Give It to Me Fast

• Author-editor-blogger Duane Swierczynski (The Blonde) has declared this to be “Allan Guthrie Week,” in honor of the Scottish novelist as he pays a visit to America in anticipation of his new novel, Hard Man, being published in June. You should be able to keep up with all of Swierczynski’s Guthrie Week posts here.

• It’s a Crime! (or a Mystery ...) carries a profile this week of a crime novelist who’s completely new to me: Northern Ireland’s Brian McGilloway, author of the debut work Borderlands (Macmillan UK). As the blog explains, Borderlands “is the start of a series, set on the Tyrone-Donegal border, between the North and South of Ireland and introduces Garda Inspector Benedict Devlin. Gallows Lane will follow and Pan Macmillan have recently committed to a further three novels. Borderlands is the result of Brian’s own passion for reading crime fiction.” Read the entire piece here.

• Meanwhile, Material Witness asks 10 questions of another British writer, Steve Mosby, whose third novel, The 50/50 Killer, is due out later this month (from Orion UK). You’ll find Mosby’s answers to a series of queries about his reading habits and influences here.

• Singer-actress Queen Latifah playing the role of Botswanan detective Precious Ramotswe in a film adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency? You read it here ... well, second.

• The pulpish periodical Out of the Gutter has announced the lineup of contributors to its second issue.

• And if, like me, you’re embarrassingly slow in getting to new issues of The New Yorker, and you haven’t yet read Clive James’ excellent overview of recent European crime-fiction offerings, you can catch up with it right here.