James Robert Thompson

Jo Nesbo could be poised for a breakthrough

2011-05-22 00:00:00

His friends knew he had a way with words. So when some filmmakers acquainted with Jo Nesbo asked the Norwegian crime writer to suggest a title for their upcoming horror movie, he tried to oblige. After musing on the story — friends go on a...

Paperback Writers: Sunlight and shadow in 'Los Angeles in the 1930s'

2011-04-30 00:00:00

Created by FDR in 1935, in the depths of the Great Depression, the Federal Writers' Project (a small part of the wider Works Progress Administration) was a make-work agency that gave jobs to about 6,500 writers, editors and researchers before closing shop...

Dark Passages: Knockout debuts of the 'decade'

2010-02-07 00:00:00

Purists may differ on the semantics, arguing that the new decade won't start for another 11 months, but psychologically, it's hard not to be swayed by the switch from 19 to 20, and from leaving "two-thousand-nine" for "twenty-ten." And so, by consensus,...

Whodunit? Otto Penzler, no doubt

2010-12-23 00:00:00

NEW YORK — For someone steeped in murder, grift and shady characters, Otto Penzler is remarkably cheerful. "I'm the happiest person you know. I am an optimist, I'm happy, I love life, I love friends, I love my job," he says in his book-lined...

Noir hits home in Los Angeles, Orange County

2010-04-04 00:00:00

Los Angeles Noir 2 The Classics Edited by Denise Hamilton Akashic: 300 pp., $15.95 paper Orange County Noir Edited by Gary Phillips Akashic: 300 pp., $15.95 paper "You can make a lot of mistakes in just one lifetime," says violet-eyed Eve Cressy in...

The Morning Fix: Ticketmaster and Live Nation newlyweds. Viacom and CBS, still broken up. A Simon-Simon-Tommy love triangle.

2010-01-26 16:32:52

Mind games

2007-09-30 00:00:00

Thomas Harris has a lot to answer for. Before he created Hannibal Lecter, the mere idea of a multiple murderer was enough to scare people into locking their doors and avoiding anyone remotely suspicious. Seemingly ordinary, many serial killers lived...

Hutton Wilkinson fabric line pays homage to Tony Duquette

2009-02-28 00:00:00

To launch a collection of his luxury textiles by manufacturer Jim Thompson, designer Hutton Wilkinson opened the doors last week to Dawnridge -- his Beverly Hills residence that he purchased and preserved as a living museum to the extravagant vision of...

Hollywood rarely did Donald Westlake justice

2009-01-08 00:00:00

One of the enigmas in the long and rich career of Donald E. Westlake was that this author of more than 100 novels, many of them popular, accessible and plot-driven works of crime fiction, both grim and comic, received such a spotty handling by Hollywood....

Mystery author Donald E. Westlake dies at 75

2009-01-02 00:00:00

Donald E. Westlake, a prolific mystery writer who won three Edgar Awards and an Academy Award nomination for screenplay adaptation in a career spanning five decades, has died. He was 75. Westlake collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack on his...

Charlotte, Oscar & Co.

2008-05-11 00:00:00

Where better for a writer to turn for inspiration than to reality? This is especially true of the mystery fiction micro-trend in which authors fashion real-life figures into detectives. It's tricky territory because the margin of error is so tiny. For...

Gibson still carving out his corner of cyberspace

2007-08-10 00:00:00

VANCOUVER, Canada -- Back then, it didn't seem like a great career move. "I don't think anyone told me that I was crazy," William Gibson recalled last week, sitting on the leafy patio of a Creole restaurant near his home. "But they didn't read science...

Former Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson, friend to convicted former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, stands outside the Ryan home in Kankakee, Ill. after Ryan was sent home from a Chicago half-way house.

2013-01-30 00:00:00

Students at Barrington High School hold a mock political rally on May 14, 1976. The guest speaker was Jim Thompson, who was elected governor later that year, a position he would hold until 1991.

2012-12-14 14:32:24

talk with demonstrators demanding jobs for Latino workers at the groundbreaking ceremony for Presidential Towers on Aug.

2011-09-16 15:13:51