Mystery Fanfare

Cartoon of the Day: Personal Library

2012-01-29T07:26:00.000-08:00

From cartoonist Jeff Koterba. Originally found on GalleyCat. July 30, 2010

Discovery Mystery Award

2012-01-28T10:03:00.000-08:00

Poisoned Pen Press Announces the First Annual Discover Mystery Award: This Spring, Poisoned Pen Press will award a $1000 cash prize and publishing contract to the winner of the inaugural Discover Mystery Award.

This is a first book contest specifically for unpublished writers trying to break into the mystery genre, the Discover Mystery Award will include a $1000 cash prize, the Discover Mystery title, and a publishing contract from Poisoned Pen Press. The Discover Mystery Award is now open for submissions. Entries must be received by 11:59 PM Pacific on April 30, 2012, and the Discover Mystery Award will be presented on May 31, 2012.

For the first time in its history, Poisoned Pen Press is opening their submissions to previously unpublished writers through the Discover Mystery Awards Program. Writers now have the opportunity to submit their manuscripts to Poisoned Pen Press without the need for a query letter—or the worry of having a manuscript rejected outright.

Writers unpublished within the mystery genre are invited to submit their original mystery fiction manuscripts of between 60,000 and 90,000 words. A $20 entry fee applies for all submissions. For full details, eligibility requirements, and manuscript submission instructions, visit: www.poisonedpenpress.com/contest

Entries submitted for the Discover Mystery Award will be judged by members of the Poisoned Pen Press editorial staff, along with celebrity guest judge, Edgar® Award-winning novelist Dana Stabenow.

Jessica Tribble, Publisher at Poisoned Pen Press, stated, “At Poisoned Pen Press, we take our mission to discover mystery very seriously and pride ourselves on finding great new voices in the world of mystery fiction. We are looking for fresh, new voices and created the Discover Mystery Award as a means of giving unpublished mystery writers an open invitation to submit their manuscripts to Poisoned Pen Press. We would like to encourage writers to pull out that manuscript they’ve had hidden in their desks, dust off the keyboard, and finish that mystery, or finally do something about that novel idea that has been bouncing around in their heads. We can’t wait to see what we’ll discover.”

In addition to the grand prizes, Poisoned Pen Press will also provide support in publicizing the winning work, and sharing information with prominent booksellers. However, should no entry meet the standards of the editorial team, Poisoned Pen Press reserves the right not to declare a winner, or to offer the cash prize without publication.

Bloody Scotland: September 14-16, 2012

2012-01-28T09:35:00.000-08:00

I mentioned BloodyScotland when I first heard about this new crime fiction festival a few months ago. Val McDermid was here the other day, and she's going to be there, and she was talking it up. Val is reason enough, but the plethora of Scottish crime writers is intriguing.

Ian Rankin says, “Scottish crime writing continues to fire on all cylinders, and talented new voices keep appearing. Bloody Scotland is a long overdue celebration of Scotland’s favourite genre,one of its most successful cultural exports – and a chance to hear some of the most interesting international writers too.”

BloodyScotland: September 14-16, 2012

Bloody Scotland is an innovative festival which will showcase Scottish crime writing and place it in an international context. We will shortly be announcing a stellar cast of leading crime writers.

Stirling is the natural location for a major new festival, with easy access from the cities and also nearby Falkirk, Linlithgow, and Perth. Bloody Scotland seeks to build on the existing strengths of Stirling’s own successful Off the Page festival… and forge something new.

Contact: info@bloodyscotland.com

Thanks to Rhian Davies for the update

Love is Murder Conference: Chicago

2012-01-27T08:51:00.000-08:00

The 13th Love is Murder Conference returns to Chicago next month, February 3-5 at the Intercontinental Chicago O'Hare Hotel.

This Midwest mystery conference includes three days of panel discussions, beginning with "Til the Last Perp Walks" -- presentations by 13 forensic experts in crime scene investigation, computer fraud, money laundering, guns and weapons, poisons, the "blood splatter guy" and more.

Featured authors at the conference: Donald Bain (author of the Murder She Wrote and Coffee, Tea or Me? series), Julie James (A Lot Like Love, Something About You), David Morrell (The Naked Edge, The Shimmer), and Hank Phillippi Ryan (The Other Woman, Drive Time and the Charlotte McNally series); and Local Featured Author Julie Hyzy (the Alex St. James, White House Chef and Manor House series). Featured authors are on hand throughout the weekend to chat with conference attendees, sign books and answer questions.

Other events: book signings; Pitch-A-Palooza with NYC- and Chicago-based agents, editors and publishers; Master Writing Classes presented by featured authors; writing tracks presented by the Midwest Writers Association; the Lovey Awards; Saturday afternoon tea party; booksellers and exhibitors; entertainment by Those Were The Days radio players, the Mystery Shop and Mixed Company Troupe; networking with authors and hundreds of fellow mystery readers and fans from the U.S. and overseas; and the annual snowball fight.

Visit the Love is Murder #13 website (www.loveismurder.net) for more information and/or to register for the conference; or, email registrar Terri Stone at tvmstone@yahoo.com.

2012 Dilys Award Nominees

2012-01-26T07:30:00.000-08:00

2012 DILYS WINN AWARD NOMINEES

Faithful Place, Tana French (Penguin)
Wicked Autumn, G.M. Malliet (Minotaur)
Tag Man, Archer Mayor (Minotaur)
A Trick of the Light, Louise Penny (Minotaur)
Ghost Hero, S.J. Rozan (Minotaur)

The Independent Mystery Booksellers Association (IMBA) is pleased to announce this year's nominees for the Dilys Winn award, given annually to the mystery titles of the year which the member booksellers most enjoyed selling. The Dilys Award is named in honor of Dilys Winn, the founder of the first specialty bookstore of mystery books in the United States. The award will be presented at Left Coast Crime in March.

The IMBA is comprised of a network of individually owned retail bookstores across North America, devoted to the sale of mystery books. The IMBA has won several awards for THE 100 FAVORITE MYSTERIES OF THE CENTURY and THEY DIED IN VAIN, published by Crum Creek Press/Drood Review Books. For more information on the IMBA and the Dilys awards, including past nominees and winners, visit www.mysterybooksellers.com.

Congratulations to all!

Hat Tip: SJ Rozan

Val McDermid:

2012-01-25T08:31:00.000-08:00

The following article by Val McDermid appeared in the latest issue of Mystery Readers Journal: Shrinks and Other Mental Health Professionals (Volume 27:4). This issue is available as a PDF or hardcopy. Val McDermid will be at a Literary Salon in Berkeley, CA tomorrow, January 26.

Val McDermid is the author of 24 bestselling novels. She has won virtually every mystery award, including the Crime Writers Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for outstanding Achievement in the Field of Crime Writing, as well as the Pioneer Award from the Lambda Literary Awards.

Val McDermid: Method and Madness

The Mermaids Singing, the book that introduces my clinical psychologist and criminal pro-filer Dr Tony Hill, is unique in my experience as a writer. For the one and only time, the plot dropped into my head fully formed. The shape of the story, the nature of the criminal, the cruces of the plot and the occupation of the detec-tive; they were all there from the very beginning. It was a great gift, but it brought its own set of problems.

I’d been intrigued by the idea of using a pro-filer in a novel ever since I’d read Thomas Harris’s Red Dragon. But the most rudimentary research had revealed that, as in so many areas, in the UK we do it differently from the US. Unlike the FBI, who train their own officers in the famous Behavioral Science unit at Quantico, we Brits have traditionally used practising clinical psychologists to consult with detectives. Right there, I knew I had a built-in area of dramatic tension; cops never like outsiders coming into the heart of their investigation.

Which was all well and good, but I still had no real idea how it worked in practice. No other British crime writer had written about this relationship, so I couldn’t crib anyone else’s research. I didn’t know where to start. I didn’t imagine for a moment that Greater Manchester Police—notorious back then for their hostility to the media—would blithely hand over the details of whoever they worked with. I was stumped.

And then one evening I turned on the local news programme on TV halfway through a item about a clinical psychologist who worked with the police on offender profiling. Hastily I scribbled down his name and where he worked. If he’d talked to the TV, he might just talk to me.

Next day, I called the secure mental hospital where he worked and asked to speak to him. To my surprise, I was put straight through. I hadn’t expected that, and I suspect my explanation for why I was calling him was a pretty stumbling affair. When he finally understood what I was asking, he said, ‘How do I know you’re not a nutter?’

It was a good question. I suggested sending him a couple of my published novels so he could decide for himself. He agreed. I sent the books off and heard nothing for a few weeks. Then he called me and said, ‘I read your books. So did my wife. We don’t think you’re a nutter.’ And he agreed to meet for lunch.

We ended up in an Indian restaurant in Southport, a genteel seaside town on the Irish Sea, where conversation does not generally run to serial homicide. Over our set lunch, he gave me a brief outline of his professional life, touching on the kind of patients he dealt with in the hospital and the types of crime he helped the police with. The more he talked, the more excitement I had to disguise. I could see so much potential in what he was telling me, it was hard not to jump up and down.

The second time we met, he took me inside the secure mental hospital where he worked and showed me a couple of live cases he was working on. He took me through every step of his proc-ess, starting with the crime scene photos and ending with his report. He explained painstakingly how he arrived at the conclusions he delivered to the police. By the end of the afternoon, I had Tony Hill’s method. And that has remained at the heart of what Tony does ever since.

I had the method, but I didn’t have the man. When I started The Mermaids Singing, I intended it to be a standalone, so when I started thinking about the character who would be at the heart of this book, it was tempered by what I needed him to be capable of for the sake of this particular story. So, for example, his impotence was not intended as anything more than a plot point that I needed to make sense of his interaction with another key character. I knew that he was someone who struggled with the normal building blocks of social intercourse too; the clue is in the title of the book, which comes from TS Eliot’s poem, “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock.” The narrator of the poem is a man who yearns to be part of the world of love and affection, but he feels like he’s trapped behind a glass wall, unable to connect. My central idea was that both Tony and the killer should share this perspective; that they had much in common, but that at some crucial point, they had diverged in terms of the direction taken.
More than that, Tony had to be someone the reader cares about. I gave him a potentially lethal dose of empathy, a self-deprecating insight into his own foibles, and the capacity to love Carol Jordan. He’s an oddball, but his personality con-nects sufficiently with the rest of us for him to be an oddball for whom we feel affection rather than irritation.

Seven books in, I am still developing the seeds I sowed in that first novel. We have discovered his monstrous mother, the person who first saved him from bleakness, and the man who sired him. We’ve followed him to the edge of hell and back again. And what underpins it all is his understanding of the way people work. I’ve got no formal education in psychology, but I was a journalist for years and observed people in all sorts of situations. Really, the Tony Hill method is an extrapolation from that observation, salted by common sense and spiced with bits and pieces of knowledge I’ve picked up along the way. And I’ll be writing Tony Hill for as long as I can find fresh and interesting things to say about human beings.

Hard to see how that could ever stop.

Margaret Lawrence (aka M.K. Lorens): R.I.P

2012-01-24T05:55:00.000-08:00

Sorry to hear at The Rap Sheet via The Gumshoe Site that Edgar, Agatha, and Anthony awards finalist Margaret Lawrence (aka Lorrain “Margaret” Keilstrup, aka M.K. Lorens) died on January 15 at her home in Fremont, Nebraska. She was 66.

Gumshoe editor Jiro Kimura writes:

Ex-playwright Margaret Keilstrup started writing, under the M. K. Lorens pseudonym, the mystery novels featuring Winston Marlowe Sherman, mystery-writing Shakespeare professor, beginning with Sweet Narcissus (Bantam, 1990) and ending with Sorrowheart (Doubleday, 1993). After the fifth and last Sherman novel, she wrote three midwife Hannah Trevor historical novels, starting with Hearts and Bones (Avon, 1996) and ending with The Burning Bride (Avon, 1998) under the Margaret Lawrence name. ... Her last novel was Roanoke (Random House, 2009).

Shrinks & Other Mental Healthcare Professionals: Mystery Readers Journal

2012-01-23T10:35:00.000-08:00

The latest issue of Mystery Readers Journal (Volume 27:4): Shrinks & Other Mental Health Professionals in Mysteries has just been published. If you're already a subscriber to Mystery Readers Journal for '11 or '12, you will receive hardcopy in the mail within two weeks. If you subscribe via PDF, you should have received an email with download instructions. Contributor copies will go out in about two weeks.

Subscribe to Mystery Readers Journal for '12.

Shrinks and Other Mental Health Professionals in Mysteries
Volume 27, No. 4, Winter 2011-12 Buy this back issue! Available in hardcopy or as a downloadable PDF.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

AUTHOR! AUTHOR!

Murder, with Shrinks by Donna Andrews
My Muse by Sandra Levy Ceren
Hand Holding and Knee-Rubbing by Jacqueline Corcoran
Kinky Shrinks by Carole Nelson Douglas
Another Kind of Detective by Michael Dymmoch
When a Character Needs a Shrink... by Hallie Ephron
The Perfect Fix by Barbara Fradkin
Forensic Psychiatry: Shrinking the Dead by Meg Gardiner
The Doctor Is In by Roberta Isleib, aka Lucy Burdette
When Frasier Meets Murder She Wrote by Mary Kennedy
The Paths Not Taken by Shirley Kennett
Cop Docs: The First Responder's First Responder by Ellen Kirschman
On Getting the Right Counselor by J.J. Lamb and Bette Golden Lamb
The Psychiatrist's Wife by Sujata Massey
Method and Madness by Val McDermid
Mythbuster by Daniel Palmer
Railway Spine and Hysteria: Convenient Mental "Failings" of the 19th Century by Ann Parker
The Therapist as Hero by Dennis Palumbo
Putting the Psycho in Psychotherapist by Sandra Parshall
Walking Through a Killer's Mind by Michael Robotham
Exploring the Scarred Psyche by Mark Schorr
My Counselor, My Characters, and Me by Del Staecker
School Psychologist, Writer, and People Watcher by Denise Swanson
Shrink To Fit by Rochelle Staab
Case Notes of a Recovering Clinical Psychologist by Stephen White
My iPhone Quacks: A Modern Shrink in Murder Mystery Land by Marilyn Wooley
Imperfect Shrinks: Writing a Character Who Has More Flaws Than I Do by Elizabeth Zelvin

COLUMNS

Mystery in Retrospect: Reviews by Lesa Holstine, L.J. Roberts
Children's Hour: Kids Need Shrinks, Too by Gay Toltl Kinman
In Short: It's All in the Mind by Marvin Lachman
True Crime: The Interior View by Cathy Pickens
Crime Seen: Criminal Insight by Kate Derie
From the Editor's Desk by Janet A. Rudolph

Hammett Prize Nominees

2012-01-22T07:40:00.000-08:00

The North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers is pleased to announce nominees for their annual HAMMETT PRIZE for a work of literary excellence in the field of crime writing by a US or Canadian author. The nominees:

James Lee Burke, Feast Day of Fools: A Novel (Simon & Schuster)
Sara Gran, Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead ( Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Michael Ondaatje, The Cat's Table (McClelland & Stewart/Canada; Knopf/US)
Thomas Perry, The Informant (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/An Otto Penzler Book)
James Sallis, The Killer is Dying: A Novel (Walker & Company)

A reading committee of IACW/NA members selected the nominees, based on recommendations from other members and the publishing community. The committee was headed by Deen Kogan and included Jedediah Berry, Vicki Delany, Lorenzo Carcaterra, and Thomas Laird.

The winner will be chosen by three outside judges: Kevin Connolly, Canadian poet and editor; Eileen Hutton, founder of Brilliance Audio; and Paula J. Massood, author of Black City Cinema: African American Urban Experiences in Film.

The organization will name the HAMMETT PRIZE winner, during the Bloody Words Conference, in Toronto, June 1-3. The winner will receive a bronze trophy, designed by sculptor Peter Boiger.

Chinese New Year Crime Fiction: Gung Hay Fat Choy

2012-01-21T07:40:00.000-08:00

恭賀發財 Gung Hay Fat Choy! This is the Year of the Dragon. Chinese New Year begins Monday, January 23.

Living in San Francisco, the City of Dragons, I've put together Chinese New Year's Mystery Lists for the past few years! Not an easy task. This year I've added some titles (scroll down) that take place in China, not necessarily during the New Year. As always, I welcome any titles.

Kelli Stanley, author of City of Dragons, guest post on Chinese New Year.

Year of the Dog by Henry Chang
Year of the Dragon by Robert Daley
Neon Dragon by John Dobbyn
Dim Sum Dead by Jerrilyn Farmer
The Skull Cage Key by Michael Marriott
The Shanghai Moon by S.J. Rozan
City of Dragons by Kelli Stanley
The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee by Robert Van Gulik (7th Century china) "New Year's Eve in Lan-Fang"

Short story by Mary Reed and Eric Mayer: "The Lady Fish Mystery", EQMM, September/October 1996.
The Nancy Drew Notebooks: The Chinese New Year Mystery by Carolyn Keene

A good reference book for contemporary crime fiction in China: Chinese Justice, the Fiction: Law and Literature in Modern China by Jeffrey C. Kinkley (Stanford University Press)

Not specifically about Chinese New Year, here's a short list of authors/mysteries that are set in China:
Ralph Arnote, Hong Kong, China
Biggers, Earl Derr, Charlie Chan: The House Without a Key, The Chinese Parrot, Behind the Curtain, The Black Camel, Keeper of the Keys
Lisa Brackmann, Rock Paper Tiger
Stephen Coonts, Hong Kong
Charles Cumming, Typhoon
Xiaolong Qiu, Death of a Red Heroine (and other titles)
Howard Goldblatt, Playing for Thrills
Jim Michael Hansen, Bad Laws
S.G. Kiner, The Hong Kong Connection
Diane Wei Liang, The Eye of Jade
Paul French, Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China
John L. Mariotti, The Chinese Conspiracy
Peter May, The Firemaker
Lisa See, Flower Net
Deborah Shlian, Rabbit in the Moon
Eric Stone, Shanghaied
Nury Vittachi, The Feng Shui Detective

Yin-Lien C. Chin, The "Stone Lion" and Other Chinese Detective Stories

Also I'll have more recipes on my other blog, Dying for Chocolate, for a Chocolate Chinese New Year.

Noir City X: Trailer and Poster

2012-01-20T05:24:00.000-08:00

NOIR CITY X: January 20-29, 2012, The Castro, San Francisco, CA
Movies, Stars, Tours, Nightclub and Noir!!

From the Noir City Website:

To commemorate its 10th anniversary, the NOIR CITY Film Festival returns to the source. This year's poster was created in the San Francisco apartment where Dashiell Hammett, between 1927-29, wrote Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, and The Maltese Falcon, in an inspired burst of creativity that forever changed the course of American literature and laid the groundwork for film noir.

Ms. NOIR CITY 2012, Helena Bianca Stoddard, portrays The Maltese Falcon's delectable but duplicitous Brigid O'Shaughnessy, in a variation on the scene that Hollywood's Production Code demanded be cut from all film versions of the book. When one of the ten $1000 bills he's been paid to locate the Black Bird goes missing, Sam Spade demands that Brigid undress to prove she's hasn't stolen the money. "I've got to know what happened to that bill and I'm not going to be held up by anybody's maidenly modesty."

Hammett's actual apartment, located at 891 Post Street, is clearly the model for Spade's digs in the novel. It was for many years the home of NOIR CITY announcer William P. Arney, who carried the torch until local author and impresario Robert Mailer Anderson took over the lease. Under Anderson's stewardship, and the creative hand of designer Leonardo, Hammett's digs have been restored and preserved down to the last detail: Murphy bed, original fixtures, and all. When the fog rolls in off the ocean, and shadows streak across the ceiling, you can almost hear Sam Spade snarl, "I don't care who loves who—I'm not going to play the sap for you."

MWA Edgar Award Nominations

2012-01-19T06:37:00.000-08:00

Mystery Writers of America is proud to announce on the 203rd anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, its Nominees for the 2012 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non- fiction and television published or produced in 2011. The Edgar® Awards will be presented to the winners at our 66th Gala Banquet, April 26, 2012 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.

BEST NOVEL

The Ranger by Ace Atkins (Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

Gone by Mo Hayder (Grove/Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino (Minotaur Books)

1222 by Anne Holt (Simon & Schuster - Scribner)

Field Gray by Philip Kerr (Penguin Group USA - G.P. Putnam’s Sons – Marion Wood Books)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

Red on Red by Edward Conlon (Random House Publishing Group – Spiegel & Grau)

Last to Fold by David Duffy (Thomas Dunne Books)

All Cry Chaos by Leonard Rosen (The Permanent Press)

Bent Road by Lori Roy (Penguin Group USA - Dutton)

Purgatory Chasm by Steve Ulfelder (Minotaur Books – Thomas Dunne Books)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett (Hachette Book Group – Orbit Books)

The Faces of Angels by Lucretia Grindle (Felony & Mayhem Press)

The Dog Sox by Russell Hill (Pleasure Boat Studio – Caravel Mystery Books)

Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley (HarperCollins Publishers – Harper Paperbacks)

Vienna Twilight by Frank Tallis (Random House Trade Paperbacks)

BEST FACT CRIME

The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars by Paul Collins (Crown Publishing)

The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge by T.J. English

(HarperCollins – William Morrow)

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard (Random House - Doubleday)

Girl, Wanted: The Chase for Sarah Pender by Steve Miller (Penguin Group USA - Berkley)

The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Imposter by Mark Seal (Penguin Group USA - Viking)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

The Tattooed Girl: The Enigma of Stieg Larsson and the Secrets Behind the Most Compelling Thrillers of our Time by Dan Burstein, Arne de Keijzer & John-Henri Holmberg (St. Martin’s Griffin)

Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making by John Curran (HarperCollins)

On Conan Doyle: Or, the Whole Art of Storytelling by Michael Dirda (Princeton University Press) Detecting Women: Gender and the Hollywood Detective Film by Philippa Gates (SUNY Press) Scripting Hitchcock: Psycho, The Birds and Marnie by Walter Raubicheck and Walter Srebnick (University of Illinois Press)

BEST SHORT STORY

"Marley’s Revolution" – Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by John C. Boland (Dell Magazines) "Tomorrow’s Dead" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by David Dean (Dell Magazines)

"The Adakian Eagle” – Down These Strange Streets by Bradley Denton

(Penguin Group USA – Ace Books)

"Lord John and the Plague of Zombies" – Down These Strange Streets by Diana Gabaldon (Penguin Group USA – Ace Books)

"The Case of Death and Honey" – A Study in Sherlock by Neil Gaiman (Random House Publishing Group – Bantam Books)

“The Man Who Took His Hat Off to the Driver of the Train” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Peter Turnbull (Dell Magazines)

BEST JUVENILE

Horton Halfpott by Tom Angleberger (Abrams – Amulet Books)

It Happened on a Train by Mac Barnett (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

Vanished by Sheela Chari (Disney Book Group – Disney Hyperion)

Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby (Scholastic Press)

The Wizard of Dark Street by Shawn Thomas Odyssey (Egmont USA)

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Shelter by Harlan Coben (Penguin Young Readers Group – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson (Penguin Young Readers Group – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

The Silence of Murder by Dandi Daley Mackall (Random House Children’s Books – Knopf BFYR) The Girl is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines

(Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group – Roaring Creek Press)

Kill You Last by Todd Strasser (Egmont USA)

BEST PLAY

Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club by Jeffrey Hatcher

(Arizona Theatre Company, Phoenix, AZ)

The Game’s Afoot by Ken Ludwig (Cleveland Playhouse, Cleveland, OH)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

“Innocence” – Blue Bloods, Teleplay by Siobhan Byrne O’Connor (CBS Productions)

“The Life Inside” – Justified, Teleplay by Benjamin Cavell

(FX Productions and Sony Pictures Television)

“Part 1” – Whitechapel, Teleplay by Ben Court & Caroline Ip (BBC America)

“Pilot” – Homeland, Teleplay by Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon & Gideon Raff (Showtime) “Mask” – Law & Order: SVU, Teleplay by Speed Weed (Wolf Films/Universal Media Studios)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

"A Good Man of Business" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

by David Ingram (Dell Magazines)

GRAND MASTER

Martha Grimes

RAVEN AWARDS

M is for Mystery Bookstore, San Mateo, CA

Molly Weston, Meritorious Mysteries

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD

Joe Meyers of the Connecticut Post/Hearst Media News Group

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD

(Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, April 25, 2012)

Now You See Me by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur Books)

Come and Find Me by Hallie Ephron (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)

Death on Tour by Janice Hamrick (Minotaur Books)

Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry (Crown Publishing Group)

Murder Most Persuasive by Tracy Kiely (Minotaur Books – Thomas Dunne Books)

Val McDermid Literary Salon, January 26, Berkeley

2012-01-17T15:30:00.000-08:00

Join Mystery Readers International NorCal for an afternoon Literary Salon with UK Gold Dagger Award winner Val McDermid.

Thursday, January 26, 2 p.m., Berkeley, CA
Space is limited. RSVP for Directions (make a comment below with email address and I'll send them)

Val McDermid is one of my favorite authors, a terrific speaker and a good friend. She has written over 20 crime novels, resulting in several international awards and the television series, The Wire in the Blood. Some of the Awards: CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger, Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year, Pioneer Award (Lambda Literary Awards) Los Angeles Times Book Prize, New York Times Notable Book of the Year, the Anthony Award, Macavity Award, and Dilys Award. She was also a finalist for the Edgar Award. Her latest novel is The Retribution. Val McDermid splits her time between South Manchester and Northumberland.

Read this interview with Val McDermid that appeared on Mystery Fanfare about Place of Execution.

Val McDermid: Place of Execution Interview

Be sure and RSVP for this event!

Deutscher Krimi Preis (German Crime Novel Prize) 2012

2012-01-17T05:37:00.000-08:00

The Deutscher Krimi Preis (German Crime Novel) awards for 2012 have been announced.

The winner of the German-language crime novel is Wer das Schweigen bricht by Mechtild Borrmann. Runners Up:
Süden by Friedrich Ani
Zeugin der Toten by Elisabeth Herrmann

The winner of the international crime novel is Truth (Warheit) by Peter Temple.
Runners up (a Tie):
Savages (Zeit des Zorns) by Don Winslow
Started Early, Took My Dog (Das vergessene Kind) by Kate Atkinson.

Hat Tip: Omnimysterynews

Janet LaPierre: How Much Blood on the Page?

2012-01-16T08:03:00.000-08:00

Today I welcome mystery author Janet LaPierre with a guest post on recent crime fiction. This post originally appeared on Get It Write, the Perseverance Press Authors' Blog, December 26, 2011. Reprinted with permission of the author.

Janet LaPierre was born in Iowa, educated in Arizona, and settled in Berkeley, CA, to marry, raise two daughters, and read novels, mostly mystery novels. She is the author of ten published mystery novels and nine short stories, and has been nominated for the Anthony, Macavity, and Shamus Awards.
LaPierre’s novels are set not in Berkeley but in northern California’s far-away, sparsely-populated places like the fog-bound Mendocino coast and the fictional town of Port Silva, based on the real Fort Bragg; or the forested mountains of Trinity County and the actual town of Weaverville.
The LaPierre novels came to be called the Port Silva Mysteries. Crimes in these stories are not “organized,” but deeply personal, and maintaining the peace in the small towns and the surrounding areas is the work not just of police officers and sheriff’s deputies, but of watchful and sometimes organized citizens.

Janet LaPierre: How Much Blood on the Page?

Mine was a family of readers, and my mother’s term for the books that made up quite a lot of our casual reading was “murder mysteries.” Today those novels are more often called simply mysteries, or detective novels or cozies or suspense or thrillers; but the fact is that virtually all involve a murder, or two, or six. Walk into a big library or bookstore and ask for the mystery section, and you will find shelf after shelf of books in which someone (or some group of someones) is killing (or planning to kill) someone else.

Clearly the U.S. reading public has had a longstanding interest in crime and crime fiction. From Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie to Ian Rankin and John Harvey and P. D. James, from Tony Hillerman, Scott Turow, Sue Grafton and Michael Connelly and on to straight writers like Kate Atkinson and John Banville who double in crime novels, the reader can expect suspense, and danger, and sometimes bloody murder. But she will also find also good, complex stories and characters and often fine writing. These books not only entertain us, they inspire the writers among us who are not yet household names to keep working.

But now we have also the Scandinavians. They arrived here quietly a number of years ago with the Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö series from Sweden, which was chilly but good, with some humor as well as suspense. The Laughing Policemen won an Edgar Best Novel award in 1971, and was made into a movie. Sjöwall and Wahlöö, a married couple, produced ten books in this Martin Beck series, which ended when Per Wahlöö died in 1975. I’d read all of them, with great pleasure.

The works of the writers who followed Sjöwall and Wahlöö much later, like Henning Mankell and Håkan Nesser–and probably Jo Nesbø, whom I have not yet read—are grim, and meant to be. The Washington Times says of Woman With a Birthmark, “Nesser has written a fascinating study in the psychology of personal suffering.” Oh, good. And in Mankell’s The Fifth Woman, Swedish Inspector Kurt Wallander is working on two murders, that of a man impaled on sharpened bamboo poles in a ditch and the other of a man strangled and tied to a tree. These deaths are linked somehow to the murder of four nuns and an unidentified fifth woman in an African convent.

Although I didn’t love these books, I can say that they were well-written and suspenseful. The current block-buster from Sweden, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, is indeed suspenseful, in fact terrifying, but not well-written nor particularly well-constructed. It does, however, have a fascinating main character, the girl named Lisbeth Salander; reviews of both the Swedish and the new American movie of the story make that clear. Those reviews don’t say much about the truly awful multi-victim crimes, committed over a long period of years and still on-going, that Salander and the writer who employs her investigate. And I don’t intend to say anything about them, either; some of you may not have read the book and I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you.

I have the second book in the series, but for some reason have not gotten around to reading it yet. In fact, I’m a bit troubled by a sense that the mind-set of these books could become more prevalent in the mystery field. A very good friend of mine, a constant reader of all kinds of mysteries, recently picked up a new novel by a writer whose three earlier books she had enjoyed, and set it quickly aside as too nasty. Subsequently I ran into serious trouble with two new mysteries, one by a Brit and the other by a pair of Finns. Both these books dealt with the new-to-me subject of baby-farming, which involves a midwife’s being well paid to deliver the baby of an unmarried woman who doesn’t want her baby, but is assured by the midwife that a good home will be found for the child. In the story set in early twentieth-century Britain, the baby was most often simply killed and the body disposed of. In the present-time story, the new baby was indeed adopted, but a later sibling born to the now-married woman is stolen in brutal fashion for reasons that become clear only much later. I couldn’t finish the first of the pair, but I did gingerly flip through the second to find out whether my uncomfortable suspicion was true. It was.

And here’s a cheerful postscript to this screed. Turns out that P.D. James has a new book out, a book based on her favorite Jane Austen novel, Pride and Prejudice. I don’t know just what kind of story she’ll make with Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett, but I doubt that it will be grim or bloody. I can hardly wait to find out.

Library Montage Video

2012-01-15T07:00:00.000-08:00

Libraries have played a part in many movies, cartoons and other media. Enjoy.

Hat Tip: Carol Thomas

Organizing the Bookshelf: Video

2012-01-14T08:07:00.000-08:00

Love this video: Organizing the Bookshelf. Be sure and watch the closing credits!

Reginald Hill: R.I.P.

2012-01-13T07:45:00.001-08:00

This is such sad news. Reginald Hill, one of my favorite mystery writers and a lovely man, died at the age of only 75. Hill was the creator of the Yorkshire detective series featuring Andrew Dalziel and Peter Pascoe, as well as the Joe Sixsmith series and numerous stand-alones. Read an interview with Reginald Hill that appeared on Mystery Fanfare here. I am so saddened by this loss of this wonderful author.

Read Tributes in Shots Magazine

Obituary from The Guardian:
Hill charted the ups and downs of his two contrasting sleuths in more than 20 novels published over four decades after his debut, A Clubbable Woman (1970) alongside a substantial body of other crime fiction and thrillers. He won the Crime Writers Association's Golden Dagger in 1990 for Bones and Silence, and the Diamond Dagger for the series as a whole in 1995.

Writer Ian Rankin, who won the Diamond Dagger himself in 2005, paid tribute to Hill's great good humour, the intelligence of his writing and the generous advice he gave to young authors.

"I didn't read crime fiction until I was in my 20s," Rankin said. "Hill was one of the first British writers I read. His plotting was elegant and his characters were larger than life – once you read about Andy Dalziel he's never forgotten. I daresay there are shadings of him in my Inspector Rebus – they're both bolshie and maverick and they don't look after themselves."

According to Rankin, Hill was seen as a "traditional crime writer, but with a modern sensibility".

"He had a lot of fun with his characters," he added, "there was even a story where he sent Dalziel into space. But he allowed the real world to be part of his stories, letting his characters age in real time."

Telegraph Obit:

Hill called himself a crime novelist, but his work owed nothing to the hard-boiled tradition of the genre. His approach was cerebral, his plots labyrinthine, his characterisations sharply etched, and his dialogue richly laced with humour. His novels bristle with shrewd perceptions and whimsical wit.

It was this capricious streak, combined with Hill’s unflinching treatment of crime’s darker side, that marked him out as a distinctive writer. Read More Here.

Cartoon of the Day: Mystery Party

2012-01-12T12:43:00.000-08:00

Love this comic from Rhymes with Orange. Planning a Murder Mystery Event? Contact Murder on the Menu. It won't be like this one. Auditor Parties are actually really fun!

San Francisco Film Noir Festival

2012-01-12T09:09:00.000-08:00

This year's San Francisco Film Noir Festival Celebrates Dashiell Hammett. Photo is of Eddie Muller, the Czar of Noir, in Dashiell Hammett's SF apartment.

Read this article from the SF Chronicle on the Festival and Eddie Muller.

Weegee: Murder is My Business Exhibit

2012-01-11T07:56:00.000-08:00

Of particular interest to crime readers, authors, and photography fans is an upcoming exhibit in New York: Weegee: Murder is My Business Exhibit at the International Center of Photography.

The International Center of Photography says about the exhibit:

For an intense decade between 1935 and 1946, Weegee (1899–1968) was one of the most relentlessly inventive figures in American photography. His graphically dramatic and often lurid photographs of New York crimes and news events set the standard for what has become known as tabloid journalism.

Freelancing for a variety of New York newspapers and photo agencies, and later working as a stringer for the short-lived liberal daily PM (1940–48), Weegee established a way of combining photographs and texts that was distinctly different from that promoted by other picture magazines, such as LIFE.

Utilizing other distribution venues, Weegee also wrote extensively (including his autobiographical Naked City, published in 1945) and organized his own exhibitions at the Photo League. This exhibition draws upon on the extensive Weegee Archive at ICP and includes environmental recreations of Weegee's apartment and exhibitions. The exhibition is organized by ICP Chief Curator Brian Wallis.

January 20 – September 2, Daily (10am–6pm)
International Center of Photography, 1133 6th Ave, New York, NY

The Joy of Books

2012-01-10T05:19:00.000-08:00

The Joy of Books! Love this video.

Cartoon of the Day: Book Group

2012-01-09T07:01:00.000-08:00

Love this comic from Six Chix. Is this your Book Group?

Hat Tip: Janet Appel

2011 Indie Lit Awards Mystery Short List

2012-01-08T17:07:00.000-08:00

The Short Lists for the 2011 Independent Literary Awards. The awards are given in several genres. Hat Tip: E lizabeth A. White, Musings of an All Purpose Monkey who was a voting member of the “Mystery” panel. Other voting members: Jen Forbus (Jen's Book Thoughts), Lesa Holstine (Lesa's Book Critiques), Tina (Director) (Reader for Life), Wendy (Musings of a Bookish Kitty)

2011 Indie Lit Awards Mystery Short List:

Missing Daughter, Shattered Family by Liz Strange (MLR Press)
The Cut by George Pelecanos (Reagan Arthur/LIttle, Brown)
A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny (St. Martin’s Press)
The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes by Marcus Sakey (Dutton)
Fun & Games by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland Books/Little, Brown)

The Short Lists have also been announced for the Biography/ Memoir, Fiction, Non-Fiction, GLBTQ, Poetry, and Speculative Fiction genres as well. You can read more about the Independent Literary Awards and see all the Short List nominees on the Indie Lit Awards website.

Hat Tip: Elizabeth A. White, Musings of an All Purpose Monkey

Josef Skvorecky: R.I.P.

2012-01-08T07:20:00.000-08:00

From the International Association of Crime Writers (IACW) comes the news that crime writer and publisher Josef Skvorecky died on January 3, in Toronto. He was 87.

Josef Skvorecky was a Czech émigré writer who moved to Canada in 1969, where he taught for many years at the University of Toronto. With his wife, Zdena Salivarova, he ran 68 Publishers, which published banned Czech works. The imprint became an important mouthpiece for dissident writers, such as Václav Havel, Milan Kundera, and Ludvík Vaculík, among many others. For providing this critical literary outlet, the president of post-Communist Czechoslovakia, Václav Havel, later awarded the couple the Order of the White Lion in 1990. Skvorecky's fiction deals with several themes: the horrors of totalitarianism and repression, the expatriate experience, and the miracle of jazz.

Most of Skvorecky’s novels are available in English: The Cowards, Miss Silver's Past, The Republic of Whores, The Miracle Game, The Swell Season, The Engineer of Human Souls, The Bride of Texas, Dvorak in Love, The Tenor Saxophonist's Story, Two Murders in My Double Life, An Inexplicable Story or The Narrative of Questus Firmus Siculus. Short stories: When Eve Was Naked. Short Novels: The Bass Saxophone and Emöke.

He wrote four detective novels featuring Lieutenant Boruvka of the Prague Homicide Bureau: The Mournful Demeanor of Lieutenant Boruvka, Sins for Father Knox, The End of Lieutenant Boruvka and The Return of Lieutenant Boruvka.

His best known novel was The Engineer of Human Souls, which won the Governor-General’s Award in Canada. He also won the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1980. In 1990, he won the Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada for "Humbug," in The End of Lieutenant Boruvka. In addition, his numerous literary awards include the Canadian Governor General's Award for English Language Fiction (1984), the Czech Republic State Prize for Literature (1999) and the Prize of the Comenius Pangea Foundation “For Improvement of Human Affairs” (2001) which he received with the Polish film director Andrzej Wajda. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1982. He was also awarded the Order of the White Lion by the President of Czechoslovakia, Václav Havel, in 1990.

Cats on Classic Book Covers from Abe Books

2012-01-06T06:03:00.000-08:00

Beth Carswell and the very clever people over at Abe Books have 'catified' the classics with imagined book covers and titles! Cats and books go together, albeit not in these original books. Be sure and go to Abe Books to see all the covers. Here's a sampling.

Lord of the Fleas

A group of adolescent fleas are stranded on a lush, furry tabby with no adult fleas, and the ever-present threat of a well-aimed claw. Eventually, despite plentiful blood and space, the stress of the situation becomes too great, and they turn on one another and sharpen a cat-hair at both ends.
The Real Deal: Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Girl with the Kitten Tattoo
A kitten vanishes in Sweden, and none of the townsfolk are talking. What's the matter - cat got your tongue? Only Lisbeth Salander, super-sleuth and cat-fancier, can follow a trail this cold. What follows can only be described as a deadly game of cat and mouse.
The Real Deal: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Catsino Royale
007 declares war on Le Chat, French calico and paymaster of the Soviet euthanasia organization CAT-B-GONE. The battle begins with a fifty-million-franc game of bat-the-mousie, gains momentum during Bond's fiery love affair with a sensuous Persian, and escalates.
The Real Deal: Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

Be sure to see the rest of the covers at AbeBooks.com

Forgotten Books: Mystery Book Group Winter 2012

2012-01-05T07:10:00.000-08:00

The Mystery Readers International, NorCal Mystery Book Group has been meeting weekly on Tuesday nights in Berkeley (CA) for over 30 years. Since we've read so many books during that time--at least a book a week--this session we'll be revisiting some books and authors we've come across in the past. So this session, we'll be reading "Forgotten Books". Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. Please comment if you plan to attend...or comment if you'd like to 'read and discuss' along with us.

Forgotten Books Winter 2012

Mystery Readers Book Group Berkeley

January 10    The Killings at Badger’s Drift – Caroline Graham

January 17    Many Deadly Returns - Patricia Moyes

January 24:   Rogue Male - Geoffrey Household

January 31   The Murder of Miranda - Margaret Millar

February 7    The Family Vault by Charlotte MacLeod

Feburary 14   Brighton Rock - Graham Greene

February 21   Ruth Rendell: A Judgement in Stone

February 28   Savage Season - Joe R. Lansdale

March 6        The Hollow Man (The Three Coffins) - John Dickson Carr

March 13     Outsider in Amsterdam - Janwillem van de Wetering

March 20     Speak for the Dead - Margaret Yorke

Double Sided Binocular Flask

2012-01-04T07:11:00.000-08:00

I always like things that are other than they seem. This pair of binoculars is really a double sided flask. Each eye piece opens to provide access to a separate compartment. A good solution to bringing drinks to the Ballgame. Of course if you're a thriller reader, you've probably come up with many other possibilities.

Available at several sources on the Internet, ranging from $19.95 to $47.99

Ronald Searle: R.I.P.

2012-01-03T05:30:00.000-08:00

UK Artist, St Trinian's Creator Ronald Searle Dies at 91

From the NYT: British cartoonist Ronald Searle, best known for his spiky drawings of the tearaway pupils of the fictional girls school St Trinian's, died in southern France.

Searle, whose anarchic St Trinian's characters spawned a series of movie adaptations, died on December 30 at a hospital near his home in Draguignan, in France's south-eastern Var region.
His spindly schoolgirl creations, which first appeared in 1941, hit the big screen in 1954 as "The Belles of St Trinian's," with Alastair Sim starring in drag as headmistress Millicent Fritton.

Searle was also known for his comic illustrations in a series of 1950s satires on British private school education, written by author Geoffrey Willans, including "Down with Skool" and "How to be Topp."

The books featured the thoughts of schoolboy Nigel Molesworth, and his advice on how to survive the trials of term-time at the crumbling St. Custard's, ruled over by terrifying headmaster Grimes, head boy Grabber and the school dog.

Searle's cartoons also appeared in magazines and newspapers, including Britain's Punch and The New Yorker.

His work was recognized internationally, and he won a number of awards from America's National Cartoonists Society. In France, where he lived since 1961, he was awarded the country's prestigious Legion d'Honneur.

Read the rest of the obituary in the NYT HERE.

Read the Guardian obituary Here.

Masterpiece: Downton Abbey, Season 2

2012-01-02T09:25:00.000-08:00

So many wonderful PBS shows on Masterpiece for 2012, starting Sunday night with Downton Abbey, Season 2. I was lucky enough to screen episodes 1-6 this past weekend. What a great way to greet the New Year, don't you think? Downton Abbey will air on your local PBS station, Sundays, starting January 8 and go through February 19.

I enjoyed Downton Abbey's first season, but I found the second season even better, if that's possible. O.K., Downton Abbey revisits many themes we've watched before: the Great War, Upstairs/downstairs relationships, the Spanish Flu, change. It's a soap opera, but such a beautiful and well written soap opera with terrific actors and great cinematography that I only lamented the end to the season. As I said, the acting is superb, the costumes fabulous, the cinematography outstanding. This is classic MASTERPIECE as well as Masterpiece Classic!

The second season of Downton Abbey starts several years after Series One ended. It's about love, intrigue and the trauma of war both in the trenches and back at the estate. And, change is definitely afoot. Add to that a bit of mystery, intrigue and romance. Several new characters fill out the cast with a new beau for Lady Mary and a fiance for Matthew. Below stairs Mr Bates continues his relationship with Anna and tries to deal with Mrs Bates, his wife. Thomas is off to war and much more. The Dowager Countess played by Maggie Smith is one of the best character in my opinion. She has so much to say on so many matters. Above and below stairs there's lots of intrigue.

Returning cast includes Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh Bonneville, Dan Stevens, Michelle Dockery, Siobhan Finneran and many more. Downton Abbey, produced by Carnival Films and copproducted by MASTERPIECE, won 6 Emmys, including Outstanding Miniseries or Movies, plus awards for Supporting Actress Dame Maggie Smith, Writer Julian Fellowes and nominations for Direction, Cinematography, and Costumes.

If you weren't one of the thirteen million MASTERPIECE viewers who watched the first season, you can watch episodes online at PBS HERE. Be sure to tune in Sunday night for Downton Abbey or set your DVR or watch next week on PBS, streaming. Don't miss it!

Nick & Nora Charles: Drinking their way through the Movies

2011-12-31T08:49:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! My final post for 2011 includes drinks and film clips to help you celebrate!

Last May I blogged about Detectives and their Drinks. In June I posted about James Bond's Vesper Martini. Detective team Nick and Nora Charles always come up on top for detectives with a pension for drink. The constant drinking of this bantering couple never hampers their investigative skills - quite the opposite. "Can't you say anything about the case?" a detective asks. "Yes," Nick grumbles. "It's putting me way behind in my drinking."

The Bronx Cocktail (Nick and Nora Charles in the Thin Man)
1 1/2 oz gin
1/2 oz sweet vermouth
1/2 oz dry vermouth
1 oz orange juice
Shake well (to a two-step time, as Nick suggests). Strain and garnish with orange peel. (recipe from Nightcapped)

Knickerbocker from The Thin Man (1934)
50ml gin
Large dash dry vermouth
Small dash sweet vermouth
Add the gin and both vermouths to a mixing glass filled with ice. Once well mixed, strain into a frosted martini glass.

What will you be drinking tonight? Pick Your Poison and Toast 2012! Enjoy!

Champagne in Crime Fiction

2011-12-30T15:25:00.000-08:00

If you follow this blog--or if you know me--you know that I'm a list maker. So I was putting together a list of different chocolatiers who make champagne truffles for a New Year's Eve post on DyingforChocolate.com, and I thought there must be several mysteries in which Champagne has a prominent role. I've come up with four titles. Surely there must be more. I know that Champagne figures in Dashiell Hammett's Thin Man books. I remember Nick and Nora drinking lots of champagne in the movies. So here's a short list of 'Champagne' books to toast on New Year's Eve. Please comment with any missed titles.

Champagne for One by Nero Wolfe
Champagne Fuhrern by Kare Hallden (in Swedish)
Champagne for Buzzards by Phyllis Smallman
Dry Bones by Peter May
Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie
Champagne Blues by Ivan and Nat Lyons
Tug of War by Barbara Cleverly

And here's a mystery related story about Champagne, especially for history mystery folks. This was reported in The Daily Mail (UK) July 2010. Talk about a vintage that holds its own!

Divers have discovered what is thought to be the world's oldest drinkable champagne in a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea.
They have already tested out the contents of one bottle and claim it tastes 'fantastic' despite dating back to the late 18th century.
   Diving instructor Christian Ekstrom said the bottles are believed to be from the 1780s and likely were part of a cargo destined for Russia.
   'We brought up the bottle to be able to establish how old the wreck was. We didn't know it would be champagne. We thought it was wine or something,' he said.
   Ekstrom said the divers were overjoyed when they popped the cork on their boat after hauling the bubbly from a depth of 200 feet (60 meters).
   'It tasted fantastic. It was a very sweet champagne, with a tobacco taste and oak,' Ekstrom said.
   The divers discovered the shipwreck near the Aland Islands, between Sweden and Finland. About 30 bottles are believed to be aboard the sunken vessel.
Read More Here.

And, then, of course, there's always Sabering Champagne, as opposed to savoring Champagne. Sabering is opening the champagne bottle with a saber. A talent a mystery reader might have!

Z is for Zeltserman: Dave Zelsterman

2011-12-29T11:17:00.000-08:00

So we've reached the end of the Mystery Author Alphabet Meme today with Z is for Zeltserman. Yes, a few letters are missing, but hopefully some authors in 2012 will feel the necessity to come forward and fill in those letters. So to end 2012 on a high note, here's Z is for Zeltserman: Dave Zeltserman.

Dave Zeltserman is a lifelong Red Sox fan, 2010 Shamus Award winner for 'Julius Katz', and the author of 14 novels and numerous short stories. He lives in the Boston-area with his wife, Judy, holds a black belt in Kung Fu, and spends his days writing everything from charming mysteries to pitch-black noir crime fiction, and even some horror now and then. With some luck his books Outsourced and A Killer's Essence will be made into movies in the not-so-distant future.

Dave Zeltserman: A Killer's Essence

Janet told me I could write about anything, so I’m going to write about the Red Sox, particularly the Sox beating the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS playoffs. If you ask any Red Sox fan who’s been following the team since at least ’78 what their most joyous professional sport moment is, it’s going to be the Sox coming back from the dead to beat the Yankees in ’04. The Sox still had to beat St. Louis to win their first World Series since 1918, but that was all anticlimactic after beating the Yankees.

As Sox fans we suffered through Bucky “effing” Dent in ’78, a last second World Series collapse in ’86 (I never blamed Buckner—a lot of stuff went wrong well before the ball went through his legs), and Grady Little leaving Pedro Martinez in the 7th game way too long in the ALCS against the Yankees. So in 2004 we have the Sox down 0-3 against the Yankees. No major league baseball team had ever come back from an 0-3 deficit before, and it’s looking like the Sox are dead, especially with Curt Schilling injured. Game 4 they’re trailing the Yankees 4-3 in the 9nth and the best reliever in the history of the game, Mariano Rivera, is trying to close out the series. A walk, a stolen base, a hit, and the game’s tied, and the Sox go on to beat the evil empire in the 12th in dramatic fashion with a homerun by David Ortiz. The Sox are still trailing the series 3 games to 1 and barely have a pulse but then they take game 5 in equally dramatic fashion winning it in the 14th inning, again a game winning hit by Ortiz. Game 6 is the bloody sock game where they win thanks to Curt Schilling’s heroics. Game 7 is a blowout, and the impossible has happened. The Sox have not only come back from the dead to beat the Yankees, but they’ve beaten the curse of the Bambino at the same time. They end up sweeping the Cardinals in the World Series, and something that Red Sox fans were told would never happen has happened. After 86 years the Sox have won another World Series.

So what does all this have to do with crime fiction? Well, nothing really except the Red Sox winning that series was such a cathartic moment for me, as it was for millions of Sox fans, that I decided to place my novel, A Killer’s Essence, mostly during the 2004 ALCS playoff series. Since New York was a better fit for location for my story than Boston, I had my first flash of inspiration where I’d show the Yankees collapse from the point of view of a diehard Yankees fan. A Killer’s Essence is a mix of different genres: a police procedural, a crime novel, a supernaturally tinged horror thriller, but it’s also very much about the chaos and confusion that blinds us in our lives. My main character, Stan Green, is a decent man and a good cop whose personal life is spinning out of control, and having yet one more absolute truth in his life taken away—that the Yankees will always find a way to beat the Red Sox (or as us Sox fan always thought of it, Sox always finding a way to lose)— the eventual demise of his beloved Yankees becomes more nail in his psychological coffin. There are other ways in which I integrate the playoff series into the novel, including giving Stan one more way to disappoint his son. In the end A Killer’s Essence is not only a mélange of all the genres I already mentioned, but redemption for Red Sox fans as well as to a small degree a book about the love of baseball.

New Year's Mysteries: New Year Crime Fiction

2011-12-28T11:54:00.000-08:00

Time again for another holiday list: New Year Mysteries! This is an updated list for 2012! I wish you a safe, healthy and prosperous New Year. May mystery and mayhem only happen in crime fiction!

Crime Fiction Set at the New Year
As always, let me know if I've missed any titles.

Marian Babson: Line up for Murder
T. L. Barnett: Murder for the New Year
George Baxt: The Marlene Dietrich Murder Case
Nero Blanc: A Crossworder's Gift
Jon L. Breen: Touch of the Past
Rita Mae Brown: Full Cry
Alison Cairns: New Year Resolution
Lillian Stewart Carl: The Blue Hackle
Lee Child, ed: Killer Year: Stories to Die for
Anne Cleeves: Raven Black
Anna Ashwood Collins: Deadly Resolutions
Patricia Cornwell: Cause of Death
Mark Costello: Bag Men
Alisa Craig: Murder Goes Mumming
Jeffrey Deaver: The Devil's Teardrop
Colin Dexter: The Secret of Annexe 3
Carter Dickson: Death and the Gilded Man
Carole Nelson Douglas: Cat on a Hyacinth Hunt
Loren D. Estleman: Stress
Janet Evanovich: Plum New Year
J. Jefferson Fargeon: Death in Fancy Dress (aka The Fancy Dress Ball)
Quinn Fawcett: Siren Song
Jerrilyn Farmer: Dim Sum Dead
Frederick Forsyth: The Fourth Protocol
Janet Gleeson: The Grenadillo Box
J.M. Gregson: The Lancashire Leopard
Jane Haddam: Fountain of Death
Karen Harper: The Queene's Christmas
Lee Harris: The New Year's Eve Murder
Ellen Hart: Hallowed Murder, Merchant of Venus
Roy Hart: Seascape with Dead Figures
Lauren Henderson: Pretty Boy
Reginald Hill: Killing The Lawyers
J.A. Jance: Name Withheld
Rufus King: Holiday Homicide
Frances and Richard Lockridge: The Dishonest Murderer
Heather Dune Macadam: The Weeping Buddha
Ed McBain: Lullaby
Johnston McCulley: New Year's Pardon; New Year's Duty
Philip McLauren: Scream Black Murder
Elisabeth McNeill: Hot News
Leslie Meier: New Year's Eve Murder
James Melville: Body Wore Brocade
David William Meredith: The Christmas Card Murders
Miriam Ann Moore: Stayin' Alive
Tamar Myers: A Penny Urned
Leonardo Padura: Havana Blue (starts with a New Year's Eve hangover)
Elizabeth Peters: The Golden One
Edward O. Phillips: Sunday's Child
Ellery Queen: Calamity Town
Gillian Roberts: The Mummer’s Curse
Cindy Sample: Dying for a Date
Dorothy L. Sayers: The Nine Tailors (begins on New Year's Eve)
Joan Smith: Don't Leave Me This Way, Why Aren't They Screaming
Meg Taggart: Murder at the Savoy
Kathleen Taylor: Cold Front
Charles Todd: A Long Shadow
Patricia Wentworth: Clock Strikes Twelve
Valerie Wolzein: 'Tis the Season to be Murdered (aka And a Lethal New Year)
Mark Richard Zubro: The Truth Can Get You Killed

Want some Chocolate with your Mystery? Check out my Chocolate Blog: Dying for Chocolate for Champagne Truffles to make. Rather buy some? Here's a link to a Variety of Champagne Truffles. Later this week I'll post a recipe for New Year's Eve Chocolate Rockets!

Cheetah: R.I.P.

2011-12-28T08:09:00.000-08:00

Cheetah, the chimpanzee who starred alongside Tarzan in the franchise films of the early 1930s, died Saturday. He had experienced kidney failure earlier that week, and was thought to be 80 years old.

Cheetah, also known as Cheetah-Mike, acted as Tarzan's comic sidekick "Cheeta" and was one of several chimpanzees who appeared in the films of 1932 to 1934, with Johnny Weissmuller in the starring role.

Around 1960, after living on Weissmuller's estate, Cheetah retired to Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, Fla.

Read the Rest of the Obit, here.

W is for Westerson: Jeri Westerson

2011-12-26T07:35:00.000-08:00

Today the Mystery Author Alphabet Meme continues with W is for Westerson: Jeri Westerson.

Jeri Westerson writes the critically acclaimed Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Series. It’s her take on a hardboiled detective series in a medieval setting. Jeri’s books have been shortlisted for a slew of mystery awards including the Macavity, the Bruce Alexander Historical Mystery Award, the Shamus, and RT Reviewer’s Choice Award. She has excerpts of the books at www.JeriWesterson.com.

**BOOK CONTEST** Comment below to win a copy Jeri’s latest book, TROUBLED BONES! Winner: Kelly Robinson!

JERI WESTERSON: Chaucer and Me

When I was a kid, I had a more or less ordinary upbringing but for one thing; in our house, medieval English history was king. We had conversations about the British monarchy at the dinner table. We had books of English literature, history, and historical fiction on our bookshelves.

And we had Geoffrey Chaucer.

I owned the most wonderful children’s version of the often bawdy book The Canterbury Tales, written sometime around 1387. It is unique in that it was truly the first great piece of literature penned in English. In Chaucer’s day, it was Middle English, a more German/Latinized version of the English we know (ever wonder about all those silent letters in our words? Well, they weren’t silent then). Prior to that, romances and histories were written either in Latin or French. This was now the dawn of Englishness. At this point, even the nobility spoke English, where before, after William the Conqueror came to England and replaced the Anglo-Saxon nobility with his own, the nobility spoke French. Now the lingua franca was English, a change not only in language but of mindset.

And it wasn’t just important for that. This showed us a slice of life of everyday folk thinking and speaking like everyday folk. The great romances and histories of the day were about ladies and princes, not the local Miller. In The Canterbury Tales, we get a sense of the real people of the period.
The book that I had growing up was the Deluxe Golden Book “Special Edition for Young Readers” illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren. Oh, these were wonderful illustrations. As strange and as foreign as Middle English itself. I was drawn in by the whole package of weird and wonderful pictures and then these stories. All of these different medieval people were meeting in London to journey to Canterbury and they would each tell stories to pass the time. Stories of people like them, or great timeless stories from Ancient Greece or old Britain. The person who told the best story would win a dinner back at the Tabard, a tavern where their journey began, a tavern that really existed back in fourteenth century London.

And I knew these stories well. The Aesop-like Nun’s Priest tale of Chanticleer, the Wife of Bath’s tale of the Loathly Lady, the Canon’s Yeoman’s tale of the false Alchemist. I enjoyed them all. I was bitterly disappointed when I got to the end to discover that Chaucer never finished his tales. He died before he could. Who would have won? And what were the other stories to be told because they had to make the journey back to London? To this ten year old, it was a complete bummer.

But that wasn’t the extent of my partnership with Chaucer. My mother had a record of an actor reciting some of the stories in Middle English. How I listened to that! What was it? It was sort of English but not really. And it had a lyrical cadence to it like a romance language. I knew before I was old enough to ask that what I was hearing was something odd and special.

And then there was that one degree of separation from Chaucer himself.

We made frequent trips to the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. This was a museum of books and manuscripts, with a gallery of a collection of Gainsborough paintings, including Blue Boy and Pinkie, and extensive gardens and grounds. When I was a kid it was free. Our parents went to lots of places that were free since we were a family of five with little to no money to throw around. In the Huntington Library, they have quartos of Shakespeare plays, a Gutenberg Bible, and the Ellsmere Manuscript. The last is the beautifully detailed handwritten and illustrated manuscript of The Canterbury Tales, commissioned not too long after Chaucer died in the early fifteenth century. It is on parchment and done in careful calligraphy, complete with drawings of all the pilgrims, including Chaucer himself. I was intrigued again, now because of the floral designs and calligraphy that was to inspire a later career as a graphic designer.

I couldn’t escape the fellow and he followed me into adulthood where I could read all the stories, including the ribald ones, with a deeper appreciation for what the whole thing truly was. Not just classical stories retold, but of moral lessons through the persons of the pilgrims themselves.

Much later, when I created my medieval mystery series with a sleuth who was a hardboiled detective, I made him a disgraced knight who used to move in the more noble circles, including the household of John of Gaunt, the duke of Lancaster. Why did I pick the time period of Richard II’s reign? Chaucer’s fault again. Because I knew I wanted to include him at some point in the series. And of course he will have known Crispin and been his friend, since he, too, lived in Lancaster’s household. So what better way to introduce him in the series than by reliving The Canterbury Tales and forcing Crispin to journey to Canterbury and meet some very familiar pilgrims in the fourth installment, TROUBLED BONES. Only this time it involves murder. And then, of course, Crispin has to get his friend Chaucer out of trouble. How much trouble? I suppose you’ll have to go on the journey to Canterbury along with them to find out.

Hercule Poirot's Christmas

2011-12-24T13:46:00.000-08:00

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! And, since we know longer have a Christie for Christmas from the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, I thought I'd share these covers for Hercule Poirot's Christmas!

Be sure and check out last year's Christie for Christmas Post: Agatha Christie's The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, complete with a recipe for Christmas Pudding, sans poison!

Cartoon of the Day: The Tree

2011-12-23T11:46:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays to All!

Christmas Mysteries, Authors S-Z

2011-12-22T08:13:00.000-08:00

The end of the list and none too soon. Only 3 more days 'til Christmas. Woo... Here are the final authors who set their mysteries during Christmas. S-Z. Happy Holidays!

Here are the links that will complete this list:
Be sure and check out Christmas Crime Authors A-D, Authors E-H, Authors I-N and Authors O-R. As always, let me know if I've forgotten an author and title. Have a great holiday!

Sanders, Lawrence. The Fourth Deadly Sin
Santangelo, Elena. Poison to Purge Melancholy, Double Cross
Saums, Mary. When the Last Magnolia Weeps
Sawyer, Corinne Holt. Ho Ho Homicide
Scherf, Margaret. The Gun in Daniel Webster’s Bust
Schumacher, Aileen. Framework for Death
Schweizer, Mark. The Alto Wore Tweeds
Sedaris, David. Holidays on Ice
Sefton, Maggie. Fleece Navidad
Sellars, M.R. Perfect Trust
Serafin, David. Christmas Rising
Shaber, Sarah. Burying Ground
Shannon, Dell. No Holiday For Crime
Sibley, Celestine. Spider in the Sink
Simenon, Georges. Maigret's Christmas
Slater, Susan [et al] Crooks, Crimes and Christmas
Smith, Barbara Burnett. Mistletoe From Purple Sage, 'Tis the Season for Murder (with Fred Hunter)
Smith, Frank. Fatal Flaw
Smith, George Harmon. The Christmas Angel
Smith, Joan. Don't Leave Me This Way
Smith, Terrence. The Devil and Webster Daniels
Smoak, Amanda. Generals' Row
Sprinkle, Patricia. A Mystery Bred in Buckhead
Stagge, Jonathan. The Yellow Taxi
Strohmeyer, Sarah. Bubbles All the Way
Swanson, Denise. Murder of a Barbie and Ken
Symons, Julian. The Detling Secret

Talley, Marcia. Occasion of Revenge
Taylor, Elizabeth Atwood. The Cable Car Murder
Taylor, Sarah Stewart. O' Artful Death
Temple, Lou Jane. Death is Semisweet
Thompson, Carlene. The Way You Look Tonight
Tooke, John. On the Twelfth Day of Christmas
Tourney, Leonard D. Knaves Templar
Tremayne, Peter. The Haunted Abbot
Trocheck, Kathy. A Midnight Clear
Underwood, Michael. A Party to Murder
Unsworth, Barry. Morality Play
VanLeeuwen, Jean. The Great Christmas Kidnapping Caper
Victor, Cynthia. What Matters Most
Viets, Elaine. Murder With All the Trimmings
Wainwright, John. The Life and Times of Christmas Calvert...Assassin
Walker, Persia. Darkness and the Devil behind Me
Walsh, Thomas. The Resurrection Man
Ward, Donald. Our Little Secret
Washburn Livia. The Christmas Cookie Killer
Weir, Charlene. A Cold Christmas
Welk, Mary. Deadly Little Christmas, A Merry Little Murder
Wildwind, Sharon. First Murder in Advent
Williams, David. Murder in Advent
Windsor, Patricia. The Christmas Killer
Wingfield, R.D. Frost at Christmas
Wolzien, Valerie. Deck the Halls With Murder
Wright, Eric. The Man Who Changed His Name
Yaffe, James. Mom Meets her Maker
Zelvin, Elizabeth, Death Will Get You Sober

Christmas Mysteries, Authors O-R

2011-12-21T07:24:00.000-08:00

Here's the list of Christmas Mysteries, Authors O-R. Hope you're having fun with the titles and authors. Let me know if I've forgotten any! Be sure and check out Christmas Crime Authors A-D, Authors E-H and Authors I-N.

O'Connell, Carol. Judas Child
O'Marie, Sr. Carol Anne. Advent of Dying, Murder in Ordinary Time, A Novena for Murder
Stewart O’Nan. Last Night at the Lobster
Page, Katherine Hall. The Body in the Big Apple, The Body in the Bouillon, The Body in the Sleigh
Palmer, William. The Dons and Mr. Dickens
Papazoglou, Orania. Rich, Radiant Slaughter, Charisma
Parker, Gary E. Death Stalks a Holiday
Parker, Robert. The Widening Gyre
Paul, Barbara. A Chorus of Detectives
Pearson, Carol Lynn. A Stranger For Christmas
Pence, Joanne. Two Cooks A-Killing
Penny, Louise. A Fatal Grace
Perry, Anne. A Christmas Beginning, A Christmas Grace, A Christmas Guest, A Christmas Journey, A Christmas Secret, A Christmas Visitor, Silence in Hanover Close, A Christmas Promise
Peters, Elizabeth. He Shall Thunder in the Sky, Trojan Gold
Peters, Ellis. A Rare Benedictine, The Raven in the Foregate
Philips, Scott. The Ice Harvest
Plunkett, Susan. Silent Night (anthology)
Pomidor, Bill. Mind Over Murder
Pronzini, Bill. Snowbound
Pryce, Malcolm. Don't Cry For Me Aberystwyth
Pulver, Monica. Original Sin
Purser, Ann. Murder on Monday
Quashie, Colin. Spirits in a Material World
Queen, Ellery. The Finishing Stroke, Cat of Many Tails, Calamity Town, The Egyptian Cat Mystery, Murder at Christmas
Quentin, Patrick. Follower
Raphael, Lev. Burning Down the House
Rawls, Randy. Jingle’s Christmas
Ray, Robert J. Merry Christmas Murdock
Reinsmith, Richard. Body for Christmas
Richards, Emilie. Let There be Suspects
Rickman, Phil. Midwinter of the Spirit
Riggs, John R. Haunt of the Nightingale
Ripley, Ann. The Christmas Garden Affair
Rizzolo, S.K. The Rose in the Wheel
Robb, J.D. Holiday in Death
Roberts, Gillian. The Mummer’s Curse, Philly Stakes
Roberts, Sheila. On Strike for Christmas, The Nine Lives of Christmas
Robinson, Peter. Past Reason Hated, The Price of Love and Other Stories (anthology)
Roosevelt, Eliot. The White House Pantry Murder

Rowe, Jennifer. Death in Store, Love Lies Bleeding
Rubino, Jane. Fruit Cake
Ruell, Patrick. Red Christmas
Ryan, Jenna. Mistletoe and Murder

Chanukah Crime Fiction

2011-12-20T06:20:00.000-08:00

Chanukah (Hanukah) begins tonight, December 20 and is celebrated for eight days--through December 28. Yes, Eight Days of Chanukah! Jewish Holidays are aligned with the lunar calendar, so they vary every year. That will give you enough time to read all of these titles! Let me know if I've missed any.

Novels:
Holiday Grind by Cleo Coyle (mostly about Christmas but Hanukah is mentioned)
Festival of Deaths by Jane Haddam
Out of the Frying Pan into the Choir by Sharon Kahn
Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry by Harry Kemelman
Murder at the Minyan by Shlumat E. Kustanowitz
The Body in the Sleigh by Katherine Hall Page (mostly about Christmas but Hanukah is mentioned)
Chanukah Guilt by Ilene Schneider

Children's Hanukah Mysteries:
Rabbi Rocketpower and the Mystery of the Missing Menorahs - A
Hanukkah Humdinger! by Rabbi Susan Abramson and Aaron Dvorkin and Ariel DiOrio

Mystery Short Stories:
"Mom Lights a Candle" by James Yaffe, appeared in Mystery: The Best of 2002, ed. by Jon L. Breen.
"Hanukah" by Morris Hershman in Cat Crimes for the Holidays, ed. by Martin Greenberg, Edward Gorman and Larry Segriff
"The Worse Noel" by Barb Goffman in The Gift of Murder.
For more info on Jewish short story mysteries, check out Steven Steinbock who blogs on Criminal Brief, the Mystery Short Story Web Log Project.
"Navidad" by Elizabeth Zelvin, EQMM, January 2011.

Mystery Games:
Children's software mystery game: Who Stole Hanukkah? offered in five languages: English, Hebrew, Russian, French and Spanish
Other Games for Children: The Case of the Stolen Menorah: An Enlightening Hanukkah Mystery

The Long Escape: Randal S. Brandt on David Dodge

2011-12-19T09:23:00.000-08:00

Guest blogger Randal S. Brandt is a librarian at The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, and the creator of two critically-acclaimed websites: Golden Gate Mysteries, an annotated bibliography of crime fiction set in the San Francisco Bay Area, and A David Dodge Companion, chronicling the life and works of mystery/thriller writer David Dodge (1910-1974). He has recently written the introductions to new editions of Dodge’s Death and Taxes (July, 2010), To Catch a Thief (October, 2010), and The Long Escape (December, 2011). Randal Brandt will be a guest at a Mystery Readers NorCal Literary Salon in the New Year.

RANDAL BRANDT: This is how it all began

David Dodge’s fifth mystery, THE LONG ESCAPE, originally published in 1948, has been reissued by Bruin Books and is now available in a handsome new edition. After four novels starring San Francisco tax expert James “Whit” Whitney, written while Dodge was working as a C.P.A. in San Francisco, this book marks the first adventure of Dodge’s second series character, expatriate private detective Al Colby.

By the time THE LONG ESCAPE was written, Dodge had relocated to Guatemala City, so it is only natural that Colby walks the mean streets of Latin America, operating out of Mexico City. The story begins when Colby is hired by a Los Angeles attorney to find one Robert R. Parker, who deserted his wife and $250,000 worth of property in Pasadena five years before. The wife doesn’t want him back; she just wants clear title to the property. Colby’s job is to find him and either prove him dead or persuade him to contact the attorney in order to sign the necessary documents transferring the property. The attorney had been able to trace Parker to Mexico City. Colby picks up the trail and follows it through Central America to Santiago, Chile.

This book holds a very special place for me. Not only was it the first Dodge novel I ever read, but the story of the circumstances surrounding my discovery of it is one that I’m sure Dodge would have appreciated. In 1994, my wife and I went on a vacation to Mexico City. One travel habit we share is to take along novels to read that are set in the locales we are visiting. For this trip my wife had taken along a tattered paperback she had picked up years before in a thrift store. The book, a 1950s Dell mystery “mapback,” featured a colorful map of Mexico and South America on the back cover, promised “A man hunt (girls included) from California to Chile,” and featured Al Colby, a Mexico City private eye. Perfect.

One morning I awoke feeling under the weather, as it were. Although we had been very careful, it turns out that even the most vigilant of norteamericanos can succumb to la turista. And it was raining. We decided to forego our sightseeing plans and spend the day resting and relaxing in our hotel room. To pass the time, my wife, whose digestion was untouched, got out her paperback, The Long Escape, by David Dodge. She kindly offered to read it aloud, giving me what I thought would be an excellent opportunity to sleep it off.

Several hours later I still had not slept a minute, but not because of la turista. She had read that book aloud, cover to cover in one sitting. When we finally closed the book I was feeling much improved, and my wife and I had a new author to pursue and, apparently, a new cure for the Aztec Two-Step.

People often ask me why I like David Dodge. My answer is pretty much the same as it is for any author. It all starts with the writing. Dodge’s books are consistently well-written. They are tightly-plotted with crisp, believable dialogue. About halfway through the first chapter of The Long Escape, Colby interviews a woman who is the current owner of the Buick that Parker drove to Mexico City:

Señora Molly Jean Mendoza lived in a pretty good apartment house out toward Lomas de Chapultepec. A frowsy maid let me in without asking my name or business, then went to call the señora while I parked my hat on a pile of American movie magazines.

Molly Jean turned out to be a rubia, a brassy blonde of the type a lot of Mexicans go nuts about. She was any age you want to guess, with a sulky mouth. She greeted strange gentlemen visitors in a form-fitting housecoat with a zipper running from neck to hem in front that practically said Pull me, kid. The handle of the zipper was a little bell that tinkled when she walked.

I don’t know about you, but Mr. Dodge had me at “Pull me, kid.”

Randal S. Brandt is the creator of A David Dodge Companion and Golden Gate Mysteries.

Christmas Mysteries, Authors I-N

2011-12-18T09:20:00.000-08:00

Here's the Third installment of Crime for the Holidays: Christmas Crime Fiction Authors I-N. What a long list. Makes for more reading which is always fine with me!

Be sure and go back on Mystery Fanfare for Christmas Crime Authors A-D and Authors E-H. Let me know if I've forgotten any.

Iams, Jack. Do Not Murder Before Christmas
Indridason, Arnaldur. Voices
Innes, Michael. A Comedy of Terrors, Christmas at Candleshoe
Irving, Karen. Jupiter’s Daughter
Jaffe. Jody. Chestnut Mare, Beware
Jahn, Cathie. Add One Dead Critic
Jahn, Michael. Murder on Fifth Avenue
Jeffers, H. Paul. Murder on Mike
John, Cathie. Add One Dead Critic
Jordan, Cathleen. A Carol in the Dark
Jordan, Jennifer. Murder Under the Mistletoe.
Kane, Henry. A Corpse for Christmas (Homicide at Yuletide)
Kaplan, Arthur. A Killing for Charity
Katz, Fred. Not a Creature Was Stirring
Kavanaugh, Brian. A Canterbury Crime
Kaye, M. M. Death in the Andamans
Kellerman, Faye. Sacred and Profane
Kelley, Lee Charles. 'Twas the Bite Before Christmas
Kelly, Mary. The Christmas Egg
Kelner, Toni L.P. Mad as the Dickens
Kendrick, Stephen. Night Watch
King, Laurie R. A Monstrous Regiment of Women
Kingsbury, Kate. No Clue at the Inn, Ringing in Murder, Shrouds of Holly, Slay Bells, Decked with Folly, Mistletoe and Mayhem, Herald of Death
Kisor, Henry. Season’s Revenge
Kitchen, C.H.B. Crime at Christmas
Kleinholz, Lisa. Exiles on Main Street
Knight, Alanna. The Dagger in the Crown
Knight, Bernard. Crowner's Quest
Knight, Kathleen Moore. They're Going to Kill Me
Knight, Stephen. Corpse at the Opera House, Murder at Home, More Crimes for a Summer Christmas
Koch, Edward I. Murder on 34th Street
Koontz, Dean R. Mister Murder, Santa’s Twin, Robot Santa
Lake, M.D. A Gift for Murder, Grave Choices
Landreth, Marsha. The Holiday Murders
Lane, Vicki. In a Dark Season
Langley, Bob. Death Stalk
Langton, Jane. The Shortest Day: Murder at the Revels, The Memorial Hall Murder
Lathen, Emma. Banking on Death
Lawrence, David. Cold Kill
Lawrence, Hilda. Blood Upon the Snow
Lawrence, Treat. Q As in Quicksand
Leach, Christopher. A Killing Frost
Leon, Donna. Blood from a Stone
Levine, Joan. The Santa Claus Mystery
Levine, Laura. Candy Cane Murders (with Joanne Fluke & Leslie Meier)
Lewin, Michael Z. The Enemies Within
Little, Constance. The Black-Headed Pins
Livingston, Nancy. Quiet Murder
Locke, William J. A Christmas Mystery
Lockridge, Richard. Dead Run
London, Cait. (and others) Sugarplums and Scandal
Long, Manning. Vicious Circle
Luber, Philip. Deadly Convictions
Macbride, Stuart. Cold Granite
MacLeod, Charlotte. Rest You Merry; ed.Christmas Stalkings: Tales of Yuletide Murder, The Convivial Codfish; Mistletoe Mysteries (ed)
MacDonald, John D. Pale Gray for Guilt
MacLeod, Charlotte. The Convivial Codfish, Murder Goes Mumming, Rest You Merry
MacPherson, Rett. A Comedy of Heirs, The Blood Ballad
MacPherson, Suzanne (and others) Sugarplums and Scandal
Malliet, G. M. Death of a Cozy Writer
Malmont, Valerie. Death, Snow, and Mistletoe
Marantz, Bill. Christmas Eve Can Kill You
Markowitz, Jeff. It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder
Marks, Jeffrey. Canine Christmas
Maron, Margaret. Corpus Christmas
Marsh, Carole. Haunted Christmas Tree Mystery
Marsh, Ngaio. Tied Up in Tinsel
Matesky, Amanda. Murder is a Girl’s Best Friend
McBain, Ed. And All Through the House, Downtown, Ghosts, Sadie When She Died
McCloy, Helen. Mr. Splitfoot
McClure, James. The Gooseberry Fool
McGinley, Patrick. Goosefoot
McGown, Jill. Murder at the Old Vicarage
McKevett, G.A. Cooked Goose, Poisoned Tarts
McLintick, Malcolm. Death of an Old Flame
McMullen, Mary. Death by Bequest
Meier, Leslie. The Christmas Cookie Murder, Mistletoe Murder, Mail Order Murder, Candy Cane Murders (w/Joanne Fluke & Laura Levine)
Meredith, David W. The Christmas Card Murders
Meredith, D. R. Murder by Sacrilege
Michaels, Kasey. High Heels and Holidays, Bowled Over
Miles, Terry. Dog Gone Christmas
Milne, A.A. A Table Near the Band, Christmas Party
Miner, Valerie. Murder in the English Department
Minichino, Camile. The Helium Murder, The Oxygen Murder
Misto, Joh. The Devil's Companions
Moore, Christopher. The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror
Morrell, David. The Spy Who Came for Christmas
Mortimer, John. A Rumpole Christmas
Moyes, Patricia. Season of Snows and Sins
Muller, Marcia. There's Nothing to be Afraid Of
Murphy, Shirley Rousseau. Cat Deck the Halls, Cat Coming Home
Nabb, Magdalen. Death of an Englishman
Nash, Anne. Said with Flowers
Neel, Janet. Death's Bright Angel
Nelson, Hugh. The Season for Murder
Nesbo, Jo. The Redeemer
Nesser, Hakan. Woman with Birthmark
Nixon, Joan. The Christmas Eve Murder
Norden, Robert. Death Beneath the Christmas Tree

Christmas Crime Fiction Authors A-D and Christmas Mystery Authors E-H. If I forgot you on any of these lists, let me know.

Crime Writer Arrested In Botched Murder-For-Hire Plot

2011-12-17T10:34:00.000-08:00

Another Ripped from the Headlines. Truth is Stranger than Fiction. Nancy Gelber, Crime Writer, Arrested for Botched Murder for Hire Plot. I don't think she was doing research! According to the author blurb on her novel Temporary Amnesia by Nance J. Mancuso (Rosedog Press), "Writing had been laid aside since high school when an English teacher saw promise in a rather outlandish, for those times, short story. In her 30's, Nancy rekindled her passion for writing when she created an X-Files screenplay. Stories seemed to flow onto the computer screen after that. Her other interests include aquatics, ocean fishing, playing cards, and any place that has a roulette wheel." They forgot to mention hiring someone to kill her husband.

From the article by David Lohr in the Huffington Post.

Police in Texas have arrested a published crime writer who allegedly tried to hire a hit man to kill her husband.

Nancy Mancuso Gelber, 53, has been charged with solicitation to commit capital murder. Gelber is being held at the Brazos County Jail on $75,000 bond.

"It's crazy. It's crazy to hear. I'm kind of speechless," Gelber's close friend, Brandi Pointer-Castillo, told The Huffington Post.

According to the Brazos County Sheriff's Office, investigators received a tip last week indicating that Gelber was trying to find a hit man to harm her estranged husband, 54-year-old Joseph Richard Gelber, Jr.
. . .
Prior to her split with her husband, Gelber had her sights set on becoming a career writer. Her first novel, Temporary Amnesia, was published in August 2010. The 362-page book –- dubbed a "crime thriller" -- is a fictional story about a man who breaks out of prison and uses a team of prostitutes to pull off several brazen bank robberies.

"Along with suspense and terror, this crime-thriller has a touch of levity and romance," reads the book description on Amazon.com. "Temporary Amnesia will blow your mind! At times, you may even find yourself siding with the bad guys!"

Read the rest of the article by David Lohr HERE.

Want to read the novel? I don't, but if you do, I found it on GoogleBooks.

Bookish Holiday Gifts: BookBook iPhone & iPad Case

2011-12-17T07:16:00.000-08:00

I love these! Great "Bookish" Gifts from Twelve South:

BookBook for iPhone

Now you can combine your wallet and IPhone in one BookBook made exclusively for iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. This little book has a convenient ID window and slots for your debit/credit cards, reward cards and cash.

Protect your iPhone between two hard-back covers. Fold the covers back-to-back to talk. BookBook allows edge-to-edge iPhone access. You can access all iPhone controls and ports with BookBook. Charge, sync and use the headphone jack while your iPhone is safe and sound in its phone book.

Yes, it’s also a Quick Book.

BookBook Case for iPad 2

The BookBook Case for iPad 2 is a handmade one-of-a-kind, hardback leather case that doubles as a fully adjustable stand. Along with its vintage looks, this case makes iPad feel as if you’re holding a 'real' book, and in many ways you are holding a book. BookBook for iPad. Hand distressed covers mean no two look alike.

BookBook for iPad is available in two styles: dark brown cover with black beneath 'BookBook' on the spine (Classic Black) and a more vibrant brown cover with red behind 'BookBook' on the spine (Vibrant Red).

Cartoon of the Day: James Bond

2011-12-16T07:21:00.000-08:00

From one of my favorite Comics: Bizarro

Russell Hoban: R.I.P.

2011-12-14T06:30:00.000-08:00

Sad News indeed. Russell Hoban, died last night at age 86.

From the Guardian with some personal comments from me:

Legendary cult author Russell Hoban, whose apocalyptic novel Riddley Walker was described by Anthony Burgess as "what literature is meant to be", died last night aged 86, his publisher has announced.

Hoban, born in Philadelphia, moved to London in 1969. He first made a name for himself with his children's books; his series about Frances the badger and his novel The Mouse and His Child are acclaimed as modern classics.

Riddley Walker, set in Kent 2,000 years after a nuclear holocaust and told in a distinctive version of English, was begun in 1974 and published in 1980 to huge praise. It has since been included in Harold Bloom's survey of literature, The Western Canon.

Hoban joined the US army aged 18, and was posted to Italy during the second world war, where he served as a messenger, later awarded a Bronze Star for bravery in action. My father was serving on the front lines there as a doctor, and that's where they met for the first time. With extended family in common, a friendship ensued. Hoban was the brother of world renown photographer and children's book author, Tana Hoban.

Russell Hoban worked as a freelance illustrator on his return to America, publishing his first book, the illustrated children's title What Does it Do and How Does it Work, in 1959.

As well as writing (and sometimes illustrating) more than 20 books for adults and children, Hoban's novel Turtle Diary was filmed with a Harold Pinter screenplay, and he also wrote the libretto to Harrison Birtwistle's opera The Second Mrs Kong.

In an interview with the Guardian in 2002, Hoban described himself as "simply an addict" to writing. "If I am kept away from writing I become physically unwell. It is art and the creation of art that sustains me. Things like Conrad's Nostromo or Schubert's Winterreise or Haydn's Creation or paintings by Daumier make me feel it is a good thing to be part of the human race," he said. "It gives me energy, and now I've got into this rhythm where Angelica's Grotto was followed by Amaryllis and then The Bat Tattoo. I don't want to miss a year. And besides, when the tank is getting empty I think you drive a little faster."

"It's very, very sad indeed," said Bill Swainson, Hoban's publisher at Bloomsbury. He described Hoban as a "shocking, funny and really imaginative" writer.

"Like most people I came across Russell through Riddley Walker, which woke me up to what he was doing," he said. "His wonderful imagination is a common thread in all his books. In his last, Angelica Lost and Found, a hippogriff escapes from a painting and lands in San Francisco outside the window of a Jewish gallery owner who has just dumped her lover. Russell always wrote with with such a light touch - he always had fun, and made you think that there's not a sentence wasted."

Death, Hoban predicted in 2002, would "be a good career move". "People will say, 'yes, Hoban, he seems an interesting writer, let's look at him again'," he said.

Book perfume

2011-12-13T17:47:00.000-08:00

Last Spring I posted news of a new Perfume from Designer Karl Lagerfeld: Paper Passion. What I liked about it was the packaging. It is sold in a hollowed out hardcover book (hopefully damaged or ones made specifically for this).

And, there are other Book-Inspired Fragrances:
Library Paperback by Demeter Fragrance
Library Collection: Opus II by Amouage

I mentioned Christopher Brosius' I Hate Perfume Line. His In the Library perfume supposedly evokes books smelling of Moroccan leather bindings, cloth, rare novels and many others. This is perfect for every book lover.. Spray your iPad?

As long as they don't contain the killer mold of old books, I'm good with this!

Here's an interview interview with Christopher Brosius in BookRiot.

BR: Your scent profile for In the Library is practically a short story in itself. Could you explain in layman’s terms how you made this perfume?

CB: Much of it was being incredibly familiar with books and how they smell. The smells vary by the country where the books come from: the paper produced there, the leathers used, the glue, the inks. I couldn’t describe exactly how the leathers smell different, but they do. Moroccan and Russian and Spanish, they’re all different.

So what do you find in a library that emits a smell? What are the key elements that would make that olfactory experience really pop? I take a lot of notes. [In the Library] is really about the books themselves, less so the environment, like the shelves or the dust.

Then I sit down with a whole bunch of chemicals and blend them together. It’s a very mundane process. I know these chemicals will combine to create certain smells – for instance, the scents of different kinds of papers.

Read the Rest of the Interview Here.

Christmas Mysteries, Authors E-H

2011-12-12T13:15:00.000-08:00

Today, I continue the Christmas Mystery list. It's amazing how many mysteries are set during the holidays, but it's such a stressful time, I shouldn't be all that surprised.

Today Christmas Crime Authors E-H. Be sure and check the previous Christmas Mysteries list, Authors A-D. I've updated it. Please let me know if I've forgotten an author or book.

Eberhart, Mignon G. Postmark Murder
Eddenden, A. E. A Good Year for Murder
Egan, Lesley. Crime for Christmas
Eickhoff, Randy Lee. Then Came Christmas
Ekwensi, Cyprian. Restless City, Christmas Gold
Englehart, Steve. Christmas Countdown
Erskine, Margaret. A Graveyard Plot
Estleman, Loren D. The Glass Highway
Evanovich, Janet. Visions of Sugar Plums
Fairstein, Linda A. The Deadhouse, The Crime and the Crystal, A Small World of Murder
Farjeon, J.J. Mystery in White
Fennelly, Tony. Home Dead for Christmas.
Ferrars, E.X. Smoke Without Fire, The Small World of Murder, The Crime and the Crystal
Ferris, Monica. Crewel Yule
Finch, Charles. The Fleet Street Murders
Finnis, Jane. A Bitter Chill
Fletcher, Jessica and Donald Bain. A Little Yuletide Murder
Floyd, John (ed). The Gift of Murder
Fluke, Joanne. Candy Cane Murders, Sugar Cookie Murder, Plum Pudding Murder
Flynn, Brian. The Murders near Mapleton
Ford, Leslie. The Simple Way of Poison
Foley, Rae. Hundreth Door
Ford, Leslie. The Simple Way of Poison
Fowler, Earlene. The Saddlemaker’s Wife
Fraser, Anthea. The Nine Bright Shiners
Frazer, Margaret. The Servant's Tale, The Widow's Tale
Freydont, Shelley. A Merry Little Murder
Frommer, Sara Hoskinson. Witness in Bishop Hill
Furst, Clyde Bowman. The Observations of Professor Maturin
Gaarder, Jostein. The Christmas Mystery
Gagnon, Michelle. Kidnap and Ransom
Gano, John. Inspector Proby's Christmas
Garner, James Finn. Politically Correct Holiday Stories: For an Enlightened Yuletide Season
Garnet, A. H. The Santa Claus Killer
George, Anne. Murder on a Bad Hair Day
Giroux, E. X. Death for a Dietician
Godfrey, Thomas (ed) Murder for Christmas: 26 Tales of Seasonal Malice
Goldenbaum, Sally. A Holiday Yarn
Goodman, Jonathan. Murder on the Aisle
Gordon, Alan. Thirteen Night, The Moneylender of Toulouse
Gorman, Ed. Murder on the Aisle
Gouze, Roger. A Quiet Game of Bambu
Grabenstein, Chris. Hell for the Holidays, Slay Ride
Grace, Margaret. Mayhem in Miniature
Grafton, Sue. “E” is for Evidence
Graham, Heather. The Last Noel
Granger, Ann. A Season for Murder
Graves, Sarah. Wreck the Halls
Greeley, Andrew. The Bishop and the Three Kings
Green, Christine. Deadly Partners
Greenberg, Martin H. (ed) Cat Crimes for the Holidays, Holmes for the Holidays, Santa Clues, More Holmes for the Holidays. Twelve Crimes of Christmas.
Greenwood, Kerry. Murder in the Dark, Forbidden Fruit
Gregory, Susanna. A Conspiracy of Violence
Grimes, Martha. Jerusalem Inn, Old Fox Deceived, The Man with a Load of Mischief
Guest, Judith. Killing Time in St. Cloud
Gunning, Sally. Ice Water
Haddam, Jane. Not a Creature Was Stirring, A Stillness in Bethlehem
Hager, Jean. The Last Noel
Haines, Carolyn. Buried Bones
Hall, Parnell. A Puzzle in a Pear Tree
Hall, Robert Lee. Benjamin Franklin and a Case of Christmas Murder
Hammett, Dashiell. The Thin Man
Hardwick, Richard. The Season to be Deadly
Hare, Cyril. An English Murder
Harmon, Ken. The Fat Man: A Tale of North Pole Noir
Harper, Karen. The Queene’s Christmas
Harris, Charlaine. Shakespeare’s Christmas & (Ed) Wolfsbane and Mistletoe
Harris, Joanne. Chocolat
Harris, Lee. The Christmas Night Murder
Harrison, Janis. Murder Sets Seed
Hart, Carolyn G. Sugarplum Dead & Merry, Merry Ghost
Hart, Ellen. Vital Lies, Murder in the Air
Harvey, John. Cold Light
Harvey, Roy. Seascape with Dead Figures
Hay, Doriel. The Santa Klaus Murder
Heald, Tim. (ed) A Classic Christmas Crime
Heath, Sandra. Mistletoe Mischief
Hechtman, Betty. You Better Knot Die
Hellmann, Libby. Set the Night on Fire
Hemlin, Tim. A Catered Christmas
Hess, Joan. A Holly, Jolly Murder, O Little Town of Maggody
Heyer, Georgette. Envious Casca
Hiassen, Carl. Tourist Season
Hill, Reginald. Death's Jest Book, A Clubbable Woman
Hilton, John Buxton. Death in Midwinter
Hinkemeyer, Michael. A Time to Reap
Hochgatterer, Paulus. The Sweetness of Life
Hodgkin, Marion Rous. Dead Indeed
Holland, Isabelle. A Fatal Advent
Holmes, Dee. Silent Night (anthology)
Holms, Joyce. Thin Ice
Howie, Edith. Murder for Christmas
Howlett, John. The Christmas Spy
Hughes, Mary Ellen. Wreath of Deception
Hunter, Alan. Landed Gently
Hunter, Ellen Elizabeth. Murder on the Candlelight Tour, Christmas Wedding.
Hunter, Evan. Come Winter
Hunter, Fred. Ransom for a Holiday, 'Tis the Season for Murder

Coming soon: the rest of the alphabet :-) For Authors A-D, go HERE.

Christie News: 5 more Hercule Poirot films

2011-12-12T08:35:00.000-08:00

Hat Tip to GM Maillet for this news. ITV has commissioned Five new Poirot films for production in 2012!

David Suchet will return to his role as Hercule Poirot, the fastidious and brilliant Belgian detective.

The films, based on the Agatha Christie Poirot novels and short stories yet to be filmed, have been commissioned from ITV Studios and Agatha Christie Ltd.

The Poirot films which will go into production during 2012 are:
Labours of Hercules; Dead Man's Folly; The Big Four; Elephants Can Remember; Curtain.

Book Christmas Trees

2011-12-11T09:15:00.000-08:00

So Creative! This first photo of a Bookish Christmas Tree is from The Secret to Humor is Surprise. Thought I'd do a round-up of some of my favorites. Are you doing a Book Tree this year? Send a link.

Check out Last Year's Library Christmas Tree!

And, a Picture Book Christmas Tree:

World's First Mug Shots

2011-12-11T08:33:00.000-08:00

Flavorwire is one of my favorite sites. So much great wacky and different information. As a mystery reader, I was fascinated by the December 1 article and photos "What Did the World’s First Mug Shots Look Like?" Crime readers and writers will both like this.

"The mug shot has, by now, become so universal that it’s hard to imagine a criminal justice system without it. But in the mid-19th century, when photography was still a new medium, there was no standardized record-keeping system in place to help police departments identify repeat criminals. Random daguerreotypes and loose photographs laying around unfiled weren’t cutting it — which is why in the early 1880s, French criminologist Alphonse Bertillon introduced the Paris police force to a standardized method that documented mug shots, body measurements, and in some cases, early finger prints."

Read the rest of the Article HERE.

Cartoon of the Day: James Patterson

2011-12-10T14:39:00.000-08:00

Hat Tip to Bill Crider for this Cartoon of the Day:

Famous Writers as Handmade Dolls

2011-12-10T11:02:00.000-08:00

These may not be action fictions, but they sure are fun. Librarian Patti O'Brien found this link to FlavorWire that links to Uneek Doll Designs. Check out these great handmade dolls by UneekDollDesigns of your Favorite Authors. There's a link to Literary Characters and more! For sale on Etsy. Don't miss Agatha Christie Doll.

Joyce Carol Oates

Isaac Asimov

Crime Scene Tape Ensemble

2011-12-09T12:41:00.000-08:00

In one of my "other" lives, I use a lot of crime scene tape. It's readily available, and you don't have to be a crime scene investigator. Here's a great ensemble for the holidays!

My new favorite is this Ducti Police Line Do Not Cross Utility Messenger Bag

And to complete the outfit, a scarf and some low top shoes from Zazzle.com:

Crime for the Holidays: Christmas Mysteries, Authors A-D

2011-12-08T13:27:00.000-08:00

Crime for the Holidays. Next to Thanksgiving, this is a major time for murder! Here's the first part of this very extensive list that I'll post over the next week or so. This list has been updated since 2010, but I'm sure I've still managed to miss a few titles and authors. Let me know, and I'd be glad to add them.

Christmas Crime Fiction: Authors A-D

Abbot, Anthony. About the Murder on a Startled Lady, About the Murder of Geraldine Foster
Abresch, Peter. The Faltese Malcom
Adamson, Lydia. A Cat in the Manger, A Cat in the Wings, A Cat on Jingle Bell Rock, A Cat Under the Mistletoe
Albert, Susan Wittig. Mistletoe Man, Rueful Death, Holly Blues
Allen, Michael. Spence and the Holiday Murders
Amo, Gary. Silent Night
Andre, Joel. A Death at the North Pole
Andrews, Donna. Six Geese A-Slaying
Appignanesi, Lisa.The Dead of WinterArsenault, Emily. The Broken Teaglass
Arts, David Jay. Quiet Desperation
Ash, Maureen. Murder for Christ’s Mass
Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity's Christmas
Arts, David Jay. Quiet Desperation
Ash, Maureen. Murder for Christ's Mass
Asimov, Isaac (ed) Twelve Crimes of Christmas
Atkins, Ace. Leavin' Trunk Blues
Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity's Christmas
Aubert, Rosemary. The Feast of Stephen
Avocato, Lori. (ed) Sugarplums and Scandal
Babson, Marian. Twelve Deaths of Christmas
Bain, Donald. A Little Yuletide Murder (Murder She wrote/Jessica Fleming)
Baker, North. Dead to the World
Baldacci, David. The Christmas Train
Barron, Stephanie. Jane and the Wandering Eye
Battison, Brian. The Christmas Bow Murder
Baldacci, David. The Christmas Train
Ballard, Mignon F. Deadly Promise, Hark! The Herald Angel Screamed
Barnard, Robert. Death in a Cold Climate, The Habit of Widowhood
Barron, Stephanie. Jane and the Wandering Eye
Battison, Brian. The Christmas Bow Murder
Bayard, Louis, Mr. Timothy
Beaton, M.C. Death of A Snob, A Highland Christmas, Agatha Raisin and Kissing Christmas Goodbye, Death of a Prankster
Beaumont, Cyril. The Mysterious Toyshop
Beechy, Alan. Murdering Ministers
Benison, C.C. Death at Sandringham House
Benrey Ron & Janet. Season of Glory
Berenson, Laurien. Jingle Bell Bark
Bernhardt, William. The Midnight Before Christmas
Berry, Linda. (ed) The Last Noel
Bishop, Claudia. A Carol for a Corpse
Black, Gavin. Dragon for Christmas
Black, Sarah & John Lanyon. I’ll be Dead for Christmas
Blackstock, Charity. Foggy, Foggy Dew
Blake, Nicholas. The Corpse in the Snowman, The Smiler With the Knife, Thou Shell of Death
Blanc, Nero. A Crossworder's Delight, A Crossworder's Gift, A Crossworder's Holiday, Wrapped Up in Crosswords
Borthwick, J. S. Dude on Arrival, The Student Body
Boucher, Anthony. The Night Before Christmas
Boylan, Eleanor. Pushing Murder
Boyle, Thomas. Post-Mortem Effects
Bradley, Alan. The Nasty Light of Day
Bramble, Forbes. Dead of Winter
Braun, Lilian Jackson. The Cat Who Turned On and Off
Brett, Simon. The Christmas Crimes at Puzzle Manor, The Shooting in the Shop
Brewer, Steve (and others) The Last Noel
Brightwell, Emily. Mrs. Jeffries and the Feast of St. Stephen, Mrs. Jeffries & the Yuletide Weddings
Brockman, Suzanne. All Through the Night.
Brown, Carter. A Corpse for Christmas
Brown, Frederic. Murder Can be Fun
Brown, Rita Mae. Rest in Pieces, Santa Clawed
Browning, Abigail (ed) Murder Most Merry (stories)
Bruce, Leo. Such is Death
Buchanan, Edna. The Ice Maiden
Burton, Tony (ed). By the Chimney with Care, Carols and Crimes/Gifts and Grifters, Dying in a Winter Wonderland
Burke, James. A Present for Santa
Burley, W. J. Death in Willow Pattern, Wycliffe and the Quiet Virgin
Byerrun, Ellen. Grave Apparel
Caine, Leslie. Holly and Homicide
Cairns, Alison. New Year Resolution
Cameron, Dana (and others) Sugarplums and Scandal
Carl, Joanna. The Chocolate Bear Burglary, The Chocolate Snowman Murders
Carrier, Warren. Justice at Christmas
Carter, John Franklin. The Corpse on the White House Lawn
Carter, Nick. The Christmas Kill
Caunitz, William J. Exceptional Clearance
Challinor, C. S. Christmas is Murder
Chaput, W. J. The Man on the Train
Chastain, Thomas. 911
Chaze, Elliott. Goodbye Goliath
Chesbro, George C. Second Horseman Out of Eden
Childs, Laura. The Teaberry Strangler
Christie, Agatha. Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (Also published as Murder for Christmas and Holiday for Murder), The Sittaford Mystery
Christmas, Joyce. Dying Well
Churchill, Jill. Farewell to Yarns, The Merchant of Menace, From Here to Paternity
Clark, Carol Higgins. Iced
Clark, Mary Higgins. All Though the Night, Silent Night, Deck the Halls. With Carol Higgins Clark, He Sees You when Your Sleeping With Carol Higgins Clark, The Christmas Thief. With Carol Higgins Clark, Santa Cruise. With Carol Higgins Clark.
Dashing through the snow. With Carol Higgins Clark.
Coggin, Joan. Who Killed the Curate?
Cohen, Charles. Silver Linings
Collier, Christine. Christmas at Cliffhanger Inn, A Holiday Sampler
Collings, Rex. Clerical Crimes for Christmas
Collins, Max Allen. Blue Christmas and Other Holiday Homicides, No Cure for Death
Colt, Jennifer. The Con Artist of Catalina Island
Conant, Susan. Gone to the Dogs
Constantine, K.C. Upon Some Midnights Clear
Cousins, Caroline. Fiddle Dee Death
Cornish, Constance. Dead of Winter
Cornwell, Patricia. Scarpetta’s Winter Table
Coyle, Cleo. Holiday Grind
Coward, Mat (and others) The Last Noel
Craig, Alisa. Murder Goes Mumming
Constantine, K.C. Upon Some Midnights Clear
Craft, Michael. Body Language
Craig, Alisa. Murder Goes Mumming
Craig, Philip R. A Deadly Vineyard Holiday: A Martha’s Vineyard Mystery, Off Season
Crane, Hamilton. Starring Miss Seeton
Crawford, Isis. A Catered Christmas
Crombie, Deborah. Water Like a Stone
Cross, Amanda. No Word from Winifred
Crowleigh, Ann. Murder Under the Tree (stories)
Daheim, Mary. The Alpine Christmas, Nutty as a Fruitcake, The Alpine Winter
Dalby, Richard. Crime for Christmas
D'Amato, Barbara. Hard Christmas
Dams, Jeanne M. The Body in the Transept, Indigo Christmas, Winter of Discontent
Dane, Joel. The Christmas Tree Murders
Davenport, Chari. The Christmas Party
Davidson, Diane Mott. Sweet Revenge
Davis, Frederick. Drag the Dark
Davis, Krista. The Diva Runs Out of Thyme, The Diva Cooks a Goose
Davis, Mildred B. Tell Them What's Her Name Called, Three Minutes to Midnight
Dawson, Janet. Nobody's Child
Dean, Spencer. Credit for a Murder
DeAndrea, William L. Killed on the Ice
Deeb, Mary Jane. Christmas Mystery in Provence
Delany, Kathleen. Murder Half-Baked
Delany, Vicki. Winter of Secrets
Dentinger, Jane. The Queen is Dead
Deverell, Diana. Twelve Drummers Drumming
Dexter, Colin. The Secret of Annexe 3
Dickson, Carter. The White Priority Murders
Dobson, Joanne. Quieter Than Sleep
Donnelly, Deborah. Died to Match, May the Best Man Die
Douglas, Carole Nelson. Cat in a Golden Garland
Douglas, Charlotte. Holidays are Murder
Downing, Todd. The Last Trumpet
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
Drummond, John Keith. 'Tis the Season to be Dying
Douglas, Carole Nelson. Cat in a Golden Garland: A Midnight Louie Mystery
Duffy, James. The Christmas Gang
Dunbar, Sophie. Shiveree
Duncan, Elizabeth. A Killer's Christmas in Wales
Dunn, Carola. Mistletoe and Murder, Death at Wentwater Court
Dunnett, Kaitlyn. A Wee Christmas Homicide
Durham, Mary. Keeps Death His Court

Harry Morgan: R.I.P.

2011-12-07T11:36:00.000-08:00

"Joe Friday's" loyal partner, Emmy award winning character actor Harry Morgan, passed away today at the age of 96. He also portrayed Col. Potter on television's "M-A-S-H". His career included nine other TV series, 50 films and the Broadway stage.

Some of his television shows included his being the co-star on "December Bride," its spin-off "Pete and Gladys," "The Richard Boone Show," and "Kentucky Jones."

For me, I'll always remember him on M-A-S-H and Dragnet.

Mystery Readers Journal: Bonus Issue with 2012 Subscription

2011-12-07T06:42:00.000-08:00

Mystery Readers Journal is going into its 28th year of publication and is offering a bonus issue with 2012 subscription. Bonus Issue: Volume 27:4 - Shrinks and other Mental Healthcare Professionals.

Mystery Readers Journal is a quarterly review journal focusing on different themes in crime fiction. Comprised of reviews and essays, the most well known feature is Author! Author! Crime Fiction authors write first person essays about their books, their lives and the 'theme' connection. Past issues have include Art Mysteries, San Francisco, Italy, Animals, Gardening, Chicago, Ireland and many more. For a complete list of themes, go HERE. Many back issues are available in Hardcopy and PDF downloads.

Themes in 2012: France, Military Mysteries, Florida, Legal Mysteries

Subscribe before December 31 and receive 5 issues of MRJ!

A Christmas Gift: Vintage Ad

2011-12-06T07:30:00.000-08:00

Many of you know I love Vintage Ads. This advertisement from the 1950s says a lot about our culture and history. Merry Christmas??

Leighton Gage: Fiction vs. Reality

2011-12-05T06:19:00.000-08:00

LEIGHTON GAGE: GUEST POST

Leighton Gage lives near São Paulo and writes The Chief Inspector Mario Silva Series, novels featuring the exploits of the Brazilian Federal Police.

LEIGHTON GAGE:

Do you know the question asked of more authors, more times, and in more situations, than any other?

It’s this: Where do you get your ideas?

No kidding. Ask any author.

A number of years ago, I was in a bookshop, doing a dual event.

And, sure enough, someone in the audience popped the question.

My fellow author, an old pro, had an answer on the tip of her tongue. She claimed she got all her ideas out of something she called the Author’s Idea Book. And she went on to spin a ludicrous tale, much appreciated by the audience.

I, a newbie and less-prepared, told them I got mine from television newscasts.

That, too, was received with laughter.

But I didn’t mean it to be funny, and I was perplexed.

Until I realized that many readers in America (and this appearance was in America) find it hard to believe that some of the things I write about actually happen.

They think I make them up.

But now, two movies have been produced that show it like it is.

Like it really is.

The movies are Elite Squad and Elite Squad: The Enemy Within. (Portuguese titles: Tropa da Elite I and Tropa da Elite II.)

Both deal with the activities of the BOPE (Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais) the Special Operations Battalion of the State of Rio de Janeiro’s Military Police.

The BOPE is an institution that’s absolutely merciless when it comes to dealing with criminals.

And they don’t take bribes.

Those two facts, acting together, make them the only cops the drug gangs of Rio truly fear.

This is their symbol:

Nicknamed the caveiras (skulls), the men of the BOPE also use that word as their war cry.

Have a look at this, the film trailer for Elite Squad, a work based on events that occurred in Rio back in 1997. Please be patient while the video scrolls through the credits. That takes about fifty seconds.

Next, watch some actual news footage, shot on the Morro dos Macacos, a hill upon which one of Rio’s many shantytowns is situated.

The puffs of smoke are hand grenades being used by a drug gang. You can hear one cop warning the others by screaming the word granada (grenade).

This, folks, is real warfare.

Journalists have yet to capture BOPE’s abuse and murder of prisoners.

But José Padilha, the director of the film, has chosen to include such scenes – because, in reality, they happen all the time.

Here’s another trailer, this one for Elite Squad: The Enemy Within:

Fiction vs. Reality vs. Fiction.

And all of them remarkably alike.

You can get a more in depth-look, and absorb more of this very real picture, by renting Elite Squad, now available from Netflix and Blockbuster in the U.S.

And, if you want to know more about Leighton Gage and his books, you can visit him on his homepage www.leightongage.com or on the blog he writes with six other authors of “international” mysteries: murderiseverywhere.blogspot.com/

Nero Award 2011: Louise Penny's Bury Your Dead

2011-12-04T06:35:00.000-08:00

Louise Penny won the Nero Award for Bury Your Dead. The award was presented by the Wolfe Pack last night at the Black Orchid Banquet in New York. Congratulations, Louise!

The "Nero" is an annual award presented to an author for literary excellence in the mystery genre.

Nominees:
Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen
The Book of Spies by Gayle Lynds
The Midnight Show Murders by Al Roker
Think of a Number by John Verdon

Novel Covers for Your iPad

2011-12-02T17:42:00.000-08:00

These iPad Novel Covers are certainly Novel. Thanks to Judy Bobalik for this link. Love the cover graphics. One 'mystery' cover! Check out more covers HERE.

TARDIS Bookcase

2011-12-02T09:45:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Marlyn Beebe for a link to this TARDIS DVD Bookcase that transports you to Any Place (in your Movie Collection). Of course, you could make this for Books, because we know they'll take you Any Place, too.

This is a full size bookcase in the form of a TARDIS. Don't know what a TARDIS is? You're not a Dr. Who fan. A TARDIS is a time machine and spacecraft in the Doctor Who series.

CWA Elllis Peters Award

2011-12-01T06:45:00.000-08:00

The Crime Writers' Association 2011 Ellis Peters Award: The Somme Stations by Andrew Martin. This is the seventh mystery in the series featuring railway detective Jim Stringer. It is set during the The Great War. The Award also includes 3000 pounds in prize money.

The award is sponsored by the Estate of Ellis Peters, Headline Book Publishing Company and Little, Brown Book Group. It is given to the best crime novel set in any period up to 35 years prior to the year in which the award is given by an author of any nationality, and commemorates the life and work of Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter).

Also nominated:
Prince by Rory Clements (John Murray)
The Red Coffin (aka Shadow Pass) by Sam Eastland (Faber and Faber)
The Hanging Shed by Gordon Ferris (Corvus)
The Cleansing Flames by R.N. Morris (Faber and Faber)
Island of Bones by Imogen Robertson (Headline)

Hat Tip: Omnimystery News & It's a Crime (Or a Mystery...)

RizzlesCon: Rizzoli & Isles Convention

2011-11-30T15:25:00.000-08:00

RizzlesCon 2012 for all Rizzoli & Isles fans. July 20-22, 2012. Clarion Hotel, Anaheim.

The convention will offer attendees the opportunity to immerse themselves behind the scenes. Interactive panel discussions with R&I cast and crew, unique photo and autograph opportunities, a series of fan-focused workshops, specially invited table vendors and the RizzlesCon party.

The characters Rizzoli & Isles were created by crime ficstion author Tess Gerritsen.

RizzlesCon 2012. Read more here.

Hat Tip: BV Lawson

Mystery Bytes: Mystery TV News

2011-11-29T06:11:00.000-08:00

Mystery TV News:

Tonight (11/29) TNT's Mystery Movie Night begins with the film adaptation of Scott Turow's Innocent. Tomorrow (11/30), TNT will air Sandra Brown's Ricochet. Other movies in the series: Hornet's Nest, adapted from Patricia Cornwell's novel (no date yet); Hide by Lisa Gardner (12/6); Silent Witness by Richard North Patterson (12/7); Good Morning, Killer by April Smith (12/13); and Deck the Halls by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark (12/20). Three other movies will be produced in 2012.

Crime Writer Marcus Sakey previews his new series, Hidden City, which debuts on the Travel Channel December 6.

CrimeFest will launch the novelization of the Danish crime drama Forbrydelsen, The Killing, in the UK, adapted in the US as The Killing, too. David Hewson, who has written the novelization will appear at CrimeFest, along with members of the cast and crew.

Millenium, the 6-part Swedish TV adaptation of Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander thrillers, won an International Emmy Award for Best TV Movie/Mini-series.

Watch a parody of The Killing, the Lisbeth Salander series, Wallander & Midsomer Murders, go HERE.

"Inside the NSA" National Geographic TV in January. Rare peek inside this ultra secret agency.

BBC's Sherlock won't be seen on American TV (PBS: Masterpiece Mystery!) until May 6. Here's the Trailer

Hat Tips: The Rap Sheet, In Reference to Murder,
Ominimystery News Variety, Deadline

V is for Viets: Elaine Viets

2011-11-28T08:08:00.000-08:00

Elaine w/Pizza & Gooey Butter Cake

V is for Viets: Elaine Viets. Today the Mystery Author Alphabet Meme continues. I welcome this guest post from Elaine Viets. Be sure and scroll back for other author entries.

Elaine Viets writes two national bestselling mystery series. Her Dead-End Job series is a satiric look at a serious subject – the minimum-wage world. Elaine and her character, Helen Hawthorne, work a different low-paying job each book, from telemarketer to hotel maid. Elaine’s second series features St. Louis mystery shopper Josie Marcus. Elaine Viets has won the Agatha, Anthony and Lefty Awards.

**BOOK CONTEST** Comment below to win a copy of one of Elaine's two new books!

ELAINE VIETS: Living in Two Worlds

Each year, I spend half my writing life in St. Louis, Missouri, and the other half in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. These two cities are in two different states. They could be on other planets.

Josie Marcus, heroine of my Josie Marcus Mystery Shopper mysteries, lives in Maplewood, an old inner ring suburb of St. Louis. Josie is 31, a single mother with an 11-year-old daughter, Amelia.

Josie’s society is deeply connected: Everyone knows everyone, and if they don’t, they know someone who does. Josie’s nosy neighbor, Mrs. Mueller, runs her own private Neighborhood Watch Program. She ratted out a teen-age Josie for smoking, and Josie left a burning bag of dog doo on Mrs. M.’s front porch.

Josie lives in a two-family flat owned by her mother. She is Josie’s backup babysitter. Jane also drives Amelia to school when Josie is working – or solving a mystery. Josie survives on a mystery-shopper’s meager pay thanks to this help from her mother. But Jane has problems of her own. Like many of her readers, Josie belongs to the sandwich generation. She’s caught between caring for her mother and her child.

Helen Hawthorne, my other protagonist, lives nearly twelve hundred miles away in Fort Lauderdale. She’s the star of my Dead-End Job mysteries. Helen is ten years older than Josie and doesn’t have children. Helen has created her own family at the Coronado Tropic Apartments. Margery, her cigarette-smoking landlady, is her surrogate mother. Peggy is a sisterly friend. Helen divorced badly and for a while she dated every druggie, drunk and deadbeat in Florida. Recently, she married Phil Sagemont, a private detective.

Readers have different expectations for these series. They want Josie to be a good mother and a good daughter with old-school values.

Helen’s South Florida is a lot whackier than Josie’s hometown. I can get away with more off-the-wall characters in Fort Lauderdale than I can in St. Louis. Peggy, Helen’s friend, never goes anywhere without her parrot Pete on her shoulder. The poor bird would freeze to death in the St. Louis winters.

I enjoy moving between these two worlds. Right now, I’m promoting my new Josie Marcus mystery shopper novel, “Death on a Platter.” Each book, Josie mystery shops something new. This time, she shopped St. Louis food for a national tour group. This gave me the chance to write about – and eat – local specialties: Gooey butter cake is an artery-clogging concoction oozing butter and sugar. St. Louis’ Kakao Chocolate has sea-salt chocolate caramels and chocolate bark sprinkled with locally ground coffee. I even ate pig ear and snoot sandwiches. Did you know snoot sandwiches have been singled out as the city’s contribution to barbecue? I read that in The Economist magazine. They’re pig noses on a bed of potato salad and white bread, slathered with sweet red barbecue sauce. C&K Barbecue makes tasty snoots in St. Louis.

Both these very different worlds have their own pleasures. Writing a Josie book is like going home. I get to visit my favorite places and old friends.

Helen Hawthorne lives in Fort Lauderdale, my current home. I love the rustle of palm trees and the soft feel of salt-tinged air. I like this fluid society: No one knows what your father did for a living or if your family lineage is important. It’s a good place to start over.

For nine Helen Hawthorne books, it was easy for me to work those dead-end jobs, from hotel maid to telemarketer.

But “Pumped for Murder,” my newest Dead-End Job mystery, grew out of a career crisis.
What was next for Helen Hawthorne?

She was no longer on the run from her awful ex-husband, but she could not go back to her corporate life in St. Louis. She was a Floridian now, living at the Coronado and joining her friends after work for sunset salutes by the pool.

She’d married Phil, the love of her life, in “Half-Price Homicide.”

After a romantic honeymoon in Key Largo, Helen and Phil were back home. I faced a terrible temptation:

Should I kill Phil? His murder would give me at least three books: Helen would have to solve her husband’s murder. Then she’d learn to cope as a widow. Maybe she’d meet another man in the third novel.

But I couldn’t do it. One woman threatened to kill me if anything happened to Phil. I wasn’t sure how serious she was, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

I could also kill off one of Helen’s friends. But I couldn’t. To me, Helen’s friends are real. Losing one would be painful.

The answer was right next door.

Don and I used to live in a condo on Hollywood beach. Our next-door neighbor was a Canadian pilot.

One winter, our Canadian snowbird didn’t arrive. He’d been arrested for flying drugs into the US.

We were stunned. But now I understood why Florida has more private eyes than any state except California. We’re a rootless place. We never know if our neighbors are drug dealers or sun-loving snowbirds.

Also, the warm winters attract retired police officers who open their own Florida detective agencies. They live on their pensions until their new business succeeds.

Thanks to my neighbor who flew snow into Florida, my Dead-End Job series went in a new direction.

Phil and Helen started Coronado Investigations in “Pumped for Murder.” Helen still works those dead-end jobs, but now she’s undercover as a private investigator.

Readers keep asking me: Will Helen and Josie ever meet? Will the two series intersect? After all, Helen does come home to St. Louis to see her sister.

Some writers have characters from one series visit their other series. I can’t do it.

In my mind – where Josie and Helen live – they can’t meet.

It would make my eyes cross.

Crime Scene Scarf

2011-11-27T08:25:00.000-08:00

Since I posted Crime Scene Band-aids, I thought I should post a matching accessory. The Crime Scene Scarf. The Perfect holiday gift for the mystery author, reader or professional. Available on Amazon.com

Crime Scene Band-aids

2011-11-27T08:10:00.000-08:00

Gotta love these! Thanks to @ElizabethAWhite for reminding me about these great stocking stuffers I first posted in 2009! I forgot I had, so I must need more.

You should always have these around for gunshot wounds, knifings and other 'minor' injuries. Available on Amazon. Check out the toast, bacon, eyeballs and others...

The Mousetrap: 60th Anniversary & News

2011-11-26T11:28:00.000-08:00

From the New York Times:

"It might be the longest-standing spoiler alert in theater history: “The Mousetrap,” the London stage production of the Agatha Christie mystery that still asks its audience not to reveal the killer’s identity, began its 60th year on Friday and announced a tour of Britain among other special events to mark the murderous milestone.

In 1974 the play transferred to St. Martin’s Theater two days after its final performance at the Ambassadors, and has played 24,587 performances in what is treated as a continuous run.

The 60th-anniversary tour of the play would begin a 60-week run in September at the Marlowe Theater in Canterbury. A “Mousetrap” theater charity program will also introduce a mystery-writing series at 60 British schools and 60 productions of the play have been licensed for performances in other countries."

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE.

Black Friday: Black Hand Gun Soap

2011-11-26T07:20:00.000-08:00

Meant to post this yesterday for Black Friday. Get a jump on your holiday shopping with this Black Hand Gun Soap. Perfect stocking stuffer. Available on Etsy from favorsbyangelique.

3X2 inches: Black Hand Gun soaps handmade with Moisturizing Shea Butter soap. Perfect for the Crime Reader or Writer or Cop! DO NOT TAKE TO THE MALL!

Cartoon of the Day: Thanksgiving II

2011-11-25T05:33:00.000-08:00

Happy Day After Thanksgiving!

From Bill Abbott Cartoons: http://billabbottcartoons.com/

Cartoon of the Day: Thanksgiving CSI

2011-11-24T05:42:00.000-08:00

Cartoon: The DarkSide Weekly

Judi Dench in Henning Mankell's Italian Shoes

2011-11-23T11:24:00.000-08:00

Judi Dench will reunite with Kenneth Branagh for an adaptation of Henning Mankell's novel, Italian Shoes, which Branagh as director, hopes will include Anthony Hopkins in the lead role.

He hopes to cast Anthony Hopkins as Fredrik Welin, a retired orthopaedic surgeon who retreats to an isolated island, only to be forced back into human contact when an old girlfriend (Dench) comes to visit.

Read more: The Guardian

Hat Tip: Rhian Davies

Grenade Screwdriver Set

2011-11-23T10:52:00.000-08:00

On the BoingBoing.net: Grenade Screwdriver Set

Screwdriver set shaped like a hand grenade
6 bits (Phillips/crosshead and flat/slotted bits) included
Made from stainless steel and heavy-duty plastic
With keyring

$8.95

Scandinavian Crime Series Meets Midsomer Murders

2011-11-22T13:56:00.000-08:00

Scandinavian Crime Series meets Midsomer Murders on this hilarious YouTube Video--for anyone who likes mysteries!

Thanks to @crimeficreader and @marzillk via @whyjay99.
Be sure and check out Rhian Davies' Blog: It's a crime! (Or a mystery...)

What's in a Name? Guest post by Lise McClendon

2011-11-22T06:44:00.000-08:00

Pen Names, Pseudonyms, AKA: Decisions to be made. They're all part of the writing process. Today I welcome Lise McClendon aka Rory Tate.

As Rory Tate, Lise McClendon recently published Jump Cut, a thriller set in Seattle and the tiny republic of Moldova. She is also the author of seven mystery and suspense novels. Read about them at her website, or at Rory Tate’s website (where there is a trailer for Jump Cut.) Rory Tate also has a story in the Thalia Press Authors Co-op collection of short stories: DEAD OF WINTER. Lise McClendon has served on the national boards of Mystery Writers of America and the International Association of Crime Writers, as well as the faculty of the Jackson Hole Writers Conference. She lives in Montana.

What’s in a Name? by Lise McClendon

Pseudonyms in crime fiction have a long, colorful history, from the collective who wrote Nancy Drew to the group of writers behind Ellery Queen. Sometimes an author is trying to hide his professional life from the tawdry thrillers he pens. But most of the time a pseudonym is a marketing angle, a way to ‘sell’ a novel. Maybe your real name has too many consonants. Or you are so prolific your publisher gets worked up about your burgeoning oeuvre. Or the computerized stats of booksellers are working against you.

My reason for changing names is a classic one: to reach more readers. My series novels are whodunits in the traditional vein. My first mysteries, the Alix Thorssen novels, are written in first person and feature an amateur sleuth in a small resort town, stumbling over the bodies of acquaintances. My historical mysteries with Dorie Lennox, set just as World War 2 breaks out, are in the hardboiled camp, reflecting that time period of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. I even went so far as to write a homage to Chandler in Sweet and Lowdown.

I wanted to try something more modern when I wrote Jump Cut. To write a contemporary thriller about ordinary people. No spies, no techno wizards, no heroes without names. Just a regular reporter, struggling to make a life for herself. And an ordinary cop who gets in trouble with the department through no crime of his own.

It’s called a thriller but it’s probably not exactly that either. (I have a hard time slotting myself. Who wants to fall into a predestined cog?) There’s action and danger, for sure, but also the search for redemption, honor, and connection which I think every good novel should have, whether you’re writing about the end of the world or the end of the widow lady next door. Oh, and sacrifice. Every novel needs a good sacrifice.

I probably should have used my new penname, Rory Tate, on my 2009 stand-alone, Blackbird Fly. It’s not a series book either. A suspense novel, it probably falls in the line of women’s fiction too and has gained a wider audience than my mystery novels. (Strangely, some people don’t read mystery fiction. Shocking to discover!) But I didn’t use the penname until now.

As Rory Tate I can be anybody: male, female, British, American, Canadian -- Australian even! (Fancy a little rugby?) I thought about keeping my true identity a secret, making a game of it. Who is Rory Tate? What mystery aficionado doesn’t like a good secret identity? I remember the fun stories about the discovery of who Paul Garrison really was. (Read Justin Scott’s journey for a real pro at pseudonyms.) But in the end I decided that the people who knew my writing as Lise McClendon might possibly want to read another novel by said author. And how would they find me?

So murder and secret identities will out. I hope to find new readers with my snappy, new, androgynous name, people who don’t necessarily read about Rocky Mountain backwaters or the gritty streets of Kansas City during the war. People who like to read about people like themselves: city dwellers, young professionals, struggling careerists. Reporters and policemen, daughters and sons.

And people who, as Rory might say, like a cracking good yarn. As always.

Best Swedish Crime Novel 2011

2011-11-21T06:53:00.000-08:00

Arne Dahl has won the award for Best Swedish Crime Novel 2011 with Viskelen [Chinese Whispers]. Viskelen is the first part in a new quartet of books about international crime and the controversial Europol unit formed to combat it. Translated by Tiina Nunnally.

Hat Tip: The Rap Sheet & Crime Scraps Review

2012 Grand Master, Ellery Queen & Raven Awards

2011-11-21T06:38:00.000-08:00

Mystery Writers of America announces the following Awards:

Grand Master: Martha Grimes. MWA's Grand Master Award represents the pinnacle of achievement in mystery writing and was established to acknowledge important contributions to this genre, as well as a body of work that is both significant and of consistent high quality.

Ellery Queen Award: Joe Meyers. The Ellery Queen award is given to editors or publishers who have distinguished themselves by their generous and wide-ranging support of the genre.

2012 Raven Awards: M is for Mystery in San Mateo, CA and Molly Weston of Meritorious Mysteries. This award recognizes outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing.

The Awards will be presented at The Edgar Awards Banquet in New York City on Thursday, April 26, 2012.

Cartoon of the Day: Crime Novelist

2011-11-20T05:48:00.000-08:00

Bliss by Harry Bliss:

Mystery Bytes: Crime Fiction Awards

2011-11-19T08:48:00.000-08:00

Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards:

Now in its sixth year, the Irish reading public cast their votes for the favorite titles and Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney presented the Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards 2011. The Ireland AM Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year: Bloodland by Alan Glynn (Faber)
For the complete list of Awards, go HERE.

Japan's Maltese Falcon Award:

The Gumshoe Site announced that Japan’s Maltese Falcon Society has given one of Winslow’s earlier works, The Winter of Frankie Machine (2006), its 2011 Maltese Falcon Award. That commendation is presented to “the best hard-boiled/private eye novel published in the previous year in Japan.”

Thanksgiving Mysteries 2011

2011-11-18T06:42:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving. I have a lot to give thanks for: my family, my friends, my health, and the wonderful mystery community. Last year I wrote that Thanksgiving was going to be at my home. As predicted, my family is as dysfunctional as most in the U.S., but we didn't stoop to murder! That can't be said for the families in the following updated list of Thanksgiving Mysteries. As the saying goes, "Families are like Fudge, sweet with a few Nuts thrown in."

And, if you're cooking the turkey or baking the pies, be sure to check out Mystery Lovers' Kitchen for Thanksgiving recipes and cooking techniques from Mystery Writing Cooks Avery Aames, Julie Hyzy, Jenn McKinlay, Riley Adams, Cleo Coyle, & Krista Davis.

My own Chocolate blog, DyingforChocolate.com has some recipes this year and last for stunning Thanksgiving dishes including Chocolate Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Turkey Rub, White Chocolate Mashed Potatoes and Pumpkin and Chocolate Recipe Round-Up and More this week and next! Be sure to check DyingforChocolate.com.

Thanksgiving Mysteries

S.H. Baker The Colonel's Tale
Bob Berger The Risk of Fortune
William Bernhardt Natural Suspect
Kate Borden Death of a Turkey
Lilian Jackson Braun The Cat Who Talked Turkey
Carole Bugge Who Killed Mona Lisa?
Sammi Carter Goody Goody Gunshots
Christine E. Collier A Holiday Sampler
Sheila Connolly A Killer Crop
Isis Crawford A Catered Thanksgiving
Bill Crider w/Willard Scott Murder under Blue Skies
Amanda Cross Trap for Fools
Barbara D'Amato Hard Tack
Mary Daheim Alpine Fury, Fowl Prey
Jeanne Dams Sins Out of School
Claire Daniels Final Intuition
Evelyn David Murder Takes the Cake
Krista Davis The Diva Runs Out of Thyme
Michael Dibdin Thanksgiving
Joanne Dobson Raven and the Nightingale
Christine Duncan Safe House
Janet Evanovich Thanksgiving (technically a romance)*
Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain A Fatal Feast (Murder She Wrote)
Katherine V. Forrest The Beverly Malibu
Noreen Gilpatrick The Piano Man
Martin H. Greenberg (editor) Cat Crimes for the Holidays
Jane Haddam Feast of Murder
Lee Harris The Thanksgiving Day Murder
J. Alan Hartman, editor, The Killer Wore Cranberry
Robin Hathaway The Doctor Makes a Dollhouse Call
Richard Hawke Speak of the Devil
Victoria Houston Dead Hot Shot
Ellen Elizabeth Hunter Murder on the ICW
Melanie Jackson Death in a Turkey Town
J. A. Jance Shoot Don't Shoot
Faye Kellerman Serpent's Tooth
Harry Kemelman That Day the Rabbi Left Town
Clyde Linsley Death of a Mill Girl
Georgette Livingston Telltale Turkey Caper
Nial Magill Thanksgiving Murder in the Mountains
G.M. Malliet Wicked Autumn
Margaret Maron Up Jumps the Devil
Evan Marshall Stabbing Stefanie
Ralph McInerny Celt and Pepper
Leslie Meier Turkey Day Murder
Deborah Morgan The Marriage Casket
Louise Penny Still Life
Cathy Pickens Southern Fried
Ann Ripley Harvest of Murder
Willard Scott w/Bill Crider Murder under Blue Skies
Sarah R. Shaber Snipe Hunt
Denise Swanson Murder of a Barbie and Ken, Murder of a Botoxed Blonde
Marcia Talley Occasion of Revenge
Jennifer Vanderbes Strangers at the Feast
Debbie Viguie I Shall Not Want
Livia J. Washburn The Pumpkin Muffin Murder
Leslie Wheeler Murder at Plimoth Plantation
Angela Zeman The Witch and the Borscht Pearl

Let me know if I've forgotten any titles!

Science is Murder: December 14 Panel

2011-11-17T15:55:00.000-08:00

Thanks to BV Lawson at In Reference to Murder for this news. If you're not following this blog, you should be!

The Washington Academy of Sciences in D.C.
"Science is Murder": December 14th

Experts include:
Dr. Janet Sorrentino, lecturer and "authority on science and Harry Potter"
Sandra Parshall, author of the Rachel Goddard mysteries
Mary Ellen O'Toole, former FBI agent, expert on psychopathy and author of Dangerous Instincts: How Gut Feelings Betray Us.
Moderator: Kathy Harig, owner of the bookstore Mystery Loves Company in Oxford, Maryland,

Where: 1200 New York Ave. NW (use 12th St entrance between NY Ave & H St)
6:3-9:00$5. Register online. To reserve space, send an email with your name & number of people to: scienceismurder@washacadsci.org

Cartoon of the Day

2011-11-17T06:26:00.000-08:00

Hat Tip: Erin Faye

Tony Hillerman Prize

2011-11-16T10:15:00.000-08:00

City of Saints, by Andrew Hunt, has been named the winner of the 2011 Tony Hillerman Prize for best first mystery novel. Hunt is a Utah native and a professor of history at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The announcement was made during last weekend’s Tony Hillerman Writers Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The Tony Hillerman Prize, named after the late New Mexico author and creator of the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee mysteries, is given out annually is given out annually to “the best debut mystery set in the [American] Southwest.” Hunt received a contract for publication with St. Martin's Press and a $10,000 advance.

Hat Tip: The Rap Sheet

GingerDead Men Cookie Cutters

2011-11-16T05:07:00.000-08:00

My company, TeamBuilding Unlimited, does a lot of Holiday Events that involve Decorating Gingerbread Cookies. Yesterday I received a tweet from CriminalElement.com @crimehq about GingerDead Men Cookie Cutters. Deliciously Dead and Festive! I am so ordering this cookie cutter!

Along the same line are the NinjaBread Men. Yet another addition to my cookie cutter collection!

John Curran on Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making

2011-11-15T08:02:00.000-08:00

Today I welcome John Curran, author of the award winning Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks.

John Curran's lifelong interest in crime fiction came to fruition when he departed from his career as a civil servant to write Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks. The long-time literary advisor to the Christie estate and an expert on her life and work, he has acted as a consultant in the restoration of Greenway House, Agatha Christie's home, and is currently writing a Ph.D. thesis on "Agatha Christie and The Golden Age of Detective Fiction" at Trinity College Dublin. Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making is now out in the U.S. from HarperCollins.

JOHN CURRAN:
Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making

When I was half-way through writing Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks, I knew that I had a problem. The original decision – and contract! - was to produce a 500-page book but as I transcribed more and more of the Notebooks I realised that a mere 500 pages would not be enough to discuss properly the genesis of Christie’s classic novels. The solution? Write a second book. And so Murder in the Making was conceived.

In the Secret Notebooks book I had devised the idea of arranging the books thematically in order to bring together titles from various eras of Christie’s writing life and to avoid discussing all the weaker and less-well known books – mainly from the early and late years – in the same chapter. But when I came to Murder in the Making and examined the titles for inclusion – over twenty of them - I knew that the thematic approach would not work; the remaining novels would not fall conveniently into themes. Having considered various options – alphabetical, by detective, by category – I finally settled on a chronological approach as being the most logical. This also gave me the opportunity to consider the development of Christie as a detective novelist. And so, from the very first she book wrote, The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1920, to the very last, Postern of Fate in 1973 I trace the arc of Christie’s phenomenal career both as novelist and dramatist. I look at how her fiction challenged the ‘rules’ of the genre and I provide some more personal glimpses of the woman behind the world’s best-selling fiction; and for readers who think that they have read everything that she wrote I include a few surprises...

The most welcome surprise for her devoted fans will undoubtedly be the ‘missing’ chapter from The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Agatha Christie’s literary career begins with this first book, which, although published in 1920, took five years to reach the bookshelves. I consider the genesis of the book, placing in context the hitherto unseen and unpublished courtroom scene from the first draft which had been removed and replaced. In near-illegible pencilled handwriting in Notebook 37 this chapter (mentioned briefly by Dame Agatha in her Autobiography) is a fascinating, but very different, forerunner of the type of scene which features as the denouement of so many cases – the gathering of the suspects and the revelation of the murderer. Instead of the usual drawing-room setting this early version has Poirot present his explanation from the witness box during the trial of John Cavendish. Not surprisingly John Lane, the publisher of Styles, asked for its removal – such a procedure would not be permissible - and in so doing he unwittingly influenced the ‘revelation scene’ of the following half-century of Christie’s fiction. In complete contrast to this I also discuss the notes for her last, and, sadly, unwritten novel. A few pages of fascinating and surprising notes show that right to the very end of her life her creativity remained. These notes indicate a novel unlike anything she had previously written. An idea for a very dark crime novel - not a detective novel – complete with a glorious twist bubbled away in her mind in late1973. Alas, it was not be...

Miss Marple is represented in a variant draft of the 1942 short story ‘The Case of the Caretaker’. I found this longer and more convincing version buried among Christie’s papers and although the reason behind its lifelong burial remains obscure I feel that this short story (which later inspired one of her greatest novels, Endless Night) deserves resurrection! And the more personal Christie is portrayed with a consideration of her lifelong interest in Shakespeare as shown by her Letter to The Times in 1973 as well as a discussion of her reading interests as shown by some of the lists of books that are scattered throughout the Notebooks. Her wide-ranging tastes are reflected in these records of book titles embracing fiction – both general and crime – and history, biography, art, science and music.

The supernatural was a feature – although not a dominant one – throughout Christie’s writing life. Undertones and overtones of the paranormal coloured some of her detective novels – Dumb Witness, The Sittaford Mystery, The Pale Horse – and the 1934 short story collection The Hound of Death explored this concept more thoroughly. So when I came across a very short short story among her papers I realised that it was the forerunner of one of the best of this type to come from her typewriter. ‘The Man Who Knew’ is an early, though complete, version of the 1924 short ‘The Red Signal’. Both versions differ only in length with ‘The Red Signal’ adding only extra characters and deeper characterisation. The deception carried out on the reader is the same in both but the later version shows more experience in the use of the ambiguous phrase to misdirect the reader.

The other ‘behind-the-scenes’ glimpse is the article that Christie wrote in 1937 to herald the newspaper serialisation of Appointment with Death (where it was to be called A Death with Death). ‘How I created Hercule Poirot’ first appeared in January 1938 and in it, Christie discusses in general the origins of her most famous creation and, more specifically, the factors that made Appointment with Death one of his more fascinating cases. But for students of Christie the most interesting aspect of the article is the fact that it appears in Notebook 21 with a minimum of deletions and crossings-out. I leave these deletions in place and readers will be able to see how these 1400 words were produced so easily and fluently. Perhaps the fact that ‘cut and paste’ and ‘copy and paste’ did not exist focussed the mind!

There is one further aspect of Murder in the Making that I would like to address. Because in this volume I cover more of the later novels than I did in Secret Notebooks, my appraisals of these had to be more negative than many earlier titles. Nobody could argue, for instance, that Postern of Fate in 1973 is in the same league as, for instance, Death on the Nile from almost forty years earlier; or that Passenger to Frankfurt in 1970 stands comparison with And Then There Were None from 1939. I hope that I persuade the reader that although the later novels were not as clever as the earlier ones, it was not the ideas behind the books but the development of these ideas that faltered. Even her weakest titles – and I consider Postern of Fate and Passenger to Frankfurt to be her two weakest titles – have at their heart clever ideas. But the development of these ideas into puzzling and entertaining plots is not as inventive as the Christie of yesteryear; there are fewer variations produced on a plot idea, there is less mystification and misdirection, and the ability to produce a stunning last-minute surprise is missing. But after a lifetime of entertainment with the output of the Queen of Crime I assure you that I am assessing and not complaining!

T is for Tafoya: Dennis Tafoya

2011-11-14T08:09:00.000-08:00

Today the Mystery Author Alphabet Meme continues with the Letter "T". T is for Tafoya: Dennis Tafoya.

Dennis Tafoya lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and is the author of two novels, Dope Thief and The Wolves of Fairmount Park, as well as numerous short stories appearing in collections such as Philadelphia Noir from Akashic Books. His work has been nominated for two Spinetingler awards and his novels have been optioned for film.

DENNIS TAFOYA:

Writing is a process of immersion that is a little like falling in love. To produce good work, I have to spend many hours researching, reading and thinking. I admire people who can tie themselves to a chair and have at it, but I spend a lot of time (for lack of a better word) daydreaming, psychically chasing my characters and fleshing out their lives and relationships, before I can start writing anything that feels meaningful. I know many excellent writers who don’t seem to need this step, but I haven’t learned how to jump into the work without building a sort of foundation in my head for the story I want to tell. I have to attach myself to my characters in a process that feels like emotional commitment.

My jumping-off place is frequently some real incident, a piece of criminal history that gets in my brain and won’t let go. I’ll admit I spend what is probably an unhealthy amount of time reading accounts of some pretty awful crimes, but I have to marry that material to some emotional entanglement or I don’t find the story interesting enough to keep working. Plot by itself isn’t compelling to me - I need high emotional stakes for the action to hold my attention. I think sometimes that plot is really just an excuse that allows me to create scenes in which my characters’ emotional lives, their histories and connections to other characters can play out, and I think (I hope) that this is the stuff that pulls readers in.

I wrote a short story last year that came out of a real incident in which a woman in her early twenties met a hardened con in his forties during their arraignment in an Atlantic City courtroom. They had an instant connection, formed a relationship, and went on a crime spree that ended just a few days later after they’d killed somebody during a robbery. It was a terrible story, but it was also fascinating, and I kept trying to imagine what could have been in the mind of the young woman. What goes wrong in your life that hooking up with a violent, burnt-out criminal seems attractive?

The process of writing that story, then, was coming up with an emotional history for the character that created a basis for her actions that seemed real. One of the things I’ve learned about criminals is that they’re frequently assigned a kind of role in their families: They’re the ones for whom things always go wrong. Parole officers will tell you that sometimes the ex-cons who make it are the ones who actually limit contact with their families and the expectation of failure that can become a family mythology. People reentering society need to redefine themselves, and family can either support the process or undermine it.

There was also a lot of research. I wanted to know more about the workings of the court system, so I did internet searches for information about criminal arraignment, called a public defender friend who could tell me what goes on when someone is in court for parole violation, and spent (as I always do) a lot of time working in Google Maps, as well as trying to find a source for the physical layout of the Philadelphia Criminal Courts. I do this research because I want to get as many details right as I can, but also because I find a lot of fascinating stuff in the process of research that can actually generate story. Those small, interesting details are also part of the reporting function that’s built into the most compelling fiction.

In the end the intersection of research and what I hope is believable and affecting emotional content is where I spend most of my time when I write. I have Google open on my laptop, I’m checking facts and looking up jargon, place names and technical details, but it’s the emotional substance that makes me care enough to keep writing, and hopefully keeps you reading. If I don’t care deeply what happens to my characters, why should you?