How British Thrillers Changed the World

By Michael Gregorio
Mike Ripley has a serious mission in life.

In his monthly column for Shots, “Getting Away with Murder,” he reports on the latest crime-fiction releases. But Ripley invariably reminds readers as well of at least one or two—sometimes half a dozen—thriller novels that once took the world by storm.

Now, in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang: The Boom in British Thrillers from “Casino Royale” to “The Eagle Has Landed” (HarperCollins UK), this author-critic’s lifelong love of the genre is laid out on the table ready for devouring. An entertaining history of popular literature, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang charts the early flowering of the British adventure story in the 1950s, its evolution into the spy-fantasy novel (which culminated in Ian Fleming’s best-selling James Bond series), and its transition into the more measured espionage fiction which arrived with the Cold War. The book’s title comes from a letter that Fleming wrote to Raymond Chandler in 1956: “You write novels of suspense—if not sociological studies,” remarked Fleming, “whereas my books are straight pillow fantasies of the bang-bang, kiss-kiss variety.”

Fantasy versus sociology?

Things are not quite so simple, as Mr. Ripley indicates, laying out in these pages the grim history of post-war Britain, a time when the fighting had been won but the Empire was shrinking, and food rationing was a fact of life. He suggests that the evolution of thriller fiction followed the shifts of British social history more closely than any other popular literary genre. As anyone familiar with his Shots column (or with his Fitzroy Maclean Angel novels) would expect, wry humor is never in short supply here, as “The Ripster” recounts a host of fascinating tales behind the blockbuster novels and the best-selling authors who wrote them, noting in one instance: “When it came to villains, you couldn’t beat a good Nazi.”

This is an authoritative survey for readers who would like to learn more about the growth and development of thriller fiction, but might not know just where to start their research. I was amazed by how many titles Ripley references, and more surprised still to realize that I had already read quite a number of the books. Growing up in England during the 1950s and ’60s, it was inevitable, I suppose. The paperback was new, and the writers were many.

It’s inevitable, too, that a wide variety of these fine works have been all but forgotten over the years.

Thanks to Ripley’s efforts, however, history is being set straight and works long neglected—many of them out of print—will likely find new fans in the 21st century. Count me among them: I am currently reading and enjoying a host of classic thrillers mentioned in Ripley’s book. In addition, I asked the author to answer a few questions about his interest in the genre.

Michael Gregorio: Do you remember the first thriller you ever read?

Mike Ripley: I couldn’t swear to it, but the first adult thriller was possibly Hammond Innes’ The White South [1949], set in the (now) politically incorrect world of whale haunting in the Antarctic, followed quickly by Alistair MacLean’s HMS Ulysses [1955]. I was living in a small mining village in Yorkshire, would have been 10, and [was] about to leave primary school.

I do remember, at public school aged 12, reading [Fleming’s] Thunderball and Dr. No in quick succession, followed by [Len Deighton’s] The IPCRESS File, probably when the film came out. I was 13 when I read [John le Carré’s] The Spy Who Came in from the Cold—I still have the 1965 Pan paperback, priced five shillings (25p)!

MG: What makes a thriller memorable, in your opinion?

MR: What makes a thriller memorable? Any (or all) of the basic ingredients: jeopardy—both personal to the hero/heroine or to a larger entity such as a city, a military installation, an economy or a state; suspense—the idea of a deadline, or a ticking-clock; an exotic location, or somewhere where man is up against the natural elements; conflict—violent action scenes; a hero/heroine who is human and could get hurt, although at times displays almost superhuman qualities and could be just as cunning and ruthless as the villains.

MG: Who is the greatest thriller writer of all time?

MR: Impossible to say, so I’ll chicken out of picking one. But any decent short-list would include John Buchan (“old school”), Geoffrey Household (“the romantic and noble rogue male hero”), Eric Ambler (spies and shady goings-on with a left-wing slant), Ian Fleming (spy fantasy), Len Deighton (a stylistic mold-breaker), John le Carré (spies, betrayal and the English class system), and Alistair MacLean and Hammond Innes (of the “adventure thriller” school). I have stayed very much in my comfort zone here, ignoring other types of thriller and many excellent non-British writers.

MG: Who is the most accomplished writer of thrillers today?

MR: The most accomplished? Difficult question. In totally different fields and styles, I’d go for Alan Furst, Ben Pastor, and Philip Kerr, who all root their thrillers in the history of World War II; Martin Cruz Smith, who can range over history and different locations; and when it comes to the strong, silent hero who rides to the rescue, one has to include Lee Child, who writes “classical modern” thrillers (if that makes sense). And this brutally ignores the writers of some brilliant crime thrillers, police thrillers, psychological thrillers, etc.

MG: Would you describe your “Angel” novels as thrillers?

MR: Angel? Well, comedy-thrillers maybe. They are not “whodunits” so much as “how does he get out of this” stories, often “how the hell did he get into this.” I hope they have some suspense and believable action and heroics, and therefore provide a few thrills, but their main purpose is to tell jokes. I guess I am not so much a writer as a frustrated stand-up comedian.

(Editor’s note: Ripley’s Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang will go on sale in the United States this coming September.)

A Rebus Revival

Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin already had cause to celebrate this year. Not only does 2017 mark the 30th anniversary of his introducing fictional Edinburgh Detective Inspector John Rebus, in Knots and Crosses (1987), but this summer will bring the inaugural “RebusFest” (June 30-July 2) to venues all over Scotland’s historic capital.

Now comes yet another reason for the author to crack one of his broad smiles. As reported recently by Deadline Hollywood, Rankin’s irritable, rules-breaking protagonist is heading back to our TV screens:

UK-based indie Eleventh Hour Films has acquired rights to Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series of detective novels, and attached '71 writer Gregory Burke to pen a contemporary TV drama adaptation. …

BAFTA-nominated Burke’s credits also include next year’s José Padilha hijacking thriller Entebbe. Of Rebus, he says, “As someone who has grown up and lives in South East Scotland, Ian Rankin’s best-selling books provide the perfect material to make a thrilling series about crime in the modern world.”

Executive Producer Jill Green promises “a fresh and revisionist take in every way introducing both Rebus and Edinburgh to a new generation.”

Most imagined sleuths never get one crack at boob-tube stardom. But Rebus has already enjoyed a healthy run on British television, in ITV’s Rebus (2000-2007), played by two different actors: John Hannah, who never seemed right for the role (even he acknowledged that) and left after one season; and Ken Stott, who carried on through three successive seasons, establishing himself quite successfully in the part.

There’s no word yet on who will portray DI Rebus this time around. Author Rankin is apparently hoping Stott will return to the role. But that might not satisfy Jill Green’s promise of “a fresh … take” on Rebus, so we’ll have to wait and see how this all shakes out.

Revue of Reviewers, 5-15-17

Critiquing some of the most interesting recent crime, mystery, and thriller releases. Click on the individual covers to read more.

Accomplished Boothe Quietly Departs

Obituaries for Texas-born actor Powers Boothe, who died in his sleep on Sunday morning, aged 68, headline a variety of film and TV projects he participated in over the decades—everything from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Sin City to Tombstone, Hatfields & McCoys, and 24. Strangely, less is made of his Emmy Award-winning role as charismatic cult leader Jim Jones in the 1980 CBS-TV miniseries Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones, and it’s the rare tribute that mentions he played Raymond Chandler’s best-known protagonist in the 1983-1986 HBO-TV series Philip Marlowe, Private Eye.

Boothe started his career on the stage, joining the repertory company of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and moving from there to Broadway. In 1977 he appeared as part of an ill-used Richard III cast in the Herbert Ross/Neil Simon movie The Goodbye Girl. Lifted further into the limelight by his portrayal of the suicidal/homicidal Jones, he went on to roles in films such as Red Dawn (1984), Tombstone (1993, playing outlaw Curly Bill Brocius), and Nixon (1995, in which he portrayed White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig), as well as in small-screen dramas ranging from Joan of Arc (1999) to Deadwood (2004-2006), in the latter of which he stood out as corrupt but otherwise complex brothel proprietor Cy Tolliver.

However, it was as the hard-edged, wisecracking Marlowe that Boothe first came to my attention. The character had appeared previously on television—in a 1954 episode of Climax!, played by Dick Powell, and later in the 1959-1960 ABC-TV series Philip Marlowe, starring Philip Carey. But Boothe brought an authority and muted toughness (if maybe a bit too much world-weariness) to the role that Carey had lacked. There were 11 hour-long episodes of Philip Marlowe, Private Eye, all adapted from Chandler short stories, though Marlowe hadn’t originally been the lead player in every tale. Among my favorites was “The Pencil,” adapted from Chandler’s last actual Marlowe short story (which was originally published in 1959 as “Marlowe Takes on the Syndicate”). At least for now, you can watch “The Pencil” as well as other installments from the series on YouTube. Another standout episode was “Finger Man,” which guest-starred not only Gayle Hunnicutt (who had appeared with James Garner in 1969’s Marlowe) but also Ed Bishop (former star of the 1970-1971 science-fiction TV series UFO). Sergio Angelini offers synopses of the Season 1 episodes of Boothe’s series, plus video clips, in his blog, Tipping My Fedora.

Variety reports that “there will be a private service held in Texas” for Boothe, In addition, “a memorial celebration in his honor is being considered for a future date.”

READ MORE: “Powers Boothe: The Guardian Obituary,” by Michael Carlson (Irresistible Targets).

Bullet Points: Finally, a Mother’s Day Edition

• Author Harper Lee passed away more than a year ago, but the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction lives on. As Mystery Fanfare notes, this commendation—“established in 2011 by the University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird”—“is given annually to a book-length work of fiction that best illuminates the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change.” Chosen from among 25 entries, the three finalists are:

— Gone Again, by James Grippando (Harper)
— The Last Days of Night, by Graham Moore (Random House)
— Small Great Things, by Jodi Picoult (Ballantine)

A panel of four judges has been tasked with choosing the ultimate winner, though the results of an online public poll are also to be weighed in the final decision. You can vote for your favorite among the three books above by clicking here; voting will remain open until Friday, June 30, at 11:59 p.m. CT. (At last check, Grippando’s Gone Again was leading this reader survey.) I don’t see a specific date on which the award is to be presented, but a press release says it will be handed out at the University of Alabama School of Law “for the first time. The winner will be announced prior to the ceremony and will receive a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird signed by Harper Lee.”

• Although I don’t know how she keeps up the energy to do this, B.V. Lawson produces an excellent and consistent weekly wrap-up of crime-fiction-related news in her blog, In Reference to Murder. On occasion, I feel the need to poach interesting things from those columns, such as these two successive items:

Dr. Mary Brown, writing for The Scotsman, made the case for neglected author John Buchan, only known today because of his First World War adventure story, The Thirty-Nine Steps, and his great character, Major-General Sir Richard Hannay. However, Edinburgh-based publisher ­Polygon recently announced plans for a new installment, with Dundee-born author Robert J. ­Harris
penning the continuation novel The Thirty-One Kings, [due for release this coming October], the first new Hannay book for more than 80 years. If successful, a series featuring Major-General Hannay could follow.

While we’re on the subject of continuation novels, New Zealand author Stella Duffy talked about the tricky art of completing an abandoned Ngaio Marsh mystery novel [the 1940s Roderick Alleyn tale Money in the Morgue].

• Mike Ripley’s May edition of his Shots column, “Getting Away with Murder,” includes remarks about a wide variety of intriguing subjects: Lee Child’s collection of Jack Reacher short stories, No Middle Name (set to go on sale this week); the TV series based on Ken Bruen’s Jack Taylor tales; new works by James Runcie, Tony Park, Dennis Lehane, and Steve Cavanagh; a posthumous James Bond-inspired novel by Donald E. Westlake, and much more. Read all about it here.

• With a sixth Mission: Impossible film currently in production (and due for wide release in July 2018), The Spy Command’s Bill Koenig posts a short retrospective on the man “without whom none of it would be impossible, M:I creator Bruce Geller.” He writes: “Geller died almost four decades ago in a crash of a twin-engine aircraft. It was a sudden end for someone who had brought two popular series to the air (M:I and Mannix) that ran a combined 15 years on CBS. [Geller] was a renaissance man capable of writing, producing, directing and song writing.” Click here to learn more about Geller.

• The Verge reports that California writer Andy Weir, who made it big with his debut science-fiction novel, The Martian (adapted as a 2015 movie of the same name), is coming out in November of this year with a second book—a crime thriller set on Earth’s moon, titled Artemis (Crown). That lunar environment has backdropped previous works of mystery and mayhem (think Anthony O’Neill’s The Dark Side, for instance, or Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s The Retrieval Artist). However, The Verge’s Andrew Liptak says Weir is “hoping for blockbuster success” with Artemis, which he says focuses on “a young woman named Jasmine Bashara (known as Jazz), who lives in the Moon’s only city, Artemis. If you’re not wealthy, living there isn’t easy, and she gets by as a smuggler. When she comes across the chance to commit the perfect crime, she steps into a bigger struggle for control of the city.” Film rights to Artemis have already been purchased.

• Also from The Verge comes this: BBC-TV is planning “a three-part series based on H.G. Wells’ [1898] novel, The War of the Worlds:

The show is scheduled to go into production next spring, and it appears that, unlike most modern adaptations, it will be set in the Victorian era. The series will be written by screenwriter Peter Hartness, who adapted Susanna Clarke’s Victorian-era fantasy novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell for the network, as well as a handful of Doctor Who episodes. The North-West Evening Mail has some additional details, quoting Mammoth Studios Managing Director of Productions Damien Timmer as saying that while the film has been adapted many times, “no one has ever attempted to follow Wells and locate the story in Dorking at the turn of the last century.” The project was first announced in 2015, and today’s confirmation of production comes only months after the book entered the public domain.

• Even 43,000 years ago, humans were murdering each other.

• Congratulations to blogger Les Blatt, who observes that his Classic Mysteries podcast “has reached a milestone of sorts. This week’s audio review of John Rhode’s Body Unidentified is podcast 520 in the series. I have been doing a weekly podcast review every week, and this one is number 520—the number of weeks in ten years.” Wow! The last couple of years’ worth of excellent episodes can be enjoyed here.

• I was saddened to hear earlier this month that 78-year-old American sportswriter and novelist Frank Deford has decided to retire from his gig as a commentator for National Public Radio’s Morning Edition program after 37 years on the job. The Associated Press reported on May 3 that “Deford gave his 1,656th and final commentary on NPR’s Morning Edition Wednesday, ending a run of what he calls ‘little homilies’ that began in 1980. He thanked NPR for allowing him to choose his topics and allowing him ‘to treat sports seriously, as another branch on the tree of culture.’” Although I am no sports fan, I have enjoyed listening to Deford’s gravelly voiced reflections for many years. If my memory can be relied upon, I started noticing them around the time he became the editor-in-chief of a short-lived (but fondly remembered) tabloid paper called The National. Their topics were always sports-related, though they tended often to incorporate larger themes about life and modern society. You can catch up with Deford’s closing report and many of his previous ones here.

• I don’t think anything will make me attractive again (if I ever was), but according to eHarmony UK, being a reader should do the trick—“especially if you’re a man. The popular online dating site notes that men who listed reading as one of their interests received 19% more messages, while women readers received a 3% bump in communication,” explains the BookBub blog, adding: “Regardless of what you read, eHarmony reports that bibliophiles are considered to be more intellectually curious than non-readers and have an easier time building open and trusting relationships.”

• Why do we love the smell of old books?

• In a piece for The Guardian, Mark Lawson follows up this page’s recent post about former President Bill Clinton throwing in with James Patterson to compose a political thriller novel called The President Is Missing, noting that “special relationships between politicians and political novelists” have been quite common on both sides of the Atlantic. “So,” he explains, “Clinton, in co-authoring fiction, is making official a long informal arrangement. Politicians co-operate partly because they tend to be keen thriller-readers—perhaps an adrenaline-raising genre suits the temperament of those who seek power—but also because they can reveal details and incidents in the knowledge that they will be untraceably disguised, and which could not be confided to journalists or the ghost-writers of their memoirs. In this respect, Clinton might run the risk that every scene in The President Is Missing will be assumed to have happened to him.”

• Ben Terrall, the youngest child of crime novelist Robert Terrall, aka Robert Kyle (1914-2009), has penned a review for January Magazine of three recent books that show the darker, more diabolical side of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

• I’m always wary of pointing readers toward videos that suddenly show up on YouTube, because that Web site has the annoying habit of removing content whenever a film or TV company complains about copyright infringement—even when what has been posted is small and insignificant. But I would be doing Rap Sheet readers a serious disservice if I didn’t mention that the 1998 HBO-TV film Poodle Springs—based on the 1989 novel of that name, begun by Raymond Chandler and finished by Robert B. Parker—is now waiting for your attention on YouTube. I’ve heard mixed reviews of this production starring James Caan as Los Angeles gumshoe Philip Marlowe, but since I have never had a chance to see it before, it’s a sure bet I’ll be watching soon!

• Speaking of YouTube, I’ve recently made a few additions to The Rap Sheet’s page on that popular video site. Look for the main title sequences to the Scottish crime drama Shetland, William Conrad’s classic Cannon, the short-lived Burt Reynolds series Hawk, and Stephen J. Cannell’s oddball Broken Badges from 1990-1991. There are many more here.

• Nancie Clare’s latest guest on Speaking of Mysteries is Avery Duff, whose first novel, Beach Lawyer, “explores the dark side of sunny Santa Monica,” California. Get an earful of their conversation here.

• The program for the Deadly Ink conference, set to take place in Rockaway, New Jersey, during the weekend of June 16-18, has been announced. Those festivities will include a presentation of the 2017 David Award to one of five nominees.

• If you’ve hesitated to start watching Season 3 of the Amazon TV series Bosch, based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling police procedurals and starring Titus Welliver, then perhaps you need some incentive from this piece in Criminal Intent, which contends that “Bosch has transformed television mystery.” English professor Andy Adams goes on to argue: “For the first time, viewers can experience the closest approximation to a mystery novel as is possible on screen. The pacing, development of the characters, complexity of the plot, simultaneous themes, and detailed touches make Bosch the template for 21st-century mystery television.” Season 3 debuted in April and comprises 10 episodes. The show has already been renewed.

• Standards of U.S. presidential behavior have seriously slumped under Trump. The New York Times offers this “handy reference list” of new standards for Republicans to consult “should they ever feel tempted to insist on different standards for another president.”

• Melissa McCarthy does do a fabulous Sean Spicer!

• With the cult series Twin Peaks set to return to television next weekend, following a quarter-century absence, the timing of Michael Parks’ demise at age 77 could hardly have been more unfortunately timed. Parks—who starred in the 1969-1970 NBC-TV adventure drama Then Came Bronson before taking guest roles on series from Get Christie Love! and Ellery Queen to Fantasy Island and The Colbys—enjoyed a career revival when he was cast in the original Twin Peaks, playing a murderous French-Canadian drug-runner by the name of Jean Renault. In the decades since, recalls Deadline Hollywood, Parks “would appear in [director Quentin] Tarantino’s From Dusk Till Dawn and Kill Bill films, Django Unchained, the Tarantino/[Robert] Rodriguez [picture] Grindhouse, Kevin Smith’s Red State and Tusk, and Andrew Dominik’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, among others.” Blogger Toby O’Brien’s offers video clips of Parks’ work in Inner Toob.

• Capitalizing on Twin Peaks’ return, Seattle Met magazine has assembled this daytrip plan for fans who want to get a first-hand look at the area around tiny North Bend, Washington, which served as a setting for David Lynch’s original series.

• And I can’t argue with this assessment, from the Classic Film and TV Café, of the 1969 private-eye film Marlowe: “At first blush, James Garner may not seem like the ideal Philip Marlowe. But in screenwriter Stirling Silliphant’s update of [Raymond] Chandler’s The Little Sister (1949), Garner channels his dry wit into an enjoyable, effective performance. It’s just a shame that the producers selected one of the lesser Marlowe novels for their movie.”

Mum’s the Word

My mother passed away long ago, and my wife and I have no children together, so Mother’s Day receives little notice at our house. But today’s holiday is of much greater importance to many other Americans. That’s made clear, if for no other reason, by the fact that there are so many crime and mystery novels associated with this annual occasion. Check out blogger Janet Rudolph’s list of them here.

Dead, White, and Blue: A Brit’s Coast-to-Coast Survey of U.S. Crime Lit

Assembling a guide to modern American crime fiction sounds like a task guaranteed to frustrate even the most astute observer and critic of the field—especially such an authority, in fact, because he or she would be unlikely to ever earn enough payment or be granted sufficient pages to do the subject justice. My office contains several shelves of reference books on this very topic, and yet every month I hear about a freshly published author or a sub-sub-subgenre of U.S. crime, mystery, or thriller fiction that I had not previously thought to investigate. American crime fiction is as sprawling and varied as the nation itself, and just as ambitious.

Nonetheless, British reviewer and raconteur Barry Forshaw has stepped up to deliver American Noir (Oldcastle/Pocket Essentials), which he calls “a snapshot” of the authors, books, films, and TV shows defining U.S. crime fiction in the early 21st century. At 192 pages long, this paperback overview—which is currently for sale in Great Britain (the American release isn’t expected until September)—can obviously not be comprehensive. It leaves out a number of rising writers and recognizable Hollywood productions that other specialists in this school of storytelling might have featured. However, for all its supposed concentration on “noir” narratives (that term is applied here only in the loosest sense), the book’s focus is broad enough that readers who think themselves well-versed in this genre might still discover new works and wordsmiths to sample next.

American Noir is the fourth entry in Forshaw’s series of brief directories to criminous yarns from around the world. It follows Nordic Noir (2013), Euro Noir (2014), and Brit Noir (2016). The author, a former vice chair of the British Crime Writers’ Association who for many years edited Crime Time magazine, also counts among his credits volumes as diverse as British Crime Writing: An Encyclopedia, The Man Who Left Too Soon: The Biography of Stieg Larsson, Death in a Cold Climate: A Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction, and Italian Cinema: Arthouse to Exploitation. Oh, and let’s not forget The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction, to which Forshaw directs readers wishing to learn more about U.S. writers of “the hard-boiled and pulp era.”

He devotes most of American Noir to alphabetically organized mini-profiles of novelists. Familiar names abound, from David Baldacci, Sara Paretsky, and James Ellroy to David Morrell, Laura Lippman, Walter Mosley, Carl Hiaasen, Karin Slaughter, George Pelecanos, Tess Gerritsen, Linwood Barclay, Megan Abbott, and Jeffery Deaver. Yet Forshaw finds room as well to remark upon the first-rate efforts of fictionists who less often draw the spotlight, folks such as Max Allan Collins, Dan Fesperman, Chris Holm, S.J. Rozan, Loren D. Estleman, Steve Hamilton, Linda Barnes, Robert Ferrigno, Philip Margolin, Chelsea Cain, Wiley Cash, and Wallace Stroby. (A requirement for admittance to these ranks was that the person still be living, which explains why such names as Donald E. Westlake, Stuart M. Kaminsky, and Elmore Leonard are missing from the book.) Included, too, are a few writers not usually associated with crime novels—Stephen King, Richard Price, Steven Bochco, etc. In most cases, Forshaw commends one or more books by the author, so you’ll have a starting point from which to explore his or her oeuvre.

By way of full disclosure, let me note—in all modesty—that I was among the “experts” Forshaw solicited for advice in compiling his list of authors to represent the current state of U.S. crime fiction. I had no say, though, over his final selections. If I had, I would probably have made a few minor alterations. For instance, I don’t see why Karen Kijewski (creator of the private eye Kat Colorado series, which hasn’t seen a fresh installment since 1998’s Stray Kat Waltz) should have merited attention here, while Stephen Greenleaf (whose John Marshall Tanner books are, I think, far superior) did out. Nor do I understand devoting a write-up to Viet Thanh Nguyen (who has published only one crime novel, be it the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Sympathizer), but referencing the more prolific Ingrid Thoft (Duplicity) and Dick Lochte (Sleeping Dogs) only in a back-pages tally of “other authors.” And why did Lawrence Block—still breathing and entertaining Bouchercon crowds at age 78—merit no mention at all? Perhaps Forshaw was satisfied with having included him in The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction. Less mysterious are the omissions of such historical mystery writers as Kris Nelscott (aka Kristine Kathryn Rusch), Louis Bayard, Kelli Stanley, D.E. Johnson, and Caleb Carr: Apparently, Forshaw is planning a separate study of their literary field.

Of course, these are mere quibbles, right up there with my lament that this paperback does not boast the sort of useful index found in the previous three Noir guides; and that Forshaw several times cites Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, even though the title of that publication became the non-possessive Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine back in the early 1990s. Thankfully, such flaws are more than made up for in other respects—by the fact, for instance, that the section of “Selected Crime Films and TV of the New Millennium” embraces worthy but forgotten productions on the order of the small-screen dramas Big Apple and Karen Sisco, plus the 2001 movie adaptation of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Pledge starring Jack Nicholson. Forshaw’s picks of “The Thirty Best Contemporary U.S. Crime Novels” are also excellent.

Nitpicking aside, American Noir offers a lively little tour of crime fiction sprouted from the Land of the Free and the Home of the Deranged, conducted by someone skilled at distinguishing gems from junk. As I said before, it’s not complete in addressing its subject; you’ll need complementary works, such as Steven Powell’s 100 American Crime Writers, to fill in the gaps. But Forshaw’s confident, often playful writing style and this book’s information-capsule format make American Noir a work that’s easy to dip into now and then, put aside, and come back to later. Consider yourself warned, though: The longer you spend with this guide and the more you learn about the current state of U.S. crime and thriller fiction, the taller your to-be-read pile is likely to grow.

Premature Evaluation

Yes, it seems awfully early to be putting together lists of the year’s best works of crime and mystery fiction. But that’s exactly what Booklist has done, continuing a longstanding tradition of being the first out of the gates with its annual reading favorites. Its picks were all reviewed in Booklist from May 1, 2016, through April 15, 2017.

Included among the magazine’s “Top 10 Crime Novels” are: Celine, by Peter Heller; Darktown, by Thomas Mullen; Let the Devil Out, by Bill Loehfelm; and Since We Fell, by Dennis Lehane. A companion list of “Best Crime Fiction Debuts” features, among others: The Dry, by Jane Harper; IQ, by Joe Ide; Little Deaths, by Emma Flint; and She Rides Shotgun, by Jordan Harper. You will find the complete list here.

Booklist also presents lists of what it says are the year’s “Best Crime Fiction Audiobooks” and the “Best Crime Fiction for Youth.”

(Hat tip to Randal S. Brandt.)

A New Edge for “Old Knives”

From B.V. Lawson’s In Reference to Murder:

Chris Pine and Michelle Williams are in negotiations to star in All the Old Knives, a spy thriller that would be directed by James Marsh (The Theory of Everything). The movie is based on the 2015 novel The Tourist by author Olen Steinhauer, who will also adapt the screenplay. The story revolves around a pair of CIA spies once romantically involved who reconnect in Carmel-by-the-Sea six years after a failed mission and both have moved on—or so it seems.

Double O Section has more to say about this project.

Bill Clinton Writes What He Knows

We'd already heard that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in the process of writing a book—a collection of “essays … inspired by the hundreds of quotations she has been collecting for decade,” and also touching on her experiences during the disastrous 2016 U.S. presidential election. But it seems her husband, former President Bill Clinton, has caught the book-writing itch, too. As Slate reports:

James Patterson’s famed co-author gambit has, by a large margin, scored its biggest name yet: former president Bill Clinton. In an announcement made Monday morning, Knopf Doubleday chairman Sonny Mehta and Hachette CEO Michael Pietsch confirmed that The President Is Missing, Clinton’s debut novel, will be published in June 2018. It’s described as “a unique amalgam of intrigue, suspense, and behind-the-scenes global drama from the highest corridors of power … that only a president can know.”

“Working on a book about a sitting President—drawing on what I know about the job, life in the White House, and the way Washington works—has been a lot of fun,” Clinton said in a statement. “And working with Jim has been terrific. I’ve been a fan of his for a very long time.” Patterson also chimed in, saying that collaborating with Clinton marks “the highlight” of his career. The official press release confirmed that this is the first time Patterson has worked with a president.

The Guardian notes that “Clinton, a keen reader of thrillers and mysteries, has known Patterson for 10 years, during which time they have become golf partners. They came up with the idea for the novel after the lawyer they both retain suggested they work together. They started working on the book in late 2016, and though details of the plot are being held back until publication, a source told The Guardian it would involve a sitting U.S. president being kidnapped.”

There’s no word yet on how much Clinton might be paid for these literary efforts, but The Guardian says, “it is thought to have gone for a significant seven-figure sum.”

READ MORE: “Bill Clinton and James Patterson Co-Writing a Thriller,” by Hillel Italie (Associated Press).

Every Writer Needs a Pat on the Back

We’re not even halfway through 2017 yet, but we are already up to our sternums in book award nominees and winners. The latest such announcement comes from organizers of this year’s Killer Nashville conference, which is set to take place in Franklin, Tennessee, from August 24 to 27. Among the 10 categories of candidates for Killer Nashville’s annual Silver Falchion Reader’s Choice Awards are those vying to be singled out as the Best Mystery:

• A Black Sail, by Rich Zahradnik
• A Brilliant Death, by Robin Yocum
• Amaretto Amber, by Traci Andrighetti
• Another Day, Another Dali, by Sandra Orchard
• Bailey’s Law, by Meg Lelvis
• Brazen, by Lili Feinberg
• Center Stage, by Denise Grover Swank
• Clouds Over Bishop Hill, by Mary Davidsaver
• Crime and Catnip, by T.C. Lotempio
• Crime and Poetry, by Amanda Flower
• Crosswise, by S.W. Lauden
• Deadly Wedding, by Kate Parker
• Doubt, by Twist Phelan
• The Dying Hour, by Nancy Hughes
• Exhume, by Danielle Girard
• Exit, by Twist Phelan
• Fake, by Twist Phelan
• Fighting for Anna, by Pamela Fagan Hutchins
• Frosty the Dead Man, by Christine Husom
• Grace, by Emily Montaglione
• Heart of Stone, by James Ziskin
• The Heavens May Fall, by Allen Eskens
• Inherit the Bones, by Emily Littlejohn
• Jaheewah, God of the Winds, by John Arnn
• Love You Dead, by Peter James
• The Masterminds, by Olivia Wildenstein
• One Dead, Two to Go, by Elena Hartwell
• Play Nice, by Michael Guillebeau
• Playing with Fire, by Gerald Elias
• Poisoned Justice, by Jeffrey Lockwood
• Rain Dogs, by Adrian McKinty
• Secrets and Shamrocks, by Phylis Gobbell
• The Shattered Bull, by Patrick Kanouse
• Should Have Played Poker, by Debra Goldstein
• The Spyglass File, by Nathan Goodwin
• Stone Cold Blooded, by Catherine Dilts
• Stripped Bare, by Shannon Baker
• Unraveled, by Reavis Wortham
• Winter’s Child, by Margaret Coel

There are nominees as well in the Best Thriller and Best Suspense categories. Since this is a “reader’s choice award,” anyone can vote online for their favorite works simply by clicking here.

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Meanwhile, the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers is out with its list of contenders for the 2017 Scribe Awards. Those prizes are intended to “honor licensed [published] works that tie in with other media such as television, movies, gaming, or comic books. They include original works set in established universes, and adaptations of stories that have appeared in other formats and that cross all genres.” Among the five brackets of Scribe nominees are these two:

Adapted—General and Speculative:
• Assassin’s Creed, by Christie Golden
• Road to Perdition, by Max Allan Collins
• Suicide Squad, by Marv Wolfman

General Original:
• 24: Trial by Fire, by Dayton Ward
• Don Pendleton’s The Executioner: Missile Intercept, by Michael Black
• Murder Never Knocks, by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins
• Robert B. Parker’s Slow Burn, by Ace Atkins
• Tom Clancy’s True Faith and Allegiance, by Mark Greaney

The recipients of this year’s Scribes will be declared during Comic-Con International, to take place in San Diego, California (July 20-23).

Singled Out for Superiority

The British Crime Writers’ Association has announced its shortlist of half a dozen authors contending for the 2017 Dagger in the Library award. As the CWA explains, this prize celebrates “a body of work by a crime writer that users of libraries particularly admire.”

Here, then, are the nominees:

• Andrew Taylor
• C.J. Sansom
• James Oswald
• Kate Ellis
• Mari Hannah
• Tana French

The winner of this year’s Dagger in the Library commendation will be declared as part of the Bodies from the Library event at London’s British Library on Saturday, June 17.

Previous recipients of the Dagger in the Library include Christopher Fowler, Sharon Bolton, Stephen Booth, Belinda Bauer, Mo Hayder, Peter Robinson, Stuart MacBride, Craig Russel, Alexander McCall Smith, and of course last year’s winner, Elly Griffiths.

(Hat tip to The Gumshoe Site.)

Revue of Reviewers, 5-5-17

Critiquing some of the most interesting recent crime, mystery, and thriller releases. Click on the individual covers to read more.

¡Ay, Caramba!

With Cinco de Mayo—which has become more of an American celebration than a Mexican one—coming up tomorrow, Janet Rudolph has reposted her list of mysteries closely linked to such festivities.

Not “Time” Enough

I’m very often late to the party when it comes to new TV shows, and that was certainly the case with the recent ABC midseason replacement series Time After Time, a Kevin Williamson-developed historical thriller based on both Karl Alexander’s novel of that same name and the 1979 Nicholas Meyer-scripted film made from Alexander’s fantastical cat-and-mouse adventure. It was just this week, in fact, that I finally caught up with the show, which imagines H.G. Wells—a freshly divorced teacher and journalist, not yet having published any of the science-fiction novels for which he would become famous—traveling in a time machine of his own invention from the London of 1893 to New York City in 2017, in pursuit of Jack the Ripper, who’s escaped justice using the same mechanism. Sadly, it’s now been more than a month since Time After Time was cancelled!

Expectations were that Season 1 of the show would comprise 12 episodes; eight of them had been scheduled by the time ABC pulled the plug, but only five were actually broadcast. The ratings for Time After Time were fairly dismal, and critics seemed unimpressed, with Variety’s Sonia Saraiya saying the program “feels neither adequately steeped in time travel or [sic] the lore of H.G. Wells to really deliver what its premise suggests.” My own view, however, after sitting through the opening five episodes, is that Time After Time boasted multiple charms—not the least being its young romantic leads, English actor Freddie Stroma (UnREAL) playing Wells, and the downright lovely Genesis Rodriguez as Texas-reared Jane Walker, who has moved to Gotham in search of a larger life, only to become an assistant curator at the (fictional) New York Metropolitan Museum. She meets Wells when he suddenly steps from his newly restored time machine on display at the museum. Josh Bowman (Revenge) portrays John Stevenson, a London surgeon and Wells’ friend, who’s revealed as the notorious Ripper.

(Left) Freddie Stroma and Genesis Rodriguez in
Time After Time

Like the Malcolm McDowell/Mary Steenburgen film of 38 years ago, Williamson’s series makes much of Victorian gentleman Wells’ bewilderment around today’s technology and his initial discomfort in the company of a “modern woman.” He also has some fun with the Ripper, who is reimagined here as a sexy beast, intending to thrive in an age when the possibilities for violence seem so much greater than they did back in the 1890s. (Stevenson’s only disappointment, it seems, is that history has no idea it was he who perpetrated the Whitechapel slayings.) The series throws in additional secondary characters, among them a wealthy woman claiming to be Wells’ descendent and a willowy neural pathologist, Brooke Monroe (played by Jennifer Ferrin), who seduces, then captures Stevenson, intending to employ him in some sort of revenge scheme. Sadly, we never learn how Monroe knew he was the time-displaced Ripper. Like various other plot threads, this one was left dangling at the close of the fifth episode, probably never to be resolved. (We also never learn why the Ripper chose to lie low between 1888—the year his atrocities first hit the press—and 1893.) What we know of the direction this series might have taken comes from interviews with Williamson, such as one from TV Line, in which he called Time After Time “‘not really a time-travel show; we’re more the story of a young H.G. Wells and his adventures in modern-day New York, and how they inspire him to go back and write The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The Island of Dr. Moreau’—by planting Easter eggs for those novels, as well as War of the Worlds, throughout the first, 12-episode season.”

For at least the time being, you can still watch what exists of Time After Time by going to the ABC-TV Web site. There’s also a Facebook page devoted to the show, which includes clips from different episodes. You can click here to take in the series’ official trailer, and as a bonus, click here to see the trailer from the 1979 film adaptation of Alexander’s book. I hope it’s possible someday to catch up with the final three, un-broadcast episodes of Time After Time, whether on YouTube or with a DVD release. The show held promise, unlike so many U.S. network programs nowadays.

Holmes Invasion

For true-crime fans and history lovers alike, from The Chicagoist:

The most notorious serial killer in Chicago history, H.H. Holmes, was also a notorious con artist—so much in fact that rumors swirled at the time of his hanging that he actually conned his way out of the death penalty and escaped to South America. Now, officials in Philadelphia and descendants of Holmes are hoping to put that longstanding speculation to rest, by digging up the killer's body from his final resting place.

Analysts in Philadelphia last week began the process of exhuming Holmes from the Holy Cross Cemetery plot where he was buried, back in 1896. The exhumation comes at the request of Holmes’ great-grandchildren John and Richard Mudgett, according to NBC Chicago. The descendants were granted their petition by a Pennsylvania court, and they hope that DNA tests will settle once and for all the identity of the body.

Holmes was the mastermind of the so-called “murder castle,” where he lured and killed victims at the same time that Hyde Park was staging the 1893 World’s Fair, as told in Erik Larson’s ubiquitous Chicago fave, The Devil in the White City [2003]. While the exact number of Holmes’ victims remains a mystery—nine were confirmed at the time; Holmes claimed nearly 30; lore pushes the figure up to around 200—the case was a major tabloid sensation at the time. Some papers fed that mania with the escape angle.

You can read more here.

The Fast and the Curious

Yours truly (on the right) and my favorite niece and “Champion Challenge” partner, Amie-June Brumble, pose for a quick selfie outside Liberty Bay Books in Poulsbo.

After devoting yesterday to recuperation and quiet reading, I think I’m finally prepared to tackle a recap of this last Saturday’s frenzied Independent Bookstore Day “Champion Challenge.” This was the third annual such nationwide celebration of non-corporate American bookshops, an event that grew out of 2014’s California Bookstore Day. And boy, how it has grown! According to Publishers Weekly, 458 stores in 48 states took part this time around (up from 350 in 2015).

Although I have given thought now and then to moving out of Seattle, Washington, it’s events like this that remind me how lucky I am to live here. The goal for bibliophiles and other competitive folk engaged in the Emerald City’s 2017 “Champion Challenge” was to visit at least 19 of 23 participating indie bookstores over the course of a single business day (up from a minimum of 17 last year). Other U.S. cities, and giant stretches of the nation’s interior, don’t even have 23 independent local book retailers, but Seattle boasts many more than that. And everyone who rose to accept this challenge, collecting stamps on a “passport” from the merchants along the way, would win a card entitling him or her to a 25-percent discount at all 23 stores for an entire year. (Less-ambitious types were invited to stop in at just three of the shops, where they could enter a drawing for bookstore gift cards.)

In 2016, my intrepid race partners were technical writer Matthew Fleagle and bookseller James Crossley. This time, I teamed up instead with my favorite niece, Amie-June Brumble, who is every bit as much a reading zealot as I am. She and I had engaged in last year’s “Champion Challenge,” but separately and without ever crossing paths along the way; we didn’t know we were both in the game until it was all over. For this year’s all-day contest, we reasoned that it would be advantageous to combine our knowledge of the ins and outs of calling on so many bookshops in so little time ... and we knew it would be plenty of fun, too, to make the run together.

As I did last year, I’m going to give my account of Independent Bookstore Day 2017 through a series of statistics, all of them adding up to an exhausting but satisfying adventure.

Time we started out: 6:30 a.m., when Amie-June swung by my house in Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood, and we went to pick up breakfast to go (eggs and sausages) at nearby Ken’s Market. We’d originally planned to partake of the flavorsome offerings at Pete’s Egg Nest, where my two friends and I commenced our race last year, but it turns out that Pete’s doesn’t open till 7 a.m. Amie-June and I ate our Ken’s repast while waiting in line on the Seattle waterfront for the 7:55 ferry to Bainbridge Island, on Puget Sound, west of the city. Our plan was to hit the bookstores surrounding Seattle, in clockwise order, before paying calls on the great mass of shops within the city limits.

First bookstore reached: The Traveler, on the main drag in the Bainbridge town of Winslow. This place, which stocks supplies needed by journeying folk as well as a healthy array of travel guides and travel literature, wasn’t part of last year’s indie event, but it could well have been. We arrived at The Traveler at around 8:30, and ventured from there across the street to the better-known Eagle Harbor Book Company. Two bookstore stamps down, 17 more to go!

First book purchased: During our stop at Liberty Bay Books, in the Scandinavian-themed town of Poulsbo, I picked up a hardcover copy of Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology (Norton), which Amie-June had broadly hinted at wanting for her personal library. It seemed like a smart idea to start things off by making my contest cohort happy.

Total number of ferry trips necessary: 2, one from Seattle west to Bainbridge, and the second from Kingston (no relation) east to Edmonds, a suburb north of Seattle. By the time we rolled out of Edmonds, our “passports” contained four stamps!


Both sides of this year’s “passport,” including a list of all the bookstores taking part in the event. Click to enlarge.

Number of books purchased along the way: 3 for myself—a copy of Cold Earth (Minotaur), the brand-new, seventh entry in Ann Cleeves’ Shetland Island mystery series; a copy of the lauded If We Were Villains (Flatiron), by M.L. Rio; and a 1962 edition of Lady, Lady, I Did It!, the 14th installment in Ed McBain’s 87 Precinct series of police procedurals, with cover art by Robert McGinnis.

Number of books I really wanted to purchase: A dozen more, at the very least, among them David McCullough’s new book of essays, The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For (Simon & Schuster), David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI (Doubleday), and Stephen Talty’s The Black Hand: The Epic War Between a Brilliant Detective and the Deadliest Secret Society in American History (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Oh, and a recently released crime novel that hasn’t already come across my desk: The Good Assassin, by Paul Vidich (Atria).

Number of books Amie-June purchased: Armloads—a few for herself, a variety of others for friends, several for her toddler son, and then a generous stack of paperbacks that she intends to install in the Little Free Library outside her house. I helped her pick out a few used mystery novels I thought would be broadly appealing.

Number of bookstores visited this year that I had never popped in to before: 3 (The Traveler; The Neverending Bookshop, a recently opened used-books specialist in the community of Bothell; and the new BookTree in Kirkland, east of Seattle).

Stores in which we spent the least time: We’d hoped to hang around each one for 20 minutes or more—long enough to know them better and show our respect for their participation in this daylong competition. However, two retailers—Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery, south of downtown Seattle, and Book Larder, a cookbook shop in the Fremont neighborhood, were so crowded (a consequence of their offering free food and drink) that we could do little more there than have our “passports” stamped, and get out again.

Stores in which I’d like to have spent some more time: Eagle Harbor Book Company; Seattle Mystery Bookshop in the Pioneer Square historic district (for reasons that any veteran follower of this blog will easily understand); and Queen Anne Book Company at the top of Queen Anne Hill, just north of downtown Seattle, which seems to have an especially well-curated selection of new books.

Quantity of gas consumed during the whole trip: A quarter-tank.

Number of complimentary cookies ingested during the excursion: Surely no more than 10. OK, maybe 12. Or 15.

Number of mimosas drunk: 1, by Amie-June at Liberty Bay Books. (I would have partaken as well, but I was doing the driving.)

Number of doughnuts consumed: 2, one by each of us (both chocolate-covered old fashioneds), from Sluy’s Poulsbo Bakery. Yum!

(Left) In addition to having her “passport” stamped, Amie-June asked each store to stamp her arm.

Number of sandwiches eaten: 2, one by each of us, acquired from The Cheesemonger’s Table in Edmonds. I had the Chicken Club, with grilled chicken breast, pancetta, Swiss cheese, tomato, and basil mayo on ciabatta bread.

Number of wrong turns: Only two this year. Thanks to Amie-June and her smart phone, we managed to avoid most navigating mishaps. Where we went wrong, it was usually because I didn’t hear her instructions clearly. Darn aging ears!

Lesson I swore to learn from last year, but didn’t: Take water along! After leaving Phinney Books in the Greenwood neighborhood (15 stamps down, 4 to go!), I suddenly found myself lightheaded and a bit nauseous. Fortunately, we’d only just invested in bottled water, and drinking some of that helped restore my equilibrium.

Lesson to remember for next year: Always double-check whether you’ve left your car in a pay-to-park space. ‘Nuff said.

Number of tequila shots drunk: 2, one by each of us, at Elliott Bay Book Company on Capitol Hill, where we concluded our circuit of shops at 7 p.m. and turned in our “passports”—with all 19 stamps!

Number of hours spent on the Champion Challenge: 12.5, an hour longer than last year. But then, we did swing by Amie-June’s parents’ house to drop off some Sluy’s doughnuts for her father.

Number of times I asked myself, “Why in the hell did you join this crazy escapade?”: 0, just as in 2016. If the “Champion Challenge” occurred more than once a year, I might feel differently. But 12 months between races allows me to recharge my batteries and forget any problems. Furthermore, having Amie-June along for the ride provided plenty of laughs and allowed us to share some thoughts on our respective lives. An altogether enjoyable journey!

I don’t know yet how many Seattleites completed the race this year. In 2015, the number was a mere 42; 2016 resulted in 120 winners. Each time Independent Bookstore Day comes around, there seems to be more publicity attending it, so there are probably more participants as well. Yet it’s a rather long investment of time, with plenty of opportunities for racers to ask themselves, “Why am I do this again?” And bumping the number of required stops up from 17 to 19 might have reduced the winner count this last Saturday. We shall see. Sometime during the next two or three weeks, winners are supposed to be invited to a concluding ceremony, during which they’ll pick up their 25-percent discount cards for the year. We’ll know then how many people made it all the way through.

READ MORE: “Seattle Bookstore Day 2017: Champions’ Journey,” by Emily Adams (NW Book Lovers).

Ready, Aim, Fire Off Derringers

Right on schedule, the Short Mystery Fiction Society (SMFS) has announced the winners of its 2017 Derringer Awards in four categories. Little Big Crimes’ Robert Lopresti brings us the results:

Best Flash Story (up to 1,000 words): “The Phone Call,” by Herschel Cozine (Flash Bang Mysteries, Summer 2016)

Also nominated: “Aftermath,” by Craig Faustus Buck (Flash Bang Mysteries, Spring 2016); “A Just Reward,” by O’Neil de Noux (Flash Bang Mysteries, Winter 2016); “The Orphan,” by Billy Kring (Shotgun Honey, March 18, 2016); and “An Ill Wind,” by R.T. Lawton (Flash Bang Mysteries, Spring 2016)

Best Short Story (1,001-4,000 words): “The Way They Do It in Boston,” by Linda Barnes (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], September/October 2016)

Also nominated: “Beks and the Second Note,” by Bruce Arthurs (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine [AHMM], December 2016); “YOLO,” by Libby Cudmore (Beat to a Pulp, May 2016); “The Woman in the Briefcase,” by Joseph D’Agnese (EQMM, March/April 2016); and “The Lighthouse,” by Hilde Vandermeeren (EQMM, March/April 2016)

Best Long Story (4,001-8,000 words): “Breadcrumbs,” by Victoria Weisfeld (Betty Fedora, Issue Three, September 2016)

Also nominated: “Swan Song,” by Hilary Davidson (from Unloaded: Crime Writers Writing Without Guns, edited by Eric Beetner; Down & Out); “Effect on Men,” by O’Neil De Noux, (The Strand Magazine, February-May 2016); “The Cumberland Package,” by Robert Mangeot (AHMM, May 2016); and “Murder Under the Baobab,” by Meg Opperman (EQMM, November 2016)

Best Novelette (8,000-20,000 words): “Inquiry and Assistance,” by Terrie Farley Moran (AHMM, January/February 2016)

Also nominated: “Coup de Grace,” by Doug Allyn (EQMM, September/October 2016); “The Chemistry of Heroes,” by Catherine Dilts (AHMM, May 2016); “The Educator,” by Travis Richardson (44 Caliber Funk: Tales of Crime, Soul, and Payback, edited by Gary Phillips and Robert J. Randisi; Moonstone); and “The Last Blue Glass,” by B.K. Stevens (AHMM, April 2016)

In addition, prolific author Robert J. Randisi has been chosen as the latest recipient of the SMFS’ Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for lifetime achievement.

Winners will be presented with their prizes during Bouchercon 2017, to be held from October 12 to 15 in Toronto, Ontario.

May Poles and Murder Plots

As blogger-author Bill Crider reminds us, today is May Day, “an ancient pagan holiday celebrating the start of summer” that has become “a labor holiday in many areas of the world.” It’s also another opportunity for Mystery Fanfare writer Janet Rudolph, a longtime collector of whodunits tied to annual holidays, to present a list of May Day Crime Fiction. She pairs that with a rundown of mysteries involving Morris Dancing, which—according to Wikipedia—“historically …, has been linked to May Day celebrations.”