Keep It Brief

• January Magazine is up today with an excerpt from Death Was the Other Woman, the fourth and latest novel by its editor, Linda L. Richards. Since Richards is also a contributor to The Rap Sheet, and a friend of mine, I should stay away from offering a review of this new work, the first in a series set in 1930s Los Angeles. But I will say that the story, which focuses primarily on Kitty Pangborn, the daughter of a deceased industrialist who’s had to make her own way in the world--by going to work for a tough-talking, liberally imbibing private eye, Dexter J. Theroux--is a delightful homage to classic hard-boiled P.I. yarns. Apparently, the character of Kitty was inspired by Effie Perrine, gumshoe Sam Spade’s faithful secretary in The Maltese Falcon, who Richards reasoned must have had more active role in keeping Spade’s business affairs going, since her boss seemed always to be hitting the bottle and skirts hard. Richards is already working on a sequel, having something to do with film censorship in the pre-World War II years. Find the book excerpt here.

• By the way, Richards is also guest-blogging this week at fellow novelist Clea Simon’s Cats & Crime & Rock & Roll. In her first post, she reveals the super-secret source of Dexter Theroux’s first name. You’ll never guess ...

• Tennessee author James E. Cherry, whose debut novel, Shadow of Light, is already out in the UK (though a U.S. edition won’t be released till June) sits for a Pulp Pusher interview that touches on his spiritual awakening, the risk of his being pigeonholed as a black writer, and his labors as a poet. Click here for the full exchange.

• The sixth edition of The Outpost, editor Damien Gay’s quarterly Webzine of Australian crime and mystery short stories, has been posted. Gay promises stories about “the dangerous cut-throat underworld of the flower industry, an ingenious, very convoluted bank robbery attempt, a neighbourly dispute that began with an overhanging tree branch (they never end well), some Op Shop action, one crazy ole artist, a police procedural investigation into a brutal assault that develops into a much deeper mystery, an almighty murder trial, and a lesson ... about the dangers of making rash assumptions.” Submissions for Issue #8 are due by July 10, 2008.

• After posting a 13-part collection of “favorite books of 2007” lists, blogger-critic David J. Montgomery has compiled the results of his very informal survey. The four books chosen most often by the authors and others he asked to contribute: The Tin Roof Blowdown, by James Lee Burke; What the Dead Know, by Laura Lippman; Bad Luck and Trouble, by Lee Child; and The Shotgun Rule, by Charlie Huston. Read more here.

• Asked recently to name his favorite Golden Age mysteries, Washington Post Book World columnist and reviewer Michael Dirda offered up 10 titles, including Trent’s Last Case, by E.C. Bentley; The Chinese Orange Mystery, by Ellery Queen; and Gaudy Night, by Dorothy L. Sayers. B.V. Lawson of In Reference to Murder has Dirda’s whole rundown here.

• Finally, we warned you in October that the British Royal Mail would be issuing James Bond commemorative stamps this year, in association with the centenary of author Ian Fleming’s birth in 1908. And now those stamps have finally gone on sale. (Hat tip to Steve Lewis and Mystery*File.)