Read as part of CBR10 Bingo: Off a list. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/75892-the-most-anticipated-books-of-spring-2018.html This book should not have worked. A mystery writer inserting their self as a character is bad enough; most detectives are ancillaries for their creators as is. And my personal track record of the-creator-as-character is not good, though it’s limited to Stephen King’s appearance in his Dark Tower series. Yet it does work, at least well enough, because Anthony Horowitz is such a compelling writer. I discovered Horowitz earlier this year with his superb Magpie Murders book. Later, I found […]
Origins of Gotham
I’m a hardcore urbanite. I love cities, real and imaginary. There’s just something about masses of humanity drawn to an area with gaudy structures and richly envisioned neighborhoods. I can’t live too far from a city or I’ll lose my mind. I’m not a big comics guy. If I had a favorite, it’d be Batman, simply because he has no superpowers and has to rely on his training and wits. But also, Batman has always defended Gotham City and I find Gotham City to be […]
Food and Flowers; Love and Politics
Read for CBR10Bingo: Food I began a new call to a church last year. One of my parishioners is a Japanese native; perhaps the first person I know on an intimate level from the island itself. This has led me to read more about Japan, both fiction and non-fiction and I find the more I read, the less I know. Japan has a rich history and a deep, diverse culture. I learn something every time but I still feel wanting. I won’t pretend to […]
The Psychological and the Profane
Read for CBR 10 Bingo: Award winner. It won the “New Blood Fiction Dagger” and “Ian Fleming Steel Dagger” from the 2007 Crime Writers Awards. I don’t know how to feel about this book. I think like Gone Girl, in which Gillian Flynn makes an improvement over her first novel here for a deeper tale, I will appreciate it more as time goes on. But I’m having a hard time discerning what the point Flynn is trying to make about women and parenting, aside from that […]