Tell Me More, Tell Me More

As if I don’t already have enough to read (yeah, poor me, right?), I suddenly find myself inundated with new editions of crime-fiction-related print and online publications.

The latest issue (#101) of Mystery Scene fronts with a quite admiring profile of Walter Mosley (Blonde Faith), penned by that acknowledged expert on private-eye fiction (and Rap Sheet contributor), Kevin Burton Smith. Also included among the contents: a look back at writer Harper Lee, the venerable fictional lawyer Atticus Finch, and the 1960 novel that made them both famous, To Kill a Mockingbird; Charles L.P. Silet’s appraisal of “10 Terrific Cop Movies” (Bullitt, Dirty Harry, The Untouchables, etc.); Brian Skupin’s curious little feature about a modern maker of secret passageways; and a “What’s Happening With ...” update on Abigail Padgett, author The Dollmaker’s Daughters (1997) and Blue (1998). After several years without a new book to her name, Padgett is currently “finishing a standalone novel, about two main characters separately investigating the same cold case” and “preparing a proposal for a new three-book mystery series, about an American professor who has to work and live in France in order to earn tenure.”

Meanwhile, the October edition of ThugLit hits us with fresh fiction from Things I’d Rather Be Doing’s John Kenyon (“Cut”), Jordan Harper (“Red Hair and Black Leather”), Colin O’Sullivan (“Pick’s Place”), and others; the fall issue of Mystery Readers Journal focuses on the suddenly popular field of Scandinavian mysteries, with Paula Arvas supplying an overview of Finnish crime fiction, blogger Peter Rozovsky remarking on the uses of humor in this subgenre, and additional contents from Kjell Eriksson, Håkan Nesser, Helene Tursten, and assorted other regional practitioners; Ian Rankin (Exit Music) and Adrian Hyland (Diamond Dove) are both grilled over at Crime Squad; and in Mystery Morgue, former TV network news anchor Linda Ellerbee (how in the hell did they get her to do this?) interviews Jeffrey Cohen about his first “Double Feature Mystery,” Some Like It Hot-Buttered.