I just found out that <a href=" http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.html?storyId=91753085&ft=1&f=1032 /"_blank">this</a>, which I recorded weeks ago, has finally run. One thing that’s not in the interview – Renee Montagne uncovered an important Nancy Drew-Tess Monaghan link. She asked me how I came to start reading the books and I suddenly remembered that my family did not own any Nancy Drew books – we borrowed them from the Monaghans, who lived two doors away. (My sister Read more [...]

I’ve been asked to point folks toward <a href="http://www.thecwa.co.uk/forum/"_blank">this link</a>. Discuss, but please – no cussing or ad hominen attacks.Meanwhile, it feels paradoxical to post a link to this <a href=" http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google ">article</a>, but it confirmed many things going through my head when I decided to move away from the Internet. I read it in the magazine, however, and only let my attention drift two or three times. The previous Read more [...]

Peter Guttridge, one of my favorite novelists -- I can't say enough good things about his Nick Madrid series -- is also a terrific critic and reviewer. Once, in a typically thoughtful review of one of my books, he said in passing that I was "weighted down" with American awards for crime-writing. I always liked that phrase because it sounded a little sinister, as if I had been fitted for a nice pair of cement shoes. But it also seemed to get at the way that awards can function as straw men. When people Read more [...]