Sweepings: The Down With a Cold Edition

• It looks like the moviemaking Coen Brothers, Joel and Ethan, who’ve gained such widespread renown of late for their film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men, are set to bring Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union--one of January Magazine’s favorite crime novels of 2007--to the big screen. Cinematical reports that “The Coens will be working with super-producer Scott Rudin on the film. Rudin has already developed three other books from Chabon; the first was Wonder Boys back in 2000, and Rudin is also developing an adaptation of Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which Chabon scripted for Paramount. The Coens will get to work on Union just as soon as they have finished shooting the dark comedy A Serious Man. So there is still plenty of time if you are one of those people who'd like to read the book first.”

• I have Rick Nelson’s debut novel, Bound by Blood, in my to-be-read pile. But until reading Oline Cogdill’s post in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Off the Page blog, I did not know that Nelson’s first book would also be his last. Sad news.

• The Carnival of the Criminal Minds has finally put up its tents and unfurled its banners at Graham Powell’s CrimeSpot. Breaking some with tradition, Powell focuses exclusively here on podcasts and video presentations related to crime fiction. Among the subjects winning his attention are Shannon Clute and Richard Edwards’ Behind the Black Mask, Scott Monty’s I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, a video associated with the anthology Chicago Blues, and another plugging Duane Swierczynski’s The Wheelman. Take a seat for all the festivities here.

• Mike Ripley’s February collection of notes and natterings for Shots features applause for the forthcoming Reginald Hill novel, A Cure for All Diseases; the news that Geoff Bradley, the editor of CADS (Crime and Detective Stories), will be honored with an honorary membership in the British Crime Writers’ Association; high expectations of the latest fiction from Camilla Läckberg (The Ice Princess) and R.S. Downie (Ruso and the Demented Doctor); and a belated alert about Simon Lewis’ unusual novel Bad Traffic. All of Ripley’s maunderings can be located here.

• Brian Greene has an excellent piece about British litterateur Ted Lewis (Get Carter) available in Noir Originals.

• The Winter 2008 edition of Bryon Quertermous’ Demolition magazine is up, with fiction contributions from Keith Snyder (“Into Stone”), John McFetridge (“Grow House”), Jordan Harper (“I Wish They Never Called Him Mad Dog”), and others. Full contents here.

• Mystery Scene co-publisher Brian Skupin champions the resurrection of an 80-year-old book of mystery-oriented puzzles in his Bookflings blog.

• And finally, a melancholy farewell to American actor Roy Scheider, who has died at age 75. Scheider may be most quickly recognized for his role in the 1975 Steven Spielberg film Jaws, but of course he also starred as Detective Buddy Russo in The French Connection (1971), headlined the 1986 film adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s novel 52 Pickup, and portrayed undercover agent-bar owner Jake Webster in the 1972 teleflick Assignment: Munich (which was brought to series television later that year as Assignment: Vienna, starring Robert Conrad). There’s a nice Scheider obit over at Drew Fitzpatrick’s blog, The Blood-Spattered Scribe.