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Picks of the Week

  • Harry Dolan: Bad Things Happen

    Harry Dolan: Bad Things Happen
    BAD THINGS HAPPEN is a nifty debut, cleverly told and unfurled from the very first line: "The shovel has to meet certain requirements" on through meeting "the man who calls himself David Loogan." There are reasons for concealment, just as there are reasons the editor of a mystery magazine bearing little resemblance to EQMM or AHMM might bring him into the fold, thus catalyzing a series of murderous events. The twists come quickly and the dialogue is sharp and if it falls apart slightly at the end, no matter - I want to read much more from Dolan from now on.

  • Ian MacKenzie: City of Strangers: A Novel

    Ian MacKenzie: City of Strangers: A Novel
    MacKenzie's debut novel reminded me a lot of Paul Auster's NEW YORK TRILOGY, whether it was intended or not, in terms of his choice of words, the thrust of the narrative and the existential nature of the main character (whose first name, incidentally, is Paul) caught up in a snowballing sequence of strange and violent events in and around New York City. MacKenzie straddles the line between thriller and internal examination of a man's failings, and his ability to do so establishes him as a young writer of serious talent and future.

  • Megan Abbott: Bury Me Deep

    Megan Abbott: Bury Me Deep
    In a word: amazing. In more words: Megan Abbott, who has never delivered anything less than an excellent novel, exceeds expectations and takes a very bold and very necessary step forward both in the quality of the prose, the development of her characters and especially in portraying how obsession seeps into the very soul of people, transforming them into their worst nightmares all too easily. Just read this book. And then tell many others to do so as well.

  • Ninni Holmqvist: The Unit

    Ninni Holmqvist: The Unit
    Understandably, echoes of THE HANDMAID'S TALE are hard to ignore in this dystopic examination of a society where fertility is so high a priority that older, single, marginal women are shut away in secret locales to live out the rest of their lives in seemingly perfect harmony - at least, until the "donations" begin. But Holmqvist's marvelous book doesn't browbeat her thesis into the reader and smartly expands her ideas to look at the plight of all marginalized folk, women and men alike, and how the promise of comforts can be the most horrifying of all. Prepare to be disturbed, but prepare further to think about the ramifications.

  • Paula Froelich: Mercury in Retrograde

    Paula Froelich: Mercury in Retrograde
    This is possibly the most perfect novel for today's economically challenged times. Why? Because it has plenty of glitz and glamor and blind items, as befitting a narrative by the deputy editor of Page Six, but Froelich isn't arch or snarky or acid-tongued in the slightest. Her trio of protagonists land in all manner of embarrassing situations but they aren't played for mean-spirited laughs. The New York here is something of a fantasy-land, but not so far off the mark that it's completely unbelievable. Most of all it's clear Froelich remains sincere and optimistic about her chosen city, and has retained her sense of fun. So no need to check your brain at the door, but sometimes it just needs to chill out and relax.

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November 05, 2008

R.I.P., Michael Crichton

The bestsellling author is dead at the age of 66 following a long and private battle with cancer. Wow.

UPDATE: Obits from HarperCollins Canada, Wired News, Phoenix New Times, AP, NYT, National Post, TIME, and io9.

Tributes from David Montgomery, John Scalzi, Frank Wilson, Marjorie Kehe, Chip McGrath, and a statement from Steven Spielberg. Here's Crichton spending an entire hour on Charlie Rose. Jaime Weinman also sums up what made Crichton work well in TV:

You can fault him for a lot of things...but he had a real gift for imaginative concepts that people would respond to. Not just premises, but concepts; ER and Jurassic Park and Westworld don’t necessarily have the most original premises in the world, but they’re thought out conceptually in ways that makes them feel new. ER in particular showed how the stale concept of the medical drama could become fresh if fleshed out with more specific details and a greater sense of intensity than previous, more leisurely-paced (and less jargon-filled) doctor shows.

UPDATE TWO: Before Crichton broke out with THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN and while still a medical student, he wrote several pulp novels under the pseudonyms John Lange and Jeffery Hudson. Two of the Lange novels, GRAVE DESCEND and ZERO COOL, were reissued by Hard Case Crime in the last couple of years, and HCC publisher Charles Ardai had this to say by email earlier this afternoon:

I did hear earlier today about John Lange's death (perversely on the very same day Michael Crichton passed away -- a double tragedy for fans of great genre fiction).  Lange was a very generous man and deeply involved with every step of the process on both of the books we did together, even to the point of writing new bookend chapters for our edition of ZERO COOL.  He worked with us on the cover art, the cover text, revising the books line by line to polish old imperfections...he was a consummate pro and a real joy to work with.  He even signed our 50-copy limited edition of FIFTY-TO-ONE just a few weeks ago, along with nearly all our other living authors.  And we were talking with him about possibly bringing out a third of his books.  Who knows whether we'll do it now...but even if we do, it won't be the same.  I miss him already.  (Michael, too.  I miss them both.)

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Comments

Any obit-quotes yet from Bob Gottlieb who edited nearly all of Crichton's books?

One of the "pulp novels" he wrote as Jeffery Hudson, A CASE OF NEED, won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1969, and deservedly so.

He'll be missed. RIP

You can make a case that he was the most influential thriller writer of all time. There are really few novels in any genre that not only had the popular appeal but also the cultural impact of THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN and JURASSIC PARK.

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