• Author Denise Hamilton has a new piece up at L.A. Observed, noting that “It was 59 years ago today that brunette starlet Jean Spangler vanished, leaving behind a young daughter, gangster pals, movie star connections and a mystery that remains unsolved more than a half-century later.” (Click here for that full story.) Spangler’s twisted yarn, of course, provided the inspiration for Megan Abbott’s 2007 novel, The Song Is You, as well as Hamilton’s latest book, The Last Embrace (2008). In the past, both authors have recalled that still-unsolved 1949 case for The Rap Sheet. Look here for Hamilton’s thoughts on the subject; here and here for Abbott’s
• Good news for British TV watchers: Andrew Martin, the creator of “Steam Detective” Jim Stringer, will host a documentary this week on BBC4 entitled Between the Lines: Railways in Fiction and Film. According to the BBC Web site, this program will look at “how the train and the railways came to shape the work of writers and film-makers.
At the beginning of the railway age, locomotives were seen as frightening and unnatural--Wordsworth decried the destruction of the countryside, while Dickens wrote about locomotives as murderous brutes, bent on the destruction of mere humans.The first broadcast of Martin’s documentary is scheduled for this Thursday at 9 p.m. (Hat tip to Euro Crime.)
Martin traces how trains gradually began to be accepted--Holmes and Watson were frequent passengers--until by the time of [Edith Nesbitt’s 1906 novel] The Railway Children they were something to be loved, a symbol of innocence and Englishness. He shows how trains made for unforgettable cinema in The 39 Steps and Brief Encounter, and how when the railways fell out of favour after the 1950s, their plight was highlighted in the films of John Betjeman.
• And a quick reminder that tomorrow night will bring the third Noir at the Bar event in Philadelphia. Participating will be Canadian writer John McFetridge and Irish author (and recent Rap Sheet guest blogger) Declan Burke. More information can be found here.
1 comment:
i think that Steve Hodel's book "The Black Dahlia Avenger" gives us the biggest clues in determining who killed Jean Spangler. As much as a I wanted to, I didn't like Megan Abbott's "The Song is You". I thought Denise Hamilton's "The Last Embrace" was Okey.
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