I had a brief career as an insurance investigator. My excuses for this career choice are: I was nineteen. The job included a company car. A lot of the work was outdoors. It was better than being a non-union hod carrier; that job entailed unloading bundles of rebar from union trucks and hauling the stuff [...]
Hard Case Crime is a small publisher with a focus on the hardboiled classics of yore as well as current renditions in the genre’s distinctive blend of mayhem and social commentary. Noir fans can rejoice. In addition to classic writers such as Earl Stanley Garner, David Dodge and Day Keene, HARD CASE presents contemporary writers [...]
Are you seeking literary representation? Agent Katherine Sands is quoted over on Nipposkiss. She suggests looking for an agent who doesn’t specialize in your genre and remarks that Chaos Theory is at work in the business of selling manuscripts to publishers. Late last week an unidentified literary agent remarked that ‘a weird karma permeates the [...]
Near the close of the epic film ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS one of the crabs develops a French accent. He or it sounds like Charles Aznavour as the battle for final control of a tiny Pacific atoll comes down to a British scientist and his lovely assistant. The French crab has grown out of [...]
Despite the title of John Blumenthal’s latest novel, it’s not about Millard Fillmore, our thirteenth president. It tells the story of Plato G. Fussell very much a man of modern times. Plato is a Millard Fillmore scholar who doesn’t believe in love. Plato lives in the cradle of American eccentricity, Los Angeles. His theories about [...]
You may wonder why I went back to 2002 for Charlie Stella’s novel JIMMY BENCHPRESS. I’ve wanted to read the man’s work for some time and this one was at the library. Anyway you have to start somewhere. The novel’s principal character is Jimmy Mangino, fresh out of jail, looking for opportunities. He knows just [...]
I just finished DEATH OF A NATIONALIST, Rebecca Pawel’s debut novel. Set in Madrid in 1939, the story revolves around the murder of a Guardia Civil, who may or may not have been involved with the black market. Spain in the 1930s was a chaotic place. The Second Republic replaced a failed monarchy in 1933. [...]
How do you make a noir cocktail? You need some mean streets, world weary cops, nasty hoods and a femme fatale. Throw in some bad weather, a few critical miscalculations, bad luck, bad timing and watch it all unfold as Simon Kernick shoots that cocktail right out of your hand. THE MURDER EXCHANGE is an [...]
Timing is everything. Denise Mina’s DECEPTION was reviewed in the Sunday NYTBR by Marilyn Stasio. Hi Denise and welcome to Collected Miscellany. Please tell us whatever you’d like to share about your background. I left school early and worked as an auxiliary nurse. I got into law school and followed my degree by studying for [...]
Professor Amardeep Singh maintains a blog of his own. In addition to erudite analysis of literature and some stunning photos of India, he recently observed that a large bank in India was offering automated blessings from their ATM machines. The devout can dispatch tithes to the temple of their choice with push button ease. Professor [...]