Barry Graham's Blog, page 99

criminalwisdom:

Deep Dark Fears

The headline for this column by Laurie Roberts (“Police and prosecutors failed us in Debra Milke case”) doesn’t go far enough.

Police and prosecutors behaved egregiously in the Milke case, but it was the media that failed by going along with it for two decades.

I know this.

In 2000, I was contacted by Kirk Fowler, a former D.E.A. agent who was now working as a private investigator, running his business out of the dojo where he taught aikido. He had worked pro bono for Milke bec...

The only one of E.W. Hornung’s Raffles books I hadn’t read decades ago was Mr. Justice Raffles. I just read it, and it certainly lets this reader see the previous books in a new light; in his obsessive, codependent relationship with a disturbed and much younger man, it seems obvious that Raffles is as gay as a maypole.

(Not that there’s anything wrong with that…)

Maybe his longterm sidekick, Bunny Manders, was getting too old.

This book really is a trip, though. It’s...

Last week I read Roseanna,the first novel byMaj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö in their Martin Beck series of Marxist noir which set the standard for European crime fiction. The book not only hasn’t aged in the 48 years since it was first published; if it had been written this year, it might still be considered ahead of its time.

Sjöwall and Wahlöö were partners in life as well as in writing, and, as this article shows, the story of their partnership is as rivetin...

Smallpressapalooza at Powell’s City of Books last night was great. Every seat was taken, with people also standing or sitting on the floor. I recited chapter 14 of The Book of Man, which I haven’t done in a few years. I wrote that 20 years ago, and it’s so different than how I write now that I felt like I was reciting the work of a different writer - which I suppose I was.

Thanks to all who came, and especially to Kevin Sampsell for inviting me. After I left, I got a message...

As part of Smallpressapalooza, I’ll recite a chapter of The Book of Man from memory. The event runs from 6 till 9:45. I’m scheduled to go on at 8. There’s no Q and A, but I’ll hang around for a bit after my slot, so if you want to ask me any questions or get books signed or just say hello, you’re welcome.

each tick of the clock,

beat of the heart

says

you are here

you (who?)

are here (where?)

As a companion to my article about nonmonogamy, click the link above to read a chapter from my book Kill Your Self: Life After Ego.