Mysteries due ...

According to the Rap Sheet, this is what we can look forward to over the next two months ...

APRIL (U.S.):

• Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness (Little, Brown)

• Douglas Corleone, Night on Fire (Minotaur)

• Janet Dawson, Bit Player (Perseverance Press)

• P.C. Doherty, Nightshade (Minotaur)

• David Downing, Potsdam Station (Soho Press)

• Terence Faherty, Dance in the Dark (Five Star)

• Heywood Gould, The Serial Killer’s Daughter (Nightbird Publishing)

• Rosemary Harris, Slugfest (Minotaur)

• Tony Hays, The Beloved Dead (Forge)

• Philip Kerr, Field Gray (Putnam)

• Camilla Lackberg, The Preacher (Pegasus)

• Jassy Mackenzie, Stolen Lives (Soho Press)

• Jean-Patrick Manchette, Fatale (NYRB Classics)

• Bill Moody, Fade to Blue (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Anne Perry, Treason at Lisson Grove (Ballantine)

• Lori Roy, Bent Road (Dutton)

• John Shannon, A Little Too Much (Severn House)

• Julia Spencer-Fleming, One Was a Soldier (Minotaur)

• Norb Vonnegut, The Gods of Greenwich (Minotaur)

• Daniel Woodrell, The Bayou Trilogy (Mulholland)



APRIL (UK):

• Stephen Booth, The Devil’s Edge (Sphere)

• Lee Jackson, The Diary of a Murder (Snowbooks)

• Mo Hayder, Hanging Hill (Bantam Press)

• Tobias Jones, White Death (Faber and Faber)

• Peter Lovesey, Stagestruck (Sphere)

• Edward Marston, Blood on the Line (Allison & Busby)

• Steve Mosby, Black Flowers (Orion)

• Andrew Pepper, Bloody Winter (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

• Anne Perry, Acceptable Loss (Headline)

• Imogen Robertson, Island of Bones (Headline Review)

• Zoë Sharp, Fifth Victim (Allison & Busby)

• Kerry Tombs, The Tewkesbury Tomb (Robert Hale)

• Fred Vargas, An Uncertain Place (Harvill Secker)

• S.J. Watson, Before I Go to Sleep (Doubleday)



MAY (U.S.):

• Lawrence Block, A Drop of the Hard Stuff (Mulholland)     

• Gyles Brandreth, Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders (Touchstone)

• Vicki Delany, Among the Departed (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Aaron Elkins, The Worst Thing (Berkley)

• Chris Knopf, Black Swan (Permanent Press)

• Jo Nesbø, The Snowman (Knopf)

• Clare O’Donohue, Missing Persons (Plume)

• Robert B. Parker, Sixkill (Putnam)

• Thomas Perry, The Informant (Otto Penzler/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• Stefanie Pintoff, Secret of the White Rose (Minotaur)

• Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins, Kiss Her Goodbye (Otto Penzler/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)



MAY (UK):

• Rory Clements, Prince (John Murray)

• Eoin Colfer, Plugged (Headline)

• James Craig, London Calling (Robinson)

• Jeffery Deaver, Carte Blanche (Hodder & Stoughton)

• Chris Morgan Jones, An Agent of Deceit (Mantle)

• Mari Jungstedt, The Dead of Summer (Doubleday)

• Lars Kepler, The Hypnotist (Blue Door)

• James McCreet, The Thieves’ Labyrinth (Macmillan)

• Brian McGilloway, Little Girl Lost (Macmillan)

• Denise Mina, The End of the Wasp Season (Orion)

• Aly Monroe, Blacklight (John Murray)

• R.N. Morris, The Cleansing Flames (Faber and Faber)

• Matt Benyon Rees, Mozart’s Last Aria (Corvus)

• Leigh Russell, Dead End (No Exit Press)

• Nick Stone, Voodoo Eyes (Sphere)

MI5 Files reveal bungled Nazi mission to USA

A Comedy of Errors from the Dark Days of WW2

A Nazi submarine mission to the United States during World War II turned into a story worthy of a comedy film after being hit by a series of blunders, both accidental and deliberate, as newly-released files from Britain's MI5 domestic intelligence agency reveal.

In June 1942, the Germans planned to bomb roads, railways and factories during Operation Pastorius, but even before it got under way the expedition descended into farce.

One of the saboteurs, Herbert Haupt, got drunk in a Paris bar after a farewell dinner and declared to his drinking companions that he was a spy.

When the submarine arrived on the coast of Long Island, New York, to drop off the four agents, it ran aground on a sandbar.

A US coastguard discovered the Germans as they buried their supplies on the beach - but he was given $300 and persuaded to leave them alone.

The plot was only foiled when the leader of the spies, George Dasch, rang up the FBI, announced he was a saboteur and demanded to speak to the bureau's then-director, J Edgar Hoover.

His confession was initially dismissed as a hoax, but after a lengthy interview he was arrested and his fellow agents were rounded up, the files show.

Despite the clumsiness of the mission, MI5 still regarded it as a serious threat. "This sabotage expedition was better equipped with sabotage apparatus and better trained than any other expeditions of which the security service has heard," wrote Victor Rothschild, head of MI5's counter-espionage division.

In 1943 a black and white propaganda movie, Operation Pastorius, was made of the farcical venture.

On this day ... 5 April

5 April 1887 -- Helen Keller, blind and deaf, learned the meaning of the word "water" from her gifted teacher, Anne Sullivan

5 April 1887 -- British historian Lord Acton wrote, "All power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

5 April 1895 -- Oscar Wilde lost the libel case he brought against the Marquess of Queensberry, who accused the Irish writer of homosexuality.

5 April 1923 -- British archaeologist Lord Carnarvon, who had opened Tutankhamen's tomb a few months earlier, died of a mysterious ailment, giving birth to the enduring legend of The Curse of the Pharaoh.

5 April 1960 -- British publisher Peter LLewellyn Davies, who as a child was the inspiration for James Barrie's Peter Pan, committed suicide, the third of the five brothers to die in tragic circumstances.

Elizabeth Taylor's love letters up for sale

The BBC reports that a collection of letters written by Elizabeth Taylor are to be sold at auction

The 66 letters wre penned between March and September 1949, when the actress was 17 years old, and engaged to William Pawley, the son of a former United States ambassador.

They are a window into a truly romantic soul.

In one of the earliest, dated 28 March, Elizabeth wrote, "I want our hearts to belong to each other throughout eternity.  I want us to be 'lovers' always, even after we've been married seventy-five years and have at least a dozen great-great-grandchildren."

In another, she vowed that she was "completely convinced" that he was "the only man in the world that I shall ever love."

His replies are not in the collection, but it is obvious that something went badly wrong.

In September, she was writing about giving back her diamond engagement ring, at his request.  She was still devoted to him, seemingly, because she pleaded, "I know with all my heart and soul that this is not the end for us."

But it was the end, however.  The actress went on to have seven husbands, none of them named William Pawley.

I wonder if he regretted it?  That he kept the letters is an indication that he might have still felt a fondness for her, though the fact that he sold them a couple of years ago is a hint that he might have not.

The World's Favorite Amateur Sleuth - the Final

The competition is down to two

Something is very odd here.  Dogged Agatha Christie fans vs. dedicated aficionados of that mysterious Carter Ross?

Jen Forbus’ “World’s Favorite Amateur Sleuth Tournament” has been narrowed to just two finalists: Agatha Christie’s Miss Jane Marple and Brad Parks’ Carter Ross, neither of whom anyone expected would make it this far.

Especially when their detecting competition included Lisbeth Salander, Flavia de Luce, the Amlingmeyer Brothers, and Lord Peter Wimsey. It is now up to you to pick between Marple and Ross. Vote here. Polling with continue through this coming Friday, April 8, with a winner to be named the next day.

What to look for when buying an e-book reader

Tips about what to consider

A friend has just bought a Kindle, and has decided that she loves it.  Unpacking it, charging it, and getting it going was a learning exercise, however, and in the process she and I learned a lot about the different options.

Charging.  (Battery, not invoice!)  Most are re-charged through the USB port of a computer.  If you are likely to be away from computers, it is a good idea to find out if you can buy a mains charger, and what it involves and what it costs.

Touchscreen or buttons?  The general opinion is that a touchscreen is a lot more fun and much easier to operate, but some e-readers don't have that capacity.  If you're thinking of buying one without a touchscreen, it is important to make sure that the controls are easy to use.

Downloading your library.  This is usually done via a USB computer port.  If you want to be computer-independent, explore the options of connecting via WiFi or 3G.

How many books will your e-reader store?  The rule of thumb is that 1GB of memory will hold 1,000 books.  If that is not enough for you, look for a model that has a memory card slot (also handy for lending books).

How heavy and how large?  For my friend, one of the advantages of the Kindle is that it is the size and weight of a standard paperback, and fits easily into her purse.  Six inches (152.4 mm), measured diagonally, is a popular size for the screen.  You can get bigger ones (great for reading magazines), but they weigh more, too.

The small print.  Easiest on the pocket and the e-reader battery is black on gray.  But color is more spectacular.

Reading in bright light.  Monochrome screens (black on gray)  are less reflective than color, so are easier to read on the beach.

Do you really need one?  You can read e-books on other gadgets, such as iPhones, some mobile phones, laptops, and netbooks. 

Best crime novels of the century

From the Rap Sheet -- again

Okay, I haven't worked out yet if the python was an April Fool's Joke or not, but this is such an amazing post from the Rap Sheet, that I reproduce it in full.  With comments.  Where appropriate.

It Was the Best of Crimes: Critics’ Choice 

Posted: 31 Mar 2011 02:11 PM PDT

In the summer of 2000, British critics H.R.F. “Harry” Keating and Mike Ripley were commissioned by the London Times newspaper to conduct a survey of the best crime novels (mysteries/spy stories/thrillers) of the 20th century, choosing one per year, 1900-1999. This, said the two critics, couldn’t be done so neatly, but what they would do was select 100 books to represent a century which began with the recall of Sherlock Holmes and ended with the death of Inspector Morse.

In the end, Ripley cheated a bit by nominating 101 titles to include Keating’s own The Perfect Murder from 1964, which modesty had forbidden its author from suggesting.

The survey, with a brief justification for each title, was published in a 16-page supplement to The Times on Saturday, September 30, 2000. The basic list of titles selected is republished here for the first time as a tribute to author and scholar Harry Keating, who died earlier this week at age 84. (Titles and years are as when published in the UK -- and I interpolate my thoughts, where I have any thoughts at all.)

1902: The Hound of the Baskervilles – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Yes, brilliant)

1903: The Riddle of the Sands – Erskine Childers (Have it; have trouble reading it.)

1905: The Four Just Men – Edgar Wallace (Oh yes, brilliant again)

1907: The Thinking Machine – Jacques Futrelle (Never heard of it)

1908: The Circular Staircase – Mary Roberts Rinehart (Remember reading that, and it was good)

1911: The Innocence of Father Brown – G.K. Chesterton (Oh yes, one of those books you remember ..)

1912: Trent’s Last Case – E.C. Bentley

1915: The Thirty-Nine Steps – John Buchan (Unreadable now, unfortunately)

1918: Uncle Abner – Melville Davisson Post

1926: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd – Agatha Christie (This woman was so-o-o reliable, always good)

1928: Ashenden (The British Agent) – W. Somerset Maugham (Funny, that - thought I had read everything of his, but this is unfamiliar)

1929: Little Caesar – W.R. Burnett

1929: Red Harvest – Dashiell Hammett

1930: The Maltese Falcon – Dashiell Hammett (Tough times demanded tough sleuths, I guess)

1930: The Documents in the Case – Dorothy L. Sayers, Robert Eustace

1931: Malice Aforethought – Francis Iles (Who?)

1932: Before the Fact – Francis Iles

1933: The Nine Tailors – Dorothy L. Sayers (Oh yes, was it that long ago? Great book, even 80 years later)

1934: Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie (See above, but this was one of her greatest)

1934: The Postman Always Rings Twice – James M. Cain (Saw the movie, too violent for me; a hint of the Stephen King books to come)

1934: Death of a Ghost – Margery Allingham (Another great, reliable writer)

1935: They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? – Horace McCoy

1935: The Hollow Man – John Dickson Carr

1935: The League of Frightened Men – Rex Stout

1936: The Wheel Spins – Ethel Lina White

1938: Lament for a Maker – Michael Innes

1938: The Beast Must Die – Nicholas Blake

1939: The Mask of Dimitrios – Eric Ambler (Yes!  Chilling radio serial made from it)

1939: Ten Little Niggers (And Then There Were None) – Agatha Christie (Politically incorrect, dear, but great in its day - and a good movie, too)

1939: Rogue Male – Geoffrey Household (Totally brilliant book, still very apt.)

1940: A Surfeit of Lampreys (Death of a Peer) – Ngaio Marsh

1940: The Bride Wore Black – Cornell Woolrich

1942: Calamity Town – Ellery Queen (This guy made mysteries deliberately commercial -- the modern world owes him a lot)

1943: The High Window – Raymond Chandler

1944: Green for Danger – Christianna Brand

1946: The Big Clock – Kenneth Fearing

1947: The Moving Toyshop – Edmund Crispin

1948: Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly –  John Franklin Bardin

1949: My Friend Maigret – Georges Simenon (Tried too hard to emulate Poirot)

1949: The Asphalt Jungle – W.R. Burnett

1950: Strangers on a Train – Patricia Highsmith (Oh yes, this one was great)

1950: Smallbone Deceased – Michael Gilbert (Was he the first lawyer to write mysteries?  Did them very well indeed -- teethed on his short stories in Argosy)

1950: The Stain on the Snow – Georges Simenon

1951: The Daughter of Time – Josephine Tey (Another one of those books that affects all your reading from then on -- wonderfully well researched, the first book that made me think deeply about history)

1952: The Tiger in the Smoke – Margery Allingham (Another superb choice)

1952: Last Seen Wearing – Hilary Waugh  (Great writer; not the book of his I would have chosen)

1953: Five Roundabouts to Heaven – John Bingham

1953: The Long Goodbye – Raymond Chandler

1953: The Burglar – David Goodis

1956: The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith

1956: Mystery Stories – Stanley Ellin

1957: From Russia with Love – Ian Fleming  (You have to be joking!  Was 1957 that bad?)

1959: The Manchurian Candidate – Richard Condon (Great book, watchable movie)

1962: The Ipcress File – Len Deighton

1963: Gun Before Butter – Nicolas Freeling

1963: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – John Le Carré (Was I the only person in the universe who found this book unreadable?)

1964: The Deep Blue Good-bye – John D. MacDonald (Why choose this one?  They were all the same, and they all did well to pass long airplane flights away)

1964: Pop. 1280 – Jim Thompson

1964: The Expendable Man – Dorothy B. Hughes

1965: Black Money – Ross Macdonald

1967: Roseanna – Maj Sjowall, Per Wahloo

1968: Making Good Again – Lionel Davidson

1968: The Glass-Sided Ants Nest – Peter Dickinson (I tried so hard to read this book ...)

1969: Blind Man with a Pistol – Chester Himes

1970: Jack’s Return Home – Ted Lewis

1971: The Day of the Jackal – Frederick Forsyth (A whole new genre, and OMG he did it well)

1972: The Friends of Eddie Coyle – George V. Higgins

1972: Sadie When She Died – Ed McBain (Why this one?  They were all pretty much the same, like watching a TV series.  Mind you, all his Ed McBain books were Evan Hunter lite)

1972: The Players and the Game – Julian Symons (Brilliant writer -- I was addicted to him at the time)

1974: Other Paths to Glory – Anthony Price

1976: The Wrong Case – James Crumley

1976: A Demon in My View – Ruth Rendell

1976: A Morbid Taste for Bones – Ellis Peters (Yes, still very readable)

1977: A Judgement in Stone – Ruth Rendell

1977: Laidlaw – William McIlvanney

1978: SS-GB – Len Deighton

1979: Whip Hand – Dick Francis (Another reliable writer -- don't stick with just this one, as the other years were just as good)

1979: Skinflick – Joseph Hansen

1979: Kill Claudio – P.M. Hubbard  (Why three 1979s?)

1981: Red Dragon – Thomas Harris

1981: Thus Was Adonis Murdered – Sarah Caudwell

1982: The False Inspector Dew – Peter Lovesey

1982: Indemnity Only – Sara Paretsky

1982: The Artful Egg – James McClure

1984: Stick – Elmore Leonard

1984: Miami Blues – Charles Willeford

1986: A Perfect Spy – John Le Carré

1986: A Taste for Death – P.D. James

1987: The Black Dahlia – James Ellroy

1988: Double Whammy – Carl Hiaasen

1989: Lonely Hearts – John Harvey

1990: Postmortem – Patricia Cornwell (Another new take on the genre -- and only take it if you have a strong stomach for ersatz pathology)

1991: Devil in a Blue Dress – Walter Mosley

1991: Dirty Tricks – Michael Dibdin

1993: The Sculptress – Minette Walters

1993: In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead – James Lee Burke (One of the first literary mystery writers)

1995: The Mermaids Singing – Val McDermid

1998: On Beulah Height – Reginald Hill

1998: The Hanging Garden – Ian Rankin

1999: The Remorseful Day – Colin Dexter

2000?  2001? etc.?  And why not Elizabeth George?

Suggestions welcome.

Python eats CFR, creates havoc

Government Printing Office invaded by serpent


On Sunday, March 27, the Government Printing Office (GPO) announced that a

27-foot Bolivian python (an endangered species) from the National Zoo

slithered into the underground vault holding the official copies of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).

Before it was incapacitated by numerous darts filled with strong sedatives, the snake managed to swallow Titles 33 and 46 of the CFR. It took veterinarians 12 hours to extract the important

documents.

In the interim, the US Coast Guard, Maritime Administration(MARAD), St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, Federal Maritime Commission, and US Army Corps of Engineers had to curtail operations for lack of authority.

~ Bryant's Maritime Blog ~