The Hungry Detective

  First image from Live By Night the latest Dennis Lehane novel to be directed by Ben Affleck has appeared. Here is the accompanying article from Indiewire . What can you say about one singular image from a film that will include a hundred thousand or so? It looks good. I'm a sucker for big fields of grass, what can I say? I have enjoyed all of Ben Affleck's directing efforts to date, even if I wasn't wowed by any of them. I don't mean to damn him with faint praise. He is a solid, unpretentious director of capital m 'Movies'. And even if he wasn't making the best thing Dennis Lehane has written in the last ten years I would still go see his next effort. The movie is slated for a 2017 release which I'm not certain should be believed. In spite of the film already vacating a Fall 2016 date, if the movie is even kind of  good, dollars to donuts it sneaks into a late 2016 release for Award show consideration. A 2017 release date seems more acc...

In June I bought a collection of Edward Gorey books via an auction, but lets go back a minute. In the Summer of 2014 an Edward Gorey site I frequent mentioned an auction of a significant Gorey Collection. A majority of the the books on offer were limited numbered editions, and at the time most were out of my league. I did have my eye on a few things, but the day of the auction all but one spiraled out of responsible financial reach. The one book I did get, The Silent Film , I was the sole bidder. There was a companion auction that fall. I scanned and passed on all of the Gorey titles. A few books, a lot of paper. None of the books sparked with me. Of course it turns out that a book, The Dripping Faucet  was picked up for $250 plus buyer's premium. Flash forward to February of this year. I went to a book show in Pasadena. I chatted with a book seller about his Gorey's for sale. Now I don't think he had a copy of   The Dripping Faucet, but he did explained the u...

Not at Bouchercon this year and it is a bummer. There was a long layoff between my attendance at Indianapolis in 2009 and Long Beach last year. Of course being there reminded me of all things I love about Crime Fiction and Bouchercon. It is a great place to be among something I dearly love. What is troubling as I look over Bouchercon past, present, and future is the startlingly few West coast B'Cons. Before Long Beach last year the last West coast B'Con was San Francisco in 2010.  After Raleigh this year we are looking at New Orleans, Toronto, and St. Petersburg. After that there is a bid for Dallas in 2019, before we get a to possible Sacramento B'Con in 2020.  Dating back to 2000 West Coast Bouchercons are a bit of rare bird. Long Beach in 2014, SF in 2010, Las Vegas in 2003. Thats it. Add Sacramento in 2020 and that is four Bouchercons in 20 years. Maybe that's just the way it shakes out. The very early years of B'Con are on the West Coast, so this i...