Five stars. If you're into crime writing and you want to get into the heads of the best crime writers today, get this book. Incredible interviews. ( )

In the foreward, Ken Bruen calls CM "the finest Mystery interviewer/profiler in them there United States."

Ken Bruen is so effusively, publicly loyal to his friends that it's easy to dismiss a comment like that as hyperbole.

Also, I have to admit to wondering how much of a difference the interviewer can make to the outcome. I was thinking that unless you're an idiot (a talk show host who didn't bother to google or pick up the latest book), 3/4 of the questions should be obvious, and your job is basically to provide body language that reads "trust me" and "keep talking".

Wrong on all accounts. Though CM's words may make up ten percent of the total interview word count, they are astonishingly well-chosen and backed up by a foundation of preparation so thorough that CM could probably have produced a Masters' thesis on any of the subjects. If CM is going to interview you, he apparently RE-reads everything you ever wrote (having read it all already), every interview you ever gave, and everything everyone else ever wrote about you.

(CM says the interviews are un-edited, and I believe that, but I think he must have deleted a lot of commentary along the lines of "how the hell did you know *that*?")

CM often says "I read somewhere..." - I believe there is a citation in his notes that he could lay hands on effortlessly, detailing the exact source of every word. CM's unassuming approach, however, never smacks of false modesty. Thank heavens, because there's no worse characteristic for an interviewer (and I think they should start using it as a culling factor when hiring over at NPR. Jeez, some of those guys need to be smacked.)

Not that every interview succeeds equally. You can sense the reticence, for instance, in some subjects...but if there's an opening, CM seems to intuit where to go. (Though like much of what we ascribe to intuition it's the accumulated body of knowledge, I think, that indicates the direction.)

CM's got one more book of interviews coming out, and then he's done. That's okay; he has more important things to do. But here's hoping someone else will take up the mantle with the same talent and spooky dedication. ( )