Gregg Hurwitz interviews Michael Connelly

Like many who couldn't attend the fantastic Bouchercon festival in San Francisco last weekend, I have been following along various great blogs and reports from people who were there - the likes of Ruth and Jon Jordan of Crimespree magazine, J. Kingston Pierce of The Rap Sheet, Peter Rozovsky of Detectives Beyond Borders, and Janet Rudolph of Mystery Readers International.

It looks like it was a terrific few days, filled with lots of great events. One event that was highlighted by Ruth Jordan on the Crimespree blog yesterday particularly made me groan (that I'd missed it) - Gregg Hurwitz interviewing Michael Connelly. That would have been very cool.

Both are terrific writers who set their novels in Los Angeles, and their conversation would have been something to see. As Jordan said on her blog, "Last weekend in an overcrowded room fans of both Special Guest Michael Connelly and Hurwitz himself got to watch a young man talk to one of his hero's. They spoke of character, crimes and setting. Two animated men speaking with passion about that they love most, the construction of the best in fiction set in a City full of both promise and dread. L.A. is a very special town. With more facets than the world's brightest diamonds there are no limitations to what the writer can find within the county limits. Both Connelly and Hurwitz continue to find something new and brighter with each outing."

Fortunately someone has put some snippets of the conversation online today, which you can watch below (hat tip to Janet Rudolph for the heads-up):




I am fortunate enough to have interviewed both Hurwitz and Connelly in the past year and a bit. Hurwitz was here in New Zealand late last year, touring in support of OR SHE DIES (the UK/Aust/NZ title for THEY'RE WATCHING - for some reason it was released here a year before it was in the USA), and I met him at an event in Auckland, and had lunch with him and his publicist. He's a terrific guy, and a very good thriller writer. You can read my later 9mm interview with him here as well.

Of course I also recently interviewed Michael Connelly about his latest novel THE REVERSAL too, for an article in the Weekend Herald (read here). Two terrific guys - intelligent, interesting, and generous with their time. Top notch crime writers too.

Flash Fiction: read the Derringer Award winner

At Bouchercon over the weekend, along with the Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Award announcements, the winners of the annual Derringer Awards of the Short Mystery Fiction Society were revealed.

I love reading full-length crime novels, but I do also really enjoy crime-centred short stories, whether in the form of author collections like Peter Robinson's enjoyable The Price of Love, collections with numerous contributors like the recent The Dark End of the Street: New Stories of Sex and Crime by Today's Top Authors edited by Jonathan Santlofer and S.J. Rozan, or one-off stories in mystery magazines or on the Internet. It's nice to be able to just dip in and quickly finish a good story.

And for those who want to be able to really quickly pick up, read, and finish a good short story, then the Flash Fiction category (Up to 1000wds) might interest you. This year's Derringer winner in that category was "And Here's To You, Mrs Edwardson" by Hamilton Waymire, published in the webzine Big Pulp, November 23, 2009, a story of a pizza boy and an older woman.

The great thing is not only does it only take a couple/few minutes to read, the entire thing is available online, so you can all dive in and sample some award-winning crime fiction, right here.

What do you think of the winning Flash Fiction story? Do you like crime and mystery short stories, as well as novels? If so, what are some of your favourite authors/stories? What makes a good crime fiction short story? Thoughts and comments welcome.

The consensus finalist: THE SHANGHAI MOON by SJ Rozan

As I discussed yesterday, the 2010 Bouchercon festival is about to kick off in San Francisco - four days of fantastic author events and crime fiction festivities.

At Bouchercon by the Bay, the winners of three major crime fiction awards will be announced; the Thursday night Opening Ceremonies will include the presentation of the Barry (run by Deadly Pleasures magazine) and Macavity (run by Mystery Readers International) Awards, followed by a festive reception. And of course later in the weekend the winners of the festival's own long-running awards will also be announced; the Anthony Awards (I understand the winners are based on the votes of attendees at the convention itself).

I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the finalists for the three different awards, and see what sort of repetition and crossover there was between the books on each of the three lists. As you'd expect, some crime novels appear on more than one list - but when it comes to the major Best Novel award, there is one novel that is on all three finalists lists; THE SHANGHAI MOON by SJ Rozan. So, win or lose, walking away from Bouchercon with three awards or none, you could say that SJ Rozan at least has the honour and distinction of being the 'consensus finalist' of each of the three judging panels. Quite an achievement in an awards world that often throws up some pretty interesting results.

Rozan is an author I had heard of, and I've read some of her short stories in a couple of crime fiction anthologies, but never any of her novels (yet). I might have to try to get my hands on THE SHANGHAI MOON however, and see what the fuss is about.

Here is the 'blurb' for THE SHANGHAI MOON:

Estranged for months from fellow P.I. Bill Smith, Chinese-American private investigator Lydia Chin is brought in by colleague and former mentor Joel Pilarsky to help with a case that crosses continents, cultures, and decades. In Shanghai, excavation has unearthed a cache of European jewelry dating back to World War II, when Shanghai was an open city providing safe haven for thousands of Jewish refugees. The jewelry, identifed as having belonged to one such refugee - Rosalie Gilder - was immediately stolen by a Chinese official who fled to New York City. Hired by a lawyer specializing in the recovery of Holocaust assets, Chin and Pilarsky are to find any and all leads to the missing jewels.However, Lydia soon learns that there is much more to the story than they've been told: The Shanghai Moon, one of the world's most sought after missing jewels, reputed to be worth millions, is believed to have been part of the same stash. Before Lydia can act on this new information, two men are murdered, Lydia is fired from the case, and Bill Smith finally reappears on the scene. Now Lydia and Bill must unravel the truth about the Shanghai Moon and the events that surrounded its disappearance sixty years ago during the chaos of war and revolution, if they are to stop more killings and uncover the truth of what is going on today.

You can read an excerpt here.

When the book was released in 2009, Maureen Corrigan in The Washington Post called it an "ambitious and absorbing riff on the classic Nancy Drew mystery", and said that THE SHANGHAI MOON demonstrated that "there's plenty of possibility lurking in the old missing-gems plot. It just takes a master like S.J. Rozan to restore the luster of a classic".

You can read the full review here.

It certainly sounds intriguing. I'm not sure if Rozan will win many or any of the three awards - THE SHANGHAI MOON would have to be a truly exceptional book to beat out John Hart's exquisite Edgar and Dagger Award-winning THE LAST CHILD for the Barry and Anthony Best Novel Awards - but you never know with these things, and regardless of eventual results, Rozan certainly deserves hearty congratulations as the 'consensus finalist', and someone who has a claim on having the most lauded book at Bouchercon.

You can see the full list of finalists for the Macavity Awards here, the Barry Awards here, and the Anthony Awards here.

Have you read THE SHANGHAI MOON? If so, what did you think? If not, do you like the sound of it? Which of the finalists do you think should win each award? Which have you read? Does winning an award matter, one way or the other? Thoughts and comments welcome.

Tick, tick, tick... Bouchercon!

Well, it's almost upon us. This week the 2010 edition of the fantastic (I've heard) Bouchercon crime writing festival will kick off. From a look at the lineup and the building excitement on blogs and elsewhere amongst the crime fiction community, Bouchercon by the Bay is going to be absolutely huge.

I've got to say, I'm pretty envious of everyone heading along. Scratch that, really envious. Incredible Hulk green with envy. I was quite tempted to hop on a plane from New Zealand, especially as San Francisco, the location of this year's 'Con is one of my favourite US cities, and also a fairly accessible/affordable flight from New Zealand (one of the most geographically isolated countries in the world, apparently). Unfortunately finances and timing hampered my Bouchercon 2010 dreams. But maybe next time.

For all of you heading along this year, I hope you have a magnificent time. For those, like me, who can only look on, our faces pressed up against a faraway window, hopefully there will be all sorts of fantastic articles and blog posts coming out about the events, from those lucky enought to be on the ground there in San Francisco. I'm talking to you Peter Rozovsky (Detectives Beyond Borders), Jon and Ruth Jordan (Crimespree magazine), Janet Rudolph (Mystery Readers International), J. Kingston Pierce (The Rap Sheet), and others... make sure you share it all with us.

Lee Child, who I was fortunate enough to interview and meet in New Zealand earlier this year (read NZLawyer feature, read 9mm interview) is 'Distinguished Contribution to the Genre' in 2010, and Scottish author Denise Mina, who's Gold Dagger-shortlisted novel STILL MIDNIGHT I recently read, is the International Guest of Honour, at Bouchercon by the Bay.

Skimming the programme, there are so many cool events on offer. I'd certainly have some pretty full days there. Watching the San Francisco-set crime movies The Maltese Falcon, Bullitt, and Murder by Death on Wednesday night (6pm onwards) would be a great start to what is going to be a really terrific few days. In amongst all the authors events, there is also the announcement/presentation of several prestigious crime/mystery writing awards, ie the Macavitys, the Barrys, and the Anthonys. And the Dashiell Hammett-inspired walking tours also sound great - San Francisco is such a great strolling city.

You can check out the line-up of events here:

• Thursday
• Friday
• Saturday
• Sunday

I hope that everyone heading to the festival has a truly terrific time, and I look forward to reading about all the festivities.

What do you think about the Bouchercon by the Bay lineup? Are you heading along? What events/authors would you most like to attend, if you were going? Who should win some of the awards? Do you enjoy author events and mystery writing festivals? Thoughts and comments welcome.