Martin Edwards's Blog, page 294

Bookdagger

A short time ago, I was invited to contribute a monthly column to a new online venture known as Bookdagger. The dilemma was this. I really am rather over-worked at the moment, but on the other hand, Bookdagger looked good and I did fancy being involved with it.

So, needless to say, I succumbed to temptation. The subject I chose for my first piece was that of writing duos, and you can see what you think of my effort here.

I'm conscious, incidentally, that the photo I've used for this blog and...

Lewis: The Dead of Winter - review

The Dead of Winter kicked off the new series of Lewis on Sunday evening, and it was a very good episode, written (appropriately enough) by Russell Lewis, a highly experienced script writer. He was once mooted as a potential writer for a series based on my Harry Devlin novels; it's my loss that this never came to pass.

The Dead of Winter was in the same mould as some of the best episodes of Inspector Morse, making the most of the Oxford setting, and a grand country house. Quintessential...

Wallander - The Priest: review

I've watched another episode in the second series of the Swedish TV version of Wallander. This was The Priest, and it was based on a book by Henning Mankell which I have not read.

The opening, as so often in Wallander, is dramatic and arresting. A couple are having a secret assignation in a hostel. The man is promising to tell his wife about the affair and to make a new life with his lover. When the couple part, someone outside the building shoots the man, and although the victim does not die ...

Elections - and Libraries

Not many crime novels have been set around elections, although people like me who live in marginal constituencies are probably tempted to murder by the persistence of party campaigners and their not very illuminating leaflets, which arrive by the bucket-load. Off-hand, I can think of a couple. Robert Barnard's Political Suicide is very entertaining, and an old favourite of mine, although inevitably some of the political stuff now seems dated, almost 25 years after the book came out. Another e...

Capricorn One

Really good conspiracy thrillers are not common. One of my favourites is The Parallax View, but I also like Capricorn One, which I've just watched again, after such a long gap that I'd forgotten most of the detail of the story.

The idea is very appealing. NASA is about to send a rocket to Mars for a manned landing. But just before take-off, the astronauts are taken away to a secret hideaway, although the rocket goes off into space and the watching world is led to believe that the astronauts...

Forgotten Book - The Man Who...

I've written before about my admiration for the late, great Julian Symons. He was one of the most notable British crime writers of his time, and, in my opinion, the greatest of all critics of the genre (even though I don't agree with all of his opinions, including his rather harsh dismissal of many Golden Age writers.)

Among his many achievements, he became President of the Detection Club. In 1992, the Club published The Man Who…, edited by H.R.F. Keating, to celebrate the 80th birthday of...

Forgotten Music - On the Flip Side

In my quest to find something else of interest and great obscurity for Scott Parker's monthly series about Forgotten Music, I've tracked down some very rare footage from a genuinely forgotten musical written in 1966 for television called On the Flip Side. The musical featured former teen idol Ricky Nelson, who sought to mark his transition to entertaining a more mature audience by the cunning device of changing his name to – Rick Nelson. Joanie Somers co-starred.

The musical was written by...

The House on Carroll Street

The House on Carroll Street is an enjoyable film, directed by Peter Yates, and starring Kelly McGillis. It's set in the America of the early 50s, and kicks off with the McGillis character, Emily Crane, being interrogated relentlessly by an un-American Activities committee because of her idealistic attachment to civil liberties. The bad guy is rather charmingly played by Mandy Patinkin, better known to me as a singer.

Emily loses her job, and takes up a rather thankless task, reading to a...

John J. Walsdorf and Julian Symons

The relationship between writers and their readers is a fascinating subject in itself. Like most authors, I enjoy meeting readers at events and I'm always pleased when people who have enjoyed my books send me an email or come up to say hello at a convention. John J. Walsdorf was a reader who became so enamoured of the writing of Julian Symons that not only did he get to know him well, he went so far as to produce a very impressive bibliography of this prolific writer – based on a massive...

Too Much Information?

A work colleague once startled me by saying that he judged a novel by how much he learned from it, in terms of information that he hadn't previously known. He felt that he didn't have much time to invest in reading fiction, and so he wanted an extra dividend, apart from the pleasure of the narrative. This way of looking at reading fiction had never occurred to me before, but I've thought of it many times since.

Lately, I've been reminded of it while reading a new book by Stephen Booth, Lost...