Fourth of July: Vintage Postcards - Children with Fireworks!

Happy Fourth of July! Fireworks have been a part of Independence Day celebrations for centuries. Fireworks, though, can be dangerous, especially for children. That's why I found these vintage postcards so odd. Today this would be considered "child endangerment." Happy Independence Day!

Cartoon of the Day: Books

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Fourth of July Mysteries: Fourth of July Crime Fiction

The Fourth of July (Independence Day) is one of my favorite holidays, maybe because I was born in Philadelphia, the birthplace of the nation. If you've been to my house you know I collect patriotic embroideries and pottery. I'm big on Red, White, & Blue!

Fourth of July is at the center of this updated list of Fourth of July Crime Fiction. Even if you're not celebrating Independence Day, you can celebrate this (updated) great group of mysteries! Something for everyone's taste!

Fourth of July Mysteries

The Fourth of July Wake by Harold Adams
Murder on Parade by Donald Bain (as Jessica Fletcher) 
Hair of the Dog by Laurien Berenson 
The Cat Who Went Underground by Lilian Jackson Braun
Dead on the 4th of July by Meg Chittenden
Someone to Watch Over Me by Jill Churchill
Independence Day by Anne-Marie Clark
Twanged by Carol Higgins Clark
A Catered Fourth of July by Isis Crawford
Red, White, and Blue Murder by Bill Crider
Dead on the Fourth of July by R. E. Derouin
Lemon Meringue Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke
Independence Slay by Shelley Freydont
Tool & Die, Triple Witch by Sarah Graves
Act Of Darkness by Jane Haddam
Yankee Doodle Dead; Dead, White and Blue by Carolyn Hart
Past Imperfect by Kathleen Hills
Exit Wounds by J. A. Jance
The Fourth of July by J.D. Kincaid
A Timely Vision by Joyce and Jim Lavene
Die Like a Hero by Clyde Linsley
Knee High by the Fourth of July by Jess Lourey
Star Spangled Murder by Leslie Meier
Iron Ties by Ann Parker
4th of July by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
King Suckerman by George P. Pelecanos
Can't Never Tell by Cathy Pickens
Death by Deep Dish Pie by Sharon Short
Killing Grounds by Dana Stabenow
Independence Day Plague by Carla Lee Suson
And Four to Go ("Fourth of July Picnic") by Rex Stout  
Some Welcome Home by Sharon Wildwind
Star Spangled Murder by Valerie Wolzien

Short Story:
Rex Stout's "Fourth of July Picnic" in Century of Great Suspense Stories, Edited by Jeff Deaver

Children’s Mysteries
Fireworks at the FBI (Capital Mysteries Series #6) by Ron Roy, Timothy Bush (Illustrator)
Murder On The Fourth of July by Carolyn Keene

True Crime:  
Death on the Fourth of July: The Story of a Killing, a Betrayal, and Hate Crime in America by David A. Neiwert

As always, I welcome additions and comments.

Have a great holiday!!

RAYMOND CHANDLER to get star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Raymond Chandler, one of Los Angeles's greatest noir writers, will be getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2015. Ray Bradbury, Dr. Seuss, Adela Rogers St. Johns and Ogden Nash are among the handful of authors who have stars on the Walk of Fame.

The Criminal Mind: Guest Post by John Verdon

Today I welcome best selling mystery writer John Verdon. John Verdon's THINK OF A NUMBER was released in 2010 when he was 65. A retired advertising executive, he had been a long-time fan of classic detective stories and became fascinated by the form and the mechanics of constructing the hidden crime and gradually exposing it. He decided to try his hand and introduced readers to the character of retired NYPD detective Dave Gurney. THINK OF A NUMBER was followed by SHUT YOUR EYES TIGHT (2011) and LET THE DEVIL SLEEP (2012). PETER PAN MUST DIE, the fourth in the series, is just out!

John Verdon:
THE CRIMINAL MIND 

What is it?

Well, it all depends on who you ask.

A police officer might say it was a mind characterized by a persistent tendency to violate the law. A religious person might see it as a mind antagonistic to moral and ethical principles. A neurologist might point to the abnormalities in brain wiring that are often characteristic of pathological behaviors. A psychiatrist might highlight the diagnostic criteria for “antisocial personality disorder” -- particularly lawbreaking, lying, manipulation, aggressiveness, and lack of remorse -- that general disregard for the rights and safety of others that creates so much havoc in the world.

There’s no doubt that the vast literatures of medicine, psychology, criminology, and religion can provide rich and varied portraits of individuals whose behaviors are sick, maladaptive, predatory, or just plain evil.

What could I possibly add to all that expertise?

Perhaps just a small twist in perspective. As a crime-fiction writer, I create the hearts and minds of the characters who populate my books. The only way I know to create valid characters is to create them from the inside out. The behavior of my villains is just the outer layer. To make that behavior credible -- to provide it with the vital energy and support it needs -- I have to build an internal structure first.

The way I see it, law-breaking criminality is the tip of an iceberg whose hidden mass consists of a set of self-centered, self-justifying attitudes -- a set of beliefs and feelings that enable and encourage the destructive behaviors.

As a writer, I find it helpful -- for reasons I’ll explain in a moment -- to articulate these attitudes from a first-person perspective. For example: The source of happiness is getting what I want.

I want what I want, and I want it now. 

The cost to others be damned. 

If everyone did what I told them to do, we’d all be better off. 

 I see things exactly the way they are. 

Most people are greedy, selfish, and stupid. 

Everybody is out for themselves, everybody’s got an angle. 

Trust is for infants and idiots. 

The world is a bloody jungle. 

Eat or be eaten. 

Other people are the cause of all my problems. 

I know some people who deserve to die. 

I do what I have to do. 

Justice is a joke. 

You’re either a winner or a loser. 

The only feeling you have that matters is how you feel about me. 

You’re either with me or against me. 

I know best. 

I could go on with this list of beliefs, but I’m sure you get the point I’m trying to make. At the heart of “the criminal mind” -- at least as I portray it in my novels -- there is a profound self-centeredness, self-righteousness, and grandiosity.

 I expressed the dysfunctional attitudes above in the first person for a simple reason. Despite their insanity, the fact is I have entertained virtually all of them myself at one time or another, and expressing them strictly in the third person would create an impression of too great a distance between me and the underlying flaws of my fictional villains. And, in a more general way, it would suggest too distinct a difference between the criminal mind and the non-criminal mind.

In my novels the same attitudes that drive literal law-breaking of the most terrible kind by my bad guys occur at lower levels of toxicity in all my characters, including my good guys. These flawed attitudes, far from being the unique definers of villains, are presented as part of everyone’s common humanity. Vice and virtue seem to me to be relative positions on a long continuum, a continuum that exists in each of us.

When I think about the so-called criminal mind, I can’t help but see a bit of it in all of us, more than a bit of it in some of us, and probably the worst of it in those of us who claim to have none of it at all.

Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year Shortlist

THEAKSTONS CRIME NOVEL AWARD SHORTLIST

The Red Road - Denise Mina

The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter - Malcolm Mackay

The Chessmen - Peter May

Rubbernecker - Belinda Bauer

Dying Fall - Elly Griffiths

Eleven Days - Stav Sherez

The award is open to British and Irish authors whose novels were published in paperback in the last year.

The winner will be decided by a panel, chaired by writer Steve Mosby, which includes Simon Theakston, the executive director of Theakston; Radio Times' Alison Graham and Dave Swillman, head of fiction at WH Smith. A public vote will also be included in the final decision.

The Award will be presented on opening night at Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate on July 17. The winner will receive a £3,000 cash prize - as well as a handmade, engraved beer barrel. Also on the night, Lynda La Plante will receive the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award.

HT:  Karen Meek at EuroCrime