Bullet Points: Bonus Edition

• Let us all bid a fond farewell to Edd Byrnes, who played wisecracking, comb-wielding hipster and wannabe private investigator Gerald Lloyd “Kookie” Kookson III on the ABC-TV series 77 Sunset Strip. He passed away at age 87 on January 8. As Terence Towles Canote explains in his blog, A Shroud of Thoughts, “Edd Byrnes was born Edward Byrne Breitenberger on July 30, 1932, in New York City. His father died when he was 13 and he took the name of his grandfather, a New York City firefighter. He eventually took an interest in acting and following his graduation from high school he worked in summer stock. He moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. Mr. Byrnes made his television debut on [a 1955] episode of Crossroads.” TMZ notes that he later played a teen-dance show host Vince Fontaine in the 1978 film Grease.

• First television gave us Hannibal (2013-2015), featuring the depraved forensic psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter from Thomas Harris’ 1988 novel, The Silence of the Lambs. Now, according to the Web site Deadline, “CBS has just closed deals for Clarice, a crime-drama series project based on the famous Thomas Harris character Clarice Starling, which is set after the events in The Silence of the Lambs. The project, written and executive produced by Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet, has received a big series commitment. … Clarice is set in 1993, a year after the events of The Silence of the Lambs. The series is a deep dive into the untold personal story of [FBI agent] Clarice Starling, as she returns to the field to pursue serial murderers and sexual predators while navigating the high stakes political world of Washington, D.C.”

• Here’s an intriguing question, addressed by philosopher Daniel C. Dennett: “Did HAL Commit Murder?” You will, of course, remember that HAL 9000 was the artificial intelligence antagonist in the 1968 science-fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

• I keep forgetting to mention that blogger Evan Lewis has been posting, since November 1, installments from the 1956-1958 newspaper comic strip Nero Wolfe, based on Rex Stout’s famous detective series. Click here to see them yourself.

• This comes from B.V. Lawson’s In Reference to Murder:

Synchronicity Films has optioned Craig Russell’s “Lennox” book series and will adapt the period Scotland-set thrillers for TV, with Robert Murphy (DCI Banks, Inspector George Gently, Vera) attached to handle the adaptation.

The series is set in tough inner-city Glasgow in the 1950s where the titular Lennox is a private eye billed as “a damaged man in a hard city at a hard time,” who finds himself caught between three Glasgow crime bosses.

• Los Angeles sure was a smoggy place before 1970, when “President Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency, which led to air pollution regulations, and allowed California to make even stricter provisions within its state.” It’s hard to believe that Donald Trump is now moving to relax government requirements that have for so long kept the air Americans breathe both cleaner and safer.

• It’s equally incredible that someone went to the trouble of putting together this 25-minute video “compilation of all guest star introductions from the television series Cannon” (1971–1976).

• Author Jess Nevins is offering, in his blog, this excerpt from his forthcoming book, Horror Fiction in the 20th Century: Exploring Literature's Most Chilling Genre (Praeger).

• Meanwhile, BOLO Books carries this extract from Hilary Davidson’s Don’t Look Down (Thomas & Mercer), due out in February.

• Did you know that author Steve Hamilton has a new Alex McKnight short story, Riddle Island (Blackstone), awaiting release to e-readers on February 4? Yeah, neither did I.

• CrimeReads recently posted Paul French’s survey of crime fiction (and some true-crime books) set in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the titles he includes, and with which I was previously unfamiliar: “Andrei Bely’s Petersburg (first published in serial form in 1913 and then as a revised edition book in 1922). Sadly not much read these days but considered by Vladimir Nabokov as one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, after Joyce’s Ulysses and Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and before Proust.”

• The Killing Times assembled this lengthy rundown of TV crime and mystery dramas set to debut in Britain during 2020. Some, though, not the entire assortment, will likely also become available to U.S. viewers. I’m particularly interested in watching the eight-part adaptation of Eleanor Catton’s award-winning novel, The Luminaries, and the small-screen version of Ian McGuire’s Arctic historical thriller, The North Water, both of which are coming from BBC Two.

• The literary magazine NB (short for New Books) has published a fine overview of the three novels British screenwriter Jimmy Sangster wrote about James Reed, described as “an ex-Scotland Yard detective who became the bodyguard, then lover, then husband, then ex-husband of Hollywood superstar Katherine Long.” The first of those titles, 1986’s Snowball, was republished last summer by Brash Books.

• As the latest James Bond film, No Time to Die, is being readied for distribution to theaters in April, the car company most closely associated with Agent 007, Aston Martin, “faces a lot of [financial] uncertainty,” says The Spy Command.

• Finally, Shotsmag Confidential has posted this incomplete inventory of “crime fiction bookish events” taking place in the United Kingdom between now and June 1.

The Devil and Barry Forshaw

I’ve been a friend of journalist Barry Forshaw for many years now. In the UK he’s probably one of the most distinguished literary and film critics opining on works of crime, thriller, horror, and science fiction. In between all of that, he somehow finds energy and hours enough to edit Crime Time magazine as well as appear (in his trademark dark suits) on television programs and in DVDs examining the genres he loves.

Most of us in the British crime- and thriller-fiction community are familiar with his book reviews, film criticism, and articles, and also with his more recent involvement with Nordic crime fiction. (That latter interest stemmed largely from his being the first biographer of Stieg Larsson.) Mention must be made as well of the fact that Forshaw edited the invaluable resource British Crime Writing: An Encyclopedia (2009), drawing together contributions from many of his fellow writers and reviewers. I was one of those people, and the published two-volume work sits proudly on my bookshelf.

A little while back, Barry contacted me because he knows of my longstanding devotion to the work of Thomas Harris, and that I first corresponded with the reclusive Harris a few decades ago. Barry had been commissioned by Auter Publications to pen a critical examination (for Auter’s Devil’s Advocate line) of The Silence of the Lambs--both Harris’ 1988 novel and director Jonathan Demme’s subsequent film adaptation (scripted by Ted Tally). Barry has since completed that examination, the publication of which was timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the debut of The Silence of the Lambs, a work that really changed the direction of the crime novel, moving it toward the Gothic horror side of the street. I would urge you to purchase a copy of Random House UK’s 25th anniversary edition of Silence, if only to enjoy Harris’ short but interesting new introduction. I also can’t speak highly enough of Barry Forshaw’s Auter study of that novel, an excellent companion to one of this genre’s milestone works. But don’t just take my word for it; read Paul Worts review, written in association with Film Four’s Frightfest Festival:

To coincide with the 25th anniversary of the publication of Thomas Harris’s novel ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, Auteur Publishing have released a new addition to their Devil’s Advocates series. Author Barry Forshaw begins with a look into the origins and inspirations for writer Thomas Harris’s first foray into the twisted mindset of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, (‘Red Dragon’ 1981) and the subsequent film adaptation by Michael Mann. He then dissects the world-famous follow-up novel and Oscar winning screen interpretation directed by Jonathan Demme and continues on his dissection of the Lector legacy with the resulting ‘Hannibal’ and ‘Hannibal Rising’ novel and films (not forgetting the almost entirely forgettable 2002 film ‘Red Dragon’), and ending up with the current television series: ‘Hannibal’.

Little is known about the less than prolific (5 novels in 38 years) author Thomas Harris. Refusing to give interviews or even do book signings, the most significant detail we do know is that as an editor and reporter he covered crime-related events and he spent time at the F.B.I. researching serial killers for his second novel: ‘Red Dragon’(1981). Whilst there he (naturally) came across the case of our old friend, the famous farmer fiend from Wisconsin, Ed Gein. Forshaw wastes little time in wheeling out the well-known and well-worn influences Gein had on both Robert Bloch’s novel ‘Psycho’ and Hitchcock’s cinematic masterpiece. However, to his credit, Forshaw also includes lesser-known works such as Jack Smight’s ‘No Way to Treat a Lady’ (1968), and suitably tips his hat to the giallo works of Bava and Argento in particular in filmic influences.

In the wake of my excitement over Forshaw’s book and Harris’ novel, I recalled a presentation Barry gave during the Crime Writers’ Association’s 60th anniversary party in London, held on Guy Fawkes’ Night (November 5). It found Barry yet again playing devil’s advocate.

The celebration was opened by current CWA chair Alison Joseph, who announced the hotly anticipated results of a CWA poll meant to determine the foremost author and books in this genre. In case you’ve forgotten, here are the winners:

CWA Best Ever Novel:
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), by Agatha Christie

CWA Best Ever Crime Author: Agatha Christie

CWA Best Ever Crime Series:
Sherlock Holmes, from Arthur Conan Doyle

Barry’s job that evening was to moderate a panel debate, which featured fellow writers David Stuart Davies, Belinda Bauer, and Zoë Sharp. They discussed and dissected the “greats” in the crime, mystery, and thriller field. Barry proved to be rather mischievous, reiterating all-too-familiar knocks against the masters (Agatha Christie just wrote puzzle books, some of Raymond Chandler’s work had no discernible plot, Thomas Harris was solely responsible for the glut of serial-killer novels, etc.). Barry admitted to me later that he was concerned attendees who didn’t realize he had planned to play devil’s advocate might be offended by his approach. And in fact, there were some negative murmurs behind me, with listeners disturbed that Barry was being unkind to their “sacred cows,” and a tad flippant--though that was the whole point of the discussion, to provoke heated disagreements. Despite such undercurrents of displeasure, the session was highly amusing and informative, and there were some terrific insights delivered on crime-fiction classics.

I had the chance to film much of the discussion, and you can enjoy the results of that effort below, in three parts:

Hannibal Lecter: Ultimate Film Baddie

As the late Heath Ledger pans for box-office gold with his portrayal of The Joker in The Dark Knight, I was interested to see another iconic film bad guy making news here in the UK. It seems that no matter how sturdy is the hockey mask, Thomas Harris’ creation, the anti-hero Dr. Hannibal Lecter, is able to escape its grip easily, as evidenced by his appearance as the No.1 movie villain in a survey at LOVEFiLM.com. According to the UK News Headlines site:

Hannibal Lecter has been voted the ultimate movie baddie by film fans.

The flesh-eating serial killer, famously played by Sir Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs, pipped Darth Vader to the title of ultimate big screen villain in a poll of movie buffs.

The survey of more than 2,500 people was conducted by online DVD rental website lovefilm.com to mark the release of new Batman film The Dark Knight for which Heath Ledger’s chilling portrayal of arch villain The Joker is tipped to win a posthumous Oscar.

Sir Anthony’s role as clever cannibal Lecter, who has a penchant for fava beans and chianti, won him a best actor Oscar and attracted nearly one-in-four of the votes (23 per cent).

You will find more of that story here.

Here’s the full rundown of ratings for big-screen bad asses:

1. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), The Silence of the Lambs, 23%
2. Darth Vader (David Prowse), Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back, 20%
3. Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci), Goodfellas, 11%
4. Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), No Country for Old Men, 8%
5. Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), Die Hard, 7%
6. Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), Misery, 6%
7. John Doe (Kevin Spacey), Se7en, 5%
8. Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), The Shining, 4%
9. The Joker (Heath Ledger), The Dark Knight, 3%
10. Al Capone (Robert De Niro), The Untouchables, 2%

I would also like to remind Rap Sheet readers that a previous LOVEFiLM survey found Sir Anthony to be the actor most British people would like to see as their prime minister. Considering the trouble our current PM, Gordon Brown, has been having lately and the consequent plummeting of his popularity, perhaps he should try uncorking a bottle of Chianti (or Amarone) and opening up his own tin of fava beans. The most skilled politicians always know how to re-create themselves, don’t they?

Finding Appeal in the Horrific

While crime fiction is usually my literary genre of choice, it is not my only choice. It’s the writing process I hold in high esteem, no matter whether the field is crime, thrillers, horror, or science fiction. And that brings me to the subject of Benjamin Szumskyj.

I recently befriended this young literary editor, who lives in Western Australia and is no slacker in his field. In addition to being editor-in-chief of Studies in Fantasy Literature and Studies in Australian Weird Fiction, he has also written essays and articles on literary criticism for journals such as Notes in Contemporary Literature, Wormwood: Writings about Fantasy, and Star*Line: Journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. To all of that, add Szumskyj’s credits as the editor of Two-Gun Bob: A Centennial Study of Robert E. Howard (2006), Fritz Leiber: Critical Essays (2008), and American Exorcist: Critical Essays on William Peter Blatty (2008).

As I got to know Szumskyj a bit, I discovered that apart from our sharing a passion for the works of Thomas Harris, we both read H.P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, Robert Bloch, and many other writers from classic horror and crime fiction. Last year, Szumskyj asked me to contribute to a volume of literary essays on Harris’ work, Dissecting Hannibal Lecter (about which I have written previously on this page). And following that book’s success, Szumskyj commissioned me, as well as several other writers, to contribute to a volume about Robert Bloch and his work.

Curious to learn more about this young editor, I took the chance recently to ask him a few questions about his background, his associations with the authors and characters on whom he focuses, and his own writing.

Ali Karim: Can you tell me where your fascination with fantasy and horror fiction originates?

Benjamin Szumskyj: I confess, I have very little recollection of how it all started and have a better chance of telling you how I came to individually know authors like Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, etc. If I had to dig deeply into my subconscious, I do remember watching several cinematic adaptations of literary classics as a child, in addition to reading books on Greco-Roman mythology. Also, as a Christian, reading Old and New Testament history would have made an impact.

AK: What do you think is the continuing appeal of work by Howard, Lovecraft, Leiber, Bloch, et al.?

BS: The quality and in many cases, the timelessness of their works. You can rarely become bored from rereading these authors and often find yourself reinterpreting their short stories and novels in new and exciting ways. Equally important, is that they were fascinating human beings. In reading the letter correspondences of men like H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, for example, they come across as people you would want to have over for dinner and have lengthy discussions with. This is not to say I agree with what they wrote in their letters or share their worldview, but I believe those authors that stand the test of time are those whose personalities are as entertaining as their written works.

AK: What of authors writing today?

BS: Now, this is different scenario. I believe there are some excellent contemporary authors out there whose works are classic, influential, and important in their own right. I’ve been lucky enough to meet and correspond with several authors and have found some to be very approachable, likable, and as fascinating as their fiction. Tim Powers, Charles R. Saunders, Robert Hood, and William Peter Blatty are all examples of this. However, I have met some who are distant, unlikable, and not the literary geniuses I imagined them to be, whose names I best not cite for fear of being hunted down.

AK: I see you are a member of the Australian Horror Writers Association. Tell us a about that organization and what you do for it.

BS: Like the Horror Writers Association [of America], the Australian Horror Writers Association promotes horror in its native country, in all forms and mediums. As a member, I interact with other editors and critics, in addition to widely published Australian horror authors. It is still young (no pun intended to president Marty Young), but has much potential. I am particularly impressed [by] the mentorship programs and their support of my new journal, Studies in Australian Weird Fiction.

AK: And what of your own fiction?

BS: I am working on that this year. I’ve only published a few short stories and even those are nothing spectacular, though I do have a soft spot for “The Carnivorous Idol,” which first appeared in Strange Worlds #12 [Wild Cat Books, 2003] and was later revised for republication at The Specusphere.

AK: How did you get hooked on Thomas Harris?

BS: Would it be too clichéd if I said it was the cinematic adaptation of The Silence of the Lambs? Once I watched that, I read the book, then sought out Red Dragon and when released, Hannibal. I have no hesitation in declaring these three books modern masterpieces. What more can be said about these novels that has not already been uttered by millions of other readers? Hannibal Lecter has got to be one of the most fascinating characters of all literature, and the genius of the novels in which he appears is evident, chapter after chapter. I confess, though, I am not an advocate of Hannibal Rising--though it is by no means a failure and does possess some merit. I much prefer the novels written before it.

AK: What do you see as Lecter’s appeal to the general reading public?

BS: I believe it is as simple as stating that he personifies what we sadly could (and sadly have in some parts of the world) become. I’m not talking about cannibalism here; I am talking about the justification of evil by civilization. If you dwell on the evils of the world that are now considered the norm, compared to, say, 50 years ago, the list is as long as your arm. It really is shocking to see what is now considered normal and acceptable. It could be commented that it has come to the point in which the civilized has incorporated, accepted, and utilized the nature of the barbaric, while the barbarians have remained true to their nature. In the absence of God, millions of definitions of what’s right and wrong, good and evil, emerge. As such, as we don’t want to offend one another, we tolerate another person’s definition of good and evil. That is problematic. I don’t believe we have the right to be judgmental, but we can exercise rational judgment.

While this might come as a shock to you, the way today’s horror films glorify and justify violence sickens me to my core. I love the horror genre, but I am very, very selective in what I like and even more selective in what I study. I only wish that the horror I read was just fiction, but unfortunately, the world is full of evil people conducting unspeakable acts of evil. When I came to know God, I understood that morality is not relative and that goodness is a moral absolute.

Anyway, most figures in the mythology of serial killers are irrational, unsightly, and social inept. Lecter is none of these. To some, he’s a necessary evil, to others he is and will always remain a monster.

AK: So how did Dissecting Hannibal Lecter come about?

BS: Like with many of my books, I want to edit publications that I myself would want to buy and read. But more specifically, I am tired of hearing people saying “someone should write or edit a book on [insert author’s name]” and not actually do anything about it themselves. They talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk. I have collected several non-fiction studies of the Lecter saga over the years, from book-length studies such as Daniel O’Brien’s The Hannibal Files to the occasional article in an overpriced journal, and have thoroughly enjoyed what all of them have had to say. However, frustratingly, a majority of these studies were of the cinematic adaptations rather than the texts themselves. I wanted to correct this problem and decided to edit the first-ever collection of essays studying the novels of Thomas Harris.

AK: How much work was entailed in tracking down the contributors?

BS: My editorial gift lies more in putting projects together than in the often boring work of copy editing. People know that, nine times out of 10, when I put my mind to a project, it’ll become a reality. I know many of the essayists I work with personally, either through similar interests or through mailing lists.

AK: And you are now putting together a volume about the works of Robert Bloch. Tell us a bit about your interest in Bloch.

BS: Like most people, I came to Bloch through the cinematic adaptation of Psycho, which in turn, drove me into the novel (which was even better). I remember that when I first read Psycho I lived on a street that crossed with another called Perkins, which as I am sure you know, is the surname of the actor who played Norman Bates. What was even weirder, was that a reclusive man and his elderly mother lived on the corner and she could often be seen from her window at night ...

Soon after, I bought a small collection of novels and collections from a bookseller and immersed myself in the worlds of Robert Bloch. I’ve never looked back since. What I love about Bloch is his ability to breathe new life into even the simplest plot or concept and have you looking at the normality of life in a more frightening way.

AK: Charles Ardai of Hard Case Crime reissued two of Bloch’s novels, Spiderweb and Shooting Star, in a combo edition earlier this year, acquainting many younger readers with this author’s work for the first time. Looking at all of Bloch’s novels and short fiction, which works strike a particular chord with you?

BS: I am not certain, but I believe the first Robert Bloch story I ever read was “That Hell-Bound Train” in Fantasy All-Time Greats (edited by Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg) and I was most impressed. I really enjoy all Bloch’s short stories, as he really was the master of the art form, so it’s hard to narrow the list down. “The Man Who Collected Poe,” “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper” ... there are so many that strike a particular chord with me. In saying that, I was never a huge fan of his comedy or science fiction, but that has more to do with my taste in genres than the quality of his writing.

As for novels, I loved Psycho but didn’t care for the sequels (though I confess I did like the cinematic sequel written by Tom Holland). Psycho is a modern classic, and surprisingly, never becomes boring after many readings. Again, it’s the simplicity of the novel that makes it so compelling and timeless. I also enjoyed The Scarf [1947] and considered it a sorely neglected classic. It is worthy reading, and a publisher should really reprint it (with both endings) as a handsome hardcover slipcase.

AK: Did you know that Bloch was the guest of honor at the very first Bouchercon mystery convention back in 1970? And do you attend any such conferences yourself?

BS: No I didn’t [know that], but I know he attended a convention in Australia before I was born! I haven’t attended many conferences and conventions myself, due to the tyranny of distance. Western Australia is an isolated state. I have attended the annual science-fiction convention SwanCon in the past and have many fond memories of it, as I personally met authors and artists like Tim Powers, Charles de Lint, Eddie Campbell, Robert Hood, Terry Dowling, Stephen Dedman, and several others. I also appeared on several panels, which I enjoyed immensely.

AK: Tell us a little about your blogging and other Internet writing.

BS: I don’t write much online, as I have a love/hate relationship with the Internet and am ashamed of the ramblings I have posted online (many of which were stupidly not edited; in my younger days I often spoke without thinking first). I irregularly post on my own blog, and I just don’t find the time to interact with online communities as much as I would like to.

AK: What books passing over your reading table have impressed you recently?

BS: I recently finished The Demas Revelation, by Shane Johnson, which wasn’t too bad but could have done with some tightening of the plot. It’s a surprisingly good Christian novel and more theologically sound than the shoddy novels of LaHaye and Jenkins.

Also, I was finally able to obtain a copy of American Supernatural Tales, edited by S. T. Joshi (which was brilliant because of the authors he chose to include in the anthology), in addition to The Last of the Trunk, by Robert E. Howard, and The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard, Volume 1: 1923-1929. The Robert E. Howard Foundation is doing amazing work with [that author’s legacy], and I highly recommend all their publications.

AK: Finally, what other projects have you lined up for the future?

BS: I am beginning to focus more on Australian weird fiction now, as this is an area that is sorely neglected and ripe for study. Christian fiction also comes across as being worthy of study and I also desire to write more theological works. Who knows, though, I may very well edit sequels for my books on Thomas Harris, William Peter Blatty, and even Robert Bloch. Time will only tell.

Lecter Under Scrutiny

You likely know all about my fondness for talking of books in bars, thanks to recent posts about ThrillerFest and the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. But let me give you some advice, just in case we ever meet over drinks somewhere: Do not--I repeat, do not--utter the name Thomas Harris unless you want your entire evening gone discussing his work, as his novels are a huge passion of mine. And I can gab coherently about Harris and his work for decades.

So it was with delight that last year, I was asked by Australian literary editor and writer Benjamin Szumskyj to contribute to Dissecting Hannibal Lecter, a comprehensive academic volume (due out in September from Australian publisher McFarland & Company) that looks closely at Harris and his monstrous creation, “Hannibal the Cannibal.” Until now, the only other book about Harris and Lecter was David Sexton’s The Strange World of Thomas Harris, published in 2001 by Faber and Faber. That was a concise volume by the editor of the London Evening Standard, who like me, is a longtime student of Harris’ work.

Szumskyj’s book is a much heftier tome, and bang up-to-date, capturing a dozen essays from various writers and academics, all discussing Harris’ fiction--both as it appears in print and on the screen. McFarland’s Web site promotes the volume thusly:

This comprehensive study of author Thomas Harris’ popular works focuses particularly on Harris’s internationally known antihero Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter in the classic novels Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal. In 12 scholarly essays, the work examines several themes within Harris’ trilogy, including the author’s artistic exploration of repressed desires, his refinement of neo-noir themes and the serial killer motif, and his developing perceptions of feminine gender roles. Several essays also focus on Harris’ works before and after the popular trilogy, examining themes such as gothic romance in Harris’s first novel Black Sunday and the making of a monster in the trilogy’s 2006 prequel Hannibal Rising.

I was drafted into this project late, and it was rather a struggle to meet my deadline, since I already had commitments to write large sections of Barry Forshaw’s forthcoming Harcourt Encyclopaedia of British Crime Fiction and myriad other smaller pieces. But as that old adage goes, “If you want something critical done, ask a busy man.” I managed to finish Dissecting’s Chapter 9, “Hannibal Rising: Look Back in Anger,” just under the wire.

And in the course of that effort, I got to know a little more about editor Szumskyj. As it turns out, we share a love of the works of Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, H.P. Lovecraft, and others. Szumskyj is a high-school teacher and library technician, and also serves as the general editor of the scholarly journal Studies in Fantasy Literature. He is the editor, too, of Fritz Leiber: Critical Essays (McFarland, 2007), Fritz Leiber & H.P. Lovecraft: Writers of the Dark (Wildside Press), and Two-Gun Bob: A Centennial Study of Robert E. Howard (Hippocampus Press). He lives in Melville, Western Australia. For more information about Szumskyi’s work, check out his blog.

Have We Got a Vacation for You!

I imagine that my Rap Sheet colleague--and ardent Thomas Harris fan--Ali Karim has already signed up for one of these excursions, but other Hannibal fans, take note of this report from Reuters:

If you want to meet Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter, a Lithuanian tour firm can help.

In Hannibal Rising, the novel by Thomas Harris now made into a movie, the childhood and youth of the fictional man-eating serial killer are set in the Baltic state, and the firm is offering a themed visit to the Lithuanian capital.

“We hope to attract tourists who would be interested in visiting Lecter’s native land,” Aurimas Jukna, director of tourism agency Saules kelias, said Thursday.

The tour includes a trip around Vilnius, a visit to a nearby estate for a “Hannibal feast” and a meeting with “Lecter.” The cost is 100 euros ($131).

One’s mind reels when contemplating the dishes that might be served during that “feast” ...

Hannibal Rises on Screen

Before the recent winter holiday season, I was excited about the return of Hannibal Lecter, both in bookstores, in the form of Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Rising, and in film, with the then-pending release of a Rising adaptation, starring Gaspard Ulliel as the young Lecter.Well, Hannibal Rising, the movie, opens this weekend on both sides of the Atlantic, and I, for one, look forward to seeing what Harris has accomplished with the screenplay, and what director Peter Weber has done in portraying the events and characters from Harris’ fifth Hannibal outing on the big screen. However, some British film critics already have their long knives out.

From the London Times:

The director, Peter Webber (Girl with a Pearl Earring), adopts a grainy tone, perhaps to offset the baroque flourishes accompanying the sadistic, grisly murders that pepper a by-the-numbers revenge plot. The French actor Gaspard Ulliel glowers as Hannibal, Gong Li’s aunt mostly smoulders and Rhys Ifans is all bug-eyed evil as the chief villain.

The more Harris has milked his creation, the more ludicrous Hannibal has become, the mystique of inexplicable monstrousness diminished with each appearance. Here it’s hard not to snigger as the teenage killer strums a lute while awaiting a killer. ...

From The Guardian:

Young Hannibal tracks down the Nazis in postwar Europe for some revenge munchies, busting into their various lairs like a very nasty Milk Tray man. How much more interesting--and scary--to have given Hannibal a perfectly happy boyhood with not the smallest occasion for anger or violence.

When asked by the Web site Movies Online whether he tried to emulate Anthony Hopkins in the Lecter role, Ulliel replied:

Before the [screen] test, before the auditions, yeah. Obviously, I watched Silence of the Lambs the day before and I observed Anthony Hopkins but when I prepared the role before shooting the film, the idea was not to imitate or copy Anthony Hopkins. This was not very interesting for me. I don’t think I’m able to imitate him. He’s so amazing in those films. He’s a very big actor. So I was kind of free to create my own Hannibal Lecter and I tried to work on my own with some readings and other films. Obviously, I knew that the audience would want or expect some similarities with Anthony Hopkins so one part of my preparation for the role was just to observe him and try to pick a few details from his performance and mix it with my own recipe to build my own character.

But let’s leave the last word to the trade paper Variety:

A killer career is launched in “Hannibal Rising,” which explains how the character most famously played by Anthony Hopkins became the cunning cannibal of later repute. With first-time scenarist Thomas Harris adapting his own novel, and “Girl With a Pearl Earring’s” Peter Webber the somewhat unlikely directorial choice, this upmarket slasher is a well-produced but slow-moving thriller that never quite roars to life. Biz in most territories should be at least initially robust, though brand recognition will probably carry pic into midrange numbers of “Red Dragon” as opposed to the B.O. bonanzas of superior “Silence of the Lambs” and “Hannibal.”

We shall see. I’m off to the theater, with a bucket of fava beans instead of popcorn. It seems only appropriate.

READ MORE: “Hannibal Rising Commercial, Rejected for Super Bowl, Available Online,” by Jessica Barnes (Cinematical).

The Sincerest Form of Flattery?

As we await the February release of Hannibal Rising, the film based on Thomas Harris’ latest novel (see a trailer for that movie here), John Sutherland contributes a most interesting article to the UK’s Telegraph newspaper about puzzling similarities between Harris’ novel and some of the Lecter fan fiction (“fanfic”) that circulates along the Internet’s damp floor. Sutherland writes, in part:

Compare the opening of Thomas Harris’s Hannibal Rising with the opening of another novel, by another hand, published three years earlier: ‘The door to Dr. Hannibal Lecter’s memory palace is in the darkness at the center of his mind and it has a latch that can be found by touch alone. This curious portal opens on immense and well-lit spaces, early baroque, and corridors and chambers rivalling in number those of the Topkapi Museum. Everywhere there are exhibits, well-spaced and lighted, each keyed to memories that lead to other memories in geometric progression ... Pleas and screaming fill some places on the grounds where Hannibal himself cannot go.’

The second story begins: ‘He often sits, as he is now, on the bed with his head against the wall, eyes closed, head tilted back and his mind wandering. Yes, wandering--wandering down the halls of what he fervently calls his Mind Palace. It is a wonderful place secret to all but him ... His Mind Palace is large, divided into many rooms, each containing his most vivid memories. Towards the center of the Palace is where his thoughts reside most of the time ... In this stronghold, he can visit his favourite operas and wineries ... In the outer circle of the Palace is where his most painful memories reside ... lost cries come from behind the walls pleading for mercy while mournful voices beg for forgiveness and peace.’

Who wrote this second passage? We don’t know. It’s by ‘Blythebee’ on a fanfic site, along with a multitude of other Hannibalistic Homage. The similarities (too extensive to quote here) continue, paragraph after paragraph.

So, is the reclusive Harris playing a joke with (or on) his fans and fanfic writers? And what are his obsessive fans to make of it all? Who is plagiarizing, or paying homage, to whom?

Read all of Sutherland’s Telegraph piece here.

(Hat tip to Sarah Weinman.)

The Making of a Monster

So, after being sucked in by all the media hype surrounding Thomas Harris’ new novel, Hannibal Rising--his fourth book to feature psychiatrist and serial killer Hannibal Lecter--I finally had a chance to read the work. And as a big follower of Harris’ storytelling, I am relieved to say that my anticipation was rewarded. Rising, a sequel to the other three Hannibal outings, is a bloody tale of childhood horrors and modern retribution that could only star a sociopath.

There are a few significant points worth making about this book:

• It’s a very different sort of work from its predecessors. The story here is much less complex and much less cerebral. Rising reads more like a screenplay, which isn’t surprising, since a film version of the novel is already being shot, with a release planned in February of next year.

• It is also a much bloodier book than I had anticipated. Hannibal Rising is split into two narrative strands. The first section introduces Hannibal at age 8, living with his family in war-scarred Lithuania in 1944. The Lecter clan reside in some splendor deep within a forest. They’re descendents of Hannibal the Grim--an obvious reference to the Brothers Grimm, and an appropriate one, since this section reads like a monstrous fairy tale. As readers of Harris’ last book, Hannibal (1999), will already know, the protagonist’s sister Mischa was eaten by a group of brigands in the winter, and that, coupled with the death of his family and tutor Mr. Jakov, started to shape young Lecter’s psyche. The other factor molding Hannibal’s personality is his “memory palace,” where he escapes (at least mentally) from the reality around him. In Rising, we see the development of that refuge as Lecter--having already blanked out his sibling’s horrific fate--avoids venturing into the woodlands surrounding their home. Left alone in the world, mute, and beating up bullies in an orphanage, Hannibal is finally rescued by his uncle Robert Lecter and his aunt, the very Japanese Lady Murasaki, and transplanted to Paris.

In the novel’s second section, we watch Hannibal being educated and falling in love with Lady Murasaki. That relationship becomes so strong, that after a local butcher, Paul Momund, insults his aunt, Lecter takes his revenge in a most brutal and bloody manner. Which, of course, places the boy under police scrutiny, as he advances through medical school and becomes an anatomy prodigy, thanks to the artistic talents he’s developed at the side of Lady Murasaki.

• Also in the second part, Harris enters Ian Fleming territory. Leaving behind the fairy-tale atmospherics, the author has young Lecter rediscovering memories of Mischa’s murder and embarking on a revenge trail, which sends him across Europe and North America, and eventually puts him face to face with the brigands, led by the vile psychopath Vladis Grutas. Hannibal shows no mercy as he tracks down these men who deal in prostitution, kidnapping of women, and sexual slavery, as well as post-war art smuggling (which includes their theft of the Lecter art collection).

To be honest, I don’t really care what other critics have to say about Hannibal Rising, because for me the novel provided such a wonderful opportunity to be back in the embrace of Harris’ prose and his dark, witty imagination. However, a few reviews in the UK have stood out from the rest.

First, full marks go to Mark Timlin at the Independent on Sunday. In a review titled “Sympathy for the Devil,” he opines:

In the end, the story of Hannibal’s early life is tinged with a great sadness as the reader comes to realise that Hannibal Lecter the monster was created by circumstance rather than choice, and, even though his later actions are far beyond the pale, knowing what caused them, half a world away and a lifetime before, I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for that little boy who so loved feeding the swans.

Meanwhile, The Times of London offers a split opinion on the book. Erica Wagner on Saturday called it indigestible and focused on Harris needing French lessons. Her colleague, John Sutherland, followed up in the Sunday Times, making clear that the novel was more to his taste. Sutherland writes:

This book has been strictly embargoed (although, amusingly, the Swedes misread the publisher’s instruction and released it prematurely--prompting a small invasion of fanatic day-trippers). Bootleg copies have been available on e-bay, at vast cost. There was, however, little point in even the most devoted fan jumping the gun. The main outline of the plot of Hannibal Rising (“at last, the evolution of his evil is revealed”) was substantially disclosed in earlier works.

And in the Sunday Observer, good old Peter Guttridge delves into the subtext with depth and a remarkable insight, before concluding:

This novel may be flawed, but Lecter remains a powerful, iconic creation, especially thanks to Anthony Hopkins’s screen incarnation. Lecter has been compared to Milton’s Lucifer and Goethe’s Mephistopheles. But here, as the novel ends, he is more like Dracula, coming out of the forests of eastern Europe to bring his evil to an unsuspecting west.

That’s the word from London. It will be interesting to watch how Hannibal Rising is received on the other side of the Atlantic.

READ MORE: “First Bite,” by Anthony Lane (The New Yorker); “From Soup to Guts, the Making of a Foodie,” by Janet Maslin (The New York Times); “Musings on Thomas Harris’ ‘Hannibal Rising,’” by David Montgomery (Crime Fiction Dossier).

Countdown to Lecter

Hannibal Rising, the latest installment in Thomas Harris’ Hannibal saga (which at the same time is the first) will be released in less than two days. When exactly, you ask? Never mind what I say: check the very slick Hannibal Rising countdown Web site for an up-to-the-minute report.

Aside from countdowns, we’ve been monitoring the approach of the new novel for some time. Check our previous reports here, here, and here.

READ MORE: “Failing to Cross the Alps, Again,” by Jerome Weeks (Book/Daddy).

The Lecter Variations

Well, we’re still a few weeks away from the December 5 release of Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Rising. But already, many people are done talking about the book and are on to discussions of the movie, instead.

Some of you may not be aware that principal photography has been completed on director Peter Webber’s film version of Harris’ new novel. Starring Gaspard Ulliel as the young Hannibal, it’s currently in post-production. Like anything associated with Harris, the movie is cloaked in secrecy, with the International Movie Database (IMDb) releasing only the most basic facts about the story line: “This is the story of the monster Hannibal Lecter’s formative years. ... The child Hannibal survives the horrors of the Eastern Front [during World War II] and escapes the grim Soviet aftermath to find refuge in France with the widow of his uncle, [a] mysterious and beautiful Japanese descended from Lady Murasaki Shikibu, author of The Tale of Genji. Her kind and wise attentions help him understand his unbearable recollections of the war. ... [The movie covers] three different phases of [Lecter’s] life, from childhood in Lithuania to his 10 years in England up to his time in Russia before his capture by FBI agent Will Graham in Manhunter [1986].”

In a surreal twist of fate, director Webber was also behind Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), the movie made from Tracy Chevalier’s novel based on the life of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. If you read Harris’ previous book, Hannibal (1999), you’ll no doubt recall that Vermeer’s work plays a subtle part in that story’s plot.

For more information about the Hannibal Rising film, click here. Its U.S. release date is slated as February 9 of next year. So far, there aren’t confirmed opening dates in Europe or Australia. You’ll find a larger representation of the movie promo poster here.

Dr. Lecter, I Presume

“There is a nameless force that makes explicable the most extreme of human actions ... those actions that are attractive only because they are evil and dangerous; they possess the fascination of the abyss.”--Charles Baudelaire

Dr. Hannibal Lecter--physician, monster, many of many parts--is set to return in Hannibal Rising, Thomas Harris’ prequel to Red Dragon (1981), The Silence of the Lambs (1988), and Hannibal (1999). The novel will reach both UK and U.S. bookstores on December 5. In anticipation of the good doctor’s reappearance, let’s take a quick look back at the history of the Hannibal Lecter Phenomenon.

I first discovered author Harris when, in 1981, I chanced across a copy of Red Dragon--in a Christian bookshop, of all places. The novel featured a big cover blurb by Stephen King, and it didn’t take me long after cracking Dragon’s spine to realize that this was a work of great merit, destined to make a mark on the crime/thriller fiction genre. It remains solidly on my top-10 list of crime novels. Michael Connelly (Echo Park) once told me that Dragon heavily influenced him and even strengthened his desire to become a crime novelist.

That book was the second from Tennessee-born former journalist Harris, who’d debuted with the still uncannily topical Black Sunday (1975), about Middle Eastern terrorists threatening to explode a blimp over a packed football stadium during the Super Bowl. All of Harris’s novels have now been filmed (with Red Dragon having twice been adapted to the silver screen), and each remains solidly in print throughout the world. The influence of Harris’ fiction cannot be underestimated: the serial killer as a protagonist/antagonist has now become a staple of modern crime fiction, for good or ill.

Harris grew up in the town of Rich, Mississippi, but surprisingly little else is known about his life, as he jealously protects his privacy. After being married twice, with one daughter to show for it, he now splits his time between Sag Harbor, New York, and Florida. Despite his comparatively limited output (five novels over 31 years), his readership continues to grow and his reputation now extends far beyond the circle of crime fiction and thriller readers. Much of his success can certainly be attributed to the popularity of the fictional Hannibal Lecter, who, like the gothic villains before him--including Professor James Moriarty, Count Dracula, Edward Hyde, et al.--exudes the captivating magnetism of a car-crash. In the three novels featuring Lecter, we see him evolve from backstage villain (Red Dragon), to a side-stage and supporting role (in The Silence of the Lambs), and finally in 1999 to center stage in Hannibal (originally titled The Morbidity of the Soul).

Dragon’s successor, The Silence of the Lambs, was a crime-writing milestone that had Harris’ contemporaries extolling his talents. I recall receiving an early review copy and reading it in an almost hypnotic fever. If memory serves, both Roald Dahl and Clive Barker described the book as “razor-sharp entertainment.” It remains one of the all time great works of crime fiction. When filmed, The Silence of the Lambs took the Oscars by storm, such was the intensity of the source material for Ted Tally’s screenplay. The movie also reinvigorated actor Anthony Hopkins’ career and earned Jodie Foster the covers of magazines worldwide. I’d go as far as to say that, thanks to the strength and intensity of Harris’ characterizations, Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter have become permanent fixtures in the pantheon of memorable imaginary figures.

By the time Hannibal finally came due at the end of the last century, Delacorte Press was prepared to capitalize on it, big-time. The American publishing house issued a press release at Easter 1999 stating that Harris (who’d scored an alleged $9 million advance for the novel, as part of a two-book deal) had delivered his long-awaited manuscript, and that presses were rolling to issue the book globally on June 8 of that year. Hannibal was shrouded in secrecy. There would be no proof or review copies sent about, and an embargo was placed on booksellers, telling them not to issue the work for sale until the global launch date.

Being, by this point, an aficionado of Harris’ fiction, I was a man demented (pun intended). When Hannibal’s surreal cover art was released, along with a teaser synopsis about the revenge of a former Lecter victim, Mason Verger, my excitement only mounted. I didn’t discover until later that the book jacket features the coat of arms for the Visconti family, a noble house from which Dr. Lecter believes himself to be descended. That image was interesting, too, in that it’s part of the Italian car giant Alfa Romeo’s logo, and Harris drove about in a red Alfa while researching his novel in Italy. (While in Florence, the author also researched the Italian serial killer Pietro Pacciani, dubbed The Monster of Florence. Harris sat through the trial of Pacciani, who was convicted of committing seven of the eight murders for which he was charged. Pacciani was later freed on appeal, though--only to die mysteriously before he could face a retrial.) This graphic reference was just one of the winks in Hannibal, a book that, like its predecessors, is peppered with multiple and often conflicting meanings, cynical observations of the human condition, and black humor that in Hannibal transformed itself into the Grand Guignol tradition of French theatre.

As the release of Hannibal approached, I found myself feeling desperate for a copy. Hearing that Maxim Jakubowski, crime writer and proprietor of the Murder One bookshop in Charing Cross Road, London, planned to open his shop at midnight on June 7 so that he could begin selling copies of Harris’ latest book, I organized a day off and then booked a hotel room near the store so that I could be among the first people to purchase Hannibal. Little did I imagine the sort of media circus that would gather about this event.

I arrived outside Murder One early and wound up sitting next to a couple of drunks sipping cider from plastic bottles. As darkness fell, and the inebriates left to seek out more alcohol, other people began arriving, and a bristling queue formed. Also in that line was the then-budding crime writer Mark Billingham, who turned out to be a fellow Harris aficionado. Soon, the press swept in. Ravi Mirchandani, publishing director for Random House, had organized a media blitz, and just as Jakubowski arrived with bottles of Chianti and fava beans, an actor appeared in blue overalls, looking remarkably like the Lecter of Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal. Then, from out of the shadows came representatives of the BBC, ITV, C5, and CNN, all waving cameras and lights and looking for sound bites. As I was at the front of the queue, I ended up appearing on television, much to the embarrassment of my wife and family. But at least my mission was accomplished: I got my hands on a copy of Hannibal.

In the days afterward, I was amused by the dichotomy of critical opinion of that novel. In Europe, the majority of reviewers and writers applauded Hannibal. David Sexton of the London Evening Standard even went on to write a book-length appraisal of Harris’ works. In the United States, though, the reaction was far more tepid. Some readers were perplexed by the amoral nature of Harris’ story, and therefore found it hard to appreciate the work in its entirety. (Interestingly, Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley [from The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground, etc.] found the same sort of trouble among readers, and her work was better received in Europe than in her native United States. Perhaps there’s something about European culture or history that makes it easier for residents here to understand and appreciate amoral yarns.)

For my own part, I was far from disappointed in Hannibal. I found the novel to be hypnotic, surreal, and amazingly complex, a book boasting a depth that’s lacking in so many works of crime and thriller fiction. I also thought Hannibal was very funny in places, but the humor was smeared with the rope burns of the gallows. The love story angle which numerous readers found to be unpalatable, I thought gave the book an edge that few other writers would have dared to explore. Sure, Harris was in love with his creations, but his love was peppered with a dark wit and seen through a manifestly cynical eye. Hannibal is chock-a-block with literary nods and nudges, not the least intriguing of which is Lecter’s decision, while hiding out in Florence, to assume the nom de plume “Dr. Fell,” an homage to the bumbling detective Dr. Gideon Fell, created by the now almost forgotten John Dickson Carr.

After reading Hannibal, I wrote to Thomas Harris. He responded, thanking me kindly for my enthusiasm as regards his work, and sending me a set of signed book plates which are now framed on the only section of my office wall that’s not covered by bookshelves.

That was five years ago. And now, again, I await the publication of a new Harris novel. If you haven’t read Hannibal, or have not re-read it over the last half-decade, I strongly recommend your picking up the book. If you like your crime fiction with an eccentric edge and filled with black humor, then Hannibal is for you. You have just enough time to finish reading that story before Hannibal Rises hits bookstores.

Hey, I know what I will be doing in the wee small hours of Tuesday, December 5. Do you?

A Novel of “Exquisite Taste”

Seven years was a long time to wait, but Thomas Harris’ fans can finally look forward to a new installment in the saga of the sometimes controversial Hannibal Lecter. Though maybe in this case it’s more accurate to say they can look forward to looking back.

According to the BBC, Hannibal Rising--originally scheduled for publication last year--will deal with Lecter’s early years:

Covering the flesh-eating killer's life from ages 6 to 20, Hannibal Rising will shed light on his parents' deaths and his memories of younger sister Mischa.

The BookStandard adds that “Harris also wrote the screenplay for the movie version, which will star Gaspard Ulliel (A Very Long Engagement) as a young Dr. Lecter, who was famously portrayed in previous films by Anthony Hopkins.”

Hannibal Rising is the first Thomas Harris novel since Hannibal, published in 1999. The new book will be available December 5. The film will follow in February of next year.