Sherlock Season 2

Watch Sherlock Season 2: A Scene from Ep. 1 on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

If ever I create a list of my favorite crime television shows, the modern update of Sherlock Holmes is bound to land somewhere near the top. I'm one of the many Americans who can't wait for the second season of the BBC series to begin on PBS. May 6 can't come soon enough.

Top 15 Crime Movies of All Time

I made a list today at MaineCrimeWriters, and as I said in my post, I had a hard time stopping at fifteen. Looking at it in the cold light of day, I'm struck that I left off any of the films of David Fincher. Zodiac was a near miss. Maybe if I could bring myself to watch Se7en again, I would put it onthe list. I remember seeing Se7en alone at a theater in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, not knowing what to expect, and being disturbed in a way that almost never happens to me at the movies, not just grossed out, but sent emotionally and psychologically reeling. Anyway, go check out my fifteen. I'm curious to hear what you think. It probably won't come as a surprise to anyone who has read my novels to discover that I'm a big fan of the Coen brothers.

Serial Box

Over at Maine Crime Writers today I have a post about one of the challenges of writing a mystery series: using the books to tell an on-going story in which readers learn more about the characters with each volume, without making each new novel impenetrable to prospective readers who stumble into the action after the curtain has gone up. It's a difficult balance, and as I say in the post, I envy writers of fantasy novels who seem to have an indulgence from readers to tell true serials.

Happy Birthday, L.L. Bean

Maine's iconic bootmaker turns 100 this year, and it's planning quite a big party. I've been privileged to be among the planners, as I write this month over at the day job. Down East Books helped produce an anniversary edition of Leon Leonwood Bean's classic guide to the outdoors, Hunting, Fishing and Camping in collaboration with L.L.'s great-grandson, Bill Gorman. The book is really a hoot, containing as it does bits of Bean's wood wisdom like, "If you get lost, come straight back to camp." I've owned an old edition of this guide for years, so working to update it for the twenty-first century was a dream come true. It's one of those classic titles that really does belong on the shelf of every outdoorsperson.