Book to screen: Hits and misses

HALLIE EPHRON: I’m sure I’m not the only mystery reader who’s been variously delighted or dismayed by the different actors who’ve portrayed iconic fictional sleuths. My all time favorites include Leo McKern as Rumpole of the Bailey, Helen Mirren as Jane Tennison, and John Thaw as the quintessential Morse. I also love the entire cast of detective on NEW TRICKS. Until they changed up the actors and it went downhill.

Also less than a rousing success was Katherine Heigl’s Stephanie Plum. Tom Cruise felt violently miscast as Jack Reacher. Hopefully Amazon’s new Jack Reacher show will be truer to the character with Alan Ritchson in the role -- at least he’s got the height and he once played a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

A ton of actors have played Hercule Poirot, including:
- Peter Ustinov
- Albert Finney
- Kenneth Branagh
- David Suchet
- John Malkovich

… and Miss Marple has been portrayed numersouly by:
- Margaret Rutherford
- Angela Lansbury
- Joan Hickson
- Julia McKenzie
- Geraldine McEwan)

And then Sherlock Holmes who has probably been portrayed more times than any fictional character by, among others:
- Basil Rathbone
- Christopher Plummer
- Michael Caine
- Jeremy Brett
- Robert Downey Jr.
- Benedict Cumberbatch)

What have been the hits and misses for you when it comes to seeing an actor play a favorite fictional detective, and what made the difference? I know whom I’d give stars and who’d get raspberries.

S. A. Lelchuk, inspired by a cross-country drive to write a kick-ass character

Yesterday's winners: Flora Church & Liz Milliron win a copy of Kris Frieswick's THE GHOST MANUSCRIPT, and Kris thanks everyone for their great advice.  (Flora, Liz, go to my web site; my contact page has my email... send me your mailing addresses so Kris can send you a book.)

HALLIE EPHRON: It's always exciting when a new series and its writer start generating the kind of buzz that's accompanying S. A. Lelchuk's SAVE ME FROM DANGEROUS MEN. The series features Nikki Griffin, not your typical private investigator. In her office above her bookstore's shelves and stacks, where she luxuriates in books and the comfort they provide, she also tracks certain men. Dangerous men. Men who've hurt the women they claim to love. Clearly what's selling the book (already optioned for film and TV) is the main character.

So here's Saul to talk about Nikki.

S. A. LELCHUK: Hello, Jungle Red community!

My protagonist, Nikki Griffin, has been compared to Lisbeth Salander and Jack Reacher, which was so exciting for me, as a huge fan of both those series. There are plenty of differences, of course: Nikki lacks the dark, pure vengefulness of Lisbeth, and certainly the kind of raw power and physical imposingness of Reacher.

I wanted a character who is larger than life in some ways – able to dish out punishment to those who deserve it – but also susceptible to the same fears that probably most of us have felt.

Uncertainties about career, worries about relationships, feeling not in control of her emotions and reactions, this intense, sometimes blinding loyalty to those she loves… to me these things are fairly integral to who Nikki is.

A few readers have liked that Nikki doesn’t have to trade emotion, especially empathy, for toughness, and that’s been great to see, because that was a big part of how I envisioned her. I hate the notion that toughness needs to mean cold-heartedness or aloofness.

One reviewer compared her to Becky Sharp; in fact, Nikki even worries aloud about this similarity. But, as she is reminded in the book, even though they share a … definite single-mindedness, Nikki is ultimately driven by empathy, by a desire to protect. She’s gone through this horrific childhood tragedy, and in her mind, she failed to be there when it mattered. She bears a lot of guilt, and might never be able to fully let go of the idea of protectionism—even if she sometimes can’t help but take it to an extreme.

Sometimes I feel writing and insomnia go together, as Nikki might say, like gin and olives. I first came up with Nikki at about 3:00 am one morning, and by the time I fell asleep at 6:00, I had the rudiments of who she was. That day I happened to be starting a solo cross-country drive from New Hampshire to California.

Turns out that meandering, solo road trips through remote parts of the country are not only a guaranteed way to feel deep gratitude for the invention of satellite radio, but also a pretty perfect way to wrestle with the beginnings of a book! I wrote the first scene in an Applebee’s in Eerie, Pennsylvania, continued in the prairie around the Badlands in North Dakota, through Yellowstone, the Southwest, and so forth. If time allowed, before every new book I’d drive cross-country alone.

The suspense/mystery genre is a little terrifying, because so much amazing stuff is already out there! The challenge for me was: how to find a bit of ground that maybe hasn’t been fully stepped on, and yet also pay homage to writers I love? I think having Nikki run a bookstore allowed me to get at the latter, and it’s been great seeing the responses from book-lovers who enjoy the literary references.

Only so much can go into a single, 300-ish page book, so I’m delighted this is the start of a series. Getting to explore more backstory, bring back favorite characters or introduce new ones – these are very fun things to play with. Hopefully Nikki will be around for a long time! 

HALLIE: I'm a huge fan, too, of Jack Reacher and Lisbeth Salander. What a power couple they make!! AND adding the bookstore sands the edges.  

Anyone else out there who found a road trip a fertile time for coming up with great ideas?

If you're in Phoenix near The Poisoned Pen Bookstore on Saturday at 2PM, drop by and hear Saul talk about SAVE ME FROM DANGEROUS MEN. 

A Visit from Nick Petrie

INGRID THOFT

Last year I had the immense pleasure of sharing a couple of tour dates with the wonderful Nick Petrie.  The author of the Peter Ash series, heir apparent to Lee Child's Jack Reacher series, Nick is a terrific writer and friend.  One of the highlights of the Toronto Bouchercon was wandering the streets on an epic 3-hour walk with Nick, during which we discussed life, literature, and the mystifying number of vegan bakeries we passed.  

Nick's newest book in the Peter Ash Series, "Light It Up" will be out on January 16, and it's fantastic.  Nick was kind enough to chat with me recently, and he'll be here today to answer your questions.

INGRID THOFT:  “Light It Up” focuses on the legal cannabis industry in Colorado and the birth of a related security industry.  I was particularly interested in learning about the intersection of those security firms and veterans, a fact that dovetails perfectly with Peter Ash’s background.  Can you tell readers a little bit about that?  

NICK PETRIE:  I first learned about this in a series of article on the subject in the New York Times.  Because of federal banking rules, the recreational cannabis industry, now legal in six states, has little to no access to the banks.  They can’t write checks or accept credit cards.  They pay their suppliers, their employees – even their taxes – in cash. And their product is lightweight, portable, and very valuable.  

At the same time, small security companies are springing up, many owned and staffed by veterans, to help protect cannabis entrepreneurs from those challenges. I’ve talked to many veterans who really miss the sense of mission and camaradarie they had in the military, and this work checks a lot of those boxes – plus it provides badly needed jobs for veterans.  

From a crime writer’s point of view, this setup was irresistible.  Guns, drugs, and money – what could possibly go wrong?


IPT:  Is there a type of scene you particularly enjoy writing?  Action?  Dialogue?  Description of settings? 

Nick braving the Milwaukee cold

NP:  I love all of those kinds of scenes, but I think my favorite is the moment of gathering tension before the characters do something big and emotional.  That might be an act of violence, a personal confrontation, or a move toward some kind of discovery or revelation.  I really enjoy that moment when the emotion and tension are building, but still held in check.  For some reason, I often set these scenes in the dark, or in a car – or in a darkened car – where the characters are with each other, but not necessarily looking at each other.  Waiting.

Funny, I never seem to write these scenes on purpose – they just develop naturally.  At first I think I’m just killing time, but eventually I realize that something else is happening.  These scenes tend to use all the tools you mentioned above – setting and description, along with dialogue, to create that mood, which usually leads to action.  

IPT:  I loved seeing the names Jon Jordan and Ruth Jordan appear as character names.  Am I right in assuming this is in honor of our Crimespree friends?  How did that come about?

NP:  This is absolutely in honor of Jon and Ruth, the founders, editors, and publishers of "Crimespree Magazine," founders and head potentates of the Murder and Mayhem in Milwaukee crime fiction conference, and multiple past co-chairs of Bouchercon.  One of the pleasures of being a writer is that you can toss in these little Easter eggs for people you love and admire.

  
I have the great luck of living in Milwaukee, just a few miles from Jon and Ruth.  Before my first book came out, they took me under their wing and gave me the best introduction to the crime fiction community anyone could ask for.  Unfortunately, as so often happens in crime fiction, Jon (the character, not the human) had to die.  But that was part of the fun.  I’m so glad and proud to be part of their community.

IPT:  What’s next for you and Peter Ash?

NP:  I’ve finished a good working draft of Peter #4, which is set in Memphis, and I’ll be diving into edits while on tour in mid-January.  Tour events are on my website, www.nickpetrie.com, and also on my Facebook page.  

Ingrid and Nick 

I’m also thinking quite a bit about Peter #5, which will be set in Iceland.  I already have a fair amount of early thinking done on it – which is very unusual for me – so I’m really looking forward to seeing that book unfold.  2018 is already getting quite full – I’ve been invited to the Tucson Festival of Books in March, I’ll be at Thrillerfest in New York in July, and of course Bouchercon in Florida in September.  Plus my son and I plan to go back to Iceland this summer, to circumnavigate the island in the name of literary research – we have a great time bumming around together.  Then there’s that book to write….

IPT:  Those pesky books!  Always needing to be written!

Not only will Nick be here to answer your questions today, but he's also giving away a copy of "Light It Up."  Just comment to enter!

Light It Up - click here to read an excerpt

In this action-packed thriller starring war veteran Peter Ash, a well-planned and flawlessly executed hijacking reveals the hidden dangers of Colorado's mellowest business, but Ash may find there’s more to this crime than meets the eye. 

Combat veteran Peter Ash leaves a simple life rebuilding hiking trails in Oregon to help his good friend Henry Nygaard, whose daughter runs a Denver security company that protects cash-rich cannabis entrepreneurs from modern-day highwaymen. Henry’s son-in-law and the company’s operations manager were carrying a large sum of client money when their vehicle vanished without a trace, leaving Henry’s daughter and her company vulnerable.

When Peter is riding shotgun on another cash run, the cargo he’s guarding comes under attack and he narrowly escapes with his life. As the assaults escalate, Peter has to wonder: for criminals this sophisticated, is it really just about the cash?

After finding himself on the defensive for too long, Peter marshals his resources and begins to dig for the truth in a scheme that is bigger—and far more lucrative—than he’d ever anticipated. With so much on the line, his enemy will not give up quietly...and now he has Peter directly in his sights.

Nick Petrie received his MFA in fiction from the University of Washington and won a Hopwood Award for short fiction while an undergraduate at the University of Michigan. His story “At the Laundromat” won the 2006 Short Story Contest in The Seattle Review, a national literary journal. His first novel, The Drifter, won the 2016 Thriller Award and the 2016 Barry Award for Best First Novel, and was nominated for 2016 Edgar and Anthony Awards for Best First Novel, as well as the 2016 Hammett Prize for Best Novel. He was named one of Apple’s 10 Writers to Read in 2017, and won the 2016 Literary Award from the Wisconsin Library Association.  His books in the Peter Ash series are The Drifter, Burning Bright and Light It Up. A husband and father, he has worked as a carpenter, remodeling contractor, and building inspector. He lives in Milwaukee.

My Tour Buddy, Nick Petrie

INGRID THOFT

I had lots of fun on my "Duplicity" tour in January, largely because of my tour buddy, Nick Petrie.  Some of you may be familiar with Nick from his debut novel "The Drifter," which is nominated for the Edgar and Barry Awards for Best First Novel and the Hammett Prize for Best Novel.  The second book in the series, "Burning Bright" was released in January, hence the shared tour dates.  Nick's main character, Peter Ash, has been likened to Jack Reacher, by Lee Child himself!  His books are critically acclaimed, thought-provoking thrillers, and I have nothing but acclaim for Nick as a travel companion and friend.  He was recently in Seattle, and we caught up,

INGRID: Tell me about your main character, Peter Ash?  What inspired you to write a character who is a veteran?

NICK: Peter Ash is a highly-trained Marine Corps veteran who signed up to help his country and make a difference.  After eight years of war, he returned home with an unwanted souvenir, what he calls the White Static – an intense claustrophobia caused by post-traumatic stress that makes it hard for him to be indoors for more than a few minutes.  Like many veterans I’ve met, Peter has a deep need to be useful and a profound sense of right and wrong, which combine into a powerful drive to help others out of trouble.

I’m not a veteran myself, and for many years I didn’t think I knew many people who’d served in the military.  But in my day job as a home inspector – I’m that guy you hire to tell you (hopefully) everything wrong with your dream house – I realized during the early stages of the Great Recession that many of my inspection clients were veterans just coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan.  I’m a pretty curious guy, and I found myself having some truly fascinating conversations with my clients.  They really opened my eyes to the challenges our veterans face coming home from war.  I didn’t know I was researching a novel, but as it turned out, I’d already started writing “The Drifter” somewhere in the back of my mind.  Funny how that works.

Anyway, Peter is a lot of fun to write – he gets himself into some fairly crazy situations – and he’s a great excuse to keep learning more about the evolving lives of veterans and anything else that my oddball brain finds interesting.

INGRID: “The Drifter” takes place in Milwaukee, and “Burning Bright” is set on the West Coast, including some heart stopping scenes in a forest of giant redwoods.  Why did you change locations, and can you tell us where the third book is set? 

I love writing about place – I think of the setting of a novel almost as another character – and certain stories lend themselves to certain settings.  Milwaukee, a rust-belt city suffering hard in the Great Recession, was the perfect place for "The Drifter."  With "Burning Bright," I wanted to write about technology, and the west coast was the logical setting for that.  I also lived in Seattle for ten years, have travelled all over the west, and wanted to write about some of the places I truly love.

Another answer, to be completely honest, is that I’m deeply afraid of getting bored, and changing settings feels like a great way to keep a series fresh and evolving.  I can change the subject matter and the scale of the story easily just by dropping Peter in a new town with new characters.  Plus each new setting suggests a new plot – so the truest answer, I suppose, is that I’m kinda lazy.

My third Peter Ash book is called “Light It Up” and is set in Colorado.  Peter gets involved in the new cannabis industry – drugs, guns, and big money.  It was big fun to write, plus it gave me a great reason to go explore Denver and Boulder and spend a few days backpacking in the Rockies.  

INGRID: That's the first I've heard of the title!  Very apropos!  So what do readers think about Peter?  What kind of feedback do you get from them?

NICK: I was really nervous, writing about a veteran when I’m not a veteran myself.  This is a subject I’ve grown to care deeply about, and it was important to me to get things right.  Since “The Drifter” came out, I’ve had many conversations, both in-person and online, with veterans and their family members, telling me how much they appreciate the care I took with the emotional details.  One of my favorite conversations was at a library event.  Two sisters, whose husbands both served in Vietnam, told me the book helped them understand their husbands better.  Honestly, I can’t think of a higher compliment. 

INGRID: What has surprised you most about becoming a published author? 

Frankly, I was surprised I’d ever become a published author to begin with!  I’d written three books I couldn’t get published, and I’d given up on ever publishing anything.  I wrote “The Drifter” just for myself, writing the book I most wanted to read.  To discover not only that a major publisher wanted the book, but that so many people would actually read it and enjoy it and tell their friends about it?  Pretty much blows my mind on a daily basis.   

Another great surprise is how welcoming the crime fiction community has been.  Who’d have thought that people who write about death and dismemberment would be so nice?  (I’m from Wisconsin, so I’m required to be nice.  Otherwise the authorities make you move to Illinois.) 

INGRID: It is an amazingly supportive community.  Is there a wannabe book lurking in the back of your brain, something you would write if you didn’t have to consider agents, editors, and fans?  A romance?  Sci-fi?

Oh, I have a few ticklers in the dark recesses of my demented brain.  I’d like to write about Milwaukee again – it’s a fascinating place, with a lot of layers.  The book would be something gritty and weird and maybe internet-y.  I’d like to try my hand at writing for young adults – maybe Peter Ash’s teenage years?  I’m so impressed by good YA writers.  Those books have to be extremely tight, and I think it must be really difficult to make them look so damn easy.  But those two ideas actually seem fairly reasonable.  The true leap would be some science fiction space opera – I’m a sci-fi geek from waaaay back, so that would be loads of fun.  If I could pull it off. 

If you haven't read "The Drifter" or "Burning Bright," you're missing out on a terrific series.  Nick will be here today to answer your questions, and he's giving away a signed copy of "Burning Bright."  Be sure to include your email in your comment!

BURNING BRIGHT

In the new novel featuring war veteran Peter Ash, “an action hero of the likes of Jack Reacher or Jason Bourne” (Lincoln Journal-Star), Ash has a woman’s life in his hands—and her mystery is stranger than he could ever imagine.

War veteran Peter Ash sought peace and quiet among the towering redwoods of northern California, but the trip isn’t quite the balm he’d hoped for. The dense forest and close fog cause his claustrophobia to buzz and spark, and then he stumbles upon a grizzly, long thought to have vanished from this part of the country. In a fight of man against bear, Peter doesn’t favor his odds, so he makes a strategic retreat up a nearby sapling.

There, he finds something strange: a climbing rope, affixed to a distant branch above. It leads to another, and another, up through the giant tree canopy, and ending at a hanging platform. On the platform is a woman on the run. From below them come the sounds of men and gunshots.

Just days ago, investigative journalist June Cassidy escaped a kidnapping by the men who are still on her trail. She suspects they’re after something belonging to her mother, a prominent software designer who recently died in an accident. June needs time to figure out what’s going on, and help from someone with Peter’s particular set of skills.

Only one step ahead of their pursuers, Peter and June must race to unravel this peculiar mystery. What they find leads them to an eccentric recluse, a shadowy pseudo-military organization, and an extraordinary tool that may change the modern world forever.

 

Nick Petrie received his MFA in fiction from the University of Washington and won a Hopwood Award for short fiction while an undergraduate at the University of Michigan.  His story “At the Laundromat” won the 2006 Short Story Contest in The Seattle Review, a national literary journal.  His first novel, "The Drifter," was nominated for 2016 Edgar and Barry awards for Best First Novel, and the 2016 Hammett Prize for Best Novel. A husband and father, he has worked as a carpenter, remodeling contractor, and building inspector.  He lives in Milwaukee.  "Burning Bright" is his second novel, and the sequel to "The Drifter."

Hard Cold Winter with Glen Erik Hamilton

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Let's turn back the clock a bit, to Bouchercon 2014 in Longbeach, California. I was lucky enough to snag a galley of a debut novel called PAST CRIMES by a writer named Glen Erik Hamilton. It was one book out of many accumulated at the conference, but I was intrigued by the synopsis so I picked it up first. And, continuing our binge reading theme from yesterday, I read it as straight through as I could manage.

Then I said, "This one is going to be a winner." And now it's nominated for an Edgar for Best First Novel and I am patting myself on the back!!

 So of course I was thrilled to read the second book in Glen's Van Shaw series, HARD COLD WINTER, which is out today. It does NOT suffer from "sophomore slump," let me tell you. It is, if anything, more unputdownable that the first Van Shaw book, and this is now my favorite new series.

Here's a bit about HARD COLD WINTER: Former Army Ranger and thief Van Shaw is thrust into a maelstrom of danger as lethal and unpredictable as the war he left behind in this emotionally powerful and gritty follow up to the acclaimed Past Crimes.

When an old crony of Van's career criminal grandfather calls in a favor, the recently-discharged veteran embarks on a dangerous journey to the Olympic Mountains, in search of a missing girl tied to Van's own felonious past. What he discovers taps into dark memories, leaving Van vulnerable when an avalanche of trouble hits. A fellow Ranger from Afghanistan appears on his doorstep, desperate for help. And as the investigation heats up, Van finds himself caught between a billionaire businessman and vicious gangsters, each with different methods of playing dirty. 

And here's Glen to tell you  how he tacked the challenge of the SECOND BOOK.

GLEN ERIK HAMILTON:

 

To the Power of Two: Writing the Second Book in Your Series

Our hosts at Jungle Red Writers are experts at navigating the choppy waters of writing a series.  I’m still tapping my compass, wondering if the N on it stands for Not Yet…

Less than three years ago, I was an unpublished writer with a shiny new manuscript, having his very first conversation on the phone with the woman who might, if I were very fortunate, offer to become my literary agent.  

One of her starter questions was: “Is this book the first in a series?”  I assured her that it was, and I had hopes for that series to be a long one.  That was partly a practical decision: Series sell better.  But there’s also the creative advantages.  I loved and still love the idea of gradually assembling a large cast of characters over time, and having them bounce off one another in different combinations, and with different conflicts.  

That conversation was nerve-wracking (for me), encouraging (from her), and ultimately successful for both of us.   We sold that manuscript as part of a two-book deal within a handful of months.  My debut PAST CRIMES came out one year ago, the follow-up HARD COLD WINTER is about to hit the stands, and I’m hip-deep into writing my third.  

Volumes have been written (even second volumes!) about the challenges of writing a second book.  Meeting both reader and publisher expectations.  Reintroducing your characters and settings economically.  Going bigger, getting better.  Just considering all of those hurdles can make your knees shake.

So let’s Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive and talk through a few questions.  I wrestled with these demands while drafting HARD COLD WINTER.  Answer them for yourself, and you’ll have some foundation blocks for your next brilliant effort.

Is this Book Two, or Act Two?

If your novel is Book Two of a long series, you have some flexibility.  You can revisit themes, allow for new characters and slower character growth, and even expand on the world-building you started in Book One while your heroes and heroines are jumping through the hoops of the plot.   

But if your series was conceived as having only three or four books, then you better get on with that larger story in Book Two.   Big obstacles, new goals, and the classic Dark Night of the Soul for your protagonist, setting up the climax in the final entries.  Acts Two are infamous for the difficulty of having no beginnings and no endings.  Beat that problem.  Introduce a major twist that forces characters (good and evil) to re-evaluate the game.  Kill off someone your readers might have thought essential to the climax.  Defy some of your own expectations.

This isn’t to say that protagonists shouldn’t undergo those trials during a longer series.  Your heroine might still be recovering from the events of Book One, or realize that her corner of the world isn’t as secure as she imagined.  That’s good.  Force some change upon them.  Which leads me to…

Will My Characters Change?  

This seems like an obvious answer (Change is conflict!  Conflict is good!  Characters must have an arc!), until you consider how many protagonists remain largely the same during long series.  Miss Marple.  Spenser.  Jack Reacher.  The world around them might mark time, but our heroes just keep on keeping on.   

That’s both limiting and freeing.  I know Spenser’s not going to die.  I know he’s not going to reach an age where thrombosis is a bigger danger to him than thugs.  But Boston is not the same city it was in the early seventies, when that ex-heavyweight boxer first climbed into the fictional ring.  The Spenser of today has a smartphone and knows his way around the internet, like any good P.I.  He doesn’t change much, but he adapts.

Even if you decide to let your characters change significantly, there’s the question of the internal calendar.  My own lead character, Van Shaw, is a young guy.  He could have an adventure each year for twenty years, aging in real time, and still be in his forties.   But while drafting the third book, I already find myself deliberately clouding the elapsed time.  Ten months between the events of PAST CRIMES and HARD COLD WINTER.  Maybe only six months between HCW and the third book.  Bending the relationship between the pages and the years, so that Van hits the big Three-Oh when I want him to, and not before.  (Wouldn’t that be a nice trick for all of us?)

To What Are Your Readers Looking Forward?

Here’s the big one.  By the time you’re feverishly working on Book Two, you may already have some feedback on your Debut – from friendly readers, keen-eyed editors, and maybe even reviewers.  What stuck with them?  What did they love?  It’s great to hear praise, but it’s also critical to listen to it.  Because those bits of candy are what’s going to bring your readers back, hopefully again and again.  

Note that lesson doesn’t mean robotically repeating the same action scenes or romantic flirtations (this is the tricky part, people), but building on them – adding a chocolate coating to the candy.  

This also doesn’t mean serving up anything and everything your audience is clamoring for.  To quote Joss Whedon – who knows a little something about an impassioned fan base -- “What they want is different from what they need.”  And what readers need is to watch their heroes and heroines struggle, overcome, and struggle again.  No rest for the valiant.  No happy endings, at least not without many more adventures.  Many more books.   

Here are a couple of questions for YOU.  Chime in on the comments with your input! (and Glen will give a copy of HARD COLD WINTER to a lucky commenter!)

For the JRW Hosts, and other Writers – When starting your second novels, did you already have the questions above answered?  Were there other concerns that made you step back and consider the direction of the overall series?

For Readers – Do you like it when heroes and heroines change significantly over time?  Or do you prefer your lead characters to be the eye in the hurricane around them?

DEBS: What a challenge, REDS and readers! Tell us what you think!

Glen Erik Hamilton's debut PAST CRIMES has been nominated for Best First Novel at the 2016 Edgar Awards.  PAST CRIMES was given starred reviews by Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal, and called "an exciting heir to the classic detective novel" by Kirkus.  The second book in the Van Shaw series, HARD COLD WINTER, will be published in March by William Morrow (US) and Faber & Faber (UK).  A native of Seattle, Glen now lives in California but frequently returns to his hometown to soak up the rain.  Follow his wet footprints on Facebook and on Twitter @GlenErikH.   glenerikhamilton.com

Reaching beyond Reacher: Jon Land's role models for Caitlin Strong

 HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Will we all agree? Or won’t we? Not counting our moms and grandmothers, who do you think illustrates a “strong” woman? Interesting, isn’t it, to think what that even means? Especially these days when strength often means juggling.

But let’s talk fiction. The fab Jon Land—creator of Caitlin Strong—has some pretty perfect ideas. And then—wants ours!

I’m thinkin’—Melanie Griffith in Working Girl. Lots of Katharine Hepburn. and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday.   I love Tea Leoni in Madame Secretary and wonder if could play Jane Ryland. Yes, right?

JON LAND: I conceived Caitlin Strong, hero now of seven books with the publication of STRONG LIGHT OF DAY, to be a female action hero adept at handling a role almost invariably given to men. Kind of like a female Jack Reacher, Lee Child’s wondrously iconic series stalwart.

But strong women (pun intended!) are actually nothing new and Caitlin comes from a pop culture tradition of similarly able females, either with their fists, their guns, their wits, and often all three.

Let’s look at a few before I turn things over to you for your own thoughts and, hopefully, choices I look forward to commenting on.

1) Ripley in Aliens (Director’s Cut): I specified the film’s Director’s Cut because it establishes that the root of the great Ellen Ripley’s maternal bond with Nute lies in the fact that her own daughter was already dead by the time she returned from her original deep space mission. That sets the tone for a relentlessly intense performance by Sigourney Weaver that’s every bit the equal of anything the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis have ever done, climaxing with one of the greatest cinematic battles of all time that begins with the classic line, “Get away from her, you bitch!” The standard by which all female action heroes will forever be judged.

2) Beatrix Kiddo in Kill Bill, Parts One and Two: The old saying “Revenge is a dish best served cold” has never been better applied than in Quentin Tarantanio’s three-hour-plus magnum opus. From the very first shot, and continuing through some brilliantly staged action set pieces, Uma Thurman chews up the scenery, and pretty much every bad guy/girl who crosses her path, including the Crazy 88s and the other members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad she was once a part of. She is essentially playing the kind of role mastered by Clint Eastwood, a female Dirty Harry or a Woman (literally for a while) With No Name. A wronged hero who morphs into a force of nature in the course of her deadly quest.

3) Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games: Speaking of quests, none is more noble than Katniss Everdeen’s when she steps in for her sister to, unwittingly, claim her place in destiny. Brilliantly played by Jessica Lawrence, like Ripley and Beatrix, Katniss is only doing what she feels she has to and what necessity has forced upon her. And through all the battles and PG-13 bloodshed, you never once get the feeling she’s enjoying it or wouldn’t prefer being back home in her district shooting rabbits instead of fellow competitors and, ultimately, forces of President Snow’s tyrannical government.

4) Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz: Is there any more simple, noble or defining a quest than Dorothy’s? No, we’re not in Kansas anymore, we’re in Oz, a world whose beauty belies the darkness that lurks both above and below the surface. Judy Garland’s stellar performance as the farm girl turned waif is wondrously magical since all she wants to do is get home. If revenge is one classic theme, then returning home is another, dating all the way back to Homer’s The Iliad and Odyssey. The book especially was a deceptively dark version of that classic, as it explored the nature and limits of childhood dreams and the fleeting nature of youth. That at the end of the Yellow Brick Road, in a world of endless enchantment, only a simple man lurks behind the curtain.

5) Princess Leia in the Star Wars movies: Viewed in retrospect, Carrie Fisher’s over-the-top performance might seem clichéd and campy. But that shouldn’t detract from Princess Leia’s single-minded devotion to a mission that ultimately results in the sacrifice of her own home planet of Alderaan. Viewed through that lens, Leia overcomes the loss of everything by eventually defeating and destroying her tormenters. A wonderful metaphor for the abuse suffered by women, both sexual and psychological, in thrillers dating all the way back to Dracula. She turns the tables, doing whatever it takes and mastering whatever skills she needs to overcome the forces of the Empire that seeks to do to countless others what it has done to her.

6) Carrie Mathison in Homeland: In essence, Claire Danes’s brilliant portrayal of a CIA operative who triumphs in spite of her hardships and handicaps is a kind of post-modern combination of Dorothy and Leia. Like Dorothy, all she really wants is something she can call home but, like Leia, circumstances both tragic and otherwise will forever keep her from it. She never shies from the mission because, like all great heroes, the mission is what defines her and what keeps her going no matter the terrible emotional price she pays along the way. Her bipolar disorder brilliantly defines her own solitary quest as merely trying to live a normal life, never mind one fraught with risks and challenges normally assigned male former special operators searching for redemption or absolution. Carrie’s quest, on the other hand, is both a means and an end in itself, forming a treadmill off which she can never fully step.  

HANK: Ooh,  how about Alicia Florrick?  Reds, chime in!

Jon Land is the USA Today bestselling author of the 38 novels, including seven titles in the critically acclaimed Caitlin Strong series: Strong Enough to Die, Strong Justice, Strong at the Break, Strong Vengeance, Strong Rain Falling (winner of the 2014 International Book Award and 2013 USA Best Book Award for Mystery-Suspense) and Strong Darkness (winner of the 2014 USA Books Best Book Award and the 2015 International Book Award for Thriller). His latest, Strong Light of Day, will be followed by Darkness Rising, his sci-fi collaboration with Heather Graham coming from Forge in June of 2016. Jon is a 1979 graduate of Brown University, lives in Providence, Rhode Island and can be found on the Web at jonlandbooks.com or on Twitter @jondland.

About Strong Light of DayFifth-generation Texas ranger Caitlin Strong is involved in an international plot rooted in secrets from the Cold War. She's summoned when thirty high school kids from a Houston prep school vanish during a field trip, including the son of her lover, Cort Wesley Masters. As if that wasn’t enough, Caitlin also has to deal with a crazed rancher whose entire herd of cattle has been picked clean to the bone.

Glen Erik Hamilton--Past Crimes

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Can I just rave a little about our guest today? Glen Erik Hamilton's first novel, PAST CRIMES, comes out on March 3rd. This really is a "can't put it down" book, and one of the most polished first novels I've read in a long time. Here's a little synopsis:

When his estranged grandfather is shot and left for dead, an Army Ranger plunges into the criminal underworld of his youth to find a murderer . . . and uncovers a shocking family secret. From the time he was six years old, Van Shaw was raised by his Irish immigrant grandfather Donovan to be a thief—to boost cars, beat security alarms, crack safes, and burglarize businesses. But at eighteen, Dono's namesake and protégé suddenly broke all ties to that life and the people in it. Van escaped into the military, serving as an elite Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, after ten years of silence, Dono has asked his grandson to come home to Seattle. "Tar abhaile, más féidir leat"—Come home, if you can.

Taking some well-earned leave, Van heads to the Pacific Northwest, curious and a little unnerved by his grandfather's request. But when he arrives at Dono's house in the early hours of the morning, Van discovers the old thief bleeding out on the floor from a gunshot to the head. The last time the two men had seen each other Dono had also been lying on the floor—with Van pointing a gun at his heart. With a lifetime of tough history between him and the old man, the battle-tested Ranger knows the cops will link him to the crime.

Advance praise has compared Hamilton to writers like Dennis Lehane, Robert B. Parker, and John D. MacDonald, but it was Lee Child that popped into my mind when I  began PAST CRIMES. Like Reacher, Van Shaw has served in the military and is a bit of a loner, but Shaw is very much his own man. And yes, I got to read an advance copy of the book, and I got to ask Glen at least some of the things I was dying to know. Here's Glen to share!

DEBS: The setting of Seattle is so palpable in PAST CRIMES. Why did you choose to set the book in the marinas and working class bars of Seattle?

GLEN:  The marinas were an easy choice.  I grew up aboard boats, and setting scenes in and around the harbors and waterways just felt natural.  It’s also useful for fiction.  Seattle is darn near an island itself, it isn’t far from dozens of actual islands both in and out of the States, and of course it’s one of the major shipping ports of the Pacific.  Water, water, everywhere.  If you’re writing about crime in Seattle, it opens a lot of possibilities.  
 
I did not grow up in bars, happy to say.  But like the marinas, bars are useful for a writer.  They’re gathering places for friends and sometimes neutral ground for enemies.  They’re a signal of different social classes – clubs vs. pubs.   They are places of late nights, lowered guards, and grand schemes.  Not a bad way to launder money, either.  

DEBS: Your protagonist, Van Shaw, is a complex character . . . he's clearly wants to leave his past behind, but has a very strong sense of loyalty - how do these two desires play out in Van's decision to return home to help his grandfather?

GLEN:  Van has matured during the years he’s been in the Army.  He may not completely forgive or even understand his grandfather, but he also knows that he’s not blameless himself.  The two men are much more alike than either of them realize, in their faults and their loyalties. 

Part of the book’s theme, if you’ll pardon the pretension, is learning which parts of your past to embrace and which to reject.  Van had completely bought in to the criminal life as a teenager.  When he left it, he left everything from his youth along with it.  That may not be the right choice for him.  It might not even be possible.

DEBS: How long have you known Van Shaw? He's so well developed he almost walks off the page and sits next to you at the bar to down a whiskey with the reader. Kudos.

GLEN: Thank you!  I like Van a lot, and although many of his attitudes are the same as mine (most notably a suspicious eye towards authority), I’m not him.  He developed out of a lot of thinking about how his unusual background would shape his outlook and approach to problems – often an equal-parts mix of cunning and aggression.   Van often does what I wish I could do and says what I wish I would have said.  However, for all his experiences, he’s still a young man.  He makes mistakes which I hope I would be wise enough to sidestep.  Heroes are great; flawless heroes are as dull as a dowel rod.

DEBS: Van Shaw begins a relationship with Luce, the niece of his grandfather's ex-business partner. What are you trying to explore through this subplot?

GLEN:  Van and Luce had similar childhoods, and share some traits because of that.  They are both tough-minded, fiercely independent people.  But they are not the same.  Luce responded to her criminal surroundings by striving towards the straight and narrow.  Van escaped his criminal youth – removing himself from temptation – and returning to Seattle means confronting that head on.  Luce and Van can understand each other, and they are hugely attracted to one another, but that doesn’t mean they always agree.  Neither is much given to compromise.

DEBS: Kirkus Reviews recently called you "heir to the classic detective novel," first, how did that make you feel? Second, did you set out to write a detective novel?

GLEN:  It felt fantastic, of course!  It sounds like a platitude, but it’s the truth: I started writing to see if I could tell a good story.  Any ideas of publication were secondary.   To have a first novel which people enjoying reading and is getting good reviews is extraordinary.  It’s too big of a concept.  I have to digest it in very small bites.
 

I didn’t set out thinking of PAST CRIMES as a detective story, but detection – and whodunit – are major elements in the novel.  Van evolved because I liked the idea of someone solving a crime without having the clout or resources of a law enforcement officer, and who in fact was closer to the other side of the coin, without being a crook.  Van still has to adhere to certain rules and expectations in his world, even if those aren’t the laws of the land.

DEBS: I'd love to know more about your growing up on a sailboat. (My brother is a sailor and lives aboard his catamaran, currently--I think--in New Zealand. They've made the Pacific crossing a couple of times.) How did your upbringing come about?
 
GLEN: Though adventurous parents.  They caught the sailing bug when I was very young, and the condition became chronic.  Like your brother, they also wound up in New Zealand, eventually, during their own Pacific voyages.  My excursions with them were mostly during summers and school holidays, around the Northwest and along the coast of British Columbia.  I worked some in our marina, and sometimes for my Dad in his business of refinishing  brightwork on boats.  It was a great way to grow up.

But for anyone who is considering moving aboard, envisioning days spent sipping margaritas while swaying gently in a hammock, I recommend being independently wealthy. Having done it without piles of money, I can state definitively that riches are the way to go.  If that’s not in the cards for you, the next best option is having many kids or gullible friends to help with all the labor involved in maintaining your vessel.  My parents worked very hard, living that life of leisure.

Also, rocking hammocks usually lead to spilled beverages, and then you’ll have to swab the deck.  Again.

DEBS: READERS, Glen asks, "How do you feel about a protagonist who skirts, and perhaps occasionally breaks, the law?  Do you prefer your White Hats unsullied?" 

Comment and get your name in the hat, white or black, as Glen is giving away a copy of PAST CRIMES to one of our lucky readers.


A native of Seattle, Glen Erik Hamilton grew up aboard a sailboat, and spent his youth finding trouble around the marinas and commercial docks and islands of the Pacific Northwest. He now lives in California with his family, punctuated by frequent visits to his hometown to soak up the rain.