Deborah Crombie--It Takes a Village

DEBORAH CROMBIE: In mid-July I'm doing this fabulous panel at the virtual Malice Domestic, MORE THAN MALICE, with four of my very favorite authors, Elly Griffiths, Ann Cleeves, Peter Robinson, and Michael Nava. 

 

We all have series novels under our belts, and in the case of Ann and Elly, more than one series. (I am in awe!) We'll be moderated by the fabulous Oline Cogdill, and we'll be chatting about those subsidiary characters who fill out our novels and help bring our canvases depth and interest. I know that in all these authors' works I love the secondary characters as much as the primary protagonists.

But with every new book, we always hope to bring new readers into the series, and feeding in the backstories of this varied cast can be a challenge. Longtime readers of a series may need a little refresher as well--I know I sometimes do myself!

In this scene from the book in progress, the 19th Kincaid/James, Duncan is going to see the Howards, the mother and son who were first introduced way back in AND JUSTICE THERE IS NONE, the eighth book in the series, and who have appeared regularly in the subsequent books. Here, they have a personal connection to the victim in the murder Duncan and his team are investigating.

Just to set the scene, here's the Sun in Splendour pub, just at dusk, on a much nicer day than Duncan's.

Less than half an hour later, Kincaid emerged at Notting Hill Gate and hailed another taxi. It was already getting dark, the twilight accelerated by the overcast sky and intermittent drizzle. The market would be breaking down, and as they passed the end of Portobello Road he could see the throngs of shoppers heading back towards the tube station. Light shone cheerfully from the big windows of the Sun in Splendour on the corner.

The taxi trundled down Pembridge Crescent, avoiding Portobello which would be chock-a-block with stall holders’ vans as well as tourists. It snaked around Powis Square, where their vet, Bryony Poole, lived, then passed the Tabernacle, where Toby had been rehearsing for the ballet—a rehearsal which Kincaid had once again missed. Well, maybe he could go some way towards making that up if he asked Toby to show him his part tonight.

At Westbourne Park Kincaid got out, paid his fare, and stood gazing up at the multi-hued terraced houses. It seemed every other one was covered with scaffolding these days. The properties were scooped up by investors, renovated, then resold for amounts no one but hedge fund managers could afford. But Betty Howard and her son Wesley had so far managed to hold on to their third-floor flat, which had been in Betty’s family since her parents had emigrated from Trinidad in the days when the notorious slumlord Peter Rachman had controlled many of the tenements in Notting Hill. Betty’s parents had eventually managed to buy their flat, and after their deaths, Betty and her late husband had raised their children here. The five girls all now had families of their own and only Wesley, the youngest and only boy, still lived in the flat with Betty.

Now, glancing up, he saw that all the flat’s windows were lit. The Howards were home. With a last glance at his watch, Kincaid rang the bell.

You can tell I'm missing Notting Hill here! 

Readers, do you like having little reminders of who recurring characters are and how they fit into the series? And how much information is too much?

 

 

What We're Reading

INGRID THOFT

It’s Monday, the beginning of the week here at Jungle Reds, but I wanted to start the week with a coda of sorts.  Last week, we talked about “What We’re Writing,” and now it only seems fitting to share “What We’re Reading.”

I’m proud to admit that I’m in the middle of an Ann Cleeves binge. I am reading all of the Vera Stanhope books, not even in order, just when I can get my hands on them.  Even though I’ve watched the first few seasons of the TV show, I’m still completely enthralled with the books, and I’m consuming them like a box of Wheat Thins, and you know I’m a slave to Wheat Thins.  The main draw, of course, is Vera, but the supporting characters are three dimensional, and the plots are air tight.  I can’t get enough of Vera! 

Ann Cleeves in Shetland.

Another book that I’ve just started—I tend to read more than one at a time—is called Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes.  The authors, Richard A. Clarke and R.P. Eddy, both have had distinguished careers in the fields of counter terrorism and intelligence, and they argue that disasters can be prevented, if only we learn to listen to the early warnings given by outliers.  Cassandra, in Greek mythology, was able to foresee calamities, but the gods cursed her so that her warnings of impending doom were ignored.  According to Clarke and Eddy, catastrophes like Katrina and the rise of ISIS were predicted by some, but their warnings were listened to by few.  Warnings examines how we can start paying attention to the Cassandras in our midst.


So, what are the rest of you reading when you’re not writing?

JENN MCKINLAY: Ingrid, I love the Vera Stanhope books but as an avid knitter, I love Ann Cleeves's Shetland Island Series with D.I. Jimmy Perez even more. I have a fascination with the Shetland Islands (home of Fair Isle knitting) and read everything I can get my hands on about the area. There was even an article in my Vogue Knitting (Holiday 2016) talking with Ms. Cleeves about the Shetland Isles. She attended Left Coast Crime here in Phoenix and she is delightful. Anyway -- sorry, I went all fan girl there for a moment -- I am currently reading Sherry Thomas's A Conspiracy in Belgravia, having just finished her A Study in Scarlet Women, which are the first two titles in her Lady Sherlock series. I am so enjoying her reworking of Sherlock (Charlotte) Holmes as a brilliant, titled, independent lady who is too clever and a bit socially awkward for her own good.

IPT: Jenn, don't even get me started on Jimmy Perez!  I would consider moving to the Shetland Islands just to listen to him read the phone book in that Scottish accent!

HALLIE EPHRON: I'm reading an advance copy of Jessica Keener's Strangers in Budapest, and it's making me think about what it would be like to move with your family to somewhere utterly alien. And I've got lined up, books by Mary Kubica (Pretty Baby) and Sara Blaedel (The Lost Woman) who blew me away at Book Passage last week, talking about how they write.

RHYS BOWEN: I'm another big fan of Ann Cleves and the Vera books. And the Shetland novels too. I've never been to Shetland but it's on my to-do list. My reading at the moment seems to be one book to blurb after another. I think I've become the go-to historical novel quotation endorsement person, and it's hard to say no when the request comes from publishers and also people like Lee Child and Louise Penny and our own Jungle Reds have taken the time to read my books. Since the books won't come out for many months yet, I don't think I should mention names as titles could change. Next on my must read instantly pile is Louise's new book, Glass Houses, which I plan to take with me when I escape for a few days to Monterrey next weekend.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: When I left for London, I was a third of the way through the new Ann Cleeves Vera Stanhope novel, The Seagull. Well, I wasn't going to lug a hardcover with me, so I had to buy it on Kindle to finish it!! (And it's really good!) I also left behind new hardcover copies of Louise Penny's Glass Houses, and Peter Robinson's Sleeping in the Ground, but I may have to wait until I get back to read those. In the meantime, there's a new Nick Dixon novel by Damien Boyd loaded on my Kindle so that's what I'm diving into. (These are British procedural novels, set in west Somerset. They are only available on Kindle but I've really enjoyed them.)  After that, who know what might call to me from a London book store??

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I just powered through Louise Penny's A Great Reckoning, and I have to say I adored it. Megan Miranda's The Perfect Stranger kept me totally guessing, and every time I thought--oh, I know what'll happen, it didn't. One of the great joys of my life is interviewing/introducing authors, so I have to (get to!) read their books to prepare, so I just read Tess Gerritsen's  I Know A Secret and Craig Johnson's  The Golden West. Such proof of how much voice matters---two completely different books, and I adored both of them. Yes, blurbing--I agree it's hilarious how that commands reading decisions.  But I count my blessings every time--such a treat! Next to read: Candice Fox's Crimson Lake.  But my current night stand book is You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott. Absolutely chilling. And cannot wait for the new Mary Kubica.

LUCY BURDETTE: I love it when I can report a run of wonderful books, and this happened over the past 10 days. First I read Chime and Punishment, the third in Julianne Holmes's Clock Shop mystery series. She has a wonderfully rounded character (which is what I care most about it) and a fascinating setting in this small town clock shop. Next I read The Golden Son by Shilpi Somaya Gowda, a big sweeping novel  about an Indian man who comes to the US to study medicine. A fascinating clash of cultures.

And finally, Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. I cannot even tell you how much I loved this book. Don't want to say too much about it because I hope you'll be as surprised as I was about the twist in the plot (it's not a mystery, it's a family psychological story.) Gorgeous writing and quirky characters and a compelling plot. What more does a reader need? And on my nightstand sits Keziah Frost's debut novel The Reluctant Fortune Teller. This book reminds me of early novels by Elinor Lipman (a very good thing!) and is chock-full of interesting characters and psychological insights. You'll be hearing more from her!

IPT: I love Elinor Lipman so I need to add Keziah Frost to my TBR pile ASAP!

So tell us, what are you reading these days?

Peter Robinson--In the Dark Places

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I've been a huge fan of Peter Robinson's Inspector Alan Banks novels since

the very first book appeared in 1987--in fact, I strongly suspect those first Banks books went into the hopper of my aspirations to write an English crime novel, as crazy an idea as that surely was.

So a new Alan Banks novel is always an event to be marked down on my calendar with great anticipation, and it is a very special treat to have Peter here to talk about the 19th Inspector Banks, In the Dark Places. Who but Peter Robinson could make a gripping novel out of a missing tractor, and a very, very cold Yorkshire winter? (Don't worry. The missing tractor is only the first toe in the snow...)

PETER ROBINSON: My latest DCI Banks novel is called In the Dark Places. Its real title is Abattoir Blues, but this is the fifth time US publishers have pressed a title change on me. Even though I strongly suspected it was going to happen, “abattoir” not being a word in common usage in the USA, it still stings a bit. It’s like renaming someone’s child. I suppose I harboured hopes that enough people might have heard the Nick Cave song to go for it. But no. In the Dark Places it became, which rather reminds me of a Gillian Flynn title. At least it doesn’t have “girl” in it. Naturally, I get the flack when someone buys it thinking it’s a new book and finds out she has already read it. That’s me all over, trying to con people into buying the same book twice!

Anyway, this is the one about the stolen tractor. I remember the look in my editor’s eye when I told her that, though things improved when I went on to say that there are also dismembered bodies and an exciting chase scene.

When I first got the idea for the story, I’d been seeing and hearing a lot of news items about rural crime here in North Yorkshire, where I spend part of each year. The one that really stuck in my mind concerned the theft of 1500 sheep in one night from a farm in nearby Lincolnshire. The mind boggles. The amount of organisation, manpower and equipment needed to pull off such a heist make Oceans Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen seem like child’s play. But they’re only sheep, not money, so the story never got further than the local newspaper. On the other hand, I thought, that’s somebody’s livelihood, and where you have organised crime like that, with so much at stake, you also have the potential for mischief and mayhem, which is my business. Unlicensed slaughterhouses abound (I did consider Slaughterhouse 6 as a title at one point but soon gave up on that) and overseas connections are often involved, the same kind of routes and techniques you find in people-trafficking, where life, human or animal, is cheap.

Having a team of detectives at my command is a great way of avoiding boredom, as I can bring a different character to the foreground each time. Of course, Banks and Annie remain the main characters, but in this book, DS Winsome Jackman gets a larger part than usual and we get to find out a bit more about her life. In the next Banks book, When the Music’s Over ( fingers crossed), which should be out next year, the new DC Geraldine Masterson takes centre stage.

In a wonderful stroke of irony, one reviewer remarked how apt In the Dark Places is as a title, as it refers to a song by P.J. Harvey, from her album Let England Shake. Much as I admire Polly Harvey, it was Nick Cave’s “Abattoir Blues” I had in mind. Still, Nick and Polly were an item once upon a time, and there’s something very fitting about all that. So what do you think about changing titles in general, and is it Abattoir Blues or In the Dark Places? Does it even matter to the reader (unless she buys the book twice, of course)?

DEBS: Here's more about In the Dark Places: Louise Penny calls In the Dark Places "brilliant." Tess Gerritsen says it's "thrilling." And Michael Connelly describes Peter Robinson as "amazing." One of the world's greatest suspense writers returns with this sensational new novel featuring Inspector Alan Banks, hailed by Michael Connelly as "a man for all seasons."

It's a double mystery: Two young men have vanished, and the investigation leads to two troubling clues in two different locations.

As Banks and his team scramble for answers, the inquiry takes an even darker turn when a truck careens off an icy road in a freak hailstorm. In the wreckage, rescuers find the driver, who was killed on impact, as well as another body—a body that was dead well before the crash.

Snow falls. The body count rises. And Banks, perceptive and curious as ever, feels himself being drawn deeper into a web of crime, and at its center something—or someone—dark and dangerous lying in wait.

Vibrating with tension, ingeniously plotted, and filled with soul and poignancy, In the Dark Places is a remarkable achievement from this masterful talent.

REDS and readers, what do you think about the change in titles for an American audience? (I would definitely come down on the side of Abattoir Blues.) Peter will be dropping in to say hi and answer comments this afternoon, and YES, WE HAVE A COPY OF IN THE DARK PLACES FOR A LUCKY COMMENTER!

(Can I just say--no spoilers-- that I loved Winsome's story thread in this book! And that I wanted to curl up under a blanket with a hot cup of tea while I was reading... Maybe Peter will talk to us about creating that wonderful atmosphere. Brrr...)

 REDS ALERT! The winner of David Hewson's The Flood is Susan D! (And David hopes very much that it will make your upcoming trip to Florence more enjoyable.) Email me at deborahcrombie.com with your mailing address, Susan.  You know the drill:-)

Peter Robinson--Finding the Right Place

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  What a treat for me today to host one of

my idols of British crime fiction, Peter Robinson. If you're not familiar with Peter's novels featuring Yorkshire Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, you've perhaps seen the very successful TV adaptation of the books. But I've been a fan since long before Banks arrived on television--since, in fact, before I met Peter at my first Bouchercon in Pasadena in 1991. He was very gracious to me, a wanna-be writer, and encouraged me. I sold my first novel five months later. 

Since then, I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to do panels and book signings with Peter (and to have had a pint with him at his local--as in pub--in Toronto.)  He remains as gracious and talented as ever, and the advent of a new Banks novel goes down on my calendar as a greatly anticipated treat.

THE CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION is Peter Robinson at his finest,  a superb tale of mystery and murder that takes Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks and his colleague DI Annie Cabbot back to the early 1970s—a turbulent time of politics, change, and radical student activism—to solve a case that has been decades in the making.

The body of disgraced college lecturer Gavin Miller is found on an abandoned railway line by a woman out walking her dog early one winter morning. In the four years since Miller's dismissal for sexual misconduct, he's been living like a hermit, listening to music from his college days and existing as frugally as possible on the outskirts of a small village. So where did he get the five thousand pounds found in his pocket?

Leading the investigation, Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks begins to suspect that the victim's past may be connected to his death. Forty years earlier the dead man attended a university that was a hotbed of militant protest and divisive, bitter politics. And as the seasoned detective well knows, some grudges are never forgotten—or forgiven.

Just as Banks is about to break the case open, his superior warns him to back off or risk losing the promotion he has been promised. Yet Banks isn't about to stop, even if it means risking his career altogether. He's certain there's more to the mystery than meets the eye, and more skeletons to uncover before the case can finally be closed.

According to Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “[Children of the Revolution is] well-plotted and satisfying right to the end....Robinson has won many awards for his Detective Banks novels, and with this latest, he demonstrates his mastery of the craft.”  

One of the things that makes Robinson's novels so gripping is the strong sense of place they convey, and here's Peter to tell us a bit about how he creates such spine-tingling atmosphere.

PETER ROBINSON: Sometimes you can feel like a real idiot for not realising something about the way you write until it hits you right between the eyes. I learned a lesson writing CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION, my 24^th novel, that taught me just how little I know about my own writing process.

Unusually for me, I had plenty of ideas about characters, plot and themes but I just couldn’t get started. I’m not an outliner, so I usually don’t know where a story’s going to take me. I generally begin with the opening scene of the book and just go on from there. This time, I had a whole department store full of treats set out ahead, but I couldn’t find a way in.

Then one day I went for a walk in North Yorkshire with a friend who seeks out walks you don’t find in the tourist guides, and we came across this disused railway line. It felt like a very lonely, isolated place to me, and I realised immediately that this is where the body is found, this is the opening scene, the way in I’ve been looking for. And from then on it all fell into place.

The place may not be in the opening scene, but it usually is, and more often than it is where the body is found. There may be more than one important place in a book. In WATCHING THE DARK I had the police convalescence centre ( in reality a hotel), the abandoned farm complex on the moors and the Estonian city of Tallin, with its cobbled streets and narrow winding alleys, where I was fortunate enough to be teaching summer school that year.

Even back as far as CAEDMON’S SONG (U.S. title THE FIRST CUT) I had an idea for a story about a woman who survived a serial killer’s attack and tracked him down, but I couldn’t get the story moving until I approached Whitby over the North York Moors one beautiful day and saw the blue sea stretched out below, the ruined abbey brooding over the scene from its hill, fishing boats bobbing in the harbour, their masts flashing in the sun. That was where Martha arrived in the first scene of the book, and much of story played out in its streets and along the coastline..

IN A DRY SEASON became a reality when I visited Thrushcross Reservoir during a drought and thought what a wonderfully eerie place to find a body. Maybe not everyone thinks that way on walks through beautiful countryside, but then I’m a crime writer!

I used to enjoy a walk through a small hidden dale, and every time I went past a derelict house with an overgrown garden I used to pause and look closely at it, looking for signs of life, trying to imagine the lives that had been lived there. Eventually it became Grace’s house in BEFORE THE POISON. I may change certain details about the places, but until I stumble across the right one in my wanderings my books are only a vague cloud of words and images beyond my grasp.

DEBS: Peter will be checking in today to chat and to answer questions about his books and his research. Peter, as you will see from the bio below, is, like me, a transatlantic writer; he lives in Toronto but sets his books in Yorkshire. Unlike me, however, he has the advantage of being British by birth and not just by imagination! However, I would love to know if Peter suffers, like me, from occasional culture-confusion...

Peter Robinson’s internationally best-selling and award-winning Inspector Banks novels have been named “Best Book of the Year”by Publishers Weekly, a “Notable Book” by the New York Times, and a “Page Turner of the Week” by  People. Robinson was born and brought up in Yorkshire, and now divides his time between North America and the UK.