Cartoon of the Day: The Evidence

I love Off the Leash. You've got to follow this Page. I believe Topper's name is misspelled as "Sydney" below.

Alan Cumming on Reading his first Mystery!

Alan Cumming, host of PBS's Masterpiece Mystery! recalls the first mystery novel he ever read.

Watch Alan Cumming on Reading His First Mystery Novel on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

Lisa Brackmann & Tim Hallinan: Lit Salon, August 7

Literary Salon: August 7, 7 p.m. Berkeley, CA. Make a comment below for more info and to RSVP.

Lisa Brackmann has worked as an executive at a major motion picture studio, an issues researcher in a presidential campaign, and was the singer/songwriter/bassist in an LA rock band. Her debut novel, ROCK PAPER TIGER, set on the fringes of the Chinese art world, made several “Best of 2010″ lists, including Amazon’s Top 100 Novels and Top 10 Mystery/Thrillers, and was nominated for the Strand Magazine Critics Award for Best First Novel. Her second novel, GETAWAY, won the Los Angeles Book Festival Grand Prize and was nominated for the T. Jefferson Parker SCIBA award. Her third novel, HOUR OF THE RAT, “a light-hearted romp through environmental apocalypse,” features the return of ROCK PAPER TIGER’s Ellie McEnroe and a few other old friends (foes?) from ROCK PAPER TIGER.

Timothy Hallinan is the author of three fabulous series: the P.I. Poke Rafferty Thrillers, set in Thailand, the Simeon Grist mysteries, set in Los Angeles, and the Junior Bender comic mysteries, featuring a burglar who works as an investigator for other crooks. Hallinan, who has lived, on and off, in Southeast Asia for more than 25 years, began writing books while enjoying a successful career in the television industry. He wrote songs and sang in a rock band while in college, and many of his songs were recorded by by well-known artists, including the platinum-selling group Bread. For years he has taught a course on “Finishing the Novel” with great results—more than half his students complete their first novel and go on to a second, and several have been, or are about to be, published. Tim currently maintains a house in Santa Monica, California, and apartments in Bangkok, Thailand; and Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

BLOODY SCOTLAND 2013 AWARD SHORTLIST

Scotland’s International Crime Writing Festival, ‘Bloody Scotland’ announced the 2013 shortlist for the Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year. Nominees must have Scottish roots -- either a permanent resident, work predominately in Scotland,  or born into the Scottish ways.

2013 DEANSTON SCOTTISH CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR SHORTLIST:

Ann Cleeves – Dead Water
Gordon Ferris – Pilgrim Soul
Malcolm MacKay – How a Gunman Says Goodbye
Denise Mina - The Red Road
Val McDermid - The Vanishing Point
Ian Rankin - Standing in Another Man's Grave

Bloody Scotland’s festival manager, Dom Hastings said, “The wealth and diversity of contemporary Scottish Crime Writing is demonstrated by this exceptional shortlist, featuring writers at the top of their game, including Ian Rankin and Val McDermid. New talent is key to success and innovation and the list celebrates this with emerging writer, Malcolm MacKay. Key themes of this year’s shortlist include the author’s use of the past.

Titles such as Denise Mina’s The Red Road and Ian Rankin’s Standing in Another Man’s Grave explore how the events of the past have a resonance to the present day. There is also a great diversity of locations within the shortlisted works: whilst cities are the heartlands of much crime writing, Ann Cleeves’ Dead Water is set in the Shetland isles, Gordon Ferris’ Pilgrim Soul travels from Glasgow to Germany, and much of The Vanishing Point by Val McDermid is set in The States.”

NED KELLY AWARDS 2013 SHORTLIST

The Australian Crime Writers Association announced the shortlist for the 2013 Ned Kelly Awards.

Best First Fiction
Steve Lewis & Chris Uhlmann – The Marmalade Files
Zane Lovitt - The Midnight Promise
Paul Anderson - The Robbers
Sue Williams - Murder With The Lot
Andrew Grimes - The Richmond Conspiracy

Best Fiction
Robert Gott - The Holiday Murders
Katherine Howell - Web of Deceit
Geoffrey McGeachin - Blackwattle Creek
Adrian McKinty - I Hear The Sirens In The Street
Malla Nunn - Silent Valley

True Crime
Robin de Crespigny - The People Smuggler
Belinda Hawkins - Every Parent’s Nightmare
Steve Lillebuen - The Devil’s Cinema
Derek Pedley - Dead by Friday
Mark Tedeschi QC – Eugenia

HT: Jeremy Lynch, Crimespree

TCM: Humphrey Bogart Day

Turner Movie Classics August 1: Humphrey Bogart Day
All EDT. Set your DVR!

6:00 AM Bogart: The Untold Story ('96)
7:00 AM High Sierra ('41)
9:00 AM The Maltese Falcon ('41)
10:45 AM To Have and Have Not ('44)
12:30 PM The Treasure of the Sierra Nevada ('48)
2:45 PM Tokyo Joe ('49)
4:15 PM Beat the Devil ('54)
6:00 PM In a Lonely Place ('50)
8:00 PM The Big Sleep ('46)
10:00 PM Key Largo ('48)
12:00 AM The Caine Mutiny ('54)
2:15 AM The Left Hand of God ('55)
4:00 AM The Harder They Fall ('56)

HT: Paul D. Marks