You've the Right to Six Words: Week 9

So here we are for Week 9 and a new batch of most wanted crime writers. I really didn't fathom making it to Week 9 last year, let alone again this year. But here we are. And let me get right to it.

We're starting off this week with a writer who put his love of Hemingway to work for him. Michael Atkinson is the author of HEMINGWAY DEADLIGHTS, his debut novel, and the upcoming HEMINGWAY CUTTHROAT. These books are part of his series that he claims has "negligible respect for history but a veins-in-the-teeth yen for truth, irony, cocktails and the good graces of a well-turned sentence. Novel-writing is not his first foray into the writing world, however. Michael writes film criticism and book reviews for various publications; he's written non-fiction works, unproduced TV and poetry. Among Michael's other interests: very good beer, shellfish, and Italian opera in the summertime. So with all these interests and writing experiences, Michael says

I've only begun to babble.

Babble on, Mike!

Our next memoirist this week is still celebrating her debut. Attica Locke's BLACK WATER RISING was nominated for an Edgar Award, an NAACP Image Award, an L.A. Times Book Award and a Strand Magazine Critics Award. In addition, it was short-listed for the Orange Prize. Not too shabby for one's first novel. Attica comes to the crime fiction world via screenwriting, having written movie and television scripts for a plethora of production companies. She was a fellow at the Sundance Institute's Feature Filmmakers Lab and a graduate of Northwestern University. This amazing young woman's been all over. She's a native of Houston, Texas but now calls Los Angeles home. Whew. Attica's parents were activists in the Civil Rights movement, naming Attica for the Attica Prison uprising in New York in 1971. She explains that origin and leads up to the origin of BLACK WATER RISING in a haunting personal note on her website. I encourage you to check it out. In the meantime, Attica puts her experiences to these six words:

Could never hold a real job.

And in the anchor position this week we have a fire-fighting crime fiction writer. By day, Earl Emerson is a lieutenant with the Seattle Fire Department - despite an effort to retire a year and a half ago, and by any other time he's an award-winning crime fiction writer. He has two series, Thomas Black and Mac Fontana, in addition to six stand-alone thrillers. His Thomas Black novel, POVERTY BAY earned him a Shamus Award for Best Private Eye novel and an Edgar nomination for Best Paperback Original in 1985. Last year, Earl returned to his Thomas Black series after a short hiatus with CAPE DISAPPOINTMENT. He reports that he has a futuristic novel in the works now. Born and raised in Washington State, Earl and his wife still call it home. So what does he call his memoir?

Like a cat: work, play, nap.

Well, I'm not sure how one has much time for the playing and napping part in between writing and firefighting, but I'll take his word for it! So happy he made time to participate in the project, though. Many, many thanks to these wonderful writers for their contributions to the genre and to "You've the Right to Six Words." See ya next week!

Happy Reading!


Technorati Tags: You've the Right to Six Words, Michael Atkinson, Attica Locke, Earl Emerson

The Rainy City - Earl Emerson

The Rainy City is the first book in Earl Emerson's Thomas Black mystery series. Thomas Black lives in Seattle - a la "The Rainy City" - with his renter, Kathy. Kathy is a first-year law student and she rents the basement of Black's house. It is Kathy who talks Black into investigating the disappearance of her friend Melissa and the subsequent "kidnapping" of Melissa's daughter Angel. Angel is abducted but she's abducted by Melissa's parents, and everyone knows that they have her. Angel's father is pretty much a wet noodle and does nothing to try to get Angel back.

Along the way of Thomas and Kathy's investigations, two people are killed, a pimp is knifed in the leg, and the missing body from a supposed twenty-year-old suicide is uncovered. There is definitely no loss for action going on in this book. I, personally, would have been very happy if Emerson had left out the part about the dog being brutally murdered. It really was unnecessary in the whole scheme of things, and I hate violence against animals in books (personal preference).

While I thought the plot was just so-so, I loved the characters in this novel. Well, I loved Thomas and Kathy. Melissa's husband Burton was a little hard to figure out. I wasn't really sure what Emerson was trying to do with him, but I kept feeling that he didn't quite finish what he started with Burton. Burton was, as I said, a "wet noodle." He let people walk all over him. And Emerson couldn't have gotten more stereotypical with him...Burton is a poet. Several people throughout the book make the comment "don't underestimate Burton." However, there isn't any action on Burton's part that justifies that statement. Melissa is the character in the end who finds her gumption.

Now Thomas and Kathy on the other hand are rich, strong characters. Thomas is unique in that he rides a bike - no not a motorcycle; I said a bike, an honest-to-God ten-speed bicycle. He even has special SHOES to ride his bicycle. And Thomas is along the lines of an Elvis Cole or a Lincoln Perry when it comes to sarcastic humor. Of course, that is a trait I find attractive in my P.I. characters, so that endeared Thomas to me right away. I noted in my book a thought Thomas had, and I wanted to share it because Emerson wrote this book in 1985 - today, this statement is so much more true than it was in '85, how could Emerson ever have known?

We're all voyeurs and life is a picnic. People have little boxes in their living rooms and they sit in front of the boxes six or eight hours a night and goggle at other people living their lives. It's called television by some. Me, I call it voyeurism.

Uhm, hello? Can you say "reality T.V?"

The element of Thomas's character that really drove it all home for me, though, is the reason he left the police force. Thomas shot a kid who was high on drugs and trying to run him down with a car. Thomas never was able to deal with killing the boy, and he ultimately left the force and doesn't like to handle a gun any longer. While I don't mind characters wielding guns in my books - wouldn't be much to the crime in crime fiction if they didn't - I don't like protagonist characters who seem unfazed by the violence associated with killing. For me as a reader, that indicates a lack of depth.

Kathy is a fun character. She's not afraid to be different; she speaks her mind; she isn't afraid to walk in on Thomas in the bath...

As I said, the plot was average to me. In the midst of the book I was turning pages because I was very intrigued to find out what was going to happen, but then the conclusion was rather flat. I was anxiously waiting for something more dramatic to happen with all the conflict and foreshadowing throughout the rising action. So when the conclusion came, I was asking myself, "really? That's it?" However, I can assure you that I will be continuing this series because I want to follow the characters. Emerson did a great job of reeling me in with Thomas and Kathy!