PaperBack: “Dead Weight”

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.



Dead Weight, by Frank Kane (Dell, 1953). This was Kane’s fifth novel to feature New York City private eye Johnny Liddell.
Cover illustration by William George.

PaperBack: “Juke Box King”

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.



Juke Box King, by Frank Kane (Dell, 1959). Cover illustration by Chicago-born painter Freeman Elliott, who is perhaps best remembered for his many pin-up art magazine fronts, but was also responsible for various vintage paperback covers.

PaperBack: “Two to Tangle”

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.



Two to Tangle, by Frank Kane (Dell, 1965), one of the last books in the Johnny Liddell private-eye series. Cover art by Ron Lesser.

PaperBack: “The Lineup”

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.



The Lineup, by Frank Kane (Dell, 1959), a novel based upon the 1954-1960 CBS-TV series of the same name, starring Warner Anderson and Tom Tully. Cover illustration by Victor Kalin.

Pussy Galore Makes Her Comeback

It’s official: Anthony Horowitz’s James Bond continuation novel, due for release on both sides of the Atlantic come September 8, will be titled Trigger Mortis. Ian Fleming Publications (IFP) made that declaration, via Twitter, shortly after midnight UK time, on May 28--which, by no coincidence whatsoever, happens to be Agent 007 creator Ian Fleming’s birthday (he was born in 1908). The book’s British cover is posted on the left.

The Spy Command notes that this novel “is based, in part, on an outline Ian Fleming wrote in the 1950s for a never-made television series. Horowitz’s story apparently is set in 1959.” That blog further quotes Horowitz, who is known for having created the popular British TV mystery series Foyle’s War and for penning last year’s historical thriller, Moriarty, as saying Trigger Mortis is set two weeks after Goldfinger (which was published in 1959, but set earlier) and that Pussy Galore is present. ‘I was so glad that I was allowed to set the book two weeks after my favorite Bond novel, Goldfinger, … and I’m delighted that Pussy Galore is back. It was great fun revisiting the most famous Bond Girl of all--although she is by no means the only dangerous lady in Trigger Mortis.”

Additional info about this novel comes from The Book Bond, which tells that “Horowitz places Bond in the middle of the Soviet-American Space Race as the United States prepares for a critical rocket launch. … As well as Pussy Galore, the book features: brand-new Bond Girl Jeopardy Lane; [Sin Jai-Seong], a sadistic, scheming Korean adversary hell-bent on vengeance; and breathless, globe-trotting adventure. Uniquely among latter-day Bond authors, Horowitz has included original Ian Fleming material: a treatment for ‘Murder on Wheels,’ an episode of a [007] television series that was never made. Fleming’s text sees Bond in the high-octane world of motor racing and it is his never-used plot that kicks off the action of Trigger Mortis.”

I’m particularly interested one of Horowitz’s passing comments: “It was always my intention to go back to the true Bond, which is to say, the Bond that Fleming created …” Does that mean his fair Pussy will be the lesbian former trapeze artist who featured in Fleming’s original novel, Goldfinger, said to be “the only woman who runs a gang in America,” or will she be the leader of a group of daring women aviators, as played by Honor Blackman in the 1964 Sean Connery film inspired by that book? We shall see.

Meanwhile, it’s been mentioned that Trigger Mortis is not a new book title. In fact, it was the name of pulp writer Frank Kane’s 1958 novel, his 12th to star New York City gumshoe Johnny Liddell. Publisher Prologue Books, which has made Kane’s Trigger Mortis available in e-book format, synopsizes that earlier work’s plot:

Johnny Liddell, private investigator, is not accustomed to a quiet life. But life was never less quiet for him than after he was called in by Celeste Pierce, a redhead who is giving several famous bosomy blondes a run for their money. Everything was going swimmingly for Celeste until she was blackmailed by Bare Facts, a magazine which had some bare facts about Celeste from her girl-in-the-pie period. She is willing to pay for pictures and films, and Johnny sets off to get them back. Unfortunately for Johnny’s peace of mind, impetuous Celeste goes off herself to see Murray Carter, the unattractive publisher of the unattractive periodical. Next day she is found dead in his apartment, and someone has obviously lent a helping hand since there is a bullet hole in the back of his skull. Johnny is given forty-eight hours and a free hand by the police to check on other blackmailers of Bare Facts. His search leads him everywhere from a Harlem dope joint to a boxers’ hangout, with trouble all the way. He finally solves the riddle, no thanks to anybody but himself.

Kane’s yarn might have served equally well as the basis for a Bond adventure. There’s no shortage of willowy flesh in its pages, either.

(The cover shown above from Kane’s Trigger Mortis appeared on the 1959 Dell edition of that novel, with artwork by Victor Kalin.)

READ MORE: “Trigger Happy” (Pulp International).

Bullet Points: The Carnaval Edition

While the annual Carnaval celebration roars into being in Brazil, complete with its body-painted queen, the rest of us--pasty-white and in no shape to go parading about thoroughfares in our all-togethers--must content ourselves with watching the 81st annual Academy Awards presentation. And maybe ordering in a pizza. And nosing around the blogosphere for crime-fiction news. To wit:

• Bill Crider brings us the sad news that novelist John Alfred “Jack” Webb (no, not the same Jack Webb who brought us Dragnet) has died at age 92. During the 1950s and ’60s, Webb wrote mysteries featuring the crime-solving pair of Father Joseph Shanley and Sammy Golden. The former was a Catholic priest in Southern California, the latter a Jewish detective-sergeant working with what was apparently the Los Angeles Police Department’s Homicide Division. Among Webb’s titles: The Big Sin (1952), The Damned Lovely (1954), The Brass Halo (1957), and One for My Dame (1961).

• Notice of another death in the crime-fiction community comes from Jiro Kimura’s The Gumshoe Site. He reports that Charles “Chuck” Crayne, “one of the founders of Bouchercon and a co-chairman (with Bruce Pelz) of the first Bouchercon, which was held during Memorial Day weekend in 1970 at the Royal Inn in Santa Monica, California,” died on February 16 of cardiac arrest in Willits, California. Crayne was 71 years old.

• Oline H. Cogdill, who for many years has written about crime and mystery fiction for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, today begins penning twice-weekly posts for the Mystery Scene magazine blog. “As I do for the Sun-Sentinel, I’ll be writing about a variety of subjects, mystery fiction, for sure, but also movies, DVDs, publishing trends, etc.,” she told subscribers to the listserv DorothyL. “The plan is to update the Mystery Scene blog each Sunday and Wednesday, though I may add a bonus or two when the mood strikes.” This is good news indeed, since that particular blog has been updated with disappointing infrequency since its inception in the summer of 2007. Even sadder has been the moribund state of the magazine’s companion blog, Brian Skupin’s Bookflings, which hasn’t offered new material since June 17 of last year.

• How can you not read a story that’s headlined “James Patterson: Evil Genius?” Picking up on a news item, blogger and fictionist Declan Burke reports that “Best-selling crime author James Patterson will release a new kind of novel next month--one that’s been collaboratively written with the crowd. Called Airborne, the upcoming novel will feature 30 chapters, each written by a different author except the first and last--those will be written by Patterson himself. With the release of this book, it appears the Web 2.0 movement of collaborative writing is about to hit the mainstream.” Is this good news? It’s hard to know, really ...

• As somebody with a longtime fondness for the works of author Alistair MacLean, once one of the world’s biggest-selling thriller writers, I am delighted to see Gravetapping’s Ben Boulden having collected five trailers for films made from MacLean’s books: The Guns of Navarone, Ice Station Zebra, Where Eagles Dare, Breakheart Pass, and Bear Island. Watch these in between Oscar-night shots of Marisa Tomei, Frank Langella, Anne Hathaway, and Josh Brolin.

• Speaking of the Oscars, celebrity Joan Rivers and her co-author, Los Angeles mystery author Jerilyn Farmer (The Flaming Luau of Death), imagine those glitzy goings-on with more crime than camaraderie in Murder at the Academy Awards.

• Devil on Two Sticks. How is that not the perfect book title?

• Linda L. Richards imagines the casting choices for a movie version of her first Kitty Pangborn mystery, Death Was the Other Woman (2008). Although I might prefer How I Met Your Mother’s Alyson Hannigan in the redheaded Kitty role, I can definitely see Russell Crowe as the besotted but still able Los Angeles private eye, Dexter J. Theroux. Now, would somebody just please make this film?

• British blogger-critic Uriah Robinson (aka Norman Price) has been posting a multi-part interview with Hawaii resident Rebecca Cantrell, author of the historical crime novel A Trace of Smoke, which is due out from Forge Books in May. Cantrell answers Robinson’s questions about her book, which is set in Berlin in 1931, here, here, and here, with more of their exchange to come. Fine stuff. UPDATE: The fourth and final installment of Robinson’s discussion with Cantrell can be read here.

• Crimespree editors and Bouchercon organizers Jon and Ruth Jordan win star treatment in the Chicago Tribune.

• The Irish Times investigates the explosion in crime fiction turned out by its homeland’s resident novelists. “There was a time when Irish writers of the criminal persuasion were rarer than root canal work on a hen,” writes Arminta Wallace. “Over the past decade, however, Irish crime fiction has emerged as a self-assured genre whose practitioners are not just selling well at home, but are also gaining recognition on the murderously competitive international crime scene.” The full story can be found here.

• After his splendid post last week about the U.S. TV shows that debuted in the fall of 1971, Saskatchewan writer Brent McKee follows up with another post that addresses questions readers have raised, and even features a bonus double-shot of theme music from Henry Mancini. Personally, I’m looking forward to McKee’s future comments about the 1972-1973 TV season, which he says will include “some rather interesting thoughts on Hec Ramsey.”

• Thinking of Hec Ramsey brings back memories of other NBC Sunday Mystery Movie segments, including Dennis Weaver’s McCloud.

• And though it took longer to write than I had expected, I’m rather pleased with my latest post at the Killer Covers blog. It covers the work of Frank Kane, an alcohol-industry promoter and the creator of New York City private eye Johnny Liddell (Grave Danger, 1954). Check it out when you find a bit of free time.