• Inspector Shan 01 | The Skull Mantra
• Inspector Shan 02 | Water Touching Stone
• Inspector Shan 03 | Bone Mountain
• Inspector Shan 04 | Beautiful Ghosts
• Inspector Shan 05 | Prayer Of The Dragon
• Inspector Shan 06 | The Lord Of Death

Sites:

• Eliot Pattison

• Gabriel Allon 01 | The Kill Artist
• Gabriel Allon 02 | The English Assassin
• Gabriel Allon 03 | The Confessor
• Gabriel Allon 04 | A Death in Vienna
• Gabriel Allon 05 | Prince of Fire
• Gabriel Allon 06 | The Messenger
• Gabriel Allon 07 | The Secret Servant
• Gabriel Allon 08 | Moscow Rules
• Gabriel Allon 09 | The Defector
• Gabriel Allon 10 | The Rembrandt Affair
• Gabriel Allon 11 | Portrait of a Spy

Sites:

• Daniel Silva

• The Night Angel Trilogy 01 | The Way Of Shadows
• The Night Angel Trilogy 02 | Shadow’s Edge
• The Night Angel Trilogy 03 | Beyond The Shadows

Sites:

• Brent Weeks

• John Rain 01 | Rain Fall
• John Rain 02 | Hard Rain AKA Blood From Blood
• John Rain 03 | Rain Storm AKA Choke Point
• John Rain 04 | Killing Rain AKA One Last Kill
• John Rain 05 | The Last Assassin
• John Rain 06 | Requiem For An Assassin
• John Rain 07 | The Detachment*

SItes:

• Barry Eisler

• Shinju
• Bundori
• The Way of the Traitor
• The Concubine’s Tattoo
• The Samurai’s Wife
• Black Lotus
• The Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria
• The Dragon King’s Palace
• The Perfumed Sleeve
• The Assassin’s Touch
• The Red Chrysanthemum
• The Snow Empress
• The Fire Kimono
• The Cloud Pavilion
• The Ronin’s Mistress

Sites:

• Laura Joh Rowland

• The Next Three Days

IMDb:

• Moran Etias

• Gavin and Stacey
• The Trip

IMDb

• Rob Brydon

• Dollhouse

IMDb

• Dichen Lachman

“One of the first things I tried to do when I bought the team was to make it an identification for this city, like Motown in Detroit,” he says. “I try to keep that identification alive. I’m a real Angeleno. I want us to be part of the community.”

“Los Angeles is about diversity, and so are the Lakers,” he says.

Los Angeles Times

Now that the Lakers have fallen on hard times (short-lived, I hope), I’ve temporarily transferred my play-off loyalties to Horry’s new team, the San Antonio Spurs.  Imagine my outrage when Horry was universally branded the bad guy in Game 4 of the current Phoenix-San Antonio series!

In the interest of fairness, I feel about the Suns — who have now knocked the Lakers out of the play-offs two years in a row — like I felt about the 1980s Celtics.  They’re whiny cheaters … and an incredibly talented team who have redefined basketball.  In short, they’re the perfect arch-rivals.  Why couldn’t the Lakers have drafted Leandro Barbosa when we had the chance?

That being said, I think Nash is more to blame than Horry for the suspension of his teammates Stoudamire and Diaw and therefore for the Suns’ loss to San Antonio in last night’s Game 5.  Here’s my man Rob’s woefully under-reported account of the controversial foul, buried beneath the Phoenix reaction:

Meanwhile, Horry said he was an old school guy and that in his early years, his foul would have been no big deal. He said he bumped Nash when he realized he wouldn’t be able to get in front of him to draw an offensive foul. 

‘If it would have been anybody but Steve Nash, it probably wouldn’t have been two games,’ he said after the Spurs shootaround. ‘But you know Steve is a great player, MVP. He’s a focal point of the NBA now and they just have to protect their players.’

Horry said Nash over-dramatized the bump when he went flying into the scorer’s table.

‘I thought I’d just bump him a little bit,’ Horry said. ‘As you know, the great acting skills Steve has, when he hit the floor, then flopped and did ‘Oh, I’m dying here’ it happens. I really wasn’t trying to hurt him. I had no malicious intent to hurt Steve. I like Steve. He’s a good person.’

Horry already was a target for Phoenix fans. When he was with the Suns in 1997, he tossed a towel in the face of then-coach Danny Ainge.

Now Phoenix fans have changed Horry’s nickname from ‘Big Shot Rob’ to ‘Cheap Shot Rob.’

‘It doesn’t bother me,’ he said. ‘I was already hated here in Phoenix anyway, but the messed up thing is the boos were kind of disappearing. Damn, now I’ve got to start all over.’

Now if you watch the replay carefully, that’s exactly what happened — Nash was bumped into the scorer’s table, then he threw himself on his back to dramatize the foul.  But that doesn’t fit the “narrative”, does it?  The Suns are supposed to be the brave, scrappy underdogs, and the Spurs are known as the wily, boring old guard. The Nash side makes a better story, whether it’s “true” or not.

No, I don’t think Stoudamire and Diaw should have been suspended for violating the letter (rather than the spirit) of the “don’t leave the bench” law. But I also don’t think Robert Horry, of all people, should be branded a dirty player because of a Steve Nash flop.  If you ask me, the league should be looking for flops as well as dangerous play — Raja Bell got away with another acting job last night.

The bottom line is that the Suns are the story this year, and just about everyone would rather watch a Suns-Cavs final than a Spurs-Pistons match-up. Me, I can’t wait for Game 6 tomorrow!