Max and Mickey, Together Again

Author Max Allan Collins seems determined to keep private eye Mike Hammer from the graveyard. Last year, he completed and saw published The Goliath Bone, the first of at least three unfinished Hammer novels that Mickey Spillane left to Collins when died in 2006. Now, Collins is returning that Hammer guy to audio--a medium that first hosted Spillane’s protagonist back in 1953. As he’ll report tomorrow on his Web site (which is now being updated weekly),

I have just written a Mike Hammer novel for audio that will be produced this summer in Chicago by producer Carl Amari and stars Stacy Keach himself as Hammer (with a full cast). This is the second of the New Adventures of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer from Blackstone Audio. It’s called “The Little Death” and will be out in the fall of this year.

This marks several firsts, probably the least of which is me writing a script in radio format. More important is that this will be the first time Keach--who has appeared as Hammer on film more often than any other actor--will be featured in a Hammer story actually based on Spillane material. The sources are the short story “The Night I Died” [1953] by Mickey and an unproduced screenplay that I developed under Mickey’s supervision. (Interestingly, “The Night I Died” was an unproduced 1950s radio script I found in Mickey’s files years ago, which he allowed me to short-story-ize for our [1998] NAL anthology, Private Eyes.)

In the Audie-nominated first installment of The New Adventures (not written by me), there were two episodes. When I was invited to write the second installment, I asked if we could do one story--a novel for audio. Keach and Amari loved the idea. This will be the new Hammer novel for 2009 (although The Goliath Bone is due in trade paper soon from Harcourt). The next prose novel, The Big Bang, will be out in the spring of 2010, and is a “lost” novel from 1964--truly vintage Spillane.

I’m thrilled about “The Little Death,” as it was my opportunity to bring the Keach TV Hammer more in line with the novels. I promise you will never have seen (or anyway, heard) Keach’s Hammer this tough.

Collins adds that “The Little Death” will have a playing time of three hours. To me, that sounds like time well spent.

Out of This World

Noir meets science fiction in Beat the Pulp’s latest short-story offering, “Six Bullets for John Carter,” in which Midwestern author Chad Eagleton pays tribute to the Sword and Planet subgenre of SF.

Life Is Too Short, Novels Are Too Long

Seemingly inspired by the fact that John Sayles was having a problem finding a publisher for his latest novel, Jean Hannah Edelstein used the news to frame a piece for The Guardian’s books blog that suggests contemporary readers no longer have the patience for books that are very long. At one point, Edelstein says that “we are living in an era where novels of epic length are unlikely to be of interest to most readers.” This because four short books are better than one long one? Yes, says Edelstein:

And when there are so many thousands of books to enjoy, it seems inefficient to read a single volume of 200,000 words if there’s any risk that it won’t be a work of staggering genius ... when the time could be equally spent enjoying a diversity of works from several different writers.

So Edelstein is telling us we must stick to the task at hand. It’s not about the journey, but the destination. And she who has read the most books before she dies wins? Never mind the joys of lingering over the perfect prose of a wonderful writer; there are stacks of books to be gotten through, people. We must stay on target, we must keep on track.

And that's a reading culture that has cultivated the short, snappy writing of our best contemporary prose stylists--and, indeed, of the efforts of our best editors, the ones [who] recognise the difference between brilliant lyrical prose and fatuous overwriting. Consider the Booker prize winners of the last few years. ... Thanks to these models of modern literature, I now find it difficult to read a novel that is much longer without feeling impatient, without fighting the urge to whip out my red pen and start crossing out the extraneous bit because the editor didn't, because the author was too proud ... to accept that quantity is not the same as quality.

It seems to me that these are the words of someone who has read only childishly and without depth.

Reading for pleasure is not a race. The person who gets to the end of the book first does not win. You are not a more successful reader for having made your way through more books.

Further, the length of a book has nothing at all to do with its quality. I’ve read 1,000-page books that weren’t long enough and books of barely 100 pages that were much, much too long. A story should take as long as it needs: not one page more or less. And, yes: publishing fashion will determine some of that. We’re in a shorter cycle now; a few years ago every other book I saw was a toe-breaker. Those cycles will come and go again. But to equate length with poor editing or slack author judgment is just ... well, it’s silly. Should Melville have reduced his thoughts on the whiteness of whales to tweet length? Should Rand have had her Atlas merely grimace, not shrug? Should Tolstoy have edited out all the War and just kept the Peace?

If Edelstein is feeling impatient when reading books she feels are too long, she should either choose her reading material with greater care or cut down on her sugar intake. Perhaps both. But certainly anyone who can talk about “the difference between brilliant lyrical prose and fatuous overwriting” with a straight face, should not also be talking about her urge to whip out her own red pen.

QUESTION TO READERS: What is your favorite long crime novel? Maybe Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone? Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games? Max Allan Collins’ Stolen Away? Something else? Voice your opinions in the Comments section below.

“Search” Me

It’s altogether possible that the majority of people reading this post have no memory at all of Search, the 1972-1973 NBC-TV series that featured a trio of field operatives working for a high-tech private investigations company. And that’s not really surprising.

The Leslie Stevens-created show (with theme music by Dominic Frontiere) seemed well positioned to succeed. It followed the then new NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie at 10 p.m. and starred a rotating roster of some of the era’s most recognizable TV actors: Hugh O’Brian (formerly of The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp), Tony Franciosa (onetime co-star of The Name of the Game, later to play the lead in Matt Helm), and ever-boyish Doug McClure (once of Checkmate, later of Barbary Coast). Though all three of their characters were supposed to be skilled and resourceful operatives, they also had plenty of backup in the form of a NASA-like control room, the Probe Division of World Securities Corp., where technicians kept track of their movements and health via miniature telemetry units and cameras that the globe-trotting sleuths wore alternately on rings and as medallions around their necks. (Hey, this was the ’70s, remember?) Directing Probe was V.C.R. Cameron, played by Burgess Meredith, another Hollywood star with plenty of admirers (even though many of the younger ones knew him only as one of Batman’s more notorious nemeses, the Penguin). Oh, and in case viewers needed additional distractions in the control room, beyond the perpetually anxious Meredith and multiple millions of blinking computer lights, a curvaceous young blond actress named Angel Tompkins served as Gloria Harding, Probe’s medical expert (at least in the early episodes).

So what went wrong? According to an article published recently at the Web site TV Obscurities (a must-watch site for boob-tube nostalgics), part of the problem was too much “way-out stuff like two-way radio implants in the noggin.” New showrunners were brought in to peel some of the science-fiction elements away from Search and change the “heroes from Supermen to more believable human beings.” Another article, this one written by Don Harden and appearing at the site TVParty!, recalls that “The new producers apparently decided to compete with Cannon [the William Conrad private-eye series, which ran opposite it on CBS] by becoming more similar, instead of offering a contrast. Search became less fun, more dramatic, focusing on grittier crime stories being solved by the agent himself with less reliance on Probe Control. The ultimate effect of this made the later episodes dull by comparison to the earlier episodes.”

Viewers and the network were unsatisfied with the results. Search’s final new episode (of 23 total, not counting the pilot film, titled Probe) was shown on Wednesday, April 11, 1973.

Despite its short run, Search has since become something of a cult favorite. And though it hasn’t yet made the transfer to DVD format (or even been broadcast in the United States for many years), you can sometimes pick up sets of the series’ episodes from online sales sites such as iOffer and Sell.com Classifieds.

I’m afraid that the whole concept might seem a bit cheesy in our era of cell phones and Twitter. But I’m willing to give it a shot, if only some company will release Search in a DVD set. Heck, if other unlikely one-season wonders such as Planet of the Apes and Kolchak: The Night Stalker can find audiences on disc, then why not Search?

(UPDATE: Warner Bros. Home Video finally released a DVD version of Probe, the 1972 pilot film for Search, in May 2011.)

* * *

While we’re on the subject of long-forgotten TV programs, how about the 1979-1980 Robert Conrad secret agent series A Man Called Sloane? Christopher Mills has taken on the challenge of recapping its full run of episodes in his excellent new blog, Spy-Fi Channel.

READ MORE: “The Latest in 1972 High-Tech,” by Tim Rose
(Friday @ 8/7 Central); “1972--The TV Guide Fall Preview,” by Brent McKee (I Am a Child of Television).

Flame On!

Today marks the 120th anniversary of Seattle, Washington’s Great Fire of 1889, which destroyed the town--but also gave it a chance to become something better. “The heaviest losers are the most cheerful,” The Seattle Times reported four days after the flames had been doused and the rebuilding begun.

He Never Gives Up

Ever since I noticed back in February that independent publisher Crippen & Landru was planning to issue The Columbo Stories--a collection of 14 new tales about Los Angeles Police Lieutenant Columbo, written by William Link, who with Richard Levinson, created NBC-TV’s beloved 1970s series Columbo--I’ve been eagerly anticipating that book’s release. When I visited the Virginia-based publisher’s Web site recently, I noticed that the status of The Columbo Stories had been raised to “now being typeset.” So I sent an e-mail note to C&L editor Doug Greene, asking him when the book might actually be available. His answer:

We had planned to publish late Autumn-early Winter (and may still do so), but Malice Domestic is honoring Bill Link with the Poirot Award in May [2010], so we may delay the book in order to tie in ...

In addition, EQ [Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine] wants to use one of the stories--which will be good publicity--and we’ll have to work with that as well.

So, the vague answer is that The Columbo Stories will be available “soon.” That’s good news, certainly for all those fans of the classic NBC Mystery Movie series who (like me) have been disheartened to read recent reports about star Peter Falk’s declining health.

The Opening Daggers

Wouldn’t you know it? The morning I decide to break my usual pattern and actually sleep in late, the British Crime Writers’ Association decides to announce the first few of its 2009 Dagger Award shortlists. As a note posted to the organization’s Web site explains, “This year the Daggers are being announced in two stages, and the shortlists announced now are for the International, Short Story, Library, and Debut Daggers. The winners will be announced at a drinks reception held at the Tiger Tiger nightspot in London on the evening of July 15 (see here for tickets). At that event, the shortlists will also be announced for the Gold, John Creasey (New Blood) and Ian Fleming Steel Daggers. The winners in this second group will be announced in the autumn.”

Got all that? Then let’s get on to the first set of nominees.

The CWA International Dagger:
(“For crime, thriller, suspense or spy fiction novels which have been translated into English from their original language, for UK publication.”)

• Shadow, by Karin Alvtegen; translated by McKinley Burnett (Canongate)
• The Arctic Chill, by Arnaldur Indriðason; translated by Bernard Scudder and Victoria Cribb (Harvill Secker)
• The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson; translated by Reg Keeland (MacLehose/Quercus)
• The Redeemer, by Jo Nesbø; translated by Don Bartlett
(Harvill Secker)
• Echoes from the Dead, by Johan Theorin; translated by Marlaine Delargy (Doubleday)
• The Chalk Circle Man, by Fred Vargas; translated by Siân Reynolds (Harvill Secker)

The CWA Short Story Dagger:

• “Speaking of Lust,” by Lawrence Block (from Speaking of Lust; Five Leaves Publications)
• “One Serving of Bad Luck,” by Sean Chercover (from Killer Year, edited by Lee Child; Mira)
• “Cougar,” by Laura Lippman (from Two of the Deadliest, edited by Elizabeth George; Hodder & Stoughton)
• “The Price of Love,” by Peter Robinson (from The Blue Religion, edited by Michael Connelly; Back Bay Books)
• “Served Cold,” by Zoë Sharp (from The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime, edited by Maxim Jakubowski; Constable & Robinson)
• “Mother’s Milk,” by Chris Simms (from The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime)

The CWA Dagger in the Library:
(Awarded for an author’s full body of work, not an individual book.)

• Simon Beckett
• Colin Cotterill
• R.J. Ellory
• Ariana Franklin
• Peter James
• Michael Robotham

The CWA Debut Dagger:

• A View from the Clock Tower, by Frank Burkett (Australia)
• My First Big Book of Murder, by Aoife Clifford (Australia)
• Backdrop, by C.J. Harper (USA)
• The Land of Sun and Fun, by Madeleine Harris-Callway (Canada)
• Sex, Death, and Chocolate, by Renata Hill (Canada)
• The Sirius Patrol, by Mick Laing (UK)
• Forgotten Treasures, by Susan Lindgren (USA)
• The Pathologist, by Catherine O’Keefe (Canada)
• Paterfamilias, by Danielle Ramsay (UK)
• A Vine Time for Trouble, by Germaine Stafford (Italy)
• Idiot Wind, by Martin Ungless (UK)
• Murder at the Séance, by Alan Wright (UK)

I’m particularly impressed with the International Dagger list--strong contenders all--and am pleased to see that R.J. Ellory, who my wife and I were fortunate to meet during last fall’s Bouchercon in Baltimore, is in contention for the Dagger in the Library.

(Hat tip to Euro Crime.)

A British Feast

Things I didn’t know before reading Mike Ripley’s new “Getting Away with Murder” column in Shots: Alison Bruce (Cambridge Blue) has penned a non-fiction book, Billington: Victorian Executioner, about one of England’s more notorious hangmen; that John le Carré’s model for his spy character George Smiley, John Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris, was also a writer of detective and spy fiction; and that Henry Porter, the British editor of Vanity Fair, has a new novel due out in August, this one called Dying Light (or is it The Watchers)? Oh, and The Ripster has published a list of novels he thinks ought to win Dagger Awards this year ... which, by his own testament, almost surely dooms them to the slush pile of also-rans.

The Book You Have to Read: “The Depths of the Forest,” by Eugenio Fuentes

(Editor’s note: This is the 53rd installment of our Friday blog series highlighting great but forgotten books. Today’s selection comes from Dagger Award-winning UK novelist Ann Cleeves, whose latest book--the third entry in her Shetland Quartet--is Red Bones, already out in Britain and scheduled for publication in the States in September.)

The Depths of the Forest, published in Britain seven years ago, triggered my love affair with translated European crime fiction, a passion that has continued until today. I was working then in a library and persuaded the Arts Council of England to fund a project to bring European crime novels to a wider public. We worked with independent presses such as Eugenio Fuentes’ publisher Arcadia, to get books out to library reading groups, to run events and develop promotional material. The Depths of the Forest (originally published in Spanish in 1999) was a favorite with all of our readers and it’s still a surprise to me that the book isn’t better known. The story’s setting--the magnificent landscape of the Paternoster nature reserve in central Spain--the complexity of Fuentes’ characters and the fine translation all deserve further recognition.

It begins dramatically with the death of Gloria, a beautiful artist, in the wilderness she knows so well and where she feels completely at home. Soon after, a hiker is killed in the same place. Private eye Ricardo Cupido investigates Gloria’s death, finds himself fascinated by the woman and by the Madrid art world she inhabited, and becomes drawn into the puzzle. Through an exploration of her friends and acquaintances, we discover the victim for ourselves; she becomes more human and complicated, less attractive perhaps but far more interesting.

Cupido is a classic private detective, cynical about cops and women, with a sad and mysterious past. His past, the reason for Cupido’s isolation, is never explained. Reading the novel, this seemed rather clever to me; it added to the enigma of the character and to the shifting, ambiguous nature of the plot. Later I discovered that there were earlier books in the series, which have never been translated into English, so no doubt the back story can be found in those. This isn’t a case of the author leaving intentional gaps for the reader as I’d supposed, but of a publisher who has chosen not to make the earlier works available. A much simpler explanation!

The Depths of the Forest is a book about obsession. Obsession with a woman certainly, but more powerfully, obsession with a place. The landscape of the Paternoster lies at the heart of this book. It’s more than an atmospheric backdrop to the action, though it certainly performs that function brilliantly; it has molded the central characters and it makes sense of the plot. There is one scene, involving the killing of a stag, which sticks in the mind with such force that it remains long after the details of the story are forgotten. There’s no sentiment in Fuentes’ tale and no descriptions of a pretty countryside. The Paternoster is a harsh and unforgiving place, and that’s reflected in the brutality of the people who live close to the reserve and whose lives are shaped by it.

This isn’t a perfect detective novel. The resolution comes together well, but the structure doesn’t quite work, and the way Cupido reaches his conclusion about the identity of the murderer isn’t entirely plausible. But it is a compelling story, beautifully told. Those readers who enjoy the Nordic writers for the clarity of their prose and the subtlety of their characters, should try Fuentes.

Perhaps because their settings aren’t so immediate or so disturbing, the succeeding books in the Cupido series haven’t made such an impression on me. They don’t seem to have the same grandeur or scope. They’re more domestic, tighter, though still very well written. And both are set up beautifully. The Blood of the Angels (published in English in 2007) begins with protagonist Julian finding a gun in his dead mother’s apartment. His life is in crisis: his wife has just left him, he’s suffering from bereavement after his mother’s death, and his beloved daughter Alba is having emotional problems. What should he do with the gun? He can’t face going to the police, so he locks it in his bank’s safety deposit box. The next day he finds out it has disappeared. Then a teacher at his daughter’s school is shot. So a wonderful beginning, but although I read this book more recently than The Depths of the Forest, I can’t remember much of the detail of its story. It doesn’t pack the same sort of emotional punch.

His most recent novel, The Pianist’s Hands (2008), has a quirky set-up that reminded me of Fred Vargas at her idiosyncratic best. The pianist of the title, frustrated by the lack of interesting or challenging work as a musician, develops a lucrative sideline: he’ll kill animals for a fee. These are mostly pets that are suffering or have become inconvenient to their owners. The pianist isn’t a sadist; he’s an unhappy man fulfilling a service. Then he’s offered a lot of money to kill a person. Although he accepts the contract, he finds he can’t go through with it. When his potential victim is murdered, the pianist uses his fee to hire Cupido to find the killer. This is an intriguing beginning, but the book never quite comes to life for me. The other characters don’t hold my interest. Cupido, however, does reveal himself a little more. His mother has moved, without consulting him, into a care home and we learn something of the relationship between them and of his earlier family life.

A new English-translated Fuentes novel, At Close Quarters, will be published in October of this year. I’ll be looking out for it. I hope the author has opened up his writing, let more air in, given us some of the wildness and drama of The Depths of the Forest.

Bullet Points: Friday Distractions Edition

• Today’s crop of “forgotten books” runs heavily toward non-fiction (at organizer Patti Abbott’s suggestion), but there are also a few novels being touted. Among the reading suggestions of interest to crime-fiction fans: Bloodletters and Bad Men, by J. Robert Nash; Bitter Blood, by Jerry Bledsoe; A Catalogue of Crime, by Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor; Fatal Vision, by Joe McGinnis; and Killing for Pleasure, by Debi Marshall. Abbott has a few more entries in her own blog, plus a list of all of today’s participants.

• Someday, I’m really going to have to get my hands on a copy of Dan J. Marlowe’s 1962 novel, The Name of the Game Is Death, which introduced the anti-hero character, killer and bank robber Chet Arnold, later renamed Earl Drake. A few years back, Mystery*File’s Josef Hoffmann looked back at Marlowe and his “masterpiece.” Now, novelist Wallace Stroby takes his own whack at The Name of the Game Is Death, summing it up as “the good stuff, 100 proof.” You can read his assessment here.

• In case you missed hearing about this, Catholic nun-turned-mystery writer Sister Carol Ann O’Marie died last week of Parkinson’s disease at age 75. As editor Janet Rudolph recalls in Mystery Fanfare, O’Marie “wrote 11 mystery novels featuring sleuth Sister Mary Helen, a gray-haired, crime-solving nun. O’Marie said her San Francisco-based character was based on the principal of a grammar school where she had taught, and she used people and situations she experienced during her life in her novels, even going to the Calistoga mud baths for ‘research’-a bit out of the ‘order.’” There’s more on O’Marie here.

• Look out, Thomas Magnum!

• Australian-born Scottish writer Tony Black (Gutted) is Crime Squad’s latest “Author of the Month.”

• It seems that independent publisher Stark House Press, usually known for reprinting overlooked books by Harry Whittington, Gil Brewer, Wade Miller, and others, has purchased its first original novel: New York writer Charlie Stella’s Johnny Porno, an “often humorous, sometimes violent, action-packed page turner” set in 1973, when the banned “porn chic” flick Deep Throat was still drawing large audiences. Ed Gorman, who often wrangles books for Stark House, writes about the Stella acquisition here. (Hat tip to Nathan Cain’s Independent Crime.)

• Huh. I didn’t know that Ed McBain’s 1956 novel, Cop Hater, was turned into a movie. Another entry for my Netflix list.

• Further proof that Rush Limburger is a big fat idiot.

• Permission to Kill’s David Foster alerts me to a pretty cool project from UK illustrator/designer Leighton Jones, who has “retro-styled” the jacket on Charlie Higson’s first “Young Bond” novel, SilverFin (2005). Jones’ solution (recounted in five successive posts--here, here, here, here, and here) is considerably more interesting than the original cover. Won’t Higson’s publisher, Puffin Books, please hire this guy to remake all of the Young Bond novel fronts?

• For the Los Angeles Times, Sarah Weinman interviews Lawrence Block on the subject of his new “anti-memoir,” Step by Step.

• David J. Montgomery has joined Tina Brown’s Web site, The Daily Beast, as a weekly crime-fiction columnist. His initial book assessments are on offer here.

• While looking up some facts this morning about the old NBC Mystery Movie series Columbo, I found myself completely engrossed in the cyberpages of The Ultimate Columbo Web Site. What a trove of information significant and trivial!

• From Elizabeth Foxwell’s blog, The Bunburyist: “Lisa Rosner, author of The Anatomy Murders (due out in October), has developed an online slideshow dealing with the 19th-century Edinburgh murderers William Burke and William Hare. Rosner discusses the Web site and her book here.”

• IDW Publishing has bought rights to 100 stories by author Robert Bloch (The Scarf, Psycho, etc.) with the intention of developing them “as comic books, graphic novels and feature entertainment.” There’s more information here.

• Two interviews worth listening to in your spare time, both coming from BBC Radio 5’s Daily Mayo program: one with David Simon, creator of The Wire and the forthcoming HBO-TV series Tremé; and the other with Philip Glenister, who has played chauvinistic, violent Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt in both the UK version of Life on Mars and its spin-off, Ashes to Ashes.

• Here are your nominees for the David Award, given out by Deadly Ink Press. A winner will be announced later this month during the Deadly Ink Conference, to be held June 27-28 in New Jersey.

• Oh, yeah, this is a good idea, because what can possibly go wrong when you mix alcohol and loaded weapons in the same room?

• British author Matt Hilton submits his new thriller, Dead Man’s Dust, to the infamous Page 69 Test.

• To help celebrate Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 150th birthday last month, Time magazine put together this brief recap of some of the actors who’ve played Sherlock Holmes over the decades.

• Today is Ken Follett’s 60th birthday.

• Was Kung Fu actor David Carradine’s death yesterday the result of an accident, rather than suicide? Read here and here.

• And here’s an unusual book-giveaway contest. To promote its brand-new thriller, Chaos, by the Dutch husband-and-wife writing team of Esther and Berry Verhoef (aka Escober), Portland, Oregon-based publisher Underland Press is asking readers to “tell us about the biggest thing you ever done to spread ‘chaos’” and anarchy. The winner will receive a “military-issue map bag” containing such items as a “compass with sighting mirror,” a “camouflage T-shirt, suitable for disappearing without a trace,” and a “grenade (deactivated--you think we’re crazy?).” The deadline for telling the Underland folks about your deliberate deeds of disorder is June 30. Click here for full contest details.

Author! Arthur!

During a well-attended ceremony tonight at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, the Crime Writers of Canada announced the winners of its 2009 Arthur Ellis Awards. This is the 25th anniversary of these esteemed awards. The winners are:

Best Novel: Too Close to Home, by Linwood Barclay (Bantam)

Also nominated: The K Handshape, by Maureen Jennings (Dundurn); Transgression, by James W. Nichol (MacArthur & Company); The Murder Stone, by Louise Penny (MacArthur & Company); and The Tsunami File, by Michael E. Rose (MacArthur & Company)

Best First Novel: Buffalo Jump, by Howard Shrier (Vintage Canada)

Also nominated: Iced Under, by Nadine Doolittle (Bayeux Arts/Gondolier); Talking to Wendigo, by John C. Goodman (Turnstone); Headline: Murder, by April Lindgren (Second Story Press); and Margarita Nights, by Phyllis Smallman
(MacArthur & Company)

Best Juvenile Novel: War Brothers, by Sharon E. McKay
(Penguin Canada)

Also nominated: Res Judicata, by Vicki Grant (Orca); Getting the Girl, by Susan Juby (HarperCollins); Royal Murder, by Elizabeth MacLeod (Annick Press); and Dead Silence, by Norah McClintock (Scholastic Canada)

Best Crime Writing in French: Le Chemin des brumes, by
Jacques Côté (Alire)

Also nominated: Le Poids des illusions, by Maxime Houde (Alire); La Tendresse du serpent, by Andre Jacques (Québec Amerique); L’Homme qui détestait le golf, by Sylvain Meunier (La courte échelle); and Meurtre au Soleil, by Antoine Yaccarini (VLB éditeur)

Best Short Story: “Filmsong,” by Pasha Malla (from Toronto Noir, edited by Janine Armin and Nathaniel G. Moore; Akashic Books)

Also nominated: “Clay Pillows,” by James Powell (from Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], June 2008); “Walking the Dog,” by Peter Robinson (from Toronto Noir); “An Ill Wind,” by Amelia Symington (from EQMM, September/October 2008); and “Thinking Inside the Box,” by Kris Wood (from Going Out with a Bang, edited by Linda Wiken; RendezVous Crime)

Best Non-fiction: Mafiaboy: How I Cracked the Internet and Why It’s Still Broken, by Michael Calce and Craig Silverman (Penguin Canada)

Also nominated: The Secret Lives of Saints: Child Brides and Lost Boys in Canada’s Polygamous Mormon Sect, by Daphne Bramham (Vintage Canada/RHC); The Girl in Saskatoon: A Meditation on Friendship, Memory, and Murder, by Sharon Butala (Phyllis Bruce Books/HarperCollins); Befriend and Betray: Infiltrating the Hells Angels, Bandidos, and Other Criminal Brotherhoods, by Alex Caine (Vintage Canada/RHC); and Dark Days: The Story of Four Canadians Tortured in the Name of Fighting Terror, by Kerry Pither
(Penguin Canada)

Best Unpublished Novel: Louder, by Douglas A. Moles

Also nominated: This Cage of Bones, by Pam Barnsley; Cheat the Hangman, by Gloria Ferris; Salvage, by Stephen Maher; and Condemned, by Kevin Thornton

Congratulations to all of the winners.

A Touch of Frosting

I’m a bit tardy in mentioning this (I had to be away from my office for a while, submitting to my semi-annual teeth cleaning), but the results of Patti Abbott’s latest flash fiction challenge were posted across the Web today. As you’ll recall, the assignment was to write a story based on the idea of “a wedding cake in the middle of the road.” Click here to find Abbott’s submission and a list of other participants in this challenge. Gerald So has another story (and his own rundown of participants) here, while Powder Burn Flash hosts John Weagly’s short entry in the series.

Good-bye, Grasshopper

I was saddened to hear this morning that American actor David Carradine, who is probably still best known for portraying a justice-seeking Shaolin monk on the 1972-1975 TV historical drama Kung Fu, was found dead this morning in his hotel suite in Bangkok, where he’d gone to shoot a new film, Stretch. Carradine, a member of prominent acting family, was 72 years old. According to BBC News, he was “found by a hotel maid sitting in a wardrobe with a cord around his neck and other parts of his body.”

The main title sequence from Kung Fu is embedded below. If you are feeling especially nostalgic, YouTube hosts the pilot film for that ABC-TV series in several parts, beginning here.



READ MORE: “R.I.P., David Carradine,” by Marty McKee (Johnny LaRue’s Crane Shot); “Carradine Around the Web,” by Marty McKee (Johnny LaRue’s Crane Shot); “Thai Police: Carradine Death May Be Accidental,” by Tim Johnston (The Washington Post); “David Carradine, 1936-2009,” by Dennis Cozzalio (Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule).

Double Scoop

Here, folks, are two more fine crime novels worth adding to your reading stack this summer:

Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn (Shaye Areheart Books). Author Flynn, I’m told, is a calm and respectable Chicago resident who is the former chief TV critic for Entertainment Weekly magazine. As a writer of thrillers, however, she’s something quite different: one scary momma. Dark Places--her second novel, after the Dagger Awards-winning Sharp Objects (2007)--is narrated by Libby Day, who, 24 years ago, was the only survivor of what newspapers called the “Prarie Massacre,” during which her older brother killed their mother and two older sisters in what seemed to be a satanic ritual. Flynn’s writing is strong and pared down to the bone. She never gives in to sentimentality. This one is already high up on my year’s-best list.

Darkness at the Stroke of Noon, by Dennis Richard Murphy (HarperCollins). Beginning her review of this Canadian novel, Reviewing the Evidence’s Yvonne Klein wrote: “RCMP Sergeant Booker Kennison knows way too much about corruption in the more senior reaches of the force and so he finds himself posted from Ottawa to Yellowknife, capital of the Northwest Territories and not all that far south of the Arctic Circle. Before he has time to warm up, he’s sent even further north to an archaeological site investigating the graves of members of the ill-fated 1845 Franklin expedition to navigate the Northwest Passage. Two of the archaeological team have died, presumably in an accident, and Kennison is required to look things over and bring the bodies back.” As critic Sarah Weinman wrote, “What a shame that Murphy did not live to see his one and only novel published, and that he was robbed of writing more. His evocation of Canada’s most frozen north is strong enough to chill the bones, and his ability to merge multiple mysteries together in seamless fashion is on par with writers of lengthy series backlists.”

Deadlines, Designs, and Disappointments

Sorry for the sparse posting over these last few days. While things seemed slow in the crime-fiction world, I decided to write a couple of pieces for my other blog, Limbo--one heralding the centennial of Seattle’s first world’s fair, and the other about what would have been my mother’s 85th birthday, had she not died 20 years ago. But with those now in the can, it’s back to business here.

• The deadline for submissions to the 2009 Shamus Awards competition is Friday, June 19. “Eligible works must feature as a main character a person paid for investigative work but not employed for that work by a unit of government,” Robert J. Randisi explains in PWA News and Views. “These include traditionally licensed private investigators; lawyers and reporters who do their own investigations; and others who function as hired private agents. These do not include law-enforcement officers, other government employees or amateur, uncompensated sleuths. Not eligible for consideration are self-published works, e-books, or works for which the author is not paid. All submissions must be in hard copy.” To find more information, click here.

• Stefanie Pintoff, author of the fine new Simon Ziele historical novel, In the Shadow of Gotham, is this week’s guest blogger at Moments in Crime. Catch up with her posts here.

• Did I mention already that Joe R. Lansdale has fired up a blog of his own? If he just keeps posting photos of his daughter, country singer Kasey Lansdale, I for one will keep tuning in.

• Designer Joe Montgomery, who was hired by Vintage/Black Lizard to create the latest reissues of half a dozen Ross Macdonald (and what a wonderful job he did, if I may proffer an opinion), comments on the task and shows some of his rejected concepts at the Web site FaceOut Books. (Hat tip to The Casual Optimist.)

• James Bond takes his licks. ’Nuff said on that subject.

• Richard Lange, the Los Angeles writer whose 2007 short-story collection, Dead Boys, brought out the effusiveness in many book critics, will see his first novel, This Wicked World, published by Little, Brown at the end of this month. In the meantime, blogger-critic Clayton Moore (who remarked on This Wicked World in his latest Bookslut column) has obtained three copies of Dead Boys that he’s giving away to readers. All you have to do to enter the contest to win one of those copies, Moore says, is “Tell me your favorite Los Angeles-based book or film, and why.” Full details of this contest can be found here.

• More Hercule Poirot to come from actor David Suchet.

• I admit to being disappointed in the brand-new Akashic Books release, Seattle Noir. Although there are a few high points (such as Thomas P. Hopp’s “Blood Tide” and Brian Thornton’s “Paper Son,” the latter of which ought to inspire the creation of a new historical series), too many of the tales in that volume could have been set anywhere; they capture the geographical picture of Seattle, without really portraying the city’s character--they could have been set anywhere. Which runs somewhat counter to editor Curt Colbert’s intention, as he explains in an essay for Criminal Brief.

• I forgot to mention that there’s an excellent interview with 73-year-old Swedish author Maj Sjöwall, available in The Wall Street Journal and conducted by Ross Macdonald biographer Tom Nolan. Between the mid-1960s and mid-’70s, Sjöwall and her husband, Per Wahlöö (who died in 1975), penned 10 novels featuring Stockholm police inspector Martin Beck--all of which are now being reissued in America by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. (Hat tip to Petrona.)

• Yet another John Harvey book, so soon?

• Salon senior writer Laura Miller “recommends four addictive novels to add intrigue and treachery to your beach book.” It’s nice to see George Dawes Green (of The Caveman’s Valentine fame) back with a new novel, but I think I can pass on the latest vampire thriller, this one by director Guillermo del Toro and novelist Chuck Hogan.

• David Liss, who has a new Benjamin Weaver historical mystery (The Devil’s Company) due out next month, and has just signed on as a contributor to the blog Contemporary Nomad, writes that he has “no idea how I am going to understand the experience of a new novel without the traditional ritual of the book tour.” It seems that his publisher, Random House, “decided to skip the tour this time around, in part because I toured for my previous novel nine months earlier, and in part because they are freaking out about money.”

• Bill O’Reilly should be ashamed of himself. Every day.

• Robert B. Parker has revised the previously recorded history of his famous series protagonist, Boston private investigator Spenser, in his “Young Spenser Novel,” Chasing the Bear. That according to avowed Parker fan Bill Crider.

• Did you know that Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1885 University of Edinburgh dissertation, “An Essay upon the Vasomotor Changes in Tabes Dorsalis,” is available online? (Hat tip to Elizabeth Foxwell.)

• And happy birthday to Mike Hammer ... well, at least to the actor who played Mickey Spillane’s famous Manhattan private eye on television: Stacy Keach, who turns 68 years old today.

Thumbs Up from Hef

Lately, in going over the “hits” statistics on Killer Covers, I’ve noticed something strange: a lot of Playboy readers have suddenly been checking out The Rap Sheet’s book cover-oriented sister blog. It turns out that Killer Covers won a complimentary mention in the Playboy Web site’s entertainment blog, The Blow-Up. There’s the write-up, squeezed between mentions of Michael Jackson and “hot model” Marcell Cartier:

They say pulp novels make better movies than serious fiction. They also get much sexier cover art. Get lost in the lurid images of yesteryear at the amazingly informative blog Killer Covers.

Thanks for the plug, guys.

Troubled Waters

More sad news regarding Peter Falk, former star of the popular NBC Mystery Movie series Columbo. As the Associated Press reports,

A judge placed former “Columbo” star Peter Falk in a conservatorship Monday to ensure his daughter could occasionally visit the ailing 81-year-old actor.

Falk’s wife of more than 30 years, Shera, will remain in control of his personal care and affairs. Falk has advanced dementia, likely from Alzheimer’s disease, one of his doctors testified Monday.

Catherine Falk petitioned in December to take over her father’s affairs despite a sometimes contentious relationship with Falk and his wife. By court order, she will be allowed a 30-minute visit with her father every other month.

Falk’s condition virtually ensures he will not remember the meetings, his doctor said.

The full AP piece can be found here.

Peculier Is as Peculier Does

With Britain’s annual Harrogate Crime Writing Festival coming right up (July 23-26), there’s been an announcement of shortlisted nominees for the 2009 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. The 14 contenders are as follows:

• Death Message, by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown)
• The Accident Man, by Tom Cain (Bantam Press)
• Bad Luck and Trouble, by Lee Child (Bantam Press)
• Gone to Ground, by John Harvey (Heinemann)
• Ritual, by Mo Hayder (Bantam Press)
• The Garden of Evil, by David Hewson (Macmillan)
• A Cure for All Diseases, by Reginald Hill (HarperCollins)
• The Colour of Blood, by Declan Hughes (John Murray)
• Dead Man’s Footsteps, by Peter James (Macmillan)
• Broken Skin, by Stuart MacBride (HarperCollins)
• Beneath the Bleeding, by Val McDermid (HarperCollins)
• Exit Music, by Ian Rankin (Orion)
• Friend of the Devil, by Peter Robinson (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Savage Moon, by Chris Simms (Orion)

Members of the general public--which includes you--have the opportunity to choose a winner from this list. Just click here to make your preference known. The winner will be announced on July 23 during the Harrogate festival.

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)