Mike Ripley's column has just been updated over at Shotsmag for his current musings and you can find it here. Impregnated with some delightful humour, gossipy and a font of information from the crime fiction scene (mainly in the UK, but not exclusively), this is a column not to be missed if you like crime fiction and like to keep up to date.
For September he kicks off with some sad news and fond reflections on the lives of the now departed Rodney Wingfield (R. D. Wingfield, author of the Frost series) and John Gardner (creator of Boysie Oakes, Herbie Kruger and DS Suzie Mountford).
Then he moves on to the revitalised James Bond which Sebastian Faulks is about to pen, as opposed to Peter Guttridge for whom the rumours were rife - and this is where the humour really starts to come through for the current column.
Following on, we have the Left Coast Crime Convention 2009; Louise Penny; Frances Fyfield; Vintage Classic Pairings at good prices; translated books originating in Sweden; Sam Bourne and the Doctors Heller; Maxim Jakubowski's current position in crimespace's poll on the "sexiest crime writer"; poisoners and more...
Go on, if you haven't already, do it give it a go. It's always a bumper-packed column. Did I mention being a font of information? This is like a leak, that if it related to your piping, you'd be reaching for the Yellow Pages to find an emergency plumber (or a doctor, if the problem was of a more organic nature). But of course this is about the crime fiction scene, so it's best to find a comfy chair in front of your monitor, sit back and enjoy reading the news... The only activity required is your hand moving to scroll the mouse in order to read the full page. No excuses there then!
Maxine, thanks for your comment! I think we crossed in the post, so to speak...
It's good to be back, but I am so tired tonight, an early one beckons.
Posted by: CFR | 05 September 2007 at 20:46
Thanks for your comments, both! It's good to have a break now and again, especially when there's a lot of other things to do...
But Anne, I must take you to task over your Faulks comment. I thought he did well with Birdsong; showed rather a talent for it, I thought. But then he did win the Bad Sex Award in 1998 for Charlotte Gray. Apparently based on this passage:
"Meanwhile her ears were filled with the sound of a soft but frantic gasping and it was some time before she identified it as her own."
Posted by: CFR | 05 September 2007 at 19:50
Welcome back, CrimeFic-- missed you!
Posted by: Maxine | 05 September 2007 at 19:43
Nice to have you back, Rhian! Hope you've had a good break. Must say if Faulks is doing the next James Bond, I hope he's going to leave out any sex scenes - I always think his are rather poor ...
==:O
A
xxx
Posted by: Anne Brooke | 05 September 2007 at 07:23
Glad to see you are back. Thanks for keeping us up to date with the crime fiction scene.
Posted by: Norm | 04 September 2007 at 21:06