Brenda Novak's Auction for Diabetes Research

For the past nine years every May, best selling romance author, Brenda Novak, hosts a massive online auction to raise money for diabetes research.  She gets all her pals to great prizes, many that you can't get anywhere else. This years prizes include: 

• Lunch with Lee Child in New York City
• A monthly book club delivery from Hank Phillippi Ryan
• Autographed memorabilia from many celebrities and sports stars like Johnny Depp and the cast from the Avengers
• Autographed books from authors including: Ken Follett, Tess Garritsen, John Lescroat and Steve Berry

There are really too many prizes to name. You have to check this one out yourself. Bidding ends May 31st. 

Black Watch

Last weekend some friends an I caught an exceptional play, called Black Watch, through A.C.T America Conservatory Theater at the Armory in San Francisco. The Amory is not A.C.T's usual venue but it turned about to be a great place for this particular play, allowing more space for the cast to move around and enabling the audience to be closer to the action.

The story is about a platoon of the the Scottish Army, called the Black Watch and their deployment to Iraq. The Black Watch is regiment with more than 500 years of history and that history coupled with their story in Iraq is entertainment with impact. The cast, the writing and the musical score were superior. The reviews of the play have been great. 

In our showing, Daniel Portman, who plays Podrick Payne on Game of Thrones (he saved Tyrion during the battle at the end of season two), played one of the soldiers. And that made it a little more fun. 

The Black Watch is playing at the San Francisco Armory until June 7th. If you're in town, it's definitely worth picking up tickets. 

Daniel Palmer

Today's guest post is by Kim Hammond. 

To look at him you might think he's in the music industry. Trademark black outfit, messy hair from his habit of running his hand through it, and more than a 5 o'clock shadow. To listen to him you might think he's a talk show host or newscaster. Good looks, confident smile and full of funny stories.


But Daniel Palmer is none of these. Okay, he sings and plays guitar. But right now his resume would proudly say thriller writer. His website bio sums it up pretty well at www.danielpalmerbooks.com.

 I'm an author (thrillers), musician (songs and such), father of two (boy and girl), husband of one, baseball fan (Red Sox), pro football fan (NE Patriots), and aspiring pet owner.

Daniel can walk into a room and capture the audience’s attention with his New England accent and disarming grin. His self-deprecating stories have you laughing along with him. Then you hear the plots of his thrillers that involve depraved human beings doing terrible acts and you may wonder how this nice boy can write such demented prose.

He came to Cleveland on May 7^th, a week after his new book Stolen was released on April 30^th. This evening was the last day of a short, but whirlwind promotional tour. One might think he'd just phone it in, tired and missing his family. But Palmer didn't disappoint. He spoke for almost an hour, telling the audience about his background and answering many questions.  He even shared a secret about being an aspiring pet owner.

He mentions that his first foray into writing was a romance from the guy's point of view and how no one cared about that. Then he wrote Delirious, his first stand alone thriller, and this garnered him a three book contract. 

Delirious is about a brilliant man who is going mad while people around him die. He wonders if he's the murderer. 

Next was Helpless, a book that tackles the concept of sexting and the irreparable choices a teenager can make.

Stolen is by far his best book yet. The gripping line at the opening of the first chapter gave me goose bumps.

Let me tell you how it feels to learn that your wife is going to die.

John Bodine and wife Ruby are madly in love and struggling to make ends meet. Ruby is a student at an acupuncture and herbal medicine school that teaches the healing arts. John is a video game designer who is trying to launch an online game and make it big in the world. One night, while giving Ruby a foot rub, he notices an odd patch of skin and things go downhill from there. Cancer. The good news, there's a treatment and their insurance will cover the generic drug Ruby needs to stay alive. The bad news, the generic isn't available and the insurance company won't pay for the other medicine, basically signing a death warrant for Ruby.

What John does next is against everything he believes (and everything Ruby believes in) but he has to save his wife. John steals the identity of a couple whose insurance will cover the treatment and shortly thereafter John and Ruby become Elliot and Tanya Uretsky.

Everything is going as smoothly as can be expected, until one day the phone rings and the man on the other end says he's Elliot Uretsky. The real Elliot wants them to play a game he calls Criminal and in return he won't report them to the police, and more importantly, to the insurance company now paying for Ruby's drugs.

The real Elliot plays games with them and wants to see how far he can push them into a life of crime. Everything comes with consequences, especially failing his games. If they go to the police, or anyone else for help, someone close to them will die. They're no longer worried about the insurance company discovering their deception, they're just trying to stay alive and prevent deaths.

Daniel didn’t always envision himself a writer like medical thriller author dad, Dr. Michael Palmer. But after the dot-com era, he found himself looking for a new career.  As a fan, I’m certainly glad he chose writing. All of Daniel’s books are stand alone thrillers so you don’t need to read them in a particular order. The one sad thing about reading a book you really enjoy is having to wait for the next one to come out. Right now Daniel is putting out one book a year so we’ll have to wait until 2014 to see what he has in store for us next.

Game of Sherlocks: Competition vs. Tradition?

Today is Arthur Conan Doyle's 168th birthday and so here is a review of some of the more popular manifestations of his master character...

Sherlock faceoff!

He’s more than 100 years old, has spawned generations of derivative literature, and inspired everything from cartoons to colloquial phrases. He’s Sherlock Holmes, a character that people have felt compelled to reinterpret over and over again.

But if you could pick one Sherlock and only one, which Sherlock would it be? If you’re a true fan, I bet you already know (maybe even with some help from the post “Many Faces of Sherlock” at our sister site,Tor.com), but let’s play anyway, because we have interviews and clips to help you decide—it’s the Sherlock Showdown.

The Original: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Writing
First up for consideration, we have Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original Sherlock from his six short story collections and four novels. His master character was modeled after Dr. Joseph Bell, a teacher at the medical school where Conan Doyle studied. The stories proved to be consistent sellers and Holmes fame became greater than the man who created him. When Conan Doyle killed Sherlock off in The Adventure of the Final Problem there was a huge and cry. Conan Doyle eventually brought Holmes back for The Hound of the Baskervilles (the story’s timeline pre-dated Holmes death in Final Problem), but it wasn’t enough. Two years later he revived Holmes and continued to write the stories for 24 more years.

Here’s Conan Doyle’s only known taped interview to talk about his work (it also touches on his interest in the paranormal): 

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The Classic: Sir Basil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone played Holmes in fourteen feature films between 1939 and 1946. Sherlock was arguably Rathbone’s most well known and popular character, and he is often given credit for defining the role. The first two films were set in the Victorian era, like the Conan Doyle stories, but then the setting was updated to the current at the time, 1940s and some even had World War II related plots. With the exception of this first, these films did not use Conan Doyle’s stories for plot. Like Conan Doyle, he eventually found that the character overtook him as he was typecast in the role. You can see Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes in this trailer for Pursuit to Algiers:

The Standard: Jeremy Brett
Jeremy Brett played Holmes in the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes from 1984 to 1994 in a series and two feature films for British television and shown in the US on PBS Mystery!. Brett took great pains to make sure that his portrayal of Holmes was as true to Conan Doyle’s creation as possible. He studied the stories and compiled an intensive file on Holmes likes, dislikes, habits and mannerisms. He made sure scripts adhered closely to the Conan Doyle stories and this work paid off.

Here is Jeremy Brett talking about his role:

The Bad Boy: Robert Downey, Jr.
Robert Downey, Jr.’s delivery of Holmes emphasizes action and adventure more than previous portrayals. He has brought a roguish sense to Sherlock that hasn’t been seen before as he allows his own bad boy persona to slip through, strongly influenced by Guy Ritchie’s direction. You can read a more in-depth analysis of Downey’s portrayal and Guy Ritchie’s vision here. To hear what Director Guy Ritchie, Downey, Jr. and Jude Law have to say about the first film, check out this clip:

Will the sequel be better than the original? We’ll find out soon as Game of Shadows hits the theaters December 16th. The trailer can be found here, and intrepid blogger Lindsay Faye will be risking life and limb to attend opening day and give us her review here on Criminal Element on Saturday.

The Contemporary: Benedict Cumberbatch
The BBC One series, Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch (Love that name!) in the title role brings Sherlock to 2011 London. In present times this Sherlock prefers his cell phone to the iconic magnifying glass as a tool of detection and he has his own website. Instead of the original Holmes’ nasty opium habit, new Sherlock wears three “patches” at once to quell his nicotine addiction.

The repartee between Cumberbatch’s Sherlock and Martin Freeman is fresh and funny. BBC’s Sherlock Season 2 will air on Masterpiece Mystery in 2012. Here is Cumberbatch discussing the series and his approach to the great Sherlock Holmes:

So there you have a few of my favorite Sherlocks. Which is my one and only? I’ll never tell! How about you?

This article originally appeared on Criminal Element. 

Kepler's Mystery Book Swap

Last Saturday night I went to a mystery book swap held at one of my local independent book stores, Kepler's in Menlo Park, CA. 

It's an interesting concept. You buy a ticket that pays for the evening and you bring a mystery novel that you loved. You talk about the book with other people who love mystery fiction and then they tell you about a mystery novel that they loved. At the end of the evening you swap books, getting a lovely new novel to read. Kepler's also threw in an Advanced Reader copy of another mystery. 

I brought The Last Policeman by Ben Winters (you can still enter to win a free copy of this book here). 

Here's how the logistics worked:

1) At first we were encouraged to eat snacks and mingle. Wine and water were served as well. Then we were asked to sit down according to numbers on our name tags. 

2) There were between 5-8 people at each table, you describe your book to one another in a round robin style. After twenty minutes you move to another table, also according to your name tags. By the end of the evening you had been to three tables hearing about 18 books.

3) You all put the book you brought on a table in the middle of the room for swapping. Dessert was served.

4) Then we all picked books in order of numbers, also on our name tags. Once it got going, you could steal someone else's book, or pick a new one from the table. This was really interesting to watch.   

The most popular book was Ghost Man by Robert Hobbs. This book was stolen five times. The next most popular was by Ruth Rendell. This was surprising to me. I thought people would come to an event to find a new author, but many just want a sure thing they know they will enjoy, even if they know the author. After Ruth Redell, the third most popular author with multiple books on the table was Donna Leon. Fourth was Elizabeth George. 

People who wanted the same book traded e-mail addresses so they could trade the books after they read them. 

This book is about a man who makes people disappear. 

5) After the book picking was done, the folks at Kepler's restocked the tables with Advanced Reader Copies and people were encouraged to take two books they were interested in. 

I didn't get this book, but doesn't it have a lovely cover...

These are the two books I walked away with: 

The next Kepler's Book Swap will be July 13th. They haven't completely determined the theme yet, but it will most likely be summer reads. You can find out more about the event at http://www.keplers.com.

Denver Speakeasy: Gatsby’s

My name is Kerry Hammond, and this is my first guest blog appearance at Mystery Playground.  When I heard that MP was celebrating the 80^th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition, I knew I had to be a part of it. 

I began an initial search for Speakeasies in my home town of Denver, and was pleased to find that there are quite a few to choose from.  I picked Gatsby’s, located at 1527 Wazee Street in Denver’s Lodo neighborhood.   One of the reasons I chose Gatsby’s was because I had just re-read S. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel of the same name.  The fact that a new movie recently came out, starring Leo Dicaprio, just added to the fun.

This speakeasy has a very elegant feel, decorated with wood and brick throughout.  The atmosphere is relaxed early in the evening, but it gets quite busy as night falls and it fills up.  There is no password required for entry, much to my disappointment.  But the large neon martini out front is like a beacon, making you want to enter.

The bartender was very helpful and friendly. He walked us through some of their signature drinks and even made some recommendations.  My husband Ray and I were looking to try something we’d never had before.  I was drawn to a drink called, appropriately, The Great Gatsby.  Ray went with the Queensboro Smash, as he is a big fan of rye whiskey.

The Great Gatsby

Kettle One Oranje Vodka

Lillet Blanc

Special Syrup

Grapefruit Juice

Garnished with Orange Zest

Queensboro Smash

Bulleit Rye

Cointreau

Lemon

Blackberries

Mint

Splash of Soda

We did not order food, but their menu offers a wide variety of hot and cold appetizers, meals, and desserts.  Not to mention the $50 Sandwhich, and as the menus describes, “Gatsby himself would be proud of the excessive nature of this delicious creation.”

Since my visit, I have heard from several sources that I chose poorly by not ordering food.  I guess I will have to go back.

What Are Speakeasies?

Speakeasies were essentially secret bars that sprang up when the United States outlawed alcohol in 1919. 

Most speakeasies were housed in unmarked locations, many required a password to get in and some may have even moved from place to place to stay ahead of the law. Many think the name came from patrons being told to "speakeasy" or to lower their voices so no one suspected they were serving alcohol. 

Today, there are many modern speakeasies that retain some of these traditions. Usually they feature fresh ingredients in their food and drink, and though the secrecy is no longer needed, many are in discreet locations that lack signage. Some even require passwords.
The 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition is December 5th, 2013. You can read about Mystery Playground's other speakeasy adventures here. 

Masterpiece Summer Schedule

PBS has announced their hot new Masterpiece schedule for summer, including old and new friends. Returning favorites are a little Morse-centric, which isn't a bad thing. They include Inspector Lewis, Endeavor and Foyle's War. Mr. Selfridge continues with great Jeremy Piven. I am enjoying this one. 

They are also re-running the 2010 David Suchet documentary on The Orient Express. If you didn't catch it back then it's well worth a re-watch.

New offerings include a three-part series called Silk, about a british lawyer named Martha Costello. Silk starts in late August. 

They are also running a new version of the Hitchcock classic, The Lady Vanishes (to read a review of the original movie and see a matching recipe, click here.)

Series 4 of Downton Abbey doesn't premiere until Jan 4th, but you can see a sneak peak interview with remaining cast members here. You'll notice that despite last weeks Twitter bomb, P Diddy is not joining the cast of Downton Abbey. It was just a little PR stunt.