About Me

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Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada
I am a lawyer in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada who enjoys reading, especially mysteries. Since 2000 I have been writing personal book reviews. This blog includes my reviews, information on and interviews with authors and descriptions of mystery bookstores I have visited. I strive to review all Saskatchewan mysteries. Other Canadian mysteries are listed under the Rest of Canada. As a lawyer I am always interested in legal mysteries. I have a separate page for legal mysteries. Occasionally my reviews of legal mysteries comment on the legal reality of the mystery. You can follow the progression of my favourite authors with up to 15 reviews. Each year I select my favourites in "Bill's Best of ----". As well as current reviews I am posting reviews from 2000 to 2011. Below my most recent couple of posts are the posts of Saskatchewan mysteries I have reviewed alphabetically by author. If you only want a sentence or two description of the book and my recommendation when deciding whether to read the book look at the bold portion of the review. If you would like to email me the link to my email is on the profile page.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Reviewing Posts for the Alphabet in Crime Fiction Meme


For the past 19 weeks I have participated in the Alphabet in Crime Fiction meme hosted by Kerrie Smith at Mysteries in Paradise putting up 21 posts.

For almost 5 months it became a part of my weekend to reflect on what post I would make with regard to the letter of the week. I looked forward to making my alphabet post on Sunday or Monday.

When I started I concentrated on books I had read. Out of the 21 posts 14 were reviews of specific books. Of the remaining 7 posts there were 6 posts of author profiles. The other post was an entry on “Who is Inger Wolfe?” delving into the mystery on the actual identity of the Canadian writer.

I had not realized how North American dominant my reading is until I examined the posts. Fully 2/3 of my posts related to North American books and authors. The U.S. led the way with 9 posts. (If I had counted Qui Xiaolong as American, instead of Chinese, because he moved to the U.S. and wrote his books there it would have almost been 2/3 for the U.S. alone.) I did have 5 posts concerning Canadian books and writers.

I had 2 posts from Saskatchewan which is at the core of my blog. They were “H” is for TheJoining of Dingo Radish by Rob Harasymchuk and “M” is for SilenceInvites the Dead by Scott Gregory Miller.

I had hoped to highlight a trio of Saskatchewan mystery authors but their names all began with “B” and I joined the meme at “H”! Even their titles did not usually fit the last 19 letters of the alphabet. They are Anthony Bidulka, Gail Bowen and Nelson Brunanski. I am well prepared for “B” in a future alphabet meme.

I never exactly knew which posts were most likely to draw comments. I did quickly realize that if I posted a profile of an author it would usually draw more attention than a book review. The post which drew the most comments was “J” is for White Sky, Black Ice by Stan Jones. It was read during the course of the alphabet by Kerrie.

The only time I posted more than once for a week was for “X”. After posting a profile of Qui Xiaolong, at the invitation of Kerrie, I posted a pair of book reviews from his series on Inspector Chen. They were Death of a Red Heroine and ACase of Two Cities.

I enjoyed my trip through most of the alphabet and will discuss tomorrow my favourite posts from the 21 I put up on the blog.
 

2 comments:

  1. I can see we will have to remind Kerrie she must repeat the success next year so we can use some of our surplus authors :)

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  2. Dorte: Thanks for the comment. I will be ready. There are alot of mystery authors left to talk about in another Alphabet in Crime Fiction.

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