Mystery Scene 2010 Winter Issue #113; Ed on Radio tonight

2010 Winter Issue #113 From Kate Stine:

Hi everyone!

Putting together this issue has been something of a trip down memory lane. One of the first detectives I came across in my early reading was Father Brown. Steven Steinbock makes an interesting case that the debut of G.K. Chesterton’s little Catholic priest in 1910 brought a moral and spiritual depth to the mystery genre that it had previously lacked and often still does. Chesterton’s other great strength was the quality of his prose. Even as a child, I was struck by the beauty of the scene in the garden between Father Brown and the fleeing thief in “The Falling Stars.” Read it yourself and see if you agree.

Seeing that the topic of Larry Block’s latest column was Ross Thomas, I immediately dropped everything to read it—with much delight. Then I had to re-read bits of Briarpatch, one of my all-time favorite novels, and remember a visit with Ross and his wife Rosalie in the early 1990s. Several of us from Mysterious Press travelled to their jewel box of a house in Malibu overlooking the Pacific. Over lunch, Ross recalled a meeting he had with some Beltway types who were repeatedly dropping then-president George H.W. Bush’s name into the conversation. Ross, who never confirmed or denied his rumored Company past, one-upped them with a laconic, “Oh, do you mean Prescott’s boy?”

When Oline Cogdill proposed an interview with Randy Wayne White, whose Doc Ford novels are set on the beautiful Sanibel Island off Florida’s Gulf Coast, Brian and I were delighted to relive a wonderful vacation and learn more about one of contemporary crime fiction’s most intriguing writers at the same time.

Even closer to our hearts is the topic of Twist Phelan’s article “Romancing the Con.” Twist talks to four couples who found true love at mystery fan conventions—including Mystery Scene’s current publishers at the 1996 Magna cum Murder Convention held in Muncie, Indiana.

G.M. Malliet has her own reasons to be grateful for mystery conventions. She studied the cozy novel at Malice Domestic for several years, started writing and ultimately won an Agatha Award for Best First Novel. Get the whole story in our interview.

Also in this issue, Rupert Holmes returns to center stage with his upcoming adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution; Nate Pedersen continues his invaluable series on book collecting by explaining the terms used to describe book condition; and P.D. James becomes the latest in a distinguished group of crime writers to turn critic with her Talking About Detective Fiction.

If you’re going to Malice Domestic this spring be sure to come to Mystery Scene’s “Meet the New Authors” Breakfast. It’s a great chance to learn about terrific new writers and their work. We’ll save a chair and some Danish for you!

Kate Stine
Editor-in-chief

------------------------Diabolical Radio 9-10 CST

I don't know much about this show but judging from its previous guests, which include Joe Lansdale and Brian Keene, I surmise that it leans heavily to very dark suspense and horror. Normally I don't do stuff like this. I only agreed because they promised they'd let me sing "If we don't run out of time, Ed or, you know, have problems with the signal because we hit the wrong button or something or if one of us has to go to the bathroom all of a sudden and the other one shouldn't happen to know how to run the show alone." Sounds like an air-tight agreement to me. diabolicalradio@yahoo.com