Attention Grabbers

• Deadly Pleasures’ George Easter points me toward a very entertaining, 90-minute podcast discussion of this year’s top crime and mystery novels, organized by Crime Time and with Barry Forshaw serving as master of ceremonies. The “august” panelists are novelist-critic Laura Wilson, Crime Writers’ Association chair Maxim Jakubowski, Shots blogger and critic Ayo Onatade, Daily Telegraph crime-fiction critic Jake Kerridge, novelist-podcast presenter Victoria Selman, and critic-podcast editor Paul Burke. Easter compiled at least most the titles of the recommended books here.

• Thanks, too, to Elizabeth Foxwell of The Bunburyist for drawing my attention to a soon-upcoming exhibition in New York City titled “Sherlock Holmes in 221 Objects.” Among the rarities to be included—all drawn from the “preeminent collection assembled by Glen S. Miranker”—will be “leaves from The Hound of the Baskervilles; four short story manuscripts; original artwork by the British and American illustrators who created Sherlock’s iconic look for readers; a wealth of holograph letters from Arthur Conan Doyle to friends, colleagues, and well-wishers; a fascinating cache of pirated editions; the only known salesman’s dummy for the U.S. Hound; an ‘idea book’ of Conan Doyle’s private musings in which he (in)famously penned ‘Killed Holmes’ on his calendar for December 1893; and a handwritten speech—never before displayed—with the author’s explanation for killing Holmes …” “Sherlock Holmes in 221 Objects” will open on January 21, 2022, at Manhattan’s Grolier Club, and continue through April 16.

• Shoot, I wish I had known, before scratching out this year’s Christmas wish list, that Harlan P. Halsey’s 1874 work Old Sleuth, the Detective: Or, The Bay Ridge Mystery, was being reissued. As Wikipedia explains, “The Old Sleuth, appearing in The Fireside Companion story paper beginning in 1872, was the first dime-novel detective and began the trend away from the western and frontier stories that dominated the story papers and dime novels up to that time. He was the first character to use the word sleuth to denote a detective, the word’s original definition being that of a bloodhound trained to track. He is also responsible for the popularity of the use of the word old in the names of competing dime novel detectives, such as Old Cap Collier, Old Broadbrim, Old King Brady, Old Lightning, and Old Ferret, among many others.” In his new introduction to this classic yarn, journalist Henry Stewart notes:

He’s not, by the way, a sleuth—his name is Sleuth. He lives in New York City, and he’s respected by the police but operates independently; the only times he interacts with official lawmen are when they’ve apprehended him, and he needs discreetly to reveal his identity to get back on the street. He’s a master of disguise; any character in this book might turn out to be him—and often does (maybe a few too many times). One critic called him “two-fisted, handsome, brilliant, strong and tough.” He was inspired by Allan Pinkerton, who soon rushed out his own chronicles of his private-detective career to compete.

I guess I’ll just have to pick this one up on my own dime.

• Shotsmag Confidential reports that Britain’s annual CrimeFest convention “is offering a bursary [or scholarship] for a crime fiction writer of colour to attend its festival next May. The bursary will cover the cost of a full Weekend Pass to the convention and a night’s accommodation at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel, and a guaranteed panel appearance. Eligible authors must have published at least one English-language book in traditional print by a British commercial publisher.” Applications are being accepted through January 30. Click here for additional information.

• Spy Command blogger Bill Koenig has compiled a (sadly long) register of people who “contributed to spy entertainment (or at least spy-related),” and died over the last 12 months.