Art Taylor's Blog, page 29

WIROB: Sébastien Japrisot

A few weeks ago, a trio of novels by French crime writer Sébastien Japrisot arrived on my doorstep—a treat that brought back memories of another Japrisot title that I first read nearly twenty years ago.

At The Washington Independent Review of Books, I write about the circumstances surrounding that first experience with Japrisot’s works and about reading these recent reissues, with U.S. publication forthcoming over the next few months.

Check out the full article here.

Short & Sweet: The Art & Craft of Short Mystery Fiction

Sisters in Crime has announced the first session of a four-part webinar series I’ll be hosting on writing short mystery fiction. The debut episode will be on Wednesday, September 22, at 3 p.m. ET and will offer an introduction to the short story as a distinct form, reflect on its history in the mystery genre, and evaluate the current status of short fiction in today’s world—for both readers and writers. Steph Cha, editor of the anthology The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021, will be joining for discussion on that last point.

Sisters in Crime members can register for this first session here.

I’m excited about the opportunity, and I’m looking forward to future sessions as well, each of which will have a specific focus and a new guest too:

Plot and Structure with Barb Goffman in January 2022Prose with E.A. Aymar/E.A. Barres in April 2022Endings with Toni L.P. Kelner in July 2022

Thanks to Edwin Hill and Lori Rader-Day at Sisters in Crime for inviting me to lead this series and coordinating all the many details!

WIROB: Summer Means James Bond

When the Washington Independent Review of Books reached out to ask about our favorite summer reads, I knew exactly what to talk about: my love of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels—and then the post-Fleming Bond novels by others. And hey, how about a non-Bond Bond novel by a gifted storyteller?

Here’s the full round-up—not just with my picks but with a slew of books to add to the TBR pile.

Enjoy!

On The Road—And Soon Abroad!

I’m pleased to announce that the Japanese translation rights for my novel On the Road with Del & Louise have been sold to Tokyo Sogensha, a publisher whose range spans mystery/suspense, fantasy/science-fiction, and literary fiction too. Among their recent translations is Anthony Horowitz’s The Magpie Murders, and other authors include Kate Morton, Joseph Delaney, Ransom Riggs, Lois McMaster Bujold, Jean‐Christophe Grange, Laurent Binet and Henning Mankell, just to name a few authors.

I’m grateful to Sulamita Garbuz and Ellen Geiger at Frances Goldin Literary Agency for brokering the deal, and I’m looking forward to seeing the translation itself—forthcoming over the next year or so. Stay tuned for a cover reveal! (And anyone reading this who also reads Japanese, I’ll have a few author copies to distribute when it’s published—just let me know!)

I should also mention I first announced this on my Instagram page—as a “news and clues” post, with a challenge to figure out my news from the clues in the photo (same as photo with this post). Within minutes, Anna K. Scotti had commented with the news—and in doing so, she earned a copy of the original edition of On the Road with Del & Louise, inscribed, of course! Let me encourage you to check out Anna’s work as well. She’s not only a gifted short story writer, already establishing an enviable track record with Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, but she’s a distinguished poet too, appearing regularly in The New Yorker! Check out her website here.

The First Two Pages: “Merry Xmas from Orchard Beach” by Richie Narvaez

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here.

Richie Narvaez and I have never met in person—unless there was some Bouchercon bar meet-and-greet that I’ve missed or misremembered—but through our interactions on social media, our correspondence on email, and the resonance of our views on our shared genre, I feel like he’s already a friend. This year particularly we’ve crossed paths on a couple of awards slates—including Richie being a finalist in two categories at the upcoming Anthony Awards: his book Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco has been nominated for Best Juvenile/Young Adult Novel (and already won the Agatha Award in the same category), and his collection Noiryorican is up for Best Anthology or Collection—the only single-author collection in that category. A collection I edited, California Schemin’: Bouchercon Anthology 2020, is also a finalist on that same slate, and Richie and I toasted from afar—and then commiserated over our decisions to back out of going to New Orleans, even before Bouchercon made the official announcement.

But with Anthony Award voting coming up and the awards themselves just on the horizon (Saturday, August 28, and free for all!), I’m pleased to host Richie at the First Two Pages, talking about a story from Noiryorican: “Merry Xmas from Orchard Beach.”

In addition to the two books already mentioned, Richie has two earlier books—Roachkiller and Other Stories and Hipster Death Rattle—and he’s been published widely in magazines and anthologies too. He’s a teacher as well, teaching writing at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and an active member of Mystery Writers of America.

Find out more about Richie at his website and enjoy this preview of his work below. And good luck to him at the Anthony Awards ahead!

Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay to read off-line.

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The First Two Pages: “The Locked Room Library” by Gigi Pandian

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here.

I first met Gigi Pandian at Malice Domestic—and while we’ve met up and chatted any number of times over many years, several specific memories stand out. The first was one of our early conversations where she talked about wanting to write a short story and trying to figure out how to do it after having focused so much effort on novels. I don’t remember what year that conversation was, but her plans certainly worked well: In 2014, her first-published story, “The Hindi Houdini,” was named a finalist for the 2013 Agatha Award for Best Short Story! And a bigger memory/moment: In 2019, her story “The Library Ghost of Tanglewood Inn” won the Agatha—a much-deserved honor for a great story and the fine author behind it.

Recently Gigi has enjoyed another milestone—her first appearance in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and not only did she get a cover mention, but “The Locked Room Library” is the lead story for the July/August 2021 issue. Honors again!

While I’m emphasizing her short fiction here—focused on locked room and impossible crime stories and don’t miss her collection The Cambodian Curse & Other Stories—Gigi is an accomplished novelist as well, with ten traditional mystery novels to her credit and two more ahead: The Alchemist of Fire and Fortune, the fifth in her Anthony Award-winning Accidental Alchemist mystery series, and Under Lock & Skeleton Key, the first in her Secret Staircase series… which features the same Locked Room Library setting as her EQMM story! That series will debut in March 22.

Find out more about Gigi at her website—www.gigipandian.com—and stay connected through her email newsletter by subscribing at www.gigipandian.com/subscribe.

And in the meantime, check out her essay below on “The Locked Room Library,” both for a preview of the story and the series ahead and for some wider reflections on locked room/impossible crime mysteries.

Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay to read off-line.

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The First Two Pages: “The Paris Manuscript” by Joseph Goodrich

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here.

Joseph Goodrich has the cover story in the latest issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, a story that’s distinctive in two ways: a framing device at the start and finish and then a fragmented narrative at the core of the story—both of which Joseph discusses in his essay below. These are, in fact, the very reasons I invited him to write about “The Paris Manuscript,” and it was fascinating to hear his reflections on those craft choices. As an added bonus, the essay also includes some reflections of a more personal nature—a glimpse at how personal history can guide writing choices as well. Check out the post below to learn more.

Joseph’s latest book is Unusual Suspects: Selected Nonfiction, published last year, and I’m also a big fan of his earlier book Blood Relations: The Selected Letters of Ellery Queen, 1947-1950. While that seems to concentrate attention on his nonfiction, his talents run a wider range. His play Panic won the 2008 Edgar Award for Best Play, and another play, Might As Well Be Dead, was the first Nero Wolfe mystery adapted for the stage with the permission of the Rex Stout Estate. Then, of course, there is the short fiction, which has appeared in both Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, among other venues. (There’s more bio at the end of the essay too!)

I’m grateful to host Joseph Goodrich this week—hope you enjoy as well!

Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay to read off-line.

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The First Two Pages: “The Curious Case of Miss Amelia Vernet” by Dana Cameron

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here.

I’ve long admired Dana Cameron‘s work—and Dana Cameron herself too, I should add!—particularly with a focus on her short stories in several directions. The quality of her writing and storytelling is always top-notch, but then there’s also the range and breadth of her fiction, from the paranormal universe of her Fangborn stories to the a/k/a Jayne espionage and adventure tales to the “colonial noir” (what a phrase!) of her Anna Hoyt stories. Even within the Fangborn tales, Dana continually stretches her talents, not only writing contemporary stories in this universe but stepping back in time and across geography—even with a Fangborn story featuring Cleopatra, something that draws on Dana’s work in archeology as well. (And speaking of archeology: Don’t miss Dana’s novels too, including the Emma Fielding series, now also adapted for the screen by Hallmark.)

All this is to say that I was super-excited to hear that Dana was collecting all of her Fangborn short stories into a collection: Pandora’s Orphans, which released last week. I had the opportunity to read an advance copy of the book (rereading the stories in some cases) in preparation for a panel on short story collections at this past weekend’s More Than Malice conference; Dana joined Lawrence Block, Nikki Dolson, Gale Massey, and Sara Paretsky in a fun discussion of the pleasures of short fiction and the challenges of gathering a cohesive story collection. (The panel was only available to folks who had registered for Malice.) And I’m pleased today to host Dana talking about one of the stories from the new collection, “The Curious Case of Miss Amelia Vernet,” which I’ve taught previously in one of my “Sherlock” courses at George Mason University. Fangborn plus Sherlock? It’s a match you don’t want to miss.

Enjoy the preview of “Amelia Vernet” below in Dana’s First Two Pages essay—which also provides a preview of the full collection, a book I’d encourage everyone to pick up!

And while on the subject, congratulations to James Blakey, who has won a copy of Pandora’s Orphans through a giveaway I hosted in my quarterly newsletter back in June. James, hope you enjoy as much as I have—and thanks for entering!

Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay to read off-line.

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Thursday, July 22 • Dean Jobb at the History Book Festival

In 2015, I reviewed Dean Jobb’s Empire of Deception for the Washington Post—a book I called “comprehensively researched and enthralling”—and the description could be used for Jobb’s latest book, The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer.

I just finished the book this week, and I’m honored to be in conversation with Dean Jobb on Thursday, July 22, at 5 p.m. as part of the History Book Festival. Complete information on the event can be found here—free, but registration is required.

The New York Times has published a terrific review of Dr. Cream, and here’s another quick preview of the book from the publisher, Algonquin Books:

”When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals,” Sherlock Holmes observed during one of his most baffling investigations. “He has nerve and he has knowledge.” In the span of fifteen years, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream murdered as many as ten people in the United States, Britain, and Canada, a death toll with almost no precedent. Poison was his weapon of choice. Largely forgotten today, this villain was as brazen as the notorious Jack the Ripper.
 
Structured around the doctor’s London murder trial in 1892, when he was finally brought to justice, The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream exposes the blind trust given to medical practitioners, as well as the flawed detection methods, bungled investigations, corrupt officials, and stifling morality of Victorian society that allowed Dr. Cream to prey on vulnerable and desperate women, many of whom had turned to him for medical help.
 
Dean Jobb transports readers to the late nineteenth century as Scotland Yard traces Dr. Cream’s life through Canada and Chicago and finally to London, where new investigative tools called forensics were just coming into use, even as most police departments still scoffed at using science to solve crimes. But then, most investigators could hardly imagine that serial killers existed—the term was unknown. As the Chicago Tribune wrote, Dr. Cream’s crimes marked the emergence of a new breed of killer: one who operated without motive or remorse, who “murdered simply for the sake of murder.” For fans of Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City, all things Sherlock Holmes, or the podcast My Favorite Murder, The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream is an unforgettable true crime story from a master of the genre.

Read more at the Algonquin site, including an excerpt from the book itself. And don’t miss the buy links too! This is one you don’t want to miss.

The First Two Pages: “The Last Laugh” by Lori Roberts Herbst

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here.

Last week, the First Two Pages hosted an essay by a writer celebrating her first fiction publication: Sarah Bresniker with her story “Book Drop” in The Fish That Got Away, the latest anthology from the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime. This week’s essay is by another writers celebrating her first mystery short story—Lori Roberts Herbst with “The Last Laugh” from the same anthology—but in this case, Herbst has also had success with longer fiction too: her debut novel, Suitable for Framing, earned a first-place award at the 2020 Chanticleer International Book Awards, and Double Exposure, the second book in the Callie Cassidy Mystery Series, was released last month. You can find out more about Herbst and her work at her website—and get a taste of her style and wit in the essay and story excerpts below!

Edited by Linda M. Rodriguez, The Fish That Got Away features twenty stories in all, from a nice range of contributors, both first-time short story writers and veteran talents too: Marcia Adair, Mary Adler, Susan Alice Bickford, Sarah A. Bresniker, MB Dabney, E.B. Davis, P. A. De Voe, Mary Dutta, Gene Garrison, Lori Roberts Herbst, Victoria Kazarian, Melinda Loomis, Cheryl Marceau, Michele Bazan Reed, Cynthia Sabelhaus, C. M. Surrisi, Mark Thielman, Kari Wainwright, Joseph S. Walker, and C. M. West.

And don’t miss the first essay from contributors to the anthology: Victoria Kazarian on “Good Neighbors”!

Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay to read off-line.

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