Weegee: Murder Is My Business

The interesting and sometimes row work of the tabloid crime photographer Weegee is currently the subject of two new exhibitions.
Although the photographer, whose name was Arthur Fellig didn’t only work on criminal subjects, dead criminals, fires, gruesome accidents and other catastrophes were his initial subjects. The International Center of Photography zeroes in on these early works, mixing in a raft of contextualizing materials, including photographs by others in the exhibition “Weegee: Murder is my business”. For more info, here you have an excellent article about it by Roberta Smith at the New York Times.
If you look for a more eclectic theme you will also enjoy “Weegee: Naked City” at the Steven Kasher Gallery until Feb. 25, where you will also find fabulous work from the photographer.

*”Weegee: Murder Is My Business” runs through Sept. 2 at the International Center of Photography, 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street; (212) 857-0000, icp.org.

“Weegee: Naked City” continues through at the Steven Kasher Gallery, 521 West 23rd Street, Chelsea; (212) 966 -3978, stevenkasher.com.

Double Booked for Death

Double booked for death is the first book from the new series “Black cat bookshop mystery” by Ali Brandon (Diane A.S Stuckart), who begun writing acclaimed historical romances as Alexa Smart or Anna Gerard and then moved to the mystery genre with the historical Leonardo Da Vinci series and this latest one.
Published by Berkley Prime Crime (Penguin) on December 2011, this cozy mystery presents a new protagonist, Darla Pettistone, who unexpectedly inherits her Great Aunt bookstore in Brooklyn ( New York), and so she moves from Texas to there to start a new life. The bookstore comes with an impertinent black cat, named Hamlet, who seems to have a keen eye for resolving mysteries like the one Darla finds herself involved in, when the bestselling author Valerie Young dies in a signing at the bookstore. While the police seem to agree that her death has been an accident, Darla and her friend -and ex-cop- Jacqueline aren’t convinced about it, and so they begin to investigate to find out that nothing is what it seems…..
Stuckart has created a promising start for this new series, a charming and entertaining mystery with a perfect pleasant bookshop ambiance, credible but yet not too evil characters when needed, without forgetting about the lovely ones like the old Mary Ann and a smart but arrogant and mischievous black cat named Hamlet to top it all. A really addictive cozy read to enjoy in a winter evening.

Fiction and reality, or the eternal come back of Sherlock Holmes

I love it when I am watching or reading fiction and the season in which the story happens matches the present one.  It feels like a connection between fiction and reality is made, turning the film or the book into a magical experience for me.
That’s exactly what happened last night while I was reading a short story from  A study in Sherlock, edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger, an interesting compilation of short stories inspired by the Holmes Canon and written by eighteen authors who provide fascinating and original perspectives on the most famous detective.
My eyes were avidly devouring Toni Broadbent’s An exact knowledge of London when the taxi driver in the story told to the other character in the scene, who could well be Dr. Watson, that not only him,- but his father and his grand-father as well,  had transported every one and each of the actors who had played the role of Sherlock Holmes, from Basil Rathbone to Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays the role in the latest BBC Sherlock series, which second season has just been released this week. Not only the character mentions the latest BBC series, but makes a clear statement about what he thought of the first season, especially about the first episode, in which a taxi driver is a perturbed murderer who drives his clients to suicide.
By using this pop culture complements and playing with time, Broadbent explores and adds an original extra to the story. The author mixes a fiction detective character with the present time by adding real cultural elements which are related to that same protagonist, in order to give him a meta-fictional dimension, making the reader believe for a second that this character is actually alive. And that is what, we readers; love the most in a story: to feel that it is real. As the phrase  Orson Welles said, which Toni Broadbent uses in a dialog in this same short story: “[Sherlock Holmes] was gentleman who has never lived and yet who will never die.”

That is why we love him so much. So I am going to keep reading this interesting compilation and let you know about it when I am done! Meanwhile, enjoy your reading and your life!

100 Notable Books of 2011

Like every year, people are spending time writing down lists about the best things of this year that is coming to and end. In order to save you time and effort, and in order to inspire you in case you haven’t got all of your presents yet, here you have The New Yorker’s 100 notable books of 2011 list. Enjoy!

Oscar Wilde and the ring of death

This is the second book of the Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries by Gyles Brandreth, writer, broadcaster, former MP and Government Whip – and one of Britain’s most sought-after award ceremony hosts and after-dinner speakers.

This historical murder mystery narrated in first person tense by the supposed voice of Robert Sherard* is set in London, 1892 when Wilde is enjoying the enormous success of his play Lady Windermere’s Fan.  One night, while he is dining with his friends, the brilliant author decides to conjure up a game called murder, which begs the question: Who would you kill, if you had no chance of being caught? While all the guests proceed to write the names of their “victims” on pieces of paper and choose them one by one to try to guess which one belongs to whom, the next day the game takes a sinister turn when one of the names becomes a real victim of murder. Knowing that a murderer is among their party, Wilde, Sherard and their partner in crime Arthur Conan Doyle begin a race against time to find the killer, knowing that Wilde may as well be his next victim.

Gyles Brandeth offers more than four hundred pages of entertaining, amusing and richly atmospheric mystery, mixed with the perfect amount of historical facts and references, and a very interesting and funny portrait of Wilde and the other historical characters through enjoyable dialogue and action.  As an extra material, the reader will find an exclusive walking guide to “Wilde’s London” and an interview with the author at the end of the novel as well.

Although the end may not be the best part of the novel, this doesn’t spoil the fun of the ride at all.  Oscar Wilde and the ring of death is an intelligent mystery novel with such a compelling presentation of Wilde that makes him almost addictive to the reader, sparkling dialogue and London scenery and ambiance that would delight any Victorian lover.

 

*Robert Sherard (1861-1943). Author and journalist, great-grandson of poet William Wordsworth, lived in France most of his life where he cultivated the acquaintance of various leading authors like Zola, Maupassant or Wilde, with whom he became a long-life friend. He published 33 books, which include the first three biographical studies of Wild after his death.

Five books I’d love for Christmas

1. Death Comes to Pemberley Hardcover, P.D. James . I  almost broke into tears of joy when I discovered this new book from one of my favorite mystery British authors.  James presents a rare meeting of literary genius: she has taken the characters of  Jane Austen’s beloved novel Pride and Prejudice into a tale of murder and emotional mayhem, since Pemberley is plunged into a frightening mystery. Don’t miss this cool brief presentation of the book!

2.  The red house: a novel, by Mark Haddon. Great news! New book by another of my favorite authors, which has taken long since The curious incident of the dog in the Night-time and A spot of bother, which I loved.  Although it doesn’t come out until June 12, 2012 you can pre-order it by Amazon. Maybe I’ll just wait until the release, and consider the great news as a gift to look forward into 2012.

3. The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett (Jul 17, 1989). I am a great fan of Hammett, and have read most of his novels and short stories except this one.  A Hammett’s classic tale of murder in Manhattan, which became a popular movie series with William Powell and Myrna Loy. Both the movies and the novel continue to captivate new generations of fans. A perfect setting and plot for this time of year!

4. V is for vengeance, by  Sue Grafton ( signed if possible). I have only read three or four novels by the author, all of them Kinsey Milhone’s adventures. I found them entertaining, funny and I got charmed by Milhone’s character, so this new release seems a pretty good choice for a winter afternoon by the fireplace. I know that Grafton offered signed copies a month ago or so, when they released the book, but I am not sure that it’s still possible. Anyways, I think it could be interesting, signed or not.

5. Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life. I discovered Goldberg in a Third Street Promenade Library almost six years ago, when I was living in Los Angeles and studying Creative Writing at UCLA.  I did read Writing down the bones with amusement and delight, and felt that a new world opened for me. It has always been a companion since then: a book I could open at any time to get inspired and to get on the right track as well again. I read that Goldberg had written Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life as a way to expand and extend the info, advise and exercises that were not on Writing down the bones at the time, so it seems a pretty inspiring choice to me!

What about you? Which books would you love to get for Christmas?

The Sherlock Holmes Handbook

If you are a Holmes fan like me, you’ll really like this one.

The Sherlock Holmes Handbook is a nonfiction book about the methods and mysteries of the world’s greatest detective written by Ransom Riggs and published in 2009 by Quirk Books in its collection Irreverence, dedicated to give real information about a determined subject in a way that it also entertains or amuses the reader.

The author, who has coauthored several books about what he likes to call “pop nonfiction” and a regular contributor to and blogger for mental_floss magazine, has divided these more than 220 pages in three parts: detective Skills, Survival Skills and Life Skills. At the end you’ll find an appendix as well, which contains a brief biography of Conan Doyle, famous quotes from the Sherlock Holmes adventures protagonist and a complete list of all the stories and novels about the detective.

Riggs is clearly a methodic author and the reader gets that in the way he structures the information, and, although he doesn’t state anything extraordinary or revealing that a Holmes fan hasn’t learnt yet, and most of the things and the advise he gives are pretty common sense deductions, this doesn’t mean that the book is boring or difficult to digest, since there is a peculiar sense of humor all over it, plus pretty cool black and white illustrations by Eugene Smith.

All these, along with a cute and cool paperback cover make The Sherlock Holmes handbook a perfect gift for a Holmes fan, and enjoyable and entertaining opportunity to immerse yourself in Holmes world and learn a thing or two about the world’s greatest detective. Enjoy!