Bullet Points: The Post-Holiday Edition

Some people are better than others at finding creative ways to spend a long weekend. For my part, I exhausted the last four days just reading and trying finally to catch up on work I’d had to put off while completing my latest book project. It never ceases to amaze me, that every task always takes longer than I would have predicted. Does one have to end life still clutching a to-do list? Probably, since today’s world provides so many distractions.

• Among the more welcome diversions for me this weekend was the June/July issue of Mystery News. The front-page interview is with UK journalist-turned-novelist Jim Kelly, who writes the Philip Dryden series (The Water Clock, The Skeleton Man). Inside, there’s a lengthy look at Michael G. Jacob and Daniela de Gregorio, who under the pseudonym “Michael Gregorio” have written a pair of entrancing early 19th-century mysteries (Critique of Criminal Reason and Days of Atonement) starring Prussian magistrate Hanno Stiffeniis. Also in these pages can be found a look back at The Daughter of Time author Josephine Tey (née Elizabeth Mackintosh), who is herself the star of a new mystery called An Expert in Murder, by Nicola Upson; an “In the Beginning” interview with Rose Lemikan, author of The Blackstone Key; and a recap of the books-to-film transition of Sax Rohmer’s The Mask of Fu Manchu. Oh, and of course the latest issue of Mystery News comes with a ballot for this year’s Barry Awards. I thought I could fill it out and send it back quickly, but have found myself agonizing over a couple of categories--a sure indicator of recent robustness in the genre.

• No slouch herself at offering literary thrills, Mo Hayder (Ritual) suggests some “chilling” reads to enjoy during this summer’s hot weather. You’ll find them here.

• Of the two Ross Macdonald novels most recently reissued (in stylish paperback editions) by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, my favorite is definitely The Instant Enemy (1968). Its companion, The Blue Hammer (1976), was Macdonald’s 18th private eye Lew Archer novel and paled somewhat by comparison with the three Archer outings that immediately preceded it: The Goodbye Look (1969), The Underground Man (1971), and Sleeping Beauty (1973). But Bruce Grossman gives Hammer a fine write-up today in Bookgasm. “The Blue Hammer,” he explains, “was the last Lew Archer novel written by Ross Macdonald before Alzheimer’s had taken over, and holds all the earmarks of prime Archer material. Deep family secrets aplenty pepper this book, which are all tied to a stolen piece of artwork. For Archer, what seems like a very easy case gets a lot deeper than anyone would have guessed.” Read the whole piece here.

• There was a good piece last week in the Criminal Brief blog about locked-room mysteries. Penned by Hal White, author of The Mysteries of Reverend Dean, if includes his idiosyncratic list of “the best English-language locked-room mystery anthologies” in (or out) of print. Click here to read it all.

• One of the novels I most look forward to reading this fall is Moriarty, the belated follow-up to The Return of Moriarty (1974) and The Revenge of Moriarty (1975), all three featuring Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis, Professor James Moriarty, and written by the late John Gardner. Bish’s Beat has more on Moriarty here.

• I’d like to see statistical proof that posting first chapters of novels on the Web actually stimulates sales. I am not convinced. Nonetheless, the practice of offering such openings has become commonplace. Herewith, the first chapters of Tony Black’s forthcoming novel, Paying for It, and the opening from Tod Goldberg’s introductory Burn Notice tie-in novel, The Fix. Enjoy.

• I find there are few things more satisfying than being introduced to a high-quality crime novelist from long ago whose work I haven’t yet read. August West can be credited with introducing me to the novels of Glenn Canary, a journalist turned novelist who only died in early May of this year. The Sadist? The Damned and the Innocent? The Perfect Plot? I’ll have to see what I can do about getting my hands on some of these.

• Two interviews worth reading: Crime Scraps’ Uriah Robinson (aka Norman Price) talks with Polish writer Marek Krajewski, author of Death in Breslau, a novel that sounds like it’s up my history-loving alley; and New Mystery Reader Magazine chats with Timothy Hallinan, whose novel The Fourth Watcher (a sequel to last year’s A Nail Through the Heart) is new in U.S. bookstores.

• The last time I was in New York City, I didn’t get a chance to visit Edgar Allan Poe’s old cottage in The Bronx. But maybe next time. And by then, a $250,000 renovation of the five-room dwelling should be complete. According to the Association Press, that project will include construction of a new visitors’ center. Work is scheduled to begin on the project next year.

• The Outlander, a debut historical novel by Gil Adamson that already won this year’s Hammett Prize, has also made the shortlist of nominees for the 8th annual ReLit Awards, given to “Canadian authors whose literary works have been published independently.” For the full rundown of nominees, click here.

• And fresh from the success of his first podcast-to-print novel, Jack Wakes Up, Northern California writer Seth Harwood has teamed with blogger-editor Aldo Calcagno to present what they’re calling “the new (and only) podcast site for crime fiction,” CrimeWAV.com. As Harwood explains in an introduction,

CrimeWAV.com is a new podcast series of crime stories that I’m starting with the aim of introducing the work of published crime writers, some of the great folks I’ve been able to meet in the past year, to the podcast crime audience that I’ve developed with my JACK PALMS CRIME podcasts.

I’m doing this for two reasons: I want to bring some of the great work that’s out there by people in the crime writing scene to the crime listeners I’ve developed with my podcast series--I want to give my listeners more great crime content--and I want to help the crime writers I’ve met get their work into the podcast realm so they can benefit from what I think is a great promotional opportunity in podcasting and get more readers/listeners. Basically, it’s a win/win: I’ve got an audience that wants more crime stories and I’ve been fortunate to meet a lot of great crime writers who are happy to get more exposure via the web and podcasts. As I’ve been really lucky and successful to get in on podcasting early, I want to help other writers use these tools to promote their own work.

First up at CrimeWAV.com is Part I of a short story by Vicki Hendricks, “Must Bite,” which originally appeared in Storyglossia.