HOLLYWOOD AND CRIME

Scott Elliott, my Hollywood private investigator, was nominated for two mystery writing awards in 2006, the Dilys, given by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association and the Private Eye Writers' Shamus Award. Both nominations were for the novella IN A TEAPOT, and in both cases the book was up against full-length novels written by some of the top names in the field. I'm very proud of both nominations and about the reviews TEAPOT has received, which you can read at www.crumcreekpress.com/titles/teapot.htm. (Incidentally, TEAPOT won the 2006 Benjamin Franklin Award given by the Independent Book Publishers Association for outstanding book design and production. As I've said before, it's a handsome volume.)

Elliot will be in distinguished company again in March when he returns in short story form in the collection HOLLYWOOD AND CRIME, edited by Robert J. Randisi. The collection will contain a story by Michael Connelly, last year's Shamus winner, and one by my fellow nominee Lee Goldberg. Elliott's contribution, "Closing Credits," follows his search for a missing woman in the Hollywood and Las Vegas of 1966.

ELLERY QUEEN MYSTERY MAGAZINE published another Elliott short story, "Garbo's Knees," in its January 2007 issue. It described his attempt to recover a stolen concrete slab, complete with movie star signature, the rightful property of Grauman's Chinese Theater. The story is set in 1959.

SCOTT ELLIOTT GETS MARRIED

My Hollywood private eye, Scott Elliott, has a new title, his first novella, In a Teapot. It was released in September by the Mystery Company, an imprint of the Crum Creek Press, the publisher who brought out the paperback edition of Elliott's first case, Kill Me Again. Teapot is a 23,000 word mystery, in hardcover, complete with illustrations by Michigan artist Robin Agnew. The story, set in 1948, not long after Kill Me Again, involves an attempt to film Shakespeare's The Tempest, with a cast drawn from Hollywood's famed British colony. The filming is interrupted by a murder, the investigation of which is interrupted in turn by Elliott's wedding to the lovely Ella (Pidgin) Englehart.

I think The Mystery Company did a beautiful job on this book, which the Chicago Tribune called "a short, tasty lemon meringue. . . ingredients: wit, humor, and characters just a little larger than life." I'm prejudiced, of course, but I think it would make a great stocking stuffer for any mystery reader.

OWEN KEANE RETURNS

The Confessions of Owen Keane, the first Keane book since 1999's Orion Rising, is now available. The Confessions, my first short fiction collection, contains six short stories and a novella, all featuring the failed seminarian turned amateur sleuth who debuted in the Edgar-nominated Deadstick in 1991. (For more on Keane's second brush with the Edgar, see "Nominations and Other News" below.) One of the stories, "On Pilgrimage," was written especially for the collection. The other cases span Keane's entire career to date, from his days in high school to the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

I'm very pleased with the job the publisher, Crippen and Landru, did with the book, which is available in both a signed and numbered hardcover edition and a trade paperback edition. Besides the stories, the volume contains an introduction written by me and a complete list of my publications.