Ten Years of the Venetian Vase

Ten years ago this week Chris Routledge and I began the Venetian Vase blog. At the time we were working together on the book 100 American Crime Writers, and Chris thought we should set up a website to either directly promote the book or one that would look at crime fiction more broadly. I favoured the latter option as I thought it would give the site more longevity. Chris has since moved on to his own projects, but I remain eternally grateful to him for helping me set up this blog and, as a Raymond Chandler fanatic, coming up with the name.

It took some time, and a lot of hard work, but I think the Venetian Vase found its voice as a blog which publishes in-depth research on genre fiction. Oh, and if you enjoy the work of James Ellroy then this is the blog for you.

I owe a big debt of gratitude to everyone who has contributed to this blog – Diana Powell, David Hering, Chris Pak, Steve Hodel, Craig McDonald and, most recently, esteemed Ellrovian Jason Carter.

Thank you to all past, present and future readers, and a big thank you to the Demon Dog of American Crime Fiction.

Here’s to the next ten years.

When I interviewed Ellroy at his home in LA in 2009, the year I started the blog

Meeting Ellroy ten years later in Manchester 2019, while he was on tour promoting THIS STORM