• Tonight on PBS-TV, Masterpiece Mystery! will air “Falling Darkness,” the fifth and concluding installment in Series III of Inspector Lewis, the wonderful Oxford-set whodunit starring Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox. Set around Halloween, the story focuses on a succession of homicides associated with the detectives’ favorite pathologist, Dr. Laura Hobson (Clare Holman). Is it conceivable that Hobson herself could be the murderer? As the PBS Web site teases: “It’s a case that will conjure ghosts from the past and may well deliver the fatal blow to the team of Lewis, Hathaway, and Hobson.” Refer to your local listings for times and channels. Next week, Masterpiece Mystery! will introduce three new episodes of Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh.
• Speaking of Oxford, England, British novelist Val McDermid (Fever of the Bone) picks her 10 favorite Oxford novels for The Guardian. Not surprisingly, one of them is an Inspector Morse mystery, 1992’s The Way Through the Woods, by Colin Dexter.
• This week’s new short-story offering in Beat to a Pulp comes from former biotechnology businesswoman Katharine A. Russell. Her hang glider-related tale is called “Icarus of the Cliffs.”
• Zoë Ferraris submits her new novel, City of Veils, to Marshal Zeringue’s revealing Page 69 Test. You’ll find the results here.
• The pulp art lover in me wants this book for Christmas.
• Recognizing the growing international popularity of Scandinavian crime fiction, the Swedish Book Review has produced a rare special edition devoted to its country’s mystery-makers--not just Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell, but also an assortment of writers still undiscovered outside of their native Sweden.
• Bare•bones continues its series about digest-size crime-fiction magazines in Part I of a remembrance of “the best crime digest ever published, Manhunt.”
• American crime and suspense novelist Jeffery Deaver is the subject of Jeff Rutherford’s newest interview for the Reading and Writing Podcast. You can listen to their conversation here.
• Meanwhile, Kelli Stanley (City of Dragons) interviews herself as part of Sea Minor’s “Dancing with Myself” series. Learn more here.
• And Jenny White (The Winter Thief) talks with J. Sydney Jones about her historical thrillers starring 19th-century Turkish detective Kamil Pasha. Read their exchange here.
• This is good to know: When polled on their attitudes toward President Obama’s six-month-old health-care reform legislation, the Affordable Care Act, the number of “Americans who think the law should have done more outnumber those who think the government should stay out of health care by 2-to-1.” Observes The Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen: “This is particularly important when it comes to the Republican campaign to kill the new law in 2011. The GOP looks at the polls and assumes the party has the public’s backing on health care policy, but they’re mistaken--the vast majority of Americans didn’t like the pre-reform status quo and consider Republican ‘reform’ plans wholly inadequate.”
• How cool is this story?: “11 Astounding Sci-fi Predictions That Came True.” (Hat tip to Bill Crider’s Pop Culture Magazine.)
• On the subject of Christopher Bray’s new biography, Sean Connery: The Measure of a Man, Irish author-blogger Declan Burke writes: “[T]his is the perfect book for that audience that still believes Sean Connery is God’s gift to the Silver Screen. Unfortunately for Christopher Bray, that audience is likely to consist only of Christopher Bray.” Ouch!
• “In the discussion of great female detectives of the golden radio era, one name is invariably left out of the discussion: Pamela North” of Mr. and Mrs. North fame. Endeavoring to remedy that ignorance, the blog Great Detectives of Old Time Radio presents a rather engaging look back at the plucky Pam.
• Earlier this month we heard that Swedish actress Noomi Rapace (so captivating in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) would be joining the cast of Sherlock Holmes II, the sequel to the 2009 Robert Downey Jr./Jude Law action thriller. Now comes news that UK actor-author Stephen Fry will appear in that same film (scheduled for release in December 2011) as the Great Detective’s brilliant but unambitious older brother, Mycroft Holmes. Talk about perfect casting!
2 comments:
I've been enjoying Masterpiece Theater's airing of the Inspector Lewis series. Lewis is one of my favorite characters. I have to record them so I still have two already recorded in addition to the one coming up. Now that Hercule Poirot isn't on anymore, even my husband likes Masterpiece.
“Falling Darkness" is really nice. You have told about many programs that can be point of discussion and also can be catch on PBS Channel. Thanks for this nice post.
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