Predilections and Predictions

Omigod, he’s back already. Mike Ripley, that is, British critic, novelist, and columnist extraordinaire. Lately, we’ve had to wait patiently each month for Shots to post his collection of touts and taunts, but here it is, barely into the soggy month of April, and his latest column is up and ready to delight. Naturally, the writer appears in nearly every photograph on the page, and naturally too, he seems to get about to every party and have a story concerning every UK litterateur of significance.

This time ’round, Ripley declaims on London’s recent Penguin crime-fiction party, the death in March of famed author Julian Rathbone, David Hewson’s “classic ‘karaoke’ approach to addressing an audience,” and the continuing creep of crucifixion into crime fiction (this time in Brian McGilloway’s Gallow’s Lane). Much to the consternation of those of us with little or no willpower to resist intriguing new books, Ripley also recommends adding archaeologist-author Tony Pollard’s first Victorian mystery, The Minutes of the Lazarus Club (due out from Michael Joseph in August), and David Downing’s Silesian Station (the follow-up to his 2007 thriller, Zoo Station) to our must-buy lists.

Oh, and the Ripster--as those of us who have never met him so fondly call Mr. Ripley--predicts that Philip Kerr’s new novel, A Quiet Flame (the sequel to 2006’s The One from the Other), will be in the running next year for the UK Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger, the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, and the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award. “Philip’s new book qualifies brilliantly in all three categories,” Ripley asserts, “and I have no hesitation in tipping him to scoop a unique treble and win all three.” Having just finished reading Kerr’s latest book, his fifth Bernie Gunther novel, set primarily in Buenos Aires, Argentina (to which so many Nazis fled after World War II), I can hardly disagree with Ripley. It’s truly a magnificent, twisted story, and makes me want to revisit all of the previous titles in this series.

To dine on the full smörgåsbord of Ripley’s April column, click here.