The Hammett and Chandler of Gay Detective Fiction How the books of George Baxt and Joseph Hansen changed the genre. Kevin Mims 30 May 2023 · 16 min read
The Girl of the Endless Summer How ‘Gidget’ helped to put surfing on the map. Kevin Mims 12 May 2023 · 20 min read
The Man Who Invented the Modern Cop Novel Joseph Wambaugh’s crime fiction has been much imitated but seldom equalled. Kevin Mims 23 Apr 2023 · 20 min read
Remembering Rumpole John Mortimer’s fictional barrister was—like his creator—a rogue redeemed by a fierce commitment to the presumption of innocence. Kevin Mims 1 Apr 2023 · 18 min read
Monks and Murder Modern literary master William Kotzwinkle returns after a lengthy absence to serve up a double Bloody Martini. Kevin Mims 1 Mar 2023 · 18 min read
Whatever Happened to Light Verse? A paean to a disappearing and misunderstood literary tradition. Kevin Mims 21 Jan 2023 · 20 min read
In Memoriam A tribute to five pop fiction writers we lost in 2022. Kevin Mims 20 Dec 2022 · 12 min read
The Bobos at 22 In 2000, David Brooks foretold an American utopia that never arrived. Kevin Mims 10 Nov 2022 · 16 min read
The Real Star of M*A*S*H A personal tribute to the overlooked genius of writer W.C. Heinz. Kevin Mims 11 Oct 2022 · 13 min read
Getting Fletch Wrong Jon Hamm’s portrayal is an improvement on Chevy Chase’s goofball routine, but still bears little relation to the amoral cad in Gregory McDonald’s novels. Kevin Mims 23 Sep 2022 · 16 min read
Peter Straub, 1943–2022 Farewell to another of the Big Six novelists from the Golden Age of American horror fiction. Kevin Mims 12 Sep 2022 · 13 min read
Go Ask Beatrice: Notes on a Dishonest Decade An outstanding new book tells the story of a wildly successful literary hoax. But it was just one of many. Kevin Mims 2 Aug 2022 · 28 min read
The Delia Demolition Why is the Atlantic slinging mud at the 72-year-old author of ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ on the eve of the film’s release? Kevin Mims 19 Jul 2022 · 19 min read
Undiminished by Decadence I grew up in the 1960s and ’70s and I’m happy to report that, for the most part, television and mainstream cinema today are orders of magnitude better than they were in my salad days. Kevin Mims 20 May 2022 · 14 min read
Get Ready for the Return of the Abortion Novel The abortion novels that proliferated in the late 1960s were filled with characters who are forced by carelessness and circumstance to make the most agonizing of personal choices. Kevin Mims 5 May 2022 · 26 min read
