In Passing

• Picking up on my Rap Sheet post of the other day, in which I compiled the front covers of different editions of Turn on the Heat, by A.A. Fair (aka Erle Stanley Gardner), blogger-author Patti Abbott has done the same thing with jackets from James M. Cain’s Serenade, a novel originally published in 1937. You can see her collection here. If anyone else would like to tag onto this meme, please let me know where I can find your selection of classic crime-fiction fronts, and I’ll mention it in this blog. UPDATE: Ben Boulden of the blog Gravetapping has taken me up on this challenge. Click here to see his collection of covers from Alistair MacLean’s first novel, HMS Ulysses (1955).

• Michael Carlson has posted a fine interview with Dennis Lehane, in which they discuss Lehane’s The Given Day, parallels between the historical events in that story and present-day concerns, actor Casey Affleck’s interpretation of private eye Patrick Kenzie, and more.

• It looks as if the rumors are true: The excellent British TV series Foyle’s War is going to return with three new episodes.

• January Magazine’s latest “Author Snapshot” looks at Alan Bradley, Canadian author of the forthcoming novel The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

• CBS-TV is making available to Web browsers episodes of such vintage series as Have Gun, Will Travel, Hawaii Five-O, Perry Mason, Twilight Zone, and MacGyver. Click here to watch.

• Patrick Shawn Bagley asks 10 crime writers--including Michael Haskins, Sophie Littlefield, and Dave Zeltserman--to name their “pivotal books.” Look here for their responses.

• Daphne Uviller submits her novel, Super in the City, to Marshal Zeringue’s Page 69 Test. The results are here.

• And finally, Euro Crime’s Karen Meek gives us a preview of four promising crime novels, all set in Africa and all due for publication over the next few months.