The Power of 10

I toy every now and then with the idea of rearranging The Rap Sheet’s right-hand column of crime-fiction links. Rather than simply listing them all together alphabetically, I’ve considered breaking out a shorter list of blogs/sites that I visit daily, versus those that I keep track of on a less regular basis. If I were to do such a thing, one of the sites I would definitely place in the top category would be The Thrilling Detective Web Site, Kevin Burton Smith’s amazingly extensive resource for all of us with a deep curiosity about fictional sleuths. It’s one of those sites worth prospecting on a quiet afternoon. But I warn you: An intended dalliance with The Thrilling Detective may instead lead to a continuing and passionate involvement. The thing is just that seductive.

This week, Smith and his cohorts in criminous compilation are celebrating their project’s 10th anniversary, which seems amazing, given the flea’s-life longevities of most Web sites. Of course, it takes no more than a little probing within the back pages of Thrilling Detective to realize that only such a long-term commitment could have produced this extensive a resource. It is rare that I go looking for information there, and don’t find it. Which is why you’ll discover many links to Smith’s site throughout The Rap Sheet. If he ever decides to shut down The Thrilling Detective, a good chunk of my links are going to go dead. So, Kevin, don’t even think about it, buddy.

In a half-humble, half-hard-boiled recollection of his site’s first decade in business, posted on Monday, Smith writes:

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the Thrilling Detective Web Site. Or at least the “official” anniversary. The site existed unofficially for a few months prior to April 1, 1998, as a sort of rudimentary private resource for a selected diehard P.I. fans and Rara-Avians who kept urging me to go public. I wasn’t convinced there’d be much interest, but I gave in, and on so on April 1 I unleashed the beast. It was April Fools’ Day, of course, but that seemed appropriate, since the site had started as a joke, more or less, a harmless way to practice html with something that wouldn't bore me to tears. But I figured it would sure bore the hell out of everyone else. I was wrong.

Suffice it to say that the last ten years have been a lot of things, but they’ve rarely been boring. But ten years, man. That’s gotta be worth something, right?

So please forgive the horn-tooting. Ten years on the “information superhighway.” That’s what? Thirty or forty years in human years? Long enough, anyway, to have outlasted (or out-updated) almost almost every other crime-fiction-related site and newsgroup on the Internet. I’ve outlasted Blue Murder, Judas, 3rd Degree, White Fedora, Shred of Evidence, HandHeldCrime, Futures, Hardluck Stories and Plots with Guns (well, version 1.0). As far as I can tell, only DorothyL and Rara-Avis have been around longer, and they’re discussion groups.

(And certainly long enough to say “HAH!” to a few of the naysayers who have gone ballistic every time I opened my mouth anywhere anytime. I’m pleased to say that more people will probably visit my Web site in one day than will ever read their sorry-ass “reviews” and self-published crapfests.)

The site has been a labour of love, mostly, and occasionally a thorn in my side. Because of the site, I’ve appeared on radio and television (and DVD, of all things), and been cited as a source in newspaper articles on crime fiction. I’ve met plenty of authors, some of whom I’m honoured to now call friends. It’s led to a writing career of sorts, speaking engagements and even a certain minor-league celebrity. But just as the site giveth, it also taketh away. I haven’t actually had a real vacation--or even much free time--in close to ten years.

Yeah, I know how that goes. But The Thrilling Detective’s endurance proves that other small-scale, tight-budgeted, Web-born editorial products (The Rap Sheet, for instance) can have long, productive lives. That’s certainly worth something, right? As are the contents Smith is rolling out as part of his site’s 10th anniversary update. There’s already new fiction by Robert Petyos (“The Truth About Lang Tri”), Paul Guyot (“Ace in the Hole”), Jim Winter (“Lady Luck”), and Stephen D. Rogers (“A Friendly Game”); several new comics; a couple of excerpts from recently published novels; and the usual slew of fresh and expanded back-matter, including pages about detectives Frank Cannon, Izzy Spellman, P.G. Wodehouse’s Mr. McGee, and Brock Devlin. Smith promises additions to come, including a page about the late Arthur Lyons that I (in a moment of ambitious foolhardiness) offered to write.

All of this just makes an already essential resource the site that much richer. And more useful. Imagine what The Thrilling Detective will be like in 10 more years. (OK, Kevin, you can stop hyperventilating now--I’m only supposing here.)

Happy anniversary, everybody!