Whodunit?

king, hannah, swanson &, of course lavin's whodunit opinions

i'm on facebook now and, seemingly overnight, i have 88 friends. i realize this is a small group as the facebook world goes, but still, it's nice to be friended by 88 people. thank you guys and happy new year.

 

i have three books to talk about today. if i had the time or the energy, i could use these three books to show some of the directions mystery novels can travel. in roughly alphabetical order, the three are 11/22/63: A Novel, Little Face: A Novel, and Murder of a Pink Elephant (Scumble River Mysteries, Book 6)

 

11/22/63: A Novel is by stephen king and has had good reviews. the cover is very clever. the front shows a news headline, 'jfk slain in dallas.' the back cover another, what if, headline, 'jfk escapes assassination.' there you have it.

 

first a confession. i read only 100 pages of this 842 page (+ afterwards) novel. much of the first 100 pages was contemporary history, which i suppose mr. king had to present to his audience so 2011 readers would understand what his time travel hero changed. he also starts with an explanation of why the changes won't be permanent or to go back in time, weren't permanent. if you go through the 'magic' (my word, not king's) door twice you undo the changes you've made, so if our hero falls in love (of course he's going to. what else can he do while changing past history?) and has to go back through the port to help his girlfriend (today's medicine for example?) he will undo all of the good he has done. even if i'm wrong about plot, it seems to me that this is another novel that needs a good editor, not to make corrections, but rather to pare it down. a time travel book should be exciting. this isn't. and yes, i can tell from the first 100 pages.

 

it is published by scribner.

 

Little Face: A Novel is by sophie hannah. if you are any where near my age, the author's name will conjure up memories of rebecca and gaslight. or perhaps you have read other novels by ms. hannah. all of the ones i've read have been psychological thrillers, which also feature detective sergeant charlie zailer and d.c. simon waterhouse.

 

in this novel, the chief protagonist alice fancourt swears the baby in the crib is not hers. david, her husband, swears it is. they take to calling this baby little face instead of florence the original little girl's name. vivienne, is david's controlling mother, who owns the house they all live in, and who does control. we also have david's murdered first wife. all add up to a number of good ingredients to stir into the mysterious broth. the evidence  too overwhelming pushes the reader in one direction, so we, as readers, are forced into guessing the only possible alternative ending. but so what? the book is a good read, though i did not like the strong unnecessary cruelty, tortures, on the part of david. these actions have nothing to do with the story. not a nice guy? we could have guessed!!

 

Little Face: A Novel is 310 pages and is published by penguin books.

 

Murder of a Pink Elephant (Scumble River Mysteries, Book 6) is one of denise swanson's cozies. i have been sent a crate of them by m.l. in chicago and perhaps will grow to love them as she does. they take place in scumble river (great name), a small illinois town. skye dennison, amateur sleuth and school psychologist, comes to the rescue when a member of her older brother vince's band is murdered. the band is, you guessed it, called the pink elephant. someone is selling the school kids drugs. someone want to build an amusement park on beautiful farmland. someone is a murderer. ms. skye finds the answers.

 

the novel is 252 pages and is published by signet books.

 

happy new year to all and to all, happy reading

 

audreylavin.com http://bit.ly/flTthc

blog comments, plus ephron, gaskell, and bradley/ whodunits and more

I i'm starting wilike that about Eugene Debs and the Occupy movement!  love                        I like that about Eugene Debs and the Occupy movement!

A new comment from “Lauren” was received on the post “david rosoenfelt and jim harrison and other whodunit notes” of the blog “Whodunit?”. Comment: What is wrong with Janet Evanovich? I struggled through Explosive Eighteen. It was hard to stay interested in the diluted plot that started blah and ended without the promised bang. The loyalty stock Evanovich had created has kept us all reading her last half dozen duds but that party is over. Many reviewers suggest that she publish less and write better. In her earlier books Stephanie Plum was quirky and fun and bewildered about how to handle career and her love life. Stephanie hasn't changed, developed or evolved over the years. In 18- SPOILER ALERT, she destroys her 4th car and has sex with both guys. So I guess in 19 she will be pregnant and have her car insurance cancelled. Commenter name: Lauren i am starting today's blog with a comment from lauren of m.n.j. and along the side (i have no idea why) another comment from m.l. of chicago.                 in rhys bowen's holiday greetings letter she says that I'm still writing two books a year grr! that's a grr of jealousy. it takes me forever to complete one!! rhys also says that she plans to be in cleveland. let us know the date ahead, rhys, and i'll try to bring a canton contingent to swell the crowds.

 

 

                   with all of the panicky, holiday atmosphere surrounding us, i hope that someone is taking this afternoon off, happily surfing the internet, and enjoying this blog. greetings. and a joyous celebratory season to you.

 

one way to celebrate would be to sit down with nora ephron's i remember nothing and other reflections. this was given to me by b.v. of n.y. who admires an author's ability to bring laughter as much as i do. it's a slight book of 135 pages (and that's with wide margins!) that will give you a lovely break during a busy day. i can't guarantee you a laugh of recognition on every page, but you'll come pretty darn close. her observations ring true. we've thought the same thoughts, but never given voice. this is much better than i feel bad about my neck, which was nothing to feel bad about.

the publisher is alfred a. knopf.

 

another very enjoyable short novel is elizabeth gaskell's cranford. it is an 19th century writer's affectionately satirical look at a small community of women who live in an english village. the story is told by an outside narrator, a younger woman from a nearby town who becomes attached to what gaskell calls 'the amazons' and visits often. written for dickens' magazine, the novel is almost a series of short stories, somehow related to the picaresque novels we enjoy so much. some of you might have seen the t.v. series based on it. it is published by broadview editions, and is about 180 enjoyable pages.

 

i want now to speak about a third novel because 1. my opinion is related to lauren's comment above and 2. i just finished it and that is what i do!

the novel is i am half-sick of shadows. it is a christmas story written by alan bradley. i adored his heroine, flavia de luce, in a red herring without mustard and the sweetness at the bottom of the pie. he does have delicious titles. i have raved about both novels in this blog. but something has happened to the third one. we still have the precocious flavia, her distant father, the two mean sisters, all inhabiting the decrepit family mansion of buckshaw, plus the dead mother, the role of chemistry. maybe that's the problem: the same old. the same old. i hope bradley gets his groove back.

 

i am half-sick of shadows is published by delacorte press and is 293 pages.

 

happy holidays to all. i understand we're not supposed to say that now. c'mon.

david rosoenfelt and jim harrison and other whodunit notes

i hope some readers/writers/thinkers/translators/publicists will take time out from baking christmas cookies and wrapping gifts to read the whodunit blog. i'm going to push my way through the snowflakes and tinsel to try to reach you -- first with news of two articles to read, then some books!

 

The winter 2012 issue  of the e-zine, The Exclamation Point!, the newsletter of National Punctuation Day® and Punctuation Playtime®, is  available at: http://www.punctuationplaytime.com/exclamationpoint/index.html.

it's always fun to read what jeff rubin, the punctuation guy, has to say about a subject i--and many of you--love.

 

thanks to friends (ex., r.m. of canton), family (ex., c.l. also of canton), and miscellaneous readers (ex., d.z. of fl.) of this blog who have encouraged me to read the 9 december wall street journal article: WSJ.com - How I Became a Best-Selling Author by alexandra alter. alter has put together a great deal of information that perhaps all would-be authors already know. but whether you are familiar with her points or not, you are bound to find a nugget that applies to you. for example, i have always thought it a literary sin to pay for a review, kirkus or not. whaddayaknow? everyone does it. kirkus does not promise a good or even passing review, but as is pointed out in alter's article, if it's bad you don't have to publicize it. no one will know your secret. count me in next time around. 

 

since i last wrote my blog (the season has gotten to me, too), i have finished or almost finished five books. that's too many to really think and write about, but i will give a brief note about each one.* the books all fall under the category 'gifts for myself.' and why not?

 

read and enjoyed are david rosenfelt's on borrowed time and play dead. i recently reviewed rosenfelt's one dog night starring the world's laziest lawyer/detective andy carpenter. not quite as good, but still a fun read and still staring carpenter and his golden retriever tara, is his 2007 play dead.

four years is a long time as mysteries go; this one written four years ago still stands. his page of acknowledgements alone is worth the read of this 308 page novel published by warner books.

 

minotaur books is the publisher of the 291 page on borrowed time, more of a science fiction novel than a detective story. it's a good read for all of us living in this world of computer chips. it's one of those someone disappears and no one admits to ever knowing or having seen her stories. what is richard kilmer to do? she was his fiancee.

 

jim harrison hits a completely different note in his the great leader. the hero (one can't help but assume that's harrison even though i've spent a great deal of my academic life trying to teach students that the author and the character are not one and the same.)is named sunderson. he is wry, egotistical, and lusty.  an ex-law enforcement officer from the u.p. of michigan, he has ranted away during the first half of the novel. i fully expect him to continue. the most redeeming feature of this old geezer is his love for nature. harrison is the author of 31 books. i think that college students would like his work. i am half way through this 329 page book and have yet to met the great leader sunderson is searching for. the search gives narrative structure. we'll see. grove press is the publisher.

 

*i've written about three of the five books and will save the two women writers for next time: gaskell and her cranford and ephron and i remember nothing and other reflections. 

 

happy holidays to all

how to write & whodunit: david rosenfelt's murder mystery

as a recent face book member, i have publicly aired my doubts regarding its value to the writer (me, in this case). one result is that i have  received an e-mail from a.l. in shanghai,china, suggesting that i read dan blank's weekly newsletter, at least the one headed 'should writers focus on the craft of writing or building their audience?'

personally i have never felt this is an either or question, but hey, let's see what mr. blank has to say.

a lot. i have taken three sentences from an approximately three page article.

i, audrey, do a great deal of speaking to small groups about writing. in groups of would-be writers, i find that most people attending my chats have never sent anything out to be published. it will be my next task to get them to realize that, quoting blank, 'The act of "publishing" is not the critical part of being a writer, it is the act of being read.'

         but those  in the audiences of my talks and those of you now reading this blog are first going to have to gird up your loins and realize that , again, i quote blank, 'You have to launch to grow. '

maybe that terrible fear of rejection that keeps so many potential writers from sending manuscripts to publishers will be mitigated by the last dan blank message to be communicated today, 'Getting read and finding an audience is not about branding and marketing - it is about communication.' i think this takes the easily bruised personal out of the equation.

thanks a.l. and thanks dan blank.

on to a writer who knows what he has to say and says it with slices of knife wielding satire. i can't believe i've never heard of david rosenfelt before. first of all, he owns twenty-seven golden retrievers. he doesn't need to write detective fiction. this fact alone makes him appreciated by those of us who make up the loopy writers society.

most important is that he writes a neat murder mystery i read one dog night, subtitled, an andy carpenter mystery. in this book #9 of a series, we find defense attorney andy carpenter faced with a six year old crime, a fire that killed 26 people, and noah galloway, the man who says he set it and deserves jail time as punishment. noah and andy are linked by past and present ownership of the same golden retriever. it could happen! the story is a little convoluted, but nothing impossible. the best parts are rosenfelt's asides, his riffs on the absurdities of, for ex., the today show. he says they don't have time for news because everyone is so busy saying 'good morning' to everyone else, as if they haven't already spent a couple of hours in the studio together. he's even funnier about some of the 'info' posted on face book. these are easy targets, it's true. but he doesn't only hit the target. he goes straight to the bull's eye. my own pun.

one dog night, 387 pages, is published by minotaur books. c'mon , guys at minotaur, let go of those purse strings. hire some copy editors. this book is going to make money for you. showcase it and yourselves!

audreylavin.com       http://bit.ly/flTthc

'how to write' conversations with authors of mysteries and jeanne m. dams

 

thanks so much to readers of this blog, my e-mail, face book, etc. for all of your kind wishes for my birthday. what's not to like about someone sending good wishes to 'u fabulous woman, u?

also, i've had a couple of written communications from some well-known authors who speak to some of the writing and selling problems i've bought up in this blog. i think you'll find them interesting:

rhys bowman of the her royal spyness series writes the message below. she is referring to the unwritten edict telling murder mystery writers to get their victim killed in the first ten pages. it probably is not an 'unwritten edict.' you'll see it, i'm sure, in books telling you how to write. and why? i agree with rhys (well, she's agreeing with me), sometimes the plot has to be set up, characters have to be introduced, and/or a locale described before anyone gets murdered. if i ever get famous enough to get away with it, you'll read all of 25 pages before the untimely death. wow! what a daring writer am i.

Thank you, Audrey, for the great review.

And about the corpse on page 171--yes, I realize that's a problem I have and why I've only been nominated for the Edgar once! I have some much stuff that has to happen before anyone gets killed. It's the same in most of my books. In fact I don't think I've ever had a body in the first ten pages. Ever.

then on my face book wall or his, i have to get used to this,

 

Les Roberts commented on his Wall post.

Les wrote: "I remember that, Audrey. Signings grow more difficult, but it's kind of like spinach---you GOTTA put up with them."

he is writing about a huge book signing and sale in northeast ohio we attended. the sponsors did a great job of getting writers, selling tables, etc. i remember over 50 exhibitors, though i tend to hyperbolize (makes for a better story and i am, after all, a story-teller). but the organizers forgot to get buyers or even people who would walk through and tell us how interesting the exhibit is; for once the 'i'll come back later' people would have been welcome. if you don't recognize the name right away, les is the author of the milan jacovich mysteries, a cleveland series that reaches beyond regional audiences.

also, i received an e-mail from marquis who's who telling me i'd been listed for 15 years? what? that's nice, but how does it happen?

on to the novel i read in the past few days. it is a hilda johansson mystery, murder in burnt orange by jeanne m. dams. dams is quite the competent writer. we hear hilda's swedish accent without the author being coy about it. dams is also a good researcher and we follow turn of the century labor history in a somewhat fictionalized south bend, indiana. but does the novel belong within the mystery genre as the cover states? we know from the beginning which characters are the bad guys and which are the good guys. is it then a historical romance? hardly. hilda and her husband are a happily married couple, even though he is catholic and she is lutheran? is it a family puzzle. no, again we know from the beginning if hilda's baby (her first, due any day) will be a boy or a girl.

after i realized i was not reading a murder or a mystery, i enjoyed the book, especially for two reasons: i am interested in the kind of detective, who like edgar allan poe and sherlock homes, thinks his way through a problem. that's what hilda does. in her day (1905) ladies were not seen on the street in her condition, so she has to do most of the work involved from home with help from a cast of characters. i also like the book because about ten years after the action of the novel, eugene debs came to canton, ohio, had dinner with my husband's grandfather, and gave a memorable speech. i think he would be at home with the occupy movement today.

back to murder in burnt orange. it is 248 pages and published by perseverance press.