Author Websites

This morning I had the latest newsletter from Stop, You're Killing Me! in my in basket. It is a twice-monthly posting about mystery authors, characters, and forthcoming books. The site was started by Bonnie Brown in 1998 and later taken over by Lucinda Surber & Stan Ulrich when Ms. Brown's health forced a change. Quoting from the site about why it was created:

“I love a good mystery! When I find new authors, I want to read everything they’ve written. I like to go back to the beginning title and follow the development of a writer's work. With the exception of Sue Grafton and her alphabet series, it can be difficult to find an author's first book. So I have searched online and in reference books to list the books featuring series characters in the order written. Of course, some good mystery and suspense writers don’t use a series character—these are included in the order written.

This site has a straightforward format. The books are arranged by author, series character, and by date written.”

I visit the site frequently when I want to see the complete bibliography of an author or to jog my memory about a character I remember but can no longer place with a title or an author. There are those of us who relish finding a new author that we like who has a long list of titles that can be savored and this is a great site to help with the search for the complete run of work for many authors. You can subscribe to their newsletter here.

Over the weekend I picked up an old favorite, Charles Willeford's New Hope for the Dead (Vintage, 2004) the third of four mysteries featuring Miami cop Hoke Moseley. You might have seen the Jennifer Jason Leigh/Alec Baldwin movie Miami Blues which featured Fred Ward as Sgt. Moseley, and which had some great film of Miami and Miami Beach. There is an introduction to the re-release of New Hope for the Dead by James Lee Burke in which he credits Willeford with helping him get his start in publishing. They taught together at Miami-Dade Community College. The Willeford books are not easy to find but they are a treat when you do. Some excerpts can be found here.