Crime Fiction, Mystery, Thrillers, and Suspense Blog

Wednesday, 24 April 2013 05:45

MARGARET MARON: GRAND MASTER

(Note: The 2013 Edgar Awards will be announced May 2 at the Grand Hyatt in New York City. The Edgar Symposium is May 1 at the Lighthouse International Auditorium in New York. Today's blog is a closer look at Grand Master Margaret Maron. I'll take a closer look at Ken Follett, who shares the Grand Master honor, on Sunday April 28).

Margaret Maron’s 1992 novel Bootlegger’s Daughter changed the face of the regional mystery.

In this novel, Maron showed us how the changes in North Carolina had created a new state. Her novels have looked at problems of race, migrant labor, politics, and unstructured growth.

As Maron once said in an interview, “The mystery novel is the peg upon which I hang my love and concerns for North Carolina as the state transitions from agriculture to high tech, from a largely rural countryside to one increasingly under assault by housing developments and chain stores.”

Certainly the genre was filled with regional mysteries before, but Margaret set the stage for a deeper look at cities and states. She showed how place affects the characters and that small towns have a pull on its residents that is just as strong as major metro areas. The world didn’t have to revolve around New York or Los Angeles. And there was just as much crime and nastiness in small towns as any big city.

And she showed those regional changes through her heroine, Deborah Knott, a judge whose family’s long history is an asset and a problem. The youngest of 12 children, Deborah’s father Kezzie Knott is a notorious bootlegger, ex-con, and political player.

She is devoted to him.

Deborah’s massive family, their closeness and their differences gave readers an insight to their own lives.

I am an only child, but grew up surrounded by cousins, and I could relate to Knott’s family issues. Knott’s closeness to her father echoed my own close relationship with my now deceased parents.

Maron has written more than 26 novels, include another series about NYPD cop Sigrid Harald, and 2 collections of short stories. Her works have been translated into a dozen languages and are on the reading lists of many courses in contemporary Southern literature.

Bootlegger’s Daughter remains the only book to have won the Edgar, the Agatha, the Anthony and the Macavity for Best Novel.

Bootlegger's Daughter also is listed among the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century as selected by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.

Among many other awards, Margaret has received the 2004 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for best North Carolina novel of the year. In 2008, she was honored with the North Carolina Award for Literature. (The North Carolina Award is the state’s highest civilian honor.)

Maron has been named one of this year’s Grand Masters by the Mystery Writers of America. During the Edgar Symposium, I will be interviewing her and Ken Follett, who is the other Grand Master honoree.

We’ll talk about North Carolina, her novels and how she remembers all Deborah’s brothers and nieces and nephews.

Saturday, 20 April 2013 11:07

PHILIP KERR, WWII AND BERNIE GUNTHER

Scottish author Philip Kerr is the author of eight novels about Bernie Gunther, a Berlin cop.

Set during WWII, Kerr looks at an honest cop trying to find order amid chaos and evil. The bestselling Field Gray was nominated for the 2012 Edgar Award for Best Novel. Kerr also is the author of A Quiet Flame and the fantasy series Children of the Lamp. He lives in London.

A Man Without Breath is the latest novel in the Bernie series. Kerr now is making a rare tour of the United States.

Mystery Scene caught up with Kerr before his tour.  

Q:  Most historical mysteries that take place during WWII are from the viewpoint of the Allied forces; why did you decide to take the reader deep into German society?
A: I started this series so long ago it's hard to remember; but I was always interested in the cultural and philosophical roots of Nazism – ever since I did a post-grad degree in German law and philosophy. I think I just wanted to understand what life might have been like for an ordinary German. I wanted to walk the moral tightrope, as it were; and a cop seemed an interesting way of taking this walk. I wanted to see how deep I could immerse myself in this world. When you read Chandler you can really taste L.A.; I set myself the almost impossible task of trying to do the same with Berlin in 1936. It seems crazy now. But such is the ambition/arrogance of youth.

Q: There was a big gap between the third Bernie Gunther novel, A German Requim (1991) and the fourth novel, The One from the Other (2006). Why?
A: I wrote a lot of other stuff. You see I always wanted to be a writer but I didn't want to write the same thing again and again; a lot of crime writing feels like you are on a treadmill: the author brings out one book a year featuring Inspector Bloggs; so I quit the character for a while to write other things. It's always a good thing to walk away from something successful. I think it separates one from the career novelist, so to speak. You could get away with that sort of thing then. Not so easy now. Three books seemed like a nice number. I think it was a good thing I did stop for a while. It meant that a lot of people were able to discover me, if you like. The first three were collected as a trilogy and they achieved a critical mass, which meant that when I came back to the character there were lots of people keen that I should do so. I learned a lot during that interregnum.


Q: Most of us think that Hitler allowed no opposition to his opinions but A Man Without Breath tells that the War Crimes Bureau was anti Nazi; how did this happen?
A: They were quietly anti-Nazi; they would never have dreamed of opposing Hitler openly. By the German constitution Hitler was obliged to recognize the independence of the Wehrmacht, which effectively allowed many to sit in their offices at the High Command and quietly despise Hitler--but not when he was winning, of course. Their opposition to Hitler only really grew when he invaded the Soviet Union which most of the officer class regarded as the ultimate folie de grandeur. After the defeat of France in 1940 it is highly unlikely that any of these men were opposed to Hitler.

Q: You uncover so much detail about life in German during WWII, what is the strangest thing your research has brought you?
A: I find strange things all the time. It's a period that is full of strange things. That's what makes it interesting. I remember a time many years ago when I went to a place called Wewelsburg, where Himmler bought a castle that was to be the “spiritual HQ” of the SS. It was also the smallest concentration camp in Germany. 800 Soviet POWs were worked to death in the place. It's now a Youth Hostel. I stayed there on my own one night. While I was there I discovered that the little village near the castle is still used for SS reunions; that was an uncomfortable revelation to me—that there are plenty of people for whom Nazism still means something important.


Q: The banality of evil has been used to describe how the German people allowed Hitler to execute the Jews and turn a blind eye to his atrocities. Bernie seems to combat that banality of evil every day. Could you comment on this? How does Bernie keep himself sane when dealing with the Nazis, for whom it is obvious he has little respect?
A: Like most Berliners Bernie has a sharp, dark, bitter sense of humor. He is the embodiment of the kind of Berliner Hitler hated. Leftish, irreverent, sexually-incontinent, and ultimately anarchic. He keeps himself sane—to some degree (I think Bernie has deep issues)--with his bitter jokes. This is his only source of rebellion. It keeps him sane but more importantly it helps the reader (and the writer) get through what would otherwise be very bleak stories. Above all he is a survivor, although not always
comfortably so.

Q: Why are the Bernie novels written out of sequence?
A: After three books and a long absence I didn't want to repeat myself; I wanted to create a modern version of a Flying Dutchman. Or a Flashman figure. He is also a bit of a Zelig. And above all an unreliable narrator. Like many Germans who were in the war you only have his word for what he actually did. Moving periods messes things up rather nicely. It means there is no one truth. There is nothing certain. Another reason is that there is so much more information available today than there was back when I first started writing these books. I couldn't have written several of these stories back in the day because we didn't know x or z or y. Since the mid-1980s when I first started writing the books so much has been published on the subject of the Third Reich. There were good stories that became available to me as a result - too good to walk away from.

Q: What is the status of the HBO movie? Any thoughts on who you would like to see play Bernie?
A: Difficult question. These things take time. But perhaps we are now at the end of the beginning. As to who should play Bernie I very much like and admire Michael Fassbinder. He is part German, and a fantastically good actor. But when I first started I thought of Klaus Maria Brandauer. He had a cheeky grin and a twinkle in his eye and he was very very German. I am wary about saying who I don't want to play Bernie. I did a TV series back in the 1990s and they asked me who should play the part of the hero; and I named an actor who I said should under no circumstances play the part and that is who they cast. As it happens he did a fine job.

Photo: Philip Kerr photo by Phil Wilkinson; courtesy Putnam

Wednesday, 17 April 2013 06:25

ARE TRAVIS MCGEE AND JOHN D. MACDONALD STILL RELEVANT?

With so many mysteries published each year by large and small publishers as well as those self-published as ebooks, it’s difficult to keep up with the newest authors. That often means the classics by such masters as Sayers, Chandler, Hammett and Christie don’t receive the attention they deserve.

So the announcement that Random House will be publishing all 70 of John D. MacDonald’s novels both in trade paperback and ebook begs the question: How relevant for today’s mystery writers is John D. MacDonald’s oeuvre?

Much has changed in the genre since the Harvard educated MacDonald introduced Travis McGee in 1964’s The Deep Blue Goodbye. Mysteries have become more character-oriented and depict heroes—and heroines—as three-dimensional people. And of course, the private eye now is likely to be a woman as a man.

McGee’s self-described beach bum and salvage expert persona seems dated, as does his propensity for bedding a lot of women. After all, even James Bond has cut back on his affairs, even with the luscious Daniel Craig as 007.

But the more things change, the more they remain the same. And MacDonald and McGee are just as important and pertinent to today’s readers as they were a half-century ago.

The Deep Blue Goodbye launched themes that reverberate today, through the works of not just Florida writers but all mystery writers. Travis McGee cared very much about the environment, overdevelopment and the political infrastructure that punished the poor and made the wealthy richer. He cared very much about justice and protecting those who didn’t feel they had a voice.

He despised drugs and racial bigotry. He also appreciated and respected women, and that parade of bedmates was never used pruriently. McGee had little use for greed or corruption and he made that clear in novel after novel.

MacDonald already had written more than 40 novels when he launched the McGee series. You could even say he was one of the first authors to “brand” his work by using a different color for each of the 21 McGee novels.

During the next couple of years, the McGee novels as well as MacDonald’s other novels such as Cape Fear (originally The Executioners in 1958) and his 1977 best-seller Condominium. About three dozen of MacDonald’s lesser known work will be reissued as ebooks starting in June 2013.

It’s about time a new generation discovered MacDonald and his most famous creation McGee who lived on his boat anchored at Slip F18 at Bahia Mar marina in Fort Lauderdale.

Meanwhile, let me leave you with a couple of Travis McGee quotes that we have used in our Daily Miscellany:

“Integrity is not a conditional word.” —Travis McGee, The Turquoise Lament, 1973, by John D. MacDonald

"There are no hundred percent heroes.” — Travis McGee, Cinnamon Skin, 1982, by John D. MacDonald

 

Sunday, 14 April 2013 06:12

LEFT COAST CRIME: WHY GO TO MONTEREY

Each mystery writers’ conference has a different tone and approach and each offers its own unique chance for readers to meet their favorite authors.

I have fond memories of the Bouchercons, Malices, Sleuthfests and the other conferences I have attended.

There was the Bouchercon when I rode to the airport with . . .  nope…can’t mention that. Or, there was the Malice at which . . . oh, no . . .  better not say that incident either.

Let’s just say that I have never had a bad time at a mystery writers’ conference, and quite a few interesting ones. Which is why I keep going back year after year to as many conferences as I can.

But there are conferences I have never been able to attend. Whether it’s the time of year or the location, or whatever reason, I still have not attended a Left Coast Crime.

And it continues to be on my bucket list.

Left Coast Crime is an annual mystery convention sponsored by mystery fans, for mystery fans. It is held during the first quarter of the calendar year in Western North America, as defined by the Mountain Time Zone and all time zones westward to Hawaii, according to its website.

That means that it is always held in a really nifty place to visit.

Monterey, Calif., will be the site for the 2014 LCC, which will be March 20-23.

The 2015 LCC will be March 12-15 in Portland, Oregon.

What makes LCC different than the other conferences? I asked those authors who have attended the conference before, and here are some of their thoughts they sent in emails. Whether you are a writer or the all-important reader, we’d love to have your opinion of Left Coast Crime and other conferences you’ve attended.

BRAD PARKS:
Brad Parks, the author of the Faces of the Gone, Eyes of the Innocent, The Girl Next Door, and The Good Cop featuring reporter Carter Ross, might be a bit biased about Left Coast Crime.

His novel The Girl Next Door won this year’s Lefty Award for best humorous mystery, as voted on by attendees of the Left Coast Crime conference.

The 2013 conference was his second LCC and he’s now a fan. “Going the first time made me realize it was a conference I was going to want to hit time and again,” he said.

“People often say Bouchercon is like a high school reunion, because it’s old friends getting together at the same time every year. Because of the geography, Left Coast has even more of that feel. Let’s face it, sometimes people who live on the East Coast won’t go to a west coast Bouchercon – and vice versa. Distance isn’t as much of a deterrent with Left Coast, so there’s a real core there that’s going to be there every year.”

On the size:
“To me, LCC is just the right size. It’s a nice halfway point between Bouchercon and some of the smaller conferences out there. Don’t get me wrong, you absolutely can’t beat the Bouchercon bar. And I love the conference in general. But it can be hectic. And you always feel like you’re missing something you really wanted to see—or someone you really wanted to talk to. Not so with Left Coast. It’s big enough that you feel like there’s something always going on but small enough to still feel intimate.”

On the awards:
The awards “are a half-twist from the usual—recognizing  humorous mysteries, historicals or westerns, sub-genres that aren’t always at the fore when award time comes. It gives the conference a slightly different flavor and you do tend to see panels that reflect that.”

Favorite anecdote: 
“This year at Left Coast, Laura Lippman was the guest of honor. I’ve admired Laura from afar for a while—and, yeah, we’re Facebook friends­—but I had never really talked to her in depth. I remedied that on Friday night, when we were able to share a drink and have a wonderful conversation about craft – just the two of us (with only occasional interruptions from people coming up to tell Laura how great she is). That talk was a real highlight of my conference. Then we continued the dialogue on Saturday. I don’t know if we could have done that at a larger conference. Both of us would have been pulled in too many different directions.”

Why he’ll return:
Parks will be the Toastmaster at the 2014 LCC in Monterey. “So I can guarantee there will be at least some entertainment value there... even if it’s just watching me make an idiot out of myself,” he said, adding a happy face to his email.


DONNA ANDREWS:
Donna Andrews is the author of 14 novels in the Meg Langslow series. Her next installment Some Like It Hawk comes out in July.

Why she returns:
“I'm a repeat offender at LCC. I first went in 2000, and I think I've only missed one since, because of a schedule conflict.

On the size:
“It's smaller than Bouchercon and thus, like Malice, it's easier to connect with people there. Because of the smaller size, it's easier for the organizers to hold it in smaller cities in more scenic places. And for those of us on the East Coast, it's a great way to build some visibility with readers at the other side of the country.”

JOHN GILSTRAP:
John Gilstrap is the author of such best-selling thrillers as Damage Control, No Mercy, Nathan's Run, and Scott Free. The 2013 conference was his second LCC.

The differences:
“One of the things that sets LCC apart . . . is the reliably engaging locales. The last one I went to was several years ago in the old, downtown part of Los Angeles where I'd never been, and it allowed me an excuse to re-establish contact with some of the movie folks out there. This year is was in Colorado Springs—I love the Rockies in winter—and next year it will be in Monterey. Can it get better than Monterey?


What’s similar:
“Fundamentally, I think panels are panels. I always enjoy attending them and I always enjoy being on them, but I don't see a fundamental difference in panels from one venue to another. What does change is the cross section of fans. Much as Sleuthfest tends to attract fans from the southeast, and Magna Cum Murder attracts fans largely from the midwest, LCC is a largely western-dominated base. As with each of these smaller conferences, one of the great benefits over, say, a Bouchercon, is the smallness. You get to meet more people.

CHRISTINE GOFF
Christine Goff is the author of the Birdwatcher's Mystery series. She said she tries to attend LCC every year.

Who goes:
“The conference attendance ranges from about 400 to 600, a real mix of fans and writers—and a conference where writers are also true fans of the mystery. There is no differentiation between attendees. The only folks you can ID readily—except for star authors—are the booksellers, who have bookseller on their name tags—sometimes. Everyone mingles more. The accessibility to authors seems higher. The cliques seem less in existence. Editors and agents mingle with authors, fans and aspiring writers, and everyone is talking about the books. They talk about the best books they’ve read, the books that have the buzz, books that ought to have the buzz. It’s friendly and fun and all about the mysteries. And its location changes every year.

The panels:
“The panels aren’t that dissimilar to panels at other conferences, though they seem to be more about the content of the books than about selling the titles. The panels tend to be a mix of well-known, midlist and unknown writers.

The friendly factor:
“The difference between LCC and something like Malice or Bouchercon is size, accessibility and camaraderie. Bouchercon and Malice both have a tone of business to them. Authors are there expecting to see their friends, their agents, their editors. At LCC, they are there to have fun, talk about mysteries, hang out with old friends and to meet new friends. There’s a great write up of this year’s LCC that sort of gives a sense of the con. It was written by author, Mark Stevens, http://www.tellurideinside.com/2013/03/tall-tales-left-coast-crime-conference.html
I really like the friendliness and sort of laid back approach of LCC. People come to see authors, talk books and to see the area where it’s held.

The location:
“The location . . . makes a difference, too. The ’con moves around place to place, so folks also attend to see the sights. This year it was in Colorado Springs, so there were before con and after con trips to places like the Royal Gorge and Pikes Peak. People who rented cars also got to see places like the Garden of the Gods and Manitou Springs. It’s a chance to see the sights. [For future LCC’s] we’re entertaining South Dakota, Vancouver (Canada), Arizona. We’ve been in L.A., Santa Fe, Seattle, El Paso, etc. It’s fun to see the authors from those areas in their home domain. Bouchercon moves around as well, which is good, but there are so many folks it’s hard to really see everyone.

PAUL LEVINE:
Paul Levine writes the series about lawyer Jake Lassiter series and another series featuring lawyers Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord. And, yes, Levine is a lawyer himself. Levine has been to three LCC’s—Los Angeles, Santa Fe, and the 2013 in Colorado Springs.

“I think of it as a regional Bouchercon. Heavily populated by writers/readers west of the Mississippi,” he said.

What’s similar:
“I did a legal thriller panel and a Hollywood panel. Very similar formats as B-con, Thrillerfest, Sleuthfest, etc.”

What’s different:
“Twist Phelan put together an interesting panel, the likes of which I hadn’t seen before. It was called “Ask the Sweethearts: Secrets of Living with a Writer.” Spouses and significant others giving away secrets. My lady, Marcia Silvers, was scheduled to be on it, but it was scheduled late Saturday afternoon, and we tried (unsuccessfully) to get the jump on a snowstorm and drove back to Denver through really bad conditions. (Sleuthfest seldom has drifting snow threatening writers’ lives). The shame is that Marcia was going to spill the beans about how excited she was when I dedicated 2012’s “Last Chance Lassiter’ to her…..then discovered three prior dedications to other women. As Jake Lassiter says, our past clings to us like mud on cleats.
(The irrepressible Twist put her husband of three days, Jack Chapple, on the panel. Now, I had questions for him!)

Why he goes:
“What I got out of LCC is pretty much the same as with the other conferences. I get to see Laura Lippman on the elliptical when we both work out early in the gym. I see friends from all over the country who I would not otherwise run into. We live solitary lives, do we not?
"You certainly don’t sell enough books at these conferences to make them commercial ventures. I think of them more as holidays. Panels are fun and there’s always time to gather in hotel bars with fellow writers, i.e, whiners, so we can complain about the business.”

ROBIN BURCELL:

Robin Burcell is the author of the Kate Gillespie police procedurals and the Sydney Fitzpatrick forensic series; her latest is The Dark Hour.

Her first time at LCC was at Tucson, Arizona, several years ago. Last year, Burcell co-chaired the LCC in Sacramento, California. While she has missed a couple through the years, LCC is one of her "must go to" conferences.

What’s different:
The biggest thing that sets it apart is the more intimate feel of it. For someone who has never been to any conference, this is a great first to attend. You get a big conference feel without being at a big conference. It averages about 300 - 500 (depending on location.) For instance, Monterey, where it will be next year, usually has a higher attendance, just due to location. Colorado Springs was smaller, about 350, undoubtedly due to price of flights.

Why go:
“The best part in my opinion is that because of the size, it has a "friendlier" feel to it and one has more of a chance of running into authors and friends. At the same time, it's large enough to feel like one of the big cons with multiple tracks of panels and a variety of events to attend.”

CATRIONA MCPHERSON:
Catriona McPherson writes the Dandy Gilver novels, such as After the Armistice Ball, set in the 1930s. During Left Coast Crime, her novel Dandy Gilver and an Unsuitable Day for a Murder  won the Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award given to mystery novels covering events before 1960. That novel also is up for an Agatha at this year’s Malice Domestic.

McPherson has been to LCC twice, Sacramento and Colorado Springs; three Bouchercons, San Francisco, St Louis and Cleveland; and one Malice.

“To be honest it's all a bit of a blur still. Bouchercon is wonderful but so huge that you can be there for all three days and not see someone; LCC is big enough to be lively. There are always at least two places you'd like to be but by Sunday you can be sure you've had a chance to catch up with everyone. As I make new friends every time it gets harder and harder. I've solved it by staying up until 2 a.m.

2013 Left  Coast Crime Award Winners:

The Lefty has been awarded for the best humorous mystery novel since 1996: Brad Parks, The Girl Next Door (Minotaur)

The Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award (first awarded in 2004) is given to mystery novels covering events before 1960: Catriona McPherson, Dandy Gilver and an Unsuitable Day for a Murder (Minotaur)

The Rocky, for the best mystery novel set in the Left Coast Crime Geographical Region (first awarded in 2004): Craig Johnson, As the Crow Flies (Viking)

The Watson, for the mystery novel with the best sidekick (first awarded in 2011): Rochelle Staab, Bruja Brouhaha (Berkley Prime Crime)