The premise behind The Dark End of the Street is simple: When we proposed this book to writers from both banks of the stream dividing crime writing and literary writing, we thought we had a particularly alluring idea. Write your heart out on the twin subjects of sex and crime. Define each however you want, take any approach you like.… Read more
Little Bee is the sort of book I find hard to review. I want everyone to read this book — I want to tell you enough to encourage you to run out and put this on your wishlist. What I don’t want to do is spoil the story, and if I tell you too much, I will. The story at… Read more
The prologue will give you nightmares. (Do you know what sort of sound human vertebrae make when they give way under pressure?) Other sections of the book made me want to cover my eyes and read through my fingers. The killer in Thomas White’s The Book of Matthew would give Hannibal Lecter a run for his money. This is not… Read more
Good morning and Happy Tuesday! With travel and vacation, I’ve missed this meme recently, but I am glad to be back. Now, you know the rules: open your current read, pick 2 teaser sentences to share and don’t spoil the story! But do make sure you tell us a bit about the book. This morning, my teaser is from… Read more
Peter Brock is young, handsome and ambitious. He is also a man with a plan — The Plan, actually. He cultivates the friendship of a wealthy businessman, James Campbell, who wants to cut down on the taxes he pays Uncle Sam. To do this, Peter and James devise a way to transfer profits to secret accounts. James doesn’t know that… Read more
Historically, a woman on her own has always been a woman at risk. In some cultures around the world, a woman is still not permitted to own property, to have her own money, to walk along a city street in daylight without fear of reprisals. In 1857, a widowed woman had limited options available to her, but Emma Cunningham was determined… Read more
I really, really hate the phrase “ripped from the headlines.” It ought to be on one of those lists of cliches than can never ever be used again in print. But open a newspaper or click on a news website and you are likely to see a story similar to Megan Gunther’s situation in 212: A Novel by Alafair Burke.… Read more
Julius Fromm was born in Russia in 1883; when he was 10 years old, his parents left Russia for Berlin. At the time, Berlin offered the hope of more economic opportunity and a better life. Fromm grew up feeling like a German, and a patriotic one at that. It all came to crushing end when Hitler came to power, because… Read more
There’s a heatwave in Oslo. Anyone who can’t get out of the city is sweltering in the heat. There are lines at the open-air pool, the city streets are deserted…and there is a killer on the loose. Police investigations are apparently much the same the world over, as I didn’t find a lot of procedural confusion in Jo Nesbo’s The… Read more
I’m not quite sure what inspired this puzzler, but today it’s all about couples – literary couples, historical couples, film couples. Enjoy! (And if you need more help, there are some hints in the comments…) If you see this, you’ll need to upgrade your browser. Click here to play the crossword outside of the blog. Read more