July titles roll in

Here we are, a week into July, and the good titles keep coming. So far this month we've had three solid hits from Soho Press -- The Salisbury Manuscript by Philip Gooden, Dolores Gordon-Smith's Mad About the Boy? and Siren of the Waters by Micheal Genelin.
Also last week we saw the arrival of Chasing Darkness: An Elvis Cole Novel by Robert Crais, Hit and Run by Lawrence Block, Morrow, Losing Ground: A Mystery by Catherine Aird, rodigal Son by Thomas B. Cavanagh, The Sour Cherry Surprise: A Berger and Mitry Mystery by David Handler and Where Memories Lie by Deborah Crombie. Below, what's in store for the remainder of the month.

Today
One of Those Malibu Nights by Elizabeth Adler. St. Martin's Press. $24.95. Intervening on behalf of a distraught woman who is holding a gun in the doorway of a luxurious Malibu beach house, private investigator Mac Reilly finds himself in possession of the gun and searching for the woman when she subsequently goes missing. By the author of Meet Me in Venice.
Palace Council by Stephen Carter. Knopf (Random House). $26.95. Young writer Eddie Wesley and his lover, Aurelia Treene, investigate the murder of a wealthy, highly respected man whose body turns up on the grounds of a Harlem mansion. By the author of New England White.
Silent Thunder by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen. St. Martin's Pr. $24.95. Assigned the task of creating a schematic of a recently purchased Russian nuclear submarine that is slated for museum exhibition, architect Hannah Bryson enlists the help of her brother, Connor, who discovers a mysterious message behind a panel before he is brutally murdered.
Swan Peak: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke. Simon & Schuster. $25.95. Dave Robicheaux's new case takes him from the bayous of Louisiana's New Iberia Parish to the wild mountains of Montana. By the author of The Tin Roof Blowdown.
Volk's Shadow by Brent Ghelfi. Henry Holt. $25.00. A sequel to Volk's Game finds Russian undercover military agent Alexei Volkovoy doubting himself in the wake of political intrigue.

July 10
Queen of the Flowers: A Phryne Fisher Mystery by Kerry Greenwood. Poisoned Pen Press. $24.95. Chosen Queen of the Flowers for St. Kilda's first Flower Parade festival, Phryne Fisher finds the glamour of her crown wearing off when one of her attendants vanishes.
July 15
Last Kiss by Luanne Rice. Bantam Bks (Random House). $25.00. Devastated by the senseless murder of her only son, eighteen-year-old Charlie, singer-songwriter Sheridan Rosslare has been unable to cope with her grief, until Charlie's heartbroken girlfriend, Nell Kilvert, enlists the assistance of Sheridan's long-ago soul mate, Gavin Dawson, to uncover the truth.
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere by John McFetridge. Harcourt. $25.00. Sharon MacDonald finds her life complicated by house arrest, an Iranian who falls to his death from her apartment building, police surveillance that keeps her from visiting her marijuana crop, and a suave stranger named Ray.
Findings: A Faye Longchamp Mystery by Mary Anna Evans. Poisoned Pen Press. $24.95. The discovery of a mysterious, fabulous emerald leads to murder when intruders break into the home of a dear friend of archaeologist Faye Longchamp.
Killer View by Ridley Pearson. Putnam (Penguin Group). $24.95. Tackling treacherous elements to rescue a missing skier on Sun Valley's Galena Summit, Sheriff Walt Fleming and his crack team are shocked by a sniper attack that leaves one of their number dead.
Real World by Natsuo Kirino. Translated by Philip Gabriel. Knopf (Random House). $22.95. In a crowded suburb on the outskirts of Tokyo, four teenage girls become suspicious of a neighbor's teenage son when his father is found brutally murdered and the young man disappears.
Say Goodbye by Lisa Gardner. Bantam Books (Random House). $25.00. Pages 384. Pregnant 18-year-old Delilah Rose enlists the assistance of FBI Special Agent Kimberly Quincy to investigate the mysterious disappearances of a number of young women whom no one else will notice are gone, including runaways, high-risk teens, and prostitutes.
Still Waters: A Mystery by Nigel McCrery. Pantheon Books (Random House). $23.95. Detective Chief Inspector Mark Lapslie and Sergeant Emma Bradbury are confronted by a complex case involving a potential serial killer.

July 17
Alive in Necropolis by Doug Dorst. Riverhead Bks (Penguin Group). $24.95. Navigating adult responsibilities in a California city where the dead outnumber the living, by-the-book rookie cop Michael Mercer struggles through new relationships and becomes increasingly obsessed with the mysterious fate of his predecessor, an officer who believed he policed the dead.
The Likeness by Tana French. Viking (Penguin Group). $24.95. A follow-up to In the Woods finds a traumatized detective Cassie Maddox struggling in her career and relationship with Sam O'Neill while investigating the unsettling murder of a young woman whose name matches an alias Cassie once had used as an undercover officer.

July 22
Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva. Putnam (Penguin Group). $26.95. Gabriel Allon investigates the suspicious death of a journalist in Moscow.

July 29
The Garden of Evil by David Hewson. Delacorte Pr (Random House). $24.00. The discovery of two corpses next to an unknown Caravaggio masterpiece in an art studio in Rome sends Detective Nic Costa on a quest to uncover the truth.
The Map Thief by Heather Terrell. Ballantine. $25.00. Manhattan attorney Mara Coyne journeys into the dark and dangerous world of stolen artifacts as she becomes caught up in the search for a legendary, fifteenth-century map that supposedly documents a Chinese expedition to the far reaches of the globe and that has been a closely guarded secret for centuries. By the author of The Chrysalis.

Flood watch

Floods in middle America have devastated lives and libraries. We bookish types should offer our help. Below is a list of three libraries and links to their devastation. These libraries don't need books, but some monetary infusion sure will help bring them back.

Every dollar helps.


Cedar Rapids Public Library Foundation500 First Street SoutheastCedar Rapids, IA. 52401http://crlibrary.info/photos/20080621-FloodDamage/index.html

Friends of New Hartford Public LibraryP O Box 292New Hartford, IA. 50660http://www.newhartford.lib.ia.us/

National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library30 Sixteenth Avenue SouthwestCedar Rapids, IA. 52401-5904http://www.ncsml.org/

Macavity noms announced

Mystery Readers Journal has announced its nominees for the 2008 Macavity Award. (For those of you who don't know what a Macavity is, I can only be jealous of you as you have never had to experience the musical Cats. Lucky, lucky reader.)

The nominees are (drumroll):

Best Mystery Novel

Reed Farrel Coleman: Soul Patch (Bleak House)
John Connolly: The Unquiet (Hodder & Stoughton*/Atria)
David Corbett: Blood of Paradise (Ballantine Mortalis)
Deborah Crombie: Water Like a Stone (Morrow)
Laura Lippman: What the Dead Know (Morrow)

Best First Mystery
Tana French: In the Woods (Hodder & Stoughton*/Viking)
Joe Hill: Heart-Shaped Box (William Morrow)
Lisa Lutz: The Spellman Files (Simon & Schuster)
Tim Maleeny: Stealing the Dragon (Midnight Ink)
Matt Beynon Rees: The Collaborator of Bethlehem (Soho)

Best Mystery Short Story
Donna Andrews: "A Rat's Tale" (EQMM, Sep-Oct 2007)
Rhys Bowen: "Please Watch Your Step" (The Strand Magazine, Spring 2007)
Jon L. Breen: "The Missing Elevator Puzzle" (EQMM, Feb 2007)
Beverle Graves Myers: "Brimstone P.I." (AHMM, May 2007)
Gillian Roberts: "The Old Wife's Tale" (EQMM, Mar-Apr 2007)

Best Mystery Non-Fiction
Barry Forshaw: Rough Guide to Crime Fiction (Penguin Rough Guides)
Jean Gould O'Connell: Chester Gould: A Daughter's Biography of the Creator of Dick Tracy (McFarland & Company)
Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower & Charles Foley, editors: Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters (HarperPress*/Penguin)
Lee Lofland: Police Procedure and Investigation: A Guide for Writers (Howdunit Series, Writers Digest Books)
Roger Sobin, editor/compiler: The Essential Mystery Lists: For Readers, Collectors, and Librarians (Poisoned Pen Press)

Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery
Rhys Bowen: Her Royal Spyness (Penguin)
Ariana Franklin: Mistress of the Art of Death (Putnam)
Jason Goodwin: The Snake Stone (Faber & Faber*/ Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Clare Langley-Hawthorne: Consequences of Sin (Viking*/Penguin)
Joyce Carol Oates: The Gravedigger's Daughter (HarperCollins Ecco)
*UK publisher (first edition)

For more information on the awards and on the Journal, go to:
http://www.mysteryreaders.org/

Screening room

The American Film Institute has announced its Top 10 mystery movies. They are:
1. Vertigo

2. Chinatown

3. Rear Window

4. Laura

5. The Third Man

6. Maltese Falcon

7. North by Northwest

8. Blue Velvet

9. Dial M for Murder

10. Usual Suspects

Has anyone noticed that the oldest film among this bunch goes all the way back to 1941 and that three of them are in black and white? How many of these have your grandkids seen? Not many, I'd imagine. (No Donnie Darko here. No Se7en.)

And since we are talking American film, I guess Rashomon, Les Diaboliques, Oldboy, Testament of Dr. Mabuse and Z were pretty much out of the running going into the fray. Luckily for Hitchcock, if a film was based on a French novel (like Vertigo based on "...d'Entre les Morts"), that was okay. (And here I always thought that The Third Man was a British film by directed and produced by Carol Reed with Alexander Korda; must of had some U.S. money in that one.)

Now there are those who will take issue with the list: Where's The Thin Man? Or, alternatively, where's Hot Fuzz?

And if I was to add to the list, I might ask : Where are L.A. Confidential, The Manchurian Candidate, Memento and Citizen Kane (all about figuring out what Rosebud means)?
But it's just a list...a stupid, stupid list that some people might argue over. (Where's The 39 Steps?). But it's just a list, really (Where's The Big Sleep?), so who cares? (Where's The Lady Vanishes? Where's Charade? Where's In the Heat of the Night? Where's Touch of Evil?)

Stupid list. I don't care. Doesn't matter.

Book buying on the party line

The Reading and Book Buying Habits of Americans, a new Zogby International poll commissioned by Random House, has some interesting information. It was an online poll of 8218 people.

The fact that more people would curl up with a book than light up a Kindle is no surprise: Most readers are older -- pre-computer generation -- and as a boomer I know my habits are fixed. Besides, those crazy kids like to tool around the Internet with their YouTubes and IMs and play computer games. Us golden oldens are more inclined to opt for paper reading.

However, there's some interesting political information in the report.

According to Zogby, Democrats and independents were more likely to buy books at independent stores while Republicans liked chain stores. What could this mean? Well, we could determine that Democrats and independents support the little guy while Republicans prefer big business. We could infer that tax-and-spend Democrats like to spend and be taxed more for books while Republicans like the discounts at Sam's Club. Or we could assume that the majority of Republicans responding to the poll questions live in areas where malls and chains dominate and that Democrats and independents responding have little access to chain stores.

Democrats, again according to Zogby, like to visit bookstores and linger while independents and Republicans don't like to hang out. Democrats are more likely to be influenced in buying a book after reading a review while Republicans are more likely than Democrats to be influenced by talk radio. More than half of all respondents judge a book by its cover and 89 percent say that if they like a book they will seek out other books by the same author (Both bits of information are of no surprise).

Finally, Democrats are more likely than independents or Republicans to buy a book they see on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. And overall, more respondents were likely to buy a book they saw on Stewart's show than on Oprah's? Does this mean that Stewart sells more books or does it mean that the respondents were more likely to watch Stewart than to watch Oprah?

Next time Zogby throws a book poll, I'd like more background numbers, please.

Random thoughts 3

The book buying business is getting tougher for consumers who like their British imports: The recent Rebecca Tope is a fine example. A paperback copy of Death in the Cotswolds costs 6.99 British pounds as did her earlier A Cotswold Killing. A Cotswold Killing sold here in the US for $9.95 while Death in the Cotswolds has come in with a US price of $15.95.

And don't bother to run out and hope to find A Cotswold Killing at 9.95 anymore. That price too has risen to $15.95.

Thanks to the current English exchange rate, we are getting royally pounded.

Note: Random Thoughts is not a subsidiary of Random House or its affiliates. They are just...well, random thoughts.

New voices

New voices are always a happy discovery. And I find myself reading new authors or authors I've never encountered before. Some is dreck, but some is simply splendid.

So, if you are looking for a good mystery from a voice you've never heard before to brighten up you summer vacation, check out these great titles.

Blood Alley by Tom Coffey is a neo noir in a class by itself. Great background, snappy patter with hints of Raymond Chandler and a nod to the movie Chinatown.

Blood of the Wicked is Leighton Gage's initial outing for Brazilian detective Mario Silva as he investigates the assassination of a bishop and political corruption. It's a solid send-off for this Soho Press series which will continue in January with Buried Strangers.

For those who like their thrillers mean and lean, you can't do much better than Tom Rob Smith's Child 44, as Leo Demidov hunts a serial killer in Stalinist Russia.

Scott Heim, whose Mysterious Skin found fame in Hollywood, returned to fiction with We Disappear, examining the death of his own mother against a fictional background. Heartfelt, heartbreaking and redemptive, the book takes us on a meth-fuel investigation into fate of the missing.

The Water Room by Christopher Fowler sent me back to the first in his series, Full Dark House. Fowler's progatonists John May and Arthur Bryant are a couple of grumpy old men and head of London's Peculiar Crime Unit. If you haven't encountered this pair of aging agents, you're in for some delightful reading.

Finally, Jennifer McMahon's Island of Lost Girls bowled me over. Another writer I had yet to read (I had somehow missed Promise Not to Tell), Island of Lost Girls captures the fragility of innocence and the darkness of the world. This book is disturbing without beginning graphic, making it even more effective.

For more information, go to:

www.bloodalleynovel.com/

http://www.christopherfowler.co.uk/cf/bio.php

http://heim.etherweave.com/

www.jennifer-mcmahon.com/

http://www.leightongage.com/