Dealer
The Con: Portraits of Grifters and Scam Artists in Book, Film, and Real Life
How Edward Hopper’s Stony Blonde Became a Noir Icon
How ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ Picked the Cases for Its Second Season
10 Political True Crime Podcasts to Listen to this Election Season
Edward Gorey designed the sets for the 1970s Broadway run of Dracula
The Burnt Orange Heresy review – Mick Jagger adds dash of malice to arty thriller
Words of the Month
oubliette (n): A “secret dungeon reached only via trapdoor and with an opening only at the top for admission of air,” 1819 (Scott), from French oubliette (14th C.), from Middle French oublier “to forget, show negligence,” Old French oblier, oblider, from Vulgar Latin *oblitare, from Latin oblitus, past participle of oblivisci “to forget” (see oblivion). Used for persons condemned to perpetual imprisonment or to perish secretly. (thanks to etymonline and John Connolly)
RIP
October 11: Margaret Nolan – actor, artist and Goldfinger title sequence star – dies aged 76
October 16 : Rhonda Fleming, femme fatale from Hollywood’s golden age, dies at 97
October 16: Tom Maschler, Booker prize founder and publisher of some of the greats of 20th-century fiction, dies at 87
October 30: Judith Hennes, long-time customer and friend of the shop, died
October 31: Sean Connery, James Bond actor, dies aged 90
Links of Interest
September 30: The Modern Detective: Inside the Secret World of Private Investigators
October 1: Nazi shipwreck found off Poland may solve Amber Room mystery
October 1: Happiness, a Mystery by Sophie Hannah review – solving the most profound puzzle
October 7: Stolen Mao scroll worth £230m was cut in two by £50 buyer, police say
October 14: Snapshots in the Life of a Criminal Data Analyst
October 15 : Mario Puzo at 100 – ‘The Godfather’ author never met a real gangster, but his mafia melodrama remains timeless
October 18: The Delightful Shock of Seeing the ‘Downton Abbey’-Famous Library
October 18: The secret world of diary hunters
October 22: The Network: How a Secretive Phone Company Helped the Crime World Go Dark
October 25: Chilling find shows how Henry VIII planned every detail of Boleyn beheading
October 25: ‘Do not hike alone’: For 21 months, the Trailside Killer terrorized Bay Area’s outdoors
October 26: Killer High: Exploring the Phenomenon of LSD-Fuelled Murder
October 29: How Sierra Was Captured, Then Killed, by a Massive Accounting Fraud
Words of the Month
mesel (adj.): “leprous” (adj.); “a leper” (n.); both c. 1300, from Old French mesel “wretched, leprous; a wretch,” from Latin misellus “wretched, unfortunate,” as a noun, “a wretch,” in Medieval Latin, “a leper,” diminutive of miser “wretched, unfortunate, miserable” (see miser). A Latin diminutive form without diminutive force. Also from Latin misellus are Old Italian misello “sick, leprous,” Catalan mesell “sick.” The English word is archaic or obsolete since the 1500s, replaced by leper, leprous, but its lexical DNA survives, apparently, as a contamination of measles. (thanks to etymonline)
What We’ve Been Up To
Fran
Books and physics
In high school, I got a D— in physics, and the only reason I got so good a grade was that my physics teacher had been really good friends with my late cousin. Ms. Lopez made me promise I’d never take physics again if she gave me that grade, and I happily agreed.
She’d be massively unsurprised at my current dilemma.
We just moved to a new place. I have 60 boxes of books, which should surprise exactly no one, especially those of you who know me. I have not only signed and collectible copies of books, but manuscripts and Advance Reader Copies and ratty paperbacks that I adore.
I also have three – yes, three – bookcases. And even they don’t have enough shelves on them; I have to add at least one more per bookcase.
Now, I’ll grant you that the lady from whom we bought the house left another one, and I’m using it, but even then, well, it’s not going to be enough. Not by a long shot.
It’s a challenge, but I’m up to it. I think. It’s making my wife a little crazed, but she knew this about me when she married me, it’s going to be fine.
Eventually.
All of this is in order to explain why I don’t have a review for you this month. Also why I got a D— in physics back in high school.
JB
I guess I’m not in an objective mindset to be able to write up the last two books I read and do justice to them. The new John Connolly, The Dirty South, is sort of a prequel, taking place after his family was wiped out but before he caught The Traveler. Great idea, great characters, great story and… [a shrug of the shoulders….] The new Craig Johnson, Next to Last Stand, also gets a shrug – interesting germ for a story, characters I adore, etc, but…. guess I’m getting tired of Longmire’s indecision about running for office again. I understand that while the indecision has been going on for years for us readers and for only a few months for the characters, I’m tired of it. It’s much like the story lines in the TV series that didn’t grab me. You’re stuck with it. Still, I love a good art mystery, so I’d recommend you read this piece by Craig about where the idea for the story came from: The Strange Life and Mysterious Disappearance of a Very American Painting. Still, the questions remains” can there be a Longmire series after or when Walt retires?
BUY SMALL ~ SUPPORT SMALL
which brings me to Kate Morton’s 
So I was excited to learn that his newest book, 
was great fun. It’s full of interesting details – Etta’s first name was really Ethel but a typo in the Pinkerton’s file has forever changed that, and Sundance played the guitar well – who knew? I had not heard that Sundance’s mother’s maiden name was Place and that’s likely where Etta/Ethel got it. In fact, it may be we really don’t know her birth name.
that the crimson splotches all over his clothes came from a shipment of raspberries that the blast had turned into flying jam. The red stuff now coated everything in sight – and would later make the stolen bank notes and coins easier to identify”. Later, one of the gang would be arrested after spending one of the stained notes.
Take a look at the dreamy book tunnels in this beautiful Beijing bookstore.
Why do people on the internet care so much about how other people organize their books?
, 
On the other hand, John Meacham‘s 
