Hot Crime Writing in a Cold Land: my large feature on Swedish Crime Writing

Hot crime writing in a cold land

Its writers dominate European fiction charts, the Germans have created a new word to describe it, and it’s being translated into English more and more. Craig Sisterson takes a closer look at the Swedish crime fiction phenomenon

Note: this large feature article was originally published in print in the August 2009 issue of Good Reading magazine, and is now made available online for the first time here on Crime Watch. 

In April the Guardian newspaper noted the results of 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, author Stephanie Meyer didn’t top the list; she was beaten out by a middle-aged left-wing journalist from Sweden who’d died before his first book was ever published.

But although Stieg Larsson’s firm position atop the list would have been enough in itself to bring more attention to Swedish crime writing, he is in fact merely the tip of an ever-growing iceberg. Six other Swedish crime writers were in the Top 40, and many others were hovering. The surveyors, who conduct various analyses for the global publishing industry, even specifically noted the “predominance of Swedish (crime) fiction which has been out competing any other flavour or origin of fictional writing”. So, you’ve got to ask – what makes peaceful Sweden such a hotbed for fictional murder and mayhem?

The Originators

Stieg Larsson may be the Swede garnering much of the book world’s attention lately, thanks to his posthumous smash-hit “Millenium trilogy”, however it was actually two other politically radical journalists who first put Swedish crime fiction on the international map. Forty years ago.

Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö met while working for related magazines in the early 1960s. They married a year later, then embarked on a carefully-planned series of ten crime books in ten years, written in the evenings while their children were sleeping.  

While Swedish crime novels existed prior to Sjöwall and Wahlöö’s 1965 debut, Roseanna, such works consisted mainly of classic “cosy mysteries” in the Christie/Marsh/Sayers vein, or light-hearted children’s tales by Nils-Olof Franzén centred on a humorous Sherlock Holmes/Poirot-style hero (the fantastic Agaton Sax series).

Sjöwall and Wahlöö brought a new style of crime novel to Europe, and along with American Ed McBain (author of the 87^th Precinct series), popularised the modern police procedural. Their acclaimed ten-book series focused on an ensemble cast of policeman, led by Superintendent Martin Beck, and cast as much light on the working and private lives of the characters, as the crimes they were investigating. 

Eschewing the hardboiled detective stereotypes inspired by Chandler and Hammett, Beck and his colleagues were instead fallibly human, and even at times quite ‘ordinary’ – their investigations realistically packed with false starts, dead ends, and touches of humour and tedium. In The Laughing Policeman, which scooped the prestigious 1971 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, Beck and his team try to find the culprit of a machine-gun spree in a double-decker bus, but simultaneously juggle plenty of personal and everyday problems.

Author Arne Dahl has called Sjöwall and Wahlöö “the actual parents… of the Swedish crime fiction genre that is still the strongest today: the police procedural that has a perspective of social criticism”. Sjöwall herself told the Wall Street Journal in May this year (Wahlöö died in 1975) that although they were writing entertaining stories, their “intention was also to describe and criticise certain changes in our society and the politics of that decade”.

Moreover, Sjöwall admitted seeing the fictional offspring of Martin Beck and his colleagues in the modern wave of Swedish crime fiction. “We seem to have created a model for the Swedish police procedural,” she said. “Most of the authors that write them call themselves social critics as well… that, I think, is something to be proud of.”

Enter Wallander

Perhaps the most famous and widely-read of those literary offspring is Henning Mankell, the prolific author and dramatist whose success beach-headed the recent wave of English translations of Swedish crime writers. Mankell is most well-known for his award-winning series featuring troubled policeman Kurt Wallander - which has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and been adapted several times for the screen, including a recent BBC TV series starring Kenneth Branagh.

Like Sjöwall and Wahlöö before him, Mankell creates mysteries filled not only with crime and violence, but with flawed, recognisably human characters, and an undercurrent of social commentary. “Novels are … an unsurpassed form to understand people,” said Mankell to Middle East-based The National Newspaper earlier this year.

Another consistent feature of the Wallander novels is the unrelenting bleakness of the landscape. Set in the small medieval town of Ystad in Skåne, Sweden's southernmost county, the stories are gilded with dreary weather, ice and snow. That gloomy atmosphere, combined with Wallander’s deteriorating health, borderline alcoholism, and shambolic personal life adds to the overall sense of disarray and disconnection from evolving Swedish society. 

In the 1991 Wallander debut, Faceless Killers, the Inspector investigates a brutal farmhouse killing, complicated by growing public xenophobia towards the burgeoning refugee population. Sweden is no longer the harmonious socialist paradise of old, and modern Swedish crime writers, inspired by Sjöwall and Wahlöö and led by Mankell, weave such change into the tapestry of their novels. Swedish critic Marie Peterson has noted that the real-life 1986 assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme, murdered on the streets of Stockholm while walking home from the movies with his wife, was particularly unsettling to the national psyche. “In a way, Sweden has never recovered… it changed, brutally, on almost every level, but this change was nowhere to be found in literature. No one explored it, analyzed it or wrote stories about it. Except the crime writers, starting with Mankell.”

Booker Prize-winning literary superstar Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient) has called Mankell “by far the best writer of police mysteries today - he is in the great tradition of those whose work transcends their chosen genre to become thrilling and moral literature”. The universality of Mankell’s work has certainly transcended geography/language boundaries – he’s translated into 27 languages, and it’s his sales success that paved the way for the latest Swedish crime writing stars.

“He opened the door. We're riding the waves of Henning Mankell,” admitted award-winning bestseller Håkan Nesser (Chief Inspector Van Veeteren series) when speaking to the Toronto Star in 2007.

The Girl who Grabbed the Attention

Many commentators worldwide have described those waves of Swedish crime fiction as more like an explosion. If that’s the case, then you could consider Sjöwall and Wahlöö the bomb-makers, Mankell the man who placed the charges, and Stieg Larsson as the one who flicked the switch. For it is Larsson’s tragedy-tinged success that has publishers worldwide scrambling to sign and translate his crime-writing compatriots.

Larsson was an investigative journalist and editor of anti-racism magazine Expo (founded in the mid ‘90s when neo-Nazi groups carried out a series of violent attacks against immigrants in Sweden). He received death threats for his campaigns to expose far-right extremists, and it’s been reported that writing his trilogy about disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist and tattooed computer hacker Lisbeth Salander became a relaxing hobby that took his mind off work. He eventually delivered the manuscripts to a local publisher in a plastic bag, instantly securing a three-book deal, only to die of a heart attack before any were published.

It’s the character of Salander in particular (“The Girl”) that has fascinated readers worldwide. In his only ever interview about his crime writing, Larsson told bookstore industry magazine Svensk Bokhandel that Salander was inspired by strong-willed redhead Pippi Longstocking in Astrid Lindgren’s famous children’s books. “What would she have been like as an adult? What would she be called – a sociopath?” he mused. “I created her as Lisbeth Salander, 25 years old and extremely isolated. She doesn't know anyone, has no social competence.”

In The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Blomkvist and Salander join forces to solve a 40-year old disappearance that is soon linked to a brutal serial killer consumed by hatred towards women. The follow-up, The Girl Who Played With Fire, focuses on a sex-trafficking case and dark secrets about Salander’s past. Already topping the charts in Europe, Larsson’s international popularity is unlikely to wane anytime soon, with his debut having rampant sales in the US since its release late last year, the follow-up being released in July, and the third in the trilogy, The Girl who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, scheduled for publication in English in October.

But in many ways, the English-speaking world is merely playing catch-up to what continental Europe has known for a few years. The trilogy has hoarded awards, outsold Harry Potter in France, sold 2.7 million copies in Sweden (a country of 9 million), and in Denmark outselling every other book in history except the Bible.

Viking Queens

While a couple of middle-aged men, in Mankell and Larsson, might be leading the Swedish crime-writing charge, the army that is following is full of young Viking woman. And the world is beginning to take notice. Bestselling suspense juggernaut James Patterson, looking to hop on the Nordic crime wave, has chosen Liza Marklund (#12 on the Wischenbart 2008/09 European Top 40) as his writing partner for a thriller set in Stockholm (to be published in 2010 in Sweden). Marklund’s own award-winning series, including The Bomber, centres on mother and tabloid crime reporter Annika Bengtzon.

Åsa Larsson was another Viking queen on the European Top 40. Her Rebecka Martinsson series, set in northernmost Sweden and drawing on themes from the Old Testament, has a tax lawyer hero dealing with violent crimes and past demons. As well as every authors’ dream trifecta of growing sales, critical acclaim, and awards recognition (both Swedish and international), the female Larsson has also had her debut, The Savage Altar, made into a film in her home country.

Fellow Swede Karin Alvtegen is famous for her searing psychological standalones, rather than any beloved recurring characters. She invites readers directly into the minds of vulnerable characters dealing with extreme situations, and doesn’t focus on police investigations, but that hasn’t stopped her racking up awards.

Her breakthrough novel Saknad won the 2001 Glass Key for Best Nordic Crime Novel, and the recently US-released English translation (Missing) has now been shortlisted for the 2009 Edgar Award. Meanwhile the UK-released English translation of her 2005 fourth novel Skam (Shame) has been shortlisted for the 2009 CWA Duncan Lawrie International Dagger.

The finalists for that award further underline the growing domination of Swedish crime writing, with four of the six being translations of Swedish authors (the others being Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire, Jo Nesbø’s The Redeemer, and Johan Theorin’s Echoes from the Dead). In fact, Swedish crime writing has become such a phenomenon in Europe that the Germans have invented a new word for it, “Schwedenkrimi”. Down here, perhaps we could just use the phrase “highly, highly recommended”.

Side Bar:

                                                                                                                                   

Seven superb tastes of Sweden

Want to give Swedish crime novels a try? Or expand the Scandinavian authors you’ve read? The following acclaimed titles, ranging from classic to contemporary, are all available or upcoming in Australasia, and all are highly recommended:

Missing

Karin Alvtegen (Text Publishing)

Originally published in 2000 (translated 2003. released in Australia 2008), Alvtegen’s breakthrough second novel follows a homeless woman who becomes the most wanted person in Sweden following the deaths of two businessmen. 2009 finalist for the prestigious Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

The Savage Altar

Åsa Larsson (Viking)

Larsson’s 2003 debut (translated 2006) introduces recurring heroine Rebecka Martinsson, a Stockholm tax lawyer, who finds herself back in her remote hometown investigating the horrific murder in a cult-like church of her friend’s brother. Shortlisted for 2007 CWA Duncan Lawrie International Dagger.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Stieg Larsson (Quercus)

The smash-hit first volume of the worldwide phenomenon ‘Millennium Trilogy’ introduces one of crime fiction’s most unique protagonists, disturbing punk heroine Lisbeth Salander – who along with crusading liberal journalist Mikael Blomkvist, investigates a forty-year old disappearance linked to a series of gruesome murders. Has won multiple awards.

The Preacher

Camilla Läckberg

Set in the remote fishing village of Fjallbacka, the second novel (published 2004, translated 2009) in the Detective Patrik Hedstrom series involves holidaymakers long lost, bodies found, new murder, and investigations into a feuding clan of misfits, religious fanatics and criminals.

Sidetracked

Henning Mankell (Vintage)

The seventh Inspector Kurt Wallander mystery won Mankell the coveted CWA Gold Dagger in 2001. Wallander’s holiday plans are interrupted when he must investigate two horrific deaths; the fireball suicide of an unidentified young woman and the brutal murder of the former minister of justice.

Woman with Birthmark

Håkan Nesser (Pantheon)

The fourth and latest Inspector Van Veeteren novel to be translated (there are six more), set once again in the fictional city of Maardam. Van Veeteren and his team follow a bewildering trail, full of deception, and murder, in the hunt for a serial killer avenging a terrible crime.

The Laughing Policeman

Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (Harper Perennial)

Originally published in 1968 (translated 1970), this fourth instalment in the seminal Martin Beck series won the Edgar Award in 1971. Martin Beck and his team investigate the sub-machine gunning mass murder of nine people, including a colleague, on a Stockholm bus.

                                                                                                                                   

This article was originally published in print in the August 2009 issue of Good Reading magazine. 

Asian Drug Running and British Daggers

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2010 - ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN NZ AUTHOR MAGAZINE

Asian drug-running and British daggers

Wellington-based NZSA member Bob Marriott talks to Craig Sisterson about being considered one of the best unpublished crime writers in the English-speaking world

A couple of messages from the British Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) could end up changing NZSA member Bob Marriott’s fiction-writing life. Last year, as part of a regular CWA email newsletter, Marriott, a Wellington-based freelance travel writer and former Naenae College teacher, discovered the CWA Debut Dagger, an unpublished crime writers’ competition open worldwide. Then in May Marriott found out he was one of 12 shortlisted authors selected from “hundreds and hundreds” of entries for the 2010 Debut Dagger.

Since 1998 the Debut Dagger has been part of the prestigious CWA Dagger Awards, which for half a century have recognised the best of the best in the crime and thriller writing world. A glance at previous Dagger winners reads like a veritable ‘Who’s Who’ of crime writing; PD James, Ruth Rendell, Ian Rankin, Colin Dexter, James Lee Burke, Reginald Hill, Sarah Paretsky, Henning Mankell, and many more. “When I read the names of some of the people involved, I thought, well, this has got to be pretty big,” says Marriot, with a chuckle.

As an unpublished novelist, it was the Debut Dagger that caught Marriott’s eye, especially since it was open worldwide and many previous entrants have gone from unknown to published author thanks to the competition. Marriott, who was born in England but moved to New Zealand in 1966, had been working on a thriller for several years; In the Lion’s Throat, an action-packed tale set amongst the spectacular scenery of Southeast Asia that he knew so well from his travel adventures. “I’ve travelled extensively and the characters I have met and the places I visited gave me the idea for a story,” says Marriott. “I worked on it spasmodically in between articles and travel for two or three years, then last year decided to finish the book then do something positive with it.”

One eye-opening trip into the Laos mountains provided plenty of fictional fodder. “It’s a hotbed of drug smuggling up that way, and they don’t really hide it in many cases,” he says. “They were growing opium [poppies] quite openly, and the guide said ‘we grow a little just for our own use’, with a sort of a little grin at the corner of his mouth, and I thought, well there’s acres and acres there. What I know about opium you could write on the back of a postage stamp, but I thought obviously there is more going on than meets the eye. It’s a sort of fairly lawless, remote area. I found it sort of mystic.”

Entrants for the Debut Dagger, which is open to anyone writing in the English language who has not yet had a novel published commercially, must submit the opening chapter(s) of their crime novel (up to 3,000 words) along with a short synopsis of the overall story. Although he thought his story might struggle to pique the judges’ interest, since it was “more of an action thriller” than a classic whodunnit, Marriott says he looked at the Debut Dagger “and thought, you know, what the heck?” After all, you’ve got to be in to win, and he’d been looking to “do something positive” with his completed manuscript.

Although he’d finished his full-length novel, Marriott still faced one final hurdle before he could enter; writing a good synopsis of In the Lion’s Throat. “I found of course that writing a decent synopsis is harder than writing the book,” he says with a laugh. Particularly when you’ve only got a certain amount of words - they wanted 500 words or something like that - to write what the whole book is about.” A good synopsis is fairly important, as the entire competition is judged \ on each entrant’s opening 3,000 words and synopsis. Unlike the recent NZSA/Pindar Publishing Prize (which incidentally was won by another Wellington-based budding crime writer, Donna Malane), where unpublished authors were shortlisted based on their extract and synopsis, but then the judges considered the full manuscripts of the finalists, for the CWA Debut Dagger the winner is chosen based solely on their extract and synopsis. “The amazing thing is, you don’t even have to have written the [entire] book,” says Marriott. “I mean, obviously if you want to get anywhere with it [later] you have to write the book.”

Marriott crafted his synopsis - distilling down his rollercoaster story of unorthodox Interpol Operator Brett Sadler waging war on drug smugglers in Southeast Asia and New Zealand into a few hundred words - paid his £25 entry fee, emailed his entry to the CWA, and promptly “forgot all about it”. So he was “surprised and delighted” to find out a few months later that In the Lion’s Throat had been selected by the judges (which include fiction editors from publishers Faber & Faber, Orion, and John Murray, along with a literary agent and the CWA Chairman) as one of the 12 finalists.

Speaking to Marriott in the week before the winner of the CWA Debut Dagger was announced at the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in late July, he says he has no expectations for In the Lion’s Throat to win, and is just thrilled to be on the shortlist. Rather than being an Oscar-esque ‘just happy to be nominated’ spiel, when it comes to the Debut Dagger it’s actually the case that being shortlisted can be as good as winning. Since its inception just over a decade ago, 23 winners and shortlisted authors have been published, and several have gone on to be recognised by major writing awards around the world. Inaugural winner Joolz Denby was short-listed for the 2005 Orange Prize for Fiction, 2001 winner Ed Wright was awarded the 2005 Shamus award for Best PI. novel by the Private Eye Writers of America, and Allan Guthrie won the 2007 Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year for Two Way Split, developed from his entry shortlisted in 2001. Barbara Cleverly, shortlisted in 1999, won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger award in 2004.

Another author who was shortlisted but didn’t win has perhaps been the most successful Debut Dagger alumni of all. Canadian Louise Penny’s manuscript for her mystery Still Life endured two years of constant rejection by publishers and literary agents around the world, until she decided to enter the 2004 competition. Making it through to the shortlist from around 800 entries that year, Penny was noticed by agents then publishers, and her career took off. Once published, Still Life went on to win the CWA New Blood Dagger (best first novel), the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award, and the Dilys, Barry, and Anthony awards in the United States.

The CWA established the Debut Dagger as a way for talented new crime fiction writers to be noticed, rather than lost amongst the ‘slush pile’ of submissions that accumulate on publishers’ and agents’ desks. The success of Penny’s debut and ongoing career (her Inspector Gamache series has featured on the New York Times bestseller list, been nominated for many literary awards, and earlier this year won the prestigious Agatha Award for an unprecedented third year in a row) is just one of many examples demonstrating the Dagger judges have a knack for spotting crime writing talent that might otherwise be overlooked by busy agents and publishers.

Marriott hopes that being shortlisted may likewise help In the Lion’s Throat get more of a chance. “The book is actually finished, it’s there for anybody who wants it, and I’m hoping of course, against hope, that some publisher or agent takes an interest.”

In the meantime, he’s continuing to travel, and continuing to write. He’s now working on a second travel-inspired thriller, set in Central America.

Craig Sisterson writes news, reviews and features for magazines and newspapers in New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific Islands, North America, and Europe. He is also the creator of Crime Watch, a website focused on New Zealand crime and thriller writing: http://www.kiwicrime.blogspot.com. 

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This article was originally published in the August/September 2010 issue of NZ Author magazine. It is available from the archives of the National Library of New Zealand. 

Murder, She Wrote: a tribute to PD James

Late this week, the sad news broke that one of the true icons of modern crime writing, Baroness James of Holland Park - better known as PD James - had passed away at her home, aged 94. I had the rare pleasure of interviewing PD James in the lead-up to her 90th birthday, for an article in Good Reading, an Australian books magazine. She was a wonderful interview - thoughtful, insightful, articulate, and wickedly funny. In her honour, today I make that article available online. 


Murder, She Wrote
Literary legend PD James talks to Craig Sisterson about quality crime writing, inspirational settings, and whether we’ve seen the last of Adam Dalgliesh

“I think a detective story can often tell us more about the society and the time in which it was set, than more prestigious literature can,” says Baroness James of Holland Park, her polite voice resonating brightly down the phone from her London home. “If you want to know what it was like to work in an office in London between the wars, then Dorothy L. Sayers’ Murder Must Advertise is absolutely wonderful. In that office, with those people, you learn an awful lot about life in the time that the book was written. If you want to know what it’s like to be a policeman in Edinburgh, read Ian Rankin. His books are very realistic, and I think that’s a great virtue in crime writing. They should be set in a real place, not a never-never land.”

Whether you agree with Baroness James or not (and I do), few are better placed to comment; she has been writing detective fiction for fifty years (her legions of fans worldwide know her as PD James), is a Fellow of the Royal Societies of Literature and Arts, has received several honorary Doctorates from British universities, been a Governor of the BBC, won writing awards around the world, and been Chair of the Booker Prize. Just last year she published Talking about Detective Fiction, which she humbly termed a “short personal account” looking at the history and craft of the genre. And that’s just a miniscule fraction of her impressive accomplishments.

Quite simply, Baroness James is a living legend.

So, perhaps understandably, I had a few nerves jangling about the place as I called in the lead-up to her 90th birthday celebrations last month. It’s not every day you get to interview a true literary icon. But Baroness James immediately put me at ease; gracious and down-to-earth, she laughs easily and often as we chat about all manner of things.

Talking more about the link between crime fiction and place, she reveals the original inspiration for most of her 18 novels, including her beloved series starring cerebral policeman and poet Adam Dalgliesh, was a particular setting. “The idea comes with the setting,” she says.” I’m thinking of a beach, or a house with a bloodstained history maybe. A community of people is particularly good for detective stories because people are thrown together, not always willingly, and all sorts of collisions can arise.” Her characters come out of the setting, followed by the details of the plot. Over the 48 years since Dalgliesh first appeared, the gentleman detective has investigated murders in a variety of intriguing ‘closed community’ locations, from a theological college (Death in Holy Orders) to barristerial chambers (A Certain Justice) to a posh private cosmetic surgery clinic (The Private Patient, released in 2008).

“What I’m trying to do, and all good crime writers do, is you’re trying to get some of the psychological complexity of a good novel, in a place that is really coming alive for the reader, with a coherent plot, and one that is based really on characterisation, and not merely on the puzzle,” she says.

Later, while we’re talking about her being a member of the House of Lords, I suggest that it could make a terrific setting for a murder mystery. “The House of Lords would be a marvellous setting,” she says. “But there are so many technical problems. Believe it or not, you’re not allowed to die in the Palace of Westminster, which is where the House of Lords are, and if you do die, then you’re put in an ambulance and everyone is told you died on the way to hospital.”

When she sat down in the mid 1950s to start writing what would become her Dalgliesh-introducing debut, Cover Her Face, it never occurred to her to write anything other than a detective story. “I think we don’t often choose our genre, the genre chooses us.” She’d enjoyed reading Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Ngaio Marsh and thought “If I can do this, then it will stand a good chance of being accepted because it’s a popular genre”. And so it proved. “I was very lucky because it was accepted by the first publisher I sent it to, which was marvellous,” she says with a chuckle. “So I’ve never had a rejection slip for a novel. I’m very admiring of people who do have rejection slips, and they just put the book away and revise it later, or start another book. I think that shows a lot of determination and a lot of courage.”

Baroness James admits she initially thought crime writing might be “an apprenticeship” to becoming “regarded as a good and serious novelist”, before realising there could be much more to the genre than mere whodunits. “As I continued in my craft, and got more and more fascinated with the construction of the detective story, I realised I could stay within the conventions of the genre - you know, the central mysterious death, the closed circle of suspects, the detective who comes in like an avenging deity, the solution from logical deduction - that I could stay within those and write a good novel, and that has always been my ambition.”

Not that she hasn’t occasionally strayed; in 1992 she published the dystopian novel Children of Men, which was later made into an acclaimed film starring Clive Owen. Although the basic storyline (the human race becomes infertile and begins to die out) and some dialogue remains from her novel, the film producers did make several alterations. Not that Baroness James minds. “I thought the direction and acting were wonderful. Sometimes people say ‘do you mind what they did to your book?’ and I say ‘well, they can’t do anything to my book, they can’t alter a single comma’. What they’ve done is make a film from my story... and I think it was a very, very good film.”

Baroness James has also seen her popular Dalgliesh series adapted, with 12 of the 14 murder mysteries gracing British television. Unfortunately due to cost-cutting at the BBC, there has been no move yet to televise the latest two novels, which does make her “very said... because the books are very successful ones”. In fact when pressed, Baroness James admits The Private Patient may in fact be her favourite book of all. “I so much enjoyed writing it,” she says. “I was in a convalescent hospital for the last third of the book, having had a heart attack, and it was ideal really, because I had a room of my own, and I had no telephone, and my secretary came down twice a week and took the dictation of the novel. So I’d get up, get my over-bed table, and get at it, working away in absolute peace... And it seemed to do very well.”

Unfortunately for fans, it may be the last we see of Dalgliesh; Baroness James hasn’t officially retired him, but is unsure whether she has the time and energy to dedicate to another tale. “I would hate to produce one that was not of the same high standard,” she says, noting a full-length novel usually takes her about three years to research and write. The thought of rushing a Dalgliesh novel to get it out, or worse, dying with it unfinished, appals her. “It would be terrible for me to have a reviewer say something like ‘considering that PD James was 95 when this book was finished, it is an astonishing achievement, but hardly up to vintage PD James’ - I’d hate that.” Not that she has ‘retired’ herself. “I’m now writing a much shorter book, one that’s entirely different and not to do with crime at all, because of course every writer wants to keep on writing.”

A true marvel, and a real pleasure to interview, before we said goodbye, Baroness James asked me to share one last thing: “Will you please extend my warmest wishes to all my fans in Australia. I’ve had very many happy visits, and I just want to say thank you for all the loyalty and support I’ve had from my fans there.”

You’re more than welcome Baroness James. And really, we should be thanking you.

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Originally published in print in the August 2010 issue of Good Reading magazine. 

Comments and your thoughts on PD James are most welcome. 

A darker shade of Tartan: examining Scottish crime

A darker shade of tartan
Classic British detective fiction centred on the gas-lamped streets of Victorian London and the quiet English countryside, but when it comes to contemporary crime it’s writers from north of the border leading the way. By Craig Sisterson

Note: this article was originally published in the October 2010 print issue of Good Reading magazine, and is published online for the first time here, four years later, in honour of my recent attendance at the wonderful Bloody Scotland festival in Stirling, 18-21 September 2014. 

Back in 1987 a laddie and a lassie from Fife in Scotland released debut crime novels. Neither was an overnight success. But each kept writing; weaving gritty, exciting tales focused on complex heroes operating in societies filled with shades of grey. Then, around a decade later, both came to wider attention in quick succession when first the lass, Val McDermid, then the lad, Ian Rankin, each won the prestigious Gold Dagger from the British Crime Writers’ Association, was nominated for the Edgar from the Mystery Writers’ of America, and then later saw their tales turned into popular television series.

But that beachhead established by McDermid and Rankin, bringing greater attention to Scots-penned crime - which mixes touches of the American hardboiled school with British settings and a distinctly Scottish sense of duality and dark humour - merely foreshadowed an all-out Caledonian assault on the wider world of crime fiction.

Now there are dozens upon dozens of Scottish crime writers racking up awards, acclaim, and sales, and continuing the evolution of British crime writing from Christie-esque crossword puzzles to powerful tales that cast light on contemporary society through the prism of page-turning stories. In recent decades crime fiction has become the modern social novel, and many Scottish writers have been leading the way. Crime fiction “provides a great vehicle for writing very honestly, and sometimes very opinionatedly, about the society that you live in,” McDermid tells me on the eve of her recent visit to Australasia.

But just what makes this small country of barely five million people so conducive to quality crime writing?

Darkness and duality
“I think it’s because there is something in the Scottish psyche that is very much attuned to the dark existing with the light,” says CWA Dagger winner Craig Russell (the Jan Fabel series, the Lennox series), when I ask him what’s behind the thriving Scottish crime writing community. “If you look at Scottish folk tales, there are always stories of the devil waiting for you at the corner trying to entice you into a game of cards for your soul, and that kind of thing. And let’s be honest, we are not renowned for our sunny personalities, we enjoy the darker side of things, and that’s probably why we have a natural tendency towards writing crime. Jekyll and Hyde could only have been written by a Scottish author.”

And it is that classic Robert Louis Stevenson tale of the good and evil contained within one man, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), that many scholars, commentators, and authors point to as the true seed of what has become known as ‘Tartan Noir’. Stevenson believed that evil was no longer “the beast lurking in the auld kirk’s graveyard”, but that instead “we are the monsters, evil lurks in each of us”, said Carole M Barrowman in a 2004 article for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Modern Scottish crime is packed with anti-heroes, flawed detectives and other protagonists that mix good and bad, although usually not quite to the same extent as the monstrous and violent Mr Hyde.

“We do have ... the potential to do wonderful things, but we all have the potential to do bad things,” said Rankin in a recent interview with Prakash Karat in the Hindu Times. “All my books are really about reworking the basic theme of human beings containing within them the ability to do terrible things as well as good things.”

That sense of ‘Caledonian antisyzygy’, that ‘duality of the soul’, is also evident in the macabre nature of historic Scottish literature, from gothic ballads to James Hogg’s influential novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824), with its themes of the saved and the damned. Take a look at Shakespeare’s plays, and which stands out as the most gothic and gloomily atmospheric? That’s right - MacBeth, ‘the Scottish play’, with its witches coven and ‘something wicked this way comes’. Even Sherlock Holmes, a London detective penned by Scotsman Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, somewhat reflects that lineage - the gothic sensibilities of The Hounds of the Baskervilles (1901) perhaps being the best example.

Combine all that with another ingrained Scottish duality - the tension between a history of repressive Christianity and a party-loving Celtic nature - and it’s easy to see why Scottish crime fiction so often manages to successfully combine darkness and light.

Politics and society

William McIlvanney

But there’s more than complex protagonists and a combination of grit and gallows humour in contemporary Scottish crime. Crime writers explore not only our deepest natures but also the nature of society itself, said Rankin recently. And that tradition of Scottish crime writers casting a keen eye over society, a trait shared with their Scandinavian counterparts who’ve also become increasingly popular, ties into the evolution of the crime novel in general over the past few decades. “Literary fiction has become detached from the contemporary realities of Britain, and in that sense it’s been left to the genre writers ... to hold a mirror up to contemporary Britain,” said literature Professor Liam McIlvanney (All the Colours of the Town) when I asked him about choosing to write a thriller for his fictional debut. “Throughout the 1980s and 1990s we had a growing campaign for a Scottish Parliament… and in a sense it was crime fiction that gave readers a place in which those political issues were explored.”

In fact it was McIlvanney’s father William, an acclaimed poet and novelist who has won several major literary awards, including the Whitbread (now the Costa Book Award) and the Saltire, that lead the way for socially conscious crime fiction back in the 1970s, with his novels featuring tough and uncompromising detective Jack Laidlaw. “It’s no coincidence that McIlvanney wrote the first Laidlaw book when Scotland was discussing devolution the first time around,” says McDermid. Laidlaw was a rogue and a philosopher, who “doesn’t so much solve crime as he strips them into submission, first exposing their causes and then confronting their consequences,” said Barrowman in 2004. “And in the process, Laidlaw uncovers the secrets of his humanity and ours.”

An unintentional crime king
Although his Laidlaw novels have been somewhat forgotten by the wider public, crime fiction aficionados and modern-day Scottish authors still appreciate the influence of McIlvanney on contemporary detective fiction. In fact, Rankin himself has repeatedly credited William McIlvanney as being a ‘literary father’ to him.

Rankin didn’t initially set out to be a crime writer, which is somewhat ironic for a man who has become the biggest name in British crime writing over the past decade and more. He was studying for a PhD in Literature at the University of Edinburgh when he wrote a couple of unpublished novels and what would become Knots and Crosses, the first Rebus novel. “I started writing stories, poems and eventually novels about Edinburgh to try and make sense of the city,” said Rankin to the Hindu Times. “This was at a time in the early Eighties, when Edinburgh had the worst per capita problem with heroin and AIDS/HIV in Europe. But nobody was discussing it, nobody was writing about it, and nobody seemed to be trying to change the situation… Old Edinburgh, tourist Edinburgh, is ringed by problem areas that the tourist never has to see. What I really wanted to say to people was that Edinburgh was more complex than you think, and that it’s a city that despite appearances has a lot of social issues and problems.”

Rankin thought he was writing mainstream fiction that focused on social issues, and was surprised to see Knots and Crosses shelved in the crime section. But he soon came around, realising the opportunities within the broader modern genre. “Crime fiction is perfect for discussing those problems.” Rankin’s Rebus novels are much more than the escapist entertainment. “Not only does the series dissect the sinews of modern Scotland and Rankin’s scalpel does not reveal a pretty sight, it also explores bleakly topical ethical issues,” said Andrew Taylor in an article in The Independent in 2001.

It took more than a decade of writing for Rankin to become ‘an overnight success’ with Black and Blue, the eighth Rebus novel which won the Gold Dagger in 1997, but since then his star has skyrocketed. He won the Edgar Award for Resurrection Men in 2004, the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement in 2005, and has received four honorary doctorates from British universities, and an OBE.

Leading lady
While Rankin is known as the ‘biggest name’ in Scottish crime writing, Val McDermid, the lassie from Fife who also debuted in 1987 and became the feminine pillar of Tartan Noir, has actually sold more books worldwide, thanks to her large American following. Earlier this year McDermid was announced as the 2010 recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger, after being inducted, along with Rankin, into the Crime Writing Hall of Fame in 2009. She has written 25 novels and two short story collections, won or been short-listed for numerous awards in several countries, including the Gold Dagger, the Grand Prix des Romans d'Adventure, the Barry Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and had two acclaimed TV series made from her novels; Wire in the Blood and Place of Execution.

McDermid worked as a reporter before becoming a novelist, including on big cases like the Moors Murders and the Yorkshire Ripper murders, allowing her to see into many aspects of society. It was the “contaminating effect” of crime on victims and society, rather than mere whodunnit, that has always concerned her, she says.

Unlike many crime writers who have one dominant series character (eg Rankin’s Rebus), McDermid’s has penned three six-book series (one featuring lesbian journalist Lindsay Gordon, another private eye Kate Brannigan, and the third dysfunctional profiler Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan) and several standalones, including the recently-released Trick of the Dark. Inspired by the new wave American feminist and lesbian crime writers of the 1980s, McDermid has in turn gone on to inspire a new generation of female writers, who aren’t afraid to tackle the (very) tough issues.

Floodgates open

Denise Mina

There are now plenty of excellent female crime writers in Scotland, including CWA Dagger award-winners like Denise Mina (the Garnethill trilogy, Still Midnight) and Louise Welsh, whose ‘atmospheric and harrowing’ 2002 debut The Cutting Room also won the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year Award. Barrowman described Welsh’s debut as “like Stevenson on ecstasy”. “The crime fiction coming out of Scotland at the moment is the best in the world,” said Mina to Crime Time late last year. Like William McIlvanney, Rankin and McDermid, the new breed of Scots crime writers are often concerned with exploring the wider human and social aspects of crime. “Why someone did the crime, as opposed to who did it - I think that’s dead interesting,” said Mina. Glaswegian Welsh continues that Scottish gothic tradition of horror lurking beneath the everyday, weaving tales tinged with humour that can both lighten the mood, and make the darkness seem even blacker, with its contrast.

Other Scots females both riding and propelling the ‘Tartan Noir’ wave include the ‘Femmes Fatales’ trio of Lin Anderson (Final Cut), Alex Gray (Never Somewhere Else) and Alanna Knight (the long-running Inspector Faro series). The masculine side of the ‘Tartan Noir’ ledger is also well stocked, and likewise mixes dark and light. CWA Dagger in the Library winner Stuart MacBride (the DS Logan McRae series) is known for his gritty and gory Aberdeen-set tales, but they contain plenty of piss-taking and gallows humour. In contrast, Christopher Brookmyre has won several ‘comic crime fiction’ awards, but there’s darkness beneath the satire, with his flawed hero, Jack Parlabane, often coming up against corruption in ‘the Establishment’.

For whatever reason - storytelling tradition, gothic sensibilities, Caledonian antisyzygy, gloomy weather, or merely the ‘build it and they will come’ success of Rankin and McDermid - Scotland has proven a very fertile ground for quality contemporary crime writing. Scottish author and commentator Donna Moore now has almost 100 Scottish crime writers listed on her Big Beat from Badsville website.

Take your pick from any of them; you can’t go too far wrong.

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Scottish crime - seven samples
Want to give ‘Tartan Noir’ a try? Expand the authors you’ve read? Try any of the following acclaimed titles, ranging from classic to contemporary. All are available in Australasia.

The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid (HarperCollins)
McDermid’s tenth novel introduced dysfunctional profiler Tony Hill and DI Carol Jordan, went on to win the CWA Gold Dagger, and led to the popular Wire in the Blood TV series. Across the city of Bradfield men are being kidnapped, tortured and killed by a mysterious psychopath who then dumps their mutilated corpses in areas frequented by the gay community.

Laidlaw by William McIlvanney (Houghton Mifflin)
The Silver Dagger-winning cult classic that back in 1977 first picked at the changing strands of Scottish society through the prism of the detective novel, and paved the way for the modern generation of ‘tartan noir’. Complex and unorthodox policeman Jack Laidlaw follows the trail of a murderer deep into the underbelly of Glasgow.

The Dead Hour by Denise Mina (Bantam)
The second instalment in Mina’s award-winning Paddy Meehan series sees the aspiring journalist called to a domestic dispute in a wealthy suburb, where a man pays her off not to report the incident. When the woman shows up dead the next morning, Paddy finds she is the only one who cares where the truth really lies. Nominated for the 2007 Edgar Award.

Black and Blue by Ian Rankin (Orion)
This eighth Rebus novel was Rankin’s breakthrough, and the book that began drawing attention to ‘tartan noir’, winning the CWA Gold Dagger, and becoming the first episode of the TV series. Rebus is on the ropes, juggling four cases and trying to nail a killer while under the scrutiny of both an internal inquiry and TV cameras investigating a miscarriage of justice.

Lennox by Craig Russell (Allen & Unwin)
CWA Dagger in the Library recipient Russell returns to his roots with his first Scottish-set thriller, an excellent 1950s noir tale introducing shady Glasgow private eye and ‘fixer’ Lennox. After turning down a job from an up-and-coming gangster, Lennox finds himself in the frame for murder, and dodging crime kings and hit man to prove his innocence.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (Penguin)
The original ‘shilling shocker’ that explored the duality of human nature, became a huge success and literary classic, and remains in print to this day, almost 125 years later. Dr Jekyll discovers a drug that releases a dark alter-ego that prowls the streets of fog-bound London. He thinks he can control it, but soon discovers his double life comes at a hideous cost.

The Cutting Room by Louise Welsh (Text Publishing)
Welsh’s 2003 debut won the CWA New Blood Dagger, the Saltire Award, and was nominated for the Orange Prize. A Glaswegian auctioneer discovers a hidden cache of violent and disturbing photos from the 1950s in an attic, and become obsessed with discovering whether they are authentic. Was a young woman really murdered, or the photos staged?

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This feature was originally published in print in the October 2010 issue of Good Reading magazine. Scottish crime fiction has continued to go from strength to strength, and there are a number of other authors not mentioned in this article that are also well worth checking out. Check out this list for some ideas.

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Comments welcome

RIP Lou Allin, a great friend

It is with a heavy heart that I share news of the passing of Canadian mystery writer Lou Allin, who lost her battle with pancreatic cancer this week. Along with being a wonderful mystery writer, Lou was a champion of the Canadian crime writing community, supporting other authors and serving the CWC organisation.

What many in Canada don't know, however, is that she was also a great friend of New Zealand crime writing. When the Ngaio Marsh Award was first being established in 2010, I had many good discussions with Lou, who was then a Vice-President of Crime Writers Canada, about crime writing awards and organisations, how to establish them and run them, and the lessons learned in Canada. She was incredibly generous with her time and advice, and then also served as a judge for the first three years of the Award, only stepping down last year as we rotated the judging panel. I always found Lou an absolute delight to deal with, and my heart goes out to her partner Jan, and her family and friends in Canada.

I had the pleasure of meeting Lou in person, a couple of years before the Ngaio Marsh Award came into existence, and long before I had any thought of becoming so involved in crime fiction. It was fun for both of us to realise a couple of years later, while corresponding regularly about the Ngaio Marsh Award, that the fellow crime fiction lover we were chatting to half a world away was actually someone we'd met at the Vancouver Public Library in April 2008 for an Arthur Ellis Award event. Small world.

Lou will forever be a part of the Ngaio Marsh Award family, and an unsung hero of New Zealand crime writing. I last spoke to her, by email, in May, and didn't realise at the time how sick she was. She was still so helpful and giving with her time and advice, putting me in touch with Canadian crime writers and event organisers in order to further promote and help the Ngaio Marsh Award. She loved the Kiwi crime writing she'd gotten to read as part of her role as a judge, and her passion for the genre always shone through.

Lou was born in Toronto, but grew up in Cleveland. She earned a PhD in English Literature then spent 30 years in Northern Ontario as an English Professor. She was a passionate dog-lover, and wrote the Belle Palmer series of mysteries (starring a realtor and her German Shepherd), the RCMP Holly Martin series, and  some standalone thrillers set in Michigan and Utah. In recent years, Lou lived on the beautiful Vancouver Island. You can read her 9mm interview here.

There are no new stories online yet about Lou's death, but tributes are pouring in on her Facebook page.

She was 69 years old. I will miss her.

Ngaio Marsh Award: looking back on how it all began...

Wow... It's a little surreal to think that this year, 2014, is the fifth instalment of the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, New Zealand's indigenous prize for crime, mystery, and thriller fiction. An award that gestated as several conversations with a few authors, reviewers, publishers, and other booklovers over a period of months back in 2009-2010, after I'd wondered aloud (several times) why New Zealand seemed to be the only English-speaking country - other than Belize, perhaps - that didn't have a crime writing award?

Sure, we were a smaller country, smaller population, and smaller market, than the likes of the UK, USA, Canada, and Australia, but other small countries had crime fiction awards. And, more to the point, we did have awards for literary/general fiction, romance fiction, sci-fi and fantasy fiction, and more in New Zealand. So why not crime?

To me, it was a gaping hole, especially for a country that had historically produced crime fiction that garnered acclaim on the world stage. We'd even been the home of one of the four Queens of Crime in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction: Dame Ngaio Marsh. So, as these things often happen, after some thinking and talking, and more thinking and talking, it was time to take action. And the Ngaio Marsh Award was born, in 2010.

I've shared parts of the story of the Award's inception over the years, in various interviews, as well as my own blog posts and articles. Like many things in life, there was not one inciting incident, but instead several strands, coincidences, and other things all coming together over time. Like a whole lot of twigs coming from different places, gradually stoking a fire you don't even know you're building, until it sparks into life.

You could in some ways trace the Award's creation to a discussion I had with terrific Canadian author William Deverell (read my piece on him here), walking along the streets one Vancouver Spring evening in April 2008, after a Vancouver Library event where the Arthur Ellis Award finalists had been announced (Canada's crime writing awards). I'd only gone to the event as I'd randomly seen a flyer while wandering around the city that day, had no plans that evening and was happy for a 'cruisy' night after thousands of miles of travelling and plentiful adventures the past few months. The event and talking to the likes of Mark Zuehlke and Deverell got me thinking about celebrating crime writing outside of the UK and USA, and wondering why there hadn't seemed to have been an awful lot of crime writing in our country lately, when we had great writers in other genres, page and screen. (Note: in one of those strange but lovely 'life' coincidences, author Lou Allin was also at that event - she later independently became one our judges for 2010-2012, as Vice-President of Crime Writers Canada - we later realised we'd oh-so-briefly met in person back then).

Another twig: I randomly picked up two crime novels from the recently returned shelf at the Papatoetoe Library in October 2008 while waiting to hear back about a potential new job, having just arrived back in New Zealand following a yearlong round-the-world trip. A journey where I'd reconnected with my lifelong love of reading while on 24-hour bus rides in South America, then airports, trains, ferries, and hostels around the Americas and Europe. The two books that somehow caught my eye that day, when I hadn't even originally intended to go to the library? Vanda Symon's THE RINGMASTER and Paul Cleave's CEMETERY LAKE. After reading both, I realised there was high-quality crime fiction - as good as what I'd been reading from overseas authors - from contemporary New Zealand writers. It was an eye-opening moment for me, and in hindsight got the old cognitive cogs whirring.

Left: CEMETERY LAKE by Paul Cleave, the first of a one-two punch with Vanda Symon's THE RINGMASTER that got me rethinking modern New Zealand crime writing, which until then I'd really thought of as Paul Thomas's 90s Ihaka novels, the noir tales of Chad Taylor, and a couple of one-offs from the likes of Simon Snow, Nigel Latta, and Michael Laws.

Reading those two books lead to my first-ever published crime fiction reviews, when a legal text review for our magazine, NZLawyer (I got the job) didn't come in on time. Our Managing Editor, Darise Bennington, asked if I'd read anything lately I could review to fill the space. So unknowingly (to both of us at the time), Darise threw another twig on the small but growing fire. Unfortunately that review that kickstarted so much for me in the crime fiction world is no longer online - I might have to dig it out and republish it here sometime.

We got some lovely feedback, and it seemed the NZLawyer readers liked the local crime fiction reviews, so in 2009 we included a handful more, such as Lindy Kelly's equestrian-themed thriller BOLD BLOOD then Alix Bosco's legal thriller CUT & RUN. By then I'd started reviewing for other publications, and interviewing authors (a feature on Kelly for NZ Horse & Pony and one on Neil Cross for Good Reading in Australia, were the first) as part of the freelance writing I did to amuse and stretch myself away from my full-time legal writing job (eg sports, travel, feature interviews, reviews).

Then came the launch of this blog in August 2009, basically inspired by the fact I felt there wasn't much information out there about Kiwi crime writing (judging by my research for articles), what was out there was scattered, most authors didn't then have websites, and I had some cool new material from interviews or contacts that I couldn't fit in the feature article word counts. So maybe there was something worth sharing? By then I was already writing non-stop for work and for freelancing, so what was a few more articles/posts per week? How the heck did I fit it all in? In hindsight, I don't actually know... Well, it was good to keep busy and out of mischief since my terrific then-girlfriend had moved overseas. So yeah, maybe she gets a credit in this whole thing too. And hey, it's fun to work hard doing doing stuff you enjoy...

So even though it was never a plan, looking back, the path to the creation of the Ngaio Marsh Award seems to have some kind of random logic, and ongoing momentum that built to the point I felt something had to be done. Although I have received plenty of (too much, perhaps) credit for its creation, there were so many people who played a part along the way, knowingly and not. From random discussions to focused advice, to those who came on board and offered their time and expertise to help, and for that I will forever be grateful.

Too many to name, perhaps, but as the fire sparked and started to grow, these guys were 'big logs' that made it roar: the amazing judges from around the world, crime fiction lovers all, that volunteered their time and insight; so many in the books industry who offered supportive advice or naysaying motivation; John Dacres-Manning, Dame Ngaio's closest living relative, for giving his blessing for us to use her name; artist Gina Ferguson for coming up with an amazing trophy based on a brainstorming session, some scattered ideas, and a bad sketch of mine; the Christchurch Writers Festival for being so enthusiastic and supportive in the Award's inaugural year (even after the first earthquakes lead to the cancellation of the 2010 festival), and ever since; and local media who embraced the Award then local crime writing itself much more than I expected, initially. To name a few.

Guy Somerset wrote a great piece for the New Zealand Listener on crime writing in New Zealand and the creation of the Award. And yes, that is me looking semi-noirish in the photo - a rare unsmiling pic of me; I thought I should listen to the photographer's artistic intentions since it was my first-ever photoshoot. Then Sunday Star-Times Books Editor Mark Broatch also took a closer look at New Zealand crime writing in a great feature, "It's a crime wave" (read online here).

There was no doubt that New Zealand crime fiction was on the rise, but many did wonder at the time if the Ngaio Marsh Award would be sustainable. Would there be enough quality books coming out each year to make an annual award for New Zealand crime, mystery, and thriller fiction viable. Was it a rising tide, or a bubble that would burst? I wasn't even sure myself, though I was confident that with the likes of inaugural finalists Neil Cross, Vanda Symon, and the pseudonymed Alix Bosco, along with Kelly, Paul Cleave (who'd had international acclaim and mega sales in Europe), Paddy Richardson, and emerging authors such as Ben Sanders, around, that at least there would be some great books to read and consider for the next couple of years at least. So we'd go from there...

Five years on, we have undoubtedly our strongest and deepest, most diverse 'long list' ever (the eight books that are being considered by the international judging panel right now). And there were other well-written and enjoyable Kiwi crime thrillers that came out last year that haven't made it to that stage. That level of depth, quality, and diversity is pretty cool - especially when you consider that it's a year in which none of those outstanding inaugural finalists (Bosco won in 2010 and was a finalist in 2011, Cross was a finalist in 2010, 2011 and won the Award in 2012, and Symon has been a three-time finalist) is in the running, as none produced a crime novel in 2013. So it seems for now the bubble has not burst, and the tide rises...

The New Zealand media have been very supportive of this Award, for which I'm very grateful. It's been a labour of love, a wee hobby of mine, rather than some well-oiled machine. I'm a bit of an outlier in the books world, just doing my own thing, which works terrifically well in some ways, and not so much in others, I know.

Along with the Listener and Sunday Star-Times articles, in the early days there were features in the Herald on Sunday, The Press, and interviews and mentions on Radio New Zealand, amongst many others.

Above: Me in late 2010 with the Award, along with some books in the running for the 2011 Award - yep, I was already planning ahead. Photo Credit: Herald on Sunday

You can read my interview in the Herald on Sunday, around the time of the first award, here.

Since the launch of the Award, it seems things have improved for New Zealand crime fiction, overall, I think. It seems to be featured more in the review pages here and abroad, appearing more regularly on the local bestseller list, festivals regularly include New Zealand crime writers on their programmes now, new authors are emerging in the genre, and some authors are winning or becoming finalists for overseas awards too. Crime is often the most popular genre for library loans, and book sales, in New Zealand - though it would still be nice to see New Zealand readers buying more New Zealand crime fiction.

My own life has changed a lot since five years ago, but my passion for crime fiction remains. As I say in my wee spiel for this blog, it's one of my many passions. It's funny to me how those in the books world see me in a certain way, because that's all they know. Where other friends in other areas of my life sometimes have no idea of this part of my life (when they do find out, it's amazing how many of them are actually crime fiction fans themselves - I've ended up recommending a lot of great books and authors over the years!). It does feel good to be involved, even in a periphery, slightly outsider-ish way, with something I love, though. I've been a super-keen reader since growing up in the small town of Richmond. You can trace my interest in crime fiction to the Hardy Boys books, along with Poirot and Sherlock Holmes. Part of a terrific childhood filled with sports, books, the outdoors, and great friends and family who fuelled in me a curiosity about the world and a passion for life. Sorry, side-tracking here a little. I guess it's just a time of reflection, and gratitude.

Looking ahead now, I'm really excited to see who will take home the fifth instalment of the Ngaio Marsh Award at the upcoming WORD Christchurch festival in late August, and I'll be keeping you all up to date with local and international crime fiction happenings and thoughts right here on Crime Watch (which will be undergoing a revamp at some point in the future). In the meantime, it would be terrific if you'd be so kind to 'like' the Award's Facebook page, as we'll be making several announcements over the coming weeks, and you'll have the chance to win some cool prizes.

Thanks so much for all your comments and support over the years. I am truly grateful.

Kia kaha
Craig

Keeping away from the courtroom: John Hart

Keeping away from the courtroom
Attorney turned award-winning author John Hart talks to Craig Sisterson about why he’s eschewed legal thrillers for character-centric rural noir

Legal thrillers are hugely popular. But when North Carolina attorney turned author John Hart’s publishers suggested he write more lawyer-centric tales, following his critically acclaimed debut, 2006’s The King of Lies, he balked. “Because the book worked they wanted another lawyer book, and I really had to fight it because I was getting all these John Grisham comparisons, and you’re never going to out-Grisham John Grisham, period,” says Hart. Along with Scott Turow (Presumed Innocent), Grisham built the entire legal thriller genre, says Hart. “It doesn’t matter how good you are, you’re always going to be second fiddle to those guys, and that seemed intolerable to me.”

If you don’t scratch below the surface, it’s easy to see why some made the Grisham references early on in Hart’s career: both were Southern lawyers turned novelists who penned page-turning tales with intriguing characters set in the rural South. With Hart centring his debut on a disgruntled lawyer, the lazy marketing comparison became near-automatic. But read a few pages of a Hart novel, and you know you’ve got something completely different, and quite special, in your hands. Call them literary thrillers, rural noir, or whatever; bottom line is there’s a reason that Hart made history by scooping the coveted Edgar Award for Best Novel for consecutive books.

Hart creates the kind of hauntingly real, complex characters that literary fiction aspires to, balanced with lush evocations of place, and engrossing storylines that lure you in. After two failed novels that he admits were “much shallower books”, it was the creation of Work Pickens in The King of Lies that helped things click into place.

Hart had been looking to leave the law: the final straw was an incident where he was assigned to defend a child molester, who’d confessed to Hart but wanted help to get out on a technicality. The man’s mention of his four-year-old stepdaughter, when Hart had recently become a new father himself, crystallised things. “I was just so unhappy in my law practice, and the main character in The King of Lies is this very disenchanted attorney that was looking for a way out and was in the law for all the wrong reasons,” he recalls. “So I wrote this opening sequence for my wife to read, about this lawyer meeting with a client in jail who’d just been sentenced to life without parole for murder, and just these feelings of icky-ness mixed with disgust coursing through the lawyer in that scene.”

Hart realised after writing that scene that Pickens could never be a strong, super-charged typical legal thriller hero. “He was just this broken down, unhappy man. And if he was that unhappy in his career, he can’t be happy in his life. There’s got to be more to him. I just realised this character was so real that I didn’t need grandiose plot drivers to make the story work. That if I could build a character so real that the readers felt his anguish, then you could buy an emotional commitment without change-the-world stakes.”

The damaged, authentic characters in Hart’s novels aren’t searching for bombs in the Vatican or hidden terrorist cells, but each in their own way is facing something just as dangerous. Change-their-life stakes, if not change-the-world. The running-on-empty Pickens is suspected in the murder of his father. Down River follows a troubled young man facing long-held grudges when he returns to his hometown. Hart’s 2009 Southern Gothic masterpiece, The Last Child, sees 13-year-old Johnny Merrimon desperately scouring the dark underbelly of his town for any sign of his twin sister, who disappeared a year ago. Mob enforcer Michael tries to break away and make a fresh start in Iron House, while protecting those he loves from his violent life, past and present.

Character isn’t everything to John Hart, but it is key. Credible characters and credible stories. “The books I remember ten years after I read them, what I remember are the characters, period,” says Hart. “I might remember little bits of the plot, but if a character is really well done and compelling, they tend to stick. I don’t aspire to write what would be considered classics in fifty years – I think that would be the height of conceit, but I do aspire to write characters that people will remember after they close the book… you absolutely have to care about the people you’re reading, or there’s no point.”

Hart boldly quit his legal practice after his wife read the first few pages of The King of Lies. He’d written his first unpublished novel while studying for a Masters, and his second while at law school. He knew he could never make it work while practising. He was “ridiculed roundly” by many in his town, including colleagues. But he and his wife knew he had to try. “What people regret at the end of the road is what they didn’t do, the risks they didn’t take,” he explains. “I’ve never heard someone say ‘I’m so sorry I tried for that brass ring’. So it really was such an imperative. I could not be a half-baked lawyer and a half-baked writer. I needed to make a decision, I was at that point. That if I didn’t do it then, then when our second baby came it would be impossible; expenses would double, time would disappear. This was one last little window where we had enough money to live, meagrely, for a year, and my wife was supportive.”

So Hart and his wife rolled the dice, and he spent his time in the local library and “just did it”. Success didn’t come straight away – it still took a couple of years for The King of Lies to be published, but once he broke through, the faith and effort all paid off. He’s now published four bestselling, critically acclaimed novels, that have scooped several awards and been published in dozens of countries.

More importantly, however, Hart is doing what he loves; disenchanted no more.

This article was first published in the print issue of NZLawyer, 5 April 2013, and is reprinted here online with permission