A compendium of recently published mystery news articles. This update includes news items from mid-September 2008.
• From now until October 15th, the entire text of David Hewson's acclaimed first Nic Costa mystery, A Season for the Dead, is yours to read free. (Click on the title link to view the book or download the PDF.) A Season for the Dead, originally published in 2003 in the UK and a year later in the US, introduced Nic Costa, a young, optimistic detective in the Rome state police. Five books have followed with the most recent, The Garden of Evil, being published this past July.
• The Telegraph is reporting that Agatha Christie used her grandmother as a model for Miss Marple. Her grandson Mathew Prichard stumbled upon 27 half-hour long tapes in a dusty cardboard box as he cleaned out a storeroom. The tapes, which nobody knew existed, are the raw material on which part of her autobiography was based. And there were more surprises on the tapes. Christie did not intend Miss Marple to be a permanent character. But the sharp-witted spinster "insinuated herself so quietly into my life that I think I hardly noticed her arrival." Then she added, "I didn't know then that she would become a rival to Hercule Poirot." (Read more on TimesOnline and BBC.)
• The Columbus Dispatch interviews Louis Bayard whose mystery books feature famous historical figures as protagonists. For his latest, The Black Tower, set in 1818, he chose Eugene Francois Vidocq, the first director of the Surete Nationale in France.When asked about a reviewer's comment that he doesn't "revisit the past as reinvent it", Bayard replied, "I like that distinction very much. It suggests treating history not as some dustbin of facts but as a living, breathing thing. To the extent that I can erase the distance between the past and the present, that's what I'm out to do."
• Her Interactive has released a second trailer for its upcoming game, Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy. Available October 6th, the game has Nancy Drew unraveling a knot of scattered clues and scary superstitions as she searches for a missing groom at the ruined halls of Ireland's Castle Malloy. Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy is the 19th game to be released in this popular series. [MBN note: Find all the Nancy Drew games for Windows PC and Nintendo DS at Games of Mystery: Nancy Drew. We also have strategy guides and downloadable versions of the PC games.]
• Belinda Goldsmith of Reuters has a conversation with mystery writer Alafair Burke who, though she ended up following in the footsteps of her father, bestselling author James Lee Burke, was formerly a deputy district attorney in Portland, Oregon. When asked if she told her father when she started writing, Burke answered, "No. I think he always wanted me to to but I didn't ell him until I had finished the draft. He read it before it was published but after I had sold it." Burke is the author of two series, one about Portland prosecutor Samantha Kincaid and the other about NYPD detective Ellie Hatcher. The second book in this latter series, Angel's Tip, was published last month.
• If you're going to be in the New York City area later this month, you might want to consider attending the Bestsellers Brunch at the Waldorf Astoria on September 28th. You will hear from international bestsellers and Edgar Award winners Lawrence Block and Harlan Coben; Grammy-winning, legendary singer Dionne Warwick; and Golden Globe-winning actress Marlo Thomas. Following brunch, the authors will sign their books. Free copies will be provided by the publishers. For more information, visit NewYorkIsBookCounty.com.
• The Adventure Company has released its first trailer for the upcoming The Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft game. Follow the Video Evidence link on the series website, HardyBoysGame.com to view it. Remember to stop the home page music first else the trailer audio will compete with it. The Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft is scheduled to be released October 3rd.
• The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that after airing just two episodes, HBO has picked up the vampire mystery series True Blood for a second season. The series is adapted from the Southern Vampire mysteries with telepathic barmaid Sookie Stackhouse by Charlaine Harris.
• The Canadian Press is reporting that mystery author James Crumley has died. He was 68. Crumley was the author of two series, one featuring Milton Chester Milodragovitch III (Milo for short) and the other, possibly his more popular, featuring Chauncey Wayne "C. W." Sughrue. Both are private investigators in Montana who obliquely referenced each other in their books.
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