Mark Stevens's Blog

It seems pretty simple. Collectively, we agree what jobs need doing to serve the public interest—whether it’s staffing a lighthouse or hiring a doctor to work in a VA hospital. “We” is us. Things we need collectively. These are functions … Continue reading →

As Kevin Barry tells it, he was inspired to write The Heart in Winter after discovering that there 10,000 Irish miners moved to Butte in the 1890’s to work in the copper mines. True. By 1900, Butte was considered “the … Continue reading →

Amanda is hoping for a reset and by about page three of Wendy J. Fox’s brilliant, immersive new novel, The Last Supper, you’ll completely understand why. She’s in a battle against clutter in her home. The kitchen is a mess, … Continue reading →

“Jim Thompson’s work is one long assault on the words supposed to, and Thompson rarely submitted to the plot formulas editors expected. In fact, he methodically destroys those cliches—not by transcending them as a more ‘literary’ writer might, but by … Continue reading →

The core emotional relationship in Mother-Daughter Murder Night is drawn from Nina Simon’s own life. In 2020, Nina’s mother announced that she had brain tumors that needed surgery. Soon, lung cancer was added to the list of medical challenges. Nina, … Continue reading →

It’s been two-and-a-half weeks since Cara Campbell was led out of a packed courtroom in handcuffs and sent off to prison. But it feels like a lifetime. She’s in a prison van heading north on I-5 in California. She’s been … Continue reading →

As I was finishing George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier, CBS 60 Minutes ran a story about the struggling economy in McDowell County, West Virginia—coal country. The story was about basic human day-to-day survival in the United States of … Continue reading →

Agnes Glin is a long way from home. She’s from the part of California that doesn’t “know snow” and here she is in cold Iceland—for the first time—with a whole host of issues. She misses her late grandfather. She’s basically … Continue reading →

There’s a bizarre murder in Ethan Harris’ past, something that happened shortly after his high school graduation party. There were three people in the Pontiac Firebird heading from Minneapolis to the cabin in Mercer, Wisconsin when the car “conked out” … Continue reading →

Audacious, as Reed Farrel Coleman says in the introduction, for sure. Don Winslow’s prose is also muscular and meaty. He draws you in like slick carnival barker. After a few paragraphs, you need to know what’s going to happen and … Continue reading →