Blog
This is what we look like
Women in the raw. Lots of them.It started because of the horror. I and presumably thousands of other viewers reacted with shock at the sight of Kim Novak at the Oscars. Her face, once the epitome of icy beauty, looked frozen and bloated, more plastic than flesh....
Breaking into the Boys’ Room: VIDA runs the numbers
Gender representation in book criticism is getting a little more even,but not much… Paint a landscape. Anything you want. Only, you can’t use green. Or, let’s be fair, you can, but only a smidge – say no more than a nickel-sized dollop on your palette. And not, you...
Publishers Weekly likes my upcoming “Panthers Play for Keeps,” too!
Very psyched to see the early reviews for "Panthers Play for Keeps," the fourth Pru Marlowe pet noir, are beginning to come in - and to come in favorable! Here's the first word on "Panthers," which Poisoned Pen Press will publish on April 2:Panthers Play for Keeps: A...
“Grey Howl” gets two very big thumbs up!
My seventh Dulcie Schwartz feline mystery, "Grey Howl," pubs on March 1 and I am pleased as punch that both Kirkus and Publishers Weekly have given me glowing reviews. Here are the reviews in their entirety:From Publishers WeeklyPublishers WeeklyGrey Howl: A Dulcie...
Review: “The Good Lord Bird” by James McBride
There is more than one way to tell the truth, “The Good Lord Bird” reminds us again and again, and many reasons to cloak it in humor. (first published in The Arts Fuse)The Good Lord Bird, by James McBride. Riverhead Books, 432 pp. $27.95By Clea SimonJames McBride’s...
The Unwavering Gaze — Fabritius and Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch”
The Unwavering Gaze — Fabritius and Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch”(first published in The Arts Fuse)In Donna Tartt’s much-lauded third novel, Fabritius’s painting “The Goldfinch” and the fleeting nature of, well, everything come together for a brief and shining...
Type M for Murder: A Call to (Proper) Arms
Type M for Murder: A Call to (Proper) ArmsJumping genres to support our SF/F sistersCall it dueling futures. Because the battle for the soul of the science fiction and fantasy community is about nothing less, and even if we in the mystery community never considered...
PW gives “GREY DAWN” a star and a rave!
So happy!REVIEWAuthor: CLEA SIMONTitle: GREY DAWNPublication: PUBLISHERS WEEKLYIssue: 20TH MAY 2013★ Grey Dawn: A Dulcie Schwartz, Feline Mystery, Clea Simon. Severn, $28.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8261-5With the lightheartedness and strong themes that characterize a...
Malice Domestic: Celebrating 25 years of traditional mysteries
Must be my journalism roots. I can't resist reporting... and I'm just leaving the three-day cozy fest known as Malice Domestic. There, I attended panels on "mysteries around the world" and "social issues in traditional mysteries" and I was invited to speak on a panel...
Didn't you love that photo of Melon the cat? Well, his person - a librarian - weighs in on the book here."If," she writes, "you like multiple stoylines, an academic sleuth who is less practical than she likes to imagine, and some slightly otherworldly felines, then...