Remembering Kate Mattes
This ran in the Sunday Boston Globe on April 5. For the full obit, please see here. APPRECIATION Remembering Kate Mattes, a maven of mysteries At Kate’s Mystery Books in Cambridge, Mattes nurtured the likes of Robert B. Parker, Linda Barnes, and Dennis Lehane, and...
#NoContact Book Tour with Joanna Schaffhausen
Today we're welcoming Joanna Schaffhausen to the #NoContact Book Tour! I was lucky enough to attend Joanna's local launch event for All the Best Lies (see the evidence below!) before the world went sideways. She read and cracked jokes, while her wonderful daughter...
Booking it with Catriona McPherson
Welcome to the #NoContact Book Tour! While we all stay inside and stay safe, books have become even more important. But book events and conferences, alas, are canceled. So let's "meet" some authors here, shall we? To launch this series, I give you the great (and very,...
Kate Mattes, R.I.P.
We have lost Kate Mattes, proprietor of the legendary Kate's Mystery Books in Cambridge, co-founder (with Sara Paretsky) of Sisters in Crime, and all-around champions of writers, particularly women writers, and readers. Word is that she had a sudden cardiac event,...
Five Questions with Michelle Cameron
Michelle Cameron and I met when I interviewed her years ago. She was helping me with one of my projects, but that chat introduced me to her own wonderful historical novels. Now I'm thrilled to introduce her – and her upcoming BEYOND THE GHETTO GATES – to you. Because...
Five Questions with Sarah Smith
Sarah Smith is a time traveler! Although we New Englanders know Sarah as an indefatigable supporter of the local crime fiction scene, to readers worldwide she is the Agatha Award-winning (and New York Times notable books) author of Chasing Shakespeares (yes, plural!),...
“The Mirror and the Light” review
Hi folks - I'd love you all to support the Boston Globe, where this review ran on Sunday. If you don't pay, journalists can't do their jobs. But, I also want you to read about this stunning book. And so, a few days late. here's my review. BOOK REVIEW Hilary Mantel’s...
The Mouldwarp King
You know how Alice gets lost down the rabbit hole? Well, friends, last week, I went down my own particular rabbit hole. I had the honor and the privilege of reviewing Hilary Mantel's stunning new novel, The Mirror and the Light (more on that later). But to do that on...
Five Questions with Nancy Bilyeau
I don't know about you, but I love to escape into historical fiction. A good historical gives you a real sense of the place and the time but – being fiction – weaves a compelling story in as well. (Apologies to my historian friends, but true stories are seldom as neat...
Five Questions with Gerald Coleman
Sitting on a panel next to Gerald Coleman is kind of like sitting next to royalty. The man makes worlds, people! Entire universes! The occasion was the recent Boskone conference, where we were literally talking about world-making, and how we do it. Since I came to...