DoJ Takes Aim At Bolton’s Royalties

The U.S. government tried and failed to stop publication of John Bolton’s “The Room Where It Happened,” so now the Department of Justice has made good on its threat to try to seize the author’s reported $2 million advance. Citing violation of a nondisclosure agreement he signed prior to working in the White House, the DoJ seeks to impose “a constructive trust on all proceeds of [the] book, including amounts Defendant may already have received and any and all amounts he may receive in the future as royalties or otherwise." Bolton’s attorneys claim he is in violation of nothing, and that “a blanket prior restraint of virtually any speech by former government employees [is] flatly contrary to the First Amendment."

Hammett’s Continental Op Was

Grounded In Reality Of The Times

Dashiell Hammett is best known for writing such novels as The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man, but the bulk of his early work focused on the Continental Op, a private investigator employed with the Continental Detective Agency in San Francisco. Unlike the handsome and dashing Sam Spade, the overweight and overworked Continental Op lived on hard liquor and no sleep, and always narrated his own stories in first person. He made his debut in an October 1923 issue of Black Mask, making him one of the earliest hard-boiled private detective characters to appear in the pulp magazines of the early twentieth century. He appeared in 36 short stories, all but two of which appeared in Black Mask. This excellent profile by Susanna Lee explains how the character was perfect for a public that needed someone consistently grounded in human reality in both pre- and post-Depression America.

The 35 Most Iconic Caper Movies

Last week I ran a list of the best heist movies of all time (courtesy of Crime Reads); this week I follow up with Olivia Rutigliano’s ranking of the top 35 caper films. Why two lists? Because the caper, she says, is a sub-genre of the heist film with its own specific rules and mood. Capers tend to be lighter and wittier than the standard heist movie and, while characters in capers also frequently pursue large sums of shadily-acquired money or other items of value, these films are not necessarily about the acts of committing robberies, as heist films always are. “For a film to be a heist movie, items have to be literally stolen. In a caper, items may be stolen, but they don’t have to be. There can be swindling and cons and money-laundering and other forms of theft.”

The Real Danger Of Being A Reporter

I’ve always had a soft spot for crime fiction that features a reporter as the lead character. My first published novel, Pay For Play, followed a murder investigation by a former writer for the Los Angeles Times, so I’m forever fascinated by the real dangers actual journalists face in the field. Ramona Diaz’s latest documentary, "A Thousand Cuts," focuses on former CNN correspondent and Rappler co-founder Maria Ressa, a formidable Filipino reporter who has been targeted by the violent populist government of President Rodrigo Duterte and its online followers. The attacks have intensified to the level of political retaliation, and the government has levied multiple charges, from cyber-libel to tax fraud, against her. On June 15, she was convicted of the first cyber-libel charge against her. This is her story.

Unparalleled Thriller: Summer of Katya

If I were a film director, the novel I would most want to adapt for the screen is The Summer of Katya, one of the most brilliant psychological thrillers of our time. Written by Trevanian (Shibumi, The Eiger Sanction), the story unfolds in a small Basque village in 1914, where Jean-Marc Montjean, a handsome young doctor, has arrived to assist the village physician. Jean Marc soon meets the seductive, beautiful Katya Treville, and he quickly becomes obsessed with her—only to learn that she and her family are haunted by an old, very dark secret. As Kirkus Reviews described it shortly after its publication, the story is “an elegant exercise in quiet gothic horror—carefully modulated, nicely filled out with gentle character-comedy, and shaded with genuine, underplayed period atmosphere.” I’ll put it more simply: The Summer of Katya is perhaps the best thriller I’ve ever read.

Behind The Vibe: L.A. Reimagined  

Anyone who has lived in and written about Los Angeles (as I have), at some point becomes captivated--almost hypnotized--by its social and geographic underpinnings, and its electric vibe. In his City at the Edge of Forever: Los Angeles Reimagined, author Peter Lunenfeld explores how L.A.’s identity has been shaped by five factors: acreage that was gobbled up by settlers and speculators in the 19th century; nearby oil fields and the emergence of the automotive culture of the 1940s and ‘50s;  the aerospace industry that took off in WWII; the city’s ports and focus on water; and the allure Hollywood had on a global audience for more than a century. Add to that a diverse yet inclusive ethnic and sexualized population, and you get a city that defines the American “melting pot”—and a setting for crime novels and thrillers that never goes out of style.

Perfect Gift For Mystery Fans:

Shelves That Transform Into A Coffin

British designer William Warren has come up with a novel idea for mystery lovers everywhere: a bookshelf that transforms into a coffin. Originally launched during the 2005 London Design Festival, Warren says the shelves are “designed to last you a lifetime. The wood will color, the surfaces will mark and stain, and over the years and the furniture will become a part of you.” Then, when you die, the unit can be taken apart and reassembled as a coffin. A brass plate under the bottom shelf explains how this transformation is done, and then it can be flipped over and inscribed with the deceased’s birth and death dates. Anyone who wants a set of plans can email Warren, who will adapt them to fit the size of the user.

[Advertisement]

“Reed Bunzel hits all the right notes in Seven-Thirty Thursday, an intensely personal tale that has echoes of both Greg Isles and John Hart. Rick Devlin is living proof of the old Thomas Wolfe adage that you can’t go home again, especially in the wake of his mother’s murder at his father’s hand in his once-beloved Charleston, South Carolina. That is, until new evidence surfaces suggesting that his father may be innocent, leading Devlin to launch his own investigation. It turns out pretty much everyone involved is hiding something, and it’s up to him to sort through the grisly morass to get to the truth. This is Southern gothic writing extraordinaire, establishing Bunzel as a kind of William Faulkner of the thriller-writing world. His effortless prose crackles with color and authenticity as the brooding Charleston skies set the stage for the storm that’s coming.” –Providence Journal