IT'S A CRIME! (OR A MYSTERY...)

John Baker's new novel Winged with Death

John Baker's new novel from Flambard Press entitled Winged with Death is about to be published in March (April on Amazon).

Here's another cover that I consider to be quite original and refreshing.  It's great to have some interesting art work over digitally altered and recycled photography.  I love the fact that we have some green on a crime fiction cover for a change.  But to prevent the erroneous thought that this might be a spring publication of a horticultural text, those characters add a layer of darkness that oozes menace.  It looks like the grim reaper leading the recently shrouded-dead in a tango.  And yes, the tango does feature; here's the synopsis:

In 1972, 18-year-old Frederick Boyle arrives by ship in the heat and dust of Montevideo, Uruguay. Equipped with little more than a phrase book and a few pesos, he quickly finds himself renamed Ramon Bolio. Uruguay is a country on the brink of dictatorship and as Ramon finds friends within the resistance movement and marvels at the beautiful girls, the world around him is changing rapidly. Then one night he discovers the tango and begins the long process of becoming a Milonguero – a master of the dance.

Looking back on this time many years later from a new life in York, Ramon finds himself at the heart of a mystery surrounding the disappearance of a teenage girl. He reflects on the threads that link the past to the present, of how the people and events from his time in Uruguay have shaped his life. Winged with Death is a novel about time and tango and revolution, abduction and denial.

How good to see an independent publisher applying originality.  The novel's plot sounds original too.  More on this one in April, when John will also be guest-blogging here.

Connection issues...

I had them today.  At 3am approx, I had lost all connectivity.  Renewed at 6am plus.   Lost again later, which led to the call to the helpline, about after 9am.  We were sorted and renewed later, but it was scarey.  Book talk is secondary to job-hunting and I make no apologies for seeking the ultimate goal - a job in my life.  A job takes precedence and anything else is seasoning.  But God, the fright of no connection.  It could do me in with one foul swoop.

There I was about to read the page headlined...

... "Banks to defy PM with £2bn bonus" when the "Most Read" section in The Times caught my eye.  The most read page tonight is "A guide to the new luxury sex toys".  Apparently, the businesses selling them experienced increased sales last year.  Luxury items.   Good to see something bucking the market trends, though.

Something for the weekend madam? Perhaps a Robert Wilson? The Ignorance of Blood, perhaps?

Yes please, I'll take one of those.  And many thanks.

It's almost three years since The Hidden Assassins (PB referenced) came out in HB in the UK and now, the fourth and final of the Javier Falcón quartet will be published by HarperCollins on 5 March.  It was with great delight this morning that I heard a postman squeeze/shove/thrust/ram a Jiffy bag through my letter box, followed by that old familiar light thump of a hardback landing on the mat, a mere four or so inches down.  Yes, The Ignorance of Blood had arrived, just in time for the weekend and just as I am completing two other novels.  Perfect timing.  (My thanks to HC's PR team who were kind enough to send me a copy after I was cheeky enough to ask after they contacted me to promote Simone van der Vlugt, more on this author later.)

The cover is lovely and the picture above does not do it justice.  To get a better idea, take a look at the author's site, especially the Javier Falcón section which includes the graphics that decorate the back cover.  As for the site, it's one of the best, if not the best author site I've seen so far.  The reader gets to see the author's study and understand how he writes.  It's informative and fun and it also captures the life of the author.  Narrative on the pages often takes the form of short quirkily-headed paragraphs, which adds a dash of originality and is easy to read.  Now then, the synopsis of The Ignorance of Blood runs thus:

In the wake of a terrorist attack on Seville, Inspector Jefe Javier Falcón is determined to fulfil his promise to its citizens - that he will bring the real perpetrators to justice. The violent death of a gangster provides evidence implicating the Russian mafia in the outrage, but pitches Falcón straight into the heart of a turf war over prostitution and drugs.

Now the target of brutal thugs, Falcón finds that those closest to him are also coming under intolerable pressure. His closest friend, who's spying for the Spanish government, reveals that he is being blackmailed by Islamist extremists and Falcón's own lover suffers a mother's worst nightmare.

Confronted by such fanaticism and violence, Falcón realises that only the most ruthless retaliation will work.  But there's a terrible price to pay...

Wilson is a keen international citizen and to date has written books based in Africa, Portugal and Spain.  Now that the fourth and final Falcón has been delivered for readers, a Q&A session with the author at the Amazon book link above suggests he may be moving on to a British protagonist next.  Very conscious of cultural differences and how different Europeans speak - e.g. the Brits use humour to overcome their shyness, whereas the Spanish just simply talk - Wilson enjoyed the freedom when writing of MI5 and counter-terrorism officers in The Ignorance of Blood.  He concluded "It did make me think that I would like to write a thriller with a British protagonist and that’s where I’m headed at the moment."

HarperCollins have kindly offered me the opportunity of interviewing Mr Wilson in the first week of March.  I'll be sure to explore the "What next?" scenario, as I accepted their kind offer, obviously.  It's a privilege.

Finally, if you are an aficionado - and I know there are plenty of you out there - do let me know if you have any burning questions you'd like to put to him, as I will work them in.  Comments here or private emails are both welcome.  But do get back to me by Friday 27 Feb, as this one requires a bit of organisation.

As I have said before on here, I have a few "Everything stops for tea" authors where tea-time becomes concentrated and elongated read-time.  When the next novel comes, everything stops for me to read it (emergencies excluded).  My top three are Robert Wilson, Minette Walters and of course, John Lawton, in no particular order.  I am planning to start The Ignorance of Blood on Sunday, so expect a downslide in net activity.  I'll be busy reading and enjoying, and summarising my thoughts on the novel as soon as I am able.

'"Ooh, it's a real event," she squeals, like a teenager.'  There's nothing like a bit of Friday-in-late-February-morning-sunshine and a welcome thump on the mat to cause a change of plan for the weekend.  Too right; it's called The Ignorance of Blood by Robert Wilson, arriving on a supremely timely basis.

Bits'n'bobs and the economy: the light; the balanced; the bad; the hopeful...

For the Scandinavian crime fiction fans out there - of which there are many, I know - UKTV Food's Market Kitchen series had Icelandic chef Agnar Sverrisson on the programme last week.  He used to be the head chef at Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons and now has his own restaurant in London texture (they have a special Scandinavian five course tasting menu for £39.50).  He prepared Roast (sustainable) Icelandic cod with avocado puree, chorizo and artichokes last week and you can find the recipe here.  (Note: in these troubled times the programme is continually running recipes in a feed two for less than a fiver slot.

[Please bear with me on this little story as it's worth it for the end result.]  I don't find economics the easiest topic to fathom at the best of times.  I gained a BSc. Econ. Hons. majoring in a topic I decline to mention and can still remember sitting through my first lecture in economics at university.  I had done 'A' levels in Maths, Zoology and Chemistry; subjects that tend to be rather precise.  The lecturer presented a graph and declared it was a "demand curve".  I sat there thinking "It's a straight line.  Why isn't he plotting points to prove it?  God, this is theoretical rubbish."  It only gets more complicated after that, so, after three years of it, I never really did make the bar when it came to fathoming the depths of economic theory.

Bloodprint - Kitty Sewell

Following the award winning Ice Trap, Kitty Sewell returns with another psychological thriller in the form of Bloodprint (Simon and Schuster).  Of one thing we can be reliably certain with Sewell - she draws on her own life experiences in creating her fiction, writing about what she knows.  Where Ice Trap drew on an experience of her husband in relation to paternity and her own experiences of living in the cruel north American snow-bound winters, Bloodprint draws on her experiences of having trained and worked as a psychotherapist in the main.  Bloodprint has no restrictions on geography either; the novel manages to cross the Atlantic and take in Cuba, Key West, Georgian Bath in England, a hint of London's sordid backstreets and a foray into Wales (ending up at Tenby, a "must-have-experienced-at-least-once-holiday" for many in the UK, unless suffered in poor Rachel's circumstances).  So what is the novel about?

Following the tragic death of her beloved husband due to a hurricane, Madeleine Frank flees the Florida Keys to Bath where she seeks succour in therapy; training and then starting to work as a psychotherapist in private practice.  Suddenly one day comes a new, unexpected and difficult patient, Rachel.  Initially, she is obviously hostile and appears to be there under duress or to prove a point to someone else.  As their sessions progress, Madeleine discovers that Rachel is a very damaged and abused woman, who thinks most of protecting her son (from the actions and activities of his own father).  Madeleine also finds that Rachel's life throws up a mirror to her own and the secrets of both have more in common than could ever have been imagined.

The suspense in this novel is based on the drip-feed disclosure of secrets from both parties - and what a couple of webs they weave between them.  But will they become interwoven?  Go on, buy the book and find out for yourself.  It's a very good read, full of suspense and the bad side of human beings as well as hope.

Sewell's evocation of time, place, culture, emotion and humanity (or lack of) is excellent.  But Bloodprint did feel overlong, leading to frustration to get at the ending.  Part of Madeleine's persona is that she is an artist as well and the daughter of a renowned artist; her interest in ants, on top of that, tended to distract and frustrate in slowing down the suspense.  I could take the painting - just, but the ant-interest was hard to endure.

Again, this contemporary crime novel reflects society today in covering prostitution, illegal immigrants and trafficked women - a problem we face but would perhaps choose to ignore (as a whole in society - well there's not a sisterhood campaign going on out there right now, is there?).  Bloodprint also covers domestic abuse to some extent.  Sewell makes it all very real because of a child and because of the innocence of that child, both at risk.  Bloodprint will make you think.

Above all and without giving the game away, this is a book about humanity and linking to the next human being and not risking their destroyal because of ambition.  It's a fable of our times, given the current economic climate and a timely publication.  A must-read please!

One last word to S&S: thank you for a trade PB that (1) does not have (non-green) excessive white space on each page (margins on all sides) and, (2) has a font to die for!  This was the best in-bed and low-light book I have read since ... when exactly?  You can see the prose clearly and it's not because the book has been elongated because of extensive white margins.  Lovely stuff!  But let's not forget that some of us want a shorter read and not a longer one.  I already groan at 400+ pages and sigh with exhaustion at the suggestion of more than that, letting it go...  So please publishers, contain your authors' thoughts or your own on what makes a good novel in terms of volume of prose. Word count is not key; the storytelling is.  The quality of the story lies not in word count but in the story itself.  But for readability, S&S have coined it here.  I could not ask for more.

Death Wore White - Jim Kelly

With Death Wore White, Jim Kelly brings a cool modern twist to the traditional locked room murder mystery. Cool, literally, as the locked room in question is a snow-bound lay-by on the East Anglian coast. Nine cars are caught in a snow storm; two hours later, and with no footsteps in the snow, one body and eight suspects are found by DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine, out checking the nearby beach for washed up drums containing potentially hazardous material. This indeed forms a secondary plot which seems all too realistic as the story progresses...
 
Shaw and Valentine were introduced as stage-left characters in Kelly's last Philip Dryden novel, The Skeleton Man, and here he brings them their own investigation. They seem to arrive fully-formed in the reader's subconscious, backgrounds carefully - but with almost throw-away updates - filled in as the novel progresses; these backgrounds form such an important aspect of their working relationship that the reader does need these, and indeed, welcomes them as the case continues.
 
The plot, of necessity, includes a large cast of characters; without exception, they are carefully drawn and relevant. All have their parts to play in what is, in a positive reality, a traditional British mystery which draws the reader in and without doubt provides a criminal read par excellence. Jim Kelly has been awarded the Dagger in the Library from the CWA, and rightly so; his crime novels are eloquent and provide that most welcome of fixes for the crime reader.  Death Wore White is a book you don't want to finish, but know you must.

Excerpt:

Book talk

Following this post earlier today on a good report in BookBrunch on the state of literary criticism and book promotion, I am sad to see the news in The Bookseller that Suzi Feay - the Independent on Sunday's Literary Editor - has been made redundant.  This follows a similar contraction at the Daily Telegraph in December 2008.  Are our newspapers slowly giving up on bringing us news of new books?

Following the sale of London's Evening Standard to a Russian oligarch, the future of The Independent as a whole has been questioned.

We live in changing times.

Treats galore & cover art worthy of a big mention...

The second tranche of the "big snow" may have hit south east Wales overnight but the postman did make it to the door and the letterbox earlier this morning.  For the second time this week, I have received an unexpected Jiffy bag, this time from Macmillan.

And what a beautiful book I found inside.  In these days of the cover art equivalent of mass market bran tub dipping and pure androgyny (neither here nor there banality), this one stands out and I think, like me, you will immediately see why.

It's a great and original cover continuing the retro-theme we saw with L. C. Tyler's first Macmillan New Writing tome The Herring Seller's Apprentice (image below).

Even though supporting Len as a "brand" in some ways, this novel is comic fiction as opposed to comic crime fiction.  All the same, I look forward to reading it and it sounds intriguing.  But what a beautiful cover!  A Very Persistent Illusion will hit your real and virtual book-buying shelves in early March 09.

Good article on BookBrunch today...

By Trevor Dolby, publisher of Preface (Random House imprint), looking at literary criticism and our changing world.  A quote from the article:

"There’s also a myriad of new places people can get their direction. You need to search, but there are terrific reviewers on Amazon and in the blogosphere these days. Many have insight, are well read, and review in a way that is useful, educated and entertaining. There are blogs galore written by dedicated readers who want to share their considerable knowledge and personal taste with infectious energy. Then there’s radio, and TV (if Mariella says buy it I buy two, read one and have the other on toast), every prize under the sun from the Man Booker to the Costa, to the Samuel Johnson to the Romantic Novelists, the Nibbies, and, yes, there’s Richard & Judy. All of them much more relevant and effective at prompting someone to read/buy a particular book. And for the cognoscenti there’s, amongmuch else, the Literary Review and the TLS."

Do read it; it's a good article.