Mark Stevens's Blog, page 9
October 23, 2023
Nicholas Dawidoff, “The Catcher Was A Spy”
There are two baseball cards on display at the Central Intelligence Agency. They are both for the same player, Moe Berg. One is the card from Berg’s days with The Washington Senators (1932-1934) and one from his time with The … Continue reading →
October 20, 2023
James McBride, “Deacon King Kong”
Who will ever forget Sportcoat? Or Hot Sausage? Or Tommy Elefante? Or the jokes about what it is that a church deacon does? Deacon King Kong is a rich, creamy drink of a novel. The prose offers soothing, seductive, expository, … Continue reading →
October 8, 2023
Eli Cranor, “Ozark Dogs”
All the ingredients are all there from the get-go. First, the full text of plaintive letter from “Jo” that appears to be addressed to a state prison inmate, wondering about a shooting that left an eighteen-year-old dead. Next, a man … Continue reading →
October 2, 2023
David Grann, “The Wager”
When it comes to writing history, it never hurts to be first. And if there was murder, mutiny and desperation in the story being told, and if the public can’t get enough of all the salacious details, getting your version … Continue reading →
September 26, 2023
Don Winslow, “City of Dreams”
Aeneas wandered and so Danny will, too. Aeneas was sent to found a new city. His wife disappeared. Danny Ryan flees the mayhem in Rhode Island. His wife died of cancer. Danny is a hunted animal, looking for a new … Continue reading →
September 19, 2023
John Doe and Tom DeSavia, “Under the Big Black Sun”
I lived in Los Angeles from 1978 to 1980. I saw X on the roof of a UCLA dorm before they broke big. I knew that they were good and wild and intense. I saw The Plimsouls. I saw The … Continue reading →
September 11, 2023
James Sallis, “Black Hornet”
Black Hornet was first published in 1994, seven years before James Sallis published the biography Chester Himes: A Life. But Sallis was already into Himes’ work. In 1993, Sallis published Difficult Lives Hitching Rides, a series of essays about Jim … Continue reading →
September 3, 2023
S.A. Cosby, “All The Sinners Bleed”
In the opening of All The Sinners Bleed, Charon County Sheriff Titus Crown wakes up, drinks coffee, chats with his father, dons his uniform, and gets a call from his dispatcher. Sheriff Crown hears “sheer hopelessness” on the other end … Continue reading →
August 28, 2023
Kevin Fedarko, “The Emerald Mile”
The Emerald Mile is about so much more than a daring ride through the Grand Canyon on high, fast water. Much more. It’s about managing water in the arid west, it’s about Edward Abbey, the Bureau of Reclamation, Lake Powell, … Continue reading →
August 24, 2023
Kristin Hersh, “Rat Girl”
“Betty grew up in the golden age of Hollywood, back when movies were Broadway on film, so her idea of music is ‘singing as entertainment,’ and you can’t call what I do singing or entertainment. I hiss and yell and … Continue reading →
