C.S. O’Cinneide's Blog, page 5

Black Water Rising By Attica Locke

Jay Porter wants to give his heavily pregnant wife, Bernie a decent birthday present. So, he arranges for a “moonlight cruise” on the bayou. He should have stuck with jewelry. The boat is basically a barge strung with mismatched Christmas lights and the bayou is a narrow strip of muddy water thirty metres below Houston’s downtown street level. I’m not sure if the moon ever enters into it. Bernie doesn’t even want to get out of the car when she sees the floating eyesore.  Smart girl.

But they make the best of it. Her sister has decorated the inside of the cabin with balloons, left them a dinner of brisket and a cooler of beer and grape Shasta. Not quite the romance Jay was going for, but he is short on cash, still waiting for the “slip and fall” cases he takes on as a lawyer to pay off. That is when they do pay off. Most of his clients can’t afford to pay him by conventional means, so they do so in trade. The “boat cruise” is one of those payments. Once again, jewelry would have been a safer bet.

But a botched birthday present is the least of their worries. Out on the water, floating by one of the more dangerous downtown wards of Houston they hear screams, then gun shots, then the sound of someone struggling in the water. Jay jumps in and saves the day, but the woman pulled up onto the boat comes with more questions than answers. She has no shoes. She has no identification.  She doesn’t even have a present for Bernie.

After the captain brings them back to the dock, Jay and Bernie drive the mystery woman to the police station and drop her off there. Jay doesn’t go in. He doesn’t want to talk to the police. He doesn’t want to get involved. Even when he sees in the newspaper the next day that a man was found shot dead in fifth ward, even when the boat captain turns up dead. You’d think he would go to the police after that, but he doesn’t. I would, but Jay wouldn’t. I am a white woman of privilege. But Jay is black.

Sure, he has a record, so this explains part of his reticence. The story takes place in the 1980’s in Texas and Jay was an activist for civil rights in his university days. He almost ended up in prison for a long stay on trumped up charges of conspiracy to commit murder, even though the most radical thing he ever did was suggest people boycott cherry cola.  But his radical and white former girlfriend who marched alongside him back in those days is now mayor and Jay is still trying to eke out a life where he tries to be as invisible as possible. Herein lies the difference, my friends. But while Jay doesn’t go to the cops, he does investigate, and what he uncovers goes far deeper than the dark muddy bottom of the bayou.

This book is a thriller, and a page turner, and an excellent examination of the civil rights and labour movement of the time. The characters are rich and textured, and the writing superb. I don’t want to make it sound like a downer because of the race thing.  It can be uncomfortable sometimes to read a book like this if you haven’t lived the life Jay has. But it is important. It is an eye-opener, and when a novel can be both a thrilling read and a tool to smash ignorance, it is doubly important that you read it. As Jay’s father-in-law, the wise Reverend Boykins says “Pretending people aren’t black is not the way to equality. It’s not even possible, first of all. Any more than I can pretend you aren’t who you are.”  Amen. Rev.

Silenced for so long by the fear of speaking up for what is right, Jay will find his voice again by the end of the story, along with the culprits in this tangled mystery. After years of being afraid to make waves, the blackwater he dove into that night will restore the current of his rightful self. I don’t think Bernie could ask for a better birthday present than that.

Although I hear she is still holding out for a bracelet.

For more on Attica Locke and her books, go to http://www.atticalocke.com/

True Crime – Nannie Doss, the Giggling Grannie

Nannie Doss, born Nancy Hazel in Blue Mountain, Alabama in 1905, murdered so many people I had to make a chart to keep it all straight. Dubbed the Giggling Grannie and the Jolly Widow due to her gleeful laughter as she recounted her crimes, at first look she doesn’t look the part of a serial killer. A chubby, bespectacled woman, she had a lifelong fascination with true romance magazines and in particular, the lovelorn columns. For those born after the invention of the DVD, this column was the equivalent of Tinder, except the participants sought marriage rather than a stand-up quickie in a Starbuck’s washroom. If Nannie were alive today, she would have spent a better part of her life swiping right. She killed four out of five of her husbands and was constantly looking for a new mate, or in her case, victim.

The first mysterious deaths that happened around Nannie appear to have been her own offspring. After marrying young and birthing four children in as many years, Nannie’s two middle children both died of food poisoning. Whether it was Nannie herself that ended their lives or whether this just gave her the idea that food was a good way to do away with people who were perfectly fine at breakfast time, we don’t know. She never admitted to it. Infanticide is a tough confession to giggle through. What we do know is that by 1929 she had divorced Charles Braggs, her first husband, or as he is better known, the one that got away.

Then came Frank Harrelson, Husband #2. He was a notorious drinker and when he died after sixteen years of abusive marriage with Nannie,  the coroner wrote up his death as caused by Acute Alcoholism, which was in a roundabout way correct. He had buried his coveted “whiskey in a jar” in the backyard and Nannie found it. She dug it up and laced it with arsenic, thereby forever ruining the that great Irish tune for him.

In 1947, she married Arlie Lanning a matter of days after meeting him through a matchmaking group, where she had also met Harrelson. By then, Nannie had transferred her addiction from true romance magazines to the new medium of television which she watched religiously for the soppy soaps. After Arlie fell ill and died in 1950, their house burned down and Nannie got a great insurance settlement for both.  Funny that the television was in the back seat of her car the day of the fire, seemingly to be taken for repairs. (Note to self: When planning arson make sure to save the TV).

By 1952 and Nannie has married Richard Morton who she met through the Diamond Circle Club, another organization for those looking for true love.  This husband only lasted four months and might have not lasted that long if it had not been for the unexpected arrival of Nannie’s mother, Lou who came by for Christmas and was pushing up daisies before anyone welched on their New Year’s resolutions. When this husband died, Nannie had managed to take out five life insurance policies on him, so she probably bought a new TV.

Not one for lengthy mourning, Nannie was remarried within a year to Samuel Doss in late 1953. If you were to consult my chart this is Husband #5. Guess what? He fell ill in 1954, and had a month’s long hospital stay for acute gastric distress. Luckily, his doctor found his illness distressing enough to order an autopsy when he died shortly after discharge.  Nannie actually signed off on it. This, despite the fact that she had sprinkled a liberal amount of rat poison in a dish of prunes she had fed him with coffee. Poor sod, he was never regular again.

So when Doss’ autopsy came back showing a belly filled with enough arsenic to kill ten people, police started getting interested. The fact that the police were not interested prior to this sort of blows my mind. At first Nannie denied everything. But eventually, she confessed to her marital murdering spree, amidst giggles and “amusing” anecdotes. She said one of the reasons she killed Doss was because he wouldn’t let her watch TV.  But having been married twenty years myself, I wonder if it was because he wouldn’t let her have the remote.

Bodies were exhumed, more bellies full of far too much poison were discovered. Including various family members I didn’t even bother to mention here.  But Nannie was only charged and tried for Doss’ murder. They really only needed one to put her away for life. She was saved from the death penalty due to her gender. About the only thing women were saved from in the mid 1950, besides a life of drudgery wearing pearls as they vacuumed the cat.

Nannie Doss died of leukemia in prison in 1965. She said all she was ever trying to do was find true love. Although she did often blame the murders on a nasty bang on the head she received as a child. I had a bad concussion last year and can definitely sympathize, although I managed to keep the rat poison out of my husband’s prunes.

But then again, he just stole the remote again. If he switches the channel from Grace and Frankie he is taking his life into his own hands. True love only lasts as long as a husband does, but TV? Now that’s forever.

http://murderpedia.org/female.D/d/doss-nannie.htm

Book Review: Quick Sand by Malin Persson Giolito

This is the second book I have read this month about how relationships with the wrong man can get you into some serious trouble. In this case, it is a boy, rather than a man, but I hear they grow into men eventually, although I am still waiting on some of you.

Eighteen-year-old Maja Norberg is on trial. There’s been a school shooting, and she has been charged for her involvement in it with her boyfriend, the rich and charismatic Sebastian Fagerman.  A terrifying premise in a world where unfortunately this is not an uncommon occurrence. Although usually the perpetrators are on the fringe, World of Warcraft addicted outcasts. In Quicksand, Sebastian is wildly popular, famous for his parties, and so hot and wealthy that even Maja’s parents approve.

Maja herself is a typical teenager. Oh sure, she dances topless and suggestively at parties, takes drugs and drinks too much, but hey, all in a night’s work for the young and restless. What really makes her authentic I think is her complete disdain for adults, particularly her mother. Maja turns every kind thing her mother does into something selfish and stupid. I can identify with this, having had three daughters, and I can tell you that when they are teenagers everything you do will be selfish and stupid, as well as highly embarrassing. They turn out really nice in the end though, so there’s that.

Maja’s lawyer wants desperately win the case, to have her acquitted by the courts and found totally innocent for the role she played in the killings. Not because he thinks she is innocent, but because it’s his job. Also it looks good on the resume. Maja on the other hand is apathetic about her defense, apathy being another characteristic of the young. She also wants to be punished, for whatever part she might have played in the school slaying. Her guilt, as you can imagine is severe. What could she have done differently? How could she have stopped Sebastian? Could she have stopped him?  The boy that she was enamored with at first, but eventually just scared of and unable to find a way to extricate herself from the relationship.

Much like Araminta Hall’s Our Kind of Cruelty  this is a cautionary tale. Watch who you hitch your wagon to, ladies. When justice comes looking for a culprit, they like to find reasons for outrageously violent behavior. No one wants to believe that a popular good looking young boy is capable of mowing down his classmates. But a popular, good looking boy with a scheming girlfriend that drove him to do it? That makes people better able to sleep at night.

Maja doesn’t sleep so well, as she waits in prison isolation to find out her fate. Sure, the story is dark and ironic (Giolito is Swedish after all), but it’ll keep you turning pages to find out her fate as well, not because she is a sweet, innocent character or a black hearted monster, but because she is all these things at once.  She is a teenage girl, like I said.

But then again, what do I know? Everything I do is stupid and embarrassing.

You can find out more about Quicksand and Malin Persson Giolito  at the Other Press website.  Malin won best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year for Quicksand. That’s like winning best tulips in Amsterdam.

Interview with Mary Lou Dickinson

Mary Lou Dickinson has published four books, One Day it Happens, a collection of short stories, and three novels, Ile D’Or, Would I lie to You, and most recently The White Ribbon Man, a murder mystery set in downtown Toronto at a 171-year-old church hidden behind the Eaton Centre. Her short stories have appeared in numerous literary periodicals over the years as well as on CBC radio.

After graduating from McGill University in Montreal, Mary Lou moved to Michigan. Later she settled in Toronto where she still lives and writes.

Interview with Mary Lou Dickinson

You were a long-time member of the Toronto writers’ group, Moosemeat. Their website tells us they allow for no fees (and no poetry) but won’t reveal where they got their name. Will you? Or will this result in your washing up at Harbourfront wearing a pair of concrete shoes?

Yes, probably I would wash up on some beach. Or I would quickly be discredited as having given a false answer. There are many stories of how the group got its name circulated in the group, but no one seems to know any more which one is the correct version. I found it interesting that this urban group had adopted a name that seems to fit my northern background more than it fits any of us now living in the city. In hunting season during my youth, when the hunters arrived back in town, most had a huge moose tied to the roof of the car.

Your first paid publication was a poem at the age of seven that appeared in The Toronto Telegram where your grandmother had a column. What was the poem about? And how did your grandmother, a working women journalist in the 1940’s inspire you?

The poem was about snow, something that would be pretty natural for a child in the north where winter seemed to go on forever. I found the poem when I was downsizing to move a few years ago. It was so awful that I must have destroyed it.  My grandmother must have been trying to encourage me..

Nan certainly inspired me by demonstrating that women did not have to remain invisible and anonymous. One of the delights of her life was going to Hollywood to interview the stars. I still have photos of her with people like Ronald Reagan (as a Hollywood actor), Joan Fontaine and Paul Newman. When she returned to Toronto with her collection of autographed photographs, she wrote about the food these stars liked as well as the restaurants they frequented. These stories delighted her readers and she received many letters saying so.

Oh, and by the way, my grandmother retired at the age of 75. It was then that she bought herself a little white sports car and took up a new career as a model!

Your first book was published at the age of 70, when you released One Day it Happens, a collection of short stories. That’s a bit of a gap from your Toronto Telegram gig at seven, but also the subject of your next book, a memoir of persistence. Can you tell us about it?

The memoir begins in the northern Quebec mining town, something that I have left in reality and become an urban denizen. In my imagination, I don’t seem to be able to leave this place, this cauldron that boils over at times into story. Nor do I want to. The overriding theme of the memoir is the journey to become a writer that took a lifetime. And persistence is certainly among other things that kept me going. The story also follows a young child who resisted oppression without recognizing what this was all about but provided the underpinnings for becoming a feminist and a social justice advocate in my life and in my writing.

The White Ribbon Man  is your first crime novel. What inspired you to write something in this genre? Will you write another?

A fellow volunteer at the Distress Centre many years ago suggested that it would make an interesting mystery to find a body in the washroom of this particular downtown Toronto church. He was going to write it with me, but soon confessed he was too busy. My imagination demanded I write it anyway. I was curious as to how a spiritual community and the individuals in it would react in the aftermath of violence, especially as so many would be under suspicion for a variety of reasons.

I don’t know if I will write another mystery. People like the detective, Jack Cosser, and a series could be developed around him. I do have a couple of ideas. But at my age (81), I don’t know that I want to write another novel or mystery. So I have been writing short stories of late, working toward another collection. And a nonfiction book about retirement that I have challenged myself to finish in six months. As a writer, I have always followed my muse rather than tried to control it and at this point I don’t know where it wants to lead me.

You are a former parishioner of The Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto where The White Ribbon Man takes place. How did they feel about you putting a dead woman in their toilet cubicle and setting up the Anglican Priest as a suspect? Perhaps this is why you are now “former.”

They gave me the honour of allowing me to present the book after a recent Sunday service. No one indicated any discomfort with having the book set in their church, and many purchased it. I gave them some idea of how I presented it elsewhere which honours the church, its inception and its continuing focus on social justice. Maybe I will receive more comment once some of them have read it.

The Anglican priest, an imaginary character, is one suspect among many! I am “former” for entirely unrelated reasons. Many years ago, I realized I could not do the church thing indefinitely, that I wanted to ride my bicycle on Sunday mornings. Or go to an art gallery and get lost in the Henry Moore gallery or some other exhibition. Go over on a ferry to the island and read a book under a tree! I was pleasantly surprised though when I presented THE WHITE RIBBON MAN after the recent service that I felt both welcome and comfortable. I might even go back from time to time. Or not!

You worked for decades at a helpline that counselled women suffering from abuse, belonged to a church famous for its social activism, and included in The White Ribbon characters and situations that speak to the plight of marginalized communities. Social justice appears to be a theme in both your life and your writing. What do you think is the most pressing social ill we are currently facing in Canada and what could some of us be doing about it?

Oh my! I have never put myself forward into the spotlight as a commentator on political issues. But it is hard to resist mentioning the way some of our present “leaders” are denying climate change. And that they are doing away with policies that were put in place to try to ameliorate the damage we as humans have done to the environment and the planet. This seems to me to be the most pressing issue since if we don’t solve it we can’t deal with anything else. Dealing with it with honesty and vigour would require those who seem more concerned with the wealth of the few and increasing that to alter their focus to come up with ways and means to change what we have wrought upon this planet. Also pressing is the lack of respect by many for the democratic process that places us in jeopardy in many areas. It seems that many politicians who are elected to be our representatives and serve the people don’t care about what we think and are willing to push legislation into law without hearing the people despite our concerns and opposition. And as a woman who has worked in the area of violence against women, I am concerned that many politicians who now hold power have little respect for women and are taking actions that move the causes we have worked for backwards. It seems women have once again become a “special interest” group and a threat to the established male social hierarchy. As have other marginalized groups: people of colour, those who live in poverty become even more ignored or stereotyped. None of these people are given the respect they deserve simply as people.

What action can you/we take?

Probably write about it and get out and support politicians who base their activism on ethical and moral principles. Express your views and support progressive candidates and causes.

A recent review of The White Ribbon Man describes your writing as “closer to an old school Dashiell Hammett potboiler, minus the hardboiled detective and foreboding mood.” Your detective is a bit different than the usual tough guy. Can you tell us a little bit about him and what inspired his chamomile tea sipping character?

No particular person inspired the character, Jack Cosser, who is the lead detective in the investigation. I was interested in a character within the police force who was an activist for change both within that bureaucracy and within society. He had to have the skills and desire to be a police officer, but also the sensitivity to begin to understand both personal and social justice issues and the diplomacy and toughness to work within a system that lacked in many ways in social awareness and compassion and showed the flaws of a large bureaucracy.

What book did you read and love but are ashamed to admit it? No fair mentioning shades of anything. This has been done. We want to know your unique guilty pleasure.

I don’t think I have a guilty pleasure to confess around any book that I would not admit to having read. There is one TV series I often watch that I rarely tell anyone about. So many people look down on those who get some pleasure from Coronation Street. I did also until I myself became somewhat of an addict. Such a contradiction for someone who enjoys the classics and good contemporary literature. How can I have become addicted to a bevy of characters who are often quite silly or over the top. Imagine! What would my grandmother think? Come to think of it, she would probably want to watch with me. Dad, on the other hand, would likely have been horrified! Perhaps my mother would have been also.

Find out more about Mary Lou and her books at http://www.maryloudickinson.com/

Review: Field of Blood – Denise Mina

I love Denise Mina. Nobody does down and dirty Glasgow like she does. She makes Scotland into this wildly dangerous and exotic playground for criminals that barely manages to control itself enough for the trains to run. I am travelling there on holidays this fall and fully expect to be stabbed with the blowstick of a bagpipe as soon as I step off the plane.

Field of Blood is the first novel in Mina’s three book series featuring Patricia “Paddy” Meehan, a copy girl working at a Glasgow newspaper in the early 1980’s. The overt sexism and harassment Paddy encounters as she aspires to be a journalist reminds us that it wasn’t that long ago when men could still call you a “fat cow” in front of your co-workers and your boyfriend might find it strange that you wanted a career beyond making his tea every night. (Wait, not that long ago? Wasn’t that just last week?)

But like I said, Paddy’s got aspirations. When a toddler is viciously murdered by two young boys, one of which she is related to, Paddy finds herself at odds between getting the scoop and getting disowned. The comedic freeze-out her family gives her when they think she’s leaked information to the newspaper is reminiscent of a good Amish shunning, except people roll their r’s a lot. Nonetheless, Paddy ends up choosing her family over her career, but she still investigates behind the scenes knowing that there is more to the story than meets the eye.

The premise is definitely inspired by the murder of James Bulger in 1993 by two ten-year olds in Kirkby, Merseyside, England. This is a story that shocked and fascinated the world and has found its way into countless TV shows and books. However, there is no sense of overdone déjà vu here. Mina develops a different backstory for the boys involved that gives us far more explanation and understanding than we ever got in the original case. That’s the great thing about fiction, you can try to make sense of things that in real life make no sense at all, find answers for the unanswerable.  This coupled with Paddy being such a unique and original character causes us to be fascinated for all the right reasons as we follow her pursuit of the truth. She is an ambitious young woman who fits none of the clichés we expect.  Her life is drab and gritty and almost every moment of the day she thinks about being too fat. This adds to her authenticity, but bothered me at times because it sounded way too much like me.

The whole Protestant vs. Catholic thing is also a big part of this novel, along with the stinging misogyny. Of course, me in my North American little centric world over here didn’t realize this whole religion business was a thing in Scotland. But it appears that if Northern Ireland had “The Troubles” then the Scots at least had “The Nastily Inconvenients,” and it would behoove all of us to understand this history better if only to know where it is safe to wear a Rangers football jersey in Glasgow without getting one’s ass kicked.

I highly recommend Field of Blood, as well as the other two books in the Paddy Meehan series by Denise Mina, The Dead Hour and The Last Breath.  All of these books weave fantastic tales that are rich with brutally real characters and political history, a close-up of the underbelly of Scotland that’ll make you delightfully cringe without ever having to try haggis. Because that stuff is really gross and made of intestines, and even if people tell you it is good you should never, ever believe them.

But do believe me when I say Denise Mina is an author not to be missed. Check out Field of Blood and her other novels here. http://www.denisemina.com/

Or buy her book at any one of these links!

Amazon.ca

Amazon.com

How could you Mrs. Dick?

A very dear friend of mine asked if I would look into the story of Evelyn Dick because she had such fond childhood memories of the schoolyard chant:

You cut off his legs …

You cut off his arms …

You cut off his head …

How could you Mrs. Dick?

How could you Mrs. Dick?

Notwithstanding the stunning double entendre and my friend’s obviously twisted formative years, Evelyn Dick (nee Maclean) was worth more than a look. This homegrown Canadian hussy hailed from Hamilton (how’s that for alliteration, my friends?). She also stood trial for the murder of her husband, John Dick, whose shot, dismembered and decapitated torso was found by five schoolchildren who were hiking the Niagara Escarpment in March of 1946. Mr. Dick’s remains were identified by his brother-in-law based on a cyst on his backside and one undescended testicle.  Which just makes one wonder how close John Dick and his brother-in-law really were.

Evelyn was beautiful and in her early twenties, living beyond her means with no real source of income other than the sugar daddy variety when she married John Dick in late 1945. After only six months, the short-lived union was on the rocks. This is not surprising, as Evelyn continued her relationship with boyfriend Bill Bohozuk, not having received the memo about “cleaving” only unto her husband and all that jazz.  Although in retrospect, she might  have just misinterpreted the intended meaning of “cleave.”.

To complicate matters even further, Evelyn’s father, Don Maclean had been threatening her new husband (note: this is the Don Maclean who would plead guilty to assisting in the chopping up of his son-in-law and not the cool dude who sang “American Pie,” so don’t get confused). It seems John Dick had figured out that his father-in-law had been scamming hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Hamilton Street Railway where they both worked. It was five cents to get on the bus in those days, so that’s an awful lot of nickels pulled out of the fare box over the years. Nothing causes a riff between a husband and wife like blackmail of a family member.  It is right up there with leaving the toilet seat up.

A pipe with bullet holes in it, a gun, saws as well as bloody shoes belonging to the deceased were found in the basement of Evelyn’s family home. Bones and other nasty bits belonging to John Dick were discovered in the coal furnace of the house he and Evelyn had shared and his blood was all over the Packard she drove. However, when the police questioned Evelyn about her husband’s death she blamed the mafia, her boyfriend Bohozuk, and later even John Dick himself. She claimed he had pissed off a mysterious man who later came to the house with his decapitated body and forced her to drive it to the dump site.

None of these explanations got her very far. Evelyn Dick was convicted of murder and sentenced to hanging based mostly on circumstantial evidence and the fact that she couldn’t come up with even one decent lie. She later won an appeal where her lawyer argued that her dad was just as liable to have pulled the trigger as she was. But while Donald Maclean was the sole person to serve time in connection with the death of John Dick, it was only as an accessory after the fact. He was released from prison after five years. Bohozuk, Evelyn’s boyfriend was sentenced to nothing more than a stern warning to stay away from other people’s wives. As a result, John Dick’s murder remains technically unsolved.

But the story doesn’t end there, friends! Police found more than charred up nasty remains from John Dick in Evelyn’s house. They also found an infant encased in cement and stored in a suitcase in the attic that predated the Dick marriage. Evelyn had told her mother she gave the child up for adoption when she returned from the hospital in September 1944, but it looks like that wasn’t true. She couldn’t blame this one on her father or the mafia. Evelyn Dick was convicted of manslaughter in the death of her infant son and went to Kingston’s Prison for Women. She was released on parole in November 1958 after serving eleven years and faded into obscurity, except for her website, the three books, the Forgotten Rebels’ punk song, the TV Movie, a play, the film noir musical, Black Widow, and the souvenir shot glasses developed in her honour that read “The fastest way to a man’s heart is through his torso.”

And don’t forget the infamous playground chant of my very good friend. She tells me it still makes her giggle. I try to watch her around sharp things.

To buy a copy of Torso

http://evelyndick.com/

https://www.thespec.com/news-story/6436765-the-strange-and-compelling-story-of-evelyn-dick/

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/evelyn-dick/

Book Review: Death Flight by Melissa Yi

“My cochlea vibrates for thee.”

Only a real doctor and romantic could coin such a phrase. And Melissa Yi is both. Her bad guy busting medical resident and possible avatar, Dr. Hope Sze, takes to the not-so-friendly skies in Death Flight, the sixth book in her popular thriller series. Hope still can’t decide between Ryan and Tucker, the two men she is currently in love with, but that doesn’t keep her from her day job, which appears to be saving lives and saving the day in that order.

But let’s get back to Ryan and Tucker. It is the latter that accompanies her on the airplane. In a recent interview ,  I asked the author if Hope would be joining the mile-high club in this novel, but I’m afraid the two characters aren’t able to hold out for that long. The book starts off with a steamy sex scene in the airport departures family washroom. I will never look at a diaper deck in the same way again.

Of course, as soon as Hope sleeps with Tucker, he begins to get a bit annoying and Ryan starts to look better. Ah, the treachery of rose coloured lust goggles. What’s a girl to do?  Fortunately, all hell breaks loose on their flight back home to Canada from Los Angeles, so Hope doesn’t have a lot of time to stress about it. Picture every vicious, irritating, spoiled and obnoxious person you can think of and put them on an overbooked delayed plane bound for Montreal on Christmas Eve. It is a wonder to me that only one person gets murdered.

Joel J. Firestone is a wealthy porn flick producer and entitled loud mouth from business class who wants to throw Gladys’s support animal for anxiety out the window of economy. As much as the rest of the plane would like to do the same thing with the poorly trained mutt, they don’t relish being sucked out of the exit doors. Tucker and Hope attempt to subdue the violent blowhard. But while she has him pinned by the chest reverse cowgirl style in the aisle, someone manages to fatally stab him. No small feat on a mode of transport that doesn’t afford one anything more lethal than a spork.

Could it be the hippy dippy Topaz with her insipid guru quotes, or the weirdo with the Straight Outta Compton t-shirt who’s been asking for a lighter? Maybe it was the old guy with dementia who keeps screaming for his favourite water bottle confiscated upon boarding?  We all want it to be the dead man’s wife, aging porn star Staci Kelly, but she never left business class, possibly trapped by her own double D’s when the person in front of her reclined.  Everyone is a suspect.

I learned a great deal about the practice of medicine in this novel. Hope and Tucker must deal with repeated health emergencies as the story unfolds, and the author pulls from her own experience to teach us about everything from concussions to chest compressions. Knowledge of pharmaceuticals also plays a part. I know now that you can kill a person by combining too much of an everyday substance with the medication my husband has been on for years for a toasted pituitary. He can get annoying just like Tucker. So I have filed the information away in my “murder bag,” along with the woman in the news who offed her boyfriend by repeatedly spiking his morning coffee with Visine.

All mysteries will be solved before the plane finally hits the tarmac in la belle province, including the one in Hope’s heart. Her love triangle may be reduced to a line between two points, just like a flight path. But I wouldn’t hold her to it. The geometrics of love, like medicine, can be an art rather than a science. And Dr. Hope Sze’s life is never boring enough to travel in a straight line.

To get a copy of Death Flight, strap on your seat belt, then go to this link.

The Dame was Trouble: Edited by Sarah L. Johnson, Halli Lilburne & Cat McDonald

What a treat to read this collection of short stories featuring some of the best women Canadian crime writers out there. Special call-outs to the authors recently interviewed by She Kills Lit, Elle Wild and R.M. Greenaway  who bring both award winning skill and experience to their short stories. Both these writers riff on an artificial intelligence theme here, Wild with a senior care canine inubot in Playing Dead and Greenaway with a not so plastic sex android called Rozotica. Strangely, neither of these stories are science fiction really, as both types of technology exist in some form in the present day. Toronto has not one, but two sex doll brothels, and Japan has a purring seal robot named Paro that will keep your granny company, presumably while everyone is too busy making it with plastic.

But it is real live dames that abound in every one of these stories, an archetype that each author takes out for a different spin. There are nasty dames, ingenue dames, ghost dames and double-agent dames. Gay dames, trans dames, and dames of colour. Dames who are detectives and cops, but also sex workers and hard-done-by diner owners. Dames out to even the score, to find love or money, or maybe just to find a little peace in a patriarchal world. Most of the time, some unsuspecting man dies who deserves it. No offense to the guys, but given the prolific trope of defenseless female victims, this is a refreshing change.  One can only watch so many episodes of Law & Order SVU without tiring of seductively arranged female bodies outlined in chalk.

Dames can also range in age.  One of my favourite stories was The Seeker by M.H. Callway. It features a woman in her sixties who kicks butt in a wild shoot-out from behind the counter of a secluded mini-mart, all while saving two men from the bad guys. Callway writes with a thrilling and action bursting style that rivals a Hollywood blockbuster. It makes me want to see Meryl Streep headline the next Diehard movie instead of Mama Mia.

Crossing Jordan by Sandra Ruttan doesn’t feature murder or a shoot-out but does get us inside the head of a trans sex worker as she tries to unsuccessfully kill herself. But it’s not just A Man Called Ove done up in high heels.  It is a story of persistence and strength in the face of misunderstanding, rejection, and violence. A story that will stick with me.

Dinner with Francisco is set in Spain, of particular interest to me as this is the setting for my novel, Petra’s Ghost, due out in July 2019 (insert unapologetic book plug here). Jone Ibarra, a female bullfighter goes after Franco himself in a brazen murder attempt that goes awry over rioja. But don’t worry, the author Susan MacGregor provides an innovative and satisfying ending where the dictator will get his just desserts served up Toreador style.

And then there’s Indispensable, the gifted Kelley Armstrong’s contribution to the collection. Armstrong gives us classic hardboiled crime fiction with a delectable cliché busting twist. The Dame in this tale dupes or profits from just about every other character in the story, especially the condescending male ones. Once again, apologies to all those possessing a Y chromosome. We love you really, but in traditional crime fiction you can be such arrogant pricks.

These stories made me feel like Candace Starr, the hard drinking hitwoman to be featured in my upcoming crime fiction series, will not be alone (another unapologetic book plug, forgive me). But the first novel in that series won’t be out until after Petra’s Ghost. In the meantime, buy yourself a copy of The Dame was Trouble, and keep company with a whole host of femme noir characters who promise to show you a good time, just don’t turn your back on them while they’re doing it.

Get an e-copy of The Dame was Trouble at Amazon, or go right to the publisher at Coffin Hop Press https://coffinhop.com/the-dame-was-trouble/

Interview with R.M. Greenaway

BIO

RM Greenaway began writing crime fiction some years ago, while northbound on the Greyhound. Work as a court reporter in the remoter parts of BC often took her on the road. Usually she got around by car, but the occasional blizzard would force her onto the bus. Which was good, as being a passenger gave her time to kill — and what better way to kill time than think up cat-and-mouse stories?

Street names became character names as the bus passed through towns and villages, and the blizzard became the setting for her first book, Cold Girl. She scribbled and scribbled, finishing one novel and starting another, and after many years of trial and error, queries and rejections, she submitted to the Arthur Ellis Awards for best unpublished novel, and Cold Girl won first place, which led to a contract for three books, which became the BC Blues crime series. She was agog that she had finally made it to print, and still is, with three books published and three more in the works.

R.M. Greenaway will be part of the line-up of great authors this coming weekend at the annual Women Killing It Crime Writers’ Festival in Prince Edward County (Aug 31-Sep 2). For more information go to:  https://womenkillingitauthorsfestival.wordpress.com/

Sometimes you make jewelry when you’re not making stories. What other things do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Where to begin… Read, draw, socialize, garden, cook, renovate, take pictures, camp, hike, travel, watch movies, sit and do nothing, are the main ones. But lately a favourite is get up really early and go outside, sit on a bench with my cat and a mug of coffee, and … scheme.

Your first novel Cold Girl takes us to the beautiful but often bleak wilderness of remote British Columbia.  Are you a wild girl rather than a city girl?

I’ve spent time in both worlds, and love the excitement and drama of the city. I also love the drama and excitement of the wilds. I’d be happy in either environment, but what I like best is living in the wilds (relatively speaking) and writing about the city. Vice Versa would work too.

Your writing has been described as “police procedural with a hint of fabulism.” I’m ashamed to say that I had to look that word up. According to Wiktionary, it is “a form of magic realism in which fantastical elements are placed into an everyday setting.”  And not a tendency to be fabulous, as I thought. Tell us how this literary element comes to play in your writing.

As you say, the word is misleading, as it suggests fabulous as in ‘I’m so great’, but fantastical elements in an everyday setting is really what it’s about. It’s a word I discovered when I was worrying one day that that there was some element of surreal about my novels, and wondered if that’s a strict no-no in a police procedural. Then I realized life is surreal — just watch the news — so some fabulism in any fiction is natural enough. To tell the truth, I’m not sure the word is an apt label for my work, but it’s as close as I could get. And if there is a fabulism spectrum, I’d say my stories fall on the “mild” end.

Dion, the cop working with traditional detective Dave Leith is such a cliché busting character with his lingering head injury and memory problems. What was your inspiration for him?

Years ago when I began the series I headed it up with a strong female lead character, but found myself gravitating to her troublesome subordinate, who became Dion. His backstory developed because keeping him scrambling is lots of fun. I was also inspired by reading about head trauma, and how it can alter one’s personality — not always for the worse. One of Dion’s challenges is he pines for life as he knew it before the crash, which keeps him from moving forward. One of my challenges is how to keep him moving forward in spite of himself.

By the way, my original female lead perished along the way, but I’ve brought a female co-lead into the mix who I like more, JD Temple. I’m happy to say she inspires me, so she’s here to stay.

In Undertow, the second book in the series, we get a down and dirty view of the Lower Mainland with shady nightclubs, former strippers and underlying violence that “flows like a riptide.”  Does the setting often act as another character in your novels?

Absolutely, and I think most if not all writers would agree. Sometime a scene I’m working on feels sluggish, and I’ll realize it’s because the setting hasn’t crystalized in my mind. Once I’ve fixed that and found some riveting aspect of the terrain to set the characters against, dialogue and action seem to flow. Yes, setting is not only a joy to paint into every scene, to me it’s essential.

On the subject of strippers, if you were an exotic dancer what would be your stage name be?

Rozotica. That’s the title of my short story in the just-released “The Dame was Trouble,” an anthology of noir fiction by Canadian women, produced by Coffin Hop Press (August 2018). Check it out! And thanks for giving me the perfect chance to plug the book, Carole!

You worked as a court reporter. Some people would want to know the most remarkable case of crime you ever covered, but I want to know the funniest. Stupid criminals in particular amuse me.

I love stupid criminal exploits too, when they pop up in the media. If I had another life, I’d like to write Dortmunder-esque novels. I’d love to be an LOL writer.

In real life I haven’t taken down any court proceedings you’d call funny, though some witnesses (or judges or lawyers) are hilarious, often not intentionally so. And the dialogue is fantastic fodder for a writer.

The more remarkable cases are sometimes the more mundane, too. Small claims or family cases can be just as fascinating as the major murder trials – believe it or not.

Creep, published this year, is your third novel to feature the mismatched Dion/Leith detective duo. Are you working on a fourth book for the series, or something else right now?

My fourth in the series, Flights and Falls (Spring 2019), has just gone through the final proofing stage, and I’m writing the fifth, with a working title “River of Lies”. This one’s my favourite, but then they all are while in progress –not so much after the umpteenth edit and proof.

I’ve also got a couple of short stories coming out this year in two different noir anthologies, “The Threshold”, in Vancouver Noir (Nov 6 2018), edited by Sam Wiebe, and as mentioned above, “Rozotica” in The Dame was Trouble. Short stories are a nice break from novel writing.

Cold Girl won the 2014 Arthur Ellis Unhanged Award sponsored by Dundurn Press, Canada’s largest independent publisher.  What’s it like working with an Indie press?

It’s great. I’m not sure I’d survive the rigours of one of the giant publishing houses. Dundurn has been really good to me. They take care of the hard part, that is getting the books in print and out there, leaving me to do what I love most: keep writing.

What is the next book that you want to read and why?

I’m a fan of the Ann Cleeves TV series, but only recently am reading (via audio book) one of her Vera Stanhope novels, and it’s leaving an impression. Along with downright enjoying the story, I think I could learn a lot from her writing style. So I’m going to pick up another Ann Cleeves, and this time in old-fashioned book form.

For more on R.M. Greenaway, check out her website at https://rmgreenaway.com/

Interview with Lisa de Nikolits

Originally from South Africa, Lisa de Nikolits has lived in Canada since 2000. Her body of work includes both novels and short stories. She is a multiple Independent Publisher Book Award winner and has appeared on recommended reading lists for both Open Book Toronto and the 49th Shelf, as well as being chosen as a Chatelaine Editor’s Pick and a Canadian Living Magazine Must Read. No Fury Like That, which was published in Fall 2017, is her seventh novel and has received glowing reviews. Her next novel, Rotten Peaches will be published in the fall of 2018.

 

What brought you to Canada? I mean, we are like the Joe Cool of countries, but inquiring minds want to know.

Canada totally is the Joe Cool of countries! Well, there I was, living in Sydney, Australia, where I lived for two years (I’m originally from Johannesburg, South Africa) and Australia simply wasn’t agreeing with me! I thought the Aussies would be loud, warm, happy, welcoming people (you know, like South Africans!) but they were an uptight, humourless, rule-abiding prim lot (I know, readers will think you can’t be serious – but seriously, yes, they’re so rigid!)

I was working for Cosmopolitan and SHE magazines at the time and I was looking for an image from an Image Bank catalogue (this was in 1998 before the entire world went digital) and I came across a photo of the CN Tower. And I thought hey… don’t I have a cousin there? Didn’t we exchange letters throughout most of our childhood and teen years, happy missives covered with stickers of unicorns and rainbows?

I rushed over to my computer and fired off an email to said cousin, asking her if I could come and hang out on her sofa for a while. I bought a round-the-world ticket because I really had no idea what would happen and then I simply stayed! My poor cousin. I camped in her living room, played the eerie and maudlin soundtrack from The Virgin Suicides on repeat (for weeks), ate all her cherry yoghurts and lost half her socks in the wash. I’m really not sure why she didn’t kick me out!

No Fury like That  has been described as The Devil wears Prada caught in a Sartre’s play. How did your background as an art director for major magazines like Vogue and Marie Claire influence that?

Magazines have been a great influence and a great source of material. I’ve never used any one person as a base for a character but certainly the environment has been conducive to many an idea! It hasn’t always been easy, traversing the hallowed halls and jostling with the armies of kitten-heeled Chanel-clad Anna Wintours but it certainly has been entertaining. I love magazines with a great passion and I love design. Design is fun. Writing is hard. Very very hard. Writing is much harder work than design! And the people are zany and we’re always working with ideas; what’s hot now, what are the latest fashions, music, videos, garments and make up trends. I’ve always loved riding the wave of What’s Hot Now all of which I know is horribly superficial but it’s so much fun!

Rotten Peaches   is due out later this year, and I understand it will be a bit different than what you’ve done in the past. Does that make you more trepidatious, or are you just at the normal level of freak-out that an author experiences with a new book?

I am definitely more trepidatious! Although actually, I thought everybody would hate No Fury Like That and it seems to be my most popular book so far. I thought readers would find Julia too much, find the book to be too angry. But instead, people love it and find it hilarious. While I didn’t plan to write a funny book, I do recognize the humour in No Fury Like That while Rotten Peaches is much more of a fast-paced noir read.

Rotten Peaches is about obsessive love, racism and greed and I don’t think those things are conducive to humour. I wanted the book to be about real human emotion, about uncontrollable lust and desire.

But I will say this. My insights as to what a book of mine is or isn’t, have, historically, been unfailingly wrong! So in reality, I will simply have to wait and see and hope for the best. I have worked extremely hard to deliver a good solid book that readers can sink their teeth into and at the very least, I hope they’ll enjoy the journey that the book takes them on through South Africa and North America.

You are a member of both Sisters in Crime and Mesdames of Mayhem. How have other women writers in the genre influenced and inspired you?

Writing is such hard work! I realize I just said that for the fourth time! And I couldn’t do it without the Sisters in Crime and the Mesdames of Mayhem because they are my tribe, along with a number of other writers who aren’t affiliated to either of those groups. I’m also a member of the Crime Writers of Canada and they’re an amazing bunch too.

There are so many levels of support that come from belonging to organizations like these. I think the word ‘networking’ is one we never want to hear again, so instead, I’ll say it’s a great way to make friends because it’s true! I’m a big fan of workshops and try to attend as many as I can. My writing motto is Do One Thing A Day For Your Writing and even if that one thing is picking up a new tip or penning down one new idea, then that’s good enough!

I agree with Stephen King when he said ‘Read as much as you write.” Or did he say that? I think he said something like that! I try to read four times the amount I write. Actually, maybe ten times. I read superfast, I can read a book in a night. I am extremely curious as to how books are written – what POV did a writer use, how did they describe people, places and things, how did they construct the plot, how did they sculpt the punctuation and grammar and have their books improved or weakened on their publishing journey? I generally have about seven or eight library books out at one time and I’m constantly ordering new books. And I go to collect a book, I usually see three more on the shelves that simply have to come home with me!

So yes, in answer to your question, organizations like SIC and the Mesdames are invaluable for the camaraderie, the goodwill, the friendship and the technical knowhow. I cannot thank my author friends enough for reading my work, their feedback and insights are a critical part of the process but their friendship means the world to me.

“I am not a killer. I just fell in love with the wrong man,” is a quote from Rotten Peaches.  How much do you think we are defined by the relationships we keep?

I think we are defined by the relationships that we allow to linger in our minds and in our hearts. Those relationships might long since be dead, no more than dust in the wind, a memory only to ourselves but as long as we feed them, they will remain. I like to keep the memory of a relationship alive if it might prove useful for a book.

Sometimes we continue to be hurt by the past and there isn’t a lot we can do about it. I don’t fully believe we can “put things behind us and move on.” There are aspects of our lives that we have no control over and I believe our feelings fall into this category. I’ve tried very hard to take control of the reins of my emotions only to realize it’s a waste of time. For me, it’s better to acknowledge hurt and try to live with it, much like keeping a chipped vase in an otherwise perfect room. Of course you could throw the vase out which might help you forget it ever existed but then something will pop up and remind you and the feelings will well up in your heart all over again.

The popular belief about relationships seems to be that things matter as much as you let them matter but I disagree. We aren’t machines!

For example, take both Leonie and Bernice in Rotten Peaches. Why didn’t they leave those relationships? Because they couldn’t. A lot of times in life, a thing has to play itself out, that’s all there is to it.

In No Fury Like That, Julia finds herself in purgatory, Amelia in Nearly Girl is studying Joan of Arc for an advanced degree, and I believe Between the Cracks She Fell invokes Salmon Rushdie’s Satanic Verses on the first page. Tell us about the role of religious motifs in your writing.

You’ve hit on a very persuasive theme in my work for sure! I’m a doomed Catholic! I love studying philosophy, theology and psychology. I’ve studied Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism and many others for my personal edification as well as for my books.

I was expelled from the convent (but later reistated!) and I was historically the only person at our school to be kicked out of the confession booth with my sins unabsolved.

And yet, I am a deeply spiritual person! I would absolutely hate to think we are all alone on this planet with humans as the highest form of beings. I like to feel connected to something out there, something bigger than me. And I know it’s there! And to me, it doesn’t matter what that deity or thing is called, I’m happy just to know it’s there and so yes, I try to work that internal discussion and debate into my work.

Pre-reviews of Rotten Peaches contain words like obsession, sexy, raw, and explosive sensuality. Well, that’s two words, but anyway, you get the picture. Are we in for serious romps in this novel? 

We are indeed! But perhaps not quite in the way one might expect. For example, Dirk, the very conservative married man believes he is not being technically unfaithful to his wife but not ‘going all the way’ with Bernice. What a loser he is! But the chemistry of lust is a very pervasive theme in the book. I’ve had a peach coloured button made with a bleeding, pierced heart (and both JayRay and Leonie get this tattoo onto rather delicate places), and button’s tagline is “I went too far” which pretty much sums up the book. How far would you go, for love? An interesting question, particularly fors a writer when there are no limits or constraints!

Despite the dark places you take us in your novels, they are full of LOL’s. Where do you get your gallows humour from? 

That’s an excellent question! Excellent because I don’t set out to write humour and if you ask me, I’d say I am not funny at all! However, people seem to find both me and my books humorous. I have rather a dark view of the world but instead of being bitter, I am naively perplexed and confused by things. I definitely get the wrong end of the stick a lot of times in social conversations – I’ll be all earnest and I’ll say something unintentionally strange which initially confuses people but then they crack up as if I set out to make a joke! I’ve tried really hard to check my own brand of observations at the door but there’s nothing I can do to stop them from escaping! And this, my somewhat warped way of processing reality, morphs its way into humour in the books.

What is on your bedside table right now? I’m thinking specifically of books, but we are also interested in any other objects. You know, that inquiring mind thing.

Ha! A very strange collection of objects! Okay, here you go – unedited!!

2 x lavender sachets which I keep meaning to put inside my pillowcase but forget
A pink and white jar of Emu cream with Vitamin E oil from Australia
SweetLeaf Vanilla Sweet Drops to add to my bedtime glass of water
White Flower Analgesic Balm (to rub on my neck when I have a migraine)
Lavender Organic Hand Sanitizer
Benylin Cough & Chest Congestion (in case I get a cough in the night. An unusual occurrence but you never know!)
Sun Bum Coconut Lip Balm
Thymes Vanilla Ambrette Body Lotion
Biotherm Eau Soleil (it makes me think it’s summer even in the dead of winter!)
Thierry Mugler Angel Perfuming Body Lotion
Three lucky stones from somewhere
A small Leg Lamp (like the one in A Christmas Story)
A rope bracelet my husband gave me on Mount Rangitoto in New Zealand
A sparkly blue round decal that I found somewhere
A pen, a bulldog clip and several rubber bands, a tiny notebook and a pad of yellow postit notes.

Now that I look it, it’s a bit of an odd collection! I see a lavender theme happening!

That’s the top shelf. The bottom shelf has one of my to-read piles:

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
The Whiskey King by Trevor Cole
Barkskins by Annie Proulx
Existentialism and Human Emotions by Satre
In The Bear’s House by Bruce Hunter
Tender in the Age of Fury by Brandon Pitts
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer

 

Find out more about Lisa and her books at these links!

Links:

Author website: www.lisadenikolitswriter.com

Twitter: @lisadenikolits

Facebook: www.facebook.com/lisa.denikolits

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/lisadenikoli...

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com @lisadenikolits