Caleb Carr, the Manhattan-born military historian and author most widely recognized for penning the 1994 period crime novel The Alienist, died from cancer this last Thursday, May 23, at his home in Cherry Plain, New York. He was 68 years old.
As Deadline recalls, “Carr was born on August 2, 1955, into a New York City family haunted by violence and abuse: His father was Lucien Carr, a Beat Generation journalist convicted of manslaughter for the 1944 killing of what today would be deemed a sexual predator. The fatal stabbing, which made headlines and history not least because Lucien’s friend and Columbia University classmate Jack Kerouac helped dispose of the knife, was depicted in the 2013 film Kill Your Darlings starring Daniel Radcliffe and Dane DeHaan. Caleb Carr would later say that the incident, along his own childhood abuse at the hands of his father, spawned a lifelong obsession with violence ...”
A 1977 New York University graduate, Carr published non-fiction pieces in newspapers and magazines before seeing his first novel, a coming-of-age work titled Casing the Promised Land, released by Harper & Row back in 1980. He subsequently became a contributing editor to MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History; co-wrote the non-fiction book America Invulnerable: The Quest for Absolute Security from 1912 to Star Wars (1989) with his friend and mentor, James Chace; and in 1992 welcomed the debut of The Devil Soldier (1992), his biography of 19th-century mercenary Frederick Townsend Ward.
The Alienist’s publication brought Carr best-seller fame but also overshadowed his reputation as a military historian. The novel’s story takes place in New York City in 1896, and embroils three principal characters—Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a psychologist, or “alienist”; New York Times reporter John Schuyler Moore; and Sara Howard, a plucky and perspicacious secretary in Theodore Roosevelt’s New York Police Department—in a horrifying early serial-murder investigation, during which they employ then-new scientific methods to catch the killer. The novel was called “finely crafted,” “absorbing,” and “richly atmospheric,” with The New York Times’ Christopher Lehmann-Haupt saying: “You can practically hear the clip-clop of horses’ hooves echoing down old Broadway … You can taste the good food at Delmonico’s. You can smell the fear in the air …”
Just two years later, in 1997, Carr came out with The Angel of Darkness, a 600-page sequel that, while it suffered some in comparison to its predecessor, was nonetheless engrossing. Set in 1897, on the eve of the Spanish-American War, the novel follows Kreizler, Moore, and Howard (the last now a private detective) as they pursue the kidnapper of a Spanish diplomat’s daughter, only to discover what Amazon describes as “a shocking suspect: a woman who appears to the world to be a heroic nurse and a loving mother, but who may in reality be a ruthless murderer of children.”
Both The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness were eventually adapted as mini-series for TNT-TV, the former in 2018, the latter in 2020. Daniel Brühl took the role of Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, Luke Evans played John Moore, and Dakota Fanning excelled as Sara Howard.
Although readers were hungry to see more of Carr’s Victorian-era sleuthing trio, the author went on instead to deliver several unrelated works of fiction. Those included the dystopian tale Killing Time (2000) and The Italian Secretary (2005), a better-than-average Sherlock Holmes outing that finds him, along with Doctor John Watson, looking for answers to slayings at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, Scotland—crimes that may portend danger to elderly Queen Victoria. Carr’s most recent novel was Surrender, New York (2016), a modern-day thriller that finds a psychological profiler and a trace evidence expert being called upon to probe the violent deaths of “throwaway children” in an upstate New York county. The author also produced My Beloved Monster, a much-lauded memoir from earlier this year that detailed his 17-year relationship with a rescue cat, Masha, with whom he bonded “as tightly as any cat and human possibly can.”
In 2016, Entertainment Weekly finally—finally—announced that Carr was busy developing a new couple of Laszlo Kreizler yarns. “The first of the two books …,” it explained, “is set 20 years after The Angel of Darkness, in 1915 New York City, and is ‘centered on nativist violence and terrorism during America’s involvement in World War I’ …The second book will be called The Strange Case of Miss Sarah X, and will be a prequel to the Alienist series. In this novel, the publisher explains, ‘A youthful Kreizler, after finishing his psychology training at Harvard, falls under the spell of William James, has his first run-in with Roosevelt, and delves into the secret life of Sara Howard, heroine of the first books.’” Mulholland Books declared it would publish the first of those, tentatively titled The Alienist at Armageddon, on September 1, 2019. But that date came and went, and no book appeared. According to 17th Street, a Caleb Carr-focused Web site, “the books suffered a significant delay due to a necessary change in their concept and plot from what had originally been announced.” Carr’s “formidable” battle with cancer delayed their progress, as well.
Now, it seems, we’ll never have the chance to read either work.
We offer our sympathies to Caleb Carr’s family.
READ MORE: “What Caleb Carr Taught Me About the Families We Make,” by Zack Budryk (CrimeReads).
Showing posts with label The Alienist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Alienist. Show all posts
Saturday, May 25, 2024
Saturday, July 25, 2020
Bullet Points: Screen Gems Edition
• For the last 20 months, New York City bookseller and editor Otto Penzler has been counting down, in the electronic pages of CrimeReads, a sometimes idiosyncratic list of what he says are the 106 “Greatest Crime Films of All Time.” This week he finally cracked the top five (thanks to The Godfather: Part II and The Godfather), with just three more picks to go. If you haven’t been keeping up, click here to find links to all of Penzler’s write-ups, from Sleuth (oddly numbered at 107) through Bullitt, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Killing, Strangers on a Train, Harper, To Kill a Mockingbird, Mystic River … and well, I’m not going to run through the whole lot here. The question now is, what three big-screeners will round out Penzler’s rundown? Chinatown and The Maltese Falcon, maybe? What else?
• Speaking of 1974’s Chinatown, I had forgotten—until reading Max Allan Collins’ latest blog post, devoted in large part to its sequel, The Two Jakes—that the Paramount Pictures presentation “originally had what is said to be a lousy score, and Jerry Goldsmith was brought in at the last minute to write (in a little over a week) what is now considered one of most memorable film scores of all time.” Interestingly, Phillip Lambro’s initial soundtrack was not always derided, according to the blog J.J. Gittes Investigations (named for Jack Nicholson’s P.I. protagonist). It recalls that, early on, “Robert Evans, Paramount’s head of production and Chinatown’s producer, was impressed with [Lambro’s] music, requesting even more and hinting at a possible Oscar for the score …” A later audience preview-screening, though, “was a disaster, and the one solution everyone seemed to agree on was replacing the score.” Goldsmith, who by that time had created music for TV shows such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and Room 222, and for movies including Our Man Flint, Planet of the Apes, and Tora! Tora! Tora!, was brought in to replace Lambro’s score. Nonetheless, Lambro’s music survived in “the theatrical film trailer, TV commercials and radio spots.” Below is, first, Lambro’s proposed main title theme for Chinatown, followed by Goldsmith’s better-remembered opening music.
Eight years ago, Lambro’s Chinatown score was released in CD format by Perseverance Records under the title Los Angeles 1937. “It’s interesting,” concludes Collins, “but not a patch on Goldsmith.”
• The story of Lambro’s missing music reminds me of another episode about which I’ve previously written: How composer Alex North’s soundtrack for the big-budget 1968 science-fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey was replaced only in post-production by “a variety of classical works, among them Richard Strauss’ ‘Also sprach Zarathustra,’ which served as the main title theme.”
• This is most welcome news: Deadline reports that PBS-TV’s Masterpiece “is set to co-produce and broadcast [the] murder mystery Magpie Murders, a six-part drama series based on Foyle’s War creator Anthony Horowitz’s best-selling novel.” Like my colleague Ali Karim, I loved Horowitz’s 2017 whodunit, and am pleased to hear that the author will pen the screenplay for Magpie Murders, which “revolves around the character Susan Ryeland, an editor who is given an unfinished manuscript of author Alan Conway’s latest novel, but has little idea it will change her life.” Deadline quotes Horowitz as saying, “Magpie Murders is my most successful novel and it wasn’t easy to adapt. But I think the result is a completely original drama that will delight and beguile audiences in equal measure.” The series will stream in Britain on BritBox UK.
• While no air date has yet been announced for that small-screen adaptation, we do know that Horowitz’s print sequel to Magpie Murders, titled Moonflower Murders, is due out in the UK in August from Century. A U.S. edition will appear in November from Harper.
• I still haven’t warmed up to Will Davenport, the Anglican vicar-cum-sleuth—played by Tom Brittney—who replaced James Norton’s Sidney Chambers in Season 4 of Grantchester. He’s a far less well layered figure than Chambers, and his inconsistent reluctance, in Season 5, to engage in a romantic relationship with enticing newspaper reporter Ellie Harding (Lauren Carse) tested the bounds of credibility. Nonetheless, I’m pleased to hear learn that this 1950s-set series has been renewed for a sixth season. Maybe more time spent in the company of the great Robson Green, who plays Detective Inspector Geordie Keating on the show, will polish Brittney’s presentation.
• Also given extended life is HBO-TV’s Perry Mason, though it’s still only five episodes into its eight-installment premiere season. The Hollywood Reporter quotes Francesca Orsi, HBO programming executive VP, as saying: “It has been an exciting journey to work with the immensely talented team behind Perry Mason. Viewers have relished being transported back in time to 1930s Los Angeles each week, and we are thrilled to welcome the show back for a second season.” As far as I’m concerned, the jury is still out on this rebooted Mason. I like the period setting and the corrupt fragrances of pre-World War II L.A. that flood through it. I’ve enjoyed, too, watching the immensely talented John Lithgow play a veteran but troubled attorney; Chris Chalk portray African-American policeman (not yet shamus) Paul Drake; and Tatiana Maslany serve up an engagingly melodramatic performance as a religious evangelist and celebrity cut from the same con artist’s cloth as Aimee Semple McPherson. But screenwriters Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald appear more interested in supplying their principal players with unexpected back stories (Mason as once a heavy-drinking, low-rent private investigator living on his family’s decrepit dairy farm; Della Street as a closeted lesbian and aspiring attorney) than they do in capturing the essence of Erle Stanley Gardner’s storytelling. Up to now, at least, this show has only nominally been Perry Mason. Last week’s episode, however, found actor Matthew Rhys’ Mason finally passing the bar (even if we were witness to none of his studying for that qualification), so he can commence his defense of Emily Dodson, a mother allegedly complicit in the abduction and killing of her only child. Maybe over the final three episodes Mason can prove himself worthy of his moniker. If so, I’ll be happy he has another season in which to develop his courtroom prowess.
• TNT-TV’s The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, the eight-episode mini-series follow-up to last year’s acclaimed Victorian-era thriller, The Alienist, was supposed to have premiered tomorrow, July 26. Instead, its kickoff was moved forward by one week, though TNT didn’t explain why other than to say it was “an effort to continuously bring consumers thrilling, event television at a faster pace.” The opening two installments of Angel began streaming last Sunday, though I’ve only had the chance to watch one so far. Collider explains that this sequel, based on Caleb Carr’s 1997 novel The Angel of Darkness, finds “Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning)—previously a secretary for Theodore Roosevelt—now head[ing] up her own detective agency. Meanwhile, John Moore (Luke Evans), previously an illustrator, is now a reporter for The New York Times; and Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Brühl) … well, Dr. Kreizler is still putting his expertise as an alienist to good use. When a kidnapped baby turns up dead and displayed in grisly fashion, followed by the kidnapping of another baby, Sara suspects a serial killer may be on the loose. She reconnects with Laszlo and John to try and find this recently
kidnapped child before it’s too late, and as happened in the show’s first season, their investigation leads them down some shady paths.” Two more episodes should drop tomorrow.
• Adrian McKinty’s haunting child-abduction thriller, The Chain, was recently named as the 2020 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and now it’s bound for cinematic adaptation. Deadline reports that “In a seven-figure deal, Universal Pictures has optioned The Chain … Baby Driver helmer Edgar Wright will direct, while Jane Goldman (Kingsman: The Golden Circle and X-Men: First Class) is writing the script. The novel had been in talks to be acquired by Paramount before it was published last July by Little, Brown/Mulholland, but the deal never crossed the finish line. It has come together quite nicely in this new iteration. Working Title’s Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan will produce alongside Complete Fiction’s Nira Park and Wright, and The Story Factory’s Shane Salerno.”
• Blogger B.V. Lawson brings word that Mad Men alumnus Jon Hamm “is set to star in and produce a feature film reboot of Fletch, the brazen investigative reporter from Gregory Mcdonald’s 1970s and 1980s Fletch mystery novels. The new film adaptation will specifically be based on the second book in the Mcdonald series, Confess, Fletch [1976]. In a mysterious chain of wild events, Fletch finds himself in the middle of multiple murders, one of which implicates him as a prime suspect. While on a quest to prove his innocence, Fletch is tasked with finding his fiancée’s stolen art collection, the only inheritance she’s acquired after her father goes missing and is presumed dead. Zev Borow, consulting producer of the Lethal Weapon TV series, will be penning the feature adaptation.”
• This is coincidental, I’m sure, but less than a week after The Columbophile blog completed its countdown of what it says are “The 100 Greatest Columbo Scenes of the 1970s,” The New York Times’ Elisabeth Vincentelli is out with a delightful essay contending that “Columbo was all about sticking it to the man.” She opines:
• Here’s a bit more nostalgia: To get us through the COVID-19 lockdown, CrimeReads recommends digging into an “iconic” 1970s crime-fiction series, whether it be Robert B. Parker’s Spenser yarns, the Kate Fansler stories by Amanda Cross (aka Carolyn Heilbrun), Donald Goines’ four Kenyatta novels, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s Pepe Carvalho books, or half a dozen other choices.
• Are you missing the surprises and camaraderie of crime-fiction conventions? This may be the next best thing. As In Reference to Murder explains, “The virtual Harrogate Festival, ‘HIF Weekender,’ will be available for free this weekend. Events will include interviews with Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, and Mark Billingham; a panel celebrating debut authors; the live-streaming of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, and much more.”
• Who knew there was a Japanese term for “a person who owns a lot of unread literature”? Not that I’m guilty of tsundoku …
• Bloody cool! A Victorian vampire-slaying kit!
• Two podcasts worth tuning in: Episode 53 of the Paperback Warrior Podcast looks back at Kendell Foster Crossen, who—under the pseudonym M.E. Chaber—penned 23 novels starring insurance investigator Milo March. (Steeger Books is currently in the process of re-releasing all of those works in both paperback and e-book formats.) And in her latest edition of Shedunnit, the remarkably sweet-voiced Caroline Crampton considers the many instances of detectives undertaking investigations whilst on holiday.
• One cannot help but wonder at the provocation behind a new “Code of Conduct and Anti-Harassment Policy” from organizers of the annual Bouchercon convention, and applying to “all attendees at future Bouchercon events.” An e-mail note sent out by registration chair Teresa Wilson cites “recent events,” but provides no specifics. Nonetheless, the policy seems clear. It reads, in part:
• While others (including yours truly) announced their favorite 2020 crime and mystery novels—so far—in June, two familiar contributors to the MysteryPeople blog waited until now to weigh in. Meike Alana offers her 10 top choices, among them Scott Phillips’ That Left Turn at Albuquerque, Jennifer Hillier’s Little Secrets, James Ziskin’s Turn to Stone, and Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. In the meantime, Scott Montgomery’s 11 picks range from Amy Engel’s The Familiar Dark and Joe R. Lansdale’s Of Mice and Minestrone to Kathleen Kent’s The Burn and Walter Mosley’s Trouble Is What I Do.
• Looking for some crimes in cooler climes to get you through the depths of this coronavirus summer? In The New York Times Book Review, Tina Jordan and Marilyn Stasio recommend works by more than 40 Scandinavian noir writers.
• Canadian journalist Dean Jobb revisits an 1882 murder, in Chicago, that took place at one of that town’s swankest hotels, pitted a singer turned prostitute against the scion of an Illinois banker, featured claims of insanity, and—unusual for the Gilded Age—put not only the accused murderess on trial, but also “her abusive lover,” the deceased. A terrific piece, one that I wish I’d written!
• Speaking of 1974’s Chinatown, I had forgotten—until reading Max Allan Collins’ latest blog post, devoted in large part to its sequel, The Two Jakes—that the Paramount Pictures presentation “originally had what is said to be a lousy score, and Jerry Goldsmith was brought in at the last minute to write (in a little over a week) what is now considered one of most memorable film scores of all time.” Interestingly, Phillip Lambro’s initial soundtrack was not always derided, according to the blog J.J. Gittes Investigations (named for Jack Nicholson’s P.I. protagonist). It recalls that, early on, “Robert Evans, Paramount’s head of production and Chinatown’s producer, was impressed with [Lambro’s] music, requesting even more and hinting at a possible Oscar for the score …” A later audience preview-screening, though, “was a disaster, and the one solution everyone seemed to agree on was replacing the score.” Goldsmith, who by that time had created music for TV shows such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and Room 222, and for movies including Our Man Flint, Planet of the Apes, and Tora! Tora! Tora!, was brought in to replace Lambro’s score. Nonetheless, Lambro’s music survived in “the theatrical film trailer, TV commercials and radio spots.” Below is, first, Lambro’s proposed main title theme for Chinatown, followed by Goldsmith’s better-remembered opening music.
Eight years ago, Lambro’s Chinatown score was released in CD format by Perseverance Records under the title Los Angeles 1937. “It’s interesting,” concludes Collins, “but not a patch on Goldsmith.”
• The story of Lambro’s missing music reminds me of another episode about which I’ve previously written: How composer Alex North’s soundtrack for the big-budget 1968 science-fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey was replaced only in post-production by “a variety of classical works, among them Richard Strauss’ ‘Also sprach Zarathustra,’ which served as the main title theme.”
• This is most welcome news: Deadline reports that PBS-TV’s Masterpiece “is set to co-produce and broadcast [the] murder mystery Magpie Murders, a six-part drama series based on Foyle’s War creator Anthony Horowitz’s best-selling novel.” Like my colleague Ali Karim, I loved Horowitz’s 2017 whodunit, and am pleased to hear that the author will pen the screenplay for Magpie Murders, which “revolves around the character Susan Ryeland, an editor who is given an unfinished manuscript of author Alan Conway’s latest novel, but has little idea it will change her life.” Deadline quotes Horowitz as saying, “Magpie Murders is my most successful novel and it wasn’t easy to adapt. But I think the result is a completely original drama that will delight and beguile audiences in equal measure.” The series will stream in Britain on BritBox UK.
• While no air date has yet been announced for that small-screen adaptation, we do know that Horowitz’s print sequel to Magpie Murders, titled Moonflower Murders, is due out in the UK in August from Century. A U.S. edition will appear in November from Harper.
• I still haven’t warmed up to Will Davenport, the Anglican vicar-cum-sleuth—played by Tom Brittney—who replaced James Norton’s Sidney Chambers in Season 4 of Grantchester. He’s a far less well layered figure than Chambers, and his inconsistent reluctance, in Season 5, to engage in a romantic relationship with enticing newspaper reporter Ellie Harding (Lauren Carse) tested the bounds of credibility. Nonetheless, I’m pleased to hear learn that this 1950s-set series has been renewed for a sixth season. Maybe more time spent in the company of the great Robson Green, who plays Detective Inspector Geordie Keating on the show, will polish Brittney’s presentation.
• Also given extended life is HBO-TV’s Perry Mason, though it’s still only five episodes into its eight-installment premiere season. The Hollywood Reporter quotes Francesca Orsi, HBO programming executive VP, as saying: “It has been an exciting journey to work with the immensely talented team behind Perry Mason. Viewers have relished being transported back in time to 1930s Los Angeles each week, and we are thrilled to welcome the show back for a second season.” As far as I’m concerned, the jury is still out on this rebooted Mason. I like the period setting and the corrupt fragrances of pre-World War II L.A. that flood through it. I’ve enjoyed, too, watching the immensely talented John Lithgow play a veteran but troubled attorney; Chris Chalk portray African-American policeman (not yet shamus) Paul Drake; and Tatiana Maslany serve up an engagingly melodramatic performance as a religious evangelist and celebrity cut from the same con artist’s cloth as Aimee Semple McPherson. But screenwriters Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald appear more interested in supplying their principal players with unexpected back stories (Mason as once a heavy-drinking, low-rent private investigator living on his family’s decrepit dairy farm; Della Street as a closeted lesbian and aspiring attorney) than they do in capturing the essence of Erle Stanley Gardner’s storytelling. Up to now, at least, this show has only nominally been Perry Mason. Last week’s episode, however, found actor Matthew Rhys’ Mason finally passing the bar (even if we were witness to none of his studying for that qualification), so he can commence his defense of Emily Dodson, a mother allegedly complicit in the abduction and killing of her only child. Maybe over the final three episodes Mason can prove himself worthy of his moniker. If so, I’ll be happy he has another season in which to develop his courtroom prowess.
• TNT-TV’s The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, the eight-episode mini-series follow-up to last year’s acclaimed Victorian-era thriller, The Alienist, was supposed to have premiered tomorrow, July 26. Instead, its kickoff was moved forward by one week, though TNT didn’t explain why other than to say it was “an effort to continuously bring consumers thrilling, event television at a faster pace.” The opening two installments of Angel began streaming last Sunday, though I’ve only had the chance to watch one so far. Collider explains that this sequel, based on Caleb Carr’s 1997 novel The Angel of Darkness, finds “Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning)—previously a secretary for Theodore Roosevelt—now head[ing] up her own detective agency. Meanwhile, John Moore (Luke Evans), previously an illustrator, is now a reporter for The New York Times; and Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Brühl) … well, Dr. Kreizler is still putting his expertise as an alienist to good use. When a kidnapped baby turns up dead and displayed in grisly fashion, followed by the kidnapping of another baby, Sara suspects a serial killer may be on the loose. She reconnects with Laszlo and John to try and find this recently
kidnapped child before it’s too late, and as happened in the show’s first season, their investigation leads them down some shady paths.” Two more episodes should drop tomorrow.• Adrian McKinty’s haunting child-abduction thriller, The Chain, was recently named as the 2020 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and now it’s bound for cinematic adaptation. Deadline reports that “In a seven-figure deal, Universal Pictures has optioned The Chain … Baby Driver helmer Edgar Wright will direct, while Jane Goldman (Kingsman: The Golden Circle and X-Men: First Class) is writing the script. The novel had been in talks to be acquired by Paramount before it was published last July by Little, Brown/Mulholland, but the deal never crossed the finish line. It has come together quite nicely in this new iteration. Working Title’s Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan will produce alongside Complete Fiction’s Nira Park and Wright, and The Story Factory’s Shane Salerno.”
• Blogger B.V. Lawson brings word that Mad Men alumnus Jon Hamm “is set to star in and produce a feature film reboot of Fletch, the brazen investigative reporter from Gregory Mcdonald’s 1970s and 1980s Fletch mystery novels. The new film adaptation will specifically be based on the second book in the Mcdonald series, Confess, Fletch [1976]. In a mysterious chain of wild events, Fletch finds himself in the middle of multiple murders, one of which implicates him as a prime suspect. While on a quest to prove his innocence, Fletch is tasked with finding his fiancée’s stolen art collection, the only inheritance she’s acquired after her father goes missing and is presumed dead. Zev Borow, consulting producer of the Lethal Weapon TV series, will be penning the feature adaptation.”
• This is coincidental, I’m sure, but less than a week after The Columbophile blog completed its countdown of what it says are “The 100 Greatest Columbo Scenes of the 1970s,” The New York Times’ Elisabeth Vincentelli is out with a delightful essay contending that “Columbo was all about sticking it to the man.” She opines:
“Columbo” is one of the very few American series fueled by class warfare. Whether they are driven by coldblooded entitlement, delusions of grandeur or simple greed, the murderers treat the self-deprecating, ostentatiously low-grade cop with seething annoyance, willful condescension or hypocritical benevolence.• It’s been more than a few years since I last sat through the 1974 disaster flick The Towering Inferno. But Andrew Catmel’s recent appreciation post about that Stirling Sillipant-scripted picture makes me think a rewatch might be in order.
It is hard to overstate how satisfying it is to see smug
criminals get caught right now. Imagine the joy of seeing a rebooted Columbo go after hedge-fund managers, big-game hunters, studio chiefs, YouTube influencers, real-estate magnates or celebrity chefs who picked killing as an acceptable problem-solving method.
• Here’s a bit more nostalgia: To get us through the COVID-19 lockdown, CrimeReads recommends digging into an “iconic” 1970s crime-fiction series, whether it be Robert B. Parker’s Spenser yarns, the Kate Fansler stories by Amanda Cross (aka Carolyn Heilbrun), Donald Goines’ four Kenyatta novels, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s Pepe Carvalho books, or half a dozen other choices.
• Are you missing the surprises and camaraderie of crime-fiction conventions? This may be the next best thing. As In Reference to Murder explains, “The virtual Harrogate Festival, ‘HIF Weekender,’ will be available for free this weekend. Events will include interviews with Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, and Mark Billingham; a panel celebrating debut authors; the live-streaming of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, and much more.”
• Who knew there was a Japanese term for “a person who owns a lot of unread literature”? Not that I’m guilty of tsundoku …
• Bloody cool! A Victorian vampire-slaying kit!
• Two podcasts worth tuning in: Episode 53 of the Paperback Warrior Podcast looks back at Kendell Foster Crossen, who—under the pseudonym M.E. Chaber—penned 23 novels starring insurance investigator Milo March. (Steeger Books is currently in the process of re-releasing all of those works in both paperback and e-book formats.) And in her latest edition of Shedunnit, the remarkably sweet-voiced Caroline Crampton considers the many instances of detectives undertaking investigations whilst on holiday.
• One cannot help but wonder at the provocation behind a new “Code of Conduct and Anti-Harassment Policy” from organizers of the annual Bouchercon convention, and applying to “all attendees at future Bouchercon events.” An e-mail note sent out by registration chair Teresa Wilson cites “recent events,” but provides no specifics. Nonetheless, the policy seems clear. It reads, in part:
For over fifty years, we have observed all applicable laws and regulations, and have practiced strict adherence to the highest standards of conduct. Harassment of any kind will not be tolerated. We view harassment as any behavior, whether physical, verbal and/or emotional, that threatens, alarms, or makes someone uncomfortable. Examples may include, but are not limited to the following: verbal or written comments and/or innuendos of a sexual or violent nature, unwanted physical and/or sexual contact and/or advances, ethnic and/or racial slurs or epithets, recording or photographing individuals without consent, following or stalking and/or unwanted coercive behavior of any kind.Taking advantage of a limited-time discount deal, I registered for Bouchercon 2021, in New Orleans, way back in March, but was asked only earlier this week to study the new Code of Conduct and respond “with a simple statement saying you’ve read and agree” to its provisions. (Updated procedures now make such compliance part of the regular registration process.) I had no qualms about agreeing. But this all leaves me curious as to what went wrong at some previous gathering to make such a document necessary.
Any member who believes that they have been or are being subject to a violation of Bouchercon’s Code of Conduct & Anti-Harassment Policy, or who witnesses a violation, is encouraged to immediately report any such violation to the event organizer or a Bouchercon® Board member. Contact with the hotel, convention event space owner and/or operator or police is also encouraged. All such reporting shall remain confidential. In the event there is a formal legal investigation, all contact information shall remain confidential and protected against unnecessary disclosure—including the identity of the accused individual, the individual reporting the violation, and that of any witness. Should they desire to do so, individuals may consent in writing to Bouchercon® event Local Organizer Chair(s) to disclose their identities.
Any attendee asked to stop any behavior deemed to be harassing, is expected to comply immediately. If the situation is of an urgent nature, such as the fear of immediate, physical danger, the victim of the harassment should immediately contact hotel staff, convention event leaders, or the police.
• While others (including yours truly) announced their favorite 2020 crime and mystery novels—so far—in June, two familiar contributors to the MysteryPeople blog waited until now to weigh in. Meike Alana offers her 10 top choices, among them Scott Phillips’ That Left Turn at Albuquerque, Jennifer Hillier’s Little Secrets, James Ziskin’s Turn to Stone, and Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. In the meantime, Scott Montgomery’s 11 picks range from Amy Engel’s The Familiar Dark and Joe R. Lansdale’s Of Mice and Minestrone to Kathleen Kent’s The Burn and Walter Mosley’s Trouble Is What I Do.
• Looking for some crimes in cooler climes to get you through the depths of this coronavirus summer? In The New York Times Book Review, Tina Jordan and Marilyn Stasio recommend works by more than 40 Scandinavian noir writers.
• Canadian journalist Dean Jobb revisits an 1882 murder, in Chicago, that took place at one of that town’s swankest hotels, pitted a singer turned prostitute against the scion of an Illinois banker, featured claims of insanity, and—unusual for the Gilded Age—put not only the accused murderess on trial, but also “her abusive lover,” the deceased. A terrific piece, one that I wish I’d written!
Saturday, June 20, 2020
Bullet Points: Pre-Father’s Day Edition
• If you’re not sufficiently aware of this already, tomorrow night will bring the debut of HBO-TV’s eight-part Perry Mason mini-series starring Matthew Rhys (The Americans). It’s conceived as a prequel to the classic 1957-1966 CBS series of that same name, which cast Raymond Burr as the almost unbeatable Los Angeles criminal defense attorney introduced by Erle Stanley Gardner in 1933’s The Case of the Velvet Claws. HBO’s version, set just one year before that—in 1932—imagines Mason as a down-and-out, heavy-drinking private eye “retained for a sensational child kidnapping trial, and his investigation portends major consequences for Mason, his client, and the city itself.” The character Rhys plays here is actually closer 
than Burr’s portrayal was to Gardner’s original conception of Mason as (to quote from Otto Penzler’s The Private Lives of Private Eyes, Spies, Crime Fighters and Other Good Guys) a “hard-boiled, two-fisted and noncerebral” advocate for justice. But writers/showrunners Ron Fitzgerald and Rolin Jones have sought to flesh out their protagonist’s back story, as well. The Killing Times explains: “Mason is haunted by his wartime experiences in France and suffering the effects of a broken marriage.” An extended, noir-accented trailer (found here) nicely captures Depression-era L.A., with its recent Olympic Games, its unlikely “evangelical fervor,” the rise of the oil industry, and of course its Hollywood glamour. Vulture calls this new Perry Mason “a simultaneously gorgeous, gritty, and sometimes downright gory period piece filled with fine performances.” John Lithgow, Tatiana Maslany, Shea Whigham, Stephen Root, and Robert Patrick join Rhys in the cast. After disappointing previous attempts to revive Perry Mason (remember Monte Markham’s The New Perry Mason of 1973-1974?), it will be nice if HBO can draw upon what fans like about Gardner’s protagonist, while imbuing his story with greater emotional depth and substance. I’ll be watching with my fingers crossed.
• Scottish writer Lee Randall contributes a useful backgrounder about Gardner to CrimeReads, in which she recalls the lawyer-turned-author’s original intent with Mason: “I want to make my hero a fighter, not by having him be ruthless with women and underlings, but by having him wade into the opposition and battle his way through to victory. … [T]he character I am trying to create for him is that of a fighter who is possessed of infinite patience. He tries to jockey his enemies into a position where he can deliver one good knockout punch.” Yep, that nicely sums up the typical Mason yarn.
• Florida journalist Craig Pittman provides something of a public-service piece to aspiring legal-thriller writers, consulting various attorneys who have become novelists on how one might best compose realistic courtroom dramas. “I would suggest that authors treat courtroom scenes much like any other and not let the legal and technical details override the narrative,” says Alafair Burke, once a prosecutor in Oregon and now a professor at New York’s Hofstra University School of Law. “Too many courtroom scenes read like an intentional display of the research the author conducted to prepare for the scene. Instead, focus on character, setting, plot, dialogue—all the things that drive a good book. If the legal details don’t further a critical aspect of the narrative, skip them.”
• Crimespree Magazine brings word that writer Val McDermid “has unveiled the hotly tipped ‘New Blood’ authors for 2020, showcasing the year’s best breakout crime-writing talent.” Her choices:
— Deepa Anappara, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line (Chatto & Windus)
— Elizabeth Kay, Seven Lies (Sphere)
— Jessica Moor, Keeper (Penguin)
— Trevor Wood, The Man on the Street (Quercus)
“Since 2004,” explains Crimespree’s Erin Mitchell, “the best-selling Scottish author of the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series has curated an annual celebration of the most formidable debuts taking the crime and thriller genre by storm, with an invitation to join the line-up of the world’s largest and most prestigious crime-fiction festival: Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.” Although this year’s festival was cancelled due to the pandemic, Mitchell says McDermid’s 2020 “New Blood” showcase “will be streamed on the festival’s HIF Player on what would have been the legendary weekender on Saturday 25 July 2020.” You should be able to access the audio here at that time.
• I know, I know, it’s the frickin’ middle of June already, but only now am I finally getting around to remarking upon Mike Ripley’s latest edition of his “Getting Away with Murder” column for Shots. Featured among his plentiful subjects this time are: older books he’s taken up reading during the COVID-19 lockdown; forgotten writers Douglas Sanderson (Blondes Are My Trouble) and Peter Leslie (Bootleg Angel); fresh crime fiction by Sharon Bolton, Douglas Lindsay, Barbara Nadel, and Martin Walker; and the end of the line for the Top Notch Thrillers and Ostara Crime imprints, for which Ripley served as editor.
• In Reference to Murder features this tidbit:
• What a beautiful selection of vintage B-movie posters, all painted by Albert Kallis. I’m particularly fond of his placards for The Brain Eaters and The Astounding She-Monster, two science-fiction productions released in 1958.
• Like so many other writers, San Francisco-area author Mark Coggins has decided to launch a podcast during the COVID-19 lockdown. It’s called Riordan’s Desk, after his series private eye, August Riordan, and he’s currently reading chapters from his latest Riordan novel, The Dead Beat Scroll (2019). Chapter 15 just went up a few days ago. To listen, look for Riordan's Desk on iTunes or any of the popular podcast directories. Or, to listen from the Web, click here.
• Seeing as we’re now just a little over a month away from the TNT-TV premiere of The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, the eight-episode mini-series sequel to last year’s acclaimed Victorian-era thriller, The Alienist, don’t you think it’s time to watch a trailer for that new production? You’ll find a good one embedded above. Both shows are adapted from crime novels published in the 1990s by Caleb Carr. The Killing Times offers this synopsis of the coming sequel:
• In other small-screen news, Variety reports that “Amazon is developing a series centered on Lisbeth Salander, the character created by Stieg Larsson for the so-called Millenium books. The project, which is currently titled The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, will not be a sequel or continuation of the story from the books or the films into which they were adapted. It will instead take Salander and place her in today’s world with a wholly new setting, new characters, and a new story. No writer or lead actress is currently attached to the series.”
• And January Magazine recommends that Harlan Coben followers tune in to “a six-part Netflix mini-series based on The Woods, Coben’s 2007 novel,” it’s action transferred from New Jersey to Poland. “The switch creates some real magic: Coben’s terrific storytelling reimagined here with a gritty European sensibility,” January enthuses. Netflix debuted this six-part mini-series on June 12.
• For some reason, Janet Rudolph posted her list of Father’s Day mysteries last month. But tomorrow is actually Father’s Day here in the States, so let’s revisit that collection of titles now.
• As a veteran newspaper guy, I was interested to read this excerpt of a story from The Wall Street Journal about how some struggling local papers “are shutting down their [printing] presses and, to save money for distant corporate owners, printing their daily editions at other newspaper headquarters hours away. The papers still bear the names of the cities where they’re read, but they roll off presses elsewhere, sometimes in different states.” Included with that excerpt is a fabulous scene from the 1952 picture Deadline—U.S.A., in which “crusading managing editor” Humphrey Bogart instructs his press room foreman to start running the giant presses, churning out copies of the broadsheet containing an exposé of a mobster’s misdeeds. “That’s the press, baby. The press,” he tells the doomed hood over the phone. “And there’s nothing you can do about it. Nothing.”
• November 1 is the deadline for essay proposals on the theme of “Historical Crime Fiction,” the focus of a future edition of Clues: A Journal of Detection. The mag’s managing editor, Elizabeth Foxwell, explains that Rosemary Erickson Johnsen (Contemporary Feminist Historical Crime Fiction) will act guest-edit that issue.
• I’m very sorry to learn that Spanish novelist Carlos Ruiz Zafón, best known worldwide for penning 2001’s The Shadow of the Wind, died Friday from colorectal cancer. He was only 55 years old. An obituary in The Guardian notes that this Barcelona-born fictionist “was frequently described as the most-read Spanish author since Cervantes,” and it quotes Zafón as saying “he felt he had ‘no other choice’ but to be a writer: ‘Sometimes people ask me what piece of advice I would give to an aspiring author. I’d tell them that you should only become a writer if the possibility of not becoming one would kill you. Otherwise, you’d be better off doing something else. I became a writer, a teller of tales, because otherwise I would have died, or worse.’”
• Also announced was the demise of Grace F. Edwards, a Harlem mystery writer and former executive director of the Harlem Writers Guild, who passed away on February 25 of this year, at age 87. “Though she began writing at age 7,” recalls The New York Times, “Grace F. Edwards waited until she was 55 to publish her first novel. That book, In the Shadow of the Peacock, was a lush portrayal of Harlem during World War II, a girl’s coming-of-age story set against the race riots of the time. It was a placeholder for the six detective stories she would later write, mysteries set in Harlem starring a female cop turned sociologist and accidental sleuth named Mali Anderson, always with a backbeat of jazz. The first of these, If I Should Die, was published in 1997, when Ms. Edwards was 64.”
• Finally, I offer a sad good-bye to Dennis “Denny” O’Neil. The Spy Command explains that O’Neil was “a comic book writer and editor who [in the 1970s] returned Batman to his dark origins,” following a very lighthearted period “during the run of the 1966-68 television series starring Adam West.” In an obituary of his own, author Scott D. Parker describes O’Neil as “easily one of the people you’d put on the Mt. Rushmore of Batman creators.” Meanwhile, Terence Towles Canote writes that “In addition to his work in comic books, Dennis O’Neil also wrote several novels, including The Bite of Monsters (1971) and Dragon’s Fists – Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Master (with Jim Berry, 1974), as well as novels ... featuring Batman and Green Lantern. Over the years he also wrote several stories and novellas published in such magazines as Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fantastic Stories, and Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction.” O’Neil died on June 11 at age 81.
• A few author interviews worth your attention: For her excellent Speaking of Mysteries podcast, Nancie Clare talks with both Craig Robertson (Watch Him Die) and Paul D. Marks (The Blues Don’t Care); Steve Powell goes one-on-one with Shelley Blanton Stroud (Copy Boy); Rich Ehisen quizzes Timothy Jay Smith (A Fire on the Island); and MysteryPeople’s Scott Montgomery chats with James Wade about the latter’s new novel, All Things Left Wild.
• Len Deighton enthusiast Rob Mallows relates the tale of his longtime search for “a simple postcard, part of the marketing materials for the first UK edition of SS-GB.”
• My late father and I generally had quite different TV-watching tastes. He was partial to fare such as Hee Haw, The Benny Hill Show, Hunter, The A-Team, and Walker, Texas Ranger, none of which I fancied. However, we did watch The Rockford Files together. In fact, I think I may have introduced him to that 1974-1980 NBC detective series, after enjoying its pilot film. Only later did I learn that my father had been a fan of actor James Garner ever since the late 1950s, when he starred in Maverick. But my point here is that I enjoyed Rockford when it was originally broadcast, and I take just as much pleasure in watching
episodes occasionally more than four decades later. So I was a prime candidate to appreciate Nathan Ward’s recent tribute to the show, in CrimeReads. It contains numerous smile-inducing reminders of what the series offered, the first of those being Ward’s fond memory of the 1974 pilot:
• Not to go overboard in promoting recent CrimeReads articles, but here are a few more I have enjoyed: Olivia Rutigliano’s excellent analysis of Inspector Bucket, Charles Dickens’ “devious, hypocritical ‘nice guy’ cop” in Bleak House (1853); Shane Mawe’s profile of Freeman Wills Crofts, once a prolific Irish mystery novelist (The Cask, The 12:30 from Croydon, etc.) and “a contemporary of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, … [whose] reputation has failed to match that of these luminaries”; Chris McGinley’s profile of Virginia Kellogg, who “wrote some of the greatest crime movies in Hollywood's Golden Age,” but is today pretty much forgotten; and Paul French’s exploration of the various books and authors that have helped make Sydney “Australia’s undisputed capital of Noir.”
• Are you a big Ian Rankin admirer? If you, you might be interested to know that the Scottish creator of Inspector John Rebus is the subject of the latest entry in the McFarland Companions to Mystery Fiction series. At more than 400 pages long, Ian Rankin: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction is said to include “alphabetized entries on Rankin’s works, characters, and themes; a biography; a chronology; maps of Rebus’ Edinburgh; and an annotated bibliography.”
• Martin Edwards also recommends H.R.F. Keating: A Life of Crime, by Sheila Mitchell (Level Best). He describes this study of the British author behind Indian policeman Inspector Ganesh Ghote as “affectionate and entertaining” and says it “gives wonderful insights into the ups and downs of the crime writing life,” as well as a few curious bits of triva. “For instance,” remarks Edwards, “one thing I didn’t know was that Harry wrote the novelisation of Neil Simon’s Murder by Death.” The prolific Keating passed away in 2011.
• Thirteen years after The Sopranos ended its six-season run on HBO, creator/writer David Chase has finally revealed the meaning of its last episode’s ambiguous ending.
• And the next time you need a musical pick-me-up, try this.
than Burr’s portrayal was to Gardner’s original conception of Mason as (to quote from Otto Penzler’s The Private Lives of Private Eyes, Spies, Crime Fighters and Other Good Guys) a “hard-boiled, two-fisted and noncerebral” advocate for justice. But writers/showrunners Ron Fitzgerald and Rolin Jones have sought to flesh out their protagonist’s back story, as well. The Killing Times explains: “Mason is haunted by his wartime experiences in France and suffering the effects of a broken marriage.” An extended, noir-accented trailer (found here) nicely captures Depression-era L.A., with its recent Olympic Games, its unlikely “evangelical fervor,” the rise of the oil industry, and of course its Hollywood glamour. Vulture calls this new Perry Mason “a simultaneously gorgeous, gritty, and sometimes downright gory period piece filled with fine performances.” John Lithgow, Tatiana Maslany, Shea Whigham, Stephen Root, and Robert Patrick join Rhys in the cast. After disappointing previous attempts to revive Perry Mason (remember Monte Markham’s The New Perry Mason of 1973-1974?), it will be nice if HBO can draw upon what fans like about Gardner’s protagonist, while imbuing his story with greater emotional depth and substance. I’ll be watching with my fingers crossed.• Scottish writer Lee Randall contributes a useful backgrounder about Gardner to CrimeReads, in which she recalls the lawyer-turned-author’s original intent with Mason: “I want to make my hero a fighter, not by having him be ruthless with women and underlings, but by having him wade into the opposition and battle his way through to victory. … [T]he character I am trying to create for him is that of a fighter who is possessed of infinite patience. He tries to jockey his enemies into a position where he can deliver one good knockout punch.” Yep, that nicely sums up the typical Mason yarn.
• Florida journalist Craig Pittman provides something of a public-service piece to aspiring legal-thriller writers, consulting various attorneys who have become novelists on how one might best compose realistic courtroom dramas. “I would suggest that authors treat courtroom scenes much like any other and not let the legal and technical details override the narrative,” says Alafair Burke, once a prosecutor in Oregon and now a professor at New York’s Hofstra University School of Law. “Too many courtroom scenes read like an intentional display of the research the author conducted to prepare for the scene. Instead, focus on character, setting, plot, dialogue—all the things that drive a good book. If the legal details don’t further a critical aspect of the narrative, skip them.”
• Crimespree Magazine brings word that writer Val McDermid “has unveiled the hotly tipped ‘New Blood’ authors for 2020, showcasing the year’s best breakout crime-writing talent.” Her choices:
— Deepa Anappara, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line (Chatto & Windus)
— Elizabeth Kay, Seven Lies (Sphere)
— Jessica Moor, Keeper (Penguin)
— Trevor Wood, The Man on the Street (Quercus)
“Since 2004,” explains Crimespree’s Erin Mitchell, “the best-selling Scottish author of the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series has curated an annual celebration of the most formidable debuts taking the crime and thriller genre by storm, with an invitation to join the line-up of the world’s largest and most prestigious crime-fiction festival: Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.” Although this year’s festival was cancelled due to the pandemic, Mitchell says McDermid’s 2020 “New Blood” showcase “will be streamed on the festival’s HIF Player on what would have been the legendary weekender on Saturday 25 July 2020.” You should be able to access the audio here at that time.
• I know, I know, it’s the frickin’ middle of June already, but only now am I finally getting around to remarking upon Mike Ripley’s latest edition of his “Getting Away with Murder” column for Shots. Featured among his plentiful subjects this time are: older books he’s taken up reading during the COVID-19 lockdown; forgotten writers Douglas Sanderson (Blondes Are My Trouble) and Peter Leslie (Bootleg Angel); fresh crime fiction by Sharon Bolton, Douglas Lindsay, Barbara Nadel, and Martin Walker; and the end of the line for the Top Notch Thrillers and Ostara Crime imprints, for which Ripley served as editor.
• In Reference to Murder features this tidbit:
Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards announced this year's winners, including in the Mystery Category. The Gold winner was Below the Fold by R.G. Belsky; Silver winner was A Plain Vanilla Murder by Susan Wittig Albert; and Bronze winner was Moonscape by Julie Weston. In the Thriller Category, the Gold winner was The Nine by Jeanne Blasberg; the Silver winner was The Unrepentant by E.A. Aymar; and the Bronze winner was Green Valley by Louis Greenberg. The Guilt We Carry by Samuel W. Gailey was also a Thriller Honorable Mention.• Congratulations to Joe Kenney for 10 years at the helm of Glorious Trash, one of the best blogs about forgotten (and sometimes best-forgotten) works of paperback fiction.
• What a beautiful selection of vintage B-movie posters, all painted by Albert Kallis. I’m particularly fond of his placards for The Brain Eaters and The Astounding She-Monster, two science-fiction productions released in 1958.
• Like so many other writers, San Francisco-area author Mark Coggins has decided to launch a podcast during the COVID-19 lockdown. It’s called Riordan’s Desk, after his series private eye, August Riordan, and he’s currently reading chapters from his latest Riordan novel, The Dead Beat Scroll (2019). Chapter 15 just went up a few days ago. To listen, look for Riordan's Desk on iTunes or any of the popular podcast directories. Or, to listen from the Web, click here.
• Seeing as we’re now just a little over a month away from the TNT-TV premiere of The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, the eight-episode mini-series sequel to last year’s acclaimed Victorian-era thriller, The Alienist, don’t you think it’s time to watch a trailer for that new production? You’ll find a good one embedded above. Both shows are adapted from crime novels published in the 1990s by Caleb Carr. The Killing Times offers this synopsis of the coming sequel:
In The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, Sara [Howard] has opened her own private detective agency and is leading the charge on a brand-new case. She reunites with Dr. [Laszlo] Kreizler and John Moore, now a New York Times reporter, to find Ana Linares, the kidnapped infant daughter of the Spanish Consular. Their investigation leads them down a sinister path of murder and deceit, heading towards a dangerous and elusive killer.This new mini-series is set to drop on Sunday, July 26.
The promo blurb says that series two will “shine a light on the provocative issues of the era—the corruption of institutions, income inequality, yellow press sensationalism, and the role of women in society—themes that still resonate today.”
• In other small-screen news, Variety reports that “Amazon is developing a series centered on Lisbeth Salander, the character created by Stieg Larsson for the so-called Millenium books. The project, which is currently titled The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, will not be a sequel or continuation of the story from the books or the films into which they were adapted. It will instead take Salander and place her in today’s world with a wholly new setting, new characters, and a new story. No writer or lead actress is currently attached to the series.”
• And January Magazine recommends that Harlan Coben followers tune in to “a six-part Netflix mini-series based on The Woods, Coben’s 2007 novel,” it’s action transferred from New Jersey to Poland. “The switch creates some real magic: Coben’s terrific storytelling reimagined here with a gritty European sensibility,” January enthuses. Netflix debuted this six-part mini-series on June 12.
• For some reason, Janet Rudolph posted her list of Father’s Day mysteries last month. But tomorrow is actually Father’s Day here in the States, so let’s revisit that collection of titles now.
• As a veteran newspaper guy, I was interested to read this excerpt of a story from The Wall Street Journal about how some struggling local papers “are shutting down their [printing] presses and, to save money for distant corporate owners, printing their daily editions at other newspaper headquarters hours away. The papers still bear the names of the cities where they’re read, but they roll off presses elsewhere, sometimes in different states.” Included with that excerpt is a fabulous scene from the 1952 picture Deadline—U.S.A., in which “crusading managing editor” Humphrey Bogart instructs his press room foreman to start running the giant presses, churning out copies of the broadsheet containing an exposé of a mobster’s misdeeds. “That’s the press, baby. The press,” he tells the doomed hood over the phone. “And there’s nothing you can do about it. Nothing.”
• November 1 is the deadline for essay proposals on the theme of “Historical Crime Fiction,” the focus of a future edition of Clues: A Journal of Detection. The mag’s managing editor, Elizabeth Foxwell, explains that Rosemary Erickson Johnsen (Contemporary Feminist Historical Crime Fiction) will act guest-edit that issue.
• I’m very sorry to learn that Spanish novelist Carlos Ruiz Zafón, best known worldwide for penning 2001’s The Shadow of the Wind, died Friday from colorectal cancer. He was only 55 years old. An obituary in The Guardian notes that this Barcelona-born fictionist “was frequently described as the most-read Spanish author since Cervantes,” and it quotes Zafón as saying “he felt he had ‘no other choice’ but to be a writer: ‘Sometimes people ask me what piece of advice I would give to an aspiring author. I’d tell them that you should only become a writer if the possibility of not becoming one would kill you. Otherwise, you’d be better off doing something else. I became a writer, a teller of tales, because otherwise I would have died, or worse.’”
• Also announced was the demise of Grace F. Edwards, a Harlem mystery writer and former executive director of the Harlem Writers Guild, who passed away on February 25 of this year, at age 87. “Though she began writing at age 7,” recalls The New York Times, “Grace F. Edwards waited until she was 55 to publish her first novel. That book, In the Shadow of the Peacock, was a lush portrayal of Harlem during World War II, a girl’s coming-of-age story set against the race riots of the time. It was a placeholder for the six detective stories she would later write, mysteries set in Harlem starring a female cop turned sociologist and accidental sleuth named Mali Anderson, always with a backbeat of jazz. The first of these, If I Should Die, was published in 1997, when Ms. Edwards was 64.”
• Finally, I offer a sad good-bye to Dennis “Denny” O’Neil. The Spy Command explains that O’Neil was “a comic book writer and editor who [in the 1970s] returned Batman to his dark origins,” following a very lighthearted period “during the run of the 1966-68 television series starring Adam West.” In an obituary of his own, author Scott D. Parker describes O’Neil as “easily one of the people you’d put on the Mt. Rushmore of Batman creators.” Meanwhile, Terence Towles Canote writes that “In addition to his work in comic books, Dennis O’Neil also wrote several novels, including The Bite of Monsters (1971) and Dragon’s Fists – Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Master (with Jim Berry, 1974), as well as novels ... featuring Batman and Green Lantern. Over the years he also wrote several stories and novellas published in such magazines as Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fantastic Stories, and Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction.” O’Neil died on June 11 at age 81.
• A few author interviews worth your attention: For her excellent Speaking of Mysteries podcast, Nancie Clare talks with both Craig Robertson (Watch Him Die) and Paul D. Marks (The Blues Don’t Care); Steve Powell goes one-on-one with Shelley Blanton Stroud (Copy Boy); Rich Ehisen quizzes Timothy Jay Smith (A Fire on the Island); and MysteryPeople’s Scott Montgomery chats with James Wade about the latter’s new novel, All Things Left Wild.
• Len Deighton enthusiast Rob Mallows relates the tale of his longtime search for “a simple postcard, part of the marketing materials for the first UK edition of SS-GB.”
• My late father and I generally had quite different TV-watching tastes. He was partial to fare such as Hee Haw, The Benny Hill Show, Hunter, The A-Team, and Walker, Texas Ranger, none of which I fancied. However, we did watch The Rockford Files together. In fact, I think I may have introduced him to that 1974-1980 NBC detective series, after enjoying its pilot film. Only later did I learn that my father had been a fan of actor James Garner ever since the late 1950s, when he starred in Maverick. But my point here is that I enjoyed Rockford when it was originally broadcast, and I take just as much pleasure in watching
episodes occasionally more than four decades later. So I was a prime candidate to appreciate Nathan Ward’s recent tribute to the show, in CrimeReads. It contains numerous smile-inducing reminders of what the series offered, the first of those being Ward’s fond memory of the 1974 pilot:
The first show did not reek of tough-guy promise. First of all, [Rockford] turned down the job he was hired for not once but twice, and except for his California P.I. license he seemed like just another big affable guy with ordinary problems: an understocked fridge, people hectoring him through his answering machine. His concerns seemed unheroic and, perhaps worst of all, he did not even carry a gun, keeping one only for emergencies in a cookie jar in the kitchen of his house trailer. And when at one point his client asked, a little concerned, “You’re not afraid of him, are you?” he told her the truth, “You’re damn right I am.”Ward has much more to say about The Rockford Files here.
But what grabbed me from the first episode was one hilarious scene: Jim Rockford, tired of being trailed by … [a] muscular killer (William Smith) in a long red convertible, pulls into the Mayfair Music Hall, a Santa Monica venue of vaudeville-era entertainments. The bow-tied bartender greets Rockford and asks “The usual?” as a young woman performs a slow split atop a wire, meaning Jim either comes here often to lose a tail or he likes novelty acts. After his brawny pursuer enters the bar and growls his drink order, Jim heads to the men’s room to prepare his trap. The Mayfair switches to a troupe of dancing poodles as Rockford’s man stalks to the bathroom, where Jim has drizzled hand soap across the floor and retrieved a roll of nickels from his coat pocket, taunting, “You musclebound guys are always overcompensating.” The charge of latency draws a macho scream and a high kick that slides him back onto the soapy tile, where Jim lands a cheap insurance shot. According to Ed Robertson’s history of The Rockford Files, this scene nearly broke the ASI meter when the pilot was tested, and may have made the show. It did for me. By cheating a little, it seemed a clever man could take down a bully. I was hooked.
• Not to go overboard in promoting recent CrimeReads articles, but here are a few more I have enjoyed: Olivia Rutigliano’s excellent analysis of Inspector Bucket, Charles Dickens’ “devious, hypocritical ‘nice guy’ cop” in Bleak House (1853); Shane Mawe’s profile of Freeman Wills Crofts, once a prolific Irish mystery novelist (The Cask, The 12:30 from Croydon, etc.) and “a contemporary of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, … [whose] reputation has failed to match that of these luminaries”; Chris McGinley’s profile of Virginia Kellogg, who “wrote some of the greatest crime movies in Hollywood's Golden Age,” but is today pretty much forgotten; and Paul French’s exploration of the various books and authors that have helped make Sydney “Australia’s undisputed capital of Noir.”
• Are you a big Ian Rankin admirer? If you, you might be interested to know that the Scottish creator of Inspector John Rebus is the subject of the latest entry in the McFarland Companions to Mystery Fiction series. At more than 400 pages long, Ian Rankin: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction is said to include “alphabetized entries on Rankin’s works, characters, and themes; a biography; a chronology; maps of Rebus’ Edinburgh; and an annotated bibliography.”
• Martin Edwards also recommends H.R.F. Keating: A Life of Crime, by Sheila Mitchell (Level Best). He describes this study of the British author behind Indian policeman Inspector Ganesh Ghote as “affectionate and entertaining” and says it “gives wonderful insights into the ups and downs of the crime writing life,” as well as a few curious bits of triva. “For instance,” remarks Edwards, “one thing I didn’t know was that Harry wrote the novelisation of Neil Simon’s Murder by Death.” The prolific Keating passed away in 2011.
• Thirteen years after The Sopranos ended its six-season run on HBO, creator/writer David Chase has finally revealed the meaning of its last episode’s ambiguous ending.
• And the next time you need a musical pick-me-up, try this.
Thursday, October 03, 2019
Bullet Points: All Over the Place Edition
• Here’s a mystery for you: Earlier this year—following TNT-TV’s late-2018 broadcast of a mini-series based on The Alienist, Caleb Carr’s 1994 historical crime thriller—Mulholland Books announced that it would publish two brand-new Carr tales starring psychologist Dr. Laszlo Kreizler. The first of those, to be titled The Alienist at Armageddon, was supposed to take place in 1915 and find Kreizler and his cohort, New York Times reporter John Moore, probing a series of deadly explosions on the eve of World War I. Mulholland proclaimed the book would be released on September 1, 2019. Well, that date has obviously come and gone, and there’s no Armageddon. In fact, Mulholland has scrubbed a page devoted to the novel from its Web site. The Amazon sales site claims an e-book version
of Armageddon will appear in September 2022—three years away!—but even that could change, and it makes no mention of a print edition. Is this a case of an author blowing past his deadline? Or has the decision been made to hold off on Armageddon’s release until after TNT broadcasts its Alienist sequel, The Angel of Darkness (based on Carr’s 1997 work of the 
same name)? And what does this all mean for the promised fourth book in the Kreizler series, a prequel titled The Strange Case of Miss Sara X? I wish I had the answers, but only time will tell.
• Mystery Scene magazine’s latest issue (Fall 2019) leads with a fine profile of Ruth Ware, the British author of The Turn of the Key. Elsewhere in its pages can be found Michael Mallory’s look back at fictional detective Captain Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond, a fixture of fiction between the two world wars; Oline H. Cogdill’s assessment of half a dozen recently introduced “writers to watch,” among them Rachel Howell Hall and Stephen Mack Jones; a piece by Craig Sisterson on translated crime and mystery fiction; and a remembrance of the encounter between author Stuart Palmer (the creator of amateur sleuth Hildegarde Withers) and Groucho Marx on a 1954 episode of You Bet Your Life.
• Let’s hope this comes to pass: Anthony Horowitz, who has already penned two remarkable James Bond novels—Trigger Mortis (2015) and Forever and a Day (2018)— tells the Radio Times that he’s “in discussions” to write a third 007 yarn.
• In honor of Graham Greene’s birth, 115 years ago this week, CrimeReads managing editor Dwyer Murphy has compiled 10 of that author’s most memorable opening paragraphs. Let me recommend, especially, his excerpt from The Third Man (1949).
• I’m very sorry to hear about the death last week of Wayne Fitzgerald, “the main title designer who set the tone and atmosphere for hundreds of films, from Auntie Mame and Pillow Talk to The Godfather: Part II and Total Recall,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. He passed away on September 30 “on South Whidbey Island in Washington after a brief illness.” Fitzgerald was 89 years old. Over the last few years, I have sought to contract Fitzgerald through several avenues, hoping to talk with him about his TV work, but I was never successful. Now he’s forever beyond my reach. As the Web site The Art of the Title recalls, the Los Angeles-born designer put in 17 years at Pacific Title & Art Studio, creating the opening sequences for such films as The Music Man and My Fair Lady, and for small-screen shows including Maverick and Mr. Ed, before starting his own design firm in 1967. Among his numerous other credits were the main titles for television programs on the order of The Bold Ones, Sarge, Switch, Tucker’s Witch, Quincy, M.E. and Matlock, and for movies ranging from Chinatown (1974) and Farewell, My Lovely (1975) to The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), The Electric Horseman (1979), and Terms of Endearment (1983). I’m embedding four of my favorite Fitzgerald title designs below, in this order: the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie (with theme music by Henry Mancini), It Takes a Thief (theme by Dave Grusin), Night Gallery (music by Gil Mellé), and the 1967 motion picture Bonnie and Clyde (theme by Charles Strouse). The Hollywood Reporter observes that Fitzgerald picked up three Emmy Awards for his introductions. (Hat tip to The Spy Command.)
• Terence Towles Canote has his own Wayne Fitzgerald obituary, in his blog A Shroud of Thoughts. It includes this tidbit: “While his contemporaries were often known for a specific style, Mr. Fitzgerald's titles could vary stylistically. If there is one thing that his titles had in common, it is that in many ways they were movies in and of themselves. His titles were closely-knit, but never cluttered, and in many cases told stories all their own. It was his talent at montage, at creating what were essentially ‘mini-movies’ with his titles, that allowed him to be so prolific. In being able to create titles that were works of art in and of themselves, Wayne Fitzgerald guaranteed he would always be in demand.”
• Whoops! In my post earlier this week about the recipients of prizes presented during London’s inaugural Capital Crime festival, I failed to mention that Ashley Harrison had been named as the winner of the New Voices Award for her book, The Dysconnect. Victoria Goldman and Patti Buff were identified as runners-up for that same commendation.
• This item comes from In Reference to Murder:
• The latest Paperback Warrior podcast focuses on Max Allan Collins’ series of novels starring the hit man known as Quarry, as well as Appointment in Iran, the 23rd action-packed Butcher novel by “Stuart Jason” (aka James Dockery). Listen here.
• Meanwhile, Stark House Press and its still-new short-story compilation, The Best of Manhunt, are the subject of The BookPeople Podcast’s latest episode. Numbering among the guests on that particular show are author Joe R. Landsdale and Rick Ollerman, editor of Down & Out: The Magazine. Listen here.
• I didn’t know until now that The Killing Times also produces a podcast. The most recent episode features Margrét Örnólfsdóttir, who wrote Sagafilm’s four-part TV adaptation of Icelandic author Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson’s best-selling novel, The Flatey Enigma (Flateyjargáta). More about the series—which showed in Britain in September—can be found here and here.
• So that’s where Nero Wolfe’s New York brownstone was!
• Mystery Writers of America has planned a weeklong celebration of crime and mystery fiction, to take place at various locations in California from October 19 through 26. Mystery Fanfare offers the list of events, all of which will be free and open to the public.
• Only one novel from our favorite genre appears on Literary Hub’s list of “The 10 Best Debut Novels of the Decade”: Viet Thanh Nguyen’s 2015 work, The Sympathizer, which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the 2016 Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author.
• Worrisome news, from The New York Times: “Wherever authoritarian regimes are growing in strength, from Brazil, to Hungary, to the Philippines, literature that expresses any kind of political opposition is under a unique, renewed threat. Books that challenge normative values, especially those with L.G.B.T. themes, have been hit especially hard. History textbooks crafted by independent scholars are being replaced with those produced by the state at a disturbing rate. In Russia, a new even stricter set of censorship laws was announced in March to punish those expressing ‘clear disrespect’ for the state (i.e. effectively Putin himself).” Along these lines, I wouldn’t be surprised at this point to hear Donald Trump call for censoring authors who disagree with his increasingly unhinged and authoritarian behavior. No doubt, he will declare that they, too, are committing “treason.”
• Finally, a few author interviews worth finding: Lori Rader-Day talks with Ann Cleeves (The Long Call) for the Chicago Review of Books; Barry Eisler submits to questions from Omnivoracious’ Chris Schluep about his new, third Livia Lone book, All the Devils; and Swedish novelist-journalist David Lagercrantz fields queries about his third and final Lisbeth Salander adventure, The Girl Who Lived Twice, for the aforementioned BookPeople Podcast.
same name)? And what does this all mean for the promised fourth book in the Kreizler series, a prequel titled The Strange Case of Miss Sara X? I wish I had the answers, but only time will tell.• Mystery Scene magazine’s latest issue (Fall 2019) leads with a fine profile of Ruth Ware, the British author of The Turn of the Key. Elsewhere in its pages can be found Michael Mallory’s look back at fictional detective Captain Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond, a fixture of fiction between the two world wars; Oline H. Cogdill’s assessment of half a dozen recently introduced “writers to watch,” among them Rachel Howell Hall and Stephen Mack Jones; a piece by Craig Sisterson on translated crime and mystery fiction; and a remembrance of the encounter between author Stuart Palmer (the creator of amateur sleuth Hildegarde Withers) and Groucho Marx on a 1954 episode of You Bet Your Life.
• Let’s hope this comes to pass: Anthony Horowitz, who has already penned two remarkable James Bond novels—Trigger Mortis (2015) and Forever and a Day (2018)— tells the Radio Times that he’s “in discussions” to write a third 007 yarn.
“I would certainly consider it,” he said. “I don’t know when [it’ll happen], because I’m pretty busy at the moment.• BBC One has confirmed that it will begin airing the psychological thriller Dublin Murders, based on Tana French’s best-selling succession of haunting modern-day mysteries, on Monday, October 14. The second of that program’s initial eight episodes will be shown the next evening. Dublin Murders is still slated to premiere in the States on Sunday, November 10, courtesy of the premium channel Starz.
“I’ve got a sequel to [the 2016 book] Magpie Murders I’ve just finished, literally last week, and I’ve got two more Hawthorne novels [featuring private investigator Daniel Hawthorne] to write, another Alex Rider … but if I can, and if the estate—the Ian Fleming family—and the publishers are happy for me to do it, then I’m certainly game.
“I would love to. I think there’s one more in me at least.”
• In honor of Graham Greene’s birth, 115 years ago this week, CrimeReads managing editor Dwyer Murphy has compiled 10 of that author’s most memorable opening paragraphs. Let me recommend, especially, his excerpt from The Third Man (1949).
• I’m very sorry to hear about the death last week of Wayne Fitzgerald, “the main title designer who set the tone and atmosphere for hundreds of films, from Auntie Mame and Pillow Talk to The Godfather: Part II and Total Recall,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. He passed away on September 30 “on South Whidbey Island in Washington after a brief illness.” Fitzgerald was 89 years old. Over the last few years, I have sought to contract Fitzgerald through several avenues, hoping to talk with him about his TV work, but I was never successful. Now he’s forever beyond my reach. As the Web site The Art of the Title recalls, the Los Angeles-born designer put in 17 years at Pacific Title & Art Studio, creating the opening sequences for such films as The Music Man and My Fair Lady, and for small-screen shows including Maverick and Mr. Ed, before starting his own design firm in 1967. Among his numerous other credits were the main titles for television programs on the order of The Bold Ones, Sarge, Switch, Tucker’s Witch, Quincy, M.E. and Matlock, and for movies ranging from Chinatown (1974) and Farewell, My Lovely (1975) to The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), The Electric Horseman (1979), and Terms of Endearment (1983). I’m embedding four of my favorite Fitzgerald title designs below, in this order: the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie (with theme music by Henry Mancini), It Takes a Thief (theme by Dave Grusin), Night Gallery (music by Gil Mellé), and the 1967 motion picture Bonnie and Clyde (theme by Charles Strouse). The Hollywood Reporter observes that Fitzgerald picked up three Emmy Awards for his introductions. (Hat tip to The Spy Command.)
• Terence Towles Canote has his own Wayne Fitzgerald obituary, in his blog A Shroud of Thoughts. It includes this tidbit: “While his contemporaries were often known for a specific style, Mr. Fitzgerald's titles could vary stylistically. If there is one thing that his titles had in common, it is that in many ways they were movies in and of themselves. His titles were closely-knit, but never cluttered, and in many cases told stories all their own. It was his talent at montage, at creating what were essentially ‘mini-movies’ with his titles, that allowed him to be so prolific. In being able to create titles that were works of art in and of themselves, Wayne Fitzgerald guaranteed he would always be in demand.”
• Whoops! In my post earlier this week about the recipients of prizes presented during London’s inaugural Capital Crime festival, I failed to mention that Ashley Harrison had been named as the winner of the New Voices Award for her book, The Dysconnect. Victoria Goldman and Patti Buff were identified as runners-up for that same commendation.
• This item comes from In Reference to Murder:
Rebus is set to return to TV screens after over a decade away. The detective drama starred Ken Stott in the role of DI John Rebus for three seasons when John Hannah quit the role after the first series. Rebus creator, Scottish author Ian Rankin, has confirmed its long-awaited comeback and that new episodes are on the way with Gregory Burke penning the scripts. It’s said the new episode could have a Nordic Noir-style, while Rankin (who has penned 22 books featuring Rebus) will have a much bigger say in how the series is run.• That same blog notes that today marks 30 years since the founding of Scottsdale, Arizona’s now landmark Poisoned Pen Bookstore. “To celebrate,” it explains, “owner Barbara Peters and her staff will host a cake and champagne party featuring author Joe Hill (NOS4A2) in conversation with attorney and editor, Leslie Klinger. Other guests include John Sandford, author of the Prey series; James Rollins, author of the Sigma Force series; and Anne Perry, author of the Thomas Pitt and William Monk series.” Congratulations are certainly in order!
No broadcast date has been set yet, and there is no word on whether the show would return to ITV.
• The latest Paperback Warrior podcast focuses on Max Allan Collins’ series of novels starring the hit man known as Quarry, as well as Appointment in Iran, the 23rd action-packed Butcher novel by “Stuart Jason” (aka James Dockery). Listen here.
• Meanwhile, Stark House Press and its still-new short-story compilation, The Best of Manhunt, are the subject of The BookPeople Podcast’s latest episode. Numbering among the guests on that particular show are author Joe R. Landsdale and Rick Ollerman, editor of Down & Out: The Magazine. Listen here.
• I didn’t know until now that The Killing Times also produces a podcast. The most recent episode features Margrét Örnólfsdóttir, who wrote Sagafilm’s four-part TV adaptation of Icelandic author Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson’s best-selling novel, The Flatey Enigma (Flateyjargáta). More about the series—which showed in Britain in September—can be found here and here.
• So that’s where Nero Wolfe’s New York brownstone was!
• Mystery Writers of America has planned a weeklong celebration of crime and mystery fiction, to take place at various locations in California from October 19 through 26. Mystery Fanfare offers the list of events, all of which will be free and open to the public.
• Only one novel from our favorite genre appears on Literary Hub’s list of “The 10 Best Debut Novels of the Decade”: Viet Thanh Nguyen’s 2015 work, The Sympathizer, which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the 2016 Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author.
• Worrisome news, from The New York Times: “Wherever authoritarian regimes are growing in strength, from Brazil, to Hungary, to the Philippines, literature that expresses any kind of political opposition is under a unique, renewed threat. Books that challenge normative values, especially those with L.G.B.T. themes, have been hit especially hard. History textbooks crafted by independent scholars are being replaced with those produced by the state at a disturbing rate. In Russia, a new even stricter set of censorship laws was announced in March to punish those expressing ‘clear disrespect’ for the state (i.e. effectively Putin himself).” Along these lines, I wouldn’t be surprised at this point to hear Donald Trump call for censoring authors who disagree with his increasingly unhinged and authoritarian behavior. No doubt, he will declare that they, too, are committing “treason.”
• Finally, a few author interviews worth finding: Lori Rader-Day talks with Ann Cleeves (The Long Call) for the Chicago Review of Books; Barry Eisler submits to questions from Omnivoracious’ Chris Schluep about his new, third Livia Lone book, All the Devils; and Swedish novelist-journalist David Lagercrantz fields queries about his third and final Lisbeth Salander adventure, The Girl Who Lived Twice, for the aforementioned BookPeople Podcast.
Wednesday, October 03, 2018
Bullet Points: Chasing Down Leads Edition
I just returned from a few days away, spent in a place where (thank heavens!) I had absolutely no access to computers but plenty of opportunities to shop used bookstores. In other words, it was a most welcome break. But now it’s time to return to business, starting with this compilation of curious and interesting Web links.
• Lest we forget: “Friday is Global James Bond Day,” mentions Bill Koenig in The Spy Command, “the event that was invented six years ago for the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Dr. No.” One obvious way to celebrate this occasion is with a rewatching of the 1962 Sean Connery film based on Ian Fleming’s original novel. But Koenig suggests, instead, taking in a handful of episodes of Hawaii Five-O and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. that boast “significant 007 connections.” Not a bad idea.
• Peter Stone, author of the new young-adult novel The Perfect Candidate, has selected what he calls “12 Essential Political Scandal Thrillers” for CrimeReads. His choices include Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Jason Matthews’ Red Sparrow, and William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. They’re quite different from the books featured in another list, one that I put together for CrimeReads a few months back, of U.S. presidential mysteries and thrillers.
• This is certainly good news! New Mexico mystery-fictionist Steve Brewer (Cold Cuts) and his wife are preparing to open a new independent bookstore in Albuquerque this coming November. As he explains in his blog, “Kelly and I signed a lease yesterday for space in the historic Nob Hill Business Center on Route 66. In keeping with Nob Hill’s all-natural hipster vibe, the independent bookstore will be called Organic Books. Our two sons, Max and Seth, will work at the store, so it’ll truly be a family business.” Brewer says the store will “feature new books by New Mexico authors as well as a curated selection of thousands of used books.” (Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)
• January Magazine reports that Israeli actress Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) has joined the cast of Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile, his film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1937 Hercule Poirot novel of that same name. The movie, a box-office sequel to Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express (2017)—best recalled for Branagh’s scene-stealing ’stache—is set for release in December 2019.
• I confess, I haven’t yet watched any episodes of Strike, the BBC One TV series based on J.K. Rowling’s novels (which she writes as “Robert Galbraith”), featuring modern-day London gumshoe Cormoran Strike. However, I see in The Killing Times that more episodes of that drama, starring Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger, are to be made. This time, it’s Rowling’s Lethal White that will be adapted for the small screen, in four parts. The Killing Times explains that the plot finds “Billy, a troubled young man, com[ing] to private eye Cormoran Strike’s office to ask for his help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child … While Billy is obviously mentally distressed and cannot remember many concrete details, there is something sincere about him and his story. Strike and Robin [his assistant, played by Grainger] set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.”
• In Reference to Murder alerts us to news that “Emmy-nominated writer and producer Frank Pugliese (House of Cards) has been set as showrunner for TNT’s The Angel of Darkness, a limited series based on the sequel to [the] best-selling The Alienist by Caleb Carr. The Alienist’s lead cast, including Daniel Brühl, Luke Evans, and Dakota Fanning, will return for The Angel of Darkness with a new story line that finds Sara Howard (Fanning), who has opened her own private detective agency, enlisting the help of Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Brühl) and John Moore (Evans) to hunt down an elusive killer.”
• Eight years ago, I put together a small succession of posts for The Rap Sheet called “Killed in the Ratings.” My focus was on “American TV crime dramas that debuted with fanfare, but are now largely forgotten.” One of those programs was Griff (1973-1974), starring ex-Bonanza patriarch Lorne Greene as a Los Angeles police captain turned P.I. At the time, I was unable to track down the opening title sequence from Griff; I wound up including in my post just a short video clip from one of the episodes. But recently I finally found on YouTube the hard-charging theme from Griff. I understand it was composed by Elliot Kaplan, though the version at the link comes from John Gregory & His Orchestra. I’ll add this to my original post at some point.
• Speaking of YouTube finds, a poster calling herself Izolda Orlovskaya has uploaded there two hour-long episodes—to be found here and here—from the 1965 CBS-TV legal drama For the People. Broadcast a year before the debut of Star Trek, For the People also starred William Shatner, only in this latter series he had the role of David Koster, an assistant district attorney in New York City. Among the cast, too, was Jessica Walter, who played Koster’s wife, Phyllis (and would much later re-team with Shatner in the underappreciated 1974-1975 NBC Mystery Movie series Amy Prentiss).
• One more video treat: “The Murder Game,” the December 15, 1972, episode of Banyon, a largely forgotten NBC-TV series that imagined Robert Forster as a gumshoe in 1930s L.A. “The Murder Game,” which guest-starred Skye Aubrey and Kaz Garas, was the 13th episode of Banyon; only 15 were shot in total. As I always recommend when dealing with YouTube, watch this show soon, because you never know when the YouTube police will find cause to delete it.
• From Down These Mean Streets: “Of all the actors to play private eyes and gumshoes during the Golden Age of Radio, William Gargan may have been the most uniquely qualified. Ironically, while success as a detective seemed to elude him, he enjoyed a great deal of success by playing detectives on film, television, and radio. Chief among his sleuth shows was Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator—the adventures of a sardonic private eye that premiered on NBC today in 1951.” If you are interested, you’ll find episodes of Barry Craig by clicking here, here, and here.
• Although the Seattle Mystery Bookshop closed a year ago, members of its former staff continue to produce a blog—updated once a month, so far—that’s filled with mini-reviews and tidbits of interest to readers of crime, mystery, and thriller fiction. For instance, the October “newzine” passes along this link to a BBC story about how Agatha Christie shaped the way the world now sees Great Britain.
• Another once-a-month offering is Mike Ripley’s delightful “Getting Away with Murder” column for Shots. His October wrap-up includes word of CrimeFest’s move to a different venue in 2019; a crowd-funding project to republish Adam Diment’s vintage Philip McAlpine thrillers (e.g., The Dolly Dolly Spy); new novels by Dominick Donald, Robert Galbraith, and John Simpson; and forthcoming works by the likes of Jane Harper, Christian White, and Ben Pastor.
• Max Allan Collins is touting a brand-new edition of Primal Spillane: Early Stories 1941-1942 (Bold Venture), “a much expanded collection of Mickey’s comic-book filler prose stories, written in the early to mid-’40s, mostly for Timely, the precursor of Marvel.” I could have sworn that I owned a copy of the 2003 edition of Primal Spillane, which Collins edited with Lynn F. Myers Jr., but I’ll be damned if I can find it anywhere. I might have to resort to buying a copy of this revised edition, especially since Collins says that it contains a never-before-published Spillane filler piece.
• And while we’re on the subject of Mickey Spillane, let me point out that Evan Lewis has posted the Mick’s first two Mike Danger comic stories in his blog. He explains that they were “written in 1946, but unpublished until 1954, after Mickey had hit the Big Time.”
• Lest we forget: “Friday is Global James Bond Day,” mentions Bill Koenig in The Spy Command, “the event that was invented six years ago for the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Dr. No.” One obvious way to celebrate this occasion is with a rewatching of the 1962 Sean Connery film based on Ian Fleming’s original novel. But Koenig suggests, instead, taking in a handful of episodes of Hawaii Five-O and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. that boast “significant 007 connections.” Not a bad idea.
• Peter Stone, author of the new young-adult novel The Perfect Candidate, has selected what he calls “12 Essential Political Scandal Thrillers” for CrimeReads. His choices include Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Jason Matthews’ Red Sparrow, and William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. They’re quite different from the books featured in another list, one that I put together for CrimeReads a few months back, of U.S. presidential mysteries and thrillers.
• This is certainly good news! New Mexico mystery-fictionist Steve Brewer (Cold Cuts) and his wife are preparing to open a new independent bookstore in Albuquerque this coming November. As he explains in his blog, “Kelly and I signed a lease yesterday for space in the historic Nob Hill Business Center on Route 66. In keeping with Nob Hill’s all-natural hipster vibe, the independent bookstore will be called Organic Books. Our two sons, Max and Seth, will work at the store, so it’ll truly be a family business.” Brewer says the store will “feature new books by New Mexico authors as well as a curated selection of thousands of used books.” (Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)
• January Magazine reports that Israeli actress Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) has joined the cast of Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile, his film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1937 Hercule Poirot novel of that same name. The movie, a box-office sequel to Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express (2017)—best recalled for Branagh’s scene-stealing ’stache—is set for release in December 2019.
• I confess, I haven’t yet watched any episodes of Strike, the BBC One TV series based on J.K. Rowling’s novels (which she writes as “Robert Galbraith”), featuring modern-day London gumshoe Cormoran Strike. However, I see in The Killing Times that more episodes of that drama, starring Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger, are to be made. This time, it’s Rowling’s Lethal White that will be adapted for the small screen, in four parts. The Killing Times explains that the plot finds “Billy, a troubled young man, com[ing] to private eye Cormoran Strike’s office to ask for his help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child … While Billy is obviously mentally distressed and cannot remember many concrete details, there is something sincere about him and his story. Strike and Robin [his assistant, played by Grainger] set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.”
• In Reference to Murder alerts us to news that “Emmy-nominated writer and producer Frank Pugliese (House of Cards) has been set as showrunner for TNT’s The Angel of Darkness, a limited series based on the sequel to [the] best-selling The Alienist by Caleb Carr. The Alienist’s lead cast, including Daniel Brühl, Luke Evans, and Dakota Fanning, will return for The Angel of Darkness with a new story line that finds Sara Howard (Fanning), who has opened her own private detective agency, enlisting the help of Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Brühl) and John Moore (Evans) to hunt down an elusive killer.”
• Eight years ago, I put together a small succession of posts for The Rap Sheet called “Killed in the Ratings.” My focus was on “American TV crime dramas that debuted with fanfare, but are now largely forgotten.” One of those programs was Griff (1973-1974), starring ex-Bonanza patriarch Lorne Greene as a Los Angeles police captain turned P.I. At the time, I was unable to track down the opening title sequence from Griff; I wound up including in my post just a short video clip from one of the episodes. But recently I finally found on YouTube the hard-charging theme from Griff. I understand it was composed by Elliot Kaplan, though the version at the link comes from John Gregory & His Orchestra. I’ll add this to my original post at some point.
• Speaking of YouTube finds, a poster calling herself Izolda Orlovskaya has uploaded there two hour-long episodes—to be found here and here—from the 1965 CBS-TV legal drama For the People. Broadcast a year before the debut of Star Trek, For the People also starred William Shatner, only in this latter series he had the role of David Koster, an assistant district attorney in New York City. Among the cast, too, was Jessica Walter, who played Koster’s wife, Phyllis (and would much later re-team with Shatner in the underappreciated 1974-1975 NBC Mystery Movie series Amy Prentiss).
• One more video treat: “The Murder Game,” the December 15, 1972, episode of Banyon, a largely forgotten NBC-TV series that imagined Robert Forster as a gumshoe in 1930s L.A. “The Murder Game,” which guest-starred Skye Aubrey and Kaz Garas, was the 13th episode of Banyon; only 15 were shot in total. As I always recommend when dealing with YouTube, watch this show soon, because you never know when the YouTube police will find cause to delete it.
• From Down These Mean Streets: “Of all the actors to play private eyes and gumshoes during the Golden Age of Radio, William Gargan may have been the most uniquely qualified. Ironically, while success as a detective seemed to elude him, he enjoyed a great deal of success by playing detectives on film, television, and radio. Chief among his sleuth shows was Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator—the adventures of a sardonic private eye that premiered on NBC today in 1951.” If you are interested, you’ll find episodes of Barry Craig by clicking here, here, and here.
• Although the Seattle Mystery Bookshop closed a year ago, members of its former staff continue to produce a blog—updated once a month, so far—that’s filled with mini-reviews and tidbits of interest to readers of crime, mystery, and thriller fiction. For instance, the October “newzine” passes along this link to a BBC story about how Agatha Christie shaped the way the world now sees Great Britain.
• Another once-a-month offering is Mike Ripley’s delightful “Getting Away with Murder” column for Shots. His October wrap-up includes word of CrimeFest’s move to a different venue in 2019; a crowd-funding project to republish Adam Diment’s vintage Philip McAlpine thrillers (e.g., The Dolly Dolly Spy); new novels by Dominick Donald, Robert Galbraith, and John Simpson; and forthcoming works by the likes of Jane Harper, Christian White, and Ben Pastor.
• Max Allan Collins is touting a brand-new edition of Primal Spillane: Early Stories 1941-1942 (Bold Venture), “a much expanded collection of Mickey’s comic-book filler prose stories, written in the early to mid-’40s, mostly for Timely, the precursor of Marvel.” I could have sworn that I owned a copy of the 2003 edition of Primal Spillane, which Collins edited with Lynn F. Myers Jr., but I’ll be damned if I can find it anywhere. I might have to resort to buying a copy of this revised edition, especially since Collins says that it contains a never-before-published Spillane filler piece.
• And while we’re on the subject of Mickey Spillane, let me point out that Evan Lewis has posted the Mick’s first two Mike Danger comic stories in his blog. He explains that they were “written in 1946, but unpublished until 1954, after Mickey had hit the Big Time.”
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Bullet Points: Encore Edition
Now you know what happens when I spend too much time away from my office: I return with more to say than will fit into one post.
• This seemed rather inevitable, didn’t it? Following the success of TNT-TV’s 10-part adaptation of The Alienist, Caleb Carr’s 1995 Victorian thriller, the same U.S. network has decided to bring Carr’s sequel, The Angel of Darkness (1997), to the small screen. There’s no word yet on when the finished product might be broadcast, but The Killing Times offers this plot synopsis:
• In a fine article for CrimeReads, Christopher Huang, Montreal-based author of the new novel A Gentleman’s Murder, reflects on how World War I gave rise to the traditional mystery story.
• This past August 4 marked the 126th anniversary of the infamous Fall River, Massachusetts, ax murders supposedly committed by Lizzie Borden and resulting in the demise of her father and stepmother. But it won’t be until September 14 that Lizzie, the latest film from director Craig William Macneill, premieres in U.S. theaters. Judging from a trailer posted in Slate, the movie suggests a sexual relationship between Lizzie (portrayed by Chloë Sevigny) and the Bordens’ live-in maid, Bridget Sullivan (Kristen Stewart), precipitated the violence—a theory previously explored in Evan Hunter’s 1984 novel, Lizzie.
• Would you like to attend next year’s Left Coast Crime convention—to take place in Vancouver, British Columbia, from March 28 to 31—but can’t afford the $300 (Canadian) registration fee? Well, it seems the convention’s organizing committee is offering three financial-assistance scholarships, which include the registration payment as well as $200 (U.S.) in expense money. All you have to do is apply by November 30. Click here for more information.
• The New York-born jazz singer and actress Morgana King, who played Vito Corleone’s wife in The Godfather and The Godfather, Part II, has died at age 87. She actually passed away in Palm Springs, California, on March 22 of this year, but as Star magazine explains, “Her death had gone unreported until a friend, [entertainment writer] John Hoglund, wrote about her this week … on Facebook.”
• In case you were wondering what became of Morven Christie, the Scottish actress who played Anglican vicar Sidney Chambers’ on-and-off love interest, Amanda Kendall, in the UK mystery drama Grantchester, she’s now set to star in a modern ITV-TV crime series called The Bay. As Radio Times notes, that six-part program is likely to be compared with the surprisingly popular Broadchurch. “Like the Dorset-set Broadchurch,” Radio Times writes, “The Bay takes place in a coastal town—in this case Morecambe—and is described by ITV’s drama boss Polly Hill as ‘a very real crime story about family and community … compelling and beautifully crafted,’ all of which will also strike a chord with Broadchurch fans.” Christie has been cast as Detective Sergeant Lisa Armstrong, “a fierce and hard-working Family Liaison Officer,” to quote from Killing Times, which goes on to provide these clues as to the show’s storyline:
• Needless to say, I already own a copy of John le Carré’s 1963 novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. However, I may need to add to my collection The Folio Society’s beautiful new edition of that “breakthrough work that redefined the spy story.” It features interior illustrations by British artist Matt Taylor, whose cover for Penguin’s most recent paperback version of Le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy won The Rap Sheet’s 2011 Best Crime Novel Cover contest.
• “So how was the wife of the professional police detective portrayed in most Golden Age police procedurals?” short-story writer Carol Westron asks in Lizzie Hayes’ blog. “On the whole, she was hardly portrayed at all. She was mentioned as part of his background but played no part in the intellectual or emotional process that leads to the resolution of the case.”
• For the MysteryPeople blog, Scott Montgomery interviews author Max Allan Collins on the subject of his new non-fiction book, Scarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago (Morrow), which he penned with A. Brad Schwartz.
• And I long ago added to The Rap Sheet’s YouTube page the original opening from the NBC Mystery Movie series McMillan & Wife, starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James. But only yesterday did I realize that I never followed up by posting the main title sequence from Once Upon a Dead Man, the pilot film that gave birth to that beloved, 1971-1977 mystery drama. So here it is. Once Upon a Dead Man was directed by Leonard B. Stern and was first broadcast on September 17, 1971. Jerry Fielding composed the theme music.
• This seemed rather inevitable, didn’t it? Following the success of TNT-TV’s 10-part adaptation of The Alienist, Caleb Carr’s 1995 Victorian thriller, the same U.S. network has decided to bring Carr’s sequel, The Angel of Darkness (1997), to the small screen. There’s no word yet on when the finished product might be broadcast, but The Killing Times offers this plot synopsis:
It is June 1897. A year has passed since Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a pioneer in forensic psychiatry, tracked down the brutal serial killer John Beecham with the help of a team of trusted companions and a revolutionary application of the principles of his discipline. Kreizler and his friends—high-living crime reporter Schuyler Moore; indomitable, derringer-toting Sara Howard; the brilliant (and bickering) detective brothers Marcus and Lucius Isaacson; powerful and compassionate Cyrus Montrose; and Stevie Taggert, the boy Kreizler saved from a life of street crime—have returned to their former pursuits and tried to forget the horror of the Beecham case. But when the distraught wife of a Spanish diplomat begs Sara’s aid, the team reunites to help her find her kidnapped infant daughter. It is a case fraught with danger, since Spain and the United States are on the verge of war. Their investigation leads the team to a shocking suspect: a woman who appears to the world to be a heroic nurse and a loving mother, but who may in reality be a ruthless murderer of children.• By the way, I see that Carr’s long-promised third novel in the Laszlo Kreizler series is now being offered for “pre-order” by Amazon. Titled The Alienist at Armageddon, it appears set for a U.S. release in September of next year (from Mulholland Books).
• In a fine article for CrimeReads, Christopher Huang, Montreal-based author of the new novel A Gentleman’s Murder, reflects on how World War I gave rise to the traditional mystery story.
• This past August 4 marked the 126th anniversary of the infamous Fall River, Massachusetts, ax murders supposedly committed by Lizzie Borden and resulting in the demise of her father and stepmother. But it won’t be until September 14 that Lizzie, the latest film from director Craig William Macneill, premieres in U.S. theaters. Judging from a trailer posted in Slate, the movie suggests a sexual relationship between Lizzie (portrayed by Chloë Sevigny) and the Bordens’ live-in maid, Bridget Sullivan (Kristen Stewart), precipitated the violence—a theory previously explored in Evan Hunter’s 1984 novel, Lizzie.
• Would you like to attend next year’s Left Coast Crime convention—to take place in Vancouver, British Columbia, from March 28 to 31—but can’t afford the $300 (Canadian) registration fee? Well, it seems the convention’s organizing committee is offering three financial-assistance scholarships, which include the registration payment as well as $200 (U.S.) in expense money. All you have to do is apply by November 30. Click here for more information.
• The New York-born jazz singer and actress Morgana King, who played Vito Corleone’s wife in The Godfather and The Godfather, Part II, has died at age 87. She actually passed away in Palm Springs, California, on March 22 of this year, but as Star magazine explains, “Her death had gone unreported until a friend, [entertainment writer] John Hoglund, wrote about her this week … on Facebook.”
• In case you were wondering what became of Morven Christie, the Scottish actress who played Anglican vicar Sidney Chambers’ on-and-off love interest, Amanda Kendall, in the UK mystery drama Grantchester, she’s now set to star in a modern ITV-TV crime series called The Bay. As Radio Times notes, that six-part program is likely to be compared with the surprisingly popular Broadchurch. “Like the Dorset-set Broadchurch,” Radio Times writes, “The Bay takes place in a coastal town—in this case Morecambe—and is described by ITV’s drama boss Polly Hill as ‘a very real crime story about family and community … compelling and beautifully crafted,’ all of which will also strike a chord with Broadchurch fans.” Christie has been cast as Detective Sergeant Lisa Armstrong, “a fierce and hard-working Family Liaison Officer,” to quote from Killing Times, which goes on to provide these clues as to the show’s storyline:
When Detective Sergeant Lisa Armstrong is assigned to a missing persons investigation, at first it seems like any other—tragic, but all too familiar. As a Family Liaison Officer, she’s trained never to get emotionally involved. Her job is to support families during the worst time of their lives whilst also to be the eyes and ears of the police investigation; a cuckoo in the nest. But there’s something very different about this particular case. With horror Lisa realizes she’s got a personal connection with this frightened family; one that could compromise her and the investigation. As she grapples to get justice for the grieving family, Lisa discovers it could come at a cost.• While writing recently about the 36th birthday of Yvonne Strahovski, who co-starred in the 2007-2012 NBC-TV spy series Chuck, I happened across this dream sequence spoofing the start of Hart to Hart, ABC’s older mystery starring Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers. I thought others might enjoy watching that video, too.
• Needless to say, I already own a copy of John le Carré’s 1963 novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. However, I may need to add to my collection The Folio Society’s beautiful new edition of that “breakthrough work that redefined the spy story.” It features interior illustrations by British artist Matt Taylor, whose cover for Penguin’s most recent paperback version of Le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy won The Rap Sheet’s 2011 Best Crime Novel Cover contest.
• “So how was the wife of the professional police detective portrayed in most Golden Age police procedurals?” short-story writer Carol Westron asks in Lizzie Hayes’ blog. “On the whole, she was hardly portrayed at all. She was mentioned as part of his background but played no part in the intellectual or emotional process that leads to the resolution of the case.”
• For the MysteryPeople blog, Scott Montgomery interviews author Max Allan Collins on the subject of his new non-fiction book, Scarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago (Morrow), which he penned with A. Brad Schwartz.
• And I long ago added to The Rap Sheet’s YouTube page the original opening from the NBC Mystery Movie series McMillan & Wife, starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James. But only yesterday did I realize that I never followed up by posting the main title sequence from Once Upon a Dead Man, the pilot film that gave birth to that beloved, 1971-1977 mystery drama. So here it is. Once Upon a Dead Man was directed by Leonard B. Stern and was first broadcast on September 17, 1971. Jerry Fielding composed the theme music.
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
A Grab Bag of References
I’m overdue to compile one of my mammoth “Bullet Points” posts, but that will have to wait until I have more free time. For now, here’s a smattering of crime-fiction links worth your attention.
• With the brand-new fourth season of Bosch set to debut on the Amazon TV streaming service come Friday, April 13, Criminal Element is asking all readers to vote for their favorite novel in Michael Connelly’s long-running Harry Bosch series.
• Have you been watching TNT-TV’s The Alienist, based on Caleb Carr’s 1994 historical thriller of that same name? If so, you will probably be interested in The Bowery Boys’ photograph-filled look back at what New York City was really like in 1896.
• I reported last September on plans to create a TV series inspired by James Ellroy’s 1990 crime novel, L.A. Confidential, and the 1997 film already produced from Ellroy’s tale. Now, Deadline Hollywood brings word that the producers of that prospective CBS drama have recruited Walton Goggins (late of Justified and Vice Principals) to fill a lead role. “Goggins will play one of [three principal homicide] detectives, Jack Vincennes,” according to Deadline. “All swagger and flash with a movie-star smile, Jack knows how the system works and uses it to his best advantage, including some corrupt shakedowns on the side. The role was played by Kevin Spacey in the movie that premiered at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival and went to on score nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, and two wins.”
• Also from Deadline Hollywood comes news that “Mel Gibson, Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Towne, and Mike Medavoy are teaming on Dancing Bear, an adaptation of the hard-boiled crime novel by the late James Crumley that is in the early stages at USA Network though Universal Cable Productions.” The site explains that “Crumley’s novel is set in Montana and centers on part-time detective Milo Milodragovitch, who becomes entangled with a cast of unsavory characters in a web of criminal conspiracies, blackmail, land grabs, grizzly bears, guns, and drugs. Said Gibson, ‘It’s basically Chinatown set in a 7-11 in Montana in the ’70s with a whole lot of cocaine.’” Now, I have great respect for Towne, and I remember enjoying Crumley’s Dancing Bear, though it’s been years since I read that book. But the involvement in this project of Gibson—whose anti-Semitic and homophobic views have been well documented—leaves me unsettled. I know it’s probably healthy for people to separate the obnoxious behavior of some Hollywood celebs from their artistic contributions, and respect them for the latter. Gibson’s ugly side, though, is so very pronounced, I don’t know if I can do that—as much as I might like to see gumshoe Milodragovitch brought to small-screen life.
• Since I just wrote about the 50th anniversary of Peter Falk’s first televised appearance as Lieutenant Columbo, my attention was easily caught by this item about a brand-new cookbook titled Cooking with Columbo: Suppers with the Shambling Sleuth. The Columbophile explains that it was penned by “London-based Columbo super-fan Jenny Hammerton,” host of the Silver Screen Suppers blog, who “plundered her extensive archives of more than 7,000 movie star recipes to come up with meal suggestions to match every Columbo episode! Featuring favorite recipes from the likes of Peter Falk, Vincent Price, Johnny Cash, Robert Conrad, Trish Van Devere, Dick Van Dyke, and Janet Leigh, there’s inspiration enough to create sensational dinners for one right through to opulent banquets and house parties—including enough chili variations to keep purists happy (although no squirrel chili recipe makes the cut).” It was established early in Columbo’s run that the Los Angeles cop was a chili lover.
• In the wake of last Wednesday’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida—during which 17 people were killed and others injured, allegedly by a crazed teenage gunman wielding an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle—more than one person has brought up the concern that a generation of America’s youth will now associate the name “Marjory Stoneman Douglas” with senseless brutality … instead of with the pioneering environmentalist, journalist, and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner who gave her name to that school. Oh yes, and the original Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890-1998) also happened to be an early contributor to Black Mask magazine. Among Douglas’ papers, currently archived at the University of Miami, is a 1924 Black Mask yarn titled “White Midnight,” which has been described as “a novella about sunken treasures in the West Indies.”
• Speaking of that Florida student massacre, A. Brad Schwartz—the co-author, with Max Allan Collins, of a forthcoming non-fiction book titled Scarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago (Morrow)—points out in this New York Times op-ed piece, that it took place exactly 89 years after the Windy City’s notorious St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Schwartz adds that said butchery, which claimed just seven victims, led to profound changes both in Chicago’s political foundations and in the nation’s response to increasing gun violence of the time. “We should be ashamed,” he concludes, “that the killing of criminals 90 years ago could help spur such change, while the repeated slaughter of children prompts little more than ‘thoughts and prayers’ from lawmakers today. The story of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre shows how public outrage can create meaningful reform when the political and economic costs of inaction outweigh the inertia preserving the status quo.”
• As mentioned previously, funeral services for the late mystery novelist Bill Crider took place this last Monday afternoon in his hometown of Alvin, Texas. I haven’t heard a great deal about the event, but one attendee did recall, on Facebook, that it was a “lovely memorial service …, complete with mentions by each speaker of those precious not-so-little-anymore VBKs” (aka Crider’s three Very Bad Kittens, who now have their very own Facebook fan page).
• Meanwhile, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine editor Janet Hutchings wrote a very nice remembrance of Bill Crider in her blog. And Robert S. Napier, a longtime friend of Crider’s, shares in his own blog the contents of the final e-mail message he received from that 76-year-old Lone Star State author, which contained this lament:
• Finally, The Secret Agent Lair reviews M, Dynamite Entertainment’s latest James Bond comic-book spin-off, this one starring 007’s superior and the head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (aka MI6). “M is very much a decent spy thriller that does not involve nor even feature the character of James Bond, anywhere,” the blog opines. “Starring in a title of his own, M proves that he is a very worthy spymaster who can think on his feet and outsmart the opponent using the skills of a master strategist he acquired over the years, isn’t afraid to apply his use of variable types of combat on his enemies, and holds [up] his own rather well without the need of any agent or a bodyguard in his disposal, which is why it makes the character worthy of the spin-off he was given.” The Secret Agent Lair goes on to say that “M is supposed to be collected in a [hardcover volume] of one-shots entitled James Bond: Case Files Vol. 1, which also includes Moneypenny as well as titles starring Bond: Service and Solstice.” That omnibus is due out in mid-July.
• With the brand-new fourth season of Bosch set to debut on the Amazon TV streaming service come Friday, April 13, Criminal Element is asking all readers to vote for their favorite novel in Michael Connelly’s long-running Harry Bosch series.
• Have you been watching TNT-TV’s The Alienist, based on Caleb Carr’s 1994 historical thriller of that same name? If so, you will probably be interested in The Bowery Boys’ photograph-filled look back at what New York City was really like in 1896.
• I reported last September on plans to create a TV series inspired by James Ellroy’s 1990 crime novel, L.A. Confidential, and the 1997 film already produced from Ellroy’s tale. Now, Deadline Hollywood brings word that the producers of that prospective CBS drama have recruited Walton Goggins (late of Justified and Vice Principals) to fill a lead role. “Goggins will play one of [three principal homicide] detectives, Jack Vincennes,” according to Deadline. “All swagger and flash with a movie-star smile, Jack knows how the system works and uses it to his best advantage, including some corrupt shakedowns on the side. The role was played by Kevin Spacey in the movie that premiered at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival and went to on score nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, and two wins.”
• Also from Deadline Hollywood comes news that “Mel Gibson, Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Towne, and Mike Medavoy are teaming on Dancing Bear, an adaptation of the hard-boiled crime novel by the late James Crumley that is in the early stages at USA Network though Universal Cable Productions.” The site explains that “Crumley’s novel is set in Montana and centers on part-time detective Milo Milodragovitch, who becomes entangled with a cast of unsavory characters in a web of criminal conspiracies, blackmail, land grabs, grizzly bears, guns, and drugs. Said Gibson, ‘It’s basically Chinatown set in a 7-11 in Montana in the ’70s with a whole lot of cocaine.’” Now, I have great respect for Towne, and I remember enjoying Crumley’s Dancing Bear, though it’s been years since I read that book. But the involvement in this project of Gibson—whose anti-Semitic and homophobic views have been well documented—leaves me unsettled. I know it’s probably healthy for people to separate the obnoxious behavior of some Hollywood celebs from their artistic contributions, and respect them for the latter. Gibson’s ugly side, though, is so very pronounced, I don’t know if I can do that—as much as I might like to see gumshoe Milodragovitch brought to small-screen life.
• Since I just wrote about the 50th anniversary of Peter Falk’s first televised appearance as Lieutenant Columbo, my attention was easily caught by this item about a brand-new cookbook titled Cooking with Columbo: Suppers with the Shambling Sleuth. The Columbophile explains that it was penned by “London-based Columbo super-fan Jenny Hammerton,” host of the Silver Screen Suppers blog, who “plundered her extensive archives of more than 7,000 movie star recipes to come up with meal suggestions to match every Columbo episode! Featuring favorite recipes from the likes of Peter Falk, Vincent Price, Johnny Cash, Robert Conrad, Trish Van Devere, Dick Van Dyke, and Janet Leigh, there’s inspiration enough to create sensational dinners for one right through to opulent banquets and house parties—including enough chili variations to keep purists happy (although no squirrel chili recipe makes the cut).” It was established early in Columbo’s run that the Los Angeles cop was a chili lover.
• In the wake of last Wednesday’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida—during which 17 people were killed and others injured, allegedly by a crazed teenage gunman wielding an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle—more than one person has brought up the concern that a generation of America’s youth will now associate the name “Marjory Stoneman Douglas” with senseless brutality … instead of with the pioneering environmentalist, journalist, and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner who gave her name to that school. Oh yes, and the original Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890-1998) also happened to be an early contributor to Black Mask magazine. Among Douglas’ papers, currently archived at the University of Miami, is a 1924 Black Mask yarn titled “White Midnight,” which has been described as “a novella about sunken treasures in the West Indies.”
• Speaking of that Florida student massacre, A. Brad Schwartz—the co-author, with Max Allan Collins, of a forthcoming non-fiction book titled Scarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago (Morrow)—points out in this New York Times op-ed piece, that it took place exactly 89 years after the Windy City’s notorious St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Schwartz adds that said butchery, which claimed just seven victims, led to profound changes both in Chicago’s political foundations and in the nation’s response to increasing gun violence of the time. “We should be ashamed,” he concludes, “that the killing of criminals 90 years ago could help spur such change, while the repeated slaughter of children prompts little more than ‘thoughts and prayers’ from lawmakers today. The story of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre shows how public outrage can create meaningful reform when the political and economic costs of inaction outweigh the inertia preserving the status quo.”
• As mentioned previously, funeral services for the late mystery novelist Bill Crider took place this last Monday afternoon in his hometown of Alvin, Texas. I haven’t heard a great deal about the event, but one attendee did recall, on Facebook, that it was a “lovely memorial service …, complete with mentions by each speaker of those precious not-so-little-anymore VBKs” (aka Crider’s three Very Bad Kittens, who now have their very own Facebook fan page).
• Meanwhile, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine editor Janet Hutchings wrote a very nice remembrance of Bill Crider in her blog. And Robert S. Napier, a longtime friend of Crider’s, shares in his own blog the contents of the final e-mail message he received from that 76-year-old Lone Star State author, which contained this lament:
I can’t believe what’s happened to this country, which was the greatest in the world at one time. I don’t think that’s true now, and I really resent it that I’m going to die in a country that’s going downhill so fast. I don’t know how many years I have left, but even it’s ten or fifteen, I can’t see us recovering. I try not to think too much about it for fear of falling into despair.• OK, you can consider me jealous: On behalf of New York magazine’s pop-culture Web site, Vulture, Sarah Weinman recently interviewed playwright-author David Mamet, whose fourth novel, the 1920s-set crime story Chicago, is due out next week from Custom House. During their exchange, Mamet more or less characterizes his drive as an artist this way: “I’m basically nuts. I sit by myself every day, most days, eight hours in this little room. It feels like either a torment or an adventure. The only way I can still the torment or appreciate the adventure is to write it down.”
• Finally, The Secret Agent Lair reviews M, Dynamite Entertainment’s latest James Bond comic-book spin-off, this one starring 007’s superior and the head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (aka MI6). “M is very much a decent spy thriller that does not involve nor even feature the character of James Bond, anywhere,” the blog opines. “Starring in a title of his own, M proves that he is a very worthy spymaster who can think on his feet and outsmart the opponent using the skills of a master strategist he acquired over the years, isn’t afraid to apply his use of variable types of combat on his enemies, and holds [up] his own rather well without the need of any agent or a bodyguard in his disposal, which is why it makes the character worthy of the spin-off he was given.” The Secret Agent Lair goes on to say that “M is supposed to be collected in a [hardcover volume] of one-shots entitled James Bond: Case Files Vol. 1, which also includes Moneypenny as well as titles starring Bond: Service and Solstice.” That omnibus is due out in mid-July.
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