February 2024

Her bridal photos disappeared 30 years ago. A stranger just found them. [if you’re wondering why this story is included, it is not only charming, but read it to see what their day job was!]

Idris Elba urges stronger action on knife crime

US School Shooter Emergency Plans Exposed in a Highly Sensitive Database Leak

Appeals court blocks Texas from enforcing book rating law

Florida law led school district to pull 1,600 books — including dictionaries

Mexico urges investigation after cartels found with U.S. Army weapons

How the cops are boxing in ransomware hackers

Ex-Army National Guard Recruiter Jailed for Sexually Abusing Child on Military Base

A Staggering New Clue on D.B. Cooper’s Tie Has Blown the 52-Year-Old Case Wide Open

Cascadia: Crime Fiction in the Pacific Northwest

Last known set of remains linked to Green River killer identified as Everett teen

As book battles rage, WA Senate votes to make it harder to shut down a library

The new Ballard bookstore devoted to the ancient art of books

Filthy rich and highly subversive – Agatha Christie was anything but a harmless old lady in a tweed suit

A Woman Hid This Secret Code in Her Silk Dress in 1888—and Codebreakers Just Solved It

Retired Oakland judge has shocking theory about infamous Lindbergh kidnapping. And it’s catching on

Are fingerprints unique? Not really, AI-based study finds

Irish Claddagh rings have an unexpected history—it involves pirates.

Doctor injected dog and rabbits with bacteria from assassinated US president in bizarre autopsy experiments, documents reveal

Inside the Crime Rings Trafficking Sand

Hit Men Are Easy to Find in the Movies. Real Life Is Another Story.

A Strange 21st-Century Revival: The Train Robbery

What’s Really Behind the Tik Tok ‘Mob Wife Aesthetic’?

The Educational Media Foundation is the country’s fastest-growing radio chain — and it’s exploiting federal loopholes to buy up local radio stations and take the devil’s music off the air

collieshangie (n.): from the Scots dictionary: “noisy dispute, uproar, a dog-fight”

Judy Blume Wins ‘Bravery in Literature’ Award

Lynda La Plante and James Lee Burke share Diamond Dagger lifetime award

Science fiction awards held in China under fire for excluding authors

National Book Critics Circle Awards Nominees for 2023

What Booksellers Can Teach Us About Reading, Writing and Publishing

How an Epic History of the Mafia Came out of a Chance Meeting with a Literary Legend

‘A legend in the literary world’ keeps S.F.’s City Lights shining

Catching Up with Louise Penny in Iceland

‘Freedom begins with a book’: incarcerated people to judge new US literary award

A Celebration of Reporters in Cozy Mysteries

It’s Time to Rewrite the Rules of Historical Fiction

James Grippando: 30 Years of Lightning Bolts, Percolators, and other Sources of Inspiration

Agatha Christie: The Indian hotel murder that inspired the queen of crime

Death of a Novelist: The 1911 Murder That Changed New York Gun Laws

Shelf-absorbed: eight ways to arrange your bookshelves – and what they say about you

How Nellie Bly and Other Trailblazing Women Wrote Creative Nonfiction Before It Was a Thing

Breaking up with Goodreads: The best book-logging apps for 2024

C.J. Box Isn’t Afraid to Wrangle With Issues Close to Home

A novel’s risqué publicity campaign has angered some book influencers

Nihar Malaviya, Penguin Random House’s C.E.O., is a behind-the-scenes operator with a significant task: leading the company after a period of messy, and expensive, turbulence.

>James Bond’s Literary Life, After Ian Fleming

Feb. 10: Mike Lawson signs Kingpin, his new DeMarco, Magnolia Books, noon

Feb. 13: Susan Elizabeth Phillips with Christina Dodd and Jayne Ann Krentz, Third Place/LFP, 7pm

Feb 15: Jeffrey Siger signs At Any Cost, Third Place/LFP, 7pm

Feb 24: Mike Lawson signs Kingpin, his new DeMarco, Barnes & Noble/Silverdale, noon

[see JB’s review of the new DeMarco below]

blowhard (n.): also blow-hard, “blustering person,” 1840, a sailor’s word (from 1790 as a nickname for a sailor), perhaps originally a reference to weather and not primarily meaning “braggart;” from blow (v.1) + hard (adv.). However, blow (v.1) in the sense of “brag, boast, bluster, speak loudly” is attested from c. 1300 and blower had been used since late 14th C. as “braggart, boaster, one who speaks loudly” (in Middle English translating Latin efflator, French corneur).

>James Bond is set to enter public domain: What this means for next 007 movie future

Was ‘The Leopard Man’ Hollywood’s First Slasher Film?

Rian Johnson Explained the Literary Roots of “Knives Out” Films

Wild Things: this 90s erotic thriller is smarter than you may remember

10 Movies Where The Killer’s Identity Is Never Revealed

The 12 Best Mystery Board Games of 2024

‘American Nightmare’ Shows the Wild Truth Behind a So-Called Real Gone Girl Case

‘Lone Star’ Director John Sayles on Where the Movie Has Been for the Last 30 Years: ‘They Go Into Somebody’s Closet’

How ‘The Sopranos’ began as a comedy about a mother

The 20 Best, Worst, and Strangest Hercule Poirot Portrayals of All-Time, Ranked

Shane’s Lot: How a 1949 Gun-Toting Loner Still Rides Through American Literature

How NBC’s ‘Dateline’ took back its true-crime throne

Memento: One of the Most Important Sundance Successes Could Never Happen Today

How Cord Jefferson turned a novel about race into American Fiction – the year’s buzziest comedy

“More Complex, More Modern, and a Bit Darker”: New Dick Tracy Series Promises Modern Reboot Similar to Daniel Craig’s Bond

braggart (n.): “a boaster,” 1570s, formerly also braggard, from French bragard (16th C.), with pejorative ending (see -ard) + braguer “to flaunt, brag,” perhaps originally “to show off clothes, especially breeches,” from brague “breeches” (see bracket (n.)). There may be an element of codpiece-flaunting in all this.

Also as an adjective, “vain, boastful” (1610s). The word in English has been at least influenced by brag (v.), even if, as some claim, it is unrelated to it. Bragger “arrogant or boastful person,” agent noun from brag (v.), is attested in English from late 14th C. and has become practically a variant of this word.

Jan. 1: David Soul, ‘Starsky and Hutch’ and Magnum Force Actor, Dies at 80

Jan. 6: Cindy Morgan, ‘Caddyshack’ and ‘Tron’ Actress, Dies at 69

Jan.12: Edward Jay Epstein, investigative journalist and skeptic, dies at 88

Jan. 12: Leon Wildes, lawyer who fought John Lennon’s deportation, dies at 90

Jan. 22: Norman Jewison, Director of ‘In the Heat of the Night’, ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’, and ‘Moonstruck,’ Dies at 97

Jan. 26: Marc Jaffe, Publisher of Paperback Hits, Is Dead at 102

Jan. 28: Harry Connick Sr., lightning-rod longtime New Orleans DA, dies at 97

Jan. 29: N Scott Momaday, Pulitzer-winning Native American novelist, dies aged 89

Jan 4: The House Was Charming, but Came With a Catch: A Murder Took Place There

Jan. 6: Glasgow whisky thief swiped rare £20k Macallan James Bond bottles from Eurocentral warehouse

Jan. 9: ‘Borgata’ Review: Family History [as in The Mob]

Jan. 11: A Murderous Gravestone Grudge Carved a New Law Into Stone

Jan. 12: 7 Wild Stories From the Prohibition Era

Jan 13: What’s in Those Huge Suitcases? $125 Million in Cash

Jan 14: Murdered Dad Revealed to Be Hitman Wanted by Interpol

Jan. 16: The Life and Times of William J. Flynn, the “Bulldog Detective”

Jan. 24: Mystery deepens over Kansas City men found dead in friend’s frozen backyard

Jan. 25: How a Medieval Murder Map Helped Solve a 700-Year-Old London Cold Case

Jan. 26: The WWII Treasure Map That Caused A Modern Day Hunt

Jan. 29: Dying man who stole Dorothy’s Wizard of Oz ruby slippers escapes jail term

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.

I wrote a series Featuring Crooked House, Rough on Rats, & Children who Kill — here’s the link to the rest of the series!

From the Office of Spoilers: If you’ve not read Crooked House by Agatha Christie, I suggest you do — then read my vintage true crime posts as one directly impacts the other. However, if you’ve no qualms with knowing the ending of a book before you begin it, read on. Either way, you’ve been warned.

Now, on with the show.

According to experts, far more learned than I, Agatha Christie’s publisher, William Collins (of Collins Crime Club fame), found the ending of Crooked House so shocking he requested Christie change it.

She declined.

By leaving the novel untouched, Crooked House now stands as one of the best twist endings in Christie’s entire catalogue of works (second only to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd — in my humble estimation). Though, on reflection, I’m not sure exactly why the revelation of Aristide Leonides’ murderer harkens such disbelief. Within moments of meeting our malefactor, they give us their motive; Charles Hayward’s Old Man practically spells out the whys & wherefores a few pages later, and Charles himself catches sight of the penultimate clue. Yet, for the past seventy-four years, the solution continues to blindside readers. And therein lies Christie’s cunning, the ability to mark and exploit our collective blindspots….…..Because how often, really, would you look at a kid and see a poisoner?

Turns out, more often than you’d think.

Some follow the pattern set by Crooked House’s thirteen year old baddie Josephine Leonides, whose motive for murdering her grandfather was his refusal to pay for her ballet lessons. By adult eyes, Josephine’s reason seems childish, and despite her being fictional — she’s not alone in this brand of flawed rationale. In my research for this set of posts, I’ve discovered kids who’ve killed because they were rebuked too often by their mother, because their father thwarted their ambition to become a train robber, and because they wanted to see if their “chubby” playmate’s insides resembled that of pig’s (that was a singularly gruesome crime).

However, it’s the crimes of Gertrude Taylor, a case I’ll explore in more detail in this series, which reminded me forcibly of Josephine’s puerile impulse to pick up a bottle of poison. Not only did she target her nearest and dearest, but she did so so her brother wouldn’t take his upright organ with him when he moved house.

Yet other kids find themselves following (roughly) in the obsessive footsteps of the Tea Cup Poisoner.

Graham Young’s fascination with poisons not only led to an in-depth study into the subject, at the age of fourteen he started experimenting with them….on his family and friends. In some respects, Young’s diabolical deeds are unique. His ability to dazzle druggists with his knowledge to procure deadly substances like thallium, antimony, atropine, aconitine, and digitalis sets him apart from most other child poisoners.

However, the overwhelming obsession that led to Young’s abominable “experimentation” is not.

Seventy years before and across the pond, another fourteen-year-old named Ella Holdridge found herself utterly transfixed, not by poisons, but by death. Whilst her family and friends considered it an odd fixation for a young girl, no one thought much about it. Until the summer of 1892, when, due to a distinct lack of local funerals she could attend, Ella took it upon herself to supply the local churchyard with a fresh corpse….Another case I’ll cover in the next few weeks.

Above and beyond Gertrude Taylor and Ella Holdridge’s ages, alleged crimes, and underdeveloped moral muscles — one more feature unifies this pair of kid killers: A self-made man who built his empire upon the back of dead rats.

Ephraim Stockton Wells.

Puppy Wiggles

I found out last year that I am to be the Fan Guest Of Honor at Left Coast Crime in Seattle this April – https://leftcoastcrime.org/2024/ – and I was amazed and stunned and deeply humbled. And I puppy wiggled like a fool. Because of course, that’s what you do.

Then Jim Thomsen, who’s editing the anthology of short stories commissioned for this particular Left Coast Crime convention, asked me if I’d like to submit a short story, 2000 words or so. Would I be interested?

More puppy wiggling, and giggling, and gasping, and holy cats. So I submitted a short story about an old lady assassin riding the buses and trains.

Jim gently and firmly rejected my submission in the nicest possible way.

So I asked if I could try again, please please please, and because he’s a nice guy, he agreed. So I frowned and thought and talked with friends and I came up with another story, this time about a bookseller in Pioneer Square who gets sent on a weird mission to other indie bookstores.

Jim accepted it.

I may have lost weight from the excessive puppy wiggling. And then I let it go, and started writing more just for me, and I’m now publishing a story a week on Substack – Fran’s Ramblings – and it’s keeping me quite busy.

But then. Oh, my dears, but then. Jim sent me these photos:

And there it was! My name ON A BOOK! Sure, it’s last, and it should be because look at those other names! HOLY CATS!

Now is the time to take a moment to admire the work that Jim’s put into this gorgeous book, and thank Down & Out Press for taking on publication, and applaud Bill Cameron for it’s amazing design. This is going to be huge fun.

I don’t have pre-order information yet, but when I do, rest assured that I’ll let you know. But for now, this is a Big Deal for me, and I had to share it.

I’ll be on a couple of panels at the conference – and Amber and JB will be joining me on at least one! Yay! – so if you happen to be in the area, I’d love to see you and catch up! I suspect we all would. It could be a party!

But for the moment, I’m going back to puppy wiggling because I’m gonna be a published author! Whee!

An important and timely book, Prequel outlines and details the Fascist plots in America, in the 30s and 40s, to over-through the US government. If you listened to Rachel Maddow‘s podcast Ultra about this ugly chunk of American history, you’ll be familiar with the names and events. In the book, she lays it out is all of its glorious, gory details. And it is worth the time of everyone concerned about the health of democracy here – or anywhere – to digest the story.

The first part of the book deals with the way the Nazis studied US racial laws to help them sculpt their anti-Jewish laws. She then moves into how the Nazi government shaped and funded home-grown fascism into a weapon against the need for the US to join the fight against Hitler. The amount of money funneled into the plan is staggering. And it all stinks of, and is a pattern for, the way foreign actors have monkeyed with our elections and social media. You cannot read this book without feeling the creeping echo of efforts exposed during the last election – and surely ones yet to come in this year’s contest.

The last of the book covers the work to hold those behind the scheme to legal responsibility. If your soul isn’t depressed by what they did, it certainly will be by the failure of these sedition cases. Again, the troubling echo of history…

Maddow has a masterful way of flowing the story smoothly, tossing in the odd phrase to convey scorn, horror, or astonishment that accompanies the story. “Star journalist Allen Drury used the erratic and cantankerous Langer in his 1963 book, “A Senate Journal”, to illustrate the Senate’s unsettling capacity for growing and empowering mean old weirdos.” ~ Sigh ~ what’s changed?

Allow her to introduce you to a new raft of American heroes. You’ve probably never heard of them but you owe your country to them.

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And now for some sparkling fun!

You’ve heard me and Fran and Bill rave about Mike Lawson‘s books and talent. Kingpin, the 17th DeMarco novel, is no different… except that it forced me to think of his books in a new way. It was Bill who first characterized the Lawson’s writing as “smooth” – which it is. But it struck me reading Kingpin – I don’t think I’ve said this before – that his books are smart. Not just that they’re intelligent, that he always captures something current in the plots, it is more than that:

A Lawson book is well constructed. The story unfolds crisply and at a nice pace that draws the reader along. The characters are interesting and convincing, not cut from thin board. They are they need to be, unique and who they are for a reason. Sure, they serve the plot but the plot moves due to them as well. If you sit back and think about it at the last page, everything about the stories are inevitable.

According to the website we use for our Words of the Month, the adjective smart is “from 1718 in cant as “fashionably elegant;” by 1798 as “trim in attire,” “ascending from the kitchen to the drawing-room c. 1880” [Weekley]. For sense evolution, compare sharp (adj.); at one time or another smart also had the extended senses in sharp.”

And that, in short, is a Mike Lawson novel – trim and elegant.

One more note: the story’s “macguffin”, the thing at the center of the plot, reminded me of Laurence Gough’s Accidental Deaths. In it, his Vancouver BC homicide cops investigate a number of deaths as murder. It turns out that they were all, as the title says, accidental. Gough’s books are terrific and as smart as Mike’s. That Lawson was equally talented to be able to build a terrific story around such an idea was, well, smart.

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

I also recommend three new series: “Monsieur Spade”, “Criminal Record”, and “True Detective: Night Country”

The Flitcrafting of Sam Spade

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Key to a long life? Dr Pepper, says 101-year-old US army veteran

BUY SMALL ~ SUPPORT SMALL

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

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.

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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

If what we do entertains you, spread the word!

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March 2023

A Murder Mystery With Clothes to Die For

Codebreakers crack secrets of the lost letters of Mary, Queen of Scots

Wienermobile hit by catalytic converter thieves, stranding it in Las Vegas. ‘No way’

Take a video tour of the astonishing Walker Library of The History of Human Imagination

Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Watterson is back.

Some of the Best Stories from a Century of Weird Tales (That You Can Read Online)

A Sci-Fi Magazine Stopped Letting Anyone Submit Stories After Being Flooded With AI-Written Content [but shouldn’t a sci-fi magazine welcome fiction from robots??]

Man facing jail over theft of almost 200,000 Cadbury Creme Eggs

Words of the Month

steal (n.): 1825, “act or case of theft,” from steal (v.). Meaning “a bargain” is attested by 1942, American English colloquial. Baseball sense of “a stolen base” is from 1867. (etymonline)

Serious Stuff

The Waco siege’s long shadow

FBI wants more ransomware victims to report attacks

Can Community Programs Help Slow the Rise in Violence?

Is It Forensics or Is It Junk Science?

Native American Women Keep Turning Up Dead. Why Is Nothing Being Done?

‘The Nazi Conspiracy’ uncovers a little known WWII Nazi plot

Developers Created AI to Generate Police Sketches. Experts Are Horrified

Security News This Week: North Korean Hackers Are Attacking US Hospitals

Malcolm X’s family is suing the CIA, FBI and NYPD

Here Are Some of the Most Hacked States in America

Hackers breach U.S. Marshals system with sensitive personal data

Censorship/Terrorism

Neo-Nazi Lovers Charged in Plot to Nuke Baltimore Power Grid

Pennsylvania school librarian ordered to remove Holocaust survivor’s quote from the wall

Wikipedia ban in Pakistan over alleged blasphemous content lifted

Florida school district pulls children’s book on Roberto Clemente over passage that he faced racism

The ignorance is the point. Kids books about Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente get censored | Opinion

It Came From the Basement

DeSantis Now Says Teachers Are Shelving Books to Make Him Look Bad

Critics reject changes to Roald Dahl books as censorship

James Bond Books Undergo Edit to Remove ‘Offensive’ Language

A Cappella Group Says Concert at Florida Christian College Canceled Over Member’s ‘Lifestyle’

Florida teacher who posted video showing empty bookshelves in school library gets fired

Jane Smiley: Why I’m Thrilled My Pulitzer-Winning Book Has Been Banned

Neo-Nazi Homeschoolers Defend Their ‘Wholesome’ Pro-Hitler Network

School District Pays Legal Fees After Banning Mothers From Reading Sexually Graphic Passages at Meetings

Art Exhibit Canceled After Florida College Demands Diversity References be Scrubbed

The Far Right Is Calling for the Execution of Teachers and Doctors

Jimmy Kimmel hits back over report that Trump White House pressured Disney to censor his jokes

Words of the Month

swipe (v.): 1825, “strike with a sweeping motion,” from swipe (n.). The slang sense of “steal, pilfer” appeared 1885, American English; earliest use in prison jargon:

The blokes in the next cell, little Charley Ames and the Sheeney Kid, they was hot to try it, and swiped enough shoe-lining out of shop No. 5, where they worked, to make us all breeches to the stripes. [Lippincott’s Magazine, vol. xxxv, June 1885]
etymonline

Local Stuff

Inside the hunt for a serial kidnapper, and a bloody finale

Erika Christensen on why ‘Will Trent’ is unlike other police procedural shows [based on novels by Karin Slaughter]

The books we love: Seattle’s reading habits reflect city’s diversity

From Mike Lawson: The Great, Always Bizarre Florida Crime Fiction Tradition

This Seattle bookstore draws design aficionados from around the globe

Calling Lucian Connally:

Timeline of Oregon Bourbon Scandal

OLCC Director Steve Marks Resigns amid Oregon Bourbon Scandal

Oregon Liquor Officials Are Accused of Hoarding Rare Bourbon

Odd Stuff

The gadgets spies used before James Bond was even born: Concealed weapons and escape items used by British operatives in WW2 – from bladed coins to a dagger hidden in a Gillette razor – go up for auction

Photos of Obsessive Collectors With Their Collections

How fingerprints get their unique whorls

Spoken Latin Is Making a Comeback

Want to own a prison? Well good news — this one is for sale in Missouri. Check it out

SPECTRE

Amazon is taking half of each sale from its merchants

Town can’t refuse Amazon offer despite Robert Duvall opposition

FTC won’t challenge Amazon’s $3.49B One Medical deal

Jeff Bezos receives highest French honor in private ceremony

Amazon Is Already Selling Tons of Books Written by AI

Hundreds of AI-written books flood Amazon

Amazon has a donkey meat problem

As investigations mount, Kent worker describes Amazon’s ‘outrageous’ toll

Words of the Month

caper (n.2): by 1590s, “a playful leap or jump, a skip or spring as in dancing,” from caper (v.). The meaning “prank” is from 1840 via notion of “sportive action;” that of “crime” is from 1926. To “cut capers” dance in a frolicsome way” is from c. 1600, from cut (v.) in the sense of “perform, execute.” (etymonline)

Awards

Finalists for the Gotham Prize Are Revealed

All Shirley Jackson Award finalists get stoned.

Vote now for the new name of the Booker Prize trophy (Iris, obvs).

Book Stuff

The Best Crime Novels of 2022 (yeah, we’re late including this…)

It Takes a (Book) Village

A.I. uncovers unknown play by Spanish great in library archive

Want to be a writer? This bleak but buoyant guide says to get used to rejection

Famous poet Pablo Neruda was poisoned after a coup, according to a new report

Ancient Hebrew Bible May Fetch $50 Million, Becoming Priciest Book Ever Sold

An Author’s Guide to Stealing from the Books You Love by Stephen Hunter

The Strange Real-Life Mystery Behind Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat”

Why Does the Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe’s Death Still Haunt Us?

X Marks the Spot: Literary Treasure Hunts

The Life and Legacy of James Ellroy

Marcia Muller: A Crime Reader’s Guide to the Classics

Why So Many Journalists Turn to Careers in Crime Fiction

The Year Ian Fleming Finally Started Writing His Novel

British independent publishers thrive despite Brexit and Covid pandemic

Book Stalls and Back Rooms: Traveling the World in Search of Literary Serendipity

How Failure Defines the Writing Life

World’s Oldest Near-Complete Hebrew Bible Goes to Auction

What Is It That Makes Used Bookstores So Wonderful?

William Kotzwinkle could never become a monk. So he created one in crime fiction instead.

New imaging tool confirms female scribe etched her name in medieval manuscript

The Best Plot Twists in Mystery

The Odd Career of the World’s Most Upsetting Book

Chip Gaines bought Larry McMurtry’s legendary bookstore to… fix up, we hope?

How the Armed Services Editions Created a Nation of Readers

X Marks the Spot: Literary Treasure Hunts

Penguin Random House Announces New Leadership After a Turbulent Period

Vicki Hendricks, Miami Purity, and the Making of a Neo-Noir Classic [when Vicki came into the shop to sign her debut, she was wearing a custom-made leather dress that matched her book’s dustjacket!]

Author Events (in person)

Mar. 6: Rupert Holmes signs Kill Your Employer, Powell’s, 7pm

Mar. 26: J.A. Jance signs Collateral Damage, Third Place/LFP 4pm

Mar. 28: Cara Black signs Night Flight to Paris, Third Place/LFP, 7pm

Mar. 29: Cara Black signs Night Flight to Paris, Powell’s 7pm

Words of the Month

rip-off (n):”an act of fraud, a swindle,” 1969, from verbal phrase rip off “to steal or rob” (c. 1967) in African-American vernacular, from rip (v.) + off (adv.). Rip was prison slang for “to steal” since 1904, and was also used in this sense in 12th C. The specific meaning “an exploitative imitation” is from 1971, also “a plagiarism.” Related: Ripped-off. (etymonline)

Other Forms of Entertainment

‘Columbo’ is the Ultimate ‘Rich People are Weird’ Show

Guns have been in motion pictures since the start. ‘Rust’ is only the latest to have a gun death

Over 100 Pieces of Rare James Bond Film Memorabilia Can Now Be Yours for $450,000

Take a lurid look at LA noir

J.J. Abrams, Warner Bros. Team for Adaptation of Stephen King Crime Novel ‘Billy Summers’

Marcel Proust on What Writing Is

Gregory Peck’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Script Goes to Auction

‘Murder in Big Horn’ Directors on Why “Colonization Is the True Crime” in Their Docuseries

Harry Dean Stanton is the Hero of Every Noir

The story of Caril Ann Fugate and Charles Starkweather was painted as a teen couple on a murder spree but docuseries ‘The 12th Victim’ shows that wasn’t all (JB recommends)

A trailblazer who brought a Black woman’s voice to comics

Liam Neeson says his late wife Natasha Richardson refused to marry him if he played James Bond

60 years later, ‘The Boston Strangler’ podcast revisits the murders

The New Serial Podcast Is a Return to Their Roots. It’s Going to Make Listeners Angry.

Netflix’s Murdaugh Murders Team Say They’ve Uncovered New Crimes

Ray Liotta: An Oral History

The FBI’s Persecution of Sidney Poitier

Words of the Month

heist (v.): 1943 (implied in heisted; heister “shoplifter, thief” is from 1927), American English slang, probably a dialectal alteration of hoist (v.) “to lift” in its slang sense of “shoplift,” and/or its older British slang sense “to lift another on one’s shoulders to help him break in.” As a noun from 1930. (etymonline)

RIP

Jan. 31: Carin Goldberg, 69, Who Transformed Book and Album Cover Design, Dies

Feb. 1: Allan A. Ryan, Dogged Pursuer of Nazi Collaborators, Dies at 77

Feb. 9: Marianne Mantell, Who Helped Pave the Way for Audiobooks, Dies at 93

Feb. 15: Raquel Welch, Star of Fantastic Voyage, Lady in Cement, The Three Musketeers, and One Million Years B.C., Dies at 82

Feb. 17: Donald Spoto, Biographer of Hitchcock and Many More, Dies at 81

Feb. 17: Stella Stevens, ‘The Ballad of Cable Hogue,’ ‘Too Late Blues,’ ‘The Poseidon Adventure,’ and ‘Nutty Professor’ Actress, Dies at 84

Feb. 19: Richard Belzer, Extraordinarily Smart-Ass as a Comic, Author, and a TV Cop, Dies at 78

Feb. 20: Barbara Bosson, Emmy-Nominated Actress on ‘Hill Street Blues,’ Dies at 83

Feb. 22: Simone Segouin, French Resistance fighter, dies at 97

Feb. 23: John Macrae III, Eclectic Publisher and Rights Champion, Dies at 91

Feb. 25: Walter Mirisch, Former Academy President and ‘In the Heat of the Night’ Producer, Dies at 101

Words of the Month

pilfer (v.): “to steal in small quantities” (intrans.); “to steal or gain by petty theft” (trans.), 1540s, from pilfer (n.) “spoils, booty,” c. 1400, from Old French pelfre “booty, spoils” (11th C.), a word of unknown origin, possibly related to pelf. Related: Pilfered; pilfering. Pulfrour “a thief” is attested from mid-14th C., implying earlier use.

pelf (n.): late 14th C., “stolen goods, forfeited property,” from Anglo-French pelf, Old French pelfre “booty, spoils” (11th C.), a word of unknown origin.Meaning “money, property, riches,” with a pejorative or contemptuous overtone, also is recorded from late 14th C. It has no plural. (etymonline)

Links of Interest

Jan. 31: YouTube’s ‘Penis Enlargement’ Grifter Suffers Bloody Death in Thailand

Feb. 2: How a Champion Surfer Became a Notorious Jewel Thief and Murderer

Feb. 3: The Apache, the Irish Catholic Priest, and a 40-Year-Old Miscarriage of Justice

Feb. 3: Italian mobster, 16 years on the lam, is found working at a pizzeria

Feb. 3: “They just weren’t the kind of people for that”: The 1934 Smith Family Massacre in Demopolis, Alabama

Feb. 4: The Great Gatsby of Gold Took Their Millions—and Vanished

Feb. 8: What’s a Japanese Mobster to Do in Retirement? Join a Softball Team.

Feb. 10: ‘Furry little bandit’ causes destruction in Oklahoma Department of Libraries building

Feb. 13: Podcast sleuths hope remains in plastic bag will solve 50-year-old Swedish cold case

Feb. 14: Forensic study finds Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was poisoned

Feb. 15: Crime of the Centuries: Tomb raiders, crooked art dealers, and museum curators fed Michael Steinhardt’s addiction to antiquities. Many were also stolen.

Feb. 15: Ex-Mexico drug czar’s defense says accusers have ‘motives to lie’

Feb. 17: Who Corrupted a Top FBI Spyhunter?

Feb. 17: Spanish police nab art thieves, recover 100-year old Dali drawings

Feb. 18: How an Alleged Con Man Tore Apart One of the Nineties’ Biggest Bands

Feb. 19: As $1.6 million in rare photos vanished, the excuses piled up

Feb. 19: Guns, Grift, and Gore: The Life and Times of an Arms-Dealing Hustler

Feb. 22: The Unsettling History of Serial Killers in Colorado

Feb. 26: Elon Musk accuses media of racism after newspapers drop ‘Dilbert’ cartoon

Feb. 27: Hundreds of newspapers drop ‘Dilbert’ comic strip after racist tirade from creator Scott Adams

Feb. 27: The Con Artist and the American Dream

Words of the Month

shenanigan (n.): “nonsense; deceit, humbug,” 1855, American English slang, of uncertain origin. Earliest records of it are in California (San Francisco and Sacramento) [from that area’s Gold Rush? – eds]. Suggestions include Spanish chanada, a shortened form of charranada “trick, deceit;” or, less likely, German Schenigelei, peddler’s argot for “work, craft,” or the related German slang verb schinäglen. Another guess centers on Irish sionnach “fox,” and the form is perhaps conformed to an Irish surname. (etymonline)

What We’ve Been Up To

Amber

Round-up review of things I’ve loved watching/reading recently but are so popular they practically sell themselves!

First Up: The Glass Onion

The second installment in the Knives Out universe is absolutely awesome. Though I must admit, I was worried when I first started watching it. Very, very worried. All the cameos of well-known actors felt a bit gratuitous…but I’d looked forward to the movie for months — so I stuck with it, and boy, was my patients rewarded. The cameos enhance the feel of the billionaire jet set cast of suspects we are watching and make complete sense by the end of the movie. An end that I gotta say is one of the very best I’ve seen in a whodunnit…. since the original Knives Out movie.

Second: Desperation In Death by J.D. Robb

A page-turning, ripped-from-the-headlines thriller didn’t disappoint. Action packed from the first page to the last, if you’re looking for a good vacation read, you won’t go wrong with this installment. Though there is a trigger warning I must warn other readers about — the plot revolves around human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women and young girls. While Robb does a good job of balancing the horror of the subject matter with the mystery (without getting overly graphic), if this is something that you struggle with, I’d skip this installment and wait for Encore In Death which is out now.

Third: The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

Jane Austen meets pirates meets magical flying houses — this is the best summary I can give. An amusing read full of action, swashbuckling, betrayal, and books, The Wisteria Society was a fun read. Though, if you’re well versed in steam-punk and fantasy, it’s not quite the groundbreaking book the New York Times made it out to be.

Lastly: Wednesday

A Netflix original that expands the Addams Family universe — is an exceptional show. Of course, all the traditional elements of an Addams Family story are present. Still, the writers have done a singular job of sprinkling them through the series and keeping them fresh (rather than simply regurgitating them in a cringe worthy fashion). Full of secrets, multiple mysteries, and interesting characters, this show is well worth your viewing time.

Fran

So, here’s the deal

I sometimes suffer from depression, the real deal, not just the blues or feeling down. If any of you follow Jenny Lawson, a/k/a The Bloggess, you know what I’m talking about: unable to move, almost literally, a deep fog, an endless circle of “why bother”, well, either you know or you don’t.

So I wasn’t reading because why bother, but I had to get out of bed and onto the couch because Lillian and Mazikeen insisted. Although it’s possible that Maz had ulterior motives.

Still, I wasn’t interested in much, although I did manage to lose myself in my writing, but that’s because I could think of plot pieces while doing physical therapy on my knee, which is healing better than expected, so there’s that.

But the point is, I was lethargic, so when Lillian turned on a Mexican series that’s on Netflix, I kinda shrugged and went with it.

It was great.

The series is based on books written by Paco Ignatio Taibo II, whom you might remember from our Bookshop days.

This is set in the 70’s, and it’s an homage to the classic noir stories. There is grit, there is backstabbing and double-dealing, there’s the possibility of romance, and there’s a lot of straight-up, laugh-out-loud humor. It’s captivating.

At first, I was shaking my head, thinking, “Oh no, it’s over the top and it’s just plain silly”, but it didn’t take me long to get hooked. Yeah, there are some wild things, but let’s face it, a lot of noir stories rely on head shaking moments.

Did Belascoaran lift me out of my depression? No. Only time can do that. But it helped. And it’s well worth your time, pinkie swear.

Movie Review: I know the critics have been nasty about Neil Jordan’s Marlowe, I enjoyed it. I would imagine most of the critics never read a Chandler book, much less the Benjamin Black (John Banville) novel on which the film was based (The Black-Eyed Blonde, now republished as a tie-in with the title of the movie, just to confuse everyone…). I’ve gotten the sense that they were expecting an ACTION movie, where as a 1940ish private eye movie was always one of plot, menace, femme fatales and a slow unraveling of whodunnit. They went in expecting a different movie and blamed the movie.

Marlowe unfolds like any good private eye novel – steadily, with dead ends and red herrings, thumps on the head and, of course, south-of-the border intrigue. While the book was a sequel, of sorts, to The Long Goodbye, the movie drops those connections to make it a stand-alone story and it functions well. Liam Neeson is a fine Marlowe [the 8th? – D. Powell, Bogart, R. Montgomery, Mitchum (twice), Gould, Garner, B. Powers (on HBO) before him] . Jessica Lange is startling as one of the blondes; watch her eyes during her lunch with Neeson. All of the acting is great, the faces and fashion spot on and, though not filmed in LA, Catalonia provides the warmth and colors to make you think you’re in that time.

Two carps: Marlowe is given a secretary, for some reason. Gittes and Spade had one, but Marlowe made enough to keep him in cigarettes, not employees, and Neeson’s fake hair color is a distraction, it looked spray painted. Marlowe can show gray, but dull brown was a mistake.

See Marlowe. Go in expecting a good, noirish private eye story and you’ll have a grand time. I did. And keep an eye and ear open for all of the sly references to crime movies from the past. I call ’em homages. The youngsters say Easter Eggs…

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

Of the four other books about Watergate that I’ve read, one name kept cropping up as the writer to whom all others owe a great debt: Jim Hougan. His 1984 history of the affair, Secret Agenda: Watergate, Deep Throat, and the CIA was the first to provide a counter history to what everyone had been exposed: that the break-in, arrests, and it’s exposure was not the focus of the White House “plumbers”; rather, there was a CIA operation to gather intelligence and the plumbers efforts were sabotaged in order to hide that operation. Indeed, did the plumbers really know what the point was?

The book, whether you want to buy his arguments, is a fascinating and

detailed account of the burglaries and the oddities that have always surrounded them. If nothing else, he makes clear how far and deeply the CIA had penetrated DC. Case in point: John Paisley was a career-long CIA agent who worked in the counter-intelligence wing of the Company. He “died” under odd circumstances (some theorize that the body said to be his hid his defection to the Soviets) and one recent book, Howard Blum’s The Spy Who Knew too Much argues he was the Great Soviet Mole at the heart of the CIA. Hougan writes that Paisley was the CIA’s connection to the plumbers. No other Watergate history even lists Paisley in the index.

Besides the oddities of the burglaries, it has never been historically agreed to what exactly the June 17th break-in was to accomplish. Hougan has his theory and gives details to support it. Again, believe him or not, his story is worth the time. Watergate is another Great American Historical Mystery that just keeps giving.

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Once again, Mike Lawson has given us a smooth suspense novel, crackling with solid characters and a plot that has two major twists that are wholly unexpected. He’s also infused it with a poignancy that demands tears.

He’s also broken away from the “House” titles of earlier DeMarco books. Alligator Alley takes place mostly in Florida and has DeMarco and Emma trying to find out what happened to a Department of Justice worker, a young woman too eager to find out what the bad guys are up to. They’re asked by one of the most honored figures in DC to get the answers and Emma will stop at nothing to get them. DeMarco, of course, would rather be playing golf, but he adds important plans to their work proving he isn’t the dope he sounds to be.

And again, Mike ties the story to recent headlines with millions in Medicare fraud. Answers are found, the villains get what they deserve, but the cost is great, even if those paying the bill are at peace with it. That’s what is poignant and warrants the graveside tears.

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The Best of the 20 Teens

Fran here. Happy New Year, everyone!

I was so proud of myself! I got my Best Of for the decade done, and down to a total of 10! I’ve NEVER done that before, so I was strutting!

Granted, a bunch of them were series, and that means ALL of the series, so it’s not like I read only ten books over the decade. We know me better than this. And the series are, in no particular order:

Louise Penny’s “Inspector Gamache” series. I came late to this party, but I am fully onboard!

Anne Bishop’s “The Others” series, including the follow-ups after the original five.

Ben Aaronovitch’s “Rivers of London” series. I think I’ve read the entire thing seven times.

Everything by Christine Feehan except the vampire and leopard series. Everything else. And I haven’t gotten to those yet, so stay tuned.

Carolyn Hart’s “Death on Demand” series. Seriously, I need these books.

William Kent Krueger’s “Cork O’Connell” series. They’re family to me.

Maureen Johnson’s “Truly Devious” series. And that’s going to spill over into this decade.

And then I had a few individual titles. But then, see, I remembered all the books I hadn’t thought of, not because they were bad, but because a decade is a really long time in the book world, and I hadn’t really given the whole ten years – which included the shop being open for most of it.

So I’m going to throw out authors and titles, and if you have questions, just ask. Because this is gonna be a LOT longer than just 10! Ready? Here we go:

Joshilyn Jackson – I love all of hers, but The Almost Sisters is my favorite. So far. Until she writes the darned phone book.

Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, which has its own cult following, and I’m so pleased!

Seanan McGuire’s “Toby Day” series, along with everything else she writes.

Speaking of series I forgot before, Mike Lawson’s “Joe DeMarco” series. Now and always!

AND Tim Maleeny’s “Cape Weathers” series! Holy cats, I want more!

How could I overlook Craig Johnson’s “Longmire”? I don’t know what I was thinking.

John Connolly’s “Charlie Parker” series. More on that later.

Daniel O’Malley’s The Rook. Amber’s recommendations must be heeded.

Everything by Ben Winters (including grocery lists, I imagine) but especially Golden State.

Toni McGee Causey’s Saints of the Lost and Found.

Seriously, anything by J. T. Ellison and Hank Phillippi Ryan. I love them both so much!

Alan Bradley’s “Flavia de Luce” series, as well as Ian Hamilton’s “Ava Lee”. Nothing in common except brilliant writing, and cultural appreciation.

Can I throw in here Amber’s “52 Weeks with Christie”? Because wow. And her new blog, The Finder of Lost Things, is going to find a publisher soon, I’m positive.

To those of you whom I’ve missed, I’m so sorry! I really do love you! Blame it on my cold.

I’m going to stop here, but now it’s up to you. What did I recommend to you over the last 10 years that you loved? Or hated? I’m always interested where I missed as well as where I might have accidentally gotten it right.

A decade’s a really long time, y’all, especially when you read! Happy New Decade!

January 2020

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WELCOME TO A NEW YEAR

WELCOME TO A NEW DECADE

We’ve recently learned that Sandy, the creator and original editor of our quarterly newsletter and one-time bookkeeper, has moved back to town.

Welcome Back! We hope to see you soon.

‘It’s really flattering’: Obama picks Spokane’s Jess Walter for favorite books of the year list

Extra! Extra! Pike Place Market newsstand to close after 40 years

Serious Stuff

Bone-Marrow Transplants Alter Genetic IDs, Complicating DNA-Based Criminal Analysis

Henry Lee Lucas Was Considered America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer. But He Was Really a Serial Liar.

Evidence Scandal In Orange County Stirs Conflict Within Law Enforcement

How This Con Man’s Wild Testimony Sent Dozens to Jail, and 4 to Death Row

Is this cave painting humanity’s oldest story?

Stop Believing in Free Shipping

Prime Leverage: How Amazon Wields Power in the Technology World ~ Software start-ups have a phrase for what Amazon is doing to them: ‘strip-mining’ them of their innovations.

New Research Identifies Possible Mass Graves From 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

From The Guardian’s Editor’s Best Stories of 2019: ‘Blood on their hands’: the intelligence officer whose warning over white supremacy was ignored

This Is America: Eleven years after Obama’s election, and three years into the Trump presidency, the threat of domestic terrorism can’t be ignored.

A group of self-taught investigators is confronting the limits of using DNA and genetic genealogy to identify victims.

Words of the Month

vade-mecum (n.) “a pocket manual, handbook,” 1620s, Latin, literally “go with me;” from imperative of vadere “to go” (see vamoose) + me “me” + cum “with.”

Book Stuff

An Algorithm Can Tell Us How Much Shakespeare Was Actually Written by Shakespeare

In Greenwich Village, the Perfect New York Bookstore Lives On

Latin Dictionary’s Journey: A to Zythum in 125 Years (and Counting)

Janet Evanovich wins big with Stephanie Plum series and TV deals

Alaska: Northern Noir ~ Crime fiction has found a strange home in the cold wilds of Alaska. (have to say these people are way behind the curve if they think this is new…)

Couth Buzzard Books, celebrating a milestone anniversary, has become the ‘Cheers’ of Greenwood‘

The Ferrante Effect’: In Italy, Women Writers Are Ascendant ~“My Brilliant Friend” and Elena Ferrante’s other best-selling books are inspiring female novelists and shaking up the country’s male-dominated literary establishment.

New book claims Albert Camus was murdered by the KGB

7 Things Crime Readers Will No Longer Tolerate by Christopher Fowler

Get Radcliff!: The Search for Black Pulp’s Forgotten Author. Gary Phillips on the trail of Roosevelt Mallory, who helped revolutionize 1970s pulp fiction, then disappeared.

From Gar Anthony Haywood: I Wrote the Kind of Character I Wanted Most to Read About

The Elements of the Haunted House: A Primer or, How to Build a Haunted House Mystery from the Ground Up

Jeff Lindsay Has a New Anti-Hero ~ The Dexter Author Talks Craft, Character, and Cannibalism

Peter Pan’s dark side emerges with release of original manuscript

George RR Martin opens bookshop next to his cinema in Santa Fe

America 2019: Area man steals rare books in order to pay for cancer treatment.

How Do Some Authors “Lose Control” of Their Characters?

The (Quiet) Death of a Legendary Parisian Bookstore

These are the 10 Best-Selling Books of the Decade

From Portland, another bookshop closes: Another Read Through is leaving Mississippi Avenue

Do apostrophes still matter?

January 11 – Candace Robb and Kim Zarins, 4pm, UBooks

January 21 – Chad Dundas, 7:30pm, Powell’s

January 29 – Mary Wingate, 7pm, Village Books

January 30 – Russell Rowland, 7:30pm, Powell’s

Other Forms of Fun

Motherless Brooklyn: Ed Norton on the film it took him 20 years to make

How Olga Kurylenko Won ‘Bond’ and Narrowly Lost ‘Wonder Woman’

The Evolution of the Femme Fatale in Film Noir

The Bone Collector, Jeffery Deaver’s first book with forensic anthropologist Lincoln Rhyme, was made into a 1999 film staring Denzel Washington as Rhyme and Angelina Jolie as the young cop who becomes his “legman”. Rhyme is a quadraplegic and needs Amelia Sachs to visit the crime scenes. The books are a true updating of the armchair detective story – it’s a great series. Now, starting Friday, Jan. 10, the book comes to the smaller screen when ‘Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector’ debuts on NBC. As they say, check your local listings!

The Most Underrated Crime Films of the Decade

Coming in February: ‘Narcos: Mexico’: Scoot McNairy Hunts Diego Luna in Season 2 First Look

From “Making a Murderer” to “Don’t F**k with Cats,” the evolution of true crime this decade

BioShock returns for more gene-enhanced gaming

Words of the Month

Ignis fatuus: a light that sometimes appears in the night over marshy ground and is often attributable to the combustion of gas from decomposed organic matter or a deceptive goal or hope.

Ignis fatuus is a Latin term meaning, literally, “foolish fire.” In English, it has come to designate a hovering or flitting light that sometimes appears in the night over marshy ground that is attributable to the combustion of gas from decomposed organic matter. Other names for this light are jack-o’-lantern and will-o’-the-wisp—both of which are connected to folklore about mysterious men, Jack and Will, who carry a lantern or a wisp of light at night. A Scottish name for ignis fatuus is spunkie, from spunk, meaning “spark” or “a small fire.” It has also been told that ignes fatui (the Latin plural form) are roaming souls. No doubt these stories spooked listeners by candlelight, but in time, advancements in science not only gave us electricity to dispel the darkness but proved ignis fatuus to be a visible exhalation of gas from the ground, which is rarely seen today.

‘But thou art altogether given over, / and wert indeed, but for the light in thy face, the son of utter / darkness. When thou ran’st up Gadshill in the night to catch my / horse, if I did not think thou hadst been an ignis fatuus or a / ball of wildfire, there’s no purchase in money. O, thou art a / perpetual triumph, an everlasting bonfire-light! ‘

— William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, ca. 1597

(Thanks to Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

Links of Interest

November 26: Lee Child: How Jack Reacher Fits Into a Long History of Folk Heroes

December 2: Great Film Composers: The Music of the Movies: How the rise of the Nazis gave us the best film noir music

December 2: Judge tosses $71-million verdict against NBC Universal over ‘Columbo’ profits

December 2: ‘The Irishman’ Left Out the Full Story of the Disastrous Angelo Bruno and Frank Sidone Murders

December 3: ‘He Had It Coming’ looks back on the ‘Murderess Row’ that inspired ‘Chicago’

December 4: Five ‘hot mic’ moments that got leaders in trouble

December 5: The murdered ‘handsome’ priest with a decades-long secret

December 5: Spassky vs Fischer: How the chess battle became a theatre event

December 6: How to conquer work paralysis like Ernest Hemingway

December 9: ‘Perfect’ Scotch whisky collection could be worth £8m

December 10: Failed plot to steal domain name at gunpoint brings 14-year prison term

December 11: “Portrait of a Lady” ~ Stolen Klimt mystery ‘solved’ by gardener in Italy

December 11: Art Forgery Is Easier Than Ever, and It’s a Great Way to Launder Money

December 11: Buyer returns Grease jacket to Olivia Newton-John after auction

December 12: The CIA’s Former Chief of Disguise Drops Her Mask

December 13: Hosting an Orgy? This 1970s Cookbook Has You Covered

December 13: Octopus and eagle square off at Canadian fish farm

December 16: Christopher Reeve’s ‘Superman’ Cape Sells at Auction, Sets Record

December 16: Mice watching film noir show the surprising complexity of vision cells

December 16: Babe Ruth: Baseball player’s landmark home run bat fetches $1m\

December 16: Meet a Bad Man Who Became a Truly Great Spy

December 16: Grave of top Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich opened in Berlin

December 17: A New Way of Looking at ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

December 17: Judge rules in favor of US effort to take Snowden book money

December 19: James Blake uses unseen Planet Earth footage in new video

December 19: Is the Netherlands becoming a narco-state?

December 20: Democratic lawmakers pushed Spy Museum to alter CIA torture exhibit\

December 21: Police department finds furry culprit behind toy theft

December 22: Take a look behind the ‘small doors to imaginary spaces’ within bookshelves

December 22: The night Samuel Beckett was nearly stabbed to death by a pimp

December 23: LS Lowry: Lost painting to go on sale after 70 years

December 23: I was a teenage code-breaker at Bletchley Park

December 23: Daniel Craig Wanted to Resign as Bond After ‘Spectre’. Here’s the Real Reason He Returned For ‘No Time to Die’

December 27: Sriracha hot sauce recall over ‘exploding’ bottle fears

December 31: Lawyers: Robert Durst Wrote Incriminating ‘Cadaver’ Note

December 31: Human remains found in Idaho cave identified as outlaw who died over 100 years ago

Words of the Month

terroir: the combination of factors including soil, climate, and sunlight that gives wine grapes their distinctive character. First known use was in 1863. From Old French tieroir, from Vulgar Latin *terratorium, alteration of Latin territorium. (thanks to Merriam-Webster) [what a difference and “i” makes…]

R.I.P.

December 3: D.C. Fontana, famed writer for Star Trek, dies at 80

December 7: Friends actor Ron Leibman dies at the age of 82

December 8: Winston Lawson, Secret Service agent with JFK in Dallas, dies at 91

December 8: Caroll Spinney: Sesame Street’s Big Bird puppeteer dies

December 9: Overlooked No More: Rose Mackenberg, Houdini’s Secret ‘Ghost-Buster’

December 9: Battle of Britain pilot Maurice Mounsdon dies aged 101

December 10: George Laurer, an Inventor of the Modern Bar Code, Dies at 94

December 11: Jeanne Guillemin, pioneering researcher who uncovered a Cold War secret, dies at 76

December 13: Danny Aiello, beloved character actor and Oscar nominee for ‘Do the Right Thing,’ dies at 86

December 13: Elisabeth Sifton, editor and tamer of literary lions, dies at 80

December 16: Nicky Henson: Stage and screen actor

December 20: Claudine Auger: French actress known for Thunderball role dies aged 78

December 20: Acclaimed Author and Journalist Ward Just Dead at 84

December 25: Allee Willis: ‘Friends’ theme songwriter

December 26: Sue Lyon, teenage star of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Lolita,’ is dead at 73

December 31: Sonny Mehta, visionary editor and head of Alfred A. Knopf, dies at 77

December 31: M. C. BEATON: R.I.P.

Words of The Month

vamoose (v.): “to decamp, be off,” 1834, from Spanish vamos “let us go,” from Latin vadamus, first person plural indicative of vadere “to go, to walk, go hastily,” from Proto-Indo-European root *wadh- (2) “to go” (source also of Old English wadan “to go,” Latin vadum “ford;” see wade (v.)). (thanks to etymonline)

What We’ve Been Up To

Amber

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Finder of Lost Things

This coming Friday we come to the last post for series one! Can you believe it? And we will see how Phoebe and Joseph cope with the after effects of the Woman In White’s attack.

Series Two – will drop in about two-ish months. I will give you guys plenty of warning when I’m going to start posting! Though on the upside if you haven’t started reading my story yet – this is the perfect time to catch up!

Chloe Neill – Wicked Hour

The second book in the Heirs of Chicagoland series is a fun, fast-paced romp that is stronger than its predecessor by a factor of five. While a few of the original cast make their presence felt, they only enter into the narrative when necessary. Rather than making gratuitous and/or distracting appearances – which is really lovely.

The mystery presented in the second installment is also solid. Part of the Pack living in Northern Michigan is experiencing problems…and that’s putting it mildly. So Connor Keene, heir apparent to his father’s position as Apex, is sent to figure out what exactly is going on.

What he finds is a hornet’s nest.

Into this mess of resentment, issues, and anger Conner’s also brought, Elisa Sullivan. Because if things aren’t already stressful enough, let’s bring along the girl you’re more than just a little interested in and see how the pack reacts.

Elisa is more than capable of staring down a few shifters – katana in hand.

Then we get to the murder…and the other murder…and bad magic.

Seriously this book was a whole lotta fun to read. Neill introduced us to a quasi-new character named Alexei Breckenridge – who next to Lulu and Elisa’s cat Eleanor of Aquitaine (who will exact revenge if called by anything less than her full title) – is my favorite thus far. Mostly due to his dry sense of humor, the fact he enjoys needling Elisa by continuing to sneak up on her and the fact you never know where any of his sentences will take you.

If you are looking for a new-ish shifter/sorcerer/vampire mystery series to read, without needing to go back and read the original Chicagoland series (which honestly you should because it was great), you should start with Wicked Hour!

Fran

I’ve been trying to figure out how to sell M. R. Carey‘s post-apocalyptic thriller THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS (Orbit) to myself, if I was still selling books. Because on the surface, I’d have turned it down, despite the whole post-apocalyptic thing. I guess it’s a “Trust me” book.

9780316334754 See, it’s written in present tense, and we all know how weird I am about that. But worse, it’s about zombies. I really don’t like zombies. Bleah. I know lots of people do love them, and they’ll jump all over this book, but I find them boring.

However, I really do like the TV series “Lucifer”, and M. R. Carey is the writer behind that. He creates amazing, three dimensional and compelling characters, and I’m a sucker for great characters! And twisty, well told stories. He does those brilliantly.

Oh, short synopsis, yeah. In this devastated future in a military base in England, children are strapped into wheelchairs, arms, legs and heads. Then they’re wheeled into classrooms where they’re taught all the things school children learn. Melanie is about ten years old, and her favorite teacher is Miss Justineau. Miss Justineau makes learning fun, and she really interacts with the children. Melanie loves Miss Justineau, the other teachers not so much.

However, outside the base, things are bleak. A fungus, Ophiocordyceps, has mutated – or has been mutated – so that it no longer just infects ants, and has taken over mankind. Well, most of mankind. And the fungal infection moves quickly, thoroughly, no chance of recovery ever, and makes the new hosts mindless and hungry.

I don’t want to say too much more because THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS takes off at breakneck speed, and it really doesn’t slow down. M. R. Carey understands timing and plot and tension, but he also understands how complicated people are, and how powerful love can be.

So yeah, this is a “Trust me” book, but I really do want you to trust me on it! The science is disturbingly cool (I kind of want to watch the David Attenborough documentary about the ants, but I’m afraid it’ll just creep me out), the story revolves around a teacher and her pupil, and the writing is simply brilliant.

Trust me.

JB

Shop dream on the morning of Xmas Eve: what I remember was looking into a box of books, a shipment all jumbled together, and realizing that reserves hadn’t been pulled so I was digging through the books and flipping pages in the reserve book, trying to match up authors to lists of customers who wanted a copy. The books in the box were in no special order, so I was flipping back and forth in the reserve book as I fished out a hardcover, for some reason not taking all the books out first and organizing them… Where do these dreams come from !

Could there be a better way to end the year, and to relax over a few days away, that to catch up on a favorite author’s book you’d missed???? I doubt it, I really do.

I had ordered what I thought was his latest book last Spring to take on a trip back to KC but it ended up being the story from the year before. What the hell – I read it again on the trip, the books are that good. So it had always stuck in some shadowed part of my brain that there must’ve been a DeMarco from this year that I’d not read. Finally, I started to wonder when there’d a be a new one next year and that’s when I finally cleared to mush from my cabasa and got a copy of House Arrest.

It’s a very different DeMarco story, even while it is another great DeMarco story.

Arrested for the murder of a congressman in the Capital, DeMarco sits in jail with a target on his forehead. In many ways, this is Emma’s book, as she swings into action to prove he was framed. To do that, she’s gotta provide the FBI with the real killer. So she relies on her years of training and work and those she’s gotten to know to save DeMarco. Why? She abhors his love of baseball and golf, thinks his wardrobe is ridiculous, and is pained to know he works for a man she detests but, really, Emma likes DeMarco. She appreciates his spirit, his ethic, and his willingness to put himself in the line of fire to help someone – as he has with Emma a couple of times.

There are big changes in DeMarco’s life mandated by publicity of the arrest and I have no idea where Mike will put him. It could be the end of the series – any of books could – but I think he has freed DeMarco to do other things.

And I can’t wait.

Tag: mike lawson

February 2024

Puppy Wiggles

April 2023

March 2023

The Best of the 20 Teens

January 2020

WELCOME TO A NEW YEAR

WELCOME TO A NEW DECADE

Serious Stuff

Words of the Month

Book Stuff

Author Events

Other Forms of Fun

Words of the Month

Links of Interest

Words of the Month

R.I.P.

Words of The Month

What We’ve Been Up To

Amber

Fran

JB

**Fridays in January ~ Our Best of the Decade Lists**

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