In Reference to Murder

Quote of the Day

FFB: Blue Octavo

Bibliomysteries are a subgenre of crime fiction in which manuscripts, books, libraries, bookstores or publishing houses (or any employees thereof) play a large role. They date back at least to The Lost Library by Fredric Perkins in 1874, and many well-known authors have used the theme since, even Chandler's The Big Sleep (1939) with its rare book dealer who is fronting for something entirely different.

It's rarer to find an author of the genre who is a real-life book dealer, but John Blackburn is one example. Born in Northumberland in 1923, he was the brother of poet Thomas Blackburn, although the writing bug didn't bite John early. He served in the British merchant navy during World War II and then as a schoolmaster, before becoming director of Red Lion Books.

In 1958 he published his first work, A Scent of New-Mown Hay, which is a blend of science fiction and horror, themes that permeated many of his novels. He also penned several international espionage thrillers, including those with General Charles Kirk of British Intelligence and his sidekicks, scientist Sir Marcus Levin and his Russian wife Tania.

Blackburn's Blue Octavo (titled Bound to Kill in the U.S.), was published in 1963, and is a departure from most of his other books, but is likely the one most rooted in his own life and the biblio world. The hero is John Cain, a young bookseller who inherits the stock of a curmudgeonly antisocial dealer, James Roach, after he appears to have committed suicide. Or so the police soon conclude.

Cain is unconvinced, especially considering the alleged suicide followed the dead man's strange behavior at an auction where Roach had grossly overbid on a thin blue volume about mountain climbing. The book appeared to be as exciting as its title, Grey Boulders, but why had Roach been so obsessed with owning it and why is it now missing from Roach's collection?

As Cain digs deeper, he realizes Roach was murdered over that book, and in his bumbling attempts to get to the bottom of the mystery, he crosses paths with an unconventional young heiress, Julia Lent, and the noted author and mountaineer J. Moddon Mott. The three join forces in a hectic quest to uncover why a book with fewer than 50 remaining copies is worth three murders, attempted murder and blackmail. And where do a dying millionaire and a tortured clergyman with burned feet fit into the puzzle?

As you'd expect from a bookseller/author writing a bibliomystery, Blue Octavo is filled with details about  bookselling (at least as it was in Britain in the early 1960s). John Kennedy Melling notes, in his foreword to the Black Dagger reprint, that the novel gives "a revealing insight into the world of books, with a clear explanation of how the Ring works in bidding at public auctions, descriptions of bookseller's shops and stocks which immediately conjure up pictures of shops known to all book collectors, and some useful tips on collecting the editions—to say nothing of how to deal with auctioneers who won't cooperate."

Still, the thriller elements are enough to inspire author and Shots Magazine columnist Mike Ripley to include the work (along with Blackburn's A Ring of Roses) on his list of favorite thrillers. Maybe it has to do with the Hitchcockian climax in a factory tower.

Poetry is a Crime

April means National Poetry Month here in the States, and it also means it's time for the fifth annual Five-Two Crime Poem Blog Tour, hosted by Gerald So. I'm honored to take part again this year by focusing on some of the fine works showcased in the Five-Two's roster.

When I was first drawn to poetry as a young child, it was the fascination with the interplay of the words that lured me in. A turn of phrase here, a short passage there, nothing big in terms of space on the page, but that's all it takes to communicate a universe of ideas. Then, too, coming from a music background, I loved how poems are often musical in form, which is why so many nineteenth-century chanson and lieder composers based their songs on poems of the day.

So instead of focusing on just one poem from the Five-Two archives, I thought I'd point out some of the more lovely, musical, and poignant phrases from various poems to help illustrate why I love the form so much. Here's a case in point from R.A. Allen's poem "On Car Theft":

Truant, shoplifter, creature of the night,
your calling was low-slung and German.
Like a cheetah prowling the Kenyan plains
the road was your antelope to chase.

Or these lines from Tom Brzezina's "Lew Archer Writes a Poem":

The sun goes down
like a shot of cheap whiskey
and the whole city blacks out.
The moon is a toenail clipping.
And the stars drown in garish neon.

In both cases, the wildness and darker side of nature is used synonymously for the wild, dark side of the human subjects. This technique has probably been used as long as the first poet put quill (or charcoal) to paper or stone, but it's as effective now as then. Humans, the animals, the heavens, we're all born of the same violent universe that also feeds and nurtures us.

Then, there are more contemporaneous nuances in poems, like this from "Just Ice" by Thomas Pluck:

The ultimate in disrespect
Is a so-called man who leaves his son
A useless gun in pocket,
A heart with no justice, just ice.

And this from "Take a Bite Out of Crime" by Catherine Wald:

Admit it: you're starting
to savor the
whiff of danger
frisson of desire
crunch of crisp guilt
between your teeth.

Both of these poems hint of danger, guilt, abandonment, and betrayal. I love the play on words "no justice, just ice," and the visceral punch of the "crunch of crisp guilt between your teeth."

The concept of the air we breathe, the very substance required of all life as we know it, takes front stage in these lines from Peter Swanson in "The Survivor of a Slasher Flick in Middle Age":

A poacher with a bag of fallen birds.
She still can feel the whistle of his breath,
The swish of boning knife through gummy air.

As well as these lines from C.J. Edwards' "Nothing to See Here":

Gawkers and young kids skulk
to peek, and whisper behind
their hands to each other.
Sirens scream
and choked cries
clot the air.

You can practically feel the "gummy air" and "choked cries" that "clot the air." That's another of the aspects of poetry that I think appeal to all poetry fans - the way different words are paired together in unusual ways to create a new, more powerful image.

These are just some of the many powerful and beautiful ways that words become paintings on their own, with the ability to draw us in as deeply and as clearly as an image or sound. And that is why poet Paul Engle said "Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power. Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words."

For the entire schedule of the Five-Two's crime poetry lineup, check out this calendar link.

Mystery Melange

 

UPDATE (with thanks to Mystery Fanfare/Rap Sheet): The International Thrill Writers announced the finalists for the 2015 Thriller Awards in various categories. Check out the nominated authors and categories on the official ITW site, and congratulations to them all!

The Strand Magazine Critics Awards announced Otto Penzler will receive The Strand’s Lifetime Achievement award for his contribution to the crime genre. The publication also listed the nominated books for this year's Strand Book Awards (hat tip to Mystery Fanfare:

Best Novel:

• The Fever, by Megan Abbott (Little, Brown)
• Jack of Spies, by David Downing (Soho Crime)
• The Secret Place, by Tana French (Viking)
• Fear Nothing, by Lisa Gardner (Dutton)
• Die Again, by Tess Gerritsen (Ballantine)
• After I’m Gone, by Laura Lippman (Morrow)

Best First Novel Nominees:

• Dry Bones in the Valley, by Tom Bouman (Norton)
• Dear Daughter, by Elizabeth Little (Viking)
• The Home Place, by Carrie La Seur (Morrow)
• Ice Shear, by M.P. Cooley (Morrow)
• Confessions, by Kanae Minato, translated by Stephen Snyder (Mulholland)
• The Good Girl, by Mary Kubica (Mira)

Congratulations also to the Derringer Short Story Award winners from the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Joseph D'Agnese won for Best Flash Story; Cathi Stoler won for Best Short Story; Hilary Davidson won for Best Long Story; and Doug Allyn won for Best Novelette. James Powell was also named the winner of the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer Award for lifetime achievement.

The Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance is sponsoring the 2015 Maine Crime Wave on Saturday, April 11, at the Glickman Library at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. The day-long conference will include panel discussions, theme-specific workshops, editor and agent critiques, and book-signings. For more information visit the MWPA website.

The New York Women's Bar Association Foundation is sponsoring "An Evening of Women Crime/Mystery Writers" on Tuesday, April 21. Those scheduled to take part include Linda Fairstein (moderator) and panelists Alafair Burke, Allison Leotta, and Sarah Weinman. For ticket information, check out the reservation site.

In you're in New York City on May 1, you can catch Otto Penzler in conversation with James Ellroy at 92nd Street Y.

Although the U.S. World Book Night organization folded last year (the U.K. events are still going strong), BookRiot has decided to continue in the spirit of the event, which was created to promote literacy. They're arranging several Book Meet-ups in East Coast cities on April 23, but you can also send books to Operation Breakthrough or even your own local literacy organizations.

William Morrow is set to publish Charlie Martz and Other Stories this June, a collection of 15 short stories by the late Elmore Leonard, 11 of which have never been published before.

Altus Press has announced the premiere of its new line of books, The Argosy Library series. The imprint will include popular pulp authors such as Lester Dent, Otis Adelbert Kline, W.C. Tuttle, and George F. Worts, writing in the genres of adventure, mystery, western, science fiction, fantasy, and crime stories.

The New Yorker profiled mystery author Josephine Tey's book The Daughter of Time and its influence in "convincing a generation" that Richard III wasn't as evil as portrayed in the history books. Meanwhile, the former king's recently-discovered remains, which had been found under a modern-day parking lot, were re-interred next to the altar of Leicester’s Anglican cathedral.

Lawrence Block, a legendary author figure in his own right, wrote an essay on why we keep going back to certain books and why books like Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon never go out of print.

ABC News reviewed the new Mystery Writers of America Cookbook, looking at the food pairings to Gone Girl, True Blood, and more.

The new crime poem at the 5-2 is "A Contemplation on Killing" by Ron Hayes, and a new story titled "Last Exit" by Chris Leek is up at Beat to a Pulp.

The Q&A roundup includes Megan Abbott, who took part in PEN America's weekly interview series; Duane Swierczynski got interrogated by The Mystery People; The Guardian hosted a webchat with Val McDermid; crime novelist Robert Glinski stopped by Omnimystery News about his debut novel, The Friendship of Criminals; and Graham Smith took Paul D. Brazill's Short, Sharp Interview challenge to talk about a new novel and short story collection.