For the hard boiled fans...

One of the great things about the internet, and the blogosphere in particular is that the discovery of useful blogs and websites via other punters musings. So this little gem, for those of you out there who love Hard Boiled Crime Fiction came via Peter Rozovsky over at Detectives Beyond Borders and his recent Raymond Chandler fest.

This site is called detnovel.com and is run by William Marling, a Professor of English at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio in the US. It has got everything you ever wanted to know about Hard Boiled Crime Fiction, from a general history, to a line up of the usual suspects.

It's fabulous, check it out.

Bound

Monday was a day of starts:

The start of term - the kids were back at school. The holidays were delicious, so it was kind of sad for them to end, but great to get the time back to myself.

The start of a new book to read - I'm reading First Touch of Light by Ruth Pettis, which is magical so far.

The start of writing a new novel - Yes, on Monday I cracked into the fourth book of the Sam Shephard series, Bound. And I am pleased to say the words are flowing and it feels fantastic to be at the start of a new project!

Casebook

I always get a buzz when I see local businesses doing well on the world stage, patriotic little thing that I am, so I was particularly pleased to see this article in the Otago Daily Times about the success of Dunedin gaming and digital entertainment company Areo with their crime solving game Casebook. They have won an international award at the United Nations' World Summit Awards in the "e-Entertainment and Games"category.

Casebook combines film and gaming to create an accurate environment for you to do the forensic investigation into the crime. There are two episodes out, Kidnapped and The Watcher, neither of which I've played, but I am downloading their free episode The Missing Urn as I type.

The player helps Detective Burton solve the crimes, and the Detective is quite cute. The crime scenes were made up as proper sets and filmed to make them as realistic as possible. I'll get to see if I'm as crash hot at solving mysteries as I think I am.

I'll let you know how I get on.

The Girl Who Played With Fire

By Stieg Larsson

This is the second book in the Millenium Trilogy. I loved the first, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and would have to say I enjoyed this one even more.

Two journalists are found dead in their Stockholm apartment, and a Lawyer is also found dead in his home. The deaths are linked by the same murder weapon, and the fingerprints found on the weapon - those of Lisbeth Salander. While a nation-wide man hunt searches for the young women, those who have worked with her and been close to her question her involvement.

Again, this novel has fantastic characterisation, and a complex and satisfying story line. I enjoyed its sense of place and Swedishness, which added another element of interest, not that it needed any more. It makes me even more impatient to read the third in the trilogy, due out later in the year. I highly recommend it.

The right Scarpetta?

I was very surprised to read a little snippet in the newspaper that announced Angelina Jolie would play Kay Scarpetta in a series of movies based on the Patricia Cornwell novels. See the Variety article here.

I know a lot of thought goes into the choice of actors or actresses to play lead roles in adaptations of books. The British in particular seem to have a knack for finding the right person, Hermione Norris as DI Carol Jordan, Jill Scott as Mme Ramotswe as a scant few examples. (And yes, I'm aware Scott is American.)


For the life of me I can't imagine Jolie as Scarpetta. I am not a fan of hers, although I have enjoyed her performances in a couple of movies, including as a policewoman in The Bone Collector, but that performance was a long time ago, and I find her personal life baggage rather distracting. Yes, call me shallow, and incapable of escaping wholeheartedly into the fantasy world of the big screen. But I have my doubts.

Is this a case of the studio wanting a big name bankable super-star at the expense of character integrity?

A Sting in the Tale

We finished reading Sting by Raymond Huber as the bed time story book with the boys tonight. It was a great story and I especially enjoyed the fact Ziggy, the star of the book kept true to beeishness. He and all the characters behaved like the little critters actually would, (unlike some of the ones we see at the kids movies) so as well as really enjoying the story, and laughing at the jokes, the boys learned a lot about the world of bees.

The best endorsement was the fact Mr Seven-year-old grabbed the book the moment I finished reading the story to them and proceeded to start reading it again for himself.

An especially good book for boys.

A blog lunch

I love the camaraderie the blogosphere creates, that sense of community. It is pretty much essential now for my well being to be part of it, to fend off the curse of writer's isolation, even if it is virtual.

Every now and again though, we get to play in the real world, so I got to enjoy a real lunch today, with real food and real chat and real laughter with The Sound of Butterflies, Schroedinger's Tabby and Banquo's Son.

Lovely.