My job of making sure authors signed books, no matter who they were or when they could come in, extended to one Sunday when the store I was working at usually closed. It was the only day Baroness P. D. James could make it to sign hundreds of her newest title . And we needed that … Read more
For those of you who have not experienced the thrill of an Edgar A. Poe banquet and awards ceremony, don’t think Oscars. But, don’t think Elks Club meeting or dentist convention either. The banquets I attended are from 1995 through perhaps 2000 or 2001. To be clear, I haven’t been to one for over a … Read more
First I’ll list the main winners, as many just want to cut to the chase, as it were. Best Novel–Steve Hamilton–The Lock Artist Best First Novel–Bruce De Silva–Rogue Island Best Original Paperback–Robert Goddard–Long Time Coming Grand Master–Sara Paretsky-For her lifetime of work in the crime fiction field So, what are the Edgars? Edgar is short … Read more
All Carved Up: Performing Autopsies on the Great Bodies of Crime Fiction When I first decided to write an article about this short-lived publishing house I believed that reading the 30 titles published between 1930 and 1933 would be an easy, delightful task. After trudging through about five, I amended my expectations to scanning all … Read more
Murder in Retrospect–Reviews of classic crime fiction Murder With Your Malted–Jerome Barry, Doubleday, 1941 Now for something entirely different, and. . .well, frothy! A Doubleday Crime Club of yore delivers the goods, including; limeades; grilled sandwiches; and a bicarb to wash it all down. What a goofy locale for murder–a drugstore in Times Square, … Read more
I’ve been pondering and concentrating upon what I used to do all day as a bookseller. That aside, there was the slight difficulty of deciding which place of employment to remember–there were a few over the years, and each individual shop had its quirks and perks. Foul Play, a small well established mystery bookstore in … Read more
If you are in the virtual world, you can join a book club! Mystery Loves Company, physically in Oxford MD, has a online discussion each month. From their facebook page: Our books club books for May are James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice and Julia Spencer-Fleming’s All Mortal Flesh. Join in the … Read more
I don’t read Stephen King. Not because I don’t think he’s an excellent writer. He is. Too too good of a writer. I am one of those people who loves fictional murder because there is a structure, foul play occurs; clues abound; are investigated; characters throw around red herrings; the detective investigates and the murderer … Read more
