Fiction Review

Suspense writer Colleen Coble recently wrote an article for Booklist‘s Mystery Month. It’s called, “10 Crime Writers I Hate (Because They’re Too Good). It’s a fun article to check out. https://bit.ly/2LaFtVu

You can find Coble’s own books, and books by all of the authors mentioned, through the Web Store. If she caught your attention, try an author or two that you haven’t read. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Laird Barron, author of Blood Standard, is at the Poisoned Pen Thursday, May 31 at 7 PM. Can’t make it at the last minute? Blood Standard is the Hot Book of the Week, and signed copies are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2ISQzlc

Here’s the summary of Blood Standard.

Award-winning author Laird Barron makes his crime fiction debut with a novel set in the underbelly of upstate New York that’s as hardboiled and punchy as a swift right hook to the jaw–a classic noir for fans of James Ellroy and John D. Macdonald.

Isaiah Coleridge is a mob enforcer in Alaska–he’s tough, seen a lot, and dished out more. But when he forcibly ends the moneymaking scheme of a made man, he gets in the kind of trouble that can lead to a bullet behind the ear. Saved by the grace of his boss and exiled to upstate New York, Isaiah begins a new life, a quiet life without gunshots or explosions. Except a teenage girl disappears, and Isaiah isn’t one to let that slip by. And delving into the underworld to track this missing girl will get him exactly the kind of notice he was warned to avoid.

Tracy Clark’s debut mystery, Broken Places: A Chicago Mystery, was just released. You can order a copy of it through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2xk9YGl

I was lucky enough to have the chance to ask Tracy a few questions, to put her in the Hot Seat. I’m glad she took the time. I hope you take the time to read the interview.

Tracy, would you introduce yourself to the readers?

Hi, readers! I’m Tracy Clark, mystery writer, native Chicagoan, currently sweating the release of “BROKEN PLACES, a Chicago mystery,” my debut novel, the first in a series featuring Cass Raines, former CPD detective turned PI. When not working or writing, or thinking about writing or trying to convince myself I really should be writing, I’m out and about. I love Broadway musicals, old Hepburn and Tracy films, game nights with friends, binge-watching Netflix, and a well-brewed cup of tea … and ginger snaps. I love ginger snaps. Jeez, I sound like I’m a 100 years old. I’m not. Pinky swear.

Tell us about Cass Raines.

Cassandra Raines is African-American, 34, lanky, no-nonsense, and absolutely dogged in her determination to fight for truth and justice. She’s happily single, rabidly independent, and a bit of a wiseass. That’s what I like most about her. At twelve, she lost her mother to cancer and her father handed her off to her grandparents. She learned early to rely on her own strengths, follow her own path, and keep it moving. Her grandparents, gone now, left Cass their only valuable possession, their South Side three-flat, which she nurtures and frets over, as though it were a living, breathing thing. The building is her last tangible connection to the family she’s lost. Luckily, her close circle of steadfast friends has become her new family, and Cass will do anything to protect it. In Broken Places we meet Detective Cass Raines of the Chicago Police Department on the worst day of her life. She’s been shot and lies dying on a rooftop, having killed a young gangbanger in order to save her partner’s life. This event, this nightmare, the weight of the guilt she carries afterward, jumpstarts the story and will resonate throughout the series.

Tell us about Broken Places without spoilers. 

A few years out from the rooftop, the scar of the gangbanger’s bullet still visible on her chest, Cass has turned in her badge and has settled in as a PI, taking only work that interests her. Father Ray Heaton, her mentor and father figure, whom she calls “Pop,” comes to her and asks for help in finding the person vandalizing his church and rectory. Though Pop tells her it’s likely just kids breaking windows and turning over garbage carts, Cass suspects he’s holding something back, something far more serious. Cass is proved right when she finds Pop dead inside his confessional, the body of an unknown Hispanic boy lying in a pool of blood on the altar steps. The police too quickly conclude that the deaths are the result of a burglary gone wrong; that the would-be burglar and the priest struggled for the banger’s gun, the boy was shot, and the priest, consumed by remorse, took his own life as penance. But Cass knows differently, because she knew Pop, and a simple vandalism case suddenly gives way to an all-out pursuit to clear Pop’s name and find the person responsible for his death.

Can you tell us anything about Cass Raines’ next case?

Book two is entitled “Borrowed Time.” (Or it is now. The title may change.) A couple of months have passed since Pop’s murder and Cass is slowly regaining her equilibrium, though she still finds herself absently picking up the phone to call Pop before it hits her, again, that he’s well and truly gone. She’s grieving. As the story opens, her one-woman agency is experiencing a bit of a dry spell, so she’s handing out summonses on behalf of a law firm. It’s easy, mindless work, all the work she’s currently up for. That is until she’s asked to look into the death of Timothy Ayers, the scion of a prominent Chicago family, whose body is found floating in Lake Michigan, just yards away from his abandoned yacht. The police peg the case as an unfortunate accident. Tim was drunk, high, and simply slipped and fell overboard. But Jung Byson, the delivery boy at Cass’s favorite diner, believes differently. He tells Cass he knows his friend was murdered and he wants her to prove it. Reluctantly, she signs on, and soon discovers that there were quite a few people with reason to want Tim Ayers dead, including his own brother, that there have been other “accidental” deaths similar to Ayers’, and that her own client has been withholding crucial information and is wanted by the police. She must now find Jung, put the puzzle pieces together, and trap a killer … before he kills again.

Let’s talk about Chicago. Why do you think it’s such a popular setting for mystery and crime fiction?

Chicago is an awesome setting for mystery and crime fiction. Al Capone, John Dillinger and “Bugs” Moran walked our streets. You can still see bullet holes in some of the buildings! Not to glorify the nefarious, but something’s brewing in a town where something like four of the last nine governors have been hauled off to prison for corruption. If you can’t write a story of greed, graft and murder and mayhem set in this town, you haven’t got one in you. The Chicago Way is a thing. It’s a certain swagger, an attitude. It is one greedy hand washing the other, envelopes filled with payoff money slipped into a politician’s hands. Breathe deeply enough and you can practically smell the fear sweat wafting out of City Hall as the Feds reel in the latest pol caught (on tape, no less) with his or her hand in the till. I’ll note here that not all of our elected officials are crooked. We undoubtedly have some very fine, upstanding individuals serving their constituents with honor and integrity. Chicago is also filled with hardworking, law abiding, salt of the earth citizens who’ve never stolen a nickel in their entire lives … but, frankly, they don’t make for good mystery fiction. Writers go for the underbelly; we laser in on what doesn’t work, not what does, on what stinks to high heaven, not what smells like roses. Chicago, the land of the stinky onions, is fiction gold!

If someone comes to visit, where do you take them to show off Chicago?

I avoid the usual tourist stops, unless they specifically ask to see them. I venture into the neighborhoods. Chicago, the city of neighborhoods, has a lot of fascinating spots worthy of a closer look—Pilsen, Greek Town, Chinatown, Bronzeville, the historic Pullman community. Chicago has gotten some pretty negative press lately, but our vibrant neighborhoods–each one distinctive, each one an integral part of the city’s overall makeup—practically crackle with life, ethnic vibrancy and color. You haven’t truly experienced Chicago if you haven’t wandered off the beaten path and gotten down to people level.

In one of my reviews, I said Cass reminds me of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone. What authors have inspired you?

Certainly Grafton; she was a master. I’ll miss Kinsey and her pickle and peanut butter sandwiches. I’ve got a long list of inspirations, including Marcia Muller, Margaret Maron, Sara Paretsky, Susan Dunlap, Nancy Pickard, Karen Kijewski, Eleanor Taylor Bland, Barbara Neely, Chester Himes, Walter Mosley, Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane, Dashiell Hammett, James Patterson, David Baldacci, many, many, many more. I was also a tremendous fan of Robert P. Parker’s Spenser and Sunny Randall series. His writing was so clean, so economical. There are great new writers of color making a mark now, too—Kellye Garrett, Valerie Burns, Danny Gardner, Delia Pitts, just to name a few. I’m reading Garrett’s “Hollywood Homicide” right now. It’s awesome.

What’s on your TBR pile right now?

You mean piles? LOL. So many books so little time. At the moment, there are six books right at the top of pile one. They are “The Romanovs,” by Simon Sebag Montefiore, which I’m itching to get to; Ann Cleeves’ “Harbor Street,” an old Vera Stanhope entry; “Go Down Together,” by Jeff Guinn, about Bonnie & Clyde, (there’s something about these two I cannot get enough of); Lee Child’s “Killing Floor;” “End Game,” by David Baldacci, and “Anything You Say Can and Will be Used Against You,” by Laurie Lynn Drummond. And don’t even get my started on what’s waiting for me on my Kindle.

What did you read as a child? What was your favorite book? Or, if you prefer, who was your favorite character?

My favorites were the Nancy Drew mysteries. When I was around twelve I got my first Agatha Christie novel. I think she wrote more than eighty novels, plays and short stories? I’m pretty sure I got through them all. Christie gave way to Sara Paretsky’s PI heroine V.I. Warshawski, which opened the door up to Marcia Muller’s Sharon McCone, Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, Karen Kijewski’s Kat Colorado, and so many others. My all-time favorite book, however, the one I read over and over again, is Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.” It’s perfect, simply perfect. Scout’s my favorite character.

Name an author or book that you wish had received more attention.

The late Eleanor Taylor Bland. Her Marti MacAlister series about an African-American female detective is awesome, a real pleasure to read. I had the honor of knowing Eleanor. She was a thoughtful, elegant writer.

Thank you, Tracy.

Tracy Clark’s website is www.tracyclarkbooks.com

Betty Webb’s May release from Poisoned Pen Press, The Otter of Death, has one of the cutest covers I’ve seen lately. Signed copies are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2xhvGLf

Here’s the summary of the book.

While taking the yearly “otter count” at a marsh near Gunn Landing Harbor, California, zookeeper Theodora Bentley sees Maureen, her favorite otter, swimming around clutching someone’s expensive smartphone. When Teddy rescues the device, she discovers a photograph of a murder-in-progress. A hasty search soon turns up the still-warm body of Stuart Booth, PhD, a local Marine Biology instructor.

Booth was a notorious sexual harasser of young female students, so the list of suspects is long enough to make Teddy wonder if the crime will ever be solved. But when her friend, Lila, one of Booth’s original accusers, is arrested and charged with his murder, Teddy begins to investigate. This creates considerable tension with Teddy’s fiancé, Sheriff Joe Rejas. He believes the ever-inquisitive zookeeper might be putting her own life at risk, and so orders her to butt out.

Concerned for her accused friend, Teddy ignores Joe’s ultimatum. She questions not only members of Gunn Landing’s moneyed social elite, but also the other side of the financial spectrum – the financially strapped young women willing to do almost anything to pay for their college tuition. Alarmed by Teddy’s meddling, Booth’s killer fights back – first with a death threat, then via gunshot.

In this fifth Gunn Zoo Mystery, Teddy is torn between living a peaceful life on her Monterey Bay houseboat with her three-legged dog DJ Bonz, or moving inland to marry Joe, who comes with kids and a mother who has her own mysterious agenda. The choice is scary for Teddy – who has barely been managing her own many-times-married mother, and her imperious employer, Aster Edwina Gunn, overlord of the famed Gunn Zoo. Teddy’s life is further complicated by a wayward snow monkey named Kabuki, taunter of teenage boys. The zookeeper’s dedication to her charges – including the anteater, the koala, the llama, and Magnus, the polar bear cub from Iceland (met in Teddy’s last adventure, The Puffin of Death), never falters in a cleverly plotted series rich in characters and in animal lore.

*****

I had hoped to interview Betty for the blog. But, she took off for Paris. Then, Elise Cooper from Crimespree Magazine beat me to it. So, you can check out Cooper’s interview with Webb here. https://crimespreemag.com/interview-with-betty-webb/

Those of us who await our annual Chief Inspector Armand Gamache book from Louise Penny have to wait until November this year. Kingdom of the Blind will be released then, although you can pre-order it, or order other books in the series, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2LeWZJ2

In the meantime, while we all wait impatiently for the return to Three Pines, there’s an article in The New York Times to check out. Dan Bilefsky’s Saturday Profile is called, “An Affable Canadian Author With a Penchant for Murder”.  https://nyti.ms/2Lu4lIE

If you’re a fan, you might want to read it. Bilefsky captures Penny’s books with one phrase, “more intricately wrought tone poems than procedurals”. It’s a profile worth reading.

How about something a little closer to the Poisoned Pen today? Jenn McKinlay is the local author who writes the popular Cupcake Bakery mysteries. Her latest one is Wedding Cake Crumble.  You can find autographed copies of that title, and copies of McKinlay’s other books in the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2IKkJqS

Here’s the summary of Wedding Cake Crumble.

For the Fairy Tale Cupcake crew, wedding bells turn to death knells in this latest mystery in the New York Times bestselling series.

With Angie and Tate’s wedding just around the corner, it’s a happy time for Melanie Cooper and the bakery crew. Not only are they finessing the last minute details of the big day, but their bakery, Fairy Tale Cupcakes, has just been hired to bake cupcakes for the blockbuster book signing of a controversial author who wrote a steamy bestseller filled with juicy local gossip.

But one by one, the people Angie has hired to work at the wedding begin turning up dead. As the body count rises, the bestselling author is the next to bite the dust. Mel quickly realizes she needs to figure out how the murders are connected and why–before the killer brings the entire cupcake crew crumbling down. After all, Angie and Tate deserve their sweet happily ever after.

INCLUDES SCRUMPTIOUS RECIPES!

*****

Did you see that last line, “Includes Scrumptious Recipes!”? That’s where today’s fun part comes in. Doreen Sheridan recently wrote a post for CriminalElement‘s “Cooking the Books” feature. She reviewed McKinlay’s book, and then made one of the recipes from the book, Champagne Cupcakes. You can follow along with the recipe, and check out the photos of the finished product.

You’ve probably already heard about the sure-to-be bestseller that’s going to be released on June 4, The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson. You can pre-order your copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2IHagw9

Here’s the summary.

“This books moves like Air Force One. Big and fast. Clinton and Patterson are a dream combo.” –Michael Connelly, author of the Ballard and Bosch series

Did you make it to Elevengedden, Poisoned Pen’s annual celebration of science fiction and fantasy? If not, you can read about the event in Michael Senft’s introduction in the Phoenix New Times. https://bit.ly/2IIkWH0

If you find a favorite author, you might want to check the Web Store for their books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Dean Koontz’ latest Jane Hawk novel, The Crooked Staircase, is the current Hot Book of the Week at the Poisoned Pen. There are signed copies of the book available through the Web Store, along with copies of Koontz’ other books. https://bit.ly/2LjYVjr

Here’s the summary of The Crooked Staircase.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “¢ Jane Hawk—who dazzled readers in The Silent Corner and The Whispering Room—faces the fight of her life, against the threat of a lifetime, in this electrifying new thriller by #1 New York Times bestselling suspense master Dean Koontz.

“I could be dead tomorrow. Or something worse than dead.”

Jane Hawk knows she may be living on borrowed time. But as long as she’s breathing, she’ll never cease her one-woman war against the terrifying conspiracy that threatens the freedom—and free will—of millions. Battling the strange epidemic of murder-suicides that claimed Jane’s husband, and is escalating across the country, has made the rogue FBI agent a wanted fugitive, relentlessly hunted not only by the government but by the secret cabal behind the plot. Deploying every resource their malign nexus of power and technology commands, Jane’s enemies are determined to see her dead . . . or make her wish she was.

Jane’s ruthless pursuers can’t stop her from drawing a bead on her prey: a cunning man with connections in high places, a twisted soul of unspeakable depths with an army of professional killers on call. Propelled by her righteous fury and implacable insistence on justice, Jane will make her way from southern Southern California to the snow-swept slopes of Lake Tahoe to confront head-on the lethal forces arrayed against her. But nothing can prepare her for the chilling truth that awaits when she descends the crooked staircase to the dark and dreadful place where her long nightmare was born.

Praise for The Crooked Staircase

“An absorbing thriller full of fresh touches . . . Writing his unusual heroine, Koontz keeps the pages alive with attitude as well as action. . . . For Hawk, who is as fearless as she is beautiful, no obstacle is too great, especially with the well-being of her hidden-away five-year-old son on her mind.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Spellbinding . . . Beautifully plotted and written with notable care and flare . . . The Hawk series . . . is among [Koontz’s] best work.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Unrelenting . . . [Jane] rivets readers’ attention. . . . Michael Crichton fans and thriller aficionados who appreciate a fierce female protagonist . . . should be urged to meet Jane Hawk.”—Library Journal

CrimeFest in Bristol just celebrated its tenth anniversary. One panel featured the authors and editors of Ten Year Stretch, the anthology published by Poisoned Pen Press that celebrates the anniversary of the conference. Panelists included editor Martin Edwards, along with Lee Child, Yrsa Sigurdadottir, Simon Brett, John Harvey, and moderator Donna Moore. You can read more about CrimeFest on Edwards’ blog, Do You Write Under Your Own Name? You can order Ten Year Stretch through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2rVWFae

CrimeFest is another conference at which awards are presented. Some of the authors and books may not yet be familiar to American audiences. Some of the books haven’t yet been published in the United States. These awards are presented in England. Check the Web Store now and then if you’re interested in these titles. Some are already available. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here are the winners in the adult categories.

AUDIBLE SOUNDS OF CRIME AWARD
The Audible Sounds of Crime Award is for the best unabridged crime audiobook first published in the UK in 2017 in both printed and audio formats, and available for download from audible.co.uk, Britain’s largest provider of downloadable audiobooks.

Winner – J.P. Delaney, The Girl Before (Quercus), read by Emilia Fox, Finty Williams & Lise Aagaard Knudsen

eDUNNIT AWARD
The eDunnit Award is for the best crime fiction ebook first published in both hardcopy and in electronic format in the British Isles in 2017.

Winner – Michael Connelly, The Late Show (Orion)

LAST LAUGH AWARD
The Last Laugh Award is for the best humorous crime novel first published in the British Isles in 2017.

Winner – Mick Herron, Spook Street (John Murray)

H.R.F. KEATING AWARD
The H.R.F. Keating Award is for the best biographical or critical book related to crime fiction first published in the British Isles in 2017. H.R.F. “˜Harry’ Keating was one of Britain’s most esteemed crime novelists, and a renowned reviewer and writer of books about crime fiction.

Winner – Mike Ripley, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (HarperCollins)

THE PETRONA AWARD
CrimeFest also hosts the presentation of The Petrona Award which was created in the memory of Maxine Clarke by her friends and colleagues. The award celebrates the best of Scandinavian crime fiction.

Winner – QUICKSAND by Malin Persson Giolito, translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles (Simon & Schuster) – To be released in the U.S. in August, 2018.