The Big Interrogation this week is with Lou Berney. His bio says that he is a accomplished liar, so who knows where this conversation falls off the truth train. He's written two comic crime novels starring too-nice-for-his-own-good wheelman Shake Bouchon, Gutshot Straight and Whiplash River.

Founder Clay Stafford will preview the upcoming Killer Nashville Conference, which takes place August 23-26, 2012 at the Hutton Hotel in Music City, U.S.A. Honored guests this year are C.J. Box, Heywood Gould, and Peter Straub.

And Steve talks with Richard Katz of Mystery One Bookstore in Milwaukee, Wisconsin about what he's been reading and what new releases we can look forward to this August.

The Big Interrogation this week is with Timothy Hallinan. Tim's previous installment in his Poke Rafferty books, The Queen of Patpong, was a finalist for Edgar and Macavity awards. SoHo Crime has just published the newest of this Bangkok-set series, The Fear Artist.

This week's Tale of True Crime comes from thriller novelist Mark Greaney. Mark is the author of The Gray Man Series, and co-authored Locked On with Tom Clancy.

Poet Bill Lavender recently published his memoir Memory Wing. It's an ambitious work, a book-length poem arranged in quatrains. Here, for mysterypod, he reads an excerpt recounting his early college years replete with drugs, theft, and books. Music is by Tom B. Alien.

The big interrogation this week is with Zoe Ferraris who has written a trio of tremendous procedurals set in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The newest of which is Kingdom of Strangers, published by Little, Brown.

Preston Lauterbauch looks at the mysterious death of R&B pioneer Johnny Ace. Check out his fabulous book, The Chitlin' Circuit and the Road to Rock'n'Roll, new in paperback from W.W. Norton. Lots of good rockin' tonight and true crime are guaranteed.
If you want more, listen to our interview from last year for Book Talk.

The big interrogation this week is with Joseph Kanon (Los Alamos, The Good German) about his latest Cold War thriller, Istanbul Passage.

Natalie Bakopolous kicks off the "Tales of True Crime" segment with a story of her first paycheck gone wrong. Her novel The Green Shore is available from Simon and Schuster. She'll also be a guest on my other show Book Talk in a couple of weeks.

Jake Hinkson talks about the noir underpinnings of Breaking Bad and Mad Men. He novel Hell On Church Street was published by New Pulp Press.<