9/2/2005 Sara Paretsky catches the eye

September 2, 2005.  On this day Sara Paretsky won the Eye Award, given by the Private Eye Writers of America for lifetime achievement.  Most of her twenty-something books star private investigator V.I. Warshawski.  She is one of the top authors to come out of the wave of female P.I. writers in the 1980s.  The MWA named her a Grand Master in 2011.

8/26/2004 Cleary gets Kelly

August 26, 2004.  On this day the Crime Writers Association of Australia gave the Ned Kelly Award for best mystery novel to Degrees of Separation.  It was the 20th and last novel Jon Cleary write about police inspector Scabie Malone. 

7/10/2008 A dagger from Blood from Stone

July 10, 2008.  On this date the Crime Writers Association gave Frances Fyfield the Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award (Best Crime Novel)  for  Blood From Stone.

A highly successful barrister wins another case and then kills herself.  Peter Friel investigates, leading to the revelation of terrible secrets...

"The kind of compelling, hypnotic read that can only come from the pen of a writer at the top of her game."  - Daily Record.

7/8/2001 Blues in the Night commence

July 8, 2001.  It was the nightgown that hooked me: Sunday, July 8, 1:46 A.M.  Near Lookout Mountain and Laurel Canyon.  An unidentified woman in her mid to late twenties, wearing a nightgown, was the victim of a hit-and-run accident that left her unconscious.  There were no witnesses.

That's the opening for Blues in the Night, Rochelle Krich's first novel about freelance reporter Molly Bloom.  Molly is happily divorced but her high school sweetheart is back, and he's single.  And a rabbi...

"Krich shows that she really knows her stuff...Molly investigates with both thoroughness and compassion, making this new sleuth worth her salt." - New York Times Book Review 

6/21/2002 Minority Report is released

June 21, 2002.  On this date Hollywood made a big step forward in its effort to film everything Phillip K. Dick ever wrote when they released Minority Report.  Tom Cruise played a cop in a future in which computer-wired people can predict who will commit a crime.  HIs job is to arrest them in advance.  Scary stuff. 

6/6/2014 The Red Box opens

June 6, 2014.  Rex Stout's first novel about Nero Wolfe appeared in 1934, but it took 80 years before the fat genius detective waddled onto a stage.  Joseph Goodrich adapted The Red Box for a production by Park Square Theatre in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

The Saint Paul Pioneer Press called it "a terrific introduction to the characters and the milieu."  Good heavens!  Is that Wolfe with a cigar?

6/5/2008 Inspector Endersby meets Arthur Ellis

June 5, 2008.  On this date the Crime Writers of Canada gave the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Mystery Novel to John Redfern for Trumpets Sound No More.  The book, set in London in the 1840s, featured Inspector Owen Endersby, on the trail of the killer of a theatre manager.

5/23/2000 Johnny Cash commits murder... sort of

May 23, 2000.  This date saw the release of Johnny Cash's CD Murder.  Actually it was part of a three album set called Love, God, Murder. It featured his classic "Folsom Prison Blues," along with songs by Bruce Springsteen, "Cocaine Blues," and many more songs that don't end with love and kisses.


Movie director Quentin Tarentino wrote the album notes.

5/10/2006 Elmore Leonard grasps a Diamond Dagger

May 10, 2006  On this date the Crime Writers Association gave their lifetime acheivement award, the Cartier Diamond Dagger, to Elmore Leonard.  CWA is British, Leonard was American.  Nice to see trans-Atlantic cooperation.

Leonard made a rare trip across the pond to accept the award.  He said: "This is great news, by far the best kind of achievement award, to be recognised by fellow writers for the one thing I have ever wanted to do in my life, tell stories, what I’ve been doing for the past 55 years.”

5/6/2005 Crash!

May 6, 2005.  A great movie was released on this date. Crash was written and directed by the brilliant Paul Haggis.  It told the story of a bunch of very different Los Angelenos who find themselves coming into contact over two days.  There are good and bad cops, thugs, police detectives, and solid citizens, all races and colors.  Bad things happen, brilliantly.

It won three Oscars including Best Picture, and was nominated for three more.

4/23/2001 Nero Wolfe comes to A&E.

April 23, 2001.  There have been several attempts to bring Rex Stout's brilliant if somewhat pudgy detective to the big or small screen in the U.S.  Two unimpressive movies in the thirties.  A TV pilot in the late fifties with William Shatner as sidekick Archie Goodwin. A pilot/TV movie in the seventies that was pretty good but didn't air because the star, Thayer David, passed away.  In 1981 we had the William Conrad version which we will graciously ignore.

But on this day A&E introduced the best (and so far last) version.  A Nero Wolfe Mystery was produced by Tim Hutton, a dedicated fan of the Corpus, who played Archie Goodwin (inexplicably, he gave the Ohio-born gumshoe a New York accent).  Maury Chaykin was suitably grumpy as the fat man. 

I used to reread Stout books as comfort food when I had a cold.  Now I crank up a DVD of one of these.

4/18/2008 Trouble in Bruges

April 18, 2008.  In Bruges is released in the U.S.  After a deadly screw-up two British hit men find themselves banished to Belgium by their temperamental boss.  In the disaster that follows all three of the main characters manage to cobble together a little shred of redemption.  Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, and Ralph Fiennes starred in a wonderful movie.

3/12/2001 Rubert Ludlum passes

March 12, 2001.  I don't usually discuss the deaths of authors, preferring to stick to their births like the chipper little optimist I am.  But some special cases deserve a mention.

Robert Ludlum's thrillers made him quite rich.  Movies like The Bourne Identity made him more so.  In January 2001 he signed a new will leaving his second wife, Karen Dunn, something in the range of five million dollars.

Less than a month later firefighters were called to his house and found him on fire.  That's right;  he was  in a reclining chair, too weak to get up, and he was burning.  According to his nephew:

The cause of the fire was inexplicable. Fire crews were astonished to find Robert still ablaze a full six minutes after the emergency services had first been called. Our investigators have also established that fire extinguishers throughout the house had been left untouched. Certainly, Karen had not bothered to put out the flames.

Instead firefighters found her in the kitchen, belligerent and uncooperative. 'F*** off, I'm fixing myself a drink,' she told them.

He died a month later, not long after returning home from the hospital.  No charges were filed.

Read the whole article here.

2/16/2007 Breach opens

February 16, 2007.  This was the premiere date for Breach,  a chilling elspionage movie based on the true story of FBI agent Robert Hanssen, convicted of selling secrets to the Soviets.  Chris Cooper was stunning as the bad guy.

One might propose that I am either insanely brave or quite insane. I'd answer neither. I'd say, insanely loyal. Take your pick. There's insanity in all the answers.

1/19/2001 The Pledge is made

January 19, 2001.  This date saw the release of The Pledge, a terrific movie directed by Sean Penn.  It starred Jack Nicholson as police detective Jerry Black who, on his last day on the job, promises the parents of a murdered girl that he would find her killer.  When circumstances make that difficult, his choices get more and more desperate...

11/13/2003 The Pillowman premieres

November 13, 2003.  The Pillowman premiered on this date at the Cottlesloe Theatre in London.  The play by Martin McDonagh was about Katurian, a murder suspect because his short stories resemble the deaths of several children.  It ran on Broadway for five months in 2005.  It won the Olivier Award and two Tonys.

7/12/2002 The Road to Perdition is opened

July 12, 2002.  This day saw the premiere of the movie based on Max Allan Collins' graphic novel The Road to Perdition.  Tom Hanks plays a 1930s hitman whose wife and son are killed by his beloved boss's son.  He goes on the road with his remaining son, who he wants to keep safe.  But we know about the road paved with good intentions...

The movie was nominated for six Oscars and won for Best Cinematography (inspired by Richard Piers Rayner's graphic work).

7/1/2005 Such A Killing Crime

July 1, 2005.  Robert Lopresti's novel of murder during the folk music revival in Greenwich Village, 1963, is published, by Kearney Street Books.

Folksinger Tom Paxton said of the book: "Spooky. If I'd known he was watching us all so carefully,. I'd have behaved much better."

6/13/2005 The Closer opens

June 13, 2005.  Today saw the premiere of TNT's hit cop show, The Closer. Kyra Sedgwick starred as a deputy police chief in LA who specialized in getting confessions.  From the guilty people we help.  It ran for six years.

6/2/2012 Ferris wins the Bony Blithe

June 2, 2012. The Bloody Words Conference in Canada decided to give out a prize for the best traditional mystery of the year, "books that make us smile."  The first Bony Blithe Award was announced on this day and it went to Gloria Ferris for Cheat The Hangman.