New mural on Erle Stanley Gardner, Malden, MA.

Malden, MA, has honored its native son, author-attorney Erle Stanley Gardner, unveiling a mural by Fred Seager on May 19 that pays tribute to the Perry Mason mysteries. It is located on the Bike to the Sea bike path in Malden. Gardner was born in Malden in 1889, moving to California with his family when he was 10 years old.

Mural by Fred Seager in Malden, MA, honoring the Perry Mason mysteries
by Erle Stanley Gardner. Photo: Malden's Ward 3 Councillor Amanda Linehan

New dramatization, Peters' Crocodile on the Sandbank.

Graphic Audio will release in June a new full-cast dramatization of Elizabeth Peters' Crocodile on the Sandbank, the first in her series with 19th-century Egyptologist Amelia Peabody (later Emerson). The intrepid Amelia, armed with her trusty parasol, faces skullduggery on an archaeological dig, including a rampaging mummy.

Score to Christie's The Mirror Crack'd (1980).

 

As Scott Bettencourt writes enthusiastically in Film Score Friday, John Cameron's score to The Mirror Crack'd (dir. Guy Hamilton, 1980, based on the Agatha Christie novel, featuring Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson) will soon be issued by Caldera. For more information or to listen to some clips, go here.

Nathan Ashman: Edgar winner, Sallis companion.

The hardworking Nathan Ashman (University of East Anglia) nabbed the Edgar in the Best Critical/Biographical category for his book James Sallis: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction (I edit the McFarland Companions to Mystery Fiction). The many works of the multitalented Sallis (an author and poet active in both mystery and sci-fi) include his novel Drive (filmed with Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan), his Lew Griffin series, and his biography of African American mystery author Chester Himes.

The Sallis companion is currently on sale at McFarland.