Friday, November 8, 2019

Always Good When Things Go Wrong; a guest blog by Tim Maleeny

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: All authors, if they're not lying, will confess they can be afflicted with cover envy, that grasping sense of covetousness when you see a book with a cover that will lure browsers from all the way across the bookstore. Friends, I felt cover envy when I saw Tim Maleeny's BOXING THE OCTOPUS. Then I read Kirkus's review: “Maleeny moves his colorful cast around with giddy panache." Now I have quote envy. Then I read the cover copy: "Boxing The Octopus is a runaway tour of San Francisco’s underworld which reminds us that when things get out of hand, having eight arms is always better than two." How can you not want something like that?



All I'm saying is, it's a good thing we mystery writers are as nice and friendly as Tim says we are.











Julia, a big thanks to you and all the Jungle Red Writers for inviting me to stop by. It was great seeing you all at Bouchercon—what a weekend! I’m always amazed at how friendly, generous and supportive the mystery community is, and you definitely feel that at Bouchercon, maybe because we were all readers and fans long before we were writers.



I admit to being a bit nervous the first time I attended a big mystery conference, marveling at my proximity to so many writers whose books I’d devoured over the years. After a while, a far more experienced writer wandered over to where I was standing and asked if this was my first conference. (Yes, it was that obvious.) She then put it all in perspective by saying: “Look, mystery writers spend all day getting their aggressions out on the page—killing people, torturing them, getting their revenge—so in real life they are the nicest, kindest people you’ll ever meet.” After a pause she added, “There are only two or three jackasses, and we all know who they are.”



I instantly relaxed and realized I was now part of a community, and as we walked over to the group she said, “But you’d better watch your back with those romance writers!”



I’ve been having a ball writing mysteries ever since, not only because I love to tell stories, but because every new story makes fresh connections across this incredible community of mystery lovers.



Speaking of having fun, I was originally asked to write about the use of humor in mystery novels, but since I was feeling nostalgic at the start of this post, I’ll keep this part brief, even though it’s one of my favorite subjects. The great thing about the mystery genre is the myriad of sub-genres, from psychological suspense to domestic thrillers to spy novels or even supernatural sleuths. There are characters and stories for every kind of escape.



My own novels have been called comic noir, comedic thrillers, capers, and even “zany” by reviewers, and my latest was recently described as a “Hiaasen-esque delight,” which I took as high praise. No doubt that’s because my plots go sideways at every turn, largely because of missteps by characters more than capable of getting in their own way. Some mysteries are driven by a master criminal with a master plan, but I’ve always believed plots should be propelled by things going horribly wrong.






Elmore Leonard, Donald Westlake, Carl Hiaasen, John D. MacDonald and Ross Thomas are some of the authors that led to my addiction to crime fiction, as I found myself rooting for a morally ambiguous cast of characters with a common goal but competing agendas. Those collisions can lead the reader on a breakneck chase with surprising turns and, sometimes, hilarious detours. We can see ourselves in the human failings of a bank robber who forgets to fill his getaway car with gas, and we almost feel sorry for the thief who leaves the loot on the train. How many of us have lost phones, umbrellas or briefcases behind, and what would you do if the stakes were much, much higher? Or simply the lifelong dilemma of not knowing whom you can trust when things go against you.



Seeing how ordinary people react in extraordinary circumstances is the heart of character development. And if you can do that with a smile, the opportunities for empathy, social commentary and reader involvement are endless.



Watch I Love Lucy, Seinfeld or Friends through the lens of a mystery reader and you’ll find countless plots driven by misunderstandings, puzzles or outright mysteries. And the characters aren’t laughing, because for them the social awkwardness or potential consequences are deadly serious. But at home, we’re laughing out loud because we’ve been in that kind of pickle, and we’re relieved that we’re not the only ones who screw up every once in a while.



The mystery community is fun group of wonderful people, and every time I get together with other writers, we make each other laugh. Maybe that’s where my writing voice comes from, an unconscious desire to channel all that positive energy onto the page.


See you at the next conference!

JULIA: Okay, dear readers, it's your turn. Do you like funny mysteries? What are some of your favorites? And are we really all as nice as Tim says? One lucky commentor will win a copy of BOXING THE OCTOPUS!

TIM MALEENY is the award-winning author of the Cape Weathers mysteries and the bestselling comedic thriller JUMP, which Publishers Weekly called “a perfectly blended cocktail of escapism.” His latest caper is BOXING THE OCTOPUS, which Kirkus called “a Hiaasen-esque delight” and Bookreporter described as “a great mystery novel, but it is also terrific literature.” A past winner of the Macavity Award, Tim has also won the Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery. He lives and writes at an undisclosed location in New York City. You can read more about Tim and his books at his website, friend him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter as @TimMaleeny.

79 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your newest book, Tim . . . could you tell us a bit about the story?

    I do enjoy funny mysteries, particularly Lisa Lutz’s Spellman stories and Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum tales . . . .

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    1. Thanks Joan! I think Lisa Lutz is a genius writer, and Janet Evanovich raised the bar on serious plots laced with humor and wit. My novel opens with an armored car heist on Pier 39 in San Francisco, in broad daylight, which is one of the busiest tourist destinations in the world. The car crashes through a barrier and runs off the pier, sinking to the bottom of San Francisco Bay. When they recover the vehicle, the cash and the drivers are gone. What starts as a simple manhunt uncovers a global conspiracy of money laundering, smuggling, and illegal medical testing...I won't give away too much more, but the characters at odds with each other include a reluctant private investigator, a trained assassin, Russian smugglers, Chinese Triads, a pirate, a sociopathic doctor, and a giant Pacific Octopus named Oscar. (And yes, there are some chapters written from the point of view of the octopus.)

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  2. Hello, Tim! Great to meet you at Bouchercon. For all the things we talked about, your book somehow escaped our focus, but it sounds great. I'll be ordering it shortly, but will now have to live with the regret of not getting you to sign it!

    As I work on my own mystery, I find I just can't keep that wry twist out of my plot. As much as I love my characters, I also love putting them in situations that they are totally unprepared to deal with. Watching them come up with their own, original, often maladaptive, solutions is a big part of the fun. If I can't step back and laugh at myself, I think I turn into one of those writers "we all know" about.

    Best of luck with your new book! I'll look forward to reading it.

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    1. Gigi, I replied to this already but it must have gotten lost in cyberspace, so if you get this twice, rest assured the sentiment (if not the syntax) is the same...it was great seeing you in Dallas, and congrats again on winning the Derringer! And I agree, plots are so much more intriguing when something goes sideways, as things do in real life, despite our plans. Once you nail the characters (and their psychology), it's fun too see how they can keep you guessing.

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    2. What is the title of your work Gigi that won the Derringer Award? I am very interested in purchasing and reading it.😎

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    3. Gosh, I'd love to blush becomingly and say modest words about the work that won the Derringer, but that must be some other Gigi. I'm the one he sat across the dinner table from on Saturday night. Clearly there are too many Gigis in the world. My book is a work in progress, working title "Ray and Sunshine." I'll let you know when it's available for purchase. Thanks for the advance vote of confidence, Susan!

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    4. You are a great storyteller, when you post on the blog!
      I did check a Gigi did win a Derringer this year, I look forward to reading Ray and Sunshine,

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  3. I'm with Julia on the cover envy. How could anyone NOT pick this one up?

    I almost require mysteries to have some level of comedy in them, both as a writer and a reader. I love it when I'm curled up in my chair, engrossed in a book, and start chuckling, laughing, SNORTING out loud. Oh, the looks I get from my husband...

    Good luck with the new book! Can't wait to read it!

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    1. Thanks Annette, I hope you get a kick out of it. I couldn't agree more—readers want to learn, discover, and challenge themselves, and my books have serious plots with plenty of social commentary and puzzles along the way, but aren't we all reading to escape and be entertained as well? At the end of the day I could use a few laughs, and I guess my characters agree, because some of them do the most outlandish things. (I think I must be channeling my own clumsiness, impatience and impulsiveness when my characters get in their own way.)

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  4. Welcome to jungle red Tim, and congratulations! I enjoy having characters who are funny but I have not attempted zany plot and characters and will leave that to the experts, such as you. It’s funny that you have a photo of the duo from the in-laws which I remember as a hysterical movie. I made my family watch it and they chuckled here and there but it didn’t shine the way I hoped it would. Whereas I love Lucy still ranks up there as one of the funniest TV shows around. Makes me wonder about how well humor translates to a different generation?

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    1. Thanks! Lucille Ball is timeless, and you can see how her genius, and that show, influenced so many other shows like Seinfeld, Friends, and virtually every successful sitcom. That's because none of it was funny to Lucy (her character), she played it straight and the stress of those moments (like the chocolate factory) felt real. I think humor comes from a combination of surprise and empathy, and when I'm writing I don't try to write funny, I just ask myself, what's the worst thing that could happen here? What could possibly go wrong? And then when it happens, I'm as surprised as the characters, and end up laughing, because I can relate to being that careless, impatient, or unlucky.

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  5. It was great to meet you at Bouchercon, Tim! I was so happy that Cape and Sally are back after a long hiatus. Boxing the Octopus is a hilarious romp in one of my favourite cities (San Francisco) and one of my top reads this year.

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    1. Thanks Grace! It was a challenging puzzle to piece together, with so many quirky (and colliding) characters. I'm always delighted to return to Cape and Sally's world of madcap noir. Hope to see you at LCC.

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    2. Yes, I will be going to LCC San Diego, Tim. See you there!

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  6. Congratulations on your new release! I take the occasional dip into the Stephanie Plum books and Jill Orr's Byline books, but prefer a steady diet of more traditional mysteries.

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    1. Margaret, there are traditional mysteries out there that have humor in them because the characters have a great sense of humor, not because they're wacky and over-the-top, a la the Stephanie Plum books. Jeff Cohen/EJ Copperman comes to mind.

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    2. Thanks Margaret! Booklist recently described my novels as "serious mysteries written with a light touch," and I think that's right, because you never want to compromise the suspense or seriousness of the plot for humor. The humor should occur organically, in the way the characters (like the rest of us) react under pressure, and in how they interact with each other. It's their occasional wit, or all-too-human missteps, that create situations that might be deadly serious but also unexpected and, sometimes, entertaining. For me, you see that in traditional mysteries in the form of one or two characters, as Julia mentions, because of the wit and observational humor of those characters as they see things that others can't, or won't. Sherlock Holmes stories always have me on the edge of my seat, even when I reread stories I know by heart, but the banter between Holmes and Watson still makes me smile and sometimes laugh out loud.

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  7. Congratulations on the new book! I have not read you before but I will definitely seek out your work now, as I do love to laugh while reading a mystery. One of my all-time favorites for that was the late Anne George with her Southern Sisters.

    Also, I didn't see any reference in your post to the photo from the movie The In-Laws, but I love that you used that photo. I started chuckling in fond recognition the second I saw it. I can just hear Peter Falk yelling: "Serpentine! Serpentine!"

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    1. Susan, I think The In-Laws is a classic use of the plot device "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." Which is what makes it so funny, of course!

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    2. I love the In-Laws! Watched it incessantly when I was younger. That plot is a classic, with one character (Peter Falk) oblivious to the insanity of the situation while the other (Alan Arkin) is losing his mind from the stress of it all. Serpentine!

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    3. I also loved The In-Laws. The images of "giant Tse-Tse flies", the size of eagles, swooping down and picking up little brown babies, who's mothers with only brooms are swatting them to rescue their children, are still ingrained in the laugh track in my head.

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  8. Absolutely cannot wait to read this! You are such a master of humor… And I have to say, it is the most difficult thing to write, it has to just be funny, seamlessly, and like it’s just emerged from the characters. How did you ever think of that title? Tell us more! xxx

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    1. Thanks Hank, and thanks again to JRW for inviting me to stop by! One of the characters is a modern pirate, who's heavily involved in smuggling, and he's a bit of a sociopath obsessed with the heyday of piracy. Some of the things he says and does still surprise me, even though I wrote the book! So for a while I had the word "pirate" in the original title, but as the book progressed, there are several critical scenes that take place in an aquarium, a major tourist destination where the star attraction is a giant Pacific octopus. Then I realized I was structuring the plot around eight interlocking points of view, and as the characters started to collide, and the octopus took over. (I even wrote a few chapters from the point of view of the octopus, so by then it had to be in the title.) I also loved the metaphor, the idea that a case can have so many moving parts, and get so complicated even for the most determined detective, that it just feels like fighting a losing battle by trying to box an octopus!

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  9. The books sound great, Tim. I'm putting them on my list. A favorite author for humor would be Donald Westlake. What I love is humor that doesn't hit you over the head. You hear it or read it and then a few seconds later you get it!

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    1. Judi, that's the key for me, the humor comes from the characters being all too human, not from some writer trying to be funny or forcing a situation. I honestly don't think of the situations as funny to begin with, and I doubt Westlake did either—he as a genius by the way—but the humor emerges from the awkward, ridiculous and sometimes horrible situations your characters encounter. I think their surprise becomes your relief (and release) from not being in that impossible situation!

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  10. The title alone would generate envy if I were a mystery writer! I love the unexpected--when you pick up a new author, for example, and find yourself hooting with laughter--and of course you can't explain it to the people around you--so you just subside into a chuckle and know there'll be more where that came from as you keep reading. A personal favorite that can still make me laugh out loud: The Crocodile on the Sandbank.

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    1. Unexpected is right! Mysteries are all about surprises, and some are so abrupt that you have to laugh out loud. I've always loved plots propelled by things going wrong, instead of a master criminal with a master plan that pulls off the perfect crime. Criminals are human and they make mistakes, and the moral compass in any good character has its own true north, so you never know what might happen!

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  11. For those of us up at at 'em early on the East Coast, Tim will be stopping by to hang out today - but he's on the West Coast, and early there is still "half the day gone by!" as my Yankee grandmother used to say.

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  12. Love that title, it definitely makes me want to find out more. My favorite funny mysteries are Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, but I find many with a few funny moments and it just makes a book so much better.
    kozo8989@hotmail.com

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    1. Thanks Alicia! I love books with serious plots and characters who confront every situation with some attitude, and the interplay between characters who know each other well—two partners, police, a brother and sister, a parent and a child—naturally lend themselves to situational humor because the personalities shine through, and the dialogue between two people who can finish each other's sentences always leads to some sparks. Janet Evanovich is such a great example of this, perfect escapes that have you turning the pages but smiling to the end.

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  13. I'm a huge fan of Tim's books and his uniquely wacko sense of humor. I reviewed an earlier novel, JUMP, for the Boston Globe: "“If you threw in the air the pages of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and Elmore Leonard’s Get Shorty, and then invited Monty Python to stitch them back together, you might end up with something like Jump, Tim Maleeny’s hilarious novel.” So I can't wait to read Boxing the Octopus (great title!). I love a good humorous mystery novels... and I now what a high wire act it is to maintain the humor and make it believable. Tim's one of the few who consistently pulls it off to great effect.

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    1. Dang, Hallie, that's a great quote. I agree, doing funny well is much, much harder than drama and angst.

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    2. What a great review, Hallie!

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    3. After I first read Hallie's review in The Boston Globe for JUMP, my heart skipped a few beats and I honestly could've died happy! JUMP was a really fun plot to design, and I thought of it more as a romance initially as the characters started to interact, change alliances, and develop relationships. But some of the suspects were so quirky, as we all are, that in the extraordinary circumstance of a murder, their true selves started to emerge, and some of them had a talent for sending everything sideways. By the middle of the book I couldn't write fast enough, and since then I've approached all my writing—including Boxing The Octopus— with that kind of madcap velocity. Every time I thought things might be getting too haywire in Boxing The Octopus, my editor just said keep going, keep pushing! If you get the characters right, the mirth ensues from the mayhem.

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  14. Yes, to humor, and yes, to humor in mysteries!

    I don't know if anyone has studied this, but I have a long-held belief that people who can be quick, funny, and clever generally have a higher IQ than everyone else. And it's sexier than almost anything else, to me. Gene Wilder was always more appealing to me than most, unfunny actors. As much respect as I have for mystery writers, I hold in the highest esteem those who can plot of great story and make me laugh. Joan Hess was a master at all of it.

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    1. Oh, Gene Wilder. He made me swoon. Karen, I agree - being witty almost always means being smart, but not being a dillweed about your intelligence. That's a VERY appealing character trait.

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    2. How could you not laugh reading a Maggody story by Joan Hess--still miss those characters!

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    3. Gene Wilder, such a genius! And I agree, characters (and people) with a sharp wit are just more appealing. Gene Wilder is a great example because none of his characters looked like they were trying to be funny, he was a great comedic actor who played it straight, never cracked a smile or broke the wall. You laugh to release the pressure you're feeling with him, in those impossible, preposterous situations Mel Brooks would create, and you find yourself relating to him even as you're relieved that you're not him!

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  15. Welcome, Tim. I'm sorry I didn't meet you last week at Bouchercon. So many writers -- so little time.

    I do love a bit of humor in books, especially as I read a good deal of dark stuff. And all the Reds are good at tongue-in-cheek lines. But a zany plot is wonderful and not all that easy to find. I look forward to reading your book. I need a laugh, particularly now amidst the unrest in our country. BOXING THE OCTOPUS sounds like just the thing.

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    1. Oops, BOXING THE OCTOPUS is not yet available on Kindle, so I bought STEALING THE DRAGON. Great price on that today so if you haven't read it, go buy it.

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    2. Hi Ann, Boxing The Octopus is available on Kindle, but they might have the page separate from the paperback or hardcover page, I've noticed that Amazon does that sometimes for some reason. And I agree, a laugh at the end of the day is what we all need, and plots that twist and twist again are so much more fun!

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  16. Tim what a great cover!

    Yes, I like a dollop of humor in anything, but it must be done with a deft hand. That hand is very definitely not mine. As others have pointed out, doing comedy is much harder than doing drama.

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    1. Couldn't agree more, too much ruins the mood, and I think the writers who pull it off are playing it straight. The humor emerges from the characters' personalities and choices under pressure, but that's not the goal. I focus on making the plot as much of a roller coaster as possible, for the reader and the characters, and then see how everyone reacts when all the players start to collide.

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  17. Tim - you’re my people! I love Hiaasen and MacDonald, and was raised on I Love Lucy reruns! Like Julia, I, too, have cover envy and can’t wait to read Boxing the Octopus! Brilliant!

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    1. Thanks Jenn! Hiaasen, Westlake, Ross Thomas, Tim Dorsey, these are all the great escapes for me. Coen brothers movies and classics like Lucy or Laurel and Hardy. The characters are deadpan serious, the situation is dire, and yet you can't stop laughing.

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  18. Humor adds a great deal of enjoyment to the story. Sometimes it is unexpected but great. Boxing the Octopus sounds unique and special.

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    1. Thanks! Like the title character, the plot has a lot of moving parts, so when it finally came together I was delighted—and relieved. Some of the characters really made me smile, and along the way I kept changing my mind about their fate. In the finale things get a bit messy, as they do in thrillers and mysteries, but even I was surprised by which characters I was rooting for in the end.

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  19. Love the cover, love the title, although I might have to avoid SF for awhile. I have to go with Westlake as the king. I remember the visuals reading my first novel of his and laughing out loud on the commuter train. As for how nice and friendly you all are, yep. Both at the conferences and through all these blogs.

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    1. Thanks! Westlake is good every time, even if you've read him before. And SF is a fun city to write, it has so many contradictions, dark corners and dodgy politics, it never loses its mystery.

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  20. More books to add to the TBR pile! Boxing the Octopus is an intriguing title. Favorite humorous authors? Jenn (of course) and Donna Andrews. And I miss having new Maggody titles from Joan Hess.

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    1. Chris, I agree on all three. Nothing like a fresh voice to clear away the day's headaches, and who doesn't want to smile as the pages turn?

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  21. I think that humor is a wonderful ingredient in a mystery. I have read novels which are better because of this.

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    1. Absolutely. I think humor makes the characters more human and relatable. Not every situation or every scrap of dialogue, but just as with your friends, there are always characters who approach a situation—even a stressful one—with a jaundiced eye and a quick wit. Get a few of those mixing it up and the interactions alone can make you smile.

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  22. Hi Tim! It was great to see you at Bouchercon! I'm only sorry I didn't have a chance to get you to sign my copy of Boxing the Octopus. Which my daughter got first dibs on, as I didn't have time to read it before leaving for London. I'll look forward to it when I get home.

    I'm with Julia on the cover envy! It is fabulous, and practically jumped off the dealer's table at B'con.

    So many great humorous mystery suggestions, but I think for my favorites I have to go with the Amelia Peabodies.

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    1. Deborah, it was so great seeing you in Dallas, and have fun in London! I'll sign your copy at the next convention, maybe San Diego? And ask your daughter to shoot me a note and let me know what she thinks!

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  23. I think it takes a really deft hand to add humor to an engaging mystery. The plotting and character development are so important, and then not everyone finds the same things funny. I love many of the authors and series already listed and a positive comparison to Hiaasen is enough to recommend Boxing the Octopus to me, so it's a TBR. The book that had me laughing out loud last night was "A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder," by Dianne Freeman, and they make me think of the Royal Spyness books by Jungle Red Rhys Bowen, always a delight. GIVING THANKS FOR SO MANY GOOD BOOKS!

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    1. So many good books, never enough time, but that hasn't stopped me from buying more—and piling them everywhere!

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  24. Tim, welcome to Jungle Reds and congratulations on the publication of Boxing the Octopus! I am adding this novel to my reading list. I have a loooong reading list with so many wonderful new books out there.

    There are many funny mysteries that I love. The Stephanie Plum mysteries by Janet Evanovich is hilarious. I loved the Connor Westphal/Gold Country mysteries by Penny Warner, which was written about 15-25 years ago. The Connor novels were funny! And Carl Hiassen writes many stand alone mystery novels that are comic.

    The Friends TV series was a favorite.

    Diana

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    1. Thanks Diana! It's hard to find compelling mysteries that make you smile, but when you do, I agree you can't get enough of them. Friends had such a remarkable writers' room, and you can sense the manic energy they brought to raise the bar on every episode. And like Seinfeld and Lucy before that, the everyday social situations led to such relatable foibles and missteps by the characters that you couldn't help but see yourself in their mistakes. So much fun, those episodes still hold up.

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  25. Rhys is such a great example of a writer with a deft hand, to be sure, because the wonderful characters and plots drive you forward, and the wit emerges from the interactions that occur as the mystery unfolds. Less is more when it comes to humor, and I'm always focused on the characters, asking myself what they'd do under pressure, and then asking myself, what's the absolute worst thing that can happen to them, right now? As Mel Brooks said, one person's tragedy is someone else's laugh, if you play it right.

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    1. Love the Lady Georgie mysteries. They are hilarious, especially the Queenie character.

      Diana

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  26. I love humor and absurdity in books! I would say Stephanie Plum, as so many already have. Ann Charles in her Deadwood series. I agree with the suggestion of Dianne Freeman. And don't forget Dandy Gilver and her finely honed snark. Darynda Jones. William Dietrich's series with Ethan Gage, that rascal. Ben Aaronovitch and his Rivers of London books. Annie Hogsett's Tom and Ali books. I'm sure there are many more I can't think of at the moment. There is nothing like a good laugh and/or snort. Look forward to reading your book, Tim!

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    1. Thanks Pat, and thanks for all the great references to other writers. If the characters are compelling, who doesn't need a belly laugh as the plot twists, if only to relieve the pressure before it twists again? I hope you get a kick out of Boxing The Octopus—watch your step on Pier 39, and never trust a pirate!

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  27. Shalom Reds and fans. I love good comedy. However, I think it is somewhat rare. I think it would be very hard for me to write. I’ve only been reading mysteries religiously within the last 5 or so years and I can’t think of any specific books or series that made me laugh regularly. Perhaps, the Rabbi Small series. Keeping his little suburban flock all wrangled in, with murder and crime all about, is gently amusing. Jenn’s BOOKS CAN BE DECEIVING which I read this summer, was something like that. I will look out for BOXING THE OCTOPUS.

    On another front, I found this quote and it made me think of all you folks. “What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.”

    - J.D. Salinger

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    1. Thanks David, I love that quote. Makes me think of the Jungle Red Writers sitting around a table at The Algonquin Hotel, having a great conversation, and everyone's welcome.

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  28. Julia, you are dead right (had to use this phrase) about the cover of Boxing the Octopus. My attention has been drawn to it several times here lately, and I've thought that I will probably have to buy it just for the cover. Of course, now Tim is here on Jungle Reds and after reading your piece here, Tim, you have won me over. Putting you on my "people I want to meet" list for Bouchercon next year (had to miss this year). So, congratulations on your new book, which I think will be quite a success, and not just because of the cover.

    I do enjoy humor in mysteries, and it seems these mysteries are especially needed now. The first mysteries I think of are Rhys' Lady Georgie series, with those delightful missteps and characters, like Queenie, and Lucy's Haley Snow, with all that marvelous Key West food and Miss Gloria. I'm also enjoy Catriona McPherson's new series, the Last Ditch Mysteries, with Lexy Campbell as a Scottish marriage counselor who finds herself stuck in the U.S. after, what else, her marriage breaks up. And, one of my favorites has to be Wendall Thomas' Cyd Redondo mysteries, with Cyd as a travel agent who hasn't traveled much and when she starts, there is misadventure all over the place. And, there is the always entertaining Aunty Lee series by Ovidia Yu, set in Singapore and featuring Aunty Lee, a widow who owns a restaurant, but who is quite well-off financially without it. I love Aunty Lee pronouncing her late husband's daughter-in-law Selina as Sillyna, because she is. And, I can't close out without mentioning Carl Hiaasen, because his books are hilarious and he, in person, is too.

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    1. Kathy, what a great list of authors, and I agree, a little humor mixed in with our mysteries is always welcome, especially these days! As for the cover, I couldn't be happier—the editorial team at Poisoned Pen Press has been incredible, as always, in helping to define the tone of these capers. And the folks at Sourcebooks did a brilliant job with the design. I love how it pops on the shelf.

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  29. Wow, I wish I had time to read all of these conversations, but after 10 minutes, I have to stop and actually get some work done! SO happy to see this wonderful book well-received--it really is brilliant and funny and I can't wait to read the next Cape and Sally misadventure.

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  30. Humorous mysteries are among my very favorites. Donna Andrews has already been mentioned and I adore her. Two of the ones I love best and ho tti o for a boost are Charlotte McLeod and Phoebe Atwood Taylor. Both were written years ago but are available on Kindle and have a couple of series that are rife with absurdities and yet still mysterious. Such fun. Wishing you great luck on your new book, Tim.

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    1. Thanks Eileen, I've not read Phoebe Atwood Taylor yet but I just checked out her books and now she's on my TBR list! I particularly love her title Punch With Care, that phrase alone makes me smile. They look like a lot of fun, thanks for the recommendation.

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  31. As the lyric from Wicked suggests, we should defy gravity.
    A bit of levity can truly leaven the story and make it rise.
    (Not sure where that suddenly came from?!)

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    1. Libby, what a fun way of expressing it! And any reference to Wicked is welcome, I'm a big Elphaba fan.

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  32. I hadn't considered sitcoms as mysteries, but I can see your point.

    Congrats on your new book. It sounds like a lot of fun.

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    1. Thanks Mark! As for sitcoms, when I started looking into humor in film and crime dramas, I realized some of the classic sitcoms had situational puzzles, moral dilemmas and suspenseful plots, albeit driven by fear of social embarrassment more than theft or murder, but I learned a lot deconstructing the plots.

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    1. I always try to make a book unapologetically entertaining because I think readers, in part, are looking for a fun escape when reading, and the three genres that do that best for me are fantasy, horror and mystery. And while some people like to laugh and others love to be scared, I've never been a horror writer so I'm sticking with humorous mysteries for now.

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  34. Nice to meet you at the Bouchercon Poisoned Pen Press cocktail party Tim! Your inscription in my copy of Boxing the Octopus is intriguing: "Hope you have fun with Oscar." Can't wait to meet him, and YES- I love a dash of humor with my mystery, thank you very much.

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    1. Sara, great seeing you in Dallas! Oscar became one of my favorite characters, so I hope you take a liking to him by the end of the book; the chapters from his perspective were a lot of fun to write.

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  35. Regrets to missing you @Bouchercon (tho the ladies' panel was fun; enjoyed w/mine bride). I am looking forward to 'trying' your books.

    One comedic series I (don't know why I) like is Andrea Camilleri's Montalbano. The single translated books I read (a plaisir).

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