Falling for Autumn Reads

Even before I started reviewing books for a living, I was attracted to lists of titles due for release in the approaching months. They spurred in me hope for my continuing entertainment, but also anticipation of what authors I’d enjoyed before might have in store for me next. Of course, in those bygone days I had only publishers’ printed catalogues of their forthcoming works, and the weighty Books in Print, to page through for reading ideas; the myriad online resources we now have available didn’t exist. I would dog-ear or tear out catalogue spreads devoted to works that caught my eye, and then watch hungrily for the books of my dreams to actually appear on bookstore shelves. That I never had enough open hours or money to read everything I thought interesting did not discourage me one iota from giving it a fair shot.

These days, I have even less time to read. (Blame that on my consuming pastime of blogging, and the usual obligations of both work and marriage.) Yet I remain optimistic of my ability to read everything that catches my eye. That I often wind up at the end of any particular year with extra books I never quite got around to digesting, doesn’t convince me in the least to lower my goals. Next year, I’m sure, I shall find more hours in which to bury my nose deep within fragrant printed pages.

I’m a reader; it’s what I do.

So when I sat down to tally up all of the interesting (to me, anyway) crime, mystery, and thriller works due out between now and New Year’s Day, I didn’t restrict myself to only what I thought I could read in that time; I registered every work I want to read--reality be damned. There are more than 130 titles listed below, of books from both sides of the Atlantic. The realist on my right shoulder says I’ll probably get through a third of those, but the optimist on my left shoulder is already looking for more free reading hours. Maybe if I can cut my sleeping time in half ... or eliminate TV watching altogether ... or get my cat to pitch in on household chores ...

Nothing’s impossible, right?

SEPTEMBER (U.S.):

• The Affair, by Lee Child (Delacorte)

• All Cry Chaos, by Leonard Rosen
(Permanent Press)

• The Assassin in the Marais, by Claude Izner (Minotaur)

• The Best Bad Dream, by Robert Ward (Mysterious Press)

• The Black Stiletto, by Raymond Benson (Oceanview)

• The Blood Royal, by Barbara Cleverly (Soho Crime)

• The Burning, by Jane Casey (Minotaur)

• The Burning Soul, by John Connolly (Atria)

• City of Secrets, by Kelli Stanley (Minotaur)

• Damage Control, by Denise Hamilton (Scribner)

• Death of the Mantis, by Michael Stanley (Scribner)

• Dove Season, by Johnny Shaw (AmazonEncore)

• The End of the Line, by Stephen Legault (TouchWood)

• Feast Day of Fools, by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster)

• Getting Off, by Lawrence Block (Hard Case Crime)

• Ghost Hero, by S.J. Rozan (Minotaur)

• Headhunters, by Jo Nesbø (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

• A Killer’s Essence, by Dave Zeltserman (Overlook)

• A Killing in China Basin, by Kirk Russell (Severn House)

• London Frog, by Joseph Pittman (Vantage Point)

• A Mortal Terror, by James R. Benn (Soho Crime)

• Motor City Shakedown, by D.E. Johnson (Minotaur)

• Nairobi Heat, by Mukoma Wa Ngugi (Melville House)

• Naughty in Nice, by Rhys Bowen (Berkley)

• Nazareth Child, by Darrell James (Midnight Ink)

• Operation Napoleon, by Arnaldur Indridason (Minotaur)

• The Perfect Suspect, by Margaret Coel (Berkley)

• Pirate King, by Laurie R. King (Bantam)

• The Potter’s Field, by Andrea Camilleri (Penguin)

• Quarry’s Ex, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime)

• The Revisionists, by Thomas Mullen (Mulholland)

• A Rhumba in Waltz Time, by Robert S. Levinson (Five Star)

• Robert B. Parker’s Killing the Blues, by Michael Brandman (Putnam)

• The Ronin’s Mistress, by Laura Joh Rowland (Minotaur)

• Sorry, by Zoran Drvenkar (Knopf)

• The Surrogate, by Tania Carver (Pegasus)

• Tag Man, by Archer Mayor (Minotaur)

• Temporary Perfections, by Gianrico Carofiglio (Rizzoli Ex Libris)

• Trackers, by Deon Meyer (Atlantic Monthly)

• Trick of the Dark, by Val McDermid (Bywater)

• Zillionaire, by Gary Alexander (Five Star)

SEPTEMBER (UK):

• A Bespoke Murder, by Edward Marston
(Allison & Busby)

• The Bloody Meadow, by William Ryan (Mantle)

• Bryant & May and the Memory of Blood, by Christopher Fowler
(Faber & Faber)

• The Crowded Grave, by Martin Walker (Quercus)

• Death’s Other Kingdom, by P.J. Brooke (Constable)

• The Diamond Chariot, by Boris Akunin (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

• Dorchester Terrace, by Anne Perry (Headline)

• The Fear Index, by Robert Harris (Hutchinson)

• The Invisible Ones, by Stef Penney (Quercus)

• Lethal Investments, by K.O. Dahl

• The Retribution, by Val McDermid (Little, Brown)

• Secrets of the Dead, by Tom Harper (Arrow)

OCTOBER (U.S.):

• Bad Moon, by Todd Ritter (Minotaur)

• Bad Moon Rising, by Ed Gorman (Pegasus)

• Ballistic, by Mark Greaney (Berkley)

• Burned, by Thomas Enger (Atria)

• Cell 8, by Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström (SilverOak)

• Cemetery Girl, by David Bell (NAL)

• Chelsea Mansions, by Barry Maitland (Minotaur)

• Choke Hold, by Christa Faust (Hard Case Crime)

• The Consummata, by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins
(Hard Case Crime)

• A Crimson Warning, by Tasha Alexander (Minotaur)

• Deep Cover, by Peter Turnbull (Severn House)

• The Gravedigger’s Ball, by Solomon Jones (Minotaur)

• Headstone, by Ken Bruen (Mysterious Press)

• Hell and Gone, by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland)

• London Calling, by James Craig (Soho Constable)

• The Night Eternal, by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan (Morrow)

• Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D’Urbervilles,
by Kim Newman (Titan)

• Resuscitation, by D.M. Annechino (Thomas & Mercer)

• The Secret in Their Eyes, by Eduardo Sacheri (Other Press)

• Stolen Souls, by Stuart Neville (Soho Crime)

• The Stonehenge Legacy, by Sam Christer (Overlook)

• The Strange Death of Father Candy, by Les Roberts (Minotaur)

• A Study in Sherlock: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon, edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger (Bantam)

• Sweet Money, by Ernesto Mallo (Bitter Lemon Press)

• Troubled Bones, by Jeri Westerson (Minotaur)

• Ulysses’ Dog, by Jim Nisbet (Overlook)

OCTOBER (UK):

• Bad Signs, by R.J. Ellory (Orion)

• Blood Falls, by Tom Bale (Preface Publishing)

• Blood Relative, by David Thomas (Quercus)

• Crying Out Loud, by Cath Staincliffe (Severn House)

• Guns in the Gallery, by Simon Brett (Creme de la Crime)

• Icelight, by Aly Monroe (John Murray)

• The Impossible Dead, by Ian Rankin (Orion)

• Midwinter Sacrifice, by Mons Kallentoft (Hodder & Stoughton)

• Nine Inches, by Colin Bateman (Headline)

• Prague Fatale, by Philip Kerr (Quercus)

• Slash and Burn, by Colin Cotterill (Quercus)

• The Unlucky Lottery, by Håkan Nesser (Mantle)

NOVEMBER (U.S.):

• The Betrayal of Trust, by Susan Hill (Overlook)

• Blink of an Eye, by William S. Cohen (Forge)

• The Boy in the Suitcase, by Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis (Soho Crime)

• Breaking Point, by Dana Haynes (Minotaur)

• A Burial at Sea, by Charles Finch (Minotaur)

• Coffin Man, by James D. Doss (Minotaur)

• The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares, by Joyce Carol Oates (Mysterious Press)

• A Corpse’s Nightmare, by Phillip DePoy (Minotaur)

• Dead Last, by James W. Hall (Minotaur)

• Dead Man’s Grip, by Peter James (Minotaur)

• Deed of Murder, by Cora Harrison (Severn House)

• The Devil’s Ribbon, by D. E. Meredith (Minotaur)

• The Drop, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)

• 11/22/63, by Stephen King (Scribner)

• Fly by Night, by Ward Larsen (Oceanview)

• Forever Rumpole: The Best of the Rumpole Stories, by John
Mortimer (Viking)

• The House of Silk, by Anthony Horowitz (Mulholland)

• I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, by Alan Bradley (Delacorte)

• Lawyer Trap, by R.J. Jagger (Pegasus)

• Mercury’s Rise, by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press)

• The Templar Magician, by Paul Doherty (Minotaur)

• The Territory, by Tricia Fields (Minotaur)

• V Is for Vengeance, by Sue Grafton (Marian Wood/Putnam)

NOVEMBER (UK):

• Air Lock, by Charlie Charters (Hodder & Stoughton)

• The Coast Road, by John Brady (McArthur & Company)

• Easy Money, by Jens Lapidus (Pantheon)

• Rogue’s Gallery, by Robert Barnard (Allison & Busby)

• Western Approaches, by Graham Hurley (Orion)

DECEMBER (U.S.):

• Assume Nothing, by Gar Anthony Haywood (Severn House)

• The Cold Room, by Robert Knightly (Severn House)

• Collateral Damage, by H. Terrell Griffin (Oceanview)

• Danger in the Wind, by Jane Finnis (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Dark Men, by Derek Haas (Pegasus)

• Death at the Wedding Feast, by Deryn Lake (Severn House)

• El Gavilan, by Craig McDonald (Tyrus)

• Hurt Machine, by Reed Farrel Coleman (Tyrus)

• Murder in Mount Holly, by Paul Theroux (Mysterious Press)

• A Perilous Conception, by Larry Karp (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Ran Away, by Barbara Hambly (Severn House)

• The Silence, by J. Sydney Jones (Severn House)

• Too Much Stuff, by Don Bruns (Oceanview)

• Triple Shot, by Sandra Balzo (Severn House)

• Vigilante, by Stephen J. Cannell (St. Martin’s Press)

• The Villa of Death, by Joanna Challis (Minotaur)

A question for readers: Are there other promising new books in this genre, due out between now and the end of December, that I’ve somehow neglected to mention? Any and all suggestions are welcomed in the Comments section of this post.

(Top: Photo illustration by Mandi Campbell. Used with permission.)

Opening Acts

Here’s something the paper-and-ink Los Angeles Times Magazine would not have been able to do prior to the Internet’s existence: hold a contest to choose the best-ever prime-time American TV opening, complete with videos. The 52 candidates include the main title sequences from Batman, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Monkees, Get Smart, and Star Trek, as well as several crime/spy dramas, among them Mission: Impossible, 77 Sunset Strip, The Avengers, The Fugitive, Dragnet, and Hawaiian Eye. (Curiously, many of the openings featured in The Rap Sheet’s still-evolving rundown of “The 25 Best TV Crime Drama Openers” didn’t make the L.A. Times’ cut.)

Go here to vote for your favorite. When last checked, the results had The Lone Ranger, Gilligan’s Island, and Hawaii Five-O leading the pack.

(Hat tip to Lee Goldberg’s Main Title Heaven.)

* * *

Speaking of TV openers, about a year ago I launched a Rap Sheet “channel” on YouTube, devoted primarily to the introductions of old boob-tube programs I remember fondly. With almost 50 such videos now posted, I am rather amused to see which ones have drawn the greatest attention. Here are the top five most-watched:

• Crazy Like a Fox (11,192 views)
• Wiseguy (4,892 views)
• Bourbon Street Beat (3,197 views)
• Get Christie Love! (3,034 views)
• Hooperman (2,985)

Who knew there were so Crazy Like a Fox fans still around?

Not a Surgeon After All?

Oh no, not another candidate for the murderous Jack the Ripper!

Hard Case Crime Returns to the Racks

In observance of Hard Case Crime’s long-awaited return to the publishing scene in September, my column this week for Kirkus Reviews is given over to an interview with HCC editor Charles Ardai. This is not the first time I have talked about crime fiction with Ardai (see previous exchanges here and here)--nor, I hope, will it be the last, since he’s both a knowledgeable and witty source of information about this genre we all love. Click here to find my Kirkus piece.

* * *

Although I think that Kirkus interview is quite satisfying in its own right, there were parts of my discussion with Ardai that simply didn’t fit within the word count. So I’m posting the extras below for Hard Case Crime fans--of which there are now many.

J. Kingston Pierce: Amid last year’s brouhaha over Dorchester Publishing dropping HCC as a client, you announced that you’d take a step off your previous schedule of publishing a novel per month, in order to write more books yourself. Are you sticking with that decision? If so, is there a new regularity for the release of HCC titles?

Charles Ardai: Well, I’m sticking with the decision to reduce Hard Case’s output, currently from a book a month to a book every other month. We have a total full-time staff of zero, which means the entire editorial operation rests on my shoulders, and publishing a new book every month does make it hard to do anything else. I have not, however, stuck to my pledge to write more books myself, in part because I’ve had the privilege of working as a writer and producer on the TV series Haven (based on the book Stephen King wrote for us), and I’ve been working on some other film and TV projects as well. But I do plan to start on my next book soon. I’ve been itching to get to it for a while now.

JKP: We’re used to Hard Case Crime titles coming out in old-fashioned mass-market size. Yet I see that your new paperbacks are all in larger, trade size. What gives?

CA: I always intended to stick with mass-market, but the reality of the publishing business right now is that the mass-market business is imploding--it’s almost impossible not to lose money at it, except maybe if you’re publishing the sort of brand-name million-copy sellers that do good business in supermarkets and at Wal-Mart, which our books just aren’t. John Grisham, Nora Roberts, Dan Brown ... fine. But anything below that level (and we’re several notches below), it just doesn’t work.

Meanwhile, trade paperbacks are handsome, give a little more room to showcase our cover art, allow us to make the type size a bit larger (which I know some of our readers will greatly appreciate), and so far it looks like we’ll be able to keep the price point fairly modest--just $9.95, rather than the $12.95 or $14.95 or $17.95 you generally see trade paperbacks going for.

So, while the change might have been forced on us by a changing market, it’s actually one I’ve come to feel quite positive about. Feels a little weird, like the first time you switch from glasses to contacts (or vice versa), but the result’s nothing to complain about.

JKP: Whatever happened to the deal with Subterranean Press, whereby HCC was going to publish a hardcover edition of two early Lawrence Block books, 69 Barrow Street and Strange Embrace? I don’t see that that volume has ever been released.

CA: When we acquired Getting Off to be Hard Case Crime’s big re-launch title (and our first-ever hardcover), we agreed with Subterranean to push back publication of the 69 Barrow Street/Strange Embrace double until 2012, just so the two books wouldn’t bump up against each other in the marketplace. Two new Block hardcovers coming out within a month or two of each other might have been a bit much. But it’s still coming, probably next May.

JKP: Are there still authors of vintage American crime fiction whose work you’d like to add to HCC’s catalogue, but that you haven’t yet been able to acquire?

CA: Sure--Chandler, Hammett, Cain. Ross Macdonald. A boy can dream, can’t he? I wanted to publish a Hard Case Crime edition of The Great Gatsby, but Scribner shot that one down right quick. But keep an eye on us. These things seem impossible, but then sometimes they happen.

JKP: Prior to Hard Case’s hiatus, you’d begun a new line of Gabriel Hunt adventure novels, aimed at people who used to enjoy the works of H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the tales of Doc Savage. But you recently suggested that Hunt’s escapades might soon come to an end. What’s the deal there?

CA: The Hunt books were an experiment for us, both because they were a leap into a different genre--high adventure--and because each book featured the same main character. We signed a deal to do six of them with Dorchester, and we did six, and there are no plans yet to do more. We might at some point; it depends on readers’ appetite for more. I think it’s easier to read a new Hard Case Crime book every month, or every other month, because each Hard Case Crime book features different characters, a different style of writing, different sorts of stories--from bleak noir tales to hard-boiled comedies to heist yarns to man-on-the-run stories and everything in between. Whereas the Hunt books all feature the same main character, the same type of story. We wrote six of the things in 18 months--that’s a lot for readers to digest! But if they do want more, I’m sure they’ll get more eventually.

JKP: Finally, you read so many old crime novels for work purposes. But what do you read in your leisure time?

CA: What have I read recently? Henry Roth’s final novel, An American Type. Isaac Asimov’s original Foundation trilogy. A collection by Ursula K. LeGuin. Megan Abbott’s The End of Everything and Bury Me Deep. Charles Yu’s How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. A pretty varied batch of books, which is how I like it. Always trying something different.

“One of the 20th Century’s Great Faces”

Like many people, I would guess, I remember New York City-born performer Gerald S. O’Loughlin best because of his stint as tough but humane Lieutenant Ed Ryker on The Rookies (12972-1976). However, his career covered much more ground than that; he appeared in everything from The Defenders and Naked City to Mannix, The Green Hornet, Hawaii Five-O, Ironside, Matt Houston, McClain’s Law, Quincy, M.E., T.J. Hooker, and Murder, She Wrote.

As O’Loughlin nears his 90th birthday, on December 23, Stephen Bowie has posted an interview with the easily recognized actor in The Classic TV History Blog. Their discussion ranges from O’Loughlin’s early days on live television to his Broadway debut, his impressions of Kirk Douglas, his work on Ice Station Zebra, and his almost-starring-role as the captain on The Love Boat. You’ll find their exchange here.

Backer Steps Up

In an apparent effort to further share the rising costs of its high-status annual awards presentations, the British Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) has roped in a new sponsor for one of its prizes. Here’s part of the news release that makes this deal known:

The Crime Writers’ Association has today announced the new sponsors for its prestigious Dagger for Non-Fiction. The new sponsors for the annual award are The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS).

ALCS is a membership organisation for writers and seeks to protect and promote the rights of authors writing in all disciplines and ensure they receive fair payment for their work. The Dagger for Non-Fiction is awarded in July each year.

Barbara Hayes, Chief Executive of ALCS, said: “ALCS is delighted to offer its support in sponsoring the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association’s Non-Fiction Dagger. It is part of ALCS’ remit to promote the work of all types of writers and we are delighted to be involved with the Crime Writers’ Association in promoting a genre that has captured the hearts and imaginations of British authors and readers for so long.”

Peter James, CWA Chair, said: “This is terrific news. The ALCS is an important organisation and we are delighted that they will be sponsoring next year’s award. Much is said and written about crime fiction but non-fiction is also important and needs to be recognised. This award has always sought to do that.”

The winner of this year’s CWA Non-Fiction Dagger was declared during this summer’s Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. It’s The Killer of Little Shepherds, by Douglas Starr (Simon & Schuster).

READ MORE: The Daggers Go Glitzy,” by Ali Karim (The Rap Sheet).

Old School Ties

Series 4 of the British TV drama Inspector Lewis begins this evening on PBS-TV’s Masterpiece Mystery! In my household, that ranks as outstanding news. Although I never became a great fan of Inspector Morse, the 1987-2000 mystery from which this show was spun off (a fact probably due to my having discovered Morse so late in its run), I’ve been charmed by Lewis since its first episode.

That attraction could be traced to the unlikely pairing of sometimes grumpy Robert “Robbie” Lewis (Kevin Whately) with younger, more intellectual Detective Sergeant (Laurence Fox). Or it might have to do with the cinematography that makes best use of Oxford, England’s imposing architecture and stately public and private grounds. My attraction to Lewis certainly has to do, as well, with the show’s romantic theme and incidental music, composed by Barrington Pheloung (who also worked on Morse). But whatever the diagnosis of my attraction to this series, I have no wish to be cured of it.

Tonight’s episode, titled “Old, Unhappy, Far Off Things” and previewed in the video above, will begin at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Its plot is described this way on the PBS Web site:

Luminary graduates from Oxford’s last surviving all-female college are on campus to honor beloved professor Diana Ellerby (Juliet Stevenson, Place of Execution). There is the confident lingerie CEO, the provocative newspaper columnist--and then there’s the passive-aggressive Poppy Toynton. Poppy never quite blossomed intellectually like her peers. When Poppy is found dead on the stairs, her seething rage against her fellow graduates exposed, Lewis and Hathaway step into the esteemed circle of women to investigate. But Lewis is haunted by memories of 15-year-old Chloe Brooks, attacked at the college 10 years earlier. Lewis’ work on that case [was] interrupted by the death of his wife; now his deepening obsession with it threatens to derail the Toynton investigation. Is it unresolved grief or detective’s intuition? Lewis and Hathaway get a dizzying education in the scandals and secrets of Lady Matilda’s College, as well as a lesson or two in feminism, as they untangle a new case and bring a far off one back into terrifying focus.

There are still three more 90-minute episodes of Inspector Lewis to be broadcast on Sunday nights this fall: “Wild Justice” (September 18); “The Mind Has Mountains” (September 25); and “The Gift of Promise” (October 9). I would wish for more, but will try to be satisfied until this series’ presumed return in 2012.

Labor and Literature

Tomorrow will be Labor Day in the United States, an annual federal holiday that celebrates “the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations.” Although recent years have brought numerous right-wing attacks on workers’ ability to bargain collectively--notably in Wisconsin--the value of trade unionism as a protection against dangerous working conditions, inadequate wages, and other exploitive practices by Big Business has been made abundantly clear over the decades.

In commemoration of this occasion, Janet Rudolph has posted a list of mystery novels involving labor organizations of one sort or another. While these books aren’t interesting solely for their union component, that element does provide you with an excellent excuse to kick back on this three-day weekend and take one of them firmly in hand.

READ MORE: “Gallup: Public Image of Unions in Flux,” by J. P. Green (The Democratic Strategist); “The American Middle Class Was Built by Unions and It Will Decline Without Them,” by Zaid Jilani (Think Progress).

And Still Going Strong

Congratulations to the spirited review blog Bookgasm, which recently marked its sixth anniversary in business.

“A Cop Trapped in an Agent’s Suit”

The federal law-enforcement blog Tickle the Wire is reporting that Paul Lindsay, the former Detroit-based FBI agent who went on to write novels under both his own name and the pseudonym Noah Boyd (The Bricklayer, Agent X), “died peacefully Thursday night at a Boston hospital of pneumonia with his family by his side. He was 68.”

Lindsay, explains Tickle the Wire editor Allan Lengel, “had been diagnosed in 2005 with a blood cancer that compromised his white blood cell count, the possible result of his exposure to chemical defoliates when he served in the Marines in Vietnam ...”

The author is to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

READ MORE: “Ex-FBI Agent and Prolific Author Paul Lindsay: He Did It His Way,” by Greg Stejskal (Tickle the Wire).

Mike Ripley on Track

Mike Ripley’s September “Getting Away with Murder” column is up and running at the Webzine Shots. As always, Ripley’s coverage is so complete, I don’t even know where to start in recounting it: festivals and new series and old series and general comments about the crime corner of the book industry we all love.

Ripley’s observations tend to be spot-on and--quite often--are stated with great wit. Take, for example, this quick look at a new novel from Deon Meyer:

I am steeling myself for this month’s inevitable hysteria as publishers and booksellers trumpet that “South Africa is the new Scandinavia” when it comes to crime writing and that Deon Meyer is “South Africa’s Answer to Stieg Larsson”. He’s not; he’s far better.

As it happens, Trackers showed up in my office just today and I’d already decided to sneak it to the top of my TBR pile when I read Meyer’s sharp--and positive--assessment. Meyer writes in Afrikaans, which he explains in a touching comment in an interview that arrived with the book. “If I write in English, it takes me longer,” Meyer explains. “I have to translate my thoughts. ... Afrikaans is my mother tongue. It’s a small language, an endangered language. The one thing I can do for the language is to write in it.”

In the same interview, Meyer reports that he’s a big fan of Michael Connelly and insists that 2002’s “City of Bones is the most perfect crime novel I’ve ever read.”

Ironically enough, Connelly blurbs the North American editions of this book, which will be out next week from Atlantic Monthly Press in the States and Random House Canada north of the border. “With Deon Meyer, you can’t go wrong,” Connelly enthuses. I guess I’m going to trust in Ripley and Connelly and plan on spending a few hours with Meyer in the near future. Thanks, guys!

Bear in Mind

While we await the imminent publication of her second Miranda Corbie private-eye novel, City of Secrets, San Francisco author Kelli Stanley this week welcomed the online publication of “Memory Book,” a sequel to both Secrets and its predecessor, the historical thriller City of Dragons.

You can read “Memory Book” at the Criminal Element Web site.

Bouchercon 2011: 13 days and Counting

As I write this, there are just 13 days and a few hours left until Bouchercon 2011 gets underway in St. Louis, and with showtime so near, we’re starting to get some strong hints about the fun to come.

Take, for instance, the cover painting done for this Bouchercon by comic-book artist and storyteller Jill Thompson (right), with lettering by Tim Broderick. The resulting art is stunning and will be available at a ridiculously low price and in a very limited run during the convention. There’s a possibility that Thompson will be on hand to do some signing, as well.

Still on the subject of Bouchercon, author Robert J. Randisi (Luck Be a Lady, Don’t Die, Fly Me to the Morgue) sends word that there are still tickets available for the 30th annual Private Eye Writers of America (PW) Shamus Awards Banquet on the Friday night of the convention, September 16. The location of that event is currently a secret, but we’re assured it will be a “St. Louis institution” and that those attending will be provided with transportation to and from the convention hotel. Tickets are $60 apiece--which, all things considered, is a small price to pay to watch the next generation of P.I. wordsmiths receive their piece of metal. And dinner, to boot. Randisi reminds us that this banquet is open to the public, and he asks that people wanting either tickets or further information should “e-mail him instantly.”

Meanwhile, if you want to know exactly how long you have to wait for the fun to kick into gear, check out the Bouchercon 2011 blog, where a countdown clock is doing what it’s meant to do.