Haiti Noir

One of the latest installments in the Akashic Books noir series doesn't look at just one city, as the other books have, but at an entire nation — one where just getting through the day is an exercise in life-as-noir. The magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck not far from Port-au-Prince almost a year ago, on January 12, 2010, with an estimated 230,000 people killed, 300,000 injured and 1,000,000 made homeless. Since then, over 1,000 people have died from cholera, and violent protests have broken out, shutting down schools, businesses and the international airport.

Award-winning novelist Edwidge Danticat had been working for a year as editor on Akashic's Haiti Noir anthology when the earthquake struck, and she was worried some of the stories would become irrelevant or not ring true, but ultimately felt that didn't happen. In fact, she solicited three earthquake-related stories that found their way into the book. She tried to get a mixture of literary styles, adding she "was glad reading the other books in the series to see that noir did not only mean detective stories. We have many variations on the detective story here; however each writer defined noir for him- or herself and came up with something powerful. The stories are dark in that bad things happen in them. There is of course a Haitian sensibility because the stories are set in Haiti or in the Haitian diaspora. They are about both individuals and the larger society."

As Publishers Weekly noted, the anthology contains several stories that feature the practice of Vodou including Kettly Mars's supernatural thriller "Paradise Inn," in which a detective investigating police corruption is transferred to a remote village and falls under the seductive power of a fearsome innkeeper and her succubus-like daughter, and Gary Victor's "The Finger," where a criminal's trophy of an expensive ring, with its dead former owner's finger still attached, comes back to haunt him.

The launch party featuring Danticat and other contributors will take place at Symphony Space in New York City on January 26. Ten percent of the profits from sales of Haiti Noir will be donated to an organization Danticat chose, the Lambi Fund of Haiti, a nonprofit that helps fund Haitian community-based groups promoting economic justice, democracy and sustainable development. 

 

Christmas Mystery Melange

 Janet Rudolph has compiled an extensive listing of Christmas-themed fiction novels for her blog Mystery Fanfare. Matter of fact, it's so extensive, the list is broken down into four separate posts, A through D, I through N, O through R and S through Z.

For some of those Christmas stories in print, Elizabeth A. White recommends Naughty: Nine Tales of Christmas Crime by Steve Hockensmith and George Kelley suggests A Rumpole Christmas by John Mortimer.

Mystery Scene Magazine has a feature asking several mystery authors which presents they would give to their protagonists. Part One includes Lauren Willig, Ken Harmon, Joanne Fluke/Laura Levine/Leslie Meier and Shirley Rousseau Murphy, and Part Two  has Anne Perry, Kate Kingsbury, Betty Hechtman, Sally Goldenbaum playing Santa Claus.

Do Some Damage is hosting a Christmas Noir Flash Challenge of noir, transgressive, caper and hardboiled fiction sent in by readers. Look for stories by Bryon Quartermous, Chris Deal, Stephen D. Rogers and more every day through the New Year. 

Elizabeth Foxwell's Bunburyist blog points to the Museum of Broadcast Communications site where you can watch several well-known holiday programs online, including the Twilight Zone's "Night of the Meek" with Art Carney; A Bozo Christmas; and the Dick Van Dyke Show's "The Alan Brady Show Presents."

And for a little Christmas binary whimsy, check out the Digital Nativity.

Errata

The South Asian Reading Challenge mentioned in the blog posting the other day about various reading challenges is being hosted by S. Krishna's Books instead of Stargazerpuj's Book Blog. Apologies to both great bloggers for the mix-up.

Crime Fiction Challenges

That is to say, I challenge you to look through the following reading challenges for 2011 and not be able to find a single one that interests you. There's quite a variety to choose from, and most don't require a huge time commitment (some even have as few as one to two books to read).

CRIME FICTION

Criminal Plot Challenge
This is the first-ever such challenge from Jen Forbus, in which she asks you to read 6 books in 2011, one from six different categories such as a book by a new-to-you-author who's blurbed a book you enjoyed.

The Alphabet in Crime Fiction 2011
Kerrie Smith is once again holding her crime alphabet challenge, which does require a time commitment, but it will help you read quite a few books next year, a worthwhile endeavor. She asks that you read one book each week starting in January that's related to the letter of the week, either the first letter of a book's title, the first letter of an author's first name, or the first letter of the author's surname.

Mystery and Suspense Challenge
Book Chick City challenges you to read 12 mystery and suspense novels and upload your reviews to the blog. She'll also have a monthly drawing for a book prize, and all participants receive a free ARC of The Survivor by Sean Slater.

Cruisin' thru the Cozies
Socrates' Book Review Blog theme, as the title suggests, is the "cozy" mystery, and even one book will put you in the "Snoop" category.

Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge
If you're a fan of the Golden Age, this challenge is for you. Read mystery books published prior to 1960, with a prize for everyone who completes the challenge. You can review or not, blog or not, it's up to you.

INTERNATIONAL

Carrie Kitzmiller is holding her second annual Ireland Reading Challenge, and any book written by an Irish author, set in Ireland, or involving Irish history or Irish characters, counts for the challenge; fiction, non-fiction, poetry, audiobooks, children's books, whatever suits your fancy. All participants will be entered for a prize giveaway of a copy of Tipperary by Frank Delaney.

If you're a fan of fiction down under, join the  2011 Aussie Author Challenge. It helps if you have a blog, so you can review and link back.

S. Krishna's Books is hosting the South Asian Challenge 2011, where you read at least one book by a South Asian author or about South Asia (i.e. India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and the Maldives).

If you've been inspired by the recent wave of Scandinavian fiction to hit the U.S., you might want to try the Nordic Challenge, including any book by any author born in a Nordic country (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and/or Sweden) or a book set in a Nordic country.

Speaking of things north, Canada isn't left out — John Mutford's 4th annual Canadian Book Challenge started in July 2010, but it continues through to July 1st, 2011, which happens to be Canada Day. You'll need to hurry, though, because you'll need to read 13 books.

If you'd prefer to think more, well, globally, sign up for the 2011 Global Reading Challenge, and choose at least one novel each from Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America, South America and a "Seventh" continent (Antarctica or your own "seventh" setting, e.g. the sea, the space, a supernatural/paranormal world, history, the future – you name it).

MISCELLANEOUS

The Book Vixen's challenge is relatively simple — it's the Outdo Yourself Challenge, in which you read more books in 2011 than you did in 2010 (in any format).

Here's another easy one — the Off the Shelf Challenge. Go to that To Be Read pile of yours and read those books you own copies of, but have never got around to reading.

The What's in a Name Challenge has more rules than most, but it's intriguing. You pick a pick in 6 different categories with themes such as a book with a number in the title and a book with evil in the title.

If you enjoy reading the adventures of V.I. Warshawski, Stephanie Plum, Sharon McCone or Tess Monaghan, sign up for the  Strong Heroine Reading Challenge.

Want to read more local authors or books set in your local environs? Try the Hometown Challenge.

Like you novels dark with crumbling castles, and a little horror and romance? If so, the Gothic Reading Challenge is for you.

If you haven't jumped on one of the newer literary trends, then you here's your chance to Get Steampunked (think Jules Verne meets Terry Gilliam).

Speaking of trends, if you get a Kindle or Nook for Christmas, hurry on over to the 2011 E-Book Challenge.

Want more? The blog A Novel Challenge has dozens for you (past, present and future). 

Science is Murder

The Second Annual Science is Murder event takes place Tuesday night, December 21, at the Washington Academy of Sciences, 1200 New York Avenue NW, in Washington, DC. Featured on this year's panel are authors Louis Bayard (The Black Tower), Ellen Crosby (Viognier Vendetta), Dana Cameron (Ashes and Bones) and Lawrence Goldstone (The Astronomer), who will be speaking about how science is reflected in their works of fiction. Kathy Harig, of Mystery Loves Company, will serve as moderator. The reception and book look are at 6:30 p.m. and the panel begins at 7:00 p.m. RSVP (recommended) to MurderousScience@washacadsci.org.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

The 9th Annual San Francisco Film Noir Festival is headed back to the Castro theater January 21-30, with 24 films in 10 days. This year's theme is "Who’s Crazy Now?" and includes Oscar-winning performances by Ingrid Bergman (Gaslight) and Ronald Colman (A Double Life), as well as obscure rarities, "all presented as originally intended, in glorious 35mm celluloid, in a movie palace, before an appreciative audience."

Lee Goldberg's short mystery film Remaindered has been chosen for the 2011 Derby City Film Festival in Louisville, Kentucky. The film is about a writer whose promising writing career is now reduced to signing books in small-town grocery stores. In one such small Kentucky town he meets Megan, the town librarian, and that's when things really begin to go downhill.

Martin Scorsese is teaming up with Robert De Niro for the first time since 1995 in a gangster movie about mob hitman Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran. Based on Charles Brandt's 2004 book I Heard You Paint Houses, the screenplay is being written by Steven Zaillian (Mission Impossible, American Gangster, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).

TV

A&E has given the go-ahead to two pilots, one of which, The Package Deal, is based on the mystery series written by Craig Johnson featuring Walt Longmire, a local sheriff in rural Wyoming. The other pilot is Big Mike, about a plus-sized detective and "a force of nature" in the San Diego PD. 

If you're in the UK, tune in the TV series based on Michael Dibdin's fictional Italian detective Aurelio Zen, which premieres January 2 on BBC One. It actually starts with the second book in the series, Vendetta, and stars Rufus Sewell as Aurelio Zen. For an interview with Sewell and more about the program, check out the BBC's site.

Speaking of the BBC, during the Christmas holidays BBC4 is airing the original feature-length episodes starring Rolf Lassgard as Henning Mankell's rumpled detective Wallander, which predated the Kenneth Branagh version.

PODCASTS/RADIO

The 31st episode of the Reading and Writing podcast features an interview with Don Winslow, author of the critically-acclaimed novel Savages.

Blog Talk Radio had author CJ West chatting with Leighton Gage, creator of the Chief Inspector Mario Silva mystery series, whose latest installment, Every Bitter Thing, is a procedural that investigates a bizarre string of murders in Brazil.

Give a Subscription

 Here's a great idea for the crime fiction fan on your list (or even for yourself): give a subscription to one of the following magazines:

• Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
• CrimeSpree
• Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
• Mystery Readers Journal
• Mystery Scene
• Suspense Magazine
• Strand Magazine

In addition, several e-zines have print or Kindle versions of individual issues you can purchase, including Crime Factory, Needle and Out of the Gutter. 

And even though other online 'zines are free, I'm sure they'd appreciate a donation sent their way to help defray the costs of keeping these labors of love going. Sandra Seamans's wonderful blog has a nice listing of all of these, as well as other cross-genre 'zines.

Gifts with a Purpose

Mystery Scene Magazine's latest issue included gift ideas for those who want to give more this holiday season. Here's the list:

Reading is Fundamental
Founded by a former teacher, RIF delivers free books and literacy resources to the most financially needy communities throughout the US, with special focus on children from birth to age eight.

UNICEF Story Books 
Inspire the mind of children in far-off primary schools by sending the gift of story books for as little as $30 for 8 local-language books.

Books For Life
Help a community build a library or support the literacy project of your choosing from the US to India to Kenya to Nicaragua and beyond.

American Library Association
Help ALA advocate on behalf of libraries and library users, promote literacy and community outreach programs, encourage reading and continuing education in communities across America, and provide scholarships to students preparing to enter the library profession.

Check out more from Mystery Scene's latest issue via their web site link.

Contests and Freebies

Now that your bank account is drained and your credit cards are maxed out, here are a few contests you can enter and a couple of freebies, to boot.

The Women of Mystery are giving away copies of the anthology Beat to a Pulp: Round One, stories chosen from the Beat to a Pulp e-zine. While you're there, check out the interview with editor David Cranmer.

Declan Burke and Quercus are offering three free copies of Three Seconds by Roslund and Hellström. To win one, share what your fantasy crime-writing duo might be: James Ellroy and Janet Evanovich? John Connolly and Michael Connelly? Ken Bruen and Stieg Larsson? Elmore Leonard and Patricia Highsmith? The "quirkiest, most apt or simply the funniest entries go into the hat, with bonus marks for a quick synopsis of your fantasy duo’s novel."

John Kenyon, over at Things I'd Rather Be Doing, is sponsoring a short story contest. Your mission:  Write a crime fiction story of between 1,000 and 3,000 words based on the premise of an actual children’s fairy tale. The top three winners and "most inventive recasting of a fairy tale" will receive books.

The Best Damn Creative Writing blog is holding a Holiday Swag Bag Giveaway. Today is the third such entry, so hop on over, leave a comment, and you may walk away with an "awesome swag bag filled with books."

In honor of the launch of Mark Timlin's new book 101 Best TV Crime Series, the author and publisher are sponsoring a free e-book offer (but only for those who have already published a physical copy of the book). Even if you don't have the book, you can add your own TV favorites on the web site. Otherwise, the book's available at discount for a limited time on Amazon (both U.K. and U.S.).

New Kids

It's always good news to me when I hear about a new book store opening, (especially lately). Congrats to local indie store One More Page Books in Arlington, Virginia, founded by Eileen McGervey to "share a love of books and provide a space to support local writers, artists and independent businesses." Planned events include author signings, children story hours, wine tastings, writing workshops, book clubs, knitting clubs, and arts and crafts projects for children.  Among the first authors to hold book signings:  Ellen Crosby, signing the latest in her Lucie Montgomery mystery series, The Viognier Vendetta, on Sunday, December 19, 2-4 pm; and Richard Gazala, signing his debut thriller Blood of the Moon, Tuesday, December 21, 7-9 pm.

Congrats also to the new ezine, Pulp Carnivale, launching January 31, 2011. Author Tracy Austin is looking for alternative short fiction in the tradition of pulp magazines including fantasy, gangster, detective/mystery, science fiction, adventure/exotic travels, westerns, romance and horror/occult. Stories can be flash fiction, 1,000 words or less, published daily as a "News Flash"; longer stories around 5,000 words or less; and serial fiction (episodic or a miniseries), 5,000 words or less to come in weekly installments.

The Early Bird Gets a Turn

I've gotten several notices recently about crime fiction conferences coming up next year. In some cases, you can receive a discount on registration if you sign up early, so keep that and the deadlines in mind. It's already looking like a terrific year for conferencing-going (especially if you have the time and cash). Here are a few:

The first registration deadline for Malice Domestic 23 is 12/31/10 at midnight. Not only will registration rates increase on January 1st, but only those who register before the end of the year will receive a nomination ballot for the Agatha Awards.  Guest of Honor this year is Carole Nelson Douglas; Toastmaster is Donna Andrews; Lifetime Achievement to Sue Grafton; Malice Remembers: Lyn Hamilton; Poirot Award to Janet Rudolph; and Fan Guest of Honor is Anne Murphy.

The first actual conference of the year is Murder Goes South, held in Atlanta January 28-29. The Keynote Speaker is Erica Spindler, with other guests including writers "Georgia Adams", Glynn Marsh Alam, Carla Damron, Mitchell Graham, David Hunter, Lee Lofland, Cathy Pickens, and William Rawlings Jr. and Guest Presenters, Janet Reid, Dr. Susan Kirkpatrick Smith and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency.

Love is Murder follows on shortly thereafter, February 4-6 in Rosemont, Illinois. Ghost of Honor is Chester Gould; Local Guest of Honor is Michael Allen Dymmoch; Fan Guest of Honor is Scott Doornbosch; Featured Authors include Rhys Bowen, Joseph Finder, Carolyn Haines, Joan Johnston, Jon Land and F. Paul Wilson. There will also be master classes led by Carolyn Haines, Joan Johnston and a Pitch-A-Palooza.

SleuthFest is back bigger than ever, and since it's held in the Sunshine State in March, it's a tempting respite from the winter doldrums (which seem to have gotten a jump-start this year with all the snow in various parts of the country). Guests of Honor include Dennis Lehane, Med Gardiner and SJ Rozan, and there will also be hands-on writers' craft-oriented workshops, including a forensics track. Register by January 15th to receive a discount.

PulpFest is back in Columbus, OH for 2011, and this year will be celebrating its 40th year and the 80th anniversary of The Shadow magazine. Registrations aren't available yet, but you can go ahead and mark your calendar for July 29-30.

I've started updating the conference listing on the blogroll as I get information — click on the Upcoming Conferences link to the right of this page or here.

Media Murder for Monday

TV

Bad news for fans of the Charlie Huston novel The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, about a slacker who joins a crime scene clean-up crew. HBO had ordered a pilot for a series that was filmed under the direction of Alan Ball (True Blood), but decided not to take the series after all. No word yet on whether the series will find life on another network.

Fox's Lie to Me starring Tim Roth hasn't been canceled — yet — although the network cut the current season order by nine episodes down to a total of 13. The official explanation is that Fox won't need more episodes because Lie To Me is only slated to run through Jan. 31, with midseason drama The Chicago Code taking over its slot on February 7. 

CSI creator Anthony Zuiker is not only developing Deperado, a new crime drama for CBS set in an Antonio, he also has three other dramas in the final stages of development, including Detail, featuring a private female security expert; Treadstone, themed around a fictional CIA unit; and Spirits, featuring a team of three young women who solve paranormal mysteries. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

DHX Media and screenwriter Michael Amo are shooting a pilot in Toronto for Shaw Media. Titled Befriend & Betray, it's based on the true-life story of Alex Caine, a man from Montreal who spent 25 years infiltrating the Hells Angels, Asian triads and other criminal brotherhoods, something even the Royal Canadian Mounted Police weren't able to do. 

Season 7 of the police drama The Closer will be its last. Star and Emmy-winner Kyra Sedgwick made the decision, adding that "I cannot fathom how difficult it will be to say goodbye to the incredible family we’ve created on The Closer. I will always be grateful to James Duff for his love and friendship, as well as for creating such a rich and complex character who I have loved living with year after year."

Comedian Dane Cook is joining the cast of Hawaii Five-0, playing the brother of Dan-O (Scott Caan). His first episode is currently scheduled to air in February 2011.

PODCASTS/RADIO

NPR' Weekend Edition Saturday interviewed Graham Moore about his debut novel The Sherlockian. Moore also talked about his own fascination with mysteries that began in childhood when he learned to read by passing Agatha Christie novels back and forth with his mother.

Plains FM interviewed Craig Sisterson of the Crime Watch blog about the announcement of Alix Bosco's novel Cut & Run as the inaugural winner of the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel. Sisterson also discused the creation and future of the Award, what books might be in the running for next year, and New Zealand crime fiction in general.

THEATER

American Psycho is being developed as a musical. The show's composer, Duncan Sheik, said to "Think about Malcolm McDowell singing songs during A Clockwork Orange." The project has been in development since 2008, when producers David Johnson, Jesse Singer, Nate Bolotin and Aaron Ray bought the rights to adapt the novel by Bret Easton Ellis. Playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa notes "There are murders, and they are on stage in full view of the audience…I think there's going to be a lot of blood. Obviously, it's not for the people who want to see Elf."

Ho-Ho Horror (for a good cause)

For the past several years, Wolfmont Press has published an anthology of crime fiction short stories around Christmas, with proceeds benefiting charity. This year, the designated charity is Homes for Our Troops, which helps returning vets who have been catastrophically injured. The anthology, titled Murder to Mil-Spec, features stories by Terrie Farley Moran, Dorothy B. Francis, "Big Jim" Williams, Elizabeth Zelvin, Lina Zeldovich, Charles Schaeffer, Howard B. Carron, Brendan Dubois, Janis Patterson, Barb Goffman, S.M. Harding and Diana Catt. You can pick up a copy from the authors, bookstores, and online via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and The Digital Bookshop.

Mystery Melange

If you're in New York City tonight, the Mysterious Bookshop is holding its annual Christmas party, with a book signing of the anthology Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop. Edited by Otto Penzler, it contains 17 stories originally printed in chapbooks and given to bookshop customers as Christmas gifts over the past 17 years. Some of the authors of those stories will be on hand, hopefully to include Charles Ardai, Lisa Atkinson, Lawrence Block, Mary Higgins Clark, Thomas H. Cook, Ron Goulart, Jeremiah Healy, Rupert Holmes, Andrew Klavan, Michael Malone, Anne Perry, S.J. Rozan, and Jonathan Santlofer.

Do Some Damage is hosting a Christmas Noir Flash Challenge. Submit 600 to1000 words of the "best Christmas noir, transgressive, caper or hardboiled fiction you've got" by December 19th, and the chosen stories will be posted starting Monday, December 20th, running until Monday, January 4th. Everyone who submits a story will be entered into a drawing for free books…and stuff.

Jen Forbus has another challenge for you, but it doesn't start until January and it lasts the entire year. She calls it the Inaugural Criminal Plots Reading Challenge. All you have to do is read six books within the six categories she lists (and you don't have to have a blog to do it). Everyone who completes the challenge will be entered for a chance at one of three prize packs.

A couple of December magazine releases:  Gumshoe Mystery Review, with news, reviews, and short fiction by Walter Giersbach.  And the Noir Journal has posted its latest book reviews, starting off with The Damage Done by Hilary Davidson.

If you're just discovering Scandinavian crime fiction thanks to Steig Larsson, then here's a handy primer of some of the other noteworthy authors writing in that chilly part of the world.

If you need some legal tips for your writing, or if you're just a fan of all things related to criminal justice, check out the 4th Annual ABA Journal Blawg 100, with favorite law-related blogs.

For all you Frankenstein fans, the handwritten first draft of Mary Shelley's masterpiece has gone on display in Britain for the first time. The exhibit also includes work by Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary's parents William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. It's a cooperative venture of the Bodleian Libraries and the New York Public Library. After it ends its run in the UK in March, the exhibit will head to New York City.

Book Clubbed

Do you belong to a book club? My mother has been a faithful member of one such club for decades, and apparently they still do exist in other places that aren't small towns. Book Club Meetup has a database of physical book clubs, and I was surprised (and pleased) to see so many listed. But are these clubs an endangered species thanks to e-books, or will they continue, with members discussing the books they've read on their e-readers or mobile devices? I say this, because it seems that a lot of book clubs contain folks of a certain…maturity, which may not translate into the younger crowd. The Independent recently had an article about online bookclubs, which are a growing trend, of sorts, so maybe that's the wave of the future. What do you think? Will there still be book clubs in ten year? Twenty? Does it even matter?

 

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Paul Thomas Anderson has plans to adapt Thomas Pynchon's 2009 novel Inherent Vice. The plot follow Larry "Doc" Sportello, a pothead private eye wandering through the Summer of Love in 1969 Los Angeles. Anderson apparently wants Robert Downey Jr. to play the lead role, although that may depend upon Downey's busy schedule.

Fresh on the heels of their Oscar win for The Hurt Locker, director Kathryn Bigelow and fellow Oscar winner and screenwriter Mark Boal are working on an international thriller with a black ops theme, based on a true story. The working title is Triple Frontier and apparently several big-names are interested in participating, including Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks and Will Smith.

TV

James Ellroy is set to star in an Investigation Discovery project titled James Ellroy's LA: City of Demons. As the press release states, the six-part series "shamelessly showcases Ellroy's larger-than-life personality and his vivid verbal style as he exhumes, explores and exposes the delicious dirt that cascades behind the silver screen." 

AMC has started work in Vancouver on the network's new original series, The Killing, from writer and executive producer Veena Sud (Cold Case), co-produced by Mikkel Bondesen (Burn Notice). The Killing is based on the successful Danish television series Forbrydelsen, telling the story of the murder of a young girl in Seattle and the subsequent police investigation. The first season of thirteen one-hour episodes premieres in March 2011.

The winner of the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, pseudonymous author Alix Bosco, has even more to celebrate: her novel Cut & Run has been optioned by Screenworks for production as a television mini-series in New Zealand.

Rachel Nichols was brought on board the TV show Criminal Minds for a three-episode arc, but even before her first show airs, she's been signed as a full-time regular to replace A.J. Cooke. She'll play Ashley Seager, an FBI cadet with an unusual family history who Agent Hotch invites to help consult on a case.

PODCASTS/RADIO

Patricia Cornwell joined Good Morning America to talk about her latest novel to feature Kay Scarpetta, Port Mortuary.

Thriller author David Morrell appeared on Blog Talk Radio to discuss the effect of e-books in the publishing world, his beginnings, his future, his trip to Iraq, and various other topics.

THEATER

Lisbeth Salander is taking to the stage, as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo holds its world premiere at Copenhagen's Norrebro Theatre. The play, based on the first of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, was developed with Eva Gabrielsson, Larsson's former partner.

Holiday Whimsy

Looking for a gift for that mystery-loving fiend who has everything? I stumbled across a few items that might be appropriate.

From the Mutter Museum of Philadelphia, home of some of the strangest and creepiest exhibits you'll ever see, how about death mints, "soap lady" soap (from a corpse in the museum of a woman who's held the same tortured pose for more than 130 years) or a cuddly faux-leather black heart?

If your giftee can't get enough CSI from TV alone, you might consider crime-scene toilet paper rolls or bandages (a/k/a "plasters" in the UK) or a chalk-outline mug featuring character quotations from Castle.

In the miscellaneous category, we have an ever-popular chocolate creation, in the form of a five-piece police kit, complete with handcuffs, badge and radio; a "dead Fred" pen holder; and edible spy paper (the latter two courtesy of the Spy Museum in D.C.). 

  

Bookmas for Kids

This Saturday, December 4th, it's Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day. Jenny Milchman organized the event and hopes it will become an annual celebration, adding that "A bookstore can lead a child to a book, with guidance and interest from booksellers, in a way that no website or digital device can. It's a place to read, dream, and play. A world of stimulation, and a refuge in a stimulating world."

The nonprofit group Reach Out and Read also believes in the power of books for kids, promoting literacy by giving new books to children at pediatric checkups. Thanks to donations, they've handed out 25 million books since 1989 and serve 3.9 million children nationwide, including more than one-third of all children living in poverty.

Also, San Diego's Mysterious Galaxy is continuing its tradition of supporting the Monarch School, whose student population consists entirely of homeless children, with their Read! Celebrate! Give! event. They're looking for gifts of school supplies and other items you can drop off at the store. And, for everyone who brings a gift (or buys one from them to give), you'll be entered into a raffle to win a $100 Mysterious Galaxy Gift Certificate. The store is also working to bring a "Beautiful Darkness" author event to Monarch's high school students for a holiday treat; to help, purchase a donation copy of Beautiful Creatures, and receive a 20% discount as well as a raffle ticket.

Fortified Serials

 If you're a fan of forensic and psychological dramas à la Dexter and Criminal Minds, you might be interested in a couple of nonfiction books released this fall. Both deal with serial killers, one tied to the birth of forensic science and the other a contemporary story of redemption.

The Killer of Little Shepherds is from the pen of Douglas Starr, co-director of the Center for Science and Medical Journalism and a professor of journalism at Boston University. Starr's book neatly dovetails the story of French serial killer Joseph Vacher and the achievements of groundbreaking criminologist Dr. Alexandre Lacassagne. Vacher is thought to have raped, killed, and mutilated at least 25 people between 1894 and 1897, while Lacassagne helped pioneer crime scene analysis, body decomposition and early profiling and testified during Vacher's trial. Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred review and Kirkus called it a "well-documented mix of forensic science, narrative nonfiction, and criminal psychology." That fits the book nicely, following as it does the determination of one man trying to bring criminal justice into the modern age, even as autopsies were still taking place on the kitchen table of a victim's home.

 

The second true-crime book, In with the Devil, tells the story of Jimmy Keene, who grew up outside Chicago as the son of a former police officer and went from promising high-school football player to convicted drug dealer. One year into his 10-year sentence, he was approached by the same prosecutor who had handled his case, with an interesting proposition in hand: go inside one of the most dangerous prisons in the U.S., befriend murderer Larry Hall, whom the prosecutor had also sent to prison, and get Hall to confess to the murder of two young women and tell where the body of one missing victim was buried. If he succeeded, Keene would get an unconditional release, but if he failed, he'd have to complete his term. If found out, he could be killed. Keene's story is co-written by investigative reporter Hillel Levin and is being developed into a movie with Martin Scorsese as director.