The Book You Have to Read: “Cut Numbers,” by Nick Tosches

(Editor’s note: This is the 118th installment of our ongoing Friday blog series highlighting great but forgotten books. Today’s pick comes from Steven Nester, the host of Poets of the Tabloid Murder, a weekly Internet radio show heard on the Public Radio Exchange [PRX]. Since 1998, he’s been interviewing mystery-fiction authors from Elmore Leonard to George Pelecanos. He’s also a freelance writer who has published in Mystery Scene and Firsts Magazine. Nester currently lives in McKinney, Texas.)

The road to Umberto’s Clam House, the legendary mob hangout in New York’s Little Italy, is paved with wise guys who couldn’t make the grade. Those not culled by their own treacherous kind, or those lacking the street smarts to make a buck the old-fashioned way by scamming or thievery succumb to the soul-numbing grind of chasing down unpaid loans from lushes and degenerate gamblers. Picture Dilbert as a loan shark; but instead of being stuck in a cubicle, he’s trapped in a shot-and-whiskey joint ministering to his penny-ante clients while dreaming of the big score that could save him.

One of those hapless businessmen is Louis Brunellesches, a guy seriously lacking in that one mafia commodity that no criminal can succeed without: respect.

Cut Numbers (1988), by Nick Tosches, is a criminal bildungsroman about a late-blooming hoodlum who feels the chill of autumn as he realizes that the sun won’t shine forever and that he’d better start making hay. Stylistically, this story exists between the pontifical omerta of The Godfather and the poetic crooks of George V. Higgins’ The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Cut Numbers is also in equal parts a mafia thriller, a love story, and a thoughtful meditation on the meaning of life wiseguy-style.

Played across the rundown landscapes of Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Newark, New Jersey, during a time when yuppies ruled the earth, there’s no disco ball illuminating the cast of Cut Numbers. These goons live in the shadows, and their gritty dramas play out unnoticed by the blow-dried young professionals who slowly infiltrate their neighborhoods.

Louis does have one hole card, his uncle Giovanni, who gives him something more valuable than money if only Louis would listen: the wisdom of the ages. An old-school Mafioso in his twilight years, Giovanni begins acting strangely in Louis’ eyes by procuring for himself a passport and for the first time in his life a telephone in his apartment. Louis begins to pay attention. Something’s afoot, but Louis can’t figure out what and the old man’s not talking. Louis may have his hole card, but he can‘t use it if he hasn’t been dealt into the game.

The plan is simple: Uncle Giovanni has a scheme to fix the New York State Lottery that will finance his retirement to the village of his birth in Italy. He also plans to take down an old rival, the skeletal Frank Scarpa, with the same bullet. Sly, practical, and fully aware that there’s nothing new under that lucky old sun, Giovanni is merely dusting off one of his more inspired criminal chestnuts from decades before when he fixed the numbers rackets. Giovanni enlists freelance hit man and all-around-sociopath Joe Brusher to con Scarpa into investing in his scheme. Of course, Scarpa thinks Brusher is on his team. Brusher plans to kill Giovanni for his cut, but the old man has all the angles figured. He knows he has no friends in his line of work and understands all too well that anyone who thinks he has a new idea “is a fool who hasn’t been around.”

In the meantime, Louis and his girlfriend, Donna--the only real light in his life--break up, allowing him the time to focus on his turnaround, which comes in the guise of a loser gambler beholden to him. Louis is wise enough to know it would be mere vanity to believe his deus ex machina could come from anything grander than this. Unable to make good on his debts, the gambler signs over his sideline business to Louis. Dreams Inc. creates custom-made porn in a dingy midtown basement. Louie discovers that the meaning of life, for the time being anyway, is between a woman’s legs--figuratively and literally. Dreams Inc. is a gold mine until he can move on to more respectable endeavors. Inspired by fate (the wind blows an investment prospectus to him as he sits on a park bench), he quickly turns his street knowledge of greed, vigorish, and playing the odds into the seed money of a nascent Wall Street operator. Louis’ girlfriend sees the transformation so clearly that upon their rapprochement she says, “finally, after all these years you’ve discovered America.”

And not a minute too soon, either. Louis is surrounded by septuagenarian mobsters desperate to line their pockets before moving to retirement homes as the bodies pile up. If dreams were nickels, these profligate gangsters ruminate, this time around they’d put them under the mattress instead of in the slot machine.

With mordant wit Tosches shows us the human side of gangsters long before Tony Soprano made his bones, and that gangsters, like normal citizens, take heart medicine, watch their diet, and put their pants on one leg at a time.

While everybody talks in the vernacular in Cut Numbers, Tosches’ writing elevates the philosophical reveries of gangsters and cleanses them of their Brooklyn accents and garlic breath to enable them to reach a certain poetic level that is not out of place. Greed, in the mind of Louis, becomes “that golden stitching in fortune’s skirt that all men coveted,” and at other points his ability to turn the ordinary to the prophetic is spot-on. For instance: After musing on the investment prospect that blew to him in the park, Louis acts in a way no reader could misinterpret: “Then he rolled it into a spyglass and looked through it into the sky.”

A musicologist, autodidact, and scholar of the classics, Tosches sprinkles his narrative with bits of history and philosophy all in the service of putting his money where his mouth is, proving it’s the wise man who understands that everything has been done or said before. He also knows when to stop, before the reader loses the momentum and focus of the moment. The inner dimensions of Cut Numbers makes it a crime book for the thinking person. The action and plotting will have any reader trying to outguess the wise old Giovanni until the last page.

Picking and Choosing

• Salma Hayek may never outdo her eye-popping, jaw-dropping snake dance in the otherwise mediocre 1996 film, From Dusk Till Dawn, but Jennifer Proffitt is applauding her performance as a femme fatale-cum-drug lord in the crime-thriller film Savages, based on Don Winslow’s 2010 novel of the same name. “Even in the trailers,” writes Proffitt, “Hayek’s character, Elena, comes through as ruthless, a woman in a man’s world. What makes Hayek even stronger is her male counterpart and enforcer played by Benicio Del Toro--a character who makes you wonder just how crazy he is and how long it will take before he snaps. You gotta love a woman who can muzzle a creature like that and look awesome doing it.”

• In addition to mid-July’s Poisoned Pen Conference, which I reminded you of in my last wrap-up post, don’t forget about the 2012 Write Now! Conference, “Criminal Minds: Investigating Today’s Writing Scene,” which is being sponsored by the Sisters in Crime Desert Sleuths chapter. As Mystery Fanfare’s Janet Rudolph notes, that convention will be held in Scottsdale, Arizona, on August 11 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. More information can be found here.

• On top of those events, the Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference will take place in Corte Madera, California, from July 19 to 22. Don Winslow (him again?) is to be the keynote speaker.

• Really? The 1983 TV series Casablanca--which featured ex-Starsky & Hutch co-star David Soul in the Humphrey Bogart role, and lasted for a mere five episodes--has been released in DVD format? Hmm. I guess that, with the 70th anniversary of the Bogart film coming up in November, this seemed like a good idea to somebody.

• William Boyd’s quite splendid 2006 spy thriller, Restless, is going to be adapted as a two-part TV miniseries by the Sundance Channel and BBC. “Filming is set to get underway this summer in South Africa and the UK,” reports Omnimystery News. “Restless is expected to air late in the year on BBC One and the Sundance Channel.” Word is that Boyd wrote the screenplay himself.

• Another movie worth adding to my Netflix list.

• Thumbs up to the U.S. Supreme Court for its decision, announced earlier today, to uphold the Affordable Care Act.

• R.I.P., Don Grady. “Although best known as Robbie Douglas on My Three Sons, arguably his biggest legacy will be as a composer,” recalls blogger Terence Towles Canote. “He was very good when it came to writing music.” Canote explains that “Following his acting career, Mr. Grady worked as a composer in television and motion pictures. He served as a composer on the films Switch (1991), Passings (2000), and Good Neighbour (2001). He composed the theme song for the Phil Donahue Show and music for the mini-series The Revolutionary War. He adapted music for Blake Edwards’ movie Skin Deep (1989).”

• Finally, this seemingly good news: Author Janet Evanovich “will team up with Lee Goldberg--author of the ‘Mr. Monk’ novels based on the USA Network series Monk--to write a new book series. According to the publicity materials, it will feature FBI agent Kate Winslow and international fugitive Danny Cole and will be ‘a thrilling combination of crime, romance, and adventure.’ The first in the series is scheduled for publication in Fall 2013.” I only hope this writing partnership works better than the one we were all lead to believe Evanovich had established with Stephen J. Cannell a few years back.

Your Shot at the Magnificent Seven

Here’s a book giveaway that mystery-fiction fans won’t want to miss. With at least half a month still to go before the finalists in this year’s competition for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel are revealed, it’s been announced that readers from around the world will have the chance to win all seven of the longlisted works:

• Collecting Cooper, by Paul Cleave (Simon & Schuster)
• Luther: The Calling, by Neil Cross (Simon & Schuster)
• Furt Bent from Aldaheit, by Jack Eden (Pear Jam Books)
• Traces of Red, by Paddy Richardson (Penguin)
• By Any Means, by Ben Sanders (HarperCollins)
• Bound, by Vanda Symon (Penguin)
• The Catastrophe, by Ian Wedde (Victoria University Press)

Craig Sisterson, the contest’s judging convenor, explains that “Anyone can enter the prize draw simply by e-mailing a photo of themselves reading any New Zealand crime, mystery, or thriller title--contemporary or from days gone by--to ngaiomarshaward@gmail.com.

“The book in your picture doesn’t have to be set in New Zealand, as long as the author is associated with New Zealand (lives in New Zealand, was born or grew up in New Zealand, etc). So whether it's a well-loved copy of a Ngaio Marsh, Elizabeth Messenger, Laurie Mantell, Michael Wall, or Paul Thomas novel that’s been sitting on your bookshelf for years, or a brand-new New Zealand crime novel you’ve recently picked up from a bookstore or library, grab your camera, take a smiling photo of yourself with the book, and send it to ngaiomarshaward@gmail.com. If you need some inspiration when it comes to finding an eligible mystery or thriller novel to read and photograph, check out this list of more than 80 authors and more than 250 titles here.”

These photos, Sisterson says, will be displayed on the Ngaio Marsh Award Facebook page. One winner from among those numerous submissions will be “randomly drawn” and identified in the run-up to the presentation of the 2012 Ngaio Marsh Award at The Press Christchurch Writers’ Festival on September 1.

Again, this drawing is open to readers anywhere on Earth!

Pierce’s Picks: “Death on the Pont Noir”

A weekly alert for followers of crime, mystery, and thriller fiction.

Death on the Pont Noir, by Adrian Magson (Allison & Busby UK):
Set again in 1963, this third novel (after Death on the Rive Nord) to feature French Inspector Lucas Rocco finds Magson’s man puzzling out how a succession of incidents--including a truck collision in the Picardie region and a bar brawl involving intoxicated Englishmen--relate to yet another plot to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle. Rocco is certain that a connection does exist, and therefore he’s recruited to help with the president’s security. But after the inspector deduces the likely location of the next attack on De Gaulle, his superiors express deep doubts about Rocco’s evidence, driving him to investigate the case on his own--a task that will pit him against English gangsters, present him with a corpse in a burned-out ex-army truck, and lead to his suspension. Even amid allegations that he’s been taking bribes, Rocco persists, hoping to head off what could be a disaster for France. Magson’s Rocco mysteries, like the entries in his espionage series starring MI5 agent Harry Tate (Deception), offer ample suspense, a rapid storytelling pace, and intriguing collections of characters. The colorful French backdrop and Magson’s attention to the details of the country’s political history are welcome bonuses.

Tales from the Watery Grave

Naomi Johnson of The Drowning Machine has announced the winners of the 2012 Watery Grave Invitational Short Story Contest, the fourth annual such competition. They are as follows:

1st Prize: “Genny Bow,” by Chris LaTray
2nd Prize: “Footsteps in the Dark” by Mike Wilkerson
3rd Prize: “The Drowning of Jeremiah Fishfinger,” by Ian Ayris
4th Place: “Two Kilograms of Soul,” by Keith Rawson
5th Place: “Abolition of Midnight,” by John Higgins

The full list of finalists can be found here.

As one of the three judges of this year’s WGI (together with blogger/critic Elizabeth A. White and author/blogger Patti Abbott), I echo Johnson’s remark that settling on the winners was an arduous task. “To illustrate how tough it was for these three ... to reach a consensus,” Johnson writes, “NOT ONE story made all three of the judges’ top five lists. There are five to fifteen possibilities for those initial top five lists,  and the judges named 11 stories. Getting to an agreement on just five stories, and the order of those five, was daunting. Our Congress should be so good and graceful at compromise.” Just to demonstrate how difficult it was to reach agreement, in the end, my top choice didn’t make it to the final five.

Johnson hasn’t yet decided whether she will publish the top three WGI vote-getting stories in The Drowning Machine, but if she does, I’ll update this post with the links.

Congratulations to everyone who entered the 2012 contest!

Fruits of a Scandal

There have been more than a few reporter protagonists in mystery, crime, and thriller fiction over the decades. That lineup includes everyone from David Alexander’s Bart Hardin, Frederick Nebel’s Kennedy, and Geoffrey Homes’ Robin Bishop to Jerry Kennealy’s Carroll Quint, Robert Finnegan’s Dan Banion, Edna Buchanan’s Britt Montero, Brad Parks’ Carter Ross, and Gregory McDonald’s Fletch.

But, as I recall in my column this week for Kirkus Reviews, Republican President Richard M. Nixon’s Watergate scandal of the early 1970s spawned its own boomlet of press investigators. I highlight three books in particular from the genre’s post-Watergate era: Conflict of Interest (1976), by Les Whitten; The Henderson Equation (1976), by Warren Adler; and False Front, by Lawrence Meyer (1979).

You will find my full piece here.

Bullet Points: Musings and Memories Edition

• If you live around Harrogate, England, you have the opportunity to enter a contest sponsored in part by the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, which is to be held this year at the Old Swan Hotel, July 19-21. If I understand this challenge correctly, the goal is to compose “crime stories [of] no more than 300 words” long that can be featured in local buses. Entry details are here.

• Suddenly, G.K. Chesteron’s parish priest-cum-sleuth seems to be everywhere. Penguin’s handsome new 768-page volume, The Complete Father Brown Stories, is due out at the end of next month. And Mark Williams, who played Arthur Weasley in the “Harry Potter” films--has reportedly been cast

as Chesterton’s protagonist in a 10-episode BBC-TV drama set to air in early 2013.

• By the way, Omnimystery News mentioned in its item about Weasley’s hiring that “A pilot for a U.S. crime drama, Sanctuary of Fear with Barnard Hughes as Father Brown living in Manhattan, aired in 1979 but was not developed further.” While I don’t remember watching that pilot, YouTube hosts its introductory segment, which I am embedding on the left. Guest starring Kay Lenz and Fred Gwynne, it couldn’t have been all bad. Does anyone out there remember seeing that teleflick?

• The online mag Obit features a good background piece on Patricia Highsmith’s career and her tendency toward “violent thoughts.”

• Writers Gary Phillips and Tony Chavira are combining their respective Webcomics--Bicycle Cop Dave and Brand & Reese, both of which were published on the Los Angeles housing/development Web site FourStory.org--in a single volume,titled Beat L.A., which they hope to produce through the crowd-funding site Kickstar. You can learn more about their project, and help contribute, here.

• The Web site ForeWord Reviews has announced the winners of its 2011 ForeWord Book of the Year Awards in dozens of categories, including Mystery and Thriller/Suspense. In addition, the Editor’s Choice Prize for fiction was given to a murder mystery, All Cry Chaos, by Leonard Rosen (The Permanent Press).

• Author J. Sydney Jones presents, in his blog, an excellent interview with British writer Michael Jecks, the author of 31 books in his Knights Templar series and a “master of the medieval murder mystery,” to quote Jones. You will find their exchange here.

• I remember Doug McClure best for his roles in Checkmate, Barbary Coast, and even The Judge and Jake Wyler, but prefer to overlook performances in such films as this one.

• Another thing I recall fondly: CBS newsman Christopher Glenn’s Saturday morning “In the News” segments, which were geared toward young people and broadcast from 1971 to 1986. In case you didn’t know, Glenn died in 2006 at age 68.

• Mark your calendars, folks: This year’s Poisoned Pen Conference, organized by Arizona’s Poisoned Pen Bookstore, will take place at Phoenix’s historic Biltmore Hotel on Friday, July 13. Guests scheduled to participate include Joseph Kanon, Timothy Hallinan, Alex Kava, Jesse Kellerman, Martin Limon, and Dana Stabenow. The price to attend is just $20. More information is available here.

• Happy (if belated) anniversary to Snubnose Press!

• I’m tardy too in sending out best birthday wishes to Lindsay Wagner, who not only starred in The Bionic Woman (perhaps not her finest moment, all things considered), but put in two appearances on The Rockford Files. Wagner turned 63 years old last Friday.

• And there’s more for Rockford fans: The Second Annual Rockford Files Fest will be held on Saturday July 21, at Paradise Cove in Malibu, California. Among the guests taking part in this celebration will be Jon Winokur, the co-author (with James Garner) of The Garner Files; Garner’s longtime stuntman, Roydon Clark; and Ed Robertson, author of Thirty Years of The Rockford Files: An Inside Look at America’s Greatest Detective Series. If only I lived in Los Angeles ...

• Robert Mitchum, Richard Dreyfuss, Shirley MacLaine, and Jimmy Stewart (partly because of his 1973-1974 CBS-TV mystery series Hawkins) are all featured on Flavorwire’s rundown of “10 Movie Stars Who Bombed on TV.” Speaking of Stewart, if you pay close attention to Flavorwire’s clip from his 1971-1972 sitcom, you’ll spot actress Kate Jackson--beautiful and bare-midriffed in her early 20s (pre-The Rookies, pre-Charlie’s Angels)--guesting as a college student in a fix.

• I, for one, had forgotten that Michelle Pfeiffer starred in the very short-lived, 1980 police drama B.A.D. CATS. “An obvious ripoff of Starsky & Hutch (and executive-produced for the same network by Starsky’s Aaron Spelling), B.A.D. CATS pitted the two male detectives--one blond and one brunette, natch--of the Burglary Auto Detail, Commercial Auto Thefts squad (!) against various hijackers, terrorists, dope fiends, and auto thieves,” writes Marty McKee. “Because Nick and Ocee happen to be former race car drivers, their method of busting crime involves endangering innocent civilians and destroying lots of private property.”

• Even the British are struck by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s reputation for mendacity. “Granted, presidential candidates are no strangers to disingenuous or overstated claims; it's pretty much endemic to the business,” observes The Guardian’s Michael Cohen. “But Romney is doing something very different and far more pernicious. Quite simply, the United States has never been witness to a presidential candidate, in modern American history, who lies as frequently, as flagrantly and as brazenly as Mitt Romney.”

• It will be good to see 1940s comic-book industry troubleshooter Jack Starr return in Seduction of the Innocent, by Max Allan Collins, due out from Hard Case Crime in September.

• Michael Connelly, Robert Dugoni, and David Ellis are the nominees for the 2012 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction.

• And I really do have to rent the DVD set of Burke’s Law sometime. That cop series, originally broadcast on ABC-TV from 1963 to 1965, seems to have lots of fans, but I’ve only seen a few episodes.

The Story Behind the Story: “The Indigo Factor,” by Linda L. Richards

(Editor’s note: This 34th entry in our “Story Behind the Story” series comes from Linda L. Richards, author of the stockbroker Madeline Carter mystery series and two novels (Death Was the Other Woman and Death Was in the Picture) starring Kitty Pangborn, the resourceful “girl Friday” to Los Angeles private eye Dexter Theroux. A resident of British Columbia, Canada, Richards is also the editor of January Magazine, an award-winning book review and author interview site. After releasing a couple of short stories for e-readers--Hitting Back and Dearborn 9-1-1--Richards this week debuts her first original e-novel, The Indigo Factor, which she describes as “Fringe meets The Sixth Sense” and “a taut and muscular thriller that takes readers behind the scenes at the CIA, deep inside a doomsday cult and beyond.” Below, she recalls how she came to write this novel and release it in electronic format, rather than print.)

Write the book that’s in your heart. It’s what I have always told people: readers, students, people who read my blog, basically anyone who will listen.

Write the book that’s in your heart.

And that’s what I’ve always done.

And then there was The Indigo Factor. A few years ago, I started hearing about indigo children, youngsters who--though they may have been diagnosed with learning disabilities--are thought to be endowed with special, perhaps supernatural traits. In my life, I’m always waiting for threes. And hearing about indigo children came to me in threes and I knew I had to act.

I have a difficult time now remembering exactly where the story that would become The Indigo Factor came from, or how the people who inhabit it grew. After a while, see, they were so much a part of me that their origins were lost in the mist of all of that. It seems to me that I blinked my eyes one day, and they were just there: Olivia, peaceful of mien but of a tortured military background; little Faun with her questionable heritage and her unnameable gifts; Royce, just doing his job, because what else is there for him to do?; and Jamison--conflicted, beautiful and, in the end, supremely compromised.

So the story began, as the stories I tell always do, with a distant thought and a feeling. That is, when I began the journey, I didn't know where it would all end or what impossible lengths it would put me through. Every aspect of the novel I researched led more deeply into another, more impossible place. And so what started as a story involving indigo children ended up looking at so much more: cults, physic hot spots, remote viewing, black helicopters. More. So much more, my heart and head swam with the story that was unfolding under my fingers. And still--still--I wrote.

When it was done, I knew it was done. I knew, also, that I could write a sequel: could see the place that this story would go. I sent the book to my agent, who fell in love with it instantly. “Linda,” she said, “you’ve written a bunch of terrific books, but this? This is the best by far.” The Indigo Children, she said, would be my breakthrough book. How could it not be? That was how good she thought it was.

Of course she tried selling it right away. Lots of editors wanted to see it, too. The very best at every house. After a while, reports started coming back. Editors loved The Indigo Factor. I have a file of beautiful notes. Editors loved the story. They loved the characters. They loved the writing. What they didn’t love: where would it fit? I understand. Sure I do. It’s a thriller, at its core. But there are vestiges of the paranormal about it, even though it is not a paranormal book. Editors of paranormal lines felt it was not paranormal enough. Straight-up thriller and mystery editors thought it danced too closely to that edge.

We came very close a couple of times with significant publishers. But for some it was too Canadian. For others, not Canadian enough. And no matter where readers fell on the Canadian thing, we’d be back to the issues of paranormal and not. Suffice it to say this was not a formulaic book and it was difficult to know exactly where it would fit.

I’ve written several novels that were critically acclaimed, and I’ve built a readership for my work, but my numbers were not--are not--significant enough for editors to take a risk. Certainly not for a book that is too Canadian and not Canadian enough, and is not completely paranormal but has too much of the paranormal about it. A book that was not an easy fit.

See, I had set out convinced that the last thing the world needed was the story of yet another damaged cop or another hard-done-by reporter. It seemed to me there were enough of those available already. Maybe more than enough. I didn’t follow a formula. I told the story that was in my heart. What was it? Mystery? Thriller? Art? I didn’t care. I don’t care now. It was a story tinged--touched?--by all the mystery we have in our world. I wanted readers to wonder, when they’d finished it, what was real and what was not. More than one reader told me afterwards that she spent time with Google siphoning the real from the not-so-much. That’s a journey I’m proud of, as well: the one that moves you from your seat.

Several editors suggested that if I made The Indigo Factor into something else--a little more of this, a little less of that--they could find it a comfortable place on their lists. More than once I sat down with the manuscript thinking I would begin that journey of taking what it appeared had become a square peg and stuffing it into a round hole. But it just stuck in my craw.

I loved these characters. I still do. And I love this story. And I’m lucky: authors in other eras would have had to either shove the book into a deep drawer to hope someone stumbled across it when they were dead and had more clout ... or take the trip at altering what they’d written in passion and turning it into something the gatekeepers would accept. For better or for worse, I didn’t have to do those things and have instead opted to have it be my first original novel to debut in electronic formats. A book, also, completely unlike anything I’ve written before. Darker, I think. More violent. And with a reality that shifts so quickly, I hope you don’t ever stay steady on your feet.

Pierce’s Picks: “Death and Transfiguration”

A weekly alert for followers of crime, mystery, and thriller fiction.

Death and Transfiguration, by Gerald Elias (Minotaur):
“Write what you know” goes that dusty old aphorism--and author Elias certainly knows the world of symphony orchestras. Which is part of what makes his Daniel Jacobus mystery novels such rewarding reads. A former violinist with the Boston Symphony and assistant concertmaster with the Utah Symphony, Elias brings his behind-the-scenes experiences to these books, the fourth of which--Death and Transfiguration (the title borrowed from a tone poem by Richard Strauss)--is being released this week. But what also distinguishes Elias’ series is its continuing cast of players, particularly Jacobus, an aging and indefatigably caustic former star violinist who, since falling blind at the apogee of his renown, has become a reluctant music teacher residing in semi-exile in New England. In Death and Transfiguration, his musical expertise and encouragement are solicited by Scheherazade “Sherry” O’Brien, a gifted violinist herself, who’s trying out for the position of concertmaster with Harmonium, a touring orchestra under the direction of Vaclav Herza, a tyrannical conductor who escaped political turmoil in Czechoslovakia during the mid-1950s. Like many of her fellow musicians, O’Brien objects to Maestro Herza’s psychological abuse; but she’s willing to go one risky step further than the rest, filing a grievance against this man who will help decide her professional fate. When, after a disastrous audition, O’Brien is found with her wrists slashed, amateur sleuth Jacobus determines to bring Herza down by digging into his murky history in Prague and Tokyo, hoping thereby to quiet the guilt he feels for not helping O’Brien more than he did. Jacobus may not be the only one, however, who’s seeking revenge against the egotistical maestro.

READ MORE: “Gerald Elias,” by Raymond Taras (Author Interviews).

Nazis Coming Soon to Your Mailbox

One week ago I announced The Rap Sheet’s latest book-giveaway competition, with the prizes being three copies of Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris, a true-crime work by David King. Today, following a random pick of names from the dozens entered in this drawing, I can now reveal the winners. They are:

• Randy Johnson of Eden, North Carolina
• Sherri Mayer of Frederick, Maryland
• Barney Retallick of Seattle, Washington

Publisher Broadway Books has promised to drop copies of King’s volume into the mail for those three lucky winners post-haste.

Thanks to everyone who entered. I’m sorry if you didn’t win, but there are always more such giveaways to come. Please stay tuned.

Getting Neddy

The Crime Writers’ Association of Australia has announced its longlist of nominees for the 17th annual Ned Kelly Awards as follows:

Best First Fiction:
• Ludo, by Boyd Anderson
• An Absence of Discretion, by Allan Barbeler
• Tobacco Stained Mountain Goat, by Andrez Bergen
• When We Have Wings, by Claire Corbett
• The Precipice, by Virginia Duigan
• The Brotherhood, by Y.A. Erskine
• Mad Men, Bad Girls and the Guerrilla Knitter’s Institute,
by Maggie Groff
• Watch Out for Me, by Sylvia Johnson
• Berlin Syndrome, by Melanie Joosten
• Harry Curry: Counsel of Choice, by Stuart Littlemore
• Murder and Redemption, by Noel Mealey
• The Rook, by Daniel O’Malley
• Prohibited Zone, by Alastair Sarre
• The Cartographer, by Peter Twohig
• The Courier’s New Bicycle, by Kim Westwood
• Casino Kurnell, by Gas Wylde

Best Fiction:
• De Luxe, by Lenny Bartulin
• Hindsight, A.A. Bell
• After the Darkness, by Honey Brown
• Pig Boy, by J.C. Burke
• Comeback, by Peter Corris
• Siren’s Sting, by Miranda Darling
• Whispering Death, by Garry Disher
• Scared Yet? by Jaye Ford
• Cooking the Books, by Kerry Greenwood
• The Race, by Brett Hoffmann
• Silent Fear, by Katherine Howell
• The Broken One, by Stephen M. Irwin
• The Life, by Malcolm Knox
• The Sixth Key, by Adriana Koulias
• Dangerously Placed, by Nansi Kunze
• The Map, by Tobsha Learner
• Harry Curry: Counsel of Choice, by Stuart Littlemore
• The Prodigal Son, by Colleen McCullough
• Chelsea Mansions, by Barry Maitland
• Rip Off, by Kel Robertson
• The Wreckage, by Michael Robotham
• Love, Honour & O’Brien, by Jennifer Rowe
• A Common Loss, by Kirsten Tranter
• The Cartographer, by Peter Twohig
• The Courier’s New Bicycle, by Kim Westwood
• A Dissection of Murder, by Felicity Young

Best True Crime:
• The Double Life of Herman Rockefeller, by Hilary Bonney
• Mad Dog, by Peter Corris
• Sins of the Father, by Eamonn Duff
• Call Me Cruel, by Michael Duffy
• Abandoned Women, by Lucy Frost
• A Tragedy in Two Acts, by Fiona Harari
• Partners and Crime, by Rochelle Jackson
• Nice Girl, by Rachael Jane Chin
• Detective Piggot’s Casebook, by Kevin Morgan
• Gun Alley, by Kevin Morgan
• Gangland Melbourne, by James Morton and Susanna Lobez
• Gangland Sydney, by James Morton and Susanna Lobez
• The Cruel City, by Stephen Orr
• Cold Case File, by Liz Porter
• Road to Nowhere, by Mark “Chopper” Read
• Perfect Stranger, by Kay Schubert
• Outlaws, by Adam Shand
• The Prez, by David Spiteri

Congratulations to all of the nominees so far. Contenders for the 2012 S.D. Harvey Short Story Award have yet to be declared.

I don’t see any info on the CWAA Web site about when a list of finalists for this year’s Neddies will be released, but if precedent holds, that should come around the beginning of August, with the winners in each category to be named at the end of August.

(Hat tip to AustCrime.)

A Gathering of Criminal Masterminds

Diamond Dagger winner Frederick Forsyth being interviewed by Peter Guttridge at last month’s CrimeFest in Bristol

During my many travels over the years to crime and thriller conventions, I’ve had some great times. And last month’s CrimeFest in Bristol, England (the fifth year for this convention), was no exception. As I chatted up my fellow attendees, they all suggested it was the best fest yet produced by the organizing team of Adrian Muller and Myles Alfrey (plus Donna Moore, Liz Hatherell, Anne Magson, etc). The weather for this conference was glorious, and the familiar surroundings of the Marriott in College Green (not to mention that hotel’s helpful staff) made it a splendid venue in such a historic city.

The guest of honor list was also remarkable. No wonder all of the events, including the gala dinner, were sold out.

Even the panel discussions, which at other conventions have seemed somewhat less than fresh (sending many attendees in search of the nearest bar), were truly engaging, standing-room-only affairs. For once, I sat through as many panels as I could. (This may have to do in part, though, with the fact that I was doing research. I’ll be the programming chair for Bouchercon 2015, to be held in Raleigh, North Carolina, where I hope to contribute some British and international flavor to America’s Deep South. So I was interested in observing how other panels are engineered.)

I was also pleased to see that Blackwell Books, under the direction of Heffer’s Cambridge store manager Richard Reynolds, was doing tremendous business with an extensive array of titles--books written by CrimeFest’s many attending authors. In these times of economic austerity and gloomy media reports, it was encouraging to witness such interest expressed in reading, writing, and print publishing.

The Shots e-zine gang showed up in force. Editor Mike Stotter and I were joined by the energetic Ayo Onatade (who did her live-blogging at seriously odd hours--see here, here, here, and here); columnist Kirstie Long (who spent most of her time in the bar, networking with the authors and publishers--and drinking); Shots TV and book critic Robin Jarrosi; writer-reviewer Adrian Magson; copy editor Liz Hatherell (who lent assistance to Muller and Alfrey, and was never in one spot for more than a nanosecond); and finally, from the Shots Alumni Association, writer, critic, and broadcaster Peter Guttridge.

Also on hand were a number of British crime-fiction critics, including Barry Forshaw, Maxim Jakubowski, and Jake Kerridge, as well as Janet Laurence from the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA).

Thursday, May 24: CrimeFest kicked off at midday with three interesting panel discussions on a single track: “Conspiracies” with former CWA chair Tom Harper; “Cops and Killers” with ex-cop and thriller writer Matt Hilton; and “Forgotten Authors,” chaired by author Martin Edwards (who else?). The signal event of that day, though, was the very revealing interview with 2012’s CWA Diamond Dagger winner, Frederick Forsyth, conducted by Peter Guttridge. We learned how Forsyth managed to get his 1971 debut novel, The Day of the Jackal, into print--despite the fact that the story’s outcome is known, its writing style is dispassionate, and the central protagonist is unnamed. The audience was amused to hear that Forsyth’s publisher asked him if he had any other ideas to offer, which led to a three-book deal; his tale of fleeing Nazis, The Odessa File (1972), was his second, followed by The Dogs of War (1974), which fictionalized Forsyth’s experiences in war-torn Biafra during the 1960s. In closing, Forsyth explained that he has one more book planned before he retires from fiction writing, with the plot to revolve around cyber-espionage--even though he admits he is not terribly “techno-savvy” (he still has no e-mail address, and he continues to write on an electric typewriter, as opposed to a PC, so he had to mine his sources for the technological details that pepper his most recent novel, 2010’s The Cobra).

(Left) Irish writer Declan Burke with Martin Edwards

Then, after a quick snifter of gin, I was off to participate in the famous annual Pub Quiz, which this year was held at the Marriott and included the option of a pub supper. My team this time around was called The Icemen, as it also featured award-winning Icelandic crime writer Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and her delightful husband, Ollie; fellow Icelandic novelist Ragnar Jónasson; and crime-fiction enthusiast Mike Linane. The quiz was remarkably good fun and was again chaired by Guttridge. Unfortunately, I had to leave early due to a dinner engagement, but I was delighted later to hear that my team had earned fifth-place honors--not bad, considering the impressive participation of crime-fiction masterminds in that quiz (and my self-inflicted handicap of gin).

Dinner in uptown Bristol came courtesy of Quercus Publishing’s Christopher MacLehose and Nicci Praca. During the repast, Stotter, Ayo, and I broke bread with authors Åsa Larsson (no relation to the late Stieg), Martin Walker, and Elly Griffiths. That was followed by late night drinks back at the Marriott.

Friday, May 25: With the programming now reverting to two tracks of panels, together with “In the Spotlight” sessions, I found it difficult to choose from the eclectic array on offer. Donna Moore’s obligatory humorous look at the “Bad and Dangerous” (featuring authors Michael Malone, Helen Fitzgerald, Doug Lindsey, and Damien Seaman) was funnier than advertised. Seeing James Sallis, fresh from film success with his noir piece, Drive, was a genuine treat, especially as No Exit Press has just reissued his entire canon with a wonderful range of minimalist covers. It was good to see that CrimeFest was being supported by sponsorships such as the Norwegian Embassy, which brought Thomas Enger, Ragnar Jonasson, Åsa Larsson, and Gunnar Staalesen to Bristol, where they were interrogated by Nordic crime-fiction expert Forshaw. And there was standing room only for Zoe Sharp’s panel featuring Lee Child, former CWA Diamond Dagger winner Sue Grafton, Brian McGilloway, and Jacqueline Winspear.


Jeffery Deaver with Rap Sheet contributor Ali Karim

But my personal highlight of the day was Jake Kerridge’s interview with CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger winner Jeffery Deaver, probably one of the biggest advocates of reading I know. During the course of their exchange, Deaver acknowledged that his 2004 standalone novel, Garden of Beasts, ranks as is his favorite among his numerous novels and was perhaps his response to the September 11, 2001, attacks. I recall interviewing Deaver in 2003 at the inaugural Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, when he first mentioned that he was working on this novel--one that I continue to place right up there with The Day of the Jackal in terms of its espionage thrills.

Friday’s final event was the announcement of books and authors shortlisted for the 2012 Dagger Awards. This took place during a reception where we were treated to wine and excellent presentations by the Crime Writers’ Association’s judging chairs. CWA chair Peter James opened this event, in his usual self-deprecating manner, by saying that the reason he’s now serving a remarkable second term in that position is because the organization couldn’t find any other “mug” prepared to devote so much time to the crime-fiction cause. The reality, however, is that James is a prefect chair for the CWA, with his enthusiasm for the genre and his public profile, but most importantly because of his sense of humor and proportion.

This year’s Dagger Award winners will be named during a black-tie dinner on July 5. The event will be open to all CWA members--including Frederick Forsyth, who has previously been announced as the 2012 Diamond Dagger Award recipient.

Saturday, May 26: The penultimate--and rather hot--day would become a challenge as I tried to plan my way through the two-track program. Scheduled to put in appearances were Lee Child, P.D. James, Philip Kerr, Paul Doherty, Sue Grafton, James Sallis, Jeffery Deaver, Simon Brett, Andrew Taylor, and many, many others. CrimeFest organizers had also scheduled some of the biggest-name interviewers and moderators, including Barry Forshaw, Maxim Jakubowski, Peter Guttridge, and Jake Kerridge--all of whom wound up performing admirably, eliciting fascinating insights into the genre from their interviewees. The special treat for me was Søren Sveistrup, the Danish screenwriter of The Killing, in conversation with David Hewson, the man who’s novelized the first series of that popular TV show. Supplying them both with questions was the ubiquitous Forshaw. This was a rare opportunity to meet Sveistrop, who generally shuns the glare of the camera, preferring to be behind the lens rather than in front of it. Not surprisingly, seats for this conversation/interview were sold out.

(Right) Ayo Onatade with Lee Child

Following that, we were treated to a special reception by Professor Sue Black of the Center for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID) at Scotland’s University of Dundee. She is currently endeavoring to put together £1 million to help build a new research center/morgue on her campus. That money is being raised through a “Million for a Morgue” campaign, which is soliciting funds to have one prominent crime novelist lend his or her name to the new facility. Three of the authors supporting that campaign--Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, and Peter James--told this evening’s listeners why they or their fictional characters deserve to be so immortalized. But it was Scottish author Val McDermid to whom Black first went for help in setting up this campaign, and she has since promoted the venture widely. “All crime writers rely on the help of forensics experts like Professor Sue Black to make sure we get the details right,” McDermid has said before. “Giving a bit of help back in return is the least we can do. I’ve known Sue for many years and the work she and her team do is absolutely fantastic. This is a great project and one which I hope you--as readers who also benefit from the great help the forensics people give us--can generously support.” Click here to make your own contribution to the project.


Sophia Karim with audio book reader Saul Reichlin, nominated this year for a Sounds of Crime Award

After talking with Professor Black, I went to find my daughter Sophia. She had just finished her second-year exams in Bristol, where she is studying Statistics and Mathematics, and as a reward, I’d organized her a seat at that evening’s CrimeFest Gala Dinner. Sophia has been to Harrogate and CrimeFest events in the past, and enjoys meeting writers, editors, agents, publishers, bloggers, and readers. She was especially delighted when she saw that (thanks to the efforts of Messrs. Muller and Alfrey) she was to be seated right next to Lee Child. The dinner was marvelous, of course, and the postprandial speech by toastmaster Deaver was amusing in the extreme, filled with witty remarks on the writing life. Particularly delightful was an anecdote he’d borrowed from Lawrence Block, about how a reader had asked Sue Grafton for the proper reading order of her Kinsey Millhone novels.

Soon afterward, this year’s CrimeFest guests of honor--Child, Grafton, and Swedish genre giants Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström--were invited up to the podium and asked to address the assemblage. And then came the announcement of this year’s CrimeFest Award winners, followed by a trip back to the hotel’s bar to toast the prize recipients and other nominees. As there were many of those to be heralded, the night proved to be a long one.

Sunday, May 27: Even on this, the last day of the conference, the program of events was packed. For attendees who were able to awaken without the aid of aspirin, there were four diverse panels on offer, featuring authors such as Michael Ridpath, Laura Wilson, Sophie Hannah, Martin Edwards, Tom Harper, and others. Janet Laurence also interviewed the Swedish duo, Roslund and Hellström, who are known for posing moral dilemmas in their usually dark novels. It was good to hear, during that exchange, that a film version of their first novel, the terrifying The Beast, is due out later this year from Sweden’s Yellow Bird film company, which has already given us the Swedish Wallander TV series and three movies based on Stieg Larsson’s books.

(Left) Author Brian McGilloway with blogger Peter Rozovsky

The last event for CrimeFest 2012 was the Criminal Mastermind Contest, chaired by critic-editor Maxim Jakubowski and aided by Liz Hatherell and Ayo Onatade. Competing were Peter Guttridge, answering questions about his favorite topic, the novels and films of Richard Stark, aka Donald E. Westlake; gin lover and blogger Peter Rozovsky, all the way over from Philadelphia and fielding queries about Dashiell Hammett; Telegraph crime-fiction critic Jake Kerridge, who chose Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion novels as his preferred topic; and blogger Rhian Davies, who had selected as her topic “crime novel debuts since 2010”--rather apt, since she is one of the judges of the CWA New Blood Dagger Award. The quiz was lively and tough, as expected, and Gutteridge won in a nerve-shredding finale against Rozovsky.

With all of that behind me, I thanked the CrimeFest team for their efforts, inserted next year’s conference into my diary, and headed homeward. If you’d like to view some video snippets of the panel discussions for yourself, simply click here. To enjoy some more scenes from CrimeFest 2012, keep scrolling down this page.


Quercus Publishing editor Christopher MacLehose together with authors Åsa Larsson and Peter James


Shots editor Mike Stotter, author James Sallis, and ubiquitous British correspondent Ali Karim


P.D. James being interviewed by critic Barry Forshaw


Back row: authors Börge Hellström, Anders Roslund, Jeffery Deaver, Sue Grafton, and Lee Child. Front row: CrimeFest organizers Myles Alfrey and Adrian Muller

All photos in this post © 2012 by Ali Karim

Take Your Chances

Don’t forget: Tomorrow is the final day to register for The Rap Sheet’s latest book giveaway. The prizes this time are three copies of Death in the City of Light, David King’s non-fiction account of a serial killer stalking Nazi-occupied Paris in the 1940s.

If you’d like to enter this drawing, all you have to do is e-mail your name and snail-mail address to jpwrites@wordcuts.org. And be sure to write “Death in the City of Light Contest” in the subject line. Entries will be accepted until midnight on Monday. Winners will be chosen at random, and their names will be listed on this page the following day. Sorry, but this drawing is open to U.S. residents only.

Watergate Lives On

It was 40 years ago today that operatives linked to Republican President Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign broke into Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., looking for material that could be used to damage then presidential candidate Senator George McGovern (D-South Dakota) and his fellow Dems. Police arrested five men for the crime. Those five, and others, were subsequently tried on charges of conspiracy, burglary, and violation of federal wiretapping laws. The Watergate break-in, and the White House cover-up that followed, led to Nixon--who was facing impeachment and removal from office--becoming the only U.S. president ever to resign.

Click here to read more.

Much-delayed Satisfaction?

Well, it’s finally supposed to be the night when viewers learn who killed Rosie Larsen on The Killing, AMC-TV’s version of the Danish series Forbrydelsen. I can’t say I give a damn anymore.

I sat through Season 1 of this ponderously paced and increasingly soap-operaish American adaptation of the show, only to be disappointed when the last episode still refused to disclose the identity of young Rosie’s slayer. I wasn’t willing to invest my time in the sophomore season of the drama. But if you’re still among those waiting to learn whodunit, the two-part season finale of The Killing will begin tonight at 9 p.m. A brief preview is available here.

READ MORE: “The Killing: So That’s Who Murdered Rosie?,” by Willa Paskin (Salon); “The Killing, Season 2: Post-finale Thoughts” (Omnimystery News); “Critic’s Notebook: Some (Possibly) Last Words on The Killing,” by Robert Lloyd (Los Angeles Times).

Stalk of the Town

The blog Pop Culture Nerd conducted an online survey in May to choose the winners of its 2012 Stalker Awards. Results were supposed to have been announced during the first week of June, but instead they weren’t posted until Sunday, June 10. We completely missed spotting them as a result. Rather than ignore the contest outcome and hope nobody noticed, we now bring those results to you belatedly.

Novel You Shoved Most Often in People’s Faces:
The End of Everything, by Megan Abbott

Lead Character You Most Want as a Friend:
Charlie Hardie, from Fun & Games, by Duane Swierczynski

Most Scene-stealing Supporting Character:
Elvis Cole, from The Sentry, by Robert Crais

Most Throat-grabbing Opening Sentence:
“There are drunken assholes, and there are assholes who are drunks.” -- from Purgatory Chasm, by Steve Ulfelder

Most Memorable Dialogue:
Fun & Games, by Duane Swierczynski

Catchiest Title:
The Boy in the Suitcase, by Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis

Most Eye-Popping Cover: Getting Off, by Lawrence Block

Favorite Author on Social Media: Meg Gardiner

Most Criminally Underrated Author: Eric Beetner

The full list of nominees can be found here.

Filing the Macavitys

Sara Gran, Marcus Sakey, John Curran, Dana Cameron, Michael Koryta, and Jim Fusilli are among the numerous authors nominated for 2012 Macavity Awards. As editor and Macavity organizer Janet Rudolph explains in Mystery Fanfare, “This award is nominated by and voted on by members and supporters of Mystery Readers International, as well as subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal.” Winners will be announced in October during Bouchercon in Cleveland, Ohio.

Best Mystery Novel:
• 1222, by Anne Holt, translated by Marlaine Delargy (Scribner)
• Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, by Sara Gran
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• The House of Silk, by Anthony Horowitz (Mulholland)
• The Ridge, by Michael Koryta (Little, Brown)
• A Trick of the Light, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
• The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes, by Marcus Sakey (Dutton)
• Hell & Gone, by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland)

Best First Mystery Novel:
• Learning to Swim, by Sara J. Henry (Crown)
• Nazareth Child, by Darrell James (Midnight Ink)
• Turn of Mind, by Alice LaPlante (Atlantic Monthly)
• All Cry Chaos, by Leonard Rosen (Permanent Press)
• The Informationist, by Taylor Stevens (Crown)
• Before I Go to Sleep, by S.J. Watson (Harper)

Best Mystery-Related Non-fiction:
• Books, Crooks and Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure, by Leslie Budewitz (Linden)
• Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets from Her Notebooks, by John Curran (HarperCollins)
• Wilkie Collins, Vera Caspary and the Evolution of the Casebook Novel, by A.B. Emrys (McFarland)
• The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge,
by T.J. English (Morrow)
• The Sookie Stackhouse Companion, edited by Charlaine Harris (Ace)

Best Mystery Short Story:
• “Disarming,” by Dana Cameron (Ellery Queen Mystery
Magazine, June 2011)
• “Facts Exhibiting Wantonness,” by Trina Corey
(EQMM, November 2011)
• “Palace by the Lake,” by Daryl Wood Gerber (from Fish Tales: The Guppy Anthology, edited by Ramona DeFelice Long; Wildside)
• “Truth and Consequences,” by Barb Goffman (from Mystery Times Ten, edited by MaryChris Bradley; Buddhapuss Ink)
• “Heat of Passion,” by Kathleen Ryan (A Twist of Noir, February 2011)
• “The Man Who Took His Hat Off to the Driver of the Train,”
by Peter Turnbull (EQMM, March/April 2011)

Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award:
• Naughty in Nice, by Rhys Bowen (Berkley)
• Narrows Gate, by Jim Fusilli (AmazonEncore)
• Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains, by Catriona McPherson (Thomas Dunne/Minotaur)
• Mercury’s Rise, by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press)
• Troubled Bones, by Jeri Westerson (Minotaur)
• A Lesson in Secrets, by Jacqueline Winspear (Harper)

Congratulations to all of this year’s contenders!

A Monster in Paris

OK, so you weren’t among the winners of last week’s drawing for three free copies of J. Robert Janes’ new historical mystery, Bellringer. Get over it, because we have another contest beginning today.

This time, though, we’re going to give away copies of a true-crime book, Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris, by David King, which was just released in a Broadway Paperbacks edition.

Here’s part of what Salon senior writer Laura Miller said about King’s book after its original publication last fall:

“Death in the City of Light” recounts the infamous case of Marcel Petiot, a physician believed to have killed over 60 people in Paris between 1942 and 1944, under the Nazi occupation of the city. King presents the story as a procedural, beginning with the day in March 1944 when residents in the chic 16th arrondissement complained of a foul smoke billowing out of a neighboring townhouse. When attempts to rouse the house’s inhabitants proved fruitless, the fire department was called. In the basement, they found a coal stove with the “charred remains of a human hand” sticking out of it. Body parts and bones littered the floor. Further police investigations discovered a pit in which numerous corpses in various stages of decay had been covered with quicklime. In total, over 11 pounds of human hair would be gathered from the remains.

If King’s book has a protagonist, it’s police detective Victor Massu (an inspiration for Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret), who picked up the case at the beginning. Determining, capturing and convicting the culprit, however, would prove supremely challenging in a city whose civil institutions were hopelessly compromised under Nazi rule. It was difficult for anyone to sort out wrong from right. For example, the patrolmen initially dispatched to the scene allowed a man claiming to be the brother of the owner to enter the building and take away some undetermined piece of evidence. Why? Because he assured them that the house was a Resistance outpost and that the bodies inside it were the remains of “Germans and traitors to our country.”

The publisher’s description picks up the plot from there:

The main suspect was Dr. Marcel Petiot, a handsome, charming physician with remarkable charisma. He was the “People’s Doctor,” known for his many acts of kindness and generosity, not least in providing free medical care for the poor. Petiot, however, would soon be charged with twenty-seven murders, though authorities suspected the total was considerably higher, perhaps even as many as 150.

Who was being slaughtered, and why? Was Petiot a sexual sadist, as the press suggested, killing for thrills? Was he allied with the Gestapo, or, on the contrary, the French Resistance? Or did he work for no one other than himself? Trying to solve the many mysteries of the case, Massu would unravel a plot of unspeakable deviousness.

When Petiot was finally arrested, the French police hoped for answers. But the trial soon became a circus. Attempting to try all twenty-seven cases at once, the prosecution stumbled in its marathon cross-examinations, and Petiot, enjoying the spotlight, responded with astonishing ease. His attorney, René Floriot, a rising star in the world of criminal defense, also effectively, if aggressively, countered the charges. Soon, despite a team of prosecuting attorneys, dozens of witnesses, and over one ton of evidence, Petiot’s brilliance and wit threatened to win the day.

All of this makes me want to pick up King’s book right away, locate a quiet corner in which to read, and find out what happened next.

If you’re similarly inspired, and would like to win a copy of Death in the City of Light, then you are in luck. King’s publisher has agreed to send three free editions to Rap Sheet readers. To have a chance at scoring one, all you need do is e-mail your name and snail-mail address to jpwrites@wordcuts.org. And be sure to write “Death in the City of Light Contest” in the subject line. Entries will be accepted between now and midnight next Monday, June 18. Winners will be chosen at random, and their names will be listed on this page the following day. Sorry, but this drawing is open to U.S. residents only.

Don’t dally. Get your entry in right away!

Double Billingham

Tonight will bring the U.S. TV debut of Thorne, a British-made adaptation of author Mark Billingham’s Detective Inspector Tom Thorne novels, starring David Morrissey.

When Thorne was shown on Sky1 in the UK last fall, it rolled out over six weekly episodes. However, premium channel Encore has scheduled the show to run just two nights. This evening’s presentation will be Thorne: Sleepyhead (an adaptation of Billingham’s first, 2001 Thorne book), while tomorrow night’s follow-up will be Thorne: Scaredy Cat. Omnimystery News has a description of each episode.

Both shows are set to begin at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

I don’t find anything online about Sky1 continuing Thorne beyond these first two adaptations. But Billingham dropped me a brief note this morning, in which he writes: “Hopefully, there will be more TV to come as the BBC here has optioned my earlier standalone, In the Dark, and the forthcoming standalone, Rush of Blood.”

It’s only too bad that I don’t subscribe to Encore TV, so will have to miss this week’s showing of Thorne. I see, though, that the mini-series is available in an all-regions Blu-ray set, so there’s an opportunity to appreciate it sometime in the near future.

READ MORE: “A Conversation with Mark Billingham,” by Michael Connelly (Mulholland Books); “A Conversation with Mark Billingham, Part II,” by Michael Connelly (Mulholland Books).

Dark Acts Under the Sun

Are you looking for something new to read over the next three summer months, something you can be sure will be worth your time? My top 10 picks, from both sides of the Atlantic, are featured today on the Kirkus Reviews site. Among my choices are Gerald Elias’ Death and Transfiguration, Tana French’s Broken Harbor, Don Winslow’s The Kings of Cool, and Ariel S. Winter’s The Twenty-Year Death.

You’ll find my full Kirkus column here.

READ MORE: “Top 10: A Summer of Crime,” by RoughJustice (Crime Fiction Lover); “Looking Ahead: New 2012 Crime Fiction Novels,” by Keishon (Yet Another Crime Fiction Blog); “Summertime, When the Reading Is Easy,” by B.V. Lawson (In Reference to Crime).

Pierce’s Picks: “Cop to Corpse”

A weekly alert for followers of crime, mystery, and thriller fiction.

Cop to Corpse, by Peter Lovesey (Soho Crime):
Chief Superintendent Peter Diamond has never been even close to the most popular fellow in British police circles. But he comes in for particular derision in Cop to Corpse, the fine sequel to last year’s Stagestruck. A sniper is on the loose around the historic spa town of Bath, and there seems to be only one type of target in his (or her) sights: cops. Police Constable Harry Tracker has just become the third officer to fall in several weeks, killed with a clean shot to the head. Previous efforts to find the elusive assassin and terminate this bloody rampage have been bungled, so Diamond is called in to help. Whilst trampling the toes of a pompous rival who’s claimed the investigation as his own, the caustic but competent Diamond begins to develop some theories about the murders after he talks with the widows of the dead officers. His most controversial suggestion: that the killer might be another policeman. Relegated to crutches after a frightening encounter with an unidentified motorcyclist, Diamond struggles to hold onto the trust and loyalty of his own squad as he races to capture the so-called Somerset Sniper before more deadly shots can be fired.

Anthonys Make a Showing

First it was New Zealand’s Ngaio Marsh Awards. Now this morning brings the nominees, in five categories, for the 2012 Anthony Awards. The winners of these commendations will be announced in October during Bouchercon in Cleveland, Ohio.

Best Novel:
• The End of Everything, by Megan Abbott
(Reagan Arthur/Little, Brown)
• Hurt Machine, by Reed Farrel Coleman (Tyrus)
• The Drop, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
• A Trick of the Light, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
• One Was a Soldier, by Julia Spencer-Fleming
(Thomas Dunne/Minotaur)

Best First Novel:
• Learning to Swim, by Sara J. Henry (Crown)
• Nazareth Child, by Darrell James (Midnight Ink)
• All Cry Chaos, by Leonard Rosen (The Permanent Press)
• Who Do, Voodoo?, by Rochelle Staab (Berkley Prime Crime)
• The Informationist, by Taylor Stevens (Crown)
• Purgatory Chasm, by Steve Ulfelder (Thomas Dunne/Minotaur)
• Before I Go to Sleep, by S.J. Watson (HarperCollins)

Best Paperback Original:
• The Company Man, by Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit)
• Choke Hold, by Christa Faust (Hard Case Crime)
• Buffalo West Wing, by Julie Hyzy (Berkley Prime Crime)
• Death of the Mantis, by Michael Stanley (HarperCollins)
• Fun & Games, by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland)
• Vienna Twilight, by Frank Tallis (Random House)

Best Short Story:
• “Disarming,” by Dana Cameron (Ellery Queen Mystery
Magazine, June 2011)
• “The Case of Death and Honey,” by Neil Gaiman (from A Study in Sherlock, edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger; Bantam)
• “Palace by the Lake,” by Daryl Wood Gerber (from Fish Tales: The Guppy Anthology, edited by Ramona DeFelice Long; Wildside)
• “Truth and Consequences,” by Barb Goffman (from Mystery Times Ten, edited by MaryChris Bradley; Buddhapuss Ink)
• “The Itinerary,” by Roberta Isleib (from Mystery Writers of America Presents The Rich and the Dead, edited by Nelson DeMille;
Grand Central)
• “Happine$$,” by Twist Phelan (from Mystery Writers of America Presents The Rich and the Dead)

Best Critical Non-fiction Work:
• Books, Crooks and Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure, by Leslie Budewitz
(Quill Driver/Linden)
• Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets from Her Notebooks, by John Curran (HarperCollins)
• On Conan Doyle: Or, The Whole Art of Storytelling, by Michael Dirda (Princeton University Press)
• Detecting Women: Gender and the Hollywood Detective Film,
by Philippa Gates (SUNY Press)
• The Sookie Stackhouse Companion, edited by Charlaine Harris (Ace)

Congratulations to all of the nominees!

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)

Picking Prime Kiwi Crime

Seven books and authors have been named in the first round of nominations for the 2012 Ngaio Marsh Award. This commendation is meant to single out the “best crime, mystery, or thriller novel written by a New Zealand citizen or resident, [and] published in New Zealand or overseas during the past year.” A panel of judges from the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and New Zealand will narrow this list down to three, and those finalists will be announced in July.

So here’s the longlist of contenders:

• Collecting Cooper, by Paul Cleave (Simon & Schuster)
• Luther: The Calling, by Neil Cross (Simon & Schuster)
• Furt Bent from Aldaheit, by Jack Eden (Pear Jam Books)
• Traces of Red, by Paddy Richardson (Penguin)
• By Any Means, by Ben Sanders (HarperCollins)
• Bound, by Vanda Symon (Penguin)
• The Catastrophe, by Ian Wedde (Victoria University Press)

Craig Sisterson, the contest’s judging convenor, says he was impressed by the depth of breadth of writing exhibited by these competing works. “This year’s longlist features everything from dark serial killer tales to the latest books in popular detective series, ‘ripped from the headlines’ psychological suspense, and a prequel to one of the most compelling TV crime series of recent years,” Sisterson explains. “We have the mysterious tale of a narcissistic restaurant critic’s kidnapping, penned by New Zealand’s poet laureate, and an engaging debut thriller written under a nom de plume.”

The Marsh Award, now in its third year, is of course named in honor of author Dame Ngaio Marsh, who’s been acclaimed (along with Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Margery Allingham) as one of the four Queens of Crime of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

Bullet Points: Little Bit of Everything Edition

These last couple of weeks have been extremely hectic here at Rap Sheet headquarters. We’ve celebrate the blog’s sixth anniversary, looked back at Darren McGavin’s The Outsider, posted interviews with J. Robert Janes and Lee Child, offered a rundown of 175 crime and thriller novels worth reading this summer, recalled the short-lived NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie series Madigan, and listed nominees for the 2012 Dagger Awards, the winners of several CrimeFest commendations, and recipients of the 2012 Arthur Ellis Awards. After all of that, we decided that a few days away from the computer were in order. Before this new week begins in earnest, though, we want to point out some recent Web offerings that deserve your notice.

• The month-long rolling blog tribute to author Reginald Hill (who passed away in January) continues with Bill Kitson’s review of Hill’s 2005 standalone, The Stranger House. “Genius is an overworked word these days,” Kitson writes, “but when I read the final word of the epilogue, I gasped aloud. The revelation contained in that final word pulled all the intricately woven threads of the plot together and provided added motive and credibility to everything that had taken place throughout the narrative. To construct a book that is 640 pages long and to leave the denouement until the very last word--that to me is genius, or something very close to it.” More tributes are here.

• Speaking of Hill, The Little Professor laments that his “final Dalziel and Pascoe novel (still untitled)” might never see print.

• This may be your ticket to novel writing: “Now’s your chance to win a $500 advance, a $500 Amazon gift card, and a publishing contract to write your own tale in the hugely popular Dead Man saga ... to be published in early 2013 by Amazon’s 47North imprint,” explains Lee Goldberg, who (with William Rabkin) created the Dead Man series of original horror novels. Details for entering (by August 1) are here.

• Happy third anniversary to Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes.

• A belated happy birthday as well to Terence Towles Canote’s blog, A Shroud of Thoughts, which turned eight years old on June 4.

• And we can’t forget to mention that Brooklyn-born actor Joe Santos, who played Jim Rockford’s cop friend, Dennis Becker, on The Rockford Files and Lieutenant Frank Harper on Hardcastle and McCormick, celebrated his 81st birthday yesterday.

• Winners of the 2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards--including several works of fiction plucked from the crime, mystery, and thriller shelves--have been announced. To find the complete list of nominees and lucky recipients, just click here.

• I’ve never seen the 1955 film Pete Kelly’s Blues, based on Jack Webb’s radio serial of the same name. But that’s no longer true of Adam Graham at the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio site, who pronounces the movie “a minor noirish classic.”

• A new blog worth sampling: Radio Spirits, composed by friend of The Rap Sheet Ivan G. Shreve Jr., who’s best known for writing Thrilling Days of Yesteryear. In addition to exploring topics from the Golden Age of Radio, Shreve is expected to write more about television and movies. Interestingly, among his earliest posts is one looking back at Jack Webb’s introduction to radio drama programs.

• By the way, Shreve is also in the midst of recapping--at some length, it should be mentioned--the old Green Hornet film serials. Check out his write-ups so far: here, here, and here.

• I was sorry to hear that English author, archaeologist and journalist Paul Sussman died suddenly after suffering a ruptured aneurysm on May 31. As The Gumshoe Site notes, Sussman wrote his “first novel, The Lost Army of Cabyses (Transworld, 2002), featuring Inspector Yusuf Khalifa of the Luxor police in Egypt, in 2002, and Khalifa returns in The Last Secret of the Temple (Transworld, 2005). The third novel was a one-off (or standalone in [the] U.S.), The Hidden Oasis (Bantam Press, 2009). His last one is a Khalifa novel, The Labyrinth of Osiris, to be out in July from Bantam Press.” The Guardian, which calls Sussman’s books “the intelligent reader’s answer to The Da Vinci Code,” offers more about the author’s career here.

• This comes as something of a surprise: The Webzine ThugLit, which I feared might have disappeared for good, is suddenly soliciting new short stories again. And even offering to pay for them! More information about submissions can be found here.

• Part I of Wallace Stroby’s conversation with fellow author George Pelecanos (The Cut) can be found on the Mulholland Books site. I assume Part II is due for posting any day now.

• This week’s new story in Beat to a Pulp comes from Derringer Award-winner Anita Page. It’s titled “Kiss It Goodbye.”

• The latest issue of the online literary magazine Lowestoft Chronicle features an interview with Randal S. Brandt, a librarian at The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, who also happens to be an expert on author David Dodge. An e-note from the mag’s editor explains that the piece “covers Randal’s research trip in April to meet David Dodge’s granddaughter, where he turned up some interesting facts about the last few years in David Dodge’s life. There are also some never-before-seen photos of Dodge.”

• Here’s a book worth adding to my library.

• Oh no, say this isn’t so: “Tom and Ray Magliozzi, aka Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers, the famous comedian mechanics who host NPR’s Car Talk, told their listeners this afternoon that as of this fall, they’ll no longer record new programs ...”

• And I bid a sad good-bye to Kathryn Joosten. The 72-year-old actress played presidential secretary Delores Landingham on The West Wing. According to The Huffington Post, she died on June 2 “after a long battle with lung cancer.”