A compendium of recently published mystery news articles. Note that we're still way behind in getting news items posted but plan on preparing four updates before getting current. This update includes news items from early- through mid-July 2008.
• Kit Kittredge: An American Girl opened in early July. The movie character is based on the doll of the same name, a 10-year-old girl living in Cincinnati during the Great Depression and determined to become a newspaper reporter. Played by Abigail Breslin, Kit's first big screen case involves a crime spree sweeping through her neighborhood with all signs pointing to a local "hobo jungle" as the cause. Believing the group to be innocent, Kit and her friends track down the real culprit. Rated G, the movie has generally received highly positive reviews. (MBN note: There are 10 American Girl mystery books that in addition to a series of mini-mysteries featuring the girls. All are available from First Clues: Mysteries for Kids)
• For anyone not familiar with the Body Farm (a real place outside the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville), Newsweek republished an article from October 2000 on its online site. The Body Farm inspired Patricia Cornwell to write a book about the place (titled, appropriately, The Body Farm) and later the Body Farm's founder William Bass III teamed up with Jon Jefferson to write, under the pen name of Jefferson Bass, a series of mysteries based on the site.
• The Telegraph reports that the new Miss Marple, Julia McKenzie, was seen on the set of Murder Is Easy, an ITV1 production taking place in Blewbury, Oxfordshire. McKenzie took over from Geraldine McEwan who announced her retirement from the role earlier this year. McKenzie has said of her latest role: "I'm very excited but also slightly daunted by the enormous responsibility that comes with taking on such an iconic role. Just about everybody in the world knows about Miss Marple and has an opinion of what she should be like. So I'm under no illusions about the size of the task ahead. And I suppose I'll have to remind myself how to knit." (MBN note: The article has a nice picture of McKenzie dressed as Miss Marple.)
• The Rocky Mountain News has an interview with Daniel Silva whose latest international thriller, Moscow Rules, is near the top of the mystery bestseller list. Silva makes an interesting observation during the interview by saying, "I think we can cross a line sometimes by talking about work. Sometimes it's best to let it speak for itself. Sometimes if we talk about it too much some of the mystery might get lost and it might detract from that special place that we take a reader." (MBN note: Read our review of Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva on Mysterious Reviews.)
• Publishers Weekly provided an overview of the third annual ThrillerFest organized by the International Thriller Writers organization. The four-day event, held in early July, drew authors and fans from all over the country. ThrillerFest concluded with an awards banquet at which The Ghost by Robert Harris was named Best Novel, Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill won Best First Novel, and Tom Piccirilli picked up the Best Paperback Original for The Midnight Road. (MBN note: See previous winners of the Thriller Award at our Mystery Book Awards website.)
• Across the Atlantic, the Yorkshire Post has a summary of the events that took place at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate. The Crime Novel of the Year was awarded to Stef Penney for The Tenderness of Wolves. The article also has a number of links to exclusive panel recordings that can be listened to or downloaded to your PC.
• The BBC reported that The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, an analysis of an 1860 murder case that tested the mettle of one of Scotland Yard's first detectives and inspired writers including Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins and Arthur Conan Doyle, has been awarded the 10th Annual Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. The author, Kate Summerscale, picked up the £30,000 that accompanied the prize. "Kate Summerscale has brilliantly merged scrupulous archival research with vivid storytelling that reads with the pace of a Victorian thriller," one of the judges said.
• The New York Times amusingly noted that the vampires are coming, but only after months of warnings. HBO's new vampire series, True Blood, based on a series of mysteries by Charlaine Harris, is scheduled to debut next month and is shaping up to be the most extensive marketing campaign that the network has ever undertaken.
• Adventure Gamers reported that a second Agatha Christie game is being developed for the Nintendo Wii. Evil Under the Sun is expected to be available this October and follows the success of the first title released earlier this year on the Wii, And Then There Were None. Adventure Gamers also noted that another investigative series is Nintendo bound, Sam & Max: Season One. See the trailer on the TellTaleGames.com website.
• In remembrance of crime writer Janwillem Van de Wetering, who died July 4th at the age of 77, NPR is reposting an interview with the author that was originally broadcast on January 13, 1997.
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