In Reference to Murder

November 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:   Libby Fischer Hellman /  Sharon Fiffer
Title:  Doubleback / Scary Stuff
Event Time:  Sunday, November 8 at 2 p.m.

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Book Passage
Corte Madera, CA

Author:  Keith Raffel / Libby Fischer Hellman
Title: Smasher / Doubleback 
Event Time:  Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 7 p.m.

Author:  Michelle Gagnon, Diana Orgain, Juliet Blackwell, Sophie Littlefield, Margaret Grace, Rhys Bowen, Ann Parker & Mark Coggins 
Title: Sisters In Crime Fall Showcase
Event Time: Saturday, November 7, 2009, 2 p.m.

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Booked for Murder
Madison, WI

Author:  Carl Brookins
Title:   Devil's Island
Event Time: Thursday, November 5,   6 p.m.

Author:  Greg Przywara
Title:  IVD
Event Time:  Saturday, November 7, 2 p.m.

Author:  Jim Proebstle
Title:    In the Absence of Honor
Event Time:  Thursday, November 12, 6 p.m.

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Centuries and Sleuths
Forest Park, IL

Author:  John Connolly
Title: The Gate (A Children's Novel) and Lovers (A Charlie Parker Thriller)
Event Time:  Tuesday, November 3, 2009 7 p.m.

Author:  Diane Gilbert Madsen
Title:  A Cadger's Curse
Event Time:  Thursday, November 5, 2009 7 p.m.

Author: Julia Keller
Title:  Back Home 
Event Time:  Friday, November 6, 2009 7 p.m.. 

Author:  Libby Fischer Hellmann
Title: Doubleback
Event Time: Saturday, November 7, 2009 2 p.m.

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Clues Unlimited
Tucson AZ

Author:  Pete Goodman
Title:  Smoking Frog Lives
Event Time:  Saturday, November 7th at 2 p.m.

Author:  Jeri Westerson
Title:  The Serpent in the Thorns
Event Time: Monday, November 9th at 7 p.m.

Author: Patrick Millikin (editor) and contributors: Stella Pope Duarte, Robert Anglen, Charles Kelly, and Kurt Reichenbaugh
Title: Phoenix Noir event
Event Time: Thursday, November 12th at 3:30 p.m.

Author: Kris Neri
Title:  High Crimes on the Magical Plane
Event Time:  Saturday, November 14th, 1 p.m.

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M is for Mystery
San Mateo, CA

Authors:  John Connolly 
Title:  Gates
Event Time:  Sunday, November 1st at 1p.m.

Author: Keith Raffel / Libby Fischer Hellman
Title: Smashed / Doubleback
Event Time: Sunday, November 1st at 3:00 p.m.  (off-site)  

Author:  Mark Coggins / Michael Chabon
Title: The Big Wake Up /  Manhood for Amateurs
Event Time:   Tuesday, November 3rd at 7:00 p.m.

Author:  Keith Raffel / Libby Fischer Hellman
Title:  Smashed / Doubleback
Event Time:  Thursday, November 5th at 7p.m.

Author:  Robert Greer
Title: Spoon
Event Time:  Saturday, November 7th at 2 p.m.

Author:  Susan Kandel
Title: Dial H for Hitchcock
Event Time: Wednesday,  November 11th at 7 p.m.

Author:  M.E. Harrigan
Title:  9800 Savage Road 
Event Time:  Thursday, November 12th at 7 p.m. (off-site) 

Author: Sheila Lowe 
Title:  Dead Write
Event Time:  Friday, November 13th at 2:30 p.m.

Author: Greg Bear
Title: Mariposa
Event Time:   Saturday, November 14th at 2:00 p.m.

Author: Efrem Sigel 
Title:  The Disappearance
Event Time:   Saturday, November 14th at 3:30 p.m.(off-site)

Author:  Martin Limón
Title:  GI Bones
Event Time: Thursday, November 19th at 7:00 p.m.

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Murder by the Book
Houston, TX

Author:  Oscar Casares, Lee Child, David Cross, Charlaine Harris,  Julie Powell 
Title: Houston Chronicle Book & Author Dinner
Event Time:  Sunday, November 1, evening (off-site)

Author:  Lucha Corpi 
Title:  Death at Solstice
Event Time:  Tuesday, November 3, 6:30 p.m.

Author: Sarah Cortez and Lucha Corpi
Title:  Various
Event Time:  Wednesday, November 4, 7:00 p.m. (off-site). 

Author:  Susan Kandel
Title:  Dial "H" for Hitchcock
Event Time:  Thursday, November 5, 6:30 p.m.

Author: Greg Herren
Title:   Murder in the Garden District
Event Time:  Saturday, November 7, 4:30 p.m.

Author:  Martin Limón
Title: G. I. Bones 
Event Time:  Friday, November 13, 6:00 p.m.

Author:   Wendy Lyn Watson / Misa Ramirez
Title:  I Scream, You Scream / Living the Vida Lola
Event Time:  Saturday, November 14, 4:30 p.m.

Author:  Rachel Caine
Title: Fade Out
Event Time:  Saturday, November 14, 6:30 p.m.

Author:  David Baldacci
Title:  True Blue
Event Time:  Wednesday, November 18, afternoon stock signing

Author:  Clive Cussler
Title:   Spartan Gold & The Wrecker
Event Time:  Wednesday, November 18, 6:30 p.m.

Author:  Janice Law / Sam Waas
Title:  Small Press Saturday
Event Time:   Saturday, November 21, 4:30 p.m.

Author:  James Hime
Title: Where Armadillos Go to Die
Event Time:  Saturday, November 28, 5:00 p.m.

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Murder on the Beach
Delray Beach, FL

Author:  Elaine Viets 
Title: Fashion Hound Murder
Event Time:  Wednesday, November 4, 2009, at 7 pm

Author:   Karen Kendall / Randy Rawls
Title:  Take Me For a Ride / Gift of Murder Holiday anthology
Event Time:  Friday, November 6, 2009, at 7 pm

Author:  Abby Arrington
Title:  Precession
Event Time: Saturday, November 7, 2009, at 1 pm . 

Author:   Margaret Fenton, Patricia Gussin, Don Bruns, H. Terrell Griffin, Deborah Shlian and Joel Shlian
Title:  An Evening with Oceanview Authors
Event Time: Monday, November 16, 2009, at 7 pm

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Mysterious Galaxy
San Diego, CA

Author:  Diana Killian
Title:  Dial Om for Murder
Event Time:  Saturday, November 7, 2009 2:00 p.m.

Author:  Susan Kandel 
Title: Dial H for Hitchcock
Event Time: Saturday, November 7, 2009 2:00 p.m. 

Author:  Brian Haig
Title:  The Hunted 
Event Time:  Friday, November 13, 2009 7:00 p.m.. 

Author:  Greg Bear / Alan Jacobson / Martin Limón
Title:   Mariposa / Crush /  G.I. Bones
Event Time:  Wednesday, November 18, 2009 7:00 p.m.

Author:  Carola Dunn
Title:  Sheer Folly
Event Time:  Friday, November 20, 2009 7:00 p.m.

Author:  John Lamb / Michelle Gagnon
Title:  The Treacherous Teddy / The Gatekeeper
Event Time:  Sunday, November 22, 2009 2:00 p.m.

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Once Upon a Crime Books
Minneapolis, MN

Author:  John Connolly
Title:  The Gates
Event Time:  Thursday, November 5 - 7:00 p.m.

Author: Richard A. Thompson 
Title:  Frag Box
Event Time: Thursday, November 12 - 7:00 p.m.

Author:  Ellen Hart / Carl Brookins
Title: The Mirror and the Mask / Devil's Island 
Event Time:  Wednesday, November 18 - 7:00  p.m.

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Poisoned Pen
Scottsdale, AZ

Author: Steven F. Havill  
Title:  Red, Green, or Murder
Event Time:  Sunday, November 1, 2009, at 12:30 p.m.

Author: Robert Greer / Margaret Coel
Title:  Spoon / Silent Spirit
Event Time:  Sunday, November 1, 2009, at 1:00 p.m.

Author:  Carolyn Hart
Title:  Merry, Merry Ghost
Event Time:  Thursday, November 5, 2009, at 7:00 p.m.. 

Author: Jeri Westerson / Pete Goodman
Title:  Serpent in the Thorns / Smoking Frog Lives
Event Time:  Sunday, November 8, 2009, at 2:00 p.m.

Author:  Emily Arsenault
Title:  The Broken Teaglass
Event Time:  Thursday, November 12, 2009, at 7:00 p.m.

Author: John Sandford, hosting "Guys Night" with Josh Bazell, Martin Limón, Thomas Perry, James Rollins, Don Winslow
Title:  Rough Country
Event Time: Saturday, November 14, 2009, at 6:00 p.m.  (off-site)

Author:  Clive Cussler
Title:  The Wrecker 
Event Time: Tuesday, November 17, 2009, at 7:00 p.m.

Author:  Karl Alexander
Title:  Jaclyn The Ripper
Event Time:  Monday, November 30, 2009, at 7:00 p.m.

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Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Seattle, WA

Author: Martin Limón
Title:  G.I. Bones
Event Time:  Saturday, November 7, noon

Author: Anthony Flacco 
Title:  The Road Out of Hell: Sanford Clark and the True Story of the Wineville Murders
Event Time:  Saturday, November 14, noon

Author: Derek Haas
Title: Columbus   
Event Time:  Saturday, November 21, noon

Author:  Greg Bear
Title: Mariposa
Event Time:   Saturday., November 28, noon

Author:  J. A. Jance 
Title: Trial by Fire  
Event Time:  Monday, November 30, noon

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END

New Mystery & Crime Fiction Novels Coming in November

Here's a representative listing of titles coming in November, which this month includes new novels by Simon Brett, Ken Bruen, Lillian Stewart Carl, and J.D. Robb. Check out the links at the bottom for more, as there are many more offerings, too numerous to list.

• Simon Brett: The Poisoning in the Pub Fethering (November 18, 2009) Fethering residents, Jude and Carole, get more than they bargained for when a lunchtime meal in their local pub leaves everyone with food poisoning, and it looks like it could be the end of the road for the Crown and Anchor. The two  amateur lady detectives wonder if it might just be more than a run of bad luck, and when a young man with the mental age of a five year old is found in the kitchen of the pub with a knife through his heart, Carole and Jude swing into action.

• Emily Brightwell: Mrs. Jeffries and the Yuletide Weddings (November 3, 2009) Just as Inspector Witherspoon's staff prepares for the long-awaited wedding of Betsy and Smythe, a Yuletide murder falls in the Inspector's lap. A middle-aged spinster has been killed in what her murderer hoped would look like a random crime. But the Inspector's investigation reveals a web of lies, intrigue, and long-buried secrets.

• Ken Bruen: London Boulevard (November 24, 2009) When Mitchell is released from prison after serving three years for a vicious attack he doesn’t remember, Billy Norton is there to pick him up. But Norton works for Tommy Logan, a ruthless loan shark lowlife with plans Mitchell wants nothing to do with. Attempting to stay out of Logan’s way, he finds work at the Holland Park mansion of faded movie actress, Lillian Palmer. It isn’t long before Mitchell’s violent past catches up with him and people start getting hurt. When his disturbed sister Briony is threatened, Mitchell is forced to act.

• Don Bruns: Stuff to Spy For (November 2, 2009) (3rd novel featuring bumbling South Florida sleuths Skip Moore and James Lessor). When Sarah Crumbly, an old high school friend, approaches Skip about updating the security for Synco Systems, Skip accepts because he's promised a big bonus if he also pretends to be Sarah's boyfriend. Sarah, a high-rent call girl, happens to be the mistress of Synco's married CEO, Sandy Conroy, with whom she has plans to leave the country. Complications ensue after Synco's V-P turns up dead in his office. Skip, James and Skip's girlfriend, Emily, become bargain-basement James Bonds as they acquire an assortment of nifty spy stuff to use in their investigation.

• Jim Butcher: Death Masks Dresden Files (November 3, 2009). Harry Dresden is not having a good day. A vampire named Ortega wants to challenge him to a duel that will end the war between the vampires and the wizards. Harry, who has almost no hope of winning, is preoccupied by another problem: Father Vincent needs his help in finding the stolen Shroud of Turin, but he learns he isn't the only one after it. A group of terrifying demons wants the shroud, and its leader is interested in Harry's soul, too. Harry must call on all of his friends, including three brave knights, his police-officer friend, and even his half-vampire ex-girlfriend.

• Lillian Stewart Carl: The Charm Stone (November 18, 2009) Jean Fairbairn’s significant other, ex-Scottish cop Alasdair Cameron, might sometimes wish he could pass judgment on the dingbats Jean writes about. Especially when her current subjects, a set of batty conspiracy theorists, may be involved in the theft of a Williamsburg-crafted replica of the sixteenth-century Witch Box. Can Jean maintain her resolve to abandon the academic battlefield forever, or will she be tempted back into combat by an appealing former colleague, Matthew Frost? And what about Alasdair, who is supposedly retired from the rigors of law enforcement, but who is now confronted not only by a theft but two murder cases—and by Stephanie Venegas, the detective in charge.

• Cassandra Chan: A Spider on the Stairs (November 10, 2009) Phillip Bethancourt and Jack Gibbons are both in Yorkshire, Phillip to visit family for the holidays, Jack to find out if a serial killer is at work. A bookshop clerk has been strangled, and Jack has very little to go on.

• Mark Coggins: The Big Wake Up  (November 1, 2009) Soon after flirting with an attractive young woman in a laundromat, San Francisco PI August Riordan watches in horror as a deranged cable car operator guns her and an older woman down. Riordan pursues the killer and stops his bloody rampage. The Argentine family of the first victim, 23-year-old Araceli Rivero, hires him to investigate an unrelated matter, the location of Araceli's dead aunt, whose body was transferred from a Milan cemetery to somewhere in the Bay Area. After quickly getting a promising lead, Riordan learns that his clients have been less than straight with him and the missing corpse is actually that of Evita Peron.

• Cleo Coyle: Holiday Grind (November 3, 2009) Coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi has grown very fond of Alfred Glockner, part-time comic and charity Santa who's been using her Village Blend as a place to warm his mittens. When she finds him brutally gunned down in a nearby alley, clues convince her that Alfred's death was something more than the tragic result of a random mugging--the conclusion of the police. With Clare's boyfriend, NYPD Detective Mike Quinn, distracted by a cold case of his own, and ex-husband Matt investigating this year's holiday lingerie catalogs (an annual event), Clare charges ahead solo to solve her beloved Santa's slaying. Then someone tries to ice Clare, and she really gets steamed.

• Clive Cussler and Justin Scott: The Wrecker (November 17, 2009) It is 1907, and train wrecks, fires, and explosions sabotage the Southern Pacific Railroad. Desperate, the railroad hires the fabled Van Dorn Detective Agency. Van Dorn sends in his best man, and Isaac Bell quickly discovers that a mysterious saboteur haunts the hobo jungles of the West, a man known as the Wrecker, who recruits accomplices from the down-and-out to attack the railroad, and then kills them afterward. 

• Vicki Delany: Winter of Secrets (November 1, 2009) Siblings Wendy and Jason Wyatt-Yarmouth and their friends are in the peaceful mountain town of Trafalgar, B.C. enjoying a two-week vacation. Tragedy strikes the group of privileged students when two of them crash through the ice into the frozen river.

• Christopher Fowler: Bryant & May on the Loose (November 24, 2009) The Peculiar Crimes Unit is no more. After years of defying the odds and infuriating their embarrassed superiors, detectives Arthur Bryant and John May have at last crossed the line and not even their eccentric genius or phenomenal success rate solving London’s most unusual crimes can save them. While Bryant takes to his bed, his bathrobe, and his esoteric books, the rest of the team take to the streets looking for new careers—leading one of them to stumble upon a gruesome murder. Still it takes the bizarre sightings of a great horned creature—half man, half stag—carrying off young women to convince Bryant that this is a case worth getting dressed and leaving the house to solve. The Home Office has reluctantly authorized the PCU to reunite for one last encore performance.

• J. M. Gregson: Darkness Visible (November 1, 2009) When small-time drug dealer Darren Chivers narrowly escapes a police arrest, he begins to develop a different sort of criminal activity. Blackmail proves lucrative, but ultimately lethal. As Chief Superintendent Lambert and DS Hook interview the dead man's contacts, secrets tumble out as the investigation progresses and the solution to the puzzle is as startling as it is shocking.

• H. Terrell Griffin: Wyatt's Revenge (November 16, 2009) On balance, retired trial lawyer turned-beach bum Matt Royal is a pretty laid-back fellow. But when Laurence Wyatt, one of Matt's best friends, is murdered, Matt trades in his easygoing ways for a hard-hitting quest for revenge. Matt knows the Longboat Key police will do their job in investigating. But for Matt, finding Wyatt's killer isn't a job; it's personal.

• C. S. Harris: What Remains of Heaven (November 3, 2009) Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, is asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury to help in the investigation of two corpses found in an ancient crypt, their violent deaths separated by decades. One is the Bishop of London, the elderly Archbishop's favored but controversial successor. The identity of the other seems lost in time. Sebastian amasses a list of suspects that range from some of the Prince Regent's closest cronies to William Franklin, embittered son of famous American patriot Ben Franklin-and finds himself confronting the well-guarded secrets of his own family's history. 

• Ellen Hart: The Mirror and the Mask (November 10, 2009) Minneapolis restaurateur Jane Lawless is at crossroads. The rough economy has put her plans for a third restaurant on hold, and her long distance romance is on the rocks. Unsure of what to do next, she takes her good friend A. J. Nolan up on his standing offer to take her on as a private investigator. While still in training, her first job seems simple enough. All she had to do is find Annie Archer’s stepfather. Jane tracks down a likely match—a man who has made a small fortune in real estate. While she’s happy to close her first case, she finds it hard to reconcile the difference between PI work—finding what people pay you to find—and uncovering the truth, the whole truth, especially when clues in this seemingly simple case point to more threatening family secrets than where Annie’s father has been hiding out.

• Steven F. Havill: Red, Green, or Murder (November 1, 2009) Former Posadas County Sheriff Bill Gastner, now a New Mexico Livestock Inspector, is enjoying a day on Herb Torrances. But old habits die hard and when a ranch hand goes missing, Gastner helps with the search. When Reyes-Guzman thinks something is a bit suspicious about the death of George Payton, an “irascible old retired gun dealer,” Gastner is quick to lend a hand and an opinion.But Bill soon finds himself ferrying a broken cowpuncher in the back of his SUV, headed out to meet an ambulance.

• Sue Henry: The End of The Road (November 3, 2009)  Maxie McNabb and her miniature dachshund, Stretch, are just back from their latest adventure when a murder shatters the quiet in their hometown of Homer, Alaska. Now it’s up to Maxie to find the killer—a search that leads her to a place called “the end of the road.”

• Victoria Houston: Dead Renegade (November 2009)  Retired dentist, Doc Osborne, is helping his daughter, Erin, who has just opened her own legal practice, when Doc Osborne stumbles over a rug and human remains tumble onto the floor. While he is alerting Chief of Police Lew Ferris, he learns that his granddaughter, Mason, may be the victim of an assault. This brings back ugly memories exacerbated by the release of a man, a former Loon Lake resident, convicted twenty years earlier of attempted murder -- and who once stalked another of Osborne’s daughters.

• Graham Ison: Breach of Privilege (November 1, 2009) Brit cop duo Harry Brock and Dave Poole catch the case after politician Hugh Blakemore is gunned down by a helmeted motorcyclist at a bus stop in London. But there is a complication that, at first, misleads the detectives: months previously, Blakemore killed an inmate when visiting a prison. Although Blakemore was exonerated, Brock is convinced that underworld characters have exacted revenge.

• Martin Limón: G.I. Bones (November 1, 2009) Korean fortuneteller Aunti Mee insists The Wandering Ghost of Tech Sergeant Florencio R. Moretti will not leave her alone. The GI went missing two decades ago back in 1953. U.S. 8th Army Criminal Investigation Detachment investigators Sergeants George Sueno and Ernie Bascom are assigned to investigate what everyone in CID including them assumes is a corpse, but soon run into the wrath of the Seven Dragons gang.

• Jeff Markowitz: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder (November 6, 2009)  At odds with her new boss, tabloid reporter Cassie O’Malley finds herself covering the shopping mall at Christmas. Cassie wants nothing to do with the assignment. Then Big Mack turns up dead in the men’s room, his throat slit. Sensing an opportunity for fifteen minutes of fame, mall security guard Oliver Berryhill spins a heroic tale of his confrontation in the men’s room with the loan shark. The police are skeptical, but Big Mack’s son, the even bigger Little Mack is determined to avenge his father’s murder. Barely a week later, a second body turns up in the employee break room and Cassie finds herself covering a double homicide. In a race against time, Cassie must solve the double murder before a third victim is killed.

• David Poyer: The Crisis (November 10, 2009) Dan Lenson (12th) Naval Commander Dan Lenson and his Tactical Analysis Group. are assigned to “transform” a patrol craft squadron in the Red Sea into a leaner, meaner Navy. Meanwhile, in northern Africa, drought and famine have brought a nation to the brink of civil war. When the U.S. decides on intervention to stabilize the region, Dan and his team become the point people for the humanitarian mission.

• J. D. Robb: Kindred in Death (November 3, 2009) When the newly promoted captain of the NYPSD and his wife return a day early from their vacation, they were looking forward to spending time with their bright and vivacious sixteen-year-old daughter who had stayed behind. Not even their worst nightmares could have prepared them for the crime scene that awaited them instead. Brutally murdered in her bedroom, Deena's body showed signs of trauma that horrified even the toughest of cops; including Lieutenant Eve Dallas, specifically requested by the captain to investigate. When the evidence starts to pile up, Dallas and her team think they are about to arrest their perpetrator; little do they know yet that someone has gone to great lengths to tease and taunt them by using a variety of identities. 

• Stella Whitelaw: Fold and Die (November 1, 2009) Jordan Lacey, Latching's zany but intrepid private eye, goes cruising to Norway as the undercover bodyguard of Joanna Carter, a woman who believes that her life is in danger. Then Joanna is murdered. Under suspicion for the crime, and hampered by storms, winds, and a cast of mysterious characters, can Jordan solve the mystery before it's too late?

• Dave Zeltserman: Bad Karma (November 6, 2009) In Boulder, two University of Colorado students are battered to death in the bedroom of the condo they share. When one of the victim's mothers sues condo owner Chris Jackson, former cop turned private investigator Bill Shannon is hired to investigate the homicides. At about the same time, in a separate case, a distraught mom Pauline Cousins of Portland Oregon also hires Shannon to learn if her daughter is okay since she joined the True Light cult.

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.

Halloween Blog-O'-Lanterns

Kathleen Ryan, one of The Women of Mystery, posted several Halloween links for your seasonal and entertaining pleasure, although I'll emphasize a couple of them below.

The Stiletto Gang is holding a Hallopalooza starting October 30th. Included in a Halloween Blog Mystery Scavenger hunt, complete with prizes.

Janet Rudolph's Mystery Fanfare has a listing of Halloween mysteries, and if you start today and read 13 of them each day through Halloween, you'll get through all 52 on the list, with a daily short-story chaser.

The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City is hosting a special Halloween party celebrating the release of Otto Penzler's latest anthology, The Vampire Archives. The fun starts October 29th at 6pm with Mr. Penzler and bibliographer Daniel Seitler available to sign books. There'll be some munchies, too.

The bookstore Mystery Loves Company in Oxford, Maryland, is one of the featured participants in a city trick-or-treat event. Come with your best Halloween costume and join them for the party starting at 5:30 on October 31st.

Over at Laurie's Wild West blog, view the exhibit of Halloween-themed pulp fiction covers, with one addition courtesy of Davy Crocketts Almanack.

Sandra Seamans has a little paranormal activity to check out.

J.D. Rhoades at Murderati and Elaine Viets at The Lipstick Chronicles share their favorite ghost stories (with Elaine's having a personal connection).

Eric Cole is featuring 13 Days of Horror, featuring stories and poems by guest contributors.

Still struggling with an idea for your Jack-O-Lantern design? The Oakland Tribune held a pumpkin-carving contest and posted the winners in a slide show on their web site (with thanks to Bill Crider for the link).

New Kids on the Blog

It's always a pleasure to welcome new arrivals to the blogosphere, particularly in the crime fiction realm. So, take a moment to say "howdy" to some new friends.

Mystery Page Turners is a blog out of Canada created by a newly-minted librarian who also holds a Master's and Ph.D in English. Right now, she's sharing novels that she finds interesting, in keeping with the blog's stated theme of "Looking for a great mystery novel to read – one that you can’t put down?" There will be a mix of old and new included to suit various tastes.

British historical crime author R.N. Morris has started the Bloody Blog. It's so new, it's still got a little shrink wrap around the edges, but we'll welcome posts like his recent "From a Manual of Medical Jurisprudence, Insanity and Toxicology (1903)."

Crime Watch was born in August and is the brainchild of writer/reviewer Craig Sisterson from New Zealand, who focuses on crime fiction from that region (but others, too). He's been participating in the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme started by the Mysteries in Paradise blog, and his latest post is a feature of Kiwi author Paddy Richardson.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

The Whistleblower, a movie based on a true story, has added Monica Belluci, David Strathairn, Vanessa Redgrave, and Nikolaj Lie Kaas to the previously-announced Rachel Weisz in the big-name cast. The film is based on an American policewoman who volunteered to assist in the humanitarian crisis following the Bosnian War and uncovered a sex trafficking organization involving UN officials.

TV

• NBC has a new drama project in the works (it begs the question, though—where are they going to put it?). Nola Rising is  from producer Teri Weinberg and writer Diane Ademu-John (Medium). The plot involves "a down-on-his-luck private investigator and a charismatic ex-con capable of being inhabited by ghosts who become unlikely partners to help solve the problems of New Orleans citizens, living or dead."

• Although it's not yet a done deal, it appears that TNT will be the victor in the battle to get Southland, the cop drama ditched by NBC for Leno.

• Fox has ordered three more Lie to Me scripts, which falls short of a straight back-nine order, but ensures the crime drama will be around a little bit longer.

• ABC has picked up its crime drama Castle starring Nathan Fillion for a full second season.

• TNT is bringing back the drama The Closer for a three-week run beginning Monday, December 7 at 9 PM, with the final three episodes from season five.

• The Mentalist is adding a new regular to its CBI team beginning in early 2010. The character’s name is Agent Beth Scott and is described as a "forty-something, authoritative African American woman who is a veteran in the California Bureau of Investigations headquarters." 

• Andie MacDowell will star in the two new Lifetime TV movies, At Risk and The Front, based on Patricia Cornwell books. "I play a real bitch," she said. "I was a narcissistic sex addict and had to sleep with young men."

WEB/RADIO

• The Inkwell Bookstore blog has a 3-part interview up with Elmore Lenoard from a talk he gave at Montgomery College.

• Poisoned Pen is going to upload its newest author interview videos in their short version on YouTube each week. The longer, complete versions will be found on the bookstore blog.

• WBUR-Boston had a feature about writer George V. Higgins. When Elmore Leonard called The Friends of Eddie Coyle by Higgins the best crime novel ever written, he didn’t know Higgins hated being called a crime writer. "He saw himself as the Charles Dickens of crime in Boston instead of a crime writer...he just understood the human condition and he understood it most vividly in the language and actions among low lives."

• The latest Crimewav podcast is up, featuring Richie Narvaez and his story "In the Kitchen with Johnny Albino." Narvaez has had stories in Plots With Guns, Thrilling Detective and more and is the founder of AsininePoetry.com.

THEATER

• The Manitoba Theatre Centre's 2009-10 season opened Thursday night with a play based on Dorothy L. Sayers' murder mystery Strong Poison featuring Lord Peter Wimsey.

• The Steve Allen Theatre in L.A. is featuring "An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe," loosely based on real events and "follows Poe on a cross-country speaking tour fraught with strange occurrences that signal Poe's descent into madness." The one-man show features Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator, From Beyond, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), and was extended through October 31st.
  

Forgotten Books Friday, Halloween Edition

He's been called the "Edgar Allan Poe of the 20th century," the "father of noir fiction," "the Hitchcock of the written word," and "our poet of the shadows." It's quite possible more film noir screenplays were adapted from his works than any other crime novelist, including films by Hitchcock, Truffaut and Fassbinder, with many stories also adapted during the 1940s for radio.Yet, when the centennial of his birth rolled around in 2003, few of his works were available in stores in or print, and the date passed with mostly a collective yawn.

Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich, who also wrote under the pseudonyms William Irish and George Hopley, was an eccentric, alcoholic, and a diabetic, who had a leg amputated due to an infection from a too-tight shoe. He was both shy and arrogant, but primarily a loner, who was said to have so few friends he rarely put dedications on his novels, and when he did, they were to things like his Remington Portable typewriter and a hotel room he hated. He was a conflicted homosexual who married briefly as a joke, and ended up living with his mother in a rat-infested Harlem tenement with pimps, prostitutes and criminals, even though they could have afforded better (upon his death, he left a bequest of one million dollars to Columbia University, to fund a scholarship for young writers).

He started out writing romantic fiction imitating F. Scott Fitzgerald, but turned to pulp fiction in 1934 and wrote for magazines like Black Mask, Detective Fiction Weekly and Dime Detective. His golden period came between the years of 1934 to 1948, although he continued to write off and on until his death in 1968. Both his earlier and many of his later works weren't on the same level as the middle output (although he wrote several good later stories for EQMM). Even Francis M. Nevins, Woolrich's literary executor who wrote a critical biography and edited three of the Woolrich short story collections, admitted that "purely on its merits as prose, it's dreadful."

Yet, those middle works included tales like the story "Rear Window" which later became a famous Alfred Hitchcock movie. In the introduction to the Woolrich story collection, Night and Fear, Nevins talks about Woolrich's first crime story, "Death Sits in the Dentist's Chair," which paints a vivid picture of New York City during the Depression, a bizarre murder method (cynanide in a temporary filing), and a race against the clock to save the poisoned protagonist, elements that would become Woolrich hallmarks. Nevins writes "in his tales of 1934-39, Woolrich created, almost from scratch, the builidng blocks of the literature we have come to call noir."

The 14 stories in Night and Fear, published by Otto Penzler in 2004, contain all the elements that came to be associated with Woolrich, including the intense, feverish, irrational nature of his world, and plots often filled with outlandish contrivances and coincidences. But Nevins concludes that "in his most powerful work these are not gaffes but functional elements," and that Woolrich believed "an incomprehensible universe is best reflected in an incomprehensible story." Thus, Woolrich's oft-quoted aphorism, "First you dream, then you die."

In Night and Fear, you'll find stories like "Endicott's Girl," which Woolrich once listed as his personal favorite, about a cop who begins to suspect his beloved teenage daughter is a murderer and covers up the evidence; "Cigarette" where a poison cigarette is passed from person to person; and "New York Blues," which is probably Woolrich's final story, involving the claustrophobic imaginings of a lonely man as he waits for the police in his secluded hotel room for a crime he's not sure he even committed:

It's a woman's scarf; that much I know about it. And that's about all. But whose? Hers? And how did I come by it? How did it get into the side pocket of my jacket, dangling on the outside, when I came in here early Wednesday morning in some sort of traumatic daze, looking for room walls to hide inside of as if they were a folding screen...

It's flimsy stuff, but it has a great tensile strength when pulled against its grain. The strength of the garrote. It's tinted in pastel colors that blend, graduate, into one another, all except one. it goes from a flamingo pink to a peach tone and then to a still paler flesh tint—and then suddenly an angry, jagged splash of blood colors comes in, not even like the other...

The blood isn't red anymore. It's rusty brown now. But it's still blood, all the same. Ten years from now, twenty, it'll still be blood; faded out, vanished, the pollen of, the dust of blood. What was one once warm and moving. And made blushes and rushed with anger and paled with fear. Like that night—

Fortunately you can find more Woolrich works available these days, including re-releases of some of his novels and short stories by Hard Case Crime, Pegasus Books. Random House, and others. Almost any one of his stories would make for fine Halloween fare, as you find yourself sucked down into the nihilistic noir world that Woolrich created.

A Little Montana and Toronto, Too!

The Montana Festival of the Book starts today, and if you happen to be in that area, check out the panel discussion at 3pm titled "The Last Good Kiss: An Appreciation of James Crumley." Michael Koepf will interview Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos, Laura Lippman and James Grady about the writings of Montana mystery writer James Crumley and his impact on the mystery genre. Later tonight at 7:30, Lehane will join up with Maile Meloy and Andrew Sean Greer for readings from their novels. Saturday brings an interview with David Simon and Pelecanos about The Wire television series, followed by readings from Pelecanos and Lippman; later that evening, James Lee Burke reads from his work, along with Marianne Wiggins and Kevin Canty.

A little farther north, the International Festival of Authors in Toronto runs through November 3rd. Because of a partnership this year with the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Scottish government, there will be appearances by Ian Rankin, Denise Mina and Quintin Jardine as part of the festival's focus on Scotland. Other crime fiction authors in attendance are Linwood Barclay, John Brady, Michael Connelly, Iain Pears and Kathy Reichs. This is the 30th year for the festival, which is cram-packed with writers of all stripes, fiction, poetry, nonfiction, including some interesting groupings and topics of discussion.

Mystery Melange

• Aida Edemariam of The Guardian points out that the recent "balloon boy" hoax wasn't the first such incident, with one famous balloon hoax dating from April 1844. In that year, the New York Sun ran excerpts from a faked diary allegedly penned by the navigators of a hot air balloon called the Victoria, who crossed the Atlantic in "75 hours from shore to shore!" The author behind that hoax was none other than Edgar Allan Poe. Another interesting side note to the balloon story -- Janet Hutchings, editor of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, posted in their forum the irony that Tom Piccirilli’s EQMM story "Between the Dark and the Daylight" was being announced as one of the nominees for best short story at Bouchercon's Macavity Awards ceremony as the true-life Heene family hoax was unfolding. Tom’s story is about a father who puts his son in the basket of a hot-air balloon and accidentally lets the balloon get away from him with only the boy on board. Even the setting, the Colorado Rockies, was the same, and in fact Balloon Boy and his family live five minutes from Piccirilli.

• It's a Crime! posted a note about a book review site, Flashlight Worthy, that provides book recommendations in the form of lists. On the main page of the site is a sample of such lists, including "Keystone Mysteries: The Best Mystery Books Set in Pennsylvania."

• Brian Lindemuth posted his choices for Top 50 Favorite Novels of the Decade on BSC Review, breaking them down by year of publication. As he notes, "This isn’t a record of the most influential, those that had the most impact or even the most popular. Just my favorites. I would gladly grab any one of these books today and read it again. And in some cases I have."

• From the Gumshoe Site comes the sad news of the death of Norma Fox Mazer from brain cancer. She wrote more than 25 books for young adults and children, winning two Lewis Carroll Shelf Awards, a Newbery Honor Book award, and an Edgar Award in the juvenile category for Taking Terri Mueller.

• The Library Journal has a review of two books lumped under the theme "Paging Jack Reacher Fans." Included are Noah Boyd's debut novel, The Bricklayer, and Stephen Hunter's I, Sniper: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel. The reviewers wonder if the same basic premise that launched Lee Child's ex-army MP Jack Reacher to best-sellerdom will work for Boyd's ex-FBI agent-turned-bricklayer Steve Vail, and call Swagger "a loner, a paladin, and a violent and politically incorrect corrector of injustice, a cousin to Lee Child's Jack Reacher."

• Dear Author has a long, but detailed posting on Reclaiming Your Copyright After Thirty-Five Years, something all authors should read in hopes of having more control over their book rights.

• And a couple of Hollywood angst stories:  the Mail Online takes a look at author anger over celebrities who write bad books (P.D. James is quoted as saying "What surprises me is that people are prepared to buy them because there's a celebrity on the cover") and it appears that Hollywood stars are being banned from Twitter. Seems that studios want to prevent actors from leaking film information and are even inserting clauses in their contracts to that effect.

The Book Studio

In case you haven't checked it out yet, head over to the online Book Studio, sponsored by Washington, D.C., public television station, WETA*, and headed by editor/critic Bethanne Patrick, who has reviewed for Publishers Weekly, managed the AOL Books channel and blogged for Barnes and Noble. Along with a team of book reviewers, Patrick and the Book Studio offer one new video interview per week, four audio interviews, plus two written reviews on the site. In addition, Patrick has launched a monthly Twitter Book Club.

Although Patrick says she likes to think they're building a review site, her online interviews are as much a feature about the author as it is a book review.  ("I want to show that author interviews don't have to just be about books.") She notes that Washington is a good book town and some authors, such as Michael Connelly, have come back for repeat interviews.

For examples of content, check out the recent features with Michael Connelly, George Pelecanos, Sara Paretsky and Linda Fairstein.

* Disclosure notice: the hubster works for WETA-FM.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

• Tommy Lee Jones is in negotiations to direct and co-star in the film adaptation of Michael Connelly's The Lincoln Lawyer. It's unknown what part he would play, however, as Matthew McConaughey is being touted as the title character of Los Angeles lawyer Mickey Haller.

• Chris Pine (Star Trek) may become the next actor to play Jack Ryan, the CIA analyst made popular in the Tom Clancy thriller novels. Previous films starred Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck.

• Columbia Pictures has acquired rights to remake the U.K. miniseries Red Riding, based on four David Peace novels. Steve Zaillian is being tapped to write the script and Ridley Scott to direct. The miniseries is revolves around police corruption and how it ties in with the investigation into the disappearance of several young girls.

• Jerry Bruckheimer hasn't given up on a film version of Lorenzo Carcaterra's novel Apaches about a group of renegade cops, even though he's been developing it for over a decade. Bruckheimer's production company has hired Sean O'Keefe and Will Staples to try and bring the project together, finally.

TV

• CBS is planning a CSI extravaganza for November sweeps, in which Laurence Fishburne will appear in all three shows in one week. His character, Dr. Raymond Langston, will visit CSI: Miami on November 9, then CSI: NY on November 11 and finally his own CSI on November 12. The three are tied together via a human trafficking plot.

• Speaking of CSI, Jorja Fox can't seem to leave the drama. She'll be returning for an open-ended run, although there's no talk of bringing her on-camera "husband," Gil Grissom (played by William Peterson), back for any guest-starring appearances.

• Southland, recently dumped by Leno-heavy NBC, may be heading to TNT. The cable network is talking with Warner Brothers TV to pick up the gritty cop drama.

• FOX has reduced the episode order for the upcoming mid-season crime drama Past Life produced by Warner Bros. Television. The series, scheduled to follow American Idol on Tuesday, is down to only seven episodes including the pilot.

• The CW announced six new projects including Spy School for Girls. The series is from executive producer Mark Schwahn (One Tree Hill), and is based on the book Spy School by Larry Kolb about female spies training at the CIA. 

• ABC ordered 13 episodes of a crime drama called The Gates, about a city cop who becomes the chief of police for a seemingly sedate planned community where crime resides. Richard Hatem and Grant Scharbo are writing the script.

• Although NCIS isn’t particularly well-known for its music, the top-rated drama released a soundtrack in February and now there will be a follow-up, NCIS: The Official TV Soundtrack, Vol. 2, due out this winter.

• FOX has given a script order to an untitled drama pilot from writer/executive producer Ben Watkins (Burn Notice) about an undercover female investigator who works with the works for the Alameda County D.A.'s office. She's of mixed heritage who questions her own identity, having been adopted as a baby.

• A&E has given a pilot order to the cop drama The Quickening, about a female LAPD detective who suffers from bipolar disorder. Radha Mitchell (Surrogates) has been hired to star.

• Filming for the drama Vera, based on a book by crime fiction author Ann Cleeves, is currently underway on location in Newcastle and Northumberland. ITV has signed Gina McKee and Brenda Blethyn to star.
  

WEB/RADIO

• PBS's Tavis Smiley show featured James Ellroy talking about Blood's a Rover.

• The Mystery Bookstore was the subject of a radio interview with the UCLA Daily Bruin last week, and the archived podcast also includes a clip of Brett Battles, reading from his latest novel.