by Jason Bovberg | Jul 21, 2022 | Publishing, Reviews
There’s a simmering subgenre of mystery fiction that you might call dark crime or horror noir, a shadowy, disturbing niche occupied—on occasion—by such writers as Joe R. Lansdale and Cormac McCarthy. It’s very much concerned with contemplating the darkest...
by Jason Bovberg | Apr 21, 2022 | Reviews
Chris Holm’s debut on the mystery scene back in 2012 was auspicious—at least to this crime-fiction lover. The first book of Holm’s “Collector” series, Dead Harvest, came out in a beautifully designed paperback from Angry Robot. An homage to...
by Jason Bovberg | Mar 29, 2022 | Film, Reviews
Will there ever be a film more precisely attuned to the mood of 2022, post-pandemic, post-Trump-debacle, mid-social-media-addicted ADHD? Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Everything Everywhere All at Once is an adrenaline blast directly to the heart and...
by Jason Bovberg | Aug 10, 2021 | Publishing, Reviews
The publication of a new James Lee Burke novel is always cause for celebration. I’ve been reading and collecting Burke for decades—an eye-opening proposition, as he recently marked the release of his fortieth book. Burke is perhaps best known for his series of Dave...
by Jason Bovberg | Aug 1, 2021 | Publishing, Reviews
There’s a sultry, dreamlike quality to Megan Abbott’s more recent books, bringing to mind the gauzy images of, oh, Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides or Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock. Watching Abbott’s extended interview in the Criterion Channel’s Adventures in...
by Jason Bovberg | Jul 19, 2021 | Horror, Publishing, Reviews
Let’s get this out of the way, right here at the start: You’re going to feel a strong Near Dark vibe in Richard Lange’s excellent neo-western vampire novel Rovers. The book is awash in the same kind of gritty, sunbaked, sweaty supernatural grime that...