B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 41

Media Murder for Monday

[image error]It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Apple Films released a trailer for Matthew Vaughn's Argylle, based on the mysterious novel by Elly Conway (I say "mysterious" because the author's real ID is a bit of a secret). The trailer begins like a scene from any classic spy thriller: Undercover agent Argylle (Henry Cavill) dances with a beautiful woman (Dua Lipa), only to have his cover blown. A speedy car chase ensues... only none of it's real. Agent Argylle is actually the creation of novelist Elly (Bryce Dallas Howard), who loves nothing more than to write at home with her cat, Alfie. However, when she finds out that her novels are mirroring the actions of an actual spy organization, she's thrown into the kind of spy story she's only used to seeing on the page. Argylle also stars Sam Rockwell, John Cena, Ariana DeBose, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O'Hara, Sofia Boutella, Samuel L. Jackson, and of course cat actor, Alfie. Argylle hits theaters Feb. 2, 2024.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

ITV has commissioned the thriller, Protection, starring Siobhan Finneran, Nadine Marshall, and Katherine Kelly, which hails from multi award winning producers, New Pictures, and acclaimed screenwriter Kris Mrksa. Based on the first-hand experiences of a long serving witness protection officer, Protection is about what happens when the system breaks down. It follows a police officer, Detective Inspector Liz Nyles (Siobhan Finneran), who finds herself at the heart of such a breach after being personally compromised by an affair with a colleague, but is determined to fight back and uncover the true source of corruption within her unit.

Toby Jones has come aboard ITV's drama, Ruth, about the last woman to be hanged in Britain, taking on the role of the solicitor who tried to save her life. Also rounding out the cast are Laurie Davidson, Mark Stanley, Joe Armstrong, Arthur Darvill, Juliet Stevenson, and Toby Stephens. Based on Carol Ann Lee’s biography, A Fine Day For Hanging: The Real Ruth Ellis Story, the show sees Lucy Boynton in the title role as Ruth Ellis, a nightclub hostess who was hanged at the age of 28 after fatally shooting her abusive lover, David Blakely. Famous hangman Albert Pierrepoint carried out the death sentence at Holloway Prison in 1955.

ABC has moved the premier of the new crime drama, High Potential, to fall 2024. The series is based on the popular French series, Haut Potentiel Intellectuel (HPI), and follows Morgan (Kaitlin Olson), a single mom with three kids and an exceptional mind, who helps solve an unsolvable crime when she rearranges some evidence during her shift as a cleaner for the police department. When they discover she has a knack for putting things in order because of her high intellectual potential, she is brought on as a consultant to work with a by-the-book seasoned detective Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), and together they form an unusual and unstoppable team. The series also stars Javicia Leslie, Deniz Akdeniz, Amirah J, Matthew Lamb, and Judy Reyes.

True Detective: Night Country dropped a new trailer for the six-episode series and also announced January 14 as the date the show will premiere on streaming service Max. Issa López serves as showrunner, writer and director of all episodes. Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, confirmed that the delay was due to the strikes (the WGA one ended last week with the SAG-AFTRA one is ongoing and hopes it too would come to an end soon). As the official logline states: When the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, the eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, Detectives Liz Danvers (Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Reis) will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves, and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice. The cast also includes Finn Bennett, Fiona Shaw, Christopher Eccleston, Isabella Star LaBlanc and John Hawkes. Guest stars are Anna Lambe, Aka Niviâna, June Thiele, Diane Benson and Joel D. Montgrand.

The settlement of the WGA strike has opened the door to the creation or recreation of writers' rooms for the various dramas (although the SAG-AFTRA actors' strike is ongoing). Among the series picking up where they left off are the crime dramas Criminal Minds: Evolution (a co-production with CBS Studios for Paramount+), NCIS and FBI (CBS), The Cleaning Lady (Fox), Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU (NBC).

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

James Patterson and Mike Lupica, appeared on Good Morning America to discuss their new co-authored novel, 12 Months to Live. It centers on tough-as-nails criminal defense attorney Jane Smith, who's hip-deep in the murder trial of the century. But Jane doesn’t have much time: She’s just received a terminal diagnosis giving her twelve months—unless she’s murdered before her expiration date.

Also on Good Morning America, Kayvion Lewis stopped by to chat about Thieves' Gambit, a heist thriller where a cutthroat competition brings together the world’s best thieves, and one thief is playing for the highest stakes of all: her mother's life.

On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed book picks for Hispanic Heritage Month.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the prologue and first chapter of Secret Identity by Alex Segura, as read by local actor Cady Mejias. This one has something not only for mystery fans, but also for comic book and superhero fans.

Crime Time FM featured authors from Orenda Books Publishing to discuss their latest novels, including Jenny Lund Madsen (Thirty Days of Darkness), Paul E Hardisty (The Forcing), and Eva Björg Ægisdöttir (You Can't See Me).

The Red Hot Chili Writers talked to historian Matthew Parker about his new book, One Fine Day; discussed EM Forster and George Orwell in India; dissected the Booker Prize shortlist; and reflected on the British PM's Seven Deadly Bins.

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Sunday Music Treat

Today marks the birthdate of Paul Dukas (October 1, 1865 – May 17, 1935), a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher, perhaps best-known for his work The Sorcerer's Apprentice (L'apprenti sorcier). Unfortunately, he was hugely self-critical and destroyed a lot of his own works before they could see the light of day, but he did leave behind some works such as two short piano pieces, Prélude élégiaque sur le nom de Haydn (1909) and La plainte, au loin, du faune... (1920). You can hear them played here by François-René Duchâble:

 

 

 

          

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Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Death on Remand

John Michael Evelyn (1916-1992) was born in Britain and privately educated before going to Oxford University. He was called to the Bar in 1939, but immediately joined the Army where he served during WWII until 1946, attaining the rank of Major. From there, he did go on to a career in law with the Department of Public Prosecutions, serving for some thirty years.



Adopting the pseudonym of Michael Underwood, he published his first mystery novel, Murder on Trial in 1954, which introduced one of his main protagonists, Inspector Simon Manton. The Inspector was featured in a dozen novels that stretched into the 1960s and included Lawful Pursuit, The Case Against Phillip Quest and The Crime of Colin Wise.



Underwood also supported his fellow crime authors as chairman of the Crime Writers Association in 1964-65 and was elected a member of the Detection Club in 1959. This was during the presidency of Dame Agatha Christie, who had agreed to take the position as a successor to Dorothy L. Sayers, but only on the condition she didn't have to speak at public meetings. Michael Underwood essentially served in her stead for that purpose during Christie's tenure.



Underwood frequently drew on his legal expertise in his plots, as you might imagine, although as in the case of novels like Death on Remand, the courtroom scenes are kept to a minimum and more in a Perry Mason style—with the investigation happening during the bulk of the book until the suspect is apprehended, followed by the final courtroom finale, sometimes with a twist.



Death on Remand starts off with the attempted car bombing of a small-time crook, Julian Prentice, who has just been released from prison for a car theft. The investigation falls upon the desk of Detective-Inspector Playford of the Wenley Borough Police C.I.D., who is as perplexed as other people in the community that Prentice had been defended by the father of the young woman whose car was stolen, the man known as "The Shady Solicitor," Augustus Jason. When the chief suspect in the bombing, Prentice's former boss, also meets with violence and Prentice himself disappears from the hospital, Playford is more than happy to let Scotland Yard step in, led by the efforts of Detective Superintendent Manton. Manton faces seemingly fool-proof alibis for everyone connected to the victims as well as general antagonism from the locals, but in his own quietly plodding, tenacious way, he manages to uncover the truth.



The central gist of the plot probably had more of an impact back in 1956 than it does now. Without giving too much away, suffice it to say that cultural mores and accepted standards have changed quite a bit in 54 years, although the basic human vices of lust, pride and greed probably haven't changed much in millennia. Criminal investigation methods have changed a bit since 1956, but in the book as is the case today, it's good old-fashioned legwork and evidence collection that saves the day As Inspector Manton observes after the suspect has been arrested, "Tactics play as important a part in forensic contests and their menoeuvres as in military battles."



Like most third-person omniscient narratives that hop back and forth between characters, it's a little difficult to develop characters fully. In this particular case, there really aren't any truly sympathetic characters to root for other than the detectives, but as legal/police procedurals go, Death on Remand is a fairly quick read and a pleasant enough way to spend a hour or two.

          

Mystery Melange

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HQ Fiction (a commercial fiction imprint of Harper Collins UK) is launching a competition in partnership with The Times and The Sunday Times in Scotland, Bloody Scotland, and 42 Management and Production to find an unagented Scottish author writing Scotland-set crime novels. For the purposes of the prize, a crime novel is eligible if the author was born, raised, is a permanent resident in, or has a strong and enduring connection to Scotland. Authors can enter the competition by submitting a 500-word synopsis along with the first 5,000-10,000 words of the manuscript and a 200-word author biography to HQPrize@harpercollins.co.uk. Submissions are open from July 1st 2023 until 30th November 2023. The six-strong shortlist will be announced in January 2024, with the winner due to be announced in March 2024. The winner will have their book published by HQ and receive a £10,000 advance, and also representation from 42. (HT to Shots Magazine)

Eddie Muller, host of TCM's Noir Alley, cocktail connoisseur, and one of the world's leading authorities on film noir, will share his expertise for the program, Noir Bar: Film Classics and Cocktails with Eddie Muller on October 5 at 7 p.m. at The Mob Museum in Las Vegas. Muller will discuss a range of classic movies, including some with Mob themes, while demonstrating how to create a few of his own craft cocktails. A book signing of Noir Bar: Cocktails Inspired by the World of Film Noir will follow the program.

Seacoast Noir at the Bar, hosted by Zakariah Johnson, heads to Book and Bar in Portsmouth, NH, Sunday, October 22, 2023. Joining Johnson to read excerpts from their works in progress are authors Lara Bricker, Brenda Buchanan, Dick Cass, Ted Flanagan, Kate Flora, Gledé Browne Kabongo, Edith Maxwell, Dale T. Phillips, Lynne Reeves, Barbara Ross, Bonnar Spring, and Chris Holm.

Level Best Books co-owners Shawn Reilly Simmons and Verena Rose announced the addition of Michael Bracken as a consulting editor for the Level Short imprint. He will edit or co-edit two anthologies for the imprint in 2024 and four anthologies each year beginning in 2025. An Anthony-nominated anthologist, Bracken's first two Level Short projects, scheduled for release in 2024, are Murder, Neat: A SleuthSayers Anthology, co-edited with Barb Goffman, and Wish Upon a Crime, co-edited with Stacy Woodson. Bracken has edited or co-edited 28 published or forthcoming anthologies, and he serves as the editor of Black Cat Mystery Magazine and as an associate editor of Black Cat Weekly. Stories from Bracken's projects have won or been short-listed for the Anthony, Derringer, Edgar, Macavity, Shamus, and Thriller awards and have been selected for inclusion in and/or made the extended list of best stories of the year in The Best American Mystery Stories, The Best American Mystery and Suspense, The Best Mystery Stories of the Year, and The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories. Woodson, a multi-award-winning short story writer who received The Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Award for her first published story, is co-editing one of Bracken's first two anthologies for Level Short and will co-edit additional anthologies going forward. 

Publishers Weekly noted that genre fiction remains extremely popular, and publishers have been increasing their output to meet the demand in recent years. BrocheAroe Fabian, who lives in Wisconsin and owns the online bookstore River Dog Book Co., is also a marketing consultant and manager at Sourcebooks, which has moved aggressively into publishing genre fiction in recent years. Emphasizing that she pays close attention to literary trends, Fabian pointed out that genre fiction has always had its readers, particularly since such stories “have been inclusive for a long time.” She added, “If you wanted to read diverse books, you read genre fiction.” Fabian connects the growing interest in genre fiction to the success of literary thrillers like Gone Girl and The Woman in the Window.

In an essay for the BBC, David Barnett reflected on the phenomenon of "cosy crime," investigating whether the recent popularity of books by the likes of Richard Osman are "brilliant entertainment or 'twee and insipid'."

A warren of tunnels beneath central London, once used by the spies who inspired the creation of James Bond, has been bought by a fund manager with a £220 million ($269 million) plan to turn them into an immersive tourist attraction "as iconic as the London Eye." The Kingsway Exchange Tunnels, some 40 meters below Chancery Lane tube station in High Holborn, were built in the 1940s to shelter Londoners from the Blitz bombing campaign during World War II. That was the last time they were open to the general public. Their next wartime role was as the home of Britain’s top-secret Special Operations Executive, an offshoot of MI6 and the real-life inspiration for James Bond’s Q Branch.

In the Q&A roundup, Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbø spoke with The Guardian about his early influences ("Tom Sawyer was my first murder mystery"), changing tastes, and the age-limit for enjoying Hemingway; and William Kent Kruger chatted with The Chicago Tribune about his Cork O’Connor mystery series at a recent book signing at The Book Stall in Winnetka.

          

Author R&R with Lyn Squire

[image error]Lyn Squire was born in Cardiff, South Wales and earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Wales, his master’s at the London School of Economics, and his doctorate at Cambridge University. During a twenty-five year career at the World Bank, Lyn published over thirty articles and several books within his area of expertise. Lyn also served as editor of the Middle East Development Journal for over a decade and was the founding president of the Global Development Network, an organization dedicated to supporting promising scholars from the developing world. Lyn has always been an avid reader of whodunits and has reviewed scores of mysteries for the City Book Review (Sacramento, CA), but it was the thrill of solving Charles Dickens’s unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood that convinced him to put aside his development pen and turn to fiction. His first novel is Immortalised to Death, the first installment in a planned trilogy.

[image error]In Immortalised to Death, death strikes England’s foremost novelist, his latest tale only half told. Was he murdered because someone feared a ruinous revelation? Or was it revenge for some past misdeed? Set in the Kent countryside and London slums of 1870, Immortalised to Death embeds an ingenious solution to Charles Dickens’s unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood within the evolving and ultimately tragic consequences of a broader mystery surrounding the author himself. Convinced that the identity of Dickens’s murderer lies in the book's missing denouement, Dickens’s nephew and unlikely detective, Dunston Burnett, sets out to complete his uncle’s half-finished novel. A stunning revelation crowns this tale about the mysterious death of England’s greatest novelist, and exposes the author’s long-held secret.

Lyn Squire stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about researching and writing the book:

 

The research an author undertakes depends, of course, on the subject matter of his novel.  In my case, my debut novel, Immortalised to Death, is a mystery set in 1870 England.  In brief, the story opens with Charles Dickens, dead at his desk, his latest tale, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, only half told. My protagonist, a middle-aged, retired bookkeeper (hardly detective material) has to complete the half-finished novel to solve a broader mystery surrounding the legendary author himself.  With this in mind, here are the three modes of research I used.

Online Research:   

Consider this example:

Hugo sat alone at a table outside a small brasserie in the Place des Charmes drinking his coffee. He watched the white-aproned waiters scurrying from table to table, trays held head-high on upturned hands.  He studied the cafe’s customers seated under the sun-shading awning – businessmen, couples, friends – but not her.  Would Nicolette come?

The question is this: Will the reader think that this scene is set in a French square?  Probably.  But the fact of the matter is that I just made up Place des Charmes. 

The example illustrates a point that is perfectly general.  All the novelist has to do is make the reader believe the character is situated in whatever environment suits the author’s purpose.  The key word is, of course, believe.  The writer must conjure up enough of the flavor of a place or time to be convincing.  If, however, he slips too far into factual inaccuracies, readers can be jarred out of their enjoyment of the story, and, if noticeable errors pop up too often, become sufficiently annoyed to quit reading.

My novels are set in nineteenth century England.  To avoid any ‘jarring’ possibilities, I researched Victorian dress, furniture, architecture, and so on at a general level. It is relatively easy these days to research all these aspects of Victorian life online.  I suspect the same holds true for other places and other times.  Being ‘believable’ for scene-setting and general background, then, should be a routine task for any serious author and is one that can be accomplished relatively easily.     

Bibliographical Research:

Matters become more complicated when a famous person features prominently in a story (Charles Dickens in my case).  The same principle – be believable but do not jar – still applies.  But, unlike the easily-swallowed Place des Charmes, all readers will know something about Charles Dickens and many people will know a great deal.  In consequence, authors must be much more thorough in their research to avoid crossing the red-line between believable and jarring.  Ensuring historical accuracy in everything related to Dickens, then, was a top priority for me.

I started my research with several biographies of the author (including John Forster’s 900-page monster, the first biography to appear) and several other biographies of secondary characters including Georgina Hogarth, his sister-in-law, and Ellen Ternan, his mistress.  This provided all I needed to know about Dickens and gave me a solid foundation for some of the main characters in the book. 

I also read all of his novels.  Not a requirement in most cases, I imagine, but I had a specific reason: I wanted to make sure that when Dunston Burnett, my protagonist, wrote his continuation of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, he stayed true to the literary tendencies of the master storyteller himself.  The following two characteristics of Dickens’s writing proved particularly important.

The first can be found in many of his novels.  Dickens delighted in revealing on virtually the last page some unexpected connection among the story’s characters that allowed him to deliver that final surprise so loved by readers… and authors.  For example: That Esther Summerson is the illegitimate daughter of Lady Dedlock and Captain Hawdon, the secret that ultimately drove her ladyship to suicide, is only disclosed towards the conclusion of Bleak House.  The pattern is repeated time and time again.  The second is unique to David Copperfield.  Dickens grew up in poverty and was so ashamed of his upbringing he rarely mentioned it, but he still wanted some way of telling his story.  David Copperfield’s early life was the vehicle he chose for that purpose.  I make use of both of these literary devices in crafting Dunston Burnett’s solution to The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Physical Research:

Finally. I visited Gadshill Place, Dickens’s home in Kent, less than an hour’s train ride from central London, to make sure that the book’s description of the house was as faithful to the original as possible.  I actually stood in his study where the murder in my novel is supposedly perpetrated.  I also walked down the drive and crossed Gravesend Road for a glass of ale in The Falstaff Inn, the scene of another incident in my book.  And I surveyed the house’s surroundings, especially the route via Forge Lane to Higham railway station, the link to London used by several of my characters.  By the time I’d finished my one-day visit, I felt comfortable that what I wrote about the novelist’s home and its setting would be close to one hundred percent accurate and would be accepted without question by most readers, even those who have toured Gadshill Place themselves. 

A Personal Perspective:

The above may sound like a lot of work for one novel, but to my mind it was required to render my story believable, and it was an opportunity to learn about a truly fascinating man who accomplished so much in his fifty-eight years.  I’m following the same strategy in the subsequent two books in The Dunston Burnett Trilogy.  After Immortalised to Death (to be published by Level Best Books on September 26 of this year), book number two, Fatally Inferior (forthcoming in September 2024), is set against the furor generated by the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, and the third, The Séance of Murder (forthcoming in September 2025), has as its backdrop the spiritualist movement that swept through Victorian England.

I’ve already read a mass of material on Darwin’s theory of evolution with its magnificent general law governing the evolution of all organic beings – multiply; vary; let the strongest live; let the weakest die.  And I am now in the midst of reading up on the great mediums of the nineteenth century and the famous converts to the spiritualist movement ranging from Queen Victoria to Arthur Conan Doyle.  This reading serves as a means of checking for factual accuracy but it also provides ideas for plots… and I learn a lot.

 

You can read more about Lyn Squire and his writing via his website. Immortalised to Death is published today by Level Best Books and is available via all major booksellers.

         Related StoriesAuthor R&R with Maggie GilesAuthor R&R with J. LeeAuthor R&R with Lynn Slaughter 

Media Murder for Monday

[image error]It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

The action thriller, Your Lucky Day, featuring one of the final performances of the late Euphoria star, Angus Cloud, has landed a U.S. distribution deal with Well Go USA Entertainment. The film will hit theaters across the country on November 10th and arrive on digital on the 14th. Written and directed by Emmy nominee, Dan Brown, Your Lucky Day watches as a dispute over a winning lottery ticket turns into a deadly hostage situation, leaving the witnesses to decide exactly how far they’ll go — and how much blood they’re willing to spill — for a cut of the $156 million. As the spiraling, life-or-death situation unravels in a small convenience store on Christmas Eve, it becomes evident "that the poisonous heart of the American dream can actually be a nightmare."

A trailer dropped for The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, which marks the final film of The Exorcist director William Friedkin following his death in August, as well as the last performance of actor Lance Reddick (who died in March of this year). It premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival earlier this month, with a scheduled wide release for October 6. Described as a "a modern update" to Herman Wouk’s 1951 Pulitzer-winning, post-World War II novel, the movie follows a U.S. naval first officer, Lieutenant Stephen Maryk (Jake Lacy), on trial after forcibly relieving his captain, Lieutenant Commander Phillip Queeg (Kiefer Sutherland), of his command during a storm at sea. During the court-martial, the subject of Queeg's state of mind at the time proves the core debate, and the question of whether the crew's acts were mutinous or courageous will be unpacked by both sides.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Line of Duty star, Vicky McClure, is set to lead the cast of the Paramount+ UK drama, Insomnia, an adaptation of Sarah Pinborough’s 2022 sleep deprivation thriller novel. McClure plays successful career woman Emma Averill, who fears she might be losing her mind when her hard-won dream life starts to turn into a nightmare. A couple of weeks before her 40th birthday Emma stops sleeping — just as her mother had done right before she suffered a violent psychotic breakdown on the night of her own 40th birthday. Emma’s mother always told her she’d go the same way, that she had the same "bad blood," and now Emma is terrified it’s true. As events worsen, Emma’s world starts to unravel and she realizes that only by investigating the truth of her painful past, can she find the answers to her present and prevent tragedy from striking a second time.

The CW is officially moving into true-crime with the 10-part series, Crime Nation, described as being in the same vein as NBC’s Dateline, CBS’s 48 Hours, and ABC’s 20/20. The series, set to premiere in 2024, will follow mysteries, cold cases, and investigations in each two-hour-long episode, featuring ripped-from-the-headlines stories and interviews. The cases to be covered will include the Delphi murders, the Lori Vallow Daybell case, the Gabby Petito murder, and the Gilgo Beach murders.

Apple TV has released first-look images for season three of Slow Horses, which is based on Real Tigers, the third novel in Mick Herron's darkly humorous espionage series following a dysfunctional team of British intelligence agents who serve in a dumping ground department of MI5 known un-affectionately as Slough House. The first two episodes of Season 3 will debut on December 1, with new episodes to be released individually each Friday through December 29. Gary Oldman leads a cast that includes Kristin Scott Thomas, Jack Lowden, Saskia Reeves, Rosalind Eleazar, Christopher Chung, Freddie Fox, Chris Reilly, Samuel West, Sophie Okonedo, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Kadiff Kirwan, and Jonathan Pryce.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

On Read or Dead this week, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed book picks for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Historian Oliver Webb Carter stopped by the Spybrary podcast to discuss the five favorite spy novels he wants stashed in a dead drop during an undercover mission behind the Iron Curtain; Ashenden by Somerset Maugham, a collection of stories set during World War I; a look at A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre, a non-fiction book that provides a fascinating account of Kim Philby, a member of the Cambridge spy ring, and more.

On Crime Time FM, Paul Burke spoke with Andrew Nette about his new heist thriller, Orphan Road; Gunshine State; pulp fiction; and bodgies & widgies.

The latest episode of It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club featured a talk with Joyce Elaine and Roasalie Spielman, two of the authors for Fright Reads Book Conference which will be held September 30 to October 1 in Millersville, Maryland.

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Sunday Music Treat

This week (September 26) marks the anniversary of the birth of American composer George Gershwin (b.1898; d.1937). Although he's best known for his large-scale works, including his concertos for piano and orchestra such as the iconic Rhapsody in Blue, he did write a few solo piano works. Here's a recording of Gershwin himself playing the Three Preludes from 1926:

 

          

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Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Exeunt Murderers

Author, editor, and reviewer Anthony Boucher (1911-1968) seemed headed into the sciences until he was bitten by the literature bug, selling his first story when he was 15, "Ye Goode Olde Ghoste Storie," published in Weird Tales in January 1927. He would later add that in retrospect the story was so bad, the editor must have had a "sadistic grudge against the readers."



After his college career, he turned his hand to detective fiction in 1937, with a standalone followed by one series with amateur criminologist Fergus O'Breen and the other Sister Ursula of the Order of Martha of Bethany (published under the pen name H.H. Holmes). Although a moderate success as a novelist, he found his true calling when he started reviewing mysteries and science fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle, followed by editing anthologies and translating other books. He landed a job as the regular mystery fiction critic for the New York Times in 1951, a job he held for close to 17 years.



His contributions to the genre didn't end there—he was a founding member of the Mystery Writers of America, a charter member of the Baker Street Irregulars in San Francisco and wrote scripts for Sherlock Holmes and Ellery Queen radio programs, co-edited the True Crime Detective magazine, wrote a monthly review column for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and created a regular mystery-review show for the public radio station KPFA.



His dozens of short stories reflect his multi-faceted interests outside literature, with one of the editors to the Boucher collection Exeunt Murderers, Francis M. Nevins, Jr., adding that Boucher wrote mysteries delving into "religion, opera, football, politics, movies, true crime, record collecting and an abundance of good food and wine along with clues and puzzles and detection." (Nevin's co-editor for this collection was the prolific Martin H. Greenberg.)



Many Boucher stories pivot around talented and brilliant amateur sleuths, although the first third of Exeunt consists of nine stories featuring former police Lieutenant Nick Noble, once a rising star in the force until he took the rap for a bad cop. The second part is a series of Sister Ursula stories grouped under the title "Conundrums for the Cloister." Although technically an amateur, Sister Ursula is the daughter of a police chief who'd once planned on entering the field herself until poor health changed her plans. These stories mirror Boucher's own life in two ways—he was a devout Catholic who also struggled with poor health his entire life, ultimately dying of lung cancer at the age of 57. Part Three of Exunt is "Jeux de Meurtre," narrated by both cops and amateurs, and in one case, the murderer.



These are thoroughly enjoyable stories, and it's almost a shame that he spent so much of his time on other projects (in a poll in 1981, Boucher's novel Nine Times Nine was voted in the top ten "best locked room mysteries" of all time). But it is that very legacy of support to the crime fiction community that his namesake annual Bouchercon convention celebrates (most recently, earlier this month in San Diego), and so we'll just have to be content with the body of work we have from someone who managed to pack more into a half-century than most people do with decades more.