BAD THINGS HAPPEN BY HARRY DOLAN - A REVIEW

Harry Dolan's first book, Bad Things Happen, is a terrific fun read. While not exactly a John Dickson Carr "locked room" style-book, it does echo Agatha Christie and Rex Stout from the golden age of mystery.On one level the book is a serious crime story with fully fleshed out characters and on another level its a juicy skewering of crime writers and their pretensions.  The plot is as twisty as a backroad on a Greek isle and as slick as a tube of Brylcreem.
          

David Loogan, escaping a troubled past, finds himself in Ann Arbor, Michigan working as an editor for Gray Streets magazine.  This mystery mag is owned by the elusive Tom Kristoll, and Loogan, in short order, finds himself
knee-deep in an affair with Kristoll's alluring wife and bound up in murder and mayhem.  The foul deeds pile up and seem to repeat scenarios from stories he is editing in the magazine.

The local homicide detective, Elizabeth Waishkey, is on the scene and her cat and mouse game with Loogan gets murkier by the minute.  Is he a murderer or an ally in solving the puzzling murders?  Reading this clever, densly plotted book was a real treat.   Any readers looking for a good summer vacation read will enjoy this neo-drawing room mystery.

Harry Dolan will be at The Poisoned Pen on July 13th with his new book. (Very Bad Men $26 Signed) Look for a review in an upcoming blog.  For further reading in this vein I suggest a return to the afore-mentioned masters, Christie, Stout, and Carr. 


                            - STEVE SHADOW SCHWARTZ

Qiu Xiaolong in the not-so-local news...

Life

Modern mystery meets present history

By Zhang Kun (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-05-27 08:01

US-based mystery writer Qiu Xiaolong often visits his hometown, Shanghai, whose rapid development is a theme of his works. Provided to China Daily

A detective writer strives to show the changing social realities of the times in his whodunit storylines. Zhang Kun reports.

Qiu Xiaolong sat down to write a poem about the country's rapid transformation and ended up authoring a mystery novel set in contemporary Shanghai.

The poet and translator, who lives in the United States, found great success with his first attempt at fiction, a genre into which he dove in the 1990s.

His 2001 English-language Death of a Red Heroine won the best novel category of the Anthony Award, a prestigious prize for mystery writers. The exploits of the protagonist, Inspector Chen Cao, have gone on to span six books.

The 58-year-old lives with his wife and daughter in Missouri but visits his hometown, Shanghai, once or twice a year.

He appears as the archetypical Shanghainese man, speaking in a low voice and smiling broadly.

Qiu took a break from Inspector Chen's adventures for a while to tell other stories about Shanghai.

The product of this sabbatical is Years of Red Dust: Stories of Shanghai (2010), a collection of interrelated short stories set in downtown Shanghai's Red Dust Lane.

It took Qiu some time to convince his publishers to risk publishing a book without a mystery to solve. He says it was even tougher to sell them on a short story collection. But the book, first published in French and German, has already sold a quarter million copies.

Qiu did a documentary for a German TV station after the book's publication. He brought a production team to Red Dust Lane, which was close to his childhood home and was where he would hang out after school as a youth.

The article in its entirety at China Daily, the official Chinese English newspaper.

Titles available by Qiu at The Poisoned Pen:

 Mao Case

by Xiaolong, Qiu ($13.99)

 Loyal Character Dancer

by Xiaolong, Qiu ($14.00)

 Red Mandarin Dress

by Xiaolong, Qiu ($13.95)

 Case of Two Cities

by Xiaolong, Qiu ($14.99)

 Years of Red Dust

by Xiaolong, Qiu ($24.99)

 When Red is Black

by Xiaolong, Qiu ($13.00)

 Dont Cry Tai Lake

by Xiaolong, Qiu ($24.99)

 Death of a Red Heroine

Clive Cussler Interview in AZ Republic

June 06, 2011 |

ARIZONA LIVING

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Cussler on new book, collaboration

by Larry Rodgers - Jun. 7, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

As best-selling adventure author Clive Cussler nears his 80th birthday, he chooses to continue writing, searching for thrills on the open sea and traveling to automobile gatherings across the country.

The Paradise Valley resident, who will sign copies of his latest thriller, "The Kingdom," in Scottsdale on Wednesday, talked recently about writing and savoring success.

Question: What can you tell us about "The Kingdom"?

Answer: I worked with another author (Grant Blackwood). It's fun in that sense because I'm getting up there, pushing 80. I'd like to retire, but they won't let me. It's a fun book, it's a couple. Nobody was doing a husband-and-wife treasure-type thing.

Q: How do Sam and Remi Fargo of "The Kingdom" stack up to some of your other characters, such as Kurt Austin and Dirk Pitt?

A: I try to make them different. Austin is pretty similar to Pitt (because) they asked me to do a parallel series. With the Fargos, when you get into the adventure and intrigue, you try to have them approach it from a different angle.

Q: What is your formula for collaborating with other writers (including Paul Kemprecos, Jack Du Brul, and Justin Scott)?

A: I'll come up with the plot, the series and the characters, and they'll start writing. Every 100 pages, they'll send it to me, and I will rewrite, edit it and so forth, until we reach the end.

Q: How do you stay motivated?

A: Each time you sit down to write Chapter One, it's a challenge. And if you write books, you have to be one of these nut cases where whatever you start, you are driven until you finish it.

Q: You have teamed with your son, Dirk, on some books in the Dirk Pitt series. Is it a different kind of partnership?

A: Just because we're related, there is no problem. We probably work easier. He lives just a mile from me.

Q: How much time do you spend working with your National Underwater & Marine Agency?

A: We spent most of April looking in Lake Michigan for a Northwest airliner that went down in 1950. We haven't found it yet. We're going back for about the 10th time to look for John Paul Jones' ship, the Bonhomme Richard, which is in the North Sea (off England, since 1779).

Q: You've had two sour experiences with Hollywood putting your novels on the screen.

A: Some authors are lucky - they get a real winner. Both my movies "Raise the Titanic" (1980) and "Sahara" (2005) were box-office flops. I'm not selling (any more screen rights). Working with Hollywood, you can't imagine what it's like. . . . The people out there are not like normal people.

Q: As you near a big birthday in July, what are your plans?

A: Just keep going, work on the books and what have you. I take more extended vacations now. I'm happy here. I've got a nice backyard that I've made into a spa. My wife and I will sit out there, share a bottle of wine, and I'll smoke a cigar. This is living.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/2011/06/07/20110607clivecussler0607.html#ixzz1OYzC8Nje


To order a signed, first edition copy of Clive's THE KINGDOM, just click this link or drop us an email at sales@poisonedpen.com

THE ROMANCE OF THE PRINTED WORD

   

This year the hot topic among writers, readers, and publishers has been the future of print books.  As E-readers proliferate and E-books outsell hardbacks many of us devoted bibliophiles fear for our paper-based books.
                   
Initially I made a point of ignoring E-readers.  As a semi-luddite I bypassed the digital age (with the exception of CD's) and am only recently, but still reluctantly, using some of the new technology.  I came into possession of a Kindle after my sister gave me hers.  She was a big booster of the device until she became disenchanted with her whole experience. I thought I would see what it  was like to read on the thing but now I see what my sister meant.  Aside from the chance to stockpile free and 99 cent books, read some E-zines, and acquire Kindle only books I hardly ever use the thing.  In some ways, however, I must admit that it has proved it's value.  For instance, Brett Battles, a writer I enjoy, lost his contract with his publisher and put his new book on Amazon. In another instance, a writer acquaintance, John Schmierer, got tired of wrestling with publishers and put his mystery novel, "Ocean Boulevard", on Amazon and is about to do the same with his new novel.  So the E-reader is a must of one wants to read these stories.  Even I realize that the E-reader is here to stay.
             

However, I have to say that using the E-reader for anything longer than a short story or article is something I find difficult and unsatisfactory. This brings me to the point of this piece and that is the sense of the "book" itself. To feel a book in ones hands and absorb the smell of paste and ink is a delicious and decidedly sensuous experience.  Cracking a new book, ruffling the pages, checking the authors bio and picture are all wonderful parts of the book buying and owning dynamic.  The delight of seeing ones books lined up in a book-case, stacked on desks, tables, and floors is a visual treat.  To view my similarly-spined collection of Hard-case crime paperbacks with their yellow pistol logo is a constant pleasure.  To be able to pick up my well worn Henry Miller favorites and turn to any page and read his unique prose is a joy that is hard to express.
              

E-readers may be a convenience and an inevitability but they have no soul.  They are always the same; they never change.  A book ages, it accumulates creases, tears, stains, and markings.  It summons, over time, memories and emotions.  E-readers have no visual resonance, no tactile warmth, no heart. What can match the pleasure of browsing in a bookstore:  The colors, the variety, the discovery of a new author, a missed book in a  series?  I first found James Lee Burke solely due to the artwork on the cover of "Neon Rain".  It attracted me in a way I would never have experienced on a black and white Kindle.
             
For those of you who want a future for real books it is important to keep buying them.  Our hope lies in the independent specialty bookstores like the Poisoned Pen.  This where the strength of books lie. The business
model of the big-box store has proven a failure but the independents offer personality and people who love books.  These small bookstore employees know their clients and what they like and are always ready with whats new and with recommendations.  These bookstores are a shelter from the awful noise of modern life and a refuge for book lovers.
            
  What do you think about this issue?  The Poisoned Pen blog is for all of us.  Please send your comments or send an E-mail to Will Hanisko, our blog guru, at WILL@POISONEDPEN.COM.  Or if you are a true Luddite, call or write the store. 


 VIVA LOS LIBROS, LONG LIVE BOOKS.


- Steve Shadow Schwartz






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Here are some covers that might jump out at you, were you browsing through The Poisoned Pen:

 Gran, Sara. Claire Dewitt and the City of the Dead (Houghton $24 June 7). The heir to French detective Jacque Silette’s signature style of solving mysteries, Claire DeWitt finds herself in post-Katrina New Orleans on a missing persons case. The narrative winds back and forth in time and in and out of lives, weaving a seductive spell peppered with observations on detecting that are spot on. While a revelation about the missing 
uncle lacks originality, the rest is effortlessly so and the use of language, time, and place are to be relished along with the literary tropes. “Terrific. I love this book! Absolutely love it. This is the first fresh literary voice I’ve heard in years.”—Sue Grafton







Mercer, Ken. East on Sunset (St Martins $26 June 5). “Former narcotics detective Will McGowan, who was fired from the LAPD for substance abuse, has a lot to be happy about in Mercer’s stellar follow-up to Slow Fire, a 2010 FMC Pick. Besides getting back together with his wife, Laurie, and having a baby on the way, baseball fan Will has a new job as a security guard for the L.A. Dodgers. Meanwhile, Erik Crandall, who was 
put behind bars five years earlier after a drug bust, is now free and seeking payback—from Will. Sure that Will pilfered the drug stash from the bust, Crandall begins harassing Will for his cut, all ,000 of it. Will knows nothing of the stolen drugs, but to get the steroid-fueled thug off his back, he needs to revisit his difficult 
past. Mercer masterfully ratchets up the suspense as the flawed, fully human Will strives to clear his name and protect his family at any cost.”—P






Makkai, Rebecca. The Borrower (Viking $28 Signed). The June Indie Next Pick: “A 26-year-old children’s librarian, Lucy Hull, allows herself to be ‘kidnapped’ by one of her precocious 10-year-old patrons, a boy intent on running away from home. The pair end up on a hilarious road trip that ping-pongs them across the Midwest and out to the East Coast. Makkai’s writing is sharp and funny, and book lovers will enjoy the many references to well-known titles, from echoes of the road trip in Lolita to a chapter that is structured like a Choose Your Own Adventure story. What a wonderful, assured, and original debut!” See First Novels. Our June Modern Firsts Pick













Block, Lawrence. A Drop of the Hard Stuff (Mulholland $26 Signed). Patrick reviews: “After a lengthy absence, Block is back in this powerful and nostalgic trip into the past. An aging Scudder is enjoying a late night talk with his old friend, Mick Ballou and he begins to tell a story about a man he once knew. Newly sober and clinging to his twelve-step lifeline, Scudder bumps into a childhood friend at an AA meeting. In Jack Ellery, a career criminal, Scudder sees the route that he himself might have followed had he not become a detective. Ellery also recognizes the solid citizen he might have become. The leveling mechanism of alcoholism has brought them together. Then, while trying to make his amends to the many people he’d wronged, Ellery ends up murdered. Scudder takes the case, which may end up jeopardizing his own sobriety...”  

Sam Sykes on John Scalzi's FUZZY NATION

Before we go any further, I should preface this with a few things.

Author John Scalzi

First of all, John Scalzi is a friend of mine. Not the kind of professional author friend for whom the term “chum” means I would hesitate a moment before shoving him off a cliff if it meant furthering my career. No, John is a friend. The kind of friend for whom I would travel back in time, murder his current best friend and quietly subsume said comrade’s role over the years so that I would some day be the best man at John’s wedding. We are chronologically-altered-assisted-homicide buddies. And that is intense.


Secondly, I have never read a science fiction book. I mean, not even a soft science, chemistry-as-magic, laser-beams-everywhere, everyone-is-attractive-and-wears-gold-spandex-because-this-is-the-freaking-future-yo science fiction book.  They’ve just never appealed to me and, frankly, I always assumed that fantasy and science fiction authors wanting anything to do with each other was one of those things that would only happen when a terrorist takeover occurred and only the logical mind of a science fiction writer and the whimsical instincts of a fantasy writer could save us all.


In the movie, I am played by Jean-Claude Van Damme. John is played by Steven Seagal. It grosses $13.

Suffice to say, and it pains me to my very core to say it, I picked up Fuzzy Nation more out of a sense of duty than anything else. I was kind of hoping that I’d be able just to smile whimsically and write this review with the same tone my grandmother uses when I’m trying to describe the works of Robert E. Howard. I had intended to use the words “gracious,” “heavens,” and “well, I don’t understand that, but I’m sure it’s very good.”


I was ready for that.
I was prepared for that.


And then Scalzi had to come along and ruin everything by writing a good book.
And I mean a good book. As in, the story is very good and it’s written very well. Scalzi writes with something that I was almost certain was anathema to scifi: passion. It’s a certain je ne sais quois of writing, impossible to define, but you know it when you see it. And I saw it from page one.

It’s something in the phrasing, I think, maybe in the dialogue. But it’s there: Scalzi isn’t writing something cold and sterile and settling back on his porcupine-like haunches, waiting for you to figure out just what he’s trying to say so he can smirk and nod his head. He’s writing something he loves. Every page drips with it, every line of dialogue leaks it, but John Scalzi is writing something genuinely fun to read.

John Scalzi at The Poisoned Pen 5/28 (Left) To his right
are authors Cherie Priest, Diana Gabaldon and Sam Sykes. 

I have no idea if it’s a good science fiction book. I honestly don’t. Maybe he’s violating some cardinal rule (or prime directive, whatever it is you scifi nerds love to say) and this isn’t true science fiction or whatever else.
I ain’t give a crap.
I ain’t give a crap that that sentence was grammatically incorrect, either.
I do give a crap about Fuzzy Nation, though. And I suggest you do, too.

Watch live streaming video from poisonedpenauthorevent at livestream.com

Both authors are very active on the internet, so do stop by their websites and poke around. http://whatever.scalzi.com/, http://samsykes.com/

Signed titles from John Scalzi

Fuzzy Nation ($24.99)

Agent to the Stars ($14.95)

Sagans Diary ($20)

Signed titles from Sam Sykes

Tome of The Undergates (UK Hardcover $30 / Trade Paper $17)

Black Halo ($16 Trade Paper) For the upcoming UK Hardcover edition email sales@poisonedpen.com

A Primer for the latest Sigma Force novel from James Rollins

James Rollins will be singing THE DEVIL COLONY, his latest Sigma Force novel at the store June 28th at 7pm. You can preorder copies by clicking the link below. You can also order backlist if you need to catch up. 


Click here to visit the event page. 

Sigma Force1. Sandstorm (2004)
2. Map of Bones (2005)
3. Black Order (2006)
4. The Judas Strain (2007)
5. The Last Oracle (2008)
6. The Doomsday Key (2009)
7. The Devil Colony Signed (2011)

Novels
Subterranean (1999) HC
Excavation (2000) HC
Deep Fathom (2001)
Amazonia (2002)
Ice Hunt (2003)
Altar of Eden (2009) AUDIO