What We're Watching

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Happy Memorial Day, everyone, and I hope you are all grilling, picnicking, or a combination thereof. We are really splashing out and having hotdogs, which happens maybe once a year, so is an occasion!

Tell us what you put on yours.

Or maybe you are not cooking out, and are stretched out in a hammock with one of the books we suggested yesterday? I can't think of a better way to spend the beginning of summer. 

Our Memorial Day forecast here in north Texas is for sun and 88 degrees, but if inclement weather will keep you indoors, I thought we'd chat about what we're watching these days.

If I was embarrassed to admit I'd never read Tana French, I am really embarrassed to admit that we had never watched ELEMENTARY–especially as it is my daughter's favorite series ever. Well, we are in the process of remedying that, having just finished the first season. Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu were amazing, so incredibly talented, and the plots were so clever. I'd like to have access to the writers' idea bank! I love the brownstone set and the whole New York feel of the series. It is utterly charming and just what I need at the moment.

We watched the first season and part of the second of THE CAPTURE, starring Holliday Grainger as a London cop who uncovers a plot to fake videos in real time. I'm a big fan of Grainger (Robin Ellacott in the Cormoran Strike series) but THE CAPTURE is a bit creepy and unsettling and a little too close to reality for fun watching for me. We've also watched the first episode of LEGENDS, about UK Customs officers going undercover to stop drug smuggling in the early 90s. This is based on a true story and stars Tom Burke (who also plays Cormoran Strike.)

Oh, and on a totally delightful note, we've started the new series of TUCCI IN ITALY.  I adore Stanley Tucci and the series is now produced by NatGeo, so it is gorgeous and so interesting. 

Oh, and we had to pay for a month of BBC Select in order to get it, but I'm watching THE ROYAL CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW, which I find absolutely fascinating. (Rick does not agree...)

How about it, darling REDS, what are you watching?

JENN McKINLAY: We are currently watching the latest season of HACKS (love Jean Smart!), YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS (I’ve loved John Hamm since Madmen), and my latest K-Drama WHEN THE PHONE RINGS (a good suspense story). Nothing groundbreaking but all entertaining.

LUCY BURDETTE: Talk about oldies but goodies, we are watching THE WEST WING. People told us about this for years, and they were right–it’s so good! The President, played by Martin Sheen, is everything we yearn for–someone smart and funny and quirky but never destructive or vindictive. We also plan to watch REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES. Maybe this long weekend?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, I love  these lists! We are enjoying YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS–I loved Jon Hamm in Mad Men too, but not so much in anything he did after that. Until this! And we are on the same wave length, Debs, watching LEGENDS, too. Also–we are having a controversy (as controversial as it gets in our house, which is not too) about WIDOWS BAY. I absolutely love it, horror–ish as it is, it is also so funny. Kinda Jaws meets Stephen King. Jonathan is not a fan, though. If you missed PARADISE, please go back and watch it! As I have said here in the past, I have loved it from moment one, and the first episode, an instant classic, just won the Edgar for Best TV episode. (I feel so vindicated.)

What am I forgetting?

HALLIE EPHRON: I really enjoyed REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES (on Amazon). Sally FIelds is wonderful, and the octopus (more talking animals!) is divine. The plot twist will seem a bit contrived to seasoned mystery readers, but it’s not the main reason to watch it.

And I loved LOVE SARAH streaming on Netflix. It’s about a group of women who start a bakery, fulfilling one of their mother’s dreams.

Also enjoyed THE LIFE OF BIRDS on public television, a documentary narrated by David Attenborough. Who knew bird song could be so complex and fascinating?!

DEBS: Hallie, I'd been wondering if I wanted to watch REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES, so thanks for the rec.

RHYS BOWEN: I haven’t had much time for watching but I’m trying not to binge THE OTHER BENNETT SISTER. Sooo delicious and Caroline Bingley is so easy to hate. 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: As I mentioned briefly when we shared what we’re reading, I’ve been working my way through the Poirot series - I can’t believe I’ve never seen any of them before. I always thought of the character as annoyingly fussy, but David Suchet plays him with SO much depth.

Just finished the Kdrama TRAIN (2020, if you’re looking for it) a crime fiction/time travel mash up. I almost gave it up halfway through episode 3, but then the pace picked up and I was completely hooked. Before that was THE GLORY, a revenge thriller. The romance subplot was blah, but seeing how the abused-in-high-school heroine gets back at her tormentors is delicious.

Other than that, nothing, so I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone else recommends!

DEBS: Julia, I'm envying you watching Poirot for the first time. They were brilliant.

How about it, dear Readers? What are you watching when you can drag yourselves away from a book?

And what's on your hot dog? I'm a mustard, dill relish, sauerkraut person myself

What We're Reading!

 LUCY BURDETTE: To launch the beginning of the summer season, we thought it would be only fair to talk about books! I’ve veered out of the mystery lane lately and tried some new things. OUTRUN by Amy Liptrot was an Ann Cleeves recommendation from several years ago. This is a memoir that takes place primarily on the Orkney islands. The opening chapters about the author struggling with her addiction are difficult to read, but it pays off beautifully and now I’m desperate to go back to Scotland. 

 I also read YESTERYEAR, which Hank mentioned a while back. The main character is a tradwife influencer with a gaggle of children she doesn’t enjoy and a staggering following. I did not like her but I was compelled to find out how the author could possibly wind this story up. I never could have come up with this plot in a million years! 

Now I’m reading Anna Quindlen’s MORE THAN ENOUGH about a woman struggling with infertility and a challenging mother and dementing father. Quindlen writes about families so well! I also read two romances that I won’t recommend. Looking forward to THEO OF GOLDEN, plus Rhys’s new standalone, and Jenn’s as well. Oh, in June, I’m going to hear Ann Patchett talk about her new book, Whistler. Can’t wait for that one!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I just finished Tana’s French’s THE KEEPER and  I am in awe. IN AWE! She is such an incredible writer that it's downright intimidating. It;s part 3 of a series, but such a terrific standalone that you can easily read it first.  I am also tearing through Gillian McAllister's CALLER UNKNOWN–she is one of my all time favorite authors, and speaking of in awe, I’m not sure how she manages to make her book all have that McAllister voice, but be so incredibly different. I’ve got Anthony Horowitz’s new one up next, which I know will be such a treat! (I am also a judge for a contest, and all I can say is

I sat next to a man on an airplane next to a blue-suited  businessman-type who  was reading Theo of Golden, and he was crying. SO–nope nope nope, you know me, I am not getting anywhere near that.

HALLIE EPHRON: I’m a wimp when it comes to tear jerkers, too. Anthony Horowitz is always safe in that respect. And so clever and funny, bonus points. And of course I finished reading my sister Amy Ephron’s new book, UNSEASONABLY COLD (late summer, 1939, and a New York heiress goes missing.)

I just started THE CALAMITY CLUB by Kathryn Stockett (author of THE HELP) and I’m enjoying it very much. The opening chapters are flagrantly Dickensian with a little girl getting abandoned in the so called “care” at an orphanage run by heartless/misguided women. I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes next. It’s got MOVIE written all over it, and I’m having fun imagining who’d play the lead.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I have not been reading anything–not unusual for me towards the end of writing a book. I just don’t have the focus to sit down with the printed page. But I have been listening to audio books and Hank, your comment was very timely. I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I had never read anything by Tana French. I know, right? Maybe I was intimidated. 

But I picked up the audio version of THE SEARCHER, the first of her three Cal Hooper books, and I was hooked. Now I am partway through the second book, THE HUNTER. Interestingly, the protagonist is an American, a retired Chicago cop who has resettled in an Irish village. These are not fast paced but I’m loving the language and the characters. 

Before that, the new Martha Wells Murderbot book, PLATFORM DECAY, which I loved so much I listened to it twice in a row. And before that, I listened to all but the last full cast audio versions of the Harry Potter books. These are unabridged and the casting is fabulous–I highly recommend!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I'm so glad there's another Murderbot fan here, Debs! 

JENN McKINLAY: I am reading nothing. Shocking, I know, but my every second has been taken up with a new writing venture (more on that at a later date) that is so far out of my comfort zone, I have no time for anything else. Hopefully, I will get back to reading soon as I have a towering TBR to get through.

JULIA: Right now, I'm hurrying to finish Jessica Everett's LAST SUMMER AT MAINE CHANCE because I'm passing it on to Celia when I next visit her. My non-fiction read is the highly recommended TYRANNY OF THE MINORITY: How to Reverse and Authoritarian Turn and Forge a Democracy for All by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. Well-written and extremely thought-provoking. 

I just got hold of PLATFORM DECAY and I can't believe Debs beat me to the punch. Though she's now known for SF, I can also highly recommend Well's fantasy novels. Next up: I'm super excited to read the ARC of Rhys's upcoming THE CASTLE IN THE GLEN. 

Which means I don't have a mystery in rotation! I'm working my way through the Poirot series on Hulu, and would love any recs anyone can share for some good old-fashioned whodunnits, bonus points if they're set in the 1920s or '30s. (I almost wrote "the '20s" but realized we're living there right now...) 

Red readers, what are you reading or looking forward to reading?

Summer Eating by Lucy Burdette

 LUCY BURDETTE: as you know, summer is creeping up on us and it’s not only a great time for reading (see tomorrow’s post for our reading recommendations), but it’s also a great time for eating! (Although for me, when is a bad time for eating? Never!) Here are some recipes and dishes that I am looking forward to making or eating, or are those that I’ve made recently and loved, and then I would love to hear yours.

First up, a recipe for potato salad with olives from The New York Times cooking app. I made this last summer because I was making a dish for our long time supper club. This skirted all the allergy issues and it turned out so good that everybody wanted the leftovers. I will make it again this weekend.

Lemon lime lavender scones were baked in the upcoming A DELICIOUS DECEPTION by Hayley Snow‘s mother who is catering a wedding for a mother of the bridezilla. So I had to bake them as well and they are lovely. Link on mystery lovers kitchen.

You will want this recipe when tomato season comes along. Luckily in Key West, John grew tomatoes on our deck so we were able to sample this before the summer season. The two of us ate all but once slice and then fought over that the next day. I will definitely make this tomato galette again. LINK on Mystery Lovers Kitchen.

This recipe came from Smitten Kitchen Keepers. I’m a sucker for gnocchi and almost always order it if I see it on a menu. So I wanted to try this new recipe for ricotta gnocchi with a pistachio arugula sauce. It was outstanding! Link to my version here.

I am crazy for jalapeño poppers, but I didn’t see how I would ever make them because I don’t deep fry anything. Then one of my fellow Friends of the Key West library board members  showed up with a tray of these poppers for a benefactor event. They are not fried, they are baked, and they look reasonably easy. I will post that recipe as soon as I make them!

OK, Reds, your turn! What will you be cooking or eating this summer? You do not have to actually make it in your own kitchen for this to count.

A Better Late than Never Tribute for Mother's Day by John Brady

LUCY BURDETTE: Last winter I convinced my hub John to take Hallie's class on narrative writing while she was in Key West. He was dubious, but he loved it! His essay about his mother turned out so well that I asked him if I could share it with you.

The Day My Mother Chose the Frying Pan by John Brady

 Mom, stirring her ersatz version of goulash, paused. In our Pennsylvania kitchen my older brother Bob was recounting what he had heard was going on behind Russia’s Iron Curtain: “Those kids have to report their parents to the police if they say something bad about the government.” Mom interrupted her cooking and looked at us: “They could put me in this frying pan before I turned in any of you.”

Dorothy Lindsay Brady - 1913-2015

The image of our mother squeezed into a pan, naked, seared into our young brains. We were stunned, and proud. Wow, she would do anything to protect us.

Both our mom and our dad were children of the Depression, with the emotional scars to prove it. Whereas Dad was a champion kidder, our mom’s personality had square corners. There wasn’t always a middle ground.

She always wanted the best for us. I think she only stopped begging me to “take a math class” after I got my first job out of graduate school. But if someone outside the family said something bad about one of her chicks, look out!

Mom was a natural teacher. “Down the ramp and you’ll be OK,” she coaxed, pushing the little blue bike we all learned on. Then, there I was, flying down Main Street on a two-wheeler!

We normally walked the mile to St. Titus School. But if it was raining, she stuffed the seven of us into our Pontiac station wagon. With her I had to be careful what I wished for. If I pretended to be sick to stay home from school, that might mean a day of licking S & H Green Stamps and pasting them into books.

Mom’s job was more mundane, and a lot harder than Dad’s. After my seventh sibling was born, she got terribly sick. A flotilla of casseroles and Jell-O concoctions arrived at our door. We were all scared; I thought she had polio. After that, Mom quit smoking those Pall Malls, and she got some household help.

Mom grew up on a large ranch in Oklahoma. She was a great horsewoman. She drove competently and fearlessly, so much more confident than most women of her time. She was also a natural athlete - good at tennis, and an amazing putter in golf. She had a hole-in-one in her 80s and came close to shooting her age.

After WWII she came back East to my father’s hometown with many important life skills. When confronted with a live chicken that was wanted on the dinner table, she promptly wrung its neck, which quickly impressed her new father-in-law.

There was only one time I remember seeing her cry. We were at her mother’s house in Oklahoma. Walking into the kitchen, I found her sobbing against her sister Tess’s shoulder. Today, I think she was overwhelmed with her responsibilities, and hated being so far away from her mother and family. At the time, it was frightening to see.

Mom tried to make time for all of us. When I was in the first grade, I complained that all the other kids’ mothers met them as they came out of school. Shortly thereafter, there she was, pushing Lewis or Lisa in a baby carriage up to the steps.

Dorothy had always wanted to have fun. She hated the idea of people just standing around at parties, so hers were memorable affairs that always featured a game, like charades. The passing of years softened her square corners, too. She became less serious… the sense of humor that had always been there emerged… she could laugh at herself as well as at others.

Her grandchildren loved her. No wonder, she knew them from their beginning. When a new grandchild was born, mom packed up her bags and arrived to “get that baby on a schedule.” Was that helpful? Yes! When mom left after getting our first child, Molly all set up, Jana wept.

One of the hardiest laughs I ever heard from her came shortly after she had a stroke at age 102. She had just heard that Donald Trump was running for President. Mom, a lifelong Democrat - she thought the idea preposterous!

Shortly thereafter, she went into a coma. But ever-protective, she wasn’t going anywhere until all of her chicks had arrived. Only then would she set out on her journey to the next world.

If you were telling a story about your mother, where would you start?

Follow John on his Substack

TRAVELING WHILE FEMALE by BARBARA O’NEAL

LUCY BURDETTE: I am always so happy to welcome writer Barbara O’Neal to the blog—and even happier that her newest book, A THOUSAND PAINTED HOURS, will be published in August. (I have already pre-ordered.) She has some interesting thoughts today on traveling as a single woman…

BARBARA O’NEAL: Last night, I was on a fairly empty train rather late, at the SFO airport. It was grim lighting, that tungsten glow that makes everything seedy.

It occurred to me with some surprise that I wasn’t worried about it. As a young woman, I would have been looking over my shoulder, checking for men who might be dangerous. Constantly. I am still aware—I’m not a fool; I can still be pickpocketed or mugged—but this is no longer an overarching, constant, tense, alert worry. I walk through the world like a man. At ease. Sure. Because I have crossed into the blessed territory of invisibility.

What a delight.

Eating dinner at the airport food court, I saw a young man pass, staring at a very young woman at a table in front of me. She was eating. Her hair was a little messy from travel. She didn’t notice him, but he walked twenty feet staring at her so obviously that it irritated me. I wanted to stand up and whack him with my purse. Keep walking, bud.

I remembered when it was me worrying about the unwanted attention of some random guy, finding a place to sit between an old woman and a mother with a child so the strange man couldn’t sit near me.

My son, age 25 or so, talked about going out to the New York clubs with a small group of women. One was very fearful, jumping at shadows, worried about alleyways and knots of guys on the street. Her friend said, “Don’t worry, Ian is with us. No one will mess with us.”

He said, recounting that story to me later, “I had no idea women worry about this all the time. All. The. Time. Did you know?”

Um, yes, son. I did.

I’m taking my granddaughter to Japan next month. She’s 14 and leggy and eccentric, with a wild head of hair that draws the longing gaze of white women (“I love your hair”) but also the meanness of boys at middle school. I feel some sense of relief about the safety of that country, but I also know I will be instructing her constantly, quietly, on how to be female while traveling. I want her to be mighty. And safe.

I honestly worry less about this one than her younger sister. My wild-haired girl is fierce and knows her own mind. She’s the girl other kids ran to when they were being bullied. Her sister is pliant and a pleaser and very pretty in that way some males want to claim—if it is beautiful, it is mine. We will go somewhere, too, in a couple of years. She longs for Germany, which she visited a couple of years ago. I will instruct her carefully.

I wish this was not necessary. I wish I had not spent 40 years sizing up every space I walked through. I traveled anyway, but often I was nervous.

Now I stride through the world like a white man, able to occupy any space without apology or fear. I just wish my granddaughters could begin here, instead of waiting decades to age into it. 

Readers, do you worry when you’re traveling or otherwise out of your element?

More from Lucy, Barbara has some news for the upcoming A Thousand Painted Hours: If you would like a signed copy, you can order one now, and we have some very special things that go along with it. The first is a giveaway of an original piece of collage art I created to commemorate the book. One golden ticket in the books will win the original art.

To order a signed copy, visit Author, Author

You can also pre-order all the other versions—kindle, hardcover ($2 off if you order now), paperback or audio, which is going to be especially fantastic this time. I’ve heard the clips from my narrator and I am so very excited. Pre-orders really help visibility of a book, so I appreciate any help in that direction.

Chekov's Gun in Ulster American

 LUCY BURDETTE: The week before last, John and I dashed into New York to see the play Ulster American at the Irish Repertory Theater. This is a small theater on 22nd street, so it has none of the razzle dazzle of Broadway. But on the other hand, the theater is very cute, the sets simple but perfectly done, and the audience is very close to the action and the actors. 

(Photo from the Irish Rep Instagram)

Two years ago we saw Kate Mulgrew (the cook called Red from Orange is the New Black) in The Beacon, and we’ve supported the theater ever since. The Beacon was both a wonderful show and wonderful performance even if a dark story. (To be fair, the shows we’ve seen are universally Irish and always dark.)

Ulster American takes place on the eve of rehearsals for a new play whose director, playwright, and star actor (Matthew Broderick) are meeting for the first time. The play was dark all the way through, ending with a bloody denouement that I won’t describe in case you go to see it. 

There were some disparate discussions and elements throughout the performance that caught my attention along the way (Maggie Thatcher, a jar of pencils, an eye patch). This had me thinking of Chekov’s Gun:  "One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it". Apparently Chekov was talking about the efficiency of a narrative, recommending that everything unnecessary to the denouement should be removed. And believe me, everything I noticed on that stage showed up again by the end!

This had me thinking about the novel I’m writing—do I take out bits and pieces that don’t advance the narrative? How would I even know at the beginning of a book what will become important by the end?

Red readers and writers, do you think about this question when writing or reading? How often do you notice things in a book that aren’t necessary or don’t belong? 

Amy Ephron's UNSEASONABLY COLD is IN SEASON!

 HALLIE EPHRON: Today it's my great pleasure to welcome my sister Amy Ephron to Jungle Red! She's a lot younger than me and still she beat me, getting started writing years before I took the plunge.

Her brand new book, UNSEASONABLY COLD, is off to a great start.

It's a mystery and a love story. The tag line:
A socialite living in late 1930s New York City, disappears without a trace.

And it just got a fabulous review in AIR MAIL Magazine:

The place is New York; the year is 1939. War is the backdrop of Amy Ephron’s latest novel, a suspenseful noir that travels between the bohemians of Greenwich Village and the aristocrats of uptown. But the society set is far more preoccupied with another matter: the mysterious disappearance of heiress Jane Abbott. None more so than her best friend, Liza, who is haunted by the foreboding last words Jane said to her. Unseasonably Cold’s atmosphere is Wharton and Towles; its page-turning plot is pure Christie. - Air Mail Magazine

Today I'm thrilled to host Amy here on Jungle Red.

Amy, tell us about the crime/event that inspired you to write UNSEASONABLY COLD.

AMY EPHRON: It wasn’t really a crime... unless it was.

When I was in my 20.’s a dear friend had an “accident” on the island of Kauai — toppling from a mountain cliff. His glasses were left on the mountainside.

There was a lot of speculation. Did he fall? Did he jump? Was he pushed? There were rumors someone had been with at the time.

He’d always been so jovial and unconditionly kind. I’d never known about the depression, the heartbreak, or that there might have been drug use. Secrets, illusions, perfectly masked.

His loss was so unexpected….it was an awful and long lasting loss.

HALLIE: I know you started writing UNSEASONABLY COLD years ago... what made you set it aside? And then (lucky for us) what made you pick it up and write to the finish line?

AMY: I wrote three kid’s novels, ‘The Castle in the Mist’ ‘Carnival Magic’ and ‘The Other Side of the Wall’ for Philomel/ Penguin, took a screenplay job, and wrote a silly/fun book (‘The Amazing Baby Name Book')with my daughters Maia Wapnick and Anna Ephron Harari.’

So the manuscript for UNSEASONABLY COLD was just waiting to get finished.

HALLIE: 1930s New York City: What is it about that period that intrigues you.

It was a time a bit like today. The division of wealth and class differences was extreme. So were political and religipus views, discrimination rampant, women’s rights. The war was just beginning, the end of which was so uncertain and unknown, almost a mirror for the story, as no one knows what was happened to Jane.

I think so many people now are experiencing loss that is hard to fathom. 

[Photo by Katrina Dickson]

HALLIE: What kind of research did you do to make the period and the characters come so alive?

AMY: Thank you for saying that. It was a very interesting time for art, what was hanging at the Met, theatre, the world’s fair, beginning Hollywood.

I also researched clothes and food and existing clubs and restaurants which was very fun. But I researched it as it came up. I’ve previously read a lot of fiction and nonfiction about that period.

A bestselling earlier novel of mine “A Cup of Tea” (based on a Katherine Mansfield story - don’t believe in stealing, I bought the rights from her estate.) A story of love, disloyalty, and madness, is set in New York and France at the time of the U.S. entrance to World War I.

HALLIE EPHRON: A wonderful review of the book in AIRMAIL called the book a "historical thriller" -- do you think that feels right?

AMY: Unseasonably Cold is a bit of a hybrid: lit fiction, mystery, love story, historical fiction, noir. I hope it finds many fans! Thanks for having me and being my sister!

HALLIE: It's a terrific book and it will appeal to a broad range of crime fiction readers, and on to straight up Agatha Christie. Hopefully it will also send readers off to find A CUP OF TEA as a chaser.

ABOUT AMY EPHRON: Amy Ephron is a best-selling, award-winning novelist and children’s book author. She is also a journalist, screenwriter and producer. She was a contributing editor to Vogue, The New York Times’ T magazine. She has published in print and online at Airmail Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, Harper’s Bazaar and more. Unseasonably Cold is her 10th novel.

The Reds on Vacation

 

LUCY BURDETTE: Summer’s coming very early this year with Memorial Day on May 24, yikes! I think we’re all feeling a little worn down and overworked by the long winter. We wanted to give you a little notice about a change in our summer schedule here at the Reds. Get out your flip flops and back your bags--the Reds are taking a summer vacation!  We won't go far and we'll still chat every week, but our summer schedule will be a little different as we all write our books and teach our classes and generally catch up. Maybe even go on vacation! Starting next week, May 25, we’ll have a group chat on Mondays and a writer’s choice on Thursdays. We won’t schedule guests this summer either—they get a vacation too:). We know some of you will be disappointed and will miss reading the blog every day–but, we haven’t taken a break in 15 years! (In other words, we’ve saved up our vacation days and decided now’s the time to use them.:). So what will we be doing?

Reds, I am determined to finish The Paris Recipe by June, before I have to get started on Key West #17. After that, we’ve planned a week getaway in Maine with a bunch of grandchildren and other relatives. And after that, maybe stay home and enjoy the summer in Connecticut. What are your plans for the summer?

RHYS BOWEN: as you can imagine I’m taking baby steps forward into a new stage of life. Living alone is something I have never done before. From college dorm to sharing with friends to marriage. So it will feel strange. Being able to do what I want without consulting someone else. So I’m flying down to grandson’s graduation this weekend. I plan to join Clare and co in San Diego, join Dominic either in Canada or San Juan islands and go to England in September   Oh, and finish a book I’ve put on hold and do all the publicity for this summer’s release. 

HALLIE EPHRON: Change is good!

I’ve got a flurry of teaching gigs in the next three months, including the Book Passage bookstore’s annual Mystery Writing Conference https://www.bookpassage.com/mystery. Rhys will be there, too! Also Elizabeth George and Lisa Scottoline and Rachel Howzell Hall…

I’ll be giving a talk for the Grand Canyon Sisters in Crime. Teaching my two-week mystery-writing class for SinC Guppies. Giving several workshops for the annual fabulous Surrey International Writing Conference in October. 

All of these are on my web site at http://hallieephron.com with links. 

Beyond that, my fall to-do list is topped by: Decide what I should do next. I have the start of a novel and some other projects noodling around. A lot of unanswered questions. Very much at a crossroads.

JENN McKINLAY: I’m chiming in from Spain! I’m  visiting the set where they’re shooting the adaptation of my novel PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA which will air on Hallmark Plus in July! Thrilling!

This summer will spent traveling a lot - a visit to CT for a book event at the Cragin Library in Colchester on June 12th, a trip to the Nova Scotia cottage at some point, and possibly a week in San Diego. I’m tired just thinking about it. Oh, and I suppose I have to start writing something again. Hmm…what will it be? 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: My summer starts with a bang as Youngest brings the Very Tall Dutchman home for two weeks in June to met the family! I’ve cleared off my calendar so we can show him some typical Maine delights - a Sea Dogs baseball game, eating at a lobster shack, hiking in Acadia and visiting a Super Wal-Mart. Yes, that last was among the American experiences he wants to explore.

I’ll be working on a book, about which I can say no more at the moment, and I’m planning to devote much more of my time to my garden/grounds, since I’ve let everything go to wrack and ruin in the past few years. I’m planning a couple of stays at Old Orchard Beach, and rounding out the summer with the wedding of the daughter of dear friends.

When you live in Maine, you don’t travel in the summer, because HERE is where everyone wishes they could be!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: My 2027 book is due September 1. My 2026 book will be published on September 1. You do the math about what I will be doing this summer!  And into the fall.

It’s all very exciting, and quite wonderful, and there is absolutely no way I can take a work-free vacation. Happily, luckily, we have a lovely back yard with flowers everywhere and  a pool, and sitting outside and being in the lovely (we hope) weather is always so satisfying.

(I just got back from a whirlwind–Teaching at the MIT Weekend Writing Seminar, teaching the International Thriller Writers 8-hour Master Class (!), and a CraftFest Class and so much more. I was the featured speaker at Crime Conn and and and…well, my schedule is packed as you can see here hankphillippiryan.com/events ! )

And Rhys, we are thinking of you every day.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: This summer I will be doing all the edits for my book, A LONG COLD SLEEP, which apparently now has an April ‘27 release.  And then I’m hoping to have my long-overdue knee replacement, which I’ve been putting off for at least five years because I was trying to finish books. After that, I can start planning for trips. It will be three years in July since I’ve been to London and I am desperate for a visit!

Red readers, what are your summer plans??

Take Another Look At It

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: A brand new visitor to the Reds' world today–and we are so thrilled to welcome her! And  the amazing Rhodi Hawk is asking a very provocative question–see what you think at the end.


“When the Mirror Hangs Upside-Down”

by Rhodi Hawk


On a snowy Colorado night in the 1970s, I tore up the stairs, screaming, to escape my aunt’s basement. You’d think my sister and I had found a man wielding a bag of bones down there. But no. We had merely watched something scary on TV.

The thing is, it felt like something had happened to us. The terror burned its brand onto my psyche. Forty years later, I remember every detail. The red and gold weave of the sofa as I hid my eyes. The scent of coffee, cigarettes, and heating oil. The way my sister finally burst from her seat in a dash for the stairs, which mobilized me from frozen terror to galloping terror. I can feel the imprint of the textured linoleum beneath my fingers as I clawed stair treads, vaulting up to safety with hands and feet.

Fast forward twenty years to the 1990s. That same show came up again in the TV listings, and I resolved to face my fear with a friend, this time in my sunny living room. I warned her it was going to be terrifying.

Well. The show was ridiculous. Pure camp. In the climax, a cursed broach comes to life as a rat the size of a Mastiff, but it just looks like a big stuffed animal. My friend and I were palsied with laughter. Also, I was mystified by my little-girl terror, which made no sense in my new reality twenty years later.

The show was called Night Gallery, an anthology like The Twilight Zone. Both featured Rod Serling. The name of the episode was “A Feast of Blood,” based on the short story by mystery writer Dulcie Gray.

Now, in the 2020s, three more decades have passed, and I have yet another perspective. I see that the writing was actually quite good—it’s just that the monstery climax fell victim to cinematic limitations of the day. And it starred Sondra Locke—something even my twentysomething self didn’t pick up on despite having seen her in several Clint Eastwood movies.

It amazes me how our perceptions change over time. Sometimes there’s contrast even in the short term. 

After a neurological disease put me in a wheelchair, I gained a new delight in small things. 

An enlargement of matters I’d previously breezed past. Favorite old novels inverted themselves to reveal fresh layers.

Even new novels: I read Lisa Jewell’s None of This Is True twice in three months, and the second reading felt like an entirely different book. A straight murder suspense became an investigation into vagaries of intense relationships. Though I clocked these things in both readings, they morphed in detail and emotion. I understand, of course, that the change in me informed the change in what I read. It was as if the mirror had been hanging upside down, then got flipped.

In my new novel This Town Won’t Tell, a roadhouse waitress perceives herself as a lone wolf in her snowy mountain town. That perception changes after she is preyed upon by dangerous people, forcing her to reach out to the townsfolk who have always been

waiting for her to let them in.

Have you ever read something, only to re-read it later with an entirely different experience?

I’ll confess something to you. For all my maturing, and despite my newly evolved analytical lens, as I typed the words “A Feast of Blood” just now, I still felt a whole-body tension—coupled with giddy hysterics.

HANK: SO interesting!~ I am not much of a re-reader, I have to admit, but I saw the musical Miss Saigon many many years ago, and thought, yes, fine, this is fine. And then last year-ish, I saw it again, and was knocked out with the depth of it. Certainly the show had not changed–but I had.

And in high school they forced me to read Our Town, the play by Thornton Wilder, when I was in high school and I thought it was so silly and melodramatic. Now I cannot even think about it without crying.

How about you, Reds and Readers?


Rhodi Hawk is the International Thriller Writers award-winning author of several novels, including her latest, This Town Won’t Tell. In recent years, a motor neuron disease has left Rhodi a wheelchair warrior with impaired cognitive ability. That neurodivergence informs Janey’s struggle with reading in This Town Won’t Tell. Devoted to wildlife and the natural world, Rhodi lives in piney woods with a pair of vultures, her dog, Frankie, her cat, Pumpkin, and her husband, thriller writer Hank Schwaeble.


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