Bullet Points: Pre-Corned Beef Feast Edition

Today’s installment of crime-fiction-related news items that don’t necessarily merit their own posts, but may still be of interest.

• Mike Ripley’s latest “Getting Away with Murder” column is up at Shots, and it’s packed with his usual amalgam of substantive and sassy items. You’ll find observations about The Shadows of London, the sixth of Andrew Taylor’s 17th-century thrillers starring Cat Hakesby (née Lovett) and James Marwood; Peter Robinson’s posthumously published, 28th Alan Banks novel, Standing in the Shadows; hard-boiled British author Douglas Sanderson (Pure Sweet Hell); Blessin Adams’ forthcoming historical true-crime release, Great and Horrible News; and a crowd of other March mystery/crime premieres, including Owen Matthews’ White Fox, T.M. Logan’s The Mother, and Rebecca Rogers’ The Purgatory Poisoning.

• This year’s 70th-anniversary celebration of James Bond, the British super-spy introduced in the 1953 novel Casino Royale, includes fresh paperback editions of Ian Fleming’s famous Agent 007 yarns. As The Spy Command explains, credit for their simple but striking new look belongs to UK-based Webb & Webb Design, which previously created posters and book art for a world-traveling exhibition called Bond Bound: Ian Fleming and the Art of Cover Design. In addition to the 007 adventures, Webb & Webb has developed new fronts for Fleming’s non-fiction books, The Diamond Smugglers (1957) and Thrilling Cities (1963). They’re all set to debut on April 13.

• A rather belated “happy birthday” to Pennsylvania-born actress Barbara Feldon, who played eye-catching Agent 99 in the 1965–1970 spy sitcom Get Smart. She turned 90 years old on March 12!

• This Friday is Saint Patrick’s Day, which means the enforced wearing of green and plentiful servings of corned beef and cabbage. Mystery Fanfare suggests it might also be time to pick up a celebration-related crime or mystery novel. The blog has a wide variety of suggestions, from Kathi Daley’s Shamrock Shenanigans and Ralph M. McInerny’s Lack of the Irish to The Whites, by Harry Brandt (aka Richard Price) and Paddy Whacked, by S. Furlong-Bollinger.

• Deadly Pleasures editor George Easter surveys the growing field of do-it-yourself murder yarns. “Authors are coming up with such words as ‘how to’ or ‘guide’ to describe their mysteries,” he observes. “Others use ‘art of’ or ‘unsolicited advice.’ If you are planning to knock off your significant other, my unsolicited advice to you would be to discard these before the police show up.”

• Deadline brings word that David Kane, lead writer for the BBC One crime drama Shetland, will adapt Denise Mina’s Alex Morrow novels for the small screen. “Set in Glasgow, Morrow, which consists of five books, follows [Detective Sergeant] Alex Morrow, a formidable detective who can’t face talking to her husband or bear to sleep in the family home following a recent trauma. As she investigates a crime with partner Bannerman for season one titled Still Midnight, questions arise about whether their ambitious Machiavellian boss McKechnie has their backs. … Kane and Mina are exec producing Morrow, having combined on BBC drama cult hit The Field of Blood, which starred Peter Capaldi and David Morrissey and was also BAFTA Scotland nominated.”

• There’s still no announced date for the U.S. launch of Endeavour, Season 9. However, that final three-episode run of the Inspector Morse prequel series starring Shaun Evans and Roger Allam concluded last weekend in Great Britain. Sad to report, The Killing Times says that it left “big questions unanswered.” The site goes on to rate all nine seasons of the show (with the 2012 pilot and Series 2 winning the most stars), and muses on whether there might be more stories from the Morse universe deserving to be told.

• At least a couple of crime-themed works are among the victors in this year’s Spur Awards competition, hosted by the Western Writers of America. Ann Parker’s The Secret in the Wall (Poisoned Pen Press) won in the Traditional Novel category, while Dead Man’s Trail, by Nate Morgan (Kensington), trotted away with Original Mass-Market Paperback Novel honors. These prizes will be bestowed during the 70th annual WWA convention to be held in Rapid City, South Dakota, from June 21 to 24. Registration information is available here.

• R.I.P., Rupert Heath, the founder and publisher of Dean Street Press, who died of a heart attack on March 6 at the tender age of 54. Both Curtis J. Evans, at The Passing Tramp, and Steve Barge, at In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel, have posted tributes.

• We mentioned last month that Michael Stradford, author of the 2021 book Steve Holland: The World’s Greatest Illustration Art Model, had completed another look back at Holland’s prolific appearances, this time on paperback fronts. But there wasn’t yet an Amazon link available for those wishing to purchase the new, 216-page book, Steve Holland: Paperback Hero (St. Clair). Now there is!

• Have you checked out The Rap Sheet’s YouTube page recently? We’ve added to it a number of TV opening title sequences, including those from M Squad, Bosch: Legacy, Leverage, My Friend Tony, 87th Precinct, and David Caruso’s forgotten Michael Hayes.

• And in an amusing extract from his new book, Gentleman Bandit: The True Story of Black Bart, the Old West’s Most Infamous Stagecoach Robber (Hanover Street Press), John Boessenecker recalls his stylish subject’s initial California stagecoach robbery, in 1875.