The International(s)

 

Karen Meek over at EuroCrime compiled listings of upcoming African crime fiction which you can peruse here and here. She's particularly looking forward to Malla Nunn's A Beautiful Place to Die.

On the Detectives Beyond Borders blog, Peter Rozovsky profiled Adrian Hyland (Diamond Dove) who was near the Australian wildfires recently. Although he and his family survived, they lost friends in the disaster.

The Arab News reviewed "a rare thriller from the Arab world," M.M. Tawfik's Murder in the Tower of Happiness. As the article points out, crime fiction is not only not popular in Arabic literature, among a number of Arab writers and scholars it's not even considered a noble genre.

John Sullivan of The Winnipeg Free Press was pleased to see that the country's "mysterian underclass" has produced a trio of news releases, two of them "shockingly world-class."

In the Philippines, Manilla Bulletin writer Kristel Autencio has started a new crime fiction blog, So Fedorable.

A new anthology of South African crime writing titled Bad Company (Pan Macmillan) will be released soon. It's a collection of stories by some of South Africa’s best writers and it edited by Joanne Hichens.

Arminta Wallace, with the Irish Times, offers her take on why Irish crime fiction writers are "suddenly" popular when there was a "time when Irish writers of the criminal persuasion were rarer than root canal work on a hen."

Whither Indian detectives? Bangalore-based writer Lakshmi Chaudhry wonders if the dearth is due to the overwhelming dominance of Western writers? Or perhaps it’s hard to imagine an Indian policeman who triumphs not only over the killer but also the incompetence and corruption around him. "It’s been a long futile search for an answer," says author Satyajit Ray.

"Don't Look Twice" and a Giveaway

 

Thriller author Andrew Gross is a model of why you should steadfastly pursue your writing dreams, even after a slew of rejection slips. An editor with one of the publishers who had initially rejected his manuscript didn't just toss it in the trash but held on to it, passing it along to James Patterson with the words "This guy does women well!"  After a meeting over breakfast, he was offered a job co-writing a book with Patterson. Several joint best-selling titles later, Gross decided to branch out on his own with his first solo work, The Blue Zone, which the Library Journal said "offers much that will please: an intriguing premise, shocking twists, a gripping plot, and a sympathetic female lead who faces heartrending dilemmas as she grapples with the truth. Highly recommended."

The book which followed, The Dark Tide, introduced the protagonist Ty Hauck, head of the Greenwich police's violent crime unit. Hauck returns in a new book coming out in early March, Don't Look Twice, in which a drive-by shooter nicks Hauck, kills David Sanger, a federal prosecutor, and wounds others. Was Hauck the target? Was it a hate crime directed at the Pakistani who owned the gas station? Or was Sanger the target? Hauck is pulled into a rising storm far greater than it first appeared—a storm wide enough to encompass corruption inside Greenwich's circle of wealthy and powerful citizens.

For a sneak peak at the first three chapters, check out this link. And you can also win a free copy by dropping an email, subject line "DON'T LOOK TWICE", and be sure to include your full mailing address.  You can send an entry until Tuesday, March 3rd at 5 p.m. EST. The winner will be chosen by random drawing and notified via e-mail.

Mystery Melange

 

Poe biographies are crawling out of the woodwork this year, including Poe, A Life Cut Short by Peter Ackroyd which the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says "rescues Poe from the layers of cliches and misinterpretations built up over generations," and A Dream Within a Dream by Nigel Barnes which the Guardian liked but added it "fails to crack the conundrum of how such an astonishing literary legacy emerged from such a chaotic life."

You have until midnight tonight to vote for In Cold Blog's Detective Awards which focus on true crime books, publishers, and sites.

Barbara Fister is waving goodbye to the carnival, as she wraps up the last Carnival of the Criminal Minds blog entry. In Reference to Murder was pleased and honored to have been able to participate in this worthwhile endeavor on two occasions.

Twilight Times Books has plans in the works to publish an anthology in trade paper in 2010 for Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine. Publisher Lida E. Quillen says that they plan on publishing an annual anthology thereafter. She has an open call for submissions with a deadline of July 15, and there will be more details available on the FMAM site by April.

The Globe and Mail reported on retired engineer Alan Bradley who submitted 15 pages to a British book competition, won the prize and sparked a lucrative bidding war for his six-book murder-mystery series.

Sarah Weinman gives us the poop on the latest fad in crime fiction:  crime-fighting animals. 

The Library Journal looked at 23 graphic novels featuring African-Americans in honor of Black History Month, including  Incognegro: A Graphic Mystery by Mat Johnson (text) and Warren Pleece (illus.).

On the heels of the National Academy of Sciences scathing look at forensic labs comes the report that DNA left at crime scenes could soon be used to create pictures of a criminal's face with a new forensic technology.

And for your moment of fluff:  The Washington Post's Short Stack blog posed the question to several writers, "If you could spend one unbridled night with any fictional character in the world, who would it be?" Replies included Janet Evanovich: "Uncle Scrooge, from Carl Barks's Disney comics. He's always going on adventures, he pushes his money around with a bulldozer, and he wears a top hat but no pants. Does it get any better than that?" and Lisa Scottoline: "I would spend the night with the Three Musketeers from Dumas's classic novel. My motto is 'One for all, all for me.'"

Mystery Melange

 

Now that the new year had dawned, the crime fiction festivals are back in full swing. Love is Murder and Murder in the Magic City just finished, but looking down the pike, The Northern Echo took a look at why Harrogate has become an international success. Val McDermid believes "It’s unbeatable for the concentration, quality and atmosphere. Harrogate itself is a bonus because you have access to some of the loveliest countryside in Britain. People can make a holiday of it."

As long as you're in the UK, check out seminars in the highlands for crime fiction writers. Farther afield, South Africa's International Writers Festival will highlight the new surge of South African crime fiction.

In bookstore news: following the demise of the brick-and-mortar Murder One bookstore in London, at least it's good to know that it will maintain an online and mail order presence. Other bookstores trying to stay afloat have novelty ideas like the Annapolis Bookstore which will host a 24-hour Read-in-Bedathon. As the store described it: "Spend time in bed with a good book--and come see some of our customers and town personalities indulging in this favorite pastime in bed in our window." 

Barbara Peters of Poisoned Pen Bookstore and Press, added her own thought to the book publishing world these days:

"I was taken aback to read in the NY Times regarding the restructuring in December of Random House, the largest of the US publishing conglomerates, that Doubleday was folded into Knopf because 'Dan Brown did not deliver a new book.' Wow, a proud imprint founded ages ago by Abner Doubleday taken down in large part because one author didn't deliver. How scary is that? It's true that one author, one title, is the most efficient publishing model. Until that author doesn't deliver.

My hope is that recent developments have exposed the weakness in that approach to publishing. And that lots of small and specialist publishers are returning us to that wider range of books to select. In short, we're cycling back towards 1989."

Even author Sara Paretsky has to make friends with the digital age, at least as far as electronic galleys are concerned.  Dana Stabenow (who may or may not have issues with electronic galleys) was featured as the latest Shelf Awareness Book Brahmin.

From the world of crime, the New York Times printed an article which was very critical of shoddy scientific practices in forensic evidence at the nation's crime labs. (Which is why we need the Crime Lab Project--see the link in the sidebar). And one crime writer in the UK tells his story of being a victim of youth crime that seems to be increasing there.

The Year of Poe continues:  Dances Patrelle will be featuring a brand new ballet to celebrate Edgar Allan Poe's 200th Anniversary, premiering April 16-19, at the Danny Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College. Titled Murder at the Masque: The Casebook of Edgar Allan Poe, it will feature Poe's detective, Auguste Dupin, as well as characters and settings from classic Poe stories and poems.

Who Reads Short Shorts?

 

It's nice to see anthologies of short crime fiction making headlines in an age when the magazine venues for such stories seem to be disappearing. Dying in a Winter Wonderland, the collection edited by Tony Burton from Wolfmont press, made it into the Top 10 among the IMBA's bestseller list for 2008. Other recent publications have included the annual Best American Mystery Stories, with the latest version edited by George Pelecanos, reviewed here. Just in time for the celebration of Poe's 200th birthday, MWA released not one but two anthologies, In the Shadow of the Master, edited by Michael Connelly, which includes Poe stories and essays by award-winning crime fiction writers, and On a Raven's Wing: New Tales in Honor of Edgar Allan Poe edited by Stuart Kaminsky with contributions from more high-profile authors.

Out this month are the two latest installments in the Akashic Noir Series, Rome Noir and San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics, with many stories from previous books snapping up major awards. The series has 28 titles to its credit so far, with new volumes coming out later this year to include Portland Noir and Seattle Noir, both in June, and Delhi Noir (India) in August.

Media Murder

 

MOVIES

Judith Law has been signed to play a transvestite in Rage, a murder mystery set in New York's fashion world.

Spencer Quinn's debut mystery Dog On It has been acquired by Universal Pictures in a 6-figure deal. The book, featuring a canine narrator named Chet, was published this month by Atria. Jeff Lowell (Over Her Dead Body, Hotel for Dogs) will write the screenplay. This on the heels of the announcement that Barnes & Noble chose the book as the 12th selection in its B&N Recommends program.

The film adaptation of the movie In the Electric Mist (based on the novel In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead by James Lee Burke) will be released in the U.S. on DVD only on March 3rd. As Variety reported, the producers decided to release two versions, a shorter (and apparently less coherent) one on DVD for the U.S. and a director's cut for cinematic release everywhere else in the world. Academy Award winner Tommy Lee Jones leads an all-star cast.

Dimension Films is developing a modern-day high school-set thriller take on Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians focusing on social networking (yes, you heard that right).

TV

WETA's Author, Author! program had a recent interview with David Baldacci, author of Divine Justice.

ITV pulled the plug on Wire in the Blood, the series based on novels by crime writer Val McDermid, which has been running for six years and attracted audiences of 4.5 million an episode last year. It has also been sold to 120 channels across the world. The decision was made due to "cost-cutting measures" and means that the cliff-hanger which ended the last series in the autumn may never be concluded.

The PBS Mystery lineup for the Fall includes the new Wallender series based on books by Henning Mankell and starring Kenneth Brannagh.

John Nettles is leaving the show Midsomer Murders and his role of DCI Tom Barnaby, after 12 years and 75 appearances.

ITV announced the return of Foyle's War and also that eight new Agatha Christie films have been ordered, including Murder On The Orient Express (and three other original Agatha Christie Poirots, featuring David Suchet). The other four feature Julia Mackenzie who will make her first appearance as Jane Marple.

In the new ABC series Castle, the mystery writer played by Nathan Fillion gets his storytelling advice from real-life writers James Patterson and Stephen J. Cannell over a poker game.

PLAYS

Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago has announced its 2009-10 subscription season, including Fake, a new play written and directed by ensemble member Eric Simonson. it's set In 1914 and revolves around Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's invitation to four guests to his English country home, each with a connection to the infamous "Piltdown Man," purported to be the missing link between ape and man — later exposed as a hoax.  

The new Theatre Northwest troupe in Tacoma, Washington, is opening their season with the Sherlock Holmes-based play by Stuart Kamsinky titled The Final Toast which received its world premiere at the Kentucky International Mystery Writers' Festival.

PODCASTS & AUDIO

The Toronto Sun has an online interview with Jose Latour, a highly praised mystery writer in the Spanish language before the Cuban government blocked publication of his fifth novel and declared him an enemy of the people. Latour simply switched languages to English.

The Audio Publishers Association announced their nominations for the 2009 Audie Awards, including Mystery and Thriller/Suspense categories.

The Evolution of a Mystery

On this date 200 years ago, two great legends were born into this world: Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. This anniversary falls just barely three weeks after we celebrated the 200th birthday of Edgar Allan Poe--it seems that 1809 was a legendary year. No doubt there will be countless tributes to President Lincoln around the U.S. today, and Janet Rudolph had a birthday preview profiling Lincoln as the author of a mystery short story.

But what of the controversial and often misunderstood Darwin? There are some who say that his On the Origin of Species (which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year with a Darwin Festival in July), is the biggest fantasy of all. Rather than dig into that debate, it seemed more appropriate to highlight the date with a look at scientists in mysteries, particularly those with protagonists (or major characters) who are naturalists, zoologists, biologists, botanists, or geologists, those areas of work Darwin touched upon.  (Well maybe just a little bit of digging--check out this official word.)

Perhaps the most appropriate, thematically at least, was a pulp novel titled The Affair of the Scarlet Crab (Dodd Mean, 1937) by Clifford Knight which featured biologist/botanist Professor Huntoon Rogers in the Galapagos Islands. Out of print now, it's difficult to find.

Others include:

• Andrews, Sarah – A series featuring Emily Hansen, sleuth/geologist
• Andrews, Sarah - In Cold Pursuit (St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2007), featuring Valena Walker, a geology student. As you can tell from the author's two protagonists above, she's a geologist herself.
• Basnett, Andrews - Series with retired British botany professor E.X. Ferrars
• Brewer, Steve -  Shaky Ground (May, 1997). Although the protagonist is a PI, the story involves a woman who wants to find her missing husband, a biologist with the University of New Mexico.
• Burley, WJ - Death in Willow Pattern (Walker, 1970), featuring  Dr. Henry Pym, Dr Pym, a British zoologist and amateur detective.
• Campbell, RT - A series featuring the rotund old Scottish botanist and amateur criminologist, John Stubbs.
• May, Peter - A series with Enzo Macleod, Scottish forensic biologist based in France.
• MacLeod, Charlotte - Series featuring Peter Shandy, botany professor at Balaclava Agricultural College.
• Miller, Susan Cummins - A series featuring Frankie MacFarlane, a geologist based in Tucson, Arizona.
• Riggs, Cynthia – Victoria Trumbull, 92-year-old Martha’s Vineyard native, deputy police officer and naturalist.
• White, Randy Wayne - A series with Marion "Doc" Ford, ex-operative and marine biologist in Sanibel Island, Florida (the latest in the series is Dead Silence to be released in March).

For more, check out this listing of fiction and nonfiction works which feature or hinge upon Darwin and his legacy.   

The Zine Scene

 

The upcoming March/April issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine will include short stories by award-winning novelists S. J. Rozan, Perri O'Shaughnessy, and Janwillem van de Wetering, and the late Edward D. Hoch's unbroken 36-year run of stories closes this month with a selection about treachery in a German university's dueling clubs.

CrimeSpree is still going strong and getting ready to release their March/April issue featuring a cover story with CJ Box and other interviews with Linda Fairstein, Barry Eisler and Andrew Grant; articles from Ayo Onatade, Alan Salter (Sam Reaves). Reed Coleman, Craig McDonald, Declan Burke, Michael Lister, Sandra Ruttan and Shirley Kennett; and three short stories including one from Kat Richardson. You can follow the magazine via their site and blog.

Randy Okane of 5MinuteMystery.com announced recently that the site NEEDS WRITERS (for guidelines, check out their site--and they are a paying market):

"[We are} cutting back our mysteries from 5 per week to 2 per week starting tomorrow. This is being done not for lack of money or lack of readers. The web site has gotten great press over the first 5 months, including being a featured story nationwide on ABC News' TechBytes. Our readers are extremely happy with the site. In fact, we are in the process of expanding the site to add some significant new features that will be ready in a few months including iphone apps, educational uses and other really exciting ways to use mysteries. So, why are we cutting back the number of stories that we publish? We are cutting back because we do not have enough stories to keep publishing one a day."

Although Blazing Adventures magazine is no more, publisher Robert S.P. Lee, a/k/a Dash Courageous "and his fateful companion The Granite Man, Dr.Shadows", will be appearing with copies of their award-winning issue 9 on Saturday, February 28th from 10am to 3:30pm (with a minimal admission fee) at:

Vintage Mania, The Show for Lovers of Vintage Pop Culture
Holy Cross School
332 W 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036

The only U.S. academic journal on mystery and detective fiction, Clues, has an open Call for Papers on "Chester Himes and His Legacy."

Janet Rudolph of Mystery Readers International has a blog associated with the magazine. She uses it to supplement the zine with topical reading lists and other crime fiction tidbits. On the magazine site, you can get the themes for the upcoming issues (Africa, Los Angeles, Sports), if you're interested in submitting an article or author essay.

Twist of Noir has a short story contest on the theme of "alienation" (one entry per person, up to 5,000 words).

Strand Managing Editor Andrew F. Gulli will be visiting the Editor Unleashed blog on Wednesday, February 18, 1:00 EST for a live interview. You can post your questions in advance via the forum link on the blog.

And if you're in a hurry and need some recommendation for mystery/crime short stories, check out the reviews on the Nasty, Brutish, and Short blog.

Media Murder

TV

Scheduled for the Today Show this morning on NBC was Douglas Preston, author of The Monster of Florence. Hopefully the show web site will upload that interview later.

Tom Selleck starred as Jesse Stone in four made-for-tv movies based on the character created by Robert B. Parker, and all four are now available on DVD. A fifth movie (Jesse Stone: Thin Ice) has completed production and is expected to air sometime in early 2009, while yet a sixth (Jesse Stone: No Remorse) is currently in production with no air date as of yet. (Hat tip to Mysteries on TV.)

M.J. Rose has sold a pilot for a one-hour drama based on her novel The Reincarnationist to Fox Broadcasting. The pilot is written by David Hudgins for Warner Bros. Productions. Hudgins and Lou Pitt are executive producers, and Rose is a consulting producer.

In case you've missed it, the Retro Television Network is showing episodes of mystery TV series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Ironside, Kojak, Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, Simon & Simon, Ellery Queen, and more.

The Santa Monica Mirror interviewed actor Tony Shaloub, who plays obsessive-compulsive detective Adrian Monk, prior to a benefit a staged reading of A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters which featured Shaloub and his wife, Brooke Adams.

FILM

Tobey Maguire has acquired screen rights to the Marcus Sakey crime novel Good People. the script will be penned by Kelly Masterson, who most recently wrote Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.

Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley were added to the cast for the upcoming independent crime film London Boulevard, based on the novel by Ken Bruen. The film begins shooting in London this summer.

The NY Times had a preview of Guy Ritchie's new Sherlock Holmes movie (currently scheduled for release in November), starring Robert Downey Jr. As to why the film will show Holmes in a new light, Downey said, “So many of the ideas that Conan Doyle had took place offstage in his books. We have the technology, the budget and the means to carry them out.” So get ready for Sherlock Holmes, action hero.

One of James DiCaprio's next roles will be Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond. John Orloff has been hired to write the screenplay of the film.

RADIO

The BBC World Service dramatized James Ellroy's nonfiction account of his mother's murder, My Dark Places, adapted for radio by Steve Chambers.

NPR's Authors Series profiled African-American mystery writers Paula Woods, who won a Macavity Award for the first book in her Charlotte Justice series, Gar Anthony Haywood, Shamus Award-winning author of the Aaron Gunner mysteries, and Gary Phillips, a writer and editor of crime stories.

The Vidocq Society was featured on yesterday's Talk of the Nation program on NPR, including Frank Bender, sculptor and forensic reconstructionist, and William Fleisher, former police officer and FBI special agent (both founding members).

PODCASTS

Aldo Calcagno and Seth Harwood had a new web site venture called Crimewav which features podcasts with mystery writers, which this week includes Michael Connelly.

THEATER

As the Big Read continues its reach across the U.S., one community will get to see a play titled "The Mystery of Dashiell Hammett" staged as a vintage 1940s radio drama.