Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

Some reviewers and readers may find this hard to believe, but I will miss Dominick Dunne (”Dominick Dunne, Chronicler of Crime, Dies at 83,” by Enid Nemy, New York Times). He has always been a favored writer on my reading list. I would call him a guilty pleasure author except his writing and storytelling were [...]

Crimespree Magazine listed the winners of their 2009 award of the same name on the Central Crime Zone blog:
Favorite book of 2008
Trigger City, by Sean Chercover
Best in Ongoing Series
Chasing Darkness, by Robert Crais
Favorite Original Paperback
Money Shot, by Christa Faust
This certainly seems to be a good year for Chercover. He won the Dilys award back in March.

I was tipped off  about the Wild West History Association’s “Best Western of 2008″ winner, Death of a Gunfighter: The Quest for Jack Slade, the West’s Most Elusive Legend (2008), literally one hour after the announcement yesterday afternoon.  Author Dan Rottenberg was in attendance at the ceremony in San Antonio, where he received a plaque and an unspecified [...]

Members of  International Thriller Writers, Inc. gathered together on Monday to hand out awards at the awesomely named Thrillerfest in New York. David Morrell, author of  The Shimmer (2009) and Scavenger (2007), received the lifetime achievement -esque ”ThrillerMaster” Award. Brad Meltzer (The Book of Lies, 2008) took home the Silver Bullet Award for contributions to the advancement of literacy.
Other winners [...]

Craig Johnson, riding high on the acclaim for the latest book in the Walt Longmire series, The Dark Horse, was in Chicago last Saturday for an appearance at the Printers Row Lit Fest. After his panel, he could be seen enjoying a beer at the Dark Horse Tap and Grille, appropriately enough. While we talked, he sold his [...]

We don’t usually report on the Glauser Award, said to be Germany’s “most prestigious crime writing prize,” but this time I can’t resist: Hans Werner Kettenbach has won the award for lifetime achievement. Reviewing Black Ice (2006), Glauser’s first novel to be published in English, Frank Sennett wrote:
In what amounts to a virtuoso shaggy-dog story, Kettenbach provides an [...]

The May 1 Booklist Mystery Showcase just went live on Booklist Online. As always, there’s a lot you can read for free, even if you aren’t a subscriber. And non-subscribers who want to see it all can always try a free trial.
The subject of our mystery-loving editor Bill Ott’s Hard-Boiled Gazetteer is Latin America, and you [...]

Fifty years ago today, Raymond Chandler died at the age of 70. On Legacy.com, Isaac Adamson (Kinki Lullaby, 2004), an author “owing no small debt to Mr. Chandler,” has written an essay called “The Slumming Angel“–worth reading as a way to remember the crime-fiction giant.
Also, take a moment to read Bill Ott’s review of Chandler’s [...]

The Mystery Writers of America have announced their shortlist for the Edgars. Although, I wouldn’t want to have this guy leering at me everyday:
Best Novel Nominees
Missing, by Karin Alvtegen (Felony & Mayhem Press)
Blue Heaven, by C.J. Box (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
Sins of the Assassin, by Robert Ferrigno (Simon & Schuster - Scribner)
The Price of Blood, by [...]

So, according to an article on Bookseller.com, which I found out about through the ArtsJournal’s excellent daily newsletter, the author R. N
. Morris is republishing his 2007 crime novel, A Gentle Axe, in a surprising fashion. Not content with hardcover and paperback — and, I pre
sume, audiobook, Morris is serializing A Gentle Axe via Twitter, [...]