WELCOME TO
THE GUMSHOE SITE
(Opened on January 08, 1996)
I wish you, all visitors of The Gumshoe Site, a happy joyful and peaceful new year. I can't believe that I have been managing this site for 14 years. Since there are many good mystery websites and blogs around, I don't feel it necessary to update this site as frequently as 14 years ago. I hope you enjoy this site and come back once in a while. Thank you very much for your support. (January 06, 2010)
Warning to bloggers! -- When you re-use my info, please do not copy-and-paste it word for word, but quote it or paraphrase it, at least. My wording is so awkwardly distinct or so distinctly awkward, I can easily spot copy-and-paste non-artists, and so can smart blog-readers.
William Tenn Dies
William Tenn, the pseudonym of Phillip Klass, died of congestive heart failure on February 7 at his home in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Of course, he was very famous as a science fiction writer, but he wrote several mystery short stories such as "Bernie the Faust" (Playboy, November 1963; anthologized in DARK SINS, DARK DREAMS, 1978) and "Safe as Any Sap" (Dime Detective, September 1950; anthologized in HARD-BOILED DETECTIVES, 1992). He co-edited with Donald E. Westlake ONCE AGAINST THE LAW (Macmillan, 1968), anthology of science fiction mystery stories. He was 89. (February 08, 2010)
Prime Crime Books to Close
Prime Crime Mystery Bookstore, located in Ottawa, Canada, will close its doors on March 14 after 24 years of "criminous pursuits," as its owner Linda Wiken says. (February 05, 2010)
Ralph McInerny Dies
Ralph McInerny died on January 29 at Our Lady of Peace Hospital in Mishawaka, Indiana after a long illness. He was a professor of philosophy and medieval studies at the University of Notre Dame. The extremely prolific writer wrote uncountable number of scholarly books and great many mystery novels and stories. He may be most famous in mysterydom as the author of Father Roger Dowling series, starting with HER DEATH OF COLD (Vanguard, 1977). Father Dowling is a parish priest in Fox River, Illinois. His other series characters are Andrew Broom (attorney in Wyler, Indiana), The Brothers Knight(Philip Knight, New York private eye, and his brother Roger Knight, a philosophy professor), Egidio Manfredi (police captain in Ohio), Mary Teresa Dempsey (a nun in Chicago). He was so prolific that he used the Monica Quill pseudonym for the Mary Teresa Dempsey series. His most recent The Rosary Chronicles series features Vincent Traeger, retired CIA agent. His upcoming novel, SHAM ROCK, will be out in April from St. Martin's Minotaur, featuring The Brother Knight. He was 80. (January 31, 2010)
The Mystery Company to Close Its Doors
The Mystery Company, a mystery bookstore located in Carmel, Indiana, will close its doors in the first few days of Feburary, co-owner Jim Huang says in his blog. He will be general manager of Kenyon College's bookstore in Gambier, Ohio, starting on Feburary 15. He will still do the mystery publishing through The Crum Creek Press. (January 27, 2010)
Lefty, Bruce, Panik Award Nominees Announced
Left Coast Crime 2010 has announced the nominees for the 2010 Lefty, Bruce and Panik Awards as follows:
The Lefty Award (for a humorous mystery):
SWAN FOR THE MONEY, by Danna Andrews (Minotaur)
LIVING WITH YOUR KIDS IS MURDER, by Mike Befeler (Five Star)
STRANGLE A LOAF OF ITALIAN BREAD, by Denise Dietz (Five Star)
GETTIN OLD IS A DISASTER, by Rita Lakin (Dell)
HIGH CRIMES ON THE MAGICAL PLANE, by Kris Neri (Red Coyote Press)
The Bruce Alexander Award (for a historical myster set before 1950):
TEARS OF PEARL, by Tasha Alexander (Minotaur)
IN A GILDED CAGE, by Rhys Bowen (Minotaur)
A TRACE OF SMOKE, by Rebecca Cantrell (Forge)
FREEDOM'S FIGHT, by Gary Phillips (Parker Publishing)
SERPENT IN THE THORNS, by Jeri Westerson (Minotaur)
The Panik Award: (for L.A.-based noir, honoring deceased LCC 2010 chairman Paul Anik, given this year only):
CEMETERY ROAD, by Gar Anthony Haywood (Severn House)
TRUST NO ONE, by Gregg Hurwitz (St. Martin's)
DEATH WAS IN THE PICTURE, by Linda L. Richard (St. Martin's)
BOULEVARD, by Stephen J. Schwartz (Forge)
The winners will be annnounced during Left Coast Crime held in Los Angeles from March 11 thru 14. (January 22, 2010)
Robert B. Parker Dies
Robert B. Parker died on January 18 of a heart attack, "just sitting at his desk" at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was so prolific that he published several novels a year: one Spenser, one Jesse Stone, one Sunny Randall, one western, one young adult and sometimes one stand-alone. He wrote THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT (Houghton Mifflin, 1973), the first Spenser novel, when he was a professor at Northeastern University in Boston, and he kept writing and writing. He won an Edgar for PROMISED LAND (Houghton Mifflin, 1976) and received the MWA Grand Master Award in 2002. I first interviewed him at Northeastern University in 1976 just after the publication of PROMISED LAND, and also met him at Murder Ink in New York in 1986 and in Tokyo in 1988. He also won a Maltese Falcon Award from the Japanese Maltese Falcon Society for EARLY AUTUMN (Delacorte, 1981) and I sent him a congratulatory letter and a woodwork Falcon statue. I attended several Spenser dinner parties (with dishes Spenser cooks in his novels) held in Tokyo in the mid-80's. Even though I don't read him these days, I enjoyed reading his novels till mid-90's. I don't think the Internet has anything to do with it. He was 77. (January 20, 2010)
Edgar Award Nominees Announced
The Mystery Writers of America has announced the nominees for the 2010 Edgar Awards. The nominees in the best novel category are as follows:
THE MISSING, by Tim Gautreaux (Knopf)
THE ODDS, by Kathleen George (Minotaur)
THE LAST CHILD, by John Hart (Minotaur)
MYSTIC ARTS OF ERASING ALL SIGNS OF DEATH, by Charlie Huston (Ballantine)
NEMESIS, by Jo Nesbo, translated by Don Bartlett (HarperCollins)
A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO DIE, by Malla Nunn (Atria)
To see all the nominees in other categories, click here. The winners will be announced and the Edgar Awards will be presented at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City on April 29. (January 20, 2010)
Dilys Award Nominees Announced
The Independent Mystery Booksellers Association has announced the nominees for the 2010 Dilys Award for "the mystery title of the year which members booksellers have ost enjoyed selling" as follows:
THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE, by Alan Bradley (Delacorte)
A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS, by R. J. Ellory (Overlook)
THE DARK HORSE, by Craig Johnson (Viking)
THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, by Steig Larsson (Knopf)
THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST, by Stuart Neville (Soho Crime)
THE BRUTAL TELLING, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
THE SHANGHAI MOON, by S. J. Rozan (Minotaur)
The award will be announced during Left Coast Crime 2010 in Los Angeles, March 11-14. (January 19, 2010)
Kenn Davis Dies
Kenn Davis died of a heart attack on January 12. The former San Francisco Chronicle artist wrote 8 Charver Bascombe private eye novels, starting with THE DARK SIDE (with John Stanley, Avon, 1976) and ending with Blood of Poets (Fawcett, 1990). Bascombe is a tough black private eye, studying to become a lawyer. He has good taste in arts: classical opera, literature, and fine arts. He co-wrote BOGART '48 (Dell, 1980) with Stanley, a fun book, featuring -- yes, you guessed it -- Humphrey Bogart! His younger brother Zekial Marko, tv script writer for "The Rockford Files" and "Kolchak," who died in 2008 at the aged of 74 , also wrote a number of paperback mystery novels under the John Trinian pseudonym. Davis was 77. (January 18, 2010)
M. R. D. Meek Dies
M. R. D. Meek died on November 27, 2009. After her retirement from a law firm, she published her first mystery novel, WITH FLOWERS THAT FELL (Hale, 1983), featuring the disbarred lawyer Lenox Kemp acting as a private eye. Kemp finally runs his own law office. Meek wrote 13 other Kemp novels, ending with KEMP'S LAST CASE (Severn House, 2004), and two Toby Wilde novels (STRAINED RELATIONS [Colins, 1983]; and NEW YEAR RESOLUTION [Collins, 1984]) under the Alison Cairns pseudonym. She was 91. (January 17, 2010)
John Ballem Dies
John Ballem died on January 9 in Calgary, Canada while correcting the final proofs of his forthcoming novel, MURDER ON THE BOW. He was a globe-trotting lawyer and wrote a textbook on oils and gas law, a volume of poetry and a number of short stories as well as 12 mystery novels starting with THE DEVIL'S LIGHTER (General Publishing, 1973). He was 84. (January 14, 2010)
Knox Burger Dies
Knox Burger died on January 4 in New York "after enduring a number of medical problems," as his daughter said. He published Kurt Vonnegut's first short story as the fiction editor of Collier's in 1950. At Dell and Fawcett during 50's and 60's, he edited books by John D. MacDonald, Ray Bradbury, Horace McCoy, Louis L'Amour, and Jack Finney to name a few. As a literacy agent, his clients included Donald E. Westlake, Lawrence Block, Martin Cruz Smith, William J. Caunitz among others. He was 87. (January 13, 2010)
Laura Hruska Dies
Laura Hruska died on January 9 in New York after a long illness. The former-lawyer was co-founder, publisher and editor-in-chief of Soho Press, publishing literary fiction and crime novels since 1987. She also launched Soho Crime in 1994 and Soho Constable in 2008. She helped launch the careers of Jacqueline Winspear, Henry Chang, Cara Black, Martin Limon, and Stuart Neville to name a few. She wrote three novels (A CHANGE OF HEART; LEGAL RELATIONS; and MULTIPLE CHOICE) under the pseudonym Laura Chapman. She was 74. (January, 13, 2010)
Val McDermid to Receive Diamond Dagger
The Crime Writers Association of Britain has announced that Val McDermid will receive the 2010 CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger to honor her "outstanding achievement in the field of crime writing." (January 13, 2010)
Loren Singer Dies
Loren Singer died on December 19 in Valhalla, New York. His conspiracy thriller, THE PARALLAX VIEW (Doubleday, 1970), was made into the 1974 movie starring Warren Beatty. The ex-television writer also wrote three more crime novels: THAT'S THE HOUSE, THERE (Doubleday, 1973); BOCA GRANDE (Doubleday, 1974); and MAKING GOOD (Holt, 1991). He was 86. (December 24, 2009)
Dorothy Gilman to Receive Grand Master
The Mystery Writers of America announced that Dorothy Gilman, of Mrs. Pollifax spy series fame, will receive the 2010 Grand Master Award. Zev Buffman (a distinguished Broadway producer) and The Mystery Lovers Bookshop (of Oakmont, Pennsylvania, co-owned by Richard Goldman and Mary Alice Gorman) will receive the 2010 Raven Awards, and Barbara Peters and Robert Rosenwald of Poisoned Pen Press will be recipients of the 2010 Ellery Queens Award. (December 12, 2009)
WHAT YOU CAN FIND ON THIS SITE:
THE GUMSHOE SITE is designed to offer you mystery-related news. So, if you have some hot news to post, happy and sad, good and bad, exciting and obsecure, useful and secret, please feel free to let me know. [My email address: jkimura (at) nsknet (dot) or (dot) jp]
As you may know by now, this site is managed by Jiro Kimura.
copyright 1996-2010 by Jiro Kimura
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