You want to damn a fella with faint praise? Try this: Todd Robinson is the reason I consider myself a crime writer. Get the slings and arrows out of the way: “Why’d you have to go and do that, Big Daddy Thug?” (I did return the favor, publishing his Derringer-nominated “Peaches” in Grift #1. UPDATE: [...]
Let’s say a friend of yours asks you to read his novel. Let’s say this friend has no track record as a novelist. Let’s say this friend dares to tread into waters you yourself are trying, with limited success, to navigate. Let’s say this friend then asks you to read another novel by someone you [...]
Ever notice how the writers who seem to rise from the online short story sites and anthologies to become a well-respected name on the spine of a book are the same writers who have the best work ethic? Exhibit A: Eric Beetner. As he says below, he rarely says no to a request to contribute, [...]
It seemed logical to assume that we had seen the last of Lawrence Block’s stamp-collecting hit man Keller. Block had announced that he was stashing his typewriter so he could retire, and the story, which found Keller taken out of the game and settling down, seemed a fitting close to the arc. But Block emerged [...]
At the 2011 Bouchercon, I connected with a guy named Johnny Shaw. He was quiet and self-effacing. I figured he was like me, a guy who had written a few short stories, had aspirations to do something bigger, and just wanted to see if he could hang with the crime fiction crowd. Then he mentioned [...]
I’ll admit that when I heard that Sean Chercover had a new book, I had a range of reactions. The first, of course, was that it was about time. I loved Big City, Bad Blood and Trigger City, both featuring journalist-turned-PI Ray Dudgeon. These gritty Chicago-based crime tales showed Chercover to be a true talent, and I [...]
Tony Black seemed modest when he got in touch to see if I’d be interested in getting a copy of his latest novel, Murder Mile, to review on Grift. Would I? Let’s see, the latest work from the guy Irvine Welsh calls his favorite British crime writer? A writer with four well-reviewed novels on the [...]
Forgive some bellyaching for a moment. At Bouchercon this year there were two books that everyone was talking about, books that everyone but me seemed to receive in the bags given to every registrant: Johnny Shaw’s Dove Season and Owen Laukkanen’s The Professionals. I tracked down a copy of Dove Season as soon as I [...]
I’m just going to get this off of my chest: I have a bone to pick with Brad Parks. You see, I’m a journalist, have been for years. At one point, while reading my thousandth or so crime fiction book, it dawned on me: the distance between a reporter and a private investigator is pretty [...]
I always knew Keith Rawson was a serious writer. I don’t mean simply that his fiction is usually without a lot of laughs, but that he is intense about his craft. I also know, thanks to the well-thumbed issues of the Lineup on my shelf, that poems about crime can hit hard, the spare writing [...]
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