New trailer for HBO’s Treme
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I don’t think I’ve seen this trailer for Treme yet.
The Wynton Marsalis song “Ring Shout (Peace Of Mind)” makes another appearance (it was in the original teaser) so I wonder what role it will play in the show (theme, opening, closer).
Earlier we brought you the plot summaries for the first three episodes.
Check out the full trailer after the jump.
Brian Lindenmuth @ March 14, 2010
The Siege by Stephen White – review
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When one opens a new book, there is always, for this reader, a bit of tension. What world will this open? What adventure awaits? How good will the writing be? After the first two pages of The Siege, I exhaled and relaxed, thinking that this is, after all, a Stephen White novel, and I was in excellent hands.
That is not to say that the book opens in a placid landscape. To the contrary. The opening scene takes place on the campus of Yale University, where the police are camped out at a building in front of which is a young man, a Yale student, to whose body has been strapped a bomb. He tells the police that the bomb will go off in precisely five minutes. Terrifyingly, he is only one of a number [exact figure unknown] of students who are missing and presumably all being held hostage by person or persons unknown, for reasons unknown, inside that same building, a fortress-like structure unnervingly referred to as a tomb.
Gloria Feit @ March 13, 2010
Losers Live Longer by Russell Atwood – review
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Losers Live Longer By Russell Atwood
Payton Sherwood is a private eye with a shabby office in New York’s East Village. He was fired five years ago for dereliction of duty by a large agency. So far this year, he has had four cases which barely covered the rent, and last week he borrowed $1,000 from his parents to cover recent expenses. When he is offered a gig for $100 by a retired legendary detective, he gushes.
Theodore Feit @ March 13, 2010
Film Noir set to Angel by Massive Attack
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After many long hours, this is my tribute to my favorite genre, to the dark shadows and the profound despair of the soul.
The comments on this over here seem to vary but I think it’s pretty cool.
Brian Lindenmuth @ March 13, 2010
Year of the Dog by Henry Chang – review
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Year of the Dog by Henry Chang
The New York City Chinatown that tourists never see, whether from a bus or in one of the myriad restaurants, is the real subject of this second novel in the Jack Wu series. In his debut, Chinatown Beat, Wu was a police officer in the 05 precinct in Chinatown where he returned to tend to his dying father. In this follow-up, part of a trilogy, he is now a second-grade detective assigned to the 09 precinct, a little further north, after making a major contribution toward solving crime in Chinatown.
The novels are less of a police procedural or mystery, although crime, gangs and murder all play their part (after all this is New York City and Chinatown), than studies and vignettes of the people, culture and the neighborhood. And well-told and penetratingly they are depicted. Many of the tales are remembrances of similar instances in the author’s early years of growing up in the area.
Theodore Feit @ March 13, 2010
NY Public Library Young Lions Award finalists named
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The finalists for the NY Public Library annual Young Lions Award have been named.
Jedediah Berry, The Manual of Detection
Katie Kitamura, The Longshot
Philipp Meyer, American Rust
C.E. Morgan, All the Living
Wells Tower, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
Check out the rest of the award info after the jump
Brian Lindenmuth @ March 12, 2010
Even Money by Dick Francis and Felix Francis – review
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Even Money by Dick Francis
Dick Francis has written more than 40 novels, the last three co-written with his son Felix. In Easy Money, the protagonist is not the typical jockey or trainer, but a bookmaker, giving the authors the opportunity to turn a fresh eye on the racing world which serves as the backdrop for their novels.
Ned Talbot has taken over the family business of taking bets at the English racetracks after his grandfather died. One day, at the Royal Ascot, a stranger approaches him at the betting stall, persisting in attempting to speak with Ned. Finally in the parking lot, after the races, the stranger tells Ned he is the father who was thought to have been killed in a car crash 36 years before. A few minutes later, the two are attacked, and Ned watches his newly-found father being stabbed twice, resulting in his death. Thus, the beginning of several mysteries. And we’re off to the races.
Theodore Feit @ March 12, 2010
Print the Legend by Craig McDonald – review
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As the series has progressed I find myself interested in the relationship between Hemingway and Lassiter and between Hemingway and the books.
In Toros & Torsos my first reaction was to notice how Hem dominated the text. Or at least seemed to dominate in comparison to Head Games. Head Games was very much Hector’s book yet he seemed to almost take a back seat to Hem in T&T. If Hem isn’t physically in Print the Legend then his presence hovers over the entirety of it.
But given what we know about the series what isn’t clear is whether we are seeing Craig McDonald’s mastery of his subject (Hemingway) or is a part of some grander design at work. I don’t know anything about the other books in the series so I can’t say what Hem’s role in those books will be, if any. But I find this relationship and Hem’s role in the series so far to be an interesting one. For a series that is ostensibly Hector Lassiter’s Ernest Hemingway sure does dominate it. More layers of intrigue are revealed when it is revealed what manuscript Hector is working on at the time of the events in Print the Legend.
Brian Lindenmuth @ March 11, 2010
New Clip from The Killer Inside Me
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This morning we’ve got a brand new clip from The Killer Inside Me. Unlike the “trailer” that was released at the end of last year this is more of a full scene. We get to see Casey Affleck as Lou Ford interacting with other people and even getting a little ticked off.
Check it out after the jump.
Brian Lindenmuth @ March 11, 2010
Steve Finbow On Writing Balzac of the Badlands
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On Writing Balzac of the Badlands
Balzac of the Badlands began with a voice and the opening lines, “Some writer somewhere wrote something about never opening a book with the weather. And that’s true if you live where I live. I mean, what would be the point?” I had read and agreed with some of Elmore Leonard’s ten rules of writing – I am a huge Leonard fan – and wanted to question his rules while acknowledging his influence. These lines also comment on the English addiction to talking about the weather, so – consciously or not – the novel is at once homage to American crime fiction and primarily concerned with English matters – soccer, pubs, gangs, London geography, the history of immigration.
My reading swings between crime, thrillers, and noir to science fiction and on to what some people would call postmodern fiction. I am just as happy to spend the evening reading a Bruen or an Ellroy as I am with a Ballard, a Dick, a Blanchot, or a Bolano. I suppose some of my favourite writers are those that combine a little of all three – so work by JG Ballard, Daniel Woodrell, Jack O’Connell, Tom McCarthy, David Mitchell, or David Peace. I wanted to write a crime novel that included a certain amount of linguistic and narrative exploration and experimentation and for Balzac’s day to feel out of control, hurtling along; for the events that were controlling him to seem hallucinogenic – a time trip.
Brian Lindenmuth @ March 10, 2010
