Bullet Points: Post-Christmas Edition

• Last week we reported that John Shannon has signed with publisher Severn House to produce future entries in his Jack Liffey detective series. Now comes this note from Private Eye Writers of America founder and author Robert J. Randisi:

Looks like Severn House is making many good decisions of late. Aside from signing Gar Haywood and John Shannon, I’ve come to terms and am about to sign a deal for two new Rat Pack books, moving the series there from St. Martin’s Press. Book #5, I’m a Fool to Kill You, should be out in the fall. The book features not only Eddie G., Big Jerry and the Rat Pack, but Ava Gardner. It’s a fact that Frank Sinatra wrote the song “I’m a Fool to Want You,” specifically for her.

• The Noir Coalition of Philadelphia has festivities planned for January 10 to acknowledge the 43rd anniversary of noir writer David Goodis’ death at age 49. For more information, send an e-mail message to info@noircon.com.

• Blogger Cullen Gallagher interviews Hard Case Crime editor Charles Ardai, mostly on the subject of his Gabriel Hunt adventure series. By the way, if you missed reading my own conversation with Ardai for the Killer Covers blog, you’ll find that here.

• As a childhood fan of the TV comedy series Mister Ed, I was saddened to read this news.

• Another death worthy of note, that of author Loren Singer, whose 1970 political thriller, The Parallax View, was made into a 1974 theatrical film starring Warren Beatty and Paula Prentiss. More on Singer’s demise here.

• Indian pulp fiction? You betcha.

• It’s never to early to begin reading New Year’s-related mysteries.

• In the latest installment of her Partners in Crime series, Janet Rudolph interviews Charles and Caroline Todd, who together write the Ian Rutledge historical mysteries under Charles’ name. By the way, San Francisco-area readers who would like to meet this charming pair will have a chance on January 14. For more information, click here.

• While others are naming their favorite books of 2009, Irish writer and blogger Rob Kitchin has put together a list of his favorite blogs of the year. Although his selection doesn’t include The Rap Sheet (hey, we’re hoping for a place on the list in 2010!), it does feature our sister blog, Killer Covers. Thanks, Rob.

• Rege Behe of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review talks with bookshop proprietor and editor Otto Penzler about his new book, The Lineup: The World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Story of Their Greatest Detectives. The results of their exchange are found here.

• No surprise: USA Network’s White Collar has been renewed.

• Is Toronto journalist Lee Lamothe’s The Finger’s Twist really the Canadian break-out mystery novel of 2009?

• And a final, off-topic final note: The New Republic’s Jon Chait calls the U.S. Senate’s passage late last week of a health-care reform bill “the greatest social achievement of our time.” Kevin Drum of Mother Jones labels it “the biggest progressive advance in my adult life. You have to go back to the great environmental acts of the early ’70s to get close, and to the civil rights/Medicare era to beat it.” Naturally, the foundering Republican Party--driven on by its wacko Tea Bagger minority--says it’s determined to overturn the legislation, which contains subsidies for families who can’t afford coverage, cost-containment measures, and deficit-reduction provisions. But as Steve Benen of The Washington Monthly points out, repeal looks politically unlikely. Thanks goodness.