Bastille Day: Mysteries set in France: Mystery Readers Journal 28:1

Celebrate Bastille Day with a copy of  Mystery Readers Journal: Mysteries Set in France (Volume 28:1 -- Spring 2012)! Buy this BACK issue! Available as a downloadable PDF. 

MYSTERIES SET IN FRANCE: MYSTERY READERS JOURNAL

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ARTICLES

• A Brief Panorama of Early French Crime Fiction by Jean-Marc Lofficier
• Sex and the Country: Some Thoughts on Pierre Magnan by Peter Rozovsky
• An Interview with Sîan Reynolds by Peter Rozovsky
• My Affair With the Birthplace of Crime Fiction by Bernadette Bean
• Tale of Two Dominiques by Cary Watson
• The Father of the Detective Story: Emile Gaboriau by Nina Cooper

AUTHOR! AUTHOR!

• Passion, Bloodshed, Desire, and Death by Susanne Alleyn
• How I Got Into My Life of Crime French Style by Cara Black
• Honest! I Was in Paris Working Very Hard! by Rick Blechta
• Having a Nice Time? by Rhys Bowen
• Inspector Aliette Nouvelle by John Brooke
• The French Adventure of a Full-time Lawyer and Part-time Fool by Alan Gordon
• Escape From Paris by Carolyn Hart
• Maggie MacGowen Goes to France by Wendy Hornsby
• France on Berlin Time by J. Robert Janes
• Experiencing Provence by M.L. Longworth
• Writing a French Police Series by Adrian Magson
• France, the Write Country by Peter May
• Travel + Fiction: You Want to Go There by Lise McClendon
• Hemingway's Paris Remains 'A Moveable Feast' by Craig McDonald
• Inspired by the "Where" by Tom Mitcheltree
• It's All About Me? by Sharan Newman
• Drinking Tea From a Bowl: Getting France Right by D-L Nelson
• Mysteries Set in France: Vive la Différence! by Katherine Hall Page
• Provence—To Die For by Renée Paley-Bain
• Mick Jagger, Kirs Royales, and Paris by P.J. Parrish
• Paris Shadows by M.J. Rose
• Diplomatic Mystery by William S. Shepard
• Alpine Beach: My French Connection by Susan Steggall
• She Lost Her Head in La Belle France by Nancy Means Wright

COLUMNS

• Crossword: The French Connection by Verna Suit
• Mystery in Retrospect: Reviews by Lesa Holstine, L.J. Roberts, Alana White, Marlyn Beebe
• Children's Hour: Where's Madeleine? by Gay Toltl Kinman
• In Short: Glimpses of France by Marvin Lachman
• The Art of French Crime by Cathy Pickens
• Crime Seen: Le Crime Vu by Kate Derie
• Mysteries Set in France by British Authors by Philip Scowcroft
• From the Editor's Desk by Janet A. Rudolph

Cartoon of the Day: Books

 

MARTIN CRUZ SMITH: R.I.P.

Sad news. Award winning mystery author Martin Cruz Smith passed away yesterday. I was privileged to meet him on several occasions. He was an amazing storyteller. He will be missed. Sympathy to his family, friends, and readers at this sad time.

Martin Cruz Smith was known for his wonderful  crime fiction, particularly his Arkady Renko series. He won the Hammett Prize from IACW twice, the Gold Dagger Award from CWA, the Lifetime Achievement Award from Left Coast Crime, and the Grand Master Award from MWA. His works explore themes of political intrigue and social issues within the context of Russia and other international settings.

Martin Cruz Smith was best known for his novels featuring Russian investigator Arkady Renko, whom he introduced in Gorky Park (1981). Renko has since appeared in ten other novels. Gorky Park debuted at No. 2 on the New York Times bestseller list on April 26, 1981 and occupied the top spot for a week.Polar Star also claimed the No. 1 spot for two weeks on August 6, 1989, and held the No. 2 spot for over two months.

For a list of his works, go to Stop, You're Killing Me! 

Hotel Ukraine, the 11th Arkady Renko Novel, debuted this week. 

From NYT, July 2: 

Sarah Weinman:

"The great Moscow detective Arkady Renko, first introduced in Smith’s 1981 classic “Gorky Park,” bids readers adieu in HOTEL UKRAINE (Simon & Schuster, 276 pp. $27.99). As Smith writes movingly in the acknowledgments, Parkinson’s disease, which he has had for decades and which Arkady also grapples with, “takes no prisoners, and now I have finished my last book. There is only one Arkady, and I will miss him.”

So will we. But “Hotel Ukraine,” set in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, is a fitting send-off."

Cartoon of the Day: Best Books for Summer

 From Tom Gauld:

The Marlow Murder Club News: PBS Masterpiece

Good News. Season 2 of The Marlow Murder Club premieres on Masterpiece PBS on Sunday, August 24 at 9/8c with writer, creator and Executive Producer Robert Thorogood joining forces with Lucia Haynes (Annika, Vera) and Julia Gilbert (Ridley, Midsomer Murders) for six all-new episodes. 

While life in the idyllic town of Marlow has just about returned to normal after a chain of murders rattled the tightly knit community, it’s not long before retired archaeologist Judith Potts, dog-walker Suzie Harris, and Vicar’s wife Becks Starling are called back into action to solve a series of new crimes that befall the local residents. From a seemingly impossible murder inside the locked study of a sweeping mansion to the mysterious case of a man with no connection to the town murdered in the middle of a sleepy cul-de-sac, and an unexpectedly brutal accident at the prestigious Marlow sailing club that quickly reveals itself to be something more sinister, there’s no rest for our sleuthing trio. Navigating the delicate balance of Marlow society—from local aristocracy to the workers at the local boatyard, the pubs and cafes of the high street to a newly established archaeological dig—Judith, Becks, and Suzie dig into all corners of Marlow life as they assist DCI Tanika Malik in her official investigations. 

Cartoon of the Day: Useful Phrases for the Murder Mystery Writer Abroad