Adrian McKinty to be interviewed on Radio New Zealand this Wednesday

Irish-born, Oxford-educated, author Adrian McKinty, who sparked his writing career while living for several years in the USA, but now lives in Melbourne, Australia, will be appearing on Bryan Crump's Radio New Zealand show this Wednesday evening.

McKinty told me he'll be "talking about crime fiction and possibly my own contributions to the genre" on Crump's "Nights" programme (7pm-12am). I understand such interviews are usually broadcast shortly after the 7pm news - see http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/nights for more general information about Crump's show.

McKinty has written nine novels since 1998 (including two trilogies) - the latest being FIFTY GRAND, which was published earlier this year. His latest is a hard-edged noir about a female police detective from Cuba who travels illegally to Fairview, Colorado, hoping to make sense of her father’s death in an apparent hit-and-run on a frozen mountain road.

In a 2008 interview with Declan Burke, McKinty said: "FIFTY GRAND came about from an eye-opening visit to Cuba. I went there primarily to see some literary sights connected with Ernest Hemingway, Jose Marti and Garcia Lorca but I very quickly got sucked into the landscape and culture. The place really gets into your blood and I found that I couldn’t shake it, so I went back for a longer deeper visit. All island peoples are unique in their own way and coming from Ireland - which has a big neighbour right next door too - I think I appreciated Cuba’s problems without excusing the current regime who seemed to have screwed up the country in a spectacular way. Once I had the context and the geography, the story just flowed from there. I live in the mountains of Colorado so I thought it might be fun to take a Cuban cop and throw him way out of [his element] ten thousand feet up in the snow."

You can read more of that interview at: http://crimealwayspays.blogspot.com/2008/04/new-hope-for-dead.html, and you can read a review of FIFTY GRAND at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/aug/08/fifty-grand-adrian-mckinty-review

McKinty is an exciting voice in crime fiction, and it should be an interesting interview on Wednesday - I will link to the audio file if they archive it afterwards. Have you read any of Adrian McKinty's novels? What do you think of his writing?

DVD Review: Until Proven Innocent (the David Dougherty Story)

Earlier this year, to open its acclaimed "Sunday Theatre" season, TVONE screened a telemovie based on one of New Zealand's most infamous real-life criminal cases. UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT was a thought-provoking and delicately-toned portrayal of a terrible miscarriage of justice, where David Dougherty was imprisoned for the rape of his young neighbour. The telemovie, written and produced by Donna Malane and Paula Boock of Lippy Pictures, was rescreened in August, and is now available on DVD.

After the first screening I wrote a review of the telemovie, including a wider commentary on the case, for NZLawyer magazine (Issue 106, 20 February 2009). I include this review for your information below. I can highly recommend this movie for anyone interested in true crime cases, or just good dramas in general. The telemovie was done as well as many an independent film, and sits alongside OUT OF THE BLUE as recent examples of great, understated, portrayals of infamous New Zealand real life crime stories. It has deservedly been shortlisted for 10 awards at the upcoming Qantas Film and Television Awards.

Until Proven Innocent
A fortnight ago, TV One opened its new season of Sunday Theatre by screening Until Proven Innocent, a feature-length drama based on one of New Zealand’s most egregious miscarriages of justice. Craig Sisterson watched, and reflected

Imagine being falsely accused of one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, raping a child. Imagine your faith that the justice system will recognise the fact you didn’t commit the crime, gradually being eroded as the victim, the police, the courts and the public all point their finger at you as the perpetrator. Imagine having what you believe is clear-cut scientific evidence proving your innocence being argued over, twisted then disregarded at appeal. Imagine living with the fact your father died believing you were innocent, but never saw you set free. Imagine, if you can, being David Dougherty.

The producers of Until Proven Innocent give you a chance to do just that, with the well-made drama recounting the nightmare Dougherty endured throughout the 1990s, and the sterling work of a small group of supporters that helped him eventually clear his name, both in the courts and the eyes of the public.

Until Proven Innocent opens in the middle of the story, so to speak, with Sunday Star-Times reporter Donna Chisholm meeting barrister Murray Gibson at an Auckland party. Chisholm, wonderfully portrayed by Jodie Rimmer (In My Father’s Den, The Strip, Shortland Street), has been looking for a juicy crime story - chasing Gibson for comment about his client David Dougherty, who despite exculpatory DNA evidence had previously lost his appeal against a child rape conviction. Gibson, who hadn’t come on board until after the lost appeal, only had the Privy Council and the Governor-General as remaining options.

From there, the story moves forward, while glancing backward, as Chisholm joins Gibson and passionate DNA scientist Arie Geursen in working to free Dougherty. She meets shy and soft-spoken Dougherty within the castle-like walls of “The Rock”, Mt Eden Prison. “I didn’t hurt that little girl,” he says in a voice barely above a whisper, “If you’re going to write about me, I need you to know that”.

Peter Elliot (Gloss, Shortland Street, the Civil Defence ‘Get Ready, Get Thru’ ads) gives a great performance as lawyer Gibson. As he, Geursen (Tim Spite) and Chisholm battle the courts and public opinion to free Dougherty, the story repeatedly flashes back, showing us how an innocent New Zealander came to be sitting in prison.

We see David, as the crusading trio always call him, finding out about the attack and the accusation while working at the rail-yards in 1993. We see him voluntarily going into the police station to “clear up a misunderstanding”, offering to give blood and take any tests to prove his innocence, then being arrested; kick-starting a frustrating journey, full of setbacks and crushed hopes, that would take the rest of the decade and more to finally resolve. Relative newcomer Cohen Holloway (Eagle vs Shark) gives a brilliant performance as Dougherty, capturing the battered hope, nervousness, and growing obsessive compulsions of the wrongly accused.

We see him sitting quietly behind a screen in the court as his adolescent neighbour says her attacker was “David from next door”, his disbelief and overflowing emotions when the jury returns a guilty verdict. We see his aging father pushing for the original appeal, cornering Dougherty’s trial lawyer with information on improved DNA testing and the many inconsistencies in the victim’s evidence. We see his father stricken with cancer, then dying, then Dougherty’s appeal failing due to an ESR scientist hypothesising that even though DNA evidence clearly pointed to another offender, maybe Dougherty’s DNA was still somewhere in there as well.

One of the most laudable aspects of Until Proven Innocent, a production that deservedly earns praise across the board, is the tone the filmmakers take with what could be easily sensationalised subject matter. The film has a brooding atmosphere, a creeping sense of unease. There are many quiet, understated, thought-provoking moments - scenes with little dialogue, where actors and subtext are allowed to shine, the story radiating not from words, but looks and gestures.

Care is generally taken not to demonise any of those involved in the miscarriage of justice. The victim is portrayed delicately, as a child making an honest, even understandable, mistake in horrible circumstances. Human touches resonate throughout the film, from the actions of prison guards, covering Doherty’s handcuffs as he visits his dying father or distracting him with card games as he nervously waits the retrial verdict, to the look Doherty and the victim share after he finally hears the words “Not Guilty”.

The film ends with that 1997 retrial verdict, but Doherty’s ordeal continued for several more years, as Gibson, Geursen, Chisholm and other supporters had to battle an obstinate Minister of Justice to get an apology and compensation. Even after he was released, Dougherty became a target of overzealous interest groups, who blanketed an area he moved to with pamphlets identifying him as a child rapist, despite inscrutable evidence of his innocence. He finally received an apology and compensation in 2001, eight years after the attack and false accusation.

Two years later, in a satisfying if unusual footnote in such miscarriage of justice cases, the real rapist was finally caught; almost a decade after Dougherty was imprisoned for the crime. When NZLawyer spoke to the real-life Murray Gibson, he said “The most satisfying about the whole thing for us really was that the DNA profile that we were able to produce [from the more advanced testing they undertook] ultimately led to the conviction of the real assailant.”

Gibson, who is very flattered to have “such a distinguished actor” as Peter Elliot portray him in the film, lists three main lessons he would like everyone to learn from the case: that we need a separate Review Commission, as suggested by Sir Thomas Thorp, to investigate potential miscarriages of justice from all angles, not just legal procedure; that we need a separate storage facility for DNA reference samples, and that we need to realise organisations such as the ESR do occasionally make errors.

As for the man whose story was first publicised by Chisholm in the Sunday Star-Times, and has now been dramatised for television, Gibson says “He’s doing reasonably well, he’s in employment, and he’s keeping his head down”.

Good Reading magazine: crime-related contents in the September issue

One of the magazines I write for is Good Reading, the Australian-based "magazine for book lovers". I was fortunate enough to stumble across this great magazine late last year, after returning to New Zealand after more than a year of round-the-world travels.

Each month the magazine has more than 60 new or recent books reviewed, news from around the literary world, information on events around Australia, and several features articles (including author interviews, literature-related travel articles, overviews of different sub-genres, celebrities revealing what books they love, looking at books adapted for film, and much more).

It's a cool magazine, and I am proud to write for them. The great thing is, if you aren't able to get your hands on a hard copy in Australia or New Zealand, you can instead become an online subscriber (at a very reasonable price), allowing you access to not only the current issue, but a massive database of archived feature articles and more. You can find more information at: https://secure.goodreadingmagazine.com.au/products.aspx

Since Good Reading's inception there have been more than 200 author interviews, from local Australian and New Zealand authors deserving of more attention, to international heavyweights like Maeve Binchy, Wilbur Smith, Michael Ondaatje, Sir David Attenborough, Alexander McCall Smith, Amitav Ghosh, Sebastian Faulks, Linwood Barclay, and Joanna Trollope.

As you can imagine, I concentrate on crime fiction when it comes to my contributions to Good Reading. But each month I'll give you a heads-up on ALL the crime or thriller-related content in the upcoming issue (ie not just my articles/reviews). For the September issue which is now on the shelves, that includes:

FEATURES
"The Home Front" (by Lachlan Jobbins) - a 2-page cover-story interview with Australian doctor-turned author Kathryn Fox (MALICIOUS INTENT, SKIN AND BONE, BLOOD BORN, WITHOUT CONSENT), who uses her award-winning and internationally acclaimed crime novels to promote victims rights.

In one comment, Fox says "It probably sounds naive, but I think I can actually affect more people through writing than I ever could in [medical] practice". Subscribers can read more at: http://www.goodreadingmagazine.com.au/articles.cfm?ArticleID=817

BOOK REVIEWS
Anyone can view Good Reading's books database online, which includes information about the book, a note of which issue it was featured in, and a snippet from the review (subscribers can see the full reviews):

TROPIC OF DEATH by Robert Sims (2-stars)
http://www.goodreadingmagazine.com.au/book_details.cfm?book=10117&page=15

BLIND EYE by Stuart MacBride (4-stars)
http://www.goodreadingmagazine.com.au/book_details.cfm?book=10118&page=15

BRUNO CHIEF OF POLICE by Martin Walker (4-stars)
http://www.goodreadingmagazine.com.au/book_details.cfm?book=10120&page=15

FINGER LICKIN' FIFTEEN
by Janet Evanovich (3 1/2-stars)http://www.goodreadingmagazine.com.au/book_details.cfm?book=10119&page=15

DEEP WATER by Peter Corris (3-stars)
http://www.goodreadingmagazine.com.au/book_details.cfm?book=9962&page=15

THE CHALK CIRCLE MAN by Fred Vargas (5-stars)
http://www.goodreadingmagazine.com.au/book_details.cfm?book=10000&page=15

FAR CRY by John Harvey (4 1/2-stars)
http://www.goodreadingmagazine.com.au/book_details.cfm?book=10121&page=15book=10121&page=15

Note: in amongst the new and recent books being reviewed, Good Reading also "revisits the classics" on occasion.

THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES by Agatha Christie (4-stars)http://www.goodreadingmagazine.com.au/book_details.cfm?book=9159&page=15

So have you read Good Reading? What do you think of the magazine? What authors would you like to see featured?

Book Launch: BLOOD BOND, a new Kiwi thriller that raises money for charity

A new local thriller, BLOOD BOND by Michael Green, will be launched at the Gulf Harbour Yacht Club on Sunday 13 September at 3pm. BLOOD BOND is the second instalment in Green's trilogy centring on two branches of a family battling to survive in the aftermath of a catastrophic pandemic.

The back cover blurb about the book is: "What happens if your family is the last left alive? The Chatfield family - one half living in the UK, the other in New Zealand - found out the stark realities of survival after a deadly pandemic swept across the world. Now escaping the repressive regime at Haver Hall in the UK, a group sails back to the southern hemisphere. Stopping in South Africa and then Australia, they are faced by unexpected dangers but also the hope that there might be other survivors. What awaits them in New Zealand, though, is even more challenging. And can those left in the UK survive each other? An exciting page-turner that keeps surprising . . . up to the last page."

BLOOD BOND follows on from events in BLOOD LINE (also sold under the title THE CRUCIAL GENE), which has recently been picked up by one of Germany's largest publishers (where it will be sold under the title STUNDE NULL, meaning "zero hour").

Green, a successful computer consultant and professional speaker who splits his time between New Zealand and Europe, lives on his yacht, Raconteur, based in Gulf Harbour, and uses his writing as a fundraising vehicle for the charity LifeLine. He has recently been writing the final part of the trilogy.

Both books will be available for sale at the function, with the author donating all his royalties to LifeLine (which provides free 24-hour phone counselling to people in need). Sales of BLOOD LINE have already raised $12,000. In addition, the book will be able to be bought through the LifeLine website, with $10 of every sale made before 29 September also going to the charity.

You can see Green's explanation for why he donates his book proceeds to LifeLine, at this page from last year's NZ Book Month blog: http://nzbookmonth.co.nz/blogs/michael_green/archive/2008/08/17/25981.aspx

You can read more about the work of LifeLine at: http://www.lifeline.org.nz/ It sounds like a great event, for a good cause as well as the launch of a new Kiwi thriller (which would be reason enough to attend in of itself).

Ned Kelly Awards: small book shines as joint-winner of Best Fiction Award

Last night, as part of the Melbourne Writers' Festival, the Crime Writers Association of Australia announced the winners of the annual Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing. There has been very little publicity about the results as of yet, but it seems the top award for Best Fiction was jointly shared between relative newcomer Kel Robertson's SMOKE & MIRRORS and well-established and acclaimed Peter Corris's DEEP WATER.

Given the background to Robertson's book (and the fact the other finalist was Barry Maitland for DARK MIRROR), this could be seen as something of a boilover. SMOKE & MIRRORS is a novel which had only a tiny print run from ultra-small Ginninderra Press, was scarcely reviewed, and the printing costs were even paid for on the author's credit card. Robertson said when he was first notified of the short-listing, he thought he was the victim of a hoax.

You can read a little more about this health department employee's success in today's Canberra Times article at: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/crime-writer-breaks-into-major-league-with-winning-tale/1609283.aspx

Shane Maloney (author of the Murray Whelan novels) received the Lifetime Achievement Award. I will post more about the other award winners (Best First Fiction, Best Non-Fiction, and the SD Harvey Short Story Award) as those results come to hand.

*** UPDATE *** UPDATE *** UPDATE *** UPDATE ***

Courtesy of Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise and Karen at AustCrimeFiction (thanks ladies), it's now become apparent that the full list of 2009 Ned Kelly Award winners from last night's event is as follows:

Non-Fiction: THE TALL MAN by Chloe Hooper

First Fiction: GHOSTLINES by Nick Gadd

Fiction: DEEP WATER by Peter Corris and SMOKE & MIRRORS by Kel Robertson (tie)

S.D. Harvey Award: "Fidget's Farewell" by Scott McDermott

Lifetime Achievement: Shane Maloney

See: http://paradise-mysteries.blogspot.com/2009/08/ned-kelly-news-leaks-through.html and http://www.austcrimefiction.org/node/5298 for further information.

Report on the Tom Rob Smith event

Well, last night a good, sizeable crowd were entertained by acclaimed thriller writer Tom Rob Smith at the Takapuna Library in Auckland. It was another great event held at this library, which is quickly becoming a compulsory destination for many visiting international authors. This particular event was well-supported/co-organised by The Book Lover bookstore, and Penguin New Zealand.

Tom Rob Smith was making a flying visit to New Zealand after appearing at the Melbourne Writer's Festival. His debut, CHILD 44, a serial killer thriller set in Stalinist Russia, was a supernova success - garnering a bidding war for the publishing rights, selling more than 1 million copies, being translated into more than 30 languages, winning the 2008 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for thriller writing, and being nominated or longlisted for both the Man Booker Prize and the Costa First Novel Award (formerly the Whitbread).

His second novel, THE SECRET SPEECH, continued the saga of former secret agent Leo Demidov, this time in the Khruschev period of the Soviet age. There is a good article on Tom Rob Smith in the April issue of Good Reading magazine (which many NZ libraries have in stock).

Tom Rob Smith told the audience last night that he is currently working on the third and final novel in his Demidov 'trilogy', which is set during the (first) war in Afghanistan, and will be published in 2010. He was a very down-to-earth, nice, funny, and entertaining speaker, and I enjoyed the opportunity to listen to him, get a book signed, and have a quick chat. He noted how he'd had an Oxbridge education in literary fiction in the UK, but that this very academic approach had actually initially hampered his progress as a writer - because it ignored some of the things he most enjoyed about storytelling. He went on to work in film and TV, because he found they gave (sometimes) greater scope for concentrating on the audience, rather than the semi-autobiographical and rather ego-centric self-focus pushed by some in the academic literary world.

Highlights from his comments on the night included:

On his childhood: "I just loved stories... it didn't matter if it was a film, play, or reading a book - I just loved being caught up in stories..."

On his first experience of Russia: "When I went to Russia for the first time as a 17 year old on a history trip, I had no idea I would eventually write [thrillers set there] ... but perhaps it was an omen that one thrilling moment did happen, in Moscow. After seeing St Peter's Square, we were walking up to a bridge near the Kremlin, and saw a bus that looked stalled. It turned out it had been hijacked, a bus full of Japanese consular staff... all these media showed up, CNN etc, and some of us were interviewed... even that was a pretty flimsy brush with a thriller moment...

He noted that he'd also had a thrilling experience in New Zealand, so maybe that's an omen for him setting some future novels here - he was questioned by Immigration officials on his entry from Australia earlier this week, as there was a criminal named "Thomas Smith" that they were on the look-out for. Fortunately, he says the officials were very polite, and let him go as soon as photos showed he wasn't the wanted felon.

About writing for TV and film before novels: "Writing soaps taught me to get drama from the domestic... when writing a thriller you can't always write about the epic, big moments... that was one of the first building blocks towards writing CHILD 44 - the realisation that thrillers could have a balance between domestic drama and chases on a train...

He also was involved with Cambodia's first ever soap opera (supported by the BBC), which was used to help transmit educational 'health messages' to the masses.

On the inspiration for Child 44: He was intrigued by the real-life case of Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, who murdered 65+ children during the 1970s-1990s, but who had been largely ignored by investigators due to a number of factors (e.g. his Communist Party membership, and the fact Soviets believed there wasn't even a serial killer, because that was an American phenomena). Tom Rob Smith was more intrigued by what the case said about the society it occurred in, more than the serial killer himself, and how that society was different, but also familiar, to our own.

"With CHILD 44 I wanted to take a take a world that was very different, but push through the [universal] things that affect all of us, but also push through the conventions of the crime novel we are so familiar with... CHILD 44 is really about society, rather than about the serial killer... what I find interesting is how we react to serial killers, not the serial killers themselves (why they do it, how they do it)... the police investigations are like a sponge, soaking up the things about their society..."

On fiction set in the past: "With a book you have to know everything, even if you don't put it in [ie it flavours what you do put in] - you need to be able to answer any question if your readers asked..."

"The difference you have as a fiction writer, rather than as a historian, is that they have so many facts, that they include, whereas you can choose to dramatise those facts... I read a history book, and one sentence caught my eye... during the famines in Ukraine, the number of domestic animals quickly reduced, which makes sense because if people are starving, they are going to have to think about their pets... but as a fiction writer you can dramatise that fact, and create a [personalised] situation where a character is torn between their love for their pet and [their hunger]... which makes you wonder, what would you do in that situation?"

On researching the locations: He spoke of how it was more important to get a feel for how the people in a society felt about what was happening around them, rather than just focusing on what buildings looked like, how much things cost, and factual details like that.

"What was very useful to me was the diaries that were written by people at the time, that were never meant to be read, and were confiscated by the Secret Police... what's amazing about them is that you get a slice of life that has been preserved... concentrate not on material details, but what people were feeling at the time... suddenly you're immersed into that world, those emotional key moments rather than the nuts and bolts..."

On getting the reader emotionally invested: "It's really about putting yourself into this world... I wanted people to think, 'what would I have done in this situation?'... It's easy to be a good person in a good society (like UK or NZ), where we can get things, your good job, your nice apartment, by doing good things... it's interesting to think about how in a society like Stalinist Russia you only got ahead, you only got those good things, by doing despicable things... there's a question of whether you would have given up everything to be a good person [including possibly your life or liberty], or would you have succumbed and become involved [as an informer, as an agent, or as some-one who merely looked the other way while things were done to others]... being honest, I'm not sure what I would have done..."

It was a fantastic evening, and another fantastic event, at the Takapuna Library. Many thanks to the library (especially organiser Helen Woodhouse), The Book Lover, Penguin (especially Philippa Muller), and Tom Rob Smith himself. Did you attend the event? What did you think? Have you read Tom Rob Smith's books? Do you like meeting authors and hearing them speak? Comments welcome.

Dunedin Event: ALL THE COLOURS OF THE TOWN by Liam McIlvanney (Book Launch)

Dunedin gets its own crime fiction event next month, with the official launch of University of Otago Stuart Professor of Scottish Studies Liam McIlvanney's debut thriller, ALL THE COLOURS OF THE TOWN, at the University Book Shop on 22 September 2009.

McIlvanney recently immigrated to New Zealand. He returns to his roots with his debut, described as "a compelling thriller set amid the murky politics of Scotland and Northern Ireland".

More information is available at: http://kiwicrime.blogspot.com/2009/08/another-kinda-kiwi-crime-writing-debut.html

The official information re: the book launch is included below:

Allen & Unwin Book Publishers invites you to the launch of -
ALL THE COLOURS OF THE TOWN
by Liam McIlvanney
6.00pm
Tuesday 22 September
University Book Shop
378 Great King Street
Dunedin

Please RSVP to Bronwyn Wylie-Gibb on bronwynw@unibooks.co.nz or

Tel: (03) 477-6976

Hopefully plenty of Southerners will head along, and help support local crime writing!

Daily Mail serialising Christie's "lost masterpiece" - a new Poirot story

Yesterday (NZT), the Daily Mail (online) published for the first time ever, the first part of a recently-discovered "lost masterpiece" from the doyen of mystery fiction, Dame Agatha Christie.

Decades after it was written on the eve of World War II, a lost Poirot story has been found. For more than 60 years, the story had been hidden from the world in the handwritten jottings of Dame Agatha Christies's notebooks. It was "discovered" by Christie enthusiast John Curran, who chanced upon it as he was going through Christie's notes - a project which has resulted in the upcoming publication of AGATHA CHRISTIE'S SECRET NOTEBOOKS - a treasure trove of never-before known information about the beloved mystery author and her writings. You can read a little more about that book, which will be released on 6 September in the UK and will surely interest many mystery fans worldwide, at: http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/News_and_Events/News/Pages/HarperCollins-to-Publish-Agatha-Christie

AGATHA CHRISTIE'S SECRET NOTEBOOKS is touted as a "fascinating exploration of the contents of Agatha Christie's 73 recently discovered notebooks, including illustrations, deleted extracts, and two unpublished Poirot stories... Buried in this treasure trove, all in her unmistakable handwriting, are revelations about her famous books that will fascinate anyone who has ever read or watched an Agatha Christie story. What is the 'deleted scene' in her first book, THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES? How did the infamous twist in THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD really come about? Which very famous Poirot novel started life as an adventure for Miss Marple? Which books were designed to have completely different endings, and what were they? Full of details she was too modest to reveal in her own Autobiography, this remarkable new book includes a wealth of extracts and pages reproduced directly from the notebooks and her letters, plus for the first time two newly discovered complete Hercule Poirot short stories never before published."

The Daily Mail is serialising one of those previously undiscovered Poirot stories, THE CAPTURE OF CEREBUS (note -there was a different Poirot short story published under that same name in 1947). It is apparently quite unusual for Christie, in that it contained some faily blatant political comment, including a character that was a clear reference to Adolf Hitler (perhaps the reason for it not being published at the time).

You can read more about this exciting discovery of the 'new' Hercule Poirot story, and the first part of the story itself, at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1208212/Unseen-60-years-Mail-proudly-present-Agatha-Christies-lost-masterpiece-The-Capture-Cerberus.html

What do you think of this news? Was Christie the author that originally got you interested in crime fiction? Are you a fan? What do you think of the first part of the "new" Poirot story? Does the upcoming "behind the scenes" book interest you? All comments welcome.

Have you read Vanda Symon?

For the third in this blog's regular series (every Wednesday) of author introductions on Kiwi crime, mystery, and thriller writers, we now take a look at the work of Vanda Symon.

Born in Tauranga, New Zealand in 1969, Symon grew up there and in Hawke’s Bay (the East Coast of New Zealand’s North Island). She calls herself “the product of a life-long love affair with books”, having developed a strong love of reading at an early age. She has said her first books obsession was with the Berenstain Bears series of children’s books – before she moved on to “camping out at the library” and a steady diet of Rosemary Sutcliffe and TH White. The latter’s THE SWORD IN THE STONE led her to a love of all things Camelot, a fascination with medieval times, and even choosing fencing as her sport.

After high school, Symon headed to Dunedin (the major city in the bottom half of New Zealand’s South Island) to study pharmacy at the University of Otago – later returning to Hawke’s Bay to practice as a pharmacist in the community and at the local hospice until she started a family in 2000. It was while she was bringing up her children that she began writing, working on what would later become her debut novel, OVERKILL, which introduced sassy young policewoman Sam Shephard to the crime fiction world.

OVERKILL kicks off with a haymaker of a prologue, where an intruder forces a young mother to submit to her own death in order to save her nearby baby. Soon after, sole-charge rural cop Sam Shephard finds herself co-ordinating the search for the missing mother, her ex-lover’s wife. Once the body is found, she is left tidying up then investigating the looks-like-suicide drowning. The case is complicated by stroppy Sam’s frequent clashes with authority, her unclear relationship with her ex - the widower, and the public finger of blame beginning to creep her way when suicide turns to murder.

When asked during the 2007 New Zealand Book Month how she came up with the emotionally-charged, extreme prologue, Symon said: “The prologue for Overkill was born purely out of a mother’s paranoia when sleep deprived at ungodly hours of the morning when junior had fallen asleep in a milk-coma and I was still eyes wide open thinking up every possible dreadful thing that could ever happen to me and my precious little bundle... By the way, I still cry at the end of the prologue, and I wrote the flaming thing.”

You can read more from that NZ Book Month interview at: http://nzbookmonth.co.nz/blogs/vanda_symon/default.aspxokmonth.co.nz/blogs/vanda_symon/default.aspx

Symon and her family moved back to Dunedin before OVERKILL was published by Penguin in 2007, and she now continues to live there with her husband and two young sons. In amongst the writing and being a “domestic goddess”, Symon also produces and hosts a monthly books-focused radio show 'Write On' on Toroa Radio (It airs live on the second Wednesday of each month on Hills AM Community Radio 1575 kHz from noon to 1:00pm), serves as the Chair of the Otago Southland Branch of the NZ Society of Authors, and does monthly book reviews for Dunedin Diary on Channel 9 Television.

Last year, Symon told the Otago Daily Times that: “OVERKILL was 4 ½ years from go to whoa. This was very part time fitting in snippets of writing around babies and the associated demands of feeding, play, dealing with messes of all origins, household running and eyeballs-falling-out-of-head tiredness.”

You can read more from that interview, which coincided with the release of her Dunedin-set sequel, THE RINGMASTER, at: http://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magazine/15948/murder-mystery-close-home

Once she got the debut under her belt however, Symon found her writing stride and (relatively) quickly completed the next two instalments in the Sam Shephard series, THE RINGMASTER (Penguin, 2008) and CONTAINMENT (to be released this November). She is currently working on the fourth in the series, BOUND. OVERKILL was also translated for the German market (EIN HARMLOSER MORD) in October 2008.

In THE RINGMASTER, our heroine Sam Shephard has moved to biggish-city Dunedin from small-town Mataura; bridges burnt. On the bottom rung of the detective training ladder, Sam is sidelined from a murder investigation by her grudge-holding boss. Assigned to peacemaking duties between the visiting circus and animal rights protestors, Sam uncovers a link between the circus and deaths spread throughout the South Island, sparking serial killer fears.

In CONTAINMENT, Sam is training as a detective at Dunedin Central when she’s assigned to investigate what seems to be a routine diving accident off the Otago coast. But the forensics reveal that the man didn’t die from drowning; and that the body was stuffed in its wetsuit after death. Perhaps there is a connection with another case Sam is involved with – citizens of Dunedin pillaging the wreckage of a container ship at the entrance to Otago Harbour?

Symon’s books have received good reviews, and it will be interesting to watch her audience grow as the series continues, and more crime fiction fans are exposed to her writing. Bestselling international author Kate Mosse has said: “Vanda Symon's fast paced crime novels are as good as anything the US has to offer - a sassy heroine, fabulous sense of place, and rip roaring stories with a twist. Perfect curl-up on the sofa reading.”

In a review I wrote earlier this year, I said: “Symon is part of a new wave of Kiwi crime writers, and THE RINGMASTER shows that we should feel no cultural cringe when devouring local stories in this most thrilling of genres. Of the many admirable aspects of Symon’s storytelling, chief is her creation of Sam Shephard, a protagonist you want to follow; headstrong, passionate, and flawed… Symon’s talent for creating well-rounded characters permeates throughout… Another impressive facet; from the opening Botanic Gardens murder, to Highlanders games, and student life, Symon brings Dunedin alive.”

Like most Kiwi crime authors, Symon has not yet received the attention she deserves for her writing – however as she continues what has quickly become a very enjoyable series, I am sure more and more readers will come to discover and appreciate her books, and young detective Sam Shephard.

Have you read Vanda Symon? What do you think of her crime novels? What do you think of her recurring heroine Sam Shephard? Please share your thoughts.You can read more about Vanda Symon (including reviews etc) at her website: http://www.vandasymon.com/VandaSymon.html or at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanda_Symon. She also has a regularly-updated blog at: http://vandasymon.blogspot.com/

Bookstore Review: Whitcoulls Queen Street (Auckland)

I was thinking the other day about how many things, other than the quality of a book, can play a big part in how successful it, or its author, may be in terms of sales, readership, mainstream media coverage, and potentially interested readers even becoming aware of it/them.

Wandering through a couple of bookstores, I thought of the myriad of ways I'd 'come across' authors for the first time - and how several who later became "I'll read everything they write" favourites had been initially discovered through quirks of fate; noticing a news story or review, or the book itself displayed on a featured end, or in a bargain bin/table, or with a nice eye-catching front-facing, or even just because they happened to be near another author I was particularly looking for (e.g. several years ago I stumbled upon Mark Billingham's excellent debut, Sleepyhead, thanks to the fact I'd been browsing James Lee Burke's titles nearby).

There are so many books out there, and so many good and great authors and titles amongst them, that many haven't received the success or attention they deserve.

And while many things can't be controlled, some can - so as part of an irregular series on this blog, I will be 'mystery shopper-ing' some New Zealand bookstores, examining how well (if at all) they highlight, display, or otherwise offer NZ crime fiction to their customers. After all, if our own bookstores don't support local crime writing, how can we expect overseas ones to? To kick-start this series, I visited Whitcoulls' flagship store on Auckland's Queen Street (the one that has the giant sifty Santa outside at Xmas). Here are some of my findings:

• Whitcoulls has a dedicated crime section, as well as a dedicated NZ fiction section - both on the ground floor behind the bargain bins.
• Dorothy Fowler's debut, WHAT REMAINS BEHIND, as well as several Joan Druett titles, including her latest-ish Wiki Coffin mystery, DEADLY SHOALS, were prominently displayed with multiple front facings in the New Zealand section (GOOD/GREAT);
• Alix Bosco's recent debut, CUT & RUN, had two front-facings (multiple copies) on an eye-level shelf in the crime section (GOOD/GREAT);
• Vanda Symon's THE RINGMASTER had two copies (spine-facing) on a bottom shelf (thanks to her surname) in the crime section - if I hadn't been specifically looking for these, I wouldn't have noticed them (OKAY);
• There were no copies of any of Paul Cleave's books (international bestsellers), or Lindy Kelly's BOLD BLOOD (#1 NZ fiction bestseller in March), to be found anywhere (POOR);
• When I asked the assistant about Paul Cleave's books, she seemed a little surprised they didn't have any, and then when she looked up on the computer, found that very few Whitcoulls around the country had any at all (e.g. the smash-hit THE CLEANER only had 1 copy in 1 Chch store, nationwide) (VERY POOR)

So overall, Whitcoulls Queen Street wasn't that great at supporting NZ crime fiction. While there was some nice prominence for the more literary mystery fiction (Fowler and Druett), it fell rather flat elsewhere. And with two bestselling writers, you couldn't even get their titles without a transfer from another store, or special order from the publisher - clearly Whitcoulls had sold the stock they had, so why not get more in the stores, especially when they were bestsellers?? At least a few copies, surely. They do that for plenty of the international crime writers.

I also can't see any reason why NZ crime fiction couldn't be featured more - put on an end, or in the 'Recommended' sections etc. Or at least have a tag underneath with 'Local Writer', 'New Zealand crime' or something like that - or a copy of a small review, either in-house or from a magazine etc - that could catch a browsing customers attention. None of the NZ crime fiction even had had a "Whitcoulls Staff recommends" note, I think.

Little things could make a huge difference. So overall for Whitcoulls Queen St, I give them 2.25 out of 5. Shows a little promise, but needs a lot of improvement.

Review of THE DARKNESS LOOKING BACK

Here is another review of a local crime novel I wrote for NZLawyer magazine (Issue 116, 10 July 2009). That magazine occasionally has fiction reviews (in amongst all the legal content), and I will be writing some more NZ crime fiction reviews for them in October (on Alix Bosco and Dorothy Fowler's debuts, and perhaps Liam McIlvanney's too), to help celebrate NZ Book Month.

Have you read Andrea Jutson (author of SENSELESS as well as THE DARKNESS LOOKING BACK)? Would you be interested in a crime novel with a semi-psychic as a star? What do you think of the review?

The Darkness Looking Back
By Andrea Jutson

(Random House/Black Swan Crime, 2008)

The recent surge in quality New Zealand crime fiction, including the latest works from Nelsonian Lindy Kelly (reviewed in Issue 109), Cantabrian Paul Cleave and Dunedin-ite Vanda Symon (both reviewed in Issue 101), shows that Kiwi writers (well, at least the South Island ones) can weave mysteries, thrillers and police procedurals every bit as good as the international offerings packing our bookstores’ shelves. But what about the North Island? Surely our biggest city, our artsy capital, or the farm-gilded rural highways and byways that criss-cross ‘the fish of Maui’ could provide equally fertile ground for dastardly deeds, fiction-wise?

Enter former bookseller and young Auckland-based writer Andrea Jutson. Part of that pleasing upturn in local crime-writing, Jutson has released two novels set in the City of Sails, and is currently working on a third. The Darkness Looking Back continues her psychic-tinged crime series, bringing back the sometimes-team of reluctant medium James Paxton and semi-skeptical Detective Constable Andy Stirling.

Paxton and Stirling find themselves knee-deep in another murder mystery after a pizza delivery boy stumbles across a body at a house in the Auckland suburbs. Stirling, stumped by the grisly but seemingly motiveless crime, visits Paxton, hoping for ‘unofficial’ help. When another bashed and stabbed body is found by another delivery-person, the case quickly takes a more sinister twist, especially when it becomes apparent a game-playing serial killer is targeting unfaithful women. Then Paxton’s involvement is leaked to the media and public hysteria ensues – complicating both Paxton’s personal life, and an already difficult investigation for Stirling and his NZ Police colleagues.

I have to confess to being somewhat concerned before I started reading, as some authors imbue their fiction with the supernatural or paranormal seemingly as a gimmick, perhaps hoping to putty over cracks in thin characters or story. However, I needn’t have worried - one of the best things about The Darkness Looking Back is Jutson’s depiction and use of Paxton and his psychic abilities. Neither contrived nor clichéd, Paxton is a fascinating and reasonably complex character - not a cardboard cutout of the average “psychic” tabloid columnist or wannabe TV celebrity. In fact he doesn’t even want his special abilities, eschews publicity and profit-making, and sometimes accidentally hinders the police even when he feels forced to help.

I also enjoyed the ‘piss-taking’ and gallows humour atmosphere amongst Stirling and his police colleagues – realistic team dynamics that some authors avoid. Overall, a well-rendered supporting cast of café owners, headline-hunting journalists, and secrets-keeping suburbanites populates an interesting storyline that largely keeps you on the hook. Topped off nicely by moments of humour and domesticity that provide a breather from the dark deeds, it’s an enjoyable local read for crime fiction fans.

Review of APRIL FOOL by William Deverell

New Zealand is not the only country that has good and great crime writers that aren't necessarily widely known or distributed throughout the rest of the world. There are many countries outside of the major UK/USA markets whose authors may, for many reasons other than the quality of their writing, struggle to break through into the wider consciousness. And it's not just the authors in translation - even some 'big name' authors in certain English-speaking regions, aren't distributed widely elsewhere. Which is a shame, for readers worldwide - although keen crime fiction fans can always be a little more pro-active themselves and source copies of international works via the Internet etc.

When I was travelling through Canada in 2008, I was fortunate enough to attend a crime-writing themed evening at the Vancouver Public Library, which coincided with the announcement of the 2008 Arthur Ellis Award finalists (the Canadian crime writing awards). As part of that, I was exposed to many Canadian authors I'd never before heard about. Buying a couple of books by Mark Zuehlke and William Deverell, I was impressed - and on my return downunder I eventually reviewed one of them for Good Reading magazine, despite it unfortunately not being readily available in NZ/Australia.

Normally I won't be reprinting any Good Reading reviews on this blog, but from this coming week on I will each month highlight the crime writing-related feature articles and crime fiction reviews in each monthly issue of this very good magazine.

As a one-off however, I am going to reprint below my review of William Deverell's APRIL FOOL, as an example of the plethora of great crime writing that can be found in many (perhaps unintentionally) overlooked corners of the world (like New Zealand) - and as an example of how I've discovered that opening yourself up to new writers, from places both new and known, can often be a wonderful experience.

You can read a synopsis of this award-winning (but not widely-distributed internationally) crime fiction book HERE.

Have any of you read William Deverell? What are some of the other great crime fiction writers and books you've read that aren't widely available elsewhere? Who are your favourite non-US/UK authors, that haven't got the attention they deserve? I look forward to your comments.

April Fool
William Deverell

One of the greatest joys of travelling overseas is experiencing things not readily available Downunder; different sights, different tastes, different activities, and different cultures. And for bibliophiles, you can even discover different writers. Just like there are fantastic antipodean authors not distributed widely overseas, there are also international gems unavailable on bookshelves here.

William Deverell is one such gem. The doyen of Canadian crime writing, Deverell continues to rack up awards and acclaim thirty years after first picking up the fiction-writing pen as a sideline to his career as a top criminal barrister.

The award-winning April Fool marks the return of one of Deverell’s most beloved characters; Arthur Beauchamp, a Denny Crane-esque legal legend now retired to a hobby farm on one of British Columbia’s Gulf Islands. Beauchamp’s quiet life is upturned when his environmental activist wife decides to protest logging by living in a tree, at the same time as a roguish ex-client is accused of a heinous rape and murder.

The heroically fallible Beauchamp is forced onto an entertaining rollercoaster combining courtroom thriller with mystery whodunit. For readers, Deverell’s unique writing style – melding quirky characters, witty dialogue, contemporary themes, and literary touches into a richly authentic Canadian setting, makes the ride all the more worthwhile. Recommended.

4 Stars McClelland & Stewart
(Available online from amazon.com for US$7.95 plus delivery)
Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Trailer to Scorcese's film adaptation of Dennis Lehane's SHUTTER ISLAND

In a few weeks another crime/mystery/thriller book will be brought to the big screen; Dennis Lehane's 2003 novel SHUTTER ISLAND, a 1954-set suspense tale where up-and-coming U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels (to be played by Leonardo DiCaprio) is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital.

Like with the Oscar-winning adaptation of MYSTIC RIVER (directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins, Laura Linney & Laurence Fishburne), Lehane must be rapt with the cast and crew that are involved with brining another of his novels to the screen. Apart from having Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead, Martin Scorcese is in the director's chair, and the rest of the cast is sprinkled with 'names' and solid actors aplenty; Ben Kingsley, Max Von Sydow, Michelle Williams, Mark Ruffalo, and Emily Mortimer amongst them.

SHUTTER ISLAND is the third Lehane novel to be brought to the big screen, following acclaimed adaptations of MYSTIC RIVER and GONE BABY GONE. Lehane also wrote three episodes of perhaps the best TV drama seen in many years, The Wire.

You can view the trailer for SHUTTER ISLAND at: http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/shutterisland/small.html

What do you think? Have you read the book? Do you like Dennis Lehane novels? Do you like the look of the movie? Will you go and see it? Does it make you want to read the book? What do you think of bringing crime novels to the big screen in general?

And, if you're an author, what directors would you trust with bringing your books to the big screen?

Reviews of BOLD BLOOD and FAT TUESDAY

Further to my post on Thursday about putting some of my reviews of Kiwi crime fiction on this blog, that aren't otherwise available online, here is another couple of reviews from the 3 April 2009 issue of NZLawyer magazine (http://www.nzlawyermagazine.co.nz/).

Whereas the first article (with two reviews) looked at two recent high-quality Kiwi crime novels, this article compared a #1 NZ Adult Fiction bestselling Kiwi crime novel released the previous month (BOLD BLOOD by Lindy Kelly), with a #1 New York Times bestseller from an author that has sold millions of copies of dozens of crime and romance novels (FAT TUESDAY by Sandra Brown).

As I found out while reviewing both books, the local writer stood up well against the international heavyweight - further underlining the fact that we need to be supporting NZ crime fiction far more than we have been doing thusfar.

What do you think of the reviews? The books? Does NZ crime fiction stand up well against a lot of the overseas bestsellers? Should we support it more?


Kiwi crime on the rise
By Craig Sisterson

Seventy five years ago, Christchurch born-and-raised Ngaio Marsh published A Man Lay Dead – a classic British-style mystery novel about a murder committed during a weekend party at a country house. She would go on to publish 32 detective novels (several were later adapted for both British and Kiwi television) featuring gentleman police detective Roderick Alleyn, and become one of the four original ‘Queens of Crime’ who were at the writing forefront during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. One of our own amongst the world’s best - prestigious critics such as New York magazine even said “It’s time to start comparing [Agatha] Christie to Marsh instead of the other way around”.

And yet in her native New Zealand, Marsh was more well-known for her tireless support for the arts, particularly helping establish a viable theatre industry – work that led to her elevation to damehood in 1966. It seems that even when we had one of the world’s best crime writers, we undervalued local contributions to a thrilling genre beloved internationally.

Perhaps it’s no surprise the Kiwi literature scene continues to suffer from a relative lack of crime writing - that until recently there have been few contemporary authors taking up Marsh’s mystery-fiction baton. More’s the pity, considering we’ve produced award-winning scribes in other genres, from literary fiction to the big screen. Perhaps if we similarly supported and appreciated local crime writers, such as Paul Cleave and Vanda Symon (“Serial killers stalk the South Island”, NZLawyer, 14 November 2008), we might overcome our cultural cringe, and realise there’s a welcome place for Kiwi-penned tales of murder, mystery, and mayhem.

As an example, I looked at two recent releases, both suspense tales written by middle-aged female authors who’ve become prolific writers later in life. Bold Blood, the first adult suspense novel written by Nelson author Lindy Kelly, topped the New Zealand Adult Fiction bestseller charts in March. In contrast Fat Tuesday is a #1 New York Times bestseller from Texas author Sandra Brown. So, how does our local version compare with an international heavyweight?

Bold Blood
by Lindy Kelly (HarperCollins, 2009)
Horse-loving journalist, poet and children’s author Lindy Kelly adopts the old adage, ‘write what you know’, with her crime debut Bold Blood, parlaying her youthful experience as an international eventing rider into a suspense tale set amongst the stables, saddles and sorrels of the New Zealand equestrian world.

Dr Caitlin Summerfield is happily living a hectic Wellington lifestyle, accessorised with overseas travel and a rich boyfriend. Her rural Nelson childhood has been left far behind, along with her emotionally abusive mother.

A fall and a phone call destroy Caitlin’s reverie, and she takes the bunny-hop flight across Cook Strait to return ‘home’. Playing caretaker at her comatose mother’s horse farm, helped by rugged neighbour Dom and multi-pierced teenage groom Kasey, Caitlin scratches beneath the surface of high-tech horse trailers and well-fed thoroughbreds to discover looming financial ruin, and a shot at a million-dollar breeding contract. A contract someone is willing to do anything for. Even kill.

Having published more than 100 short stories, sixteen children’s books, 36 poems, and had her writing feature on National Radio and performed on stage, Kelly told me she had one goal for her first adult thriller. “I wanted to write the sort of book that I like to curl up with for sheer pleasure… something with excitement and adventure, likable strong characters… a few mysteries, a bit of romance, humour, and passion.”

Overall she succeeds, spinning an engaging tale that carries the reader along. She strikes a nice balance - peppering local references, without over-seasoning in any contrived attempt to foist ‘Kiwi-ness’ onto a universal story. Populating a plot of assaults, arsons, horse theft and murder with a diverse cast, Kelly impresses most with her rich portrait of life in the eventing world, along with the way the horses aren’t mere props; but full-blown characters with personalities in their own right.

Although there is the occasional plot misstep, Bold Blood is a good debut – a must read for horse-lovers, and an enjoyable read for anyone.

Fat Tuesday
by Sandra Brown (Hodder & Stoughton, 2009)
More than a decade after it was first released in the United States, former model and TV weather presenter turned prolific bestselling author Sandra Brown’s tale of a New Orleans narcotics cop’s vengeful battle with a corrupt defence attorney, has been published in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom for the first time.

Brown, a native Texan, began her award-winning writing career in 1981, and has since penned seventy novels, including fifty-six New York Times bestsellers and several #1 bestsellers, including Fat Tuesday. Over the years her writing has shifted from romance fiction under a variety of pseudonyms to suspense thrillers.

Fat Tuesday opens with the acquittal of the man NOPD detective Burke Basile blames for the shooting death of his partner, before following Basile’s increasingly wild attempts to seek revenge on powerful defence attorney Pinkie Duvall. Basile targets Duvall not only because of the acquittal, but because he suspects Duvall of being an underground drug kingpin and well-connected, protected crime lord.

Feeling betrayed by friends, co-workers and an adulterous wife, Basile eventually kidnaps Duvall’s beautiful wife Remy in the lead-up to Mardi Gras, hiding her at an isolated fishing camp. Brown takes the reader on an often violent rollercoaster ride from sumptuous garden parties to crack-infested backstreets, bordellos to alligator-filled Louisiana swamps, as Basile tries to dodge corruption both outside and inside the NOPD as he aims for Duvall’s jugular. His plan becomes further complicated by his increasing attraction to Remy, an attraction that seems reciprocated.

Fat Tuesday is an enjoyable read. Although it has moments veering towards Brown’s pulp romance past, an exciting story and interesting characters carry the reader along on a fun journey filled with fake priests, shot-gun toting hillbillies, corrupt cops, and betrayal at every turn. It’s the type of book many readers could curl up with for sheer pleasure.

Sad News: the death of Mystery News

In amongst all the many great things happening in crime fiction worldwide, there was some sad news I stumbled upon today, courtesy of Janet Rudolph of the excellent Mystery Readers International organisation (publishers of the Mystery Readers Journal).

It seems that the recession has bitten another print publication, and this time it's a crime fiction fanzine, Mystery News. You can read Janet's comments, and a letter from the Mystery News editor at: http://mysteryreadersinc.blogspot.com/2009/08/mystery-news-rip.html

Fortunately there are still a good number of mystery/crime fiction publications (both fiction and non-fiction magazines). But it is sad to see Mystery News expire...

Plenty of crime events at the Melbourne Writers Festival starting today

Over the 'ditch' (what we call the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia, for you international readers), the Melbourne Writers Festival gets underway today; a ten-day program packed with a variety of books-related events. And, unlike our Auckland Writers Festival, there is plenty of crime and thriller related action to be found.

In a little over an hour (10am Aust time), the crime-related events kick off with the "Is Crime The Key?" seminar, where American crime writer Lisa Lutz (pictured left), along with Australian writers Philip McLaren and Garry Disher and Melbourne Age Chief TV writer Debi Enker, discuss how if you really want to understand a country, you should read its crime novels.

This would be an interesting talk, as the ability for crime fiction to (apart from being really entertaining and enjoyable) delve deeply into the fabric of our society (perhaps even more so than literary fiction), is something of a largely-overlooked truth, although I have heard several authors and commentators discuss it.

For instance, iconic Swedish crime writer Maj Sjöwall herself told the Wall Street Journal in May this year (her writing partner Per Wahlöö died in 1975) that although they were writing entertaining stories with their Martin Beck police procedurals, their “intention was also to describe and criticize certain changes in our society and the politics of that decade”. Crime writing at its best can perhaps do this even better than most other literary genres. I have heard another crime writer, who is an ex-journalist, recently state that he turned to crime writing as it gave him a better opportunity to speak the truth.

Other crime-related events at the Melbourne Writers Festival include:

21 August - 4pm - "Who Knew Crime Was This Sassy?"

Forget the dysfunctional PI with his alcoholic crutch, Kerry Greenwood, US author Lisa Lutz (of the San Francisco-set Spellman novels) and PD Martin all have smart and sassy women solving crime with élan and humour.

22 August - 5:30pm - "Crimes within crimes"

War and civil strife often provide the perfect cover for brutality and crime. UK author Tom Rob Smith (who is visiting New Zealand next week) whose novels Child 44 and The Secret Speech are set in Stalin's Russia talks with Marshall Browne whose Franz Schmidt novels are set in Hitler's Germany. Chaired by Her Honour Judge Liz Gaynor.

22 August - 4pm - "X-rated? How far can a crime writer go?"

A discussion on the question of whether every outrage and sickening amoral act is permissible in crime novels? Australian authors PD Martin, Garry Disher, and Philip McLaren discuss how far they are prepared to go.Chaired by surfing crime aficianado and Ned Kelly Awards maestro, Peter Lawrance.

28 August - 7pm - Spotlight on Teresa Solana

Catalan crime writer Teresa Solana discusses her work, evocatively set in that temple to Catalan culture, Barcelona with her translator and husband, Peter Bush, and Spanish literary expert Lilit Thwaites. Proudly supported by the Consulate General of Spain and the Institut Ramon Llull.

Unfortunately the latter event above clashes with one of the crime-writing highlights of the Melbourne Writers Festival, the Ned Kelly Awards Presentation 2009. The festival website states: "Australia's premier crime writing awards, The Ned Kelly’s are highly sought after by authors and publishers alike. If you love crime grab your mates and a table and make a night of it. Jane Clifton is MC, John Silvester, Liz Porter, Peter Corris and others will take part in the annual debate, Women Do It Better, and crime writers of every stripe will be there. Melbourne icon, Shane Maloney will be awarded the Lifetime achievement award."

The Ned Kelly finalists (Crime Writers Association of Australia awards) for 2009 are:

Best First Fiction
GHOSTLINES by Nick Gadd
CROOKED by Camilla Nelson
THE BUILD UP by Phillip Gwynee

Best Fiction
BRIGHT AIR by Barry Maitland
DEEP WATER by Peter Corris
SMOKE & MIRRORS by Kel Robertson

Best True Crime
THE KILLING OF CAROLINE BYRNE, Robert Wainwrights
THE TALL MAN, Chloe Hooper
A QUESTION OF POWER, Michelle Schwarz

The SD Harvey Short Story
"Fidget's Farewell" by Scott McDermott
"Farewell My Lovelies" by Chris Womersley
"Fern's Farewell" by Bronwyn Mehan
"Farewell to the Shade" by Cheryl Rogers

The Ned Kelly festivities run from 7PM - 10PM. I am not sure of the exact criteria for an author to be considered for an award, as New Zealander Paul Cleave has been shortlisted in the past, and New Zealander Paul Thomas even won one of the earliest awards.

More information on the Melbourne Writers Festival can be found at: http://www.mwf.com.au/2009/content/mwf_2009_home.asp?

Now if we could just get the organisers of the Auckland Writers Festival to similarly open their arms to the importance of crime fiction...

First review of Alix Bosco's CUT & RUN

There hasn't been much in the mainstream media (at least what is available online) yet about Kiwi crime-writing debutant Alix Bosco's CUT & RUN. Perhaps it is too early yet, as the book was only released this month, but I hadn't seen any reviews at all until earlier this week.

In the first review I've seen anywhere of the book, celebrity reviewer Kerre Woodham has posted a short, positive, review on her Paper Plus-related Kerre's Reviews page HERE.

Has anyone else read CUT & RUN yet? Are you intending to? What do you think of this new Auckland-set crime/legal thriller?

Review of CEMETERY LAKE and THE RINGMASTER

As I've been thinking about how to provide the best coverage I can of crime fiction (especially Kiwi crime fiction) on this blog, it was pointed out to me that in addition to comments about book releases, author visits, and Kiwi author intros etc, I should also perhaps provide crime fiction reviews, in amongst the news and musings.

As I already review crime fiction for a number of publications in NZ, Australia and the wider world, I need to be a little careful about what I republish on this blog. Where possible, I will direct you to any crime fiction reviews I have done (or others that I think are good reads), either the print editions or a link to the online versions (eg see new sidebar of links to reviews). However, I will try to supplement these links and directions with a few reviews (particularly of Kiwi novels, but also of notable international ones I believe deserve further highlighting) on this blog. How does that sound?

To start off with (and since many of you wouldn't have been able to get the print edition when it came out last year), I'm posting below the first-ever published NZ crime fiction review I wrote. It is from the 14 November 2008 issue of NZLawyer magazine (http://www.nzlawyermagazine.co.nz/), and discusses Paul Cleave's CEMETERY LAKE and Vanda Symon's THE RINGMASTER (review not available online). Please let me know what you think (both about the review, and the idea of including some other reviews on this blog, as well as links/directions to published reviews)....

Serial Killers stalk the South Island
By Craig Sisterson

Crime pays. At least in a literary sense.

Ever since a Baker Street-dwelling drug-taking detective popularised the genre, solving the unsolvable with dispassionate deductions, readers worldwide have been enthralled by tales of murder, mystery, and mayhem.

Take a glance at international bestseller lists and it’s clear that over a century later, hundreds of millions remain captivated by a battle between criminal and sleuth contained within a few hundred (hopefully) well-written pages of prose.

But where are the Kiwi crime-writers? In a creative country that’s seen local talent put pen to paper (or fingers to keys) to win awards from the Booker Prize to Oscars, why aren’t our booksellers’ shelves filled with local stories in this most thrilling of genres?

Two South Island authors have answered the call. Paul Cleave and Vanda Symon shared the stage with international heavyweight Mark Billingham (creator of the brilliant London-set Tom Thorne novels) at the recent Christchurch Writers Festival, and both have released new books this year.

Cemetery Lake
by Paul Cleave (Random House, 2008)
Blue fingernails. Cleave begins his third novel with two simple, evocative words. Two words that bring Theo Tate to an exhumation; two words that send the world-weary private investigator on an unpredictable journey intersecting a present-day serial killer with well-kept suburbanite secrets, and Tate’s own troubled past.

Tate is only present at the exhumation because his former police colleagues are too busy trying to catch the Christchurch Carver, the grisly serial killer from Cleave’s debut novel, The Cleaner (Random House, 2006). Tate’s simple assignment becomes anything but when three bodies bubble up from the cemetery lake. When the coffin reveals the wrong body, two unpalatable possibilities emerge; the Carver has struck again, or there’s a second psychopath on the loose.

Though sidelined by the police, Tate finds himself sucked into the vortex, attempting to atone for sins of his past. As the case advances, and stolen evidence, the police, the media, priests, his own personal demons, murder and suicide all roadblock Tate, he finds himself compounding bad choices and devolving into a man he’d always despised.

Cemetery Lake is an impressive novel from a talented writer. Cleave creates compelling characters that ring true. Even when events become outlandish, Cleave doesn’t lose the reader, because he’s spun wholly-formed characters and lets us gaze a little into their worldview. He avoids the poor writers’ mistake of substituting quirks for characterisation; instead his characters do things for their own reasons, not just to serve the plot. We can understand the worst acts, because we see we might consider the same choice, in the same circumstance.

A feature of Cemetery Lake is the character-like shadow of Christchurch itself. Cleave weaves a strong sense of place, although his is a darker version: “Christchurch is broken”. Mirroring the real-life dichotomy of international renown for friendliness alongside ‘murder capital’ status, Cleave’s Christchurch is full of gardens and glue-sniffers; long-held secrets and closeted debauchery hidden behind suburban doors and old English architecture.

Cleave makes you want to turn the page, and when you get to the end, you want to go out and immediately find another of his books.

The Ringmaster
by Vanda Symon (Penguin, 2008)
Dunedin writer Vanda Symon’s follow-up to her excellent debut Overkill (Penguin, 2007) finds heroine Sam Shepherd having moved to Dunedin from Mataura; bridges burnt. Undertaking detective training, Shepherd’s on the bottom rung of the ladder, battling her grudge-holding boss for any involvement.

The Ringmaster opens with a murder in the Botanic Gardens, before switching to stroppy Sam’s first-person narration. Marginalised, she struggles to participate in the investigation, working in her own time and feeding off the scraps her partner Smithy smuggles her way. She eventually uncovers a link between the visiting circus, and a series of deaths throughout the lower South Island.

Of the many admirable aspects of Symon’s storytelling, chief is her creation of Sam Shepherd, a protagonist you want to follow; headstrong, passionate, and flawed. A talented detective, but not infallible. Shepherd puts herself out there, cares, makes mistakes, and has real emotions; fear, jealousy, anger, sadness. She’s human, real, and well-rounded.

Symon shows a talent for creating rounded characters throughout, from Shepherd’s friend Maggie, the ‘voice of reason’, to nemesis characters such as DI Johns and circus owner Terry Bennett. Symon ensures that even the antagonists ring true; they have good points as well as bad, and have understandable motives for their objectionable behaviour.

Another impressive facet is her use of the Dunedin setting. From the opening murder beside the Leith, to Highlanders games, and student life, Symon brings alive this southern city. When interviewed, Symon has said, “a town will have a feel, a social background. I like using Dunedin. It has a vibrancy and an edge with the students and all that brings with it.”

The Ringmaster is a great read. Symon populates a good story with great characters, and unique touches in a distinctly Kiwi setting. It comes together a little quickly at the end, but leaves you wanting more of Sam Shepherd.

And, taking a leaf out from her international contemporaries, Symon provides just that; the first chapter of the next Sam Shepherd adventure, Containment, is included. I can’t wait.

UPDATE: Mark Billingham's BLOOD LINE - review on Nine to Noon

Further to my post from Monday, Mark Billingham's latest, BLOOD LINE, was reviewed on Radio New Zealand's Nine to Noon show at 10:30pm today.

The reviewer was actually Graham 'Bookman' Beattie, former Managing Director of Penguin Books NZ, and now the man behind the excellent Beattie's Book Blog. Graham gave what I thought was a very thorough, thoughtful, and fair review. You can listen to the five-minute discussion via the link at:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/

Or alternatively you can read Graham's thoughts at his blog at:
http://beattiesbookblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/bloodline-mark-billingham-littlebrown.html

Nice to see someone who is involved in fiction and books in a much wider sense, also appreciating and publicising good crime writing. What do you think of Bookman Beattie's review? Or the book itself?

Have you read Paul Cleave?

For the second in this blog's regular series (every Wednesday) of author introductions on Kiwi crime, mystery, and thriller writers, we now take a look at the work of Paul Cleave.

Born in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1974, Cleave grew up wanting to be a writer, "ever since primary school", but found the things he was interested in writing about didn't go down too well with his teachers. High School reports on his short stories included comments along the lines of there was a time and place for his kind of writing - and school wasn't it. Fortunately, that didn't stop him.

In his late teens he switched from short stories to penning his first novel-length manuscripts. Similar to the growth curve of many international stars, he now has several early unpublished manuscripts firmly ensconsced in the bottom drawer. Then as a 24-year old he began working on what would become (after several years of hard struggle) his first two published novels, THE CLEANER (Random House, 2006) and THE KILLING HOUR (Random House, 2007). A year later, he quit his long-term job as a pawnbroker, which has allowed him an insight into many varying sectors of the local community, to concentrate on his writing.

Without any income, he was forced to make a decision - get another job or sell his house. He sold his house and continued to write. Over several years he continued to work on his novels, while also renovating houses. In 2006 THE CLEANER was released, and introduced Joe, a serial killer who works as a janitor at the Christchurch Police Department, to the world. When a killing he didn't perform is linked to him, Joe uses his inside access to try and find and punish the copycat.

Over the following year or so, THE CLEANER become an international bestseller. It was particularly popular in Germany, where the translation of the dark and raw tale that took readers inside an askew mind, hit #2 on the adult fiction book charts (just behind the then-latest Harry Potter), and battled it out over several weeks with Linwood Barclay's smash-hit NO TIME FOR GOODBYE to lead the crime fiction charts.

THE CLEANER ended up as the #1 crime thriller title on Amazon in Germany for 2007, and in the top 10 for all books. In reasonably short order more than 250,000 copies had been sold (international sales of Cleave's books are now approximately half a million, despite the fact he hasn't yet been released in either the UK or US markets). THE CLEANER is one of the biggest and fastest-selling fiction books to ever come out of New Zealand. It was shortlisted for a Ned Kelly crime writing award (Australia) and listed as one of the NZ Listener's Best Books of the Year (quite unusual for a crime novel, particularly a local one). Unlike Cleave's high school teachers, international reviewers were full of praise for his writing. THE CLEANER has been signed up by several non-English speaking countries, including Germany, Russia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Japan, and now (recently) France. There has also been some recent murmurings about a possible movie adaptation.

Cleave followed up his stunning debut with THE KILLING HOUR (2007) and CEMETERY LAKE (2008). All three novels are set in his hometown of Christchurch, which Cleave gives a dark sheen and almost character-like presence. They have somewhat overlapping timeframes (and the events in one book occasionally touch another), and some minor characters appear in multiple books, but each is a standalone, focused on the trials and tribulations of a different main character who is facing his own emotional turmoil.

In THE KILLING HOUR, Charlie wakes up, covered in blood, to the news that two woman he was with the night before have been brutally murdered. In CEMETERY LAKE, former policeman and now private eye Theo Tate finds himself caught up in the hunt for a serial killer who's storing bodies in other people's graves. Both books have received good reviews.

The great news for English-speaking northerners, is that Cleave's novels have recently been signed up by Random House UK (Arrow Books division). Starting with CEMETERY LAKE on 24 September, they are scheduled to start being released in Great Britain.

Those that like a mixture of grim crime with dark humour, ala Mark Billingham and Stuart MacBride, are likely to enjoy CEMETERY LAKE. Although Cleave can be a little more brutal than Billingham, in the vein of Mo Hayder. He also focuses on allowing the reader a look inside some tormented, troubled, or otherwise askew minds, so fans of Patricia Highsmith may also really enjoy that aspect. You can sample the first chapter of CEMETERY LAKE at: http://www.paulcleave.co.nz/novels_cemetery.php

Award-winning British crime writer Mark Billingham met Cleave while in New Zealand last year, and (clearly having now future as a high school teacher) was very impressed by his writing. He says: "Most people come back from New Zealand talking about the the breathtaking scenery and the amazing experiences. I came back raving about Paul Cleave. These are stories that you won’t forget in a while: relentlessly gripping, deliciously twisted and shot through with a vein of humour that’s as dark as hell. Cleave creates fictional monsters as chilling and as charming as any I’ve ever come across. Anyone who likes their crime fiction on the black and bloody side should move Paul Cleave straight to the top of their must-read list."

However, like Dame Ngaio Marsh, Cleave still seems far more appreciated overseas (in those countries which have published his books) than at home in New Zealand. Hopefully, this may be slowly starting to change, with a large feature article on Cleave in a recent (June) issue of North & South magazine, and further feature articles scheduled to coincide with the release of his fourth novel, BLOOD MEN, in 2010. To give you a taste of what's to come, you can read the prologue of BLOOD MEN here: http://www.paulcleave.co.nz/novels_bloodmen.php

Have you read Paul Cleave? What do you think of his crime novels? Do you agree with Mark Billingham? Do the snippets above (and first chapters) make you want to read more? Please share your thoughts.

You can read more about Paul Cleave (including reviews etc) at his website: http://www.paulcleave.co.nz/index.php or at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cleave