Nigel Bird's Blog, page 25

One Man's Opinion: DIG TWO GRAVES by KEITH NIXON

Happy New Year, folks.

Some reflections. 

When you focus so much upon writing, it can be difficult to separate the personal world from those woven as internal fictions. Or maybe that's just madness. I can't be sure. I’m going to try and sum up 2017 without straying too far into the personal, but feel the need to say that the year for my family and friends was a wonderful one in so many ways and I hope that 2018 comes close to matching that.
As a writer, the terrain was a little more uneven.
The folding of Blasted Heath was a big hit. In a world where exciting fiction needs small publishers, it’s sad to see one of the best crime outlets biting the dust. It had been a long time coming and the sinking of the final nail came as no surprise, but the waves grew larger than I should have let them and I’ve only just managed to bail out the last remnants of the water from the bilges. On the plus side, I’ve been able to put the books out myself and give them a new lease of life. The first three are now live and the fourth and final instalment, Closing Time, is currently available for pre-order. To help it along, I’m giving away copies of book three, By The Time I Get To Phoenix (US) – my favourite of the bunch - today.
I wrote another novel in 2017. It’s the first in what I hope will be another short series. For a while, I thought the book had found a very exciting home. Sadly, after managing to navigate the corridors, the final door remained locked. I’ve become hardened to rejection over the years. If anything, I’ve learned to celebrate it. Unfortunately, I’d made the mistake of allowing my hopes to grow and that meant the fall was bigger than it might have been. Another lesson learned. As it’s a Christmas-set story, I’ll have to be patient and wait until the leaves drop again before I release it. I’m looking forward to finding out what readers think when the time comes. In the meantime, I plan to write the next in the series. It will be great to be reunited with the central characters when the time is right.  
Among the treats of the year, I’d highlight the event I hosted at Coastword with Christopher Brookmyre. He was pleasant and good company off stage and, more importantly, he was hugely entertaining in front of the audience.
It was also great to catch up with Anthony Neil Smith again (check him out if you haven’t) on another of his trips to Scotland. I was particularly thrilled to finally meet Chris Rhatigan and his family in Edinburgh. We worked together on the Pulp Ink collections and on some short fiction and I’ve always liked his way of being. He might be an interesting and solid guy online, but he’s even more warm and wonderful in person. His writing is rather special. There’s no compromise in his work and you should definitely be reading his books and short stories. Following on from our meeting, I was invited to do some work in the role as editorial consultant for All Due Respect books and that’s been a rewarding experience to date. I hope that somewhere in this process I’ll discover ways to improve as a writer along the way. All Due Respect will have some cracking fiction for you coming soon, so keep those eyes peeled.
I’ve also read some terrific books in 2017 (there were some mediocre and poor ones in there, too, but I haven’t shared my opinions on those). Ed McBain has kept me busy in the best possible way, as have Georges Simenon and W.R. Burnett. I think I’ll be reading more old fiction in the months ahead, but I’ll mix it up with exciting new work at the same time.
One of the new books I’ve enjoyed was my most recent pleasure, Keith Nixon’sDig Two Graves (US). It’s the first in a series following Detective Solomon Gray. Billed as ‘a gripping crime thriller’, I can confirm that it lives up to that promise.
When a teenage boy is found splattered into the concrete outside a block of flats in Margate, it stirs the muddy pool Solomon Gray’s past. Things become complicated when murder is suspected and a direct link is found between Gray and the case.  
The detective begins to unravel. While he follows the threads in his personal and professional lives, further deaths close in on Gray in ever-decreasing circles until even he struggles to understand why everything he touches crumbles to dust.
Gray is anything but. While he may have a sullen exterior and is haunted by unrelenting ghosts, he also wears a beating heart on his sleeve. His past is bleak. His career is on the ropes. His future offers no hope and if he doesn’t seek medical help he’ll lose his job. He drinks to remember and to forget and rage forever lurks just beneath the surface.  As he wanders from case to case and the world around him paints him into ever-tighter corners, the exploration of his personality drills deeper than many reads in the procedural genre. When married together with the details of the murders he’s investigating, you have a multi-faceted novel that will satisfy much more than just the curiosity as to the identity and motivations of the killers.
There’s a lot of promise here and if you’re looking for a new police series to take you through your reading in 2018, this may well be exactly what you want.      Dig Two Graves is published by Bastei Entertainment. 

One Man's Opinion: COLD CUTS by DOUGLAS LINDSAY

Bastei Entertainment is a publisher with several fingers on the pulse. In case you missed out on their recent publications, there have been new novels from Anthony Neil Smith and Keith Nixon.
Another of their current crop of talent is Douglas Lindsay. His work, Cold Cuts (US), is the opener for a police series involving the characters Pereira and Bain.
Cold Cuts tells the story of what happens when human flesh is discovered as the filling in a sandwich served up by a small sandwich shop. The press kick up a storm and the pressure is on to solve the case.  
There are plenty of leads to follow as well as the responsibility to contain any further incidents of people entering the food chain.
The theme itself is pretty dark and you might think it couldn’t become any more sinister than cannibalism. If you’ve read any Douglas Lindsay in the past (and I hope, for your sake, that you have), you’ll realise that he’s able to delve much further into the disturbing than that. The final lines are enough to chill the warmest bones. The dish is served up with a Scottish twang and dashes of humour to add seasoning to the entertainment.  
This one’s a quick and gripping read. As bait for the follow on, it should lure many a fish to the hook. Put another way, the flesh of Kevin Moynes' thigh is the perfect appetiser for the main course.

One Man's Opinion: KILLER'S PAYOFF by ED McBAIN

Poor old Cotton Hawes. It seems that he can’t interview a woman about a case without falling in love. He even gets things going with the widow of Sy Kramer, a blackmailer who has been gunned down roaring twenties style in the middle of the city. When Hawes turns up and is mistaken for the plumber, gets himself soaked while fixing the shower and has to remove his shirt to dry off, we find ourselves in a classic scene. There’s humour, a flavour of noir, character development by the bucket-load and all the while there’s forward movement for the plot. In other words, it’s typical McBain. And highly entertaining fiction.
The case of Sy Kramer is an interesting one. They guy has landed some big cheques over a year and he’s spent extravagantly and with taste. In the course of the investigation, we discover there are three main sources of income. He’s been blackmailing the owner of a lemonade factory who had a rodent problem, the wife of a politician with a history as a model and a third from an unknown source which was the most lucrative of the bunch.
In Killer’s Payoff (US) Carella and Hawes take centre stage, the latter being keen to make amends for his blunder when he arrived at the 87th. It’s an case that will take him into the mountains to follow up Sy’s hunting habit and into the up-and-coming areas of the city that are being overwhelmed by property development. Best of all are the steps taken into the world of cheesecake – it’s a euphemism that was new to me and if you don’t, you’ll just have to read it to find out.
Another great book that just makes me keen to read the next in the series.

One Man's Opinion: KILLER'S CHOICE by ED McBAIN

When we meet Annie Boone, she’s been shot to pieces in the liquor store in which she works. The place has been wrecked and smashed glass and alcohol fumes are Annie’s resting place.
As the police investigate the murder, they discover that Annie is a woman of mystery. She had multiple personalities and each of them has a corresponding suspect to track down. The trail takes us through the creative world of the photographer, the seedy world of the pool hall, the stiff-upper lip of society, the boozy world of bars and broken-down musicians and to one of the finer department stores in the city. In each space, there’s a character who defines the habitat and a story that leaves more questions than it provides answers.
Along the way, we lose a cop and we gain.
Detective Roger Havilland meets his maker. He’s one of the real bulls in the detective pool, a man embittered by an early experience when he was trying to be kind. McBain disposes him with ruthless efficiency in many ways, but there’s a whiff of fondness for the guy in there as the back story creeps up on you.
Enter the frame Cotton Hawes. Hawes comes from a different place altogether. He’s used to order and good citizenship, so the 87thcomes as something of a shock. He is a man of good education, but clearly has a lot to learn when it comes to policing the inner city. He’s lucky in that respect as he’s partnered with Steve Carella. Carella, on the other hand, is not so fortunate. While investigating the murder of Havilland, there’s an incident that becomes the talk of the precinct and almost ends the partnership at the point of it beginning.
Killer’s Choice (US) is a cracker. The layers of our victim and of the city are slowly peeled away until the cases are brought to conclusion. The angles aren’t neat and Boone’s killer isn’t easy to spot, which makes the unpicking of the crime hugely satisfying. Throw in our new man Hawes and you have a police procedural to savour.

One Man's Opinion: DRIVE by JAMES SALLIS

‘He looked back at the open door. Maybe that’s it, Driver thought. Maybe no one else is coming, maybe it’s over. Maybe, for now, three bodies are enough.’
We meet Driver in a mess of blood and bodies. What follows is the story of how he ended up in such a disaster in the first place and the journey he takes to try and stay out of trouble with the guys who are after him.
Arcing back and forwards between the past and present is a complicated business for most of us. Thankfully, Sallis lays it out in a way that feels simple and means the strands fit together as smoothly as most of the rides Driver takes the along the way.
We learn of Driver’s upbringing. The way he survived troubled waters to become a leading stunt driver and a getaway star for armed gangs.
Dabbling with the criminal underworld soon becomes so lucrative that his day job loses its appeal. It also leads him into a life-or-death predicament when he ends up holding a large amount of cash that he shouldn’t have and doesn’t particularly want.
The layers work really well with each other. They have an easy symbiosis that helps to deepen the interest and to make the protagonist more intriguing and sympathetic.
Driver, himself, is a fabulous character. He’s patient, talented, intelligent and loyal. He’s also ruthless and old-school and believes there should be honour among thieves.
Keeping him company is a super cast – mobsters, writers, family and the old doctor who is able to put Driver together when he needs it.  
Short chapters and tight prose keep the book cruising along. There’s conflict and tension in abundance. Backstory is a bonus rather than a millstone and the author has his usual poetic and profound moments as he creates phrases that can resonate and hit hard if you let them.
Thoroughly enjoyed Drive(US) and I recommend it whether you’ve seen the movie or not.  

One Man's Opinion: THE KEEP by JENNIFER EGAN

Where to start? Normally the beginning. Where the hell is the beginning of this one? I’m still puzzling over the structure and the layers and they way the pieces fit together, but it’s a welcome challenge rather than a chore. It’s one of those novels that keeps you guessing and uneasily on your toes from start to finish and then beyond its grave, so to speak.
New Yorker, Danny, arrives at a European castle somewhere in the middle of nowhere. He’s travelling light in many ways, though his luggage includes a satellite dish so that he can keep in touch with what he considers to be the real world. The weight of his internal baggage is much heavier. He bears the scars of lost potential, broken relationships, of scrabbling through the social rules of the world and those created by his deep need to be loved. Though his new surroundings are like something from a fantasy, the bricks and history he is required to navigate are solid and concrete, more so than any text or blip on his social network radar.  
He’s been invited there by his cousin, Howie, for reasons that aren’t instantly clear.
Howie is rich and powerful. He intends to turn the castle into a pure space for people to exist, discover their inner selves and explore their imagination once they’re freed from the manipulation and bombardment of modern cultural stimulus. He has a wife and family and a team of supporting individuals working for me, including a menacing number two. Their biggest problem getting is the woman who lives in the keep, an old baroness from a long line of land-owning aristocrats. She has the ghost like properties of being able to change in the eyes of her beholder and she insists that she’ll never leave her home.
Danny begins to suspect that his role is to pacify the old lady and persuade her to leave. He also worries that Howie has darker intentions, given that he has every reason to want to mete out revenge for dark deeds of the past.
As this plot twists and turns, there’s a sudden shift. This story is contained within another. The story in which it is contained has an impact upon the lives of others. Just when you think you know where you are, the ground shifts and the view changes completely.
To elaborate would spoil the surprises, but each new angle carries its own tensions and thought-provoking material. What’s important is that each strand can both hold its own while being woven skilfully together as things development and that when they are brought together they increase in strength.
On a simple level, I enjoyed being drawn in to this. It’s thrilling and engaging and haunting. At times it is uncomfortable, at others perplexing.  
At the end of it all, I was left with lots of questions. The good kind. Those relating to identity, to the human condition, to the pitfalls of contemporary life. I wanted to understand why the transitions felt so seamless; how the depth of characters were so effectively mined; and what the hell I’d missed along the way. I don’t have answers, but I’d be more than happy to haggle over them in the comments section if you feel inclined.  
Most importantly of all, I’d recommend you read the book. The Keep(US) really is a keeper, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

One Man's Opinion: LET THE NORTHERN LIGHTS ERASE YOUR NAME by VENDELA VIDA

‘Being with you guys...’ he said. ‘I’ll never leave. You know that, don’t you?’I nodded. I had taken the suitcases from his closet and hidden them under my bed.
Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name (Told in the present tense in a first person narrative, the novel explores the inner workings of Clarissa Iverton who has just discovered that her dead father had no biological connection to her. She tells of her unusual upbringing and of the significant details of her early life. It is often in the tiny incidents that the most profound impact has been made.
Clarissa sets off to find her real father, a journey that takes her to the extremes of northern Europe.
In Lapland she’s a complete outsider, but that’s nothing new to her – she’s been an outsider for her entire life.
What unfolds is a beautiful tale. The images constructed have the ability to take your breath away:
‘I lay on a bench inside the waiting area. I slept with my purse held close to me, like an infant. On a nearby bench, a woman slept with her baby held close to her, like a purse.’
And then there’s the poetic:
‘Above me, the moon was a comma in the sky, a conjunction between days.’
Given the nature of her travels, I found it difficult to understand how the author managed to make the situations so compelling. But she did. Chapter headings were enticing. Stories were left unresolved until later reflections. The resolution of each drama led to a new conflict or need in Clarissa. I wanted her to find everything she needed along the way and the drive of that, in itself, was crucial.
This one is spellbinding. I felt moved on many occasions and now I’m wondering if I should let my fourteen year old daughter into the secrets it holds (there is some adult material I’m not sure she’s ready for, but in all likelihood she probably is). I reckon if I can persuade her to go along, the power of the read will stick with her forever. If it goes to plan, I’ll hold it in reserve for my other kids when the time is right.  
One slight niggle for me is the final chapter. In some ways the ending didn’t seem to fit. In others, it was perfect and was everything I wanted it to be. Which is why this is perfect book group material – if you take it on, invite me along – I’d love to know how you found the climax.

Wonderful. 

One Man's Opinion: CASTLE DANGER by ANTHONY NEIL SMITH

Before I kick off sharing my thoughts about the main event, I’d like to point out that books 1, 2 and 3 of the Southsiders series are all free this weekend. The first couple were published by Blasted Heath before their sad demise and the third was edited and ready to go when the plug was pulled. If you’re short of reading once you’ve finished up with Castle Danger, you might be glad you picked these up when you could get them for nothing. You might also regret it. That’s a chance you’ll have to take.
Now, Anthony Neil Smith is a fine writer. I’m a fan, as you’ll know from previous reviews. The thing that I’ve come to expect from him is the unexpected. He doesn’t do things by halves and he likes to take you on wild journeys with great plots and mightily written characters. Castle Danger, a novel with gender on the agenda, is his latest and I found myself in even more unpredictable territory than ever as the chapters flew by.
The plot twists and turns more than most. Those changes are crucial to the drive of the story and I don’t want to spoil that by hinting at what’s going on. Suffice to say that nothing is what it seems and no one is quite who they appear to be when you first meet them.
To help me explain, here’s what the blurb says:
‘When a dead woman is fished out of Lake Superior, Manny Jahnke is there to discover the baffling truth: The "woman" in the ice is biologically a man. Before he can learn more, the corpse sinks back into the water, pulling Manny's partner along with it. Both disappear under the ice, never to be seen again. Now Manny has a missing victim, a new partner he likes even less than the old one, and a case no one wants solved. Or so it seems. Manny grows obsessed with the "woman on ice" whose secrets prove to be as vast as the Great Lake itself - and whose enemies turn out to be powerful enough to keep those secrets hidden. Only one thing is certain: if Manny survives, he'll never be the same man again.’
Manny’s living in a kind of hell. He lost his girlfriend after an accident and he’s picked up some bad habits. He’s also questioning who he is and what he wants to be in the future.
He gets partnered with Joel, an ex Marine and a new cop with no experience of police work whatsoever. They’re an odd couple. They share little in common and don’t particularly like each other. The only thing in their favour is that they’re both desperate and that they have each other’s backs. It’s a good job, too, because just about the whole world is against them.
They set about investigating the woman on ice case and land themselves in a total mess where their colleagues block their way, there are political restraints and they end up feeling like the villains of the piece.
It’s a multi-tracked roller coaster. Explosive. Elusive. Funny. Frightening. And twisted.  
I’ve seen mention that this book is less bloody and extreme than some of Smith’s others. That may be the case, but there’s still plenty of violence for those who seek it out and the exploration of Manny and Joel plumbs depths that are dark and uncomfortable and are pretty darned challenging if you ask me.
What I enjoyed most about the story were the technique and the voice of Manny. The story is smashed into pieces and restructured in an order that allows tension and curiosity to build. Manny’s slick telling of events bridges the switches between time and place. It’s playful and direct and points out the tricks of the narrative just as the lights go on in a reader’s head (or at least in mine). I enjoyed the fact that I was being toyed with and was happy to go with the flow.
If that doesn’t tempt you, then there’s a final bonus at the end of the book. ANS gives an interview that reflects on aspects of the work.
In short, this one’s different. Different for Smith and probably different to most everybody else.
Go check it out. 

And Then There Were Three...

BY THE TIME I GET TO PHOENIX 

Where the Southsiders series becomes a little darker.

Jesse is desperate to lose his virginity. If only Bonnie felt the same. He’s hoping a weekend at the Phoenix Festival might just get her in the mood and change her mind.

On the other side of Edinburgh, two PhD students head off to the Phoenix Festival to sell their legal highs. When a friend discovers that their Horn-E pills are poison, he faces a race against the clock to make sure that nobody comes to any harm.

A tale of star-crossed love, tangled webs, Shylocks, bloody men and a dog called Brandy.

99p or 99c 

One Man's Opinion: THE CON MAN by ED McBAIN

‘You want me to follow him?’ The cabbie watched Teddy nod, watched the door of Donaldson’s car slam shut, and then watched as the sedan pulled away from the kerb. The cabbie couldn’t resist the crack.‘What happened, Lady?’ he asked. ‘That guy steal your voice?’
The Con Man (US) was my latest visit to the 87th. I felt at home, as I increasingly do in these books, and very much enjoyed the read.
Essentially, we get to watch some of the con men of the city go about their business. Some are in it for the short con. Some have far more sinister intentions, like the man responsible for the appearance of a floater in the river whose tattoo of a heart is about her only distinguishing feature.
Much as I liked the story, it’s far from being my favourite.
I was trying to work out why that might have been. The usual ingredients are here, after all.
My biggest issue with this one is the amount of authorial intrusion. For me it slipped from being part of the voice to getting in the way. I guess this is a difficult balance to find and others may take it as simply being McBain’s style. Whilst I understand that, it rubbed me up the wrong way on this occasion.
The cons were also disappointing. Knowing what was about to play out detracted from the stings and took away some of the romance I usually associate with the occupation.
A final niggle was Teddy Carella’s involvement in the case. I love the couple individually and as a pair, but having Teddy so directly in Steve’s work doesn't feel right. This may be more that she also became central to the Cop Hater case as it reached its climax than anything and it seems early for her to be right back in the thick of things.
Highlights for me centred around the tattoo parlour of Charlie Chen. It’s here and in her thoughts on getting some art work of her own that Teddy shines. There’s also some great description of the lab work and the murder cases are engaging as ever.

Would I recommend The Con Man? Course I would. It’s good stuff. Will I be pleased to move on the next novel in the series? I’m already looking forward to the read and have it cued up for a rainy day.