In Reference to Murder

Fun and Games

4th Story Media, the company founded last year by former Scholastic publisher Lisa Holton, is partnering with HarperCollins Children's Books to create the Amanda Project, an 8-book interactive mystery series featuring input from readers in the 12-14 age range.

But interactive murder mysteries aren't just for girls. MysteryAtMansfieldManor.com is an online, live-action murder mystery movie, a "blend of Clue and a choose-your-own adventure movie," recently announced as a finalist in the 2008 Canadian New Media Awards for Excellence in Gaming. You have to pay a subscription fee which grants a player unlimited access to the movie-game for 4 days.

Game producer and screenwriter Rory Scherer said, "To date it has been played in 12 different countries...all through word-of-mouth." He added, "What is interesting is that, even though it is suitable for people of all ages, most customers have been women aged 30 plus who seem to be the fastest growing demographic for online game players. Also, there's been a strong customer base in the United Kingdom as typically they are the hardcore murder mystery fans. I think the strong appeal is mainly due to people associating it with the popular board game Clue which is an established brand recognized by players of all generations."

AFI's Best Mystery Movies

The American Film Institute just announced a new set of lists: the top 10 films in 10 classic genres (science fiction, romantic comedy, western, etc.), chosen by a jury of 1,500 film artists, critics and historians. AFI President and CEO Bob Gazzale said: "This year's celebration of the art form is ten times the fun for movie lovers. And another chapter in our mandate to drive audiences to discover and rediscover the classics of American film."

And the winners of the Top 10 Gangster and Top 10 Mystery Films are...

GANGSTER:

1. The Godfather (1972)
2. Goodfellas (1990)
3. The Godfather: Part II (1974)
4. White Heat (1949)
5. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
6. Scarface: The Shame of a Nation (1932)
7. Pulp Fiction (1994)
8. The Public Enemy (1931)
9. Little Caesar (1930)
10. Scarface (1983)

MYSTERY:

1. Vertigo (1958)
2. Chinatown (1974)
3. Rear Window (1954)
4. Laura (1944)
5. The Third Man (1949)
6. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
7. North by Northwest (1959)
8. Blue Velvet (1986)
9. Dial M for Murder (1954)
10. The Usual Suspects (1995)

When it Rains...

The floods in Iowa and other parts of the midwest aren't just affecting homes and crops, as horrible as that is. The University of Iowa has been under seige as well, including its library. Librarians had been moving books from the basement all week, but only copies of manuscripts and theses. But when they heard the news last Thursday that the river was going to rise higher than expected, they put out a call for help.

"All of the sudden, 'whoosh' all these people showed up," said Nancy Baker, university librarian. "Many things can be replaced but not some of these books." Many are out of print, books dating back to the 1800s or older that have been stored in the basement for decades. As the hour approached quitting time at 5 p.m., when all operations were ordered to halt and volunteers evacuate the building, hands just kept moving, with one stack was emptied every 20 minutes. Psychiatry professor Jim Beeghor said his shift started with Western philosophy, Kant and Spinoza, and he handed off to theater professor Kim Marra, who was glad to see a rescue of old plays from the 18th century, up the stairs, through the hands of joking students — 95 people to the top.The best guess is more than 100,000 books are moving upward as they raced the clock, realizing some would be left behind.

The Library Journal reported on other libraries affected, including the State Library of Iowa, the National Czech & Slovak Museum and Library, and the the Cedar Falls & Waterloo Public Libraries.

Also falling victim, as the Graphic Arts Online site indicates, are several printing companies in the area.

I don't have any information on funds to help replenish any lost books just yet, but the Red Cross announced today that they disaster relief fund had been depleted and they are welcoming contributions.

British Bounty

A couple of items from the isn't that amazing (and trying not to be jealous) department of news from the world of publishing:

British thriller-writer Ken Follett beat his own record of 1,600 books signed in one session with a new record of 2,050 works signed in just over three hours at Madrid's book fair. Follett is one of Spain's most popular authors, and his latest novel Un mundo sin fin (World Without End) has sold 1.5 million copies in Spain alone.

And the Irish Independent wrote about the very generous advance that newcomer Matt Hilton was reported to have received for a new five book series of crime novels from Hodder & Stoughton on the strength of his crime novel, Dead Man's Dust. The figure is apparently around 800,000 pounds (close to $1.6 million). I'm not as thrilled with his agent's assertions, however, that "It's been a long time since the British market has come across a British writer who writes very commercially like this. They don't come along every day. If you can make it work, the revenue stream is very high for a publisher." The agent, Luigi Bonomi, went on to say, "The problem is that it's all or nothing. The mid list is dead, and therefore publishers have to take huge risks. But the potential revenue is huge or nothing. That's the gamble."

It's Murder, He Wrote

Somehow the idea of the hard-boiled, babe-chasing, long-drinking protagonist who goes home each evening to his kids hasn't really taken off in the world of crime fiction. There are a few single fathers, such as Alex Cross in James Patterson's novels, and you have an author like Jeffrey Cohen who created protagonist Aaron Tucker, a part-time stay-at-home-dad to a son with Asperger's Syndrome (a form of autism, a condition that afflicts Cohen's own son). But the list of such crime fiction Dads isn't very long.

Likewise the roll call of Father's Day-themed crime fiction/mystery novels and stories is fairly scant, but there are a few to be found running the gamut from noir to cozy:

The Father's Day Murder, A Holiday Cozy by Lee Harris, is the 11th in a series of holiday-themed murder mysteries by the author featuring ex-nun (and amateur detective) Christine Bennett. In this outing, one of the students in Christine's poetry class calls her for help when the girl's grandfather is accused of murder.

Father's Music by Dermot Bolger. Gerard Brennan's blog Crime Scene NI (Northern Ireland) recently profiled this book which Brennan says "may slip under most crime aficionado's radar's as Dermot Bolger is better known as a literary novelist. However, this offering is crime fiction through and through."

Dear Old Dead by Jane Haddam features Gregor Demarkian, an Armenian-American detective, in this tenth holiday mystery which has a Father's Day theme of sorts and centers on a gang war raging around a Harlem medical clinic.

Father's Day Murder by Leslie Meier has protagonist Lucy Stone investigating the murder of a nearly bankrupt newspaper dynasty patriarch right before Father's Day, with suspicion falling on the man's children.

The Blue Religion is a 2008 MWA Anthology edited by Michael Connolly which also features a story by Michael Connelly titled "Father's Day," in which Harry Bosch faces one of his most emotionally trying cases, investigating the death of a young boy.

If readers know of others, please feel free to add them in! And don't forget Dear Ole Dad today. (Hint: from my experience, men like chocolate, too. The hubster's addicted to Godiva's Petite Mousse Biscuits.)

Gary Fleder sails with Travis McGee

From the Hollywood Reporter and Obsessed With Film comes news that Director Gary Fleder (films Runaway Jury, Kiss the Girls and TV shows like Homicide, Blind Justice, The Evidence, and The Shield) is going to take on John MacDonald's Travis McGee novel The Deep Blue Good-By. If it's successful, Fox Studios may turn into a franchise. No word yet on casting the lead. Anyone have some good ideas for a potential Travis?

While I'm on the subject of the cinema, China View had a piece on filmmaker Johnnie To who recently donated almost every award he's ever won (36 of them) to the Hong Kong Film Archive. To is certainly one of the most famous Hong Kong directors, and is credited with popularizing crime thrillers in China.

Mystery Melange

Looks like CrimeFest is going to be an annual event henceforth. Originally designed to be biannual, recent success like the June 5-8 event this year made the organizers reconsider that schedule and so the festival will return next year, from May 14-17. Thriller writer Meg Gardiner will be the 2009 Toastmistress, and one of the featured guest authors will be Simon Brett.

Guy Ritchie has signed on to a new Sherlock Holmes movie, although early plans make it sound like something purists might not approve. The Hollywood Reporter says "The concept sees the character be more adventuresome and less stuffy than previous screen incarnations and mines on more obscure character traits."

Clues Magazine, the only U.S. academic journal on crime fiction, is moving to a new publisher, McFarland & Co. of Jefferson, North Carolina, after the former owner sold it. As Managing Editor Elizabeth Foxwell explains, Clues "is a good match for McFarland, which has a strong popular culture line, including mystery reference works."

Not too long ago, the Times Online had a piece about collecting crime fiction, in which author Nigel Williams stated that detective fiction is probably the most avidly collected section of the modern second-hand first- edition market. Williams advises against collecting as an investment per se, since demand can vary depending upon various factors. Dick Francis's 60s books are valuable, but after the mid-70s he had print runs of 10-50,000, so those books have little value. Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White in its original binding would be around $13,000 US. Later reprints are less expensive: a good-quality early reprint of The Hound of the Baskervilles would only sell for $116 US. Williams goes on to add that modern writers are collectible too, as a first edition of the first Ian Rankin novel is a four-figure book.

Atlanta's Sunday Paper had a recent Q&A with John Connolly. In it, Connolly admits "There is a difficulty in being a genre novelist; as you achieve an amount of success, there’s pressure to repeat that success, to do pretty much the same thing. Having done Nocturne, it’s never going to sell in the kind of quantities that the Parker novels will sell in. You’re not going to make that much money that year. I recognize this dependence I have on a certain readership, and sometimes that comes into conflict with the desire to take chances."

The Play Is Afoot

Tomorrow is the start of the second annual International Festival of Mystery in Owensboro, Kentucky, which runs through June 22nd. The festival theme revolves around staged plays and radio dramas, although there are workshops, exhibits, and book signings. Despite its upstart nature, the festival is already drawing big names which this year include Ray Bradbury, Angela Lansbury (the festival's Angie Awards are named for her), Sue Grafton, Jesse Kellerman, William LInk (creator of numerous TV classics including Columbo, Murder She Wrote, The Bill Cosby Mysteries, Mannix, & Ellery Queen) and many more.

Two of the featured guests were interivewed for the Louisville Courier-Journal, including Mary Higgins Clark ("If you don't know the motive for a crime, you really can't write about it") and Stuart Kaminsky ("If mystery were an exercise in gamesmanship, the audience would lose every time"), who has a new play about Sherlock Holmes premiering.

There are still tickets and discounts available, so check out the site above for more info.

Media Notes

If you have access to Turner Classic Movies, check out tonight's lineup which will feature Asian detectives from 8pm until 6am, including Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto, and Mr. Wong.

The NYT is expanding what was a short segment on the company's WQXR  radio station into a 15-minute weekly program, "Inside the New York Times Book Review." Airing every Friday night, it will be hosted by TBR editor Sam Tanenhaus and archived online here. You can send book suggestions to Blake Wilson at the Book Review: [email protected].

NPR's "Inside India" program recently had a piece on Murder and the Wealth Gap. Apparently, Indians love a juicy murder mystery. The novels of Agatha Christie sell surprisingly well there and you can hear Sherlock Holmes stories on state radio. Even most Bollywood movies feature a murdered corpse or two.

NPR also had a story on Nordic Crime Fiction, which profiled Norwegian Karin Fossum, Iceland's Arnaldur Indridason, and Swede Henning Mankell and his Inspector Wallender who's more popular in Germany than Harry Potter.

The Yorkshire Post reported that poet-turned crime fiction writer Sophie Hannah has signed a five-book deal with publishers Hodder and Stoughton. The rights to make the first four books for TV have also been bought up by production company Hat Trick. Hannah said: "ITV1 are interested and they are hoping to make the books into a series similar to Prime Suspect."

Cool Gifts for Daddy-O

The Sacramento Bee Online offered its suggestions for Father's Day book gifts, including The Reapers by John Connolly and Nothing To Lose by Lee Child. Need other ideas?

The Madison Public Library reviewed a new true crime title by Kate Summerscale, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective. The subject is the Road Hill House murder which took place in the summer of 1860 when three-year-old Francis “Saville” Kent disappeared from his bed and was later found brutally murdered. The case became something of a sensation, with several suspects. Although detectives were a new phenomenon at the time, Scotland Yard assigned Jonathan “Jack” Whicher to the case, who was a favorite of his bosses and the press and even Charles Dickens often wrote of his genius detecting skills. Unfortunately, it ends unhappily, as Whicher becomes a scapegoat for a convoluted case which was compromised from the start.

If you want to think outside the box, er, USA, there are plenty of international offerings. The Perth Sunday Times recently reviewed several novels, including two crime fiction books, The Ice Princess by Sweden's Camilla Leckberg and Flesh House by Scottish author Start MacBride. And the Melbourne Herald Sun had a profile of Robin Bowles who has written best-selling books on controversial true crime stories from Australia such as the 1997 murder of toddler Jaidyn Leskie and the disappearance of British tourist Peter Falconio in 2001. 
For other ideas, you might check out some of the beach offerings referenced in an earlier posting located here.