Shattered: Every Crime Has A Victim

SHATTERED: EVERY CRIME HAS A VICTIM
Published: 2009
Publisher : Polygon

This is an anthology of crime stories focusing on the victims of crime rather than the perpetrators or the detectives. All the writers donated their royalties to Victim Support Scotland – an organisation set up to provide emotional support, practical help and information to victims of crime, as well as raising the profile of victims and witnesses in the public, parliamentary and criminal justice arenas.

Ian Rankin says in his introduction to the collection “...Crime writers want to tell the truth about the world we all live in. Reading a book may be a form of escapism, but that doesn’t mean readers want to be wrapped in cotton wool, and writers have responded by tackling serious subject matter and asking big moral questions...But crime writers must also pay attention to the victims in all these stories. They can’t just be cardboard cut-outs from central casting. We have to put flesh and blood on them and explore their inner lives, showing their hopes as well as their lives, giving them life as well as death.”

This is an excellent collection – several of the stories are very touching, because they are written from the point of view of the victim and every writer has given a lot of thought to the impact of crime. A couple of the writers have had the same idea but treated it in a different way, others have done something totally unique. love short story collections because they introduce me to writers I have never read, and give me a little bit extra from authors I enjoy. Here is a mini summary of the stories, and of my reactions to each of them:

DADDY’S GIRL – KAREN CAMPBELL
A mother struggles to explain to her little girl who her father is. This was a really touching story that brought a lump to my throat. Karen Campbell is fast becoming one of my favourite writers, and this story was one of the best in the collection.

RUN, RABBIT, RUN – RAY BANKS
A man sets out to get his revenge on a young smackhead who has wronged him. Ray Banks – another favourite of mine - always writes the most brilliant short stories and this one is no exception.

BYE, BYE, BABY – ALLAN GUTHRIE
A woman is distraught when her son goes missing. A thoroughly chilling, yet moving story from yet another of my favourite authors. These first three stories were stand outs for me.

THE BEST SMALL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD – LOUISE WELSH
A young Polish man arrives in Glasgow and finds that the grass may not always be greener. Some excellent characterisations in this one.

ONE GOOD TURN – LIN ANDERSON
A young man lets a girl have the last spot on the night bus. A very sad, vivid story.

WITH TENDER VIOLENCE – STUART MACBRIDE
A man is arrested for beating his wife. Powerful, moving, unexpected. Another favourite.

THE ROAD TAKEN – GILLIAN GALBRAITH
A woman finds it difficult to love her son, but keeps the secret of his birth from him. Similar in theme to Karen Campbell’s story, but treated in a completely different way.

VOICES THROUGH THE WALL – ALEX GRAY
A woman whose child turns out bad is also a victim of his crimes. A really interesting take.

OUT OF THE FLESH – CHRISTOPHER BROOKMYRE
Restorative justice – a man tells a would-be thief he used to be just like him. An odd story. My least favourite in the collection (although I love Brookmyre’s full length fiction).

ZAPRUDER - G J MOFFAT
A man whose wife has been killed has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Well-written and interesting, but it didn’t grab me as much as some of the others.

It's All About Ian Rankin (Except For The Bits That Aren't)

As Philip Kerr wins the CWA's Historical Dagger award, Rob Kitchin reviews IF THE DEAD RISE NOT, and Norm from Crimescraps with a very interesting post reviewing the reviewers on the same book.

The Canadian Chronicle Herald reviews Ian Rankin's THE COMPLAINTS. And, talking of Mr Rankin, read the transcript of a chat with him at Toronto's IFOA. And the Malaysian Insider on Rebus and Fox. Closer to home, a report on Ian's appearance at the Biggar Little Festival.

And, talking of the Toronto International Festival of Authors, he's not a crime writer, but here's a Q&A with Alan Bissett, author of the brilliant THE INCREDIBLE ADAM SPARK. And one with Martin McIntyre who, when asked what it is in Scotland's water that means there are such a lot of crime fiction writers coming out of Scotland says "A darkness."

I just received a copy of this today. Stories from some great Scottish writers (Lin Anderson, Ray Banks, Christopher Brookmyre, Karen Campbell, Gillian Galbraith, Alex Gray, Allan Guthrie, Stuart MacBride, G J Moffat, Louise Welsh, with an introduction by Ian Rankin) and all proceeds to Victim Support Scotland. Looks good.

What I Read In October

What a stellar reading month. Some excellent books by old favourites, and a couple of wonderful new finds. One of them was directly because of the author's appearance on a panel at Bouchercon, so for those people who say it's not worth going to conventions, well, this author has gained a new reader who will dash out and buy everything he writes. OK, so it's only me, but...

TOWER - Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Coleman
Published: 2009
Setting: New York
Protagonist: Nick and Todd
Series?: Standalone
First Lines: 'Griffin coughed blood into my face when I made to slip the chains under his shoulders.'
Nick and Todd grew up together in Brooklyn and their friendship survives to adulthood, where they ease into a life of crime, becoming low level hired hands for Boyle - a nasty piece of work who quotes from the bible. Nick is left stunned when Todd kills someone during a burglary. From there, bonds are tested, things spiral downhill and out of control. The first half of the book is told, by Bruen, from Nick's point of view, and you think you have a clear picture of events - until you read the second half of the book, written by Coleman and told from Todd's point of view. Heart-breaking and stomach-churning, this is an amazing book - a beautifully written book full of brutal lyricism and hardboiled poetry, an unforgettable look at friendship, loyalty, fate, honesty and belief. I loved it, and the ending made me burst into tears on public transport. Consider yourself warned. Two of the best writers writing today.

EMPTY EVER AFTER - Reed Farrel Coleman
Published: 2008
Setting: New York
Protagonist: Moe Prager
Series?: 5th
First Lines: 'We walked through the cemetery, Mr Roth's arm looped through mine. The cane in his left hand tapped out a mournful meter on the ice slicked gravel paths that wound their way through endless rows of gravestones. The crunch and scrape of our footfalls were swallowed up and forgotten as easily as the heartbeats and breaths of all the dead, ever.'
This is the fifth in the Moe Prager series. I didn't think the series could get any better after the fourth one, but it has. And it feels like the end of an arc that takes in the past and present, looking back at Moe's past cases, tying up some loose ends, resolving the unresolved, yet raising more questions. PI Moe Prager investigates a grave-robbing that is very close to home, when the grave of his brother in law is desecrated, setting off a chain of events that has Moe investigating all of his past cases and rethinking the decisions he has made over the years. Coleman shows that life is never a straight line, that things can never be neatly tied up with little bows, and that the past really can come back to haunt you. EMPTY EVER AFTER is all about the ghosts of the past and how some of those ghosts never go away - especially the ones that are the keepers of secrets. Winner of the Shamus Award, and no bloody wonder. Brilliant stuff.

CALUMET CITY - Charlie Newton
Published: 2008
Setting: Chicago
Protagonist: Patti Black
Series?: Standalone/1st
First Lines: 'There's this place in Chinatown. Off Wentworth Avenue in the 25th Ward, where the four-story walkups lean out over the street. Buildings not yet leveled by urban renewal, mattress fires, or debts to the wrong politicians. The kind of neighbourhood that scares people who look too close.'
Charlie Newton's debut novel CALUMET CITY is 400 pages long, but reading it feels like reading a novel half that length. I stayed up late at night, I missed my stop on the bus, I took a few extra minutes in my lunch hour at work. It's a thrills and spills novel that never lets up. Patti Black is a much decorated Chicago police officer who has packed her past away in a sealed box and stuck it in the back of the cupboard where it sits gathering dust - unseen, unopened, but definitely not forgotten. Unfortunately, several apparently unlinked cases threaten to open the box and let the screaming demons out. A superb debut novel that grips you by the throat and refuses to let go. A wonderfully original voice, Patti Black is an excellent character - prickly and tough but also vulnerable and warm. She's a survivor, and survival has made her strong - but it's also come at a price and has taken away as much as it has added. Being in Patti's nightmares is really not a comfortable place to be, and the gradually revealed story of her past is skilfully, intensely and chillingly done. The depiction of Chicago is excellent and all aspects of the city are really brought to life. This is not a happy book and Charlie Newton piles grit and darkness on both his protagonist and his readers. I'm really looking forward to his next.

GO WITH ME - Castle Freeman Jr
Published: 2008
Setting: A small town in rural Vermont
Protagonist: Various
Series?: Standalone
First Lines: 'Midsummer: The long days begin in bright, rising mist and never end. Their hours stretch, they stretch. They stretch to hold everything you can shove into them; they'll take whatever you've got. Action, no action, good ideas, bad ideas, talk, love, trouble, every kind of lie - they'll hold them all.'
When the sheriff of a small Vermont town finds Lillian sitting in her car outside the police station, she tells him that a man called Blackway is stalking her, and he's killed her cat. Everyone knows Blackway, but no-one can do anything about him - including the sheriff. He tells her to go out to the mill, to ask Whizzer where she can find Scotty. Scotty will be able to help her. Only Scotty's not there. So Whizzer sends her off with two extremely unlikely knights in...well, definitely not shining armour. The rest of the story is the tale of the trio looking for Blackway, interspersed with Whizzer and his layabout pals, telling tall tales about the town, and Blackway, wondering whether the girl will come through, and going off into all sorts of digressions. A wonderfully quirky cast of characters. The dialogue is wonderfully alive and witty. Funny yet dark, the book put me in mind of a softer version of Daniel Woodrell crossed with the tales of King Arthur's knights.

WILD WIVES - Charles Willeford
Published: 1956
Setting: San Francisco
Protagonist: PI Jacob Blake
Series?: Standalone
First Lines: 'The rain hit hard at my window. It slowed down to a whisper, then hit hard again.
WILD WIVES is a gutsy novella featuring amoral private eye Jake Blake who takes on a case involving a hot dame who's more than a tad insane. She says that the two thugs shadowing her have been hired by her father to follow her everywhere except the bathroom. Blake is totally unlikeable, the case is suitably scuzzy from the start and the novella is full of sex and sleaze. It should come with the warning "Wash hands after reading." Willeford is a master of dragging hard-boiled through the dirt and this one is no exception. I loved it.

THE CORPSE MOVED UPSTAIRS - Frank Gruber
Published: 1941
Setting: New York
Protagonist: Johnny Fletcher and Sam Cragg
Series?: 7th
First Lines: 'Johnny Fletcher had the key in his hand, but it wasn't necessary to put it in the lock, for the door was slightly ajar.'
Johnny Fletcher and Sam Cragg are dodgy characters, book-salesmen, occasional PIs. Johnny is the quick-thinking, smooth talking charmer; Sam is the big lug who acts as the muscle in the partnership. Johnny and Sam always have an eye out for the main chance - there's always a scheme on the go, always a body or two, and invariably a hot dame. Their main way of earning income is for Sam to show off his strength while Johnny hawks a book called 'Every Man A Samson' which apparently tells you how to be as strong as Sam. In THE CORPSE MOVED UPSTAIRS, Johnny and Sam come back to their regular flophouse in New York, their books in a trunk, waiting for their next scam. Unfortunately, somebody thinks their trunk is the ideal place to dump a dead body. Wisecracks, good fun, a fast-paced plot and some endearing and entertaining characters. If you like Richard S Prather's Shell Scott series, you'd like this, I think.

Short and Scary Sunday Summary

Short because I am only just home from my Halloween weekend away. Scary because of the obvious, as promised to Bobbie.

First of all, a report from Toronto's IFOA, and Ian Rankin talks about THE COMPLAINTS. And Denise Mina reads from STILL MIDNIGHT.

Read the first chapter of Helen Fitzgerald's BLOODY WOMEN here. Based on this, I can't wait to read the rest.

Falcata Times reviews Christopher Brookmyre's PANDAEMONIUM.

The wonderful Mystery Readers Journal interviews Val McDermid. And in other Val news, the American Book Center Blog reviews FEVER OF THE BONE and Fife Today interviews her about books, beer, wine and football.

Bouchercon Panel Report #5 - The 21st Century PI

The 21st Century Private Eye

Panellists: Austin Camacho (moderator), Jack Fredrickson, Greg Herren, Adrian Magson, Michael Wiley.

This was another panel that sent me scurrying to the bookroom, having discovered an author I'd never heard of before - this time Michael Wiley. It also reminded me that I need to read one of Adrian Magson's books as he was excellent on the panel and very funny.

Austin Camacho set the scene by talking about living in a technological age, how the PI can give the writer more flexibility than either a police procedural or an amateur (ie you can do more than either of those for different reasons). He asked the panellists whether the settings they use continue the noir, fatalistic, gritty settings of old.

Jack Fredrickson said that he tries to use every device he can - including setting - to disguise the fact that he doesn't know anything about plot! He said that he does use a gritty setting (just outside Chicago). Adrian Magson uses London as a setting, although he does like to move his characters around and vary things. He likes to keep a contemporary feel to his books.

Austin Camacho then asked the panel whether their PIs adhere to the traditional, heavy drinking, heavy smoking detective.

Greg Herren said that when he first started his series his protag was a smoker. He had him quit in the second book, but he still gets stoned. He's not much of a drinker. Herren quoted Julie Smith as saying "New Orleans will break your heart and wreck your liver." Michael Wiley said that the new heavy drinking/chainsmoking detective is now a non-drinker/non-smoker.

Austin Camacho asked the panel about technology and science. He said that PI stories tend to focus on questions and characters and not so much on forensics. He asked the panel how they coped with technology and whether the technological age made it harder to write PI novels.

Greg Herren said that he had lived through Katrina when technology shut down for a while. He also said that he was not the best at technology since it took him five years to work out that he had 'hotkeys' on his computer (note to self - check computer for hotkeys). In his first book his protagonist had a computer but no cell phone. He also has a computer tech - that way, the character has no need to learn anything and neither does Herren, so he can take the lazy way out.

Adrian Magson said that his character Riley Gavin uses a Blackberry but that the most use she puts a laptop to is when she throws it at someone's head. He said that you can get into the trap of your characters relying on technology too much. He also pointed out that in the UK your every move can be followed on a security camera in some cities. Michael Wiley also has his character throwing technology at someone - this time a cell phone. Camacho himself said that his protagonist is a luddite and he finds it no fun to write the technological stuff.

The panel were then asked about the kinds of cases their protagonists get involved in. Who is the client of the 21st century PI and how has this changed?

Jack Fredrickson felt that the clients are the same because people are the same now as they have always been. Michael Wiley agreed, saying that the things which interest him are sex and murder and people have been doing both those things forever.

The topic then turned violent (although not literally, they were all very polite), Camacho saying that in the 40s and 50s PI novels the violence was generally a simple rough and tumble. He asked the panellists whether they felt that today's readers are more sophisticated about how people fight each other.

Adrian Magson said that he used to teach Tae Kwon Do but he doesn't put much of that into his books. He tries to keep things realistic and felt that too much martial arts detracted from the plot. He noted that in the UK there are very few guns and that they tend to be in the hands of the bad guys. His protag uses an asp and Adrian went down to his local police station to ask how to use one. Needless to say, he got some odd looks. Camacho also said that he tries to keep things realistic. His character is a trained kick-boxer, but real fights in real life tend to be very short.

Turning from violence to attitude, Camacho asked whether the idea of the smartass PI has remained the same. Jack Fredrickson said that to be a good PI you have to have an attitude - you need one to function in that kind of world. He added that if you can do it humourously it sharpens the distinction between the dark side and the lighter side and he likes that contrast.

Greg Herren said that his protagonist was a smartass. He tried to make his first book dark and noir and thought that he had succeeded but at the first reading he did people were laughing. He said that he doesn't mean to do it and if he could find a way to stop it he probably would (note to self - buy a Greg Herren book).

Austin Camacho then asked the panel who they felt was doing it right in terms of the PI novel. Michael Wiley said that there were a lot of people doing it right and that the PI genre is far from dead. He likes writers who are aware of what is politically correct but aren't going to go there (note to self - buy a Michael Wiley along with the Herren). Greg Herren cited Laura Lippman, Sara Paretsky, Val McDermid and Sean Chercover. Of Sean he said "He makes me want to quit...bitch." Camacho cited Marcus Sakey and George Pelecanos but also said, interestingly, that he doesn't feel that the new Raymond Chandler or Ross Macdonald has been published yet.

When asked about great 20th century writers the panel were worried could get forgotten Adrian Magson said Leslie Charteris and Greg Herren said John D MacDonald.

Another excellent panel.

Teeny Tiny Links

A very short post today as I am off down to London to see my friend Jill, before coming back up on Saturday to dress up as Cruella De Vil for a fancy dress party. Hopefully, a Bouchercon panel report will post as if by magic tomorrow, but in the meantime, a few links.

Ian Rankin on How Writers Write.

Val McDermid on her choice of neglected classic book.

The lovely Caro Ramsay now has a blog.

The many faces of Sherlock Holmes at the movies. And a preview of the new one.

New Zealander Craig Sisterson on Scottish crime with an interview with Stuart MacBride, an audio review of Ian Rankin's THE COMPLAINTS and Val McDermid's FEVER OF THE BONE.

My Dad Reviews...The Redemption of Alexander Seaton - Shona MacLean

Just a reminder of my Dad's tastes:

DISLIKES: romance, books that have too much swearing in (I guess that's my Dad not going to read my next book either, then - I thought it was just my Mum I had to keep away from it). Also doesn't like horror, and books with vampires, pterodactyls and the living dead in them. Also, something called an ungoliant. No, I have no idea either - I think my Dad has been at the sherry.

LIKES: thrillers, spy novels, war stories and books with elves in (the elves can swear their little heads off as far as he's concerned). Oh, and maps. He bloody loves maps. If you ever meet him, for goodness' sake don't ask him for directions. Not even to the bathroom.

PREFERS: Philip Marlowe to Miss Marple, Inspector Morse to Homicide.

The Redemption of Alexander Seaton - Shona MacLean
Publisher: Quercus Publishing
Published: May 2009

First Lines:
The old woman lifted her candle the better to observe me.
"You would not think of going out tonight?"
"Aye mistress, I would."
She fixed me with a look I knew well. "On a night such as this, no honest man would stir from his own hearth."
"Indeed he would not, mistress," I said. "But as you have often assured me, I am no honest man." I took down my hat and, bidding her no farewell, I went forth into the remorseless storm."

What my dad says:

This was an awkward book to review. At first I thought it was going to be a contender for a new Olympic sport, "Jumping to Conclusions". After getting hooked into 17th century Scotland I realised there was much more to it. I do not know if it was the author's intention but it appeared to me to be a journey of self discovery by the main character Alexander Seaton.

It tells the story of his efforts to find the reasons behind the death of an apprentice to the local pharmacologist and his daughter. It covers the local troubles with religion, witchcraft, and the prejudices of the times.

Alexander, a priest, failed to obtain a living through a stupid error and the enmity of others. He reluctantly takes the position of teacher to the youth of the town, through his efforts finds out who the murderer is and the method used. Later he is offered a position in the church and so sets out for the tests which will confirm his status.

I found the development of the characters was extremely good, some were likeable and others were easy to dislike.

In all a very easy book to read once you had slipped into the 17th century and forgotten about this one.

Message from me: Dad - you've always been in the 17th century haven't you?