In Reference to Murder

FFB: Death on the Rocks

So many authors seem to pop out of nowhere, bring us several very fine works—even award-winning titles—only to disappear from the writing world. Michael Allegretto is one such example of a mysteriously vanishing writer. The only biographical information I could find is that he grew up listening to the real-life stories of crime and detection from his father, a Denver police detective. This one tidbit at least explains the setting for Allegretto's novels featuring Jacob Lomax, an ex-cop turned private investigator in Denver.

Allegretto's first novel in the Lomax series, Death on the Rocks, was published in 1987 to critical acclaim, eventually nominated for the 1988 Anthony and Macavity Awards and winning the Shamus Award for Best First P.I. Novel that year. The author went on to pen four more Lomax installments, four standalones, and a few short stories (one included in Justice For Hire: The Fourth Private Eye Writers of America Anthology), with his last book published in 1995. One of his standalone thrillers, Terror in the Shadows, was made into a TV movie.

Death on the Rocks finds wealthy oilman Phillip Townsend dead in a car crash west of Denver after he allegedly drove his Jaguar off a cliff. The police chalk the death up to drunk driving, but Townsend's widow doesn't agree and hires Lomax to uncover the truth. Lomax soon learns more than the widow may have wanted him to: the dead man acted in pornographic movies and may have raped a minor, and he had ties to a call girl named Cassandra. As Lomax digs deeper, he finds that someone doesn't want him digging up more of Townsend's shameful past and is willing to kill again to stop him, targeting Lomax and the victim's wife and young daughter.

The novel's protagonist, Jake Lomax, left his police job and became a private eye after his wife's murder, a history that has left him understandably scarred. His tough-guy exterior is full of cynicism and one-liners, but he's also charming, quite intelligent, even a masterful chess player. Bill Pronzini had this to say about Death on the Rocks:

"(It) is brash and tough in the Hammett/Chandler tradition. But it is more than that, too, because Michael Allegretto is his own writer and Jake Lomax is his own detective. A twisty plot, crackling dialogue, and some knife-sharp observations are just three of the elements that make it something special. The Allegretto-Lomax team has the potential to become a front-runner in today's crowded and competitive private-eye sweepstakes."

Unfortunately, just seven years later, Allegretto and Lomax disappeared off the literary scene as quickly as they came. Thankfully, the Mysterious Press/Open Road Media published all of the Lomax books in ebook format in 2013.

Mystery Melange

This year's shortlists were revealed for the Ngaio Marsh Awards that honor the best crime, mystery, or thriller novels written by a New Zealand citizen or resident and published in New Zealand during the previous year. The winners will be announced at a special streaming event on Saturday October 30, held in association with the WORD Christchurch festival.

Best novel:

The Murder Club (Nikki Crutchley, Oak House Press)
Sprigs (Brannavan Gnanalingam, Lawrence and Gibson)
The Tally Stick (Carl Nixon, RHNZ Vintage)
The Secrets of Strangers (Charity Norman, A&U)
Tell Me Lies (J P Pomare, Hachette)

Best first novel:

The Girl in the Mirror (Rose Carlyle, A&U)
The Beautiful Dead (Kim Hunt)
Where the Truth Lies (Karina Kilmore, S&S)
For Reasons of Their Own (Chris Stuart, Original Sin)
While the Fantail Lives (Alan Titchall, Devon Media)

Best nonfiction (biennial):

Weed: A New Zealand story (James Borrowdale, Penguin)
Rock College: An unofficial history of Mount Eden Prison (Mark Derby, Massey University Press)
From Dog Collar to Dog Collar (Bruce Howat)
Gangland (Jared Savage, HarperCollins NZ)
Black Hands: Inside the Bain family murders (Martin Van Beynen, PRHNZ).

Best YA novel:

Katipo Joe (Brian Falkner, Scholastic NZ)
Red Edge (Des Hunt, Scholastic NZ)
A Trio of Sophies (Eileen Merriman, Penguin)
Deadhead (Glenn Wood, OneTree House).

 

The ten finalists were announced for the 2021 Amazon Publishing New Voices Award. The Capital Crime advisory board along with Amazon Publishing editor, Victoria Haslam, and Thomas & Mercer author, Tariq Ashkanani, will decide on the winner in the coming weeks.

The San Francisco Public Library, in partnership with the NorCal Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, hosted a panel last evening with Michael Nava curating a panel of Latinx authors discussing their books, writing, and their inspirations. Participating authors included Alex Segura, Raquel V. Reyes, Richie Narvaez, and Lucha Corpi. You can catch a replay of that event here.

The Guardian's Dalya Alberge recently made note of Dutch author Willem Frederik Hermans, a writer of spy thrillers during the mid twentieth century. His novel, The Darkroom of Damocles, was published before John le Carré's iconic work, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and Hermans long maintained that le Carré plagiarized from his work.

Janet Rudolph posted an updated short list of mysteries that take place on Rosh Hashanah, the Days of Awe, and/or Yom Kippur.

In honor of Dame Agatha's birthday, Liberty Hardy compiled some of the best references to Agatha Christie in contemporary literature and pop culture.

And you thought humans were the only ones on this planet to commit crimes.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Susan Smith's Dream" by Sally Weston Ziph.

In the Q&A roundup, Colson Whitehead spoke with CrimeReads about why he wrote a heist novel to tell the story of New York; the Stiletto Gang chatted with Debra Sennefelder, author of the Food Blogger Mystery series and the Resale Boutique Mystery series, both published by Kensington; Writers Who Kill chatted with Nupur Tustin about her Celine Skye Psychic Mysteries and her Joseph Haydn Mysteries; Frances Hight stopped by CrimeScene to discuss her short crime fiction and her debut novel, West Texas Dead; and J.B. Stevens interviewed Tori Eldridge, author of The Ninja Betrayed, the third book in her Lily Wong series, for Criminal Element.

Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Morgan Freeman, Al Pacino, Helen Mirren, and Danny DeVito will headline the cast in the next project from director Taylor Hackford, a film titled Sniff. Based on a script by Tom Grey, the story is described as "a stylish reinvention of the film noir." When two residents at a retirement community die under suspicious circumstances, retired detective Joe Mulwray (Freeman) is pulled back into the action by his former partner, William Keys (DeVito) as they uncover a hidden underworld of sex, drugs, and murder in the high-end luxury retirement community controlled by kingpin, Harvey Stride (Pacino), and his femme fatale enforcer, "The Spider" (Mirren).

John Lithgow has joined the cast of Sharper, the Apple Original Films thriller being directed by The Crown helmer, Benjamin Caron. Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan, Justice Smith, and Briana Middleton also star in the film, set to begin principal photography this week in New York City. The project, which will premiere in theaters and globally on Apple TV+, is based on a script by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka and unfolds within the streets of New York City, from the penthouses of Fifth Avenue to the shadowy corners of Queens. Motivations are suspect and expectations are turned upside down when nothing is as it seems.

Filming has begun in the UK on the spy thriller, Argylle. The film, based on the soon-to-be-launched spy novel of the same name from author Ellie Conway, follows the world’s greatest spy, known as "Argylle," as he is caught up in a globe-trotting adventure. The movie will be the first of at least three films in the franchise and is set in America, London, and multiple locations across the world. Henry Cavill takes on the titular role, headlining a cast that also includes Sam Rockwell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, John Cena, and Samuel L. Jackson.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICE

ViacomCBS and MTV Entertainment Studios have struck an exclusive overall deal with Emmy-nominated actor David Oyelowo and his wife, actress, writer, and producer Jessica Oyelowo, for original scripted and unscripted series via their Yoruba Saxon productions. In their first project under the pact, David Oyelowo is attached to star in the titular role in Bass Reeves, a limited series about the legendary African-American lawman of the wild West. Reeves was known as the greatest frontier hero in American history and is also believed to be the inspiration for The Lone Ranger. He worked in the post-Reconstruction era as a federal peace officer in the Indian Territory, capturing over 3,000 of the most dangerous criminals without ever being wounded.

Best-selling crime author, Ian Rankin, has written a TV series for Channel 4 in the UK that will see members of the public take on the role of detective and lead their own investigations. Murder Island, which was filmed during the summer and airs next month, will blend fact, drama, and competition formats. Filmed on the remote Scottish island of Gigha, the six-part series is based around a murder plot, written and developed by Rankin, that stars a group of amateur detectives who will compete to solve a crime and build a "watertight case" that can stand up in court. Contestants on Murder Island will be overseen by some of the UK's leading senior investigating officers.

The BBC unveiled the cast for the upcoming six-part period drama, The Gallows Pole, based on the novel of the same name by Benjamin Myers. The Gallows Pole fictionalizes the remarkable true story of the rise and fall of David Hartley and the Cragg Vale Coiners. Set against the backdrop of the coming industrial revolution in 18th century Yorkshire, the drama follows the enigmatic David Hartley (Michael Socha), as he assembles a gang of workers to embark upon a revolutionary criminal enterprise that will capsize the economy and become the biggest fraud in British history. Also starring are Thomas Turgoose, George MacKay, Tom Burke, Sophie McShera, Cara Theobold, Yusra Warsama, Eve Burley, Nicole Barber Lane, Samuel Edward-Cook, Anthony Welsh, Joe Sproull, Adam Fogerty, and Fine Time Fontayne.

British actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge has exited Amazon’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith series due to creative differences with fellow star and executive producer, Donald Glover. According to those close to the project, Waller-Bridge’s departure is amicable and her role will be re-cast. The series, based on Doug Liman’s feature starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, is a joint production between New Regency and Amazon Prime Video. The story of a married couple who discover they are spies hired to assassinate each other was first released in 2005 but somewhat overshadowed by the romance between the two leads.

Steve Howey has landed the male lead in True Lies, the CBS drama pilot adaptation of James Cameron’s 1994 action comedy movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis. Written by Matt Nix and to be directed by Anthony Hemingway, the pilot’s plot is true to its movie roots: Shocked to discover that her bland and unremarkable computer consultant husband (Howey) is a skilled international spy, an unfulfilled suburban housewife is propelled into a life of danger and adventure when she’s recruited to work alongside him to save the world as they try to revitalize their passionless marriage.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

James Ellroy, the "demon dog" of American crime fiction, is doubling down on the world of podcasting. It was announced in April that he was working on a true crime audio series titled Hollywood Death Trip, and now he's partnering with podcasting firm Audio Up to adapt his American Tabloid novel into a scripted podcast. The 12-part series is set to launch on July 4, 2022, with casting to begin immediately.

On the Crime Cafe podcast, Debbie Mack interviewed Mark Edward Langley, author of the Arthur Nakai Mystery Series set in New Mexico.

Writer Types featured an end-of-the-summer blowout with five amazing authors including Matthew Fitzsimmons (Constance); Rachel Howzell Hall (These Toxic Things); Taylor Moore (Down Range); Tessa Lunney (Autumn Leaves, 1922); and Elisabeth De Mariaffi (The Retreat).

Michael Craft was the featured guest on Queer Writers of Crime. Michael is the author of seventeen novels, four of which have been honored as finalists for Lambda Literary Awards, and his 2019 mystery, ChoirMaster, was a Gold Winner of the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award.

Read Or Dead talked about books featuring cults and people who become a part of them.

Margaret Mizushima was the guest on Speaking of Mysteries, discussing Striking Range, the seventh installment in her Timber Creek K-9 mystery series, in which Timber Creek County Deputy Mattie Cobb braves ice storms and murderers while looking into the death of a young woman and the kidnappers of the woman’s newborn

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Andrews & Wilson, the bestselling co-author team of multiple covert ops and action-adventure thriller novels including Tier One and Sons of Valor. Brian Andrews is a US Navy veteran and former submarine officer, while Jeffrey Wilson has worked as an actor, firefighter, paramedic, jet pilot, and diving instructor, as well as a vascular and trauma surgeon.

Pauline Rowson stopped by My Favorite Detective Stories to chat with host, John Hoda, about her three seaside-themed thriller series.

Sunday Times bestseller, Samantha Downing (My Lovely Wife) joined CrimeTime FM to discuss what makes a great plot twist and also "pantsing."

Since last week's Cozy Ink podcast focused on mysteries with cats, this week's program gives equal time to the dogs.

Author R&R with Vicki Delany

Photo credit: Iden Ford

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than forty books, from clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing four cozy mystery series: the Tea by the Sea mysteries for Kensington; the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series for Crooked Lane Books; the Catskill Resort mysteries for Penguin Random House; and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates) for Crooked Lane. Vicki is a past president of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It Crime Writing Festival, and she is also the recipient of the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing. 

Delany's latest novel, Deadly Summer Nights, is the first installment in a new historical cozy series. It’s the summer of 1953, and Elizabeth Grady is settling into Haggerman’s Catskills Resort. As a vacation getaway, Haggerman’s is ideal, and although Elizabeth’s ostentatious but well-meaning mother is new to running the resort, Elizabeth is eager to help her organize the guests and the entertainment acts. But Elizabeth will have to resort to untested abilities if she wants to save her mother’s business. When a reclusive guest is found dead in a lake on the grounds, and a copy of The Communist Manifesto is found in his cabin, the local police chief is convinced that the man was a Russian spy. But Elizabeth isn’t so sure, and with the fate of the resort hanging in the balance, she’ll need to dodge red herrings, withstand the Red Scare, and catch a killer red-handed.

Vicki stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about writing and researching her books:

 

Researching the 1950s is surprisingly easy. After all, so many people still alive were there. I will confess that even I was there, although not paying attention to the political and social customs and issues of the time.

When I set about writing the first in my Catskills Summer Resort mysteries, I had a wealth of information to draw upon. There are hundreds of movies made during the time period available on streaming networks or YouTube. Not historical re-enactments in the style of Bridgerton or Outlander, but movies that were contemporary when they were filmed.

I loved watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing, Esther Williams in the water, gritty hard-boiled detectives like Sam Spade in the Maltese Falcon (although that was made in 1941). Movies are a fantasy, sure, but they are also reflective of their times. Nightly entertainment in a grand fashion was a key part of vacationing at the big hotels in the Catskills, so that forms an important part of my book and some key scenes are set in the ballroom. I watched the dance movies to help set the mood in the ballroom of my Catskills Hotel. I listened to big band music by the likes of Glenn Miller. I studied the clothes, the furniture, the tilt of a cigarette in the mouth of a sophisticated woman and watched peoples’ expressions and listened to the slang or formal speech patterns. 

All of which helped me, I hope, to create the feel of the times, particularly in those minor but important details such as the cut of a character’s dress or her hair style or what she might order from the bar.

People who were there often say the most important part of any Catskills vacation was the food, both quality and quantity. Thus, descriptions of food are vital in the book for helping set the mood. I read a lot of cookbooks from the era and looked at design magazines, many of which are available online. I can’t say I tried cooking anything I read about though. Jell-O salads with canned pineapple just doesn’t appeal.

As for the specific history of the Catskills at the time of the famous resorts, there’s a lot of first-hand information available. Family vacation shots and publicity photos are easy to find on the Internet. And a photo, as has been said, is worth a thousand words. 

But when an old picture isn’t enough, many people have very fond memories of the times they spent at the great hotels, or cheap bungalow colonies, either as guests or as employees, or children of owners and employees.  “Mountain Rats” the latter called themselves and have written about it. 

I relied on Growing up at Grossinger’s by Tania Grossinger, Catskills Culture by Phil Brown, and It Happened in the Catskills by Myrna Katz Frommer & Harvey Frommer as sources.

The Catskills in the 1950s:  girdles and stockings, fancy cocktails, grand ballrooms, cigarette smoke (and more cigarette smoke), angel food cake and Cheez Whiz on celery sticks, Reds under the beds and slow-moving fans. Comedians and big bands and glamorous singers. Paddle boats and bellhops, tomato cocktails and Jell-O salads, swimsuit competitions and unattended children.

I hope you’ll take a trip back in time with Elizabeth Grady and Olivia Peters and enjoy your time at Haggerman’s Catskills Resort. It is, after all, 1953.  Now, please light me another cigarette and then fetch me a martini, while I help myself to a slice of that pineapple upside down cake.

 

You can learn more about Vicki Delany and her books via her website, and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Goodreads. Deadly Summer Nights will be launched tomorrow and available via all major booksellers.

FFB: Spence At Marlby Manor

Born in 1939, English author Michael Derek Allen had a career in education, first as a teacher and then as a university administrator at the University of Bath, and also served a brief stint working for the New York Herald Tribune. When he retired from all his various day jobs, he started his own small press, Kingsfield Publications, and turned his hand to writing novels full-time under the pen names Michael Bradford, Anne Moore and Patrick Read.

Allen has penned mostly standalone novels and short stories, but he did write three books in a series featuring his police detective Superintendent Ben Spence. The third and final book in that series was Spence at Marlby Manor, dating from 1982, in which wealthy Lady Dinnister of Marlby Manor begins to suffer from "accidents" she suspects are actually attempts on her life. When Lady Dinnister's companion Emily Fosdyke dies from arsenic poisoning, it's only natural she thinks she herself was the intended victim.

Detective Ben Spence agrees with the Lady of the Manor after interviewing a houseful of servants and family members that are all-too-eager to sell off Marlby Manor and inherit Lady Dinnister's considerable fortune. Chief among them is an artist son-in-law; a handsome but unmotivated grandson in love with a secretary neither Lady Dinnister nor Emily Fosdyke deemed good enough for him; and a selfish, greedy granddaughter and her husband who tend to live well beyond their means. But, as Spence and his assistant, Inspector Laruel, take a closer look, they uncover undercurrents of malevolence coming from an unexpected source.

Although Publishers Weekly was a little critical of the book's "awfully implausible murderer-catching traps to snare the culprit," the publication's reviewer ultimately deemed it "comfortable, mildly beguiling entertainment in the traditional style." It deviates a bit from the traditional police procedural into more of the classic whodunit format.

Michael Allen's last Spence novel was in 1982, but Lume Books recently re-released the three Spence books. His blog, the Grumpy Old Bookman, was listed by The Guardian as one of the top 10 literary blogs worldwide in 2005, but fell inactive until recently, when in a poignant post, he notes that the reason he's been away is due to his age (82) and a diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease.

Mystery Melange

Here's one crime-themed conference I had overlooked:  The Perfect Crime Writing Festival 2021 will be held on Saturday, November 13th in Liverpool, UK. The in-person event will feature panels including Ann Cleeves, Sophie Hannah, Elly Griffiths, Mel Sherratt, M W Craven, David Jackson, Martin Edwards, Margaret Murphy, Caz Finlay, Rhiannon Ward, Susanna Beard, Amanda Brooke, Heather Burnside, Barry Forshaw, and Prof James Grieve. There will also be a chance to mix with fellow attendees and author guests, buy the latest crime fiction releases from the featured authors, and have your books signed. (HT to Shots Magazine)

Also, the BAD Sydney Festival is featuring some online events this month ahead of the in-person conference in December. Coming up soon are Scottish author Val McDermid, dubbed the Queen of Crime, who will discuss her latest novel, 1979, with Sydney Morning Herald crime fiction reviewer, Sue Turnbull, on September 15; U.S. author Karin Slaughter discusses her latest thriller, False Witness, with fellow author Andy Muir on September 22; and Ann Cleeves, whose works have been adapted into hit TV shows Vera and Shetland, will join Turnbull online to talk about The Heron’s Cry on the 29th.

Collins Crime Club has scooped a new book by Martin Edwards, billed as the first major history of crime fiction in 50 years. Scheduled for publication in May 2022, the book traces the evolution of the crime fiction genre from the 18th century to the present. Publisher David Brawn noted: "In what will surely be regarded as his magnum opus, Martin Edwards has thrown himself undaunted into the breadth and complexity of the genre to write an authoritative – and readable – study of its development and evolution. With crime fiction being read more widely than ever around the world, and with individual authors increasingly the subject of extensive academic study, his expert distillation of more than two centuries of extraordinary books and authors – from the tales of E T A Hoffmann to the novels of Patricia Cornwell – into one coherent history is an extraordinary feat and makes for compelling reading."

A rarely seen picture of Agatha Christie and her second husband on their honeymoon forms part of a new exhibition opening in Torre Abbey, Devon, this month. This latest exhibition uses her own words, photographs, letters and poetry to tell the story of her second marriage to archaeologist Max Mallowan. Mathew Prichard, Agatha Christie's grandson said: "What better place to launch a new Agatha Christie exhibition than at Torquay during the Agatha Christie festival?...This new exhibition covers the years after 1930 and my grandmother's second marriage to archaeologist Max Mallowan." The exhibit, titled Agatha Christie: Destination Unknown includes poetry, pictures, and archaeology and runs from September 11 to November 28, while the International Agatha Christie Festival runs from September 11 to September 18.

It's nice to see community "one read" events popping up around the globe. The 15th One Book One Valley community read program this month in Conway, New Hampshire, will be featuring Paul Doiron, who writes the Mike Bowditch series of crime novels.

If you're in the St. Louis, Missouri, area this weekend, check out this interactive murder mystery for a good cause.

In an essay for The Bulwark, Bill Ryan profiled the late, great Donald Westlake (a/k/a Richard Stark), who had far more to offer than just his stories featuring Parker, the sociopathic thief.

Writing for CrimeReads, Nick Rennison took at look at the "American rivals of Sherlock Holmes": the early days of American detective fiction and the sleuths who competed with Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic Holmes for mystery readers.

On Creative Boom, Emily Gosling discussed an illustrated Chinese edition of Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye from artist Klaus Kremmerz. The work draws on 1950's "hard-boiled crime" and Californian artist Ken Price, known for his abstract ceramic sculptures resembling blobs, geodes, and surreal take on crockery. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell)

Apparently, September is National Library Card Sign-Up Month. I still maintain there's no better value in the universe than a free library card, the true portal to other worlds.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Robbin' Hoodie" by Jim George.

In the Q&A roundup, the NYT spoke with S.A. Cosby, author of noir crime novels, who "claims the rural South as his own"; the NYT also interviewed Colson Whitehead who won back-to-back Pulitzers for The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys and takes a detour with his new crime novel, Harlem Shuffle; Scottish author Ian Rankin explained to The Express about how the frustrations of being a special needs parent fuel his writing; and the Nerd Daily spoke with Australian attorney-turned-author Lisa Ellery about her debut thriller, Private Prosecution.

Author R&R with Lorie Lewis Ham

Lorie Lewis Ham lives in Reedley, California and has been writing ever since she was a child. Her first song and poem were published when she was thirteen, and she has gone on to publish many articles, short stories, and poems throughout the years, as well as write for a local newspaper and publish six mystery novels. For the past eleven years, Lorie has been the editor-in-chief and publisher of Kings River Life Magazine, and she also produces Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast.

Her latest novel, One of Us, is the first in the new Tower District Mystery Series set in Fresno's dining, arts, and entertainment hub. It centers on children’s book author, Roxi Carlucci, who finds herself starting over again after her publisher drops her book series. With no income, she has to pack up her life on the California Coast, along with her pet rat Merlin, and move in with her cousin, P.I. Stephen Carlucci, who lives in Fresno. 

Stephen talks Roxi into helping out with a community theatre production, which is also a fundraiser for a local animal rescue. Little did she know that someone would be murdered during a rehearsal, and that she and Stephen would be hired to find the killer. The culprit has to be one of Roxi’s new acquaintances, since the theatre was locked at the time of the murder, but no one seems to have a motive. Could the local gossip website hold any clues? Can Roxi and Stephen stop the killer before he strikes again?

Lorie stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about writing and researching her novels:
 

My books tend to rely heavily on the old adage “write what you know.” A lot of that comes from the fact that I prefer to sit down and write the first draft without doing a lot of research and editing—then later do what research is needed to fill in the gaps. Writing what I know makes that possible. I am very much a pantser! The only real exception is information I need for the murder.

My first book series was published in the early 2000s and featured a gospel singing amateur sleuth named Alexandra Walters. I spent over 20 years singing gospel music with my family. It was set in a fictional version of my hometown. The new book, One of Us, is set in one of my favorite local places to hang out in, the Tower District of Fresno, CA.

When I first decided to start a new series, I was going to have my main character Roxi Carlucci run a small animal rescue—I ran one out of my home for over 10 years. But by the time I actually got around to working seriously on the first book, the mystery book world had been flooded with books involving animal rescue, so I decided to change things up a bit—although there is an animal rescue connection in the book. The plot of the book involves community theatre—something else I have a connection to. And by the end of the book, Roxi becomes a podcaster—something I have been doing for the past three years with my podcast, Mysteryrat’s Maze.

Roxi also works as a part time P.I. with her cousin Stephen, which isn’t something I have done, but it is something I did a lot of research on for my first series in which Stephen also appears. The Carlucci family has ties to the Mafia, something I also did a great deal of research on for my first series. Now saying I did research into those things may seem to contradict what I first said, but the difference is that they were things I already had an interest in and already knew something about.

When it comes to the mystery side of things there is still a certain amount of “write what you know” as well. As soon as I was old enough that I didn’t need my parent’s permission, I went on several ride-alongs with the local police department—partially because I wanted to be a mystery writer, but also because I considered becoming a cop. For those same reasons, I took some Criminal Justice classes at community college—funny enough I knew enough from all of my mystery TV watching and reading that the classes were a breeze.

For the rest of the details of the crime I have a wonderful library of How Dunnit Books and a couple of great resources I can go to and say—“Hey if this happened how do you…?” One is a former chief of police, and the other many of you may know, mystery author D.P. Lyle.

For any other little things along the way, I am thankful for the internet! Especially during a pandemic. While finishing One of Us I went online several times to double check details about the Tower District like street names and business names, since I couldn’t go there in person. So for me, research is mostly what I know and what I already love!
 

You can learn more about Lorie and her book One of Us on her website mysteryrat.com and find her on Twitter and Facebook. One of Us is available on Amazon; for the Nook and paperback on Barnes and Noble.com; and on Kobo. You can also hear an excerpt from One of Us read on the Mysteryrat's Maze podcast via this link.

Author R&R with Larry (and Rosemary) Mild

Rosemary Mild (a graduate of Smith College and former assistant editor of Harper's) and Larry Mild (digital systems and instrument designer for major Government contractors in the signal analysis field), are cheerful partners in crime who recently released Death Rules the Night, their fourth Dan & Rivka Sherman Mystery Series. The Milds are also coauthors of the popular Paco & Molly Mysteries; Hawaii adventure/thrillers Cry Ohana and Honolulu Heat; and three volumes of short stories, many of which appear in anthologies.

Making use of his past creativity and problem-solving abilities, Larry naturally drifted into the realm of mystery writing, where he also claims to be more devious than his partner-in-crime and best love, Rosemary. So he conjures up their plots and writes the first drafts, leaving Rosemary to breath life into their characters and sizzle into their scenes. A perfect marriage of their talents.

In Death Rules the Night, reluctant sleuths Dan and Rivka yearn for a tranquil life as owners of The Olde Victorian Bookstore in Annapolis, Maryland. When copies of a tell-all book on the prominent Atkins family go missing from the bookstore, from all the local libraries, and even from the author's bookshelves, Dan wants to know why. But the price of "why" brings threats, stalking, break-ins—and a brutal murder. He and Rivka fear for their lives.  

The Atkins family secrets are weaving a sinister web. Tom Dwyer, a retired truck driver, is ready to confess to a crime that he and Frank Mulhaney, another driver, committed twenty years ago. Frank plots revenge on Tom. Bookstore clerk, Ivy, hears ugly gossip aimed at derailing her wedding. Will the family secrets finally see the light of day? And will the killer ever be caught?

Larry stops by In Reference to Murder today to take some Author R&R on researching and writing mysteries:

 

A Little Research Goes a Long Way

Researching for a novel can be fun. Who doesn’t like to learn a little something every day? An era of history, a science fact, a bit of poetry, a touch of foreign language, a dash of art, a part of the anatomy—endless tidbits that can enhance and add credibility to what we authors write.

But beware of the consequences that I fell victim to by researching too much. You ask: How much is too much? In my earliest attempts at novel writing, I got so wrapped up in the research, showing off my erudition, that I allowed it to deteriorate my plot. I took the research so far, adding fact after fact, that I had to keep modifying the plot, molding it to the research until I was unsure whether I was writing fiction or nonfiction. My first and second attempts at a novel went south. Did I learn my lesson? Finally, yes. Now I include only the relevant research that fortifies the plot, engages the reader, and moves the story forward.

For years the general guideline has been “Write about what you know”—so you don’t have to delve deeply into a subject where only genuine scholars mine.

Rosemary, my wife and coauthor, and I draw heavily on our own personal experience, but only as a starting point. We’ve published short stories set in countries where we’ve traveled: Japan, Cambodia, Thailand, England, and Italy. But we’ve also ventured into the future with a sci-fi novella. Aside from personal experience, where do we get our research? Like most authors, often we rely on the Internet, the dictionary, and thesaurus. Local newspapers are filled with police beats and extensive accounts of crimes. For a particular setting, the local papers can provide authentic flavor.

Six of our seven mystery novels are set in Maryland, where we lived for most of our married lives. Our newest, just out, is Death Rules the Night, our fourth Dan & Rivka Sherman Mystery. Reluctant sleuths Dan and Rivka, owners of The Olde Victorian Bookstore, find themselves stymied. Copies of a tell-all book about a famous Annapolis family have disappeared from the bookstore, from all libraries, and even from the dead author’s bookshelves. Dan wants to know why. But the price of “why” brings threats, stalking, break-ins—and a brutal murder. He and Rivka fear for their lives. The prominent Atkins family—and their eighteenth-century house—harbor secrets unknown even to the three unhappy sisters living there. As I invented the story, I gave it credibility by incorporating historical research: the fictional Atkins family’s “role” in the American Revolution, the Underground Railroad, and Prohibition, as well as eighteenth and nineteenth century architecture relating to the family house.

How do we keep from going overboard in our research? In Hot Grudge Sunday, our second Paco & Molly Mystery, our detective and gourmet cook are on their honeymoon at the national parks out West. They’d rather smooch than sleuth, but conspirators and thieves disrupt their bliss. Rosemary and I took this fabulous tour ourselves and drew on our own photos, maps, and tour brochures to be accurate. But we had to rein in our research to keep from sounding like a travelogue instead of an edge-of-your-seat mystery. For accuracy, we called a park ranger at Yellowstone and she allowed us to send her a copy of some of our dramatic scenes. In one, we had a suspect’s wrists handcuffed in front of her on the bus. The ranger wrote back, “No way” and corrected other details as well.

My inspirations come from unexpected places. In Death Goes Postal, our first Dan & Rivka Sherman Mystery, I focused the plot on rare fifteenth-century printing artifacts that led to a trail of hair-raising violence. I chose that subject because, in my seventh-grade shop class, I learned about Printing. But as I did the research I needed, I worked hard to build a strong, suspenseful plot and fresh, realistic characters. We created Dan and Rivka as a Jewish couple in their mid-fifties, very much like us in personality. So I wove together what we knew about Historic Annapolis and Bath, England, plus some esoteric research that gave depth to the story. But we took off from there, with a plot involving stalking, kidnapping—and murder.

Of course, I wound up with a pile of factual data I couldn’t possibly squeeze in. Was the time wasted? Yes, in terms of that particular novel. No, in terms of making me a more rounded person. Whatever research I do, it now depends on two words: credibility and enhancement. Will it add either to a gripping plot or to fleshing out the characters?

 

You can learn about the Milds and their books via their website, or follow them on Facebook or LinkedIn. Death Rules the Night is available in print to order from all major booksellers.

Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Billy Bob Thornton, Robin Wright, and Hopper Penn are set to star in Where All Light Tends to Go, which will be directed by Ben Young (Hounds of Love; Extinction). The screenplay was written by Robert Knott and is based on the novel by David Joy. Set in the Appalachian Mountains, Where All Light Tends to Go is described as "a tense thriller about a family dominated by a crime lord who controls his family and his business with his fists. When his son meets the girl of his dreams, desperately wanting to escape the life he is expected to lead and freeing himself from the clutches of his father, he is forced to go head to head with the terrifying man who will stop at nothing to ensure loyalty from all of those around him."

Joel Edgerton and Sigourney Weaver are attached as the leads in Master Gardener, a crime thriller that Paul Schrader (The Card Counter) is directing from his original screenplay. It follows a meticulous horticulturist (Edgerton) who is devoted to tending the grounds of a beautiful estate and pandering to his employer, a wealthy dowager (Weaver). When she demands that he take on her wayward and troubled great-niece, it unlocks dark secrets from a buried violent past.

Tom Berenger and Cam Gigandet are set to lead the cast of the action thriller, Black Warrant, directed by Tibor Takács. Based on a story by Michael Paré and D. Glase Lomond, the project follows a semi-retired special ops assassin (Berenger) and a DEA agent (Gigandet) who cross paths on separate missions to stop a cyberterrorist group in possession of a dangerous machine that could attack the power grid and threaten global catastrophe. Jeff Fahey also co-stars in the film, which heads into production next month.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Alfred Molina is set to star in Amazon's police drama series, Three Pines, which comes from The Crown producer, Left Bank Pictures. The project is based on Louise Penny's novels featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec (played by Molina), who investigates a spate of murders in Three Pines, a seemingly idyllic village where he discovers long-buried secrets and faces a few of his own ghosts. The cast also includes Rossif Sutherland, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Tantoo Cardinal, Clare Coulter, Sarah Booth, Anna Tierney, Julian Bailey, Frédéric-Antoine Guimond, Pierre Simpson, Tamara Brown, Marie-France Lambert, Frank Schorpion, Marcel Jeannin, Georgina Lynn Lightning, Crystle Lightning, Isabel Deroy-Olson, and Anna Lambe.

HBO Max has given a pilot order to Dead Boy Detectives, a series based on the DC Comics characters created by Neil Gaiman, from The Flight Attendant creator Steve Yockey, Doom Patrol creator Jeremy Carver, Berlanti Productions, and Warner Brothers TV. Written by Yockey, the one-hour series would follow the Dead Boy Detectives (Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine) who decided not to enter the afterlife in order to stay on earth and investigate crimes involving the supernatural.

Joseph Russo has been tapped to play "Crazy" Joe Gallo opposite Miles Teller and Matthew Goode in The Offer, Paramount+’s upcoming limited series about the making of The Godfather. The project is based on Oscar-winning producer Al Ruddy’s (Teller) experience of making the iconic 1972 film that Francis Ford Coppola directed and adapted with Mario Puzo from Puzo’s bestselling novel. The movie starred Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, John Cazale, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, and Talia Shire; it was nominated for 11 Oscars and won three, including Best Picture for Ruddy.

Rainn Wilson is set as a lead opposite Zahn McClarnon and Kiowa Gordon in Dark Winds, AMC’s Western noir thriller series based on Tony Hillerman’s popular Leaphorn & Chee book series. Dark Winds, which has a six-episode order, is a psychological thriller that follows two Navajo police officers, Leaphorn (McClarnon) and Chee (Gordon), in the 1970s Southwest as their search for clues in a grisly double-murder case forces them to challenge their own spiritual beliefs and come to terms with the trauma of their pasts. Wilson will play Devoted Dan, a "pious" missionary who recruits followers to the gates of his used-car lot—all the while being a degenerate practitioner of every biblical sin he decries.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The new episode of Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast features the mystery short story, "Water Fall," written by Merrilee Robson and read by actor Teya Juarez.

Debbi Mack interviewed crime writer, Samantha Downing, for the Crime Cafe podcast. Downing's third novel, For Your Own Good, was recently optioned by a production company.

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed Karen Cleveland to discuss her new thriller, You Can Run, which follows a CIA analyst who makes a split-second decision that endangers her country but saves her son—and must now team up with an investigative journalist she’s not sure she can trust.

Suspense Radio chatted with Chuck Wendig about his latest novel, The Book of Accidents. Wendig also writes the Miriam Black thrillers, the Atlanta Burns books, the Wanderers series and more.

Matthew FitzSimmons stopped by Meet the Thriller Author. He pens the bestselling Gibson Vaughn series, which includes The Short Drop and Poisonfeather.

Criminal Mischief: Episode #47, hosted by Dr. DP Lyle, tackled the topic of "Amnesia and Trauma Amnesia," used in such novels as The Bourne Identity, and which may have even affected Agatha Christie...or not.

This month's Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast offered something new: A reading by Canadian journalist, author, and professor Dean Jobb of his true crime piece "Arthur Conan Doyle and the Mutineers," which was published in the September/October 2020 issue.

Queer Writers of Crime spoke with award-winning author, C. L. Brees, who holds degrees in Police Studies and Cyber Forensics and writes the DS Anderson series.

Crime Time FM chatted with Simone Buchholz about Hotel Cartagena, featuring Public Prosecutor Chastity Riley who's dropped unwittingly into the middle of a tense hostage situation.

The Red Hot Chili Writers podcast welcomed indie publisher Orenda Books, along with founder Karen Sullivan and authors Awais Khan, Will Carver, and Lilja Sigurdardottir chatting about their terrific new novels.

The Cozy Ink podcast featured a look at cozy mysteries that include cats. 😼

FFB: She Shall Have Murder

Delano Ames (1906-1987) was born in Ohio to a newspaperman father. In 1929 Ames married Maysie Grieg, who later became a highly successful author of lighthearted romances, and the duo settled in Greenwich Village where Ames published his first novel, a philosophical look at the Greek gods entitled A Double Bed on Olympus. When the couple divorced, Ames moved to England where he remarried and worked for British intelligence during the second World War.

After the war, according to his tongue-in-cheek autobiography, he "translated an erudite history of keyboard instruments from the French, and believes that at least 100 copies were sold." Fortunately, his later efforts were more successful, beginning with in 1948 with She Shall Have Murder, the first in what was to become a 12-book series featuring the British husband-and-wife sleuthing team of Jane and Dagobert Brown. Ames produced a Brown book every year until 1959 when he moved to Spain and switched to writing a four-book
series featuring Juan Llorca of the Spanish Civil Guard.

She Shall Have Murder, made into a movie on British television in 1950, introduces Jane Hamish, a pretty young executive in the law firm Daniel Playfair and Son, and Dagobert Brown, Jane's lover and a researcher/writer who is so absorbed in the thriller he and Jane are concocting around the law firm's staff, that he is astonished when the wrong victim dies. Said victim is Mrs. Robjohn, the least favorite client of the firm, thanks to her frequent calls, letters and visits and unwavering paranoid belief that the mysterious "they" are out to get her.

She Shall Have Murder was labeled as "Detection with Wit" when first published in 1948, an apt description of the characters of Jane, always the common-sense, down-to-earth narrator, and her other half Dagobert, whose eccentricities and passing fads often leave Jane alternatively delighted and driven to despair ("Dagobert is my hero, but he persistently refuses to behave like one"). One of Dagobert's primary pursuits is amateur sleuthing that he puts to good use as he resorts to bluffs, disguises, charm, and insightful detection in his efforts to prove Mrs. Robjohn was murdered.

Jane makes a delightful narrator, as in this bit about her thoughts on her potential novel-writing career at the start of the story:

"On the other hand, thrillers have nowadays become an accepted art-forom; bishops and minor poets read practically nothing else, and the New Statesman reviews them....The beginning of a book is always the tricky part. It should arrest. A shot should ring out in the night, or if you prefer, a rod should cough or a Roscoe belch forth destruction. Personally, I like to meeet my corpse on page one, and I like him (or her) to be very dead."

In Peter Walker's foreword to the Black Dagger edition of She Shall Have Murder, he notes that the novel is a time capsule of post-World War II life, with utility clothing, conscription, rationing, listening to the wireless, putting lavender in the clothes closet, feeding gas meters with shillings, and girls who resemble Rita Hayworth. But the writing sparkles over 60 years later and is far from dated in its ability to entertain.