The House of Crime and Mystery

CARRÉMENT ROUGE (in French)

2012-05-23T17:10:00.003-04:00

Hier, 22 mai, était la 100è journée de la démarche démocratique des étudiants québécois. Aujourd'hui, après cent jours de silencieux soutien, je prends une pause et leur donne publiquement mon appui d'humble citoyen. En tant que père de deux enfants, qui seront aux études collégiales à compter de 2018, je sens le besoin de dire merci à ceux qui courageusement, avec une ténacité exemplaire,

GIVEAWAY: Bruce DeSilva's CLIFF WALK

2012-05-23T14:07:00.001-04:00

UPDATE: We have our winner and it is Brandon Nagel, of Island Lake, IL (US). Thank you to everyone who participated. Stay tuned for the next giveaway. And thanks for visiting The House of Crime & Mystery. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I know you want it. Badly. With his previous book, ROGUE ISLAND, Bruce DeSilva won both the 2011

SUPER WEEKEND GIVEAWAY!

2012-05-12T15:45:00.000-04:00

You can win one of two prizes of 2 books each, from some great ECW Press writers. PRIZE A-- Two brand new crime fiction titles: "Walking Into the Ocean" by David Whellams and "Never Play Another Man's Game" by Mike Knowles. PRIZE B-- The first two books in Edgar Award winner Marc Strange's Orwell Brennan mysteries: "Follow Me Down" and the newly published "Woman Chased By Crows".

LES ANGES DE NEW YORK par R.J. ELLORY

2012-05-01T18:27:00.002-04:00

Frank Parrish est enquêteur à la police de New York. Son père a été un héros de ce corps policier dans les années 80 alors que le groupe d’élite qu’il dirigeait a réussi à bouter la mafia hors de Manhattan. Mais Frank n’a jamais eu la stature de son père. Il n’échappe pas au profil stéréotypé du flic qui a raté sa vie de couple, qui n’a pas vu grandir ses enfants et qui s’adonne trop à la

BLOODMAN by Robert POBI (Review & Giveaway)

2012-04-27T08:09:00.000-04:00

(Two signed copies of BLOODMAN to be won. Open to residents of CAN/US/UK/EU, aged 18 and up. Details at the end of the review) (This review was originally posted at Crime Fiction Lover's website) Canto XII of Dante’s Inferno takes place in the First Ring of the Seventh Circle of Hell where sinners who used violence against others suffer for all eternity in a boiling river of blood. Bloodman is

LONESOME ANIMALS by Bruce HOLBERT

2012-04-17T11:50:00.002-04:00

In Lonesome Animals, we find Russell Strawl, a former sheriff who is the best at hunting down and catching criminals, from the late 1890s to the early 1900s. If they didn’t resist, he’d bring them back to be judged; if they did resist, he’d just kill them: "He killed eleven men in flight because the circumstances made returning them alive too much trouble." He usually just shot them but when he

A DETAILED MAN by David SWINSON

2012-04-10T16:22:00.002-04:00

A former member of the Police Force, be it a detective, a cop, a blood spatter expert, or anyone else who used to own a badge doesn’t necessarily possess what it takes to write a good crime novel. Just because that person has an insider’s knowledge and many years of experience doesn’t mean that it will magically produce a great book. The writing aspect is often overlooked and we’ve all read

LA CHORALE DU DIABLE de Martin MICHAUD (French review)

2012-04-07T11:08:00.000-04:00

C’est un inspecteur Lessard amaigri, tentant de mieux s’alimenter et de couper la cafféine, qu’on retrouve dans cette deuxième histoire après “Il ne faut pas parler dans l’ascenseur”. Il est séparé et vit avec son fils. La colocation ne se passe pas sans heurts et son moral en souffre. D’autant plus que sa dernière conquête vient de lui signifier son congé. Appelé sur les lieux d’un

GUEST POST #1: JOHN MCFETRIDGE

2012-04-04T22:10:00.000-04:00

This is the first guest post at The House of Crime & Mystery and I'd like to make it a regular trend. If you're a writer and would like to let people know about your work, please send me an email. I hope you'll take the opportunity to let my visitors learn (or learn more) about your stories, characters, inspiration, etc. Don't be shy. ************************************************

DEAD HARVEST by Chris F. HOLM

2012-04-01T17:35:00.001-04:00

After reading Chris F. Holm’s short story collection 8 Pounds, I knew he was freakin’ good, but he still had to prove it in long form. Here’s what he came up with to convince us: A novel titled DEAD HARVEST. He used to be Sam Thornton; for the past sixty-five years, he’s been a collector of souls. When someone’s time has come, the Collector takes the soul away, sends it to Heaven or

TUMBLIN' DICE by John McFETRIDGE

2012-03-30T20:04:00.000-04:00

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LOITERING WITH INTENT IS NOW ON MY CRIMINAL RECORD

2012-03-28T21:37:00.000-04:00

No, I haven't been arrested. But I've been asked to stop by and hang out. I'm honoured to have been invited. In fact, I'm not worthy. But hey, I couldn't pass on the opportunity to be part of this great series, CRIMINAL CLASSICS, at Eva Dolan's loiteringwithintent. While you're there, check out the other guests/loiterers: Allan Guthrie, Doug Johnstone, Garrick Webster, Ray Banks, Claire McGowan,

INTERVIEW with D.E. MEREDITH

2012-03-27T09:42:00.000-04:00

"Bloody History: Dissecting Life and Death" ## Where did it all begin for you in regards to historical mysteries, both as a reader and a writer? D.M.—I am steeped in all the great writers of the Nineteenth Century. I did a degree in English and I’ve read masses of Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Conan Doyle, Joseph Conrad. I still can’t get enough of these guys. They have so much to teach

"THE DEVIL'S RIBBON" ST.PATRICK'S DAY CONTEST

2012-03-17T10:34:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: We now have our three winners, and they are Marjorie Roy of Woodstock (Ontario, CAN), Martin Desrochers of Montreal (Quebec, CAN), and Peggy Arthurs of Beaver Falls (Pennsylvania, USA). Congratulations to the winners and thank you to all the participants. You can see below the correct answers. You can win one of three signed copies of D.E. MEREDITH's new book THE DEVIL'S RIBBON. It is

THE NEXT ONE TO FALL by Hilary DAVIDSON

2012-03-11T14:58:00.000-04:00

“Standing at the edge of the mountain, I imagined what it would feel like to let go.” I’ve always been a sucker for good first sentences, and that one sucked me right in. It felt as if I was standing nearby, sensing the fragility of that woman’s mind, realising that she could be contemplating suicide and that the invisible thread keeping her from jumping was very thin. Lily Moore’s

THE DISPATCHER by Ryan David JAHN

2012-03-10T11:38:00.001-05:00

Ian Hunt works as a 911-dispatcher for the police of Bulls Mouth (Texas), trying to save lives while he lets his own slowly disintegrate. But one day, towards the end of his shift, hunt receives a distress call from his daughter Maggie, who had been abducted 7 years earlier and never heard from since. Hunt’s only goal now is to bring Maggie back home. This is a

THE TECHNOLOGISTS by Matthew PEARL

2012-03-05T20:17:00.002-05:00

Matthew Pearl continues his series of historical novels, following The Dante Club, The Poe Shadow & The Last Dickens, with The Technologists, a story about the confrontation between old and new ideas of technology, in 1868; it’s a time when manpower is starting to lose ground to improved machinery that produce at a faster rate, with higher quality and bigger quantities. After writing books

The House of Crime & Mystery is 1 year old today!

2012-03-01T11:10:00.000-05:00

I'll try to make it a quick note to thank everyone who has supported this blog at one time or another over the last 12 months. A special thank you to J. Kingston Pierce, of the unique and fabulous blogs The Rap Sheet and Killer Covers of the Week, who made me feel welcome right from the start in this unbelievably friendly community of bloggers, readers, writers, fans, and even two or three

2012-02-16T00:07:00.000-05:00

On February 16th, The House of Crime & Mystery was scheduled to host Matthew Pearl's blog tour with a review of his upcoming novel THE TECHNOLOGISTS (pub date February 21st). Unfortunately, I will be unable to do so. A friend of mine has lost his life in a car accident earlier today (Wednesday). I will post the review of Matthew Pearl's book as soon as possible. I can assure you that it is a

WHAT IT WAS by George PELECANOS

2012-02-12T20:42:00.001-05:00

(a shorter version of this review has been published at the Crime Fiction Lover website) On a rainy afternoon, Nick Stefanos and Derek Strange are having drinks at Leo’s, content enough to just be sitting down with each other. When The Dramatics’s In The Rain, plays on the bar’s jukebox, it ignites in them reminiscences about 1972, the year of that song’s release. For Stefanos, it was “

New Giveaway: Elly Griffiths's A Room Full of Bones

2012-02-11T14:21:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: We have a winner and it is Olga Petrik, of Guelp (Ontario, Canada). This was our most popular giveaway so far, even more than the Stephen King one last fall. Thank you to everyone who participated, thank you to McClelland & Stewart for the book, and stay tuned for another giveaway very soon. --JF February 18th Open to residents of Canada and the US, aged 18 and over. A Room Full of

SANCTUS (Book One) by Simon TOYNE

2012-01-28T21:28:00.002-05:00

(Previously published at www.crimefictionlover.com) The fictional city of Ruin in modern day Turkey. Over it towers the Citadel, where the very first Bible is believed to have been written. Built into the Taurus mountains where the Carmina, a society of monks, has been living for a couple of millennia, the building is entirely cut off from the rest of the world. There

BEACH STRIP by John Lawrence REYNOLDS

2012-01-19T20:40:00.005-05:00

Two short reviews by our new collaborator, L'Etranger. I finished reading Beach Strip by John Lawrence Reynolds and it is a fantastic book. It is set in what we know to be Hamilton area, although never identified, near a strip of once pristine beach that many of the steel magnates used for their summer getaways 100 years ago. But the gentry have moved on and the beach strip has a bit of

PRESTON & CHILD'S GIDEON'S CORPSE

2012-01-19T20:21:00.003-05:00

This is the second book in the Gideon Crew series (following Gideon's Sword) and I liked it as much as the first one. Gideon’s Corpse picks up almost where the previous book left off. Eli Glinn convinces Gideon to help the FBI when a former colleague of his from Los Alamos, Reed Chalker, has gone insane and is holding a family hostage for a ransom. Gideon tries to talk him down but is

NOS LECTURES PRÉFÉRÉES DE 2011

2012-01-16T16:59:00.001-05:00

TOP 5 POLARS de GRENOUILLE NOIRE 1- Le léopard de Jo NESBO (Norvège) 2- L'armée furieuse de Fred VARGAS (France) 3- Il ne faut pas parler dans l'ascenseur de Martin MICHAUD (Québec) 4- Aurora, Minnesota de W. Kent KRUGER (États-Unis) 5- Toyer de Gardner MCKAY (États-Unis) Et un titre 'true crime' : -- Un long silence de Mikal GILMORE (États-Unis) TOP 5 POLARS de ZE ROOM