Monday

Crimesquad.com have been kind enough to make me their author of the month. They have reviewed The Magdalena Curse and published a Q&A in which I talk about crime fiction and thrillers generally. Their review of Curse was a lot kinder than one I saw where the critic took exception to the length of my paragraphs. I'm hardly Henry James, I thought when I read it. Maybe she is more used to reviewing fiction aimed at children. That's a catty remark, but I'm happy to stand by it. There are lots of nice short paragraphs in the Mr Men books I read to my four year old daughter.
Spent the weekend reading Under the Dome and marveling at the way Stephen King can orchestrate a huge cast of characters and action unfolding on a large scale. He's done it before of course, with the spread of Captain Trips in The Stand and the way the town succumbed to vampirism in Salem's Lot. But his narrative skill is staggering when you step back from the story and think about it analytically.
Bought the book from W.H. Smith, where they were selling it at half price. So I paid ten quid for close to 900 pages of what is so far shaping up to be vintage King. You can hardly complain at that, can you.