March 2024

“Independent” Investigations Into Sexual Abuse Are Big Business. Can Survivors Really Trust Them?

When Women Commit Violence

Ransomware Payments Hit a Record $1.1 Billion in 2023

U.S. adults lost a record $10 billion to fraud in 2023

Department of Justice takes down Russian intelligence botnet

US charges Japanese crime leader with trafficking nuclear materials from Myanmar

Émigrés Are Creating an Alternative China, One Bookstore at a Time

Ransomware Groups Are Bouncing Back Faster From Law Enforcement Busts

Amazon’s Big Secret

Backpfeifengesicht : idiomatic German term for “A face that begs to be slapped.”

WA House bill would make it illegal for police to lie during interrogations

‘Head hunting’: Irate Portland boyfriend raps of vengeance before killing the wrong man

Seattle theater abounds in mystery — of the fun kind

Ted Bundy bludgeoned and almost killed me. I resolved he would not ruin my life

The Attempted Assassination of Charlie Chaplin

This Artist Has Been Using Only a Typewriter To Create Drawings for the Last 10 Years

Explore Five Volumes of the History of Cartography for Free Online

Sloshed, plastered and gazeboed: why Britons have 546 words for drunkenness

A Celebrity Dies, and New Biographies Pop Up Overnight. The Author? A.I.

What It’s Like to Be a Sociopath

Pattie Boyd to sell letters from love triangle with Eric Clapton and George Harrison

CIA’s Former Chief of Disguise Reveals Spy Secrets: ‘People Who Knew Me Well Will Be Shocked’

Erbsenzähler: idiomatic German term for “Someone who is obsessed with details and a bit of a control freak.”

Starting this year, the National Book Awards will be open to non-citizens.

Western Writers of America Announces Its 2024 Wister Award Winner

The Barry Award Nominations 2024

My First Thriller: Lisa Gardner

Inside the Censorship Scandal That Rocked Sci-Fi and Fantasy’s Biggest Awards

Iconic Sci-Fi Novelist Disowned His Greatest Novel

The Backlist: Naomi Hirahara and Polly Stewart Read Chester Himes’ Noir Classic

A Chester Himes Appreciation by S.A. Cosby

Drama King: Hake Talbot and the Art of the Impossible

Sister-in-law’s letters provide insights into Charles Dickens’ life and legacy

How anarchists in North Carolina rescued books banned in Florida

The Mary Russell series is beloved by readers the world over. But just how did this extraordinary character come about?

Sherlock Holmes, That Enigma We Know So Well

130-Year-Old California Bookstore Seeks Buyer

David Handler: Authors Need Support Systems

Contents of Charles Darwin’s entire personal library revealed for first time

6 Books That Elevate the Serial Killer Thriller

Florida law blasted after permission slip sent to hear Black author’s book

Sexily ever after: how romance bookstores took over America

Librarians could face criminal charges over “obscene” books in some states

How the Queens of Crime Fiction Developed a Modern Myth

20 Classic Murder Mystery Books to Test Out Your Detective Skills

Mar. 1: actor Jon Lindstrom signs his debut thriller, Hollywood Hustle, Powell’s 7pm

March 6: local, writer Jeff Ayers signs Leave No Trace: A National Parks Thriller, written under the pen name A.J. Landau with Jon Land., Third Place/LFP, 7pm

Matthew Macfadyen, Michael Shannon, Set to Star in President Garfield Assassination Historical Drama

The 48 Best Murder Mystery Movies of All Time

Denzel Washington, Spike Lee Reteam for Adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s ‘High and Low’

How Stanley Kubrick Brought Stephen King’s The Shining to the Big Screen

UTA Signs James Ellroy, Shops His Marilyn Monroe Novel ‘The Enchanters’

Always Rooting for the Antihero: How Three TV Shows Have Defined 21st-Century America

James Bond exhibit to debut at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry

Dr No: Sean Connery behind the scenes on the first James Bond film – in pictures

“The Truth About Jim”: She Suspected Her Step-Grandfather Was the Zodiac Killer

He Uncovered a Rogue CIA Conspiracy. Then He Was Found Dead.

‘I recently went back to the Texas border – and urinated on the wall’: how we made Lone Star

‘True Detective’ Renewed for Season 5 With Issa López at the Helm

Verschlimmbessern: idiomatic German term for “To make something worse by trying to improve it.”

Jan. 22: Laurie Johnson, ‘The Avengers’ Composer, Dies at 96 [sorry – we didn’t hear this news until 2/19, one of the greatest theme songs, right up there with “Mission: Impossible” and “Hawaii 5-O]

Feb. 1: David Kahn, historian who cracked the code of cryptology, dies at 93

Feb. 2: Carl Weathers, Apollo Creed in the Rocky Films, Dies at 76

Feb. 12: ‘The voice we woke up to’: Bob Edwards, longtime ‘Morning Edition’ host, dies at 76

Feb. 23: Pamela Salem, Miss Moneypenny in ‘Never Say Never Again,’ Dies at 80

Feb 26: Charles Dierkop, Actor in ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,’ ‘The Sting’ and ‘Police Woman,’ Dies at 87

Feb. 2: Mafia boss who escaped prison using bedsheets recaptured in France

Feb. 4: Patty Hearst was kidnapped 50 years ago. Was she a victim or terrorist?

Feb. 5: No new evidence found after review into death of British spy found in bag

Feb. 7: The 1931 Murder That Foretold a New Era of Crime and Corruption in New York City

Feb. 9: Hawaii’s high court cites ‘The Wire’ in its ruling on gun rights

Feb. 12: Violent crime is dropping fast in the U.S. — even if Americans don’t believe it

Feb. 13: The Gangsters and the Star

Feb. 19: Paul McCartney’s missing bass and other mysterious musical instrument disappearances

Feb. 25: Series of recent DOJ cases show foreign operatives plotting assassinations in U.S.

Feb. 28: Edith Thompson: Hanged woman’s case denied pardon bid

Feb. 28: 2 men are found guilty for the 2002 killing of Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay

Feb. 29: Stakeknife: Prosecutors decide not to charge final 12 people

Feb. 29: Women were ‘not believed’ on Emma Caldwell killer warnings

Torschlusspanik: idiomatic German term for “As one gets older, the feat that time is running out and important opportunities are slipping away.”

(Pics of books from both series)

Chloe Neill — Cold Curses

Endings are not necessarily a bad thing. Bibliographies, especially lengthy ones, allow bummed-out readers to take solace in the knowledge they can revisit their favorite characters anytime they wish. However, what can leave a sour taste in a reader’s brain is when the final book in the series fails to land the ending either by indulging in maudlin sentimentality, nonsensically cramming every crowd favorite character into the narrative, or just failing to wrap up the story arcs in a satisfying way.

Happily, Cold Curses, the last of the Heirs of Chicagoland series, doesn’t succumb to any of these pitfalls. Chloe Neill does a fantastic job of wrapping up all the stray storylines in a way that feels natural and, most importantly, makes sense.

Even better? The book is a fun read! Full of mystery, ass-kicking, and clever traps, Cold Curses doesn’t let the reader down. Perhaps the epilogue could’ve been longer. However, this is a very minor gripe that really stems from not wanting to say goodbye to everyone you’ve grown to love and all the mouth-watering food Elisa, Lulu, Alexei, Conner, and everyone else eats in both the Chicagoland and Heirs series.

Seriously, I would recommend either series to anyone who enjoys reading urban fantasy, about vampires, and enjoys Chicago as a book setting. You won’t be disappointed.

Not your typical mystery review

I’ve never read anything by Cassandra Khaw, but I have read a lot of Richard Kadrey’s stuff, so I blew my new book budget on this one. I’m so glad I did!

The Dead Take The A Train is a love story. Filled with blood and gore and demons and weird eyes and things with tentacles. Also, a bit more blood and gore. So worth it.

Julie is a bargain basement demon hunter in New York, living mostly on vodka, cocaine, and spite. She’s very good at what she does, but she is seriously burned out, and her retirement plans are dying young, although she’s 38 so she thinks she may have missed that boat.

And then her best friend (and huge crush) from her past shows up unexpectedly at Julie’s doorstep, and suddenly Julie finds new purpose in life. Protecting Sarah from her violent douchebag of a husband, and making sure Sarah learns how to smile again.

It really goes downhill from there, and if you’ve read the opening scene where Julie is trying to free an unwilling bride from a demon at the bride’s mom’s behest, you know that going downhill means actually digging a deeper hole. It’s not just bloody, it’s the eyes and the eggs. But you’ll read it for yourself.

And The Dead Take The A Train really is a love story. Well, a couple of them. The obvious one is between Julie and Sarah, although Sarah isn’t quite aware of how much Julie loves her at first, but there’s a darker love story about power and corruption and how much someone is really willing to give for the right partner. Hint: Everything.

This is also, in its own way, a love story about New York City, all its weirdness and pockets of normalcy sandwiched in between the eclectic and vibrant madness that is what makes NYC what it is. It makes me want to have lived there all my life while simultaneously reminding me that I’m not cut out for big city living.

Yes, it’s gory and bloody and filled with all manner of supernatural horror, but it’s also the story of perseverance in the face of adversity, the sheer power of the human spirit, and how important friendships are. If you can look past the devouring slime and crunching bones, this is a book of hope.

And I hear there’s a sequel in the works!

In Chandler’s famous essay “The Simple Art of Murder”, he describes anything hoping to achieve art must include “the raucous laughter of the strongman“. When I first read that in college, I, of course, first thought of the circus figure – leopard print toga, bald with a handlebar mustache, holding up cartoon-sized barbells. Over the decades, watching politics and reading hardboiled fiction has expanded my view of such a person. His strongman stood for corruption and those who hold all the cards.

But it fits Louis Ferrante‘s Borgata – Rise of Empire: A History of the American Mafia perfectly. Ferrante was a member of the Gambino mob and spent time in prison. In confinement, he educated himself on the classics, history, and writing, to emerge with a sharp sense of how it all has always worked. Borgata is a salty story, told with the language of the street, underpinned with a historian’s eye for detail and Big Pictures.

From the beginnings of strife-torn Sicily, he sketches the social structure that seemingly grew into the mafia inevitably, and how that was then exported to America, again, inevitably. From his time in that world, his style flows with a shrug and a deep chuckle, as if to say “of course, this is how it happened – what were you expecting?!?” Ferrante also uses his own time in the mob to edit the mafia’s history from what has been accepted to what he knows to be true.

If I have a complaint – and I write this knowing that this is book one of three – his focus is NYC and the figures who organized the organized crime exclusively. Capone is suddenly in charge of Chicago without any lead-in, Kansas City is tossed off with a couple of sentences, and LA’s history is mostly mentioned to give Bugsy’s history there. This does leave time for a deep view of New Orleans and then the colorful life of Arnold Rothstein, though. Maybe the other areas will be covered more deeply in the next two volumes.

It’s a fascinating and fun read. Borgata is filled with strongmen, laughing at us civilians. It is a blunt and bloody history – couldn’t be anything else.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

And in his 31st with Detroit Private eye, Amos Walker, witnesses one of the strangest murder weapons of all time: a propeller – in City Walls.

Loren D. Estleman‘s books are reliably entertaining and, it seems as if they get more inventive as they go, as well.

He’s the best Chandlerian private eye writer – now and forever.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In a recent newzine, we included an interview with S.A. Cosby in which he said his ideal reading experience included re-reading Lehane’s Darkness, Take My Hand (something I whole-heartedly agreed with as it is a favorite of mine).

“Evil is rarely complicated. It’s just fucking bold.” Titus touched the brim of his hat and left.

“You really think it’s that simple?” Dr. Kim asked.

In his latest novel, All the Sinners Bleed, Sheriff Titus Crown deals with his own Darkness. He keeps a professional image but chaffs at the unhidden racism of his being the first black sheriff in Charon County, VA. His native county’s name is enough to give him pause but he’s dedicated to treating all of it’s residents equally. He’s got his own demons earned after being an FBI agent in Indiana. He’s carrying a huge load when a school shooting leads to something far uglier, a deep horror that’s been living below the everyday.

“Faith is a fragile thing, Sheriff. Do you know that? They like to talk about mustard seeds and not walking by sight and that shit, but the truth is it don’t take much to break your faith. Get sick, get broke, or lose your only son. Your faith will run out of town faster that a deadbeat daddy.”

In this story, Cosby has created his mirror of the Lehane masterpiece, showing that he’s capable of telling a story of depth and humanity to warrant being shelved next to the Lehane. It’s a stunning book of family and home and what it takes to hold on to them.

??????????????????????????????????

Every now and then, I like to check up on the small presses we used to stock to see what interesting new stuff they might be releasing. Recently, I got directed to one of them and found something to order.

Stark House Press started out reissuing crime classics that had been long out of print. Since then, they’ve broadened their selection – check it out. I found that they reissued one of my favorites, Jonathan Latimer’s Solomon’s Vineyard – but under Latimer’s own title choice. Gotta get me one of those!

????????????????????????????????????????

And should you find yourself in need of a healthy dose of hardboiled pulp, jump over to the latest iteration of my image blog: old magazines (mystery, crime, true crime and more) and paperbacks, from the 20s to, well, whatever new fits in. seattlemysteryhardboiled.com Updated daily!

If you like what we do, please spread the word!

BUY SMALL ~ SUPPORT SMALL

September 2023

Lahaina Public Library stands damaged among the wreckage of Maui’s fires.

The Dictionary People by Sarah Ogilvie review – nerds who loved words

This Book of AI Poetry Should Scare the Hell Out of You

How an 1800s Midwife Solved a Poisonous Mystery

‘Unparalleled treasure trove’ of 16th-century texts worth $25m up for auction

The Importance of Book-Centered Spaces as Third Places

Inflamed, impertinent and deeply insightful, D.H. Lawrence’s “Studies in Classic American Literature” remains startlingly relevant 100 years after it was originally published.

Can You Find These 13 Hidden Crime and Mystery Titles?

Scientists find evidence that Vlad the Impaler shed bloody tears.

Dear Reader: A Brief History of Book Dedications.

Kevin Smith is Auctioning Off All of His Original Comic Book Art

A ‘forgotten’ Winnie the Pooh sketch sat in a drawer for years. Now it could be worth thousands

‘Dark Winds’ Season 2 Is a Powerful Indictment of American Racism

How to Catch Pandemic Fraud? Prosecutors Try Novel Methods.

I grew up loving The Bell Jar. Then I noticed how Sylvia Plath wrote about people that looked like me

Kansas newspaper police raid: co-owner dies after becoming ‘stressed beyond her limits’

Twilight of the Serial Killer: Cases Like Gilgo Beach Become Ever Rarer: Serial murders have dwindled, thanks to a cautious citizenry and improved technology. But sociopaths have found new methods of mayhem.

The bizarre, six-day bank heist that spawned ‘Stockholm syndrome’.

US state department declassifies more documents about Pinochet’s 1973 coup.

Boston U Hires Outgoing Harvard Misinformation Researcher

OpenAI and Meta are too cheap to pay for legit books

The Book-Piracy Problem

Venezuelan bookstores, publishers struggle under economic crisis

punch (v.): “to thrust, push; jostle;” also, “to prod, drive (cattle, etc.) by poking and prodding,” late 14th C., from Old French ponchonner “to punch, prick, stamp,” from ponchon “pointed tool, piercing weapon”.

Meaning “to pierce, make a hole or holes in with a punch, emboss with a tool” is from early 15th C.; meaning “to stab, puncture” is from mid-15th C. Related: Punched; punching.

Specialized sense “to hit with the fist, give a blow, beat with blows of the fist” is recorded by 1520s. Compare Latin pugnare “to fight with the fists,” from a root meaning “to pierce, sting.” In English this sense-shift evolved also probably by influence of punish: Punch or punsch for punish is found in documents from 14th C.-15th C.:

To “punch (someone) out”, “beat (someone) up” is from 1971. To punch a ticket, etc., “make a hole in” to indicate use of it is from mid-15th C. To punch the clock “record one’s arrival at or departure from the workplace using an automated timing device” is from 1900.

Crowd Gives Library Board the Finger After Library Director Is Fired

Authors Like Me Are Fighting the Book-Ban Zealots. We Need Help

Taliban bans girl students from attending school beyond third grade

Iowa school district flags 374 books as potentially banned, from ‘Ulysses’ to ‘Heartstopper’

Florida schools to censor Shakespeare over ‘raunchy’ content

The plot thickens: The battle over books comes at a cost

Book-Banning Fever Hits a New Low in a Texas Town

‘Knowledge is power’: new app helps US teens read books banned in school.

‘There won’t be libraries left’: how a Florida county became the book ban heartland of the US

The Newest Under-the-Radar Attack on Academic Freedom

An Iowa District Used AI to Figure Out Which Books to Ban

Georgia school board fires teacher who read book on gender fluidity to class

Authors of most banned books in the U.S. speak up: ‘We can’t take these freedoms for granted’.

Right-Wing Harassment Led to Bomb Threats Against 3 Elementary Schools and Libraries This Week.

A crackdown on ‘woke’ coverage is tearing Atlanta magazine apart.

For John Green, the Battle Over Access to Books Has Gotten Personal

Oregon man posed as undercover cop, kidnapped woman from Seattle, sexually abused her, locked her in homemade cell, FBI says

The Land Beyond the Drug War

Hinton Publishing highlights ‘underinvited’ authors

Book battles are raging nationwide. A WA library could be nation’s first to close.

Tri-City Herald: Don’t kill this small Eastern WA town’s public library over a few books

Kohberger murder trial delayed after Moscow murder suspect waives right to speedy trial

Fake firefighters from Tacoma break into Spokane County home evacuated in fire, cops say

Wanderlust Book Lounge in Bothell founded on 2 Decades of friendship, love of books

King County libraries to further expand hours next month

punch (n.3): A “pointed tool for making holes, pricking, or embossing,” late 14th C., short for puncheon, from Old French ponchon, poinchon “pointed tool, piercing weapon,” from Vulgar Latin *punctionem (nominative *punctio) “pointed tool,” from past-participle stem of Latin pungere “to prick, pierce, sting” (from suffixed form of PIE root *peuk- “to prick”).

From mid-15th C. as “a stab, thrust;” late 15th C. as “a dagger.” Extended from the simple instrument to machines doing similar work; the meaning “machine for pressing or stamping a die” is from 1620s.

How an Amateur Diver Became a True-Crime Sensation

Feud Over AI Book Cover Has Authors at Each Other’s Throats

Front door tied to Charles Manson ‘family’ murders to be Auctioned

In Pursuit of the Lizard People, and the Dangerous Conspiracy Theories That Led to the 2020 Nashville Bombing

Al Capone’s mansion in Miami Beach has been demolished. Why wasn’t it saved?

Chess official calls for more research as decision to block transgender women from events draws fire

punch (n.2): type of mixed drink, 1630s; since 17th C. traditionally said to derive from Hindi panch “five,” in reference to the number of original ingredients (spirits, water, lemon juice, sugar, spice), from Sanskrit panchan-s, from pancha “five” (from PIE root *penkwe- “five”). But there are difficulties (see OED), and connection to puncheon (n.1) is not impossible. Dutch punch, German Punch, French punch, etc. are said to be from English.

Amazon faces reckoning over worker safety after blocking inspectors

Are Scammers Using AI to Sell Bad Travel Guides on Amazon?

Amazon removes books ‘generated by AI’ for sale under author’s name

An author says AI is ‘writing’ unauthorized books being sold under her name on Amazon.

Open Markets, the Authors Guild, and American Booksellers Urge FTC and DOJ to Investigate Amazon’s Book Retail Monopoly

Hilary Swank, Sanaa Lathan, Aaron Paul, Krysten Ritter to Star in James Patterson Audible Original

Want Amazon’s free shipping? You may need to buy more

recombentibus (n.): a knockout punch, either physical or verbal (Says You!, episode #820)

Alice Winn wins 2023 Waterstones debut fiction prize for In Memoriam

2023 Kirkus Prize Finalists Announced

Bloomsbury USA president dies in speedboat collision in Italy

Fire devastated this NYC Chinatown bookshop — community has rushed to its aid

Paramount Global, KKR Near Deal for Simon & Schuster Valued at $1.6 Billion

Nuclear Noir: How Oppenheimer’s deadly toy influenced noir film and fiction.

A Harvard library mystery: Was a Titanic victim’s rare book a fake?

Fiction Analytics Site Prosecraft Shut Down After Backlash

It’s done. Simon & Schuster is now owned by a private equity firm.

The Wold Newton Universe: How a Fictional History Connects Literary Legends

The Great, Reluctant Detectives of Crime Fiction

The Dark Side of the Jazz Age

Laura Childs on ~~Procrastinating~~ Sparking Inspiration.

‘Times change’: what authors think about rewriting older books

Sandie Jones: Why I Set My New Thriller in the World of Unscrupulous Journalists

US publisher of pro-fascist books revealed as military veteran.

My First Thriller: James Patterson

This ‘Evergreen’ LA noir novel imagines the post-WWII reality of Japanese Americans

The Murder Mystery Would be Nowhere without the Corpse.

Sophomore Slays: Seven Killer Mystery Series Where Book Two Is Even Better

Moving books is a big pain. Here’s how to make it easier.

What I Learned in CSI School

The Unsettling Roots of Our Coziest Traditions

Cook Like Christie: A Look at Gastronomical Delights Inspired By the Grand Dame of Detective Fiction.

Get Rid of Your Books. Really!

Powerful Female Characters in Crime Fiction

Rereading ‘The Exorcist’ in an age of new demons

How South Africa’s oldest Quran was saved by Cape Town Muslim

Desecration of holy books could become a crime in Denmark.

Paris booksellers won’t let their street stands along the Seine be removed for the 2024 Olympics.

Reviving the centuries-old craft of bookbinding, one page at a time

The Not So Fun Side Of Being A Book’s First Reader

Sept. 7: Craig Johnson signs The Longmire Defense, Third Place/LFP, 7pm

Sept. 8: Craig Johnson signs The Longmire Defense, Powell’s/7pm

Sept. 27: Kevin O’Brien signs The Enemy at Home, Island Books, 6:30pm

Sept. 30: J.A. Jance signs Blessings of the Lost Girls, Village Books, 2pm

suckerpunch (n.): also sucker-punch, 1926, from sucker in the “dupe” sense + punch (n.3). Figurative use by 1929. As a verb by 1942. Related: Sucker-punched.

Before He Was the ‘Lincoln Lawyer,’ Manuel Garcia-Rulfo Srudied His Grandfather’s Home Movies

Why ‘The French Connection’ Still Gets Under Our Skin

Why ‘Winter Kills’ Is the Perfect Conspiracy Thriller for the QAnon Era

A Classic James Bond Film Got Some Secret Assistance From Stanley Kubrick

To Film and Thrive in L.A.: Three Lesser-Praised Friedkin Films Are Classics.

‘Call Northside 777,’ James Stewart’s gritty Chicago newspaper drama, back on big screen

First look at “Lawmen: Bass Reeves”, Taylor Sheridan’s new Western filmed in North Texas.

‘Fargo’ Season 5 First Look: Jon Hamm and Joe Keery Are a Father-Son Duo Hunting Juno Temple

The Killer: first trailer for David Fincher’s Netflix thriller

Netflix Renews ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ for Season 3; Neve Campbell Departing

“Maigret” review – Gérard Depardieu is a charismatic version of Simenon’s detective

Punch (n.): A violent, squeaky-voiced puppet-show star, 1709, shortening of Punchinello (1666), from Italian (Neapolitan) Pollecinella, Pollecenella, diminutive of pollecena “turkey pullet,” probably in allusion to his big nose. The phrase pleased as punch apparently refers to his unfailing triumph over enemies. The comic weekly of this name was published in London from 1841.

Aug. 4: Mark Margolis, Actor on ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Better Call Saul,’ Dies at 83

Aug. 5: Sharon Farrell, Actress in ‘It’s Alive,’ ‘Marlowe’ and ‘The Reivers,’ Dies at 82

Aug. 5: Charles J. Ogletree Jr., 70, Dies; at Harvard Law, a Voice for Equal Justice

Aug. 7: William Friedkin, Oscar-winning director of ‘The French Connection’ and The Exorcist,’ dead at 87

Aug. 11: Linda Haynes, ‘Rolling Thunder’ and ‘Brubaker’ Actress, Dies at 75

Aug. 26: Arleen Sorkin, Original Voice of Harley Quinn and ‘Days of Our Lives’ Actress, Dies at 67

Aug. 27: Michael Farrar, whose ex-wife served him poison and killed 2 kids in ‘95 fire, dies at 68 [Ann Rule covered this case in Bitter Harvest]

Aug. 2: Missionary Raised $30M for Bibles—Then Blew It on Diamonds and Gambling: DOJ

Aug. 5: Financier of QAnon-Esque Child Trafficking Film Is Arrested for Child Kidnapping

Aug. 7: A Va. research farm prepares to receive a key addition — a dead body

Aug. 9: The Serial Killer and the Texas Mom Who Stopped Him

Aug. 9: Neo-Nazis Blackmail Power Grid in Bid to Free Bumbling Bank Robbery Suspects

Aug. 11: Jennifer McAdam on Taking Down a Crypto Fraud

Aug. 18: A neonatal nurse in a British hospital has been found guilty of killing 7 babies

Aug. 23: Oklahoma authorities name the BTK killer as the ‘prime suspect’ in at least two unsolved cases

Aug. 23: What Happened to UAL Flight 23?

Aug. 26: High-altitude heist shocks Switzerland

Aug. 26: ‘Billion Dollar Heist’: The Wild Story That Should Have Us All Petrified

Aug. 30: Man said he found $5k in parking lot, charged with larceny months later

Aug. 30:Chicago TV news crew robbed at gunpoint while reporting on armed robberies

Aug. 31: Swedish cities hit by four residential explosions in an hour

During the last couple of years, when the bookshop was open, many of you who visited Fran and me on Fridays know I brought baked goods for you all to try. Whereupon I learn simultaneously that: A) I love baking. B) The practice gave me the confidence to try new and unfamiliar recipes. C) I am actually pretty decent at it. Due to this love, which finds me handing off treats to the neighbors and my husband’s coworkers regularly, I also enjoy watching baking shows.

Unsurprisingly, The Great British Bake Off is one of my faves.

Not only can you pick up pointers from the bakers themselves, but if you pay attention, you are exposed to all kinds of savory & sweet treats you (or, in this case, I) have never seen. Fans of the show know Prue Leith, one of the competition’s judges, has a compliment she whips out every now and again — “This (insert pastry name here) is worth the calories.”

Or, inversely, “It wasn’t worth the calories.”

Considering the number of pastries, pies, breads, ice cream, and baked bits of goodness she and Paul Hollywood enjoy on the show — this is serious kudos or criticism indeed.

Now, what does this have to do with the price of shortbread in Scotland?

Since SMB closed its doors, gradually over the years, I’ve needed reading glasses more and more often. In point of fact, unless the writing on my phone is the size of a chipmunk’s footprint, I can’t read it. This makes reading the fine print on food labels, forms, and footnotes all but impossible…Unless I’m standing four feet away, which presents a whole new set of challenges.

As I can no longer read books without my readers, eye strain has become a very irritating part of my life. Often keeping me from enjoying books as much as I used to. (Yeah, yeah, I’ll get to the optometrist soon. However, that’s not the point right now.)

So when I tell you a book is totally worth the eye strain — you best believe I’m telling the truth.

And Tress of the Emerald Sea is one of these books.

In the postscript of Tress of the Emerald Sea, Sanderson likens his story to a modern fairytale meant for grownups. However, a more apt one comes a few paragraphs later when he talks about watching The Princess Bride during lockdown with his family. When his wife wondered: “What would that story have been like if Buttercup had gone searching for Westley, instead of immediately giving him up for dead?”

This question planted the idea of Tress of the Emerald Sea in Sanderson’s brain and is a rather apt description that, whilst giving one an idea of what Tress of the Emerald Sea is about, doesn’t spoil the pleasure of found within the pages.

Of course, Tress of the Emerald Sea is far more complex and compelling than its origin question. (We’d expect nothing less.) It’s witty, laugh-out-loud funny, full of edge-of-your-seat suspense, with thought-provoking throwaway lines and a mystery concealed at its heart.

Unlike my lovely husband, I’ve not devoured everything Sanderson’s written. Sure, I’ve read the Reckoners series (Steelheart, Firefight & Calamity) and Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds. And while Tress and the Emerald Sea is unlike any of the above books, it is set within the same multiverse. Meaning you meet one or three characters who obviously have a far deeper backstory. But so long as you know this before the first page, you’re fine. (Plus, Sanderson does a great job of weaving in enough information that someone picking up this book cold won’t get lost.)

*Squinting my eyes in the direction of New Mexico, where Fran is, at present, residing.*

Seriously, if you need something to lose yourself in, if only for a little while, Tress of the Emerald Sea is the book you’ve been looking for.

Family, and names

If you’ve been around long enough, you know that family doesn’t always mean the people with whom you share blood and DNA. Family that is chosen, what I call “family of the heart” is much more important. We can’t be held hostage by our DNA, but we can surrender to those who actually matter to us.

And that can be problematic, because even in our chosen families, sometimes we feel like outsiders. In The Brutal Telling, Louise Penny makes this observation through Olivier.

“Olivier raised his eyes to hers. He hadn’t realized, until that moment, that he”d always been afraid their affection was conditional. He was the owner of the bistro, the only one in town. They liked him for the atmosphere and the welcome. The food and drink. That was the boundary of their feelings for him. They liked him for what he gave to them. Sold to them.

“Without the bistro, he was nothing to them.”

And that’s what so many of us feel, that our acceptance is conditional. But family is forever. And families are complicated, and Louise Penny highlights this in several different ways in The Brutal Telling.

She also has fun with names. Old Munchin. Roar Parra. Havoc Munchin. Even Olivier himself – Olivier Brule’. The Asshole Saint.

The love of and difficulties of family in The Brutal Telling reminded me of The Big Easy.

Family is at the heart of this mystery, and it comes in many forms, some with love enough for everyone, some to die for. If you’ve seen it, you know what I mean, and if you haven’t, well then sit yourself down right now and watch it!

As for names, you gotta love Cajun names and nicknames. Silky. The Cannon. And Big Daddy Mention has easily captured my heart.

Family. Complicated and messy, whether it’s DNA based or family of the heart.

Follow-ups on the new Philip Marlowe by Denise Mina:

Denise Mina Takes on Philip Marlowe and Chandler’s Los Angeles

Stepping Into Raymond Chandler’s Shoes Showed Me the Power of Fiction:

“I expect some people will have the same objections about a woman writing Raymond Chandler. To the angry anti-wokers and the leave-things-aloners, I can only say: You’ve arrived too late. The revolution is underway. The barbarians are not at the gate. We are in the citadel.

And we’ve got a three-book deal.”

[!!!!!!!!!! More novels, more Marlowe to com?!?!?!?!?!?]

If you like what we do, spread the word!

BUY SMALL ~ SUPPORT SMALL

April 2023

People were always amazed at our ability to recognize books that they’d read but couldn’t remember. Our joke, when working with such questions, was that someone would inevitably come in and ask about a book they read 30 years ago, the cover was red and it had murder in the title and could we tell them what it was? It was amazing that with the right clues we often could figure out what the book was.

Well, case in point: Marian emailed to ask the following – “I bought a book from your store somewhere in the early 2010s that I think Fran recommended to me. It was a red paperback and it was the first book this author had written. The story was wonderful and started off with a woman who had no memory of who she was. She had written letters to herself throughout the course of the book discovered more about her identity and the identity of the person who’d removed her memory. She was in an agency within the British Parliament and essentially dealt with paranormal type topics.” She’d lent out the book and never got it back. Could we possibly tell her what it was??

Fran and Amber had the answer in no time: Daniel O’Malley’s The Rook

Another satisfied customer!! Nice job ladies!!! They still got tha magic!

And just to be clear, this was not one of our old April Fool pranks. It happened on March 21st. Really! Seriously! No joke!! Don’t believe me!?!?!? Guess we can’t blame you…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Words of the Month

fool (v.): Mid-14th C., “to be foolish, act the fool,” from fool (n.1). The transitive meaning “make a fool of” is recorded from 1590s. Sense of “beguile, cheat” is from 1640s. Also as a verb 16th C.-17th C. was foolify. Related: Fooled; fooling. Fool around is 1875 in the sense of “pass time idly,” 1970s in sense of “have sexual adventures.”

Overlooked No More: Dilys Winn, Who Brought Murder and Mystery to Manhattan

Why Bill insisted we keep politics out of author events: ‘He’s a Tyrant’: Trumpers Fume After Being Booted From DeSantis Book Event

Judy Blume asks that you stop being so weird about what your kid reads.

The Real Star of North by Northwest is Cary Grant’s Suit

When handling rare books, experts say that bare, just-cleaned hands are best. Why won’t the public believe them?

Lost in translation: 4 perfect words that have no English equivalent

$250K offered to decode ancient Roman scrolls

A new $1,500 book offers never-seen ‘Shining’ ephemera. Are you obsessed enough?

An Ancient Document Breakthrough Could Reveal Untold Secrets of the Past

In “All the Knowledge in the World,” Simon Garfield recounts the history of the encyclopedia — a tale of ambitious effort, numerous errors and lots of paper.

LeVar Burton Is Still Championing Literacy In The Right to Read

A Rare Collection of Shakespeare Folios Is on Sale for $10.5 Million

Go Inside the Emily Dickinson House, Vibrantly Restored in Amherst, Mass.

For Decades, Cartographers Have Been Hiding Covert Illustrations Inside of Switzerland’s Official Maps

Serious Stuff

Ezra Klein: This Changes Everything (AI and how the creators don’t know what is coming…fiction and term papers aren’t his worry)

Former acting Met commissioner allegedly called bulk of rape complaints ‘regretful sex’

Books by female authors studied by just 2% of GCSE pupils, finds study

Hackers steal sensitive law enforcement data in a breach of the U.S. Marshals Service

A former TikTok employee tells Congress the app is lying about Chinese spying

Sensitive Personal Data of US House and Senate Members Hacked, Offered for Sale

Roald Dahl is the last thing we should worry about on World Book Day

Inside the “Private and Confidential” Conservative Group That Promises to “Crush Liberal Dominance”

He was with Emmett Till the night he was murdered. The horror haunts him still

Mauritania’s Ancient Libraries Could be Lost tot he Expanding Desert

Secret trove offers rare look into Russian cyberwar ambitions

‘Vulkan files’ leak reveals Putin’s global and domestic cyberwarfare tactics

Words of the Month

foolocracy (n.): 1832, from fool (n.) + -ocracy (word-forming element forming nouns meaning “rule or government by,” from French -cratie or directly from Medieval Latin -cratia, from Greek -kratia “power, might; rule, sway; power over; a power, authority,” from kratos “strength,” from PIE *kre-tes– “power, strength,” suffixed form of root *kar– “hard.” The connective -o- has come to be viewed as part of it. Productive in English from c. 1800.)

Censorship

Culture war in the stacks: Librarians marshal against rising book bans

A partial Malcolm X quote that sparked protest is removed from a university building

A New Bill Could Legalize Kidnapping Trans Kids by Their Parents

The Right Wants to Boycott Hershey’s Because a Trans Woman Was in Its Ad

Self-Censorship on College Campuses Is Widespread and Getting Worse

Idaho College Pulls 6 Abortion-Related Artworks from Exhibit, Citing State Law

A Man Accused Of Spray-Painting “Groomer” On Libraries Has Now Been Charged With Possessing Child Sex Abuse Materials

First they came for drag storytime… Then they came for James Patterson?

Censored and then forgotten, Anatoly Kuznetsov’s Babi Yar, about the Nazi occupation of Kyiv, is again painfully relevant.

Kirk Cameron Gets Tennessee Library Director Fired

Are Literary Agents Seeing Changes in Publishing with Increased Book Bans (A Survey): Book Censorship News, March 24, 2023

The Librarians Are Not Okay

Tallahassee principal is forced to resign after parents complained that Michelangelo’s statue of David is ‘pornographic’ and shouldn’t be shown to sixth grade art history class

MO lawmakers strip library funding over book ban lawsuit

Agatha Christie Novels Stripped of Slurs, References to Ethnicity

Plot twist: Activists skirt book bans with guerrilla giveaways and pop-up libraries

Shameful: ‘Ruby Bridges’ Film Banned from School Because White Parents Feeling Some Kind of Way

Spotsylvania to remove 14 books from school libraries for explicit content

Heroic DC library staff trolls all-star conservative story hour with LGBTQ display.

Opinion A new book-ban fiasco in Florida reveals the monster DeSantis created

Words of the Month

folly (n.): Early 13th C., “mental weakness; foolish behavior or character; unwise conduct” (in Middle English including wickedness, lewdness, madness), from Old French folie “folly, madness, stupidity” (12th C.), from fol (see fool (n.)). From c. 1300 as “an example of foolishness;” sense of “costly structure considered to have shown folly in the builder” is attested from 1650s. But used much earlier, since Middle English, in place names, especially country estates, probably as a form of Old French folie in its meaning “delight.”

Local Stuff

Two WA artists plead guilty to faking Native American heritage

Duck hunter finds human remains 43 years ago in WA, officials say. DNA identifies them

72 Hours in Seattle: Where to Eat, Drink, and Visit During AWP 2023~Hot Tips From Local Writers

How police pursued Idaho slaying suspect

J.A. Jance on Creating Believable Characters

Shoreline Community College Website Hacked in Apparent Ransomware Attack

Odd Stuff

Wine vocabulary is Eurocentric. It’s time to change that.

Magic: the Gathering fans ‘heartbroken’ as $100,000 worth of cards found in Texas landfill

Man Busted With 600 Year Old Mummified “Girlfriend” [Shades of Norman Bates…]

A Murdaugh family death in 1940 was also suspicious — and eerily similar

Novelist William Kennedy bought the Albany home where Jack “Legs” Diamond was gunned down. Nearly 40 years later, he’s selling the landmark for $499,000

Neuroscience Explains Why Bill Gates’ Weird Reading Trick Is So Effective

Pssst! Wanna buy an Oscar? The mysterious case of the missing Academy Awards

My neighbor found Lincoln’s hair in his basement. I found a mystery.

Did voter fraud kill Edgar Allan Poe?

How to spot the Trump and Pope AI fakes

Words of the Month

muggins (n.): A “fool, simpleton,” 1855, of unknown origin, apparently from the surname and perhaps influenced by slang mug “dupe, fool” (1851; see mug (n.2)). It also was the name of simple card game (1855) and the word each player tried to call out before the other in the game when two cards matched. The name turns up frequently in humor magazines, “comic almanacks,” etc. in 1840s and 1850s.

SPECTRE

Amazon Driver Says AI Is Tracking Their Every Move, Even Beard Scratching

Group of businesses unite to battle Amazon

Uh oh, trouble in Amazon-headquarters-town.

Amazon’s belt-tightening affects towns across the U.S.

Seattle court to Amazon: Time to improve safety at Kent warehouse

It Sure Seems Like Amazon Is Making a New Web Browser

Amazon’s Pricey Stock Is Getting Harder to Justify

Amazon Sellers Disguised Banned Gun Parts as Bike Handlebars

‘Three Pines’ Canceled, Author Louise Penny ‘Shocked and Upset’ Prime Video Series Won’t Return

Amazon delivery firms say racial bias skews customer reviews

Amazon Is Considering a Surprising New Acquisition

Amazon fights Oregon data center clean energy bill

Amazon flags “frequently returned” items to warn customers

Amazon consultant admits to bribing employees to help sellers

Words of the Month

mome (n.): A “buffoon, fool, stupid person,” 1550s, from Old French mome “a mask. Related Momish. The adjective introduced by “Lewis Carroll” is an unrelated nonsense word.

Awards

Here are the winners of the 2023 PEN America Literary Awards

Author receives young author award for novel about the legacy of male violence

2023 Lambda Award Shortlist Finalists Announced

The winner of The Story Prize in 2023 is Ling Ma for Bliss Montage.

Here are the finalists for the 2023 Dylan Thomas Prize.

The 2023 National Book Critics Circle Awards

Here are the 2023 Whiting Award winners.

Book Stuff

R. W. Green reflects on carrying on his beloved friend M. C. Beaton’s long-running series.

The Brave Women Who Saved the Collected Texts of Hildegard of Bingen

Mysteries Featuring Anonymous Notes As Catalysts

Rupert Holmes Can’t Read While Music Is Playing

How Barnes & Noble turned a page, expanding for the first time in years

A book collector’s memoir: Pradeep Sebastian on the joys of discovering and collecting fine books

Turns out that America’s most “recession-proof” business is . . . bookstores.

8 Books That the Authors Regretted Writing

The FBI is spying on a Chicago bookstore because it’s hosting “extremists.”

Ashes in the Aspic: Elisabeth Sanxay Holding’s Life and Short Crime Fiction

Stranger Than Fiction: Crime in the Library

>Filippo Bernardini has been accused by the government of stealing over 1,000 book manuscripts. In court filings, he said he was motivated not by money but by a love of reading.

>Manuscript Thief of 1,000 Unpublished Books Will Not Receive Prison Time

Why More Men Should Read Romance

Blurred Lines: When a Novel’s Author Is Also Its Narrator

Top 10 books about corruption

Espionage Book Recommendations From a Former CIA Spy

What Murder Mysteries Get Wrong About The Food Industry

Downtown SF’s Death Spiral Continues as Independent Bookstore Shutters

Houston’s local bookstores thrive by being more collaborative than competitive

Why Are Audiences So Captivated by Locked-Room Mysteries?

50 Years of ‘The Long Goodbye’ [the movie, the book marks 70 years this year]

Why 1973 Was the Year Sidney Lumet Took on Police Corruption

Is 1973 actually crime film’s greatest year?

New Mystery: Remembering Nebraska’s forgotten “whodunit queen”

In defense of fan fiction, and ignoring the ‘pretensions of polish’

What I Buy and Why: Bibliophile Pom Harrington on His Original Roald Dahl Book Illustration, and the Accessible Beauty of Picasso’s Prints

The Joy of the Bad Decision in Crime Fiction

Harlan Coben’s Top Tip for Book Touring: Appreciate Crowds

Literary baby names ranked from least to most cringey.

Inside the revolutionary Free Black Women’s Library in Brooklyn

The 11 Best Book Covers of March

8 Novels Featuring Artificial Intelligence

How about a Cuppa and a Good Mystery?

What’s The Difference Between Suspense and Mystery?

Author Events

April 4: Timothy Egan signs A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them, Elliot Bay/Town Hall, 7:30

April 18: Matt Ruff signs The Destroyer of Worlds, a sequel to Lovecraft Country, Powell’s, 7pm

April 20: Don Winslow signs City of Dreams, Powell’s, 7pm

Other Forms of Entertainment

Paul Newman’s Reflection on Noir: The 25th Anniversary of Twilight

‘Devil in the White City’ Dead at Hulu (Erik Larson’s book was published in 2003!)

The Real Los Angeles History Behind ‘Perry Mason’ Season Two

Oscar Isaac will play Kurt Vonnegut in a new crime series

FX Reviving ‘Justified’ Starring Timothy Olyphant for New Limited Series

Netflix Wins Defamation Suit Over ‘Making a Murderer’

The 50 best true-crime documentaries you can stream right now

You’ve Probably Already Heard, but Monk is Coming Back

We Need More Female-Driven Revenge Movies

The 25 Greatest Revenge Movies of All Time

Wild Things: Why this steamy 1998 film is an underrated noir classic

Netflix Exposes the Pedophile Cult Leader Who Went to War With the FBI

Alex Mar and Sarah Weinman Discuss True Crime and Criminal Justice Storytelling

A Remake Of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo Is In The Works, And Robert Downey Jr. Is Involved

Three ways Robert Downey Jr’s Vertigo might not be Hollywood’s stupidest ever idea

Thriller writer Harlan Coben on his latest Netflix series with Joanna Lumley

The 18 Scruffiest Detectives in Crime Film and TV

Words of the Month

jobbard (n.): A “fool, stupid man,” mid-15th Cc., jobard, probably from French jobard (but this is not attested before 16th C.), from jobe “silly.” Earlier jobet (c. 1300).

RIP

Feb. 28: Ricou Browning, the Gill-Man in ‘Creature From the Black Lagoon,’ choreographed the final scuba-battle in ‘Thunderball’, and co-wrote the movie ‘Flipper’,Dies at 93

Mar. 1: Linda Kasabian, Former Manson Family Member Who Helped Take Down Its Leader, Dies at 73

Mar. 3: Bryant & May novelist Christopher Fowler has died aged 69

Mar. 3: Tom Sizemore, ‘Saving Private Ryan,’ ‘Heat’ and ‘Natural Born Killers’ Actor, Dies at 61

Mar. 8: Ian Falconer, creator of Olivia the precocious piglet, dies at 63

Mar. 9: Robert Blake, Combustible Star of ‘In Cold Blood’ and ‘Baretta,’ Dies at 89

Mar. 14: John Jakes, Author of the Miniseries-Spawning ‘North and South’ Trilogy, Dies at 90 (before he his the historical goldmine, he was a presence in the early crime pulps)

Mar. 17: Lance Reddick, ‘The Wire’ and ‘John Wick’ Star, Dies at 60

Mar. 17: Jim Mellen, an Original Member of the Militant Weathermen, Dies at 87

Mar. 17: Jim Gordon, rock drummer (co-writer on “Layla” who played the piano section) who later killed mother, dies at 77

Mar. 22: Gordon T. Dawson, Peckinpah Protégé and ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ Writer and Producer, Dies at 84

Mar. 29: Julie Anne Peters, Whose Young-Adult Books Caused a Stir, Dies at 71

Mar. 29: George Nassar, 86, killer who heard confession in Boston Strangler Case, is dead

Words of the Year (for Tammy, who used this all the time)

wacky (adj.): “crazy, eccentric,” 1935, variant of whacky (n.) “fool,” late 1800s British slang, probably ultimately from whack “a blow, stroke,” from the notion of being whacked on the head one too many times.

Links of Interest

Mar. 2: Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg diagnosed with terminal cancer

Mar. 2: Two U.S. Citizens Arrested for Illegally Exporting Technology to Russia

Mar. 3: Roe v. Wade Case Documents Fetch Over $600K at Auction

Mar. 3: Hiding in plain sight: Why are wanted Sicilian mafia bosses often found so close to home?

Mar. 8: The Invention of the Polygraph, and Law Enforcement’s Long Search for a ‘Lie Detector’

Mar. 17: Teen’s Body to Be Exhumed After Murdaugh Conviction

Mar. 17: 4Chan Troll Living With His Mom Arrested for Threatening Anti-Nazi Sheriff

Mar. 22: Ex-Florida Lawmaker Who Sponsored ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Pleads Guilty in Covid Fraud Case

Mar. 22: Poisons are a potent tool for murder in fiction: A toxicologist explains how some dangerous chemicals kill

Mar. 22: The SEC charges Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul and others with illegally promoting crypto

Mar. 22: How a Team of Ambitious Crooks in 1960s Montreal Planned the Biggest Bank Heist Anyone Had Ever Seen

Mar. 27: Everybody Panic: 5 Strange and Sinister Cases of Crime and Mass Hysteria

Mar. 27: Murder in the Air? The Mysterious Death of Stunt Pilot B.H. DeLay

Mar. 27: Man falsely convicted of raping writer Alice Sebold settles lawsuit against New York

Mar. 28: Pardon Sought in 1908 Execution That Was Really a Lynching

Mar. 29: Maryland court reinstates murder conviction of ‘Serial’ subject Adnan Syed

Mar. 29: ‘To Die For’ inspiration Pamela Smart will stay in prison after losing final appeal at Supreme Court

Mar. 29: The Evolution and Art of the Big Con

Mar. 31: Oscar Pistorius denied parole over killing of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp

Mar. 31: The Gangster Who Died Twice

Words of the Month

gawp (n.): A “fool, simpleton,” 1825, perhaps from gawp (v.) “to yawn, gape” (as in astonishment), which is attested from 1680s, a dialectal survival of galp (c. 1300), which is related to yelp or gape and perhaps confused with or influenced by gawk.

What We’ve Been Up To

Amber

Once upon a time, when I worked as a bookseller, the founder of our shop wrote a list of the five best mysteries (in his estimation) of all time. Rex Stout’s Fer de Lance, of course, topped the list. (Bill was a huge Nero & Archie fan — as those of you who knew him well remember.) However, at that point, I hadn’t started My 52 Weeks With Christie blog nor begun reading my way through the classics section. So, on an academic level, I found Bill’s list interesting but not one I felt compelled to read my way through.

Fast forward one decade.

Whilst perusing the shelves of my local bookstore, I chance upon a copy of The Poison Chocolates Case, and it sparked a memory. I don’t recall its exact position on it, but for whatever reason (probably the word chocolates), I recollected its inclusion in Bill’s esteemed list.

So I picked it up.

And my oh my, do I agree with our late great founder of SMB.

Based loosely on the Detection Club, which Anthony Berkeley helped found, the story’s Crime Circle gets together regularly to discuss all things, “….connected with murder, poisons and sudden death.” (pg. 11). (Similar to the Real Murders Club from Charlaine Harris’s Aurora Teagarden mysteries and the Hallmark Movies.) In any case, believing a group of amateur sleuths/criminologists unequal to the task of finding a solution to a rapidly cooling case, which stumped Scotland Yard’s best, Chief Inspector Moresby presents the evidence and theories to the Club’s six members.

These six members have one week to form and prove their theories before presenting them to the group — and no solution is off limits.

Berkeley does a masterful job of presenting the same case seven times, with seven VERY different solutions — each ratcheting up the tension just a little further until landing on an ending that somehow I didn’t see coming!

Another aspect of this book I enjoyed is the fact the members of the Crime Circle draw parallels with real true crime cases and their own theories. Their commentary on said cases is fascinating and contains enough detail, you can research them on your own.

Should you be so inclined.

Now, I’ve read variations on this style of mystery before — Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie, written seven-ish years after The Poisoned Chocolates Case, pits four detectives against four murderers in order to solve a single crime. Asimov’s Black Widowers short stories (based on Asimov’s own experience with the Trap Door Spiders — an arguing/dinner society of noted sci-fi figures AND a favorite of Fran’s!) reminds me of Berkeley’s Crime Circle as well. Unfortunately, while reminiscent of Berkeley’s work and brilliant in their own right, neither Christie nor Asimov captures the same slow burn or surprise Berkeley manages to cram into this masterpiece.

Seriously, if you’re looking for an outstanding mystery, I highly suggest, just as Bill did before me, you pick yourself a copy of The Poisoned Chocolates Case — you won’t be sorry.

Fran

As I may have mentioned, I’ve been depressed lately, and it’s had an effect on my reading, in that I haven’t been doing much.

However, JB is smart, and JB knows I love Mike Lawson’s books, and JB knows I have a crush on his character Emma in the DeMarco books, so JB sent me an inscribed copy of Alligator Alley, the 16th DeMarco book.

Sneaky man. But he knows me because man, did it ever work!

It’s an established fact that I adore Joe DeMarco and Emma and Mahoney and the entire ensemble that Mike Lawson has created. In fact, I’m so fond of Emma that my wife is a little jealous. She told Mike, who just grinned.

So knowing that Alligator Alley strongly featured Emma was an additional draw for me, and I dove in. Well, not entirely, because it’s set in Florida, mostly, and like DeMarco, I’m not a huge fan of gators except in a safely distanced way. But alligators don’t hold a candle to Emma, so I was sucked right in.

Andie Moore is a young member of the DOJ’s Inspector General staff, and she’s been sent to Florida to look into a money laundering case, just do research and learn. But she’s enthusiastic, and idealistic, so she goes above and beyond. Things do not go well.

Back in DC, Henry Cantor, who ran the DOJ’s Oversight Division and who was Andie’s supervisor, turns to John Mahoney when Andie is killed, asking for a favor. Mahoney might – and often did – lie to the President about doing favors, but if Henry Cantor asked for something, Mahoney will move heaven and earth to make it happen. What Henry wants is for Mahoney’s fixer, Joe DeMarco, and the enigmatic Emma to look into Andie’s murder.

Mahoney’s not the only one who would do anything for Henry, and DeMarco doesn’t stand a chance with Emma onboard. And so the investigation begins.

Why would they do so much for this man? Read the book. Once again, Mike Lawson has excelled at creating wonderful and memorable characters in Alligator Alley. They’re flawed and passionate and absolutely real, and I’m head over heels in love with them.

Especially Emma. But don’t tell my wife; she already knows and doesn’t wanna talk about it.

I truly wish Bill had been able to read Loren D. Estleman’s Black and White Ball, the 27th in his classic hardboiled series with Detroit PI Amos Walker. He enjoyed anything Estleman wrote but was especially fond of Walker and hitman Peter Macklin. In this entry in the series, we get both. In fact, it’s a story told from four views. Macklin hires Walker to guard his soon-to-be ex-wife from an anonymous threat. Sections are told from Walker’s perspective, from Macklin, and also Laurie Macklin. If that wasn’t enough, the fourth view is from the stalker. We get a full view of all the actors and get a deeper view of Walker than ever before.

We also get Estleman’s homage to Chandler’s opening to “Red Wind”: But things are the same no matter whether it’s Kokomo or Katmandu: The kindly old gentleman who runs the hobby shop has images on his computer that could get him twenty years in stir, the devoted couple celebrate their golden anniversary with a butcher knife and a .44, the kids with the paper route throws an a Baggie willed with white powder for the house on the corner. Noxious weeks grown in all kinds of soil.

It’s just a comfort to spend time with Loren D. Estleman.

Stephen Hunter returns to Earl Swagger in The Bullet Garden. As always, Hunter’s fiction is overlaid on an historical frame. It’s a fact that the Allies were hindered in their post-DDay advance due to Nazi snipers. Hunter ingeniously inserts Earl into the fight to stop their attacks. We’re treated to Earl’s efforts to understand how they’re able to shoot at will without leaving a trace of their ghastly work. From that he knows he’ll be able to track them and end their slaughter.

No one in London is sure what to the new Major Swagger, but there are elements afoot to stop him. Hunter is sly in steering you to and away from characters and events to keep you following the action. If you’re like me, you can’t glide over the meticulous details of the weaponry. I find it slows the flow but I understand that he writes for a variety of audiences.

The solution to the snipers’ methods is fascinating. Is that how it was done on the 1944 farmland the GIs called “the bullet garden’? Who cares! Swagger has a plan and it is WWII fiction at it’s best ~ Where Eagles Dare, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Von Ryan’s Express, The Eagle Has Landed, to name great books made into great movies – and it’s in that company.

???????????????????????????????????????????

And if you’re looking for a movie recommendation, if you have access to Hulu, I’d urge you to watch The Boston Strangler. Yes, it takes some liberties with people and events – as did Zodiac – but I thought it was the equal of Zodiac: moody, tense, well-rounded characters frustrated by what they face and played well by the actors, and a well-established sense of time and place.

Words of the Month

nugatory (adj.): “trifling, of no value; invalid, futile,” c. 1600, from Latin nugatorius “worthless, trifling, futile,” from nugator “jester, trifler, braggart,” from nugatus, past participle of nugari “to trifle, jest, play the fool,” from nugæ “jokes, jests, trifles,” a word of unknown origin.

If what we do entertains you, spread the word!

BUY SMALL ~ SUPPORT SMALL