For those of you who don't know, our wonderful colleague (and my co-editor on two projects) Pete Messent in the UK has another line of scholarship other than Mark Twain -- the heady realm of detective fiction. He merges these interests in a typically incisive and eloquent way in an essay on "Mark Twain and Detective Fiction," published this month in a book with a great title, The Centrality of Crime in American Literary Culture. Edited by Alfred Bendixen and Olivia Carr Edenfield, published by Routledge. Kudos!

Steve Courtney
Curatorial Special Projects
The Mark Twain House & Museum
351 Farmington Avenue
Hartford, Connecticut 06105
860-302-8969