Kentucky Derby Crime Fiction & More

The 138th Kentucky Derby will take place tomorrow, and in anticipation I've dusted off last year's list of Kentucky Derby mysteries and added more titles and a few more categories. Read several horse-racing mysteries to set the mood so you can enjoy the day or watch the movie The Kentucky Derby(1922) that's full of grit and crime. Have a piece of Derby Pie (recipes on DyingforChocolate.com), filled with chocolate, bourbon and pecans or read Sasscer Hill's post on last year's Kentucky Derby. Planning on attending the Kentucky Derby this year? Don't forget your hat: "Crowning Glory: The art of Kentucky Derby Hats"

Kentucky Derby Mysteries
Triple Crown by Jon Breen 
Triple Cross by Kit Ehrman
Intercept by Mary Jane Forbes
Silent Partner by Karen Jones
Snip by Doc Macomber
Murder at the Kentucky Derby by Charles Parmer
Dark Horse by Bill Shoemaker (Triple Crown)
The Accurst Tower by John Winslow

Kentucky Derby Short Stories
"The Gift" by Dick Francis is set at the Kentucky Derby. It is in the collection Field of Thirteen. "The Gift" first appeared as "A Day of Wine and Roses" in Sports Illustrated, 1973.
Derby Rotten Scoundrels: A Silver Dagger Anthology, edited by Jeffrey Marks
Low Down and Derby, a collection of fast paced mystery stories set around the Kentucky Derby, by fifteen authors from the Ohio River Valley Chapter of Sisters in Crime.
Murder at the Races, a collection of Short Stories including "A Derby Horse", edited by Peter Haining.

Children's Mysteries
The Mystery at the Kentucky Derby by Carole Marsh

Non-Fiction
Great Horse Racing Mysteries: Tales from the Track by John McEvoy
Dancer's Image: The Forgotten Story of the 1968 Kentucky Derby (and 5 other non-fiction books about Thoroughbread racing and equine law) by Milton Toby
 And there once was a thorough-bred named Mystery Novel. He did not win the Kentucky Derby.

Movies
The Kentucky Derby (1922)

Authors who Write Horse Mysteries (not necesssarily about the Kentucky Derby)
Gabriella Herkert, Sasscer Hill, Jody Jaffe, Carolyn Banks, Michelle Scott, Laura Crum, Mary Monica Pulver, Rita Mae Brown, Janet Dawson, Maggie Estep, Dick Francis, John Francome, Alyson Hagy, Michael Kilian, Lynda La Plante, John McEvoy, Bill Shoemaker, Laura Young, Lyndon Stacey, JD Carpenter

Walter Mosley to launch new Production Company

Walter Mosley has teamed up with producer Diane Houslin to launch a new production company, B.O.B. Filmhouse (Best of Brooklyn Filmhouse). Author of more than 39 novels and stories, Mosley "has had numerous books optioned and produced before, but now, for the first time, will play an active role in seeing them transformed into films and television series."

The company already has several projects underway, including The Long Fall, based on Mosley’s Leonid McGill novels, in development at HBO and a film version of Man in My Basement.

Source: Deadline

Cinco de Mayo & Mexican Crime Fiction

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo! Read a mystery!

The holiday of Cinco De Mayo, The 5th Of May, commemorates the victory of the Mexican militia over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862. It's primarily a regional holiday celebrated in the Mexican state capital city of Puebla and throughout the state of Puebla, with some recognition in other parts of the Mexico, and especially in U.S. cities with a significant Mexican population. It's not, as many people believe, Mexico's Independence Day, which is actually September 16.

Last year I blogged about Cinco de Mayo Mysteries. I added a few titles, but I thought I'd run the post again with a few additions for those who missed it...or won't take the extra step to click. :-)

This list is supplemented with Mexican mystery writers and books set in Mexico. Let me know any titles you think should be included.

Add to your Cinco de Mayo reading pleasure with a Mexican Chocolate Celebration. Check out my other Blog, Dying for Chocolate, for recipes and suggestions of great Chocolate for Cinco de Mayo. Entrees, drinks and desserts and more desserts.  I've also posted several recipes for different versions of Mole Poblano and Mexican Chocolate Truffles (including Tequila Truffles).

Cinco de Mayo Mysteries:
The Cinco de Mayo Murder by Lee Harris
A Corpse for Cuamantla by Harol Marshall
Cinco de Mayo by Michael Martineck (science fiction/but cross-over)  
The Bane of Cinco de Mayo by Nathan S. Mitchell
The Cinco de Mayo Reckoning by Terry Money

Not meaning to be complete in any way, I put together a few titles by Mexican authors or mysteries set in Mexico or related to the Mexican experience in some way (but not to Cinco de Mayo).

Mexican Crime Writers:
Paco Ignacio Taibo II The Uncomfortable Dead (and numerous other novels)
Read an interview with Paco.
Eduardo Monteverde
Juan Hernandez Luna

Hardboiled fiction on the Mexican-American frontier: 
Gabriel Trujillo Munoz-known for his science fiction and literary criticism, also writes detective fiction: Mesquite Road, Tijuana City Blues
Carlos Fuentes: Cabeza de la Hidra (The Hydra Head)
Joaquin Guerrero-Casaola: The Law of the Garrotte
Rolando Hinojosa: Partners in Crime, Ask a Policeman

Want to find out more about Mysteries in Mexico. Read G.J. Demko's Landscapes of Crime.

Lucha Corpi, Guest blogged on: La Bloga on Chicana Crime Fiction: Where to?
Mignon G. Eberhart. Wings of Fear takes place in Mexico City.

Read an essay by Jennifer Insley "Border criminals, border crime: hard-boiled fiction on the American Frontier in Confluencia: Revista Hispanica de Cultura y Literatura

YA Literature? You Don't Have a Clue: Latino Mystery Stories for Teens, edited by Sarah Cortez (Arte Publico Press)

Interested in Crime for the Holidays? Check out Mystery Readers Journal, Volume 25:1.

And a fun fact: Five most popular Tequilas in the U.S.
1. Jose Cuervo
2. Patron
3. Sauza
4. Herradura
5. Cabo Wabo

Sherlock Holmes Masterpiece Mystery! Season 2

Sherlock returns to Masterpiece Mystery! PBS this Sunday night at 9 p.m (check your local listing), and the new season--three new episodes, hardly a season, but thrilled to have them-- are great. May 6-20, 2012, Sunday nights. PBS has taken three well known tales and updated them in a very unique way. The stories are there, but the background and delivery is so different. Love the acting-the dysfunctional duo of Sherlock Holmes, Benedict Cumberbatch and Dr. John Watson, Martin Freeman, battles the worst of 21st- century London, including a tech savvy arch-villain who wants to rule the world and a hound from the hinges of Hell. Don't miss Season 2. Season 3 won't start filming until 2013.

If for some reason you can't watch live or forget to set your DVR, the episodes will be available for a short time after aired on the PBS website.


Join Masterpiece Sherlock season two with a live Twitter event on Sundays, May 6, 13 & 20, 2012, during the premiere broadcasts of A Scandal in Belgravia, The Hounds of Baskerville and The Reichenbach Fall.

You're welcome whenever you're watching, but during 9-10:30 pm Eastern time, Masterpiece and PBS insiders — as well as Sherlock experts from Baker Street Blog, Baker Street Babes, and authors Lyndsay Faye (Sherlock Holmes in America) and Leslie Klinger (The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes) — will be tweeting too.

Tag your posts with the hashtag #SherlockPBS 

WHAT: Masterpiece and PBS are hosting a live Twitter discussion! 

WHEN: Sundays, May 6, 13 & 20, 2012, 9-10:30pm Eastern time

WHERE: Join on Twitter (Use hashtag #SherlockPBS.)

TOPICS: Sherlock Holmes, clever deductions, Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, MASTERPIECE Mystery! 

WHO: @masterpiecepbs; @pbs; Taylor Blumenberg of @BakerStBabes; Scott Monty of @BakerStreetBlog; author Lyndsay Faye (@lyndsayfaye); author Leslie Klinger (@lklinger) — and YOU!

RSVP: Please follow and be followed (on Twitter, of course!) by other #SherlockPBS tweeters

May Day & Morris Dancing Crime Fiction

For the past few years, I've posted a list of May Day Mysteries, and I'm updating the entries here. I love May Day with its Morris Dancing and Maypole. And, although the 'merry month' of May may seem idyllic with its flowers and warm showers, it can actually be murderous! Later this month, I will also have an updated list of Mother's Day mysteries which, of course, takes place in May. I include a few other May mysteries in the list below, not just May Day Mysteries.

But the expanded list in this post focuses on Morris Dancing in Crime Fiction. There have also been Morris Dancers on Midsomer Murders.

May Day Mysteries

Five Days in May by Paul Eiseman
30 Days in May by Wayne Hancock
Five Days in May by Christopher Hartpence
Seven Days in May by Fletcher Knebel 
May Day by Jess Lourey
May Might Mean Murder by Bill McGrath 
A Hearse on May-Day by Gladys Mitchell  
May Day in Magadan by Anthony Olcott 
The Merry Month of May by Elvi Rhodes
A Hot Day in May by Julian Jay Savarin
The May Day Murders by Scott Wittenburg

For over 35 years at dawn on May Day, Berkeley Morris Dancing takes place at Inspiration Point in Tilden Park. The Berkeley Morris Dancers will also perform at the University of California Botanical Garden 2:30, Sunday, May 6. Check for Morris Dancing in your area.

Morris Dancing Mysteries

As the Pig Turns by M.C. Beaton
Agatha Raisin and the Case of the Curious Curate by M.C. Beaton
Blind to the Bones by Stephen Booth
Thieves by Hannah Dennison
Death of a Fool (Off with his Head) by Ngaio Marsh
Dead Men's Morris by Gladys Mitchell 
The Death-Cap Dancers by Gladys Mitchell
The Lazareth Pit by Elizabeth Patterson

Rosamund Upton: Guest Post & Book Giveaway

Today I welcome back Rosamund Lupton. She is the author of the bestseller Sister. Her second novel, Afterwards, was released in the U.S. last week.  

Rosamund Lupton started writing when she could first hold a pencil. She studied English literature at Cambridge University. Following her BA degree, she was a freelance copywriter and reviewer, including writing reviews for the Literary Review. She won a TV play competition and became a full time screenwriter, working for the BBC and independent film companies. When her youngest child started school, she decided to write a novel – Sister which went straight into the UK best seller list. When it was published in the USA, it made the New York Times best seller list and received great reviews. I loved it. A unique voice.  Afterwards is different and equally gripping. 

**Book Giveaway: Make a comment below to win a copy of Afterwards. Be sure and add your email address (ex: joe at sbcglobal.net). Let me know why you'd like to read Afterwards. U.S residents only. Winner will picked at random. **

Rosamund Lupton: 
The Way I approach Writing a Novel

When I was a child, my father would play chess with me, encouraging me to think one then two moves ahead, progressing to about five or six moves when my brain would start to short-circuit. Fortunately he was a kind as well as brilliant chess player and didn’t take advantage of my brain explosion to checkmate me. Plotting the detective story part of my novels feels very similar. (If character A does this, then that action has a consequence on character B which in turn affects character C which a hundred pages later will have some meaning for character A.) And in this plotting game the other player is the reader. Am I leading the reader carefully away from the real perpetrator of the crime or would he or she guess – checkmate me – by chapter 7, if not before? And in this game, are the twists and turns engaging enough for the reader to keep reading/playing? Finally, when I reveal in the last chapters the real perpetrator, will the reader think ‘oh yes of course, why didn’t I see that?’ or feel cheated in some way. Because a detective story, like chess, can never involve cheating. It is this part of novel-writing that I find utterly draining and I’m sure I burn through more calories than if I’ve been on a treadmill all day. (I lost weight during the plotting part of each novel, even though I consumed huge quantities of chocolate biscuits and barely moved from my desk).

Playing a long difficult chess match wasn’t my idea of fun when I was twelve and I wouldn’t write novels if they were simply detective stories. The plotting - that hard brain-aching part, is simply the first stage. It’s a cerebral, intellectual thing that results solely in a map. Then comes the real writing of the book, driven and inspired by the characters. In ‘Afterwards’ a mother and daughter are terribly injured in a school fire. Their search for the truth of that arson attack is the plot part of the book, but the heart of the novel is their loves, fears, thoughts and beliefs and their relationship with one another. Characters are organic things, changing and developing throughout the novel. While plotting is hard work, characters are inspiring and create their own energy. They have voices demanding to be heard and recorded, they challenge me to understand them and to explore their imaginations and beliefs and make me challenge my own.

 I’m always glad to have that plot map pinned up in front of me while I’m writing. Grateful, to know where I’m going. But a map cannot describe the journey. So perhaps more importantly than my childhood chess matches, in terms of writing novels, is that almost every night my father would read – or invent – a story.