Last week, I was feeling chipper and optimistic. This week I’m feeling tired and uninspired. So goes the quarantine. Sometimes the only way through is to just keep going. I’m going to walk the dog, go for a run, and then write some words. That usually is a good antidote to what ails me.

Alright, let’s get to it. Here’s the most crime fiction news per word on the web.

 

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

 

3 LINKS

 

• MysteryTribune has a video conversation between Gregg Hurwitz and David Baldacci about the writing life and Baldacci’s latest Memory Man novel. Two writers that definitely know how to mine the commercial fiction genre. Worth a listen/watch.
  

• After Mina, Rankin, and McDermid, my reading CV is woefully short on Scottish thriller writers. The Guardian has a top 10 list that might help rectify the situation. 

• CrimeReads looks at the three 90s movie adaptations that really put Elmore Leonard into the mainstream. Just re-watched OUT OF SIGHT. Still holds up, might be my favorite Dutch-inspired film.
  

 

2 QUOTES

Two Dutch quotes from OUT OF SIGHT:

• “Foley had never seen a prison where you could walk right up to the fence without getting shot.”
  

• “I know a guy who walks into a bank with a little glass bottle. He tells everyone it’s nitroglycerin. He scores some money off the teller, walks out. On his way out, the bottle breaks, he slips on it and knocks himself out. The “nitro” was Canola oil. I know more f**ked-up bank robbers than ones who know what they’re doing. I doubt if one in twenty could tell you where the dye pack is. Most bank robbers are morons.“

 

1 QUESTION

• Are you a Raylan or a Sisco fan? Western or crime? What is your favorite Elmore Leonard book?
  

 

Until next Thursday, happy reading,

Mike

Author the Max Strong thriller series