Allan Melvin, R. I. P.

YesButNoButYes: "Veteran character actor Allan Melvin [that's him on the right in the photo] died Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 84. Or maybe 85. You know how Hollywood is.

You may know Melvin best as Sam the Butcher from The Brady Bunch TV show, but that was only one of many roles. He got his show biz break on The Phil Silvers Show in the mid 50s, and was working until the mid 90s. Melvin was Sgt. Bilko’s sidekick Corporal Henshaw, Archie Bunker’s neighbor Barney, and played several roles on The Andy Griffith Show. He also had recurring roles on The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Flintstones, Perry Mason, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C, and guest spots in a dozen more. His voiceover work can be heard in the animated series Magilla Gorilla, Scooby-Doo, Popeye and Son, and more."

New York Echoes -- Warren Adler

Warren Adler has written a good many novels, including some thrillers. One I enjoyed was The Trans-Siberian Express. This new book is a collection of short stories, all of them about New York. I've read a couple, and I'll read more. One of them, "The Birthday Party," hit home with me because it's about and old guy named Al. My first name is Allen, and I'm an old guy. Al likes his little routines. And he doesn't like to think he's getting old. But he is, and he finds out just how old in a way I can understand all too well.

Poe Update

I'm sure I've blogged before about the story I wrote. It explains who this "mysterious visitor" really is, among other things.

The Associated Press: Mystery Man's Annual Visit to Poe Grave: "BALTIMORE (AP) — Undeterred by controversy, a mysterious visitor paid his annual tribute at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe early Saturday, placing three red roses and a half-filled bottle of cognac before stealing away into the darkness.

Nearly 150 people had gathered outside the cemetery of Westminster Presbyterian Church, but the man known as the 'Poe toaster' was, as usual, able to avoid being spotted by the crowd, said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum.

The tribute takes place every Jan. 19 — the anniversary of Poe's birth."

John Stewart, R. I. P.

All you whippersnappers think of John Stewart as the guy do does The Daily Show. To me, though, he's the one who replaced Dave Guard when Guard left the Kingston Trio. The one on the left in the photo, he recorded some wonderful songs with that group and was a heavy contributor on one of my favorite Trio albums, Time to Think. He went on to have a great solo career, too, and was the author of such songs as "Daydream Believer" that became huge hits for others. He'll be missed.

chillywinds.com : John Stewart: "John Stewart has spent a lifetime writing and recording songs that chronicle the unique people and culture that is America. At age nineteen, John recorded an album for Roulette Records with his first folk group, The Cumberland Three. During that same period, the young songwriter had the notable distinction of having several of his songs recorded by The Kingston Trio.

In 1961, John joined The Kingston Trio replacing founding member Dave Guard. During the next seven years, the group released sixteen albums which includedthe hits Where Have All The Flowers Gone, The Reverend Mr. Black and Greenback Dollar. As a member of the Trio, he also composed many of the group's recordings including Road To Freedom and One More Town.

John left the Trio in 1968 and established a world following based on over 25 solo releases. His Nashville recorded LP, California Bloodlines was chosen by Rolling Stone as one of the 200 best albums of all times."

Big City, Bad Blood -- Sean Chercover

This book has been praised by just about everybody, so naturally I'm going to have a slightly contrary opinion. My problem is the usual one: the book is too long, and of its nearly 300 pages, I would have cut about 75 if I'd been the editor. Which I wasn't, and since nobody else seems to have minded, it's obviously a problem specific to me.

Aside from that, there were plenty of things to like about the book. Ray Dudgeon (okay, maybe the last name is a little problematic, too) is a tough p.i. who agrees to be a bodyguard to a Hollywood location scout who's in Chicago on a job and who's gotten mixed up with the Outfit through no fault of his own. Pretty soon people start dying, and Dudgeon finds himself involved in a mob war. The Chicago cops don't like him much, and neither do the Feds, but he has to do business with everyone if he wants to stay alive. Which he barely does [SPOILER ALERT] because he gets seriously and graphically tortured [END SPOILER ALERT]. Dudgeon has problems with his love life and with life in general, so there's a lot of angst.

I'd call this book more of a thriller than a mystery. In fact, there's no mystery at all. Dudgeon's interest is in keeping himself and his client alive. He knows damned well who's trying to kill them. I recommend this one, with reservations. I'd like it better if it had been cut down some.

Celebrity Money

Okay, you take a bill from the currency of your choice, you fold, it, and you put it with a celebrity photo. The result is something like this Julia Roberts money. There are a lot of these here, and some of them are pretty funny. Link via Neatorama.

It's the Birthday of Edgar Allan Poe

How long has it been since you read a story by Poe? Because I used to teach American literature, I got to talk about him and his work every semester. Most of my students found his work difficult to read, and they didn't much care for it. Which was strange to me because I remember how much both the stories and the poems appealed to me when I was young.

Update: Beth Foxwell points out that Eddie's not the only one with a birthday today.

Edgar Allan Poe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American poet, short-story writer, editor, and literary critic, and is considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and invented the detective-fiction genre. He is credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction.[1] He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.[2]"

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

This time, in weight-loss plans.

House candidate mum on doctored campaign photo | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: "The brochure that U.S. House candidate and former Sugar Land mayor Dean Hrbacek mailed to voters this week says, 'Dean's record speaks for itself.'

But his physique does not. In a photo next to the words of praise, Hrbacek's body is spoken for by the torso of an appreciably slimmer man.

The picture, presented as a true image of the candidate, is actually a computerized composite of Hrbacek's face and someone else's figure, in suit and tie, from neck to knee caps. The give-away is a flawed fit of head and collar."

Yellow Medicine -- Anthony Neil Smith

Yellow Medicine might be the name of a county in Minnesota, but it sounds downright nasty. What else would you expect from the author of Psychosomatic and The Drummer?

Deputy Billy Lafitte (nice piratical ring to the name) could be a distant cousin of Jim Thompson's Lou Ford or Nick Corey. Billy has relocated (thanks to a little storm named Katrina) from Mississippi to Minnesota. The circumstances of his life have changed and he's separated from his wife and kids (they're back with her bible-thumping parents), but he's the same kind of lawman he always was, the kind you really don't have to be arrested by. You don't even want him to try to help you.

That's what kicks off the action. Billy tries to help Ian, the boyfriend of a singer named Drew, with whom Billy has a complicated relationship. Things don't work out so well for Ian, and before long Billy is mixed up with druggies, killers, the Feds, and (yes, even in Minnesota) terrorists. Plenty of action and the usual Smith weird take on things make this one something you'll want to grab as soon as it's in print and take your medicine.

Helix Winter Issue Now On-Line

I'm a little late with this, but Helix always has some great stuff, so check it out. I always enjoy Bud Webster's "Past Masters," and this time he talks about H. Beam Piper.

You'll Have to Admit . . .

. . . that it's better than those dumb cheesehats.

The Edgar Nominees

Congratulations to all! The 2008 Edgar® Award Nominees are... Mystery Writers of America is proud to announce, as we celebrate the 199th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, its Nominees for the 2008 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television and film published or produced in 2007. The Edgar® Awards will be presented to the winners at our 62nd Gala Banquet, May 1, 2008 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City. BEST NOVEL Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (Henry Holt and Company) Priest by Ken Bruen (St. Martin's Minotaur) The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins) Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House Books) Down River by John Hart (St. Martin's Minotaur) BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR Missing Witness by Gordon Campbell (HarperCollins – William Morrow) In the Woods by Tana French (Penguin Group – Viking) Snitch Jacket by Christopher Goffard (The Rookery Press) Head Games by Craig McDonald (Bleak House Books) Pyres by Derek Nikitas (St. Martin's Minotaur) BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL Queenpin by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster) Blood of Paradise by David Corbett (Random House - Mortalis) Cruel Poetry by Vicki Hendricks (Serpent's Tail) Robbie's Wife by Russell Hill (Hard Case Crime) Who is Conrad Hirst? by Kevin Wignall (Simon & Schuster) BEST FACT CRIME The Birthday Party by Stanley Alpert (Penguin Group – G.P. Putnam's Sons) Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Vincent Bugliosi (W.W. Norton and Company Chasing Justice: My Story of Freeing Myself After Two Decades on Death Row for a Crime I Didn't Commit by Kerry Max Cook (HarperCollins – William Morrow) Relentless Pursuit: A True Story of Family, Murder, and the Prosecutor Who Wouldn't Quit by Kevin Flynn (Penguin Group – G.P. Putnam's Sons) Sacco & Vanzetti: The Men, The Murders and the Judgment of Mankind by Bruce Watson (Penguin Group – Viking) BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL The Triumph of the Thriller: How Cops, Crooks and Cannibals Captured Popular Fiction by Patrick Anderson (Random House) A Counter-History of Crime Fiction: Supernatural, Gothic, Sensational by Maurizio Ascari (Palgrave Macmillan) Deviance in Contemporary Crime Fiction by Christiana Gregoriou (Palgrave Macmillan) Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley (The Penguin Press) Chester Gould: A Daughter's Biography of the Creator of Dick Tracy by Jean Gould O’Connell (McFarland & Company) BEST SHORT STORY "The Catch" – Still Waters by Mark Ammons (Level Best Books) "Blue Note" – Chicago Blues by Stuart M. Kaminsky (Bleak House Books) "Hardly Knew Her" – Dead Man's Hand by Laura Lippman (Harcourt Trade Publishers) "The Golden Gopher" – Los Angeles Noir by Susan Straight (Akashic Books "Uncle" – A Hell of a Woman” by Daniel Woodrell (Busted Flush Press) BEST JUVENILE The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) Shadows on Society Hill by Evelyn Coleman (American Girl Publications) Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn (Clarion Books) The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh (Hyperion Books for Young Readers) Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things by Wendelin Van Draanen (Random House Children’s Books – Alfred A. Knopf) BEST YOUNG ADULT Rat Life by Tedd Arnold (Penguin – Dial Books for Young Readers) Diamonds in the Shadow by Caroline B. Cooney (Random House Children's Books – Delacorte Press) Touching Snow by M. Sindy Felin (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing – Atheneum Books for Young Readers) Blood Brothers by S.A. Harazin (Random House Children's Books – Delacorte Press) Fragments by Jeffry W. Johnston (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing – Simon Pulse) BEST PLAY If/Then by David Foley (International Mystery Writers' Festival) Panic by Joseph Goodrich (International Mystery Writers' Festival) Books by Stuart M. Kaminsky (International Mystery Writers' Festival) BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY "It’s Alive" – Dexter, Teleplay by Daniel Cerone (Showtime) "Yahrzeit" – Waking the Dead, Teleplay by Declan Croghan & Barbara Machin (BBC America) "Pie-Lette" – Pushing Daisies, Teleplay by Bryan Fuller (ABC/Warner Bros Television "Senseless" – Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Teleplay by Julie Martin & Siobhan Byrne O’Connor (Wolf Films/NBC Universal) "Pilot" – Burn Notice, Teleplay by Matt Nix (USA Network/Fox Television Studios) BEST MOTION PICTURE SCREENPLAY Eastern Promises, Screenplay by Steven Knight (Focus Features) The Lookout, Screenplay by Scott Frank (Miramax) Michael Clayton, Screenplay by Tony Gilroy (Warner Bros. Pictures) No Country for Old Men, Screenplay by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, based on the book by Cormac McCarthy (Miramax) Zodiac, Screenplay by James Vanderbilt, based on the book by Robert Graysmith (Warner Bros. Pictures) ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD "The Catch" – Still Waters by Mark Ammons (Level Best Books) GRAND MASTER Bill Pronzini RAVEN AWARDS Center for the Book in the Library of Congress Kate's Mystery Books (Kate Mattes, owner) THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD In Cold Pursuit by Sarah Andrews (St. Martin's Minotaur) Wild Indigo by Sandi Ault (Penguin Group – Berkley Prime Crime) Inferno by Karen Harper (Harlequin – MIRA Books) The First Stone by Judith Kelman (Penguin Group – Berkley Prime Crime) Deadman's Switch by Barbara Seranella (St. Martin's Minotaur) # # # # The EDGAR (and logo) are Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by the Mystery Writers of America, Inc.

Archaeological Update

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Underwater city could be revealed: "Britain's own underwater 'Atlantis' could be revealed for the first time with hi-tech underwater cameras.

Marine archaeologist Stuart Bacon and Professor David Sear, of the University of Southampton, will explore the lost city of Dunwich, off the Suffolk coast."

Dino Update (Hot-Blooded Edition)

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Dinosaurs 'grew fast, bred young': "Dinosaurs bred as early as age eight, long before they reached adult size, fossil evidence suggests.

Although they were descended from reptiles, and evolved into birds, dinosaurs grew fast and bred young, much like the mammals of today."

Croc Update (Not Guilty Edition)

The Times - Article: "However, to be absolutely sure that it was not the guilty reptile, the 1.8 metre creature was taken to Mtubatuba where it was x-rayed.

'We needed to ensure that there were no human remains in its stomach,' said Zimu. 'There were only stones in its stomach, which helps it with its digestion.'"

Dickie Lee Fox, R. I. P.

Most of you didn't know Dr. Fox. He was a colleague of mine at Alvin Community College and taught for me in the English Department. He was a six-foot-five ex-Marine (though in Dickie's mind there was no such thing as an ex-Marine) with a booming voice. He was the first person I saw when I set foot on the ACC campus in 1983. A week ago, he had a massive stroke. Today I attended his memorial service. There wasn't a vacant seat in the big church auditorium, and I was reminded again of how much Dickie had done in the community and for so many students. Some of his former students drove a long way to be there and show their respect to his family. He'll be missed.

If you want to read a little about this amazing guy, click here.

Ed Hoch, R. I. P.

I just got the bad and sad news that Ed Hoch has passed away. One of the greats. I'm going to miss him tremendously. I have several very nice memories of him at various Bouchercons, including the time in Denver when his wife got a great laugh out of the fact that he and I had both sold stories to an anthology that wanted material that was heavy on the sex angle. And in Austin, when he was highly pleased with the duck-call he received when taking a tour of the city. This photo was taken in the hotel lobby when he returned. I can't imagine opening up an issue of EQMM without one of his stories in it. I can't imagine not seeing him at Bouchercon.

Jammer Man

A hero for our time.

Archaeological Update

First Temple seal found in Jerusalem | Jerusalem Post: "A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said Wednesday.

The 2,500-year-old black stone seal, which has the name 'Temech' engraved on it, was found earlier this week amid stratified debris in the excavation under way just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig."

Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing

Now in handy book form.