Gerald So's Blog (43)

THE 5-2: CRIME POETRY WEEKLY Seeks Christmas and New Year's Poetry

I'm seeking poems to run on The 5-2 the weeks of December 26, 2011 and January 2, 2012. The poems can involve Christmas, any holidays around the same time, New Year's Eve, or New Year's Day. The submission deadline is December 1, 2011, and the usual guidelines apply.

Added by Gerald So on November 4, 2011 at 5:21am — No Comments

New Weekly Crime Poetry Site

Two of my co-editors on The Lineup: Poems on Crime #4 decided to step down as their own projects and day jobs have gotten busier. In turn, I've decided to move on to a poem-of-the-week website format I'm calling The 5-2.

The guidelines are at http://poemsoncrime.blogspot.com/p/submission-guidelines_04.html

Added by Gerald So on August 14, 2011 at 12:00am — No Comments

THE LINEUP: POEMS ON CRIME #3 now on sale

Celebrate April, National Poetry Month, by picking up a copy of THE LINEUP. Our latest issue features chilling verse by Patricia Abbott, Joe Barnes, Henry Chang, Reed Farrel Coleman, Sarah Cortez, Michael A. Flanagan, Anne Frasier, James W. Hall, David Hernandez, Amy MacLennan, Carrie McGath, James M. McGowan, Kristine Ong Muslim, David S. Pointer, James Sallis, Jackie Sheeler, Wallace Stroby, Larry D. Thomas, and Francine Witte.



THE LINEUP in stock at Murder By the Book (Houston, TX),… Continue

Added by Gerald So on April 3, 2010 at 10:30am — No Comments

R.I.P. Robert B. Parker

I first heard the news from Ali Karim on Twitter Tuesday morning. Then Sarah Weinman posted the news as relayed by Parker's U.K. publisher Quercus that he had died "just sitting at his desk." Having said many times he would keep writing novels until a) he died, or b) no one bought them, I think this is just how he'd want to go.



Parker's Spenser was the first P.I. series I read, over the summer of 1993. By summer's end I'd caught up to his current book. Six years later, I was known on… Continue

Added by Gerald So on January 21, 2010 at 5:56am — No Comments

THE LINEUP: POEMS ON CRIME #3

The third issue of The Lineup officially goes on sale April 1, 2010. Edited by me with Sarah Cortez, R. Narvaez, and Anthony Rainone, it will feature work by:



Patricia Abbott

Joe Barnes

Henry Chang

Reed Farrel Coleman

Sarah Cortez

Michael A. Flanagan

Anne Frasier

James W. Hall

David Hernandez

Amy MacLennan

Carrie McGath

James M. McGowan

Kristine Ong Muslim

David S. Pointer

James Sallis

Jackie… Continue

Added by Gerald So on January 21, 2010 at 5:54am — No Comments

THE LINEUP #2 Available Now



Click on the image to enlarge.



The Lineup: Poems on Crime 2 is now available for $6.00 USD from Lulu.com, and will be in stock soon at Once Upon a Crime in Minneapolis and Murder By the Book in Houston.



You can hear poems from Issues 1 and 2… Continue

Added by Gerald So on May 13, 2009 at 5:35am — No Comments

PSYCH: A MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO READ by William Rabkin

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… Continue

Added by Gerald So on February 5, 2009 at 9:12am — No Comments

THE SHANGHAI MOON by S.J. Rozan

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… Continue

Added by Gerald So on February 5, 2009 at 9:08am — No Comments

SHOT GIRL by Karen E. Olson

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… Continue

Added by Gerald So on February 5, 2009 at 9:05am — No Comments

I've Finally Seen: QUANTUM OF SOLACE

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,… Continue

Added by Gerald So on December 2, 2008 at 11:01pm — No Comments

TRIGGER CITY by Sean Chercover

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… Continue

Added by Gerald So on September 26, 2008 at 7:30am — No Comments

THE EVIL THAT MEN DO by Dave White

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… Continue

Added by Gerald So on August 21, 2008 at 6:39am — No Comments

BURN NOTICE: THE FIX by Tod Goldberg

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… Continue

Added by Gerald So on August 17, 2008 at 7:23am — No Comments

CHASING DARKNESS by Robert Crais

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,… Continue

Added by Gerald So on August 12, 2008 at 9:47am — No Comments

THE LINEUP #1 On Sale

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… Continue

Added by Gerald So on July 11, 2008 at 9:00pm — No Comments

GO-GO GIRLS OF THE APOCALYPSE by Victor Gischler

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… Continue

Added by Gerald So on July 8, 2008 at 1:52am — No Comments

MR. MONK IN OUTER SPACE by Lee Goldberg

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… Continue

Added by Gerald So on June 22, 2008 at 6:42am — No Comments

DEVIL MAY CARE by Sebastian Faulks

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… Continue

Added by Gerald So on June 15, 2008 at 9:18pm — No Comments

RESOLUTION by Robert B. Parker

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… Continue

Added by Gerald So on June 15, 2008 at 9:15pm — No Comments

MONEY SHOT by Christa Faust

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.

Added by Gerald So on April 8, 2008 at 3:18am — No Comments

CrimeSpace Google Search

© 2024   Created by Daniel Hatadi.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service