Ed Gorman's Blog, page 181

Jack O'Connell's Novels now available on e-books!

http://mysteriouspress.com/products/h...

http://mysteriouspress.com/

Ed here: Few crime writers have been as celebrated (and deservedly) as Jack O'Connell. Now four of Jack's novels are available on the new Mysterious Press e book website.

Jack O'Connell

Jack O'Connell (b. 1959) is the author of five critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling crime novels. Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, O'Connell's earliest reading was the dime novel paperbacks and pulp fiction sold in his corner drug store, whose hard boiled attitude he carried over to his fiction. He has cited his hometown's bleak, crumbling infrastructure as an influence on Quinsigamond, the fictional city where his first four novels were set, and whose decaying industrial landscape served as a backdrop for strange thrillers which earned O'Connell the nickname of a "cyberpunk Dashiell Hammett."

O'Connell's most recent novel was The Resurrectionist (2008), which was chosen by Amazon as one of the top 10 science fiction novels of 2008. It won the Le prix Mystère de la critique and the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire in France, and was nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award. O'Connell lives in Worcester, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children.

Books by this author

Wireless by Jack O'Connell

The Skin Palace by Jack O'Connell

Box Nine by Jack O'Connell

Word Made Flesh by Jack O'Connell[image error]

Brett Rattner again; Graham Nolan

Last week I told you what a loud mouth fake-macho no-talent blowhard Brett Rattner is. Apparently the gods agreed. Not a good week for our boy Brett. First Olivia Munn reveals in her autobiography that Brett baby has a teeny tiny pee-pee; then Tower Heist flops; and now our boy runs his mouth about gay people.

First of all the slur makes no sense. Only gay people rehearse? That would come as news to thousands of straight actors and directors. But maybe our boy should've done a little rehearsing since by almost all accounts Tower Heist was a real bad movie. In other words a Brett Rattner movie.

Let's see off hand Hitchcock, Hawks, Mann, Lupino, Ford, Spielberg...how many directors can you think of who rehearse their actors before directing a scene?


Brett Ratner Gay Slur: 'Tower Heist' Director Apologizes Over Q&A 'Fag' Gaffe (Huffington Post)


Brett Ratner has never been one to mince words, but some say the "Tower Heist" director's latest admission is downright deplorable.

After being asked whether he rehearses with his actors before shooting a scene, Ratner replied, "Rehearsing is for fags," according to New York Magazine's Vulture blog.

The gaffe, made during a Q&A session following a "Tower Heist" screening, seemed questionable even for the sharp-tongued Ratner, who is the producer of this year's Oscar telecast and is said to be in talks to direct an adaptation of the Broadway musical "Wicked." One audience member is said to have been so upset by the reference that they immediately left the session.

The statement was quickly condemned by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) via Twitter. Entertainment Weekly writer Mark Harris felt similarly, saying that Ratner should step down from his Oscar producing duties as a result: "If he had used an equivalent racial or religious slur, the discussion would go something like, 'You're fired.' Apology or not. The same rule applies here. You don't get a mulligan on homophobia. Not in 2011."

Ratner, who also directed "X-Men: The Last Stand" and and the "Rush Hour" trilogy, quickly apologized in a statement via the Wrap. "It was a dumb way of expressing myself," he wrote. "Everyone who knows me knows that I don't have a prejudiced bone in my body. But as a storyteller I should have been much more thoughtful about the power of language and my choice of words."

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article identified Ratner as the director of the "X-Men" trilogy. Ratner directed "X-Men: The Last Stand," the third firm in the series.


------------------ON A MUCH HAPPIER NOTE


Hello, gang!

All this week, Sunshine State will be celebrating that most cherished of relationships; FRIENDS.

They say if you can count one or two really close friends in your life, you are truly blessed. I know I am blessed and I am sure you are too. I hope you will e-mail these strips or post and share them on your Facebook or other social media pages with your friends.

Share the love...that's what friends do!

I hope you enjoy the week.

All the best,


Graham Nolan
Cartoonist
www.sunshinestatecomics.com

From The Violent World of Parker: Blood Moon Review

From The Violent World of Parker:

Review: Wolf Moon by Ed Gorman
By Trent


If you're looking at the above cover image and scratching your head, don't worry–you're still at The Violent World of Parker and I haven't gone off the rails.

Ed Gorman's Wolf Moon is a Western, but it is also noir. It certainly fits Otto Penzler's definition that "noir is about losers" (a definition I don't entirely agree with in its full explication). Wolf Moon could have taken place in the 1940s or another decade more associated with noir, except for one critical element: The title character, a huge wolf raised in captivity to be a savage killer. He wouldn't exactly fit on the dirty streets of San Francisco in the 1940s.

Wolf Moon is the story of Robert Chase, who is hired along with his two brothers by Schroeder, partner in a bank and owner of the wolf, to rob Schroeder's own bank. Schroeder betrays them, leaving Chase's brothers dead and Chase in jail for several years. When Chase is released from prison, he heads to the town of Rock Ridge to reunite with his old flame, Gillian. And Schroeder.

A sense of inevitability infuses the entirety of Wolf Moon. While this makes some elements of the story predictable, it also imparts a lingering dread over the entire novel that adds greatly to its effectiveness–a worthwhile tradeoff that also contributes to it being more noir than Western.

Wonderfully efficient (Amazon lists the paperback at 163 pages), you could easily polish off Wolf Moon in one sitting and there's a good chance you will. It's the first of Ed Gorman's books that I've read, but it most definitely won't be the last.

Wolf Moon is available for the Kindle at a mere $2.99 (a Nook edition is promised soon). The paper version is out of print, but used copies can be found inexpensively from the usual sources. The Kindle edition features the bonus short story, "Deathman," also quite dark.

Fred Brown, Howard Browne; Bad Moon #7; Triumph The Insult Comic Dog

Ed here: The crime publications --Fredric Brown, Howard Browne, Henry Kuttner-C.L. Moore--are knockouts enough. But for those of us who like-sf-fantasy this is an unimaginable list!

From Stephen Haffner::

Hey, everybody!

Things have been über-busy at the Secret Moon Base, but it's time for a status update on all that's happening so . . . Onward!

1) SHANNACH—THE LAST: FAREWELL TO MARS
We now hold copies of this brand new release—and it's be-yoo-tee-full! With Kelly Freas' vintage cover art, this is a really great looking book. And the contents are equally awesome. Of course, with all this "keen-ness" something went wrong. The original dustjacket had an intolerable typo (my bad) on the spine, so we've gone ahead and printed a corrected second-state dustjacket. All copies ordered direct from Haffner Press, and select retailers, will ship with the first-state jacket wrapped to the book and shrinkwrapped, with a rolled and bagged copy of the second state jacket included. $40 gets it to you with free shipping in the Continental USA.

2) 2011 WORLD FANTASY CONVENTION
We're also recovering from an unplanned opportunity to exhibit at the 2011 World Fantasy Convention in San Diego last week. We arranged to have SHANNACH—THE LAST: FAREWELL TO MARS make it's debut, and we tried as best we could to collect autographs in the charity books, IN MEMORY OF WONDER'S CHILD and THIRTY-FIVE YEARS OF THE JACK WILLIAMSON LECTURESHIP. We think succeeded fairly well on all counts and we'll announce in a few weeks what new signatures have been added to these books.

3) ARTIST ROLL CALL
We are *extremely* pleased to announce that we have deals with the following artists for two of our 2012 releases:

• THE COMPLETE JOHN THUNSTONE by Manly Wade Wellman will have cover art by Raymond Swanland. Raymond's work is ideally suited to the supernatural horrors that John Thunstone faces in this massive collection. We hope to have images before the end of the year.

• THE MICHAEL GRAY MYSTERIES by Henry Kuttner & Catherine L. Moore, a collection of four paperback original novels from the late 50s, will feature original cover art by classic movie poster and paperback artist Robert McGinnis. Mr. McGinnis has recently been providing cover art for Hard Case Crime's line of books, and we're eager to see what he delivers for this Kuttner/Moore title.

4) THUNDER IN THE VOID
Holy cow! As if that weren't enough, we're days away from sending THUNDER IN THE VOID, a massive collection of Space Opera stories by Henry Kuttner (including a never-before-published story, "The Interplanetary Limited") to the printer. You can reserve your $40 copy here: http://www.haffnerpress.com/Thunder.html or, preorder it as part of one of our (in)famous "Early Bird" deals on the Haffner Press homepage: http://www.haffnerpress.com.

5) HOLLYWOOD ON THE MOON / MAN ABOUT TIME: THE PETE MANX ADVENTURES
With all the other goings-on with our Henry Kuttner projects, we want to assure you all that this project to collect all the SF collaborations of Henry Kuttner and Arthur K. Barnes is going forward and we look for a release in Late February. Details are here: http://www.haffnerpress.com/hollywood...

6) FREDRIC BROWN MYSTERIES
Keep Watching the Skies for news on our upcoming slate of Fredric Brown titles. Editorial work on the first two volumes is in the home stretch and we will announce contents, pricing, and availability as soon as possible.

7) HALO FOR HIRE: THE PAUL PINE MYSTERIES
Meanwhile, we will take this opportunity to briefly announce that we have an agreement to collect all the novels and shorts featuring Chicago private eye Paul Pine from Howard Browne (sometimes writing as "John Evans".)
Contents are:
• HALO IN BLOOD
• HALO FOR SATAN
• HALO IN BRASS
• "So Dark for April"
• A TASTE OF ASHES
• "The Paper Gun"

A fine summary of the "Paul Pine" works is here: http://www.thrillingdetective.com/pin...

We'll have ordering information as soon as it becomes available.

Okay, fellow astrogators. That's it for now. We'll send another update around the Thanksgiving holiday.

Meanwhile, there are hundred of orders still to be processed for SHANNACH—THE LAST: FAREWELL TO MARS. (Oh, my aching back!)

Keep Watching the Skies!

Stephen Haffner
Big Poobah
HAFFNER PRESS

-------------Yesterday Bad Moon Rising was #6 and Baker & Taylor now #7 so maybe its run is ending. But it was good while it lasted

------------http://teamcoco.com/video/triumph-occ... Triumph The Insult Comic Dog goes to Occupy. The dog's material is always the most obvious (how many geeks-are-virgins gags did he do visiting that Star Trek convention?) but somehow in his irritating way he's funny. Though I still think someday somebody's going to rip him off Smigel's arm and punch Smigel in the mouth.

.

Joe Frazier

Former boxing champion Joe Frazier has liver cancer
Former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier, 67, was diagnosed four or five weeks ago and is under hospice care.

Ed here: There were only two sports I ever followed. I grew up on baseball and boxing. Baseball I gave up in my Twenties (though after this recent World Series--I watched three games--I'm probably coming back) and boxing in my Sixties when being in the chemo room twice a month gave me all the death thrills I needed.

I also used to be a Muhammed Ali fan but that ended when he fought Joe Frazier. Yes, Frazier is uneducated, has a difficult time expressing himself and has always been something of a joke to the Ali-crazed boxing press. But the humiliation and scorn and outright hatred Ali subjected Frazier to put me off Ali forever. I was happy that Frazier won. He's a damned good fighter and has always struck me as a decent sincere man.. I wish he'd won all his fights against Ali..

My thoughts and prayers are with Joe.

Associated Press
November 5, 2011, 3:50 p.m.
PHILADELPHIA — Former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier has liver cancer and is under hospice care.

The 67-year-old boxer was diagnosed four or five weeks ago, Frazier's personal and business manager said Saturday. Leslie Wolff told the Associated Press the doctors have not yet told Frazier how long he has to live.

"We have medical experts looking into all the options that are out there," Wolff said. "There are very few. But that doesn't mean we're going to stop looking."

Wolff, who has been Frazier's manager for seven years, said the boxer had been in and out of the hospital since early October and receiving hospice treatment for the last week.

"We appreciate every prayer we can get," Wolff said. "I've got everybody praying for him. We'll just keep our fingers crossed and hope for a miracle."

Frazier was the first man to beat Muhammad Ali, knocking him down and taking a decision in the so-called "Fight of the Century" in 1971. He would go on to lose two more fights to Ali, including the epic "Thrilla in Manila" in 1975.

Frazier was bitter for many years about the way Ali treated him then. More recently, he said he had forgiven Ali for repeatedly taunting him.

Frazier was a small yet ferocious fighter who smothered his opponents with punches, including a devastating left hook he used to end many of his fights early. It was the left hook that dropped Ali in the 15th round at Madison Square Garden in 1971 to seal a win in a bout where each fighter earned an unheard-of $2.5 million.

Ali and Frazier put on an even better show in their third fight, held in a sweltering arena in Manila as part of Ali's world tour of fights in 1975. Nearly blinded by Ali's punches, Frazier still wanted to go out for the 15th round but was held back by trainer Eddie Futch in a bout Ali would later say was the closest thing to death he could imagine.

Frazier won the heavyweight title in 1970 by stopping Jimmy Ellis in the fifth round of their fight at Madison Square Garden. He defended it successfully four times before George Foreman knocked him down six times in the first two rounds to take the title from him in 1973.

Frazier would never be heavyweight champion again.

In recent years, Frazier had been doing regular autograph appearances, including one in Las Vegas the weekend of a Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight in September.[image error]

"The Bride Wore Black": Truffaut's homage to Hitchcock Joan Didion

Jeanne Moreau in "The Bride Wore Black"

from Salon:

FRIDAY, NOV 4, 2011 4:25 PM CDT
"The Bride Wore Black": Truffaut's delicious homage to Hitchcock
Jeanne Moreau plays the ultimate femme fatale in a summery, deceptive fable of a woman's murderous revenge

BY ANDREW O'HEHIR

What begins as a French cinephile's almost obsessive tribute to Alfred Hitchcock becomes progressively weirder, wittier and more Continental in François Truffaut's 1968 "The Bride Wore Black," which begins a New York run this week and will then play in many other cities. Truffaut is sometimes viewed as a relative lightweight among the company of big-name '60s and '70s European directors, and there's no doubt his work is uneven. But I find myself appreciating his double-edged, seductive films more and more on repeat viewings. With its summery, Mediterranean surface, Jeanne Moreau as the ultimate femme fatale heroine and a knife-twisting tale of murderous revenge and unexpected romance, "The Bride Wore Black" is well worth rediscovering.

The first thing we see in "The Bride Wore Black" is a printing press churning out black-and-white images of a topless Moreau, but that's one of several misdirections in this movie, since the story is almost entirely chaste, and the color photography of famed cinematographer Raoul Coutard (who shot Godard's "Breathless," Truffaut's "Jules and Jim" and numerous other New Wave classics) is brilliant. With a deliberately obtrusive Bernard Herrmann score and its roots in a novel by Cornell Woolrich (whose short story "It Had to Be Murder" was the basis for "Rear Window"), "The Bride Wore Black" is more like a Hitchcock movie than some of Hitchcock's actual movies, at least at first.

for the rest go here:
http://www.salon.com/2011/11/04/the_b...

------------------John Banville reviewing Joan Didion's new book BLUE NIGHTS in the New York Times

"Certainly as a testament of suffering nobly borne, which is what it will be generally taken for, it is exemplary. However, it is most profound, and most provocative, at another level, the level at which the author comes fully to realize, and to face squarely, the dismaying fact that against life's worst onslaughts nothing avails, not even art; especially not art."

Ed here: I'd always half-assed believe in Boethius' "The Consolation of Philosophy" but as I get older I wonder. Manville lays out the contrary pretty effectively.

New Books: A Killer's Essence by Dave Zeltserman

FROM BOOKGASM
A Killer's Essence
by BRUCE GROSSMAN on NOVEMBER 4, 2011

It's here: another entry into the gritty and grim world of Dave Zeltserman. For those unfamiliar, Zeltserman has crafted some of the darkest crime novels to have come out in the past few years, and A KILLER'S ESSENCE shows it's still a world with no sunshine in sight.

Stan Green is a put-upon New York City detective who is short on funds and wishes his ex-wife hadn't taken the kids and moved to Rhode Island. He is assigned a case of a truly brutal killing. To say the crime scene is grisly is an understatement. He's forced to work the case alone, running himself ragged while trying to balance his personal life with a girlfriend who does not understand that going out with a police officer has disadvantages.


Green finds the one witness who saw the murder, but there's a major catch, and here Zeltserman uses the supernatural to a degree that has popped up in some of his earlier novels. The witness, Zach, can't describe the killer, since suffers from a condition where he sees the true selves of people. Plus, it drains Zach even to leave his apartment since his condition is so intense.

For those thinking that this is one of those books that takes place in a short time frame, Zeltserman shows that cases such as this take time. That other killings happen that might tie in just adds to the frustration for the police and the FBI, who are called in to help. Zeltserman pulls no punches, with a subplot involving Russian mob types, but that is nothing to some of the emotional draining moments that come later. This book is not for the squeamish, that's for sure.

And that is the kind of writing which shines, especially in a genre that can be filled with books that seem to feature super cops or, worse, know-it-alls who figure out the mystery faster than a speeding bullet. ESSENCE is hard to classify since it's as much a crime story as one in which fantastical elements play a central role. This is a terrific introduction to a writer on the rise whose style only grows each time. —Bruce Grossman

Buy it at Amazon.

I was planning to see this until

[image error]


Ed here: I don't go to many movies. But this one looked like it might be fun. Until I realized (which I should have realized along time ago) it was directed by Brett Rattner than whom there is no lower form of director. I've seen a number of his movies and they were all terrible. Plus I've seen him interviewed. He does himself no favors by letting the public hear him celebrate his wonderfulness. With so many good actors in it I may see it anyway. Hope and hype spring eternal.

FROM THE WRAP
Review: 'Tower Heist' a Great, Star-Studded Caper -- on Paper
Published: November 03, 2011 @ 11:52 am

By Alonso Duralde
In the new action-comedy "Tower Heist," Alan Alda plays a Bernie Madoff–ish financier who promotes his business acumen and lives a flashy lifestyle, complete with penthouse apartment and world-class art collection, but winds up being a total fraud.

The character winds up being a walking metaphor for the movie itself, which boasts a terrific cast, gorgeous cinematography and a caper-flick score that drives the action. Too bad that when it's over you realize that the characters aren't interesting and the titular heist wasn't all that thrilling.

Arthur Shaw (Alda) lives atop the Tower, New York's priciest and most exclusive high-rise, where a devoted staff sees to the needs of its demanding tenants. Running that staff is Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller), who's so devoted to his job that he seems to have little time for any fun apart from the online chess games he's always losing to Shaw.

Shaw gets arrested for fraud, and Josh is forced to tell the staff that he'd given their pension fund over to Shaw to invest for them. FBI special agent Claire (Téa Leoni) tells Josh that they didn't find any money in Shaw's apartment, but Josh remembers that Shaw had installed a hidden wall safe years earlier.

With blind faith that Shaw's emergency nest egg is locked in that safe, Josh decides to plan a robbery, using the knowledge that he and his brother-in-law, building concierge Charlie (Casey Affleck), have of the Tower to get the money out under the nose of Shaw and the FBI agents watching over him while he's under house arrest.

On paper, this has all the makings of a great caper comedy, from a timely revenge-on-the-rich-guy plotline to terrific New York locations shot by Dante Spinotti to a jazzy Lalo Schifrin–esque score by Christophe Beck to a snappy comic ensemble (which also includes Eddie Murphy as Josh's childhood-acquaintance-turned-petty-thief, Judd Hirsch as a humorless building manager, and Gabourey Sidibe as a maid with a talent for safe-cracking).

for the rest go here:
http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-...

Mystery Scene November 2011; Sandy Balzo

MYSTERY SCENE
At the Scene, November 2011 Solving the mystery of what to read next!
In this Issue
Anne Perry on Dante's Inferno
Overheard
The Blond Leading the Blond Review
NEW2011 MS Sale
November Greetings

Anne Perry reflects on Dante's Inferno, Jayne Ormerod's Blond Leading the Blond web exclusive review, holiday gift ideas, and One for the Money at the movies!

November kid pick: When Alex Parakeet's secret pie recipe is stolen, he and fellow 11-year-old sleuth Yasmeen Popp race to find the thief, recover the recipe, and save the day.

Hello everyone!

As I write this, Holiday Issue #122 is just getting ready to go to print for late-November newsstands.

You can look forward to a conversation with Marcia Muller, creator of the groundbreaking female private eye Sharon McCone. Margaret Maron describes the fateful meeting of her two detectives, Sigrid Harald and Deborah Knott, and we consider the UK series Garrow's Law which was based on a real-life 18th-century barrister sometimes called the 'Robin Hood of the Old Bailey." Also Jon L. Breen rounds up the year's best legal thrillers, and Lawrence Block continues his informal memoirs in "The Murders in Memory Lane."

Plus, there's the next installment of our book collecting series, a whole slew of great new book, DVD, audiobook, and other reviews, and, of course, the annual Mystery Scene Gift Guide, a stockingful of fun ideas for your crime and mystery lover.

Best wishes,
Kate Stine
Editor

Anne Perry on Dante's Inferno
We are not punished for our sins, but by them

Dante Alighieri in a 14th century painting attributed to Giotto, in the chapel of the Bargello Palace in Florence.


The book whose philosophy has held me more than any other is Dante's Inferno, written around 1310. I read
it haltingly in Italian, and with speed and joy in English (preferably the Dorothy L. Sayers translation, with captions and fascinating footnotes). There is passion and music in it, wit, character, and imagination
to equal that of any sci-fi or horror story. And the plot carries you forward at a hectic pace, always wondering what next.

Why do I care? We spend our lives fascinated with mankind, and with the quest to understand good and evil. Dante encapsulates the soul of it in his vision showing how we are not punished for our sins, but by them. It is not an external thing visited upon us by God, or fate. It is an internal change we have wrought in ourselves. Each bad choice diminishes us in a particular way, just as each good one adds to us.

His classification of sins is most thought-provoking. Lightest are the sins of the Leopard - those of incontinence. In the middle are the sins of the Lion - those of violence. Deepest are the Sins of the Wolf - those of fraud, deceit and betrayal - a capacity peculiar to man.

Among these lowest are flatterers (debasing the means of communication between individuals): forgers (destroying the means of trade); propagandists (polluting all trust and belief between peoples). Pollution of the earth we now understand and condemn as damaging the very world we live in, and therefore all life. Who else grasped that in 1300?

For sheer enjoyment - and perhaps a touch of "schadenfreude," there are the grotesque punishments so exquisitely fitting the crimes - e.g., the lustful swept along by violent winds, never allowed to rest; thieves who now cannot possess even their own bodily forms and are forever changing. It gives the term "poetic justice" a whole new meaning.

And there is the beauty. In that terrible place you still see Christ "walking the waters of Styx with unwet feet."

Every time I return to it I am caught up in the power of Dante's imagination and made to think again "Am I turning myself into who I really want to be? If I saw my acts without the comfortable mask of self-delusion, would I still want them to be part of me?" Thank you, Dante Alighieri.

Anne Perry's latest book is A Christmas Homecoming (Ballantine, October 2011). www.anneperry.net

"Writers on Reading" is a special ongoing Mystery Scene series available as a first look exclusive to our newsletter subscribers.

----------------SANDY BALZO

The second part of my article, Writing the Killer Series, just hit the stands in this month's issue of Southern Writers Magazine.

The two-part article discusses eight major decisions that a writer needs to make before sitting down to begin the first book of what will become--fingers crossed--a series. In this second part, I cover things like:
Location: Fresh meat delivered to your door
Timing: Rip Van Winkle vs. Dorian Gray, your choice
Susan Reichert, editor of Southern Writers, calls the article "great" and says she got so much out of it that every writer needs to read it. High praise!

All the best,
Sandy

Sandra Balzo is an award-winning author of crime fiction, including eight books in two different mystery series--one set in the High Country of North Carolina and the other outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her books have garnered starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist, while being recommended to readers of Janet Evanovich, Charlaine Harris, Harlan Coben, Joan Hess and Margaret Maron. A recent member of the National Board of Directors for the Mystery Writers of America, Sandy now splits her time between South Florida and North Carolina.
www.SandraBalzo.com

Heath Lowrance; Kirkus; Beat To A Pulp; Mystery Readers Journal

From Heath Lowrance:

Hi Ed, thought you might be interested in my new e-short. It's a horror-western-pulp-adventure mash-up, the first in a new series from Trestle Press. Ed here: That Damned Coyote is really a hoot and a fine story. Check it out.

------------

I hadn't seen the Kirkus review of Bad Moon Rising until yesterday afternoon. Decent marks with a nice money quote: "Read this installment, like all the others (Ticket to Ride, 2009, etc.), for the pop-historical detail and the loving evocation of small-town America."

-----------
From David Cranmer:

A real quick letter to let everyone know the latest eBook I've edited has just been released. It is called BEAT to a PULP: HARDBOILED and is available at Amazon for $0.99: http://www.amazon.com/BEAT-PULP-Hardb....

HARDBOILED is a compilation of uncompromising, gritty tales following in the footsteps of the tough and violent fiction popularized by the legendary Black Mask magazine in its early days. This collection includes thirteen lean and mean stories from the fingertips of Garnett Elliott, Glenn Gray, John Hornor Jacobs, Patricia Abbott, Thomas Pluck, Brad Green, Ron Earl Phillips, Kent Gowran, Amy Grech, Benoit Lelievre, Kieran Shea, Wayne D. Dundee, and yours truly and a boiled down look at hardboiled fiction in an introduction by Ron Scheer. I co-edited the collection with Scott D. Parker.

-----------


From Janet Rudolph

"The next issue of Mystery Readers Journal will focus on Shrinks and other Mental Healthcare Professionals. Would love to have an Author! Author! essay from you for this issue (Volume 27:4). 500-2500 words, first person, upclose and personal about yourself, your books and the 'shrink' connection. Think of it as talking to friends and other writers in the cafe or bar. Please add a 2-3 sentence bio/tagline and snail-mail address (I'll send a copy when it comes out).

Mystery Readers Journal is in its 27th year of publication. We are a review quarterly. MRJ is available in both hardcopy and PDF. Have a look at tables of contents from past themed issues.
http://www.mysteryreaders.org/journal...