Spencer Quinn writes the funny and cool Chet and
Bernie series: Dog On It, Thereby Hangs a
Tail and To Fetch a Thief (Atria, September 28, 2010), so far. Peter
Abrahams, the one on the birth certificate, is the Edgar Award-winning writer
of more than 20 crime fiction novels for adults and children.
On your nightstand now:
The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine. She has a sharp and lovely style and makes the difficult look easy--which is the way I like it, even if that's not something that seems to be valued in literature these days--and she's very funny, too. Also on the nightstand: glass of water, lamp, can of tennis balls.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Treasure Island. Adventure stories and the sea--I loved them then and love them now.
Your top five authors:
Graham Greene, Ross Macdonald, Vladimir Nabokov, Patrick O'Brian, Nathanael West.
Book you've faked reading:
Pride and Prejudice. I tried and tried.
Book you're an evangelist for:
Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honor trilogy. World War II and how to serve. Waugh is politically incorrect and often nasty, but the satire is as good as it gets, and the scenes of the evacuation of Crete are amazing.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Last Train to Memphis by Peter Guralnick. The grainy photo of a young Elvis Presley all alone at the piano, wrapped up in his music before fame, is great, and the book turned out to be pretty good, too.
Book that changed your life:
The first Ross Macdonald book I ever read--can't remember which one, because of how fast I gobbled them all up. I hadn't really been interested in mysteries before I read him.
Favorite line from a book:
" 'It was I...,' Raskolnikov tried to begin." Doesn't look like much, but where it comes in Crime and Punishment and the simultaneous inevitability and diffidence of it hit very hard.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. Does anyone remember him? A wonderful science fiction writer, and this novel was perfect for the 12-year-old me that read it. So if I was reading it again for the first time, I'd be back to 12, right? And knowing what I know now or not? Just want to get the rules straight.