A Bit of This, a Bit of That

• The Melbourne Age offers a thoughtful recounting of Australian crime fiction over the last 150 years, recalling the diverse works of Ellen Davitt (Force and Fraud), Fergus Hume (The Mystery of a Hansom Cab), Arthur Upfield (The Sands of Windee), June Wright (Murder in the Telephone Exchange), and others. Go here to read the whole piece, penned by Lucy Sussex.

• Iden Ford, the photographer husband of novelist Maureen Jennings (A Journeyman to Grief), has begun posting his impressions from Ontario, Canada’s 2007 Wolfe Island Scene of the Crime festival. His first installment can be found here.

• For at least a short while, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine is offering an interview with veteran novelist Brian Garfield on its Web site. He talks with author Steve Hockensmith (On the Wrong Track) mostly about the new film Death Sentence, which is based on Garfield’s 1975 novel of that same name, as well as another Hollywood production based on one of his works--a not-quite-forgotten flick called Death Wish. Read Hockensmith’s profile here. (Hat tip to Bill Crider.)

• Still more on Garfield from Ed Gorman’s blog.

• Last week, John Kenyon interviewed Jason Starr at Things I’d Rather Be Doing. This week, he takes on Starr’s book-writing buddy, prolific Irishman Ken Bruen. Among other revelations, Bruen says that he’s going to write another standalone (after last year’s American Skin) that’s set in the States. “It’s just a wondrous challenge to write about the States,” Bruen says, “and the new standalone is about two cops in New York--one Irish, one Polack--and even by my standards, it’s ferocious and darkest yet.” Read their full exchange here.

• Over at Shots, Scottish writer Caro Ramsey talks with Tony Black about her much-heralded first novel, Absolution. More here.

• And a nostalgic adios to former American TV talk-show host Merv Griffin, who died over this last weekend at age 82.