Teacher finds stone with ancient ogham writing from Ireland in Coventry garden
Why writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning
Could the Mysterious Voynich Manuscript Actually Be About Sex?
Meet a Long-Unsung Cartoonist Who Paved the Way for Disney
Someone buried treasure and never returned. Woman just found the medieval ‘jackpot’
How Researchers Cracked an 11-Year-Old Password to a $3 Million Crypto Wallet
A Furious, Forgotten Slave Narrative Resurfaces After Nearly 170 Years
The Bookseller Who Brought Hardcovers to America’s Most Famous Bookstore
Murder most necessary – why Agatha Christie justified killing
jury (n.): “set number of persons, selected according to law and sworn to determine the facts and truth of a case or charge submitted to them and render a verdict,” early 14th C. (late 12th C. in Anglo-Latin), from Anglo-French and Old French juree (13th C.), from Medieval Latin iurata “an oath, a judicial inquest, sworn body of men,” noun use of fem. past participle of Latin iurare “to swear,” from ius (genitive iuris) “law, an oath” (see jurist).
Meaning “body of persons chosen to award prizes at an exhibition” is from 1851. Grand jury attested from early 15th C. in Anglo-French (le graund Jurre), literally “large,” so called with reference to the number of its members (usually 12 to 23). Jury-box is from 1729; juryman from 1570s. Figurative phrase jury is still out “no decision has been made” is by 1903.
Dark online groups idolize the Columbine school shooters
‘Countries are now forced to confront it’: Rise in Chinese espionage arrests alarms Europe
Mothers march in anger over Mexico’s 100,00 missing people
Prisons ‘sleepwalking into crisis’ as inmates forced to share single cells
Where 3 Dead Tourists Where Found Fast, Thousands Remain Missing
A 1938 Mob Case Has Mind-Boggling Parallels to Trump’s N.Y. Prosecution
The Bloody, Intertwined History of Anarchism and Dynamite
US brothers arrested for stealing $25m in crypto in just 12 seconds
Wisconsin man is charged with making child pornography images using AI in first case in US
Hacked data reveals which US gun sellers are behind Mexican cartel violence
America’s Monster: How the U.S. Backed Kidnapping, Torture and Murder in Afghanistan
France ‘investigating whether Russia behind’ graffiti on Holocaust memorial
The obscure federal intelligence bureau that got Vietnam, Iraq, and Ukraine right
Cop nearly killed on Jan 6 called Trump ‘authoritian.’ Hours later, his mom was ‘swatted’
concagtenate (v.): “to link together, unite in a series or chain, ” 1590s, from Late Latin concatenatus, past participle of concatenare “to link together,” from com “with, together” (see con-) + catenare, from catena “a chain” (see chain (n.)). Related: Concatenated; concatenating. As an adjective, concatenate “linked together” is attested from 1540s.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy violated labor law with union comments, NLRB rules
The Napkin Project (Love Stories Edition): Jess Walter
Amazon’s new fees on sellers likened to ‘kick in the gut’
Mobile butchers mistakenly kill family’s pet pigs in Washington State
DOJ says Boeing may be criminally liable for 737 Max deaths
Oregon man given early prison release indicted in death of 3 women
Seattle man used ax to kill 2 homeless people, charges say
A serial killer convicted for killing 26 women is hospitalized after assault in a Quebec prison
Alaska’s Long History of Serial Killers
“Entryism”: At least 66 members of far-right group in rural Oregon standing for office
‘You feel like you’re in prison’: workers claim Amazon’s surveillance violates labor law
New chapter for Northwest Asian Weekly after decades of community coverage
Why West Seattle’s Paper Boat Booksellers is a neighborhood favorite
Meet the new owners of Couth Buzzard Books in Greenwood
Ex-Ku Klux Klan Scion Comes Out as Transgender in New Memoir: Report
Steve Jobs Signed a Typed Letter Saying He Does Not Give out Autographs, It Later Sold for $400K
Skeleton found in chimney of Madison, Wisconsin music store identified after 34 years
Magnificently Dumb: Man Steals Cybertruck, Leads Cops on World’s Lamest Car Chase
Supporters say ‘warmhearted’ alleged Mexican Mafia member deserves bail. Wiretaps reveal threats
13 Weird, Fascinating Things I’ve Learned Researching Crime Novels
Who Plotted to Sell Graceland? An Identity Thief Raises His Hand.
chain (n.): c. 1300, “connected series of links of metal or other material,” from Old French chaeine “chain” (12th C., Modern French chane), from Latin catena “chain” (source also of Spanish cadena, Italian catena), which is of unknown origin, perhaps from a PIE root *kat- “to twist, twine” (source also of Latin cassis “hunting net, snare”).
As a type of ornament worn about the neck, from late 14th C. As a linear measure (“a chain’s length”) from 1660s. From 1590s as “any series of things linked together.” The meaning “series of stores controlled by one owner or firm” is American English, 1846. The figurative use “that which binds or confines” is from c. 1600.
Chain-reaction is from 1916 in physics; the specific nuclear physics sense is from 1938. Chain-mail armor is from 1795, from mail (n.2). Before that, mail alone sufficed. Chain letter is recorded from 1892; at first usually to raise money; decried from the start as a nuisance.
Chain of command is from 1915. Chain-lightning, visible as jagged or broken lines, is from 1834. Chain-smoker, one who smokes one after another, lighting the next from the stump of the last, is attested from 1885, originally of Bismarck (who smoked cigars), thus probably a loan-translation of German Kettenraucher. Chain-smoking (n.) is from 1895.
His Book Was Repeatedly Banned. Fighting For It Shaped His Life.
Record Number of Writers Were Jailed Globally in 2023, PEN America Says
Jodi Picoult: ‘It’s not a badge of honour to be banned’
Libraries
Rare Editions of Pushkin Are Vanishing From Libraries Around Europe [oh, Vladimir…]
With the rise of online research, this Jackson County library is getting rid of books
How the Soon-to-Reopen Folger Shakespeare Library Came to Be
How a Horror-Loving Librarian Spends His Sundays
Ransomware attack knocks Seattle Public Library’s computer system offline
Seattle Public Library remains partly offline since ransomware event
prison (n.): late Old English, prisoun, “place of confinement or involuntary restraint, dungeon, jail,” from Old French prisoun “captivity, imprisonment; prison; prisoner, captive” (11th C., Modern French prison), altered (by influence of pris “taken;” see prize (n.2)) from earlier preson, from Vulgar Latin *presionem, from Latin prensionem (nominative prensio), shortening of prehensionem (nominative *prehensio) “a taking,” noun of action from past-participle stem of prehendere “to take” (from prae- “before,” see pre-, + -hendere, from PIE root *ghend- “to seize, take”).
In early use often “captivity, the condition of being in captivity or confinement;” hence, by extension, “a place for captives, a public building for confinement or safe custody of criminals and others committed by legal process,” the main modern sense.
2024 Edgar Award Winners Announced
Vilcek Foundation to Award $300,000 in Prizes to Immigrant Artists and Curators
Jenny Erpenbeck’s ‘Kairos’ Wins the International Booker Prize
€100,000 Dublin literary award won by Romanian author Mircea Cărtărescu
The Rare Entertainments of E.C.R. Lorac’s Death of an Author
Asian American Literature Festival canceled in 2023 will be revived, including events in Seattle
My Life and Times with Clive Cussler
The Complicated Ethics of Rare-Book Collecting
Don’t Make Graves: The Essential Harlem Detectives
Scottish artist receives hundreds of copies of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four in the post
Inside the publishing house crafting visual histories of social change
Story by Rod Serling, Twilight Zone creator, published after 70 years
Dead Characters with Something to Say
The Gayest Books: Inside America’s First Gay Mail-Order Book Service
Over 100 Kundiman fellows have called for the board’s resignation.
The Breslin Era\The end of the big-city columnist
Why Harlan Coben Decided Now Was the Time to Bring Back a Beloved Character
When the C.I.A. Turned Writers Into Operatives
The State of the Crime Novel, Part 1: Writing Life
The State of the Crime Novel, Part 2: The Future of Crime Writing
James Patterson finishes Michael Crichton’s book, with explosive results
Nature and Human Nature in Frankenstein
Stephen King’s new story took him 45 years to write
You’ll Need More Than That Reverse Cowgirl: The Craft of Writing (Actually) Good Sex Scenes
How a Self-Published Book Broke ‘All the Rules’ and Became a Best Seller
Craig Johnson Wants to Give Longmire Fans the ‘Best 3 Minutes’ He Can
June 4: April Henry signs Stay Dead, Powell’s, 7pm
June 17: Patricia Briggs signs Winter Lost, UBooks, 6pm
June 18: Patricia Briggs signs Winter Lost, Powell’s, 7pm
June 24: Walter Mosley signs his new Easy Rawlings, Farewell Amethystine, Elliot Bay, 7pm
June 25: Christina Dodd, in conversation with Jayne Anne Krentz, signs A Daughter of Fair Verona, Third Place/LFP, 7pm
Non Sequitur by Wiley, 5/28/24
clink (v.2): “prison,” 1770s, apparently originally (1510s) the Clynke on Clink Street in Southwark, on the estate of the bishops of Winchester. To kiss the clink “to be imprisoned” is from 1580s, and the word and the prison name might be cognate derivatives of the sound made by chains or metal locks
Miami Vice is cheesy and brutally unsubtle – but it remains sexy as hell [?!?!?!?!?]
How ‘Go,’ the Wildest, Druggiest, Horniest Cult Movie of 1999 Got Made (And Almost Didn’t)
This Sci-Fi Star Directed One of the Most Underrated ’90s Crime Movies
The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries (1977) Season 1 Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via Peacock
‘Sugar’ EP Simon Kinberg On The Season Finale’s Shocking Twists & What Comes Next
Off The Deep End: Noir Cinema’s Eternal Fascination with Swimming Pools
This forgotten 1947 noir featured one of the era’s best and most complex gay characters
007=’
A Canceled James Bond Movie Would Have Done Daniel Craig’s 007 Over 10 Years Earlier
The Rock is a James Bond Sequel: How a Wild Internet Theory was ‘Proven’ True
Premium Bonds: inside the world of 007 collectors
Was the Real-Life Prototype for Ian Fleming’s Bond a Triple Agent?
convict (n.): mid-14th C., “to convince by arguments, convince of wrongdoing or sin” (a sense now obsolete), from Latin convictus, past participle of convincere “to ‘overcome’ in argument, to overcome decisively; to convict of crime or error,” from assimilated form of com-, here perhaps an intensive prefix (see com-), + vincere “to conquer” (from nasalized form of PIE root *weik- (3) “to fight, conquer”).
Meaning “prove or find guilty of an offense charged” is from late 14th C. It replaced Old English verb oferstælan.
May 1: Bestselling novelist Paul Auster, author of The New York Trilogy, dies at 77 (his first published novel was a baseball mystery, Squeeze Play, as by Paul Benjamin)
May 3: Dr. William Noel, groundbreaking librarian and open data advocate, has died. Longtime curator of rare books at Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, he was also an expert in medieval manuscript studies.
May 6: Jeannie Epper, Legendary ‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘Romancing the Stone’ Stuntwoman, Dies at 83
May 11: Roger Corman, Giant of Independent Filmmaking, Dies at 98
May 14: Cyril Wecht, pathologist and longtime critic of JFK assassination report, dies at 93
May 14: Alice Munro, Canadian author who mastered the short story, dead at 92
May 17: Dabney Coleman, ‘9 to 5’ Star Who Made a Career Out of Playing Jerks, Dies at 92
May 24: Caleb Carr, Author of Dark Histories, Dies at 68
May 1: Man kidnaps woman, goes to prison and kidnaps her again after release, Florida cops say
May 1: Nazi-Looted Monet Painting Held by FBI Expected to Be Returned to Owner’s Descendants
May 1: The Hidden Victims of a Killer Cop
May 4: FBI looks into thrill-seeking teachers alleged to have been global art thieves
May 6: Accused Canadian serial murderer admits killing four Indigenous women
May 7: Italian mafia: why is murder and extortion going out of fashion?
May 8: How did $2 million in vintage baseball cards end up missing from a Strongsville collectors show?
May 9: Huyton Firm: Brutal organised crime group brought down by its own text messages
May 10: ‘Queen of the Con’ found in Maine ordered to be extradited to Northern Ireland
May 15: BTK serial killer investigation: new clue unlocks missing 16-year-old girl’s name
May 15: After a borderland shootout, a 100-year-old battle for the truth
May 15: Stolen antique weathervane recovered 40 years later and returned to Vermont
May 15: L.A.’s dirtiest cop: A mild-mannered traffic officer who moonlighted as a hit man
May 16: Why a New Yorker Story on a Notorious Murder Case Is Blocked in Britain
May 17: Canadian police link 4 women killed in the 1970s to dead American serial sex offender
May 19: Man charged with punching actor Steve Buscemi is held on $50,000 bond
May 20: Fat Leonard bribery cases fall apart because of prosecution blunders
May 21: Matthew Perry: Los Angeles police investigating into actor’s death
May 23: House Arrest Couldn’t Stop This Accused Killer From Going Rogue
May 23: Mother found guilty of forcing 20-year-old daughter to marry older man who later murdered her
May 24: Lana Turner: New Questions Arise About the Stabbing Death of Her Mobster Boyfriend
May 25: 81-year-old slingshot shooter who terrorized Azusa residents for years is arrested, police say
May 26: French town reels from fortune teller scandal
May 27: Burglars beware: Police are using ‘bait houses’ in this California town
May 28: ‘Son of Sam’ killer Berkowitz denied parole in 12th attempt
May 29: FBI Investigating Sale of Objects Stolen From British Museum
May 30: ‘Largest Botnet Ever’ Tied to Billions in Stolen Covid-19 Relief Funds
May 30: Female murder suspect wanted by Interpol is nabbed in tiny Texas town
taint (v.): two distinct words of different origin overlap in the modern verb. From late 14th C. as “to dye, impart color,” from Anglo-French teinter, Old French teindre “to dye, color,” from Latin tingere (see tincture, tint). Teintour as an English surname, meaning probably “one who dyes clothes,” is from late 12th C.
Middle English also had teynten, teinten “to convict (of a crime), prove guilty” (implied in past-participle teinte, late 14th C.), which is partly from Old French ataint, past participle of ataindre “to touch upon, seize” (see attainder). It also is partly a native shortening of attaint “to convict (someone),” from the past participle of atteinen in a legal sense (see attain (v.)).
The semantic overlap was evident in Middle English. Taint is attested by 1570s as “to corrupt, contaminate, imbue with something deleterious,” also “to touch, tinge, imbue slightly” (1590s).
Deanna Raybourn — A Grave Robbery
Once upon a time, several decades ago, when I was in the Girl Scouts, we took a trip to Victoria, B.C. One of the attractions (which is sadly now closed) was Madame Tussard’s Wax Museum. At first, I found the exhibits boring, as waxworks of Queen Elizabeth, Elizabeth Taylor, Abraham Lincoln, and celebrities held zero interest to my ten(ish) year-old self.
Then, I stumbled into the Chamber of Horrors.
Where my eyes met gruesome deaths, like the pit & the pendulum, a body suspended from a giant hook, and an iron maiden (amongst others). I found the exhibits simultaneously fascinating and repelling (which prompted me, upon returning home, to hit our set of encyclopedias for answers and explanations).
Next came the fairy tale section, where the slow rise and fall of Sleeping Beauty’s chest startled and delighted in equal measure….
It’s at this point that Rayborn’s A Grave Robbery begins.
Only it’s Lord Rosemorran’s daughter who’s fascinated with Tussard’s clockwork beauty, or, more specifically, with the notion of making a bit of pocket money by creating her own Sleeping Beauty and charging an admission fee for her friends to see it. To this end, her father found her an Anatomical Venus and asked Stoker to place a clockwork mechanism within.
The only problem? The body isn’t made of wax.
Whereupon Veronica and Stoker set about trying to identify and find justice for the poor girl lying within the glass coffin.
One part Frankenstein, one part murder mystery, with a dash of macabre — this latest installment of the Veronica Speedwell mystery didn’t disappoint! And, so long as you know this book isn’t the first installment in the series, you can read this installment first — as Raybourn doesn’t spoil the end of any of her other mysteries within A Grave Robbery.
But what’s an Anatomical Venus or Adonis, you ask? And how could one be mistaken for a body? Well…. Do you recall those plastic torsos from your high school biology classes that someone would invariably jostle into, and all their organs would fall out with a clatter onto the floor? Turns out, Anatomical Venuses and Adonises (female and male bodies, respectively) are the precursors to these embarrassment inducing plastic specimens.
Unlike the basic high school models I used, Anatomical Venuses are highly detailed, anatomically correct, life-sized waxworks that could be “dissected” by removing layers and/or organs to show the human body’s inner workings.
Created by highly skilled artisans, these inanimate women were meant to bridge the divide between medical schools’ need to dissect human cadavers to learn and the belief dissection jeopardized one’s immortal soul. (Hence why, after their execution, murderers’ bodies were often sent to medical schools for dissection — thereby condemning their souls to eternal damnation.)
Anatomical Venuses were also meant to instruct the general public on how the body worked at a time when it wasn’t well understood.
While Raybourn does a great job explaining their historical significance and the flaws they present to modern eyes….I wanted to learn more!
So I found: Joanna Ebenstein’s The Anatomical Venus
Within the pages, Ebenstein explores the history of the Anatomical Venuses and the odd, uncanny feelings these lifelike women invoke by examining their religious origins, scientific needs, and the art that these hyper-realistic works inspired. With plenty of pictures to demonstrate what she’s speaking of, this book does a great job explaining the complicated and nuanced place these ladies hold in history and their eventual fall from favor.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys learning about an unsettling side of history.
Something lighter
As you well know, I’ve been a fan of Gigi Pandian’s since her alchemist accidentally gave herself immortality and had to help a stiffening gargoyle. If you haven’t read The Accidental Alchemist, go do it now.
No, wait, hold on, come back. Yes, you must, but while you’re there, you need to do something I *didn’t* do and pick up Under Lock & Skeleton Key, which is the first in the Secret Staircase series. See, when I met Gigi at the Left Coast Crime convention, she was touting the sequel, The Raven Thief, so of course that’s what I picked up (thank you for the inscription, Gigi! It means a lot!) so of course that’s what I read.
I became aware of all the implied things I should’ve known from reading the first one early on, but I filled in the blanks in my head because The Raven Thief was too good to stop. I’ll back-fill later.
Tempest Raj is part of a crew that can create secret hidey-holes in your home, hidden nooks and crannies and rooms behind false walls. Tempest was a stage magician, but she’s trying to get out of it and focus on the construction side of things.
However, when a party with a mock-seance ends up in real murder, Tempest has to figure out just what happened, and how her construction and knowledge of sleight-of-hand might have been used without her knowledge.
The mystery is solid and twisty and entertaining, but what made me frequently chortle in delight is how Gigi Pandian manages to pay homage to the Golden Age of mysteries while bringing shifts in awareness to them, keeping you guessing. She’s also big on diversity.
“‘I asked this supposedly well-read pair whether they believe the shin honkaku and honkaku mysteries of Japan are fundamentally the same,’ Kumiko said, ‘only distinguished by the period of time in which they were written. The Golden Age of detective fiction in the English-speaking world is bracketed by the two world wars, even though the traditional fair-play mystery stretches far beyond those boundaries. Where do these styles of Japanese mysteries fit?‘”
And yes, since you’re wondering, there are vegan recipes in the back, and yes, they sound delicious. I just don’t cook much any more, but for these? Maybe.
If you love Golden Age mysteries, if you love great writing with lots of quirks and a completely unique cast, then this award-nominated book is for you. But do what I didn’t do, and read the first one, well, first. Gigi Pandian does not disappoint!
The Instrument of Darkness, the latest Charlie Parker novel by John Connolly, brings to mind a number of new thoughts.
First is that there sure seems to be a lot of creepy things going on in Maine, and if Parker lived in a different, but similar location (Michigan peninsula or the wilds of Montana, say), would he be involved in these events? Probably, as that is his nature.
Second – his reputation is as widely known in his fictional world as it should be.
And in this book, Parker runs into someone who is as familiar with the netherworld as he is. Sabine Drew’s reputation is a notorious as Parker’s. Neither of them want the notoriety that has attached itself to them but both feel that there’s no moral way to avoid being part of it. What brings them together is the case of a woman who is accused of harming her missing child. While Parker works as an investigator for his lawyer Moxie Castin on the case, Sabine finds herself connected to the missing boy. The regular crew of Louis and Angel, and the Fulci brothers is present, and a new crowd of villainous humans – Neo-Nazis and backwoods ruffians.
Then there’s the strange and threatening house, Sears Kit No. 174, an old and odd structure ordered long ago and assembled by some past generation on an irregular plot of land with the boarded up windows and steel-covered front door…
If there was something different about this installment in the series it is that the book ended on, if not a happy note, then a more positive tone than usual. Be that as it may, The Instrument of Darkness is a great chapter in the Parker series.
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As with Fran, when my partner-in-crime Gretchen says “read this, I think you’ll like it”, she nearly always right. Case in point – Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.
She’s got a great style and a sense of humor that fluctuates between witty and laugh-out-loud. The story weaves tragedy and triumph, always with love and determination. It reminded me of another book, one of my all-time favorites: The World According to Garp.
It’s a wonderful read and one that anyone with a heart and a brain will enjoy.
Follow Gretchen’s advice and read it!
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For a hearty dose of hardboiled pulp, jump over to the latest iteration of my image blog: old magazines (mystery, crime, true crime and more) and paperbacks, from the 20s to, well, whatever new fits in. seattlemysteryhardboiled.com
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