B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 250

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Warner Bros and Silver Pictures are set to produce The Galton Case, one of the titles in the Ross Macdonald mystery series about private detective Lew Archer. Screenwriter Peter Landesman will adapt the book about the 1950s private eye in Southern California, with the studio hoping it might turn into a franchise.

Fans of Casablanca, mark your calendars for March 21. The classic film starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman will be returning for a special presentation in select theaters around the country.

Omnimystery News reports that Warner Bros. is going to adapt the four-issue crime comic series published as the graphic novel Lucid. The plot centers on Federal Agent Matthew Dee who battles conspiracies against the U.S. in his newly-appointed role as "Protector of the Realm."

Crimespree Magazine posted a trailer link for the upcoming film adaptation of Jo Nesbø's thriller Headhunters.

TV

Karin Slaughter fans, take note: Entertainment One and Piller/Segan/Shepherd (partners on the Syfy series Haven) acquired the TV rights to Slaughter's Grant County series of novels featuring Georgia pediatrician and coroner Sara Linton.

As Crimespree Magazine reports, it's no surprise that FX ordered a fourth season of 13 episodes for the hit series Justified, based on the novels of Elmore Leonard.

Neal McDonough, currently playing Robert Quarles in Justified, is joining Frank Darabont in the TNT pilot LA Noir.

Fox is developing an English-language adaptation of Telemundo's La Reina del Sur (The Queen of the South). Based on the book by Arturo Perez-Reverte, the crime drama is said to be similar to Breaking Bad and deals with narcotics trafficking in Europe.

The cast for the Showtime pilot Ray Donovan keeps growing. Liev Schreiber is already on board to play Donovan, a professional "fixer" who solves problems for LA's rich and famous. Steven Bauer was also just added, joining Jon Voight, Elliott Gould and House star Peter Jacobson, among others.  

Radha Mitchell is set to play the lead in the ABC drama pilot Penoza created by Twilight's Melissa Rosenberg. Mitchell will play the widow of an assassinated criminal who is forced to adopt her husband's role in a crime syndicate in order to protect her family.

Aidan Quinn has joined the cast of CBS detective pilot Elementary, the CBS network's take on a modern-day Sherlock Holmes.

Megan Ketch has signed to star in ABC's fantasy pilot Gotham, playing a New York detective who discovers a magical world that exists within New York.

Angela Bassett has been cast as Alice Vargas, the director of the CIA, in a Fox pilot about a teen spy who gets taken in by a rogue CIA agent and assassin. Julian McMahon has also come aboard, playing the teen's surrogate father and professional mentor in the spy world.

Japanese mystery author Natsuki Shizuko's book W No Higeki ("The Tragedy of W") has been adapted as a TV series in Japan.

THEATER

It may not be as long-running as Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap in London, but the play Perfect Crime has been performed continuously at the Snapple Theater Center in New York since 1987. The plot is about an accomplished Connecticut psychiatrist whose wealthy husband turns up dead. She gets caught in a game of cat and mouse with a deranged patient and the handsome but duplicitous investigator assigned to the case. As of yesterday, the play had logged 10,184 performances.

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - The President's Mystery Plot

Long before Elliott Roosevelt wrote murder mysteries featuring his mother Eleanor Roosevelt as a super sleuth, and even before first daughter Margaret Truman penned her crime fiction (despite rumblings of ghostwriting), President Franklin Delano Roosevelt came up with his own idea for a mystery novel. When he was Governor of New York he once said of detective stories, "Hundreds of such novels are published every year, but only a few are really worth the time and attention of intelligent readers. Even in the good ones there is often a sameness. Some one finds the corpse and then the detective tracks down the murderer. I do not believe that such stories have to follow an inevitable pattern or formula."

Apparently, even after he became President, FDR couldn't stop thinking about detective novels. He discussed with his friend, magazine editor Fulton Oursler, his thoughts that such stories appealed to the detective instinct in all of us and were a literary game, an intellectual recreation less purely intellectual than chess but more dramatic. He also told Oursler he'd been carrying around in his mind the plot for a mystery novel for years. His idea? "How can a man disappear with five million dollars in any negotiable form and not be traced?" Oursler suggested they ask the leading writers in the U.S. to collaborate on such a story, to which FDR replied, "Go ahead. See what you can all do with it."

Oursler did just that, contacting various authors and challenging them to take "the President's mystery plot" and contribute a chapter to the story by plonking the protagonist, Jim Blake, in a dire situation and then leaving him for the next author in line. The work of the first authors, Rupert Hughes, Samuel Hopkins Adams, Anthony Abbot, Rita Weiman, S. S. Van Dyne, and John Erskine, were serialized in Oursler's Liberty Magazine in 1935, and the book was published in 1936. However, poor Jim Blake was left hanging for thirty years until Erle Stanley Gardner (creator of Perry Mason) came along and tied everything up in a final chapter when the book was reprinted in 1967 and retitled The President's Mystery Plot.

More a literary curiosity than high literature, the book has a bit of camp and zaniness, and true mystery fans may be disappointed in the thin, zigzagging plot and weak characterizations that sometimes accompany collaborative ventures. Still, it was popular enough that a movie was made of the story in 1936, directed by Phil Rosen and starring Henry Wilcoxon as hapless Jim Blake (Marc Antony in Cecil B. DeMille's Cleopatra). It's an interesting period piece, if you can get past the first chapter. Writer Rupert Hughes gave Blake a scheming Russian wife and writes out her dialogue with "phoenetic precision," as Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., aptly notes in his introduction ("Jeem, how you can't see it is beecose I loaf you so dear I cannot deevide your loaf with even some babies?").

More telling may be what the book reveals about Roosevelt himself. When he proposed the idea to Oursler, the hero was conceived as "hating the falsity of his existence, the meaninglessness of his career, the sameness of his middle-aged routine, the absence of purpose and the boredom with his marriage."

Author R&R with Tina Whittle

This week, In Reference to Murder's "Author R&R" (Reference and Research) welcomes Georgia writer Tina Whittle. Tina's book The Dangerous Edge of Things was the first in her series featuring Atlanta gun shop owner Tai Randolph and debuted in February 2011 to starred reviews from Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus, and Library Journal. The second installment, Darker Than Any Shadow, was just released by Poisoned Pen Press.

In the sequel, Tai's best friend Rico is competing for a national slam poetry title, and Atlanta is overrun with hundreds of fame-hungry performance poets clogging all the good bars. Everything goes according to plan until one of Rico's fellow poets is murdered and Rico becomes the prime suspect. Tai's love interest, the SWAT-trained corporate security agent Trey Seaver, doesn't want her anywhere near the case, but someone apparently does, sending anonymous clues and clandestine tip-offs her way. But is the mysterious someone wanting to help Tai or lure her into a deadly trap?

The novel also has an unusual element that Tina had to research while writing this book, as she explains:

 

There's an old piece of writing advice that goes something like this — if the tension in your novel starts to sag, bring in a man with a gun. But trust me on this — if you really need to liven things up, bring in a giant snake.

I know this because I took my own advice for my second Tai Randolph novel, Darker Than Any Shadow, which has a ten-foot reticulated python in a key cameo. I auditioned several menacing serpents for this walk-on role, including boa constrictors and Burmese pythons. However, I decided on the retic (as reticulated pythons are sometimes called), the big daddy of the snake world. Here are a few snaky tidbits about this amazing creature:

1. You don't tackle this much snake alone. One rule of thumb for snake handling is one person for every three feet of snake. For an average python — about fifteen feet long — you'll need four really brave friends. For the largest python on record — 33 feet long and 300+ pounds — you'd need a NASCAR pit crew.

 2. Captive-bred specimens are remarkably even-tempered. Wild caught pythons, however, are extremely nervous and will bite. They may not be venomous, but their teeth point backwards (the better to hold onto you as you squirm, my dear).

 3. As a rule of thumb, these snakes seem able to swallow prey up to ¼ their own length, and up to their own weight.

 4. A python doesn't kill by strangling — it constricts its victim's rib cage slowly and inexorably with every exhale, leaving each subsequent inhale shallower and shallower until there's literally no room to breathe.

 5. Like all snakes, pythons aren't slimy — they're dry and cool and silky. They're also dense with hard-packed spongy muscle, like a scale-covered gummy bear.

 6.  Pythons are ambush predators; they lunge from the shrubbery, sneak up on you in the water and — in the case of the green tree python — tumble from the branches right on top of you.

 7. Pythons normally snack on small mammals, though they occasionally snag deer and gazelle. Swallowing such large prey makes a python slow and clunky and vulnerable to predators. If necessary, however, it can instantly upchuck the whole business right back in its attacker's face and make a speedy getaway. Take that, crocodile!

 8. Pythons use their supersensitive tongues to "taste" where you are . . . and find out which end is your head, for easier swallowing.

 9. They're extremely valuable creatures, selling anywhere from $500 to $5000. A lavender albino ball python was once listed as the most expensive pet in the world— $40,000. Before you decide to adopt one, however, know it's a long-term arrangement; they live 20-30 years in captivity.

 10. Best estimates are that anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 Burmese pythons now call the Florida Everglades home. Right now the only way to deal with the problem is to hunt them down one at a time and drag them out, which the State of Florida hires people to do. New career, anyone?

The world is divided into two camps, it seems — those who fear snakes, and those who find them utterly fascinating. I'm firmly in the latter category. But even if you're in the former, don't fear. The python in my book is only ten feet long, and you can handle that, right?

 

If you'd like to see how Tina incorporated those tidbits into her story, Darker Than Any Shadow is now available via Poisoned Pen Press and Amazon, and you can also read an excerpt on Tina's website.

Mystery Melange

There's a new story up titled "Dyer" at Beat to a Pulp. It's written by Richard Thomas, whose debut novel Transubstantiate was released in 2010.

Spinetingler's eBook tournament is down to the Elite 8. , if you haven't already (you can only vote once). Our good friend and fellow writer/blogger Patti Abbott is among the contenders.

Join Mystery Readers NorCal on Wednesday, March 14, for a Literary Salon with award-winning authors Cara Black (the Aimee Leduc Investigations series set in Paris) and Jacqueline Winspear (the Maisie Dobbs series set in the late 1920s and early 1930s). Space is limited, so it's recommended you reserve a seat by contacting Janet Rudolph.

If you find yourself in Houston, Texas, in April, here are a couple of events you might want to keep in mind:  Murder By The Book is holding two author luncheons, the first with Rita Mae Brown on April 12, and the second with Anne Perry on April 24. For more information and tickets, visit the bookstore's webiste.

Rhian Davies takes note of two contests for UK writers: Stylist magazine and Faber & Faber are seeking entries for a crime novel that features a female protagonist, with a deadline of July 12; Short Story Bloomsbury Publishing, in association with the Writers and Artists Yearbook, has a contest for a crime story in 1,000 words or less.

Congratulations to the nominees for the Dilys Award (see my post on Dilys Winn), given by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association to the mystery titles of the year that member booksellers most enjoyed selling. The winner will be announced March 31 at the 2012 Left Coast Crime Convention in Sacramento.This year's nominees are:

When Elves Attack by Tim Dorsey
Wicked Autumn by G. M. Malliet 
Tag Man by Archer Mayor 
A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny
Ghost Hero by S. J. Rozan

The Strand Magazine Critics Awards nominees were also announced, with Lifetime Achievement nods going to Joseph Wambaugh and John Sandford. For a list of the Best First Novel and Best Novel lists, Mystery Fanfare has the scoop.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

The Hollywood love affair with Scandinavian/European crime dramas continues. Columbia has acquired the rights to the Dutch thriller Taped, which just opened last weekend in the Netherlands. The plot centers on a young couple who inadvertently videotape the murder of a young man by a corrupt cop. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Director Sacha Gervasi has cast Scarlett Johansson and James D'Arcy to play Psycho stars Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins in Fox Searchlight's Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. The movie has drawn comparisons to "My Week With Marilyn," following Hitchcock and his struggles during the filmmaking of the thriller classic. Filling out the intriguing cast are Anthony Hopkins as the iconic director and Helen Mirren as his wife, Alma.

TV

Rejoice, fans of Foyle's War: filming starts in September for a new season. The action will be fast-forwarded ahead a few years to 1946, where we find Foyle a soldier of the Cold War, gathering intelligence and investigating espionage. Michael Kitchen will return as Foyle for the three planned two-hour episodes.

Fans of Southland may also be able to breathe easier, as it appears the show will be picked up for a fifth season.

Now that House is ending after eight seasons, actor Jesse Spencer is free to join the cast of the NBC pilot Chicago Fire. He'll play "a natural leader at Firehouse 55 who is struggling in his personal life after recently separating from his wife."

Benedict Cumberbatch, star of the popular BBC Sherlock series, was asked—but turned down—the opportunity to be the new doctor in Doctor Who. Now it appears he'll be coming on board, after all, playing Doctor Who's arch Nemesis, The Master, in a special 50th anniversary celebratory episode in 2013. The writing shouldn't be a problem, since both shows are penned by Steven Moffatt.

The CBS pilot with its take on a modern-day Sherlock Holmes has added a casting twist: Lucy Liu is set to play Sherlock Holmes' sidekick Dr. Watson as a female former surgeon who lost her license after a patient died. She met Holmes while he was in rehab and now lives with Holmes as his "sober companion."

BBC America is developing paranormal crime drama titled The Dead Beat, about two cops, one dead and one alive, who "work from leads in the world of the dead to track down killers in the world of the living."

TNT is already promoting its upcoming summer season of crime shows, with a trailer that includes clips from Rizzoli & Isles, Leverage, The Closer, Franklin & Bash and Falling Skies, as well as a new shows Perception, Dallas and Major Crimes. (Hat tip to Crimespree Magazine.)

Actress Marin Ireland, who played American-born terrorist Aileen Morgan in episodes of Showtime's Homeland, is joining the AMC drama The Killing for the show's second season, playing Detective Holder's sister.

The Crime and Punishment Museum in D.C. is to serve as the site for some of the production on the thriller series Badlands, in the studio that once housed America's Most Wanted.

PODCASTS/RADIO

CBS Sunday Morning took note of the March 4th "anniversary," i.e., the date listed as the first meeting of Holmes and Watson in Arthur Conan Doyle's initial "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" book. The story includes a clip of Doyle himself from an old recording (and will hopefully be posted on the website at some point).

THEATER

Lyric Opera of Chicago has commissioned an opera based on Ann Patchett's book, Bel Canto, about terrorism in South America. The opera's world premiere is expected for the 2015-16 season starring legendary soprano Renee Fleming.

Chita Rivera is set to star in a Broadway revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which last had a run in 1985. This comic-mystery version of the unfinished novel by Charles Dickens includes audience participation choosing whodunit each night, with a different ending performed based on the results.

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - Murder Ink, Revised

In June 1972, Dilys Winn opened the first specialty bookstore devoted to mysteries and crime fiction. Titled Murder Ink, the store stood on its original spot in Manhattan for 34 years before it had to close in 2006. Winn continued to serve the mystery community even after selling the store in the '70s, with the occasional essay in publications like the New York Times and also by writing reference books. In fact, the bio in one of her NYT pieces indicated she was the author of 17 books, but sadly, most of those are apparently not available.

What is available is the most popular of those books, appropriately titled Murder Ink: the Mystery Reader's Companion, dating from 1977. Once again, it was a Winn-trailblazing-project by being the first of its type, combining a compendium of information on crime fiction with a very large dose of humor. It was so popular, that Winn came out with the revised version in 1984. Whereas the first edition was subtitled "Perpetrated by Dilys Winn," the update is subtitled "Revised, revised, still unrepentant AND perpetrated by Dilys Winn."

The 1984 version contains many of the same features from the original, with a host of essays on Plots, Trouble Spots (settings), Suspicions (suspects), Crimes, Victims, Bloodhounds (detectives), Motives, Justice and some miscellaneous fun in Side-Tracked and Complications. Contributors to the book include reviewers like Marilyn Stasio with the New York Times; authors including Ed McBain, Martha Grimes, PD James; publishers like Otto Penzler; and dozens of other "first-time offenders," recidivists," and "imposters."

Also new to this edition is a "book within a book." It's a story titled "The Tainted Tea Tragedy," told on the first three pages of each chapter, with two clues to a chapter and additional clues scattered throughout the book. There's even a mirror-image recap of the aftermath one year later in the Index, although "those who peek are "despicable beyond words."

Fun interstitials are sprinkled throughout the book, too. You'll find cartoons like an illustration of the authentic classic private eye trenchcoat, appropriately labeled; sidebars galore filled with trivia, quotes and poems; bibliographies; glossaries and lots of literary eye candy. There's also a section on the crime fiction awards categories, although there is one award missing:  the Dilys Award. In 1992, well after this book was published, the Independent Booksellers Association created the award for the mystery titles of the year that member booksellers have most enjoyed selling. They named it after—who else? Dilys Winn.

Mystery Melange

Heads up, publishers (and authors, if you need to remind your publishers): as Rhian Davies reminds us at It's a Crime (or a Mystery), today is the last day to submit books and short stories to the CWA Dagger Awards.

Time's also running out to enter the NoirCon 2012 Poetry Contest — the deadline is Friday, March 2nd. How do they define "noir poetry"? It's "Poetry that makes reference to the subject matter, dialog or style of film noir or the hard-boiled detective genre, or, (2) Poetry that invokes stark urban landscapes and atmosphere, and which either alludes to crime and perilous attachments or else seems to bear dark knowledge of this territory, or (3) Poetry that tells the story of tortured souls—lovers, psychopaths, obsessives—driven down deadly paths, following desperate plans that are doomed to failure."

Speaking of crime poetry, Gerald So is seeking bloggers to participate in the upcoming 5-2 Blog Tour for Poems on Crime to promote The Lineup #4. The deadline to letting him know you're interested is March 15th, and the tour itself starts in April, which is National Poetry Month.

Spinetingler has a nifty they're starting today. Go vote and join in the fun.

It's not too late to read the February issue of Gumshoe Review online, edited by Gayle Surrette and filled with a wide range of reviewed books and the U.S. Books column that gives you information on new book releases.

Mystery Writers of America will continue its MWA University series with a one-day workshop of top-notch classes at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha on June 16th. Talks include author Jess Lourey on "After the Idea"; Laura DiSilverio on "Dramatic Structure & Plot"; Daniel Stashower on "Setting & Description";  John Galligan on "Voice, Dialogue and Point of View"; Reed Farrel Coleman on "Character"; Hallie Ephron on "Writing as Re-Writing"; and Hank Phillippi Ryan on "The Writing Life."

A Big Welcome to Grift Magazine

John Kenyon announced last year before Bouchercon that he was going to create a new crime fiction 'zine called Grift. As he said in a recent post, "The goal was to create a magazine that would mix interesting, hard-hitting non-fiction with some of the best short fiction in the genre. I believe we have succeeded, and I hope you will agree."

The first issue will be out in March, with features including Scott Phillips on the "Factory" novels of Derek Raymond; Ray Banks on film adaptations of Charles Willeford's books; Lawrence Block on his various experiments with storytelling styles; Chris Rhatigan's interview with author Julie Morrigan; and John's interview with author Chris Offutt as well as his review of the three novels of John Rector. Plus, there are new stories from Jack Bates, Ken Bruen, Alec Cizak, Matthew C. Funk, Chris F. Holm, Craig McDonald, Court Merrigan, Thomas Pluck, Keith Rawson and Todd Robinson.

It will be available in print form, but there are also some great features on the website, too. John said he'll be posting ordering info very soon.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Whether any particular year's Academy Awards truly reflect the best of the best is very subjective, but 2012's Oscars were surprisingly light on crime dramas. BBC News analyzed the types of films Hollywood prefers to honor, and thrillers did come out on top, although crime-based movies in general came dead last. Mystery Fanfare has a few notables that have won in the past, and the Film Site has others, in both the Crime Film and Mystery and Film Noir categories.

RCR Pictures has optioned Dennis Tafoya's novel The Wolves of Fairmount Park. The book deals with the ramifications of a drive-by shooting of two teenagers in a rough Philadelphia neighborhood. (Hat tip to Crimespree Magazine.)

Dominic Cooper will star in Brian De Palma's American remake of the Alain Corneau 2010 French thriller Love Crime, tentatively retitled Passion. The film has already signed Rachel McAdams and Naomi Rapace (Lisabeth Salander in the Swedish version of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).

Joel Kinnaman (star of AMC's The Killing), is in talks to play the title role in the Jose Padilha-directed reboot of Robocop.

A new TV trailer has been released for the upcoming Edgar Allan Poe The Raven. It stars John Cusack as the author who joins forces with a young Baltimore detective (Luke Evans) to hunt down a mad serial killer who's using Poe's own works as the basis in a string of brutal murders.

Christian Bale is in talks to star in the crime thriller Out of the Furnace, written by Brad Ingelsby and focusing on an ex-convict who goes on a quest for revenge after the murder of his younger brother.

Omnimystery News posted the link to a new trailer for Easy Money II, a Swedish film based on the crime thriller novels by Jens Lapidus.

TV

USA Network may bring back Tony Shalhoub as the obsessive compulsive detective Adrian Monk for a TV movie. The regular series ended back in 2009.

Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes) will play the lead in the TNT drama pilot L.A. Noir, based on the book L.A. Noir: The Struggle For The Soul Of America's Most Seductive City by John Bunti. Ventimiglia joins Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead) as another likely member of the cast.

The unnamed Nicholas Pileggi pilot for CBS about a rodeo cowboy who becomes the Sheriff in Las Vegas during the 1960s is growing its cast. Both Dennis Quaid Michael Chiklis are in talks to star, Quaid as the hero and Chiklis as a gangster.

Janet Rudolph reported on her blog that production has begun in Toronto on the upcoming BBC America crime drama Copper, premiering later this summer. Toronto is apparently a stand-in for 1860s New York City, the setting of the series, starring Tom Weston-Jones as an intense, rugged Irish-American cop.

It appears that Mira Sorvino will play the lead in Trooper, Jerry Bruckheimer's drama bout a woman described as "a common-sense mother-turned-New York state trooper." Sorvino joins Jay Hernandez, also recently signed to play Sorvino's partner.

Bradley Whitford has joined the cast of Fox's pilot The Asset, starring Ali Larter (Heroes) as Anna King, a famous photojournalist who leads a secret life as a CIA agent.

Now you see him, now you don't. Last week, I noted Ryan Phillippe had signed play the lead role of a cop who experiences a rapid career progression from officer to detective to Police Commissioner in an upcoming CBS pilot. Now it appears he's had a change of heart.

THEATER

Woody Allen is going to adapt his 1994 film Bullets Over Broadway into a Broadway musical. The original project starred John Cusack and Dianne Wiest as a playwright struggling to put on his first play amidst threats from a mobster who wants him to cast his girlfriend in the show. 

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - The Adventures of Romney Pringle

British author R. Austin Freeman (1862-1943) primarily wrote detective stories and is best known for his legal/forensic investigator Dr. John Thorndyke, using Freeman's early experiences as a colonial surgeon to help inspire and inform his work. That same military experience left Freeman a semi-invalid from malaria and blackwater fever but also gave him time to write.

For Freeman's first works, he used the pen name Clifford Ashdown and collaborated with Dr. John James Pitcairn, a medical officer at Holloway Prison. These were a series of stories published in such magazines as Cassell's that featured gentleman con man Romney Pringle. The Adventures of Romney Pringle from 1902 collected the first six cases of Pringle; first editions of this work are so rare today, Elizabeth Foxwell reported in 2009 that one sold for over $3,000 at Sotheby's (if you see a copy like the one to the right and it's a bargain, grab it.)
 
Freeman is credited with inventing the inverted detective story, where the identity of the criminal is shown from the beginning, demonstrated in some of the stories included in this volume:

"The Assyrian Rejuvenator"
"The Foreign Office Despatch"
"The Chicago Heiress"
"The Lizard's Sacle"
"The Paste Diamonds"
"The Kailyard Novel"

As Bob Schneider noted for GA Detection, Romney Pringle lives by his wits and keen observational powers, being a consummate student of human nature. The "gentleman" moniker is relevant to the handsome, charming Pringle because runs a pseudo literary agency, eschews violence and—when not participating in his criminal pastimes of patent medicine fraud, forgery or burglary—enjoys fine art, bicycling and boating. He's also a master of disguises and has skills that help him track down his prey, usually other criminals, including experience in chemistry and gemology.

Freeman had a detailed and personal knowledge of the backstreets of London, Highgate and Hampstead in the years prior to World War II, and his descriptions are one of the most charming aspects of his writing, counting no less than T.S. Eliot and Raymond Chandler as fans. There are criticisms, too, including Freeman's tendency to be repetitive in certain catch-phrases, dialogue, settings and character types, but such quibbles can be overlooked in the grander scheme of Freeman's storytelling.

One of Freeman's other well-known contributions is his essay "The Art of the Detective Story," included in  Detection Medley, book of essays published by the Detection Club in the UK in 1939. Freeeman is fairly critical of the standard of detective fiction writing in his day and includes such observations as the following, which seems as relevant now as it did over 70 years ago:

The rarity of good detective fiction is to be explained by a fact which appears to be little recognized either by critics or by authors; the fact, namely, that a completely executed detective story is a very difficult and highly technical work, a work demanding in its creator the union of qualities which, if not mutually antagonistic, are at least seldom met with united in a single individual. On the one hand, it is a work of imagination, demanding the creative, artistic faculty; on the other, it is a work of ratiocination, demanding the power of logical analysis and subtle and acute reasoning; and, added to these inherent qualities, there must be a somewhat extensive outfit of special knowledge. Evidence alike of the difficulty of the work and the failure to realize it is furnished by those occasional experiments of novelists of the orthodox kind which have been referred to, experiments which commonly fail by reason of a complete misunderstanding of the nature of the work and the qualities that it should possess.