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Book Topics Archive 1
This is an extension of Lesa's Book Topics
 on Glendale Daily Planet!

The Desert Hedge Murders by Patricia Stoltey

(left to right, Juliet Blackwell, Sophie Littlefield, and Ann Parker Photo by Lesa Holstine)

The Deadly Combination of Juliet Blackwell, Sophie Littlefield, and Ann Parker were a hit at the Velma Teague Library when they appeared to discuss "Strong Heroines in Crime Fiction". They themselves exemplify strong women showcasing their talents. And, it was obvious they're having fun touring together. They brought that sense of fun to the library program.

After introductions, they thanked me, and said how pleased they were to be at the Velma Teague Library. They said they told other people in the mystery community they were coming to Glendale, and everyone said, oh, you're appearing at the Teague. Sophie told the audience the library was lucky to have so much community support, and it was good to see people turn out for a library program.

Each author introduced their books and characters. Ann Parker said she
almost feels as if she's local because her publisher is Poisoned Pen Press in Scottsdale. She told the audience that she writes a historical mystery series set in Leadville, Colorado during the biggest silver rush in the world. People came from all over, but weren't prepared for Leadville. At 10,000 feet, it's winter for nine months of the year there. Some people thought they could just pick silver off the ground. Ann's character is a woman who runs a saloon in Leadville, Inez Stannert. She calls her a woman in a man's world. The three books in the series all have rhyming titles, Silver Lies, Iron Ties, and Leaden Skies. She said they've had a good time teasing her about future titles. She thought Golden Thighs might be going too far, but the others assured her it might be a hit.

Juliet Blackwell is actually Julie Goodson-Lawes. She said she wrote her first mystery series with her sister, using a family name, Hailey Lind. Those books made up the art forgery mystery series. The fourth book in that series will be out next summer, with a new publisher. The first book, Feint of Art, was nominated for an Agatha for Best First Mystery Novel, and then, after three books, the series was dropped. Juliet said she's writing her new books by herself. It's a paranormal series, beginning with Secondhand Spirits. Some readers have told Julie this is the first paranormal book they ever read.

Julie said Secondhand Spirits was fun to write. When she first decided to write a book about a witch, she said the only fun witch she knew was from Bewitched, and she didn't want to write Bewitched. But, her background is in anthropology, so she researched the history of witchcraft. There has been a lot of mystery, and atrocities still committed in the name of witchcraft. Witchcraft is important to women's issues because most people accused are women. Witchcraft is often associated with healing. The wise woman is respected in villages until things go wrong, and then she takes the blame. There are serious themes about witchcraft and culture. Juliet showed her cover, and said you can tell it's a fun book because of the sparkles on the cover. But, she said she thinks it's a little more serious than the cover indicates.

A Bad Day for Sorry is Sophie Littlefield's first published book. She said it's considered part of St. Martin's hardboiled publications. When she thinks of strong women, she thinks of the middle-aged woman, often overlooked by society. Stella Hardesty is fifty, and she suffered from domestic abuse. She kills her husband, and that unleashes a part of her she never knew she had. Sophie said she herself went through a mid-life crisis, and had a bad attitude. She was frustrated with her experiences, needing reading glasses, etc. She complained that no one warned her about changes - she can't see to put her mascara on. Women of a certain age are not respected by society.

The authors asked the audience what they thought when they heard "strong women". Responses ranged from determined, problem solver, goes against convention. Julie said if anyone watched The Closer or Saving Grace, the characters were more mature women. They said the people buying books are women, grown-ups. One woman in the audience commented, "We have time to read." Another word thrown out was flexibility. Julie said at one time women protagonists, such as Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski, were just women put into the male role as a private investigator. Now, female characters are strong, and very individual. Sophie said that might have been the source of some of her irritation. She used to have to wear men's suits, with the floppy white bows that women wore. Now, books celebrate that women are themselves.

Juliet summed that part of the discussion up, saying women show strength in culture, family relationships, romantic relationships, physical, beauty and self-image, strong opinions and politics. Sophie said culture focuses on physical beauty. Her character, Stella, is twenty pounds overweight, ordinary-looking. She acknowledges that she's aging. Some agents were willing to take Sophie on as a client, but they wanted Stella to be more attractive. Fortunately, she found an agent comfortable with the character.

Juliet said her books always have an element of romance. She said a woman can still be strong with an interest in romance. Blackwell said she's willing to argue that men's fiction also has romance, but in a different form. She said readers want well-rounded characters, and life had romantic relationships, connections with friends and community. For a witch, romance is an issue, because women are the most dangerous when sexual. In Europe, the traditional belief is that the more sexually attractive one is, the more dangerous. Isn't it the sexy ones who are likely to kill you?

The Malleus Maleficarum was a witch-hunter's handbook that covered sexual magic. Part of the handbook covered those who believed in witchcraft, and those who didn't believe. The more people believed, the more likely they were to turn in their neighbors. If a witch cast a spell sexually, someone would fall for them.

Blackwell's character, Lily Ivory, is a natural witch. She was born with powers. Lily is afraid of romance and sex because it might stir up something primal in her. Her feelings are part of the character arc in the series. How do you let yourself become vulnerable? In her previous series, Hailey Lind wrote of a character with two love interests. It reflects contradictory desires and interests, and provides tension.

Ann Parker said she wanted to provide context for the world Inez Stannert lives in, her woman in a man's world. The 1870 census said there were 300 saloons in Leadville. Three of them were run by women. So, she plays around with assumptions when people come to town, assumptions that a female saloon keeper might be easy. It's a boomtown in Leadville, and, like Inez, people are coming from all over to make new starts and shed their pasts. In the 19th century, everyone came to Leadville, investors, prospectors, women who followed the miners, as prostitutes, bakers, launderers, and miners themselves. Inez walks a knife's edge. She is a saloon keeper, but she's also spiritual. She attends church, but can handle herself in a brawl at the saloon. Her husband disappeared. He's been gone eight months. People often disappeared back then, just took off, or fell down a mine. Inez doesn't know if she's a married woman or not. In Silver Lies, she meets a man, and almost has to seduce him. How does the outside world view her? She wants to make her position public with the man she's seeing. At the same time, she wants to be perceived as a successful business woman.

According to Juliet, when writing women in mysteries, family becomes an issue. It's better to have characters without small children, because a mother wants to protect her children. Lily Ivory, Blackwell's heroine, was run out of a small west Texas town at seventeen. She's spent her life traveling, looking for a place to settle. The Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco is safe for a witch. Lily runs a vintage clothing store. The book, Secondhand Spirits, is about motherhood. Lily was rejected by her mother, raised by an elderly woman who was a witch herself, so was comfortable with one. She provided Lily with a sense of family. The book also includes La Llorona, a demon. Spanish-speaking cultures have variations of the legend about her, that she was a woman of humble means who had children with a man who left her. In Mexico, the story says he left her with the children, and she drowns the children in the river, and then herself. She wanders the riverbanks, calling for her children, and wailing. La Llorona means "the weeping woman", and she takes children if they're out at night. The stories of La Llorona are like the Bogeyman. In Secondhand Spirits, Lily deals with a mother of lost children, and comes to grips with her own fears.

Sophie Littlefield brought up Robert Crais' Elvis Cole. When she thinks of physical strength, she thinks of a bad ass such as Elvis. She said all of the male protagonists in crime novels are strong, and they never seem to work out. Littlefield's character, Stella Hardesty, tries to intimidate men into not being abusive. It's unrealistic for a fifty-year-old woman who hasn't worked out to have physical strength. So, Stella starts a fitness program. She looks for ways to handcuff men, so she buys herself bondage items for restraining men. Sophie said she knew her character needed to restrain them, and she was looking for the plastic handcuffs police use, but the Internet led her to bondage sites, and that's what happened with Stella. When creating women characters, physical strength must be considered. Julie pointed out that Stella has another weapon, a gun. Lily Ivory doesn't need a gun. And, Inez Stannert has guns, and her words.

According to Ann Parker, Inez is a woman with strong opinions, and she uses those against others' opinions. She said, if we think politics are bad now, the politics of 1880, as shown in Leaden Skies, included shady dealings. Grant was expected to run for a third term as president, but he didn't get the nomination. In 1876-77, there was a push for the woman's vote, but it didn't happen in Colorado. In 1880, there was a woman running a woman's newspaper, in Colorado, that was for woman's suffrage, and supported prostitutes. These are elements in Leaden Skies. Inez doesn't get suffrage. Characters were not interested in women's rights because they were making their own way.

The authors were asked about their writing schedule. Sophie said she had been a stay-at-home mom, and volunteered. Once her children were 12 and 14, she transferred her energies to writing. So, she gets up, writes, takes the kids to school, writes, picks the kids up, and she yells at them, and they yell at her, then she writes. Once she was published, the writing time was cut in half. It's important to be part of the book community. She works all the time, but, if she's not writing, she's working on promotion.

Juliet responded that it takes absolute determination to write constantly. She gets up at 4, and writes. She's a Peet's Coffee addict. It's a very strong coffee. She has no transition time. She just gets up at 4, and starts writing. Nobody talks to her at that time of morning. She's discovered nothing is open, so there are no distractions. She gets more done in those first two or three hours than later. She has a day job; she works for herself. She writes for several hours, gets her son up and off, works at her job, takes a nap at 2, and gets a second wind. She'll research later in the day, and does her blogging, Tweeting, and correspondence with her editor. She's president of her local chapter of Sisters in Crime. She spends time reading other people's manuscripts (as they all do). She doesn't watch TV. It's hard to tell friends that work (writing) is what she loves to do, and she'd rather write than go out with a friend. When writers get together, they talk writing.

Ann told the audience she doesn't write at the pace of the others. She has a job, two kids and a spouse. She said it takes a while for her to write. She's always motivated to write the book, and is all excited to start, and then she loses steam. Then life hits, and then she'll get a call or contract from her publisher that nudges her. Once she has a deadline, she's propelled by panic. She blasts through to the end of the book. When readers told her Leaden Skies was fast paced at the end, she knew it was because she was rushing when she wrote it. She has a friend, Margaret Grace, another writer, who lives nearby, and invited her to her house to get away and have the chance to write. So, she went to Margaret's house, disappeared into the guestroom, and wrote big chunks of the book on weekends.

When asked if they ever run out of ideas, Sophie said she wrote eight books before her first one was published, and they were all kinds of genres, inspirational, horror, everything but science fiction. She said as you learn one thing, other things fall into place. Now she understands more as to the process of writing mysteries. She has mental muscle memory. But, she won't run out of ideas.

Juliet said she has to trim back ideas, rather than worrying about running out of ideas. She does research, and said she could write 100 pages on a topic. Stephen King called it "killing your little darlings", saying there are sections of your writing that you loved, but they just don't fit. If it doesn't fit, you have to kill it. They said they all have files for rejects, thinking they'll use them someday. Juliet said she has scrap paper with ideas on them. It's only the new author who doesn't know what to write.

Ann Parker, Juliet Blackwell, and Sophie Littlefield are definitely a deadly combination. It was a treat to bring them to the audience at the Velma Teague Library.

Ann Parker's website is www.annparker.net

Leaden Skies by Ann Parker. Poisoned Pen Press, ©2009. ISBN 9781590585771 (hardcover), 298p.

Juliet Blackwell's website is www.julietblackwell.net

Secondhand Spirits by Juliet Blackwell. Penguin Group (USA), ©2009. ISBN 9780451227454 (paperback), 336p.

Sophie Littlefield's website is www.sophielittlefield.com

A Bad Day for Sorry by Sophie Littlefield. St. Martin's Press, ©2009. ISBN 9780312559205 (hardcover), 288p.

(left to right, Juliet Blackwell, Ann Parke, Sophie Littlefield 
and Lesa Holstine in the middle front! Photo by Cassandra Sollano)

lholstine@yahoo.com
book blog: http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com
Twitter @LesaHolstine

Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

I had no intention of reviewing Julie Powell's book since I thought everyone knew about it with the movie, Julie & Julia coming out with Meryl Streep. But, when a librarian friend told me she didn't know there had been a book, I thought I'd at least give a short summary.

Julie & Julia is subtitled "365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen: How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job, & Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living". And, Julie Powell actually did risk all of that. At twenty-nine she was married, living in a small apartment in New York City, working a number of temp jobs that eventually turned into a secretarial job for a government agency. She had a group of odd friends, spent evenings drinking, worrying about having a baby before it was too late. Frankly, Julie's life was a little boring. On a trip home, she swiped her mother's copy of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the first step in a year-long project, without even realizing it. When she tried a recipe from it, and her husband, Eric, complimented her and suggested culinary school, she made the mistake of saying maybe she'd just cook her way through the book. And, then she started blogging about it.

Julie Powell is a disaster in this book. Her life, her apartment, her friends, and her language in the book and blog are disastrous. Her husband is the saving grace of the book, and of her life. With Eric's encouragement, she plows her way through the year, and the recipes. Somewhere along the way, she finds a cheering section on her blog, and attracts the attention of the media. And, she learns a lesson about looking for the joy in life.

To be honest, I read Julie & Julia because I want to see the movie. I can't wait to see Meryl Streep as Julia Child. Reading the book was like watching a NASCAR race, waiting for the giant crash. Even though you know it's not right to watch the crash, you can't look away, watching it over and over. It's a cliché that's been used often before, nothing original in that comment. But, Julie Powell's life was a disaster, and I agreed with some of her blog readers who tired of her language. She did a wonderful job, though, with the imaginary conversations between Paul and Julia Child. Julie & Julia is the story of a woman who triumphed, completed a tough goal with the help of her husband and friends. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. I hope I can recommend the movie.

Julie Powell's blog is www.juliepowell.blogspot.com

Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen: How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job, & Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living by Julie Powell. Little, Brown & Company, ©2005. ISBN 9780641852169 (hardcover), 320p.

 
J. A. Jance - Photo by Lesa Holstine

The Foothills Branch Library in Glendale advertised the program as "An Afternoon with J.A. Jance." It was a delightful way for over 100 appreciative people to spend the afternoon, with a gifted, funny, storyteller.

Before the program even started, Jance was asked who she likes to read. She said she was reading Lee Child right now. She also mentioned Michael Connelly and Alexander McCall-Smith. Although she signed a number of books ahead of time, she was promoting her new mystery, Fire and Ice, and her autobiographical book of poetry, After the Fire. She said if you read that book you would know who she is, and where her characters came from.

J.A. Jance (Judith Ann) looked at the large audience, and said people who live in New York don't understand that Phoenix isn't a one-horse town. Just because she does a signing in Scottsdale doesn't mean she shouldn't do them elsewhere. She said she appreciates the Glendale Library allowing her to appear there.

As she started singing, "Another opening, another show...", she said she's two weeks into doing two or three events a day, so we might have to give her a second to connect. She said her website is at JAJance.com. On the site, readers will find the covers of her books, a schedule of all of her appearances. Her books are listed in order, because some people are Mr. Monk, and have to go back to the beginning and read everything. She also has a blog there. Jance said she loves writing books, and she's paid well to write them. But, she writes her blog because it's how writers process events in life. Her first blog entry was written three years ago when her son-in-law lost his nine year battle with melanoma. But, he was a light-skinned redhead who grew up in Tucson, had two terms in Iraq, and was Active Duty in the Coast Guard just prior to the disease. That entry was entitled, "Respect Must be Paid."

But, most of Jance's entries are lighthearted. She and her husband, Bill, have played a lot of golf this year. It's a miracle, because previous to golf, Jance's athletic endeavors were limited to jumping to conclusions. But, after her husband's knee problems were taken care of, they play golf three times a week. His golf scores are better. But, hers haven't improved.

She said she's used to writing around people, and can write anywhere. She was one of seven kids who did homework at the kitchen table. She usually sits in a chair in the living room with her laptop, and writes her books, and answers her email. She was sitting there one day, and heard a beep, beep, beep. She thought the smoke detector battery was going, but heard it again. Up above the bar, where her husband keeps his Rosenthal Lotus stemware, she found a trapped sparrow. She shooed it out of the bar to the living room. But, the living room has a high ceiling, and for the next forty-five minutes, she and her husband threw things at it, pillows, the dog's toys, noodles from the pool, trying to get it. Finally, when it tired out, and landed on an owl statue, she grabbed him, and took him outside and let him loose. She said he probably went back and told astonishing stories of people chasing him. But, her blog entry that day said, "I Got a Birdie!"

Jance said she doesn't discuss politics or economics on her blog. It's just a window an a writer's life. She's accessible via her website and email. People write to her. When Damage Control came out in paperback, there must have been a shipment to North Carolina Target stores that had the pages numbered wrong. Her readers didn't write to her publishers, because their email addresses aren't accessible. They wrote to her.

One woman who read the latest book, Fire and Ice,  complained about the ending of the book, that she must have been missing something. Jance went back, and said, no, that's how it ends. The woman immediately wrote back and told her all the aspects of the book that she felt had been left dangling. Judy said she has a quota of 100,000 words, and she'd already used up her quota.

According to Jance, when she writes a book, she writes them, and, once finished, prints two copies, one for her husband, and one for her agent. Once she gets them back, she sends the corrected manuscript to New York, the place that thinks Phoenix is small. They also think everything in Arizona is close together. Then she gets the editorial letter, telling her what needs to be changed to make it work. She sends that back quickly, because that's when she gets a check. When it comes back, it's been copy-edited. Jance's books are 400 pages long. Think of your worst English teacher nightmare with red letters, and magnify that by 400 times. Then more people read it, and it goes into galleys. Once the galleys go out, you can't make a lot of changes. After reading the galleys for Damage Control, there was no resolution to one problem. Fire and Ice came from needing to resolve it.

Last week, Jance did an interview with a young man from a newspaper. She said she can tell when someone has never read murder mysteries and disapproves of them, one of those on a murder mysteries aren't literature kick. He said, "Isn't combining two characters in one book a gimmick?" She said, "No, it's a sales tool." He asked if there was pressure to get her male and female characters in bed, and she said, no. She said she hasn't read the article, but it was a small paper.

Fire and Ice is J.A. Jance's 39th published book, and it appears on the New York Times Bestsellers List at #8 on Sunday. In 1964, she wasn't allowed in the the creative writing program at the University of Arizona because she was a girl. She was married to a man who was allowed in, but all he did was imitate Faulkner and Hemingway by drinking. But, he said there would only be one writer in the family, and he was it.

Hour of the Hunter is the story of a teacher who couldn't get into a writing program, but her husband did. Her husband is dead at the beginning of the book, and the crazed killer is a former professor in the creative writing program. This is Jance's favorite story because of the storyline.

Jance said she started to write books in the middle of March 1982. She was a single parent with two little kids, no child support, and a job selling life insurance. Her fortieth and forty-first books are written, and due to come out. Her first book was 1200 pages, but never published. It should have counted as three. It was the size of The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, and then some.

Jance told us she uses real places in her books. She has spent half her life in Arizona, and half in Washington state. It's easier to remember real places, and it appeals to readers. The distances are real, and the books are plausible.

She uses her own life as background in the books. For instance, Ali Reynolds had a scholarship to attend NAU in journalism. In 1962, Jance had a scholarship, and was the first of seven children to go to college. She wouldn't have been standing at the library today without that scholarship. Ali has a loyalty to the people who gave her the scholarship, and that's how she gets involved. One reader wrote and complained about Ali and the scholarship business, that it was all filler. Jance replied that everything in books is filler; chapters are empty until the words get put there.

Then there was the email from a man in Tucson who said he liked the Joanna Brady books, but wouldn't read another until she got rid of the bitch who is her mother. That woman is patterned on Judy's own mother, who loved the character. She said she was the first woman in books who knows how the world really works. Jance told the man we have to deal with the relatives we have, rather than the ones we wish we had.

Here's another story of background to the books. Judy's second husband, Bill,the nice one, (He says her first husband was so bad, it made his life beautiful.) is a Formula One fan. So, she said, for his birthday, why don't we go to Monaco for the race at the end of May. He said, no. That made her mad. So, she called everyone, the children and grandchildren, and said, for Bill's birthday, I'm going to charter a jet, and we're all going to Disneyland. Then, she told him, this is what we're doing for your birthday. He could tell her no, but not the kids and grandkids. It was dreadful. Bill had been concealing how bad his knees were. He was in pain, and could go no further than 50 yards without having to sit down, or lean on something. So, her daughter had a two-year-old toddler with her, and she needed help. And, there was Bill, needing her help. He had both knees replaced last June, and went on tour with her last July. He said he wished he'd done it sooner.

So, in Fire and Ice, when J.P. Beaumont has his kids and grandkids at Disneyland, you know where that background came from. Jance has been writing about J.P. Beaumont since 1982. She enjoys writing about him because she doesn't write only about him; she writes about other characters. J.P. has an inner ear problem. Even the sight of a boat gives him sea sickness. So, when he goes to Disneyland and rides the Teacups, it's above and beyond.

J.A. Jance said she writes only one book at a time, but she's dealing with three at a time, creating one, editing one, and touring for a third. Before a book comes out, her daughter reads it, and talks about it with her so she can remember what's in the book. It was a little difficult this time, because with a daughter at 3 1/2, who is a "fire hose of conversation", the only time to talk was when her daughter was in the car on her way to or from work. Her daughter didn't like one of the stories used as background.

When Jance's son-in-law was sick, he watched a lot of Home & Garden TV. He knew he was dying, and wanted to make sure the little house was in good shape, so he was doing a kitchen/bathroom remodel when he was one step from hospice. But, he did get to see it before he died. He also wanted a working washer/dryer for the baby. So, they bought a top-of-the-line, front-loading, turquoise Kenmore. For two years it worked good. Then, they called the repairman, who must be much busier than the Maytag repairman. When he finally got there, and too it apart, he held up a bunch of baby socks, and said, these are supposed to go in a knit laundry bag, not washed alone. So, when Butch and Joanne's front-loading washer has problems, readers can now diagnose the problem - baby socks.

Jance said she used to be able to give her books titles, before she became a "Big Thing", such as debuting a book at #8 on the New York Times list. She's just a girl from Bisbee, Arizona. In publishing, the NYTimes is top of the heap. But, last night, at Changing Hands Bookstore, she met a woman who said she was reading the books to her mother, who has cancer and is undergoing chemo. The books mean a lot to them. Judy said talking to readers is the only way to find that out, the things that really count.

Now that she's a "Big Deal", she has a title committee, her editor and marketing staff. Since she has two publishers, she has two title committees, which is why she has two books in a row with "Fire" in the title. The funny thing is, the two editors who insisted on the titles are now gone. She would normally tell us the name of her next one, but not with the next one with the same word in the title. Instead, she'll just say the new Ali Reynolds book goes on sale on Dec. 2.

Queen of the Night is Jance's next thriller. The Tohono O'odham Tribe has a legend about the Night Blooming Cereus. It's the story of an old grandmother who retrieves her grandson to take him home to the desert people. She tires, but for her efforts, she's turned into a plant. And for one night a year, it's the most beautiful plant of the year, the Night Blooming Cereus. It grows on the Deerhorn cactus. The cactus has buds in the spring, and they bloom once a year. But, no one knows exactly when it will bloom, sometime in the middle of May to the middle of June. People can only predict within 48 hours when it will happen. At 6 PM, the buds open, all over the Sonoran Desert. By midnight, the flowers are as big as dinner plates, white with tinges of yellow. And, the scent is so beautiful it's called Ghost Scent. Only one moth knows when it will bloom, and it shows up to pollinate the flower. By 6 AM, it's gone.

Most of the time, Jance's books aren't based on real cases. Real people are affected by crime, and they date their lives before and after the crime. Queen of the Night deals with the legend of the old white-haired woman who brought back children. There's a whole group of brought back children in the book.

When Jance ended, and said she'd take questions, she warned the audience that she has hearing problems, and had dropped her hearing aid under a car recently, and hadn't put it back yet.

She was asked about not getting into the creative writing program at University of Arizona. She said the creative writing teacher, and her ex-husband were both dead by the time her first book came out. Her first husband died at 42 of chronic alcoholism the year after she divorced him. For a long time, she was really angry about not getting into the program. It's ironic that the publisher of her poetry book, After the Fire, is the University of Arizona.  She received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters a few years ago, but they never let her do the commencement speech.

Judy said, if she had managed to fight her way into that creative writing class, with a teacher that didn't want her there, he might have drummed that writing spark out of her. Instead, she stayed close to her storytelling roots.

Tony Hillerman once told her, "Literary fiction is where not much happens to people you don't like very much."

Why J. A. Jance? Her actual name is Judith Ann Jance, but, in 1983, Avon told her nobody would read police procedurals written by a woman. Her first six books had no biography or picture. The rumor in Seattle was that a retired Seattle cop wrote the books.

When asked if she keeps a chart of characters, Jance said she counted on her memory for a while. She now keeps a character file, but she didn't have one for the first couple Joanne Brady books. Desert Heat went all through the editorial process, and it took two readers to tell her she brought back a character she had killed in a previous book. She said it took her a few books to backtrack and explain that.

The final question was about what J. A. Jance reads. She said she reads murder mysteries, but she would tell us about three books she thinks are important.

The Madonnas of Leningrad - WWII, and the Allies headed to Leningrad. Museum workers lived in the museums. The paintings were gone, but they lived there, and even ate library paste to survive. The docents would look at empty frames, and describe what was in each picture. One of the docents was a woman who was responsible for the Madonnas.

Mr. Pip - There was a war of ethnic cleansing in a little island in the South Pacific. It was a war that really happened, but the world didn't really care because it was blacks killing blacks. The Anglos all left, except for one little man. He stayed on, and when the war was over, and the people realized there were no teachers for the school, he said he'd teach. He took over the job, and invited experts in as guest speakers, such as a fisherman to teach the children how to fish, and which fish were good. And, he would read to the kids from Great Expectations. And, when he finished, he would start over. So, there was the teacher reading to the kids about Dickens' England. When the revolutionaries found out, they took the book. So, the teacher and kids tried to reconstruct the story.

Last year, when Jance spoke at Changing Hands Bookstore, they offered her a book. She was too tired to say Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe was her favorite book, so they gave her one she hadn't heard of, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It told how the island of Guernsey was abandoned by the British in World War II, and taken over by the Germans. The people formed a faux literary society to get around the German curfews.

All three of the books deal with how art sustains us in hard times. Jance said, perhaps that's why her book sales are up 20%. People need a place to go that doesn't deal with politics or the economy. So, it's no surprise.

Beguile the time is the ancient charge of the storyteller. J. A. Jance is honored to do that.

J. A. Jance's website is www.JAJance.com.

Fire and Ice by J. A. Jance. HarperCollins, ©2009. ISBN 9780061239229 (hardcover), 352p.

Lesa Holstine and J. A. Jance Photo by Sarah Herlache





lholstine@yahoo.com
book blog: http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com
Twitter @LesaHolstine

VIDEO TO BE POSTED LATER SAT EVENING

Ed Sharpe - Publisher Glendale Daily Planet / KKAT-IPTV and  World Renowned 
Mystery Author J.A. Jance at the Foothills Branch of the Glendale Public Library

Tim Myers Appears for Authors @ The Teague

( 3 PM on Wednesday, Aug. 28 )   Tim Myers, on tour to promote his new mystery, A Slice of Murder, written under the name of Chris Cavender for Kensington Publishing, appeared at the Velma Teague Library. His appearance opened with a short biographical sketch.

Tim Myers is an Agatha Award nominated author who has published nineteen novels and has appeared on the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association national bestseller’s list ten times, ranking as high as #2. Under the name Tim Myers, he writes the Lighthouse Inn mysteries, the Candlemaking mysteries, and the Soapmaking mysteries, as Elizabeth Bright the Cardmaking mysteries, and as Melissa Glazer the Clay and Crime mysteries. One of Tim’s books was chosen by The Mystery Guild as an Editor’s Choice, and was also named one of their Ten Most Wanted books. There have been ten large print editions of Myers’ books as well. In addition, he has published over 80 mystery short stories, and has been nominated for three Derringer awards for excellence in short mystery fiction. His short fiction has appeared in the anthologies The Haunted Hour, Mystery Writers of America’s A Hot and Sultry Night for Crime, and Murder Most Crafty. He is currently writing the pizza shop mysteries for Kensington as Chris Cavender, and has eight more books under contract with Kensington, St. Martin’s, and Penguin/Berkley Prime Crime.

Tim's presentation was quite funny at times. He said he got started as a writer because Dr. Seuss was driving him crazy. He never intended to become a stay-at-home dad, but, eighteen years ago, when his daughter was born, and he held her in his arms, he told his wife he wanted to be a stay-at-home dad. But, at that time in the South (North Carolina), it was unusual for a man to do that. He became alienated from all the groups he had belonged to, and most mothers didn't welcome him. Intellectually, it isn't very stimulating staying home to take care of a baby. So he decided to try to write. And, it was logical for him to try mysteries because he loves to read mysteries. At the age of nine, he discovered Agatha Christie. He surprised his father when he asked for a complete collection of Christie at that age. His father wasn't a mystery reader, and probably only read one of Myers' books before he died.

Myers said he tried to write, and his first efforts were derivative. But, one of his early short stories was accepted by Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine for its Department of First Stories. So, he thought he had it made. But, his next 123 submissions were rejected. Some stories were rejected multiple times. Tim told his wife when he hit 100 rejections, he'd be done. Then, when he passed 100, he told her he'd quit at 200 rejections.

Tim worked on short stories while his daughter napped. He and his wife had agreed he would go back to work when their daughter entered kindergarten. But, at that point, he told her he had the bug, and he would like to write. So, she told him to give it a year, and try to write a book. He wrote a couple that weren't any good. Every fall they would have "The Conversation" about what Tim would do for the rest of his life. His wife never lost faith in him.

One day, Myers thought about the fact that he loved lighthouses and mountains, so maybe he'd try to write a story about a lighthouse in the mountains. He drove to the Outer Banks, and took 200 pictures. He mentioned that North Carolina should really be two states because the Scots settled the western part of the state, and the English settled the east. Myers' family, who were Scots, were there for many generations. In writing the story, he wanted to put a lighthouse in the mountains, and had to come up with a reason for it. So, his lead character's great-great-grandfather had built the lighthouse for his wife, and she died in childbirth three days before the lighthouse was finished. Tim's wife read the book, and was upset when she reached that point, and hasn't read another one of his books.

Myers said, unlike his previous attempts, when he wrote this book, everything made sense. His characters started to behave logically. He was proud of the book. He sent it to his agent. Two weeks later, she called, and said she loved the book, but he had to take the lighthouse out of the mountains, saying he couldn't do that, and he would have to make a change. He said, you're right. I do have to make a change. If you don't understand the story, you're fired. So, he sent it to another agent, who accepted it. Myers wrote five of the lighthouse mysteries.

Craft mysteries were just starting to be published, and his agent asked if he could do any crafts. He said, sure, he did crafts. He was a stay-at-home dad. So, when asked if he could do candlemaking, he said sure. He admitted to the us that he never had, but he writes fiction, so people shouldn't believe everything he says. Myers went to a craft store and bought four kits and six books about candlemaking, and stayed up until 3 AM. He said he wasn't very good at it, so he couldn't pretend to be a professional. Tim tried to decide why someone who making candles who wasn't proficient, and realized if they inherited a business because a relative died it would work. Mystery = someone dies, so Harrison Black inherited At Wick's End candle shop from his great aunt. Tim killed her early in the book, At Wick's End.

Someone at NAL contacted Tim's agent, and said she loved Tim Myers' books, and did the agent know anyone who wrote like him for a crafting mystery. Tim said he's always made cards with his daughter, and he suggested card-making. But, the publisher wanted a female author because the audience for crafting mysteries tend to be female. Myers said he knows that 90% of his readers are female, and he said he could do it. The publisher was doubtful, but gave him a chance saying she wanted fifteen pages, written in first person, in a female voice. She didn't think he could do it. He came up with Jennifer Shane as the character, a spunky, young woman, not afraid to make mistakes. He likes Jennifer, and the publisher liked the synopsis, so wanted thirty to forty more pages. Tim said he heard Jennifer's voice in his head. They liked the material at NAL, but wanted him to use a female pen name. He hesitated since he's always said, if he gets arrested, he wants his name spelled right, Myers, with only one e. He likes to go into bookstores and see his name spelled right, and have former girlfriends from high school see his name on book covers. But, he decided his name on the cover wasn't as import as getting the books published. Those books were published under the name Elizabeth Bright. The Elizabeth was after his late friend, Elizabeth Daniels Squire. And, he went to a bookstore, trying to pick a last name. Tim said there was nothing between Lilian Jackson Braun and Rita Mae Brown, so he came up with Bright. He thought that was a good place to be in the alphabet. His degree is in marketing, and he said his business background has been invaluable in his writing career.

According to Myers, in publishing cozy mysteries, almost every time an author loses an editor, the next editor dumps him. He said his first three series had characters who were single, without many family connections or love interests. So, for his next series, he wanted to give his character a big family. Tim's wife is from a large family, so he observes their holidays and times together. Ben Perkins is the oldest of six who work in a soap factory. He's the troubleshooter of the family in books with titles such as Dead Men Don't Lye and A Pour Way to Die. But the editor of his soapmaking series left, and the new editor wanted a new series written under a new name. Myers, who had been in Vermont for a few hours, set a pottery series in that state, picked the name Melissa Glazer, and named his character Carolyn after author Carolyn Hart.

Tim said he had done lots of craft mysteries, and wanted to write a food one. He watched the Food Network, and decided a pizza place would  be great. A Slice of Murder, written as Chris Cavender, features Eleanor Swift, a widow who is fiercely independent. Tim, who has been married for twenty-eight years, and dated his wife for seven years before that, gave Eleanor that type of relationship. In contrast, he gave her a sister, Maddy, who is often-married, and often divorced. She's spunky, has tried all of the crafts that Myers' wrote about, and keeps Eleanor from taking herself seriously.

All of Myers' books are set in small towns based on towns near where he lives in North Carolina. He goes to the towns, takes pictures, draws maps, and moves shops and buildings around. In one town, he saw a group of shops, and one was painted a bright blue. He said that had to be the pizza shop, so he put the pizzeria in a blue building, and called it A Slice of Delight because that's what pizza is to him, a slice of delight.

Tim said he has a contract with St. Martin's, and all he can say is that it will be a food-related mystery that comes out sometime in the next fifty years. Then Berkley asked him to do a series. According to Myers, it's lots of work to do multiple series, so he wasn't sure he wanted to do it. But, Berkley bought his next idea, based on the first draft. So, he'll be doing another series for them as well.

Some reviewers have commented about the many levels in some of his books, including A Slice of Murder. Tim finds that funny because he said he makes up the stories as he goes along. He wants to see what

Garry Disher's Appearance for Authors @ The Teague

Blood Moon by Garry Disher

Garry Disher's Blood Moon is worth reading for a number of reasons. How many crime novels have you read lately set in Australia? How many of them have a well-developed cast of police in a modern police procedural? How many of those books are written by the winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best Australian Crime Novel?

Even if you haven't read the four novels that preceded Blood Moon in the series, you can pick the storyline up easily. It doesn't take long to like Detective Inspector Hal Challis. He and Sergeant Ellen Destry just started living together. Since he's her boss, they are not yet sure what problems they'll face.

But, for the police department in Waterloo, on the Peninsula, southeast of Melbourne, the first problem they face is Schoolies Week. It's similar to our spring break, but students who just finished their twelfth year exams take off to the coastal communities to party. As students converge, the force tries to help with all of the typical crimes associated with students and townspeople, including date rape.

At the same time, they have a case that catches the attention of the press and politicians when the chaplain at a prestigious school is found beaten, in a coma, on his front lawn. The case of a missing woman seems minor, but the small force may find themselves with murder on their hands.

As in all good police procedures, the police deal with a number of crimes at the same time. As Disher tells of those stories, he skillfully develops the characters of different officers. And, he does an excellent job revealing Hal Challis' past and his character, in short glimpses. Challis didn't like attention. "He liked to slip through life unnoticed." And, his thoughts about his work are interesting. "The job promised continued human misery and droning days." Then there's the comment about "Paperwork that swamped his days and gave him a permanent low-level sense of anxiety and aggravation." But, maybe this is the most insightful comment that Hal was a private man whose "Daily work demanded that he uncover people's secrets."

Blood Moon is all about secrets. It's about Ellen Destry's secrets that might shock the reader. Other officers have secrets that are revealed in the course of the book. Then there are all the little secrets in people's lives that lead to violence. It's a powerful book about secrets that come to light under Australia's, and Garry Disher's, Blood Moon.



Blood Moon by Garry Disher. Soho Press, ©2009. ISBN 9781569475638 (hardcover), 386p.


lholstine@yahoo.com
book blog: http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com
Twitter @LesaHolstine

"Libraries are the best value you can get for your tax dollars." - Lorna Barrett, Bookmarked for Death

Annette Mahon for Authors@The Teague

It was a pleasure to host Annette Mahon for Authors @ The Teague. As an author, she spoke about her romances and mysteries. As a native of Hilo, Hawaii, she spoke of love for the island, although she now lives in Arizona. And, as a quilter, who uses her quilts in her books, she brought gorgeous quilts to discuss in conjunction with her books.

The audience was very impressed with Annette's Phantom of the Opera quilt. It's autographed by the cast members who appeared here at Gammage Auditorium, and the actor who signed as the Phantom, was playing the Phantom when Mahon saw it in NYC.



Mahon said she always brings quilts along to her talks because she is "all about them". Two recent romances, Dolphin Dreams, and Holiday Dreams, are the first two in "The Matchmaker Quilt Trilogy." She said she's way behind in the third book due to personal reasons. But, this is a series about three sisters that their mother called her gems. She named them Jade, Momi (Hawaiian for Pearl), and Ruby. An old Hawaiian quilt has been handed down in the family, through the female line. This is the first time the family has had three sisters in the family. When the first girl gets the quilt, she meets her true love.

Above the Rainbow, Mahon's first romance, featured a woman in a quilt shop. An architect was to renovate the building, and, naturally the tenants worry. So, this one was set up with conflict between the two main characters. Three books later, that woman's cousin took over the quilt shop, in Chase Your Dreams. When Mahon wrote that book, she described material used for a quilt. She was surprised to find material that met her description, so she made a quilt from it.



Annette Mahon's romances deal with Hawaiian culture. Her characters put themselves into their quilts, their spirit. And, then the Hawaiian ancestors come back and visit in dreams, giving them advice. The sisters in the Matchmaker Quilt series dream when the sleep under the heritage quilt made by their great-grandmother. In Dolphin Dreams, a dolphin is the aumakua, the family totem, and the main character dreams about them. Annette said she tries to write about the real Hawaii. The women are local, so they are multicultural. The heroes vary as to ethnicity.

The six books in Mahon's Secret Romance series all have pink covers. Those books are set in Malino, a fictional small town in Hawaii. Mahon said she likes that town, and she may return to it. Her characters include a wedding consultant, a waitress, a bank teller and a beautician. In the most recent book in the series, The Secret Correspondence, the heroine works in a care center, and secretly corresponds with the son of the one of the patients.

Annette Mahon writes and publishes with Avalon. She said all of her books are still in print, an advantage when writing for smaller publishers. The books are available for a long time. Avalon publishes for romances, traditional mysteries and westerns for the library market.

According to Mahon, she always liked romances and mysteries. She wanted to write a mystery about older ladies who quilted together, but the first book just went nowhere for her. Then, she came up with Maggie Brown, the driving force behind the quilt group. In the first mystery, A Phantom Death, an actor who grew up in the Phoenix area is found dead in the desert, and he was appearing in Phantom of the Opera. Maggie knew the young man, whose body was found near her former house. She now lives in Old Town Scottsdale.

Since so many mysteries include recipes, Mahon said she thought she'd include quilt blocks in her mysteries. Then, when she was working on it, Phantom of the Opera came to Gammage Auditorium in Tempe. So, Mahon stood at the stage door, and eventually had the cast sign the blocks for her quilt.



In Ominous Death, one of the members of the quilt group is in a care home. She knows how the "Angel of Death" has killed people in care homes, and she's convinced she's going to die. When someone else dies, she's a suspect, and the members of the St. Rose Quilting Bee have to prove that one of their own is not the killer. Annette said she enjoys making quilts to go with the books, including the lap quilt she made for this one, because lap quilts are perfect for a care center in a cozy mystery.



The third book in this series, Bits and Pieces, is scheduled for publication in January 2010. It's based on The Robert William Fisher case in Scottsdale, in which a woman and her children were killed when the house exploded, and the husband is the suspect, a fugitive. In this mystery, one of the members of the quilt group sees the husband in Big Mart, and follows him when he leaves the story.

When Annette was asked about her background, she said she was born and raised in Hawaii, and is third generation. She's from Hilo. When she went to Left Coast Crime in March, held on the Big Island, she decided she wanted to bring the quilters to the island. She'd like to set her next mystery there, and send the quilters to a quilt camp. She's working on how to bring her quilters to Hawaii because she has problems with taking the group. Do spouses go? Is it just the church quilt group, or other people from the church?

Annette said she went to Syracuse, New York to college. She went to library school, and she worked in public libraries. But, like so many women, she couldn't get a job in Hawaii. So, she got a job in New York, then met and married her husband. She said there are a lot of Hawaiians in the Valley, over 200 of them in a club. They hold the Aloha Festival in March in Tempe Town Lake, and tens of thousands of people attend.

When she was asked how she got started, Annette said she was always a big reader. When her husband met some of her classmates, he asked them what they remembered about her, and they said Annette always had a book. She said she loved the Beatles song, "Paperback Writer," and that was her pie in the sky dream, to have books in paperback. And her mysteries have come out in paperback.

Annette said she didn't start writing early. She went to parochial school, and had self-esteem issues. She started writing in her 40s, when her third daughter was born. She wanted to write romantic suspense in the heyday of romance, but her first book was only one third of the length it should be, and it will never see the light of day. Then she joined Romance Writers of America. She just never had a good idea for a romantic suspense novel, although she likes to read them.

She attended conferences, and had been writing partials, a synopsis and three chapters. Someone finally told her she needed to write the entire book. So, for her first book, she followed the advice, write what you know. She wrote a romance set in Hawaii, in a quilt shop. It sold, and then the editor wanted to know what else she had. The only thing she was working on was also set there, and she didn't think they'd want a second novel set in Hawaii, but she was wrong. They were looking for multicultural books set in Hawaii. In answer to a question, she said she'd never had an agent. According to Mahon, you don't need an agent for romance. She said you do for mysteries, but she's been trying, and she can't get one. It's harder to get an agent than to sell a book. She said you don't need an agent for the type of romances published by Avalon. They do romance, traditional mystery and westerns. At one time, they did career romances. Word count for Avalon is 50,000-70,000, with the mysteries and historical romances on the longer end of the scale.

Annette said she met her editor at a conference, and sent it the manuscript at her request. Then, she didn't hear, and when she contacted her, it turned out they had lost it. Mahon sent it in again, and they bought it. She said she doesn't make a lot of money; it barely covers expenses. And, if she goes to conferences, she goes in the hole. But, she always wanted to write.

Annette Mahon ended her program by saying in her "older years", she knows she's had a wonderful life. She answered a questionnaire from high school, "What did you want to do in high school? Did you accomplish it?" She wanted to graduate from college, have a family, and write. She's done all three, and Annette Mahon has sixteen books to her credit.

Hawaii, quilts, mysteries and romance. With Annette Mahon as the speaker, it was a successful Authors @ The Teague program.


lholstine@yahoo.com
book blog: http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com
Twitter @LesaHolstine

"Libraries are the best value you can get for your tax dollars." - Lorna Barrett, Bookmarked for Death

Valley of the Lost by Vicki Delany

There are some outstanding traditional mysteries coming out of Canada. Louise Penny's Armand Gamache mysteries immediately come to mind. Although I missed Vicki Delany's debut novel, In the Shadow of the Glacier, after reading Valley of the Lost, I'm willing to put her up there with the other Canadian authors who write intriguing police novels.

When Lucky Smith found a dead woman in the bushes near the Trafalgar Woman's Support Center, the former hippie brought home the baby that was beside her. Lucky's daughter, Molly, wasn't happy because as a police constable on probation, she needed her sleep. But, despite the baby that cried all night, Molly willingly teamed up with Sergeant John Winters to try to find the woman's killer. But, Ashley's past isn't easy to track down. No one knows her last name; she seemed to be off heroin, but died of an overdose. Is it just one more death to be attributed to the current rash of drug crimes in Trafalgar?

While Winters struggles with the case, his wife, Eliza, is struggling with her own issues. As a high-profile model, she's in demand to act as a spokesperson for a resort development that is tearing apart the community. And, since they only moved to Trafalgar after Winters left a job as a homicide cop in Vancouver, she'd like to fit into the community.

Delany's mystery combines the best of traditional mysteries with my beloved police procedurals. There is a focus on the investigation, but the author doesn't neglect the other people involved, Molly's parents, Winters' wife, a local newspaper reporter, Ashley's former roommate. Anyone could be connected when the police don't know who the victim is. Winters is very frustrated when he says, "A murder investigation starts with the victim....Who hated/feared/loved/had an accident with/even a chance encounter with the victim so that he or she ended up killing her? It all flows from there."

And, Vicki Delany successfully brings all of that flow together in a fascinating mystery, Valley of the Lost. Delany is an author to watch.

Vicki Delany's address is www.vickidelany.com

Valley of the Lost by Vicki Delany. Poisoned Pen Press, ©2009. ISBN 9781590585955 (hardcover), 312p.

lholstine@yahoo.com
book blog: http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com
Twitter @LesaHolstine

"Libraries are the best value you can get for your tax dollars." - Lorna Barrett, Bookmarked for Death

Cara Black Appears for Authors @ The Teague

Cara Black appeared at the Velma Teague Library to discuss her mystery books, the Aimée Leduc Investigation series. She introduced Aimée as half American and half French. She's the owner of a computer security firm, with her partner René, who is a dwarf. There is a DeLuc Detective agency in Paris, so Black reversed the name. Aimée inherited the business from her father. She rides a scooter, and likes bad boys.

Like Jacqueline Winspear when she appeared for Authors @ The Teague, Black referred to Stephen King's book, On Writing, when she talked about her latest mystery, Murder in the Latin Quarter. She said King talks about writers, where they get their ideas, and how it all comes together. She said she thinks of the process as rocks, several of them. First, you hear about an idea, and then something comes together. Rocks need to ignite and fuse together. That's how the ideas come together for a book.

Black's editor provided the first rock or idea for the latest book. She said Aimée Leduc has never had a case on the Left Bank, so maybe she should cross the river in this one. Cara rode her bike up and down a boulevard, but each area she saw was too different to provide one setting. Paris is divided into 20 districts.

The second rock came from a friend in Paris who had a daughter in high school. The students there met urban explorers who went in the underground tunnels in Paris. They explored them, and partied. Cara asked if she could go down in the tunnels. So, they received permission to go underground beneath the high school.

The third rock came from a friend, a Commissaire, a high-ranking inspector in Paris. Cara takes him to dinner when she goes to Paris, plies him with drinks, and asks what he is working on. She once asked him why he talks to her, and he said because he wants her to get it right. In 2007, he said he had just come back from his final testimony in England, where he spent five hours testifying in English. When she questioned for what, he said, oh, I guess I didn't tell you. He was in charge of the Princess Diana investigation, and this was the final inquiry in London. When asked, he said their findings were that the chauffeur was high on alcohol and drugs, and blood levels showed that.

Black decided then to set her story, Murder in the Latin Quarter, in September 2007, two weeks after the car crash, at a time when the world was still watching. The Aimée Leduc series is set in the mid-90s. And, people don't remember what was happening at that time.

In setting the book in the Latin Quarter, Black picked one of the oldest parts of Paris. The Gauls and Romans were there, and there is still a great deal of Roman influence left in Paris. There was a Roman road running through it. Black asked a man what the scallop shell on a building meant, and he said it was part of the old pilgrimage route to Spain. The Sorbonne is in the Latin Quarter. It was the first university, and everyone from Europe came there. They spoke Latin at the Sorbonne, hence the name, the Latin Quarter. The Grandes écoles were here. In order to get in, students must take competitive written and oral exams. The graduates became part of the old boys' network, the power base of France. Aimée would have hit against that wall.

After reading from Murder in the Latin Quarter, Black took questions. The first one was about her love of Paris. She said she grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, and attended a French Catholic Girls' School. Her father was a Francophile, who liked art, and loved good food and wine. While Cara was in high school, she read a book by Romain Gary, the French author who won the Prix Goncourt twice. He was married to the actress Jean Seberg. Cara wrote a fan letter to Gary, and when she received a thank you note back, with his address in Paris on the back, she took it as a personal invitation to visit. When she was backpacking in Europe at 18 or 19, she went to Paris, and decided to go see Mr. Gary. She found the address, a beautiful building, and went up an elaborate staircase. When a man opened the door, she told him she had written a letter, and he answered. He told her just a minute, and slammed the door. When he reopened it, he said, how about coffee. They went down the street to a cafe, where there was an espresso and a cigar waiting for him. When asked, what about her, Gary replied, she'll have the same. So she had her first espresso and her first cigar, and tried to act sophisticated without getting sick.

When Black went back to Paris in the 1980s, a friend took her to the Marais, and showed her where her mother lived as a hidden Jewish girl during the Second World War. She wore the yellow star, and hoped she would be reunited with her family, but after the war, she found her family had died in Auschwitz. In the 90s, Cara went back to France, and had one night in Paris and went back to the Marais. This story led to the first Aimée Leduc Investigation, Murder in the Marais. Her friend's story was one of the rocks that led to the book. In addition, Black was reading P.D. James. She appreciated the psychological depth and social context of the books. She appreciated An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, the book that introduced Cordelia Gray, an investigator. She wanted to do something similar in her first book. She was asked if she knew of any French women detectives, and she said in 1994 there were three women who owned their own detective agencies in Paris, and Black met them all.

She was asked to go back and discuss the tunnels and catacombs under Paris. She said the catacombs had lots of piles of skulls and bones. She said you have to go deep under ground, and it's very tiring. The city is built on limestone, that was dug out to for buildings, and the bones were moved to the limestone pits. There are different levels under Paris; for the sewers, catacombs, metro level, and more.

Cara said her next book is done, and was sent to the editor yesterday. It takes place a month after Murder in the Latin Quarter, in October, 1997. It's called Murder in the Palais Royal. She said she didn't take that cover photo, but it's a great one, showing the arcade with its gilded fence. The fence is gold-tipped. And, it has a woman running in high heels. Cara Black said she could just see her character, Aimée Leduc.


Cara Black's website is at

Jacqueline Winspear & Rhys Bowen at Velma Teague Library

(photo: Rhys Bowen & Jacqueline Winspear)

Jacqueline Winspear, author of the Maisie Dobbs mysteries, was our guest for Authors @ The Teague on Tuesday, Feb. 24. We were lucky that Rhys Bowen picked her up at the airport, so the author of the Molly Murphy, Lady Georgiana (Georgie), and Evan Evans mysteries was able to speak to our audience as well.

Jacqueline started the program by saying since she writes mysteries, she always has to decide what she should say, and not say, so she doesn't reveal too much. She said maybe it's obvious that the reader will encounter madness in her new book,
Among the Mad.

So, in order to provide the background to her book, she turned to Stephen King's book, On Writing, to find out what to say. He said when inspiration comes to an author, it comes from two ideas coming together.

So, Winspear's life provided the inspiration for the background of Among the Mad. She said there were three main sparks. The first came at the age of sixteen, when she changed schools to take her A levels, specialized exams in England. While she attended that school, from 16 to 18, the students were required to do community service on Wednesday afternoon. She chose the social services group. On Wednesdays, she would visit what, at that time, was called the Mental Hospital. At the time it was built in the 1800s, it was known as a lunatic asylum. It's what we would now refer to as a Psychiatric Care Facility. The walls were cement, with glass on top, to discourage people from going over the top. When Jacqueline visited, the gates were open, but at one time they were kept closed to keep patients in, and others out. The building was typical of its time, a Gothic, grey granite building, with a bell tower, and bars on the windows. There was no doubt it was once a lunatic asylum.

Jacqueline's job was to sit and offer companionship. She would do puzzles with the patients, read to them or listen to them read, write letters, and just provide companionship. She started to wonder, even then, where the dividing line was that got some people in, and kept others out. She isn't sure where the idea came from. But, there was one man, in his forties or fifties, who was very intelligent. She had eye surgery then, and he would question her as to whether or not they did this procedure or that test. So she mentioned to a nurse that he seemed so smart. He was a renowned physician, and a murderer. He had been found guilty of justifiable homicide because he killed someone who had broken in, but he went mad after the killing.

There were also three women in their eighties. Since this was about 1971, they had been born in the late 1800s. And, they always seemed just fine to Jacqueline. When she mentioned that to a nurse, she was told they were fine, but they all had children out of wedlock, and in the early twentieth century, those women were institutionalized, and then it reached the point where they could not live outside an institution.

The next event that sparked Winspear's imagination occurred at the end of the 70s or the early 80s. She had a job in London, where Maisie Dobbs' office is now located, that allowed her flexibility to come and go. She used to take lunch in Regent Square where there was a bandstand, and she could listen to the band play music. But, those were years of on-going domestic terrorism. And, one day the IRA set off bombs in eight places in London. One bomb went off under that Regent Square bandstand, killing band members, families, and children. Jacqueline Winspear was on the way to the park, and heard it. She remembers hearing the bomb, and it didn't sound like you think it does. It sounded like a sharp, loud crack. Then there was silence afterward. For a teeny split second, it felt as if humanity was never going to breathe again. There was that silence, and then the sirens. It was a time when people had to be vigilant for themselves, and take responsibility for their own security if you were working in London.

Winspear's third spark was the memories of her grandfather. In 1916, he was in the Battle of the Somme. He came back shell-shocked, and he had been gassed. For the rest of his life, he had a sensitivity to sound. He was emotionally vulnerable. It was a hallmark of young men who were shell-shocked that their mind went from the sound; the percussion of battle was too much.

Jacqueline's grandfather was registered as wounded because he was actually wounded, so he received a pension as an old soldier. By 1915, there were cases of shell-shocked soldiers who couldn't get treatment from neurologists or doctors fast enough. The government was registering the wounded soldiers for pensions, but there were so many that they would not register the mentally wounded as wounded if they were only shell-shocked. Instead, they were sent home to families who often couldn't deal with them, and ended up putting them in asylums. Jacqueline has great memories of her grandfather.

Winspear said when she writes mysteries, Maisie Dobbs is always the mystery. She puts her in situations, and she has to react and change. She has love and lost, gone to war, and has a career.

She went on to read an excerpt from Among the Mad. In the scene, Maisie and her assistant, Billy Beale, had just witnessed a man take his own life. Then, the shopkeepers set out chairs, and made tea for people, because a good cup of tea got the British through everything. After reading, she introduced author Rhys Bowen.

Rhys Bowen said she was really there to act as chauffeur for Jacqueline. But, the books by the two authors parallel each other. March 17  is release date for the eighth Molly Murphy mystery, In a Gilded Cage. Molly is a private investigator at the beginning of the 20th century who came from Ireland to New York. The previous
Molly Murphy mystery is coming out in March in paperback. Tell Me, Pretty Maiden ends in an insane asylum. A girl had been committed against her will, and Molly wants to get her out. It was a time in which men would sometimes commit their wives, if they were interested in another woman. And the concept of psychiatry didn't exist. To treat insanity, they often introduced highly infectious diseases to patients. Sometimes typhoid would induce a fever, and its affect would change the brain. And, sometimes the patient didn't recover.

Bowen said Molly needed a story that was quite as heavy. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the role of women was changing. In a Gilded Cage begins with a suffragists march of Vassar graduates. They suffered from verbal abuse, and had mud thrown at them. Bowen said she traces this to a group of Vassar graduates. Her spark was a visit to an eighty-year-old woman who had a book about Vassar graduates and their travels. These women had great hopes they could do anything.

Those that married and shrank to fit their husband's vision of their role lived In a Gilded Cage. In contrast there is a young woman working for a pharmacist, who hopes to be a pharmacist some day. The book discusses the difference in expectations, and what happens.

This role is very important to Molly's life. Molly is considering marrying her longtime boyfriend, Daniel Sullivan. But his expectations are that she'll give up her work. Is that what she wants?

When the two authors took questions, I mentioned that the atmosphere in London during that time, with a bad economy, soldiers returning, people out of work, reminded me of our current situation. Jacqueline Winspear quoted James Joyce as saying, "History is a nightmare from which I'm trying to awake." She said photographers were not allowed to take pictures of the caskets brought home from Iraq. She said England also tried to keep from the people the human cost of war. The economic depression mirrored the collective depression. The people celebrated the end of the war, and then a few days later, they realized their boys were never coming home. The men of entire factories, streets and towns, such as Acton, were wiped out in the First World War. Eighty to ninety percent of some towns were killed at the Somme, many from Pals Regiments.

In 1914, lots of men joined up because it was patriotic. By 1915, when they realized what war was about, they thought maybe they wouldn't join up. So, the British government encouraged Pals Regiments. Join up with your pals from school, or factory, or street, or whole towns. However, when entire neighborhoods were wiped out, the country couldn't hide the losses. Now, the government no longer allows too many people from one region to be in the same unit. The First World War left whole gaping holes in communities. That war was a collective ache for the country.

Rhys Bowen went on to talk about the large loss of life because the generals fought by sending men over the top, and lost 5000 men to gain a short distance. Just as in Iraq, the background was missing. The generals looked at the map, and never saw the the actual terrain. They sent in the cavalry, and there was fifteen feet of mud. Men and horses drowned. And, when messages were sent saying they can't advance because of the mud, the generals couldn't understand. They made the mistake of planning a war based on the most recent one England fought, with cavalry charges. They should have looked at the American Civil War to see the rise of the machine gun.

Jacqueline Winspear answered a question, saying she was from England, and came to California in her early 30s, planning to take a vacation of three or four months. She had a brother there. But, there was a company there that had broken off from the firm she worked for, and they offered her a job. So, she stayed in California.

It was the perfect ending to answer a question about the name Maisie Dobbs. Winspear said the idea for the books came to her when she was driving along. She just knew her character's name was Maisie Dobbs. She's an everywoman. She's a woman of her generation, the first generation to go to war in modern times.

Jacqueline Winspear's website is www.jacquelinewinspear.com

Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear. Henry Holt and Company, ©2009. ISBN 9780805082166 (hardcover), 320p.

Rhys Bowen's website is www.rhysbowen.com

Rhys Bowen blogs at www.jungleredwriters.com

Tell Me, Pretty Woman by Rhys Bowen. St. Martin's Press, 2009, ISBN 9780312943752 (paperback), 336p.

In a Gilded Cage by Rhys Bowen. St. Martin's Minotaur, ©2009. ISBN 9780312385347 (hardcover), 288p.

lholstine@yahoo.com
book blog: http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

"Libraries are the best value you can get for your tax dollars." - Lorna Barrett, Bookmarked for Death

Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear

Jacqueline Winspear's newest Maisie Dobbs book, Among the Mad, is one of the most thoughtful, timely mysteries you will read this year, even though the main action is set in one short week in December, 1931. And, it's scary.

On Christmas Eve, Maisie Dobbs, Psychologist and Investigator, is running errands with her assistant, Billy Beale, when she notices a man who appears to be homeless. As she turns around to give him money, he blows himself up. Detective Inspector Richard Stratton of Scotland Yard arrives at the scene, and collects Maisie and Billy as witnesses. When the government receives threatening letters, Scotland Yard calls on Maisie to work on the case, since her name was mentioned in the letter, and there is a possibility of connection to the suicide.

Dobbs, herself a veteran of the war, recognizes the despair in the letter. The writer wants the government to alleviate the suffering of the unemployed, or threatens more than one suicide. She, herself, knows that London can be "a desperate place," with people out of work, returning vets with no jobs, mentally scarred men and women trying to cope with the aftereffects of war. However, even as the threats and dangers escalate, Maisie knows it's like looking for a needle in a haystack to look for one man who is mentally scarred, out of a nation of hundreds of thousands of people who are wounded.

In one short week, Maisie and Scotland Yard face a human time bomb. Winspear allows the reader to feel Maisie's mounting fear and anxiety, along with the deteriorating condition of the author of those threats.

It is a post-war England, suffering from a poor economy, where returning vets suffer from homelessness, shell-shock, and desperation. Winspear uses Maisie and her best friend, Priscilla, as well as the tragic story of Billy Beale's wife, to show the raw emotions of everyone in the country, the fear, and, at times, lack of hope in the future.

Winspear quietly ratchets up the tension in the novel until Maisie Dobbs faces a killer, and her own turmoil, on New Year's Eve. Among the Mad is a thought-provoking, masterful novel.

Jacqueline Winspear's website is

2008 Agatha Award Nominees

Mystery Author Rosemary Harris at Velma Teague Library

Leighton Gage's Return to Velma Teague

Leighton Gage was one of the first authors to appear at the Velma Teague Library for the Authors @ The Teague series, when he spoke last January about his first Mario Silva mystery, Blood of the Wicked. On February 8, he returned to talk about Brazil, the setting of his books, and the second title, Buried Strangers.

Gage started the program by saying if you stood on the upper floor of an office building in São Paulo looking out the window, there would be a smudge in the distance. That smudge is a mountain range, covered by jungle. The jungle is so intense that a small plane went down there in 1956. People knew where it went down, searched for it, and it still took over thirty years to find the plane.

So, if you were a serial killer, and had the typical problem of a serial killer, where do I put the bodies, you couldn't pick a better place than that jungle. In Buried Strangers, the second book in the Mario Silva series, bodies are found in the jungle, in the Serra de Cantareira.

Blood of the Wicked, the first book in the series, deals with land wars, that are still going on in Brazil. It also deals with Liberation theology. Gage said very few people outside of Brazil know about these issues, so his intention is to entertain and inform.

He commented that facts about Brazil are not well known in the United States. It's a country larger than the continental U.S. It has 185 million people, and the eighth largest economy in the world. It's a very rich country with large numbers of poor people. It's also the fourth most corrupt country in the world, following two African countries and Guatemala, all much smaller than Brazil. The corruption has invaded the police and the judicial system. No one is arrested for 70% of the crimes. Of the 30% prosecuted, only 1 in 10 ever serve time. It's a country of violent crime. Fifty thousand people are murdered there per year.

The man who told Gage about the explosion of murders is one of two cops in São Paulo who are the basis for the cops in the books. Gage's books have three main characters; Mario Silva, the old wise fox, his nephew, Hector Costa, and Silva's sidekick, Amaldo Nunes. Gage made them Federal police so they can move around the country, and be involved in different types of crimes. Blood of the Wicked is set in the countryside. Buried Strangers is set in Brazil's largest city, São Paulo, and the third book, Dying Gasp, will be set in the Amazon region.

Dying Gasp will be out from Soho Press next January. That book deals with the problem of prostitution of young children. Europeans take sex tours to Brazil's northern cities to have sex with young girls. There are tours from Germany and Holland. Thailand used to be the center of sex tourism, but, now it's northern Brazil.

The Federal police is the force that police the ordinary police of the country. A few years ago, there were 126 police arrested for corruption. An honest cop is hard to find. The Federal police receive decent wages, but the local police can't make a living wage.

Leighton Gage said he tries to bring the cross-cultural nature of Brazil to his books. There is a town there called Americana. It was settled by immigrants from the United States after the Civil War. Pedro II needed people to work in the cotton industry, so he sent agents to the U.S., where they approached southern plantation owners, who moved their entire families because they knew how to work with slaves. There is even a Confederate monument there, listing names of officers and soldiers from the Confederacy.

Along with the North American influence, there is a strong European one. The Germans had a colony there prior to WWII. The SS even sent expeditions to Brazil.

There are presently 600,000 Brazilian Indians, but it's estimated that 40,000 natives live in the jungle, and they've never had contact with civilization.

The biggest influence on Brazil was the slaves. There were 600,000 slaves in the U.S. There were more than 3 million slaves brought into Brazil. They also brought their religion, and that has been intermingled with the Catholic Church. The dance, martial arts, and music all influenced the country.

Upon request, Gage related some of the history of Brazil, beginning with Portuguese expeditions, and the Pope giving Brazil to the Portuguese. In 1500, they started to colonize. The country was originally named The Land of the Holy Cross, but there was a hard wood called brazil that made a fine sawdust. That sawdust made a pigment that added red color to oil paints, and it was used by Renaissance painters. The vast quantities of wood were sent to Europe for the red pigment, and the country began known as the Land of Brazil (wood), and then, Brazil.

The original capitol was in the north, where most of the slaves worked sugar cane fields. It was called Salvador. But, when John VI of Portugal escaped the continent after Napoleon invaded, he moved the capitol to Rio de Janeiro. He stayed for fifteen years, but returned to Portugal when his older son started agitating to take over the throne there. Once he was gone, his younger son declared the independence of Brazil, and declared himself Emperor.

São Paulo has even a greater mix of people. When slavery was eliminated in the late 1800s, they still needed people to do manual labor. They imported Japanese to do that. São Paulo has the third largest Japanese population in the world, after Tokyo and Osaka. There are also more Lebanese in São Paulo than in all of Lebanon.

Gage said his grandfather, who was a sea captain, said the three most beautiful cities to see by sea are Sidney, Cape Town, and Rio de Janeiro. Leighton agreed, and said, the most beautiful is Rio.

But, Brazil does have a high crime rate. It's the biggest city in the world for armored vehicles. The wealthy move into armed communities, behind high walls, with gates and security. They're safe in there. It's the same in most major cities.

Gage's Chief Inspector Mario Silva mysteries bring the rich history and culture of Brazil to life, so it was appropriate that he end his discussion of Brazil answering questions about the people and the food. He said Brazilians are the nicest people in the world, warm, and they know how to have a good time. Their food reflects their appreciation of their past. Although they are big meat eaters, the national food is a bean dish, that descended from slave food. Cane spirits, made from fresh sugar cane juice is the drink.

It was a treat to welcome Leighton Gage back to Velma Teague. His books, filled with grit and crime, are lessons in Brazilian life.

Leighton Gage's website is www.leightongage.com

Buried Strangers by Leighton Gage. Soho Press, ©2009. ISBN 978-1-56947-514-0 (hardcover), 320p.

Buried Strangers

Leighton Gage successfully takes advantage of an urban legend in his latest Chief Inspector Mario Silva crime novel. Gage's novels highlight all of the dirty politics and gritty life in Brazil, while examining the country's crime and history. And, all of this is done in the framework of Silva's police investigations.

When a dog found a bone in the rain forest outside São Paulo, it led to the discovery of an unmarked cemetery. Mario Silva, Brazil's top cop, was called in because the clandestine cemetery contained thirty-seven corpses, many of them children, and the bodies were buried in family groups. Silva realized, even if his boss didn't, that they might be looking at one of Brazil's all-time great serial killers.

But, in Brazil, nothing is what it seems. Silva and his team work clandestinely, hiding the investigation from his boss. What do all of the bodies have in common, and what is the link to the medical community? One pathologist is afraid to suggest that body parts are missing. When one policeman is blown up, and one of Silva's team disappears, he's determined to bring the case to a successful conclusion.

Silva successfully maneuvers through the corrupt politics and life in Brazil, a country where bribes are a way of life, hundreds of policemen are killed by political groups and criminals, people live in poverty in shantytowns, and medical care can be bought by the highest bidder. Gage's novels are successful because of the character of Silva, a man trying to find justice in a corrupt world. If the police didn't share that dark humor common among those working with life and death, these novels might be too depressing. But, the comic relief allows for alleviation of the tension of the stories.

Buried Strangers, like Blood of the Wicked, allows the reader to follow an intense investigation, knowing Mario Silva will take us safely through the dangers and traps of Brazil.

Leighton Gage's website is

This is not an unbiased book review. I'm a big fan of Louise Penny's Armand Gamache mysteries. In the first books, beginning with the award-winning Still Life, she introduced us to Gamache, the Chief Homicide Inspector for the Sûreté in Quebec, and the timeless village of Three Pines. She's taken us through three seasons filled with murder investigations, and a emotionally draining threat hanging over Gamache's head. We were ready for a break, right along with her detective.

A Rule Against Murder takes Gamache and the readers into an Agatha Christie traditional vacation, with the dark overtones that Penny masters. For thirty-four years, Armand and his wife, Reine-Marie, have taken their summer vacation to coincide with their wedding anniversary on Canada Day. This year, as always, they planned their retreat at Manoir Bellechasse, a quiet resort in the woods, with a wonderful chef, a superb maître d', and a beloved owner. They weren't planning on the disruption of the Finney family reunion, or an unusual death.

As in a Christie mystery, Penny's tribute is a story set in an isolated lodge, with a limited group of suspects, family members and retainers, with the detective on the spot. Fortunately, Armand Gamache has the added expertise of his squad, familiar characters to readers. And, two members of the Finney family are familiar, when Three Pines residents, Peter and Clara Morrow, show up late for their reunion.

Penny's story has extra layers that always make her mysteries fascinating. Readers who hungered for more information about Reine-Marie will be pleased with the time spent on Armand's family life. His family is quite a contrast to the divided, unhappy Finneys.

The conversations in Penny's books are always treasures. The owner's comment that there is a rule against murder at the Manoir Bellechasse leads to a telling story. The sculptor, Pelletier, has a provocative comment, that God is a serial killer. And, there's my favorite comment, when Gamache talks about his wife, a librarian. "But you want murderous feelings? Hang around librarians," confided Gamache. "All that silence. Gives them ideas."

Louise Penny is a master of the traditional mystery. Armand Gamache might have been forced to take a busman's holiday, but it was a vacation readers will treasure, in A Rule Against Murder.

Louise Penny's website is www.louisepenny.com

A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny. St. Martin's Minotaur, ©2009. ISBN 9780312377021 (hardcover), 336p.

lholstine@yahoo.com

book blog:  http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

 

Book Launch for Donis Casey at The Poisoned Pen

It was a nice crowd that showed up at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale for the book launch of Donis Casey's The Sky Took Him, the fourth Alafair Tucker mystery. And, few of them knew there would be pies - chocolate pie from a recipe from Casey's new book, and vinegar pie from her next one.

Barbara Peters, bookstore owner, and Casey's editor, held a free-ranging conversation with Casey, while they waited for the audience to gather. They discussed the name of an earlier book, Hornswoggled, and even library budget problems. Peters does a television show for the Scottsdale Library, working for $1 a year, but that was even under discussion for budget cuts. The show was defended to city council, but is still in jeopardy since the entire cable department might be eliminated. Donis then said it's a shame that libraries face budget cuts during times of bad economies, because people turn to their libraries, and library use goes up at times like this.

To start the discussion of The Sky Took Him, Peters mentioned that the book had received a starred review in Publishers Weekly. Donis said she loves this book. She put so much effort into making it smooth, trying not to put in too much information. She had so much information she could have put into the book.

Alafair travels in this book. In the first three books in the series, Alafair lives in Boynton, in eastern Oklahoma. In this one, she takes the train to Enid, OK with her oldest daughter, Martha, and her youngest, Grace. Enid, in the northwestern part of the state, is a whole new world. It's still the Wild West, while the eastern part of the state was very southern. In 1894, Enid opened with a land run. By 1915, the timeframe of this book, it was a well-to-do town. Enid still celebrates Pioneers Day, but in 1915, it was called Founders Day, a celebration of the founding of the town twenty-two years earlier.

The Cherokee Strip was prairie, flat grasslands, owned by the Cherokee, who rented the land to cattle ranchers. The Cherokee finally sold the land to the United States. The strip, and the town, was opened up with a land run. People were allowed to go in ahead of time, and pick out land they would like to own. If they claimed it, they could own 160 sq. acres for a homestead. On, Sept. 16, 1894, at noon, people lined up on the starting line. When the gun was fired, they took off, on foot, horseback, and Conestoga wagon, trying to run to the land, and stake a claim, by driving a stake into the property. Then they would have to live on it for two years. There were some people who snuck in early, and, they were called Sooners. This is the background for The Sky Took Him.

At the beginning of the book, Alafair does her family duty, going to visit her sister whose husband is dying. Something that happened twenty-two years earlier, from the time of the land run, comes back to influence current events. Casey said she used descriptions of the Founders Day parade from the newspaper at the time, the Enid Daily Eagle. She said the descriptions were some of the things she had to leave out. Peters said that's why some authors use afterwords, for stuff they don't want to let go.

Casey said Enid was rich at the time, with cattle, land and an oil boom in the early 1900s. Alafair's niece's husband had sunk money into a wildcat oil well. Casey set it in the field where one of the largest oil strikes came in.

She said oil wells would get gummed up. To clear out the well, they would send a torpedo down, made from nitroglycerin. Men who specialized in this were called shooters. Often, they had one eye, or one hand. They received extra pay, and no one would insure them. Donis thought this would be an interesting way to kill someone. So, she did research, although she said with Homeland Security, she was worried about doing research on nitroglycerin and explosions from home. (She joked and said she did her research on the Tempe Public Library's computers - one more reason to be grateful for libraries.) She found an expert who recommended a book called Is There Nitroglycerin in This?, about explosions.

Barbara Peters mentioned that she was glad to see Alafair get out of town. Donis said when Hornswoggled came out Peters told her to be careful about having all her murders occur in a small town. She needed to avoid the "Cabot Cove syndrome".

Casey told the audience how she started The Sky Took Him. She and her husband went to Enid to visit his sister, and they went to a restaurant called Pastimes Restaurant, converted from an old laundry. On the walls, there were pictures of Enid from 1910. One street scene showed Klein's Department Store. While her husband and sister-in-law bickered over the check, Donis zoned out, and suddenly she could see Alafair and Martha walk into Klein's. She wondered what they were doing in Enid, and why they were shopping. The first scene she wrote was the shopping trip to Klein's.

Barbara Peters commented that Alafair needed a trip, because of the backbreaking work in her life. As the mother of ten, and a rancher's life, her life consisted of hard work, and meals. Casey agreed, saying that she thinks Alafair appreciated the break. When she first saw the guest room at her sister's, she was struck by the luxury and size of the room. But, she started to appreciate it.

An audience member mentioned Alice, one of Alafair's daughters, saying there had been trouble between Alice and her mother because Alice wanted to marry a rich man. Donis said that Alice had seen her mother's hard life, and she didn't want to marry a poor farmer. This caused a rift between the two in Hornswoggled. Casey hinted at a future book, saying Alice's story isn't over.

She also said there are certain themes she carries through all of the books. And, she said Alafair might take another trip, since she had mentioned in this book that her other sister lived in Tempe.

Peters, as her editor, cautioned Casey to watch her timeframe, saying she'd gone from 1908 to 1915 so far, and she didn't want to move too fast. However, after discussion, Casey said she could take the series up to World War II, with an aging Alafair. They agreed that a writer has to continue writing interesting stories that people enjoy.

The discussion ranged back to the work that Alafair did. An early book had a chapter about laundry for twelve people. In another book, Alafair was hanging clothes. They said soap making is coming back, so maybe she could discuss that. Casey mentioned butchering, and food preservation. She said her grandfather used to butcher one hog a year, and they used every bit of the hog. She mentioned future books set during WWI could deal with austerity, since there were meatless Mondays.

It's hard to pick and choose the historical facts to deal with, according to Casey, who said she isn't writing history books. Alafair is only concerned with the news that affects her personally. There's no TV, to bring the world closer. The draft only started in 1917, after the U.S. was in the war. And, one of her sons, Gee Dub, will be 21 then. At first they only took single men, 21-38, then the war expanded so they took anyone they could get. In this book, The Sky Took Him, Alafair and her sister mention the sinking of the Lusitania, and Alafair's German prospective son-in-law.

In many ways, the rural area in the earlier books, and the city of Enid in the present one is almost like having two centuries going on at the same time. Enid was a city, with indoor plumbing, electricity, and refrigeration. Peters said Alafair had to have been changed by the experience. Donis Casey said Martha had been changed by the experiences of Hornswoggled. Martha is a more modern woman than Alafair. She works, and she's interested in Women's Suffrage. A lot of the relationship between Martha and Alafair is similar to that between Donis and her own mother.

When Barbara said she would give extra points to anyone who guessed the ending, she said it's her business to read mysteries, and she had been surprised. Donis said she herself had been surprised by something in the ending.

Peters commented that one of the greatest joys of being an editor is the relationship with authors, and getting to help them. Casey responded that good editors are worth their weight in gold. Barbara said when one of the Poisoned Pen mysteries gets a bad review, she takes it personally. What did she miss? On the other hand, sometimes she edits it so much that she no longer cares.

Peters also said technology is the enemy of the mystery. Cell phones, GPS, and DNA make it difficult to write crime novels. One of the audience members said, on the other hand, it makes historic mysteries more appealing.

When she was asked about Alafair's name, Donis said it was her great-grandmother's name. All of the family names are taken from Donis' family. And, she showed us the cover of The Sky Took Him. The picture of the oil well is an actual well, taken from an Enid Historical Society picture. And, the picture of the girl? Donis Casey.

Donis Casey's website is www.doniscasey.com.

The Sky Took Him by Donis Casey. Poisoned Pen Press, ©2009. ISBN 978-1-59058-571-9 (hardcover), 252p.

lholstine@yahoo.com

book blog:  http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

"Reach librarians, and you reach the world." Betty Webb

The Sky Took Him

No other mystery author brings the American past to life for me as Donis Casey does. Her new book, The Sky Took Him, is the fourth in the fascinating Alafair Tucker series. Her books are always intriguing, and this one is particularly complicated, but it's what she does with everyday life in Oklahoma in the early twentieth century that continues to draw me back.

When the story opens, Alafair and two of her daughters, her oldest, Martha, and her youngest, Grace, are on the train to Enid, Oklahoma. Alafair's younger sister, Ruth Ann, asked her to come because Ruth Ann's husband, Lester, is dying. When they arrive, they find that Lester is as bad off as everyone said, but there are other family problems. Ruth Ann's son-in-law, Kenneth, has disappeared on a business trip just when his wife, Olivia, and the family, need him the most. Ruth Ann and Olivia are confident he'll be back shortly, but the longer Alafair stays, the more she learns about Kenneth's business problems, and his dealings with a ruthless man in town, the more concerned she grows. And, she and little Grace seem to share some troubling dreams.

As usual, Casey provides mystery readers with a complicated story. But, she also tells the story of life in the early twentieth century. Martha is a modern working woman, proud of her job, and unwilling to give it up for marriage. Casey tells of the changing role of women, the Oklahoma oil fields, and, in this book, the story of the run for land in Oklahoma. It's hard to believe that at the time of the book, 1915, Enid was just celebrating twenty-two years as a city with a Founder's Day Jubilee.

The Sky Took Him has mystery, a little romance, history, recipes, and Founder's Day. The book contains fine details of daily life, and family life, in 1915, as well as the foreshadowing of war. It's hard to believe it's just two weeks in Alafair Tucker's life because The Sky Took Him is so rich in detail. Donis Casey continues to grow as an author of fascinating historical mysteries.

Donis Casey's website is www.doniscasey.com. Casey will be discussing The Sky Took Him at the debut program at Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale on Saturday, Jan. 17 at 2 p.m. Hope to see you there!

The Sky Took Him by Donis Casey. Poisoned Pen Press, ©2009. ISBN 978-1-59058-571-9 (hardcover), 252p.

lholstine@yahoo.com 
book blog: http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com 

"Reach librarians, and you reach the world." Betty Webb

Ding Dong Dead

Deb Baker writes two mystery series. One is her Yooper series, books set in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, featuring Gertie Johnson. It's fun, but I prefer the Gretchen Birch Dolls to Die For series. This doll collecting mystery series is set in Phoenix, and the humor isn't quite as broad. The books are still funny, including Baker's latest one, Ding Dong Dead.

Gretchen is quite hopeful about her developing relationship with Police Detective Matt Albright, but he always seems to be called away at inopportune times. Just as things are getting a little cozy, he's called to a cemetery, and has to take her along. There, they find the body of a woman, who turns out to be an old friend of Gretchen's mother, and the scrawled message, "Die, Dolly, Die".

Gretchen knows she shouldn't get involved, but her aunt, Nina, had read the tarot cards, and only saw danger in her future. She warned her not to continue on her present ways, which meant helping with the new museum for the Phoenix Dollers, or directing their fundraising play. Gretchen scoffs at her eccentric aunt when she insists they should check out the museum for a ghost. But, maybe there is something to Nina's worries. The Birch women are threatened, and they find a body. Gretchen just knows Matt could use a little help on his investigation; help that she, Nina, and Gretchen's mother, Caroline, could provide.

Baker's strength in both series is her characters. Sixty-six-year-old Gertie is a unique character, quite an oddball in Baker's Yooper series. She's also one of Gretchen Birch's aunts, which is makes a connection between the two series. The other aunt, Nina,in this series, is eccentric, with her ability to train miniature dogs, and her obsessions, such as tarot and ghost hunting. Caroline is actually the rational character in the Doll books, a well-known writer and doll restorer. Gretchen is more insecure, and scared, but she was involved with a tragedy earlier in life.

This is one more cozy series, though, in which the main character pokes into her police detective boyfriend's investigation. It's not a book for those who can't suspend disbelief. It's almost a rule in cozies - amateur sleuth dates a cop, and pries, despite the wishes of the police. Like other cozies from Berkley Prime Crime, it has a hobby theme, in this case, doll collecting. And, the books include very interesting facts about dolls.

Ding Dong Dead offers fun characters, a cozy plot, and interesting facts about hobbies. And, Baker does an excellent job describing the Phoenix setting. What more do you want in a cozy?

Deb Baker's website is www.debbakerbooks.com

Ding Dong Dead by Deb Baker. Berkley Prime Crime, ©2008. ISBN 9780425225028 (paperback), 272p.

Jana Bommersbach's Appearance 
at Velma Teague Library

The Velma Teague Library was fortunate to host Jana Bommersbach for the latest Authors @ The Teague program. Bommersbach is an award-winning journalist, and the author of the true crime book, The Trunk Murderess: Winnie Ruth Judd. Now, she has a new true crime book, another one about a Phoenix murder, Bones in the Desert.

Bommersbach began the program by saying people ask her how a fun-loving, happy person like her could write about murders. She said she's fascinated by murders involving women. Her first book, The Trunk Murderess, is her beloved book, the love of her life. But, it came out in 1992, and it took her that long to find another book to write, a story that spoke to her.

Bones in the Desert is the story of Loretta Bowersock, mother of Terri of Terri's Design and Consign. It was reported that Loretta died, then her boyfriend, Taw Benderly, said she disappeared. Loretta went missing, and then Taw killed himself, which was the final insult to the family. He left no note saying where Loretta's body was. It was an insult to everyone who loved Loretta.

This case became famous in Arizona. Terri was well-known, and anyone who knew Terri, knew her mother. People had a real sense of personal connection to them because of their TV commercials. They had a sense they knew someone who had been murdered. People felt grief for Terri, that she did not have a body to bury. There were lots of pieces of this case that upset people.

Bommersbach was in North Dakota with her own parents over Christmas when this crime happened. It was in January, after her return, that she heard Terri on TV talking about her mother missing in the desert. Jana immediately called Terri, and spent an hour talking to her on the phone. Terri was the first person Jana knew in her life who had a parent murdered. Bommersbach asked Terri if she could write about it, and what had been discovered. Terri said, oh you wouldn't believe what they had discovered.

Phoenix Magazine carried Bommersbach's first article about the crime, called "Where Is My Mother?" Thirteen months later, Loretta's body was found. Hundreds of people had searched the desert. Jana was so close to her own mother that this case disturbed her. A family doing rock hounding found Loretta's bones in the desert, and called the police, and waited. The autopsy and teeth revealed the body was Loretta's.

"He Buried My Mother By a Blue Motel" was the second story that ran in Phoenix. Psychics flocked to the story. Dozens of them were interested in helping Terri. Some were well-meaning; some helpful; some not. Terri was grasping for answers. The police said Taw was the suspect. He was dead, so they were satisfied, and walked away from the case. The police went on, and Terri was left on her own.

Psychics said they saw a lot of blue around Loretta. Bommersbach said anyone who knows the Arizona desert knows the desert "wears yellow and purple like school colors." There are different colors, but the only blue in the desert is the sky. When they finally found the body, it was near a hotel on I-8 on the road to San Diego. Jana said there must have been a sale on blue paint that year, because everything around the hotel was blue, including an old truck. Terri's brother was skeptical, saying psychics always pick a primary color. But, two police said one psychic was right on target. A New York agent liked the story, and contacted Bommersbach to see if she would develop it into a book.

Jana Bommersbach said Loretta's case was a classic case of elder abuse, and this was a way to tell the story of elder abuse. Phoenix, and Arizona, are #1 in a lot of bad things. But, they have the first and only shelter devoted to elder abuse in the nation. Doves Shelter was opened by the Area Agency on Aging. Terri operates a small shop with all profits going to Doves. When Bommersbach wrote a column about Doves, she met the local cops assigned to elder abuse. Only Phoenix and San Diego have units assigned to it. She discovered that elder abuse is very long term; it goes on for years, and it could be verbal, physical, emotional or sexual, or a combination. It can go on for years until something crashes, and the victim needs a break.

Loretta discovered the treachery of her boyfriend of eighteen years. She discovered the level of his exploitation. Loretta was professionally dressed that day, but with her shoes off, as so many people are who work at home. She tried to confront Taw and throw him out. They surmise she had a violent, angry response to his treachery because of the type of person she was. Both people are now dead who were involved. There is a thin line between abuse and murder. Taw crossed it when he put a bag around Loretta's head, and strangled her.

Jana Bommersbach's dream is that someone will read Bones in the Desert while barefoot, put on their shoes, and walk out the door. She wants them to read the book, and see there is a way out. Jana said it was a difficult book to write. She prayed for a different ending for it the entire time she wrote the book. Since then, she's heard from famous women in Phoenix who said they were in that situation, and got out. She did a recent signing with Terri, and someone bought 9 copies, saying she had sisters and friends who needed to read it.

Bommersbach said she wrote the book while she was in Brainard, Minnesota. She never spends summers in Arizona. But, two summers ago, in 2007, she found a house on a lake to rent. It was a wonderful summer. Her parents came, and celebrated her father's 85th birthday there. Her brothers both married, and honeymooned there. Jana's dad died the following spring, so she's grateful she had a magnificent summer with her family while she wrote the book. She finds it incongruous that she was writing about a family torn apart, while she had a magnificent summer with hers.

Bones in the Desert is doing extremely well. It was #2 on the list of bestselling crime books. Terri and Jana are trying to get on Oprah. Terri's been on before, as a successful businesswoman who was dyslexic. They're hoping that contact will help. Billie Jean King and Lily Tomlin both read the book. It's been well-received in Arizona. The publisher is printing another 4,000 copies. Jana said she's hoping people are buying and learning from it.

Jana was asked about her background, so she gave us her biography. She was born in Fargo, North Dakota on Dec. 5, 1945. She's a product of North Dakota, and the women's movement. She went to the University of North Dakota, and her first job after graduation was in urban Michigan, in Flint. She said she had a lot of growing up to do, and received quite an education living there. She was from a white community, where she didn't know any blacks, and hadn't lived in a city. She won her first national award while in Flint.

Bommersbach went to grad school for journalism at the University of Michigan. She was student body president, winning against a law school student. She discovered she didn't like politics, and she'd rather be a reporter reporting on politics than on the other side.

When she graduated, she had hoped to go east, and work for the Washington Post. But, it was hard to get a job, and she was offered a job at The Arizona Republic. So she drove out, and found Arizona was a weird place. She was a Democrat who had campaigned against Barry Goldwater. She met him, and came to love Goldwater. But, it was weird out here, and The Arizona Republic was a conservative paper. She asked herself what she was doing here. She finally decided they needed her her. She helped to organize a union. She finally left because she couldn't work for them anymore. She went to New Times, and worked there for twelve years, and was even owner for a while. In 1992, she wrote about Winnie Ruth Judd, and she left to write the book. She got an interview with Ruth. She is proud that The Trunk Murderess was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award for best nonfiction that year.

Then, Bommersbach started a column for Phoenix Magazine. She's been writing that for fifteen years. She did commentary for Channel 3 for seven years at 7:15 AM, but had to get up at 4 AM, read three newspapers, and then go on at 7:15 to talk about three things that ticked her off that day. After 9/11, she was laid off at Channel 3. She still had her Phoenix Magazine job, and she did "Books and Company," for the local PBS station, Channel 8, for five or six seasons. Now, she's freelancing. She does a column for True West Magazine. Then this book, Bones in the Desertt, came along. She's still finding a way to pay the rent.

When asked if she'd ever write about the murder of Arizona Republic reporter, Don Bolles, Bommersbach said everyone expected her to write it. She got into the hospital that night with his wife, who heard Jana's voice in the hall, and insisted they let her in. Don was a good friend. But, she never covered the stories in 1976 when his car was blown up. In 1996, at New Times, she did a retrospective. They did a special report about the murder that opened up new avenues. But, the crime is so old that people have served time, and walked away. There are so many holes in the story, and Bommersbach said she doesn't know where else to look to write that book. But, the police tend to cling to a decision because they don't want to face reality. This case is always an open case. There have been twenty-five bad books about it, but she sees no reason to write about it until the case is solved.

Bommersbach was asked if Loretta was an unusual victim for this type of violence, and she said, no. Domestic violence happens all the time. That generation of women always had someone tell them what to do for their entire lives. The first time they were independent was when they were widowed. But, many of them felt it was better to have a bad man that to be alone.

She was asked if any family members suspected Loretta would be murdered, and she said no. Prior to the murder, one sister watched every episode of America's Most Wanted, thinking Taw would show up. He was nice, good-looking, a gourmet cook with a great voice. But, the family suspected he would bankrupt Loretta, not kill her.

Within hours of the death, psychics sought out Terri. Terri and her mother were estranged because of Taw, and they had just started getting together. Loretta fought with Terri over Taw. Terri had a tough time on various levels. Bommersbach said Terri was "Searching in death for a mother she'd already lost in life."

_______________________________________

It was a pleasure to host Jana Bommersbach at the Velma Teague Library. She drew the largest crowd we have ever had for an Authors @ The Teague program. Bette Sharpe, our Programming Librarian, presented Jana with a thank you gift, the new Authors @ The Teague mug.

(Photo - Lesa Holstine, Jana Bommersbach, and Bette Sharpe - copyright Ed Sharpe, CouryGraph Productions)

Jana Bommersbach's website is www.janabommersbach.com 

Bones in the Desert: The True Story of a Mother's Murder and a Daughter's Search by Jana Bommersbach, ©2008. St. Martin's True Crime, ©2008. ISBN 9780312947415 (paperback), 278p.

The Trunk Murderess: Winnie Ruth Judd by Jana Bommersbach, Poisoned Pen Press, published 2003, ISBN 9781590580646 (paperback), 280p.

lholstine@yahoo.com  book blog: http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com 

"Reach librarians, and you reach the world." Betty Webb

Jana Bommersbach - Authors @ The Teague  - Story and video in prep stage! What a night!  She discussed and signed her latest true crime book, Bones in the Desert.

It’s a special December Authors @ The Teague program when award-winning journalist and author, Jana Bommersbach, appeared at the   Velma Teague Branch Library on Dec. 4 at 6:30 PM.  Bommersbach  discussed and signed her latest true crime book, Bones in the Desert.

Bones in the Desert is the story of Loretta Bowersock and her daughter, Terri, who ran a multimillion dollar furniture store based in Tempe.  These two women seemed to be living the American Dream…until one man decided to destroy it. 

   +++++++

 Jana's debut book, "The Trunk Murderess: Winnie Ruth Judd," was nominated for the prestigious Edgar Allan Poe Award and won Arizona's only literary prize.   

    Her commentaries for public television won two national awards, while her reporting on commercial television won a Rocky Mountain Emmy.

     She has been honored with the Toastmasters International Communication and Leadership Award and by the Arizona Chapter of the ACLU for her leadership in bold, honest commentaries.  Besides, she gives great parties, is a gourmet cook, has never seen a hobby that doesn't interest her and is a fanatic about Christmas.
 

Authors @ the Teague Brings Jana Bommersbach to Glendale’s Downtown Library on December 4

 

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Jana Bommersbach, a well-known author and journalist, will be stopping by Velma Teague Branch Library, 7010 N. 58th Ave., at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 4 to talk about her latest book, “Bones in the Desert: The True Story of a Mother’s Murder and a Daughter’s Search.”

In December 2004, Loretta Bowersock, mother of prominent businesswoman Terri Bowersock of Terri’s Design and Consign stores, disappeared. Mother and daughter had been extremely close, starting Terri’s namesake multimillion dollar business together. In 1986, Loretta met the man of her dreams, but those dreams eventually turned into a nightmare…and cost Loretta her life.

Bommersbach will share what she discovered while investigating this tragic story.

She is also the author of “The Trunk Murderess: Winnie Ruth Judd,” which was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award and won Arizona's only literary prize. She has been Arizona's Journalist of the Year, won a Regional Emmy for her television writing and has been honored with two lifetime achievement awards for her newspaper and magazine reporting. She lives in Phoenix.

Books will be available for purchase. For reservations and information about this program, call 623-930-3431.

Brent Ghelfi for Authors @ The Teague
It's hard to believe that Brent Ghelfi writes dark thrillers set in Russia. He is one of the nicest authors to appear at the Velma Teague Library for the Authors @ The Teague series.

Ghelfi grew up in Phoenix and went to college at Arizona State University, majoring in business. He went to Law School in Tucson, and now lives in Phoenix with his wife, Lisa, and their two children. And, he answered a question librarians always want to know, about his library experience. Brent said he grew up using the Yucca Branch of the Phoenix Public Library regularly. He said he's always been a reader.

So, how did a Phoenix resident become the writer of thrillers set in Russia? As a student, he went to the U.S.S.R., and it was a gray, drab country. The people were rigid, and didn't want to talk to foreigners. Of course, the tour guides were monitored by the KGB. They couldn't stray off script, and they had to file reports. If they strayed or submitted an erroneous report, they were reported by their monitors. The U.S.S.R. was such a drab, gray country that Ghelfi never thought of it as fascinating.

In the 1990s, he went back to Moscow on business. It was as if someone had turned on a light. The country had been dark and foreboding, but now Red Square was brightly lit. There was American-style consumerism. Now, he regularly goes back to Russia, but if you stray outside the big cities, it's still desolate and poverty-stricken, not that different from life there in the Middle Ages.

In the 2000s, Ghelfi was in Moscow, writing other books. He stayed at the National Hotel, which had a beautiful view over Red Square. During the Communist years, the CIA used to get rooms in the National Hotel, and monitor the May Day parades from there, watching to see where the leaders stood in relationship to each other to determine the power structure. Ghelfi had one of those rooms overlooking the Square. One night, he saw a man walking on the wall, who cut through security with no one stopping him. Then he disappeared. Ghelfi wondered about the man. Who was he?

Ghelfi then came up with the sentence that introduced Alexei Volkovoy, known as Volk. In Volk's Game, he describes himself. "Dead mother, disappeared father, late-era Soveit poverty, and five years of killing and worse in Chechnya." Volk is a metaphor for modern-day Russia. He's part of the modern military, and the illegal gangsterism that has spread throughout the world in the form of the Russian Mafia. These strains both course through Volk, a dark conflicted character who is broken in many ways. Ghelfi uses his books to loke at modern-day Russia, with a character that represents Russia.

Volk's Game, the first book in the series, was about the theft of a picture from the Hermitage. It's a self-examination of Volk and the country, how they treat people, the country, and art. The book was well-received. It was a finalist for the 2008 Barry Award for best thriller, and it received excellent reviews. It's set in today's world, a violent world that has extremes of very wealthy people and very poor people. The poor were devastated when the U.S.S.R. fell. Pensioners who could live on 300 rubles a month paid at the old rate, couldn't buy a loaf of bread a month later. This is the setting of the book, and the person of Volk.

Ghelfi said he continues to go back to Russia. It has similar problems to the U.S. His current book, Volk's Shadow, is a distorted look at us. Russia has a terrible terrorism problem. During the 1990s, and the Chechen Wars, there were apartment blasts, subway blasts, and people killed. In 1995, Russia sent tanks into Chechnya and obliterated it. It made the problem worse. Volk's Shadow deals with terrorism, and an oil company that is blown up. Volk has to discover who did it.

Brent Ghelfi went on to say that Putin discovered that the person who controls the pipelines controls everything. Russia has been aggressive in Chechnya because there's a major pipeline there. They want to control the distribution of oil.

One other theme of the book is based on the Rostov Ripper, who brutally murdered 52 people in a ten to fifteen year spree. The authorities turned a blind eye to the similarities of the crimes, denying there was a serial killer operating in Russia. The police in Russia were political enforcers rather than criminal investigators. Finally, they caught someone, and executed him, but they had put someone else to death for the crimes earlier, and the murders continued. So, they actually put two people to death for the killings. In Volk's Shadow, Volk has to deal with similar murders. He explores all those old issues, since he was a Communist and a member of the Secret Service. He's questioning what's happening, and his role.

Ghelfi said the Volk series is not published in Russia. It is published in countries all along the border, but not in Russia itself. Volk's Game was optioned six months ago for a movie. But, lots of books are optioned, and the movies are never made. He does think the Volk movies might succeed right now because of the darkness of the character. Dark movies are popular lately, and the grainy, fast pace would work. Ghelfi's agent said they should have a script by the end of the year. Volk is a terrific character, but the hesitation might come because Hollywood is ethnocentric. They like American settings and characters.

He was asked if the thriller genre was appropriate for the current times. Brent said in the early to mid-80's, with MTV, television went from leisurely to fast-paced. Readers expect what they read to mirror that. Even literary authors, such as Cormac McCarthy, have gone to faster paced books. His book, The Road was an Oprah selection, so it's accessible. Ghelfi said the best thrillers are literary, and have subtext.

Ghelfi said he couldn't write about Russia without writing about violence. The most ruthless, brutal men took over companies after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Many were ex-KGB. Members of the First Chief Directorate were sophisticated men who spoke multiple languages, and, since they were responsible for foreign operations and intelligence, they had contacts in other countries. Many became billionaires from oil. Kidnapping is common in Russia. Criminals learned on the ground that often a dead body is worth more than a live one after a kidnapping because the burial rituals are important, and they can ask more money. Rape, murder and theft were common in Chechnya. We like to think it happened years ago with the Nazis or Stalin, but this is still happening in our time. Putin's response to Georgia was to roll tanks into the country. That's the same response Hitler had to Czechoslovakia, and Putin used the same excuse, Russians in Georgia were not being treated well.

How did Ghelfi get into writing? He was always a huge reader. He read all his life, since he was a kid. He had a break after selling a company. He wrote a medical thriller that never sold, although Hollywood is looking at it now.

Brent Ghelfi has a contract for two more Volk books. The next one, called The VENONA Cable, has been sent to his editor. It arises out of World War II, and cables that went to New York and Moscow. The Americans broke the code, and continued the program working with code until 1980. Ghelfi referred us to the National Security Agency's website for information about the actual VENONA story. That site says, "On 1 February 1943 the U.S. Army's Signal Intelligence Service, a forerunner of the National Security Agency, began a small, very secret program, later codenamed VENONA. The original object of the VENONA program was to examine, and possibly exploit, encrypted Soviet diplomatic communications. These messages had been accumulated by the Signal Intelligence Service (later renamed the U.S. Army Signal Security Agency and commonly called "Arlington Hall" after the Virginia location of its headquarters) since 1939 but had not been studied previously. American analysts discovered that these Soviet communications dealt with not only diplomatic subjects but also espionage matters." The next Volk book is about a dead body found on Volk's property, with a cable.

He went on to discuss the codebreakers and spies. Julius Rosenberg was definitely guilty of the crimes he was executed for, spying and sending information to Russia. He discussed Churchill's visit to the U.S. to discuss a second front in Europe, and Stalin knew the answer because officer sent the information from New York. The codebreakers in Arlington Hall in Virginia dealth with 3000 cables.

The fourth Volk book will deal with college age students murdered in Russia. Ghelfi has that one outlined.

In response to a question, he said he doesn't speak Russian, but he fell in love with the Russian authors, and read them. He said he receives comments sent from his publishers blogs, but he can't read German or other languages, so he can't send those readers appropriate answers.

There's a lot going on in the Volk thrillers, and they're fast-paced. Readers can read them for the action and the pace. Or they can read them on a deeper level, for the history, culture and information about modern day Russia. Brent Ghelfi said Volk is very good and very evil, trying to navigate his own life, and reconcile his sides, trying to learn who he is.

Brent Ghelfi? He's an outstanding speaker, and talented thriller writer. We're lucky to have the author of Volk's Game and Volk's Shadow here in the Valley. We're very lucky he was willing to speak for Authors @ The Teague.

Brent Ghelfi's website is http://www.brentghelfi.com

Volk's Shadow by Brent Ghelfi. Henry Holt and Company, Inc., ©2008. ISBN 9780805082555 (hardcover), 320p.

Volk's Game by Brent Ghelfi. Henry Holt and Company, Inc., ©2007. ISBN 9780805082548 (hardcover), 320p.

Larry Karp & Michael Bowen for Authors @ The Teague

 Lesa Holstine Glendale Daily Planet Book Topics Editor

Mystery authors Larry Karp and Michael Bowen recently appeared for the Authors @ The Teague series at the Velma Teague Library. Larry Karp kicked off the program.

Karp's recent book is The King of Ragtime. One hundred years ago, Scott Joplin and Irving Berlin both called themselves "The King of Ragtime." Berlin's big hit, "Alexander's Ragtime Band," was written in 1911. Scott Joplin moved to New York City in 1907, wanting to legitimize ragtime. He wrote an opera, "Treemonisha", and couldn't get it published. He submitted it to Irving Berlin's publishing company, but it was rejected. When Joplin heard "Alexander's Ragtime Band," he said it was his song. The opening of his song, "A Real Slow Drag" sounds like "Alexander's Ragtime Band." Was it plagiarized? Years later, Joplin's widow said he had to rewrite it before publishing so he didn't get accused of plagiarism.

Between 1911 and 1916, Joplin was sick with cerebral syphilis. It was a disease that affected the brain, and people died slowly. Judgement went. There were mood swings, and tremors. Joplin died in 1917.

Karp said he isn't a musician, but he reads ragtime history. He said before he died Joplin was working on a musical drama called "If." Karp questioned what was "If" about. He needed a link for The King of Ragtime. So, he said, what would have happened if Joplin submitted the drama to Irving Berlin. He said it was unlikely that a black man in 1911 would have succeeded in getting an opera or drama published. Joplin was poor, and taught students. So, he created a student for Joplin, Martin Niederhoffer, who was also a bookkeeper at Berlin's company. What would happen if he asked Joplin to submit it, and offered to act as watchdog? It could be an ideal situation for murder. Joplin or Berlin? Who really was The King of Ragtime?

The first book in the series, The Ragtime Kid, came about because Karp was reading history. It's a fact that a white music store owner in Sedalia, Missouri offered to publish "The Maple Street Rag" in 1899. What induced John Stark to offer a royalties contract to a black composer at that time? Nothing in history explains it. Karp said he takes a known history, and where there are holes, fills it with fiction to explain what might have happened. The Ragtime Kid was a real person. In 1899, a fifteen-year-old white boy hopped a freight train because he had to have lessons from Scott Joplin. History leaves us puzzles. This is not history, but historical fiction.

When asked about his background, Larry Karp said as a kid he lived in New York, and liked to write. But, in the 1950s, you didn't tell your parents you wanted to be a writer. They had a family physician who was a friend, and a legendary doctor. He made lifesaving diagnosis, so Karp decided to become a doctor. He did alright, bu he really wanted to write. So, fourteen years ago, he left medical work and began to write. He started a mainstream novel about a music box collector,, but his protagonist kept getting killed early in the book. Finally a friend said, why don't you write it as a mystery. The book became The Music Box Murders. He went on to write a couple more music box books.

Karp wrote a book called First, Do No Harm, with a medical setting. It was about a legendary doctor with a character flaw.

He said he wrote The Ragtime Kid about the birth of ragtime. The King of Ragtime is about the death of ragtime. His third book in the series will be about the beginning of the ragtime revival in 1951.

Karp said characters drive his books, and they won't follow outlines. There was a ceremony in Sedalia in 1951, with a plaque to honor Scott Joplin. There's a kid who wants to learn from the Ragtime Kid, Joplin's student. What if the KKK wanted to blow up the high school during the ceremony? Karp said in doing the research, he was in a restaurant in Canada, and he asked a contractor he was with, how would you blow up this place. So, they discussed the dynamite needed, and the plans. When he got to Customs, he realized he had notes as to how to blow up Hubbard High School. He didn't know if he should rip out the page, and eat his notes. Then he saw the cameras. He said fortunately he and his wife seemed like an innocent older couple, so they just let them through.

Karp said he thinks of the characters first when he writes, then begins to write the story, until he hits a road block. He works through the first draft, trying to get the story down. Then he rewrites, and the story comes through. In the movie, "Finding Forrester", Sean Connery's character tells a student, "Write the first draft with your heart, and then you get your head to work." That's how Karp does it.

Some of his research was done in Sedalia, in local histories and local libraries. He said the Sedalia Carnegie Library has histories of the town and people in a locked cabinet. One was just a three page manuscript, "Sights and Sounds of Sedalia". He uses 1 to 2% of what he finds, just to advance the story, and show the setting better.

When he wrote the first music box book, Karp was lucky enough to sit down with his editor. She told him I'm sure this is fascinating to music box collectors, but it's boring to me. So, he learned to cut scenes when they don't advance the story. He doesn't want to overuse his research. He said the web is terrific for research. They have census figures that can tell him about his characters, and who they lived with. Since he's not a musician, he attended ragtime festivals.

Larry Karp learned to write in the morning, when it seems to flow. His writing is very cinematic. He sees the action as he his the keys. He writes for four hours, has lunch, takes a walk to clear his head, and then will either write more, or work on promotions of work, and research. He writes regularly.

Michael Bowen said he writes what he calls a "Plucky couple series." Plucky couples include Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, Nick and Nora Charles, or Jerry and Pam North.

Bowen attended Harvard Law School, and made history when his class elected the first woman as President of the Harvard Law Review. He referred to the recent election, and the so-called Bradley effect, and said with the law school election, they had the choice of voting for a man, or making history by voting for a woman. Bowen is a trial lawyer, but he doesn't put his clients' problems into the books. He writes about the emotional effects. He said he once had a death threat, but his law partners said one death threat in 32 years meant he wasn't working hard enough. At the time, they didn't have separate extensions. The receptionist told him he'd had an interesting message. It said, "Your contract will be terminated in 30 days." As a good lawyer, he contacted the FBI, who listened and said they wouldn't take any action unless something happened. As he was crossing the parking lot that night, he thought, this is what it feels like.

Bowen's characters, Rep and Melissa Pennyworth, are married and deeply in love. Rep went into Trademark & Copyright Law because he wanted a nice, quiet predictable practice. His mother was arrested for murder when he was just fifteen months old. His wife, Melissa, is, by the time of the current book, Shoot the Lawyers Twice, an Assistant Professor of English Lit. When the series began, she was studying. The book is set in Milwaukee because she's now in a tenure track position.

Michael Bowen said his characters are "plucky couples" because, in his opinion, Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers is the greatest mystery ever written, and he admires Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. By the time of the Jerry and Pam North mysteries, the female half of the "plucky couples" had become unappealing. In the later incarnations, such as the Norths and Nick and Nora Charles, the female role was to stumble across the corpse and get herself into mortal danger so she could be rescued. And, she often triggers a clue for the male.

In Bowen's books, Melissa is a strong character. He avoids some of the techniques used in writing about women detectives now. Quite often, they have family members who taught them how to shoot, defend themselves, etc. That's not really common. And, Melissa misses when shooting at someone, and makes fun of herself.

Bowen said he had fun with his books. You should have fun writing and reading. He uses banter, wordplay and satire. He has poked fun at academic political correctness, and did a send up of the mystery/thriller genre.

What made Bowen start writing mysteries? He tried his first jury trial in 1978. It was a small case, but the jury took it seriously, and they were out for a day and a half. He couldn't concentrate on anything while waiting for the verdict. Bowen wasn't raised to think much of mysteries. He picked one up, The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. When reading a master, you normally don't say, that's a masterpiece. You say, they make it look easy. So, Bowen thought, "I can do this." His first book was very derivative, and no one will ever see it. But, he found his voice, and something to write about. Bowen said the point of his plucky couple mysteries is to have fun.

His next book might be called Standard Duty Blues. It's a military term from the Naval Academy. He's talking to his editor, Barbara Peters, from Poisoned Pen Press, about the book. He's been very happy with Kill the Lawyers Twice. Bowen said Barbara Peters is the most wonderful editor to work with.

Michael Bowen said his first book, Can't Miss, was about the first woman to play Major League Baseball. He said none of his books have been bestsellers, and not even midlist. He writes stuff that critics like, and people buy, but it doesn't make him famous.

Here's what it's like to be in his category. He was sent a slide of the cover art of the middle book in a five book series. And, he told his editor he didn't like the art. The editor said that was too bad, but they weren't changing it because the artist had been paid. He asked why they sent him the cover for approval. She said it wasn't for approval. They were just being polite.

He also had a title he really liked, but the editor said the sales team didn't like it. He said but he wanted the title. And she said when it's sales vs. talent, sales wins.

Michael Bowen said he writes when he can. His partners play golf. He doesn't play golf; he writes while they golf. He found that he has to stop before he wants to stop writing, so the next time he can pick right up. He ended the program appropriately. You'll find time to write if you want to.

Larry Karp and Michael Bowen were the latest authors to appear for Authors @ The Teague.

 Lesa Holstine Glendale Daily Planet Book Topics Editor

lholstine@yahoo.com
book blog: http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

"Reach librarians, and you reach the world." Betty Webb

Kerrie Droban for Authors @ The Teague

 Lesa Holstine Glendale Daily Planet Book Topics Editor

Kerrie Droban, author of Running with the Devil: The True story of the ATF's Infiltration of the Hell's Angels, recently spoke at the Velma Teague Library as part of the Authors @ The Teague series. The book is the story of how the Hell's Angels were infiltrated in Arizona.

Droban is a criminal defense attorney who specializes in capital crimes, working to save death row inmates. It was a challenge to write this story about a sensational government sting in which the agents dodged legal grenades and potential death threats. It was pure happenstance that she was asked to write the book, particularly with her background.

Kerrie studied poetry with Caroline Kizer, and playwriting with Edward Albee. When she was asked to write this book, her first reaction was to turn it down. She had no background in research, other than when she researched briefs. But, the story offered her the unique position to write about unsung heroes, the ATF operatives, and tell the story of their undercover work. It's a story of agents doing extraordinary things, and then being discarded by their own agency.

This sting in Running with the Devil began in 2003. The talk in the book of war between the Hell's Angels and the Mongols, a rival biker gang, foreshadowed recent events in San Francisco.

Monikers are used in this book, so Droban doesn't out the agents. She also will not reveal her sources. This was the first ever infiltration of the Hell's Angels by law enforcement. It's difficult to get inside the gang because probationers must spend one year or more as prospects. This taxes government resources, so they can't easily spend the time doing this kind of job. There were surveillance teams all over the Valley, taking 500 or more people to monitor this job.

They used an informant with access to a group in Mexico and the Hell's Angels here in the Valley to help the operatives assume the persona of bikers in another gang. They had no actual plan. Instead, it was dependant on Bird, the main operative, who brought over his own confidential informant. The informant already had developed a persona, and a rapport with a group in Bullhead City. The biggest problem was the operatives didn't know how to ride bikes.

Bird was one member of the group. They used a detective out of Phoenix, Timmy, who had martial arts training, as the enforcer. The operatives stayed as close to the truth as possible in the stories they told. They got tattoos, put on weight. Their goal was survival. They had to cast people in roles so they could get a prospect for the Hell's Angels. They used an operative named out of Miami, named Carlos, for four months. The informant was made president, just to make introductions, and then they wanted to get him out of it. However, the informant was enjoying his power, and they went two weeks with no plans. Then they went to a rally, and received an introduction to the president of the Mesa group, who invited them to various events. The role of the confidential informant was to get players in, help orchestrate the introductions, and get out.

As the case progressed, the operatives were tested with drugs, and women. The ultimate test is to throw women at the bikers, since a fringe benefit of bikers is the opportunity to bed women. They had a hard time getting a woman to join, but finally they found an operative to play J.J. She was just out of the academy, with no undercover experience. She was naive enough to not know how dangerous her role was. However, she was a catalyst for the case because it wouldn't have worked without her. J.J. became Bird's "Old Lady," and acted as a mule as well, which elevated her role, and allowed her to carry a gun. She was propositioned a lot to haul guns and drugs across the border. She was integral to the case. Gangs wanted both J.J. and Bird, but it was important that the whole group stay together as a team.

The team joined a newly forming chapter in Skull Valley, one that took them in. They were always tested. Would they kill for the club? They devised a ruse by saying they had to kill a Mongol in Mexico. They got the confidential informant out by sending him to Mexico. They sent a box of stuff back to the chapter, with pictures and a Mongol vest to prove they killed a Mongol.

The story of the team from Running with the Devil has been on A&E and National Geographic channels. It's a landmark case that other agencies are using to learn from. The operatives who worked the case did it because it was the opportunity of a lifetime to work in the guts of police work.

Bikers take drugs to keep them going, but the undercover operatives had to go on stamina alone. They sometimes went with zero sleep. They'd have post-traumatic stress. They slept in their clothes and boots, took turns sleeping in the pads, and other groups crashed in theirs. They had to stay alert. The lifestyle had no nutrition, since alcohol was often the drug of choice for bikers. They would party all night, ride all day, and it was exhausting for the operatives. The heat factor also had to be taken into account in Arizona during the 18 month investigation. Sometimes they suffered from heat stroke, but they had to go on. They had to wear vests with their patches, and they couldn't take them off. They were smelly and dirty because bikers don't wash them. The operatives had costume problems, and sometimes worried their vests weren't dirty enough. There were moments of humor for them, though.

There were some dangerous times in which they were almost executed. The wanted an innocuous name for the operation, one that wouldn't sound like an undercover operation, so they called it Operation Black Biscuit, after a hockey puck. No other agencies knew what they were doing. At one time, they were almost executed because they were on Phoenix turf, and the head of the Phoenix Hot Heads, Chico, go mad about them being on his turf. A DEA agent heard about it, and passed on the execution threat, or the team would have been killed.

The real tragedy about the case is that there were indictments, but no charges stuck. The operatives sacrificed eighteen months of their lives, but nothing stuck. Bird was on the run for a long time, relocating his family every couple weeks. Finally, he went public to make himself less of a target. He lived in Tucson, and his house there was torched about a month ago. It's not unusual for undercover agents to be tossed aside. They don't do the job for recognition.

Since that time, biker gangs are recruiting off the street, which has made them more volatile. The first confidential informant the group used was working off weapons charges. CIs are shady characters. And, the reason none of the charges stuck was because the operatives would not disclose their CIs to the courts. Cases were dismissed because the operatives would not release names. There was legal jousting behind the scenes. And, legal forces wouldn't communicate between agencies. The ATF won't share information with the FBI and the U.S. attorneys. Many of the positions have to do with egos. There was a lot of politicking going on.

The entire eighteen month investigation was for naught. But, Kerrie Droban had connections with some government agents, and she was asked to write the book that became Running with the Devil, since government agents can't sell their own story.

Has anything come of it? The question was asked as to whether they got information that would be helpful in the future. Droban said they did prove to the brass that they were doing intelligence gathering. The law enforcement agents actually worked an innovative case. There were intangibles, and they may never know the results. The Hell's Angels now have a tainted public image. There were repercussions for the team. They've received death threats, contract hits, and it has affected whole families. In order to keep the stories as close to the truth as possible, Bird involved his family. Timmy didn't.

Droban is working on a new book, tentatively called The Price. A former member of the Pagan gang in Philadelphia wants her to write his story. He had ties with the Philadelphia mob. It's called The Price because he got it, and it's about the price he paid to be in the mob, and to get out.

She was asked if she's afraid, and she said she does capital litigation, so she meets with serial killers, and works with the worst of the worst. She's not afraid. She sees herself as the conduit to the story. Her work is done with interviews and recordings. It's not the kind of research she can do in a library. But, she wants to write an accurate book. Her main focus is to communicate something, and provide a voice of people who can't speak.

Kerrie Droban provided that voice for Bird, and the other undercover agents in the book, Running with the Devil: The True Story of the ATF's Infiltration of the Hell's Angels.

Kerrie Droban's website is www.kerriedroban.com

Running with the Devil: The True Story of the ATF's Infiltration of the Hell's Angels by Kerrie Droban. Globe Pequot Press, ©2007. ISBN 9781592289769 (hardcover), 232p.

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lholstine@yahoo.com
book blog:  http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

Book Topics - Glendale Daily Planet
http://www.glendaledailyplanet.com/book_topics.htm

"Reach librarians, and you reach the world."  - Betty Webb

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Mr. Atkins new book is Moontown and at last night's performance he read his short story, The Cubists Attorney.  Mr. Hirshberg read a selection from The Two Sams: Ghost Stories,  and is the author of American Morons.

 from the left  Author, Peter Atkins;  author Glen Hirshberg and musician David Brewer.

Deborah Shelley Appears for Authors @ The Teague

Poisoned Pen Bookstore's 19th Anniversary

The Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona is one of the treasures of the Valley. On Friday, Oct. 3, The Poisoned Pen celebrated its nineteenth anniversary. This special bookstore is a full service general bookstore with a specialty in crime fiction. Barbara Peters, the owner, said she started the store nineteen years ago as a hobby. Now, the store is in the fourth version, starting on the twentieth year.

The Poisoned Pen is the place to go to hear and meet authors. Just in October, the store has already hosted the National Launch Party of Phoenix Media Star Jana Bommersback for her new true-crime Bones in the Desert, and Dennis Lehane, author of The Given Day. Tess Gerritsen with her new book, The Keepsake, and Terry Brooks, author of the Shannara books, are scheduled this month.

Over the years, the bookstore has received numerous honors. The store won the 2001 Raven Award from the Mystery Writers of America!; it has been Winner, The Arizona Republic and the New Times Best of Phoenix and Best of Scottsdale, Best Bookstore!; and a Nominee, Publishers Weekly's Bookseller of the Year.

So, what's the future for this special bookstore in an age when so many independent bookstores fold when owners move on? Barbara Peters, who now refers to herself as a volunteer bookseller, spends a great deal of time traveling. She's quoted as saying, "When I go traveling, no paycheck goes with me. And there is no interruption in service to you thanks to the admirable Poisoned Pen professionals. My status has been more that of volunteer for several years in preparation for a new generation of Poisoned Pen ownership. We want the transition to be as seamless as possible."

So, those of us who love The Poisoned Pen can look forward to more years of enjoyment at the bookstore. Congratulations to The Poisoned Pen Bookstore, and Barbara Peters, for nineteen years of service to the reading community.


The Poisoned Pen Bookstore is located at 4014 N Goldwater Blvd., Suite 101, Scottsdale, Arizona 85251. Telephone:(888)560-9919 or (480)947-2974.

Their website is www.poisonedpen.com

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lholstine@yahoo.com
book blog:  http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

Book Topics - Glendale Daily Planet
http://www.glendaledailyplanet.com/book_topics.htm

"Reach librarians, and you reach the world."  - Betty Webb

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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Award Winner

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'd like to thank my editor at The Glendale Daily Planet, Ed Sharpe. I'd like to thank Bette Sharpe, photographer, and Programming Librarian. I'd like to thank my husband, Jim Holstine, for all the support in my blogging. I'd like to thank my mother, for her support, and remember my father for all of his encouragement. Most of all, I accept this award in memory of my grandfather, Otto Smith, Farm News Editor of The Fremont-News Messenger, and the first journalist in the family.

Seriously, I would like to thank Ed Sharpe, and give him copyright credit for the photo as well. Ed has been very gracious and enthusiastic in allowing me to promote the Velma Teague Branch Library's book programs, such as Authors @ The Teague. He's also allowed me to reprint book reviews of books by Arizona authors, or featuring Arizona settings. The Glendale Daily Planet/KKAT-IPTV was a Gold Medal Winner of an AVA Award for 2007 in the category of Online and TV News Delivery. It also won Honorable Mention in the category of News Media - Creativity (News) for the 2008 Videographer Awards. Ed Sharpe, publisher, editor, and engineer for The Glendale Daily Planet was kind enough to include me in the award recognition as Book Topics Editor.

Thank you, Ed.

Maybe We Are Flamingos

Safari Sue Thurman has entertained and educated thousands of children at the Phoenix Zoo. Now, she turns that expertise into the first picture book in the Safari Series, Maybe We Are Flamingos. She and illustrator Kevin Collier have created a fun, enchanting book that will appeal to young children.

Flora and Fernando are two young flamingos, first looking like white snowballs, and then covered with gray feathers. When they notice that they are a different color than the other flamingos, they worry they're in the wrong flock. However, their mother explains that flamingos don't turn pink for a year, and they stay pink because of the food they eat. This information leads to the most delightful part of the book. Fernando and Flora draw pictures of what the flock would look like if they ate other food such as broccoli, cheeseburgers, and pizza.

Safari Sue has written a children's picture book that educates while entertaining at the same time. It will be easy for children to draw flamingos as other foods, or talk about what they themselves would look like if they were their favorite food. Personally, I was surprised at the lesson the flamingo mother imparted at the end of the story. Yes, the story does talk about appearances, but I failed to find how the story ended with a message that it's what's in your heart that is important. Somehow, that message seemed to have little to do with the rest of the book. Despite that flaw, which children won't notice, Maybe We Are Flamingos is a book that would be fun to share with youngsters.

Safari Sue Thurman's website is www.safarisue.com

Maybe We Are Flamingos by Safari Sue Thurman. Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc., ©2008. ISBN 9781933090986 (paperback), 28p.

lholstine@yahoo.com
book blog:  http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

Book Topics - Glendale Daily Planet
http://www.glendaledailyplanet.com/book_topics.htm

"Reach librarians, and you reach the world."  - Betty Webb

Jennifer Lee Carrell - Authors @ The Teague

Jennifer Lee Carrell, author of Interred with Their Bones, appeared as part of the Authors @ The Teague series at the Velma Teague Library on Wed. Sept. 10 at 2 p.m. Carrell has a Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Harvard University. She taught history and literature at Harvard, and directed Shakespeare for the Hyperion Theatre Company, and now lives in Tucson. She is also the author of The Speckled Monster, a nonfiction book about battling smallpox.

Jennifer began the program by reading a short scene from the opening of Interred with Their Bones to give readers a flavor of the work. Most of this book, her first novel, is set in modern times. Her heroine is Kate Stanley, an American in London, where she has her big break; she's directing Hamlet at the Globe in London. When the book opens, Kate is sitting on a hill overlooking London after receiving a gift of a box from Rosalind Howard, Harvard Professor of Shakespeare. However, she won't let Kate open it. She tells her she's given her an adventure. This leads to a high-stakes, fast-paced adventure story about a lost play by Shakespeare.

When Carrell was studying for a Ph.D. in English, she was in a library in Harvard Yard on a New England fall day. She was perusing the shelves, and a set of four books jumped out at her. They were called The Elizabethan Stage by E.K. Chambers, copyright 1923. Although the books are a little later than the Victorian age, they still had that cluttered, full feeling. They were full of interesting, bizarre facts about Renaissance drama. At the bottom of one page was a lost plays section. Lots of Renaissance drama was lost. It wasn't considered high art, much more like our sitcoms today. There was a title by Shakespeare, even with some of the plot, but the play is gone.

Jennifer said she started to question what it would be like to find one of those lost plays. If you were the first person in 400 years to find a play, where would you find it? It would have to be found somewhere off the beaten path. So, even when standing in grocery lines, she would spin a fantasy about that idea. It's more fun to make it a story. As an author, she has control issues. She gets to pick who finds the play, and where, and what happened to it over time. But, that book got pushed back.

She left academics, partially because she wanted to write for a more general audience. In 1998, Carrell wrote an article for Smithsonian, "How the Bard Won the West." Many people don't know about the popularity of Shakespeare in the 19th century in the West. Cowboys and illiterates loved Shakespeare. Jim Bridger, the mountain man was illiterate, but had heard about Shakespeare. So, he traded a team of oxen for a volume of Shakespeare, and had a young German boy read it to him. Afterward, he would recite Shakespeare from memory, at campfires.

The Speckled Monster, a nonfiction book, was Carrell's first published book. It's set in 1721 in London and Boston, and it's nonfiction written like fiction. It's about battling smallpox, and features Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who was one of the first female published poets in English. After 9/11, publishers were interested in the book because they were interested in biotech stories. She said it was not a biotech book. It's about smallpox inoculations in Boston. When she started the research, Boston was going to be a small part of the story. But, as she dug through genealogy, and other records, she kept stumbling across a place, Salutation Alley, with records of people first inoculated. She realized this was a story lost for 150 years. She had a physical reaction when she realized she had found something lost. That's why scholars are scholars, for moments of discovery.

However, once the book was published, publishers want to keep you on that same track. They wanted Carrell to write another nonfiction book, written as fiction, about a woman who changed the world, but isn't well-known. She spent six months looking for that, but there just aren't that many undiscovered stories with those features. So, she proposed the idea of Interred with Their Bones, with lots of history in it, to her agent. The agent liked it, and they sent it to the publisher, who liked it. Now, she had to develop it.

Carrell said she wanted two elements, the lure of the lost, and the thrill of discovery. She had been pulled in by the lure of the lost plays. She wanted readers to have that thrill at the moment of scholarly discovery. So, she decided the genre that would fit that would be a treasure hunt thriller. The manuscript of a lost play by Shakespeare would be so precious that no monetary value could be placed on it, and people would kill over it.

Jennifer had her original idea years before The DaVinci Code, but that book's success enabled her to jump from nonfiction to fiction. But, her actual inspiration for her book was that book by Chambers with the list of lost plays, not The DaVinci Code.

When she started to work on the novel, Carrell knew where it would end, how, and who the killer was. But, she had no idea about the other characters. The beginning of Interred with Their Bones just popped into her head, but she had no idea what was in the box. She had the beginning and the end of the story.

She wanted to use the trivia, and the obsessions about Shakespeare that surrounds him. She didn't want to make up the clues herself for her treasure hunt book. She wanted to use other people's clues. So, the clues in the novel are historical, other people's ideas. She wrote them out on 5 x 7 cards to work with them, because a treasure hunt is hard to put together.

As characters, Carrell wanted somebody in theater, an academic, somebody educated, but not too familiar with Shakespeare, and somebody who knew about chases and guns. She wanted her heroine to be an ex-academic, now in the theater. She knew she wanted to use authentic Shakespearean places, such as the Globe, Stratford-upon-Avon, libraries. So, she used cards, and laid them all out in order to plot the book.

Her characters came to life, and she flew through the writing, almost as if she was dictating a film in her head. But, halfway through the book, her killer changed. When a story comes to life, it will change from what you planned. That's the pleasure of being a storyteller. She did say most of the weird things that happen in the book are true, not fiction.

The pleasure of fiction is that, hopefully, the author reaches a larger audience. There is lots of history around Shakespeare's plays. Some of the great mysteries in literature are around him. Jennifer said she worked hard to reach a wide audience, so that it would be entertaining for anyone from Shakespearean experts to people who just know he wrote Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet .

Carrell had two models for writing entertaining fiction to appeal to the masses. One was Shakespeare himself, who wrote for everyone from the Queen and King to the half-drunk thirteen-year-old apprentice in the pit. Her modern model is the movie, Shakespeare in Love. She first saw it with a group of Shakespearean professors, who loved it, and laughed at all of the little jokes.

In answer to a question, Carrell said she's working on another thriller with the same character. Kate Stanley is a "three book girl." The next one is about the legendary curse of Macbeth in the theater. The third questions "What's Catholic, or Not?" In Shakespeare's age, Catholics were viewed as terrorist suspects are today. Catholics were suspect.

Jennifer said she had her original idea for the book in 1989. In 2004, she started writing the novel. The hardcover of Interred with Their Bones came out in 2007, and the paperback was just released.

Asked how she came up with the title, she said the title is involved with the plot. She and her husband tried to think up titles, using Shakespearean quotations, but it's hard to come up with three or four word titles that fit a thriller, and haven't been used before. But her husband came up with this one from Julius Caesar. Interred with Their Bones, in a speech by Marc Antony, fits with the book.

Interred with Their Bones is not the title of the book in most foreign countries. In Britain, it's called The Shakespeare Secret because they thought the U.S. title was too uppity. Most countries translated The Shakespeare Secret title. Spain kept the translation of Interred with Their Bones, though.

When asked about Shakespearean societies, she said there are a number of different societies that focus on one aspect of him, like he was Queen Elizabeth's illegitimate son, or he was really a woman.

An author really isn't in on the decisions as to the artwork on the cover of their books, but she did have veto power. The hardcover and paperback have different covers. She didn't like the first paperback cover she saw. Shakespeare looked like a Monty Python figure. But, this cover, with Shakespeare's face, and fire, looks like a thriller cover. She likes both covers, for different reasons.

She was asked how many copies the book sold, but Carrell said she doesn't know how many in the U.S., but it sold well enough to come out as a trade paperback. It sold 300,000 in the U.K.

Jennifer Carrell was asked why twenty or thirty year olds should read Shakespeare. She said, not the for the language. Although it's beautiful and poetic, it can be difficult to understand on first reading. However, he wrote about fundamental aspects of what it means to be human, with an unusual depth. He wrote comedy, and about love, hate, and jealousy. He wrote possibly the greatest first love story. He wrote about middle-aged passion, middle-aged illicit passion, and the love of an aging father for his daughter. The stories have made sense not only to English speakers, but to the Bushmen of Africa and cowboys. They've been performed as Japanese Kabuki theater. She said Romeo and Juliet begs to be done as rap poetry. The opening is really about Romeo and his best friend rapping at each other. It translates into hip-hop. And, Hamlet is a cynical play about power. Younger readers understand that.

It's too bad everyone could have joined us to hear Jennifer Lee Carrell talk about Interred with Their Bones.

Jennifer Lee Carrell's website is www.jenniferleecarrell.com

Interred with Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell. Penguin Group (USA), reprinted 2008. ISBN 9780452289895 (paperback), 432p.

This  was the notice of appearance!

Jennifer Lee Carrell - Authors @ The Teague 

Jennifer Lee Carrell, author of Interred with Their Bones, will appear at the Velma Teague Library in Glendale, AZ on Wed. Sept. 10 at 2 p.m. as part of the Authors @ The Teague series. Carrell will discuss her book, and sign copies. The book will be for available for purchase.

Interred with Their Bones is described on Carrell's website. "On the eve of the Globe's production of Hamlet, Shakespeare scholar and theater director Kate Stanley's eccentric mentor, Rosalind Howard, gives her a mysterious box, claiming to have made a groundbreaking discovery. But before she can reveal it to Kate, the Globe burns to the ground and Roz is found dead - murdered in the strange manner of Hamlet's father. Inside the box Kate finds the first piece in a Shakespearean puzzle, setting her on a deadly, high-stakes treasure hunt.

From London to Harvard to the American West, Kate races to evade a killer and decipher a tantalizing string of clues, hidden in the words of Shakespeare, that may unlock literary history's greatest secret…."

Carrell, who lives in Tucson, has her Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Harvard University, as well as other degrees in English Literature from Oxford and Stanford Universities. She won three awards for distinction in undergraduate teaching at Harvard, where she taught in the History and Literature Program and directed Shakespeare for the Hyperion Theatre Company. Jennifer is also the author of The Speckled Monster, a work of historical nonfiction about battling smallpox at the beginning of the eighteenth century.

The Velma Teague Branch Library is located at 7010 N. 58th Ave., Glendale. Call 623-930-3431 for more details.

Jennifer Lee Carrell's website is www.jenniferleecarrell.com

Interred with Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell. Penguin Group, ©2007. ISBN 978-0452289895 (paperback), 432p.

Author of Newest Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James Novel  Joins AUTHORS @ THE TEAGUE Series  in Glendale on National Book Tour

Please Note: Time - Date Change for Author Visit

Deborah Crombie, author of the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James mysteries, is appearing at the Velma Teague Library in Glendale, AZ on Wednesday, July 1 at 3 p.m. She'll be appearing as part of the Authors at the Teague series to promote her latest book- the twelfth in the series, Where Memories Lie.

If you're unfamiliar with this series, start with A Share in Death. It introduces Scotland Yard's Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, in his thirties soon after his promotion to the position. Gemma James, in her late twenties, is his Sergeant, a good-natured single mother with a young son.

Crombie, who lives in Texas, wrote the perfect English "country house" mystery for her debut. Kincaid, who was recently promoted, takes a vacation to Yorkshire, using his cousin's timeshare. The night after he meets Sebastian, the assistant manager of Followdale House, Duncan and two children find the man's body in the swimming pool. Due to the incompetence of a local police inspector, Kincaid is soon probing into the lives of the guests.

Kincaid is a man who cares about the victims, and proves to be a careful listener in his investigation. Deborah Crombie created two characters that exemplify the best of British police detectives. If you appreciate A Share in Death, there are eleven more books in the series.

Deborah Crombie will be discussing the Kincaid/James series, and signing books at the Velma Teague Library, 7010 North 58th Avenue in Glendale on July 1 at 3 p.m. Call 623-930-3431 for further details.

lholstine@yahoo.com
book blog:  http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

Book Topics - Glendale Daily Planet
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"Reach librarians, and you reach the world."  - Betty Webb

(Added biographical info added   by GDP  for GPL Press Release.) 

The author’s love of Britain grew when she had an opportunity to take a post-university trip to England. She immigrated to the United Kingdom with her first husband, Peter Crombie, who was a Scot; first living in Edinburgh, Scotland, and then in Chester, England.

She later returned to Dallas and worked in her family’s business. While she was raising her daughter she began wiring her Duncan Kincaid novel. That book, “A Share in Death,” was published in 1993.

Her books have won great acclaim and been published in 13 countries.

She now lives in McKinney, an historic town north of Dallas, with her husband, Rick Wilson, two German shepherds and three cats.

Deborah Crombie at the Velma Teague Library 

Deborah Crombie, author of the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James mysteries, appeared at the Velma Teague Library today as part of the Authors at the Teague series. We were fortunate to have her squeeze us into her schedule when she was in town to appear at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale.

Deborah asked me to interview her, so after the introduction, I asked her to give us her background. She said she was a native of Texas, as Texan as you can get. She was an Anglophile, and she went to England in her 20s. She felt a staggering sense of homecoming in England. She'd read all of the English authors from Austen to Dickens to R.F. Delderfield. And, after she was there once, she did everything in her power to get back to England. Crombie said she wasn't an Anglophile because she married a Scot; she married a Scot because she was an Anglophile. And, she was married to her Scottish husband for thirteen years.

After she came back to the United States to live, she was homesick for England. She returned to Yorkshire, at the time that James Herriot was still practicing, and he would sign his books at his surgery on Thursdays. While driving in Yorkshire, they came across an English country house that was a timeshare, and it intrigued her. Crombie thought it was a perfect spot for a classic British crime novel. And, if it was a classic British crime novel, it needed a detective. And, the detective needed an associate.

When Deborah's daughter was in Montessori, she thought she could either work on a Master's degree, or try to write a novel. Her first book, A Share in Death, sold multinationally. It was nominated for Agatha and Macavity awards for best first novel. She's written twelve books in the series in fifteen years.

The Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series is set in Britain. When the series started, Kincaid was a Scotland Yard Superintendent, and Gemma was his Sergeant. Since then, James has been promoted to Notting Hill. Crombie said she wanted her characters to be mobile, so she could travel around England, and her trips would be tax deductible. That's worked out well. However, lately she's discovered it's hard to get out of London. And, with Gemma James' job, she wouldn't logically go with Kincaid on every investigation.

Duncan came from a section of England that Deborah loved. He's her male alter ego, and she felt as if she knew him from the very beginning. When she created Kincaid and James, she was rebelling with her characters against trends in detective stories at the time. She didn't want an angst-ridden detective. Duncan has some baggage, but he wasn't very disfunctional. He did his job because he loved it. He grew up in a literary household. And, he was divorced because his wife couldn't deal with the time he spent on the job.

With Gemma, Crombie was fighting the trend of female detectives who were just men in drag. They had no family, no children, and no obligations. She wanted a woman, who like other women, had to deal with family obligations, but was committed to the job. She was a character who wanted to be a cop, even though she was divorced, with a child. If Duncan was Deborah's alter ego, Gemma was as different from her as possible. She was in-your-face and outgoing. Over the course of time, though, their personalities have blended together.

She said she has to be conscious of time in her books. Only A Finer End has an actual date because it takes place at the millennium. Looking back at her earlier books, she notices how cultural things change in the books. For instance, in the first book, A Share in Death, Kincaid has a phone in his car, but it's permanently in the car. The story time has only been about four years in the lives of the characters, just slices of their lives.

Crombie is working on her thirteenth book. Her books have multiple viewpoints and storylines. Time is compressed into a couple weeks in the story. They're not like real police investigations, which take a great deal of time. The police have loads of paperwork. But, the story has to be fun to read, with action and faster resolutions than occur in real life. So, readers spend little bits of time with the characters.

Deborah Crombie has been under contract since her first book. She's always thinking ahead a book or two. She knows where the story arc is going after she finishes a book. She turns it in, and has to start the next proposal immediately. Her books are setting driven, and the setting functions as a character. 

She said she works out the characters, who did it, how the cases are resolved. She has to know all of it before writing. After attending a writers' conference, she said authors who write in first person might have it easier, and not have to plan the book out. She was asked what is harder, the beginning or end. She answered that she knows where the book is going, so for her, the beginning is harder. With Where Memories Lie, she wrote the ending when she was about half-way through the book. She wants to ensure that it's all going to weave together and be believable. Deborah said she does a proposal and an outline. She outlines in chunks. She'll bullet point outline each storyline, and then weave them together. She's obsessive-compulsive about staying in viewpoint. She has to get the time, the viewpoint, and what information she gives the reader. The red herring clues, the misdirections, must be there so the reader doesn't realize when an important clue is given. About half or two-thirds of the way through, when she has the outline to the end, she'll actually write the end of the book. She'll write that as fast as possible so she doesn't lose what she wants to say.

Where Memories Lie is Deborah Crombie's new book. Gemma, who is a baker's daughter from North London, made friends, in an earlier book, with Dr. Erika Rosenthal. Authors invent characters who appear once or twice in a book, in order to provide information to the detective, and then they disappear. Erika, who appeared in the seventh book, A Finer End, was supposed to disapper. She was a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany in 1939, who developed a special relationship with Duncan's son, Kit. But, Deborah found herself more interested in Erika's character. She wanted to know more about her, so she invented backstory for Erika. Her father was a well-known designer of art deco jewelry. He was tolerated by the Nazis because he was one of the craftsmen making things that were valued by the Nazi elite. Before Erika and her husband left Germany, her father gave her a piece of jewelry, a brooch. Something happened to it. When a friend of Erika's saw it in an auction catalog, Erika asked Gemma to help her find where the brooch was for years.

A good part of Where Memories Lie deals with 1952, when Erika's husband was murdered. Crombie's intention was to have Gemma use the notes from the detective who investigated the case in 1952, and the detective himself would not appear. However, when Deborah was on the Gatwick Express, she saw two men on the train, and she knew immediately that one of those men was her detective in 1952. She knew his name was Gavin. He appears on one page, and takes over the story. His relationship to the story was not what she anticipated. It made the book challenging to write. 

Crombie was pleased to be asked about her next book because Where Memories Lie has been finished for a year. She's moved on. The next book, with a working title of Necessary As Blood, takes place in the East End of London, a place she wasn't familiar with. She's taken one research trip; she's going back in August, and possibly in November. This is Jack the Ripper territory, an area often in conflict with change. At the moment, it's being gentrified, and there's a culture clash between the Bangladesh immigrants, the last of the white Cockneys, and the artsy crowd. This arty area is fertile ground for authors. 

Deborah said she tries to switch viewpoints in the books, one from Duncan's, and one from Gemma's, but this is going to be Gemma's book. It's the story of a couple in which the wife is white, and the husband is Pakistani. She disappears one day from the flower market, after asking a friend to watch her child for a minute, and she'll be right back. Later her husband disappears, leaving the two-year-old child alone. So, Gemma is brought into the situation.

When asked if readers need to read the series in order, Crombie said she tries to make the books stand alone, so readers could pick them up at any point. And, she's always hoping they'll buy her current book. But, it is fun to start from the beginning and see the development of characters.

Crombie was asked to explain proposals, and she said a writer proposes what they're going to do next. Her U.S. publishers get the books first, and they have 95% of the say. But, she is published in multiple countries. What Germany thinks is important. 

The first five books were with Scribner's, and then they were sold. Since her contract was going to be out after those five books, she got feelers. For the next three books, she was with Bantam/Random House. They had right of first refusal at the end of the contract, and another publisher can't even make an offer, so it's tricky for the author. She ended up with HarperCollins, and she hopes she's with them for a long time because she loves her editor and the packaging for her books.

She said she has great maps in the books, with pull out illustrations. The illustrations are taken from her photographs. She has done the cover photos for every book since In a Dark House, three books ago. Nottingham Gate Station is on the front of Where Memories Lie. Deborah thinks it's a fabulous cover. She already has photos she hopes are used for the next book.

When she was asked how she got published, she said her undergraduate degree was in biology, and she had no idea how to write a novel. So she dissected books she liked, and diagrammed them. She also took little writing courses, including an eighteen week writing course. By the time she'd written the manuscript of her first book, she was a member of Mystery Writers of America, Southwest Chapter, with headquarters in Houston. They had a conference scheduled with an editor coming in. She sent a query letter, and the editor said he wanted to see the entire manuscript. She found an agent, and has been with that agent for fifteen years. The editor didn't even remember her, when he met her, but finally, after reading it, kicked the manuscript up from Avon/Morrow to Morrow because he thought it should be a hardcover. In the meantime, her book was bought by Scribners, with a three book contract. She's now come full circle because she's at Morrow. Crombie said she's had a good editor at all three places. 

She was asked what books she dissected, and she said her favorite books were by Dorothy Sayers and P.D. James. They were her two main influences because she writes classically structured British detective novels. She's never collected a rejection letter.

I asked her about her reception in Britain, and she said she has the same publisher in the U.K., and it's no big deal that she's an American. They're well-received. However, the books are very well-received in Germany and France. 

She said her U.S. books always come out first, but Where Memories Lie will be delayed until spring for the British edition. The publisher is repackaging the whole series. They'll release half the series, then the second half, then the hardcover. Deborah said she has lots of British readers, but it's not always easy for them to find the books. 

She said she usually comes up with the titles of her books at the beginning, although sometimes she finishes the book, and her editor or publisher doesn't like the title. 

Deborah Crombie had a busy schedule today, first in Scottsdale, then at Velma Teague, and then on Tucson. However, Poisoned Pen Bookstore supplied books, and she took time to autograph them for audience members before leaving. It was a successful program in the Authors at the Teague series.

Deborah Crombie's website is www.deborahcrombie.com.

Where Memories Lie by Deborah Crombie. HarperCollins Publishers, ©2008. ISBN 9780061287510 (hardcover), 295p. 

Authors at the Teague Features: Shamus award-winning author Louise Ure Monday, May 19, at 6:30 p.m

Michael Moorehead Youngest Author to Receive  ABPA Glyph  Award  Shares Writing Techniques With Other Young Writers

By - Glendale Daily Planet Book Topics Writer Lesa Holstine

Author Michael Moorehead has a promising future ahead of him. Although he’s only twelve, the Tempe author has already written a successful picture book, “The Student From Zombie Island: Conquering the Rumor Monster.” In fact, it’s so successful that it won the 2008 Reader Views Annual Literary Award for Best Children’s Book for Ages 7 and Older.

“The Student From Zombie Island: Conquering the Rumor Monster,” was written when Michael was only seven. It has an important message about spreading rumors, since it tells the story of the rumors that flew around a school about the terrible monster that was coming. Bust 'em Up Bill hasn’t even started school yet, but his name alone is enough to strike terror in the hearts of the other students.

Moorehead’s book just won a 2008 Glyph award from the Arizona Book Publishing Association, recognizing the book with the best cover, making him the youngest recipient of an ABPA Award. The cover was a joint effort between the illustrator, Kathy Parks, who drew the picture; the graphics designer, Tanja Bauerle who put it together and laid it out; Linda Radke of Five Star Publications, who coordinated it all; and Michael Moorehead, the author.

Michael Moorehead is already living the busy life of an author. He’ll be appearing at Brilliant Sky Toys and books at 4929 E. Chandler Blvd. in Ahwatukee on Friday, June 6 at 5:30 p.m., where he will discuss and read his book, conduct a brief writing exercise with children, and autograph copies of “The Student From Zombie Island.” Then, he’ll be attended Book Expo America in Los Angeles, from May 29 through June 1, where he will sign books and meet people in his publisher’s booth.

Congratulations, and good luck to one of the Valley’s new successful authors.

Michael’s website is www.ZombieIslandBooks.com. The book is published by Little Five Star, a division of Five Star Publications, Inc. ISBN: 1-58985-072-6, ISBN: 978-1-58985-072-9, Published 2007.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Betty Webb at the Velma Teague Library

 

As part of the Authors at the Teague series, Betty Webb, author of the Lena Jones mysteries, appeared at the Velma Teague Library, discussing what Publishers Weekly calls her, "Mysteries with a social conscience."

Betty said she worked in journalism for twenty years, and they didn't allow her to make things up. She wanted to make things up. While reviewing books for the newspaper, she found herself looking for the mysteries, so she decided she wanted to write mysteries. There was a fellow member of her critique group who was too sweet and too nice, and just couldn't kill people in her writing. She'd put them in a coma, and Betty kept telling her she needed to kill someone. While trying to figure out who she wanted to kill, she and her husband, Paul, went to a Scottsdale Art Show. When she said to Paul, "Someone should kill that gallery owner," he replied, "There's your dead body." She went home and wrote the first chapter of Desert Noir. However, she didn't know why the gallery owner was killed or who solved it. She needed to know who was going to solve the crime. Since it was her first book, Webb was still trying to decide if she would write grizzly books, or lighter, cozy or traditional mysteries in the style of Agatha Christie.

Her character, Lena Jones, came to her in a dream. Lena was found at the age of four, lying at the edge of a Phoenix road, Thomas Road, with a bullet in her head. She was in a coma for months, and when she came out of it, she couldn't remember anything, where she was from, who her parents were, or what happened to her. She had some brain damage, which led to some behavior problems. The behavior problems made her unadoptable, so she grew up in foster care, where she was raped, abused, and malnourished. However, she survived to get a scholarship to Arizona State University where she studied police science. After graduation, she worked for the Scottsdale Police Department, until she was shot on the job. When she was offered a desk job, she decided to open her own detective agency, Desert Investigations, in Scottsdale. After having that dream, Lena became the daughter Betty Webb never had, and she wanted to do a series about her, beginning with Desert Noir, the story about the murder of that Scottsdale gallery owner.

In the Desert series, Lena Jones is looking for her biological parents and her background. Webb said, mystery writers work out their hostilities by killing people in their books, but mystery writers are really sweeter than romance writers who can't take out their frustrations in their writing. She said romance writers are the rough and tough ones.

Betty Webb said she first found out about the problem of polygamy in the American Southwest when she saw an AP story out of Washington. She started to check it out, and took trips to the Utah border because most of the Arizona polygamy colonies are up there, towns such as Colorado City. She met Flora Jessup, a former sister wife who escaped, and now speaks out against polygamy, and helps other girls escape. She wrote Desert Wives, which has been optioned for Lifetime TV, but not filmed yet.

Polygamy is not about religion. If a man takes ten wives, who are not really wives, but concubines, and has ten children with each, he has one hundred illegitimate children. What do illegitimate children get? Welfare checks of $250 a month per child, and the money goes to the Prophet. That's the money that has made Warren Jeffs a millionaire, money from breeding girls for their lifetime. The Prophet moves girls from other households. Warren Jeffs built the compound in Ed Dorado, Texas that has been in the news. All that welfare money goes to Jeffs. Polygamy is about money, which is part of the story of Desert Wives. The families are interbred, which means 65% of the kids are genetically damaged, but the Prophet doesn't care, as long as the girls can breed. At eighteen, the boys are dumped out of the compound, and become the Lost Boys. The can't read or write, and are dumped in Phoenix, Flagstaff and Salt Lake City. In Texas, they work construction until eighteen, but they actually work for script that is redeemable only in compound stores. So, when they're turned out at eighteen, they still have no money. In Desert Wives, Lena masqueraded as a sister wife.

While researching, Betty learned that polygamists are racists who pass out flyers at shows, such as survivalist shows. She checked out publishers of racist materials, and found there is a big market for publishing flyers, books, video games, and recordings. In her next book, Desert Survivors, Webb asks, what kind of person would own a publishing company that published racist material.

Desert Run came about because Webb lives near Papago Buttes, where there was a prisoner of war camp for Germans during World War II. On Dec. 24, 1944, twenty-five Germans dug a tunnel under the stockade to escape with a collapsed boat. Why a boat? Because their map showed rivers, which are actually dry river beds in Arizona. They were all members of U-boat crews, who thought they would sail out Cross Cut Canal.. When they discovered the canals were dry, they abandoned the boat, and spread out through the desert. They eventually all surrendered.

Betty Webb calls Desert Run her Glendale, AZ book. In her story, after the war, several of the German men came back, and moved to Glendale. One is still alive in the book, and Lena makes a trip to interview him. She's early one day, and goes through Glendale's antique stores. She's been living in a furnished apartment, and has never taken interest in her home, which is common with foster children. But, in one store, she sees a lunch pail with Roy Rogers, and buys it. She finds a Lone Ranger and Tonto bedspread, and by the time she leaves, she bought an apartment full of 50's and 60's cowboy furniture.

All of Webb's books start with a body because she said she likes to kill people. In Desert Run, Lena finds the body of a ninety-four year old man, a former prisoner. This is Lena's first cold case, a contemporary murder tied back to a murder during the WWII escape.

Desert Cut is Webb's new book, which has already gone through its first printing. Everyone knows about the illegal immigration problem in the United States. But, there's also a serious problem with legal immigration. Americans have big hearts, and they, and church groups, bring in people who have been displaced by war or famine. However, we've brought in groups that have beliefs that little girls are of less value than goats, and some of the beliefs are terrible. Some of their practices should not be continued in the U.S., but the groups that brought them in might not have known enough about the culture when they brought them. Now, some bulletins published even say it's not child abuse, it's cultural. Betty Webb said she first heard about it from an article about a court case in Atlanta, Georgia. There are severe child abuses against little girls, usually between the ages of 2 and 9, with the biggest group under seven. They call it a "rite of passage," and it's done with anesthesia, with antiseptic aftercare. The purpose is to make a girl a faithful wife.

Webb said her publishers were leery about the subject, but Desert Cut was published on Feb. 15, and the first edition has sold out. It received a starred review in Booklist, a magazine for librarians. Webb said, "Reach librarians, and you reach the world." You reach people once librarians find out about an issue. Then you'll get the word out.

For her research, she talked to people online who were fighting against the custom. Two Somali women, who were fighting against it, were found dead, deaths labeled "accidental." She said the custom is popular in African and Mideastern countries. Webb said France has had a large number of problems, and they've been arresting people, and prosecuting.

The next Lena Jones mystery, "son of Desert Wives," will come out in Fall 2009, Desert Lost. It's about the lost boys and urban polygamy, polygamy in the Phoenix area and the Valley.

Webb started another book at the time she was writing Desert Cut, because that one was so traumatic. She started a warmer, lighter mystery, which will be published this November. Webb volunteers at the Phoenix Zoo, and she loves zoos. The first book in her zoo series is The Anteater of Death, again from Poisoned Pen Press. Betty said there's an anteater named Jezebel at the zoo, and she's a Code Red animal. Code Red means, if it escapes, its shot on sight. Why is an anteater dangerous? When it stands on its hind legs, and balances on the tail that is as strong as a kangaroo's, it has four inch long claws that can dismember a jaguar. When a body is found in the anteater's enclosure, torn apart, the zookeeper, a woman named Teddy, thinks the anteater was framed. The zoo is on the California coast, and Teddy lives on a houseboat. The first and last chapter of every book in the series will be told from an animal's point of view. However, Webb isn't trying to make the animal anthropomorphic. The books will be about animals that the reader wouldn't normally associate with death.

Betty Webb said she wrote her first mystery at 56. There are no big issues in her new series. Webb likes big issues, so she'll continue to write the Lena Jones books, and her heart is with Lena Jones, the daughter she never had.

In a couple weeks, I'll have autographed Lena Jones books to offer as prizes on my blog. Watch for the chance to win two of these dramatic books.

Betty Webb's website is www.bettywebb-mystery.com

Desert Cut by Betty Webb. Poisoned Pen Press, ©2008. ISBN 978-1590584910 (hardcover), 277p.

Betty Webb, author of the popular Lena Jones
mysteries, set here in the Valley, will be appearing
at the Velma Teague Library as part of the Authors at
the Teague Series.  Webb, whose most recent book is
Desert Cut, will appear on Saturday, April 26 at 11
a.m.  Webb will discuss her books, and sign copies,
which will be for sale.  The Velma Teague Library is
at 7010 N. 58th Ave., Glendale.  Call 623-930-3431 for
further details.

Book Topics

Lesa Holstine

 Glendale, Arizona, United States

Desert Cut

 

Betty Webb, author of Desert Wives, a mystery that exposed polygamy in Arizona, has written another powerful mystery, Desert Cut. I was shocked and outraged, and most readers will be horrified when they read Webb's story, one that exposes a cruel practice affecting millions of girls.

Lena Jones was scouting movie locations in southern Arizona, when she uncovered the mutilated body of a young black girl. The child's body brought back Lena's memories of her own haunted childhood. As an ex-cop and private investigator, she was determined to find answers to the death of the young girl dubbed "Precious".

However, Lena met resistance in the small town of Los Perdidos. After discovering that another young girl had disappeared, she found a town sheltering refugees from Somalia, Egypt and other countries in Africa and the Mideast. Lena encountered a charlatan running a non-denominational church, two child predators, and a culture of racism in a town symbolic of Arizona's past and present history. The sheriff is convinced that Lena has stirred up the community, when two more girls disappear, and vigilante justice turns to murder.

Although Lena Jones seems unnaturally obsessed with a case that she hasn't been hired to investigate, Webb reveals enough of Lena's childhood that the reader accepts that obsession. She takes child abuse personally because of her own background. She's the victim of a gunshot wound from a mother who disappeared and left her to make her way through a series of foster homes.

Once again, Betty Webb paints a picture of Arizona as a beautiful state, with a violent past, and, at times, a violent present. Her journalistic background allows her to rip a brutal, tragic story from the newspaper. Her skills as a mystery writer allow her to tell that story through the eyes of Lena Jones, a woman whose heart bleeds for innocent children. Desert Cut is a story that should be read by anyone concerned with human rights, and the rights of children.

Betty Webb's website is www.bettywebb-mystery.com

Desert Cut by Betty Webb. Poisoned Pen Press, ©2008. ISBN 978-1590584910 (hardcover), 277p.

Book Topics

Lesa Holstine

 Glendale, Arizona, United States

Interview with Betty Webb

 

I just finished Desert Cut, the latest Lena Jones mystery. It's a very powerful story, as are some of Betty Webb's earlier books in the series. I feel so honored that Betty agreed to answer some questions about her books.

Lesa - Betty, would you tell us about Lena, her background, and some of her past cases?

Betty - Lena was found at the age of four, lying beside a Phoenix roadway, with a bullet in her head. When she emerged from her coma, she couldn't remember her name, who shot her, or who her parents were - total amnesia. The name "Lena Jones" was given to her by a social worker. Because of behavior problems, Lena wasn't deemed a candidate for adoption, so she was placed in the foster care system. Some were okay, but in at least one, she was beaten and raped. She eventually became a Scottsdle police officer, but after being shot up in a botched drug raid, she opened up her own private investigation business. Since her emergence in "Desert Noir," where her best friend - an art dealer - was murdered, she has gone on to investigate a polygamy compound in "Desert Wives," the niche publishing industry in "Desert Shadows," the real-life escape of German prisoners of war in "Desert Run" (a cold case file), and now a particularly hideous form of child abuse in "Desert Cut."

Lesa - You were a journalist before you turned to writing mysteries. How does your background impact the Lena Jones books?

Betty - Being a journalist gave me instant access to "hidden" stories, stories which were deemed too hot to handle by most industries. Also, my background as a journalist gave me terrific research skills - and the ability to know when someone was lying to me.

Lesa - Tell us about this latest Lena Jones book, "Desert Cut."

Betty - In "Desert Cut," Lena discovers a small town with a big secret. Los Perdidos, in Southern Arizona, has a large immigrant population, but not merely Hispanics. As has been happening in states all around the U.S., African and Middle Eastern immigrants have been brought in to provide cheap labor, but this clash of cultures turns out to be explosive.

Lesa - Your books have very powerful statements to make about social issues such as polygamy. Does fiction allow you to do more with social issues than journalism did?

Betty - Weirdly enough, yes. No one was writing about polygamy before "Desert Wives" came out, but a few months after it hit the bookstores, everybody and his dog was writing about it. And I am proud to say that "Desert Wives" played a major part in getting the law about polygamy changed here in Arizona. Before "Desert Wives," our legislature saw polygamy as a freedom of religion issue; after "Desert Wives," they could no longer turn their back on the rampant incest and child rape in the compounds, as well as the millions of dollars of welfare fraud the "prophets" were enjoying. I'm hoping for the same result with "Desert Cut."

Lesa - Lena's stories are set in Arizona. You seem to have a love/hate relationship with the state, its history, and its present. How do you actually see Arizona?

Betty - I've lived in Arizona since 1982, and during that time, I've seen the beautiful raped by developers. Gorgeous desert vistas are now covered in strip malls and housing developments. I spend a lot of time grinding my teeth about it.

Lesa - Am I correct in that you're starting another series? What can you tell us about it?

Betty - Yes, and believe it or not, it's a "traditional" mystery (otherwise known as a cozy). I'm a volunteer at the Phoenix Zoo, and one day, when I was working with the monkeys, I thought, "You know, there's got to be a book in this." So I wrote one. The first book in the new series is "The Anteater of Death," and it's set in a coastal California zoo, where a dead man turns up in the anteater enclosure. The anteater was framed! My sleuth in this series is Teddy, a poor little rich girl who has rebelled against her wealthy family by taking a job as a zookeeper. "The Anteater of Death" is due out in March '09, and there'll be another book every year in the series, featuring a different animal. Oh, and by the way, those books will be released under the pen name of Jo Howell.

Lesa - You won't leave Lena's fans hanging, will you? What are the plans for more Lena Jones books?

Betty - As of this point, there are 5 more books planned, and yes, in the 10th book, Lena will discover EVERYTHING about her mysterious past. But the series just might not stop there. What she discovers won't exactly set her anxieties to rest!

Lesa - As a librarian, I always end my interviews with a question about libraries. Betty, do you have any stories about the role libraries played in your life or career?

Betty - Wow, where to begin? Ever since I learned how to read at the tender age of 3 1/2, librarians have been my major role models. One even let me sneak books out of the adult section when I was only 10. Bless her! No matter where I lived, librarians always took me under their wings, told me what books I should be reading, what I might find too silly for words, and - during my current incarnation as a mystery novelist - helped me with my research. Librarians are angels, every last one of them.

Lesa - Thank you so much, Betty, for the interview, and the Lena Jones books.

Betty Webb's website is www.bettywebb-mystery.com

Desert Cut by Betty Webb. Poisoned Pen Press, ©2008. ISBN 978-1590584910 (hardcover), 277p.

Book Topics

Lesa Holstine

 Glendale, Arizona, United States

Rhys Bowen at the Velma Teague Library

 

With her new book due out in a few weeks, award-winning author Rhys Bowen took the time to appear at the Velma Teague Library, as part of the Authors at the Teague series. She had an appreciative audience, eager to hear about her mysteries that have won Agatha and Anthony Awards.

Rhys said she normally starts a talk by saying that she kills people for a living. Her Royal Spyness is the first book in her third mystery series.

She said she wrote for the BBC in London. She decided to write mysteries, but didn't know where to set them. She appreciates the settings in mysteries. She's a huge fan of Tony Hillerman and his settings. She said the first time she and her husband were in the Southwest, she didn't need a map, thanks to his books. She couldn't decide where to set her books until she was telling a friend about her childhood visits to family in Wales. They really had a mailman who read everyone's mail. There were two Methodist chapels across from each other. The ministers were nice to each other, but they had a billboard war. Constable Evan Evans then appeared, her first mystery character. The series is about a little village in Wales with a community policeman. However, Evans is a little too polite for Rhys. Sometimes he annoyed her. She wanted to write about someone who didn't shut up and stood up for herself.

Rhys' visit to Ellis Island was the start of her second series. Immigrants coming in at Ellis Island either experienced great joy or great despair. There was a great feeling of despair there. There was a great deal of corruption at Ellis Island. She said she realized Ellis Island was the scene for the ultimate locked room mystery. Rhys Bowen's Molly Murphy mysteries are about an Irish immigrant who fled from Ireland after she killed a man who tried to rape her. Molly knew that there would be no justice, since she had killed the landowner's son. She took a false name, and fled. While at Ellis Island, someone was killed, and the identity Molly took was on the list of suspects. Molly became a detective.

Rhys said that New York City was not the melting pot everyone thinks it was. In fact, it was broken into the Sicilian section, the Irish section, etc. It wasn't until the next generation went to school together that New York started to become a melting pot. Her new book, Tell Me, Pretty Maiden, is due out in March. Molly's detective agency has become successful. She has too many cases, and wants her ex-cop boyfriend, Daniel, to join her. One winter night, they walk in Central Park, and find the body of a young woman. While Molly waits with the body, the woman regains consciousness.. She survives, but she's lost the power of speech and no one knows who she is. In each Molly book, Rhys can dig into some of New York's story. This book is about New York theater and the lives of the chorus girls.

Rhy's agent at St. Martin's told her that she needed a standalone to break her out as a bestseller. Rhys didn't want to do dark thrillers with serial killers, the type of books that make the listss. She didn't want to live with those characters for six months. Instead, she suggested Her Royal Spyness, and other people loved it as much as her agent did. Recently, on DorothyL, a listserv for mystery readers, there were 1700 books submitted as the ones people enjoyed most in 2007. Her Royal Spyness was the third most popular on the list with readers. It has also been nominated for a Dilys Award for the mystery booksellers most enjoyed selling in 2007.

Georgie, the heroine in Her Royal Spyness, is thirty-fourth in line to the British throne. She's a minor member of the Windsor family, living in poverty, with no way to make a living. She's expected to marry some member of a European royal family. Queen Mary is the character that asks Georgie to be a spy for her. Rhys said she met Queen Mary when she was quite elderly. She was still a formidable woman, with a rigid posture. In this book, Queen Mary wants Georgie to spy on her son, David.

Churchill once said that they should erect a statue to Mrs. Simpson because if David had become king, he would have invited Hitler into England.

Rhys said Queen Mary collected antiques, and was known to comment when she visited people, so they were obliged to present her with the antique she had admired. Rhys was born in Bath, and there were a number of antique stores there. Queen Mary had been known to raid antique stores, so the owners hid their better items if they knew she was coming.

She said that Her Royal Spyness was her most autobiographical book. There's a scene with Georgie going to tea with the Queen, when Georgie was living on very little food. It was a gorgeous spread, however, guests could only eat what the Queen ate. Rhys said she once went to tea with Queen Elizabeth II, who was always watching her figure. Since she only had one piece of brown bread, that was all her guests had. She said she's often thought that Elizabeth didn't know about that because she was a very kind woman, who would have wanted her guests to enjoy the food.

Rhys said, like Georgie, she had a brief and disastrous career as a model, and Georgie's scene is from Rhys' experience.

She said she married into an upper-class family, and there were lots of servants at the houses they visited. She said there is still very much a class system in England. Rhys went to a sherry party in the Cotswolds, and the talk of the party was that a grocer bought the house across the way. Upper-class families feel they are there by the grace of God, and everyone else is there to serve them. Among aristocracy, you are one of us or not one of us. That's still the way it is.

The second book in the Royal Spyness series is due out in July, and it's called A Royal Pain. The Queen is still trying to get her son away from Mrs. Simpson, so she invites an eighteen-year-old Bavarian princess to visit. She then tells Georgie that the princess will stay with her. The problem? Gerogie is living by herself in her family's London house without any servants. How can she explain that when the princess arrives with her retinue?

The setting is the 30s, a time of turmoil in Europe. Germany had strong Communists as well as the Nazis, fighting to take over the vacuum in Germany's government. There were Communist marches in England. Then there was Oswald Mosley, a fascist leader with a group of Black Shirts who skirmished with the Communists in London.

When asked about using real people in her books, Rhys said she uses suitably dead people, but she does try to be true to who the people were. In one Molly book, Mark Twain supported women's suffrage. She thought that was appropriate because he had made a speech about it, in the same time period as the Molly book. She said the Royal Family is fair game to use in books.

Rhys was asked about her books being published in England, and she said cozier mysteries are virtually dead in England. They publish dark, psychological mysteries such as those by Val McDermid and Minette Walters. She said she hasn't sold Her Royal Spyness in England.

She said she's a glutton for punishment, and wrote ten books in the Evan series. She didn't chose to end it, but the backlist went out of print, so she saw no reason to continue. Tell Me, Pretty Maiden is the seventh in the Molly series, and she's signed for two more. She's glad she moved on. The only problem with a series is you're tied to the same set of characters. She has a whole new scope of crime in her new series, with interesting crimes.

Rhys said her problem is she has too many ideas. She tells people if they have writer's block, then you're trying to make your characters do something they don't want to do. Her characters go in different directions than she expects. For instance, her next Molly book will be called In a Gilded Cage. In that one, she had no idea what would happen. Molly was participating in a march, but Rhys had no idea that a woman would be dragged out of the march, and a fight would ensue.

She said she can't outline because she likes to be surprised. She wants her sleuths to be believable. Her sleuths don't know where they're going, just as she doesn't know where they're going.

Rhys writes two books a year. She writes every day. She starts the day with her email, and then works. She writes five pages a day in her first draft. She gives first drafts to certain people, and then she polishes them.

She's polished up Tell Me, Pretty Maiden, and that next Molly book will be released March 4. I'm grateful she took time to talk to the audience at the Velma Teague Library before she goes on tour for her new mystery.

Cover-Up: Mystery at the Super Bowl

 

John Feinstein's mystery, Cover-Up: Mystery at the Super Bowl might feature two fourteen-year-olds, but it's a timely, and topical, book. Feinstein created an imaginary Super Bowl XLII, set in Indianapolis, instead of Glendale, Arizona. The featured teams are the Baltimore Ravens, and the "Dreams." And, he thrusts his two young reporters into the midst of a current scandal, steroids.

Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson are young journalists who have covered the U.S. Open and Final Four. As a result, they were given a television show, Kid-Sports, with an all-sports cable network. When Stevie is let go on the eve of the Super Bowl, a Washington newspaper, and CBS, ask him to work for them. Stevie and Susan set out to cover a sporting event, but once again, as at previous events, they find themselves uncovering a story when a doctor lets it slip that some of the Dreams failed a drug test.

As always, John Feinstein does a wonderful job bringing a national sporting event to life. He is knowledgeable about the events, and the people involved. His inclusion of celebrities helps to bring realism to the stories. Feinstein mentions celebrities such as Wayne Gretzky, Tom Cruise, Bob Costas, and Billy Joel. Everyone has an interest in the Super Bowl. Cover-Up is a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of the Super Bowl, with a recognition of some of the problems that go hand-in-hand with the enormous amounts of money involved in sports. It's a fascinating mystery, with two likable characters, slimy villains, and perfect timing.

Cover-Up: Mystery at the Super Bowl by John Feinstein. Alfred A. Knopf, ©2007. 978-0375842474 (hardcover), 298p.

Contact Lesa - lholstine@yahoo.com        

Book Topics- Glendale Daily Planet  http://www.glendaledailyplanet.com/book_topics.htm
book blog:  http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

Book Topics

Lesa Holstine

 Glendale, Arizona, United States

Book Topics

Lesa Holstine

 Glendale, Arizona, United States

Leighton Gage at the Velma Teague Library

 

Leighton Gage, author of Blood of the Wicked, appeared at the Velma Teague Library last night, as part of the Authors at the Teague program. If you get a chance to hear him, grab it. He's a man who can discuss everything from Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose to Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado. He has the sense of humor to compare his writing to that of poor Edward Bulwer-Lytton, and say he feels good that his own writing isn't used for a contest that celebrates the worst of all possible sentences, "It was a dark and stormy night." Gage writes vivid scenes of violence with the soul of a poet. He has a love of world travel that was inculcated by a sea captain grandfather, and he brings Brazil to life in living color.

Gage said it's important to put Blood of the Wicked into context. The murders that take place in the mystery could only have occurred in modern Brazil. Although he talks about the socio-economic status and politics in Brazil, he feels if you keep the reader intrigued and happy while reading the book, you can slip in other things. This book discusses the social, economic, and religious issues in Brazil. His second book, which will be out next January, is about organ theft in that country, a real problem. The third one will deal with child prostitution.

Blood of the Wicked deals with the conflict between rich and poor, the landowners and the landless. There is a thin layer of the very rich in Brazil, then a big space before the next class. There is a great deal of wealth in the country, and a disproportionate of it is held by a very few. Brazil is a very wealthy country. They used ehanol 25 to 30 years ago. They are mineral-rich. They are rich in natural gas and petroleum. The Amazon River is the source of 25% of the world's fresh water. It's a wealthy country, with a large underclass. And, it's a place where life is cheap. In the northern part of the country, it only takes $200 to have an ordinary person killed. Over 1,500 people have been killed in the land wars in Brazil.

Gage discussed the theology of liberation, an important concept in Blood of the Wicked. This is a theory that the Catholic Church is holding back the poor, with the promise of heaven in the next world, rather than the promise of what they can have in this world. Many priests who believed in the theology of liberation, and that they should be involved in this movement, have been forced to go underground after the Society for the Propogration of the Faith in Room said there is no theology of liberation, and priests should not be involved. It has actually caused a schism in the Church.

An other issue in the book is the corrupt police, which is very common, south of the border. In that part of the world, cops are often kidnappers, assassins and robbers in their day jobs. So, who do you trust? Gage's protagonist is a federal cop, Mario Silva. He's based on two people Gage knows. He made him a federal cop to allow him to roam the entire country, to deal with a number of crimes.

One man who is the source of Mario Silva is a friend who attended the FBI national academy in Quantico, which is a program that gives some FBI expertise to law officers with at least five years experience. Twenty-five policemen from other countries are invited each year. This builds informed contacts in other countries.

Gage introduced his wife, Eide, when he said she was Brazilian, and every single member of her family has been assaulted at one time by gunman. He said everybody in the country gets stuck up at gunpoint. It's a situation he uses in Blood of the Wicked. He said when the dictatorship fell apart in the late 80's, everything became lax under democracy. Crime rates exploded. It got so bad that people didn't even talk about it, possibliy in denial. They live with that in Brazil. The violence in the book reflects the reality of life in Brazil.

He said he lives in Brazil by choice because he loves it. He said it has a natural beauty, and it's the most beautiful harbor in the world. He said the people are nice. But, it's an accurate portrayal of the crime in the country. He suggested people read the author's notes in Blood of the Wicked before reading the story, in order to understand the background.

The second cop who is the basis of Mario Silva is his brother-in-law's closest friend. Senior police must have a law degree in Brazil. This man is the Head of the Murder Squad in Sao Paulo, with a staff of 750, and he feels he's understaffed. That says a great deal about the number of murders in a city of 11 million people. Drug gangs even attack police stations and kill cops. There are shantytowns around the major cities, and criminals come down from the hills. He said it's very important not to react to a stick-up. Don't stop at red lights. Slow down, and go through the light, or you will be accosted. Brazil has the largest fleet of armored personal vehicles in the world.

In answer to a question, he said everyone takes time off for Carnival, and Eide said, even the criminals. He said he loves the sense of humor of the people. Leighton Gage quoated Edgar Lee Masters in saying his heart answered to Brazil, and that he found the melody that harmonized with his heart.

Gage said he had been in advertising, and that's a young man's business. He decided to write a book, and it's not easy. He said it took him four or five books before he found his voice.

Leighton Gage's next book is due out in January 2008. I'm very honored that Velma Teague is the only library he visited on his tour of the U.S. I hope he and Eide come back.

Leighton Gage's website is www.leightongage.com

The Blood of the Wicked by Leighton Gage. Soho Crime, ©2007. ISBN 978-1569474709 (hardcover), 324p.

Contact Lesa - lholstine@yahoo.com        

Book Topics- Glendale Daily Planet  http://www.glendaledailyplanet.com/book_topics.htm
book blog:  http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

Book Topics

Lesa Holstine

 Glendale, Arizona, United States

Added Photos by Ed Sharpe Glendale Daily Planet (click for larger view)

Visiting author Leighton Gage signing a book for a visitor to the Authors At The Teague series.

Visiting author Leighton Gage signing Lesa Holstine's notes she took during the event.

Library Program Manager Bette Sharpe, A reference Librarian at the Velma Teague Branch of the Glendale Public Library getting book signed  by visiting author Leighton Gage

Visiting author Leighton Gage, wife Eide, 
and Lesa Holstine examine an uncorrected 
proof of one of Gage's works.

Louise Ure was born in Arizona, although she now lives
in San Francisco.  Forcing Amaryllis, published in
2005 was her debut mystery.  The Fault Tree has just
been published.




The Fault Tree


When Louise Ure's first Arizona mystery, Forcing
Amaryllis, debuted in June 2005, I was impressed with
the compelling story and the stunning cover. It went
on to win the Private Eye Writers of America's Shamus
Award for Best First Novel.

The Fault Tree, the second book in Ure's Arizona
trilogy, was just released, and it won't disappoint
any of her fans. Hopefully, it will introduce a whole
new audience to this talented author.

Cadence Moran is thirty-one, and an auto mechanic who
works nights at Walt's Auto Shop in Tucson. Walking
home from work one night, she hears a scream,
laughter, and a car tear away. Cadence has just heard
the end of a murder. Although Cadence is a witness,
she's blind, and can only depend on her other senses
to tell the police what she "knows".

Cadence is reluctant to get involved. Eight years
earlier, she was the driver in the accident that
blinded her, and killed her niece. She's lived with
her blindness, and her blame every since. One of the
officers on the case is reluctant to believe her, but
Detective Dupree has a feeling that Cadence is
reliable.

As the police blindly search for killers who seem to
have no connection to the victim, the killers are
searching for Cadence. She's suddenly a target, a
witness to a crime that the killers don't realize she
never actually saw. Ure increases the tension, telling
the story of Cadence's fear and her clues, the police
investigation, and the killers' attempt to eliminate
any witnesses. Cadence's clues lead the police in the
wrong direction, while the killers make serious
mistakes. The three storylines increase the suspense,
driving the three groups together.

Louise Ure has written a powerful story of
disfunctional families, blame, and responsibility.
It's a mystery that starts on a somber, but riveting,
note. "At the end, there was so much blame to spread
around that we could all have taken a few shovelfuls
home and rolled around in it like pigs in stink." The
rest of The Fault Tree captures the reader, and
doesn't let you go until the final sentence.

It's early in the year to predict another award
winner, but I predict that Ure's The Fault Tree will
once again vie for the mystery awards. Readers
interested in a fascinating character, or one of the
best mysteries you'll read in 2008, should pick this
one up.

Louise Ure's website is www.louiseure.com
__________________________________________

If you're interested in authors and books, Authors at
the Teague might be of interest to you.  On Jan. 24 at
7 pm, Leighton Gage, author of Blood of the Wicked,
will be appearing at the Velma Teague Library, 7010 N.
58th Ave., Glendale, AZ.

Contact Lesa - lholstine@yahoo.com        

Book Topics- Glendale Daily Planet  http://www.glendaledailyplanet.com/book_topics.htm
book blog:  http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

Book Topics

Lesa Holstine

 Glendale, Arizona, United States

                       Dilys Award Nominees

Congratulations to this year's nominees for the Dilys
Award, sponsored by the Independent Mystery
Booksellers Association, recognizing the book that
member bookstores most enjoyed handselling.

Nominees are: Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen
Thunder Bay by William Kent Krueger
The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz
Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn
The Blade Itself by Marcus Sakey

The winner will be announced at Left Coast Crime in
Denver, March 6-9.

This award has local interest because Rhys Bowen,
author of Her Royal Spyness, will be appearing at the
Velma Teague Library, 7010 N. 58th Ave. in Glendale on
Sunday, Feb. 10 at 2 pm.  Bowen will be discussing and
signing her books.  No signup is required.

Contact Lesa - lholstine@yahoo.com        

Book Topics- Glendale Daily Planet  http://www.glendaledailyplanet.com/book_topics.htm
book blog:  http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

Book Topics

Lesa Holstine

 Glendale, Arizona, United States

Book Topics

Lesa Holstine

 Glendale, Arizona, United States

---

 

Blood of the Wicked

As part of the Authors at the Teague series, Leighton
Gage will be appearing at the Velma Teague Library on
Jan. 24 at 7 pm.  He's a man who sounds as fascinating
as the lead character in his debut mystery, Blood of
the Wicked. The book has already received rave
reviews, but it doesn't hurt to add my praise. It's a
brutal, graphic story at times, but Gage's notes at
the end show he knows the Brazilian world he portrays.
Leighton Gage's knowledge of the political, economic,
and religious problems in Brazil is shown in his vivid
descriptions of the cruelty of life.

Blood of the Wicked introduces Mario Silva, Chief
Inspector for Criminal Matters in the Brazilian
Federal Police. He's a well-educated man, with a law
degree and training with the FBI. And, he's a
complicated character. It's well known in the country
that Brazilian justice is subject to bribes, money and
power. When Silva's father his brother-in-law were
killed in the early years of Mario's career, he took
matters into his own hands. Silva understands that
sometimes "Brazilian justice" isn't actually justice.

Silva's latest case starts out as a problem, and only
grows more complicated. Before it's over, it involves
landowners and the landless, the state police, the
media, street kids, and the Catholic Church. It
begins, and ends, with the death of priests. When a
bishop is assassinated, Silva's dislikable political
boss sends him to take charge. He arrives to find his
case entwined with a recent death of a family in the
landless movement. Brazil has a constitutional
obligation to confiscate untilled land and give it to
the landless. The landowners fight back. The landless
occupy land they don't own, and violence results. And,
the corrupt police support the landowners in many
areas.

As Silva and his small team from the Federal Police
investigate, they only face opposition from the state
police and the landowners. Before Silva can put
together the facts, he finds events escalating out of
control, as reporters are murdered, the families
occupying land are massacred, and each clue leads to
more violence. And, suspicion alone can't solve the
case.

Leighton Gage has written a powerful debut mystery. He
brings Brazil to life, with the complex politics, and
ugliness of the poverty, and, at times, the life. For
those who object to the brutality in the book, the
author explains that documented deaths are over 1,500
in Brazil's land wars. Gage shows the extremes of
poverty and wealth, capturing it vividly in two scenes
linked by one character, the mother of a street boy.
He tells of the family tragedies in Brazil, and the
crime. And everything is linked together, the
lifestyles, the police, the politics, and the Church.
Chief Inspector Mario Silva himself, is a complex man,
who has witnessed, and lived, the contradictions of
Brazilian life and "Brazilian justice."

I'm waiting for the return of Silva in the sequel to
Blood of the Wicked. And, I can't wait to meet the man
who can bring a character, and a country, so vividly
to life.

Leighton Gage will be appearing at the Velma Teague
Library in Glendale, AZ on Thursday, Jan. 24 at 7 pm.

Gage's website is www.leightongage.com

Blood of the Wicked by Leighton Gage. Soho Crime,
©2008, ISBN 1569474702 (hardcover), 324p.

Contact Lesa - lholstine@yahoo.com        

Book Topics- Glendale Daily Planet  http://www.glendaledailyplanet.com/book_topics.htm
book blog:  http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

Book Topics

Lesa Holstine

 Glendale, Arizona, United States

 

New Foreign Crime Novelist Stops in Glendale on U.S. Tour

"Authors At The Teague" Series Presentation

 

GLENDALE, Ariz. – New author Leighton Gage has lived all over the world – Australia, Europe, South America, plus traveled widely in Asia and Africa. He has had a background in the literary arts for years as a copywriter, an advertising creative director, a magazine editor, and a writer/producer/director of documentary films and industrial videos.

Now a part-time Brazilian resident, Gage, is taking his experiences and turning them into a new craft—mystery writing. He has fashioned Mario Silva, the chief inspector for criminal matters of the federal police of Brazil.

The engaging 65-year-old crime writer will be on an author tour, crisscrossing the U.S., and stop in Glendale at the Velma Teague Branch Library, 7010 N. 58th Ave., on Thursday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m.

In his first Mario Silva novel, “Blood of the Wicked,” Gage begins the story in the remote Brazilian town of Cascatas do Pontal, where landless peasants are confronting the owners of vast estates. The bishop arrives by helicopter to consecrate a new church and is assassinated. Silva is dispatched to the interior to find the killer. The pope himself has called Brazil’s president; the pressure is on for Silva to perform.

Assisted by his nephew, Hector Costa, also a federal policeman, Silva must battle the state police and a corrupt judiciary as well as criminals who prey on street kids, the warring factions of the Landless League, the big landowners and the church itself, in order to solve the initial murder and several brutal killings that follow.

Gage brings a lot to the table with his experiences in foreign countries. He visited Spain in the time of Franco, Portugal in the time of Salazar, South Africa in the time of apartheid, Chile in the time of Pinochet, Argentina in the time of the junta, and Prague, East Germany and Yugoslavia under the Communist yoke. He is fluent in three languages and has a good working knowledge of three more.

During his advertising career, he won over 130 awards for creative excellence. He served as a jury member in all of the world’s major advertising film festivals. He has been a featured speaker in a variety of locations, including Helsinki, Hong Kong and Bombay.

“Blood of the Wicked” will be available for purchase at the program. No reservations are necessary. For more information, call 623-930-3431.

Authors at the Teague Series

On Thursday, Nov. 29 at 7 pm, award-winning mystery author 
Donis Casey discussed and signed her latest mystery,
The Drop End of Yonder.

Did you miss this  presentation?

In a continuing series the Velma Teague Library presents authors for you to meet.

 The Place:  Velma Teague Library, 7010 North 58th Avenue, Glendale, presents Authors at the Teague.

No reservations are necessary.  For more information, call 623-930-3431.

Book Topics

Lesa Holstine

 Glendale, Arizona, United States

Authors at the Teague Series

Donis Casey

Thursday, Nov. 29th, award-winning mystery author
Donis Casey appeared at the Velma Teague Library in
Glendale, AZ, as one of the Authors at the Teague.
Casey just won the Arizona Book Award for Best Mystery
for her first book, The Old Buzzard Had It Coming.

Casey introduced the character of Alafair Tucker in
that first book. Donis grew up in Oklahoma, and her
family is from that part of Oklahoma where the books
are set. She said she takes stories from family
history, particularly her husband, Don's family, for
some of the book. Her mother told her about incidents,
or her in-laws did. She jokes that the worst crimes
are taken from his family history, and not hers.

She does a great deal of research, reading, and
discussing family stories to write her books. The
murder in her latest book, The Drop Edge of Yonder, is
based on an actual murder. One of the last scenes in
the book, a powerful one, is based on an article she
read over 30 years ago. A man told about someone he
"killed" in a battle, who kept attacking him, even
after he was basically dead.

Alafair Tucker, Casey's lead character, is not
particularly interested in being a detective. She's a
farm wife, with a husband and ten kids. What she is
interested in is her kids, and keeping them out of
trouble. In each book, one of the grown children gets
in trouble, and needs their mother to get them out of
it. Each book is about a different grown child.
Phoebe, a gentle girl, is featured in The Old Buzzard
Had It Coming. Alice, Phoebe's twin, is a headstrong
girl who doesn't appreciate her mother's interference,
is the lead in Hornswoggled. The third, and most
recent mystery, The Drop Edge of Yonder, stars Mary,
the good-natured daughter. Mary knows she holds a
vital clue to a murder in her mind. She's been
traumatized, but knows if she's left in peace, it
might float to the surface. The problem is her mother.
Alafair is desperate to keep her daughter safe from a
killer who is still out there, so she hovers and
snoops.

Donis Casey was raised in Oklahoma. She said in
writing these books, she discovered people don't know
anything about Oklahoma. She sarcastically thanked
John Steinbeck for that. She said in the 1910's,
Oklahoma was a brand new state, and some people were
very rich, with cattle, oil and land. Others who were
poor and lawless poured into the state from all over.
In some ways, Oklahoma was still the wild, wild west,
but in the cities, it was cutting edge. It was
racially different from other parts of the country.
The Indians in Oklahoma were prosperous, educated, had
their own nation, their own newspapers and schools.
They were not happy with the influx of people. Nor
were the blacks. There were black towns in Oklahoma,
settled after the Civil War. They were not happy with
their change in status. Some in the state were very
left-wing, not at all interested in the war brewing in
Europe.

Donis Casey and Lesa Holstine

Casey said in writing a historical mystery, the author
must know about the place and time. The world was much
larger, and much different in the 1910's. Crime
investigation depended on where you lived. In London
in 1914, a detective might have access to
fingerprints, and other "modern" techniques. In
Oklahoma in 1914, the local law knew the family and
friends of the victim, and in Boynton, the local
sheriff might have had a cousin like Alafair. People
were inclined to tell her things, since she was
"everyone's mother."

Alafair Tucker believes that loving can make you
dangerous. Intuition, not intellect, might be the
highest form of "knowing".

The pictures on the covers of Casey's first two books
are her relatives. The one on the cover of The Drop
Edge of Yonder was found at the Tempe Historical
Museum. It looks like her father's favorite aunt, Mary
Morgan, the character Mary was based on. The house on
the cover is her grandfather's house in Boynton,
Oklahoma, the model for Alafair's house.

In her most recent books, she includes a family tree,
so readers can keep the family straight. She also
includes recipes in the back of the books, and tells
how to eat that food. She chooses titles that are
ethnic sounding. The Drop Edge of Yonder is an old
Texas saying that implies a place halfway between this
world and the next.

Casey plans to do ten books, if she can maintain the
high level of quality. She already has ideas for all
ten. She's working on the fourth book right now. It
will be set in 1915, and Martha, the oldest daughter,
is the focus. It's a travel book, because Alafair,
Martha, and Grace, the baby of the family, travel. The
fifth book will be set in 1917. The world is changing.
It's a time of turmoil, with some similarities to the
current state of the world.

Farm families back then raised a labor force. At this
stage of her life, Alafair can investigate crimes
because her older daughters do much of the work around
the house. Alafair is based a lot on what Casey
observed about her grandmothers, her own mother, and
heard of her mother-in-law. Women were less
constrained on the frontier than in places such as New
York City. The women were laconic, with terse
deliveries. They talked straight.

Hornswoggled and The Drop Edge of Yonder are just out
is audio, so they're now available in book or audio
form. Readers will be waiting for the fourth book.

Thank you to Bette Sharpe, librarian at the Velma
Teague Library, for arranging for Donis Casey's
appearance at the library, and to Poisoned Pen
Bookstore in Scottsdale, for sales of the books.

The next Authors at the Teague appearance will be by
Leighton Gage, author of Blood of the Wicked.  Gage
will be coming from Brazil to speak at the library at
7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 24th.

Donis Casey and Bette Sharpe

Contact Lesa - lholstine@yahoo.com        

Book Topics- Glendale Daily Planet  http://www.glendaledailyplanet.com/book_topics.htm
book blog:  http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

Published GDP  12/02/07

Book Topics Lesa Holstine  Glendale, Arizona, United States

Forcing Amaryllis

 

The last time I was so excited about a first-time mystery writer, I was reading Jonathon King's The Blue Edge of Midnight, which went on to win the Edgar Award for first novel. Forcing Amaryllis by Louise Ure is a powerful novel, with a fascinating protagonist. I know some readers were fed up with Calla, the main character, and others said the book's style indicated that it was a first novel, but I don't think they read far enough in the book.

Calla Gentry is a trial consultant in Tucson, a woman who only served as a consultant on civil cases because she was afraid to deal with criminal cases. Seven years earlier, Gentry had been a strong woman who worked in advertising. But, that was before her sister's brutal rape at knife point. Calla lost her sister, Amaryllis, when her failed suicide attempt put her in a coma. Calla also lost her own confidence and sense of security. Amaryllis' rape incapacitated Calla so much that their aunt told Calla she needed to take her life back. She told her, "Just like Amy. It's a life of suspended animation."

When Calla's boss forces her to take on a rape/murder case, she is struck by the similarities between that case and her own sister's. Together with two friends and a private investigator, Calla attempts to link other rapes with Amaryllis'. The descriptions of the rapes, although not written in graphic detail, are not easy to read. The jury selection process in the book, and the trial itself are fascinating. But, it is the change in Calla's character, as she forces herself to move out of her safe surroundings, that is the most fascinating.

Give Calla a chance. In my opinion, Forcing Amaryllis by Louise Ure deserves to be nominated for this year's Edgar for best first mystery.

Lesa Holstine and Louise Ure 

Followup -

Forcing Amaryllis by Louise Ure went on to win the
Shamus Award for Best First Novel, an award presented by the Private Eye Writers Association.

Ure's next novel, The Fault Tree, is set in Tucson.
It's scheduled for publication in January.  Ure's
family is from Tucson.

You can meet other authors when the Velma Teague Library, 7010 North 58th Avenue, Glendale, presents Authors at the Teague.  On Thursday, Nov. 29 at 7 pm, award-winning mystery author Donis Casey will discuss and sign her latest mystery, The Drop End of Yonder.

Published GDP  12/1/07

Her Royal Spyness

 

Rhys Bowen is known for bringing a time period and setting to life in her mysteries, and her latest ones, Her Royal Spyness is no exception. With the Evan books, she takes readers to Wales. Her Molly Murphy books transport readers to the world of an Irish immigrant in New York. Now, we're transported to England in the 1930s to spend time with a family member considered minor royalty.

Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie is the daughter of a deceased Duke, and the sister of one. Georgie is impoverished, and the only savior on the horizon is marriage. Knowing her relatives want to marry her off, she escapes to London, only to find herself having tea with Queen Mary. The Queen wants her to attend a party in order to spy on her son, David, who seems to be linked with an American woman who is still married.

Before the house party, Georgie has time to find and lose a job at Harrods, become a cleaning woman for wealthy women, and find a body in the bathtub at her brother's London home. Unfortunately, the deceased had recently met with her brother, Binky, and had papers to claim their family estate. Now, Georgie may find herself not only a spy for the Queen, but also an investigator trying to save her brother from a murder charge.

I haven't read Bowen's award-winning Molly Murphy series, but Her Royal Spyness shares a humorous tone with the Evan Evans series. How does someone thirty-four times removed from the throne make a living in 1932? It's fun to watch Georgie take on society and a murder case. She's a strong, brave woman who conforms with some of society's expectations, while breaking new ground. Hopefully, Her Royal Spyness will return with more adventures.

Rhys Bowen's website is www.rhysbowen.com

Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen. Berkley Prime Crime, ©2007. ISBN 978-0-425-31567-8 (hardcover), 324p.

-------Followup -  Rhys Bowen has been nominated for every
major award in mystery writing, and has won seven,
including both the Anthony and Agatha Awards.  Bowen
has just purchased a winter home in the Valley, and
 she will be appearing at the Velma Teague Library on Sunday, 
Feb. 10, 2008, as part of the Authors at the Teague series.

__________________

Donis Casey, another award-winning mystery author,
will be the next author to appear for the Authors at
the Teague series.  The Tempe resident will talk and
sign books at 7 pm on Thursday, Nov. 29 at the Velma
Teague Branch Library, 7010 N. 58th Ave.  Casey's
books will be available for purchase at the program.
No reservations are necessary.  For more information,
call 623-930-3431.

Published GDP  11/10/07

McCafferty's Nine By Elizabeth Gunn

Elizabeth Gunn brings back Jake Hines, Chief of Detectives in Rutherford, Minnesota, in McCafferty's Nine. It's a welcome return for those of us who have been waiting to see what's happening in Jake's life.

Gunn does an outstanding job combining Jake's personal life with a police procedural set in a medium-sized community. During the course of this seven book series, readers have grown to know Jake, and the police force that work with him. Now, while Jake anxiously awaits the birth of his first child, he also deals with two odd cases confounding the police. One series of crimes involves an odd cluster of assaults, women who have been mugged by a runner the police have dubbed "The Sprinter." Ray Bailey, head of the Peoples Crime section fears the runner is getting more violent. The other group of crimes involves an entire neighborhood that seems to have bogus charges on their credit cards. Although it's not usually a problem the police deal with, Jake gives the Property Crimes division a little leeway to work the case. Everything grows more complicated the night a police sting coincides with a murder.

And, Jake? He works hard to juggle the cases under his jurisdiction. At the same time, he's haunted by a warning dream of a wolf, one that always portends trouble in his life. He can't lose focus at work, although he worries about the forthcoming birth.

McCafferty's Nine succeeds in the best tradition of a police procedural. It allows the reader to follow a police investigation, while peering inside the personal lives of the police, particularly Jake Hines.

Elizabeth Gunn's website is www.elizabethgunn.com

McCafferty's Nine by Elizabeth Gunn. Severn House, ©2007, ISBN 978-0-7278-6514-4 (hardcover), 216p.

Followup -

Gunn, a Tucson resident, has a taste for adventure.
She has been a private pilot, sky diver, SCUBA diver,
and liveaboard sailor.  She appeared at the Velma
Teague Library as part of the Authors at the Teague
series.

Donis Casey, the award-winning mystery author, will be
the next author to appear for the Authors at the
Teague series.  The Tempe resident will talk and sign
books at 7 pm on Thursday, Nov. 29 at the Velma Teague
Branch Library, 7010 N. 58th Ave.  Casey's books will
be available for purchase at the program.  No
reservations are necessary.  For more information,
call 623-930-3431.

Published GDP  10/02/07

Contact Lesa - lholstine@yahoo.com        

Book Topics- Glendale Daily Planet  http://www.glendaledailyplanet.com/book_topics.htm
book blog:  http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

About The Author Name: Lesa Holstine Location: Glendale, Arizona, United States

Lesa Holstine, Zoë Sharp and Bette Sharpe
at Velma Teague Library in Glendale
(Photo by Ed Sharpe)

 Zoë Sharp  and attendee
(Photo by Ed Sharpe)

The Old Buzzard Had It Coming

The Drop Edge of Yonder

 

The summer of 1914 is already sweltering in Oklahoma, but murder makes life even more oppressive in Donis Casey's latest mystery, The Drop Edge of Yonder. Casey, who just won the Arizona Book Award for Best Mystery for her debut, The Old Buzzard Had It Coming, brings back Alafair Tucker in this third mystery, to cope with a family murder.

Alafair is a farmer's wife in Oklahoma, and a mother of ten. Daily life of cooking, cleaning and washing for the family keeps her busy, but her main concern is protecting her family. She thought nothing of allowing two daughters, Mary and Ruth, to accompany their uncle, Bill McBride, on an afternoon horseback ride with his girlfriend, Laura. However, Bill is shot, his girlfriend abducted, and Mary is left unconscious on the ground, suffering from a head injury. As Mary struggles to remember the events that lead to Bill's death, Alafair eyes the neighbors and her own farm hands, suspecting everyone. When Laura and Mary's lives are threatened, Alafair knows her family will not be safe until the killer is found.

Life and death hit home for Alafair Tucker in this latest mystery. The sorrow and anger over Bill's death is balanced by the joy of a birth in the family. Fear for one family member who is threatened by a killer is balanced by fear for another who is giving birth.

The Alafair Tucker mysteries are suspenseful page turners. While telling a story of an Oklahoma farm family in the early twentieth century, Donis Casey is capable of playing with the reader's anxieties. The Drop Edge of Yonder is the third intriguing mystery in this series. Don't miss the earlier two, The Old Buzzard Had It Coming and Hornswoggled. You'll want to get to know Alafair Tucker and her family.

Donis Casey was an academic librarian for many years  at Arizona State University in Tempe. She's a third generation Oklahoman who grew up on a farm and in small towns. The Tempe resident will talk and sign books at 7 pm on Thursday, Nov. 29 at the Velma Teague Branch Library, 7010 N. 58th Ave. in Glendale, AZ. Casey's books will be available for purchase at the program. No reservations are necessary. I hope to see you there!

Donis Casey's website is www.doniscasey.com

The Drop Edge of Yonder by Donis Casey. Poisoned Pen Press, ©2007. ISBN 978-1-59058-446-0 (hardcover), 217p.

 

 

Followup - Donis Casey's first book, The Old Buzzard
Had It Coming, just won the Arizona Book Award for
Best Mystery.  The Arizona Book Award is given out
every two years.  Eligible books had to have been
published between Jan. 1, 2005 and Dec. 31, 2006.

Casey was an academic librarian for many years at
Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.  She left
academia in 1988 to start a Scottish import gift shop
in downtown Tempe.  Eventually, she devoted herself to
full-time writing.  She has lived in Tempe for over
twenty years.

Casey will be appearing at the Velma Teague Branch
Library, 2010 N. 58th Ave. at 7 pm on Thursday, Nov.
29.

Published GDP  11/20/07

Contact Lesa - lholstine@yahoo.com        

Book Topics- Glendale Daily Planet  http://www.glendaledailyplanet.com/book_topics.htm
book blog:  http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

 

About The Author Name: Lesa Holstine Location: Glendale, Arizona, United States

I began my Library career as Director of a Public Library on the shores of Lake Erie at the age of 22. My husband & I lived in Florida for 18 years, where I was a Librarian/Administrator, before moving to beautiful Glendale, AZ. I am presently a Library Manager and a contributing Book Reviewer for Library Journal and various websites. Lesa's Book Critiques is syndicated through Blogburst, and reviews have been picked up by Reuters, USA Today and other news distributors.

Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature

 

Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature may be Robin Brande's first novel, but if this one is any indication, she's going to be a star in teen literature. Her book has humor, irreverence, common sense, and a little romance. It's a romantic comedy addressing serious issues. It's a novel many adults would also enjoy.

Mena Reece's first day of high school isn't going well. Her former best friend, the pastor's daughter, is snubbing her, along with all of her ex-friends from Sunday School. Mena sent a letter to a young man, confessing that the church, and her friends, had targeted him. Families were sued, Mena's an outcast, and her parents aren't speaking to her because they might lose their business.

So, it's a lonely teenager who enters biology class on the first day of school, to be greeted by an eccentric, award-winning science teacher, and a boy named Casey who becomes her lab partner. Casey is bright, funny and offers a friendship Mena needs.

If things weren't bad enough at school, when Ms. Shepherd starts to teach evolution, everything goes haywire. Mena's former friends protest, demanding to be taught intelligent design. The pastor shows up, church members run for the school board, and Casey's sister, Kayla, editor of the school newspaper, jumps on the story. Suddenly, Mena is caught between the science she has learned to respect, and the religious beliefs of her family and the church that threw her out. With Casey's family, she not only finds a refuge, but a blog online in which she can express her beliefs as Bible Grrrl.

Mena is a likable teen, caught up in issues that are very real today. As she struggles to find her own identity, and her own moral compass, she is every teenager.

There will be some who object to Brande's treatment of the members of Mena's church. However, I feel she offered a fair discussion of evolution vs. intelligent design, science vs. religion. If readers are willing to finish, they'll discover that Mena finds that religion and science both have their place, and the beliefs are not incompatible.

Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature would be an interesting book for discussion, even with an adult group. I can't wait to see Robin Brande challenge readers in her next book.

Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande. Alfred A. Knopf, ©2007, ISBN 978-0-375-94349-2 (hardcover), 268p.

Robin Brande has two websites. One is www.robinbrande.com . The other site is www.biblegrrrl.com.

 

Followup:  Robin Brande has been a trial attorney,
yoga instructor, black belt, entrepreneur, community
college professor, Wilderness First Responder,
insurance agent, outdoor adventurer, Girl Scout
leader, and Sunday school teacher.  She lives in Tucson.

 

Contact Lesa - lholstine@yahoo.com        

Book Topics- Glendale Daily Planet  http://www.glendaledailyplanet.com/book_topics.htm
book blog:  http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

About The Author Name: Lesa Holstine Location: Glendale, Arizona, United States

I began my Library career as Director of a Public Library on the shores of Lake Erie at the age of 22. My husband & I lived in Florida for 18 years, where I was a Librarian/Administrator, before moving to beautiful Glendale, AZ. I am presently a Library Manager and a contributing Book Reviewer for Library Journal and various websites. Lesa's Book Critiques is syndicated through Blogburst, and reviews have been picked up by Reuters, USA Today and other news distributors.

Published GDP  10/02/07

(Click on cover for a larger view)