The Hungry Detective

[Editor's Note: I have massaged this piece for longer than I care to admit. One should never openly denigrate ones work, but in wondering why this has taking me so long to finish I confront two options. One, I was trying to get it 'right,' and that is true up to a point. I am driving at something with this post that I am never quite able to quantify, hence the endless editing. Which then leads me into the second reason, that it just doesn't make any sense. The post starts by making a point then goes about proving it...or not proving it in this case..in the least effective way possible.]  I wish my ennui with Amazon had something to do with any one of the corporate messes that they have found themselves in over the last ten years, but that is not the reason. In a previous post I figured, through some suspect math, that I spend $700 a year on new Crime Fiction. While this number does not account for used, and rather expensive back catalog books, it is a useful number...

A good mail day that should be classified as great. These three book are big for me. I stared at them so often only to put them back on shelves and walk away. I no longer have to do that. I own them. They belong to me. They are a completion of a thought that began long ago with the words "One day I will..." Today is that day.

Alan Furst Night Soldiers Dark Star The World at Night Red Gold Spies of Balkan Mission to Paris Alan Furst is a tough get. Only occasionally do his books show up in stores or shows. When they do it's the early work from the late 70's early 80's or The Polish Officer. My guess is The Polish Officer was the publishers push to put Mr. Furst in the same public consciousness as John Le Carre. Anyway Red Gold was mercifully priced at $25. I would have paid double, but I would not have been happy about it.

Here is my Top Five list. This is not a hard and fast list. The full list is 30 books, and of those these are the ones I would be the most excited to acquire. 1. Heaven's Prisoners - James Lee Burke Second Dave Robicheaux book and surprisingly not that bad of a movie. I picked up Neon Rain a long time ago and have failed on many occasions to pull the trigger on this one. This all comes down to cost and availability. The book has always been around $175-$200 for as long as I can remember. Secondarily the book is usually a pretty easy find at a show, because the modern fiction dealer will usually carry it as their nod to the genre. Still I need to do this soon. The cheaper price point means I'll probably pick this up before Lullaby Town.  2. Lullaby Town - Robert Crais 'Scarce third novel by author' is the phrase most associated with this novel. Something about libraries buying up much of the first edition. I want to say I used to know. It is far a...

This week brought me to the eastern most outpost in Western New York's Rust Belt. Syracuse has the effect of reminding that I happy to be living in Rochester. A work related assignment meant that some of my down time would be spent in a few used bookstores. After many years of insisting in only the finest quality of book condition I have dropped my standards to allow books of lesser vintage to rest on my shelf. That and the fact that the mylar book cover hides a multitude of sins. Buying used just makes financial sense. The Horse Latitudes and Cheshire Moon - Robert Ferrigno I have slowly been collecting all of this authors output. To date the only book of his I have read is the first in his assassin trilogy, Prayers for the Assassin . Glad to close out the first two from highly regarded author. The Crime Trade - Simon Kernick Maybe you have noticed by now but I am a sucker for British Crime Fiction, British anything really. I watch Premier League Football for goodness sake. I h...

I have been writing this blog for a bit now and I thought I would explain one of the reason why it even exists at all. I wanted a resource on the internets where I could go to find information on crime fiction. What's new? What's hot? What's collectible? Who are the undiscovered authors? What are the print runs for a specific novel? Etc. Information is all I have ever wanted. And I wanted that information without having to scavenge a dozen sites to answer less than half those questions. It always seemed to be the case that I found out about an author, a collectible book when I could no longer find it or worse afford to buy it. Of course this blog does none of that...... yet. Cue ominous music.... and perhaps an evil laugh or chuckle.

A complete list of the nominations is up. There are some good books in the big three.... some of which I have actually read. BEST NOVEL The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin Gentleman and Players by Joanne Harris The Dead Hour by Denise Mina The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard The Liberation Movements by Olen Steinhauer BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn King of Lies by John Hart Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL The Goodbye Kiss by Massimo Carlotto The Open Curtain by Brian Evenson Snakeskin Shamisen by Naomi Hirahara The Deep Blue Alibi by Paul Levine City of Tiny Lights by Patrick Neate The real find for me is a book not even on this list. Rather it is the book previously published by Louis Bayard . Mr. Timothy follows Tiny Tim, of A Christmas Carol fame, in his later years as he solves the murder of two t...

So I don't have it keep googling to find this article. It is a good one. A little bit of history, a little bit on the rise of the mystery book shop, and little bit on tips for collecting Collecting Mystery Books by Barry T. Zeman

Couple things yesterday. Michael McGarrity's Nothing But Trouble . I love this guy! Under the Color of Law and Big Gamble are fabulous books. McGarrity is the James Lee Burke of the Southwest. Or is Burke the McGarrity of the Louisiana Bayou? I’ll give it to Burke cause of longevity. It will be interesting to see where McGarrity’s books go. At this point in the Robicheaux series we had Dixie City Jam and Burning Angel. Those books are why I love Burke. Black Cherry Blues is the zenith of that series, but Jam, Angel, and Cadillac Jukebox. Amazing. I’m on the funny kick, but McGarrity’s 8th Everyone Dies my claim the charts on my to be read pile. McGarrity is not all that dark anyway. The second book I bought was Suspect by Michael Robotham . I saw him talk at the Madison B'Con and I bought his second book, Lost then and there. Finding his first book was a treat. He lives in Australia, but spent many years in London, where he sets his books. A side character in this book i...

I am a collector. I love every single one of my crime fiction books. Most were bought at stores, but a few were bought at what would broadly be defined as Book Fairs. And maybe I love those books a little more than the rest. Back a few years ago there was a brief time when I collected for profit. Which anyway you look at it was foolish. I bought things I never would have purchased because I thought there was money to made. See? Foolish. As if I would ever sell any of them to reap this profit. Ultimately it meant I bought books that I just did not like. Too my credit I read them, and too my greater credit I never bought another of the author’s books. Supposed profit or not. But I still collect. Maybe this obvious to everyone already, but the book, the object of my fervor, has little to do with why I collect. It is the pursuit that holds all of the attraction. Even if the pursuit is reduced down to searching the stacks of several Border’s to find the one dust jacket that has...