Bullet Points: Treats Only Edition

• Since tomorrow is Halloween, it seems appropriate to begin here with some ghost-and-ghoul-related links: Author Michael Koryta (Last Words) identifies his “10 Favorite Halloween-Season Reads,” including Ray Bradbury’s The October Country and Stephen King’s Christine; meanwhile, Janet Rudolph has posted a much more comprehensive rundown of Halloween crime and mystery fiction in Mystery Fanfare; a site called Electric Lit picks “Twelve Haunting American Short Stories to Read This Halloween,” only a couple of which I’ve already enjoyed; some additional suggestions of books suitable to Saturday’s celebration, this time from BOLO Books’ Kristopher Zgorski and Bookgasm; for Criminal Element, Poe scholar Chuck Caruso talks with Leslie S. Klinger about this new collection, In the Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe: Classic Tales of Terror 1816-1914; e-book publisher Open Road recommends “Five Halloween Books You Haven’t Read Yet”; blogger NancyO recommends picking up a classic to go with this celebration--Agatha Christie’s 1969 Hercule Poirot mystery, Hallowe’en Party; Pulp Curry’s Andrew Nette presents a splendid selection of book covers featuring Satanism and witchcraft; in this Mystery*File post from last October, Michael Shonk ignores “TV series with monsters as the villains,” and instead samples “the shows with a monster as a good guy”; in A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence Towles Canote recommends “Ten Classic TV Show Episodes Suitable for Halloween Viewing,” one of which is the 1967 Star Trek installment “Catspaw,” written by “legendary horror writer Robert Bloch”; young adult novelist Sonia Gensler recaps her “spooky movie viewing” over the last year; the Classic Film and TV Café blog chooses the best and worst Dracula films made by Britain’s Hammer Pictures; short-story author Evan Lewis showcases dozens of vintage Halloween masks, while the blog Vintage Everyday hosts this gallery of “Strange and Terrifying Halloween Costumes from Between the 1900s and 1920s”; a magazine called Smart Meetings looks at “10 Famously Haunted Hotels of America”; and the photo above showing lovely Ava Gardner perched on a broomstick (lucky damn broomstick!) comes from a Film Noir Photos display of “Halloween Honeys.” UPDATE: Also check out this Halloween-themed radio episode of The Adventures of Sam Spade, first broadcast on October 31, 1948; Studies in Starrett’s examination of correspondence between fellow lovers of the macabre Vincent Starrett, a Sherlock Holmes expert, and “the man behind the Cthulhu mythos, Howard Phillips Lovecraft”; and the Universal Blogathon’s history of the horror films produced by Universal Pictures.

• The much-anticipated historical episode of Sherlock, titled “The Abominable Bride,” is set to premiere on January 1 as part of PBS-TV’s Masterpiece Mystery! series. “Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman return as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in the modern retelling of Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic stories,” explains Mystery Fanfare. “But now our heroes find themselves in 1890s London. Beloved characters Mary Morstan (Amanda Abbington), Inspector Lestrade (Rupert Graves) and Mrs. Hudson (Una Stubbs) also turn up at 221B Baker Street.” At the link you will find a short video preview of “The Abominable Bride.”

• Meanwhile, Red Carpet Crash has posted a short trailer for the forthcoming HBO/Cinemax TV series Quarry, based on Max Allan Collins’ continuing book series about a killer-for-hire. “The trailer is getting a very positive response on the Net,” Collins writes in his blog, “and I like it very much myself--great noir-ish mood and a fine evocation of the early ’70s.” It’s still unclear exactly when in 2016 Quarry might reach TV screens, but the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has six episodes listed so far.

• Ben Affleck’s big-screen adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s 2012 historical crime novel, Live by Night, just commenced shooting this month, and already there’s a first image circulating. The movie is tentatively scheduled for release in 2017.

• David Cole, the Michigan-born author of seven novels set the American Southwest and starring part-Hopi cyber-investigator Laura Winslow (including the 2006 Shamus Award finalist Falling Down), passed away on October 21 at a hospital in Syracuse, New York. He was 79 years old. An online obituary says, “David was a graduate of Michigan Technological University with a degree in electrical engineering; San Diego State University with degrees in English and Creative Writing; and was a doctoral student of Drama at Stanford University. He had a deep love of the Southwest … Tucson [Arizona] was his second home. David lived his life to the fullest, he was a multi-dimensional man. He was a trained engineer, an actor, a technical writer, a teacher of computer software, a musician, as well as a published author. He had an indomitable spirit and his joy of life and living was infectious to all.” In tribute, Janet Rudolph has republished an essay by Cole that appeared originally in the Winter 2000-2001 edition of Mystery Readers Journal.

• I somehow missed hearing this excellent news: J. Robert Janes, creator of the acclaimed World War II-set Jean-Louis St-Cyr/Hermann Kohler mysteries, has a new standalone thriller due out in mid-December. It’s titled The Sleeper. I’ve added this title to my already extensive list of fall-winter 2015 crime-fiction releases.

• Too good to be true? Actor Garret Dillahunt, who played two different roles on the 2004-2006 HBO-TV Western Deadwood, tweeted recently that he’s “hearing credible rumors about a Deadwood movie.”

• With the latest James Bond film, Spectre, having already debuted in Great Britain, and due out in American cinemaplexes early next month, Variety glances back at four Bond flicks that never quite made it into production. Those include a spin-off series of motion pictures starring Halle Berry as Giacinta “Jinx” Johnson, the National Security Agency (NSA) operative she played in 2002’s Die Another Day.

• Speaking of Spectre … The Book Bond cites a report saying there’s a pivotal scene in that flick inspired by events in the first James Bond continuation novel, Colonel Sun (1968), by Kingsley Amis.

• If you haven’t been paying attention to my Killer Covers blog, note that just days ago I posted this piece about the beautiful front of Clyde Allison’s 1962 novel Have Nude, Will Travel, then followed that up with this article about the Robert McGinnis-painted covers of Max Allan Collins’ brand-new Quarry novel reprints and this update of my work to expand an older gallery of Carter Brown paperback façades.

• In association with the early November release of Stephen King’s new short-fiction collection, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Britain’s Guardian newspaper has teamed up with King’s UK publisher “to run a short-story competition, in which King himself will pick the winner. … We’re looking for original and gripping stories of not more than 4,000 words” inspired by this vague King prompt: “There’s something to be said for a shorter, more intense experience. It can be invigorating, sometimes even shocking, like a waltz with a stranger you will never see again, or a kiss in the dark, or a beautiful curio for sale at a street bazaar.” Click here for details about how to enter this contest.

• We can now add “author” to the list of Gary Oldman’s occupations. The Bookseller reports that the star of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Child 44 is set to publish, with co-author and film producer Douglas Urbanski, a debut vampire novel called Blood Riders. “We have always wanted to write a story of vampire cowboys, set in the Wild West, the gold rush--and we have had these characters and this story kicking around in our heads for years,” the pair explained in a joint statement. “We hope everyone is drawn to Magnus and we envision a series of books that follow his curse and struggles with the forces of good and evil, and also the ever-present vampire ingredients of blood, and love.” This book should reach stories in the fall of 2016.

• Who says that reading novels won’t make you a better citizen of the world? Certainly not President Barack Obama.

• I was honored to have been “friended” not long ago on Facebook by author Sara Paretsky (Brush Back). Shortly afterward, in late October, she posted this short, humorous item on that social network site, recalling the birth of her series sleuth, V.I. Warshawski:

A gloomy late-fall day in Chicago, cool, drizzle, dying leaves. It was on a day much like this that V.I. Warshawski was conceived. Some of you have heard this tale before, but I was working for CNA Insurance in Chicago, part of the wave of young women entering management and the professions in large numbers in the 1970s. We had male bosses who were great mentors, some who were ordinary average managers, and a handful of pills who liked to throw boulders in front of us so they could laugh when we tripped and fell. I was working for one of those, Fred, I call him, at a meeting in his office, looking down on Grant Park in the dreary drizzly day. For about 8 years I’d been imagining writing a crime novel with a woman P.I., someone to turn the tables on Chandler, et al, but I wasn’t getting traction. And suddenly in that meeting, my lips [were] saying, “Gosh, Fred, heck of an idea,” while the balloon over my head was saying, “you expletive-deleted turkey bird,” [and] V.I. came to me. Not Philip Marlowe in drag, but a woman like me and my friends, doing a job that hadn’t existed for women when we were growing up, but saying what was in the balloon over her head because she dealt with the turkey birds without fear or favor. I guess I should send Fred a thank-you note (although at the rate he ate eggs Benedict when I had to travel with him and see him at breakfast may mean he’s sunk beneath his cholesterol by now. Although, of course, only the good die young.).

• I only just became aware that e-book publisher Open Road Media and the Mysterious Press have gotten together to resurrect Howard Engel’s Benny Cooperman series. So far, nine Cooperman tales are available for Kindle e-readers, including the Canadian gumshoe’s first outing, The Suicide Murders (1980).

• “The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo., where Stephen King was inspired to create his 1977 bestseller The Shining, wants to go one step closer to the dark side,” according to the Los Angeles Times. “Last week, the landmark hotel near the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park released plans to create a building that would house a horror-themed museum, film production studio and film archive.” The Stanley is certainly not the first movie location hoping to capitalize on its Hollywood connections.

• Editor-blogger Elizabeth Foxwell notes that “Intellect Books in the UK will launch a new non-fiction series, Crime Uncovered, in November, which seeks to ‘explor[e the] genre in an intelligent, critical and accessible manner.’ Its first two volumes will be on the antihero (ed. Bath Spa University's Fiona Peters and Rebecca Stewart) and the detective (ed. Crime Time’s Barry Forshaw). In March will be a volume on the private investigator (ed. University of Newcastle’s Alistair Rolls and Rachel Franks).”

• Happy anniversary to BOLO Books, which celebrated the beginning of its third year in business on October 24.

• New Zealand critic-blogger Craig Sisterson has finally posted both parts of his rundown of the 10 Kiwi scribes he’d most like to see “chained up until they write another crime novel.” Click here to see his first five choices, and here to consider the remainder.

• Guaranteed to delight fans of the British TV detective drama Foyle’s War is news that a 29-DVD complete series set will be released on November 3. “Priced at $199.99 SRP, you’ll get 28 mysteries plus over 6 hours of bonus features,” says the blog TV Shows on DVD.

• Finally, here are a few interviews to check out around the Web: Editor Otto Penzler talks with Paste about the new Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories; Matthew V. Clemens is quizzed by Ava Black of Crimespree Magazine about Fate of the Union, the sequel to last year’s Supreme Justice, co-authored with Max Allan Collins; Bonnie MacBird chats with Nancie Clare at Speaking of Mysteries about her Sherlock Holmes adventure, Art in the Blood; Jason Starr answers questions at Crime Fiction Lover about his new novel, Savage Lane; S.W. Lauden conducts an e-mail interrogation of the mysterious St. Louis writer Jedidiah Ayres, author of Peckerwood; Sarah Weinman takes questions about her new work, Women Crime Writers, from both Cullen Gallagher (writing in The Paris Review) and Nancie Clare (again in Speaking of Mysteries); and National Public Radio’s Scott Simon carries on a delightful exchange with Stanford University professors Adrian Daub and Charles Kronengold, authors of The James Bond Songs: Pop Anthems of Late Capitalism (Oxford University Press).

Burcell Revives Weston’s Mismatched Cops

As British author Martin Edwards observed the other day, “there’s nothing new” in today’s fictionists penning fresh works about long-established detectives. “People other than [Arthur] Conan Doyle started writing about Sherlock Holmes a very long time ago,” Edwards said in his blog. “But it's fair to say that continuation novels have become much more popular, and common, in recent years. So we have new James Bond stories, written by a variety of very distinguished writers, new Hercule Poirot stories from Sophie [Hannah], new [Lord Peter] Wimsey stories from Jill Paton Walsh, new Albert Campion stories by Mike Ripley, and so on.”

Now add to that inventory of continuation novels The Last Good Place (Brash), a brand-new, fourth Al Krug/Casey Kellog tale by Robin Burcell--who I interviewed for my new Kirkus Reviews column. You don’t remember Krug and Kellog? They were the seemingly mismatched Santa Monica, California, police detectives created by Carolyn Weston in Poor, Poor Ophelia (1972), who went on to appear in two additional police procedurals, Susannah Screaming (1975) and Rouse the Demon (1976). More memorably, Krug and Kellog were the models for Lieutenant Michael Stone and Assistant Inspector Steve Keller in the 1970s TV crime drama The Streets of San Francisco, played by Karl Malden and Michael Douglas, respectively. The 1972 pilot film for that ABC-TV series closely follows the plot of Poor, Poor Ophelia.

Weston died back in 2001 at age 80, and long before then her novels had fallen out of print and into obscurity. But they weren’t wholly forgotten. In fact, they remained much on the mind of author-screenwriter Lee Goldberg, who in the fall of 2014 launched independent publishing house Brash Books with his friend and fellow novelist, Joel Goldman. “I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and my father was an anchorman on KPIX [TV],” Goldberg recalled during an interview I did with him last year. “So, naturally, as a kid, I was a big fan of The Streets of San Francisco. And when I saw that the TV series was based on three books by Carolyn Weston, I snapped those up and devoured them. They’ve been on my shelf ever since. They are great police procedurals that won acclaim in the 1970s--a time when there weren’t a lot of female crime writers out there, certainly not many getting the kind of attention that she was or inspiring a hit TV series. And yet, even though everybody knows about The Streets of San Francisco, nobody remembers Carolyn Weston’s books, perhaps because she never wrote any more books after those three procedurals. … They were at the top of my list when we launched Brash. We acquired all the rights to Carolyn’s books from her heirs and decided to continue the series. Joel and I both knew the perfect writer for the job: our old friend Robin Burcell. We had no one else in mind (which also shows how much Joel and I think alike). Not only is Robin an acclaimed crime novelist, but she’s a cop in Northern California, too. Who could possibly be a better choice?”

Indeed, Burcell--who worked with the police department in the wine country town of Lodi, California, before becoming a criminal investigator for the County of Sacramento (a job from which she retired in January 2010)--has always brought a cop’s sensibilities and knowledge to her fiction, as well as a talent for suspense-building. That’s been true whether she was writing about San Francisco homicide investigator Kate Gillespie (Cold Case, 2004) or FBI Special Agent and forensic artist Sydney Fitzpatrick (The Kill Order, 2013). And it’s no less true in The Last Good Place, which is due for official release in the States next week. Synopsizing the plot of this new Krug/Kellog novel, I write in Kirkus that it

finds its two protagonists--now working for the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), in tribute to the TV show--digging into the case of a woman whose murder might be part of a string of strangulations occurring around Bay Area landmarks. Complicating matters, the deceased may have been engaged in an affair with her neighbor, and she volunteered at the local office of a U.S. congressman who wants to stay clear of the whole sordid business. The publicity surrounding this inquiry puts pressure on Krug and Kellog both, but it’s the latter who seems to struggle most, due partly to the distraction of his trying to win a promotion in rank. While Burcell’s efforts to meld the protagonists from Streets with Weston’s counterparts can jar at times, The Last Good Place is a craftily constructed procedural that bears the tone of Weston’s fiction without slavishly imitating it.

Earlier this month I sent Burcell a number of questions via e-mail, not only about her law-enforcement and writing history, but about the lessons she’s learned as a novelist. Most of our discussion about The Last Good Place can be found in today’s Kirkus column, but the remainder of our exchange is presented below.

(Left) Robin Burcell, photographed by Peter Rozovsky.

J. Kingston Pierce: Do you live in San Francisco proper, or somewhere else in that area?

Robin Burcell: I live just east. Actually, I’m located near Sacramento. But way back when, I used to live in South San Francisco (actually attended South San Francisco High School) and still visit the city regularly, as it’s less than a two-hour drive away.

JKP: How many years did you spend working in California law enforcement, not only as a police officer but as a detective, a hostage negotiator, and an FBI-trained forensic artist?

RB: Just shy of 27 years total. (I think my retirement papers showed 26.85 years or something.)

JKP: Where and when did you begin your police career?

RB: I started out as the first female officer for the Lodi Police Department in 1983. I spent 18 years there before leaving to work for the County of Sacramento as a criminal investigator. (This title would be equivalent to an investigator for the district attorney.) I retired from Sacramento County.

JKP: And how did you become a cop in the first place? Was it something you had long dreamed of doing, or was it a more unexpected choice of career?

RB: Ha! I definitely fell into it. I was a bookkeeper for a large chain hardware store, full-time (while I dreamed of writing books one day--and not really knowing what I was going to be when I grew up). I also worked part-time at an ice-skating rink so that I could skate for free. (I loved ice skating!) One of the parents who brought her children in for lessons was married to a sheriff’s deputy, and she seemed to think I would make a good cop. When she found out Lodi was hiring, she not only told me to apply, but bugged me every day, asking me if I had applied yet. I finally did just to get some peace. Honestly, I never thought I’d be hired. And I have it on good authority that the powers that be in Lodi never thought they’d be hiring me. They didn’t want any women on the force back then. But that’s a different story (and a bit too long for this interview). Let’s just say when push came to shove, they couldn’t come up with a reason not to hire me. I passed the written [exam], the physical (thanks to ice skating!), and the oral interview.

JKP: Did you develop an interest in writing fiction when you were young, or was that something that came to you later in life?

RB: I can’t remember a time I didn’t want to write. I just wasn’t sure how to go about it in order to be published. I started my “writing career” in elementary school, drawing postage-size pictures on my desk and imagining a story that went with them. (Yes, I was that girl. The one always day-dreaming. Lucky for my academic record, I was a quick study and managed to skate by in most lessons.) I was already learning about destroying evidence back then. Writing on the desk was a huge violation of school rules, so I became very adept at learning how to erase my tiny pictures with a little spit and a good swipe of my thumb.

JKP: I find it interesting that your first novel, When Midnight Comes (1995), was basically a work of romance fiction, featuring a Miami detective who--while investigating a series of homicides--“suffers a freak accident that sends her back to the middle of 19th-century London and into the arms of Captain Brice Montgomery.” At the time, were you intending to make a career of writing romance novels? If so, what turned you toward crime fiction, instead?

RB: Somewhere along the way I had switched from reading mysteries to reading romance and really thought it might be a good way to break into the writing field. I sold that first book, Midnight, in 1994, and told my husband that I have my foot in the publishing world door and we can have that second child now. I became pregnant fairly quickly and gave birth to twins in 1995 (a few months before Midnight was released). I really tried to write more romances, but had no success. Undoubtedly a few factors came into play, the first being there was far more murder than romance in the following books. Not sure if it had to do with the lack of sleep in my life (two babies?), but at the time, romance was the last thing I was thinking about. In fact, it was a couple of years before I was able to even get back to writing. By the time I did start, books on murder and mayhem seemed to be a better fit. (I like to think it’s because of my job description, as opposed to my children or home life that made me switch genres.)

JKP: After Midnight you published Every Move She Makes (1999), the opening installment in your series starring a San Francisco Police homicide investigator, Inspector Kate Gillespie. What was it about Gillespie that made you want to follow her through three more books?

RB: While researching Midnight (which originally started off in San Francisco, before the editor had me change it to Miami), I discovered that San Francisco PD had never had a woman working homicide. I was surprised, mostly because SFPD seemed such a progressive department. And because I was the first female officer to work for my department, and knew how difficult it was to break those barriers, I thought I could write a book about what it might be like for the first woman to work homicide in San Francisco. Having spent the last several years before that reading romance, however, I wasn’t aware that Laurie R. King had already written a book about the first female homicide investigator for SFPD. (Coincidentally, both our characters are named Kate. My character started off as Fran, but my editor didn’t like it and asked for a stronger name. I submitted a list, one of which was Kate. Wouldn’t you know, that’s the one she picked.)

I knew from experience it would take a while for Kate to feel comfortable working in this males-only club. Based on my experiences as the only woman on the [Lodi] force (and later, the only female detective), I knew there would be men who didn’t want Kate there, and who would go out of their way to make sure she knew it. I figured it would take Kate at least that long to wade through the growing pains of this new position.

JKP: What relationship did you maintain between your real-life police career and your crime fiction? Did some of the things you saw on the job bleed into your stories?

RB: I was constantly running into people who, for various reasons, struck me as the types who would make wonderful characters in a book. (If they only knew what I was thinking, as I stood there, listening to their statements! Not that they had cause to worry. I never stole someone outright. Nor did I ever take a case and use it specifically.) My M.O. for making someone a character was to take the physical characteristics of one person and the personality quirks of another. Kate’s partner in later books, Rocky Markowski, was based on a crime reporter who used to come into our office (his physical appearance; I drew his personality from someone else). I found that if I used this combo approach to my characters, they were more rounded (and sometimes took on a life of their own--always a good thing when writing).

As for events in the books [being] rooted in truth? I know I’m not the only author who has thought that if I put something real in a book, no one’s going to believe it, because it’s too far-fetched. My goal has always been to give an entertaining but realistic portrayal of police work. But when I do use real-life events (and I’ve used several), I always change the details for the books. One that comes to mind is the explosion in Deadly Legacy [2003]. That was based on a similar occurrence in our city, one that landed a couple of our officers in the hospital. There was [also] that time I was in a car accident (the lieutenant was driving and we were broadsided--on my side, of course) and I started passing out, thinking, I’ve got to remember this for the book. Everything’s fair game.

JKP: The Gillespie novels won you two back-to-back Anthony Awards (for Fatal Truth [2002] and Deadly Legacy), along with Barry and Macavity award nominations. Why did you give up that series after Cold Case saw print in 2004?

RB: I’d completed the story arc for Kate. I wanted to write what it was like for her to gain acceptance in this male-dominated field, and maybe get a handle on her personal life. And the real clincher was that I really, really wanted to go to Europe and write it off on my taxes. I couldn’t figure out a way to get a San Francisco cop to investigate a bunch of cases that were rooted in other countries. Maybe one book, but a series? It seemed highly unlikely. I knew I needed to move from a local police department to the FBI. They, at least, had more latitude to hop on a plane and follow a lead into another country.

JKP: So four years passed between your last Gillespie novel and the release of Face of a Killer (2008), your first book starring FBI forensic artist Sydney Fitzpatrick. Did you spend that time dealing with your three daughters, or were you trying to figure out what direction to take next with your fiction writing?

RB: Kids, life, work, it all seemed to happen at once. Since I wanted to start a new series, I wanted to take the time to do it right. But I also realized I wanted to spend a few months to finish a portrait of my children. (Mind you, I was still a full-time law-enforcement officer, so that “few months” translates into how I spent my evenings and weekends, which I normally spent writing.) As a forensic artist, I’d sketched hundreds of suspects over the years for any number of violent crimes and just felt the need to do something that was completely opposite of anything crime-related. Once that portrait was finished, I got to work on Face of a Killer and turned that in to my editor.

Everything was moving right along track. Until … I attended my first ThrillerFest (the annual International Thriller Writers conference), not with any intention of penning a thriller, but because it was the first-ever ThrillerFest [held in June 2006], and a friend had convinced me that I needed to go. In preparation, I read James Rollins’ Map of Bones, which had just been released in paperback. That book inspired me to try my hand at thrillers, and as luck would have it, on the way home from the conference, he and I were on the same plane and he helped me with an intriguing plot that would end up becoming the second in my FBI forensic artist series, The Bone Chamber [2009]. Only problem was that it was a far, far different book than Face of a Killer, which I had recently finished and turned in to my editor (who is also Rollins’ editor). About midway through writing The Bone Chamber, I thought I’d better let her know what was going on, since it wasn’t the book she’d been expecting. She loved the idea and told me to finish it, even though it was a thriller (whereas Face of a Killer was a police procedural similar to the Gillespie books). The gap between the two series came about because after I turned in The Bone Chamber, they liked the larger scope and international thriller aspect of it so much that they asked if I wouldn’t mind bumping up Face of a Killer to thriller status. (It was originally written in first-person, like the Kate Gillespie books. I rewrote the entire book in third-person, then made it more of an international thriller. I like to think I did something write in the changes, because Face of a Killer received a starred review from Library Journal.)

JKP: What’s the most important lesson you learned over the course of composing the Gillespie series that helped you when you started work on your Fitzpatrick tales?

RB: First, how to write a series so that each book can be read as a standalone--out of order, or from the beginning. It’s a balancing act. You want to make sure that the new reader isn’t left behind, but you also want to ensure that the reader who has read the previous books isn’t bored by all the explanations needed for that new reader. One reviewer made mention of this aspect of my books, saying something to the effect of, don’t worry if you don’t know what’s going on, hang in there for the ride, you’ll eventually catch up. (Or words to that effect.)

The other lesson was avoiding the spoiler factor, which is always a danger in reading a series out of order. In the second Gillespie book, I didn’t give much thought to spoilers until a couple of my co-workers were asking me how the book writing was going. I mentioned some scene I was working on and named a couple of characters in it. Another cop happened to overhear the conversation and was upset, because he was reading the first Gillespie book, and now knew that none of the mentioned characters were the killer. That was a big eye-opener for me. When I started the Fitzpatrick series, I was very careful that if I had suspects, red herrings, or big secrets, I needed to take that into consideration as I penned the next novel. (And also not to reveal anything while giving talks at book clubs!) A good example is that the central plot of The Dark Hour [2012, No. 3 in the Fitzpatrick series] happens to solve the mystery of a death first brought up in The Bone Chamber (No. 2). But what if someone picks up the series with books 4 or 5? I didn’t want that to spoil what happened in The Dark Hour. And since it was such a big secret, I had to write it in such a way that no matter what order the books were read in, the revelation/conclusion in The Dark Hour is not answered or even hinted at in earlier or later books.

JKP: Just a few quick questions about The Last Good Place. How did you come to write more books in Carolyn Weston’s renowned Al Krug and Casey Kellog series of police procedurals?

RB: Lee Goldberg and Joel Goldman, the founders of Brash Books, had acquired the rights to the Weston novels to bring them back into print. They realized the series was still relevant and wanted to see it continue. Because I’d already written a number of police procedurals, they called and asked if I might be interested in writing the next in the series. I thought it would be fun to try my hand at updating the Weston characters.

JKP: Do you have a favorite among Weston’s Krug/Kellog novels?

RB: Poor, Poor Ophelia. It was this emerging relationship between Krug and Kellog. I’m sure what I saw is the same thing the developers of the TV show saw that made them want to take the novels and make a series for television.

JKP: Something that struck me as odd while reading The Last Good Place was Sergeant Krug’s widower status. My memory is that his wife was still alive at the end of Rouse the Demon. Was this change in marital status a concession you made in order to bring the books into line with the TV series?

RB: It was. In our reboot, we ignored some things that wouldn’t fly (Krug’s typical actions that would have gotten him fired in present-day times), and added others that seemed more fitting (the mentorship relationship between [Krug and Kellog], and in this case, yes, that Krug is now a widower). One way to look at it is that somewhere between book 3 of Weston’s series, and [this one] of mine, his wife died. And the reboot is why we moved it to San Francisco (where I had more knowledge and background) and brought it into the 21st century. Much has changed since then!

JKP: What’s your commitment to Brash Books? How long would you like to continue writing the Krug/Kellog series?

RB: For as long as the series is successful!

JKP: Can you give readers any hints about what they might expect from your next entry in this series?

RB: No, none as of yet. I’ve thought of a few cases, but I’m not sure if they’re right for the series.

JKP: Do you intend to continue writing your own novels at the same time as you pen more Krug and Kellog novels? If so, how do you intend to balance the two endeavors?

RB: I’m actually working on another project right now. I wish I could work on more than one book at a time--that would be a true balancing act. (I’ve thought about how to do it. Write one book in the morning, the other in the evening. But I’ve never actually succeeded--or even tried.) Right now I’m contracted for a book that I’m co-writing with Clive Cussler (in the Fargo series). I need to finish that before I even contemplate what’s next in store for Krug/Kellog.

JKP: Finally, do you think you’re where you really ought to be in your writing career now, or are there things you would like to have done that you’ve not yet accomplished?

RB: There will always be things I haven’t done that I still want to accomplish. That’s a good thing, I believe. But am I where I think I ought to be? Put it this way. I’m doing what I’ve always dreamed about doing: writing books. And I even get paid for it. I don’t think it gets much better than that!

READ MORE: “Robin Burcell Continues Others’ Series” (Mystery Scene).

So, Did You Win “Cold Blooded”?

As I explained early last week, organizers of the Killer Nashville convention--to be held from October 29 to November 1 in Tennessee’s capital--agreed to send three free copies of their new anthology, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, to deserving Rap Sheet readers. Interested parties were invited to send us their names and postal addresses, and we’d draw from those entries--at random--three lucky recipients. I can now announce the names of those winners:

• Louis A. Willis of Knoxville, Tennessee
• Rhoda Wolshon of Canton, Michigan
• John Bohnert of Grass Valley, California

All three of those Rap Sheet followers should soon find copies of Killer Nashville Noir: Cold Blooded tucked into their mailboxes, sent directly from convention headquarters. We hope they enjoy the book.

And thanks to everyone for entering this contest. If you didn’t win this time? Well, don’t fret: you’ll have many more opportunities to pick up free books from The Rap Sheet in the near future. Stay tuned!

“Cartel” Captures the Parker

Author Don Winslow seems to have been on a roll ever since he published The Dawn Patrol back in 2008, racking up myriad plaudits, if fewer award wins. Now, though, he can add a big prize to his collection: the 2015 T. Jefferson Parker Mystery Award. According to Jiro Kimura’s The Gumshoe Site, Winslow picked up the Parker for The Cartel (Knopf), a thrilling sequel to The Power of the Dog, his 2005 novel about Mexican drug trafficking.

The T. Jefferson Parker Mystery Award is presented annually by the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association (SCIBA). The Cartel was one of three novels shortlisted as contenders this year, the other two being Marry, Kiss, Kill, by Anne Flett-Giordano (Prospect Park), and The Replacements, by David Putnam (Oceanview).

Winslow’s win was announced yesterday during the SCIBA Trade Show, held in North Hollywood, California. This was the third time that Winslow has netted the Parker award; he won it previously for Savages (2010) and The Kings of Cool (2012).

To Live and Laugh in L.A.

(Editor’s note: This is the last of three pieces being posted this week from The Rap Sheet’s chief British correspondent, Ali Karim, all of them related in some way to the most recent Bouchercon.)


Ali Karim with his favorite limo driver/tour guide, Carlos.

As you will undoubtedly remember from watching the final video in this post, I left behind Bouchercon 2015 and Raleigh, North Carolina, on an early morning flight to the legendary City of Angels--Los Angeles, California. My reason for winging west was all very hush-hush at the time, though I let the truth slip to a few close friends because I was also very excited. And of course, I can now reveal that I went to L.A. at the behest of author Michael Connelly, who’d invited me to watch some location shooting (at Venice Beach) for one of the Season 2 episodes of Bosch, the Amazon TV series based on his Harry Bosch detective novels and starring Titus Welliver.

Last year I was lucky enough to get a peek behind the scenes as Bosch’s premiere season was being filmed in Hollywood. With the show now having been renewed, and fresh installments expected to begin streaming in early 2016, it was fun to be back in L.A. and see Connelly and his crew further refine Bosch’s storytelling pace and style. (Click here to watch a bit of footage I shot from back of the cameras.)

Yet the fact is, I was still knackered after my time in Raleigh. Yes, the stresses of Bouchercon had been lifted, but one jet trip after another, all the way from London, had thrown off my body clock. I felt only half-awake most of the time. The night I arrived in L.A., Connelly generously took me to dinner at an exclusive restaurant near Sunset Boulevard called Craig’s. There I managed to spill a glass of red wine all over writer/filmmaker Terrill Lee Lankford (author of the novel Earthquake Weather). He was most gracious about the whole mishap, but it was direct evidence of my spatial awareness having been seriously compromised.

(Right) Ali with Bosch star Titus Welliver and writer Michael Connelly.

Afterward, I suggested to Connelly that I skip the next day’s location shooting, and instead have a sleep-in at my hotel before hopping a taxi back to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). In addition to being one of the greatest living writers of police procedurals, Connelly is one really top bloke. He looked across the table at me, recognized my fatigue, and said, “OK, but I’m not having you go back in a cab.”

When we returned to my hotel after dinner, I saw Connelly go off to have words with the concierge. He soon returned and let me know that he had hired a limousine for me, an air-conditioned Lincoln Town Car, with a driver who had an intimate knowledge of the Hollywood/L.A. area and would pick me up at 11 a.m. the next morning, then take me on a tour before depositing me at LAX.

So the following day, after a deep sleep and some breakfast shared with Connelly and his sister, Jane Davis (who I have known for many years), I loaded myself and my baggage into a limo driven by a good man named Carlos. And while I filmed our travels, he wheeled us all about the city, from the Sunset Strip through Hollywood and up to Griffith Observatory, and kept up a running commentary about everything from the homes of film stars and the La Brea Tar Pits to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and extraterrestrial spacecraft. Carlos probably thought me a bit odd, but in my defense, I do no harm. And our travels turned out to be quite wonderful.

You can click here to watch my multi-segment video tour of Los Angeles. It might not be a Sundance Festival contender, but I hope it will at least make you smile on occasion.

Thanks again to Michael Connelly for his bigheartedness in inviting me out to L.A. for what I can only describe as the trip of a lifetime.

WATCH THIS: “Titus Welliver Reflects on Lost and Teases Second Season of Bosch,” by Riley Chow (YouTube).

Karim Shots

(Editor’s note: This is the second of three pieces set to be posted this week from The Rap Sheet’s chief British correspondent, Ali Karim, all of them related in some way to the most recent Bouchercon.)

As I may have mentioned before, I was one small component of a large team of volunteers who put together this year’s Bouchercon, in Raleigh, North Carolina. I served as the programming chair, and took on Kerry Hammond as my co-chair when the enormity of that task revealed itself. Backing us up were such talented folk as Al Abramson and Ingrid Willis (who have chaired previous such events in Long Beach, California, Albany, New York, and Madison, Wisconsin), Naomi Kappel, J.D. Allen (who co-chaired Bouchercon Raleigh), and Erin Mitchell (who kept the scheduling grids on the Internet and the handy Bouchercon phone app both updated).

(Left) The plaza connecting the Sheraton and Marriott hotels in downtown Raleigh

With more than 1,400 people registered for Bouchercon, there were inevitable problems: the two convention hotels (the Sheraton and the neighboring Marriott) filled up rapidly; expected panelists became ill and had to cancel their participation, forcing us to make breakneck alterations in the events line-up; and even well-laid travel plans went awry. However intense you imagine might be the workload and anxiety involved in putting together a convention such as this, multiply that by three and you might be closer to reality.

Because there were so many things going on, plus so many details and last-minute changes to handle, I decided it was best to arrive in Raleigh a few days before Bouchercon’s start. Then, to mitigate the apprehension that comes with having so many responsibilities, as well as to manage my unavoidable jetlag, I began shooting short videos of myself each morning--just me talking to the camera--and posted those segments on my Facebook page. With a cup of Starbucks coffee at hand, I spoke principally off the cuff, sharing thoughts on the evolving convention, the two-hotel arrangement, the challenges organizers faced on a day-to-day basis, and a few of my more eccentric musings on human life and behavior. It was all a bit of navel-gazing and half-awake contemplation, and rather comical at times (a smile or laughter at my eccentricity never goes amiss), but it supplied me with an important release valve for my anxieties. I thought those videos might also be of use to subsequent Bouchercon-comers, giving them a heads-up about things before they reached Raleigh.

I’d never intended for those videos to show anywhere beyond Facebook. But on Saturday night of the convention, after the Anthony Awards were announced, Rap Sheet editor Jeff Pierce and his wife, Jodi, came up to my room at the Sheraton to sample my gin and share in my good humor at having the convention almost done. I felt as if a tremendous weight had been lifted from my shoulders. No longer did I have to worry what new problems the e-mail might bring; no longer did I have to fear that something disastrous would occur during a panel presentation or a larger convention gathering. Bouchercon 2015 was winding down (the last events would take place early Sunday), and I was finally able to relax. As part of that process, I showed Jeff and Jodi the little video soliloquies I’d been shooting, since they hadn’t seen them before. I felt a bit self-conscious, cringing at the combination of nervousness, sleep-deprivation, and excessive caffeine that had caused me to sit out alone each morning and film myself prattling on. My opinion was that the videos were a bit odd. However, Jeff and Jodi thought them charming, and encouraged me to upload them to YouTube and make them available in The Rap Sheet. “Even people who didn’t attend Bouchercon might get some sense of the affair by watching these,” Jeff enthused.

So below, I am embedding those eight videos, which I started shooting a few days before Bouchercon got underway in the North Carolina capital and concluded on the Monday following its finish.

A Tale of Two Hotels, Part I



A Tale of Two Hotels, Part II



Tuesday -- Pre-Convention Thoughts and Questions That Define Us



Wednesday -- Existential Thoughts from a Sleep-Deprived Mind



Thursday -- If You Are Willing to Play the Game, Remember
Nothing Stays the Same



Friday -- The Wheeler-DeWitt Equation and M-Theory as
Applied to Bouchercon 2015



Saturday -- Bouchercon’s Penultimate Day



Sunday -- the Finale and the End of Anxiety



Monday -- Recapping Bouchercon’s Concluding Events, Catching the Red-Eye to LAX, and Some Post-Convention Excitement



(To be continued in Los Angeles)

Prolific Klausner Silenced

Like many people in the crime and mystery fiction community, I have taken issue on occasion with Georgia-based book critic Harriet Klausner. Once the No. 1-ranked reviewer on Amazon.com, with tens of thousands of book appraisals posted there (and elsewhere), Klausner never seemed to dislike anything she read--and she supposedly read a hell of a lot of novels. Her writing style was nothing better than formulaic, and she became notorious in some quarters for selling the free review copies she received for free.

But when I read today that the 63-year-old Klausner, a “former librarian with a master’s degree in library science,” passed away on October 15, I felt nothing but sadness that an individual so evidently passionate about books should have been taken so soon. I was not alone. “I know there was much controversy about her, but, as a beneficiary of her intent to bring lesser-known writers without big publicity to the fore, I always appreciated her kind reviews,” reads one comment attached to Mystery Fanfare’s Klausner obituary. Adds another: “Whatever else she did, she was dedicated to spreading the word about books, and for that I am grateful.”

READ MORE: “The Woman Who Wrote 31,014 Amazon Book Reviews and Upended the Internet, Dead at 63,” by Sarah Kaplan (The Washington Post); “RIP: Prolific Amazon Reviewer Harriet Klausner (1952-2015),” by Chris Meadows (TeleRead); “Rage, Rage Against the Amazon Reviewers,” by Annoyed Librarian (Library Journal).

Playing Poker with Michael Robotham

(Editor’s note: This is the first of three pieces set to be posted this week from The Rap Sheet’s chief British correspondent, Ali Karim, all of them related in some way to the most recent Bouchercon.)


Michael Robotham (third from the left) surrounded by this year’s Goldsboro Gold Dagger award judges.

Some people consider me to be a bit of a raconteur, always willing to share amusing stories I’ve picked up from my reading, my travels, and my friendships--stories I wouldn’t have available to offer were it not for my longtime obsession with crime, mystery, and thriller novels. However, I’m naught but a rank amateur at relaying amusing anecdotes, when compared with Australian journalist and ghostwriter-turned-crime-fictionist Michael Robotham.

I can, though, share here a rather entertaining anecdote about Robotham himself--whose surname, I should make clear, does not contain a silent “h.” (The correct pronunciation of his last name is a standing joke between us, for I struggle to pronounce “Robotham” without an accompanying spray of spittle.)

As many Rap Sheet readers are aware, I was part of the team responsible for putting together this month’s Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in Raleigh, North Carolina, an event also known as “Murder Under the Oaks.” It was a huge gathering of people devoted to the darker side of literature, drawing just over 1,400 attendees. Working on the programming for a conference of such magnitude is tougher than you can imagine, filled with anxious moments as well as numerous challenges, of which e-mail management was only one.

Because of those Bouchercon 2015 responsibilities, I had to cancel my participation in this last summer’s Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England (usually a regular feature on my annual calendar). I simply had to devote my time and energy to figuring out the schedule for the Raleigh convention, slotting authors and panelists into their appropriate positions. (As the old saying goes, “Needs must, when the devil drives.”) But not long after that Harrogate weekend, my friend and colleague from New Zealand, Craig Sisterson, who writes the popular blog Crime Watch, called me up. He was in England and had been in contact with Robotham, who’d participated in the Harrogate festivities and was next due to take part in Bouchercon. Craig wanted to arrange for the two of them to share a few beers in London with myself and Mike Stotter, my very dear friend and the editor of Shots. This sounded like a great idea, and it would provide a welcome break from the rigors of exchanging e-mail communications with writers and others who hoped to be part of the Bouchercon program.

There was only one problem--and it was a serious one.

You see, Robotham’s 10th novel, the Texas-based prison drama Life or Death, was one of seven books shortlisted by the British Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) for its 2015 Goldsboro Gold Dagger award. (The longlist of contenders is here.) I served on the committee (under the chairmanship of Richard Reynolds) that judged those books, while Stotter was the CWA Dagger liaison officer, charged with managing the process by which publishers submitted their works to the various Dagger judging committees.

At the time Sisterson invited us out for drinks, we had just decided--after much deliberation, debate, and discussion--which book deserved this year’s Gold Dagger … and it was Robotham’s Life or Death. Not only did I know that outcome, but so did Stotter. We were also aware that the Dagger judges had signed confidentiality agreements, which included the stipulation that we not reveal any winners’ identities before the official announcement on Tuesday, September 29. (Let me add that those agreements are no insignificant matter, but actually involve blood and a secret ceremony, held in a basement cell in the Tower of London.)

Stotter and I discussed our predicament during a telephone call. We both wanted to meet Sisterson and Robotham, but we needed to be careful not to reveal (even inadvertently) that Life or Death had claimed the Gold. We finally agreed that from the outset of our get-together, we would say that “the judges have not yet agreed on the winner of the Gold Dagger, as it is a very tough shortlist.”

So in late July, the four of us gathered at a pub called The Spice of Life on Charing Cross Road in central London. Stotter and I recited our fiction about how the judges were still deliberating over the Gold Dagger recipient, and then we all began a remarkable evening, filled with tales of great amusement--which was particularly true of those told by Sisterson, who’d recently been managing his Kiwi crime-based blog from a new base in the British capital. Robotham was in fine form, too, spilling out yarns to make us all chuckle. Friendships within the crime-fiction community can be wonderful, for though we all lead busy lives, when we encounter one another periodically it never seems awkward; we just continue where we left off, as good friends do.


Michael Robotham, Craig Sisterson, Mike Stotter, and Ali Karim meet up for drinks at London’s The Spice of Life.

Later, Robotham treated the lot of us to dinner at an Indonesian restaurant, regaling us with more stories well into the night. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much while endeavoring to consume a plate of Thai green curry. It was only after the coffee arrived that the following curious exchange took place.

Michael Robotham: “Hey Ali, I love my panel [assignments] for Raleigh. Really looking forward to Bouchercon this year as I had to miss Long Beach last year.”

Ali Karim: “Thanks, it’s been somewhat interesting but the panels are shaping up pretty well. So what are you gonna do, as the week after the CWA Dagger awards, you’re at Bouchercon. I know you lived in London for over a decade; do you plan to stay here and fly to Raleigh the week after the awards?”

MR: “Yeah, it’s a dilemma. The travel I do from Australia is a nightmare, a helluva journey to make. But let’s be real: I haven’t got a chance for the Gold Dagger, and I know you are one of the judges. But look, Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, Belinda Bauer [are all nominees]--there’s no way I have a snowball’s chance in hell, so I am wondering if I should skip the Daggers in London and come straight to Raleigh.”

I sought to put on my best poker face, even as my heart sank. To be presented in person with the CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger in London is a major event in the life of any crime writer; it would be sad for Robotham to miss the ceremony. Still, I was bound by that confidentially agreement to say nothing.

AK: “Well, anyway, it’ll be good if you can come as we always have a laugh, and if you do, dinner will be on me this time.”

I thanked Robotham for dinner, as he paid our bill. Then we all shook hands and wished each other well. I told Robotham I looked forward to seeing him in Raleigh in October, and that I hoped he’d come ultimately decide to attend the Daggers presentation. He said he’d think about it, and added, “I may come, as I have plenty of practice holding the loser’s smile over the years, and am rather good at it.”

Now fast-forward to the night of Tuesday, September 29. As I arrived for the Dagger award revels, my mind was aswirl with Bouchercon responsibilities and frustrations. Entering the prestigious hotel where the prize presentations were to take place, I was greeted by an excited Mike Stotter. “Robotham’s made it here!” he declared. I’m sure I must have sighed in great relief, though my memory of that is lost among other recollections of meeting my fellow Dagger judges and us all toasting the hard work (and long reading hours) we had put into deciding on this year’s winners.

While mingling I spotted Michael Robotham. I wished him the best of luck, and he thanked me, remarking: “Look, I know you are a judge and in the end it’s a crapshoot, as I’m up against some brilliant books. So I’ll just enjoy the evening and see you in Raleigh next week.”



Finally it was time to put down the canapés and champagne, as critic and author Barry Forshaw stepped to the podium (see above), replacing CWA chair Len “L.C.” Tyler, who’d welcomed us all to this event, and the awards ceremony commenced. There were three Daggers to be dispensed that night, and neither of the first two recipients was in the audience. A representative from Heinemann, Smith Henderson’s UK publisher, accepted, on his behalf, the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger for Fourth of July Creek, while someone from Transworld/Random House stepped up to receive Karin Slaughter’s CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Cop Town. Then the final announcement was made: Michael Robotham had won the Gold Dagger.

An obviously shocked Robotham took over the microphone from Forshaw, and he stumbled around for a few seconds in front of the crowd until it sank into his brain that he was there to take delivery of one of the most prestigious accolades given for modern crime-fiction writing. Then he launched into a highly amusing and self-deprecating speech, which I recorded on video and present below.



Once the ceremony had run its course, it was time for people to tip back some more champagne, roam about the room, and share our mutual admiration for the evening’s prize winners. It was wonderful for me to at last meet Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling (who was there as “Robert Galbraith,” the pseudonym under which she had penned the Gold Dagger-nominated The Silkworm), and to see previous Gold Dagger recipient Belinda Bauer. Both of those women were gracious in congratulating Robotham on this year’s win (commemorated in these photographs from The Bookseller, supplied by the CWA). Stotter and I were no less fervent in our praise, after which my Shots colleague remarked quite mischievously:

“Remember the beers and Thai green curry night we enjoyed a few months back?”

“Yes,” Robotham said, “it was a fun night.”

“Well, Ali and I both knew you’d won the Dagger that night, but we were naturally sworn to secrecy.”

At which point Robotham squinted his eyes, looked at us intensely, smiled, and said, “Remind me never to play poker with you guys.”

Giveaway: Tune In to Nashville Noir

There’s just over a week left before this year’s Killer Nashville convention (October 29-November 1) kicks off in Tennessee’s capital. And to help build more interest in that gathering--now in its ninth year--The Rap Sheet is giving away three free copies of Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded (Diversion Publishing), a tie-in anthology edited by Clay Stafford.

Stafford, an independent filmmaker and writer who was the brainchild behind the Killer Nashville conference, has compiled in Cold-Blooded short stories by “some of the biggest names in suspense” as well as a few “rising stars.” (The full line-up of contributors is here.) Among the authors represented are Anne Perry, Donald Bain, Jeffery Deaver, Heywood Gould, Dana Chamblee Carpenter, and Paula Gail Benson. Cold-Blooded won’t officially be released until October 27, but has already been heavily touted as a “collection that proves Music City is a deadly place to be when your song gets called.”

If you’d like to enter our drawing for one of those three free copies of Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, simply e-mail your name and postal address to jpwrites@wordcuts.org. And be sure to type “Killer Nashville Contest” in the subject line. Entries will be accepted between now and midnight next Monday, October 26. Three winners will be chosen completely at random, and their names listed on this page the following day. Sorry, but this particular giveaway competition is open only residents of the United States.

Whether or not you’re heading to Nashville next week for all the crime-fiction festivities, this sounds like a book well worth adding to your library. So what are you waiting for? Send your entry in today!

READ MORE: “Music City Tunes Up for Mystery,” by J. Kingston
Pierce (The Rap Sheet).

Bouchercon 2015: Photo Finish

(Left to right) Ali Karim and newly minted novelist Patricia “Patti” Abbott, whose Concrete Angel was released this last summer.

Everyone who attended the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention last week in Raleigh, North Carolina, came away with memories. Some people also departed with myriad photographs. One of the latter was my longtime friend and Rap Sheet colleague, Ali Karim, who’d worked so hard on the programming for this year’s gathering. A whirlwind of energy (thanks, in part, to the copious amounts of caffeine he ingested), Ali seemed to be everywhere simultaneously--not only in the audiences at panel discussions, but outside the conference rooms checking in with authors and comrades, and introducing people to one another in the best networking fashion.

It’s understandable that many folks--even a few who didn’t know Ali--returned home with photos that included him in some way. However, the ubiquitous Mr. Karim also gave the camera component of his own smartphone a workout, recording the Raleigh conference for posterity. Below, I’m embedding a selection of the shots Ali took (or that were taken with his camera), along with a handful that came from other sources (and are properly identified). This is in no way a complete record of what went on during Bouchercon 2015, but I hope it provides a taste of the great fun we all had there.

Click on any of these images to open an enlargement.



Ali hams it up with Alvin, Texas, novelist and blogger Bill Crider (Between the Living and the Dead).


Bouchercon 2015 chair Al Abramson welcomes the attendees.


George Easter, the editor of Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine, stops outside the main convention hotel for a photo with author Aly Monroe (she’s the one with a full head of hair), DPMM assistant editor Larry Gandle, and novelist Reed Farrel Coleman.


Ali doesn’t miss his chance to appear beside legendary crime writer Lawrence Block (The Girl with the Deep Blue Eyes).


Janet Rudolph, the editor of Mystery Readers Journal and author of the blog Mystery Fanfare, cozies up beside Adrian Muller, the co-chair (with Myles Allfrey) of Britain’s annual CrimeFest.


Your humble blogger, J. Kingston Pierce, greets San Francisco, California-based photographer and author Mark Coggins, whose new August Riordan private-eye novel is No Hard Feelings.


Our man Ali is flanked by South Africans Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip, who publish mysteries under the joint nom de plume Michael Stanley. Their latest book featuring David Bengu, aka Kubu, the assistant superintendent of Botswana’s Criminal Investigation Department, is A Death in the Family.


North Carolina author Margaret Maron, who was presented with the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award during Bouchercon, stops to autograph one of her many novels for a reader.


Ali elicits a curious look from James R. Benn, author of the Billy Boyle World War II mysteries (The White Ghost).


Northern California high-tech entrepreneur-turned-author Keith Raffel (Temple Mount) sidles up to Cartriona McPherson, the Scotland-born author of the Dandy Gilver detective series (Dandy Gilver and the Unpleasantness in the Ballroom).


Novelist, screenwriter, and Brash Books publisher Lee Goldberg (The Scam) takes a moment in the sun with Parnell Hall, author of the Stanley Hastings mysteries (A Fool for a Client).


Ali pauses in the lobby of the Marriott Hotel beside Lucinda Surber and Stan Ulrich, editors of the Web site Stop, You’re Killing Me! and the Fan Guests of Honor at Bouchercon 2015.


Australian journalist-fictionist Michael Robotham, who recently won the British Crime Writers’ Association’s Goldsboro Gold Dagger award for his novel Life or Death, takes a moment to share memories of that victory with the gregarious Ali.


Here’s a motley crew, all gathered in the convention’s book room. From the left: Charles Todd, the co-author--with his mother, Caroline--of the Ian Rutledge historical detective series (A Fine Summer’s Day) and the Bess Crawford mysteries (A Pattern of Lies); yours truly, again; the aforementioned and very pleasant Caroline Todd; Deadly Pleasures’ Larry Gandle; the hyper-prolific novelist Max Allan Collins (Kill Me, Darling); and mystery/suspense author Brendan DuBois (Blood Foam).


Assembled for what turned out to be an excellent panel discussion titled “The ‘Masters’ that Influenced the ‘Masters’ in Crime & Mystery” are Bill Crider, Karin Slaughter, Megan Abbott, and Lawrence Block. (Photo © Peter Rozovsky)


International Guest of Honor Allan Guthrie teams up with his very funny fellow Scottish author, Caro Ramsey (aka Carole Mitchell), for the “Murder Goes International” panel. (Photo © Peter Rozovsky)


Although it took place at the rather early hour of 8:30 a.m., moderator Peter Rozovsky’s Saturday presentation, “Inside the Mind and Work of Dashiell Hammett,” was very well attended--probably because he was talking with Hammett’s granddaughter, Julie M. Rivett, and Hammett biographer Richard Layman. Rozovsky later admitted he was “over the moon before, during, and after interviewing” these two guests. (Photo © Peter Rozovsky)


Eleven years after the founding of the International Thriller Writers organization, members David Morrell, Joseph Finder, Robin Burcell, Carla Buckley, and Gayle Lynds gathered to talk about its evolution and future intentions.


Books were the principal focus of Bouchercon, but TV crime dramas also enjoyed some spotlight treatment. Gathered together for a presentation titled “Beyond The Wire, Bosch, and True Detective: TV Crime Evolves” were Lee Goldberg, Megan Abbott, Alison Gaylin, Tim O’Mara, and Christa Faust.


Laura Lippman could attend only one day of Bouchercon events. She took part in a Thursday panel discussion titled “Beyond Hammett, Chandler, and Spillane,” then was gone by the end of that day. Which meant she wasn’t around to see her novel After I’m Gone (one of my favorite works of 2014) win this year’s Anthony Award for Best Novel. (Photo © Peter Rozovsky)


Jack Bludis, author of the 1950s-set Brian Kane gumshoe series, joins Ali for this year’s Shamus Awards dinner.


Bouchercon provided plenty of plaudits for Brooklyn author and TV crime reporter Julia Dahl. Her first book, Invisible City (2014), captured the Barry Award for Best Novel as well as this year’s Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel. Above, she poses with her third honor of the convention, the Shamus Award for Best First Private Eye Novel. (Photo provided by the author.)


Steve Hamilton, whose A Cold Day in Paradise won the Private Eye Writers of America’s Shamus Award for Best First P.I. Novel in 1999, relaxes at this year’s Shamus dinner.


A little more promotion for Michael Robotham’s Life or Death: Authors Jason Starr (Savage Lane) and Cara Brookins (she’s holding the book) join Robotham and Ali in a hotel hallway shot.


Former P.I. and journalist Michael Koryta (Last Words) poses with Ali outside the Sheraton’s largest convention room.


During Saturday’s Anthony Awards presentation, editors Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger picked up the Best Anthology or Collection prize for their latest book, In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon.


North Carolina-born author Art Taylor, who only recently welcomed the release of his first novel, On the Road with Del & Louise, won the Best Short Story Anthony for “The Odds Are Against Us” (from Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, November 2014).


Chicago resident Lori Rader-Day scored the Anthony Award for Best First Novel with her 2014 release, The Black Hour.

UK author Zoë Sharp was, along with Allan Guthrie, one of Bouchercon’s two International Guests of Honor.


This year’s David S. Thompson Award, recognizing “extraordinary efforts to develop and promote the mystery and crime fiction community,” was given to Toby and Bill Gottfried.


The Raleigh convention boasted two American Guests of Honor: Kathy Reichs, author of the Temperance Brennan novels (Speaking in Bones), on which the TV crime procedural series Bones is based; and Tom Franklin, who teaches in the University of Mississippi’s Master’s of Fine Arts program, and whose 2010 novel, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger Award.


The last item on the convention schedule was Sunday’s “Guest of Honor Closing Panel.” Moderated by whodunit writer Rochelle Staab, it featured Stan Ulrich and Lucinda Surber, Local Guest of Honor Sarah R. Shaber, Margaret Maron, co-Toastmaster Sean Doolittle, Tom Franklin, Allan Guthrie, Kathy Reichs, co-Toastmaster Lori G. Armstrong, and Zoë Sharp.

And that’s it for Bouchercon 2015. Cheers!

READ MORE: “Bouchercon 2015 in a Few Pictures” and “Bouchercon, Part II,” by Peter Rozovsky (Detectives Beyond Borders); “Bouchercon 2015 Raleigh Recap--Part One” and “Bouchercon 2015 Raleigh Recap--Part Two,” by Kristopher Zgorski (BOLO Books); “Some Great Moments from Bouchercon,” by S.J. Rozan; “Bouchercon Photo Gallery,” by Max Allan Collins; “Bouchercon Bliss,” by Art Taylor; “Bouchercon ’15: N@B, Negroes, Ofays, Bike-Effers and Nacho-Gate,” by Jedidiah Ayres (Hardboiled Wonderland); “Baby’s First Bouchercon,” by Angel Luis Colón; “In My Tribe: Bouchercon Raleigh Recap 2015,” by Joe Clifford (Candy and Cigarettes Blog).