The Early Read

• Patti Abbott’s “forgotten books” series is officially on hiatus today. But there are some diehard contributors who just won’t take a vacation, when it’s offered. Four of the crime-fiction titles being touted around the Web today are: Headbanger, by Hugo Hamilton; This Girl for Hire, by G.G. Fickling; Turnaround Jack, by Richard Abshire; and a novel I was hoping to revisit myself sometime, Brad Solomon’s The Gone Man.

• For the first-ever interview in his blog, writer and videogame designer Vince Keenan has chosen as his subject Hilary Davidson, author of the newly released novel, The Damage Done.

• Happy 50th anniversary to The Flintstones. More here.

• I don’t know what I’d have done had I been standing in Antwerp, Belgium’s train station when such merriment broke out. But I would like to think that I’d have joined in.

• Wow! The list of noteworthy figures signed up to attend this month’s Bouchercon in San Francisco suddenly seems to have become extra-long.

• The rise and fall of German pulp magazines.

• A pretty effective use of a white board.

• My Year in Crime’s Dan Fleming declares this Elmore Leonard Month. Bookgasm, at least, seems inclined to go along with that.

• Bare•bones resumes its celebration of Manhunt magazine.

• Who remembers the 1962 Ian Fleming spoof novel, Alligator?

• A Web site called Criminal Justice University has put together a fairly interesting list of “10 Books on the Lives of Police Officers.”

• Republicans continue to plan their assault on Medicare and other social services. But are American voters paying attention?

• And I was saddened to hear that American actor Tony Curtis died yesterday at age 85. While I remember him best for his film roles in Some Like It Hot, The Defiant Ones, The Great Race, and The Boston Strangler, Curtis also featured in a trio of TV crime dramas: The Persuaders! (1971), the short-lived NBC Mystery Movie component McCoy (1975-1976), and the Robert Urich detective drama Vega$ (1978-1981). (And of course he also voiced a Flintstones parody of himself.) Vince Keenan has some nice things to say about Curtis here, Janet Rudolph chimes in here, with Mercurie adding his own two cents here. And if you’d like to watch the opening from the Persuaders pilot, simply click here. A public memorial is planned for Monday in Las Vegas. Thank you, Mr. Curtis, for shedding your light on Hollywood for so long.