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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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This entry in my on-going Classic Sci-Fi Book Covers series is both old and new. That is, it’s a modern touch-up of the cover from the October 1949 edition of Astounding Science Fiction painted by Hubert Rogers. That issue included a work by A.E. van Vogt, but not the one we are interested in here.
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In any given decade, one or two musicians discovers exactly the right sound, look, and vibe to capture the spirit of the times. Such “triple-threat” artists are rare. Elvis Presley was one. David Bowie was another. For many in my generation of kids growing up in the early 1980s, there were two such figures. One
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Ash Clifton, Writer 