Chris Chan's Blog, page 20

Coming This Fall– “Of Course He Pushed Him”– The Anthology!

Coming This Fall– “Of Course He Pushed Him”– The Anthology!

 

As regular readers of this blog know, over the past few years I’ve been writing lots of Sherlock Holmes-themed stories for various publications.  Later this year, MX Publishing will release a collection of these stories.  Titled Of Course He Pushed Him, named for a story where Watson is suspected of murdering Holmes at Reichenbach Falls, this anthology will contain thirteen previously published tales, originally featured in volumes of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, various Belanger Books anthologies, and Mystery Weekly (now titled Mystery Magazine).

 

Here’s the cover art!

 

 

 

 

The book will be released in the coming months– the exact release date will be announced soon!

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3rd.  His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books on September 7th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

 

 

The Best Children’s Mysteries

The Best Children’s Mysteries

 

My interest in mysteries started at a very young age.  I have discussed my love of Mathnet earlier on this blog.  But mysteries written for children are a very special subgenre.  In children’s mysteries, the author usually can’t include any serious violence, especially murder.  Not only that, but a children’s mystery often has to feature a child protagonist.  If you have a child as a detective, how does that young person perform a proper investigation?

 

There were several series of children’s mysteries I enjoyed growing up– the Encyclopedia Brown books, which required a wide knowledge of trivia to solve; and the Boxcar Children mysteries, which often did not include actual crimes or detection, were frequently on my reading list.  But my favorite children’s mysteries, written for children, featuring children investigating, were E.W. Hildick’s McGurk Mysteries.

 

The McGurk Mysteries were a series featuring a group of young children who ran their own detective agency and did a remarkable job solving crimes.  At first there were four members of the group: Jack McGurk, the leader of the group with a lot of self-confidence, a manipulative streak, and a surprisingly effective sleuth.  Joey Rockaway, the narrator of the group and the organizer of information.  Wanda Greig, a tree-climbing expert.  The final member of the main group was Willie Sandowsky, whose preternatural skill for smelling proves frequently useful.  Several books into the series, Gerald “Brains” Bellingham, a technology and science whiz, joins the group, followed a bit later by the sixth and last member, Mari Yoshimura, a ventriloquist.

 

The mysteries ranged from catching bank robbers to retrieving stolen jewelry to finding missing to proving a pet cat is innocent of killing birds.  Some of the books are quite dark, involving kidnappings and preventing murders before they happened.  The books were funny, with terrific characters, and though they were geared towards children, Hildick never spoke down to children.

 

Unfortunately, all of these books are out of print, and I worry that they will soon be lost.  Hopefully, they can be brought back to the public attention so a new generation can enjoy them.

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3rd.  His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books on September 7th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

What is the WORST Mystery Book Cover You’ve Ever Seen?

What is the WORST Mystery Book Cover You’ve Ever Seen?

 

It’s been said that you can’t judge a book by its cover, and there’s a lot of truth to that.  Unfortunately, a bad cover can put a potential reader off, and in my experience, one doesn’t want to look at a cover that just looks disgusting.  I’m not a fan of some of the midcentury covers that are particularly lurid, featuring corpses in various states of undress and clear indications of violence.  

 

Unfortunately, a lot of book covers these days are boringly generic.  Most contain an image of dubious connection to the book, and in most cases, one could swap them without causing any confusion.  I’m not saying that every cover has to be iconic, but way too often, the cover’s bland and forgettable.

 

I’m a big fan of Tom Adams’ Agatha Christie book covers.  I think his art is distinct, evocative, and interesting.  It’s often beautifully done, as well.  This cover for A Caribbean Mystery, however just unnerved me.  It looks like there’s a decapitation, though there isn’t one in the book.  I can think of at least a dozen Tom Adams covers for Agatha Christie novels that I’d hang up on my wall.  Not this one.

 

But for me, the mystery book cover that I disliked the most is the first one I ever saw that was actually a spoiler for the book: Dorothy L. Sayers’ Strong Poison.  The heart of the mystery is figuring out how the victim was poisoned.  This cover pretty much spells out the vehicle for the arsenic.

 

Is there a book cover for a mystery that you really disliked?

 

 

–Chris Chan

Story Profile– The Prisoners of Cawdor College

Story Profile– The Prisoners of Cawdor College 

 

Belanger Books’ two-part anthology Sherlock Holmes: Adventures Through the Multiverse has an interesting premise.  These are stories where something is a little different from the Sherlock Holmes Universe we’re used to reading.  Maybe Watson is the detective and Holmes is the doctor.  Maybe they live in America instead of London.  Maybe Holmes’ ethnic background is different.  The main linking factor is that the stories are set in a parallel universe.

 

In my story, I ask what happens if Moriarty won the fight at Reichenbach Falls.  Suppose he won, but instead of throwing Holmes over the edge, he and his men held Holmes (and Mycroft) as prisoners, occaisionally forcing them to use their brainpower for his own ends?

 

You can buy Volume Two of Sherlock Holmes: Adventures Through the Multiverse here.

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3rd.  His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books on September 7th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

 

Congratulations to Lee Child and Laurie R. King!

Congratulations to Lee Child and Laurie R. King!

 

A few months ago I announced that my book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter had been nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Non-Fiction!  This past weekend, the Agatha winners were announced, and the winners of the category were Lee Child and Laurie R. King for How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America.  Congratulations to them, and congratulations to the other nominees, Jan Brogan for The Combat Zone: Murder, Race, and Boston’s Struggle for Justice, and Julie Kavanaugh’s  The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge, and the Phoenix Park Murders that Stunned Victorian England.  Well done to them, and all the other winners and nominees for the recently announced Agathas and the Edgars!

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3rd.  His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books on September 7th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

Story Profile– Think of the Children

 Story Profile– Think of the Children

 

When Belanger Books announced their anthology The Nefarious Villains of Sherlock Holmes, featuring stories revolving around various bad guys Holmes comes across over the course of the Canon.  I immediately knew that I wanted to write about a character who is referenced in The Sign of the Four: a villain who preys on little children.  The killer is only mentioned in an intriguing line of dialogue, and Holmes also mentions a rather disgusting fellow who is far kinder in the inside than one might expect him to be from his personality.  I knew that I had to tell the story of both characters.

 

You can find my story, “Think of the Children,” here.

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3rd.  His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books on September 7th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

Agatha Christie’s Young Adventurers

Agatha Christie’s Young Adventurers

 

When the layperson with only a cursory knowledge of Agatha Christie’s books, they think of older detectives.  Miss Marple is a senior citizen, and Poirot is a mature man as well.  However, a significant portion of Christie’s books– around twenty percent– feature younger detectives, just starting out in their adult lives and seeking adventure and finding love.

 

Agatha Christie Ltd. has just published my profile of some of Christie’s younger detectives in “The Young Adventurers Reading List.”  Check it out, if you are interested!

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3rd.  His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books on September 7th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

 

 

Why Can’t Perry Mason Be Adapted Faithfully?

Why Can’t Perry Mason Be Adapted Faithfully?

 

In my previous post, I discussed how the characters in the Perry Mason series changed over the course of the series and also how the very adaptations changed them.  But it’s not just the characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner that were altered.  The plots and narratives have been changed dramatically, too.  

 

When Perry Mason was made into a series of six 1930’s movies, some hewed closer to the classic stories than others, but additional subplots, like romances and “comedy” bits were added.  A radio series rarely brought the narrative into the courtroom, portraying Mason as more of a private eye and man of action, using original stories largely not based on the books.  The current HBO series mostly just uses names and a bunch of Easter eggs in its first season, with a wholly original mystery at its center, and traces of Gardner’s other series thrown into the mix.

 

But what about the Raymond Burr television series (which once again, I stress, is one of my favorites)?  A great many of the early seasons drew upon Gardner’s stories, but in order to fit into fifty to fifty-two minutes, a lot had to be cut, and often, some of the most interesting and colorful characters (such as the titular Dangerous Dowager) had their roles cut and their characterization made far more pallid and less interesting.  Some narratives, often regarding sexual situations or children born outside of marriage (PG-rated at worst by today’s standards), were bowdlerized, and one of the books series’ most shocking endings (the work is not named here so as not to be a spoiler) was changed to be more conventional.  Even some titles were changed, as Vagabond Virgin was considered inappropriate and changed to Vagabond Vixen… which really sounds a lot dirtier.  A lot of plot lines and complex legal issues were cut, and often the precarious legal issues in which Mason had to extricate himself were removed.  More often than not, the changes produced enjoyable episodes, but often a lot of deleted material would have made the episodes better.

 

After the first few series, the show ran out of books to adapt, aside from a few newly published ones here and there. Late in the series’ run, a few Gardner novels that had already been adapted were adapted a second time, though with a different title and some cosmetic changes to the plot.  Viewers could understandably feel a sense of déjà vu watching these second-time-around adaptations. Incidentally, decades later, the television show Psych would take its first season episode “Cloudy… With a Chance of Murder” and remake it in its final season as “Remake A.K.A. Cloudy… With a Chance of Improvement.”  It kept the basic plot of the original intact, but it changed the ending.  Not only that, but it added a few more jokes, contemporary references, and filled the cast with actors who had played prominent roles in earlier episodes.  Psych billed the episode as “[making] television history with a never-been-done remake,” but this wasn’t true.  Perry Mason beat Psych to this by half a century.  This had been done for quite some time on the radio as well, as many long-running mystery series routinely took old episodes, changed a bit here and a tad there, and called it a new episode, as it was a lot easier than writing a brand-new episode.

 

Will the Perry Mason books ever get adaptations closer to the original novels?  There are a lot of really entertaining legal thrillers by Gardner that have only been adapted into versions that only bear a cursory resemblance to the originals.  It’s unlikely that another TV series will adapt the books and hew closely to the books, at least in the English language.  Who knows what another country might do?  There are many examples of fine examples of American and British mysteries be adapted well in other languages.  However, the best chance for new, faithful adaptations might be in the form of a radio series.  Certainly many great mystery novels have received stellar adaptations in that format.  Perhaps Perry Mason could be next.

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3rd.  His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books on September 7th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

 

The Changing Characters of the Perry Mason Cast

The Changing Characters of the Perry Mason Cast 

 

Not long ago, I wrote a blog post on Ellery Queen, noting that characterizations and backstories of the famous sleuth changed so much over the course of four decades, that it was likely that it wasn’t just one man whose exploits were being told, but multiple men who were solving crimes and writing books all under the same name.

 

In a comparable vein, I’d like to take a look at Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason novel series, which spanned four decades from 1933 to 1973.  When the average person thinks of Perry Mason, they may have the image of the classic television series starring Raymond Burr in their minds, featuring an ethical, upright, and unflappable defense lawyer Perry Mason; a dignified and almost matronly secretary Della Street; a calmly efficient private detective Paul Drake; and District Attorney Hamilton Burger, who invariably initially prosecutes the wrong person but who places justice above his personal reputation and who deeply respects Mason as a lawyer and a man.  It’s a terrific television show and one of my favorites, but these portrayals of the characters are not the individuals in Gardner’s original novels, at least, not at first.

In the early Perry Mason novels, the tone is a bit grittier, perhaps “pulpier.”  Not a lot of time is spent in courtrooms, and in his introductory scene in The Case of the Velvet Claws, Mason could be mistaken for a hard-hitting private eye with a solid working knowledge of the law.  Mason makes it clear that he is a fighter for his clients, and in the early novels, Mason’s willing to bend the law in order to clear his client and himself.  Della is portrayed as young and fun-loving, and it’s often stressed that she’s her relationship with Mason is more than just professional.  She frequently expresses her affection for him in a physical manner, and her personality can even be described as passionate.  Paul Drake is generally portrayed as effective and dedicated, but he often is badly frayed by lack of sleep and a steady diet of greasy hamburgers and strong coffee.  

 

Over the course of the series, the trio’s characters would change, and by the 1950’s, they’d start taking on more attributes of the TV show’s interpretations.  In 1935, the Mason of the novels was happy to plant false evidence at a murder scene in order to clear his client.  A little over two decades later, influenced by the straight-arrow persona of the TV character, Mason would never dream of committing such an infraction.  Likewise, Della became increasingly demure and some of her comments became less barbed.  Paul Drake was still put-upon, but incredibly effective.

 

The biggest difference between the novels and the TV show, and the most significant metamorphosis throughout the novel series, was that of Hamilton Burger.  In Burger’s first appearance in the novels, he’s a genial sort who is happy to accept Mason’s solution to the crime and the reputation burnishing that comes with unravelling the truth.  Several novels later, Burger has become the persona of the establishment who believes that the justice system can do no wrong, and has become condemnatory of Mason’s corner-cutting and courtroom theatrics, and sees it as his duty to censure a man bringing shame upon the profession.  Flash forward several more years, and Burger has almost become caricaturized, a man whose main mission in life isn’t to get justice, but to beat Mason in court, and preferably, to get Mason disbarred and even jailed for unscrupulous behavior.  Burger became a comic villain, driven by revenge and a repeatedly bruised ego.

 

The recent HBO series Perry Mason revises some of the characters and backstories so dramatically as to make them completely unrecognizable.  There, Mason is a down-on-his-luck divorced dad, scraping by as a morally compromised private eye before remaking himself as a defense lawyer.  Della Street is reimagined as a lesbian estranged from her family due to her orientation, with a desire to become a lawyer herself.  Paul Drake became a Black police officer, who eventually leaves the force due to his exasperation over the force’s entrenched racism and corruption, balancing his ideals with incipient fatherhood.  And Hamilton Burger becomes a closeted gay man who seeks to form an alliance with Mason in order to advance his way up the ladder at the D.A.’s office.  

 

Changing Gardner’s characters is nothing new.  A series of six 1930’s adaptations starring William Warren, Ricardo Cortez, and Donald Woods painted Mason as a debonair man-about-town, and at one point, the head of a massive law firm.  At times, Della Street resembled a put-upon love interest in a screwball comedy film, and Paul Drake had his name changed to “Spudsy” and became incompetent and pathetic comic relief.

 

These are iconic characters, but it’s important to remember how altered they are in different forms of media, and how they changed over time.

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3rd.  His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books on September 7th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

My Guest Post on John C. Wright’s Blog Becomes A Series

My Guest Post on John C. Wright’s Blog Becomes A Series

 

Last week, I announced that an article of mine published on NerdHQ was reprinted on John C. Wright’s blog.  Covering issues of science fiction, critical disagreement, and fan activism, “No Award: Part One: What’s Happening With the Hugos?” was republished last week.  This week, the next two entries in the series, “No Award: Part Two: A Short History of the Sad Puppies at the Hugos” and “No Award: Part Three: Myths, Realities, and Controversies of the Sad Puppies and the Hugos” were released, with more hopefully to come in the future.  If you’re interested, please take a look!

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3rd.  His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books on September 7th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.