Crimezine goes crazy about Karin Slaughter’s Criminal

Karin Slaughter: Criminal

Hang on tight Crimeziners, here comes Karin, cup-cake, Slaughter’s latest bestseller Criminal, an epic tale of love, loyalty, and murder, featuring agent Will Trent, of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, a man who cannot shake his increasingly complicated past.

Criminal features two story lines, one set in the retrotastic Atlanta of the 1970’s where racial and gender discrimination is rampant, and a complex murder set in the modern day, where history seems to be repeating itself.

For Crimeziners seeking a riveting poolside read this summer, Criminal is a perfect standalone read, but Slaughter readers will also find old friends featured in both timelines: Will, Sara, Faith, Evelyn Mitchell and Amanda Wagner. This story carries forward, and develops the story from previous books, it also adds much to it. Karin Slaughter is an outstanding writer and new readers will no doubt feel driven to seek out her earlier work after reading Criminal. (Previous Will Trent reads are: Triptych, Fractured Undone, Broken, Fallen & Snatched,)

Yup, he has been through a lot has our Will—tormented childhood, misery upon misery and an unhappy marriage to boot. Will’s torment is laid bare for us in Criminal and many questions are answered about his past, including the horrific deaths of those closest to him, and his complicated relationship with his boss at the GBI, Amanda.

Slaughter weaves a rich and mysterious tale of complex characters whose journey will both delight and surprise. Crimezine has heard rumors that certain chaps consider the pulchritudinous Ms Slaughter to be something of a “girls writer”, think again fellahs, Ms S. is way too good for that, and she has 30million readers to prove it.

Crimeziners who wish to meet the gorgeous Ms Slaughter, get signed copies of her book and ask her cup-cake related questions, can do so at the Cerritos Library Skyline room, 18025 Bloomfield Avenue Cerritos CA 9703—(562)916-1388. The signing kicks off, Sunday 22^nd July 2012 at 2pm. Tell them Crimezine sent you.

http://www.karinslaughter.com/

Crimezine Loves Humphrey Bogart God of Noir

Crimezine Loves all things Bogartian

Michael Connelly & Elliot Gould talk Chandler in Bay city

Connelly & Gould talk Chandler

Michael Connelly & Elliot Gould

Crimezine Exclusive: Sofia Coppola filming new Bling-Ring crime caper in Los Angeles.

Original Bling-ringers

Kardashian Kountry will never be the same! Oscar winner and Indie flick darling Sophia Coppola begins filming her latest offering Bling Ring in the wealthy LA suburb of Calabasas this week. The locale is a famed  refuge for all manner of celebutantes and media-mag darlings blinging it up for all they are worth.

The movie, which is written and co-produced by Coppola, tells the story of a gang of media obsessed teen-outsiders, who burglarize their way into the lives of their favorite stars. The movie is based on the true tale of a gang known as the Bling Ring or the Hollywood Hills Burglar Bunch. A group of teenage friends who used the internet to stalk celebrities like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton,(who they robbed several times) then rob their homes when they were out, attending swish events in Hollywood. The gang allegedly stole more than four million dollars worth of Jewelry and designer clothing, much of which was never recovered.

The Movie will star Emma Watson and Leslie Mann. Coppola, daughter of famed Director and wine grower Francis Ford Coppola is co producing the movie, alongside her brother Roman Coppola and Youree Henley who also produced Coppolas cult hit Somewhere.

Crimezine is crazy about Jo Nesbø’s Headhunters

Headhunters

Jo Nesbø is the hot new Norwegian crime commodity, and in the massive vacuum that has been left by the death of Stieg, Girl with a Dragon Tattoo Larsson, it would seem that sick-puppy superstar Jo Nesbø is the only man with a crazy enough back catalogue of work to fill the Hollyweird demand for Scandinavian crime.

Jo Nesbø is rightly famous for his marvelous Harry Hole series and Martin Scorsese is currently turning Nesbø’s serial-killing Snowman book into what will no doubt be a top flight Hollywood money spinner.

Meanwhile subtitle loving Crimeziners will be able to get a preliminary taste of Nesbø’s penchant for gruesome craziness in the new Norweigian film Headhunters.

Headhunters is Nesbø’s first standalone work—so no Harry Hole this time out Crimeziners, but corporate crook Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie) more than makes up for this.

Roger is living a double life: He is Norway’s most accomplished headhunter by day, while secretly he is a high-end art thief, struggling to subsidize a life he cannot afford. When Roger’s beautiful gallery owner wife introduces him to a former mercenary with a priceless Rubens painting, our hero just cannot help himself.

This is a gloriously gruesome European crime romp. Think Carl Hiassen Patricia Highsmith and maybe a touch of Chuck Phalahnuick for an end result that is total Nesbø. Crimezine recommends this film whole-heartedly. See it now before it gets remade by Hollyweird marketeers.

http://www.magpictures.com/headhunters/

http://jonesbo.com/

Crimezine says hello to Michael Connelly and the Long Goodbye

Crimezine knows that you are all as obsessed by Raymond Chandler as we are, so there is good news if you live in Los Angeles. Crimezine Favorite Michael Connelly will be attending a movie screening of Robert Altman’s 1973 version of the classic Chandler tale.

The event kicks off March 25 2012 at 2:00 pm, in the main Library, MLK Jr. Auditorium, 601 Santa Monica Boulevard Los Angeles

Actor and star of the Long Goodbye Elliot Gould will also be in attendance for a Q&A session. The screening is part of the Santa Monica Citywide Reads 2012 event.

Crimeziners may be interested to know that this movie became an inspiration and major obsession for Connelly, to the extent that the writer later moved into the very same apartment in Hollywood where the movie was shot. Lincoln Lawyer director Brad Furman also slotted in a homage to the Long Goodbye, Chandler and Conners, into the recent movie but you knew that already didn’t you Crimeziners?

Michael Connelly

Crimezine mounts a stewards inquiry into HBO series Luck

Crime shows die all the time…

No one likes a horse killer. Or as Oscar Wilde might have said: to lose one horse might be regarded as misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness; but to lose three makes you look like Atilla the Hun’s horse killing second-cousin Fritz.

Crimeziners will no doubt of heard on the wire, that an unfortunate spate of horse deaths on the set of HBO gangsters with gee-gees debacle Luck, has resulted in the show getting unceremoniously canned.

The unfortunate events have lead to much finger pointing, which has created more drama than the glacial and unfathomable plot of the show its self.  Non-profit watchdog the American Humane Association has been bleating that many of its production recommendations were ignored, which has led to a savage mauling of the AHA’s industry bias by beard loving vegans PETA, who have alleged that many of the horses used on the show were unfit for purpose. Insiders have suggested that some of the nags on the show were so past their sell by date they would have had trouble getting in a tin of puppy-chow let alone a horse race at Santa Anita.

Crimezine suspects the truth is more complex. The ratings for the show have been abysmal, less than half a million for many episodes and the cast, while magnificent, have been hamstrung by the convoluted plot and an overly stylistic presentation, which presents disjointed mumbling dialogue as a realism.

Then of course, there is the graduate himself—and while the great man is almost beyond reproach as an acting megastar, Crimezine wishes the diminutive genius hadn’t used the Michael Corleone stick up the jacksie routine in every scene. Whilst certain cast members were almost comatose, others appeared over animated, the crazy rail-rat crew being a case in point.

Crimezine has also heard rumors on Hollyweird Boulevard, that there was a distinct Too many cooks spoil the broth problem in the production department, which has come as no surprise to many commentators. Veteran writer Elmore Leonard was famously influenced by a production experience with Hoffman when he wrote the classic tale of crime fiction movie-dom Get Shorty.

Attendance at horse races has been dropping off dramatically in recent years—a world where horses die regularly. It therefore seems fitting that Luck, a show so dependant on horse racing should die in such a dramatic and sudden way.

The final show episode of Luck will air March 25 2012 in the US.

Crimezine is Taken by Robert Crais

Craisie about Crais

Krista Morales might be an honor student, but she is a bit of a dumbo really. First she heads out into the desert night with her loser boyfriend, then she whips out her camera phone to take pictures of heavily armed human traffickers on a murder rampage. Presto, Krista and the loser get kidnapped and that means TROU-BLE!

Taken, is the latest read by Crimezine neighbor Robert Crais, The keep the noise down king of Mulholland Drive, is currently riding high of the Bestseller Charts and rightly so.

This is Bonzo Bob’s fifteenth Cole and Pike book—that is a lotta sequel’s Crimeziners—can you imagine Pirates of the Caribbean 15—would you want to? Quite. Crais is to be commended for bravely moving the franchise forward, in a variety of innovative ways. The recent Joe Pike books First Rule and The Watchmen are good examples of this steadfast refusal by Crais to stay safe and formulaic.

Kudos too for this well researched commentary on human trafficking on the US/Mexico border, a world that is so relentlessly vile and gruesome it is almost impossible to describe without inducing a protracted bout of nausea.

Crais has noticeably tightened up on his writing style with this book, using shorter snappier sentences, and other devices such as a non-sequential plotline and multi-character viewpoints. Such experimentation is to be commended. Trouble is readers are fickle and possessive—they get upset when a winning formula evolves and the Cole & Pike saga is starting to feel that burn.

Crimezine has commented before that Elvis Cole is losing much of the wisecracking charm that made him so appealing in the classic Cole & Pike novels, this morose trend continues with Taken, a frustration for many regular readers. But Crimezine suspects this is a serious effort by America’s Greatest Detective Writer [© Crimezine] to give  Elvis Cole more gravitas, which is to be commended, as other crime writers, have gone the opposite extreme, and mired their characters with mad-cappery, which can be both tiresome and distracting.

There are always risks with such a forward thinking attitude however. Many readers do not want their favorite characters to evolve—The Craisie faithful are fervently loyal and quickly riled. You better not mess with the Craises Bob—no-siree! Crimezine often has to venture outside our Mulholland Drive HQ with a big stick during Craisy season, a time when busloads of Bob’s adoring fans clog the street for months on end, with gratuitous acts of fandom and brassiere tossing lustiness. Crimezine suspects Craisies will eat this book up—but their appetite is voracious, will Bob be able to feed that hunger indefinitely?

Crimezine loves this book, and you will too. Robert Crais is an awesome writer. We would suggest however that the next Elvis Cole novel is a back to basics classic. Perhaps Bob could hammer out his creative frustrations on some new stand alone novels, like he did with Hostage and Demolition Angel. We would love, love, love that! No doubt Hollyweird would too.

Still, back to the haddock brained Krista Morales. Her mom Nita is thankfully smart enough to send Elvis on a rescue mission, but wouldn’t you know it, our favorite private eye ends up getting kidnapped too, Duh! Thankfully Joe Pike and Delta Force chum Jon Stone are on the case too, so we get a story that is a true fifty-fifty split between Cole and Pike, which leads to the kind of gruesome action we know and love. Get your mirrored shades on Crimeziners! Yayyyyy!

Crimezine Classic Crime all the time