Breaking out her writing instincts: my Weekend Herald feature article on Tess Gerritsen

Last month, bestselling international crime writer Tess Gerritsen visited New Zealand, attending events at the Women's Bookshop (pictured right), the Romance Writers of New Zealand annual conference, and "Setting the Stage for Murder" (the Ngaio Marsh Award event). It was great to meet Tess, who came across as a very down-to-earth, intelligent, interesting, and fun person.

Prior to her visit, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tess for an article in the Weekend Herald, New Zealand's biggest-circulation newspaper. This morning, that article was finally put online - so all of you, wherever you are in the world, can now read it.

Breaking out her writing instincts
Doctor-turned-suspense novelist Tess Gerritsen talks to Craig Sisterson about embracing her heritage and seeing her heroines come alive onscreen.

After 22 successful novels, ranging from romantic suspense to New York Times best-selling medical and crime thrillers, Tess Gerritsen says she realised it had become time to truly embrace her own ethnicity in her work.

While she has drawn on some of her experiences as a physician in her previous books, which have sold more than 20 million copies, it wasn't until The Silent Girl, just released in New Zealand, that she strongly incorporated another important part of herself - her Chinese-American heritage.

"With my mother's health fading, I thought it was time to explore who I am and where I come from," she says. "If not now, then when?"

READ THE FULL ARTICLE ONLINE AT THE NZ HERALD WEBSITE HERE.

Comments welcome.

From reader to writer: my feature article on Ben Sanders from the latest Weekend Herald

On Saturday, my latest crime writing-focused feature for the Weekend Herald, New Zealand's biggest-circulation newspaper, was published: an article on 21-year-old Auckland crime writer Ben Sanders, whose debut novel THE FALLEN sat atop the local bestseller charts for several weeks last year. THE FALLEN was also long-listed for the 2011 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, so it's been a fairly good start to Sanders' crime writing career (to put it mildly).

This week, Sanders' second crime novel, BY ANY MEANS, was released - a tale that sees Detective Sean Devereaux juggling multiple homicide investigations, including a bus driver gunned down at rush on a busy city street, and the wife and daughter of a prominent businessman, found dead in their suburban home. Meanwhile Devereaux's unconventional buddy, ex-cop John Hale, tries to track down the men who kidnapped a girl from outside a nightclub, right in front of him.

I really enjoyed both THE FALLEN and BY ANY MEANS, and I'm looking forward to seeing Devereaux and Hale, and Sanders' writing, develop further over the coming years. He's started young, and very well, so the sky could be the limit for this engineering student and part-time crime writer.

In our interview we discussed his transition from reading crime to writing crime, choosing to see crime fiction in New Zealand, evoking Auckland, creating his characters, and how he got started so young, amongst other things. You can read now read the full article online at the Herald website, HERE.

Have you read THE FALLEN? Will you read BY ANY MEANS? What do you think of Sanders' crime writing? Is Auckland a good place to set crime fiction? Comments welcome.

THE REVERSAL named winner of The Strand Magazine Critics Choice Award for Best Novel

Thanks to one of the best book blogs on the Internet, The Rap Sheet (a must-read for any crime fiction fan), I've ltoday learned that Michael Connelly's excellent crime novel THE REVERSAL, which brought Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch together to 'solve' a case, was this week named the winner of the Critics Awards, organised by Strand Magazine. I'm pleased to see THE REVERSAL get this recognition, as it was one of my very favourite reads of 2010 (out of 70-plus crime novels), and Connelly remains one of my all-time favourite crime writers.

You can read my 2010 Weekend Herald article based on an interview with Connelly about THE REVERSAL, here.

It was the second win in a row for Connelly, as he also won the Critics Choice Award last year for NINE DRAGONS, a tale that takes Harry Bosch to Hong Kong. Debutant author Paul Doiron won Best First Novel for THE POACHER'S SON.

Recognising excellence in the field of mystery fiction, the Critics Awards were judged by a select group of book critics and journalists, including Dennis Drabelle (The Washington Post), Dick Lochte (Los Angeles Times), Jordan Foster (Publishers Weekly), Jack Batten (Toronto Star), Jeff Ayers (Associated Press), Mary Ann Gwinn (Seattle Times), Jeff Johnson (Chicago Sun Times), Sarah Weinman (Los Angeles Times), and Larry Gandle (Tampa Tribune). In the Best Novel category Connelly had been up against:

• Faithful Place by Tana French (Viking)
• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson (Knopf)
• Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane (William Morrow)
• I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman (William Morrow)

"This was a great group of nominees," said Andrew F. Gulli, the managing editor of The Strand. "Connelly’s win is a true testament to his talents as a crime writer and Paul Doiron is a writer who has a great future."

Read my recent New Zealand Listener article on Connelly, about his latest novel THE FIFTH WITNESS and the film version of THE LINCOLN LAWYER, here. You can also read 2010 Ngaio Marsh Award finalist Neil Cross's interesting piece on Connelly from the same issue of the Listener, here.

Writing from experience: My Weekend Herald feature interview with Gregg Hurwitz

Writing from experience
Thriller writer Gregg Hurwitz talks to Craig Sisterson about shifting from Shakespeare to crime and comics.

Changes in his personal life, as he married and started a family, "played a big part" in Gregg Hurwitz's evolution from writing "super cop" thrillers to focusing more on emotion-packed tales of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances.

"The things that concern me and the vulnerabilities I feel have shifted," says the Los Angeles-based author, screenwriter and graphic novelist. "I've got a lot more interested in real people, with real families."

READ THE FULL ARTICLE ONLINE HERE

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The above extract is from my feature article published in the 14 May 2011 issue of the Weekend Herald, and is reprinted here with permission.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have you read any of Gregg Hurwitz's thrillers? Do you like 'domestic suspense' of the kind that Hurwitz and Linwood Barclay write so well? What do you think of my feature article? Comments welcome.

A city perfect for dreamers and killers: My Weekend Herald feature interview with Robert Crais

A city perfect for dreamers and killers
Thriller writer Robert Crais talks to Craig Sisterson about the allure of Hollywood and turning an enigmatic sidekick into a leading man.

The very thing that drew a young Robert Crais to Los Angeles more than 30 years ago, just as thousands of people from all over the world are drawn there every year, is what makes the city such a terrific location for crime fiction, says the acclaimed novelist.

"Los Angeles is a destination city for dreamers," he says. "They're chasing hopes, chasing dreams. I don't care if they're Harvard graduates coming from the east coast because they want to be a shmancy attorney at a Century City law firm, they come for exactly the same reasons as some undocumented worker from Central America who's slipping across the river illegally. They're coming to find a future, they're coming here to build a life."

Crais, who grew up in Louisiana and fell in love with "the great promise, mystery and intrigue" of Los Angeles thanks to Raymond Chandler novels and television shows like Dragnet and Rockford Files, moved west in the 1970s because he wanted to become a writer.

"So I'm sympathetic to all those people who come chasing their dreams here, it's something we all have in common."

And it's that influx of dreamers, coupled with a canvas of spectacular physical geography painted with a colourful multicultural brush, that makes LA a perfect setting, says Crais, his passion for his adopted home clear in his voice.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE ONLINE HERE

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The above extract is from my feature article published in the 19 March 2011 issue of the Weekend Herald, and is reprinted here with permission.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are you a fan of Robert Crais? Of Los Angeles set crime fiction in general? What do you think of the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike books? Who are you favourite LA crime writers? Thoughts welcome.

The joy of hassling her own heroine: my Weekend Herald feature interview with Vanda Symon

The joy of hassling her own heroine
Kiwi crime queen Vanda Symon talks to CRAIG SISTERSON about accidental heroines and playing with swords

IN REAL life everything that happens to us has an effect on how we behave and how we act, so the same should hold true for literary characters, especially those who often populate the world of detective fiction, says Vanda Symon.

Symon, who was a finalist for the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Fiction in November, has certainly seen her own headstrong heroine, Sam Shephard, evolve professionally - from sole-charge Mataura police officer to young Dunedin detective - and personally over the course of her acclaimed series.

“Right from the outset I wanted to have a character who wasn’t static, and who was affected by the events that happen in each book,” says Symon, whose fourth novel, Bound, was launched this week.

In Bound, Shephard and her colleagues are investigating a brutal home invasion that left a dodgy businessman dead, and his wife hospitalised - she nearly choked to death after being tied to a chair, gagged, and left to watch his blood pool on the floor. When the evidence starts pointing to a couple of high-profile lowlifes, both prime suspects in an unsolved cop killing, many of Shephard’s colleagues are ecstatic.

But she’s not so sure, and decides to investigate further - much to their chagrin - while at the same time dealing with a dying father, ongoing family issues, and the stresses of a relationship. “I love writing about Sam, doing mean and nasty things to her,” laughs Symon. “She’s great to hassle.”

Talking to Symon, a former pharmacist and now “domestic goddess” and fulltime writer, is in many ways like reading one of her novels - there’s a real sense of fun, even when the subject matter might be serious, a southern sassiness amongst the dark deeds.

Unsurprisingly, Symon’s recurring protagonist likewise has plenty of personality. Detective Shephard is a heroine you want to follow - feisty, passionate, flawed. The latter is particularly important to Symon, who believes the best characters in crime fiction, such as Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch, aren’t always right. “They make mistakes, they get themselves into the poo,” she says. “And I wanted that, I wanted Sam to be human.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'When you're a terribly polite person and you don't swear much, you can have a character who lets rip every now and then and does things you wouldn't.'

Vanda Symon

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another “lovely thing about writing fiction”, she adds, is being able to create main characters who, although they may have something of the author in them, are also “people who are the things you’re not”.

While Shephard shares her creator’s love of life and can-do attitude, the slightly younger, occasionally less-wise heroine is also a little blunter, a trait Symon enjoys writing. “When you’re a terribly polite person and you don’t swear much, you can have a character that lets rip every now and then, and does things that you wouldn’t do.”

Surprisingly, given that the character of Shephard (along with well-drawn southern settings, snappy repartee between characters, touches of humour, and visual storytelling) is a key part of what makes Symon’s writing stand out, the stroppy heroine wasn’t originally slated to be the star.

Symon says she originally envisaged a male detective hero when she started writing her 2007 debut, Overkill, until a real-life realisation changed things.

“I can’t even remember exactly what it was, but my husband did something completely daft, and I went ‘oh my God, I can’t even understand my own husband, how could I get into the head of a male’, so I changed it,” she laughs. “And the moment I changed it to a female, Sam Shephard stepped up fully-formed as a character, and it was like she attituded her way into my life.”

Symon’s life was already full. She was a busy young mother to two preschoolers, but decided it was time to kick-start her lifelong writing dream.

“Working in pharmacy you have to concentrate all day, because let’s face it if you make a mistake, you can kill someone,” she says. “I was just absolutely mentally shattered by the end of the night, so I didn’t actually get the opportunity to write until I had children.”

Not that it was easy. As many stay-at-home parents would understand, any fantasies of uninterrupted writing time quickly evaporated.

Symon began penning Overkill by snatching writing time in amongst a hectic maternal schedule.: “You know, you’re sitting at the dining table, wiping, feeding a child here, wandering over and playing LEGO there... having a discussion with your mother-in-law, making cups of tea for anyone who visits, all the while writing a novel at the same time,” she laughs. The result, Overkill, took four-and-a-half years to write and have published.

Now her children are older and at school, Symon admits she has a more settled writing schedule, and treats crime writing as her “day job”. She aims to write a novel every year, and is working on a “darker” standalone thriller set in Auckland, revolving around a brutal kidnapping, scheduled for release next year.

She also produces and hosts “Write On”, a monthly books show on Radio Toroa, is working towards a PhD in Pharmacy (focused on poisons used by Dame Ngaio Marsh in her best-selling crime novels), wanders Dunedin scoping “good places to hide dead bodies”, and crosses swords with other members of her classic fencing club. She loves the strategy that combines with physical skill in fencing.

“There’s also something terribly romantic about a sport that involves swords,” she says, laughing. “I feel like d’Artagnan.”

Dumas’s famous character was a hot-headed if talented youth who evolves into a beloved hero. Sort of like Sam Shephard.

Bound (Penguin, $30)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This feature interview was first published in the Saturday 5 February 2011 issue of the Weekend Herald, and is reprinted here with the kind permission of Books Editor Linda Herrick.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reflecting on 2010: my Weekend Herald feature articles

As I said last month when I took a look back at the rapid growth and pleasingly diverse, high quality line-up of 44 (thusfar) terrific author in the 9mm series I launched in 2010, I have been a little late on the traditional 'end of year' reflections. However, as well as looking ahead to all the opportunities, challenges, and excitement to come in 2011 and beyond, I have over the past little while also been reflecting on what has been going on, crime fiction-wise, down this way in the past year. Both for myself, and the wider New Zealand crime fiction community. I think it's a good thing to do, as we look ahead and try to build on what's gone before.

So for the second in a series of 'Reflecting on 2010' posts, I thought I would take a look back on the author and books feature articles I wrote for the Weekend Herald (the weekend edition of the largest-circulation newspaper in New Zealand). After writing three such features in late 2009, I took a bit of a hiatus, before contributing seven articles over a period of less than three months in the second half of last year. It was great to be involved with such a fantastic publication, that is so widely read, and to play a part in ensuring there was some great crime and thriller content in its books pages. Thanks to the Weekend Herald, I also had the opportunity to speak to (and meet, in some cases), some truly terrific authors, including some all-time greats of the genre. On a personal front, those interviews were some of my favourite moments of 2010.

I will be writing some more articles for the Weekend Herald in 2011, and I'm looking forward to some new great moments chatting to great authors. In the meantime, here are my seven Weekend Herald books features/reviews of 2010 (click on the images to read the full article).

"Philosopher of Crime"

Saturday 31 July 2010

James Lee Burke talks to Craig Sisterson about artistry in crime writing, speaking for those with no voice and the central issue of modern times.

Any true artist, whatever their creative medium, needs both humility and vanity, says legendary American novelist James Lee Burke. "Humility is not a virtue in a writer, it is an absolute necessity," he adds, his mild Southern accent reverberating down the phone line from his "property that tries to be a ranch" just outside Missoula, Montana. READ FULL ARTICLE HERE.

It was a true pleasure, a complete joy, to interview Burke, who is such a gentleman, but at the same time so passionate and full of interesting opinions, burnished by experience and real-world education, about not only writing, but also many of the issues facing us today, in terms of people and our planet. Just a fantastic interviewee, as well as a fantastic writer.

Book Review: THE FALLEN

Saturday 31 July 2010

A man dazedly regains consciousness, only to find himself handcuffed, feeling like "he's been bathed in something corrosive", and with his head adhered to the carpet by his own clotted blood.

So starts this debut crime thriller from North Shore engineering student and nascent author, Ben Sanders, an adroit barely-20-something being touted as "a major new talent" with a "sophisticated and edgy" writing style. READ FULL REVIEW HERE.

I made my return to the Weekend Herald books pages with a double-billing; both a feature on James Lee Burke and a review of Kiwi debutant crime writer Ben Sanders' THE FALLEN in the 31 July 2010 issue. This was also my first review for the Weekend Herald books pages, and it was nice to have a little more room to play with, word count wise, than I do for some other very good magazines or newspapers for whom I've reviewed crime and thriller fiction.

THE FALLEN is a very good debut novel, and one of several very good crime novels published by New Zealanders in 2010. I was very pleased to be able to share it with a wider New Zealand audience, and also very pleased the Weekend Herald was keen to include some quality New Zealand crime fiction in its books pages. Later in the year THE FALLEN was also included in the prestigious Listener 100 Best Books list, which was great to see.

"Murder in the blood"

Saturday 21 August 2010

Diamond Dagger winner Val McDermid talks to Craig Sisterson about the contaminating effect of violence and the evolution of crime fiction since the so-called Golden Age.

Modern crime fiction has come a long way since the country-house murders, dislikeable victims and detached detectives of the Golden Age, says acclaimed Scottish novelist Val McDermid.

"We've almost completely abandoned the notion of the crossword-puzzle novel, the whodunnit, and we're writing books that are of necessity written in the world we live in." READ FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Like with Burke, it was a great pleasure to interview the indomnitable Val McDermid. As an added bonus, I also got to meet her (twice) when she visited New Zealand soon after our telephone interview. McDermid is just so much fun, mixing strong will and strong opinions with a real zest for life, and a passion for writing and stories. Just a very cool person, as well as being one of the best writers of contemporary crime fiction. You can read more about some of the highlights of McDermid's event at the Women's Bookstore here.

"A tale of two Peters"

Saturday 28 August 2010

Two big names in British thriller writing visit New Zealand next week. Craig Sisterson talks to Peter James and Peter Robinson.

When publisher Macmillan approached Peter James in 2001 and asked the already bestselling British author whether he had considered writing a crime novel, the answer was simple. "It was what I'd always wanted to do," says James, on the phone from Nevada, where he's doing research for his next book before heading here to promote his latest, Dead Like You. READ FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Not only did I really enjoy interviewing both Peter James and Peter Robinson - who are each polite, passionate, fascinating guys as well as being top notch crime writers - but I also enjoyed the challenge of writing an article about two different writers, mixing fun anecdotes and quotes from each while at the same time uncovering some interesting (to me, at least) contrasts and comparisons.

"A capital crime novel"

Saturday 25 September 2010

When a cop arrives at the door of missing persons specialist Diane Rowe to tell her a body found that morning was someone she knew, she is stunned - like anyone would be. But this death, not to mention the cop, make this notification a little different. Not only is the latter her ex-husband, but the news itself leaves her anything but sad. The body found in Cuba St belongs to "Snow", a recidivist low-life Diane suspects brutally murdered her troubled younger sister Niki a year before. READ FULL REVIEW HERE.

Rather than an author feature, this Weekend Herald piece was a longer review of acclaimed TV screenwriter and NZSA Pindar Publishing Prize-winning author Donna Malane's debut adult crime thriller, SURRENDER.

SURRENDER ended up (deservedly) receiving some other great reviews, and was included in the Listener 100 Best Books list for 2010. In a year that saw some very, very good New Zealand crime fiction being published, SURRENDER was a welcome addition to the pleasantly-growing local canon. I look forward to seeing what Donna Malane comes up with next - hopefully another Diane Rowe story.

"Ghostwriter haunted by his characters"

Saturday 2 October 2010

Australian thriller writer Michael Robotham talks to Craig Sisterson about the importance of making characters seem real.

There is a moment of truth in writing, when you hear the voice of the main character in your head, they become real, and then everything you do is in that voice, says Michael Robotham. The Sydney-based author, who has twice won the Ned Kelly Award for best Australian crime novel (his latest, Bleed For Me, was also a finalist for this year's award), hears that voice as he writes his psychological thrillers. READ FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Like Burke, McDermid, James, and Robinson, Robotham was a fascinating interviewee (don't I have a great hobby/job, getting to interview all these terrific authors who despite their success are so down-to-earth and fun?). I also appreciated the fact that he was very enthusiastic and complimentary about our local efforts in setting up a crime fiction award, and generously gave some great advice about crime fiction awards and organisations, rather than just wanting to talk about his own books and writing.

After talking to Robotham for more than an hour about crime fiction and all manner of things, I was very much looking forward to meeting him in person last year; however this was curtailed when the Canterbury earthquake led to the cancellation of the Christchurch Writers' Festival, where he was to appear. In some very good news, I understand that he may 'cross the Ditch' to do some New Zealand events in 2011, which would be fantastic.

"King of crime offers clues to success"

Saturday 9 October 2010

American author Michael Connelly talks to Craig Sisterson about chronicling contemporary LA

TWO UNPUBLISHED manuscripts that are gathering dust “in a box somewhere” in Michael Connelly’s Tampa home deserve a slice of credit for the creation of one of the most compelling characters in contemporary crime fiction, even if the acclaimed author says his earliest efforts “got the fate they deserved”. For it was in the process of those first attempts at writing full-length fiction that Connelly, then a newspaper reporter, had a revelation. “I learned that, at least for me, the books I write were going to live and die with character,” he says, his measured voice resonating down the line from Florida. “The protagonist was what they were going to be about, not a tricky plot.” READ FULL ARTICLE HERE.

As if the lineup of authors I'd interviewed for the Weekend Herald wasn't already prestigious enough, I finished my little flurry of feature and review activity last year by getting to chat to Michael Connelly, the creator of the magnificent Harry Bosch series, as well as some stunning standalones and the Mickey Haller books. Wow. Due to a time-difference miscommunication, I actually ended up talking to Connelly for an hour and half, spread over two separate phone calls on two separate days. He, like the others above, was very generous with his time and answers, and gave me so much fantastic material, quotes, and anecdotes.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the end, the only downside of getting to talk to great authors like those above, is that I often have these terrific conversations with them, but then only get to use about 10-20 per cent of what we talk about in the eventual features. So I kind of feel bad that I've had this terrific experience discussing and debating things, and can't always share all of that with more people.

Also, I don't know whether it's a crime writer thing, but they have all been a real pleasure to chat to; humble, passionate, and interesting. Some successful people in other arenas aren't always the same way. But for some reason, all the crime writers I've spoken to have been really genuine, and down-to-earth, regardless of the massive success some of them have achieved.

It's kind of bizarre when you have someone like James Lee Burke thanking you for calling and talking to him, or someone like Michael Connelly asking you to call him back the next day so you can chat more (after already talking for 45 mins). All these authors (and other crime writers I've been fortunate enough to meet or interview) just have a real passion for not only writing and storytelling, but life. Just good people.

I have a great job/hobby, and I'm grateful.

Which of the features did you enjoy? Which authors have you read? What do you think of the Weekend Herald including more crime fiction content in its book pages? Who would you like to see featured in 2011? Comments and suggestions appreciated.

The Weekend Herald's Top 5 Thrillers of 2010

Well, it's getting to that time of the year, where we start reflecting on the road travelled, before looking ahead to what the next year will bring. As we near Xmas and New Years, all the 'best of' lists for 2010 are being compiled and published, including several 'best books of the year' variants.

While The Press and the Dominion Post didn't include any crime novels, New Zealand or international, in their version of the best books of the year list in today's edition, the Canvas magazine of the Weekend Herald (who I write crime fiction-related reviews and interview-based features for, eg Michael Connelly, James Lee Burke and Val McDermid articles recently-ish) did have a 'best thrillers' part to their comprehensive best books feature.

The list of five top thrillers was compiled by regular Weekend Herald books reviewer Michelle Hewitson. Here are her choices:

• THIS BODY OF DEATH by Elizabeth George - DI Lynley's latest adventure;
• FLORENCE AND GILES by John Harding - troubling times in a spooky house;
• DANDY GILVER & THE PROPER TREATMENT OF BLOOD STAINS by Catriona McPherson - a whodunnit set in 1926;
• THE SHADOWS IN THE STREET by Susan Hill - the fifth Simon Serrailler book;
• TONY & SUSAN by Austin Wright - a woman reads her ex-husbands novel, and his story overtakes her life.

You can read Hewitson's full take on each of her choice's in print version of the Canvas magazine in this weekend's edition of the Weekend Herald.

What do you think of this list of top thrillers? Which have you read? What are you own personal stand-out crime or thriller titles from 2010?

King of crime offers clues to success: my Weekend Herald feature interview with Michael Connelly

King of crime offers clues to success
American author Michael Connelly talks to Craig Sisterson about chronicling contemporary LA

TWO UNPUBLISHED manuscripts that are gathering dust “in a box somewhere” in Michael Connelly’s Tampa home deserve a slice of credit for the creation of one of the most compelling characters in contemporary crime fiction, even if the acclaimed author says his earliest efforts “got the fate they deserved”. For it was in the process of those first attempts at writing full-length fiction that Connelly, then a newspaper reporter, had a revelation. “I learned that, at least for me, the books I write were going to live and die with character,” he says, his measured voice resonating down the line from Florida. “The protagonist was what they were going to be about, not a tricky plot.” Connelly admits those first efforts - private eye tales set in Fort Lauderdale - were “strong on plot, short on character”, so for his third attempt he concentrated more on creating a complex hero, and relentless LAPD Detective Hieronymous “Harry” Bosch was born. Two decades, millions of copies, and shelves full of awards and accolades later, Bosch and Connelly are both back this month with The Reversal, released in New Zealand this week.

The 16th of Connelly’s 22 crime novels to feature Bosch, who earlier this year was voted ‘World’s Favourite Detective’ in an online poll, The Reversal sees the aging cop teamed up with another multilayered Connelly character, defense attorney Mickey Haller, who first appeared in 2005’s The Lincoln Lawyer. This time Haller is recruited to ‘switch sides’ to act as a special prosecutor in the retrial of a man released due to shaky DNA evidence after 24 years in prison for a child murder. Convinced the man is guilty, Haller takes the case on the proviso he can choose his own investigator; Harry Bosch.

Having his defense attorney hero cross the aisle to act as an independent prosecutor may be unusual, but is typical of Connelly’s approach; he’s always looking to evolve and stretch both his writing and his characters, book on book.

“If you’re going to engage readers with a character that comes around [regularly], there’s just no way the character can remain static,” he says. “There has to be change and evolution and self-exploration and understanding.” Woven into gripping storylines, of course.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everyone is entitled to the most vigorous defence possible
Michael Connelly

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Connelly says he first created Haller because he wanted to stretch himself by writing a legal thriller, and he was attracted to the idea of a hero who had a very different view of the justice system from Bosch. While Bosch is a loner who sometimes plays outside the rules, so considers himself an outsider within the police department, he isn’t a true outsider like Haller, says Connelly. “Bosch carries a badge, carries a gun, he represents the Government, and Mickey Haller is on the opposite side of that. And you know defense attorneys are pretty much despised by society because people don’t take the time, at least in American society, to really think about how one of the foundations of our country is that everyone is entitled to the most vigorous defense possible.”

Haller is also a complicated person in that what he gets out of his career, even when he’s successful, isn’t enough, says Connelly. “He doesn’t feel that successful as a man or a person. He’s trying to figure out why - he’s not someone who says ‘I need this and then I’ll be successful’ - he’s not sure what he needs, and I think that makes him interesting.”

Along with his great touch for characters like Haller and Bosch, Connelly is also renowned for evoking the contemporary ‘character’ of Los Angeles, a city where he worked the crime beat for several years, including during the LA riots. Connelly is a master of the ‘telling detail’, utilising short description or insight to bring things to life, rather than a laundry-list of attributes. “I still treat my research like a reporter,” he says. “I go to the places that I’m going to write about, and stuff kind of sifts through. My years as a reporter gave me pretty good skill at observation, so I look for these things. Rather than 50 details about something that really add up to nothing, I look for the one thing that really opens a window to the character… or place.” While researching The Reversal Connelly drove around Los Angeles taking pictures on his iPhone of locations he could use, that had thematic or symbolic touches as well as working physically. Such as a kidnapping site; a nice house in a nice neighbourhood, with the Hollywood sign visible in the distance, a high hedge to provide concealment, and a crack running up the path. It was this final detail that caught Connelly’s eye. “You know, there is something wrong here, the entrance is cracked.”

The other part of capturing ‘telling details’ is “having a good ear for dialogue, or a good ear for the telling statements someone will make”, says Connelly. The “whole Mickey Haller odyssey” really kick-started when he was regularly having lunches and drinks with lawyers while researching his first legal thriller. Talking about innocent clients, one defense attorney said “You don’t want to have an innocent client, the scariest thing you can have is an innocent client because the stakes are so high”. It was a perspective Connelly had never heard expressed in movies, books or TV shows about lawyers. “So that was the starting point for Mickey Haller, and you know it’s the first line of the first book he’s in. That for me was a telling detail about that life.” The big-screen adaptation of The Lincoln Lawyer recently finished shooting, and is due for release early next year, with Matthew McConaughey playing Haller.

Connelly also regularly weaves wider contemporary issues into his crime novels; the Bosch tales have chronicled a fair chunk of the city’s social history and landscape over the past two decades, from the aftermath of the riots to homeland security issues following 9/11. Addressing such issues “keeps him interested” and adds dimension to his crime novels, admits Connelly. “It makes me feel like I’ve elevated my game if I can reflect a little bit of what’s going on in the world, or in my world. The trick is never to be didactic, don’t tell people what should be done. What I try to do is finesse into my stories a sense of what’s going on out there, and maybe raise some questions in the readers’ minds. You want to have different views, or opposing views, and then the reader can draw their own conclusions.”

The Reversal (Allen & Unwin, $38.99)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This feature interview was first published in the Saturday 9 October issue of the Weekend Herald, and is reprinted here with kind permission.

9mm: An interview with James Lee Burke

Welcome to the latest instalment in Crime Watch's ongoing series of author interviews; 9mm - 9 Murder Mystery questions put to a variety of New Zealand and international crime, thriller, and mystery authors.

I'm fortunate enough to get to interview a lot of fantastic crime fiction authors, well-known and lesser-known - sometimes directly for Crime Watch, and sometimes for some of the various great newspapers and magazines I write for (eg the Weekend Herald, Good Reading, etc).

Since I started the 9mm series with Lee Child almost seven months ago, I've made sure that every interview I do with every author, whether in-person or over the phone or Internet, includes the nine 9mm questions, in amongst whatever else I'm interviewing them about (eg their latest book, their particular characters, their visits to New Zealand etc). I've got to say, all the authors have been incredibly generous with their time, and welcoming of the 9mm questions, so I hope that you all enjoy seeing how different authors answer the questions each time.

Today, for the 38th instalment of 9mm (how quickly the series has grown), I thought I would share with you the 9mm part of the interview I did with MWA Grandmaster and mystery writing maestro James Lee Burke for a feature in the Weekend Herald, in the lead-up to the release of his latest excellent Robicheaux tale, THE GLASS RAINBOW.

Getting to interview Burke was a real privilege, and a highlight of what has been a tremendous year for me, on the crime fiction reading and interviewing front. You can read my Crime Fiction Alphabet post on James Lee Burke here. And my Weekend Herald feature here.

To give you a sense of Burke, as you read his answers, here's a paragraph from my Herald feature, describing his demeanour during our interview:

• "Throughout, the 73-year-old laughs easily and often, almost explosively at times. He is unfailing polite, yet not at all stuffy or formal. He answers the phone with a jovial "Is this New Zealand calling?" then tells me to call him "Jim". Down-to-earth and humble, his soft-spoken manner and measured cadence belie some strident opinions when it comes to several things he cares deeply about, including the environment, "people of humble origin", and the purpose and importance of art."

But now, James Lee Burke stares down the barrel of 9mm.

The Crime Watch 9mm Author Interview: James Lee Burke

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?
I don’t make much distinction between genres. I think literary art is literary art, or it’s not. I think among American crime writers over the years the best was James M. Cain. There’s no question about it in my mind, he was a very good writer.

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why? The Hardy Boys - it was great to read those books. The adventure, the mystery - being able to identify with young boys who were solving great mysteries.

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything); unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
Well, I’ve been a published novelist since, oh, many years ago. I finished my first published novel, I finished writing it, in 1960, HALF OF PARADISE. So I’ve been doing it for over 50 years. I’d published short stories [before that].

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
Fly fishing in Montana. We live on some property that tries to be a ranch, and that keeps me very busy. Montana is a grand place, and Louisiana is too.

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? Something the locals would recommend?
Well, there are two places we identify as home. In New Iberia I think people would find it a very hospitable place, wonderful place, and the ambience is just lovely. Of course it’s on the Gulf, which is having terrible problems right now. Montana where we live in the Northern Rockies is just as good as the earth gets. It’s just absolutely as good as the earth gets. Much of it is like the earth was on the first day of creation, it’s just beautiful.

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Oh, I’d like to play a cotton bowl, or a crawfish. I’ve never thought about it (laughing). I wouldn’t visit a fate like that on my worst enemy [playing Jim Burke]

--- Maybe Tommy Lee Jones?

I don’t think anybody is going to be lining up to play me in a film (laughing).

Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
Well, I’ve always felt that about every book I wrote, but the one that obviously, at least in my mind, that’s most important, would be RAIN GODS. RAIN GODS is the best book I’ve written.

And the book that allowed me to write full-time, BLACK CHERRY BLUES - it won the Edgar in 1989, and it marked the first large commercial success that I had, and it allowed me to work fulltime as a novelist. I wrote for many years and held other jobs at the same time. It’s not easy to do sometimes.

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, elation, because it took me four years for it [HALF OF PARADISE] to find a publisher. I always wrote more easily than I published, but when I published that book, it was a glorious moment. And my first review was a six-column banner review in the New York Times Review of Books, and so it’s been downhill ever since (laughing). But it was a great review, and the man who reviewed me was Wirt Williams, he wrote the book ADA DALLAS [one of three of his books nominated for a Pulitzer Prize], he’s from Louisiana, and he was a very nice gentleman. I didn’t know him them, but I came to know him later. He compared my work to, get this, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Camus, and Sartra. I thought, hey, that’s pretty nice (laughing).

I thought all my reviews would be like that, and then right after that review, the New York Herald-Tribune gave me maybe the second worst review I ever received, the guy just tore it apart. I tried to remember a lesson that Ernest Hemingway imparted to young writers, when he said ‘If you believe the critics when they say you’re good, you have to believe them when they say you’re bad’.

What is the strangest or most unusual or memorable experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
Well, it’s always been a great experience. The great benefit of being a professional writer - and I’m sure you have this experience yourself as a professional writer, I was a newspaper man myself - is that you are always around intelligent people. And it’s always an enormous pleasure to go, say, to a book convention or a book festival. And to have people came to, in effect, praise your work, and to want to hear you read aloud to them, and talk about how you wrote the book, it’s just an enormous compliment.

After many years of working hard at it, it is of course a great sense of accomplishment to feel that maybe you’ve brought some degree of pleasure to others. Not many people have the chance to experience that reciprocity in their work. I mean, most people fight with their job, but to me writing is just the perfect life, always has been. I can’t think of a better life - I never wanted to be anything else other than a writer.

Thank you James (Jim) Lee Burke. We really appreciate you taking the time to answer the 9mm questions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So what do you think of this 9mm interview? Have you read any of James Lee Burke's books - the Robicheaux series or others? Which do you think is his best? Have you seen the films that have been made from his Robicheuax series (Alec Baldwin as Robicheaux in Heaven's Prisoners, Tommy Lee Jones in Into the Electric Mist)? I'd love to read your comments. Please share your thoughts.

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 like finding an interesting article or two linked here, that you enjoy reading.

Before we dive in however, I'll just quickly mention that those of you who don't live in the North Island of New Zealand, and so couldn't get the print version of the Weekend Herald last weekend, can now read the full version of my feature article on award-winning Australian crime writer Michael Robotham here. I had a lot of fun interviewing Robotham, whose most recent book BLEED FOR ME I really enjoyed when I read it earlier this year, and was looking forward to meeting him at the Ngaio Marsh Award evening (since postponed). Hopefully we will now be able to get him over this side of the Tasman next year.

Onto the round-up.

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

• Award-winning Australian crime writer Kathryn Fox launched her latest book, DEATH MASK ("a chilling novel about sexual violence in a US football team") on Monday. She is interviewed by Judith Kerr of the Bayside Bulletin.
• Publishers Weekly reported on the results of a new Harris Poll that showed, among its other findings, "that mysteries, thrillers, and crime novels beat out chick-lit and romance novels by a large margin; and that more women than men read mysteries, thrillers, and crime novels".
• In sad news, legendary US screenwriter, TV producer and novelist Stephen J. Cannell, a recurring guest star on the crime novelist-centric TV cop show Castle, passed away earlier in the week. There were many articles and tribute pieces, including from Entertainment Weekly and the New York Times, The Rap Sheet has a good list of other tributes here.
• Ulrike Sárkány talks to Scottish crime writer Stuart MacBride for the Inspired Minds show. You can access the broadcast from the Deutsche Welle website here.
• Steve Rogerson at Suite101.com takes a look behind the scenes at the production of the new Thorne TV series, based on the excellent crime novels by award-winning British author Mark Billingham.
• Gail Kerr of The Tennessean talks about the allure of crime fiction, and takes a look at what's happening at this weekend's Southern Festival of Books.
• Acclaimed blogger Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts had a lengthy and very interesting two-part interview with award-winning crime writer Reed Farrel Coleman, whose latest Moe Prager novel, INNOCENT MONSTER, was released this week. PART ONE. PART TWO.
• 2010 Global Reading Challenge creator Dorte Jakobsen of DJ's Krimiblog reviews WHO KILLED PALOMINO MOLERO?, a Peruvian crime novel from Nobel Prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa.

What do you think of this week's round-up? Which articles or posts did you find most interesting? Have you read any Michael Robotham novels? What did you think of my feature? Do you like the sound of fellow Australian crime writer Kathryn Fox's thrillers? Why do you think mystery, crime, and thriller fiction is enjoyed by so many readers (even if it's looked down upon by some in the books world)? Do you like seeing some of your favourite crime fiction characters adapted for the screen? Have you read any South American crime fiction? Thoughts and comments welcome.

A capital crime novel: my review of Donna Malane's SURRENDER in the Weekend Herald

As I noted previously, the Weekend Herald (New Zealand's biggest newspaper) have now kindly allowed me to republish any articles I have or will write for them, online. So today I am publishing online my review of SURRENDER by Donna Malane, the NZSA Pindar Publishing Prize-winning novel that was officially launched in Wellington and Auckland last week, that appeared in last weekend's Weekend Herald (see pic, right).

You can read a nice feature story on Malane and her win in the inaugural NZSA Pindar Publishing Prize, written by New Zealand Herald Books Editor and award judge Linda Herrick here. I understand that Malane will also soon be appearing on Radio New Zealand to talk about the book, so I will publish a link to that broadcast here on Crime Watch in due course.

But for now, onto my Weekend Herald review of SURRENDER.

A capital crime novel
WHEN A policeman arrives at missing persons expert Diane Rowe’s house and informs her that a body found in Cuba Street that morning was someone she knew and was interested in, personally rather than professionally, she is stunned – like anyone would be. But this death notification is a little different; the cop delivering it is her ex-husband, and the news doesn’t make her particularly sad. For the body belongs to ‘Snow’, a recidivist low-life Diane suspects brutally murdered her troubled younger sister Niki a year before.

So begins SURRENDER, the debut crime thriller from Wellington-based screenwriter and television producer Donna Malane (The Insider’s Guide to Happiness, Until Proven Innocent, the David Dougherty story). In June, the manuscript for SURRENDER was chosen from more than 500 entries to become the winner of the inaugural NZSA-Pindar Publishing Prize, and now with the release of the novel this month New Zealanders have the chance to discover for themselves what the judges found so compelling.

After finding out that Snow was stabbed in the back with a boning knife, a murder eerily similar to her sister’s, Diane begins to question whether someone else may have been behind Niki’s death. Despite the fact her freelance investigations into her sister’s murder have already claimed as collateral damage her marriage and her role assisting the police, Diane sets out to uncover the truth, delving into the seedy underbelly of our capital city; a drug-fuelled world of strip clubs, sex workers, and plenty of hidden dangers. At the same time (and perhaps in an effort to keep her away from their own investigations), the police contract Diane to put a name to a decapitated body found in Rimutaka State Forest. So she’s left with plenty of truths to find, officially and unofficially, but as she stubbornly stays the course Diane discovers there may have been more to her little sister than meets the eye, and that lifting the lid on her sibling’s life has put her in grave danger.

Told in first-person through Diane’s eyes, SURRENDER is an impressive debut powered by a vivid and captivating ‘narrative voice’. While you’d perhaps expect great action, setting and description from someone used to the ‘sight and sound’ world of television, Malane also does a terrific job in terms of what separates a novel from a screenplay; the internal world inside her main character’s head. Diane is an intriguing heroine: at times frustrating; at times engaging; at times humorous; always compelling. Readers get a very real sense of how she sees the world, and it’s impossible not to ‘feel’ for her as she gets herself into all sorts of strife trying to do the right thing, if in an unconventional way.

While SURRENDER would be worth reading as a character study of Diane alone, Malane also weaves in an absorbing mystery storyline, some well-evoked Wellington settings, and a great cast of well-drawn supporting characters. Even quite minor characters feel authentic, and the main cast all have some nice layers and depth – like the narrative itself they provide a few surprises and revelations, and keep the reader guessing until the end.

SURRENDER is the first adult novel from Malane, but I hope there will be many more to come. And if this is the standard of storytelling uncovered by the NZSA-Pindar Publishing Prize, then the same sentiments apply there too.

Craig Sisterson is an Auckland reviewer and one of the judges for the upcoming Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel.

This review was first published in the Canvas magazine of the Weekend Herald on Saturday 25 September 2010, and is reprinted here with permission.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So what do you think of my review? Of the Weekend Herald allowing me to share my past and future features and reviews for them, with you all here on Crime Watch? Do you like the sound of SURRENDER? Thoughts and comments welcome

Auckland Launch of NZSA Pindar Publishing Prize winning novel, SURRENDER by Donna Malane

Last night I was fortunate enough to attend the official Auckland launch of SURRENDER, the debut crime thriller from Wellington writer Donna Malane that earlier this year won the inaugural NZSA Pindar Publishing Prize (see picture above).

As I noted back in June, Wellington screenwriter and producer Malane (Until Proven Innocent, Duggan, Blood Lines, The Insider's Guide to Love, The Strip, etc) rose to the top of more than 500 entries to by win the NZSA Pindar Publishing Prize - which was open to writing in any genre, including non-fiction and poetry and short story collections - for her then unpublished thriller about a woman delving into the seadier side of Wellington while she looks into the deaths of her sister, and the man she'd suspected of killing her.

SURRENDER has now been in Whitcoulls and Borders stores for a week now, and I've perosnally seen a fair few copies being sold while I've been browsing the past few days, so hopefully it will hit the New Zealand Adult Fiction bestseller list next week, and plenty of Kiwis will give it a go as the publicity and word of mouth starts to roll out in the coming days and weeks.

You can read a good article about Malane, her novel, and the inaugural prize, by New Zealand Herald Books Editor Linda Herrick, here.

Here is the 'back cover blurb' for SURRENDER:

"Missing persons expert, Diane Rowe, is used to making sense of other people’s lives. Pity she’s not having much luck with her own. The brutal murder of her little sister, and the break-up of her marriage, have tested her usual tough optimism.

When Niki’s killer turns up dead, Diane sets out to nail the truth. But uncovering Niki’s seedy past reveals truths and dangers she never expected – or wanted – to face.

And then there’s that little matter of the decapitated body that’s turned up in the Rimutaka State Forest. Now she’s determined to make sense of it all – whatever it takes."

New Zealand author and editor Graham Lay, one of the judging panel for the inaugural award, describes SURRENDER as "a gripping narrative with an intriguing mix of brutality, mystery and humour... vivid writing and a great central character."

I read an advance copy of the novel a fortnight ago, and really enjoyed it, finding it more and more absorbing as it went on. I understand my review of SURRENDER is scheduled to be published in the Canvas magazine of tomorrow's Weekend Herald, so I will republish that review for you all here early next week (and/or link to the Herald's website if they place the review online). I also have Sarah Gumbley reviewing SURRENDER for Crime Watch (since I've reviewed the book for the Herald), and her review will be published here in the coming days also.

And remember, to get the award-winning novel for only NZD$10, half price – simply clip the voucher printed in The New Zealand Herald between 16 September and 16 October 2010 and take this to a Whitcoulls or Borders store nationwide (example above). Offer available while stocks last.

Kudos to the New Zealand Society of Authors, Pindar Publishing, the New Zealand Herald, Red Group (who own Whitcoulls and Borders), Astra Print, and Creative New Zealand, who all came together to make the inaugural prize possible. Hopefully the readers will give the winning book a go, thereby encouraging them all to run the Prize again in future. It's a great way for talented 'undiscovered' novelists and writers to have an opportunity of breaking into the publishing world. If Malane's debut adult thriller is anything to go by, there is plenty of talent out there worthy of being published and read.

What do you think of 'unpublished' writer competitions and prizes? Do you like the sound of SURRENDER? Will you be giving it a go? Have you watched any of Malane's TV productions (you can read my review of Until Proven Innocent here)? Thoughts and comments welcome.

A tale of two Peters: my feature on Peter James and Peter Robinson in the Weekend Herald

As I mentioned earlier, the Weekend Herald (New Zealand's biggest newspaper) have now kindly allowed me to republish any articles I have or will write for them, online. So today I am sharing my 1000-word feature on two fantastic British crime writers - Peter James and Peter Robinson. The feature was in the books section of the Canvas magazine (the glossy lifestyle supplement) over the weekend, as both writers are in New Zealand this week.

A tale of two Peters
Two big names in British thriller writing visit New Zealand next week. Craig Sisterson talks to Peter James and Peter Robinson

WHEN PUBLISHER Macmillan approached Peter James in 2001 and asked whether the bestselling British author had ever considered writing a crime novel, the answer was simple. “It was what I’d always wanted to do,” says James, his voice reverberating down the phone line from Nevada, where he’s doing research for his next Roy Grace book before heading downunder to promote his latest, Dead Like You.

James already had twenty years as a published author, and 16 novels - a mixture of spy thrillers and supernatural suspense and horror - under his belt at the time, so switching genres may have seemed an unusual move. But James had “several years of developing relationships with the police”, thanks to research for minor characters in his earlier novels.

“And when I went out to create a new detective, I thought, right, the first thing I have to do is immerse myself utterly in police culture,” adds James, noting that those who work in law enforcement have a different outlook on the everyday world than most people. “I call it a healthy culture of suspicion. But it permeates all their lives.”

In contrast, Peter Robinson dove straight into police procedurals with his debut novel in 1987, introducing the now-beloved Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks to the world in Gallows View. But like James, Robinson too had concentrated on other types of writing before turning to crime; he had penned poetry and short stories.

In fact Robinson studied poetry, completing an MA at the University of Windsor in Canada under Joyce Carol Oates and a PhD at York University. “I found myself getting more interested in form and structure, tightening it up, and going into rhyme, meter, and writing poems that made sense, and even told stories.” At the time “nobody wanted that” from poets, preferring unstructured free verse, and so Robinson turned to prose because he “was telling stories anyway”.

“I’d enjoyed reading crime fiction, so that’s what took me to crime writing,” he says. “I’d read Chandler, Simenon, Macdonald, just about everybody. And it was so great, I thought ‘I want to do this’. Sjöwall and Wahlöö, the Martin Beck books, they were a tremendous influence.” Almost 25 years later Robinson is still writing about Inspector Banks, and this month Bad Boy, the 19th novel in the award-winning Yorkshire-set series, was published in New Zealand.

Both Robinson and James say they first fell in love with mystery stories thanks to Enid Blyton’s Famous Five novels, and each says that Sherlock Holmes is their favourite recurring detective of all time. “He is still the most enduring to me of all the fictional characters ever created,” says James. “He was sort of the pioneer of forensics, and I just think he is such a wonderful character, despite the fact he was completely eccentric.”

Neither James’s Roy Grace nor Robinson’s Alan Banks have anywhere near Holmes’s level of eccentricity, but each has become a popular character in crime fiction, beloved by fans and with a few touches that reflect their creator’s own interests; Banks is a big music fan, while Grace has an interest in the paranormal.

James and Robinson each also show a wonderful touch for setting in their crime novels, with their detectives solving crimes in the authors own childhood backyards - Brighton and Yorkshire respectively. “Setting is really important because if you want to make a crime novel believable, then it needs to be in a context where people who read it can visualise it, they can completely feel it from the way you describe it,” says James. “Then you set the crime against that backdrop and it’s much more real and brings the book alive.”

For James, his hometown of Brighton is perfect for crime novels. “It’s been called the crime capital of England since 1944,” he says with a chuckle. “It started off as a smuggling village in the Middle Ages, and it’s always had this kind of dark criminal undertow.” A combination of easy access and escape routes, with sea ports, Channel Tunnel, rail, and motorway hubs nearby, a conflagration of diverse communities, and the fact it’s “a really nice place to live and work” provides fertile ground for crime - real and fictional.

In Dead Like You a series of rapes in Brighton reactivate a cold case, and readers are given more insight into the character of Roy Grace, as the narrative switches between the present and the past - a time before Grace’s wife Sandy went missing.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I went out to create a new detective, I thought, right, first thing I have to do is immerse myself utterly in police culture.

Peter James

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For Robinson, who now lives in Toronto but still sets his crime novels ‘back home’, Yorkshire is likewise an ideal backdrop. The largest county in England combines pristine countryside with industrial areas (coal, steel, textiles), big cities like Leeds and Bradford with historic towns from Roman times, and a gorgeous coastline. “I think I wanted the best of both worlds,” says Robinson. “I wanted to do things that used the sense of isolation you can get in North Yorkshire, where you can roam the dales for a day without seeing another soul, but I also wanted to be able to bring kind of urban-based crime writing to it.”

Robinson has thrown a lot of tricky situations at Banks over the course of the series, but in Bad Boy he faces his biggest dilemma yet - his daughter Tracy is on the run with a very dangerous man. Although the Chief Inspector’s family life has featured in several of the novels, Robinson says he felt he “hadn’t really said much about his relationship with his daughter for quite a while”, and that inspired Bad Boy.

The first in what could become a series of Banks TV adaptations, Aftermath, is due to screen in Britain next month, with Stephen Tompkinson of Wild at Heart fame in the lead role. “I read the scripts and went to the read-through, and I was on-set about three times while they were filming it,” says Robinson, sounding a little like a proud father. James is also involved in the screen world, having been a film producer for many years. His credits include The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons, and the New Zealand-filmed vampire tale Perfect Creature.

Both authors have visited New Zealand before (James has family in Hamilton), and say they are really looking forward to returning to our shores this coming week. James will be making some public appearances, while Robinson is holidaying around the North Island with his wife.

Bad Boy (Hodder & Stoughton, $38.99)

Dead Like You (Macmillan, $38.99)

Peter James will be appearing at the Takapuna Library at 6:30pm (drinks at 6pm) on Tuesday 31 August. Entry: $5, $2 for Friends of the Library.

Contact Helen Woodhouse on (09) 486 8469 or helenw@shorelibraries.govt.nz

This feature article was first published in the Canvas magazine of the Weekend Herald on Saturday 28 August 2010, and is reprinted here with permission.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So what do you think of my feature article ? Of the Weekend Herald allowing me to share my past and future features for them, with you all here on Crime Watch? Have you read any of the Roy Grace or Alan Banks novels? How important is setting in crime writing? Thoughts and comments welcome.

Murder in the blood: my feature on Val McDermid in the Weekend Herald

Click on the picture above to read my feature article on 2010 Cartier Diamond Dagger recipient Val McDermid, from Saturday's Weekend Herald (they have put this article online at their own website, which is cool). Val spoke to me about the contaminating effect of violence, the evolution of crime fiction since the 'Golden Age', and several other topics. Read the full article here.

Thoughts and comments welcome.

Kiwi crime holds #1 bestseller spot!

In further great news for Kiwi crime fiction in general, and young debutant Ben Sanders in particular, THE FALLEN has retained the #1 spot on the New Zealand Adult Fiction bestseller list in its second week of release!

This is great news, and the first time in a long time that I can remember a New Zealand crime novel topping the local bestseller list for two weeks running. Hopefully this is the start of a trend (or further growth of a trend that had already slowly started) of New Zealand readers being a bit more willing to buy and try our local crime and thriller authors.

With all the great things happening, the media starting to talk about Kiwi crime a bit more, and with the upcoming The Press Christchurch Writers' Festival, the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, and some other upcoming articles in major publications (eg The Listener) on Kiwi crime, I really feel something is building here.

In further good news, THE IHAKA TRILOGY by Paul Thomas also rose from #8 on the bestseller list last week, to #3 this week. Hopefully as a bit more publicity comes out about SLAUGHTER FALLS (there has been little if anything yet), which has also recently been released, that may also jump up onto the list. It would be great to have a Kiwi crime trifecta.

You can read my review of THE FALLEN, as published in the Canvas magazine of the Weekend Herald, here. You can read an interview with Sanders by Mark Broatch of the Sunday Star-Times here.


Have you read THE FALLEN? Are you intending to? What are your thoughts on the increasing publicity and prominence (relatively speaking) of Kiwi crime fiction lately? Long overdue? A cause for optimism? A false dawn? Thoughts and comments welcome.

Philosopher of Crime: my feature on James Lee Burke

As I mentioned earlier, the Weekend Herald (New Zealand's biggest newspaper) have now kindly allowed me to republish any articles I have or will write for them, online. So today I am sharing my 1500-word feature on mystery writing maestro James Lee Burke, which was in the features section of the Canvas magazine (the glossy lifestyle supplement) in last weekend's edition.

PHILOSOPHER OF CRIME
James Lee Burke talks to CRAIG SISTERSON about artistry in crime writing, speaking for those with no voice, and the central issue of modern times

ANY TRUE artist, whatever their creative medium, needs both humility and vanity, says legendary American novelist James Lee Burke. “Humility is not a virtue in a writer, it is an absolute necessity,” he adds, his mild Southern accent reverberating down the phone line from his “property that tries to be a ranch” just outside Missoula, Montana. Burke and his wife of fifty years, Pearl, now split their time between Missoula and New Iberia in Louisiana, the lush setting of Burke’s evocative and award-winning crime novels starring aging detective Dave Robicheaux.

Burke’s eighteenth and latest Robicheaux novel, The Glass Rainbow (released in New Zealand next week), is ostensibly the reason for our interview, but just like his rich and layered tales themselves, my conversation with Burke ends up being a bit deeper and more philosophical, and laced with history, politics, social commentary, and literary references. Throughout, the 73-year-old laughs easily and often, almost explosively at times. He is unfailing polite, yet not at all stuffy or formal. He answers the phone with a jovial “Is this New Zealand calling?” then tells me to call him “Jim”. Down-to-earth and humble, his soft-spoken manner and measured cadence belie some strident opinions when it comes to several things he cares deeply about, including the environment, “people of humble origin”, and the purpose and importance of art.

The humility a writer must have is just recognition that their artistic talent is a gift, says Burke. “All good art has its origins I believe in some source outside oneself. And every good artist knows that the gift comes from somewhere else, and it’s there for a reason, and that’s to make the world a better place.” The greatest enemy of art is self-absorption and ego, continues Burke. Arrogance and pride are “a cancer”, and if an artist “begins to think of himself as someone who in effect went out and acquired the talent” rather than appreciating it for the gift it is, then they are heading for a fall. However, an artist must have faith in their talent, and feel compelled to share something important with the wider world. “It’s a kind of vanity,” says Burke. “George Orwell once said writers write because they want to set history straight. And that’s the emotion the writer feels, as though he is seeing reality in a perfectly accurate way, and he feels an obsession to communicate his vision.”

Some may question a crime writer, even one as acclaimed as Burke, talking about art and making the world a better place. But anyone who’s read his novels knows that they have a fair bit more to say, beneath the page-turning action, than your typical easy-reading ‘airport thriller’. “I don’t make much distinction between genres,” he says. “I think literary art is literary art, or it’s not. Writing is either good or bad.”

Burke wanted to be a writer from an early age. Born in Houston and growing up on the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast, the first books he remembers reading and really loving were crime novels; The Hardy Boys series. It was the “adventure, the mystery, and being able to identify with young boys who were solving great crimes” that held such great appeal, he recalls with a fond chuckle. Burke shared a youthful passion for words and storytelling with his first cousin Andre DuBus, and I hear a note of pride in his voice as he notes they both ended up being writers all of their lives. While Burke has published 30 more books since his 1965 debut Half of Paradise (which took several years to find a publisher), won two Edgar Awards (the ‘Oscars’ of crime writing), had his fourth novel The Lost Get Back Boogie rejected a record 111 times over nine years then get nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and last year the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, his late cousin was pretty talented too. Dubus is considered one of the best American short story writers of the 20th century.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'The story, the great drama, is around us all the time, it's always there. It's a matter of seeing it.'

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Burke has also lived a full and fascinating life away from the page; a life he says has truly enriched his writing. “Everything I was doing all the time in some way I thought of as translating into my art,” he says. “When I was a social worker in Los Angeles, I knew that all these people I was seeing - convicts, street people, migrant farm workers, skid row derelicts - were all going to become players later in my work. I learned an enormous amount about the other America, one that we don’t recognise. It was the same in other jobs.” For Burke those other jobs included working as a landman for the Sinclair Oil Company, as a pipeliner, land surveyor, newspaper reporter, college English professor, clerk for the Louisiana Employment Service, and instructor in the US Job Corps. “The story, the great drama, is around us all the time, it’s always there. It’s a matter of seeing it.”

You could say there are three main threads running through Burke’s various careers: working on the land (as an oil man and surveyor); working with words (as a journalist, English professor, and novelist); and working with those less fortunate (his social work and employment-related roles). Fans of his crime novels will notice clear similarities with issues and themes consistently highlighted through his writing, especially when it comes to man’s relationship with land and resources, and the stark reality of life for those at the lower end of the economic and social spectrum. When I ask Burke whether he consciously incorporated such issues into his storytelling, or whether they just naturally emerged given his background, he doesn’t hesitate. “It was always a conscious attempt to give voice to those who have none,” he says. “I believe that’s what the artist does. He tries to give voice to those who have none.”

Burke’s love for the land is also clear from both his writing and life away from the page. “Where we live in the Northern Rockies is just as good as the earth gets,” he says. “Much of it is like the earth was on the first day of creation, it’s just beautiful.” He is a keen outdoorsman, particularly enjoying fly-fishing. With his novels, Burke is renowned for a masterful touch for his Louisiana, Texas, and Montana settings. While other crime writers try to immediately grab readers’ attention with action-based hooks, in The Glass Rainbow Burke takes the entire first page to describe a room in a Mississippi river town, complete with ventilated storm shutters “slatted with a pink glow, as soft and filtered and cool in color as the spring sunrise can be”.

From there, Burke’s latest book evolves into an intricate tale involving a series of depraved murders, a convict-turned celebrity writer, some old-money Louisiana families with plenty of skeletons in their closets, and hired mercenaries. Septuagenarian investigator Dave Robicheaux (picture a slightly warmer and more connected but no less tough version of Clint Eastwood’s aging hero in Gran Torino) has his hands full trying to dig for the truth, keep his hulking sidekick Clete Purcel out of jail, protect his enamoured daughter Alafair from two older men with murky motives, and deal with nagging visions of his own mortality.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'And every good artist knows that the gift comes from somewhere else, and it's there for a reason, and that's to make the world a better place.'

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reviews of Burke’s writing often contain words like lyrical, evocative, lush, and sensuous. The page-turning plots and compelling characters, such as Robicheaux, Clete, and strong-willed Alafair (named after Burke’s own daughter, who has herself become an acclaimed mystery novelist) are also impressive, but almost secondary. When I ask what in particular is so special about the regions where he sets his books, Burke notes “the past is always visible” in such places, which are “emblematic of the larger story”. Moreover, “Louisiana is at the centre, in a peculiar way, as is Montana, with the central issue of the 20th and the early 21st century, and that is energy and minerals”. For art to survive, it has to represent a larger story than a regional one, says Burke, and the era we’re in is all about the use and pursuit of natural resources. “It’s been the issue since 1914, and that’s a larger story. I think we’re in some denial about that. You guys went into Gallipoli in 1915 and that was the issue. The Kiwis that the British used for cannon fodder in the Dardanelles, the issue was natural resources. It was oil.” More recently, this central issue has led to the creation of “an antagonism between Christendom and the Islamic World that is going to be with us for decades”.

For decades James Lee Burke has been touching on such larger issues through the prism of crime fiction. As an artist, he’s had something important to say, and found a way to say it that has entranced readers around the globe. And like a true artist, he is grateful for his gift. “Most people fight with their job, but to me writing is just the perfect life, always has been. I can’t think of a better life.”

The Glass Rainbow (Orion, $38.99)

This feature article was first published in the Canvas magazine of the Weekend Herald on Saturday 31 July 2010, and is reprinted here with permission.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So what do you think of my feature article on James Lee Burke? Of the Weekend Herald allowing me to share my past and future features for them, with you all her on Crime Watch? Have you read any of Burke's Robicheux novels? Or his other acclaimed works? Can crime writing be artistic? Thoughts and comments welcome.