Hard Case Crime review: Grave Descend by John Lange (AKA Michael Crichton) (#26/MC7)

DIVER JAMES McGREGOR IS USED TO EXPLORING SUNKEN SHIPS

But there’s something strange about the wreck of the luxury yacht GRAVE DESCEND. No one who was aboard tells quite the same story about what happened. And then there’s the matter of the mysterious cargo they wre carrying…

In one of the most […]

Hard Case Crime to publish lost Lawrence Block novel

This just in from our friend Charles Ardai at Hard Case Crime:

Friends,

We’d been saving this for a special announcement but Amazon just beat us to the punch by posting the book on their site, so we figured we should spill the beans as well: next May we’re going to be publishing a […]

Westlake on Rabe: Murder Me for Nickels & Anatomy of a Killer

NB: A version of this post also appears at Existential Ennui.

In his 1989 essay on Peter Rabe for the critical anthology Murder off the Rack, Donald E. Westlake identified two distinct periods during which, Westlake reckoned, Rabe produced his best work. The first came at the start of Rabe’s career, encompassing […]

Westlake on Rabe: A Shroud for Jesso & Kill the Boss Goodbye

NB: A version of this post also appears at Existential Ennui.

Continuing the rolling—if intermittent—showcase of Peter Rabe books I’ve bought of late (well, over the last year or so, anyway)—with, of course, additional commentary on each by perhaps Rabe’s greatest admirer, Donald E. Westlake, taken from Westlake’s 1989 essay on Rabe—we […]

Peter Rabe, by Donald E. Westlake, in Murder off the Rack

NB: A version of this post also appears on Existential Ennui.

Chances are, if you become inordinately interested in the work of Donald E. Westlake—as I self-evidently have—at some point you’re going to encounter Peter Rabe. In interviews and articles Westlake would often cite Rabe as being a major influence (alongside Dashiell […]

1986 interview with Elmore Leonard promoting Bandits

This is something I discovered as part of my downsizing and de-hoarding process. Mystery Reporter was a freebie that B. Dalton bookstores would give away with the purchase of something. (Yes, there’s a cover price, but I’ll eat my shoe if I find out anyone ever paid for it.)

It’s Elmore Leonard doing a […]

Noir Magazine features Parker, Reacher…

…and me!

This one’s so hot off the presses, the website isn’t even live.

This is Noir Magazine, a new magazine for tablets. I downloaded it for my iPad today, the day of its debut.

I just got the iPad a few weeks ago. I won it in a drawing of all things, the […]

Non-Westlake Scores: John D. MacDonald’s The Deep Blue Goodbye and Nightmare in Pink

NB: A version of this post also appears on Existential Ennui.

I’m in the midst of a series of posts on vintage softcovers over on Existential Ennui, and I’ve reached a pair of paperbacks I was basically badgered into buying by one of the regular commenters on both The Violent World of […]

Reviews: The Con Man and Killer’s Choice by Ed McBain (87th Precinct #4 & #5)

The Con Man is exactly what you’d expect after the three previous volumes: A series of crimes that may or may not be related, the detectives of the 87th fanning out to crack the cases, a look at how policework is done, and the 87th’s great characters.

The joy for the crime-minded reader […]

100 beautiful British dust jackets

Nearly seven months ago now, I created a new permanent page over on Existential Ennui (my personal books blog, as if you didn’t know), dedicated to the finest examples of British dust jacket design—or rather, my idea of the finest examples, taken from my own collection of books, and including a fair […]