Omaha Noir
The last time I waxed poetic (now it’s Poetic’s turn to wax me, as Groucho might say) about Doolittle, for Rain Dogs, I suggested that he was too good to be a writer of original paperbacks all his...
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The Coldest Stone
When Stone City was first published, in 1990, the reviews were as glowing as the possibilities of thriller stardom for author Mitchell Smith. His career has taken several different directions since...
View ArticleIt's Murda Out There
MURDALAND, edited by Michael Langnas, asks the question,"Is a new magazine featuring short stories what the crime fiction world needs right now?" (Can you say Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen?)...
View ArticleMusic to Our Eyes
Johnny Temple, publisher of the always lively paperback house Akashic Books, is a rock musician himself, and he combines his interests in music and mysteries in this first novel from Claypool --...
View ArticleA Hard Life on the Oklahoma Frontier
As the mother of nine, Alafair Tucker's hard but basically peaceful life on a farm on the Oklahoma frontier in 1912 is changed forever when one of her daughters - 17-year-old Phoebe -- is involved in...
View ArticleAny Questions?
"In my career, I reckon I have read about 3,000 crime novels; some of them all the way through. Yet I am always being accosted by crime writers who announce themselves and then say 'You haven't...
View ArticleHere Comes a Falling Angel...
Millipede Press, a new publishing house in Lakewood, Colorado, specializes in crime fiction books that are beautifully designed and shrewdly introduced -- carefully chosen specimens of classics that...
View ArticleMurder by the Numbers
THE OXFORD MURDERS, by Guillermo Martinez, translated by Sonia Soto.The best crime fiction, as I've said often, lights up landscapes both exterior and interior. Martinez is a novelist from Argentina...
View ArticleNot Prone to Kill
THE PRONE GUNMAN, by Jean-Patrick Manchette, translated by James Brook. Manchette, the revered French author of many thrillers for the famous Serie Noire publishing title, retired from writing in 1981...
View ArticleMcKinty's Gold
If I were a student at the Denver high school where Adrian McKinty teaches English and Civics, I’d try very hard to get into both of his classes. Not many people can combine obvious mastery of the two...
View ArticleHave a Very Noir Xmas
Greg Shepard of Stark House, along with a small and equally daring group of other paperback houses (Hard Case Crime, Felony & Mayhem, Crippen & Landru, Millipede, to name a few) are dedicated...
View ArticleOne of My Best of 2006 Books...
...is due out any minute in paperback:Gentlemen & Players is one of those rare books that grips and holds you like an elaborate conjuring trick. It’s only after you’ve stopped gasping – after the...
View ArticleAn Italian Kiss
THE GOODBYE KISS, by Massimo Carlotto; translated by Lawrence VenutiSo many mysteries as strong and black as good espresso are coming out of Italy these days that a bookwatcher might just detect a...
View ArticleSave the Independent Book Stores
The most endangered species in the world seems to be the independent crime book store, including this one and others talked about by book people including Sarah Weinman and many others.I use Amazon on...
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Another Deadly Year
I can't think of another annual anthology of crime stories which supplies as much sheer reading pleasure plus as much important information as the one which editors Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg...
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Down But Not Out
Theresa Schwegel has a new hardcover out -- Probable Cause -- and the paperback version of her Edgar-winning first novel, Officer Down.Schwegel's impressive first mystery about a cop named Samantha...
View ArticleNo End to Abrahams' Story -- or His Talent
Peter Abrahams, one of my favorite writers, has a new hardcover -- Nerve Damage: A Novel -- out soon, and the paperback version of his last terrific novel, End Of Story, in the stores.Here’s the deal:...
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Excellence Present
S.J. Rozan has a new hardcover -- In this Rain -- which I'll review in my Chicago Tribune column 1/14, plus a new paperback of her last novel. Rozan isn't the first writer to use what happened to New...
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Bringing Bardin Back To Life
Salvador Dali on the cover, a ground-shaking introduction by Jonathan Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn etc.) quoting the likes of Greil Marcus (whose latest book is the critically acclaimed The Shape of...
View ArticleAnd So Say All of Us
I'm delighted to report that England's venerable drinking and writing group called the Detection Club has decided to celebrate one of its founders' 80th birthday with a collection of stories in his...
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Bad Titles, Great Books
"Peter Rabe wrote the best books with the worst titles of anybody I can think of," says Donald Westlake -- whose own books (and titles) are world-class -- in his afterword to this new edition from...
View ArticleHoly Sheed
"No occupation designed for dim younger sons was ever easier to enter than book reviewing; or, once entered, easier to rise in. You go immediately to the top, it is the least you can ask.... So...
View ArticleStout's Honor
Before he earned literary immortality by inventing Nero Wolfe, Stout wrote several crime novels – two of which the tireless publisher/editor/bookstore owner Otto Penzler has collected (along with...
View ArticleNot just a pretty face?
Check out The Rap Sheet for some news that might be of interest...
View ArticleTwo Shots At Kuhlken
If you liked Ken Kuhlken's earlier mysteries about the Hickeys--a California family of investigators, lawyers and musicians--you have two chances this month to renew old acquaintances. Poisoned Pen has...
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