As picked up on Galley Cat: Apparently a very popular blogger on a science site panned a recent release by an author, calling the author, among other things "a classic crackpot." The author brought suit. The lawyer for the blog responded that the author had no case because libel law requires that the claim be false.

I got a chuckle out of that one.

Sarah Weinman's blog today is full of fascinating mystdery-related subjects. It deals with Marilyn Stasio, the mystery critic for the New York Times but contains among other matters this quote from an exchange between P.D.James and Lawrence Block about the morality of the mystery protagonist:

"L.B.: In the earliest American hard-boiled fiction, there were heroes who were virtually criminals themselves. Even Sam Spade was absolutely a cold-blooded…

Ever since I made the mistake of allowing someone to do an e-mail campaign for me (my agent suggested it might be a good idea), I have been bombarded with mail (both snail and e) from the same outfit. They change their name periodically. Perhaps because word gets out. Last year they were Airleaf. Now they are Author Celebrity Associates. And they offer instant fame! For money. The costs rise with every new campaign.

The latest bit made me sit up. The bold headline read: "Imagine The…

Nobody much comes to my page, so this will probably not do much good. In a way it is symbolic of R.D. Wingfield's life as a mystery author. Nobody much cared -- or nobody in the publishing world cared enough to promote this writer. We have only a handful of Frost novels. The British eventually produced a wonderful television series based on some of them. But the novels are not well known and very hard to find. I eventually managed to find them in cheap paperback editions. And Wingfield gave…

I've just learned that Publishers Weekly has given ISLAND OF EXILES a starred review. Even better than that fact is the review itself:

"Parker's fourth Sugawara Akitada mystery (after 2006's Black Arrow), set in 11th-century Japan, manages to outplot its superb predecessors. When exiled and disgraced Prince Okisada is poisoned on…