Back on the horse

In Cold Blood is behind me. My book discussion group talked about it on Tuesday so it is finished. I did not enjoy the book and now I remember why I have passed up reading it for 40 years, it is grim, ugly, without redemption, and not my cup of tea. Monday evening we had a showing of the film Capote at the library, it was an interesting sidelight on the book and gave another dimension to the story, but again, it was cheerless and without redemption. Yuck!

Now I can read some fun stuff. Currently on the nightstand is Slipknot by Linda Greenlaw. She is the gutsy swordfishing captain from Maine who appears as a character in Sebastian Junger's book The Perfect Storm. Her memoir of the storm event was titled The Hungry Ocean and it is a good read. She has produced several books about her life fishing and one family cookbook. She writes a good sentence and tells a good story. Slipknot is her first mystery and I like it so far. A good interview of Greenlaw ran in USAtoday.

The Indian Bride by Karin Fossum is another one of those "Translated from the Norwegian," books that fascinate me. Set in the quiet village of Elvestad, Norway it concerns the brutal death of an Indian woman who has arrived in Norway to join her new husband who lives in the village. Events conspire to keep him from picking her up at the airport and she is murdered as she makes her way to meet him. Fossum has concocted a touching story wrapped in a solid police procedural. Fossum writes Inspector Konrad Sejer and this is the eighth book featuring him, but only five of them have been translated. If you liked Henning Mankell you might like Karin Fossum. The titles that we own by her are:

1. When the Devil Holds the Candle
2. He Who Fears the Wolf
3. Don't Look Back
4. The Indian Bride

Guest Blogger - Kim Alden Mallin, M.D.

What if you walked into a morgue to view an autopsy? Hmm. Pretty gruesome. Well, what could make it worse…? What if you looked down at the body and it was someone you knew? Ugh, even more gruesome. But…what could make it even worse? Hmm, what if you looked down at the body and it was you…or at least it looked like you?

That is the process Tess Gerritsen used to come up with the premise for Body Double, the fourth book in her series about Detective Jane Razzoli. She has said that once she gets an idea for a novel, she tries to imagine what could make it worse, or scarier or more horrific. When her son became a typical annoying adolescent, she wondered where had her sweet boy gone…who was this alien? Hmm, alien? What if all the kids in a small town seemed to become “aliens”? What if there was a natural cause for it? What if they became violent? What if…? And her book Bloodstream was born.

When she overheard a dinner conversation about children disappearing from Russia, she imagined what could be happening to them? What if… they were taken hostage and brought to the US as sex slaves? What if Jane Razzoli, her main character, was somehow taken hostage along with them? What could make it worse? Hmm, what if Jane was very pregnant when she was taken hostage? What if…? And the premise for Vanish was developed.

And so it goes.

Tess Gerritsen began her writing career while out on maternity leave and bored. Watching made-for-television movies whose endings she didn’t like and thinking she could do better led to her first book, a romance titled Call After Midnight. She published eight more romances before telling her agent that she had an idea for a medical thriller. To which her agent said "No", she’d better stick to what she knew, since physicians had the market on medical thrillers. That’s when Tess said, umm…I need to tell you something. I am a physician!

Her first medical thriller was Harvest, published in 1996. She recently published her eleventh novel, The Bone Garden. Weaving together a modern day mystery involving the unmarked grave of an unknown murdered female with serial killings from the 1830s, the novel is both entertaining and informative. It brings to life 19^th century medicine through the eyes of protagonist Norris Marshall and his fellow medical student, Oliver Wendell Holmes. As a physician I was equally disgusted and fascinated by Tess’s version of how Holmes came to his conclusions regarding disease spread and control. (The real Oliver Wendell Holmes was the physician responsible for establishing the importance of washing hands in the prevention of contagion.) Her description of a ward full of women, either about to give birth or immediately post-partum, being examined one after the other by a physician who barely wipes his hands in between, carrying germs and pus and who knows what, is horrifying to me. The Bone Garden was an interesting mystery and I loved the medical history twist. Even if it was disgusting.

Now let me go wash my hands…

(Tess Gerritsen has an excellent web site linked above, and I have brought over an interesting interview of Gerritsen from YouTube, this is the first of a multi-part interview, the rest of the interview is easily available at YouTube. Our library owns 16 of Gerritsen's titles in print and as audio books. - Pete)

Guest Blogger - Kim Alden Mallin, M.D.

Kathy Reichs is my hero. With me being a Carolina born and bred woman who practices medicine by day and struggles to write medical thrillers by night…she is the very embodiment of all of my deepest desires. Not only is she a full professor at UNC-Charlotte, working for Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina and for the Laboratoire de Sciences Judiciaires et de Medecine Legale for the province of Quebec…she is the best-selling author of the Temperance Brennon series, of which Bones to Ashes is her most recent.

It was her involvement with a serial killer case that inspired her first book, Deja Dead. Serge Archambault had killed two women and admitted to having killed a third victim, cutting her body up and burying it in five locations. Kathy Reichs helped with the investigation and identification of that case. Due to the unique and skillful methods used to dismember the victim, she advised the police to look for someone who knew something about anatomy - an orthopedic surgeon or butcher. And as it turned out, the killer was a butcher.

I have enjoyed each of her novels, whether the forensic evidence uncovers cults, identifies skeletons from clandestine graves or aids disaster response teams. Her accurate descriptions of the Carolinas, from the mountains of western North Carolina to Dewee’s Island, a barrier island off of my hometown of Charleston, SC, make me feel right at home. However, her greatest appeal for me lies with her protagonist, Temperance Brennon. Tempe has a great reputation in her field and is respected for the excellent work that she does. But her non-professional life is full of complications and conflicts, which reveal her humanness, making her vulnerable just like the rest of us. Her relationships with men are troubled, she struggles with her desire to drink alcoholically, and she has a love-hate relationship with her sister all of which only make her a more likable character.

So, as I stated earlier, Kathy Reichs is my hero. But quite honestly, although I find her work fascinating and I certainly would love to be able to write like her, I much prefer my living, breathing, and usually nice-smelling patients to her larvae-filled, pungent corpses.

Dr. Mallin, Kim, is a Florida buddy from the not-so-long ago Delray Beach days. (Pete)

Reichs has ten novels to her credit. We have six titles (*) in our collection and will try to fill out the run. The television crime series Bones is based on Reichs' character Temperance Brennon.

1. Deja Dead (1997)
2. Death du Jour* (1999)
3. Deadly Decisions* (2000)
4. Fatal Voyage (2001)
5. Grave Secrets (2002)
6. Bare Bones (2003)
7. Monday Mourning* (2004)
8. Cross Bones* (2005)
9. Break No Bones* (2006)
10. Bones to Ashes* (2007)
    

Who loves a parade?

If you missed our Neewollah Grand Parade last Saturday then you missed a doozie. Two hours of pretty girls, high school bands, horses, floats, the Budweiser Clydesdales, clowns, Shriners in funny cars, and more. Here are a few pictures taken by Julie Hilderman. More of the pictures can be seen and downloaded at Picture Independence.

The Tenderness of Wolves

I saw this one sitting on our Interlibrary Loan desk waiting to be returned to the Grant County Public Library. The title, The Tenderness of Wolves, caught my interest. I don't know why, because I hate cold weather, but cold weather settings intrigue me so I read the blurb and the opening paragraph and decided I wanted to read it. Stef Penney is British but the novel is set in Canada in the 1860's. More than simply a mystery it is a historical drama set against the ethnic difficulties that faced the Indians, French, English, Scottish, and Norwegian settlers as they faced life in the New World.

A brutally murdered trapper is discovered as the book opens by a mother whose 17 year-old adopted son goes missing. Crime, clues, treks, hostile weather, unforgiving landscape, and privation face those seeking answers to the various unknowns introduced by author Stef Penney.

The first novel has won several European awards and Penney is working on her second novel set in England.

After finishing Pete Hamill's latest, North River, I still wanted more of a taste so I picked The Gift off the shelf for a quick read. The novel is slight, but,

"A powerful short novel that's vintage Hamill-an evocative, emotionally involving tale of fathers and sons, loss and yearning, forgiveness and approbation-is restored to print..."
--according to Amazon.

John Lamb's Bibliomania on Truman Capote

Here is a wonderful piece of work by John Lamb on In Cold Blood and Truman Capote. This is Part 1.

Here is Part 2.


My book discussion group will be talking about In Cold Blood in November and I wanted to share this powerful work by John Lamb.

Robert B. Parker, yet again

The master at the top of his game, Robert B. Parker keeps turning out novels fast enough to keep fans busy reading them. There are 36 Spenser novels, 7 Jesse Stone's, 7 Sunny Randall's, and 6 others for good measure. Parker's output spans four decades.

Now & Then is number 36 and involves all the usual suspects, Susan, Hawk, Vinnie Morris, and villains to suit the skills of Spenser and the needs of plot. Spenser is as witty as ever, Susan as beautiful, Hawk as useful, and Vinnie as accurate with a gun. Nothing in excess in a Robert B. Parker mystery except clever repartee. No surprises await but fans and faithful like us will cuddle up to this one just like the last one and just like the next one. We'd be fools not to.

I'm reading North River by Pete Hamill right now and I am thoroughly enjoying the story and Pete's skill with language, plot, characters, and the period. Set in the winter of 1934, Dr. James Delaney finds his 3-year old grandson left to him by his daughter who has gone to Spain to find her errant Mexican husband. With a Hamill inspired crew of immigrants, cops, gangsters, WW1 vets, and Dr. Delaney's sick, hurt and poor neighbors a heady brew is made. Always rich in language and detail, Hamill is delivering a sound story of honor, courage, and redemption, who could ask for more.

This is Pete Hamill's 24th book spanning five decades. Dues paid in full.

Next on my nightstand is Tallgrass by Don Coldsmith. He is a native of Iola, Kansas and was schooled in Coffeyville, Baldwin City, and UMKC. He has taught at Emporia State University and won numerous awards from the Western Writers of America. His name came up at this morning's book discussion group and I had to confess my ignorance of this prolific native author. Many of his titles are out-of-print but IPL has 33 titles (of the 45 he has written) in our collection. His fans swear by him so I'll give him a read to find out for myself.

Ghost Stories Lays An Egg ...

Rosie Cutrer gave a wonderful performance, telling scary stories, singing funny macabre songs, and demonstrating again her wide performance repertoire. But only 6 children and 4 adults came to see her, not the usual 150 to 200 we had come to expect.

We moved the event from the Riverside Park band shell to the library, the weather threatened rain, and The Independence Daily Reporter gave the wrong date for the event in the program announcement, but even so ... What could we have done differently? What kept people away? Any ideas?

Wyoming, Mountains, Guns, Big Game, Bring it on ...

C. J. Box is up to number seven in his (sometime Wyoming Game Warden) Joe Picket series. From the first release this series has been a winner. Box created a believable character who stands on principle even if it means citing the governor for fishing without a license. His sequence of titles is:

1. Open Season, 2001
   
2. Savage Run, 2002
   
3. Winter Kill, 2003
   
4. Trophy Hunt, 2004
   
5. Out of Range, 2005
   
6. In Plain Sight, 2006
7. Free Fire, 2007
   

The introduction of Joe Picket in Open Season earned Box an Edgar in 2002 for a Best First Novel.

Box is the real-deal, Wyoming native, worked as a ranch hand and a fishing guide. He still lives and works in Wyoming. His novels ring true and he puts Joe Picket through the wringer in every story - he pays the price for his victories. His peers (Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Tony Hillerman) line up to heap praise on his skill as a writer. For an interview of C. J. Box follow this link.

Check the shelves or put in a reserve for one of C. J. Box's mysteries they are keepers.

Ghost Stories Leaves Riverside Park

It is true, this year the Friends of the Library are moving their signature event, Ghost Stories in the Park to 220 East Maple Street and holding the event in front of the steps to the old entrance to the Carnegie building. Holding the event in the band shell at the park has been a labor of love for a few of the Library Friends, but honestly, there are so few to spread the work among that they have worn themselves out with the work.

Below, Friend's President Diane Hight stands to the left of Rosie Cutrer as our feature at the event last year.


Above, Rosie warms up her banjo for a hilarious rendition of "Ghost Chickens in the Sky."

On Thursday, October 18th, just as the skies darken we will gather again for Ghost Stories at the Library.

A taste of Prime Suspect

Here is the first of a five part segment of Prime Suspect Behind the Scenes from YouTube. If you want the see the other four segments follow the links.


Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Lynda La Plante and Prime Suspect

We owe Lynda La Plante a debt for creating the hard-bitten character Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison so well played by actress Helen Mirren. Each entry in the series stands alone although following the progression from number 1 to number 7 in order is a particular treat. I found that it took some time for my ear to adapt and 'hear' what was being said. The language may be English but it is not the English spoken 'ere in Kansas. Once the language barrier (?) has been breached the series is a delight.

Screenplays for Prime Suspect 1 and Prime Suspect 3 were written by La Plante and in 1993 she received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the work. A second Edgar was earned by Allan Cubitt who did the screenplay for Prime Suspect 2. Each entry runs between 3 1/2 and 4 hours and is intense and gritty. The first entry features sexism in the workplace and the uphill battle DCI Tennison must face to form a cohesive investigative team. A serial killer becomes the prey for her team. The second Prime Suspect involves child abuse, pedophilia, and prostitution and DCI Tennison and her team follow the leads to surprisingly high places in the British government.

Prime Suspect 3 sees DCI Tennison facing the personal ravages of alcohol in her life and the effects of an unwanted pregnancy on her professional career.

In Prime Suspect 4, which lasts nearly 41/2 hours is actually 3 short episodes and follows DCI Tennison 's no-nonsense investigations into child abduction, home invasion with murder, and a murdered woman whose case brings a shadow to the guilt of Marlowe who was the prime suspect and convicted killer in the first Prime Suspect - is he really guilty or did Tennison make a mistake?


The Prime Suspect 5 finds Detective Chief Superintendent Tennison demoted and underutilized until she gets a case involving a 12 year old who confesses to murder.

Prime Suspect 6, The Last Witness, has Tennison investigating the murder of a Bosnian refugee leader which then leads her to finding some Serbian war criminals trying to silence the last witnesses to a massacre in the war.

Prime Suspect 7, The Final Act, I think shows Tennison at her best and at her most human. With no life of her own to show for her dedication to her career, she finds herself with a serious alcohol problem. Her father takes ill and her alcohol induced blackouts make her investigative skills suffer. Her final case involves a missing 14 year old girl, a dying father, a retirement, and coming to terms with her own alcoholism.

Helen Mirren won Emmy accolades for this role. Prime Suspect 7 won three Emmy's - Direction, Writing, and Dame Helen Mirren for Outstanding Lead Actress.

The entire series is available in DVD format at the library.

"Perhaps the greatest role and performance of a female police detective, ever"--San Francisco Chronicle

On the nightstand

Anarchy and Old Dogs by Colin Cotterill. This is the fourth in the series featuring the septuagenarian / Laotian / coroner / hero of the revolution/host to the spirit of a 1,000 year old shaman Dr. Siri Paiboun. Set in 1977, the story is mostly about staving off a military coup, but includes solving a murder or two along the way. Cotterill lives in Thailand.


The Ever-Running Man by Marcia Muller. Sharon McCone is back at it with a bomb set by a shadowy figure. McCone's firm is hired by her husband's security firm to track down the ever-running man who keeps leaving the devices at their various offices. Muller just keeps getting better according to reviewers.



Blonde Faith by Walter Mosley. This is the 10th Easy Rawlings book for Mosley. Set in 1967 Los Angeles, Easy is out to help an angry WW II vet trying to make his home in postwar LA. "Searing and moving," according to Publisher's Weekly.



The Red Dahlia by Lynda La Plante. The second Detective Inspector Anna Travis finds the unsolved Black Dahlia murder turning up in London 50 years later. "A must-read for hard-boiled aficionados not afraid to follow the blood spatters whereever they may lead." (Emily Melton, Booklist)




Tango for A Torturer by Daniel Chavarria. Starred reviews and a lurid cover, who could ask for more. Set in "sultry, sensuous, mysterious" Havana, this story from Uruguayan Chavarria, follows his Edgar Award winning Adios Muchachos.



Act of Treason by Mark Flynn. "... a fun, finger-blistering page-turner." Move over Tom Clancy, CIA superagent Mitch Rapp is hunting for a killer in the final weeks of a presidential campaign; can a conspiracy that runs from a global network to the Oval Office be far behind? More believable every day.


Volk's Game by Brent Ghelfi. "Brent Ghelfi writes like Dostoevsky's hooligan great-grandson on speed. Highly recommended." --Lee Child. It doesn't get any better than that for me.

July Harry Potter Party

Last July we held a "Release Party" to celebrate the release of the final book in the Harry Potter saga - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. About 75 parents and children showed up for the late-nite romp at the library. We had food, games, a sorting hat, and at midnight we drew names to establish the order of reserves on the copies of the book. Twenty happy readers got started on the last book that night.

Some copies are waiting on the shelf for you if you haven't yet read the final Harry Potter book.

Dick Francis to the top of the pile

The best part of my job is seeing the new books arrive and getting to handle them in their pristine condition. This week the large-print edition of the new Dick Francis novel, Dead Heat arrived. I took it upon myself to run a quality control page count of the book to be certain no pages were missing and I can verify today that all 511 pages are present and accounted for.

Dick Francis has never disappointed me except for not developing a continuing character more than he did. (Except for Kit Fielding in Break In and Bolt,and Sid Halley in Odds Against, Whip Hand, Come to Grief, and Under Orders.) But since all his main characters capture my interest, I'll forgive him. I guess I start liking the characters so much that I want to continue knocking around in their world in subsequent novels.

In Dead Heat, Max Moreton is owner and chef of a Newcastle restaurant, the Hay Net, and is responsible for food poisoning that strikes 200+ race-goers at the book's outset and then as they say, we are "off to the races." (I couldn't resist.)

Francis credits his son Felix as co-author. Following the death of wife Mary Francis, Dick looked to one of his sons as fill-in to replace the research formerly done by Mary. Apparently, Felix left a career as a private school teacher for the post. According to Wikipedia, Felix was the inspiration behind the leading character in Twice Shy.

Dick Francis fans will not be disappointed in the story, it is quintessentially Dick Francis with the smell of horses not far in the background. His 42nd outing. Dick Francis is 87.

The book discussion group on Ragtime

Currently reading:
The 47th Samurai
by Stephen Hunter
Genre: Thriller
Reason: Judged by its cover.
Waiting: Pale Horse Coming
by Stephen Hunter

My discussion group met this morning to discuss Ragtime which I enjoyed. It got mixed reviews. Some found it disjointed and hard to follow, the sex put some off, and others couldn't say exactly why they didn't like it, they just didn't.

It is an unusual book in that Doctorow makes no use of quotation marks throughout the book. Dialog is made clear contextually, and for me it worked. I am a forgiving reader, if the story grabs my interest I seem to get inside the story and enter without my critical reader tools. As long as the author does not ask me to suspend belief for an impossibly implausible turn of events I am willing to work with him or her to get to the end of the story.

Next, we are reading St. Agnes' Stand by Tom Eidson which the publisher daringly compared to Larry McMurtry and which looks from its cover like it might have shades of Two Mules for Sister Sara (Shirley MacLaine and Clint Eastwood) in it. Following St. Agnes' Stand we will be reading In Cold Blood then Kite Runner.

As we wrapped up the gathering, I distributed a list titled: The 112 Best of the American Novelists, Novels. We used the list to discuss possible titles for the next series of books we will discuss.

What I liked about the list was that it wasn't compiled by scholars or literary critics who usually head their list with Ulysses by James Joyce which everyone agrees they haven't read. At the time I Googled for the list I did not pay much attention to the source of the list, I was more interested in what was on the list as far as being fair and representative and not especially leaning towards the scholarly. I will stand by the list for breadth and inclusiveness and hope I don't take too bad a licking when you see where it did come from.

Lee Child and Jack Reacher

The following is a YouTube of Lee Child talking about his character Jack Reacher in which he reveals two facts about Reacher that he has not spoken of before.



I love the Reacher stories. He is a former U.S. Army Military Police Major. He served thirteen years, was mustered out, and now lives with no permanent address, no suitcase, and no income. He is an unconventional character with the deductive skills of Sherlock Holmes. His adventures are twisting and require unique skills to solve. I was captured by the series on the first page of the first one I read. There are eleven in the series so far. I'll list them for you:

1. Killing Floor 1997
2. Die Trying 1998
3. Tripwire 1999
4. Running Blind 2000
5. Echo Burning 2001
6. Without Fail 2002
7. Persuader 2003
8. The Enemy 2004
9. One Shot 2005
10. The Hard Way 2006
11. Bad Luck and Trouble 2007

Lee Child is in his 50's so the series could have a long run if he doesn't get tired of the character. I think Child's skill as a writer will continue even if he does and the compelling stories will continue.

If you are looking for a good book give one of these a try. They were a jackpot for me.

Ten Best Detective Novels

Currently reading:
The Scent of Blood
by Raymond Miller
Genre: Crime
Date started: September 18
Reason: Cover blurb by Lee Child

Waiting:
The 47th Samurai
by Stephen Hunter

The following list is lifted from Crime Fiction Dossier. I like the concept although my list would vary some from it.

10 Greatest Detective Novels (in alphabetical order):

• Lawrence Block - When the Sacred Ginmill Closes
• Raymond Chandler - The Long Goodbye
  
• Michael Connelly - The Black Echo
• Robert Crais - L.A. Requium
• James Crumley - The Last Good Kiss
• Dashiell Hammett - The Maltese Falcon
• John D. MacDonald -- The Dreadful Lemon Sky
• Walter Mosley - The Devil in A Blue Dress
• Robert B. Parker - Looking for Rachel Waller
• Rex Stout - The League of Frightened Men

The list is going to drive me back into the dusty lairs to locate the Chandler, Hammett, and the Stout. All the rest I am conversant with and would rank highly but if I read the three older titles I don't remember it so I will do my homework and take a look at them.

There is an interesting conversation associated with the original post that expands and confirms the list, check it out. Some readers criticized the list for excluding women and mention Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Cristie. How does the list strike you? Did they miss any that you would like to see on the list? Let me know. I like Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins but I don't think he rates the 10 Best list, what about one of Stuart Kaminsky's detectives like Lieberman or Rostnikov? And what about Dana Stabenow, Marcia Muller, Bill Pronzini, or James Lee Burke? Not to mention Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko and Ed McBain's 87th Precinct. And if the list is going to be inclusive I would have to go with Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, I mean gimme a break.

They say Poe created the genre with Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) but Holmes breathed life into it from 1887 until 1930 and deserves top billing.

At our Friends of the Library book sale a couple of weeks ago I picked up a 10 cent bargain, 221B: Studies in Sherlock Holmes by Vincent Starrett, which reminded me of his poem:

221B

Here dwell together still two men of note
Who never lived and so can never die:
How very near they seem, yet how remote
That age before the world went all awry.
But still the game’s afoot for those with ears
Attuned to catch the distant view-halloo:
England is England yet, for all our fears–
Only those things the heart believes are true.

A yellow fog swirls past the window-pane
As night descends upon this fabled street:
A lonely hansom splashes through the rain,
The ghostly gas lamps fail at twenty feet.
Here, though the world explode, these two survive,
And it is always eighteen ninety-five.

– Vincent Starrett

For me 10 won't work, I could maybe work with the 25 best, but the 50 best would be even better.

Small world crossings

Currently reading:
The Patience of the Spider
by Andrea Camilleri
Genre: Crime
Date started: September 17
Reason: It has a scooter on the cover

Waiting:
The Scent of Blood
by Raymond Miller

Thanks to Matthew Coenen for the idea to list "Reading" and "Waiting."

Recently I did one of those periodic Google searches that some of us do on names from the past. I searched the name Anita Spearman.

The number one return out of 91,400 citations for "Anita Spearman" was for an feature article titled Tell the story, tell the truth, that ran 5/28/2006, in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, written by Michael Connelly.

Anita Spearman had been murdered in late 1985, while recovering at home from a mastectomy. She was beaten to death by an intruder. She was my boss. I was the director of the West Palm Beach Public Library at the time and Anita was an Assistant City Manager for an old Florida cracker from Kissimmee named Dick Simmons. At her funeral, this big-eared country good old boy cried for everyone there, he was inconsolable with shock and grief amid the hundreds of mourners who attended her funeral. Very quickly her husband was charged and convicted of hiring the murder. He was killed in prison. The actual perpetrator was also brought to trial.

The Michael Connelly is That Michael Connelly. Who knew. He worked as a cub reporter for the Sun-Sentinel and West Palm Beach city government was his first beat. I wish I could say I remember meeting him but I don't. I do remember one of his replacements, Scott Hiaasen, son of novelist Karl Hiaasen and as nice a young man as you could want.

Of course Michael Connelly has gone on to write sixteen successful crime novels, some featuring detective Harry Bosch. The point of the Sun-Sentinel article was to register Connelly's regret over the one article he did at the time of the Spearman murder in which he took an objective view and did not reveal his own grief and sadness over the loss of that gentlewoman who had been so cordial and welcoming to him as a young reporter. His regret was in not showing his heart in telling the truth and he claims that the lesson was learned, he writes; "When I write now I am free to reveal my compassion, my passion, my hopes and regrets. In a way I am free to tell the truth about myself in my novels, whereas when I was writing the stories in newspapers I had to hold things back."

Connelly tells the story in his non-fiction book Crime Beat, which is on-order at the time of this writing.