Classic Mysteries

I'm a Little Late...But...

...I want to point out that Mike Ripley's latest monthly "Getting Away with Murder" column for the Shots eZine has been posted at the Shots Magazine site.

As usual, it's a great way to find out what's going on in the mystery publishing world in the UK - as well as learning about other interesting developments around the world. For example, Ripley has a fine entry on the continuing popularity of Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe - and even includes a couple of illustrations taken from Nero Wolfe postage stamps from San Marino and Nicaragua.

As always, the column is fun and interesting reading. I commend it to your attention.

Welcome Back, Mysterious Press - Electronic Edition

Interesting news today from the world of mystery publishing: Otto Penzler, bookseller (Mysterious Bookshop), publisher (Mysterious Press), writer, editor, anthologist and just overall mystery enthusiast has launched a new version of the Mysterious Press online. Called MysteriousPress.com, it will publish electronic editions ONLY of books by mystery authors of all genres.

It's the kind of electronic backlist project that many mystery readers have hoped for in an age of eBooks. Many of the books Penzler will be publishing are still under copyright - yet most are long out of print. This will make the books available again, in a variety of electronic formats. As most of the eBook formats are readable on a regular laptop or desktop computer, I suppose you don't even need an eBook reader - though, given the way the prices have come down, why not?

I'm excited to see that at least a couple of Ellery Queen titles are among the first to be released. We're also promised - soon - other classic authors such as Christianna Brand. But no matter what genre you like - traditional, hard-boiled, private eye, noir, suspense, espionage, you name it - we are told that hundreds of these titles will be availabe from the Mysterious Press before the end of the year.

Here is the press release from Mysterious Press outlining the scope of the project. And here's a welcoming statement from Otto Penzler.

Sad News

An email from "MaggieMay" on the "For Mystery Addicts" (4MA) Yahoo mail list passes along the sad news that Enid Schantz of the Rue Morgue Press and Bookshop has passed away. According to the post, she had been suffering from cancer and had been on hospice care.

As readers of this site probably are aware, Enid and her husband, Tom, were tireless workers on behalf of traditional and classic mysteries. I would guess that nearly half of the more than 200 books I have reviewed here have been published by their Rue Morgue Press, and their quarterly catalog is a reader's delight. I'm sure my readers will join in offering condolences to Tom Schantz on his loss.

Good News & Bad News from the Rue Morgue Press

I've just received the Rue Morgue Press's Augumn 2010 catalog, which contains (as the headline say) good news and bad news.

Let's start with the good news - the books that they will be publishing over the next few months. I'm most excited to see that they'll be republishing John Dickson Carr's "The Case of the Constant Suicides," which is a fine story with two locked-room murders and some of the funniest and finest drinking scenes in any book. It's been a long time since I read it, and I'm ordering a copy.

Then there are two - two! - Gladys Mitchell mysteries. She is, as I've said in several reviews, something of an acquired taste, but I have been acquiring that taste, having read several of her books, and I eagerly look forward to both "Merlin's Furlong" (which is available now) and "Dead Man's Morris," coming around the end of the year.

They will be publishing a couple of Manning Coles books. I haven't reviewed any of these yet, and haven't read them in many years, and will probably use this as an excuse to refamiliarize myself with Coles' Tommy Hambledon. There are more entries from Stuart Palmer, Colin Watson, Frances Crane and Catherine Aird. It should be an enjoyable few months.

But now the bad news: in the course of their announcement, they warn that "a number of our titles have recently gone out of print."  Ouch! I suppose it's inevitable, given the nature of the business, but still...well, if you haven't ordered from them in a while and have been putting it off, now would be a good time to visit their website.

(Full disclosure: I had the pleasure of meeting Tom and Enid Schantz, who are the Rue Morgue Press, at Malice Domestic, and they gave me copies of several of their books as read/review copies. I've paid for most of my RMP books, however, and I've pre-ordered the new ones via Amazon, which also gives me a small percentage of the price. So there.)

New Arrival Kindles a Flame

It's here - my new Amazon Kindle e-reader has arrived. I must now download some kindling, of sorts, and begin putting it through its paces.

As a life-long reader of traditional printed books, I have mixed feelings about my new Kindle.

It is lightweight, and it will remain so even after being loaded with many books. GOOD.

E-books will take up no additional bookshelf space. GOOD.

I like the feel of a book, the looks of a book, even the smell of a book. BAD.

I will have to endure the reproachful gaze of my neighborhood bookstore owner. BAD.

The new cover for my new Kindle has a built-in reading light, useful in beds and planes and other not-well-lit places. GOOD.

My first downloaded book is L. C. Tyler's "The Herring-Seller's Apprentice." I will not be able to get him to autograph a copy for me. BAD.

So it's a toss-up, so far. I'll keep everyone posted as I learn to use it.

Kindle Envy

Amazon has announced a new, third generation of its Kindle e-book reader that, frankly, is starting to make it more and more attractive to me.

The newest Kindle, set to retail for $189, same price as the current model which it replaces, seems to have a number of improvements - it's smaller (but the reading area is the same), clearer, lightweight, glare-free and readable in bright sunlight, will hold up to 3500 books, battery life of up to a month, etc. etc. etc. This version will come with both 3G and Wi-Fi communication capabilities. Amazon says the 3G works globally.

But perhaps even more impressive, Amazon is going to release a version that's $50 cheaper - a $139 version of the Kindle without 3G, so that it works on Wi-Fi only.  Amazon says that if you plan to use your reader mostly in places that have Wi-Fi hotspots (like your home), then this is a good deal. At $139, they're obviously hoping for a much broader base of users - maybe parents will get the less expensive models for their kids.

Disclosure: If you're interested, and use one of the links above to go to Amazon to buy one, I do get a (small) percentage from Amazon.

Both models are available now for pre-order, and Amazon plans to start shipping them on August 27.

Kindling Some Excitement

Amazon.com has released some long-awaited and exciting news about its new Kindle 2 electronic book reader.

If you've been thinking about buying an electronic book reader, this is big news. The number of books available for Kindle keeps growing. The ability to get the books in a few seconds via wireless is a huge plus. The prices are reasonable, particularly for the many older mysteries that are available in electronic editions. I'm particularly fond of this promise: "Our vision is to have every book ever printed, in any language, all available in under 60 seconds on Kindle. We won't stop until we get there."

Amazon plans to release the Kindle 2 on February 24 - just two weeks away. If you're interested, I'd appreciate it if you'd consider ordering one through the link above!

Ignoble

I don't know if other mystery readers would agree with me, but I spent about an hour this week in a very large Barnes & Noble bookstore looking at their assortment of mysteries - and found the experience to be profoundly depressing.

There were rows upon rows of "mysteries" - most of which were not really mysteries in the classic sense, but rather thrillers of one sort or another. Now I can understand that - publishers and authors make their money these days on the "page-turners," the formula books that are, to me, largely indistinguishable from each other. And, to be fair, there is a long history of formulaic mysteries and potboilers; Edgar Wallace was, at one time, one of the most popular writers in the world, but is now largely forgotten. Perhaps 50 years from now, the same fate awaits, say, Dean Koontz - or he may be regarded as a brilliant and enduring writer.

But what annoys and depresses me is that there are so few of what I would consider the classics to be found in the bookstore aisles, particularly the ones being reissued by small publishing houses. I found only a handful of books published by the Felony and Mayhem Press and none at all from houses such as the Rue Morgue Press or Crippen & Landru.

I think that's too bad. These publishers perform what I think is a valuable service to readers, giving them the chance to become acquainted with some of the great (if largely forgotten) authors in the field. I'd like to encourage these publishing houses to do more - and that requires an ability to bring these books to the public attention. That won't happen at the bricks-and-mortar stores of Barnes & Noble - at least not the ones located near me. And I think that's a pity.

Yes, you can search for these books on Barnesandnoble.com - but not in the stores, where a great many people go to browse for books. That's why I believe in, and try to support, those bookstores that specialize in mysteries, particularly the out-of-print dealers. They are worth your support as well.

Forgotten Books

From Tom and Enid Schantz at the Rue Morgue Press, here's a new word. They use it to describe worthy but forgotten books (the very type, indeed, published by their company). In referring to the books of Delano Ames, who is too little remembered today for his Jane and Dagobert Brown books, they say of them that they "deserve to be rescued from biblioblivion."

What a perfect word for the fate of far too many classic mystery authors!

And if you don't know the Rue Morgue Press, click through on that link!

"The Devil in the Bush"

For our podcast this week, I've gone somewhat off the beaten path (again) to an author who was new to me before I read the book.

I am indebted to the publishers at Felony & Mayhem who were kind enough to suggest that I might enjoy reading books by Matthew Head. They were right. "The Devil in the Bush" was Head's first novel featuring his detective, a missionary named Dr. Mary Finney. It's set in Africa during World War II.

The novel follows a young American dpilomat, on assignment to Africa, who becomes involved with a fascinating set of people - most of them Belgian. This is colonial Africa, and there is a good deal of racial interplay between the white Europeans and the black Africans. There is also passion and humor, culminating in a couple of murders - with everything sorted out ultimately by Dr. Finney.

For the most part, it's a puzzle mystery, and the reader is given clues during the course of the book. It's also a fascinating look at this chapter in African history. Give it a try - I think you will enjoy it. You can hear the complete review here.