The Hungry Detective

When I started getting into Crime Fiction in a serious way, what that meant was, I started going to bookstores that exclusively sold the stuff. For me that is, and now sadly was, the Milwaukee store Mystery One run by the great Richard Katz. I can't be sure what I bought that first visit.... I think it might have been CROSSROAD BLUES by Ace Atkins.  Richard quizzed me on my likes and I am pretty certain [Editor's Note: Or at least as certain as one can be in a blog post. ] that he recommended Dennis Lehane's first book, A DRINK BEFORE THE WAR. I promptly went home and ordered the book from Amazon. Sorry, Richard. As a way of an apology, for as long as I lived in Milwaukee I purchased every subsequent book Mr. Lehane released at Mystery One. It was the best place to turn a pastime into a passion. Places like Mystery One and writers like Dennis Lehane are a perfect combination to draw you in. Driving to work recently, I was trying to figure out what I like about Mr. Le...

[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...

[ Editors Note: I wrote this post about six weeks ago. I have been tinkering with it since. It is a bog standard post so I don't understand my reticence. Even now I don't think it is done. ] My latest purchases are Edward Gorey books. I'll talk about them, but first let me go back. I bought the four most recent books by Adrian McKinty. I read them in about six weeks. The books were restorative in the exact way that I had hoped. A solid author turning in solid work. Perhaps that sounds like damning them with faint praise, not all. I found the Duffy Trilogy along with FALLING GLASS to be the most evocative books I've read in sometime. Along with the McKinty, the latest Michael Connolly, and likely the best Easy Rawlins in fifteen years means that I can't even remember the last book I read that was a dud.  The California Antiquarian Book Fair happened more than a few months ago now. I talked up the lock I felt that purchasing James Lee Burke's HEAVEN'S P...

Oh dear...... Two weeks? Really? Ugh. Well I have been busy. Finally got a around to reading a Brian Wiprud book. Killed a graphic novel I haven meaning to read for about 6 months. And I moved on to a new book . So I have been productive..... just not with the blog. This short... and believe me temporary break... comes on the heals of two film bloggers ceasing operations. One ripped off the band-aid by saying " All things must pass...I’m outta here... " It got me to thinking that at some point in the future, this blog will stop. My world tilted slightly off axis for a moment. A conversation with a blogging buddy, Jared Case , led me to predict that this blog won't be around in five years, likely less. This bit of information depressed me to no end for a day or two, until I decided I couldn't be bothered. I wouldn't worry about updating the blog for a bit and just enjoy the spring weather.