Bits and Pieces

• Say hello again to Ms. Tree! The Hollywood Reporter brings word that the protagonist, who appeared in a series of comic-book adventures during the 1980s and ’90s, and was created by author Max Allan Collins and artist Terry Beatty, will return to print in a collection now being readied by Titan Comics and Hard Case Crime. As the magazine explains, “The eponymous character—whose name is a pun on the word ‘mystery’—is a love letter to American crime fiction as well as a part of the genre; she was inspired by Velda, the assistant to Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, and was often hinted to be the daughter of Dragnet’s Joe Friday. The high concept behind the character is that she’s a widow carrying on her dead husband’s private detective business, but is even more capable—and more deadly—than he ever was.” A listing at Amazon indicates that this Ms. Tree collection will be published in July.

• Knowing that British TV journalist Tom Bradby, whose career I have been following since the early 2000s—but who hasn’t published a new novel since Blood Money (2009)—finally has a fresh work, Secret Service, due out in the UK in May, I was pleased to find this piece in Shots. Penned by my old friend Ali Karim, it recalls a lunch he attended (sponsored by publisher Transworld), which honored both Bradby and another favorite fictionist of mine, Robert Goddard.

• Washington Post popular culture writer Travis M. Andrews asks, “What makes the third season of True Detective so successful?” His answer: Creator-writer Nic Pizzolatto “basically remade the first season.” To see how he makes that case, click here. FOLLOW-UP: Rolling Stone’s Alan Sepinwall has more to say on this subject.

• Can proper use of the “Oxford comma” help your dating life?

• Back in 2017, I raved a bit about ABC-TV’s Time After Time, a science-fiction crime thriller based on both Karl Alexander’s 1979 novel of that same name and on the Nicholas Meyer-scripted movie made from Alexander’s memorable cat-and-mouse adventure. If you recall, ABC’s mid-season replacement series found not-yet-novelist H.G. Wells (played by English actor Freddie Stroma) constructing a time machine in 1893 London, only to have it used by his longtime friend, surgeon John Stevenson (Josh Bowman), who Wells discovered—too late—was the homicidal Jack the Ripper … and who promptly escaped in said time-travel contraption. Wells gave chase, winding up, like Stevenson, in 21st-century New York City, where he encountered an enchanting young historian/assistant museum curator named Jane Walker (Genesis Rodriguez), willing to help him find and stop the Ripper before he extends his murderous rampage too much farther. Unfortunately, ABC showed just five episodes of Time After Time on Sunday nights before canceling the series, and I was led to believe that only a single further episode had been filmed but left unbroadcast. That last bit of information turns out to be have been wrong. In fact, there were 12 episodes made of this Kevin Williamson-developed series; and though ABC didn’t carry them all, other networks in South Africa, Australia, Spain, and elsewhere did. Now, thanks to a streaming service called CW Seed, those additional Time After Time eps have become available to American viewers. You can watch those you previously missed here. I’m still catching up with the program, hoping that the full Season 1 run left Williamson opportunity enough to tie up multiple mysteries left hanging at the end of Episode 5.

• Don’t be too quick to believe rumors that the title of the 25th James Bond film, currently scheduled for release in April 2020, will be Shatterhand. The Spy Command’s Bill Koenig has the story.

• Are we in the midst of a Cornell Woolrich revival?

• It’s been a while since I last picked up a Dick Francis novel, but Neil Nyren’s recent recap of his horse-racing and writing career, for CrimeReads, makes me want to go searching for all of those Francis thrillers I have not yet enjoyed.

• A month ago, organizers of Maryland’s annual Malice Domestic conference announced the finalists for the 2019 Agatha Awards in six categories, including Best Short Story. More recently, author-educator Art Taylor, a previous Agatha winner, has provided links from his blog to places around the Web where you can find and read 2019’s Best Short Story contenders. Winners of the latest Agatha Awards are to be declared on May 4.