We're big fans of true crime. There's something satisfying about delving into a killer's past to pinpoint that moment in time when he or she went off the deep end into full-tilt cray cray. So, when we heard about a new book about Houston's infamous “stiletto murder,” we had to...
Best-selling novelist Sara Paretsky spent a summer in Chicago during the 1960s, at the height of the Civil Rights struggle. What she saw there changed her life. And her career. "I saw the city through the eyes of those [civil rights workers] and that changed everything," she tells us. "I thought,...
Of the novelists reading in Houston in the coming week, Jeff Lindsay, the author of Dexter series, is perhaps the most anxiously anticipated. Fans are eager to discuss his latest release - and final installment in the Dexter story - Dexter is Dead. Lindsay will no doubt face questions from...
With 16 live cannons as part of the finale on Friday, the Houston Symphony’s Star Spangled Salute concert is truly explosive, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion spokesperson Whitney Hough tells us. Principal POPS Conductor Designate Steven Reineke leads the orchestra through a program of patriotic anthems (“The Star-Spangled Banner,” the 1812...
On Friday, ska music and a celebration of vine-ripened, unmodified tomatoes come together in SKAMATO, one of the new works seen in the Big Two-Hearted Festival. “It’s pronounced like tomato, ska-mato,” Michele Brangwen tells us, laughing. “I knew that I wanted to do something about the food industry, and I...
Charlaine Harris's paranormal characters, she's said, are symbols for othernesses. We asked paranormal author Laurell K. Hamilton if her vampires, zombies and other other-worldly beings were sometimes symbols for otherness and we got a surprising answer. "One of my degrees is in English literature so I pretty much hate symbolism," she told...
Novelist Owen Laukkanen is in town on Friday to sign his latest thriller, The Stolen Ones, which ventures into the dangerous and deadly world of human trafficking. Investigative team Kirk Stevens and Carla Windermere are called in when a Minnesota sheriff's deputy is killed. A hysterical woman holding the deputy's...
Music took saxophonist Shelley Carrol from the Houston Boys Choir to Carnegie Hall. Along the way, Carrol, who's being featured in the 17th Annual Moores School of Music Jazz Festival on Friday and Saturday, spent some time at Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, with the University...
It isn't just readers who love Murder by the Book bookstore; writers love it, too. Charlaine Harris, the author of The Southern Vampire Mysteries featuring Sookie Stackhouse, counts the store as one of her top two in the country. It's easy to see why. MBTB hosts several author appearances a...
So the last mystery you read involved one or both of the Hardy boys? Not a big fan, you say? Well, do yourself a favor and check out this store, now celebrating its 25th year of providing the best whodunits around. The folks at MBTB love their genre, and their...
