With all the other things going on, I forgot all about Crimespace.  I plan to take another look around the neighborhood.

I just finished reading "The Judas Pair," the very first Lovejoy novel by Jonathan Gash. This is great stuff. I'd read one of the series years ago and liked it, but a friend just loaned me the whole series, so I'm reading them from the start. This first book is a bit rough, not as smooth and pleasing as they are later in the series, but its got a good sense of humor and it's also instructive about the antiques industry and the scams that go on. It should not have taken me so long to get back…

I finished reading "The Best American Mystery Stories" (2005) today. OK, so I have a large reading pile, and it takes me a while sometimes. What struck the most about this anthology is that very few of the stories actually have a mystery in them. Most were criminals going about their business, or people who were related to criminals going about their business or even police going about their business, but they were, in general, not solving or intrigued by, any mysteries. I've read…

I just finished The Blight Way by Patrick McManus. I've always enjoyed McManus' humor essays. The are funny all the way down to your toes. His humor isn't as thickly spread in his mystery novel, but it has the same assured voice and a pretty good plot. Mosly I liked the characters -- I think it's what McManus does best. Still expected Rancid Crabtree to show up somewhere along the way.

Cliff