In Reference to Murder

September Book Signing Roundup

Here's the latest monthly roundup of author events at mystery book stores around the U.S. and Canada. Be sure and catch these opportunities during the month to meet a new or favorite mystery author and buy a book to be signed. Be sure and check the web site links for all the book and event details, noting that schedules are always subject to change.

Note that some authors with books coming out each month aren't signing at independent stores but mostly at Borders or Barnes and Noble or other venues. For those tour dates, you can check out sites like booktour.com.

Also, don't forget Bouchercon in Baltimore this month from October 9-12, with hundreds of mystery authors on hand to sign their books, as well as related author appearances at Baltimore public library branches, which I referenced in an earlier posting, here.

**************************************
Aunt Agatha's
Ann Arbor, MI

Author: Jeanne M. Dams
Title:  Indigo Christmas
Event Time: Saturday, October 18 at 1:30 p.m.

Authors: Marcus Sakey / Sean Chercover / Joe Borri
Title:  At the City's Edge / Trigger City / Eight Dogs Named Jack
Event Time:  Saturday, October 25 at 1:30

**************************************
Book Carnival
Orange, CA

Author:  Michael Connelly
Title:  Brass Verdict
Event Time: Sunday, October 18, at 12:00 noon 

**************************************
Book Passage
Corte Madera, CA

Author:  Dennis Lehane
Title: The Given Day
Event Time: Monday, October 6, 7 p.m.

Author:  Jewell Parker Rhodes
Title:  Yellow Moon 
Event Time:  Sunday, October 12, 4 p.m.

Author: Sophie Hannah
Title: Little Face
Event Time: Saturday, October 18, 7 p.m.

Author: David Liss
Title:  The Whiskey Rebels
Event Time: Monday, October 27, 7 p.m. 

**************************************
Booked for Murder
Madison, WI

Author: Allene Joyce
Title: Ghost Dancer
Event Time: Saturday, October 4 at 2 p.m. 

Author: John Galligan
Title: The Clinch Knot
Event Time:  Sunday, October 5 at 2 p.m.

Author: Jeanne M. Dams
Title: Indigo Christmas
Event Time: Saturday, October 11 at 2 p.m.

**************************************
Centuries and Sleuths
Forest Park, IL

Author:  Raymond Benson
Title: The Union Trilogy James Bond Anthology
Event Time:  Saturday, October 25, 1 p.m.

Author:  Sean Chercover
Title:  Trigger City
Event Time: Wednesday, October 29, 7 p.m.

**************************************
Cheesecake and Crime
Henderson, NV

Author:  Donna Foley Mabry
Title:  The Las Vegas Special
Event Time: Saturday, October 11, 4 p.m.  

Author: Marilyn Meredith
Title:  Kindred Spirits
Event Time: Saturday, October 25, 2 p.m.

***********************************
Clayton Books
Clayton, CA

Author: Tess Gerritsen
Title: Keepsake 
Event Time: Thursday, October 2 at 7 p.m.

**************************************
Kate's Mystery Books
Cambridge, MA

Author:  Michael Genelin
Title: Siren of the Waters
Event Time: Tuesday, October 7th at 7 p.m.

Author: Cordelia Biddle
Title: Deception's Daughter
Event Time: October 3 drop-by signing

Author: Ann Littlewood
Title: Night Kill
Event Time: Saturday, October 4, at 4 p.m.

Author:  Jim Fusilli
Title: Tribeca Blues
Event Time:  Saturday, October 25, at 4 p.m.

**************************************
M is for Mystery
San Mateo, CA

Author: Tess Gerritsen
Title: The Keepsake
Event Time: Thursday, October 2nd at 12:00 Noon

Author: Clyde W. Ford
Title: Precious Cargo
Event Time: Thursday, October 2nd at at 7 p.m.

Author: Dennis Lehane
Title: The Given Day
Event Time:  Tuesday, October 7th, drop-by signing

Author: Clare Langley-Hawthorne
Title: The Serpent and the Scorpion
Event Time: Tuesday, October 7th at 7 p.m.

Author: Michael Connelly
Title: The Brass Verdict
Event Time:  Thursday, October 16th at 1 p.m. at San Mateo Library

Author: Sophie Hannah 
Title:  Hurting Distance
Event Time: Friday, October 17th at 7 p.m.

Author: Lorelei Armstrong / Cody McFayden
Title:  In the Face / The Darker Side
Event Time: Saturday, 18th at 2 p.m.

Author:  Michael Genelin
Title: Siren of the Waters
Event Time: Wednesday, October 22nd at 7 p.m.

Author: Marilynne Robinson
Title: Home
Event Time: Saturday, October 25th, drop-by signing

Author: Carola Dunn
Title: Black Ship - A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery
Event Time:  Saturday, October 25th at 1 p.m.

Author: Dave Boling
Title: Guernica
Event Time: Monday, October 27th at 7 p.m.

Authors: David Liss
Title:  The Whiskey Rebels
Event Time: Tuesday, October 28th at 7 p.m.

Author: Bill Cameron / Eric Stone
Title: Chasing Smoke / Flight of the Hornbill
Event Time:  Thursday, October 30th at 7 p.m.

**************************************
Murder on the Beach
Delray Beach, FL

Author: Sandra Balzo
Title: Bean There, Done That
Event Time:  Friday, October 3  at 7 p.m.

Author: Ward Larsen
Title: Stealing Trinity
Event Time:  Saturday, October 4 at 7 p.m.

Author:  James Reese
Title: The Dracula Dossier
Event Time: Wednesday, October 10 at 8 p.m.

Author: James Swain
Title: Night Stalker
Event Time:  Thursday, October 16 at 7 p.m.

Author: Deborah and Joel Shlian
Title:  Rabbit in the Moon
Event Time:  Friday, October 17 at 7 p.m.

Author: Deborah Sharp
Title: Mama Does Time
Event Time:  Friday, Octover 24, at 7 p.m.

**************************************
Mysteries to Die For
Thousand Oaks, CA

Author: Charlie Huston
Title: Every Last Drop
Event Time:  Saturday, October 4, 12 noon

Author: Clare Langley-Hawthorne 
Title: The Serpent and the Scorpion
Event Time: Monday, October 6, 12:30 p.m.

Author: Eric Stone
Title: Flight of the Hornbill
Event Time: Saturday, October 18, 1 p.m.

Author: Michael Connelly 
Title:  The Brass Verdict
Event Time:  Sunday, October 19, 1 p.m.

Author: Clare O'Donohue
Title:  The Lover's Knot
Event Time: Saturday, October 25, 12 noon

Author: James Swain 
Title: The Night Stalker
Event Time: Saturday, October 25, 1 p.m.

**************************************
Mysterious Galaxy
San Diego, CA

Author: James Swain
Title: The Night Stalker
Event Time:  Sunday, October 26, 2 p.m.

Author:  Kathryn Lilley
Title: A Killer Workout
Event Time: Monday, October 27, 7 p.m.

Author: Clare O'Donohue 
Title: The Lover's Knot
Event Time:  Monday, October 27, 2008 7 p.m.

Author:  Alan Jacobson
Title: The 7th Victim
Event Time: Tuesday, October 28, 7 p.m.

**************************************
Mystery Bookstore
Los Angeles, CA

Author: Clyde Ford 
Title:  Precious Cargo
Event Time:  Friday, October 3 at 7 p.m.

Author: Charlie Huston
Title: Every Last Drop
Event Time: Saturday, October 4 at 3 p.m.

Author:  Eric Stone
Title:  Launch Party for Flight of the Hornbill
Event Time: Saturday, October 4 at 6 p.m.

Author:  Cornelia Funke
Title: Inkdeath
Event Time: Sunday, October 12 at 1:30 p.m.

Author: Michael Connelly
Title:  The Brass Verdict
Event Time:  Saturday, October 18 at 6 p.m.

Author: Sheila Lowe
Title: Written in Blood
Event Time: Tuesday, October 21 at 6:30 p.m., Rancho Palms Library

Author: Michael Genelin
Title: Siren of the Waters
Event Time: Tuesday, October 21 at 7 p.m.

Author: Patricia Wynn
Title: Motive from the Deed
Event Time: Saturday, October 25 at 1 p.m.

Author: Clare O'Donohue
Title:  Lover's Knot
Event Time:  Saturday, October 25 at 3:30 p.m.

Author: James Swain
Title: Night Stalker
Event Time: Saturday, October 25 at 5:30 p.m.

Author: Carola Dunn
Title: Black Ship
Event Time: Sunday, October 26 at 1 p.m.

Author: Robert Greer
Title: Blackbird Farewell
Event Time: Thursday, October 30 at 7 p.m.

**************************************
Mystery Company
Carmel, IN 

Author:  Mary Saums
Title: Thistle & Twigg series
Event Time: Wednesday, October 1, 5:30 p.m.

Author: Phil Dunlap
Title:  Saving Mattie
Event Time: Saturday, October 4, 2 p.m.

Author: Michael Z. Lewin
Title:  Oh Joe
Event Time: Tuesday, October 21, 7 p.m.

Authors: Sean Chercover / Marcus Sakey
Title:   Trigger City / At the City's Edge
Event Time: Thursday, October 23, 7 p.m.

**************************************
Mystery Lovers Bookshop
Oakmond, PA

Author: David Liss 
Title: The Whiskey Rebels
Event Time:  Saturday, October 18, 10 a.m., coffee and crime breakfast

Author: Robert Greer 
Title: Blackbird Farewell
Event Time:  Saturday, October 25, 10 a.m., Coffee & Crime breakfast

Authors:  Halloween Author Fest with Donna Andrews, Cordelia Biddle, Ellen Crosby and Marcia Talley
Title: Six Geese a Slaying / Deception's Daughter / The Bordeaux Betrayal / Dead Man Dancing
Event Time:  Friday, October 31, at 6 p.m.

**************************************
Mystery Loves Company
Baltimore and Oxford, MD

Author: Ann Cleeves
Title: White Nights
Event Time:  Tuesday, October 7, 6:30 pm at the Enoch Pratt Free Library

Authors: Marcia Talley, Kate Charles, Debora Crombie
Title: Dead Man Dancing / Secret Sins / Where Memories Die
Event Time:  Monday, October 13, at 6 p.m.

Author: Susan Marmo
Title: For the Rest of My Life
Event Time: Saturday October 25, 1pm at the Oxford Store

**************************************
Mystery One
Miwaukee, WI

Author: Dennis Lehane
Title: The Given Day
Event Time:  Wednesday, October 1 at 7 p.m.

**************************************
Once Upon a Crime Books
Minneapolis, MN

Author: Alex Kava
Title: Exposed
Event Time: Thursday, October 9th, 7 p.m. 

Authors: Larry Millett with William Swanson
Title:  Murder Has a Public Face
Event Time:  Thursday, October 23, 7 p.m. launch party

Author:  Vince Flynn
Title: Extreme Measures
Event Time: Wednesday, October 29th at 6:30 p.m.

**************************************
Partners & Crime
Greenwich, NY

Author: Michael Genelin
Title: Siren of the Waters
Event time: Monday, October 6, at 7 p.m.

Author: Lori Andrews 
Title:  Immunity
Event Time:  Tuesday, October 7, at 7 p.m.

Author:  Sean Chercover /  Zoe Sharp
Title: Trigger City / Third Strike
Event Time:   Tuesday, October 14 at 7 p.m.

Author: Lauren Henderson 
Title: Kiss Me Kill Me 
Event Time:  Wednesday, October 15 at 7 p.m.

Author: Joshua Corin 
Title: Nuclear Winter Wonderland
Event time: Saturday, October 18 at 7 p.m.

***********************************
Poisoned Pen
Scottsdale, AZ

Author: Archer Mayor 
Title:   Signing The Catch
Event Time:  Wednesday, October 1, at 7 p.m.

Author: David Liss 
Title:  Whiskey Rebels
Event Time: Thursday, October 2, at 7 p.m.

Author: Dennis Lehane 
Title: The Given Day
Event Time:  Friday, October 3, at 7 p.m.

Author: Tess Gerritsen 
Title: The Keepsake
Event Time: Saturday, October 4, at 6 p.m.

Author: Michael Connelly
Title: The Brass Verdict
Event Time: Wednesday, October 15, at 12 noon

Author: Michael Genelin 
Title:  Siren of the Water
Event Time: Saturday, October 18, at 1 p.m.

Authors: Aimée and David Thurlo
Title: Coyote's Wife
Event Time: Saturday, October 18, at 2 p.m.

Author: Alex Kava
Title:  Exposed
Event Time: Sunday, October 26, at 1 p.m.

Author: Katherine Neville 
Title:  The Fire
Event Time: Sunday, October 26, at 1 p.m.

Author: Eric Stone 
Title: Flight of the Hornbill
Event Time: Monday, October 27, at 7 p.m.

Author: Clare O'Donohue 
Title: The Lover's Knot
Event Time: Tuesday, October 28, at 7 p.m.

**************************************
Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Seattle, WA

Author: Tess Gerritsen 
Title: The Keepsake
Event Time: Wednesday, October 1, noon

Author:  Michael Schein
Title: Just Deceits
Event Time: Saturday, October 4, at noon 

Author: Ian Rankin  
Title: Exit Music
Event Time: Monday, October 6, noon

Author:  Jewell Parker Rhodes
Title: Yellow Moon 
Event Time: Tuesday, October 7, noon

Author: Dennis Lehane 
Title: The Given Day
Event Time: Wednesday, October 8 drop-by signing

Author: Rosemary Poole-Carter 
Title: Women of Magdalene
Event Time: Saturday, October 11, noon

Author: Clare Langley-Hawthorne
Title: The Serpent and the Scorpion
Event Time: Wednesday, October 15, noon 

Author:   Alan Jacobson
Title: The 7th Victim 
Event Time: Friday, October 17, noon

Author:  S. J. Robinson
Title: The Price of Death
Event Time: Saturday, October 18, noon

**************************************
Sleuth of Baker Street
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Author: Linwood Barclay
Title: Too Close to Home
Event Time:  Thursday, October 2, 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Authors: John McFetridge / Declan Burke
Title: Everybody Knows This is Nowhere / Big O
Event Time:  Sunday, October 5, 1 p.m.

Author: Peter Robinson
Title: All The Colours of Darkness
Event Time: Tuesday, October. 21 at 6 p.m., off-site

Author: Elena Forbes
Title: Our Lady of Pain
Event Time: Wednesday, October 29, 5-6 p.m.

Authors: Mark Billinghan / Louise Penny
Title: In The Dark / Murder Stone
Event Time: Wednesday, October 29, 6 p.m.

*************************************
Vrooman's
Pasadena, CA

Author: Michael Connelly
Title: The Brass Verdict
Event Time: Tuesday, October 14, 7 p.m.

Author: James Swain
Title:  The Night Stalker
Event Time:  Monday, October 27, 7 p.m.

***********************************

END

New Mystery & Crime Fiction Novels Coming in October

It's time once again for new releases, which this month include works by the likes of Donna Andrews, Ken Bruen, Michael Connelly, Marcia Muller, and many more. Here's a partial representative listing, arranged alphabetically by author (and check out the links at the bottom for more, as they're too numerous to list here):

Donna Andrews: Six Geese A-Slaying (October 28, 2008). This tenth book in the Meg Langslow series finds the local curmudgeon, whose beard and belly made him a natural for the role of Santa, mysteriously murdered. Now Meg and Chief Burke, who is playing one of the wise men, are faced with the two-fold mission of solving the murder and saving Christmas.

Michael Bowen: Shoot the Lawyer Twice (October 10, 2008). In the fourth Rep and Melissa Pennyworth novel, a frat boy finds himself on trial for piracy on the high seas, and Lawyer Rep Pennyworth suspects he’s being used as an unwitting accomplice in a cheap publicity stunt. Meanwhile his wife Melissa gets caught in the middle of a verbal firefight between two colleagues at a literary conference that soon escalates into burglary, theft, jury-tampering, forgery of an explosive papal document from World War II and murder.

James Brownley: The Sins of the Children (October 1, 2008). The second featuring British journalist Alison Glasby has police corruption, prostitution and anti-Semitism all coming into play as Alison tries to make a story out of an eccentric man's cryptic claims, all the while attempting to reconcile with her police officer ex-boyfriend and get into the good graces of her patronizing editor.

Ken Bruen:  Once Were Cops (October 28, 2008). In this standalone, Michael O'Shea is a member of Ireland's police force, known as The Guards, but he's also a sociopathm. When an exchange program is initiated, Shay has his lifelong dream come true by becoming a member member of the NYPD. But Shay's dream is about to become New York's nightmare.

Sean Chercover: Trigger City (October 14, 2008). Still suffering the physical and emotional consequences of going up against the Chicago Outfit, PI Ray Dudgeon needs an easy gig. A routine investigation of an open-and-shut case sounds perfect, but what begins as routine soon spirals out of control as Ray finds himself caught in a war between private contractors and the darkest sectors of our own government--a war that stretches from the closed-door hearings of Congress to the frontlines of Iraq.

Barbara Cleverly: Bright Hair About the Bone (October 28, 2008). In the 3rd Laetitia Talbot Mystery, amateur sleuth Talbot is plunged into international intrigue after her godfather is stabbed to death in Burgundy in 1926, but before dying, he managed to mail a coded postcard to Talbot, using a cipher the two had shared when she was much younger.

Michael Connelly: The Brass Verdict (October 14, 2008). Things are looking up for attorney Mickey Haller (from Connelly's book The Lincoln Lawyer). When Hollywood lawyer Jerry Vincent is murdered, Haller inherits his biggest case yet: the defense of Walter Elliott, a prominent studio exec accused of murdering his wife and her lover. But as Haller prepares for the case that could launch him into the big time, he learns that Vincent's killer may be coming for him next. Enter Harry Bosch. Determined to find Vincent's killer, he is not opposed to using Haller as bait, but as danger mounts and the stakes rise, these two loners realize their only choice is to work together.

Vince Flynn: Extreme Measures (October 21, 2008). In the 9th book in this series, counterterrorism operative Mitch Rapp and his protege, Mike Nash, may have met their match. The CIA has detected and intercepted two terrorist cells, but a third is feared to be on the loose. Led by a dangerous mastermind obsessed with becoming the leader of al-Qaeda, this determined and terrifying group is about to descend on America.

Christopher Fowler: The Victoria Vanishes (October 28, 2008). Bryant and May (6th) A lonely hearts killer is targeting middle-aged women in popular pubs, and with the public on the verge of panic and their superiors determined to shut the Peculiar Crimes Unit down for good, Detectives Bryant and May must rise to the occasion.

Robert Greer: Blackbird, Farewell (October 14, 2008). In the seventh CJ Floyd installment, a basketball superstar is found murdered, and teammate Damion Madrid sets out to find the killer. Damion is well meaning but naïve; luckily his godfather is gumshoe CJ Floyd. Floyd and his partner, Flora Jean Benson, are there to watch his back as Damion stumbles down a shadowy trail that leads to Shandell’s purported peddling of steroids and big-game point shaving.

Michael Jecks: The Prophecy of Death (October 1, 2008) This is the twenty-fifth Medieval West Country/Knights of Templar book in the series, set in 1325 England and centering on a prophecy and deadly court intrigue.

Alex Kava: Exposed (October 1, 2008) In the sixth Maggie O'Dell book, Agent Maggie O'Dell and Assistant Director Cunningham believe they're responding to a threat made at Quantico. Instead they walk into a trap. Before they realize it, they've both been exposed to a killer who can strike at anyone, at any time, and no one can predict who might be next--until it's too late.

Jonathan Kellerman: Bones (October 21, 2008). When a young woman’s body turns up in L.A.’s Bird Marsh preserve and  the bones of more victims surface, homicide detective Milo Sturgis realizes the city’s under siege to an insidious killer. Milo’s first move: calling in psychologist Alex Delaware.

John Lamb: The Clockwork Teddy (October 7, 2008).  When Brad and Ashleigh Lyon re-visit San Francisco, a cutting-edge robot teddy bear is found at a murder scene. Now the bear-making couple must try their crafty hands at fur-ensics.

Ward Larsen: Stealing Trinity (October 7, 2008). After the test of the world's first atomic bomb in Los Alamos, four people - a tenacious British investigator, a determined young woman, a killer, and the spy who could compromise America's greatest scientific endeavor - will have a fateful rendezvous, all vying for control of the secret that will shape the world.

Laura Lippman: Hardly Knew Her: Stories (October 7, 2008). An anthology of short stories by the award-winning author.

Mary Logue: Point No Point (October 15, 2008). In the seventh book in the series, Deputy Sheriff Claire Watkins is faced with a difficult case when a friend of the family is suspected of killing his wife. Her investigation puts a great stress on her relationship with her husband. Things are further strained when the suspect attempts suicide, solidifying his guilt in Claire's mind. But what if she's wrong?

Stuart MacBride: Flesh House (October 14, 2008). The fourth installment of this series, Detective Sgt. Logan McRae is on the trail of a serial killer in Aberdeen, Scotland. When human remains are discovered first in a shipping container and later in a local butcher shop, McRae's superiors send him to round up Kenneth Wiseman (aka the Flesher), who terrorized the city 20 years earlier but was released on a technicality.

Walter Mosley: The Right Mistake (October 6, 2008). The third book by Mosley featuring ex-convict Socrates Fortlow has hot-blooded gangsters and respectable deacons fight over issues of personal and social responsibility.

Marcia Muller: Burn Out (October 27, 2008). Depressed, bored and uncertain about her future in a dangerous business, PI Sharon McCone is unwittingly drawn into a local case--the murder of Hayley Perez and the disappearance of Hayley's teenage sister, Amy, and their alcoholic mother, Miri.

Katherine Neville: The Fire (October 14, 2008). In this standalone novel, Alexandra Solarin, child chess prodigy now grown, finds herself immersed in the Game, searching for a legendary chess set, the Montglane Service, which when assembled spells out the formula for the secret of immortality.

Robert B. Parker: Rough Weather (October 21, 2008). In Spenser's 36th outing, a hurricane hinders a kidnapping and Spenser goes on a search for the man responsiblea the infamous Gray Man, who has both helped and hunted Spenser in the past.

Anne Perry: A Christmas Grace (a novellea) (October 28, 2008). With Christmas just around the corner, Thomas Pitt’s sister-in-law, Emily Radley, is suddenly called from London to be with her dying aunt. Leaving her husband and two children behind, Emily makes the long journey to an all-but-forgotten town in the county of Connemara, on the western coast of Ireland. She soon discovers that a tragic legacy haunts the once closeknit community.

Fran Rizer: Casket Case (October 7, 2008). Callie Parrish Mysteries, No. 3. When the town’s beloved pharmacist is found floating face-down in his hot tub, Callie suspects foul play. 

Betty Rowlands: Smokescreen (October 1, 2008). In the ninth Sukey Reynolds offering, a wealthy bestselling author is drowned in her bath just days after being threatened by a disturbed fan who has subsequently disappeared. The missing woman is the obvious suspect and DC Sukey Reynolds and her friend and colleague DC Vicky Armstrong are given the task of finding her. But when the suspect is found it is just the start of the investigation as the apparently straightforward case becomes more complicated.

Zoe Sharp: Third Strike (October 14, 2008) Charlie Fox (7th). The last person that professional bodyguard, Charlotte "Charlie" Fox, ever expected to self-destruct was her own father, an eminent surgeon. But when Charlie unexpectedly sees him admitting to gross professional misconduct on a New York news program, she can’t just stand by and watch his downfall.

J.B. Stanley: Stiffs and Swine: A Supper Club Mystery (October 1, 2008). When the supper club members are invited to be guest judges at a regional barbecue contest, they accept the invitation faster than you can say "hog heaven." But the barbecue festival's family-oriented, finger-licking fun turns sour when a contestant is found dead.

Eric Stone: Flight of the Hornbill (October 15, 2008). In the third book in this series, Gold, a lot of it, has been discovered in the oil rich tropics of Sumatra. Or has it? From an American suburb incongruously set into a jungle clearing, to the sleazy bars of Jakarta; from a neighborhood floating on a river, to the dense, steaming rainforest; corporate investigator Ray Sharp's job is to ferret out the truth.

For more of the new hardcover, trade paperback, and paperback releases (as well as reissues), check out the following sites from The Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, Books N Bytes, San Diego's Mystery Books, and Powells Books.

News From the World of Crime

More and more, law officers are turning to GPS technology as an aid to helping combat crime, although they can be a bit cagey about how they use it: "We don't really want to give any info on how we use it as an investigative tool to help the bad guys," said Officer Shelley Broderick, a Fairfax, Virginia, police spokeswoman. As a recent Washington Post article pointed out,

Privacy advocates said tracking suspects electronically constitutes illegal search and seizure, violating Fourth Amendment rights of protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, and is another step toward George Orwell's Big Brother society. Law enforcement officials, when they discuss the issue at all, said GPS is essentially the same as having an officer trail someone, just cheaper and more accurate. Most of the time, as was done in the Foltz case [in which a GPS unit was placed on a suspect's Jaguar], judges have sided with police.

A new tool in forensic science is a breakthrough by scientists in Texas that can provide gunshot residue analysis on a single gunpowder particle. As Garrett Lee Burleson explained at a national meeting of the American Chemical Society,

"Gunshot residue tests are done in almost every case where a shooting has taken place. The main focus of our research is to develop a method that will help credibility of gunshot residue evidence in court. You can get results with this test in 30 to 40 minutes with the new test. In addition you only need small amounts of evidence to run the test."

Burleson added that a recent trend toward lead-free ammunition has decreased reliability of gun shot residue analysis and created the need for smarter tests to identify more diverse components of residue in gunpowder.

Speaking of guns, tiny tags, just 30 microns in diameter and invisible to the naked eye, have been designed to be coated onto gun cartridges. They then attach themselves to the hands or gloves of anyone handling the cartridge and are very difficult to wash off completely. Some of these "nanotags" also remain on the cartridge even after it has been fired. This should make it possible to establish a "robust forensic link" between a cartridge fired during a crime and whoever handled it. The technology could be available for use within as little as 12 months.

A very real crime may have been the inspiration for the original Superman. The UK's Daily Mail Online wrote that the brutal killing of immigrant Mitchell Siegel at the hands of a gang who robbed his clothes shop in Cleveland, Ohio, is what was spurred his son, Jerry Siegel (along with Joe Schuster)  to create the famous comic book icon. As the article pointes out, faced with the brutal death of his father at the hands of a bunch of thugs, the young man's sadness and anger inspired him to create a superhuman crimefighter who was impervious to bullets and who had himself lost his father. "Think about it," says thriller writer Brad Meltzer. "Your father dies in a robbery, and you invent a bulletproof man who becomes the world's greatest hero."

Now for a little bit of "woo woo": police in New Zealand interviewed two TV psychics earlier this month in hopes of obtaining a lead in the disappearance of a woman back in 2005. Prominent defence lawyer John Billington said he doubted that a psychic's evidence would be admissible in court.

Media Murder

Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings) has been added to the cast in a new series of TV crime thrillers to be shown on Channel 4 in the UK. The three-part series is an adaptation of David Peace's trilogy of novels set in Yorkshire.

HBO is going to adapt two thrillers by author James Ellroy (American Tabloid and its sequel American Death Trap) into a television mini-series by the same team that created the recent multiple-Emmy winner John Adams.

CBS Paramount Network TV has optioned Hounding the Pavement, first in a series of mystery novels by Judi McCoy (it's the first volume in a three-book deal, although McCoy says she has a dozen planned).

NPR's Maureen Corrigan reviewed The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo By Stieg Larsson, calling it "a super-smart amalgam of the corporate corruption tale, legal thriller and dysfunctional-family psychological suspense story." You can read more and listen here.

Dennis Lehane was interviewed on NBC's Today Show about his latest novel The Given Day.

Going on right now through September 28 is the TCM Crime Scene Festival in the UK, with showings of thrillers, peeks at TV crime dramas, and a celebration of John Creasey, among other offerings.

CBS rolled to victory on Wednesday’s opening of the season thanks to its returning crime dramas, Criminal Minds and CSI: New York, even as its newer shows didn't fare so well.

Helen Mirren (best known to mystery fans as Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect) has been hired to play a Mossad agent in John Madden's The Debt, an English-language remake of an Israeli thriller about three Israeli Mossad agents tracking down a Nazi war criminal over 30 years.

And Simon & Schuster is following the path of HarperCollins by creating an in-house digital production studio to create multimedia content about their authors and books. They expect to produce and post more than 600 pieces of multimedia content annually.

Remembering the Victims

Today is the second National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Crime. It's intended to provide an opportunity for people to honor the memories of murder victims and to recognize the impact on surviving family members and loved ones. John Gillis, Director of the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) at the Justice Department said:

"As the father of a child lost to homicide, I know the desolation of such an indescribable loss. I also learned that when families and friends of homicide victims speak out from their hearts, and in unison, we can have a tremendous impact on public policy, criminal and juvenile justice system reform, and in how our nation views and treats those who have endured this type of devastating loss."

 

He added,

"According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, 16,929 individuals were murdered in 2007; however, this doesn't include the thousands of other homicide victims who die each year as a result of domestic violence or drunk driving, and it's important that these crime victims and their survivors also be honored today."

As fans and writers of crime fiction, it behooves us to remember that for all too many individuals, murder is a very real, tragic, and irreversible reality. 

Ian Ranks With the Best

Yesterday I posted about some of the articles and tributes pouring in for recent birthday-girl PD James, a sprightly young 88. Ian Rankin is only about half that age, but his Inspector Rebus novels have already been around for a couple of decades. Just as James has allegedly written her valedictory Inspector Dalgliesh novel, Rankin has allegedy written his valedictory Inspector Rebus novel, Exit Music. Of course, you can never "say never" as long as authors are still alive (and sometimes afterward, thanks to estates bringing on ringers aboard). The publication of Rankin's Exit Music and his upcoming Doors Open has occasioned articles to match those of James's, including recent bits in The New York Times, The Independent, The Yorkshire Evening Post, and the Manchester Evening News, among others.

Janet Maslin of the Times wondered if Rebus is over the hill, but hopes he's not quite done yet and adds, "Just for the record, Mr. Rankin’s August online newsletter says of Rebus that 'there’s no way he’s going gentle into that dark retirement,' adding, 'and I still like to spend time with him.' So Exit Music, which culminates in a startling cliffhanger, should be read more as a bookend to the series than a calamity for the world of crime fiction."

The Independent chimed in, wondering is Rebus will haunt his maker as Sherlock Holmes did in an earlier Edinburgh bestseller, to which Rankin replied, "I don't think there's anything I can do about it, so I'll wait to see what happens. So far, so good. The next couple of years will be crucial, because it's going to depend on readers liking the non-Rebus stuff I produce."  (So, if you want Rebus back, don't buy Rankin's other books, perhaps?)

Fortunately he didn't follow through on his original idea which he imparted to the Manchester Evening News, "I did toy with the idea of killing him off but I was too fond of him and I'd already made a television documentary about the Reichenbach Falls with a friend of mine, James Mavor."

For the moment, Rankin is happy with his life and career and with Doors Open, which began as a screenplay, but when asked by the New York Times to write a serialized story for their Sunday magazine, he decided to take his "Ocean's Eleven" art-heist film project and adapt it. Then his publisher asked him to spin it into a full-length novel, and he couldn't resist, although "It just naturally grew darker—maybe that's just me; maybe I just couldn't sustain it as a light novel." It will probably do well, as have his other books, but you certainly could understand if a few Rebus fans might be pulling against it.

Happy Punctuation Day!

Yes folks: it's time for National Punctuation Day, that lovely day—yes, there's an actual day—in which we can celebrate the joys of "being grammar nerds" (the very best kind of nerd?) ... but then again it certainly beats National One-Hit Wonder Day or National Humiliation Day! In case you want to celebrate in style, you can make your very own semicolon meatloaf.

Or you might check out Victor Borge's classic take on the wonderful world of punctuation, found here.

Dame of the Decades

It is often true that as an entertainer, writer, or other celebrity figure reaches senior birthday landmarks, the attention, accolades, and retrospectives start pouring out of the woodwork. Sometimes it's more a matter of sentimentality and a nod toward the individual's sheer staying power in an ever-changing cultural landscape, but often it's deserved.

Such is the case with writer PD James, who celebrated her 88th birthday in August, has a new Adam Dalgliesh novel out, The Private Patient, and has been the subject of several interviews and articles lately, including the Times Online, BBC Radio, the Vancouver Sun, and the CBC News. In them it's said "The detective novels of P.D. James are a window on our times," and "In the eyes of many admirers [she's] the world's finest living crime novelist," and there are probably truths in both statements.

She didn't begin writing until she was in her 40s and now she has 40 years of Dalgliesh behind her. And it's those 40 years of writing that led the Times Online to make the statement about James's novels being a mirror of changes through those decades,

"In negotiating his way through the pathways of human destructiveness, Dalgliesh is also a guide to our times. Lady James is a perceptive chronicler of the changing landscape of London; the flux of urban development and the housing market; the corrosive culture of sink estates; the ruthless politics of the professions; and even the use of the internet for hedonistic purposes."

When asked what it's been like to have Adam Dalgliesh in her life for so long, she replied,

"When I began, I didn’t know he’d be a serial character, and of course there’s the challenge of having readers suspend their disbelief. He hasn’t aged that much over 40 years and each novel is set in the time of its writing. But I did try to create a character that was someone I’d really like. I gave Dalgliesh the qualities I admire in both men and women: he’s good-looking, highly intelligent, compassionate but not sentimental, and reserved. It was important too that he was a character who could develop. I never wanted to know him too well. I think Agatha Christie got rather fed up with Hercule Poirot at the end, because she had made him both too old and just too bizarre."

As to what the future holds? She's working on a history of crime fiction in conjunction with Oxford's Bodleian Library, for one. But will there be another Dalgliesh novel?

"I really don't know. There's something almost valedictory about this one, isn't there? So it depends on an idea coming that is so strong I feel compelled to write another one. But I think this new one has set a rather high standard. I won't want to go on if I can't maintain that standard."

Good Tippers

In these days of rising costs and financial funk, writers are having to take a harder look at the bottom line, which often means cutting out trips to conferences, especially far-flung ones like the Maui Writers Conference earlier this month. In case you did miss it, Lee Pletzers has kindly listed the "10 Basic Ingredients of a Successful Thriller," which author Gary Braver (Flashback, Gray Matter) discussed at the conference. A lot of these are similar to what other writers in other crime fiction genres will tell you, but they're important enough to reiterate, especially #1, which really is number one, "You need to have a good story."

Another thriller writer at the same conference, Steve Berry (The Venetian Betrayal, The Templar Legacy), had a different take on the craft with his "8 Rules of Writing." The first is the both the most frustrating and the most liberating, "There are no rules. You can do anything you want as long as it works." The problem, of course, is learning how to write "what works," and realizing that the definition of that concept can vary from one reader, one agent, one editor, and one publisher to another.

A third thriller writer, Patrick Lennon (Steel Witches, Corn Dolls), was one of the many authors appearing at the first ever Reading (UK) Festival of Crime Writing last week. You can both listen to and read some of his writing tips on the BBC's web site.

Writer's Digest is also helping out with its Writers Sessions On Demand. They've collected instructional sessions, workshops, panel discussions and interviews from ThrillerFest and the Maui Writers Conference (coming soon). They're not free, as you have to purchase the streaming videos individually or in a bundle, but it's still much less expensive than what it would cost to attend the conference (especially factoring in airfare, hotel, food, etc.).

Ultimately, nothing can replace the face-to-face contacts a writer makes at a conference, but it's nice to know there are a few options to help out while you're waiting for that winning lottery ticket.

DC Noir 2

As part of its "city noir" series, Akashic books recently released DC Noir 2: The Classics, edited by George Pelecanos. Three authors of stories included in that anthology will be giving readings at the Maryland Writers Center in Bethesda (just outside DC) tomorrow at 2pm. You can hear Richard Currey (author of the novels Fatal Light and The Wars of Heaven), James Grady (Six Days of the Condor, Mad Dogs) and Roach Brown ("Christmas in Prison").

That should whet your appetite for the AFI Silver Theater's Noir City DC Film Festival, October 17 - November 5, featuring films such as Strangers on a Train, Sunset Boulevard, and Double Indemnity, among others. The festival is produced by Eddie Muller and the Film Noir Foundation, which already has events in San Francisco's Castro Theatre and Los Angeles's Egyptian Theatre, but this is first East Coast venue.

The DC Express newspaper asked DC Noir 2 contributors George Pelecanos, Elizabeth Hand, James Grady, and Marita Golden for their favorite noir films and characters and the definition of noir, to which Pelecanos replied, "It's often mistakenly defined by its visual signposts: Venetian blind shadows, cigarette smoke, etc. But it's actually about the feeling conveyed through watching the film. As one writer put it, the idea that "nothing is going to be all right, ever."