Hilary Booth... of course!

I meant to post this before Nano started, but I was a little side tracked. By the point I’d gotten around to this, I’d finished the second book, too. *sighs*

neadods mentioned Kate Ellis' mysteries in her Bouchercon wrap-up post. The online descriptions sounded interesting enough, so I hunted down the first two books, Merchant’s House and The Armada Boy at my local library. Both books had a good blend of the modern and historical showing parallel stories of the modern CID detectives and the archaeological dig. I love these types of books, more so than actual historical mysteries, because I love seeing the modern perspective. Archaeology/historical research are just different types of detective work. The different threads do all interrelate to each other. Part of me felt everything was a little too neatly wrapped up at the end.

( Kate Ellis books; slight spoilers )

Bouchercon is in Charm City and the Baltimore Sun is following some of the action with their Read Street blog.

It was a rainy dreary Monday. Down those streets walked a down on her luck library technician...

I've been in something of a noir mood lately as reflected by my reading and watching materials. I've been mixing in my television shows with my film noir/classic movies on Netflix. And some are just movies I've been curious about. So far it's succeeding. One night I was in the CBS newsroom in "Good Night and Good Luck" and last night I visited with "Laura". I want the soundtrack for both. I hadn't seen either of them, especially the latter, so I was curious if they lived up to the hype. I almost didn't recognize Vincent Price's role in "Laura". I think I'd forgotten how tall he was. Therein lies the problem with only knowing actors from later roles. You forget they were young once and they didn't always play the heavy.

In between rain showers, I wandered over to the local library. They're rearranging again, adding new shelves in the genre section. I also discovered where they'd moved the new graphic novel section. It's still a little too arty-independent for my tastes. I'm just a mainstream superhero geek. I'm a little worried about the state of the science fiction/fantasy section. Clearly Arlington reads more detective fiction. So what did I do? I checked out Vera Caspary's Laura and two Cornell Woolrich anthologies, thus proving my hypothesis.

My noir icon comes from a still I bought at MediaWest from "North by Northwest".

GIP! jordannamorgan has posted a second set of "His Girl Friday" icons, including this appropriate one.

It must be pilot season, because we're starting to hear rumblings about potential shows. One caught my attention when I searching for info on a Heroes actress. Jason O'Mara is in final negotiations to play Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe in a new ABC series. The catch is it's set in modern day Los Angeles, not the gritty mean streets of the Chandler era. Even the HBO series with Powers Boothe was a period piece. I'm wary of updates. Sometimes they work and sometimes not. Can you stay true to Marlowe in this time period? If it's makes it past the drawing board stage, I'll be curious to hear my father's reaction. I acquired my love of Chandler and Hammett honestly from him.

So I've gone back to one of my initial goals at New Year's, revising that pesky first chapter of "Going Under". My father's library proved useful when I discovered a book called Lost Warships, a large coffee table sized book on warships and maritime archaeology. He found me a copy after Christmas, along with books on the Swedish ship the Vasa. I'm hoping I will have the chapter finished by tomorrow. The opening is still eluding me though.

neadods posted a nice long post on her take on reviewing cozy mysteries with examples of the good and the bad points. She also recommended jimbutcher's occasional posts on writing F&SF.

Tokyopop is apparently doing their own free magazine Takuhai. You can sign up for the first issue here.

Had a grand time at the LC "Maltese Falcon at 75" program last night. I felt like the youngest one in the crowd. A lot of the attendants were local members of Mystery Writers of America. I'll try to write up the rest of my impressions later.

AP article on the Falcon anniversary

From kaygo

( What's my Ice Cream flavor? )

If I can't have all the chocolate ice cream, why bother?

Deep Sea Detectives is back on History Channel. They ran a bunch of older episodes today, including a few ones I hadn't seen, like the Edmund Fitzgerald and the Andrea Doria. Tonight's episode focuses on the Queen of Nassau, a a Canadian warship turned into a passenger vessel that sank off the Florida Keys in the 1920s. On that front, I had bought Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson about a German U-boat found sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey. The divers are the initial hosts of Deep Sea Detectives, John Chatterton and Richie Kohler. Although they interact jovially on the show, they apparently hated each other when they first worked together.

I'm also finally reading Charles Todd's Ian Rutledge series, featuring a shell shocked WWI veteran. I'm halfway through the first book Test of Wills. The descriptions are extremely vivid. Todd is occasionally guilty of a little head hopping. Most of the book is from Rutledge's POV, but every once in awhile, he abruptly shifts to a POV from one of the other characters.

I also heard from Books for America today. They'll be picking up my two bags of books tomorrow.