Ed Gorman's Blog, page 235

Rex Stout & Kindle

I've had four doc appointments this week. Fortunately I've bought four Rex Stout books (three novels and a collection) for my Kindle and it's like going home again. Stout was one of the first adult mystery novelists I read and I've never lost my fondness for the world and characters he created.

Right now I'm reading The Golden Spiders which has got a twist every ten pages or so and contains some of the funniest dialogue Stout ever wrote for Archie and Nero. Archie wants to piss off Nero--payba...

Cinema Retro; Forgotten Books

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What're you waiting for? The new Cinema Retro is packed with goodies. Of major interest for me is the lengthy piece on The Haunting with commentary by director Robert Wise. But you can read the cover copy for yourself. get it now!

----------Forgotten Books Women of Wonder ed. by Pamela Sargent

Duffers like me seem to have a difficult time reading a fair share of contemporary science fiction. I always says it's because we're not smart enough to appreciate it and I'm only half-joking. The majo...

The new The Killer Inside Me

Ed here: Charles McGarth has a notably wise take on the new version of Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me. He also includes an interview with Bertrand Tavernier who did the finest Thompson film of all "Pop. 1280." This is Celine without the self-pity and kvetching.

Like many Thompson novels "The Killer Inside Me" is told in the first person, and the reader eventually discovers that Lou is himself dead: he's speaking to the reader from beyond the grave, as it were, and his narrative voice is a...

William Campbell Gault - J. Kingston Pierce

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I've mentioned before the extraordinary job Jeff Pierce does not just with The Rap Sheet but his other site Killer Covers. This time he covers the life and career of William Campbell Gault. I got to know Bill reasonably well during the eighties and into the nineties. A more wonderful guy is impossible to imagine. No guile, no ego tantrums. I came to see him as my uncle. He had a lot of tales of other writers, 98% positive. He always said that one of his regrets was that the falling out he ha...

From Crime Space

Ed here: I got this letter from Dave Zeltserman today and thought I'd pass it along. I happened to scan the Garrison Keillor piece referred to here. As readers of this blog know, I'm no Keillor fan. Winsome County wore out plumb quick for me and when I heard Keillor--along with Prof. Matthew Bruccolli and Christopher Hitchens discuss The Great Gatbsy--I knew that Keillor and I lived on different planets. He insists that the famous green light at the end of Gatsby is a symbol of America's prom...

A letter from Robert Ryan

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Ed here: The Night Editor is an essential site for noir fans. It linked to two excellent pieces about Robert Ryan. This one details Ryan's acting life but also the family scandal that darkened his boyhood. This is from The Chicago Reader copyright 2009. Here's The Night Editor http://thenighteditor.blogspot.com/ By coincidence I saw two John Garfield pictures within the last couple of weeks and as I watched I thought of how much Garfield and Ryan were the ying and yang of noir. Garfield opp...

So Philip K Dick needed a co-writer eh?

Ed here: Attacking Philip K. Dick's literary style is becoming a popular sport. Clunky he was in his early ulp days but he became a much better stylist as he worked along. But why let that spoil the fun?

What Philip K Dick needed was a co-author
by Darragh McManus
Despite his brilliant imagination, Philip K Dick's prose was often dreadful. But who are the other literary greats who could have done with a helping hand?

And there was a view out. Limited, no larger in fact than a comb of bees' wax. B...

Pro-File: Simon Wood

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Pro-File Simon Wood:

1. Tell us about your current novel.
My current novel is TERMINATED and it deals with workplace violence. It centers on Gwen Farris who is a middle manager at a biotech firm who falls a prey to one of her disgruntled employees, Stephen Tarbell. Tarbell resents Gwen and her position, so he takes it upon himself to ruin her life. Gwen tries to use the corporate system to help rid her of this problem, but when it fails her, she's forced to take some unorthodox actions to save...

Forgotten Books: Murder Among Children by Donald. E Westlake; Committment

Back in 1967 when Donald Westlake, writing under the name Tucker Coe, published Murder Among Children (second in the series about disgraced cop Mitch Tobin) the Summer of Love had yet to arrive. Hippies were still these strange beings who did little more than fornicate freely and toke on as many joints as they could find. The mainstream press loved them. So did paperback writers, sociologists and people who made their dough standing at pulpits. Hippies were proof positive that this country wa...

Henning Mankell, Swedish Crime Writer On Gaza Aid Ship

Ed here: I just ran across this on Huffington Post. Haven't seen it anywhere else. Now 3,427 of you will tell me you've being reading it all day on numerous blogs.

Huff Post:

Henning Mankell, Swedish Crime Writer On Gaza Aid Ship, Held In Custody In Israel
First Posted: 06- 1-10 11:12 AM | Updated: 06- 1-10 11:12 AM


Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell, author of the Wallander detective series, is one of nine Swedes held in Israel Monday after landing from a Gaza-bound aid flotilla attacked ...