This year I only got one crime novel for Christmas, Giles
Blunt's Forty Words for Sorrow, which has been mentioned here
once or twice. I've read one of his other books, The Delicate
Storm. It was especially interesting to me because it takes
place at the time of the great ice storm of 1998. I'm looking
forward to this one.
For my birthday I got Sleepyhead, Mark Billingham's first.
It's a serial killer story with a twist. I knew the killer
wasn't the obvious suspect, but I was wrong about who it
really was. Fortunately there are no chapters in italics,
although the point of view shifts a few times. Billingham's
got a good sense of humour and draws his cops as human beings
with some significant failings.
I recently read The Wake-Up, by Robert Ferrigno, which I
enjoyed. It is a tale of revenge (of a sort of white knight
variety) and various crimes gone wrong in sunny California
billed as "sunshine noir." There are some very interesting
hitmen in this book, among other things. This is another
writer with nice humorous touch.
Bob Cornwell has an interview with Ferrigno and commentary on
several of his books here: http://www.twbooks.co.uk/crimescene/Ferrigno.html
I picked up Pass the Gravy by A. A. Fair (Erle Stanley
Gardner) at a second-hand shop. I don't think I'd ever read a
Cool and Lam before. I was disappointed that Cool doesn't do
much except scold Lam. The detective story was pretty good
though. I was thoroughly mixed up until it was all explained
at the end.
This fall I got hold of You Play the Black and the Red Comes
Up, by Richard Hallas. This book has been mentioned here a
lot. I will simply join in the general praise and say that it
didn't occur to me that this might be a parody until I read
that somewhere.
I'm in the midst of Blonde Lightning by Terrill Lee Lankford,
one of our writers in residence here. There are a couple of
characters named Timlin and Thornburg. Tributes to fellow
crime writers, or former students?
Karin
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 28 Dec 2005 EST