Monday, June 1

Bookish: HIS WICKED WAYS etc (6#) -

The satanist Aleister Crowley became a fictional character in many novels. Jake Arnott fills in the picture of "a man with terrible flaws and precocious talents" which provided him with some inspiration for his latest book, The Devil's Paintbrush.

# Sarah Waters describes the genesis and development of her latest novel, an atmospheric psychological mystery, which originated in a real crime which was then fictionalized by a famous writer. But Waters wanted to explore other aspects of the situation.

# An outstanding interview with
Egyptian writer Alaa al Aswany by Rachel Cooke.

# Truman Capote meets Bollywood: take a peek
inside a crime magazine empire with Zac O’Yeah.

# Maureen Corrigan picks a handful of
new Mysteries to read this summer at NPR.

# "Thank you for your request, and as much as I would like to participate in the project you outlined, unfortunately I died two weeks ago, so I will be unable to contribute."

-- From a very long but very readable
Blog entry by Ali Karim at The Rap Sheet.

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