Clea Simon's Blog, page 46

For cat lovers!

Publishers Weekly weighs in on Cross My Path: “Cat-loving fans of grim postapocalyptic tales will best appreciate Simon’s third Blackie and Care mystery…” it begins, concluding, “The disparate plot lines combine in a fiery finale.”

The bodies don’t stay buried…

A friend reading World Enough recently asked me how much was fiction and how much true. Tara’s learning curve as a rock critic is largely mine, I told him. The band anecdotes are largely lifted from life: the crazy drinking, the drugs, the partying. And the underlying crime? I was trying to remember the details, when this came up…

“Former New England mafia boss Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme has been “no angel” but played no role in the 1993 killing of a nightclub owner, the aging’s mobster’s attorney told jurors Wednesday…” (More of this story here.)

“The trial is unfolding in a city that is in some ways far different from the one where Mr. Salemme and other bosses once held so much sway… Even the Channel, a nightclub the authorities say Mr. Salemme was involved in 25 years ago, is long gone…” The New York Times take is here.

Bodies don’t stay buried.

What’s in a name?

“How do you come up with the names?”

That’s what my wonderful mother-in-law Sophie always wants to know. “Dulcie and Pru, and now Care? Tara? Where do they come from?”

“I’m not sure,” I’ve told her. And she shakes her head in wonder. “I make them up,” I say. Although she is now in nursing care and her eyesight is very poor, Sophie has read all of my books – along with most of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s – and so I try to answer all of her questions, even when I don’t have good answers.

Of course, there is a little more to it than what I’ve said: My first series, which began with MEW IS FOR MURDER introduced a protagonist named Theda Krakow, because both I and my mother, Iris, were given rather fanciful names that had no connection to our Jewish immigrant surnames (Horowitz, for her, and Simon, for me). Theda, she explains, was named for the silent film star – even though her family had gotten its name on Ellis Island when it arrived from Poland. The same logic was behind Dulcie – aka Dulcinea Schwartz – in  SHADES OF GREY. And Pru Marlowe, of course, is a mashup of noir and, I hope, irony: Pru is anything but prudent. Or prudish, come to think of it. As for Care? Well, I’m not entirely sure. And as Blackie says, in THE NINTH LIFE, that is not his name…

But even when I explain this, she wants more. Sophie, of course, means wisdom, and so my inquiring mother-in-law always wants to know more. And so this weekend, which is not only mother’s day but her 102nd birthday, when I deliver a special (very large print) version of FEAR ON FOUR PAWS, I will try to answer as many questions as possible.

Happy birthday, Sophie. Happy Mother’s Day, everyone! Keep on reading!

“Irresistible”- PW.

The early reviews are rolling in, and Publishers Weekly calls Fear on Four Paws an “irresistible outing.” I’m thrilled!

Here’s the full review:

Fear on Four Paws: A Pru Marlowe Pet Noir
Clea Simon. Poisoned Pen, $15.95 trade paper (272p) ISBN 978-1-4642-1009-9

At the outset of Simon’s sprightly seventh Pru Marlowe Pet Noir (after 2016’s When Bunnies Go Bad), Pru, a freelancer for the animal control department in Beauville, Mass., who has an uncanny ability to understand what animals are thinking, discovers a bear trapped in rope netting in the woods. Passed out on the ground nearby is Pru’s boss, good-natured drunk Albert. When the police find a body locked in a shed near where the bear was trapped, the evidence points to Albert as the culprit. Pru is moved to investigate, not so much for the sake of Albert as for his ferret companion, Frank, whom Pru considers “one of the more intelligent and discerning males in Beauville.” Frank, who’s also a good ally in a fight, and Wallis, Pru’s imperious cat, who’s as blasé as many people believe cats to be, assist Pru in her efforts to apprehend a band of bear poachers and determine who’s responsible for the disappearance of some pampered domestic pets. The animals outshine the human characters in this irresistible outing. Agent: Colleen Mohyde, Doe Coover Agency. (July)

Writing without a net

Mystery authors tend to break down into two camps: plotters and “pantsers,” i.e., those who write by the seat of their pants. I tend to be a pantser. I start with an idea, a scenario, or a basic problem, and write from there, letting the story unfold as I go. This is more fun for me, and because it allows for more surprises than a strictly outlined story would, I like to think it will prove more fun for the reader too. Encourage the unexpected. Go where the heat is, and all that, and clean up after. (Writing without a plot does mean more revising is necessary, but that’s a fine tradeoff, as far as I’m concerned.)

Of course, few things in life are strictly black or white (or plotted or improvised, as the case may be). The book I’m currently working on has some parameters. I know the central crime I want to get at, and, after some flailing, I’ve decided on a structure that seems to impose some order on my meanderings. Plus, I’ve done enough of these (24 mysteries in the publication process, 21 out in print!) that I have some innate sense of timing and pacing (I hope).

But for the first time in a long time, I’m writing without a net in another way: I am working on a mystery that isn’t under contract, that doesn’t have a particular publisher waiting for it, and that isn’t part of a series. This current work-in-progress has none of my usual characters, and, for once, the protagonist – a deeply flawed character – has a career that I’ve never held (I’m doing my research, though) and some life experiences that I can relate to, but that are essentially new to me. I’m exploring new territory, folks, and so far I am loving it.

I’m hardly going rogue: I’ve got the third Blackie and Care mystery (CROSS MY PATH) coming out from Severn House in July, the same month that Poisoned Pen Press will bring out my seventh Pru Marlowe pet noir (FEAR ON FOUR PAWS). And Polis Books is debuting my new “witch cats of Cambridge” cozy series in December, with A SPELL OF MURDER. (Polis has also committed to a second witch cats mystery, which I intend to start soon – as soon as my current project is drafted.) So I think I can reasonably assume this new book will find a home … somewhere.

But for the first time in a long while, i’m just writing. Writing and trusting the universe. Trusting that this book will take shape in some recognizable and enjoyable form. Trusting that it will incorporate at least some of the themes I’ve been thinking about. Trusting that it will find a home, and a readership, for whom these elements will have resonance.

What’s life without a little adventure, right? And, now, back to work.

Book extract: Cross My Path

Care’s reputation as a private investigator is growing and clients are beating a path to her door. An elderly woman seeks Care’s help in finding out what happened to her brother. Blackie senses he’s met this woman before, sometime before he became a cat. But who is she – and what is their connection? At the same time, a dockworker asks Care to find a colleague who’s gone missing, and the investigation takes a disturbing new twist …

Thanks to my publisher, https://severnhouse.wordpress.com/201... House, you can read an excerpt from my upcoming Blackie and Care mystery, CROSS MY PATH, here.

World Book Day

It’s World Book Day! That one kind of snuck up on me, but around here every day is book day. In the course of our Sunday stroll yesterday, Jon and I ended up at Harvard Book Store, where Jon picked up “Historians on Hamilton: How a Blockbuster Musical is Restaging America’s Past” and I went for the trade paperback of JRR Tolkien’s “Beren and Luthien.” Of course, I’m still enjoying (and dragging out not to finish) Catriona McPherson‘s “Scot Free,” a hilarious new cozy series – and I’ve got the late, great Philip Kerr‘s “Greeks Bearing Gifts” on my nightstand too.

What are you reading?

Book extract: Cross My Path

Care’s reputation as a private investigator is growing and clients are beating a path to her door. An elderly woman seeks Care’s help in finding out what happened to her brother. Blackie senses he’s met this woman before, sometime before he became a cat. But who is she – and what is their connection? At the same time, a dockworker asks Care to find a colleague who’s gone missing, and the investigation takes a disturbing new twist…

Thanks to my publisher, Severn House, for posting this extract from my upcoming CROSS MY PATH here.

Cozy fans, get ready!

Kirkus reviews calls FEAR ON FOUR PAWS: “likely to appeal to cozy fans”!

From the May 1, 2018,  Kirkus Reviews
Animal empath Pru Marlowe (Parrots Prove Deadly, 2017, etc.) uses her gifts in service of every amateur sleuth’s time-honored quest: clearing a pal suspected of murder.

Even bucolic Beauville has its share of layabouts. Paul Lanouette and fellow miscreants Albert and Ronnie spend their evenings drinking at a dive bar and their days drinking—well, wherever. After their latest private party, game warden Greg Mishka finds Albert snoozing in the woods alongside a young male black bear. The bear is trapped in a rope snare, but Albert is loose—at least until Detective Jim Creighton locks him up. Seems that Paul’s body was inside the shed Albert and his ursine companion were sleeping outside. Pru Marlowe, Beauville’s animal control officer, takes charge of Albert’s feisty ferret, Frank, who communicates not only his fear that Albert is in danger, but that something shiny is involved in Paul’s murder. Pru, who supplements her meager earnings with a bunch of dog-walking and cat-finding assignments, checks with her four-legged clients, but Marmalade (aka Reina), Bitsy (aka Growler), and Spot (aka Bunbury Bandersnatch) can tell her nothing more about either the bear or the boozer. So it’s up to Frank and his frantic, fractured ferretese to help Pru find out who killed Paul and get Albert released.

It’s hard to get noir when most of your cast is warm and furry. Simon’s latest is more likely to appeal to cozy fans than the hard-boiled crowd.

Pub Date: July 3rd, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4642-1009-9


Page count: 272pp
Publisher: Poisoned Pen


Review Posted Online: April 16th, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1st, 2018

Talking mysteries (and a giveaway)!

Tonight – Sunday, 7-8 p.m. – I’ll be chatting mysteries and more at the A Novel Bee Facebook group. And, yes, I will be giving away books! Join us here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1130210920400229/