Ed Gorman's Blog, page 180

Frank Miller: Occupy Wall Street 'Louts, Thieves & Rapists,' Comic Writer Says

Frank Miller: Occupy Wall Street 'Louts, Thieves & Rapists,' Comic Writer Says

Huffington Post

Frank Miller has spent much of his famed comic book writing career creating dark, urban dystopias, but the groundbreaking scribe has little regard for the chaos he says reigns at Zuccotti Park.
The man behind such famed comic series as "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns," "Sin City" and "300," in fact, is entirely against the Occupy Wall Street movement.
"'Occupy' is nothing but a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists, an unruly mob, fed by Woodstock-era nostalgia and putrid false righteousness," Miller wrote in a blog entry last week. "These clowns can do nothing but harm America."
Though, for the most part, the participants in the now-global Occupy moment have protested the imbalances of the economy, corporate fiscal abuses and government officials' close ties to Wall Street, Miller mentions the War on Terror in his slamming of the nascent movement.
"Wake up, pond scum. America is at war against a ruthless enemy," he later continues. "Maybe, between bouts of self-pity and all the other tasty tidbits of narcissism you've been served up in your sheltered, comfy little worlds, you've heard terms like al-Qaeda and Islamicism."
Miller then implores protestors to join the military, or otherwise, to go "back to your mommas' basements and play with your Lords Of Warcraft."
In his work, Miller's protagonists often face off against corrupt government officials. Batman, in both "The Dark Knight Returns" and "The Dark Knight Strikes Again" is faced with heavy governmental opposition, with the latter featuring an especially oppressive and corrupt government.
In 2006, Miller announced that he would have Batman take on Osama bin Laden in "Holy Terror, Batman!" but later dropped Batman from the book; it became "Holy Terror," and has been highly criticized for being hatefully anti-Islam.
In a blog entry on his own site posted in September, Miller calls the book "propaganda," a sort of throw-back to when Captain America punched Hitler, rips the news media as slanted propaganda in its own right, and says, "3000 of my neighbors were murdered. My country was, utterly unprovoked, savagely attacked. I wish all those responsible for the Atrocity of 9/11 to burn in hell."

Matthew R. Bradley: Donald Hamilton's Serious Spy Becomes a Bond Parody

This link came from the always excellent Cinema Retro and is written by the always excellent Matthew Bradley. I saw the first Helm movie when it appeared and really hated it. If The Helm books obviously aren't the the equal of either Deighton or le Carre t they're first class American Cold War pulp and not without a good deal of wisdom about life in this vale of tears. To me Hamilton was a far better writer than Fleming or the many Fleming imitators. I wish JFK had picked up a Helm book instead of a Bond but then Bond flattered Kennedy's mystique--the handsome stud who cleverly defeated all the bad guys. Helm was cowboy boots and burgers by comparison. My kind of protagonist.


RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM CINEMA RETRO'S ARCHIVES

Donald Hamilton's Serious Spy Becomes a Bond Parody
By Matthew R. Bradley

When JFK revealed his fondness for the James Bond books by Ian Fleming, and 007—ably embodied by Sean Connery—struck box-office gold with Dr. No (1962) and its sequels, the resultant "Bondmania" set off a spy craze manifested in everything from atmospheric adaptations of Len Deighton and John le Carré to tongue-in-cheek secret agents on screens small and large. Perhaps the most successful of the latter was Matt Helm, a singing and swinging spy played in four films for Columbia Pictures by Rat Pack member Dean Martin, who unlike Connery shared in the profits from the outset via his own company, Meadway-Claude Productions. The former partner of Bond producer Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli - Irving Allen - was playing catch-up after deeming Fleming's work unworthy of filming, which speeded his breakup with Broccoli. But ironically, his quartet of quintessential spy spoofs was actually based on a series of gritty Gold Medal paperback originals by Donald Hamilton that had been launched by Fawcett before Kennedy was even in office, or Connery started shaking his martinis.


According to Jeff Banks in Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers, Fawcett chose Swedish émigré Hamilton (1916-2006) to create a new series as a follow-up to the adventures of CIA agent Sam Durell, begun by Edward S. Aarons in 1955: "He had established a reputation with half a dozen non-series suspense novels and his popular westerns. Since assassination had been a frequent feature of Hamilton's suspense fiction, and since Durell worked directly as a spy and usually in exotic foreign locations, the companion series was developed about a hero who was primarily a counterspy (and the ultimate way to counter a spy is to kill him), operating usually within the continental United States." Hamilton's work had already been filmed as The Violent Men (1955), Five Steps to Danger (1957), and The Big Country (1958), but beginning in 1960, he focused largely on the Helm series. Twenty-seven novels were published through The Damagers (1993), with the twenty-eighth, The Dominators, as yet unpublished.

When we meet him in Hamilton's Death of a Citizen (1960), Helm is a happily married writer-photographer specializing in Westerns, living in Santa Fe with his wife, Beth, and their three children, until he is brought face to face with his wartime past as an assassin. Arriving unexpectedly at a party, Tina—with whom he was involved personally and professionally—claims that she still works for their old boss, Mac, and dupes Helm into helping her dispose of a rival agent before Mac reveals that she has gone over to the other side. After Tina kidnaps Helm's baby daughter, Betsy, to force him to undertake a hit (or "touch") for her, he cold-bloodedly kills her male accomplice, tortures Tina to elicit Betsy's location, and fakes her suicide. Scarcely the stuff of spoofery, it would seem, yet Helm's cinematic debut, The Silencers (1966), was officially based on both Hamilton's 1962 novel and Death of a Citizen, although Oscar Saul, a veteran screenwriter with credits ranging from A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) to Major Dundee (1965), liberated Martin's conspicuously single Helm from any pesky family ties.

for the rest go here:
http://www.cinemaretro.com/index.php?...

Pamela Anderson to Play Virgin Mary in Apparently Ironic Christmas Special

From The Wrap:

Pamela Anderson to Play Virgin Mary in Apparently Ironic Christmas Special
Published: November 14, 2011 @ 2:13 pm

By Tim Kenneally
Sex-tape veteran and frequent "Playboy" Playmate Pamela Anderson is reclaiming her virginity -- at least on Canadian television.

The former "Baywatch" babe will play the Virgin Mary -- yes, the chaste mother of the Son of God -- in CTV's "A Russell Peters Christmas," the Canadian network announced Monday.


The special, which will be hosted by comedian Russell Peters, will deliver "an irreverent twist on the Christmas special making it unlike anything viewers have seen before."

No kidding. What, Ron Jeremy wasn't available to play Joseph?

Also joining in for the twisted Yuletide festivities: Michael Buble, Jon Lovitz and Ted Lange, lovingly known by millions as Isaac the bartender from "The Love Boat."

"A Russell Peters Christmas" will air Dec. 1 at 9 p.m. ET on CTV -- assuming the Christian community doesn't somehow cause a power meltdown with mass collective outrage.

Excellent writer and bestseller Kevin J. Anderson-Those good old lowest-price bots

Kevin J. Anderson (From Novelscribes):

A fan reported to me that Amazon has my new novel HELLHOLE with Brian Herbert,
hardcover first edition�not remaindered�for $1.77 (regular $25.99). The mass
market comes out in a few weeks and I was originally alarmed. What's going on?
Who in the world would buy the $9.99 mass market when they can get the original
hardcover for $1.77?

Tor books pressed amazon for two weeks trying to get them to fix it, with no
response. My agent looked into it, couldn't get them to do anything. As near as
we can tell, amazon's lowest-price bots got into some sort of feedback duel with
another bookstore and automatically drove the price down to nearly nothing. And
yet amazon still has to get the books from Tor at regular price, and Brian and I
still get our full royalties ($3 or more per copy) even when customers buy it at
$1.77. (Since we get free shipping as amazon prime customers, I bought 60
copies myself...I can't even buy remainders for that.)

gotta love those automatic price droppers. Here's the link, if any of you wants
to get a super-cheap hardcover http://tinyurl.com/d374wzj




Kevin J Anderson
kja@wordfire.com

many of my hard-to-find novels and short stories now available as ebooks, all
under $5.

www.wordfire.com

Amazon reviews

Ed here: The wonderful Patti Abbott blogs today about Amazon reviews and their worthiness as guides to buying books.

"Apparently a lot of people don't see irony or satire or even an attempt to point up societal flaws in what they read. They read each book as if it was written by the same writer and should be held to the same standards. They choose a book using these wrong standards and then hold the book accountable for their mistake in choosing it or their inability to understand it.

"Amazon has brought about the democratization of book reviewing, but is that a good thing. Are you always sure that your perception of a book is correct. I'm not. I have only ever posted one bad review on amazon and that was out of pique that an ordinary book was getting so much hype. How about you?"

Ed here: My favorite experience here was a woman's response to one of my westerns. Now even though I don't claim to be a historian I do research my backgrounds as carefully as I can. In this case the city was Denver and what I referred to (I believe this was the 1880s) was how magnificent it was in some ways but appalling in others because of the poverty. I didn't think this was big news. What city then or now doesn't have these striking differences? I guess the poverty was particularly striking because it was so raw.

This woman climbed all over me for defaming her beautiful city. I even wrote her and made my case but she was having none of it. As I recall she was on some historical committee. Yes, everything was beautiful and wonderful in Denver from Day One. And the waters, much like Lourdes, had amazing healing powers.

When I read Amazon I look for industry reviews before reader takes. You can figure out pretty quickly if a review is worth reading. I've gotten good ones and bad ones. Sometimes--true facts--the good ones are so exultant they're as embarrassing as the bad ones (are you listening Mom?). I'm not a regular reader of the reviews anyway. I tend to put a lot more credence in certain bloggers as well as a handful of established mainstream reviewers.

Goodbye, Smokin' Joe by Norman Partridge

Ed here: Norman Partridge is one of my favorite writers. He's that best thing of all, an original. :Here's a post on his blog about the death of boxer Joe Frazier. The truth, masterfully stated. (This'll take you to his website for other excellent pieces as well http://americanfrankenstein.blogspot....)

Goodbye, Smokin' Joe by
Norman Partridge

Of the men who held the heavyweight championship in the seventies, Joe Frazier was my favorite. Fact is, Frazier may be my favorite heavyweight champ, period. I loved the way the guy fought. His signature left hook was a miracle of speed, precision, and devastating power, a punch that made a liar of any math geek who'd try to tell you that the shortest distance between two points was a straight line. I loved Frazier's backstory, how he'd come out of nowhere to make himself into a fighter, how he'd torn up his hand in the Olympics and managed to bring home a gold medal anyway, how he'd had to work in a slaughterhouse and bust his ass to become champ even after he had that gold medal around his neck. I loved Frazier's work ethic, and the way he carried himself, and the way he did his business in the ring.

I loved the way Joe Frazier did his business out of the ring, too.

And when it comes to Frazier's life in and out of the ring, you can't talk about Smokin' Joe without talking about Muhammad Ali. While I always respected Ali's skill as a fighter, I lost respect for him as a man because of the way he treated Joe Frazier. What Ali did went far beyond gamesmanship, promotion, or any sense of common decency. Plain and simple, he started off calling Frazier an "Uncle Tom" before their first fight, and ended up calling him a "gorilla" before the third. You can't scrape much lower than that kind of snake-bellied jabber unless you start badmouthing a man's mama.

You can alibi for Ali -- he certainly had a raw deal when his heavyweight title was stripped in the sixties, and he had a lot to be angry about -- but why Joe Frazier became his most frequent target is a mystery. Frazier had done Ali several good turns when Ali's career looked like it was way past gone. But whatever Ali's reason, he wasn't fooling around with the stuff he put on Frazier. He used his words with the same precision and power that he used his fists. Those words were built to hurt Frazier, and wound him in places punches couldn't touch, and I have to think they did their job.

But Joe Frazier did his job, too.

And the thing that always stuck with me is this: Smokin' Joe did his job in the ring.

Looking back, Frazier's first fight with Ali has to stand out as the biggest of all the big fights to come along in my lifetime. I still remember how Ali's trash talk became the focus as the fight built... just as I remember the beating Frazier put on Ali once the bell rang, and the brutal left hook that knocked Ali down that night in New York, sealing the deal and letting the world know who the real heavyweight champ was, for sure and for certain.

Yep. That's what I took from Joe Frazier.

Here was a fighter who did his talking in the ring.

And, man, I'm here to tell you: I liked what he had to say.

The first Ali fight was the top of the mountain for Smokin' Joe. Somehow, I don't think it ever got better than that. To Ali's credit, he took the second fight of the trilogy, nearly putting Frazier out for the count in that one. The third fight is a legend, and much has been made of it. Read what Ali had to say, and it was the closest thing to death a fighter could experience. Read what Frazier had to say and it's a miracle he made it into that ring in Manila, let alone managed to fight the fight he did that night. As the old saying goes, Frazier was blind in one eye and couldn't see too well out of the other by the time he tangled with Ali for the third time. He had cataracts, plus other problems, and still fought one hell of a fight. "I accepted the hurt, and damage, as the price of being the best," Frazier said. "I saw myself as a warrior who was obliged to carry on through thick and thin. I wasn't the best athlete in the world, but I had that fire in my belly. And I was reckless in my determination."

One last memory -- Joe Frazier was one fighter I always wanted to meet, but I never did... though I could have. I was in Vegas when his son Marvis fought Larry Holmes for the title, and I spent a week going to both training camps and watching their workouts. Of course, Smokin' Joe trained Marvis, who was the nicest young guy in the world. But Joe Frazier just didn't seem like the kind of guy you'd walk up to and start a conversation. He didn't give off that vibe. He came into the room (which was actually a big corrugated metal equipment shed behind Caesar's Palace), and he looked like a man who was there to take care of business, not chitchat about it, or talk about his own glory days. He was there to work with his son, and try to help Marvis snatch the belt from Holmes. So I didn't really regret not talking to Frazier. Fact is, watching him work with Marvis that week just cemented the way I'd already come to see the man, so maybe it was better that way.

I'll tell you this, though. Seeing Joe Frazier up close, I was surprised how small he actually was. Mostly, he's listed as 5' 11 1/2", but he sure looked a lot more like five-ten to me. And, really, that just makes the guy all the more amazing.

Anyway, I've linked this before, but if you've never seen Smokin' Joe in action or want another look, check out this clip over on youtube. If you're a fight fan, you'll notice right away that the timeline is a little off, but hey, what can I say -- its heart is in the right place.

So was Joe Frazier's.

Goodbye, Champ. You'll be missed... and remembered.


NORMAN PARTRIDGE
Nix that. Call me Norm. I write stuff. Horror,suspense, noir, pulp -- with combo plates available for repeat customers. My "personal best" novel is Dark Harvest, which was chosen as one of Publishers Weekly's 100 Best Books of 2006. My sixth short story collection, Johnny Halloween, is now available from Cemetery Dance Publications. "It's a Boris Custom painted metal-flake black, and it buries all the competition at the track..."
VIEW MY COMPLETE PROFILE[image error]

Forgotten Books: The Jugger By Richard Stark

FORGOTTEN BOOKS: THE JUGGER BY RICHARD STARK

How this for an opener? I'm about to review the worst book Donald E. Westlake ever wrote. Don't take my word for it. Here's Westlake himself speaking.

"I spoiled a book by having him do something he wouldn't do. The sixth book in the series is called The Jugger, and that book is one of the worst failures I've ever had. The problem with it is, in the beginning of the book this guy calls him and says "I'm in trouble out here and these guys are leaning on me and I need help," and Parker goes to help him. I mean, he wouldn't do that, and in fact, the guy wouldn't even think to call him! (laughs)"

I found this quote on The Violent World of Parker website, a goodie. More" Westlake has more than once cited The Jugger as a failure, and although I've never seen it straight from the horse's mouth, I've heard he considers it the worst book he's ever written. Well, Mr. Westlake, if this is the worst you can do after cranking out more books than I can count, I am in great envy of your abilities.

"Mr. Westlake is wrong about Parker acting out of character in The Jugger. He seems to have forgotten the details, which is perfectly understandable, as the book was written in 1965 and he probably has not had much reason to revisit it if he doesn't care for it that much."

Me again: I frequently find myself liking books most other people don't and vice-versa. The Jugger's a good example. No it's not a great Parker adventure but it's got a lot of early Sixties atmosphere, a cast of truly despicable characters and a constantly shifting plot.

What we have here is a kind of psychodrama. We have a dumb but crafty Sheriff, a smart but unlucky FBI man, a dumb but uncrafty lady friend of a pathetic dead guy who'd been trying to find an imaginary sum of money hidden by Joe Sheer.

It goes like this. Parker and Sheer worked together sometimes and then Sheer got old and all he did was serve as a way station for Parker. If you wanted to talk to the big man you had to call Sheer who'd screen you. But when Parter got a nervous communication from Sheer he got concerned that maybe the old man was coming apart and would blow Parker's cover. He had to go to the small Midwestern city and make sure that didn't happen.

But when he got there Sheer was dead. And the (imaginary) enormous amount of stolen money was nowhere to be found--yes there;s money but it's modest compared to what others think. So Parker proceeds to deal with both problems. Under the name of Willis.

The Psychodrama: The Sheriff is a dope but a brutal one and Parker has to string him along in order to learn what he needs to. Watching Parter mislead him is a game worth watching. The Sheriff is a human pit bull. He's capable of killing Parker at any moment. But then Parker is more than willing to strike first. On the other hand the FBI man is slick and political. Mitt Romney could play him. Quoting Norman Mailer on a writer he didn't like: "He's as full of shit as a Thanksgiving turkey." But he suspects that this guy Willis is really a big catch under another name. He's already signing a book contract and learning to wave in parades.

My favorite scene comes early on when a loathsome woman accuses Parker of rape. Thjs takes place in back country Georgia and the reader wants to get out of there as soon as possible. The grim countryside is matched only by the grim fight that takes place following the woman's claim. I read it three times just to see how Stark had put it all together. A little masterpiece of storytelling.

So The Jugger ain't perfect and ain't gonna win none of them NYC awards but I don't care. I just enjoyed this particular take on Parker's world. I read it in two dazzled sittings.

New Books: Centipede Press' Hell House Richard Matheson; Karl Edward Wagner

CENTIPEDE PRESS
RICHARD MATHESON
HELL HOUSE
NOW SHIPPING!

RICHARD MATHESON
HELL HOUSE
A shining exemplar of the haunted house genre, Hell House is a terrifying classic. Now in a new edition with a a fine front cover image cover gallery and from old editions, a movie poster, and a lengthy, 30-page interview with Matheson by James H. Burns. William F. Nolan has written a insightful introduction to the book wherein he talks about the novel and his long relationship with Matheson.
This edition is oversize at 7 x 10 inches with a printed cloth front panel, and luxurious velvety cloth spine and back panels. The book is enclosed in a cloth-bound slipcase lined with black on the inside. The book also has a top-edge stain and ribbon marker. There are color endpapers and a cover gallery inside, along with a handsome photograph of Matheson. This classic novel has finally received the deluxe treatment it deserves. At only 100 copies for sale, it will sell out quickly. We are offering it at $25 off for one week only.
Each numbered copy is signed by William F. Nolan, Harry O. Morris, and James H. Burns. There is a facsimile signature by Richard Matheson which Mr Matheson and his representative authorized. The edition is limited to 100 copies for sale. Sample page spreads appear below. Click here to order.
Is anyone heading to San Diego for the World Fantasy Convention? Centipede Press will have two tables, and Hell House will be on display. We hope to see you there!

FORTHCOMING TITLES!



Karl Edward Wagner: Masters of the Weird Tale will be shipping by early to mid November. The Golem is at the bindery. That should ship in November or December. Lee Brown Coye is also in the works. We have the slipcases done and it should ship in a couple weeks.


CENTIPEDE PRESS HOME | BOOKS | AUTHORS | GENRES | OPINIONS
Centipede Press
2565 Teller Court | Lakewood, Colorado 80214
Tel 303 231 9720 | jerad@centipedepress.com

New Books: Murder New York Style: Fresh Slices edited by Terrie Moran; Naomi Hirahara

Hi Ed,

Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to tell the world about the Sisters in Crime New York/Tri-State chapter's newest anthology, Murder New York Style: Fresh Slices, edited by Terrie Farley Moran.

The twenty-two stories in Fresh Slices take the reader around and about neighborhoods all over the five boroughs of New York City, places that are not usually visited by tourists; and within those places, murder and mayhem reign. Derringer winner Anita Page kicks off the anthology in Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn and tells about a long ago murder through the eyes of a life long resident in "Tear Down." While in the final story, "North of Clinton" Edgar and Anthony nominee K.j.a. Wishnia travels east through Queens and plunges us into the lives of day laborers struggling to get by.

Within the pages of Fresh Slices you can hang out with a community of New Yorkers living in a boat basin on the Hudson River; get an insider view of the Russian community in Brighton Beach; or stand on a rise in MacNeil Park overlooking Manhattan as the locals gather on 9/11.

The neighborhood explored in "The Green Market Violinist" by Triss Stein is a small public park which sits on land where in August 1776, British forces under General Howe defeated Revolutionary forces under General Washington during the Battle of Brooklyn. Later the site became the first home of the baseball team that grew to be the Brooklyn Dodgers, when the team was managed by Mister Ebbets himself, long before their true Brooklyn home, Ebbets Field was built.

For a taste of the kinds of odd locations and diverse stories you can expect to find here, click over to Clare Toohey's story, "A Morbid Case of Identity Theft" which is available online at Criminal Element. The story starts in The Morbid Anatomy Library, "a private research library and collection of curiosities" which sits beside the Gowanus Canal.

On behalf of the anthology authors and all of the members of the Sisters in Crime New York/Tri-State chapter, many thanks to Ed Gorman for allowing us the chance to introduce Fresh Slices. Information about the stories, the authors and book availability is available at Murder New York Style: Fresh Slices. http://www.murdernystyle.com/

Terrie Farley Moran

--------------WEST COAST CRIME WAVE ANTHOLOGY INTERVIEW WITH NAOMI HIRAHARA

Michael Wolf asked each of the authors to share a little bit about themselves, talk a little about the story they contributed to West Coast Crime Wave, and tell us their thoughts about e-books. Today we talk to Edgar award winning author Naomi Hirahara.

Tell us about yourself.

After graduating from college and spending a year in Japan, I worked at a small daily newspaper as a reporter and then editor while taking creative writing classes at UCLA Extension. I don't know if it was hubris or if I was delusional, but I was committed to being a published novelist someday. Probably what fueled me more than anything was that I felt that I had stories to tell. Not necessary of my life, but of my parents' experiences and my larger community's collective experience.

My first mystery, SUMMER OF THE BIG BACHI, took me fifteen years to write and get published. It didn't start off as a mystery; it evolved into one. I was first attempting to write . a literary novel, but my prose was too simple and straight-forward, just as my journalistic training had taught me. Walking alongside me during this time were mystery authors and their books: Walter Mosley and his Easy Rawlings series, Barbara Neely and her Blanche White series. I began to see a place for my lead protagonist, Mas Arai, an aging Japanese American gardener who had survived the atomic blast in Hiroshima, in a mystery landscape. This turned out to be the perfect container for him, a passive character who needed a high-stakes situation to push him out of his dust-ridden house in Altadena, California.

The third novel in the series, SNAKESKIN SHAMISEN, won an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback Original. I remember walking back from a post-award party down a Midtown New York City street. It must have been past midnight. The streets were wet and shiny; the rain had ceased for an evening. Mas Arai had made it in New York!

I've published four Mas Arai mysteries — three with Random House and one with St. Martin's. I've also had one middle-grade novel published with Random House's imprint, Delacorte. Before all this, I've had a number of nonfiction books published by either small presses/reference publishers or my own press, Midori Books.

for the rest go here:http://mysteryanthology.com/

New Books: Murder New York Style: Fresh Slices edited by Terrie Moran

Hi Ed,

Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to tell the world about the Sisters in Crime New York/Tri-State chapter's newest anthology, Murder New York Style: Fresh Slices, edited by Terrie Farley Moran.

The twenty-two stories in Fresh Slices take the reader around and about neighborhoods all over the five boroughs of New York City, places that are not usually visited by tourists; and within those places, murder and mayhem reign. Derringer winner Anita Page kicks off the anthology in Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn and tells about a long ago murder through the eyes of a life long resident in "Tear Down." While in the final story, "North of Clinton" Edgar and Anthony nominee K.j.a. Wishnia travels east through Queens and plunges us into the lives of day laborers struggling to get by.

Within the pages of Fresh Slices you can hang out with a community of New Yorkers living in a boat basin on the Hudson River; get an insider view of the Russian community in Brighton Beach; or stand on a rise in MacNeil Park overlooking Manhattan as the locals gather on 9/11.

The neighborhood explored in "The Green Market Violinist" by Triss Stein is a small public park which sits on land where in August 1776, British forces under General Howe defeated Revolutionary forces under General Washington during the Battle of Brooklyn. Later the site became the first home of the baseball team that grew to be the Brooklyn Dodgers, when the team was managed by Mister Ebbets himself, long before their true Brooklyn home, Ebbets Field was built.

For a taste of the kinds of odd locations and diverse stories you can expect to find here, click over to Clare Toohey's story, "A Morbid Case of Identity Theft" which is available online at Criminal Element. The story starts in The Morbid Anatomy Library, "a private research library and collection of curiosities" which sits beside the Gowanus Canal.

On behalf of the anthology authors and all of the members of the Sisters in Crime New York/Tri-State chapter, many thanks to Ed Gorman for allowing us the chance to introduce Fresh Slices. Information about the stories, the authors and book availability is available at Murder New York Style: Fresh Slices. http://www.murdernystyle.com/

Terrie Farley Moran