Putting Their Best Faces Forward

January 8, 2016 J. Kingston Pierce 0

There’s every possibility that you haven’t noticed yet, but The Rap Sheet — January Magazine’s sister blog — has posted its nominees for Best Crime Fiction Cover of 2015. There are 20 contenders this year, covering a wide assortment of authors and a range of publishers, both large and small. You’re invited to take part in choosing the ultimate winner. At the bottom of the post, you’ll find a simple electronic ballot. Please feel free […]

Investigating the Cat Called Shaft

November 10, 2015 J. Kingston Pierce 1

Hard as this might be to believe, 2016 will mark 45 years since the 1971 debut of Shaft, the Richard Roundtree crime-thriller film based on Ernest Tidyman’s novel of the same name. In anticipation of that anniversary, British banker-turned-writer Steve Aldous has composed The World of Shaft: A Complete Guide to the Novels, Comic Strip, Films, and Television Series (McFarland). It represents a nostalgic feast for longtime John Shaft fans and an invitation to others […]

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Go Set a Watchman  Deserves to Be Read,
Not Refunded

August 5, 2015 J. Kingston Pierce 3

This is patently ridiculous! The Guardian reports today that a small bookshop in Traverse City, a town in northern Michigan that’s known for its cherry crops, has decided to refund the price of Harper Lee’s novel Go Set a Watchman (Harper) to any reader who’s dissatisfied with their purchase of said work. The store states on its Web site: We at Brilliant Books want to be sure that our customers are aware that Go Set […]

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Crime Fiction: Delicious Foods 
by James Hannaham

July 2, 2015 J. Kingston Pierce 0

(Editor’s note: The following review comes from Steven Nester, the host of Poets of the Tabloid Murder, a weekly Internet radio show heard on the Public Radio Exchange [PRX]. Nester is also a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The Rap Sheet, Mystery Scene and Firsts Magazine. He last wrote for January Magazine about Vicki Hendricks’ Voluntary Madness.) Delicious Foods (Little, Brown) is a Gothic crime novel written by a narrative virtuoso, James Hannaham, […]