In Reference to Murder

Awesome Agatha

This Saturday, the Daily Mail will publish a long-lost Hercule Poirot story by Agatha Christie. "The Capture Of Cerberus" was pieced together from 60-year-old notebooks by author John Curran, who came across the material in 2005 after being invited to examine Dame Agatha's papers at Greenway, her holiday retreat. It's completely different from a short story with the same title published in 1947 and revolves around a Nazi dictator who bears a "thinly disguised resemblance to Adolf Hitler." Its overtly political theme was quite possibly the reason it wasn't published in a collection of her stories in 1940.

While we're on the subject of Agatha Christie and forgotten works, the International Mystery Writers Festival in Owensboro, Kentucky, just wrapped up its annual event which included four rare BBC plays by Christie. NPR affiliate WNIN recorded the plays live for local radio broadcast, but those recordings will be re-mixed and sweetened for wider national radio syndication. Stay tuned...

Top Ten Excuses for Not Writing

After seeing many blogs and articles about the various reasons writers can't seem to find their way to butt-in-chair mode and start a project (or even continue an existing one), I decided to compile a listing of what appear to be the Top Ten such excuses (with a teensie bit of personal experience mixed in for good measure):

1. I'm not talented enough. If you feel uncomfortable with your level of talent, take a writing class. Also, take comfort in the knowledge that every author starts by simply putting word #1 down onto paper. After all, you never know if you'll be good at something until you give it a go. 
2. When I sit down to write, nothing comes out. Try making an outline, even a small one. Come up with character names and engage them in imaginary conversations in your head. Keep a small notebook at hand at all times (or audio recorder) to take notes when ideas strike you while shopping, exercising, in the middle of the night, etc.  Don't get into perfection mode right away; writers' block can happen if you rewrite every sentence before moving on. As Michael Crichton said, "Books aren't written — they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it."
3. My ideas seem terrific — until I try to write about them. See Michael Crichton above. That's what editing is all about. A perfect first draft is extremely rare (if not impossible).
4. Writing a book seems like an impossible dream. I'm too overwhelmed. One writer, Debra Koontz Traverso, compared writing to having a baby placed in your lap the moment you wanted one, for which you are totally unprepared. After all, conception is followed by nine months of growth, preparation and development, just as an author needs time to research, prepare and organize the many aspects of writing a book.
5. I'm too old to start. There’s no minimum or maximum age requirement. Authors like Harry Bernstein had their first book published at age 96. Although Alan Bradley had collaborated on a work of nonfiction, his first crime fiction novel, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, was published when the author was 70.
6. There's too much competition. Audre Lorde said that there are no new ideas, only new ways of making them felt. Even with 275,000 new books published each year, you are a unique individual with a unique take on life. Work hard on developing your own style and your own voice.
7. I don't have enough money. All you need to start writing is a pencil, notebook and public library access. If you have your own computer, more's the better.
8. I don't know any literary agents. Very few debut authors do, at first. Check the acknowledgment sections in the fronts of books, go to conferences, check out agent blogs and search through other online resources like this listing of agent search sites.  After all, you probably didn't know a financial planner or plumber before you needed one. It takes research.
9. If the book doesn't sell, I'll have wasted all that time. Many authors don't sell their first book until after they've written book #2, 3, 4, or more. J.A. Konrath didn't sell his novel until he'd amassed more than 500 rejections searching for agents and publishers. Perseverance is the key. If that first book doesn't sell, consider it an exercise in learning to be a better writer. Write because you love it, because you're compelled, even obsessed to write.
10. I don't have enough time to write a book. Everyone has responsibilities and demands on their time. Many writers stay up late to write or get up at 4:00 am to catch a few hours. Some set goals of simply writing 500 words a day. If you truly want this, you’ll find the time and make it a priority. If you wait until you have a four-hour block each and every single day to pursue your writing career, it'll never happen.

As Annette Fix pointed out, here is only one viable reason for not pursuing your writing as a career:  someone is reading this blog post as a eulogy at your funeral right now. Don't let your life pass you by without pursuing your dream. Just do it.

 

A Thrilling, Tony Trio

Harper Collins recently published the latest novels from James Grippando, Jane Stanton Hitchcock and Paulo Coehlo, and sent along some copies. At first, I thought I might feature them separately, but then I realized they have a common theme running not only among the three books but also the three authors.

Coehlo's book, The Winner Stands Alone, zeroes in on society's fascination with the world of fame, fortune, and celebrity, something Coehlo himself knows first-hand, as a theater director, actor and lyricist in his native Brazil. His novel takes place over a 24-hour period at the Cannes Film Festival, with the "superclass" of producers, actors, designers, and supermodels juxtaposed against aspiring starlets, has-been stars and jaded hangers-on. The story focuses on a successful, driven Russian entrepreneur who will go to the darkest lengths, even murder, to reclaim his ex-wife, but it's as much a indictment of the excesses and shaky moral ground of the Hollywood and celebrity lifestyle as it is a thriller. (That particular theme turns out to be a bit ironic, considering at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, Harvey Weinstein bought the rights to Coelho's best-selling The Alchemist and will be producing it with a budget of $60 million.)

Author Jane Stanton Hitchcock is no stranger to fame and fortune, either, her mother being noted actress Joan Alexander and her father (adoptive stepfather) a wealthy Volkswagen executive, who entertained lavishly in New York and the Hamptons with the likes of George Plimpton, Neil Simon, and Leonard Bernstein. In Hitchcock's latest novel, Mortal Friends, the high society-connected Reven Lynch joins forces with a DC detective, playing an "ersatz Mata Hari" navigating embassy dinners and charity balls to help catch a killer, the "Beltway Basher," who might be closer to home than Reven realizes; the most likely suspect is Reven's businessman love interest. Eventually, her efforts cause her social world to unravel, put an old friendship to the test and unleash quite a bit of scandal as Reven discovers nothing in either high or low culture is what it appears to be.

Although novelist James Grippando didn't start out in such rarified circles as Hitchcock, his legal career drove him on the fast track to becoming a partner at Steel Hector and Davis, the Miami law firm at which former Attorney General Janet Reno began her career. His latest novel, Intent to Kill, centers around a fallen baseball star, Ryan James, who uses his skills as Boston's king of sports radio to outwit a dangerous caller and prove the hit-and-run which killed his wife was no accident. With help from the dedicated prosecutor on the case, James tries to unravel a cover-up that reaches back to the night of his wife's death and could end up involving one of New England's richest and most powerful families.

Power, greed and fame — the getting and the keeping — are certainly prime fodder for crime, and these three novels make good use of that construct. As philosopher Francis Bacon pointed out, “Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid," or, as Hitchcock's protagonist Reven Lynch says in Mortal Friends, "This being Washington, and Washington being the capital of ambition, there are a lot of killers around here, believe me. I imagined quite a few people in that audience would be capable of murder if they thought it would advance their careers, or keep them in power."

MWA To the Rescue

The Mystery Writers of American organization is teaming up with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America to co-sponsor the Writer Beware program. Writer Beware aims to expose publishing scams as well as educate writers on how to protect themselves against fraud. It also established and maintains a large database of questionable literary agents, publishers, editorial services and literary contests. "We are not only showing our support and making Writer Beware stronger, but sending a message to scammers that we won’t stand by and let them take advantage of authors," said Lee Goldberg, the MWA board member who will act as MWA's liaison with Writer Beware.

Another recent MWA partnership is the Reader To Reader’s Navajo Nation Library Book Drive. The goal of the drive is to add 100,000 books and 100 computers to the Navajo Nation Library in Window Rock, AZ. The library serves as the principal library for the residents of the 27,000 square mile Navajo Nation in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Reader To Reader executive director David Mazor said, "The MWA is well known for their Edgar Awards that honor the best in mystery writing so we know their members will contribute great books." Laura Durham, Chairperson of Mystery Writers of America's MWA: Reads committee added, "Everyone at MWA is very excited and we already have some books ready to ship." Individuals can add to the drive on their own, following the guidelines on the Book Drive link above.

A Shamus Celebration

The Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) is handing out its 27th annual Shamus Awards at a banquet scheduled for Friday, October 16, from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. at The Slippery Noodle, the most popular blues bar in Indianapolis. If you live in the area or are going to Bouchercon, sign up for some good food, great music, and of course, the Shamus Awards. Tickets are $50 and seating is limited, so reserve your place ASAP. Email Bob Randisi ([email protected]) with your home address, and an invitation will be sent to you.

  

Forgotten Books Friday

Viewed from a contemporary perspective, it's hard to recall a time when there weren't female detectives the likes of V.I. Warshawski, Kinsey Millhone, Tess Monaghan and Sharon McCone, but back in the 1930s they were almost nonexistent. As a child I went through my fair share of Nero Wolfe stories by Rex Stout, among the many books read under the covers with a flashlight to circumvent the parental "go to bed" commandment. But at the time I never read or even knew of Stout's female detective Theodolinda "Dol" Bonner, who came to being in the standalone novel The Hand in the Glove in 1937, one of the very first female private eyes.

Although Stout only gave Bonner one solo outing, she also guest-starred in some of the Nero Wolfe stories, one of the few women Wolfe tolerated perhaps because she herself claimed to have been "inoculated against" men, even her suitor, the newspaperman Len Chisholm. Although The Hand in the Glove is a contemporary of the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin titles, it was written in the third person narrative, not Archie's sarcastic first-person. Even so, it still has some of the hallmark wit that graces the Wolfe/Goodwin novels. In the book, a religious charlatan has charmed the wife of wealthy industrialist, P.L. Storrs, who decides he needs a private investigator to look into the man and hires Bonner, even though he doesn't approve of female detectives. But when she arrives at Storrs' country estate, she instead finds the body of her client and a garden party filled with a bouquet of suspects.

Bonner isn't quite the fully realized, tough-as-nails P.I. of the 21st century, sending out mixed messages about her ability to do the job as a woman, perhaps mirroring the changing-but-still-traditional views of women in Stout's day. Bonner begins the novel as part of a two-woman firm, Bonner and Raffray, although the Raffray half soon dissolves, Bonner being disgusted about Raffray's submissiveness to her fiancée. Yet, Bonner concedes she herself decided to be a detective on flimsy grounds, adding, "I made a long list of all the activities I might undertake on my own. They all seemed monotonous or distasteful except two or three, and I flipped a coin to decide between detective and landscape design." Although she's a smart cookie and solves the crimes where the male detectives in the case don't, she's also squeamish about seeing corpses and faints after she shoots a criminal.

After Dol first appeared, Stout's New York editor wrote to her London counterpart, "The Hand in the Glove is doing almost as well as Nero, but whether or not there will be another Dol Bonner mystery we can't be sure." Turns out, it was twenty years later that she reappeared, as Wolfe's operative in the 1956 Too Many Detectives. Anthony Boucher noted of these later appearances, that while Bonner was Archie's age, it was Wolfe who made "sheep's eyes" at her, inviting her to breakfast and dinner and seating her at his right. The confused Archie, taken by Bonners' pretty assistant Sally Colt, wonders if "there might be some flaw in my attitude toward female dicks," and concludes, "If she hooks him and Sally hooks me, we can can all solve cases together and dominate the field."

The Thrilling Detective site points out that In 1992, NBC dusted off the rights to The Hand In The Glove and made a TV movie (under the title Lady Against the Odds) as a vehicle for actress Crystal Bernard (of the sitcom Wings), moving the setting up a few years to World War II. According to People Magazine, it was an "uninvolving and ludicrously unconvincing...turkey."  Still, it did win an Outstanding Individual Achievement in Cinematography for a Miniseries or a Special for cinematographer Bradford May. So at least it looked marvelous.

A Salon of Mystery

Janet Rudolph, editor of Mystery Readers Journal and the "Mistress of Mystery," also sponsors frequent literary salons in Berkeley, California, featuring prominent mystery authors. Tomorrow afternoon's guest is Linwood Barclay, winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel for Too Close to Home. His latest novel, hot off the presses, is Fear the Worst about an ordinary man’s desperate search for his daughter which leads him into a dark world of corruption, exploitation, and murder. Seating is limited for the event, but there may be a few reserved spots left if you check with Janet.

Also click on over to Janet's blog Mystery Fanfare, a companion to the Journal. For dessert, check out another blog she operates, a decadent blog on chocolate (a personal favorite).

A Little Lamb Lost

In the subgenre of amateur detectives, there seem to be no boundaries regarding a protagonist's vocation. Some tend to stretch credulity to its limits, but others, such as social work, provide the potential for a depth of material to mine. There haven't been many social worker sleuths in crime fiction, Irene Marcuse's Anita Servi series and Tom Schreck's Duffy Dombrowski, being two examples.

One of the most recent is the June debut novel by Margaret Fenton, Little Lamb Lost. From the "write what you know" school, Fenton, herself a child and family therapist, is married to a software developer in Birmingham, Alabama. In Little Lamb Lost, social worker Claire Conover gets drawn into a murder case after a child she recommended be returned to his reformed drug-addict mother is killed, allegedly by the mother. After the Department of Human Services and the press get wind of Claire's involvement, she tries to uncover the truth behind the boy's death and prove the mother innocent. Aided by a computer geek (and potential love interest -- see note above about the author's hubby), she pursues answers through the streets of Birmingham, identifying the child's child-abusing step-grandfather, a drug addict son of a rich area family and two boyfriends of the mother as potential suspects.

Fenton casts Conover as a sympathetic heroine, who honestly believes she can make a different in the world, despite the depressing life stories she's faced with on a daily basis and the troubled reality of the foster care system. Birmingham, Alabama, is also not a typical setting for a crime novel, with more opportunities for a fresh take on setting and sense of place. Publishers Weekly said in a review that "With her fine ear for regional speech, Fenton may do for Birmingham what Margaret Maron has done for rural North Carolina." (Speaking of Maron, the Women of Mystery are giving away a copy of her latest book, Sand Sharks. Click here.)

One interesting side note: Fenton has Anne George (who died in 2001) to thank for become a published author. As Fenton note, the pair "were on our way to a Sisters in Crime meeting one night and I was babbling on about Laura Lippman’s first book and how much I liked it when she said, 'Margaret, I don’t know why someone who loves mysteries as much as you do doesn’t try to write one.' I didn’t have a good answer for that. So the next day I started thinking about it. I am an LCSW and worked with child welfare for many years, so that seemed a good place to start."

Fenton is working on a sequel to the novel, titled Little Girl Gone, in what promises to become a new series.

IMBA Bestsellers for July

Here are the top-selling crime fiction titles for the month of July in stores affiliated with the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association:

Hardcover

1 – Janet Evanovich, Finger Lickin’ Fifteen, St. Martin’s
2 – James Lee Burke, Rain Gods, Simon & Schuster
3 –  Rhys Bowen, Royal Flush, Berkley
4 – J.A. Jance, Fire and Ice, Morrow
5 –  Steig Larsson, The Girl Who Played with Fire, Knopf
6 –  Daniel Silva, The Defector, Putnam
7 –  Laurie R. King, The Language of Bees, Bantam
8 –  David Morrell, The Shimmer, Vanguard
9 –  Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Angel’s Game, Doubleday
10 – Kwei Quartey, Wife of the Gods, Random House

Softcover

1 –  Steig Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Vintage
2 –  Rhys Bowen, A Royal Pain, Berkley
3 –  Deborah Crombie, Where Memories Lie, Avon
4 –  Daniel Silva, The Moscow Rules, Signet
5 – Juliet Blackwell, Secondhand Spirits, Berkley
6 – Julie Kramer, Stalking Susan, Anchor
7 –  G.M. Malliett, Death of a Cozy Writer, Midnight Ink
8 –  Don Winslow, The Dawn Patrol, Vintage
9 –  Donna Andrews, Cockatiels at Seven, St. Martin’s
10 - Megan Abbott, Bury Me Deep, Simon & Schuster
10 - Nicola Upson, An Expert in Murder, Harper 

To find the nearest independent mystery bookstore near you, check out the list on this site.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

• Director James McTeigue has revealed his next cinematic project, a period thriller titled The Raven. It's a fictionalized account of five days in the life of Edgar Allan Poe, in which the author tries to help find a serial killer who is basing his crimes on Poe's stories. The screenplay is being written by Hannah Shakespeare and Ben Livingston.

• Variety reported that a Swedish screen version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larssen has become "a sleeper hit."  It's grossed more than $70 million worldwide, been sold to 30 territories and has been picked up in five more countries, including Japan and Germany.

• Much has been made of Thomas Pynchon's foray into noir fiction with his new release Inherent Vice, but it looks like he may also snag a film deal out of the book.

• I already posted the next two items via Twitter, but in case you missed the news, Steven Spielberg may be eyeing a new version of Matt Helm, based on a series of 27 spy novels written by Donald Hamilton (and loosely adapted into a 1970s TV show).

• Ron Howard is going to direct The Parsifal Mosaic based on the novel by Robert Ludlum, in which a CIA operative thinks he witnessed the execution of his lover, a KGB double agent.

TV

• Lauren Lee Smith aka Riley Adams, is leaving CSI: Crime Scene Investigation for its 9th season, while Jorja Fox is welcomed back as Sara Sidle.

• Donal Logue will star in Terriers, the comedy crime series about a P.I. business, produced for FX.

• NBC is going to create a new Rockford Files TV series helmed by House executive producer David shore. The original series, starring James Garner as the ex-con turned private eye, was popular in the 1970s. "What makes 'Rockford' timeless is that he's vulnerable, he's flawed. He's used to hustling and getting hustled," Shore said. "Sometimes he's a hero and sometimes he runs away."

• Author Michael Connelly will appear on the second episode of the series Castle this Fall, set to air September 21st. In the first season, Stephen J. Cannell and James Patterson played Castle's poker-playing pals. (Hat tip to Mystery Books.)

• Turner Classic Movies is launching a new series in October titled "A Night at the Movies." The entire month of October will be devoted to cinematic thrillers, including a Hitchcock night, Political Thrillers, Gothic Thrillers, and Psychological Thrillers.

WEB/RADIO

• Today, on the Leonard Lopate show on WNYC, he'll be discussing New York Thrillers with Reggie Nadelson, author of Londongrad; Lee Child, author of Gone Tomorrow; and George Dawes Green, author of Ravens, as they talk about "writing crime thrillers set in New York City...from picking a setting to characters and story development."

• Peter Rozovsky appeared on the radio show "Here on Earth: Radio Without Borders" from Wisconsin Public Radio, speaking about how crime fiction has gone global.

• NPR's Morning Edition had an interview with John Sandford, discussing his latest book Wicked Prey and his fictional detective Lucas Davenport.

• The latest version of Simon Mayo's Book Review podcast reviewed the Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston. (Hat tip to Euro Crime.)

• The BBC featured Lee Child in a new series BBC Midlands Today, archived on their web site.

• Walter Mosley joined Law & Order Executive Producer Rene Balcer on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" to discuss Why We Love Crime Fiction and the art of suspense.