Crime Fiction Dossier

Win This Book winner

One of the CFD's loyal readers informs me that I neglected to announce the winner of the latest Win This Book contest. This is true! The winner of the signed copies of Duane Swierczynski's crime novels The Blonde and The Wheelman was S. Belozerov of Worcester, Massachusetts.

Thanks to Duane Swierczynski for providing the books, and to Random.org for providing the winning number.

What should I review?

If you have a suggestion for a book that I should review in my next column, please post it in the comments section. I've got several things on my list, but I'm not that excited about a couple of them.

Ideally, the book will be published between mid-November and the end of December. No 2007 books, please.

Score one for Buckley!

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how a review of Christopher Buckley's in the New York Times prompted me to immediately buy the book in question.

Well, I finished Chris Miller's The Real Animal House last night and it was everything that Buckley said it was: funny, crude, tasteless, probably apocryphal and a lot of fun to read.

So chalk one up for the reviewers! If you enjoyed the gross-out humor and antics of the film Animal House you'll probably enjoy this book as well. Juvenile that I am, I loved it.

Latest Chicago Sun-Times column

My latest column ran this morning in the Chicago Sun-Times. It includes reviews of:

• Michael Connelly's Echo Park
• Julie Hyzy's Deadly Interest
• Michael A. Black's A Final Judgment
• Jan Burke's Kidnapped
• Julia Spencer-Fleming's All Mortal Flesh

If you're thinking that those books aren't exactly new releases... Well, I wrote the column a while ago.

Another blogger joins the madness

Mystery author Henry Kisor, formerly the book review editor of the Chicago Sun-Times and the man who gave me my start as a professional critic, has thrown caution to the wind and started a blog.

Henry's a terrific writer and a smart guy, so this promises to be very interesting. I hope he'll talk more about books in the future, although after 30+ years as a book review editor, he's probably sick of 'em.

Day job

Like most writers, I have a day job. I write event listings for Goldstar Events, an online ticket seller. (The hook with Goldstar is that the tickets are only half-price.)

I've been doing it for the past four years -- used to be full-time, but I went down to part-time to finish my novel and then to take care of the baby. Day jobs suck, but as such things go, this is a pretty good one.

The company recently expanded into New York and Boston and today we got a nice write-up in the New York Times. This doesn't have anything to do with books, but I thought it was cool, so I wanted to share it with you.

Happy Anniversary!

I neglected to realize that last month was my 3-year anniversary as a blogger. I probably forgot because I can't believe I've kept it up for this long.

I have mixed feelings about blogs in general, largely because I think most of them are a waste of time. (And I don't exempt this one from that statement.) Still, there is occasionally something useful or interesting in the blogosphere, and I hope to contribute to that when I can.

Every few months or so I'll start to think that it's time to give it up. But then someone will say something nice about CFD, or I'll get an email from someone saying they enjoy reading it, and they suck me right back in.

So for those of you who are fans of the Crime Fiction Dossier...Cut it out! Maybe then I can quit and go back to changing dirty diapers in peace.

Happy anniversary! :)

Win This Book -- don't forget!

Don't forget, the Crime Fiction Dossier is currently running a contest to win personally-autographed copies of Duane Swierczynski's crime novels The Blonde and The Wheelman.

To enter, just send an email with "Contest" in the subject line and your name in the body of the email.

Good luck!

Contest ends on 11/21. Only one entry per person, please. Only U.S. residents are eligible to win. All decisions are final. Crime Fiction Dossier is not responsible for anything.

Review of Rick Gadziola's "Drawing Dead"

The latest writer to cash in on the craze for all things poker is Canadian author Rick Gadziola. Drawing Dead features ex-Boston cop Jake Morgan, who now lives in Las Vegas where he makes a living dealing cards.

After he’s convinced by his boss at the casino to "escort" a rich female gambler, his evening goes from bad to worse when an assassin wipes out the woman before his eyes. Despite knowing better, Jake can’t help but get involved – a decision which, of course, soon has him in a whole heap of trouble.

Gadziola has a winning way with his characters and he uses the Vegas setting for his story quite well. Drawing Dead is a fast-paced and entertaining mystery that will appeal to readers even if they don’t know the different between a flush and a full house.

For more reviews like this one, please visit Mystery Ink.

The thought of the day

From critic Mike Ripley:

"I am always being accosted by crime writers who announce themselves and then say 'You haven't reviewed my new book' to which I usually answer 'There's no need to thank me.'"

(Passed along by Dick Adler.)

(In case you were wondering...Yes, there is a cabal of critics who all communicate with each other. That's how we decide which books get the good reviews.)