Location, location, location...

One of the things that I say to friends who question why I like crime fiction, and rate some of it so highly, rather than solely reading 'literature' along the lines of the Booker Prize lists etc, is the way the best crime fiction is about a lot more than merely the solving of a crime; the best crime fiction can evoke a fantastic sense of place and setting, be filled with marvellous and complex characters, and tell us a little about humanity and the world around us. In many cases the best crime writing does this far better than some noted literary fiction, especially when it comes to addressing contemporary places and issues that many 'literary' authors shy away from. Many crime writers are also known not just as good storytellers in terms of plotting, but masters in terms of evoking the setting of their crime tales. From the crime and thriller writers I've spoken to and interviewed this year for various feature stories, it certainly seems that creating a rich sense of place is something quite important to most of them, whether it's Paul Cleave's Christchurch, Stuart MacBride's Aberdeen, Vanda Symon's Dunedin, Craig Russell's Hamburg, or Jonathan Kellerman or Gregg Hurwitz's Los Angeles. So I was quite interested to read a recent-ish article by award-winning US crime writer CJ Box, for Britain's The Guardian, about the 'Top 10 US crime novelists who own their territory'.

In the article, which you can read here, Box (who sets his own novels in the Rocky Mountains) says: "The dirty little secret about the very best contemporary crime novels is that it often doesn't matter much who did it and why, but where the story is set. Solving the crime is simply a vehicle to travel through the territory. Reading the best crime novels about specific locations by authors who live there and own their home turf is like visiting with the ultimate know-it-all guide who moonlights as a voyeur."

He then goes on to list, with reasons and recommendations, ten US locations and the authors who best evoke or 'own' those distinct settings. It's an interesting list - a mix of authors I've read and haven't yet read. There's some slam-dunks I could pick without even reading his article; eg James Lee Burke for his lush and vivid Lousiana settings, Tony Hillerman for his Navajo reservation settings in the southwest. I also agree with Box that I would pick Michael Connelly as the crime writer who best evokes modern Los Angeles (perhaps blasphemously to all the Chandler devotees out there) - although that location is certainly well-represented crime-wise, with other authors such as Kellerman, Hurwitz, Robert Crais and T Jefferson Parker also providing a great contemporary insight into the City of Angels.

In terms of other authors who evoke a particular location well in their crime novels, I would perhaps add Jack Kerley for his Alabama settings, so richly-drawn in his Carson Ryder series of novels (he reminds me in a way of a slightly less-lyrical James Lee Burke, in terms of scratching at the humid surface of rich 'southern' settings). Gillian Flynn is also very good, in her two books thusfar, at evoking the seamy cities, foreclosed farms, and hooker-filled truckstops of America's bleak Midwest. Young wunderkind Michael Koryta gives a nice sense of Cleveland and Ohio, a lesser-covered major US city and state, in his Lincoln Perry novels.

Of course, when you look outside the US, the list gets even longer in terms of particular crime authors who paint vivid word-pictures of particular places. In major UK cities alone, there is Tom Thorne's London, as written by Mark Billingham, Logan McRae's Aberdeen, penned by Stuart MacBride - and of course can anyone think of crime and Scotland without Ian Rankin's wonderful evocation of Rebus's Edinburgh.

In New Zealand, Paul Cleave is doing a stirling job giving Christchurch (if a dark version of the city) a character-like presence in his standalone thrillers. Vanda Symon evoked the rural New Zealand south very well in her debut OVERKILL, and is know doing a similarly great job with her Dunedin settings (in THE RINGMASTER and CONTAINMENT). I was pleasantly surprised by how well debutant Alix Bosco evoked various aspects of contemporary Auckland this year in CUT & RUN - and Dorothy Fowler gave a nice sense of rural Northland in WHAT REMAINS BEHIND.

What are some of your favourite crime writers, in terms of those who vividly evoke particular locations? What are some of the best-written cities and regions, in terms of crime? Do you agree or disagree with CJ Box's list? Who would you add or delete? Is Michael Connelly the crime novelist who gives the best sense of modern LA? Who evokes London the best? New York? Do you enjoy crime novels with a great sense of place - or do you prefer ones focused solely on story/the investigation? Thoughts and comments welcome.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: L is for Linwood Barclay's FEAR THE WORST

Continuing the fun series started by fellow Anzac book blogger Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise, where each week bloggers from around the world write about a notable crime fiction novel or author (first name or surname) starting with a particular letter of the alphabet, this week is the turn of "L".

After a run of Kiwi crime fiction related posts, I thought I'd head back overseas, and revisit a book I reviewed earlier this year; Linwood Barclay's latest, FEAR THE WORST. Barclay is the bestselling Canadian author who I also interviewed earlier this year, for articles in both Australian magazine Good Reading, and the Canvas magazine supplement in the Weekend Herald (New Zealand's highest-circulation newspaper). Barclay came to wider attention when his fifth crime novel, NO TIME FOR GOODBYE, became a massively-popular bestseller in Germany and the UK. It eventually topped the chart as the book with the highest sales in the UK in 2008. He's followed that up by winning the Arthur Ellis Award for best Canadian crime novel for his next standalone, TOO CLOSE TO HOME, and then releasing FEAR THE WORST in the middle part of 2009.

As a reviewer, I quite like Linwood Barclay's story of 'later' success, and how he's 'suddenly' got noticed by the general book-buying public after several well-reviewed, if not wildly-popular, books. It gives me hope for other authors, including some Kiwi crime and thriller writers, who have been putting out great quality stories, without (yet) getting the readership and notice that they deserve.

As well as the author-interview based features, I reviewed FEAR THE WORST for my hometown newspaper, the Nelson Mail. That review is below:

FEAR THE WORST
by Linwood Barclay (Orion, 2009)
Former Toronto Star humour columnist Linwood Barclay topped the British fiction charts for 2008 with his gripping "missing family" thriller No Time For Goodbye, and now he's back with another superb page-turner centred on everyday characters thrust into harrowing situations.
With Fear the Worst, Barclay's trademark mix of domesticity and dread is apparent right from the gut-check opening line: "The morning of the day I lost her, my daughter asked me to scramble her some eggs." What starts out as an ordinary day in an increasingly ordinary life for car salesman Tim Blake takes a troubling turn when his daughter Sydney doesn't return home from her summer job at a local motel.

Troubling becomes terrifying when Tim discovers that Sydney never worked at the motel at all. He doesn't need to simply track Sydney down - he needs to find out who his daughter really was and why she was lying to him. Only one thing has him convinced the worst hasn't already happened: the fact that some very scary people seem just as eager as he is to find her, by any means necessary.

Unlike many thriller heroes, middle-aged Tim is a very ordinary man. He's no spy, cop or soldier. Nor does he have the naturally investigative background of a lawyer, writer or other traditional amateur detective stereotype. Instead, he is at that somewhat beaten-down point in his life where his ledger shows more losses than wins - his first marriage disintegrated, his own car dealership went bust, and he struggles to deal with his increasingly rebellious teenage daughter.

It's all of this that helps to make Tim's everyman efforts to find his daughter even more compelling and real. With an engrossing storyline peppered with plot twists and filled with layered and recognisably human characters, Fear the Worst may very well end up being the best thriller released this year.

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In hindsight I'd say FEAR THE WORST is 'one of the better out-and-out crime thrillers released this year', having now read several dozen other crime and thriller titles.

Have you read Linwood Barclay? His smash-hit NO TIME FOR GOODBYE or his other titles, such as FEAR THE WORST? What do you think of his writing? Do you like his mix of danger and domesticity? Do you like your heroes the most everyday of the everyday (e.g. used car salesmen, teachers, lawn-mower businesspeople etc)? Or do you prefer spies and other 'professional' heroes? Thoughts and comments welcome.

The Decade in Review: Anthony Award winners (2000-2009)

Well, it turns out I have internet access and time to kill for the first couple of days of my Europe and Egypt Xmas/New Years adventure, so I thought I'd ignore my 'hiatus' post from Saturday temporarily; a hiatus from the hiatus, if you will (although it will kick into gear later this week). I'm off to see Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" in London tonight, so I will post about that later, but for now I thought I'd take another decade-long look back at some of the major crime writing award winners of the 2000s.

As I noted on Thursday and Saturday, as we get to the end of the year, we're starting to see more and more 'best of the year' lists and reflections - which can always provide some ammunition for debate and discussion. Given that it's 2009, we're also seeing a fair few 'reviewing the whole decade' type lists. Inspired by that, I thought I'd take a look (in something of a short series) at some of the crime fiction themes, highlights, or otherwise noteworthy happenings of the decade. And I'd be really interested to get your perspective in the comments section as well, on each topic.

For the third in this short series, I'm taking a look at one of the other most prestigious crime writing awards, the Anthony Award for Best Novel, voted on and presented each year at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention. The awards are named for Anthony Boucher (1911-1968), one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America.

As I noted back in October, the attendees at this year's Indianapolis event voted Michael Connelly's THE BRASS VERDICT as the 2009 Anthony Award winner for Best Novel. THE BRASS VERDICT is Connelly's second novel to feature defence attorney Mickey Haller (who debuted in THE LINCOLN LAWYER), and also brings Haller and Connelly's most-loved main character, Harry Bosch, together - Bosch is investigating the murder of a Hollywood lawyer, while Haller has taken over that lawyer's most high-profile case, the defense of a prominent Hollwyood executive accused of slaughtering his wife and her lover.

You can read an extract of THE BRASS VERDICT here.

The full list of winners this decade is:

• 2009 Michael Connelly, THE BRASS VERDICT
• 2008 Laura Lippman, WHAT THE DEAD KNOW
• 2007 Laura Lippman, NO GOOD DEEDS
• 2006 William Kent Krueger, MERCY FALLS
• 2005 William Kent Krueger, BLOOD HOLLOW
• 2004 Laura Lippman, EVERY SECRET THING
• 2003 Michael Connelly, CITY OF BONES
• 2002 Dennis Lehane, MYSTIC RIVER
• 2001 Val McDermid, A PLACE OF EXECUTION
• 2000 Peter Robinson, IN A DRY SEASON

Unlike the Edgar and Gold Dagger lists from my previous posts, there are plenty of multiple winners with the Anthony Award. In fact there were only 6 different authors sharing the ten Best Novel Awards this decade, with the past seven awards shared by just three authors; Michael Connelly, Laura Lippman, and William Kent Krueger. Connelly also won in both 1997 and 1999, meaning three authors have shared 9 of the past 13 awards - so the Bouchercon attendees and voters certainly have their favourites.

Also unlike the Edgar and Gold Dagger Award lists I have read most of these authors - in fact William Kent Krueger is the only author on this list I haven't read.

Have you read any of these titles? Which is your favourite? Which do you think is the best out of all ten Anthony Award winners this decade? Thoughts and comments welcome

Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year...

Well, I'm flying out to London (via Brunei) in a couple of hours, and will be spending the next three weeks in London, Germany, and then Egypt. Much of the time will be sans internet access.

As such, this blog will be going into hiatus - but you can look forward to Crime Watch coming back bigger and better than ever in the new year, with lots of happenings on the Kiwi crime and thriller fiction front.

I appreciate all of the blog readers, and your comments and emails. I hope you all have a wonderful festive season with your friends and family, no matter where in the world you find yourself.

Until early January 2010, Kia Kaha from Aotearoa.

The Decade in Review: Gold Dagger Award winners (2000-2009)

As I noted a couple of days ago, as we get to the end of the year, we're starting to see more and more 'best of the year' lists and reflections - which can always provide some ammunition for debate and discussion. Given that it's 2009, we're also seeing a fair few 'reviewing the whole decade' type lists. Inspired by that, I thought I'd take a look (in something of a short series) at some of the crime fiction themes, highlights, or otherwise noteworthy happenings of the decade. And I'd be really interested to get your perspective in the comments section as well, on each topic.

For the second in this short series, I'm taking a look at one of the other most prestigious crime writing awards, the Gold Dagger, awarded by the UK-based Crime Writers Association (CWA). This award has gone through a few different names (eg Duncan Lawrie Gold Dagger) over the course of the past ten years, as sponsorships etc have changed. The list of winners this decade is:

• 2009: William Brodrick, A WHISPERED NAME
• 2008: Frances Fyfield, BLOOD FROM STONE
• 2007: Peter Temple, THE BROKEN SHORE
• 2006: Ann Cleeves, RAVEN BLACK
• 2005: Arnaldur Indriðason, SILENCE OF THE GRAVE
• 2004: Sara Paretsky, BLACKLIST
• 2003: Minette Walters, FOX EVIL
• 2002: José Carlos Somoza, THE ATHENIAN MURDERS
• 2001: Henning Mankell, SIDETRACKED
• 2000: Jonathan Lethem, MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN
  

Once again, I haven't read any of these ten books (some crime fiction reviewer I am - though to be fair I've only been reviewing the past year or so - before then I mainly read a lot of books from a shorter list of authors), but have read other books by some of the authors.

Unlike the Edgar list, there were no double-winners during the decade. However some authors received multiple shortlistings (e.g. Mark Billingham twice, for SCAREDY CAT in 2002 and IN THE DARK in 2009, and James Lee Burke FOUR times - for PURPLE CANE ROAD in 2000, JOLIE BLON'S BOUNCE in 2002, PEGASUS DESCENDING in 2007, and THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN in 2008).

Have you read any of these titles? Which is your favourite? Which do you think is the best out of all ten Gold Dagger Award winners this decade? Which award do you think is more prestigious - the Edgar or the Gold Dagger (ie which is the Golden Globe, which is the Oscar)? - or does it not really matter? Thoughts and comments welcome

Good news or bad? Sony nearing deal for US remake of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

As I said in my review of “Män som hatar kvinnor” (the Swedish-language, English-subtitled film adaptation of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO), I wondered how Hollywood filmmakers might (mis?)handle aspects of Larsson's story, given the chance. Well, as has been long-rumoured, it appears that such as US remake will come to fruition, with heavyweight Hollywood studio Sony Pictures is close to securing a deal for the English-language rights.

As reported in film trade publication Variety this week, Sony Pictures has "optioned the English-language screen rights to “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” the first of three titles in the Millennium Series of crime thriller novels by late Swedish journalist-activist Stieg Larsson." Although the deal hasn’t quite closed yet; it’s been gestating for six months because of a rights dispute between Larsson’s parents and his longtime partner, Eva Gabrielsson.


The good news? Swedish producers Yellow Bird Films, who have created the three Swedish-language versions, are working with Sony on the project. Oscar-winning screenwriter Steve Zaillian (Schindler's List, Gangs of New York, American Gangster) is in talks to write the script, and reportedly Oscar-winner Scott Rudin (The Truman Show, No Country for Old Men, Doubt, Revolutionary Road) will produce with Ole Sondberg and Soren Staermose of Yellow Bird Films. So there's some serious 'dramatic film' clout there.

The not-so-good news? Anita Singh in The Telegraph reports that Kristen Stewart of tween hit Twilight, has been linked to the role of Lisbeth Salander. Yikes. It may just be that any dark-featured young Hollywood actress on the rise will be mentioned as a possibility - but at least to me I wouldn't think that using such a 'teen icon' in the role would work very well. Maybe for initial sales and box office, but not so much in terms of creating a great film. Ah, the eternal tension between art and commerce at the cinema eh? I would also like to think there are better young actresses available, in terms of evoking such a complex character.

What are your thoughts on a US remake? If it goes ahead, who would you like to see in the main roles, in terms of US actors? Thoughts and comments most welcome.

The Decade in Review: Edgar Award winners (2000-2009)

Well, as we get to the end of the year, we're starting to see more and more 'best of the year' lists and reflections - which can always provide some ammunition for debate and discussion. Given that it's 2009, we're also seeing a fair few 'reviewing the whole decade' type lists. Inspired by that, I thought I'd take a look (in something of a short series) at some of the crime fiction themes, highlights, or otherwise noteworthy happenings of the decade. And I'd be really interested to get your perspective in the comments section as well, on each topic.

To kick-off, I thought I'd look at award-winning crime novels - starting with one of the most prestigious accolades, the Edgar Award for Best Novel, given by the Mystery Writers of America each year. The list of winners this decade is:

• 2000: Jan Burke, BONES
• 2001: Joe R. Lansdale, THE BOTTOMS
• 2002: T. Jefferson Parker, SILENT JOE
• 2003: S. J. Rozan, WINTER AND NIGHT
• 2004: Ian Rankin, RESURRECTION MEN
• 2005: T. Jefferson Parker, CALIFORNIA GIRL
• 2006: Jess Walter, CITIZEN VINCE
• 2007: Jason Goodwin, THE JANISSARY TREE
• 2008: John Hart, DOWN RIVER
• 2009: C. J. Box, BLUE HEAVEN

To my shame, I have read none of these 10 books, although I have read other titles by several of those authors. A couple of these titles are in my TBR pile at home as well (being currently neglected due to the ever-increasing number of recent books needing reviews).

On this list alone, it seems T. Jefferson Parker has had a pretty good decade, Edgars-wise. Like James Lee Burke in the 1990s, he's picked up multiple Edgar awards (as a sidenote, James Lee Burke seemed to still be shortlisted a lot in the 2000s for several of his books for several high-ranking awards, if not getting the 'wins' as much this time around).

Have you read any of these titles? Which is your favourite? Which do you think is the best out of all ten Edgar Award winners this decade?

Review: The film of the book - THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

On Monday evening I was fortunate enough to be invited by publisher Allen & Unwin to a preview screening of “Män som hatar kvinnor” (aka the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). The movie has of course been shown in several places in Europe already, but it opens in wide-ish release in New Zealand, and some other countries, later this month. I was pretty excited about getting a chance to see the Swedish film version (with English-language subtitles), especially after viewing the trailer, which you can see here.

“Män som hatar kvinnor” (aka The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) is of course based on Stieg Larsson’s groundbreaking first book in his ‘Millennium trilogy’, which years after his death continues to rapidly build an ever-increasing audience around the globe. As I noted in my large feature on Swedish crime writing in the August 2009 issue of Good Reading magazine, Larsson topped the 2008/2009 Wischenbart survey, which analysed bestselling authors across seven major European markets (despite the rampant success and soaring sales of the Twilight teen vampire series, Larsson still beat out Stephanie Meyer). And with the US market only in the past year or so beginning to be exposed to (and embrace) Larsson, I can’t imagine his popularity slowing anytime soon - especially with all the movies coming out (the 2nd and 3rd books have already been turned into films by the same Swedish filmmakers as well).

As many readers will know, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATOO is about a disgraced financial journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, who is asked by aging business tycoon Henrik Vanger to investigate the disappearance of Henrik’s beloved niece Harriet forty years ago. Blomkvist eventually teams up with Lisbeth Salander, an antisocial punk-styled expert computer hacker with a very troubled and secretive past – and the ‘odd couple’ discover unexpected and unimaginable brutality while digging through the Vanger family history. The book has won a slew of awards worldwide, over several years (as it has been released in different languages and countries). Recently it picked up the 2009 Anthony Award for Best First Novel at the 40th Bouchercon in Indianapolis.

So what is the film of this famous book like? We all know that there can be great filmic adaptations of famous or beloved books, but that there are perhaps many more book adaptations that disappoint, falling far short of reader and audience expectations. So it was with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation that I trotted along to the Rialto Theatre in Newmarket, Auckland, to view Larsson’s masterpiece on the big screen.

In short, I loved the movie. I thought it was an excellent, well-made film that beautifully evoked the atmosphere, themes, and storyline of Larsson’s tale. It was not always ‘pleasant’ to watch, with some fairly brutal scenes – but nothing ever felt contrived or gratuitous. In my opinion, the filmmakers did a fantastic job in handling those moments, giving the audience great insight into character, and striking the right tone etc. I did wonder how similar moments might have been (mis)handled if it was an English-language film made by, for example, Hollywood filmmakers.

I must confess that I was a little concerned that my date for the evening (an old and dear high school friend who’s recently returned to NZ after a decade in Europe, and had told me she loved reading crime fiction) might have been wondering what the hell I’d dragged her along to, at some points (I caught a few stern visages in my peripheral vision) – but she told me afterwards that she too absolutely loved the film, and thought it was the best thing she’d seen in ages (she hadn’t read the book yet, so was watching it purely from a filmgoers’ perspective).

I thought the screenwriters (Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg) did a great job translating Larsson’s novel to film form. You can never get everything from a novel into a film; they are different storytelling mediums, for a start. But the film was a cohesive story that definitely contained and touched on many of the most important themes, events, and ‘moments’ from Larsson’s work. I hope that when the film hits wider release that reviewers don’t concentrate on any specific details left out or minor changes that the filmmakers made – as can often happen with reviews when popular books are adapted for film – because I think the filmmakers did a fantastic job overall. I particularly liked the fact they captured some of the layers, and depth, of Larsson’s work (there was a lot of subtext to what was on screen, and many issues and themes were touched on or delicately, and sometimes not so delicately, hinted at) – the story behind or beneath the surface story, so to speak.

As Oscar-winning screenwriter Philippa Boyens (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Lovely Bones) said in our interview for a feature in the current issue of Good Reading, filmmakers must search for the spine and spirit of a book, and seek to tell that story best in a visual way, rather than focusing on all the various details in a novel. I think the filmmakers of “Män som hatar kvinnor” (aka The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) did that wonderfully.

In terms of acting, I thought Noomi Rapace was brilliant as Lisbeth Salander. She conveyed the computer hacker’s conflict, confusion, anger, and uniqueness (amongst other things) exceptionally well through glances, gestures, and other non-speaking moments – not just scripted dialogue. Like the best performances, I never saw it as someone acting as Lisbeth Salander, rather Rapace was Lisbeth Salander. Mikael Nyqvist was also great as Mikael Blomkvist – in fact I thought the cast was very solid across the board. The actor who played Lisbeth’s new guardian (Peter Andersson I think), for instance, had a particularly tough role to play, but was completely believable as the lecherous lawyer – while still giving the role some (creepy) reality and layers, rather than being simply a cardboard caricature of evil.

Overall, for me this is/was without a doubt one of the best films, if not the very best, I have seen in 2009. In fact; in the past few years. Highly, highly, recommended. Simply superb.

Have you seen the film? If so, what did you think? If not, are you looking forward to seeing it? What book-to-film adaptations have you loved, and which have left you wanting? Thoughts and comments welcome…

Another 2009 Kiwi debut: BENEATH THE CHERRY TREE by David Bates

It’s already been a pretty good year for New Zealand crime writing, in terms of the number of books that have been released (see sidebar), and the fact there have been a few debutant authors hit the scene (eg Alix Bosco with CUT & RUN, Dorothy Fowler with WHAT REMAINS BEHIND, Liam McIlvanney with ALL THE COLOURS OF THE TOWN etc).

Looking back on the recent-ish history of New Zealand crime and thriller writing, we do have something of a tradition of authors putting out one or two books, and then stopping, for any number of reasons (eg see sidebar list of a larger-than-expected number of Kiwi crime/thriller writers historically, many of whom put out only one or two books). Since Dame Ngaio Marsh we have had very, very few authors put out multiple crime/thriller titles – which is why it is so heartening to see modern-day local authors like Paul Cleave and Vanda Symon becoming ‘new book per year’ (or so) contributors to the crime genre. Even more pleasing; considering the quality of such books. It can only be hoped that some of the newer additions to the Kiwi crime/thriller family follow in Cleave and Symon’s recent footsteps, and similarly become regulars on our booksellers’ shelves. I understand Bosco, Fowler, and McIlvanney are all working on further crime/thriller/mystery novels – and that experienced writer Lindy Kelly (author of #1 New Zealand bestseller BOLD BLOOD, her first adult thriller) is also intending to pen further thrillers.

Now I have just received word (and a copy) of a further 2009 local release – BENEATH THE CHERRY TREE by David Bates – adding one more to the pleasing number of Kiwi crime/mystery/thriller titles in 2009. The back cover blurb for the book reads: “Julian Paul is a Wellington barrister with a gambling problem. Anthony Samuels is a remand prisoner and Julian’s client. He faces serious drug charges and is desperate for bail. Julian undertakes to arrange this – for an exorbitant fee - by blackmailing a Judge who had a homosexual relationship many years previously.”

The author, Bates, is a practising barrister in Tauranga, and a former police officer – so it will be interesting to see how (and how well) he weaves his personal experience of crime and the law into his tale. The 62-year old Bates enlisted as a Seaman boy in the Royal New Zealand Navy in the early 1960s, before joining the New Zealand Police as a 19-year old. Over his 17-year police career he rose through the ranks to Inspector, before completing a law degree and becoming a barrister in 1982. He specialises in criminal defence work. You can see his legal website here.

Unlike the titles mentioned above, BENEATH THE CHERRY TREE is published by a small publisher, Polygraphia – so it’s also good to see a variety of publishers of varying sizes supporting local crime-related fiction writing. You can read a little more about the book and publisher here.

BENEATH THE CHERRY TREE opens with: “Death could be so bloody inconvenient. Mind you, Julian couldn’t recall anyone ever acknowledging it usually came knocking at just the right time. It was just one of those things. Death chose its own time and circumstance…” I will be interested to see where this story goes – I think I’ll take this book with me to Europe when I fly out on the weekend (it’s relatively slimline at 240pages, so good for backpacks).

So, it seems that things may be looking up for Kiwi crime, especially as there are signs that this year’s pleasing number of releases should be followed up with several new Kiwi crime/thriller/mystery titles in 2010 as well. For instance, both Paul Cleave and Paddy Richardson (each of whom’s previous book was released in mid/late 2008) have books coming out in the New Year. Wellington-based Neil Cross I understand may also have a new thriller, and Vanda Symon’s fourth, BOUND, should be released later in the year. Michael Green is also currently completing the third instalment in his 'Blood Line' trilogy.

If Bosco, Kelly, McIlvanney or Fowler can get their second books out in 2010, or if we see a welcome return from Druett, Jutson, or even Paul Thomas – along with perhaps a couple more debutants – 2010 could perhaps be an even bigger year for Kiwi crime.

Several years ago Austria had a mere handful of crime writers, now it has dozens producing hundreds of books. Or look at the growth in, and recognition of, Scottish crime writing since Ian Rankin. Or Sweden since Henning Mankell. I’m not saying New Zealand will follow in those footsteps, or to those extents, but there is no reason we couldn’t produce more crime and thriller fiction than we have been, and there is definitely no reason why we can’t do more to encourage, support, and celebrate those local crime/thriller/mystery books and authors that deserve it.

Thoughts and comments welcome.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: K is for Kelly, Lindy

Continuing the fun series started by fellow Anzac book blogger Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise, where each week bloggers from around the world write about a notable crime fiction novel or author (first name or surname) starting with a particular letter of the alphabet, this week is the turn of "K".

Given that in my "A" post I said I would regularly sprinkle my contributions with a New Zealand-related post or two, this week I am including a post on Kiwi longtime short story and children’s author Lindy Kelly, whose debut adult thriller BOLD BLOOD hit #1 on the NZ Adult Fiction charts earlier this year

NB - this Crime Fiction Alphabet post is a lightly-edited reproduction of a profile post I did on Kelly earlier this year.

LINDY KELLY (1952 -
Although BOLD BLOOD was Kelly's first adult novel, it certainly wasn't her first foray into writing. She had previously published more than 100 short stories, sixteen children’s books, dozens of feature articles, 36 poems, and had her writing feature on National Radio and be performed on stage. When I interviewed her for a feature article in NZ Horse & Pony earlier this year, she said 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... you know, something with excitement and adventure, a bit of danger, likable strong characters, animals, good plot, a few mysteries, a bit of romance, humour, and passion.”Kelly was born in 1952 and grew up on a farm just outside of Hamilton (in the North Island of New Zealand). She was an animal-lover from birth. “I was a horse-mad little girl,” she said, noting she collected horse books “ad nauseum”, drew ponies all over her school books, and “lived and breathed” horses.

Kelly still recalls her very first pony, Titch, and riding a horse named Trigger at Matangi Pony Club fifty years ago. Her childhood and teenage years were horse-centric; pony club, attending holiday camps at the NZ Equestrian Centre, and riding alongside now-legendary equestrian Mark Todd (double Olympic Gold medallist, 3-times Badminton winner, 5-times Burghley winner, double World Champion, voted IEF Rider of the 20th Century) in the Waikato.Kelly became a championship-calibre rider on her white-stockinged, black thoroughbred Passport. “You could just travel across country with him, jumping hedges and ditches, fences and logs – nothing would stop him. And it was just this most amazing feeling of freedom; you were flying, flying through the air on this most magnificent creature… fantastic.”Kelly and Passport were on the cusp of heading overseas with Mark Todd and others to train and compete in the United States, when tragedy struck at the 1971 New Zealand Horse Trials. Torrential rain, a dangerous course, a slip after a big drop jump, a broken leg; Lindy was faced with every rider’s worst nightmare - Passport had to be destroyed. She eventually went overseas anyway, to work in the horse industry, including in Hawaii and Canada, and studying as an instructor under champion European trainers.

On her return to New Zealand, she “taught riding for some time, then married a farmer and settled down”. They moved to Nelson, the sunshine capital of New Zealand (at the Top of the South Island) and later bought a 400-acre farm. Over the years Kelly combined having a family with a variety of jobs, including breeding “stud sheep, angora goats, thoroughbred horses and Jack Russell dogs all at different times”.

Kelly's children inspired her writing career, as she began penning stories they would enjoy, often peppering animals throughout the tales. Her first collection of short stories for adults, WEKA'S TREASURE, was published in 1995. Her writing for younger readers has appeared in a wide range of New Zealand and Australasian journals and educational publications, winning awards including the Australasian Free Xpression Literary 2000 short story award and the Southern Scribe children's short story award. Her plays for children have been performed extensively throughout New Zealand.

In a NZ Book Council interview with schoolchildren, Kelly said her favourite authors are: "Roald Dahl because I love his mischievous, black humour... [and the] other is Dick Francis because his novels are always set in a racing scene. I too love horses and have been involved with riding and racing them so I really enjoy his books and can’t wait for his new one to come out each year."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, when Kelly turned her writing hand to adult thrillers, horses naturally came to the fore. “There’s a shortage of books written in the rural setting, and I’ve never read a book that’s been written in the eventing world, so I thought there was a real gap there,” said Kelly in our interview earlier this year.

In BOLD BLOOD, a suspicious fall, a coma and a phone call destroy Dr Caitlin Summerfield’s city-living, rich boyfriend, overseas-travel filled life and reverie. She reluctantly returns ‘home’ to rural Nelson and ends up playing caretaker for her estranged but now-stricken mother’s horse farm. Helped by rugged event rider Dom and purple-headed teenage groom Kasey, she 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. You can read an extract of BOLD BLOOD here.

BOLD BLOOD did well for a NZ crime/thriller title following its release this February. It hit #1 on the NZ Adult Fiction bestseller list, and stayed in the top 5 for several weeks. I understand it somewhat surprised HarperCollins by selling out its first print run reasonably rapidly. Kelly is currently working on her second adult thriller, as well as some other writing. She has also recently been awarded an AMP Scholarship to help her compete at the 2010 World Masters swimming championships in Sweden.

You can read more about Lindy Kelly and BOLD BLOOD in a good article by writer Nicky Pellegrino in the NZ Herald HERE and also on the NZ Book Council website HERE. You can read one of my reviews of BOLD BLOOD here.

Alternatively, if you can find a hard copy of the May 2009 NZ Horse & Pony, you can also read more about Lindy Kelly in my large feature article "Horses in the Blood" in that magazine. Unfortunately that issue has not yet been archived online.

Have you read any of Lindy Kelly's work? What do you think of BOLD BLOOD (or her other writing)? Would thrillers set in the eventing and equestrian world interest you? Please share your thoughts...

London Calling...

Well, I'm less than a week away from arriving in jolly old England (though I imagine at this wintry time of year it's perhaps not quite-so-jolly weatherwise - thank goodness for Xmas cheer!). My better half, a Kiwi girl, is currently working in London so I'm like a navigationally-challenged bird, and heading north for (your) winter.

I have about 3 days in London before we head to Germany for Xmas, and then Egypt for 15 days over the New Years period. I spent a similar period of time in London last year, and wandered the city seeing a few 'touristy' sights (Tower Bridge, The Globe, St Paul's, Westminster, Kensington, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square etc etc), so I'm looking forward to my second (if all too short) visit.

I understand that the better half has booked us tickets to a show for one night (and she's dropped hints it may be Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, which I mentioned in passing a few weeks ago) - so it looks like I might get something of a British crime fix while on vacation. Of course I'll have to slip a couple of (slim-sized) books into the backpack for airport reading as well.
Any hints/recommendations of things to fill a couple of days with, given I'll have a couple of workday daytimes to fill while the better half finishes up her working year (on the Mon and Tues)? Should I visit some 'fictional crime' hotspots (e.g. Baker St etc), or take a break from crime for the holidays? Are there writers' hangouts I should pop into?

Thoughts and comments welcome.

Poll Results: Most popular upcoming book-to-film adaption

Well, for the past three weeks or so on this blog I've been running a poll asking readers which upcoming book-to-film adaptation they are most looking forward to.

The results have been interesting - largely as I expected with the English-subtitled adaptation of Stieg Larsson's THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO leading the way with 52% of the vote. Perhaps surprisingly, Dennis Lehane's SHUTTER ISLAND (admittedly directed by Martin Scorcese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio) scraped in for 2nd, with 4 votes.

The film adaptation of Larsson's masterpiece stars Michael Nyquist as Blomkvist and Noomi Rapace as the irrepressible Salander, and has already grossed over $100 million at the box office in Europe. It is the most successful local film of all time at the Nordic box office. You can watch the English-subtitled trailer HERE.

I am actually going to be watching this myself on Monday night, at a function held by Allen & Unwin publishers (who distribute the Larsson books in New Zealand). I'm really looking forward to it - though I will also be looking to watch some of the other three as well, after Xmas.

The results of the poll are set out below:

Thanks for participating. I really appreciate all the votes, and the comments people have made.

Kiwi-raised crime writer Stella Duffy appears at London’s Writers’ House

British crime writer and renowned crime commentator Mike Ripley (well known for his great “Getting Away with Murder column” in Shots Ezine) sent me a message overnight (NZT) about meeting Kiwi-raised crime writer Stella Duffy at an event at the Writer’s House in London this week (you can see the photo of Stella and Mike to the left). The event was a talk by Duffy to members of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society. Mikes says Duffy’s talk included “her very amusing rant of what gets classified as genre fiction in the UK compared to New Zealand and Australia”.

Stella Duffy was born in London, but grew up in New Zealand - particularly in the forestry-centric tiny rural town of Tokoroa in the central North Island. Her mother was from London, but her father a New Zealander. From a crime-writing perspective, Duffy is most famous for her private investigator Saz Martin series. However Duffy is also a writer of other ‘styles’ of books, an actress, comedian and improviser, and has also written for radio. She is the author of eleven novels (five in the Saz Martin series), over thirty stories, and eight plays. Her novel STATE OF HAPPINESS was longlisted for the 2004 Orange Prize. She has also worked on screenplays and teleplays, and co-edited the crime collection TART NOIR with Lauren Henderson (Duffy’s story in that collection, “Martha Grace”, won the 2002 CWA Short Story Award).

Growing up in New Zealand, Duffy was exposed to both British and American culture, via television and movies. Authors that reportedly were a great influence on Duffy as she grew into a writer were New Zealand icon Janet Frame (who Duffy has said gave her “permission to play with words”) and Canadian doyen Margaret Atwood. Duffy has also credited Jeanette Winterson’s SEXING THE CHERRY, with its elements of fairy tale and feminist fable.

I will write a longer ‘author intro post’ on Duffy, addressing her Saz Martin crime novels, and her other books etc, in future. In the meantime you can read a little more about Stella Duffy’s books here.

Along with his great crime writing commentary for Shots ezine and other publications, Mike Ripley also writes award-winning crime novels himself. He is the author of the comic crime series starring Fitzroy Angel McLean. Debuting with JUST ANOTHER ANGEL, released in 1988, Ripley has now written 15 books in the series (and counting), with the latest being ANGELS UNAWARE (2008). You can read a lot more about Mike Ripley on a very good fan site, here.

Have you read Stella Duffy’s Saz Martin series? Her other books? What about Mike Ripley’s Angel series? What do you think of them? What about Ripley’s great column in Shots magazine? Thoughts and comments welcome.

Radio New Zealand review of CONTAINMENT by Vanda Symon

This morning, as part of its daily book review slot on the Nine to Noon programme, Radio New Zealand addressed modern-day Kiwi crime queen Vanda Symon's latest Sam Shephard thriller, CONTAINMENT.

One of the great things about the Nine to Noon show, hosted by Kathryn Ryan - who also regularly does interviews with New Zealand and visiting authors, is that they do semi-regularly cover some crime and thriller titles.

Today the reviewer was fellow blogger Graham "Bookman" Beattie, who is (deservedly) highly-regarded in the New Zealand book industry. He is the former head of Penguin Books, a Book Awards judge, and a Books Editor.

"This is a 300+ page cracker of a contemporary crime fiction novel set in and around Dunedin," says the Bookman. "A compelling whodunnit with all the usual twists and turns so loved by readers of the crime fiction genre... Detective Constable Sam Shephard is one of those wonderfully drawn but comparatively few women protagonists in this genre... and in many ways she reminds me of Sara Paretsky’s Chicago-based V.I.Warshawski and Sue Grafton’s California-based Kinsey Millhone. These three women are all characters that I like immensely, high achieving, determined, sassy and feisty women... they are all quite stubborn and often infuriating as well with their frequently chaotic personal lives."

You can listen to the Bookman's full review of CONTAINMENT here, or you can read the text of the radio review on his fantastic blog here (you might have to scroll down). Hopefully positive reviews like this one (from someone well-known and respected in the NZ Books industry) will help more Kiwis, and others, realise that with writers like Vanda Symon and her excellent heroine Sam Shephard, there are plenty of reasons to read NZ 'popular fiction', as well as the literary stuff.

Have you read CONTAINMENT? Vanda Symon's earlier Sam Shephard books? What do you think? What do you think of the Bookman's review?

The NZ Listener "100 Best Books of 2009"

Firstly, apologies for the relative lack of posts in recent times. I have had a few computer issues – so will be completing the upload of some historic posts (soon) that weren’t uploaded correctly on their days last week. It’s also been a pretty frantic time with a few other things. Back on track now – although I will be heading to Europe for 3 weeks over Xmas, so things might go into a little hiatus then too. Plenty on the horizon coming up though, and 2010 looks to be even bigger and better for this blog - lots to look forward to when it comes to Kiwi (and international) crime and thriller writing links and commentary.

Anyway, yesterday I was browsing the magazine racks, looking to pick up some Kiwi mags for a soldier friend of mine currently serving in Afghanistan. While doing so I came across the current issue (12-18 December) of the New Zealand Listener, long considered one of our premier magazines. The NZ Listener is a weekly current affairs and entertainment magazine, and is renowned for having one of the better books sections amongst local publications.

Near the end of each year the NZ Listener also has a “100 Best Books of the Year” issue, where its reviewers (who to be honest do lean far more literary than popular in their preferences) compile their list of best novels, short stories, poetry, biography, memoir, and other non-fiction (in 2009 this includes history, science, journalism and essays, art, and food and drink) books of the year.

So I picked up the current issue, intrigued. Despite the decks being stacked against crime and thriller titles in the NZ Listener, a few have made their way onto the “100 Best Books” list in previous years, including both THE CLEANER (2006) and CEMETERY LAKE (2008) from New Zealand crime writer Paul Cleave. “The plot is beautifully constructed, the characters come to worrying life, and it is all wrapped in an atmosphere of pervading evil that will make you wonder whether you should be reading it late at night,” said the NZ Listener of CEMETERY LAKE in last year’s list.

In the 2008 list, which you can view here, crime and thrillers that made the “100 Best Books” also included:

• DEVIL MAY CARE: A JAMES BOND NOVEL, by Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming;
• THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, by Stieg Larsson – which was noted as “the standout crime novel of the year”;
• THE RINGMASTER, by Vanda Symon – making two out-and-out Kiwi crime novels on the 2008 “100 Best” list. Great to see.

So what does acclaimed Arts & Books editor Guy Somerset and his team have for us, crime and thriller-wise, amongst their 100 Best Books of 2009? In short, a little bit less than I expected.

It may reflect what the reviewers have managed to read themselves this year, rather than any bias, but I would have hoped that in a year with seemingly more Kiwi crime novel releases than ever before, that we would have seen a few more of the better ones make the list. Especially given a few ‘very average’ (Kiwi slang for rather poor) literary or general fiction books, local and international, that did make this year’s “100 Best” list (that’s not my words, or crime-loving bias showing through – it’s a comment from another reviewer I know and respect, who has a literary and general fiction reading bent, and has covered the books in question this year).

First, the good news for crime fans. The debut thriller ALL THE COLOURS OF THE TOWN by transplanted Scotsman Liam McIlvanney (now living in Dunedin – which seems to be becoming something of a Kiwi crime writing haunt), deservedly made the list. “McIlvanney combines Ian Rankinesque grit with poetic description in this excellent first thriller,” says the NZ Listener team.

McIlvanney, a Professor of Scottish Studies at the University of Otago, also features in a little sidebar, giving his thoughts on some of the best poetry and thrillers of the year. “First-rate thrillers have been thin on the ground in 2009,” he says. “But a truly stand-out debut is Stuart Neville’s THE TWELVE, in which a haunted IRA hitman takes revenge on the paramilitary kingpins who directed his activities.” I remember McIlvanney praising Neville’s debut heartily, when I interviewed him for a Weekend Herald article a couple of months ago.

Another Kiwi book on the list could also perhaps squeeze into the local crime/thriller/mystery category. BUTTERSCOTCH by Lyn Loates, which I umm-ed and ahh-ed about before adding to the sidebar of 2009 Kiwi crime/thriller/mystery releases several weeks ago, also makes the NZ Listener’s “100 Best Books”. It’s one of only a couple of books on that sidebar I haven’t read yet, so I can’t offer any personal comment as to its ‘crime/mystery’ credentials.

The publisher’s blurb for BUTTERSCOTCH states: “Helen Mainyard was eight years old when her father suddenly uprooted the family from their home in Christchurch and settled them in Melbourne. Helen had always believed the move was her father’s response to a vicious murder that happened in the city. But when she is twenty-one the real reason for the family’s departure declares itself and causes Helen to re-visit scenes from her childhood, in particular a dark, remembered homestead called Amberley which, together with its climbing tree, had once held the inquisitive girl in its thrall. The remembered murder and the remembered house together lead Helen to unearth a trail of human transgressions.”

You can read Graham “Bookman” Beattie’s comments about BUTTERSCOTCH here.

Surprisingly there were few, if any, other crime novels on the list. INHERENT VICE by Thomas Pynchon makes it, but that’s about it. There is apparently no room for Stieg Larsson’s THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST. Given their literary bent, I thought the reviewers may have found space for John Hart’s excellent and award-winning literary crime novel, THE LAST CHILD, but no. Perhaps they haven’t read it – it hasn’t got much coverage here in New Zealand. It is one of only two 5-star reviews I have given for Australia's Good Reading magazine this year (although that review won't appear until January/February)

In terms of New Zealand crime, I was a little surprised Maurice Gee’s ACCESS ROAD didn’t get a mention – especially as Gee isn’t seen as a ‘genre’ writer, and is fairly beloved by New Zealand reviewers (deservedly so in most cases). Perhaps his latest crime-laced novel came out too late in the year for consideration. The same could be true of Vanda Symon’s latest, CONTAINMENT - in my opinion certainly a better book than some of the Kiwi ‘general fiction’ on the “100 Best” list.

Also, I would have thought Alix Bosco’s CUT & RUN might have got a nod, given that every review I’ve seen of the pseudonym-ed debut has been very positive. Again, perhaps the NZ Listener team simply didn’t get around to that book, as it’s perhaps not in their general ‘wheelhouse’, reading-wise. In some ways it’s a shame, but in others, that’s the beauty of such lists (or awards). They can stir debate, and get people talking about the books both on the list and not – which is always a good thing.

So congrats to Guy Somerset and the NZ Listener team for another great year of (fairly) comprehensive books coverage. I might like to see a few more crime and thriller titles (especially local ones) in their pages, but overall they do a tremendous job in books coverage. The “100 Best Books” of 2009 article will be available to read online in a couple of weeks’ time (once the print issue is no longer current). You will be able to read it via the NZ Listener website.

Thoughts on the list? What are your favourite crime and thriller titles of the year? Which crime and thriller books, New Zealand or international, deserve to be on a ‘top’ general books list?

Crime Fiction Alphabet: J is for Joan Druett

Continuing the fun series started by fellow Anzac book blogger Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise, where each week bloggers from around the world write about a notable crime fiction novel or author (first name or surname) starting with a particular letter of the alphabet, this week is the turn of "J".

Given that in my "A" post I said I would regularly sprinkle my contributions with a New Zealand-related post or two, this week I am including a post on Kiwi maritime historian and historic mystery writer Joan Druett, who from a crime/thriller perspective is most well-known for her ‘Wiki Coffin’ mysteries set on colonial-era sailing ships.

NB - this Crime Fiction Alphabet post is a lightly-edited reproduction of a profile post I did on Druett earlier this year.

Joan Druett (1939- )
Druett was born in my hometown of Nelson (a few decades before me), raised in Palmerston North, then moved to New Zealand’s capital Wellington as a teen. She had always wanted to write (including writing and illustrating her first book for her mother at the age of 4), and during this time she began writing science fiction stories for American magazines, along with stories for a Maori magazine under the pen name Jo Friday. Following high school she studied English literature at Victoria University, gaining a BA, before travelling extensively in her 20s to places such as Britain and the Middle East. She also lived in Canada for a period. After returning to New Zealand she worked as a Biology and English teacher, began raising a family, and continued to write.

Druett published her first book of any kind, EXOTIC INTRUDERS: THE INTRODUCTION OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS TO NEW ZEALAND in 1983. This non-fiction book looked at the introduction of flora and fauna to New Zealand by sailing ships, and was the start of a long association with maritime history for Druett. That first book won both the Hubert Church and PEN Awards for Best First Book in 1984.

Over the next quarter-century Druett’s love affair with the sea has continued and grown. During a vacation to Rarotonga in the South Pacific, working on a travel story, she became fascinated by the stories of the women who travelled at sea with their 19th Century whaling captain husbands. This led to further research and books, including a Fulbright Scholarship in 1986. Druett's non-fiction books over the years have been awarded a New York Public Library Book to Remember citation, a John Lyman Award for Best Book of American Maritime History and the Kendall Whaling Museum's L. Byrne Waterman Award.

After turning 40, Druett also began writing maritime-themed novels, which later lead to the Wiki Coffin series of mystery adventure novels, beginning with A WATERY GRAVE. In that first book, Wiki (who grew out of Druett's non-fiction research, including descriptions of a Maori sailor in a midshipman's journal from the first half of the nineteenth century) embarks as linguist for the US Exploring Expedition. Though beset by enemies, and under a cloud of suspicion himself, his mission is to expose a vicious, opportunistic murderer. The Mystery Reader gave Druett's mystery fiction debut a 5-star review, which you can read HERE.

You can also read the first chapter of A WATERY GRAVE here.

As a maritime historian, Druett found the real-life setting which she uses as a backdrop for her fictional mysteries, fascinating. She notes on her website that: "On Sunday, August 18, 1838, the six ships of the first, great, United States South Seas Exploring Expedition, commanded by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, crewed by 246 officers and men, and with seven scientists and two artists on board, set sail from the Hampton Roads, Virginia, headed for the far side of the world. Almost four years later, in June 1842, the remnants of the expedition straggled into New York. One vessel had been sent back in disgrace; one had been lost with all hands; another had been wrecked at the Columbia River; and a fourth had been sold into the opium-running trade on the coast of China...

...The strange voyage of the U.S. Exploring Expedition is the setting of the Wiki Coffin mystery series. While the novels are based on true events, and many of the participants in the stories are real, the mysteries and the people most intimately involved with them are figments of the author's overactive imagination—as is the brig Swallow, the seventh ship upon which most of the action takes place."

Following on from her critically-acclaimed first Wiki Coffin mystery, Druett has produced three more titles in the series; SHARK ISLAND, which involves murder and pirate-hunting off the coast of Brazil; RUN AFOUL, in which Wiki must clear his father's name on a murder charge; and DEADLY SHOALS, which involved Wiki joining the Patagonian gauchos to solve a grotesque murder.

Publisher's Weekly said of SHARK ISLAND: "Maritime historian Druett's rousing second historical ... offers rich nautical detail and an engaging and highly unusual protagonist ... A vulnerable captain, his beautiful young wife, a thuggish crew, a valuable and missing cargo and murder provide a stern test of Coffin's deductive abilities and his diplomatic skills. Druett should win plaudits from both mystery fans and aficionados of naval adventures."

Druett has also written some Wiki Coffin short stories, published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, for example "Murder in the Hold" in the Jul/Aug 2008 edition. Of that story, Druett told readers of her blog: "For those not in the know, the short stories featuring our young half-Maori, half-Yankee detective are set on a small and elderly Nantucket whaleship in the year 1831. In this episode, Wiki finds a clubbed body in the blubber hold, and is immediately accused of the crime -- "I hear that Maori warriors kill with clubs in New Zealand," says the first mate darkly. 'Nuff said ..."

Since first falling in love with maritime history, Druett has written 18 fiction and non-fiction books. You can read the first chapter of DEADLY SHOALS, Druett's most recent Wiki Coffin mystery novel, HERE.

And in good news for overseas readers, unlike many Kiwi crime/mystery writers, Joan Druett's Wiki Coffin novels are readily available in the USA, where they are published by Minotaur.

Have you read Joan Druett? What do you think of Wiki Coffin and his adventures? Do maritime mysteries appeal to you? What are your thoughts on mysteries in historical settings? All comments welcome.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: I is for Ian Sutherland

Continuing the fun series started by fellow Anzac book blogger Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise, where each week bloggers from around the world write about a notable crime fiction novel or author (first name or surname) starting with a particular letter of the alphabet, this week is the turn of "I".

Given that in my "A" post I said I would regularly sprinkle my contributions with a New Zealand-related post or two, this week I am including a short post on Ian Sutherland, who wrote the thriller THE KEPLER DEAL (Hazard Press, 2002) after he retired from working life.

Ian Sutherland (1938-??)
Ian Sutherland was born in 1938 and grew up in the north Waikato region of New Zealand, where his parents owned a dairy farm. He attended Ohinewai Primary School, in a small semi-rural community north of the small town of Huntly, before heading north to New Zealand’s biggest city (Auckland) to attend the prestigious King’s College. He was a member of Selwyn House from 1952-1955.

After finishing high school, Sutherland joined the ANZ Bank as a teenager, starting at the Huntly branch. He worked in a variety of towns and cities until he retired from ANZ almost forty years later, in 1995. Throughout his banking career, he had also written occasional newspaper and magazine articles.

In retirement, he turned his writing attention towards penning popular fiction, and had his first (and as far as I am aware, only) thriller, THE KEPLER DEAL, published by Hazard Press in 2002. At the time he and his wife Margaret lived in Milford on Auckland’s North Shore. I haven’t yet been able to find out any more information about Ian Sutherland, in terms of other writings, reviews (available online) of THE KEPLER DEAL, or what he has been up to since 2002. He would be 71 now (assuming he is still alive).

Reportedly THE KEPLER DEAL grew out of Sutherland’s love of the mountains and landscapes of New Zealand. I have recently sourced a copy via an online second-hand bookseller (adding to my quickly-burgeoning library of out-of-print and hard-to-find Kiwi crime and thriller titles), and am looking forward to reading it. The blurb on the back of the book states: “It is never a particularly good omen when a hit man is the man who is hit. So the discovery of the body of “security consultant”, Chang Chou, on the Kepler Track near Te Anau, has Detective Inspector Mark Trenwith more than just a little worried. The connections with Department of Conservation staff and the possibility that an Asian drug-dealing ring is involved only adds to his worries as he is led into an investigation which becomes more and more sinister.

From the remote wilderness of one of New Zealand’s most spectacular alpine tracks to popular tourist and coastal areas this is an action thriller that will engage the reader in a network of intrigue.”

For those of you not from New Zealand, the area around the Kepler Track is known as the “Southern Lakes” part of New Zealand, and is among the most beautiful natural landscapes in the world. If any of you have seen The Lord of the Rings trilogy, a fair chunk of some of those films was filmed near that area. So I am looking forward to seeing how Sutherland incorporates the spectacular scenery into his local thriller.

I will post a review of THE KEPLER DEAL in due course.

Unfortunately Christchurch-based Hazard Press, which was clearly one of the best supporters of local writers who wanted to pen ‘popular’ fiction, went into liquidation in 2007. Its sad demise cut off one of the best avenues for budding Kiwi ‘genre’ writers such as Sutherland. I’m not sure whether this had anything to do with Sutherland (apparently) never writing another book.

Several of the ‘forgotten’ local crime, thriller or mystery writers on my extended New Zealand writer sidebar to the right, had their one or two books published by Hazard Press. It was rather sad, during my research into Kiwi crime writing, to find a publisher like Hazard, with a surprisingly large array of Kiwi crime and thriller books (and authors), and then to quickly realise they are no longer in business. Such a shame – but I guess it’s the nature of the evolving books world.

Have any of you read THE KEPLER DEAL? Do you like to get your hands on such older, out-of-print or hard-to-find books from relatively unknown authors? Thoughts and comments welcome.

Metro Magazine's The Best of Auckland 2009

It’s getting to that time of year where everyone is reflecting on what has occurred in 2009, and compiling various lists. “Best ofs”, “Top 10s” and “Year’s Bests” dealing with a wide variety of subjects are coming to the fore. Some of these, of course, relate to the books world.

One of the most well-known magazines in New Zealand is Metro – “Auckland's magazine”, a metropolitan monthly featuring a mix of current affairs and investigative journalism, profiles, lifestyle features, restaurant and bar reviews and a range of lively columns. Given around one third of New Zealand’s population is contained in the Greater Auckland region, Metro is fairly influential, in comparison to other ‘regional’ magazines. It has been in existence for more almost thirty years (it was launched in 1981).

At the end of each year Metro has an annual “Best of Auckland” issue, covering everything from personalities, to food and drink, to arts and culture, to architecture, to shops, to fashion and beauty, to children-related stuff, to media, to outdoors, to business, to sport. The December issue, with the “Best of Auckland” for 2009, has recently hit the shelves, and I picked up a copy today.

Books-related highlights from the list:

• The Auckland Writers Festival missed out on the ‘Best Festival’ award, to the arts-focused Auckland Festival;
• Best Bookshop went to Time Out in Mt Eden, described as having “charm as well as an extraordinary range of books”. Methinks they will have to be added to my list of stores to be ‘Bookstore Review-ed’ by moi. I wonder whether they will have a good range of Kiwi crime?
• Radio New Zealand, which does a great job promoting reading and books with its daily book reviews on Nine to Noon, and plenty of author interviews on the same show, as well as Arts on Sunday and others, missed out on best radio station to talkback-centric Radio Live;
• Best Bookshop for Kids went to the Children’s Bookshop in Ponsonby.
  

There were no best 'Auckland' book, or best author categories (although there are plenty of best actor, up-and-coming actor, best news reader, best columnist, best radio host, best sports columnist, best business commentator, best overlooked musician, best stage director, etc categories). If there had been, Alix Bosco's CUT & RUN might have been a great choice, given that the debut thriller captures and evokes modern-day Auckland very well, from the shops and restaurants of High Street, to the richer suburbs, to the realities of South Auckland (drug houses mixed in with loving family homes), to restaurant-rimmed Ponsonby, to the attitudes of many in various professions on show here, in New Zealand's biggest city.

For those of you in New Zealand who pick up a copy of the December issue of Metro, there is also a “Best of Auckland 2009” reader card included, which will get you discount at many of the stores mentioned, including a 15% discount on purchases over $50 at Time Out bookstore in Mt Eden (for those looking to do some pre-Xmas book-buying in Auckland).

Video interview with Kiwi/British crime writer (TV and novels) Neil Cross

One of the things I'm trying to do with this blog is to build something of a resource, or conduit, through which people interested in New Zealand crime and thriller fiction, can find their way to disparate resources relating to Kiwi writers, that are otherwise spread throughout the Internet etc. So rather than being just about my thoughts on crime writing (particularly NZ crime writing), one major goal of this blog is to (somewhat) bring some of those things together, to make it easier for people to learn more about Kiwi crime writers. Hence the encylopaedia style posts on recent writers, links to rather-unknown, historic or forgotten authors, and links to Radio NZ interviews etc on the sidebar.

In keeping with that, I stumbled across a recent-ish video interview with British/Kiwi crime writer Neil Cross. Cross, who has been Booker longlisted for his 'literary thriller' ALWAYS THE SUN, and also was the lead writer on the award-winning BBC TV series Spooks (and is currently working on Luther, a new TV crime series) immigrated to New Zealand several years ago, and now lives in Wellington. I was fortunate enough to interview Neil Cross earlier this year for a feature article in Good Reading magazine.

You can watch the video interview here (thanks YouTube!), where Cross talks about some of his recent books, and writing for TV and novels.

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

As I said earlier this year, one of the magazines I write reviews and books-related features for is Good Reading, the Australian-based "magazine for book lovers". Each month the magazine has more than 60 new or recent books reviewed, news from around the literary world, and several features articles (including author interviews, literature-related travel articles, overviews of different sub-genres, 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 (for a low price), allowing you access to not only the current issue, but a massive database of archived feature articles (including more than 200 great author interviews), thousands of books reviews, and more. You can find more information HERE.

As you can imagine, I concentrate mainly on crime/thriller fiction when it comes to my contributions to Good Reading. 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 December/January issue which is now on the shelves, that includes:

FEATURES:

"Searching for Susie..." (by Craig Sisterson) - an interview with Academy Award-winning screenwriter Philippa Boyens, who co-wrote the big-screen adaptation of Alice Sebold's 'emotional thriller' THE LOVELY BONES, which hits movie theatres in wide release worldwide later this month. The film of a book that for many years was considered unfilmable, is already getting Oscar buzz.

Philippa spoke to me about a number of things, including how she got into screenwriting, working with Peter Jackson, the challenges of adapting beloved novels such as THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy and THE LOVELY BONES for film, and much more.

"More than Words" (by Sarah Minns) - an interview with acclaimed crime writer Laura Lippman. Laura speaks to Sarah about being inspired by lesser-known true crime cases, setting her novels in her hometown of Baltimore, her ongoing reporter-turned-PI character Tess Monaghan, and much more.

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). The crime/thriller books reviewed in the November issue are outlined below - the reviewers this month are myself (CS), Linda George (LG), Lachlan Jobbins (LJ), Clive Hodges (CH), and Alex Fraser (AF).

CUT & RUN

by Alix Bosco (4 stars - CS)

When a rugby star, who began life on the city streets, is murdered in the arms of a beautiful celebrity, it seems to be an open and shut case of a drug deal gone wrong. But Anna Markunas, legal researcher for the prime suspect's defence team, begins to uncover a far more sinister truth - a truth that could destroy everything and everyone she cares about most.

GENESIS

by Karin Slaughter (4 stars - LG)
Three years ago former Grant Country medical examiner Sara Linton moved to Atlanta hoping to leave her tragic past behind her. Now working as a doctor in Atlanta's Grady Hospital she is starting to piece her life together. But when a severely wounded young woman is brought in to the emergency room, she finds herself drawn back into a world of violence and terror. When Special Agent Will Trent of the Criminal Investigation Team returns to the scene of the accident he stumbles on a torture chamber buried deep beneath the earth. And this hidden house of horror reveals a ghastly truth – Sara's patient is just the first victim of a sick, sadistic killer.

OR SHE DIES

by Gregg Hurwitz (4.5 stars - CS)
Part-time teacher Patrick is having a horrible run; his screenplay was slated for big success until the obnoxious lead actor falsely accused him of assault, he’s being sued by the studio, and his neglected wife Ariana had an affair. Then things get worse – DVDs showing hidden-camera footage of their disconnected domestic life start appearing. Someone is out to get him, and he must follow their instructions or someone will die.

BLOOD'S A ROVER

by James Ellroy (3 stars - LJ)
It’s 1968. Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King are dead. The Mob, Howard Hughes and J Edgar Hoover are in a struggle for America’s soul, drawing into their murderous conspiracies the dammed and the soon-to-be damned. Wayne Tedrow Jr.: parricide, assassin, dope cooker, mouthpiece for all sides, loyal to none. Dwight Holly: Hoover’s enforcer and hellish conspirator in terrible crimes. Don Crutchfield: is a kid, a nobody, a wheelman and a private detective who stumbles upon an ungodly conspiracy from which he and the country may never recover.

All three men are drawn to women on the opposite side of the political and moral spectrum; all are compromised and ripe for destruction. Only one of them will survive. The final part of James Ellroy’s 'Underworld USA' trilogy is set during the social and political upheaval of 1968-72.

THE SHANGHAI MURDERS, THE LAKE CHING MURDERS, THE HUA SHAN HOSPITAL MURDERS

By David Rotenberg (3 stars - CH)

Inspector Zhong Fong is the featured detective in these three police procedurals about murder and violence on Mainland China. Two people are killed and dismembered (THE SHANGHAI MURDERS), 17 businessmen are brutally massacred (THE LAKE CHING MURDERS) and a patient and a full surgical team are blown to smithereens (THE HUA SHAN HOSPITAL MURDERS). Clive Hodges reviewed all three Rotenbery books together, giving the trio 3-stars collectively.

UNNATURAL DEATH (crime classic)

by Dorothy L. Sayers (3 stars - CH)

First published in 1927, this is the third book in the Lord Peter Wimsey series. The wealthy old woman was dead -- a trifle sooner than expected. The intricate trail of horror and senseless murder led from a beautiful hampshire village to a fashionable London flat and a deliberate test of amour -- staged by the debonair sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey.

SHARP SHOOTER

by Marianne Delacourt (2.5 stars - AF)
Tara Sharp should be just another unemployable, twenty-something, ex-private schoolgirl . . . but she has the gift - or curse as she sees it - of reading people's auras. The trouble is, auras sometimes tell you things about people they don't want you to know.

When a family friend recommends Mr Hara's Paralanguage School, Tara decides to give it a whirl - and graduates with flying colours. So when Mr Hara picks up passes on a job for a hot-shot lawyer she jumps at the chance despite some of his less-than-salubrious clients. Soon Tara finds herself sucked into an underworld 'situation' that has her running for her life.

NINE DRAGONS
by Michael Connelly (4 stars - CS)

Harry Bosch is assigned a homicide call in South L.A. that takes him to Fortune Liquors, where the Chinese owner has been shot to death behind the counter in a robbery. Joined by members of the department's Asian Crime Unit, Bosch relentlessly investigates the killing and soon identifies a suspect, a Los Angeles member of a Hong Kong triad.

But before Harry can close in, he gets the word that his young daughter Maddie, who lives in Hong Kong with her mother, is missing. Bosch drops everything to journey across the Pacific to find his daughter. Could her disappearance and the case be connected? With the stakes of the investigation so high and so personal, Bosch is up against the clock in a new city, where nothing is at it seems.

THE WAY HOME

by George Pelecanos (4 stars - AF)
When Thomas Flynn leaves his son, seventeen year old Chris, at Pine Ridge, a juvenile prison near Washington D.C, his heart is broken but his mind is made up: Chris will have to pay for the mistakes he's made. Inside, Chris is exposed to kids from a different D.C than the comfortable one he knew - one less remote from the street fights, car chases and marijuana deals that got him here in the first place.

A decade later, Chris and the friends he made at Pine Ridge seem reformed. Chris has a job, thanks to his father, a girlfriend and his own apartment. But when he and the others are inadvertently caught up in a burglary, old habits and worse instincts rise to the surface, threatening this new-found stability with sudden treachery and violence.

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I also wrote a couple of non-fiction reviews (one sports book, one history) for the Dec/Jan issue of Good Reading, but since this is a crime/thriller fiction blog, we'll stick with those contents.

So have you read Good Reading? What do you think of the magazine? What crime/thriller authors would you like to see interviewed and featured in future? Have you read any of the books or authors reviewed of featured? What do you think of them? Do you agree with the ratings? Suggestions and comments welcome.