Time for Your Briefing

• Author J.A. “Joe” Konrath has enjoyed a fair bit of publicity on this page over the last few months. Ali Karim interviewed the author last November, and more recently we gave away three free copies of his new horror novel, Afraid, which he composed under the pseudonym “Jack Kilborn.” But now, here we are again, talking about Konrath and a new interview with him, conducted by Rap Sheet contributor Jason Starr (Fake I.D.) and available on the MySpace page Starr shares with Irish writer Ken Bruen. My favorite part of their exchange comes in answer to Starr’s question, “Do you think it sucks that in some situations authors need to change their names, or do you just think it’s part of the reality of the publishing business and we all have to deal with it?” Konrath’s response: “I plan on having many names throughout my career. And my wife digs it, because she gets to sleep with different men.”

• Today is actor James Garner’s 81st birthday. All of us at The Rap Sheet send the former star of The Rockford Files, Maverick, and those classic Polaroid commercials our warmest wishes.

• Speaking of The Rockford Files, I missed seeing this blog post by Cameron Sturdevant about how private eye Rockford’s social hacking schemes could not be so easily executed in the early 21st century. Oh, well. We can still appreciate the old shows.

• Congratulations to Crimespree Magazine on its fifth birthday. Co-editor Ruth Jordan writes that the publication will celebrate this milestone on its Central Crime Zone blog, beginning on April 15. First up: Ruth and husband Jon Jordan will interview each other. Look for more of the festivities here.

• UK writer James Green reads his story “Tommy, Jimmy, and Me” for the latest podcast from CrimeWAV.com. That short tale is described as “something of a prelude to his crime novel,” Bad Catholics (2008).

• In case you haven’t heard (and believe me, you’d be the last one in the dark), the late author Michael Crichton has at least two new books slated for publication over next couple of years. As The New York Times reports, “HarperCollins, Mr. Crichton’s publisher for his previous three books, will release ‘Pirate Latitudes,’ an adventure story set in Jamaica in the 17th century, on Nov. 24. The company also plans to publish a technological thriller in the fall of 2010, a novel that Mr. Crichton was working on when he died.” More on Crichton’s posthumous plenty here and here.

• Baltimore babe Laura Lippman talks with John Kenyon of Things I’d Rather Be Doing about her new standalone novel, Life Sentences, and her fondness for memoirs. “I prefer what I call ‘quotidian’ memoirs, about recognizably normal lives,” she says. Meanwhile, librarian-blogger Lesa Holstine catches up with Lippman as her book tour swings through Glendale, Arizona.

• Speaking of interviews, Clayton Moore tackles the prolific Walter Mosley (The Long Fall) for Bookslut. Read his piece here.

• Three more of Donald E. Westlake’s early Parker novels have just been reissued by the University of Chicago Press.

• Many years ago, Arthur Lyons, creator of the private eye Jacob Asch series, recommended that I read Richard Hallas’ You Play the Black and the Red Comes Up (1938), but I’ve somehow never gotten around to that task. Now, though, Cullen Gallagher’s review of the novel has me looking for a copy.

• In Reference to Murder reports that “The Coen Brothers’ adaptation of The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, based on the Michael Chabon novel, will be postponed so they can concentrate first on their remake of the western True Grit.”

• I can’t believe TV Guide neglected to include Lieutenant Columbo’s “Just one more thing” from its list of the 16 Greatest TV Catchphrases. Lame. But at least it included the famous “Book ’em, Danno” line from Hawaii Five-O.

• And what are the 10 best fight scenes in fiction? One of them features in Ian Fleming’s 1957 James Bond novel, From Russia with Love, according to The Guardian’s John Mullan. He describes that and his other nine favorites here.