Mysterious Women Who Know Their Place

On Friday, June 8 at the American Women Writers National Museum, five nationally acclaimed mystery writers in the D.C. area will take part in a panel discussion about settings in novels. Place is often considered as important a "character" in a novel as the protagonist and the antagonist, and the panel will talk about how they use the mid-Atlantic and its many famous and less well-known landmarks in their books.

Participants include:

• President Reagan Press Secretary Jim Brady's former deputy—turned thriller author Karna Bodman (Castle Bravo) writes about issues of technology and national defense around the Beltway;

• Agatha Award winner Marcia Talley (Last Refuge) has her protagonist Hannah Ives sleuthing in the Chesapeake Bay and Annapolis area where Tally used to work at the U.S. Naval Academy library;

• Long-time print and radio journalist Ellen Crosby (The Sauvignon Secret), a former U.S. Senate economist, sets her mysteries with vineyard owner Lucie Montgomery in Virginia's wine country;

• Multiple-award winner Donna Andrews (The Real Macaw) features blacksmith Meg Langslow and locales in Andrews' birthplace of Yorktown, Virginia;

• Panel moderator Elizabeth Foxwell reviews books for Publisher's Weekly, is managing editor of Clues: A Journal of Detection and editor of the McFarland Companions to Mystery Fiction series. 

The event is free and open to the public, with a Meet & Greet from 11:30 to noon and the panel discussion following.

(In order: Donna Andrews, Karna Bodman, Ellen Crosby, Elizabeth Foxwell, Marcia Talley)

Mystery Melange

Each month, Omnimystery News lists the upcoming new hardcover mysteries, and June is no exception, with an overview and detailed listing. If you're more interested in paperbacks, they've got that covered, too.

Some terrific new short-story books have just been published: Sandra Seamans, writer and blogger over at My Little Corner, has a "rural noir" collection titled Cold Rifts, published by Snubnose Press; and the International Thriller Writers have released Thriller 3: Love is Murder, edited by Sandra Brown and featuring 29 stories of romantic suspense by Lee Child, JT Ellison, D.P. Lyle, Alexandra Sokoloff, and more.

Otto Penzler's new anthology of tributes to an iconic crime fiction creation is titled In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero. There are contributions from Ace Atkins (who is now writing the Spenser novels with the blessing of Parker's estate), Lawrence Block, Reed Farrel Coleman, Max Allan Collins and many more. Criminal Element is running a contest via their Facebook page, and if you enter the contest throuh June 4th, you may win a copy of the book.

In the Q&A spotlight this week, Craig Sisterson's Crime Watch blog snagged Edgar Award-winning crime writer Steve Hamilton (The Lock Artist) to talk about his favorite crime fiction heroes, most unusual experience at a book signing, and more. Also, Crime Fiction Lover interviewed Danny Miller, author of the Vince Treadwell novels set during the "dark heart of the Swinging 60s."

Do you have young folks in your household or family and want to recommend some good YA mystery novels for them to read? Author F.T. Bradley lists five fundamental YA mysteries, and "why they deserve a spot on your bookshelf."

Crime Fiction – Here and There, Now and Then

he above refers to an upcoming conference November 9-10 at the Institute of English at the University of Gdansk, Poland. The aim of the conference is to "discuss crime fiction across national borders, across time periods, across languages, across genres and across boundaries between the literature and the other arts (film, theatre, graphic novel etc.)." Toward that end, conference organizers have a call for papers that deal with one or more of the subjects listed on the website (although it's not an exhaustive list). The conference will be held in English, so the papers should also be in English and are due June 30th.

Sacrifices

emorial Day weekend has become synonymous with the start of summer, picnics, trips to the beach and parties galore. But, if there is a military cemetery or site near you, perhaps take a moment to stop by, plant a flag or wreath, give your thanks to those who made all those picnics and celebrations — free from tyranny and oppression — possible, thanks to the ultimate sacrifice they were willing to make for their country.

Mystery Melange

It's voting season! Pop Culture Nerd celebrates Mystery Monthy with the second annual Stalker Awards. Vote for your favorite authors and novels (of books published in 2011), through 9 p.m. PST tonight. Fun categories include "Most Throat-Grabbing Opening Sentence" and "Most Criminally Underrated Author."

You can also vote for your favorite new Burn Notice opening titles on the USA Networks' fan site.

Get ready for Book Expo America that launches in a little over a week, as Publishing Trends reminds us. As you might imagine, this year's event is heavy on panels and discussions centered on digital publishing. One of the featured speakers at the Adult Book & Author Breakfasts is author Jo Nesbo, and one of the featured APA Author Tea speakers is Lee Child.

Mysterious Press just announced the release of new ebook editions of novels and stories written by classic crime writers Clayton Rawson (the Great Merlini series) and Rex Stout (Nero Wolfe). Hat tip to Omnimystery News.

Kristin Centorcelli at the Criminal Element Blog takes a look at the Women of Noir.

I missed this on Media Murder for Monday, but BBC is featuring a half-hour radio program called "Miles Jupp in a Locked Room" about locked room mysteries with comedian Miles Jupp interviewing a number of authors and scholars about the genre. But it's only available for listening online through this Sunday.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the James Bond film series, MGM will release a Blu-ray box set — containing all 22 Bond flicks and over 130 hours of bonus material — on September 25th. 

The Q&A roundup this week features Will Carver, whose debut novel Girl 4 last year introduced the enigmatic and haunted detective, January David.

If you are on Twitter, The Boston Globe listed the top 50 creative writing professors who Tweet.

Everyone’s Library

Which book(s) do you think shaped America?  Since this blog is primarily related to crime fiction, I could re-phrase the question, "Which crime fiction book do you think shaped America?" If you have any suggestions, the Library of Congress wants to know. The LOC is launching a "Celebration of the Book" with an exhibition June 25 through September 29, marking the beginning of an ongoing recognition of culturally significant books from all genres of writing. That's where you come in: members of the public are asked to nominate books for subsequent lists of "Books That Shaped America," and in 2013, the Library will also recognize "Books That Shaped the World."

Toward the end of the exhibition time frame on September 22 and 23, the LOC will host the annual Festival of the Book on the National Mall, with the author participants announced last week. Headliners include Patricia Cornwell, Michael Connelly and Charlaine Harris from the crime fiction community, and dozens of other authors of various fiction genres, nonfiction, poetry and children's/YA books. The Festival will be held rain or shine, and best of all, it's free.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Liam Neeson has signed on to play Matt Scudder in the film version of A Walk Among the Tombstones, based on the novel by Lawrence Block. Scudder is an ex-NYPD cop and unlicensed private detective (and recovering alcoholic) hired to find the kidnapped wife of a drug dealer.

A Good Day To Die Hard, the fifth installment of the "Die Hard" franchise starring Bruce Willis, has added Amaury Nolasco (Prison Break) and Megalyn Echikunwoke (CSI: Miami) to the cast. The latest installment finds hero Bruce Willis in Russia to get his son out of prison and uncovering a terrorist plot in the process.

Pierce Brosnan and Dominic Cooper are set to star in the spy thriller November Man, directed by Roger Donaldson. It's based on the book There Are No Spies by Bill Granger.

Philip Seymour Hoffman joined the cast of the John Le Carre spy thriller A Most Wanted Man, playing a roguish chief of a covert German spy unit.

Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy are teaming up for a comedic buddy cop movie, with Bullock playing a "high-strung FBI agent" who has a strained relationship with McCarthy's character, an "unconventional Boston cop," as they team up to take down a Russian gangster.

Universal Studios bought the rights to a Mark Wahlberg film, The Disciple Program, described as "a Manchurian Candidate-style thriller in which a man's wife dies, and he discovers that it was no accident and investigates the murder."

Duncan Jones has been hired to direct a feature film biopic about the life of Ian Fleming. The project is based on Andrew Lycett's biography Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond.

Here's the first released clip from the upcoming movie Paperboy, directed by Lee Daniels and starring Matthew McConaughey, Nicole Kidman, John Cusack and Zac Efron. The film is an adaptation of Pete Dexter's novel about an investigative journalist and his slacker younger brother who get embroiled in a four-year-old murder case along with a death row femme fatale.

Omnimystery News also notes that set photos have been relased from the upcoming Alex Cross film, based on the character and novels created by James Patterson.

TV

The police procedural Unforgettable was recently canceled by CBS, but it appears it may find a new home on TNT or Lifetime.

TNT announced the premiere dates for their summer season, including returning Rizzoli & Isles and Leverage, and new crime dramas Perception (about a neuroscientist and professor recruited to help the federal government) and Difficult Cases, starring Mary McDonald, formerly of Battlestar Galactica.

TNT also provided more details about new series currently in production (yet to be scheduled), including shows based on books by David Baldacci, Robert Littell, William Brinkley, Ross McDonald and Tom Clancy, as well as an untitled Steven Bochco murder mystery project.

A&E has canceled the crime drama Breakout Kings after two seasons. A&E had picked up the show after Fox took a pass, but ratings just weren't there.

The new thriller series on Fox starring Kevin Bacon won't debut until 2013, but the network already has a trailer. The plot follows an FBI agent who's brought out of retirement to track down an escaped serial killer.

Also not on the schedule until 2013: Zero Hour, starring Anthony Edwards as paranormal enthusiast whose wife is abducted, drawing him into a "Divinci Code-type suspense thriller, complete with conspiracies and life-or-death situations."

CBS has already released trailers for its new fall series Elementary, a contemporary take on Sherlock Holmes, and Vegas, a historical western-style crime drama.

PODCASTS/WEBCASTS

NPR reviewed and discussed Don't Cry, Tai Lake, the seventh novel in the politically charged Inspector Chen series written by Chinese expatriate and poet Qiu Xiaolong.

THEATER

Maryland's Olney Theatre Center is staging Anthony Shaffer's mystery thriller Sleuth from June 13 to July 8. The play won the Tony Award for Best Play and inspired two film versions.

Time’s Up!

Time's almost up. The fourth annual Watery Grave Invitational Short Story Contest is seeking submissions. You must have a crime fiction story of no more than 3,000 words already published (in any format) between April 16, 2011 and April 15, 2012. Selected authors will have their names dropped into a hat and ten names drawn at random. The drawees will then compete in the contest to write a new original story. And there are prizes! E-mail your story link by 9 p.m. TONIGHT to be entered via the website above.

Time's also running out to submit your novella of 15,000 to 20,000 words in length for the sixth annual Black Orchid Novella Award. The sponsors are seeking original works of fiction in the tradition of the Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe, which (1) emphasize the deductive skills of the sleuth; (2) contain no overt sex or violence; (3) don't include characters from the original series. First prize: $1,000 plus publication in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. But hurry: entries must be postmarked by May 31, 2012.

The Pulp Ink is Barely Dry

David Cranmer created the online zine Beat to a Pulp to fill a void of hardboiled fiction when other e-zines were folding. He and editor Scott D. Parker feature one pulp/hardboiled/noir story each week on the website, and the endeavor proved so popular the duo put together an anthology of stories from the website in October 2010 titled Beat to a Pulp: Round One. Now comes the good news that Beat to a Pulp: Round Two has just been released, and Cranmer promises you'll find "aliens, gangsters, drifters, mountain men, private dicks, gun molls, loners, misfits, drunks, thugs, booze-hounds, and more."

Stories include a Hemingway pastiche by mystery author Bill Pronzini (best known for his Nameless Detective series), a Raymond Chandler homage by Hard Case Crime publisher Charles Ardai, a post-war tale with a twist from James Reasoner, a zombie-horror nightmare by Bill Crider, and pulpy goodness from Glenn Gray, Patricia Abbott, Chris F. Holm, Vicki Hendricks, Sean Chercover, Vin Packer and more. You can buy a print copy through Createspace and soon, Amazon (both print and digital).

Here's something else to look forward to: Pulp Ink 2 from Snubnose Press. The first installment, Pulp Ink, was edited by Nigel Bird and Chris Rhatigan and featured 24 stories following on the tradition of the Tarantino movie Pulp Fiction by the likes of Reed Farrel Coleman, Hilary Davidson, Paul D. Brazill, Sandra Seamans, Patti Abbott, David Cranmer, Nigel Bird and Chris Rhatigan.

Anthony Neil Smith called it "a slice of the good stuff from those surviving the brutal sandbox of modern crime fiction and emerging, scraped and bruised, to turn around and spit in its eye," and Chuck Wendig added, "Tongue-piercings. Foot-fetishists. Murderous cinephiles. This gritty, grimy, giddy collection is as pulpy as they come, transcending the Tarantino reference material and stepping into its own." Pulp Ink 2 will take a little different turn and feature stories of crime and horror. I'm quite honored to be included in the company of 18 other terrific writers, the list of which you can find here. Look for Pulp Ink 2 later this summer.

 

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Sean Bean has signed on to play the lead in the adaptation of Devil's Peak, the first book in a trilogy by author Deon Meyer. Bean will star as Detective Benny Griessel, a recovering alcoholic who is trying to win back the trust of his family as well as solve the case of a vigilante killer.

United Talent Agency has signed Elmore Leonard, the first time in the author's 60-year career that he has teamed up with a major Hollywood agency. It's not the first time Leonard's work has been adapted, of course; there have already been 20 films made from his over 40 novels and numerous short stories.

Speaking of Elmore Leonard, Jennifer Aniston and Dennis Quaid are set to star in a film adaptation of the authors's novel The Switch, about criminals who kidnap Aniston's character and hold her for ransom only to discover that her husband doesn't want her back.

Oscar winner Catherine Zeta-Jones and Byun-Hun Lee (G.I. Joe: Retaliation) have joined the cast of RED 2, the sequel to the hit action comedy about a group of retired contract killers drawn back into action. Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren and Mary-Louise Parker, actors who appeared in the first film, will all be back.

Jefferey Archer's spy thriller novel A Matter Of Honor is headed for the big screen.

Here's your first trailer for The Gangster Squad, starring Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn and Josh Brolin in the true story of mob boss Mickey Cohen and the cops who tried to take him down.

TV

It's fall TV upfront time again. First, the cancellations: Fox gave the axe to J.J. Abrams' Alcatraz and also the Bones spin-off, The Finder. ABC gave the boot to The River and Missing. NBC canceled the unusual (and therefore "risky") police drama, Awake and the legal drama, Harry's Law. The wait is over for nervous CSI fans, too: both CSI: Miami and CSI: New York were on the bubble, but it's ultimately the Miami version starring David Caruso that's been given the boot. Also gone are freshmen dramas NYC 22 and Unforgettable.

Now for the "new" renewals (many others had already been announced): Body of Proof, starring Dana Delany as a medical examiner, will get a third season on ABC; NBC renewed the long-running police procedural Law & Order: SVU for a 14th season. 

Finally, the additions: CBS has full series orders for seven shows, including the contemporary take on Sherlock Holmes with Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu as Sherlock and Watson, and the 1960s drama Vegas, starring Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis in the true story of Ralph Lamb, a cowboy turned sheriff in Las Vegas. NBC has given full-season orders to Dick Wolf's new drama Chicago Fire (an "action-driven drama exploring the complex and heroic men and women of the Chicago Fire Department"), and also the Jekyll-and-Hyde thriller Do No Harm, as well as the "soap opera detective story" Infamous.

But wait, there's more: TNT is adding a "docu-drama" (a/k/a unscripted reality show) to its lineup titled Boston Blue. The project is from executive producer Donnie Wahlberg (Blue Bloods, Boomtown) and follows the Boston Police Department's exclusive and highly decorated Gang Unit. The CW has added the new series Cult to its lineup. The drama revolves around a young production assistant (Jessica Lucas) on a popular television series and a journalist blogger (Matt Davis) investigating whether fans of the show are re-creating its crime scenes in real life.

For a complete scorecard of renewals, cancellations and new series, check this scorescard.

American Beauty director Sam Mendes has bought the rights to author Alan Bradley's bestselling Flavia de Luce mysteries. (Thanks to Janet Rudolph, at Mystery Fanfare.) The stories are set in a post-WWII rural English village and follow the adventures of a precocious 11-year-old sleuth named Flavia.

FX has picked up TV rights to the trio of best-selling thriller novels written by Chelsea Cain featuring her female serial killer Gretchen Lowell.

ABC Family is developing a teen-oriented mystery series titled The Keys, set at an exclusive, mysterious island resort where a young woman investigates the secrets of the place. Ashley Tisdale (High School Musical), a producer on the project, is the likely star. (Hat tip to Ominimystery News.)

BBC Scotland and ITV will adapt the Shetland Islands quartet by Ann Cleeves (the first novel, Raven Black, won a Dagger award for crime fiction), which features Detective Jimmy Perez, a native Shetlander who has returned home. Scottish actor Douglas Henshall has signed to play the lead. Cleeves already has had one series produced by ITV, Vera, starring Brenda Blethyn as Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope.

The CBC announced its fall 2012 lineup, which includes the series Murdoch Mysteries, recently dropped by Citytv. The detective series was set in 19th-century Toronto and starred Yannick Bisson as detective William Murdoch and Hélène Joy as pathologist Julia Ogden, but the reboot will see the characters move into the 20th century. The CBC is also including its first original police procedural, Cracked, (from the writer of Flashpoint and The Bridge), starring David Sutcliffe as a Toronto police officer suffering from PTSD assigned to the psych unit. 

PODCASTS/WEBCASTS

Yesterday on 60 Minutes, Henry A. Crumpton discussed his experiences that led to the book The Art of  Intelligence: Lessons from a Life in the CIA's Clandestine Service.

The guests on this week's Suspense Radio were authors Steve Berry, Nick Santora and Paul Kemprecos.

Crime fict
ion author Peter James picked his top 5 London crime spots for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Mystery Melange

Bestselling author Lawrence Block is offering select items for sale on eBay, including stories, the copyedited manuscript of A Drop of the Hard Stuff, complete with corrections ("and my occasionally vehement responses thereto"), the revised draft of a script for a TV movie, for which Block adapted an Edgar-winning Matthew Scudder story, and more. The auctions close May 13. 

Noir At The Bar returns to the Mandrake Bar in Culver City, California on May 20, with author Lisa Brackmann (Rock, Paper, Tiger), Eric Stone (Shanghaied), Brett Battles (No Return), Fingers Murphy (The Flaming Motel) and Mystery Dawg, the editor of Powder Burn Flash. Mysterious Galaxy will also be on hand to sell books.

It's Macavity Award nomination time again for members of Mystery Readers International, in the categories of best novel, first novel, bio/critical, short story, and the Sue Feder Memorial historical mystery. All works must have been published in 2011, and the deadline for nominations is June 1st. For more info, contact Janet Rudolph.

  Australia's Monash University is holding a "Body in the Library" exhibition of mystery history, through June 8. Highlights include covers of lurid works by Sax Rohmer, Detection Club projects, detective magazines, the Dick Donovan series that was a contemporary of Sherlock Holmes, and the many Australian and New Zealand crime fiction authors and books. (Hat tip to Elizabeth Foxwell.)

Crimeculture is sponsoring a no-fee Sherlock Holmes Flash Fiction contest. Entrants have to write a 400-word story featuring Holmes in another time and place or in a different genre.  The deadline is June 15, and top ten winners will be published on the Crimeculture website.  (With thanks to Sandra Seamans.)

The latest Suspense Magazine has interviews with Nick Santora, M. William Phelps, Eric Jerome Dickey, and many more. You'll also find reviews of and news about e-books from LJ Sellers, Scott Nicholson and Vincent Zandri.

Congrats to the winners of the "Flashbang" fiction test sponsored by the 2012 Crimefest in the UK. The winners, who were tasked with writing a crime story in 150 words or less, were chosen by author Zoë Sharp.

Mystery Writers of America have added Denver to the list of upcoming MWA University writer workshops. The focus of these events is on the craft of writing, with college-level courses taught by published writers and experienced teachers. Waukesha, Wisconsin, is the next stop on June 16th, followed by Denver on August 11th. For more information, check out the MWA University info page.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Dublin author Ava McCarthy signed a deal with Hollywood production company Polaris Pictures to adapt her debut novel The Insider for film. The book centers on a female former computer hacker named Harry Martinez, who has shifted careers to become a private eye.

Ex-James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan has joined Owen Wilson to star in John Erick Dowdle's political/spy thriller The Coup. The story follows an American family who moves to Southeast Asia and gets mixed up in a violent coup where merciless rebels are attacking the city. Brosnan will play a mysterious government operative.

Oscar-nominated actor John Hawkes has signed to star in the indie thriller Too Late, about the tangled relationship between a troubled private investigator (Hawkes) and the missing woman he's hired to find. Hawkes has also joined the cast of Switch, a prequel to Jackie Brown, based on the Elmore Leonard novel.

Producer David Barron (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) optioned film rights to UK author Howard Linskey's crime novel The Damage, set in Newcastle's gangland.

Author Walter Mosley is teaming up with producer Diane Houslin to form a production company called B.O.B. Filmhouse that will help adapt Mosey's novels for the big and small screens. The company is already working on projects including The Long Fall, based on Mosley's Leonid McGill novels (for HBO). It also has plans to create a feature film based on Mosley's psychological thriller Man in My Basement.

TV

"Ducky" fans can relax. Actor David McCallum signed a two-year deal to continue in the popular CBS series NCIS.

TNT has given a fifth season order to Southland, its Los Angeles-based crime drama. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

AMC has given the greenlight to two new scripted drama pilots, including Low Winter Sun, based on a British miniseries to be adapted for the U.S. by Chris Mundy (Criminal Minds). The show is "a contemporary story of murder, deception, revenge and corruption that starts with the murder of a cop by a fellow Detroit detective." The other project is an untitled legal thriller about on a District Attorney who uncovers new evidence prompting the reopening of a sensational murder case.

NBC may premiere its fall season in August, including shows like the supernatural police procedural Grimm, to take advantage of the Olympics ratings and ad boost.

Stockholm production group NICE Drama has snatched up rights to a trio of novels by young crime writer Kristina Ohlsson, planning on a six-episode TV series and three 90-minute films. Ohlsson was a counterterrorism officer with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe before turning to writing.

Canada's ION Television network announced that the upcoming fifth season of the police drama Flashpoint will be its last. Executives added, "While the series is still at its creative apex, we've decided to end the series on a high note, and give those fans the satisfaction of a fitting series conclusion in our 75th episode."

William Shatner will star in the Season 3 premiere of the ABC drama Rookie Blue, playing a drunk driver.

THEATER

This year's Tony Award nominees include Bonnie & Clyde: the Musical (with music by frank Wildhorn and lyrics by Don Black), for best original score and Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical (Laura Osnes).

Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 film Rebecca starring Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier (and based on Daphne Du Maurier's famous mystery thriller) is being turned into a Broadway musical this fall. Karen Mason, Howard McGillin and James Barbour have been cast in lead roles, with Tony Award-winning Michael Blakemore in charge of staging and Francesca Zambello as director.

Playwright Simon Stephens spoke with the London Evening Standard about his new play Three Kingdoms being staged at the Lyric Hammersmith May 3-19. The play follows an investigation by two British police officers into the European sex trade after the discovery of an Estonian prostitute's severed head in the Thames at Chiswick.

Mystery Melange

The latest issue of CrimeFactory is out with an Abbott Family two-fer: Megan Abbott interviews Andrew Nette, and Patti Abbott contributes a new short story. Other features include an essay by Josh Stallings, Spi-Fi smut uncovered by James Hopwood, plus many more interviews and fiction.

The crime fiction awards keep pouring in: the Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America in various categories; and Spinetingler Magazine announced its 2012 honors, including Best New Voice, Donald Ray Pollock for his novel The Devil All the Time; Best Rising Star Anthony Neil Smith (All the Young Warriors); and Best Legend, Lawrence Block (A Drop of the Hard Stuff).

One of the latest installments in the Akashic Books "city noir" series is Long Island Noir, edited by Kaylie Jones and featuring stories by Reed Farrel Coleman, Sarah Weinman and over a dozen other authors. Criminal Element is offering a sweepstakes you can enter to win a free copy of the anthology.

It's the start of a new month, and that means Omnimystery News is once again providing a list of "Firsts on the First," new series characters being introduced in novels published during May.

Statuesque Success

The Detroit News reports on a campaign to create a statue in Detroit of RoboCop, the iconic character from the 1987 film starring Peter Weller as a half-man, half-robot officer. A Tweet in February 2011 sent to Detroit Mayor Dave Bing spawned an online fundraising campaign that raised $50,000 in six days. Now, a year later, Hollywood statue designer Fred Barton's life-sized RoboCop model is being scanned at a Canadian studio so it can be cast in bronze and delivered to its new home.

I wonder what other fictional book/movie/TV characters we can lobby for life-sized statues? Any favorites you'd like to see cast in bronze or stone for posterity? I guess here in D.C., it would have to be a statue of Leroy Jethro Gibbs from NCIS (played by Mark Harmon). Who would people choose for your area?