Making the Rounds

• More than a week after his death, The Washington Post finally publishes an obituary of Benjamin M. Schutz, the 58-year-old forensic and clinical psychologist and three-time Shamus Award-winning creator of Washington, D.C, private eye Leo Haggerty (Embrace the Wolf, 1985). The saddest line in that whole short piece: “‘If my dad could have had enough commercial success to transfer to writing private eye fiction full time, he would have,’ said a son, Dr. Jakob C.L. Schutz of St. Louis.” Read the full obituary here.

• Rest easy, my friends. Thanks to a lead from Clayton Moore, book critic and blogger, I now know the potential of my becoming a cannibal, were I ever trapped in a blizzard. Click on the image at right to find out what hunger might provoke you to do. (Who thinks up these crazy quizzes, anyway?)

• We’re so accustomed to hearing about authors Ross Macdonald and John D. MacDonald, but Martin Edwards reminds us of another, more overlooked Macdonald: Philip MacDonald. Writing in his blog, novelist Edwards (Waterloo Sunset) remarks of Macdonald, “I’d rate him as one of the most interesting crime novelists to emerge from the Golden Age. Even though many of his books have flaws of one kind or another, he had the gift of creating fascinating situations that keep you turning the pages.” Macdonald is probably best known for The List of Adrian Messenger (1959), from which a 1963 George C. Scott film was made. Enlighten yourself on the work of this classic British novelist by going here.

• New York writer Jim Fusilli tells Sons of Spade blogger Jochem van der Steen that his series private eye, Terry Orr, last seen in Hard, Hard City (2004), might not ever return to print. “I enjoyed doing the four Terry Orr novels, but I’m not certain that the P.I. field is the best place for my writing,” Fusilli explains. Read more here.

• Don’t forget that this coming Thursday is the deadline for submissions to Crimespace’s 2008 short-story competition. For details, click here.

• While I was off working on other things (instead of keeping obsessive track of every development in the crime-fiction blogosphere), In for Questioning interviewer Angie Johnson-Schmit sat down to talk with authors Zoë Sharp (Second Shot) and Brett Battles (The Cleaner).

• Declan Burke remarks on the oddity of three novels by Irish writers--Ken Bruen, Benjamin Black (aka John Banville), and Tana French--featuring in this year’s Edgar Award nominations and wonders, “why aren’t these writers as popular in Ireland as they are in the U.S.?” His thoughts on the matter can be found here.

• Who was the first female detective in literature? Blogger John Adcock thinks he has the answer at Yesterday’s Papers.

• And am I the last person to hear about the forthcoming eighth annual Forensic Science and Law Conference, this year’s theme being “Where Fact Meets Fiction”? It is scheduled to take place during the first week of April at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Duquesne University and will feature authors Linda Fairstein and Robert Tanenbaum as guest speakers. More details are here.