The new movie Sherlock Holmes is not your father’s – or mother’s – vision of the famous detective. 

Jude Law, Robert Downey Jr. Warner Bros. photo

With its lush CGI backdrops of Victorian London, its heart-stopping battle atop the Tower Bridge that really is falling down and a grimy fight in a shipyard, Sherlock Holmes is more action-based than any other film or TV incarnation.

  And does it mess with Holmesian holy writ?

Probably.

But then so do the myriad books, short stories and films that have been based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic detective. And never forget Michael Caine and Gene Wilder’s turn as Holmes.

   But the main question is does this film directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Dr. Watson work? Does it immerse us in Sherlock Holmes’ world? Make us want to read every book Doyle did? Does it entertain us?

  A resounding yes. To put it in numbers – Three resounding stars out of four.

   Robert Downey Jr. also is not your father’s version, either. Downey, always an intriguing actor, eschews Basil Rathbone’s aristocratic air and Jeremy Brett’s brainy bearing.

Instead, Downey is a slovenly, unkempt lump of intelligence, given to extreme moods of melancholy when he’s inactive and experimenting with any drug within reach. His Holmes is as physical as he is brilliant. He also is almost always the smartest person in the room with heightened powers of observation.

Downey is not the quintessential Holmes, but he’s the perfect Holmes for the 21^st century re-imagining.

  Instead of the usual hefty Dr. Watson, it’s the handsome Dr. Watson. Jude Law, for the first time, doesn’t come across as just a pretty boy but as a solid actor. Law’s Watson is Holmes’ closest friend and his only confidant, but he is no sidekick.

A veteran of the Afghan wars dealing with his own demons, this Watson is not content to be in Holmes’ shadow. He’s making plans to move out of the flat he shares with Holmes – at 221B Baker Street, of course – and marry also the strong Mary (Kelly Reilly). In the movie, Watson is not yet Holmes chronicler but there are hints of things to come in the sequel that apparently is in development.

  But first, Holmes and Watson will have to save the world.  

Mark Strong Warner Bros. photo

Lord Blackwood (a mesmerizing Mark Strong) apparently has risen from the grave after being hanged for a series of ritual murders. Now Blackwood wants complete power over London.

 Strong with his Dracula-like cape and his piercing gaze steals the film, a vicious villain worth rousing Holmes out of his funk. As a friend of mine said, he is deliciously evil.

  Where Sherlock Holmes veers most from the novels is the character of Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) who plays the one woman whom intrigues Holmes. In the novels, she was the only woman who ever outwitted Holmes. In the film she is more of a master criminal and his former lover. McAdams not only looks good in her Victorian garb but this fine actress holds her own against Downey.

   Ritchie’s direction is controlled and inventive. His Sherlock Holmes is no Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Guns, but an energetic view of one of literature’s most iconic characters.

   I am no Sherlock Holmes expert, certainly not in league as author Laurie King. Nor in the same league as my good friends Doreen and Toni or my late father-in-law, Steve, who once wrote an essay detailing all the cases mentioned in the novels that were never actually written by Doyle.

  I’ll be interested to see what they think. For me, I’ll be one of the first in line to buy Sherlock Holmes on DVD.

It’s that time of the year when we’re making our lists and checking them twice for gift giving.

Forget the perfect gift; most of us just want to find a gift that won’t be returned.

And finding a gift drives us to the mall, the bookstores (YES!) and, of course, the most traditional of all – TV’s shopping networks. 

Alafair Burke

I’m not ashamed to admit that I love TV’s shopping networks. I have bought many a thing from QVC and HSN (huggable hangers will change your life) and often have one of these channels on in the background for white noise. 

So I am a bit dismayed that I missed the reference to mystery authors Alafair Burke and Lisa Gardner, and had to hear about it on Facebook, which is just like the shopping networks as it can just draw you in for hours.

QVC featured the U.S. launch of the ebook reader The COOL-ER. Many of the books available for this e-reader were mentioned, including Alafair Burke’s Angel’s Tip and one of Lisa Gardner’s thrillers. (By the way, this is an endorsement only for the authors.)

Lisa Gardner

That’s what I call shopping power.

BEST MYSTERIES OF 2009

 This also is the time when critics are making their lists and should be checking them twice and thrice.

Because we do need these lists to be perfect.

Here’s a couple of best mystery lists from three of my favorite book critic colleagues – Sarah Weinman and Dick Adler.  David J. Montgomery took a different route and listed his picks for best debuts.

 And that, dear readers, brings me to my picks for my favorite mysteries of the year. The short list is published in the Sun Sentinel; but a few newspapers have picked up my extended list.

 Anytime it’s hard for me to narrow down my list to just 20, I know it has been a very good year for mysteries. And this list was exceptionally hard as 2009 was quite a good year for mysteries.

 So many wonderful mysteries made the list, but so many books also didn’t make my final cut.

 And this year’s debuts also were exceptional  — Attica Locke, Harry Dolan, Stuart Neville, Bryan Gruley , Sophie Littlefield, Brad Parks, Alan Bradley.  And again, too many had to be left out.

 I always time my list to run before Christmas and, sometimes, before Hannukah.

 Because books do make the perfect gift.

By now, most every author and many readers have heard of the demise of Kirkus Reviews – and Editor & Publisher – both owned by the Nielsen Company.

  Before I talk about Kirkus, I want to mourn Editor & Publisher, a fine industry magazine that gave we journalists valuable info about the newspaper business. I know of many journalists, including me, who got jobs or freelance assignments because of E&P.

  But back to Kirkus.

   It’s been interesting to hear the opinions of various authors, publishers, publicists and some readers who aren’t actually mourning the loss of Kirkus.

    For many, Kirkus had a reputation of being a little too snarky, seemingly taking more delight in the negative reviews. It often seemed as if their critics felt that if you can’t say something nasty about a book don’t say anything at all.

   It also often felt, at least to me, that the Kirkus editors purposely assigned reviewers who disliked certain genres or authors to those books.

Just because a reviewer time after time dislikes an author or a specific genre doesn’t mean he or she is doing their job.

   Sometimes, certain people just get a joy out of being nasty.

  Here, I have to give full disclosure. I have never reviewed for Kirkus nor would I have ever considered reviewing for them.

   I do review for Mystery Scene, for the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, for the McClatchy Tribune Features Wire and for Publishers Weekly, the only place where my reviews are anonymous.

   When I started to increase the outlets for which I review, I never even thought of Kirkus. One main reason is that the publication lost my respect in 2004 when it started “selling” certain reviews.

  Here’s an excerpt 2004 wire story that I am quoting from:

  “Kirkus for Hire
 Kirkus Reviews is putting their 71 years worth of “credibility, integrity, and pedigree” up for sale to “self-published, e-published and POD authors.
  Any publisher seeking greater exposure for a title can gain awareness through our network of influential readers and buyers.”
  Under a new program called Kirkus Discoveries, authors and publishers are invited to “commission a review,” for $350. Those reviews will be displayed at KirkusDiscoveries.com (which currently points to the main Kirkus home page), and “the best submissions” also will get included in monthly e-mail newsletters. The site description is unclear on whom these newsletters
will be sent to, though it promotes the concept as a way of eliciting rights interest and highlights unspecified access to an “audience of rights agents, booksellers, publishers, book distributors and Hollywood producers.”

 That ended any respect I may have had for Kirkus.

That said, let me also add that I think it is a sad day for authors, readers, publishers, etc., that Kirkus has folded.

  Books of any kind are invaluable to us as a society. And yet, so many newspapers have gotten rid of their books editors, reduced the space for books coverage and, in some cases, gotten rid of books pages all together.

 We may not have agreed with many Kirkus reviews but at least they had paid attention to books. As for the “paid” reviews, as reprehensible as they were, at least they were clearly marked “for sale.”

  So what do we do now without Kirkus? Pay attention to the reviews that run in Mystery Scene, in Publishers Weekly, in Booklist and B&N.com. Tell your local newspaper how important books coverage is – whether online or in the printed paper. Read ethical blogs that cover books.

  And buy books. For the holidays, for special occasions, for presents, for Wednesdays and because we can. 
   Buy a book once a week and enjoy.

I often think that it’s a shame that in trying to keep up with contemporary mystery writers we sometimes neglect those who helped shape the genre as it is today. At least I know I often don’t have the time to revisit the genre legends, even as much as I want to.

That’s one reason why I have such respect for the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master category. This annual honor “represents the pinnacle of achievement in mystery writing and was established to acknowledge important contributions to this genre, as well as significant output of consistently high-quality material,” according to the MWA.

So in case you haven’t heard, Dorothy Gilman, who wrote the Mrs. Pollifax series of spy novels, has been named MWA’s 2010 Grand Master.

A fine choice indeed.

For me, the Mrs. Pollifax novels were like popcorn – a lovely snack food that satisfied. The novels featured grandmother Emily Pollifax, who choose to become a spy in her 60s. Gilman, a New Jersey native, has began writing young adult books in 1945, under the name Dorothy Gilman Butters. The Mrs. Pollifax novels first began appearing in 1966 with The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax.Here’s a couple of quotes from Gilman worth repeating:

“A man from hell is not afraid of hot ashes. ”
– Dorothy Gilman

“If something anticipated arrives too late it finds us numb, wrung out from waiting, and we feel – nothing at all. The best things arrive on time.”
– Dorothy Gilman

The MWA’s Raven Award goes to two honorees this year: Broadway producer Zev Buffman and the Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, Pennsylvania.

Buffman’s background includes a variety of entertainment, ranging from acting to producing more than 40 Broadway shows and 100 national tours. I would like to personally congratulate Buffman and say thanks for bringing first-class theater to South Florida during a time when the area was a cultural wasteland. His theater productions was one of the reasons I stayed in Fort Lauderdale.

Mystery Lovers Bookshop has shown “constant support and dedication . . . to the mystery community,” according to MWA.  Mystery Lovers Bookshop is perhaps best known for its annual Festival of Mystery, an event held each spring which regularly attracts over 400 mystery readers to a one-evening extravaganza involving fifty or more authors. Monday, May 3, 2010 will be the date for the 15th Festival.

Established in 1953, the Raven award honors outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing.

And finally, Barbara Peters and Robert Rosenwald of Poisoned Pen Press will receive the 2010 Ellery Queen award, given to editors or publishers who have distinguished themselves by their generous and wide-ranging support of the genre.

That fits Barbara and Robert to a T.

Barbara and Robert founded Poisoned Pen Press in 1996. Its original mission was to publish reference and out of print books but it quickly shifted gears to original work and today averages 36 new novels a year with a backlist fully in print, according to MWA. The press’ authors have earned numerous award nominations and wins and a basket of starred reviews.

These awards as well as the Edgar Awards will be presented during the 65^th Edgar Awards Banquet will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City on Thursday, April 29, 2010.

For more information on Mystery Writers of America, please visit the website: www.mysterywriters.org