It’s All in the Briefs, Ma’am

• Wanna win a Shamus? The Private Eye Writers of America has just posted its submission rules for the 2008 Shamus Award competition. Click here. And good luck.

• Why can’t we have more book covers like this one?

• Science writer and reader James K. Bashkin has finally posted the concluding installment of his three-part encounter with Chinese-born St. Louis novelist Qiu Xiaolong (Red Mandarin Dress) in his blog, Nearly Nothing But Books. A very brief Part I can be found here, with Part II posted here, and Part III available here.

• Euro Crime’s Karen Meek reports that the lead roles have been cast for a three-part British TV adaptation of Val McDermid’s 2000 novel, A Place of Execution. The details are here.

• Ray Banks talks to Shots’ Damien Seaman about his new novel (No More Heroes), the state of contemporary crime fiction, crime as a “legitimate form of political or social unrest,” and his interest in race relations. Click here to read it all.

• Juri Nummelin investigates the meager history of Finnish private eyes and the comparable heritage of Swedish private eyes.

• And there’s been so much build-up to this, that it seemed already to have happened. But in fact, only this week does London’s Imperial War Museum throw open the doors on its new exhibit, “For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond.” The Times has a preview, while readers interested in knowing more should get their hands on the new tie-in book, written by Ben Macintyre, who, a decade ago, penned an astounding work (The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief) about the real-life character after whom Sir Arthur Conan Doyle reportedly modeled his devious, deadly Professor James Moriarty. Video from the War Museum’s exhibition can be seen here. More on this spring’s Ian Fleming centenary can be found here.