Most Popular
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Red Alert: Everything they really don't want you to know about those pesky traffic-light cameras
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Thousand Dollar Baby: By day Jamie O'Hare studies for a master's in social work. Her night job is anything but.
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Seeing Red: Partners battle over a Wash. Ave. eatery's ownership
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Grand Old Patty: Ian goes on a beefy binge at Burger Bar and Sub Zero New American Burger Restaurant
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Dora Magrath was blessed with a beautiful voice. She's gone, but you can still hear it.
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Seeing Red: Partners battle over a Wash. Ave. eatery's ownership (17)
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Red Alert: Everything they really don't want you to know about those pesky traffic-light cameras (11)
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Fist City: Rockwell Knuckles aims to punch through St. Louis hip-hop's glass ceiling (3)
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Can Taqueria los Tarascos' tacos make you feel homesick for a place you've never lived? Si! (2)
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Thousand Dollar Baby: By day Jamie O'Hare studies for a master's in social work. Her night job is anything but. (1)
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The early days of "Psycho T" Tyler Hansbrough in Poplar Bluff
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Read Floyd Irons' full interview with investigators (transcript)
01:43PM 03/26/08 -
Valient Himself of Valient Thorr Donates a Kidney, Becomes Best Metal Dude Ever
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New St. Louis Shows this Week: Iron & Wine, She Wants Revenge, Bang Camaro, Wolf Eyes, Musee Mecanique, etc.
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Jones Soda Lolcat Contest
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Coming Soon: Mizu Sushi Bar
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National Features
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Village Voice
A Long Way Wrong?
Another celebrated memoir threatens to blow into a million little pieces.
By Graham Rayman -
LA Weekly
Hoop Dawg
Billionaire Donald T. Sterling owns the L.A. Clippers and loves the ladies. And those are just two of his problems.
By Patrick Range McDonald -
The Pitch
Children of the Porn
Elvin Boone's sex-shop empire crumbles as his offspring feud.
By Justin Kendall -
Westword
The Good Soldier
When the Army tried to take down Andrew Pogany, they messed with the wrong coward.
By Joel Warner
Best Local Writer
Qiu Xiaolong
Published: September 29, 2004
Did you know a poetry-loving Chinese detective walks among us? Well, not really. But we do rub elbows with the creator of fictional sleuth Chen Cao: Qiu Xiaolong. The Shanghai native came to Mound City in 1988 on a Ford Foundation grant to study at Washington University. He's been here ever since, writing, translating and teaching. So far Qiu has penned three outings for Inspector Chen: Death of a Red Heroine (2001), A Loyal Character Dancer (2003) and When Red is Black, published earlier this year. The mystery series is enhanced with delicious details of intricately prepared exotic dishes, Eastern poetry and Buddhist and Confucian wisdom. But what really sets Qiu's novels apart is their nuanced exploration of Chinese political conflict. While the author's characters are extremely distrustful of the Maoist propaganda that still pervades modern times, they're also skeptical of Shanghai's capitalist influx. It's that kind of Zeitgeist-consciousness that elevates the crime genre from pulp to primo fiction, and it's a rare commodity indeed.
