MattRees.net

On the whole, it’d better if there was no war. But war has given us some of the great novels of all time. Until now, the Iraq war has been written about mainly in macho with-the-troops memoirs by embedded journalists, dry-as-dust nonfiction, and bile-licious invective. Unless you’re macho, dry, or hateful, none of these are [...]

Jon Friedman‘s first book was what you might expect from a young financial-markets journalist. Published in 1993, “House of Cards” was a fast-paced story of the blunders at American Express during the 1980s, including smear campaigns, duff accounting, and a CEO whose name was synonymous with hubris (until, in recent years, hubris became the official [...]

This week I zipped through an entertaining Nelson de Mille yarn called “The Lion.” At the end of the novel, I noticed a note from the author which alerted me to the fact that a half dozen people had paid (with generous donations to charity) for their names to be used for characters in the [...]

I’d seen “The Robespierre Serial” on my parents shelves for years. It was published in 1975, so I assume it must’ve been up there since I was eight. I knew the cover because, even as a kid, there was something compelling about a southern European country scene viewed through the sights of a sniper. I [...]

Jasmine Schwartz is the hottest new voice in crime fiction. Her novels “Farbissen: Melissa Morris and the Meaning of Money” and “Fakakt: Melissa Morris and the Meaning of Sex” are witty and daring, sneaking weighty subjects like sex-trafficking and drugs into storylines that at first seem breezy. In this interview, Jasmine talks in her inimitable [...]

My guest blogger today is superhot crime novel phenom Jasmine Schwartz. Jasmine is the author of Farbissen: Melissa Morris and the Meaning of Money and Fakakt: Melissa Morris and the Meaning of Sex, which have been called “Bridget Jones with guns and dead bodies.” Today she brings her incisive wit to bear on the original [...]

Poisonville makes music about crime fiction, by crime fiction writers. Based around my songwriting and playing, Poisonville does original songs about greats like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler and about hot new crime writers like Jasmine Schwartz. This song is co-written by The Talented David Brinn, who also plays accordion on it. The corrupt town [...]

Machiavelli wrote that “Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please.” That’s certainly true of the Six-Day War of 1967. When fired upon in Jerusalem some months after the passage of those six days, Graham Greene commented that it was perhaps an inaccurate name for the conflict. Indeed the battle [...]

The hottest new voice in crime fiction is Jasmine Schwartz. Her great debut “Farbissen” and its follow-up “Fakakt” have earned plaudits for her and for her detective, neurotic New York fashionista Melissa Morris. The books have been called “Bridget Jones with guns and dead bodies.” But Jasmine’s no Renee Zellweger softie, as you’ll see from [...]

I hok you no chainik when I recommend you read “Farbissen” and “Fakakt,” the great new crime novels of Jasmine Schwartz. Jasmine is an important and hilarious new voice in crime fiction — and that’s no shmontses! Her first two novels “Farbissen: Melissa Morris and the Meaning of Money” and “Fakakt: Melissa Morris and the [...]