The Book She'll Never Part With!

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HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:   A Theme! You know how much I love it when Jungle Red has spontaneous unplanned themes—the other day Julia was talking about how to get rid of stuff, and the difficulties of deciding what to keep.

Well our dear pal—the newlyAgatha winning (YAY) and fabulous Shari Randall has solved that mystery-with one book, at least.  And yeah, it’s a step.

Question for you-do you know what “moulage” is? Or maybe: what moulage are?  And then Shari—just returned from Spain!-- has a question for you.

No? Well, read on.

Shari celebrating!

The Book I’ll Never Give Away

By Shari Randall

Many thanks, Hank, for inviting me to visit with you and the Reds – what a treat! It takes my mind off of my ongoing task of dealing with boxes of, well, stuff, that have moved with my family for so many years that I have no idea what’s in them.

Like most booklovers, I’ve found that the hardest part of downsizing is dealing with all of my books. I’ve tried Swedish Death Cleaning, read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and truly believe Less is More. After my last move, I managed the painful process of winnowing my book collection. But there is one book I simply cannot part with, a book I’ve had since I was ten years old.

What is this relic of my mystery reading youth? The Hardy Boys Detective Handbook: Authentic Detective Methods for Solving Mysteries – the 1972 printing of the 1959 original. Why didn’t I have a Nancy Drew Detective Handbook? Did one exist back then? Apologies to fans of Frank and Joe, but I only read the Hardy Boys when I couldn’t get my hands on a Nancy Drew.

Why can’t I bring myself to let go of this book?

Because whenever I crack it open, I go back in time and fall under its spell. Once more I am a ten year old in pigtails who believes it’s entirely possible for two nosy teenagers and their accident prone chum Chet to bring down an international crime syndicate.

What makes this book so irresistible? First, there’s the style. The Handbook crackles with adolescent male energy, tough guy lingo, and a noir sensibility. The Joe Friday approach delivers facts to wannabe detectives like a .45 delivers lead.

Second, what a trove of information! Among the tips it offers are (TSA take notice) directions for pat-downs, schematics for one-, two- and three-man surveillance, a dictionary of legal terminology and criminal slang (“Dive: a place of poor reputation”) and directions for making moulage. If you don’t know moulage, I highly recommend this book.

Though many of the forensic procedures have been rendered obsolete by modern technology, and one must no longer carry change for the phone booth in the corner of the drugstore soda shop, spending just five minutes with The Hardy Boys Detective Handbook makes you feel that you can trail a perp, pat him down, and make the collar with the confidence of a teenage detective.

More than anything, The Handbook connects me with the sheer joy of reading mysteries, a feeling I try to channel while writing my own mystery series.

Happily – or sadly – you can find a copy of The Hardy Boys Detective Handbook on Amazon for $.01 plus $3 for shipping. But the trip down memory lane is priceless.

Readers, is there a book that you simply cannot, and will not, ever give away?

HANK: AH, toughie! All my signed Sue Graftons, that’s for sure. And my childhood Winnie The Pooh. The pre-arc of TRUST ME. Oh, dear, this is a difficult one. How about you, Reds and readers?

And yeah, I had to look up moulage.  And so did you, right?

Okay—your turn.  What’s a must-keep book? Family photo albums don’t count.

Former librarian Shari Randall is the author of the Lobster Shack Mystery series. The native New Englander lives in a midcentury modern money pit not far from a lighthouse and plenty of great lobster shacks. Her debut, Curses, Boiled Again, won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. You can check out her mermaid obsession on Instagram or Facebook at @sharirandallauthor.

 Drawn and Buttered is the third book in a wonderfully satisfying cozy mystery series set at the Lazy Mermaid Lobster Shack in coastal New England.

The Lazy Mermaid’s business has slowed to a snail’s pace―until a monster lobster claws his way onto the scene…

With high season behind them, ballerina on-the-mend Allie Larkin and Aunt Gully are finally lying low. But then an unexpected guest arrives at the lobster shack: a crustacean so huge he’s dubbed Lobzilla around Mystic Bay and on social media. Soon, with everyone showing up for a peek in their tank, Allie and Aunt Gully have more on their plate than they can handle.

Meanwhile, another local establishment finds itself in hot water. In exclusive Rabb’s Point, a strange burglary breaches the elegant home of Royal Parrish. Allie takes it upon herself to help with the investigation but, before she can get to the bottom of the case, another alarm sounds: the Lazy Mermaid’s Lobzilla has gone missing and is on the loose! And bodies are beginning to pile up. . .

“Delightful…Full of New England coastal charm…and clever sleuthing [that] will keep you turning the pages.”―Krista Davis, New York Times bestselling author of the Domestic Diva mysteries 

The Stuff Daydreams Are Made Of

Rudy Vallee

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  (More on the Oscar snafu below!) Who's your heart throb? Not now, but oh so many years ago? I mean, when you were young, and crushing, and imagined anything was possible. (That's a drawing of Rudy Vallee from Photoplay in the 1930's.)  I ask because I was invited to write an essay for a book edited by the fabulous Elizabeth Searle… And it's about how our teen idols shaped our lives. 

 I had to think about that for a moment, because did my "teen idol"shape my life? I had never thought about it before. Let alone write eight pages about it.

We each had to pick one person, and after a ridiculous amount of contemplation, I finally did. When I finished writing the final draft of my essay, I have to admit to you, I burst into tears. I guess I had discovered something I didn't know I knew.

So we'll talk about the book more when the publication date comes, not till next year! But for now, did you have a teen heartthrob? I won't tell you who I chose until you all do!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Oh, yes, Hank. I fell madly in love with Paul McCartney when I was eleven, and I don't think I ever completely got over him. I saw the Beatles in 1964, can you believe it? I saw McCartney again on tour in Dallas a few years ago and was just gobsmacked. I guess this goes some way towards explaining my lifetime of Anglophilia, doesn't it?

LUCY BURDETTE: Oh, Debs, I was a Paul fan too. But since you got there first, I will admit, Micky Dolenz of the Monkees was my first luv. I was completely gaga over him, and begged my parents to let me subscribe to TIGER BEAT so I could read up on all things Micky. 

Mickey Dolenz

And then my parents bought my best pal Laura and me tickets to see the Monkees for my 14th birthday--I looked it up, the concert was actually on my birthday in Detroit. Amazing that they arranged this! Laura and I spent hours putting together a birthday box for Micky. This contained all kinds of handmade stuff for a birthday party--paper hats, artistic napkins, and who knows what else lovesick, naive teenagers might have felt necessary to include. We handed the box over to a ticket taker when we got to the concert. And then we screamed our love for the whole show:). I never did hear back from Micky, but I did get a signed poster in the mail--sigh...

HALLIE EPHRON: This takes me back to the early nineteen sixties. I was fourteen years old and obsessed with my shortcomings (tall, skinny, pimply, smelly, hairy.) And just at the time when a person couldn’t get more self conscious, along came breasts…or in my case, didn’t. In the throes of self-conscious adolescent angst I first clapped eyes on Warren Beatty. My best friend and I took the bus to the Picwood movie theatre in Westwood to see Splendor in the Grass. I left besotted with Warren Beatty’s Bud Stamper, a sweet, sensitive, sex-starved, high-school quarterback who’s madly in love with beautiful, popular, passionate, virginal good girl, Deanie Loomis (Natalie Wood). They burned up the screen, those two.

He (Bud? Warren?) nailed me with those crinkly eyes, that goofy smile, and an endearing boyish awkwardness. He had the perfect inarticulate stammer and aw-shucks manner about him, a sweetened amalgam of Marlon Brando and James Dean. By the time Bonnie and Clyde came out six years later the bloom was off the rose. The movie magazines I devoured were telling me that my sweet Bud was sleeping around. And around. Ya let me down, Bud.

HANK: Oh, Hallie, I interviewed Warren Beatty (for Rolling Stone Radio News) when he toured for Shampoo. In Washington DC, at the Watergate Hotel. I have to say, he was--not exaggerating--the handsomest person I have ever seen. EVER. We will talk about it in detail another time, but he hit on me, I mean, seriously. (I guess he was enchanted by my pink acid-washed matching jeans and jacket.) I went home and wrote it all down, word for seductive-ish word. Bottom line, I turned him down. I thought it would be hilarious to be the only woman who ever had. Plus, he was married at the time, wasn't he? To JULIE CHRISTIE? I mean--gah. 

Speaking of Warren: poor thing, though! To be handed the wrong envelope? What did you think? I felt so sad for everyone...

Anyway. Rhys?

RHYS BOWEN: I was a terrible judge of men in my early teens. I was madly in love with British pop star Cliff Richard, with British actor Dirk Bogarde and with Rock Hudson, all of whom turned out to be gay!
When the Beatles came on the scene I was actually more attracted to John than Paul because John had that raw sexiness. I was disappointed when I found out he was married.
The only real crush I've had since then was Robert Redford. I still have a photo of him on my bulletin board!

JENN MCKINLAY: At age nine, I was a hard core Shaun Cassidy girl. I mean, come on, the feathered hair, the satin pants, singing Da Doo Run Run, and shaking his money maker - seriously, what was not to love? LOL. 

Of course, it helped that he also played the adorable Joe Hardy on the Hardy Boys television show. I wanted to be Nancy Drew but I wanted to date Joe Hardy - never Frank - always Joe. Huh. And now I write mysteries with amateur sleuths...hmm.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Oh, my gosh, Jenn, my sister and I were GLUED to the tube when the Hardy Boys came on. She got Joe, and I got Frank, played by the oh-so-good-looking Parker Stevenson. They were the perfect very early girl crushes - with their smooth skin and coiffed hair, there was no chance to threatening masculinity. The first man I crushed on was Paul Michael Glaser in, yes, STARSKY AND HUTCH. He had chest hair and five o'clock shadow, and made 13-year-old me feel all confused and excited whenever he got shot (which seemed to happen frequently)  and had to be nursed back to health.




Finally, seeing Frank Langella in DRACULA (1979) pretty much completed puberty for me. When
he glided into Kate Nelligan's bedroom in his undone white linen shirt and whispered to her, "I need..." I finally understood what sex was all about.

HANK: This is so fascinating, and so indicative of how old we were and when. (I loved Spin and Marty, too. I forget which one.) And Dirk Bogarde! And Frank Langella in Dracula--and Compromising Positions? Whoo.

And it's incredibly interesting, and indicative of the times, to see who we chose. Back then. My mom told me she skipped a day in junior high to see Frank Sinatra.  It'd be SO different now, right? Anyone know anyone who's 10? Who would they choose? 

But for my hearthrob, I chose the poetic, intellectual, brilliant Paul Simon. I was so sad and unpopular, and when he sang I am a rock, I thought, I'll be a rock. too! And he's still my idol.

How about you, dear Reds?