BILL CRIDER goes to BOUCHERCON, etc. Part 12 (2014-15)

Photos sources noted when known (or remembered)

2014 - Sonoma (Neary residence)

Bill and Bruce Taylor see something of interest

Judy wonders what it is

and finds that boys never stop being boys
(Arturo Scott, Paparazzo Supreme) 

2015 - Raleigh

with Lee Goldberg (from Lee's blog)

with Linda Landrigan, Josh Pachter and Janet Hutchings 

(from Something Is Going To Happen)

with Karin Slaughter, Megan Abbott and Lawrence Block

(pics above and below from The Rap Sheet)

with Ali Karim 

with Angela Crider Neary, Patti Abbott, George Kelley, Ted Fitzgerald, Thom Walls, Phil Abbott and Jackie Meyerson 
(from Bill's blog, photo by Jeff Meyerson)

 with Kaye Wilkinson Barley
(above and below from Kaye's blog)

with Lesa Holstine

2015 - Pronzini residence

Bill, Bruce and Bill

and all the books . . .

. . . in the world

(shot by Art Scott)

BILL CRIDER goes to BOUCHERCON, etc. Part 11 (2010-12)

Thanks to Art Scott, King of the Snapshots
and two other sources

2010 - San Francisco

with Judy


(found on Sweet Freedom)

with Robin Burcell
(from Bill's blog)

2011 - St. Louis

getting his Bcon jollies (Jackie Meyerson at left)

with Diane Kelley, Jackie and Jeff Meyerson, Maggie Mason and Judy

with Tom Roberts, Grand PooBah of Black Dog Books

with Steve Steinbock and George Kelley

with Jeff Meyerson and Judy

with Tom Roberts, Bob Randisi and Larry Sweazy
(from Bill's blog, I think)

with Jeff Smith, Jeff Meyerson (blue shirt) and Jackie Meyerson. Diane Kelley in foreground, with headless husband George

with Maggie Mason, Judy, Beth Feydn and Ann Smith

with Maggie Mason and Judy

2011 - Livermore (Art's House)

with Tom Neary, Judy, Angela Crider Neary and Bruce Taylor (and Art, of course, who's being bashful)

an early adventure (circa 1983) of Art and his brother Shot
(as read by Bill)

2012 - Napa Valley Napoleons

 Bill did NOT make it to Bouchercon that year. He spent his nickels flying to California, where he attended a meeting of the local Sherlockian society. 

with Judy and their son-in-law Tom Neary

Bob and Art helped again. Thanks guys.

BILL CRIDER goes to BOUCHERCON, etc. Part 10 (2006-09)

All hail Art Scott, King of Photographers
(and other sources, as noted)

2006 - Madison

with Steve Stilwell
(from Bill's blog)

with Judy and Maggie Mason

with Diane and George Kelley, Judy and Sonia Rice

with Joe Vigna, Marv Lachman and Judy

2006 - Austin (ArmadilloCon)


Bill speaks!

2006 - Alvin (Bill's Office)


A tour of the Crider Library

2008 - Baltimore

with Judy

with Steve Stilwell and Judy

with Judy and Kaye Barley
(from Kaye's publisher, I think)


with Maggie Mason, Judy, ??? and Ted Fitzgerald

2009 - Indianapolis

with Judy

with Jeff and Jackie Meyerson

with Richard Moore and Steve Stilwell

with Judy and Diane Kelley

with Judy and Richard Moore

Thx to Art and Bob

Forgotten Books: FLIGHT TO DARKNESS by Gil Brewer (1952)

Programming Note: Our ongoing extravaganza, BILL CRIDER goes to BOUCHERCON will continue tomorrow. Meanwhile, you can catch up on the first 9 installments (bringing us up to 2005) HERE.

Gil Brewer is one of those '50s noir guys (like Jim Thompson, David Goodis, Orrie Hitt and others) who've been highly recommended to me for years, but I never got around to reading. I have handfuls of musty paperbacks by each buried somewhere in my storage unit. 

So lately I've been reading a lot of historical fiction (Swords from the West by Harold Lamb, Sharpe's Fury by Bernard Cornwell, The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott, Killer Angels by Michael Shaara and Manassas and Shiloh by General James Reasoner) and was in the mood for something different when a review copy of a new Stark House book, featuring two Brewer novels, appeared in my mailbox. So I read the first, and this is it.

Gotta say, I'm impressed with Brewer's prose. His descriptions of Leda--this book's evil babe--were so good I took notes, and here are some of the results:

She came up to me and her eyes were full of hell.

She was an orgy of loveliness.

Sometimes when she talked and moved she kissed you with her whole body.

She was the type you might wonder about having a knife sheathed in the rim of her stocking. 

She was a complete savage, bursting with passion, lustful, wanton, wild. At first, it was like drinking hot red wine. Then the whole world shuddered and rock, with the trees thick and mingled with her hair and the smell of it with the shade, a dark blinding explosion. 

She managed to wiggle into what was left of her shorts. They made her look like something highly delectable out of Dogpatch. 

(She) was like having warm syrup poured over your head, hot down your sides, flowing along the veins. 

Feeling her was like touching a living flame. 

As you'll see on the back cover of this new Stark House edition, both Cullen Gallagher and James Reasoner had nice things to say about the book. Bill Crider liked it too, saying: Leda is as bad as they come, and Eric is just as driven as he is. When it comes to depicting people like this, all rough edges and raw emotion, Brewer comes close to his friend Harry Whittington.  Both can grab a reader on the first page and wring him out for a couple of hundred more.  If you like the old paperbacks with their fast action and blue-collar desperation, grab this new edition and give Brewer a try.

Now, I have the highest regard for the opinions of those three gents, and if they all liked it, odds are you will too. But it just ain't for me. I like my protagonists, whether good guys or bad, to be strong-willed and intelligent. Our hero in this one, Eric Garth, may or may not be crazy (he dreams of bashing his brother's head in with a mallet), and spends much of the book in a sanitarium. He's a mental and emotional weakling, and just gets weaker as the story plods on. 

A hero needs a fistful of trouble, of course, but I want to see him trying to battle his way out. Instead, this guy gets crapped on, crapped on some more, and keeps on getting crapped on until he's buried in it. He whines a little and blusters a lot, but just keeps on taking it, and I found him to be just as stupid and spineless after 130 pages as he was on page 1. 

There are still 25 pages left to go, so maybe Eric Garth will grow a pair and redeem himself, but for me, it's too late. I don't like anything about him, don't feel sorry for him, and don't care if he lives or dies.  

To clear my palate, I think I'll read another story in that Harold Lamb book. Hopefully 77 Rue Paradis will be more to my taste. 

BILL CRIDER goes to BOUCHERCON Part 9 (2004-05)

Whodunnit? Art Scott!
(unless otherwise admitted)

2004 - Toronto

Art Scott and his twin brother Shot

outlasting Steve Stilwell

with Sonia Rice

2005 - Chicago

with Gary Warren Niehbur

Judy and Bill 

(found on The Rap Sheet)

Ted Hertel in foreground, with Judy, Gary Warren Niehbur and Frank Denton

(from Bill's blog)

with George Kelley

with Ted Fitzgerald
(from Bill's blog)

with Judy

EQMM Panel, with Janet Hutchings, Ed Hoch and 3/4 of Marv Lachman

(from . . . I forget)

with George Kelley and Marv Lachman

with Joe Lansdale
(from Bill's blog)

with Steve Steinbock

with Frank Denton and Judy

with Judy, Anna Jo and Frank Denton, The Most Interesting Man in the World*

"Don't you have enough pictures of us?"

with Judy, Ann Smith and you-know-who

with Judy, Marv Lachman and Steve Stilwell

*So sez Cap'n Bob, who cannot tell a lie

Technical assistance from R Napier and A Scott