Cross Her Heart
Ariell Cacciola

Sarah Pinborough doesn’t disappoint in her most recent twisty thriller, Cross Her Heart. Lisa, a 39-year-old single mom to teenager Ava, first appears overprotective, sending too many texts to her daughter and being overall a little too clingy. Stroppy Ava considers Lisa to be a “weird mum,” often complaining about her to her close group of friends.

Everything grows exponentially more uneasy when Lisa begins to have nightmares featuring a boy named Daniel, combined with an unnerving house break-in, and the creepy reappearance of a toy she hasn’t seen since childhood. Lisa and Ava’s tense, but otherwise ordinary-seeming lives begin to unravel.

But, of course, there is a reason that Lisa panics at the idea of her daughter not being nearby, and both mom and daughter are hiding secrets. But determining whose secret is more sensational and dangerous is unexpected and shocking.

Pinborough dramatically builds tension by alternating mostly first-person sections between Lisa, Ava, and Lisa’s best friend Marilyn, who puts on a perfect facade but is carrying her own painful and shameful secrets that leave her body bruised and battered.

Cross Her Heart is an enjoyably unpredictable and fast-paced thriller that explores how our memories of the past affect how we build our present. As the secrets begin to spill out, nothing is held back. While skirting readers’ expectations, Pinborough offers up another captivating book.

Teri Duerr
2018-11-27 02:35:39
Dark Sacred Night
Jay Roberts

After debuting in 2017’s The Late Show, LAPD detective Renée Ballard is back in the latest thriller from Michael Connelly. This time, however, she has a little added help on the case from Harry Bosch.

Ballard is still working the overnight shift, answering calls for crimes committed in the dead of night. Returning to the office after one such call, she finds Bosch going through some old file cabinets at the station. He’s trying to find answers to the unsolved murder of 15-year-old Daisy Clayton. There’s a personal connection to the case for him and he can’t let it go. Ballard becomes intrigued by Harry’s case and soon the two detectives are working together on what ultimately raises moral questions about how far each detective is willing to go to get justice for Daisy.

Ballard and Bosch are soon entangled in their own separate cases as well. Ballard has a mysterious death and a sex assault complaint against a celebrity to deal with while Bosch, in his capacity as a part-time detective for the San Fernando Police Department, is trying to track down the killer of a gang leader. These individual cases lead to unforseen twists and turns with far-reaching consequences for both of them.

Michael Connelly splits up the narrative in Dark Sacred Night with large portions of the story told from the viewpoint of either Ballard or Bosch. This storytelling tack allows for each character to step into the narrative spotlight and develop both their separate and combined story lines in a much more natural way. At the start of their investigation, neither character is completely trusting of the other, but the groundwork is laid down in such a way that it feels right and never forced. And to Connelly’s credit as he continues to develop his new series character, I also seemed much more drawn to Ballard in this book than I was in The Late Show.

With Dark Sacred Night, Connelly, who is already widely considered one of the best writers of crime fiction today, has delivered one of his finest novels yet. From beginning to end, whether the case is making progress or hitting a dead end, the question of “Who Killed Daisy Clayton?” fuels Ballard and Bosch and makes for a great crime read.

Teri Duerr
2018-11-27 02:39:31
Body & Soul
Eileen Brady

Detective Inspector Frank Elder is retired, not only from the police force but from life. Living alone in a remote cottage in Penzance, Cornwall, he is surprised by a visit from his 23-year-old daughter, Katherine. Beautiful and fragile, she is reluctant to tell him the real reason for her short stay, or why both her wrists are bandaged. After a difficult night, when Katherine cries out in her sleep, Frank wakes to find her gone.

In Body & Soul, the final book of the Frank Elder mystery series, author John Harvey accomplishes the impossibly difficult task of blending lyrical, haunting writing with an escalating tension. Convinced he is a failure as a husband and a father, Frank nevertheless follows Katherine to London, sure there is something terribly wrong. At first reluctant to speak about her personal life, his daughter eventually confesses that she attempted suicide, when her relationship with a much older, famous artist, Antony Winter, ended. This isn’t a simple love affair gone wrong. Beneath the surface lurk other issues, such as the exploitation of young women used as nude models and the susceptibility of girls to authority figures. When Winter is found murdered in his studio, suspicion falls on Katherine. Unlike most of us, Elder gets a second chance to stop the darkness that threatens to envelope his loved ones. The outcome, in this highly recommended novel, is both surprising and heartbreaking.

Teri Duerr
2018-11-27 02:43:50
Tell Her No Lies
Debbie Haupt

Kelly Irvin’s latest, Tell Her No Lies, is a contemporary romantic suspense about a prominent San Antonio, Texas, family fractured by damaging and deadly secrets. Struggling photojournalist Nina Fischer just discovered the bloodied body of her dad, Judge Geoffrey Fischer, in his study, and since they were presumably home alone, she’s now the cops’ number-one suspect. Don’t they know she would never hurt her dad? She owes him everything. Who knows what would have happened to her and her younger sister if he hadn’t rescued and adopted them after they were abandoned by their mom (his sister) 18 years ago?

If that was not enough, her adopted mom Grace just dropped the bombshell that Geoffrey led a secret life in Vegas—and that she has been in the middle of divorcing him because of it. All Nina knows is that she doesn’t have time to be arrested, because she needs answers.

As she begins digging into her dad’s dirty secrets, she will also—in spite of her trust issues—have to decide if she can rely on either of the two men in her life who may be able to help her: Rick, a friend from childhood, and Aaron, a videographer and coworker.

Tell Her No Lies is a fast-paced, well-planned story with a myriad of whiplash-inducing twists wherein the suspense is the main course and the romance a tasty, slow-burning side dish. It’s also slightly faith-based without being preachy.

All of the characters serve an integral part in the novel, but Nina is the real star of this tale. Respectful but feisty, she is someone who doesn’t mind taking risks to protect the people she loves. And because of her painful past, she’s also a bit of a maverick who fights for the downtrodden and voiceless. And bravo to the author for showcasing the plight of our homeless and not treating them as throwaways but humanizing them by giving them faces, futures, and hopes.

Tell Her No Lies is a perfect read for fans who like a chilling, puzzling thriller with a mild dose of romance.

Teri Duerr
2018-11-27 02:48:26
MWA Announces 2019 Grand Master, Raven, Ellery Queen Award Recipients
Oline H. Cogdill

 

Oline Cogdill
2018-11-27 17:50:45
The Lacemaker’s Secret
Debbie Haupt

A consulting job for the restoration of a Belgian-American farmhouse in Green Bay Heritage Hill State Historical Park is a welcome distraction for Old World Wisconsin museum curator Chloe Ellefson, who, in her ninth series outing, has just learned some disturbing personal news. Chloe is also happy to be reconnecting with an old friend, an antique Belgian lace expert who is also working at the site. But before Chloe even reaches her destination, she makes the gruesome discovery of a body in an abandoned outdoor brick oven. When other strange things start happening, she wonders if they all aren’t connected. If that’s not enough, her longtime boyfriend Roelke McKenna is hiding something from her. But she can only solve one mystery at a time.

The Lacemaker’s Secret is a gem, a blast from the past, and a cozy with a kick. Unfolding over dual timelines—1983 (the series’ “present”) and the mid-19th century through WWI (through the story of a Belgian-American immigrant woman)—it marvelously melds mystery and early Belgian-American history. The attention to detail that Ernst puts into her historical research is impeccable and the author presents a realistic taste of the unimaginable struggles of the early Belgian settlers to Wisconsin.

The multifaceted characters are all memorable and well developed, but it’s the series’ star, Chloe, and Roelke, her cop beau, who stand out. The multiple story lines are decidedly demarked, tightly plotted, and picturesquely painted. The even pace, superb writing, plus a few surprises and a didn’t-see-it-coming ending keep the pages turning.

Like all series, The Lacemaker’s Secret is best read in order, but with the ample backstory included it stands on its own. Fans of the cozy genre, and especially lovers of US history, will admire Ernst’s protagonists and surely adore this particular story rich in Belgian culture.

Teri Duerr
2018-11-28 03:33:02
Death in Paris
Joseph Scarpato, Jr.

While attending the Paris funeral of her wealthy former lover, Edgar Bowen, the now-happily married American Rachel Levis overhears something that makes her think his “accidental” death may have been murder. Edgar would have died before ever drinking a wine she knows he detested, but that was what he was supposedly enjoying at the time of his death.

Not long after, she finds that she has been asked in his will to organize and categorize his extensive home library, in return for which she will be able to select any book for herself. This gives her the opportunity to meet and observe the other legatees: his arrogant ex-wife, his wastrel son, his most current girlfriend, and his mousy personal assistant. With the aid of Edgar’s longtime manservant, Fulke, along with help from her best friend and travel companion Magda, Rachel believes that she can discover who had the best opportunity and the best motive for the “murder.”

When one of her chief suspects, whom Rachel and Magda had lunched with a few days earlier and who appeared happy and looking ahead to the future, is found to have committed suicide, and another goes missing under unusual circumstances, the two aspiring detectives are more convinced than ever that murder is afoot.

What I particularly enjoyed in this series debut was the dogged determination of the amateur pair who, even though they acknowledged their lack of expertise, their paucity of Poirot’s “little grey cells” and Miss Marple’s unfailing instincts, were still able to work together to finally unmask the murderer in a conclusion that I never saw coming.

Teri Duerr
2018-11-28 03:38:12
Into the Night
Craig Sisterson

Attention has begun to turn toward Australian and New Zealand crime writing in recent years, with many terrific authors becoming readily available to book lovers in the Northern Hemisphere. Sarah Bailey impressed last year with her debut, The Dark Lake, which introduced troubled, small-town cop Gemma Woodstock.

Bailey tackles the “difficult second novel” by plunging Woodstock into new challenges in a new environment: she’s said “see ya later” to her rural hometown, her son and ex-husband, and is now looking to advance her career as a detective living a lonely life in the big city of Melbourne. She chases killers and battles emotional emptiness with bottles and beds. She gets a chance to shine when a homeless man is murdered, but then is quickly reassigned to a new case with a much higher priority: a young and beloved local actor is stabbed to death in front of hundreds of people on a big film set. The high-profile nature of the attack ramps up the pressure on Woodstock and her colleagues.

Bailey delivers another solid page-turner that deepens the character of Woodstock, whose behavior and choices may divide readers, but is messily, authentically human. The crime story gets entangled with #MeToo and other issues that give it a very current feel. At times, Bailey’s writing is a little overblown, which neuters the power that some of the otherwise important themes and moments might have. But that’s a relatively minor issue in what is otherwise a good read that solidifies Woodstock as an intriguing character well worth following through an ongoing series.

Teri Duerr
2018-11-28 03:41:45
The Clockmaker’s Daughter
Jean Gazis

When Elodie, an introverted English archivist, opens a recently discovered Victorian-era satchel that once belonged to renowned painter Edward Radcliffe, a member of the “Magenta Brotherhood” art movement, she finds a strangely compelling photo of a beautiful young woman. Elodie is determined to find out the mysterious model’s identity—little realizing that the answer is closely connected to her own family’s history. Her journey of discovery will completely change her life.

The narrative is told in the alternating voices of several engaging, interconnected characters. There is the introverted, unhappily engaged Elodie; Birdie, a young Victorian pickpocket; Ada, a forlorn boarding-school student; Leonard, a World War I veteran and art historian; and Juliet, a World War II journalist. The story centers on a centuries-old farmhouse in the English countryside, a home that becomes almost a character in itself. The setting for an ancient folktale of faerie magic, the house hides shocking secrets and links the constellation of disparate characters in surprising ways. Who shot Edward Radcliffe’s fiancée on that long-ago summer afternoon, and what happened to his favorite model, Lily Millington, who simply vanished?

Moving back and forth between the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, The Clockmaker’s Daughter artfully juxtaposes memory, imagination, and real life. This beautifully written tale is more literary fiction than traditional whodunit—but there is a deep mystery at the heart of the narrative, one that is revealed piece by piece, like a master painter adding one brushstroke at a time until its stunning denouement.

Teri Duerr
2018-11-28 03:45:02
Nobody's Sweetheart Now
Joseph Scarpato, Jr.

It’s 1924, and Lady Adelaide Compton has just buried her unfaithful war hero husband, Rupert, who died with his latest paramour when his car crashed into a stone wall. Alone with only her servants in the large Compton Court manor, Lady Adelaide decides to invite a dozen people to her estate for a weekend house party. A surprise guest, the spirit of her husband, appears, but only to her, and he explains that he cannot move on before doing a good deed, although he has no idea what that deed could be.

Not long after the weekend begins, the nude body of an uninvited young woman, well-known for her lack of morals, is found in the estate barn, dead from an overdose of cocaine, although no cocaine or needle is found in the vicinity. Inspector Devenand Hunter, an intelligent and good-looking Anglo-Indian from Scotland Yard, is called in to investigate, and he requests that all of the guests remain at the estate until he has completed his investigation.

On the following day, there is another grisly discovery. Mr. McGrath, the elderly head gardener of the estate, is found dead in the bedroom of his little cottage on the estate, also a victim of a drug overdose. Because Hunter is convinced that his hostess is not the murderer, and because he needs her help in identifying and questioning the guests, Lady Adelaide becomes an unofficial part of the investigation team. With so many possible suspects, and in the spirit of Golden Age mysteries, the author sagely includes a cast of characters at the beginning of the novel, a list I found useful during the interrogations.

What sets this first mystery in an intended series apart from most others is the relationship between Lady Adelaide and Rupert, the incorrigible ghost, who is as much of a lovable rogue as a spirit as he was in real life. Their banter initially causes Hunter to think that her talking to herself is due to the stress of the murders, but that makes her even more attractive to him. In the end, as the killer is finally identified, Rupert earns his pass to the next world.

Teri Duerr
2018-11-28 03:51:27
Broken Ground
Craig Sisterson

In the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, during the interwar period and after, four women were tabbed as the Queens of Crime: Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Dorothy Sayers. They weren’t the only great mystery writers of the time, but they’re still renowned for their oeuvre. Choosing modern-day equivalents would provoke plenty of debate, but one choice is automatic: Val McDermid.

The legendary Scottish author has been entertaining and terrifying readers for three decades, and continues to push boundaries rather than resting on her laurels or slipping into obvious formula. Broken Ground is the fifth in McDermid’s series starring DCI Karen Pirie of the Historic Cases Unit. Still grieving the violent loss of her colleague and lover, Pirie gets challenged on several fronts. A new team member who seems far too close to Pirie’s conniving new boss is thrust upon the unit as they chase down a fresh lead in a string of historic rapes. Then a body emerges from a Highlands peat bog thanks to a couple digging for wartime loot. Pirie is also faced with a brand-new crime, one she thought she’d prevented.

This is a smooth, engaging read. I really enjoyed the way McDermid took readers into the Highlands landscapes and brought in some of the wartime history. The narrative switches into the past at times, adding tension and delivering fascinating tales rather than any jarring that can occur in lesser hands.

There’s plenty of authenticity throughout Broken Ground, and touches of freshness in the choices McDermid makes. Deftly drawn characters populate an absorbing tale that offers an underlying humanity among all the dark deeds. Another jewel in the Queen’s crown.

Teri Duerr
2018-11-28 03:54:58
Carrie Smith
Robin Agnew

Carrie Smith is the author of the Claire Codella novels centering on NYPD Detective Codella. In the first book, Claire is returning from cancer treatment and she encounters some jealousy (she’d solved a high profile case before taking sick leave). In all the books, Smith embraces characters of all stripes and really delves into them, creating the kind of character-driven police novel that I as a reader truly enjoy. I also see echoes of a favorite writer of mine, Lillian O’Donnell, whose novels, beginning in the '70s, traced the path of a female cop and eventual NYPD detective as she encounters sexism as well as skepticism on the job. Both these characters get the job done with smarts and compassion.

You have established a wonderful series character in Claire, and now you are moving away from her. Are you done telling her story?

For the moment, but not forever. Claire is by now an old friend and I have no intention to abandon her. She has evolved dramatically since Chapter 1 of Silent City, when she returned to the NYPD after a 10-month battle with cancer and began to prove herself all over again. She’s confronted demons of her past, solved three high-profile cases, and reached a new place in her personal life. But there are unanswered questions, too. Who will replace her nemesis, Lieutenant McGowan? Will her relationship with Detective Brian Haggerty grow stronger, or will it founder? Can she keep up her breakneck pace without another health crisis? There’s more to Claire’s story, and there are endless pockets of New York City to take her into, but I feel that I’ve left her in a good spot while I challenge myself with a new set of characters dealing with different issues relevant today.

I know you have written a standalonecan you tell me about it? Is it a thriller? Traditional detective story? Police story?

The new book is a fast-paced thriller. A young hotel employee, Grecia Galindo, has been framed for theft and offered the dubious choice between facing criminal charges (that would lead to her deportation) and enduring sexual harassment. Grecia courageously refuses to accept exploitation, and she is on her way to see her attorney when she is abducted from a Manhattan street. On the same morning, her experienced attorney is murdered. The attorney’s fiery young associate, Riley Wittman, discovers her body and narrowly avoids becoming the killer’s second victim. Now these two very different young women must fight for their lives. To survive, they’ll need to confront powerful adversaries, unravel a conspiracy, and face their own pasts in order to embrace the future.

While this is the intimate, elemental story of two women’s harrowing trials, their stories are inspired by the larger cultural shifts happening now: the plight of undocumented people and the traumatic experiences of women who have come forward to tell their stories in the #MeToo movement.

What's important to you in telling a story? What is the key your novel will revolve around?

I have a few non-negotiables when I start a new crime novel. I need a cast of diverse, complex characters with credible and surprising motivations. I need a context—a world—that I can expose for readers, one they may find unfamiliar but intriguing. And I need a purpose that transcends plot.

My purpose in this new novel is to examine the concepts of justice and identity. Grecia Galindo and Riley Wittman are very different, but they ask themselves the same questions: Are they, and should they be, limited by the circumstances of their birth? Must they follow in the path of their parents? Is justice ever truly blind?

Can you talk about your writing process? I have met and talked with so many authors through the years, but have never met any one who approaches the task as you do.

I had to laugh at this question, because as I read and began to address it, I was walking down Riverside Drive employing the process you’ve alluded to. I do not like to sit at a computer and stare at the screen as I compose a first draft. I have trouble pulling ideas out of my head when I’m in such a static position. I like to write in motion. In a recent New York Times review of two new book on Nietzsche, the reviewer, Stephen Smith, noted that “Almost all of the great philosophers—Socrates, Aristotle, the Stoics, Rousseau, Kant, Thoreau—were walkers whose ideas germinated only in motion.” While I certainly don’t count myself in their company, I do know that my best ideas emerge while I am walking. I’ve drafted three Claire Codella novels on the Notes app on my iPhone. I email the notes to myself, download them into Word files, and only then do I sit at the computer. The fun part of writing is the editing. That is where you get to shape and mold, like a word sculptor.

You came late to your writing career, what preconceptions did you have entering the world of publishing? What have you learned since Silent City was published?

Actually, I came to publishing pretty early the first time. I was 23 when my first novel, a literary novel, was published by Simon and Schuster. Back then, I was too young to understand how to handle my good fortune. Now, I’m far more realistic about what to expect. Not only is it difficult even for talented writers to get published, but it’s even harder to stay published book after book. Your career is largely dependent on your own efforts to promote yourself. I am grateful to have an audience, and my biggest joy now is connecting with readers and other writers. My expectations are far more realistic.

Who is inspirational to you as a writer? What other writers have helped you on your journey?

I am a very eclectic reader, but some of the writers I tend to go back to again and again are Jane Austen, Margaret Atwood, Charlotte Bronte (Jane Eyre), PD James, Patricia Highsmith, and Agatha Christie.

I have been helped by many people in the crime writing community, but a few stand out. First and foremost, SJ Rozan who has been a mentor and friend since I began writing Silent City. Wendy Corsi Staub has generously opened many doors for me (and been a riotously fun companion at many Bouchercons). Kristopher Zigorsky recognized and drew people’s attention to the uniqueness of the Codella series. And of course, Aunt Agatha’s was a huge supporter.

Difficult question—what is your favorite book, and why?

I’m going to say The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. This book, published in 1986, was prescient—a startling reminder that our rights are as thin as the paper they are written on. Margaret Atwood never settles for lazy, predictable descriptions. And I admire the fact that she is a genre writer—one who deserves more acclaim than she’s received.

Carrie Smith is the author of the Claire Codella Mysteries from Crooked Lane Books, including Silent City, Forgotten City, and Unholy City. She is also the author of a literary novel Forget Harry. She is the recipient of three Hopwood Awards from the University of Michigan, a fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and Killer Nashville’s Reader’s Choice Award. She is also a two-time finalist for Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award and a finalist in Nimrod Magazine’s Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction. By day, Carrie is senior vice president and publisher of Benchmark Education Company. She lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with her spouse and college-age twins.

 

Teri Duerr
2018-11-29 16:37:37
The Gold Pawn
Sarah Prindle

Author L.A. Chandlar continues her Art Deco Mystery series with her second book, The Gold Pawn. As readers of the first book, The Silver Gun, know, the protagonist is the spunky and independent Lane Sanders, who works for a famous mayor in 1936 New York City. When Lane was a child, she saw her parents murdered and spent years dealing with trauma and questions about who did it and why. Some questions were answered in the first book, and now The Gold Pawn takes the story further.

Lane’s new mystery begins with the disappearance of a banker, who also happens to be a friend of her boss, mayor Fiorello La Guardia, aka Fio. When she investigates, she soon realizes this case may be linked to her own mysterious past, which leads Lane back to her childhood home in Michigan to look for clues about her parents’ lives. It’s a task made all the more difficult by her bittersweet memories of the place she’d once called home. Around this time, a new memory surfaces from her childhood of a mysterious gold pawn. She doesn’t yet know what it means, but when criminals begin to target her, looking for something, it’s clear she’s in danger.

Fortunately, Lane has a loyal makeshift family to help: her Aunt Evelyn, her lover Finn, the bombastic but goodhearted Fio, streetwise Morgan, and a wide variety of friends and contacts throughout New York and Michigan. Lane and her loved ones get into scrape after scrape, with action-packed scenes involving kidnappings, shoot-outs, and intricate disguises. As more pieces start fitting together, Lane comes closer to finding out what happened to the missing banker, about the threats against her life, about the gold pawn, and who killed her parents all those years ago.

L.A. Chandlar’s novel is rich in historical detail, from what books and cars were available to the types of chocolates that were popular. The idea of good coming out of the ashes of destruction is a crucial theme in the book, as the author highlights her characters’ struggle to create art, hope, and better lives during the Great Depression. Yet despite the period setting, she infuses The Gold Pawn with a modern sensibility. Her characters are humorous and open with each other despite their differing social stations, and Lane is fiercely independent.

Readers will love The Gold Pawn for its compelling plot, rich historical details, action, and mystery, as well as the likable main characters and the family unit they create for Lane. Chandlar has found a way to blend accurate historical facts with a more contemporary mind-set for a mystery that many will enjoy reading. Readers will eagerly await the next book and the chance to explore Lane’s world even further. Highly recommended.

Teri Duerr
2018-11-29 16:44:17
Residue
Hank Wagner

The latest Kevin Kerney thriller set in New Mexico finds the former Santa Fe lawman accused of murder in a cold case that heats up after a long-buried corpse is uncovered on the site of a museum renovation in Las Cruces. The body, it is revealed, is the remains of one Kim Ward, a former flame of Kerney’s, who abruptly disappeared several decades ago. And what’s more, the investigating officer is none other than Kerney’s estranged son, State Police Lieutenant Clayton Istee.

Clayton’s initial inquiries into the case trigger a landslide of collateral damage to his career, to Kerney, and the rest of his extended family. The damage mounts as bad actors on the periphery of the investigation start to realize that their (unrelated) misdeeds, also long-buried, may soon come to light.

The first Kerney book in roughly a decade finds Michael McGarrity in fine form, exploring Kerney’s troubled past and his current family relations. Residue focuses on the difficulties the then-young veteran faced after returning home from Vietnam, his strained relationship with Clayton, and on the new chapter in his life, which ostensibly begins with his wife’s retirement from the US Army. Despite the heavy focus on character development, readers who have come to expect McGarrity’s vivid locales and gripping, violent set pieces will not be disappointed. Outstanding storytelling from an accomplished fictioneer, Residue should prove extremely satisfying to most thriller fans.

Teri Duerr
2018-11-29 16:49:04
The Girl Who Danced With Death
Kevin Burton Smith

Sure, you can yap about Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train or The Girl This or The Girl That, but the real girl-in-the-title craze kicked off with Stieg Larsson’s zillion-selling The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo back in 2005. Even after the original three novels, four films (and counting), two complete graphic novel adaptations, and two officially endorsed literary sequels, this cultural juggernaut shows no signs of abating.

The latest spin-off is an original comic story by Hard Case Crime/Titan Comics, now collected in graphic novel format, an English translation of the French language version by Belgian writer Sylvain Runberg, who previously had adapted the entire Millennium trilogy, and whose affection for—and understanding of—the source material (and its themes) is palpable. His writing and Belen Ortega’s sketchy kinetic artwork conspire to deliver a piercing, evocative, but always human portrait of stubbornly idealistic, middle-aged, muckraking political journalist Mikael Blomkvist of Millennium magazine and Lisbeth Salander, the mercurial, impulse-control-challenged hacker/punkette, who in lesser hands could easily devolve into a cartoon freak-fest.

Set shortly after the close of the original trilogy, Lisbeth and her Hacker Republic buddies are trying to hack SAPO, the Swedish secret service, in order to expose an illegal surveillance program, unaware that a right-wing fascist faction have already partially infiltrated the agency—for far less noble purposes. Then Lisbeth’s friend Trinity is kidnapped, and she turns to old friend and lover Mikael for help.

“Super Blomkvist” could use a little help himself. With a national election coming, he’s planning a big exposé on the ties between the burgeoning Swedish Republican Party and the rise of various racist and fascist acts of violence in Sweden. Meanwhile, Mark Burrows, a former tech guru, has reinvented himself as a ladies’ man and bestselling author, touring the country and lecturing young men on how to seduce women—whether they want to be seduced or not.

Subtle? No. Timely? Yes. And yes, just like the original trilogy, the action is occasionally interrupted by some clunky political digressions, but for those who don’t mind a little agit-prop with their kick-ass, this audacious, wordy story is hard to resist.

Teri Duerr
2018-11-29 17:03:58
Christmas Cake Murder
Robin Agnew

I confess, as a bookseller I sold many, many copies of Joanne Fluke’s books (and have even cooked some of the recipes), but Christmas Cake Murder is the first one I’ve read. What a great one to start with; it is a prequel to the series. Hannah Swensen, the central series character, is just setting up her shop, The Cookie Jar, moving out of her mother’s house after the death of her father, and recovering from an unfortunate relationship.

This bonne bouche of a novel is almost lighter than air, and goes down as easily as one of the cookies Hannah is constantly baking. As she and her sisters try and think of something to bring their mother out of her grief after their father’s death, they decide she needs a project. They hit on reviving the tradition of a Christmas Cake Parade in honor of their friend Essie, who used to own the local hotel where the parade was held and who is now living in greatly reduced circumstances and suffering from ill health. She’s in hospice, but that’s because she has nowhere else to live.

The book is dotted with references to Essie’s kindnesses through the years to various fellow citizens of Lake Eden, Minnesota, making clear the reason everyone is so determined to honor her. As Hannah’s family organizes the new shop and the parade, they discover a story that Essie has written in a notebook about a woman named Rose.

Over several days, Hannah reads the story of the pregnant Rose aloud to the group. In it, Rose leaves her husband to try and protect her unborn child—not from her husband, but from circumstances surrounding him. The notebook story is the best part of the novel. As Rose’s story unfolded I was almost reluctant to go back to Hannah’s story—I wanted to know what would happen to Rose.

Throughout the book are recipes, mostly for cakes, cookies and pies (a Fluke trademark), and I almost felt my waistline expanding while I read. (And I, uh, may have copied one or two for my recipe notebook.) This is a lovely, frothy treat, a perfect no-hassle Christmas read.

Teri Duerr
2018-11-29 17:27:42
MWA Announces 2019 Grand Master, Raven, Ellery Queen Award Recipients
Mystery Scene

 
We always look forward to the announcement of the Grand Master, Raven, and Ellery Queen honorees by the Mystery Writers of America (MWA).

Usually we try to rewrite press releases, but not this time.

Martin Cruz Smith was awarded the 2019 Grand Master by Mystery Writers of America (MWA).

MWA’s Grand Master Award represents the pinnacle of achievement in mystery writing and was established to acknowledge important contributions to this genre, as well as for a body of work that is both significant and of consistent high quality.

Smith will receive his award at the 73rd Annual Edgar Awards Banquet, which will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City on April 25, 2019.
 
Martin Cruz Smith, the son of a jazz musician and a Native American chanteuse, is perhaps best known for his eight-novel series featuring Arkady Renko, who first appeared in Gorky Park. That book was turned into an award-winning motion picture starring William Hurt and Lee Marvin.

Even before his breakout with the Arkady series, Smith had received two Edgar nominations for books in his Roman Gray series, Gypsy in Amber (1971) and Canto for a Gypsy (1972). Both books were originally published under his birth name, Martin Smith, but when he learned that there were six other Martin Smiths who wrote novels he adopted Cruz, his paternal grandmother's surname, to differentiate himself. Smith also received an Edgar nomination in 1978 for Nightwing, a standalone that drew upon his own tribal ancestry, and has written more than 30 novels in a career that spans nearly five decades.
 
“When I was a mere strip of a 'gunsel', I attended the 1971 Mystery Writers Edgar Award dinner,” Smith said when informed of the honor. “I was overwhelmed to be in the presence of talents like Dick Francis, Donald Westlake, and Ross Macdonald. Once again, I find myself in the company of wonderful mystery writers at the height of their talent. I'm knocked out, floored, and honored. Spasibo.”

The Raven Award recognizes outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing. Marilyn Stasio will receive the 2019 Raven Award.

Stasio has been the mystery critic for the New York Times Book Review (and other magazines) for 30 years—since 1988—with hundreds of books coming under her loving, unforgiving, eye. Whether her judgment is elegiac or brutal, when it comes to the mystery genre, a Stasio review is a thing to be treasured or feared, but always learned from.
 
Stasio commented, “Goodness, I feel like Sally Field. (‘Wow! You like me! You actually like me!’) When I think of the great people the MWA has honored in the past—people like Edward Gorey and Vincent Price—I want to duck behind the door. My only wish is that those great guys were still around to hand me the Raven, which I promise to treasure.”
 
Previous Raven winners include the Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, Kansas, Dru Ann Love, Kris Zgorski, Sisters in Crime, Margaret Kinsman, Kathryn Kennison, Jon and Ruth Jordan, Aunt Agatha’s Bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Oline Cogdill, Molly Weston, The Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego, Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore in Chicago, Once Upon a Crime Bookstore in Minneapolis, Mystery Lovers Bookstore in Oakmont, PA, Kate’s Mystery Books in Cambridge, MA, and The Poe House in Baltimore, MD.
           
The Ellery Queen Award was established in 1983 to honor “outstanding writing teams and outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry.” This year the Board chose to honor Linda Landrigan.

Landrigan came to Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine in 1997 as an associate editor and has been its editor since 2002. Under her leadership, the magazine has not only continued to thrive but has also navigated dramatic changes in the publishing industry—she has overseen the introduction of AHHM in digital formats as well as the creation of a podcast series featuring audio recordings of stories from the magazine as well as interviews with authors.
 
On learning she would receive the Ellery Queen Award, Landrigan said, “This is such a great honor, and I am really humbled to be in the company of the other Ellery Queen Award recipients who have come before. At Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine we strive to publish the best mystery and crime stories to satisfy our readership. It’s gratifying that so many people are producing great stories and that so many people are eager to read them. I am happy that we can introduce new voices in the genre, and continue to offer our readers stories from their favorite authors as well. Thanks to MWA for this honor and for your support of the community of mystery writers, publishers, and readers.”
 
Previous Ellery Queen Award winners include Robert Pépin, Neil Nyren, Janet Rudolph, Charles Ardai, Joe Meyers, Barbara Peters and Robert Rosenwald, Brian Skupin and Kate Stine, Carolyn Marino, Ed Gorman, Janet Hutchings, Cathleen Jordan, Douglas G. Greene, Susanne Kirk, Sara Ann Freed, Hiroshi Hayakawa, Jacques Barzun, Martin Greenburg, Otto Penzler, Richard Levinson, William Link, Ruth Cavin, and Emma Lathen.
           
The Edgar Awards, or “Edgars,” as they are commonly known, are named after MWA’s patron saint Edgar Allan Poe and are presented to authors of distinguished work in various categories. MWA is the premier organization for mystery writers, professionals allied to the crime-writing field, aspiring crime writers, and those who are devoted to the genre. The organization encompasses some 3,000 members including authors of fiction and nonfiction books, screen and television writers, as well as publishers, editors, and literary agents. For more information on Mystery Writers of America, please visit the website: www.mysterywriters.org
 



Oline Cogdill
2018-12-01 15:45:53
Ashley Jensen as Agatha Raisin
Oline H. Cogdill

(Editor’s Note: We can never have enough of Agatha Raisin. The new series is the subject of Mystery Scene magazine’s cover story for our Winter issue. And here is an interview with actress Ashley Jensen, who brings to life the character of Agatha Raisin.)

Although she doesn’t resemble the Agatha Raisin character as depicted in M.C. Beaton’s popular novels, Scottish actress Ashley Jensen certainly captures the spirit of this amateur sleuth in the TVs series, now in its second season on Acorn TV.

In Beaton’s 29 novels about the former public relations who opts for early retirement then moves to a small village in the Cotswolds in England, Agatha is described as “short, dumpy with dark hair”  and hardly glamorous.

That is not a description that even begins to describe the stylish, svelte, blonde, and, yes, glamorous Jensen.

“Well, I am short,” said Jensen during a telephone interview—one of many Jensen had back-to-back that day—punctuated by frequent laughter thanks to her easy sense of humor.

Physicality aside, Jensen perfectly brings to life Agatha’s character—prickly, nosy, unfiltered, confident, and a bit vulnerable. Agatha’s the kind of friend you want to hang out with every day because she would be fun to be with: drinking lots of wine together and being on top of all the gossip.
 
Jensen said she was drawn to Agatha because the character is so relatable.

“People can see themselves in her,” said Jensen, best known for her supporting roles in HBO’s Extras and ABC’s Ugly Betty. Jensen received two British Comedy Awards and a BAFTA nomination for her role in Extras. Her role in the 2007 Christmas Special earned her an Emmy Award nomination.

“Agatha’s just like us. We see her when she is a bit hung-over, when she’s had a bit too much wine, or getting dressed, or just not looking her best.

“At the same time, Agatha does what she wants and says what she wants. She doesn’t like to be proven wrong, especially by a man,” Jensen said.

“She’s a single lady in a small community. She’s strong and independent and successful. But still finding herself, which we all go through.”

Jensen also likes that Agatha has strong friendships.  “These friendships bring out the best in each other,” Jensen said.

While Agatha first appeared in 1979’s The Quiche of Death, the Acorn series updates the character. “Ours is a more modern take on Agatha,” said Jensen. “She is very much a contemporary woman, a woman of her times.”

Jensen’s interpretation of Agatha not only appeals to fans but also to Marion Chesney, author M.C. Beaton’s real name. “Marion Chesney said she liked me and that was good enough for me,” said Jensen.  

Viewers can see why the author is smitten with the actress’s performance. That wasn’t the case when Beaton’s series about Hamish Macbeth, the laconic, unambitious Highland village policeman, was filmed as a television series. Beaton was quoted in several publications as objecting that, in her opinion, Macbeth, played by actor Robert Carlyle, was turned into a brooding pot-smoker.

“Hamish Macbeth the TV show was so different from the books. I had a rotten time with the TV company,” Beaton was quoted in the Scottish Sun. “Whereas the present Agatha Raisin, I’m very pleased with. Agatha does not look like Ashley Jensen but in character she is just like her—she is a brilliant actress.”

Jensen said she has not read Beaton’s novels, preferring to bring her own interpretation to the character. “I love a good mystery but I don’t tend to read a lot of them just because of time. I can’t sit down long enough,” she said. “I do watch a lot of them on television.”

Still, there is something very appealing about a mystery fiction, she said. “That fish out of water—that’s Agatha,” she said, adding that she has real Paula Hawkins’ novels and those of British author Clare Donoghue, whom she considers a friend.

The backdrop of Britain’s Cotswolds also are appealing to viewers, she said. “It’s a beautiful area and we can show it off to American audiences,” she said.

Agatha Raisin did so well during its initial season that the second season is Acorn TV’s first sole commission. The second season features three 90-minute television movies—Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham, now streaming on Acorn TV; The Fairies of Fryfam debuting on Christmas Eve and The Curious Curate in late January 2019. To view visit Acorn TV.

(More coverage about Agatha Raisin television season is in the current issue of Mystery Scene.)


Jensen mainly is known for her high-profile supporting roles. The Agatha series is the first time she has been the lead. “I started at the bottom, one line, one scene, at a time. Now I feel a responsibility at being the captain of the ship.”

During our interview, she frequently named members of the television series’ crew, thanking them for their help. That attitude impressed Beaton, who commented in the Scottish Star, that Jensen “knows the name of everyone on that TV crew and bonds them together like a family.”

“It is a team thing,” said Jensen of the crew and various support members who work on the series. “We are all in this together.

”I can’t get ill. Too many people counting on me. I get a lot of sleep and take vitamins. Sometimes I drive around with vitamins.”

Photos: Ashley Jensen as Agatha Raisin. Photos courtesy Acorn TV

Oline Cogdill
2018-12-02 16:01:38
In a House of Lies
Craig Sisterson

Curmudgeonly Scottish cop John Rebus has been policing Edinburgh on the page and screen for more than 30 years. Now shelved (again), emphysema has finally curbed his smoking and drinking—but not his instinct for elbowing his way into and through a troubling case.

In a House of Lies, the 22nd Rebus tale, opens with the discovery of remains in the trunk of a car deep in a forest outside of Edinburgh. While the family of the deceased finally get some closure, the ID of the victim is bad for everyone else: Stuart Bloom was a gay private eye who vanished a decade ago while investigating powerful figures. His family always thought the cops botched the investigation, focusing more on his lifestyle than his work, and now Bloom’s body—with handcuffs around its ankles—has been found somewhere supposedly already searched. Alarm bells are ringing throughout Police Scotland as various players look to shift blame. Carelessness, a cover-up, or something even worse?

DI Siobhan Clarke is tasked with a new inquiry entwined with past mistakes, and her old pal Rebus, who was part of the original team. Clarke has a cloudy reputation after being targeted by professional standards and is being harassed by an unknown caller. Rebus injects himself into the fray on both fronts, and locks horns once again with the likes of local gangster Big Ger Cafferty.

Rankin keeps the revs high as a web of past and present acts threatens to overwhelm beloved characters. Nuanced, layered, gripping—while Rebus may be in (physical) decline, In a House of Lies shows the series certainly is not.

Teri Duerr
2018-12-04 15:14:59
The Big Book of
 Female Detectives
Kevin Burton Smith

The theme of this 1,000+ page whopper is female detectives, and Otto Penzler serves up 74 short stories, novellas, and even a few comic strips, all smartly edited and introduced, stretching all the way from the Victorian era right up to works by such present-day masters as Lawrence Block, Laura Lippman, and Sara Paretsky. It should appeal to everyone from crime fic geeks to women’s studies buffs.

The book’s divvied into common-sense chronological sections: The Victorians and the Edwardians, Before World War I, The Pulp Era, and so on, making the timeline of the female sleuth easy to follow—an evolution that is as fascinating as it is illuminating. Also occasionally frustrating, mind you, when women are shunted off to the sidelines while their male counterparts grab the spotlight. (I’m looking at you, Mr. Frederick Nebel!)

Two steps forward, one step back?

Still, along the way, Penzler dishes up most of the expected hits (Kinsey Millhone! Sharon McCone! Hildegarde Withers!) and the deep cuts (Madame Storey! Susan Dare! Trixie Meehan!). And I do mean deep cuts— some of these finds must have required some serious literary spelunking.

Of course, with any collection this ambitious, there are bound to be a few duds and dubious choices.

For example, while it’s comforting to see Agatha Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence (The Secret Adversary, 1922) as truly equal partners, do we really need 130 pages of this tiresome twosome? How about Miss Marple instead? And while some of the early 19th century choices are certainly significant, some of them, like “The Unraveled Mystery” (1864), ought to carry a snooze alarm. It has to be one of the most singularly turgid tales imaginable, although the Lockridges’ Mr. and Mrs. North (1953) come uncomfortably close. Watching these two is like watching (white) paint dry.

Then there are the omissions. The lack of suitable short stories (or copyright squabbles?) might explain it, but where are Miss Marple, Erle Stanley Gardner’s Bertha Cool, Liza Cody’s Anna Lee, or (ahem) Nancy Drew? A well-chosen excerpt from a longer work might easily have patched those holes.

More jarring, though, is the inexplicable insertion of a final section devoted to “Bad Girls.”

Huh? While it’s great to finally make the acquaintance of Edgar Wallace’s Four Square Jane, and Joyce Carol Oates can take up space in anything I ever read, few of this section’s stories really belong—which of course makes the aforementioned omissions even more galling. Plus, if we’re honestly going to include “bad girls,” where the hell is Helen Nielsen?

Still, for all my nitpicking, I love this book! It’s an absolutely worthy collection, an essential for anyone who gives a damn about crime fiction. I mean, come on—where else are you going to find such detecting dames as Miss Gladden, Dorcas Dene, Nora Van Snoop, and Dora Myrl tromping through the same pages as Kathryn Dance, V.I. Warshawski, and Tess Monaghan?

Teri Duerr
2018-12-04 15:23:05
The Feral Detective
Oline H. Cogdill

An ongoing theme of Jonathan Lethem’s novels has been the ever-widening gulf between the haves and have-nots—how those who feel disenfranchised cope with that while creating their own form of society. This theme often leads Lethem to delve into the current state of America, its politics, economics, and culture, as well as the good and bad aspects of human nature, as he does in The Feral Detective.

As he did in his terrific Motherless Brooklyn and Girl in Landscape, Lethem again sculpts characters who, because they have no other place to go, create their own worlds. Lethem’s books have been called gonzo detective novels, and that’s an apt description of the kind of bizarre plots that somehow, against almost all conventions, work. The late Hunter S. Thompson, the epitome of gonzo writing, would be proud of Lethem’s edgy The Feral Detective. The rest of us will bask in Lethem’s skill at creating an oddball world with characters who beg us to love them.

The 2016 elections have left New Yorker Phoebe Singer completely adrift. Trying to pull herself out of her funk, she agrees to help search for a friend’s missing 18-year-old daughter, Arabella, who has dropped out of college. Arabella is believed to have disappeared during a Leonard Cohen–inspired pilgrimage to Mount Baldy.

The search leads Phoebe to Charles Heist, the “feral detective” who got his nickname for his habit of taking in strays—even feral ones. Dogs, opossums (well, just one), and children find a refuge with Heist. And that goes for an adrift New Yorker, as well.

Phoebe and Heist end up in the Mojave Desert, where two fringe societies have established roots. But the idyllic civilization these dropouts thought they were creating is far from the reality of violence, fear, and war that permeates these two cults.

The Feral Detective occasionally stumbles, especially when Lethem indulges in going overboard to describe the two factions who live in the desert. A little less howling, which seems to be the preferred mode of communication between the residents, would have delivered a stronger effect. And the growing relationship between Phoebe and Heist sometimes feels too clichéd.

But as an insightful look at a woman coming to a new appreciation of herself—and of life—The Feral Detective excels.

Teri Duerr
2018-12-04 15:39:35
The Best American 
Mystery Stories 2018
Ben Boulden

The Best American Mystery Stories 2018, edited by Louise Penny and Otto Penzler, features 20 previously published tales, including a handful from bestselling mystery novelists: James Lee Burke, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Charlaine Harris, and Joyce Carol Oates. The stories are eclectic, running the gamut from noir to thriller to hardboiled to suspense. Chosen from a wide venue, the tales first appeared in genre and literary magazines, collections, and anthologies from publishers both large and small. A few tales fail to earn the accolades the anthology brings, but the better stories—and most fit this category, including five highlights reviewed here—are as good as anything the genre has to offer.

An example of one of the better tales is James Lee Burke’s “The Wild Side of Life.” A perfectly written hardboiled crime story, it's a throwback to the 1950s paperback era—a scrub falls for the wrong dame, and pays with everything he has—enlivened and made new by Burke’s concise and beautiful prose. It describes an airless Louisiana setting in the Atchafalaya Basin, and possesses a depth of character seldom realized in the short form.

“Too Much Time,” by Lee Child is longer than a short, running more than 40 pages, but its length perfectly matches the tale without a wasted word or tired scene. While in a small Maine town, Jack Reacher helps to apprehend a purse snatcher. When he’s convinced by the police to make an official statement, Reacher finds more trouble than a court-appointed attorney could ever solve and he’s forced to take his welfare into his own hands.

Andrew Klavan’s brilliant and surprising “All Our Yesterdays” is a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde murder tale with a World War I soldier at its center. Brooks received a concussive wound on a French battlefield and finds himself recuperating in Gloucestershire’s Gladwell Grange. He suffers from blackouts and lost time, a secret he believes is his own. But when a young woman is brutally murdered, Brooks is the police’s top suspect and, to his own horror, Brooks also suspects himself as the culprit.

“Rule Number One,” by Alan Orloff is a cagey heist tale less about the complexities of a heist and more about trust, or in a thief’s world, playing every angle to make certain you’re not the sucker.

“Phantomwise: 1972,” by Joyce Carol Oates is a 50-page novella imbued with meaning and atmosphere enough for most novels. Chronicling a shy and sensitive young woman’s dark journey from innocence to destruction, its power is in its characters and its painfully real scenes. The seeds of Alyce Urquhart’s destruction are sown when she is seduced by a young professor:

“Not rape. Nothing so physically coercive. Instead he’d made her feel shame, that she had caused him to misunderstand her.”

It’s a misunderstanding that follows young Alyce with the fervency of a stalker, tilting her world away from its sensible center and setting her adrift. “Phantomwise: 1972” is an eye-opening look at the female experience, capturing the abuse many women suffer in our culture—physically, sexually, and emotionally—with an empathy that is as breath-taking as it is heartbreaking. It also reminds me why I would walk 10 miles in the snow to read a handful of Joyce Carol Oates’ brilliant words.

Teri Duerr
2018-12-04 15:43:18
Eighteen Below
Hank Wagner

There are two cases that attract the attention of Stefan Ahnhem’s colorful, variegated cast in this, the third Fabian Risk adventure. The first involves identity theft, the second random physical assaults called “happy slapping.” Of course, this being an Ahnhem novel, both crimes are taken to extremes, with perpetrators assuming multiple identities in the first instance, and jaded, thrill-seeking teens committing heinous acts of violence against their innocent prey in the second. Doggedly attempting to cope with these volatile situations are Swedish lawman Fabian Risk and his team, even as their personal lives risk veering out of control.

Ahnhem is a bold, brave, compelling writer, penning a novel that feels like a cross of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo saga and Ed McBain’s often offbeat 87th Precinct procedurals. The author delivers a vivid, no-holds-barred story where anything can happen: plots twist and cross, setbacks and reversals occur with alarming regularity, and, in the end, you’re never quite sure if justice, or sanity, will ultimately prevail. It makes for one hell of a journey, one you’ll be relieved, but saddened, to complete.

Teri Duerr
2018-12-04 15:53:00
Clea Simon
Robin Agnew

Clea Simon is the author of four, mostly cozy, mystery series and one standalone thriller. Her latest book, A Spell of Murder, is about witch cats and is set in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her books have a sparkle and edge to them that’s delightful to discover in a cozy.

Mystery Scene: You didn’t start your career as a mystery writer, but as a journalist. What brought about the change?

Clea Simon: Honestly? I think I needed the time to build up my courage, as well as my writing chops. When you’re doing journalism or writing nonfiction (I wrote three nonfiction books before my first mystery), you can tell yourself that the writing doesn’t matter. You’re giving people information. But when you’re writing fiction, all there is is your writing—it’s all your imagination. It takes a lot of confidence to believe that my writing alone would be enough.

Specifically, what happened was that after my third nonfiction book, The Feline Mystique: On the Mysterious Connection Between Women and Cats, came out, Kate Mattes—the owner of the much-missed Kate’s Mystery Books—invited me to come sign at her annual mystery holiday party. I pointed out that my book wasn’t a mystery, and she said, “Believe it or not, Clea, there’s a huge overlap between women who love cats and mystery readers.” So I did and I signed along with dozens of other authors and I had a blast. And at the end of the night, Kate said to me, “You should write a mystery.” It was like she was giving me permission. And so I did!

Why mysteries? Were you a fan?

Very much so! I’ve always loved mysteries, from my Encyclopedia Brown days on. That and historical fiction, but I know a lot more about digging out facts (thanks to my years as a journalist) than I do about history, so...

Your early books were nonfiction, including one about cats—so what prompted the interest in cats? It’s obviously a passion that winds through your novels.

I’m not sure, actually. I’ve always loved cats. Maybe because as a writer I spend so much time alone except for the cat. And of course I talk to my cat. Everyone does, and so…sometimes the cat talks back!

You have now written five series. What have you learned about writing and publishing during that time?

Hmm, good question. I’ve learned that it is important to get something on paper, even if it’s lousy. You can’t revise if you don’t have it on paper. And along with that, I’ve learned that you have to revise. You have to be merciless. Do whatever is necessary to make the book better, even if it hurts!

While the book coming out now is also about cats, this one, A Spell of Murder, is about witch cats. Talk about witchcraft a bit if you would, what you know about it, how you researched it, etc.

I have dabbled in Wicca for years. At one point, I was considering a nonfiction book about it. When I was a kid, I made up a religion in which I worshipped trees, so it seems kind of right. I like the feminism and environmentalism of it—the idea of cosmic balance. And I have friends who practice, so that helps.

You also have a straight-up thriller that came out last November. What brought about that book? What made you want to write about the club scene?

World Enough was the final realization of a book I started 30 years ago, when I was a rock music critic. I kind of found myself in the punk rock scene—it was a very communal arts subculture that gave me a structure and a home and several lifelong friends—and I wanted to write about it. But at that point I didn’t have the chops, nor did I have perspective. So when I went back to that early manuscript and basically tore it apart, I realized that one of the things I wanted to write about was my longing for community—and how much we fool ourselves when we need to. It’s also kind of about looking back on youth from middle age. Fun stuff—with rock and roll!

I was always a fan of your Pru Marlowe, pet psychic, books, which sounds so cheesy when you write it down like that, but the books aren't cheesy at all, and they have quite a bit of edge. Can you talk about that series a bit?

Sure! I think the key to that is that in my heart, I’m as much Wallis (the crotchety tabby) as Pru. Wallis is the one looking on and cutting Pru down a bit, whereas Pru is trying to be tougher than she is. They both need each other. I love that series because it’s really about them working out their relationship and boundaries as much as anything. Plus, I get to research and write about different animals with each book!

Can you also talk about your Blackie and Care series? Interesting concept.

Blackie and Care started as a Sherlock Holmes pastiche. What if Holmes dies and was reincarnated as a black cat? And what if he hooked up with a former Irregular, a street waif whom he had employed? Only, of course, the Irregular is a girl so.... I guess she’s me, feeling lost and alone in a scary world with only her cat for company. OK, I’ve probably said too much!

It annoys me that cozy writers are often dismissed as fluff when many of you include very serious things in your books along with the fun parts. Do you have a comment on that?

Yes, it annoys me too! Writing is writing, and cozies—all genre fiction, really—have some of the most astute characterizations and social commentary in current literature. Only we make it enjoyable, so people discredit it.

Finally, what book was a transformational read for you? What book changed your life as a reader or writer?

Probably J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. It was my first experience of a character’s transformative journey and an immensely emotionally and intellectually satisfying read. Morally too! I still re-read it pretty regularly.

Thanks for having me!

Clea Simon is the author of more than two dozen cozy/amateur sleuth mysteries featuring cats (Blackie and Care mystery series, the Theda Krakow mystery series, the Dulcie Schwartz series, and the Pru Marlowe pet noir series), three nonfiction books, and one punk rock urban noir, World Enough (Severn House). Clea lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, with her husband and one cat. She can be reached at www.cleasimon.com and on Twitter @Clea_Simon.

Teri Duerr
2018-12-13 19:51:30
Michael Jecks on Tantalizing True Crime

Michael Jecks 

To a crime writer, there are few books quite so inspiring as those dealing with murder.

When young, I was an avid reader of Sherlock Holmes, and moved on to Agatha Christie as a teen. Gradually I moved to Michael Connelly, John Grisham and the other great writers of today, but when I need inspiration, it’s the older tomes I turn to.

This year, I was fortunate enough to acquire a Folio Society edition of The Newgate Calendar in a slip case along with The New Newgate Calendar. These two volumes contain "Authentic Lives, Trials, Accounts of Executions, and Dying Speeches of the most Notorious Violators of the Laws of Their Country." In the 1700s, the Calendar would have been essential reading, rather like the tabloids of today!

In here are stories of cruelty, passion, and simple greed that are still as fresh today as they ever were. Who could fail to be delighted by the story of Half-Hanged Smith, a man who was hanged for 15 minutes, but who, when cut down, was found to be alive, so set free? Since he was a committed felon, the fool went to court again for house-breaking, and was acquitted because the jury couldn’t decide on a legal point; indicted for a third crime, he was released because the prosecutor died.

A man of good fortune!

Then there was John Hamilton, a riotous youth who went gambling and drinking with ‘friends’ who left him, snoring, to face a bill he couldn’t afford. Instead, when confronted, he murdered the innkeeper. However the keeper’s daughter grabbed his coat and sword as he bolted. He fled the country, but on his return was arrested and convicted. He was executed by the ‘Maiden’, a guillotine, on 30th June 1716, the last man to be executed by this device in Scotland.

I will skip Captain Kidd, who deserves an essay of his own; as does Jonathan Wild, the renowned thief-taker. But other names are not so familiar: Jack Ketch, Daniel Damaree, Dick Turpin, Mary Blandy, Elizabeth Canning, and many others. These are taken from the first volume alone.

These are stories of real people who committed foolish acts. Some were unrepentantly evil, but many were simply poor, uneducated, or stupid. They are fascinating tales, giving an insight into our ancestors, and how they lived and died.

For a crime writer, they are essential holiday reading!

Michael Jecks is the published author of over 40 novels, including the Templar Series, a medieval historical mystery series featuring Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and Bailiff Simon Puttock. Jecks also helped to establish the Crime Writers' Associations Debut Dagger, is a member of the author speakers group The Medieval Murderers, and a founder of the dance group Tinners' Morris, "which has become noted for its eccentric and hazardous style and ability to drink copious quantities of beer."

This "Writers on Reading" essay was originally published in "At the Scene" enews December 2018 as a first-look exclusive to our enewsletter subscribers. For more special content available first to our enewsletter subscribers, sign up here.

Teri Duerr
2018-12-18 18:12:10