Putting the Reference Back in Murder

 

In keeping with the spirit of "In REFERENCE to Murder," every now and then I like to pull a few sites from The Crime Fiction Resrouces List on which to throw the spotlight, in this case some of the newer sites I've run across.

In case you hadn't heard, The Bloodstained Bookshelf folded after many years of loyal service of providing lists of upcoming crime fiction releases organized by month. But fortunately, all is not lost. Ashley McConnell took over bibliographic duties and has moved the list to the Mystery Bookshelf.

Google has added a vast searchable database from photos printed in Life Magazine. Both Duane Swierczynski and  Rex Parker have already picked out a couple of gems, Dashiell Hammett smoking in Hollywood, circa 1937 and Mickey Spillane proudly posing with paperback versions of his books.

Grammarphobia throws several of those grammatical Commandments from elementary school English classes out the window and helps reassure today's modern writer that "to boldly go" isn't going to bring the wrath of Khan, er God, down upon you anymore.

The FBI also does its best to help writers "keep it real."  They have a site with information on how you can contact the FBI if you have a question about

• Guidance on content regarding FBI investigations, procedures, structure, and history;
• Information on costumes, props, scenery, and weapons;
• Fact checks;
• Liaison and coordination with local FBI field offices;
• Coordination of location shots; and
• Access to FBI facilities for filming scenes, interviews, or b-roll footage

The FBI also has many online resources about procedures, including this one on serial murder.

 

Crimes Are Us

 

From the true crime department, come some recent interesting stories of note:

The New York Times reported on how internet attacks are becoming more potent. They singled out distributed denial of service (D.D.O.S) attacks, routinely used during political and military conflicts such as in Estonia in 2007 during a political fight with Russia, and in the Georgian-Russian war last summer. Such attacks are also being used in blackmail schemes and political conflicts, as well as for general malicious mischief.

DNA is now being used to assist in solving property crimes. Once reserved mostly for violent cases such as rape and murder, genetic testing is now much cheaper and faster than when the technology was new. The evidence can include almost any biological material left at a crime scene: saliva taken from food, skin cells from the steering wheel of a stolen car, drops of blood from a thief who got cut on a window pane.

The Washington Post profiled David R. Fowler, Maryland's chief medical examiner, whose lab is one of the busiest in the country with more than 4,000 autopsies conducted annually. Fowler said he is amused at the public perception fueled by the 6 o'clock news. "They always say,'The body has been sent to the medical examiner to determine the exact cause of death.'"  Some cases are obvious -- gunshot and stab wounds, for example -- but more often pathologists must call on their experience and their 13 years of medical training, consult with police and peers, and then make what is essentially a judgment call. And they must do so with the expectation that they'll have to defend it in court.

This year, the Supreme Court will tackle a DNA issue involving a convict seeking new tests he thinks could exonerate him, in a case pitting the administration of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin against a Republican-appointed judge. Some in law enforcement fear that federal courts could be flooded with lawsuits if the Supreme Court upheld April's appeals court ruling in the convict's case. "A blanket right to post-conviction DNA testing would be a dangerous prospect," said Chris Asplen, former director of the National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence and a former prosecutor. He said any Supreme Court ruling should be limited and "highly qualified."

A Global Feast

 

It's good to see crime fiction alive and well and thriving in different parts of the world. I don't know about you, but sometimes I crave some good Thai, Indian, or Mexican cuisine, and so it goes with books.

Mike Nicol takes a look at what’s happening in the genre in Africa, even referring to a conference in Germany earlier this year titled Beyond Murder by Magic: Investigating African Crime Fiction. As Nichol points out, Africa’s got a thriving crime fiction genre but "you’re more likely to bump into African crime writers in Europe than you are anywhere south of the Limpopo."

Not to be outdone, Argentina has noir writers Guillermo Martínez and Pablo De Santis.  Martinez is is the author of eight novels including the international best seller Crímenes imperceptibles (The Oxford Murders), made into a movie by Spanish director Alex de la Iglesi aand starring Elijah Wood. De Santis jsut had his English-language debut with the whodunit The Paris Enigma, awarded last year’s first Premio Iberoamericano Planeta-Casa de América.

Much has been made about Icelandic crime fiction recently, with good reason. Since 1997 over 70 crime novels have been published by Icelandic authors (relative to population, that’s the equivalent of 15,000 crime novels being published every year in the UK. Why the goldrush? As Iceland Review says, "As paranoia and xenophobia are on the up, fear’s selling like never before and the Icelandic reading public’s appetite for murder and mayhem has never been keener. With a slew of new home-grown crime novels coming out every year, this trend looks like more than a passing fad. The Icelandic thriller is here to stay!"

Mahmud Rahman wrote recently about pulp fiction in Bangladesh. One fascinating note to those of who've become accustomed to a more disinterested reading populace in the U.S., Rahman talks about people eager to get into the 2007 book fair and waiting in lines sometimes stretching for half a mile. Major newspapers carry weekly literary pages with original writing and essays. The papers and magazines also publish thick holiday specials carrying fiction, memoir, and poetry that sell out within days of their publication. Ah, if only...

Omnivoracious applauded Akashic Books and its noir anthology series with three "exotic noir" books to date:  Trinidad Noir edited by Lisa Allen-Agostini & Jeanne Mason, Paris Noir edited by Aurelien Masson, and Istanbul Noir edited by Mustafa Ziyalan & Amy Spangler.

Bon appétit!

A Global Feast

It's good to see crime fiction alive and well and thriving in different parts of the world. I don't know about you, but sometimes I crave some good Thai, Indian, or Mexican cuisine, and so it goes with books.

Mike Nicol takes a look at what’s happening in the genre in Africa, even referring to a conference in Germany earlier this year titled Beyond Murder by Magic: Investigating African Crime Fiction. As Nichol points out, Africa’s got a thriving crime fiction genre but "you’re more likely to bump into African crime writers in Europe than you are anywhere south of the Limpopo."

Not to be outdone, Argentina has noir writers Guillermo Martínez and Pablo De Santis.  Martinez is is the author of eight novels including the international best seller Crímenes imperceptibles (The Oxford Murders), made into a movie by Spanish director Alex de la Iglesi aand starring Elijah Wood. De Santis jsut had his English-language debut with the whodunit The Paris Enigma, awarded last year’s first Premio Iberoamericano Planeta-Casa de América.

Much has been made about Icelandic crime fiction recently, with good reason. Since 1997 over 70 crime novels have been published by Icelandic authors (relative to population, that’s the equivalent of 15,000 crime novels being published every year in the UK. Why the goldrush? As Iceland Review says, "As paranoia and xenophobia are on the up, fear’s selling like never before and the Icelandic reading public’s appetite for murder and mayhem has never been keener. With a slew of new home-grown crime novels coming out every year, this trend looks like more than a passing fad. The Icelandic thriller is here to stay!"

Mahmud Rahman wrote recently about pulp fiction in Bangladesh. One fascinating note to those of who've become accustomed to a more disinterested reading populace in the U.S., Rahman talks about people eager to get into the 2007 book fair and waiting in lines sometimes stretching for half a mile. Major newspapers carry weekly literary pages with original writing and essays. The papers and magazines also publish thick holiday specials carrying fiction, memoir, and poetry that sell out within days of their publication. Ah, if only...

Omnivoracious applauded Akashic Books and its noir anthology series with three "exotic noir" books to date:  Trinidad Noir edited by Lisa Allen-Agostini & Jeanne Mason, Paris Noir edited by Aurelien Masson, and Istanbul Noir edited by Mustafa Ziyalan & Amy Spangler.

Bon appétit!

Mystery in Review

 

The Irish Independent took a look at how crime novels reveal truths about our dark age through the works Empire of Lies by Andrew Klavan, Killer Heat by Linda Fairstein, Bait by Nick Brownlee, and The Darker Side by Cody McFadyen, positing that "Arguably the most seductive, and perhaps even compelling, aspect of contemporary crime fiction is its relevance. As with the best journalism, the best crime writing speaks to us of where we are now and how we are coping with the indignities that assault our notions of civilisation."

The Chicago Tribune featured some "One-minute reviews" of Toros and Torsos by Craig McDonald, Immunity by Lori Andrews, 14 by J.T. Ellison, and The Max by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr.

Ed Gorman recently singled out the incredibly prolific author James Reasoner. Although mostly known for his westerns, he's just finished book number 225. Gorman called his recent noir novel Dust Devils as ranking among the best crime novels of the past few years.

The Sacramento Bee interviewed Ann Littlewood, whose debut novel Night Kill, a murder mystery set at a zoo, was recently released. As a former zookeeper herself, when she was asked how she felt about the anti-zoo campaigns, she replied, "Well, zoos keep getting better and the wild keeps getting more dangerous. It's one of our better tools to educate people, and it's a way to preserve a gene pool."

Oline Cogdill reviewed Mo Hayder's "chillingly brilliant" Ritual.

The Tampa Tribune said of True Crime: An American Anthology, edited by Harold Schechter, that this "collection of ghastly American crimes from Puritan times down to our own day is evidence of the gruesome possibilities that truth can get up to when it comes to one human being dispatching another - or, usually, many others."

When a Cozy is Not a Cozy

G.M. Malliet is a former American journalist and copywriter who attended Oxford University and holds a graduate degree from the University of Cambridge. In 2003 she was one of three writers who won Malice Domestic Grants. Ordinarily, that would sound like a ticket to the Big Time, but therein lies an instructive tale of how difficult it can be to get published, as well as the vagueries of the publishing industry.

Malliet, new honor in hand, took her manuscript to agents and editors, but was unable to find any interest in her homage to the traditional cozy which she at the same time lovingly parodies. Finally she got a nibble from an editor at Midnight Ink, an imprint of Llewellyn. Not happy with sitting around and waiting, she and her husband started a writers club, and she started working on short stories.

When Death of a Cozy Writer, featuring Detective Chief Inspector St. Just and Detective Sergeant Fear of the Cambridgeshire constabulary, was finally released in July of this year, it debuted to good reviews, even making the IMBA bestseller list for August. Mystery Scene commented, "Malliet's skillful debut demonstrates the sophistication one would expect of a much more established writer. I'm looking forward to her next genre-bender, Death and the Lit Chick," and Kirkus added, "Malliet's debut combines devices from Christie and Clue to keep you guessing until the dramatic denouement," while Publishers Weekly applauded her "droll debut."

I heard Malliet talk at a recent writers club meeting, where she regaled us with some of her stories about the highs and lows to be expected in the publishing process, and asked her to share a few tidbits for the blog:

IRTM: How and when did you get the idea for your first book, DEATH OF A COZY WRITER (which, as you have stated, isn't exactly a traditional cozy)?

GMM:  That’s such a hard question to answer! I'd read all the Agatha Christie books, and all the Robert Barnards—he writes updated Agatha-type books that are also riotously funny. Also, I'd read all of Caroline Graham’s books several times over. Oh, and Sarah Caudwell—how I wish she were still around. Ms. Graham seems to have gone on to other interests than writing another Barnaby book. So I figured if I wanted something else to read that even came close to resembling these British books, I’d have to write a book myself.

IRTM: You indicated that even after you'd won a Malice Domestic Grant and Llewellyn/Midnight Ink expressed an interest in the novel, it took about a year for them to actually buy it.  What did you do in the meantime?

GMM: Actually, it took about a year for them to express an interest, and a couple more months for the editorial review board to okay buying it. This seems agonizingly slow, but it's actually about standard for the industry. This was in the days when my publisher was accepting unsolicited mysteries "over the transom" and they were buried in a deluge. They no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts; I got in just under the wire with that.

As to what I did in the meanwhile, I cultivated a Zen-like patience, and I took up yoga. Seriously. I was convinced L/MI would buy the book eventually (their acquiring editor had a reputation for liking the kind of book I'd written—this is important, because so many people were and are looking for thrillers). I knew a traditional British cozy would be a tough sell but for some reason I felt strongly that this editor would want it. Anyway, "just in case," I started a different series set in the D.C. area, I entered writing contests and won or finaled in a few (having a deadline helps me get going sometimes), and I wrote short stories. The short stories appear in a couple of anthologies now (Chesapeake Crimes 2 and 3, sponsored by the Sisters in Crime chapter), and I believe they were also instrumental in shoring up my credentials as a real, serious writer, not just someone who took up writing as a lark to see what would happen.

IRTM:  You had a change of editors, didn’t you? Can you describe what that was like?

GMM: I think there's a misconception that acquiring editors spend all their time rewriting books submitted to them, so that switching editors would be a shock. This is very far from the truth, although I have heard of agents putting in that kind of effort for clients. Editors don't have time for rewrites or critiques, and I’d imagine few agents do, so a book needs to be as perfect as you can manage before it ever gets to them. As I recall, my editor had only one question: Did anyone ever ask Sarah (one of the suspects) for her alibi? I couldn't remember and neither could anyone at L/MI, so I just had my detective DCI St. Just say something like, "Well, Sarah claims she was in the library." Problem solved. I've also been lucky in that the titles I've chosen have stuck. I didn’t know this was a rarity in the industry, but I've learned that it is. [IRTM:  She even had input on her first book cover, adding the little gargoyle/grotesque at the top.]

IRTM:  Knowing what you do now, would you change anything about the process for getting that first book published?

GMM: To go further back: I'd have completed the entire book before I submitted it for the Malice Domestic Grant (now renamed in memory of the much-missed William F. Deeck), even if it meant waiting another year to submit. That grant was really how I got my first toehold. But I think I had about fifty pages completed when I submitted, and fifty more when I was lucky enough to win the grant. You have to be ready to "pounce" on these things with a full manuscript, whether submitting to an agent, a contest, whatever ... it's a fast-moving business and the attention spans are short. Again, a Zen-like patience is good. Take up yoga.

IRTM: What's next for you in the future?

GMM:  The second book in the St. Just mystery series comes out in April 2009, and it's called DEATH AND THE LIT CHICK. I should mention that both of these books poke gentle fun at trends in the publishing industry. (I can’t imagine why this subject is so much on my mind.) The third book is in the works and will be out in 2010 ... this one is less about books and publishing, and more about St. Just in his natural habitat, which is the University of Cambridge, England.

The route Malliet took is obviously one of several available to authors, but these days approaching editors as an unagented author is getting harder to do.  Midnight Ink, as Malliet mentioned above, no longer even accepts unagented submissions. Malliet's timing and instincts turned out to be good, fortunately, and she has a multi-book contract in her series to show for it. However, she's still learning to adapt to the crazy world of publishing, having consulted with legal resources and considering an agent search. She's also hoping the second book in the series coming out in April 2009, which is another send-up (this time of the chick lit mystery genre and of the publishing industry itself), will find success despite the marketing department's choice of a cover which looks more like actual chick lit than satire.

Malliet and her husband live in Virginia but spend as much time as possible in England, the setting for the St. Just mysteries. She's currently working on her third installment in the series. Her web site is http://www.gmmalliet.com/.

Media Murder Notes

NPR remembered Tony Hillerman by reposting a 1998 interview where the author discusses writing and his attraction to Native American culture, as well as a new interview with memories from Hillerman's friend, author Michael McGarrity.

NPR also had a feature on Italian Crime Novels in the midst of a nternational comeback of Italian culture.

The Today Show profiled Deborah Sharp, who discussed and read from her debut novel Mama Does Time.

CBS scrapped its attempt to attract younger audiences last season, returning to its tried-and-true format of crime dramas, an effort which has been rewarded by higher ratings. Good news for CBS and crime-drama fans, certainly—but what does it say about drawing in younger viewers to the genre?

Asia Media Journal reported that Sony television purchased The Mystery Channel, Inc. in Japan, which specializes in the mystery genre with over four million subscribers, showing programs like Monk, Poirot, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, Mistaken Identity and Taggart.

Charlize Theron is joining Tom Cruise for the action thriller The Tourist (a remake of the 2005 French film titled Anthony Zimmer), playing an Interpol agent who uses an American tourist in an attempt to flush out an elusive criminal with whom she once had an affair.

Also lining up to make a thriller are Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg, teaming up for the supernatural thriller Hereafter for DreamWorks.

Voting is Murder

Are you a political junkie but tired of all the seemingly endless BidenClintonMcCainObamaPalin madness? How about escaping the mystery of real-life politics and instead leaping into a fictional version, if just for a little while.

Considering how high the emotions have been running during this 2008 election cycle, it's hard to believe that more mysteries and crime fiction novels haven't been based around election-themed plots. After all, how many politicians out there have wished their opponent would simply drop dead? (Of natural causes, of course, God rest their souls.)

But a few authors have taken up the voting gauntlet and created stories that would make Machiavelli proud. Here's a listing:

• Larry Beinhart, The Librarian (2004). How on earth did nebbish university librarian David Goldberg end up on Virginia's Ten Most Wanted Criminals list for bestiality? And how did he get ensnared in a vast right-wing conspiracy to steal the presidency?
• Gail Bowen, The Brutal Heart (2008). With a general election just weeks away, Joanne Kilbourn is following the campaign of Ginny Monaghan, a woman who has her eyes set on the leadership of the federal Conservative Party and whose success depends, not so much on the election-day poll, but on the outcome of a custody battle she’s fighting with her ex.
• Mark Coggins, Runoff (2007). How much does it cost to fix an election? That's the question uppermost in PI August Riordan's mind when Leonora Lee, the notorious, near-mythic Dragon Lady of San Francisco's Chinatown, hires Riordan to look into the city's mayoral election after her candidate finishes in single digits. Lee suspects someone has been tampering with newly installed touch-screen voting machines but only has until the runoff election, less than a week away, to find the answers.
• Silvia Foti, Skullduggery (2002). Supernatural reporter Alexandria Vilkas who launches a feature on a Crystal Skull, but is skeptical of its metaphysical powers---until the Chicago mayor dies in her arms. Now the prime suspect in the mayor's murder, Alex needs to clear her name, fast, if she hopes to live until the next election.
• Ed Gorman, Sleeping Dogs (2008). A seasoned politico works on the re-election campaign of a US senator with a reputation for sleeping around. A major televised debate proves to be a disaster for the senator, followed by the murder of a sleazy political op who knows something about the candidate that could completely destroy his career.
• Patricia Hall, Death by Election (2005). That quintessentially British institution, the brief, hotly contested by-election, forms the background for Hall's drama, in which an explosive combination of electoral and sexual politics engenders blackmail, suicide, and murder.
• Betsy Hartmann, Deadly Election (2008). A mysterious suicide in a military prison; a president whose thirst for alcohol may overwhelm his thirst for power; a White House advisor who takes matters into his own hands--With the country's future in the balance, a Supreme Court justice, a young congressional aide and a grieving mother are swept into a fight for their ideals-and their lives.
• Henry Kisor, Cache of Corpses (2007). Deputy Steve Martinez--Lakota Indian by birth, Porcupine City, Michigan, native by association--has investigated many crimes, but none more surprising than the case before him now. When clues at the first crime scene lead to a second headless corpse, Steve realizes this is someone's twisted idea of a game. And these events couldn't come at a worse time: the election for county sheriff is fast approaching and the sudden rash of bodies is just the sort of ammunition Steve's opponent is all too eager to use against him.
• Rob Loughran, High Steaks (2003). Davis O'Kane thought his fall from grace had reached its lowest point, with an impending divorce and a custody battle for his twin daughters, but then he finds a dead body in his restaurant in Nightingale, Nevada.  High Steaks propels the reader into the realm of crooked horse racing, cheating the roulette wheel, and murder as hot as a Nevada summer, set against a backdrop of the town's first contested mayoral race in decades.
• Brian McGrory, The Incumbent (2000). As he lies in the hospital, the day after being caught in the crossfire of a presidential assassination attempt, journalist Jack Flynn has some serious questions. With just eleven days until the election, it's becoming clear that he has stumbled into the middle of a far-reaching conspiracy.
• Barbara Michaels, Smoke and Mirrors (1989). The enthusiasm and idealism of Erin Hartsock, a young campaign worker, dissolves into terror when the campaign takes a malevolent turn. Someone has begun threatening Erin and her colleagues first with strange fires, then a seemingly accidental death.
• Ridley Pearson, Killer Weekend (2007). New York State attorney general Elizabeth Shaler, a political lightning rod, is expected to announce her candidacy for president at a conference in Sun Valley. Authorities learn of a confirmed threat on her life, and the Secret Service, the FBI, and local forces begin jockeying for jurisdiction.
• Gary Phillips, editor, Politics Noir (2008) Thirteen crime stories with political themes including "Collateral Damage" by Robert Greer. 
• Dana Stabenow, The Singing of the Dead (2001). When a Native American candidate for Alaska state senator starts receiving anonymous threats, PI Kate Shugak allows herself to be talked into a temporary bodyguard stint. The first body to turn up is the candidate’s fundraiser and future son-in-law.
• Jerome Teel, The Election (2005). Ed Burke has waited a lifetime to become president of the United States. He's not about to let his nemesis, Mac Foster, stop him now...especially when he's sold his soul for the Oval Office.
• Marilyn Wallace, Primary Target (1988) A female presidential candidate is threatened by a radical political group called The Brotherhood of Men. 
• Jeff Walter, Citizen Vince (2005). Vince has landed in eastern Washington via the witness-protection plan, and he is starting to like the simple pleasures, including receiving his first voter-registration card. So even when a hit man, a local cop, and Mob-boss-in-waiting John Gotti get Vince in their crosshairs, he keeps trying to figure out if he should pull the lever for Reagan or Carter.
• Charlene Weir, Up in Smoke (2003). Police Chief Susan Wren is a relative newcomer to Hampstead, Kansas. When the governor decides to kick off his campaign for the presidential nomination with a homecoming rally in town, he finds his efforts complicated by a local murder in which he and a campaign worker are implicated.
• Valerie Wolzien, Elected for Death (1996). Hancock, Connecticut--a historic enclave of wealth and conservatism--is in the final heat of a three-way mayoral election when long-shot candidate Ivan Deakin takes a sip of cyanide-laced water and is retired to the morgue. His murder exacerbates an already fierce controversy over proposed changes in rules governing the landmark status of local real estate--changes that would drastically alter property values.

Carnival, Carnival!

It's both the Day of the Dead and the day after Halloween, a perfect time to pay your four bits (adjusted for inflation) and Fall into the latest Carnival of the Criminal Minds, on the heels of its last stop at Crime Scene NI. I must say gorging on Halloween candy washed down with a little Jack Daniels until you barf would be an easier task than narrowing down the crime fiction site notables. It's a little like a teenage boy at Mardi Gras looking for mischief—oh the possibilities! Yet such was Barbara Fister's mandate in creating the roving Carnival, so narrow down I must, interspersed with some other Halloween goodies from the candy bag.

Have you ever lain awake at night unable to sleep, wondering if there were any mysteries actually set around Halloween? I'm pretty sure I have—although it might also have been something I ate (see note about Halloween candy above). I'll save you some insomnia because there are several such mysteries to choose from. Don's Stuff listed 25 to get you started, and if that isn't enough, the Springfield Library, Holiday Murders, and Cozy Mystery sites have gobs more, with titles from the likes of Ed McBain, Agatha Christie, Tony Hillerman, and Ellis Peters. Tums are extra.

2009 in the world of crime fiction will be the Year of Poe. The Baltimore Sun's Read Street blog is jumping the gun with some tidbits about the priciest Poe books, a  Poe tribute in January by actor John Astin (of The Addams Family fame), Christopher Walken reciting "The Raven" and other spooky morsels. Meanwhile, The Library Journal blog asks for help in solving a 166-year-old literary mystery related to Poe.

 HALLOWEEN GOODY #1:  Halloween began as Samhain (Summer’s End), an ancient Celtic festival, although it wasn't until much later that many of the icons associated with the celebration came into being, such as the black cat. Although in the UK, black cats were believed to bring good luck, the opposite was true in the American colonies, where cats were thought to be either reincarnated or shapeshifting witches. Wonder what those early anal Pilgrims would have to say about black cat cookies?

Horror and dark suspense are certainly as appropros for both Halloween and the Day of the Dead as crime fiction, and The Dark Phantom Review featured interviews with horror authors, publishers, ezine editors, and booksellers throughout the month of October.

Speaking of horror, Indie Crime had a great Halloweenish cover; the Women in Crime chose their favorite horror movies, and the Women of Mystery scared up some horrible women, er Women of Horror.

 HALLOWEEN GOODY #2: Check out Bruce Zalkin's collection of some of the worst Halloween costumes of all time, many of which may bring back some fond memories for those of us who are older than dirt. For more memories of favorite Halloween costumes of yore, check out this posting on the Murder She Writes blog, and from Cute Overload, Why Pets Hate Costumes.

 One of the Women of Mystery took a trip to Salem and the Witch Museum, which tells the tale of the the 20 women condemned to either hang or be pressed to death, whose fates were intertwined with a servant from Barbados named Tituba.

For a witch of truly galactic proportions, check out this magical APOD.

What better way to celebrate the season than with ghost stories? The Material Witness blog showcases the Everyman Library's book of Ghost Stories, and guest blogger D.S. Dollman at the Stiletto Gang channels the ghost of Elizabeth I.


 HALLOWEEN GOODY #3: For the more fashion-concious, skip the retro Halloween costume and just go with one of these scary handbags (and no, I don't mean Prada or Hermès, although those are pretty scary, all right—$37,000 for a Hermès Birkin bag adorned with orange crocodile skin and trimmed with palladium hardware? Yep, scary.).

Kevin Guilfoile of The Outfit: Collective wrote about "Much of Madness, and More of Sin," commenting on how for the last three years, the final week in October has given Chicago its own version of Day of the Dead, with crime victims Stacy Peterson, Dr. David Cornbleet, and most recently, the Hudson family slayings. And since Chicago this year holds the dubious distinction of the nation's highest murder rate, it just goes to show that true evil never takes a holiday.

Of course crime and fear of things that go bump in the night aren't new inventions. The folks at Murderous Musings provide some historical background to help establish the plot and setting.


 HALLOWEEN GOODY #4: Extreme pumpkins! Tired of dull, inspired Jack-o-Lanterns? Try one of these on for size (the Death Star is way cool), or one of these, or these. And if you're just plain tired of anything having to do with pumpkins, check out these contest entries for Whatever-o-Lanterns.

The world of writing and publishing may quite possibly be a scarier business than undertaking (mortuarying? medical examining?), as J.A. Konrath points out the scariest thing that can happen to writers, and agent Jennifer Jackson strikes further fear into the hearts of writers everywhere with her list of query statistics.

 This is frenzy season for murder-mystery dinner parties and related fetes. "A Murder Mystery in Old Allegheny" near Pittsburgh actually takes place tonight and features a progressive murder of sorts taking place in three of the neighborhood's old Victorians. What makes it particularly interesting and relevant to the Carnival is that one of the mansions is where famed mystery writer Mary Roberts Rinehart penned her first novel, The Circular Staircase, published in 1908.

Sarah Weinman offered up some Halloween bonbons with links to articles about the appeal of vampires, a literary Halloween tour and Bruce Springsteen's holiday offering for fans. The Rap Sheet has even more links for Halloween reads and Peter Rozovsky's latest Noir at the Bar.

 HALLOWEEN GOODY #5: It might be too late for this year's Halloween party, but it's never too early to start planning for next year, especially since we now have essentially one long year-round holiday, NewPresiTinePatrEasterIndieColumboWeenThanksMas. So start lining up your fog machines, coffins, doors of doom, and grilled rat treats before they're all gone.

J.D. Rhoades of Murderati took a look at conspiracy theories and how we can't live without them. J.D. was on a panel at Thrillerfest moderated by Barry Eisler that focused on the subject, and decided to cast a little downer on the proceedings—How dare he? The nerve!—by concluding that instead of conspiracies, "I believe in stupidity, randomness and chaos. That's what causes most of the misery in the world."

And finally, Detectives Beyond Borders takes a look at The Ghosts of Ireland, the debut novel from Stuart Neville. As blogger Peter Rozovsky adds, "The chapters make chilling and evocative use of both parts of the novel's title, which makes Neville the second Northern Ireland crime writer I've read recently to explore the dramatic possibilities of ghosts."

 So, Boo! (In the best possible sense) And save a little of that Jack Daniels for me. I think I OD'ed on Reese Cups again.

Up next for the Carnival—Karen at Austcrime.