Saturday Around the Web

Hi all. Hope your holiday season is going well. I'm stuck in car-buying hell right now, so as you read this I'm probably back out car shopping. Say a little prayer that Saturday is the last day I have to do this and that I manage to come home with a car.

But I wanted to leave you with some fun things around the web I've found this week. The first two come courtesy of Jon Jordan at Crimespree Magazine. This is the only time I will look like I have ANY semblance of rhythm. (Warning: do not drink while watching.) For your enjoyment, here are some of the Crimespree Gang...or as Jon calls us, the Crimespree Elves. And then here we are in the hip-hop version.

I'm very excited for Brad Parks and the mention of FACES OF THE GONE here. Congrats to Brad; so well deserved! Obviously they heard me raving about this book and got with the program - just kidding.

Since I'm having car-buying issues, I was over reading this article Tom Schreck wrote a couple years ago. There are actually two articles at this link: the first one dealt with the driver's manual and made me cry, I was laughing so hard. And right now it's good to laugh-cry, because I really want to cry-cry this process is so painful. If you have the urge to read some more of his articles, you can find them here.

Hilary Davidson has her "Undying Love" short story available at The Feral Pages. I'm so looking forward to her debut novel in 2010.

Some folks have started to post their favorites lists. I'll be working on mine soon, as all the books I have to read now are '10 publications. But until I get my list up, you may want to check out Lesa Holstine's list or Oline Cogdill's or Sarah Weinman's or Dick Adler's. Here are Marcus Sakey's favorite reads from this year. Micheal Koryta is even mentioning his favorite reads from the second half of the year.

I hope everyone's holiday season is going well, and if I don't see you back here before, have a wonderful, wonderful New Year!

Happy Reading!

DEAD MAN'S SHARE - Yasmina Khadra

FIRST LINE: "You'd think the world had stopped turning."

Brahim Llob is a police superintendent in Algiers where there seems to be a shortage on crime. In a crime fiction novel, you know that can't last long. So when the action happens in DEAD MAN'S SHARE, it's explosive.

Llob's lieutenant, partner and friend Lino is dating the wrong woman, the ex-girlfriend of the wealthy and powerful Haj Thobane. And not only is Lino dating her, he's flaunting the fact that he's dating her, and he's digging himself into a financial debt trying to impress her.

When an attempt is made on Haj Thobane's life with Lino's gun, Lino is arrested and left in deteriorating condition in jail. It's up to Llob to uncover the truth and free his friend before there is nothing left. But in the process of uncovering the truth, Llob finds far more than he ever planned about his country and its past.

In DEAD MAN'S SHARE Khadra paints a stunning picture of Algiers and the conflicts that face its people. Sacrifices are made, evils are sactioned and disparity rages:

"Abuse isn't an aberration for us, it's a culture, a vocation, an ambition."

Khadra's stunning use of language, translated by Aubrey Botsford, is the right balance to set the tone:

"A light rain weeps onto the city, and a limping wind batters its face against the wailing walls that our ramparts have become. A thin mist hangs its dirty laundry out at the corner of the street. It's as if all the world's depression has arranged to gather in our country to drain our morale."

create the atmosphere:

"On both sides, low cells, plunged in darkness. No tenants, just barred ratholes that send a chill down the spine. Further on, a soiled staircase plunges down to a horrifying lower level where further cells molder beneath thick layers of saltpeter. A penetrating stench irritates my eyes and throat. There are no skylights and no air vents, just stone walls sweating fetid secretions, with the feeling that one is wandering somewhere among the insalubrious mists of purgatory without the slightest chance of escaping unharmed."

and develop the characters without being ostentatious. Every word functions to heighten the reader's experience and propel the plot forward. Meanwhile, the events of the plot keep the reader on his/her toes as one twist follows the next at dizzying speeds.

DEAD MAN'S SHARE is at turns heartbreaking and uplifting. Llob believes so passionately in the justice he pursues, while others mock him and instruct him to leave well enough alone. But in the end, he simply embodies his own definition of sacrifice:

"Sacrifice isn't about dying for someone or for a cause; I'd even say that that is the least reasonable act of all, without a doubt. Sacrifice, true sacrifice is about continuing to love life despite everything."

I highly recommend DEAD MAN'S SHARE by Yasmina Khadra. Available from The Toby Press in trade paper (ISBN: 978-1-59264-269-4).

Guess Who's Coming to...

...Jungle Red? I've donned my spiffy duds and shined up my manners so I can go out visiting today, ya'll. I'm guest blogging! Yeah, someone asked me to be their guest, can you believe it? The nice ladies over at the Jungle Red blog are hosting me to talk about my favorite subject...six word memoirs. So, stop over to read my post there. Psst, there's loot involved, so don't leave me over there by myself. I'll get lonely. And I promise I'll be back home very soon!

http://www.jungleredwriters.com/

Time to Stuff the Stockings...with Paperbacks

Today I am blogging over at Buy Books for the Holidays, so I'm going to share that post here as well in lieux of a Monday Mystery Backlist. You've heard about some of these books here on my blog, others are ones I have in my TBR list, but all are great options for paperback stocking stuffers! So, here's my post:



We're closing in on the holidays. Have you finished your shopping? As I write this, I'm hoping I have one more store to visit today and then I'll be done. One of the final things people have for their shopping is those little stocking stuffers. This is a prime place to stick a great paperback! It's an affordable treasure to fill out that stocking. Here are a few great crime fiction paperbacks you can consider for your crime drama fan:

LETHAL LEGACY - by Linda Fairstein takes readers into the bowels of the New York Public Library to investigate the crime with Homocide Detective, Mike Chapman and Special Crimes Assistant Prosecutor, Alex Cooper. You'll never believe the library can be so deadly.

A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART - by Timothy Hallinan is the first of his Bangkok Thriller series. I always recommend people start at the beginning with this series featuring travel writer Poke Rafferty because the character development and the character relationships build throughout the series, and these elements are among the great strengths of this series. A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART is available as a trade paperback and is a must read for any thriller lover!

TRIGGER CITY - by Sean Chercover has been racking up award nominations and award wins. In the follow-up to award-winning BIG CITY, BAD BLOOD (also available in paperback), Ray Dudgeon gets more than he bargained for when he investigates a woman's death on behalf of her father. The victim is not what she appeared and Dudgeon may become the next victim for discovering her true identity.

BLUE HEAVEN - is C.J. Box's Edgar-award-winning thriller about two young children on the run in Idaho from four retired Los Angeles policemen. The children witnessed the policemen commit murder, and the policemen plan to stop at nothing to silence them.

THE BOOK OF LIES - by Brad Meltzer brings the most famous murder, Cain murdering his brother Abel, together with the creation of Superman for a present-day, heart-pounding thriller.

ANGEL'S TIP - is Alafair Burke's second novel in her Ellie Hatcher series. Ellie Hatcher is a police detective in New York City and ANGEL'S TIP is a ripped from the headlines plot. A young woman visiting New York City wants to stay longer at the night club and her friends leave her behind...alone.

GOOD PEOPLE - by Marcus Sakey follows a couple who want nothing more in life than to be able to have a family. Their desperation leads them smack into trouble with a couple of ruthless men who will stop at nothing for revenge. Dennis Lehane calls Marcus Sakey the "electric jolt American crime fiction needs."

THE FURY and THE DARKNESS - were released back to back this year by author Jason Pinter. They share a story arc dealing with a drug cartel as books four and five of Pinter's Henry Parker series.

DOG ON IT - is Spencer Quinn's debut novel featuring P.I. Bernie and his canine partner Chet. Chet narrates the adventure of their search for a missing teen-age girl. Stephen King said DOG ON IT is "Sometimes funny, sometimes touching, and in a few places terrifying...[DOG ON IT is an] enchanting one-of-a-kind novel."

For your readers who prefer something a little more on the cozy side, you might want to check out:

THE MISSING INK - by Karen Olson is the first book in Karen's new series about Brett Kavanaugh and her Painted Lady tattoo shop. Brett is scheduled to do a devotion tat on a woman who never shows. Not unusual, some folks re-consider their tattoo choices. However, when the woman winds up dead, this turn everything unusual, especially the fact that the "devotion" tattoo wasn't supposed to have the name of her very wealthy fiance.

AIR TIME - by Hank Phillippi Ryan brings TV reporter Charlotte McNally undercover into the world of high fashion. In this world of design, no one is who they seem to be and danger is very real. Who knew this world could be so deadly?

WHEN A MAN LOVES A WEAPON - is Toni McGee Causey's most recent installment of her hilarious Bobbie Faye Sumrall series. This time the spunky Louisiana gal is in a mess of trouble because of gems that folks wouldn't have any trouble killing Bobbie for.

Have readers on your list who like things a little darker? You could check out:

MANIA - is Craig Larsen's debut about a newspaper photographer in Seattle who gets caught up in the depravity of a serial killer dubbed Street Butcher only to find his own disturbing past.

CUT TO THE BONE - by Shane Gericke brings back Detective Commander Martin Benedetti and Detective Emily Thompson as they pursue the Executioner who is seeking revenge for a wrongful execution performed over forty years earlier.

THE GATEKEEPER - by Michelle Gagnon is the third book in her series featuring Special Agent Kelly Jones. This time a young girl has been kidnapped, and the kidnapping is connected to a terrorist plot hatched by American hate groups.

This is just a taste to get you started. There are so many great crime fiction books available in paperback. They aren't all ones that you will quickly find at Walmart or Target or even Barnes and Noble, but believe me when I say they are worth the little extra effort to hunt them down. Any of the great mystery independent stores that you've seen featured here on the blog can help you out on finding these books, as can some of my other favorites: Mystery Lover's Bookshop in Pennsylvania, The Mystery Bookstore in Los Angeles, Murder by the Book in Houston, and The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City.

Wishing you the happiest of holidays and hoping they are filled with crime....fiction! Happy Reading and Happy Shopping!

The Faces of Brad Parks

Tuesday I reviewed Brad Parks' debut novel, FACES OF THE GONE. It's an amazing debut, and so of course I had to go out and nag Brad to talk with me one on one. Many of you commented on how excited I was about FACES OF THE GONE and you were going to check it out, so I thought you would also enjoy getting to know Brad a little better. He was kind enough to take time out of his schedule right before his book release to answer my questions. I'm absolutely tickled to be able to share our chat with you.

If you read the blog regularly, you already know a bit about Brad from when he shared his six-word memoir. He's a former journalist; he spent many years covering sports and then investigative reporting. He previously lived in New Jersey, he now resides in Virgina, is a full-time writer and full-time dad.

And I'll quit my blabbing and share this fantastic interview with you. Here he is...Brad Parks.

Q: Your first job writing was at the age of 14, covering the local high school girls’ basketball team. Were you assigned to this or did you have a girlfriend on the team or what got you started with girls’ basketball? Would you say you learned any lessons (about writing) then that you still carry with you today?

Brad: I was a short, fat freshman with braces. I only wish I had a girlfriend on the team. Basically, I saw an ad in the paper saying they needed a sportswriter. I’m quite sure I was the only one to apply for the job, so they gave it to me. The team had been horrible for years. Yet, somehow, that was the season the Ridgefield High School girls basketball team started winning. The more it won, the more attention my writing got. And I found pretty quickly I enjoyed getting attention for my writing, and that what made it meaningful to me is when it provoked some reaction out of the readers, even if the reaction was just to be pleased I put their daughter’s name in the paper. To this day, that’s what I strive for – to move readers (to laughter, to tears, to head-scratching, or whatever) with words.

Q: You spent a good amount of time covering sports, but ultimately switched to news. What prompted the switch? Then what did you miss most about sports when you switched?

Brad: Why switch? That’s easy: 100 nights a year in a hotel. Nothing against Mr. Marriott, but I just didn’t feel like spending that much time with him. My wife and I wanted to start a family and I didn’t want her pointing to my picture on the mantel every time my kids asked, “Where’s Daddy?” It also seemed like a good career move. I had been doing sports my entire writing life at that point and figured having something else on the resume might be nice. Turns out it was a good decision – I never could have written FACES OF THE GONE without the experience of having worked on news side. Did I miss stuff about sports? Sure. The games were fun. The big events brought a lot of energy to my writing. And the storytelling was great. But I had gotten my fill of sports – Super Bowls, Olympics, World Series, etc. – and left without looking back.

Q: There are obviously major differences between writing journalistically and writing novel-length fiction. What from your journalism career do you think helped you the most starting out as a novelist? Then likewise, what would you say, if anything, did you have to re-learn or overcome that a non-journalist may not have had to deal with?

Brad: I’ve always felt the key to writing well is to write poorly first, if that makes any sense at all. And journalism certainly gave me the chance to do a lot of very poor writing. The simple reality of the newspaper business is that, for as much as I wanted everything that appeared underneath “By Brad Parks” to be outstanding examples of my compositional craftsmanship, there were days – like, most days – when the constraints of time and deadline didn’t allow it. Eventually, I figured out there was no such thing as perfect writing, but if my story was good enough, people would keep reading anyway. That’s a great thing for a novelist to keep in mind as he’s fighting his way through 90,000 words, and it’s freeing to know not all of them have to be perfect.

As for what I had to overcome as a journalist, that’s pretty simple: The fear of getting fired. As a reporter, I knew that if I made anything up, I’d be out of a job pretty fast. Making up stuff was a total anathema to me. So nearly everything from FACES OF THE GONE is the product of my experience rather than my imagination – it’s stuff I saw, heard or experienced firsthand that I gave only the slightest fictional twist. It’s only in books two and three that I finally gave myself a little more latitude to use my imagination. I’ve finally realized it doesn’t have to have been pulled straight from my reporter’s notebook to still feel authentic.

Q: The quadruple homicide that occurs in FACES OF THE GONE is based on a story you covered as a journalist. Did you know right away that you wanted to use it as the plot line for novel? Were you considering fiction writing at the time? And was that real-life case solved?

Brad: I had been writing fiction for a while, though it was fiction of a different sort – a coming-of-age tale set in Youngstown, Ohio (also known as Jen Forbus Country). I had just finished that manuscript maybe three or four weeks before covering the quadruple homicide that became the inspiration for FACES OF THE GONE. And while I didn’t quite walk away from the scene of that crime with a light bulb over my ahead – “Aha! There’s the setting for my first novel!” – I was definitely looking for something new to write. It was probably a few months later that it had gelled enough in my brain that I began writing it.

As to the real-life crime, it remained a true mystery for about a year. Then the cops charged some guy who had just gone to jail for another murder. The cops claimed that once he was behind bars – and thus no longer a threat – witnesses started coming forward. The cynical side of me wonders if the cops didn’t just pin it on this guy just to be able to close the case. We’ll never know because the case never went to trial. There was a paucity of evidence in the first place and since the guy was already locked up for killing someone else, there was never huge pressure to prosecute. Unfortunately, that’s how inner-city justice goes sometimes.

Q: Covering real-life crime cases like the quadruple homicide, was crime fiction a natural fit then for you or did you always have aspirations toward crime fiction and the event gave you the idea you needed?

Brad: I read crime fiction and thrillers as a kid – starting with Hardy Boys and graduating to John D. MacDonald – and I always harbored the aspiration of writing mysteries. I suppose I imagined that’s what I would do in semi-retirement – you know, when I was 55 or 60 and the kids were through college and the mortgage was paid off and I finally started doing what I really wanted to do with my life, you know? Well, I had gotten an agent interested in my first manuscript, the Youngstown one, when I showed her the first three chapters of what is now FACES OF THE GONE. They were obviously very different books. And my agent, Jeanne Forte Dube, asked me point blank, “Which one of these is you? Who do you want to be as a writer?” And I blurted out, “The next Harlan Coben.” And she said, “Okay, so go finish that mystery.” With hindsight, I guess I can say this was always what I wanted to be doing. And I can even tell a narrative that makes it seem like I took a straight line getting here. But, in reality, there were a lot of twists and turns, rejections and dead ends – and I wouldn’t trade any of them.

Q: Now you’re a full-time writer/full-time dad. What do you miss most about journalism, now that you’re not in the thick of it all the time? And what do you miss least?

Brad: I miss the rush of deadline. Oh, yeah, I miss it badly. There’s just nothing in the world like knowing you’ve got 30 minutes to write 600 words and you’ve got to jam it out. In those wonderful moments, it’s just your madly whirring brain and the screen. And the little filter that normally sits between the brain and the screen – the one that says “is this really the right word?” or “are you sure you couldn’t phrase it better?” or “don’t you need to empty the garbage?” – that filter is just gone. And you… just… write. It’s a total high.

What I miss the least? Being forced to pull my punches on a story. On any investigative piece, the best 25 to 50 percent of what you know is probably never going to get in the paper because you simply can’t nail it down with enough certainty to get it past the editors and lawyers whose job it is to vet your copy. And the storyteller inside of you is just dying to get that stuff out – because it’s great stuff! – but the journalist in you has to pull it back, simply because it’s not backed by three sources and two documents proving it to be true. Now I just get to be a pure storyteller, which is a lot more freeing.

Q: So, FACES OF THE GONE. Wow! What a way to debut! How long did it take you to write this novel?

Brad: I wrote FACES OF THE GONE in dribs and drabs over the course of a year and a half or so. I was working full-time, of course, and I wasn’t the most disciplined writer. So I’d write for a month and then get busy at work and drop it. Then I’d write another month and suddenly three months would go by without a word. (I would not recommend this as a way to write a novel, by the way). By the time I got to the end – in a month-long, 30,000 word burst – I had to go back and do a lot of cleaning, simply because there was some unevenness that resulted in all the stopping and starting. Carter Ross installments Nos. 2 and 3 were basically written in about three months each, writing every single day. I’ve discovered that, at least for me, that’s a much, much better way to write.

Q: There are some pretty heavy themes underlying FACES OF THE GONE that deal with how people treat some social groups. And you do a flat-out amazing job of depicting that through the characters, their behaviors, etc. Is that something you encountered yourself while working as a journalist or does that come from somewhere else? It has obviously impacted you; I can’t imagine being able to write that powerfully if it hadn’t.

Brad: As a typical white person, raised in a lily-white suburb, I didn’t understand why black people were always so hung up on race. I mean, why did they feel the need to talk about it so much? Why couldn’t they just get over it already? Then, as a reporter, I finally found myself in a place where I was the minority – the neighborhoods of Newark, New Jersey, walking through places where they simply referred to me as “the white guy,” because I was going to be the only one coming through that month (well, unless you count cops). Suddenly, I understood what it meant to be defined by my race. And, lo and behold, I found myself wanting to talk about it a lot. One of the real ironies of political correctness is that it’s actually stunted the national dialogue on race in a lot of ways, because it’s left people – white people in particular – afraid of saying “the wrong thing.” I enjoyed writing a book that’s at least not afraid to have the conversation.

Q: Building on that question, Carter Ross, your protagonist in FACES OF THE GONE, does a lot of actual physical investigating in the novel. Is this common for an investigative reporter – to be out in the projects, meeting with gang members, etc.? Or did you invoke some literary license?

Brad: There’s certainly some literary license taken. For example, the notion of the lone wolf journalist – going off on his own direction, away from the other reporters at his paper, away from the cops, solving the crime on his own – makes for good reading but is probably a bit removed from reality. That said, the way Carter goes about finding the truth in FACES OF THE GONE is very true to life, or at least true to how I did it as a reporter. I was constantly out on the streets, in the projects, talking with anyone – be it grandmas or gangbangers – who might be able to help my story. I suppose there are some reporters who spend more time in the office, but I was never one of them, and neither is Carter.

Q: Alright, so there’s this very serious element to FACES OF THE GONE, but there’s also a lot of hysterically funny humor. Does that come naturally for you? Or is it something you have to work at and practice? And given the series element of the novel, how do you find the right balance?

Brad: To me, a book should be like a good friend. I don’t want a book that’s brooding and serious all the time anymore than I’d want a friend who is that way. I appreciate friends who can be serious and silly, who can make me think and make me laugh, who can tell a good story and tell a good joke. Above all, I like books (and friends) who are fun. So I guess I try to be mindful of that when I’m writing. There’s a balance, of course. I guess my general rule is that, every so often, I try to throw in a scene that – while it marginally bumps the plot forward – is mostly just there for comic relief. I mean, we read these books for fun, right?

That's certainly why I read them!

Q: You’ve lived in Connecticut, New Jersey and now Virginia. Having been born and raised in Northeast Ohio, I have to ask: How did the 1987 Browns team make it into the plot of FACES OF THE GONE?

Brad: Embarrassing childhood confessions time: When I was a kid, I guess I must not have had a lot of friends, because I would go into the back yard and play pretend football by myself. I’d throw the ball to myself, tackle myself, keep imaginary statistics, the whole thing. One of my favorite pretend squads was that Browns team with Kevin Mack (the power runner) and Earnest Byner (the speed runner). Whenever I did a running play up the middle, I was Mack; when I took it around the corner, I was Byner. So there I was, twenty years later, writing my book – I don’t have a lot of friends now either, by the way – and I needed to invent a gang for Carter. There’s a real life gang in Newark called the Brick City Brims. I didn’t want to risk slandering the Brims, so I fictionalized them as the Brick City Browns. The retro uniforms just followed naturally from there.

I shared with Brad that I loved this team as well. I was a Browns fanatic at the time. My favorite players from that team were defensive backs, though: Frank Minnifield and Hanford Dixon. That made a real connection for me in the book.

Q: You’re guaranteed that if you interview at Jen’s Book Thoughts, you have to have a question about your characters and their development, because for me – as a reader – character makes or breaks a book. Character definitely made FACES OF THE GONE. Are these characters complete figments of your imagination? Or have they evolved from people you’ve known?

Brad: Well, let’s see, Carter Ross is a stiff white guy from the suburbs who plunges into the mean inner-city and… hey, look at that! I am, too! So there’s definitely a lot of me in Carter and vice versa. On the other end of the spectrum, the city editor – smokin’ hot Tina Thompson – is a total fabrication. My last city editor at The Star-Ledger was a middle-aged guy Bruno. He was sorta cute, but definitely not smokin’ hot like Tina.

Q: FACES OF THE GONE is told through the first person account of Carter. And we get to see what Carter thinks Tina is all about. But then through Tina’s actions, we see that Carter may be mis-perceiving things a bit. It makes for some excellent laughs but it’s also a pretty interesting look at gender relations. Was that a specific goal with these characters or did it just kind of work out nicely?

Brad: When you’re writing a series, some story arcs are limited to the span of one book – namely, the whodunit stuff. But then there are also going to be some stories that develop across multiple books. The relationship between Tina and Carter is one of those. I don’t think Carter even begins to understand what makes Tina tick until Book 3. And who only knows how long it’s going to take him to figure out what to do about it? When it comes to how those characters react to each other, I’m not sure anything I do is 100 percent intentional. I feel like I start with a strong understanding of who each character is. And then with each scene I write, I constantly ask myself: Knowing Carter (or Tina) as well as I do, is that how he/she would react to that scenario? If I ended up making any interesting commentary on gender relations in the course of doing that, I assure you it was very much by accident.

Q: The FACES OF THE GONE book jacket says you’re working on the next Carter Ross adventure. Is that now in the bag or are you still at work on that? Any thoughts about writing something away from Carter or do you want to stick solely with him for the time being?

Brad: Yep, numbers two and three are in the bag. I’ll probably stick to Carter – sorry, are you tired of him already? – and keep writing him until someone begs me to stop. The more I write him, the more I enjoy the time we spend together. There may be some other projects along the way – I’d like to try Young Adult, for example, and as a journalist I never rule out non-fiction – but Carter has a special place in my heart.

Note: I am definitely NOT tired of Carter. I can't wait for the next book!

Q: Last question, being dad to two small children, what are you all reading these days? Do they have any favorite books that you now know by heart because you’ve read them so many times? And are they at a stage where they tell people what their dad does? How do they describe your job?

Brad: Every night in the Parks household ends with story time – I would consider it child abuse to do anything else – so, yes, there are a number of books where everyone has the text memorized and we only turn the pages because it seems like the thing to do. My daughter just turned one, so she isn’t quite talking yet. My son is two and a half. When you ask him what Daddy does for work, he replies “Daddy is auffer. He writes books.”

And there you have it, Brad Parks the "auffer." You can check out more about Brad at his website. I encourage you to sign up for his newsletter as it is pure entertainment! I love it. And definitely take a couple minutes to watch this video of Brad. Good stuff. You can check out his tour schedule. He's all over New Jersey for the next couple days, so if you're in that part of the country, he may be near you for a signing.

I posted on Facebook and Twitter about this guest post Brad did at the Do Some Damage blog. If you missed it, I strongly encourage you to check it out. Hysterical! LOVED. IT. And I'm NOT mocking Brad, I swear!

I hope you enjoyed this little visit with Brad. My thanks to Brad for putting up with me and my nosey questions! So excited to have him here. I'm no prognosticator, but if I had to put my money on the next big thing, it would be Brad Parks.

Happy Reading!

You Have the Right to Six Words - The Acknowledgements

So, yesterday we wrapped up "You Have the Right to Six Words: Six-Word Memoirs from Crime Fiction's Greatest Writers" the inaugural season! What I thought would start out as a small little 8 or 9 week project turned into 29 weeks of amazing memoirs from crime fiction's greats. I truly appreciate everyone who has commended me on the project, but this is more than my project. It could have never happened without the help of many, many people. And I really want to give those folks their due.

First and foremost all the authors who participated. There were 112 different memoirs contributed to this season's project. The response to me was overwhelming. I didn't calculate everything up (and I'm not sure I even have the information to do so), but if I had to take a best guess, I would say that for every 10 requests I sent out, 9 came back saying they would participate. A very special thank you to James Lee Burke who was the very first person to respond with a memoir. When your first response is a legend in this genre, you somehow gain a lot of motivation to keep asking. And what's even more amazing to me, all these contributors actually took time to craft something meaningful. It wasn't just a silly project to any of them. One author took the project to her Sisters in Crime chapter and returned with a half dozen memoirs. Another author informed me that it spurred a short story idea for her. Many posted about the project on their websites, blogs or Facebook pages. And so many sent beautiful thank you notes. I cherish them. They truly warm my heart. What an incredible gift. Thank you.

I had one person I was counting on back out of the project. In a bit of a panic, I sent out an S.O.S. to try to find a replacement. I contacted friends to ask if anyone could help me find someone else. That S.O.S. for one replacement resulted in 4 friends helping me secure 8 new authors that I wasn't able to contact before. Those 4 friends vouched for me, and I know personally how much trust it takes to put one's name on the line for another. Their generosity and trust humbles me. Those 4 people know who they are; I do hope they read this and know they have bestowed upon me a gift unlike any other. I am honored. Thank you.

To my fellow readers and bloggers that I tapped for ideas on who to contact for memoirs. You helped fuel my courage to just go out and ask. In some cases you introduced me to new authors and new books to pursue in my never-ending reading exploration. You too are an integral part of this project and I thank you for helping make it work - for helping make ME work!

And to everyone who came back week after week to read the memoirs, this would never have lasted 29 weeks without your enthusiasm. Aside from the wonderful comments you left each week, I received emails, notes on Facebook, tweets on Twitter. Many of you passed the word along on Twitter when posts went up. The word got out because you helped get it there.

I'm so proud of this project because the whole crime fiction community made it work, not just me. You all were a part of it. Thank you for sharing it with me!

Now we have our work cut out for us in 2010. How in the world are we going to top 2009? I'm off to start planning now. If you have grand ideas, you know where to find me!

May you all have a wonderful, wonderful new year! Thank you for helping make 2009 so incredible for me! Happy Reading!

You Have the Right to Six Words - The 2009 Grand Finale!

Well, here it is everyone...the final "You Have the Right to Six Words" post for 2009. Since we started with a bang, I wanted to go out with a bang, too. Seems like our finale bang is actually a couple weeks long, doesn't it?

This week I have a bit of a theme going on: it's the boys of Southern California! I'm hoping their post will bring with it some of that warmer weather, I'm already tired of freezing temperatures! Let's get started!

Leading off our final post is Charlie Huston who writes crime fiction, specifically pulp fiction, in a variety of formats. He has a trilogy of books featuring protagonist Hank Thompson. Charlie also has a series with protagonist Joe Pitt that deals with vampire clans. Charlie released the fifth and final book, MY DEAD BODY, in the Joe Pitt series this year. Toss in a couple stand alones, mix in a few short stories and add comic books. Yes, Charlie revived Marvel's Moon Knight, writing the first twelve issues, and more recently he revived Deathlok with artist Lan Medina.

2009 was a busy year for Charlie. In addition to MY DEAD BODY and the Deathlok comics, Charlie also released a standalone novel, THE MYSTIC ARTS OF ERASING ALL SIGNS OF DEATH. Stephen King says Charlie Huston is "one of the most remarkable prose stylists to emerge from the noir tradition in this century." And Charlie says,

Never did fix that attitude problem.

Next up is truly a crime fiction legend. His writing has influenced many other crime fiction writers, it's made its way to the big screen, and it comes from personal experiences as well as dedicated research. Joseph Wambaugh served a stint in the Marine Corps before attending college and then entering the Los Angeles Police Department. Joe's career with the police department last fourteen years, ending at the rank of detective sergeant. While still on the force, Joe published what he refers to as his "moonlighting novels," THE NEW CENTURIONS and THE BLUE KNIGHT. These novels would cause some problems as Joe's superiors did not care for the way he portrayed the police officers in his novels. He was taking a fresh approach and portraying them as real people, as humans with flaws.

In 1973, Joe published his first non-fiction work, THE ONION FIELD. Joe says, "I feel I was put on earth to write this story, and I've never had that feeling before or since. Nothing could ever stop me from writing THE ONION FIELD." It is the true story of the abduction of two Los Angeles policemen and the subsequent execution of one of those officers. THE ONION FIELD would go on to earn Joe his first Edgar award and take him into the realm of screenwriting.

In 2004 the Mystery Writers of America bestowed on Joe Wambaugh the American Grand Master Award, after which he would begin the first series of his career. The first book of the Hollywood series was published in 2006, HOLLYWOOD STATION. Last month Joe released the third book in this series and his fourteenth novel, HOLLYWOOD MOON.

Joseph Wambaugh has made a lasting impression on the police crime novel. And his lasting impression on this memoir series is

I was only an adequate copper.

I'll take Joe's word for it on that front but on the writing front, he's far exceeded adequate, and I'm so thrilled to be able to include him in the final segment of this year's memoirs.

So, that brings us to the final memoirist for 2009. T. Jefferson Parker has lived in Southern California his entire life. After earning a Bachelor's degree from the University of California, Irvine, Jeff went to work as a newspaper reporter where he covered police, city hall, and cultural stories, won awards and squirreled away ideas that would one day result in his first novel.

That one day came in 1985 with the publication of Jeff's first novel LAGUNA HEAT, which would make its way to the New York Times Bestseller list when it came out in paperback in 1986. It also made its way to HBO when it was adapted for a television movie starring Harry Hamlin and Jason Robards. Of course this was just the beginning of a stellar writing career. In 2001 Jeff published SILENT JOE, which earned him his first Edgar award for Best Novel as well as the L.A. Times Book Prize in the Mystery/Thriller category. In 2004, Jeff would snag another Edgar award for Best Novel, this time for CALIFORNIA GIRL. As if these accomplishments weren't enough, Jeff also penned several short stories. His "Skinhead Central," published in THE BLUE RELIGION, earned him yet another Edgar Award just this year for best Short Story.

And that stellar career continues. Next month on January 5, 2010, Jeff will release his seventeenth crime fiction novel, IRON RIVER, which will continue the story of Charlie Hood, Jeff's protagonist from THE RENEGADES.

When he isn't hard at work on his next novel, Jeff enjoys spending time with his family hiking, hunting, fishing, playing tennis, diving, snorkeling and traveling.

I don't know that we could have had a better memoir to end this year's project on. I fell in love with it the minute I received it from Jeff:

I walked into a beautiful room.

And I believe he's let us all get a little peek at that room. What a gift for the entire crime fiction community, the entire crime fiction genre. Thank you, Jeff. And I also wish to thank Jeff for this wonderful picture that he provided. He informed me that the person in the background is none other than C.J. Box. A fantastic picture to wrap up the series as well!

Thanks to all the memoirists, today: Charlie, Joe, and Jeff; I am speechless. You have graced my blog with your participation in this project. I am honored; I am grateful; I am over the moon.

I will follow up tomorrow with an "Acknowledgements Page" to this year's project and share my overall thank yous then. But rest assured, I have put this project back on the calendar for next year. I'm going to spend a little time collecting memoirs again and we'll have Season 2 start next summer.

Thanks everyone! Happy Reading!

FACES OF THE GONE - Brad Parks

FIRST LINE: "With all the vacant lots in Newark, New Jersey - and there were thousands of them - the Director could afford to be picky."

Carter Ross is an investigative reporter for the Newark Eagle-Examiner in New Jersey, so when four seemingly unrelated individuals wind up shot, execution-style in a vacant lot, Carter is off to investigate the case.

In an attempt to calm the neighborhood, the police pose a theory on the shootings, saying they were retaliation for a bar heist. Carter's boss charges him with getting the bar heist story for the paper, but Carter is suspicious and begins to investigate other avenues with the help of Tina Thompson, the Eagle-Examiner city editor and Tommy Hernandez, an intern with the paper.

Carter quickly finds himself waist-deep in more trouble than he ever anticipated, and he's counting on a prostitute and the 1987 Cleveland Browns line-up to help bail him out.

FACES OF THE GONE is Brad Parks' debut novel and, boy, did he ever knock my socks off. The plot of FACES OF THE GONE is intricate and well-developed. Parks' own background as a journalist may have helped him to keep the plot tight and moving. He does not waste words. What he does do amazingly well is depict humanity. As I've spoken with people about this book, I've regularly mentioned how often I was in awe of the images he created of this urban neighborhood, so accustomed to death:

"I had interviewed kids who bragged about how big their shrines would be when they got killed. They talked about it with a nonchalance that was chilling."

"Tee has a small storefront on Clinton Avenue. He and I became acquainted a few years back when I did a story about RIP T-shirts, which happen to be Tee's speciality. RIPs had become a disturbingly prevalent urban fashion trend: anytime some too-young kid got killed, his boys rushed to have a T-shirt made in his memory. Every RIP T-shirt was different, but they followed the a basic formula, featuring the deceased's photo, the dates of birth and death, and the words REST IN PEACE. The people who wore them essentially became walking tombstones."

"If Wanda had known the choices she was making would have left her dead before her thirtieth birthday, would she have chosen differently? Maybe. Except, of course, Wanda probably never thought about her thirtieth birthday. It's a common problem among the impoverished, the lack of future focus. People are so worried about surviving today they don't have the luxury of thinking about tomorrow."

And before you think, "wow, I'm not sure if I can read this; it sounds depressing," let me add the next layer to Parks' plot - humor. Despite the tragedy happening all around, Carter Ross manages to be hilarious without undermining the seriousness of the plot, as are some of the situations Carter finds himself in. The situations aren't absurd, they're funny. Much of it comes from Carter's perceptions and MIS-perceptions of the world around him:

"It's like lion prides. For years, researchers - sorry, male researchers - believed the boy lions duked it out for the right to breed with the girl lions, who were passive spectators in the whole thing. The record only got set straight when some female researchers came along and took a more careful look at the social dynamics in the pride that preceded the fight. It turns out much of the time the lionesses are really calling the shots, selecting the most fit breeding partner. The fights the boy lions have are merely a noisy confirmation of what the girl lions have already decided among themselves."

The final element of the plot that truly makes it great is the fact that it turns the old cliché of the "cops don't know what they're doing" on its head and shakes the coins out of its pockets. This is not a predictable plot by any stretch of the imagination.

Parks takes this complex plot, peppered with humor and mixes in his cast of rich, eccentric characters. Tommy, the gay Cuban intern; Tina, the biological clock-watching city editor; Red, the homeless Casanova; Tynesha, the exotic dancer/prostitute. And of course, the protagonist and narrator, investigative reporter Carter Ross:

"The things that allow me to blend into the tasteful décor at any of New Jersey's better suburban shopping malls - my side-parted hair, my preference for button-down-collared shirts and pressed slacks, my awkwardly upright carriage, my precise diction and bland anywhere-in-America accent - made me a circus freak in the hood. Most people I pass on the street are polite enough to merely stare. A few openly point. People are constantly asking me if I'm lost."

Carter is smart and funny and principled and flawed. He doesn't always make the best choices and he isn't always right. Instead, he's hysterically human.


I dare you not to fall in love with these characters. As eccentric as they are, I could completely imagine meeting every single last one of them; they come alive on the page and that makes the underlying themes of the book so much more powerful.

This is a debut that should NOT be missed! You will be seeing this title on my favorites list for 2009. Brad Parks has undoubtedly got "The Stuff"!

FACES OF THE GONE is available starting today from St. Martin's Minotaur (ISBN: 978-0-312-57477-2).

Monday Mystery Backlist - THE MILLIONAIRES

This week's Monday Mystery Backlist title is a thriller from Brad Meltzer. With all the chaos in the banking industry, THE MILLIONAIRES is a perfect backlist title to recall.

The tagline for THE MILLIONAIRES is "What would you steal if you couldn't get caught?" for Charlie and Oliver Caruso that would be an abandoned bank account with three million dollars. However, what they think is a fool-proof plan turns into the nightmare of their lives when the bank, the Secret Service and a PI set their sites on the brothers and start closing in fast.



THE MILLIONAIRES is available in hardcover (ISBN: 978-0446527293) or mass market paperback (ISBN: 978-0446611923), so if you're looking for a Christmas gift for your thriller-lover, this may be just the ticket.

A Winner and Around the Web...

I've been saying "it's freezing!" for several weeks now because once the temps fall below about 50, it's freezing to me. But this weekend, it was officially freezing in Northeast Ohio, with temps well below 32. Winter's coming and I'm ready to hibernate; how about you?

But, before I do, I have a winner to announce. Congratulations to Leslie from Pennsylvania who won the signed Duffy Dombrowski series. Her books will go out to her tomorrow. I threw all the winners in a hat and Tom drew Leslie from the many entries. This was my biggest giveaway -- response-wise -- to date, so I appreciate all your enthusiasm, and I hope you will check out Tom's books if you didn't win them. I discovered ON THE ROPES through the library, so check there. If your library doesn't have a copy, you could make a suggestion for them to purchase one. I know things are tight with library funds all over, but it never hurts to put in the request. If you're looking for a place to buy Tom's books, remember that THE BOOK HOUSE is going to host his signing on Saturday. You can order a book through them and have it personalized if you wish. I know my friends at The Mystery Bookstore or Mystery Lovers Bookshop would be more than thrilled to special order them for you.

And again, I have to thank Tom because he truly went above and beyond and that's what made all of this fun.

I'm so behind in reading blogs myself. I've been trying to get to my regular haunts and catch up a little at a time. If I haven't been by yours, I'm getting there, I swear! I'm in the midst of shopping for a new car (YUK!), refinancing my house (YUK!), preparing for the holidays -- too rushed this year, and finishing up some things to submit to Crimespree Magazine (O.k., o.k., that's always fun for me; I admit it.). Speaking of which, if you're looking for a good Christmas gift for your crime fiction fan, a subscription would be a great stocking stuffer, don'tcha think? You can get a subscription here.

If you haven't already been over to Pop Culture Nerd's site to see her interview with Robert Crais, YOU MUST GET THERE! This is hilarious and I'm utterly envious, of course. You're guaranteed to laugh. And if you wouldn't mind entering the contest to try to win me those post cards, because I KNOW you're looking for an Xmas gift for me and all. That would be perfect! ;) In reality, she has a contest where you can win a copy of RC's upcoming THE FIRST RULE or a set of post cards that PCN made of locations in L.A. from his books. Both very cool prizes!

Elsewhere in the blog-o-sphere, I wanted to welcome a very good friend of mine. Naomi Johnson is now a co-conspirator...I mean, a co-contributor with Corey Wilde over at The Drowning Machine blog. If you haven't been over to welcome her, I hope you will take a minute and do so. She's an amazing writer, a fabulous person, and I know you'll enjoy her posts. I didn't think it could be possible for The Drowning Machine to get better than it was, but Corey is a smart cookie!

My friends over at Criminal Minds are multiplying these days. They've taken on some new regular bloggers. Have you been over lately?

And finally, I want to share with you this project that a fellow blogger-friend of mine initiated. There was an active blogger who passed away far too early last year. I did not know her personally, but believe me when I say I have felt her influence in the blogging community. In honor of her, Lisa, a.k.a. Online Publicist, has put together The Dewey Tree project. You can read more about it here, but I thought it was Fate or God or whatever you want to believe in acting in a mysterious way. I told you not too long ago about my other friend Tina's book collection project for the hospital - these two projects go hand-in-hand. So, I hope you'll take a look at the project and consider donating some books you no longer feel you can't live without to a good cause. I have my stack ready to go for Tina, but you can donate anywhere. Everyone can benefit from the gift of reading!


And that's what I have for today. I hope you have a wonderful Sunday. Happy Reading!

In the Ring with Tom Schreck

As promised, I have a very special interview to share with you today, and it isn't just because I'm sharing with you my very first video interview either. It's a very special interview because I am here today with Tom Schreck, who I admire both as a writer and a person. It's been a great joy to get to know him better, and I'm excited to share that with you today. I'm going to start off with the email part of our interview and then at the end you can view the video that we recorded in Milwaukee last month.

This was so much fun for me, so I hope it's a lot of fun for you all as well. Definitely let me know what you think, and if you have more questions for Tom share them in the comments. I'm sure he'll be by but if he isn't, I'll go drag him over so he can answer them for you.


Also don't forget today is the last day to enter the contest to win an entire set of Tom's Duffy Dombrowski books, including the brand new one OUT COLD. And they are all signed. Click here and fill out the form to be entered to win.

O.k., enough Jen chatter, let's get started. Ladies and gentlemen...Mr. Tom Schreck!

Q. Tom, you write the Duffy Dombrowski mystery series about a counselor who is also a professional boxer. This bears some resemblance to your own personal resume. So, in what ways would you say Duffy is like you and in what ways is he different?

Tom: Well, I like to say that Duff is a comic book version of me. I’ve been an addictions counselor for 25 years, though now I just teach college courses. I used to drive big old Cadillacs, but switched to Lincolns when the Caddies got smaller.

I still box, but unlike Duffy I try to find older, smaller, weaker and less experienced fighters to spar with.

I work in professional boxing as a judge. (Sometimes you’ll see me on HBO doing title fights.) And, of course I have basset hounds and bloodhounds.

I also believe Elvis Presley was the most culturally influential person of the last
century.

I don’t get violent but I image righting wrongs and kicking bad guy asses all the time. I do believe that 90% of social work is bullshit, and I hated the paperwork and all the other administrative crap.

Q. Since Duffy does have these similarities, does he ever do anything on the page that totally catches you off guard? Anything that makes you say, “hey! Where did that come from?” Or does he pretty much just act and react the way you would in a similar situation? Any other characters ever catch you off guard? Or do you manage to keep control over them pretty well?

Tom: **SPOILER ALERT**

In my first book Duffy beats a guy to death without remorse. A lot of my first readers found that out of character but I didn’t. In a short story Duffy nearly chokes a guy to death for stealing a helpless woman’s Elvis scarf. When Duffy did that even I kind of raised my eyebrows.

Now, the Foursome and Trina I have far less control over. When a tipsy Trina seduces Duffy I got a little flushed because I had no idea she had that in her.

The four guys in the bar are as predictable as the four guys I regularly have a cocktail with. I’m not quite sure what they’re going to talk about or where it is going to go.

I think if I had better control over the characters the books would suck.

Q. As a reader, undoubtedly the most important element in a book to me is character. If characters fall flat, it doesn’t matter how great the plot is. It can’t compensate. As I mentioned in my review, I keep looking for Duffy and the Fearsome Foursome on the street. They are so real, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them walk off the page and show up in my day-to-day dealings. How do you make sure you maintain that dimension and reality in the characters?

Tom: I don’t know if it comes from studying psychology or just a real interest in what makes every person unique. I HATE clichés—in fact it’s why I set out to write this series. I wanted a hero that wasn’t a genius, a gourmet, wealthy or a super stud. I wanted someone who was sort of like the man on the street but every now and then he harnesses something else.

I look at other characters and I try to tweak everything. What if an FBI agent wasn’t a pretentious jerk? What if a boxing corner man went to Dartmouth and practiced yoga and wasn’t just a streetwise philosopher? What if the screwball guy you drank with also happened to be a computer genius that was independently wealthy?

People are never one thing. My favorite parts of books are the descriptions of every day life or the descriptions of the things that run through your head that you’re not even aware of. When Robert B. Parker has Spenser in jail and he sets his all time favorite baseball team to pass time—I love that. When Travis McGee describes how his last romantic fling ended and why he drinks Boodles and not Plymouth—I love that.

More than anything I want people to read my books and get into the characters. I love James Patterson and Harlan Coben but I really don’t care if my plots get as intricate as theirs. I want people to want to have a beer with my guys or even yell at them.

Q. One of the elements that I just love about the Duffy Dombrowski series is how you slide in what might be considered an “outcast” group in society: addicts, ex-cons, people with mental disabilities. And then you challenge the reader to examine his/her beliefs – or even prejudices. Hopefully, I’m not over-analyzing this. You can tell me if I am. I don’t see any preachiness at all, but rather just a challenge to look at things from a new perspective. Is that challenging to write? I’d probably have a tendency to jump on my soapbox, but you don’t come across that way at all. And ultimately, what would you like your readers to walk away with when they finish a Duffy Dombrowski novel?

Tom: I am absolutely thrilled that this is what you picked up! Without getting preachy I want people to see what it's like to be in the underclass. When you call someone a “Crack Head,” “A Hooker” or “White Trash” you’ve dehumanized them. I want people to get to know those folks.

That includes showing the realistic, screwed up parts of them. People don’t get addicted to crack because of oppression—they get addicted because of the choices they make. However, many times those choices makes sense given their context. I don’t portray my “outcasts” as victims but I do show the full picture. It’s not the Rush Limbaugh view or the Oprah view. It’s what you might come to learn from working in human services for thirty years.

I want my readers to be entertained with suspense and to laugh. I also want them to think. I really, really want them to think.

Q. That last question makes it sound like the Duffy Dombrowski series is very heavy material, but you balance it out with masterful humor. I’m just in awe of people who have this wit, but you take so much of everyday “stuff” and show how absurdly funny it can be. A lot of times when we’re right in the midst of it, we can’t see the humor. But stepping back, being observers, you remind us how hysterical common, everyday events can be. Does that humor come naturally or is it something you have to work at and refine and edit a lot?

Tom: Let’s get real deep and Freudian for a little bit. (This semester I’m teaching a Psychotherapy course.) I’m the youngest of a family of five at the tail end of the baby boom. My dad was a hero in WWII and was wounded four different times. He quit high school in the 10th grade to work during the depression because his dad had died in 1919 from the flu. There were seven of us in a three-bed room house with one bathroom.

I learned early on the advantages of making people laugh. If dad was in a bad mood or sad, I prided myself on getting him to laugh. My brother Peter is the funniest guy I know and he would just observe everyday stuff and twist it around until it was hysterical. In life, if you can get people to laugh they like you more.

So maybe I’m still trying to make Dad laugh or not feel sad. Maybe because I want him to feel better, maybe because I don’t want him to be mad at me or maybe just so everyone can have more fun.

(That's actually more Adler than Freud.)

Writing funny is hard and you have to be in the mood. It’s different than being funny in person. Rhythm is crucial. Economy is vital and it has to surprise the reader a bit. I try to think about what could make something more funny than it is without going over the top.

I once read that if you try to do surgery on humor the patient usually dies on the table. It is very hard to describe what makes something funny.

Q. OUT COLD is book number three in the Duffy Dombrowski series. Tell us about this one and maybe a little about how this particular plot came to fruition.

Tom: This is probably the darkest of my books so far. Duffy gets a head injury from sparring and right around the same time he gets a new schizophrenic client just back from Iraq. Karl is paranoid and believes in every conspiracy ever. He starts to make crazy predictions about future conspiracy-type terrorist acts and they start to come true.

That’s when Duffy gets involved and decides to join Karl to try to thwart the terrorism. Their travels take them to the Notre Dame vs. Michigan game and ultimately to a basset hound puppy mill.

Everyone in town thinks Duffy’s nuts and everything that’s important to him is threatened while he follows a mentally ill client. I hope I give the readers things to think about in terms of our government, the military, how we treat soldiers and some new spins on some old conspiracies.

Q. I jumped right into questions about Duffy, but let’s back pedal a little here. You have a graduate degree in psychology and you worked as the director of a drug clinic. What brought you to writing? Was it always a goal that you wanted to be a published author? And why crime fiction? Are there any authors that you feel have influenced your style?

Tom: I wrote some treatment workbooks that got published when I was in the drug and alcohol business and noticed I loved doing it. Eventually I discovered John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series and fell in love with them. I then read all of Parker’s Spenser’s books, Lawrence Block’s Matt Scudder and some others.

I love the first person musings of the characters. In fact, sometimes I’d lose the plot line but keep reading because I was so into what the characters had to say. I wanted Duffy to be one of those guys without being perfect or overly macho or overly cool. I wanted an every man with something deep inside that he could call on when he had to.

Q. You are a world championship boxing official; were you also, like Duffy, a professional boxer at one time? And what drew you into the sport? Now Duffy took some serious knots on his noggin in OUT COLD. Are his days in the ring numbered or can a boxer recover and return from injuries like that?

Tom: I, like Duffy, got into boxing after training in karate. I have a black belt and used to teach karate at Notre Dame. I even won a couple of tournaments but when I tried boxing I kept getting beat up. So I dropped karate and got into boxing.
Boxing is a martial art and I approach it that way probably because of my karate background. I absolutely love the science and psychology of fighting. I think it is inside all of us, all the time, whether we want to acknowledge it or not.

I believe people sublimate the need for power and control at work or in their relationships while fighters work it out in the ring. Fighters don’t need to dominate a business meeting because they see the silliness of it.

I started judging amateur boxing and was lucky enough to get into the pros. Now I get to judge the top fighters in the word. I’ve judged in Las Vegas and in Madison Square Garden and have had the HBO announcers say I’m an idiot and all the stuff that goes with it. Boxing at the highest level is unbelievable to witness. The word “awesome” is over used but top notch boxing truly fills me with awe.

Duffy gets concussed in OUT COLD and that happens to fighters all the time. He’ll deny it and deal with it and have to make some decisions at some point. It’s what aging fighters do (or don’t do) all the time.

Boxing is such a great metaphor and it opens up so much for fiction.

Q. Another characteristic you share with Duffy is a love of everything Elvis. So how did your love of the King’s music come about? And do you still listen to him on 8-track? And if you had to pick one song as Duffy’s “theme song,” which would it be?

Tom: Like I said earlier, I believe Elvis was the most culturally important person of the last century. His charisma was electric and what he did and the importance of it gets lost today. A poor white man from the rural south, singing poor white people’s music and poor black people’s music and making it main stream changed our country. It was very threatening to the status quo to have teenage white girls up north getting into what Elvis was doing in the mid 50’s. It shook the world and it was very important.

I listen to Elvis music almost exclusively. Duffy can have his 8-tracks—I’m an iPod guy (with over 1100 Elvis songs.)

“If I Can Dream” would be Duffy’s theme and it was in the first book until I realized what I was going to have to pay for permission to use it. It came out a month or two after Martin Luther King’s assassination.

Q. Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE animals. So of course, I’m a sucker for Al, and you'll be forced to answer several questions about the hounds. How did you come to be such a lover of basset hounds? And tell us a little about the three that are presently part of your family. Are you the “alpha” in the family?

Tom: I never had animals growing up but I married a cat person. Her folks run a humane society and showed up with a basset hound named Buddy one day. I said “No Buddy!” for about a week and the house got very, very quiet. Mostly because my wife stopped talking to me.

I decided I’d say “Look, I don’t want the dog but if it means that much to you, you can have him.” My strategy was that she wouldn’t get the dog but I’d get back in with her for offering.

She bolted out of the house and in a half an hour Buddy was on my spot on the couch drooling on my pillow.

I loved Buddy and will always be embarrassed that I said no to him at first. He became a therapy dog and visited kids with autism and old folks in nursing homes. He died too early and I miss him a lot.

Today, we have Wilbur the basset, Roxie the bloodhound and Riley the half bloodhound/half basset. They all sleep with us, they get whatever they want and never do anything they’re told.

Alpha? Are you nuts! In this house my influence is right behind my wife, the three dogs and the three cats.

Q. You do a lot with the basset rescue organizations. How did you get started there and what’s a highlight or two from those events you’ve participated in?

Tom: Buddy was a rescue and Riley is a rescue. These rescue people do God’s work. They are unbelievably committed. If I can sell my crappy books and give them money, that’s the least I can do.

This October we were in Illinois for a hound event. They had a rescued hound there with two paralyzed back legs. He had wheels set up so he could walk. He was running all over the place wagging his tail and licking everyone in sight.

You know where they rescued him from?

Taipai, China.

He was in a shelter and, aside from being paralyzed, he had black markings. The Chinese consider that unlucky. The Guardian Angel Basset Rescue got him, paid for his medical care and trained him how to use the wheels. Some terrific family adopted him and a couple of years ago they made him king of the parade.

Just try not to cry when you see that stuff.

We sold $2,000 worth of books at their event this year. We went to six or seven events last year and sold books and auctioned off characters. We give it all to the rescue efforts and are coming up on $15,000 raised for the hounds.

The New York rescue group ABC is right now getting hounds out of puppy mills in three different states down south and driving them to New York to take care of them.

These people will do anything to help a hound. They blow me away.

Michael Vick ought to be grateful he wasn’t mean to a basset hound. Getting to play football again would’ve been the least of his worries.

Q. Al was being trained as a search and rescue dog with the Nation of Islam, but sadly he flunked out. First, where did that idea come from? I know that bassets have traditionally been used in hunting; are they commonly trained for search and rescue as well?

Tom: I’m fascinated with the Nation of Islam. They have a security force that is used quite a bit outside of the Muslim community.

I though a basset hound would be a great contrast to their discipline. Bassets aren’t used for security but they are great man trailers, just like bloodhounds. I think more often than not they’re not used because they’re so hard to train in terms of obedience in other areas.

They could find anyone—if they wanted to. But they probably wouldn’t do all the other obedience stuff that law enforcement wants. It’s the same with bloodhounds and why you see so many German Shepherds working. Shepherds do what they are told.

They tell me Labs do what they're told, too, but my two seemed to have missed that memo!

Q. One of the things that I see happen far too often with dogs as pets is that people see a dog in a movie or a book or TV, whatever. They think the dog is cute in the setting it’s been presented in and they immediately want one. They don’t take the time to research the animal and see if it would be a good fit for their living situation, their lifestyle, their family, etc. Then the dog ends up in a shelter, or worse, because it doesn’t live up to the unrealistic expectation of the person who adopted it. Whew. Yes, there is a question coming. What’s the best environment for the basset hound? What kind of family does this breed match up best with?

Tom: Bassets are incredibly cute as puppies. People love to adopt them.

Then people find out they score the lowest in obedience and are the hardest to housebreak. That’s why they wind up in shelters so much. They also howl a lot.

A family with some patience and an understanding of what they’re getting is essential. The payoff—the most lovable, silly, funny and kind dogs a person could share their life with. Great with kids, totally without aggression and comical as anything.

Q. OUT COLD is officially out in December (NOW!). What’s next? Are we going to see Duffy again soon? Are there other project ideas on the burner? Tell us what we can eagerly anticipate to see from Tom Schreck.

Tom: Duffy and the gang are heading to Vegas. A big shot Russian heavyweight needs a sparring partner. Somebody’s murdering Mexican street workers, there’s a white supremacy group, some Mexican fighters who befriend Duffy and maybe a Latin love interest for our hero. Did I mention Duffy is staying in a brothel? Or that there’s an evil Elvis impersonator Duffy has to deal with? Or that Duffy pisses off the Russian mob? Stay tuned.

I also have a non-Duffy mystery that I’m working on right now and hope to finish in the next couple of months.

I also have a new website starting soon that is going to feature a lot of my magazine stuff that I hope people enjoy. That will take over my old site but still be at http://www.tomschreck.com/. (*note* in the interim between when Tom wrote this and today, the new site has gone up. Be sure to check it out!)

People can find me on Facebook and I hope they’ll join the Duffy Dombrowski Fight Club where we argue and discuss all sorts of philosophical things about psychology, crime, fighting, basset hounds, drinking, Elvis and everything else that’s important in the world.

O.k., Drum roll please! Here it is; my very first video interview! All right, for those of you who are sitting there saying, "what else could you have possibly asked the poor man?" I found plenty more to ask. Tom is fascinating. I did have to keep it under 10 minutes, though, so YouTube would let me store it there.

I apologize up front; I didn't have anything to prop my little tripod on, so I had to hold the camera. It's a little shakey at times, but Tom is well worth tolerating my lack of camera skills for. This was so much fun for me. I hope you enjoy it, too.

If you happen to be in the area of Albany, New York on December 12th, you can stop by The Book House for Tom's book signing between 5 and 7:30.

Many thanks to Tom for all the time he took to help me put this interview together, both answering email questions and to do the video. I was thrilled to get to know him and I hope you were, too. And don't forget to enter to win the Duffy books!

Happy Reading everyone!

THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU - Michael Stanley

FIRST LINE: "The farewells had been said many years ago, so Goodluck hugged his old comrade and left without a word."

Detective David "Kubu" Bengu is summoned to Jackalberry bush camp when a double murder occurs. One of the tourists was shoved off a cliff while another was mutilated in an almost ritualistic manner. The local police and camp owners theorize that Goodluck Tinubu was killed in a drug transaction gone bad. But as Kubu begins to investigate, drug dealing doesn't seem to fit with the character of the Zimbabwean teacher. The further Kubu investigates and the closer he comes to the truth, the closer danger comes to Kubu's own front door.

In the follow-up to A CARRION DEATH, the writing team of Michael Stanley bring Kubu back bigger and better than ever. This time Kubu heads to the northern area of Botswana. As with A CARRION DEATH, THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU has a complex, multi-layered plot that brings the lands, the people and the issues of Botswana alive. This plot, however, is more linear than A CARRION DEATH.

Kubu's full character keeps with the traits that made him so endearing in A CARRION DEATH. His love of family, food, and spirits, mixed with his humor and intelligence create a character readers can easily connect with. THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU taxes Kubu a little more than A CARRION DEATH, however, as he deals with the threats against his family, which adds a new dimension to his character. Even Kubu's parents play a slightly larger role in this novel, again reinforcing the importance of family to the detective.

I continue to look forward to my visits to Botswana with Kubu. They may be filled with murder but they mystery of the land and the convivial detective make it all worth the while.

I listened to THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU on audiobook, read by Simon Prebble. Prebble does an outstanding job with the good detective, bringing each character to life. In this novel, Prebble had to also incorporate an Australian accent, which he did seamlessly. I also thing Prebble does a commendable job switching between genders. What I, personally, had to be careful of was being lulled by Prebble's accent. I find it incredibly beautiful and am often carried away by the sound of the foreign dialect, forgetting that I'm supposed to be paying attention to the story. It is a wonderful recording and well worth listening to.

THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU is published by Harper in May of 2009 (ISBN: 978-0-06-125249-5). The audiobook version was published by Tantor Media (ISBN: 978-1-4001-4348-1)

You Have the Right to Six Words - The Penultimate Post

Well just because we're getting down to the final two weeks doesn't mean we can skimp on the quality of the posts! We have a whopper of a line-up today. Since it's so close to the holidays now, I am linking the authors' book titles to independent bookstores. As always, I don't receive anything for the links, I just wanted to help make finding the books as easy as possible for you.

But, hey, let's get to memoirs, shall we?

The first author on our list of memoirists this week has made a huge impact on the crime fiction genre. You simply can’t say crime fiction without including Sue Grafton in the list of influential greats. She, of course, writes the internationally best-selling Alphabet series that began in 1982 with A IS FOR ALIBI. Sue’s writing career started long before this novel, however. She spent fifteen years writing screenplays for television, including collaborating with her husband Steven Humphrey to adapt the Agatha Christie novels A Caribbean Mystery and Sparkling Cyanide for television. But ultimately Sue would return to her first love, fiction writing.

It was her fascination with related titles like John D. MacDonald’s color titles and Harry Kemelman’s days of the week that led Sue to the idea for the Alphabet series. And just yesterday she released U IS FOR UNDERTOW. I think she happened on a pretty swell idea, don’t you? As “Z” looms closer and closer, fans wonder what will come next because they certainly don’t want Z to be the end. The second and third books, B IS FOR BURGLAR and C IS FOR CORPSE, earned Sue the first and second EVER Anthony Awards. She’s since earned an additional Anthony, a Shamus award, the Ross Macdonald Literary Award, and this year Sue Grafton was given the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

Of course, people familiar with the Alphabet series know protagonist Kinsey Millhone lives in the fictional town of Santa Teresa, California, which is modeled after Sue’s own home of Montecito. And while Sue may claim that Kinsey is the “younger, smarter, thinner version” of herself, we know that Sue enjoys gardening, good cuisine and cats. She defines success as “doing what I want to do and answering to no one...except my cats, of course.”

So how does Sue sum this incredible lifetime of achievement?

Father wrote mysteries, now I do.

And I think I'm safe to say that her influence will now forever be felt in the genre. So excited to have Sue Grafton join us today.

Next up is another author releasing a book this week. Tom Schreck released his third Duffy Dombrowski novel, OUT COLD, this week. Tom spent 25 years working as an addictions counselor and now teaches at the collegiate level. He can also be seen occasionally on HBO judging world championship boxing. Somewhere amidst all those responsibilities he finds time to pen the Duffy series that started in 2007 with ON THE ROPES. Tom also does freelance writing for various publications.

Tom's love of basset hounds carries over into his Duffy Dombrowski novels in the form of Al, Duffy's trusty basset hound sidekick. An advocate for basset hound rescue programs, Tom donates many proceeds from the sale of his books to the rescue programs.

Another characteristic that Tom shares with his protagonist is a love of Elvis Presley. Duffy drives a Cadillac and listens to Elvis on 8-track tapes with Al riding shotgun and drooling.

Tom's books make me smile and his memoir is no different:

Woof, Arooo! Concentrate,Woof, Surrender, Treat.

Don't forget that you can enter to win all three Duffy Dombrowski novels here and Tom will be back on Friday for an outstanding interview. Check back!

Next up on our list of memoirists this week is an amazing woman. Megan Abbott is the Edgar Award-Winning author of four novels; this past July she released the fourth, BURY ME DEEP which was inspired by the true story of Winnie Ruth Judd, the "Trunk Murderess." Her shorter work has appeared in various anthologies and she is the editor of the Edgar-nominated A HELL OF A WOMAN: AN ANTHOLOGY OF FEMALE NOIR. In addition to her fiction work, Megan published a non-fiction work titled THE STREET WAS MINE: WHITE MASCULINITY IN HARDBOILED FICTION AND FILM NOIR.

In addition to her Edgar award for her novel QUEENPIN, Megan is a Barry award winner and a three-time Anthony Award nominee. Megan has a Ph.D. in English and American literature from New York University and lives in Queens, New York City. She also occasionally contributes to the Rap Sheet blog.

When I asked Megan for her memoir she said it is:

Lived in her own head,mostly.

But her fans are oh so happy she's put it all down in print! And if you ever have the chance to meet Megan, you'll quickly discover that she's one of the most generous people you'll ever meet. So thrilled to have her join in today.

And according to Lee Child our final memoirist today "writes like Dostoevsky's hooligan great-grandson on speed." How about that? Brent Ghelfi is the author of the Alexei Volkovoy, a.k.a. Volk, thriller series about a Russian gun-for-hire. The first book in the series, VOLK'S GAME, was nominated in 2007 by the International Thriller Writers for the Best First Novel award; it was also nominated for a Barry Best Thriller award. This past August, Brent released the third book in the Volk series, THE VENONA CABLE, and he is hard at work on the fourth book in the series. The Volk novels have been translated into seven languages and optioned for film. That's a lot of success to wrap up into one life-time, but Brent is looking forward; he says,

Three careers. Wonderful family. What's next?

Let's hope a lot!

Oh, my most heart-felt thanks to Sue, Tom, Megan and Brent for making this week's post so spectacular. I'm completely humbled to be joined by these writers I so greatly admire. I hope that you have enjoyed their memoirs as much as I have, and I hope that you enjoy their books as well.

Next week will be the final week for this year's memoirs. I don't know if I'll be able to match this week. It's going to be tough, but I'll see what I can do. I'll hopefully see you all then!

Happy Reading!

THE RAIN GODS - James Lee Burke

FIRST LINE: "On the burnt-out end of a July day in Southwest Texas, in a crossroads community whose only economic importance had depended on its relationship to a roach paste factory the EPA had shut down twenty years before, a young man driving a car without window glass stopped by an abandoned blue-and-white stucco filling station that had once sold Pure gas during the Depression and was now home to bats and clusters of tumbleweed."

Hackberry Holland is a Texas sheriff carrying around haunting ghosts from his past. Pete Flores is a young Iraq vet with ghosts of his own. The two men and their ghosts cross paths when Hackberry uncovers a shallow grave filled with nine murdered illegal immigrants. Hackberry's investigation and Pete Flores' knowledge of the crime bring both men into the cross hairs of a passel of criminals who will do just about anything to keep the mass murder buried.

James Lee Burke introduced Hackberry Holland back in LAY DOWN MY SWORD AND SHIELD. Hackberry still had a story to tell and thus he returns in THE RAIN GODS, where Burke remains at the top of his game.

As is par for the course in a Burke novel, the setting comes alive and takes on a character role in the story. And the human characters are haunted by the people and actions of their pasts. In addition to his masterful use of setting, Burke also has a gift with character development. And he doesn't relegate that development strictly to the protagonist. Burke's villains are as complex and layered as any other character in the novel. Preacher Jack Collins is a prime example of that complexity. The reader would be hard pressed to find a character from literature with a blacker heart or a more kaleidoscopic development, which makes him all the more intriguing.

What continues to baffle me as a reader of Burke's novels is how he can build up a villain to be repulsive and evil and yet there's always some element, sometimes very minute but still present, of sympathy. James Lee Burke has a way of tugging at the reader's every emotion. Maybe it's the beauty of the language, or his extraordinary talent with a tale. But sometimes I just choose to believe he has magic and he instills it in every book he signs his name to. He certainly didn't disappoint in THE RAIN GODS.

I listened to THE RAIN GODS on audiobook, read by Tom Stechschulte. Stechschulte also reads Craig McDonald's Hector Lassiter series, so I first had to get past thinking I was listening to Lassiter. Once I was able to do that, I thought Stechschulte did a nice job narrating THE RAIN GODS. His tone matched what I would imagine Hackberry's to be: slow, measured. I found myself imagining Sam Elliot. I think Stechschulte did an outstanding job with Preacher Jack Collins and bringing out a sense of judgment on the world. Overall a good narration.

THE RAIN GODS is published by Simon and Schuster (ISBN: 978-1-4391-2824-4). The audiobook version I listened to is published by Recorded Books (978-1-4407-2705-4). There is also a Simon and Schuster version, but that is read by Will Patton.

Monday Mystery Backlist - ON THE ROPES (Plus a Give-Away)

This week Tom Schreck will release the third book in his Duffy Dombrowski mystery series, OUT COLD. I reviewed OUT COLD in September; you can read it here if you missed it.

In honor of that release, I'm celebrating "Schreck Week." Today's Monday Mystery Backlist title will be ON THE ROPES, the first Duffy Dombrowski mystery. And at the end of this post I will be announcing an extra special give-away! On Friday we'll meet up with Tom for an "unprecedented" (thank you Mr. President) interview. I hope you'll stop by to see it.

But, without further ado, let's talk about ON THE ROPES. Published in 2007, ON THE ROPES introduced Duffy Dombrowski and a rich cast of characters. Duffy is a part-time boxer, full-time social worker who doesn't necessarily like playing by the rules, especially when those rules are nothing more than bureaucratic...well, ridiculousness.

For example, Duffy shouldn't be paying house calls to his clients, but had he not, he never would have learned about Walanda's missing step-daughter. Walanda is a client of Duffy's but she's also a schizophrenic, crack-addicted prostitute. When Walanda ends up murdered in jail, Duffy takes in her Muslim basset hound, Al, and goes in search of the missing step-daughter.

Ken Bruen says, "Not since Carl Hiassen's TOURIST SEASON debut has there been a novel with such superb comic timing and laugh-out-loud lines."

And Marcus Sakey describes Duffy as "an Everyman with a big heart and wicked jab, Duffy Dombrowski may well be the new Spenser."

And if you'd like to see what I had to say about ON THE ROPES, you can read my review from earlier this year, here.

As promised, I have an extra-special give-away for "Schreck Week." Because I love MY own set of Duffy Dombrowski books so much, I got a set to give away to a lucky winner - just in time for the holidays. My gift to you. PLUS, they're all signed: ON THE ROPES, TKO, and OUT COLD! All you have to do is fill out this handy dandy little form I've created here - only entries entered through the form will be accepted. I'm getting high tech on you! ;) The contest is open to anyone with a U.S. postal address. I will take entries through midnight on Friday (December 4th). One entry per person. On Saturday I'll consult the random number generator and find a winner. Good luck!

And remember to visit on Friday for Tom's Inquisition...I mean interview. Happy Reading!

Holiday Gift-Giving Recommendations - Part 2

O.k., so our recommendation list from the crime fiction community started on Friday. Here is the second half of the recommendations they had to offer:

Marcus Sakey is an award-winning writer of four crime fiction stand-alone thrillers. He would recommend Don Winslow's THE POWER OF THE DOG. Marcus describes Winslow's book as "more than just a crime story; it's also an exploration of the nature of greed and power, of how the 'right' thing, for a man or a nation, can be almost impossible to understand — let alone enact."

Hilary Davidson has been writing guidebooks, including her Gluten-Free Guidebook online resource, and crime fiction short stories. Next year her first crime fiction novel will be published. Her recommendations for great book gifts this year? Jane Stanton Hitchcock's MORTAL FRIENDS. "The writing is sharp and the plotting is swift and smart. But what really intrigued me was that this novel is set in the upper social strata of Washington D.C., the same world that Hitchcock occupies, and some of her characters seem to be based on some very prominent people. Guessing who's who is part of the fun in reading this deliciously wicked book."

Hilary also recommends Megan Abbott's BURY ME DEEP, about which she says, "I knew before I picked it up that it was based on the true-life story of the infamous "Trunk Murderess" of the early 1930s, Winnie Judd, but somehow Abbott managed to make me forget about what I knew as she lured me into a fascinating, twisted world and an intriguing -- and very different -- interpretation of the events. Thanks to her hypnotic prose and superb storytelling, this was a book that I truly couldn't put down."

Andrew Gross started his crime fiction-writing career as a co-writer with James Patterson. These days he's flying solo with his acclaimed thrillers. He recommends three books that he says are "five-star oldies that don't get read much anymore." They include TEARS OF AUTUMN by Charles McCarry, NORTH OF MONTANA by April Smith, and GATES OF FIRE (On Thermoplyae) by Steven Pressfield.

Michelle Gagnon writes a series of thrillers featuring Special Agent Kelly Jones. What is she reading that she recommends as a great gift idea this year? J.A. Konrath. She says, "I've been tearing through J.A. Konrath's Jack Daniels series and love all of them. Probably best to start with the first, WHISKEY SOUR - they're like a cross between Carl Hiaasen and Thomas Harris, in a good way."

Ruth Jordan is one of the masterminds behind CRIMESPREE Magazine. This year she recommends "TRUST NO ONE by Gregg Hurwitz to anyone who likes a well written and action-packed conspiracy book, WHITE RIOT by Martyn Waites for anyone looking for the next can't miss U.K. writer, and BONE BY BONE which is another amazing book by Carol O'Connell...the peeling back of small town history done so well you'll forget it's a book you're reading."

CJ Lyons, the author of the Angels of Mercy series, wants to recommend the gift of laughter this holiday season. That's a great gift any season. Her gift of laughter comes in the form of Toni McGee Causey's Bobbie Faye trilogy that includes: CHARMED AND DANGEROUS, GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE GUNS, and WHEN A MAN LOVES A WEAPON. C.J. says, "They have everything--romance, action, adventure, and comedy. Not to mention Causey's writing which can bring you to tears in one scene and have you laughing out loud in the next. A true treat to savor and enjoy over the holidays."

When author Theresa Schwegel hasn't been hard at work on her own thrillers this year, she's been reading Roberto Bolano's 2666, which she describes as "epic." She also recommends SNITCH JACKET by Christopher Goddard. In Theresa's words, it is "really dark and funny."

Diane Stuckart pens the Leonardo Di Vinci historical mystery series. This holiday season, she suggests three books. BABY SHARK by Robert Fate is "quirky, action-packed and always kept me guessing. Talk about a roller coaster ride...nothing but pure entertainment." About DOWN RIVER by John Hart, Diane says, it "took time for me to get into, and I must admit I never reached the point where I much liked or cared about any of the characters. But Hart’s writing was so subtly yet incredibly evocative that I could not help but keep reading despite that." And finally, Diane suggests MAHU VICE by Neil S. Plakcy. "The police procedural portion of it is fairly ordinary, but Neil does such a fantastic job of characterization that Kimo and his friends and family seem like folks you have known and loved for years. With a caveat for explicit sex, this and his other books are enjoyable and fast-paced reads."

Timothy Hallinan is the author of the Poke Rafferty series and he's kindly offered up some recommendations as well. Since I'm forever recommending the Poke Rafferty books to people, I'm thrilled to have Tim offer some of his own favorites. Tim made me laugh because he prefaced his recommendations with, "Some books I could give away with a clear conscience." Too funny. O.k. here they are. First Tim recommends THE ZOO STATION and THE SILESIAN STATION by David Downing. "Razor-sharp writing by someone who's investing the espionage genre with a new burst of energy. Both set in Berlin, and elsewhere in the Third Reich, in post-WWII days. Great atmosphere, lively characters, really good plotting."

Next, Tim will NOT get any argument from me on his recommendation of THE RAIN GODS by James Lee Burke. Tim says, "I never thought he'd top THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN, but he did. The Faulkner of mysteries."

And Tim also recommends two books by Ace Atkins, who Tim says was recommended to him by a radio interviewer in Memphis, Stephen Usery. Tim recommends DEVIL'S GARDEN and WICKED CITY. "DEVIL'S GARDEN is a brilliant re-imagining of the Fatty Arbuckle scandal, with Dashiell Hammett (in his Pinkerton days) as the detective, and WICKED CITY is just amazing – the story of the cleanup of Phenix City, Alabama in the 1950s. Even the bad guys are sympathetic."

Kelli Stanley is the author NOX DORMIENDA, which gave birth to Roman noir. She is also preparing to release her next novel, also historical crime fiction, but a little closer to present day, CITY OF DRAGONS. Kelli is recommending IT'S A BITTER LITTLE WORLD: THE SMARTEST, TOUGHEST, NASTIEST QUOTES FROM FILM NOIR by Charles Pappas. According to Kelli, "If you're looking for a dose of some noir to help counteract the indefatigably sweet holiday season, search no more ... this small, square gem of a paperback contains enough pithy inspiration to foil Dickens. From little known films like The Glass Web ("Sure, I liked that barb-wire dress, one she said protected the property but didn't hide the view") to classics like The Big Heat ("We're sisters under the mink"), you'll find treats a' plenty in this fabulous little noir stocking stuffer!" (Ahem, Santa...)

And the grand finale of recommendations is going to be given by my friend and fellow blogger (but I'm not even close to being in the same blogging league as her), Elyse Dinh McCrillis, better known as Pop Culture Nerd. She has chosen to recommend my absolute favorite crime fiction novel ever. A lot of people who know me snicker when they refer to my overwhelming admiration for Robert Crais, but here's a woman who totally gets it. Elyse recommends L.A. REQUIEM. According to her, "Anyone who thinks crime fiction isn't literature needs to read Robert Crais's L.A. REQUIEM. Crais opens your heart, makes it grow, crushes it, then gently pieces it back together again, changed but still beating. If this doesn't happen to you, a zombie has taken over your body."

I simply couldn't agree more, and I find that a fitting place to end these wonderful recommendations. My thanks to all the members of the crime fiction community who took time out of their schedules to contribute suggestions.

I hope the suggestions have given you all many ideas for the right gifts for your loved ones. Books are such precious gifts, and as you can see from the wide range of suggestions here, there really is something for everyone!

Happy Shopping and Happy Reading!

Holiday Gift-Giving Recommendations - Part 1

I'm posting over at Buy Books for the Holidays today again, but this time I wanted to put my post up here as well. I asked a slew of folks from the crime fiction community to share their recommendations with me for holiday gifts this year. I received such an overwhelming response (no surprise from this amazing community), that I decided I would divide the post into two separate posts. So here is the first half of recommendations from authors, bloggers, reviewers, booksellers, etc.

Louise Penny, author of the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, recommends an assortment of Maigret books by Georges Simenon. She says, "They're gems. Novella length, most of them, and brilliantly evocative of Paris mid-century."

Robin Agnew, owner of Aunt Agatha's Mystery Bookstore in Ann Arbor, says her entire family recommends AWAKENING by S.J. Bolton.

Sophie Littlefield, author of A BAD DAY FOR SORRY, thinks AMERICAN RUST is a great choice for "the serious, literate reader who loves a challenge but is also firmly rooted in crime and contemporary noir." Plus she adds, "it makes you look smart, and being big and heavy, it's a perfect anchor for a tumbler of scotch."

Jason Pinter, author of the Henry Parker series, think Charlie Huston's Hank Thompson trilogy is a great idea this season. About the third book in the trilogy, A DANGEROUS MAN, Jason says it "is like watching a high-wire act for hours: every moment is just filled with suspense. And if the ending doesn't wrench your heart you simply don't have one." Jason recommends reading books one and two, CAUGHT STEALING and SIX BAD THINGS, before A DANGEROUS MAN, though.

Lesa Holstine is a librarian in Arizona, but she is also an avid blogger of mystery at Lesa's Book Critques. Lesa's is passing along a recommendation for your younger readers, THE HANGING HILL by Chris Grabenstein. Lesa says, "it's the perfect late-at-night book for readers nine to twelve. Creepy, with some humor, The Hanging Hill, has a heroic young man, a terrific stepmother, and, Zack's dog, Zipper. It's a story of ghouls, and blood, and mad killers, and kids will love it!"

Jane Cleland, author of the Josie Prescott mysteries, recommends any of the Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout written in the 1950s or 1960s. Some specific titles include: SILENT SPEAKER, MURDER BY THE BOOK, PLOT ITSELF, THE DOORBELL RANG, and SOME BURIED CAESAR. Jane says these "exemplify Stout's character-driven mysteries - filled with wit and fun."

Robert Dugoni is the author of four legal thrillers, most recently WRONGFUL DEATH, and he is recommending SEEN THE GLORY by John Hough, Jr. Bob says SEEN THE GLORY "is a story of two brothers who join the Union army to fight against slavery and end up at Ghettysburg. It is literary, and I thought a fantastic story, beautifully written."

Bill Crider writes the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series. This holiday season he's recommending BEAT THE REAPER by Josh Bazell. "It starts out over the top, and builds from there. It's outrageous and hilarious. Even the footnotes (yes, footnotes!) are funny. Just out in trade paper if you don't want to spring for the hardback."

Reviewer David Montgomery believes that "Ross [Thomas] was as close as we'll get to a perfect writer and [CHINAMAN'S CHANCE] is one of his best books to start with."

Craig McDonald pens the Hector Lassiter series and he has a couple recommendations for your non-fiction reader. (I need to pick these up, too!). First he recommends A BRIGHT AND GUILTY PLACE by Richard Rayner. According to Craig, A BRIGHT AND GUILTY PLACE is "an examination of the birth of Los Angeles and the noir sensibility through an early 20th Century prism. Well written, evocative...a revelation for crime fiction fans."

And Craig also recommends L.A. NOIR by John Butin. It is "similar to Rayner's approach, but focusing more on the middle part of the century and a kind of nonfiction tour of James Ellroy's Los Angeles, with a cast of characters including Mickey Cohen, evangelist Billy Graham and LAPD chief William H. Parker."

Anyone looking for my Christmas gift...yeah - hint, hint!

Brad Meltzer probably doesn't need an introduction from me being as his thrillers are regular visitors to the New York Times Bestseller list; his most recent, THE BOOK OF FATE, being no different. Brad recommends TEN LITTLE INDIANS by Agatha Christie for your younger readers because it is the book that hooked him. And then he also recommends REPLAY by Ken Grimwood and WATCHMEN by Alan Moore.

Craig Johnson is, of course, the author of the Walt Longmire series. He says that three of the twenty best-selling Penguin Classics are written by John Steinbeck. AMERICA AND AMERICANS, AND SELECTED NON-FICTION is not one of those three, but it should be. Craig also recommends a book that he thinks has flown a little under the radar, and that's THE MIRACLE LIFE OF EDGAR MINT by Brady Udall.

Craig says he's recommend anything by Ron Carlson, including his most recent THE SIGNAL, which Craig classifies as "elegant." And he'd also throw Rennie Airth's THE BLOOD-DIMMED TIDE or RIVER OF DARKNESS. Rennie, Craig says, is a "charming man and a limitless talent."

Karen Olson writes the Tattoo Shop Mysteries and the Annie Seymour Mysteries; this year she's recommending THE CRYING TREE by Naseem Rahka. Karen says, "This amazing, beautifully written debut about forgiveness is centered around a crime, but the crime is not the focus of the book. Months after reading it, I am still haunted by the characters and their stories."
Whew! Can you believe I still have more? There's just so many great books out there; I can't fathom a legitimate reason not to buy books as gifts. They truly are the perfect gift. If you check back tomorrow, I'll offer up the second half of the recommendations from the crime fiction folks. See ya then!

Happy Reading!

My Cup Runneth Over

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers celebrating today. It's a time for me to remember all that I am thankful for this year. I think this year more than any other I've been acutely aware throughout the entire year, not just on our specified holiday. This has simply been an amazing year for me, and today I'd like to express a little of my gratitude.

My warmest and most heartfelt thanks go out to everyone who has contributed to this blog in 2009. Some people have contributed visually - you see their guest posts, their interviews, their 6-word memoirs, etc. Others have been contributing behind the scenes: David Thompson is forever opening my eyes to new and wonderful crime fiction, Linda Brown and Bobby McCue have given more than I can even begin to mention. Lesa Holstine is my mentor; I admire her and often look to her for advice. All the people who comment and send me emails motivate me and remind me daily how much I love this blog and the interaction with everyone.

Jon and Ruth Jordan. I am convinced they are my angels sent from God. They've given me a place I belong - welcomed me into the Crimespree Family - and there simply is no greater gift.

To all the authors who have entrusted me with their works of art, thank you for caring what I thought. You've given me endless hours of entertainment and things to talk about...especially on Twitter! ;) Many thanks to those who have taken the time to answer interview questions or create guest posts. And most of all, thanks to everyone who contributed to the six-word memoir project - you guys put me on the map with that project. It is near and dear to my heart, as are all of you. You are welcome here ANY day!

To the publishers and PR reps, thanks for thinking of the small-time hobby blogger who just loves to read and talk crime fiction.

To my special friends that I've met through this blog: Corey, Michael, Elyse, Kaye, and Naomi. Who would have thought? You're all over the country and yet we've become friends through this crazy Internet. You guys are wonderful and I am blessed beyond my wildest dreams.

And every one of you that stops to read my blog. Whether you comment, send an email or just lurk, thank you for sharing this love with me. It's gratifying to talk to people about these books and not have you react like I'm off my rocker. I was recently asked why I think the crime fiction community is so close knit. That's easy - it's the nature of the people. As I grew excited this year for various author events, Bouchercon, Murder and Mayhem, etc., you got excited with me. THANK YOU! You tolerated all my stories and pictures. THANK YOU! And you still came back afterward. THANK YOU!

I'd probably still be here talking to thin air even if you didn't come to share with me, but gosh it sure is more fun with you all!

THANK YOU!

You Have the Right to Six Words - Week 27

In the United States it is Thanksgiving Eve, I hope you are all looking forward to a nice holiday. If you're going out on Friday, I wish you the best of luck. I tried that one year and thought I was viewing humanity at its ugliest. So, I've opted not to go back no matter how good the deals may be. I plan to read instead!

But today, let's welcome some memoirists!

Today I'm starting off with an author I met on Twitter; he's not published here in the U.S., yet, but I think maybe we need to start making some noise on this side of the pond. Steve Mosby is the author of five thriller novels and he hails from Leeds in the UK. His parents were supportive of his reading and writing habits growing up, even making him homemade booklets in which to write his "choose your own adventure" stories. These days, Orion is making the books Steve writes in, the most recent, STILL BLEEDING, released in the U.K. this year. Steve describes write as putting "one word in front of the other." And he's doing that daily as he works on his sixth psychological thriller.

Steve says his education in philosophy comes in handy for plot development. Not only does it help him to appreciate other viewpoints, he also can attack and defend those viewpoints. When asked the three best words to describe his writing he chose "dark, cruel, and emotional." I'm looking forward to finding out if that is true because I got my paws on a copy of his novel, THE 50/50 KILLER (Thank you, Jon Jordan)!

On a little more of a personal note, Steve is one of my favorite people to follow on Twitter. I look forward to his tweets every day. He has an uncanny knack for observing humanity around him, and his narration of his observations is thoroughly entertaining. But Steve truly endeared himself to me with his memoir. He cited a passage from an interview where Cormac McCarthy says, "There was never a person born since Adam who's been luckier than me. Nothing has happened to me that hasn't been perfect. And I'm not being facetious. There's never been a time when I was penniless and down, when something wouldn't arrive. Over and over and over again. Enough to make you superstitious." Steve said this really rang true for him as well - in all aspects of his life, career included. So, his memoir is fittingly

Surprisingly, things have always gone well.

And I know you'll join me in wishing him continued success as he moves on to another chapter in his life: fatherhood. Steve and his wife are expecting their first child.

Jamie Freveletti is a debut writer this year. 2009 saw the publication of her first thriller novel, RUNNING FROM THE DEVIL. While I don't think Jamie is running from the devil, I do know she does a lot of running, both herself and crewing for an ultra runner. I asked her what this "crewing" involved, she told me to think of it like a pit crew for a formula one race. So she could be changing the runner into dry clothes, running alongside him/her at 2:00 in the morning, providing moral support and encouragement, especially when the last mile is straight up hill. Like the pit crew with the car and drive, she makes sure the runner has what he or she needs, physically, emotionally, mentally to finish the race. And this inspired RUNNING FROM THE DEVIL.

Jamie is also active in martial arts, both practicing and teaching Aikido, where she's reached the level of black belt.

Her resume shows that she attended law school and then earned a diploma in International Studies while living in Geneva, Switzerland. In addition to the ultra runner, Jamie blended her experience as a trial lawyer and her knowledge of International Studies together, threw in a dash of science, and came up with RUNNING FROM THE DEVIL.

Jamie tells us that her most recent reading obsession includes the transcripts from the Madoff trial. And if she can use that to create another thriller like RUNNING FROM THE DEVIL, I say, "Read Jamie! Read!" In all seriousness, though, Jamie has taken the elements of who she is and put them together in a great memoir:

Love adventure, traveled everywhere, writes
heroines.

And we never have too many great heroines. I do hope those of you who have been coming back week after week are noting some of these debut authors. Jamie is definitely one to note because intuition tells me she is going to be a household name in thriller writing in no time flat.

Next up we have Steve Forman who started out as a businessman. After college he opened a one-man seafood advertising agency in Boston and built it up to an international success. These days he's splitting time between Boston and Boca Raton, Florida. But Steve isn't happy just soaking up the sun of beautiful Boca, he's set off on a second career path, crime fiction novelist. This year he published his first book BOCA KNIGHTS, inspired by the contrasting lifestyles between Boston and Boca Raton. Ex-cop Eddie Perlmutter hails from Boston but moves to Boca Raton after retirement. Eddie can't help righting wrongs, and that lands him in a mess of Florida trouble.

The sequal, BOCA MOURNINGS, will be hitting bookstores in 2010. Steve's writing has been compared to Carl Hiaasen and "Elmore Leonard on speed." When asked about the differences between the business world and writing, he says it comes down to public perception. "Over the years I‘ve sold millions and millions of pounds of seafood but no one has ever asked me to sign a piece of fish. Write a good book, however and suddenly a lot of people want my signature on something besides a check." And his six word memoir?

from Big Tuna to Boca Knights

Anchoring the post for us this week is Andrew Grant. I have to extend special thanks to Andrew right away. The first time I checked with him to ask him to participate, the fates weren't aligned - or however that astrology thing goes - but later I went back and asked again. I was worried about coming across as a pest - and I may very well have, but Andrew was so gracious and I'm so excited because here he is! As I'm sure many of you know, Andrew shares genes with another great crime fiction writer, Lee Child. While indeed he is Lee Child's brother, Andrew has carved a place for himself in his own right as part of the crime fiction community with this debut spy thriller, EVEN. EVEN features Royal Navy Intelligence officer David Trevellyn who finds himself set up and in trouble with the law in the United States while his superiors in London are turning their backs on him.

Following college at the University of Sheffield, Andrew set up a small, independent theater company. The original material showcased by the company earned critical success, but the financial end of things forced Andrew into a job with in telecommunications. What started out as a "temporary" job turned into 15 years. When circumstances in the telecommunications industry that were beyond his control released him from his "temporary" job, he set out to answer the great question, "what if?"

This year marked Andrew's debut in crime fiction writing, but it has brought him another connection to the crime fiction community. Andrew is engaged to crime fiction's Tasha Alexander. So the beginning of both a new career and a new life prompted Andrew to come up with

The best is yet to come.

My warmest and most heartfelt thanks to all of our authors this week for their time, and for putting up with me. I made several contacts with each of them, and their generosity has been tremendous. I'm so thankful that each and every one of them has been enthusiastic about this project. It's truly what makes it great. Thank you.

And to everyone reading again this week, thank YOU. It wouldn't be half as much fun if you weren't enjoying it with me. Your comments, emails and notes simply make my day. This week I am so very thankful I've had the chance to forge friendships with you through this blog. Thank you for visiting and coming back.

For those of you celebrating, have a wonderful holiday and we'll meet back here next week for the penultimate post of the 2009 "You Have the Right to Six Words" series.

Happy Reading.

SNOW ANGELS - James Thompson

FIRST LINE: "I'm in Hullu Poro, The Crazy Reindeer, the biggest bar and restaurant in this part of the Arctic Circle."

James Thompson's debut novel, SNOW ANGELS, features Inspector Kari Vaara investigating the brutal murder, and possible hate crime, of a beautiful, well-known Somali immigrant...in Lapland...near Christmas...on a reindeer farm.

As Inspector Kari Vaara begins to investigate this murder, he discovers ties to his ex-wife and her present lover, as well as ties to the son of one of his detectives. The closer he comes to the case, the more his pregnant, American wife begs him to back away before something disastrous happens.

For those who may not be aware, as I was not before I started this book, Lapland, Finland in December is night 24 hours a day; they call it Kaamos. The day-long dark contrasted against the stark white snow is perfect symbolism for this stunning crime novel. It is chock full of contrast. The setting is the most visual use of contrast in the book:

"The black-and-yellow crime scene tape looks out of place on a reindeer farm. The spot where Sufia's body lay is a bloody hole gouged in the snow, like an empty eye socket. The scene will be torn to bits soon, when forest animals smell the blood and come looking. It doesn't matter. It will be buried in fresh snow before long anyway."

Thompson himself was born and raised in Kentucky but has lived the last ten years in Finland. He brings his two worlds together through Inspector Vaara and his American wife, Kate. Through their union he is able to incorporate a lot of contrast between the two countries in the way they think, the way they live, the way they deal with crime:

" 'In the States, they have TV commercials for Viagra, cosmetic surgery, antidepressants. They ask 'Are you tired in the morning, stressed at work, have trouble sleeping at night?' By the time they run through the list of symptoms, they've included everybody. People believe they're depressed and go running to the doctor begging for drugs. Here, you've got a guy talking to imaginary friends on a pay phone, and they not only don't treat him, they disconnect the line but leave the phone booth so he can be happy. That's community and I like it.' "

And sometimes the starkest contrast occurs in perceptions:

"Because of the circumstances of her death, I had canonized Sufia slowly but surely over the past day. Sufia, the snow angel - that was a mistake, I know nothing about her. To get to the truth, I need to see her as she was."

Thompson emphasizes how silent a culture Finland fosters, and this lends itself well to the traditional noir hero. That makes the use of the first person point of view vital to the reader's connection with Vaara. If the reader could not hear what was going on in Vaara's head, he/she would have no idea of the conflict he's incurring. Instead, he would come off as an emotionless robot.

"We don't talk about hatred, we hate in silence. It's our way. We do everything in silence."

Vaara in many ways is very much alone in his investigation, partly by circumstance and partly because of this culture of silence. But his relationship to Kate is close and life-renewing for him, again contrasting with his first marriage that destroyed him emotionally. Kate has to step away and let Vaara deal with the case alone, but she tells him that she'll be there when he returns.

Written in the tradition of classic noir, SNOW ANGELS quickly pulls the reader in to this foreign, exotic land draped in darkness. This is an essential debut for the noir lover, so bring your flashlight, let's read.

SNOW ANGELS will be released by G.P. Putnam's Sons on January 7, 2010, but the folks at Putnam have informed me that there are giveaway contests going on at Goodreads and LibraryThing right now. You have until November 29th to enter at LibraryThing and until December 2nd to enter at Goodreads. And of course, it's also available now for pre-order as well.