The current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen is Jeffrey Fleishman’s My Detective. You can order a signed copy of it through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2E1BIAH
With that title, I’m sure you’re curious about My Detective. Here’s the summary.
Los Angeles is booming. Money is pouring in. Buildings are going up. But someone is killing architects.
Detective Sam Carver journeys through sins scattered across the City of Angels, where hipsters, homeless, immigrants, producers, politicians, movie stars, and cops collide in mysterious ways. Every move Carver makes is anticipated by the killer, Dylan Cross. She has hacked his computer and knows his diaries and secrets. She sees in him a kindred and damaged spirit, a man who can understand her crimes, heal her scars, and love her. Dylan is reclaiming herself from a past of brutal injustices inflicted by a world of misogyny and power. Detective Carver is dealing with his own troubled history — an elusive and violent father.
My Detective is a story of obsession set against vengeance and prayers of forgiveness in a city that is as cruel as it is fantastical. It captures modern Los Angeles in real time, an eerie glide through the imagination, where winds gust high above the San Gabriel Mountains and neighborhoods stretch toward the ocean like the flash and tremor of a dream. The novel speaks to our sense of beauty in a new century and the demons we rouse when we dare to create a new metropolis.
It’s time for Cozycon 2019 at The Poisoned Pen. On Saturday, May 11 from 2-4 PM, five cozy authors will discuss and sign their books for customers. You can find the calendar event here. https://bit.ly/2Hb2UP9
And, if you can’t make it on Saturday, you can certainly check the Web Store for the authors’ books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/
We hope you can join us, though, to welcome these authors.
Paige Shelton, author of The Loch Ness Papers.
Jenn McKinlay, author of Dying for Devil’s Food.
Jessica Ellicott, author of Murder Flies the Coop.
Jill Orr, author of The Bad Break.
Jane Willan, The Hour of Death.
It’s always a fun time when cozy mystery writers get together. You’re going to want to try to be at The Poisoned Pen on Saturday.
Chris Pavone, author of the bestseller The Expats, brings Kate Moore back in his latest thriller, The Paris Diversion. Pavone will be at The Poisoned Pen on Monday, May 13 at 7 PM, joined by Jeffery Deaver who will discuss The Never Game. Signed books by both authors are available through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com
Here’s the summary of The Paris Diversion.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Expats. Kate Moore is back in a pulse-pounding thriller to discover that a massive terror attack across Paris is not what it seems ““ and that it involves her family
Across the Seine, tech CEO Hunter Forsyth stands on his balcony, wondering why his police escort just departed, and frustrated that his cell service has cut out; Hunter has important calls to make, not all of them technically legal.
And on the nearby rue de Rivoli, Mahmoud Khalid climbs out of an electrician’s van and elbows his way into the crowded courtyard of the world’s largest museum. He sets down his metal briefcase, and removes his windbreaker.
That’s when people start to scream.
Everyone has big plans for the day. Dexter is going to make a small fortune, finally digging himself out of a deep financial hole, via an extremely risky investment. Hunter is going to make a huge fortune, with a major corporate acquisition that will send his company’s stock soaring. Kate has less ambitious plans: preparations for tonight’s dinner party—one of those homemaker obligations she still hasn’t embraced, even after a half-decade of this life—and an uneventful workday at the Paris Substation, the clandestine cadre of operatives that she’s been running, not entirely successfully, increasingly convinced that every day could be the last of her career. But every day is also a fresh chance to prove her own relevance, never more so than during today’s momentous events.
And Mahmoud? He is planning to die today. And he won’t be the only one.
Today, R.G. Belsky, author of Below the Fold, has a post about flawed characters as heroes. Belsky’s Clare Carlson mysteries, including Below the Fold, are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2H9dztY
Here’s the summary of Below the Fold.
When the murder of a “nobody” triggers an avalanche.
Every human life is supposed to be important. Everyone should matter. But that’s not the case in the cutthroat TV news-rating world where Clare Carlson works. Sex, money, and power sell. Only murder victims of the right social strata are considered worth covering. Not the murder of a “nobody.”
So, when the battered body of a homeless woman named Dora Gayle is found on the streets of New York City, her murder barely gets a mention in the media. But Clare—a TV news director who still has a reporter’s instincts—decides to dig deeper into the seemingly meaningless death. She uncovers mysterious links between Gayle and a number of wealthy and influential figures. There is a prominent female defense attorney; a scandal-ridden ex-congressman; a decorated NYPD detective; and—most shocking of all—a wealthy media mogul who owns the TV station where Clare works. Soon there are more murders, more victims, more questions. As the bodies pile up, Clare realizes that her job, her career, and maybe even her life are at stake as she chases after her biggest story ever.
*****
Before Belsky’s post, here’s a little bit of information about him. R.G. Belsky is a longtime journalist and a crime fiction author in New York City. Belsky has worked as a top editor at the New York Post, the New York Daily News, Star magazine and NBC News. He has also published 12 mystery novels, including his current Clare Carlson series ““ about a woman TV journalist.
Thank you, R.G., for talking about flawed characters.
*****
WHY WE LOVE FLAWED CHARACTERS
By R.G. Belsky
Clare Carlson, the main character in my new mystery BELOW THE FOLD, has a lot of wonderful qualities: She’s smart, funny, tough and a highly-successful journalist who’s risen to the job of news director at a major New York City TV station.
But there’s also a few not-so-great things about Clare. Okay, maybe more than a few, especially in her personal life. Which is pretty much of a train wreck after three failed marriages, a number of ill-advised romances and a decision she made in college more than 20 years ago which still haunts her to this day.
One reader said of her after she made her first appearance in my Yesterday’s News during 2018: “I’m not sure I like Clare. Not the character, the person. At times I’m angry with her, other times I’m cheering. A few times I simply wanted to pull her to pull her aside and give her a good talking to. That’s a good thing. It shows her real self on the pages.”
Which is why I love writing about her.
But then I’ve enjoyed reading about flawed characters created by plenty of other authors over the years too.
Let’s face it: Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch is not the perfect guy, not the perfect police officer. He bends rules, he crosses the line a lot and his personal life is frequently in turmoil. Same thing with Lawrence Block’s Matt Scudder; Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone; Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski and – maybe most of all – Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. Go back and read the Marlowe books sometime. Sure, Philip Marlowe is the greatest detective character ever in mystery fiction – but he’s definitely no choir boy.
Then there’s maybe the most dysfunctional protagonists in recent mystery history: the scheming husband and wife in the unreliably-narrated bestseller Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Maybe we didn’t exactly love Nick and Amy Dunne in that book. But we sure were damn fascinated by them and that turned the book into a blockbuster phenomenon.
Even my favorite TV detective character of all time, Jim Rockford from The Rockford Files back in the “˜70s, was lovable because of all his flaws on the show – which really set him apart from the other detectives on the screen back then. Rockford was always making bad decisions, always being friends with the wrong people , always in trouble with the cops. “On my best day, I’m barely legal,” he says to one person who questions his professional ethics on a case.
I was on a panel with Reed Farrel Coleman, who writes the Jesse Stone series now created by the late Robert B. Parker, where we talked about the importance of writing flawed characters like that in our mystery novels.
Coleman said that the toughest part of writing Jesse Stone was you had to make sure he wasn’t too perfect. I mean Tom Selleck plays him on TV, so you immediately think of that when you read the books. Jesse is good-looking, honest, tough – almost perfect, right? Well, Coleman explained, that’s why it was important to give Jesse flaws – his drinking, his failed marriages and his injury which cut short a promising baseball career and prevented him from making it to the major leagues.
That’s what I try to do with my Clare Carlson character too.
In the new book, BELOW THE FOLD, she has an exchange with her best female friend which I think captures that pretty well.
“You have a strange set of priorities,” the woman friend says after Clare explains how she broke up with a guy because she didn’t like his TV watching choices – and that was a real priority to her.
“Hey, they work for me,” Clare responds.
“How do they work? You’re a forty-something year old woman who’s been divorced three times and have no man in your life right now.”
“Okay, I didn’t say they worked well….”
One early review of the book, from the MenReadingBooks blog, described Clare this way:
“On one level, its hard to pull for Clare because of her personal self-inflicted issues, but on the other hand, she is such a dogged reporter that each lead, no matter how small, is met with our approval that we can’t help but hope she wins.”
No, Clare Carlson is not perfect.
But then none of us are either.
Which is probably why we love our mystery heroes to be the same way.
Twelve years. It took Kris Frieswick twelve years to write her debut novel, The Ghost Manuscript. So, if you’re interested, snatch it up now from the Web Store. Who knows how soon there will be a second one? https://bit.ly/2VhV1QU
Here’s the summary of The Ghost Manuscript.
Rare book authenticator Carys Jones wanted nothing more than to be left alone to pursue her obsession with ancient manuscripts. But when her biggest client is committed to an asylum, he gives Carys an offer she cannot refuse. In exchange for his entire library of priceless, Dark Age manuscripts, Carys must track the clues hidden in a previously unknown journal, clues that lead to a tomb that could rewrite the history of Western civilization.
But there are people who would do anything to stop Carys from finding what she seeks—for reasons both noble and evil. The hunt takes Carys to places she never thought she’d go, physically and emotionally; first to Wales, her estranged father’s homeland, then to bed with Dafydd, a mysterious Welshman who agrees to help her with the search, and finally, deep inside her own psyche, when the monk who wrote the journal 1,500 years ago appears and assists her in her search.
*****
Even better, here’s the conversation between Kris Frieswick and Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen.
MALICE DOMESTIC announced the winners of the Agatha Awards over the weekend. If you’re looking for the winning mystery novels, check the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com
Congratulations to all of the winners!
Best Contemporary Novel Mardi Gras Murder by Ellen Byron (Crooked Lane Books)
Best Historical Novel The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)
Best First Novel Tie: A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder by Dianne Freeman (Kensington) Curses Boiled Again by Shari Randall (St. Martin’s)
Best Short Story Tie: “All God’s Sparrows” by Leslie Budewitz (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine) “The Case of the Vanishing Professor” by Tara Laskowski (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine)
Best Children’s/Young Adult Mystery Potion Problems (Just Add Magic) by Cindy Callaghan (Aladdin)
Best Nonfiction Mastering Plot Twists: How to Use Suspense, Targeted Storytelling Strategies, and Structure to Captivate Your Readers by Jane Cleland (Writer’s Digest Books)
Marc Cameron recently admitted to Patrick Millikin at The Poisoned Pen that his new book, Open Carry, is probably his most personal book so far. Open Carry is the first in Cameron’s new U.S. Marshall series. You can order a signed copy of Open Carry, and copies of Cameron’s other books through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2LmOQ9B
Here’s the description of Open Carry.
New York Times Bestselling Author of Field of Fire and Tom Clancy Power and Empire and Tom Clancy Oath of Office
“Cameron’s books are riveting page-turners.” —Mark Greaney, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Law enforcement veteran Marc Cameron brings an explosive authenticity to this powerful new U.S. Marshal series. Arliss Cutter is a hero for our times. And his hunt for justice cuts straight to the bone. . . .
U.S. Marshal Arliss Cutter is a born tracker. Raised in the Florida swamplands, he honed his skills in the military, fought in the Middle East, and worked three field positions for Marshal Services. When it comes to tracking someone down—or taking someone out—Cutter’s the best. But his newest assignment is taking him out of his comfort zone to southeast Alaska. Cold, dark, uninhabited forests often shrouded in fog. And it’s the kind of case that makes his blood run cold . . . the shocking murder of a Tlingit Indian girl.
But the murder is just the beginning. Now, three people have disappeared on Prince of Wales Island. Two are crew members of the reality TV show,Fishwives. Cutter’s job is to find the bodies, examine the crew’s footage for clues, and track down the men who killed them. But it won’t be easy, because the whole town is hiding secrets, every trail is a dead end—and the hunter becomes the hunted . . .
*****
Marc Cameron’s stories of his experiences in law enforcement are fascinating. You’ll want to watch the conversation with Patrick Millikin.
Jeffrey Siger, author of the Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis mysteries, is just finishing his book tour for The Mykonos Mob. You can still order signed copies of the latest book, or copies of the others in the series, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2KOiKQ6
Here’s the summary of The Mykonos Mob.
author of The Dark Iceland series
When corruption lies deep beneath the surface, how can the truth come to light?
The case begins for Athens’ Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis with a literal bang when a corrupt former police colonel who runs a protection racket on Mykonos is gunned down. Suddenly, Athens’ Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis is face-to-face with Greece’s top crime bosses on an island whose natural beauty and reputation as an international playground belies the corruption lurking just beneath the surface.
While Andreas and his Special Crimes unit wrestle for answers, Andreas’s wife, Lila, meets an American expat named Toni, a finder of stolen goods and a piano player in a gender-bending bar who has a zest for life and no apparent regard for rules. As Lila and Toni bond over a common desire to mentor young island girls trapped in an exploitative and patriarchal culture, they soon find that their efforts to improve the lives of the Greek girls they’ve come to care about intersect with Andreas’ investigation in ways that prove to be dangerous for all involved…
The Mykonos Mob is a thrilling police procedural, perfect for readers of Martin Walker and Donna Leon!
Additional Praise for the Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Series:
“[A] suspenseful trip through the rarely seen darker strata of complex, contemporary Greece.” —Publishers Weekly“Target: Tinos [is] another of Jeffrey Siger’s thoughtful police procedurals set in picturesque but not untroubled Greek locales.”—New York Times “Siger paints travelogue-worthy pictures of a breathtakingly beautiful—if politically corrupt—Greece.” —Publishers Weekly STARRED review for Sons of Sparta“Siger brings Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis some very big challenges in his seventh mystery set in troubled contemporary Greece…The final plot twist proves well worth the wait, but it won’t take readers long to get there as they will be turning pages at a ferocious clip.” —Booklist STARRED review for Devil in Delphi “Fans of Adrian McKinty’s Sean Duffy books and other police procedurals that handle violence and political issues with black humor will welcome this outstanding crime novel.” —Library Journal STARRED review for An Aegean April
*****
Michael Barton recently interviewed Jeffrey Tiger for Bookreporter. You might want to check out the Q&A.
Author Talk: April 11, 2019
When corruption lies deep beneath the surface, how can the truth come to light? This question lies at the heart of THE MYKONOS MOB, Jeffrey Siger‘s 10th police procedural featuring Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis and his Special Crimes unit. In this interview, Siger explains why he chose Greece as the setting for his mysteries, gives a shout-out to the authors who have most influenced his style of writing and approach to dialogue (while also naming the two literary legends to whom his work is most often compared), and reveals the hot-button issue that may become the foundation of the next installment in the series.
Question: When you made the decision to start a crime series, why did you choose Greece as the setting?
Jeffrey Siger: When I started writing about Andreas Kaldis with MURDER IN MYKONOS, I didn’t intend on creating a series. I thought I’d be writing a stand-alone novel telling the story of a Greek island I had come to know intimately over the course of several decades. I wanted to write about the people, culture and politics of Mykonos, and only settled upon the mystery format because it struck me as the best vehicle for exploring how a tourist island society might respond to a threat to its newfound economic glory.
Greece provides an inexhaustible source of material for the two central elements of this series: (1) a serious, modern-day issue that my characters must confront and overcome, and (2) a perspective on that issue to be found in the ancient past. There is no place on earth more closely linked to the ancient world than Greece — it is the birthplace of the gods, the cradle of European civilization, the bridge between East and West. Spartan courage, Athenian democracy, Olympic achievement, Trojan intrigue — all sprung from this wondrous land.
As for Greece’s place in the modern world: just look at a map, and you’ll immediately realize how many of the greatest issues facing the modern world are centered in Greece’s Mediterranean neighborhood. I’d venture to say that no western country is closer to what challenges our planet today than Greece. It is a paradise for mystery writers….as more seem to be realizing every day.
Q: Every mystery writer has a number of favorite predecessors. Can you name two or three whose work was particularly influential in laying the groundwork for Inspector Kaldis and his resourceful policemen?
JS: That’s such a hard question for me to answer, because those I think of as having most influenced my style of writing are not commonly associated with the crime fiction genre. Cormac McCarthy is a favorite of mine on so many levels, as is Steinbeck, and I admire the pacing of Tom Clancy. But in my approach to dialogue, I think of myself as influenced more by the cadence of poets (Robert Frost, believe it or not) and the decisive rigor of playwrights (such as August Wilson).
I see Kaldis and his crew as having naturally evolved without any conscious input on my part. Having said that, my work is most often compared to that of Ed McBain and Donna Leon, two literary legends to whom I am deeply honored to be compared.
Q: One trademark of the Chief Inspector Kaldis series is the setting shifting from one Greek island to another from book to book. Aren’t you in danger of running out of options at some point?
JS: In order to run out of Greek island locales — not to mention the plethora of utterly intriguing mainland venues — I’d have to live more than a thousand years…and that would be at a two-book-a-year pace!
Q: Another of your distinctive trademarks of this series is your use of a hot-button issue as the engine that drives the plot of each novel. In your previous book, AN AEGEAN APRIL, it was the mistreatment and exploitation of the immigrants who continue streaming into Greece year after year. In THE MYKONOS MOB, you explore the effects of the island’s ever-expanding popularity with the tourist trade upon the lives of its native occupants. Which issue might become the foundation of the next Chief Inspector Kaldis novel?
JS: So many things happening in our world call out for Kaldis to intervene, but at the moment there’s an idea percolating in my mind that has its hooks deeply into me. It’s a battle raging on an island close by Mykonos that has islanders seeking to preserve their agrarian ways pitted against those seeking to maximize tourism profits. It is a dilemma facing many of the world’s tourist paradises, but particularly so the Greek islands. And it can lead to murder. That’s all I have to say about that for now. Stay tuned…
Q: Living half the year in Greece as you do, you have a very special perspective on the issues that most concern contemporary Greeks. Do you ever have a hankering to write a novel that features an American setting? And if so, in what section of the country would you like to have it set?
JS: In Greece, I’m blessed with contacts who give me inside perspectives on what goes on behind the scenes. That’s hard to replicate back in the USA. However, if I were to place a book in an American setting, I’d likely use the northwestern New Jersey farm community I call home when not in Greece. It has so much mood to offer, not the least of which is that generated from its modern history as the location where Friday the 13th was filmed…and several folks actually named their sons Jason in its honor!
Q: If Netflix or HBO was to come calling with a plan to develop an on-location film or miniseries based on one of the Kaldis novels, with which one would you suggest they commence? And in the unlikely event that you were consulted regarding the actors they ought to hire, play casting director for a moment.
JS: Funny you should mention that. Let’s just say that I don’t count my film deals — or leading actors — until they’re hatched. However, and hypothetically speaking, I’d say the place to start is with the first in the series, MURDER IN MYKONOS, because it plumbs the spirit of Greek islands in general, and Mykonos in particular, while establishing the personal integrity of Andreas Kaldis that carries forward throughout the series. As for lead actors, I’m so bad at that, but others have suggested Clive Owen or Bradley Cooper.
*****
Barbara Peters and Jeffrey Tiger had a conversation when he was at The Poisoned Pen. You can “attend the event” via this video.
David R. Dow, the author of Confessions of an Innocent Man, a debut novel that is available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2GQL3vx
If you missed an earlier post, here is the summary of Confessions of an Innocent Man.
“Every person wrongfully convicted of a crime at some point dreams of getting revenge against the system. In Confessions of an Innocent Man, the dream comes true and in a spectacular way.”—John Grisham, New York Times bestselling author of The Reckoning
A thrillingly suspenseful debut novel, and a fierce howl of rage that questions the true meaning of justice.
Rafael Zhettah relishes the simplicity and freedom of his life. He is the owner and head chef of a promising Houston restaurant. A pilot with open access to the boundless Texas horizon. A bachelor, content with having few personal or material attachments that ground him. Then, lightning strikes. When he finds Tieresse—billionaire, philanthropist, sophisticate, bombshell—sitting at one of his tables, he also finds his soul mate and his life starts again. And just as fast, when she is brutally murdered in their home, when he is convicted of the crime, when he is sentenced to die, it is all ripped away. But for Rafael Zhettah, death row is not the end. It is only the beginning. Now, with his recaptured freedom, he will stop at nothing to deliver justice to those who stole everything from him.
This is a heart-stoppingly suspenseful, devastating, page-turning debut novel. A thriller with a relentless grip that wants you to read it in one sitting. David R. Dow has dedicated his life to the fight against capital punishment—to righting the horrific injustices of the death penalty regime in Texas. He delivers the perfect modern parable for exploring our complex, uneasy relationships with punishment and reparation in a terribly unjust world.
*****
Why am I bringing it up again. Dow was interviewed in Shelf Awareness earlier this week, and you might be interested in the reading that interview. https://bit.ly/2LjjVLi
But, if you want to see an excellent interview, check out the one from The Poisoned Pen’s event.
If you loved the multi-awarding winning book Bull Mountain, you’ll want to read the current Hot Book of the Week, Brian Panowich’s Like Lions. Panowich was just at The Poisoned Pen, so you can still pick up a signed copy of the book through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2XPK8Co
Here’s the description of Like Lions.
“Excellent . . . It’s the emotional complexity of Burroughs . . . as well as the brass knuckle punch of an ending that will have readers applauding. This is hillbilly noir at its finest.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
A powerful follow up to multiple award-winning debut Bull Mountain.
Brian Panowich burst onto the crime fiction scene in 2015, winning awards and accolades from readers and critics alike for his smoldering debut, Bull Mountain. Now with Like Lions, he cements his place as one of the outstanding new voices in crime fiction.
Clayton Burroughs is a small-town Georgia sheriff, a new father, and, improbably, the heir apparent of Bull Mountain’s most notorious criminal family.
As he tries to juggle fatherhood, his job and his recovery from being shot in the confrontation that killed his two criminally-inclined brothers last year, he’s doing all he can just to survive. Yet after years of carefully toeing the line between his life in law enforcement and his family, he finally has to make a choice.
When a rival organization makes a first foray into Burroughs territory, leaving a trail of bodies and a whiff of fear in its wake, Clayton is pulled back into the life he so desperately wants to leave behind. Revenge is a powerful force, and the vacuum left by his brothers’ deaths has left them all vulnerable. With his wife and child in danger, and the way of life in Bull Mountain under siege for everyone, Clayton will need to find a way to bury the bloody legacy of his past once and for all.
