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The flustered-looking thug over there is Kevin Burton Smith, a Montreal editor, author, critic and essayist whose writings on crime, detective and pulp fiction have appeared in Mystery Scene, Details, January Magazine, Blue Murder, The Mystery Readers Journal, Word Wrights, Over My Dead Body, Crime Time (Britain) and Crime Factory (Australia).

He's a member of The Private Eye Writers of America, and the founder/editor of the award-winning Thrilling Detective Web Site, the internet's premier resource for fans of fictional private eyes and other tough guys and gals in literature, film, radio, television and other media.

Recent fiction projects include stories in Iced, an anthology of Canadian noir fiction, and Grunt and Groan, a collection of stories involving sex in the workplace. He also co-edited (with partner-in-crime D.L. Browne) Down These Wicked Streets, a collection of private eye tales.

At the present time, he does reviews for January Magazine, and writes a column and occasional articles for Mystery Scene. Authors or publishers wishing Kevin to review their current mysteries and crime fiction are urged to e-mail him or send any promotional or review material to

Kevin Burton Smith
The Thrilling Detective Web Site
3053 Rancho Vista Blvd., Suite 116,
Palmdale, California
93551

Kevin currently lives with D.L. in the Los Angeles area, of all places, but a good chunk of his soul still lives in Montreal. Please send smoked meat, some real beer and news of the Habs.

BIBILOGRAPHY

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This is a listing of the crime fiction-related stuff some of you might be interested in. By the way, somewhere along the line, I went from being "Kevin Smith" to "Kevin Burton Smith." I'm not getting snooty, but people kept asking me if I was the guy who did the films Clerks or Chasing Amy. Good thing I changed it before Jay and Silent Bob came out.
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NON-FICTION

• "Where Have All the P.I.'s Gone?" (May 31, 1998, Blue Murder, No. 2)
  Column on current state of television eyes.
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• "Summertime and the Living Is Cheesy" (July 31, 1998, Blue Murder, No. 3)
  Column on eyes so bad they're good.
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• "Graphic Violence" (September 30, 1998, Blue Murder, No. 4)
  Column on some favourite comic book eyes.
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• "Christmas Gift Suggestions" (November 1998, Blue Murder, No. 5-web site only)
  Column on gift suggestions for the hardboiled fan.
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• "Three Good Whacks" (January 1999, Blue Murder, No. 6-web site only)
  Column on three overlooked (IMHO) P.I. writers: Rob Kantner, Gaylord Dold and Thomas H. Cook.
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• "Click Me, Deadly" (March 1999, Blue Murder, No. 7)
  Column on impact of internet on crime fiction.
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• "It's Personal" (April 1999, January Magazine)
  Part of January's 50 Years with Lew Archer: An Anniversary Tribute to Ross Macdonald.
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• "Down These Mean Streets, But One Block Over" (May 1999, Blue Murder, No. 8)
  Column on "Ten Great P.I. Flicks You May Have Missed."
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• "Parker Without Apologies" (May 1999, January Magazine)
  Review of Robert B. Parker's Hush Money.
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• "Case File: Laura Lippman" (June 1999, Reflections in a Private Eye)
  Profile in Private Eye Writers of America Newsletter.
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• "Ice Needs More Heat" (June 1999, January Magazine)
  Review of John Farrow's City of Ice
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• "Down These Mean Streets, But One Block Over" (July 1999, Blue Murder, No. 9)
  Column on "Ten More Great P.I. Flicks You May Have Missed."
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• "Cover Girls" (August 1999, Details Magazine)
  The Art of Lesbian Pulp Fiction...Exposed!
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• "Burn, Baby, Burn!" (July 1999, January Magazine)
  Review of Don Winslow's California Fire and Life.
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• "A Cold But Tasty Dish" (September 1999, January Magazine)
  Review of Stuart Kaminsky's Vengeance.
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• "Private Eye Radio" (October 1999, Blue Murder, No. 10)
  Column on OTR, MP3 and the web.
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• "Pure Pulp For Now People" (October 1999, January Magazine)
  Review of Greg Rucka's Shooting at Midnight.
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• "The Cold (Shoulder) War" (November 1999, January Magazine)
  Review of José Latour's Outcast.
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• "Hammett: Take It and Like It!" (December 1999, January Magazine)
  Review of Dashiell Hammett's Nightmare Town.
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• "Heads! It's Chinatown! (December 1999, Blue Murder, No. 11)
  Column on the greatest private eye movie of them all...maybe.
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• "Regarding Tess..." (January 2000, January Magazine)
  Review of Laura Lippman's In Big Trouble.
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• "Zen and Ben Again" (February 2000, January Magazine)
  Joint review of Elizabeth M. Cosin's Zen and the City of Angels
  and Dashiell Loveless's Five Shots and a Funeral.
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• "Tails! It's The Maltese Falcon! (February 2000, Blue Murder, No. 12)
  Column on the other greatest private eye movie of them all...maybe.
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• "Setting the Woods On Fire" (March 2000, January Magazine)
  Review of G.M. Ford's The Deader the Better.
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• "Sepia Noir" (April 2000, January Magazine)
  Review of Harold Adams' Lead, So I May Follow.
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• The Explosive Talents of Robert Crais (May 2000, January Magazine)
  Author interview.
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• "Always a Tough Girl" (May 2000, January Magazine)
  Review of Robert Crais' Demolition Angel.
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• "Wine and His Times" (June 2000, January Magazine)
  Review of Roger L. Simon's The Lost Coast.
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• "The New Pulp" (June 2000, Blue Murder, No. 13)
  Read it! Believe it!
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• "Beyond Shaft: Black Private Eyes in Fiction" (July 2000, January Magazine)
  Feature Article on Shaft, Toussaint Moore, Easy Rawlins and others.
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• José Latour's Outcast (Summer 2000, Crime Time)
  Sidebar review of José Latour's Outcast, to accompany author interview conducted by Peter Walker.
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• "They Coulda Been Contenders" (August 2000, Blue Murder, No. 14)
  The obscure TV eyes that got away...
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• "Fathers and Sons and the Whole Damn Thing" (August 2000, January Magazine)
  Review of Harlan Coben's Darkest Fear.
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• "On the Trail of the Old Dicks" (Fall 2000, Mystery Readers Journal)
  Trenchcoat? Check. Fedora? Check. Gun? Check. Dentures?
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• "Trouble Is Their Business" (October/November2000, Blue Murder, No. 15-web site only)
  The P.I. ain't dead yet...
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• "The Ballad Of The Thrilling Detective" (Winter 2000, Over My Dead Body)
  True confessions of a web monkey.
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• "Calling Out Around the World" (December 2000/January 2001, Blue Murder, No. 16-web site only)
  Hello, this is the world calling.
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• "Trying Hard in the Big Easy, and All That Jazz" (January 2001, January Magazine)
  Review of Richard Helms' Joker Poker.
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• "His Typewriter Spat Ka-Chow! Robert Leslie Bellem's Dan Turner" (January-February 2001, WordWrights)
  Short bio and bibliography of Robert Leslie Bellem.
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• "Out of the Darkness" (February 2001, Crime Factory #1)
  More musings on the black private eye in fiction.
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• "Sometimes It's Hard To Be a Woman..." (February-March 2001, Blue Murder, No. 17)
  Some female eyes get no respect...
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• "The P.I. Classified Ads" (April-May 2001, Blue Murder, No. 18)
  Suitable for framing, or wrapping fish...
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• "Is There An Echo In Here?" (June-July 2001, Blue Murder, No. 19)
  Some recent retro trends in the P.I. genre....
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• "Let's Go To The Movies" (August-September 2001, Blue Murder, No. 20)
  The greatest P.I. flicks of all time. Wanna argue?
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• "What's Peter Sellers (Obviously an Alias) Really Up To" (December 2001, Reflections in a Private Eye)
  Profile in Private Eye Writers of America Newsletter..
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• "The History of Mystery" (January 2002, HandHeldCrime)
  Review of Max Allan Collins's The History of Mystery
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• "Other Voices" (May 2002, Rap Sheet)
  Mini-reviews of Lee Child's Without Fail and C.S. Thompson's Games Dead People Play.
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• "Raucous Laughter Is The Best Medicine: A Coupla Thousand Bloody Words on Private Eyes"
  (2002 Bloody Words Programme Book)
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• "Why I Hate Lawrence Block" (August 2002, January Magazine)
  Review of Lawrence Block's Enough Rope.
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• "Rain Is All Wet" (September 2002, January Magazine)
  Review of Barry Eisler's Rain Fall.
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• "Other Voices" (October 2002, Rap Sheet)
  Mini-review of Fredric Brown's Hunter and Hunted.
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• "Hey, Bartender!" (November 2002, January Magazine)
  Review of Sam Reave's Dooley's Back.
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• "Other Voices" (December 2002, Rap Sheet)
  Mini-review of John Connolly's The Killing Kind.
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• "The Gangs of, uh, Winnipeg?" (January 2003, January Magazine)
  Review of Allan Levine's The Bolshevik's Revenge.
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• "Other Voices" (February 2003, Rap Sheet)
  Mini-reviews of Lawrence Block's Small Town and Dominic Martell's The Republic of Night.
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• "Eyewitness: 'Tecs in Fiction" (Winter 2003, Mystery Scene #78)
  Introductory column on private eyes. (Not my title, by the way...)
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• "Other Voices" (May 2003, Rap Sheet)
  Mini-reviews of Jon Breen's Mystery: Best of 2002, Nathan Walpow's One Last Hit and John Shannon's City of Strangers.
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• "Behind Blue Eyes" (May 2003, January Magazine)
  Review of T. Jefferson Parker's Cold Pursuit.
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• "Eyewitness: These Are a Few of My Favourite Eyes" (Summer 2003, Mystery Scene #79)
  Column on oldie-but-goodies private eyes.
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• "Other Voices" (June 2003, Rap Sheet)
  Mini-reviews of Steve Hamilton's Blood Is the Sky, Kerry Schooley and Peter Sellers' Hard-Boiled Love and the Moonstone Noir line of crime comics.
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• "Waiting and Waiting" (June 2003, January Magazine)
  Review of Christopher G. Moore's Waiting for the Lady.
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• "Fair-Weather Fiends" (August 2003, January Magazine)
  Group review of Underkill by Leonard Chang, The Repo by Bill Eidson and Dying Embers by Robert Hardin.
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• "Eyewitness: Cooking With Michael Bracken" (Late Summer 2003, Mystery Scene #80)
  Interview with P.I. editor/author Michael Bracken.
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• "Has Anybody Here Seen My Old Friend Moses?" (August 2003, January Magazine)
  Review of Director's Cut by Roger L. Simon.
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• "I Love L.A." (August 2003, January Magazine)
  Interview with crime writer John Shannon.
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• "Lippman Pumps It Up" (September 2003, January Magazine)
  Review of Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman.
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• "Suddenly the Air Was Full of Music: The P.I. Mix Tape"
  (Volume 19: No. 3, Fall 2003, Mystery Readers Journal, Music and Mysteries Issue)
  My favourite jazz, folk, blues and rock songs about private eyes. It's got a nice beat, and you can dance to it.
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• "Other Voices" (September-October 2003, Rap Sheet)
  Mini-reviews of Velda by Ron Miller and Atomic Renaissance by Jeffrey Marks.
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• "Eyewitness: Ripped from the Pages of The P.I. Social Calendar!" (Fall 2003, Mystery Scene #81)
  Coverage of 1st Annual Private Eye Barbeque.
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• Every Secret Thing (Fall 2003, Mystery Scene #81)
  Mini-review of Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman
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• "The Original Shadow Man: Allan Pinkerton" (September 2003, Reflections in a Private Eye)
  Profile in Private Eye Writers of America Newsletter.
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• "Emerald in the Rough" (October 2003, January Magazine)
  Review of Sayonaraville by Curt Colbert
  ..
• "Have Nose Stud, Will Travel" (October 2003, January Magazine)
  Review of Burning Garbo by Robert Everz
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• "Other Voices" (November 2003, Rap Sheet)
  Mini-review of Something Down There by Mickey Spillane
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• "The 2003 January Magazine Holiday Gift Guide: Crime Fiction" (December 2003, January Magazine)
  Including mini-reviews of Cold Pursuit by T. Jefferson Parker, and Hard Boiled Love, edited by Kerry J. Schooley and Peter Sellers.
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• "The 2003 January Magazine Holiday Gift Guide: Non-Fiction" (December 2003, January Magazine)
  Including mini-reviews of Ultimate Punishment : A Lawyer's Reflections on Capital Punishment by Scott Turow, and Death and Justice: An Exposé of Oklahoma's Death Row Machine by Mark Fuhrman.
  ..
• "January Magazine's Best of 2003" (December 2003, January Magazine)
  Including mini-reviews of City of Strangers by John Shannon, Dynamite Road by Andrew Klavan, Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman and Tribeca Blues by Jim Fusilli
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• "The 2003 Mystery Scene Holiday Gift Guide" (Holiday 2003, Mystery Scene #82)
  A list of gifts to share with folks from nome to Katmandu.
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• "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" (January 2004, January Magazine)
  Review of Tribeca Blues - Jim Fusilli.
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• "Almost as Crooked: A Dozen Montreal Private Eyes"
  (Volume 19: No. 4, Winter 2003-2004, Mystery Readers Journal, Cool Canadian Crime Issue)
  12 private dicks who walk the mean streets of ma ville.
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• "Other Voices" (January 2004, Rap Sheet)
  Mini-reviews of Fedora II edited by Michael Bracken and The Killing of the Tinkers by Ken Bruen.
  ..
• COMING SOON...
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• "Hangin' Around With Mr. B" (January Magazine)
  Long-delayed interview with Lawrence Block.
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• "Eyewitness: Talking with Mr. K" (Mystery Scene)
  Interview with P.I. writer Rob Kantner.
  .
• And reviews of:
• Shadow of Death by William Tapply
• Dark As Night by Mark T. Conard
• Weeping by Shelley Reuben
• Bangers by Gary Phillips
• Winter's End by John Rickards
• Dead Man's Touch by Kit Ehrman
  ..
• NOTE: All reviews are tentative.

FICTION

• "Two Fingers" (2001, Iced; edited by Kerry Schooley and Peter Sellers)...Buy this book
  . My first short story, which asks the burning question: how far can you trust a guy who puts fruit in his beer?
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• "People Skills" (2002, Grunt and Groan; edited by Matthew Firth and Max Maccari)
  . Yikes! I'm still not sure where this story came from. Evidently I'm a sicker puppy than I ever suspected.

AS EDITOR

• Down These Wicked Streets (2001, co-edited with D.L. Browne)
  A collection of private eye tales from the Wicked Company Writers Group.

AS WEB MONKEY

• The Thrilling Detective Web Site.
  The site has done pretty well for me, nabbing some favourable comments and even some awards. You can check them out here. You can also check out my Thrilling Detective Web Guy page for a list of other web sites I've been involved in..