In Reference to Murder

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 Koryta
Title: The Silent Hour
Event Time:  Monday, August 10 at 7 p.m.

Authors:  Elizabeth Lynn Casey /  Marcus Sakey
Title:  Sew Deadly / The Amateurs
Event Time:  Saturday, August 15 at 1:30

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Book Carnival
Orange, CA

Author:  David Rosenfelt
Title:  New Tricks
Event Time:  Saturday, August 15, 2009

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Book Passage
Corte Madera, CA

Author:   Clyde Ford
Title: Whiskey Gulf
Event Time:  Wednesday, August 05, 2009, 6:00 PM

Author:  Sophie Littlefield
Title:  A Bad Day for Sorry
Event Time:  Tuesday, August 11, 2009, 7:00 PM

Author:  Steve Hockensmith
Title: The Crack in the Lens  
Event Time:  Tuesday, August 11, 2009, 7:00 PM

Author:  Susan Dunlap
Title: Civil Twilight
Event: Sunday, August 23, 2009, 1:00 PM

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Booked for Murder
Madison, WI

Author:   Kevin Hughes
Title:  Dogging Truth
Event Time:   Thursday, August 6, 6 p.m.

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Centuries and Sleuths
Forest Park, IL

Author: Alan Gordon
Title:  The Lark's Lament and The Moneylender of Toulouse
Event Time:  Wednesday, August 19, 2009 7:00 p.m.

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Foul Play Books
Westerville, OH

Author:  Michael Koryta
Title:  Silent Hour
Event Time:  August 5th, at 6:00PM. 

Author: Elizabeth Casey
Title:  Sew Deadly
Event Time:   August 12th,  at 6:00PM

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M is for Mystery
San Mateo, CA

Authors:  Steve Hockensmith / Jilliane Hoffman /  Sophie Littlefield
Title:  A Crack in the Lens / Plea of Insanity / A Bad Day for Sorry
Event Time:  Tues., 4th at 7:00 PM

Author:  Clyde Ford
Title:  Whiskey Gulf
Event Time:   Thurs., 6th at 7:00 PM

Author:  Linwood Barclay
Title:  Fear the Worst
Event Time:  Fri., 14th at 7:00 PM

Author:  Thomas Greanias
Title:  The Atlantis Revelation
Event Time:  Sat., 22nd at 2:00 PM

Author: Priscilla Royal
Title:  Chambers of Death
Event Time:  Sun., 23rd at 2:00 PM

Author: Jeffery Deaver
Title:  Roadside Crosses
Event Time:  Thurs., 27th at 7:00 PM (off-site)

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Murder by the Book
Houston, TX

Author: Jack Kerley
Title:   In the Blood 
Event Time:   Saturday, August 1, 4:30 p.m.

Author:  David Rosenfelt
Title:   New Tricks
Event Time:  Saturday, August 8, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Author: Kat Richardson
Title:  Vanished
Event Time:  Friday, August 14, 6:30 p.m.

Author: Linwood Barclay
Title: Fear the Worst
Event Time:  Monday, August 17, 6:30 p.m.

Author:  Brent Ghelfi
Title: The Venona Cable
Event Time:  Thursday, August 27, 6:30 p.m.

Author: Kathy Reichs
Title: 206 Bones
Event Time:  Monday, August 31, 6:30 p.m.

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Murder on the Beach
Delray Beach, FL

Authors:  Rhys Bowen / Mary Anna Evans
Title:   Royal Flush  / Floodgates
Event Time: Wednesday, August 5, 2009, at 7 pm

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Mysteries to Die For
Thousand Oaks, CA

Author:  R. T.  Jordan
Title:  A Talent for Murder
Event Time:  Saturday, August 1, 12:00 p.m.

Author:  Dorothy Howell
Title:  Purse and Poison
Event Time:   Saturday, August 1, 2:00 p.m.

Author:  Steven M. Thomas
Title:  Criminal Karma
Event Time:  Saturday, August 8, 11:00 a.m. 

Author:  Eric Stone
Title:  Shanghaied
Event Time:  Saturday, August 8, 1:00 p.m.

Author:  Sheila Lowe
Title:  Dead Write
Event Time:  Saturday, August 8, 2:30 p.m.

Author:  David Rosenfelt
Title:  New Tricks
Event Time:  Saturday, August 15, 11:00 a.m

Author:  Linwood Barclay
Title:  Fear the Worst
Event Time:  Saturday, August 15, 1:00 p.m.

Authors:  Ann Parker / Juliet Blackwell  / Sophie Littlefield / Margaret Grace
Title: Leaden Skies / Second Hand Spirits / A Bad Day for Sorry / Malice in Miniature
Event Time: Saturday, August 22, 12:00 p.m.

Author: Timothy Hallinan
Title: Breathing Water
Event Time: Saturday, August 22, 2:30 p.m.

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Mysterious Galaxy
San Diego, CA

Author:  James Scott Bell
Title: Try Fear
Event Time:  Saturday, August 1, 2009 2:00 p.m.

Author:  Steven Thomas
Title:  Criminal Karma
Event Time:  Saturday, August 1, 2009 2:00 p.m.

Author:  Dr. Chris Holmes
Title:  The Mosquito Tapes
Event Time: Saturday, August 8, 2009 2:00 a.m.

Author: Richard Lange
Title:  This Wicked World
Event Time:  Sunday, August 9, 2009 2:00 p.m.

Author:  David Rosenfelt
Title:  New Tricks
Event Time:  Friday, August 14, 2009 7:00 p.m.

Author:  Thomas Greanias
Title:   The Atlantis Revelation
Event Time:  Saturday, August 15, 2009 2:00 p.m.

Author:  Linwood Barclay
Title:  Fear the Worst
Event Time:  Sunday, August 16, 2009 2:00 p.m.

Author:  Ann Parker
Title:  Leaden Skies
Event Time: Friday, August 21, 2009 7:00 p.m.

Author:  Margaret Grace
Title: Malice in Miniature
Event Time:  Friday, August 21, 2009 7:00 p.m.

Author:  Sophie Littlefield
Title:  A Bad Day for Sorry
Event Time: Friday, August 21, 2009 7:00 p.m.

Author:  Juliet Blackwell
Title:  Second Hand Spirits
Event Time:  Friday, August 21, 2009 7:00 p.m.

Author: Timothy Hallinan
Title:  Breathing Water
Event Time:  Thursday, August 27, 2009 7:00 p.m.

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Mysterious Bookshop
New York, NY

Author:  Jason Starr
Title:  Panic Attack
Event Time:  August 6th, 6:30-8pm

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Mystery Bookstore
Los Angeles, CA

Author:  Dorothy Howell
Title:  Purses and Poison
Event Time:  Saturday, August 1 at 11:00 a.m.

Author:  Kwei Quartey
Title:  Wife of Gods
Event Time:  Saturday, August 1 at 1:30 p.m.

Author:  Steven Thomas
Title:  Criminal Karma
Event Time:  Saturday, August 8 at 4:00 p.m.

Author: David Rosenfelt
Title:  New Tricks
Event Time:   Thursday, August 13 at 3:00 p.m.

Author:  Bill Fitzhugh, Sue Ann Jaffarian, and Laura Levine
Title: Various
Event Time:  Thursday, August 13 at 7:00 p.m., off-site

Author:  Richard Lange
Title:  This Wicked World
Event Time:  Saturday, August 15 at 2:30 p.m.

Author: Linwood Barclay
Title:  Fear the Worst
Event Time:  Saturday, August 15 at 4:00 p.m.

Author:  Tim Hallinan
Title: Breathing Water
Event Time:  Friday, August 21 at 7:00 p.m.

Authors:  Ann Parker / Margaret Grace / Juliet Blackwell / Sophie Littlefield
Title:  Leaden Skies / Malice in Miniature / Secondhand Spirits / A Bad Day for Sorry
Event Time:   Saturday, August 22 at 3:00 p.m.

Author:  Steve Grogan
Title:  Vegas Die
Event Time:  Saturday, August 29 at 4:30 p.m.

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Mystery Company
Carmel, IN 

Author:   Michael Koryta
Title:  The Silent Hour
Event Time:  Tuesday, August 4, 7 pm

Author:  Elizabeth Lynn Casey 
Title:   Sew Deadly
Event Time:  Monday, August 17, 7 pm

Author:  Julie Kramer
Title:  Missing Mark
Event Time:  Thursday, August 20, 7 pm

Author: Madelyn Alt
Title: Author of Bewitching Mysteries
Event Time: Saturday, August 22  (all-day event)

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Mystery Lovers Bookshop
Oakmond, PA

Author:  Marcus Sakey
Title:  The Amateurs
Event Time:  Saturday, August 29, 2009, Coffee & Crime breakfast, 10 am 

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Mystery Loves Company
Oxford, MD

Author:   Ellen Crosby
Title:   Riesling Retribution
Event Time:   Saturday August 15, 2:00 - 4:00 pm

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Once Upon a Crime Books
Minneapolis, MN

Author: Don Helin
Title:  Thy Kingdom Come
Event Time:  Sat. Aug 8 - 12:00-2:00

Author:  Judith Yates Borger
Title:  Where's Billie?
Event Time:  Wed. Aug 19 - 7:00

Author:  Susan Runholt
Title:  Rescuing Seneca Crane
Event Time:  Fri. Aug 21 - 7:00

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Partners & Crime
Greenwich, NY

Author:  Annamaria Alfieri
Title:  The City of Silver
Event Time:  Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 7:00pm

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Poisoned Pen
Scottsdale, AZ

Author: Laura Caldwell
Title:  Red Hot Lies
Event Time:  Saturday, Aug 01, 2009, from 11:00 am

Author:  David Rosenfelt
Title: New Tricks
Event Time:  Aug 06, 2009, from 07:00 pm

Author:  John Lescroart
Title:  Plague of Secrets
Event Time:  Aug 11, 2009, from 07:00 pm

Author: Brett Battles
Title:  Betrayal
Event  Aug 11, 2009, from 07:00 pm

Author:  Steve Martini
Title: Guardian of Lies
Event Time:  Aug 11, 2009, from 07:00 pm

Author:  Juliet Blackwell
Title:   Secondhand Spirits
Event Time: Aug 13, 2009, from 07:00 pm

Author:  Sophie Littlefield
Title:  Bad Day for Sorry
Event Time:  Aug 13, 2009, from 07:00 pm

Author: Ann Parker
Title:  Leaden Skies
Event Time: Aug 13, 2009, from 07:00 pm

Author:  Christopher Reichs
Title:  Rules of Vengeance
Event Time:  Aug 15, 2009, from 06:00 pm

Author: Sean Doolittle
Title: Safer
Event Time:  Aug 15, 2009, from 06:00 pm

Author: Michael Koryta
Title:   Silent Hour
Event Time:  Aug 15, 2009, from 06:00 pm

Author:  Bernt Ghelfi
Title:  The Venona Cable
Event Time:Aug 18, 2009, from 07:30 pm  

Author:  Charlotte Hinger
Title:  Deadly Descent
Event Time:   Aug 22, 2009, from 02:00 pm

Author:  Michael Bowen
Title:  Service Dress Blues
Event Time:  Aug 22, 2009, from 02:00 pm

Author:  Ellen Crosby
Title:  The Reisling Retribution
Event Time:  Aug 25, 2009, from 07:00 pm

Author:  Diana Gabaldon
Title:   Echo in the Bone
Event Time:  Aug 26, 2009, from 08:00 pm

Author:  Thomas Greanias
Title:  Atlantis Revelation
Event Time: Aug 29, 2009, from 02:00 pm

Author: Timothy Hallinan
Title: Breathing Water
Event Time:  Aug 29, 2009, from 02:00 pm

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Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Seattle, WA

Author: Elizabeth Sims
Title:   The Extra
Event Time:  Thurs, Aug 6, noon

Author:  Kat Richardson
Title:  Vanished
Event Time:  Sat, Aug 8, noon

Author:  Robert Ferrigno 
Title: Heart of the Assassin
Event Time:  Tues, Aug 11, noon

Author:  Jayne Castle
Title:  Obsidian Prey
Event Time:  Tues, Aug 25, noon

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Vrooman's
Pasadena, CA

Authors:  Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Linda Quinn, and S. Ramos O'Briant
Title:  Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery
Event Time:  Sat, August 29, 2009 - 3:00pm

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New Mystery & Crime Fiction Novels Coming in August

Here's a representative listing of new crime fiction titles being released in August, including new titles by Harlan Coben, Faye Kellerman, Michael Koryta, Margaret Maron, Kathy Reichs, Markus Sakey, and Marcia Talley among many others. You can check out the links at the bottom for more!

Harlan Coben: The Final Detail (August 25, 2009). Win and Myron are looking into the murder of a client—a troubled New York Yankees baseball player apparently shot to death by Esperanza Diaz, who just happens to be Myron's best friend and partner in the sport's agency. Esperanza is hiding something, but Myron isn't sure if it has to do with her job or with her private life. His search for the truth takes him back to a shabby incident from his own past and to times he would rather forget

Colin Cotterill: The Merry Misogynist (August 1, 2009) Dr. Siri Paiboun (6th). On a trip to the hinterlands, Siri discovers that a beautiful female corpse bound to a tree has already risen to the status of a rural myth. This has happened many times before. He sets out to investigate this unprecedented phenomenon—a serial killer in peaceful 1978 Buddhist Laos—only to discover when he has identified the murderer that not only pretty maidens are at risk. Seventy-three-year-old coroners can be victims, too.

Ellen Crosby: The Riesling Retribution (August 4, 2009). Lucie Montgomery, Wine Country (4th) When Lucie Montgomery stumbles across a skull in her vineyard—just after the tornado that almost kills her—little does she suspect the skeletons in the family closet to which the discovery will lead.

Carole Nelson Douglas: Cat in a Topaz Tango (August 4, 2009).  Midnight Louie (20th)  Temple Barr, Las Vegas PR whiz, goes undercover at a charity dance contest featuring celebrities like Temple's radio star fiancé, Matt Devine, while tomcat sleuth Louie provides backup. The Barbie Doll stalker has been targeting local teen talent, and soon contestants in the dance competition start to suffer accidents.

Susan Dunlap: Civil Twilight (August 1, 2009) Darcy Lott (3rd). San Francisco stunt double Darcy Lott specializes in creating the illusion of serious danger. But when her lawyer brother calls and asks her to wine and dine a mysterious client, the danger is no illusion.

Joseph Finder: Vanished (August 18, 2009). Special Forces' Nick Heller, high-powered intelligence investigator, gets a call from his nephew after an attack in Georgetown leaves his mother in a coma and his step-dad, Roger, Nick's brother, vanished without a trace. Nick and Roger have been on the outs since the conviction of their father, the notorious "fugitive financier," Victor Heller. As Nick searches for his brother, he's on a collision course with one of the most powerful corporations in the world—and they will stop at nothing to protect their secrets.

Brent Ghelfi: The Venona Cable (August 18, 2009). Alexei "Volk" Volkovoy (3rd). The past erupts into the present when the police arrest Alexei Volkovoy at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport and take him to a murder scene. At first, the dead man appears to be just one more victim of Moscow’s out-of-control violence. But Volk soon discovers that he is a famous Hollywood filmmaker whose reputation was destroyed in 1995 when the CIA released documents from the Venona cables—the top-secret crypto-analysis of Soviet messages that implicated the Rosenbergs.

J.G. Goodhind: Menu for Murder. (August 1, 2009)  Honey Driver (4th). A film crew has arrived in Bath and, to the satisfaction of hotel owner and police liaison officer Honey Driver, some of the visitors are staying in her hotel. Plus, there's the thrilling possibility that she and her daughter might be cast as extras. But then the film's impossibly demanding star is found dead by Honey herself and she's arrested. Sexy DI Steve Doherty races to the rescue, and the pair embark on a mission to uncover the truth.

Suzette A. Hill: Bone Idle (August 1, 2009) Francis Oughterard (3rd). Reverend Oughterard has managed to elude arrest (for now), but when another murder occurs, Oughterard panics. Embarrassing complications ensue, and, once again, world-weary cat Maurice and intrepid mongrel Bouncer must help the reverend escape trouble.

Faye Kellerman: Blindman's Bluff (August 11, 2009) Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus (18th). LAPD homicide detective Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus, find themselves blindsided by a brutal multiple murder.

Michael Koryta: The Silent Hour (August 4, 2009) Lincoln Perry (4th). What seems at first like the simplest of jobs proves to be an undertaking that will challenge both PI Lincoln Perry’s abilities as a detective and his commitment to that calling. With a new partner to train and a case that leads straight to the heart of the Cleveland organized crime scene, Perry finds himself glancing over his shoulder at every turn, pushing the bounds of safety even as he backs away.

Margaret Maron: Sand Sharks (August 13, 2009) Deborah Knott (15th). When Judge Deborah Knott travels to Wrightsville Beach for a summer conference, she stumbles upon the body of one of her colleagues. Meanwhile, Deborah's husband, Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant, is in Virginia with his son, tying up loose ends left by the death of his first wife. When another judge is found murdered at the conference, it soon becomes evident that Deborah may be the killer's next target.

Nick Oldham: The Nothing Job (August 1, 2009) Henry Christie (13th) Reluctantly agreeing to track down three dangerous criminals, DCI Henry Christie is asked to close down an investigation into a fatal police shooting, and he uncovers a number of worrying connections. Henry charges headlong into a terrifying conspiracy and finds himself much closer to the cutting edge than even he would have wanted.

Kathy Reichs: 206 Bones (August 25, 2009). The twelfth Temperance Brennan novel from Kathy Reichs opens with Tempe regaining consciousness and discovering that she is in some kind of very small, very dark, very cold enclosed space. She is bound, hands to feet. Is she buried alive? In some kind of cell? Who wants Tempe dead, or at least out of the way, and why? Tempe begins slowly to reconstruct.

David Rosenfelt: New Tricks (August 6, 2009)  In Rosenfelt's seventh legal thriller to feature defense attorney Andy Carpenter, Andy takes on another canine client—Waggy, a Bernese mountain puppy, who's somehow connected to the murder of Walter Timmerman, a semi-titan in the pharmaceutical industry.

Priscilla Royal: Chambers of Death (August 1, 2009) Prioress Eleanor (6th). When one of her company falls ill on a return journey to Tyndal, Prioress Eleanor accepts lodging at a nearby manor and finds herself in the middle of two murders. Will Eleanor discover the dark secrets that have led to this string of killings before the murderer strikes again?

Marcus Sakey: The Amateurs (August 6, 2009). What was supposed to be a victimless crime has become a bloody nightmare. People have been killed. A child is in danger. Ruthless men pursue four friends with relentless fury. And tensions they thought were long-buried threaten to destroy them. As their whole world begins to unravel, each will have to choose between their own life and the lives of others.

George D. Shuman: Second Sight (August 4, 2009) Sherry Moore (4th) Beautiful psychic Sherry Moore delves into the darkest corners of the pharmaceutical trade and risks her life to set right an injustice buried deep in the past.

Andy Straka: Kitty Hitter (August 31, 2009) Frank Pavlicek (4th). Separating felines from their rightful owners is the crime in shamus Frank Pavlicek's latest case, and Frank's not happy about it.  Still, the obligations of friendship are pressing, and Darla Barnes had been an NYPD cop alongside Frank before they both went private. More than that, she'd once saved his life. So in response to Darla's call, Frank offers to help in the curious case of the purloined kitten, testing Frank in ways he couldn't have imagined.

Marcia Talley: Without a Grave (August 1, 2009) Hannah Ives (8th). When controversy arises over the construction of a Bahamas luxury resort that could devastate the coral reef, Hannah dives in. Acts of vandalism, a deadly wildfire, a missing scientist - Hannah suspects a connection, but her investigation stalls when Hurricane Helen slams into the island. Before the skies clear, a dynasty is threatened by a venomous sibling rivalry, environmentalists face-off against progressive island fathers, and somebody else will die.

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.

Media Murder

MOVIES

• The Lord's Day, an action thriller based on a book by Michael Dobbs, is being produced by Sony. The plot centers on a hostage takeover of Britain's House of Lords by terrorists on the first day of a legislative session.

• Warner Brothers is adapting Chuck Hogan's novel The Town, featuring Jon Hamm and Rebecca Hall, along with Ben Affleck as a bank robber and one of the FBI's Most Wanted who becomes smitten with a bank teller.

• Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law and Rachel McAdams appeared at ComicCon in a panel promoting the Sherlock Holmes movie premiering this Fall.

TV

• The cast has been set for the upcoming Lifetime TV specials based on Patricia Cornwell books, At Risk and The Front, including Daniel Sunjata, Andie MacDowell, Diahann Carroll, Annabeth Gish and Ashley Williams.

• The FX Network is producing a series titled The Lawman based on Elmore Leonard's short story "Fire in the Hole," starring Timothy Olyphant as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens.

• Burn Notice pumped up USA TV's ratings, leading it to top TNT as cable's most-watched network.

• The TV pilot Exit 19 isn't dead yet. Originally produced as a vehicle for Geena Davis as a Manhattan homicide detective and single Mom, the show was declined by CBS but may be picked up by Lifetime.

WEB/RADIO

• The latest Crimes in the City feature on NPR featured Randy Wayne White, author of the "Doc Ford" series based in Florida; David Baldacci and his thrillers based in or involving D.C.; and Gabriel Cohen and his fictional NYPD detective, Jack Leightner, who walks the streets of Brooklyn.

• Henning Mankell will be interviewed on BBC Online's The Forum show on August 2nd.

• The Yorkshire Post wrapped up Harrogate with a series of interview podcasts with authors Reginald Hill, Lee Child, Natasha Cooper, Caro Ramsay, George Pelecanos, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, and Laura Wilson.

• Morning Edition on NPR included a featured about noir writer and ex-pat Chester Himes, who received France's most prestigious prize for crime fiction.

Space, the Final Frontier

In honor of my astronomer hubster's birthday, coupled with the recent 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, I'm posting an encore of a blog from last year about space-themed mysteries.

The above is a fair pictorial representation of the space shuttle launch at night I witnessed last year (with photo credit thanks to James N. Brown). Truly a sight to behold. It got me wondering about mystery and crime fiction novels which feature NASA or astronauts. I did a little digging, but wasn't able to uncover many examples. Obviously, science fiction is the way to go if you're really interested in fiction on space themes, but it seemed to me that the space program might provide decent fuel for mystery stories, as well.

Although the brilliant Stanislaw Lem is best known for his science fiction, he wrote a cross-genre book titled The Chain of Chance, which was written in the style of a detective novel. An ex-astronaut is hired to look into the death of a wealthy businessman, but neither detectives nor a sophisticated computer used for the investigation can crack the case. On a trail which reaches from Naples to Paris, the ex-astronaut barely escapes numerous seemingly random threats on his life, and begins to realize he may now be the target of a deadly conspiracy.

Tess Gerritsen published Gravity in 2004, part thriller and part horror novel in which six astronauts studying living creatures in space encounter an alien life form that wreaks havoc aboard the International Space Station.

Dana Stabenow penned Prepared for Rage, published in 2006, a thriller set at the Kennedy Space Center where terrorists are planning to disrupt the launch.

I *know* there have to be others out there, so if you are aware of other entries to add, pass them along. I might even be able to coax the nonfiction-loving hubster to chow down on some fiction books, if they relate to space. Suggested titles, anyone?

(Note: helpful reader and operator of Detectives Beyond Borders, Peter Rozovsky, added Reginald Hill's story "One Small Step," in which the now-EuroFed Commissioner Pascoe calls his old boss Dalziel out of retirement to investigate a murder? The murder happened on the Moon, which necessitates space travel.)

Let's Conference Some More

Fortunately for readers and authors, the literary festival circuit seems to be surviving despite hard economic times. Here are a couple of recent additions to the listing:

The Mid-Atlantic Chapter of Mystery Writers of America has scheduled their third Dying to Write Conference Saturday, September 12, from 9:00 am until 4:00 pm. Guest speakers include Peter Earnest, former clandestine spy and now Executive Director of the International Spy Museum, James Grady, noted screenwriter and award-winning author of Mad Dogs and Six Days of the Condor, PI Nicole Bocra, president and owner of Infinity Investigative Solutions, Dr. Carole E. Chaski, founder of the Institute for Linguistic Evidence, and author John French (The Encyclopedia of Crime Scene Investigation).

The UK's Reading Crime Writing Festival returns from September 11 to 13, with authors Mark Billingham, Frances Fyfield, Patrick Lennon, Charlie Higson, several panels on topics such as "Women Behaving Badly," and "Brought in for Questioning," and a twitter-length competition where crime stories have to be around 140 characters. Inspector Morse author Colin Dexter will host a series of festival events.

Forgotten (or Banned) Books Friday

NPR had a story the other day on books that helped us grow up. While the ones mentioned reflect some of the titles my generation read, my librarian mother brought home a much wider variety of books for me which I voraciously devoured, sometimes staying up most of the night to finish whatever volume I was reading.

One of those books was probably a little unusual to give to a 12-year-old, namely Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. For a child living in a rural part of the country which was 99.99% whitebread without even so much as an ethnic restaurant around for 20 miles, such a book was a revelation. Apartheid? Didn't know it existed prior, let alone how to pronounce it. However, it wasn't only the racial themes which made such an impression, it was how well Paton portrayed the classism and elitism of South Africa after the end of British imperialism, and how human compassion can triumph even in the face of the often hopelessness of existence.

Cry the Beloved Country is a multi-faced book, but at the heart of it is the unraveling of the traditional customs of a society set against the background of two grieving fathers: a Zulu pastor whose son has been arrested for murder and faces execution and the white father of the victim who begins to realize the role South African whites often play in such crimes. Paton crafted a literary sermon of sorts against the practices that would turn into apartheid in South Africa in a prescient way, since the novel was published in 1948 and apartheid became law later that very same year. The title of the book is taken from the following passage uttered by the omniscient narrator:

"Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much."

Alan Paton wrote the novel while he was principal at the Diepkloof Reformatory for delinquent African boys. One interesting note is the process surrounding the book's creation, quite different from today as seen by the author's description of the events leading up to publication:

"The book was begun in Trondheim and finished in San Francisco [on Christmas Eve]. It was written in Norway, Sweden, England and the United States....I had less than a week to spend in New York before sailing to South Africa. I air-mailed the manuscript on a Tuesday, but owing to snowstorms no planes flew. The package went by train, broke open and had to be rewrapped, and finally reached an intermediate Post Office on the Sunday, three days before I was due in New York. My friends traced this package to this intermediate Post Office, and had the office opened and the package delivered, by what means I do not know. In the meantime they had friends standing by to do the typing, and they worked night and day, with the result that the first seventeen chapters arrived at the house of Scribner's on Wednesday, a few minutes before myself...."

Two movies have been based on the book, a film version in 1951 with Canada Lee, Charles Carson, and Sidney Poitier and another in 1995 with James Earl Jones and Richard Harris. Neither version did particularly well at the box office, but the book itself sold over 15 million copies worldwide before Paton's death in 1995, and was critically well-received except in  South Africa -- where it was banned as propaganda.

Remembering Raymond

Today would have been the 121st birthday of Raymond Thornton Chandler (if modern technology allowed for longer human lifespans, as may soon be the case). Fortunately, Chandler's work and legacy lives on well after his death in 1959.

Five of Chandler's classic novels featuring private eye Philip Marlowe were reissued in April of this year by Hamish Hamilton in hardcover, with forwards by contemporary crime fiction authors:  The High Window with an intro by Mark Billingham; The Long Goodbye introduced by Jeffery Deaver; Farewell, My Lovely, intro by Colin Dexter; The Lady in the Lake, intro by Jonathan Kellerman; The Little Sister with an intro by Val McDermid, and The Big Sleep, introduced by Ian Rankin.

You can celebrate Chandler's birthday by reading these or any one of the tributes that have been penned through the years, such as 2007's The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved by Judith Freeman or Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe - Centennial Celebration, a collection of new Philip Marlowe storied crafted by several modern authors, issued on the 100th anniversary of Chandler's birth in 1988. There's also a new hardcover biography coming out in September by John Anderson, to be published by Penguin. 

There have been many film, radio and TV adaptations of Chandler work, most recently in TV series format with Powers Booth as Marlowe on HBO in 1983 and 1986, and on BBC Radio/Audiobooks with Ed Bishop in the title role beginning in 1999 (the latest of which was released after Bishop's death in June of this year).

If you happen to be in California, you can check out one of the Raymond Chandler tours mentioned in Janet Rudolph's blog recently, if not today, then later this year: October 17th for the Raymond Chandler's Bay City tour or October 24th for Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles. 

You might prefer to remember Chandler in his own words, as several works have done: Raymond Chandler Speaking (University of California Press, 1997); The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler (HarperPerennial reprint edition 2007); or Philip Marlow's Guide to Life, edited by Marty Asher (Knopf 2005). A couple of tidbits from the first book above:

"At school I displayed no marked literary ability. My first poem was composed at the age of nineteen, on a Sunday, in the bathroom, and was published in Chambers' Journal. I am fortunate in not possessing a copy. I had, to be frank, the qualifications to become a pretty good second-rate poet, but that means nothing because I have the mind to become a pretty second-rate anything and without much effort."

"When I was eighteen years old, my mother and my rich but dominating Irish uncle decided that I should take a Civil Service examination. . .I wanted to be a writer, but I knew my Irish uncle would not stand for that, so I thought perhaps that the easy hours in the Civil Service might let me do that on the side. I passed third in a group of about six hundred. I went to the Admiralty, but I found the atmosphere to stultifying that after six months I resigned. This was a bombshell; perhaps no one had ever done it before. My Irish uncle was livid with rage. So I holed up in Bloomsbury, lived on next to nothing, and wrote for a highbrow weekly review and also for the Westminster Gazette, perhaps the best evening newspaper the world ever saw. But at the best I made only a very bare living."

For a good summary and bibliography of Chandler and his work, check out the Thrilling Detective site.

Wednesday Wanderings

From around the blogosophere, here are some interesting tidbits which include a couple of book giveaways (proving sometimes there is a free lunch, or at least, a free book), interviews ranging far and wide, and essays on topics such as "why we don't need stupid characters" and "lady killers of the 1940s."

• Over at the Women of Mystery blog, Lois Karlin reviewed British crime writer Martina Cole’s Faces and has info on a chance to win a copy of the just-released American edition of the novel.

• Meanwhile, the Book Bitch has the lowdown on how to win a signed copy of Ridley Pearson's Killer Summer and two unsigned paperbacks from that same series.

• On the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel's blog, Oline Cogdill notes that Chauncey's Book Group on Facebook is hosting James O. Born in their online discussion of his book The Human Disguise, tomorrow at noon.

• The busy Cogdill also writes for the Mystery Scene Magazine blog, taking inspiration from a discussion on the Dorothy-L list as she opines about why we don't need stupid characters in mystery fiction.

• Ali Karim over at the Rap Sheet has a great interview with Joseph Finder, who switches from standalone thrillers to a series character, corporate investigator Nick Heller, in his novel, Vanished.

• Speaking of Joseph Finder, his latest column for the Daily Beast features Stephen L. Carter, Yale law professor and author of the new novel Jericho’s Fall, who reveals he wrote his latest novel in eight weeks.

• Martin Edwards of Do You Write Under Your Own Name? reviewed an episode of the Wallander series produced by Swedish television (not to be confused with Kenneth Brannagh's production) which was recently shown on BBC4. Starring Kirster Henriksson in the title role, Edwards pronounces it "first-rate viewing."

• Mysterious Matters looked back at some of the lady killers from the 1940s, including Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (The Innocent Mrs. Duff and The Blank Wall), former MWA Grand Master Dorothy B. Hughes, Margaret Millar (In a Lonely Place) and Celia Fremlin. 

• Mysterious People held a conversation with Scottish novelist Gillian Philip, who actually began her writing career while living in Barbados. 

• The Beatrice blog interviewed Rennie Airth about his series of police procedurals (Scotland Yard) set in England a few years after the First World War.

• Sandy Parshall interviewed Katy Munger for Poe's Deadly Daughters. Munger took a few years off from publishing but returns with two new novels, the debut of the Dead Detective series (written under the pseudonym Chaz McGee), and Bad Moon on the Rise, the latest in her Casey Jones series.
  

• The Guardian wrote an obit for Gordon Burn who died this past Friday, calling him "one of the greatest – and arguably underrated – British writers of his age" who influenced other writers like David Peace and turned northern England into as foreboding a backdrop as James Ellroy's Los Angeles or Ian Rankin's Edinburgh.

Media Murder

MOVIES

• John Grisham is writing a screenplay about Virginia's Norfolk Four, which he calls "the most egregious case of wrongful conviction I've seen."

• Working Title Films has hired Tomas Alfredson to direct a new adaptation of John Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.  Peter Morgan (Frost-Nixon) is writing the script and will serve as executive producer along with Le Carre and others. 

• Travis McGhee is going Hollywood again. Amy Robinson is developing the first McGee novel by John D. MacDonald, The Deep Blue Good-By, for production by Fox.

• Jason Statham will likely star with Paddy Considine in the film adaptation of Ken Bruen's crime thriller Blitz, a Lionsgate UK production set for next year. Bruen himself will be playing a cameo.

• Also in the book-to-film department is Elmore Leonard's 1988 novel Freaky Deaky, which writer-director Charlie Matthau (son of the late Walter Matthau) is spearheading.

• Morgan Freeman is currently in talks to star with Bruce Willis in the spy thriller Red from Summit Entertainment. It's based on a three-book series by Warren Ellis, published in 2003 and 2004, which "tells the story of a former black-ops CIA agent now living a quiet life in retirement until the day a high-tech assassin shows up intent on killing him."

TV

• Scenes with David Jason filming his last appearances for A Touch Of Frost have some wondering if this is the end for his character Detective Inspector Jack Frost.

• Harlan Coben is co-writing a new crime procedural for Fox TV described as "a drama with humor."

• Terry Kinney will have a recurring role in the Mentalist when the series returns this Fall. He'll play Agent Sam Bosco, "a seemingly flat-footed policeman with a deceptively sharp intelligence."

• Crimespree Cinema took a look at the new TNT crime drama Dark Blue, which Variety indicated had good ratings in its first outing.

• Yet another retelling of Sherlock Holmes is apparently on the way. The BBC is planning a comic reworking of Conan Doyle's detective, relocated to 21st century London, which will air as three 90-minute episodes.

• The Emmy Award nominations just announced included several nods for crime dramas, including acting awards.

• The Crime Writers' Association and Cactus TV are joining forces for Part 2 of the Crime Thriller Dagger Awards, slated for Wednesday, October 21.

WEB/RADIO

• Omnivoracious had a podcast with George Pelecanos about his novel The Way Home.

• A Minnesota Public Radio podcast featured best-selling author and former Twin Cities TV producer Julie Kramer, on how she got the inspiration for her latest novel from a classified ad.

• The New York Times Book Review has a podcast online featuring a conversation with Janet Evanovich.

THEATER

• If you happen to be near Cheltenham in the UK, check out The Everyman Theater for their production of Frederick Knott’s thriller Write Me a Murder which starts tonight.

GAMES

• Relentless Software is releasing Blue Toad Murder Files, a murder mystery series exclusively for the PlayStation Network.

It Was 40 Years Ago Today...

"Beautiful, beautiful. Magnificent desolation."  -- Buzz Aldrin 

"Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand." --
Neil Armstrong