Paintings by Kenny Mencher

Artist Kenny Mencher did the cover for Bad Juju (reviewed here). Check out some of his other noirish work at this link.

New Story at BEAT to a PULP

BEAT to a PULP :: Contact Shots Are Bad Like That :: Derek Kelly

Country Music -- Willie Nelson

Seems like T-Bone Burnett's working with everybody these days. I just reviewed the Jakob Dylan CD, and now I've been listening a lot to Willie Nelson's new one, with Burnett as the producer. Same spare arrangements, lots of the same musicians. And some great songs, most of which are familiar to country music fans.

My absolute favorite on the CD is "Dark as a Dungeon," a coal-mining song by Merle Travis that I first heard on an album by Tennessee Ernie Ford well over 50 years ago. I thought at the time it was one of the most powerful things I'd ever heard, and I still do. Willie's version is especially poignant in light of the recent mining disaster in West Virginia. My father used to like "Pistol Packin' Mama" a lot, and of course that made me like it, too. Willie does a great version. "Satisfied Mind" is a classic, recorded many times by others, but Willie makes it his own. If you like an even more spiritually tinged song, there's "Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down." There's not a new song on the CD, but Willie can make the old things new. Give it a listen.

Dark As A Dungeon - Willie Nel...

Today's Western Movie Poster

Back Alley Update from Richard Helms

Just wanted to drop everyone a note to let you know that the new issue of The Back Alley Webzine will go active around the first of the week. This is our first issue since The Back Alley made history by becoming the very first all-electronic mystery zine to make the MWA Approved Periodicals list.

It's a corker, folks. We have stories by Stephen D. Rogers, Angela Zeman, Nikki Dolson, and a very impressive newcomer (to mysteries, at least) named Thomas Larsen. There is even a new Eamon Gold short story by some kid named Helms. We top it all off with part six of our seven-part serialization of Frank Norris's classic naturalistic proto-noir novel, McTeague.

The party starts Monday at The Back Alley Webzine,www.backalleywebzine.com ! Hope to see you there!

Richard Helms
SIX MILE CREEK, available NOW, Five Star Mysteries
www.richardhelms.net

Houston Leads the Way

Houston officers wrote more than 109,000 speeding tickets in March, setting a record high of tickets issued in any one month since mid-'99 - 4/23/10 - Houston News - abc13.com: "When traffic is flowing in Houston, we really move. Some days it seems like Houstonians have a love affair with their gas pedals.

It's on officers like Mark Elliott to slow us down.

'Everybody always wants to be out front,' Elliott said.

And from what we can tell, HPD's been abnormally busy lately.
Last month, HPD handed out more than 109,000 traffic tickets. That's 3,500 a day or 147 tickets every hour for a month."

New and Improved

25 years since Coca-Cola's big blunder �| ajc.com: "Twenty-five years ago Friday, Coca-Cola executives stepped up to a podium at the company's headquarters and told the world that the old Coke formula was being shelved in favor of something called 'New Coke.' As the ads said, you were gonna love it."

The World in His Arms

Cheapskate

EXCLUSIVE: Doug Reinhardt Spent $2 Million On Paris Hilton Over 18 months! | RadarOnline.com: "Paris Hilton and Doug Reinhardt’s romance may be finished but the fallout from their breakup continues. As the he-said-she-said back and forth continues, RadarOnline.com has learned new details about their relationship, including how Doug spent $2 million on Paris in 18 months!"

Top Ten Best Movie Scores of the Past 30 Years

YesButNoButYes: Top Ten Best Movie Scores of the Past 30 Years

I'm sure nobody will have any argument with these choices.

New Post at the Running Blog

Click here for another thrilling installment.

Victor Gischler -- The Deputy

The title character of The Deputy is Toby Sawyer, a guy who left Coyote Crossing, Oklahoma, and made the mistake of coming back. He pretty much had to, however, as his life was going nowhere. He's not the smartest person in town, even though it's a small town, and he's not even really a deputy, just a part-timer. He's a good old boy, though, and he has a good heart. He loves his kid, and he wants to do the right thing. Too bad he's a screw-up and can't even manage to watch a dead body without its disappearing.

And when the body disappears, Toby's long night begins. The book takes place during that one night, with more action, deaths, explosions, car chases, sex, and beatings in that short timespan than some lawmen (Sheriff Dan Rhodes, take note) experience in their entire lengthy careers.

Toby can't quite figure out what the hell is going on, and the question is, will he survive all the attempts on his life and blunder through, or will someone kill him before morning? I'm certainly not going to tell you. It all makes for entertaining reading, and the pace never slows. The book is short, just the right length, sort of a Gold Medal book for the 21st century. Grab a copy and see for yourself.

Top 10 Father and Son Writing Teams

Top 10 Father and Son Writing Teams presented by AbeBooks: "Sons who have followed in their literary fathers' footsteps and become authors are surprisingly common. Perhaps it’s the genes? Perhaps it was inspiring to see father disappear off and hammer away at the typewriter for hour after hour. AbeBooks has selected the top 10 father and son author double-teams and there are plenty of big-hitters."

Today's Western Movie Poster

Australia Leads the Way

Road rage man ordered to pay compo to policeman whose testicles he squeezed in road rage incident at Brisbane Riverfire | Courier Mail: "Road rage man ordered to pay compo to policeman whose testicles he squeezed in road rage incident at Brisbane Riverfire"

Forgotten Books: THE SPOTTED PANTHER -- James Francis Dwyer

James Francis Dwyer's life story is almost as interesting and full of action as his fiction. Click the link and read about him. It's worth your time. Then you can come back and read about today's Forgotten Book.

Last week I jokingly said something like, "Before there was Gabriel Hunt, there was Mark Stone." But this week I'm talking about the thing itself, the pure serene. When it comes to treasure-hunting tales, you can hardly beat Dwyer's The Spotted Panther. First of all, it was written in 1913, when the world was a much larger place and still full of wonder, when most people reading the serial in Munsey's had no idea what might lie "deep in the heart of the Borneo jungles." (And maybe we still don't.)

It begins with a brawl in an opium den and the revelation of the Chalice of Everlasting fire: [T]hat chalice had lived upon the spice-scented breezes for centuries. Lived, mind you! In the fo'c'stle of every blistered tramp that hooted of nipa-palm villages in search of cargo, the Chalice of Everlasting Fire was the subject of discussion. Men talked of it on the stinking Wusung, whispered of it at the pearl fisheries at Thursday Island, and dreamed of it as they looked upon the snows above Darjeeling. It had a dozen names. Dyak, Kling, Chinese, Jap, Tamil, Hindu, Shan, Khond, and Rajput kknew it by a name of his own. It was the Vessel of Flame, the Holy Cup,the Burning Pitcher, the Goblet of Life, and a dozen other names, but English and American sailors spoke of it as the Chalice of Everylasting Fire.

If that doesn't get your blood stirring, then this isn't the book for you. But that's just for starters. You see the three adventurers at the heart of the book already have the Chalice in their possession. What they're really after is the Parong of Buddha, and to get that, they're going to have to travel into the interior, see wonders, and fight to the death. The Moon of Blood. The Place of Evil Winds. The Passage of the Glow-worms. And a lot more.

Those of us who love pulp adventure are luck that Black Dog Books is making pulp classics like this available. Be warned that the racial attitudes are far from enlightened, as you might expect in a book nearly 100 years old. See the quotation for a small example. In spite of that, highly recommended.

Trick Baby

Archie Comics Update

Comic book shocker! Archie's Riverdale high school gets openly gay student, Kevin Keller: "Gee whiz, Archie!

Riverdale High School, the stomping grounds of comic books' favorite teen and his friends, is opening its doors to an openly gay student - a first in the 69-year history of the character.

'We're trying to reflect society and we're just trying to show Riverdale is a diverse place,' says Dan Parent, the artist-writer behind the series."

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

She Should Have Stayed off Her Lawn

And as for the young killer's comment in the last paragraph below, I think she should be told now that she's sentenced to die when she's 70.

Woman Charged In Hempstead Van-Lawn Death: 'She Was Old' - 1010WINS.com�: "The18-year-old woman charged with vehicular manslaughter in the death of Hempstead woman told her side of the story Wednesday, and some of her comments are shocking.

Police say Kayla Gerdes was high on painkillers when she drove a van onto the front lawn and into a house in Hempstead, killing homeowner Rebecca Twine-Wright, 69, who was mowing her lawn.

Before her arraignment at Nassau County District Court on Wednesday, a very emotional Gerdes told reporters 'I didn't mean to do it. The car went out of control -- I was pressing the brake...it was a was a mistake.'

However, it's what she told police that is hard to believe.

At 2:10 a.m. Wednesday, about 16 hours after the Tuesday morning accident, in a statement to police, Gerdes was quoted as saying: 'The thing that made me feel not so bad was she was old. 'I mean, 70 years is a long time to live.'"

Chupacabra Update

Vanished: 'Chupacabra' walks away from Fiesta booth |

"On display was a mummified chupacabra. Stevens charges $1.00 for the public to get a closeup look at what he claims is the only known chupacabra in the U.S.

But no more.

Owner Brian Stevens says the special specimen has been stolen."