m’aidez! m’aidez! 2026

Artist Jordi Prat Pons Constructs Portraits of Famous Faces by Stacking Thousands of Books

Read a book, flip off a Nazi: when reading meant resistance – in pictures

A lost letter, preserved in a little free library, sparks a friendship 23 years later

Lost copy of seventh-century poem in Old English discovered at Rome library

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” – Joseph Addison

The Ted Bundy effect: Study confirms serial killers attack victims who resemble their MUMS

Watchdog’s report on controversial RCMP unit delayed due to lack of chairperson

The Careers That Attract the Most Psychopaths (One Job Is the Clear Winner)

President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico is under pressure to end one of her country’s most painful tragedies: the disappearance of more than 133,000 people.

In Article About Horrific Shooting That Killed Eight Children, Forbes Lets Readers Place Bets About Gun Control

US to allow firing squads, gas and electrocution for federal executions

Police across the US worry officers are being misidentified as ICE, records show

This gold comes from a Colombian drug cartel mine. It should never end up at the U.S. Mint… But it does.

‘Relentless’ focus on literacy undermines reading for pleasure, says report

Logging, murder and money: can Mexico’s ancient forests be saved from the cartels?

“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.” – George Bernard Shaw

New DNA testing links 1974 death of Utah teen to Ted Bundy, sheriff says

What to Know About Ted Bundy, the Notorious Serial Killer

Seven B.C. indie bookstores join a coast-to-coast bid to keep book sales local

Stolen golden treasure found ‘buried’ at a Richland junkyard house

Vandals damage Smithsonian-registered monument at Oregon coast park

Meet the ‘Literary King of Tulsa’ (Before He Moves to Seattle)

‘#SkyKing’ documentary premieres Tuesday, recounting his daring theft, joyride of a Seattle plane

DNA analysis identifies members of Oregon family missing since 1958

Oregon man accused of violations at Yellowstone argues park rules are unconstitutional

Law enforcement investigating nearly 400 unopened ballots found in Renton

Capitol Hill bookstore Ada’s will close; Fuel coffee chain up for sale

Nearly half of WA sheriffs face misconduct complaints, according to key agency

A 43-year-old killing in a tiny Oregon town, and why one man refuses to let it go

Washington faces retail crime crisis as Gov. Ferguson vetoes key funding

‘Magical’ bronze animal statues stolen from Portland-area playgrounds

“Books are the training weights of the mind.” – Epictetus

SPECTRE

Amazon upsets ebook lovers by ending support for old Kindle devices [shocking!!!]

Plot twist in downtown Seattle: Barnes & Noble bookstore opening soon in Amazon’s backyard

‘Everyone is Replaceable’: Death Rattles Oregon Amazon Facility

Amazon accused of underpaying women by misclassifying their jobs

Newly unsealed records reveal Amazon’s price-fixing tactics, California attorney general claims

Oprah Inks Amazon Deal for Her Podcast, Book Club and Original TV Show

Archaeologists Deciphered 2 Ancient Tablets—They Contained Records of Blood Money Payments

Trump seeks $152 million to reopen Alcatraz as active prison

Man breaks into crime museum and accidentally poses for his own mugshot

This serial killer exhibit made me want to hurl – has our true crime obsession gone too far?

“The point is not to see how many good books you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” – Mortimer Adler

Library Director in Tennessee Fired for Refusing to Move Gender-Themed Books

The Hit Erotica Writers Outwitting Nigeria’s Religious Censors

American Library Association releases 2025 Most Challenged Books List as National Library Week Begins

US saw record high of 5,668 books banned in libraries in 2025, says agency

Book bans and culture wars came for libraries. They’re still standing strong.

28K youths got a Seattle library card in campaign against book bans

“Any book worth banning is a book worth reading.” – Isaac Asimov

Michael Rosen wins Hans Christian Andersen award

Five books have been shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, none are Canadian

The 2026 Shortlist for The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction

Shortlist for Women’s prize for fiction

The New Yorker, May 4,2026 issue

Best-Selling Crime Author Tana French on Why We’re All So Obsessed With Murder

Paramount Gets Back Into the Book Business, Launches New Publishing Imprint in IP Play

Interview: Jo Nesbø: ‘How often do I have sex? I only do it outdoors, so it depends on the weather’

Too hot to handle? Why it’s time for straight male authors to rediscover sex

Tucker Carlson to launch publishing imprint with books by Russell Brand and Milo Yiannopoulos

Collectibles and Taxes: Everything You Didn’t Want to Know

When an author says she had to decline a $175,000 prize, what does it say about the publishing world?

Independent bookstores make quiet comeback as big chains dominate retail

Book lovers’ cathedral on the brink as Paris turns the page on reading

“I have this weird obsession about buying books and looking at them with a smile, even if I won’t read them soon. At least they are mine now.” – Anaïs Ni

Whatever happened to the good old-fashioned Hollywood car chase?

Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd reunite for ‘Charlie’s Angels’ 50th anniversary [warning – really scary plastic surgery results!]

James Bond studio heads urge patience over casting announcement

Sex and drugs and poisoned champagne: 90 years on, we can finally see Joan Crawford’s wildest film

Nearly 60 Years Later, Point Blank Is Still a Shocker

Hugh Bonneville To Narrate ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ Podcast Series For Noiser

‘Miami Vice’ Reboot With Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler Moves Forward With New Title

Winnie the Pooh: Serious Detective Game Review

‘Should I Marry a Murderer?’ review – the amazing woman who spied on her killer fiancé for police

Apr. 3: Billy Mumford, expert art forger reckoned to have sold £6 million worth of fake paintings

Apr. 17: Joy Harmon obituary: actress famed for provocative car-wash scene in Cool Hand Luke

Apr. 27: Gerry Conway, Marvel and DC Comics Writer and Co-Creator of Punisher, Ms. Marvel, Firestorm and Vixen, Dies at 73

Apr. 28: Antiquities dealer Ittai Gradel who exposed thefts at British Museum dies aged 61

Apr. 28: RIP Jack Thornell: the press photographer who captured James Meredith’s assassination attempt, but worried he’d be fired for not getting the photo – only to go on and win a Pulitzer

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” – Ray Bradbury

Apr. 1: They Built Fake Aliens Out of Ancient Bones—And Accidentally Exposed a Real Grave-Robbing Ring

Apr. 2: ‘A wow moment’: stolen 2,500-year-old Romanian gold helmet has been found

Apr. 4: They stole $10 million worth of artwork, but they may not make a dime.

Apr. 4: Fugitive mafia boss wanted for murder arrested in Amalfi Coast luxury villa

Apr. 5: Wealthy California crypto holders targeted in violent ‘wrench attacks’

Apr. 6: The Crime Haunted a Family for 30 Years. Then Some College Kids Got the Files.

Apr. 7: Judge imposes life sentence for killing of man getting haircut

Apr. 7: The Mansion, the Heiress, the Jewel Heist, and Me: A Bel-Air Fairytale

Apr. 8: Rex Heuermann admits killing 8 women in Gilgo Beach serial slayings

Apr. 8: L.A. Drug Linchpin Who Sold Matthew Perry Ketamine Sentenced to 15 Years

Apr. 9: Fake maple syrup plot thickens: Cans found with label hiding name of implicated company

Apr. 9: They Needed Treatment for Drug Addiction. The Company They Turned to May Have Used Them to Commit Fraud.

Apr. 10: Police Spent 16 Years Hunting a Serial Killer. Then They Discovered the Humiliating Scientific Truth.

Apr. 12: Blue city, red state battle: Kansas City feuds over ‘colonial’ police system

Apr. 14: Why wasn’t the Southport killer stopped?

Apr. 14: ‘Baby Jessica’ Arrested 39 Years After Rescue From Texas Well

Apr. 21: Gilgo Beach serial killer told ex-wife he killed women in their home, new series reveals

Apr. 22: Brazil’s PCC prison gang is becoming a global cocaine powerhouse, with reach into Europe and the U.S.

Apr. 22: The Murder America Can’t Quit

Apr. 24: Convicted MAGA Fraudster Should Get 30 Years in Prison, Prosecutors Say

Apr. 26: Alain Delon, dubbed the French James Dean exuded glamour and menace. A new book asks did he beat and kill a man for having an affair with his wife?

Apr. 27: Man Pleads Guilty to Role in Murder of Run-D.M.C.’s Jam Master Jay

Apr. 27: A 2,000-Year-Old Crime Scene. A Sunken Ship. And One Single Fingerprint That Could Solve the Mystery.

Apr. 27: An arrest has been made in one of NorCal’s most ‘heinous and notorious’ cold cases.

Apr. 27: Judge tosses murder conviction for man who served 25 years, rebuking a ‘troubling’ prosecution

Apr. 29: New Orleans sheriff indicted on 30 counts just days before term ends

Apr. 30: Historic gold trophy worth nearly £500k stolen from Glasgow museum

“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad…If it is good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window.” – William Faulkner

Sarah Beth Durst — The Faraway Inn

It’s no secret that ever since inhaling all the words within The Spellshop, I’ve been a fan of Sarah Beth Durst’s writing. So, unsurprisingly, I picked up her YA effort The Faraway Inn.

A staple opening storyline within both young adult and adult mysteries is the ending of a bad relationship, which propels our main character smack dab into the middle of a mystery. In this case, the abrupt break-up prompts Calisa to run away to her great-auntie’s Vermont B&B. A place where questions multiply, answers are in short supply, and oddities abound.

Here’s the thing. It’s been a minute since I cracked the spine of any novel that employed this opening gambit. Longer still since I’ve read a young adult novel. This being said, what I thought I wanted was our heroine, Calisa, to stand on her own two feet and find her inner magic on her own.

However, that’s not what The Faraway Inn gave me.

Instead, the story offered me something different, something I needed to chew on for a minute. At first, I thought The Faraway Inn meant to show how to build a solid foundation for a good relationship, whilst Calisa distanced herself from a bad one. And it does. But, more importantly, The Faraway Inn demonstrates the simple power in asking for help and the pitfalls that can befall someone when they don’t.

Although I’ve no clue if Durst meant to show this balance between independence and asking for help, as she did not harp, nag, or belabor the idea — this is what I pulled from the book. After being thoroughly entertained by the eccentric guests, awkward moments, a flying lizard, a grumpy cat, and a pessimistic mirror, amongst the many and varied inhabitants of The Faraway Inn. On top of the very real mystery about what was really going on within those four walls.

Moreover, here’s where I admit to purchasing The Faraway Inn for a slightly shallower reason — the book is pretty. This paperback sports floral printed page edges, a charming cover, floral chapter headings, and stylish page numbers. Once I saw it in real life, I couldn’t resist. And this attention to tiny details would make this book an exceptional gift for the right reader.

Scholarship

I’m always amused when people dismiss mystery and thriller novels as nothing more than light entertainment. I don’t think a lot of people understand the research that goes into locked room or noir tales. Authors have taken courses in forensics just to get a bullet angle right.

J.A. Jance once told me that if you ever want feedback, make a one-way street go the wrong way. You’ll hear about it! And there’s a meme floating around advising authors never to put actual numbers in your work; you’ll never be as assiduous as your most autistic reader who will then deconstruct your entire work.

But there’s an air of superciliousness or even trite dismissal of mysteries and thrillers. And, in this case, ghost stories.

Everyone knows Barbara Merz was the pre-eminent scholar on all thing Egyptian, and as Elizabeth Peters, her research was simply accepted as fact (as it should be!), but what many people don’t recognize is the amount of research she put into her books when she wrote as Barbara Michaels.

As Barbara Michaels (the names of her children, by the way), she wrote ghost stories generally set in Virginia but sometimes in DC or Pennsylvania communities, again generally modern day but there is always something otherworldly going on.

And she researched the hell out of them. I have learned so much about various things just from reading her stories. You will too.

For example, if you want to learn about roses, read Vanish With The Rose. I learned so much about heritage roses. And hybrids, and the newer strains, and how they came to be bred. Now I want a heritage rose garden. I can’t grow tomatoes, but I want that garden, dammit!

Or if you want to learn about gemstones, go Into The Darkness with Meg Venturi, who really knows her stuff. I learned about cloisonné as well as how to tell the difference between natural and man-made stones. Did you know that both garnets and topazes come in multiple colors?

Do you know what Shattered Silk is? I was taught how to sew by one of the greats in the theatre business, Mariann Fearn who was taught by Theoni V. Aldredge (if you know, you know), and I’d never heard the term “shattered silk” before. Now I know. And I know why and how silk can shatter.

Of course, if you need an Egyptology hit, Search the Shadows delves into Barbara Merz’s area of expertise, but adds her Barbara Michaels twist of something slightly otherworldly.

Right now, however, I’ve returned to my first and foremost love in the Barbara Michaels library, Ammie, Come Home. It was the first one I read, and yes, I learned about Revolutionary War and Colonial religious beliefs from this one. For me, it’s like coming home, and nowadays, that’s not a bad thing.

And I have to acknowledge that it was Barbara Merz writing as Barbara Michaels who introduced me to what has become my favorite poem of all time. Oh sure, you might think it’s “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll which is fair, but no, it’s “Dirge with Music” by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

So if someone gives you a pitying, snooty look because you read mysteries, bounce it right back at ’em. They know not whereof they speak.

A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon a used copy of what looked to be an interesting book – and it was. Scarface and the Untouchables: Al Capone, Eliot Ness and the Battle for Chicago by Max Allan Collins and A. Brad Schwartz was first released in 2018 and comprehensive doesn’t do it justice. It has photos at the start of the folks involved on both sides of the law, a map who what gang controlled what area of Chicago, and period photos of some locales. Very well done, much like Collins’ early Nate Heller hardcovers.

Then there’s the text itself. Dates, times, locations. Who was doing what and what it meant. Who was corrupt, who wasn’t and who got rubbed out. It’s a very American story – how urge to make a change for the good unleashed consequences that were easy to predict but done anyway, how crime organized into another Big Business, and how the desire to erase the explosive Capone years lost out to tourists buying Capone t-shirts.

Along the way, the authors toss out fascinating tidbits: I hadn’t realized that Prohibition made the manufacture and sale of alcoholic drinks illegal but it was NOT illegal to drink alcohol; in order to make the cases against speakeasies and those who ran them, the agents had to drink and alcoholism became rampant amongst the feds; W.R. Burnett, who would go on to write the classic Little Caesar – which would go on to be the classic gangster movie of the era – was taken by a reporter friend into the garage on Valentine’s Day as the blood was still wet (Little Caesar was published 4 months after the slaughter); that the father of the man for whom Chicago’s airport is named was a lawyer enmeshed in running dog tracks with the Outfit; that there is a sturdy case to be made that Capone was forced out of power and into prison by elements of his organization who wanted the throne.

This comes towards the end of the book, when they write about Shirley Kub, “Savvy, or perhaps crazy, she had a magnetic personality and a smooth tongue that, one police official noted, make her ‘a danger to be around.'” They write that “She described a nationwide ‘Crime Syndicate’ taking orders from a shadowy organization – ‘The System” – made up of leaders in business and government. The System extorted money from The Syndicate, sending those who couldn’t pay to prison.” In 1934, was Kub describing a ‘Deep State’?

Of course the neither of the subjects of the book would live to see themselves elevated into American Mythology. Capone died at 48 in Florida on January 19, 1947. Ness died at 54 on May 16, 1957 shortly after okaying the gallies of the book The Untouchables. The Robert Stack TV series premiered on October 15, 1959. One has to wonder what kind of fame he’d have achieved if he lived, what kind of stories he would tell, if tourists would dress themselves in t-shirts with his face.

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It’s been a month of true crime. Thanks to my sis, I ordered a copy of a book she’d stumbled onto at her library: Sisters in Death: The Black Dahlia, the Prairie Heiress, and Their Hunter. Released last Oct., Eli Frankel has done the impossible. First, he includes details of the Dahlia murder that I’d never read before (a great surprise). Then, he adroitly ties that murder to one that took place in Kansas City 6 years before – a horrific crime I’d never heard about, odd for a crime fan born just miles from the scene. When my sister told me about the book, my reaction was HUH?WHA!! So far, no one I grew up with knows about it either. Weird…

In March of 1941, KC was rocked by the discovery of the grisly murder of Leila Welsh. Young, popular, killed in a particularly vicious way. Believe me, no details here. Though her brother was railroaded into court, he was exonerated and the case was never solved. Frankel just might have done that.

Frankel does a remarkable job laying out the world these women inhabited and from which they were stolen. Along the way, he drops in details that begin to gather until, in the final section that lays out his case for the killer’s identity, they mesh to a neat net of believably. Has he solved these frightful crimes? I don’t see how either, after all this time, could be declared definitively solved – but his case stands strong, the pieces in place, the puzzle clear. It will be interesting to see what the book might shake loose.

And then – a week after finishing this book, I discovered that Michael Connelly has a podcast that purports to solve the Dahlia murder. I’m not far into the podcast, but it’s interesting – and it’s nice to hear Michael’s voice. It never ends…

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For a heavy-weight dose of hardboiled pulp, jump over to the latest iteration of my image blog: old magazines (mystery, crime, true crime and more) and paperbacks, from the 20s to, well, whatever new fits in. https://seattlemysteryhardboiled.com/

BUY SMALL ~ SUPPORT SMALL

April 2026

This month, you get to decide which section any given article goes. “Odd Stuff” or “Links of Interest” – or is it “Serious Stuff”?? If you’ve ever wondered, or been irritated, why we put this there, you get to control our foolishment this month!

Feb. 23: The Little Magazine That Defied American Censorship

Feb. 24: It’s Time to Clean Your Books

Mar. 1: South Korean Police Lose Seized Crypto By Posting Password Online

Mar. 1: An intense debate over the fate of looted artworks displayed in Paris

Mar. 1: £12m for a Pokémon card? If you’re not in the game you’re missing a trick

Mar. 1: The Pentagon says it’s ‘lethalitymaxxing’. Why has ‘incel’ slang crossed into the mainstream?

Mar. 1: An Ohio newspaper has a new star writer. It isn’t human.

Mar. 2: Wannabe detectives to solve murder mystery naked

Mar. 2: The National Association Of Black Bookstores Launches State Of The Black Bookstore Report And Directory

Mar. 2: Michael Jackson molested boy at homes of Elton John, Elizabeth Taylor, lawsuit alleges. Attorney denies

Mar. 3: Benedetto Santapaola, notorious Italian mafia boss, dies in prison aged 87

Mar. 3: Guilty verdict for US father of teenage school shooter

Mar. 4: The Lindbergh Baby Case May Not Be What We Thought. Two New Theories Are Demanding Answers.

Mar. 4: Susan Choi and Katie Kitamura among authors longlisted for Women’s prize for fiction

Mar. 4: Tattered Cover’s former CEO has a new bookstore. But can he shake his past failures and tarnished reputation?

Mar. 4: A Man Waited Until His Mom Died to Reveal Her Bombshell Secret: She Helped D.B. Cooper Disappear.

Mar. 5: Thirty-Four Years Ago, a British Museum Staffer Stole More Than 300 Prints in Broad Daylight. A New Book Chronicles the Thefts and Their Fallout

Mar. 5: British Museum admits another embarrassing theft after African gold disc was stolen by screwdriver-wielding thief before being sold at Sotheby’s

Mar. 5: How a Secret Team of American Female Codebreakers Toppled a Cold War Soviet Spy Network—and Unmasked Traitors on Home Soil

Mar. 6: A recycling company improperly dumped 17 tons of plastic in a landfill. It has millions of dollars in government contracts

Mar. 6: Why libraries have a hold on me: A love letter

Mar. 6: Amazon pulls sponsorship from Paris book festival after booksellers’ association boycott

Mar. 6: Berlin Bookstore sues Minister of State for Culture

Mar. 6: Alan Trustman, Screenwriter on ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ and ‘Bullitt,’ Dies at 95

Mar. 7: Stephen Hibbert, ‘Pulp Fiction’ Gimp, Dead at 68

Mar. 7: Black-owned bookstores hit record numbers, but many struggle

Mar. 7: Paula Doress-Worters, co-author of Our Bodies, Ourselves, dies at 87

Mar. 8: Museums looted of priceless artifacts as Sudan counts the cost of a deadly conflict

Mar. 8: The making of Fargo at 30: ‘Man, you don’t give me this role, I’m gonna shoot your dog’

Mar. 9: ‘The cover-up is brazen’: one journalist’s tenacious, traumatic fight to expose Ghislaine Maxwell

Mar. 9: Belgium at risk of becoming ‘narco-state’, judge warns

Mar. 9: Seattle’s Estelita’s Library part of rise in Black-owned bookstores

Mar. 9: Removal of German bookshops from prize list calls a minister’s actions in question

Mar. 9: Alexander Butterfield, the Nixon aide who disclosed Watergate tapes, dies at 99

Mar. 9: Long-lost page of Archimedes’ writings rediscovered in France

Mar. 9: How cargo thieves are stealing millions of dollars in tech hardware

Mar. 10: This Traveler From India Graffitied His Name on Five Ancient Tombs in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings 2,000 Years Ago

Mar. 10: Russia’s use of poison: A reality Europe has been slow to confront

Mar. 10: Thousands of authors publish ‘empty’ book in protest over AI using their work

Mar. 10: Writer Guild’s Top Negotiators Are Willing to Play Hardball This Time, Too

Mar. 10: Guillermo del Toro’s 5-Year-Old Oscar Nominee Is the Best Film Noir of the Decade

Mar. 10: Why independent bookshops strike fear in the heart of Germany’s culture tsar

Mar. 11: Grammarly Is Pulling Down Its Explosively Controversial Feature That Impersonates Writers Without Their Permission

Mar. 11: Dan Simmons, Genre-Leaping Author of ‘The Terror,’ Dies at 77

Mar. 11: Expert witness in Lucy Letby trial did not reveal hospital investigation into his medical work

Mar. 11: Cosy crime dramas booming in popularity – thanks to new wave of Gen Z fans

Mar. 11: Before ‘Only Murders in the Building’, Steve Martin Made This Near-Perfect Detective Spoof

Mar. 11: Patricia Cornwell on Crime and Creativity

Mar. 12: Official BookTok chart set to launch in the UK

Mar. 12: S.F. Chronicle editorial cartoonist Jack Ohman wins prestigious Herblock Prize

Mar. 12: The first gay representation at the Oscars can be found in this classic film noir

Mar. 12: Police sent female detective’s intimate images to man accused of raping her

Mar. 12: Bill Cosby, Out of Prison and the Public Eye, Faces Civil Trial

Mar. 13: Bradley Cooper Circling To Direct, Write & Star In ‘Ocean’s Prequel At Warner Bros

Mar. 13: Archaeologists Unearthed a 400-Year-Old Letter. It Confirmed the Existence of a Legendary King.

Mar. 13: Zach Bryan Buys Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’ Scroll for $12.1 Million

Mar. 16: Trump’s DOJ Is Helping a Convicted FBI Informant Tied to Russian Intelligence

Mar. 16: Typos Have Plagued Us for Centuries. Just Ask the Publishers Who Printed the Seventh Commandment as ‘Thou Shalt Commit Adultery’ in 1631

Mar. 16: 75 years ago, a viral TV moment ignited America’s obsession with the Mafia

Mar. 16: Matt Clark, Character Actor in a Barnful of Movie Westerns, Dies at 89

Mar. 16: Man charged with planting bombs near the Capitol claims he’s covered by Trump pardon

Mar. 16: DNA testing could clear a dead man’s name — and point to a serial killer

Mar. 16: London book fair roundup: Idris Elba’s thriller deal, the rise of romcom, and fights against censorship

Mar. 16: Barry Award Nominations 2026

Mar. 17: Len Deighton, spy novelist and author of The Ipcress File, dies aged 97

Mar. 17: Five great thrillers by Len Deighton, 1960s rebel spy writer

Mar. 17: Scientists Deciphered 3,000-Year-Old ‘Oracle Bones’—and Found Evidence of an Ancient Disaster

Mar. 17: 10 Near-Perfect Gangster Movies No One Remembers Today

Mar. 18: Got an Idea About Who Robbed the Gardner Museum? Get in Line.

Mar. 18: FBI agent dispels conspiracy theories behind America’s most notorious art heist – and reveals who he thinks really did it

Mar. 18: Newly discovered Whitey Bulger writings show former FBI agent was framed, lawyers allege

Mar. 18: As gun crime rises in N.L., so do efforts by police and fears for innocent civilians

Mar. 19: 2026 PEN America Finalists

Mar. 19: Ed Bernard, Actor on ‘Police Woman’ and ‘The White Shadow,’ Dies at 86

Mar. 19: What Archaeologists Found Written on Those 43,000 Egyptian Notes and Receipts

Mar. 19: Confessions of Jennifer Gomez, $7 Million Cat Burglar

Mar. 19: A.I. Is Writing Fiction. Publishers Are Unprepared.

Mar. 20: Hachette pulls horror novel Shy Girl after suspected AI use

Mar. 20: Don DeLillo’s Ribald Hockey Romp Will Return to Stores

Mar. 20: Dog digs up possible link to notorious 19th-century Devon murder case

Mar. 20: Chuck Norris, Walloping Star of ‘Walker, Texas Ranger,’ Dies at 86

Mar. 20: Curators Examined the Book of the Dead—and Found a 3,300-Year-Old Version of Wite-Out

Mar. 20: The Heat 2 Cast Is Shaping Up. Here’s Everything We Know

Mar. 20: Meet the Watch Expert Catching Multimillion-Dollar Counterfeits

Mar. 20: Pinellas pastor and wife ran Home Depot theft ring for years. Now they face prison

Mar. 20: He Discovered a Legendary Sunken Treasure—and Accidentally Uncovered a 360-Year-Old Crime

Mar. 20: Report: US citizen now leading powerful Jalisco Cartel

Mar. 21: Paul Brainerd Dies at 78; Pioneered Desktop Publishing With PageMaker

Mar. 21: iPhone spyware is everyone’s problem now

Mar. 21: Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, who investigated Russia-Trump campaign ties, dies

Mar. 21: Italian anarchists blow themselves up while making bomb

Mar. 21: Heirs to Bic fortune in nasty legal battle over 15th-century masterpiece allegedly stolen by family chauffeur

Mar. 21: Southsea villa previously owned Arthur Conan Doyle for sale

Mar. 22: Beloved indie bookstore in San Francisco closes

Mar. 23: What’s It Like to Be Back in Print After 20 Years? A Bit Odd.

Mar. 23: Valerie Perrine, ‘Superman’ Actress and ‘Lenny’ Oscar Nominee, Dies at 82

Mar. 23: These Historic Snuffboxes Associated With 18th-Century Monarchs Were Stolen in a Shocking Heist. Now, They’re Back on Public Display

Mar. 23: Jury finds that Bill Cosby sexually assaulted woman in 1972 and awards her nearly $60 million

Mar. 23: RCMP failed to recruit enough officers to meet operational needs: auditor general

Mar. 23: Nonfiction Publishing, Under Threat, Is More Important Than Ever

Mar. 23: From shuttered print editions to firings, student journalists clash with universities

Mar. 23: Jo Nesbo’s Detective Hole release date, cast, trailer and plot as it lands on Netflix

Mar. 24: 2,000 happily ever afters: Ontario woman attempts to sell huge collection of Harlequin paperbacks

Mar. 24: Hong Kong police arrest bookstore owner and staff for selling Jimmy Lai biography, broadcaster reports

Mar. 24: How the RCMP spied on Indigenous organizations — and how we broke the story

Mar. 24: Arizona’s guns are feeding the bloodshed in Mexico’s cartel war

Mar. 24: ‘The Sheep Detectives‘ trailer sees a flock of sheep avenge Hugh Jackman’s murder. Yes, really.

Mar. 24: Crime followed me from boarding school to the Hamptons. Now I’m inspiring armchair detectives

Mar. 25: RCMP commissioner regrets Indigenous spying program that spanned over a decade

Mar. 25: Skeleton of Three Musketeers hero d’Artagnan may have been found

Mar. 25: Ian Rankin: I’ve wasted my life in fiction and missed what matters

Mar. 25: Chip Taylor, Writer of ‘Wild Thing’ and Other Rock Hits [and brother of Jon Voight], Dies at 86

Mar. 25: Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction: Arundhati Roy’s memoir among six shortlisted books

Mar. 25: Jamie Lee Curtis to lead Murder, She Wrote reboot movie

Mar. 26: Why Mounties paid 5 informers to spy on Dene leaders: Inside a secret surveillance operation

Mar. 26: Pepys ‘curated’ letters to conceal being offered enslaved boy as bribe – research

Mar. 26: Italy traces stolen Bond girl fortune to Tuscan vineyards and villas

Mar. 26: The Real Story Behind Abigail Adams’ ‘Remember the Ladies’ Letter

Mar. 27: The best independent bookshops in the UK have been announced

Mar. 27: Rare Sherlock Holmes book discovered in Oxfam charity shop sells for £11,520 at auction

Mar. 27: ‘I wrote The Sopranos to get over my mother wishing me dead’: David Chase on his mob masterpiece – and his new LSD epic

Mar. 27: Russia names Oscar-winning ‘Mr Nobody‘ film maker as a ‘foreign agent’

Mar. 27: Fire destroys Leander bookstore furniture, inventory just days before grand opening

Mar. 27: Member of Jill Biden’s security detail shoots self in leg at Philadelphia airport

Mar. 28: Actor James Tolkan of ‘Top Gun’ and ‘Back to the Future’ fame dies at 94

Mar. 28: Inside the trans-Atlantic trade in Iranian weapons for Colombian coke

Mar. 28: Gen Z Hates These Popular Words for Being Insanely Cringe

Mar. 28: Henry C. Lee Dies at 87; Forensic Scientist Testified in Defense of O.J. Simpson

Mar. 29: She uncovered a terrifying lab hidden in California, with alleged ties to China

Mar. 30: ‘French speaking’ passenger accused of making bomb threat and threatening to kill seatmate on Frontier flight

Mar. 30: 68-year-old suspect arrested nearly 50 years after a man was beaten to death in his Wisconsin home

Mar. 30: Thieves steal Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse paintings worth millions from Italian museum

Mar. 30: Murder trial opens over alleged masonic lodge crime network in Paris

Mar. 30: Truck Carrying 400K KitKats Disappears in Europe

Mar. 31: Eric Overmyer, 74, grew up in Seattle, wrote for TV Classics

Mar. 31: The New York Times drops freelance journalist who used AI to write book review

Mar. 31: I broke up with my Kindle. My new e-reader treats me better.

The Convenience Store by the Sea — Sonoko Machida

Okay, here’s the thing. The Convenience Store by the Sea isn’t a mystery novel. However, Machida threaded a mystery through the narrative. Each of the six chapters, plus the epilogue, are vignettes that builds upon the mystery. Whilst showcasing the lives touched by and community built around a neighborhood convenience store and its staff.

Above and beyond the fantastic writing and engrossing story, what fascinated me was the convenience store itself. Unlike the chains in my neighborhood, which feature bored salespeople who don’t care a flying fig about me (despite visiting them regularly for the last five or so years), the humans peopling this branch care. They make sure their elderly neighbors are okay. They provide a sanctuary where kids can create or simply eat their sugary snacks in peace. Above all, the store’s manager wants to make sure everyone can find what they need.

Albeit fictional, The Convenience Store by the Sea serves as a reminder that the world can be a compassionate and caring place. All you need to do is try: Try to be kind, try to show compassion, try to care. You don’t and won’t get it perfect every time, but trying is the key. It shows how making an effort matters, even if perfection isn’t always possible.

I would recommend this book to anyone who’s seeking some relief from these “interesting times” we currently find ourselves living in. It’s a well-paced book with relatable/interesting characters, and features some fantastic food descriptions. (Not the main point of the book, but a feature I enjoy.) Moreover, the translator didn’t dumb down the author’s original text. They expected you to know what it meant or be curious enough to look it up. Which is something I really appreciate!

Updates an’ stuff

We’ve been busy out here in the record breaking heat of southern New Mexico. Temperatures are in the 90’s, which shouldn’t happen until May or June. It makes life exciting.

But we’ve been working on the shed. Believe me, in this heat, insulation is key.

We’ve caulked cracks and now we’re looking at electrical placement to be hooked up to solar panels. May as well make use of this sun, right?

But that’s not all we’re doing. We’ve been planting trees. They’re small now, but we believe in them!

That’s the apple and beneath is is one of the two olive trees. We have four pomegranates and a fig, and something else I think. We’re not done tree planting.

[and there’s Fran herself tanning her kneecaps! – the ed.]

Which is why I’m recycling recommendations again, but this shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Kat Richardson. Need I say more?

We’ve got her first series, Greywalker. If you want an urban fantasy take on Seattle, complete with ferrets, this is your series. There are nine of them. NINE. You have a lot to look forward to, and if you like a good detective story, cat jump in and read them in order.

Now, if noir is more your thing and you like science fiction – no urban fantasy, just straight up, hardcore science fiction – then you definitely want to read Blood Orbit. I cannot tell you how broken my heart is that the sequel never saw the light of day. That’s a crime right there. It’s flippin’ brilliant.

Lately, Kat Richardson has come back to urban fantasy but in a much, much darker way than before, with Greywalker. Much darker. And funny. Darkly funny but funny nonetheless, and I gather this series has legs. I’ve read the first one and you should too so you’ll be ready for the sequel. Meet Storm Waters.

Mind you, Kat Richardson is multi-talented. In addition to her editing business, which I have used and can highly recommend, she’s taken to painting watercolors. She’s just amazing.

I love this tree. She has no idea I lifted it from her Facebook page, but there ya go. She taught me how to be a thief, and I’m getting good at it!

So that’s me for this month.

Oh, but rest assured that we are well taken care of when we go out and work in the yard or the shed, now known as the Book Nook.

No lizard is getting past her, no sir!

See you next month, and stay cool out there!

Having finished Don Winslow‘s Danny Ryan trilogy, I am stumped as to how to review them. Since they’re actually one story broken into three parts (i.e., three individual books), to say what happens in one can wreck the beginning of the next. So – – I can’t and won’t. Leave it that I have ordered 4 sets of the books to send to friends. I’m that confident in the saga that I am sure they’ll enjoy them as much as I did.

So read City on Fire, then City of Dreams, and finally City in Ruins – in that order.

❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂

For a hearty dose of hardboiled pulp, jump over to the latest iteration of my image blog: old magazines (mystery, crime, true crime and more) and paperbacks, from the 20s to, well, whatever new fits in: seattlemysteryhardboiled !!

BUY SMALL ~ SUPPORT SMALL

March 2026

Bookshops offer so much more than books – so why aren’t they valued like pubs?

Read Love Letters From Royals and Romantics Across 500 Years of British History

The 10 Most Beautiful Bookstores in the World

A Word, Please: An editor’s knee-jerk reaction to the use of ‘amidst’ and ‘amongst’

You Can Buy a Rare Broadside Copy of the Declaration of Independence From July 1776

You Can Buy One of History’s Rarest Baseball Cards—if You Have Several Million Dollars to Spare

Where are the most endangered languages in the world?

First writing may be 40,000 years earlier than thought

A Scholar Recognized the Inscriptions in the Margins of This Manuscript. The Scribbles Turned Out to Be Galileo’s Handwritten Notes

streperous (adj.): “noisy, harsh-sounding,” 1630s, from Medieval Latin streperus, from Latin strepere “make a noise,” a word of uncertain connections, but de Vaan compares Old Norse þrefa “quarrel,” þrapt “gossip;” Old English þræft “quarrel.”

Inside Russia’s Secret Campaign of Sabotage in Europe

OpenAI Wins Key Discovery Battle as It Gains Ground Against Authors in AI Lawsuits

Have We Reached the Final Days of the Mass-Market Paperback?

What the closing of the Washington Post’s books section means for readers.

Crypto-Funded Human Trafficking Is Exploding

So Long to Cheap Books You Could Fit in Your Pocket

stridor (n.): “harsh, high-pitched creaking noise; shrill sound,” 1630s, from Latin stridor “a squeak, a shriek,” a derivative of stridere “to grate, screech“. (see strident).

Bathroom mention in Jess Walter’s book, ‘So Far Gone,’ inspires fundraiser for West Central Abbey renovations

Who was Ah Bing? New children’s book reveals Oregon story behind famous cherry

Book on Coeur d’Alene serial killer survivor Shasta Groene nominated for Edgar Award

Before becoming an alleged narco kingpin, Ryan Wedding was just a snowboard-loving kid from Coquitlam, B.C.

B.C. Insider: Extortion cases are on the rise

Sound Transit still can’t prevent copper wire thefts that stop service

Debate over Kurt Cobain’s death reignites with new forensic claims

One Man Stole $660 Million. He’ll Never Pay It Back.

A Presidential Assassination Attempt Lead to Seattle Filmmakers New Documentary

Reading across the realms at Parallel Worlds Bookshop in Portland

Lloyd Center’s discount bookstore will close in spring

Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s glasses, Ted Bundy survivor at new Myrtle Beach museum

misophonia (n.): a disorder where you have a decreased tolerance to specific sounds and things you can sense related to them.

Da Vinci’s ‘Vitruvian Man’ loses genitalia for Games TV, angering some in Italy

Lisette Model’s ’50s jazz pictures were nearly lost to McCarthyism

The Kremlin Banned These Books. You Can Find Them in a New York Library.

EWU history student exhibit at Central Library highlights Wobblies’ fight for free speech through artifacts, photos and books, like Jess Walter’s ‘Cold Millions’

crash (v.): From the late 14 C., crasschen “break in pieces; make a loud, clattering sound;” probably imitative. Meaning “break into a party, etc.” is 1922. Slang meaning “to sleep” dates from 1943; especially from 1965. Of destructive aircraft landings, 1910 (intransitive), 1915 (transitive). Computing sense “functional failure of a program” is from 1973. Related: Crashed; crashing. Crashing (adj.) as “overwhelming” (typically in crashing bore) is by 1930.

Oregon author wins Newbery Medal for year’s best children’s book

Peter Filkins wins inaugural Freudenheim Translation Prize for ‘masterly’ work

Arundhati Roy and Sarah Perry longlisted for Women’s prize for nonfiction

Witches, Nazi collaborators and banned books: International Booker prize announces 2026 longlist

‘The Decagon House Murders’: A watershed moment for a new, emerging style of mystery fiction

One in three bookshops saw Christmas sales rise but 50% say sales fell

Penguin Random House Launches Support for Independent Bookshops in the UK

A tiny California publisher finds success uncovering international hidden gems

Is this the coolest bookshop in the world?

The Nazis Stole This Rare Jewish Prayer Book Decorated With Dragons, Unicorns and Intricate Floral Patterns. It Just Sold for $6.4 Million at Auction

‘His favourite book was by Jordan Peterson, which was a massive ick’: how books perform on dating apps

‘I felt betrayed, naked’: did a prize-winning novelist steal a woman’s life story?

Hungry for Affirmation, Vulnerable to Scams: As a Writer, I Know the Feeling

Mar. 5: Naomi Hirahara signs Crown City, Elliot Bay, 7pm

Mar. 18: T Kira Madden signs Whidbey, Elliot Bay, 7pm

Mar. 20: T Kira Madden signs Whidbey, Powell’s, 7pm

Mar. 25: Benjamin Stevenson signs Everyone in This Bank is a Thief, Third Pl/LFP, 7pm

Mar. 26: Benjamin Stevenson signs Everyone in This Bank is a Thief, Powell’s, 7pm

bang (v.): 1540s, “to strike hard with a loud blow,” an imitative formation, or else from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse banga “to pound, hammer” also of echoic origin.

The slang meaning “have sexual intercourse with” attested by 1937. As an adverb, “suddenly, abruptly,” by 1828, probably from the notion of “with a sudden or violent sound.” Related: Banged; banging.

Banging (adj.) in the slang sense of “large, great, surpassing in size” is attested by 1864. Bang-up (adj.) “excellent, first-rate, in fine style” (1810) probably is shortened from a phrase such as bang up to the mark. Compare slang slap-up “excellent, first-rate” (by 1823).

The Big Sleep Was Too Risky for Hollywood’s Golden Age

Apple TV’s ‘Cape Fear’ Series to Debut in June

‘Dark Winds’ Scores Early Season 5 Renewal at AMC

Crime 101 writer-director Bart Layton reveals his Mount Rushmore of crime genre movies: ‘they’re endlessly brilliant and rewatchable‘

‘Sugar,’ Apple TV’s Stylish Neo-Noir Detective Story With a Twist, Returns for Season Two on Friday, June 19

In the Footsteps of the Queen of Crime: PW Talks with David Suchet

Apple TV’s 5-Part Series Rewrites The Rules Of Spy Thrillers

Philip Kerr’s Berlin Noir coming to Apple TV

David Fincher’s Zodiac Redefined True Crime Thrillers

New ‘Charlie’s Angels’ Movie in the Works with Screenwriter Pete Chiarelli

Emily Deschanel to Star in NBC’s Criminal Profiler Drama

Face/Off’ Sequel Loses Director Adam Wingard

Another Carl Hiaasen novel is coming to your home screen March 4th. [based on Double Whammy, the crooked bass fishing tournament]

Stanley Kubrick’s Underrated ’50s Film Noir Is Streaming For Free

screech (v.): “cry out with a sharp, shrill voice,” 1570s, an alteration of scritch (mid-13th C., schrichen), perhaps a general Germanic word (compare Old Frisian skrichta, Muddle Dutch schrien), probably ultimately of imitative origin (compare shriek). Also compare screak, “utter a shrill, harsh cry,” c. 1500, from Old Norse skrækja, also probably echoic. Related: Screeched; screeching.

Of wagon-wheels, door-hinges, etc., “make a shrill, grating sound,” 1560s. Screech-owl is attested from 1590s (scritch-owl is from 1520s) in reference to the barn-owl; in the U.S. the term is applied to small horned owls. The name is given to owls that “screech” as distinguished from ones that hoot. The cry was regarded as ominous.

Jan. 31: James Sallis, American author of the noir novel ‘Drive,‘ dies at 81

Feb. 14: Alfred Blumstein, Who Transformed the Study of Crime, Dies at 95

Feb. 16: Robert Duvall, All-Purpose Actor With Few Peers, Dies at 95 [12 underrated Robert Duvall movies to rewatch over and over – almost half are crime]

Feb. 17: Frederick Vreeland, Diplomat and Spy Who Served With Style, Dies at 98

Feb. 18: Tom Noonan, Star of Michael Mann’s ‘Manhunter’ and ‘Heat,’ Dies at 74

Feb. 24: Robert Carradine, Mean Streets, The Cowboys and The Long Riders Star, son of legendary Hollywood figure John Carradine, brother of Keith and David, Dies at 71

Feb. 25: Ann Godoff, a Top Editor and Publisher of Best Sellers, Dies at 76

Feb. 26: Bobby J. Brown, Actor on ‘The Wire,’ Dies at 62 in a Fire

murmur (v.): late 14th C., “make a low continuous noise; grumble, complain,” from Old French murmurer “murmur, grouse, grumble” (12c.), from murmur “rumbling noise” (see murmur (n.)). Transitive sense of “say indistinctly” is from 1530s.

Jan. 31: We Know How the Black Dahlia Died, But How Did She Live?

Feb. 11: Alleged drones in El Paso airspace cast spotlight on Mexican cartels’ growing arsenals

Feb. 12: A Hockey Dad, a Cartel, and a $12 Million Fraud

Feb. 13: Crab Heist Puts Spotlight on Surge of Cargo Thefts

Feb. 13: Florida Couple Arrested After Pickleball Match Turns Into a Brawl

Feb. 14: 5 European nations say Alexei Navalny was poisoned and blame the Kremlin

Feb. 15: The 10 most infamous abductions in modern history

Feb. 16: How dark web agent spotted bedroom wall clue to rescue girl from years of harm

Feb. 16: Fake funeral suspects allegedly used hearse to smuggle charcoal in Malawi

Feb. 17: The quest to save Elizabeth II’s machine-gunned Rolls Royce

Feb. 18: Police Recover Ancient Egyptian Artifacts the Day After a Heist at a Museum in Australia

Feb. 22: He wrote a murder mystery. His death in an assisted living home is now one.

Feb. 26: Astronomer Who Discovered Water on Distant Planet Murdered Outside Home

Feb. 28: Michael Jackson Estate Sued for Child Trafficking by Siblings Alleging More Than Decade of Abuse

bleep (n.): An “electronic noise,” 1953 (originally in reference to a Geiger counter), imitative; later associated with Sputnik. As “bleeping sound edited over a spoken word deemed unfit for broadcast” from 1968.

This is my most current bookselling configuration in Tiny Bookshop!

I doubt it will shock any of you to learn that I enjoy baking. However, it’s not the end result that keeps my hands continuously covered in flour. What keeps me repeatedly returning to my mixer is the process of baking itself. Reading the recipe, tweaking it to suit my stupid allergies, then gathering, weighing, and mixing the ingredients together. At which point I say a little prayer to whatever gods want to listen and shove the pan of batter/dough in the oven. Usually only semi-confident that the end result will loosely resemble the pic in whatever medium I scrounged the recipe from. Of course, I’m always excited to see the end result and listen to feedback on what I made. However, it’s the process of tweaking, refining, and, every now & again, perfecting the recipe in question that keeps my mixer and me busy.

But what does this have to do with the price of cranberries in Wisconsin?

This highly enjoyable process reminds me a bit of the game: Tiny Bookshop. Where you and your tiny mobile bookshop rolls from spot to spot in Bookstonbury. A seaside town, filled to the brim with avid readers, who recently lost their bookshop and are elated you chose their town to ply your new trade.

And no two spots in Bookstonbury own the same taste in books, so before visiting one of a number of locations around the village, you need to customize your selection. Unlike a real-world bookshop where you need to choose every book individually, in the Tiny Bookshop, you select the number of books you want to shelve from each genre. It’s only after you open for the day and people start requesting your assistance that you, the player, get to see the titles and blurbs on each (some of which are hilarious).

Even better? As you grow into your new role as the town bookseller, you get to customize your little trailer! Adding plants, bookshelves, posters, and whatnot, you can increase or decrease the chances of selling certain genres, the number of recommendations you get to handle per day, customer flow, danger, calmness, etc.

Then there are the location specific missions, mysteries to solve, achievements to earn, and friendships you make with the NPCs along the way…..Basically, the Tiny Bookshop rolled together everything I loved about being a bookseller, handselling books, and character creation screens. What’s even better? There’s no upper limit on the number of books you can keep in general inventory (though you are limited on the number you can stock in the bookshop on any given day).

To say I enjoy playing this game is a vast understatement.

The Tiny Bookshop is a true cozy game. Relying on resource management, time, and storylines to propel you as the bookseller forward. Moreover, with its casual approach, you can pick it up and put it down pretty much at will. So if you’ve only a few spare minutes after dinner or hours of extra time on a Sunday afternoon, you can still work your way through this highly enjoyable game.

Update and Reprise

Last month I showed you the state of my library shed, and I want to show off what we’ve gotten done so far.

The shed is now in place on its dedicated pad. I have to admit I was dancing while they delivered it.

It needs a lot of work inside but that’s all planned out. Insulation and walls and eventually bookshelves.

And a desk has been found which will eventually go under the window there. So we’ve been busy.

And so has the world, which is why I’m singing an old refrain.

“I do not need to read you the whole apocalyptic text; the plight of the Third World thrust to the brink of starvation, the daily risk of economic collapse in the West, the soaring cost of energy, the wild armament race, the temptation for the militarists to make their last mad gamble while they could still calculate the atomic odds. For me the most frightening phenomenon was the atmosphere of creeping despair among the world leaders, the sense of official impotence, the strange atavistic regression to a magical view of the universe.”

This was published in 1981 so it was written a couple of years earlier. It’s dated now, as a people facing Armageddon at the turn of the last century, so that’s the context. But the words still resonate. Like these, which specifically mention Paris but could be anywhere, really:

“There’s no way we can protect the people of Paris from blast and radiation or nerve gas or a lethal virus. If we announce that nasty fact, tout court, we’ll have instant panic. So we have to keep the cities working as long as we can at all costs. If that means sweeping the streets with tanks twice a day we’ll do it. If it means pre-dawn raids on dissidents or too vocal idealists we’ll have them out in their nightshirts and shoot a few to admonish the rest.”

Sound familiar? Which is why I’m once again re-reading Morris West‘s The Clowns of God. It’s not my faith, but the politics make more sense than ever, the intrigue more obvious today than I’ve ever seen it, and of all things, it gives me hope.

This is my personal copy, tattered and torn and foxed. It’s the one I traded back and forth with my very Christian mother and we discussed it endlessly. It has her favorite passages highlighted in neon yellow, and I love it beyond words.

So with my library shed coming together and a fictional (I hope) pre-Apocalyptic adventure story, I keep moving forward, and I hope you do to.

Good friend Mark handed me a book, saying he was sure I’d enjoy it – and he was right! Great timing, too, as Spring Training was rapidly approaching. I wasn’t paying attention to baseball when the events of the book took place but I sure wish I had been.

John W. Miller’s The Last Manager relates the life of Earl Weaver, not only one of the winning-est managers in Orioles history, he was one of the winning-est is baseball history. I knew vague things about him (he was manager from 1968 to 1982 – forgetting the ’86 return), mainly due to his reputation as a loud-mouth. But I was intrigued to learn of his early application of statistics to games, a knowledge he gained from being around his Uncle’s gambling life. That Weaver absorbed how that math worked and could see how it would apply to baseball is staggering. And this was years before the transformation brought about by Bill James.

You like baseball? You like the game’s numbers? You gotta read this!

☓☓☓☓☓☓☓☓☓☓

There’s this famed story that when the writers were working on the screenplay for The Big Sleep, they couldn’t figure out who killed the chauffeur pulled out of the ocean. So they called Chandler to ask him. He answered that he didn’t know. And that’s just fine with me. Not everything in a great novel have top be clear for me to enjoy it.

I honestly can’t say that stories by James Lee Burke make sense. The characters speak elliptically, as if we’re operating on their wavelength. But his writing is just so stellar that I don’t care. I’m there for the writing, and the characters. Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcel are two of my very favorite characters. Any time spent with them is a deep pleasure. The Hadacol Boogie is no exception.

‘I knew only one person who knew what I was thinking about. Most people would laugh; the kindest would be kind; the others would think me mad. Oddly, among the previous three, the closest to the truth is the third. Madness can be a conduit into the truth or at least a marvelous zoo.’

It’s filled with odd characters. Some are new to the show, and others are long-standing marvels. One has to ask, occasionally, just how many miscreants did Dave go to school with, if you’re taking the series as a whole. But, as Clete would say, I don’t care – diggez-vous? Someday, I am going to re-read the early books, maybe the entire series. Why not? Time spent with cherished friends cannot be a waste!

PS – I had to look it up: Hadacol was an elixir sold to cure all sorts of ailments and was the subject of several country, R&B, and Cajun tunes of its time. “Hadacol Boogie” was recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis and others.

♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎

It’ll surprise no one that I am interested in, a student of, the political assassinations of the ’60s. Not only are they fascinating true crime stories that have all the things we love in mystery fiction, they tell us so much about how our world was shaped then, and now.

Lisa Pease’s foundational book on the RFK assassination, A Lie too Big to Fail has been reissued with a new afterward from the author. It is a book of staggering information of both the murder itself, the structure of the plan, and the scope of the plot. Of especial interest is her chapter on mind control – MKULTRA and other nefarious machinations.

♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤

Lastly – ’cause when yer on a tear of good books, you want to talk about ’em all:

After putting them off for, duh, years, I’ve finally started Don Winslow’s trilogy of Danny Ryan and the Rhode Island organized crime families. City on Fire begins the saga with the long-time peace between the Irish and Italian gangs coming to a sudden end. Danny Ryan is at the center of it all but also an outsider, not related to any of the families by blood, only by loyalty. No one gives him much thought but he’s the one the responsibility fall to and he surprises everyone with his abilities. Winslow has based the books on Greek classics and it shows. There’s a timelessness to tale.

The great part is that it isn’t done in one book – there are two more!

⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎⛅︎

For a slug of hardboiled pulp, jump over to the latest iteration of my image blog: old magazines (mystery, crime, true crime and more) and paperbacks, from the 20s to, well, whatever new fits in. seattlemysteryhardboiled.com

IF YOU APPRECIATE WHAT WE DO ~ PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD

February 2026

Study Finds 93% Of Murders Solved By Consulting Victim’s Pet Parrot

The ‘cosy’ European city that’s home to the ‘world’s most beautiful bookshop’

Newly Digitized Records Reveal How Indigenous People Shared Their Knowledge of New Zealand’s Plants With Captain Cook’s Crew

A Virginia library book found its way home after 36 years and a world tour

Rare first Superman comic once stolen from Nicolas Cage sells for $15m

Are you a fat cull or fuddlecap? Consult the old book of London slang

Jack Kerouac’s 37 metre-long, first draft scroll of On the Road to be auctioned

Lost ancient Greek star catalog decoded by particle accelerator

This historic New York hotel is throwing an epic murder mystery weekend—here’s how you can attend

Viral images turn local bookstore owner into symbol of Minneapolis anger

fremescence (n.): rumblings of an unhappy mob

A moment that changed me: in the bombed-out ruins of an apartment block, I saw a book I’d translated

A 200-year-old book distributor is closing. Here’s what that means for public libraries

Samuel Green Freed Himself and Others From Slavery. Then He Was Imprisoned Over Owning a Book

How Australian festival imploded after axeing Palestinian author

U.S. murder rate hits lowest level since 1900, report says

Inside an AI start-up’s plan to scan and dispose of millions of books

King County sheriff’s office set to roll out rapid DNA machine

WA leads the nation in retail theft. Issaquah shows how to fix it

Forgotten Star Dorothy Stratten Almost Lived the Hollywood Fairy Tale. It Ended as a Horror Story.

Bank robbery note, dropped in Seattle Goodwill, leads to suspect

The Ink Drinker is the bookish bar Seattle’s been waiting for

How this longtime Seattle theater actor has become a go-to leading man (Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Village Theatre Issaquah through Feb. 22.

New D.B. Cooper FBI files released, offering up intriguing suspects never seen before

Powell’s Books lays off more workers in what it calls ‘final’ round of cuts

King County cracks down on repeat retail theft

dibs (interj.): children’s word to express a claim on something, 1915, originally U.S., apparently from earlier senses “a portion or share” and “money” (early 19c. colloquial), probably a contraction of dibstone “a knuckle-bone or jack in a children’s game” (1690s), in which the first element is of unknown origin. The game consisted of tossing up small pebbles or the knuckle-bones of a sheep and catching them alternately with the palm and the back of the hand.

Was The Actor Who Played Uncle Fester on ‘The Addams Family’ Really Part of a Lynch Mob?

Researchers Just Discovered Something Extremely Unflattering About People Who Believe Conspiracy Theories

Grok and Company Write the Next Sopranos: A Story of WALL-Es in the Writers Room

Grave Robbery Spreads Across America

asteism (n.): “genteel irony, polite mockery,” 1580s, from Greek asteismos “wit, witticism,” from asteios “refined, elegant, witty, clever,” literally “of a city or town” (as opposed to “country”), from asty “town, city,” especially (without the article) “Athens,” which is possibly from a suffixed form of PIE root *wes- (3) “to live, dwell, stay” (see Vesta). For sense, compare urbane.

Val McDermid was assigned ‘sensitivity reader’ to cut offensive language from old books

Censoring books to spare snowflake’s feelings is a crime

You Can See a Swirling Sculpture Made of 8,000 Books at a Library in Prague

Judge orders Anna’s Archive to delete scraped data; no one thinks it will comply

Arkansas moves to ban books in prisons as a drug-fighting measure

Censorship row as London Library tries to shush café plan dissent

chortle(v.): coined 1871 by Lewis Carroll in “Through the Looking Glass,” perhaps from chuckle and snort. Related: Chortled; chortling. As a noun, from 1903.

£50000 ‘reader-led’ writing prize launched

2026 Edgars’ Grand Masters, Raven & Ellery Queen Award Recipients announced

Crime novelist wins Diamond Dagger award

Christie, Agatha Christie

The enduring appeal of Agatha Christie, by a mega fan

‘There’s nothing like boredom to make you write’: A rare interview with the elusive Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie, Still the Queen of Crime

David Suchet on why he nearly turned down Poirot

A rare interview with the elusive Agatha Christie

Netflix has just dropped 16 seasons of classic British mysteries dubbed ‘the best ever’

☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎

HarperCollins Will Use AI to Translate Harlequin Romance Novels

Mass surveillance, the metaverse, making America ‘great again’: the novelists who predicted our present

Review: One man held the keys to KGB records. He turned them over to MI6.

Raffles, Gentleman Thief book review: A dapper anti-Sherlock Holmes

Read these books before they take over our screens this year

The meditative quality of wandering among books – Times Union

⁍Don Winslow is soft-spoken. His fiction smashes you in the teeth.

⁍‘We Have to Speak Out’: Don Winslow on Fighting Trump and Coming Out of Retirement

The greatest crime novelist you have probably never heard of

☒The Worst Thing About the Black Dahlia Case

☒He’s challenging decades of victim-blaming the ‘Black Dahlia’

Feb. 7: Mike Lawson signs The Asset, his new DeMarco, Magnolia Books, 1pm

Feb. 14: Mike Lawson signs The Asset, his new DeMarco, Barnes & Noble in Silverdale, WA, 1pm

Feb. 17: Nicola Griffith signs She is Here, Third Place/Ravenna, 7pm

Feb. 24: Susan Walter signs Murder at 30,000 Feet, Eagle Harbor Books, 6:30

snigger (v.): 1706, variant form of snicker (v.). Related: Sniggered; sniggering. As a noun from 1823.

James Bond’s new writer Steven Knight: ‘If I think about the legacy, I’m f***ed’

‘Rockford Files’ Update Gets Pilot Order at NBC

‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ TV Series on the Way From Sky

‘Dark Winds’: Zahn McClarnon Races Against Time to Save a Missing Girl in New Season 4 Trailer

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis to Compose Original Score for ‘Jo Nesbo’s Detective Hole’

Filmmaker who helped crack gay porn actor’s gruesome Hollywood killing wins SXSW premiere

The ’70s Crime Classic That Quietly Features Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Weirdest Roles

Indiana Jones officially dead (for now) following flop fifth movie

Harlan Coben debunks critics saying his Netflix shows are full of ‘plot holes’

Anne Hathaway Sets 4-Year TV Return With True Crime Series Based On Serial Killer Deadlier Than Ted Bundy

Isaac Asimov Teamed Up With A Star Trek: The Next Generation Writer For A Short-Lived Detective Series

Michael Connelly Should Stick To Fake Crime

‘John le Carré: Tradecraft’ [museum exhibition] Review: The Spy Novelist Decoded

Kino Lorber’s Gleaming Collection of French Noir

‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Scores Early Season 5 Renewal at Netflix

First Look Teaser for ‘Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole’ Crime Thriller Series

smirtle: 15th C. English, to quietly laugh at something you’re not supposed to

Jan. 5: David R. Young, 89, Is Dead; Nixon Aide Helped Steer the ‘Plumbers’

Jan. 6: Aldrich Ames, C.I.A. Turncoat Who Helped the Soviets, Dies at 84

Jan. 8: RIP Robert Tanenbaum: JFK Investigator, Mayor, and Best-Selling Novelist

Jan. 19: Sir John Blofeld obituary: Judge who crossed paths with Stones and 007

Jan. 20: Seattle-area philanthropist Nancy Skinner Nordhoff, co-founder of the Whidbey Island women‘s writer’s retreat, Hedgebrook, dies at 93

Jan. 21: Bruce Bilson, Director on ‘Get Smart,’ ‘Hogan’s Heroes,’ ‘Barney Miller’ and So Much More, Dies at 97

Jan. 26: Legendary Marvel Comic Artist Sal Buscema Passes Away at Age 89

Jan. 29: Michael Beck, 65, Dies; First to Report Symptoms of ‘Havana Syndrome’

Jan. 29: Jon Talton, former Republic columnist, Seattle Times columnist, and noted mystery author, dies at 69

Jan. 1: The sinister letters that terrorized an Ohio town… and the chilling truth investigators say still remains hidden

Jan. 8: US serial killer confesses to 1965 murder of 18-year-old woman in New Jersey

Jan. 9: Lancaster County man accused of stealing human remains from 100 graves at Delco cemetery, possibly others

Jan. 10: The hunt for a stolen Jackson Pollock — and answers to a family’s pain

Jan. 13: Murder mystery: Did a bestselling crime novelist really kill his poet friend forty-four years ago?

Jan. 16: Germany returns stolen fragments of Bayeux Tapestry to France

Jan. 16: Contents of ‘patronising’ letters that Ted Bundy sent to his family from death row revealed

Jan. 20: FBI solves two additional Colonial Parkway murders with new evidence

Jan. 25: Murder and MI5: How an extraordinary battle erupted over what the state keeps secret

Jan. 27: Sledgehammer-wielding gang smash into businessman’s home, attack him and his wife and take off with their £1MILLION rare watch collection

Jan. 29: Why China moved so quickly to execute 11 members of a notorious mafia family

Jan. 29: Man arrested after 600 artefacts stolen in Bristol museum robbery

Jan. 31: As Athletes Fill Their Homes With Treasures, Thieves Take Note

fourwallered: tired from tossing and turning all night

Sprinkles and Sea Serpents features a thirty-something woman whose frenemy sabotaged her at a work at a Portland (Or) newspaper. Thus leaving our heroine, Rosella, with $20 to her name and zero prospects. Though she’s down, Rosella still has one card left to play — going home.

Located nearish to Wenatchee, in Washington State, sits Rosella’s magically hidden hometown of Winterspell. Did I mention Rosella’s a witch? A witch, due to a quirk around her birth, endowed Rosella with a rare magical talent that’s totally awesome, but has made her an outsider. Fortunately, Rosella doesn’t need to worry overly much about her unearned bad rep during the interview process…Because there’s always room for her in the family firm….The Sugar Shack — bakery/cafe/retail establishment catering to the witches and wizards of Winterspell who own a sweet tooth.

Shortly thereafter, a woman goes missing whilst on a run around a local lake….and Rosella’s journalistic instincts kick in, and she starts investigating on her own. Using her innate magical talent, Rosella learns the sea serpent had nothing to do with the disappearance. Knowledge that pits Rosella against a lazy sheriff, a monster hunter, and a town full of people giving her the side eye.

Okay, I must admit I purchased this book mainly for the title — it made me laugh. I’m not sure I even read the premise prior to the purchase…there may have been alcohol involved. That being said, I’m glad my finger punched the purchase icon.

Sprinkles and Sea Serpents is what I call a Sunday afternoon read: Easily finished in a day, owns high rereading potential, laugh-out-loud text, and a fun plot. Moreover, it’s an easy read that made me grin and, for a short time, forget the panic attack hovering at the edge of my mind. Admittedly, the Sugar Shack series won’t be for everyone. However, if you enjoy fantasy reads, tangentially linked to backed goods, cats, and awkward moments, then give Sprinkles and Sea Serpents a whirl. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Pictures and Review

As you may or may not remember, I have a lot of books.

I mean a LOT of books. When we moved down to New Mexico, after giving away and selling over 15 boxes of books, I had 61 boxes left. Yeah. The movers were stunned.

And the place we first moved into was smaller than our original house so I couldn’t unpack all of the books. I was sad.

Then we moved to an even smaller place and so there are boxes I haven’t opened in five, going on six, years now. And we all got tired of me moping and pining and saying, “Well, I suppose I can buy another copy and get rid of it later,” which doesn’t really solve the problem.

So we’re fixing it, and that’s why this month and next month and quite possibly into April will be shorter reviews or rewritten reviews. We bought me a She Shed which will be my library, with storage in the loft.

But to do that, to add a 12×24 shed with no plumbing and we’ll figure out electricity somehow (I’m thinking solar), we had to get a permit from the County. So we had to get a survey. And we had to do all kinds of other things, like build a detention pond since we’re nominally in a flood plain.

And we had to create a pad for the shed. Concrete to come.

All being properly supervised, of course.

So my review this month is of a novella that can be read in one sitting. Still, I think it merits attention.

Winona Kent is a BC author, and the novella I read, Disturbing the Peace is part of a series featuring British born Jason Davey, a professional musician who finds himself in awkward and unpleasant situations.

In Disturbing the Peace, Jason goes to the snowy plains of winter locked Canada in search of information about one of the members of Jason’s father’s band, Figgis Green. Jason’s son asks questions that Jason can’t answer about the rhythm guitarist for the group, Ben Quigley, who vanished years ago. So off Jason goes to find out.

I haven’t read the rest of the series and I must admit that I noticed the gaps in my knowledge. Disturbing the Peace is a complete story, absolutely, but I was keenly aware that I was missing history and nuance, so I suggest you do what I did not do and begin with Ticket to Ride, where you meet everyone involved.

But one of the reasons I advocate for Winona Kent‘s novellas, despite the fact that I felt the ending was rushed, is that she writes in a way that is entertaining, even educational if you want music trivia, but she writes and publishes in a manner that readers who think they can’t read actually can. The font is great, the pace keeps moving, the characters are engaging, and if you have someone in your life who has difficulties, the Jason Davey mysteries might be just what they need.

Disturbing the Peace is a quick read, fast paced, entertaining, and fun. I’m going to keep an eye out for more of Jason’s adventures, especially since I want to know what happened on the Star Sapphire!

But mostly we’re going to be concentrating on construction. Wish us luck!

What could be a better way – I know, this is a rhetorical device – to start a new year than to catch up with a favorite author than to read the next three books in the series???

Read the next 4…

In January, I read the 9th, 10th, 11th AND 12th novels in Ian Hamilton’s series about Ava Lee, his Chinese/Canadian financial investigator. He continues to put her into interesting and unexpected action: The Couturier of Milan finds her and her partners entangled with a vengeful clothing designer, a exciting book of suspense but not violence; The Imam of Tawi-Tawi sends her to the southernmost island in the Phillipines to investigate a secretive Muslim school as a favor to a man from her past business – a paranoid thriller of potential world danger; deep love arrives in The Goddess of Yanti in the form of a movie star who is facing blackmail due to an indiscretion; but The Mountain Master of Sha Tin sticks her right back in the thick of Triad violence, as a boss she helped to maneuver out of control wants it back. Quite obviously, I cannot get enough of this series – – but I have to take a break. Otherwise I run out of the series. Really, if you don’t trust me, trust Fran – do yourself a favor and read Ian Hamilton!

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Noted Western historian Tom Clavin’s Bandit Heaven is neatly summed by its subtitle: The Hole-in-the-Wall Gangs and the Final Chapter of the Wild West. This slice of US history is geographic slice as well, following the bandits along the front range of the Western mountains. It is astonishing how far these characters roamed, hitting a bank here or a train there, then riding half a state away to refuge at Robbers Roost, Brown’s Hole or the named, famed Wyoming hideout. To me, what was new was the range of these groups. While they may’ve sometimes taken trains to various towns, most of the crime was done on horseback. It’s a fun, quick read, if somewhat meloncholy. Their time was ending, whether they grasped that or not. In 1900, some towns had telephones and word of heists moved more quickly, allowing posses to get on their trail that faster. Much of the story is made up of quotes from earlier histories. Still, a great way to spend a few rainy afternoons.

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It takes some guts to take on a classic and believe you can add to work. Max Allan Collins accepted that challenge, writing The Return of the Maltese Falcon. His book takes up just days after the end of Hammett’s masterpiece. The newspapers are still full of the stories and Archer’s name is still faintly visible on the window. And a new raft of characters are after the treasure. At this point, Spade isn’t even convinced it exists. But he agrees to continue to search. After all, maybe that jewel statuette is out there. Who’s to say it cannot be found?

Collins captures the era well, from the attire to the tone. He becomes monotonous when it comes to Spade’s smile/grin – does it have to be characterized as “wolfish” each time? It is clear from the start that Spade rolls his own cigarettes. It’s tedious to note it with each smoke. For a fast-moving tale, the repetitions do slow it down.

Bill Farley used to read Goldsborough’s Nero Wolfe books grudgingly. While he thought they were not up to Stout’s level, it was a way to get to spend time with old friends. That captures The Return of the Maltese Falcon.

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For a punch of hardboiled pulp, jump over to the latest iteration of my image blog: old magazines (mystery, crime, true crime and more) and paperbacks, from the 20s to, well, whatever new fits in. seattlemysteryhardboiled.com

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If you appreciate and enjoy what we do, spread the word!!!

January 2026

dumfungled: to be mentally and physically worn out [maybe the Word of the 2025?]

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The Oxford Word of the Year 2025 is ‘rage bait‘

Merriam-Webster Names “Slop” Word of the Year Amid AI Boom

Is the Dictionary Done For?

From 400-year-old globes to cosmic shrouds: A Maine library brings maps to life

RoboCop statue rises in Detroit: ‘Big, beautiful, bronze piece of art’

Linguists start compiling first ever complete dictionary of ancient Celtic

Richard Osman among authors backing call to issue library card to all UK babies

Mary, Queen of Scots, Wrote This Letter Hours Before She Was Executed. Her Words Are Going on Display for the First Time in Years

A centennial look back at Edward Gorey’s macabre art and guarded life

Swearing could give you a hidden physical edge, study finds

Want to set an intention for 2026? Use this word generator.

$James Patterson gives $500 checks to 600 booksellers

The cultural works becoming public domain in 2026, from Betty Boop to Nancy Drew – “Literary highlights include William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, the full version of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, Watty Piper’s The Little Engine that Could, the first four books of the Nancy Drew detective series and The Murder at the Vicarage, Agatha Christie’s first Miss Marple mystery.”

For years, one man complicated the official story of who murdered the civil-rights leader. Just before he died in October, he offered a jaw-dropping revelation.

Bombshell declassified docs reveal Nazi ‘Angel of Death’ was allowed to live carefree life after Auschwitz horrors: docs

‘Decapitated bodies, death threats, that’s our daily life’: Tennis players, helpless targets of angry gamblers

The Return of MAGA’s Favorite Forbidden Book

Virginia Roberts Giuffre: Epstein accuser’s memoir sells 1m copies in two months

It’s Not Always About Guns or Monsters

Md. lawmakers seek probe into Black boys buried in abandoned graveyard

US executions surged in 2025 to highest level in 16 years

Barnes & Noble Is Coming Back to Downtown Seattle

Man says its ‘possible’ his father could be notorious skyjacker D.B. Cooper

Vandals cause up to $30K in damage to Centralia Christmas light display

Ten live hand grenades found inside Olalla home, bomb squad called in

‘Stain on humanity’: County prosecutor scorns legacy of ‘South Hill Rapist’ Kevin Coe

$Six Idaho booksellers receive ‘holiday bonus’ from James Patterson

Vintage cookbook store in Portland is closing

$400,000 worth of lobsters bound for Costco locations in the US were stolen in the latest high-profile cargo theft

growlery (n): a place to retreat to, alone, when ill-humoured

Evidence That Humans Now Speak in a Chatbot-Influenced Dialect Is Getting Stronger

We would sell books by AI, says Waterstones boss

Why do bookstores make some people urgently need the bathroom?

Haunted house and invisible demons: Tennessee Williams’ early radio play ‘The Strangers’ publishes

When Asked to Generate an Alphabet Poster for Preschoolers, the Latest Version of ChatGPT Just Flails Wildly

Eellogofusciouhipoppokunurious (adj.) — very good, very fine. Playful 19th-century American slang.

Former CIA Agent reveals whether they can make people disappear ‘without a trace‘

A Maryland mom discovers her family’s place in history — as Pearl Harbor spies

How Did the C.I.A. Lose a Nuclear Device?

Former deep-cover Russian spy leads Moscow campaign to co-opt Indian tech

Librarians Are Tired of Being Accused of Hiding Secret Books That Were Made Up by AI

Librarians Dumbfounded as People Keep Asking for Materials That Don’t Exist

North Carolina Ousts Entire Library Board Over Book With Trans Kid

‘60 Minutes’ Report Was Pulled Off the Air. Now It’s on the Internet.

Parody is protected in the Pacific Northwest: A court says the University of Washington can’t punish professors for mocking land acknowledgments.

hoppopolla – Icelandic word meaning jumping into puddles

Film producer Jason Blum and author-bookseller Ann Patchett to receive PEN America awards

$James Patterson’s Maxims for a Happy Life

The Long History of the Hamnet Myth

In my game, crime pays. Do I have it in me?

A £10 tote and tilted shelves: how Daunt Books beat Amazon

Water leak in Louvre damages hundreds of books

Bookish London: Photos Of The Capital’s Love Affair With Books

‘Suddenly, it was everywhere’: why some books become blockbusters overnight

Book data reveals most readers quit almost immediately

Are we falling out of love with nonfiction?

Killing the Dead by John Blair review – a gloriously gruesome history of vampires

Geraldine Brooks takes us on a tour of her home library

‘Every few years something happens which is going to kill the book’ – How an iconic Galway bookshop continues to thrive after 85 years

Discover Buenos Aires through these 5 dazzling bookstores

The world’s best indie bookstores have been named – and one European capital is home to four [one is noted simply as “Portland”…]

Mystery Solved, Utah’s only mystery bookshop, is on the move

I worked in a bookshop for years — people bought these 7 books all the time

Dragons, Sex and the Bible: What Drove the Book Business This Year

Lewis Carroll’s Personal Copy of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ Returns to its ‘Spiritual Home’ in Oxford

Jan. 12th: Eric Heisserer, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Arrival, signs his new speculative thriller, Simultaneous, Elliot Bay, 7pm

Jan. 20: Jim Butcher signs Twelve Months, his new Harry Dresden, Powells, 7pm

Jan. 28: local author Patricia Grayhall signs her new thriller, Framed, Third Place LFP, 7pm

The Black List 2025: Matisse Haddad’s ‘Best Seller’ Leads List Of Hollywood’s Best-Liked Unproduced Screenplays

Heat at 30: Michael Mann’s electric crime thriller is a film of fire and sadness

How Did ‘Heat’ Become the Most Beloved Crime Movie of the Past 30 Years? [JB HIGHLY recommends the sequel/prequel novel by Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner, Heat 2, which will be adapted into a movie.]

First look! Netflix serial killer whodunnit from “one of the greatest storytellers in crime fiction” (Jo Nesbø’s Harry Hole)

Netflix’s six-part crime thriller based on true story

This Is The Greatest Murder Mystery Of All Time – Prove Rian Johnson Wrong

Netflix Sets New TV Adaptation Of Bestselling Crime Thriller Novel From ‘Mindhunter’ Writer

New Murder Mystery Series, BOOKISH, Premieres Sunday, January 11, on PBS [writer, creator and star Mark Gatiss in 1946 London]

What’s In The Box? The Cold Comfort And Cozy Gloom Of David Fincher

Kurt Sutter Noir Crime Drama In Works At MGM+

U.S. Politics & Sherlock Holmes Loom Large In BBC’s 2025 Podcast Charts

January’s must-watch streaming is packed with crime-filled thrillers

Are True-Crime Podcasts Losing Popularity?

7 Podcasts for Bookworms

frowst (v): to lounge idly in a warm, stuffy place

Nov. 30: Daniel Woodrell, ‘Country Noir’ Novelist of ‘Winter’s Bone,’ Dies at 72

Dec. 2: Eugene Hasenfus, Gunrunner Who Exposed Iran-Contra Plot, Dies at 84

Dec. 4: Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, ‘Mortal Kombat’ and ‘The Man in the High Castle’ Actor, Dies at 75

Dec. 7: Fern Michaels, Prolific Author of Romance Novels, Dies at 92

Dec. 10: Stephen Downing, LAPD Officer Who Wrote for TV, Dies at 87

Dec. 10: Confessions of a Shopaholic novelist Sophie Kinsella dies aged 55

Dec. 13: Peter Greene, ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘The Mask’ Actor, Dies at 60

Dec. 16: Gil Gerard, Star of ‘Buck Rogers in the 25th Century,’ Dies at 82

Dec. 18: Peter Arnett, Pulitzer-winning war reporter, dies aged 91

Dec. 18: May Britt, Swedish Actress and Wife of Sammy Davis Jr., Dies at 91

Dec. 20: Kevin Arkadie, Co-Creator of ‘New York Undercover,’ Dies at 68

Dec. 21: James Ransone, ‘The Wire’ and ‘It: Chapter Two’ Actor, Dies at 46

Dec. 7: Businesswoman ‘kills two schoolgirls with poisoned raspberries over affair’

Dec. 8: Cold Case Inquiries Stall After Ancestry.com Revisits Policy for Users

Dec. 8: Jack the Ripper’s ‘true identity’ as experts uncover vital clue to unmask serial killer

Dec. 8: 8 Matisse Works Stolen From Library in Brazil

Dec. 9: Woman claiming to be an heiress allegedly scammed nearly $30 million from California banks, authorities say

Dec. 9: King Charles Honors Drug Addict Billionaire Who Hid Wife’s Body for Months

Dec. 10: Rare 15th-Century Jewish Prayer Book, Looted by the Nazis, to Be Sold

Dec. 11: Police seeking four men after ‘high-value burglary’ from Bristol Museum

Dec. 12: The Crime Involved Trash Bags. But It Wasn’t a Mob Caper.

Dec. 16 : Why This Famed Art Writer Turned to True Crime

☛Dec. 23: Black Dahlia and Zodiac killers ‘may have been same man’ claims amateur codebreaker

Dec. 23: Let’s Look Back at the 1978 Christmas Eve Art Heist at the de Young Museum, Where the Thieves Never Got Caught

Dec. 24: What happened next: how a shocking rape and murder case was solved – 58 years later

Dec. 25: The Mafia and the Missing Caravaggio

Dec. 25: Dordogne murder mystery: British woman’s death confounds detectives

Dec. 26: ‘Cocaine, gold and meat’: how Colombia’s Amazon became big business for crime networks

Dec. 27: FBI to move out of brutalist J Edgar Hoover building in Washington DC

☛Dec. 29: Who is Marvin Margolis? The war veteran linked to a chilling new theory about the Zodiac killer and Black Dahlia murder

Dec. 31: Thieves tunnel into bank vault, steal millions from safe-deposit boxes

Dec. 31: A glamorous LA model targeted rich old men and young women for theft, accusers say

apricity (n): warmth of the winter sun

Once again, I stood rudderless before the mystery section of my local indie bookshop, hoping to discover a new-to-me novel when, happily, I spied the cover of The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies. Intrigued by the bonnents and partially concealed weapons on the cover, I snatched it off the shelf and began perusing the first few pages.

Unsurprisingly, it came home with me.

And finished it in under a day.

From the front cover to the back, The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies hurtles forward at a breakneck speed. In a whirl of ribbons and silk, we find our heroines dancing amongst the cream of society one evening and rescuing a young wife from the clutches of her murderous husband with the aid of a highwayman (and former noble) the next. How? Well, Lady Augusta and Lady Julia Colebrook are fraternal twins of a certain age. Being above forty and unmarried during the Regency Period of English history renders these sisters largely invisible and utterly underestimated in the male-dominated world of their day.

Despite being ladies of independent means, society (and their younger brother) expect Augusta and Julia to confine themselves to their needlework, household management, and their circle of friends. However, it’s amongst this last bit, friends, where Augusta and Julia finally find their calling in aiding women and children who need it.

Or as the sisters see it, being useful.

Although the sisters, especially Augusta, feel more akin in thought and deed to women of today (obviously, to connect the reader to the heroines), the era in which The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies is set definitely does not. Goodman does a great job of showing the realities of the age without moralizing, thus allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions. A feature that provides a smooth read and makes The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladiesdifficult to put down.

Consequently, I would recommend this action-packed historical mystery to anyone who enjoys a a strong heroine facing down dire and dangerous circumstances to do what is not only right, but save those who cannot save themselves.

Double review

This is gonna be a long one because some backstory is needed, so grab a cuppa, snuggle in, and let’s go.

First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Let’s make this a great one, shall we? I hope your holidays were happy, not harrowing.

Okay, the backstory. You’ve noticed that I’ve been posting rerun reviews lately. Trigger warning: politics and mental illness are about to be discussed. Ready?
When Trump was elected, my anxiety kicked into overdrive and became full-on depression which meant I stopped doing a lot of stuff I’d normally do. And it hasn’t left. I’m still fighting the Black Dog.

So I stopped reading books. I’m about halfway through a really good autobiography that I’ll share with you as soon as I finish it. But for all of 2025, that’s what I read. Half an autobiography. Even I’m appalled. Craig Johnson, Mike Lawson, Cara Black, all sitting by my bedside.

And that included Louise Penny, who I can read any time any place. I picked up her book, The Grey Wolf, when it came out October of 2024. Yes, you read that right. Two years ago. And I didn’t read it right away because of health and family things, and then it was 2025. And I just stopped reading.

In a way, that worked out because The Grey Wolf is part 1 of a two part series, and I didn’t realize it, so it really worked out well. Once you read it, you absolutely HAVE to read The Black Wolf because they’re paired. I didn’t know it but my depression did me a favor.

I read The Grey Wolf in one day. Just opened it up and ignored the world for a day, and of course it was worth it because it’s Louise Penny writing about Gamache and Three Pines, and what’s not to love?

But that meant I had to dive into The Black Wolf right away because DAMN. If you know, you know.

If you’ve never read Louise Penny (and why not? Hmm?) but you like a great and terrifying political thriller that is absolutely terrifying, read The Grey Wolf and The Black Wolf. You’ll miss a lot of nuance because she references just about every earlier book, but you’ll still get the drift.

And they are terrifying because they’re so accurate and plausible. Remember, Louise Penny was a journalist before she became an author so she knows her stuff. And she has contacts. Keep in mind she wrote a book in conjunction with Hilary Clinton. She’s a journalist who understands Big Politics and storytelling.

Now, here’s the thing about publishing. The Black Wolf was published this past October, but that means it had to grind through the big publishing mill which takes about a year, so that means that Louise wrote it in 2024 and had the outline in her head before that because it’s set up in The Grey Wolf.

So when she wrote the conversation:
“It was not difficult to convince people that he’d (Saddam Hussein) helped the 9/11 conspirators and had weapons of mass destruction.”

“But he didn’t. There was absolutely no proof.”

“There doesn’t need to be proof. Fear replaces facts.”

Louise knew what she was talking about. Just like she did when she wrote:

“You’re still living in a world where truth matters, where facts are important. They aren’t anymore. They’re fluid, and we’re losing facts as fast as we’re losing water.“

So when she talks about the US making Canada the 51st State, remember, Trump wasn’t in office. Hell, no one thought he’d be elected when she wrote The Black Wolf.

I’ve said for ages now that you should read Louise Penny starting with Still Life, but if you decide to begin with The Grey Wolf and flow into The Black Wolf, you’ll go back to the beginning to catch up.

The Black Wolf is Louise Penny’s 20th Inspector Gamache book, and it’s going to kick you in the gut. Hard. And her next novel is a stand-alone co-authored with Mellissa Fung titled The Last Mandarin, which is another political thriller but Gamache isn’t involved. And if her collaboration with Hilary Rodham Clinton, State of Terror, is anything to judge by, it’ll keep you up at night too. She’s that good.

So now is the time. Read The Grey Wolf and The Black Wolf. And hope that Armand Gamache is on the case because, otherwise, we’re in trouble.

So yeah, Happy New Year!

By rights, this should go in the RIP section but I think it needs special notice and appropriate space:

Rob Reiner, ‘When Harry Met Sally,’ ‘The Princess Bride’ and ‘Stand by Me’ Director and ‘All in the Family’ Actor, Dies at 78 in Apparent Homicide

“All in the Family”‘s pilot aired Jan. 12, 1971 – don’t remember if I saw the pilot but I was 13 and watched it every week.

He acted in TV shows I often watched: “The Odd Couple”, “That Girl”, “Room 222”, “The Rockford File”, to name a few, in addition to appearing in movies in big and small roles. Then there are the gems he directed: Spinal Tap, 1984; Stand By Me, 1986; The Princess Bride, 1987; When Harry Met Sally…, 1989; Misery, 1990; A Few Good Men, 1992; The American President, 1995; Ghosts of Mississippi, 1996; Bucket List, 2004;… and many, many more.

Always difficult to digest when people like them leave us early and in a horrifying manner. The least we can do is follow his lead –

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S.A. Cosby’s 6th book is a masterful weaving of family and municipal tragedy and horror, where everyone is doomed to the echoes of their actions, past and present. Like all great noir, everyone is going to burn in the fires they stoked – intentionally or not. King of Ashes is a foreboding title – but scorchingly accurate.

This is true in the most ghastly way for the Carruthers who own the crematory in Jefferson Run, VA. It’s a family operation, built with single-focus by father Keith and run by sister Neveah. Little brother Dante is around but not counted on for nothin’. Eldest brother Roman is a big deal in Altanta’s publicity pool. Mom disappeared 18 years ago, leaving a gaping question mark in the town. Dad’s been run off the road, hospitalized with in a coma, and Rome returns home to find Dante is trouble that is threatening everything.

“It’s never too late to change things unless you’re in the dirt. But time is a wicked river., It will take you down the line before you know it.”

And it will. Fire, dirt, ash… the river of time is the only dampness they find. If you don’t count the blood.

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The Asset is, once again, a brilliant and twisty thriller, his 19th Joe DeMarco. As I say every year, I find it stunning that Mike Lawson can construct such inventive and entrancing stories. Yet he never disappoints or let’s me down.

His boss is handed explosive info about his worst political enemy, yet Congressman Mahoney hesitates to detonate it. DeMarco is dispatched to find out the truth. And, of course, DeMarco begins to gather the pieces that complete the puzzle.

Who is playing who and what it the game? DeMarco has no idea to start but he’s smarter than he – or anyone else – thinks. Credit where it is due, ’cause DeMarco doesn’t stop until he sees the whole game. And the game is forever dynamic.

ⅩⅩⅩⅩⅩⅩⅩⅩⅹxxxxxxxxxxⅹⅩⅩⅩⅩⅩⅩⅩⅩ

For a Noir Year of hardboiled pulp, bop over to the latest version of my image blog: old magazines (mystery, crime, true crime, and more) and paperbacks, from the 20s to, well, whatever new fits in. seattlemysteryhardboiled.com ~ have fun!

Thanks for Following Us. Spread the Word!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

WELCOME TO 2026!!!

December 2025

A Home That Proves You Can Never Have Too Many Books

As ‘Dorian Gray’ ages, its relevance only grows

Famed Florentine diamond surfaces in Canada after century-long disappearance

Video: Legendary Orient Express returns in Paris show celebrating 100 years of Art Deco

Louise Penny gives us a tour of her book collection. Her dogs come, too.

In a reading rut? How to get back into reading for fun

Superman Comic Sets Auction Record, Selling for $9.12 Million

First complete copy of the Canopus Decree in hieroglyphics found

Opsimath: a person who begins to learn late in life

Declassified MKUltra Transcripts Have Been Released. They Paint a Dark Portrait of America.

‘They’re not wolves – they’re sheep’: the psychiatrist who spent decades meeting and studying lone-actor mass killers

Mind-altering ‘brain weapons’ no longer only science fiction, say researchers

“We’re Broken”: As Federal Prisons Run Low on Food and Toilet Paper, Corrections Officers Are Leaving in Droves for ICE

Italian parliament unanimously votes to make femicide a crime

The global decline in murder, explained in one chart

Peccability: capability of sinning

Russian spy ship enters British waters and shines lasers at military pilots

Who are China’s Westminster spies?

Books, clubs and cooking classes: Colville’s new bookstore aims to be a hub for the community

Spokane library director asks public to protest proposed budget cuts

How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life

Inside Seattle’s silent book clubs

Georgetown’s Fantagraphics is a tribute to the art form of comics

How the Cop Show ‘Barney Miller’ Made Gay TV History, 50 Years Ago

The Time Martin Scorsese and Robbie Robertson Handled a Hells Angels Hostage Crisis

Australian prisoner sues for his ‘human right’ to eat Vegemite

Pernoctate: to stay up or out all night

Bookstores on Edge as Kremlin Sets Sights on Policing Books

Missouri court strikes down book ban law that pushed libraries to remove hundreds of titles

KAPOW! THWACK! BIFF! Sacramento considers whacking old ban on comic book sales

State Department erases 15 pages of nuclear history — with no warning

Reith lecturer accuses BBC of cowardice for censoring his remarks on Trump

Young street musicians jailed for singing anti-Kremlin songs have fled Russia, media report

Perpotation: “ordinarie drunkenesse”

Helen Garner’s diaries win 2025 Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction

French lesbian literature steps into the spotlight with new prize

The Scottish winners selected by readers for top book prize

‘Flesh’ wins 2025 Booker Prize: ‘We had never read anything quite like it’

Stirling poet secures prestigious prize in literary awards at London bookshop

Troy Henderson has won the Australian Fiction Prize for his unpublished crime thriller River City. [the prize is specifically for unpublished works…]

Authors dumped from New Zealand’s top book prize after AI used in cover designs

James Patterson Launches Prize for Debut Authors

The Artist by Lucy Steeds wins Waterstones book of the year

Vancouver’s Little Sister’s Book & Art Emporium isn’t just a bookstore — it’s a joyful battleground

‘It’s done wonders for my sex life!’: Historical fiction writer Kate Thompson spends a day at London’s first erotic fiction bookstore

Top 5 locked room mysteries, chosen by fantasy writer Tim Major

‘Reacher’ Fans Rejoice: The Esquire Q&A with Lee Child and Andrew Child

BookTok and Beyond: How Young Readers Are Reviving Physical Bookstores

Edgar Allan Poe’s Influence on Stephen King & Mike Flanagan’s Works

‘An intellectual personal trainer’ — one bookshop’s elite subscription

Feminist History for Every Day of the Year by Kate Mosse review – the women who helped change the world

American Literature Owes a Great Debt to This 20th-Century ‘Insider’

Have Yourself a Deadly Little Christmas

NY Times: 100 Notable Books of 2025

Sarah Ferguson’s new children’s book ‘pulped’ after scrutiny over Jeffrey Epstein links

Sophie Hannah: ‘I gave up on Wuthering Heights three times’

James Patterson Is Pretty Sure Marilyn Monroe Was Murdered

I’m a bestselling author – these are the 5 greatest ‘golden age’ crime novels

Cherokee author Vanessa Lillie weaves Native history into thrilling mystery

Apatheia: freedom or release from emotion or excitement

Woody Harrelson Says There’s “Not a Chance” He’ll Do Another Season of ‘True Detective’

‘Most horrific death you could imagine’: the truth behind Netflix’s ‘Death By Lightning’ [the assassination of President James Garfield]

⚰︎Netflix’s Agatha Christie Show Gets Release Date & Trailer For Infamous 96-Year-Old Mystery Story

⚰︎On the set of the first Agatha Christie show where mysteries are solved with the internet

⚰︎Rian Johnson Is an Agatha Christie for the Netflix Age

David Harbour Sets Post-Stranger Things Role In Courteney Cox-Directed True Crime Thriller

Apple TV’s New Spy Thriller Series: ‘Safe Houses’ based on Dan Fesperman Novel

8 Most Exciting Upcoming Mystery Shows Based on Books

Idris Elba Returning for New ‘Luther’ Movie at Netflix

53 Years Later, The Godfather‘s Sneakiest Easter Egg Is Still Deeper & Darker Than Fans Realize

50 Years Later, Gene Hackman’s Underrated Crime Movie Is the Gold Standard for Detective Films

Is Matthew Rhys Playing a Fake Robert Durst on The Beast in Me?

Murder Inc: how my failed attempt to make a Zodiac Killer film took me to the dark heart of the true crime industry

Leonard Nimoy And William Shatner Teamed Up For An Iconic Spy Series Before Star Trek

52 Years Later, Ben Affleck’s Favorite Crime Classic Still Defines the Modern Heist Genre

Routineer: one that adheres to or insists on routine

Nov. 1: Tchéky Karyo, French Actor in ‘The Missing,’ ‘La Femme Nikita’, ‘Addicted to Love,’, ‘Goldeneye‘, and ‘The Patriot‘, Dies at 72

Nov. 7: John Cleary, Wounded in Kent State Shooting, Dies at 74

Nov. 7: Lee Tamahori, ‘Once Were Warriors’ and ‘Die Another Day’ Director, Dies at 75

Nov. 12: Diane Ladd, Key Role in Chinatown and Oscar-Nominated Actress in ‘Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,’ Dies at 89

Nov. 13: William Rataczak, co-pilot of flight hijacked by D.B. Cooper, dies at 86

Nov. 24: Udo Kier, German Actor in ‘My Own Private Idaho’ and Lots of Lars von Trier Films, Dies at 81

Nov. 24: Viola Fletcher, one of the last survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, dies at 111

Nov. 29: Tom Stoppard, playwright of dazzling wit and playful erudition, dies aged 88

Redame: “to love in return”

Oct. 30: If Lizzie Borden Didn’t Kill Her Wealthy Parents, Who Did?

Oct. 31: Thieves Steal More Than 1,000 Artifacts From a California Museum’s Storage Facility

Nov. 2: How a phone directory helped me track down the Yorkshire Ripper

Nov. 4: Pokémon card thieves strike in D.C. region. Can police catch them all?

Nov. 6: The Missing Kayaker

Nov. 7: A 20-minute date with a Tinder predator destroyed my life for years

Nov. 7: The hardest Working Art Thief in History

Nov. 9: Gold, guns and cartels: the battle for a billion-dollar mine

Nov. 10: 5 charged in deaths of rock icon’s daughter and famous actor’s grandson

Nov. 11: Six ancient statues stolen from Syria’s National Museum of Damascus

Nov. 12: Inside the CIA’s secret mission to sabotage Afghanistan’s opium [again?!?!?]

Nov. 14: DNA links suspected serial killer to 1988 slaying, Virginia police say

Nov. 17: She was Such a Good Bank Robber Even the FBI Admired Her

Nov. 17: OJ Simpson’s estate accepts $58M claim from Goldman family but any payment would be a fraction

Nov. 18: Neo-Nazi leader admits plot to give poisoned candy to Jewish kids in New York City

Nov. 18: Wife of Astronaut Pleads Guilty to Falsely Alleging Crime in Space

Nov. 15: Dutch operators of synthetic drug sales website will stand trial over deaths of at least 45 people

Nov. 24: ‘Godfather’ actor wildly claims Pope John Paul was killed in connection with a Vatican money-laundering scheme

Nov. 25: Four more people arrested in connection with Louvre heist

Nov. 26: Car Towed Twice in 15 Days Had a Dead Body in the Backseat

Acnestis: “The part of the back (or backbone) between the shoulder blades and the loins which an animal cannot reach to scratch”

Cursed Cocktails — S.L.Rowland

“Welcome to the enchanting world of Tales of Aedrea, where small-scale stories, low-stakes adventure, and cozy fantasy come to life within an epic, high-fantasy realm.”

This single-sentence description of this series is what originally captured my interest. Well, that and the fact that this book revolves around cocktails, a city’s first real cocktail bar, and magic. As my reviews in recent years have established, I’m a sucker for food-based fantasies.

Fantasy books.

Books.

‘Pulling at my collar uncomfortably like an old actor in a B&W movie.’

In any case….Cursed Cocktails is the first in a series of books all set in the same realm of Aedrea. Each book follows a different set of characters, though an old favorite occasionally makes a quick cameo—for flavor.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

In Cursed Cocktails, we meet Rhoren, aka Bloodbane, an umbral elf and powerful blood mage. Who, after thirty years of defending the North from behemoths and the like, has finally reached retirement. Seeking a place to rest his aching bones, as blood magic takes a massive toll on its user, Rhoren travels south to the balmy shores of Eastborne. Where he seeks and finds the next chapter of his life…Although Rhoren’s past isn’t as far removed from his present as he initially thought.

I really, really enjoyed this read. (In point of fact, I’ve reread it several times since first cracking the spine.)

Rowland describes this series as cozy fantasy, and it is. Unlike Game of Thrones, Cursed Cocktails does not contain far-reaching political machinations that frequently end in an assassination, rape, or torture. However, that does not mean Cursed Cocktails lacks action, mystery, or interest. It just means that you can immerse yourself in the book’s 275 pages without worrying about encountering the aforementioned possibly panic-inducing themes and forget for a few moments that the cat knocked over the Christmas tree again, the pile of ugly holiday sweaters that need a wash, or the fact that your yule log looks more like a rotten stick than a delectable cake.

Akin to many of the culinary- and/or mixology-based books I’ve reviewed, Cursed Cocktails seamlessly weaves the cocktail theme into the narrative. That being said, there’s one element I cannot decide whether adds to or detracts from the story — the cocktail recipes themselves.

Rather than fitting them in at the end of the book, as books of this ilk are wont to do, Rowland places them smack dab in the story. Because of the history of these recipes, which I don’t want to spoil your enjoyment of discovering, it makes complete sense why Rowland did what they did. And while they didn’t toss me out of the narrative, I’m not sure everyone is as keen on reading recipes as I am.

So, my advice? Just skim past and continue reading if they’re not your cup of tea because Cursed Cocktails is such a fun read! So don’t miss out!

Christmas Wishes

There’s a lot about this season that makes me nostalgic. Partly it’s the feeling of anticipation which is blunted now with an ongoing barrage, and partly it’s the memories of things that can’t (and frequently shouldn’t be) repeated like the tinsel that had to be put on the tree strand by strand and was hazardous. I miss the danger of Christmas.

And while I’m missing things, I also am grateful for a lot of things. One of those things is that I have a copy of Ken Harmon’s The Fat Man: A Tale of North Pole Noir, which is so out of print that it’s right up there with the lead tinsel and bubble lights on the tree.

“Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean…and who wears jingle bells on his curly-toed shoes and stands about two-foot three. A man who is, in other words, an elf. But don’t let the green tights and stocking cap fool you: Gumdrop Coal is the roughest, toughest punisher of the naughty since Mike Hammer, even if he does smell like peppermint and fresh-baked cookies.“

But Gumdrop’s sitting at the bar, hitting the nog because the Fat Man himself fired him. Why? Maybe one too many lumps of coal in a stocking. Maybe it’s blaming parents for failing to keep their brats in line.

Or maybe there’s a conspiracy afoot. But when a parent is shot in the eye by a Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model BB gun, well, Gumdrop is the perfect fall guy. But you should never underestimate an elf with an eye for the naughty and a need to punish the bad guys, even if he is kind of small and smells of eggnog.

If you can find this book, read it. Treasure it. Ever since Amber introduced me to Gumdrop, he’s been my touchstone for the holiday season. Feeling down? Gumdrop’s got you covered. Need a new perspective? Gumdrop’s the man. Need a little vengeance? You can always count on Gumdrop Coal.

I hope you have a fabulous holiday season and a great New Year. But keep a little Coal on hand for just in case!

In light of Ken Burns’ recently aired series, I’m taking a page from Fran and re-posting a review from last June – maybe this is a better time for it! Atkinson was one of the “faces” in “The American Revolution”. It was one of the Top Ten Books of my year.

I’ve read and reviewed a number of books by British historian Antony Beevor, books about significant battles in WWII. I’ve likened his writing to another favorite historian, Shelby Foote and his staggeringly great Civil War trilogy. I’ve now read a third historian who is their equal: Rick Atkinson.

A few weeks ago I read a column about him and his new hardcover, the second in a trilogy covering the Revolutionary War. So I went right out and bought the first, The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775 – 1777. As with Foote and Beevor, his writing is fluid and bright, the flow is smooth and the history comprehensive – AND entertaining and educational but not in the least bit dreary.

What was surprising was how much disease played a roll in the strength of the fighting forces, much as it did in the Civil War, but how difficult it was for the British to get supplies and replacements from across the Atlantic, in addition to orders. In other wars, the British could “live off the land”, so to speak. In the colonies, they couldn’t. In colonists had a hard time doing it, let alone the Crown’s forces.

While Atkinson does touch on the Congress in Philadelphia and Franklin in Paris, this is a book about war, the blood and mud, where and how the famous names became involved, the daring wins and botched losses. At times, it is very clear how close the Continental army and militias were close to losing the war. It is very clear how Washington was not a great general, at first. But he makes clear that the colonists were well-served by their leaders, and Washington grew into perhaps the finest they had.

Can’t wait for volume #2 to come out in paperback. It’s available in hardcover, The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777 – 1780.

☜☞

For a New Year of noir and hardboiled pulp, jump over to the latest iteration of my image blog: old magazines (mystery, crime, true crime and more) and paperbacks, from the 20s to, well, whatever new fits in. seattlemysteryhardboiled.com

BEST OF THE NEW YEAR TO ALL. MAY IT BE BETTER IN ALL WAYS THAN 2025

Thanks for sticking with us for another year. If you like what we do, please spread the word!

November 2025

Fool me once: the magical origin of the word hoax

People Are Just Learning What The ‘Most Complex’ Word In English Is, And Huh

How a Community of Readers Saved Their Book Festival

A lost work by Virginia Woolf will be published for the first time

Murdle Jigsaw Puzzles Blend Pieces With Logic

8 fascinating collectibles spotted at a rare books fest, including an 1882 L.A. phonebook

Writing, Thinking, and Falling in Love in Another Language

The Freak: script of Charlie Chaplin’s unfinished final film to be published

Scientists May Have Decoded the Mysterious Language of a Lost City

How Montblanc helped take Letters Live to greater heights: The global phenomenon pays homage to the enduring power of writing and literary correspondence — a perfect fit for the historic stationery brand

The Hunt for the World’s Oldest Story

Italian blasphemy and German ingenuity: how swear words differ around the world

Mary Shelley Invented Science Fiction—and Pioneered Polyamory Too

9 inviting bookstores ready for you to attack their shelves

Does using big words make you a snob?

Agatha Christie’s first published work discovered after 120 years

Every era believes it is enlightened. Old books teach us otherwise.

Dictionary.com’s 2025 Word of the Year Is…

Frigify – to get us ready for Winter: To make cold or frigid.

A Program Backed By the Gun Industry Failed to Reduce Suicide — And Was Secretly Shut Down Early

My Northwest: Guns remained leading cause of death for ages 11-18 in 2022

Mexican and Colombian drug cartels infiltrate Ukrainian military

‘Every kind of creative discipline is in danger’: Lincoln Lawyer author on the dangers of AI

America Is Sliding Toward Illiteracy

Lengthy Execution by Nitrogen Gas in Alabama Renews Concerns Over Method

Revealed: Israel demanded Google and Amazon use secret ‘wink’ to sidestep legal orders

Amazon Is the World’s Biggest Online Book Marketplace. It’s Filled With AI Knockoffs

Rise of the Killer Chatbots

My Book Was Stolen by an AI Company. Why Does Suing Them Feel Wrong?

China, Russia use ‘asymmetric advantage,’ unleash sex warfare to seduce US tech execs, steal secrets: report

CIA tried to recruit Winston Churchill to broadcast Cold War propaganda into the Soviet Union

Declassified MKUltra Transcripts Have Been Released. They Paint a Dark Portrait of America.

Lethophobia – a fear of oblivion

Journalists at 3 Alaskan newspapers quit over edits to a Charlie Kirk story

Republicans Caught Using Fake Image to Lie About Portland “Riots”

In Skagit County Juvenile Detention, teens change their lives through writing

Village Books in Bellingham is a community hub for readers and authors

Western intelligence agencies eye neo-fascist fight clubs: ‘an international white supremacist movement’

Hackers stole data from British nursery schools — then apologized to parents

Letter: Butch Cassidy lived long after the famous gunfight in South America

Hunter S Thompson’s death to be reviewed 20 years on

I Was Doing A Book Signing In Europe. The Last Woman In Line Said 3 Words That Changed My Life Forever.

‘Very significant’ Jack Kerouac story discovered after mafia boss auction

Long-lost John Lennon interview reveals US phone-tapping fears

‘Society needs monsters’: why are Americans so obsessed with the idea of serial killers?

Sluberdegullion – In the 1600s you’d be known as a sluberdegullion, as a slovenly, dirty, or worthless human. [Appears in a Genesis song, “The Colony of Slippemen” on Lamb Lies Down on Broadway: “Slubberdegullions on a squeaky feet“]

‘Rampant’ Book Bans Are Being Taken for Granted, Free Speech Group Warns

Hundreds of celebrities relaunch a McCarthy-era committee to defend free speech

Red States Are Leading The Effort to Ban Books — And Now The Government Is Joining In

A Half Century of American Book Banning

‘We just want to celebrate stories.’ Observing Banned Books Week with a Seattle bookseller

Library director fired over LGBTQ+ books gets $700,000 from county

Penis costume arrest raises constitutional concerns amid library dispute in Fairhope

Texas Can’t Force Book Vendors To Rate Books According to Sexual Content, District Court Decides

Resistentialism – a little more “recent” (as in 1940’s), this phrase refers to malevolent behavior that would be displayed by inanimate objects.

Sarah Hall and Charlie Porter among writers on ‘genre-defying’ Goldsmiths prize shortlist

Where writers write: 12 Booker Prize 2025 nominees share their writing spots

Hungarian master of absurdist excess László Krasznahorkai wins Nobel literature prize

Here are the finalists for the 2025 National Book Awards

Booker prize launches £50000 children’s award | Books

Barnes and Noble Names Book of the Year Finalists

Mick Herron regrets the Slow Horses he’s killed off

The Thriller Writer Who Took on a Tech Giant

From ‘Lincoln Lawyer’ to ‘Bosch,’ Michael Connelly’s Florida past ‘has paid off for’ him

‘Stay true to yourself – and fly closer to the sun’: what I’ve learned from 50 years of rejection

Book wholesaler Baker & Taylor Prepares Plan to Shut Down

They’re Cheerleaders for the Best Books You’ve Never Heard Of

‘Time to take the big leap’: Reese Witherspoon’s first novel [with co-author Harlan Coben] hits the shelves

‘A glimpse of genius’: what do unpublished stories found in Harper Lee’s apartment tell us about the To Kill a Mockingbird author?

Review: The Land of Sweet Forever by Harper Lee review – newly discovered stories from an American great

John Updike Called His Letters Dull. They’re Anything But.

New James Bond author agrees to write book on 1 condition

My dad was 1 of UK’s most famous authors – this is why I use his name for my own books

In her latest mystery, Laura Lippman — and Mrs. Blossom — bloom

How a family-run mystery bookstore is thriving in the age of BookTok

‘It would be a great loss’: London’s oldest Islamic bookshop at risk of closure

A smuggled book changed his life. Now he’s built 500 prison libraries.

Great Locked-Room Mystery Novels: The thriller writer Hank Phillippi Ryan recommends seemingly impossible, deeply satisfying whodunits.

Tales of the Impossible by Bill Pronzini: Amusing, ingenious and endlessly surprising – book review –

Simon & Schuster seeks $1.275 million from famed mystery writer Nelson DeMille’s estate

Nov. 6: Noelle Ihili signs Ask for Andrea, Powell’s 7pm

Nov. 11: Phillip Margolin signs False Witness, Powell’s, 7pm

How do you celebrate James Bond Day when you don’t know who the next 007 will be?

Amazon drops gun-free James Bond poster artwork from Prime Video streaming site

I finally figured out why we stream so much true crime

Hulu’s Ellen Greenberg documentary may be graphic, but it wants you to grapple with the same questions her family has since 2011

William Petersen On The Car Chase In 1985’s ‘To Live and Die in L.A.’

Malcolm McDowell: ‘I would be a total disaster as a spy – I do love to gossip’

Michelle Pfeiffer Recalls Bloody Incident With Al Pacino That Landed Her ‘Scarface’ Role

IRON MAN 3 Director Shane Black Still Wants to Bring DOC SAVAGE to the Big Screen

➥The Last 60 Seconds Of Mindhunter Are Proof That Netflix Made A Mistake

➥Did Monster: The Ed Gein Story Just Connect to Mindhunter?

‘Murder Most Unladylike’ Books to Be Adapted for TV

Classic 1990s crime drama moves closer to getting sequel

The JOHN WICK Universe Is Getting a Samurai Western Film

Bradley Cooper to Star Opposite Margot Robbie in ‘Ocean’s’ Prequel

⚰︎Were their body parts used in satanic rituals? Netflix tackles the horrific ‘Monster of Florence’ murders (remember: Fran highly recommended the book!)

⚰︎In ‘The Monster of Florence,’ a Hunt for Italy’s Most Famous Serial Killer

Edward Gorey Killed His Darlings

Sopranos creator David Chase to write HBO limited series on CIA drug program

This Film Noir With 100% On RT Has An All-Time Great Villain You Will Never Forget

Sherlock Holmes Creator Arthur Conan Doyle Gets Indo-British Period Drama

‘Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers’: Four Things We Learned

‘Fallen Angels’: The Lost Showtime Series That Hinted at the Future of Prestige TV

From ‘Slow Horses’ to ‘Down Cemetery Road’: Why Mick Herron is TV’s new favourite author

Curmuring – remember that day you had an important meeting and no time to grab a bite to eat beforehand? And then just at the moment the director got up to speak your stomach gave a proper, loud rumbling? That’s curmuring!

Oct. 3: Jim Mitchum, ‘Thunder Road’ Actor and Son of Robert Mitchum, Dies at 84

Oct. 4: Remo Girone, Italian Actor in ‘La Piovra’ and ‘Ford v Ferrari,’ Dies at 76

Oct. 6: John Woodvine, British Stage Veteran and ‘American Werewolf in London’ Actor, Dies at 96

Oct. 8: Joseph Herbert, Who Helped Catch Copycat Zodiac Killer, Dies at 68

Oct. 11: Diane Keaton, ‘Annie Hall’ and ‘The Godfather’ Actress, Dead at 79

Oct. 14: Milton Esterow Pioneering Investigative Art Journalist Dies at 97

Oct. 14: Drew Struzan, Iconic Movie Poster Artist and Favorite of Spielberg and Lucas, Dies at 78

Oct. 17: Samantha Eggar, Oscar-Nominated Actress in ‘The Collector,’ Dies at 86

Oct. 25: June Lockhart, Beloved Mom on ‘Lassie’ and ‘Lost in Space,’ Dies at 100

Oct. 28: Prunella Scales, Actress in ‘Fawlty Towers,’ Dies at 93

Sept. 29: Bonnie and Clyde emerge from hiding 90 years after their crime spree

Oct. 5: A Missouri park will soon memorialize the lynching of John Buckner, 131 years later

Oct. 6: Self-Taught Thieves Keep Blowing Up ATMs—And Walking Away With Millions

Oct. 7: The Pushkin job: unmasking the thieves behind an international rare books heist

Oct. 8: Museum owner issues major warning to anyone who looks up Ed Gein as she shares reality ignored in new show

Oct. 10: Alleged ‘kill team’ face court after arrest en route to hit near Sydney daycare

Oct. 14: Mayor forced to respond to ‘serial killer’ theories after 16 bodies found in same body of water

Oct. 15: DNA from discarded straw leads to indictment of murder suspect after 41 years

Oct. 15: Gavin Newsom again denies parole for Manson follower Patricia Krenwinkel

Oct. 16: A C.I.A. Secret Kept for 35 Years Is Found in the Smithsonian’s Vault

Oct. 21: 50 Years Ago, A Sexual Predator Roamed My Town. It Was Only Recently That I Realized How Intimately I Knew Him.

Oct. 25: New Jersey officer charged after going for pizza instead of responding to shooting

Oct. 28: The Candy Cane Park Murder Was Almost Solved. But Then …

Oct. 31: Sixty years after tourist stole skull from cathedral, he sends it back

Art Heist !!!!

Oct. 16: Spanish police investigate as Picasso painting vanishes on way to exhibition

Oct. 19: ‘Priceless’ jewellery stolen from Louvre in rapid heist, says French minister – video

Oct. 20: The Louvre’s history of burglaries

Oct. 21: Museum robbery sees 2000 gold and silver coins stolen

Oct. 21: Museum heists have changed. Why the Louvre robbery is a worrying escalation

Oct. 22: A film about an audacious art heist? ‘Inside The Mastermind’, the timeliest movie ever

Oct. 24: Still life that never moved: mystery of missing Picasso painting solved

Oct. 25: ‘It’s Got to Be an Inside Job’: Jewelry Thieves Weigh In on Louvre Heist

Oct. 25: Ex-bank robber: ‘I warned Louvre about security before jewel heist’

Oct. 25: Louvre robbery got you feeling heisty? Here are 20 films to scratch that itch

Oct. 30: California museum’s collection looted: Over 1,000 items stolen in early morning heist

Oct. 31: Fourteen police officers among 20 arrested in Mississippi drug bribery sting

Fuzzle – As we head into the Huge Holidays, a word to use. In the 1910s friend would gather and get fuzzled to have a good time – drunk or intoxicated.

Liza Tully — The World’s Greatest Detective And Her Just Okay Assistant

Admittedly, this mystery and I made it to the register mainly because the title elicited a laugh. Undoubtedly, just as the author, agent, and publisher planned. Happily, the title wasn’t the only clever thing about this book.

The World’s Greatest Detective And Her Just Okay Assistant is not only a solid mystery, but it also shows the growing pains between a seasoned detective and a shiny new assistant. Bringing to mind how Watson struggled with Sherlock’s tactics, before he started understanding the method behind the madness.

Which brings me to my only real criticism of the book.

Somewhere along the way, someone decided to boil this dynamic of an amateur, mystery-book-loving, eager assistant and a seasoned, exacting, famed detective down to a prosaic Gen Z vs. Boomer dynamic. Luckily, this trope only really reared its head once. In a clunky encounter, our two ladies, Olivia Blunt and Aubrey Merritt, actually discuss this generational friction over lunch. Though this episode only lasts a couple of pages and Tully lands the dismount pretty well whilst making some good points — the discordant note did forcibly eject me from the narrative.

But don’t let this bit of criticism hold you back from reading The World’s Greatest Detective And Her Just Okay Assistant.

Watching Olivia cope with Merritt’s demands, leap to conclusions, and stumble over clues is a lot of fun! Making it plain to see that devouring mysteries, thrillers, and true crime books doesn’t necessarily prepare their readers for a real-life investigation, and I cannot underscore enough the hilarity that this chasm creates.

Even better? Tully gives her audience a couple of breadcrumbs to spark curiosity about who exactly is Merritt’s housekeeper and who is sending the detective romantic notes. Plus, the chaos that will undoubtedly ensue in the run-up to Olivia’s wedding.

I would recommend The World’s Greatest Detective And Her Just Okay Assistant to anyone looking to get in on the ground floor (I’m assuming) of a new mystery series that will only get better with time.

Add this day to your calendar

There are a great many days to celebrate throughout the year and it’s possible that in the onslaught you might have missed this one.

I’m writing this on October 28th, so when you read this, you’ve already missed it BUT you have next year to look forward to. And there’s no reason not to celebrate late. I’m sure it works.

In addition to being National Chocolate Day (which is pretty much every day for me), October 28th is Samuel Johnson Day. Who is Samuel Johnson? Well, you have to ask John Connolly, who introduced him in one of my absolute favorite books, The Gates.

Samuel is proactive and brilliant. It’s not his fault that a chunk breaks off the Hadron Supercollider and lands in the basement of one of his neighbor’s houses, opening a gate to Hell.

But Samuel, ably assisted by his dachshund, Boswell, are up to the task of protecting his town. Probably. Maybe. No, I’m sure of it, although things will be difficult and dangerous.

Okay, because it’s John Connolly writing, you know it’s going to be fast-paced and exciting, but what you may not realize is that there’s a lot of useful information packed into this trilogy. Yes, this is the first in a trilogy. Yes, all three are available so you don’t have to wait. No, I don’t see the point in mentioning the others because you’re going to be halfway through The Gates when you order them.

So yes, I’m sorry this is getting to you late, but think of all the joy you’ll have preparing for next October 28th!

My reading was very scattered in October. Caught up on a Michael Connelly that had recently came out in mass market – The Waiting. Brilliant, as always. I do not understand how someone can be so creative after 40 novels. This one features Renee Ballard and Maddie Bosch.

After hearing her interviewed by Jon Stewart, I skipped out to buy Jill Lepore’s new history, We the People: A History of the Constitution. It’s is fascinating but at 720 pages – engrossing as they are – it’s gonna take me a while to finish it.

Since that’s a monster to lug around and difficult to read in bed, I picked up Another Kind of Eden, James Lee Burke’s latest with Aaron Holland Broussard. It is set in southern Colorado in the very early 60s…

but then there was also that whole Mariners in the Playoffs distraction – – – so you get a sense of just how scattered a month it was!

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For noirish nourishment of hardboiled pulp, jump over to the latest iteration of my image blog: old magazines (mystery, crime, true crime and more) and paperbacks, from the 20s to, well, whatever new fits in. seattlemysteryhardboiled.com

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National Guard Already Lost at Powell’s Books

By The Needling, Seattle’s Only Real Fake News

Within hours of arriving in war-ravaged Portland, hundreds of National Guard troops are reportedly already lost at Powell’s Books.

“What floor is this? Show yourselves, Antifa! And the exit, please,” said one scared, trapped soldier before firing several rounds into a memoir of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. “Got ‘em. Still don’t know how the fuck to get out of here though. I CAN’T READ HELLLP!!”

While reinforcements have already been ordered to arrive in the city soon, National Guard leaders admit they’re being extra cautious and only sending in their most elite squads on a rescue mission to save the troops from the giant, labyrinthine book store.

“If our brave troops can weather whatever bookstore version of Night at the Museum they’re about to face overnight without accidentally getting bewitched by Jane Austen, I think we have a chance at finding them still alive by dawn,” said General Theo Bahn. “Apparently some Portland civilians are also trapped inside, freaking out, and pleading for help but mostly because they can’t believe the bookstore owner is selling merch designed by AI instead of a local independent artist. No matter where you look or who you are, you have to ask what is this godforsaken world coming to?”

At press time, Seattle confirmed it’s ready to direct any National Guard troops potentially headed their way next straight into the treacherous aisles of Pike Place Market.

October 2025

See Thomas Jefferson’s Handwritten Copy of the Declaration of Independence

See the Entire U.S. Constitution on Display for the Very First Time in History

A Nigerian group attempts a 431-hour reading marathon to set a Guinness World Record

Need A Break? Forget Yoga Retreats, Go On A Library Sleepover

Autograph book with signatures from the Beatles and the Stones to be sold

Rare tablet like the Rosetta Stone found in ancient Egypt

Early versions of Peter Rabbit, Thomas The Tank Engine and The BFG to be sold

Who Dunnit? The London Home Of Legendary Crime Writer Hits The Market

Einstein’s handwritten encyclopedia entry could fetch $200,000

Unpublished Raymond Chandler short story to appear in literary magazine

A Lost Novella by Elmore Leonard With a Social-Justice Bent

Centuries-old map returned to Mexico after librarian’s discovery

Hard pass. Cold brew. Dad bod. Merriam-Webster adds over 5,000 words to ‘Collegiate’ dictionary

The 100-year-old books salvaged from Venice’s floods

Restoring the Sound, if Not the Fury, of William Faulkner’s Piano

Twattle : to gossip

Why today’s publishers fear Goodreads more than government

Apple sued by authors over use of books in AI training

After Nazi looted art surfaces in Argentina, experts warn Van Gogh, Raphael and 100k other works still being hoarded

A History of Violence

AI could never replace my authors. But, without regulation, it will ruin publishing as we know it

230 dead Black boys. A ‘secret cemetery.’ Officials knew, and didn’t act.

Seattle school librarian remembered as ‘heart’ of the school

WA to consider release of Spokane ‘South Hill Rapist’

Washington’s constitution gets a rare public viewing in Spokane

Four people arrested in Washington after alleged hate crime attack on trans woman

Washington State Book Award 2025 Winners Announced

Honduran nationals extradited for running Portland fentanyl drug ring

Travis Decker confirmed dead through DNA results

Cold case found? Body unearthed is Oregon’s oldest unidentified person case

Award-winning WA distillery says thieves took 12,000 whiskey bottles

This Public Bathroom in a Sleepy English Village Was an Epicenter for Cold War Espionage

The Manhattan Well: How Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton United to Solve a Murder Mystery

Lawyer reveals one word that’s a ‘giveaway’ someone is lying

The Word “Enshittification” Is Going Viral, And Here’s What That Means

Britain confronts rash of robberies of Jellycats, a posh plush toy

Timothy Han Returns With Imprint, a Fragrance Collection Inspired by Cult Classic Books

Sketch Saved ‘Monty Python’ Star While Held at Gunpoint

A real Thursday Murder Club? How a team of crime fiction writers tried to save the genre (and solve crimes)

Here Lies Charlotte Temple, the Woman Who Never Existed

Did an Enslaved Chocolatier Help Hercules Mulligan Foil a Plot to Assassinate George Washington?

The Florida Divorcée’s Guide to Murder: Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors inspired a triple murder and led to a major First Amendment case. Still, the book is just one chapter in the bizarre story of its author, “Rex Feral,” a 77-year-old great-grandmother wrestling with decades of guilt and living anonymously—until now.

Snoutfair: It refers to a good-looking person and comes from the 1500s

Warsaw opens metro station ‘express’ library to get commuters off their phones

North Korea executing more people for watching foreign films and TV, UN finds

Tainted love: how Ukrainians are ridding themselves of Russian-language books

Alberta premier says new order banning school library books with sexual content coming soon

Alberta redrafts school book ban, limits it to explicit images

Russian booksellers face legal minefield over new ‘foreign agent’ rules

Tipper Gore, Twisted Sister and the fight to put warning labels on music

Ben & Jerry’s co-founder resigns, says parent company “silenced” activism

ABC Suspends ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ “Indefinitely” Over Charlie Kirk Shooting Comments

Brabble: when you hear two people having a rather loud argument in public, they were brabbling over something inconsequential.

Bloody Scotland Reveals the Winners of the McIlvanney Prize and the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize 2025

The Giller Prize Presents its 2025 Longlist

Finalists for the 2025 Kirkus Prize Revealed

Sally Rooney unable to collect award over Palestine Action arrest threat

Hilary Mantel championed emerging writers – a new prize in her memory will help them get published

Meet the Winners of the 2025 Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize

The Bejewled ‘Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam’ at the Bottom of the Ocean

Codex Gigas: Who Drew the Devil in This Massive Medieval Bible?

Barnes & Noble to acquire Books Inc., saving 174-year-old store from bankruptcy

Interview: Slow Horses author Mick Herron: ‘I love doing things that are against the rules’

By the Book: Mick Herron: What I’m Reading (and Why ‘Wind in the Willows’ Scares Me)

She Won the Booker Prize. Then She Disappeared for 20 Years.

The Scottish crime author approached by James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli

Why Barnes & Noble is buying indie chains like Books Inc. and Tattered Cover

Working with Starling Lawrence, who died last month, was a bracing course in a vanishing art

As a Booker prize judge I helped whittle 153 books down to a shortlist of six. Here’s why you should read them

Slow Horses author Mick Herron says he knows how Jackson Lamb dies

‘She wrote the best first line – and the most chilling stories’: Stephen King on the dark brilliance of Daphne du Maurier

Review: ‘Guilty by Definition’ is the perfect mystery for word lovers

Oct. 7: Gigi Little signs Who Killed One the Gun? , Powell’s, 7pm

The Best Crime TV Shows You’ve Probably Never Even Heard Of

65 Years Later, This Sherlock Holmes Replacement Show’s Modern Reboot Is Missing What Made the Original Great (& Fans Aren’t Happy)

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck Reunite as Narcs on the Edge in The Rip

This Martin Scorsese Horror Movie Has a Secret Connection to a 93% RT Noir Masterpiece

Michael Connelly Drama Inspired By His Crime Reporter Days In Works At Paramount TV Studios

Joseph Kosinski’s ‘Miami Vice’ Movie Lands August 2027 Release Date, Casting Underway

How Harlan Coben took over Netflix

Se7en at 30: David Fincher’s devilish thriller is a chilling immersion in evil

The greatest movie car chases, ranked

Beef-witted: A 1590’s word refers to something stupid.

Sept 1: Graham Greene, ‘Dances With Wolves’, Die Hard with a Vengeance, The Green Mile, and Wind River, Actor, Dies at 73

Sept. 7: Ruth Paine, Who Gave Lodging to Marina Oswald, Dies at 92

Sept. 16: Thomas Perry Dies at 78; Writer of Popular, Unconventional Thrillers

Sept. 16: Robert Redford dies at 89

Sept. 23: Claudia Cardinale actress in The Professionals & ‘Once Upon A Time In The West’ dies at 87

Sept. 25: Sara Jane Moore, Would-Be Assassin of President Ford, Dies at 95

Sept. 26: Robert B. Barnett, Washington Master of the Book World Megadeal, Dies at 79

Sept. 28: Terry Farrell, architect who designed MI6 building, dies

Sept. 1: Starvation cult behind 400 deaths killing again despite leader’s arrest, police fear

Sept. 3: Judge makes blockbuster DNA decision in Gilgo Beach ‘serial killer’ case against Rex Heuermann

Sept. 3: The Fatal Ponzi Scheme That Rocked Hollywood

Sept. 5: John Lennon’s killer denied parole for 14th time

Sept. 7: ‘The Manson Family murdered my sister. Now my life is spent keeping them in prison’

Sept. 8: Man Who Tried to Smuggle 600 Looted Ancient Egyptian Artifacts in Three Checked Suitcases Is Going to Prison

Sept. 11: Inside the mind of a white-collar criminal

Sept. 12: European operation identifies alleged Belarusian spy ring

Sept. 1`3: Reading for release: Uzbekistan to free prisoners early if they finish chosen books

Sept. 13: Rolling Stone, Billboard owner Penske sues Google over AI overviews

Sept. 18: RCMP executes record seizure of more than 56 million dollars in cryptocurrency

Sept 18: Rare Gold Nuggets Worth $700,000 Stolen From Paris’ Natural History Museum in Brazen Heist

Sept. 19: Thieves Steal and Destroy Solid Silver Statue of Abraham Lincoln Created by Mount Rushmore Sculptor Gutzon Borglum

Sept. 22: Robert Redford’s death renews search for suspect in murder of daughter’s boyfriend

Sept. 22: Her rape was unsolved for decades. The suspects were identical twins.

Sept. 26: Infamous Yogurt Shop Murders May Be Solved—34 Years Later

Quockerwodger: from the 1850s, this funny-sounding English term referred to a wooden puppet that was controlled by strings, such as present day politics!

Sarah Beth Durst — The Enchanted Greenhouse

Hope is a four-letter word.

Found at the bottom of Pandora’s box, it gives a reason not to give up, to persevere, to keep going — even in the face of insurmountable odds. Orpheus defeated Lucifer with hope in their duel (in season one of Sandman). Yet, hope can be just as cruel as its fellow curses that it existed amongst in that (in)famous box, especially when a desperate plea for help goes unanswered.

In this case, the plea comes from the lone gardener on the island of Bedle who tends to the extensive and extraordinary greenhouses on Bedle.

And they are dying.

One by one, the magic that’s meant to keep these rooms of exotic plants, pedestrian vegetables, and magical herbage thriving is now failing, turning, and destroying what it once kept safe. Compounding the problem, the mage who created the magical menagerie of chlorophyll based life forms died, and, even worse, with revolution in the capital city, no one seems interested in saving this breathtaking creation.

Well, almost no one.

Enter the wooden statue that once graced the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alysium. Once, a cautionary tale told to new librarians who might find themselves tempted to dabble in magics forbidden to all save a select few.

Now, she’s Bedle’s singular hope of survival.

The follow-up book to The Spellshop did not disappoint. Not only do you learn more about Caz’s (the sentient spider plant and main character in The Spellshop) history, but you also get a much better sense of why the revolutionaries defenestrated the Emperor of the Crescent Island Empire.

Moreover, the snow-capped trees, wondrous rooms of impossible plants, and a cozy cottage filled with the aromas of freshly baked bread, cake, and quiche make this a genuinely snug as a bug in a rug, fantasy book. However, lurking within the warm heart is mystery, corruption, and cruelty that needs weeding out lest they destroy the aforementioned coziness. And it’s this tension betwixt these two polar opposites which Sarah Beth Durst deftly weaves together to create The Enchanted Greenhouse.

Admittedly, when I originally read The Enchanted Greenhouse, I judged The Spellshop the better of the two books.

However, on subsequent readings (yes, plural), I think this initial opinion arose due to the anxiety and internal conflict felt by one of the main characters over doing what’s right, despite their very real fears. As this conflict hits close to home, as my brain’s a real jerk sometimes, I think this is what spawned my original opinion. One that I’ve since revised, obviously, viewing both books as equally fantastic reads!

Though you don’t have to read The Spellshop prior to picking up The Enchanted Greenhouse, I suggest you do. Not only will you get the absolute most out of both books, you’ll have a few hours, days, or weeks (depending on how fast you read) of happiness, joy, magic, jam, and bread.

P.S.: I’m absolutely beside myself as Sarah Beth Durst wrote a third book in this series of loosely connected tales! Sea of Charms is coming out in July 2026, and I cannot wait!

It’s got enough magickal type stuff to qualify (marginally) as a spooky story, but mostly it’s huge fun and brilliantly written. Here’s what I originally said:

I was looking for something fun, fast-paced, a little light-hearted, and entertaining.

The White Magic Five and Dime (Midnight Ink tpo, $14.99) by Steve Hockensmith and Lisa Falco was just the thing!

Alanis McLachlan gets a serious surprise. Her mother, from whom she has been estranged for over 20 years, left her an inheritance – a tiny, New Agey shop in Berdache, Arizona. Alanis doesn’t trust this gift from her mother with good reason – Athena was a master con artist. There’s always a catch, there’s always a mark, and Alanis is pretty sure her mother is setting her up as payback for her desertion, but Alanis is baffled as to how this last con is going to play out.

Further complications arise when Athena’s death is called into question by the local sheriff, who has a disturbingly distracting effect on Alanis, and then there’s the small matter of the teenager living in Athena’s apartment. Alanis has to figure out who might want Athena (if that’s her real name anyway) dead, and unsurprisingly, there are lots of suspects. After all, using tarot decks is a con, isn’t it?

The White Magic Five and Dime is completely delightful, and I do hope Steve Hockensmith and Lisa Falco come back to this place and these people. (SPOILER: They do, and it’s great!) Alanis is smart and funny and wistfully hopeful for one as cynical as she was raised to be. I like her a lot. And the other characters that populate Berdache are wonderfully diverse and quirky in the way you only get from small towns. For those of you who don’t like “woo-woo” aspects to stories, there’s really very little of the metaphysical going on here, although the possibility is certainly out there. But this tale is all about the people and how they do or don’t play nicely with each other. And I have to say, there are some brilliant and glorious twists that I absolutely did not see coming, which made The White Magic Five and Dime even more wonderful!

So that’s what I said, and I meant it.

And, as someone who’s read tarot for, gee, decades I guess, I loved, loved, loved their handling of the decks. But mostly I loved Alanis and Berdache.

FIND THEM ALL! Read them all in one sitting! Okay, maybe two. There are three books in the series: this one, Fool Me Once, and Give the Devil His Due. They’re out there. Go get ’em.

“The high note seemed so insane that Kinnick could only laugh. Any questions? How about: What the Hell? White Nationalist goons stealing children from church parking lots? Rural sheriffs telling him to go pound sand? A maniac ex-cop showing him how to shoot people in the front pocket? Was this just how people behaved now? Is this what the would had come to? Seven years in the woods only to emerge and find everything had gotten crazier?”

Brilliant, as usual. Jess Walters latest novel, So Far Gone, is, as usual, brilliant. It is funny and heartbreaking, altogether human and humane. Kinnick left everything behind and lives in the woods outside of Spokane on his grandfather’s sheep ranch that never had any sheep. He no longer remembers how old his grandchildren are. Hasn’t spoken to his daughter in years after punching out her idiot husband. But the world, and all of it’s wonders and madness, crashes back into his pitiful, racoon-bothered existence in the form of those grandkids bearing the news his estranged daughter has vanished. He’ll travel the Spokane valley to attempt to re-assemble his family of strangers.

“All cruelty springs from weakness. Seneca said that, along with : Ignorance is the cause of fear. Kinnick had always believed these adages to be true, but now, bleeding on the ground… wondered if Seneca might have been a little silly to believe in the causal roots of evil. He wondered if cruelty and its bride, fear, didn’t just exist spontaneously, forces as elemental and eternal, as gravity.”

These days, it appears so.

It’s a risky return to the outside world, but he does it. Some things are worth the bigger risks in life.

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I’d like to take a moment to note just the crime movies of Robert Redford, in no specific order, just as they come to mind: Butch and Sundance (bank and train robbers), The Hot Shot (from a Donald Westlake novel), Sneakers (international intrigue!), The Electric Horseman (he does steal the horse, after all), The Natural (gamblers fixing ball games), The Old Man and the Gun (bank robber), Legal Eagles (defense attorney), All the President’s Men (breaking and entering, at least…), Spy Game (CIA agent), The Last Castle (imprisoned general), Brubaker (prison warden uncovering crimes), Three Days of the Condor (CIA analyst paid to read books), The Sting (con man), Tell Them Willie Boy is Here (manhunt), The Chase (escaped convict) – if you want to go way back, and include early TV, you can add “The Untouchables”, “Naked City”, and “Perry Mason”. Hell OF A CAREER!

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Lastly, two more Sherlockian books:

Anthony Horowitz’s Moriarty is a diabolically clever novel. As told, a Pinkerton agent arrives to stop an American gang from taking over the late Professor’s crime web. He joins with a Scotland Yard inspector who has been studying Holmes’ techniques. The devil of it is that no one has ever seen the villain. How to find him and know it when they get him? And then the whole things is turned on it’s head in the most unexpected and ingenious way. Can’t explain that, except to say it is a most Ackroydian ending…

And most appropriate for the season, Loren D. Estleman’s Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula finds the duo from 221B battling a creature that neither wants to believe can truly exist. The plot fits within and around Stoker’s masterpiece and Estleman does a superb job ratcheting up the tension. Your hair will raise and your spine will tingle. Unfortunately, you’ll have to look for a used copy as it is out of print. Worth the hunt!

For a hammering shot of hardboiled pulp, jump over to the latest iteration of my image blog: old magazines (mystery, crime, true crime and more) and paperbacks, from the 20s to, well, whatever new fits in. SMBNoir

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