HEADSTONE - Ken Bruen

First line: "He drained the last of the pint, thought,
'Christ, that was good.'"

Jack Taylor returns in Ken Bruen's ninth book of the series about the former guard turned Irish PI. Jack's damaged emotionally and physically, tainting his view of the world. But in HEADSTONE, he's daring to let hope weasel its way into his heart. That light is violently extinguished when a gang of sociopaths begin their march of terror through Galway and set their collective sights on Jack himself.

Ken Bruen fans will not be disappointed in his newest installment, labeled a "Jack Taylor novel of terror." Bruen's signature style glows as strong as ever: a pitch-black tone, with ever-so-tiny fissures of light and hope daring to invade the space. Damaged characters who simultaneously scare the bejesus out of you while making you want to take them home and protect them from all life's evils - give them the chance the world has deprived them of. John Lee, the HEADSTONE audiobook narrator, captures that dichotomy superbly. Lee allows the reader to hear and FEEL Taylor's rage and hopelessness, to experience the disbelief and horror.

Those not familiar with Bruen's work will easily be able to pick up HEADSTONE and join Jack Taylor's life odyssey mid-series. John Lee gives Bruen's unyielding sense of place dimension through his Irish brogue and obvious understanding of Taylor. Bruen's chilling atmosphere wraps around the reader in the form of Lee's voice.

I kept the print version of HEADSTONE close during my audio experience. It is a unique combination, probably enhanced by my American-ness. Bruen writes in a distinct style that is essential to the story. His placement of words on a page are just as much a part of his art as Jack Taylor. One shouldn't experience this series without experiencing the way Bruen has painted his pages. Lee gives sound to Taylor, a sound that a naive American with little experience of the variety in Irish dialect would completely botch without help. Experiencing the two together was an explosion of the senses - an experience I would recommend to any true crime fiction fan.

HEADSTONE is available in the United States in print (ISBN: 978-0-8021-2600-9) from The Mysterious Press and on audio from High Bridge Audio (ISBN: 978-1-61174-598-6). The audio runs 5 1/2 hours.

They Said WHAT? - June

June was a rather crazy month for me with lots of fun trips and a slew of crazy, wonderful reads. However, that didn't translate into a lot of blog work time, so I'm a bit behind. And since I was out of town last Sunday, I didn't get to post my favorite lines from June. So, I'm going to share those with you today, and then I have a wonderfully packed line-up for the rest of the week. I hope you'll check back often. Also, don't forget to enter to win one of the stunning book soundtracks from John Connolly in honor of his upcoming U.S. release of THE WHISPERERS.

Have a happy 4th of July and enjoy these great lines:

• from Gar Anthony Haywood's amazing CEMETERY ROAD;

"Because sometimes ignorance truly is bliss, and once it is gone, asking God to have it back is a wasted prayer."

"What I saw and heard during that time gave me no reason to think she would outlive me. She had taken the sorrow of a motherless child and made a funeral blanket out of it, a shroud she could curl up in to retreat from all the warmth and light of the world."

"He was fourteen years old at the most and, already, life and death to him were but interchangeable, equally valueless sides of the same coin."

"Some memories lose their shape and form faster than others. Details dim and disappear, forever out of reach of the conscious mind. Settings shift and grow vague, while the people in them perform all nature of tricks, morphing into others and moving about at will, either imposing themselves upon a time and place in which they played no part, or vacating one that holds little meaning without them. Six men in a room become two, three become five. The variations are endless."

• from Marcus Sakey's outstanding thriller, THE AMATEURS:

"The world narrowed to a long hallway, like the gun had black-hole gravity that warped space."

• from Charlie Huston's stunning novel THE MYSTIC ART OF ERASING ALL SIGNS OF DEATH:

"I looked up at the sky outside the window.

A piece of it snapped off and dropped and hit me on the head.

And it was all there again, the whole thing, back in my head, one picture, entire. No longer broken into the little fragments I liked to keep it scattered in. Fragments hidden on ghost buses cruising L.A. Freighters of lost things. But not of me."

• from Ken Bruen's heart-wrenching THE KILLING OF THE TINKERS:

"Serena didn't have an extra chromosome; it was us, the normal ones, who were lacking the added spark. Would I could have held on to that moment, I could have just sampled the energy for a little longer. I'd no longer need oblivion."

• and finally, from Craig Johnson's magnificent JUNKYARD DOGS:

"It was a tough business coming to terms with your own mortality, and some people, once they are confronted with its face, never forget its features."

"Dog was seated in the front. He turned to look at me as if I'd lost my mind. He had Saint Bernard in him and some German shepherd with a bunch of other things, most of them domesticated except for when you had bacon - then he was part great white shark."

Happy Holidays and Happy Reading!!!!

Technorati Tags: Craig Johnson, Ken Bruen, Charlie Huston, Marcus Sakey, Gar Anthony Haywood

A Tale of Two Childhoods

I'm giddy with excitement to be able to introduce my guest blogger today. Ken Bruen is the author both the Jack Taylor series and the Sergeant Tom Brant series, as well as numerous other works and collaborations. Ken spent twenty-five years teaching English in Africa, Japan, S.E. Asia and South America. He's been nominated for almost every award known to crime fiction: the Edgar, the Barry, the Macavity. And he's a Shamus award-winner. Ken, like his Jack Taylor protagonist, hails from Galway, Ireland. And he is quite possibly one of the nicest, most generous people I've known.

It is my distinct honor and pleasure to have Ken Bruen here today to tell his story as only Ken can:

A Tale of Two Childhoods

As a child, I was guilty of the worst crime in the Irish calendar, I was quiet. In fact, I never spoke and those who know me now wonder if maybe, I wasn't a better gig then.

Moving on

Sitting beside me was a lad named Gerry, full of vim and vigour and as they say, even then most likely to succeed

Right behind us was a lad named Sean, from the poorest area of the town and to be poor then, meant watching for the rent man on a Friday night and alerting your mother to turn off the lights so he might believe you were out

As if there was anyplace to go

And lights out didn't convince the rent man of anything, save, you hadn't paid the light bill

Fast forward

Gerry, two years ago, hadn't quite become the success they'd planned and the circus was in town and, a few pints to the worst, he went down at 4 in the morning to pet the tigers, as he felt they might be lonely

They gook both his arms off

It was indeed, dare I say, Tabloid fodder

He was the front page for all of a day

Got over thirty large in compensation

With the help of new friends, he blew the money in five weeks

I ran into him last year when my French translators were in town

See, see the casual way I inserted that, like I have a whole realm of translators and last year, it was the turn of The French.

I was in the bathroom and Gerry came in, ask me to am......help him relieve himself, he had refused any artificial limbs, telling me

"Them yokes never fecking work."

I'm thus, engaged, when the translator walks in and not only am I.......manhandling......but with a person who is obviously physically handicapped

My dark rep in France was........SOLID

Gerry asks me to light him and I put a cigarette between his lips, fire him up and he goes

"How are them books doing for you?"

And my heart is scalded, torn in a thousand ribbons, and I know the sheer decency he was raised in, I say

"Doing ok now, thanks."

And armless, he moves off, ensconced in a cloud of nicotine, says

"You were always a hoor for them books."

I met Sean last week, he has just been named as the third richest man in Ireland, ahead of Bono and trust me, that is serious bucks or Euros or whatever you measure in and he is just about the coldest person I've met in many an era and believe me, I've met some cold one's, most of them I'm related to, more's the Irish-ed pity, mainly through alcohol and he says

"I don't read fiction."

Right off the bat, like I'd asked him

"Do you read fiction?"

Subtext here.......do you read me?

None of that false bonhomie,

"Gee, haven't seen in twenty years, how the devil are you?"

No wonder he's rich

Reminded me of the old adage, if you want to know what god thinks of money, look who he gave it to.......Madonna?

I muttered something along the lines of

"Hasn't Ireland changed so much?"

Piss poor, you think I don't know?

And then the moment, he gives me the full on eye fuck, says

"But I've read your most recent offering."

Don't you love him?

I wait cos waiting is what, not so much what I'm best at, but I'm most accustomed to and he's used to making pronouncements and then he adds

"You need to write a bestseller."

God it.

Memo to self

Wake up, say yer prayers, have a shower, ring your child before she goes to school and am......write bestseller

I have it

When I was young, the old people, they'd see some poor afflicted soul, they'd bless themselves, utter

"There but for the grace of god........"

I think about that and guess what, when I utter that, who do you think I see as the afflicted soul?

Hint.......when I had to go to hospital after I got me jaw broken at a book launch, who came to see me, said

"I'd have brought a book but I couldn't carry it."



As I said in my review of THE GUARDS....speechless! Thank you for being a part of "Detectives Around the World" Ken! You already know you warmed my heart with your contribution. I'll be the one smiling ear to ear all day today.

Happy Reading everyone! Enjoy the other bloggers today for the third day of "Detectives Around the World."

Technorati Tags: Detectives Around the World, Ken Bruen

THE GUARDS - Ken Bruen

FIRST LINE: It's almost impossible to be thrown out of the Garda Siochana.

Jack Taylor is a former garda in Galway, Ireland. When he was ousted for his excessively alcoholic ways, he took up private detecting. Or rather, he started to "find things" because

"There are no private eyes in Ireland. The Irish wouldn't wear it. The concept brushes perilously close to the hated 'informer.' You can get away with most anything except 'telling.'"

In THE GUARDS, Taylor is called on to "find" the truth about a teen girl's suicide. Her mother, Ann, doesn't believe she would commit suicide and there has been an unusual number of suicides. All teen girls. All from drowning. Taylor tells Ann he can't make any promises, but he sets off to see what he can find. In his investigation he finds more than information on Sarah's death, he finds out about himself, about his friends, and about life in general.

I'm sure you've all experienced those books where you finish, close the book, sit back and think "Wow" simply because nothing else seems to come close to expressing the chaos of what you feel. That's what happened to me with THE GUARDS. Ken Bruen manages to yank on your heart while simultaneously tickling your funny bone. You don't really WANT to like the drunk, crass Taylor, but the kind genuine heart underneath won't give you a choice.

Bruen's writing style echos the sparseness of the land and its people. It also heightens Taylor's drinking episodes so that you're almost going through them yourself. Then when Taylor's struggling to stay away from the alcohol, you're struggling right along with him. Taylor's fighting to find his way, find where he belongs, but he's doesn't seem to have one place and he's constantly wandering to find it.

Combine that style with the richness of Bruen's content and there's no wonder at all why Bruen is one of Ireland's greatest writers today. Throughout THE GUARDS Taylor receives notices concerning a coat he was issued while a garda. He has neglected to return the coat and so continues to receive these notices. The coat and Taylor's actions in regards to the coat symbolize who Taylor is and what he is experiencing. Taylor doesn't play by the rules, but more by necessity than by choice. He's aware he's doing wrong but he doesn't do so belligerently; he does it to protect himself and survive.

The coat is just one small snippet of the richness of this novel. The huge insights that Bruen imparts with minimal words often left me speechless altogether:

"Sometimes, though, when people reveal a piece, they don't want an answer, just a receiver."

or

"My time in Ballinasloe, I thought of a hundred things. Most of a depressive nature. The roads not less travelled but blindly staggered upon. People who'd been kind to me and I had abused so very badly."

And Bruen's humor, while dark - this is afterall noir - is unmatched. I often found myself thinking, "I shouldn't be laughing, but gosh darn this is hysterical." And it isn't complex jokes. It's subtle nuances and turns of phrase. It's situational. Things you would think in your head sarcastically, Taylor belts out, full speed ahead:

"If you don't laugh at least once in the asylum, time to up the medicine."

If THE GUARDS isn't plenty of medicine for you, there may not be hope. Choosing one word to describe the THE GUARDS and wrap this review, it would have to be: sublime.

THE GUARDS was the recipient of a Shamus Award and is available in the United States from St. Martin's Minotaur in trade paper (ISBN: 978-0-312-32027-0).

Technorati Tags: Detectives Around the World, Ken Bruen, book review

Two By Bruen

I recently finished CALIBRE and THE DRAMATIST on audio, both by Ken Bruen and both read by Michael Deehy, so I'm going to review them together in this post.


CALIBRE first line: "Shit from shinola. You have to hand it to the god-damned Yanks, they have great verbals, man."

CALIBRE is Bruen's sixth Inspector Brant novel. Brant is a member of the Southeast London Police Squad, and in this installment of the series, he's after a killer who is taking cues from Jim Thompson's THE KILLER INSIDE ME. The murderer targets people with poor manners and kills them in such a way that it's impossible to declare them murders because the actual cause of death is always questionable. While he's trying to track down this killer, Brant is also trying to become England's Joseph Wambaugh by writing his own crime fiction novel. However, he can't write. Point of view effectively alternates between the murderer's first person monologues and third person limited.

THE DRAMATIST first line: Lemsip and Greek yoghurt. That was my daily fare, the Lemsip for a flu I thought I had.

THE DRAMATIST is Bruen's fourth Jack Taylor novel. Taylor is a sometimes P.I./former Guard in Galway, Ireland. Bruen's alcoholic Taylor is living a clean and sober life in THE DRAMATIST when his former drug dealer summons him to the prison where he's incarcerated. The drug dealer's sister died apparently by accident, but the drug dealer doesn't believe it to be an accident; he wants Taylor to investigate and find the person responsible. When Taylor begins investigating he finds a scary similarity to another "apparent accident," the presence of a book by John Millington Synge.

I opted to review these together because, despite their unique characters, plots and settings, they share a recipe for excellence. Bruen, in both novels, takes the reader through an experience riddled with crime, darkness, and wretchedness. Yet in both novels he elicited genuine laughter from me. His dark humor is as striking as his heart-wrenching despair.

Bruen is a minimalist. Every word, every sentence counts; he sculpts elaborate, detailed universes with the most basic of tools and is unmatched in his craft. He also has a very distinct style and sound. There is a short, sharp sound to Bruen's writing and that works to reinforce the tone of the novels.

Brant is an unlikeable protagonist, but smart as a whip. And while you wait patiently for someone to pull one over on Brant, you still grin when he cleverly outwits those around him. Taylor, in THE DRAMATIST, has a tendency to evoke pity from the reader. He's created the life he now lives, but you find yourself rooting for him to succeed in his efforts to turn his life around, yet at every turn he's met with overwhelming obstacles. For a character-lover such as myself, Brant and Taylor are dreams come true. They're complex characters that can't be forced into stereotypes or traditional protagonist roles so you're challenged as a reader to develop a new kind of relationship with these characters. The challenge doesn't come with identifying flaws in these characters, but rather in looking past the flaws to discover why they are so magnetic.

Ken Bruen crafts works of art and binds them between two covers. In my case, Michael Deehy interpreted the works of art vocally in the form of the audiobook. It actually took me awhile to discern that it was in fact the same person reading both books. That is how deep-rooted he was in each of the characters. I felt he did an outstanding job with both narrations. The only thing I had to watch for was my love of Irish brogue. It had a tendency to lull me because I find it almost transfixing. I highly recommend both book as well as both audiobook versions.

CALIBRE was published in the U.S. by St. Martin's Minotaur in 2006 (ISBN: 978-0-3123-4144-2) and on unabridged audio by BBC Audiobooks America (ISBN: 978-0-7927-4073-5), also in 2006.

THE DRAMATIST was published in the U.S. by St. Martin's Minotaur in 2006 (ISBN: 978-0-3123-1647-1) and on unabridged audio by BBC Audiobooks America in 2006 (ISBN: 978-0-7927-3911-1).

What Would YOU Like to See Nominated?

Alafair Burke put this short video together on what MWA folks would like to see nominated this year for the Edgar Awards. I think it's an intriguing question, so I'll throw it out for all of you as well. Check out the video and then let me know in the comments what you'd like to see nominated this year:


I have to be honest and say I don't know where the cut-off dates are for this year's nominations, but I think Craig Johnson is long overdue for recognition here and would like to see THE DARK HORSE get a nod. I also think TELL NO ONE (Gregg Hurwitz), THE BRUTAL TELLING (Louise Penny) and TOWER (Coleman/Bruen) are deserving. I'm listening to THE LONG FALL during my workouts and it's another powerful book. Also, I've said this repeatedly, Timothy Hallinan's amazing. BREATHING WATER is the best of the Poke Rafferty series and I don't know how this series is being kept such a secret. I think this year will be a challenge; there was a lot of great stuff out there.

Best first novel. I'll be disappointed if Sophie Littlefield and Brad Parks are overlooked here.

And I'm not much in the prognostication department, but THE FIRST RULE and PRINT THE LEGEND will be hard pressed to find contenders in my reading for next year!

I'd also like to see S.J. Rozan's short story "Night Court" from THE PROSECUTION RESTS get a nod in the short story category. It's magnificent.

O.k., your turn! Whatda think?

TOWER - Ken Bruen & Reed Farrel Coleman

FIRST LINE: "Griffin coughed blood into my face when I made to slip the chains under his shoulders."

TOWER is a novel told in the parallel narratives of Nick and Todd, lifelong friends. Both are pulled into a life of crime, but seemingly minor events cause them to be pulled in different ways. This is the story of two young men in the midst of a major crime network. Their story is painted on a canvas with colors of wise guys, murder, contradictions, women, but always the strength of that friendship.

I normally don't cite a book's jacket when I summarize, but I think this says it all, exactly the way it should be said:

Imagine a Brooklyn rabbi/poet - Reed Farrel Coleman - collaborating with a mad Celt from the West of Ireland - Ken Bruen - to produce a novel unlike anything you've ever encountered.

And that does precisely sum up TOWER. It stands in a class of its own. This is a short novel with a break-neck speed, so hang on tight because it will grab you by the soul. Coleman and Bruen managed to blend their styles flawlessly, but still enable the reader to hear echos of each individual.

TOWER is filled with dark humor, poetic language, dimensional characters, and not least of all, a plot that lights the book on fire. It's gritty and it stays with you. TOWER will without a doubt make my top 10 list of 2009.

Stunning! If you haven't yet, get your hands on this book now.

TOWER is available from Busted Flush Press in trade paper (ISBN: 978-1-935415-07-7).

*Note: can you believe how short this review is? From me? The book left me speechless! Did I mention you should get it? Now?

Monday Mystery Backlist - BLITZ

I'm so appreciative to Corey at The Drowning Machine for providing today's Monday Mystery Backlist title. Today he's contributed BLITZ by crime fiction's great Ken Bruen.

Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor series may be his best known books, but my first reading of Bruen came via his Detective Sergeant Brant series. Brant is a one-of-a-kind cop who makes Dirty Harry look like a limp dishrag. The character of Brant is less that of a traditional protagonist than of a hub around which other characters (many recurring) revolve. Think Ed McBain's 87th precinct stories, and that's a deliberate comparison, because Brant is a big fan of those books. He is also thought to be the most vicious cop in London, but to leave it at that would be to underestimate Brant's cunning and political savvy. In Blitz, a particularly sadistic serial killer is grabbing tabloid headlines by killing cops all over London. The pressure to catch the killer is having all kinds of unpleasant side-effects on the Southeast London squad. And even if they find the killer, can they get the evidence to convict? For fans of the Jack Taylor series, if you want to step just a little farther out on the neo-noir ledge and look down, Sgt Brant is more than ready to lend a hand.

BLITZ was first published in the United States by St. Martin's Minotaur Books (ISBN: 9780312327262) in June of 2004. In the UK it was first published by The Do-Not-Press Ltd. (ISBN: 9781904316008) in 2002.

As a side note on this novel, the folks over in London are working on a movie version tentatively due out in 2010.

You Have the Right to Six Words - Part III

Golly! It's Week 3 of all this fun. I think we have a legitimate series going on here. And based on how this thing is growing, I'm going to have to do some serious brainstorming to come up with something as fun if not better once this is (gulp) over. But, rest assured, we have many more weeks to go.

However, let's focus on this week because MAN do I have some heavy hitters sharing memoirs with us today. And they're from all over tarnation! Without further ado let's recap a couple memoirs...

This week I had the great, great fortune to once again see Craig Johnson. I met Craig for the first time in April at the L.A. Mystery Book Store and then listened to his panel at the L.A. Times Book Festival. Monday evening, I drove to Pennsylvania to see him at the Mystery Lovers Bookshop. I swear, I am NOT stalking the man. But I do think he ranks right up with the cats pajamas. Craig is the author of the Walt Longmire series. Craig, like his protagonist Walt, lives in Wyoming, but that wasn't always the case. He's found himself all over the country: from West Virginia to Philadelphia, PA; from New York, NY to Ucross, WY. The most recent book of this series, THE DARK HORSE, was released at the end of May and the first book of the series, THE COLD DISH, was translated this year into French. Each book has consistently received high praise and rave reviews. And book number four, ANOTHER MAN'S MOCCASINS, had the prestigious Spur Award bestowed upon it this year. After reading his books and speaking to him in person, it is extremely obvious that Craig puts his heart and soul into his writing. No wonder those characters are so darned REAL! So, it comes as no surprise to me (and you will get no argument from me) that his memoir would be:

Good man, yes it is so.

Rosemary Harris is another fascinating, talented crime fiction writer with an impressive resume. Before she wrote her first novel, PUSHING UP DAISIES, Rosemary worked in retailing, direct marketing and television. Now, in addition to being a successful crime fiction author, Rosemary is a Master Gardener. When her gardening and writing aren't tying her down, she's traveling all over. In addition to visiting over 70 National Parks, she does work with Habitat for Humanity so she's been all over the world, including China, Tanzania, El Salvador, and Mexico. This year has been a bright spot for Rosemary in her writing career. Not only did she release THE BIG DIRT NAP and finish the third book in the Dirty Business Mystery series, but PUSHING UP DAISIES has been nominated for an Anthony Award for the Best First Novel of 2008. Rosemary is crossing her fingers that the newspapers stay in business because the ideas from her stories have literally been ripped from those newspapers. When she finds a story that intrigues her, she tears it out and starts asking, "what if...?" Now, personally, I think this is a heck of a lot of accomplishment for one person in one lifetime, but Rosemary is raring to go, so it is fitting that her memoir be:

Can I have more time, please?

I was extremely fortunate this year to have met both Craig and Rosemary. You won't meet nicer folks. I have not, however, had the pleasure of meeting either of my new memoirists. I will hopefully remedy that in October as they are both scheduled to be at Bouchercon in Indianapolis. I have a striking suspicion that I'll be echoing my feelings about these two amazing crime fiction writers as well.

My first new memoirist has been a finalist for the Edgar Award, the Barry Award AND the Macavity Award. That is a hefty accomplishment in and of itself BUT we can't neglect to mention that he WON the Best Novel Shamus award in 2003 for his book THE GUARDS that introduced the crime fiction world to Jack Taylor. Of course, I'm talking about none other than Ken Bruen! The SEVENTH Jack Taylor novel, SANCTUARY, was released in the United States just this year. In addition to his Jack Taylor series, Ken has a series based around his Detective Sergeant Brant and various stand alone crime fiction novels. And this very prolific writer is also the author of numerous short stories. Ken recently collaborated with Reed Farrell Coleman to write THE TOWER. Keep your eyes out for that one, oh somewhere about September. Oh wait, I have to mention a detail that you probably already know. Since I said today's writers are from all over, we have to mention that Ken Bruen lives in Galway, Ireland. Before I reveal Ken's memoir, I have to say that he must also be a great actor, as well as a great writer. Because after this slew of accomplishments, I have a hard time believing he only "behaved":

I behaved like I understood life.

My final memoirist for today's post really needs no introduction...but you're going to get one anyway. He's written about crime from coast to coast as both a journalist and a novelist. He was short listed for a Pulitzer Prize in 1986, won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992 and has been racking up awards for his writing around the world ever since. His most famous series features LAPD Detective Hieronymus Bosch, so of course I'm talking about Michael Connelly! Michael Connelly was influenced in his own writing by writers such as Raymond Chandler, but he has changed the landscape of crime fiction and is now the one influencing other crime fiction writers. Of course Harry Bosch is Michael's police detective character; in his vast bibliography Michael also features a journalist, Jack McEvoy, and a lawyer, Mickey Haller, in addition to his collection of standalone thrillers. In 2005, Michael Connelly published the eleventh Harry Bosch novel, THE CLOSERS, and his first novel to debut at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. This Sunday, June 14, Michael's TWENTIETH, and most recent, novel THE SCARECROW will also debut at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List. With all of these amazing accomplishments in crime fiction, I would think that Michael Connelly was simply born to be a writer. But maybe some of that seemingly natural talent comes from the simple fact that:

I wanted to be a detective.

My humblest thanks go out to all four authors highlighted this week. I am so honored that you took time to play along with me. I am looking forward to crossing paths with all four of these amazingly talented writers in October at Bouchercon.

With each week I become more and more scared. How am I going to keep all this high quality content going? I'm definitely going to give it my all. I hope you'll check back again next week. In the mean time, there are some awesome titles from today's authors that you can check out now!

Happy Reading!

A Couple Odds and Ends

I want to write a quick post to share a few tidbits with you, but then I have to skedaddle and get some research done for an interview.

First, I wanted to give you this link. I've signed up to do a 12-hour mystery reading marathon. If you're interested, you can go here to sign up as well. I'm hoping the day is nice and then I'll read outside. But, if not, reading inside is fine too. Having a reason to dedicate 12 hours to reading is a good thing regardless of the weather. I'm going to neglect all house work, all yard work, all requests to go out, everything. I shouldn't have any trouble finding great material to fill my 12 hours either! I'll blog and Twitter throughout that day to let you know about my progress. And if you're participating, leave some comments here while you read to let us all know about YOUR progress!

Next up, if you haven't been over to St. Martin's Moments in Crime blog this week, GET THE LEAD OUT!!! Ken Bruen is blogging this week and I'm crazy about this guy. He ROCKS! I don't care if I have to turn into stalker-woman, I'm meeting him at Bouchercon!! ;)

Monday I posted the very first Monday Mystery Backlist column. I'm going to make it a regular column/post/whatever you want to call it. But, I want there to be a lot of diversity to it, not just the kind of mystery I like. So, I'm asking other mystery lovers, whether they be readers, writers, book sellers, who ever, to submit for this column. So if you have a mystery book that was published at least one year ago that you'd like to see on the Monday Mystery Backlist post, write up a summary of the book (no spoilers please), include the publication information, e-mail it to me and I'll work it into the schedule. You'll, obviously get the credit for the post. The only stipulation is that if you're an author, it can't be your own book. It has to be something you've read by someone else that you don't want folks to forget about. I'll definitely be knocking on some virtual doors to solicit submissions, so if you don't volunteer, don't be surprised when I come calling! ;)

And finally my biggest news of the day...big, big, big!!! Tomorrow there's a new interview. Are you ready for this? OH MY LANDS!!! The writing team of Michael Stanley will be here!!!! Can you believe it? It's so awesome. I can't wait for you to meet these two creators of Detective Kubu. AND, it gets better. What, you say, could possibly make it any better? WELL! Harper so kindly donated a brand new trade paper copy of A CARRION DEATH for me to give away to a lucky reader! Is this cause for celebration or what? I really hope that you'll stop back by tomorrow and say "hi," enter the contest and then tell your friends!

In the mean time, let me get back to work so I can continue to bring you fun interviews! See ya tomorrow...don't forget!