Friday, July 22, 2011
Forgotten Books: Cain's Woman -- O. G. Benson
This was O. G. Benson's only crime novel, and it's a good one. Max Raven is a private-eye whose client is a beautiful woman. She's paying someone who has pornographic photos of her, and she wants Raven's help. So right away you're thinking, I've read this one before.Well, maybe not. The setup is familiar, but the way it plays out isn't. Sure, Raven gets involved with the woman. Sure, she tells him lies. Sure, he turns up things that he didn't expect to find. But the way this one plays out isn't the usual way at all.
Benson writes well, and he's in control all the way here, right up to the starkly noir (and maybe a bit sentimental) ending. This is prime stuff.
The edition I have is apparently a bit pricey, but the book was reprinted as Cain's Wife (more PC?), and copies of that one are dirt cheap if you want to take a chance and read it.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
News from Fort Worth, Dalla...: "It's been so hot in North Texas that even a swimming pool isn't safe from thieves.
A Richland Hills homeowner reported that her 10-foot-tall pool, complete with a slide, was stolen last weekend by unidentified pool thieves."
A Richland Hills homeowner reported that her 10-foot-tall pool, complete with a slide, was stolen last weekend by unidentified pool thieves."
Plot Device
Plot Device on Vimeo
A funny short film. The best line is near the end about the 7:30 mark. Be sure to watch through the credits, too.
Link via Neatorama.
Soon We'll Have No Freedoms Left at All
The Newspaper of Cleveland County: "Police have charged a Kings Mountain man with assault for allegedly giving a girl a hickey on her chest."
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
The Lufkin Daily News: Local & State: "A Lufkin man convicted of resisting arrest in his own home after police mistook him for a burglar was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine.
[. . . .]
Following a one-day trial and four-hour deliberation, a six-panel Angelina County jury concluded Sauceda was guilty of resisting arrest on March 15, 2009, while being pepper-sprayed, shot with a pepper ball gun and wrestled to the ground by nine Lufkin Police officers in his own living room, according to testimony."
[. . . .]
Following a one-day trial and four-hour deliberation, a six-panel Angelina County jury concluded Sauceda was guilty of resisting arrest on March 15, 2009, while being pepper-sprayed, shot with a pepper ball gun and wrestled to the ground by nine Lufkin Police officers in his own living room, according to testimony."
Steve Brewer's Bargain Sale
Bubba book bargains: "All the Bubba Mabry mysteries -- seven novels and a novella -- are now on sale as e-books for only 99 cents each.
Bubba is my franchise player. Nearly half my crime stories have featured the bumbling Albuquerque private eye and his love interest, reporter Felicia Quattlebaum. Lonely Street was my first published novel and was later made into a Hollywood comedy starring Robert Patrick, Jay Mohr and Joe Mantegna. The seventh in the series, Monkey Man, was a finalist for the Lefty Award for funniest mystery of the year."
Bubba is my franchise player. Nearly half my crime stories have featured the bumbling Albuquerque private eye and his love interest, reporter Felicia Quattlebaum. Lonely Street was my first published novel and was later made into a Hollywood comedy starring Robert Patrick, Jay Mohr and Joe Mantegna. The seventh in the series, Monkey Man, was a finalist for the Lefty Award for funniest mystery of the year."
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
Cross walk sign gives 'the bird' to pedestrians | wtsp.com: "The City of Amarillo says it's a manufacturing problem that causes a glitch and produces offensive hand gestures. They've had reports since November, complaints from residents, reading between the lines."
Sizzling Summer Read RUNNING COLD (A Mick Callahan Novel)
Top Suspense Group: Sizzling Summer Read RUNNING COLD (A Mick Callahan Novel): "I created media psychologist Mick Callahan as the protagonist of my debut hardcover mystery. Mick was born and raised near the small town of Wells, Nevada. He's an alcoholic, a loyal friend, a hot tempered genius. After a failed stint in the Navy Seals, Mick studied Psychology and ended up hosting a television show. Booze, sex and ego brought him down. Over the course of the four novels in the series, he's gone from humiliated and sober and on the comeback trail (Memorial Day), working in radio again (Eye of the Burning Man), back on track but in trouble with the mob (One of the Wicked) and now, in RUNNING COLD, your Top Suspense Sizzling Summer Read of the day, Mick is on the edge of collapse, fighting a return to the bottle and mourning the loss of his girlfriend."
Your Tax Dollars at Work
wusa9.com: "The government is saying goodbye to two large oil tankers that it ordered during the Reagan administration, spent more than $300 million to build, and never finished or put in service."
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Let Joy Be Unconfined
TV - Digital Spy: "Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi, Rob Kardashian and Christina Milian may join the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars."
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
Giant toilet paper rolls remain in Lochsa after truck accident: "A five-mile stretch of Idaho's Wild and Scenic Lochsa River remained cluttered by megarolls of toilet paper Tuesday, four days after a truck driver from Texas lost control on a tight turn and dumped the load."
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Ya think?
New Port Richey-Port Richey-Hudson News: "The Pasco County Sheriff says a pill popping mom made several big mistakes when she decided she needed cash for her habit. Deputies say 24-year-old Cherilyn Jannette Lopez held up a bank, with her son in tow, in the middle of the afternoon."
Once Upon a Time . . .
. . . Americans walked on the moon. I remember watching in wonder and awe. Now there are people who weren't even born when the last moonwalk took place. I'm glad I was around to see it the first time, and I'm sorry it won't happen again in my lifetime, and maybe not in anybody's.
Top Suspense Group: Today's Sizzling Summer Read -- SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE by Libby Hellmann
Top Suspense Group: Today's Sizzling Summer Read -- SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE by Libby Hellmann: "The relationship between the past and present, the consequences of events that occurred years ago fascinate me. I also love stories that plunge characters into danger and make them draw on resources they didn't know they had. SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE was the way to combine all those themes. Writing the book was an exorcism of sorts, a way to make peace with the past. And while I enjoyed reliving the past, I loved putting it behind me even more. I'm finally ready to move on.I hope you enjoy the read. To buy the book from Amazon click here. From Nook, here. And for more about the book, and me, and everything else, just click here."
How to Undress a Victorian Lady
How to Undress a Victorian Lady in Your Next Historical Romance - WSJ.com: "Authors Who Crave Verisimilitude Learn to Unlace a Corset in a Good Bodice Ripper"
So Now You Know
The Australian: "THE perennial debate in every playground has finally been solved - ripping a Band-Aid off quickly causes less pain than pulling it away from the skin in a slow two-second tug."
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
A Touch of Class
(PHOTO): "Perhaps because you only get to wear a wedding dress on your wedding day, Tammy Lee Hinton elected not to change out of her gown and veil when police took her mugshot last Saturday, just a few moments after she said, 'I do.'"
Sea Serpent Update
msnbc.com: "Alaska may have its own version of the Loch Ness monster, according to prominent cryptozoologists who say a video shows a mysterious marine animal, which they believe is a Cadborosaurus."
Hat tip to Jeff Segal.
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
El Sonido Joven de Miami: "Michael Thompson, who headed the study, says an amazing six out of ten Texas high school students have been suspended for expelled or suspended from class at least once over the past six years."
Enraged Chihuahua WBAGNFARB
latimes.com: "Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials Monday released a video of a robbery attempt foiled by an enraged and barking Chihuahua, hoping the public can identify the two assailants."
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
WLS 890AM: "A dripping window air conditioner led to the execution-style killing of a West Side man, police said Monday."
Best Man for the Job -- Meredith Fletcher
I don't read a lot of Harlequin romantic suspense novels, but judging by this one, I might be making a mistake. It's a fast-action thriller that would have been right at home between the covers of a Gold Medal book back in the late '50s. Sure, the romance angle is played up a bit more than those books would have done it, but it's certainly there in a lot of them.Callan Storm's a professional soldier who's seen and done it all. He's in Las Vegas for his sister's wedding, and at the bachelor party her husband-to-be is kidnapped. Jumping out of the fake cake at the party just before the kidnapping is Eryn McAdams, who's just subbing for a friend. Eryn's a security expert, and of course she and Storm are thrown together in an uneasy alliance to get the victim back in one piece and in a very short time.
The pace is fast, all right, but that doesn't mean there's no time for humor. There are some good laughs mixed in with the action, and even though you know pretty much how it'll work out, there are some surprises along the way. All together, a mighty satisfying package, and I'll be looking for Fletcher's next book, for sure.
Final Images from Famous Films
Where the Lovely Things Are
If you don't know them all, the answers are at the end.Link via Neatorama.
If you don't know them all, the answers are at the end.Link via Neatorama.
Forgotten Films: Santa Fe Trail
If you're looking for historical accuracy, well, this isn't the movie for you. It's wildly off the wall. If you're looking for an entertaining western with plenty of action, well, this is a fine choice. Errol Flynn is J. E. B. Stuart, and Ronald Reagan is Custer (Flynn played him a year or so later in They Died with Their Boots On). Olivia de Havilland is the woman they both love. Raymond Massey plays John Brown, and it's almost as if he's in a different movie, at least when compared to Reagan and Flynn. They aren't bad. They're playing the kinds of characters they were best at. Massey is . . . intense. Just watch the trailer and you'll see what I mean. Besides being an entertainment, Santa Fe Trail is a serious attempt to show the evils of slavery in a way that Hollywood didn't often do. The message is clear throughout, but it doesn't get in the way of a rousing good time. Check it out.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Borders to Shut Down
Borders to Shut Down - WSJ.com: "Borders Group Inc. said it would liquidate after the second-largest U.S. bookstore chain failed to receive any offers to save it."
Hat tip to Tom Neary.
You Know You Want 'em!
NYTimes.com: "VIEWERS who have wondered how Cheesy Poofs — the favorite snack of characters like Eric Cartman and Kyle Broflovski on the animated series “South Park” — might taste will get a chance to find out.
As part of an extensive promotional campaign, Year of the Fan, to observe the 15th season of the show, Comedy Central, which has been presenting “South Park” since August 1997, is teaming up with the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo to produce 1.5 million packages of Cheesy Poofs to be sold in Wal-Mart stores beginning next month."
As part of an extensive promotional campaign, Year of the Fan, to observe the 15th season of the show, Comedy Central, which has been presenting “South Park” since August 1997, is teaming up with the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo to produce 1.5 million packages of Cheesy Poofs to be sold in Wal-Mart stores beginning next month."
Update from Crippen & Landru
Dear Mystery Fan
As you know, Crippen & Landru has been publishing single-author short story collections since 1994; we are now almost up to our 100th volume.
We have not sent out a general announcement for almost 6 months as our computer system collapsed. We have now re-created our address book and the following message goes both to subscribers and to others who are interested (who also should consider becoming subscribers!)
The following books are new and can be ordered through our website, www.crippenlandru.com
Loren D. Estleman, Valentino: Film Detective.
Valentino has a perfect job for a film buff - he is a film detective who locates lost movies so that they can be preserved for future generations. And often he has to become an amateur sleuth as well. To locate a fragment of a film long considered to have vanished, Valentino has to jet to remote locations or to find ancient Hollywood producers and bit players. But there can be danger as well: people sometimes are willing to kill to insure that a film stays lost.
Loren D. Estleman has won 17 major awards for his writing, including 4 Shamuses from the Private Eye Writers of America. In addition to his novels and short stories about Valentino, he is the creator to Detroit PI Amos Walker, hitman Peter Macklin, and Deputy U.S. Marshal Page Murdock. Cover Artist: Carol Heyer.
Trade softcover: ISBN 978-1-932009-96-5. $17.00
Signed, numbered (200 copies -- a handful remaining) clothbound, with add'l story in separate chapbook: ISBN 978-1-932009-95-8. $43.00
Erle Stanley Gardner, The Exploits of the Patent Leather Kid.
The Patent Leather Kid is an elegant crook, hiding his identity with mask, gloves, and shoes made out of black patent leather. In truth, he is a wealthy, seemingly indolent socialite, who becomes a terror to the underworld. In the gang-ridden world of the Depression, The Kid knows that “the rulers of today were the corpses of tomorrow, where survival was the price of keen observation and rapid thought.” His enemy, Inspector Brame, believes that The Kid “is apparently one who loves adventure. His crimes are committed for excitement, rather than gain. And, in everything he does, he gives proof of a superior mentality.”
This is the third volume in Crippen & Landru's collections of Erle Stanley Gardner's short stories. The book is edited by the modern master of the private-eye story, Bill Pronzini. It is also the 30th volume in our “Lost Classics” series. Cover Artist: Gail Cross
Trade softcover: ISBN 978-1-932009-88-0. $19.00
Clothbound: ISBN 978-1-932009-87-3. $29.00
Please check our website (www.crippenlandru.com) for cover designs and full information on these and our other books.
Our books are highest quality in production; first printings are not POD but standard photo-offset. The cloth copies are smyth-sewn, full cloth; trade softcover are notchbound rather than perfectbound so they withstand opening flat.
Many thanks!
Doug Greene
Crippen & Landru
Mystery Sheep WBAGNFARB
Stuff.co.nz: "A mystery sheep ran wild through the streets of central Wellington before it was apprehended by police, who took the animal to cells in the back of a patrol car."
The Word Spaceport Has Some Wonderful Connotations for this Reader of '50s SF
First 'Spaceport' Coming to New Mexico: "Now that the shuttle's blasted off for the last time, attention is turning to the private space industry, and NPR has found an interesting piece of that puzzle: America’s first spaceport. The structure, under construction in a New Mexico desert, aims to be something like an airport for spaceships, and it’s already signed up Virgin Galactic as its first client. The site has a lot of advantages—it’s sparsely populated, its airspace is clear, and it’s a mile above sea level."
Update from Black Dog Books
Hello,
Greetings from Black Dog Books. We have a number of exciting new titles available for purchase Mid-Summer 2011, spanning a variety of genres. Something for every readers tastes: adventure, mystery, science fiction and Westerns. Perfect for travel and summer reading.
Books will be in hand for shipping at the end of July. All pre-orders between now and July 31 will qualify for FREE SHIPPING.*
Black Dog Books will be appearing at Pulpfest, July 29-July 31, 2011 at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Conference Center in Columbus, Oh. Stop by and say hello. We look forward to seeing many of you there. Visit www.pulpfest.com <http://www.pulpfest.com> for more information.
Thank you for your interest.
Tom Roberts
info@blackdogbooks.net
www.blackdogbooks.net <http://www.blackdogbooks.net>
Greetings from Black Dog Books. We have a number of exciting new titles available for purchase Mid-Summer 2011, spanning a variety of genres. Something for every readers tastes: adventure, mystery, science fiction and Westerns. Perfect for travel and summer reading.
Books will be in hand for shipping at the end of July. All pre-orders between now and July 31 will qualify for FREE SHIPPING.*
Black Dog Books will be appearing at Pulpfest, July 29-July 31, 2011 at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Conference Center in Columbus, Oh. Stop by and say hello. We look forward to seeing many of you there. Visit www.pulpfest.com <http://www.pulpfest.com> for more information.
Thank you for your interest.
Tom Roberts
info@blackdogbooks.net
www.blackdogbooks.net <http://www.blackdogbooks.net>
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
abc13.com: "Back in May, we told you that Tammy Harris had filed a complaint with the school. She wanted 'The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby' pulled from the library because it contained the phrase 'poo poo head.'
Harris said her son was suspended for using the same phrase.
A committee rejected the complaint last month, but Harris appealed and won and now the book is banned."
A committee rejected the complaint last month, but Harris appealed and won and now the book is banned."
My Birthday Is Coming Up soon
Mail Online: "Those wishing to get away from it all can now snap up this unique property - a Napoleonic castle on its very own island."
I For One Welcome Our New Gastropod Overlords
Discovery News: "Something similar happens to birds that eat snails, since new research shows the snails can survive passage through the bird's digestive tract.
One completely unscathed snail even gave birth to juveniles after plopping out from the journey in bird waste."
One completely unscathed snail even gave birth to juveniles after plopping out from the journey in bird waste."
Link via Neatorama.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
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