Crime Writers as Adjectives

I saw this article last month and today I was doing some interview work and used the term Fitzgeraldesque, which got me thinking about what adjectivized versions of crime writers names would mean. Don't worry; I won't be anywhere near as focused on sex as the Flavorwire writer was.

The one that jumped to mind immediately was:

(James) Burkeian

Exceptionally atmospheric detail that entices all the senses.

And you know I absolutely had to have one for:

(Robert) Craisish

Characterized by loud shirts and funky socks.

or

Pertaining to intimate bonds between adult heterosexual males.

(Craig) Johnsonesque

Having desirable qualities. A Johnsonesque town is one everyone wants to visit; a Johnsonesque character is one everyone wants as their friend.

(Bryan) Gruleyian

Containing hockey metaphors.

(Lee) Childish...wait, maybe that one doesn't work so well, how about Lee Childian...Childesque???

Marked by a nomadic nature.

(Gregg) Hurwitzian

Having a whirlwind of emotion. If it makes you laugh, cry, scream, rejoice...it's Hurwitzian.

I haven't forgotten the criminal woman. Here we go with theirs:

(Sophie) Littlefieldesque

Of or pertaining to creatively smart women.

(Karin) Slaughterish

Marked by a dark, painful history.

(Rosemary) Harrisian

The quality of blossoming.

(Lisa) Ungerian
Of or pertaining to the psychological examination of one's actions.
(Cara) Blackesque

Marked by French couture.

I started with Burkeian and I'll finish with a Burkeish:

(Alafair) Burkeish

Of or pertaining to a love of Nutella

or

Having an incredible knowledge base of pop culture

O.k. so my creative genes aren't that strong. Help me out here. What crime writer adjectives would YOU add?

THE SKELETON BOX- Bryan Gruley

First line: (of Chapter 2; Chapter 1 is a news article) "The first knock at the door of dressing room 3 came as I was scooping a beer out of a plastic bucket of ice."

In the third book of the Starvation Lake series, Gus Carpenter finds himself in the midst of a "treasure" hunt when someone breaks into his mother's home and murders Phyllis Bontrager.

There have been a series of "Bingo Night B&Es" in Starvation, but the perpetrator isn't stealing anything. Then when the culprit breaks into Bea Carpenter's house, he's surprised to find someone there. Bea is sleeping but Phyllis interrupts the intruder and pays with her life.

An anonymous tip begins to shine suspicion on a group of religious folks living in trailers on  Roy "Tatch" Dobrick's land. They have a new member who seems to be taking control of the group and initiating some bothersome behaviors, like challenging the city's land taxation of the group and organizing everyone to dig in search of a "septic field."

Sheriff Aho, meanwhile, is in fear of losing the next election, and thereby his job, so he's overcompensating by arresting everyone in suspicion of killing Phylllis. And when one of those people is Gus's own mother, he goes on a search for the real killer. In his wildest dreams, Gus never imagined the investigation to lead him where it does.

It's been a couple of years since Bryan Gruley's last book, and THE SKELETON BOX is well worth that wait. Gruley delivers another stellar contribution to his series revolving around an amateur hockey-playing journalist in the town of Starvation Lake, Michigan.

Gus's former cub reporter Joanie has moved on to bigger papers and bigger cities, but still makes an appearance in the book.  And Gruley introduces new characters in the form of Whistler, Gus's new reporter, and "Tatch," Gus's fellow goalie from youth hockey.  The real star of THE SKELETON BOX, however, is Gus's mother, Bea. As her character is flushed out in the pages of the novel, Gruley's talent for character development shines. Gruley also has a knack for leading readers astray. You'll start to feel as though you have the mystery solved, the villain uncovered, and then realize it is only the tip of the iceberg.

The plot of THE SKELETON BOX, like its predecessors, is a complexity of layers. The authenticity of his characters helps in that complexity; authentic people are, after all, complex. But the events of the plot take the reader in a multitude of directions, both geographically and through time. Unlike a long car ride, however, the reader isn't left feeling like, "are we there yet?" Instead the reader is anxiously devouring the scenery, eagerly anticipating the destination but imbibing all the richness along the way.

One of my personal favorite elements of Gruley's writing in this series is his use of hockey metaphor. Not being a big hockey fan, I am fascinated by the fact that he can draw me in with unique imagery. Often sports metaphors fall flat; they're cliche and drab, but Gruley's metaphors pop; they're vivid and mesmerizing:

"A feeling came over me, a feeling I knew well from playing goalie.   You're in the net and a guy is bearing down on you and you know you have the angle cut off but he's a sniper who can detect the tiniest gap you've unwittingly left between your legs or under one of your arms, so you tighten up from head to toe and slide out another six inches to cut off even more of his angle.

Then his stick unwinds and follows through and you feel the puck hit you at almost the same instant that you realize you saw it, or at least a black blur that must have been it, and you know you have it but you're not sure where, maybe your glove, maybe your gut, maybe your crotch, maybe beneath a leg pad, and you wrap yourself in to a tuck while the shooter crashes in and your defensemen scramble around looking for the puck.

You're terrified that it will flop out from wherever you're holding it and lie there for the shooter or one of his teammates to slap into the net. You feel the fear in knowing that you have hold of something, but you don't really know where it is, and you might lose it before you ever get control. And if you let that happen, then it will be your fault, and your fault alone. Because it is your job to keep the puck out of your net. You and only you."

THE SKELETON BOX - and its predecessors - are cerebral crime novels. Gruley takes his readers inside the minds of his characters, poking and prodding. This approach results in readers connecting with the characters and examining their own thoughts, motivations, emotions and...skeleton boxes.

Gruley leaves his protagonist with a bit of uncertainty and I hope that means more to come in the town of Starvation Lake. While I hope the wait for that "more to come" isn't as long as it was between books two and three, if the product is as grand as THE SKELETON BOX, you won't hear any complaints from me.

THE SKELETON BOX is available now in hardcover from Touchstone Books (ISBN: 978-1-4165-6366-2). Rich Orlow narrated the first two books in this series on audio for Recorded Books and I hope that means he will continue with this one as he did an outstanding job with STARVATION LAKE and THE HANGING TREE. THE SKELETON BOX is not, however, available in audio format at this date.

Five on Friday - Bryan Gruley

Sorry folks, I know I've been pretty quiet the last couple weeks. Between some family stuff and traveling, I've been a little short on time. But I'm raring to get back into the saddle. As a matter of fact, you'll be hearing from me on Monday about today's Five on Friday author's new book! Can't wait to share with you about that.

In the mean time, have you been voting in this year's Duffer Awards? While you know I'm a big fan of the Dave Robicheaux books, I was crushed when Clete Purcell beat Elvis Cole for "Best Hawaiin Shirts."

Don't forget June is Audiobook Month! The folks at the Audiobook Community on Facebook are doing a lot to celebrate and I'll have some fun audiobook reviews coming up soon. Stay tuned!

So that's it for the general business, let's move on to the best part of Friday! It's Five on Friday time. And I'm so thrilled that Bryan Gruley could make time to answer five questions for us. For those who don't know, Bryan writes the Starvation Lake series. You can check out my reviews of Starvation Lake and The Hanging Tree if you haven't already read them. On Monday, you'll be able to read my review of the third book in this amazing series, The Skeleton Box (it came out on Tuesday). You can also check out this fabulous guest post Bryan wrote for me last year. If you haven't read Bryan's work before I strongly urge you to move him to the front of your TBR list. These books are amazing. Of course, that's probably why they've earned an Edgar nomination, an Anthony Award, a Barry Award and a Strand Award. But, Bryan isn't just a writer. He has an array of talents. Check this out! Plus not only is he a hockey fan, but he's also a hockey player.

I'm one of Bryan's biggest fans, so I'm thrilled to have him participate this week for Five on Friday - especially since he picked my favorite question of all (can you figure out which one it is?):

1. When I’m reading a book, I absolutely hate it when a writer ties up a whole bundle of loose ends by having someone make a long speech near the end of the book.

2. If I could sit next to anyone (not related to me) on a cross-country flight, it would be Steve Yzerman, because he’s my favorite athlete of all time, a hockey player, a Detroit Red Wing, and by all accounts, a nice guy.

3. The best car I ever owned was a black 1970 Olds Ninety-Eight with red pin-striping, power seats, power windows, and an eight-track player blasting Jethro Tull, David Bowie, Mott the Hoople, J. Geils Band. Technically, my Dad owned it, but it was mine for my last two years of high school. It was a bad-ass Big Three boat, with 455 ccs of power under the hood, and could carry six guys, five hockey bags, a pile of hockey sticks, and two cases of beer at 100 mph on I-75 in Michigan. It also carried a lot of memories I cherish (and sometimes cringe at ) today.

4. Happiness is sitting on the oak swing overlooking Big Twin Lake at our family cottage in northern Michigan on a summer evening with a good book or my journal or a laptop.

5. The number one thing on my bucket list right now is...I don’t have a bucket list, per se. I am an avid keeper of lists, but most of those focus on the day ahead. Nevertheless, one thing I really want to do is hold a grandchild in my arms. That could actually happen in the next few years, so it’s up to me to focus on the days ahead and make sure I stay around. 

I'm absolutely loving the responses to the bucket list questions, aren't you? I'm also so intrigued by the questions people choose to answer. By the way, Bryan sent me multiple pictures to choose from, all of which were incredible...I had such a hard time picking...and I couldn't narrow it down to one, so I hope you enjoy the extra one! Many thanks to Bryan for his wonderful responses.

And if you need something to read this weekend, go grab one of Bryan's books! Happy Reading everyone!

2011 Overall Favorite Reads

Wow! We've come to the end of yet another year. Next month I will celebrate four years of blogging. Doesn't seem possible at all. A lot of growing and changing have happened in those years. A lot of new friends and of course a lot of books! I love that we can share that common bond.

But, before I start getting too sentimental, let's concentrate on 2011. This year I read 98 books, which was four below last year's total of 102. I try to aim for 100 each year, but given all the wonderful busy-ness of this year, I'm not at all disappointed in that total.

Of the 98 books, 47 were audiobooks - so almost half.

There were 83 different authors in the 98 book mix, 51 were new-to-me authors and 14 were debut novels. 65 books were written by men, 3 were written by male/female duos and 30 were written by women.

Now for the hard part. Winnowing down my favorite 10, but here we go:

10. THE HANGING TREE (Bryan Gruley) - this book was released in Summer 2010, so I was a little late in reading it, but Gruley blows me away with each book and I'm very much looking forward to his next book in this series, SKELETON BOX, that comes out next summer. I won't be waiting long to read that one, rest assured. STARVATION LAKE was great and THE HANGING TREE was even better. Can't wait to see what awaits Gus next. (Touchstone)

9. EL GAVILAN (Craig McDonald) - Craig consistently writes great fiction and with EL GAVILAN he stretched his wings a bit. I love that this book shows both his versatility as a writer and his traditional strengths as well. I love that he drew me in with characters I couldn't decide if I loved or hated. (Tyrus Books)

8. LONG GONE (Alafair Burke) - with every book Alafair Burke grows as a story teller and in LONG GONE she veered off the path she's been so successful with to date. She blazed a new trail proving yet again that she's got writing chops, y'all! Spending time with her characters in the NYC she so expertly creates is a treat. LONG GONE is possible the sweetest treat yet. (Harper)

7. DOMINANCE (Will Lavender) - WATCH. THIS. MAN. He is flat-out amazing. And he's young and with luck we will be seeing a lot more from him. DOMINANCE is complex and puzzling and mysterious and brilliant. This book was so much fun to read. And Will Lavender is a new-to-me author this year. DOMINANCE is his second novel. (Simon & Schuster)

6. SATORI (Don Winslow) - the very first book I read in 2011 and back then I said, "this will be on my favorites list" and it is. I loved SATORI as a book by itself, having not read SHIBUMI beforehand. After I read SHIBUMI I realized further how astounding SATORI is. Winslow managed to stay true to Travanian's characters and still infuse his own style and technique. SATORI is a work of art. (Grand Central)

5. THE SURROGATE/CAGE OF BONES (Tania Carver) - I'm putting these together, not trying to cheat, but CAGE OF BONES is not yet released in the U.S. I read both books this year, THE SURROGATE being the debut novel from Tania Carver - which is the writing team of Martyn Waites and his wife, Linda. Martyn writes independently under his own name as well, so it's not really his debut, but semantics. Like Bryan Gruley, I see the Tania Carver books as starting out great and only getting better. For those of you who like dark suspense, this is an absolute DO NOT MISS series. I'm hooked. I have to jump back and read THE CREEPER (due out in the US in 2012) - the middle book in the series - but once I'm all caught up this is definitely a series I'll be waiting impatiently for each new installment. Martyn's just thankful that he's across the pond so I can't camp outside his house waiting for the next book! ;-) (Pegasus)

4. THE TWO DEATHS OF DANIEL HAYES (Marcus Sakey) - The fact that I get to be a high-powered, kick-ass lawyer in this book has nothing to do with it's appearance on this list. And you should not hold Marcus' questionable choice in character names against him. This is the most amazing of his books. It's smart, fast-paced, brilliant plot twists. It keeps you on your toes and while the momentum of the book drives you to turn pages faster and faster, you don't want it to end. It's just too much fun. And that's what reading should be. (Dutton)

3. HELL IS EMPTY (Craig Johnson) - Yes indeed, I am an evangelist for this series. I do indeed have a crush on Walt Longmire. And if I didn't adore Vic so much, I'd want to kick her butt! O.k., don't worry, I do realize these are fictional characters, but when you're caught up in the books, they're friends. Breaking open a new Walt Longmire is like taking a vacation to my favorite destination. Prior to HELL IS EMPTY, KINDNESS GOES UNPUNISHED stayed my favorite, stayed my favorite, stayed my favorite and then HELL IS EMPTY rocked my reading world. There are so many wonderful layers to this book and you can enjoy one, some or all. (Viking)

2. YOU'RE NEXT (Gregg Hurwitz) - This book is always the hardest one for me to articulate why I love. Not because it's for bad reasons but rather because it affected me so deeply. This is a book that still resonates with me months after finishing it. The relationships that Hurwitz created between his characters are pulchritudinous (yes, I did learn that word just for this book...nothing else seemed to embrace the magnitude of what I was trying to say). I don't know how Gregg can tops this one, and how the heck can I top pulchritudinous if he does? (St. Martins)

1. THE RIDGE (Michael Koryta) - I, of course, revealed this last week in the year end meme. Michael's approach to both his human and feline characters is stunning. The world he created is dark and haunting, but I so wanted to be there. THE RIDGE gets the top spot this year because Koryta did what few are ever able to with me - he enticed me to let go of the reality I cling to and willingly follow into his. With any luck, Koryta will never want to be a cult leader. I think I'm a goner if he does. (Little, Brown)

In year's past, I've had debut authors in my top favorite 10. This year I didn't, but not because there weren't excellent debut authors, those danged veterans were just showing their experience! Anyway, I wanted to recognize a few debut authors as my favorites for 2011:

Sara Henry released LEARNING TO SWIM this year. I look forward to watching her grow as a writer and experiencing her work.

James Barney released THE GENESIS KEY which I felt did a wonderful job blending science, religion and crime! (Harper)

And Daniel Palmer released DELIRIOUS and I was glued to it. I've actually had the chance to read his follow-up to DELIRIOUS which is still a thriller, but quite different in content, so I can already see his versatility as writer in this genre. Problem with getting to read those ahead is you have to wait longer for the next one to come. I'm sure I can keep busy in the interim, though! (Kensington)

I feel very blessed that I learned to love reading and can appreciate the wonder and magnificence. While it's a challenge to narrow down a list to 10 favorites, it's also a tremendous gift to have experienced all of these worlds and characters - friends. My heartfelt thanks go out to all the authors who have shared their talents.

And many, many thanks to everyone who has entrusted me with books this year. I wish I was able to read every last one. And there are so many that I still intend to read. As things continue to change in my world, I hope that it offers me more opportunity to read and share and enjoy books with you all.

Thanks for hanging out with me this year! Let's do it again in 2012, o.k?

The Man in the Goal - Bryan Gruley

Bryan Gruley is presently the Chicago bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal. He's worked at newspapers in Antrim County, Brighton, Howell, Kalamazoo and Detroit as well.  Bryan shared in the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News that the Walt Street Journal won for its coverage of the terrorist attack.

Bryan's protagonist, Gus Carpenter, shares Bryan's profession, as well as his passion - hockey. Like Gus, Bryan grew up playing hockey and still plays regularly in Chicago. We've yet to see if Gus is as musically inclined as his creator. Luckily, in addition to all this, Bryan is an incredible fiction writer as well. His first novel, STARVATION LAKE, was nominated for the Edgar Award for best first novel. It won the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for best paperback original. I named it to my list of favorite audiobooks of 2010. So, I'm very excited to host him today as part of the Moonlighting for Murder series. For those who have not experienced Bryan's books yet, this post will give you a taste of the splendor you'll find in his novels. Without further ado, Bryan Gruley!

Ice hockey’s goaltender may occupy the loneliest position in all of sports—which is essentially why I made Gus Carpenter, the protagonist of my novels, a goalie.

“You can never look into their eyes,” he says in his first line of narration in my debut, Starvation Lake. Gus is standing in his net, alone, facing a shooter bearing down on him in a hockey rink in the middle of the night.

On the surface, his words describe a rule goalies follow in trying to stop opponents from putting pucks behind them. At the same time, Gus alludes, however unintentionally, to his own alienation from the people around him, on the ice as well as off.

OK, you don’t usually see the words “alienation” and “hockey” in the same essay. But think about it. On the ice, Gus stays pretty much in one place—his net—while the rest of his teammates roam freely. He doesn’t actively participate in the game, but waits for it to come to him. He wears a mask. If he fails in his duty, he can count on shouldering most if not all of the blame. As he tells us in my forthcoming third book, The Skeleton Box:

You could whine and bitch about your teammates all you wanted, but they knew and, more important, you knew that it didn’t matter which defenseman coughed up the puck to an opponent, or which winger didn’t hustle to cover the point man with the big slap shot, because if the puck wound up behind you, in your net, it was your fault. Your job, your only job, was to keep the puck out, so even if it wasn’t your fault, it was, and you knew it, no matter how much you bitched at your teammates or banged your stick over the crossbar in anger.

It was you and only you.

My first novel came about after my agent asked me, “Why don’t you write me a story about these middle-aged guys who play hockey in the middle of the night?” That gave me permission to write about the sport I’ve played and loved since boyhood. I chose to make Gus a goalie despite the fact that I am not one (full disclosure: I played goaltender for one season when I was 12, and I was a sieve).

Many hockey players are loathe to admit this, but goalies are intrinsically cool. Goalies wear the niftiest equipment (their stick is a “paddle” and one of their gloves is a “waffle”) and have the weirdest superstitions (former NHL-er Gary Smith used to take cold showers between each period of games he played). They flip and flop and dive and waggle. They can be bigger heroes—and bigger goats—than anyone on the ice. Contrary to what most casual hockey fans assume, goalies are often among the best skaters on their teams.

When I was concocting Gus Carpenter, I knew too that he would be a defrocked big-city journalist (a subject for another time) forced to make a humbling retreat to his tiny hometown. It seemed fitting that he should be a goalie—a loner behind a metaphorical mask—as well as the goalie known for blowing the town’s only shot at a state championship years before.

Readers familiar with Gus know he can be frustratingly distant at times, even as he’s speaking directly to other characters and, indeed, to the readers themselves. Chastened by his past, Gus is wary, vigilant, defensive, at the same time that he misses things while “peering out at that little world through the eye holes of my goalie mask,” as he says in the first book.

Most good goalies share these character traits, but for Gus, they also define his personality and the way he approaches his job, his family, his friends, and his love relationships.

Did I intend for all of this to be so neatly packaged? Of course not. I had an inkling that it would be fun to write from the perspective of a goaltender. Then, like a goalie, I got between the posts and reacted to what happened around me as I wrote. As Gus says in that opening scene in the first book:

"By day, I was the associate editor of the Pine County Pilot, circulation 4,733, published every day but Sunday. By night I tended goal in the Midnight Hour Men’s League, surrounded by men I’d known as boys. In between I waited for something to change my life, to get me out of Starvation Lake again. That’s what goalies do. They wait."

Gus’s wait was about to end. What has happened since will eventually make up the trilogy of tales culminating with The Skeleton Box. And then?

A goalie can never be sure of what’s coming next.

If you have any questions for Bryan, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Dana Kaye of Kaye Publicity has generously donated a copy of Bryan's book THE HANGING TREE. If you'd like a chance at winning this book and you live in the United States, complete the entry form below. I'll take entries through Friday at midnight (Eastern) so don't dwadle! Good luck!

THE HANGING TREE - Bryan Gruley

First Line: "I have learned that you can be too grateful for love."

Starvation Lake has undergone some changes. Laird Haskell and his family have moved to Starvation Lake with the promise of building a new hockey rink. The Pine County Pilot is now part of a communications conglomerate. Gus Carpenter, its executive director, now has to worry about being scooped by his own team as the local television newscaster, part of the same conglomerate, seems to have the inside track to all the stories. The Pilot has a new "managing editor" whose main concern is advertising dollars and Gus has a new home - or rather a new old home. He's returned to live with his mother because his lease on the apartment above the Pilot was not renewed once the newspaper changed hands.

The biggest change, however, happens when Gus' childhood friend Gracie McBride hangs herself. Gus and Gracie haven't associated in years, but Gus' girlfriend and sheriff deputy, Darlene Esper, is still very close to Gracie. Darlene doesn't believe Gracie killed herself and she recruits Gus to help prove it. As Gus starts shaking up Gracie's past, more skeletons fall out of the closet than anyone expected.

The multi-award winning, Edgar-nominated STARVATION LAKE was Bryan Gruley's first book featuring Gus Carpenter. Gruley tops himself with THE HANGING TREE. This novel is deliciously dark, hauntingly poetic and heart-wrenchingly emotional.

Gruley sets the tone and scene with strong imagery:

"The silhouettes of the bare trees etched skeletons on the linen sky."

And he constructs richly tragic characters:

"A woman who'd been racing toward the gates of hell for most of her life had arrived a bit quicker than we'd all expected."

Of course the tragic hero is Gus Carpenter. In THE HANGING TREE Gus has stopped playing goalie for his night hockey league. This is symbolic for Gus as he explains,

"In the dressing room, in the hockey shop, in the tavern, the goalie is one of the boys. On the ice he is stranded, lost inside his bloated pads, hiding his face behind a mask. When he gives up a goal his teammates figure he should have stopped, he is alone, circling his crease, dousing himself from his water bottle, wishing he had another chance at the shot he was sure he had with the toe of his skate until it hit someone's elbow and deflected just inside the post."

Gus is ready to let go of that loneliness, but it seems the harder he tries, the more isolated he becomes.

As with STARVATION LAKE, Gruley writes a plot that examines the complexities of the small town through a magnifying glass. The town, its people, its politics none of them can hide their blemishes under the scrutiny. Gruley emphasizes that safety, security, happiness are certainly not guaranteed and just because you're outside the big city doesn't mean you've found Mayberry.

THE HANGING TREE is an exquisite sophomore novel from Bryan Gruley. As long as Gruley continues to write books the caliber of THE HANGING TREE, I will be a devoted fan.

THE HANGING TREE is available in trade paper (ISBN: 978-1-4165-6364-8) from Touchstone.

What is a Thriller?

In honor of Jenn's Bookshelves' Fright Fest, I put together a video on "What is a Thriller?" During Bouchercon, I asked a handful of folks from the crime fiction community to share their definitions with me. Here is the result. I hope you enjoy it, and feel free to leave your own definitions in the comments!

You've the Right to Six Words - Week 11

Oh, I'm giddy about this week. Did I say that last week? Can you believe how many authors there are to be excited about hearing from? Well this week's got it all: a man who made an incredible debut and is ready to turn his sophomore effort loose on the world. A woman who has helped define the genre as it is today and a man who is making waves with his thrillers across continents. Can you believe they were all willing to talk to me about six-word memoirs? I am not worthy, but I'm more than willing to share, so let's see who we've rounded up today:

Charles Cumming graduated with honors in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh before he was approached for recruitment by the Secret Intelligence Service, a.k.a. MI6. His experiences with the MI6 would then become the basis for his first novel, A SPY BY NATURE. As he moved around: Montreal, Madrid, ultimately back to the U.K., he continued writing. In March of 2008 he published the interactive online story THE 21 STEPS as part of Penguin's We Tell Stories project. Now, with four published works, he's working on his next book due to be published in 2011, THE TRINITY SIX. In addition, he's an Assistant Editor of The Week and writes book reviews for The Mail on Sunday.

Charles is the founder and President of the Jose Raul Capablanca Memorial Chess Society. He lives in London with his wife and two children where philosophically he ponders:

Possibly none of it meant anything.

Next up is a man who recently rocked my reading experience with his debut novel STARVATION LAKE. Bryan Gruley decided he wasn't going to enter the crime fiction world quietly, oh no! He was going to do it with hockey sticks smashing, with panache and damn it, awards! This hockey-playing journalist graduated from Notre Dame and worked for various Michigan newspapers before snagging a position at the Wall Street Journal Washington Bureau. There he wrote a front-page story that earned the Pulitzer for Breaking News and another story that was an alternate finalist for the feature writing Pulitzer.

These days in addition to publishing a debut novel that earned an Edgar nomination, an Anthony nomination and a Strand Award for best first novel as well as an Anthony nomination for Best Paperback Original, Bryan is the Chicago Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal and he's an amateur musician. He fits hockey and blogging at The Outfit in there somewhere and oh yeah, next week he's releasing THE HANGING TREE, his follow-up to STARVATION LAKE. I know you're use to my personal commentary in these little bios, so I'm sure you won't mind me saying that I CAN. NOT. WAIT. to meet Bryan in person this October. How does Bryan sum up all that leaves me in such awe?

From fact to fiction to truth.

Our final memoirist today is a woman who has left her Anna Pigeon on the Mystery World. Nevada Barr will release the 16th book in her best-selling, award-winning Anna Pigeon Mystery Series next week. Nevada was born in Yerington, Nevada, but grew up in California. Her parents were both pilots and mechanics. While her sister followed in their footsteps, Nevada took the logical alternative: the dramatic arts. After earning her graduate degree in Acting, she headed east where she would work on stage, commercials, films and radio for almost two decades. Meanwhile Nevada and her husband developed interests in the environmental movement and she started working seasonal jobs in the National Parks. Her first position was boat patrol on Isle Royale National Park. Eventually she would take a permanent Park Ranger job on the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi.

At most of the stages of her various careers, Nevada incorporated writing in what she was doing: teaching storytelling, writing travel publications even working as a restaurant critic. Then in 1983 she added novelist to her resume when BITTERSWEET was published. The Anna Pigeon series would come to life for the first time in 1993 with the publication of TRACK OF THE CAT, which also earned her both an Anthony and an Agatha Award for Best First Mystery. Of course, Anna Pigeon is a park ranger and her character was originally based on Nevada and Nevada's experiences with the National Parks. However, Nevada says that she and Anna evolved in different ways. Regardless, Anna did evolve and now, again almost two decades later, Nevada is publishing BURN, the 16th Anna Pigeon mystery.

Nevada Barr has the arts in her DNA. In addition to her acting and writing, she paints. For the past fifteen years she has put brush to canvas under the name Paxton.

I'd love to sit down and chat with Nevada Barr because she lives with her husband, "four magical cats and two adorable dogs." Hmmm, subtract the husband and the adjectives and that sounds like a familiar living arrangement. But this is not about me. For Nevada, she

Loved books. Loved cats. Got lucky.

Yeah, there was some talent mixed in there, too, but we're sure glad luck was on her side! Luck is also on our side considering these three people write crime fiction for us to enjoy.

Please help me in thanking all three wonderful authors for their contributions this week. I had a blast getting to know each one a little better and I hope you did, too. Best of luck to Bryan and Nevada on their releases next week. And to all of you...Happy Reading!





Technorati Tags: Charles Cumming, Bryan Gruley, Nevada Barr, You've the Right to Six Words

Audiobook Thursday: STARVATION LAKE

FIRST LINE: The cast-iron railing wobbled in his hand as he climbed the porch steps.

Gus Carpenter returned home to Starvation Lake when his plans for a grand career in journalism were snuffed out. Gus made some ethically questionable decisions writing an investigative story for the Detroit Times. He was writing that story about a car manufacturer with deep pockets. The car manufacturer and its lawyers are coming after Gus for the name of his source. The Detroit Times left Gus to fend for himself, so he headed home to Starvation Lake and a job with their local paper. All's quiet in Starvation until Gus receives a call one night to head out to the city's namesake. The sheriff and his deputy are pulling something from the frozen lake. It looks like maybe it's part of a snowmobile, a yellow snowmobile, just like the one Gus's hockey coach was driving when he fell into Walleye Lake and drowned ten years ago. But how could Coach Blackburn's snowmobile surface in an entirely different lake? That's where the questions start; they grow more mysterious when the snowmobile is confirmed to be Blackburn's and there's reason to believe he was murdered, not drowned.

STARVATION LAKE is Bryan Gruley's debut novel and boy did Gruley ever make a splash on the first go round. The small town of Starvation Lake is populated with a cast of characters, all sharing their small-town secrets and struggling for their identities. Gruley reminds us that small town doesn't guarantee safety, and sometimes the close knit community makes the horror that much worse.

Gruley weaves his own love and knowledge of hockey into the plot. Much the way football defines the small towns of Texas, hockey defines the small towns of Northern Michigan. That definition comes alive through Gus and his life-long friends. Gruley does such a fine job of developing the plot and characters that the reader need not have any love or knowledge of the sport to feel its effects on the people of the community, to feel its effects on the team of boys whose identities are directly linked to the game.

STARVATION LAKE is a book that slowly, silently sneaks into your brain and your soul. A book you find yourself thinking about even when you're not reading it. The characters are ones you remind yourself aren't in the directory of your cell phone. Even though I know it's fiction, I can't wait to visit Gus and Soupy and Starvation Lake again.

The audiobook of STARVATION LAKE is narrated beautifully by Rich Orlow. This is a book that full of passion and emotion but it's all very subtle. Most of what happens emotionally is internal to the characters. Orlow does an exquisite job of relating Gruley's passion without making the listener feel as though they are listening to a daytime drama. And the plot is haunting, but the haunting effect sneaks up on you. You realize its effects after you've put the book down when you can't get it out of your head. I think Orlow strengthens that effect. Definitely an outstanding audiobook.

STARVATION LAKE is available from Touchstone in trade paper (ISBN: 978-1-416-56362-4) and from Recorded Books on audio (ISBN: 978-1-4407-0340-9).

Technorati Tags: Audiobook Thursday, Brian Gruley, review, crime fiction

CAUGHT! - Bryan Gruley

Well, we didn't catch him at the Edgar Awards, but we did catch the Edgar-nominated Bryan Gruley reading Michael Harvey's THE FIFTH FLOOR.

Bryan's STARVATION LAKE was, of course, nominated this year for the Best First Novel Edgar by the Mystery Writers of America, and his second novel THE HANGING TREE will be out on August 3rd.

Technorati Tags: Crime Writers Caught Reading Crime, Bryan Gruley, Michael Harvey