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The Lineup: Poems on Crime…
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Added by Gerald So on May 13, 2009 at 5:35am —
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I'd been curious about this novel since the news broke last January it would be written. I was most curious how author William Rabkin would handle Shawn-Vision, Spencer's ultra-perceptiveness shown on TV in extreme close-ups and highlighting. I'm happy to report it's delivered quite smoothly (e.g. Shawn looked at the truck driver and he saw. Saw the chafing on his face. Saw the redness in his eyes.") as is the interplay between Shawn and Gus, the heart of the show.
What I'd heard of the plot do…
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Added by Gerald So on February 5, 2009 at 9:12am —
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Just back in New York having spent a month in California for a relative's wedding, Lydia Chin is put on the trail of a storied brooch by her P.I. friend, Joel Pilarsky. Their client is Alice Fairchild, a specialist in the recovery of Holocaust antiquities, who claims to work for heirs of the brooch's owner. When Pilarsky is murdered shortly after leaving a message for Lydia, she must pick up the trail with Bill Smith, four months estranged from Lydia after their last case (
Winter and Night…
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Added by Gerald So on February 5, 2009 at 9:08am —
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New Haven police reporter Annie Seymour is at a strip club for a colleague's bachelorette party when gunshots are heard outside. Investigating, Annie finds the club manager, her ex-husband Ralph, dead. At first, the police suspect Annie and her paper pulls her off the police beat as a result. Compelled to look into her ex's affairs to clear her name, she uncovers a conspiracy involving illegal purchases of guns and drugs.
Shot Girl is told in first person from Annie's viewpoint. While a…
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Added by Gerald So on February 5, 2009 at 9:05am —
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The highest compliment I can pay
Quantum of Solace is I believed the conceit that it picks up twenty minutes after
Casino Royale. Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, and the other returning actors are on their game. The overarching mission to uncover the organization behind Mr. White drives the action at the same breathless pace. I wouldn't mind if all Craig's Bond movies kept this continuity.
That said,…
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Added by Gerald So on December 2, 2008 at 11:01pm —
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Still feeling the physical and emotional effects of his brush with Chicago's Outfit in last year's BIG CITY, BAD BLOOD, reporter-turned-P.I. Ray Dudgeon reluctantly goes to work for retired Colonel Isaac Richmond. Richmond's estranged daughter Joan had been head of payroll for a midsize-department store chain when she was murdered by her co-worker Steven Zhang, who left a signed confession before killing himself. Though the facts of the case are clear, Col. Richmond wants Dudgeon to fill in the…
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Added by Gerald So on September 26, 2008 at 7:30am —
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Having lost his P.I. license in the aftermath of
When One Man Dies, Jackson Donne is forced back into action when his brother-in-law's restaurant is bombed and his brother-in-law is kidnapped. Part of a multi-viewpoint, multi-generational adventure, Donne must figure out who is targeting his family before it's too late.
The Evil That Men Do improves in every way on White's aforementioned debut novel. Though there are…
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Added by Gerald So on August 21, 2008 at 6:39am —
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As a fan of USA Network's
Burn Notice, I've wanted to read this tie-in since last November, when I heard Tod Goldberg was tapped to write it. The Fix has burned spy Michael Westen reluctantly helping an aging socialite who's been swindled out of a sizable chunk of her fortune. He also encounters a femme fatale from his past who accuses him of implicating her in a crime. This last has to do with the falsified dossier (from the TV series) that got Michael burned in the first place.
Goldber…
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Added by Gerald So on August 17, 2008 at 7:23am —
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A routine fire evacuation turns up the body of Lionel Byrd, who, three years earlier, was cleared of suspicion in the murder of a prostitute thanks to evidence found by Elvis Cole. Byrd is now found in possession of an album containing grotesque photos of seven murders, including the one Elvis investigated. While everyone else easily accepts Byrd was the killer, Elvis is driven to find out for himself.
Since 1999's L.A. REQUIEM, Crais has used multiple viewpoints to tell his stories, contrastin…
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Added by Gerald So on August 12, 2008 at 9:47am —
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Patrick Shawn Bagley, Richie Narvaez, Anthony Rainone, and I have finished editing
The Lineup: Poems on Crime, a 6" x 9", 44-page chapbook featuring work from 14 poets including Bagley, Ken Bruen, Crimespace's own Daniel Hatadi, and me.
The Rap Sheet's J. Kingston Pierce recently invited me to wax a bit about the project's history, and about the place of crime in poetry.
Copies of
The Lineup are available from
Lulu.com.…
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Added by Gerald So on July 11, 2008 at 9:00pm —
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Out tomorrow is Victor Gischler's new novel of what happens after the end of the world. In the near future, divorced insurance salesman Mortimer Tate decides to stock up on guns and goods and wait out Armageddon in a mountaintop cave. Nine years later, he feels the urge to come out of seclusion with the quixotic goal of finding his ex-wife Anne.
I'm a longtime fan of Victor Gischler's work, but even if I weren't, I wouldn't be able to resist the title. To describe the book in much detail is to…
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Added by Gerald So on July 8, 2008 at 1:52am —
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Recently out in paperback, Goldberg's fifth Monk tie-in novel has the obsessive-compulsive detective investigating the murder of Conrad Stipe, creator of the '70s science fiction series
Beyond Earth, committed by someone dressed as Mr. Snork, security chief aboard the starship
Discovery.
This backdrop allows Goldberg ample opportunity to riff and nod to science fiction fandom and show business in the same raucously enjoyable way
Galaxy Quest does (also starring Tony Shalhou…
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Added by Gerald So on June 22, 2008 at 6:42am —
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In 1967, James Bond is called back from a medically mandated holiday to investigate Dr. Julius Gorner, a known drug manufacturer of concern to the British government. Along the way, Bond meets beautiful banker Scarlett Papava, who asks his help to rescue her sister Poppy, last seen in Gorner's company.
Tabbed to celebrate the centennial of Ian Fleming's birth,
Devil May Care received more than a year of hype starting with the search for its author. Perhaps lost in the hype was the fact t…
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Added by Gerald So on June 15, 2008 at 9:18pm —
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Graham Powell found himself at a Robert B. Parker signing and did me the great kindness of sending me a signed copy of
Resolution, the sequel to his Western
Appaloosa.
Former soldier and lawman Everett Hitch stops in a town called Resolution, where hotel and saloon owner Amos Wolfson hires him as a lookout. While Hitch's unflinching dealing with criminals and "softhearted" treatment of the citizenry leave him well liked by the people, he's a bit too free-thinking for Wolfson's tas…
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Added by Gerald So on June 15, 2008 at 9:15pm —
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Others have already praised Christa Faust's Hard Case Crime book for authenticity. I can only add that after reading the first few pages of events leading ex-porn star protagonist Angel Dare to be locked in a car trunk, driven to the middle of nowhere, and left for dead, I was completely in her corner and rooted for her throughout this hard-driving revenge tale reminiscent of
Kill Bill.
Money Shot, like all the best books in my opinion, is a fast and fulfilling read.
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Added by Gerald So on April 8, 2008 at 3:18am —
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I've reserved my room at the Sheraton Baltimore City Center for Bouchercon 2008: Charmed to Death a full nine months in advance. See you there.
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Added by Gerald So on January 10, 2008 at 11:44pm —
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British soldier-turned-bodyguard Charlie Fox is assigned to protect
Trey Pelzner, the bratty teenage son of an American computer
programmer. From the first chapter, Charlie and Trey are dodging
bullets. When she tries to report the attack, Charlie finds the entire
protection detail has been compromised. Both Trey's father and
Charlie's boss/lover have disappeared, and Charlie stands accused of
kidnapping Trey.
Among many highlights,
First Drop
off…
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Added by Gerald So on December 13, 2007 at 11:11pm —
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I'm not the biggest Dennis Lehane fan. Though I found his
Kenzie-Gennaro books compelling, I also thought he tried to do too
much. By the end of the series, I'm not sure the books were P.I.
anymore, and I'm not sure that was a good thing. That said, Lehane's
trademark put-'em-through-hell plot is tailor-made for a movie, and Ben
Affleck nails Boston's local color so squarely the accents and
attitudes grated on this New Yorker's ears. Wicked.
The
performances are all good. Casey Affleck…
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Added by Gerald So on November 8, 2007 at 9:28pm —
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Picking up from last year's
Bust,
Max Fisher wakes up in a motel in Robertson, Alabama, no idea how he
got there. Using his friendship with a young stoner desk clerk, Max
returns to New York as a high-rolling crack dealer. Meanwhile, femme
fatale Angela Petrakos finds herself mixed up with an aspiring Irish
serial killer called Slide.
Slide is less plot-driven than
Bust…
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Added by Gerald So on November 4, 2007 at 9:50pm —
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Bust begins with cheapskate
tech millionaire Max Fisher plotting the murder of his overbearing wife
Dierdre so he can live happily ever after with his busty Greek-Irish
executive assistant Angela. Max contacts a peculiar hitman calling
himself Popeye, who is actually Angela's lover, Dillion, with whom she
plans to rob Max blind.
Got all that? To reveal any more would
spoil the book's madcap fun. The characters are all self-interested to
some exten…
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Added by Gerald So on November 4, 2007 at 9:48pm —
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