Chris Chan's Blog, page 21

My Guest Post on John C. Wright’s Blog

My Guest Post on John C. Wright’s Blog

 

John C. Wright is the author of the award-winning science fiction of author of books like the Golden Age series, the Eschaton Sequence, and the Chronicles of Chaos series, as well as works of social and literary criticism, like From Barsoom to Malacandra: Musings on Things Past and Things to Come, and my personal favorite, The Last Straw: A Critical Autopsy of a Galaxy Far, Far Away. 

 

Mr. Wright’s blog, www.scifiwright.com, addresses many issues connected to literature, culture, and moral/spiritual/religious issues.  Many of the concerns Mr. Wright and some of his friends and colleagues had regarding contemporary science fiction and fantasy writing were covered in an eight-part series I wrote a few years ago on the Sad Puppies controversy.  Mr. Wright is now reprinting those essays on his blog.  The first in the series was published this week.  Please take a look at the link!

 

 

–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 WWII Sherlock Holmes Movies of Basil Rathbone in Germany

The WWII Sherlock Holmes Movies of Basil Rathbone in Germany

 

Ever since my junior year of college, I’ve had an intense interest in how the 1940’s Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce-starring Sherlock Holmes movies reflect the times.  Transported from the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries to the then contemporary 1940’s, Holmes and Watson not only solved crimes, but they thwarted the evil plans of the Nazis as well.  

 

As I studied the era and films for a capstone project for my History major, I learned that these movies were part of a broader collaboration between Hollywood and FDR’s White House, where the government encouraged the film industry to incorporate approved messages and morals into its releases.  I turned my work into an essay titled “Sherlock Holmes vs. Hitler: A True Story.”  I presented an abridged version of it at a Film & History conference, and another revision was published in the Baker Street Journal.  

 

In all my years of studying this topic, however, I never thought about how those films went over in Germany.  Did the Germans even see these movies?  If so, when?  Today, the Basil Rathbone tribute blog “The Great Baz” has the answers.

 

marciajessen writes:

 

It’s no surprise, then, that Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes films were not released in German theaters during the war years. Even those films that did not feature Nazis as Sherlock Holmes’s foe would have been deemed unacceptable in Germany because Sherlock Holmes was a British hero, symbolic of England.

By the mid 1950s, however, West Germany had a friendly relationship with Great Britain, and German attitudes towards Sherlock Holmes had changed. But, instead of simply releasing the Sherlock Holmes films, Argus Filmverleih put together four composite movies, each of which is made using footage from two of the Universal Sherlock Holmes films.

Please read the whole blog post.  It’s very interesting.

 

 

I plan to study this topic more in future blog posts.

 

–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: “The Bitter Gravestones”

Story Profile: “The Bitter Gravestones”

 

In The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, Part XXX: More Christmas Adventures (1897-1928), edited by David Marcum (November 2021), the Sherlock Holmes pastiches are all Christmas-themed.  One of my stories, “The Bitter Gravestones” is included.

 

The story was inspired by a thought I had.  What would happen if someone was so angry at a deceased person that he would actually have an angry insult carved on the dead person’s tombstone?  What would lead someone to such virulent extremes?  What would happen if somebody else saw such venomous things etched into a gravestone?

 

In this story, a young boy comes to Holmes for help.  When this boy, the heir to a considerable country estate, discovers several gravestones with absolutely malicious things on them in the isolated family plot, and finds that one relative he never heard of before died every year at around the same time for the last several years, he’s concerned, and passes his suspicions on to Holmes.  

 

It’s a story of anger, revenge, and a Christmas miracle at the end.

 

 

–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.

"Father Brown Rides Again” Opens!

"Father Brown Rides Again” Opens!

 

Once again, Morning Star Productions is putting on an interactive theater production: Father Brown Rides Again.  It will run this weekend and next, and it features six “colorful” suspects reminiscent of a famous mystery board game.  A bejeweled treasure has been stolen, and now you can help the good Father track down the thief!

 

From the Morning Star Productions website:

 

Spiritual sleuth, Father Brown, takes on the CLUE characters in another interactive "whodunnit".

You become Father Brown's assistants as he investigates Madame Blanche, Professor Prune, Mrs. PeaBrain, Rev. Sap, Colonel Horseradish, and Miss Ruby. 

​The world renowned Jeweled Cross has gone missing at Mrs. PeaBrain's mansion. One of the suspects is the thief. It's up to you to accuse the right culprit.
20 audience members at a time will move through the 6 rooms of the mansion, interacting with the suspects, interviewing each one, and making an accusation on the CLUE-like form.
​This "ain't Father Brown's first rodeo" so he'll be "on his toes",
​ready to nab the crook.
Can you make the right accusation with Father Brown's help?

Audience is unable to be admitted until
10 minutes before showtime.
We wouldn't want you to hear the solution of the crime!

February 25, 26, 27

March 4, 5, 6

A new show every hour. 

Each show is 50 minutes.
​
We can accommodate 20 patrons per show.

Fridays - 5, 6, 7, 8 pm

Saturdays - 1, 2, 3, 4 pm and 6, 7, 8 pm
​
Sundays - 1, 2, 3, 4 pm 

Location - The Kneeland-Walker Mansion

​7406 Hillcrest Dr., Wauwatosa (The Wauwatosa Historical Society)
https://www.wauwatosahistoricalsociet...

https://www.facebook.com/MSPMilwaukee ​

There is no handicapped ramp or elevator and therefore the building is not wheelchair accessible.
Street parking is available.

Questions? - call 414 228 5220, ext 119

Tickets available online (recommended) or at the door

Adults - 15$

Children 12 and under - 10$

Groups - 

10 - 19 people/ 12$
20 - 49 people/ 10$
50+people/ 8$

​Appropriate - Ages 8 and up.

Masking is recommended but not required. The venue is large and therefore audience is able to distance if they choose to do so.

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3rd.  His 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.

Mystery Criticism and “Liquid Filth”

Mystery Criticism and “Liquid Filth”

 

I review a lot of mysteries, and at times I wonder if my attitude’s a bit too much like Donald Pleasance’s character Adrian Carsini from the Columbo episode “Any Old Port in a Storm.”  In that episode, Carsini famously throws a fit when he tastes a bottle of port that has been allowed to overheat, causing it to develop an inferior flavor that only the most discerning palates can detect.  Others can’t taste anything but a first-rate wine, but Carsini is disgusted.

 

 

Carsini refers to a wine that gives others pleasure as “liquid filth.”  And it made me think about my own mystery reviewing, where books and TV shows and movies that delight other people annoy me because they’re too clichéd, or because the solution was too obvious, or the plot too cookie-cutter, or the characters too one-dimensional, or the messaging too heavy-handed, or because they’re just not original in any way.

 

Granted, I read and watch a lot more mysteries than most people– far more, and I think about them more than others.  But does that make be more discerning, or am I just being an overcritical snob?  If a flaw is only detectible by a tiny fraction of the population, is it really that bad?  Is it really mediocre?  Am I being overcritical towards certain perfectly enjoyable books, or are they genuinely the literary equivalent of “liquid filth?”

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3rd.  His 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.

Father Brown Rides Again!

Father Brown Rides Again!

 

Are you a fan of G.K. Chesterton’s detective Father Brown and interactive mysteries?  Do you live in the Milwaukee area?  May I suggest Morning Star Production’s Father Brown Rides Again, a live theater experience where the good Father investigates a case with six colorful suspects.

 

The show is on the weekends of February 25th and March 4th.  There are several shows each day, each about fifty minutes long.  All participants (as many as twenty per show) will watch scenes and interview suspects, culminating in players making an accusation shortly before Father Brown reveals the truth.

For more information check out: https://www.morningstarproductions.org/father-brown-rides-again.html.

 

Check it out if you can!

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3rd.  His 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.

 

 

REVIEW: Murderville

REVIEW: Murderville

 

In the last three years, there really haven’t very many new comedies that I’ve enjoyed.  There are one or two exceptions, but this week, I watched a comedy series that had me laughing all the way through.  That series is Netflix’s Murderville.  Based on a British series, the show is a quasi-improvisational comedy.  The storyline features a homicide detective, Terry Seattle (who has never visited the city he shares a name with) who each week is paired with a different celebrity acting as his assistant.  The actors playing the regulars and the suspects all are given scripts, but the guest celebrity detective does not, and therefore all of the guest detective’s dialogue is improvised.

 

Each of the first season’s six episodes follows the same format.  Terry (a brilliant Will Arnett, who’s sometimes deadpan, always wacky, and consistently hilarious) voice-overs an introduction at the station.  His boss and estranged wife, Chief Rhonda Jenkins-Seattle (Haneefah Wood), introduces him to his new celebrity partner and sends him off on a new homicide investigation.  The duo view the crime scene, interview three suspects, usually with an extra silly adventure along the way, and then the guest detective must try to identify the killer from the three suspects.  Sometimes the celebrity gets it right, sometimes not.

 

The guests Conan O’Brien, Marshawn Lynch, Kumail Nanjian, Annie Murphy, Sharon Stone, and Ken Jeong, and though all do a really good job with the improv, O’Brien and Jeong shine the best.  The show wears its improv badge proudly, and frequent corpsing and chuckling and stifled smiles are kept in the show.  The murders include a magic act’s sawing-in-half gone horribly wrong and a high school reunion turned deadly, among others, and it all culminates in Terry solving a fifteen-year-old cold case that’s quite personal for him.

 

The comedy is meant to be silly as possible, and it manages to be the kind of Police Squad! humor that sometimes seems dumb at first glance, and then a bit of reflection makes you realize how clever and well-crafted it really is.  I never went longer than two minutes without laughing aloud. 

 

Not since Ellery Queen has there been such a fair play crime series for solve-it-yourself mystery puzzlers.  There are always three or four clues, and the alert viewer must find out which of the three suspects fits all the clues, some of which are incredibly subtle and shrewd.  After the first episode, and I knew how the show worked, I managed to solve all the cases, but I usually missed at least one of the clues hidden in a quick shot or a barely perceptible line of dialogue.

 

Murderville is barely controlled lunacy and clever solve-it-yourself mystery.  These are a few of my favorite things, and I hope the series continues for a long time.  I highly recommend it.

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3rd.  His 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.

 

MURDER MOST GROTESQUE Has Been Nominated for an Agatha Award!

MURDER MOST GROTESQUE Has Been Nominated for an Agatha Award!

I am grateful to share that my book MURDER MOST GROTESQUE: THE COMEDIC CRIME FICTION OF JOYCE PORTER has been nominated for an Agatha Award from Malice Domestic in the best Nonfiction category! I'd like to thank everybody who nominated me, and I also want to congratulate all of the other nominees, especially the other Level Best authors and the other Nonfiction nominees: Jan Brogan, Julie Kavanaugh, Lee Child, and Laurie R. King! Further gratitude must be extended to my publishers at Level Best Books, Shawn Reilly Simmons, Verena Rose, and Harriette Sackler! Thank you all so much!

 

Here is the list of this year’s nominees!

 

​The 2021 Agatha Award Nominees

Best Contemporary Novel
Cajun Kiss of Death by Ellen Byron (Crooked Lane Books)
Watch Her by Edwin Hill (Kensington)
The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
Her Perfect Life by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)
Symphony Road by Gabriel Valjan (Level Best Books)

Best Historical Novel
Murder at Mallowan Hall by Colleen Cambridge (Kensington)
Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime)
The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)
Death at Greenway by Lori Rader-Day (HarperCollins)
The Devil's Music by Gabriel Valjan (Winter Goose Publishing)

Best First Novel
The Turncoat's Widow by Mally Becker (Level Best Books)
A Dead Man's Eyes by Lori Duffy Foster (Level Best Books)
Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala (Berkley)
Murder in the Master by Judy L. Murray (Level Best Books)
Mango, Mambo, and Murder by Raquel V. Reyes (Crooked Lane Books)

Best Short Story
"A Family Matter" by Barb Goffman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine Jan/Feb 2021)
"A Tale of Two Sisters" by Barb Goffman in Murder on the Beach (Destination Murders)
"Doc's at Midnight" by Richie Narvaez in Midnight Hour (Crooked Lane Books)
"The Locked Room Library" by Gigi Pandian (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine July/Aug 2021)
"Bay of Reckoning" by Shawn Reilly Simmons in Murder on the Beach (Destination Murders)

Best Non-Fiction
The Combat Zone: Murder, Race, and Boston's Struggle for Justice by Jan Brogan (Bright Leaf Press)
Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter by Chris Chan (Level Best Books)
The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge, and the Phoenix Park Murders that Stunned Victorian England by Julie Kavanaugh (Atlantic Monthly Press)
How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America by MWA with editors Lee Child and Laurie R. King (Simon & Schuster)

Best Children's/YA Mystery
​Cold-Blooded Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Algonquin Young Readers)
The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur (Fiewel and Friends/Macmillan)
I Play One on TV by Alan Orloff (Down & Out Books)
Leisha's Song by Lynn Slaughter (Fire and Ice/Melange Books)
Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche by Nancy Springer (Wednesday Books)

 

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3rd.  His 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.

Sherlock Holmes: Adventures Through The Multiverse

Sherlock Holmes: Adventures Through The Multiverse

 

Over the last few years, I’ve published several stories in anthologies by Belanger Books, and their upcoming project is a bit different.  It’s called Sherlock Holmes: Adventures Through The Multiverse, and it features a world that’s not the same as the one readers generally know.

 

Belanger Books describes the two-volume set, saying:

 

Imagine Sherlock Holmes, sitting in his chair at 221B Baker Street, his pipe in hand, pontificating to Watson about the facts of a case. Now imagine that same Holmes but different. That traditional Sherlock Holmes is now spread across the multiverse and while he is still the same brilliant man, he is:

·        in the American Wild West, 

·       a Native American in prehistoric Earth

·       a masked vigilante fighting crime at night in the streets of London

·        an ingenious villain fighting against Moriarty, the hero

·       a woman

·       a robot 

·       in a version of the Twilight Zone

 All of these Sherlock Holmes and more are featured in a two volume set: Sherlock Holmes: Adventures through The Multiverse! The authors have done a phenomenal job creating an alternative version of Sherlock Holmes but keeping the spirit of Holmes alive.

To find out more and to back their Kickstarter campaign, please go here.  My story, "The Prisoners of Cawdor College," takes a look at what might have happened in Moriarty had triumphed over Holmes at Reichenbach Falls.

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3rd.  His 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 Makes A Story ���Stick��� With You?

What Makes A Story ���Stick��� With You?

 

I read a lot, and I have an excellent memory.  The books I tend to remember best are the ones I enjoy.  Yet there are a lot of mediocre books out there, and in some ways, there are some books that fail in a different way from the truly awful.  The worst books haunt my memory with how terrible they are.  The truly forgettable books are utter nonentities in my mind.

 

How bland does a book have to be to fade from your mind moments after reading it?  Some books are so vapid I have to keep doubling back and rereading the last five pages because even though I read closely, I can���t recall what happened.  It���s like some authors have an amnesia curse placed upon their prose��� they���re so forgettable.

 

There are a bunch of reasons for this.  Cookie-cutter plots.  Generic characters.  One clich�� after another.  Meandering plots.  Often, a major problem is the prose style��� some writers are utterly flat, others are trying to be artistic and have merely pur��ed their words into pap.  No humor.  No suspense.  Nobody who���s likeable or hateable.  Dialogue that neither resonates nor entertains.  In any event, these books aren���t really bad, just��� zeroes.

 

It���s frustrating to finish a book and realize it had no impact on me whatsoever.  And it happens way more often than I���d like when I try a book from an author with whom I���m not previously familiar.  Has this happened to you?

 

 

 

���Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan���s first novel, Sherlock���s Secretary, was released on November 3rd.  His 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.