Title Fights and Sequel Hype

• Tomorrow will be the 40th annual celebration of Earth Day here in the United States (an occasion destined to be dismissed by global-warming naysayers such as the Republican House minority “leader,” John Boehner). If you would like to celebrate by reading an environment-oriented mystery, Janet Rudolph has put together a list of titles for Mystery Fanfare. More here.

• Congratulations to pop culture critic Vince Keenan on the fifth anniversary of his ever-thoughtful blog. The Rap Sheet is approaching its own third anniversary in May. I’m astonished by anyone who can keep these things going for five or more years. What commitment it takes--especially when, for most of us, there’s no monetary recompense involved in the venture.

• Is a CSI feature film really necessary?

• Sydney Greenstreet’s performance in 1948’s Velvet Touch is one of the few things worth watching in that Rosalind Russell-headlined picture, says Noir of the Week.

• I’m not so sure that James Ellroy was the best person to write the “Letter to Booksellers” that appears on the back of his forthcoming novel, Blood’s a Rover. He might have a bit too much ego investment in the work. Whaddya think?

• Meanwhile, George Pelecanos touts his own new novel, The Way Home, which is due out from Little, Brown in mid-May.

• Jeremy Duns, author of the espionage novel Free Agent--due out in the UK next month, and in the States come June--talks with Permission to Kill’s David Foster about his determination to set Free Agent in the 1960s, his spy lit influences, and how his own travels through the years influenced those of his fictional protagonist. You’ll find the full interview here.

• How ’bout this? StorySouth’s list of nominees for its Million Writers Awards includes two stories that originally appeared at The Thrilling Detective Web Site, one of them produced by Rap Sheet and January Magazine contributor Jim Winter.

• Turnabout is fair play? Just recently, Random House published American author Arthur Phillips’ The Song Is You, a mainstream novel about love, art, and jealousy. Unfortunately for Megan Abbott, that was also the title of her terrific 2007 novel, inspired by the disappearance in 1949 of Hollywood actress Jean Spangler. Talk about confusion! But maybe this is some sort of cosmic payback. After all, Abbott borrowed the title of crime novelist Harold Q. Masur’s 1947 Scott Jordan novel for her own latest dark thriller, Bury Me Deep, which is due to reach bookstores in early July.

• When will those darn GOPers learn they’re not allowed to insult the ostensible head of their party?

• Seth Harwood, one of the brains behind the crime-fiction podcast site CrimeWAV.com, has put together a new video that focuses largely on the pending re-release of his thriller, Jack Wakes Up. Watch the promo here.

• Have you not yet seen the list of 2009 Bram Stoker Award nominees? All you need do is click here.

• Finally, I can’t believe there’s so much hype already surrounding the September release of Dan Brown’s next novel, The Lost Symbol. I tried reading Brown’s The Da Vinci Code before it reached shelves back in 2003, but couldn’t make it past page 100. I thought the characters were shallow and the writing pedestrian, and I wasn’t interested enough in the religion angle. I figured the book would come and go from stores with little fanfare. Well, I guess I underestimated the market for that one. But really, do we need to have five million copies of Da Vinci’s sequel spread around the world, drowning out the publicity for other, better novels?