Bibliomysteries

I received an interesting e-mail from Nina Lassam at Open Road Media, which is a publishing partner with Mysterious Press for eBooks. Together, they're releasing new bibliomystery eBooks from best selling mystery authors Anne Perry, Ken Bruen, C.J. Box, and Jeffery Deaver on November 12th. What is a Bibliomystery, you may ask? It's a book featuring books, manuscripts, libraries or publishing houses as a major theme that can appear in all the various subgenres: hard-boiled private-eye stories (such as Raymond Chandler's classic The Big Sleep), cozy mysteries (including those of Charlotte MacLeod's librarian sleuth) and the mainstream detective novel (such as Booked to Die by John Dunning).

The upcoming titles include

• The Scroll by Anne Perry: An ancient book draws a bookseller into a chilling mystery.
• Pronghorns of the Third Reich by C.J. Box: A hidden library holds a mystery that stretches back to Nazi Germany.
• Book of Virtue by Ken Bruen: A son¹s only inheritance is a leather-bound book, which causes his life to spin out of control.
• An Acceptable Sacrifice by Jeffery Deaver: A cartel leader's weakness is antique books ­ which federal agents use to attack where it matters most.

Look for more bibliomystery eBook titles in the coming months.

Bibliomysteries

I received an interesting e-mail from Nina Lassam at Open Road Media, which is a publishing partner with Mysterious Press for eBooks. Together, they're releasing new bibliomystery eBooks from best selling mystery authors Anne Perry, Ken Bruen, C.J. Box, and Jeffery Deaver on November 12th. What is a Bibliomystery, you may ask? It's a book featuring books, manuscripts, libraries or publishing houses as a major theme that can appear in all the various subgenres: hard-boiled private-eye stories (such as Raymond Chandler's classic The Big Sleep), cozy mysteries (including those of Charlotte MacLeod's librarian sleuth) and the mainstream detective novel (such as Booked to Die by John Dunning).

The upcoming titles include

• The Scroll by Anne Perry: An ancient book draws a bookseller into a chilling mystery.
• Pronghorns of the Third Reich by C.J. Box: A hidden library holds a mystery that stretches back to Nazi Germany.
• Book of Virtue by Ken Bruen: A son¹s only inheritance is a leather-bound book, which causes his life to spin out of control.
• An Acceptable Sacrifice by Jeffery Deaver: A cartel leader's weakness is antique books ­ which federal agents use to attack where it matters most.

Look for more bibliomystery eBook titles in the coming months.

Author R&R with D.J. McIntosh

D.J. (Dorothy) McIntosh is the former co-editor of the Crime Writers of Canada's newsletter, Fingerprints, and is a Toronto-based writer of novels and short mystery fiction. Her short story "The Hounds of Winter" was nominated for the 2008 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Story.

Her first novel, The Witch of Babylon, was short-listed for the Crime Writers Association Debut Dagger Award, and won a Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award for best unpublished (at the time) novel. The trade paperback version, published in Canada last year, was named "One of Six Enduring Historical Thrillers" by CNN (along with works by Umberto Eco, Wilbur Smith, Kate Mosse, Agatha Christie, and Dan Brown), and honored as one of Amazon.ca’s Best Books of 2011. The hardcover version debuts in the U.S. this week.

The book is set in modern-day New York City and Iraq and follows street-smart Turkish-American art dealer John Madison, who is caught up in the aftermath of the looting of the Baghdad Museum. A race to beat the bad guys to an mysterious ancient Assyrian treasure leads Madison on an international treasure-hunting adventure of lost relics, ancient sorcery, alchemy and the Mesopotamian cult of Ishtar. Author Louise Penny said of the novel, "I think The Witch of Babylon is going to blow everyone’s socks off, and Dorothy McIntosh will establish herself in the pantheon of Canadian writers."

D.J. is on a blog tour this week and stopped by to take some Author R&R (Reference and Research) with In Reference to Murder:

 

If there were ten rules for writing, one of them almost certainly would be “write what you know.” We authors hear that over and over again. I chose another path because I felt passionate about my subjects. My lack of knowledge didn’t stop me but it did necessitate years of research.

One way to look at a novel is as an extended lie; it is fiction after all! A writer’s job is to convince readers that what is fabricated is real and the more skillfully achieved, the more enjoyable the read. My approach was to pack as many facts and recognizable place names or other elements into the book as possible without diluting the story. That’s why I’d never choose a fictional city for a setting. The liberal use of ‘facts’ though, whether historical or contemporary, means that research has to be comprehensive.

The Witch of Babylon is set in two locations, New York City and Iraq. The challenge with New York was to find unique venues as the city has been written about so well and so often. Not being a New York native compounded the issue. It took three separate visits to find these venues, a welcome task I must say as I love the city so much.

I started by wandering, to the Village, Harlem, Hell’s Kitchen (now called the much less colorful Clinton) and the Lower East side. New York is a bountiful feast for authors because almost everywhere, something – a building, a park, an elevated rail line, a store window – catches our attention. I found a fantastic gothic high rise with terraces and gargoyles sprouting at the roof line, an abandoned steel arch bridge spanning the Harlem River and the Dominican Church of Saint Vincent Ferrer, not as well known as the cathedrals but exquisitely beautiful with remarkable stained glass windows, candle lit chapels and saintly relics. My love of music took me to Kenny’s Castaways, a historic New York music club that nurtured stars like Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith in the early days. These are just a few of the many gems I discovered.

Iraq presented the opposite problem. The Witch is set in 2003 at the advent of the war so it was impossible to visit there. To paint a convincing picture of Baghdad and Mosul in the north, I relied on hundreds of newspaper articles, photos, blogs written by Iraqi civilians, journalists and soldiers and books (notably Thieves of Baghdad by Matthew Bogdanos and William Patrick) detailing the looting and recovery of antiquities from the Iraq Museum. I watched many hours of television war coverage and you-tube videos. One of these taken in real time by a soldier that showed a high wall of sand as it swept toward a military encampment, left an indelible impression. There was a wealth of material to choose from and I’m so grateful to the bloggers, reporters and photojournalists who risked their lives to bring us the story of the war.

The third major research area concerned history. Mesopotamian achievements easily equal those of the Egyptians but surprisingly, little has been recently written about them for the lay reader. My main source was a book: The Might That Was Assyria by H.W. Saggs supplemented by lots of internet searches. Speaking with university professors helped enormously as well. Research turned up many fascinating facts. I had no idea for example, that a Babylonian scholar first posited that the earth revolves around the sun or that, in the Parthian era a rudimentary battery was developed more than a millennium before the modern version, or that the alchemy had its beginnings in perfume making. Learning about the three great Mesopotamian cultures, Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian, was so fascinating it became a pastime I really looked forward to. All three novels – Book 2 and 3 to come – focus on some aspect of Mesopotamian history. So by not following “write what you know” whole new worlds opened up to me.

Anthology Potpourri

The advent of eBooks has brought many changes to publishing, both good and bad, but one of the positive developments is a new wave of terrific short crime fiction anthologies. In case you missed them, here are a few of the latest publications released in September and October (noting that some are eBooks, some print, some both):

 

Beat to a Pulp: Superhero has gathered some of the best hardboiled and noir crime stories with a superhero twist. Billy Mitchell, the six-year-old "Red Avenger" in Kevin Burton Smith's tale, has an innocence and a special something that draws us to want to don a mask and tie a towel around our necks. Steve Weddle dissects the reality of a world in which super-powered "others" walk in the midst of normal people who tend to quote only parts of the Bible. And James Reasoner's story is set in a time not usually associated with superheroes -- the American Revolution -- yet Patrick Mainwaring finds the classic essence of a superhero. Other top contributors include Jake Hinkson, Garnett Elliott, Liam Jose, Sandra Seamans, Jerry Bloomfield, Thomas Pluck, Keith Rawson, Court Merrigan, Benoit Lelievre, and Chad Eagleton

The recent inaugural Bloody Scotland conference sponsored a short-story competition. The 19 winners chosen from 230 entries are collected into an anthology titled Worth the Wait, sponsored by Glengoyne Whisky. You can download a free copy via the conference site. As the sponsor foreword notes, "Scottish crime fiction and malt whisky are both international success stories and two of this nation’s greatest exports. Why? Because here in Scotland we understand that quality cannot be rushed. Crafting a great crime story takes time, care, attention and commitment. It doesn’t happen overnight – but when it does come together, it’s magical."

  Crime Factory is launching an all Australian crime fiction anthology, Hard Labour. It includes brand new fiction from Peter Corris, Leigh Redhead, Helen FitzGerald, Angela Savage, David Whish-Wilson, along with Garry Disher's first ever Wyatt story (unpublished in over a decade), JJ DeCeglie, Andrez Bergen, Deborah Sheldon and many more, including CFP’s own widely-published editorial staff. Along with a brand new story by Melbourne-based Irish veteran Adrian McKinty, the story collection is topped off with a foreword by Sisters in Crime National Co-Convenor, Lindy Cameron.

 

Fifteen Tales of Murder, Mayhem and Malice from the Land of Minnesota Nice, are "perfect for a quiet evening cozied up in front of the fireplace or to share around a flickering campfire. Some of them will scare you. Some may make you cringe. A few might bring a smile to your lips. All of them, we guarantee, will put to rest forever the myth of Minnesota Nice." Contributing authors include William Kent Krueger, Jess Lourey, Rich Thompson, Lois Greiman, Mary Logue, Pat Dennis, David Housewright, Elizabeth Gunn, Judith Borger, Joel Arnold, Lori L. Lake, Michael Allen Mallory, Marilyn Victor, Carl Brookins, and Ellen Hart.

 

Noir at the Bar 2 is "Back for another round of booze, blood and bad taste...and continues its assault on the literate world." Contributors include: Jedidiah Ayres, Frank Bill, Jane Bradley, Sonia L. Coney, Hilary Davidson, Les Edgerton, Nate Flexer, Matthew C. Funk, Jesus Angel Garcia, Glenn Gray, Kevin Lynn Helmick, Gordon Highland, John Hornor Jacobs, David James Keaton, Tim Lane, Erik Lundy, Jason Makansi, Matthew McBride, Jon McGoran, Cortright McMeel, Aaron Michael Morales, Scott Phillips, Robert J. Randisi & Christine Matthews, John Rector, Caleb J. Ross, Duane Swierczynski, Mark W. Tiedemann, Fred Venturini, Benjamin Whitmer and Nic Young.

 

Off The Record 2, At The Movies, is an anthology with 47 Short Stories with Classic Film Titles, with proceeds benefitting two child literacy charities. Edited by Paul D Brazill and Luca Veste, authors contributing stories include Will Carver, Steve Mosby, Helen FitzGerald, Adrian McKinty, Matt Hilton, Stav Sherez, Claire McGowan, Sean Cregan, David Jackson, Mel Sherratt, Nick Quantrill, Maxim Jakubowski, and many more.

Psychos: Serial Killers, Depraved Madmen, and the Criminally Insane, edited by John Skipp, is a crime anthology featuring stories by master storytellers including Neil Gaiman, Lawrence Block, and Ray Bradbury. As Skipp writes in the Foreword, the anthology includes "A staggering thirty-eight-course banquet of literary mania and mayhem, served up by some of the most amazingly astute, deeply disturbing, immensely entertaining chronicles of crazy ever to grace the printed page."

 

The relatively new Shotgun Honey ezine of crime and noir fiction brought together 29 authors from around the world to produce their first anthology, Shotgun Honey Presents: Both Barrels. Featuring stories from: Patti Abbot, Peter Farris, Trey R. Barker, Hector Acosta, Cameron Ashley, Ray Banks, Frank Bill, Nigel Bird, Jen Conley, Paul D. Brazill, Thomas Pluck, Garnett Elliott, Matthew C. Funk, Chris F. Holm, Glenn Gray, Naomi Johnson, Nik Korpon, Kieran Shea, Julia Madeleine, Joe Myers, Andrew Nette, Mike Oliveri, Dan O'Shea, Tom Pits, Keith Rawson, Holley West, Frank Wheeler Jr., Jim Wilsky and Steve Weddle.

True Brit Grit was actually published in April of this year, but proceeds of this anthology go to support the charities Children 1st and the Francesca Bimpson Foundation. Edited by  Luca Veste and Paul D. Brazill, the volume contains forty five gritty stories from the likes of Ray Banks, Allan Guthrie, Charlie Williams, Julie Morrigan, Howard Lynskey, Sheila Quigley, Nick Quantrill and Matt Hilton.

Books to Die For is an anthology of essays billed as "the most ambitious anthology of its kind yet attempted, the world's leading mystery writers have come together to champion the greatest mystery novels ever written." In a series of personal essays that often reveal as much about the authors and their own work as they do about the books that they love, 119 authors from 20 countries have created a guide that will be indispensable for generations of readers and writers. From Agatha Christie to Lee Child, from Edgar Allan Poe to P. D. James, from Sherlock Holmes to Hannibal Lecter and Philip Marlowe to Lord Peter Wimsey, Books to Die For brings together the cream of the mystery world for a feast of reading pleasure, a treasure trove for those new to the genre and for those who believe that there is nothing new l

CSI Portsmouth

Tickets are now on sale for the third annual CSI Portsmouth festival taking place on Saturday, November 3, at John Pounds Centre, Portsmouth, England. Special guests include international crime authors Stephen Booth, Ann Cleeves, Matt Hilton and Pauline Rowson; Crime Scene Manager Co-ordinator Carolyn Lovell from Hampshire Police; DC Terry Fitzjohn Crime Scene Fire Investigations Officer, Hampshire Police; Andy Earl Hampshire Fire and Rescue Arson Task Force; Adrian Fretter, Hampshire Police Hi Tech Crime Unit; Professor Bran Nicol, University of Surrey, an expert on stalking culture including Internet Stalking; and Dr. Mark Button, Director of the Centre for Counter Fraud Studies at University of Portsmouth.

Highlights of the one-day affair are two panel debates on crime fiction versus crime fact and a meet and mingle with top selling crime authors and police and forensic crime experts. Participants will also have a chance to learn about what really happens at a crime scene, how a fire investigation is worked, hear about cyber crime and internet stalking, see how the fingerprint bureau works, have your fingerprints taken, and much more.