The Grand Tour

• Albuquerque, New Mexico, journalist-cum-novelist Christine Barber has won the first Tony Hillerman Prize for her book, The Replacement Child. The announcement was made during the fifth annual Tony Hillerman Writers Conference: Focus on Mystery being held in Albuquerque. The Hillerman Prize is sponsored by both the conference and St. Martin’s Press, and is given to what judges consider the best unpublished novel by a first-time author. According to a press release, The Replacement Child “is set in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and draws upon Barber’s experiences working for local newspapers and as a volunteer EMT/firefighter with Santa Fe County. Barber was an editor at the Santa Fe New Mexican for ten years and has also worked for the Albuquerque Journal and the Gallup Independent.” Her award-winning novel will be published by Thomas Dunne Books/ St. Martin’s Minotaur next fall.

The deadline for next year’s Hillerman Prize competition will be July 1, 2008. To find entry guidelines, click here or here.

• British author Frank Tallis’ “Lieberman Papers” historical mystery series--the third and latest installment of which is Fatal Lies, due out in early January from Century--is set to be adapted for television by the BBC in 2009. I enjoyed the initial two installments of Tallis’ series, Mortal Mischief (U.S. title: A Death in Vienna) and Vienna Blood, both of which starred Freud acolyte Dr. Max Liebermann and his friend and investigative cohort, Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt. Set in Vienna, Austria, during the first decade of the 20th century, these books certainly have the narrative strengths and intriguing characters appropriate for a TV serial. By the way, one other thing I learned about Tallis’ series (from London’s Goldboro Books site) is that it’s planned to run six books long. So it will be entertaining us for some while to come.

• While we’re talking about turning novels into visual entertainments, I just learned from book critic Clayton Moore’s Bang! blog that Hollywood has been planning for some time to produce a film based on George C. Chesbro’s 1979 novel, An Affair of Sorcerers, the third installment of his series featuring circus performer-turned-criminologist Dr. Robert Frederickson, aka “Mongo the Magnificent.” Many younger readers have probably never heard of Mongo; yet as Moore recalled in a Bookslut piece a couple of years back, he may be “the shortest, baddest, ass-kicking crime fighter that ever stalked the hard-boiled streets.” Moore went on to explain:

Starting with mystery magazines, Chesbro created a unique witches’ brew of noir brutality, occult tension, detective science and bizarre villains. Playboy once described it as Raymond Chandler meets Stephen King but it was often more like James Bond on acid. Mongo had the skills, the international intrigue and the strange appeal of a man forced to make his way in a world of giants. Through fourteen novels, Mongo fought monsters, warlocks and scientists. He battled Iranian secret police. He infiltrated an isolated biosphere. He fought ninjas.

In 1996, Simon & Schuster quietly published Dream of a Falling Eagle, the last Mongo adventure to see mainstream print. Mongo disappeared.

Well, for the most part. But it turns out that Chesbro secured rights to all of his novels, and has since formed a small publishing company to keep them in print. That his determination will be rewarded with a film (reportedly due out in 2008) starring Peter Dinklage is quite extraordinary. I had the chance many years ago to visit Chesbro at his home outside of New York City. He struck me as a kind gentleman, very astute and with a real devotion to the crime-fiction field. I had no idea that he had the cojones to defy publishing disregard--and win in the end. Good for him.

• And did I mention before that the Jill Hennessy TV series Crossing Jordan, sadly cancelled by NBC earlier this year, is finally coming to DVD? Well, Jordan’s first season is, anyway, according to TV Shows on DVD. It’s due out in February 2008.

• When last we heard from California author Steve Hockensmith, he was worrying--perhaps more than was absolutely necessary--over the future of his Amlingmeyer brothers historical mystery series. Now, in a more optimistic vein, he muses at My Book, the Movie on the potential casting for a film based on his winning first novel, Holmes on the Range (2006). I won’t tell you who he’s picked for the roles; you’ll have to click over here to find out. But I will say that they actors are not hard to imagine playing “Old Red” and “Big Red.” Hollywood, take note.

• In Reference to Murder’s B.V. Lawson brings news that Karen Kissane, “a journalist for 28 years and law and justice editor of The [Melbourne] Age,” has won this year’s Davitt Award in the Best True Crime category for her book Silent Death: The Killing of Julie Ramage. Meanwhile, Kerry Greenwood’s novel Devil’s Food won the Readers’ Choice award. The Davitts--named in honor of Ellen Davitt (1812-1879), the first known Australian mystery novelist--are given out annually by the Australian division of Sisters in Crime. You can look here for more details.

• Finally, author Wallace Stroby continues adding to his selections of unjustly overlooked crime novels (a splendid spinoff from The Rap Sheet’s “one book project”). His last nominee is Martin Quinn (2003), by Anthony Lee. “The book’s New York atmosphere,” Stroby writes, “was so strong you could just about smell it, and as unlikable--and unredeemable--as most of the characters were, the writing put you right into their hearts and minds. It made me jealous.” Read more here.