All Blog Posts Tagged 'crime' (264)

Scene of the Crime

I went back to the spot where I killed my first man yesterday. I killed him four years ago. I return every few months. Each time I arrive, it’s so peaceful I can’t believe anyone really died. But, even though I’m a writer of crime fiction, someone really did. I walked across a dirt lot, puddled with the afternoon rain, past the empty reservoir at the head of the valley. Below me the village of Irtas drifted down toward the convent where they hold the annual lettuce festival. The buildings finge… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on November 26, 2009 at 11:59pm — No Comments

Poirot's David Suchet

Poirot's David Suchet makes a statement. http://tinyurl.com/yzjlg5c Continue

Added by Brian Kavanagh on November 26, 2009 at 6:47pm — 1 Comment

Where BBC radio producers get their ideas

I was invited to appear on a BBC World Service programme last weekend. If you’ve ever wondered how radio producers feed their on-air people interesting information about their guests (thus enabling them to create a breezy “chemistry” and to relate the day’s news stories to the knowledge or experience of the guest), here’s the questionnaire sent to me for The World Today by Affan Chowdhry, along with my responses. If you try to imagine what your answers would be to some of the questions, I think… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on November 25, 2009 at 8:59pm — No Comments

National Crime Fiction Week 2010

The Crime Writers' Association of Great Britain, (CWA) of which I am a member, has launched a new intiative for 2010 with the introduction of National Crime Fiction Week, taking place from 14 June to 20 June 2010. It is designed to raise the profile of crime fiction further, already a popular genre in the UK, and will be a celebration of crime writing. During the week members of the CWA, including yours truly, will take part in readings, discussions, readers' group events and work… Continue

Added by Pauline Rowson on November 24, 2009 at 12:56am — No Comments

Why Israelis pick Tarantino over Spielberg

Latent shame over the Jews' failure to stand up to the Nazis is cited as a reason for the success of "Inglourious Basterds." By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPost JERUSALEM, Israel — Quentin Tarantino’s "Inglourious Basterds" is the definitive Israeli movie. The bloodthirsty revenge fantasy of Jewish soldiers crushing German skulls with baseball bats… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on November 23, 2009 at 11:18pm — 1 Comment

My Palestinian crime novels, Ethiopian marathoners and Michael Jackson's glove on the BBC

I was on the BBC World Service's The World Today chatting about my Palestinian crime novels today. Because of the nature of the show, I also was asked my opinions on Cairo's muezzins, Ethiopian distance running and the value of Michael Jackson's rhinestone-encrusted white glove (you remember, the one he wore at the Motown Awards the first time he ever did the moonwalk). Haven't you always wanted to know what I… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on November 23, 2009 at 4:51am — No Comments

What's behind claims about Israel's organ trade?

By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPost JERUSALEM — Donald Bostrom, a freelance Swedish journalist who wrote an article this summer accusing Israeli officials of trading in Palestinian organs, came to Israel late last month to defend his piece at a conference on the media. Neither Bostrom, who needed a bodyguard because of the stir his article has caused, nor the media came out looking good. At the confe… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on November 22, 2009 at 8:50pm — No Comments

Bouchercon and the New England Crime Bake (better late than never)

"Nice Scarf," I heard behind me on the escalator at the Indianapolis Hilton. I turned around very slowly. This was a compliment I had been fielding quite joyfully for the entire length of Bouchercon. This is what happens when you wear a bright yellow CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS scarf. "Thank you, Harlan Cobin," I replied. I also asked him out to lunch. He declined, very politely. Next time. Bouchercon was a trip. Indianapolis is a weird city, like a 80's vision of the year 2000. Everything is c… Continue

Added by Libby Cudmore on November 20, 2009 at 6:03am — 2 Comments

Researching the novel

Novelists aren’t journalists. Research for a novel isn’t the same as researching a journalistic article. I’d have thought that was too obvious to need stating. But then I became a published novelist, and I realized that people thought the two things were rather the same. I was a journalist for almost 20 years before my first novel was published. THE COLLABORATOR OF BETHLEHEM is a crime novel set in Bethlehem during the intifada, and I’d spent over a decade covering the Palestinians by the time… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on November 20, 2009 at 1:07am — 1 Comment

On vanity and the criminal mind

Here's a rather long quote from Josephine Tey (the speaker is Grant in The Singing Sands) "It's a harmless sort of weakness," Tad said, with a tolerant lift of a shoulder. "That is just where you are wrong. It is the utterly destructive quality. When you say vanity, you are thinking of the kind that admires itself in the mirror and buys things to deck itself out in. But that is merely personal conceit. Real vanity is something quite different. A matter not of person but of personality. Vanity… Continue

Added by Ken Kuhlken on November 19, 2009 at 10:45am — No Comments

Less about suicide bombers, more about suicides

Michael Anthony is the author of MASS CASUALTIES: A Young Medic’s True Story of Death, Deception and Dishonor in Iraq (Adams Media, October 2009). His book is drawn from his personal journals during the first year he spent serving in Iraq. You can read my interview with him… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on November 18, 2009 at 6:49pm — 1 Comment

Christmas Giveaway

My Christmas Giveaway this year is a paperback copy of BLOODY HAM and an eBook PDF copy of CAPABLE OF MURDER. Please specify which one you would prefer. This year you must answer a question! Belinda Lawrence's new mystery takes place in an important town in Kent, England famous for a murder in the Cathedral! Name the town. Sign in to my Guest Book on my Website http://beekayvic.tripod.com Entries close midnight Sunday 22nd November. Fi… Continue

Added by Brian Kavanagh on November 16, 2009 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Germany Remembers Fall of Berlin Wall & CROSSROADS

Sphere: Famous Street Was Caught Between East and West Merkel, who grew up in East Germany and was one of thousands to cross that night, recalled that "before the joy of freedom came, many people suffered." She lauded Gorbachev, with whom she shared an umbrella amid a crush of hundreds, eager for a glimpse of the man many still consider a hero for his role in pushing reform in the Soviet Union. THRILLER CROSSROADS provides some of the subtleties hidden behind the past decad… Continue

Added by STEVEN NEDELTON on November 14, 2009 at 8:00pm — No Comments

Is Abbas really ready to quit this time?

Worn out has-been or drama queen? Interpretations of the Palestinian president's threat to quit vary greatly. By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPost JERUSALEM — Sometimes a quitter really does quit for good. The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, announced last week that he wouldn’t run for re-election in the proposed Janua… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on November 14, 2009 at 1:21am — 2 Comments

Jerusalem's a zoo

When foreign correspondents come to Jerusalem they often ask me for advice on stories and places from which to witness the various conflicts that play out in this city. Next time, I’m going to buy them a ticket to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo. I go there every Saturday afternoon with my two-year-old son. But perhaps because our favorite animals (the cute little prairie dogs) have hibernated, I noticed that the zoo is a microcosm of all the things I covered here in a decade and a half as a journal… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on November 12, 2009 at 11:51pm — No Comments

Huff Post on Crime Fiction: What do you think?

Huffington Post book blogger Jason Pinter has a column about "The State of the Crime Novel." It's a fairly Yankocentric appraisal of current crime writing by a series of top US reviewers. It includes this from veteran mystery columnist Oline H. Cogdill: "One of the main missions of crime novels is to paint a timely portrait of the issues in our times. This doesn't mean these novels have to hit you ov… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on November 7, 2009 at 1:54am — 13 Comments

Looking for somewhere to kill someone: suggestions please

I’m always looking for a good spot in which to kill someone. Still, as a crime writer, I rarely have to ask about potential locations for a good murder. People are keen to suggest that the blood be spilled on their doorstep. Most recently, it was a pastor and his wife. To be fair, they actually said I ought to have my Palestinian detective Omar Yussef visit their church on the top of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, where I live. But when I noted admiringly that it’d be a great place for a mu… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on November 5, 2009 at 5:00pm — No Comments

Vote or Die: The Nature of Crime

Political rhetoric usually focuses around one of two themes: destroy this or defend against that. Either way, the war is never over. The War on Drugs. The War on Terror. The War for America's Soul. The War Against You. I went to the polls today with that in mind. This time, the front was public education. On one side of the trench was a school district seeking to bolster its war chest with millions more in levy dollars. Guarding the fort opposite them were the taxpayers of my area, who stand be… Continue

Added by Benjamin Sobieck on November 4, 2009 at 1:55pm — 7 Comments

The jacket cover for the new Inspector Horton marine mystery crime novel

I've just received the jacket image for the cover of the new Inspector Horton marine mystery crime novel, Blood on the Sand, which is to be published by Severn House on 26 February 2010. I hope you lik… Continue

Added by Pauline Rowson on November 4, 2009 at 12:53am — 2 Comments