Clued in Again

After several years of dormancy, “Clues,” the only academic journal in the United States devoted to mystery and detective fiction, has resurfaced. It was published for 22 years by Bowling Green State University Press, a scholarly publisher famously active in the field of popular culture. This excellent, if sometimes a trifle pedantic (but what would you expect from academics?) journal will now be issued by Heldref Publications, which is located in Washington, D.C.With the wonderful world of technology and communication, the new executive editor will be located in London. She is Margaret Kinsman, a senior lecturer specializing in crime fiction at South Bank University. The new managing editor is Beth Foxwell, a short story writer who was a finalist for the Agatha Award at the 2004 Malice Domestic Conference and is the editor of nine anthologies.The first issue of the new “Clues” will appear this Fall, and subscription information may be had by sending an e-mail to: subscribe@heldref.org.***Some London producers came up with a swell idea for a new reality show. The idea was to set up cameras in likely locations and actually catch thieves in the act of nefarious deeds. Unfortunately, there was a little glitch. The production had to be postponed when crooks broke into their quarters and stole their camera equipment, which is worth tens of thousands of dollars. There is, apparently, a bit of embarrassment on the part of the editor, Syeda Irtizaali, and the director, Guy Ritchie, whose other claim to fame is that he is married to Madonna.***A fanzine (which is a magazine aimed entirely at fans, as you might have surmised) called Mystery Readers Journal has, for many years, presented annual awards to fan favorites in various categories of mystery writing. The Macavity awards are presented at the annual World Mystery Convention, better known as Bouchercon, which this year will be held in Toronto in October.The 2004 nominees are a superb group – evidence that a large group of mystery fans, pooling their reading recommendations, have impeccable taste.BEST MYSTERY NOVEL “The Delicate Storm” by Giles Blunt (Putnam); “Love of Mike” by Rhys Bowen (St. Martin’s); “The Guards” by Ken Bruen (St. Martin’s); “Done for a Dime” by David Corbett (Ballantine); “The House Sitter” by Peter Lovesey (SoHo Press).BEST FIRST MYSTERY NOVEL “Night of the Dance” by James Hime (St. Martin’s); “Death of a Nationalist” by Rebecca Pawel (SoHo Press); “The Bridge of Sighs” by Olen Steinhauer (St. Martin’s); “Maisie Dobbs” by Jacqueline Winspear (SoHo Press).For more information about this fanzine, visit www.mysteryreaders.org, or e-mailwhodunit@murderonthemenu.com.***Here’s a nice quote from Tom Clancy: “What’s the difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.”***There has been quite a lot about Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle in this column in recent months but, hey, I can’t help it if there is interesting stuff to report.How about this? In June, Christie’s auction house in New York sold the manuscript of a Holmes story, “The Sussex Vampire,” for $399,500 (including the buyer’s premium), setting a record for a Holmes short story; the previous record, set in 1999, was $244,500 (for “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton,” which included Frederic Steele’s original artwork for his portrait of the worst man in London). The record for any Holmes story is $519,000 for a novel, “Sign of the Four,” set in 1996. 832 1606 946 1618***There are hundreds of mystery Web sites, but one of the best is Black Mask Online (www.blackmask.com). Named after the most famous pulp magazine of them all, the periodical that helped popularize the American hardboiled private eye, this site offers more than 16,000 books for the fan of every kind of mystery fiction, including adventure, pulp, and Gothic.Among the many vintage writers available from Black Mask: G.K. Chesterton, whose Father Brown stories are among the greatest classics in the history of the detective short story; Arthur B. Reeve, whose creation, Craig Kennedy, was often called the American Sherlock Holmes; Gaston Leroux, best-known for “The Phantom of the Opera” but also the author of “The Mystery of the Yellow Room,” perhaps the highlight of French detective fiction; Mary Roberts Rinehart, probably the most popular American author of genteel ladies’ suspense fiction; and Robert Barr, who created Eugene Valmont, a precursor to Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot.Also featured on the site are some public domain stories by Dashiell Hammett; Anna Katharine Green, the mother of the American detective story; Sax Rohmer, creator of the evil Dr. Fu Manchu; Baroness Orczy, who wrote stories about the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Old Man in the Corner; and Frank L. Packard, whose American gentleman thief was clearly patterned after the dashing cricketeer, Raffles.Reading downloaded books cannot provide the same visceral pleasure as turning pages in a real, bound book, but so many of these titles are rare and obscure (some, admittedly, deservedly so) that there is little chance of finding them any other way. The occasional visit to this site will give modern readers a chance to discover the roots of the genre and to learn, contrary to common belief, that it didn’t all start with Sue Grafton and Dick Francis.

Clued in Again

Clued in Again

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