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This is George Pelecanos’s first collection of short stories and once again demonstrates his consummate class, not just as a crime writer, but a writer. The title piece is the longest of the collection but Pelecanos saves it for last. The preceding stories are a blend of what makes Pelecanos great. Stories about the street, […]

Reagan Arthur, the editorial director of Little, Brown’s Reagan Arthur Books imprint, will be the next publisher and senior VP of Little, Brown. She will assume her new role on April 1st as Michael Pietsch becomes the new CEO of Hachette Book Group.

The release included this news: “In stepping into the role of Publisher, Arthur will retire the Reagan Arthur Books imprint she has led for three years.”

Arthur has worked at Little, Brown since 2001, earning her own imprint in 2008. She has edited Tina Fey, Joshua Ferris, Kate Atkinson, George Pelecanos and Ian Rankin.

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Today novelist George Pelecanos toured Washington DC in Morning Edition‘s annual “Crime in the City” series.

We interviewed executive producer Madhulika Sikka on the Morning Media Menu this week, going behind the scenes at the series. Sikka sends reporters all around the world to interview crime novelists about the cities in their novels for the series.

She explained the selection process in the interview: “It helps if the books fit our criteria. Then we look at our resources and see where we can send people. We’ve got to make it work … It is very much a human reaction. Myself and my editor, we do the first pass on looking at things and what seems likely. My office is stacked high with Crime in the City books. and they are all great reads … we are really trying to Dehli in India, I’m hoping we will be able to that next week.”

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What kind of prose do you prefer in crime novels?

Over at Sarah Weinman's excellent blog, mystery readers are debating crime writer George Pelecanos' style--he's the author of 12 novels and and a producer on my favorite retired television show, The Wire.

Sarah points us towards a Washington City Paper article that charts the crime writer's style--Pelecanos moved from a more effusive style (in A Firing Offense towards hardboiled haiku (in The Turnaround). 

Opinions of this style shift are mixed in the comments section. Check them out, and meet a new writer in the process. Barbara (who shares my obsession with Batman's political metaphors) writes that she was disappointed with later Pelecanos: "I liked Hard Revolution much better, and some of his earlier ones; the Big Blowdown might give you a sense of what all the fuss is about. He's good at nailing eras as well as place," she writes.

John weighs in with a more measured review. "There's no accounting for taste, is there. A book that one loves another loathes. And so it goes."