Quick Studies

• A while back I mentioned that Shamus Award-winning Michigan author Rob Kantner would soon be self-publishing his 10th novel featuring Detroit private eye Ben Perkins. That new book, Final Fling, is now available in both hardcover and paperback. Just in time for Christmas. I haven’t seen the work yet, but having enjoyed previous Perkins novels (the last of which was Concrete Hero, 1994), I am hoping to get my hands on it soon. Meanwhile, Kantner is now up to Chapter 39 in rolling out his online standalone novel, Clean Slate. You can find all the installments here.

• Clearly, the new year is approaching, because lists of favorite books from the last 12 months are popping up everywhere. January Magazine and The Rap Sheet won’t be releasing their own “bests” lists until next week, but there are several other such compilations to keep you busy in the meantime. In his new column on the International Thriller Writers’ site, Scottish blogger-critic Russel D. McLean mentions Mark Billingham’s Death Message, Zöe Sharp’s Second Shot, and other titles as having “stuck on my mind.” Putting together a roster of books he thinks other would be wise to give this holiday season, Material Witness’ Ben Hunt recaps for readers a half-dozen of his favorite novels from 2007, including R.J. Ellory’s A Quiet Belief in Angels and Edward Wright’s Damnation Falls. Although they’re otherwise short on crime fiction, the National Book Critics Circle board of directors do list among their “best recommended” titles of the year Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, which easily fits within this genre. (Additional recommendations from NBCC members can be found here.) Over at Britain’s Telegraph, Jake Kerridge rounds up what he says are “the year’s best crime novels,” including Petra Hammesfahr’s The Sinner, Ian Rankin’s Exit Music, and Denise Mina’s The Last Breath. Amazon.com delivers its unremarkable list of favorite mysteries and thrillers from this last year here (and David J. Montgomery critiques that list here). And The Washington Post offers 22 books worth giving to crime-fiction fans this Christmas or Hanukkah, among them John Burdett’s Bangkok Haunts, Stephen Hunter’s The 47th Samurai, and Laura Lippman’s What the Dead Know. (Click on the Fiction tab to find this list.) Unfortunately, none of those appears on the Post’s top-10 books of the year rundown.

• Although I see no confirmation yet of this on the International Movie Database, the Leslie Charteris/Saint Web site is reporting that “pre-production has started on a 2-hour pilot film for a new series of The Saint. It will star James Purefoy as the Saint and will shoot in Berlin and Australia in April next year. Film will be produced by William J. MacDonald, Geoffrey Moore and Jorge Zamacona.” The same site reported earlier in the year that this series is being developed for the American TV network TNT. More information concerning the project can be found here.

• After I convinced Declan Burke to respond in The Rap Sheet to the very same questions he was always throwing out to crime novelists, he decided that it was only fair for me to answers those queries as well. You’ll find my modest efforts here.

• Everybody wants to get into the act: Publisher St. Martin’s Minotaur has created a blog in which its extensive stable of crime/mystery writers can sound off about their projects, current events, and popular culture. Theresa Schwegel, just out with her third novel, Person of Interest, is the first guest blogger.

• Dutch writer and Sons of Spade blogger Jochem van der Steen recounts the birth of his own son of Spade, Noah Milano (White Knight Syndrome) in Pulp Pusher.

• Haaretz reports on one publisher’s efforts to bring out more crime fiction in Israel, and in the course of it provides some interesting background on the history of the detective genre in that country. Read it all here. (Hat tip to Sarah Weinman.)

• Lori G. Armstrong (Shallow Grave) is December’s featured author in New Mystery Reader Magazine. She also wins a big video round of applause from her fellow contributors to the First Offenders blog, based on the “big-ass news” of her most recent publishing deal. Watch it here.

• Finally, the Webzine Mysterical-E has launched a “holiday mayhem” contest, asking writers to send in stories (up to 10,000 words in length) focused on holiday get-togethers. The deadline for submissions is April 30, 2008. The top three vote-getters will be published in next summer’s issue of Mysterical-E--which seems a bit odd, considering how far that is away from the holiday season. But I’m not responsible for these things. You’ll find more info here.