Hiatus
The post explaining it all is here, but this is the short version: I started a new gig as the News Editor for Publishers Marketplace, the first time I have had something approximating a full-time position in almost five and...
Ruth Cavin, R.I.P.
Ruth Cavin, the legendary crime fiction editor for St. Martin’s Press who was instrumental in the founding of the company’s Minotaur Books imprint, died Sunday at the age of 92. Mike Shatzkin has an amazing tribute, and I’m sure there...
My Favorite Crime Novels of 2010, and Other Books I Loved
(x-posted from Off on a Tangent, which is my more reliable bloggy home of late.) Nobody asked me to contribute a list, so I kind of forgot about it in a haze of work, but after a gentle reminder, here’s...
Bringing Back The Mysterious Press
As has been widely reported, Otto Penzler and his well-traveled imprint is on the move again, after being domiciled at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the past six years. As of Fall 2011, he'll publish 10-12 titles a year with Grove/Atlantic,...
The Culture Q&A: Adam Levin on THE INSTRUCTIONS
My newest Q&A at Currency is with Adam Levin, whose debut novel THE INSTRUCTIONS has been receiving a ridiculous amount of buzz. A lot of it has to do with the sheer length of the book (it clocks just over...
Elizabeth Smart’s Impassioned Journey
In Saturday's Wall Street Journal, I wrote about one of my all-time favorite books: BY GRAND CENTRAL STATION I SAT DOWN AND WEPT, Elizabeth Smart's prose poem published in 1945. It is vivid and stirring and miraculously captures what it...
Dark Passages: Crimes grow in rich Appalachian soil
My newest column for the Los Angeles Times travels through the Appalachian region, looking specifically at recent novels published by Sharyn McCrumb and Vicki Lane. Here's now the piece opens: Say the word "Appalachia" in some variant or another and...
On Patrick and Angie’s Return to the Crime Fiction World
For many years crime fiction fans have clamored for the return of Patrick Kenzie & Angela Gennaro, Dennis Lehane's private-eye duo first introduced in 1994's A DRINK BEFORE THE WAR and stars of four subsequent novels. But Lehane, understandably, had...
BCon Past, NoirCon Ahead
I admit I arrived at Bouchercon with a faraway look in my eye. A day late, with family obligations past and nostalgia trips and unexpected meetings with old friends to come, this year's convention wasn't going to be the immersive...
Allons-y, Bouchercon!
This more or less dormant* blog will be even more dormant this week thanks to the chock-full-of-wonder that is Bouchercon. It officially starts on Thursday and runs through Sunday at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, but based on Twitter...
Dark Passages: Pursued by the Past
My newest Dark Passages column for the LAT heaps praise on Tom Franklin's new novel CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER, which bowled me over in a big, big way, even more so than his previous work, which I've admired for several...
A New Monthly Column at Currency: The Culture Q&A
Starting today, I've begun a new column at Currency, an American Express-sponsored personal finance site geared towards the so-called Millenial Generation (aka those aged 21-32 or thereabouts.) Every month, I'll be asking writers about their money and finance habits, mixing...
