When the folks at Mulholland Books asked me to write an article to introduce their anthology of mysteries titled VENGEANCE, I passed. It’s a subject I’m uniquely qualified to discuss, but I didn’t want to attract attention to myself. I cherish my anonymity, my ability to listen to the conversation beside me, or blend in [...]
Category Archive for ‘Guest Posts’ 
Bernard, Visible
Apr 17, 2012 in Guest Posts, Mulholland Authors
In “River Secret,” a man called Baptiste plays his music setup at the entrance to the Tuileries Garden in Paris. He’s fictional, but a real-life one-man band plays there as well. I see him almost every day when I jog across the footbridge over the Seine to the park entrance. The melancholy wail of his [...]
Jewish Criminals I Have Known
Apr 16, 2012 in Guest Posts
Very often at a reading I am asked about Jewish criminals. The very idea seems at once perverse and nonsensical, like gay plumbers or red-haired Japanese. These days very few people cross to the other side of the street when faced with an oncoming trio of Jewish accountants. Those who think this funny never faced [...]
The Hotline: The Story Behind the Story
Apr 13, 2012 in Guest Posts, Mulholland Authors
Every story, long or short, is a series of fictional beads threaded onto a fictional necklace to make up the finished article. As readers, we’re all interested where an author gets the ideas for their beads from and the more we like a work of fiction, the more interested we are. In the case of [...]
Savage Beauty, Savage Poster
Apr 11, 2012 in Film, Guest Posts
One of the most anticipated films for crime fans this summer is the adaptation of Don Winslow’s revolutionary novel Savages. Directed by Oliver Stone, it’s the story of Ben and Chon, two Southern California marijuana kingpins who run afoul of a Mexican cartel. Shenanigans ensue. While Stone assembled a cast that blends established stars – [...]
