Booklist Review

Mickey Spillane is a Jehovah's Witness. That may be the most startling revelation in this fascinating collection of interviews with leading crime writers, but it is hardly the only one. That interviewer Kaminsky is an acclaimed mystery author himself--and friends with all of his subjects--lends these conversations an air of relaxed informality that is very different from the tone of most similar collections. The roster of authors--including Tony Hillerman, Elmore Leonard, Robert Parker, Michael Connelly, and Sue Grafton, among many other, equally celebrated names--is an attraction in itself, but Kaminsky and photographer Laurie Roberts manage to take fans inside their favorite crime writers' personal lives with a combination of casual chat and revealing images of homes and offices. Perhaps most interesting are the interviews with veteran genre writers--Leonard, Spillane, Donald Westlake, Lawrence Block--who have worked up from the pulps to the best-seller lists and understand the business and craft of fiction writing at every level. --Bill Ott Copyright 2005 Booklist