Six months in…

I’ve been blogging for six months as of today, which I have taken as an invitation to write a history of Past Offences so far.

My first post was about Brahms and Simon’s comic classic A Bullet in the Ballet, which featured some formatting errors and an ‘if you like this, you’ll also like …’ ending which I seem to have forgotten about in later reviews. Also, I put the cover on the right-hand side, which I may start doing again.

My least-viewed review followed soon afterwards: Carter Dickson’s The Bowstring Murders, which I thought was a bit silly, but not so silly that nobody should read my review (hint). If nothing else, the cigarette adverts are interesting.

My favourite piece to write was the Edgar Allen Poe spoilers I unearthed in May. I really like looking at book covers, is the truth of the matter, so looking around for all those apes was an enjoyable few minutes.

My most viewed article is a piece on serial killers in crime fiction. Looking at my search statistics, though, I think this is mainly down to people looking for graphs about serial killers. Presumably trainee FBI agents doing their homework.

Which brings me onto statistics and search terms. I’ve become strangely addicted to how people come to the blog and have spent far longer than is healthy reading out search terms to Mrs Offences. I think the most surprising, and nicest of the search terms is ‘What does a kiss mean?’. The thing is, Past Offences must be the millionth result for that question. Counteracting the fresh-faced innocence of that search is the grittier ‘belly slash’.

Thanks to everyone who has read (apart from Mr – or Ms – Belly Slash) and commented on Past Offences, especially all the good people at the Crime and Mystery Friendfeed. I’ve had a great six months.

Rich