In a far corner of the warehouse, back in the dust and shadows, there are some books I haven’t seen or read in more than four decades. I no longer remember the plots or characters or dialogue, but I do remember the pleasure of reading them. Sometimes I wonder: Did those books start my interest in detective stories, or was I drawn to them because I already […]

I suppose it is not a sign of my good taste or reverence for books that so many I own are paperbacks. I have fairly strict criteria for buying hardbound volumes: If the book is a gift, if it is a work I expect to frequently reread, if it is a reference book, or if it is something I just can’t wait to get my hands on. […]

For Father’s Day this year, my daughter Cassie presented me with the first volume of the Harry Potter series and two CD audio sets: Stephen King’s “Blood and Smoke” and Gregory Maguire’s “Wicked.” (While she shares my fondness for reading, she leans more toward fantasy and horror than crime fiction, a genre she dismisses as shopworn and tedious.) Now, I had started on Harry Potter a couple […]