B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 248

Author R&R with Jake Needham

Hong Kong Magazine called Jake Needham "probably the best known American writer almost nobody in America has ever heard of." They might well be right. The four Asian crime novels he has published up until now (The Ambassador's Wife, Killing Plato, Laundry Man and The Big Mango) have sold nearly 150,000 copies in Asia, Europe and the UK, but not a single copy has ever appeared on any bookstore shelf in the US or Canada. His fifth novel, A World of Trouble, was published this week, but it won't be sold in the U.S. either.

Fortunately for readers who enjoy international crime novels, Jake's publisher has recently released all of his novels worldwide for Kindle, Nook, and iBooks. And, for the first time, Americans are beginning to discover Jake Needham, too. You can learn more about Jake and read excerpts from his books at his website.

Jake stopped by In Reference to Murder to take part in the ongoing feature "Author R&R" (Reference and Research), offering up these fascinating insights:

 

I write international crime novels set in contemporary Asia. They're filled with a collection of colorful rogues who range from the merely raffish to the downright scary: criminals on the lam, politicians on the take, intelligence agents on the grift, and hustlers on the scam.

Yeah, I know. You probably didn't realize there were any crime novels set in contemporary Asia, did you? You've read American crime novels, British crime novels, Italian crime novels, Scandinavian crime novels, and Russian crime novels, but…uh, Asian crime novels? I have to tell you, the few of us out there publishing Asian crime novels these days pretty much think of ourselves as the Rodney Dangerfield's of popular fiction.

Authenticity is important to me and I work hard at maintaining it in my books. Of all the reviews I've had over the years, both in the press and from individual readers, I am proudest of those that talk about the feel of my books and how real they make contemporary Asia seem for readers. "Needham certainly knows where some bodies are buried," Asia Inc Magazine said about my books. Darn right. I helped bury some of them.

I've lived in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Bangkok for nearly twenty-five years now so my research these days consists primarily of a lot of pretty energetic hanging out. Let me give you an example.

I've been thinking a lot about doing a novel set in Macau so a few weeks ago I flew to Hong Kong, took a hydrofoil across the Pearl River estuary, and checked into the Grand Lisboa on the edge of the old city in Macau. I've been going to Macau for nearly thirty years, but the place has changed so much – and continues to change every year with such terrifying speed – that I wanted to walk the streets again and renew my feel for it.

Now I know quite a few people in Macau, and they know a lot more people in Macau. Generally, I find people like to talk to novelists, particularly if we come recommended as reliable by people they trust. We're not journalists. We're not trying to dig some dirt and turn it into a front-page story that might make our career even if it ends somebody else's. What we care about is how things might be, not how they really are. After all, we write fiction. We make this stuff up, don't we?

So here are some of things I did in Macau…

A retired MI6 intelligence officer who is now involved with casino security operations bought me dinner at the Wynn Macau and told me stories about the Triads involvement in the gambling industry there. As we were finishing our steaks, a major figure in one of Macau's largest triads dropped by the table and had coffee with us.

I drank San Miguel with a retired CIA officer in a little bar down in the old waterfront district, although in this case I have my doubts about the 'retired' part. He told me quite a lot about the life of Kim Jong-Nam, the eldest son of Kim Jong-Il now living quietly in Macau. Early the next morning, we climbed a narrow dirt path along the bluffs in Coloane and looked down into the house where Kim Jong-Nam lives.

I walked the narrow streets of the old city from the Chinese border to the outer harbor with an Australian who is an old Asia hand if there ever was one. He knows more about what is going on under the surface in Macau than I have a hope in hell of ever using in any book.

I ate Portuguese food in a tiny restaurant near the ferry terminal with a Chinese lawyer who represents a lot of people I have absolutely no intention of mentioning. He told me the real story of the North Korean bank that had for a decade been laundering counterfeit American currency into the international banking system through Macau.

And one night I sat all by myself in a half-empty bar at the top of the Old Lisboa casino, shooing away Russian hookers and remembering when I had shaken hands with King Sihanouk of Cambodia in that very room some thirty-five years before, back in a time when the Khmer Rouge had taken over Cambodia and Sihanouk was running for his life.

That's what I mean by 'hanging out' and calling it research. Hey, do I have the best job in the world, or what?

My new novel, A World of Trouble, is about Thailand on the brink of a civil war, its wealthy former prime minister now living in splendid exile in Dubai, and his American lawyer caught between two worlds. It's now available worldwide for Kindle and Nook, and through Smashwords. It will soon be available for iBooks, too.

Please visit my web site and read my Letters from Asia for more about my books and my life along the fault lines of modern Asia.

National Library Week

I love libraries. Even if my mother weren't a retired librarian (and she is), I would still love strolling through the stacks, checking out the references, and now, even eBooks. If libraries mean something to you, too, join in the celebration of National Libary Week through this Saturday, April 14th. Make a trip to your local library to tell the librarians how much you appreciate them, and look for special events via the At Your Library website. Bestselling author Brad Meltzer even has a word or two of appreciation that you can listen to online. If you share your story of why you belong at your library by composing a six word story and tweeting it to #nlw6words, you may win a copy of Brad Meltzer's TV series, Decoded.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Here's your first trailer for Oliver Stone's new film Savages, based on the novel by crime fiction author Don Winslow, courtesy of Omnimystery News.

Reelart Media snapped up film rights to Wilbur Smith's novel Those in Peril, a contemporary thriller centered on a pirate kidnapping off the coast of Somalia and featuring ex-SAS soldier Hector Cross. The studio plans a film release in 2014.

The star of the TV series 24, Kiefer Sutherland, confirmed the long-awaited movie based on the TV show will start production in eight months. The project is described as a "direct continuation" of the television series.

Terrence Howard joins the cast that already includes Colin Farrell and Noomi Repace in the action thriller Dead Man Down. Howard will play the villain.

If you're in Toronto Oct. 26, 2012 to Jan. 20, 2013, you can visit the exhibit Designing 007 – Fifty Years of Bond Style featuring everything 007, from movie sets and costumes to gadgets and car design. The anniversary exhibition began at London's Barbican Center before the Toronto Film Festival signed a deal to bring the show to Canada. Maybe the U.S. next?

TV

Jimmy Smits has come a long way from L.A. Law; after recent turns on NYPD Blue and Dexter, he'll swap his suave persona for the role of a tattoo-covered gangbanger named Neron "Nero" Padilla on the FX series Sons of Anarchy.

Former Doctor Who star David Tennant will play a French spy in a new BBC show based on The Spies Of Warsaw, the best-selling novel by Alan Furst.

Bones actor Andrew Leeds is joining the new CW drama pilot Cult, about a fictional popular television show of the same name that has been linked to a series of disappearances and a possible murder.

Speaking of Bones, stars David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel hinted that a main character could be killed off in the season finale, when serial killer Christopher Pellant (Andrew Leeds) returns.

Actor Tahmoh Penikett (Battlestar Galactica and Dollhouse) will star in a potentially recurring role on ABC's Castle series as a cold, calculated antagonist with a military background, although the part he'll play in the plot is "shrouded in secrecy."

PODCASTS/ONLINE/RADIO

Mary Higgins Clark (The Lost Years) and Carol Higgins Clark (Gypped) appeared on the Today Show this past week.

Mystery Melange

Lots of congratulations to spread around:

The Left Coast Crime conference handed out this year's Lefty Awards , including Best Humorous Mystery Novel to Donna Andrews (The Real Macaw); Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award to Ann Parker (Mercury's Rise); Golden Nugget award for best mystery set in California to Kelli Stanley (City of Secrets); Best First Mystery Novel to Darrell James (Nazareth Child).


The Short Mystery Fiction Society announced the Derringer Awards , including Best Flash Story: "Lessons Learned" by Allan Leverone; Best Short Story: "Touch of Death" by B.V. Lawson; Best Long Story, (Tie) "A Drowning at Snow's Cut" by Art Taylor and "Brea's Tale" by Karen Pullen; Best Novelette: "Where Billy Died" by Earl Staggs. I was traveling over the past week when this was announced, so I haven't really had a lot of time for reflection about this one, but I must say I am humbly grateful to be given such an honor by the SMFS. There were many very fine stories in all the cateogories this year.


The Dilys Award (presented by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association for the book they most enjoyed hand-selling) went to Ghost Hero, by S.J. Rozan. (Read more about Dilys Winn, for whom the award is named, here .)


The International Thriller Writers announced the finalists for this year's Thriller Awards in the novel and story categories.


Spinetingler Magazine has compiled its finalists for the best crime fiction of 2011 in several categories, and now it's up to you to vote for your favorites.

In other news, Omnimystery News has posted its monthly Firsts on the First, a listing of books with new series characters being published in this new month.

Today is the Tenth Annual Write of Spring one-day conference sponsored by the Minneapolis-based Once Upon a Crime Mystery Bookstore. Some 40 authors will be on hand to discuss and sign their books.

Mike Ripley's latest "Getting Away with Murder" column is up at Shots Mag Online. The Ripster discusses the shocking and sudden death of the 25-year-old Scandinavian superstar author Nisse Ektorp, as well as other news and reviews of the latest crime fiction books from around the globe.

Edgar Week is approaching, and there's still time to register for the Symposium, with panels on social media, debut novelists, what makes characters memorable, and more, including an Oline Cogdill Q&A with author Martha Grimes, the 2012 Mystery Writers of America Grand Master. Other Edgar Week events include an Agents and Editors Party, a launch party for the latest MWA anthology, Vengeance, and the annual Edgar Awards banquet.

The Poisoned Pen, in partnership with Phoenix Public Library is sponsoring a companion event to Comicon, with their own CozyCon at Burton Barr Central Library on May 5th. Authors attending include Avery Aames, Kate Carlisle, Jane Cleland, Donis Casey, Hannah Dennison, Earlene Fowler, Rebecca Hale, Carolyn Hart, Beth Kendrick, Jenn McKinlay, Paige Shelton and Betty Webb. A free open panel with all authors is scheduled from 10-11am, followed by a paid conference from 11:45 to 4:30pm. Cost for the conference is $25 which includes lunch. Seats are limited so call and register via 480-947-2974.

The Writers' Police Academy has opened submissions for the Golden Donut short story contest. The rules are simple—write a story about the photograph on The Graveyard Shift website using exactly 200 words, including the title.

Here's something fun that was brought to my attention recently:  a website with all 1,399 episodes of CBS Radio Mystery Theater episodes online, searchable by plots, actors and writers. Check it out, but make sure you have the time, 'cause you'll want to hang around awhile.

Forgotten Books Friday - A Different Kind of Summer

(Due to travel, this is another "encore presentation," but next week Friday's Forgotten Books celebrates John D. MacDonald day.)

Gwendoline Butler (b. 1922) had limited success as a writer before she began a police procedural series featuring a young Scotland Yard Inspector, John Coffin, penning eight Coffin novels between 1956 and 1962. When Butler's husband took a job teaching in St. Andrews, Scotland, the author decided she wanted a change from Coffin and found her inspiration one day when she saw a young red-haired Scottish policewoman. She later asked the local police chief about the young officer and was told she was a recent graduate on a rapid promotion track. Thus was born the character of Detective Charmian Daniels of the fictional Deerham Hill CID and, as some have given credit to the author (written under her pen name of Jennie Melville), the birth also of the woman's police procedural.

Butler also dipped her pen into the romantic suspense well for a time, evening receiving a Romantic Novelists Association Major Award in 1981, but eventually returned to both Inspector Coffin and Detective Daniels. She went on to write over 70 novels and was a recipient of the Crime Writers Association Silver Dagger in 1973 and shortlisted for the Golden Dagger for another novel.

One critic elevated Butler to a status equal to the Four Great Founding Mothers: Christie, Sayers, Allingham and Marsh, not only due to their writing, but in light of how many other elements they had in common: all well-educated (Butler lectured at Oxford), all prolific writers, all wrote on subjects other than detective fiction, and four of the group had supportive husbands. If she is not as well remembered as the others, it may be due to the fact that writers who she helped paved the way for, such as P.D. James and Ruth Rendell, eventually eclipsed her in acclaim.

Butler's writing of her female detective, Charmian Daniels, shows elements of early feminism and as the character grew through the years, Detective Daniels also reflected the changing roles of women and attitudes toward them, particularly in a traditional man's field, law enforcement. Daniels grows in her career through time and is eventually promoted to Chief Superintendent with a move to Windsor. In an interview with Clues: A Journal of Detection in 2000, Butler said, "I was determined she [Daniels] should be a success and I suppose in a sense I was basing her on what would have happened to me if I'd remained in academic life when on the whole in my day, even more so now, women do climb the ladder. I was in the generation that was expecting to be successful as a woman in whatever field they ventured."  

In Butler's A Different Kind of Summer, dating from 1967, the fifth outing for Detective Daniels, Daniels is still a sergeant when an unidentified body arrives on a train into town in a coffin minus head or hands. It's up to Daniels to figure out which of many missing women this could be, including an increasing number of young girls vanishing in London. As she gets deeper into the case, she tries to stay objective and focused even as she starts receiving menacing phone calls and has to deal with a new young assistant, Christine Quinn, and a hysterical troublemaker who claims she's lost her sister.

There's been a lot of hue and cry lately about the amount of violence against women in crime fiction novels, and a mutilated female corpse would fall into that category, but in a commentary included in the original publication of A Different Kind of Summer, Butler said that she was interested in people committing crimes and why some people, usually women, form the victim syndrome, in that the bad guys sense these victims are afraid (a reason why policewomen acting as decoys often fail to lure attackers, because their sense of confidence is too obvious).

Butler has a low-key writing style, blending social commentary with quirky characters, detailed plotting and thoughtful writing for the most part, although in general, it's her novels with Inspector John Coffin where she's had her greatest success. One wonders if writing from a woman's point of view was too close to home to provide the inspirational distance required or if perhaps the fact the author's brother was Warden of the Toynbee Settlement in London gave her more of a first-hand experience with male protagonists. In either case, with Butler's Daniels or Butler's Coffin, there's a lot of good material there, enough to show that grouping her with the "Four Great Founding Mothers" isn't that much of a stretch. If you're a fan of the "Golden Age" of detective fiction, then you'll enjoy these series.

Author R&R with Jane Cleland

This week's "Author R&R" (Reference and Research) guest is Jane K. Cleland, who received an MFA in Playwriting and currently teaches in the writing programs at several colleges, as well as conducting writing workshops. Jane is also the author of the Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery series (set in Rocky Point, a small town on the rugged coast of New Hampshire) that has been called "an Antiques Roadshow for mystery fans." 

The latest installment in the series, Dolled Up for Murder, was just released last week, and centers on a doll collection that someone finds valuable enough to resort to kidnapping and murder. Jane offered up the following tidbits on how she went about researching the book:

To research dolls for the seventh Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery, DOLLED UP FOR MURDER, I consulted websites, doll collectors, antiques dealers, and vendors at doll shows. I tried to learn why some dolls are appealing while others aren't. What I learned is that the definition of beauty is individual, subjective, and idiosyncratic. No doubt you know that old saying… that one man's meat is another man's poison. Well, it's the same with dolls. One girl's favorite is another girl's, ummm, not so much. That said, here's what I learned and what I concluded.

Dolls are a reflection of the makers' views of people, of how they look to them, or of how they want them to look. Dolls reflect someone's image of reality or idealized beauty.

The concept of idealized beauty is on the minds of many people at the college where I teach—LIM College in New York City. The school's tag line is "Where business meets fashion." My students are pursuing careers in the business side of the fashion industry.

In my classes, we've considered how the concept of idealized beauty has changed from da Vinci's time, when the definition of beauty was based on proportion and symmetry, to now where it's based on size and shape. We've talked about the power of the media in determining what people perceive as beautiful, and how governments, for instance, Spain, now regulate it. And we've talked about dolls, and how little girls determine what they should look like based on the dolls they play with. For instance, we've seen how Barbie is constructed in an anatomically impossible way. How if her proportions were transferred to a real person, she'd meet the medical definition of anorexic. Barbie was introduced in 1959, but this issue has been around for as long as dolls have been around. To look at dolls is to witness society's definition of beauty at any moment in time.

There is a category of dolls known as Queen Anne dolls. It is extraordinarily unusual to see a doll that dates from earlier than1850, so even though Queen Anne's reign ended in 1714, dolls that meet two parameters are known as "Queen Anne" dolls. First, they're crafted of wood dating from before 1850; second, they look like adults. Most early dolls were—and most dolls still are—crafted to look like children. Dolls from the 17th and 18th century that look like adults are among the rarest of finds, and thus the most valuable. In excellent condition, they're nearly priceless. I learned all this from talking to sellers of dolls. It's interesting, but what really captivated my imagination was trying to understand how and why these dolls came to be.

Think of the 18th century doll maker. He's a cabinetmaker, probably, not just a carpenter. In other words, he's a specialist… you'll note, by the way, that it's safe for me to say he's a man because at that time essentially all carpenters and cabinetmakers were men… when I say he's a specialist, that means he's adept at using his tools. He didn't just nail boards together; he crafted ornate finials and ornamental door pulls, work that required skill and finesse and dedication. It was these men who fabricated the dolls we refer to as Queen Anne dolls. He crafted them out of hard wood, carving faces so realistic you can't believe the images aren't real, adding paint to highlight her lips and eyes and suggest the color and curl of her hair. As a writer researching these dolls, I want to know more. I want to know which women these Queen Anne dolls are based on. Is she modeled on the maker's wife? The girl who got away? The girl of his dreams? The woman he hopes his daughter becomes?

I can't ever know, of course, but I can gather additional clues by considering what she's wearing. So I began analyzing doll's clothing. Is her clothing constructed out of silk? Or scraps of cotton? Is she wearing a traditional, festive costume, part of a celebration, perhaps? Or is she dressed for work, in peasant garb? As Mark Twain once wrote, "Clothes make the man. Naked people have no influence on society." Fair enough. But is it a man, the maker, who dressed those girls and women? We can't know. We do know that starting in the mid-19th century, European doll makers used porcelain and leather to craft dolls that integrated modern technology. Some of these dolls could play music and eat or drink. Amazing! We also know that sometimes these dolls were drafted into occupations their makers never intended—smuggling.

Given that I write murder mysteries, you can imagine how my ears perked up at that. I knew that I wanted the pivotal antique to be dolls, but until I studied the world of smuggling dolls, I didn't have a plot.

Here's an example of what I learned. There's a Civil War-era doll named Nina who, it seems, came to America from Europe with her papier mâché head filled with morphine or quinine, an effort orchestrated by Southern sympathizers to get medical supplies past the Union blockade and into the hands of sick Confederate soldiers. Nina lives in the Museum of the Confederacy, in Richmond, Virginia, which holds the world's largest collection of objects related to the Confederacy. Nina hid medical supplies. Knowing that got me thinking about what else could be hidden in dolls' heads or in their hollowed out legs, or under their clothing, strapped to their little bodies. Jewels, perhaps, or illegal drugs, or military secrets… or who knows what else.

Dolls of all kinds have been used for smuggling for as long as dolls have existed, and smuggling itself has been going on for even longer than that. I am a realist, so I get it. If you have something to smuggle, you want to find something that's not likely to attract attention. I may understand the smuggler's motivation, but to my mind, there's something especially distasteful about using dolls for illicit purposes. Dolls represent innocence, or should. When a drug dealer or a spy or a thief use dolls to stash contraband, it isn't merely breaking the law. It's a betrayal of innocence.

And that's the genesis of the plot of DOLLED UP FOR MURDER.

Thanks to Jane for participating and offering up insights and a behind-the-scenes look at her novel. To read an excerpt from this seventh installment of what Library Journal calls a "winning cozy series," just follow this link.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Kenneth Branagh is set to direct the reboot of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan spy thrillers starring Chris Pine (Captain Kirk from Star Trek). The untitled film is said to follow in the same vein as The Hunt For Red October and A Clear and Present Danger.

Various actresses are vying to star opposite Johnny Depp in the adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel The Thin Man. The leading contenders to play Nora Charles are Carey Mulligan, Emma Stone, Kristen Wiig, Emily Blunt, Rachel Weisz, Eva Green, Amy Adams, and Isla Fisher.

TV

Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman is developing a police drama for FX titled Inside. The show is set in San Francisco and centers on a homicide detective who discovers his father is an imprisoned serial killer claiming to be innocent of killing the detective's mother.

Alex O'Loughlin (Steve McGarrett) will only miss one episode of Hawaii 5-0 due to "supervised treatment for prescription pain medication." The McGarrett-free episode will feature guest stars Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J in a crossover with fellow CBS show NCIS: Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Michelle Borth has been promoted to a series regular, reprising her role as McGarrett's love interest.

Jean Reno is to star as an elite homicide cop in the drama Le Grand. Each episode will revolve around an iconic location in the French capital of Paris, including Nôtre Dame, the Place de la Concorde and the Opéra.

AMC and the producers of The Killing announced how they plan to wrap up the murder mystery left hanging at the end of the first season; AMC exec Joel Stillerman brushed off complaints that the spoiler has removed the element of surprise from the show, predicting that viewers will still "enjoy the ride."

Fox has renewed Bones for an 8th season. The writers plan to give the characters of Hodgins (TJ Thyne) and Cam (Tamara Taylor) more extensive arcs in season eight. In more Bones news (as Omnimytery New notes), the current season of Bones will return tonight on its new night after a long hiatus.

Laz Alonso has signed on to play NYPD cop Will Sacovitch in NBC's Notorious, about a female detective (Joanna Locasto) who investigates the myterious death of the wealthy heiress who raised her.

BBC America picked up the new series Inside Men, a four-part thriller bout three security employees who plot a multi-million pound theft.

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - Encore Edition

This was originally posted in February 2010:

Ursula Reilly Curtiss, born in 1923, came into the world with fairly impressive crime-fiction genes. Her mother, Helen Reilly, her sister, Mary McMullen, and her brother, James Kieran, all wrote mysteries. Curtis didn't start out that way, working first as a columnist for the Fairfield, Connecticut News in 1942, at age 19, followed by a stint as a fashion copy writer. She began writing mystery/suspense novels, full-time at that, when she married John Curtiss in 1947 (the marriage no doubt helping her financial circumstances enough to give her that opportunity). Her first book, Voice Out of Darkness, won the Red Badge Award for the best new mystery of 1948.

Rather than penning police procedurals like her mother, Curtiss focused on the type of story where an innocent bystander gets pulled reluctantly into becoming an amateur sleuth — against a backdrop of seeming domestic calm, with layers of evil hiding behind family secrets and familiar faces. Her protagonists were usually female, except for works like 1951's The Noonday Devil where the main character is a man who learns his brother's death as a Japanese POW was carefully planned by a fellow prisoner.

Voice Out of Darkness falls into the female-protagonist camp, where we find that thirteen years prior to the events of the book, Katy Meredith lost her foster-sister, Monica, in a skating accident. Although Katy tried to save Monica, Monica's last words were "Katy pushed me." Katy thought she'd escaped both her home town and the horrors of Monica's death by moving to New York, until she starts receiving threatening notes in the mail. At first she wonders if someone else near the ice that day overheard Monica's words and is trying to blackmail her, but when Katy returns to her childhood home, she finds evidence of a calculating killer whose sights are now set on her.

Curtiss has moments of crisp observations in her writing, such as the following character study:

She was disconcerted, in the midst of her apologies for lateness, by Lieutenant Hooper's mild and wren-like appearance; he looked, she thought, like a portrait of a suburban traveller. Rubbers. Plaid woollen muffler, an air of having been assembled, eyed critically, and finally dismissed on the 8:32 by a bustling, dutiful wife. Except for his eyes: shrewd, steady, impartial as jewellers' scales.

or this excerpt about Fenwick, Connecticut, Katy's home town:

[It] had its replicas all over the New England coast. It lay sheltered in a tumble of windy hills, its architecture a blend of pure old Colonial and the raw new bones of housing developments. Its chief prosperity came from the summer visitors who came to splash and play in its wide blue crescent of Sound and laugh delightedly at its ancient moviehouse. Its chief crop was gossip, sown and grown with zest...

Curtiss' strengths are in her characterizations, setting and pacing, the novel being a quick read, which helps make the slight thinness and predictability of the plot (at least by 21st-century eyes looking backward), not much of a distraction. Curtiss later had two of her books, made into movies, I Saw What You Did from 1965 (based on Curtiss' novel Out of the Dark (not to be confused with the similarly-named today's Forgotten Book offering), starring Joan Crawford, and 1969's What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?, based on the author's novel The Forbidden Garden, featuring Geraldine Page and Ruth Gordon. Curtiss also wrote the screenplays for a couple of television episodes of Detective and Climax Mystery Theater.

Author R&R: Carolyn Hart

Author Carolyn G. Hart was born in Oklahoma City "where the sun almost always shines and the wind almost always blows." She first used Oklahoma as a background in "Spooked," published in the anthology Murder on Route 66, which tells the story of a 12-year-old girl in a northeastern Oklahoma town during World War II. Carolyn has always been inspired by strong, courageous women and often features such characters in her writing. Fellow author Nancy Pickard named Carolyn the heir apparent to the Grand Dame of the traditional mystery novel, Agatha Christie.

Carolyn has authored 46 published novels, including a series featuring one of the literary world's only ghost detectives, Bailey Ruth Raeburn, and another with retired newswoman Henrie O. Collins. But her most popular continues to be the Death on Demand series, so named because the protagonist, Annie Laurance, sells books in her small town bookstore named Death on Demand. Annie also "solves murders with equal flair," says Library Journal, which called the first installment in the series a "library essential." Carolyn's mystery awards include the Agatha, Anthony and Macavity, and a standalone WWII novel was nominated for the Putlitzer Prize by the Oklahoma Center for Poets and Writers at Oklahoma State University.

Next week (April 3), the 22nd Death on Demand book, Death Comes Silently, is being released by Berkley, in which Annie and her husband Max try to piece together a puzzle involving an overturned kayak, a stolen motorboat, a troubled love affair and a reckless teenager, and how they all tie in to the murder of Annie's friend, Gretchen Burkholt.

In celebration of her new release, Carolyn stopped by In Reference to Murder to discuss her thoughts on "Author R&R" (Reference and Research) in writing novels:

Research is just another word for the excitement of learning facts I didn't know. Sometimes the facts are exciting, sometimes amazing, sometimes chilling. Books can require everything from intensive investigation to simple fact checking.

In Death Comes Silently, the 22nd in the Death on Demand series, I needed to know about Personal Flotation Devices, hypothermia, and alternative energy sources. I discovered that the support of a PFDs isn't sufficient if the swimmer is in cold water that causes hypothermia. When the swimmer loses consciousness, the head falls forward and the swimmer drowns despite remaining buoyant. I can't say more about alternative energy because it would tip a canny reader (and there are no readers cannier than mystery readers) to the solution.

Because I have been writing for so many years about a sea island off the coast of South Carolina in the Death on Demand series, I have an extensive collection of books about the South Carolina Low Country. In past titles I have shared these (to me) fascinating facts:

Alligators can outrun a fast man for fifty yards.
The Golden Silk spider can spin a thirty-foot wide web in a tree. 
Spanish moss is not a parasite, but an air plant which simply hangs from live oaks but causes them no damage.
Poisonous cottonmouth snakes can drape themselves in trees to surprise the unwary.
That thrashing in the underbrush may be a wild boar.
To survive a riptide, swim with current until the force eases and the swimmer can turn back toward shore. 
Palmettos are the state tree of South Carolina.
The breeze is onshore during daytime, off shore at night.

When writing, I try to give readers a sense of the island's essence, the smell of saltwater or marsh, the humidity in summer, the forest inhabitants including cougars, bobcats, wild boars, alligators, and snakes, and the magnificent live oaks, longleaf pines, and cypress.

In the past, I have written books prompted by my interest in World War II. I was a child during the war years and as a young adult read extensively about the war. That reading provided the basis for two of my early suspense novels, Escape from Paris and Brave Hearts.

The complete and original manuscript of Escape from Paris was published in fall 2011. It is the story of two American sisters who help British RAF fliers escape from the Nazis after the fall of France. The Gestapo sets a trap and on the bleak Christmas Eve of 1940, death is only a step behind. The research entailed reading books published after the war that gave personal accounts of Paris during the Occupation.

I was also very interested in the experiences of Americans in the Philippines. I did extensive research about the nurses on Corregidor. I wanted to write a non-fiction book but the papers of the nurses weren't open then for public inspection. (Since then, a superb non-fiction book has been published about American nurses captured by the Japanese: We Band of Angels by Elizabeth M. Norman.) Instead, I used the material to write Brave Hearts, which is scheduled to be reprinted. Brave Hearts recounts the desperate efforts of a band of Americans who escape from Corregidor.

Just as readers learn from the novels they enjoy, writers explore present and past to create characters who become for a while a part of particular worlds. Sometimes it's fun as in my Death on Demand and Bailey Ruth books.

The Death on Demand books are set in a mystery bookstore and afford a happy reason to read lots and lots of mysteries.

Bailey Ruth is a redheaded ghost who returns to earth to help someone in trouble. When I finished the first book, Ghost at Work, I asked my favorite priest to read it to be sure I hadn't made some egregious error about the Episcopal Church. His response: "Well, Carolyn, until Edward R. Murrow returns with a first-hand account, your version of Heaven is as valid as anyone's." I thought that was very generous of him.

So writers are always looking for information. Sometimes the knowledge is simply intriguing or interesting. Sometimes research is sad and gripping as in the WWII novels. Whatever we learn adds depth and resonance to what we write and makes our own world larger.

Mystery Melange

A note from Shotsmag: Crime fans can win a pair of weekend passes to CrimeFest 2012 (May 24-27, Bristol, UK) by entering a new flash fiction contest titled Flashbang. It's free to enter, and bestselling author Zoë Sharp will pick eight winners and runners-up. But be succinct: they're looking for a crime story in just 150 words.

The Los Angeles Police Museum unveiled a new Black Dahlia exhibit, sponsored by author James Ellroy, who wrote a book on the case in 1987. The exhibit includes highlights from the extensive police files, never-before-seen photographs, news clippings, police memorabilia and other intriguing artifacts curated by Ellroy and volunteers.

YouTube features many book trailers and author interviews, but doesn't have a "literature" category, so it's hard to find them all. Reddit is trying to remedy that problem by building a new site for literary videos.

Speaking of interviews, this week's Q&A roundup includes Timothy Hallinan (the Poke Rafferty series), guest-blogging at Poe's Deadly Daughters.

Passes to the Los Angeles Time Festival of the Book are now on sale; this year's event, taking place April 21 and 22, features author Robert Crais (Elvis Cole and Joe Pike mysteries). Saturday also includes Anne Perry in Conversation with Denise Hamilton, as well as three crime fiction panels:

12:30 pm - Crime Fiction: A Haze of Mystery with Cara Hoffman, Alice LaPlante, Scott O'Connor and moderator Donna Rifkind
2:00 pm -  Crime Fiction: Tangled Webs, with Dan Barden, Miles Corwin, T. Jefferson Parker  and moderator Dick Lochte
3:30 pm - Crime Fiction: Out of the Box, with Nelson George, Gary Phillips, P.G. Sturges, Paul Tremblay and moderator Celeste Fremon

Sunday has even more crime fiction

11:00 am - Crime Fiction: Buried Secrets, with Denise Hamilton, Gregg Hurwitz, Thomas Perry, Dan Pyne and moderator Tod Goldberg
12:30 pm - Crime Fiction: California Noir, with Joel Engel, Gar Anthony Haywood, Bart Schneider, Kelli Stanley and moderator Susan Kandel
3:30 pm - Crime Fiction: Listening In, with Joseph Kanon, Philip Kerr, Olen Steinhauer and moderator Paula L. Woods