Editing by Elizabeth

February 23, 2016

City of Rose by Rob Hart

“If collecting scars by means of stupidity were a hobby, I’d be ready to go pro.” — Ash McKenna

When readers last saw Staten Island born and bred bouncer/amateur private investigator Ash McKenna (New Yorked), he’d been through the ringer trying to get to the bottom of the murder of his longtime friend and unrequited love, Chell. Along the way things got rough and people, including Ash, got roughed up.

Having burned a few bridges and ruffled more than a few feathers, Ash decides it’s time to take a leave of absence from his beloved New York City. He ends up in Portland, Oregon, working as a bouncer at a vegan strip club named Naturals.

Determined to leave his past in the past, Ash has embraced non-violence and is determined not to slip back into his old ways—control your anger before it controls you is his new mantra. So it’s with only the slightest hesitation that Ash refuses a request from one of Naturals’ dancers, Crystal, to help her locate her missing daughter.

A funny thing happens on the way to tranquility, however. Only minutes after Ash turns down Crystal’s request he is abducted at gunpoint—by a man wearing a chicken mask, no less—and warned off having anything to do with Crystal or the search for her missing daughter. Bad move. There are many things Ash McKenna does not like, but top of the list is being told what to do, or not do as the case may be. Add to the mix the fact Chicken Man breaks Ash’s phone during the abduction and, well, it’s on. →

February 19, 2016

Five Faroe Island Facts by Chris Ould

It’s an honor to welcome BAFTA award-winning screenwriter Chris Ould to the site today. Chris has been working successfully as a screenwriter for quite some time, and has also written novels, both a YA series and several standalone offerings. Today, Chris is here in conjunction with his latest release, The Blood Strand, the first in a new series. The Blood Strand finds Jan Reyna, now a British police detective, returning to the Faroe Islands, where he was born and spent his early years, after his estranged father is found unconscious and covered in someone else’s blood, a shotgun near him. The novel’s setting is unique, and today Chris presents a little “getting to know you” primer about the Faroe Islands for readers.

Chris Ould Five Faroe Island Facts

When I first read about the Faroe Islands a very long time ago there was precious little information to be had. What there was just added to their mystique: out in the middle of the northern Atlantic; a small population speaking a language known only to themselves; ancient traditions going back to the Vikings…

Finally, years later, I made it out there to research the islands as a setting for a crime novel and I fell in love with the place. Truly. To me the islands have a majestic, awe-inspiring, unique quality: completely different to anywhere else I’ve ever been. So, when I was asked to come up with five facts about the Faroes for anyone who might be tempted to go there, I thought it was like asking me to choose my favourite child. Only five? (Yes, because it alliterates, stupid.)

So, this has taken me days to decide, but here goes.

Fact One: It’s wet. Often. Very. Even the proudest Faroe Islander will admit that they don’t (quite) have a Mediterranean climate. So there’s every chance you’ll be rained or drizzled on for hours. And then, because it’s the Faroes, the sun will come out and the dazzlingly saturated colour of every house, boat and field will make your eyes hurt.

My personal theory is that the Faroese paint everything brightly to make the most of the sunlight when it appears. I exaggerate for effect, of course, but waterproofs and decent boots are essential, even in summer. And on my first day there I discovered there’s no point in wearing a baseball cap. I spent half an hour trying to retrieve mine after the wind tossed it over a cliff. Not recommended. I went and bought a waterproof beanie instead.

But whatever the weather you’re experiencing at any given moment, the chances are that it’s the polar opposite at the other end of the island, or on the other side of a mountain. It’s not unusual for the Faroese to drive thirty miles from a fog-bound Borðoy to Streymoy just because someone’s called to say it’s

February 17, 2016

The Evolution of a Character by Dave White

It’s a pleasure to welcome Derringer Award-winning author Dave White to the site. An Empty Hell, the latest entry in White’s series featuring New Jersey-based ex-cop turned private investigator Jackson Donne (following last year’s Not Even Past), is out now, and White stopped by to talk about where the inspiration for characters can come from, and how those characters’ voices can come and go seemingly of their own volition.

The Evolution of a Character

Way back when I was a kid, my dad wrote a private detective novel called Blood Tells. He wrote it after Ross MacDonald died, and he submitted it—without an agent—to Knopf, because that’s whom he said published MacDonald. Eventually, he got a rejection slip back and to my knowledge, my dad never submitted it again.

I’ve read the novel. It’s good. It features a detective named Matt Herrick, who’s caught up in a very MacDonald-esque case. Sins of the Father and all that. I loved the character’s name. It stuck in my head for years.

Until 2006, when I was in the middle of drafting the first Jackson Donne novel, When One Man Dies. Because of Donne’s situation in the book, I didn’t want to put him in the middle of a new short story, but I had an idea. So, I created a new detective. An older man with a family. He was the exact opposite of Donne. And, he needed a name.

I chose Matt Herrick (with my dad’s permission).

Then a weird thing happened. After the story was published, Herrick’s voice went away. Don’t know why, don’t know how. But several times I tried to write about it and just couldn’t get past a paragraph or two. Herrick was there for one story.

For a bunch of years, the character went away. →

February 12, 2016

The Joy of the Heist by J.D. Rhoades

I’m pleased to welcome J.D. “Dusty” Rhoades to the site today. After a successful run of novels featuring hard as nails Gulf War veteran turned bail enforcer Jack Keller—series debut The Devil’s Right Hand was nominated for the Shamus Award for Best First P.I. Novel—as well as the standalone Breaking Cover (an intense thriller featuring a deep cover FBI agent), Dusty has decided to lighten up a little in his newest novel, Ice Chest (Polis Books), a comedic heist caper. In today’s guest post, Dusty explains what motivated him to switch things up a bit, and what challenges doing so presented.

JD Rhoades The Joy of the Heist

“So, Dusty,” you say, “here you are, a writer with a small but devoted following, known for writing what’s come to be called ‘redneck noir’—dark crime fiction set in the American South. Why on earth would you turn to writing something as different as your latest book, ICE CHEST–a comic heist novel?”

To this I would answer, “Excuse me, but who are you and what are you doing in my house?”

But seriously, folks, why would I undergo the perils of changing from gritty thrillers to zany caper novels? Because make no mistake, there is a certain amount of peril to switching up like that. Fans want something just like the thing that made them fall in love with your work in the first place. Publishers want something just like the thing that was successful last time, only different. It’s a little like a restaurant owner going to a table of regulars and saying, “I know you you’ve always enjoyed the steak here, but I’m going to bring you the tilapia. Trust me, you’ll love it.” Maybe they will, maybe they won’t.

But it’s a little scary to make that change, especially when you’re doing something as subjective as humor. There are few things more awkward than telling a joke or making an observation you find hilarious, only to have your listener stare at you blankly and say, “I don’t get it.” Imagine doing an entire book you hope is humorous and having it fall flat. So why do it? →

February 09, 2016

Food and Fiction by Rob Hart

It’s my pleasure to welcome Rob Hart to the site today. Hart’s first novel, New Yorked, debuted last year and introduced readers to the world of Ashley (Ash) McKenna, a Staten Island born and bred New Yorker who finds himself drawn into the hunt for the killer of his longtime friend and unrequited love. City of Rose, the sequel to New Yorked, drops today, and Rob has been kind enough to stop by to talk about how food unwittingly became an underlying theme in his writing.

Rob Hart Food and Fiction

Someone else had to point it out—I didn’t even notice that my short stories were taking on a food theme. But there they were: a bagel-maker defending his turf, warring food trucks, gourmands duped into thinking they were dining on human charcuterie.

When a friend reached out and asked how long until I released a collection of food noir, I was putting a polish on a story about a bakery bouncer and working on my second book, which is set in a vegan strip club in Portland.

City of Rose lands this week, and while I was putting the book together, I didn’t really intend to dive into the Portland food scene. But I couldn’t help myself. Here’s the thing about Portland: Any place that serves alcohol has to serve food, by law. And in Portland, they take their food pretty seriously. I’ve been out there a few times, and I’ve always eaten well.

There are some fun storytelling possibilities there. Setting the book in a vegan strip club felt turned out to be a natural extension of the story. The chef is trying to crack the code on vegan cheesy nachos and vegan cupcakes. They never come out right, because they’re tough to replicate without staples like butter, eggs, and milk.

Kind of like the protagonist, Ash McKenna, who is trying very hard to be something he’s not. And he pays for it in the end. →

February 05, 2016

Bad Citizen Corporation by S.W. Lauden

“I’ve lived through every second of my life and I still don’t know how I got to exactly this moment.” — Greg Salem

Greg Salem can be forgiven for being a bit confused about the state of his life. After all, he’s traveled a bit of an unusual path. Currently an East Los Angeles police officer, once upon a time Greg was known as Fred Despair, punk legend/lead singer of the band Bad Citizen Corporation (BCC).

Though he’s pretty much kicked the excesses of his former punk lifestyle, Salem’s still a bit of a square peg in the round hole that is the police department. When he’s not on the job, Salem still appears occasionally with BCC for special one-off gigs, and also enjoys indulging his passion for surfing.

It’s an interesting balancing act, one that starts to unravel after Salem is involved in an on-the-job shooting. →

February 01, 2016

What Goes Around

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January 28, 2016

Art + Money = Crime by Susan Shea

Very happy to welcome to the site Susan Shea, whose latest book, Mixed Up With Murder, drops February 2nd. Mixed Up With Murder is third entry in the Dani O’Rourke mystery series, following Murder in the Abstract and The King’s Jar. Despite being the chief fundraiser at San Francisco’s prestigious Devor Museum of Art and Antiquities, a position one wouldn’t think could lend itself to too much “action,” as Susan explains in today’s post, the high-stakes, high-money world of art does indeed provide more than sufficient opportunity for Dani to get mixed up with crime…including murder.

Art + Money = Crime

If your preferred crime fiction is measured by the number of shots fired, people killed, cars demolished, and drug busts gone wrong, my books are going to be a harder sell. The Dani O’Rourke series, the third book of which comes out February 2, is not cozy by any means, but it’s not hard-boiled.

However, if measured by the amount of money at stake in the crimes I write about, move over Dirty Harry! I write about the contemporary art market, especially that part of it that trades in paintings and other work with auction values in the multi-millions. Think this isn’t worth some desperate criminal risks? Consider these sales, made in the past 10 years:

Picasso’s “Women of Algiers” $179 million
Bacon’s “Three Studies of Lucien Freud” $140 million
Warhol’s “Silver Car Crash” $105 million
Cézanne’s “The Card Players” $250 million

These are only a few examples of A List works selling for close to or over $100 million recently. They’re not exceptions to the trend. In the past two decades, with a slight pause in 2008, even works by lesser and “unproven” (that means to the market, not to aesthetics) artists have been fetching extraordinary amounts of money, been traded like baseball cards as their prices ratcheted up to swooning heights with not much in the way of market fundamentals behind them. Not that anyone is quite sure how the market can properly value anything as subjective and prone to damage and fashion and rumor as paint on canvas.

So, as a crime writer, I follow the money, a tactic that gets Dani O’Rourke, a fundraiser for my fictional museum, into real trouble again and again. Who’s buying these art works? Why? Where are they going after they’ve been claimed? And what about art that simply vanishes off the walls? And the art that turns out to be fake? So much running room for a crime writer. →

January 20, 2016

The Sophomore Slog by S.W. Lauden

Very pleased to welcome S.W. Lauren to the blog today. His debut novel, Bad Citizen Corporation, dropped last November and was extremely well-received by both readers and reviewers alike. Today he’s here to talk about what it’s like for an author to tackle the second book in a series, especially the realization that the character you spent so many days, weeks and months creating is no longer exclusively yours anymore. →

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