In Reference to Murder

June Book Signing Roundup

Here's the latest monthly roundup of author booksigning events at mystery book stores around the U.S. and Canada (for dates at chain stores and other venues, check out booktour.com and similar sites).

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Aunt Agatha's
Ann Arbor, MI

Author:  Michael Stanley
Title:  A Carrion Death
Event Time:  Monday, June 15 at 7 p.m

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Book Carnival
Orange, CA

Author:  Jeffrey Deaver
Title:  Roadside Crosses
Event Time:  Thursday, June 11, 2009, 6:00 p.m.

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Book Passage
Corte Madera, CA

Author:  Lee Child 
Title: Gone Tomorrow
Event Time:  Sat, Jun 06, 2009, 7:00 PM

Author:  Seth Harwood
Title:  Jack Wakes Up
Event Time:  Sun, Jun 28, 2009, 7:00 PM

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Booked for Murder
Madison, WI

Author:  Craig Johnson
Title:  Dark Horse
Event Time: Sunday, June 7, 2 p.m.

Author:  Larry Karp
Title: The King of Ragtime 
Event Time: Wednesday, June 10, 6 p.m.

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Centuries and Sleuths
Forest Park, IL

Author: Michael Stanley
Title:  The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu
Event Time:  Friday, June 12, 2009 7:00 p.m.

Author:  Amy Alessi, et al.
Title:  Missing: A Collection of Short Story Mysteries about Lost Persons & Pets
Event Time:  Saturday, June 20, 2009 11:00 a.m.

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Clayton Books
Clayton, CA

Author:  Cara Black
Title:  Murder in the Latin Quarter
Event Time:   Tuesday, June 30 at 7pm

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M is for Mystery
San Mateo, CA

Author:  Lee Child
Title:  Gone Tomorrow
Event Time:   Saturday, June 6, drop-by

Author:  Jeffery Deaver
Title:  Roadside Crosses
Event Time: Wednesday, June 10 at 3:00 p.m. 

Author:  Luis Alberto Urrea
Title:  Into the Beautiful North
Event Time: Wednesday, June 10, drop-by 

Author: Gillian Flynn
Title:  Dark Places
Event Time: Thursday, June 11 at 7:00 p.m.

Author:  Carlos Ruis Zafon
Title: The Angel’s Game
Event Time:  Monday, June 15, drop-by

Author: Stefanie Pintoff
Title:  In the Shadow of Gotham
Event Time: Monday, June 22, at 7:00 p.m.

Authors:  Tim Maleeny / Eric Stone
Title:   Jump / Shanghaied
Event Time:  Tuesday, June 23 at 7:00 p.m.

Author: Linda K. Baden and Michael Baden
Title:  Skeleton Justice
Event Time: Wednesday, June 24 at 7:00 p.m.

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Murder By the Book
Houston, TX

Author:  Alan Bradley
Title:  The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Event Time: Monday, June 1, 6:30 p.m.

Author:  Craig Johnson
Title:   The Dark Horse
Event Time:  Wednesday, June 3, 1:00 p.m.

Authors: Kathleen Kaska / Donn Taylor 
Title:  Murder at the Arlington /  Rhapsody in Red
Event Time:  Saturday, June 6, 4:30 p.m.

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Murder on the Beach
Delray Beach, FL

Authors: Sean Doolittle / Anthony Neil Smith
Title: Safer  / Hogdoggin'
Event Time: Monday, June 8, 6:30 p.m.

Author:  Robert Tanenbaum
Title:  Capture
Event Time:  Tuesday, June 9, 6:30 p.m.

Author: Tim Maleeny
Title:  Jump
Event Time:  Thursday, June 11, 6:30 p.m.

Author: James Reasoner / Livia Washburn
Title:  Hunt at the Well of Eternity / A Peach of a Murder
Event Time:  Saturday, June 13, 4:30 p.m.

Author: Jeffery Deaver
Title:  Roadside Crosses
Event Time:  Monday, June 15, 6:30 p.m.

Author:  Michael Stanley
Title: The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu
Event Time:  Wednesday, June 17, 6:30 p.m.

Author:  C. J. Box
Title: Below Zero 
Event Time:  Thursday, June 18, 6:30 p.m. 

Author:  Tera Lynn Childs
Title:  Goddess Boot Camp
Event Time:  Saturday, June 20, 4:30 p.m.

Author:  Michael Baden (& maybe Linda Kenney Baden)
Title:  Skeleton Justice
Event Time:   Monday, June 22, 6:30 p.m.

Author:  Mark Schweizer
Title:   The Diva Wore Diamonds
Event Time:  Tuesday, June 23, 6:30 p.m. 

Author:  Jilliane Hoffman
Title: Plea of Insanity 
Event Time:  Thursday, June 25, 6:30 p.m.

Author: Jamie Freveletti
Title: Running from the Devil
Event Time: Friday, June 26, 6:30 p.m.

Author: Seth Harwood
Title:  Jack Wakes Up
Event Time:  Saturday, June 27, 4:30 p.m.

Author:  Sara Rosett
Title:  Magnolias, Moonlight and Murder
Event Time: Monday, June 29, 6:30 p.m.

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Mysteries to Die For
Thousand Oaks, CA

Authors:  Lee Child / Andrew Grant
Title: Gone Tomorrow /  Even
Event Time:  Thursday, June 4, 1:00 p.m.

Author:  Jeffery Deaver
Title: Roadside Crosses
Event Time: Thursday, June 11, Morning

Author:  Craig Johnson
Title: The Dark Horse
Event Time:  Thursday, June 11, 2:00 p.m. 

Author:  Michael Stanley
Title:  The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu
Event Time: Sunday, June 21, 1:00 p.m. 

Author:  Michael Baden and Linda Kenney Baden
Title:  Skeleton Justice
Event Time:  Thursday, June 25, 1:00 p.m.

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Mysterious Galaxy
San Diego, CA

Authors: Lee Child / Andrew Grant
Title:  Gone Tomorrow / Even
Event Time:  Friday, June 5, 2009 7:00 p.m. 

Author:  Gillian Flynn
Title:  Dark Places
Event Time:  Monday, June 8, 2009 7:00 p.m.

Author:  China Mieville
Title: The City & The City
Event Time: Tuesday, June 9, 2009 7:00 p.m.

Author:  Jeffery Deaver
Title:  Roadside Crosses
Event Time:  Friday, June 12, 2009 7:00 p.m.

Author:  Alexandra Sokoloff
Title: The Unseen
Event Time:  Tuesday, June 16, 2009 7:00 p.m.

Author: Michael Stanley 
Title:  The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu 
Event Time:  Friday, June 19, 2009 7:00 p.m.

Author:  Gregg Hurwitz
Title:  Trust No One
Event Time: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 7:00 p.m.

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Mysterious Bookshop
New York, NY

Author:  Lisa Unger
Title: Die for You
Event Time:  Tuesday, June 2nd, at 6 p.m.

Author: Seth Harwood
Title:  Jack Wakes Up
Event Time:  Thursday, June 4th, at 6:30

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Mystery Bookstore
Los Angeles, CA

Author: Lee Child
Title:  Gone Tomorrow
Event Time:  Wednesday, June 3 at 12:00 noon

Author:  Andrew Grant
Title:  Even
Event Time:  Thursday, June 4 at 7:00 p.m.

Author:  Tim Maleeny
Title: Jump
Event Time:  Saturday, June 6 at 1:00 p.m.

Author: Laura Levine
Title:  Killer Cruise
Event Time:  Saturday, June 6, 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Launch Party

Author: Gillian Flynn
Title:  Dark Places
Event Time:  Tuesday, June 9 at 7:00 p.m.

Author: Jeffery Deaver
Title:  Roadside Crosses
Event Time:  Thursday, June 11 at 12:00 noon

Author: Craig Johnson
Title:  The Dark Horse
Event Time:  Thursday, June 11 at 7:00 p.m.

Author:  Eva Batonne
Title: Resurrection Diva
Event Time: Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m.

Author: Michael Stanley
Title:  The Second Death of Good Luck Tinubu
Event Time:  Saturday, June 20 at 1:00 p.m.

Author: Eric Stone 
Title:  Shanghaied
Event Time:  Saturday, June 20 at 3:00 p.m. Launch Party

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Mystery Lovers Bookshop
Oakmond, PA

Author:  Craig Johnson
Title:   Dark Horse
Event Time: Monday June 8, 2009, 6:30 p.m. 

Authors:  Kathryn Miller Haines / Kathleen George
Title: Winter in June / The Odds 
Event Time: Friday, June 12, 2009, 7 p.m.

Author:  Michael Baden and Linda Kenney Baden
Title: Skeleton Justice
Event Time:  Saturday, June 27, 2009, 10 a.m.

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Mystery One
Miwaukee, WI

Author:  Michael Stanley
Title: The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu   
Event Time: Saturday, June 13 at 11AM

Author: C.J. Box
Title:  Below Zero
Event Time:  Wednesday, June 24, at 7PM

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Once Upon a Crime Books
Minneapolis, MN

Author: Michael Stanley 
Title: The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu
Event Time:  Tuesday, June 2 at 7 p.m.

Author:  Craig Johnson 
Title:  Dark Horse: A Walt Longmire Mystery
Event Time:  Friday, June 5, at 7 p.m.

Author:  C. J. Box 
Title:  Below Zero
Event Time:  Monday, June 22 at 7 p.m.

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Partners & Crime
Greenwich, NY

Author:  Andie Ryan 
Title: Shakedown 
Event Time:  Monday, June 1, 2009 at 7:00pm

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Poisoned Pen
Scottsdale, AZ

Author: Robert J. Tanenbaum
Title:  Capture
Event Time: June 02, 2009 at 07:00 pm 

Author: Alan Bradley
Title: Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Event Time: June 03, 2009 at 07:00 pm 

Author:  Michael Connelly
Title:  Scarecrow
Event Time: June 04, 2009 at 07:00 pm 

Author: Frederick Ramsey
Title:  Choker
Event:  June 09, 2009 at 07:00 pm

Author:  Jack Ballentine
Title:  Murder for Hire
Event Time:  June 09, 2009 at 07:00 pm

Author: Craig Johnson
Title: Dark Horse
Event Time:  June 10, 2009 at 07:00 pm

Author:  Andie Ryan
Title: Shakedown
Event Time:  June 11, 2009 at 07:00 pm

Author:  C.J. Box
Title:  Below Zero
Event Time: June 16, 2009 at 07:00 pm

Author:  Jeffery Deaver
Title: Roadside Crosses
Event Time:  June 17, 2009 at 07:00 pm

Author: Michael Baden 
Title: Skeleton Justice
Event Time:  June 23, 2009 at 07:00 pm

Author:  Steve Martini
Title:  Guardian of Lies
Event Time:  June 24, 2009 at 07:00 pm

Author: Seth Harwood
Title: Jack Wakes Up
Event Time: June 25, 2009 at 07:00 pm

Author: Brent Ghelfi
Title:  Volk's Shadow
Event Time: June 27, 2009 at 06:00 pm  

Author:  Clive Cussler
Title:  Medusa
Event Time:  June 27, 2009 at 06:00 pm

Author: James Rollins
Title:  Doomsday Key
Event Time:  Junen 27, 2009 at 06:00 pm, in a program hosted by Brent Ghelfi

Author:  Lisa See
Title: Shanghai Girls
Event Time:  June 28, 2009 at 02:00 pm

Author:  Jilliane Hoffman
Title:  Plea of Insanity
Event Time: June 29, 2009 at 07:00 pm

Author:  Eric Stone
Title: Shanghaied
Event Time:  June 30, 2009 at 07:00 pm

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Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Seattle, WA

Author:   Diane Wei Liang 
Title:  Paper Butterfly
Event Time:    Sun, June 7, 12:15

Author: Jeffery Deaver
Title:  Roadside Crosses
Event Time:   Mon, June 8, 10am

Author: Michael Connelly     
Title: The Scarecrow
Event Time:  Mon, June 8, noon

Author:  Lee Child / Andrew Grant
Title:  Gone Tomorrow / Even
Event Time:  Tue, June 9, noon

Author:  Tim Maleeny
Title:  Jump
Event Time:   Sat, June 13, noon

Author: Gillian Flynn 
Title:  Dark Places
Event Time:   Tue, June 16, noon

Author:  Craig Johnson
Title: The Dark Horse
Event Time:  Wed, June 17, noon

Author: Philip Margolin
Title: The Fugitive
Event Time:  Thurs, June 18, noon

Author:  Adria Lang 
Title: For the Sake of the Vine
Event Time:   Sat, June 20, noo

Author:  Jamie Freveletti
Title: Running from the Devil
Event Time:  Mon, June 22, noon

Author:  Mary Daheim
Title:  Loco Motive
Event Time:   Tues, June 23, noon

Author:  Patricia K. Batta
Title: Why Did You Die in the Park?
Event Time:Sat, June 27, 2-4pm, tea and conversation

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Uncle Edgar's Mystery Bookstore
Minneapolis, MN

Author:  David Housewright
Title:  Jelly's Gold
Event Time:   Saturday, June 13, 1-2 pm.

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Vrooman's
Pasadena, CA

Author: Lisa See
Title: Shanghai Girls
Event Time:  Tuesday, June 2, 2009 - 7:00pm

Author:  David Sundstrand 
Title: Shadows of Death 
Event Time:  Friiday, June 5, 2009 - 7:00pm

Author: Luis Urrea 
Title: Into the Beautiful North 
Event Time:  Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - 7:00pm
Location:

Author:   Attica Locke 
Title:  Black Water Rising
Event Time:   Thursday, June 11 - 7:00pm

Authors: Faye & Aliza Kellerman 
Title:  Prism
Event Time: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 - 12:00 noon

Authors:  Harley Jane Kozak, Eric Stone, Laura Levine, and Bill Fitzhugh
Title: Sisters in Crime mystery authors present a panel discussion on “Writing a Mystery Series”
Event Time: Saturday, June 27, 2009 - 2:00pm

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END

New Mystery & Crime Fiction Novels in June 2009

Here's a partial representative listing of upcoming book releases in June, arranged alphabetically by author, which this month includes new titles by C. J. Box, John Connolly, Clive Cussler, Jeffery Deaver, Janet Evanovich, Chris Grabenstein, and Declan Hughes, among many other wonderful and deserving offerings. You can also check out the links at the bottom for more, as they're too numerous to list here.

Sandra Balzo: Brewed, Crude and Tattooed (June 1, 2009). Maggy Thorsen, co-owner of the Brookhills coffee-house Uncommon Grounds, is trapped in a shopping mall by a snow storm which cuts the electricity and phone lines. She finds the body of Way Benson, a local developer and owner of the mall. Maggy's discovery unearths other refugees of the storm and it seems that more than one of these people has a motive for killing the arrogant Way. Then there is another murder.

C. J. Box: Below Zero (June 16, 2009). Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett's teenage daughter receives a text message with a staggering implication: that April, the foster daughter thought dead is still alive. If it really is April who’s texting, she’s in danger, and for Pickett, the only thing worse than losing her the first time would be losing her again.

John Connolly: The Lovers: A Thriller (June 2, 2009). Charlie Parker is a lost soul. Deprived of his private investigator's license and under scrutiny by the police, Parker takes a job in a Portland bar. But he uses his enforced retirement to begin a different kind of investigation: an examination of his own past and an inquiry into the death of his father, who took his own life after apparently shooting dead two unarmed teenagers. It's a search that will eventually lead Parker to question all that he believed about his beloved parents, and about himself.

Catherine Coulter: KnockOut (June 16, 2009). Two cases keep FBI agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock busy trying to protect their family from a brutal psychopathic teenage criminal and a psychotic paranormal family trying to bring a sweet child into their fold so they can manipulate her psychic power for nefarious purposes.

Clive Cussler: Medusa (June 2, 2009). Kurt Austin must stop a deadly virus from decimating the world in the latest NUMA Files novel. Research using a newly discovered jellyfish shows promising results, but before the tests even start, scientists studying these Blue Medusas start dying.

Jeffery Deaver: Roadside Crosses (June 9, 2009). California Bureau of Investigation agent Kathryn Dance has to track down a killer who begins to leave roadside crosses beside local highways -- not in memoriam, but as announcements of his intention to kill. And to kill in particularly horrific and efficient ways: using the personal details about the victims that they've carelessly posted in blogs and on social networking websites.

Janet Evanovich: Finger Lickin' Fifteen (June 23, 2009). In the latest Stephanie Plum novel, celebrity chef Stanley Chipotle comes to Trenton to participate in a barbecue cook-off and loses his head -- literally. Bail bonds office worker Lula, a witness to the crime, recruits bounty hunter Stephanie Plum to help her find the killers and collect the reward money.

Margaret Fenton: Little Lamb Lost (June 1, 2009). Social worker Clare Conover honestly believed she could make a difference in the world until she gets the phone call she's dreaded her entire career. One of her young clients, Michael, has been found dead and his mother, Ashley, has been arrested for his murder. Claire vows to find the truth about what really happened to Michael and what Claire finds is no shortage of suspects.

Tom Gabbay: The Tehran Conviction (June 9, 2009). The third novel in the Jack Teller series jumps back and forth in time. In 1953, Teller assists the CIA in Iran as part of Operation Ajax, designed to stage an overthrow of the government. In 1979, Teller learns that someone he hasn’t seen since his days in Tehran has been imprisoned. Feeling a sense of responsibility, he heads back to Iran to rescue a man he once considered a friend.

Chris Grabenstein: Mind Scrambler (June 23, 2009). In the latest John Ceepak mystery, ultra-straight-arrow cop Ceepak and his laid-back partner, Danny Boyle, are on leave in Atlantic City. Soon after a former girlfriend of Boyle's, the nanny for a smarmy stage magician's children, approaches Boyle for advice, she winds up dead in a bizarre s&m ritual before she can explain the problem. The local police deputize the two Sea Haven, N.J., cops as more corpses pile up.

Declan Hughes: All the Dead Voices (June 30, 2009). Ed Loy has been hired by the daughter of a murder victim in a cold case file to investigate the suspects ignored by the first investigation: a rich property developer, an ex-IRA man and Loy's own nemesis, George Halligan. But Loy has to watch his back: in the murky world into which he has fallen, he can't tell which threats come from the IRA and which from the police.

Jim Kelly: Death Wore White (June 9, 2009). Rookie detective Peter Shaw, along with his chain-smoking veteran partner, the grizzled detective sergeant George Valentine, is confronted with a baffling crime that stretches him to the breaking point.

Tim Maleeny: Jump (June 5, 2009). When Ed Lowry, San Francisco’s most despised landlord, falls to his death from the roof of one of his buildings, it is not at all hard to find suspects. The police, however, want to call it a suicide because the mayor and the press are complaining about the dismal closure rate for murder cases. Retired cop Sam McGowan, still mourning the loss of his wife to cancer, knows that it was murder. As a tenant on the top floor of the building, he also knows that he is a suspect.

Phillip Margolin: Fugitive (June 2, 2009). Oregon attorney Amanda Jaffe takes on the case of a lifetime when she is tapped to defend Charlie Marsh, aka Guru Gabriel Sun.

Randall Peffe: Bangkok Dragons, Cape Cod Tears (June 16, 2009). Lawyer Michael Decastro jets off to Bangkok when he receives an e-mail from his missing client and love interest, Tuki, the mysterious transvestite and former singer in Provincetown, Massachusetts, who fled the country just as Michael was about to get her cleared of murder and soon finds himself in a desperate race across Southeast Asia.

Maggie Sefton: Dropped Dead Stitch, A Knitting Mystery (June 2, 2009). Colorado CPA Kelly Flynn learns her friend Jennifer has been raped. It turns out that the rapist, Cal Everett, owns the ranch where a group of assault survivors, including Jennifer, have gathered for a weekend retreat. Not surprisingly, Cal ends the weekend dead. So are the logical suspects responsible?

Joanna Campbell Slan: Cut, Crop & Die: A Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-N-Craft Mystery  (June 1, 2009). Tainted icing triggers a rare allergy, and a hobbyist croaks at a scrapbooking crop sponsored by Time in a Bottle, the store where Kiki Lowenstein works. When it comes out that someone swiped the victim's emergency medication, the scrappers realize they have a murder on their hands, and the entire community jumps to point the finger at Kiki and her coworkers. Suddenly, the one anchor in Kiki's stormy life is on the verge of sinking beneath a ruined reputation.

Michael Stanley: The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu (June 2, 2009). When two guests turn up dead at tourist camp, Assistant Superintendent Kubu crosses Botswana to investigate. The case seems likely to link back to the Zimbabwe civil war, as fingerprint records show the dead man on the casualty lists of a 1980 farm raid.

Victoria Thompson: Murder on Waverly Place (June 2, 2009). Late-nineteenth-century New York midwife Sarah Brandt is not completely surprised when her very proper mother asks her to attend a séance. She knows that Mrs. Decker still carries great guilt over the death of her older daughter, Maggie. So Sarah accompanies her and the spiritualist does seem to contact Maggie—convincing Mrs. Decker to attend another séance. Only this time, one of the attendees doesn’t succeed in speaking to the dead—she joins them.

Brad Thor: The Apostle (June 30, 2009). Navy SEAL turned covert Homeland Security operative Scot Harvath must find the daughter of a politically connected family who has been kidnapped in the terrorist hinterlands of Afghanistan.

Lisa Unger: Die for You (June 2, 2009). Isabel Raine thought she had everything. A successful career, a supportive family, and a happy marriage to the man she loved. Then one ordinary morning, her husband, Marcus, picked up his briefcase, kissed her goodbye, and simply vanished.

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, Powells Books, the Bloodstained Bookshelf, and Fantastic Fiction.

Busy as a Bee Brad

Brad Meltzer has been all over the news the past few days. Harper Studio just signed him to a two-book nonfiction deal; to promote his new novel The Book of Lies, he's partnered with the Masonic Geocaching Society to stash clues in public places, beginning in Washington, D.C. this afternoon; and he inaugurated NPR's new series titles "Guilty Pleasure," in which he confesses that real men can indeed enjoy Twilight.

I don't think Meltzer has a mathematics background, but I do (thanks to a father who is a Math Prof), so I enjoyed this little fun tidbit and wanted to pass it along:

 

Hard Times But Hope, Too

I just learned the sad news that the well-regarded mystery conference Hardboiled Heroes and Cozy Cats, held annually in Dallas, Texas, has had to cancel their program this year. It was scheduled for June 19-20th and all those who had already registered will have their money refunded. Hopefully, if the economy picks back up, the conference will return in 2010.

Meanwhile, a new conference, the California Crime Writers Conference, is still a go for June 13-14. It takes place in Los Angeles, and keynote speakers include Robert Crais and Laurie R. King.

Media Murder

MOVIES

In a rather convoluted process, Harlan Coben's Tell No One, made first into a movie not by Hollywood but in France (and only released on DVD in the U.S.), has just procured English-language remake rights by Miramax and Focus Features.

IFC Films will produce three British films inspired by the Yorkshire Ripper investigations, titled The Red Riding Trilogy.

Green Knight Ventures is undertaking a new contemporary version of "The Fall of the House of Usher," the famous story by Edgar Allan Poe. It will be shot in 3-D and directed by Stephen Kay.

The first move trailer for the movie Sherlock Holmes by Guy Richie has been released, and it definitely shows that this is not going to be your traditional Holmes flick, with the detective as action figure and ladies' man (and handcuffed naked to a bed--Jeremy Brett must be rolling his heavenly eyes).

One of the films screened at Cannes was a police procedural from Romania, titled Police, Adjective, as a young cop struggles for understanding and redemption in a series of dialogues with his wife, his colleagues and his chilling police chief.

TELEVISION

Laura Lippman appeared on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

Fox has scheduled a show based on M.J. Rose's novel The Reincarnationist for next season. The series, called Past Life, follows a team of detectives who solve crimes using regression therapy and the theory of reincarnation.

Lee Child appeared on the Writer's Roundtable discussing writing a series and his latest Jack Reacher novel.

CBC news discussed the evolution of the TV cop drama, focusing on the latest, Southland.

Masterpiece Theater has an online feature about world crime fiction authors which was compiled with the assistance of Barbara Peters of Poisoned Pen Bookstore.

Sky Arts is going to screen six new dramas live on TV, believed to be the first such live project on British TV in 25 years. Authors involved in writing the dramas include Michael Dobbs, who pens political thrillers, Nicci French (the writing team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French) and mystery writer Morag Joss.

WEB/RADIO

Harlan Coben discussed Tell No One with NPR's Art Silverman.

Reed Farrel Coleman was also featured on NPR as a "wise guy mystery writer who makes good."

Both Oline Cogdill and Crimespree Cinema have information and links to all three installments of Michael Connelly's online trailer for his latest novel The Scarecrow.

On the Diane Rehm Show, the Readers' Review focused on The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle.

BBC4 is producing The Complete Smiley, dramatizations of all eight of John le Carré's George Smiley novels, with Simon Russell Beale playing Smiley.

NPR had a piece titled "For Summer Sleuths: Best Mystery, Crime Novels," including titles by S.J. Rozan, George Pelecanos, Michael Connelly, S.J. Bolton, and the anthology Black Noir: Mystery, Crime and Suspense Fiction by African-American Writers, edited by Otto Penzler.

"For love of country they accepted death..."  ~James A. Garfield

"They hover as a cloud of witnesses above this Nation."  ~Henry Ward Beecher

Crime for Lunch

The monthly Crime Fiction Brunch in Philadelphia sponsored by Robin's Bookstore takes place tomorrow, Sunday May 24th at 1pm. The featured guests are Cara Black author of the latest P.I. Aimée Leduc mystery, Murder in the Latin Quarter, and Gary Disher, author of Blood Moon. Disher is all the way from Australia, where he has won the Ned Kelly Award for this series featuring Detective Inspector Hal Challis. If you've been to these brunches before, note the new location, at Bridget Foy's.

Seattle Noir

Tomorrow, if you happen to be in the Seattle area, you can catch the launch of the new city noir installment from Akaschic Books, appropriate titled Seattle Noir. The book is edited by Curt Colbert and the authors include GM Ford, Skye Moody, Rob Lopresti, Brian Thornton, Patricia Harrington, Robert Lopresti, and Simon Wood. Seattle Mystery Bookshop has hosting honors, with several of the authors planning to be in attendance.

I like what Booklist said in their review:

"Is Seattle too 'nice' for noir? It is home to the original Skid Road, the Green River Killer, and the second most popular suicide bridge in the nation and yet perhaps too laid-back and politically correct to embrace the genre’s viciousness and depravity. Of the many varied shades of local color on display in this mixed but worthwhile collection, only a few have the inky chiaroscuro found in Akashic noir entries from Brooklyn or Detroit, among them Stephan Magcosta’s nightmarish tale of a bad encounter between an Iraqi war widow and a cabdriver and Lou Kemp’s twisted, gothic Sherlockian pastiche. Other standouts include Simon Wood’s taut tale of a bar brawler recruited into a life-changing club, Robert Lopresti’s demented dialogue between homeless murder witnesses, Curt Colbert’s clipped Jake Rossiter detective yarn (crossing O. Henry with Hammett), and Skye Moody’s memorable funhouse tale of embittered showbiz dwarfs and hothouse flowers that could be Nathaniel West’s Day of the Locust as told by Tom Robbins."

More Than Just Apu Nahasapeemapetilon

India is coming into its own in pop culture these days, thanks to venues like the Simpsons and Slumdog Millionaire. Not to be outdone, crime fiction is trying to make its mark in the country, with author Surender Mohan Pathak leading the way. Pathak has 300 titles and more than 25 million books sold to his credit, most in the pulp fiction vein. Until recently, they were only available in Hindi, but in in March, a publisher named Blaft released the first-ever English translation of a Pathak book, one of his best-known, Painsath Lakh Ki Dakaiti (or The $6.5 million Heist).

Thrillers are also gaining in popularity in this country of over one billion potential readers. Harper Collins-India and the Indian Detective Agency, a leading investigation firm, are organizing a nationwide contest to promote a new thriller, The Paris Enigma, an English translation of the work by French author Pablo Di Santis. The prize? Unusual by American standards -- the winners will get an opportunity to train as a detective at the Indian Detective Agency.

Crime for the Fall

It's official:  the networks have announced their television lineups for the Fall. It looks like crime/mystery dramas will continue to be very well represented, with many old standbys and some new kids on the block (listed in red), too:

FOX

Monday:          9pm, Lie to Me
Tuesday:         9pm,   Past Life (midseason)
Wednesday:     9pm, Human Target
Thursday:        8pm, Bones

NOTES:  Past Life is based on the book The Reincarnationist by M.J. Rose and stars Kelli Giddish (All My Children) as a psychologist who works with a former detective to solve mysteries.

Human Target is about superstar bodyguard/private investigator Christopher Chance (Mark Valley of Fringe) and his partner Winston (Chi McBride), who run a protection/investigation firm for high-end clients.

ABC 

Monday:          10pm, Castle
Tuesday:         10pm, The Forgotten
Midseason:      TBA, Happy Town, a murder mystery

NOTES:  The Forgotten (from Jerry Bruckheimer) features amateur detectives who are members of the Identity Network who attempt to reconstruct the pieces of John and Jane Doe cases.

canceled:  The Unusuals

NBC

Wednesday:     9pm, Law and Order SVU 
Friday:            8pm, Law and Order
                     9pm, Southland
Saturday:        9pm, Southland (Encore)
                     10pm, Law and Order SVU (Encore)

NOTES:  NBC only picked up 16 episodes of Law and Order (the original), but if it opts to keep the show in that slot all year, more episodes will likely be ordered.

CBS 

Sunday:          10pm, Cold Case
Monday:         10pm, CSI: Miami
Tuesday:         8pm, NCIS
                     9pm, NCIS: Los Angeles
Wednesday:     9pm, Criminal Minds
                     10pm, CSI: NY
Thursday:        9pm, CSI
                     10pm, The Mentalist
Friday:            10pm, Numb3rs
Saturday:         8pm, Crimetime Saturday
                      9pm, Crimetime Saturday
                     10pm, 48 Hours Mystery
Midseason:       The police drama The Bridge

canceled:  The Unit, Without a Trace

TNT

Monday:            8pm, The Closer
Wednesday:       10pm, Dark Blue

NOTES: Dark Blue, which premieres July 15, stars Dylan McDermott stars as Carter Shaw, the head of a crack undercover team of police officers who are so covert, many of their own colleagues don’t even know they are involved.

USA

USA hasn't announced their complete lineup yet, but it may include the new drama White Collar, starring Matthew Bomer as a criminal mastermind who breaks out of jail and ends up working with the FBI to help catch other elusive crooks.

The Season 3 premiere of Burn Notice will launch at 9pm on Thursday, June 4th.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent returns May 31st at 9pm.

coming to an end:  Monk

LIFETIME

The Fallen, based on T. Jefferson Parker's novel of the same name, from executive producer McG (The OC, Charlie’s Angels) and executive producers/writers Ed Decter and John Strauss (Head Over Heels).

 Murder in Suburbia, based on the popular British series, is written and executive produced by Jon Maas (True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet).