B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 217

FFB: Murder at the Foul Line

In honor of the NCAA tournament, I'm posting this FFB basketball-themed "classic."



In 2006, Otto Penzler released the anthology Murder at the Foul Line, with stories contributed by a Who's Who of crime fiction: Lawrence Block, Jeffery Deaver, Sue DeNymme, Brendan DuBois, Parnell Hall, Laurie R. King, Mike Lupica, Michael Malone, Joan H. Parker and Robert B. Parker, George Pelecanos, R. D. Rosen, S. J. Rozan, Justin Scott and Stephen Solomita.



Michael Malone's winningly deadpan "White Trash...

Mystery Melange

Book sculpture by Book Canvas

Strand Magazine announced the finalists for its Critics Awards and also named Peter Lovesey and R.L. Stine as the recipients of The Strand���s Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in crime and thriller writing. (Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare). Here are the nominees:



Best Novel:

��� The Shining Girls, by Lauren Beukes

��� Solo, by William Boyd

��� Sandrine���s Case, by Thomas H. Cook

��� A Serpent���s Tooth, by Craig Johnson

��� Ratlines, by Stuart Nevi...

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES



Warner Bros and RatPac Entertainment acquired Harlan Coben's upcoming new mystery novel Missing You in a preemptive screen rights deal. The book centers on an NYPD female detective sucked into an intricate scheme led by a calculating killer, after the detective sees a dating website photo of the ex-fiance who dumped her.



DreamWorks has tapped screenwriter Scott Silver to adapt Noble Assassin, an unpublished novel by Paul Kix, with Cary Fukunaga (True Detective) to direct. The war-t...

Quote of the Day

FFB: Nocturne by Ed McBain

This week's installment for Patti Abbott's Friday's "Forgotten" Books is from Ed McBain (1926-2005), the pen name of Salvatore Albert Lombino who later legally changed his name to Evan Hunter in 1952. The prolific output of McBain/Hunter included over 110 novels, which have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide, as well as numerous short stories and collections and a few plays and screenplays. He was the first American author to receive the Diamond Dagger, the highest award give...

Mystery Melange

Book sculpture by Luciana Frigerio

Kelli Stanley and Lisa Brackmann are helping coordinate a "Noir at the Bar" event at the upcoming Left Coast Crime conference. They're taking over the hotel bar Thursday (tomorow) night in a flashmob event they're calling "Occupy: Noir!" Readers include Gary Phillips, Terry Shames, Darrell James, Holly West, Deborah J. Ledford and many more. If you're headed to the LCC, check them out.



The upcoming issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection features papers d...

Autographing eBooks

You've just bought and downloaded an ebook from your favorite author, but unlike the old days, you can't take it with you to a book signing. Bummer. Guess you're out of luck. Or are you? To the rescue is Authorgraph, which opens up new possibilities for authors with ebooks available for the Kindle and other eReaders. There are options for other formats, including Autography, which works with most eReaders and can transmit photos from actual signings (or remotely), although the author has to use

Ban Bigotry, Not Books

Books have been the gateway to knowledge, self-improvement, and to understanding ourselves and our place in the universe for as long as humans first put words down on stone and papyrus. But today, there are people around the world who still ban books for various reasons, mostly political or religious. That is why we still have a Banned Books Week, which happens to be this week, sponsored by hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the U.S. to draw attention to the problem of censorship. Why

Seasonings

Space-time—the past; the present; the future—we can't defeat our linear existence. And each year of life, as we pass through it, seems little by little to increase in speed, like a tiny snowball at first, barreling down a hill, getting faster and larger as it goes. And each year of life, our mortality looms larger out there, in the unseen somewhere. The seasons are responsible for my own sense of life at a tilt-a-whirl pace, blending so quickly, one into another, that I barely have time to

A Book Trailer Is Not Something you Haul Behind Your Car

Book trailers are an odd concept, kind of like going to a movie and watching a poster the entire time accompanied by narration. Still, they can be fun to put together, and I enjoyed creating this one for Played to Death. Check it out and tell me what you think.