Ed Gorman's Blog, page 246

Ostara Publishing; Sam Peckinpah; Health update

OSTARA PUBLISHING ostara@aspects.net Website www.ostarapublishing .co.uk TOP NOTCH THRILLERS New Titles: February 2010 Three months after the imprint's launch, Ostara Publishing has issued four more titles in their print-on-demand Top Notch Thrillers series which "aims to revive Great British thrillers which do not deserve to be forgotten".

The new titles, originally published in Britain between 1962 and 1970, were selected by crime writer and critic Mike Ripley, who acts as Series Editor for...

Forgotten Books: Down There by David Goodis; Health Update

Forgotten Books: Down There by David Goodis

"Love between the ugly/is the most beautiful love of all."
--Todd Rundgren

I haven't kept up with all the Goodis mania of the past five years or so so forgive me if what I'm about to say has been said not only better but quite often as well.

To me Down There is one of Goodis' finest novels filled with all his strengths and none of his weaknesses. The world here is his natural milieu, the world of America's underclass. Yes, there are working class men a...

Matthew Clemens: Collaborating with Max Collins

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Ed here: I would never have finished my first novel without the encouragement of Max Allan Collins. His friendship and advice gave me the push I needed to stop scrapping quarter-novels and half-novels and finally complete one. Here Matthew Clemens talks about his own literary relationship with Al.

Matthew Clemens:

It started with a phone call. Al and I had been friends for over ten years by then, and had been looking for something we could work on together for a year or so when he call...

Rat Pack story for Bob Randisi; Health Update

I have no idea how true the following is (or if it's true at all) but it makes for a great Rat Pack story and who'd appreciate it more than the writer of the great Rat Pack novels, Bob Randisi. So this is for you Bob. From The Wrap:

Sinatra, JFK, the Mob ... and 'Papa Loves Mambo'

by Helen O'Donnell

"I'm not one of those complicated, mixed-up cats. I'm not looking for the secret to life.... I just go on from day to day, taking what comes." --
Frank Sinatra

My dad, Kenny O'Donnell, hated this ki...

Forgotten Books: The Inner Circle by Jonathan Fast

This novel came along shortly after the books of Stephen King launched the horror boom. If its storyline owes anything to a classic horror writer it's Robert Bloch. A) Because it concerns a diabolical plot that spans most of the last century and B) Because it's steeped in Holywood lore, this time circa 1979.

Louis Pinkle is a Los Angeles magazine writer who is peddling a screenplay every chance he gets. When his old friend and mega TV star Tony Valenti shows up at his apartment one night plead...

Who is the next face of Boston crime fiction? Boston Globe

Criminal Minds

Robert Parker is gone. Who is the next face of Boston crime fiction?

By Don Aucoin, Globe Staff | February 23, 2010

Robert B. Parker had been the face of Boston crime fiction for nearly four decades when he died on Jan. 18. There is no replacing a writer who built a larger-than-life persona and cut a unique swath with his best-selling Spenser novels. But who are the new faces to watch? Who stands poised to possibly follow in Parker's footsteps and make their mark with hard-boile...

Robert E. Howard

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Since there is so much renewed interest in Robert E. Howard's fiction I thought I'd reprint this post from 2006. The review is followed by James Reasoner's comments. Thanks, James.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2006

Michael Dirda on Robert E. Howard--James Reasoner responds
Hacking his way from one crisis to another -- the quintessential fighting man.

By Michael Dirda
Sunday, January 22, 2006; BW15 The Washington Post

THE COMING OF CONAN THE CIMMERIAN

By Robert E. Howard

Illustrated by Mark Schultz

Del Rey/Bal...

Too Big To Fail: Alec Baldwin by James Wolcott

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Too Big to Fail
Comedic genius of 30 Rock, seductive star of It's Complicated, co-host of this year's Academy Awards–Alec Baldwin has come through personal and professional disaster to emerge as Hollywood's favorite rogue. How come he's threatening to retire?

By James Wolcott
March 2010

Actor and Oscar co-host Alec Baldwin. Illustration by André Carrilho.
How did Alec Baldwin achieve this bizarre headlock on our affections? It's as if he secretly adopted us, or we adopted him; either way, say hell...

THE SECRETS OF DEATH ON DEMAND by Carolyn Hart

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THE SECRETS OF DEATH ON DEMAND: 20 titles, 20 revelations
by Carolyn Hart
1. I was writing a mystery set in a general bookstore when I visited Murder by the Book in Houston, TX, in April 1985. Enchanted by the idea of a mystery bookstore, I created Death on Demand, the finest mystery bookstore south of Atlanta, and the first book in the series is entitled Death on Demand. I placed the store on a fictional sea island reminiscent of Hilton Head, South Carolina, in the nineteen seventies when our ...

Ghosts I have been

The Telegraph UK ran this article the other day. Well worth reading. My comments follow the excerpt.

Now we can all believe in ghostwriters
There's more to a book than the name on its cover, says Andrew Crofts.

By Andrew Crofts
Published: 6:36AM GMT 16 Feb 2010
Comments 30 | Comment on this article

Mine is a secretive profession, more accustomed to the shadows than the limelight. But two new films have made ghostwriters the centre of attention: Roman Polanski's The Ghost, and L'Autre Dumas, which ...