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April 8st, 2021

I’m in the string gathering phase for the new book. I don’t like to overly research but I like brainstorming and lightly outlining. Thoughtful activity that will hopefully make the eventual writing easier. Don’t rush but don’t wait.

Ok, let’s get to it.

Here are 3 crime fiction links, 2 quotes, and 1 question for this week:

3 LINKS

• I just blew through two of Penny’s Gamache novels on audio in a couple weeks. I’ve only read one Gamache book in print, STILL LIFE, the first one. The rest, I’ve consumed on audio. Something about her style and the narrator just makes it work for me on audio. Book Riot has 7 more mystery and thriller picks on audio. I read BLACKTOP but bet it translates to audio really well.
  
  
• As a lifelong Boston resident, I’m looking forward to watching this. The new four-part Netflix documentary on the Isabella Stewart Gardner heist premiered this week.
  
  
• read that had me nodding along throughout as it echoed a lot of my thoughts during quarantine reading. The Defector on spending the quarantine giving in and reading 24 of the Reacher books.

2 QUOTES

Two from Child’s Jack Reacher this week:

• “I’m not a vagrant. I’m a hobo. Big difference.””
• “I have to warn you. I promised my mother, a long time ago. She said I had to give folks a chance to walk away.”

1 QUESTION

• Is there a certain author series that you only listen to on audio?

Until next Thursday, happy reading,

Mike

Author the Max Strong thriller series

April 1st, 2021

The recent book launch in now two weeks in the past. We’re onto a new month. Lots of ideas and opportunities are popping up now that I’m not neck deep in writing or launching or marketing.

And that is the most dangerous time.

It’s best to learn to say no. The next best thing for a writer is to always be writing the next book. To maintain a margin of safety—even when it’s going well.

Don’t let ambition or the shiny new bauble on the horizon ruin your current position.

Ok, let’s get to it.

Here are 3 crime fiction links, 2 quotes, and 1 question for this week:

3 LINKS

• Netflix is spending big money to bring back Benoit Blanc for another mystery (and maybe a third). Knives Out 2 will not be connected to the first film other than Daniel Craig. Quite enjoyed the first one. It felt like the first adult movie without superheroes I’d seen in a theater in years.
  
• The Big Thrill talks to David Baldacci about the accidental Archer series that re-sparked his writing enthusiast. Glad it’s not just us little guys that struggle with burnout and the blank page.
  
• CrimeReads urges readers to go beyond Wilkie Collin’s well-known classics and seek out other, just as good works. Some, okay, most, are potboilers, but if you let it go and just relax into it…

2 QUOTES

Two from Wilkie Collin’s The Moonstone:

• “Any woman who is sure of her own wits, is a match, at any time, for a man who is not sure of his own temper.”
• “Your tears come easy, when you’re young, and beginning the world. Your tears come easy, when you’re old, and leaving it. I burst out crying.”

1 QUESTION

• What’s your favorite mystery or suspense book written before 1900?

Until next Thursday, happy reading,

Mike

Author the Max Strong thriller series

March 25th, 2021

Starting to let new ideas for the next book percolate. As if I have any choice. And new probably isn’t quite right either. Everything is a remix—and the world is better for it. It’s almost impossible to come up with a truly unique idea. You can however present an old idea in new and surprising ways.

Ok, let’s get to it.

Here are 3 crime fiction links, 2 quotes, and 1 question for this week:

3 LINKS

• The 2021 Audie Awards were announced this week. Michael Connelly’s FAIR WARNING narrated by Peter Giles and Zach Villa took the mystery category. I actually have never listened to a Connelly on audio. Right now I’m working me way through Penny’s Gamache series on audio and really enjoying the narration.
• The NYTs has an essay from Edmund White (with a follow up online conversation on 4/22) on Highsmith, her career, and her most famous creation in Tom Ripley.
• PW checks in (right on time) with Ben H Winters on his latest, THE QUIET BOY, which mashes up a legal thriller with an unsettling mystery.

2 QUOTES

Two from Tom Ripley:

• “I always thought it would be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody.”
• “I could live Dickie’s life for him.”

1 QUESTION

• Do you have a favorite mystery series to listen to on audio?

Until next Thursday, happy reading,

Mike

Author the Max Strong thriller series

March 18th, 2021

The fifth Max Strong, BURN THE NIGHT, is now out in the world. Go grab a copy. I’m now taking a few weeks off to read a bit from my teetering TBR pile, recharge, and get excited about the prospect of starting something new.

Ok, let’s get to it.

Here are 3 crime fiction links, 2 quotes, and 1 question for this week:

3 LINKS

• The team behind TV’s Justified are now looking to adapt Elmore Leonard’s CITY PRIMEVAL and bring Raylan along for the ride. Justified had a couple uneven seasons (but s2 was a stone-cold classic) but overall was a great adaptation of Dutch and Olyphant embodied the character. Really hope they can duplicate the feat.
• The Boston Globe talks to Harlan Coben about his recent reading, short stories, his crime fiction peers, and rising genre stars.
• Not an easy task given the sheer volume of work but Mental Floss took a crack at Stephen King’s creepiest passages.

2 QUOTES

Two from Elmore Leonard’s Raylan Givens:

• “I thought I explained it to you. Boyd and I dug coal together.”
• “Were you actually aiming at his hat?” “I hit it didn’t I?”

1 QUESTION

• Do you have a favorite Elmore Leonard book? Get Shorty? Pronto?

Until next Thursday, happy reading,

Mike

Author the Max Strong thriller series

March 11th 2021

The fifth Max Strong, BURN THE NIGHT, is out next week and that’s really exciting but it also means its time to start thinking about the next book. Improvement is a battle that must be fought anew each day.

The next book doesn’t care about the previous book. Neither does the next reader. Improvement is a battle that must be fought anew each day. Time to bring your best effort all over again.

Ok, let’s get to it.

Here are 3 crime fiction links, 2 quotes, and 1 question for this week:

3 LINKS

• David Simon and George Pelecanos, creators of THE WIRE, are going back to Baltimore for HBO in adapting WE OWN THIS CITY into a miniseries about the death of Freddie Gray. Will be interesting to see if and how their perceptions have changed.
• Nearly half of Christie’s books involve poison. CrimeReads digs into the Dame’s murder weapon of choice.
• CrimeReads looks past Lehane, Spenser, and EDDIE COYLE to other, sometimes lesser known or forgotten, pieces of crime and mystery that make up the Boston noir canon.

2 QUOTES

Two from Dennis Lehane:

• “Sympathy’s easy. You have sympathy for starving children swatting at flies on the late-night commercials. Sympathy is easy because it comes from a position of power. Empathy is getting down on your knees and looking someone else in the eye and realizing you could be them, and that all that separates you is luck.”
• “There’s something ugly about the flawless.”  

1 QUESTION

• Do you have a favorite among Lehane’s Kenzie/Gennaro series? Gone, Baby, Gone? Darkness, Take My Hand?

Until next Thursday, happy reading,

Mike

Author the Max Strong thriller series

March 4th, 2021

The fifth Max Strong, BURN THE NIGHT, is on its way to publication (March 16th!) and I have a long to-do list that I am trying not to let overwhelm me. Rome wasn’t built in a day but they were laying bricks each hour.

Brick by brick will get me there. Just like word by word can build a book.

Ok, let’s get to it.

Here are 3 crime fiction links, 2 quotes, and 1 question for this week:

3 LINKS

• Found this list on Good Housekeeping (of all places) to be really good. The 25 best true crime books of all-time. Hard to argue with #1. #5 and 7 also great. I liked that they went beyond murder and serial killers, too.
  

• Good news for Bosch fans, at least TV fans. Looks like S7 would be quite the end. It’s moving over, in some form, to IMDB TV (also owned by Amzn) with Welliver and Mimi Rogers set to star. With Rogers role, maybe original stories not one or two books mashed up as the spine of a season?
  

• The Montreal Gazette has a nice quick profile of Louise Penny’s second act as a bestselling author, along with her friendship with Hillary Clinton.
  

2 QUOTES

Two from Louse Penny’s Inspector Gamache:

• “The four sayings that lead to wisdom: I was wrong, I’m sorry, I don’t know, I need help”

• “But you want murderous feelings? Hang around librarians. All that silence. Gives them ideas.”

   

1 QUESTION

• Do you have a favorite Inspector Gamache books in the long-running series?
  

Until next Thursday, happy reading,

Mike

Author the Max Strong thriller series

February 25th, 2021

“A ship is safe in a harbor, but that is not what ships are built for.” – Author John Shedd.

The fifth Max Strong, BURN THE NIGHT, is out with the Advance Team. It’s always exciting and nerve-wracking to put something out into the world but sharing stories is why we write.

Ok, let’s get to it.

Here are 3 crime fiction links, 2 quotes, and 1 question for this week:

3 LINKS

• The latest IQ book by Joe Ide was released this week and Ide gave an entertaining interview to the New York Times on on Nurse Ratched, three unlikely dinner guests, poetry, back problems, and finally reading FRANKENSTEIN.
  

• CrimeReads gathers some of the vanguard women pushing espionage thrillers in new directions for a round table discussion of the genre.

• The Guardian has a profile on BEHIND HER EYES author Sarah Pinborough and yes, they talk about the genesis and reaction to “that ending”
  

2 QUOTES

Two from Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN:

• “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”

• “Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”

   

1 QUESTION

• Did you read BEHIND HER EYES or is the Netflix show the first time you’re hearing about it?
  

Until next Thursday, happy reading,

Mike

Author the Max Strong thriller series

February 18th, 2021

I don’t think I necessarily have great book ideas. But I do work at what I have for a long time. Then I do it again. I’m in the middle of the fifth (and final) revision of the fifth Max book. I keep working and whittling until only the good stuff remains. You might not start with a good idea but you can work it into a good result.

It’s slow and plodding, but it can work. Good ideas don’t always come in a flash.
​

Ok, let’s get to it.

Here are 3 crime fiction links, 2 quotes, and 1 question for this week:

3 LINKS

• Lots of crime fiction adaptation news this week. Forget six seasons and a movie, the trend now is movies to TV. TRUE LIES is the latest to attempt the jump to the small screen. BURN NOTICE’S Nix will write the pilot. Always enjoyed BURN NOTICE.

• BEHIND HER EYES is in my top 5 “you” seriously will love this or seriously hate this” book list. Sounds like the upcoming Netflix’s adaptation didn’t shy away from that bonkers ending.

• If you stuck with TRUE DETECTIVE through 3 seasons, it looks like you may be rewarded with a fourth, but perhaps without Nic Pizzolatto’s involvement. Maybe a good thing at this point?

2 QUOTES

Remember that summer when Matthew McConaughey and TRUE DETECTIVE took over:

• “This is a world where nothing is solved. You know, someone once told me time is a flat circle. Everything we’ve ever done or will do, we’re gonna do over and over and over again.”

• “The world needs bad men. We keep other bad men from the door.”

   

1 QUESTION

• Did you watch season 2 of True Detective? 

Until next Thursday, happy reading,

Mike

Author the Max Strong thriller series