C.J. Box on Tom Wolfe from The Mystery Scene blog

C.J. Box on Tom WolfeWritten by C.J. Box
It often stuns me—and not in a good way—when I hear other mystery authors say they don’t read beyond our genre. Some of them, it seems, hardly read at all!I make it a point to read widely. Fiction, nonfiction, literary, mystery…that’s how my to-be-read pile is arranged. One reason for this—as well as pure curiosity—is strategic. I want my own books to flash glimmers of the real world beyond the plot or whodunit. I think it makes the books richer, and I know when I read that’s what I’m on the lookout for.Tom Wolfe is as much journalist-slash-sociologist as novelist, and it’s one of the many things I appreciate about him. Whether it’s the New York City of Bonfire of the Vanities, the New South of A Man in Full, or the “Dupont University” of I Am Charlotte Simmons, the reader experience is intense because the novels provide total immersion in specific places. InBack to Blood, Wolfe zeros his rifle scope on the present day Miami of racial and ethnic tribalism. Whew!

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Along Came Diesel
by Miranda James
                                                    


















(from Carolyn Hart's website)

Back in 2009 when my Wanda Nell Culpepper series came to an end (not by my choice or my editor’s but due to less than stellar sales figures), I was casting about for ideas for a new series. My editor and her boss suggested I consider writing about a librarian with a cat.

I’m a librarian, and I had two cats at the time, so I thought that was a pretty great idea. The minute I started thinking about the cat in the series, I knew exactly what breed he would be and his name. Back in 2001, while visiting a friend, I met the first Maine Coon cat I’d ever seen. His name was “The Diesel” – after a Washington Redskins player with that nickname – and he was huge, weighing in at about forty pounds. He was a gentle giant and utterly charming. Thus I decided to model the cat in my new series after him, but I called my fictional Maine Coon simply Diesel.

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Diesel and Charlie’s latest adventure is chronicled in Out of Circulation (Berkley Prime Crime). Just click the thumbnails to see larger images of the cats who reside with Miranda James.