Alfred Hitchcock Day!

Today is National Hitchcock Day. No apparent reason for this date as he wasn't born on this day, nor did he die on this day. Not sure who sanctions these "Holiday" dates, but here goes. Lots of Hitchcock stuff to do today.

1. See a Hitchcock Movie on Netflix, Prime, Hulu, or another streaming service --or buy the DVD Collection: Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection (15).
2. Watch the TV series: Alfred Hitchcock Presents
3. Watch Sir Anthony Hopkins in Hitchcock.
4. Take a Train Trip. Be careful whom you talk to.
5. Try to Spot Alfred Hitchcock Cameos
6. Read a Book about Alfred Hitchcock: Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho; Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light

7. Visit the Alfred Hitchcock Museum in Bodega, CA. Then drive out to the Coast and visit Bodega Bay where there are lots of 'birds.'

Alfred Hitchcock on how to Master Suspense:

Alfred Hitchcock on The Birds:

 

 The Trailer for Notorious

 

Cartoon of the Day: Little Library

 

ST PATRICK'S DAY CRIME FICTION // ST PATRICK'S DAY MYSTERIES

St. Patrick's Day figures in many mysteries. Here's my updated St. Patrick's Day Crime Fiction list. And, since Irish aka Emerald Noir is very popular right now, you can always add more titles to your TBR pile from the many Irish mystery crime writers. Although they may not take place specifically on St. Patrick's Day. Declan Burke had a great post on his blog several years ago CrimeAlwaysPays Overview: The St. Patrick's Day Rewind. 

Mystery Readers Journal has had two issues dedicated to Irish Mysteries. Irish Mysteries: 36:4 (2020) and  Irish Mysteries 24:2 (2008)  Both are still available as PDF download.

As always, I welcome comments and additions to this list. 

ST. PATRICK'S DAY CRIME FICTION

Susan Wittig Albert: Love Lies Bleeding
Jennifer S. Alderson: Death by Leprechaun 

Amy Alessio: Struck by Shillelagh
Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, & Marcia Talley (editors): Homicidal Holidays: Fourteen Tales of Murder and Merriment
Mary Kay Andrews (aka Kathy Hogan Trocheck): Irish Eyes
S. Furlong-Bollinger: Paddy Whacked

Harry Brandt (Richard Price): The Whites
MW Burdette: The St. Patrick Day Murders

Lynn Cahoon: Corned Beef and Casualties
Isis Crawford: A Catered St. Patrick's Day
P. Creeden: Murder on Saint Patrick's Day
Kathi Daley: Shamrock Shenanigans
Maddie Day: Four Leaf Cleaver

Nelson DeMille: Cathedral
Tom Dots Doherty: ShamrockSnake
Janet Evanovich: Plum Lucky
Sharon Fiffer: Lucky Stuff 
Bernadette Franklin: Shammed

S. Furlong-Bollinger: Paddy Whacked
Andrew Gonzalez: St. Patrick's Day
Andrew Greeley: Irish Gold
Jane Haddam: A Great Day for the Deadly
Lyn Hamilton: The Celtic Riddle
Jonathan Harrington: A Great Day for Dying
Lee Harris: The St. Patrick's Day Murder
Jennifer L. Hart: Sleuthing for the Weekend

Dorothy Howell: Duffel Bags and Drownings 
Carolyn Q. Hunter: Shamrock Pie Murder
Melanie Jackson: The Sham
Madison Johns: Lucky Strike
Diane Kelly: Love, Luck, and the Little Green Men 
Linda Kozar: St. Patrick's Secret
Amanda Lee: The Long Stitch Good Night; Four-Leaf Clover
Wendi Lee: The Good Daughter
Dan Mahoney: Once in, Never Out
Marion Markham: The St. Patrick's Day Shamrock Mystery (children's)
Ralph M. McInerny: Lack of the Irish
Leslie Meier: St. Patrick's Day Murder; Irish Parade Murder

Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, & Barbara Ross: Irish Coffee Murder (novellas)
Sharon Michaels: St. Patrick's Day Puzzle

Carlene O'Connor: Murder in an Irish Bookshop, Irish Milkshake Murder
Sister Carol Anne O’Marie: Death Takes Up A Collection
Mark Parker: Lucky You
Jack Pachuta: Murder Most Green

Christopher Ryan: Go Brath
Madelyn Scott: Suspicions and Shamrocks

Janet Elaine Smith: In St. Patrick's Custody
JJ Toner: St. Patrick's Day Special

Kathy Hogan Trochek (aka Mary Kay Andrews): Irish Eyes

Debbie Viguié: Lie Down in Green Pastures

Noreen Wald: Death Never Takes a Holiday; The Luck of the Ghostwriter

Check out Dublin Noir, a collection of short stories edited by Ken Bruen, published by Akashic Books in the US and Brandon in Ireland and the UK.

Read Val McDermid's take on the Popularity of Irish Crime Fiction.

Some Irish crime writers you might want to read: 

Tana French, Erin Hart, Benjamin Black, Conor Brady, Declan Hughes, Jane Casey, Brian McGilloway, Alan Glynn, John Brady, Stuart Neville, Adrian McKinty, John Banville (Benjamin Black), Ken Bruen, Jesse Louisa Rickard, Peter Tremayne, Gene Kerrigan, Stuart Neville, Liz Nugent, Eoin Colfer, John Connolly, Sinead Crowley, Olivia Kiernan, Brian McGilloway, Jo Spain, Jane Casey, Catherine Ryan Howard, Jess Kidd, Claire McGowan, Arlene Hunt, Michelle Duane, Zara Keane, Declan Hughes, Jess Kidd, Gemma O'Connor, Lisa McInerney, 

Who are your favorite Irish authors?

***

Crime Films set around St. Patrick's Day:

Between the Canals (2010), Irish crime film written and directed by Mark O'Connor
The Boondock Saints (1999) American crime film written and directed by Troy Duffy
State of Grace (1990) Neo-Noir Crime Film directed by Phil Joanou
The Fugitive (1993) American Crime Film directed by Andrew Davis

True Crime: 

9 Unbelievable St. Patrick's Day Crimes & Mishaps! 

May the road rise up to meet you, and the wind be always at your back!

Mock Duck and Doyers Street: Guest Post by Radha Vatsal

Inspired by real events, my mystery  No. 10 Doyers Street tells of a woman journalist from India who becomes embroiled in the case of the legendary Chinatown gangster, Mock Duck, and his young daughter in 1900s New York City.
 
Scarcely out of his twenties, Mock Duck is already a legend when the story begins. His fame has spread far and wide, and Chinatown locals attribute superhuman qualities to him. The narrator of No. 10 Doyers Street, journalist Archana Morley, notes, “His dead, expressionless eyes gazed from the backs of playing cards and souvenir matchboxes. Street urchins sang ditties in his honor. They said that he could hear a pin drop, see around corners, and that his rhinoceros-thick skin protected him from injury.”
 
Doyers Street, where Mock lives with his family, functions like a character in the novel. 
 
“No more than a few hundred feet long and maybe ten or twelve feet wide, [Doyers] hung from Pell like a sock on a line, bent sharply at the heel, and emptied out onto Chatham Square and the Bowery.”
 

 
Early on in the novel, Archana learns that the authorities want to get rid of Mock—and destroy Doyers. In fact, she learns that New York City’s ambitious mayor wants to get rid of Chinatown entirely. Standing on the steps of City Hall, across the street from Newspaper Row, where Archana works for the New York Observer, Mayor McClellan declares:
 
“Chinatown is a slum, a hotbed of vice, not to mention a fire hazard. It is a blight on our metropolis. The time has come for us to take a stand. The time has come to say, ‘no more’… The tenements on Pell, Mott, and Doyers Streets must be demolished.’”
 
But Archana is drawn to Chinatown and the people who live there—no matter the neighborhood’s reputation for bloodshed and violence. When she visits the neighborhood, she sees that:
 
“

Shops were open, and people were out. Signs hung everywhere, both vertically and horizontally: from awnings, balconies, fire escapes, and grilles attached to walls and lampposts. Most displayed only Oriental characters; others also announced their goods and services in English. Clock Repairs. Shoes. Herbal Medicine.

A ragged urchin approached, his hand outstretched. I threw in a penny. A fellow pushed a wheelbarrow loaded high with crates of squawking chickens. Men in quilted vests transported loads on handcarts or from tumplines looped across their foreheads. Nuts and seeds in all colors and sizes overflowed from sacks outside a grocery store. I could have been in Canton…I could have been in Calcutta, but I couldn’t afford to become complacent.”
 
Archana realizes there’s more than meets the eye going on, and when agents of the Children’s Society raid Mock’s home and seize his daughter, she begins to investigate. 
 
Her quest for the truth leads her deeper into Chinatown and into Mock Duck’s shadowy world. She meets figures like Tom Lee, Mock Duck’s chief rival and the self-proclaimed “mayor of Chinatown.” And she uses her outsider perspective to figure out who and what to believe at a time when New York City was undergoing major transformations.
 
Quotes from No. 10 Doyers Street by Radha Vatsal

***

Radha Vatsal is the author of the acclaimed Kitty Weeks mystery novels. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Born and raised in Mumbai, India, she earned her Ph.D. in Film History from Duke University and has worked as a film curator, political speechwriter, and freelance journalist. She lives in NYC.

Cartoon of the Day: Kindergarten Teachers at Home

 

Call for Articles: Retail Sales Mysteries: Mystery Readers Journal

Call for Articles: Mystery Readers Journal: Retail Sales Mysteries! (41:2); Summer 2025

We're looking for articles, reviews, and Author essays about Mysteries that focus on Retail Sales Mysteries (shops, stores, and retail sales settings--with flexibility). 

Author Essays are first person, about yourself, your books, and the "Retail Sales" connection. 500-1000 words. Treat this as if you're chatting with friends and other writers in the bar or cafe (or on zoom) about your work and the "Retail" setting in your mysteries. Be sure and cite specific titles, as well as how you use Retail Sales in your books. Add title and 2-3 sentence bio. 

Reviews: 50-250 words. 

Articles: 500-1000 words. 

Deadline: April 25, 2025  

Send to: Janet Rudolph, Editor. janet @ mysteryreaders . org  

Please let us know if you're planning to send an article, review, or author essay--or if you have any questions!