• First, Mystery Scene magazine brought in as contributors Lynn Kaczmarek and Chris Aldrich, following the closure of their Mystery News tabloid. Now, MS editor Kate Stine is touting a deal that adds author Lawrence Block to her stable of writers. His new column, “The Murders in Memory Lane,” will debut in the upcoming holiday issue of Mystery Scene. In it, says Stine, “This hard-hitting, whip-smart writer will share anecdotes, insights, and appreciations of the many people he’s met in his six-decade-long literary career.”
• After successfully presenting a weekend-long load of Saint-related posts in September, actor, novelist, and blogger Gary Dobbs has announced that he’ll try to do something similar with Sherlock Holmes during the weekend of November 7.
• Several familiar crime movie posters feature in this set.
• Actress Collin Wilcox, who played Mayella Ewell, the young white woman who falsely accused a black man (played by Brock Peters) of rape in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, has died of brain cancer at age 74. Writer and film historian Stephen Bowie has posted a nice remembrance of Wilcox (who is not to be confused with American mystery novelist Collins Wilcox).
• Holy nostalgia, Batman! I was just a kid when this film was released in 1966, and I went to see it with my parents and my brother at a drive-in theater. I had a cut-out of the familiar Batman logo from the TV series taped to the back window of our Volvo station wagon, and tried to create a Bat-signal with it using a flashlight. It didn’t work, of course. But I didn’t care. I got to see the movie, and that’s all that really mattered that night.
• From the Weird News file.
• I wasn’t a fan of the 1979 TV series A Man Called Sloane, which starred Robert Conrad (formerly of The Wild Wild West and Assignment: Vienna) as a freelance espionage agent. But I have to admire Christopher Mills’ commitment to watching all 12 episodes of that show in order to write about each and every one of them for his blog Spy-fi Channel. Mills’ review of the last ep, “The Shangri-la Syndrome,” was posted this morning. You can catch up with all of the previous installments here.
• I’ve pretty much given up on the latest U.S. TV season. It seems to offer just more of the same, and (thanks in part to Jay Leno’s hogging of the 10-11 p.m. NBC spot) too few hours in which to try anything new and different. (Hell, I’d settle for something tried and true, like a classic-style private eye show.) But I’m at least willing to give White Collar, the new USA Network series, a shot. Even if it does sound like a rip-off of Robert Wagner’s It Takes a Thief. White Collar debuts this Friday at 10 p.m.
• Jeri Westerson’s Crispin Guest medieval mystery series (Veil of Lies, Serpent in the Thorns) gets a cool new video trailer.
• And with just over a week to go before Halloween, the Web site Dread Central has come up with a “list of books and some movies every horror fan should at least take a look at, if not outright add to your book or DVD library.” More here. (Hat tip to Bill Crider.)
Thursday, October 22, 2009
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3 comments:
I agree, tv sucks. The only show I luv is LOST, but season 6 doesn't start till Feb.
Fringe is good this season and Castle is entertaining, as is Lie To Me.
That said, the best shows are on cable.
Have to chime in and echo MysterLynch and promote Castle. The writing is getting better and better this season. They are hitting their stride and the chemistry, the Chemistry, is fantastic! Give it a watch. It's on Hulu, too.
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