"A shot rang out..."

I almost always feel this way:

Matthew Schmitz on "What I've been reading":

Kingsley Amis once said, "If it doesn't begin with ‘A shot rang out,' I don't want to read it.” That's how I've felt recently, and so I've been reading Agatha Christie (The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Murder on the Links) and Ross Macdonald (The Goodbye Look).