You Have the Right to Six Words - Take 2!

It's Wednesday and time for more six-word memoirs from crime fiction's greatest writers. And you came to read the memoirs, not my rambling, so let's not waste any time.

Lisa Unger was my guest blogger yesterday for the release of her book DIE FOR YOU. In honor of that release, we'll start with recapping Lisa's six-word memoir from her July 2008 interview. Lisa is the best selling author of BEAUTIFUL LIES, SLIVER OF TRUTH, and BLACK OUT. Lisa's lived all over the world but now calls Florida home with her husband and daughter, Ocean. And all of her experiences lead her to this memoir:

Better than I could have imagined.

I'm still in awe of the fact that in August I interviewed the Scientific Director of the Department of Defense Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, Dr. Thomas Holland. Tom is also the author of the Kel McKelvey novels. Kel is the the Scientific Director of the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii (CILHI). He helps in identifying the remains of Americans from foreign wars. Both ONE DROP OF BLOOD and K.I.A. were on my list of top reads of 2008 for their dynamic characters, engaging plots and plot twists, and especially for their humor. Tom's sense of humor makes his memoir very fitting:

There should've been a goon squad.

As I type, remembering these two interviews, I have a smile on my face. What fun I had with these writers. If you didn't have a chance to see their interviews, I encourage you to take a gander back. In the mean time, let's add some more fun with two new memoirs.

John Lescroart (pronounced "less-kwah") is the best-selling author of the Dismas Hardy legal thriller series. His books have been translated into 16 languages in 75 countries. John waited fourteen years to submit his first manuscript, and then he did so at the urging of his wife. Within six weeks, he had two publishing offers for SUNBURN. While holding down a job as a word processing supervisor at a California law firm, John continued to write until he had a life-threatening scare of spinal meningitis that convinced him to quit his day job and work at writing full time. John Lescroart has published 19 novels with number 20, A PLAGUE OF SECRETS, set to release June 30th. With a life full of experiences like this, it's no wonder his six-word memoir is:

Married well. Loved my kids. Wrote.

Recently I had the pleasure of meeting the fourth author of today's six-word memoirs. Craig McDonald is the author of HEAD GAMES, which was nominated for both a Gumshoe and an Edgar Award in the category of Best First Novel AND was a Anthony Award finalist AND was short listed for a Crimespree Magazine Best First Novel award. But that simply isn't enough for Craig. He's also an award-winning journalist and written some non-fiction in addition to his most recently published novel, TOROS AND TORSOS. It's a no wonder that Laura Lippman says Craig is "wily, talented and—rarest of the rare—a true original." It's also no wonder that Craig's six-word memoir is

Born to write; writing to live.

Wow! Four more amazing crime fiction writers. I think I'm making it hard to keep up the quality...naaaaaaaaaaaa! We still have more amazing writers to hear from, so I'll see you back here. Same time, same place! You can come back before then, but we'll talk memoirs again next Wednesday. So glad you stopped today!

Happy Reading!

HARD EVIDENCE - John Lescroart

Dismas Hardy returns in the third book from John Lescroart's series. The opening finds Dismas and Frannie married with baby Rebecca and another baby on the way. Dismas has left bartending behind and is now working for the San Francisco Prosecutor's office as an assistant D.A.

Dismas is the low man on the totem pole in the D.A.'s office so he's dealing with the crap cases. That is until he discovers a hand in the belly of a dead shark. When the rest of the body washes ashore with bullet holes, Dismas is assigned to work with Elizabeth Poolios (sp?) to prosecute the victims call-girl girlfriend. At least that's the side of the court room Dismas starts out on. By the end of the novel, he's working from the defense table.

I listened to this Hardy novel on audio book, which was read by David Colacci. He did a fair job but his range of voices isn't quite sufficient for the number of characters in this novel. Some of the characters begin to sound alike. But otherwise he does a decent job. He narrated both novels prior to this one as well, and I've come to associate his voice with Hardy.

There isn't a great change in characters for this novel. Dismas' ex Jane and her father Andy are back. Elizabeth Poolios becomes a major player in this novel and she falls into a stereotypical female with power role. For the most part I really enjoy Dismas as a character, but as a female reader his brush with infidelity rubbed me a little the wrong way. I wonder if that differs for male readers? I guess deep down somewhere I'm just an old romantic at heart!

The plot takes on a number of twists, but I was able to figure out the end quite early. It was still an enjoyable book to listen to and I'm interested to see where Lescroart takes Hardy from here.

The Mystery Book Store in L.A.

Back when I was still in the planning stages of my trip to SoCal, Chris Grabenstein said, "you should really go to the Festival Pre-Party at The Mystery Book Store." He told me it was the place to be. So, I checked with my sister, and she said, "sure, I'll take a half day off of work." Me, being the ignorant Mid-Westerner that I am said, "oh, you don't have to take any time off. I don't have to be there right at 5." My sister informed me that the traffic would be horrible on a Friday evening going into L.A. The drive is already about 2 hours without Friday traffic. We left early and were still sitting in this:

But, that allowed me time to snap pictures of street signs. I was SUCH the tourist! But I was so excited to see the places I read about in my novels!

I'm not sure if you can see it in this last picture here, but the Culver Blvd/Culver City sign on the left reads "EXIT XT EXIT." Any L.A. folks who can tell me what an XT EXIT is?

But then when I actually GOT THERE! Wow! If you ever have the chance to experience one of The Mystery Book Store's Festival Pre-Parties, I highly recommend you do so.

I had the exciting pleasure of meeting so many awesome writers! And you know what? They all seemed happy to meet me as well. So, either they really were happy to meet me or they're great performers in addition to great writers! LOL

Two new writers I chatted with were Susan Arnout Smith and James Scott Bell. Very nice folks. I'll be adding their books to my TBR list.

I have been in contact with John Lescroart recently and he was there. So, I introduced myself to he and his wife. Super, super nice folks. And John's wife took this awesome picture. I think she must be experienced at this process! ;)

You'll have to be checking back to see when John shows up again on the blog!

Jeff Parker was in attendance later in the evening. Very cool to meet him as well.

It was exciting to hob nob with Gregg Hurwitz who made time to stop and chat with Michael and I. He's a transplant to L.A. but he definitely loves his adopted city. Still loves his Giants, but he's an Angelean at heart, now. He also shared with us how he met his wife - shamelessly hitting on her in a sushi restaurant. (Shamelessly was his word, not mine.) I also believe he said it was the "worst sushi restaurant"! Too funny. And of course we talked about Gregg's new book TRUST NO ONE that is coming out in a couple months. After THE CRIME WRITER, I'm definitely looking forward to TRUST NO ONE. Gregg's a fun guy and incredibly nice. If you have the chance to meet up with him some time, do it!

Most of you know that my desire to go to the L.A. Times Festival of Books stemmed from the desire to finally have a chance to meet Robert Crais. Well, when I found out the next two authors were going to be in attendance as well, I knew I'd died and gone to heaven! And for both of them to be at the pre-party Friday night, I'd definitely died and gone to heaven!

Chris Grabenstein, as you know, is the creator of my beloved John Ceepak series. In addition, he has been so great to this blog and to me. So, it was an absolute thrill to finally have the chance to meet him! We talked quite a bit throughout the night. And he was telling me that for the MIND SCRAMBLER release party in NYC, they're having a magician. He's done something unique for all of the book releases, and he is a master at unique, isn't he? Blasted I wish I lived closer to NYC. Cool stuff goes on in NYC!

And you have to give credit to someone who is tolerant enough to put up with all my signature requests. I bought two new books that he signed: one for me and one for my precious dog sitter. He also signed a book I brought from home, the page for my scrapbook AND the elephant poo paper bookmark I bought at the zoo. That's not a joke either! :) And he can rest assured that these will NEVER show up on eBay! He was telling Michael and I how some of his autographed books have shown up there. I can't fathom that; books that I have signed are so special to me, but I'm a sentimentalist. I'll never be able to part with them! :)

I was getting a little nervous that I wouldn't have the chance to see this guy because he didn't show up until a little before 8. But, I'm not complaining one bit because when he showed up, I happened to be very close to the entrance and accosted him RIGHT AWAY! And because I did, my copy of THE DARK HORSE was the first copy he signed - ever! (The bookstores received permission to sell THE DARK HORSE early for the festival - it isn't due on bookshelves until the end of May.) Well, I'm sure he signed arcs of the book (which by the way, he gave all of his arcs to librarians this year - is that cool or what?), but for the actual hard cover "hot off the presses" first edition, mine was the first he signed. Oh yeah, did I mention that this is CRAIG JOHNSON!!!!

He told me his hat looked better on me, but I don't know. I think he's a rather dashing fellow with and without the hat! Regardless, this picture just became my Facebook profile picture. I just love this guy. I'll be talking more about him tomorrow, too, since I attended his panel at the Festival. And I'll be talking more about his books after that since I read two more on vacation! Since it was vacation, I made time for books I really wanted to read, not necessarily the ones I NEED to read! ;)

One final note to make about the pre-party on Friday night. I also got to meet my friend and fellow blogger, Michael Alatorre! He's responsible for many of these great photos both today and tomorrow. He hung out with me at the party and at the festival. It was wonderful to meet and talk; as I've mentioned before, he's just a super person and I'm honored to call him my friend! Thank you, Michael, for helping to make this one of the most memorable weekends of my life! You're the best!

I walked out of the Mystery Book Store on Cloud 9. Literally. I don't think my feet were touching the ground. Kudos to the staff at the store for a WONDERFUL evening.

Check back tomorrow for all the skinny on the actual festival Saturday. Happy Reading!

The Vig - John Lescroart

In the second book of the Dismas Hardy series by John Lescroart, Dismas is visited by Rusty Ingraham, an old colleague from the District Attorney's office. It seems Louis Baker, a defendent that swore he'd kill both Rusty and Dismas when he was released is preparing to be released. Rusty fears this con will actually come after them, so he asks Dismas to set up a check system. Dismas calls Rusty each morning at 10a.m. and Rusty calls Dismas each night at 10p.m. If either one doesn't call or isn't available when the call comes, the other goes looking for him...or gets the heck outta Dodge!

The very first night of Baker's release Rusty doesn't call, and Dismas finds Rusty's house boat to be the scene of a murder. Dismas is determined to make sure that Baker is nailed for the murder, so he's on the case. But when it starts to look like Baker ISN'T the murderer, Dismas has to figure out who really IS guilty.

I listened to this novel on audio, and I have to say I really enjoy this reader, David Colacci. He also read the Dead Irish audiobook. He does a great job of creating distinct voices for the characters, the females a little less so than the males. He also doesn't get overly dramatic. Too much drama starts to make everything seem more unbelievable, sometimes even silly. Colacci does a great job of avoiding that pitfall.

There wasn't much mystery to this plot - I believe Lescroart intended it that way. The focus was supposed to be on the process and the insight into Hardy's psyche. It was a slower moving story line as well. I felt that there was too much extra stuff that wasn't really important to the main plot idea, which was sort of the point, that all these coincidences tied in at just the right time to make the investigation more complicated than it had to be. However, for me that seemed to make the plot loose and all over the place. There seems to be a rather unimportant subplot that deals with Baker's neighborhood. Lescroart makes a connection through Baker, but it definitely could have been left out and not had much effect overall. There's also a subplot about the soon-to-be ex-husband of the murdered woman. Lescroart added a lot more detail about him that was actually necessary in my opinion.

There's also a subplot with Hardy and Frannie, Hardy's business partner's sister. That didn't play into the main plot at all. And I was trying to decide why it was not sitting right with me, besides the fact that it really doesn't affect the main plot. I guess the reason is because he only JUST got back together with his ex-wife Jane at the end of the last novel, which is only supposed to take place a few months before this one. And they seemed to be rather serious about getting back together then poof it's over already, and he's completely in love with Frannie. Hardy also commits the big no-no for me when it comes to the "girlfriend." He thinks he prefers Frannie over Jane not because he doesn't LOVE Jane (he thinks he loves both women), but because Frannie NEEDS him. (Insert very dramatic eye roll here.) That whole thing was a little too soap opera-y for me.

All is all, I preferred Dead Irish to this book. But it was still a good book for the car rides back and forth to work. I'll continue the series. And I do still like Hardy as a series character despite that faux pas. I had to chuckle at a few of the dated details in the book. For example, Abe, Hardy's police detective friend, has a son named O.J. And Hardy has his share of good one-liners, that always adds to a crime fiction novel. So, I'm not ready to hang up this series yet. We'll see how things go.

DEAD IRISH - John Lescroart

Dismas Hardy is a former cop/former attorney-turned bartender. And he's quite content in this role as bartender at the Little Shamrock; it leaves him time to compete at darts. But, when Eddie Cochran, his boss's brother-in-law, apparently commits suicide and leaves his pregnant wife with no insurance money, Diz is pulled into the investigation.

I am a reader with a compulsive need to read series books IN ORDER. However, I was out of audiobooks from the library and my new requests hadn't come in yet, so I searched the shelves at my branch (which does not have a huge selection of audiobooks) and came up with Dead Irish. This was my very first John Lescroart read, and how I was lucky enough to be able to get the first Dismas Hardy book is beyond me, but I did.

For the most part, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As far as character names go...Dismas is pretty darn cool. Right up there with Elvis! And the character of Dismas is definitely layered with all kinds of complexity. I took an immediate liking to him.

The plot was an intriguing one, and I think Lescroart did an excellent job on the build-up. A lot of mysterious events, possible culprits...I liked how Lescroart weaved in cultural aspects. The conclusion was a little more of a let-down. I didn't really "buy it." I'll try to say this without any spoilers here (for those who like me have not read Lescroart yet). There's a point where the police say to Hardy, "but where's the motive?" I found myself saying, "this character committed this heinous crime for THAT reason? Really?" Maybe my own preconceived notions influenced my reaction; I'm not sure. I just know the ending was a bit of a let down for me.

There were also a couple of occasions where Lescroart choice of dialogue was a bit offensive to me as a reader. I think it could have remained realistic without going to the degree that Lescroart did. It wasn't often; maybe twice, but they did stick out in my mind.

I'm definitely going to check into more Dismas Hardy books. Overall it was very good and well worth the time!

Again, I listened to this on audiobook. The reader was David Colacci. I thought he did an excellent job. I love the richness of his voice. Not having read a Hardy book before, I didn't have an idea in my mind what he should sound like, but I do think Colacci did a great job of bringing Hardy to life.