February Blu Ray Recommended Releases

My first-ever monthly crime picks for the Herald on Sunday

This year I've been asked to provide a monthly crime fiction round-up for the Herald on Sunday, one of New Zealand's most well-read newspapers. It's terrific to see some of New Zealand's larger media (big newspapers, magazines, TV shows etc) starting to include a little bit more crime fiction in their review pages - I'm very pleased to be able to contribute as well.

My first 'column', so to speak, was published this past weekend see above - in the 'Detours' lifestyle insert to the HOS), and now I can share it here with you. Each month I will pick 2-3 books that I have read in the past month (usually new or recent releases, but not always), and talk a little about them. Due to space constraints I don't have a lot of words to play with, but I'll be doing my best to highlight some good and great crime fiction, that could be enjoyable for some of the Herald on Sunday readers to try, as best I can.

Here's the first instalment of the monthly series:

Follow the Money
By Peter Corris (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
The ‘godfather of Australian crime writing’, Corris has been penning his acclaimed Cliff Hardy tales for decades. This new instalment sees the aging hero in a slump; he’s lost his private eye license and his entire life savings - embezzled by a dodgy financial advisor, who later wound up dead. But then Hardy’s unofficially ‘hired’ by a slick, desperate lawyer to find out whether the embezzler faked his own death; an assignment that has the budding granddad entwined with ethnic gangs and Sydney’s gritty underbelly.

Buried Alive
By J.A. Kerley (Harper, $28.99)
The latest in Kerley’s excellent Carson Ryder series sees the young Alabama detective taking a long-overdue vacation, only to stumble onto a series of sadistic killings in rural Kentucky. Working both in conjunction and conflict with the local cops, Sheriff and FBI, Ryder tries to stay alive and uncover the truth while also dealing with the (welcome, for readers) reappearance of his brother Jeremy, an escaped killer. Kerley writes with pace and personality; mixing interesting characters, storylines and setting. An enjoyable read.

Shatter the Bones
By Stuart MacBride (HarperCollins, $39.99)
Few writers can mix brutality and belly laughs quite like Scottish author MacBride, whose Aberdeen-set thrillers starring DS Logan McRae can have you cringing one page, chuckling the next. McRae (more determined everyman than supercop) and his colourful colleagues and superiors are under intense media and public pressure due to the high-profile kidnapping of a mother-daughter duo, reality TV show singing sensations. An entertaining page-turner filled with plenty of wisecracks, vitality, and personal and professional conundrums.

Craig Sisterson was one of the judges of the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel last year. He blogs about crime and thriller fiction at http://goldenglobenominees.blogspot.com//

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This column was first published in the Sunday 30 January 2011 issue of the Herald on Sunday, and is reprinted here with permission.

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What do you think of my mini-reviews? Of having such a regular column in one of New Zealand's major newspapers? Have you read (or do you intend to) any of these titles? What are some fo the upcoming titles I should definitely include in future columns? Comments welcome.

SAG 2010

to follow upon last night's late posting on the 2010 sag awards i present the winners

in film

the critics are pissed. the critical darling 'the social network' lost best ensemble to the most deserving 'the king's speech'. for those who may not be aware the best ensemble is the sags equivalent to best picture. i applaud the actors who looked at great acting as opposed to the stylistic presentation of despicable characters in 'the social network'. i can only hope the academy voters follow suit. deep in my heart i believe the king will reign supreme on february 27.

colin and natalie seem poised to win top acting honors at the oscars now more than ever. they should and will win

in tv

ensemble went to 'modern family' for comedy and 'boardwalk empire' for drama.

i was particularly happy and giddy that julianna margulies (the good wife) won best actress in a drama and betty white (hot in cleveland) won for best in comedy.

Remembering Susanne on Her Birthday

susanne pleshette may best be remembered for her role as emily on 'the bob newhart show'. she also became part of one the best season finales ever. when bob newhart's follow up series ended it was 'revealed' the whole series was a dream. it was really bob's nightmare and emily wakes him up in the former series. confused? guess you had to be there.

'The King's Speech' Takes Top SAG Award

'the king's speech' is on a roll and now heads toward oscar night as the front runner. just weeks ago 'the social network' seemed unstoppable. but since the pga, the dga and now the sag has gone royal everything is in turnaround. a lot of pundits thought 'the fighter' might take ensemble cast award tonight. they were wrong. i was right. the king, his therapist and their supporting cast ruled. so now we move on to the last stretch toward the oscars. it's a race for sure but the royals are now ahead by a pretty long nose. but the sag's sometimes get ahead of themselves. remember just three years ago when christie and cotillard upset the betting odds.

i've been on the firth and portman bandwagon for weeks now and tonight they prevailed.

the winners of the 2010 sag awards are

for film

Best Ensemble: “The King’s Speech”
Best Actor: Colin Firth, “The King’s Speech”
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, “Black Swan”
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, “The Fighter”
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, “The Fighter”
Best Stunt Ensemble: “Inception” (presented on the red carpet)

and in television

Best Actress in a TV Movie or Miniseries: Claire Danes, “Temple Grandin”
Best Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries: Al Pacino, “You Don’t Know Jack”
Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series: “Modern Family”
Best Actress in a Comedy Series: Betty White, “Hot in Cleveland”
Best Actor in a Comedy Series: Alec Baldwin, “30 Rock”
Best Ensemble in a Drama Series: “Boardwalk Empire”
Best Actress in a Drama Series: Julianna Margulies, “City Island”
Best Actor in a Drama Series: Steve Buscemi, “Boardwalk Empire”
Best Stunt Ensemble: “True Blood”

Crime Fiction Alphabet: D is for DIVE DEEP FOR DEATH

Now fully caught up in relation to the fantastic Crime Fiction Alphabet series created and run by my fellow Anzac and book blogger Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise - I'm raring to go at the start of this 'D' week.

For those who've been rock-sheltering, the Crime Fiction Alphabet is a great series where each week crime fiction bloggers from around the world write about a notable crime fiction novel or author (first name or surname) starting with a particular letter of the alphabet, all linking to each other.

You can read the 27 posts from my 2010 effort (I did two posts for one letter), here. Last year I included 11 posts relating to New Zealand crime writers or crime novels. Not a bad strike-rate, in terms of highlighting Kiwi crime fiction to the world.

As I said last week, I've now decided that I am going to this year set myself the very challenging task of focusing not only just on New Zealand-themed posts, but just on Kiwi crime fiction books (ie I won't do any author profiles etc this time around), although sometimes it may be the author's name that is relevant to the letter of the week. So you will get a review or profile of more than 26 Kiwi crime/thriller novels over the course of this series (given that some weeks I'll feature multiple books, like the 'B' post which had five Bs over three book titles).

This week, for the letter 'D', I've decided to dig back into the Kiwi crime and thriller fiction past, peeling back the decades to feature a book by a somewhat forgotten author, Elizabeth Messenger, who wrote several New Zealand-set thrillers back in the 1950s and 1960s. Niftily for 'D' week, the book I'm going to focus on is called DIVE DEEP FOR DEATH (3Ds).

DIVE DEEP FOR DEATH (Robert Hale, 1959) was Messenger's third crime thriller novel. "What was the secret of the Takaka Hills which Brendan Burch took to his death? Was that death an accident? Who were the people gathering back at the scene and what were there particular interests? Who was the beautiful girl who kenw so much about Alistair Alleyn, a complete stranger in a strange country? Did the answers to all these queries lie hidden in the heart of a marble mountain from which an icy underground torrent gushed forth?

These were just a few of the riddles Alleyn had to solve almost as soon as he landed in New Zealand, a country he had chosen at random in an attempt to forget his past and the fact that he had ever been a doctor. He was not allowed to escae, however, but was foreced to perform the strangest and most terrible operation of his life, besides risking injury and death himself, before he discovered the answers.

Messenger was a journalist, cookery writer, and crime novelist (you can read a full bio here) born in the Coromandel in 1908. According to the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Messenger's thrillers, "which she produced at the rate of one or two a year from 1958, were set in tourist spots such as the Marlborough Sounds (Murder stalks the bay), Lake Taupo (Material witness) and the Bay of Islands (A heap of trouble)."

DIVE DEEP FOR DEATH is set in Takaka, at the top of the South Island of New Zealand. This is also a nice tourist/holiday area - and another thing that drew me to this book, since I grew up 'just down the road' in Nelson. I visited Takaka Hill several times as a youngster - I remember looking forward to the Ngarua Caves on the hill, though dreading the drive over it when we holidayed at lovely beaches in Golden Bay.

Like most Kiwi writers of the time, and many of the 'genre' writers in much more recent times, Messenger was published by an overseas publisher (Robert Hale in London). "Elizabeth Messenger’s novels, once popular enough to be serialised and translated into other languages, are now difficult to obtain," says DNZB.

I've certainly found that - even after trawling through countless online and real-life second-hand bookstores, and regularly searching the Internet and other resources as part of my unofficial research into New Zealand crime, mystery, and thriller writing, I only found out about her fairly recently. I have managed to source several of her books, but it's been a battle.

From what I can gather, Messenger wrote at least nine crime/thriller novels in the 1950s/1960s, in addition to her journalism and cookery writing. They are:

• MURDER STALKS THE BAY
• MATERIAL WITNESS
• DIVE DEEP FOR DEATH
• LIGHT ON MURDER
• THE WRONG WAY TO DIE
• A HEAP OF TROUBLE
• YOU WON'T NEED A COAT
• PUBLICITY FOR MURDER; and
• GOLDEN DAWNS THE SUN.

Not a bad output, and it makes it even more remarkable - especially given our purported dearth of crime and thriller writers (other than Dame Ngaio Marsh) pre-1990 - that we seem to have almost completely forgotten about her. Just goes to underline that popular perception (eg New Zealand doesn't have much of a crime fiction history) is not necessarily reality.

What do you think of my 'D' choice? Have you ever heard of Elizabeth Messenger, or read any of her books (crime or otherwise)? Do you like reading crime novels from different eras, eg actually written back in the 1950s, 1960s etc - not just set then? Comments welcome.

Tom Hooper Wins DGA

tom hooper wins dga award for 'the king's speech' in an upset win over david fincher for 'the social network'. hell there really is an oscar race this year.

Oscarbation: 1977

 

today's birthday celebrant vanessa redgrave deservedly won the best supporting actress oscar in 1977 in this lillian hellman tale of friendship. her controversial acceptance speech created quite a stir.

Happy Birthday Vanessa

vanessa starred in a number of my favorite films and amongst them were 'camelot'. it was a lush adaptation of the broadway musical and vanessa played guinivere as a queen a king would go to war over. vanessa proved herself worthy as a musical leading lady who sang her musical numbers with a sultry and smoking voice.

trailer

'simple joys of maidenhood'

'camelot'

'what do the simple folk do'

'the lusty month of may'

'take me to the fair'

'i loved you once in silence'

vanessa was oscar nominated in 1968 as best actress for 'isadora'. based on the life of dancer isadora duncan it was largely unseen. pity as it has a brilliant performance by ms. redgrave. on my wish list for disc release.

trailer

three scenes including the end of isadora duncan

what can i say about ken russell's 'the devils'? a mad nun, a sex crazed priest and total all around depravity. not for the faint of heart. and another vanessa film that may be lost for all time. it's never really been available on disk except for a lousy 'from tv' copy. it's a shame considering the garbage that is released on disc that a major film maker's work is wallowing in limbo.

trailer

just one of the more bizarre scenes in the film

'murder on the orient express' is truly one of my favorite all time greats. a star studded cast, a full lush score and an amazing adaptation of the agatha christie novel. all around grand entertainment.

trailer

a great scene combining the departure of the orient express and a piece of the amazing score that sent it on its way

and what a score!

and most recently there is 'letters from juliet' in which ms. redgrave stole the film playing a woman in search of her lost love in verona.

trailer

featurette

Happy Birthday Christian

christian bale is one of the best actors around these days. this year he is finally getting his due with his role in 'the fighter'. a golden globe sits on his mantle and now an oscar nom as best supporting actor. he was robbed of a nom for 'batman returns' in 2005.

bruce wayne in 'batman returns'

and now the oscar nom for 'the fighter' as best supporting actor

Currently reading: BORDERLANDS by Brian McGilloway

Well, as predicted I raced through the very, very good STILL MISSING by Chevy Stevens on Friday night and Saturday, and am now onto another 'new to me' author, and another country for the 2011 edition of Dorte Jakobsen's fantastic Global Reading Challenge (highly recommended - information available and register here).

Scanning my bookshelves again, I decided to go green, so to speak, and head to Ireland with Brian McGilloway's debut BORDERLANDS. I've heard good things about this author, but hadn't yet come across his novels in New Zealand - but while I was in Hanoi at New Years, I picked up a copy of BORDERLANDS from the excellent Bookworm store (a must-visit if you're ever in the Vietnamese capital).

Here's the blurb for the first Inspector Devlin book, which was shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger: "The corpse of local teenager Angela Cashell is found on the Tyrone- Donegal border, between the North and South of Ireland, in an area known as the borderlands. Garda Inspector Benedict Devlin heads the investigation: the only clues are a gold ring placed on the girl's finger and an old photograph, left where she died.

Then another teenager is murdered, and things become further complicated when Devlin unearths a link between the recent killings and the disappearance of a prostitute twenty-five years earlier - a case in which he believes one of his own colleagues is implicated.

As a thickening snow storm blurs the border between North and South, Devlin finds the distinction between right and wrong, vengeance and justice, and even police-officer and criminal becoming equally unclear. A dazzling and lyrical debut crime novel, Borderlands marks the beginning of a compelling new series featuring Inspector Benedict Devlin."

Certainly sounds intriguing, and I like the prospect of a crime novel set on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland (seems particularly apt for the 2011 Global Reading Challenge).

You can read more about McGilloway at his website here.

Have you read BORDERLANDS, or any of McGilloway's other Devlin tales? If so, what did you think? Do you like reading 'globally' when it comes to crime fiction? Who are some of your favourite Irish crime writers? Comments welcome.

Crime Fiction in the news and on the 'Net: Weekly Round-up

There have been some more great crime fiction stories on the Web this past week - from newspapers, magazines, and fellow bloggers. Hopefully you will all find an interesting article or two linked here, that you enjoy reading.

Just a quick reminder for those readers in the south of the South Island that this coming week Vanda Symon's excellent fourth Sam Shephard novel, BOUND, will be launched at the University Book Shop in Dunedin. All Crime Watch readers are invited to the event, which will be held at 6pm on Wednesday 2 February 2011 at the UBS store, which is located at 378 King Street, Dunedin. RSVP to bronwynw@unibooks.co.nz.

Onto the round-up.

Crime Watch Weekly Round-Up: In the News and on the 'Net

• Speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival this past week, Swedish crime writing superstar Henning Mankell discussed the end of Kurt Wallander, that he is inspired by Greek Tragedy, and that Shakespeare's MacBeth is the "best crime story" that he's ever read.
• Deadline Hollywood reports that ABC has greenlit a pilot for "Poe", a new crime prodcedural that would see author Edgar Allan Poe as a detective using unconventional methods to investigate dark mysteries in 1840s Boston.
• On the Books South Africa website, acclaimed South African crime writer Margie Orford discusses the desire to write 'a proper book', the flexibility of crime writing, and the trope of feminity and death. In another post Orford discusses the "devilish details" so vital for good crime writing.
• The Waikato Times interviews local short story writer Stephen Ross, who has been shortlisted for a prestigious Edgar Award, a rare feat for a New Zealand writer.
• Jeff Pierce, editor of the excellent website The Rap Sheet, is on the lookout for "any authors or critics out there would like to contribute an essay to The Rap Sheet’s regular 'forgotten books' series" - see here for more details.
• The Parkridge Herald-Advocate takes a look at the upcoming "Love is Murder Mystery Conference," the premiere Midwest gathering of mystery authors, readers, publishers, and agents which returns this year on 4-6 February after a hiatus in 2010 (this is the thirteenth instalment in 14 years).
• Scott Eyman of the Palm Beach Post grabs a few moments with a very busy Robert Crais, currently touring in support of his latest novel THE SENTRY, for an interesting Q&A.
• Star News Online reports that wo mystery writers, Judy Nichols and Joyce Lavene, have helped revive the defunct and once-popular Cape Fear Crime Festival, which ran in Wilmington, North Carolina from 2001 to 2007. You can read the news story about the new festival, which will be on Saturday 5 February, here, and check out the festival website here.
• Ngaio Marsh Award judge and acclaimed book blogger Graham Beattie comments on the latest thrillers from British author Robert Goddard and Norwegian Ann Holt here.
• The Kansas City Star reviews MR HOOLIGAN, a crime novel by Florida journalist Ian Vasquez set in his native Belize (perhaps a good option for some of the readers undertaking Dorte Jakobsen's excellent 2011 Global Reading Challenge).

What are the roots of crime fiction - do you agree that Greek tragedies and Shakespearean plays are also crime fiction, at least in part? Does the modern focus on 'detective fiction' unnecessarily constrain many critics from realising crime fiction is much wider and longstanding than that? Do you like attending crime fiction festivals and meeting authors? Are you taking part in the 2011 Global Reading Challenge? Comments welcome.

Happy Birthday Katharine

i loved katharine ross since the graduate. she feel out of film when she reached a 'certain age'. the parts were just not there. but three wonderful performances in three wonderful films give her a place forever among the best.

she stole hearts worldwide as elaine in 'the graduate' a great film and a defining film for all time.

elaine and ben together again

as joanna in 'the stepford wives' katharine went from normal to stepford without missing a beat.

as etta place she held her own with two giants of the screen newman and redford in butch cassidy and the sundance kid' and oh that smile!

'the bicycle scene', raindrops and oh that smile again

katharine appeared in an all-star film 'voyage of the damned' as mira hauser about german jews seeking refuge and denied entry everywhere. her character, etta hauser, was a jewess posing as a gentile. she was prostituting herself to make money to help her parents seeking refuge. it was a bit overbloasted but for history buffs it was a  bit of an enlightment.

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Currently reading: STILL MISSING by Chevy Stevens

Having finished THE SENTRY by Robert Crais, I looked up on my creaking bookshelves last night to decide what to read next. So many choices, so many good recommendations, so many new-to-me authors to try...

Having read US (several states/regions), Scottish, Cambodian, Thai, New Zealand and Australian crime fiction in the past few weeks, I thought I should give another country/region a go now - especially as I have signed up once more for the 2011 edition of Dorte Jakobsen's excellent Global Reading Challenge (highly recommended - information available and register here).

For whatever reason, I felt like something Canadian. There are many terrific Canadian crime writers out there - like New Zealand authors they are often overlooked, in favour of lesser but more publicised authors from bigger markets, by many readers and reviewers. I have a few 'new-to-me' ones waiting on my TBR shelves, and after a bit of mulling, decided to give STILL MISSING, a debut thriller by Chevy Stevens, a go. I'd heard very good things about this book, but hadn't yet got around to it. Time to fix that.

It's set on Vancouver Island too, which is a bonus. For those who aren't familiar with Vancouver Island, it's a lovely, rugged setting off the west coast of British Columbia. I really enjoyed spending a couple of days there when I was in Canada in 2008. Several crime writers actually live on Vancouver Island or the Gulf Islands (an array of smaller islands in the area) off the Canadian coast, including the iconic William Deverell, who I had the pleasure of meeting in Vancouver, and Ngaio Marsh Award judge Lou Allin. I can understand why - it's a terrific place.

Here's the blurb for STILL MISSING: "On the day she was abducted, Annie O’Sullivan, a thirty-two year old Realtor, had three goals—sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever- patient boyfriend. The open house is slow, but when her last visitor of the day pulls up in a van as she's about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all.

Interwoven with the story of the year Annie spent captive of a sadistic psychopath in a remote mountain cabin, which unfolds through sessions with her psychiatrist, is a second narrative recounting events following her escape—her struggle to piece her shattered spirit back together and the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor.

The truth doesn’t always set you free."

The book is written as a series of 'shrink' sessions where Annie recounts both what is happening to her now, and what happened to her back then. After starting the book late last night, I'm already well-hooked, and am flying through it. There's a nice 'narrative voice' to Annie's first-person narration - some personality and interesting ways of looking at things. The intrigue and mystery is building nicely too - which is a great effort by Stevens considering it's obvious from the first page that Annie survived the abduction. But there are many other important things to answer... I wouldn't be surprised if I finish this compelling tale sometime later today.

I will share my thoughts in due course, but in the meantime you can read more about Chevy Stevens and her writing at her website here.

Have you read STILL MISSING? If so, what did you think? Do you like reading 'globally' when it comes to crime fiction? Who are some of your favourite Canadian crime writers?

Oscarbation: Luise Rainer

ms rainer won two consecutive wins for 'the good earth' and 'the ziegfeld follies' in 1936 and 1937. ms. rainer turned 101 on january 12th. belated wishes luise.

1936 'the ziegfeld follies'

the scene that got her the gold

1937 'the good earth'