John Harvey's new mystery novel FAR CRY comes out in June; it is his 100th book.…

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My husband's mother, Marjorie, would have been 76 today. I have been thinking of her all day--about what a nice person she was, how devoted she was to her husband and her children, how she fell head over heels for her grandchildren, and how, as fate would have it, their babyhood was the last blessing of her life.



This picture was taken about eleven years… Continue

Some kind soul at Houghton Mifflin sent me a copy of THE CROSSING PLACES by Elly Griffiths. This was such a compelling read that I stayed up late for three nights trying to squeeze in more chapters . . . and that's my favorite kind of book. The amateur sleuth here is English archeologist Ruth Galloway, an almost-forty, likable loner who lives in a small house on the Saltmarsh, a remote area of England where Ruth is not unlikely to find the occasional… Continue

I saw STATE OF PLAY today and thought it was a great film: a fascinating combination of ideas and a wonderful homage to the great ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN--evident in everything from Russell Crowe's 70s hairstyle to the scenes shot in a parking garage and outside the Watergate Hotel.



The film takes on the worlds of old and new journalism: Crowe… Continue

It is necessary, of course, for the Board of Health to notify people when a contagious disease has manifested itself in one's country, state or city; Swine flu has emerged with the suddenness that illness often uses to ambush the seemingly strong public immune system. People are healthy and then, in an instant, some of them are not.



So I understand… Continue

March 1st marked the sad date that Charles Lindbergh, Junior, or the Lindbergh Baby, as he came to be known, was kidnapped from his parents' home in 1932. Charles and Ann Morrow Lindbergh never saw their child again.



The abduction of this baby, which prompted "The Trial of the Century," made him perhaps the most famous baby in the world. He was twenty months old at the time of his kidnapping and death. Theories abound, and some insist that… Continue

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I got this little list in an unattributed e-mail from my friend Brian Darovic. It seems to be making the e-mail rounds, but I thought a couple were funny, so I'll list them here. Put yourself in Zen mode.

Zen Sarcasm



1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me the hell alone.



2. The journey of a thousand miles…

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I just finished book seven, and I have that feeling that I always get when I finish a nice fat mystery--kind of lost, like I was inhabiting a world and was suddenly sent home. A sort of death, really.

So now I must go through my book pile and decide what's next--but Harry, I must say, is a tough act to follow. JKR filled seven huge books full of history for each character so that a reader is left feeling that they grew up with these people, went to school with them--what an amazing…

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So recently my bank sent me a letter saying that my account might have been "compromised" by a computer glitch. I wasn't able to get online to check--"login error, please contact a representative"--for three days.

Today I found that someone has been using my debit card number since Saturday, having lots of fun at Best Buy and liquor stores and even loading up on groceries with the money from my checking account.…

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