Performing Autopsies on Great Bodies of Crime Fiction.
Roll Over and Play Dead—Joan Hess–1991–St. Martin’s Press–used If you’ve not encountered the worlds of Joan Hess, you have many unique hilarious to the point of embarrassing yourself, moments ahead. Practically any one title from her Claire Malloy series could be on my list, but I have a particular fondness for Roll Over and Play … Read more
I’ve already related my armed robbery story, but in that case, no books were taken, only money. I say only, because in some cases, the books are more valuable than what may be in the till. The stealing of book or books although not a common practice, occurred, more than we all liked to believe. Throughout … Read more
My father didn’t read. Ok, he read the newspaper and model railroading magazines. But fiction? No. The exceptions were located at a shopping spot called the Mart, where stalls contained various low key vendors, meaning, most of the stuff in the place consisted of velvet Elvis paintings, soft pretzels, and troll dolls. One stall sold … Read more
Serial Killer Days—David Prill—1996–available Forget competing for Miss America, the real prize is to become Scream Queen at Standard Springs’ annual parade honoring their local serial killer who arrives during the festivities to slaughter another member of the upstanding community. Back in 1996, the dark humor was appreciated and hilarious. Today, it rings a little … Read more
Murder a la Richelieu—Anita Blackmon–1937–Doubleday Crime Club–OOP I can see most of you shaking your heads and wondering, where the heck I found this title. The Doubleday Crime Club, of course! All manner of oddball interesting and never heard from again titles lurk within their vaults. Published in 1937, Doubleday must have thought they had … Read more
Panama—Eric Zenecy—1995–in print When first published, this literary thriller was given rave reviews, and so, I just had to read it. And the critics were correct. The atmosphere is palpable, you almost feel the Seine, wafting towards you, the anxiety over a missing woman, the thrill of a new discovery, identifying fingerprints. Imagine what that … Read more
Mystery Fanfare, a fantastic blog by long time crime fiction expert Janet Rudolph announced the nominees yesterday. The award will be presented at the annual Bouchercon mystery fan convention later this year. Macavity is named for T. S. Eliot’s cat in Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Here’s the link and list–check it out. http://mysteryreadersinc.blogspot.com/2011/06/macavity-award-nominations.html
Jan Burke, one of the rare women who have succeeded in the usually male world of hardboiled suspense novels, has a new title out–a sequel to her Edgar Award winning novel, Bones, and the tenth in the Irene Kelly series. I was first aware of Ms. Burke back in the 90s when then President Bill … Read more
