Tuesday's Literary Briefing

Oh, It's Not That Bad

We know what we’ll be doing this Tuesday evening. It’s our weekly meeting — the Taco Boy Toast. You don’t know about it but we do. It’s at a restaurant here in Charleston. Three of us meet. We are a solid group, but there is no doubting our shady, slumming dirtiness. Hell, we’d fit right in with a work of crime fiction, especially coming from London, which is a dark town where we could hang with Mark Billingham. Of course, we’ll avoid Pyongyang. That city is a little too dark for us. It’s hard being a saint, even though Judas wasn’t. Speaking of Jerusalem, does Judas deserve to be the epitome of evil in the Christian mind? We think not. Hanging out with a criminal is a slumming affair, even though we do not have petty fights, unlike some crime writers we know. Finally, in case you missed it, Florida needs more of Carl Hiaasen, without which there’s nothing but dark skies.  — Andrew Geer

– If you fancy a nice, cozy whodunit set in the jolly English countryside with kindly vicars and fresh-faced debutantes, then Mark Billingham’s novels are definitely not for you. — Mark Billingham on NPR

– North Korea left no traces in my passport, not even a visa. It showed that I left China in July and returned four days later. There was no indication of where I had been, except that I passed through customs in Dandong, a city in northeastern China that borders the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. — North Korea in Slate

His Greatest Legacy? Band Names

– At the Last Supper, Jesus knew that it would be the last, and that he would be dead by the next day. Each of the Evangelists tells the story differently, but, according to John, Jesus spent the time he had left re-stating to the disciples the lessons he had taught them and trying to prop up their courage. At a certain point, however, he lost heart. “Very truly,” he said to his men, “one of you will betray me.” — Judas Iscariot in The New Yorker

– I published my first crime novel in 1981 and was short-listed for the British Crime Writers’ Association’s Best First Novel Award. Since then I’ve published another 10, I’ve performed at innumerable crime conventions and crime bookshops in Britain, Ireland and the US, I’ve been on the committee of the Crime Writers’ Association, I love the good-natured, egalitarian crime-fiction world and have great friends among writers and readers. — Crime Writing Infighting in The Irish Independent

Who Said Trouble?

– “Lord Jesus Christ…look not on our sins, but on the faith of your church.” During his more than half-century as a priest, Rembert Weakland has prayed these words countless times. After May 23, 2002, when Paul Marcoux appeared on Good Morning America accusing him of “date rape,” he no doubt prayed them with new poignancy. — Rembert Weakland in Commonweal

– A graduate of the University of Florida, at age 23 he joined the Miami Herald as a general assignment reporter and went on to work for the newspaper’s weekly magazine and prize-winning investigations team. Since 1985 Hiaasen has been writing a regular column, which at one time or another has pissed off just about everybody in South Florida, including his own bosses. — Carl Hiaasen in Powell’s