People are raving about the posthumous Amy Winehouse album but I find it difficult to listen to, and not just because she isn't here any more. The production is too up front for her intimate, sharply sensitive vocalisations. Even if the young singer's performances were physically frail – and lord knows they probably were – it's wrong for the band and producers to take center stage, let alone put a beat box there. Winehouse is played over on 'Girl from Ipanema' and trapped by a snare drum on 'A Song For You.' It's as if everyone's pushing past her for the last piece of the limelight. Bad production, bad karma. Above: Amy in her happier unhappy days. (Update: And here, accompanied in Ireland. Recommended.)
In 2006 Bookslut – my favourite slut – interviewed Lawrence Block about his Hit Man series. The first book in the series is a crime novel I really admire.
Let's start with the new book, Hit Parade. What's next for John Keller?Full interview is here.
Morrow will publish Hit Parade on July 4. Like Hit Man and Hit List, the book's an episodic novel, and I don't know to what extent it differs from the earlier books. It seems to me we get a little more background information about Keller, and that he's going through changes and emotional stresses. But he's still Keller.
Does Keller's distant nature lend itself to the episodic format you've employed in the Hitman trilogy?
It seems to. Most of the episodes seem to work as short stories. Playboy will be publishing one sometime this spring.
Does Keller have a conscience?
It seems to me he has both roots and a conscience. They're just a little different from most people, and he's learned to cope with them differently.
Peter Straub said that Keller reminded him of you more than your other characters. Is it hard to keep yourself out of your books?
No, what's hard is keeping myself out of jail.
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