B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 219

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - The Plot Thickens

Collecting and publishing mystery short stories in anthologies to benefit a charity is pretty common these days, with well over a dozen (of those I'm aware of) appearing just in 2013. I think it's a terrific idea, but when I searched back through the years, I didn't find that many such anthologies available. The recent boom is no doubt due to the rise of ebooks, since prior to the new digital era, print short story anthologies were considered a hard sell.

One of the earliest I could find was The Plot Thickens, which was edited by Mary Higgins Clark back in 1997 to benefit the adult literacy organization Literacy Partners. Contributing authors include Lawrence Block, Edna Buchanan, Carol Higgins Clark, Mary Higgins Clark, Lauren and Nelson DeMille, Janet Evanovich, Linda Fairstein, Nancy Pickard, Ann Rule, Donald E. Westlake, and Walter Mosley. Each story had to include a tale that features a thick fog, a thick book, and a thick steak, although everything else was fair game.

"How Far it Could Go" by Lawrence Block is a conservational story set in a restaurant where a woman is interviewing a man she want to hire to intimidate her ex-boyfriend who says she owes him money;
"Foolproof" by Edna Buchanan centers on the autopsy of an Egyptian mummy that reveals the supposedly thousand-year-old corpse was a murder victim with the same fingerprints as an infamous gang member;
"Too Many Cooks" by Carol Higgins Clark is about an aspiring young actress in a steak sauce commercial where a series of puzzling accidents start happening on the set around her;
"The Man Next Door" by Mary Higgins Clark finds a young woman kidnapped by her creepy neighbor, who happens to be a serial killer, via a shared basement;
In "Revenge and Rebellion" by Nelson & Lauren DeMille, a woman entrusts her prized autobiograhical manuscript to an old college friend-turned literary agent, but doesn't take his criticism too well;
"The Last Peep" by Janet Evanovich is a story featuring the author's iconic bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, who's on the trail of a peeping tom exhibitionist, only to have her discover the man's dead, naked body—which promptly disappears;
"Going Under" by Linda Fairstein focuses on an ambitious young policewoman who goes undercover as a dental patient to catch a molesting dentist;
In "Thick-Headed" by Walter Mosley, the author once again manages to pack a complicated mix of colorful characters like gangsters, pimps, prostitutes, and two friends in trouble into a tight tale;
"Love's Cottage" by Nancy Pickard is a fictionalized timeline of events surrounding the fatal fire and murders at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin studios in Wisconsin;
"The Road Trip" by Ann Rule follows a new divorcée on a road trip hoping to get away from her jealous ex-husband for awhile, only to find herself face to face with an infamous serial killer;
"Take it Away" by Donald E. Westlake is an example of the author's trademark humor and charm, in which a hapless FBI agent on a stakeout is sent to get food for the team from the local Burger Whopper and strikes up a conversation with the man next to him in line, which takes a strange turn.

Both "The Man Next Door" by Mary Higgins Clark and "Take it Away" by Donald E. Westlake were chosen to be the Best American Mystery Stories 1998, edited by Sue Grafton.

Mystery Melange

"Exploding Galaxy" book sculpture by Konrad Balder Schauffelen


In recent weeks, we've lost a couple of fine literary greats in the crime fiction community: Leighton Gage, who wrote a series featuring Brazilian law enforcement officer Chief Inspector Mario Silva, died from cancer at the age of 71; and we also said farewell to Barbara Mertz, better known as Barbara Michaels and Elizabeth Peters, who wrote the popular series centered on Victorian pyramid explorer Amelia Peabody. They will be sorely missed.

Sisters in Crime Australia announced the shortlists for this year's Davitt Awards for the best crime writing by female authors in the past year. The award-winners will be handed out at a gala dinner on August 31st. For the nominees in the categories of Adult Fiction, Children's/YA and True Crime, check out the SinC Australia Facebook page.

After recently announcing the death of the magazine Pulp Modern, editor Alec Cizak announced he's going to resurrect the magazine as a theme-based journal in Kindle editions instead of print.  The theme for issue number six is "stories related in some way to the murder of John Kennedy," and all stories must be 2000 to 4000 words. The deadline is October 1. (Hat tip to Sandra Seamans.)

Registration is now open for the Mystery Writers of America University workshop in San Diego, Saturday, October 12. Jess Lourey will talk about what happens "After the Idea"; Hallie Ephron will discuss Dramatic Structure & Plot; Daniel Stashower will lead a session on Setting & Description; Reed Farrel Coleman will talk about developing Character; Nancy Pickard will discuss Writing as Re-Writing; and Hank Phillippi Ryan dishes on The Writing Life. Check out the website for registration details.

The UK town of Wallingford, led by the Wallingford Museum, is planning a celebration next year in honor of Agatha Christie, who lived in the town from 1934 until her death in 1976. The Wallingford festival would be on a much smaller scale than the week-long Agatha Christie festival in Torquay, but hopes to make the celebration an annual event.

If you have a suspense novel manuscript lying around, you can enter the first 500 words into the Friedrich Literary Agency's Vivid Voices Contest. Prizes include a full manuscript evaluation by agent Lucy Carson.

Hard Case Crime announced it will publish all of the early works by Michael Crichton that he wrote under the pen name John Lange, which the author began when he was a student at Harvard Medical School. The books have been unavailable for decades and include titles like Odds On from 1966, about a perfect heist, planned by computer, in a luxury hotel off the coast of Spain, and the 1972 Binary, about a terrorist mastermind and a federal agent who wage a battle of wits and of nerve when the villain plots to unleash poison gas on San Diego.

A short story by Stieg Larsson (who was 17 at the time) will be published in English for the first time next year, as part of a new anthology of crime fiction, A Darker Shade of Sweden, scheduled for release in February. Mysterious Press, an imprint of Grove Atlantic, announced last week that it had acquired the collection.

The latest weekly offering on the crime poem site The 5-2 comes from Elisa Albo and is titled "Stealing Poetry."

The Q&A roundup this week includes Erin Kelly who chats with Crime Fiction Lover about Kelly's 2010 critically-acclaimed debut The Poison Tree; Max Allan Collins visits Ed Gorman's blog to talk about his latest endeavor, Early Crimes from Perfect Crime, which is a collection of a short story, a novella and a previously unpublished novel; and Deborah Coonts joins the Mystery People to talk about her latest novel featuring Vegas Casino entertainment director Lucky O’Toole.

More and more people are turning to what's known as "crowd funding" to complete projects or just continue to survive in this difficult economy. Wattpad announced a new venture called Fan Funding, so that readers and help support their favorite indie authors; and some bookstores are turning to online fundraising to keep from closing.

Do you write historical fiction or are just a culinary greek? The food timeline offers a glimpse of what humans were eating through the millennia, such as maise and tortillas, which became popular around 7,000 BCE, and ravioli, which has only been around since the 13th century.

Mr. Library Dude had some fun with Lego action figures and librarian stereotypes. Hop on over to check out out his catalogue of Lego Librarians.

Creatures, Crimes and Creativity

The brand-new conference Creatures, Crimes and Creativity (C3) is only a month away as it takes its inaugural flight into Baltimore, Maryland at the Hunt Valley Inn, September 13, 14 and
15. Jeffery Deaver is the keynote speaker at the event, which looks to gather together readers and writers of mystery, suspense,
thriller, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and steampunk fiction.

If you are an author, August 16 is the deadline to register for the conference and have your photo appear in the C3 program (free!), and that's also the date for authors, publishers and everyone else to have an advertisement in the program. All attending authors will have additional perks, too: your books will be available in an on-site bookstore, with dedicated book signing times, your name and a link will be posted on
the C3 website, and you will be invited to contribute to the C3 blog and
offered a chance to film a video interview.

If you're a fan, you can enjoy panels and presentations
from favorite authors, including bestsellers like mystery author Jeffery
Deaver, fantasy/horror author Christopher Golden, thriller writer John
Gilstrap and romantic suspense author Trice Hickman. Each attendee will
receive a goodie-bag, plus there are book signings, a Twitter contest, and a scavenger hunt, with
prizes like a Kindle, Amazon gift cards and paid attendance to the Love
is Murder conference in Chicago.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Warner Brothers acquired film rights to the book Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery, by Robert Kolker. The story is based on a real-life seral killer case on Long Island, who has dumped his murder victims, all escorts advertising on Craigslist and similar websites, on Long Island’s South Shore.

Producer Andrew Lauren optioned film rights to the novel The Carrion Birds by Urban Waite, set in a Southwestern border town. The story follows a killer who is ready to put down his guns and reconnect with his young teenage son, when one final job goes awry and puts the killer in the crosshairs of his morally conflicted cousin and a new female sheriff. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Sylvester Stallone announced that Bruce Willis is out and Harrison Ford is in for Expendables 3. The film franchise stars various action-hero veterans as a group of elite mercenaries. The third installment is also adding Jackie Chan, Wesley Snipes, Nicolas Cage, Mel Gibson, Antonio Banderas and Milla Jovovich to the cast.

Hugh Grant has joined the growing cast of the TV-to-film adaptation of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., playing  the head of British naval intelligence.

Humphrey Bogart's estate, led by the actor's son Stephen Bogart, has formed an independent film company, Santana Productions. Robbert de Klerk, co-managing partner of the estate, added that "the estate aims to create the kind of well-told noirs, thrillers and crime movies that Bogie loved."

A teaser clip was released for Kill Your Darlings, which opens in limited released October 18. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Allen Ginsberg, Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire) as Jack Kerouac, and Dane DeHaan as Lucien Carr in a premise that sees the three iconic figures arrested for murder when an outsider to their literary circle is found dead.

Sony Pictures released a trailer for Captain Phillips, based on the book A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and angerous Days at Sea by Richard Phillips and Stephan Talty. The film, which is directed by Paul Greengrass and stars Tom Hanks, premieres at the New York Film Festival in September and in theaters October 11.

Two clips from Ridley Scott's upcoming thriller The Counselor were also released. The film stars Michael Fassbender as a lawyer who finds himself in over his head when he gets involved in drug trafficking, with Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz and Penélope Cruz taking on supporting roles. The film hits theaters October 25.

TELEVISION

ABC bought an untitled police drama pilot from Shonda Rhimes' Shondaland production company. The potential series, from Made In Jersey creator Dana Calvo, is set in Miami and will follow "an unorthodox detective and his methodical new female partner as they solve cases that only seem to happen in the neon wilds of  one of America’s most eclectic and vibrant cities."

Fox ordered a script commitment for a new show from the creator of Bones. Noone is described as a crime drama procedural with redemption, martial arts and romance, set in San Francisco and featuring a female police detective and her unlikely ally.

Various networks are eyeing a potential CIA drama starring Katherine Heigl, according to Deadline. The pilot was written by Alexi Hawley (co-executive producer on Fox's drama The Following) and focuses on how the CIA handles hotspots around the globe, with Heigl playing an advisor to the U.S. president.

PBS announced the return of The Bletchley Circle for a second season, with the four-part drama to air on Sundays beginning in the Spring. The series is based on the real-life stories of women who worked as codebreakers at Bletchley Park in the UK during World War II.

Omnimystery News reports that the drama based on PD James' Death Comes to Pemerbley will premiere next year on PBS in three one-hour installments. The miniseries stars Matthew Rhys as Mr. Darcy, Anna Maxwell Martin as Elizabeth Darcy, Matthew Goode as Mr. Wickham, and Jenna-Louise Coleman as Lydia Bennet.

Law & Order's Barry Schindel will serve as executive producer and showrunner for the CBS midseason drama series Intelligence, scheduled for a February 24th premiere. The series stars Josh Holloway and Marg Helgenberger and centers on U.S. Cyber Command unit which has been created around one agent (Holloway) who had a microchip implanted in his brain allowing him to access the entire Global Information Grid.

Connie Nielsen (Law & Order: SVU) will join the Fox thriller The Following as a series regular for the show's upcoming second season. Nielsen will play Lily Grey, a SoHo art dealer who turns to Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) for help and "forms an unexpected connection with him that could lead to problems down the road."

Juliette Lewis has joined Matt Dillon in the cast of M. Night Shymalan's Fox series Wayward Pines. The story centers around a Secret Service agent Ethan Burke (Dillon), who arrives in the small town to find two missing federal agents, only to find the anwers may keep him from getting out of Wayward Pines alive. Lewis will play Beverly, a bartender who provides a sympathetic ear for Burke. Also joining the cast is Greta Lee, playing a coffee shop barista who knows everyone else's business.

USA's spy drama Covert Affairs is adding English actress Seeta Indrani (Broken) and Richard Short (666 Park Avenue) for multi-episode arcs on the series. Indrani will play a sophisticated Indian woman whom Annie (Piper Perabo) befriends in the hopes she may be the key to bringing Henry (Henry Wilcox) down for good, while Short will play an Irish rocker-type who becomes entangled in Annie’s world.

Showtime released a teaser trailer for the upcoming third season of its hit TV series Homeland.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The latest Untreed Reads podcast features authors Alison Owings, Janet Majerus, Marsha Qualey, Tim Black, Augusta Trobaugh, Kathleen Gerard, Kaye George and Victor J. Banis talking about their new releases.

Suspense Radio is adding a new show to its lineup (which currently includes its normal radio show and Suspense Radio One on One, which is a tour stop for Partners in Crime authors). Starting with the first show on September 7th and twice a month on Saturdays, authors D.P. Lyle and Jan Burke will team up to bring you "Crime and Science Radio," an in-depth look into forensics, crime scenes, how authors get it right and wrong, and much more.

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - Jack Vance

Today is Jack Vance day on Friday's "Forgotten" Books, and while Patti Abbott takes a much-deserved week off from playing host, I'm happy to step in and serve as Vance Central for the day.


John Holbrook "Jack" Vance was an American author born in 1916 who died just this past May, at the age of 96. He wrote prolifically in the science fiction and fantasy genres, but he also penned close to a dozen mystery novels under his name and a couple of pen names, as well as three books written in the Ellery Queen franchise. He won an Edgar for the best first mystery novel in 1961 for The Man in the Cage, as well as Hugo and Nebula Awards.



The first offering in today's FFB comes via Deb, who reviews Maske: Thaery, published by the author under his own name. For all the other books, both by Vance and other authors, check out the links at the bottom of this blog post.





Review of Jack Vance's Maske:Thaery by Deb

Part coming-of-age saga, part political and religious allegory, and part spy thriller, Jack Vance’s 1976 science fiction novel, Maske: Thaery, packs a lot into its slim 180 pages (this includes a helpful glossary, ala A Clockwork Orange, and a series of elucidating footnotes, found particularly at the beginning of the book). This is the first Vance book I have read and I must admit I found it a bit heavy-going in parts.  Not so much the plot, which is fairly fleet-footed, especially when Vance must include so much expository and world-building information, but the constant drag of made-up words and unconventional spellings.

Here is an example, a piece of dialog selected at random:  “That is the Wael punishment.  I consider them the strangest folk of Maske, perhaps of the whole Gaean Reach; they are said to derive from a union between Vile Fourteenth and a band of rogue Djans.”  Whether this arouses in you a desire to know where the Gaean Reach is or to discover who Vile Fourteenth and Djans are will determine if you will want to read this book.

Generations before the start of the story, the planet of Maske was invaded by a contingent of ultra-religious Thariots who drove out the original inhabitants (referred to as Waels and Djans) and settled an area they call Thaery. A group of original invaders who did not share the Thariots belief in a specific divinity process were exiled to a rough outpost called Glentlin. The residents of this area are referred to as “Glints”—a word synonymous with boorish and crude in the Thariot language (much as the Glints take “Thariot” to mean devious or secretive).

Jubal Droad is a Glint who has the misfortune of being a second son, meaning there will be no inheritance for him—he will have to make his way in the world armed with only his wits—but of those he has aplenty. During Yallow, a traditional Glint rite-of-passage, Jubal runs afoul of Ramus Ymph, a powerful Tharion who has broken the Theary laws restricting inhabitants to their own land.  Later, Jubal is employed by the head of Thearian security, Nai the Hever, and Jubal’s information about Ymph’s off-world activities results in Ymph being denied a significant government office. Ymph is a thug and a bully and Jubal now has a very powerful enemy.

While Jubal continues in his capacity as Sanitary Inspector (actually a cover for his work as a spy for Nai the Hever), Ymph seeks revenge by inducing his fiancée, Mieltrude, to sign a warrant that will result in Jubal’s being severely beaten. Did I mention that Mieltrude is also Nai the Hever’s daughter? Jubal manages to escape the punishment, but things get very complicated for Jubal, especially when his illegitimate brother murders their older brother, the head of their clan, and claims the position for himself. Jubal fights and defeats the usurper and he’s sure that Ymph had a hand in the original coup. Unable to convince Nai the Hever of the Ymph’s complicity, Jubal seizes Mieltrude and pursues Ymph across Thaery and the oceans of the outer lands.

During the voyage, Jubal and Mieltrude, like so many fictional couples who are originally antagonistic toward each other, begin to thaw.  Jubal discovers that Mieltrude is unwillingly engaged to Ymph who sees his fiancée as a political tool and reserves his love for his mistress, Sune, a nasty piece of work in her own right.  More adventure follows as the pursuit of Ymph exposes a whole new dimension to his greed, corruption, and cunning.  Stick around for Ymph’s well-deserved and ecologically-correct comeuppance.

As I said initially, this is a dense book.  It’s packed with action and adventure, good guys and bad guys, and a lovely female—almost the science fiction equivalent of a swashbuckling movie.  Enjoy the book, but take my advice and keep a bookmark in the glossary—you’re going to need it!

LINKS TO JACK VANCE BOOK REVIEWS

Patti Abbott, The Last Castle by Jack Vance 

Sergio Angelini, The Madman Theory by Jack Vance, writing as Ellery Queen
Bill Crider, Take My Face by Jack Vance, writing as Peter Held
Loren Eaton, The Dying Earth series by Jack Vance
Ed Gorman, Bad Ronald by Jack Vance
Jerry House has some interesting Vance notes and links
Randy Johnson, Son of the Tree by Jack Vance
George Kelley, To Live Forever by Jack Vance
Evan Lewis, Lyonesse, a/k/a Suldrun's Garden by Jack Vance
Todd Mason, The Dogtown Tourist Agency by Jack Vance
Todd Mason also posted a tribute to Vance after the author's death in May

John F. Norris, Space Opera by Jack Vance
James Reasoner, Vandals of the Void by Jack Vance
Kelly Robinson, Flesh Mask by Jack Vance
Kevin Tipple/Barry Ergang, The Dying Earth by Jack Vance



LINKS TO OTHER BOOKS


Joe Barone, Now May You Weep by Deborah Crombie
William F. Deeck, The Skyscraper Murder by Samuel Spewack
Martin Edwards, by Freeman Wills Crofts
Curt Evans, The Adventures of Arthur Dawe (Sleuth Hound) , by J.S. Fletcher
Roy Garraty, A Killer is Loose by Gil Brewer
Ed Gorman, The Vengeful Virgin by Gil Brewer
Nick Jones, The Hunted by Elmore Leonard
Peggy Ann, by Dorothy Bowers
Charles Rutledge, Through the Dark Curtain by Peter Saxon
Ron Scheer, Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson
Michael Slind, The Tuesday Club Murders by Agatha Christie
Kerrie Smith, Danger Point by Patricia Wentworth
TomCat, The Cursing Stones Murder by George Bellairs
Prashant Trikannad, All the Lonely People by Martin Edwards
Zybahn, The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

FYI, Jack Vance's literary legacy has been preserved via two expansive publication projects: the Vance Integral Edition (VIE), a 44-volume set of his complete works, and the Vance Digital Edition, a series of e-books created from latest digital versions of the Vance Integral Edition texts.

July Bestsellers

The Seattle Mystery Bookshop released its July 2013 summer bestseller lists. If you're still looking for a good summer read, these are a good place to start:

HARDCOVER

1 – Craig Johnson, A Serpent’s Tooth, Viking
2 – Mike Lawson, House Odds, Grove Atlantic
3 – James Lee Burke, Light of the World, Simon & Schuster
4 – Mary Daheim, Gone With The Win, Morrow
5 – Carl Hiaasen, Bad Monkey, Knopf
6 – Timothy Hallinan, The Fame Thief, Soho
7 – C.J. Box, The Highway, Minotaur
8 – tie
Lisa Lutz, The Last Word, Simon & Schuster
Robert Galbraith, The Cuckoo’s Calling, Mullholland
10 – Daniel Silva, The English Girl, Harper

TRADE PAPERBACK

1 – Craig Johnson, The Cold Dish, Penguin
2 – Jo Nesbø, The Bat, Vintage
3 – Jess Walter, Beautiful Ruins, Harper
4 – tie
Ernie Cline, Ready Player One, Crown
Louise Penny, The Beautiful Mystery, Minotaur
Peter Spiegelman, Thick as Thieves, Vintage
7 – Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Keeper of Lost Causes, Plume
8 – Timothy Hallinan, Crashed, Soho
9 – tie
Jess Walter, We Live in Water, Harper
Urban Waite, The Terror of Living, Back Bay
Fred Vargas, The Ghost Riders of Ordebec, Penguin
Lecretia Grindle, Villa Triste, Grand Central
Maurizio de Giovanni, I Will Have Vengeance, Europa

MASS MARKET PAPERBACK

1 – Yasmine Galenorn, Night Vision, Berkley
2 – Jasper Fforde, The Last Dragonslayer, Harcourt
3 – Leslie Budewitz, Death al Dente, Berkley
4 – Louise Penny, Still Life, Minotaur
5 – Kevin O’Brien, Unspeakable, Pinnacle
6 – tie
Kat Richardson, Seawitch, Roc
Gail Carrieger, Soulless, Orbit
8 – tie
Kat Richardson, Greywalker, Roc
Mike Lawson, The Inside Ring, Grove Atlantic
10 – tie
Mary Daheim, The Wurst is Yet to Come, Harper
Ridley Pearson, The Risk Agent, Jove
Waverly Curtis, Dial C for Chihuahua, Kensington
Diana Renn, Tokyo Heist, Speak
C.J. Box, Open Season, Berkley
Ed Falco, The Family Corleone, Grand Central
Mary Lou Kirwin, Killer Librarian, Pocket

Mystery Melange

 

Book sculpture by Daniel Lai


Tonight, the Berkeley, California, Literary Salon hosted by Janet Rudolph will feature Lisa Brackman, whose debut novel Rock Paper Tiger made several "Best of 2010" lists, and also Tim Hallinan, the author of three separate mystery series. You can check with Janet via her Mystery Fanfare blog about any seating availability by sending an e-mail to Janet@mysteryreaders.org.

Congrats to Jane Cleland, winner of the David Award for Dolled Up for Murder. The award is handed out at the Deadly Ink Conference to honor the best mystery published during the previous year.

The nominees (short list) for the 2013 Ned Kelly Awards have been announced by the Australian Crime Writers Association, with winners to be announced on September 7th in conjunction with the Brisbane Writers Festival. The list includes those for best novel:

 

The Holiday Murders by Robert Gott
Web of Deceit by Katherine Howell
Blackwattle Creek by Geoffrey McGeachin
I Hear the Sirens in the Street by Adrian McKinty
Silent Valley by Malla Nunn



The short list for the 2013 Bloody Scotland festival's Scottish Crime Book of the Year were also announced. The winners will be handed out September 14th. The nominees include:Dead Water by Ann Cleeves

Pilgrim Soul by Gordon Ferris
How a Gunman Says Goodbye by Malcolm MacKay
The Vanishing Point by Val McDermid
The Red Road by Denise Mina
Standing In Another Man's Grave by Ian Rankin



In honor of author M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin series celebrating its 20th birthday, Criminal Element is sponsoring a sweepstakes with a chance to win all 22 books in the series. Just visit the website and click on the link to fill out the form.

The Private Eye Writers of America Shamus Awards Banquet will be held in conjunction with the Bouchercon conference in Albany on Friday night, Sept. 20. The event is open to the public, and you don't have to be a PWA member to attend and rub elbows with your favorite authors. For questions and ticket information email RRandisi@aol.com.

This week's Beat to a Pulp entry switches from short fiction to poetry, with three offerings from Charles A. Gramlich.

The latest poem from the 5-2, which features new crime poems each week, is "The Survivor of a Slasher Flick in Middle Age" by Massachusetts author Peter Swanson.

The ABA chose their picks for the "25 greatest law novels...ever!" Hop on over to see the list, and you can also cast your vote for THE greatest. (Hat tip to Elizabeth Foxwell.)

Alec Cizak, editor of the magazine Pulp Modern, announced that after five issues, he will be shutting the 'zine down. It's sad to see another high-quality publication bit the dust, but you can still order back issues via Amazon with great stories from the likes of Patti Abbott, Matthew C. Funk, Chris Rhatigan,  John Kenyon, Stephen D. Rogers, Sandra Seamans, Lawrence Block and more.

The Q&A roundup this week includes a "short, sharp interview" with author Dana King at Paul D. Brazill's blog; Dana also makes an appearance on Patti Abbott's blog, talking about his fifteen-year path toward publication.

Author R&R - Joscelyn Godwin

In this edition of Author R&R (Research and Reference) for In Reference to Murder, Joscelyn Godwin, co-author of
The Forbidden Book, discusses the inspiration behind writing the novel, described as "occult fiction": a murder mystery set against the conflicts of Islam and
the West with symbolism, alchemy, and magic fueling the action. Joscelyn was born in England and lives in Hamilton, New York,
where he is professor of music at Colgate University. He is a composer,
musicologist, and translator, known for his work on ancient music,
paganism, and music in the occult.

It began when Ian Caldwell sent me the novel that he and Dustin Thomason had written: The Rule of Four. He sent it to me because the plot hinges on a real Italian book of 1499 called the Hypnerotomachia  Poliphili, which I happened to have translated into English in 1999. I enjoyed The Rule of Four and admired the way the authors wove the Hypnerotomachia and
its mysteries into their story. The book deservedly rose to the top of
the best seller lists, and I was asked to write a short, unofficial
guide-book to it. In about a month I wrote The Real Rule of Four, which showed how Caldwell and Thomason’s novel works, explains all its learned allusions, and introduces the real Hypnerotomachia.

The Hypnerotomachia is
an epic fantasy novel set in an imaginary pagan land populated by
goddesses, fauns, satyrs, and irresistibly sexy nymphs. The language is a
flowery Italian, expanded with rare Latin and Greek words. It’s
lavishly illustrated, and the general perfection of its design have
earned it a place in the history of fine books. The author, who was a
Franciscan friar (though you wouldn’t think it), had a passion for
classical architecture, sculptures, tombs, and formal and symbolic
gardens. The whole book drips with excess of language, imagery, and
emotion. All it lacked was a complete English translation, since the
last, incomplete one was made in the 16th century. Since no one else seemed inclined to do it, and the 500th anniversary was coming up, I took it on.

So that was what inspired The Rule of Four’s authors
in their blend of Renaissance mysteries with modern ones. No sooner had
their book arrived than Guido and I got in touch with one another. Guido
already had seven novels behind him. I had never written fiction, but I
did see one shortcoming in this genre, which Dan Brown had revitalized.
It draws on esoteric traditions, but only for atmosphere and
decoration, not as realities. I thought that between us, with Guido’s
experience in fiction and my long interest in esotericism, we could
write a novel in which the mysteries are real. Neither
of us shares the scientific world view, i.e. that scientific
materialism does the best job of explaining the universe. Indeed, we
hold it in utter contempt. So we would reach into the past, into that
wonderful period of Renaissance Hermeticism. We would use it to give our
novel not just historical but also metaphysical depth.

The material lay close at hand in the form of another mysterious Italian work, The Magical World of the Heroes published in 1605 by Cesare della Riviera. Like the Hypnerotomachia, it
operates on several levels including classical erudition, language
games, self-development, and practical alchemy. We would make our chief
character actually practice Riviera’s form of magic, and it would have
real consequences.

You
may think here of the Harry Potter books, because there too the magic
is real. But Rowling’s is a different genre. Her readers give temporary
consent to the way things work in her world, and don’t expect it to be
like our world except in a symbolic sense. In our novel, on the
contrary, magic happens in contemporary Italy, as I suspect it really
does. We don’t ask you to believe that, nor to disbelieve it. Just
consider it as a possibility, and that the world may be a much stranger
and richer place than the one most people choose to inhabit.

The Forbidden Book by Joscelyn Godwin and Guido Mina di Sospiro is available via Amazon and other retailers.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Rosamund Pike, who starred in the Jack Reacher movie, has landed the lead in David Fincher's big-screen adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel Gone Girl. She'll play opposite Ben Affleck, who was already on board for the project, scheduled to start production in September.

Relativity Media is giving its film Out of the Furnace a wide release on Dec. 6. The story centers around a blue-collar factory worker (Christian Bale) who seeks vengeance when his younger brother, played by Casey Affleck, disappears and the local cops aren't much help. Woody Harrelson plays the heavy, while Forest Whitaker stars as one of the local cops investigating the case. Also in the all-star cast: Zoe Saldana, Sam Shepard and Willem Dafoe.

There is movement toward a new Bourne franchise installment, with Anthony Peckham scripting a film that will continue the storyline of Aaron Cross, the character played by Jeremy Renner in the 2012 Bourne Legacy. Peckham also wrote the screenplay for the first Sherlock Holmes movie starring Robert Downey, Jr.

David Yates, who directed the final four installments of the Harry Potter series, is in final talks to helm the remake of the mob drama Scarface. The plan is update the story and characters, giving it more of a contemporary feel.

CBS Film has picked up the screen rights to Children of Paranoia, the debut YA novel by Trevor Shane about a young assassin caught up in a secret war that’s been waged for centuries, with assassinations passed off as accidents or acts of random violence.

Four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris is joining an all-star cast that includes Liam Neeson and Joel Kinnaman in the crime thriller Run All Night, about an aging mob hit man (Neeson) forced to take on his former boss (Harris), the leader of a prominent criminal organization in Philadelphia.

Great Gatsby star Elizabeth Debicki has landed a leading role in the film reboot of the 60s TV spy drama The Man From U.N.C.L.E., joining headliner stars Armie Hammer and Henry Cavill. Debicki's role is described as a femme fatale, although she won't be the only female in the cast, with Alicia Vikander playing an agent.

TELEVISION

Jack Bauer will return to Fox next year for 24: Live Another Day, which picks up several years after the end of the show and will depict a single day, packed into 12 hour-long episodes. Mary Lynn Rajskub, a regular on the original series, will return for the new show along with star Kiefer Sutherland.

Billy Bob Thornton is set to star in the small screen mini-series adaptation of the film Fargo for FX. His role is described as "the rootless, manipulative man who meets a small-town insurance salesman and sets him on a path of destruction." (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Fox handed out a series order for the adaptation of the popular British series Broadchurch, set to debut on American screens in the 2014-15 season. The story revolves around the tragic and mysterious death of a young boy found dead on an idyllic beach surrounded by rocks and a jutting cliff-face from where he may have fallen. (With a nod to Omnimystery News.)

Smash star Jeremy Jordan is set to guest-star on the upcoming season of Elementary, playing Joey Castro, the son of a former surgical patient of Joan's (Lucy Liu).

Syfy renewed its time-travel police drama Continuum, starring Rachel Nichols and Victor Webster, for a third season.

J.H. Wyman and J.J. Abrams (the team behind Fringe) chatted up their new series Almost Human during a Television Critics Association press tour session. The duo credited NYPD more than the supernatural Fringe as a blueprint for the show, which is set 35 years into the future when human cops in the LAPD are paired up with androids.

In another Television Critics Association panel, Mike Schur assured the audience that his new cop comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine is not a parody, with the comedic elements taking second place to telling a real cop story for stars Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher.

Fans of the BBC Sherlock series can get a small (spoiler-free) "hit" of their Sherlock fix via this trailer for the upcoming third series of the show to premiere in the UK later this year and in U.S. markets early in 2014.

PODCASTS

Indie publisher Untreed Reads, which started out as digital-only but is adding audio and print-on-demand, has also started an author podcast. It's available via Stitcher Radio (a free app for either Android or Apple devices) or you can listen online. Episode One features author Kevin J. Cunningham.

In case you missed it, the July 27th edition of Suspense Radio is archived online, with guests Marcus Sakey, Antonio Hill and Dan Graffeo.

Forgotten Books Friday - The Long Shadow

British author Celia Fremlin (1914-2009), was the daughter of a
doctor and the sister of nuclear physicist John H. Fremlin. She studied
classics at Somerville College, Oxford, but after her mother died in
1931, she was expected to look after her father. Instead of being
content to just stay at home, she took jobs in domestic service, which
was unusual for a middle-class woman at that time. She said it was to
"observe the peculiarities of the class structure of our society," and
those experiences later found their way into her later writing.

Much
later, in her sixties, she began to take long walks at night by
herself  all over the back streets of London, partly for research and
partly to prove a point. Her conclusion was that to make the dark
streets lose their terror, "We don’t need more policemen on the beat. We
need more grandmothers." Those experiences were compiled into a TV
program about challenging people’s fears of urban streets at night and
many observations also wound up in her books.

Her life may have
seemed like domestic bliss on the surface, but it was filled with its
share of tragedy that would be at home in any crime novel:  Not only did
she lose her mother at age 17, but her youngest daughter committed
suicide, as did Fremlin's husband, rather than live a disabled life
after a heart attack. She also outlived her second husband and her other
two children, and went slowly blind in her later years, spending her
last days in a nursing home, which was a bit ironic, considering she
became an advocate for euthanasia late in life.


Fremlin's first mystery novel was The Hours Before Dawn
from 1958 which won the Edgar Award for Best Novel and established her
style of mystery/horror set mostly around the lives of married women in
the 1950s. Some feel that The Long Shadow was an equally fine
work, and H.R.F. Keating even included it in his 1987 listing of the 100
best crime and mystery books. It's the story of the Imogen Barnicott,
third wife of a celebrated, cruel and egocentric professor, who, despite
her unhappy marriage, had never plotted her husband's murder—yet after
his supposedly accidental death, she receives a mysterious phone call
accusing her of that very thing. Add to that strange happenings like new
messages left lying around in his handwriting, work on an unfinished
manuscript of his that continues to be written, and shadowy figures seen
in the house, and Imogen not only begins to doubt her husband is dead
at all, she begins to believe she just might take his place.

Celia
Fremlin used to say that she wrote the sort of book she wanted to read,
in which a mysterious threat hangs over someone and escalates chapter
by chapter; or as, H.R.F. Keating recalled her saying, "to put a plot
that is exciting or terrifying against a background that is domestic,
very ordinary, humdrum." She used this to great effect in The Long Shadow
and others, slowly building an atmosphere of suspense and terror out of
the excruciatingly mundane, using the contrasts as a literary canvas
like Dali and his surrealistic art.

Her character observations
managed to be cutting and yet have a touch of dark humor, as well, as
this passage from Imogen's experience at a party a well-wishing friend
had encouraged her to attend:

Worst of all,
perhaps, was the apparently unending procession of people who,
incredibly, still hadn't heard, and had to be clobbered with the news in
the first moment of meeting. Had to have the smiles slashed from their
faces, the cheery words of greeting rammed back down their gullets as if
by a gratuitous blow across the mouth. There they would be, waving from
across the road, calling "Hi!" from their garden gates, phoning by
chance from Los Angeles, from Aberdeen, from Beckenham...One and all to
have their friendly overtures slammed into silence, their kindly voices
choked with shock. One after another, day after day, over and over
again: sometimes Imogen felt like the Black Death stalking the earth,
destroying everything in her path.

Fremlin's
books are filled with astute perceptions that no doubt bear the imprint
of her first-hand research into human behavior, as Imogen's stepson
Robin advises her about taking on boarders:

I'd
choose Depressions rather than Anxiety States...From the point of view
of a landlady, Depressions are good because they lie in bed until midday
and don't eat breakfast. Whereas Anxiety States want grapefruit—All
Bran—the lot."

In addition to her 20 novels and nonfiction books, the last dating from
1994, she wrote short stories, poetry and articles and was a member of
the Crime Writers Association for many years. The Long Shadow, The Hours Before Dawn, and her other fiction certainly deserves a closer look.