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Mysterydawg has been kind enough to post a debut flash of mine. This is a great site and I hope everyone goes over, signs up and supports the e-zine. Other contributions for this week are from the talents of James C. Clar, Keith Rawson, and Barry Baldwin.

Friday's Forgotten Books: While The Clock Ticked by F.W. Dixon

This may be more of a personal forgotten book, the Hardy Boys are as popular as ever, but it's been 28 years since I've read a 'Hardy' story. Normally I’m not one to go back to a book I've already read, but a wave of nostalgia must have overcome me when I found a 1932 edition of While the Clock Ticked......

On the morning of my tenth Christmas, I awoke to a large white cloth ‘wrapping’ the bookshelf in the living room. When I finally got the okay from my parents to ‘open’ my gift, I pulled back the cloth and was ecstatic to find the entire set of the Hardy Boys books. I was dumbfounded at the sheer number of them and I remember childishly thinking that this must have cost my parents thousands of dollars. That collection, which I still have, was the first to spur my first interest in detective novels (this cover creeped me out when I originally read the story).

While The Clock Ticked is 11th in the series. Raymond Dalrymple, the town banker, calls to enlist the services of the boys' detective father, Fenton Hardy. With Mr. Hardy and his wife away on vacation, Dalrymple reluctantly agrees to allow the teenage sleuths to investigate after much insistence from Frank and Joe.

Dalrymple has purchased the old Purdy house on the shore road. Jason Purdy was an eccentric and he had built a secret vault with a time lock mechanism to have a safe place to count his gold. Dalrymple discovers the room along with threatening messages warning him to stay away: “Death while the clock ticks”. How the messages get into the room is quite ingenious and entertainingly demonstrated by Frank.

Revisiting the characters was like catching up with old friends. From Chief Collig and Detective Smuff to the girlfriends, Iola Morton and Callie Shaw, and the chums Tony Prito, Phil Cohen, Biff Hooper and Jerry Gilroy. And, of course, I can't forget roly-poly Chet Morton (Iola’s brother) who owns an old yellow jalopy he lovingly called Queen, and, when he’s not busy eating, he always seems to have a hobby that aids in the brothers' investigation. Also, there is everybody’s favorite Aunt Gertrude, who seems hard on the sleuths but deep down is very proud of her nephews. In this original version, Aunt Gertrude seems to play a bigger and harsher role than I remember in the revamped editions I read as a kid.

I discovered the entire series overhauled in the 1950s due to outdated phrases, like roadsters, and unflattering stereotypes, e.g., in While The Clock Ticked, reference is made to how well Indians can give a rebel yell. Check out some websites with great information on the series here and here.

I enjoyed returning to Frank and Joe after all these years. There’s plenty of action in this book for any ten-year-old to enjoy, and apparently for a grown man as well. I finished the book in nearly one sitting.

This secondhand book has a lot of character with stained pages every couple of chapters. Using my detective skills, I reasoned it must have belonged to a young kid who sat alone in the corner of the school lunchroom everyday, ravenously eating up each page along with a peanut butter sandwich while the clock ticked the minutes away.

Click here for more Friday's Forgotten Books on Patti Abbott's site...

Dorothy Parker quotes

It was Jennifer Jason Leigh’s mannerisms and mumblings in 1994’s Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle that caught my interest in writer, critic, poet Dorothy Parker. Though Parker is primarily known for biting humor in her column for The New Yorker, she was also a fine short story writer. Her best-known work of fiction (and a personal favorite), Big Blonde, won the O. Henry Award as the Best Short Story of 1929. Here are some examples of her "pointed verbal wit":

This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force. [Said of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged]

If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised.

I don't care what is written about me so long as it isn't true.

Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.

You can't teach an old dogma new tricks.

The two most beautiful words in the English language are 'cheque enclosed.'

It serves me right for keeping all my eggs in one bastard.

The only ism Hollywood believes in is plagiarism.

Ducking for apples -- change one letter and it's the story of my life.

She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.

I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I'm under the table,
After four I'm under my host.

I might repeat to myself slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound - if I can remember any of the damn things.

That would be a good thing for them to cut on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment.

The Cranmer Family (1885)

A photocopy of my family ca. 1885.

My dad, like many others in the 1970s, was inspired by Alex Haley's Roots and he began tracing our genealogy. He hunted through cemeteries and archives, collecting all kinds of treasures. Among them was a tin photo of our family from the 19th century. My dad had guessed the photo was taken in 1885 because the little girl, Margaret [sitting on her mother's lap], who was born July 8, 1883 appears to be about 2 years old. I.J. [standing behind his mother to the left] is my grandfather's father. It's amazing to peer into the face of a stranger and see yourself.

I remember my father telling me that when he was a young boy, he met most of the children in this photo, but is was his great uncle Charlie [sitting between his parents behind the two children in front] who had impressed him most. He recalled Charlie being a large man with big forearms and biceps from a lifetime of cutting wood. What made this so extraordinary to my dad was that Charlie was born without the use of his legs (someone had written the now non-PC word "cripple" on the photo).

In his research, Dad came across military discharge papers of the family’s patriarch, Alfred [sitting on the right], that show he served in the American Civil War and was wounded at Antietam. The Battle of Antietam was fought on September 17, 1862 near Sharpsburg and Antietam Creek as part of the Maryland Campaign. It was the first major battle in the Civil War to take place on Northern soil and came to be remembered as the bloodiest single-day battle in American history with almost 23,000 casualties. My great-great grandfather was one of fortunate soldiers to survive with, according to the records, a shot to the thigh.

A tale about Alfred's father, John, has been passed down the generations. The story goes that late one night, John was returning from a neighbor's house with an armful of venison when he suddenly encountered several wolves. Knowing that he couldn't outrun the pack, John jumped up on a stump and dispensed with the meat and then quickly left the wolves to enjoy their dinner. A small, insignificant story perhaps but it’s a piece of family history I don't want to be forgotten. And as I click on the publish button, these memories are now a part of the digital age.

Epitaph

I’m researching the oldest profession for a western short that I'm working on when I came across this epitaph from a headstone in Pioche, Nevada...

Here lies the body of Virginia Marlotte,
She was born a virgin and died a harlot.
For eighteen years she preserved her virginity
That's a damned good record for this vicinity.

It may be made up, but it certainly gave me a chuckle.

Peter Gunn

I'm a big fan of jazz, detectives and film noir, not to mention femme fatales that can drop a man with a single stare. So then how is it that I’ve never seen Peter Gunn? I remember back in the 80s watching a few minutes of the horrible Peter Strauss version. Maybe that’s what did it in for me and so I never bothered to check out the original Blake Edwards classic. Rap Sheet recently did a post on the 50th anniversary of the show and I decided it was time to catch up.

I just finished watching the first sixteen episodes. Since I am the one who’s two martinis behind on this classic, I’ll keep it short. Craig Stevens as Gunn is perfect. As they say he’s hot on the case and cool under pressure. Lola Albright is the girlfriend who, according to the back of the dvd case, can melt butter at twenty yards, and I agree. My favorite actor on the show is Herschel Bernardi who plays the role of Lt. Jacoby in such an understated performance that he steals each scene. Oh, and the jazz is ultra cool, not just the unforgettable Henry Mancini theme but every noir scene is packed with appropriate gritty jazz.

I’ve posted the first episode, "The Kill." Everything about this first set was topnotch. You probably already knew that, but for those that don’t, check out this episode. It's a shame there are so many commercials but it’s only twenty-five minutes. Give it a try. I think you will be happy you did.


Watch Peter Gunn: The Kill (Part 1 of 7) in Entertainment Videos  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

Portrait Me

 

Denise Morrow is a good friend Little d and I met in Belize a couple years ago. She’s a wonderful artist living in Arizona who’s working on a painting of yours truly. It is quite an honor to be immortalized on canvas. The picture was taken by my charmer in Cameroon in 2004. (Maybe with a few flames I could be the Ghost Rider?!)

The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics

This book is the most fun I’ve had reading since The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps. I’m not going to do a full review because others have done it far better justice (here, here and here) than I could. However, I will give it a quick plug... Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct stands out with its bizarre but engaging case of a blind painter who paints masterpieces and then kills his subjects... Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer is in a piece called Dark City (1954) that caused such an uproar over the depiction of a bound and gagged woman that the strip was soon cancelled for offending narrow-minded sensibilities. Spillane’s earlier creation, Mike Lancer, also appears in the anthology... Max Allan Collins delivers the charming Ms. Tree on Maternity Leave (1992). This is my first meeting with this tough babe and I’m hoping the movie will reflect this tour de force... My response to Dashiell Hammett’s Secret Agent X-9 (1934) was lukewarm, which surprised me. Even so, I’m glad to have it rounding out my D.H. collection... Johnny Craig’s The Sewer (1951) is a great tale of ultimate poetic justice when a murderer hiding out underground comes face to face with his own grisly handiwork... A new favorite of mine, the whimsical 'Spirit', shows up in Will Eisner’s The Portier Fortune (1946). I’ll be checking out more of Mr. Eisner's work... There are many, many other brilliant creators including Alan Moore, Sanchez Abuli, Alex Raymond, Paul Grist and Ed Robbins. Each storyline is introduced with a brief history and Paul Gravett does a fine job in the introduction Every Shade of Noir... This book should be on your shelf.

Yellow Mama

Yellow Mama, Issue #10 (October, 2008) is now online. Cindy Rosmus has put together a great list of contributors, including Patricia Abbott. I've just started reading it myself, so go on over and check it out.

My Town Monday: Life in West Africa

I asked Mr. Boh to send some pictures of his family, Cameroon, and where he works. I knew when I asked that it was a tall order but, as always, he came through. I'm posting family photos today and work pics next week. I also included a writeup from him on the folklore of the Kom people. Mr. Boh writes:

You won't believe how long it has taken me to be able to come up with Pics. I had them snapped but to process them and be able to send was just another school and I finally had to hand the camera to a friend of mine who down-loaded them into his box and in turn sent to me.

You will see Junior and the sister, their Mum and the first day to school for Junior's sister and the job their mum has to accompany them everyday to and from school. Please extend my thanks to all your kind readers for showing an interest in my country.

History of the Kom people and their settlement (originally posted 01 August 2007 on the Axiom Report)
The Kom people co-existed with the Babessi people of Ngohkitungia Division of the north-west province of Cameroon. This was in the early 1800's up to about the second half of that century. Relationships between these two ethnic groups were very cordial until hunger struck the land due to poor weather conditions. The fon (paramount chief) of Babessi, seeing that his subjects were dying of hunger, out-played the fon of Kom with a diabolic plan he had conceived. He suggested to the fon of Kom the necessity to reduce their respective populations so that the little amount of food the land produced would be sufficient for the few who were spared from the execution of the plan.

THE PLAN
The two groups were each to construct a hall into which a cross section of their population would be locked up and later burnt. This plan was readily accepted by the fon of Kom, 'TANGNAKOLI'.

Tangnakoli was so naive that during the construction of the two halls he didn't notice that the people of Babessi had been given instructions to create an exit door to the hall their own population was to be locked in. So while the Kom people ran the risk of eliminating their people, those from Babessi knew it was going to be safe with them.

Then came the D-Day; about 600 Kom elites moved into the hall meant for them while about the same number of people from Babessi MOVED INTO AND OUT THROUGH THE EXIT DOOR of their own hall. Soon, the two halls were set ablaze and as the Kom elites perished in the disaster, Babessi elites moved into hiding in the near-by bushes. Just two weeks later the same Babessi elites Tangnakoli had observed with his own eyes move into the hall were seen again roaming around the palace.

Tangnakoli couldn't believe his eyes and considered this as a slap in the face from his colleague fon of Babessi.

THE REVENGE OF TANGNAKOLI
Tangnakoli called a few of his trusted 'NCHINDAS' (palace guards) and informed them of his plan to avenge the deaths of his people; he made them to understand that Babessi was no longer suitable for them and informed them of the various signs they would see after his death and directed them to follow the instructions at the latter if not a calamity would befall them.

With the plan on the way, one morning Tangnakoli sat on his throne and was playing the locally fabricated guitar called the 'ILUNG' when the fon of Babessi came in to pay him a visit. Furious with anger, Tangnakoli got up and slammed the Ilung on the forehead of the fon of Babessi leaving a very big scar. Tangnakoli never gave room for any negotiations as he dashed into the palace and came out with a rope in hand. He went into the nearby forest (as planned) to where there was a crater lake; he climbed onto one of the trees whose branches spread further out above the waters of the lake; he tied the rope onto one of the branches and hung himself. This suicidal move had been accepted by all the Chindas he had contacted so they were all on standby for whatever signs would follow.

With the mission of the fon already accomplished, the Kom elites waited in patience for another two weeks. The decaying body of Tangnakoli soon started sending out maggots which dropped into the waters of the lake and days later, they transformed into very big fishes. Since Babessi people knew nothing about the plan nor the whereabouts of Tangnakoli, they soon discovered that there were so many fish in the nearby lake and brought the news to the palace and their fon hearing this didn't hesitate to decree that the next day, every adult male and some strong women should go to that lake and do the fishing and bring home their catch to the palace. The instructions were followed and when everyone had gotten into the lake concentrating on fishing, the lake started swallowing up the people and did not give room for anyone who had stepped in to be able to run.

THE BOA TRACK
The next day a Boa track appeared from around the lake as had been announced by Tangnakoli. Following the track, the Kom people left Babessi. They traveled for some days until the track disappeared at IJIM a neighbouring village to Kom. They temporarily settled at Ijim for about two weeks; built a few huts around and got up one morning only to see that the Boa Track had reappeared. They packed up their few belongings and again followed the track for a few more days and it finally disappeared at LAIKOM where they built the fon's palace and settlements effectively commenced after some months. The palace of the Kom people remains there to this day and where the Boa track disappeared is a tall rock of about 5ft and 10in in diameter; this rock is meant to keep track because it is believed that the day the track reappears, it will mean the Kom people will again have to move to a new home.

Click here for other My Town Monday posts on Travis Erwin's site...

Antiquing for Mysteries

I’ve mentioned on occasion that Little d and I like to go antiquing on weekends, mainly on the lookout for books, coins, and paintings. We hadn’t planned on going today but Gary's post of the new EQMM and AHMM covers on The Tainted Archive got my wheels turning. The new AHMM reminded me of an old issue. Over breakfast, I pondered my collection stashed away in NY when it hit me, I don’t have that issue... I had seen it in the antique store several weeks ago. Faster than you can say "Holy cow Batman", I was dragging d a good hour away to the Washington Old School House Antique Mall. While I was there, I picked up thirty(!) EQMM and AHMMs. Oh, and here's that April 1984 Ellery Queen cover that reminded me of the current Alfred Hitchcock (along with the 29 others!).

The Spirit

How did I miss out on The Spirit growing up? I’m not sure, but knowing me, I was probably in the Sgt. Rock and GI Joe section.

I've read my first Spirit, The Portier Fortune, in Best Crime Comics and have become hooked by Will Eisner’s masked man of mystery. And now after watching the trailer, I’m looking forward to the Frank Miller film coming this Christmas.



I love the Sin City look of the film and that Frank Miller style that translates well from graphic novels to the big screen. I’m not really familiar with Gabriel Macht who’s playing The Spirit but his bio includes roles in The Good Shepherd and The Recruit. Of course, all eyes will be fixed on the combined charms of Eva Mendes, Scarlet Johansson, and Paz Vega -- enough to make a Jessica Rabbit jealous.

On Writing: Multiple POVs in the First Person?

Earlier in the year, I subscribed to a writer's book club, and now each month whether I want it or not, I get a 'how-to-write' book. I know there are varying opinions on this kind of educational tool, and no doubt, there's a gluttony in today’s market. But I've found some are worth reading, like The Mind of Your Story by Lisa Lenard-Cook. In Chapter 5 “What's Your Point,” Ms. Lenard-Cook writes, “The main question to keep in mind as you consider point of view is, whose story is it, anyway? … [O]ne way to determine who will tell your story is to decide who will be changed by the events that unfold.” Good advice, and this is the springboard for my current post and dilemma.

I've been working on a story where my protagonist ends up in a potentially fatal predicament. I wrote it in the first person and later realized the antagonist is equally absorbing. I thought of changing to the omnipresent 3rd person but felt it would lack kick. I finally decided to use first person to tell the story from both character's point of view, trying to clearly distinguish who is speaking in each section.

I think it works fine, but I wonder if there will be gripes about making such a transition. Several people who've read it have said that it works for them. Of course, the big test will be whether it’s accepted or not.

Has anyone else come across a similar problem? If so, what was it?

Thursday morning paper

One nice thing about staying at a hotel is the free paper delivered to the door. This morning's Life section from USA Today has a sizeable amount of print devoted to authors from the crime/detective community. Carole Memmott interviews Max Allan Collins about the forthcoming Mickey Spillane novel, The Goliath Bone. An article appears on actor and comedic author Richard Belzer with his latest I am Not a Cop! Last but not least, is a short bio of Stieg Larsson and a review of his bestseller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Check out the links if you would like a morning dose of crime.

The Trial by Franz Kafka (Montellier – Mairowitz)

The Trial takes place in a bizarre, impersonal, bureaucratic society where Joseph K, a bank clerk, is arrested for a crime that didn't take place. While he searches for answers as to where his trial is going to be held, no one seems to want to tell him. The authorities in Kafka’s cleverly created world are quick to arrest and sentence but have no particular interest in the accused’s defense.

Metropolis, 1984, A Clockwork Orange and Brazil have all explored similar themes, and after reading The Trial, I see where these frightening landscapes originated.

According to The Trial’s jacket blurb, artist Chanta Montellier, is one of France’s leading graphic artists and it’s easy to see why. She constructs magnificent nineteenth century interiors in vivid detail and then quietly blends them into a mixture of 1940’s film noir and a nightmarish gothic world. I thought it was a nice touch that Kafka’s likeness served as Montellier’s interpretation of Joseph K.

Writer David Zane Mairowitz is a well-renowned author and playwright. His bio states he previously wrote Introducing Kafka with Robert Crumb (that’s gotta be a great combination). His use of exclamation points and question marks are perfectly used to emphasize the citizens’ confusion in the totalitarian state.

I may never have read this classic piece of literature if it weren't for the graphic novel adaptation. The Trial is a great book for fans and for slouches like me who have just discovered this acclaimed novelist and short story writer. I’ll be reading more of Kafka’s work, like The Metamorphosis and The Castle.

On a similar note, check out Scott D. Parker's site. He has a review of Coward (Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips) plus a short history of graphic novels.

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (November 2008)

I haven't seen too many people blog about it, so I want to touch on the November issue of Ellery Queen. Foremost, it’s noteworthy for containing the last story that Edward Hoch was working on at the time of his death. Handel and Gretel, seamlessly completed by Jon L. Breen, follows the winning team of Stanton and Ives. The couriers find themselves entangled in a murder mystery when hired to transport a George Handel manuscript. Every time I have picked up a new issue of EQMM or an old secondhand copy, I'd flip through to start with the Hoch story (I find the Nick Velvet and Simon Ark yarns are the most enjoyable). Buying another issue of EQMM won’t be the same without the prolific Edward D. Hoch.

John Harvey’s Trouble In Mind opens the issue, pairing up two of his regular characters, Charlie Resnick and Jack Kiley. PI Kiley is searching for an AWOL soldier and enlists the help of Resnick. The story alternates between the soldier who’s kidnapped his family and Resnick and Kiley on the trail. Harvey successfully tackles the topical issue of post traumatic stress disorder without being preachy.

Too Wise, written by O' Neil De Noux (sidebar: what a great name for a writer!), is set in 1940s New Orleans with protagonist Lucien Caye, PI. Caye becomes a suspect when an attractive strawberry blonde is murdered a few hours after he was seen dropping her off at her house. Mr. Noux, a former cop himself and native of the area, brings a great deal of realism to this piece. I will have to check out New Orleans Confidential which has the Caye character.

The magazine’s special sections also offer several great pieces. "Passport To Crime" spotlights Brazil’s talented Rubem Fonseca with a tale that I could imagine from the pen of Lawrence Block. "Black Mask" features Gary Phillips who delivers a compelling entry intriguingly entitled, The Kim Novak Effect. In "Reviews", The Jury Box reminded me I have to pick up Paris Noir and Crimini. All this and Bill Crider does a nice write-up in Blog Bytes on Patti Abbott's Friday’s Forgotten Books.

Other contributors include Janet Dawson, Barbara Nadel, Judith Cutler, Len Moffat, and the gifted Robert Barnard. A great issue -- check it out.

Friday’s Forgotten Books: The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne Du Maurier

I went across the street and bent over the sleeping woman. The furtive odour of stale wine, worn clothes, rose to my nostrils… suddenly she stirred. She lifted her head. The features were aquiline and proud, the eyes, once large, were now sunken, and the straggling grey hair fell in strands to her shoulders. She must have travelled from some distance, for she had two baskets beside her containing bread and wine, and yet a further woollen shawl. Once again I was seized with that sense of recognition, that link with the past which could not be explained. Even the hand that, warm despite the cold air, held on to mine in gratitude awakened an involuntary, reluctant response. She stared at me. Her lips moved.

I turned, I think I ran.

Armino Fabbio gives some money to the homeless woman in the above passage. When he later hears that she’s been murdered, he is surprised to learn she was once a family servant. He feels compelled to return to his home town of Ruffano where he makes another astonishing discovery. His older brother, Aldo, who he thought died in the war, is alive.

Aldo serves as the director of the university arts council and is in the midst of a stage production on the sinister Duke Claudio (the Falcon), a brutal man who preyed on the Ruffano people five hundred years earlier.

Armino knows his brother is no less brutal than Claudio. His childhood memories of Aldo’s bullying haunt him. He recalls the time Aldo intimidated him into playing Lazarus and locked in a linen cupboard for a tomb:

So great was my dread, so disciplined to his commands my spirit, that I dared not disobey. I came forth, and the horror was that I did not know whether I should meet with the Christ or with the devil, for according to Aldo’s ingenious theory the two were one, and also, in some manner which he never explained, interchangeable.

Armino suspects Aldo is using the students for his own nefarious purposes despite the fact that they see him as an ally.

The book continues to flash between present day and the brothers’ past, The Falcon’s history, the servant’s murder and possible implications it has for Armino plus the hectic university life circa the mid 1960s. The plotlines interweave, building to a couple of unexpected plot revelations and a tragic ending.

Before Du Maurier wrote Falcon, she was criticized for being an "agreeable writer of agreeable fiction" and "nostalgic novelist yearning for the past." Perhaps because of these drubbings, she decided to create a complex, multilayered plot.

In 1965, she appeared to have some doubts about her work, "I’m afraid people are not going to understand it at all." She was right. Good Housekeeping demanded serious revisions before it was serialized in their magazine including a re-write of the ending. Du Maurier considered herself "on the slide" and she agreed to the changes. But in the end, the efforts didn’t pay off. The New Yorker called the novel "extraordinarily dull."

Is the plot a little convoluted? Yes. A little dull? It can be. So why recommend this book? Because, Daphne Du Maurier had a keen ability for creating atmospheric worlds, suspense and that old style of mystery they just don’t craft anymore.

I wouldn’t make this my first Du Maurier read. Her established pieces like Rebecca, The Birds and Other Stories (1963) and Not After Midnight (1971) are a better start. Then, like me, maybe you will become entranced and travel down that back road where The Flight of the Falcon is waiting.

Click here for more Friday’s Forgotten Books...

SSSSSSS

I've had an unusual week of offbeat posts with King Crimson, British comedians and stamps. Today's post has been scheduled in my Blogger list for weeks now and it's time to finally put it up. This should add to the week's peculiarity...

SSSSSSS is a 1973 horror film, starring Dirk Benedict and Strother Martin, about humans being turned into cobras. I love this campy trailer "Don't say it-Hiss it".



"King cobra vs. Mongoose or is it man vs. man." Because I was a fan of Benedict in Battlestar Galactica at the time, I convinced my mom to allow me to watch this cult film one Saturday afternoon. I don't recall thinking it was bad, but I found it to be a decidedly strange movie.