Murder on the Cliffs

 

Joanna Challis lives and writes in a colonial house with wrap-around verandas and an English garden in Queensland, Australia, surrounded by family, old paintings, and anything fleur-de-lys. She is the author of several romantic suspense novels (Silverthorn was a finalist for the Romance Writers of Australia's 2004 Romantic Book of the Year) but has recently turned to mystery with Murder on the Cliffs, the first in a new series featuring a young Daphne du Maurier. She's currently on a blog tour and took the time to answer some questions.

IRTM:  You live in Queensland, Australia, and Murder on the Cliffs is set around Cornwall in the United Kingdom, which is pretty far apart, roughly 17,000 kilometers or 9,000 nautical miles. Did that make it difficult for you to pin down details about the setting and environs for the book?

JC:  It makes travel a necessity. I love Europe, its history and scenery so trips over there have always been part of my life.  If I can't travel, then I re-live it through journals, photos, books and the internet is an invaluable tool when one can't travel in person.

IRTM:  How did you get the idea of using a young 21-year-old Daphne du Maurier as a protagonist? Somehow, I'm guessing it wasn't the author's novella The Birds that inspired you, or you would have written a horror novel instead. Perhaps more Rebecca?

JC:  Rebecca exactly! It's my all-time favorite novel and combines those elements I love the most: history, mystery and a touch of romance. I love the setting too...an old mansion full of secrets by the sea...

IRTM:  Your previous novels were mostly in the romance vein, and in fact you were a finalist for the Romance Writers of Australia Ruby Award 2004 with your novel Silverthorn. Although Murder on the Cliffs has some romance included, it's branching off more into the romantic suspense line. Are you edging more towards the mystery genre these days in your writing?

JC:  Yes. Silverthorn had the history-romance-mystery mix, the Daphne du Maurier series will have the mystery-history-romance mix (stronger mystery theme). I am trying to keep the overall atmosphere like du Maurier portrayed in Rebecca and each of the Daphne mysteries will inspire her later novels. For the romance side, we have Daphne's love interest (her future husband in real life) featuring and progressing in each book.

IRTM:  Thus far, your books have all been historicals. Is this the subgenre you're most comfortable with, and are there any plans for switching back and forth with contemporary settings at some point?

JC:  I love historicals. All my favorite books are set in some kind of historical era, though I do enjoy modern mysteries too. As for contemporary settings, I am writing one book on the side, something that's been niggling at me for a few years. It's based on a true story--hopefully my agent can find a home for it one day.

IRTM:  Do you find there's more research involved with historical settings than you might otherwise have with contemporary plots? And as side note to that question, did you read a lot of biographical material on du Maurier in order to flesh out her character in your book?

JC:  There's definitely more research involved for any historical setting and even more so when using a real life person. I did a great deal of research with Daphne (there are so many differing accounts) that in the end I prefer to use her own words from her book Myself When Young. It shows the young Daphne up until the publication of her first book and marriage to her husband (that is the time period I am using with the Daphne mystery series).

IRTM:  The Australian and British (and American too) flavors of the English language can be quite different at times, with sentence construction, vocabulary, spellings, etc. Does it get a bit confusing at times when you're in the middle of putting the words down to keep the dialect consistent?

JC: Sometimes. I realized I turned in book #2 to my publisher with the English / Australian spelling and quickly changed it. As my heritage is Welsh, I grew up reading predominantly British authors and at school we used British textbook material. I believe my voice is more British-English as a result.

IRTM: You're working on the second book in the Daphne du Maurier series. Is there a release date for that and are there other installments lined up for the future?

JC: Peril at Somner House will come out in 2010. No official month yet but I suspect later in the year. Presently, I am upon the third Daphne mystery and if the series goes well, I have plenty more mysteries for Daphne to solve.

IRTM:  And last but not least, is vegemite really a food?

JC:  Vegemite is my friend. I take it with me when I travel...I think it's a food -- lots of salt and plenty of B vitamins. It's one of those things you grow up with and can never shake.

Joanna Challis is giving away a signed copy of her book, Murder on the Cliffs, to one blog tour visitor. Go to Joanna's book tour page, enter your name, e-mail address, and this PIN, 6931, for your chance to win. Entries from "In Reference to Murder" will be accepted until 12:00 Noon (PT) tomorrow. No purchase is required to enter or to win. The winner (first name only) will be announced on Joanna's book tour page ne

I'm still in holiday mode, but wanted to point out that today (November 27) is the date on which Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye was published in 1953 by Hamish Hamilton. In honor of the occasion, Paul Davis and Today in Literature have tributes.

Killer Reads

 

HarperCollins has joined the lineup of publishers offering crime fiction web sites to promote the genre and their authors' works. Their Killer Reads site was officially launched this week, with an extract of Jillianne Hoffman's new novel, Pretty Little Things. The site will also feature blogs, a newsletter, and the occasional article, such as a current one about Ngaio Marsh. Publishing brand manager Kate Bradley said "The site is going to be really dynamic and the content will be updated and refreshed constantly. We are passionate about our crime authors and we want to share that passion with the online community." (Hat tip to the Bookseller.)

HarperCollins joins other publishers with crime fiction sites, including Blood on the Page, the suspense book club from Random House which features a different author blogging each week, and Moments in Crime from Minotaur Books, which has evolved from a blog into a Twitter feed, although Minotaur does have a general companion book site.

New Kids on the Blog

It's always a pleasure to welcome new arrivals to the blogosphere, particularly in the crime fiction realm. So, take a moment to say "howdy" to some new friends.

Mystery Page Turners is a blog out of Canada created by a newly-minted librarian who also holds a Master's and Ph.D in English. Right now, she's sharing novels that she finds interesting, in keeping with the blog's stated theme of "Looking for a great mystery novel to read – one that you can’t put down?" There will be a mix of old and new included to suit various tastes.

British historical crime author R.N. Morris has started the Bloody Blog. It's so new, it's still got a little shrink wrap around the edges, but we'll welcome posts like his recent "From a Manual of Medical Jurisprudence, Insanity and Toxicology (1903)."

Crime Watch was born in August and is the brainchild of writer/reviewer Craig Sisterson from New Zealand, who focuses on crime fiction from that region (but others, too). He's been participating in the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme started by the Mysteries in Paradise blog, and his latest post is a feature of Kiwi author Paddy Richardson.

A Convention & A Tribute

 

Coming up this weekend, September 18-20: The Clive Cussler Convention takes place in San Diego with guests Dirk Cussler (Arctic Drift); Jack DuBrul (Corsair); Paul Kemprecos (Medusa); Grant Blackwood (Spartan Gold); and Justin Scott (Wreckers).

Coming up next week: Tuesday, September 22 at 7pm, there will be a "Tribute to Tony Hillerman," hosted by Isaiah Sheffer. Wes Studi and Kate Burton will also be on hand to pay tribute to the life and work of Hillerman by performing dramatizations of some of his stories of Navaja Country. It's at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and is presented by  Santa Fe Community College and radio station KSFR. Tickets are $10 and available by calling 505-988-1234 or at www.ticketsantafe.org.

Also, in related news, the "Tony Hillerman Writers Conference: Focus on Mystery" isn't taking place this year. The winner of the Tony Hillerman Prize for best first mystery will be still be awarded and announced November 20 at the New Mexico Book Awards dinner. The previous weekend (Nov. 13-15), Anne Hillerman will be signing her new book about her Dad, Tony Hillerman's Landscape: On the Road with Chee and Leaphorn at the Weems Arts Festival at Expo New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Book Blog Bounty

 

It's Book Blogger Appreciation Week, so I thought I'd pass along some of the book-related blogs which I enjoy and hope you will, too. These blogs are all a labor of love, often written by one person or a small dedicated group, and non-commercial, garnering nary a penny. They run the gamut in tone and style, but their mission is pretty much the same, to share their passion about books, authors, writing and reading. Due to the nature of In Reference to Murder, most of these are related to crime fiction, but I threw in a few general-interest blogs. There are many other author-specific (individual or collective) blogs I frequently check, but they'll have to wait for an author blog appreciation day.

GENERAL CRIME FICTION

Rap Sheet: Spearheaded by J. Kingston Pierce, senior editor of January Magazine, who is ably aided and abetted by Ali Karim and a several other talented suspects.

Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind: Book news and reviews from the pen of Sarah Weinman, who also writes "Dark Passages," a monthly online mystery and suspense column for the Los Angeles Times Book Review.

Mystery Fanfare: Janet Rudolph is also the editor of Mystery Readers Journal and often called "The Mistress of Mystery" for her work in the mystery fiction community. Her postings include themed-book lists for special events and holidays.

Patti Abott is a writer and proponent of crime fiction, who organized the weekly Forgotten Books Friday feature where various bloggers contribute book suggestions of works that deserve another look.

The Bunbuyist is the blog alter ego of Elizabeth Foxwell, writer and managing editor of Clues: A Journal of Detection, the only US scholarly journal on mystery and detective fiction. She writes mostly about crime fiction, but manages to add in literary tidbits of all stripes.

Off the Page: Oline Cogdill writes this blog for the south Florida Sun-Sentinel with a primary focus on crime fiction.

Sons of Spade is dedicated to private eye fiction everywhere with reviews of books and interviews from writers of the genre.

INTERNATIONAL CRIME FICTION

Detectives Beyond Borders: Created by Peter Rozovsky, and a recent winner of the Spinetingler Award for special services to the industry, the blog focuses primarily on international crime fiction outside the U.S., although U.S. books and authors are also fair game.

Do You Write Under Your Own name is actually written by British author Martin Edwards with thoughtful observations on European crime fiction and related topics.

Crime Always Pays: This is the work of author Declan Burke, an Irish author, reviewer, and editor who discusses a little bit of everything crime fiction-related with an emphasis on Irish authors.

Crime Scene NI is another blog devoted primarily to Irish fiction, by author Gerard Brennan.

Eurocrime is the blog component of the Eurocrime web site operated by Karen Meek, both of which are great resources for all things crime fiction from the other side of the pond.

Scandinavian Crime Fiction is the brainchild of professor-librarian Barbara Fister, who also maintains an associated web site of links and resources.

Big Beat From Badsville is a relatively new offering about Scottish crime fiction by author Donna Moore.

GENERAL INTEREST BOOK BLOGS

When I have time, I drop by the book blog offerings by the New York Times (titled Paper Cuts), the Guardian, the Washington Post's Short Stack, The Baltimore Sun's Read Street and Amazon's Omnivoracious. Other bookaholic blogs to check out are The Elegant Variation, Book Ninja, Maud Newton and The Book Bitch (which wins my award for fa

Writers Police Academy and More

 

Lee Lofland, veteran police investigator and author of Police Procedure and Investigation, is also the driving force behind the Writers Police Academy which debuted last year. This conference is not your standard writers' event, and is "designed to offer writers the opportunity to see and handle actual police and fire equipment, smell the odors associated with burning buildings, hear the clang of closing cell doors, ride in police cars and ambulances, handcuff bad guys, gather crime scene evidence, solve a homicide, and much more." Lofland is already planning the 2010 Academy, to be held in Jamestown, N.C., at the Guilford Technical Community College and Public Safety Training Academy which has fully functional police and fire training facilities. Look for details on the above link soon for how to sign up.

In the meantime, check out Lee's blog The Graveyard Shift, which includes a great deal of helpful information for writers (and fun stuff for readers, too), about police procedures and equipment and other law enforcement tips and tales.

In the same vein of real-life resource blogs for writers, you should bookmark Dr. D.P. Lyle's Writer's Forensics, which has a wealth of interesting, helpful, and often gory details to help writers get it right. Lyle is the author Murder and Mayhem: A Doctor Answers Medical and Forensic Questions for Mystery Writers, a compilation of the most interesting questions he has received over the years, and Forensics For Dummies.

For a look into the reality of Private Investigations, check out Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes, a blog by two private eyes who are also authors, where youll find insider tricks of the trade. The PI Now blog also has some good info, but with a more news-oriented focus.

For additional police insights, check out Cop in the Hood and the Johnny Law Chronicles.

An Early Halloween

 

Since stores now put up their Halloween displays around the Fourth of July, it's only fitting to feature an author who specializes in horror and paranormal suspense and has been nominated for a Bram Stoker award for best debut novel. Deborah Leblanc is also the president of the Horror Writers Association and active in the  Mystery Writers of America's Southwest Chapter and Sisters in Crime. In addition to being part of paranormal investigation teams, she's also own a funeral service business and is a licensed death scene investigator. I asked her a couple of quick questions about those items and her literacy program.

IRTM:  I understand you're a licensed death scene investigator, although that's not your primary living. What made you decide to get the license and what's involved in getting certified? Have you ever been called upon to use this experience outside of your books?

DL:  Curiosity and frustration caused me to look into death scene investigation. I've worked in the funeral service industry for a number of years now, primarily as a management consultant. When I first started, I had to earn my stripes by learning the trade from the ground up--no pun intended--in order to be accepted in that industry. Earning those stripes included assisting with removals, embalmings, casketing, cosmetizing and even schlepping flowers to gravesites. It took about two years before the industry finally recognized me as one of their own. But even after that 'trial by fire' period was over, I continued to help with the 'hands-on' duties whenever I can and still do today.

All that said, it was during that two year training period and doing removals that initially sparked my interest in death scene investigation. I'm overly curious by nature, so each time I helped remove a body from a homicide scene or one where the cause of death didn't appear clear-cut, a million questions raced through my mind. The 'who--what--when--where--how--and whys plagued me long after the body was embalmed. And so it went for five more years.

Then one day, as fate would have it, the Safety Director for the National Funeral Directors Assoc. , who also happened to be my mentor in the business and a priceless friend, handed me a brochure about a death scene investigation program that included licensure at a Georgia university. There was a prerequisite for licensure, however. The applicant had to have served in law enforcement for a minimum of ten years--or had to have worked in funeral service for at least seven years. Remember the fate I mentioned earlier? I had just finished my seventh year in funeral service, which made me eligible!

Before you could say CSI Miami, I signed up for the program and was soon elbow-deep in text books, lectures, and hands-on workshops that focused on blood spatter analysis, DNA testing, fingerprint analysis, profiling---it was Nirvana!

I've never been called upon to use this experience outside of writing, but it has served other purposes. It's allowed me 'behind the scenes', where I can question something I think has been overlooked, which occasionally has detectives looking in new, more productive directions to solve a case.

IRTM:  You also have worked in the funeral/mortician business? What types of
experiences has that involved, and how do those work their way into your
writing?

DL: Funeral service is a fascinating business to me, and I hold directors and embalmers (in many states they're one in the same) in high regard. It takes a special person to deal with death and the bereaved everyday and still maintain a positive outlook on life.

Being involved in this unique business has provided a treasure chest of experiences that would be invaluable to any storyteller.  Even if I lived to be a hundred, I'd never be able to pen enough novels to write about them all. From a writer's perspective, the best part about experiencing even the worst this death business has to offer is authenticity. It brings a ring of truth to my readers' ears.

When I write about a murder scene, you can bet all your bananas on the fact that you're reading the real deal. I'm recalling an actual murder scene I've witnessed--sights, sounds, smells. If a tale involves a shooting, not only can I give an accurate accounting of gunshot wounds and blood spatter, I know the weight and feel of the weapons used. I'm licensed to carry concealed, so I spend as much time as time allows on the firing range. Sometimes I target practice with a 9mm Glock, a 9mm Luger, and know all too well the rapid casing spray from an automatic M11.

If one of my stories takes you into an embalming room, chances are it'll read as if you're actually there--because I've actually  been there. You'll read secrets of the trade that few outsiders ever hear about.

I'm a stickler for details because my greatest desire is to have a reader truly experience my stories. I want him or her to feel as if they are standing right in the scene.

The same holds true when I write about paranormal experiences. You can bet most of what you're reading comes from a first- hand experience. I've been a paranormal investigator for over 15 years, and have found myself in some of the creepiest places on the globe.

I have to admit, though, that sometimes I can take this obsession for detail a tad too far. Like the time I had myself locked in a casket. I was writing GRAVE INTENT at the time, and since one of my main characters wound up locked and trapped in a casket--I HAD to know, instead of imagine, what that felt like. What were the movement limitations REALLY like inside a casket. What about the smell? Did ANY light filter through cracks? Did sound penetrate through a coffin? Yep, that adventure was a bit intimidating, to say the least--but it sure was a rush experiencing it!

IRTM: I'm very much interested in the organization you founded, Literacy, Inc., since I'm a firm believer in literacy for all ages. The Leblanc Literacy Challenge has cash incentives for reading--including this year a potential grand prize of a free college education--which involves reading some of your books and taking a quiz and writing an essay. Certainly, the scholarship and funds for the kids and their schools are a great idea, and I'm curious as to what response you've had thus far? Are you considering branching out and including other books in the future?

DL: The Literacy Challenge is now in its fourth year, and the program response has exceeded our wildest expectations. So you can witness the impact it's had first hand, I've included a few comments we've received from teachers, students and parents:  "The workshop was very enlightening to my students. It not only motivated them to read, but excited them about the challenge. I was thrilled by the way you were able to relate to the students, get on their level and share with them the boundless opportunities that await them if they only try." 

Deborah Leblanc's latest paranormal suspense novel is Water Witch. She's also currently writing a paranormal thriller for Harlequin Nocturne, part of a trilogy with Heather Graham and Alexandra Sokoloff.

 

A Thrilling, Tony Trio

 

Harper Collins recently published the latest novels from James Grippando, Jane Stanton Hitchcock and Paulo Coehlo, and sent along some copies. At first, I thought I might feature them separately, but then I realized they have a common theme running not only among the three books but also the three authors.

Coehlo's book, The Winner Stands Alone, zeroes in on society's fascination with the world of fame, fortune, and celebrity, something Coehlo himself knows first-hand, as a theater director, actor and lyricist in his native Brazil. His novel takes place over a 24-hour period at the Cannes Film Festival, with the "superclass" of producers, actors, designers, and supermodels juxtaposed against aspiring starlets, has-been stars and jaded hangers-on. The story focuses on a successful, driven Russian entrepreneur who will go to the darkest lengths, even murder, to reclaim his ex-wife, but it's as much a indictment of the excesses and shaky moral ground of the Hollywood and celebrity lifestyle as it is a thriller. (That particular theme turns out to be a bit ironic, considering at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, Harvey Weinstein bought the rights to Coelho's best-selling The Alchemist and will be producing it with a budget of $60 million.)

Author Jane Stanton Hitchcock is no stranger to fame and fortune, either, her mother being noted actress Joan Alexander and her father (adoptive stepfather) a wealthy Volkswagen executive, who entertained lavishly in New York and the Hamptons with the likes of George Plimpton, Neil Simon, and Leonard Bernstein. In Hitchcock's latest novel, Mortal Friends, the high society-connected Reven Lynch joins forces with a DC detective, playing an "ersatz Mata Hari" navigating embassy dinners and charity balls to help catch a killer, the "Beltway Basher," who might be closer to home than Reven realizes; the most likely suspect is Reven's businessman love interest. Eventually, her efforts cause her social world to unravel, put an old friendship to the test and unleash quite a bit of scandal as Reven discovers nothing in either high or low culture is what it appears to be.

Although novelist James Grippando didn't start out in such rarified circles as Hitchcock, his legal career drove him on the fast track to becoming a partner at Steel Hector and Davis, the Miami law firm at which former Attorney General Janet Reno began her career. His latest novel, Intent to Kill, centers around a fallen baseball star, Ryan James, who uses his skills as Boston's king of sports radio to outwit a dangerous caller and prove the hit-and-run which killed his wife was no accident. With help from the dedicated prosecutor on the case, James tries to unravel a cover-up that reaches back to the night of his wife's death and could end up involving one of New England's richest and most powerful families.

Power, greed and fame — the getting and the keeping — are certainly prime fodder for crime, and these three novels make good use of that construct. As philosopher Francis Bacon pointed out, “Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid," or, as Hitchcock's protagonist Reven Lynch says in Mortal Friends, "This being Washington, and Washington being the capital of ambition, there are a lot of killers around here, believe me. I imagined quite a few people in that audience would be capable of murder if they thought it would advance their careers, or keep them in power."

A Little Lamb Lost

 

In the subgenre of amateur detectives, there seem to be no boundaries regarding a protagonist's vocation. Some tend to stretch credulity to its limits, but others, such as social work, provide the potential for a depth of material to mine. There haven't been many social worker sleuths in crime fiction, Irene Marcuse's Anita Servi series and Tom Schreck's Duffy Dombrowski, being two examples.

One of the most recent is the June debut novel by Margaret Fenton, Little Lamb Lost. From the "write what you know" school, Fenton, herself a child and family therapist, is married to a software developer in Birmingham, Alabama. In Little Lamb Lost, social worker Claire Conover gets drawn into a murder case after a child she recommended be returned to his reformed drug-addict mother is killed, allegedly by the mother. After the Department of Human Services and the press get wind of Claire's involvement, she tries to uncover the truth behind the boy's death and prove the mother innocent. Aided by a computer geek (and potential love interest -- see note above about the author's hubby), she pursues answers through the streets of Birmingham, identifying the child's child-abusing step-grandfather, a drug addict son of a rich area family and two boyfriends of the mother as potential suspects.

Fenton casts Conover as a sympathetic heroine, who honestly believes she can make a different in the world, despite the depressing life stories she's faced with on a daily basis and the troubled reality of the foster care system. Birmingham, Alabama, is also not a typical setting for a crime novel, with more opportunities for a fresh take on setting and sense of place. Publishers Weekly said in a review that "With her fine ear for regional speech, Fenton may do for Birmingham what Margaret Maron has done for rural North Carolina." (Speaking of Maron, the Women of Mystery are giving away a copy of her latest book, Sand Sharks. Click here.)

One interesting side note: Fenton has Anne George (who died in 2001) to thank for become a published author. As Fenton note, the pair "were on our way to a Sisters in Crime meeting one night and I was babbling on about Laura Lippman’s first book and how much I liked it when she said, 'Margaret, I don’t know why someone who loves mysteries as much as you do doesn’t try to write one.' I didn’t have a good answer for that. So the next day I started thinking about it. I am an LCSW and worked with child welfare for many years, so that seemed a good place to start."

Fenton is working on a sequel to the novel, titled Little Girl Gone, in what promises to become a new series.

Detectives Don't Wear Seatbelts

 

In advance of the September release of the memoir Detectives Don't Wear Seatbelts: True Adventures of a Female P.I. by CiCi McNair, Hachette Books is offering readers of In Reference to Murder in the U.S. and Canada five free copies of the book. To enter, send an e-mail with your name and complete mailing address to bv@bvlawson.com with "Detectives Don't Wear Seatbelts" in the subject line, between now and midnight on August 31st. The five winners will be selected via random drawing and announced here the next day.

CiCi McNair fled a suffocating and emotionally-abusive childhood in Mississippi as soon as she could, taking a more traditional route at first with a Bachelor of Arts degree in American history. She used that degree to good effect researching the award-winning CBC documentary Connections, about organized crime in Canada. That led to news anchoring in Rome and a news broadcast stint on Vatican Radio.

But that wasn't enough for McNair. After years traveling around Europe, she returned to New York in 1994, divorced, broke and "camping out in a  borrowed apartment with an open suitcase under a dining room table."  She impulsively decided to become a private detective and started calling agencies in the Yellow Pages starting with "A" and working her way down the alphabet, before she was hired on April Fool's Day by a firm willing to give her a chance. Since then, she's worked for an ex-homicide detective in Mississippi with her 84-year-old mother riding shotgun in the surveillance car, joined a zany private eye firm in Hell's Kitchen fighting counterfeiters, and worked undercover with New York City law enforcement investigating the Born to Kill gang in Chinatown and the Middle Eastern underworld west of Broadway.

Since 2003 she's been head of the international firm Great Star Investigations, first in Miami and now in Philadelphia. Her firm handles cases including counterfeit pharmaceuticals, missing persons, stolen art recovery, and murder. McNair herself also works as a court-appointed investigator handling capital and non-capital cases. 

Detectives Don't Wear Seatbelts often reads like a first-person novel, and McNair has a flair for storytelling, as well as plenty of insights into her male-dominated field. Of her encounters with the Feebs (FBI), U.S. marshals, NYPD, Jersey cops, and others she encountered while working undercover in Chinatown, she says

"There were always ex-cops coming in and out of the office and others on the phone. The worst of them were racist, sexist, dishonest, and dumb. The best of them had a genuine urge or even a need to be protective of others. They were savvy and resourceful, and if there's anything I ever want to be called--it's that. Their brains turned me on. In every way. But I never did more than fantasize about making love to a detective. It would have been far too dangerous for my future. Detectives are skeptics, paranoid, and gossip like mad when they're not putting two and two together on their own. But it wasn't just fear of damaging my reputation. It would have made incest look like breaking a diet."

Wednesday Wanderings

 

From around the blogosophere, here are some interesting tidbits which include a couple of book giveaways (proving sometimes there is a free lunch, or at least, a free book), interviews ranging far and wide, and essays on topics such as "why we don't need stupid characters" and "lady killers of the 1940s."

• Over at the Women of Mystery blog, Lois Karlin reviewed British crime writer Martina Cole’s Faces and has info on a chance to win a copy of the just-released American edition of the novel.

• Meanwhile, the Book Bitch has the lowdown on how to win a signed copy of Ridley Pearson's Killer Summer and two unsigned paperbacks from that same series.

• On the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel's blog, Oline Cogdill notes that Chauncey's Book Group on Facebook is hosting James O. Born in their online discussion of his book The Human Disguise, tomorrow at noon.

• The busy Cogdill also writes for the Mystery Scene Magazine blog, taking inspiration from a discussion on the Dorothy-L list as she opines about why we don't need stupid characters in mystery fiction.

• Ali Karim over at the Rap Sheet has a great interview with Joseph Finder, who switches from standalone thrillers to a series character, corporate investigator Nick Heller, in his novel, Vanished.

• Speaking of Joseph Finder, his latest column for the Daily Beast features Stephen L. Carter, Yale law professor and author of the new novel Jericho’s Fall, who reveals he wrote his latest novel in eight weeks.

• Martin Edwards of Do You Write Under Your Own Name? reviewed an episode of the Wallander series produced by Swedish television (not to be confused with Kenneth Brannagh's production) which was recently shown on BBC4. Starring Kirster Henriksson in the title role, Edwards pronounces it "first-rate viewing."

• Mysterious Matters looked back at some of the lady killers from the 1940s, including Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (The Innocent Mrs. Duff and The Blank Wall), former MWA Grand Master Dorothy B. Hughes, Margaret Millar (In a Lonely Place) and Celia Fremlin. 

• Mysterious People held a conversation with Scottish novelist Gillian Philip, who actually began her writing career while living in Barbados. 

• The Beatrice blog interviewed Rennie Airth about his series of police procedurals (Scotland Yard) set in England a few years after the First World War.

• Sandy Parshall interviewed Katy Munger for Poe's Deadly Daughters. Munger took a few years off from publishing but returns with two new novels, the debut of the Dead Detective series (written under the pseudonym Chaz McGee), and Bad Moon on the Rise, the latest in her Casey Jones series.
  

• The Guardian wrote an obit for Gordon Burn who died this past Friday, calling him "one of the greatest – and arguably underrated – British writers of his age" who influenced other writers like David Peace and turned northern England into as foreboding a backdrop as James Ellroy's Los Angeles or Ian Rankin's Edinburgh.

The Dynamics of Dillinger

The new film Public Enemies starring Johnny Depp as John Dillinger has brought the notorious bank robber back into the spotlight, spurring a mini-boom in Dillinger books, articles, and festivals. The Hotel Congress in Tucson, Arizona, where Dillinger was arrested in 1934 had a commemoration timed to coincide with the premiere of the movie, and in St. Paul, Minnesota, there's a Public Enemies Festival with author lectures, exhibits, and a reenactment of the trial of Dillinger’s girlfriend, Evelyn Frechette. You can even bid on Dillinger's derringer pistol, which is going up for auction on July 25 (although you'd better have about $45,000 on hand).

Although there have been many books on the life of the legendary Dillinger, there have been fewer on the gang members associated with him during his life, many of whom had even more colorful lives and committed more crimes that Dillinger himself. One such book is The Rise and Fall of the Dillinger Gang by Jeffery S. King (who also penned The Life and Death of Pretty Boy Floyd), which provides biographical information on nine of Dillinger's associates, their upbringing and how they drifted into -- or in some cases like Homer Van Meter -- actively sought out a life of crime. King delved into FBI files, court and prison records, and local newspapers to write this well-documented account of the supporting cast who supported Dillinger, most of whom would make fascinating biographical studies all their own.  As William Helmer comments on the back cover, "Dillinger didn't do it alone."

King includes some of the bizarre events from their escapades, such as Baby Face Nelson taking a perverse pleasure in Homer Van Meter's distress at the look of his face after Meter's plastic surgery, and firefighters helping Russell Lee Clark and Charley Makley during a fire at the Congress Hotel save their baggage which included a heavy fabric box where several machine guns were hidden. The book has several photos, some of morgue shots, and extensive bibliographical notes.

A companion book to Dillinger and the era of the gangster and outlaw era from 1920-1940 is The Complete Public Enemy Almanac by William Helmer and Rick Mattix. A valuable reference resource, the book has encyclopedic entries with outlaw bios and the FBI Gang Membership List, timelines of crime, interesting articles and sidebars such as info on the state of the police radio and bulletproofing and a listing of local and federal officers killed in the line of duty during the period, as well as what's billed as "the first comprehensive true-crime bibliography."

Both are good resources to have in your library if you're a fan of the gangster and outlaw era, or if you're researching or writing historical crime fiction set in that time period.

Conference Close-Up

 

 

 

In case you hadn't heard the news, Poisoned Pen is putting together the very first virtual crime fiction conference, to be held on October 24.  In an era when folks are having to cut back on expenses (including travel to traditional conferences), this is a good alternative to participate without leaving your home. Guest of Honor Dana Stabenow and International Guest of Honor Lee Child will join a stellar list of other authors for online discussions, interviews, and presentations. There will even be agent pitch sessions for a lucky few (assigned by random draw). A registration fee of $25 "gets you in the door."

The 2009 National Book Festival from the Library of Congress, to be held on the National Mall September 26th, has a distinguished group of crime fiction authors included in their Mysteries and Thrillers lineup, including David Baldacci, Lee Child, Mary Jane Clark, Margaret Coel, Michael Connelly, Craig Johnson, Walter Moseley, S.J. Rozan, and Lisa Scottoline. If you can't make it, C-Span TV will be covering some of the events.

Crimetime UK has some highlights of the upcoming Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival July 23-26, including the "New Blood" panel moderated by Val McDermid, "Music to Murder By," and "Emerald Noir," which takes a look at Irish fiction.

Other conferences coming up this month include the 16th annual Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference in Corte Madera, California, with pre-conference classes led by Hallie Ephron and David Hewson. The list of authors who will be presenting is quite long and includes many of the best and brightest writing today.

San Diego Comic Con on Thursday, July 23rd, will feature panels on crime fiction in graphic novel format, including panels on "Crime: Usual and Unusual"; "A Darker Shade of Ink: Crime and Noir in Comics"; "Vertigo New Ongoing Series/Crime Line", and more.

And PulpFest takes place July 31st to August 2nd in Columbus, Ohio, with Guest of Honor Otto Penzler.

 

Have Some Boston Scream Pie

 

In addition to writing short stories, articles, and essays, husband and wife co-authors Rosemary and Larry Mild author a mystery series set in a small Maryland village featuring Paco LeSoto, a dapper retired Baltimore detective, and Molly Mesta, a witty housekeeper and cook whose cleverness, skewed language and culinary skills are matched only by her girth. The pair hit it off well enough in the first book of the series, Locks & Cream Cheese, that they got married in the second installment, Hot Grudge Sunday.

In the third novel featuring Paco and Molly, Boston Scream Pie, high school student Caitlin Neuman is plagued by a series of bizarre nightmares from a car accident which claimed both her parents and twin sister years earlier. Convinced there is more to the nightmares than she knows, Caitlin seeks out Paco and Molly's help, leading the duo to uncover a trail of unsolved deaths surrounding the former husbands of newlywed Delylah Boston, and a case of mistaken identity buried deep in the past. When another Boston family member dies under suspicious circumstances, the clues point to murder, leaving Paco and Molly to wonder whether they've uncovered a long-hidden secret, or stirred up a recipe for disaster.

The Milds are on a book blog tour starting this week and agreed to stop by In Reference to Murder for an interview:

Q: In a recent blog posting, Larry mentioned he enjoys adventure novels that give him a taste of foreign lands and cultures, and Rosemary chose a novel set in India (The Life of Pi) as a favorite book. Since you are both well-traveled and also divide your time between Maryland and Hawaii, what made you decide to set your Paco/Molly series in Maryland (although the second book was set out west)?

LARRY: There were three reasons for choosing Maryland. First, I believed that a coastal setting was integral to the Marche House manor. Second, the Chesapeake Bay is home base, and we could expect more publicity for a Severna Park homie. Third, we know the region really well—well enough to sprinkle sufficient real locations to give validity to the made-up Black Rain Corners. However, this does not mean we have neglected our world travels. They have found their way into many of our short stories, including Hawaii and Asia.

ROSEMARY: The Maryland climate works especially well for Boston Scream Pie.  

Q: Where did the idea for Molly's language-twisting "Molly-props" (a play on the word malapropism) come from? Anyone we know?  (I really loved "defecation of character.")

ROSEMARY: The original Molly (not her real name) was my psychoanalyst father’s housekeeper and gourmet cook. My father kept a list of all her clever sayings. She was a born snoop, who knew the secrets of every family member and friend. Her snooping skills have translated well to our novels and prove to be of great help to Paco. In Locks and Cream Cheese, she overwaters all the plants (leaving white rings) and overfeeds Dr. Avi Kepple’s golden retriever, who lunches on filet mignon and scalloped potatoes. All of this is true to the real-life Molly. Both she and my father have passed away, but we’re delighted to have immortalized them.

Q: I read that Larry claims to be more devious than Molly, so he conjures up the plots for the books and Molly conjures up characters and scenes. Is this true and just how does that process work?

LARRY: Close, but no cigar. I do conjure up the plots, but only after we’ve hashed over the details for some time during long walks on a nearby trail, while swimming, etc. I also write the first draft, setting skeletal requirements for scenes and characters in doing so. Then Rosemary brushes color and a sense of place into the scenes and breathes life into the characters, giving them appearance, personality, reactions, needs, and cravings. It is a serial process of handing the developing manuscript back and forth.   

ROSEMARY: Then we roll up our sleeves and “negotiate!” Right now we’re tussling over a short story set in Cambodia, where I’m in love with my lavish detail and Larry isn’t.

Q: Speaking of characters, twins play an important role in this book, not to give anything away of course, but we know early in the book that the young teenager Caitlin is an orphaned twin. Are their twins in your family who inspired you to make them part of the plot?

LARRY: I’ve looked under the family tree and could not dig up any twins among the roots. The credits for wrapping twins around the plot are twofold. A childhood favorite, Alexander Dumas, wrote of one twin feeling the sword point pain of the second twin’s wound in The Corsican Brothers. Also, I’m nuts about Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, where the theme of misplaced twins comes up more than chance would have it.   

ROSEMARY: During one of our winters in Honolulu, I met a delightful woman in my Jazzercise class, who turned out to be both a nurse and a twin. She agreed to read our Boston Scream Pie manuscript, and gave us valuable advice.

Q: You recently appeared at the 2009 Malice Domestic conference on a panel titled "Cozy and Loving It: A Send-up to a Beloved Genre." But Boston Scream Pie doesn't neatly fall into the category of what many mystery fans think of as a "cozy."  How did you feel about appearing on a panel with that title and are you concerned about the "cozy" label for your novels? (I actually prefer "detective fiction" since it fits almost all crime fiction with a few exceptions.)

LARRY: Agatha Christie leads the parade in the traditional mystery genre, where a lone sleuth singles out a villain from a closed and isolated number of highly probable suspects, using clue and alibi reduction and logical deduction. The genre now includes whodunit, howdunit, and whydunit. It is my belief that the term “cozy” applies to traditional mysteries that abstain from gratuitous blood and gore as well as explicit sex. Boston Scream Pie is a whodunit devoid of these so-called evils. In addition, we’ve kept the “traditional” pledge to satisfy and revolve all questions raised in the story. There, innocent after all!

ROSEMARY: We felt fine appearing on the “Cozies” panel. Today there are what I call “crossovers” in many mysteries. Boston Scream Pie includes a dark side, which gives it muscle and depth and is absolutely essential for certain characters. 

Q: The early reviews for Boston Scream Pie are good and Suspense Magazine even added you to their recommended reading list. Hopefully this bodes well for another installment in the series. Are there any plans for that in the works? Or perhaps a new series set in Hawaii?

LARRY:  We feel that Paco and Molly have aged well, but a fourth book might be a burden to their retiring years. However, with the plethora of accumulated Mollyprops, we might fashion a short story or two. We do have other projects. First, there is the finished—still unpublished—novel, Cry ‘Ohana, A Young Hawaiian’s Search for His Family. It’s been around for a while, mainly because of its epic length (470 pages). ‘Ohana means family in the Hawaiian language. While its theme explores the wonderful multicultural nature of Oahu, the story is full of suspense, adventure, murder, despair, and romance.  It’s the novel Rosemary and I cut our teeth on. Second, there’s Death Goes Postal, A Dan and Rivka Sherman Murder Mystery. It traces printing artifacts from the time of Gutenberg to the present in a series of vignettes. Murder, kidnapping, and suspense accompany the search for the artifact cache. Third, we have a repertoire of short stories (dozens even), some already published. Our soft-boiled detective series (four Slim O. Wittz stories) will appear in the e-zine Mysterical-E, beginning in Fall 2009.

ROSEMARY: I also write nonfiction. Right now I’m working on my second edition of Miriam’s Gift: A Mother’s Blessings—Then and Now, my memoir of our daughter killed in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Eventually, I’ll publish a collection of my personal essays. One of my favorites is “Arigato” in Chicken Soup for the Coffee Lover’s Soul, about our visit to an unusual Starbucks in Kanazawa, Japan.  

Q: Since my hubster is an audio/radio engineer, I have to ask Larry if he's considered a thriller using any of his technical expertise as fodder, or if any of his experiences as an electrical/radio engineer have played a helpful role in your novels to date?

LARRY: Sure, I’ve considered thrillers, but none are in the works as yet. However, technology has worked its way into several of our short stories. “Assault and Battery” focuses on an all-electric car. “Art by the Numbers” depends upon an encrypted elevator. “Artificial Affection” is all about a loving computer with erotic needs. “Dream Channels” involves His and Hers remotes. There are others, too. 

Q: So, Rosemary -- any plans on trying out for Jeopardy again? 

ROSEMARY: Sigh . . . Probably not. We watch the show every night. I can do beautifully and horribly in a single half-hour. I suppose I could try the on-line test again. On-line the humiliation is so much less public.

Rosemary and Larry Mild are giving away a signed copy of their book, Boston Scream Pie, to one lucky tour visitor. Go to their book tour page, enter your name, e-mail address, and this PIN, 3901, for your chance to win. Entries from In Reference to Murder will be accepted until 12:00 Noon (PT) tomorrow. No purchase is required to enter or to win. The winner (first name only) will be announced on their book tour page next week.

A House of Ghosts

 

Debut novelist Larry Kaplan is author of the recently-released House of Ghosts, featuring Detective Joe Henderson, the modern incarnation of Philip Marlowe -- hard boiled, hard drinking, hard loving, and cynical, offering wry observations of life in the age of Starbucks.

The tale begins in the summer of 2000 when Preston Swedge, an alcoholic recluse and World War II veteran, has died in Westfield, New Jersey. At his estate sale, retired local police detective Henderson discovers a 1944 diary describing a rogue attempt by a Jewish-American pilot named Paul Rothstein to drop his bombs on Auschwitz's killing complex where nearly 300,000 captives were about to be murdered. Henderson's curiosity launches him on a crusade for the truth and a shocking revelation when he tracks down the last living witness who can solve the mystery of why the raid never happened.

Author Kaplan comes from a more unusual background to pen such a novel, especially as a debut. Many crime fiction authors today began as journalists, lawyers, law enforcement personnel, or forensic investigators, but Kaplan is...a dentist.

IRTM:  I'm sure a lot of folks wonder why you weren't tempted to stay "closer to home," thematically, with your first novel, say a forensic dentist or anything medical, but as it turns out, the inspiration for this novel is drawn from your own family, isn't it?

LK: My late mother-in-law was deported from Hungary to Auschwitz in July 1944 and saw American bombers fly directly over the camp and fly into the distance. Her story played a large part in my writing House of Ghosts, searching for the reasons why the United States chose not to stop the killing in the Nazi’s largest European murder center when it had the means to do so. In the first number of drafts, and the total number was thirteen, the main protagonist actually was a dentist and that character was myself. I was boring!! The story was boring. Could I have written the part as a booze sloshing, pill popping, skirt chasing, chain smoking Dr. Larry? I suppose I could have. Would it have been believable? I doubt it. Does the mystery reader really want plot points concerning second bicuspids and bleeding gums interspersed with Charles Lindbergh and the America First isolationist movement? I don’t think so.

I replaced myself with Detective Lieutenant Joe Henderson and invented Alenia Gilbert, an ex-Russian stripper, big chested and blonde, to give Joe someone to bounce the history aspect of the story off. Without Alenia, House of Ghosts becomes a history book, not a mystery.

You have to admit that booze and big-chested blondes trump bicuspids and gums everyday.

IRTM: Apparently this book started out as a nonfiction work. At what point did you decide to turn it into a novel instead?

LK: My initial thought was to write a non-fiction book about the crews that flew on missions to bomb the I.G. Farben synthetic oil and rubber plant 4 miles from the Auschwitz complex. I wanted to cover what they thought they were flying over and what they discussed when returning to their bases. The research was tedious and difficult. Pilots and crews either were deceased or didn’t want to talk. Then it was pointed out that I had DDS after my name, not a PhD in history. Without credentials, I’d never get it published. It was at that point, I decided to form an amalgam (There! I got a dental term in!) of the social history of the United States prior to Pearl Harbor and the military history after.

 

IRTM: Were you able to track down and interview any WWII pilots who flew with the Allied forces in and around the German concentration camps?

LK: I developed a relationship with a retired Air Force general who during WWII flew a B-17 from Italy in the 15th Air Force. Based in Foggia, his group, the 2nd Heavy Bombardment, flew missions to Germany, France, and Poland. The Poland runs took him over the death camp. At first he was hesitant to talk to me. Over a period of months he opened up and confirmed my suspicions. He stated in no uncertain terms, that contrary to the accepted version of not knowing what they were flying over, the massive complex with the crematoria stacks blowing smoke and ash into the sky wasn’t an amusement park and everyone knew it. He gave me the name of another pilot who refused my calls and returned my written letters. One man’s testimony does not make a book.

IRTM: In a recent broadcast interview, you said you also included a couple of patients in this book (from NYU), or at least characters based on those patients. How did that come about?

LK: Joe Henderson’s friends Kopel and Naomi Weinstein were patients of mine for over twenty years. Both have passed away. They were delightful people who loved dogs. Joe’s black Labrador Roxy is in actuality my Lab and as an aside, she put a paw print to the waiver allowing me to use her real name. I took Roxy to their apartment where Naomi made a fuss over her. The Weinsteins met as freshman at NYU in 1938. They graduated in December 1942, and Kopel was immediately drafted. They married and Naomi followed her soldier boy to Ft. Knox, Kentucky where Kopel spent the remainder of the war in supply and requisition. Naomi took a job as a civilian on the post. Her service related story generated a major plot point that I’ll get back to in a moment.

Talking to the Weinsteins was as good as taking a time-machine back to 1938. Their descriptions of campus life and the Jewish student’s response or, better said, lack of response to the news coming over the radio from Europe was astounding. Their stories put me right in the Student Union riding out that devastating hurricane Paul Rothstein, Sarah Greenbaum, and Dave Schwartz experienced.

Now back to Naomi and Ft. Knox. She related how she had to endure the verbal tirades of a very anti-Semitic southern sergeant. In her secretarial position she typed orders. Waiting for the best moment to spring her revenge, she arranged for the “bastard” as she called him to be shipped to the Burma Theater of operations, the farthest point on the earth from Ft. Knox and the deadliest. The odds of the racist surviving were between slim and none.

In House of Ghosts, Jake Rothstein has members of the Jewish action group placed in the U.S. Army command headquarters that ultimately enables Paul to be in position to attempt a bomb run on Auschwitz.

My logic was if a civilian clerk like Naomi could maneuver personnel, why couldn’t an organized effort.

The Weinsteins were a treasure trove of information and I miss them very much.

 

IRTM: Is there any particular inspiration or model for your protagonist, ex-cop Joe Henderson? Is there a little Joe Henderson lurking in Larry Kaplan?

LK: Joe is a hobo’s stew cobbled together from bits and pieces of Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade. But, I suppose Joe gets his wise ass attitude from his creator.

 

IRTM: You're on your second publisher with this book, isn't that right? Is there an unusual story behind that situation?

LK: There is an interesting story, but you’ll have to wait. Someday I’ll work it into a plot of a future Joe Henderson mystery.

 

IRTM: It took you 10 years to write this first book but now you're working on a prequel. Do you think it will be another 10 years for that one, too, or will the pro hopefully be a little easier (and swifter) this time around?

LK: Gene Killers, number two in the Joe Henderson series, is on target for winter release 2010. This novel tackles the bio-tech industry and the FDA’s incompetence. When a genetically engineered drug about to receive FDA approval goes bad, it threatens to destroy the company, its investors and puts the United States and China on the precipice of war.

IRTM: You're a self-proclaimed history nut, mostly concerning the period right before World War II through shortly after the end of the War. Are you planning different historical mysteries down the road at some point?

LK: Yes. I am a history junkie. Been to re-hab and even did the Twelve Steps to break the addiction to the History and Military Channels, but had a recidivist rate of 100%.

All kidding aside, I am doing the research for a novel that opens in the waning days of WWII in a Russian surrounded Berlin and culminates in Washington, D.C. in the year 2012. The history, as in House of Ghosts, is hard fact, the conclusions are the author’s.

Thanks for the opportunity to appear on the virtual tour.
 

Larry Kaplan is giving away a signed copy of his book, House of Ghosts, to one tour visitor. Go to Larry's Book Tour page, enter your name, e-mail address, and this PIN, 7666, for your chance to win. Entries from this blog site will be accepted until 12:00 Noon (PT) tomorrow. No purchase is required to enter or to win. The winner (first name only) will be announced on Larry's book tour page next week.

Fatally Flaky

 

In honor of the recent Malice Domestic Conference, Sarah Weinman and Publishers Weekly posted articles with reviews of some of the most popular traditional mysteries. You'd have to add to that listing New York Times best-selling author Diane Mott Davidson, who has won the Anthony Award from Bouchercon, was nominated for Agatha and Macavity Awards and was named Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Writer of the Year. She just released her 15th novel in the Culinary Mystery Series featuring Goldy the caterer, titled Fatally Flaky. 

Fatally Flaky finds Goldy dealing with Billie Attenborough, the bridezilla from Hell. As if that isn't bad enough, Doc Finn, a beloved local physician and best friend of Goldy's godfather Jack, is killed in a car accident. When Jack begins to suspect Doc was murdered for his investigation of the Gold Gulch Spa, Goldy goes undercover at the Spa against her Sheriff husband's wishes, all the while dodging bridezilla, Jack's jealous goldigging son, and the owner of the spa who sabotaged Goldy's fledgling business years ago.

Here's an excerpt from the opening:

Cynics say getting married is a death wish.

 

Now, I'm no Pollyanna, but I try to ignore cynics. Anyway, what I usually say is that catering weddings is a death wish. My assistant, twenty-two-year old Justin Teller, and I laugh at that. Yucking it up provides a bit of comic relief within the stress of serving trays of appetizers with drinks, then lunch or dinner with wine, followed by cake with champagne or Asti Spumante—and doing it all quickly—to a hundred guests. Trust me—if there's one thing caterers need at weddings is comic relief.

 

Unfortunately, the events surrounding Bridezilla Billie Attenborough's wedidng proved the truth of the original axiom. Still, it wasn't a death wish that proved troublesome. It was death itself. And as the bodies piled up around the Attenborough nuptials, I began to think someone was gunning for me, too.

 

Turned out, I was right.

This not the type of book you pick up for proper police procedures and plausibility, but it's a light entertaining read and comes complete with recipes for the non-culinarily-challenged.

Barbara Peters of Poisoned Pen Press interviewed Davidson, which you can find here (note there are 6 parts). She says when the first novel came out, the publisher didn't want to put recipes in the book. They said "No one was doing this" and she said, "Trust me. Mystery readers love to read about food because they love to eat whlie they're reading."

When asked by Peters why there's such a close connection between food and mystery novels, Davidson replied that writers use food to show a particular character or aspect of a character, such as Strike Three: You're Dead by Richard Dean Rosen in which the main character, a baseball player who is still grieving over the loss of a friend, cooks a big meal and then throws it out because he can't eat. Even before Davidson started writing her own books, she remembers novels like Promised Land by Robert B. Parker when Spencer is sauteeing veal cutlets while thinking about the case, which made her see how puzzling through dark details while performing something life-affirming like cooking provided a psychic break for both the detective and reader.

And in case you were wondering, this is definitely a "mom-friendly" book, so you can rest easy about picking up a copy for Mother's Day.

The Venetian Judgment

 

David Stone is the cover name for a man born into a military family with a history of combat service "going back to Waterloo." He's also a retired military officer himself who has worked with federal intelligence agencies and state-level law enforcement units in North America, Central America, and Southeast Asia. (His publisher, Penguin, has an interview with the author on their site, one of the few you'll find available).

Stone's first thriller, The Echelon Vendetta, introduced the character of Micah Dalton, a CIA "cleaner," the guy who erases a mess after something goes wrong in the field. In Venetian Judgment, Stone's and Dalton's third outing, the questionably sane Dalton (in the first book, he's visited by the ghost of a dead colleague with whom he holds long conversations), just about goes over the deep end when he starts assassinating members of the Serbian gang who shot his lover, in what is basically a suicide run.

But thanks to a mysterious jade box containing a stainless steel glasscutter which arrives at his villa, Dalton instead becomes involved in the search for a high-level traitor in the CIA thought to be responsible for the murder of elderly Mildred Durant, an adviser to an NSA decryption team known as the Glass Cutters. Dalton learns that not only did Durant work on the Venona Project which involved interception of Soviet cable traffic during the cold war, it appears Stalin had a source close to Roosevelt who was never exposed.

The hunt for answers leads Durant and his associate, a half-America, half-English aristocrat named Mandy Pownall, into airborne firefights above the Sea of Marmora, a sea chase up the Straits of the Bosphorus, and even to a violent confrontation in the mangrove swamps that line Florida’s Emerald Coast as they attempt to stop a group of spies before they paralyze America's most critical intelligence operations.

Stone's books are not for the squeamish, mixing in often explicit violence (not as much in Venetian Judgment as was the case with Echelon Vendetta), but the intricately-plotted spy thrillers with layers of insider details take readers on a Bondian thrill-ride around the world in a style some have compared to Robert Ludlum, with its similar themes of one crusading man up against a host of conspiracy theories.

Since Stone zealously maintains his cover, you'll never see him at booksignings or conferences. The best way to get a signed copy of his books is via VJ Books.

Mystery Melange for Middle o' the Week

 

Mike Ripley of Shots Magazine reported recently award-winning author Kate Atkinson confirmed she's currently working on her fourth Jackson Brodie crime novel, the follow-up to When Will There Be Good News?, and that she is also planning a fifth crime novel, "an homage to Agatha Christie" with a cast of characters trapped in a country house hotel.

Judith Freeman of the LA Times wrote about a letter she received which led to a friendship with Dorothy Fisher, once Raymond Chandler's secretary, and one of the few people still alive who knew the author personally. She described Chandler as an exceptionally kind and thoughtful man, who, despite accounts of previous affairs with secretaries, treated her with respect, perhaps because she was only 17 when she began working for him.

Speaking of Chandler, the Baltimore Sun's Read Street blog summarized some of the offerings in the recent game "Write Like Raymond Chandler," with commenters providing even more.

Bookgasm and Harper Collins are featuring a contest for an Amazon Kindle 2 and a copy of Andrew Gross's new thriller Don't Look Twice, but hurry -- the deadline is May 1st.

In case you missed it, the Wall Street Journal carried an essay by Alexander McCall Smith on the intense personal relationships readers form with characters and how that can complicate the very real lives of authors.

Jill Paton Walsh’s third Lord Peter Wimsey novel, The Attenbury Emeralds is scheduled for publication in Fall 2010. The Dorothy Sayers Estate’s trustees asked Paton Walsh to complete an unfinished Sayers' story, Thrones, Dominations, which was published in 1998 and was successful enough to be followed by a second and now the third installment.

Elizabeth Foxwell reported on her blog the Bunburyist that 007 beat The Saint at auction:  the Leslie Charteris books featuring Simon Templar, aka The Saint, went unsold, whereas a few first-edition Ian Fleming titles fared better.

The Tony Hillerman novel contest announced rules for next year's competition, which is awarded to a first mystery novel set in the Southwest. Unfortunately, they are canceling the short story contest they've held for the past several years.

Books Expo America announced the assignments for author signings in both the booth and floor signing areas, with crime fiction notables including Brad Meltzer, JT Ellison, Rick Mofina, MJ Rose, Karin Slaughter, and Lee Child.

Irish eyes are smiling right now, at least among fans of Irish crime fiction. Declan Burke has a note about readings in Belfast with Brian McGilloway and Declan Hughes tomorrow evening and with Gene Kerrigan and Colin Bateman in Dublin on the 24th. Burke also offers his thoughts on the new dedicated award to crime fiction as part of the Irish Book Awards.  And the Irish times liked the "dark entertaining" new thriller by Irish author Gene Kerrigan, Dark Times in the City.

Oregon's Friends of Mystery announced the Spotted Owl Award which is given each year to the best mystery books written by authors from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho or the Province of British Columbia. There were 11 finalists this year, due to a tie, with the nod doing to Executive Privilege by Phillip Margolin.

A Book Tour With Heart

 

Laurie R. King is promoting the release of her latest novel The Language of Bees (from the series featuring Mary Russell, amateur sleuth and wife of Sherlock Holmes) in a very charitable way. As part of her Fifteen Weeks of Bees tour, she's set up events that help indie booksellers, libraries, and an organization working with poverty worldwide:

• Readers who buy a copy of The Language of Bees from an independent bookseller and send along the receipt will be entered into a drawing for an original limited edition letterpress broadside (value $125) of her illustrated story "A Venomous Death." 

• During National Library Week, library patrons can submit "love letters" about their local public libraries. The winning writer will receive a copy of the book and their library wins a complete set of hardback Russel/Holmes novels, beginning with The Beekeeper's Apprentice. There will be also be a drawing this week from a list of libraries on the author's web site.

• The organization working with poverty worldwide is Heifer International, which sends beehives to poor communities worldwide. Those who donate two or more hives will get an exclusive Heifer booklet on beekeeping by Sherlock Holmes and be entered into a drawing to name a character in the next Russell/Holmes novel.

For more information on these events and the rest of her interesting and creative tour, check out her author site link.

A Book Recap-ture

 

In case you were monetarily-challenged like moi and unable to participate in the LA Times Festival of Books, here's a Recap of the Recaps, to keep you in the loop:

The Rap Sheet featured a three-part report on the "Fest of the West" starting with Part I from the pre-festival Mystery Bookstore party hosted by the Mystery Writers of America and followed by Part II looking at panels and signings on the first day and Part III's writeup of the Sunday festivities.

Jeri Westerson also had a two-part review from an author's perspective, located here and here.

Sarah Weinman was busy as a moderator but managed to pass along some thoughts.

GalleyCat had a backstage pass and reported on the book award winners, and Make Mine Mystery blog's Anne Carter participated in the successful Sisters in Crime booth.

Obsessions of a Pop Culture Nerd had a two-part recounting of the "Cops & Crooks in California" panel with Don Winslow, T. Jefferson Parker, Joseph Wambaugh, and Robert Crais as moderator, listed here and here.

If you're a Tweeple, you can check out Twitter's #latimesfob of on-site Tweets.

Not surprisingly, the LA Times was also there. The main page is here, but since it's almost book-length in its coverage, if you want to jump to the crime-fiction highlights, check out the following:

• Classic California Crime (true crime)

• Fiction: Closing Time including thriller writer Jerry Stahl (who was also interviewed about his latest, Pain Killers)

• Publishing: From Keyboard to Bookstore featuring Johnny Temple, the publisher and co-founder of Akashic Books and its noir series

• James Ellroy's weird, wild, and definitely not boring speech

• Historical crime fiction authors Tom Epperson, Denise Hamilton and Nina Revoyr with Sarah Weinman moderating discussing "Cold Cases"

• Don't want to leave some four-legged (and one two-legged) mystery fans.

Lords of Corruption

 

I usually cringe when I hear "ripped from the headlines" applied to a book since it tends to have more of a cheesy marketing stamp than anything substantive. But Kyle Mills's latest standalone thriller Lords of Corruption could indeed have stepped right out of the newspapers, as the almost-daily turmoil we see in African countries like Somalia and Sudan can attest. The violent Africa of Mills's world view is a far different cry from the gentle Botswana of Alexander McCall Smith, rife as it is with tribal battles and government corruption.

Mills has put together a compelling story of a young down-on-his luck American named Josh Hagarty who is recruited by a charitable organization ostensibly to work on agricultural projects in the heart of Africa — only the projects are a front for something not at all charitable, his guide Gideon turns out to be a thug with ties to the genocidal dictator of the country, and Josh discovers too late his predecessor was found dismembered in the jungle.

There are a few cliches in the cast of characters, including a beautiful blond heroine who helps Josh in his fight to stay alive and a psychotic Eastern European, but both the interactions of the characters and the mixture of chaos and resigned acceptance among the locals are handled well, and, dare I say it:  it's a genuine page turner.

In a Q&A with BookReporter, Mills comments on the fact he gained first-hand experience from the winters he spends in Cape Town, South Africa, and adds:

"I originally went there for research and became convinced that Africa was the ideal environment for crime. In much of the continent, there’s no one watching the store at all. And some of the governments are so corrupt, they would be happy to cooperate as long as they got a cut. It’s a far cry from the U.S. or Europe where organized criminals are always having to look over their shoulders."

Lest you think the book and/or plot are racist, that's not the case at all. Mills brings in elements of how the "white" world has interfered in African affairs to an extent that has caused more problems than it has solved (if indeed any have been solved).