Yet another thrilling installment of Kemper’s Bouchercon adventures:
I haven’t read a lot of Daniel Woodrell, but Winter’s Bone and Woe to Live On* hadYet another thrilling installment of Kemper’s Bouchercon adventures:
I haven’t read a lot of Daniel Woodrell, but Winter’s Bone and Woe to Live On* had impressed me so much that I made a point to attend a panel that he was on along with Megan Abbott and some others regarding crime stories set in isolated or closed communities.
* (Woe to Live On was turned into a pretty good movie by Ang Lee called Ride With the Devil. Parts of that movie were filmed around the small Kansas town I grew up in, and I told Mr. Woodrell that when he was signing my book. He shot the shit with me about the movie for several minutes, and I got so wrapped up in talking about it that I completely forgot to say anything about the movie version of Winter’s Bone. You know, the one that was nominated for an Oscar for best picture….. Anyhow, like every author I met at Bouchercon, Mr. Woodrell was great with his fans and very interesting to listen to.)
On the panel, he told a funny story about how he had always prided himself that his fiction explored the basic humanity of even those who broke the law. Until he came home one time to find that he’d been robbed. (Probably by tweakers in the area.) Then he described how he ranted and raved about what he’d do to the people who’d done it once he got his shotgun loaded. At this point his wife gently reminded him about how he always said he tried to find the basic humanity in the worst criminals and that'd it'd probably be bad form to shoot someone for breaking into the house.
Daniel Woodrell grew up in the Ozarks and lives there today. If you’ve read or seen Winter’s Bone, you've figured this out already, but the man knows his rednecks. Seriously, the man KNOWS rednecks. He absolutely nails that weird mix of self-sufficiency, pride, suspicion and willful ignorance that make up the Americanus Redneckius. Then he creates the stories that can be incredibly brutal, but that still have a kind of stark beauty to them.
My only complaint about this book is that it’s too short. Each story is a quick stab to the heart that left me wanting more. And this guy can write openings like nobody else. Check out some of these first lines for the stories:
The Echo of Neighborly Bones - “Once Boshell killed his neighbor, he couldn’t seem to quit killing him.”
Florianne - “If they ever catch who took my daughter, I’ll probably know him.”
Night Stand - “Pelham came awake one night to find a naked man standing over his bed, growling.”
And great opening lines is only a small part of what Daniel Woodrell does so well in this collection. ...more
Yet another 2011 Bouchercon story about how Kemper-Met-An-Author….
Christa Faust was one of the speakers at a panel on sex and violence that was being Yet another 2011 Bouchercon story about how Kemper-Met-An-Author….
Christa Faust was one of the speakers at a panel on sex and violence that was being held later than any other discussions, but there’d been some kind of snafu and the room wasn’t set up ahead of time. It was Miss Faust who took charge, ascertained that somebody had screwed the pooch, led the effort to commandeer another room, and essentially had moved everyone down the hall and got the whole thing going within about ten minutes. And she did all of this while wearing a dress tight enough to kill most mortals. After watching her in action, I was pretty sure that if zombies had burst into the convention hall, Miss Faust would have whipped off her high heels to use as skull impaling weapons against the undead and led us all to safety.
The next day, she walked up while I was chatting with another author to see if he’d be attending her next panel about fighting sports like boxing and crime fiction. When I asked if there would be actual fighting at the panel, she launched into an imitation of a professional wrestler ranting about all the ways she was going to destroy everyone in the room.
Later on, Dan had accompanied me to get some books signed by her, and she admired the Hard Case Crime shirt he was wearing while showing off her own HCC tattoo, and then she did a hilarious bit about how she’d been forbidden from using the profanity she wanted in the Supernatural tie-in novel she’d done.
In other words, Christa Faust is the shit.
And by the way, she writes a pretty mean hard boiled crime novel, too.
In her previous HCC book Money Shot we met Angel Dare, a retired porn star who was now an agent for others in the adult entertainment industry. Poor Angel got mixed up with some very bad people, and the ensuing events left her life in ruins. Now she’s hiding out and working in a diner under an assumed name in Arizona. Angel gets a shock when a former boyfriend and fellow veteran of the porn industry Thick Vic walks in. A few minutes later she gets an even bigger surprise when a gunfight breaks out in the diner.
Angel ends up on the run with Vic’s son Cody as they flee from a local gangster. Cody is a mixed martial arts fighter whose big break is waiting for him in Vegas in a few days if he can make it there alive. Along with Cody’s trainer, a punch drunk former fighter, Angel will have to confront some very dangerous men as well as her own past.
Angel is a unique character to base a crime novel around. As a former porn star, she wields her body as an asset to be used, and seemingly doesn’t let trading sex for favors bother her. However, she also uses the sex as a way of distancing herself from her own emotions. She’s tough and capable, but she’s not an ass kicking super woman.
The plot doesn’t end up anywhere near where I thought it was going, and I was genuinely surprised by the ending. Christa Faust doesn’t pull her punches, and Angel’s story here is as painful and brutal as a swift jab to the nose....more
This book comes at you like a redneck with a broken bottle in a roadhouse on a Saturday night after you insulted his favorite NASCAR driver.
As a younThis book comes at you like a redneck with a broken bottle in a roadhouse on a Saturday night after you insulted his favorite NASCAR driver.
As a young man, Pike had left his Kentucky home town and embarked on a trail of criminal shenanigans that culminated in some Mexican misadventures. Now back in Kentucky in the mid-1980s, he’s trying to live a quiet life working home renovations with a young man named Rory. Rory dreams of being a boxer and is engaging in weekly fights staged at a bar while training for a tough man completion.
Pike learns that his daughter, a hooker and drug addict, has died from an overdose and takes in his granddaughter, a 12 year mouthy girl named Wendy. A corrupt cop from Cincinnati named Derek Kreiger comes to town while trying to lay low during an investigation of an incident that sparked a riot. Derek takes an big interest in Wendy, and Pike sets out to find what the link was between the dirty cop and his dead daughter. Rory joins him and the two men end up dealing with addicts, whores, disgruntled Vietnam vets as well as someone who went to the Michael Vick school of animal care.
I’d never heard of Benjamin Whitmer until I saw him on a panel about sex and violence in crime fiction at Bouchercon in St. Louis last month. He made a lot of interesting points during the discussion and his book sounded interesting so I made a point to pick up a copy and got to chat with him several minutes. I’m very glad I did because otherwise I might not have ever read this.
The story isn’t quite as linear as a summary makes it sound like, and it’s one of those that demands the reader keep up rather than having everything explained to you. At times it reminded me of Winter’s Bone, No Country For Old Men, the TV series Justified and a Steven Soderbergh film starring Terence Stamp called The Limey, but it definitely has its own style with a dark and violent story to tell....more
Dan has already written about our encounter with Megan Abbott at Bouchercon which resulted in her signing his copy of this book as Megan ‘The Bitch’ ADan has already written about our encounter with Megan Abbott at Bouchercon which resulted in her signing his copy of this book as Megan ‘The Bitch’ Abbott. I was unfamiliar with her at the time, but Dan told me that her Queenpin was very good, and I was impressed what she had to say on a panel I watched the next day so I went and bought my own copy of The Song is You. While she was signing it for me, I told Miss Abbott that I’d been there the day before during the The Bitch signing incident, but that I thought she seemed like a very pleasant person. That’s why my copy has her note “+ And I’m very nice!!”.
Aside from being very nice and not a bitch at all, Megan Abbott is also a helluva a writer judging from this book. Using the true life 1949 disappearance of a bit actress named Jean Spangler in Hollywood, Abbott spins the dark tale of a former reporter turned sleazy slick-talking public relations fixer named Gil ‘Hop’ Hopkins. Hop had done some partying with Jean and a girlfriend of hers the night she disappeared, and the last he saw of Jean, she was with a couple big time actors with a reputation for being kinky. After Jean vanished, Hop took charge of covering up the actors’ involvement and is rewarded with a plum job covering up the misdeeds of Hollywood types.
A few years later, Jean’s friend shows up and accuses Hop of orchestrating a cover-up for Jean’s murder. Hop tries to justify his actions by telling himself that he thought he was just keeping the movie stars’ names out of the papers; he didn’t actually think they were involved. After his conscience gets the better of him during a drunken encounter with a female reporter, Hop has to scramble around to put a new coat of pain on the white wash he did as he also confronts some uncomfortable questions about what kind of person he is.
Abbot writes like a saner and more lucid James Ellroy with a healthy pinch of Jim Thompson thrown in. With it’s terrific dialogue and morally compromised characters, this was an excellent piece of noir fiction. There’s a rhythm to this that made it a real pleasure to read and makes me want to get another book by her in the very near future. ...more
Can we please find out what John Sandford is eating and put every other thriller writer on the same diet? It’s insane that over 30 books into his careCan we please find out what John Sandford is eating and put every other thriller writer on the same diet? It’s insane that over 30 books into his career the last two he’s done, Bad Blood and Buried Prey, were among his very best. Now he delivers another top-notch crime story in Shock Wave.
The small city of Butternut Falls, Minnesota, is an uproar over a new big box discount store called PyeMart being built. Someone decides to do more than write angry posts on the Internet and powerful bombs go off at PyeMart’s corporate headquarters and at the construction site in Butternut.
Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension sends Agent Virgil Flowers to investigate. Virgil finds that there are plenty of suspects from the business owners who know they won’t be able to compete with PyeMart to angry environmentalists claiming that the store will pollute a nearby pristine creek and lake. There are also wide spread rumors that the city council got paid off to allow the store’s construction. As he hunts down the mad bomber Virgil will get tangled up in small town corruption and try a controversial experiment in identifying suspects.
While not quite up to the level of last year’s Bad Blood this is still another terrific page turner from Sandford and continues the growth of Virgil from spin-off character from the Davenport Prey series into a fun and off-beat protagonist.
And I owe a big ‘Thank you!’ to Dan for this one. I attended the Bouchrcon convention and Dan joined me for a day where we saw the likes of Eion Colfer and Robert Crais, and also learned that eating a big lunch and drinking beer at an Irish pub will impede your ability to stay awake at the afternoon panels.
Dan got an ARC of this in the freebie bag full of books you got for registering. My jealously was instant and enormous. I am not proud of the way I threw myself on the ground and began kicking and screaming that it wasn’t fair. Dan quieted my tantrum by offering me a bottle of beer and generously giving me this book. So thanks, Dan!...more
This is one of those comics that puts the ‘graphic’ in ‘graphic novel.
This hybrid of a crime and horror story features an Irish lass who uses sex to lThis is one of those comics that puts the ‘graphic’ in ‘graphic novel.
This hybrid of a crime and horror story features an Irish lass who uses sex to lead men to their doom. As a NYPD detective tries to make sense of the pile of body parts being found around the city, an old boyfriend of the Irish woman shows up with a bunch of crazy talk about connections to druid ritual sacrifices.
This was a solid piece of comic’s writing with some nice noir-ish black & white artwork. It could have used a little more work on the characters and explanation of the supernatural stuff. Overall, it was a fun tale with plenty of sex and violence. You know, for kids!...more
How many times have I seen or read about a character picking a lock? I’m a crime/mystery fan so it’s gotta be in the hundreds. Maybe even over a thousHow many times have I seen or read about a character picking a lock? I’m a crime/mystery fan so it’s gotta be in the hundreds. Maybe even over a thousand. It’s such a common cliché we don’t even think about anymore. A door is locked, and a character pulls out their little case with their tools and picks it . Yet this is the first story I’ve ever read that actually explains what it takes to pick a lock or open a safe. Surprise! It’s not as easy as it is in the movies, but it makes for a helluva good crime novel.
The book is narrated by Michael who quickly explains that he’s been in prison for years and has not spoken a word in longer than that. As a child, he survived some kind of traumatic experience that left him unable to speak even though there’s no physical reason for it. Taken in and raised by his liquor store owning uncle, Michael grows up alienated and lonely, but he gets interested in locks after playing around with a discarded one and teaches himself how to pick it. The story skips around to show us that Michael got mixed up with criminals who contact him to open safes during robberies. Eventually we learn how Michael went from a mute boy who liked to play with locks to a professional safecracker and the terrible event that left him mute.
Like Mystic River or Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter this is a character based crime novel that transcends the genre. Michael has unique voice despite being speechless, and Hamilton has created a character with the best of intentions who gets in over his head with extremely bad people. It sounds silly but there’s also an incredible amount of tension built around the lock picking and safe cracking scenes where Michael is explaining his process and getting lost in mental space where all that exists is the lock he’s trying to open.
This is both a great crime novel and an excellent story about a young man struggling to come to terms with his past....more
One reason I never bought into any of the conspiracy theories that swirl around celebrity deaths like Princess Di or Marilyn Monroe is that they alwayOne reason I never bought into any of the conspiracy theories that swirl around celebrity deaths like Princess Di or Marilyn Monroe is that they always seem to be based on the notion that there are these shadowy figures that can orchestrate murder on demand and cover it up without leaving a trace. Hell, when Nixon wanted the Watergate black bagged, he had to use incompetent bastards like G. Gordon Liddy and a ragtag group of Cuban exiles, and he was president of the United States. If there really was a network of efficient criminals to do some dirty deeds, you’d think Nixon would have had them on speed dial.
However, while I don’t believe in the idea of vast conspiracies with armies of hired killers, that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy stories about them. Duane Swierczynski (And I won’t be typing that again.) has come up with a highly entertaining twist on the whole conspiracy theory thriller genre.
Charlie Hardie used to work for the cops but these days he’s a professional house sitter. The job lets him indulge in his hobby, binge drinking. When Charlie shows up for a gig in LA, he doesn’t even get his bottle of bourbon open when he’s attacked by a woman hiding in the house. Even more shocking is that she is Lane Madden, a B list actress who frantically claims that people are trying to kill her. Charlie thinks he’s just dealing with another drugged out celebrity until some very bizarre and dangerous shit starts to happen very quickly. It turns out that Charlie has interrupted the Accident People as they were in the midst of their latest project, killing Lane Madden.
The Accident People are a group that specialize in killing high profile targets and providing an air tight cover story so that no questions will be asked. In Lane’s case, their plan to off her via a car accident went off the rails when Lane managed to escape and hide.
Duane S. put a unique twist on the shadowy conspiracy operatives in this with the Accident People. They are made up of a lot of former film people with a ’director’ coming up with the narrative about how they want the death to play out, and then using actors and technical people to make it happen. They’ve also got access to a variety of lethal weapons like poison gas and drugs that induce heart attacks. It’s a little over the top (What conspiracy thriller isn’t?) but it at least puts a thin layer of plausibility and explanation as to just where the hell one would an obtain a covert network of people able to get away with murder.
Fast, dark and fun, this was some high octane reading. Duane S. springs some big surprises in this, and it keeps you guessing throughout. This is the first part of a trilogy so there’s a bit of a cliffhanger at the end. If you’re in the mood for a crime thriller that reads like a good action movie, this fits the bill. ...more
I grew up in a rural area with no shortage of poor rednecks so I thought I knew about country poverty, but the people I knew with their decayed farm hI grew up in a rural area with no shortage of poor rednecks so I thought I knew about country poverty, but the people I knew with their decayed farm houses and trailers lived like Donald Trump compared to the backwoods clan of hill folk in this book.
Ree Dolly is a 16-year old girl who dropped out of high school to take care of her crazy mother and two younger brothers. She lives in a remote part of the Ozarks where the only job opportunities are in crystal meth production. Ree plans on joining the army the second she’s old enough, and she’s trying to prepare her brothers to take care of themselves once she leaves.
Ree’s father, Jessup, hasn’t been home in weeks, but that’s nothing new so she isn’t concerned until a deputy shows up looking for him. Ree is shocked to learn that Jessup is out on bond and used their house as collateral. If he doesn’t show for his court date in a few days, Ree and her family will be homeless during a harsh winter. Ree has no choice but to start asking her extended family if they know where her father is, but this is dangerous because the closed mouth rednecks don’t like people asking questions, even if they’re kin. The only one who even kinda helps her is her crazy Uncle Teardrop who got half his head melted in a meth lab fire, and he’s not exactly reliable. Ree will soon figure out that her daddy got himself into big trouble with the family and looking for him will bring more of the same to her.
Daniel Woodrell created a stark portrait of rural poverty where shooting squirrels for supper and chopping wood for heat are still routine chores. Then he put a character you can’t help but love in the middle of it. Ree is smart and tough, but even rarer in her world, she’s managed to hang on to a sense of dignity. She has no illusions, but she isn’t cynical or cold either. She’s doing everything she can to protect her brothers and mother, and she has a touching relationship with her best friend Gail, who got pregnant and married a man she barely knows.
Short, but powerful, this a terrific novel with a heroine you won’t forget....more
I hated the ‘80s. Hated them while I was living through them and twenty years later I still get slightly queasy when I think about that time. So when I hated the ‘80s. Hated them while I was living through them and twenty years later I still get slightly queasy when I think about that time. So when I was reading this book written in 1987, and the hero is bragging about wearing white jeans with a white jacket to cover up his shoulder holster, I leaned over and vomited with visions of Sonny Crockett dancing in my head. Fortunately, it got much better.
Robert Crais is one of those mystery writers I’ve been meaning to read for a while now. When I came across his first novel in a used bookstore, it seemed like a good time to give him a try. But even aside from the ‘80s setting, we got off to a rocky start.
I just got done with a marathon reading session of the early Spenser books after Robert B. Parker‘s recent death, and all I could think for the first quarter of this book was that Parker should have sued Crais when he had the chance. The main character Elvis Cole seemed like a younger west coast version of Spenser, and his bad-ass friend seemed like a watered down version of Hawk. The wise-ass dialogue, the lavish descriptions of what Elvis was eating, and the tough guy macho schtick caused me to roll my eyes several times because it almost seemed like a parody of Parker. Add in the dated ‘80s element and this thing was headed for 1 star.
Plus, it seemed like Crais was going out of his way to make Elvis a little too quirky. A detective who is a Vietnam vet was a cliché, but ALL the heroes in stories during the ‘80s were Vietnam vets so I can roll with that. But a private detective named Elvis who does yoga and marital arts, decorates his office with Disney mementos, and he has a mean cat that drinks beer?? That’s a writer just reaching to try and make an offbeat and eccentric character. I was not impressed as we were introduced.
Something happened about halfway through the book, though. Crais seemed to find his own rhythm, and Elvis started seeming less like a collection of character traits and morphed into a protagonist I was actually interested in. The story and the action ramped up nicely to a slam-bang ending. If he got that much better over the course of one book, I’m really interested in seeing how much more Crais improved over the years and considering the lists of awards he’s won, it looks like he has been living up to the promise he showed here. ...more
Hitman books are usually entertaining, and I liked the first Quarry book that HCC did. Even though this was recently written, it's a stone cold throwbHitman books are usually entertaining, and I liked the first Quarry book that HCC did. Even though this was recently written, it's a stone cold throwback to another era. This is the kind of crime novel that people used to buy in drug store book racks for less than a dollar. And it is seriously fun.
Collins takes us back to the dark days of 1970 to tell the story of Quarry's first assignment. Along with references to Vietnam veterans, hippies, classic rock, and beautiful coeds it also has a mafia don, a seedy private eye mixed up in a nasty divorce case, rival gangs, sex, and a bit of the old ultra-violence, and of course, Quarry stuck in the middle of the whole mess just trying to kill the college professor he was paid to hit.
Collins has apparently going to fill in more of Quarry's history with these new HCC novels and that's good news for us. ...more
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