The Best of the Rest

• Otto Penzler is now slated to be the guest of honor at this year’s PulpFest, to be held at Columbus, Ohio’s Ramada Plaza Hotel and Convention Center, July 31-August 2.

• A British version of Law & Order? It had to happen, right?

• While researching my Sax Rohmer piece for the spinoff Killer Covers blog, I stumbled across a series of posts about “occult detectives” at a site called Lovecraft Is Missing. There’s plenty of interesting background and lots of reading suggestions to be found in that series. You can read the half-dozen posts here.

• As Bill Crider reminds us, author Ruth Rendell turns 79 today.

• Screenwriter-filmmaker Jason Whiton recaps the spy styles of the 1960s in his new blog, Spy Vibe. (Hat tip to Bish’s Beat.)

• Are you game for Nancy Drew?

• Years ago, I owned a handsome Corgi version of spy James Bond’s original Aston Martin DB5. Unfortunately, my brother sold it a few years back along the other vintage miniature automobiles we’d collected as children. However, it looks as if I might be able to acquire a replacement in the near future.

• Who was the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s Vesper Lynd, played so seductively in the 2006 version of Casino Royale by Eva Green? Click here to find out.

• Three of our favorite authors have recently submitted their work to Marshal Zeringue’s Page 69 Test. Look at the following links for the interesting results from Matt Beynon Rees (The Samaritan’s Secret), Linda L. Richards (Death Was in the Picture), and Bill Crider (Murder in Four Parts).

• And has Nora Roberts cooked up the ultimate romantic inn?