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If you’ve ever gone to a dance club on “Old-Wave Night” when they play the greatest alterna-hits of the late 1970s and 80s, you’ve almost certainly heard this song. I, of course, am old enough to have heard it on its original run, when it still had complete cultural currency. (Personally, I think it still…
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I had a lot of fun being on the “Do You Remember the First Time?” panel at the Edgar Awards Symposium last week. Panel chair Terry Shames did a great job, and I got to meet some hitherto online-only friends like Audrey Lee. I also made some new ones. I was pretty nervous and I…
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Frequent readers of this blog might remember a post a did some years ago called “My Rex Stout Shout-Out,” and will therefore already know of my long and abiding admiration for Rex Stout. Specifically, for his Nero Wolfe novels, the best of which is perhaps The Doorbell Rang. It’s one of Stout’s later novels, published…
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Well, the 2025 Edgar Awards Ceremony is over. I didn’t win my category (that honor went to Henry Wise for his excellent novel Holy City, but I still had a blast. I met a lot of cool people, including my new editor at Crooked Lane, Sara Henry, CLB founder Matt Martz, and others. Best of…
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For anyone who is a mystery fan and happens to be in N.Y.C. this Wednesday, April 30, you should check out the Edgar Awards Symposium. It’s going to be chock-a-block with guest panels and speakers. (Fwiw, I will be on a panel at 10:00!) I’ts not too late! Click here to register!
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I have a confession to make: I dream about shopping malls. Specifically, one shopping mall, the Oaks Mall here in Gainesville. After my parents’ divorce, I saw my mother mostly on the weekends, and one of our routine activities was to go to the mall. We would have lunch, see a movie, and wander around.…
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Ever since I was a kid I’ve had a deep love for classic murder mysteries like The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep. Combine this with my obsession with history and biography—especially Hollywood biography—and you get something like William J. Mann’s Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood, the true story of…
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Okay, I suck at social media. But I’m working on it. Thanks to Mystery Writers of America for posting this to Instagram.
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Once again, it has taken me far too long to write a short tribute to a fine person who has passed away—Val Kilmer, who died of pneumonia on April 1. This time, it was more than just my workload that explains the delay. I had a bit of trouble discovering what I wanted to say…
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Indie rock is famously difficult to define but I know it when I hear it. It’s got something to do with the DIY quality of the music, and the pared down nature of the arrangements. My favorite Indie band of the last twenty years is Company of Thieves. I first heard them on Daryl Hall’s…
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Ash Clifton, Writer 