The Byte Stuff

I’m usually a pretty modest guy, more comfortable dispensing praise than receiving it. Yet I feel it incumbent upon me to point out Kristopher Zgorski’s very favorable mention of The Rap Sheet (and, well, yours truly) in the latest edition of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine’s “Blog Bytes,” the column he took over in 2018 from Bill Crider (who died in February of that same year). To quote from Wikipedia: “Blog Bytes contains reviews and updates of crime and mystery short fiction blogs.” Zgorski’s column for November/December 2021 includes this write-up about The Rap Sheet:

The Rap Sheet ... is J. Kingston Pierce’s love letter to the crime-fiction community. Under his regular “Bullet Points” posts, readers will find a wealth of information that is always fascinating. Here Pierce links to the source of all the gathered information while also providing a paragraph (or sentence) recap of the relevant news. This allows readers quickly to know a bit about what is happening in the industry overall, but also allows for a deeper dive into those topics that are of particular interest to each visitor. Fans of book reviews will find his “Revue of Review[er]s” posts invaluable. Here Pierce links to various other websites that are posting well-crafted reviews of recent releases (in the interest of disclosure, I should point out that my reviews at BOLO Books are often included amongst these choices). The Rap Sheet can always be counted on to keep readers apprised of the latest awards nominations and winners as well as to provide a gold mine of information on one of Pierce’s passions, vintage book covers. Perhaps one of the most impressive features is a seasonal rundown of if not all, at least the majority of the highly anticipated new book releases by month, for both the U.S. and the U.K.! I could continue to list examples of the wonderful content found here, but you should just go check it out for yourself.

Zgorski’s endorsement of this blog is sandwiched between comments about book-related news in Entertainment Weekly and a “blog collective” with which I was previously unfamiliar: The Mystery Lover’s Kitchen. You’ll find his whole column here.

My thanks to Kristopher for saying such complimentary things about the blog you’re reading. While this isn’t the first time The Rap Sheet has been mentioned in EQMM (Ed Gorman tossed a bouquet our way back in 2007), I’m always glad to hear that readers appreciate what my colleagues and I accomplish here. Oh, and if you are not already a reader of Zgorski’s fine blog, BOLO Books, check it out.