Mez: The Phantom Intruder (3#) -

Meredith Kercher Murder Case -

Barbie Nadeau updates us
on the vortex spinning around this case in Italy.

Among other things, the Amanda Knox Siblings created a commotion in the courtroom, the witness list has shrunk, and a couple of the Sollecito lawyers have gotten professionally divorced. It's a well-written and informative article.

Meanwhile, I've been ruminating on Finn MacCool's reconstruction and the related series of events; a few things stick out in my mind like sore thumbs.

With regard to Knox's first phone call to her mother, she said she was calling because she thought someone had been in the cottage. Knox seems to have used the past tense as if the supposed intruder were gone, even though the door to Meredith's room was closed, behind which an intruder could be hiding. Then, she said, she and Sollecito tried to break down that door. No sane person would try to break down a door behind which a violent criminal might be hiding. The more closely Knox's story is examined, the more it seems to fall apart.

Speaking of intruders . . .

In the case of Colin Ferguson, a/k/a the Long Island Train Shooter, Ferguson argued in his defense that while he was (admittedly) riding on the train, an intruder grabbed his gun, and it was the intruder who killed the passengers. His mental competency was an issue.

:: Barbie Nadeau :: - - [MacCool] - - [Ferguson]

...

Bookish: Some July Browsing (15#) -

Deadline Sept 15th: Publishers are racing against the calendar to beat the global debut of Dan Brown's new book, The Lost Symbol. "The story will take place in Washington and will delve into the world of Freemasonry," according to Roya Nikkhah at the UK Telegraph.

# A fictional Scottish detective in Miami who stumbles across a paedophile ring led by a local cop. Crime by Irvine Welsh briefly reviewed by Tadzio Koelb.

# Nathaniel Rich writes an
appreciation of Scandinavian whodunits.

# The Empty Chair, an early country house mystery story by Graham Greene will be serialised in the Strand mystery magazine, starting next week. Greene left it unfinished...

# George Dawes Green of Savannah, Georgia, is a writer who publishes infrequently. His last novel was offered about 14 year ago. Ravens, his new thriller is making its debut next week. It's about a lottery winner who is cyber-stalked by a couple of "creepy" predators. Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg presents a chatty feature at the WSJ about the author and his new book.

# Still Midnight by Denise Mina; The Lovers by John Connolly; Londongrad by Reggie Nadelson. Three Crime novels briefly reviewed by Marcel Berlins.

# Egypt: The latest volume by Alaa al Aswany is called Friendly Fire, which includes a novella and some short stories. Nice review here written by Chandrahas Choudhury.

# Tweakers: How small towns in America have become the engines of the methamphetamine industry. Methland by Nick Reding is reviewed at NPR Books.

# Journalist Gretchen Peters explores the connection between heroin and terrorism in Seeds of Terror. Reviewed at NPR Books.

# Raising My Voice is a memoir by Malalai Joya,
the Afghan woman activist, Christina Lamb tells us.

# Some authors like Thomas Pynchon attract a cultlike following. Louis Goddard looks into the phenomenon of the literary mailing list.

# I'm Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears
is about Idioms From Around the World.

# Oliver Marre suggests: Don't hit send! Recent
online feuds and lapses, briefly but humorously noted.

# PRO & CON: The Offence Series published by Seagull Books addresses the growing "culture of complaint and oversensitivity" in the post-9/11 world.

# A long feature piece about publisher Si Newhouse Jr, 81, and his Condé Nast magazine empire by Steve Fishman.

...