A THOUSAND STORIES DEEP by Rob Lopresti This continues last week’s tale of how I spent my summer vacation: volunteering at an archaeological dig in Israel. By the way, this photo by my fellow digger John Vanee shows me meditating on one of the major decisions of the volunteer’s day: grape or cherry popsicle at […]

DIGGING UP OLD CASES by Rob Lopresti Imagine for one moment that Alexander McCall Smith’s detective Mma Ramotswe were to announce that she had reviewed the Baskerville case and Sherlock Holmes got the whole thing wrong. Or perhaps Robert B. Parker’s Spencer discovered that Sam Spade screwed up on the murder of Miles Archer. Welcome […]

THIS FAR, NO FARTHER by Rob Lopresti Recently I was reading a mystery story and enjoying it. Then I was enjoying it less. And finally I asked myself: “Why am I still reading this?” So I stopped. I find myself reaching that point more quickly these days, especially for novels. There are too many interesting […]

DON’T ASK, DON’T ASK by Rob Lopresti Inquiring minds want to know. Here are 20 questions mystery authors get tired of. Do you know there’s a typo on page 5? Is your book any good? Why don’t you sell your books to the movies and make a lot of money? Do you write under your […]

We expected Melodie back this week in time for her column, but alas, it was not meant to be. Hopefully things will settle enough for her to rejoin us next week, but for now she’s had to extend her leave of absence. So in her place, here’s some poetry by Rob. At least I think […]

AND NOTHING BUT by Rob Lopresti A long time ago someone on an e-list I belonged to spread an old urban legend about a corporation. I don’t remember which one it was. Not the ancient claim that a well-known manufacturer of consumer products shares its profits with a Satanist church, but some story of that […]

MENTAL MONUMENTS by Rob Lopresti Beside a certain waterfall in Switzerland there is a plaque commemorating an event that never happened. I suppose that isn’t unique. There are probably many monuments around the world celebrating things that never happened — thousands if you assume that the world’s religions can’t all be historically true. The plaque […]