Saturday, February 22, 2025
Revue of Reviewers: 2-22-25
Critiquing some of the most interesting recent crime, mystery, and thriller releases. Click on the individual covers to read more.
Bond’s Future Is in New Hands
As if Amazon didn’t own enough already, its film and TV subsidiary is now taking creative control of James Bond.
The Spy Command reports that Amazon MGM Studios is establishing a joint venture with Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson of Eon Productions. Barbara Broccoli is the 64-year-old daughter of Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, who was responsible for producing many of the Bond flicks; she has worked on the Agent 007 features since the early 1980s. Wilson, 83, is Cubby’s stepson (the child of his third wife, Dana Natol). The pair will step back from their active role as stewards of the popular franchise, but are to be co-owners with Amazon of the new enterprise. Deadline puts a $1 billion price tag on this deal.
Amazon purchased the famous Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in 2021 for $8.45 billion, but through that transaction acquired only 50 percent of the Bond franchise “and was relegated to being a passive partner when it came to artistic choices,” explains Deadline. There is speculation now that Amazon MGM will expand the Bond universe for maximum commercial value, perhaps creating large- and small-screen spin-offs, as well as direct-to-video releases centered around the British super-spy Ian Fleming introduced 72 years ago. Barbara Broccoli had previously resisted such diversification.
READ MORE: “Jeff Bezos Is Already Soliciting Ideas for the Next James Bond,” by Germain Lussier (Gizmodo); “No Time to Delay: Why Amazon Took Control of James Bond as Next 007 Movie Remains in Limbo,” by Brent Lang and Rebecca Rubin (Variety); “Opinion: Amazon to Deliver a New James Bond,” by Scott Simon (National Public Radio); “Unlikely (?) Bond Streaming Spin-off Series,” by Bill Koenig (The Spy Command).
The Spy Command reports that Amazon MGM Studios is establishing a joint venture with Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson of Eon Productions. Barbara Broccoli is the 64-year-old daughter of Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, who was responsible for producing many of the Bond flicks; she has worked on the Agent 007 features since the early 1980s. Wilson, 83, is Cubby’s stepson (the child of his third wife, Dana Natol). The pair will step back from their active role as stewards of the popular franchise, but are to be co-owners with Amazon of the new enterprise. Deadline puts a $1 billion price tag on this deal.
Amazon purchased the famous Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in 2021 for $8.45 billion, but through that transaction acquired only 50 percent of the Bond franchise “and was relegated to being a passive partner when it came to artistic choices,” explains Deadline. There is speculation now that Amazon MGM will expand the Bond universe for maximum commercial value, perhaps creating large- and small-screen spin-offs, as well as direct-to-video releases centered around the British super-spy Ian Fleming introduced 72 years ago. Barbara Broccoli had previously resisted such diversification.
READ MORE: “Jeff Bezos Is Already Soliciting Ideas for the Next James Bond,” by Germain Lussier (Gizmodo); “No Time to Delay: Why Amazon Took Control of James Bond as Next 007 Movie Remains in Limbo,” by Brent Lang and Rebecca Rubin (Variety); “Opinion: Amazon to Deliver a New James Bond,” by Scott Simon (National Public Radio); “Unlikely (?) Bond Streaming Spin-off Series,” by Bill Koenig (The Spy Command).
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Firing Up L.A.
Organizers of the annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes announced earlier today the names of 61 nominees, in more than a dozen categories, vying for this year’s awards. There are five contenders in the Mystery/Thriller bracket:
• Havoc, by Christopher Bollen (Harper)
• The Waiting, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
• Guide Me Home, by Attica Locke (Mulholland)
• The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore (Riverhead)
• The Puzzle Box, by Danielle Trussoni (Random House)
All the winners will be revealed during a ceremony on Friday, April 25, at the University of Southern California’s Bovard Auditorium, just ahead of the 30th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.
Spaghetti, Saltimbocca ... and Slayings?
This looks like something I might enjoy watching. From Deadline:
(Hat tip to In Reference to Murder.)
BritBox International is serving up a crime procedural series using classic Italian cuisine as the basis for each episode’s murder mystery.Telly Visions notes that “filming is now underway for A Taste for Murder, which is expected to debut on BritBox towards the end of 2025 or early 2026.” I’ll have to order in more popcorn.
A Taste for Murder will star BAFTA-winning Downton Abbey actor Phyllis Logan alongside Warren Brown (The Responder) and Cristiana Dell’Anna (Gomorrah).
Each episode of the series will feature a murder mystery connected in some way to Italian cuisine. Brown is [Detective Chief Inspector] Joe Mottram, a star detective with the Metropolitan police who, after a personal tragedy, retreats to Capri in Italy with his daughter to stay with his Italian in-laws for the summer. Logan is Elena Da Vinale, the witty matriarch of the family, front-of-house manager of the family restaurant, and mother to DCI Joe’s late wife. Gomorrah star Dell’Anna plays Inspector Lara Sarrancino, an ambitious and no-nonsense detective with the State Police in Naples. Beau Gadsdon (The Crown) is Joe’s daughter Angelica.
(Hat tip to In Reference to Murder.)
So Much for That Hiatus
Gerald So has had second thoughts about closing down his “crime poetry weekly,” The Five-Two, as he did in September 2023.
Just a few days ago, he announced suddenly that he is again in the market for new material. “The Five-Two’s original twelve-year run,” he wrote, “ended because submissions dried up, perhaps because I left Twitter soon after Elon Musk bought it. The amount of wrongdoing since Donald Trump retook the U.S. presidency has me beyond consolation and thinking of rebooting the site.”
So added that the first new deadline for submissions is Monday, March 24. “Read the full guidelines,” he said, “and join me on Bluesky, Mastodon, and/or YouTube to show your support. If I accept enough poems, The Five-Two will relaunch Monday, April 7, 2025, as part of National Poetry Month.” In a follow-up post, So also invited participation in an April blog tour called The Cruelest Month, during which both poets and non-poets will comment on “past Five-Two poems or other crime-themed poems I can cross-reference.”
I look forward to seeing The Five-Two up and running once more.
Just a few days ago, he announced suddenly that he is again in the market for new material. “The Five-Two’s original twelve-year run,” he wrote, “ended because submissions dried up, perhaps because I left Twitter soon after Elon Musk bought it. The amount of wrongdoing since Donald Trump retook the U.S. presidency has me beyond consolation and thinking of rebooting the site.”
So added that the first new deadline for submissions is Monday, March 24. “Read the full guidelines,” he said, “and join me on Bluesky, Mastodon, and/or YouTube to show your support. If I accept enough poems, The Five-Two will relaunch Monday, April 7, 2025, as part of National Poetry Month.” In a follow-up post, So also invited participation in an April blog tour called The Cruelest Month, during which both poets and non-poets will comment on “past Five-Two poems or other crime-themed poems I can cross-reference.”
I look forward to seeing The Five-Two up and running once more.
Saturday, February 15, 2025
Old Tech Becomes New Treasure
Have you ever fantasized about owning something that once belonged to Raymond Chandler? One of his typewriters, for instance?
Well, that’s exactly what Northern California novelist Mark Coggins, creator of the August Riordan private eye series, bought during a recent sale of Chandler estate goods managed by the distinguished auction house Doyle New York. Among the array of items being offered were books once owned by the creator of Los Angeles gumshoe Philip Marlowe, along with his letters, jewelry, fan mail, postcards, scripts for the 1959-1960 Marlowe TV series, Chandler’s unpublished drafts of fantasy stories, and a 1957 poem the
author wrote about a poodle lost in Palm Springs, California. Plus, of course, that aforementioned typewriter: the Olivetti Studio 44 model on which Chandler reportedly composed his final novel, 1958’s Playback.
(Right) Chandler’s Olivetti, loaded with a Playback quote. (Click the image to enlarge.)
The auction took place this last December 6, and included bidders both on site at Doyle’s in Manhattan and others connected to the rapid-fire proceedings electronically or by phone. Coggins—who participated online, with a live video feed—was interested in more than just Chandler’s Olivetti, but didn’t figure to actually walk away with any of the items up for bid. So, he says, “I was completely shocked to have won [the typewriter], because the original auction estimate was $10,000 to $20,000, and I didn’t expect to be in the hunt at those prices.” Yet, luck turned in his favor. “I’m very pleased and strangely honored to be the steward of the machine, at least for a time,” he adds.
Doyle’s official description of this Olivetti reads:
Coggins—who in addition to his fiction-writing, contributes occasional articles to The Rap Sheet—tells us that he knew on December 6 he had won Chandler’s mechanical prize, but “I was out of town for almost two months. I had it shipped to a friend’s house and only recently picked it up.” In this period when he’s still aglow with his new acquisition, we decided to ask him a few questions about his longstanding interest in Raymond Chandler, how the Doyle’s auction worked, what became of this Olivetti after the author’s demise in 1959, and what plans he has for it in the near future.
J. Kingston Pierce: Do you remember when you first started reading Raymond Chandler’s work? And how did his stories affect you?
Mark Coggins: I remember it distinctly. It was my sophomore year in college [at California’s Stanford University]. I was introduced to him when the instructor of my first creative-writing course read from The Big Sleep to illustrate how certain writers have a very distinctive voice. He also read a parody of Chandler by Woody Allen to show how a style that distinctive could be imitated.
I didn’t know anything about Chandler, and I absolutely loved what I heard. I went to the school bookstore and got all of his books. Then I read there was this guy named Hammett who was Chandler’s predecessor, so I got all of his, too. By the time I took my next class, I was chomping at the bit to write a hard-boiled P.I. story of my own.
The punchline of this anecdote is that the instructor was Tobias Wolff. His first published short story, “Smokers,” came out in The Atlantic Monthly in the middle of our class. Much later, I attended a signing of his for his novel Old School and he told me he didn’t even like Chandler.
JKP: Did Chandler turn you into a crime-fictionist, or were there other more influential forces pushing you in that direction?
MC: It was solely my exposure to Chandler (and, by extension, Hammett) in Wolff’s class that led me to try my hand at hard-boiled P.I. fiction. The next class I took was from Ron Hansen and it was there that I wrote a story called “There’s No Such Thing as Private Eyes,” which was ultimately published in The New Black Mask, a revival of the famous Black Mask pulp magazine where Hammett and Chandler got their start. The character of August Riordan was introduced in that story, and I’ve been writing about him ever since.
JKP: Do you own other items closely associated with Chandler?
MC: I had a full set of Chandler first editions, as well as a full set of Hammett firsts. I also had the Black Mask edition featuring Chandler’s story “The Curtain,” which was partly the basis for his first novel, The Big Sleep. I recently donated all of those items and many more volumes of detective fiction to the University of California, Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, where Randal S. Brandt curates the California Detective Fiction Collection.
JKP: How did you hear about this Doyle’s auction? And were there items other than the typewriter in which you were interested?
MC: I’m not on Twitter or Facebook/Instagram any longer, but I am on Mastodon, and I happened to see a post there about the auction the night before it was scheduled. I rushed to register on the auction site, feeling rather awkward and nervous about participating, since I had never bid at a live auction before and had never contemplated bidding on items as valuable as those in the Chandler collection.
I was interested in the typewriter, but I actually thought it would be out of my price range. I was instead focused on Chandler’s edition of The Maltese Falcon, in which Chandler had rather surprisingly pasted the table
of contents from the Black Mask edition containing his story “Killer in the Rain.” It was almost like he was saying to Hammett, “Look, I can sling hard-boiled argot, too!” It seemed like a great association piece for the two writers.
(Right) Chandler’s 1931 hardcover edition of The Maltese Falcon.
The estimated auction price for Chandler’s Falcon was $500-$800, but others must have seen the appeal, too, because it ended up selling for a whopping $4,800. I submitted two bids during the auction—which took place before the typewriter—but was quickly outgunned.
JKP: What was the bidding process of that auction like?
MC: The format for the auction was rather unusual. It was live, but there were three sources for bids: people sitting in a room at the auction house raising paddles, people calling in by phone, and people like me who were using the auction house’s Internet bidding software.
Bids from all three sources were coming in fast and furious during the typewriter auction, and I actually don’t remember the starting price or the number of steps. I do recollect that, after a certain point, it seemed like the contest had come down to two bidders who kept one-upping one another. I had decided that my maximum bid would be $7,500, so, at a certain point where there seemed to be a lull, I nervously “shot my wad” with a bid of that amount, fully expecting that one of the two other bidders would quickly outbid me. To my great surprise, there were no other bids and I won the auction.
I have to confess that I didn’t fully understand the concept of a “buyer’s premium,” so my so-called maximum of $7,500 turned into $9,600 when that was included in the tally. I’m still paying it off on my credit card.
JKP: What do you know about Chandler’s use of this typewriter now in your possession? And where has this typewriter been for the last half century? Has it been publicly displayed, or in someone's private collection, hidden from sight?
MC: The typewriter was willed to Jean Vounder-Davis, who was Chandler’s secretary during the final years of his life. Her daughter, Sybil Davis, received it after her mother passed and she is the one who put it and all the other items in the collection up for auction. She shared this with me in e-mail correspondence after the auction:
MC: I discovered that, through lack of use, the mechanism is pretty gummed up and some of the rubber parts have failed. Also, the
carriage return has broken off (perhaps because Chandler liked to fling the carriage back with hard-boiled authority?). I have taken the machine to an expert repairman and he assures me he can get it back into tiptop shape.
(Left) Mark Coggins—only a temporary “steward” of this Chandler souvenir?
I expect to use it minimally—perhaps to compose a few paragraphs of works in progress. I drafted my first few stories on a typewriter, so it will be fun to go back to the old-school way of writing.
Ultimately, I would like to donate the typewriter to an institution that can preserve it and enable others to see it. I’m already in discussion with the Bancroft Library.
JKP: Have you collected relics from the careers of other crime novelists? Hammett, perhaps—I know you are interested in him, too.
MC: Yes, in addition to my full set of Hammett firsts, I had a signature card from him. I donated this to the Bancroft with the other items.
Well, that’s exactly what Northern California novelist Mark Coggins, creator of the August Riordan private eye series, bought during a recent sale of Chandler estate goods managed by the distinguished auction house Doyle New York. Among the array of items being offered were books once owned by the creator of Los Angeles gumshoe Philip Marlowe, along with his letters, jewelry, fan mail, postcards, scripts for the 1959-1960 Marlowe TV series, Chandler’s unpublished drafts of fantasy stories, and a 1957 poem the
author wrote about a poodle lost in Palm Springs, California. Plus, of course, that aforementioned typewriter: the Olivetti Studio 44 model on which Chandler reportedly composed his final novel, 1958’s Playback.(Right) Chandler’s Olivetti, loaded with a Playback quote. (Click the image to enlarge.)
The auction took place this last December 6, and included bidders both on site at Doyle’s in Manhattan and others connected to the rapid-fire proceedings electronically or by phone. Coggins—who participated online, with a live video feed—was interested in more than just Chandler’s Olivetti, but didn’t figure to actually walk away with any of the items up for bid. So, he says, “I was completely shocked to have won [the typewriter], because the original auction estimate was $10,000 to $20,000, and I didn’t expect to be in the hunt at those prices.” Yet, luck turned in his favor. “I’m very pleased and strangely honored to be the steward of the machine, at least for a time,” he adds.
Doyle’s official description of this Olivetti reads:
A tan, full-size portable Olivetti Studio 44 typewriter, manufactured circa 1953 and acquired by Chandler shortly thereafter, held in its red original travel case with handle, the 44-key keyboard with keys likely special ordered by Chandler to include the foreign accent marks on the far right, including a “caret” (excellent with languages, Chandler frequently wrote in French). Some light wear to the typewriter which has not been tested for full functionality; the cover detached at hinges, other wear to case. Offered with a red and black ribbon acquired later.Said auction write-up goes on to explain that “While Chandler had previously owned an Underwood, he was quite pleased with his new Olivetti, writing: ‘I am apt to get up around 4am, take a mild drink of Scotch and water and start hammering at this lovely Olivetti 44, which is far superior to anything we turn out in America. It is a heavy portable and put together like an Italian racing car, and you mustn't judge it from my typing’ (Raymond Chandler, 21 May 1955). Clearly, Chandler took his typewriter seriously and used it nearly every day, preferring blue ribbons to traditional black.”
Coggins—who in addition to his fiction-writing, contributes occasional articles to The Rap Sheet—tells us that he knew on December 6 he had won Chandler’s mechanical prize, but “I was out of town for almost two months. I had it shipped to a friend’s house and only recently picked it up.” In this period when he’s still aglow with his new acquisition, we decided to ask him a few questions about his longstanding interest in Raymond Chandler, how the Doyle’s auction worked, what became of this Olivetti after the author’s demise in 1959, and what plans he has for it in the near future.
J. Kingston Pierce: Do you remember when you first started reading Raymond Chandler’s work? And how did his stories affect you?
Mark Coggins: I remember it distinctly. It was my sophomore year in college [at California’s Stanford University]. I was introduced to him when the instructor of my first creative-writing course read from The Big Sleep to illustrate how certain writers have a very distinctive voice. He also read a parody of Chandler by Woody Allen to show how a style that distinctive could be imitated.
I didn’t know anything about Chandler, and I absolutely loved what I heard. I went to the school bookstore and got all of his books. Then I read there was this guy named Hammett who was Chandler’s predecessor, so I got all of his, too. By the time I took my next class, I was chomping at the bit to write a hard-boiled P.I. story of my own.The punchline of this anecdote is that the instructor was Tobias Wolff. His first published short story, “Smokers,” came out in The Atlantic Monthly in the middle of our class. Much later, I attended a signing of his for his novel Old School and he told me he didn’t even like Chandler.
JKP: Did Chandler turn you into a crime-fictionist, or were there other more influential forces pushing you in that direction?
MC: It was solely my exposure to Chandler (and, by extension, Hammett) in Wolff’s class that led me to try my hand at hard-boiled P.I. fiction. The next class I took was from Ron Hansen and it was there that I wrote a story called “There’s No Such Thing as Private Eyes,” which was ultimately published in The New Black Mask, a revival of the famous Black Mask pulp magazine where Hammett and Chandler got their start. The character of August Riordan was introduced in that story, and I’ve been writing about him ever since.
JKP: Do you own other items closely associated with Chandler?
MC: I had a full set of Chandler first editions, as well as a full set of Hammett firsts. I also had the Black Mask edition featuring Chandler’s story “The Curtain,” which was partly the basis for his first novel, The Big Sleep. I recently donated all of those items and many more volumes of detective fiction to the University of California, Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, where Randal S. Brandt curates the California Detective Fiction Collection.
JKP: How did you hear about this Doyle’s auction? And were there items other than the typewriter in which you were interested?
MC: I’m not on Twitter or Facebook/Instagram any longer, but I am on Mastodon, and I happened to see a post there about the auction the night before it was scheduled. I rushed to register on the auction site, feeling rather awkward and nervous about participating, since I had never bid at a live auction before and had never contemplated bidding on items as valuable as those in the Chandler collection.
I was interested in the typewriter, but I actually thought it would be out of my price range. I was instead focused on Chandler’s edition of The Maltese Falcon, in which Chandler had rather surprisingly pasted the table
of contents from the Black Mask edition containing his story “Killer in the Rain.” It was almost like he was saying to Hammett, “Look, I can sling hard-boiled argot, too!” It seemed like a great association piece for the two writers.(Right) Chandler’s 1931 hardcover edition of The Maltese Falcon.
The estimated auction price for Chandler’s Falcon was $500-$800, but others must have seen the appeal, too, because it ended up selling for a whopping $4,800. I submitted two bids during the auction—which took place before the typewriter—but was quickly outgunned.
JKP: What was the bidding process of that auction like?
MC: The format for the auction was rather unusual. It was live, but there were three sources for bids: people sitting in a room at the auction house raising paddles, people calling in by phone, and people like me who were using the auction house’s Internet bidding software.
Bids from all three sources were coming in fast and furious during the typewriter auction, and I actually don’t remember the starting price or the number of steps. I do recollect that, after a certain point, it seemed like the contest had come down to two bidders who kept one-upping one another. I had decided that my maximum bid would be $7,500, so, at a certain point where there seemed to be a lull, I nervously “shot my wad” with a bid of that amount, fully expecting that one of the two other bidders would quickly outbid me. To my great surprise, there were no other bids and I won the auction.
I have to confess that I didn’t fully understand the concept of a “buyer’s premium,” so my so-called maximum of $7,500 turned into $9,600 when that was included in the tally. I’m still paying it off on my credit card.
JKP: What do you know about Chandler’s use of this typewriter now in your possession? And where has this typewriter been for the last half century? Has it been publicly displayed, or in someone's private collection, hidden from sight?
MC: The typewriter was willed to Jean Vounder-Davis, who was Chandler’s secretary during the final years of his life. Her daughter, Sybil Davis, received it after her mother passed and she is the one who put it and all the other items in the collection up for auction. She shared this with me in e-mail correspondence after the auction:
Congratulations on now owning the typewriter that Ray Chandler used to write Playback, his last novel, as well as his personal correspondence, short stories, and even some poetry. I’m sure having it will bring you much satisfaction, joy, and perhaps inspiration.JKP: Will you actually be using Chandler’s typewriter in your work?
Did you know that Chandler once compared it to an Italian racing car? He was not a “touch typist.” He preferred the “hunt and peck” system using only his two index fingers. …
I … observed him using it on a daily basis. I even have some of his stories, letters and poetry that were typed on the Olivetti.
MC: I discovered that, through lack of use, the mechanism is pretty gummed up and some of the rubber parts have failed. Also, the
carriage return has broken off (perhaps because Chandler liked to fling the carriage back with hard-boiled authority?). I have taken the machine to an expert repairman and he assures me he can get it back into tiptop shape.(Left) Mark Coggins—only a temporary “steward” of this Chandler souvenir?
I expect to use it minimally—perhaps to compose a few paragraphs of works in progress. I drafted my first few stories on a typewriter, so it will be fun to go back to the old-school way of writing.
Ultimately, I would like to donate the typewriter to an institution that can preserve it and enable others to see it. I’m already in discussion with the Bancroft Library.
JKP: Have you collected relics from the careers of other crime novelists? Hammett, perhaps—I know you are interested in him, too.
MC: Yes, in addition to my full set of Hammett firsts, I had a signature card from him. I donated this to the Bancroft with the other items.
Seek Your Pleasures Here
Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine’s Winter 2025 edition is out, and it’s thick with lists of the “best” reads from 2024, plus suggestions of what genre fans can anticipate seeing over the course of ’25.
Editor George Easter explains in the mag’s introduction that he collected and collated 107 “bests” lists from all over the United States and Britain. The unquestioned winner among those endorsements was Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods (with 37 mentions), but Chris Whitaker’s All the Colors of the Dark (Easter’s own top pick, as well as mine), Richard Osman’s We Solve Murders, Tana French’s The Hunter, and Amy Tintera’s Listen for the Lie also showed up in impressive numbers. Anybody in search of immediate reading suggestions need look no further than this DP compendium.
On the other hand, if you are waiting patiently to see what this new year brings, flip to page 22 and scan the roll of forthcoming crime, mystery, and thriller titles. They include new works by Stella Rimington, William Boyle, Vanda Symon, Allen Eskens, Allison Epstein, Adrian McKinty, Deanna Raybourn, Callum McSorley, Nita Prose, Jeffery Deaver, Dervla McTiernan, John Lawton, Ashley Weaver, Stephen King, and … and … and … well, suffice to say that the options of books to devour during the next 11 months will not disappoint.
Beyond all of that, this new issue notes the passing of DP contributor and spy-fiction authority Steele Curry; there are lists of recent award winners; and page after page is filled with reviews of new or recent releases from both sides of the Atlantic, as well as Australia.
Deadly Pleasures is published quarterly, only in an electronic edition, and is well worth the annual price of $10. Learn more here.
Editor George Easter explains in the mag’s introduction that he collected and collated 107 “bests” lists from all over the United States and Britain. The unquestioned winner among those endorsements was Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods (with 37 mentions), but Chris Whitaker’s All the Colors of the Dark (Easter’s own top pick, as well as mine), Richard Osman’s We Solve Murders, Tana French’s The Hunter, and Amy Tintera’s Listen for the Lie also showed up in impressive numbers. Anybody in search of immediate reading suggestions need look no further than this DP compendium.
On the other hand, if you are waiting patiently to see what this new year brings, flip to page 22 and scan the roll of forthcoming crime, mystery, and thriller titles. They include new works by Stella Rimington, William Boyle, Vanda Symon, Allen Eskens, Allison Epstein, Adrian McKinty, Deanna Raybourn, Callum McSorley, Nita Prose, Jeffery Deaver, Dervla McTiernan, John Lawton, Ashley Weaver, Stephen King, and … and … and … well, suffice to say that the options of books to devour during the next 11 months will not disappoint.
Beyond all of that, this new issue notes the passing of DP contributor and spy-fiction authority Steele Curry; there are lists of recent award winners; and page after page is filled with reviews of new or recent releases from both sides of the Atlantic, as well as Australia.
Deadly Pleasures is published quarterly, only in an electronic edition, and is well worth the annual price of $10. Learn more here.
Thursday, February 13, 2025
Consider This Our Valentine’s Gift
• American publisher Grove Atlantic announced recently that it is launching Atlantic Crime, “a new imprint bringing together all our mystery, thriller, and crime titles.” Publishers Weekly adds that the project will be led by senior editor Joe Brosnan, and it is expected to release “approximately 18-24 titles per year. Grove Atlantic’s current crime fiction backlist of more than 300 titles will be moved to the new imprint. … Atlantic Crime is scheduled to publish five frontlist releases in its inaugural season this fall: The Predicament by William Boyd, What About the Bodies by Ken Jaworowski, Silent Bones by Val McDermid, The Whisper Place by Mindy Mejia, and We Had a Hunch by Tom Ryan. The imprint will make its official debut on September 2 with What About the Bodies, Jaworowski's second novel; his first, Small Town Sins, published by Holt in 2023, was an Edgar Award nominee.”
• I’m not sure I have ever watched the original series, but I hope to sample this new version sometime. From In Reference to Murder:
• Timothy Olyphant, of Deadwood and Justified fame, is slated to star alongside Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen’s Gambit) in Lucky, a forthcoming limited series for Apple TV+ based on Marissa Stapley’s 2021 novel of that same name. According to publisher Simon & Schuster’s description of Lucky’s plot, the story follows Lucky Armstrong (to be played here by Taylor-Joy), “a tough, talented grifter who has just pulled off a million-dollar heist with her boyfriend, Cary. She’s ready to start a brand-new life, with a new identity—when things go sideways. Lucky finds herself alone for the first time, navigating the world without the help of either her father or her boyfriend, the two figures from whom she’s learned the art of the scam. When she discovers that a lottery ticket she bought on a whim is worth millions, her elation is tempered by one big problem: cashing in the winning ticket means she’ll be arrested for her crimes. She’ll go to prison, with no chance to redeem her fortune. As Lucky tries to avoid capture and make a future for herself, she must confront her past by reconciling with her father; finding her mother, who abandoned her when she was just a baby; and coming to terms with the man she thought she loved—whose dark past is catching up with her, too.” Deadline notes that Olyphant has been cast in this mini-series as Lucky’s father.
• The online entertainment publication Collider reminded us recently that, decades before Justified hit the airwaves in 2010, another neo-Western cop drama, this one starring Dennis Weaver, was a huge success for NBC-TV: McCloud. That NBC Mystery Movie offering, writes Michael John Petty, “ran for seven seasons in the 1970s … and featured plenty of exciting (and often mysterious) adventures. If you’re looking for a new Western to binge that feels a bit more modern in nature, then look no further than McCloud.”
• All of which brings to mind another Mystery Movie segment, Richard Boone’s Hec Ramsey, which as Collider explains, “followed an old gunslinger as he sought to use more modern methods of criminal investigation to solve crimes on the open frontier. In a way, it was sort of like NCIS meets the Wild West.” Did you know that Rick Lenz, who played by-the-book police chief Oliver Stamp during Hec Ramsey’s two seasons (1972-1974) and has since appeared in both films and small-screen series, is also an author? Now 85 years old, he has what I believe is his fourth novel due out from Chromodroid Press later this month. Mit Out Sound is not a work of crime fiction, but instead tells the story of an aspiring movie producer who sets out to complete a legendary, long-lost film starring James Dean and John Wayne.
• I didn’t realize that author Tom Robbins had turned 92 years old last July! However, the fact that he’d achieved such longevity doesn’t make his passing this week any easier to accept. I met Robbins only once, in Seattle, and later sought his contribution to a magazine I was editing at the time. But his books were a significant feature of my young life. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976), Still Life with Woodpecker (1980), Skinny Legs and All (1990)—I devoured every one of those at some point or another. I realize now, though, that I never got around to reading Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas (1994). So let me add that to the list of present ideas for my upcoming birthday.
• And as tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, Janet Rudolph has updated her lists of both crime fiction related to this annual celebration of affection and of the genre’s many “sweetheart sleuths.”
• I’m not sure I have ever watched the original series, but I hope to sample this new version sometime. From In Reference to Murder:
Bergerac is returning with a 2025 makeover and plenty of global networks are welcoming the iconic detective back. The original series starred John Nettles as the titular crime fighter, Jim Bergerac, and ran for nine seasons between 1981 and 1991. Unlike that show, which had a new storyline in each episode, the modern series from writer Toby Whithouse follows one character-led murder mystery. Bergerac begins the series as a broken man, grappling with grief and alcoholism following his wife’s death. His mother-in-law (Zöe Wanamaker) is concerned he is not putting his daughter (Chloé Sweetlove) first, and when a woman from a wealthy Jersey family is murdered, he has to go through personal struggles to become the formidable investigator he was. Philip Glenister also stars.Wikipedia says this six-episode show will air in Britain “on U&Drama and be available to stream for free on U in February 2025.” There’s no word yet of an American presentation. Amazon Prime and BritBox already stream the Nettles series. (UPDATE: George Easter, the editor of Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine, suggests I remind readers that venerable British author Andrew Taylor composed half a dozen tie-in novels to Nettles’ Bergerac back in the late 1980s, using the pen name Andrew Saville. Those books are now out of print, but Easter says, “I picked three of them up on a trip to England in the 1980s and was impressed by them. I didn’t find out until later that they were written by Andrew Taylor.”)
• Timothy Olyphant, of Deadwood and Justified fame, is slated to star alongside Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen’s Gambit) in Lucky, a forthcoming limited series for Apple TV+ based on Marissa Stapley’s 2021 novel of that same name. According to publisher Simon & Schuster’s description of Lucky’s plot, the story follows Lucky Armstrong (to be played here by Taylor-Joy), “a tough, talented grifter who has just pulled off a million-dollar heist with her boyfriend, Cary. She’s ready to start a brand-new life, with a new identity—when things go sideways. Lucky finds herself alone for the first time, navigating the world without the help of either her father or her boyfriend, the two figures from whom she’s learned the art of the scam. When she discovers that a lottery ticket she bought on a whim is worth millions, her elation is tempered by one big problem: cashing in the winning ticket means she’ll be arrested for her crimes. She’ll go to prison, with no chance to redeem her fortune. As Lucky tries to avoid capture and make a future for herself, she must confront her past by reconciling with her father; finding her mother, who abandoned her when she was just a baby; and coming to terms with the man she thought she loved—whose dark past is catching up with her, too.” Deadline notes that Olyphant has been cast in this mini-series as Lucky’s father.
• The online entertainment publication Collider reminded us recently that, decades before Justified hit the airwaves in 2010, another neo-Western cop drama, this one starring Dennis Weaver, was a huge success for NBC-TV: McCloud. That NBC Mystery Movie offering, writes Michael John Petty, “ran for seven seasons in the 1970s … and featured plenty of exciting (and often mysterious) adventures. If you’re looking for a new Western to binge that feels a bit more modern in nature, then look no further than McCloud.”
• All of which brings to mind another Mystery Movie segment, Richard Boone’s Hec Ramsey, which as Collider explains, “followed an old gunslinger as he sought to use more modern methods of criminal investigation to solve crimes on the open frontier. In a way, it was sort of like NCIS meets the Wild West.” Did you know that Rick Lenz, who played by-the-book police chief Oliver Stamp during Hec Ramsey’s two seasons (1972-1974) and has since appeared in both films and small-screen series, is also an author? Now 85 years old, he has what I believe is his fourth novel due out from Chromodroid Press later this month. Mit Out Sound is not a work of crime fiction, but instead tells the story of an aspiring movie producer who sets out to complete a legendary, long-lost film starring James Dean and John Wayne.
• I didn’t realize that author Tom Robbins had turned 92 years old last July! However, the fact that he’d achieved such longevity doesn’t make his passing this week any easier to accept. I met Robbins only once, in Seattle, and later sought his contribution to a magazine I was editing at the time. But his books were a significant feature of my young life. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976), Still Life with Woodpecker (1980), Skinny Legs and All (1990)—I devoured every one of those at some point or another. I realize now, though, that I never got around to reading Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas (1994). So let me add that to the list of present ideas for my upcoming birthday.
• And as tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, Janet Rudolph has updated her lists of both crime fiction related to this annual celebration of affection and of the genre’s many “sweetheart sleuths.”
Thursday, February 06, 2025
Whose Town Is It Anyway?
By Mark Coggins
Raymond Chandler, who along with Dashiell Hammett perfected the American hard-boiled detective story, is best known for his well-regarded novels set in Los Angeles, The Big Sleep (1939) and The Long Goodbye (1953) among them. Hammett, on the other hand, made his bones with the masterworks he wrote and set in San Francisco, The Maltese Falcon (1930) being the most famous.
Given the close association of Chandler with L.A. and Hammett with San Francisco, would you be surprised to learn that Chandler lived and worked in “the city that knows how” before Hammett? It’s true.
Upon Chandler’s return to the United States, following his service with the Canadian Army in France during World War I, he lived in San Francisco in 1919 and worked briefly at two banks—the Anglo and London Paris National Bank and the Bank of British North America. That predates Hammett’s arrival in town by two years.
(Above) Anglo and London Paris National Bank building in 1981.
While researching Chandler’s time in San Francisco, I learned that the Bank of British North America was located at 260 California Street in 1918, although by 1919 it had apparently merged with the Bank of Montreal.* (The property, the Newhall Building, now contains a Citibank branch.) I more readily found the location of the Anglo and London Paris National Bank, not far away at the intersection of Sutter and Sansome streets. This is currently home to One Sansome Street, a 42-story office tower, and the conservatory of the new building is actually the façade of the old Anglo and London structure (built in 1910). The original cornice and columned archways, in particular, were preserved to bound the glass-roofed courtyard/conservatory.
Given the Anglo and London’s status as “historically significant,” the developers were required to preserve more than just the building’s granite-clad façade prior to breaking ground for the new skyscraper back in the early 1980s. They documented the appearance and design of the former bank as completely as possible, and the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) of the Library of Congress retains that documentation, including original blueprints and photographs taken before demolition.
The accompanying report provides background on the structure’s prolific Mexican-born American designer:
to the San Francisco Centre. Yet a portion of Pissis’ work survives once more. The building’s dome was retained to cap the new structure through an impressive feat of hydraulic engineering.
(Right) Flood Building, photo by Mark Coggins.
Just across Market Street, Pissis’ other large commission—the Flood Building—stands today looking much as it did in 1904 when it opened. One of the early tenants of the building was the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. And one of the employees of that agency was none other than Dashiell Hammett. In 1915 he had joined “the Pinks” as a clerk, working first in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, and later being assigned to the San Francisco office.
All of which leads us to a hard-boiled epiphany: Hammett and Chandler, the two masters of the American detective story, both worked in San Francisco buildings designed by Albert Pissis!
I’ll leave you with a shot of the interior of the Anglo and London Bank. Can you imagine Raymond Chandler there in 1919 waiting for you behind the teller window as you rush in to deposit your weekly paycheck? Maybe he’d greet you with one of his famous Chandlerisms:
“If you’re looking for trouble, I come from where they make it.”
Interior of the Anglo and London Paris National Bank building.
* This information was updated thanks to help from Randal and Maria Brandt.
Raymond Chandler, who along with Dashiell Hammett perfected the American hard-boiled detective story, is best known for his well-regarded novels set in Los Angeles, The Big Sleep (1939) and The Long Goodbye (1953) among them. Hammett, on the other hand, made his bones with the masterworks he wrote and set in San Francisco, The Maltese Falcon (1930) being the most famous.
Given the close association of Chandler with L.A. and Hammett with San Francisco, would you be surprised to learn that Chandler lived and worked in “the city that knows how” before Hammett? It’s true.
Upon Chandler’s return to the United States, following his service with the Canadian Army in France during World War I, he lived in San Francisco in 1919 and worked briefly at two banks—the Anglo and London Paris National Bank and the Bank of British North America. That predates Hammett’s arrival in town by two years.
(Above) Anglo and London Paris National Bank building in 1981.
While researching Chandler’s time in San Francisco, I learned that the Bank of British North America was located at 260 California Street in 1918, although by 1919 it had apparently merged with the Bank of Montreal.* (The property, the Newhall Building, now contains a Citibank branch.) I more readily found the location of the Anglo and London Paris National Bank, not far away at the intersection of Sutter and Sansome streets. This is currently home to One Sansome Street, a 42-story office tower, and the conservatory of the new building is actually the façade of the old Anglo and London structure (built in 1910). The original cornice and columned archways, in particular, were preserved to bound the glass-roofed courtyard/conservatory.
Given the Anglo and London’s status as “historically significant,” the developers were required to preserve more than just the building’s granite-clad façade prior to breaking ground for the new skyscraper back in the early 1980s. They documented the appearance and design of the former bank as completely as possible, and the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) of the Library of Congress retains that documentation, including original blueprints and photographs taken before demolition.
The accompanying report provides background on the structure’s prolific Mexican-born American designer:
The Anglo and London Paris National Bank was designed by Albert Pissis in 1908 … He was among the chief exponents of what was then called “modern architecture” with its structure derived from the new-invented steel frame, and its imagery inspired by the buildings of ancient Rome and Renaissance …Since the publication of that HABS report, the Emporium (erected originally in 1896, but rebuilt in 1908 after the city’s great earthquake and fire) has been razed to make room for a one-million-square-foot addition
Many of Pissis’ most noted works survive in San Francisco. The Emporium (835-865 Market Street) and the James Flood Building (870-898 Market Street) were his two largest commissions.
to the San Francisco Centre. Yet a portion of Pissis’ work survives once more. The building’s dome was retained to cap the new structure through an impressive feat of hydraulic engineering.(Right) Flood Building, photo by Mark Coggins.
Just across Market Street, Pissis’ other large commission—the Flood Building—stands today looking much as it did in 1904 when it opened. One of the early tenants of the building was the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. And one of the employees of that agency was none other than Dashiell Hammett. In 1915 he had joined “the Pinks” as a clerk, working first in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, and later being assigned to the San Francisco office.
All of which leads us to a hard-boiled epiphany: Hammett and Chandler, the two masters of the American detective story, both worked in San Francisco buildings designed by Albert Pissis!
I’ll leave you with a shot of the interior of the Anglo and London Bank. Can you imagine Raymond Chandler there in 1919 waiting for you behind the teller window as you rush in to deposit your weekly paycheck? Maybe he’d greet you with one of his famous Chandlerisms:
“If you’re looking for trouble, I come from where they make it.”
Interior of the Anglo and London Paris National Bank building.* This information was updated thanks to help from Randal and Maria Brandt.
Goodis Times
Damn! I wish I could be in Philadelphia next month for this event:
Noir Con is sponsoring Dancing on the Edge of the Abyss: Goodisville 2025, to be held on Sunday, March 2nd, from 12 noon to 5:30 pm ET. David L. Goodis was a prolific writer, churning out numerous novels, movies, screenplays, pulps, and short stories. He is considered to be one of the greatest noir masters that include Jim Thompson, Chester Himes, and Charles Willeford, with work characterized by a gritty, cynical, and often fatalistic tone, exploring themes of despair, loneliness, and the underbelly of his favorite city, Philadelphia. Participants will gather at Philadelphia's Fishtown Crossing, with a bus ride to some of Goodis’s favorite haunts and his final resting place, special guest appearances, birthday cake, door prizes, Special Commemorative Goodis Swag, and more.The above item comes from In Reference to Murder.
Tuesday, February 04, 2025
Revue of Reviewers: 2-4-25
Critiquing some of the most interesting recent crime, mystery, and thriller releases. Click on the individual covers to read more.
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