Tonight We Ride...

LIVE! FROM PALMDALE! It's the Fall issue of The Thrilling Detective Web Site!

Yep, it's the big number 43, by my reckoning, and it's officially up.

Naturally, it's much delayed, but we're here. And we even have enough good stuff in the can for another issue in December (touch wood), our annual Holiday issue.

I've whined elsewhere about the latest stumbling blocks, so I won't go into them here. Suffice it to say, though, that we're here, got beer, get used to it. Or, er, something like that.

As usual, fiction editor Gerald So has weeded through the slush pile to come up with a fistful of hard-boiled gems. We kick off with Richard Helm's THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO GORDON BLACK, a tough nugget featuring his series eye Eamon Gold that shows exactly why he keeps getting nominated for Shamus Awards. Mark my words, it's only a matter of time.

From Stephen Blackmoore, making his TD debut, is SUMO, a taut little tale from Hawaii of greed, drugs and a 500-pound corpse. This is paradise?

Another newcomer to this site is Gary Alexander, who coughs up HUMPTY DUMPTY, a sucker punch of a period piece that recalls the glory days of Gold Medal. Don't let the nursery rhyme title fool ya -- this is the real deal. You can practically smell the Brylcreem. And the treachery.

We also have a couple of interesting excerpts this month, both with back stories. Seth Harwood's THIS IS LIFE, featuring former actor Jack palms, was actually first published as a podcast. In fact, the first novel in the series, JACK WAKES UP, was the first crime novel to ever be serialized as a podcast. We're proud to present the first prose publication of THIS IS LIFE, and look forward to (literally) hearing more from Seth.

(By the way, Seth has also contributed a recent review of Richard Aleas' SONGS OF INNOCENCE for this site. Check it out.)

Last issue, we published "Mickey Spillane," fiction editor Gerald So's moving ode to the late, great author. This issue we have something even better: an excerpt from Spillane's latest novel, DEAD STREET, prepared for posthumous publication by Mickey's fellow crime writer (and good friend) Max Allan Collins. A special thanks to HardCaseCrime, the Spillane estate and Max for allowing us to run the excerpt.

And an extra thanks to Charles and the gang at HardCaseCrime, as well as illustrator Athur "Marvel Zombies!" Suydam, for allowing us to use the bitching cover art from DEAD STREET for our cover as well.

Sharp-eyes viewers may have noticed that there's no P.I. Poll this time out, but our annual Thrillies will be returning in December (promise!), and of course we're constantly adding, updating and tweaking our ever-growing database (check out our recent rash of Joes, fer example) , which now numbers somewhere around 2600 entries, and that includes well over two hundred new or revised pages on the site since we last spoke -- and in the next few weeks, there'll be more on the way -- so feel free to browse. And keep coming back. Novembers a catch up month, and I'm aiming for daily updates.

Of course, as always, I couldn't do this alone. This sucker takes a lot of time and money, so I'd like to take this moment to thank all those who make it all possible: Gerald, of course, but also our contributors, the long-suffering Girl Detective and especially our sponsors for this issue, who include Patricia Abbot, Dave White, Anne Sladovich and Rich Harvey. Your support is much appreciated, guys.