Mostly around the Spinrad article for Asimov’s, which is a bit like watching a trainwreck in progress. (he tries to make a bunch of good points, but they get lost in some poor phrasing and some appalling ideas)
-The original article (incidentally, in the morass of stuff that made me want to hit something, there was the bit where he gushed about the Maya novel and its rigorous research–said research including choice bits like “Ancient Mayan codices [predicting] the end of the world in our era on a very specific date shortly approaching”. Er, no, sorry? That’s Christian Apocalypse eschatology getting mixed with the Maya calendar)
-Some back-and-forth going on on Jason Sanford’s blog
-Cheryl Morgan about translation markets and the isolationist nature of the US book market
-Nick Mamatas on the stuff Spinrad gets woefully wrong
-The awesome Charles A. Tan nails a lot of what I thought about the article in his editorial for the World SF blog (also, very nice stuff about mixed heritages/cultures, which I haven’t seen that often online).

I could rant, but honestly I feel the article and the comments are self-explanatory; and I’m reassured so many people are seeing it as problematic rather than taking it as gospel. I could dissect the article point by point (and believe me, there would be a lot of points to make, but I like my blood pressure the way it i. I think instead I’m going to go back to that article I was writing about Anglophone SF vs the rest of the world…

So, in my quest to widen my reading habits… Anyone have some good urban fantasy with a solid mystery plot they’d like to recommend?

I haven’t dipped into UF for a while, and my memory is a little hazy, but I read a bunch of books a few years ago where the focus was more on the worldbuilding, the characters and the cool magic, rather than on the suspects, the red herrings and the twists–if it makes sense. I want something that works as a thriller/detective story on its own terms, rather than have it be lame and saved by the fantasy or romance component (“lame” being defined as “I can guess the culprit within the first fifty pages”).

Thanks in advance!