Bullet Points: First 2014 Edition

Now that I’m finally past the feverish activities that surrounded Christmas, and have made peace with the weather woes that cancelled my long-planned-for holiday in beautiful Quebec City, Canada (gggrrrrr!), I can get back to the business of gathering and posting crime-fiction-related news bits. My, how quickly they accumulate …

• We’re now a week into 2014, but bloggers are still busy recapping their last 12 months of reading pleasures. Ayo Onatade gives a hearty thumbs-up to Lauren Beukes’ The Shining Girls, George Pelecanos’ The Double, Robert Crais’ Suspect, and other works in Shotsmag Confidential. Crimespree Magazine critics identify their favorite reads from 2013 here, while the pseudonymous Admiral Ironbombs at Battered, Tattered, Yellowed & Creased chooses his five top mystery/thriller books (all of them classics) in addition to the same number of science fiction/fantasy titles. Blogger-novelist Patti Abbott has announced her 10 favorite books of 2013, while Australia-based Reactions to Reading has gathered 14 crime-related tales of particular merit. And not incidentally, contributors to January Magazine--who listed their favorite crime-fiction works of 2013 in mid-December--have finally compiled their favorites in four additional categories. You’ll find editor Linda L. Richards’ introduction to the full feature, plus links to all of the posts, here.

• Oh, and Euro Crime has concluded its series focusing on “favorite discoveries” from the last year. All 10 posts are here.

• A new trailer for the big-screen version of Veronica Mars has been circulating lately, and it makes that Kickstarter-funded project look quite appealing. You can watch it here. (A previous version is here.) The Los Angeles Times explains the film’s plot thusly: “It’s been almost nine years since ‘Veronica Mars’ ended, and Veronica [Kristen Bell] is no longer in high school. But to give the characters a reason to congregate again once more, the film involves Veronica going back to her hometown of Neptune, Calif., for a high school reunion.” Veronica Mars, featuring an original screenplay by Rob Thomas and Dianne Ruggiero, is set to open in U.S. theaters on March 14.

• Rhian Davies (aka CrimeFicReader) brings news that The Detective’s Daughter (Head of Zeus), by Lesley Thomson, “has been voted eBook of the year following eBooks by Sainsbury’s month-long quest to reveal UK book-lovers’ top digital read for 2013.” (Sainsbury’s, for those of you who don’t happen to reside in Great Britain, is a large supermarket chain.) Thomson’s printed-book sequel, Ghost Girl, is due out in May.

• A big thanks to Sarah Weinman, who had some nice things to say about The Rap Sheet and yours truly in a recent post highlighting blogs that provide “good crime fiction recommendations.”

• The late Siân Busby’s A Commonplace Killing, which was among my favorite crime novels of 2013, is also one of the latest works chosen for W.H. Smith’s Richard & Judy Book Club. Find out more here.

• I love this vintage-style cover for William Boyd’s Solo.

• The organizers of Murder at the Beach, the 2014 Bouchercon to be held in Long Beach, California, are soliciting short stories for inclusion in that event’s anthology. Dana Cameron, a past winner of the Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity awards, has been convinced to edit that compilation. You can find submission details here.

• Oops! From The New York Times: “Chris Gossage, the lawyer whose indiscreet chatter led to the public unmasking of J.K. Rowling as the author of ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’--the detective novel that she published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith--has been fined £1,000 (about $1,645) by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for breaking the authority’s client confidentiality rules. Mr. Gossage, a partner at Russells Solicitors, also received a written rebuke.”

• And happy birthday, Sherlock Holmes!