It took me quite a while to "get" Twitter, but after several months of bemusement following random conversations without understanding why they were happening, I am now beginning to understand its power: as an aggregator of content, as a media outlet, as a social centre - as a hub for the entire internet.
Today's been a great example. This morning a tweet arrived from Declan Burke, author of a number of books I should have read including The Big O, alerting his followers to the fact that he has penned a review of Ian Rankin's post-Rebus novel The Complaints, at his excellent blog Crime Always Pays. The review is notable for the fact that Burke criticises a fellow crime writer, a rare enough event in the close-knit crime world. "By the end the abiding feeling is one of disappointment that Rankin, with his reputation and (presumably) fortune already secure, wasn’t prepared to take more chances in terms of style, subject matter or narrative," he writes in a review originally published in the Irish Times.
I have not got round to reading The Complaints yet, in part for this reason, that I pretty much know what to expect from Rankin, even without Rebus, and so it feels like it can wait. It is high up the reading list, however, and my guess is that I will enjoy it when I get there.
From Crimeficreader comes an alert to a post on Michael Connelly's website, an appreciation of Harry Bosch written by Dennis Lehane, the author of The Given Day and the Kenzie/Gennaro series that produced Gone Baby Gone. The Harry Bosch series will be 15 books and 17 years old when Nine Dragons is published here on October 1 and it has stood the test of time a great deal better than most series that long. Lehane, ever thoughtful, first makes a point about the fact that comparisons with Raymond Chandler are too cheaply given in the crime fiction world, before coming to the following conclusion: "If Chandler has any direct literary descendent, then, any fit wearer of his illustrious crown, any undeniable heir, it can only be Michael Connelly." High praise indeed.
It has also been fascinating watching the Twitterari debate Dan Brown. I made my views clear in yesterday's post (in short: buy something else) but have been fascinated by the polarisation of opinion. One writer I like a great deal, Deanna Raybourn, author of the wickedly witty Lady Julia Grey mystery series, likes Brown for his "quick, immensely readable books that knit up strands of logic and mysticism and art and adventure and sometimes that's precisely what I'm in the mood for". Well, she might say that, but I think you'd be better off her Silent on the Moor, her latest which I shall review shortly. There was further defence of Brown from thriller writer Joseph Finder, author of Vanished, who tweeted: "It may shock you guys....but I love Dan Brown's success. The guy works hard, is serious about what he does, and did something original."
Another interesting tweet I saw this evening. Apparently Kindle version of The Lost Symbol outselling hard copy: "Nobody wants to be seen reading it".
A last word, perhaps, to Mark Lawson in the Guardian: A puzzling, rollicking piece of tosh.
And finally a small plug for the Crime Panel at the Chiswick Book Festival in West London on Sunday September 27. A panel including Sophie Hannah, author of The Other Half Lives, and Roy Mitchell, creator of BBC series New Tricks, will discuss "The Perfect Crime - from Book to Screen". Other interesting items on a very attractive three day schedule (starting September 25) include Michael Frayn, Anthony Horowitz and Antonia Fraser. Tickets available through Waterstones on Chiswick High Road or the Advanced Book Form on the website.