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 […]
The book vs. the movie
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 […]
This jury’s still out on "The Wire"
We don’t watch a lot of TV here at the ancestral manse, and now that “The Sopranos” is history, we watch even less. My current viewing schedule is about the same as it was a decade ago: Reruns of “Seinfeld,” mostly, and the odd episode of “American Justice.” But whenever the wife and I […]
This just in: The woman can write
I’ve discovered this great new writer: Ruth Rendell. I predict that one day she will sell a lot of books. Seriously, I’m embarrassed to admit that even though I call myself a fan of crime fiction, I had completely ignored the works of Ruth Rendell until about a year ago. I’m even more embarrassed […]
In fiction, short is not always so sweet
One of these days I suppose I should admit that my preferred creative form, short crime fiction, is all but dead. When’s the last time you enjoyed a good detective yarn that was under, say, 8,000 words? I thought so. Me too — even though I like writing short stories, I sure don’t read […]
Dirty work, but somebody has to do it
I’m one of those writers who does a lot of it my head, often late at night while I’m trying to go to sleep. As I toss and turn, I craft ingenious plots and dazzling metaphors — really great stuff. The only problem is that my head is not a leak-proof vessel. Most of […]
The worst book I’ve read this year …
… is “A Small Death in Lisbon” by Robert Wilson. Actually, it’s not the worst — that distinction goes to Harlen Coben’s dreadful “Promise Me” — I just liked the best-worst symmetry of this and the preceding post. Still, I didn’t much like this book. While I admire the author’s ambition and research, this […]