For mystery lovers who know what they want – and for those who haven't a clue!
On August 11, 1920, the scheme was exposed by The Boston Post.
Two days later, on Friday the 13th, Ponzi was in jail.
WOW – August already, huh…. ok, here we go!
On the Endless Symbolism of Jaws, Which Owes Its Dark Soul to Moby Dick
Rulers vs. writers: The pre-Trump prehistory of author suppression
How Police Secretly Took Over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime
Dutch police discover secret torture site in shipping containers
Activists’ books are disappearing from Hong Kong’s public libraries
Women speak out about Warren Ellis: ‘Full and informed consent was impossible’
A Heist on Time and a Half: Inside The Most Corrupt Police Squad In The Nation [For more on Baltimore, don’t forget this terrific podcast about Agnew, and then there’s the Netflix series “The Keepers”…]
From Italy: An Entire Police Station Has Been Arrested for Dealing Drugs and Torturing Suspects
9 Essential Books To Learn About Our Badly Broken American Political System
Does ‘Character’ Still Count in American Politics?
SFF authors are protesting Saudi Arabia’s cynical bid to host the 2022 WorldCon.
Amid a virus surge and government repression, Hong Kong’s oldest bookstore is closing.
‘I’ve been a lucky man’: Michael Coy, a mainstay in Seattle’s book scene, is retiring after 48 years in the business [Michael was one or JB’s teachers when Bill sent him to the American Bookseller’s Association’s Bookseller School. He’s a great guy and has always been very helpful with advice about bookselling. We wish him the best as he pushes back from selling to simply reading!]
Jeff Bezos hated ads — now Amazon is America’s top advertiser
America’s Largest Unions Are Calling on the FTC to Stop Amazon
The Amazon Critic Who Saw its Power from the Inside
sibylline (adj.): From the 1570s, from Latin sibyllinus, from sibylla (see sibyl: “woman supposed to possess powers of prophecy, female soothsayer,” c. 1200, from Old French sibile, from Latin Sibylla, from Greek Sibylla, name for any of several prophetesses consulted by ancient Greeks and Romans, of uncertain origin. Said to be from Doric Siobolla, from Attic Theoboule “divine wish.”) thanks to etymonline
Duende District, The Word, Launch BIPOC Bookseller Award
Colson Whitehead is the youngest writer to win the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.
Hilary Mantel, Kiley Reid, Anne Tyler in Running for Booker Prize
The Postman Always Rings Twice: 1934 New York Times review of James M. Cain’s sexually-charged, hard-boiled crime novel
Every Great Writer is a Great Deceiver: Vladimir Nabokov’s Best Writing Advice
P. D. James: A Crime Reader’s Guide to the Classics
Look inside Oslo’s stunning new public library, now open to the public.
My Writing Will Never Be as Good as Charles Willeford’s
Visiting Europe’s Great Libraries from Rick Steves
With Stores Closed, Barnes & Noble Does Some Redecorating
In Publishing, ‘Everything Is Up for Change’
My First Thriller: Steve Berry
The Exhilarating, Dangerous World of Helen Eustis
6 book recommendations from crime writer Camilla Läckberg
Dorothy Parker’s Ashes Could Be Moved. Again.
The Celebrity Bookshelf Detective is Back
Cats and Cozy Mysteries, The Purr-fect Combination
María Elvira Bermúdez, the Agatha Christie of Mexican literature
The Power—and the Responsibility—of True Crime Writing
maybe someday…..though we have heard that some places, some publishers, are doing on-line events, that still means no signatures
“I Don’t Let Regret In” Pierce Brosnan on Love, Loss, and his Life After Bond
My streaming gem: why you should watch Detour
Idris Elba says a Luther movie is ‘close’ to happening
Candy: Elisabeth Moss to star in true-crime story of notorious Texas axe killer
Fascinating Cases That ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ Viewers Helped Solve
On Netflix ~ Fear City: New York vs The Mafia & World’s Most Wanted
How They Shot the Wrong-Way Car Chase in ‘To Live and Die in L.A.’
Comfort Viewing: 3 Reasons I Love ‘Columbo’
How a 10-year-old created a lockdown print hit for punk fans
Loren Estleman:How Film Noir will Forever Change Your Worldview
Otto Penzler’s Greatest Crime Films of All Times Continues
The 50 Most Iconic Heist Movies, Ranked from Worst to Best
“Las Vegas was better off when it was run by the mob.” Mobbed Up: The Fight for Las Vegas, an 11-part true-crime podcast series produced by the Las Vegas Review-Journal in partnership with The Mob Museum, chronicles the mob’s rise and fall in Las Vegas through the eyes of those who lived it: ex-mobsters, law enforcement officials, politicians and journalists. [JB recommends]
7 International True Crime Podcasts You Should Be Listening To
Son of a Hitman: the story of Charles Harrelson [JB recommends]
Could the CIA Have Planted Hair-Metal Propaganda During the Cold War?In the new podcast ‘Wind of Change,’ host Patrick Radden Keefe explores how the CIA used music to change hearts and minds [it is well documented that they did this with the abstract expressionists in the 50s, so why not?? – JB]
12 Common Words And Phrases With Racist Origins Or Connotations
July 1: Rudolfo Anaya, towering figure of Chicano literature, mystery writer, dies at 82
July 6: Ennio Morricone, The Sound Of The American West, Dies At 91
July 6: Charlie Daniels: Country and southern rock legend dies at age 83
July 14: Grant Imahara: Mythbusters TV host dies suddenly at 49
July 15: Louis Colavecchio, Master Counterfeiter, Is Dead at 78
July 25: John Saxon, ‘Enter the Dragon’, ‘Joe Kidd’, and ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’, dies at 83
July 26: Olivia de Havilland, Golden Age of Hollywood star, dies at 104
July 2: The Golden Dragon massacre ~ A bloody rampage in the heart of 1970s San Francisco
July 3: The Magic of Reading Arthur Conan Doyle’s Letters
July 6: Juanita ‘The Duchess’ Spinelli: The first woman legally executed in Calif. ran an SF crime school
July 7: The Rival Casinos That Built Hot Springs, Arkansas into an Unlikely Capital of Vice
July 8: Found – A Letter From Frederick Douglass, About the Need for Better Monuments
July 8: The Cold War and the Mysterious Death of Dag Hammarskjöld
July 9: Don’t Stay In These Famous Literary Haunted Houses!
Two versions of the same story, with different photos of the items on auction:
July 1: For Sale: Proof That Legendary Scientists Were Real People, Too
July 10: Tesla’s Patents, Einstein’s Letters and an Enigma Machine Are Up for Auction
July 10: The Secret Service Tried to Catch a Hacker With a Malware Booby-Trap. (“The attempt failed, but so-called “network investigative techniques” are not limited to the FBI, according to newly unsealed court records.”)
July 13: Playing Cards Around the World and Through the Ages
July 14: Iron Age Murder Victim’s Skeleton Found in England
July 15: The Deadly High-Speed Chase That Launched Miami into the 1980s
July 15: Don McLean’s handwritten lyrics to “Vincent” up for auction
July 16: James Patterson Reviving 30s-Era Crimefighter ‘The Shadow’ For New Novels, Films
July 16: Homicide at Rough Point: In the fall of 1966, billionaire Doris Duke killed a close confidant in tony Newport, Rhode Island. Local police ruled the incident “an unfortunate accident.” Half a century later, compelling evidence suggests that the mercurial, vindictive tobacco heiress got away with murder.
July 17: Beetle-mounted camera streams insect adventures
July 20: A ‘Fletch’ Reboot Starring Jon Hamm Is Officially In The Works
July 20: Missing Kansas dog makes 50-mile trip to old home in Missouri
July 22: The mystery of a stolen rare cello has a surprise ending
July 22: Man who forged his own death certificate to avoid jail is given away by a typo, DA says
July 23: Germany’s Ritter Sport wins square chocolate battle
July 24: Walter Mosley on What the Pandemic May Set Us Up For in the Future
July 24: Manuscript shows how Truman Capote renamed his heroine Holly Golightly
July 24: Charles Manson Wasn’t a Criminal Mastermind
July 24: Viewer spots Florida reporter Victoria Price’s cancer growth
July 24: US lottery jackpot shared after 1992 handshake
July 24: All in a Day’s Work ~ Why Do the Parker Novels Still Resonate So Powerfully?
July 27: What It’s Like To Spend A Decade Hunting A Serial Killer On The Internet
July 27: The Supreme Court Takes on a JFK Case
July 28: Banksy auctions refugee painting to aid Bethlehem hospital
July 28: It’s Pretty Easy To Level Up Your Coffee Game — Here’s How
July 28: Remington Gun-Maker Files For Bankruptcy Protection For 2nd Time Since 2018
July 29: How the U.S.-China consulate closures could impact espionage
July 29: Don Black ~ ‘the Pele of lyricists’ on Bond themes, Broadway and ‘Born Free‘
Finder of Lost Things is back! With more posts and more photos!
Click here to read about the fallout from the Woman in White, what the Black-andBlue-Becker-Betting-Pool is all about and why Phoebe is sneaking out in the rain!
Grady Hendrix – My Best Friend’s Exorcism
Need a good summertime read that will take you back to all the awkward moments of childhood? No? How about a book that takes you back to some of your best memories as a kid?
Sounds better right?
Remembering all those good times you had with your best friend at skating parties, talking on the phone for hours about nothing, summer vacations, or that one time you needed to exorcise a demon from your best friend’s soul? Yeah…not something everyone can relate to…but that’s precisely what Abby needs to do to save her best friend…
This book is an intensely fun read.
While it’s occasionally awkward and cringe-worthy (but in the best possible way), this uncomfortableness generated by the author adds a whole other layer to the horror/mystery/friendship story unfolding on the page. Seriously, I don’t know how Grady Hendrix did it – but episodes (minus the exorcism, demon, and animal sacrifice) feel as if he pulled them from my own experience – both the terrific and the embarrassing.
If you’re looking for a book to read under the covers with a flashlight, in the middle of the night – that will on occasion make the familiar nightly squeaks, creaks, and groans of your home sound new and strange… My Best Friend’s Exorcism is the book you’re looking for!
(P.S. Did I forget to mention it’s set in the eighties? In all, it’s spectacular Madonna influenced glory…)
Do you like getting mail? Do you relish writing letters? Do you enjoy mysteries? Have you ever dreamed of being an armchair detective? Now’s your chance! With a mail-based mystery series called Dear Holmes.
I’ll let Mr. Holmes explain your new employment (as he’s more succinct than I):
“12/5/1901
Dear Detective,
It is my pleasure to welcome you to Dear Holmes, and your new career as a consulting detective.
For the next few months, I will be handing some of my most challenging cases to you. My associates from around the world will write you each month with a challenging new mystery in need of solving.
Every week you will receive another letter with new details on the present mystery, bringing you closer and closer to the solution. I or Dr. Watson will receive the same letters, and reach out to the client to ask probing questions on your behalf.
Since we tend to receive some more peculiar cases, I will also make the knowledge of my network of experts available to you at times, to help shed light on some of the more perplexing details of the cases we encounter.
Your challenge is to solve the mystery before I do. Once I solve the case (at the end of the month), I will write you to share how I solved it. I sincerely hope you beat me to the task.
Are you ready to put your deductive skills to the test?
The game is afoot!”
Now you can email the solution to Mr. Holmes for his perusal – but in the monthly Featured Detective contest – people who post their solutions thru the mail are given extra points! (Plus it gives you an excuse to purchase some top drawer stationary!)
Woot!
This is a fun and creative game that tests not only your deductive powers but your critical reading skills and the knowledge, you as a reader, have acquired of the era from which Holmes & Watson sprung.
I’ve only been a consulting detective for a month and I’m already hooked!
Public libraries have been vital in times of crisis – from conflict to Covid-19
Take a look at the dreamy book tunnels in this beautiful Beijing bookstore.
Mary Trump’s book sold almost a million copies by the end of its publication day.
Why do people on the internet care so much about how other people organize their books?
Jasper Fforde on rabbits, racism and writing fiction ‘to slightly improve a flawed world’
“The movie positions its team of almost sorta immortals (they can die eventually, but they tend to heal quickly from even the most surely fatal of injuries) as both avenging angels roaming the world doing justice and ancient sad sacks grown tired with their mission. Well, at least Charlize Theron’s team leader Andy (short for Andromache of Scythia) is a bit over it all, sick of the world’s ceaseless parade of horrors, one that all her butt-kicking over the millennia has done little if anything to stanch.”
“Credit to director Gina Prince-Bythewood for teasing that out, and to screenwriter Greg Rucka, adapting his own graphic novel. The Old Guard is a naked attempt to kick off a franchise, but I wasn’t bothered by all those obvious table-setting mechanics because what they’re establishing is so tantalizing.”
Other writings about the graphic novel and the movie
For you Longmire (book) fans: Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon Nib Brittle
Mad Magazine legend Al Jaffee retires at age 99 after a record-breaking career
Donkey released after Pakistan police swoop on gambling race
Ancient Roman Board Game Found in Norwegian Burial Mound
Before Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak was an incredible toy maker.
Van Gogh’s Letter About His Brothel Visit Sells For $236,000 At Auction
Behold: your favorite movies, re-imagined as vintage book covers.
Did you know the first typewriter prototype was made with 11 piano keys?
Louisa May Alcott: Early work by Little Women author published at last
Page Through This Incredibly Detailed Sino-Tibetan Book Printed in 1410
The word civil has about twelve different meanings; it is applied to all manner of objects, which are perfectly disparate. As opposed to criminal, it means all law not criminal. As opposed to ecclesiastical, it means all law not ecclesiastical: as opposed to military, it means all law not military, and so on. [John Austin, “Lectures on Jurisprudence,” 1873]
The sense of “polite” was in classical Latin, but English did not pick up this nuance of the word until late 16 C., and it has tended to descend in meaning to “meeting minimum standards of courtesy.” “Courteous is thus more commonly said of superiors, civil of inferiors, since it implies or suggests the possibility of incivility or rudeness” [OED].
Civil case (as opposed to criminal) is recorded from 1610s. Civil liberty “natural liberty restrained by law only so far as is necessary for the public good” is by 1640s. [thanks to etymonline]
What It Feels Like to Be Shot by a Rubber Bullet
A Conversation with a Serial Killer About the First Time He Killed a Taxi Driver
Publishers Sue Internet Archive Over Free E-Books
The Internet Archive is ending the National Emergency Library over lawsuit from publishers.
Independent bookstore owner invests in online bookstore famous for destroying independent bookstores. [I have to add this question: she’s taking a ton of guff about being hypocritical for investing in her enemy. But why? If you can benefit from your enemy AND plow the profits off your enemy into the business they threaten, isn’t that the sweatest revenge? – JB]
Rachel Cargle Is Opening a Bookstore and Writing Center to Support Marginalized Voices
#PublishingPaidMe reveals stark disparities between payment of white writers and writers of color.
Over 1,000 Publishing Workers Strike to Protest Industry Racism
Olaf Palme Murder: Sweden Believes it Knows Who Killed PM in 1986
7 Times Internet Detectives Got the Wrong Guy
They were some of California’s most brutal slave owners. Their deaths sparked a massacre.
Virginia Kellogg: The Forgotten Screenwriter Behind A String of Classic Noirs
How Women Writers Are Transforming Hardboiled Noir
Inside Crime Novelist James Patterson’s New Jeffrey Epstein Doc
‘I pray it will finally be over’: Golden State Killer survivors hope guilty plea brings justice
Golden State Killer pleads guilty to crimes that terrorized California
An inside look at the Golden State Killer suspect’s behavior
A Startling Graph: Serial Killers By Country
| Radford University/FGCU Serial Killer Information Center |
J.A. Jance: Growing Up In a Small Town, Books Opened My World
Daniel Kalla: A Thriller at the Intersection of Two Epidemics: COVID-19 and the Opioid Crisis
widdershins (adj.) From the 1510s, chiefly Scottish, originally “contrary to the course of the sun or a clock” (movement in this direction being considered unlucky), probably from Middle Low German weddersinnes, literally “against the way” (i.e. “in the opposite direction”), from widersinnen “to go against,” from wider “against” (see with) + sinnen “to travel, go,” from Old High German sinnen, related to sind “journey” (see send). [thanks to etymonline.com]
Shortlist for the 2020 Hammett Prize has been announced.
Behold the dark and twisted nominees for this year’s Shirley Jackson Awards.
Announcing the 2020 Dagger Awards Longlist
The shortlist for the Firecracker Awards is the perfect indie reading list.
Bad Form Young Writers’ Prize launches with trade support
Book World: The writer who inspired Sue Grafton – her father – gets a welcome republished mystery novel
Will China’s entry into U.S. publishing lead to censorship?
How this New Yorker is fighting Amazon and saving independent bookstores
Can You Really Separate Edgar Allan Poe’s Work from His Life?
Resignations, accusations, and a board in crisis: The fallout at the National Book Critics Circle.
The National Book Critics Circle Has Imploded
By day, I’ve been trying to cull my book collection. But at night, eBay beckons.
Jefferson Davis House to Lose Literary Landmark Designation
Queer True Crime: A Reading List
Book Publishing’s Next Battle: Conservative Authors
‘It was precarious and still is’: Bookshops fight back against virus and Amazon
Authors leave literary agency over JK Rowling’s comments on transgender people
JK Rowling: Hachette UK book staff told they are not allowed to boycott author over trans row
Bookselling in Britain ~
‘We’re back in business’: UK bookshops see sales soar
‘It was precarious and still is’: Bookshops fight back against virus and Amazon
Britain’s wholesaler Bertram Books collapses with 450 jobs at risk
Meet Ed Vaughn, an understated Black Power icon and former bookstore owner.
Overwhelmed With Orders, Some Black-Owned Bookstores Ask for Patience
For What It’s Worth: We are often stumped about where to place a link. Some stories are Serious and Cool and Book related. Where should it be placed? For instance, the above story about Black-owned bookshops being overwhelmed with support could go in all of them. (Way to go America!) An argument could be made that most all of these Book stories could, and maybe should, go in the Serious section. Then there are the Links of Interest. Why there and not another section. The answer is: who knows. It is just a matter of where they seem to fit a the moment. We’re just the deeply flawed humans like the rest of you.
We’re not trying to downplay a story by not putting it in one place or another. We hope you’ll plow through the entire issue, clicking on things that pique your interest at first, maybe coming back to others over the month.
Lastly, as we hunt for stories to paste in for you, please note that we often don’t get time to read them ourselves. The hunt is the goal and the pressure, and while you have time to read one issue over the course of a month, we’re already building the next issue… The fun for us is the assembly of the whole. So look it all over and have fun!
There’s no replacement for the thrill of browsing in a bookstore
How The Asphalt Jungle Changed the Face of American Noir
James Bond: Everything That Went Wrong With Quantum of Solace
Killing Eve’s Fiona Shaw Was “Very Disturbed” by That Moment in the Season 3 Finale
Falling in Love with “The Rockford Files”—All Over Again
Noir: An Antidote to Social Distancing
John Logan, Creator of Penny Dreadful, on His New Spinoff Series, City of Angels
Bone, Blood & Bigots: On ‘The Liberation of L.B. Jones’
Psycho at 60: the enduring power of Hitchcock’s shocking game-changer
Counting Down the Greatest Crime Films of All-Time: Continues
Liz Garbus Is Taking Back the Voices Stolen by the Golden State Killer
Learning Early From Hitchcock That Nightmares Can Be Real
Discovering the Women Authors Behind Hitchcock’s Movies
‘Ozark’ Season 4: Netflix Renews for a Fourth and Final Season
ekphrastic: of poetry, words to describe a work of art. (thanks to Says You!, show 2101)
May 29: Anthony James, actor in “Unforgiven,” “In the Heat of the Night”, dead at. 77
June 5: Grace Edwards, Harlem Mystery Writer, Dies at 87
June 5: Harry Hoffman Dies at 92; Led the Expansion of Waldenbooks
June 12: Ricky Valance: First Welshman to have solo UK Number One dies
June 16: A Street Cat Named Bob: Stray who inspired series of books dies
June 19: Sir Ian Holm, star of Lord of the Rings, Alien and Chariots of Fire, dies aged 88
June 19: Carlos Ruiz Zafón, author of The Shadow of the Wind, dies aged 55
June 23: Joel Schumacher, Director of Batman Films and ‘Lost Boys,’ Dies at 80
ahhh… nope
June 1: I Think About This ‘Die Hard’ Villain’s Great Hair a Lot
June 1: Dick Wolf Fires ‘Law & Order’ Spin-off Writer for Violent Facebook Posts
June 1: Why Cops and Soldiers Love the Punisher
June 2: Ancient DNA offers clues to physical origins of Dead Sea Scrolls
June 3: Know your place – poetry after the Black Death reflected fear of social change
June 5: Remembering When Women Ruled a Wild West Town
June 8: Hidden Treasure Chest Filled With Gold And Gems Is Found In Rocky Mountains
June 8: One day, my husband disappeared. It was only the start of a larger mystery.
June 9: How Advertising Taught Me The Art of the Twist
June 10: Prosecutors In Sweden Finally Close Case On 1986 Assassination Of Olof Palme
June 10: Banksy artwork stolen from the Bataclan in Paris is found in Italy
June 10: Eddie Redmayne speaks out against JK Rowling’s trans tweets
June 11: The True Crime Bond
June 12: Inigo Philbrick, Dealer Behind $20 M. Art-World Scandal, Arrested by FBI
June 12: The Library-Themed Livestream Where Birds Stretch Their Wings
June 14: The people solving mysteries during lockdown
June 14: France’s ancient burial brotherhood defies Covid-19
June 16: When Crime Photography Started to See Color
June 16: The High Seas Murder That Shocked—And Baffled—The World
June 16: Diego, the Galápagos tortoise with a species-saving sex drive, retires
June 17: Emma Watson joins board Kering
June 18: In 1905, someone murdered the founder of Stanford University. They’ve never been caught.
June 19: ‘Into The Wild’ bus removed from Alaska wilderness
June 19: A History of Black Cowboys
June 22: The Uneasy Noirs of Stephen King
June 22: Diary of a Scottish Bookseller. Shaun Bythell Recounts Life in Scotland’s Largest Used Bookstore
June 23: Amanda Peet regrets some of her career choices. Playing a murderer isn’t one of them
June 23: Confederate monument enthusiasts targeted my store—and it comically backfired.
June 23: Decades ago, Octavia Butler saw a “grim future” of climate denial and income inequality.
June 23: Loch Ness Monster debate sparked after mystery creature ‘photographed’
June 24: American Gods has a new annotated version with a Sherlockian twist
June 24: Segway: End of the road for the much-hyped two-wheeler
June 25: Tiny Mysteries From the Files of the New York Times (Because history is full of the small, the inexplicable, and the downright confounding….)
June 27: Me and my detective by Lee Child, Attica Locke, Sara Paretsky, Jo Nesbø and more
June 27: Lee Child on Jack Reacher: ‘I don’t like him that much’
June 28: British state ‘covered up plot to assassinate King Edward VIII’
June 28: The Motorcycle-Riding Evangelist Behind ‘Perry Mason’’s Sister Alice
June 30: I Want All of Tony Soprano’s Clothes So Bad
paup (v.) “to walk about aimlessly” (Says You!); “probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse paufa to walk slowly, walk stealthily; akin to Old English potian to push, butt, goad ” (thanks to merriam/webster)
Josephine They – Miss Pym Disposes
What would you do if you discovered the evidence needed to convict a murderer? Would you turn it in to the authorities? Of course, you would.
But what if…
What if you didn’t care for the victim? Found them off-putting and a tad smarmy? What if by turning in your crucial piece of evidence, you are condemning someone (someone you actually do admire) at the very outset of their life to the miseries of jail? Or even the noose?
Would you turn the evidence in then?
Or do you let the Fates work it out?
Because surely, if the gods wanted the murderer punished, the police would find other evidence…Right? According to every mystery novel written (other than Christie’s Curtain), every murder makes plenty of mistakes and leaves clues for the authorities to find…
But what if you found the only one?
This is the heart of Miss Pym Disposes – what would you do?
I cannot believe I’ve waited so long to read this book! Seriously it’s been sitting on my shelf for years – and I finally picked it up – and I have to say it is one of the most unique mysteries I’ve read in a VERY long time. It’s like a cross between Christie and Austen – kinda. Like Christie, Tey leads you inexorably towards the culprit – laying down twists, turns, clues, motives, and means without even seeming too. (And in such a way my veteran mystery lover’s eyes didn’t spot them as I was reading – but are super clear after I finished). It reminds me of Jane Austen a bit – because you’re nearly done with the book before the deed is done!
Seriously if you’re looking for an interesting and largely bloodless mystery (that is in no way a cozy in the sense of the genera nowadays) I would highly suggest Ms. Pym Disposes!
Fran
Hi!
I don’t have a review, because in true 2020 fashion, my life has taken a turn for the weird, and my wife and I are moving to New Mexico.
It’s a big change, yes, but it’s a good one, and we’re mostly looking forward to it. It’s the right move.
Except, now I have to move my books.
See? It’s a problem! Because of my time at Seattle Mystery Bookshop, I have a LOT of books. And many of them are collectible first editions.
Oh sure, I’ve been culling, getting rid of the Advance Reader Copies I’ve held onto since 2004 that I have to finally face I’m never going to read. And the truly tattered copy of a mass market where I’ve got a better copy, but that tattered one was my first one and I love it.
But it’s still hard. And I keep running into treasures, and I love re-reading so I’m constantly having to force myself to stay focused. Oh, and I’m still working, so there’s that, and Lillian’s doing advance work down in New Mexico, so she’s busy too.
Still, the books are my problem. She’s got woodworking stuff to deal with when she gets back. And I’ve been faced with the problem of what to keep and what to *gulp* get rid of. Rehome.
I’ve given a lot of books to Page 2 Books in Burien, donated to help build their inventory during the plague. They became my go-to indie bookstore, and I want them to thrive. Fans of Jayne Ann Krentz will recognize the name. And I’ve also taken a lot of the ARCs to work so folks get books for free, and so far they’ve scooped up four boxes.
But you wouldn’t know it to look at my shelves. Did I mention I’ve got a LOT of books? And I’ve gotta get them safely packed soon. Like in the next two weeks soon, because we’ll be down there by August. We’re old farts and we’ll be hiring movers to haul down the heavy stuff, but I don’t trust them to pack my books! I barely trust ME, and I’m a professional! Well, you know, I was. Still am at heart, darn it.
And they’re heavy as all get-out, so that means lots and lots of boxes of books. Even paperbacks add up in weight after a while, don’t they? And oh look, I forgot I had this one; I wonder if it’s still as good as I remember…
Focus. Boxes. Dust jacket wrappers for the ones I missed. Each in a plastic bag. Well, not the paperbacks.
Oh hell, I just found my comic book stash.
So anyway, that’s why I don’t have a review this month. However, I am – now and always – a part of Seattle Mystery Bookshop, and I’m still going to be reviewing books, just from a different location.
Talk to you next month, and in the meantime, wish me luck!
– Fran
JB
I follow the thinking of Bill Farley when it comes to Robert Goldsborogh‘s Nero Wolfe books – they’re not up to Rex Stout but it is a way to spend time with old friends.
His last few have been very nice. Sorry to say the latest
, Archie Goes Home, was a dud.
As the title says, a call from him aunt draws Archie back to his hometown to southern Ohio. His aunt – a world-class busybody – thinks something fishy with the death of the local, and loathed, banker. So, since the bank balance at the brownstone is healthy, and given the chance take the convertible on a trip to see his mother, off he goes.
The whole thing is flat. The characters aren’t very real, the plot zips along without any sense of depth, and I thought the lack of Wolfe was the problem. Well, even the arrival of Wolfe (driven by Saul) can’t spice up the book. It was dull, sorry to report.
On the other hand, John Meacham‘s The Soul of America is must reading. Not only does the historian’s words flow with a smooth and delightful zip, he gives you seven sections that lay out periods in our country’s past when things were grim and the future of the democracy seemed dire, and how the leaders of the time rallied to pull the country and the people out of the muck. He doesn’t continually point to our sad, current state but it is clear that he’s showing us comparisons to now and telling us to not loose hope. If you’re at all interested in the grand sweep of history and how we can learn from past mistakes, pick it up. It is erudite and educational, and it will give you some faith in our “better angels.”
At the end of his last book, Joe DeMarco was driving off into the sunset. Without a job, he was just going to cruise and play golf. Sounded like a splendid retirement – for him. For me, I was horrified that a favorite series might be at an end. NOT TO FRET!
With the results of the 2018 election, Mahoney is headed back to being the Speaker of the House of Representatives and has promised to find a new, if meaningless title, for DeMarco.
Mike Lawson is an inventive writer. His ingenious plots shoot into doglegs and hook into unexpected roughs. The crash of a small plane starts House Privilege and quickly DeMarco is off to Boston and upstate NY to slice open the events and sink the villains. It’s a trap of money and heavies, and politics and power, and maybe a little bit of love for our lonely hero. He certainly deserves it, even if it requires hockey.
The only problem with a Mike Lawson book – ok, there are two – is that it is impossible to put one down once started, so it is over all too quickly. The other is that you have to wait a year for the next. Can’t wait to see where DeMarco is sent next.
“PERRY MASON” debuts on HBO Sunday, June 21st. Check your schedule for times!
“Set in 1932 Los Angeles, the series focuses on the origin story of famed defense lawyer Perry Mason, based on characters from Erle Stanley Gardner’s novels. Living check-to-check as a low-rent private investigator, Mason is haunted by his wartime experiences in France and suffering the effects of a broken marriage.”
The Mysterious Bookshop in NYC has been posting lists of books recommended by (a better mix of) Big Name Authors. We’re passing them along. You can click on the links to order directly from the Mysterious Bookshop. If you’re interested in any title, please do order from a small independent bookseller!
Brendan DuBois recommends – – –
F. Paul Wilson recommends – – –
Stephen Hunter recommends – – –
Mary Anne Kelly recommends – – –
Dennis Lehane recommends – – –
Odd Job’s Lethal Bowler from Goldfinger Surfaces
LeVar Burton still loves reading aloud. His storytelling might be what you need right now.
John Grisham: Why Indie Bookstores Are Essential
A journal Jim Morrison wrote in Paris will soon be up for auction.
A variation on “The Dog Ate My Homework” story: Fun fact ~ John Steinbeck’s dog ate the first draft of Of Mice and Men.
Dirty money piling up in L.A. as coronavirus cripples international money laundering
The Dark History of America’s First Female Terrorist Group
Why it’s so hard to read a book right now, explained by a neuroscientist
Declassified FBI Photos Show the Horror of Being a First Responder in Jonestown
An Alaska School Board Will Keep Classics on the Curriculum after an Uproar over Their Removal
The World’s First ‘Incel’ Terrorism Charge
The Atlantic lays off dozens of staff members as pandemic hits media budgets
How Seattle book workers have adapted to coronavirus shutdowns — and what they’ve been reading
What Happens to Powell’s Books When You Can’t Browse the Aisles?
bada bing (adj?): According to this interview, James Caan just improvised the words during the filming of that scene from The Godfather. Others attribute it to the rim shot produced by drummers during a comedian’s set. Others, yet, say it goes back to a skit on “The Jackie Gleason Show”, which may’ve gotten it from some earlier forgotten use in the Catskills or vaudeville. In this 1965 album, Pat Cooper says it at 14:27 into his recorded performance – it goes by very fast. Clearly, the modern use stems from The Godfather in 1972.
Bryan Washington has won the £30,000 Dylan Thomas Prize.
Here’s the shortlist for the £10,000 Caine Prize.
The NYPL has announced the 2020 Young Lions Fiction Award Finalists.
The National Book Foundation’s Innovations in Reading Prize goes to DIBS for Kids.
Inside the wild double life of rare books dealer John Jenkins
Legal Thrillers for Literary Snobs
Social isolation (and video chat) is bringing renewed attention to the art of the bookshelf
The Most Important (and Literary?) Meal of the Day
Christie & Sayers & Allingham & Tey: Celebrating the Crime Queens of the Golden Age
The Cornerstones of Country Noir
Anything can be a Penguin Classic with this handy cover generator.
My First Thriller: Michael Connelly
Michael Connelly on ‘fake news,’ COVID-19 writing and his nonprofit-set thriller
How Novelist Megan Abbott Learned to Write for Television
Scott Turow on the One Character Who Keeps Coming Back to Him, Again and Again
Powell’s Books will be back, CEO Emily Powell pledges, but not soon
For Bookstore Owners, Reopening Holds Promise and Peril
For booksellers in L.A., a partial reopening brings hope and anxiety
Barnes & Noble is slowly reopening stores to shoppers in a few states.
‘Economic duress is nothing new’: Can America’s oldest black bookstore survive the pandemic?
Legendary Paris bookshop reveals reading habits of illustrious clientele
Research finds reading books has surged in the UK during lockdown
I wish more people would read … Damon Runyon’s short stories
Coronavirus Shutdowns Weigh on Book Sales
Coronavirus forces National Book Festival to shift to online-only format this year
Martin Edwards on the Enduring Popularity of Traditional Mysteries
25 GREAT INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES IN THE U.S.
Otto Penzler’s list of Greatest Crime Films of All-Time Continues
Michael Mann Is Talking to Directors, Wondering When They Can All Go Back to Work
Before there was Jessica Fletcher, there were the Snoop Sisters.
Scrubs: A sitcom that’s actually aged well?
Hollywood’s Women in Criminal Justice: Sometimes Fact, Sometimes Fiction
Luca Guadagnino to remake Scarface with Coen brothers script
Scarface Hitman Geno Silva Dies of Dementia at 72
Die Hard With a Vengeance: The strange saga of Laurence Fishburne and how it ended up in court
“Hightown”: An Old-School Crime Drama That’s Thoroughly Modern
Armed Guards and Death Threats: Inside the Making of Netflix’s Harrowing Jeffrey Epstein Documentary
New book claims Bill Clinton had an affair with Ghislaine Maxwell
New Jeffrey Epstein doc should finally lead to a reckoning with Bill Clinton
contretemps (n): From the 1680s, “a blunder in fencing,” from French contre-temps “motion out of time, unfortunate accident, bad times” (16th C.), from contre, an occasional, obsolete variant of contra (prep.) “against” (from Latin contra “against;” see contra (prep., adv.)) + tempus “time” (see temporal). Meaning “an unfortunate accident, an unexpected or embarrassing event” is from 1802; as “a dispute, disagreement,” from 1961. It also was used as a ballet term (1706). [thanks to etymonline]
May 10:Thomas Reppetto, Crime Watchdog and Historian, Is Dead at 88
May 12: Simon & Schuster President and CEO Carolyn Reidy Dies at 71
May 19: Leonard Levitt, Reporter Who Riled NYPD Brass, Dies at 79
May 28: Larry Kramer: Elton John leads tributes to playwright and Aids activist
nope, not yet…
May 2: Real-life Indiana Jones reveals £100million treasure trove dating back to 1200s
May 6: New Zealand coronavirus: Massive car heist under cover of lockdown
May 8: Authorities Recover 19,000 Artifacts in International Antiquities Trafficking Sting
May 11: Medieval Arrows Inflicted Injuries That Mirror Damage Caused by Modern Bullets
May 12: How It Felt Learning My Dad Is a Serial Killer
May 12: The Spy Who Handed America’s Nuclear Secrets to the Soviets
May 13: French serial-killer expert admits serial lies, including murder of imaginary wife
May 14: This AI-generated dictionary is very cool and also terrifying.
May 15: Why Do Some Writers Burn Their Work?
May 17: Dirty Harry’s blood-soaked San Francisco was a terrifying reality
May 17: Michael Jordan: NBA legend’s trainers sell for record $560,000
May 18: Text Found on Supposedly Blank Dead Sea Scroll Fragments
May 18: Sir Frederick Barclay’s nephew ‘caught with bugging device’ at Ritz hotel
May 18: Neil Gaiman spoken to by police after 11,000-mile trip
May 19: Do police sketches actually help catch criminals?
May 20: How to find a book without knowing the actual title
May 21: Bill Clinton and James Patterson reunite for a second thriller
May 21: A Crime Reader’s Guide to the Pope of Trash
May 21: Tony Hadley, a radio quiz, one syllable – and a $10,000 riddle
May 21: ‘I wrote my wife a poem every day for 25 years’
May 22: Loon stabs eagle through heart
May 22: Romance Writers of America aims for happy end to racism row with new prize
May 22: The Great Elmore Leonard Renaissance of the Late ‘90s
May 23: Berlin WW2 bombing survivor Saturn the alligator dies in Moscow Zoo
May 26: Canada tow-truck turf wars lead to nearly 200 charges
May 26: On Dracula‘s birthday, remember the copyright battle over the illegally-adapted Nosferatu.
May 26: ‘The Genetic Detective’ ~ CeCe Moore’s True Crime Career Started Out In An Unusual Way
May 27: About That Time Whitey Bulger “Won” the Mass Millions Lottery
May 27: What Do You Do With a Stolen van Gogh? This Thief Knows
May 27: Roman mosaic floor found under Italian vineyard
melch (v.) to yield easily to pressure (thanks to Says You!, #522)
Guess What!!!! Season 2 of Finder of Lost Things is nearly ready to start posting! The story is finished and 2/3 of the photography is finished! So in the next couple of weeks it will go live!!! Woot!
A Murderous Relation – Deanna Raybourn
Veronica Speedwell is back, and let me tell you, I’ve been looking forward to the next book in this series – and it didn’t let me down!
Though I must say when I read the flyleaf, I was a bit worried. As this story is set smack dab in Jack the Ripper’s reign of terror – and let me tell you everyone and their second cousin who writes historical mysteries in Victorian London eventually puts Whitechapel into their story…with varying degrees of success.
Happily, Raybourn has done a great job of incorporating the very well known string of murders in an intriguing way – while also skirting the specter that still haunts those cobblestone streets. By not only making sure we see the women as human beings (which often gets overlooked) but feel the fear that gripped London due to the London Police’ inability to apprehend him.
However, first and foremost, Veronica is asked by the royal family for help in making sure her half-brother and heir-to-the-throne doesn’t get caught in an indelicate position with someone who isn’t his future wife…Veronica initially says no…but then Lady Welly falls ill…and Veronica and Stoker decided to snoop around a bit.
And action, old enemies, and anarchy ensues.
I loved reading Rayborn’s mystery, writing, and flare from cover to cover! BTW – you don’t HAVE to read them in order…but if you read this one first, then go back and start with number one…well, you’ll have spoiled a portion of the tension in the earlier installments. So while you don’t have to read them in order – at this point I think you should! (You won’t be disappointed!)
So, isn’t 2020 a total pip? Something exciting around every corner, right?
Yeah, about that. So I decided to take a break from anything suspenseful, and on the recommendation of my favorite New Mexico hair stylist turned mask maker, I decided to read The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment by A. J. Jacobs.
Jacobs has found his niche in journalism and writing. He doesn’t just try new things, he immerses himself in them to see how they work. For example, one of his experiments is detailed in a book I have yet to read called “The Know-It-All”, where he reads every word of an encyclopedia. He also lived Biblically for a year. His wife is a saint.
In My Life as an Experiment, A. J. Jacobs has put together some of his smaller projects. For example, one chapter deals with unitasking – focusing solely on doing only one thing at a time. Literally just one thing. If you’re eating, don’t talk. No background noise, just eat.
Another deals with telling the absolute truth, no filters. He did this for a whole month. It’s amazing he has any friends left, and did I mention his wife is a saint?
What could be just stupid and mockable is the way A. J. Jacobs writes. He’s smart. He’s funny as hell. And he lists his sources and resources for things he does. He approaches each experiment with total concentration and absolute focus, true, but he never loses sight of himself, his wife and kids, and his sense of delight and enthusiasm. If it doesn’t interest him, he won’t do the experiment. It has to be meaningful and interesting and educational to him.
And it will be to you as well.
Now, what I didn’t realize when I started My Life as an Experiment, that at the back, before the source list and acknowledgments and whatnot, there’s another subsection for each chapter. He makes some observations about what he wrote, and some of the details that didn’t go into the flow of the narrative but are still fascinating. There are a couple of Appendices that are equally fascinating.
It’s not a mystery. It’s not true crime unless maybe one instance of identity theft. But it’s interesting and fun and humorous and exactly the change I needed right now. I think you’ll enjoy it too.
Still reading and enjoying and amazed by John Connolly’s“The Sisters Strange”, his Charlie Parker novella being written and published as it is ready. At this writing, there are nearly 40 short chapters. It’s a neat trick to pull off and a great story – as usual.
Not really sure how long I’ve been reading the Nate Heller books from Max Allan Collins. Maybe before SMB existed? They’re a terrific mix of true crime events and hardboiled fiction as Collins puts his private eye into historical cases and provides his solution to the events. In an early one, the determination isn’t that Zangara wasn’t trying to shoot FDR that day but intended to, and did, kill Chicago Mayor Cermak. The first few books deal mainly with the Chicago Mob and the hit was ordered by them for Cermak’s treachery.
The books deal with nearly all of the famous and lurid crimes and figures of the 20th C.: Bugsy Siegel, the Lindbergh Kidnapping, the Black Dahlia case, the Torso Murders in Cleveland, the disappearance of Earhart and the death of Forrestal, and, of course, JFK.
The new book, Do No Harm, inserts Heller into the Marylin Shepard case and reunites the PI with a number of figures – Eliot Ness, F. Lee Bailey, Flo Kilgore (his stand in for journalist Dorothy Kilgallen) – and re-creates the case, the crimes, the trials, and the suspects. As usual, it’s great fun.
However, there’s one major problem with the story: on one hand, Sam Shepard is portrayed as a philandering rogue, on another as a man whose beautiful wife found sex painful and allowed what we’d now call an open marriage, and yet on a third hand, the victim is said to have been having a torrid affair with a neighbor. Well, which is it – she found sex painful or she was having a torrid affair with the mayor? Collins doesn’t resolve it, or, I suppose, leaves it unresolved as just another aspect of the case muddied by the different views of those involved.
At any rate, I look forward to Heller’s next case, whatever it may be. Not many more big cases for Heller to tackle, but then Collins is always full or surprises. I recommend the book AND the series!
In The New Iberia Blues, Dave and Clete and Alafair continue their peculiar journey through live, with irritation and love, anger and confusion, dealing with the horrors we inflict upon one another, intentionally or not. Some horrors are minor while others scar the mind. And in this small corner of the world, we’re lucky we have these people to tackle the bad guys.
Burke’s writing skills haven’t lost a step. He knows where the world has been – literature, too – and isn’t hesitant to show the trail. “Every literary plot is either in the Bible, Greek mythology, or Elizabethan theater. Hemingway said it was all right for an author to steal as long as he improved the material… Read Charles Dickens’s journalistic account of a public execution in London. It will make you want to flee humanity”. Maybe so, but humanity also produces prose like that of James Lee Burke. So let’s stay a bit longer, huh?
