Saturday 27 January 2018

CLOSING TIME

CLOSING TIME

With the death toll at the Phoenix Festival rising, Jesse is one of the lucky ones. Unfortunately he can’t see things that way. As soon as he regains consciousness, there’s only one thing on his mind – REVENGE. He enlists Danny’s help to find the men who killed his girlfriend and intends to deliver justice in the old-fashioned way. 

Danny goes along with him, but only on the condition that Jesse doesn’t get his hands dirty when they’re on the job. Unfortunately for Danny, even the best made plans can go awry. 

The explosive and final instalment of the Jesse Garon series.


Closing Time (US)is 99p/99c today and over this weekend. 





Wednesday 24 January 2018

Dancing With Myself: LISA BLACK interviews LISA BLACK


Perish

Me: Lisa Black, despite the courteous welcome, is actually pretty damn antisocial. She would rather be left alone than share her thoughts with someone. She would prefer to sit on the lanai and read a book, or go biking, or frankly do laundry instead of conversing so I gave her a vodka and Sprite Zero Cranberry to loosen her up.

It didn’t really work. It’s unseasonably cold in Florida at the moment, so perhaps I should have gone with a hot chocolate martini. I waded in nonetheless.

Me: Why do you write?

LB: Seriously? Come on! Start with an easier one than that.

Me: Um, okay. Why do you write murder mysteries?

LB: What else is there?

That seemed to settle that, so I tried another direction.

Me: Give us the synopsis of your series.

LB: Maggie is a CSI in Cleveland, Ohio. Jack is a homicide detective who has killed criminals when he did not believe they could be convicted. This is his life’s work, and he’s very serious about it.

Me: How is he different from Dexter or Charles Bronson…what was his name in the movie…

LB: Paul Kersey. They both enjoyed the killing. Jack doesn’t. That’s why he tries to make it as quick and painless as possible. To him it’s an unpleasant but necessary task.

Me: Why do you write about a homicide detective who kills people?

LB: I don’t know. I’m not trying to be a pain! But I don’t know. It just seems to me a logical extension of behavior. You have these bad people doing bad things, so kill them. End of problem. That’s how Jack sees it, and it baffles him just a little why the rest of the world can’t admit that it makes perfect sense.

Me: What if he gets the wrong guy?

LB: He doesn’t.

Me: But what i--

LB: He doesn’t. He’s very, very careful about it. At least he hasn’t yet. I know I should have a plot in which he does kill an innocent person, to make the lesson about why vigilantism is a bad thing and why we have to live by the rule of law. But I think that would be little cliché. Just as I should write a plot in which Maggie encounters someone so terrible or personally threatening that she does a one-eighty and asks Jack to kill them, but I don’t want to do that, either, because it’s been done. 

Me: So your writing is all unique.

LB: I didn’t say that! I’m sure I hit lots of clichés. But only the ones I like. In my opinion, clichés are clichés because they’re universally true, and we never get tired of them.

Me: So what’s this particular book about?

LB: About the financial crisis, believe it or not.

Me: Um--

LB: I got fascinated by the financial meltdown and the housing bust, and had to work it into a book. So Jack and Maggie investigate a predatory lender who is eviscerated on the marble floor of her mansion, and have to enter the shark tank of a financial firm to find out who did it.

Me: Okay. What are your strengths and weaknesses as a writer?

LB: I think one of my strengths is dialogue. Not that I am terribly observant or have a great ear, I don’t, but at least it doesn’t sound as if it were written by an English teacher. And I’m good at sticking to the story without digressions. You can’t be self-indulgent when you write. I’m not too good at describing things, but happily I go by Lawrence Block’s dictum that just about anything can be described in one sentence. My biggest weakness, I think, is characterization. I tend to make my characters, they’re there, they are who they are, and that’s all you need to know. I can’t make them grow and stretch and suffer and have pages of internal monologues very well. I’m accustomed to looking at a murder case with a great deal of detachment, so it’s hard for me to make my characters feel personally involved. That’s necessary for fiction, but it’s a really bad idea for real life.

Me: So at work you’re a hard ass.

[She laughs uproariously.]

LB: I’m about as tough as a half-drowned kitten. I’m a middle-aged white lady from the ‘burbs. But it is the ‘burbs, so I don’t have to be tough. On the other hand, I can stroll up to a badly decomposed corpse without batting an eye, so I don’t feel the need to prove anything to anybody.

Me: Except that you can write?

LB: Well, yeah, that. In my opinion the jury’s still out on that.

Me: Does it get depressing, working around all those decomposed corpses?

LB: No. I prefer to think it has made me appreciate life. I’m very practical about death, in my humble opinion. I don’t want to live forever. My plan is to do everything I want to do, go all the places in the world I want to go, before I’m 60. Then from 60 to 70 I’ll sit on my lanai and drink wine and read books. Then at 70 I’ll be ready to go. Of course that’s easy to say at 54. I might have a different idea at 70.

Me: So you have a bucket list? What’s the most unusual item on it?

LB: I want to be on an episode of Drunk History. I’d be adorable on Drunk History!! I’d tell them about the Torso Murderer of 1930’s Cleveland. Though they usually have more uplifting stories than a never-caught brutal serial killer, so that must be why I’m not on Drunk History. Yeah, that’s it.

Me: Do you want another vodka?

LB: Yes. 

Me: So why do you write?

LB: Now that I can make (some) money at it, I write to make money. But I wrote for many, many years without making any money at all, so I really have no idea why I kept at it. I just did.

Perish is available here.

Sunday 14 January 2018

One Man's Opinion: THE ASPHALT JUNGLE by W R BURNETT



Theo J Hardy is the new Police Commissioner. He’s straight, determined and ready to clean up the act of the force he oversees. He has his hands full with his colleagues and the press, so when the infamous heist planner, Riemenschneider  (aka Herr Doktor, aka The Professor) finishes his spell in prison, Hardy’s not to happy that no one has noticed.  Riemenschneider has disappeared into thin air and the cops have no angle to track him down.

I say thin air. That’s not exactly the case. He’s turned up at a gambling joint run by the shady Cobby and he’s ready to put into motion the perfect crime. To put everything in place, Riemenschneider requires a team and a bank roll. In order to find these, he insists on seeing the biggest cheese and slipperiest bastard on the block, Emmerich.

Now Emmerich’s in a spot of bother. He’s spent all his dough on a dame. As well as supporting his bed-ridden wife at home, he has another house in which his sexy young thing enjoys all the trappings of luxury that money can buy. The tax people are after him and the prospect of a huge hit on a jewellery store is irresistible.  In order to keep the balls in the air, he has to come up with other alternatives and prepares various plans in which he will end up double-crossing someone or other.

Dix is the Italian Stallion. At least he used to be. He’s been tamed by his wife and is besotted with his new son. He’s almost gone straight, but is keen to maintain his wealth to make sure his family are financially secure.

Dix and Brannon are hard men. Big tough guys who both play their cards close to their chests. Dix is batting for the gang, Brannon for Emmerich. There’s a showdown in prospect and you can almost smell the testosterone and the blood from the first moment we sense the pair will come together. The ensuing battle doesn’t disappoint and, as has to be, only one of them can walk away.

Gus is a hunchback. He works a diner counter. He has good beef for his friends and Grade B and C burgers for everyone else. He has a temper, a surprising power and he’s connected to everything that happens in the underworld crime scene. As it happens, he’s also a big fan of Dix’s and will back him all the way and make sure that he stays safe, no matter how many cops or villains are after him. Gus’s knowledge and connections spread everywhere like the sewers under the streets. There’s not a corner he doesn’t know or a sharp he hasn’t come across.

What happens when all these characters come together and the heist is played out is gripping. The plot shifts as fortunes rise and fall and circumstance changes. The robbery itself is tension-fuelled and the police chase is always engaging. The highlight, however, is the interplay between the criminals and the observation of the ways their loyalties split and fuse while their world turns to shit.

In the end, I was rooting for almost everyone. If it were possible, it would have been great for the cops to succeed and for the robbers to get away (most of them, at any rate), but that can’t happen.

The rounding off of each individual’s journey is compelling and triggers an emotional reaction. It didn’t all pan out in the way I hoped it might, but if it had it would have been much less of a book that it is.

The Asphalt Jungle (US) is cracking read. Thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.   

Wednesday 10 January 2018

One Man's Opinion: MATT PHILLIPS interviews MATT PHILLIPS




Here's the deal, buddy—you’re going to tell me what I want to know.



Is that a question?



Nope. It’s an answer.



Okay…



You see this, buddy?



Looks like a—



S&W .45, pal. That’s what it is.



Is it loaded?



I look like the kind of guy who walks around with an unloaded gun?



Not really.



Right-O, buddy. Now, let’s get down to business: Are you Matt Phillips of www.mattphillipswriter.com ?



That’s me. I’m a pulp writer living in San Diego and I—



Shut it, buster. I’m the one doing the asking. Did you write this book, this…Accidental Outlaws ?



Yeah, I did.



https://downandoutbooks.com/bookstore/phillips-accidental-outlaws/You think you’re tough shit, putting in all this crap about guns and crooks and motorcycles and losers? You think you’re some kind of tough mother?



I’m just a guy writing stories. Trying not to die with a blank tombstone, you know?



What’d I say about questions?



You’re asking them.



Right. Don’t make me ask Smith & Wesson to chime in, okay? You write any other books? Or is this a one off thing, a fucking dabbler thing?



I wrote a few.



They got names, buster?



Three Kinds of Fool. Redbone. Bad Luck City. Got a couple more coming. The Bad Kind of Lucky and Countdown.



What I want to know is, who the hell thinks they got the right to publish this stuff? Looks to me like we got a bunch of people out there who think they’re bad asses. Am I right?



I don’t know about that…I mean, you’d have to ask them. I’ve been published by All Due Respect Books, Number Thirteen Press, Near to the Knuckle. Got one coming from Shotgun Honey, too. 



I read this damn book, Accidental Outlaws. I read it. I like the drifter guy…What’s his name?



Packard.



Yeah, the guy who rides the Harley and carries the Colt.



That’s him.



Now that’s a bad ass. Man has some brushes with death, don’t he?



You could call it that.



He also burns some shit to the ground and—



Let’s not ruin it for the kids.



Right. Right. I hear you. Well, shoot. Where can people get this damn piece of literary drivel?



You can pick it up at the Down &Out Books bookstore . They got links there to all the other places people buy books.



Down & Out Books? With a name like that, it sounds like more people thinking they’re bad asses.



You’d have to ask them about that.



Maybe I’ll have Smith & Wesson go over there and—



C’mon, buddy. Go easy.



Alright. I’ll go easy, but you have to make me one promise.



A promise?



Let’s call it a guarantee.



What am I, a used car salesman?



Nope, you’re a writer. And if you don’t do what I say, you’ll be selling cigarette butts to drifters down on skid row.



Okay…



The next story you write…It’s going to be about me.



The hell with that, I don’t have to—



I hear a whisper from Smith & Wesson. You want me to tell you what he’s saying?



Well, shit. How do I know you have a good story? I can’t just—



Oh, I’ve got plenty of stories. Matter of fact, we can start with this one…

Monday 1 January 2018

One Man's Opinion: DIG TWO GRAVES by KEITH NIXON



Happy New Year, folks.

Some reflections. 

When you focus so much upon writing, it can be difficult to separate the personal world from those woven as internal fictions. Or maybe that's just madness. I can't be sure. I’m going to try and sum up 2017 without straying too far into the personal, but feel the need to say that the year for my family and friends was a wonderful one in so many ways and I hope that 2018 comes close to matching that.

As a writer, the terrain was a little more uneven.

The folding of Blasted Heath was a big hit. In a world where exciting fiction needs small publishers, it’s sad to see one of the best crime outlets biting the dust. It had been a long time coming and the sinking of the final nail came as no surprise, but the waves grew larger than I should have let them and I’ve only just managed to bail out the last remnants of the water from the bilges. On the plus side, I’ve been able to put the books out myself and give them a new lease of life. The first three are now live and the fourth and final instalment, Closing Time, is currently available for pre-order.  

I wrote another novel in 2017. It’s the first in what I hope will be another short series. For a while, I thought the book had found a very exciting home. Sadly, after managing to navigate the corridors, the final door remained locked. I’ve become hardened to rejection over the years. If anything, I’ve learned to celebrate it. Unfortunately, I’d made the mistake of allowing my hopes to grow and that meant the fall was bigger than it might have been. Another lesson learned. As it’s a Christmas-set story, I’ll have to be patient and wait until the leaves drop again before I release it. I’m looking forward to finding out what readers think when the time comes. In the meantime, I plan to write the next in the series. It will be great to be reunited with the central characters when the time is right.  

Among the treats of the year, I’d highlight the event I hosted at Coastword with Christopher Brookmyre. He was pleasant and good company off stage and, more importantly, he was hugely entertaining in front of the audience.

It was also great to catch up with Anthony Neil Smith again (check him out if you haven’t) on another of his trips to Scotland.
I was particularly thrilled to finally meet Chris Rhatigan and his family in Edinburgh. We worked together on the Pulp Ink collections and on some short fiction and I’ve always liked his way of being. He might be an interesting and solid guy online, but he’s even more warm and wonderful in person. His writing is rather special. There’s no compromise in his work and you should definitely be reading his books and short stories. Following on from our meeting, I was invited to do some work in the role as editorial consultant for All Due Respect books and that’s been a rewarding experience to date. I hope that somewhere in this process I’ll discover ways to improve as a writer along the way. All Due Respect will have some cracking fiction for you coming soon, so keep those eyes peeled.

I’ve also read some terrific books in 2017 (there were some mediocre and poor ones in there, too, but I haven’t shared my opinions on those). Ed McBain has kept me busy in the best possible way, as have Georges Simenon and W.R. Burnett. I think I’ll be reading more old fiction in the months ahead, but I’ll mix it up with exciting new work at the same time.

One of the new books I’ve enjoyed was my most recent pleasure, Keith Nixon’s Dig Two Graves (US). It’s the first in a series following Detective Solomon Gray. Billed as ‘a gripping crime thriller’, I can confirm that it lives up to that promise.

When a teenage boy is found splattered into the concrete outside a block of flats in Margate, it stirs the muddy pool Solomon Gray’s past. Things become complicated when murder is suspected and a direct link is found between Gray and the case.  

The detective begins to unravel. While he follows the threads in his personal and professional lives, further deaths close in on Gray in ever-decreasing circles until even he struggles to understand why everything he touches crumbles to dust.

Gray is anything but. While he may have a sullen exterior and is haunted by unrelenting ghosts, he also wears a beating heart on his sleeve. His past is bleak. His career is on the ropes. His future offers no hope and if he doesn’t seek medical help he’ll lose his job. He drinks to remember and to forget and rage forever lurks just beneath the surface.  As he wanders from case to case and the world around him paints him into ever-tighter corners, the exploration of his personality drills deeper than many reads in the procedural genre. When married together with the details of the murders he’s investigating, you have a multi-faceted novel that will satisfy much more than just the curiosity as to the identity and motivations of the killers.

There’s a lot of promise here and if you’re looking for a new police series to take you through your reading in 2018, this may well be exactly what you want.      
Dig Two Graves is published by Bastei Entertainment.