Bullet Points: Hither and Yon Edition

• Although it’s not a long clip, Crimespree Cinema (in addition to several other sites) has posted a thrilling teaser for the Tom Thorne series being put together by Sky1 and based on UK author Mark Billingham’s popular succession of crime novels. The series will star David Morrisey, and as Crimespree Cinema notes, Sky1 has so far bought rights only to Sleepyhead and Scaredy Cat, the first two Thorne books.

• If I’m not mistaken, this is a first for the Webzine Beat to a Pulp: Its story offering this week comes in the form of a poem, “Collision,” by British writer David King.

• Congratulations to A Shroud of Thoughts on its sixth anniversary.

• Speaking of anniversaries, the British periodical CADS (Crime and Detective Stories) is celebrating 25 years in business. Martin Edwards and Xavier Lechard remind us of CADS’ significance.

• For New York magazine, editor and bookshop owner Otto Penzler picks his 10 favorite thriller novels, from Charles McCarry’s The Tears of Autumn to Eric Ambler’s familiar A Coffin for Dimitrios. (Hat tip to Campaign for the American Reader.)

• R.I.P., David Markson.

• Is The Sweeney really “the best cop show ever”?

• TV Shows on DVD finally has the box art and amended release date for Ellery Queen--The Complete Series. Fans can now look for it on September 28. The Rap Sheet has more about that 1975-1976 series.

• Meanwhile, this week will bring the release of Tales of the Gold Monkey--The Complete Series. For those who don’t remember, Gold Monkey was a 1982-1983 ABC-TV show, launched after the first Indian Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, proved to be such a success. It starred Stephen Collins as a former fighter pilot who, in the 1930s, finds cargo to ferry, romance to partake of, and adventures to test his mettle in the South Pacific. Gold Monkey was not a bad program, if I remember correctly. It could be well worth seeing again. UPDATE: Gerald So reviews Gold Monkey here.

• Mannix--then and now.

• Jeffery Deaver talks more about his forthcoming James Bond novel.

• Here is new, longer trailer for the Hawaii Five-O remake. Still the best thing about it, though: Grace Park in a bikini.

• Don’t forget about this month’s Deadly Ink conference ...

• ... or the New England Crime Bake, coming up in November.

• Maybe it’s time that BP (British Petroleum) redesigned its logo to reflect the company’s new reputation as a rampant and arrogant polluter of the Gulf of Mexico.

• The company should at least take to heart its own warnings.

• Swedish author Henning Mankell talks with Kate Connolly of The Guardian about his recent experience of being captured by Israeli armed forces aboard a relief ship bound for the Gaza Strip. He’s anything but contrite. “I think the Israeli military went out to commit murder,” says the 62-year-old crime novelist. “If they had wanted to stop us they could have attacked our rudder and propeller, instead they preferred to send masked commando soldiers to attack us.”

• Interviews worth your reading: Attica Locke (Black Water Rising) talks with The Independent; Craig Sisterson quizzes Martin Edwards (The Serpent Pool); J. Sydney Jones engages Colin Cotterill in a conversation about the latter’s Dr. Siri Paiboun series; Euro Crime chats up Leigh Russell (Road Closed); Publishers Weekly fires a few questions at Dennis Tafoya (The Wolves of Fairmount Park); Ed Gorman turns the spotlight on Simon Wood (Terminated); and Sons of Spade quizzes Steven Gore about Graham Gage, the star of his new novel, Final Target.

• Looking back on the roots of the Stieg Larsson phenomenon.

• Astonishing as this seems, Arizona manages to look even worse than it did. And so does scandal-plagued South Carolina.

• Himan Brown, a radio pioneer who created the famous Inner Sanctum Mysteries and The CBS Radio Mystery Theater, as well as myriad other programs, passed away last Friday at the ripe old age of 99. UPDATE: There’s more about Brown in A Shroud of Thoughts.

• Here’s something I didn’t know until today: Elizabeth Montgomery, the American actress best known for her nose-twitching role in the TV sitcom Bewitched, was the daughter of Robert Montgomery, who starred in that uniquely shot 1947 film, The Lady in the Lake, adapted from Raymond Chandler’s novel of the same name.

• Will actor Daniel Craig, most recognizable nowadays for playing James Bond, Agent 007, in a pair of movies, take one of the biggest roles in an English-language adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s bestselling first novel, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?

• From In Reference to Murder: “The sequel to the recent Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law seems to have been given a release date: December 16, 2011. So mark your calendars now.”

• Jason O’Mara, the Irish actor who’d hoped to star in an ABC-TV series based on Chandler’s Philip Marlowe stories, before capturing the lead in the short-lived American version of Life on Mars, now looks to be headed back to the small screen in another time-traveling drama, Steven Spielberg’s Terra Nova.

• Just short of her 90th birthday, and after a trailblazing career in which she covered 10 U.S. presidents, it’s sad to see White House reporter Helen Thomas leave the stage on such a sour note, following her recent comments about how Israeli Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and “Go home. Poland. Germany. And America and everywhere else.” However, it was probably inevitable. It’s only too bad Thomas’ sudden retirement can be seen as scalp-taking by right-wingers given to no less offensive remarks, but who won’t be following her out the door.

• And Steven Hockensmith drops a few clues about his fifth novel starring cowboy brothers Otto “Big Red” Amlingmeyer and Gustav “Old Red” Amlingmeyer. He writes: “A detectiving contest brings Big Red and Old Red to Chicago during the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. Unfortunately, someone commits a dark deed in ‘the White City’: The man behind the competition is found dead. Old Red knows it’s murder, but no one seems to believe him but his brother and an old friend who could hold the key to the mystery--and their future.” I, for one, look forward to reading more.