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Picks of the Week

  • Diana Spechler: Who by Fire: A Novel (P.S.)

    Diana Spechler: Who by Fire: A Novel (P.S.)
    Spechler's unfliching, beautifully written debut strikes at the heart of how one catastrophic event creates a fissure so deep it breaks a small family into fragmented pieces. A little girl is kidnapped, presumed dead, and over a decade later her mother is still searching for answers, her older sister seeks solace in meaningless sex and her brother - who blames himself for the crime's commission - finds his life's solution among ultra-Orthodox Judaism. Spechler uses the inciting event to show the ways in which family members cling to and turn away from each other, do terrible things with the best intentions and show the comforts and prejudices of religiosity with a compassionate eye and voice.

  • Iain Levison: Dog Eats Dog

    Iain Levison: Dog Eats Dog
    First published in France a few years ago, Bitter Lemon press finally makes this darkly comic gem available in English. When a bank robber, bleeding profusely from his last and very botched job, lands in a sleepy New Hampshire college town, disaster is pretty much inevitable. Never is that more true than for Elias White, roped into being the robber's accomplice as a result of an ill-fated dalliance glimpsed through an open window, and for FBI agent Denise Lupo, whose ability is less dogged and more fragmented. Levison nails the academic atmosphere and its jarring juxtaposition with the criminal underworld, but most of all he's clearly having fun with his given premise.

  • Matthew Hall: The Art of Breaking Glass

    Matthew Hall: The Art of Breaking Glass
    If this debut were published in 2008 instead of 1997, I suspect it would have been greeted with the same acclaim and the same sense that this is a major talent with a great deal in store for his career. Because holy hell, this has tremendous pacing, wonderful characters and an offbeat and very unique voice. But since its original publication, the book is all but out of print and there's no new novel from Hall in sight, as he's concentrated on TV and screenwriting duties. So read this book and hope that a) some publisher decides to reissue it b) Hall follows it up someday.

  • Victor Gischler: Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse: A Novel

    Victor Gischler: Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse: A Novel
    After four crime novels, Gischler turns to something a little different - and a lot more unclassifiable - with this incredibly funny, violent, panoramic and pulpy apocalyptic novel. The world Mortimer Tate left behind was about to go into ruins but what he returns to nine years later is littered with machine guns, strip clubs and people looking out for their best interests (both literally and carnivorously.) With the help of an eclectic crew of sidekicks and gun-toting babes, Mortimer prepares to save the world at the lost city of Atlanta - whether he likes it or not.

  • Zoe Sharp: Third Strike: A Thriller

    Zoe Sharp: Third Strike: A Thriller
    Once again, Zoe Sharp finds a way to make the thriller genre her own by focusing on the psychological toll that violence takes upon a person. By the end of THIRD STRIKE, Charlie Fox is at a very dark place, fully cognizant of the consequences her actions have taken upon those she's been asked to guard and those she loves, and I was profoundly disturbed in a way I haven't been after reading a thriller in quite some time. This is a long, long way from mindless fluff, and if you're prepared to travel some very dark and thoughtful corners, this is the book (and series) to read.

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March 18, 2008

Now That's What I Call Prolific

The Yomiuri Shimbun has good reason to fete mystery novelist Jiro Akagawa - he's just published his 500th novel:

Mystery novelist Jiro Akagawa has given a whole new meaning to the word "prolific," having dashed off an amazing 500 books since his first novel appeared in 1977, it has been learned.

To the best of Japan Library of Mystery Literature Co.'s knowledge, he is the first Japanese author of mystery novels to have published 500 books.

According to mystery novel critic Yuzuru Yamamae, "Dorakyurajo no Butokai" (The Ball at Castle Dracula), published by Kadokawa Shoten in January, is Akagawa's 500th original work. However, Akagawa claims, using slightly different criteria, that "Mikeneko Homuzu no Sawakai" (Calico Cat Holmes' Tea Party), the latest volume in his popular series published in February by Kobunsha Co., is his 500th.

The 60-year-old Akagawa began his career writing crime fiction, usually of the humorous variety, in 1976. "I didn't particularly have a target of 500 novels in mind, but the number of my publications just kept growing. I don't know if I can make it to the 600th novel, but as long as readers wait for my works, I'd love to continue writing,"Akagawa said. I dunno, I think he has a good shot at 600....

Posted at 03:00 PM in World of Mystery |

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Comments

Pffft, 500 books, lazy sod ;-)

Posted by:Grant McKenzie | March 19, 2008 at 04:02 PM

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