Have We Missed Anything?

• Bookseller, critic, publisher, anthologist, and now blogger? Yep, as if Otto Penzler didn’t have enough to do, he’s started tapping away on the “social networking and media site” Gather, writing a blog “about mystery stuff (as it is technically known in the publishing community). I’ll write about mystery books, mystery authors, collecting mysteries, maybe some mystery films or mystery television shows,” he promises. “Or maybe just mysteries, like, how come Tarzan doesn’t have a beard?” Penzler’s first post is self-serving, all about his “five anthologies coming out this fall, all from different publishers.” I assume, though, that he will get better with time. Keep up with his postings here. (Hat tip to Bill Crider.)

• In addition to its book reviews, the September number of New Mystery Reader features an interview with Briton Michael Marshall (Smith), author of The Intruders, which was only recently released in the States. At one point in this exchange, he’s asked what it is about the blending of supernatural and suspense elements in his stories that appeals to him. His answer:

I don’t know--I just always find myself having that kind of idea. I kept it pretty under control in the STRAW MEN novels, which are based largely in consensual reality (though the conspiracy does gradually get more and more ... outré, as the series progresses). I hope THE INTRUDERS stays just about within the realms of what people would be prepared to believe, too, as there’s a dividing line between being open to the ‘supernatural’ and taking it so far that readers can choose to simply say ‘Yeah, but that’s not real’--and I believe the features of human existence I’m talking about in the novel are real, more or less. And the thing is, so very many of us are open to the other-worldly in real life. We all have our superstitions, few would be prepared to say there’s definitely no such thing as ghosts, and we all know places with weird atmospheres. All I’m doing it trying to integrate some of these facts of life into real-world fiction ... not least because I think a world without these touches of magic would be a very sorry place to live.

Read all of this interview here.

• Less than a month after the 13th--and last--anniversary party at Manhattan’s Black Orchid Bookshop, word comes of yet another major change at one of America’s superlative mystery booksellers. “Sixty-one-year-old Kate Mattes, the Kate behind Kate’s Mystery Books, is preparing for retirement by selling her building, a red Victorian in North Cambridge, Mass.,” reports Publishers Weekly. “After 25 years, Mattes is not ready to leave bookselling entirely. Instead, she is looking for a buyer for her building and/or a partner, who will help her run Kate’s for the next few years before taking it over entirely.” Read the rest of PW’s squib here.

• Brian Skupin seems better able than scandalized Republican U.S. Senator Larry Craig to make up his mind about things. However, he’s not yet committing himself completely to the proposition that the secret of Lawrence Block’s success lies in his choice of book titles. Skupin explains himself at Bookflings.

• The cinematic remake of the 1972 movie Sleuth, starring Jude Law and Michael Caine (who also starred in the previous version), originally slated to open in December, is now scheduled for an October opening. That’s another month away. But Cinematical has already posted a review. Its take: “Sleuth isn’t incendiary or ground-breaking; it’s a chance to see two very good actors (who also happen to be movie stars) work with very good material under the direction of a very good director. Depending on your standards, that’s either not much, or it’s plenty. Sleuth is light entertainment made by heavy-hitters, and your initial reaction to that seemingly-contradictory fact will probably be the best prediction of whether or not you’ll see it, and whether or not you’ll enjoy it.”

• Also at Cinematical is a review of Mýrin, an Icelandic-language film based on Arnaldur Indridason’s 2000 novel Jar City (or Tainted Blood, as it was published in the UK), which showed earlier this week at the Telluride Film Festival. Read that review here.

• And while we’re on the subject of crime flicks, the wonderful site Noir of the Week features a favorable reconsideration of Otto Preminger’s 1944 Gene Tierney/Dana Andrews/Clifton Webb film noir, Laura. Look here for that.

• Hmm. Maybe reading thousands of crime novels isn’t enough preparation for actually murdering somebody. Inspired by a post in Christa Faust’s blog, I clicked over to Quiz Gallery’s “Would You Get Away with Murder?” questionnaire. After answering eight queries, the software determined that I would likely receive “minimal” jail time for my crime. Where did I go wrong? Beats me. Take the test for yourself here.

• Finally, arrivederci Luciano Pavarotti. In case you haven’t heard, the opera superstar died in Italy on Thursday morning at age 71.