Saturday, January 19, 2013
Earl Weaver, R. I. P.
MLB - Sporting News: Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver has died, according to MASN.com.
The New York Daily News reports Weaver had a heart attack early Saturday while on a Baltimore Orioles fantasy cruise in the Caribbean. He collapsed and was unable to be revived.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
The New York Daily News reports Weaver had a heart attack early Saturday while on a Baltimore Orioles fantasy cruise in the Caribbean. He collapsed and was unable to be revived.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
PA Leads the Way
seattlepi.com: A 5-year-old Pennsylvania girl who told another girl she was going to shoot her with a pink toy gun that blows soapy bubbles has been suspended from kindergarten.
Hat tip to Steve Stilwell.
Hat tip to Steve Stilwell.
Edgar Allan Poe Was Born on this Date in 1809
Mine Isn't
Texas talk is losing its twang - latimes.com: Back in the 1980s, about 80% of Texans interviewed by researchers at UT Austin, including many students, had traditional Texas accents. Now that's down to a third.
Don Graham, who's quoted a bit in the article, and I went to grad school together. I can vouch for his accent
Hat tip to Walter Satterthwait.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Robert F. Chew, R. I. P.
baltimoresun.com: Robert F. Chew, a 52-year-old Baltimore actor and teacher who portrayed one of television’s most unforgettable characters as Proposition Joe on HBO’s “The Wire,” died Thursday of apparent heart failure in his sleep at his home in Northeast Baltimore, according to Clarice Chews, his sister.
Gussie Moran, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Gussie Moran, who as a ranked American tennis player in 1949 caused an international stir and gained worldwide fame for competing at Wimbledon wearing a short skirt and lace-trimmed underwear, died on Wednesday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 89.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
Texas bank welcomes concealed handguns to stop ‘Yankee’ robbers: Chappell Hill Bank is thought to be the first bank in the nation to welcome concealed handguns.
Free Today for Kindle
Branham's Due (Holt County): Richard Prosch: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Holt County, Nebraska, 1881. Deputy sheriff Whit Branham sets out alone to bring in a scurvy killer, but will surprise alone be an advantage? Armed with his trusty Stevens 10-gauge and some hard won experience, even Branham isn't above giving the devil his due. This 3,000 word short story introduces Branham and is followed by a 2,000 word sneak peek at the deputy’s upcoming adventure, HOLT COUNTY LAW, a brand new novella slated for December.
Pimpage: An Occaional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Works of Interest
Integral works by James M. Cain, now available as ebooks
James M. Cain has been called one of the most important writers of American crime fiction. As one of the founding father of the hardboiled and noir genres, Cain’s influential novels inspired countless writers, filmmakers, and readers around the world.
MysteriousPress.com and Open Road Media are proud to announce the ebook release of twelve of Cain’s later works.
Similar to Cain’s earlier works, The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity, these later stories are filled with greed, regret, lust and murder, and his characters are portrayed with the same complexity and desperation.
About the Books: The Moth is a sweeping tale of love, loss, and the pursuit of beauty during the Great Depression.The Magician’s Wife is about a love triangle that turns fatal when a life insurance policy holds the promise of financial freedom. Past All Dishonor is the story of a Confederate spy that risks his life to win the heart of a fallen woman.
Other ebooks include:
· Sinful Woman
· Root of His Evil
· Galatea
· Mignon
· Jealous Woman
· Rainbow’s End
· The Institute
· Cloud Nine
· The Enchanted Isle
These ebooks, available for the first time digitally, now make it possible for American crime fiction fans to read the entire collection of the influential author’s work.
Forgotten Books: Buffalo Hunter: Hellhole -- Ralph Hayes
The Buffalo Hunter's name is O'Brien, and he's arrested and brutally beaten for a crime he didn't commit. He's sent to Bradenville, Texas' toughest prison, where the prisoners work in a big copper mine. The warden and the guards are brutal, and so are the prisoners. O'Brien's idea is to escape and get revenge on the men who really committed the crime he's accused of, along with the sheriff who sent him to prison. As you've probably guessed, he does.
That's it for the story, and I'll have to give Hayes credit. This is one book in which the action truly never stops. You're never more than a page or two away from another gunfight, beating, knifing, whatever, all described in loving detail. However, no buffalo are harmed.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Pauline Friedman Phillips. R. I. P.
WTOP.com: Pauline Friedman Phillips, who as Dear Abby dispensed snappy, sometimes saucy advice on love, marriage and meddling mothers-in-law to millions of newspaper readers around the world and opened the way for the likes of Dr. Ruth, Dr. Phil and Oprah, has died. She was 94.
Now Available for Your New E-Reader!
...A Dangerous Thing (The Carl Burns Mystery Series): Bill Crider: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Professor Carl Burns knew the new dean wasn't going to work out when she bought the two goats. And that was the least of the problems. Hartley Gorman College was being attacked - with a vengeance - by the forces of political correctness, and the new dean was an unreconstructed hippie. Courses would have to be rewritten, manners watched... and everyone knew Burns should have been the new dean, anyway. As if this weren't enough to contend with, Tom Henderson's fatal fall through a window definitely wasn't part of the planned curriculum. But figuring out whodunit is going to be a lot more interesting for Burns than grading papers for his developmental English class.
Denizens of the Deep
Denizens of the Deep: Alexander Semenov’s Pictures of Undersea Creatures
Some amazing creatures, but of course it's a annoying slideshow.
Some amazing creatures, but of course it's a annoying slideshow.
How Many Have You Read?
AbeBooks: 50 Essential Science Fiction Books: This was a virtually impossible task. Put together a list of 50 must-read science fiction books and don’t make anyone angry. Science fiction is the most discussed and argued over genre in literature but it actually goes way beyond books and into film, TV, video games and even toys.Here are the criteria I used. One book per author, so that was hard on the big three of science fiction – Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke, who each have multiple classic titles to their name. Attempt to show as many sub-genres of science fiction and plot themes as possible. Include early stories that influenced the genre as a whole and launched popular themes, even if those books appear a bit dated today.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Jimmy O'Neill, R. I. P.
LA Observed: Jimmy O'Neill gained a measure of Los Angeles radio immortality when he became the first voice heard on KRLA when the AM station switched to rock and roll (from country western music) in 1959. He went on to become LA's top radio deejay, then at age 24 went national as the host of ABC's short-lived rock music show "Shindig" in 1964.
I'm Sure the Aggies Think They Were Needed
"In fact, we sent out a shipment of brains to the University of Texas at Austin last week via UPS," Dudek said.
18 heads found at airport were sent for cremation
Hat tip to Michael Bracken.
18 heads found at airport were sent for cremation
Hat tip to Michael Bracken.
Now Available for Your New E-Reader!
Dead Soldiers (The Carl Burns Mystery Series): Bill Crider: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Bill Crider, famous for the popular Sheriff Dan Rhodes mystery series, is back with a mystery novel combining his wry wit, a clever plot, and the usual hijinks - all set against the normally placid backdrop of academia. First, someone steals several valuable toy soldiers from the collection of the dean of a small liberal arts school. The dean asks Carl Burns, Chair of the English Department, to look into things. Then a college board member is killed, and one of the stolen soldiers is found at the scene. After another attempted murder, another soldier is found, making a clear link between the stolen toys and the shooting. Burns begins asking questions and finds himself involved with a varied cast of characters, all of whom appear to have some connection to both toy soldiers and the murder.
COWBOY DREAMS--THE ADVENTURES OF THE ABERNATHY BROTHERS
Western Fictioneers: COWBOY DREAMS--THE ADVENTURES OF THE ABERNATHY BROTHERS
Conrad Bain, R. I. P.
chicagotribune.com: Conrad Bain, who played Philip Drummond, a wealthy white widower who adopts two young African-American brothers in the hit sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes," died Monday, the Associated Press reports. He was 89.
Go drinking with past presidents at the Willard
Go drinking with past presidents at the Willard: Every inauguration season, he brings out a special menu of drinks based around what our 44 presidents drank, or might have drunk.
The list is at the link.
The list is at the link.
Edgar Awards Nominations
Mystery Writers of America is proud to announce, as we celebrate the 204th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, its Nominees for the 2013 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television, published or produced in 2012. The Edgar® Awards will be presented to the winners at our 67th Gala Banquet, May 2, 2013 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.
BEST NOVEL
The Lost Ones by Ace Atkins (Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye (Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Gone Girl: A Novel by Gillian Flynn (Crown Publishers)
Potboiler by Jesse Kellerman (Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Sunset by Al Lamanda (Gale Cengage Learning – Five Star)
Live by Night by Dennis Lehane (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
All I Did Was Shoot My Man by Walter Mosley (Penguin Group USA – Riverhead Books)
BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
The Map of Lost Memories by Kim Fay (Random House Publishing– Ballantine)
Don’t Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman (Minotaur Books - Thomas Dunne Books)
Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal (Random House Publishing– Bantam Books)
The Expats by Chris Pavone (Crown Publishers)
The 500 by Matthew Quirk (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company – Reagan Arthur)
Black Fridays by Michael Sears (Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
Complication by Isaac Adamson (Soft Skull Press)
Whiplash River by Lou Berney (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow Paperbacks)
Bloodland by Alan Glynn (Picador)
Blessed are the Dead by Malla Nunn (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books - Emily Bestler Books)
The Last Policeman: A Novel by Ben H. Winters (Quirk Books)
BEST FACT CRIME
Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China by Paul French (Penguin Group USA - Penguin Books)
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King (HarperCollins Publishers – Harper)
BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe: The Hard-Boiled Detective Transformed by John Paul Athanasourelis (McFarland and Company)
Books to Die For: The World's Greatest Mystery Writers on the World's Greatest Mystery Novels edited by John Connolly and Declan Burke (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books – Emily Bestler Books)
The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics by James O’Brien (Oxford University Press)
In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and theCreation of an American Hero edited by Otto Penzler (Smart Pop)
BEST SHORT STORY
"Iphigenia in Aulis" – An Apple for the Creature by Mike Carey (Penguin Group USA – Ace Books)
"Hot Sugar Blues" – Mystery Writers of America Presents: Vengeanceby Steve Liskow (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company – Mulholland Books)
"The Void it Often Brings With It” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazineby Tom Piccirilli (Dell Magazines)
"The Unremarkable Heart" – Mystery Writers of America Presents: Vengeance by Karin Slaughter (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company – Mulholland Books)
"Still Life No. 41" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Teresa Solana (Dell Magazines)
BEST JUVENILE
Fake Mustache: Or, How Jodie O’Rodeo and Her Wonder Horse (and Some Nerdy Kid) Saved the U.S. Presidential Election from a Mad Genius Criminal Mastermind by Tom Angleberger (Abrams – Amulet Books)
13 Hangmen by Art Corriveau (Abrams – Amulet Books)
The Quick Fix by Jack D. Ferraiolo (Abrams – Amulet Books)
Spy School by Stuart Gibbs (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage (Penguin Young Readers Group – Dial Books for Young Readers)
BEST YOUNG ADULT
Emily’s Dress and Other Missing Things by Kathryn Burak (Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group – Roaring Brook Press)
The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George (Penguin Young Readers Group – Viking)
Crusher by Niall Leonard (Random House Children’s Books – Delacorte BFYR)
Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield (Penguin Young Readers Group – Dutton Children’s Books)
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (Disney Publishing Worldwide - Hyperion)
BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY
“Pilot” – Longmire, Teleplay by Hunt Baldwin & John Coveny (A&E/Warner Horizon Television)
“Child Predator” – elemeNtarY, Teleplay by Peter Blake (CBS Productions)
“Slaughterhouse” – Justified, Teleplay by Fred Golan (Sony Pictures Television/FX Productions)
“A Scandal in Belgravia” – Sherlock, Teleplay by Steven Moffat (BBC/Masterpiece)
“New Car Smell” – Homeland, Teleplay by Meredith Stiehm (Showtime/Fox21)
ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD
"When They Are Done With Us" – Staten Island Noir by Patricia Smith (Akashic Books)
GRAND MASTER
Ken Follett
Margaret Maron
RAVEN AWARDS
Oline Cogdill
Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, San Diego & Redondo Beach, CA
ELLERY QUEEN AWARD
Akashic Books
THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
(Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, May 1, 2013)
Dead Scared by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur Books)
A City of Broken Glass by Rebecca Cantrell (Forge Books)
The Reckoning by Jane Casey (Minotaur Books)
The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge Books)
Sleepwalker by Wendy Corsi Staub (HarperCollins Publishers - Harper)
BEST NOVEL
The Lost Ones by Ace Atkins (Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye (Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Gone Girl: A Novel by Gillian Flynn (Crown Publishers)
Potboiler by Jesse Kellerman (Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Sunset by Al Lamanda (Gale Cengage Learning – Five Star)
Live by Night by Dennis Lehane (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
All I Did Was Shoot My Man by Walter Mosley (Penguin Group USA – Riverhead Books)
BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
The Map of Lost Memories by Kim Fay (Random House Publishing– Ballantine)
Don’t Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman (Minotaur Books - Thomas Dunne Books)
Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal (Random House Publishing– Bantam Books)
The Expats by Chris Pavone (Crown Publishers)
The 500 by Matthew Quirk (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company – Reagan Arthur)
Black Fridays by Michael Sears (Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
Complication by Isaac Adamson (Soft Skull Press)
Whiplash River by Lou Berney (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow Paperbacks)
Bloodland by Alan Glynn (Picador)
Blessed are the Dead by Malla Nunn (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books - Emily Bestler Books)
The Last Policeman: A Novel by Ben H. Winters (Quirk Books)
BEST FACT CRIME
Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China by Paul French (Penguin Group USA - Penguin Books)
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King (HarperCollins Publishers – Harper)
More Forensics and Fiction: Crime Writers' Morbidly Curious Questions Expertly Answered by D.P. Lyle, MD (Medallion Press)
Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre (Crown Publishers)
The People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo – and the Evil that Swallowed Her Up by Richard Lloyd Parry (Farrar Straus & Giroux Originals)
Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre (Crown Publishers)
The People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo – and the Evil that Swallowed Her Up by Richard Lloyd Parry (Farrar Straus & Giroux Originals)
BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe: The Hard-Boiled Detective Transformed by John Paul Athanasourelis (McFarland and Company)
Books to Die For: The World's Greatest Mystery Writers on the World's Greatest Mystery Novels edited by John Connolly and Declan Burke (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books – Emily Bestler Books)
The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics by James O’Brien (Oxford University Press)
In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and theCreation of an American Hero edited by Otto Penzler (Smart Pop)
BEST SHORT STORY
"Iphigenia in Aulis" – An Apple for the Creature by Mike Carey (Penguin Group USA – Ace Books)
"Hot Sugar Blues" – Mystery Writers of America Presents: Vengeanceby Steve Liskow (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company – Mulholland Books)
"The Void it Often Brings With It” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazineby Tom Piccirilli (Dell Magazines)
"The Unremarkable Heart" – Mystery Writers of America Presents: Vengeance by Karin Slaughter (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company – Mulholland Books)
"Still Life No. 41" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Teresa Solana (Dell Magazines)
BEST JUVENILE
Fake Mustache: Or, How Jodie O’Rodeo and Her Wonder Horse (and Some Nerdy Kid) Saved the U.S. Presidential Election from a Mad Genius Criminal Mastermind by Tom Angleberger (Abrams – Amulet Books)
13 Hangmen by Art Corriveau (Abrams – Amulet Books)
The Quick Fix by Jack D. Ferraiolo (Abrams – Amulet Books)
Spy School by Stuart Gibbs (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage (Penguin Young Readers Group – Dial Books for Young Readers)
BEST YOUNG ADULT
Emily’s Dress and Other Missing Things by Kathryn Burak (Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group – Roaring Brook Press)
The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George (Penguin Young Readers Group – Viking)
Crusher by Niall Leonard (Random House Children’s Books – Delacorte BFYR)
Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield (Penguin Young Readers Group – Dutton Children’s Books)
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (Disney Publishing Worldwide - Hyperion)
BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY
“Pilot” – Longmire, Teleplay by Hunt Baldwin & John Coveny (A&E/Warner Horizon Television)
“Child Predator” – elemeNtarY, Teleplay by Peter Blake (CBS Productions)
“Slaughterhouse” – Justified, Teleplay by Fred Golan (Sony Pictures Television/FX Productions)
“A Scandal in Belgravia” – Sherlock, Teleplay by Steven Moffat (BBC/Masterpiece)
“New Car Smell” – Homeland, Teleplay by Meredith Stiehm (Showtime/Fox21)
ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD
"When They Are Done With Us" – Staten Island Noir by Patricia Smith (Akashic Books)
GRAND MASTER
Ken Follett
Margaret Maron
RAVEN AWARDS
Oline Cogdill
Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, San Diego & Redondo Beach, CA
ELLERY QUEEN AWARD
Akashic Books
THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
(Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, May 1, 2013)
Dead Scared by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur Books)
A City of Broken Glass by Rebecca Cantrell (Forge Books)
The Reckoning by Jane Casey (Minotaur Books)
The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge Books)
Sleepwalker by Wendy Corsi Staub (HarperCollins Publishers - Harper)
BBC News: The values of the letters in Scrabble were assigned according to the front page of a US newspaper in the 1930s. Is it time the scoring system was updated to reflect today's usage?
Ned Kelly Update
The Manila Bulletin Newspaper Online: Legendary Australian outlaw Ned Kelly will finally be laid to rest beside his mother in line with his final wishes at a plot not far from the site of his last stand, reports said Wednesday.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Lunatics -- Dave Barry & Alan Zweibel
The action begins when Horkman is refereeing a soccer game and calls a foul against Peckerman's daughter. A little later, Peckerman visits The Wine Shop under the impression that he can buy wine there. He leaves under duress with a stolen lemur, which Horkman tries to retrieve, ruining Peckerman's swale in the process. It's at this point that things begin an escalation into the realm of the ridiculous (or possibly the sublime, depending on your mood). Rather than revealing more of the plot, such as it is, I'll just say that the book could have been called Philip and Jeffery Conquer the World.
Lunatics strikes me as the kind of book that you'll either love or hate. It's full of sophomoric humor, potty jokes, ethnic slurs, and more. To my shame, I'll admit that I laughed a lot. You might not. There's only one way to find out.
Overlooked Movies -- Sleeping Beauty
You know the plot of this one, and Disney didn't really fiddle with the basic outline much at all. I don't remember the dragon (and it's a great dragon) from the original story, or the three fairies, but who cares? Maybe one reason for the movie's lack of success was the lack of anthropomorphised animals. There are none. Or maybe it was the dark nature of some of the scenes. There's some frightening stuff here, and I can imagine kids being pretty scared. The usual comic relief is provided by the bickering fairies, so the lightness is still present in a lot of the film. I wouldn't mind seeing it again, but I'd like to do it under the same conditions as the first time, and that's not going to happen.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
Yahoo! News: A book-less library.
It sounds like an oxymoron, but come the fall of 2013, San Antonio's Bexar County is going to be home to the BiblioTech, the country's first book-less public library. Of course, there will be books -- just e-books, not physical books.
Hat tip to Steve Stilwell, who does not approve of this library at all.
It sounds like an oxymoron, but come the fall of 2013, San Antonio's Bexar County is going to be home to the BiblioTech, the country's first book-less public library. Of course, there will be books -- just e-books, not physical books.
Hat tip to Steve Stilwell, who does not approve of this library at all.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
pravda.ru: In Russia's Volgograd, a criminal case was filed against an Egyptian, who urinated on the Eternal Flame and beat an accidental eyewitness on New Year's Eve, . . .
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Jimmy Hoffa Update
CBS Detroit: Reported Detroit mob underboss Anthony Zerilli came out this weekend to say he knows where the bodies are buried — one body in particular, belonging to Detroit’s most notorious missing person — Jimmy Hoffa.
Jacki Clerico, R. I. P.
Expatica France: Jacki Clerico, who headed the Paris cabaret Moulin Rouge for 50 years and revived its famed revues featuring plumed can-can dancers, has died at 83, the establishment said on Monday.
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
Deadlock (A Judge Earl Stark Western): James Reasoner: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: A man had to have sand in his craw to live out on the frontier, even in a settlement, and Judge Earl Stark proves he has plenty when he walks right into a lynching. Billy Thorp, the son of Jud Thorp, the big he-wolf of the area was arrested for murder. Billy became a little too fast with the gun when he shot an unarmed man. The townsmen, tired of Thorp's heavy handedness, decided to take matters into their own hands. So it was up to Judge Stark to bring justice to the small West Texas town. 7,000 word story was originally published in Guns of the West.
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
STARK HOUSE has published two classic crime novels under one cover. I know I probably use "great" and "classic" too often, but this time it's really the truth. Marlowe had the magic touch in these two, and if you like hardboiled fiction and haven't read them, you should order the book immediately. There's an introduction by Charles Kelly, the author of Gunshots in Another Room, a fine biography of Marlowe, as well as a short afterword by Gary Brandner.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
OrlandoSentinel.com: Woman cut boyfriend, used cat as shield against two OPD K-9s
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
BBC News: A German student "mooned" a group of Hell's Angels and hurled a puppy at them before escaping on a stolen bulldozer, police have said.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
Boston.com: Three men and a 14-year-old boy have been arrested in connection with a violent brawl at a Stoughton baby shower in which bottles and punches were thrown and furniture was smashed.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
There's Good News Tonight
THE DEEP BLUE GOODBYE | Washington Post Book Reviews: [S]ome characters in suspense fiction have long outlived their creators - think Lord Peter Wimsey, Sam Spade, Miss Marple and Philip Marlowe - but mostly they just fade away, a fate that surely seemed in store for Travis McGee.
Perhaps that day will come in time, but that time is not now. With the publication of this handsome trade-paperback edition of the first of the McGee novels, Random House - a publishing Goliath not known for sentimentality in literary matters - is bringing not only McGee but almost the entire MacDonald oeuvre back to life with what can only be called a bang.
Click the link and read the whole essay. It's worth your time.
Perhaps that day will come in time, but that time is not now. With the publication of this handsome trade-paperback edition of the first of the McGee novels, Random House - a publishing Goliath not known for sentimentality in literary matters - is bringing not only McGee but almost the entire MacDonald oeuvre back to life with what can only be called a bang.
Click the link and read the whole essay. It's worth your time.
Hi, There. I'm Mr. Teeth. Fly Me.
(14) CCSO AG DETECTIVE GETS 7-FOOT GATOR FROM GOING ONTO MAIN RUNWAY AT PUNTA GORDA AIRPORT: The Charlotte County Sheriff's Agriculture Detective Justin Treworgy, was called to Punta Gorda Airport by security concerning a 7-foot alligator very close to and approaching the main runway on Dec. 31. A commercial jet was due to arrive and could have caused a serious problem.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
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