Weekly Round-up and PD James special

There's been some more great crime fiction stories on the Web this past week - from newspapers, magazines, and fellow bloggers. Hopefully you will all like finding an interesting article or two linked here, that you enjoy reading.

But before we get into that, the incomparable Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE, FRSA, FRSL turns NINETY this coming week. I was fortunate enough to interview her recently (apparently the only Australian or New Zealand interview she did in the lead-up to her birthday this year), and will share the PD James 9mm interview (which I wove into a larger interview for a feature in the upcoming issue of Good Reading) on Tuesday, her birthday.

In the meantime, I thought I would make this weekly round-up a bit of a PD James special as well, in honour of the Baroness, so I've included several stories (many of them very well-written) about her that have been in the news the past couple of weeks or so, before we get onto a shorter version of the standard weekly round-up...

Crime Watch Round-Up: PD James in the News and on the 'Net

• Carol Memmott in USA Today interviews a "relaxed and ebullient" PD James, who is "in a festive mood" on board the Queen Mary 2.
• PD James "reflects on death, family − and the husband she couldn’t save" to Nigel Farndale of The Telegraph, while noting that she has "lived a very happy and fulfilled life".
• Lauren Mechling of the Wall Street Journal also interviews Baroness James on the Queen Mary 2. opening the Q&A format with "You don’t have a new book out. Why did you decide that you wanted to meet with me?"
• In an article in the Montreal Gazette, Anita Singh of the London Daily Telegraph interviews PD James, who although she uses email and tries to keep apace with the modern world, talks about the "horrifying" pace of technological change brought about by the Internet, and how older people who struggle to use computers are being left behind by society at a time when everything from shopping to booking tickets is being moved online.

Crime Watch Weekly Round-Up: In the News and on the 'Net

• LiveMint.com & the Wall Street Journal ask whether the greatest crime novels of the 21st century will be written by Indians, while taking a look at Vikram Chandra and his 900-page book SACRED GAMES, apparently "a masterpiece of early 21st century literature".
• Helen Carter of The Guardian's book blog takes a deep breath and pitches her crime novel idea to a roomful of "impressive industry names" at the recent Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate.
• The Nidderdale Herald reports on the recent Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, including the awarding of the first-ever outstanding contribution to crime fiction award to Reginald Hill.
• The Inverness Courier says a new breed of Scottish writers like Tony Black are making Tartan Noir an even darker shade.
• The Minneapolis Star-Tribune takes a look at Finnish crime, with Finnish publisher Jouko Sipila moving to the US and making the mystery series by his brother Jarko, a journalist in Helsinki, more widely available.

What do you think of the round-up? Which articles do you find interesting? What are your thoughts on PD James turning 90, and her impact on crime writing? Have you read any of her books? What do you think? Is India going to take over crime writing? I'd love to read what you think.