CrimeFest bills itself as “a convention for people who like to read an occasional crime novel as well as for die-hard fanatics.” In other words, a convention for everyone in the world. And since CrimeFest 2013, held as it is every year in Bristol, England, included a panel discussion with the creators of BBC’s Sherlock,…
Crime fiction is cheerfully described as an addiction by many of its fans, including such diverse personalities as Sigmund Freud and Woodrow Wilson. Just as neurochemical addicts have an endless menu of obsessions to gorge on (alcohol, tobacco, narcotics, gambling, chocolate, sex…), crimefic addicts have an ever-growing and ever-mutating variety of subgenres to sample. But…
Just lately, I’ve been pondering the reasons behind my apparent predilection for all things crime fiction. As a kid, I remember staring with amazement at the covers of my Mother’s library books. Invariably, they showed a discarded gun, carefully posed body, or spatters of blood—which my brother and I thought was hilarious. We were always…
Bouchercon is a guaranteed good time. Seriously. Even if you never leave the bar and spend all your time listening to conversations, you’re bound to meet up with some great people and hear some really cool stuff. Here are some of the gems we overheard this year: “John Connolly smells am-ayyyyyy-zing.” “Lee Child smells pretty…
What is a gathering of Scottish crime writers known as “Bloody Scotland?” Well, you were in Stirling, an hour’s drive from Scotland’s capital city Edinburgh, home of the larger-than-life William Wallace and gateway to the Highlands. No Australian accents, a la Mel Gibson, were in attendance, but there were American, Icelandic, Scottish (not surprisingly), and…
Back in May, I introduced a few dames of noir that are worthy of top spots on your reading list. Well, I’m back with more, so here we go! I believe I mentioned Cathi Unsworth in my last post, so we’ll start with her, shall we? Ms. Unsworth, a London noir dame, is the author…
Fans of Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin have two new reasons to be cheerful. First is the longed-for return of his police detective hero John Rebus in Standing in Another Man’s Grave, set for U.K. publication in November and U.S. release in January 2013. It’s been 25 years since Rebus was introduced in Rankin’s Knots…
For the first time in recent memory (read: more than a decade), none of the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award nominees for Best Novel have ever been nominated before. On April 26th, one of them will be announced from the stage at New York’s Grand Hyatt Hotel and take a first walk with this…
I recently read Peter Robinson’s fine novel Friend of the Devil. When I was finished, I spent a pleasant half hour checking out all the music he references throughout the book. (Or rather, music that plays on Inspector Banks’ iPod, which he keeps in shuffle mode, evidently enjoying surprising himself.) I even bought a couple…
If you read the previous post about Scotland’s great female crime writers, you learned a bit about Glasgow especially. Now, we’ll cover the lads with Edinburgh and county Fife. Ian Rankin, in particular, comes from Fife, which is the Scottish equivalent of New Jersey and actually has more connection to Chile, through mining, than much…
