Couple new reviews now on-line: Reed Coleman's The James Deans, which I liked, but not as much as most people seem to, and Domenic Stansberry's The Confessions, which I liked just as much as everyone did.
Box o' Bill. Got a pack of Pronzini from eBay the other day, and after reading them I counted up how many of his Nameless Detective novels I'd read. The final tally was twenty-three (!!!). Plus I've read about half a dozen of his other books, too.
It's interesting to see how his style evolved. In The Snatch I can see some of Ross Macdonald's influence, plus he's working for one of the rich 'n powerful. By The Vanished he's taking cases from working stiffs, and by Undercurrent his style is fully developed. Finally, Blowback features a classic Pronzini location: a fishing camp in the mountains an hour or two from the Bay Area. In fact, although he's known as a San Francisco writer, I bet he's spilled more ink on the surrounding areas than on San Fran itself. Look for a rewiew of his new book next month.
posted by Graham at 8:34 PM
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Posted a couple of review last night, of Stuart Kaminsky's The Last Dark Place and of Murder And All That Jazz, edited by Robert J. Randisi. The Kaminsky book is very good, but his Abe Lieberman series is sort of like a soap opera - it's tough to come in at the middle. Still, I've read two of the books and I'm sold. Randisi's latest anthology is also pretty good, with a number of well-done stories and only a couple of clunkers. Sometimes I think Randisi's biggest asset as an editor is his Rolodex - he can call on all the best writers and ends up with the best stories.
We sell out! Yes, Bleeker Books will begin accepting ads (again). I found an ad service that I liked, called AdButler, and they made it easy to get up and running. Right now I'm hitting just over 100 page views per day, so if you've got something hardboiled to sell (other than eggs) you might want to check out the details here.
posted by Graham at 11:09 AM
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
There's a new issue of The Thrilling Detective out, with all kinds of goodies on the 75th anniversary of the publication of Dashiell Hammett'sThe Maltese Falcon, plus new detective fiction by Stephen D. Rogers, Mark Best, and Christopher Gooch. Incidentally, in an earlier post I suggested that "prolific" was a part of Rogers' name. His middle name is actually "Ubiquitous". I have no idea why he spells it with a D.
January Magazine also has a great feature on Falcon's ongoing influence, with lots of crime writers weighing in.
In other news, there will be a reading in honor of the late Joseph Hansen at Beyond Baroque in Los Angeles on Friday, February 18th at 7:30pm. The highlight will be a ten minute film of Hansen himself reading his poetry. If you're in the area, be sure to check it out.
posted by Graham at 12:46 PM
