Stella, Crider and Utter Scoundrel on Expiration

Charlie Stella made me blush with his review of Expiration Date at his highly recommended blog, Temporary Knucksline: "It’s a fast ride; maybe too fast since it was over before I was ready, but it’s a fun read and a fine break from the real-to-life news that bombards us day to day."

Bill Crider weighs in, too, over at his Pop Culture Magazine: "As usual with Swierczynski, the book moves like a bullet."

And the Utter Scoundrel over at Lies! Damned Lies! says: "It's all very twisty-turny and messed up and ingenious, and ends with a chapter that would have Rod Serling smiling."

I follow these guys regularly for their pop culture picks, so a thumbs-up from them makes me extremely happy. Thanks, fellas.

The Murderer Vine

And my nomination for Best Opening Paragraph I've Read in a Long Time:

Here we sit in Puerto Lagarto—Port Lizard. It's on the old Mosquito Coast. Lizard and Mosquito, the two specialties down here. We're far below Yucatán. Compared this dump Yucatán is civilization. You put on a fresh shirt and thirty seconds later it's sopping wet. No paved streets and only one place with ice. That's the local cantina, La Amargura de Amor. The Bitterness of Love. Narcisco Ramirez owns it. He owns the only refrigerator. He packs it full of beer every morning. I sit in the Bitterness and drink my way from the front to the back of the refrigerator and look at the bay.

It's from The Murderer Vine, by Shepard Rifkin, out in May from Hard Case Crime. Bill Crider posted the original cover over at his place. I think Bill Crider owns every paperback ever published.

Silence! Bill Crider Speaks!

Bill Crider (not shown at left, though I often confuse him with Galactus, Devourer of Worlds) and his lovely wife Judy have chosen the winners of the "Tell a Bill Crider Tall Tale" contest. I'll let the Man Himself deliver the news in his own words. Congrats to all three winners. Just send me your mailing address (duane.swier at verizon.net) and you'll have authentic Criderabilia shipped to your home immediately. And if you lost... well, you can console yourself with the thought that, in your own, terribly small way, you've added to the Legend that is Bill Crider.

All the entries were so good that I couldn't decide. The embarrassing thing is that they were all better than I could have written. So I printed them out, cut them into individual strips, but those in a sack, and had Judy draw out the winners. I've stuck them down below.

Thanks for doing this and for helping me to become the most famous blogger in the universe.

Bill

The winners:

Laura said...
Bill Crider is so terrifying polite that, should you make the mistake of telling him the joke about Mexia and the Dairy Queen, he will not rise up and smite you with a single blow. But he could.

Scott Cupp said...
Vintage paperbacks don't kill people. Bill Crider kills people who buy them before he gets a chance to. Don't tell. Judy

Jim Winter said. . .
There has not been an act of terrorism in the United States since Bill Crider started his blog. When terrorists hide in caves, Bill Crider wins.