Thursday, September 27, 2012
The 2012 Golden Derringer Award
Kevin's Corner: NEWS --- The 2012 Golden Derringer Award: As announced yesterday by Short Mystery Fiction Society President Tom Sweeney…..
The SMFS Golden Derringer committee has voted on the three writers nominated last spring, and has selected Bill Pronzini as the recipient of the 2012 Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer Award.
Target Lancer -- Max Allan Collins
It's fascinating stuff, and it's interesting how certain characters show up. Jack Ruby, for one. Lee Harvey Oswald for another. They really were in Chicago when Kennedy was supposed to be in a parade there. Even the fictional characters are based on people who where really there, and a lot of the story happened pretty much as it plays out in the novel, as Collins explains in his afterword. You might not be much of a believer in conspiracies, but don't be surprised if you change your mind after reading this novel.
The story moves fast, it has a great cast of characters, and it's entirely believable. Another fine addition to the Heller series, and one that has me eager to read what comes next, since the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy lie ahead. You can bet that Heller will have a part to play in the investigations of those two crimes and that Collins' take on them will be as fresh and surprising as this one.
The Top 10 Horror Stories
The Top 10 Horror Stories: Stephen Jones, editor of the new anthology A Book of Horrors, is the multiple-award-winning editor and author of more than one hundred books in the horror and fantasy genres. Here, he gives us his 10 favorite horror stories.
Forgotten Music: One-Hit Wonders
The other day I linked to a post about the best and worst one-hit wonders. Quite a few songs weren't mentioned, mainly (I suspect) because they were so old. Here are a few of them. If you're as old as I am, you can probably think of a few dozen more.
The Monotones: Book of Love
Silhouettes: Get a Job
Jody Reynolds: Endless Sleep
Tony Bellus: Robbin' the Cradle
Joan Weber: Let Me Go, Lover
Thurston Harris: Little Bitty Pretty One
The Monotones: Book of Love
Silhouettes: Get a Job
Jody Reynolds: Endless Sleep
Tony Bellus: Robbin' the Cradle
Joan Weber: Let Me Go, Lover
Thurston Harris: Little Bitty Pretty One
Herbert Lom, R. I. P.
BBC News - Herbert Lom, Pink Panther star, dies aged 95: Actor Herbert Lom, best known for playing Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther films, has died aged 95.
The Czech-born, London-based actor starred opposite Peter Sellers in several films as Inspector Clouseau's irritable boss.
Lom appeared in more than 100 films during his 60-year acting career, including such classics as The Ladykillers, Spartacus and El Cid. His family said he died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
The Czech-born, London-based actor starred opposite Peter Sellers in several films as Inspector Clouseau's irritable boss.
Lom appeared in more than 100 films during his 60-year acting career, including such classics as The Ladykillers, Spartacus and El Cid. His family said he died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Free Today for Kindle
Doubleback (Georgia Davis Series): Libby Fischer Hellmann: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Little Molly Messenger is kidnapped on a sunny June morning. Three days later she's returned, apparently unharmed. Molly's mother, Chris, is so grateful to have her daughter back that she's willing to overlook the odd circumstances. A few days later, the brakes go out on Chris's car.
An accident? Maybe. Except that it turns out that Chris, the IT manager at a large Chicago bank, may have misappropriated three million dollars. Not convinced that his daughter is safe, Molly's father hires PI Georgia Davis to follow the money and investigate Chris's death.
Doubleback, the sequel to the acclaimed Easy Innocence, reunites PI Georgia Davis with video producer Ellie Foreman (An Eye For Murder, A Picture Of Guilt, An Image Of Death, A Shot To Die For). The two women track leads from Northern Wisconsin to an Arizona border town, where illegal immigrants, smuggled drugs, and an independent contractor called Delton Security come into play. Georgia and Ellie go to great lengths to find the truth, and Georgia discovers that you can cross a line, but sometimes you have to double back.
Not Only Do They Win in Court, . . .
. . . but they live longer.
SBS World News: Italy's highest court has ruled that telling a man he has 'no balls' as an insult is a crime punishable with a fine.
SBS World News: Italy's highest court has ruled that telling a man he has 'no balls' as an insult is a crime punishable with a fine.
Andy Williams, R. I. P.
People.com: Andy Williams, whose corn-fed good looks, easygoing charm and smooth rendition of "Moon River" propelled him to the heights of music stardom in the early '60s, died Tuesday at his home in Branson, Mo., following a battle with bladder cancer, his family announced.
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
Houston - News: A prison guard fired for being Facebook friends with an inmate was reinstated after it was discovered that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's chief financial officer was Facebook friends with the same dude.
Cover Model Speaks Out (Article from 1949)
Pulp Flakes: Detective Pulp Magazine Covers from the other side: Girl on those Pulp Magazines hates the life she leads
No Shades of Grey - Black & White Book Covers
AbeBooks: No matter what you call it - monochromatic, void of color, black & white - these covers are anything but stark. The use of black and white has been widely used in a variety of mediums and book covers in particular have seen a resurgence of this type of design aesthetic.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Shamus Banquet
The PWA Shamus Banquet is always a highlight of the Bouchercon. If you're going, you'd probably enjoy attending.
From Bob Randisi: Tickets are still available for the PWA Shamus Banquet in Cleveland during Bouchercon. The event is Fri night, Oct. 5. Tickets are $60 for dinner, a cruise and awards. Email Bob Randisi at RRandisi@sbcglobal.net for tickets and details.
From Bob Randisi: Tickets are still available for the PWA Shamus Banquet in Cleveland during Bouchercon. The event is Fri night, Oct. 5. Tickets are $60 for dinner, a cruise and awards. Email Bob Randisi at RRandisi@sbcglobal.net for tickets and details.
Tereska Torres, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Tereska Torres, a convent-educated French writer who quite by accident wrote America’s first lesbian pulp novel, died on Thursday at her home in Paris. She was 92.
Overlooked Movies: High Road to China
Tom Selleck is a crochety WWI flying ace who's hired to help Armstrong locate her father in China before he's declared legally dead. If that happens, she'll lose her inheritance. Armstrong's a flapper with a mind of her own. She's also a flyer, so she and Selleck take off in twin biplanes and get into all sorts of scrapes. Want to bet they'll fall for each other?
It all ought to work better than it does. All the ingredients are there, but it never quite takes off. The aerial sequences are great. In fact all the action is. Armstrong and Selleck look great and their repartee is dandy. The story's fine. The pacing is a little off, though. It wants to be Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it's more Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Worth a look, but not essential.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Bullets and Lies -- Robert J. Randisi
Things don't seem quite right from the very first. Roper's certain his client (Westover's wife) isn't telling everything. Besides that, Roper's drawn the interest of the Secret Service. And somebody's taken a shot at him. When he locates the first man on his list, he finds that he's been dead for years. The second man is killed shortly before Roper arrives, and it's clear that somebody's after the others, as well.
So what you have is a solid mystery plot in a western setting. Roper travels over a good bit of the country in visiting his client and in locating three of the men he's looking for. He gets into a number of scrapes along the way, but he's a persistent guy. He's not afraid to use his gun, though he'd prefer to use his brain. Eventually he works things out, but not before Randisi has provided some good surprises.
Short chapters, good pacing, and a fine start to a new series. Fans of the traditional western should get it immediately.
Bonus: Gotta love it that the cover blurb is from Jake Foster!
Uh-Oh
Hamlet-inspired TV Thriller On Way - TV - ShortList Magazine: US network Fox has picked up the rights to a new project, America's Son, which is loosely based on one of Shakespeare's most famous plays, Hamlet.
The show will be to be a political thriller-meets-soap, set in Washington DC, and is written by Paul Redford (The West Wing/Dirty Sexy Money). Steven Spielberg's Amblin TV is set to produce.
The show will be to be a political thriller-meets-soap, set in Washington DC, and is written by Paul Redford (The West Wing/Dirty Sexy Money). Steven Spielberg's Amblin TV is set to produce.
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
Fox News: Because of the lack of water, the town of Brownwood may tap into their wastewater by installing a system that cycles toilet water through a series of treatment plants and right back into the municipal water supply, MyFoxAustin reports.
I taught in Brownwood for 12 years. While I was there, I met a hydrologist who told me this: "There's good news and bad news about water. The good news is that in the future we're all going to be drinking recycled waste water. The bad new is that there's not going to be enough of it." Looks as if he might have been right.
I taught in Brownwood for 12 years. While I was there, I met a hydrologist who told me this: "There's good news and bad news about water. The good news is that in the future we're all going to be drinking recycled waste water. The bad new is that there's not going to be enough of it." Looks as if he might have been right.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
The Guns of Vedauwoo: Wayne D. Dundee: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: U.S. Marshal Cash Laramie is sent out to locate a shipment of stolen guns in the Vedauwoo area of Wyoming where the rocky terrain is treacherous and enshrouded in mystical beauty. In his quest, Cash goes up against an amoral opportunist looking to stir up discord in the region by selling the weapons to a group of Native Americans. THE GUNS OF VEDAUWOO is the second Cash Laramie novel by Wayne D. Dundee, following on the heels of his bestselling MANHUNTER’S MOUNTAIN.
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