Happy Birthday, Ross

Today is the birthday of mystery novelist Ross Macdonald, born Kenneth Millar in Los Gatos, California (1915). Macdonald spent most of his early life in Canada, where his father worked as a harbor pilot. His parents separated when he was three, and since his mother suffered from typhoid fever and couldn't support them, he moved around among various relatives, once counting "the number of rooms I had lived in during my first sixteen years, and got a total of fifty."

In 1938 he married Margaret Sturm, who as Margaret Millar would have her own career as an acclaimed mystery writer. Between 1938 and 1939 Kenneth Millar studied at the University of Michigan where he met W.H. Auden, who encouraged him to regard detective novels as a legitimate literary form.  Millar eventually settled on the pen name Ross Macdonald to avoid mixups with contemporary John D. MacDonald.  Ross first introduced the popular divorced former cop-turned-private-eye Lew Archer in the 1946 short story "Find the Woman." A full-length novel, The Moving Target, followed in 1949, the first in a series of 18 Archer novels.

Macdonald used spiral-bound notebooks, filling about three pages a day while sitting in the same bedroom chair where he wrote all of his books for three decades. He worked on several books at once, often finding ideas for plots by sitting in on local criminal trials. He was a dedicated conservationist, and he and his wife were active in the efforts to save the California condor from extinction. He died from Alzheimer's disease in 1983.

Novelist William Goldman declared the Archer novels "the finest series of detective novels ever written by an American," and John Leonard of The New York Times stated Macdonald had transcended the genre to become "a major American novelist." His works have inspired countless mystery writers since, such as Sue Grafton, who even set her novels in the same Santa Barbara locale Macdonald had done (although both used the fictional name Santa Teresa for the town).

You can find a Ross Macdonald chronology here and memories and quotations about Macdonald from other mystery authors which were assembled for the 50th anniversary of his birth by January Magazine.

In June of this year, Crippen & Landru released a new anthology of Macdonald's Lew Archer short stories, collected together in one volume for the first time.

On the January Magazine tribute page above, you'll many fun anecdotes about Macdonald and his influence, such as the following from Michael Connelly:  "I came to him late. The first book of his I read was The Blue Hammer. Of course, it was a joy to realize when I was finished that I had a wealth of Lew Archer stories to go back and read. And I did. This was about the time I was thinking that I wanted to write for a living and Macdonald's books showed me the possibility that crime novels could be art. I still remember in the opening pages of The Blue Hammer how he described a woman's body as having been kept trim by tennis and anger. I read that and knew I was on to something. I was home."

Veteran's Day Mysteries

 

In honor of Veterans Day, I thought it would be appropriate to feature crime fiction books either written by veterans or featuring a veteran as a protagonist. You don't have to look very far down current and former best-seller lists to uncover the latter, beginning with Walter Moseley's popular series set in the 1940s featuring Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, a black World War II veteran. The first installment was Devil in a Blue Dress (later made into a motion picture with Denzel Washington), and the most recent—and possibly the last—in the series, is this year's Blond Faith.

Travis McGee, a creation of mystery writer John D. MacDonald, appeared in 21 novels, from The Deep Blue Good-by in 1964 to The Lonely Silver Rain in 1984. Although a a self-described "beach bum," he was also a Korean War veteran. MacDonald himself was also a veteran serving first in the army Ordnance Corp, then the OSS in the Far East during World War II. While still in the military, his literary career began accidentally when he wrote a short story in 1945 and mailed it home for the amusement of his wife. She submitted it to the magazine Story without his knowledge, and it was accepted. In the first four months after his discharge, he allegedly concentrated solely on writing short stories, generating some 800,000 words and losing 20 pounds while typing during 14-hour daily sessions seven days a week.

Relative newcomer Chris Grabenstein features protagonist John Ceepak, a former military policeman in Iraq with a strict moral code and some leftover demons from the war, in a humor-tinged series with such titles as Tilt-a-Whirl, Mad Mouse, and Whack a Mole, although the subject material is often serious.

There are many other mysteries with veteran protagonists, but I'll post a few below grouped by war experience. Since November 11th is Veteran's Day in the U.S. I focused primarily on protagonists who are U.S. military veterans, the exception being Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear and Lord Peter Wimsey by Dorothy Sayers, since there are a dearth of American WWI veteran-related mysteries (and Sayers is of course a crime fiction legend).

American Civil War
Owen Parry, Faded Coat of Blue
Brent Monahan, a series with sheriff/veteran John Le Brun

Mexican-American War
Michael White, Soul Catcher

World War I
Baynard H. Kendrick, a series featuring blinded veteran Captain Duncan Maclain
Dorothy L. Sayers, series with Lord Peter Wimsey
Jacqueline Winspear, a series featuring nurse veteran Maisie Dobbs

World War II
Terence Faherty, a series featuring veteran Scott Elliott
William Hjortsberg, Fallen Angel
Robert B. Parker, Double Play (featuring veteran Joseph Burke, not Parker's usual Spencer)

Korean War
James Lee Burke, The Lost Get-Back Boogie
Stephen E. Miller (author and actor), The Woman in the Yard
Kris Nelscott, series featuring African-American detective/veteran

Vietnam War
Richard Barre, series with Wil Hardesty
Austin Bay, The Coyote Cried Twice
George C. Chesbro, Veil and Jungle of Steel and Stone
James Crumley, The Mexican Tree Duck
Nelson DeMille, Up Country 
Jerome Doolittle, several novels featuring protag veteran Tom Bethany
MIchael Allen Dymmoch, series with former medic John Thinnes
Joseph Flynn, Digger
Katherine Forest, series with former marine, Kate Delafield
Ken Grissom, Drop-Off
Gar Anthony Haywood, series with veteran Aaron Gunner
Jeremiah Healy, series with John Francis Cuddy
Craig Johnson, series feauturing Walt Longmire, veteran Marine Investigator
Rick Riordan, Cold Springs
Conall Ryan, Black Gravity
Howard Swindle, Jitter Joint
Sharon Wildwood, Some Welcome Home (one of the few featuring a nurse veteran)

Gulf War (Desert Storm)
Charles Benoit, Noble Lies
J.D. Rhoades, series with Jack Keller
Jim Tenuto, Blood Atonement: A Dahlgren Wallace Mystery

Other Veterans (non-war-specific)
Lee Child, series with Jack Reacher, former military police
Julia Spencer-Fleming, series with former helicopter pilot, Claire Fergusson
Wendi Lee, series with former marine Angela Matelli 


In addition to John D. MacDonald above, military veterans who have penned crime fiction include James Church (a pseudonym), a former Western intelligence officer with decades of experience in Asia. In A Corpse in the Koryo, Church introduced readers to elusive Inspector O. The mystery was named one of the best mystery/thrillers of 2006 by the Chicago Tribune.

Steve Coonts received his Navy wings in August, 1969. After completion of training in the A-6 Intruder aircraft, Coonts reported to Attack Squadron 196 at NAS Whidbey Island, Washington. He made two combat cruises aboard USS Enterprise during the final years of the Vietnam War as a member of this squadron. After the war he served as an instructor on A-6 aircraft for two years, then did a tour as an ssistant catapult and arresting gear officer aboard USS Nimitz, finally leaving active duty in 1977. His first novel, Flight of the Intruder, published in 1986 by the Naval Institute Press, spent 28 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists in hardcover. A motion picture based on this novel, with the same title, was released in 1991.

Chet Cunningham was drafted into the army in 1950. After nine months in Japan, he moved to the front lines of the war in Korea, participating in two battles and numerous line-crossing and prisoner patrols. Assigned to a heavy weapons company he served as an 81 mm mortar gunner, squad leader, and section leader. His service earned him the Combat Infantryman's Badge. After two years of service he was discharged in the rank of sergeant. Cunningham has written many mysteries and thrillers, under the pen names of Keith Douglass and Don Pendleton.

Samuel Dashiell Hammett joined the army during the first world war, serving in the Motor Ambulance Corps, unfortunately contracting TB in the process. He earned a disability pension from the Veterans Bureau on his discharge, and when his health permitted tried to resume his former work with the Pinkerton’s Detective Agency. Sponsored by the Veterans Bureau, he signed up for a writing course and in a short space of time began a campaign of magazine submissions. Hammett went on to write several short stories and five novels, the most famous among them The Maltese Falcon.

Wayne Karlin's Lost Armies features a Vietnam vet teaching English to Vietnamese refugees in southern Maryland and a "tripwire" vet who is terrorizing them. Karlin served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1963 to 1967, when he was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant. His decorations include the Vietnam Service Medal, the Air Medal, a Presidential Unit Citation, and the Combat Air Crew Badge with three stars. Karlin is a professor of Languages and Literature at the College of Southern Maryland, and has also authored or editor other books and anthologies on the war, as well as essays.

Robert B. Parker, author of the popular Spencer series, served with the Army in Korea. His protagonist, the Boston P.I. Spencer, is also a Korean War veteran, and was first seen in 1973's The Godwulf Manuscript, with dozens more novels following. The character of Spencer was made into a TV series Spenser: For Hire during the 1980s.

The 'Zine Scene

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine's July/August double issue includes publication of the Black Orchid Award Novella winning story. Plus, there's a baseball-themed story fit for summer, "The Making of Velveteen Dream" by Chris Muessig, and new short fiction from Jay Carey, John M. Floyd, and R.T. Lawton.

Wildside Press announced they're launching a new publication titled Black Cat Mystery Magazine. Named in honor of the company mascot, BCMM will focus on contemporary and traditional mysteries, as well as thrillers and suspense stories. The first issue will be released in September and feature stories by Art Taylor, Meg Opperman, John Floyd, Josh Pachter, Barb Goffman, and Alan Orloff, among others.

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine's summer issue has a new spy story by Jeffery Deaver, “Hard to Get,” taking readers to Eastern Europe where a new American agent encounters his attractive Russian counterpart. Also, detective Kennedy in Paul Charles’s “Harry Potter and the Shadow of the Forger’s Throne” investigates the murder of a book collector, and Julius Katz that of a literary agent in Dave Zeltserman’s “Julius Katz and the Terminated Agent.” Plus a trip on the road and in Hollywood past and present in the Department of First Stories’ “The Fast and the Furriest” by Pat H. Broeske, and much more.

Mystery Scene's summer Issue #150 features an interview by Oline Cogdill with Scott Turow on the 30th publication anniversary of Presumed Innocent; one of the founding members of Sisters in Crime, Sara Paretsky, talks about why such an organization was needed then and remains essential today; Cheryl Solimini profiles Linda Greenlaw, an author who was also the only female swordfishing boat captain on the East Coast of the United States, featured in the book and film The Perfect Storm; Jake Hinkson has a feature on Eddie Muller, who has earned the sobriquet "The Czar of Noir"; Ann Whetstone takes a look at train mysteries; Kevin Burton Smith takes a look at locked room and other impossible crime stories featuring private eyes; Craig Sisterson catches up with Michael Connelly as he debuts a series featuring Renee Ballard, an LAPD cop working the night shift; Hallie Ephron talks about following in the literary footsteps of her celebrated family; and Tom Nolan chats with Denise Mina who has some interesting thoughts on the high art/low art debate in literature.

Mystery Weekly's latest print edition has new short crime fiction from Melanie Atherton Allen, Kevin Z. Garvey, Tapanga Koe, J. Michael Major, Bruce Harris, Thom Bennett, Peter DiChellis, Tom Tolnay, and Rhonda Howard.

The new issue of Noir City has "many and varied delights: headshrinkers, a hammer-wielding murderess, the King of Capers, a strange cult that begat a noir legend, more Bs than you ever bargained for … and even an appearance by The Boss." The edition also has the debut of a new regular feature, The Dark Page, dedicated to contemporary crime fiction and penned by crime and mystery writer Eric Beetner. He kicks it off by interviewing one of the most prolific and knowledgeable figures in the business, Anthony Award-winning novelist and historian Bill Crider. 

Over My Dead Body is an online 'zine that had taken a bit of a break, but is back again with new book reviews and short stories.

Suspense magazine's summer edition includes Interviews with Catherine Finger, Harley Muzak, Wendy Webb, Karen Dionne, Adam Mitzner, James Hayman, Kenneth Johnson, Nicci French, and Laurie R. King. The magazine also has a new section by bestselling author Alan Jacobson, “The Writer’s Toolkit,” with everything you need to know to put yourself on the best path. Dennis Palumbo also has a great article about "Envy," Anthony Franze continued his "Rules of Writing" with C.J. Box, plus there are pages of book reviews, short stories and more.

Issue Two of the gritty new crime publication Switchblade Magazine just hit the streets in print (an ebook format is on the way) with 12 sharp and deadly hard luck-tales. Authors offering up their short fiction include William Dylan Powell, Renee Asher Pickup, Peter DiChellis, Carmen Jaramillo, Paul Greenberg, Charles Roland, S. E. Bailey, Rob T. White, Ashley Erwin, J. L. Boekestein, Scotch Rutherford, and Stephen D. Rogers.

The 'Zine Scene

The latest Mystery Scene magazine includes a feature on author Donna Leon, who visited Venice as a young woman and fell passionately in love - with the city. For decades, this affair has played out for all to see in her Commissario Guido Brunetti novels, most recently Earthly Remains. Michael Mallory also has a retrospective of television writer Jackson Gillis who spent 40 years writing for shows from Perry Mason to Columbo to Murder, She Wrote; Craig Sisterson takes a look at Fergus Hume who had crime fiction's first global blockbuster ... 130 years ago; Lawrence Block returns with the second installment of his tutorial "How to be a Writer Without Writing Anything," and more.

"Diverse" is how Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine is describing its May/June 2017 issue, with stories running the thematic and atmosphere gamut of the crime and mystery field. There are historicals by Miriam Grace Monfredo and Marilyn Todd; Robert L. Fish Award winning author Zoë Z. Dean’s gritty "Charcoal and Cherry"; a mob tale by Robert S. Levinson; and stories set in Hawaii, Barcelona, the Jersey Shore, and Australia. The issue also contains the winners of the 2016 Readers Award.

Reviewer, editor, and author Elizabeth Foxwell also took a look at the "not so simple art" of mystery reviewing for the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine blog.

The latest issue of EQMM's sister publication, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, features "delights, dangers, and debuts," and is heavy on the humor among its twelve story offerings. Among the highlights are director/writer Paul D. Marks (author of White Heat and Vortex 2015) whose story "Twelve Angry Days" recalls the old Henry Fonda film, Twelve Angry Men, but with a very different outcome; Jason Half introduces one of his favorite mystery classics, "Daisy Bell" by Gladys Mitchell; Jeff Cohen’s nervous dad-to-be/proprietor of a comedy film theater, who has serious doubts about the hospital staff in "It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Girl!"; and there are tales featuring commuters, detectives, comedians, and more.

Crimespree Magazine's latest issue features Nick Petrie on the cover. Petrie is an American crime writer and the author of the war veteran Peter Ash series, and his first novel, The Drifter, was nominated for 2016 Edgar, International Thriller Writer and Barry awards for Best First Novel, and the 2016 Hammett Prize for Best Novel. Kristi Belcamino and Chris Holm are back with new columns this month, and there are the usual cornucopia of interviews and great articles.

The new story up at Spinetingler for May is "Liar’s Poker" by Craig Faustus Buck.

The latest (March / April 2017) Issue of Suspense Magazine celebrates crime short fiction and also has reviews, articles, and interviews with Faye Kellerman, Kelly Oliver, Greg Iles, Lisa Unger, and Daryl Wood Gerber. Also, Barry Lancet and Anthony Franze discuss writing with bestselling author Thomas Perry, and Dennis Palumbo writes about how to turn anxiety into creativity.

The new issue of Mystery Readers Journal: Midwestern Mysteries has so many articles, the publication had to increase its size to accommodate them all, starting off with the introductory essay by Lori Rader-Day, "Big Cities Have Nothing on The Mysterious Midwest." The two free online essays this month are "Home: It’s That Simple" by William Kent Krueger and "The Exotic Midwest" by Nancy Pickard.

Mysterical-E's spring issue has new short fiction by Barbara Kussow, Lyn Fraser, Phillip Thompson, Robert Watts Lamon, Garnet Blackwell, Sophia-Karin Psarras, Margaret Karmazin, John M. Floyd, and Jude Roy. New columns include Drewey Wayne Gunn's look at the Wayne Lonergan murder case of 1943–44 that later became the subject of numerous essays, books, and even stimulated the imaginations of several novelists; movie notes by Anita Page and Gerald So; Christine Verstraete interviewing authors Laura Childs and Terrie Farley Moran about their latest mystery, Crepe Factor; and bookseller Frances G. Thorsen talks about Golden Age crime's Grand Dames.

Yellow Mama magazine reported the sad deaths of two former contributors, writer/artist JD Sixsmith and writer Lela Marie de la Garza, and discussed some of their stories, one of which appears in the latest issue. Also featured is the disturbing "Confidential Report on the Disturbance at Big Echo" by NY newcomer William Squirrell, and noir god Richard Godwin’s chilling "Liars of the Laughing City," in addition to more fiction and poetry.

The new issue of Pulp Modern is a resurrection of the publication that ceased for a year due to decreasing sales. Volume Two, Issue One features fiction from multiple genres, including crime, horror, and science fiction by writers from Europe, Canada, the United States, Asia, and Australia who contribute a diverse selection of short stories. Editor Alec Cizak reminds readers that in order to help keeping issues coming, buy and review it on Amazon - You'll be rewarded with stories by Stephen Rogers, Mark Adam, Marc Fitch, Lucy Kiff, Calvin Demmer, Joseph Rubas, L.S. Engler, and Myke Edwards.
 
Mystery Weekly Magazine presents original short stories by the world's best-known and emerging mystery writers who span every imaginable subgenre, including cozy, police procedural, noir, whodunit, supernatural, hardboiled, humor, and historical mysteries. Stories in the May issue include new fiction by J.A. Becker, Anna Castle, Katie Ginger, Michael Mallory, Charles Roland, Jude