QUICKGASM >> 5.8.08
Posted May 8, 2008 
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Because time isn’t always kind: economic reviews in a world full of waste!
THE 5TH WITCH is a ho-hum witch-meets-gangster thriller by Graham Masterton. Bizarre killings are occurring in the City of Angels, and what looks like a mob war is overshadowed by the presence of four of the aforementioned witches. Fortunately, there’s a neighborhood white witch available to investigate and uncover the real reasons behind the grisly deaths. Masterton is a prolific writer, but this isn’t one of his better works; perhaps Lifetime may come calling. There’s nothing very unique in this cross-blending of subject matter, but he does manage to make the concept work the first few pages. Still, it ultimately fails more in conception than execution. A quick, easily forgettable read — kinda like a literary Smarties. —Matt Adder
Medical thrillers aren’t as in vogue as in the past, despite — or perhaps because of — their scenarios becoming ever too close for comfort. Robin Cook had this genre practically to himself, but now that he’s on autopilot, some newbies are taking up the slack, like Michael Palmer and Joshua Spanogle. Add to that list Daniel Kalla, who delivers his latest with COLD PLAGUE. His all-too-real virus tales peg him as fiction’s answer to Richard Preston – a rep worth strengthening with this number about a mad-cow-like disease that rages the systems of animals and humans. It’s just a tad too lengthy, but its science feels legit, which of course, makes it frightening if you let it get to you — something any med-thriller should aspire to achieve.
I may have graduated from college 15 years ago, but I can still remember how entirely terrifying it seemed to join the real world. For artist Kate T. Williamson, she chose to postpone life by staying in her parents’ house for a couple of months to work on a book. That time stretched into more than a year, all chronicled in the autobiographical ink-and-watercolor graphic novel AT A CROSSROADS: BETWEEN A ROCK AND MY PARENTS’ PLACE. It’s not a conventional narrative, but admirably brave and real, full of both joy and depression as Williamson wonders if she isn’t letting life pass her by. She draws with a style that reminds me of Roz Chast, but tidier, and the emotions are as genuine as they come (loves laying in bed at night and hearing the sounds of the train — me, too!). Transitionary spreads depicting the changing of the seasons are gorgeous. She’s an amazing talent.
In the laboratory, sometimes you cure a disease, and sometimes the experiment just blows up in your face. It’s the latter that neuroscientist Simon LeVay explores in WHEN SCIENCE GOES WRONG: TWELVE TALES FROM THE DARK SIDE OF THE DISCOVERY. To me, the well-intentioned failures are always the most interesting than the eventual successful, so LeVay’s nonfiction collection of essays is fascinating. They play out like mini-mysteries, and I was particularly disturbed by the account of a Parkinson’s-stricken jogger who underwent highly experimental fetal transplants; not only did they not work, but an autopsy found hair growing in his brain from it. Other chapters of note involve explorers who stupidly descended into an active volcano and a rape case where CSI-style methods fingered the wrong guy. Because LeVay went out of his way to interview the actual people we read about (at least those who agreed to talk), this book has the benefit of being that much more credible. –Rod Lott
Those Roxy Music album covers of my childhood will always be ingrained in my head. I had no clue what was between those cardboard shells, but I sure knew I liked the artwork, eventually sending yours truly into world of Bryan Ferry and company. 
It was the original British country-estate murder case. It was investigated by one of the eight detectives who started Scotland Yard. It captured the imagination of Charles Dickens and directly inspired Wilkie Collins. And it all took place at Road Hill in 1860, with the discovery of the throat-slit body of a 3-year-old boy.
Mike Cox – author of 
The most enjoyable biographies, I think, are of the people you’d never expect. Current bestsellers on 
I can’t think of a newspaper headline more famous in all of history than “Dewey Defeats Truman,” but “Headless Body in Topless Bar” has to rank second. That gem was dreamt up by the staff of New York Post, of course, and it’s one of many all-bold wonders collected in the humorous hardback 
We hit a milestone today, as this column marks the 100th in my never-ending run through old paperbacks. To celebrate, we’re covering three books from one certain author who also would be celebrating his 100th birthday. Regular BBB&B readers know I’ve taken many a potshot at Ian Fleming’s creation of James Bond, but actually, I’m a big fan of the books and films. So let’s don our tuxedos, get us some shaken-but-not-stirred martinis, and delve back into the world of 007.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s 
What if you could not only see – but sense – other people’s dreams? It’s an intriguing premise explored by Lisa McMann in her debut novel 
Aside from “Obama or Clinton?,” the other important continuing debate in America is whether to serve beer or wine – a point taken to extremes in brewer Sam Calagione and sommelier Marnie Old’s 
I’m not big on anthropomorphic animals headlining fantasy tales, but it’s easy to cut 
Elizabeth Peters is well-known for her string of 
There are tons of books that tell you how to write a novel, but the main problem is that you can’t teach creativity. To my knowledge, Howard Mittlemark and Sandra Newman are the only ones who had the bright idea to tell you how not to do it, in 
In February 2005, news of the capture of Dennis Rader made headlines and TV newscasts everywhere. What surprised me most was the fact that this guy was a serial killer with a three-decade-long history and 10 victims, and I’d never heard of him. Like a pro athlete, psychopathic murderers have to ply their trade in a major media market if they want the public to know who they are.
I’ve never quite been able to get into Dennis Etchison’s work. I’ve always ending up liking the anthologies he’s edited more than the actual fiction he’s written. The same goes for 
Perhaps no one deserves a ribbing as much as the Nazis, and 
Every year, sorority girls wanting to get back at their dads pose nude for 
Move over, 
When Bryan Singer’s 
The good folks over at the U.S. Department of Justice will tell you that female murder victims are most likely to meet their demise at the hands of a husband or boyfriend than by a stranger. Because of this, police usually focus their attention first to the male intimates of female victims. 
About all I remember from the 1983 miniseries 
For 
Gonzo cruciverbalist Ben Tausig attempts to hook kids into pencil games instead of video games with 
The whole of our country’s cinema criticism is chronicled in 
‘Tis easy to see why they call New York “the city that never sleeps”: Because when you have a thousand-plus-page book like 
Former New York Times reporter Sarah Boxer has picked what she deems the 25 best blogs – out of an estimated 80 million – and provides examples of each in the anthology 
“You can get much farther with a smile, a kind word, and a gun than you can with a smile and a kind word.” And who would know better than the source of that famous gangland quote: the Big Fellow himself, Alphonse Capone? 
Flashback to 1986, when my 15-year-old hormones were in full force. I was just starting high school, and to me, Kathleen Turner was “it.” Yes, she’s a terrific actress, but I mean she was sex incarnate. 
One man’s pain is another man’s pleasure. And does any time in life prove more painful than puberty? 
I need to make a confession: I was a huge 
Cross Encyclopedia Brown with Will Shortz and you might get Winston Breen, the grade-school star of 
Marc Aronson and HP Newquist’s 
It may not be E.C., but 
We are, writes food journalist Frederick Kaufman, a gastrocentric society – not recently, either, but from this nation’s very start. 
Being raised on DC and Marvel, it was a total shock in my youth to discover a British weekly called 2000 AD. It featured early works by who would later be the leading lights in the comic field, such as Alan Moore. But what sold me on the publication first was the artwork, with one of the standouts being Bryan Talbot, who worked on one of the freakier titles: Nemesis: The Warlock, a bizarre dragon-like creature. 
