• It was 101 years ago today that half-Chinese, half-English author Leslie Charteris, who’d go on to create the character of Simon Templar--aka “The Saint”--was born in Singapore. He died almost 86 years later, after helping to make Roger Moore a Hollywood star.
• Recently applauded Edgar Award winner and Rap Sheet contributor Megan Abbott talks with Peter Rozovsky of Detectives Without Borders about noir, fictional gangsters, and her latest novel, Queenpin. The first part of their interview can be found here, with a second part still to come.
• A couple of weeks ago, TV historian Ed Robertson & Co. at “global radio” station KSAV put together a show celebrating the work of the late British actor Barry Morse (The Fugitive), who died in early February of this year. That show is now available through the KSAV archives. Go here to listen.
• In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Cambridge, Massachusetts’ Raven Award-winning store, Kate’s Mystery Books, a Web site called Wicked Local Cambridge hosts a short but worthy profile of that establishment.
• Barbara Fister submits her new novel, In the Wind, to Marshal Zeringue’s Page 69 Test. The results are here.
• Euro Crime’s Karen Meek reports that the “complete set” of the 1989-1990 British TV series Campion--which starred Peter Davidson as author Margery Allingham’s aristocratic detective, Albert Campion--is now available in DVD format.
• Speaking of Euro Crime, I wasn’t aware until today that the site is actively trying to “review all ten of the Martin Beck books” by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. The Laughing Policeman (1968) is the latest of those excellent novels to be reassessed, on this occasion by AustCrimeFiction’s Karen Chisholm. Previous reviews took on The Abominable Man (1971) and The Man on the Balcony (1967).
• More critical reassessment comes from Adrian McKinty (The Bloomsday Dead), who writes in Crime Always Pays about the Harlem of author Chester Himes.
• The New York Times asks, how do Gotham detectives really dress?
• Can it be mere coincidence that both Pop Sensation’s “Rex Parker” and Mystery*File’s Steve Lewis both write this week about the long-forgotten Evan Pinkerton novels by David Frome (né Leslie Ford)? Maybe it’s something in the air. In any case, you’ll find Parker examining the cover of The Man from Scotland Yard (1942) here, while Lewis remarks on Homicide House (1950) and the broader Pinkerton series here.
• We’re always told in crime fiction not to trust coincidences. Yet they suddenly seem bountiful. Just last Friday, I wrote about William L. DeAndrea’s The Lunatic Fringe (1980), mentioning in the course of my post that the late author was married to another wordsmith, Jane Haddam. Now, I discover that Haddam will be guest-blogging all this week at St. Martin’s Press’ Moments in Crime series. Her posts should be found here.
• This is just frickin’ hilarious.
• While James Bond receives the royal treatment this month, his would-be amour, Miss Jane Moneypenny finally reaches the United States with her own story. Bookgasm has the story.
• And somehow, somewhere, I want to find enough extra time to enjoy this new book.
Monday, May 12, 2008
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2 comments:
Since when was Charteris half-Chinese and half-American?
Even the Wikipedia article you link to credits him as being half -Chinese and half-English...
Charteris became an American citizen in 1946 but his father was Chinese and his mother English.
Whoops! Sorry, that's my error. It's what happens when you have too many things to do, and write too quickly. Thanks for pointing out the mistake. It has been corrected.
Cheers,
Jeff
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