Potential undergraduate and other projects, Nickels & Dimes collection.

Mary Elizabeth Braddon's
Three Times Dead (1881).
Nickels & Dimes Collection, NIU

The librarians at Northern Illinois University's Digital Library have suggestions to offer for virtual projects for undergraduates and others involving the Nickels & Dimes collection.

Chance Meeting (1959).

When a woman is murdered after having an affair with Dutch painter Jan Van Rooyen (Hardy Kruger), Van Rooyen finds that he is the top suspect of Inspector Morgan (Stanley Baker). Costars include Michelene Presle, Gordon Jackson, and Robert Flemyng.

Clues 38.1: Asimov, Christie, Conan Doyle, Ellroy, Flynn, Hammett, and more.

Clues 38.1 has been published; the abstracts follow below. Contact McFarland to order the print issue.  Ebook versions are available: GooglePlay, Kindle, and Nook 

Introduction: Beginnings and Endings / JANICE M. ALLAN (Salford University)
The Clues executive editor outlines the content of Clues 38.1, with articles on authors such as Isaac Asimov, Cheng Xiaoqing, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ruth Dugdall, James Ellroy, Gillian Flynn, Dashiell Hammett, Tatiana Lobo, Satyajit Ray, Susanne Staun, and Olen Steinhauer.

“Floating Unmoored”: The World of “Tourism” in Olen Steinhauer’s Espionage Trilogy / ROBERT LANCE SNYDER (University of West Georgia)
Olen Steinhauer’s espionage trilogy dramatizes its protagonist’s struggle to forge a centered identity after years of service as a black-ops agent in the CIA’s fictive Department of Tourism. By committing himself to his wife and stepdaughter, Milo Weaver escapes a downward spiral into suicidal disintegration captured by the trope of “floating unmoored.” The series’ recursivity involves structural elements that can be identified as momentum and world-building.

Altering the Hypermasculine through the Feminine: Female Masculinity in Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl / BETH STRATTON 

Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl offers a modern take on the neo-homosocial triangle that results in the triumph of a female masculinity. With the aid of his queer-coded sister, the character of Nick learns to temper his hypermasculinity with a more feminized version of masculinity to win back his wife, Amy.

Hard-Boiled Queers and Communists: James Ellroy’s The Big Nowhere / JOSHUA COMYN (Trinity College, University of Melbourne)
This article argues that the characterization of the killer in James Ellroy’s The Big Nowhere (1988), together with Ellroy’s development as a novelist, can be illuminated through the representation of psychoanalysis and Marxism within the novel, as well as by the historical context of the novel’s fictional setting.

Resisting Invisibility: Mothers and Human Trafficking in Ruth Dugdall’s Nowhere Girl and Susanne Staun’s Skadestuen  / CHARLOTTE BEYER (University of Gloucestershire)
Human trafficking is regularly presented in twenty-first-century crime fiction, frequently through stereotypes of femininity but rarely involving mothers or maternal experience. This article seeks to remedy this gap in representation by analyzing two twenty-first-century crime novels featuring trafficking plots that focus specifically on the politics of representing mothers.

Plunder Road (1957).

In Plunder Road, a gang headed by Gene Raymond robs a train of $10M in gold, but evading the police and camouflaging the gold pose significant difficulties.

Update: Anna Katharine Green induction into New York State Writers Hall of Fame.

New edition of Anna Katharine Green's
That Affair Next Door (1897) coming
soon from Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks

I've been advised by the Empire State Center for the Book, which hosts the NYS Writers Hall of Fame, that the ceremony at the Princeton Club for the 2020 inductees (including mystery pioneer Anna Katharine Green) has been moved to September 14.

Here's my original post on the subject.

Update, 5-26-20. I've been advised that the induction is being moved to June 7, 2021.

Moonlight Murder (1936).

Madge Evans and Chester Morris 
in Moonlight Murder (1936).

In Moonlight Murder, an opera singer dies in front of a large audience, and detective Chester Morris is on the case.

Update: Chesterton home saved.

G. K. Chesterton. NYPL.

In the Catholic Herald, Simon Caldwell reports that G. K. Chesterton's home, Overroads, was saved from a developer's plan to replace it with apartments.

Uncle Silas (aka The Inheritance, 1947).

Katina Paxinou, left, and Jean Simmons, right, with 
producer Laurence Irving on the set of Uncle Silas, ca. 1947

Based on the novel of the same name by Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu, Uncle Silas features a young heiress (Jean Simmons) whose nefarious uncle (Derrick De Marney) is prepared to take drastic measures to gain control of her fortune.

John Buchan in Oxford.

John Buchan. NYPL

The Oxford Mail discusses John Buchan's years in Oxfordshire, where he produced, among other works, the Richard Hannay novels The Three Hostages (1924) and The Island of Sheep (1936).

William C. Honeyman: Violinist, mystery author, Holmes inspiration?

The Strad discusses the career of Scottish violinist and mystery author William Crawford Honeyman (1845–1919), including possible influences on Arthur Conan Doyle. Under the pseudonym James McGovan, Honeyman wrote stories with an Edinburgh detective.

Lady without Passport (1950).

US immigration agent John Hodiak has a problem when he uncovers a human smuggling ring in Cuba that he needs to shut down and meets Hedy Lamarr, who seeks to reach the United States.

Chandler in World War I.

In the Smart Set, Benjamin Welton discusses Raymond Chandler's service in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and short-lived time in the RAF in World War I.

Further reading:
• Chandler's Canadian WWI service record (notes his status as a "naturalized British citizen" and includes his description of himself as a journalist. Fans may be amused by the mistake in his medical exam record, in which his first name is rendered as "Reginald.")

Chandler's signature from his Canadian discharge papers.

Midnight Limited (1940).

Ad for Midnight Limited (1940)

In Midnight Limited, railroad detective John King teams up with robbery victim Marjorie Reynolds, seeking to nab the perpetrator of a series of train robberies and the killer of his assistant.

An exhibition on a notorious 1963 robbery.

Through 19 April 2020, the Postal Museum in London is offering the exhibition "The Great Train Robbery: Crime and the Post," which provides a history of the Post Office Investigation Branch (established in 1683) and the notorious August 1963 robbery of a Royal Mail train, in which thieves made off with £2.6 million (approximately $71 million in today's dollars).

• Smithsonian magazine on the Great Train Robbery

• 2014 documentary on the robbery—A Tale of Two Thieves:

An early appearance by the Continental Op.

On its Web site, the Library of America features a Continental Op short story, "The Tenth Clew" (1924), by Dashiell Hammett. The Op finds that his client, who told him that his life had been threatened, has been murdered. He wonders about the young woman who intended to marry the dead man.

History Extra on real-life and fictional Scotland Yard detectives.

Jack Hawkins in Gideon of Scotland Yard (1958)

History Extra of BBC History Magazine looks at the history of Scotland Yard, including Charles Frederick Field (the model for Dickens's Inspector Bucket in Bleak House). It also covers fictional Yard representatives such as Wilkie Collins's Sergeant Cuff, John Creasey's George Gideon, Andrew J. Forrester Jr.'s Mrs. G, and P. D. James's Adam Dalgleish.

Anna Katharine Green: Upcoming inductee, NYS Writers Hall of Fame.

Anna Katharine Green. NYPL

On June 2, mystery pioneer Anna Katharine Green (1846–1935) will be inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame (see the announcement video on the Empire State Center for the Book's Facebook page). This is the happy result of a nomination submitted by my Clues colleague, Claire Meldrum of Canada's Sheridan College (who is writing a biography of Green), and me. Author of the landmark mystery novel The Leavenworth Case (1878) and numerous other mystery works as well as a champion of the writing profession, the Brooklyn-born Green was a longtime resident of Buffalo, along with her husband, Charles Rohlfs (a well-respected Arts and Crafts furniture designer), and her three children.

The induction dinner will be held at the Princeton Club in New York,  and Rebecca Crozier, a great-great granddaughter of Green, is expected to attend. I will be there as well.

More on the 2020 inductees

Update, 3-26-20. The induction dinner has been moved to September 14.

Update, 5-26-20. I've been advised that the induction is being moved to June 7, 2021. 

Tune in tonight: 2020 inductees, NYS Writers Hall of Fame.

Tune in tonight at 7 pm ET to the Empire State Center for the Book's Facebook page for the announcement of the 2020 inductees to the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. There will be good news for mystery fans.

Codes, ciphers, and mysteries.

On the Oxford University Press blog, Edwin Battistella (Southern Oregon University) discusses the presence of codes and ciphers in works by mystery authors such as Dan Brown, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, and Charlie Lovett.

Chesterton home at risk.

G. K. Chesterton, 1904. NYPL

This article in the Christian Post notes that G. K. Chesterton's home "Overroads" in Buckinghamshire may be torn down to make way for new apartments. The Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton opposes the proposal and has been involved in a letter-writing campaign to save the home.