Fiction Review

I’ve never seen Jeffrey Siger look this somber, so he must have taken my request quite seriously when I asked if he’d tell us about his summer reading. Jeff is the author of the wonderful Andreas Kaldis mysteries set in Greece. They are vivid depictions of the country, the politics, and the history, yet they have humor and characters that will bring you back for the next book. The series began with Murder in Mykonos in 2009. Siger’s next book, An Aegean April, is due out in January. Of course you can order the books through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2vYEbWm

Jeff’s website is  https://www.jeffreysiger.com/     Thank you, Jeff, for writing about your summer reading.

*****

I live on an Aegean Greek island where, from the paucity of books I see on the beach, summer reading must conjure up fears in many that reading a book in the sun risks casting a SpongeBob-like shadow upon their tans.  But for the more adventurous beachgoers among us—and those of us who know how to read on our sides—we soldier on to great rewards.  
This summer I was blown away by three books written by three friends of mine, making it a particularly warm and sunny experience, not that they were necessarily warm and sunny books. One’s a hard-edged thriller, and the other two are devilish mysteries taking place in alternate realities, but being the big fan that I am of Haruki Murakami, I like that sort of thing. I also like Moby Dick, which is another sort of reality.

Here are the three that made my summer.
PULPED, by Tim Hallinan blew my mind. I had no idea what to expect, but having done many a book event with this peripatetic treasured prose master and teller of ingenious tales, I knew it would be special.  His seventh Simeon Grist novel is all of that and more. Imagine if you exist only as a fictional character, but don’t learn of that until after you fade off into a limbo world once the last unsold copy of the book in which you appear is pulped into newsprint.  Imagine, too, that your only link to the “real” world is when someone opens one of your extant books. To what lengths would you go should you learn that your few remaining readers are being murdered, and once they’re gone, so are you? This is an instant classic.

I knew Jo Perry long before I knew of her work, and when she told me she was writing a series about a dead guy and a dead dog—Charlie and Rose to be precise—I was at a loss as to what to expect. I’ve now read two in the series and I’m thrilled there’s another out there for me to read. DEAD IS GOOD, the third in the series, is a mesmerizing exploration of the subtleties of our universally shared fate, neatly wrapped up in a crisp, can’t put down mystery. This one kicks off with a woman deciding to commit suicide by cop by opening fire on a North Hollywood police station, and in passing through the netherworld of Charlie and Rose, where the dead can observe the living but not intervene, she sets Charlie and Rose off on a complex sleuthing adventure hoping to somehow protect the love of Charlie’s once-lived life.

My third choice is a book I picked up in Hawaii at Left Coast Crime. I’ve long considered Barry Lancet a friend. We’ve gotten lost together in strange cities—in fact once with Hallinan—and he’s endured more of my stories than any one soul should bear (or bare).  But I’d never read one of his acclaimed Jim Brodie books.  I made the mistake of picking up a copy of his award winning JAPANTOWN just before heading off from Oahu to Kauai, a decision putting me squarely at odds with the promised purpose of my trip to that fascinating island. It took threats of grievous bodily harm from she-who-must-be-obeyed for me to put the book aside long enough to drive around and enjoy Kauai.  But I survived, and in so doing became an enthusiastic fan of American antiques dealer and reluctant private eye Jim Brodie, dutifully trailing along beside him from the scene of a multiple murder in San Francisco, into mainland Japan intrigues, and on toward the ultimate redemption and avenging of his past.

Thanks to these three great writers, I enjoyed some terrific summer reading. I wish you the same.
—Jeffrey Siger

Donis Casey is the author of nine Alafair Tucker mysteries, set in the early 1900s. Most of them take place in rural Oklahoma. However, they’re more than mysteries. They are also a fascinating glimpse into family life at that time with details you might not find in other novels. The Return of the Raven Mocker was the last book. The tenth book in the series, Forty Dead Men, is scheduled for a February 2018 release. All of Donis Casey’s books are available through The Poisoned Pen’s Web Store. https://bit.ly/2jv11mF

Thank you, Donis, for taking time to talk about your summer reading.

*****

Hot Summer Reading

Ah, summer. Or if you live in the Arizona desert like I do, it‘s more like, oh,  $#@&, summer! We deal with reverse seasons here. Fall, winter, and spring are the best times for going out and doing, and summer is the season for doing nothing but sitting beside the pool or next to the air conditioner with a margarita in one hand and good book in the other.

When I read for pleasure, I love to go to an unfamiliar place and live there for a while. I love to be taken on an extended tour, to enjoy the scenery, smell the air, taste the food, maybe time travel a bit, and fall in love with the natives. However, I don‘t need to be reminded of the heat, so as much as I enjoy them, I save novels such as Annamaria Alfieri‘s Strange Gods, set in 1912 British East Africa, for days that the temperature is not predicted to reach 115º F.

No, during the summer, give me something like The Sorbonne Affair, Mark Pryor‘s seventh Hugo Marston novel, which transported me to Paris in the fall, with sidewalk cafes, a charming and literate protagonist, and a mystery that was so absorbing that I forgot about the heat for several blessed hours. I‘ve enjoyed all of the Hugo Marston novels, especially The Paris Librarian, but The Sorbonne Affair had not only a satisfyingly twisty plot, but a side story that filled in some of the long-standing blanks in Hugo‘s past.

Rhys Bowen‘s In Farleigh Field took me away to another world and another time that I would not have wanted to live though, but her description of the beginning of World War II and how it affected the lives of the the five daughters of Roderick Sutton, Earl of Westerham, made me wonder how I would have coped. The beginning of the tale, when a soldier actually falls from the sky to his death onto the estate when his parachute fails to open, grabbed me immediately. How each of the women of Farleigh Place manages the deprivations of war and how the Sutton family rises to the occasion…or not…kept me reading until so late in the night I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

As much as I enjoy immersing myself in a new book, I‘m one of those readers who every once in a while loves to revisit a novel or series that gave me particular pleasure. Laura Joh Rowland writes wonderful novels set in Victorian England, but I first fell in love with her Sano Ichiro thrillers for their unique protagonist, a Samurai with unshakable honor. I‘m enamored of their unusual setting, 15th century Japan, as well.  In every novel, poor Sano teeters on the brink of ruination and disaster through no fault of his own, and in every novel he manages to save himself and his family through wits, skill, and his own code of honor. It never hurts that he can always count on help from his intrepid wife Reiko. Rowland‘s heart-pounding eighteenth and last Sano thriller, The Iris Fan, came out late in 2014, but to immerse yourself in the total Sano experience, start with the first, Shinju, in which a young and poor Sano risks his own life and reputation to solve a double murder that nobody wants solved, and thus begins his rise to the highest levels of feudal Japanese society.

*****

Hmmm. I’m noticing a pattern here, mysteries that vividly depict a setting, just as Donis Casey’s mysteries depict the early 20th century in Oklahoma. All of these mysteries are available through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/  Summer may be over, but you’ll want to stock up on your fall and winter reading.

Donis Casey’s website is https://www.doniscasey.com/

As I mentioned yesterday, I asked a group of authors if they’d end summer and kick off the fall season by telling us about their summer reading selections. Martin Edwards was the first to say yes. Edwards is a member of the Murder Squad collective of crime writers. Here’s his impressive biography, as it appears on the Crime Writers Association web site.

Martin Edwards, the current Vice Chair of the CWA, has won the Edgar, Agatha, and Macavity awards in the USA, and the CWA Short Story Dagger, CWA Margery Allingham Prize, and the H.R.F. Keating award in the UK. His latest Lake District Mystery is The Dungeon House. The series began with The Coffin Trail (shortlisted for the Theakston’s prize for best British crime novel) and includes The Arsenic Labyrinth (shortlisted for the Lakeland Book of the Year award). He has written eight novels about Liverpool lawyer Harry Devlin, starting with All the Lonely People; (shortlisted for the John Creasey Memorial Dagger); they are now available again as e-books.

The author of over 80 short stories, he has also edited 30 anthologies and published eight non-fiction books, including a study of crime scene investigation techniques and real life cases. A well-known critic and writer about the crime fiction genre, past and present, with The Golden Age of Murder exemplifying his knowledge of crime fiction and its authors in the 1920s and 1930s, Martin is President and Archivist of the world-famous Detection Club. He is also series consultant to British Library’s highly successful series of crime classics. Martin is currently also  Archivist of the Crime Writers’ Association and editor of its annual anthology.

*****

As a fan, I can recommend the anthologies, along with his latest book, The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books. Check out the Web Store for Edwards’ books. https://bit.ly/2wMA5BO

Here’s Martin Edwards’ piece about his summer reading.

*****

“There is something wrong with the book business,” Raymond Chandler said, seventy-one years ago. Ah, which of us, having written a novel which didn’t quite manage to make it to the top of the bestseller list, has not indulged in much the same reflection? Anyway, Chandler was talking about a British novel that has been an enjoyable part of my summer reading. It’s called Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper, and perhaps the title wasn’t quite sexy enough to cause a stampede amongst book-buyers. But it’s a good story, and the author, Donald Henderson, was a very capable writer.

Chandler loved it. It’s a book he claimed to “have read half a dozen times and have bought right and left to give away. I think it is one of the most fascinating books written in the last ten years and I don’t know anybody in my limited circle who doesn’t agree with me. Yet I doubt whether it has sold 5,000 copies over here.” Henderson was an interesting character, who led a rather sad life, and died young ““ only a few months after Chandler wrote those words, in fact. But after decades of neglect, it’s going to be republished early next year under the Harper Collins Detective Story Club imprint. I’ve written an introduction, informed by Henderson’s fascinating, yet incomplete and unpublished memoir On the Brink. I hope this reissue brings him back to public attention.

The Detective Story Club has already reprinted The Conjure-Man Dies, by Rudolph Fisher, which is said (correctly, as far as I’m aware) to be the first African-American detective story, first published in 1932. Fisher was a doctor, and a very accomplished writer. Like Henderson, he died far too young, and his early demise prevented him making a more extensive contribution to the genre . Had he lived he would surely have become a highly influential writer. As it is, this flawed but lively story is a highly entertaining “Harlem Mystery”. The reissue includes excellent bonus material: a short story by Fisher, and also a perceptive introduction by that splendid writer (and one of the most gifted practitioners of the crime short story of the twentieth century) Stanley Ellin.

Malice Domestic must be one of the best, if not the very best, mystery conventions, and I’ve enjoyed reading the stories in the latest Malice anthology, Mystery Most Historical, presented by Charlaine Harris. I love reading short stories ““ what better way to spend a bit of time relaxing on the beach in summer with a cool drink and a great mystery short story? I should declare that I contributed to the book myself, but the other stories provide the reasons why I’ve enjoyed it. The contributors include Catriona McPherson, Carole Nelson Douglas, Marcia Talley, and co-editors Shawn Reilly Simmons and Verena Rose.

For me, summer reading needs a soundtrack, and although I like a wide range of music, I always come back to the classics of the Sixties, especially the songs of Dionne Warwick, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Hal’s widow Eunice has published an affectionate memoir of her husband, Hal David: His Magic Moments; There’s Always Something There to Remind Me, that has expanded my knowledge of the brilliant but unassuming lyricist. Hal David emphasised that the secret of good writing lay in keeping things simple, and that’s true of crime fiction as it is of song lyrics.

In a different way, I’ve also enjoyed Carole Bayer Sager’s memoir They’re Playing Our Song. This is a very funny and well-written book by the woman who replaced Hal David as Bacharach’s lyricist, and then proceeded to marry him. Like any creative genius, her ex-husband proved hard work to live with, and despite her admiration for him, she’s a little less than kind about his personal foibles, whilst being admirably frank about her own. Even so, this is a very entertaining read, full of insight and packed with amusing anecdotes.   

*****

Thank you, Martin, for kicking off fall with your reading suggestions!

Friday is the first day of fall, so it’s time to ask that age-old question. What did you do on your summer vacation? Actually, I asked ten authors to tell us what they read over the summer. You’ll have to come back for the next ten days to read their answers. It’s a delightful collection. And, most of the books are available through the Poisoned Pen’s Web Store if the author entices you and you’re looking for your autumn reading. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the schedule for the blog for the next ten days. I hope you come back every day, but, if you can’t, mark your calendar for the day your favorite author will appear.

Friday, Sept. 22 – Martin Edwards

Saturday, Sept. 23 – Donis Casey

Sunday, Sept. 24 – Jeffrey Siger

Monday, Sept. 25 – Reed Farrel Coleman

Tuesday, Sept. 26 – Lisa Unger

Wednesday, Sept. 27 – Jenn McKinlay

Thursday, Sept. 28 – Cara Black

Friday, Sept. 29 – Con Lehane

Saturday, Sept. 30 – Naomi Hirahara

Sunday, Oct. 1 – Betty Webb

Thank you to all the authors who took time out of their busy schedules to write about their summer reading.

I know this is really unrelated, but I love the cover of Anne Perry’s new William Monk novel, An Echo of Murder. It’s the Hot Book of the Week. Signed copies are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2f84Lpn

In this riveting new William Monk novel, Anne Perry delves into the diverse population of Victorian London, whose disparate communities force Monk to rethink his investigative techniques—lest he be caught in the crosshairs of violent bigotry.

In the course of his tenure with the Thames River Police, Commander Monk has yet to see a more gruesome crime scene: a Hungarian warehouse owner lies in the middle of his blood-sodden office, pierced through the chest with a bayonet and eerily surrounded by seventeen candles, their wicks dipped in blood. Suspecting the murder may be rooted in ethnic prejudice, Monk turns to London’s Hungarian community in search of clues but finds his inquiries stymied by its wary citizens and a language he doesn’t speak. Only with the help of a local pharmacist acting as translator can Monk hope to penetrate this tightly knit enclave, even as more of its members fall victim to identical brutal murders. But whoever the killer, or killers, may be—a secret society practicing ritual sacrifice, a madman on a spree, a British native targeting foreigners—they are well hidden among the city’s ever-growing populace.

With the able assistance of his wife—former battlefield nurse Hester, who herself is dealing with a traumatized war veteran who may be tangled up in the murders—Monk must combat distrust, hostility, and threats from the very people he seeks to protect. But as the body count grows, stirring ever greater fear and anger among the Hungarian émigrés, resistance to the police also increases. Racing time and the rising tide of terror all around him, Monk must be even more relentless than the mysterious killer, or the echoes of malice and murder will resound through London’s streets like a clarion of doom.

Left Coast Crime is in Reno in 2018, March 22-25.  The slogan is Crime on the Comstock. Naomi Hirahara is a Guest of Honor. (She’s also going to have a guest post here on Saturday, Sept. 30.) If you’ve already registered, you would have received the newsletter and her news. You can still register at https://www.leftcoastcrime.org/2018/Registration.html

If you haven’t registered, Hirahara’s news might tempt you.

*****

News from Guest of Honor Naomi Hirahara

Dear LCC Renoites!

I can’t tell you how excited I am to be part of the festivities in March 2018. The convention coincides with the publication of my seventh and final Mas Arai mystery, Hiroshima Boy. This novel is set entirely in contemporary Hiroshima, mostly on a small island that is a fifteen-minute ferry ride from the city. The mystery has a bit of a Shetland or Broadchurch kind of vibe to it, in spite of being set in Japan and not the United Kingdom. It’s been exhilarating and emotional to complete the series. My biggest concern was to finish well and properly serve my protagonist, the aging gardener, Mas Arai. I believe that I have done so and am looking forward to sharing this book with you all in Reno.

I’m also doing research for a new series set in historic Chicago. This will be a stretch for this native Los Angeleno. But one thing I’ve learned from Hiroshima Boy is that it’s our job as writers to not always tread on what is easy or familiar. By pushing ourselves mentally and yes, sometimes physically, new doors open. I’ll also be stepping into telling stories in another medium ““ film. No, I’m not going to be a filmmaker, but I’ll be working as a producer for a small independent film adaptation of my first Mas Arai novel. Learning new things is certainly invigorating, introducing me to a younger generation of storytellers.

I’ve also been thinking of all the fun and mischief we’ll be having in Reno. Since we will be together as friends and readers, I want us to have plenty of opportunities to laugh. I took an improv class this summer and some of those skills will be put to good use at the convention. And there will be karaoke, too, but no worries ““ nothing like the karaoke you’ve been exposed to in the past.

So get ready for the unexpected in Reno. It will be a wonderful party celebrating the diversity of our genre.

Much love,
Naomi Hirahara

*****

So, watch for Hiroshima Boy next year in the Web Store. I hope you come back for Naomi’s post on September 30.

I don’t often mention cozy mysteries here, although you can order them through the Poisoned Pen’s Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com Every month, there are cozy mysteries that celebrate holidays or ones with entertaining characters that bring readers back for book after book. Donna Andrews and Miranda James are just two of the bestselling authors who have books due out in October.

Looking for a list of the forthcoming cozy mysteries? CriminalElement.com has a monthly list. Check out Cozy Bookshelf Shopping List at https://bit.ly/2y97Ixo. Then, check for your favorite titles in the Web Store.

Thomas Mullen, author of Lightning Men, will be at The Poisoned Pen on Thursday, Sept. 28 at 6:30 PM. You can order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2xbD9JO

Why would you want a signed copy? How about this?

Here’s the summary. “Writes with a ferocious passion that’ll knock the wind out of you.” —The New York Times, on Darktown

“Reads like the best of James Ellroy.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review), on Darktown

“Mullen is a wonderful architect of intersecting plotlines and unexpected answers.” —The Washington Post, on Darktown

From the acclaimed author of The Last Town on Earth comes the gripping follow-up to Darktown, a “combustible procedural that will knock the wind out of you” (The New York Times).

Officer Denny Rakestraw and “Negro Officers” Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith have their hands full in an overcrowded and rapidly changing Atlanta. It’s 1950 and racial tensions are simmering as black families, including Smith’s sister, begin moving into formerly all-white neighborhoods. When Rake’s brother-in-law launches a scheme to rally the Ku Klux Klan to “save” their neighborhood, his efforts spiral out of control, forcing Rake to choose between loyalty to family or the law.

Across town, Boggs and Smith try to shut down the supply of white lightning and drugs into their territory, finding themselves up against more powerful foes than they’d expected. Battling corrupt cops and ex-cons, Nazi brown shirts and rogue Klansmen, the officers are drawn closer to the fires that threaten to consume the city once again.

With echoes of Walter Mosley and Dennis Lehane, Mullen demonstrates in Lightning Men why he’s celebrated for writing crime fiction “with a nimble sense of history…quick on its feet and vividly drawn” (Dallas Morning News).

*****

Or maybe Marilyn Stasio can convince you. Lightning Men is the first book she reviews in her column in the Sept. 13th New York Times. The Crime Column this week is called, “Bad Neighbors, Bad Husbands and Very Bad Behavior.” Check out her comments about Lightning Men. https://nyti.ms/2xYUhjt

The Poisoned Pen hosted Attica Locke, author of Bluebird, Bluebird, for the first time. The award-winning author was the subject of a recent article in The Guardian.  https://bit.ly/2ycX5ul

You can order signed copies of Bluebird, Bluebird through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2y4odLd

Here’s the summary.

A powerful thriller about the explosive intersection of love, race, and justice from a writer and producer of the Emmy winning Fox TV show Empire.

When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules–a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about growing up black in the lone star state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home.

If you’ve been to an author event at The Poisoned Pen, or, if you’ve watched one on Livestream, you know Barbara Peters and the staff do wonderful, entertaining interviews. You’ll have the chance to meet and hear David Lagercrantz, author of The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye on Tuesday, Sept. 26 at 7 PM. You can order a signed copy through the Web Site. https://bit.ly/2x5FWEe

Here’s the summary.

From the author of the #1 international best seller The Girl in the Spider’s Web: the new book in the Millennium series, which began with Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo, the brilliant hacker, the obstinate outsider, the volatile seeker of justice for herself and others—even she has never been able to uncover the most telling facts of her traumatic childhood, the secrets that might finally, fully explain her to herself. Now, when she sees a chance to uncover them once and for all, she enlists the help of Mikael Blomkvist, the editor of the muckraking, investigative journal Millennium. And she will let nothing stop her—not the Islamists she enrages by rescuing a young woman from their brutality; not the prison gang leader who passes a death sentence on her; not the deadly reach of her long-lost twin sister, Camilla; and not the people who will do anything to keep buried knowledge of a sinister pseudoscientific experiment known only as The Registry. Once again, Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist, together, are the fierce heart of a thrilling full-tilt novel that takes on some of the most insidious problems facing the world at this very moment.

*****

Why am I talking about this book so early? USA Today will host a live chat with David Lagercrantz several days before the program at The Poisoned Pen. It’s part of their #BookmarkThis program. The event will be held at 9 AM Arizona time on Sept. 22. Here’s the link. https://usat.ly/2xox6lk

I like to share author information with all of you. But, remember, Lagercrantz will be here in person. You’ll be able to meet him on Tuesday, Sept. 26 at 7 PM, and have him sign your book. There’s nothing like meeting the author in person.