9mm: An interview with Bev Robitai

The 9mm series has been on a bit of slow burn in the past few months, but don't worry, it will continue to be a regular feature here on Crime Watch (hopefully an increasingly regular feature moving forward, rather than the once every few weeks thing it's become recently).

Today, for the 57th instalment of the popular series, I am sharing my 9mm interview with New Zealand mystery writer Bev Robitai, who lives on Auckland's North Shore. I first came across Robitai's work last year, when I read her theatre-set debut mystery MURDER IN THE SECOND ROW, having purchased the ebook from Smashwords. You can read my review of that novel here, and another well-written review here (Reactions to Reading).

Robitai is a photographer for publications in New Zealand and overseas and a freelance writer for magazines like Next. Born in the United Kingdom, she has lived on Auckland's North Shore for 12 years, and spent the prior two decades in Nelson (my hometown). Although MURDER IN THE SECOND ROW is set in a fictional town, it was inspired by Robitai's experiences in the Nelson theatre community.

Robitai released her second mystery novel, AN EYE FOR AN EYE, in April (read more here), and I understand she is working on more crime novels too. You can read more about her at her website here.

But for now, Robitai stares down the barrel of 9mm.

9MM: AN INTERVIEW WITH BEV ROBITAI

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?
I’m enjoying the unfolding of Jack Reacher as Lee Child reveals more of his story in each book. He was such an enigma at first. I’m also falling back in love with Ngaio Marsh’s Roderick Alleyn – he’s so intelligent, charming, and funny.

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
Hm, I guess you mean something more advanced than Orlando the Marmalade Cat? Then Swallows & Amazons and all Arthur Ransome’s stories. I read them on the sofa with my mum and learned to speed-read so she didn’t turn the page before I’d finished.

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
Plenty of published non-fiction articles. I’ve attempted a romance or two but got stuck on how to keep two intelligent characters apart until the end. It’s so hard to think of plausible reasons two perfectly sane people couldn’t sort out their differences! Short stories I’ve never liked much because if I enjoy a character I want to live with them for a whole book.

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise.
READ! My greatest luxury is pushing everything else aside to dive into a great crime novel. Second choice – photography. At least that gets me out in the fresh air, and has been a secondary career for a good few years. I love theatre production too for the variety of creative skills it uses.

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
My real hometown is Staines in England and I’d send visitors to the little ‘village green’ beside the Thames on the day the swan-uppers go by. A slice of medieval history in a lovely riverside setting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Upping

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
If I pick a young Goldie Hawn because my husband likes her, then can I pick who’d play him…that seems fair, doesn’t it? I’d choose Richard Gere. No wait, Mark Harmon - he’s got more sense of fun. Oh no wait, I want David Tennant. Yes!

Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
The one I’m writing at the moment, Body on the Stage, because I love the surprises when the characters become friends and interact. And I get to write all the comedy lines! Eye for an Eye was my first finished book and I’m still excited with it, even though Murder in the Second Row was published first and has had all the attention so far.

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?
My biggest thrill was seeing my book in the library. It’s a proper book when it’s in the library! It’s pretty cool seeing it on the shelves in Borders too, but seeing several copies as ‘out on loan’ in the library catalogue is hugely satisfying. It was a great buzz seeing it mentioned on Crime Watch too, thanks for that! J

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
I launched Murder in the Second Row in Nelson, in the theatre I’d used as the setting. An old boyfriend I hadn’t seen for 30 years drove all the way up from Christchurch to surprise me, and I didn’t even recognise him until my husband brought him over to where I was signing books and introduced him. That felt a bit weird! It’s hard to compete with C.J. Box’s answer to this question though – what a classic.

Thank you Bev Robitai. We really appreciate you taking the time to talk with Crime Watch.

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Have you read MURDER IN THE SECOND ROW, or EYE FOR AN EYE? What do you think of Robitai's writing? Do you like crime fiction set in the theatre?

9mm: An interview with Jeffery Deaver

The 9mm series has been on a bit of slow burn in the past couple of months, but don't worry, it will continue to be a regular feature here on Crime Watch.

Today, for the 56th instalment of the popular series, I am sharing my 9mm interview with another of the biggest names in the business, twist-master extraordinaire Jeffery Deaver, who visited New Zealand recently as part of a whirlwind tour in support of CARTE BLANCHE, the latest 007 novel. Before taking the reins of Ian Fleming's most famous spy, of course, Deaver was already world-renowned in his own right as a crime writer, particularly in relation to his bestselling series starring paralysed criminalist Lincoln Rhyme (played by Denzel Washington in the film adaptation of THE BONE COLLECTOR), and another series featuring CBI Agent Kathryn Dance. Personally, I've also really enjoyed Deaver's collections of short stories, appropriately entitled TWISTED and MORE TWISTED.

I was fortunate enough to be given the exclusive New Zealand pre-release interview with Deaver prior to CARTE BLANCHE hitting the shelves earlier this year. I found him very personable, and quite funny in an at-time dry, witty way, and we had a great chat about all manner of things related to James Bond, crime fiction, plot planning, twists, and more. You can read my feature article for the Sunday Star-Times, based on that interview here. You can read my full NZLawyer review of CARTE BLANCHE, along with a review by NZLawyer editor Darise Bennington of the latest Bond cocktail, created by Deaver for the new book, here.

But for now, Jeffery Deaver stares down the barrel of 9mm.

9MM AUTHOR INTERVIEW: JEFFERY DEAVER

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?

Harry Bosch. I like the personality that Connelly brings to the character, and the fact I kind of relate to him.

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
Probably THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, because although I had some problems with the story - quite early I figured it out - I liked the character of Sherlock Holmes.

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
Well I was a journalist, so many, many articles. Poetry, a law book.

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
Entertain, cook, collect wine, ski, SCUBA dive, drive fast cars on the track, and veg out with my dogs. I cook anything, I’ve cooked all my life; gourmet cooking, French cooking, I do barbeque.

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
Go to The Cave, in Chapel Hill, it’s the alternative rock club - The Cave.

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Oh man, that’s a good one. I guess I would like... probably my first choice would be Kevin Spacey, because he would bring a subtlety to the relatively boring life an author leads.

Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
GARDEN OF BEASTS, because it has the most depth, and is the kind of story that will talked about in future years when my other books aren’t anymore.

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?
My first book was called VOODOO, a Stephen King kind of occult thriller, very small print run, but when I saw it in the store, on the shelves for the first time, I took the afternoon off and went to an Oyster Wine Bar, and just enjoyed oysters and wine.

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
A woman came up to me, a beautiful women, and asked if I would like to have a drink afterwards. I was single, she didn’t have any rings on, so I said I’d love to. And as I was walking to the door after the event, she said “I know you’re the man who can help me, because as you know, Neilsen [a TV rating company that monitors viewership] has cameras in my home, and they’ve based every sit-com and drama show on TV in the last five years on my life, and I need someone to help me expose them”. And it was at that point that the security guard came up and said, “Sally”, or Jo, or whatever her name was - I can’t remember, “Mr Deaver has to go now”. And I was just totally disappointed that clearly I wasn’t the only author that she has said to. I wasn’t special [laughing], but no, clearly she was nuts. But incredibly beautiful.

Thank you Jeffery Deaver. We appreciate you taking the time to talk to Crime Watch
 
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What do you think of this 9mm interview, and interviewee? Have you read CARTE BLANCHE, of any of Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme, Kathryn Dance, or standalone thrillers? Do you enjoy his twist-filled, pacy style of crime and thriller writing? What do you think of such a well-known writer taking over (for one book at least) a well-known series created by another writer? Have you watched the film adaptation of THE BONE COLLECTOR with Angelina Jolie and Denzel Washington? If so, what did you think? Comments welcome.

9mm: An interview with John Hart

The 9mm series has been on a bit of a hiatus in the past few weeks, but don't worry, it will continue to be a regular feature here on Crime Watch. Today, for the 55th instalment of the popular series, I am sharing my recent 9mm interview with double Edgar Award winner John Hart (DOWN RIVER, THE LAST CHILD), an author who in my opinion is one of the very finest around, whatever the genre.

I was fortunate enough to interview Hart for a recent article in the New Zealand Listener (read here), and it was a real pleasure to talk to him about everything from the literary merit of crime fiction, to the importance of compelling characters and treating a setting honestly (it's good and bad aspects), to getting gripping drama from 'small-scale' personal stories rather than world-coming-to-an-end plotlines, to the fact we'd both left the law to do something else, something better (hopefully) with our lives.

Hart was a really humble, down-to-earth guy, and I'm looking forward to meeting him in person when he visits New Zealand in the next few days, touring in support of his fourth novel, IRON HOUSE. Hart will be appearing at Hagley Park in Christchurch on Sunday 21 August as part of the "Setting the Stage for Murder" event where the 2011 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel will be presented, and at Takapuna Library in Auckland on Tuesday 23 August for a solo event (see further details here).

But for now, John Hart stares down the barrel of 9mm.

9MM AUTHOR INTERVIEW: JOHN HART

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero or detective?
I still love Kay Scarpetta from Patricia Cornwell’s novels. We went to the same small school, she was a few years ahead of me, and she has always been an inspiration to me, and when I was trying to get into this business I could look at her and think if she could do it, I could do it. I’ve followed her career for that reason, amongst others, and I’ve always enjoyed her. I love Lucas Davenport, John Sanford’s character, he’s enjoyable. And I’m a sucker for Jack Reacher too, Lee Child’s guy, and Harry Bosch from Michael Connelly. Those are really four series characters that I would go to regularly.

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
I remember specifically, because I remember my father read it to me and I still have it, a book called DIVERS DOWN, I can’t remember the author, it’s in a box in the basement somewhere. But it’s called DIVERS DOWN and it’s about a group of kids who came to sort of an engineering camp in Hawaii and got involved in a project raising a sunken ship that had belonged to some Hawaiian king. And the book was filled with good kids trying to do right, and bad kids trying to derail things, and underwater adventure. That’s definitely the first one I remember. For all I know it could have been absolutely the worst thing ever written, because I was probably six or seven, but my father was doing his medical residency when I was at that formative age, so for him to find ten or fifteen minutes to read a story to me was be a big deal, because he would be at the hospital 30-40 hours straight, sleeping in the backrooms...

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
I had a couple of unpublished manuscripts that remain deep dark secrets, two failed novels that honestly should never have been published. My editor thinks they’re lost masterpieces and keeps asking me to see them, but keeps getting refused, which I’m convinced is the height of wisdom. The first one was a science fiction novel and the second was more a mainstream thriller.

And there was plenty of legal writing of course. The only short story I wrote I wrote when I was ten years old, and it may have linked in to that DIVERS DOWN story because it was about falling off a fishing boat and basically being rescued by Aquaman, and an underwater civilisation brought me into their world. I’m sure it was fun to write.

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
Well I love my dog, and I’ve got a fairly large piece of land, so I spend a lot of time out on the property with the dog... I’m out on the land a lot, just walking in the woods - that’s where I get my best ideas for whatever book I’m working on. I have young kids, which takes up a lot of my time, and I made a deal with my wife that as long as they cared about spending their spare time with me, I would put a lot of things aside with the understanding that when they came of an age where they’d rather be with their friends at the pool, then I could start playing golf again (chuckling). I love playing golf and tennis. I really just love being out on the land.

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
I’m brand new, I just moved in the last couple of weeks to a new city... there’s a restaurant in Charlottesville, I’m in Charlottesville, Virginia now, we moved recently, called the C and O, which is based of the name of the old railway line that used to be up here. And it inhabits a building that for probably a hundred years was used by the railroad engineers that had overnight layovers. And it’s this restaurant in this old building that they’ve worked hard to keep the same, and my great grandfather was an engineer for that railroad, in Charlottesville, so he spent his life working in and around this building. And it’s my favourite place, and I go there all the time, because it feels like you’re stepping back into the 1800s, but you get this absolute wonderful food. So if you’re ever in Charlottesville, Virginia, you should go to the C and O restaurant.

Charlottesville, it’s beautiful. We moved up here because it’s gorgeous. I’ve seen enough pictures of New Zealand to know how beautiful it is, and this is about as close as you could come to having that on the east coast in my opinion.

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Wow, man, that’s a bit of a mind-blower. I’ve never thought of that before. Well, let me see, he would have to be devilishly handsome of course (laughing). The thought has never occurred to me. I would have to say - you would have to ‘young him up a bit’, pardon the colloquialism, but I would love to see someone like Tom Hanks do it. Because I don’t have any great convictions of my physical prowess, but I believe that I’m a very sincere guy, and I love all the characters that Hanks plays, I think he brings a real sincerity to it. So I think I would probably like to see him do it. I think he’s wonderful...

Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
THE LAST CHILD is my favourite. It’s my favourite because I had to reach for those boys, for Johnny and Jack. I really had to dig deep into my own memories, my own soul, to try to find a credible way to convey two traumatised thirteen year old boys. And just to give you an idea of how personal I consider that book, Johnny and Jack are both nicknames for John, and that was intentional. I kind of feel like I split the difference between those two; Johnny is the kid that most men wish they could have been - clear-eyed, fiercely loyal, courageous, selfless kid. And then you’ve got Jack on the other spectrum, and he’s this hell-raiser who steals his Dad’s liquor, smokes cigarettes and slicks his hair. And I kind of feel like they are two sides of the same coin, and that book for me was a very soulful book. I really relate to those kids, and feel like I’m a part of them and they’re a part of me, and the fact that there was such a risk inherent in trying to write an adult-based thriller around a 13-year-old boy. I knew fundamentally the risk I was taking when I started that book, and the fact that it worked out at the end of the day, and it worked as well as it has, just fills me with pride.

I’m always pushing the book I’ve just finished, but THE LAST CHILD will forever be, I think, my special book... it’s really weird. I do like different books for different reasons. I try to take chances with every book, and IRON HOUSE is a little bit different because I set out to try to write a page-burning thriller that didn’t lose the depth that made the other books work. I felt again that it was a risk that I took knowingly, and I feel satisfied that it’s worked for what it is. So I’m very attached to all of them for different reasons, but THE LAST CHILD will always be my personal most significant.

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication?
As luck would have it, my wife’s parents were in town, and they’ve always been my biggest supporters. Early on when everyone says ‘don’t quite your day job, you’ll never succeed in this field’, my in-laws were the ones that said ‘if you need to quit your job, we’ll feed your family while you try this’, they were really that supportive.

So it turned out that they happened to be in town, and we were just doing a cookout, and I just remember my wife made a lovely toast to tell her parents that I’d got the deal, and she got choked up and was just full of pride, because it had been 15 years and two failed novels to get to that point. And the moment I remember most after that was just fixing a very stiff drink and going outside to light the grill, and just taking a sip of that drink and feeling a sense of just unbelievable relief, of what had been years of pent-up frustration, seep away, that it had actually happened.

So it was that family moment, and then ten minutes of just standing outside, enjoying that cocktail and just taking very deep breaths, that this had actually happened. So nothing outstanding in terms of no headline-grabbing celebration; just a very quiet, contemplative and meaningful evening with my family.

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
No question, hands down the strangest thing I’ve ever had at a book signing was when a man walked up and meowed at me. Like a cat. It was a terrible book signing, for the KING OF LIES, and it was probably the worst event we’d had all tour. I was just sitting at this table by myself and this man just walks over, looks me up and down, and goes ‘reeooowww, reoowww’ [cat noise], and then turns around and walks away. And I just literally turned to the manager and said ‘I think I’m done here’. It was just so odd (chuckling).

 
Thank you John Hart. We appreciate you taking the time to talk to Crime Watch.
 
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Have you read any of John Hart's novels? What do you think? Which is your favourite? Will you be coming to one of the New Zealand events? Can big stories come from small plots? Are characters the most compelling aspects? Comments welcome.

9mm: An interview with David McGill

For the 54th instalment in the 9mm series, today I'm sharing my recent interview with Kiwi author David McGill, a prolific and wide-ranging writer, with a penchant for “Kiwi social history, sometimes fictional”.

McGill has written 45 books, including several that fall within the thriller category. Recently I highlighted IN XTREMIS as part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet series. He has also written WHAKAARI, THE MONSTRANCE, and FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS, and SHAKING 1960, in terms of thriller or crime-centric novels. George Moore in the Sunday Star-Times in 1996 called WHAKAARI “a real ripper” of a thriller, and McGill himself told me recently that WHAKAARI was his "first and best" thriller novel.

McGill's diverse book subjects include ghost towns in New Zealand, the country’s first bushranger, local and national heritage buildings, Kiwi prisoners of war, the history of the NZ Customs Department, a biography of a criminal lawyer, a personal history of rock music, a rail journey around the country, historical and comic novels, his thrillers, and six collections of Kiwi slang. You can read more about McGill and his books at his website here, in a recent Dominion Post interview here, and at the Book Council website here.

But for now, David McGill faces down the barrel of 9mm.

9MM AUTHOR INTERVIEW: DAVID MCGILL

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?

Sherlock Holmes (just nudges Van Der Valk, with honorary mention of the the Benjamin Gill guy and Dave Robicheaux, Billy Bob Holland, Elvis Cole and Joe Pike -- I could go on).

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
TREASURE ISLAND, so exciting residing with Jim in the apple barrel, and oh, Blind Pew, still No I villain of all time.

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
About 30 books in over a decade of full-time writing of New Zealand social history, which really extended feature writing profession, ending in flames as editor of a magazine that closed after 9 issues. Only thing to do, turn articles into books. But first I did in 1984 all-time favourite non-fiction activity, asking and getting free pass to travel from NZ Rail on trains around all of NZ, several months of bliss mostly with guards in book called THE G'DAY COUNTRY – only months before all 2000 guards sacked by guy who launched the book, Minister of Railways Richard Prebble, who said he loved train travel! Recently revisited THE G'DAY COUNTRY REDUX.

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
Read thrillers, mostly American authors, drink Merlot (doing so now!), go to art house cinema and garden with my partner, each day walk the beach and tramp the treadmill listening to 180 minutes of my lifetime of pop music on cassettes (lot of Van Morrison) – got a book from it, THE TREADMILL TAPES.

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
Visit the Kakariki Bookshop in the railway station, and enjoy craic with my collaborator on THE G'DAY COUNTRY REDUX, the poet and publisher and pop music afficionado Dr Michael O’Leary.

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Sam Neill

Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
GOLD IN THE CREEK, a farcical fictional recreation of my blissful childhood village in Bay of Plenty, my father the main character in fictional form. Writing as I type its sequel GEYSER IN THE CREEK.

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?
CITYSCAPES, the first collection of historic Wellington house vignettes illustrated by Grant Tilly, running 1976 to 1983 in Evening Post newspaper, was published in 1977 in 6 months, a record at time, by Ann Mallinson of the Hairy McClary series fame. Grant and I launched the book at Whitcoulls in Lambton Quay and signed all morning, outdoing the previous record of Robert Muldoon. I travelled in a car to Auckland the next day with brother and wife and girlfriend to see Fleetwood Mac and raved with adrenaline all trip. How tiresome for them.

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
Launching THE PIONEERS OF PORT NICHOLSON in Ahradsens Bookshop under Darth Vader’s Dunny, the black BNZ in Central Wellington, sitting for several hours on the BNZ boardroom chair made from the remains of the wreck Inconstant beached there circa 1849. One person asked me to sign a book, a comedown from the 1000 Cityscapes. I’m not sure who was keener to slit wrists, me or John. Yet books are thicker than blood -- only last year John asked me if I was reprinting CITYSCAPES. I said Why not? Soon we will have the complete 346 Cityscapes articles and illustrations in print. Bless you, John. Where would writers and publishers be without booksellers, eh?


Thank you David McGill. We appreciate you taking the time to chat with Crime Watch.

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Comments welcome.

9mm: An interview with PA Brown

When I began the 9mm interviews on Crime Watch more than a year ago, my intention was to gradually build up an interesting series of author interviews. I thought it would be fun to see how different authors, from all across the world, and at different stages of their careers, would answer the same list of questions (at least some of which I hoped would be a little different to questions some of the more well-known authors would have been asked many times in interviews before).

I thought it would be good to have a mix of big-name bestselling international authors, New Zealand-based authors, and other overseas authors that were perhaps less widely known - so the series has continued to have that mix over the past fifteen months. I hope you have all been enjoying learning something more about authors you’ve heard of and read, and learning something about some authors that were new to you.

For the 53rd instalment in the series, today I’m sharing my recent 9mm interview with Canadian author Pat Brown, who writes under the name PA Brown. She grew up in western Canada, and has lived in southern California, Hawaii, and Bermuda, before returning to Canada a few years ago. Now she lives in London, Ontario. Brown is the author of several mystery novels, including ‘the LA series’ (LA HEAT, LA MISCHIEF, LA BONEYARD, etc), which blends police procedural with gay romance. Brown has also written several other crime novels starring gay protagonists.

Brown’s books have got plenty of very good reader reviews on websites like Amazon and Good Reads. On her website (click here), she says that she sets most of her books in LA because of the experiences she had during the years she spent there. “The time I spent in L.A, the land of dreams and lies, where illusion battled daily with reality, and reality rarely wins made an indelible impression on me and to this day almost all my writing is set there.”

Examiner.com said of LA BONEYARD that: “Brown's grasp of police procedure is awesome, you'd almost think she'd been there, done that, and she brings The City of the Angels so vividly to life it made this old Angeleno homesick for a burger at Tommy's. Both lend the story a terrific sense of believability, as does a fine ear for dialogue.”

I must admit that down here in New Zealand, Brown was an author I’d never heard about, until recently (and that was thanks to the Internet). However, I am intrigued by the sound of some of her books, and look forward to giving one a go in the near future. But for now, PA Brown stares down the barrel of 9mm.

9MM: AN INTERVIEW WITH PA BROWN

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?
Harry Bosch from Michael Connelly's series.

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
It would have been THE BLACK STALLION. I was beyond horse crazy as a kid (well, I still am) and back then for the first few years, I wouldn't read anything that didn't have a horse in it.

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
I had written about 8 science fiction novels before I switched to crime and sold the first book I wrote. I didn't really switch for that reason - just to sell - but over the years I grew away from SF and found myself reading more and more mystery, so it seemed only logical to try my hand at writing one.

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
I love baking and cooking and I guess it goes without saying, eating. I love travelling, though so far I confine my travels to places that relate to my writing. I also still love horses and still dream of spending a week on a working ranch, riding all the time. Even when I do travel for research purposes, I try to see places off the tourist lists. Last time I was in Los Angeles I stayed for 2 weeks in a youth hostel, sharing a room with 5 strangers, who changed constantly. It was a lot more fun than any chain hotel. I'm doing it again next year for a whole month.

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
Oh boy, that's a dangerous question. Off the top of my head I'd say the first thing you should do as a visitor is get on the first train out of town. LOL. Sorry, I'm not overly fond of where I live right now, but finances keep me here. If I had to suggest someplace to visit that wasn't in the tourist info, I guess it would be Wortley Village, one of the older areas of town that hasn't been rebuilt and is almost like a small village in the centre of town. It has a lot of unique shops in it, and lovely old homes to look at. If you're a bird watcher, come in the spring and walk along the Thames River from Blackfriars Bridge to Springbank Park, several miles of walking trail.

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Sigourney Weaver

Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
I'd have to say L.A. BONEYARD, because I think it's one of the deepest I've written and it was a little bit daring, since I put one of the main, recurring characters in a bad light which I knew some of his fans wouldn't appreciate.

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?
Mostly a numb, I can't believe this is happening. It was even funnier when I got my last agent. When I first opened the email, I thought it was about something else, then when the words "I want to represent you" soaked in I just stared at the email for several seconds, then shut it down, read some more emails, and opened the agent's one again. I did that 4 or 5 times before it really sank in. I even got up and walked around a bit before I went and opened it again, thinking there has to be a 'but' in there someplace that I was missing. It finally sank in, but it took a while. My first book didn't have quite the impact, but then from the time my agent got the deal to when the book came out was almost 2 years so I had a lot more time to absorb the idea. It was still neat to see my book on a book shelf though.

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
The worst had to be the night I asked 2 other writers to join me in an author's night at a local pub. It was local to me, but they both had to drive nearly 2 hours to get there - and no one showed up. All kinds of people had responded to the Facebook invite saying they were attending, but the pub was empty all night. I felt so bad that these 2 authors had come all that way for nothing.


Thank you PA Brown. We appreciate you taking the time to talk to Crime Watch

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Have you read any of PA Brown's mystery novels? If so, what do you think? Have you read much, or any, crime fiction with gay or lesbain protagonists? Comments welcome.

9mm: An interview with Ben Sanders

Last week Crime Watch's popular 9mm interview series returned after a short hiatus for its 51st instalment; an interview with forensic anthropologist and bestselling mystery writer Kathy Reichs.

Now that we're back in the swing of things (several 9mm interviews are scheduled for the coming weeks), I thought I should return to my original premise of featuring both high-profile bestsellers and lesser-known authors, and a nice mix of Kiwi and international crime writers.

So today I am pleased to share with you my recent 9mm interview with up-and-coming local crime writer Ben Sanders, a young university student in Auckland who burst onto the antipodean crime writing scene late last year with his debut thriller THE FALLEN, which got some very good reviews and scooped the #1 spot for several weeks on the NZ Adult Fiction bestseller charts last year.

On a local scale, it was a dream start for Sanders, who featured by several of New Zealand's biggest media players (eg the Weekend Herald, the Sunday Star-Times, TVNZ), and mentioned in several others as well. You can watch a short 5mins long clip of Sanders being interviewed by Paul Henry and Pippa Wetzell on Breakfast, the popular TVNZ morning show here. And just this week I had an email from a US reader, who won a copy of THE FALLEN last year on Crime Watch. She said: "THE FALLEN which you very kindly sent to me a few months ago, was a book I couldn't put down. I lent it to a very well-read friend who had the same reaction. She is an English professor in NYC."

In August Sanders' second crime novel, once again featuring Detective Sergeant Sean Devereaux and his former police colleague John Hale, will be released; BY ANY MEANS. I will share more information about that upcoming book with you soon. It will be interesting to see how media, readers, and reviewers, respond to Sanders' sophmore effort - it would be good to see some more Kiwi recurring crime fiction heroes, so hopefully BY ANY MEANS will be as good a read (or even better) than THE FALLEN, which was a very strong debut. But for now Ben Sanders faces down the barrel of 9mm.

9MM: AN INTERVIEW WITH BEN SANDERS

1. Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?
James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux. I love his imperfection: he has his battles with alcohol, he has a history of violence, but despite these tarnishes he’s a moral and relentless guy, and ultimately very intriguing. He’s a great mix of contradictory qualities; he’s a compassionate Catholic, but at the same time has this immense capacity for sudden violence. The books quite often involve some element of his past, so that you have a detailed depiction of the man in the here-and-now, but you also gradually develop a sense of the experiences that got him to where he is.

2. What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
I was into Enid Blyton when I was a kid, so the Famous Five and Secret Seven series would have been the first novels I read, but I can’t recall the titles. I can remember reading the first Harry Potter book, not long after it had been published [for all you Harry Potter fans who claim you read the books before they were world famous, I reckon I probably beat you], and loving it. It had all the right ingredients for a great story: good writing, characters you could engage with, and an interesting setting. They’re the sorts of qualities that make for a good read, irrespective of genre.

3. Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
I’ve written two unpublished novels. I wrote my first while I was at high school in the sixth-form (16 years old), but I never submitted it for publication. It was a P.I. novel set in L.A. It was swamped with trivial, descriptive detail. It was a good learning curve in that it helped to calibrate my style, pointing out that a lot of what I wrote wasn’t needed. So that effort was a nice self-teaching exercise, but other than that it was a waste of tree. It lives in a shoebox under my bed.

I wrote a second novel the following year; another crime story, this time about an Auckland cop called Sean Devereaux. I submitted it to a publisher but it was rejected. I wrote another novel called THE FALLEN the following year, and retained Devereaux as the lead character. I submitted the novel to a different publisher (HarperCollins NZ), and fortunately it was accepted.

4. Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
try and have a game of tennis once a week. I can sometimes be persuaded to go for a surf, as long as the sun is shining and the wind is off-shore, and the swell is clean and right-breaking [strict, I know]. I love listening to music and walking my dog. The bulk of my plot development is schemed while dog-walking. At one stage while writing BY ANY MEANS (my new novel due out in August), I hit a story snag that I didn’t know how to fix, and the poor dog was getting four walks a day.

5. What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
Wait for a nice day, and drive up to Long Bay Regional Park and go for a wander up the cliff-top walkway at the southern end. There’s a seat up there which faces north across the park and Long Bay beach, and it’s an ideal place to sit and read a Ben Sanders novel.

6. If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Cate Blanchett did a great Bob Dylan, maybe she could do a great Ben Sanders? Otherwise, keeping with the Harry Potter theme, maybe Daniel Radcliffe. He’d have to dye is hair blond.

7. Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
My second published novel, BY ANY MEANS, comes out early August, and I think it’s definitely my best work so far. There’s more character development, and I think the plot is pacier and more engaging. I’m very proud of THE FALLEN, but I think BY ANY MEANS is a definite step up; it’s tighter, more refined, and I’m excited about the release.

8. What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?

I was sort of eased into the idea of publication. The first hint I got that my work was any good was a phone call from the Publishing Manager at HarperCollins telling me she’d really enjoyed THE FALLEN. I got an email a week later informing me it had been accepted for publication, and that a contract was coming my way. It was an amazing feeling. It was relief mostly: I’d been writing for four or five years at that point, and if THE FALLEN was rejected, I didn’t know whether I’d have the energy to write a fourth novel. So to have my work accepted for publication, and be told by someone that they actually enjoyed reading it was fantastic. The celebrations were low-key: I had a cup of coffee, listened to Nick Cave’s ‘Let the Bells Ring,’ and then I rang my mum.

9. What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
I aven’t been in the writing business long enough to have done any of those things yet. But I suppose the most unusual book-related event was actually at a signing for Michael Connelly when he was in Auckland recently. I started reading Connelly’s work when I was thirteen, and was totally hooked. From the ages of thirteen to fifteen, I slowly devoured his complete back-catalogue. His work has been a major influence on my writing, and it was an unusual feeling (and a privilege) to meet the guy who’d helped inspire me to be a writer.
 
 
Thank you Ben Sanders. We appreciate you taking the time to talk with Crime Watch.
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Have you read THE FALLEN? If so, what did you think? Do you enjoy New Zealand-set crime fiction? Do you think Auckland could be a good crime fiction city, like LA, London, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, New York, Sydney, and many others? Does the fact that we have an author now remembering Harry Potter as his favourite childhood book make you feel old (it sure does for me!)? Comments welcome.

9mm: An interview with Kathy Reichs

After a little break, Crime Watch's popular 9mm author interview series now returns with another big-name bestseller facing down the barrel of the nine questions that have so far been answered by 50 fantastic crime fiction authors, New Zealand and international, over the past fifteen months.

The list of authors who've participated reads like a veritable 'who's who' of the global crime landscape - from legendary international stars like PD James, Val McDermid, Michael Connelly, James Lee Burke, Lee Child, and many more, to up-and-coming talent, and some terrific local crime writers from New Zealand and Australia that deserve wider attention, here and abroad.

It's been a real privilege to interview all these authors, and a lot of fun too. I hope you've been enjoying the series as much as I and the authors have been. You can check out some of the previous author interviews by clicking on an author's name on the sidebar to the right, on '9mm' on the header bar above, or you can see a clickable list of the first 44 instaments here.

I fully intend to continue the series, and march towards the 100 interview mark over the coming year. There are plenty more crime writers out there who would be great to include in the 9mm 'family' - but at the same time we've got a pretty amazing line-up already. Feel free to go back over some of the old interviews, and perhaps add comments etc, if you like. Suggestions are also always welcome for future interviewees too. So speak up, and let me know what you want to see.

But for now it is time to once again polish off the gun and point it towards a creator of tales mysterious and thrilling. For those new to this rodeo, 9mm consists of the same 9 Murder Mystery questions put to a variety of New Zealand and international crime, thriller, and mystery authors.

Today I am very pleased to share with you all my recent 9mm interview with Kathy Reichs, the creator of the acclaimed 'Temperance Brennan' series of forensic crime novels (that have in turn inspired the popular Bones TV series, on which Reichs is an Executive Producer and consultant). You can read more about Reichs and her writing, including her recently released young adult novel VIRALS, at her website here.
 

9MM: AN INTERVIEW WITH KATHY REICHS
 
Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?
That’s how hard to pick. How about Thursday Next? I bet no-one’s every picked Thursday Next. She’s in a series by Jasper Fforde. She investigates literary crimes. For example in the first book, I think it’s called THE EYRE AFFAIR, someone stole the original manuscript for Jane Eyre, and changed it, so every manuscript from then on down would be changed.

And of course Rebus; there are so many good ones, how do you pick one?


What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
I do remember as a very young child reading the Nancy Drew books, girl detective kind of thing.


Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?

I did textbooks and journal articles. I did a partial manuscript of the first Temperance Brennan book, got about two thirds through it and threw it away, it was terrible. Then I changed it from third person to first-person voice, and then it worked. And then that’s the one that ended up being DEJA DEAD. But other than that I was too busy with the science...


Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
I’m trying to learn to play golf, but I’m just so terrible at it. One day it will be fun. Now it’s more frustrating than relaxing, but I am trying to learn to play golf. I go to the beach with the family. I do what everybody does; we go out to dinner, go to symphony, go to basketball games, football games... Carolina Panthers and the [Charlotte] Bobcats, neither one which was particularly good this year.


What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
Well okay, here’s a blatant plug for my next book; Charlotte just opened the doors to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. So we are like the Mecca for NASCAR, and then of course there’s the huge Charlotte Speedway. So even if you’re not a motor car racing fan, the NASCAR Hall of Fame is kind of distinct.


If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Jodie Foster. She’s smart. You know they do a flip-around on Bones, the show, where the main character, Temperance Brennan, writes books, and the fictional character is Kathy Reichs.

Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
Well I think BONES TO ASHES, because it takes us back to her childhood, it’s set in Acadia, I was able to get some recognition for the Acadian people, who are just wonderful French-speaking people in New Brunswick, which is primarily an English-speaking province. And they were just such wonderful hosts and helpful in researching, so that was my favourite.


What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication?
Well my reaction was I was stunned. I was astounded ... but my agent, who is still my agent to this day, still teases me that when she told me [how much it had been sold for] that I told her I was going to buy a new vacuum cleaner, so that was how I celebrated. That’s pathetic [laughing].


What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
Gosh, I had a lady insist I sign her baby. Not the baby itself, just the baby’s onesies, but still [it was strange].

 Thank you Kathy Reichs. We really appreciate you taking the time to talk with Crime Watch.


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Have you read BONES TO ASHES, VIRALS, or any of Kathy Reichs' other novels? Do you watch the Bones TV series? Do you enjoy forensically-focused crime tales? What is your favourite Kathy Reichs book? Comments welcome.

Happy 50th 9mm: An interview with Robert Crais

Welcome to a very special edition of Crime Watch's exclusive 9mm author interview series - the 50TH instalment overall. Not bad for a series that started on a whim - we've averaged nearly one terrific author interview a week since the series began in March 2010, and it's grown far beyond anything I could have imagined when we began.

The list of authors who've participated reads like a veritable 'who's who' of the global crime landscape - from legendary international stars like PD James, Val McDermid, Michael Connelly, James Lee Burke, Lee Child, Faye Kellerman, and many more, to up-and-coming talent, and some terrific local crime writers from New Zealand and Australia that deserve wider attention, here and abroad.

It's been a real privilege to interview all these authors, and a lot of fun too. I hope you've been enjoying the series as much as I and the authors have been. You can check out some of the previous author interviews by clicking on an author's name on the sidebar to the right, on '9mm' on the header bar above, or you can see a clickable list of the first 44 instaments here.

I fully intend to continue the series, and march towards the 100 interview mark over the coming year. There are plenty more crime writers out there who would be great to include in the 9mm 'family' - but at the same time we've got a pretty amazing line-up already. Feel free to go back over some of the old interviews, and perhaps add comments etc, if you like. Suggestions are also always welcome for future interviewees too. So speak up, and let me know what you want to see.

But for now it is time to once again polish off the gun and point it towards a creator of tales mysterious and thrilling. For those new to this rodeo, 9mm consists of the same 9 Murder Mystery questions put to a variety of New Zealand and international crime, thriller, and mystery authors.

Today I am very pleased to share with you all my recent 9mm interview with Robert Crais, creator of the award-winning Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series, and some great standalones. I recently interviewed Crais by telephone for a feature article in the New Zealand Herald (read here), and also asked him the 9mm questions. He was a very personable, interesting, cool guy to talk to. As some of you will know, prior to turning to novels, Crais was also a TV screenwriter on some great shows like Cagney & Lacey, Miami Vice, and Hill Street Blues.

9MM: AN INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT CRAIS

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?

James Bond. Just I find him eminently entertaining. He represents to me a part of life that I’m completely unfamiliar with but fantasise endlessly - the suave and debonair but at the same time gritty and tough-as-nails super spy. I don’t write that stuff of course, but maybe that’s one of the appeals to me. For me it’s a completely different reality. I wish I were James Bond

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?

Probably, and it’s certainly a watershed event for me, Raymond Chandler’s novel THE LITTLE SISTER. I often point back to that book as the book that gave me the rest of my career. I was a teenager at the time, about 15 I guess, and found a paperback copy of it in a second-hand bookstore - and honestly the only reason I picked it up is that the cover painting was of this really hot chick - and I just fell in love with Chandler’s Los Angeles, and the whole thing. I’d never read a private eye novel, and that was my gateway to everything that followed.

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?

I started as a short story writer actually, and along with crime fiction I was writing a lot of science fiction and fantasy - the very first few stories I sold weren’t crime stories, they were fantasies. Then TV screenwriting for a number of shows.

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?

Anything outside. I’m a workout nut. I hike every morning, get up insanely early. I’m a runner. I fly aeroplanes; I love to fly - anything that gets me outside. I have a Cessna 310 twin engine aeroplane. I also fly single engine aeroplanes. I just love the whole notion of getting out in the sky alone - it requires concentration, and that’s a way to free myself from the work I do.

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?

Well, everyone who comes to Los Angeles should go up Mulholland Drive at night. The city comes alive in the darkness, I think, because when you’re up on the crest of the mountain, the lights of the city itself spread out to infinity. They go all the way to the horizon, because Los Angeles is such a big place. It looks like the stars have fallen from the sky. That’s one of the things I fell in love with when I first came here.

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?

I have never, ever been asked that. Oh, wow... um, Tom Hanks. I’m a huge fan. Listen, you ask me that question and I’m tempted to say some heroic figure like Russell Crowe or somebody who plays gladiators, but Hanks, he seems like a funny guy, a genuine guy, that would be a hoot. There’s a [love for life] and also earnestness to him. He’s the whole palette. Great question, man.

Of your writings, which is your favourite, and why?

You know this is going to sound hokey and put up, but I have to say THE SENTRY. For a variety of reasons, but mostly because I’m really exploring Joe Pike’s character in the last few books, I’m getting into what for me was a mystery, an enigmatic character, and I think I took something on with him that was very, very difficult to pull off, for me as the writer and character. And I like to think that I hit pretty close to the target. I’m extremely proud of that, so right now THE SENTRY is my absolute favourite book.

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?

Oh, well, I probably broke out a six pack. With THE MONKEY’S RAINCOAT, I had written a couple of manuscripts before that did not sell, in fact they were so bad that I never submitted them, I’m the only person that has ever read them, they were that awful. They were both crime novels - one was a private eye novel and the other was a crime novel but not a PI novel. And they were both just failures, they simply didn’t work as books, as stories.

So when I started out writing THE MONKEY’S RAINCOAT, my goal was just to write a story that made sense, still something that I was proud of, but after two failures in a row I was like ‘please, just let me have a beginning, middle and an end of a story that makes sense’. It did not sell right away. When I finished it I felt that it was a successful story, but when we began to submit it to publishers in New York it did not sell right away, it was rejected many times. I think on ninth or tenth time it finally sold and sold as a paperback original. But then I was ecstatic at that point. It’s been a long time ago now, but I probably broke out a six pack and had a party.

--- And seeing it on a bookshelf in a store must have felt good?

The best... having it in your hand. In fact I still have three or four copies - when I would go around town and see it in a bookstore for the first time, I would buy the copy, and then write in the book the date and where I bought it, where I saw it for that first time. And I still have some of those, it meant that much to me.

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?

I was doing a signing outside of Philadelphia, and there was this long line of people, and a woman in this line holding up a two-year-old boy, and she's waiting, and waiting, and waiting. And she gets closer and closer and closer, and finally she reaches the table and pops the child on the table in front of me and says 'here's your Daddy!'.

It was a joke, a complete joke, but it was one of those things where the whole room fell absolutely quiet... and then she burst out laughing, and then about 100 people in the room all burst out laughing - you could feel the relief, especially from me. It was a very funny moment, a very funny moment.

Thank you Robert Crais. We really appreciate you taking the time to talk with Crime Watch.

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Have you read THE SENTRY? Any of the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novels, or Crais's acclaimed standalones like DEMOLITION ANGEL? Have you watched Cagney and Lacey, Hill Street Blues or Miami Vice? What is your favourite Robert Crais book? Comments welcome.

9mm: An interview with CJ Box

Welcome to the fifth instalment of Crime Watch's exclusive 9mm author interview series for this year, and the 49th instalment overall. You can check out some of the previous author interviews by clicking on an author's name on the sidebar to the right, on '9mm' on the header bar above, or you can see the first 44 instaments here.

But for now it is time to once again polish off the gun and point it towards a creator of tales mysterious and thrilling. Thanks to everyone for their comments and feedback on the series so far - I really appreciate it, as I know many of the participating authors do as well.

For those new to this rodeo, 9mm consists of the same 9 Murder Mystery questions put to a variety of New Zealand and international crime, thriller, and mystery authors. It’s been fun seeing the variety of answers the authors give to the questions - both in terms of great personal anecdotes and insights, and comparing the influences etc that many authors share. I hope you have all been enjoying the series as much as I (and the authors) have been. Suggestions are always welcome as to who else you'd like to see interviewed. Upcoming interviews include the likes of Kathy Reichs and Robert Crais, amongst others.

But today I am very pleased to share the thoughts and answers of Edgar Award-winning author CJ Box, creator of the terrific Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett series, along with some outstanding standalones, such as BLUE HEAVEN, which won the Edgar Award in 2009 and was one of my 'crime picks of 2010' for the Herald on Sunday (the book was released in New Zealand last year). For that article I described BLUE HEAVEN as: "An absorbing tale of frightened children on the run after witnessing four corrupt policemen gun down a man in rural North Idaho. Something of a crime fiction and classic Western love-child, this is a gripping, intelligent thriller with complex characters, a beautifully-evoked setting, and a ferocious conclusion."

In January I read my first Joe Pickett novel, IN PLAIN SIGHT, and enjoyed it greatly. You can read more about CJ Box at his website here. For those in the UK, you have an opportunity to meet him later this year when he is a guest at the terrific Harrogate Festival (yet another reason to make that event a must-attend). His newest Joe Pickett novel, COLD WIND, isc scheduled for release in the US later this month, and a standalone thriller called BACK OF BEYOND will be released in August 2011. But for now, CJ Box stares down the barrel of 9mm.

9MM: AN INTERVIEW WITH CJ BOX

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?
I'm a fan of John Sandford's Lucas Davenport, Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch, and Denise Mina's Paddy Meehan -- although I think she's discontinued that series.

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller was the book that turned me all around. I'd read plenty up to that point, but Catch-22 made me realize for the first time that a book could rattle the reader to the core and make him think differently about... everything. I've since re-read it four times and get something new out of it every time.

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
I was a newspaper journalist prior to writing fiction. The newspaper I worked for was a very small Wyoming weekly, meaning I did everything -- features, sports, investigative, outdoor, a column, etc. It was the best training ground I can think of for what I do now because it exposed me to every level of small-town life from billionaire ranchers to low-rent survivalists.

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
I love to fly-fish. And hunt. And ski. Outdoor stuff. But I'm passionate about fishing and I've been able to fish some of the best trout waters in the U.S. and blue-water ocean fishing outside the U.S.

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn't initially consider?
We live outside Cheyenne, Wyoming, home of the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo which is the largest outdoor rodeo in the world. I'd encourage visitors to go to the rodeo grounds even then the event isn't taking place to soak in the magnitude, culture, and unique nature of the place.

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you? Ha! Any answer I could come up with would be ridiculous.

Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
Very tough question, so I'll duck it. I'm very proud of OPEN SEASON because it launched my career. BLUE HEAVEN is a favorite because of it's structure and depth. It's a big story that is told in 60 hours of real time. NOWHERE TO RUN elicited some strong feelings from readers, and that's a good thing.

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller's shelf?
I had three goals. One was to see my book in a library. The other was see it in a bookstore. The third was to see someone reading my book in an airplane. I'm happy to say all those goals have been achieved. I was thrilled...

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
Every year, I sign books in the lobby of Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone Park. It's a humbling experience. Many people come to my table simply to get directions to the toilets or to ask when the geyser will erupt. A few years ago, though, a woman stood in line glaring at me. When she reached the table, she leaned over and spat, "I knew your first wife Linda, you bastard!" and stomped away. The thing is, I'm still married to my ONLY wife, Laurie. I have no idea who Linda is, or was.


Thank you CJ Box. We really appreciate you taking the time to talk with Crime Watch.

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Have you read BLUE HEAVEN? Any of the Joe Pickett novels? What do you think of CJ Box's writing? Do you like crime fiction set in rural or wilderness areas?

9mm: An interview with Victoria Houston

Welcome to the fourth instalment this year of Crime Watch's exclusive 9mm author interviews, and the 48th instalment overall. You can check out some of the previous author interviews by clicking on an author's name on the sidebar to the right, on '9mm' on the header bar above, or you can see the first 44 instaments here.

But for now it is time to once again polish off the gun and point it towards a creator of tales mysterious and thrilling. Thanks to everyone for their comments and feedback on the series so far - I really appreciate it, as I know many of the participating authors do as well.

For those new to this rodeo, 9mm consists of the same 9 Murder Mystery questions put to a variety of New Zealand and international crime, thriller, and mystery authors. I hope you have all been enjoying the series as much as I (and the authors) have been. Suggestions are always welcome as to who else you'd like to see interviewed. Upcoming interviews include the likes of Kathy Reichs, Robert Crais, and CJ Box, amongst others.

Today I am very pleased to interview a 'new-to-me' mystery writer, Victoria Houston, author of the 'Loon Lake Fishing Mysteries'. I was introduced to Houston's work when I stumbled across a copy of DEAD ANGLER in a local bookstore. The first novel in Houston's long-running Loon Lake mystery series, the book has introduced me to Houston's intriguing protagonists, retired dentist Paul Osbourne and Chief of Police Lewellyn (Lew) Ferris, both avid fly fishermen (fisherpeople, given Lew's a woman?) I am enjoying it thusfar, particularly the way Houston evokes the rural Wisconsin setting. As much as I enjoy crime fiction set on the mean streets of a grimy city, it's also nice to read a well-written mystery set in more outdoorsy places.

Houston's eleventh Loon Lake Fishing Mystery, DEAD RECEIVER, will be released this year. Houston is herself a keen fly fisher, and lives once again in Wisconsin, where she was raised. You can read more about here at her website here.

But for now the author of the Loon Lake Fishing Mysteries stares down the barrel of 9mm.

9MM: AN INTERVIEW WITH VICTORIA HOUSTON

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?
I have a couple. Long before the current rage for Scandinavian crime fiction (i.e. 30 years ago!), I got hooked on the Martin Beck detective series from Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo followed (about 15 years ago) Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander (the first six books are the ones I like best). But my absolute favorite crime/mystery writer (his main character's name changes though the gestalt remains the same) is Ross Thomas. Genius -- great plotting, great humor, great dialogue and a wonderful eye for the grim detail. I read and re-read his books.

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
"Gone With The Wind." Terrific characters, steamy, heart-wrenching story. I grew up in the far north and this was set in the Deep South. Wonderful escapism. As a kid, I was a fanatic reader and devoured Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, all the dog and horse stories -- before moving on to Agatha Christie, G.K. Chesterton and...Mickey Spillane! Rarely met a book I didn't enjoy.

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
Try ten years of freelance magazine and newspaper feature writing; art critic for a major American newspaper and correspondent for a major American art magazine (ARTNEWS); editor for a wire service (pre-computers) for the futures markets; six non-fiction titles (one ghosted and two co-authored with experts in their fields. My "Loving A Younger Man: How Women Are Finding and Enjoying A Better Relationship" was modest bestseller and put my three kids through private colleges.

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
First of all, I have - and have had for 30-plus years - a day job in Public Relations, which is a terrific counter-balance to the mystery writing. I am very outdoors-oriented: both fly fishing and bait fishing, tennis, running, windsurfing, downhill and cross-country skiing. I love the outdoors. Also movies, books and really good TV like The Sopranos and The Wire.

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn't initially consider?
Hang out for a couple hours at Jonny & Billy's Birchwood Lodge & Rustic Bar. Great location on a wonderful chain of lakes, good intro to the tourists and the locals in this region. Excellent pizza, good beer. Live music on the weekends. This is the neighborhood where I grew up and the lake, the trees, the owls, the fishing, the moon, the wind - all inspire my books.

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Are you kidding me? Yikes. How about Annette Benning with Helen Mirren's hair? (Mine is silver white.)

Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
The one I just managed to finish! Aside from that, I thoroughly enjoyed researching illegal traffic in human tissue (not organs) for DEAD HOT MAMA. Books are like your children - each one is different and you enjoy each for their own peculiar attributes.

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller's shelf?
I burst into tears. It was news that I had a three-book deal and I was overwhelmed because it had taken me nearly ten years to make the change from writing non-fiction to fiction. Quite a struggle.

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
It was awful. A poor guy who had attempted suicide ripped open his shirt to show me what a shotgun does to your body. This was during a book club presentation at a Barnes & Noble. Fortunately, another man in the audience was able to handle the guy without hurting his feelings.


Thank you Victoria Houston. We really appreciate you taking the time to talk to Crime Watch.

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Have you read any of the Loon Lake fishing mysteries? Do you like the sound of mystery fiction set in rural, outdoorsy areas? Have you been to Wisconsin? Do you like to fly fish? Comments welcome.

A St Patricks Day Special: the Irish 9mm interviews

Well, it may not quite be St Patrick's Day in Ireland itself, time-wise, but here in the first country to see the sun, the celebrations are already well under way, with parties and events at Irish pubs and many other places throughout the day and night here in New Zealand.

St Patrick is of course the most well-known patron saint of Ireland, and over the centuries the day of celebration that was originally more about feast and tied to religion, became a wider celebration of Irish culture in general. It's a public holiday for our friends in Ireland, but is also widely celebrated elsewhere in the English-speaking world, especially in places like Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, which each had large numbers of Irish immigrants over the years.

For Crime Watch's celebration of all things Irish today, I thought I would revisit the 9mm author interviews I've done with writers from the Emerald Isle. So grab yourself a Guiness (or Kilkenny if you're that way inclined), kick back, and scroll through the thoughts and comments from a trio of terrific Irish crime writers: Rob Kitchin, Declan Burke, and John Connolly.

9MM: An interview with Rob Kitchin

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?
Hmmmm. I have soft spots for Bernie Gunther (Philip Kerr), Jack Irish (Peter Temple), Harry Bosch (Michael Connelly), Omar Yussef (Matt Benyon Rees), De Luca (Carlo Lucarelli), Hap Collins and Leonard Pine (Joe Lansdale) and John Rebus (Ian Rankin).

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
Oh God, this is tricky. I've no idea what this book was! I got hooked on fiction in my early teens. I remember I went through a spy thriller phase working my way through Ted Allbeury, Len Deighton and John Le Carre. The Cold War was still live at the time and I was taken by the cloak and dagger plots, the underlying politics, and the intertextuality vis-à-vis real events and people.

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
I'd had quite a bit of academic writing published in journals and edited books, and I'd had 17 academic books published. Writing is something that improves with practice, and although it's a very different kind of writing, there's no doubt that my fiction writing has benefited from my academic work.

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
Read. Mostly crime fiction, but also some history, travel writing and popular science. Writing fiction is actually a big part of my leisure time - I have a full-time job that my writing has to be fitted around.

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
If hometown is where I presently live, then it's a small, Dublin commuter town that has half-a-dozen pubs, a couple of restaurants, a GAA club, and not much else. You could take a walk along the canal.

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
If my life were a movie, the audience would be asleep in the first five minutes.

Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
My favourite is 'Saving Siobhan', a comic crime caper set in Ireland, which is unpublished and has been rejected a fair few times by agents and publishers as either being (a) too quirky and niche to gain sufficient sales, or (b) too mainstream that it'll disappear in the pack. What's frustrating about the letters is that they all start with, 'I really enjoyed this, but ...'

The fact that they really enjoyed it, and perhaps other people would enjoy it, seems to somehow disappear from their decision making. I think increasingly publishers want guaranteed mega-sales for no risk, and small town Ireland is seen as too parochial to capture attention and sales and is therefore a potential investment risk. Oh well. I like the characters, I'm happy with the plot, and it rattles along at a good pace. The few people who've read it agree that it's my best piece to date. I'm not really sure what to do with it right now. I'll probably have another go at getting it out there once THE WHITE GALLOWS is published in a couple of weeks time.

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?
The first thing I had published was an article in an academic journal.

The initial feedback consisted of three reviews - one basically saying to accept the paper as it was, another that it needed major revisions but would be okay after those, and the final one saying it was hopeless and it should be rejected. It was a very sweet and sour moment.

Interestingly, it is by far my most cited paper, which suggests everything has been downhill since then! Receiving my first book, and seeing it in a bookshop, was a bit of anti-climax to be honest. The exciting bit, I think, was getting the proofs and the realisation that it was definitely going to see the light of day. I did get a kick seeing a pile of THE RULE BOOK in a bookshop in Dublin Airport. That was a 'perhaps there might be a future in this' moment.

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
Since I've only done a couple of signings and I've not yet been to a book fair or literary festival, I've not had much in the way of unusual experiences. When we launched the encyclopedia for which I was co-editor in chief, one of the panelists we'd invited to push it off into the world gave it a good thrashing in front of the 200 or so people who attended. That was quite sobering, especially after it had taken five years to put together and involved 840 writers from over 40 countries! The lesson is to be careful when picking someone to launch a book.


The Crime Watch 9mm Author Interview: Declan Burke

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?
That would have to be Philip Marlowe. The first time I read the opening paragraph of The Big Sleep, it felt like coming home. Odd, really, because I’ve never been to LA. Generally speaking, I’m more a fan of standalones rather than series heroes, but I’ll be first in line if they ever discover an unpublished Marlowe manuscript. I reread at least one Chandler per year, just to remind myself of (a) why I love books, (b) why I want to write, and (c) how far I have to go to get to where I’d like to be.

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
Very tough question. You can love books for all sorts of reasons, not all of them to do with the story or the writing. And when you’re young, you tend to read indiscriminately, without worrying about whether you actually like or love a book - I doubt very much if I ever stopped to think about whether I was enjoying the Enid Blyton books, for example, as I wolfed them down. But I do remember having my socks blown off by Watership Down when I was about 10 or 11. A story about rabbits, from the POV of rabbits? And heartbreaking to boot? I even loved the General, Woundwort, when he went for the dog’s throat …

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
I’d been working as a journalist for about eight years or so before Eightball Boogie was published in 2004, mainly writing about arts and cultural stuff - movies, books, theatre. I’d also written a novel-length story set in the Greek islands that was utter rubbish, but which was important to me (and possibly one of the most important things I ever wrote) in that it meant I at least had the stamina to write a book-length story. Starting a story is the easiest thing in the world. Seeing it through is tough, tough, tough.

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
Writing is really only a hobby to me; I’ve only had two books published (Eightball Boogie and The Big O (2007)), both of which were very low-key affairs. And in these straitened times, working a full-time job as a freelance journalist, and with a young family to co-support, I don’t get much time to write, let alone tour and promote. For leisure, I’m lucky in that my job involves going to movies and theatre, and reading quite a bit for review. So there’s a lot of cross-over there between work and leisure. For strictly leisure time, I like to spend as much time as possible with my little girl, Lily, who has just turned two and is brilliant fun. I watch a little TV - football, Family Guy, science and history documentaries - listen to some music, potter in the garden a bit, do some blogging … Any spare time after that is spent reading, though.

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
I live in Wicklow now, which is called ‘the Garden of Ireland’, but I’m originally from Sligo, in the northwest of Ireland, which is renowned for its association with WB Yeats. It’s a beautiful place: there are mountains, forests, bogs, the Atlantic, good surfing, good fishing … in fact, it’s a great place to set a novel, because practically any kind of urban or rural setting you need is available within five or ten miles of Sligo town centre. What visitors do tend to overlook is Sligo’s ancient history. There are perfectly preserved settlements at Carrowkeel, for example, that predate the better-known Newgrange by about 500 years, and the Egyptian pyramids by about 1,000 years.

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
If my life was a movie, it’d be stuck in development hell. Who would I like to see play me? George Clooney, one of the very few interesting movie stars with real screen presence. Who would be likely to play me? Steve Buscemi.


Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
Now that’s a tough bloody question. It’s like asking which of your kids you love most. And the honest answer is that I love them all equally, and I’m including those that haven’t been published when I say ‘all’. Eightball was magic because it was my first, and I’ll never replicate that shining, incandescent moment when I first held the book - an actual book, written by me - in my hands. It happened on a street in Galway, and I believe I kind of blanked out for a few seconds. I’d waited a long, long time to see that book … The Big O I love because it was a co-published deal with Hag’s Head, I and my wife put our mortgage money where my mouth was by paying 50% of the costs, and it ended up a modest success, from a co-published little effort (880 copies in Ireland) that ended up getting a pretty decent deal in the States, and allowed me go to the States for a road-trip to promote it. Bad for Good (which is currently out under consideration) I love because it’s radically different to the previous books, and I’m still not sure where the voice came from, or where the notion of having a hospital porter blow up his hospital came from. But even the books that will never see the light of day, I love them too, because they’re me at my most me. Which is the main reason why I write, I think.

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?
I can’t really remember, to be honest, possibly because I very probably went out drinking. But it’s a strange, strange thing hearing that your book is going to be published - you’re delighted, of course, because for me I’d had that monkey on my back for nigh on 20 years, having subconsciously set myself that much as a target in order to have a life worth living (!), and the relief that it was finally going to happen was immense. So there’s shock, and relief, and delight … and ten minutes later you’re worried if people are going to like it.

I had a bizarre experience, actually, in that a couple of months before Eightball was published, I read a Ken Bruen novel, I think it was The Guards. And I remember vividly putting it down and realising that Eightball was going to be evaluated on the same criteria, and having a panic attack of sorts, and then wondering what Ken Bruen would make of my book. And the very following morning, I got a letter from the publisher, via my agent, containing a blurb from Ken Bruen, in which he claimed I was the future of Irish crime fiction. That was a pretty good morning.

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
Most unusual event at a literary festival? Sorry, Craig - what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Generally speaking, though, the most unusual thing that happens at my book signings is that people actually turn up to have their books signed. That never ceases to amaze me.


The Crime Watch 9mm Author Interview: John Connolly

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?
Ah, probably it’s a tie between Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer - because of that capacity for empathy, that’s important to me - and James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux, who taught me that writing can be very poetic, I think.

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
It was a Secret Seven book by Enid Blyton, which I remember reading at the dining table in our sitting room, and I remember struggling because I hadn’t been reading for very long, and I struggled through with words phonetically, and for years afterwards I thought the word ‘cupboard’ was pronounced ‘cup board’ - and my mother must have thought I was like little Lord Fauntleroy, “can we get something from the cup board?”

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
Nothing. I’d written for the Irish Times, so I’d been a journalist, but I’d not written fiction. Lots of articles but nothing in terms of fiction, no.

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
It doesn’t leave a whole lot of time, to be perfectly honest (chuckling). Ah, I go to the gym because it’s good to get out of the house and to do something so I don’t turn into some kind of vegetable. I actually find - somebody once said that the secret to happiness is to find something you would do as a hobby, and convince somebody to pay you to do it. And given that I’m doing what I probably would have done as a hobby had I been given the opportunity, and had I had ‘a proper job’, I actually don’t begrudge the time I spend doing it. So most of my time, it’s a bit like that Raymond Chandler thing - he was asked what was his writing day like, and he said he spent 6-7 hours a day sleeping, 3 hours a day eating, 4 hours a day writing, and the rest of it thinking about writing. And that’s kind of what my day has become.

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
They should go to the crypt of St Michan’s Church on the north side of Dublin, where there’s these preserved bodies of these nuns, but also this huge Crusader Knight - they had to break his legs to get him in the coffin - and you can touch his finger. Touching his finger is supposed to be good luck, so you can touch the finger of this mummified Knight... Don’t go kissing rocks...

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Um... my girlfriend is convinced I look like Colin Firth, and I’ve met Colin Firth, and I really don’t, you know (chuckling). So I don’t know - I suspect that they’d pick somebody bug-eyed like Steve Buscemi, you know, “we’re trying to capturing your character not so much your looks” - and I’d think “no, not Steve Buscemi...”


Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
THE BOOK OF LOST THINGS, simply because it was very personal, and also because I finished it and thought “that was a good day’s work”. And if you’re - I hate people who separate art and craft, any kind of art, you’re not going to get to judge it, but art comes out of craft. And as a craftsman, sometimes you put the finish, and think “that’s as good as I can do”, and you sleep well after doing that.

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?
I did really mundane things... I paid off my credit card bill. That was how I celebrated, I paid off my credit card bill. I was so fearful that it was all going to be taken away from me, that I think I was afraid to spend any of the money. So I paid it off, and I got an apartment that I could live in and work in. Very mundane things - I don’t think I ever ... now when I send off a book I take my family out to dinner, we’ll do something really simple. It was funny, there was no great splurge of buying things. No Ferrari, I’ve got a second-hand Ford Mondeo.

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
I had a woman come up to me once at a signing at a festival, saying ‘I love, I just love your books - I’ve been looking for you all weekend and if you’d please just stay there, I will come back and get my book signed. And she did, and she came back and handed me a copy of Ian Rankin’s BLACK AND BLUE, and said “there you go Mr Rankin, will you sign that for me please?”

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So there you have it, an Emerald trio for St Patrick's Day. Hope you enjoyed it. There are some terrific Irish crime writers out there (I have recently read and really enjoyed BORDERLANDS by Brian McGilloway, and have a Ken Bruen and a Declan Hughes book in my TBR pile too), so get out there and get amongst some Emerald Noir to celebrate St Patrick's Day. With a nice Irish beer of course.

Have you read any Rob Kitchin, Declan Burke, or John Connolly novels? Are you a fan of Irish crime writing or crime writers? What do you think of the 9mm interviews above? Comments welcome.