Old former school acquaintance, now mystery writer

During a backroom discussion at work about books and related matters last month, one co-worker (I'll just call her "M") mentioned that she had attended grade school years ago with a present-day mystery writer.  His name is Mike Faricy and he's new to me.  And since she readily recalled him, I was curious to hear about him.  Faricy does live in her old home state of Minnesota but only on a part-time basis.  He lives in Ireland during the other part of the year.

Mike Faricy
(from his website)





"M" forwarded his website address to me and reading a little, I see Faricy does have a ingenious twist with his book series. With titles like Mr Softee, Finders Keepers, and Chow for Now (8 books are promoted on his website), Faricy goes for catch-phrase titles while packing in sordid--if not also colorful--characters in various situations of action and humor.  He likes to write books based on private investigators--either the "skirt-chasing, dysfunctually" Dev Haskell or the houseboat resident, "owner of a failing bar" Dickie Mullins--but will also feature businessmen, mobsters and theives.  

Checking a national library database, Faricy's books don't sit on library shelves but he likely has a firm, selected fan base.  Dubbed as the "Minnesota Master of the Bizarre," Faircy's crime fiction books certainly have a regional scope--all are based in Minnesota.  So now when I feel the need to read about that area of the country, I know who I should consider.  Thanks "M." 

Book club discusses "The Janus Stone"

In April, the book club selection was the second of the "Ruth Galloway" British mystery series The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths.  Ruth is a forensic archaeologist and college educator.  She is called upon to assist the police when a child's headless skeleton is unearthed while an old mansion is razed.  Located beneath a doorway, the skeleton rested in a building that served as a Catholic orphanage years ago.  

Elly Griffiths
(googled photo)

The detective in charge of the investigation is a gruff Harry Nelson working with the horizontally challenged Ruth again for a second time.  Despite his demeanor, the two develop a bond of respect and even friendship

This case may have several possibilities as the body might be very old from the Roman-era times--related to a nearby archaeological dig--or much more recent with a story of two missing children 40 years ago.

Ruth pursues the matter with a firm determination but is hampered along the way: she is encountering credible threats to her life and she is mum about her being newly-pregnant.

Comments from the book club members included:

• bones in good preservation can offer many layers of investigation in the field of archaeology 
• the novel covers periods of British history with its archaeological digs
• although the second in the series, a recap would be helpful (and in general for series) 
• Ruth is a non-traditional lead character of a series being an over-weight person
• has the writer decided and planned well ahead for the series how to handle the implications of Ruth's unplanned pregnancy (?)
• a few read the first book of the series The Crossing Places and one read the third book of the series The House at Seas End
• good mystery book.

  

Clever Radio Message




Frank Deford
 (googled pix)



Listening to the commentator on the radio this morning you have to have a winner in sporting events.  That is if you do it the American way.

NPR's sport commentator Frank Deford declares such when he blasts games ending in a tie.  In his estimation it is just unsatisfying.  The sports writer and novelist says in conclusion "It's like not finding out who is the 'who' in the whodunit."   Clever.

If you're considering the Edgar Allan Poe movie--

If you are wondering about whether to visit the multiplex to see the new movie "The Raven" starring John Cusack as literary great Edgar Allan Poe--well, I feel you.  (He does look the part, huh?  Here's a googled movie still.)  I mentioned this movie the last time the book club met and there appeared to be some genuine interest although I didn't remember anyone saying they were going to see it opening weekend. 

The film struck my interest as a seeming good "what if" story and the trailer looked good. So I looked for movie reviews to help me decide if I should make an effort to go--I enjoy reading newspaper movie reviews, period--but I didn't see much on Friday.  Days later that changed as I ran across this story doing a web search,  giving me  some of what I wanted to read.  The reviews for the movie are truly mixed, see here.

My interest has been tempered by this story but not completely.  I hope to see it at some point in a movie theater.  I was just spooked when I heard a movie critic on the radio mention "Scooby Doo" in conjunction with the movie. 
 

A Favorite Late-Night TV Guest Is Writer--

I may catch part of the Dave Letterman show after the local news but as a rule I don't catch "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" which follows. Not to knock Ferguson, I remember hearing his monologues a time or two and liked his commercials promoting his show. And I like that he does the show with a loosed neck tie--yep, he looks like he's *hard at work.*

As it turns out as I checked on my favorite entertainment website Entertainment Weekly yesterday, and found that Ferguson likes to interview a certain mystery writer on his show. Long-time writer Lawrence Block , author of the PI "Matthew Scudder" series which Ferguson enjoys, is also a hoot to share the late night TV guest chair.

Need some convincing? Take a look here on YouTube as Block visited the show last month and talked about his newest book and more. Here's a googled photo of Block too who claims he's retired at 73 but spent his year writing...well, you listen to him explain it.

Recommended mystery (politicially speaking) --

Are you one of the 99 percent? If so, there's a recent mystery for you.

Charlotte is a home of the weekly newspaper "Creative Loafing"--several exist around the country, I still believe--and it had an informative cover story about the Occupy Wall Street movement last week. The story was nicely-detailed about the movement and even included a small accompanying list of examples of popular media sharing the populist sentiment of the movement.

Included are columnist John Glooms book selections with the story and his first was a 2005 mystery by Sara Paretsky, Fire Sale. Glooms writes (under the coarsely-titled subheading of "Corporate D[***]-Head Fiction" a quick blurb) "Paretsky's novel is a fast-moving mystery about scheming corporate bullies and the struggles of the working poor."

And writing about these matters puts writer Paretsky in the right ball park as she has a longtime association with community activism (look at her bio on her webpage).

For the one of my co-workers...

After my co-worker teased me about my messy desk, I found a title on the shelf to match her fondness for felines. She is without a doubt a *big* cat lover and, as to be expected, a long-time cat owner. Oh, and she has worked as a librarian for years and the protagonist of this series is a librarian.

Author Miranda James who has started "a cat in the stacks" series with librarian Charlie Harris has a second in her series with Classified as Murder on shelves this year. Mississippi is the setting for these cozy stories with librarian Charlie playing detective with his helpful cat, "Diesel" helping him in murder investigations.

The first novel was published the previous year and is entitled Murder Past Due.

Clean up your mess (hint, hint)!

One of my dear colleagues shared a cute paperback mystery title today (with a knowing smile) from her new display as a suggested read: Death Loves a Messy Desk. It is the third book in the "Charlotte Adams" series by writer Mary Jane Maffini.

Ms. Adams is a fictional professional organizer and an amateur sleuth in upstate New York. The 30-year-old Adams is in her comfort zone working, as the author's website says, " surrounded by old friends, new dogs and plenty of clients."

I'm afraid my comfort zone includes large piles of papers on my desk (from computer classes or book club stuff and more), checked out books or music CDs, bookmarks, a lunch bag, an old paperweight my father received for serving on the public library board years ago, a framed art print, hand sanitizers, (often) a package of crackers, a cup with scissors, straws, pens, datebooks, and more old books from book sales or removed from the library collection. And, well, there's more with my chair sometimes holding the last items I've touched for the day...

So, I'd be wise to take my co-worker's advice and read the book, especially with tips at the beginning of the chapters like "five minutes of filing at the end of every workday can save hours searching through piles of papers for documents later on." And for more about the book, take a look at this video book ad.

Writer Lilian Jackson Braun dies--

To live into your nineties is seen as a blessing and that hopefully was the case for mystery writer Lilian Jackson Braun. Today's news outlets report that she died last week in South Carolina (and here's a googled photo).

Braun was a fixture on the mystery book shelves with her long-running "The Cat Who..." series. A devotee to the cozy mystery genre, she retired from newspaper work in 1984 and turned to writing mysteries full-time until retiring again in 2007.

(Another) Mystery writer blog

Maybe two years (or so) I signed up for email updates from writer Julia Spencer-Fleming entitled "Kill from the Hill" for messages about her series featuring "Rev. Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne. It's possible it might be much further back though, double-checking the date when the book club read Spencer-Fleming's first book (In the Bleak Midwinter) it was in October 2004.

There's a new book in the series One was a Soldier due for release in April and Spencer-Fleming joined a blog featuring eight mystery writers now called JungleRed. I'm actually quite glad to read about the blog because (too often) I tend to go to a few websites and I'm done so it is good to see what else is available. The blog also features the work of Rhys Bowen, Jan Brogan, Roberta Isleib, Hallie Ephron, Deborah Crombie, Hank Phillippi Ryan, and Rosemary Harris.

The blog description reads (in part): Welcome to Jungle Red, a salon of eight mystery writers. Here, it's all about writing. And not writing. And our search for motive in life, love, fiction and reality.

All have books in the library system.

Holiday reading--

Over the holidays a visiting sister-in-law had a small paperback mystery that kept her attention until she polished it off just after Christmas. The book's cover didn't catch my interest--it looked like a "cozy mystery" I'd be reluctant to try--but I reconsidered and took a closer look.

The book is Tapped Out (2007) by writer Natalie M. Roberts, which is the second book of the "Jenny T. Partridge Dance Mysteries." I began to wonder if my library had that book or any Roberts books so I checked into it. The library system does have a couple of copies of Robert's first of the series Tutu Deadly. It was also printed in 2007.

I was glad to see the author's work carried in the area libraries so that the collection is that varied and diverse. It's reassuring to know we mix it up including a writer who doesn't have a long-running series (see here for Roberts).

Book club discusses "Anatomy of Fear" (October)

October's book club selection was writer Jonathan Santlofer's Anatomy of Fear which cleverly includes on the book cover the billing "a novel of visual suspense." That is because, if you flip through the first chapter alone you will find nine sketches of a criminal suspect--from the start to finished version--and that is reflected throughout the book.

The story follows the work of police sketch artist Nate Rodriguez with examples of his work incorporated throughout although in actually, author and accomplished artist Santlofer produces the art in the novel. More than 50 pages, including the back flap of the book with author information a self-portrait (seen here), feature Santlofer's sketches and some photographs demonstrating sketching.

The novel follows the work of the talented Rodriguez as he is brought in to assist on a case of a serial killer who sketches of his victims and leaves them--roughly--as calling cards for the police. The police also quietly suspect the murders are hate crimes and Detective Terri Russo finds Nate's background, track record and training at Quantico a good asset to help crack the case. Nate's life away from work is another major part of the book as his diverse background and unique life is revealed.

Attendee comments included:

• Nate is a good listener to get an accurate description of a person for a sketch
• the art is "fascinating" and process Nate uses his mind and creativity to sketch suspects
• perhaps the artwork is too good for the work of a police sketch artist
• the character (Nate) is flawed but the story is not formulated
• Nate has the training to notice which emotions are reflected through the use of facial muscles and it was said that can be better to use than a lie detector
• why does Nate stay put where he is with his training and background?
• the book is well-edited
• one liked the use of color in the book with a deep red lettering on the top of each page for the author's name, book title and spots (of blood maybe?) at the start of each chapter
• the book has a lot of stories woven together
• two people didn't find the book very engaging
• the book is a good idea but the writing as effective with the characters and dialog
• one person read the follow-up book to Anatomy of Fear and found it different in tone without a big story line featuring Nate's very religious and spiritual grandmother--more focused on the crime story.

Anatomy was published in 2007 and its follow-up The Murder Notebook came the next year.

End of year praise--

'Tis the end of the year and time to review the best (and worse) of everything and the ever-popular mystery books are not immune to this subjective and crowd-pleasing practice. I usually check for "the best of the year" winners for future book club suggestions and introductions to books I might miss otherwise. I have two listed here from resources I routinely use.

I stumbled across one such list last week on the National Public Radio website while looking for general news stories and it featured a modest-sized list of five titles for the "mystery and suspense novels of 2010." First on the list is Tana French's Faithful Place.

I typically look at the print version of "Booklist" as it is a professional resource for our staff but it has a useful website including the best crime novels of the year here. The list has a "top 10" with Louise Penny's The Brutal Telling (Armand Gamache strikes again in a new mystery) listed first with the books in alphabetical order by title. Included are also the "best crime novel debuts" with Bad Things Happen by Harry Dolan leading the (alphabetical) list.

Book club discusses "Murder in Exile" [September]

The award-winning Murder in Exile was the September selection for the book club. Vincent H. O'Neil's debut mystery was the winner of the 2005 St. Martin's Press Malice Domestic contest introducing his series featuring Frank Cole.

Here's a googled pix of author O'Neil.

Cole is a background checker in Florida where he recently settled after a frustrating legal matter deals him a severe professional setback. His life is downsized and he's content for now but his newest assignment is grating his nerves. He is told to work to deny an insurance claim for a young man killed during a biking accident. Convinced his supervisor is in error, he attempts to continue his investigation of the death and comes to believes the victim was mistaken for another man.

Stubbornly pursuing this insurance case, Cole reaches what he feels is a good spot in his work when he arrives home and finds a threat in a "bullet sitting straight up and insolent on my kitchen table." That threat is not dismissed as Cole gets help from a private detective acquaintance and--along with his and operatives--unearth a sticky mess involving questionable businessmen.

Some book club discussion included the following:

• the book is a "good summer read"
• an informative book about all elements covered
• liked the mystery and characters but not the writing (felt the writing was aimed for those at a young reading level)
• liked the humor in the book
• the theme of justice was nicely presented in Cole's sense of feeling wronged at on the job and the victim doing wronged too and in another situation where a mental challenged employed man faced a tough situation--he was fairly supported by others
• Cole is flexible with his pared down lifestyle and makes do without much fuss.

O'Neil has three additional "Frank Cole mystery" books in print with the newest Contest of Wills published this year.

Book club discusses "Snow Angel" [July]

As the year is winding up, it is time to finish up certain matters and one for me is recapping book club discussions I missed earlier here.

One summer selection this year did often up a chill as we read James Thompson's debut thriller Snow Angels. Here's a copy of the same pix Thompson has on his website. Set in Lapland, Finland during the Christmas holiday season, the police are set upon an investigation of a gruesome murder of a Somali immigrant. The victim, Sufia Elmi, is an actress with a modestly-successful series of movies behind her and is staying in the area under the generous assistance of a private benefactor.

Then abruptly, she is violently murdered and left in an outdoor location with a racial epithet carved in her flesh.

The resourceful Inspector Kari Vaara is charge of the investigation and he has a challenging time with the apparent appearance of a hate crime and devoting attention to his pregnant American-born wife. A few of our observations of the book during our discussion included the following:

• the writer does an affective job setting mood with the despondent nature of some Finnish people and how it can show up through heavy drinking (along those lines, one attendee mentioned how in a social setting that some from that part of the world would seemingly only perk up after some drinking although another person wondered if the "Finns" were displeased by the author's overall characterization of them--writer James Thompson is a native American but lives in Finland's capital of Helsinki)
• the constant cold weather and type of community that results of such led to discussions about coping with colder temps in some parts of the U.S. where others had lived
• the book was well-received for good writing and a good mystery with a ending perhaps strangely fitting for the novel (while another take is that the ending feels rushed in relation to the story)
• Inspector Vaara takes a jack-of-all trades persona at work as a supervisor, detective and crime scene investigator (complete with equipment he conveniently stores in his car)--sometimes the job requires all those tasks
• the novel does have an additional element of conflict--should Vaara get outside help to run the case especially when an ex-wife becomes involved
• the book's title has a partially sharp ring as the Sufia's mother once appears to talk to her deceased daughter and gestures to the sky saying [in part] "...my angel..."

Writer James Thompson wrote the library's website (cmlibrary.org) a short message when he read the book club was using his book and I emailed him on behalf of the book club but signals got crossed, I guess, and I didn't hear from him. According to his website, a sequel to Snow Angels is coming entitled Dead of Winter.

Recommended (writer Spencer Quinn)--

While assisting a woman last month in the library, she passed on to me a reading recommendation of a mystery she had recently read. Well, she qualified it as a good choice if you like dogs. The book Dog On It: a Chet and Bernie mystery is the first of a new series by writer Spencer Quinn about the mystery (man and dog) team of a private investigator and his pooch.

She shared the book was funny as the story is told through the dog's (Chet) viewpoint. Imagine the world we see through a dog's eyes. Imagine how helpful it is to be a canine and assisting on a missing person case by sniffing out glues. Well, actually that helps a ton and as we see by the book cover, Chet does appear to ride shotgun. Anyway, Chet is devoted to that "down-on-his-luck" Bernie--even if he can't understand his life's troubles (from the book jacket).

Here's a book one library user solidly recommends.

Writer (and TV producer) Stephen J. Cannell has died

I wrote earlier in the year about writer Stephen J. Cannell and I was saddened to hear of his recent death. Reading the stories about him, many others as I were fans of his TV work, especially "The Rockford Files" from the '70s (I wrote earlier about a reboot of that series coming soon). The smooth mix of crime investigation and humor (actor James Garner was wonderfully cast) made it desirable TV viewing for years.

Here's a pix of Cannell as seen on his website.

Cannell had another professional life as a writer and the latest of his crime series with LAPD Sergeant Shane Scully (one cool cop name, huh?) and mystery novels in general (see here). The newest of his successful work--counting the titles on his website, he was up to 17 books--is the newest "Shane Scully" novel, The Prostitutes' Ball was released earlier this month.

New modern-day "Sherlock Holmes" TV series is here

I listened to the National Public Radio last week and caught an interesting story about arguably the world's most famous fictional detective, "Sherlock Holmes" in a new series on the BBC. It is a modern take on the detective in a series just entitled "Sherlock" and it will air in the United States beginning this month.

The revision of Holmes sounds reasonable if the character was to be dropped in the present day but read (or listen) to the story and reach your own conclusions. I'm rather curious.

Local author has success--

Reading this week's copy of my community weekly newspaper, "The Matthews-Mint Hill Weekly," I happened up0n a refreshing article about a new author. The headline read "Matthews book lover becomes published author" featuring a story about new writer David Clarke. His mystery novel is entitled The Parole Officer set in Birmingham, Alabama where Clarke was a native. It is available in paperback and a Kindle version.

His picture is taken from his Amazon.com page (which is a surprise to me, I believe I use Amazon a lot and I didn't know authors may have their own page).

Working part-time on the novel, Clarke cranked it out in a period of months and used the book genre he enjoys reading which are mysteries. His story follows parole officer and family man Pete Watson as he investigates the death of his newest parolee--which troubles him. That man happens to be the brother of another parolee, Earl Stallings, whom Watson has worked with for a successful rehabilitation in the past. So, as the police quickly close the case, Watson and Stallings begin to work together with their own investigation.

For more information about the book, check the book's Amazon page. Clarke is currently writing a sequel to The Parole Officer.

Book club discusses "Neptune Avenue" [June]

In June, the book club discussed the third "Jack Leightner crime novel" published last year entitled Neptune Avenue by Gabriel Cohen. Leightner is a veteran Brooklyn South homicide detective who catches the case of a young woman found dead in an abandoned row house with his new, young detective partner. It appears to be a suicide from the initial inspection.

Leightner, however, looks harder and knows otherwise.

The resulting case requires its share of police legwork but Leightner becomes quietly distracted as he learns of the death of a likable Russian acquaintance and attempts to investigate that death and comfort his friend's widow. And unexpectedly--his professional work takes a back seat to his personal interests and desires.

The detective character and the writer are a bi product of the Brooklyn neighborhoods as Cohen writes with an understanding and appreciation for the ethnically diverse communities ranging from Brooklyn Heights to Coney Island.

The book was well-received with comments during the book club including:

• it is a surprise how Leightner comes to ignore his professional case to look into the investigation of his friend's death
• the two concurrent cases though give the novel a quick pace of storytelling
  
• the detailed focus on the Russian based community in the novel was appreciated
• perhaps two (or so) incidents or descriptions of the neighborhood made one curious of when the book was written or when the story actually occurred
• one person who read the first book of the series, Red Hook, noted that Leightner gets different partners on-the-job due to his special detective rank
  
• Jack's attraction to his friend's widow, Eugenia, turns to into a surprisingly quick romance [one view]
• the map in front of the book was useful and one attendee (who grew up in the area) talked briefly about her childhood in Brooklyn.
  

The author photograph comes his website.