I’ve been thinking about this quote from Arthur van Hoff as I get closer to revising:

“Over the years, I’ve learned that the first idea you have is irrelevant. It’s just a catalyst for you to get started. Then you figure out what’s wrong with it and you go through phases of denial, panic, regret. And then you finally have a better idea and the second idea is always the important one.”ether I feel like it or not. That’s how books get finished.

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

3 LINKS

• Holy cow, it was Colson Whitehead week on book review blogs. A flood of, mostly overwhelmingly positive, reviews for for the peripatetic Whitehead’s take on the crime/heist genre with HARLEM SHUFFLE. In the NYTs, Maslin returns and looks at Whitehead’s “unwavering eloquence” in a rich and wild book that is much more than genre fiction. It might start slow but crackles by the end.
  
  
• Good news for EYE OF THE NEEDLE fans, Ken Follett has returned to the thriller genre. The best-selling author talks to PW about the “deep-seated anxiety” that led him back to the genre with the upcoming NEVER.
  
  
• The Hollywood Reporter finds Peacock’s LOST SYMBOL adaptation “polished” and “decently acted” that “follows the plotting of a Dan Brown novel.” It does get in a good jab about Langdon’s ‘superpower.’

2 QUOTES

Two quotes from Chester Himes this week:

• “Martyrs are needed to create incidents. Incidents are needed to create revolutions. Revolutions are needed to create progress.”
  
• “American violence is public life, it’s a public way of life, it became a form, a detective story form. So I should think that any number of black writers should go into the detective story form.”

1 QUESTION

• Are there better lead detective character names in the genre than Himes Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson? What is your favorite crime fiction character name? I do like the everyman simplicity of Joe Pike or Jack Reacher but damn, hard to beat Grave Digger or Coffin Ed.

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Until next Thursday, happy reading,

Mike

Author the Max Strong thriller series