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Isobel Mary Lambot (1926-2001) was from a family of readers in Birmingham, England, but she didn't turn to writing until her mid-30s. She served first in the Women's Royal Air Force then as a teacher before marrying in 1959 a Belgian engineer whose work took him to Third World countries. That was the launching point for Lambot's travels around the world, experiences that would later turn up in her writing—including her Russian-exile Commissaire Orloff who appeared in two novels and was inspired from a period spent in France. In fact, Lambot's very first crime novel was written in Jamaica, and although never published, it connected her with her literary agent.
In all, she published some 20 crime novels, including police procedurals, political thrillers and standalone detective stories based in such locations as Ceylon and the Congo, translated into German, Italian, Portuguese and Swedish under the Lambot name or the pseudonyms Daniel Ingham and Mary Turner. She also had a nonfiction book, How to Write Crime Novels, published in 1992, taught creative writing, lectured to writers' groups and presented "Whodunit" evenings.
She was definitely of her time and the social mores of the day, once saying, "My aim is to entertain, not to preach, but certain moral values underlie my work all the same. I prefer old-fashioned virtues, such as Crime Does Not Pay, while obviously in real life it does! I don't like the permissive society, and make sure my heroines get decently married at the end. If any of my characters leap into bed with each other, it is essential to the plot, and they usually regret it." But she also understood the writing process well, adding that "People write because they want to. It is an inner compulsion. Crime writers write to entertain, to give a little relaxation in a world of stress. It is very hard work."
Sadly, late in life as a widow she had rapid onset of Alzheimer's disease and after being moved to a nursing home, left one day and was last seen walking into the countryside. As a family member noted, the author's final mystery was like her novels, as a massive search operation was set up with police and volunteers until her body was found against a tree in Yeld Wood. But she probably would have appreciated the funeral—as the hearse drove from the Church in Kington to the Crematorium in Hereford, a lone buzzard flew over the coffin and screeched.Her novels, such as the 1967 Shroud of Canvas, use a plain straighforward style to good effect, weaving character sketches and interpersonal relationships to help build suspense. The main POV protagonist in "Canvas" is Rosalind, a young widow with a daughter, who had cut all ties with her family during her first disastrous marriage and has recently married a man she's only known for six months, Geoffrey Lennard, founder of a plastics company.
When Rosalind receives a telephone call from Geoffrey's former fiancée whom Rosalind knew nothing about, it sets in motion a series of mysteries and deaths beginning with the murder of the ex-fiancée in the Lennard garden. As evidence and suspicion begins to mount against Geoffrey, Rosalind's newfound happiness is in jeopardy even as she unwaveringly believes in the innocence of her husband. With the help of a surprising ally, Detective Sergeant Barry Thornley, and his boss, Superintendent Longton, Rosaline pursues the truth, dodging the whispers and doubts from the local community admidst a backdrop of industrial espionage and power struggles.
And yet...Rosalind does wonder, as this excerpt indicates, although it also shows Lambot's effective sparse style and how she creates conflict:
There was a nightmare sense of repetition. Was she doomed to sit at the breakfast table each morning waiting for an explanation that never came?...She had wandered round the silent house all evening, waiting for the sound of Geoffrey's car, wishing one moment that Sally was not away for the night, glad at another that she was not there to witness her mother's anxiety.
One in desperation, she had phoned the office but there was no reply. Not that it meant anything. Geoffrey could have told the switchboard not to leave him connected with an outside line, so that he could get on with his work in peace...
But the previous evening he had gone to meet Anne...
Shroud of Canvas may date from the late '60s, but it follows true British Golden Age tradition, filled with skillfully placed clues and red herrings alike and ending with a closed circle of suspects gathered together to hear the revelation of the murderer's identity. And of course, in the end, crime does not pay.
At the 3rd annual Murder and Mayhem in Chicago event this past weekend, The Paretsky Award, which honors mysteries set in the Midwest, was handed out to bestselling author Scott Turow. Turow is the author of eleven legal thrillers, including Presumed Innocent, made into a 1990 film starring Harrison Ford. The award is named after Sara Paretsky, the award-winning author of the V.I. Warshawski series. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)
The finalists for the 2019 British Book Award were announced this past weekend. The nods in the Crime & Thriller category include:
Our House by Louise Candlish
The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn
The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
Close to Home by Cara Hunter
Macbeth by Jo Nesbo
In a House of Lies by Ian Rankin
Mystery Fest Key West has announced a call for entries for the 2019 Whodunit Mystery Writing Competition. The winner will claim a book-publishing contract with Absolutely Amazing eBooks, free Mystery Fest Key West 2019 registration, airfare, hotel accommodations for two nights and a Whodunit Award trophy to be presented at the 6th Annual Mystery Fest Key West, set for June 28-30 in Key West, Florida. The deadline for entries of the first three pages (maximum 750 words) of a finished, but unpublished manuscript, is April 15, 2019.
The Left Coast Crime is being held this weekend in Vancouver, and as part of that event, there's a Noir at the Bar open to the general public scheduled for this evening from 7:30-9:30 at the Hyatt Regency. The authors scheduled to attend and read from their writing include Blake Crouch, Kellye Garrett, Rob Hart, Vicki Delany, Deitrich Kalteis, Robin Burcell, Thomas Pluck, Hilary Davidson, Sam Wiebe, Lisa Brackmann, Frank Zafiro, and S.J. Rozan.
Noir at the Bar also returns to Philadelphia at the Misconduct Tavern on April 14. The event will be hosted by Jon McGoran, with the author lineup to include Bill Lashner, Jen Conley, Merry Deedee Jones, Don Lafferty, Erik Arneson, Kelly Simmons, Jane Kelly, Lanny Larcinese, Tony Knighton, Matty Dalrymple, and Dennis Tafoya.
Tuesday April 16, a special Brighton Crime Wave event at the Brighton Waterstones will celebrate the launch of four crime author's new releases, including The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths, the latest in her Ruth Galloway series; William Shaw’s Deadland, the second in his acclaimed DI Alex Cupidi series; The Playground Murders, the latest in Susan Wilkin's series with cleaner and sleuth Stella Darnell; and the debut of DC Jo Boden in Should Have Been Me by DC Jo Boden.
Also over in the UK, on Saturday June 8th, fifteen crime writers will descend upon Cambridge for a murderously good day of panel discussions and book signings. Authors scheduled to appear include Fiona Barton, Simon Brett, Julia Chapman, Rory Clements, Mick Finlay, Lucy Foley, Elly Griffiths, Mick Herron, Lisa Jewell, Gytha Lodge, Alex Michaelides, Anthony Quinn, William Shaw, Laura Shepherd-Robinson, and L C Tyler.
Blockchain technology is all over the new these days, and Publishers Weekly took a look at how it could be used in publishing applications.
More places to put on your bibliophile bucket list: "The 25 Most Beautiful Libraries in America."
The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Murder at the Monastery" by Gregory Cioffi.
In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb interviewed Samantha Downing, the New Orleans-based author who just released the new thriller, My Lovely Wife; E. B. Davis chatted with author Sarah Graves for the Writers Who Kill Blog, talking about Death by Chocolate Malted Milkshake, the second book in Graves's Death by Chocolate cozy mystery series; and the Sleuthsayers welcomed Glen Erik Hamilton to discuss his Van Shaw books set in and around Seattle.
It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a new roundup of crime drama news:
THE BIG SCREEN
Will Fetters, who with Bradley Cooper and Eric Roth adapted the Oscar-nominated screenplay for A Star Is Born, has been tapped to rewrite Tell No One, a Universal pic based on the 2001 Harlan Coben thriller novel. The book was first turned into a 2016 French film by Guillaume Canet, and at one point Liam Neeson was attached to star as a doctor who receives a strange message that leads him on a dangerous quest to find out the truth behind his wife's death.
Principal photography is now underway on The Postcard Killings, an adaptation of James Patterson and Liza Marklund’s bestselling thriller novel The Postcard Killers. Danis Tanovic (No Man’s Land, Death in Sarajevo) is directing the film, which follows a hardened New York Detective (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as he investigates the death of his daughter who was murdered while on her honeymoon in London. Along the way, he recruits the help of a Scandinavian journalist when other couples throughout Europe suffer a similar fate.
Jeff Wadlow is set to direct Danger Girl, adapted from the namesake comic book series that follows the adventures of Abbey Chase, who's reluctantly recruited into an all-female secret organization. The daring Chase finds herself teamed with a trio of elite operatives — Sydney Savage, Natalia Kasstle, and “Silicon” Valerie — and dispatched on a globe-trotting adventure to find and secure a series of objects with destructive power coveted by the evil neo-nazi collective called the Hammer Syndicate.
Sony Pictures Entertainment has picked up the film Booker at a competitive auction. The project is described as "a John Wick-esque hard-boiled action film with an African American male lead." Derek Kolstad, who scripted the first two John Wick films, is writing this one with Gerard McMurray, who’ll direct the film as his follow-up to The First Purge.
New Line has set Tony-winning actor Leslie Odom Jr. for a starring role in The Many Saints Of Newark, the prequel film to David Chase’s iconic HBO mob series, The Sopranos. He joins Alessandro Nivola, Vera Farmiga, Ray Liotta, Jon Bernthal, Corey Stoll, Billy Magnussen, John Magaro and Michael Gandolfini, the latter of whom is reprising the Tony Soprano role originated by his late father, James Gandolfini.
The first trailer was released for the mystery/drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which follows former Western TV star Cliff Booth (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his longtime stunt double Rick Dalton (Brad Pitt) as they navigate a city and industry they hardly recognize anymore. Margot Robbie also stars as the late actress Sharon Tate, who in 1969 was murdered by members of the Charles Manson-led Manson family.
In the new trailer for John Wick 3: Parabellum, every assassin in the world is after the bounty on Wick's (Keanu Reeves) head. New characters include Asia Kate Dillon, Halle Berry, and Angelica Huston, who join returning actors Lawrence Fishburne and Ian McShane.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
Oscar-winning screenwriter Steve Zaillian will write and direct a straight-to-series project that focuses on Tom Ripley, the sociopath anti-hero of the Patricia Highsmith crime novel series. Zaillian will use the five novels written by Highsmith — The Talented Mrs. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground, Ripley’s Game, The Boy Who Followed Ripley, and Ripley Underwater — as a road map to show Ripley’s progression from con artist to serial killer.
Canadian production company New Metric Media is launching an U.S. division with a trio of projects including two crime dramas. The company is developing a Nashville-set drama based on criminologist Dr. Michael Arntfield’s book Monster City and also a series of crime thrillers based on the books of Peter Edwards, who wrote Bad Blood: The End of Honour.
The Fox artificial intelligence drama neXt is adding to its cast. neXt is described as a propulsive, fact-based thriller grounded in the latest A.I. research, featuring a brilliant but paranoid former tech CEO, Paul Leblanc, who joins a Homeland Cybersecurity Agent and her team to stop the world’s first artificial intelligence crisis. Mad Men alum John Slattery has been hired as the lead, while Jason Butler Harner (Ozark) has been added to play his somewhat narrow-minded younger brother who is a corporate executive at a tech company.
Writer and producer Tim Van Patten (Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos, Game of Thrones) has been tapped to direct and executive produce Perry Mason, HBO’s limited series starring Matthew Rhys in the title role. Based on characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner, the project follows the origins of American Fiction’s most legendary criminal defense lawyer, Perry Mason (Rhys). When the case of the decade breaks down his door, Mason’s relentless pursuit of the truth reveals a fractured city and just maybe, a pathway to redemption for himself.
Alive, TV’s latest attempt at a Frankenstein-inspired series has hired Ryan Phillippe (Shooter) to star as San Francisco homicide detective Mark Escher, who’s mysteriously brought back to life after being killed in the line of duty. As Mark and his wife realize he isn’t the same person he used to be, they zero in on the strange man behind his resurrection: Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Arrow alumna Katrina Law will portray Mark’s spouse Elizabeth Lavenza, a pathologist who is stunned when her husband returns from the dead. Mad Men vet Aaron Staton will co-star as the brilliant, slightly odd and possibly obsessed Dr. Frankenstein, who is on the run from an ethics board in China.
Downton Abbey alumna Michelle Dockery and It star Jaeden Martell are set as leads opposite Chris Evans in Defending Jacob, Apple’s limited drama series based on William Landay’s bestselling novel. The book tells the story of a father, Andy Barber (Evans), dealing with the accusation that his son, Jacob (Martell), is a 14-year-old murderer. Dockery will play Laurie Barber, Andy's wife and Jacob's mother.
Kate Mulgrew (Star Trek: Voyager), Brett Gelman (Stranger Things) and Natalie Paul (The Sinner, You) are set to recur on the upcoming third season of AT&T Audience Network’s critically praised drama series, Mr. Mercedes, which is based on the Stephen King novels. Season 2 took place a year after Brady Hartsfield’s (Harry Treadaway) thwarted attempt to perpetrate a second mass murder in the community of Bridgton, Ohio. Retired Detective Bill Hodges (Brendan Gleeson) did his best to move on from his Brady obsession, teaming up with Holly Gibney (Justine Lupe) to open Finders Keepers, a private investigative agency. But when unexplainable occurrences began to affect hospital staff members attending to Brady, Hodges was haunted by the feeling that Brady was somehow responsible.
Pepe Rapazote (Narcos) and Alimi Ballard (Numb3rs) are set to recur in the upcoming fourth season of USA Network’s Queen of the South starring Alice Braga. Based on the bestselling book La Reina del Sur by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, the show tells the powerful story of Teresa Mendoza (Braga), a woman who is forced to run from the Mexican cartel and seek refuge in America. Rapazote will play Raul “El Gordo” Rodriguez, a Cuban drug dealer out of Miami who has ties to all the kingpins on the East Coast. Ballard will portray Marcel Dumas, a slick and measured Creole leader of a New Orleans street gang and owner of a hip jazz club.
The Brave alum Tate Ellington is returning to NBC as a series regular opposite Russell Hornsby and Arielle Kebbel in Lincoln, a drama pilot based on Jeffery Deaver’s bestselling The Bone Collector book series. Lincoln follows legendary forensic criminologist Lincoln Rhyme (Hornsby), who was seriously injured during his hunt for the diabolic serial killer known as the Bone Collector. Called back into action when the killer re-emerges, Lincoln forms a unique partnership with Amelia Sachs (Kebbel), a young beat cop who helps him hunt the deadly mastermind while also taking on the most high-profile cases in the NYPD. Ellington will play Felix, part of the CSI team and quick to speak his mind.
Simone Missick is set as the lead in CBS’ legal drama pilot Courthouse, which follows the dedicated, chaotic, hopeful and sometimes absurd lives of the judges, assistant district attorneys and public defenders as they work with bailiffs, clerks, cops and jurors to bring justice to the people of Los Angeles. Missick will play a Deputy District Attorney who's become a newly appointed judge and pushes boundaries and challenging expectations of what a judge should be. She joins previously announced series regulars Marg Helgenberger, Jessica Camacho, Wilson Bethel, and J. Alex Brinson.
We’re getting the first look at Oscar winner Forest Whitaker as crime boss Bumpy Johnson in a teaser trailer for Epix’s new straight-to-series crime drama Godfather of Harlem. From Narcos co-creator Chris Brancato and Paul Eckstein and ABC Signature Studios, Godfather of Harlem is inspired by the story of the infamous crime boss Johnson (Whitaker), who in the early 1960s returned from ten years in prison to find the neighborhood he once ruled in shambles. With the streets controlled by the Italian mob, Bumpy must take on the Genovese crime family to regain control. Nigel Thatch, Vincent D’Onofrio, Giancarlo Esposito, Paul Sorvino, and Ilfenesh Hadera also star.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
The Authors of the Pacific Northwest welcomed crime author Frank Zafiro to chat about his gritty River City series, giving back to the author’s community, and Frank's own podcast, Wrong Place, Write Crime.
The latest Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast features a baseball mystery short story called “Two Men On, One Man Dead” by Jack Bates, as read by Ariel Linn.
The CBC took a look at the forgotten history of Nancy Drew, the iconic teenage detective who “turns 90” soon.
On the latest Partners in Crime podcast, hosts Adam Croft and Robert Daws hosts debated the emotional price of true crime versus fictional and explored the “tortured detective” cliché – or maybe it's a trope.
Wrong Place, Write Crime host Frank Zafiro welcomed Colin Conway to discuss the re-issue of his novel, Some Degree of Murder.
In the latest Criminal Mischief podcast, host DP Lyle took on the topic of how to create memorable first impressions in your crime novel.
THEATER
The Kings Theatre in Edinburgh is staging a production of The Girl on a Train, adapted from the bestselling suspense novel by Paula Hawkins. The play will run from March 25-30 and stars Samantha Womack and Oliver Farnworth.
GAMES
The classic action film Die Hard is being turned into a tabletop board game. Titled Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist Board Game, publishers at OP Games (aka USAopoly) tell Polygon that it will be a “one-versus-many asymmetric experience.”
Dorothy Salisbury Davis (1916-2014) was born in Chicago and raised as a Roman Catholic but left the church when she married her husband, the late actor Harry Davis. Now considered one of the Grand Dames of crime fiction, she didn't start out as a writer, working first in advertising and as a librarian, publishing her first novel in 1949 with the encouragement of her husband. Her 20 novels and numerous short stories went on to receive seven Edgar Award nominations, and her novel Broken Vows was also made into a 1987 TV movie starring Tommy Lee Jones.
She's had a clear influence on the crime fiction community, serving as Mystery Writers of America grandmaster in 1985 and on the initial steering committee for the formation of Sisters in Crime (along with Charlotte MacLeod, Kate Mattes, Betty Francis, Sara Paretsky, Nancy Pickard and Susan Dunlap). She was Guest of Honor at Malice Domestic VI, quoting Hilaire Belloc, that "It will not matter if my sins are scarlet, if only my books are read."
By her own account, Davis is an "odd fit" in crime fiction, unhappy with her perceived inability to create a memorable series character and uncomfortable with violence and murder. But she's very happy creating villains, and has often commented that villains are much more fun to write about than heroes. Her themes trend more toward psychology than out-and-out detection and religious tensions are often found in her work, not surprising considering her own background.That religious undercurrent can be found in The Habit of Fear, the fourth and last in her series featuring Julie Hayes, a former actress and fortuneteller-turned New York City tabloid reporter, but the religious theme is only a small part of the deftly-knit threads of the plot that begin with her husband Jeff telling her he wants a divorce. Angry and hurt, she storms out of their apartment where she's tricked into a nightmare scenario of rape and sodomy by two mysterious men. Although she's reluctant to help the police, preferring to try and put as much emotional distance between her and the events as possible, she's drawn into the case, as well as a search for the Irish father she never knew, a journey that eventually takes her to the land of her beloved Yeats.
But her troubles only follow her, as a strange "Gray Man" seems to be stalking her, there's an appearance by her two attackers who escaped New York on bail, and she finds herself in the middle of tensions involving the Irish Republican Army and a splinter group. Underlying it all is a NYC gangster who watches over Julie as a protective, yet violent, avenging guardian angel. The plot threads ultimately do tie together into a hopeful but bittersweet conclusion.
Salisbury once contributed the chapter "Background and Atmosphere" to the Writer's Digest Mystery Writer's Handbook in 1975, and she is certainly adept with creating atmosphere in The Habit of Fear, first in the seedy side streets, police precincts and courts of New York and then in the bucolic but war-torn landscapes of Dublin, Wicklow, Ballina and Sligo:
Julie climbed the narrow street to where the village came to an abrupt end at a gate to the ruins. The wind gusted fiercely. The river became rapids alongside the ruins and rushed noisily down the hillside. Looking down, she could see boats at anchor, heaving in the heavy waters. Beyond the inlet was the Atlantic, blue and white-capped and dappled with dark patches where the clouds threw their shadows. As she went on, she could see the coast road with an occasional cottage and bits of color where the stacked turf was tucked around with plastic tarps.
Her characterizations are also rich and multi-layered, with no character completely evil or saintly. In an interview with Don Swaim on the CBS Radio studio show "Wired for Books," she talked about this novel and how she created the character of Julie Hayes during a period when the author herself was in therapy. She made Hayes a defender of street people due to Davis's own walking through city areas frequented by prostitutes, where she said she was accepted as "this little old lady with white hair in a raincoat," talking to various people from all walks of life.
The Independent Book Publishers Association officially announced finalists for the Benjamin Franklin Awards program, recognizing excellence and innovation in independent publishing. The nods in the Mystery/Suspense category include An Accidental Corpse by Helen A. Harrison; Black Hearts White Minds: A Carl Gordon Legal Thriller by Mitch Margo; Burning Ridge: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima, and Welcome to Sugarville: A Novel in Stories by J.J. Haas.
Bestselling author James Patterson is working with the Booksellers Association to create an award to celebrate young booksellers new to the book selling field in the UK and Ireland that are 25 or younger and have been selling books for at least 12 months. This isn’t the only time Patterson has given love to bookstores, previously donating over $1.5m to bookshops in the US, UK, and Ireland.
Registration is now open for the ITW's Sixth Annual Online Thriller School. The seven-week program, which begins March 25, focuses on the craft of thriller writing via a Facebook Live video, written materials that include further reading and study suggestions, and an entire week of on-line Q&A. This year's faculty include Steve Berry, Grant Blackwood, F. Paul Wilson, Hank Phillippi Ryan, David Corbett, Gayle Lynds, James Scott Bell and Kathleen Antrim.
Sisters in Crime have opened the submission period for the Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, an annual grant of $2,000 for an emerging writer of color. An unpublished writer is preferred, although publication of one work of short fiction, an academic work, or up to two self-published or traditionally published books will not disqualify an applicant. For more information, check out the official SinC website.
Eighty years after the publication of Raymond Chandler's first novel, The Big Sleep, the Saturday Evening Post profiled the iconic author's “two-fisted legacy” that combined his colorful life and English education to elevate the hard-boiled school of detective fiction.
Speaking of Chandler, at the recent literary auction which included books from Otto Penzler, a first edition of The Big Sleep, signed by the author on the front free endpaper, doubled its pre-auction estimate when it brought $57,500. Among the other prizes to be had were a rare first edition in the original first printing dust jacket of Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest that netted $75,000. The rare copy is in such exceptional condition that Penzler himself called it “the world’s best copy.”
The theories as to the real identity of Jack the Ripper are far more numerous than the serial killer's number of victims. Various experts have linked Queen Victoria's grandson, American quack-doctor Francis Tumblety, radical religious poet Francis Thompson, and many more. Now, evidence from a blood-covered shawl found at one of the murder scenes that's believed to contain DNA from both butchered victim Catherine Eddowes and the world's most infamous serial killer, may solve the mystery once and for all.
In a somewhat unrelated but relevant essay, Smithsonian magazine looked into “The Myth of Fingerprints” and the perils of relying on that forensic tool as well as its more recent counterpart, DNA evidence.
Thriller author Karen Ellis (a pseudonym of author Katia Lief) applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Last Night.
There are subscription services for just about everything these days - clothing, razors, food, music, books, you name it. Now, an endeavor called Hunt A Killer lets you play armchair detective without having to leave your home. Each month, subscribers receive a box ("episodes") that includes items related to the story and the mystery you're trying to solve. Each storyline lasts six episodes with each episode building on the one before leading up to an exciting season finale. It's an alternative to shy folks who might be too leery of the "escape room" experiences popping up around the world. Plus, for every episode of Hunt A Killer delivered, portions of the proceeds fund the cold case efforts at Cold Case Foundation.
If you're a fan of the game Clue and not shy, you might be interested in an event coming to Pittsburgh this summer. Based on a concept that started in the UK, CluedUpp is a game as billed as a “giant, outdoor version of the board game Clue.” It requires a team of two to six people to play detectives and a smartphone with the CluedUpp app. Participants are asked to come up with a “fantastically clever team name” and encouraged to dress in 1920s-inspired clothing. Organizers expect more than 100 teams to take part.
Via BookRiot, this little time-wasting quiz: “Which Kickass Literary Investigator Are You?”
The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is “Search the Hollow” by Benjamin Welton.
In the Q&A roundup, Gregg Hurwitz spoke with the Daily Mail about his meticulous research and the rules of creating a bestseller; Crime by the Book welcomed Emily Carpenter to talk about her addictive new suspense novel, Until the Day I Die; Kittling: Books asked Wendall Thomas for a Scene of the Crime interview about her Cyd Redondo mysteries, her favorite recurring character in crime fiction, and more; and Harlan Coben chatted with Ali Karim for Shots Magazine about his latest thriller, Run Away.
Patricia “Patti” Abbott is no stranger to this blog, being the organizer and shepherd of the Friday's Forgotten Books feature that I've participated in over the last ten years. Patti is also a very fine author whose novels Concrete Angel (2015) and Shot in Detroit (2016) were published by Polis books and shortlisted for the Anthony, Macavity, and Edgar Awards.
Patti's Monkey Justice was just released by Down & Out Books, a collection of twenty-three short crime tales that explore the dark side of human behavior and are more about victims than perpetrators of crime: a father oversteps his proscribed duties; a young woman awakens something dormant in an older man; a young man saves his family but loses himself; a boy is a stranger in his newly configured house; a man misunderstands the marital situation he is drawn into; a squatter pleads for our pity but in the end betrays it; two old men compete for attention in a nursing home.
Patti stops by In Reference to Murder to talk more about this work and her writing in general:
How did this collection come about?
MONKEY JUSTICE was originally published nearly a decade ago by Snubnose Press as an electronic collection of stories. It represents twenty-two of my earliest crime fiction stories. All of them had already been published online, in anthologies, and in crime and literary magazines. When Snubnose Press went out of business, the manuscript disappeared, an event that had never occurred to me. It existed only on the ebook readers of the people who purchased it. Down and Out Books was kind enough to offer publication of a new print and ebook edition. If not, for them, this collection would be gone. In fact, the press had to use my own kindle to get to the manuscript. Too many years, computers, floppy disks, CDs and flash drives had come and gone.
Where do the ideas for your stories come from?
This is a question often posed to writers. At the time they were written, I was often on a bus to work two hours a day. Most of the stories emanated from the world that I passed through as I moved from a upper- middle class suburb into the city of Detroit. The entry into southeastern Detroit from Grosse Pointe Park is one of the most dramatic transitions you can imagine. It can't help but spur ideas. The title story, in fact, was one I overheard between two people on the seat in front of me. It was such an amazing story, I could hardly wait to get to begin writing it. Although all of these stories have a flash of inspiration or a detail or two from my life, none are about me. Some are from a male point of view, something that just happens now and then. Do I feel empowered by putting a male at the helm? Or do my stories speak to the dominance of males in crime? The most evil character in the book is a woman, however, and certainly not a victim.
Why are your stories so dark?
My mother always bemoaned the fact that I didn't write uplifting stories. But I think she read them incorrectly. My stories are often about the victim of a crime. Or someone trying to redress a crime. The very first story LIKE A HAWK RISING is about a thief, yes, but he is trying to save a boy he sees being mistreated. I have to admit to stealing "Souris" from a former family member in its entirety. Sometimes you hear a story that is so wonderful you can barely bring yourself to change a word. Also mostly true is "The Squatter" and I apologize for reminding a dear friend of a bad incident in her life. "The Tortoise and the Tortoise" incorporates incidents from my father's time in assisted living. But definitely not the character's solution to his problems. So each of the stories borrow something from my life or the lives of people I know, but they are fiction. Or so I tell myself.
I thank Bonnie for giving me a platform to announce the publication on my collection. If it wasn't for the kindness of friends, it would indeed be a dark life.
Sophie Littlefield, author A Bad Day for Sorry, said of Monkey Justice, “In this collection of short contemporary noir fiction, Patti Abbott distinguishes herself as an extraordinary storyteller of the dark recesses of the human heart. Abbott’s characters hit hard, fight dirty, and seek a brand of hardscrabble justice that will leave you both wincing and wishing for more.” Author/editor Chris Rhatigan added, “Patti Abbott is one of the premier practitioners of the American crime story. The staggering level of care she invests in her craft is always evident from the first sentence to the last. She writes smart, dark tales with frighteningly real characters and vivid settings.”
You can experience those smart, dark tales by grabbing your copy of Monkey Justice via all major booksellers and also follow Patti on Facebook and Twitter, as well as her blog which is where you'll find many of the Friday's Forgotten Books offerings.
