Clues 44.2: Reappraising James Ellroy.

Clues 44.2 (2026) has been published, which is a theme issue on "Reappraising James Ellroy," guest edited by Nathan Ashman (U of East Anglia, UK) and Steven Powell (U of Liverpool, UK). See below for abstracts. I will update this post when the ebook versions are available. Contact McFarland for subscriptions. 

Introduction: Reappraising James Ellroy / Steven Powell and Nathan Ashman
The coeditors discuss the contents of this theme issue on the work of James Ellroy, including articles on The Black Dahlia, Perfidia, the Underworld USA Trilogy (American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, Blood’s a Rover)

“It’s Good for Business”: The Conspiratorial Logic of James Ellroy’s Underworld USA Trilogy / Nathan Ashman 
This article examines the meaning and function of conspiracy in James Ellroy’s Underworld USA Trilogy. Engaging with twentieth century and contemporary debates on “conspiracy culture,” it contends that Ellroy presents a vision of history shaped less by coherent political ideologies than by competing economic interests.

Histories of Bad Men: William Guy Banister and Clandestine Archives in American Tabloid and Libra / Bradley J. Wiles (Northern Illinois U)
This article compares James Ellroy’s American Tabloid and Don DeLillo’s Libra through their portrayals of William Guy Banister, a key figure in Kennedy assassination lore. Banister’s appeal is rooted in his representation as a conduit to secret history, which could potentially provide answers to the many mysteries surrounding the Kennedy assassination. 

The Big Elsewhere: American Tabloid, States of Exception, and Imperial Noir
Rodney Taveira (U of Sydney, Australia)
American Tabloid and its successors map a dispersed network of limited sovereignty marked by a convergence of state and criminal violence. This essay argues that Ellroy’s Underworld USA trilogy and L.A. Quintet develop a form of “imperial noir” where the procedural methods of domestic crime fiction expose the extractive and racialized logics of American empire.  

The California Writers Memorial Grove (incl Hammett).

(Top) Robert Louis Stevenson, NYPL
(Bottom) Dashiell Hammett, ca. 1934

As Kristen Caven explains, the California Writers Memorial Grove at Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland is an effort by the California Writers Club (est. 1909) to plant trees in honor of writers who have contributed to the West's literary landscape. The initiative was announced in October 1930. Each ceremony usually featured speeches, readings, and tree planting. Two honorees were Robert Louis Stevenson (in 1942) and Dashiell Hammett (in 1984). Go here to see a complete list of writers featured.

• Images of the grove and the original plan for the grove 

Foxwell on unexpected authors in EQMM.

H.G.Wells, ca. 1915–20. Library of 
Congress, Prints and Photographs Div.

Over on the Something Is Going to Happen blog of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, in honor of the magazine's 85th anniversary, I provide in "Behind the Pages: Moonlighting in Mystery" a rundown of some unexpected authors who have appeared in the pages of EQMM, including such writers as Pearl S. Buck and H.G. Wells. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pearl S. Buck, ca. 1932. Library of
Congress, Prints and Photographs Div.

 

"Trouble Is My Business" exhibition, LSUS.

Running through September 30 at Louisiana State University Shreveport's Noel Memorial Library is the exhibition "Trouble Is My Business: Detective Fiction and Its Historical Contexts, which looks at the figure of the detective from Sherlock Holmes to Mike Hammer and how they reflect the culture in which they lived. 

Upcoming presentation on Carter Brown's work.

The State Library of New South Wales in Sydney announced the free online presentation "Cataloguing Carter Brown's Literary Legacy" on 3 Nov 2026 from 11A to noon local time (that would be 8P to 9P EST). The presenter will be Clara Sitbon, a senior lecturer in French and Francophone studies at the University of Sydney who specializes in crime fiction and has investigated the question of what Carter Brown (aka Alan Yates) actually wrote. Yates (1923–85), who emigrated from Britain to Australia, is often credited with writing more than 300 books and 75 novellas in genres such as mystery, western, science fiction, and horror. 

Newberry Library course, the Golden Age of Mystery.

Elzbieta Foeller-Pituch (Northwestern University) will be teaching the Newberry Library online course "The Golden Age of Mystery Fiction: Soft-Boiled and Hard-Boiled," which will run from Oct 14–Nov 11, 2026 and will "explore the role of popular culture in both exposing and containing societal anxieties and aspirations." Books expected to be covered are Vera Caspary, Laura; Agatha Christie, The Labors of Hercules and The 13 Problems; Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Boscombe Valley Mystery, "The Red Headed League," and "Silver Blaze"; and Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest and The Maltese Falcon.  

Lester Dent's maritime detectives.

Lester Dent. The Dux, Chillicothe
(MO) Business College yearbook,
1923, p. 106

Over on the Black Gate blog, Will Murray discusses fictional detectives created by pulp writer Lester Dent (1904–59) who investigated maritime matters: Oscar Sail and Cyrus Peace.

Poe: The ballet.

The Illinois-based Ballet 5:8 has scheduled a national tour of its ballet, "The Curious Life of Edgar Allan Poe," which, as the company describes, "traces Poe's life through the short stories that made him immortal." Its creators are Ballet 5:8 artistic director Julianna Rubio Slager and choreographer Glorielle Niedfeldt. Upcoming cities include Albuquerque (October 2026); Baltimore (October 2026); and South Bend, IN (March 2027). The company's website offers thoughts on Poe's legacy by experts such as Richmond Poe Museum curator Chris Semtner.

New Clues CFP: Mid-twentieth-century American women crime writers.

There is a new call for papers for a Clues: A Journal of Detection theme issue on the work of mid–twentieth-century American female crime writers. The guest editors are Erin A. Smith (University of Texas at Dallas) and Clare Rolens (Palomar College). Proposals are due 15 January 2027, with full essays of 5,000 to 6,000 words due 1 August 2027. 

Ngaio Marsh House: Funding problems.

There's news that the Ngaio Marsh House in Christchurch, NZ, is experiencing a lack of sustained funding at both the national and local levels. 

Ngaio Marsh House in Christchurch, NZ, 2021. 
Photo by Pipjohn. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Israel Zangwill at 100.

Israel Zangwill, ca. 1901. 
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, 
Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, NYPL,

One hundred years after the death of author Israel Zangwill (1864–1926), the Victorian Jewish Writers Project will host an online symposium examining Zangwill’s writing, public career, and legacy on Aug 4 at noon (ET). Among Zangwill's works is the locked-room novel The Big Bow Mystery (1891) and the short story "Cheating the Gallows" (1893).

Scene from The Crime Doctor (1934),
adaptation of The Big Bow Mystery.

Cape Fear locations.

Over on the Travel + Leisure Asia website, Manas Sen Gupta discusses the largely Atlanta-area filming locations for the Apple TV series Cape Fear (based on The Executioners by John D. MacDonald, which has had two film adaptations). The series features Amy Adams, Patrick Wilson, and Javier Bardem.

Christopher Morley studio reopened.

Christopher Morley, left, w/publisher Mitchell 
Kennerley, ca. 1930. Genthe photograph collection, 
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

As the Roslyn (NY) School District noted, the Christopher Morley Knothole (the small studio of author and Baker Street Irregulars nurturer Christopher Morley, 1890–1957) was reopened on June 9. Located within Christopher Morley Park in Roslyn, the studio includes a bathroom designed by famed inventor and Morley friend Buckminster Fuller and hosts educational programs.

More on the Knothole:

•  Christopher Morley Knothole Assn

• "Christopher Morley: Life in Roslyn" from the Bryant Library (Roslyn), which includes images of the Knothole

•  Roslyn Landmark Society

• Articles by the Long Island Press 

Fulton Oursler in Mystery Magazine.

Fulton Oursler, ca. 1928

I was browsing the Nickel Weeklies digital collection at BGSU's Browne Popular Culture Library and found a familiar name in the pages of Mystery Magazine: Charles Fulton Oursler (1893–1952). We might know him better as Fulton Oursler (the editor of Liberty magazine and Reader's Digest as well as the author of The Greatest Story Ever Told) or mystery author Anthony Abbot.

His Mystery Magazine contributions: 

"The Sign of the Seven Sharks," MM no. 12, 1 May 1918 

"Shadowing the Blue Triangle," MM no 16, 1 Jul 1918 

"The Magician Detective," MM no. 20, 1 Sept 1918 

"The Evil Eye," MM no. 28, 1 Jan. 1919 

Cover of Mystery Magazine no 81

"The Mystery of the Seven Shadows," MM no. 43, 15 Aug 1919 ("Unraveler of mysteries" Gordon Keene comes to the aid of a young woman whose life is in danger.)

"The Whispering Head," MM no 50, 1 Feb 1920 

"The Clue of the Red Lamp," MM no 63, 15 Jun 1920 

"The Spirit Bell," MM no 69, 15 Dec 1920 

"The Jeweled Pipe of Persia," MM vol 3, no 75, 15 Dec 1920 (An inspector and a magician attempt to thwart the theft of a priceless object.)

"The Spirit Witness," MM no 76, 1 Jan 1921 

"Professor Satan," MM no 81, 15 Mar 1921. (Professor Satan is a daring jewel thief)

"The Man in Room No. 7," MM no 87, 15 Jun 1921 

"The Trance Detective," MM no 91. Aug 1921 

"Counterfeit Clues," MM no 98, 1 Dec 1921 

"A Man from Siam," MM no 105, 15 Mar 1922 (A detective tangles with a mysterious figure from the East.)

"A Whispering Mummy," MM no. 110, 1 Jun 1922 

"The District Attorney's Secret," MM no 114, 1 Aug 1922 

"A Master of Millions," MM no 123, 1 Jan 1923 

"The Hand in the Dark," MM no 130, 15 Apr 1923 (A man seeks to clear his former love of a charge of murdering her husband.)

"One Clue Missing," MM no 135, 1 Jul 1923 

"The Footprints on the Ceiling," MM no 150, 15 Feb 1924 

Ava Dickerson on the papers of Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels/Barbara Mertz.

An episode of the podcast Another Shirt Ruined (focusing on Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody Emerson series) features Ava Dickerson, an archivist at IU Bloomington's Lilly Library, who catalogued the papers of Peters (aka Barbara Michaels and Barbara Mertz). Learn about aspects of the collection, some fans who wrote to Peters, challenges in cataloguing, and more. 

Further Reading: Ava Dickerson, "Journey to the Center of the Mertz" (blog posts). 

My July-Aug 2026 EQMM column.

My new Jury Box column w/reviews of mystery short story collections and classic reprints is now posted at Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, featuring works that focus on the impossible crime (Elsa Barker, Christianna Brand, Charles Chadwick, Mary Collins, Celia Fremlin, Peter Lovesey, T.S. Stribling).

New film music releases: Fried, Rozsa.

New music releases include:

•  The Grissom Gang (1971; composer Gerald Fried). Dragon's Domain Records. For more information or to hear some clips, go here.

• The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977) and Background to Violence suite (composer Miklós Rózsa); the suite includes selections from The Naked City,  The Killers, and Brute Force). Citadel Records. For more information or to hear some clips, go here.

 

 

Return to Reichenbach Falls.

"The Death of Sherlock Holmes"
by Sidney Paget. 1893.

Members of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London recently re-created the fateful encounter between Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls. 

New recording, The Ipcress File.

Quartet Records has released a new recording by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra of John Barry's score for The Ipcress File (1965, adapted from the book by Len Deighton and starring Michael Caine as spy Harry Palmer), In addition to content that appeared on the original album, music written by Barry for the album but not used has been included, as well as Barry's themes from the TV programs Vendetta (1966–68) and The Persuaders! (starring Tony Curtis and Roger Moore, 1971–72). To listen to some samples, go here.

A glimpse of Mary Roberts Rinehart.

On the Periscope Films YouTube channel, there is a newsreel program, "It Seemed Like Yesterday." In it, there are a few seconds of author Mary Roberts Rinehart aboard a ship in the 1920s. 

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Vincent Starrett conference, Oct. 2026.

Vincent Starrett, ca. 1926.

The Torists International will be hosting the conference "And It Is Always 1895" in honor of the 140th birthday of writer, journalist, critic, collector, and noted Sherlockian Vincent Starrett (1886–1974) on Oct. 23–25, 2026, in Bensenville, IL (near O'Hare Airport). Guest speakers will include Ray Betzner, editor of Starrett's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (orig. publ. 1933), and author-critic Michael Dirda. A trip to Starrett's gravesite in Chicago's Graceland Cemetery also is planned (the organization is interested in establishing an endowment that would assist in maintaining the gravesite). As the registration fee is scheduled to increase in August, it is probably a good idea to register early. 

The title of the conference refers to a line in Starrett's famous poem "221B." 

Radio 4 Extra: Charles Paris.

This week on Channel 4 Radio Extra is Simon Brett's Dead Room Farce featuring Bill Nighy as actor Charles Paris, always ready for a drink and a case, such as this one with the death of an audio producer. 

New release: The Golden Age of Crime Dramas, vol. 1.

 

As Scott Bettencourt notes in Film Score Friday, Dragon's Domain Records has released The Golden Age of Crime Dramas, vol 1, which includes Harry Sukman's score for Underworld, U.S.A. (dir. Samuel Fuller, 1961), and Barry Gray's score for Crossroads to Crime (dir. Gerry Anderson, 1960). To hear some clips, visit this webpage.

The pioneering Mary Fortune.

Collection of Mary Fortune stories
published by Verse Chorus Press and
coedited by Lucy Sussex and 
Megan Brown

The Nightlife radio program on the Australian Broadcasting Corp. discusses with author Lucy Sussex the pioneering mystery work by Mary Fortune (1833–1911).

Poe, other content at upcoming Amer Literature Assn mtg.

Edgar Allan Poe, 1848.
Library of Congress,
Prints & Photos Div.

The American Literature Assn conference will take place at Chicago's Palmer House on May 20–23, 2026. Mystery fans may be interested in the following papers:

The Novel: Formal and Ethical Considerations (May 21)
• “Spectacular Violence, Speculative Truth: JFK, Conspiracy Culture, and Birth of the True Crime
Novel,” Pinar Tasdemir, Univ of Wisconsin–Madison

Religion in Contemporary American Fiction (May 21)
• “Late Thomas Pynchon: Detective Fiction and the Inner Life,” Luke Ferretter, Baylor Univ 

Reassessments, Secrets, and Revelations (May 21)
• “Revealing the Secrets of Rawson’s Magical Mysteries,” Neil Tobin, Independent Scholar 

An American Tragedy: A New Musical based on Theodore Dreiser’s Novel (May 21) 

Pairing Poe in the Classroom (May 22)
Chair: Philip Edward Phillips, Middle Tennessee State Univ
• “Seeing and Seaing Wrong: Poe, Melville, and Interpretive Failure at Sea,” Sam Gleason, Pellissippi State Community College
• “Teaching the Abyss of Justification: Poe, Ngũgĩ, and the Collapse of Oppressive Rationalizations," Juliet Tawiah, Northern Illinois Univ
• “Poe and Poe AI: Calculating Fictions and the Philosophy of Artificial Composition," Craig Carey, Univ of Southern Mississippi

Postwar Consumerism and Consumption (May 22)
• “The Rise of the Working-Class Cop in the Novels of Ed McBain,” Joseph George, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State Univ

The Gothic's Successor Genres (May 22)
• "'Deep Red Bells': Shallow Graves and Uneven Development in True Crime's South," Jennie Lightweis-Goff
• "Gritty Gothic Noir: The Evolution of the Southern Gothic in Michael Farris Smith," Peter Ingrao
(Univ of Texas at Dallas)

Literary Movements after Poe (May 22)
Chair: Margarida Vale de Gato, Universidade de Lisboa
• “The Fall of the House of Nowak: Esmé Weijun Wang's Revision of Edgar Allan Poe," Andy Harper, St. Louis Univ
• “Rosa Arciniega's Descent into Poe's Maelstrom," Micah K. Donohue, Eastern New Mexico Univ
• “Cannibalizing Poe: The 'Pure Potential' of White Monstrosity in Edgar Allan Poe and Mónica Ojeda," Noah Reed Miranda, Smittcamp Family Honors College at California State Univ (Fresno) 

Don DeLillo and the Canon of Literature (May 22)
Chair: Jesse Kavadlo, Maryville Univ
• "Doubling Dostoevsky: DeLillo's 'Midnight in Dostoevsky,’" Mark Osteen, Loyola Univ Maryland
• "‘Two Days Wrong!:' DeLillo's Textures of Time," Crystal Alberts, Univ of North Dakota
• “Owning Narrative in DeLillo and Eco,” Michael Streit, Independent Scholar
• “He Writes in Your Voice, American: DeLillo and Some Paradoxes of the Great American Novel” 

Policed Bodies and Minds in American Literature (May 23)
• “An Irresistible and Uncontrollable Impulse’: The Legal Context for Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Imp of the Perverse,’” Rene H. Treviño, California State Univ

Clues 44.1: Indian crime fiction, French, Haycraft, James, Nancy Drew, Palahniuk, Penny, Rawson, and more.

Clues vol. 44, no. 1 (2026) has been published. See below for abstracts. For a subscription, contact McFarland. 

Update, 19 Jun 2026: Nook and Google Play versions are now available.

Introduction: Allusions and Illusions
CAROLINE REITZ (John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY/CUNY Graduate School)
Caroline Reitz, the executive editor of Clues, discusses the contents of the issue, including articles on crime fiction from India, Howard Haycraft's World War II writings, and queer aspects of Nancy Drew, as well as authors John Franklin Bardin, Tana French, P.D. James, Chuck Palahniuk, Louise Penny, Clayton Rawson, and Robert Egerton Swartwout.

Spotlight on... Indian Crime Fiction
TARUN K. SAINT
This essay traces the genre's evolution in India from its inception in the colonial era to recent times. Discussed are regional contexts of crime writing in Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, and Tamil to establish the historical framework and the recent efflorescence of crime writing in English that has feminist and postcolonial aspects.

Rethinking Democracy and Detective Fiction: The Legacies of Haycraft's Wartime Writings
BARBARA PEZZOTTI (Monash Univ) AND FABRICIO TOCCO (Australian National Univ)
Howard Haycraft's "Dictators, Democrats, and Detectives" (1939); "The Future of the Detective Story"; and "The Rules of the Game" (1941) argued that detective fiction could only flourish in democracies. The authors demonstrate that crime fiction has proven versatile under dictatorships, functioning as a propaganda tool and an instrument of resistance.

"Magical Red Herrings": Personalized Experience and Specialized Knowledge in Clayton Rawson's The Footprints on the Ceiling
NEIL TOBIN
Clayton Rawson, like other magician-authors, was known to employ transferable magical skills while writing his popular mysteries. What may be unique in the genre was his use of a particular magical technique to create extra-deceptive red herrings that target subsets of his readership—and turn their specialized knowledge against them.

Discovering John Franklin Bardin
ROBERT LANCE SNYDER
John Franklin Bardin's The Deadly Percheron (1946), The Last of Philip Banter (1947), and Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly (1948) explore dissociative identity disorder. His works, as well as novels by Patricia Highsmith, Helen Eustis, Shirley Jackson, and Margaret Millar, substantiate the syndrome's topical frequency after World War II.

Metafiction as Misdirection in R.E. Swartwout's The Boat Race Murder (1933)
COLIN CAVENDISH-JONES (Xiamen Univ, Malaysia)
The Boat Race Murder, Robert Egerton Swartwout's only mystery novel, presents the reader with a plethora of literary references to the previous century of detective stories and locked-room mysteries. Through these references, Swartwout misdirects the reader to expect an intricate solution and an obscure motive for a murder, which is, in fact, simple and committed for sordid financial gain.

Lost Allusions: The Changing Codes of P.D. James
MARJORIE GARBER (Harvard Univ)
Like Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, and Josephine Tey, P.D. James sometimes used literary allusions in her book titles and plots. Over time, however, the signifying codes in her work began to change, first to hidden "Easter egg" messages and "true crime" references, and finally to modern scientific markers like DNA.

The Gothic and the Girl Detective: Unpacking the Queered) Signification of Nancy Drew
DOROTHY CALABRO (Auburn Univ)
This essay connects the gothic and the queer in the original Nancy Drew mysteries with modern, queer(ed) adaptations to the Nancy Drew universe, including Mabel Maney's Nancy Clue series and Kelly Thompson's Nancy Drew comics. The rift between the represented ideology of the original Nancy Drew mysteries and the gothic truths they hide are embodied in the interpretations and adaptations of queer audiences.

New from McFarland: History of Dial M for Murder.

Hot off the presses at McFarland and Co. is Frederick Knott and Dial M for Murder, in which playwright Richard Weill traces the history of the Edgar-winning play. Included are discussions of Knott's great difficulties in writing Dial M, the Alfred Hitchcock and Andrew Davis films, international productions, and other works by Knott such as Wait Until Dark and Write Me a Murder.

Best Part of the Book podcast: Clues: A Journal of Detection.

On McFarland's Best Part of the Book podcast, executive editor Caroline Reitz (John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY/CUNY Graduate Center) and I chat with host Mark Perzel about Clues: A Journal of Detection. Topics include the appeal of mysteries, the history of the journal, revelations that first appeared in the journal, and the most recent issue on disability and detective fiction. Those who would like to subscribe to the journal can receive a 25% discount with the coupon code BESTPART (email journals [at] mcfarlandpub.com).

Film Music Friday: Alfred Hitchcock.

The latest episode of Kansas Public Radio's Film Music Friday focuses on music in the films of Alfred Hitchcock, including The Man Who Knew Too Much (composer: Bernard Herrmann), North by Northwest (composer: Bernard Herrmann), Psycho (composer: Bernard Herrmann), Rear Window (composer: Franz Waxman), To Catch a Thief (composer: Lyn Murray), and Vertigo (composer: Bernard Herrmann).

2026 Dove Awardee: Stewart King.

Stewart King's Murder in the 
Multinational State: Crime Fiction
from Spain (Routledge, 2019)

The latest recipient of the Dove Award—which is awarded by the Popular Culture Association's Mystery and Detective Fiction Area and recognizes contributions to the serious study of mystery, detective, and crime fiction—is Stewart King, associate professor of European languages at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia). King, a specialist in Spanish and Catalan crime fiction, has edited or coedited 6 books (e.g., the Cambridge Companion to World Crime Fiction, 2022), produced 35 book chapters and 28 articles, as well as coedits the journal Crime Fiction Studies. He previously served on the editorial board of Clues: A Journal of Detection (I am managing editor of the journal).

The award is named for past PCA president and distinguished mystery scholar George N. Dove (1913–2003). Past recipients of the Dove Award include Frankie Y. Bailey (University at Albany, SUNY), J.C. Bernthal, Martin Edwards, Barry Forshaw, Douglas G. Greene, P. D. James, Christine Jackson, H. R. F. Keating, Margaret Kinsman, Maureen Reddy (Rhode Island College), Janet Rudolph, J. K. Van Dover (Lincoln University), and yours truly.