Third Time’s a Charm

Not only is it Friday (always a cause for revelry here at Rap Sheet headquarters), but today marks what would have been the 150th birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as this blog’s third anniversary. It was in May 2006 that we took a chance and cut The Rap Sheet loose from its great mothership, January Magazine. We’ve been trying to fly on our own ever since, with varying degrees of success. It’s amazing to me, that not only have we racked up more than 2,800 posts on this page, but The Rap Sheet has exceeded 500,000 page views. Neither of those things seemed possible three springs ago.

Over the last twelvemonth, The Rap Sheet has introduced or significantly expanded several signature features, including our series about the “25 Best TV Crime Drama Openers,” our rundown of unjustly forgotten “Books You Have to Read,” our authors’ essays on how and why they wrote their latest novels (“The Story Behind the Story”), and our seemingly never-ending exposure of copycat book covers. We’ve welcomed a number of guest bloggers into the fold, among them Gary Phillips, Patrick Lennon, Declan Burke, and Jason Starr, all of whom have since become irregular contributors. We have put together interviews with Reed Farrel Coleman, Chelsea Cain, Max Allan Collins, Craig McDonald, Martin Edwards, Giancarlo De Cataldo, Ace Atkins, Dennis Lehane, Tess Gerritsen, Andrew Taylor, Jeremy Duns, and so many others. We’ve begun holding contests to win free copies of new crime novels, and even hosted a competition whereby readers could win three free passes to CrimeFest, held earlier this month in Bristol, England. And not long ago, I debuted a companion blog, Killer Covers, that focuses on classic book jacket art.

All of these efforts seem to have paid off. Last fall, The Rap Sheet was nominated for an Anthony Award; and though we didn’t win, the blog did more recently pick up a Spinetingler Award for Special Services to the Industry. These instances of professional recognition help make up for the fact that, although we are very proud of what we’ve managed to build here, we make not a damn cent off the enterprise. At least not yet.

As I did around this same date back in 2008, I spent a few hours over the last several days revisiting the posts we put up over the last 52 weeks. If I may make an immodest judgment, the contributors to this blog have done a hell of a lot of good work. But a couple of dozen posts stand out from the rest and might be worth your re-reading:

• “Rediscovering a Genre Star,” which looked back at the life and remarkably prolific novel-writing career of Robert Terrall (aka Robert Kyle), the largely forgotten creator of Manhattan private eye Ben Gates (Kill Now, Pay Later).

• Our principally photographic coverage of the 2009 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

• “Marlowe Goes to the Movies,” in which we commemorated the half-century since the demise of oil company exec-turned-crime novelist Raymond Chandler, the creator of Philip Marlowe--private detective and film star.

• “A Gimlet for Mr. Chandler,” Robert F. Moss’ lively toast to Chandler’s imbibing tastes.

• “Down These Mean Streets,” Mark Coggins’ welcome to the new edition of a must-have work for crime-fiction enthusiasts visiting San Francisco: Don Herron’s The Dashiell Hammett Tour.

• “Putting Up a Good Front,” in which we collected the very diverse jackets from A.A. Fair’s 1940 Bertha Cool and Donald Lam novel, Turn on the Heat. (Fair, by the way, was a pseudonym used by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner.)

• “What Maxim Did Next,” in which Ali Karim bid a tearful adieu to what used to be one of London’s favorite bookstores, Murder One.

• “Poor Edgar, We Knew Him Well,” about the 200th birthday of author, poet, critic, and acclaimed macabrist Edgar Allan Poe.

• “Best Foot Forward,” the results of our second annual poll to determine the year’s best crime-fiction book covers.

• Our three-part (here, here, and here) tribute to author Donald E. Westlake, who died in Mexico at age 75.

• “Paging Mr. Know-It-All,” in which British book critic and author Barry Forshaw talked about the roots and purpose of his giant new volume, British Crime Writing: An Encyclopedia.

• “Do Book Trailers Actually Sell Books?” by Jason Starr.

• A Unique Voice Gone Quiet,” Hunter Goatley’s remembrance of wordsmith George C. Chesbro, who died in November.

• Ali Karim’s persistent reporting on the successes of Stieg Larsson, the late author of the best-selling novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

• Our rather extensive coverage of Bouchercon in Baltimore.

• “A Final Farewell to Fletch’s Father,” in which Cameron Hughes solicited comments from numerous crime novelists about the surprise demise of author Gregory Mcdonald.

• Blogger, novelist, and new father Declan Burke’s trenchant weeklong analysis of Irish crime fiction.

• Our 50th anniversary tributes to Naked City, Peter Gunn, and 77 Sunset Strip, plus our 40th anniversary ode to the innovative NBC-TV mystery/adventure show, The Name of the Game.

• “Who Is the Man?”--our obituary of singer and Shaft theme arranger Isaac Hayes.

• Ali Karim’s extensive coverage of the star-studded 2008 Harrogate Crime Writing Festival.

• “You Diabolical Mastermind, You!”--our tribute to former Avengers star Diana Rigg on the occasion of her (can it be?) 70th birthday.

• “Where in the World Is Frank Bullitt?” which traced the improbably choreographed San Francisco car chase in Steve McQueen’s 1968 thriller, Bullitt.

• “A Martini Full of Arsenic,” Megan Abbott’s tribute to the TNT’s mondo-stylish Mad Men.

We have a number of interesting projects planned for the next several months, with--we hope--more to come after that. A year from now, I would like to report that The Rap Sheet has done more than merely pulled its weight in the crime-fiction blogosphere.