News, Etc.

Man seated

(Photo thanks to Mindy Ewing)

NIGHT KILLS spent three weeks on the NYT extended bestseller list, and four weeks on the USA TODAY bestseller list. The author doesn't make these lists on his or her own. As before, kudos to Kensington!

On December 13, !:00 to 3:00, I will sign copies of NIGHT KILLS at Big Sleep Books, 239 N. Euclid, St. Louis, MO 63108. Phone: (314) 361-6100.

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I appeared on panels and signed books (above) at Bouchercon in Baltimore in Octoberl

On October first I spoke and then read from NIGHT KILLS at Left Bank Books, 399 N. Euclid, St. Louis, MO 63108, phone # (314) 367-6731. We sold out, but by now more books are available.

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The Frank Quinn novel, IN FOR THE KILL, appeared on the USA Today bestseller list, and on the NYT bestseller list. A celebratory lunch was held at Fiorini in New York. Thanks to everyone at Kensington, especially Michaela Hamilton and Doug Mendini. Once the manuscript goes thunk in the mailbox, it becomes a team effort.

Yours truly copresented (with Stuart Kaminsky) the Edgar award for best motion picture screenplay to Tony Gilroy for MICHAEL CLAYTON at the Edgar Awards banquet at the Grand Hyatt in NYC in May.

A bargain price new edition of the suspense novel FINAL SECONDS, written in collaboration with David August, is now available.

NEW AND UPCOMING WORK:

The new and aforementioned Quinn novel, NIGHT KILLS, was published in October of 2008.

A previously published short story, THE WEAPON, was produced for French television.

Another story, MITT'S MURDER, appears in the anthology At the Scene of the Crime.

Also, the short story COFFEE AND CONVERSATION will appear in the anthology Murder Past, Murder Present.

The previously published short story THE FINAL REEL will be produced for French televsion.

The short story POE, POE, POE appears in On a Raven's Wing, an MWA anthology of stories related to...Poe.

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MOVIE REVIEWS: A guide to the good.

BURN AFTER READING
What happens when everyone's stars are unfavorably aligned? Fickle fate meets human foible meets bureaucratic implacability meets the Coen brothers. When you're not smiling while watching this film, you'll be laughing, from beginning to end. The Coen brothers have everything perfectly aligned in this movie, including its talented stars. Nobody underdoes it better.

ROMAN DE GARE
A dandy French crime movie about an escaped serial killer, a researching novelist, peasant life, nouveau riche life, wrong vehicular turns, and wrong romantic turns. Like many good French mysteries, it keeps taking you where you don't expect to go, but always someplace interesting. Well worth seeing.

VICKY, CRISTINA, BARCELONA
Two young American women are up to mischeif in Spain with a trendy painter. His explosive wife complicates things. People talk like Woody Allen, mostly about relationships. Lots of conversation, sex, wine, surreal painting, off-camera narration, on-camera screaming, deep contemplation, and relationships. You'll like this one a lot if you're a Woody Allen fan, and like it at least a little even if you aren't. Good stuff.

MOVIES THAT CAME AND WENT, BUT IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO RENT:

THE LOOKOUT
A former high school hockey star has an auto accident that leaves him mentally impaired and in no condition to get mixed up with bank robbers. But he does. Terrific in a small way, and probably the most original movie of 2007.

LUST, CAUTION
Politics, love, murder, intrigue, betrayal, sex among people who've obviously read the Kama Sutra. A finely tuned work of art, beautifully filmed and directed, with pitch perfect performances. Probably the best movie of 2007.

SPIDER
I have a theory that any movie or novel with the word spider in the title won't find much of an audience. How about a movie with that title directed by David Cronenberg, staring Ralph Fiennes, Gabriel Byrne, and Miranda Richardson? How about if it's a minor masterpiece? Such a movie came and went, way too fast. I'm afraid not nearly enough people saw it or were even made aware of it. Maybe because of its grim subject matter. Okay, it will cheer you down. But then, so will HAMLET.

PHOTOS...

John with his wife Barbara, after he received an honorary Doctor of Arts and Letters degree recently from the University of Missouri – St. Louis, thus establishing his bona fides as an absent-minded professor. It’s okay now to lose the car.

John captivating B&N audience. Some were so mesmerized that after the presentation they had to be prodded out of their advanced states of concentration.