At Murder by the Book this afternoon, a fan named Pat, who attended my first signing there 25 years ago, brought me 2 cartons of Dr Pepper made with real sugar and bottled in glass. Along with a couple of other little things. A real surprise and a fine treat.
And then I signed something I'd never signed before: a high school annual. John Stover, who was a student at Corsicana High when I taught there in 1963-64 brought his Corsican for me to sign. The photos of me were amazing. I looked about 15. Wow. A long time gone.
If you couldn't be there but would still like to have a signed copy, just click the link above and you'll find the phone number. Give 'em a call, and tell 'em I sent you.
Neil Armstrong, First Man To Walk On The Moon, Has Died: Neil Alden Armstrong has died at age 82. He was an astronaut, pilot, aerospace engineer, professor, and was the first person to set foot upon the Moon. His most famous words: “That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.”
A Box of Pandoras: Steve Brewer: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: A BOX OF PANDORAS is a hilarious new mystery from veteran author Steve Brewer, introducing small-town busybody Loretta Kimball.
When Loretta learns her favorite actor is coming to New Mexico for a film festival, she couldn't be more excited. Loretta's claim to fame is that she's the long-time president of the International Michael Girard Fan Club, and she never passes up a chance to see Mr. Girard in person.
The festival is in trendy Santa Fe, which is practically a different planet from rural New Mexico towns like Pandora, where Loretta lives, so she expects a certain amount of weirdness when she and her husband, Harley, attend. And she is determined not to let her lifelong nemesis, Mitzi Tyner, ruin the festival for her.
Then murder strikes the film festival, and suspicion is cast upon Mr. Girard. Loretta is thrown into the midst of a media circus while she snoops around, endangering her own life while trying to uncover the killer.
Josepha Sherman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Josepha Sherman (December 12, 1946 – August 23, 2012) was an American author, folklorist, and anthologist.[1] In 1990 she won the Compton Crook Award for the novel The Shining Falcon.[2]
BEAT to a PULP :: Pulp of the Week: The Step Away
a Charlie Byrne grind
If you can't be there, order a signed copy.
Otis Adelbert Kline, Maza of the Moon, Ace, 1965
Mail Online: Jerry Nelson, the puppeteer who voiced Sesame Street's Count von Count, died yesterday.
The 78-year-old passed away of unspecified causes.
Lisa Henson, CEO of The Jim Henson Company and daughter to its legendary founder, confirmed the news on the company's Facebook page today.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
The Top 10 Henry James Novels
I'm not a James fan, but I've read eight of these. Chalk it up to being an English major.
Judicial Watch: In an inconceivable breach, an 82-year-old nun along with two other seniors somehow managed to evade what the U.S. government calls the “most stringent security in the world” to break into a nuclear weapons laboratory often referred to as the “Fort Knox of Uranium.”
Inside Bay Area: A man accused of driving his car at two people in Tiburon - one of whom because he was wearing a plaid jacket - pleaded guilty to an assault charge Thursday.
Hat tip to Art Scott.
Hot Pursuit: Paul Bishop: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: A Calico Jack Walker / Tina Tamiko L.A.P.D. novel . . .
It’s 1977 and veteran L.A.P.D. cop Calico Jack Walker and his rookie partner, Tina Tamiko, are planning to make Calico’s last shift on the job something special – but plans, as they do, come apart because Walker and Tamiko are good cops no matter what the cost . . . even if they're L.A. cops, in uniform, in their patrol car, on duty, and way out of their jurisdiction on the Las Vegas Strip.
When a major crime is going down, good cops never hesitate.
Fireproof: Gerard Brennan: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Hell hath no fury for Mike Rocks. He's fireproof; an anomaly caused by a slip-up in afterlife bureaucracy. Lucifer bundles him off as an embarrassing problem with a mission to introduce Satanism to Northern Ireland. And while he's at it, Mike can exact revenge on the men who took his life.
FIREPROOF is equal parts crime fiction, dark urban fantasy and black comedy.
For fans of Colin Bateman, Charlie Huston and Duane Swierczynski.
"scintillating, hilarious, surreal … a total blast" Ken Bruen, author of HEADSTONE
Don't forget that signed copies are available from Murder by the Book and that I'll be signing there tomorrow at 4:30.
Amazon.com: Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen: A Dan Rhodes Mystery (Sheriff Dan Rhodes Mysteries) (9780312640170): Bill Crider: Books: Dan Rhodes, sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas, is called to the Beauty Shack, where the young and pretty Lynn Ashton has been found dead, bashed over the head with a hairdryer. The owner said Lynn had gone to the salon late to meet an unknown client. There was a lot of gossip going on about Lynn before her death, but no one seems to really know much about her, or they’re not telling Rhodes.
Lynn was known to flirt, and it’s possible an angry wife or jilted lover had something to do with her death. The salon owner suspects two outsiders who have been staying in an abandoned building across the street. While he investigates the murder, Rhodes must also deal with the theft of copper and car batteries, not to mention a pregnant nanny goat that is terrorizing the town.
Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen is a wonderful entry in this always delightful series by award-winning author Bill Crider.
Glenn Canary, The Trailer Park Girls, Monarch, 1962
Alternative authors: Alternative authors' versions of
Lord of the Rings
by Alison Brooks
Sometimes nothing will do but a real pulp story, so the other day I pulled this book off the shelf. Everybody knows that Carroll John Daly's first Race Williams stories appeared in Black Mask. In 1934 after a disagreement about money, Daly began selling Williams stories in Dime Detective, and that's where the five in this book appeared.
I read the first one, "Some Die Hard," and it's very much like other stories in the series that I've read. For one thing, you'll find more exclamation marks on one page than in the entire works of most current crime writers. It begins when Race Williams goes to answer a mysterious letter he's received. The letter contains $200 and a key. It says: "If you don't come or don't get this letter in time, keep the money. I'll be dead." It's signed, "An unfortunate girl." The girl's unfortunate, all right. She's dead when Williams arrives, and of course the cops want to pin the murder on him. What follows is lots of action (and exclamation points) and a plot in which it's really true that things and people aren't what they seem to be.
I'm sure that eventually I'll get around to reading the other four stories in this volume, as some of them feature The Flame, one of Daly's dandy femme fatales. Apropos of nothing, I have no idea where I got or why it has that Canadian price tag.
CBS New York: Witness: Shooting Happened After Street Vendors Were Arguing Over A Spot
Hard to resist this kind of book, right?
Peril in Paperback: A Bibliophile Mystery: Kate Carlisle: 9780451237620: Amazon.com: Books: How to become the life of the party? First, survive the celebration…
Rare books and antiquities expert Brooklyn Wainwright is thrilled to be invited to the fiftieth birthday party of her neighbor Suzie’s aunt Grace. A retired founder of a major video game corporation, Grace is a larger-than-life character who’s turned her Lake Tahoe mansion into a fun house, full of everything from pinball machines and giant props to secret passageways and trap doors. Brooklyn is most excited to catalog Grace’s extensive collection of rare paperback pulp fiction.
Giant Freakin Robot: We lost one of the greats this past June when Ray Bradbury passed away at the age of 91. He left behind a large body of work and countless writers, filmmakers, and others who were influenced by his writing. Yesterday, Wednesday August 22nd, would have been Bradbury’s 92nd birthday, and NASA chose to commemorate the occasion in a truly special way: the location where the Curiosity Rover touched down on Mars has been named “Bradbury Landing.”
E. E. Smith, Spacehounds of IPC, Ace, 1966
NYTimes.com: Rosemary Rice, an actress who found fame in the early days of television playing the perky oldest daughter, Katrin, on “Mama,” a beloved family show broadcast live on CBS for many years, died on Aug. 14 at her home in Stamford, Conn. She was 87.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Nina Bawden, Author of ‘Carrie’s War,’ Dies at 87 - NYTimes.com: Nina Bawden, a writer for children and adults whose work included books born of personal tragedy, died on Wednesday at her home in London. She was 87.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
AbeBooks:The Most Expensive Signed Books Sold by AbeBooks: Books are always good but signed books are better. Signed books are plentiful in the modern world of publishing and bookselling thanks to author tours and busy promotional schedules that span the world. Major authors like Salman Rushdie and Ken Follett pride themselves on the massive number of books they sign at public appearances.
Neatorama: Marcus Banwell learned the hard way that if you steal hot peppers, you should wait until you are away from the store before you eat them. Banwell had apparently ingested at least one Scotch Bonnet pepper from the Singh Store in Bristol, England. The store owner heard a commotion as Barnwell doubled over and became sick from the fiery food.
As I've said before, you can't go wrong with a freebie from Mean Pete!
ONCE A RENEGADE (Ben Stillman): Peter Brandvold: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Fourth in the classic Ben Stillman series from Mean Pete Press!
Maybe it was a moment of insanity. Maybe it was revenge. Or maybe the Metis Indian, Shambeau, finally had enough of the white man's hatred.
Whatever it was, Sheriff Ben Stillman now has a murder case on his hands--and, as the law dictates, he must hunt down and hang the outlaw.
But nobody knows the land better than Shambeau. He could be anywhere.
Then again...nobody can track a bloodthirsty killer like Sheriff Ben Stillman. And there's no hiding from his swift brand of justice.
The deeper trouble for Stillman is--is this really justice? Does Shambeau really deserve to die, or was the old trapper just following the unwritten law of the old frontier?
Signed copies available from Murder by the Book, and I'll be there this Saturday at 4:30 to sign in person. Drop by if you're in town.
Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen: A Dan Rhodes Mystery (Sheriff Dan Rhodes Mysteries): Bill Crider: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Dan Rhodes, sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas, is called to the Beauty Shack, where the young and pretty Lynn Ashton has been found dead, bashed over the head with a hairdryer. The owner said Lynn had gone to the salon late to meet an unknown client. There was a lot of gossip going on about Lynn before her death, but no one seems to really know much about her, or they’re not telling Rhodes.
Lynn was known to flirt, and it’s possible an angry wife or jilted lover had something to do with her death. The salon owner suspects two outsiders who have been staying in an abandoned building across the street. While he investigates the murder, Rhodes must also deal with the theft of copper and car batteries, not to mention a pregnant nanny goat that is terrorizing the town.
Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen is a wonderful entry in this always delightful series by award-winning author Bill Crider.
Samuel R. Delany, City of a Thousand Suns, Ace, 1965
. . . who could ask for anything more? As I Lay Frying
Link via Neatorama.
UPI.com: A man proposed to his girlfriend immediately after the couple was arrested for aggravated robbery, San Antonio, police said.
The Darling Dahlias and the Confederate Rose: Susan Wittig Albert: 9780425247761: Amazon.com: Books: National bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert returns to the small town of Darling, Alabama, in the 1930s—and the Darling Dahlias, the ladies of a garden club who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty solving mysteries…
The Mindset List: 2016 List: For this generation of entering college students, born in 1994, Kurt Cobain, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Richard Nixon and John Wayne Gacy have always been dead.
BOOK RIOT: This Dominican church in Maastrich Netherlands was built in 1294, but when Napoleon pushed the order out in the 18th century, the church fell into disuse. In 2007, the Dutch chain Seleyx hired Merkx Girod to convert it into a bookstore. Rather than break up the vertical space with multiple floors, a three story “bookcase” takes up half of the church’s footprint. The building’s 8,000 square feet becomes more than 12,000 square feet of floorspace, maintaining the impressive scale of the church, while also making it feel modern.
Naturally you'll want to read my contribution, but all the others are well worth your time. Click here: IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS - Blog - Murderati
Amazon.com: Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen: A Dan Rhodes Mystery (Sheriff Dan Rhodes Mysteries) (9780312640170): Bill Crider: Books
Or for a signed copy, go to Murder by the Book's site. I'll be signing at MBTB this Saturday. Drop by if you're in Houston.
Dan Rhodes, sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas, is called to the Beauty Shack, where the young and pretty Lynn Ashton has been found dead, bashed over the head with a hairdryer. The owner said Lynn had gone to the salon late to meet an unknown client. There was a lot of gossip going on about Lynn before her death, but no one seems to really know much about her, or they’re not telling Rhodes.
Lynn was known to flirt, and it’s possible an angry wife or jilted lover had something to do with her death. The salon owner suspects two outsiders who have been staying in an abandoned building across the street. While he investigates the murder, Rhodes must also deal with the theft of copper and car batteries, not to mention a pregnant nanny goat that is terrorizing the town.
Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen is a wonderful entry in this always delightful series by award-winning author Bill Crider.
TheState.com: A man opened fire inside a McDonald’s restaurant on Broad River Road in Columbia late Friday night after getting into an argument with an employee at the drive-through window.
Edmond Hamilton, Crashing Suns, Ace, 1965
The Associated Press: RUSSIAN WOMAN KILLS ELDERLY NEIGHBOR WITH HER BRA
Big Think: Author Alain de Botton (Religion for Atheists, How Proust Can Change Your Life) and his partners at the London-based School of Life have taken this intuition a step further. Their “bibliotherapy” program matches individuals struggling in any aspect of their lives with a list of books hand-selected to help them through tough times. You get your reading list after an initial consultation with a bibliotherapist in which you discuss your life, your reading history, and your problems.
Imagine June Cleaver as a serial killer, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what this movie is all about. I like the idea, and I wanted to like the movie more than I did. I'm not sure what was wrong with it. Kathleen Turner is great. It looks great, just the way suburbia should, sunny and bright and cheerful. The supporting cast is fine (and who but John Waters would slip in Patty Hearst in a cameo role?). Something's a little off, though. The pacing, for one thing. Maybe some of the jokes.
The plot's pretty simple. Turner is, as I said, June Cleaver, except that people annoy her. So she kills them. Some of them in very bloody fashion. Eventually she's found out, so there's a trial. Ricki Lake, who plays Turner's daughter sells T-shirts outside the courthouse. Suzanne Somers shows up. Turner defends herself and is found not guilty on all counts. Which doesn't bode well for the Hearst character, who's guilty, all right -- of wearing white after labor day.
You have to be in the mood for this one, but it certainly has its moments. Quite a few of them, in fact. I wish I liked it better.
Reuters: People who keep their teeth and gums healthy with regular brushing may have a lower risk of developing dementia later in life, according to a U.S. study.
Jane Eyre, detective!
Amazon.com: Death of a Schoolgirl (The Jane Eyre Chronicles) (9780425247747): Joanna Campbell Slan: Books: In her classic tale, Charlotte Bronte introduced readers to the strong-willed and intelligent Jane Eyre. Picking up where Bronte left off, Jane’s life has settled into a comfortable pattern: She and her beloved Edward Rochester are married and have an infant son. But Jane soon finds herself in the midst of new challenges and threats to those she loves…
TMZ.com: Comedian Phyllis Diller -- who paved the way for today's female comics -- died this morning, TMZ has learned.
Sources close to Diller tell us the comedian died in her sleep at her L.A. home, surrounded by family. She was 95.
You can't go wrong with a free book from Mean Pete!
Devlin And Johnny Forever: Peter Brandvold: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: SEXY SOUTHERN-GOTHIC HORROR!
An all-new, ebook-exclusive backwoods horror story from Mean Pete Press!
Devlin had retreated to her family’s cabin in the Georgia woods to be alone with her thoughts. She’d had a tough time of it, breaking up with Johnny Bascomb after enduring his verbal and physical abuse, after losing their baby.
But when Devlin hears screams of bloody murder originating from the woods across the pond, she heads out to investigate and finds herself being hunted by the ghost of a Confederate soldier, freshly home from the Civil War...
Today while reading this post on John Scalzi's blog, I thought about my own policy about book reviewing. I think I've said before that I read a lot of books that I don't review, or at least I start reading them. I don't finish all of them. Anyway, the ones I comment on here are mostly the ones I like. I'm not here to warn you about some a book I don't care for. You might read it and love it, just as you might not like something that I like. A move comes to mind (Joe and the Volcano).
My PimPage is a little different. It's devoted to books that look interesting to me or that I've read and enjoyed but don't feel up to writing much about. My contributions to Friday's Forgotten Books are different, too. If I read something for that project, I feel obligated to comment, but I try to pick things I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy.
So I'll keep right on with the reviews, but only of stuff I care about and want to promote a little. I'm overwhelmed with books to read, and review copies come in all the time. I do what I can.
Samuel A. Krasney, Morals Squad, Ace, 1959
Channel NewsAsia: IGA, Japan: A 63-year-old former engineer may not fit the typical image of a dark-clad assassin with deadly weapons who can disappear into a cloud of smoke. But Jinichi Kawakami is reputedly Japan's last ninja.
'Top Gun' director Tony Scott jumps to his death from L.A. bridge - latimes.com: "Top Gun" director Tony Scott jumped to his death from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro on Sunday afternoon. He was 68.
His body was pulled out of the water by Los Angeles Port Police, who were the first on the scene.
Amazon.com: Death in Four Courses: A Key West Food Critic Mystery (9780451237835): Lucy Burdette: Books: The annual Key West Loves Literature seminar is drawing the biggest
names in food writing from all over the country, and Haley Snow is
there to catch a few fresh morsels of insider gossip. Superstar
restaurant critic Jonah Barrows has already ruffled a few foodie
feathers with his recent tell-all memoir, and as keynote speaker, he
promises more of the same jaw-dropping honesty.
But when Hayley discovers Jonah's body in a nearby dipping pool, the
cocktail hour buzz takes a sour turn, and Hayley finds herself at the
center of attention--especially with the police. Now it's up to her to
catch the killer before she comes to her own bitter finish.
NYTimes.com: William Windom, who won an Emmy Award playing an Everyman drawn from the pages of James Thurber but who may be best remembered for his roles on “Star Trek” and “Murder, She Wrote,” died on Thursday at his home in Woodacre, Calif., north of San Francisco. He was 88.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Mystery Fanfare: Jeff Sherratt: R.I.P.: Sad news. Sue Ann Jaffarian mentioned today that mystery author Jeff Sherratt has passed away.
TIME.com: He’s still writing, he says, noting that he has a biography of George Custer coming out in November, and has finished a memoir about his book collection that he hasn’t shipped to his publisher yet. The weekend has been all about the final chapters of that lifetime of accumulating books. But McMurtry says he has given up his work as a novelist. “It’s toward the end of my life,” he says as he contrasts the writing of fiction and the life of a book collector. “One of the great things about the life of an antiquarian bookseller is that it is progressive, you keep getting better and better and better the longer you do it. But writing novels is something else. It’s not progressive. You don’t get better.”
The Hollywood Reporter: Phyllis Thaxter, the wholesome actress who played Ma Kent in 1978’s Superman and the faithful girlfriend to vengeful POW Robert Ryan in the 1948 film noir classic Act of Violence, has died. She was 92.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Local News: An almost-midnight snack turned into a late-night smack for a Woodson family whose argument over a sandwich required police intervention.
Terra Nova wreck found off Greenland: The SS Terra Nova, the ship that took Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his team on their ill-fated expedition to the Antarctic a century ago, has been found on the seabed off Greenland.
The famous polar exploration vessel was known to have sunk off the coast of Greenland in September 1943 after being damaged by ice.
ABC Developing Tom Sawyer-Huckleberry Finn Drama (Exclusive) - Hollywood Reporter: The drama hails from Detroit 1-8-7 duo Jason Richman and David Zabel and is described as an adventure-themed reinvention that revolves around the two famed literary characters who re-meet as young men in their 20s and form an investigative firm in a bustling and steampunk New Orleans.
Contactmusic: Veteran singer Scott Mckenzie has died at the age of 73.
The star passed away in Los Angeles on Saturday (18Aug12). No further details were available as WENN went to press.
Burgess Leonard, The Thoroughbred and the Tramp, Ace, 1959
CBS News: The world's oldest commissioned warship will sail under its own power for just the second time in more than a century to commemorate the battle that won it the nickname "Old Ironsides."
The USS Constitution, which was first launched in 1797, will be tugged from its berth in Boston Harbor on Sunday to the main deepwater pathway into the harbor. It will then set out to open seas for a 10-minute cruise.
NY Daily News: A team of researchers trying to solve the mystery of aviator Amelia Earhart's 1937 disappearance said on Friday that underwater video from a Pacific island has revealed a field of man-made debris that could be remnants of her plane.
At Murder by the Book this afternoon, a fan named Pat, who attended my first signing there 25 years ago, brought me 2 cartons of Dr Pepper made with real sugar and bottled in glass. Along with a couple of other little things. A real surprise and a fine treat.
