“There Are Plenty of Blogs to Keep Me Amused”

The Carnival of the Criminal Minds is back, this time with British author Martin Edwards (Waterloo Sunset) donning the master of ceremonies’ top hat and tails. He is particularly generous with his compliments, as he runs through his blogroll of must-read crime-fiction-oriented sites, among the lesser-knowns being Eric Mayer’s Byzantine blog, Xavier Lechard’s At the Villa Rose, and Robert Rood’s Books to the Ceiling. On a morning when I’m already rather overcome by being nominated for an Anthony Award, Edwards’ recommendation of The Rap Sheet (it “must be, I imagine, one of the most frequently visited of all crime blogs, and the reason is because the content is consistently varied and stimulating”) threatens to turn my blushing into a chronic condition.

But my favorite part of this Carnival installment may be Edwards’ opening recollection of one carnival he attended as a tyke:

Carnivals are, in my mind, associated with sunshine and summer--perhaps, given the English climate, this is the triumph of hope over experience. All the same, I like carnivals a lot. I have fond memories of the Northwich Carnival of my childhood. In 1963, it was opened by the Beatles, just at the time they hit the top of the charts and were fulfilling a few pre-fame contractual obligations. At the age of seven or eight, I was lucky not to be crushed to death by the horde of teenage girls screaming at their four heroes in purple suits.

The latest Carnival of the Criminal Minds can be found here. In mid-June, this peripatetic spectacle will move its tents over to Kerrie Smith’s Mysteries in Paradise site.