The Rap Sheet's latest wrap-up of crime-fiction news includes notes about Raymond Benson's "The Hook and the Eye," Lambda Literary Award winners, P.I. Nate Heller's next case, the "Reacher" spin-off "Neagley," Edgar Allan Poe's fascination with being buried alive, and so much more.

Frequently people come into the bookstore and ask "what is this place?" Breaks my heart every time. How can anyone not know what a bookstore is?!

Today’s NOVEL Festival Deadline: DRAMA Novel Contest festivalfordrama.com/drama-novel-... Submit your DRAMA Book by the deadline. A drama novel is a fictional story that centers around characters in conflict at a critical moment in their lives.

Just announced at NYCC: I’m writing a KNOW YOUR RIGHTS comic with artist @davidhahn.bsky.social in partnership with @nycschools.bsky.social #civicsforall comics program, covering and explaining student rights when it comes to immigration enforcement.

Sam's Tavern #foto #fotografie #photo #photography #street #streetphotography #blackandwhite #blackandwhitephotography #night #nightphotography #sanfrancisco

What a 1977 Czech writers’ manifesto can teach us about “America’s decades-long drift into authoritarianism.”

I contributed thoughts on my three favorite Elmore Leonard novels to The Hard Word in honor of the man's centenary. www.thehardword.org/single-post/...

A restraining order was issued YESTERDAY by a federal judge barring detention of journalists in this district unless they refuse to reposition themselves and are given adequate time to do so, or there’s probable cause they’ve committed a crime.

Sorry Rex... #library #librarian #booksky #bookban #bannedbooks #read #teachers

Meanwhile in #Portland

In this video I run through all of the big voting and democracy cases the Supreme Court will hear this term and what we need to be watching for. youtu.be/0iKo6YdLxhA

This has been some disinformation campaign: 42% of consumers didn't know Lay's chips were made from real potatoes. I don't think Lay's is to blame for that. fortune.com/2025/10/10/p...

What book will you buying from which bookshop this #BookshopDay ?

This cannot be good news for public health!

The Rap Sheet's Steven Nester looks back at Lionel Davidson's witty 1960 debut thriller, "Night of Wenceslas." Readers lucky enough to find this largely Czechoslovakia-set novel on a shelf somewhere, he says, "are in for an entertaining experience." therapsheet.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

“I just knew once I started writing I couldn’t stop, whether people would publish me or not.” @meganabbott.bsky.social discusses her fascination with the forbidden, her love of "weirdos," and how she got her start crimereads.com/my-first-thr... by Rick Pullen via @crimereads.bsky.social

Hitchcock Film Festival, #BodegaBay #Hitchcock mysteryreadersinc.blogspot.com/2025/10/annu...

All to cover up the Epstein files.

Thomas Pynchon’s Shadow Ticket, Francesca Wade’s Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife, and John Banville’s Venetian Vespers all feature among the best reviewed books of the week.

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

Reporting live from Chicago, there’s no “hellscape” I’d rather be in.

Trump has begun dismissing federal workers, with furloughed staff at the Department of Health and Human Services now facing permanent layoffs. The cuts are hitting the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention especially hard.

Congratulations to Maria Corina Machado, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize - her incredible optimism has already changed her country. I spoke to her, and wrote about her, at the beginning of this year: www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

“This is a movement…This is an achievement of a whole society…I am just one person.” The beautiful humility of Venezuelan pro-democracy leader, Maria Corina Machado, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

There's only one way Whovians can read this headline ... From the New York Evening World, July 28, 1920 #DoctorWho #Whovians #press #headlines

“It’s even colder than I’d expected, a blow that knits my muscles together.” Read from Anbara Salam’s new novel, The Salvage.

Book publisher Down & Out has shuttered its doors after 15 years in business. therapsheet.blogspot.com/2025/10/down...

@shannonbowring.bsky.social considers the art of getting inside a despicable character’s head.

really can’t say enough about how mike johnson is a sniveling little coward of a man. a bayou-bred pushover with a dignity deficit that would embarrass renfield

CNN: “An older couple making $85K/year will see their yearly insurance premiums jump from $7K to $25,000 — 30% of their income.” 😳#TrumpShutdown #TrumpHealthCareTax This is what Dems are drawing attention to and want fixed. Now, not later.

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

Among the most interesting recent crime and thriller releases are works by Richard Osman, Ann Cleeves, Elmore Leonard, Beth Lewis, Thomas Pynchon, and Susie Dent. therapsheet.blogspot.com/2025/10/revu...

"The enemy from within" is POTUS.

I’ve had the good fortune of receiving some ARCs in my day, but I have never—ever—received an advanced reader copy of a book tucked into a can of turpentine before. Chris Panatier’s DAYTIDE for the win. There’s a feather! In hardware stores March 2026. Thank you @rapturepublishing.bsky.social

Vale Jilly Cooper.

feel fairly targeted, in that I just watched my hand do this on the mouse and keyboard:

How tragic! Something is wrong with all the Russian windows 🪟! 😳🙄

So we’re supposed to believe the same White House that fired hundreds of air traffic controllers a few months ago is now deeply concerned about their wellbeing?

This is a huge collapse in the book distribution business, especially following the closure of Small Press Distribution last year. Baker & Taylor--originally established in 1828--has been central to the library market for decades.

Announcing this year's Macavity Award winners, in five different categories. therapsheet.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

Remember? crimereads.com/remember-the...

I love small town America thrillers - so much so I wrote my own, The Girl in Cell A. To celebrate the book I wrote this piece for @CrimeReads celebrating 5 such brilliant thrillers, from Deliverance to In The Heat of the Night. Read here: crimereads.com/small-town-a...

My essay on CrimeReads looks at Operation Halyard, the largest rescue of American airmen in history, and how it plays a part in A BITTER WIND, my newly released Billy Boyle WWII mystery. crimereads.com/james-r-benn...

The 24 new books out today include titles by Thomas Pynchon, Chris Kraus, Cory Doctorow, and more!

JUST IN: Chicago journalistsa re suing DHS and ICE over force used against reporters: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The glory days of Page Six (not the current version) would have a field day with the CBS News stuff, blind items galore