Some people plan their vacations around school, holidays or special occasions.My husband and I plan ours around Bouchercon and the American Theatre Critics Association’s annual conference.We’ve had some of our best vacations wrapped around Bouchercon. Monterrey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Toronto and other places have been the sites of some great memories.I’ve also had some great Bouchercon trips with one of my closest friends, Toni, who lives in Chicago.A trip to Sante Fe that ended up in Austin (great town but frankly the only Bouchercon that disappointed) was a birthday celebration. Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison were great trips and terrific Bouchercons.So this year, we are looking forward to Indianapolis and another Bouchercon that will be Oct. 15-18.I was in Indianapolis a few years ago and was impressed with its energy, its lively arts and theater scene and some good restaurants.I am not a sports fan but I understand it has quite a few good sporting events, too!There’s not a mystery fan who would not find something to like at Bouchercon – from the panels to the chance to meet and talk with your favorite authors in the hall, the book room or the bar.
For most of the country, Indianapolis is within driving distance.By the way, if you need more of an incentive, Michael Connelly, top, will be the guest of honor and S.J. Rozan, left, the toastmaster.Consider this a personal testimony on why mystery readers should flock to Indianapolis during October for Bouchercon.
Archive for the ‘SJ Rozan’ Category
Just go to Bouchercon, enjoy Indianapolis
Thursday, June 18th, 2009The Shanghai Moon Relates To Us All
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009
If you think that mysteries don’t touch us where we live, then you aren’t reading the right novels.
Take The Shanghai Moon by S.J. Rozan, who is the focus of Mystery Scene’s February cover story written by me. A Lydia Chin-Bill Smith novel, The Shanghai Moon revolves around the historical fact that about 20,000 Jewish refugees fled to China beginning in the mid 1930s to escape the horrors of Nazi Germany.
The weekend I interviewed S.J., I was in New York for a family event with my husband’s relatives. Naturally, many of us discussed books, specifically mysteries. My husband’s family is Jewish – with varying degrees of religious devotion – so I asked about 40 in-laws if they had ever heard of this historical fact.
A few had.
Most hadn’t.
Even a few who considered themselves well versed about the Holocaust and Jewish history hadn’t heard about this little known footnote.
Those who hadn’t heard kept saying “How did I not know that?” – a phrase that Lydia Chin also says a couple of times during The Shanghai Moon.
Another refrain I kept hearing was “I’ve got to read that novel.” To which I said, “Good. It’s on sale in February.”
My relatives may not have heard about Jewish refugees making their way to China, but others have. My best friend recently spent a week with us because there is no place like Florida during the winter. Toni, who owns her own public relations firm in Chicago, was raised Catholic like me. So when I mentioned The Shanghai Moon’s plot to her, I was surprised at her answer.
Not only did she know that China became a WWII refuge for Jews, but she had a personal connection: Another friend’s mother and grandmother were part of that wave of refugees to escape the Nazis. They lived for several years in Shanghai before emigrating to the United States. Toni’s friend grew up with stories about their life in China, the make-shift synagogue that the Jewish refugees formed and life in the Shanghai ghetto.
That’s why I maintain that it’s not the action-packed scenes that draw us to mysteries but the personal connection that make us think about who we are, where we’ve been and, yes, where we are going in life.
Have any of you had a similar experience with a mystery novel?
Review of The Best American Short Stories 2008
Saturday, October 4th, 2008
The Best American Mystery Stories 2008
edited by George Pelecanos
Houghton Mifflin, October 2008
$28.00 hardcover, $14.00 trade paperback
Reviewing last year’s volume in this well-established series, I praised the general quality but groused about the lack of variety and the failure to include even one real detective story. Guest editor George Pelecanos’ introduction to this year’s collection lets the reader know to expect more of the same: “…[T]here is no obvious direct line from the grandfathers and fathers of crime fiction to the stories in this collection…. Though there are twists and surprises to be discovered, none of these stories are puzzles, locked-room mysteries, or private detective tales.” Again literary magazines are a more frequent source of stories than genre publications—Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine are represented by one story each, Antioch Review by two, and the plethora of noir-themed anthologies by a scattering throughout. The title Best Mainstream Short Stories that Happen to Concern a Crime might be more precise. Definitional quibbles aside, however, this is a superb collection without a single misfire among its 20 entries. It is both quite a bit stronger and more varied than last year’s volume.
James Lee Burke’s curtain raiser “Mist,” about alcoholic Louisiana war widow Lisa and her 12-step sponsor Tookie, is a beautifully executed short story, marked by the author’s magnificent lyrical prose and fueled by anger over the twin horrors of Katrina and Iraq. Is it a detective story? No. Not even the reader-as-detective has a chance at anticipating its secrets. Is it a mystery? Arguably, yes, and the eternal mystery of character—what made Lisa the person she is?—is answered by two surprising revelations. But is it a crime story? Mainly in a political sense.
In the stories that follow, the crimes are more traditional, the treatment anything but. While the mood is almost unrelentingly grim and downbeat, the variety of background and approaches is considerable. The prize of the collection is Kyle Minor’s structural experiment “A Day Meant to Do Less,” in which an embarrassed pastor takes on the task of bathing his disabled mother, told first from his viewpoint, then (after some back story) from hers. The result is extraordinarily affecting and, in a unique way, terrifying. Another successful use of an unusual structure is Scott Phillips’ “The Emerson 1950,” a series of vignettes about a newspaper crime photographer at mid-20th Century. It provides a rare example of a modular procedural in short story form, with various crimes described but not necessarily solved, occasional touches of mystery and detection, and a very darkly comic wind-up.
Others of special merit are Holly Goddard Jones’ “Proof of God,” a collegiate gay coming-of-age murder story that reminded me of some of Vin Packer’s 1950s novels; Alice Munro’s “Child’s Play,” an incisive character study in which a horrific incident at a Canadian summer camp is recalled in adulthood by the anthropologist narrator; and Elizabeth Strout’s “A Different Road,” exploring the effect (not what you might expect) on an older couple of their experience in a hospital bathroom hostage situation.
Though detection is mostly absent, tricky crime story plotting is not. Chuck Hogan’s “One Good One” is a fresh take on the classic situation of the thug protective of his mother, with a nicely managed surprise twist. (Novelist Hogan credits the late Edward D. Hoch with inspiring him to write short stories.) Michael Connelly’s accident reconstruction procedural “Mulholland Drive” is a devious variation on a crime-fiction classic—to say which one would reveal too much. Rupert Holmes’ clever “The Monks of the Abbey Victoria,” with a 1950s TV network background and a lighter, more humorous touch than most of its companions, reminded me at times of Billy Wilder’s film The Apartment and some of the stories of Stanley Ellin.
It’s only fair to point out that there is one genuine whodunit in the book, starring one actual series detective, and an amateur at that. In Jas. R. Petrin’s “Car Trouble,” elderly moneylender Leo Skorzeny, a great character, solves the murder of a car dealer. For espionage buffs, there’s Peter LaSalle’s strongly political “Tunis and Time,” a post-9/11 spy story cum Tunisian travelogue centered on an FBI man with a cover as professor of French literature.
Oddest story of the lot may be Hugh Sheehy’s “The Invisibles,” a psychological suspense bordering on horror, with suggestions of the supernatural. It includes a great piece of cop dialogue: “People break laws all the time. Sometimes I think we have so many just so I can arrest someone if I know I need to.”
Other contributors include two series perennials, Joyce Carol Oates and Scott Wolven; well-known crime novelists Robert Ferrigno and Edgar-winner S. J. Rozan; plus Thisbe Nissen, Nathan Oates, Stephen Rhodes, and Melissa VanBeck. All are to be congratulated, along with editors Penzler and Pelecanos and first-line reader Michele Slung, on being part of a great short story anthology regardless of title or genre.—Jon L. Breen
