Fishin’ the ’Net

• Here’s a TV show I’ll bet you never thought would be resurrected, eh? “According to a press release, Syfy has acquired the rights to the popular ’60s British detective series Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) for development as a 60-minute scripted pilot,” reports TV Squad. “Originally produced by ITC--the same company that produced such cult series as The Prisoner and The Saint--Randall and Hopkirk was the story of a murdered detective (Hopkirk) who came back as a ghost that only his former partner, Randall, could see. A total of 26 episodes of the series aired between 1969 and 1970.”

• Evan Lewis honors the 1979 film Marlowe, starring James Garner as Raymond Chandler’s iconic Los Angeles sleuth, with a collection of book covers, clips, and posters connected to that picture. Click here.

• Elizabeth Foxwell reminds us that today would have been the 103rd birthday of Leslie Charteris, creator of The Saint, had the Singapore-born author not died in 1993.

• Raymond Chandler shows his love for Ireland.

• The longlist of nominees for the 2010 Ned Kelly Awards, given out annually by the Crime Writers Association of Australia, features a few familiar names, including those of Peter Temple, Tara Moss, and Garry Disher. Winners in several categories will be announced during the Melbourne Writers Festival, August 27-September 5. (Hat tip to Kerrie Smith of Mysteries in Paradise.)

• The death on Monday of 82-year-old American artist Frank Frazetta, best known for his work in the science fiction and fantasy fields, has spawned myriad appreciative postings. Look here, here, here, and here.

• Here’s a vintage book cover that might be rejected today.

• Former Charlie’s Angels co-star Kate Jackson claims that she’s facing “financial ruin,” thanks to a business adviser she met through the late Farrah Fawcett. Hey, where are Lee Stetson and Charles Townsend when a girl really needs some rescuing?

• Toronto author John McFetridge (Let It Ride) is offering a free download of a new short story he composed, based on his screenplay for an unsold TV series pilot, East Coast. More information here.

• In case you were wondering, attorney-author Scott Turow (Innocent) identifies for The Daily Beast his five favorite novels about the law published before 1980. (Hat tip to Campaign for the American Reader.)

• In My Book, the Movie, Bill Crider imagines the ideal casting for a film version of the just-published novel, Mississippi Vivian, which he wrote with “legendary Texas private eye” Clyde Wilson.

• David Cranmer fires seven questions at the award-winning short-story writer known only as Anonymous-9.

• Art Taylor has posted a fine review/retrospective of The Leavenworth Case, a detective novel published almost a decade before Sherlock Holmes’ first appearance, and written by Anna Katharine Green. You’ll find that piece here.

• The first time I ever heard the name Adele Mara was as a result of her continuing role on Cool Million, the short-lived NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie series starring James Farentino as a jet-setting spy-turned-private eye, Jefferson Ferdinand Keyes, who charged $1 million per investigation--but at least guaranteed his work. She played the mysterious Elena, who passed on messages to Keyes from a special telephone number in Lincoln, Nebraska. Not until later did I learn that Spanish descendant Mara was the longtime wife of novelist, screenwriter, and producer Roy Huggins, the man who created such memorable TV series as The Rockford Files, City of Angels, 77 Sunset Strip, and The Fugitive. And only today did I read that the once-beautiful Mara died last Friday at age 87, eight years after Huggins went to his grave.