Partying is not all I've done in the last couple of weeks. My signing at The Book Space inside the State Department headquarters building was both great fun and a solid success. My Stark and O'Brien books went over well there because I met folks who had been stationed in…

First day back at work - argghh!!! Though actually it hasn't been as horrific as I'd feared. I even got all my emails cleared by about 11.30am, which was nice. A ruddy miracle too! And the blessed Ruth had saved me some small chocolate eggs from Easter and left them on my desk as a welcome back, so I could have married her and had her babies there and then. Not only that but she'd left a large chocolate egg in the fridge, so it's like heaven in Student Care Services at the moment. Chocolate…

My wife was giving me strange looks yesterday. Okay, she might have had a good reason. I was laughing out loud several times while reading The Deep Blue Alibi by Paul Levine. Levine has a talent for the creatively ridiculous that brings me to stitches, not unlike the works of Carl Hiassen, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller or The World According to Garp by John Irving.

If anyone has any other humorous favorites, let me know.

I am very pleased to announce that Edinburgh writer and editor Tony Black's online zine of criminally good writing, Pulp Pusher, is now live at www.pulppusher.com.

I am a minnow in an internet pond that features Ken Bruen and Allan Guthrie.

I hope you have the chance to enjoy a little free noir.

There's something immensely satisfying about reading a book that tackles some very tricky subject matter head-on, with enough of the

gory details to illustrate rather than titivate and just the right

level of gallows humour. BROKEN SKIN is the third book…

A sexual predator, a serial male on male rapist has the fourth largest city in America under seige; African American, male late thirties, reports the evening news. What soon becomes more apparent is that men belonging to an organized clandestine league of rapist are committing these attacks, each more brutal than the last. Soon, the attackers appetite evolves into a strategic game to include the secrets and lovers of targeted victims. The culprits focus on any MALE from aristocrats, cops,…

I’m just coming down from my annual birthday weekend celebration, during which I make it a point to over-indulge in all important ways. It is a practical method of testing the limits of the systems. I’m happy to report that once again I managed to avoid the dreaded fate in the drinking rhyme - One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.....

Cast of Shadows takes a small handful of issues, cloning and stem cell research chief among them, and crafts a tale that

that launches from a simple premise and becomes a multifaceted discussion that

is at times moral, scientific and religious. The premise and its exploration

prove to be an effective evaluation of these difficult issues without any real

political or religious bias.



The story is told over 20+ years, during which…

“I love this dirty town.” Possibly the meanest movie ever made, and definitely one of my personal favorites. Burt Lancaster plays J. J. Hunsecker, a powerful, soulless Walter Winchell-esque columnist who can make or break anybody in the public eye in ten words or less. Pretty boy Tony Curtis is his bitch as Sydney Falco, a hungry young press agent who makes a meager living…

The terse, clipped prose moves the story along at a fast pace. The first part of Ice follows three characters through their lives as they are awakened

and after the awakening has taken place. They are plucked from all walks of

life and economic backgrounds. Not only do we get to witness first hand the at

times brutal awakenings but we also get a nice cross section of Russian life.

The second part of the novel threats us to a lengthy first person account of

how…

Spring is back!

Wonder of wonders we have a beautiful Spring day in the Chicago area. I and many of my neighbors were out looking for an excuse to enjoy the day, as witnessed by the sight of so many people walking their dogs and so many children and parents congregating at the nearby park.

In between making sure my dog didn't do her duty on someone else's lawn, I was able to once again observe Seasonal evidence. More sunshine, greener grass, more birds singing and flying in…

... sigh. Work tomorrow - groan! I always hate the last day of any holiday (even if it's just a weekend and a normal Sunday) but this one's worse; what with conferencing and Easter university closure days, I haven't been in for a lifetime, so tomorrow morning is going to arrive like an unwelcome visitor. With a case. Thank goodness the boss isn't in, so it gives me time to get used to it all again without the need for a false professional face. Not that the boss is horrible - it's…

Disposal of a Corpus Delicti, if you want to know, is not as easy as you’d think.

The stink of decomposing meat is the biggest problem. Time, forensic traces, bone-digging dogs, dental records,…

When I start writing a book, I have this habit of picking up an Ian Rankin or Ken Bruen novel and paying some close attention to their prose styles. I loved the terseness of their prose. The cadences. Bruen can write like an expert at a machine gun. Picked up THE DRAMATIST at The Black Orchid the other day. I was told about the ending (not what happens, but that I'll be dazzled by it, though Joe used a less polite term if I recall correctly). I haven't gotten to the ending. In fact, I just…