Heeeeey, It’s Really Great to Be Here

At last report, The Divine Miss Sarah was in a distant city, mobbed by a bevy of Cute Boys. In a fit of what I can only describe as questionable judgment, she has asked me, Cornelia, to keep an eye on things while she’s gone.

I am tremendously honored, but do want to say right up front that asking me to keep  an eye on so much as a shotglass full of Sea Monkeys is about as practical as tossing your Porsche keys to the first sixteen year old you trip over in a 7-11 parking lot, especially if you actually tell the kid there’s a sheet of blotter acid in the glove compartment.

I mean, sure, you MIGHT have the car returned unscathed and even freshly Turtle-Waxed by the end of the weekend, but every single oxygen atom in your living room MIGHT also suddenly rush to the upper left-hand corner of the ceiling. At least I think the chemistry-teacher chick back in ’79 claimed such an event was entirely possible. The oxygen, not the Porsche.

Anyway, that’s the disclaimer out of the way and nothing’s burst into flames yet… excellent.

Have to drive a kid to a schoolbus, so here are some amuse-bouche links in the meantime:

Jeff Ayers’ Genre Spotlight for Library Journal, “Mystery Goes Global,” looks at crime fic trends, happenings, and forthcoming titles. It’s chock full o’ quotes from industry insider types, including my own sainted editor, Kristen Weber.

David Montgomery does his usual brilliant roundup for The Chicago Sun-Times, discussing David J. Walker’s All the Dead Fathers,  Sarah Strohmeyer’s Bubbles Betrothed, Charlie Stella’s Cheapskates, Reed Farrel Coleman’s The James Deans, and Harley Jane Kozak’s Dating is Murder (which I read this weekend between Victor Gischler’s Suicide Squeeze and Gun Monkeys–all three of them drop-dead gorgeous books).

Clifford Krauss reviews Howard Engel’s Memory Book for The New York Times, in which PI Benny Cooperman is afflicted with the rare brain disorder alexia sine agraphia. “Benny’s failed memory, his near inability to read and his unfortunate new proclivity to brush his teeth with shaving cream cannot stop him from solving a murder that has baffled two experienced police detectives…” relates Krauss.