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The State of the State In western Oregon, summer has arrived with a couple of very warm days followed by some very East Coast thunderstorms. Rest and repeat. Today is the longest day of the year, [...]

The curtain has fallen on another year of great books, and it’s time to take stock of what has passed. Nearly six months ago I did a little mid-year check in, and I realize that most of the [...]

I learned of British mystery writer Ann Cleeves quite by accident when the mystery series Vera first was aired on Oregon Public Broadcasting a couple years ago. I was captivated by the dumpy, [...]

“If it weren’t for a ridiculous snobbery about ‘crime writing’,” John Mortimer once observed, “Ruth Rendell would be acclaimed as one of our most important [...]

Fictional characters have a lot to lose, and nowhere is this more prevalent than in the mystery novel. Our characters have flaws–great big FAT flaws, and lots of them. To show you what I [...]

He’s tall and drop-dead gorgeous, with sandy hair and dark brown eyes. He’s a meticulous dresser with an upper crust accent. He drives an indecently expensive car, and yet he tries to [...]