The Hungry Detective

The Hungry Detective was pleased to take part in the twice yearly sale over at Deep Discount . Every June and November Deep Discount slashes their entire DVD catalog 20% off of what is already pretty great prices. At the start of this year Deep Discount added books to their repertoire, and we thought we would take a flier on a few of them. First up is Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indridason. We have read his first book, the highly acclaimed Jar City. A review is on the way. Next is Borkmann's Point written by Hakan Nesser. We bought his second a few weeks ago. Plus I don't think I can afford the first book of the other Norweigen star Kjell Eriksson . THD have to be on the ground floor of something, so we are hitchin' our wagon to Hakan Nesser. Finally, there is this year's Edgar awarding The Janissary Tree . The second book in the series is about to release in the UK and THD is, again, all about the ground floor. I'll be honest and say it was purchased on ...

Well I tried to keep this blog on a three post schedule of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. That lasted just two weeks. And I am sorry for that. The Hungry Detective was not in the office much last week due to some upgrades that required my attention at my palatial estate in Rochester New York's tony Upper North West Side. I added another set of shelves to the attic. This will free up some space in an overall general sense. However, not enough to truly make a difference. The larger issue is that I have books I don't really care about. Things bought and never read, and never will be read. I feel bad about that, not for the book, but my wallet. And there are the books read and more or less disliked. Do I need to display books that were a thorn in my side sheerly for the sake of volume, especially as I now have books spread through two separate rooms.... with no hope of bringing the collection together in its entirety? Answer? A resolute probably not. Moving to the house two ye...

In talking with our financial people an all too frequent topic came up. Do we, meaning THD, have to buy Micheal Connelly books when they are released, or should we just wait until the book show up on the overstock shelf? Yes, we realize that the author see little or none of the profit from these sales, but do we.... meaning THD.... really need to support Mr. Connelly with these initial purchases? The answer is don't think so. Mr. Connelly is firmly established among the top rank of book authors..... across all genres. All I am saying is that THD's hard earned dollar might be better spent with another author especially if The Overlook shows up in the overstock pile by... I'm guessing here... February 2008. This is all a moot point as yesterday saw the purchase of the hardback version of the aforementioned The Overlook. I do appreciate the significantly reduced MSRP. I don't think a Connelly novel has been south of $26.95 in more than a few years. THD was also very ...

These are difficult times for the Editor and Publisher of THD. In my nearing two decades of active Crime Fiction reading I have only stopped reading one book. That book was Allan Folsum's The Day After Tomorrow. Which funnily enough is now being described as proto-Dan Brown. Anyway, Wednesday night saw the second book go down, unfinished. A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read . Despite a long list of rave notices, I found the book uninvolving from beginning to middle. The biggest sin for us here at The Hungry Detective is that there is precious little concern for the actual crime. One hundred and sixty pages or so..... and I am guessing less than half of them dealt with the actual murder. I'll leave it there, no reason to get down to the details. Write it off as not my cup of tea. Ultimately I don't think this is a bad book, but with 100+ books waiting to be read I have put down books that I don't connect with instead of slogging through them. It just makes for a long ...

The Travel Desk of The Hungry Detective informs me that early registration for Bouchercon 2009 is open. Cost for Indianapolis is only $125. This is pretty hard to pass up, and given that Indianapolis is with driving distance it seem pretty much like a done deal that someone will be representing THD at the 'o9 show. This virtually demands that THD also attend the 2008 Show in Baltimore . It would appear that early registration is still available at $150. So Christmas cames early to The Hungry Detective. Of course, I need cash in some Krugerrands , but this will not be a problem. Hopefully, Jared Case over at A Case of Murder will accompany me to the show(s). Of course 2008 will see his first book published and 2009 will see his third book published. That's right he going to write two book for 2009. Oh..... yeah you should be scared.......

A few books have passed through these fingers in the last few months. The Pale Blue - Louis Bayard I have mentioned this book on a few occasions. It got stellar reviews and was nominated for an Edgar. I picked this book up in LA. I decided I would read because I wanted to read at least one of the nominees, plus the story sounds killer. Edgar Allen Poe at West Point.... yeah! Unfortunately, this book went no where... slow. Some could call this character development..... this book was not that..... plus the ultimate solution to novel is pinched from perhaps the best crime novel of all time. The only negative review I read of the book came as I was 3/4 of the way through it. I was pot committed by that point. Die A Little - Megan Abbott Another book from my LA sojourn. Enjoyed this book immensely. A sharply written, sharply observed first novel from Ms. Abbott. It reminded me of James Ellroy.... only with proper sentence structure. One Last Breath - Stephen Booth A good to great UK p...

The Movie Desk just put an interesting item into my hands. Apparently I am booked for October 19th. Why? Because that is the day that Gone, Baby, Gone will premiere in limited release... of course if limited release means to initially exclude Rochester from this opening I won't be booked.... but you get the point. This is my favorite of the Dennis Lehane's Gennaro/Kenzie series... a series I hope Lehane returns to one day. It needs a good two book closer, but alas I don't think so. I am fascinated to see if writer-director Ben Affleck can pull this off. From a book standpoint everything thing, every story, every character in some way relates to the fallout from Darkness, Take My Hand . The eighties had The Red Dragon , the nineties had Darkness Take My Hand. I was at a signing..... at what seems like a dozen years ago.... where Mr. Lehane mentioned he wanted Ray Liotta to play Patrick and Annabella Sciorra for Angie. Those are great choices.... but Affleck chose h...