Paddy Richardson talks about TRACES OF RED

Last week, Paddy Richardson's third psychological thriller, TRACES OF RED, was officially launched at an event in Dunedin. The early reviews have been very positive. Richardson was of course one of the finalists for the 2011 Ngaio Marsh Award for HUNTING BLIND. You can read US mystery author Margot Kinberg's review of that book here.

Yesterday, she spoke to Radio New Zealand about writing TRACES OF RED, which again underlines Richardson's skill at mixing creepy thriller plots that echo real life headlines with personal stories of people and relationships.

Here's the blurb for TRACES OF RED:

Rebecca Thorne is a successful television journalist, but her world is thrown into turmoil when her Saturday night programme is axed because of falling ratings. Not only will she lose her job but her big story on the convicted triple murderer Connor Bligh, whom Rebecca believes is innocent, has to be abandoned.

Rebecca's lover Joe, a married man and the barrister representing Bligh, also thinks Bligh is innocent – or does he? And if he loves Rebecca so much, why is he prepared to cast her off?

Meanwhile Bligh languishes in jail, convicted of three brutal murders and continuing to protest his innocence. He's clearly not a saint – but did he do it? Rebecca refuses to let the matter lie...

In a review for the Herald on Sunday, I said TRACES OF RED showed "Richardson excels at evoking the human aspects behind the plotline". My fellow Ngaio Marsh Award judge Graham Beattie also reviewed the book last week, saying TRACES OF RED was "psychological crime fiction at its best", and "the best she has written, and that is high praise" (read here). In a year which has seen some truly terrific crime fiction released by New Zealand authors, Richardson's latest further illustrates the growing depth and quality of the genre here. The 2012 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel is going to be another difficult call for the judges.

You can listen to Richardson talk about the writing of TRACES OF RED here. Hopefully New Zealand readers will get out there and buy this book, supporting quality local crime writing.

Paddy Richardson's TRACES OF RED launched this week

Just a quick reminder that Dunedin author Paddy Richardson's third psychological thriller, TRACES OF RED, will be officially launched at Marbecks on George Street in Dunedin on Thursday night. 

Richardson's last psychological thriller, HUNTING BLIND, was a #1 bestseller in New Zealand, was listed in the Listener's 100 Best Books for 2010, and was a finalist for the Ngaio Marsh Award.

Early reviews for TRACES OF RED have been very positive. Here's the 'backcover blurb':

Rebecca Thorne is a successful television journalist, but her world is thrown into turmoil when her Saturday night programme is axed because of falling ratings. Not only will she lose her job but her big story on the convicted triple murderer Connor Bligh, whom Rebecca believes is innocent, has to be abandoned.

Rebecca's lover Joe, a married man and the barrister representing Bligh, also thinks Bligh is innocent – or does he? And if he loves Rebecca so much, why is he prepared to cast her off?

Meanwhile Bligh languishes in jail, convicted of three brutal murders and continuing to protest his innocence. He's clearly not a saint – but did he do it? Rebecca refuses to let the matter lie.

Paddy Richardson's fourth novel is psychological crime fiction at its best.

You can read Nicky Pellegrino's interview with Paddy Richardson about HUNTING BLIND here, and my 9mm interview with Richardson here.

Hopefully any crime fiction fans in the Otago region might head along to Marbecks on Thursday night and support this terrific local writer. And if you do, remember to get some pics and send them in!

Reviews: THE DROP by Michael Connelly, THE LOCK ARTIST by Steve Hamilton, and TRACES OF RED by Paddy Richardson

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-known newspapers. I'm very pleased to be able to contribute in my small way to getting crime fiction into the books sections of some local media. My latest column was published yesterday NZT. As I've said before, these are just 'mini-reviews' of only 100 words or so, so I can't go into great depth about any of the books, but hopefully I provide readers with a little bit of an indication.

Crime Picks

The Drop
By Michael Connelly (Allen & Unwin, $39.99)
Put simply, Michael Connelly is a modern master of crime fiction, and LAPD detective Harry Bosch is one of the genre’s greatest characters. Connelly has an uncanny knack for keeping a long-running series fresh. Now, Bosch is spending his final pre-retirement years working cold cases, including one that threatens the integrity of the new Regional Crime Lab, when he’s hauled into a fresh investigation - the seems-like-suicide death of the son of his long-time nemesis, Councilman Irvin Irving. Readers are given a gripping, high quality ride as Bosch tries to find the truth behind the collision of police and politics.

The Lock Artist
By Steve Hamilton (Orion, $29.99)
Winner of the prestigious Edgar Award, this intriguing tale centres on Michael, who survived a terrible incident as a kid, but has never spoken since. The story switches between two major periods in Michael’s life, including his teenage years where he discovers his uncanny ability to open locks, and a prank gone wrong brings him into contact with a man who will end up changing his life. A mixture of thrills and chills as Michael goes about a rollercoaster criminal career, and an interesting character study of a troubled young man trying to escape from his tough life.

Traces of Red
By Paddy Richardson (Penguin, $30.00)
Acclaimed Dunedin author Richardson once again shows her skill at mixing personal drama and creepy psychological chills in her latest novel. Struggling television journalist Rebecca Thorne needs a big story, and thinks she might have found it when she discovers despised convicted triple murderer Connor Bligh might have a chance at freedom. Richardson excels at evoking the human aspects behind the plotline, as Rebecca struggles with her status and career, her relationships with Bligh’s barrister, a married man, and her interactions with many others as she tries to dig the truth from the past.

Craig Sisterson helped establish the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel. He writes about crime and thriller fiction for several publications here and overseas, and blogs at http://goldenglobenominees.blogspot.com/.

Have you read any of these authors or books? If so, what were your thoughts? Do the reviews make you more or less likely to want to read these three books? What books should I feature next month?

Book Launch: TRACES OF RED by Paddy Richardson

Upcoming Kiwi crime fiction: TRACES OF RED by Paddy Richardson

One of the most pleasing things about the slowly growing Kiwi crime fiction scene is that we now have several talented writers who are publishing multiple books, whereas in the past we had many authors who published one or two crime, mystery, or thriller novels, and then that was it (for examples, click on the bibliographical list of Kiwi crime writers above). It's great to see the likes of Vanda Symon, Neil Cross, Paul Cleave and others writing three, four, five and more crime novels - and others like Alix Bosco and Ben Sanders look like they too will hopefully follow this path and keep writing crime.

Another talented Kiwi crime writer is Paddy Richardson, a finalist for this year's Ngaio Marsh Award for her acclaimed psychologial suspense tale HUNTING BLIND (Penguin, 2010), which hit #1 on the local bestseller list last year, and sold well locally, especially for a locally-written crime novel. I thought HUNTING BLIND was a really good suspense novel, that showed Richardson was really finding her stride as a thriller writer. For me it was a noticeable step up from her debut thriller A YEAR TO LEARN A WOMAN.

Here's what I had to say about the book to Nicky Pellegrino of the Herald on Sunday in the lead-up to this year's award announcement:

Richardson's tale of a woman who is trying to uncover what really happened to her sister years ago expertly melds family drama and psychological suspense. Highlights of this novel include the evocation of the South Island scenery, a lingering sense of unease, and the way Richardson delves into the complexity of human relationships and the aftermath of high-profile tragedy; uncovering the very real and ongoing effects after the media circus leaves.

As such, I was very pleased to see that Richardson has a third thriller (and fourth novel overall) coming out soon: TRACES OF RED. Here's the blurb:

Rebecca Thorne is a successful television journalist, but her world is thrown into turmoil when her Saturday night programme is axed because of falling ratings. Not only will she lose her job but her big story on the convicted triple murderer Connor Bligh, whom Rebecca believes is innocent, has to be abandoned.

Rebecca's lover Joe, a married man and the barrister representing Bligh, also thinks Bligh is innocent – or does he? And if he loves Rebecca so much, why is he prepared to cast her off?

Meanwhile Bligh languishes in jail, convicted of three brutal murders and continuing to protest his innocence. He's clearly not a saint – but did he do it? Rebecca refuses to let the matter lie...

New Zealand readers will realise that, like HUNTING BLIND with it's 'ripped from the headlines' hook of a young girl who goes missing from a small New Zealand town, there are plenty of echoes of some high-profile real-life events in the plot of Richardson's next novel, as recently we've had some notable cases of prisoners protesting their evidence, and plenty of discourse and debate over whether they are or not (eg David Bain, Peter Ellis, Scott Watson, etc). I'm really looking forward to seeing how Richardson weaves the associated themes into her thriller, and where she takes us with the book.

TRACES OF RED will be released in New Zealand in late November.