Sometime this fall, my short story "War Path" will appear in the North Country Press mystery anthology:

Doing a happy [war] dance!

Writers push the web envelope in this NPR story:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89922777

My historical mystery short story "Mattie in the Middle" is now available in the anthology Medium of Murder by Red Coyote Press.

The story's set in West Virginia during Prohibition. To save her wild kid sister from hanging for a mobster's murder, Mattie must turn to an annoying small-town newspaper man.



I started out with a completely different idea, but Mattie and her… Continue

I'm on a binge of discovering new authors. Never read any Huston before. I didn't realize what I was missing. Good stuff! Love a fresh take on a classic crime plot.

Discovered this book on several Amazon recommended crime fiction reading lists. The blurb on the cover says something like "hold onto your seat fast paced." It's not at all slow, but I wouldn't call it fast-paced exactly. It's short and tightly written. Very very slick with really interesting structure. I am now officially a huge James Sallis fan. Can't wait to read more.

Loved it. Gorgeous, controlled, poetic writing. Loved the pacing and the structure of the short sections. Loved that the flashbacks have punctuation because punctuation=civilization, and the present post-apocalyptic sections have minimal punctuation=breakdown of civilization. The charaterization through dialogue and the slow revelation of the themes was fabulous. Such an interesting voice. It's been a long time since I encountered unfamiliar vocabulary in fiction.

Grim, though, very…

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Just finished The Lost Luggage Porter by Andrew Martin http://www.jimstringernovels.com/page2.htm. Luuuuuuved this book! The tone/voice and the atmosphere--fabulous, completely original! There was one moment early on, when the detective has a conveniently chance meeting with the men who ultimately become the murder victims, which I was a little disappointed with. But then what Martin did with that moment... luuuuved it. So unpredictable,… Continue

Just finished "reading" (as in an audiobook) Scott Turow's Ordinary Heroes http://www.scottturow.com/ordinaryheroes.htm set in World War II. Lovely writing. Great research and incorporation of authentic details and a bibliography on the website to prove it: http://www.scottturow.com/ordinaryheroesbibliography.htm

Great characters, especially the two…

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I just finished Conn Iggulden's newest novel Genghis: Birth of a Nation. http://www.conniggulden.com/

Genghis and the Mongols are a topic of perennial fascination for me, and I'm always interested in novelistic interpretations.

The 50 pages of Iggulden's Genghis was a tad slow for me, but then, when young Genghis is out on his own trying to survive! My gosh! I could not put it down. Which is highly unusual for me. I'm…

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Have to confess I was curious and checked out this hour long reality show. http://www.spiketv.com/index.html#home/bll/t=bll/cnt=2/st=1 The tagline is "Can you solve it before they do?" Two teams of law students, law professors, and assorted others. A real crime is recreated. A veteran police detective serves as mentor and guide.

I was horrified and fascinated. Couldn't turn it off. Extremely gory and pretty…

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