I don’t have anything to add about human train wreck Lindsay Lohan, but apparently Google has recently forced legislation through Congress requiring every Web site and blog to mention her name at least once a day and run helicopter footage if available. This is my quota. Look, I don’t make the laws; I just follow them. It seems Lohan ingested a liter and a half of apricot […]
Who might stand the test of time?
My fatuous poll pitting Charles Dickens against three of today’s big-name crime writers proved less than nothing, but it did elicit an interesting comment from Sally Crawford of Blogging for London: Which of today’s writers might endure as long as Dickens? My short answer would be “none of the above.” But let’s think about it. It’s certainly possible that the most enduring contemporary writer may be somebody […]
"The Quickie" and the dead
Right up front: I haven’t read “The Quickie,” the latest book with James Patterson’s name on it. The title seems apt enough, but I was wondering: Why use it now, instead of a dozen books ago? Patterson’s hirelings have been turning out volumes of this description for at least a decade. Next up: “The Phoning It In.” Of course I’m not suggesting that such a book atop […]
Here’s a pretty good summer read
My brother is a far more voracious reader than I am, so a good part of my paperback collection consists of titles he’s passing along. That’s how I came by Sean Doolittle‘s fourth novel, “The Cleanup.” Mike gave it to me months ago, but I only recently got around to reading it. In terms of plot and and pace, it’s a big step up from “Rain Dogs,” […]
"The Wire" revisited: It does grow on you
I was underwhelmed by the first couple of episodes of “The Wire,” but after renting a few more via Netflix, I’m beginning to see why this show has attracted a loyal following. While I still think Dominic West looks a little too much like a J.C. Penney model to be fully convincing (and his divorced, hard-drinking character is somewhat cliched), the rest of the cast and the […]
Larry King’s crimes against television
We turn now from fictional mysteries to a real-life one: What was Tammy Faye Messner thinking when she appeared Sunday on Larry King? (That’s Larry on the left, by the way). I know she’s not long for this world and I sympathize, but somebody might have advised her that this is the time to think about checking out with a little dignity. She’s had so little of […]
The supernatural in crime fiction
In the James Lee Burke novel “Jolie Blon’s Bounce,” he introduces a character named Legion Guidry, a man who appears by the end of the book to be, if not the Devil himself, then at least pretty high up in Lucifer’s chain of command. Burke has flirted with the supernatural before, with the ghosts of “In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead” and the dead partner who […]