I like a writer who defies real comparison with anyone else in their genre. The closest to Jim Thompson would be Dostoyevsky, I think, except Thompson is far bleaker, far more negative about human nature. He’s also a stranger and more experimen[…]

It’s hard to know where to start with Delany. He’s not really been much within SF for a long time, and my favourite novel by him (and probably by anyone), while published as SF, mostly isn’t. Still, he started in the field, writing […]

I like a good series character in my crime fiction, and no one has offered us more of these than Block, and they cover a range of styles.
Matthew Scudder (16 novels) is a private eye in NYC, whose best friend is a hardened criminal. The novels vary i[…]

To read the story, click here; to read about our ‘hauntography’ project, click here.
“See that space between the panels? That’s what comics aficionados have named “The Gutter!” And despite its unceremonious title, the […]

I happened to just now read one of his, The Cosmic Rape, which prompted me to write about him next. This short 1958 novel is about a hivemind entity making first contact with humanity. It has taken over two galaxies and is working its way through its[…]

McBain, writing under that name and Evan Hunter (which he changed his name to in 1952, from Salvatore Lombino), is the only writer by whom I have read over a hundred books, and that is likely to remain true for a long time, maybe permanently. And I&#[…]

To read the story, click here; to read about our ‘hauntography’ project, click here.
An elderly man takes in his orphaned young cousin. It is surprising, given that the man is known as something of a recluse, a retiring academic type &#8[…]

If you want to read it first, you can find it online here.
And if you want to know why I have written this, go here.
I read a lot of so-called genre fiction, but I have never read many ghost stories. Even my brief dalliance with horror fiction tended[…]

Like all new Freaky Trigger series, the idea for this one came in the pub. I had been re-reading MR James’ Collected Ghost Stories and started talking about them with Mark and Rick: within moments I thought, “let’s blog it”. H[…]

Vachss is a unique writer. Most of his novels centre on a man named Burke, someone far enough beyond the underworld that they don’t know he exists. He makes a living ripping off child porn fans and wannabe mercenaries, and will take a PIish cas[…]