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Posts Organized by Category
Monthly Archives: January 2011
Havana Noir, Cuban Detective Fiction
When a Cuban mystery writer is published in the US, it’s a surprise and, in the case of Leonardo Padura, a major event. Padura is a native Cuban living in Havana who writes dark detective fiction in a style some … Continue reading
Crime & Punishment LA Style
Reading Chandler’s classic detective novel The Big Sleep is a journey back to the LA before freeways, to a time when there were oil derricks in Hollywood and automobiles ruled the streets and blonds ruled everything else. This story is … Continue reading
Americans Solve Jack the Ripper Murders
Online book stores make it easy to buy eBooks, sometimes a single click will do the job. I was on Amazon looking for a novel about the life of Alice Liddell, the precocious child of Charles Dodgson’s Alice in Wonderland. … Continue reading
Saramago’s Lucid Novels
Suppose you are holding an open house or sponsoring a public reception. Are you in suspense as they wait for guests to arrive? What if for some reason or other no guests show up? Now, imagine the turmoil at a … Continue reading
A Chamber of Secrets
Turing’s Delirium is a fictional take on the inner workings of a South American government as a former dictator, now president, prepares the country for elections. The president must suppress the revelation of illegal activities of members of his cabinet … Continue reading
An American Post 9/11 Story
Paging through the front matter of American Subversive by David Goodwille I found the unusual pairing of two historical personages; Che Guevara, the hero of the Cuban revolution, and our 26th president Theodore Roosevelt, the hero of the battle of … Continue reading
Cyberspace and Borges’ Universe
When opening a book, I usually thumb through the front matter to see if there is an introduction, dedication or epigraph. Often there is little there to interest the reader, but occasionally a gem is discovered. Opening my copy of … Continue reading
Hard-boiled Fiction Noir
The detective fiction garlanded by the Hammett Awards in both North America and Spain owes much to the Philip Marlowe series of crime novels by Raymond Chandler. I recently bought the Kindle edition of The Big Sleep, which was the … Continue reading
Historian, Inquisitor Cyber Chat
The historian Teresa fidgets at her computer terminal hoping that Inquisitor will connect to the chat room, but her cyber chat friend remains offline and unavailable. It has been several weeks and the historian is distraught by the waiting, but she … Continue reading
Hammett in the land of Cervantes
A second 2010 Hammett Prize was awarded during the Semana Negra (Week of Fiction Noir) book festival in Gijon, Spain. Argentine writer Guillermo Orsi wowed the judges with his novel relating stories of rich cruise ship passengers abandoned in a … Continue reading
