From the opening sentences of Donald Ray Pollock’s violence-soaked first novel, »The Devil All the Time«, it’s clear that blood will out. The story begins with the return of a veteran, Willard Russell, from the Pacific island abattoir of World War II.
In person, Knox came across as soft-spoken, smart, almost scholarly. She said it was a dream of hers to be a writer. In 2007 she was arrested in the murder of her roommate.
There are two types of suspense that run through »Defending Jacob«, a courtroom drama that hinges on the murder of a high school boy. The first comes from trying to guess who killed him.
The title of Robert Harris’s new thriller, »The Fear Index«, comes from the volatility index, or VIX — also known as the »fear index« – which measures expectations of violent swings in the market, as Wall Street watchers know from the harrowing meltdown of 2008.
George Pelecanos’s latest book, »What It Was« sends his best stock character into an extended 40-year flashback. It begins in a Washington bar, where a song by the Dramatics gets Derek Strange to thinking about the summer of 1972.
Aspiring writers take heart: one of the most beloved novels of all time was rejected when it was fluttered in front of publishers in 1797 — or so the historical record suggests. Called »First Impressions,« it was written by a country girlt.
Besprochen werden dieses Mal: »The Drop« von Michael Connelly, »Red Mist« von Patricia Cornwell, »Dead Man’s Grip« von Peter James und zum Abschluss »The Betrayal of Trust« von Susan Hill.
Michael Connelly begins »The Drop« as if it’s a work already in progress. Maybe that’s because there is always a Connelly project in progress, or so it seems. So far this year he has already published »The Fifth Witness«.
Stephen King’s latest magnum opus, »11/22/63«, finds a way to revisit and even revise the events surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. On the 849 pages, Mr. King pulls off a sustained high-wire act of storytelling trickery.
Masters at giving people the creeps of the kind that keep on creeping. – The best work in dark fantasy and horror fiction these days is being published by small presses, haunted literary boutiques established (mostly) in out-of-the-way places.