Monday, December 19, 2022
Friday, December 16, 2022
You can sod off, 2022, but leave the books please
Abir Mukherjee
So here we are, staggering weak-limbed and dry-mouthed towards the finish line of another ridiculous year: 2022 – another corker of calamity – with those horsemen of the apocalypse, war, pestilence and err inflation stalking us like the last single guys at a party.
On the bright side, we’ve managed to avoid nuclear Armageddon for now, which is a positive for our species but possibly a negative for the planet in the long run. 2022 also feels like the year we finally turned the corner on covid – unless you’re Chinese and locked into your apartment for the umpteenth time, in which case I say, **** **** ****** ****** THIS COMMENT HAS BEEN CENSORED BY THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA.
2023, you bright, shining, beautiful baby of a year on the horizon, I would hope to welcome you with optimism and cheer, as I have done every new year so far, but after the last three dumpster fires, I’m slightly nervous that you’ll trick me, like a new friend that you invite into your home who ends up being an arse, staying for twelve months, sleeping on your couch and drinking all your booze (even the good stuff you keep hidden from your wife’s relatives).
Camus and Sartre, writers every bit as talented as me, believed that the efforts of humanity to find meaning or rational explanation in the universe ultimately fail because no such meaning exists, and that given that we all die in the end, that all human endeavour is ultimately absurd. Far be it from me to disagree with a bunch of dead Frenchies, but I’d say that while the universe is undoubtedly absurd, while we’re here, we might as well make the most of it. Each person of course is free to choose how she or he makes the most of it, whether it’s sitting in your mum’s basement having pointless arguments with strangers online or buying Twitter and trashing it cos you’re an idiot man-baby billionaire. If neither of these is appealing to you, and let’s be honest, why would they? then the best place to seek succour in this absurd universe is within the warm embrace of a good book.
So here are some of the ones I’ve enjoyed the most during 2022.
Crime & Thrillers
The Accomplice – Steve Cavanagh
When the wife of a fugitive serial killer is arrested on charges of complicity in his crimes, lawyer, Eddie Flynn, is forced to defend her. As complete and perfect a thriller as you will read. Every chapter is the literary equivalent of being hit in the face with a frying pan. Just brilliant.
The Seeker – SG Maclean
Shona MacLean is a writer from the Scottish Highlands, and I have to say, one of the finest historical crime fiction novelists in the UK today. Set in the paranoid world of Cromwellian England of 1654, Damian Seeker is an investigator for the Lord Protector. Think of him as a 17th century Jack Reacher. The first in the series, The Seeker is charged with investigating the murder of John Winter, a general in Cromwell’s army. It should be an open and shut case, but all isn’t as it seems. Intelligent, atmospheric and pacy – this book is the gold standard for historical crime fiction.
Razorblade Tears – SA Cosby
A Black father. A white father. Two murdered sons. A quest for vengeance.
Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.
A wonderful take on middle American underclass - as good as I've read anywhere.
Bombay Monsoon – James Ziskin
Some guy called Ziskin wrote a book an American journalist, Danny Jacobs, who arrives in Bombay in 1975, just as Prime Minister India Gandhi plunges the world’s largest democracy into chaos by declaring a national state of emergency.
Amidst this crisis, Danny falls for Sushmita, the lover of the European in the apartment next door. His life is thrown into turmoil when a police inspector is murdered. Will he get out alive?
What can I say – this book is the real deal. Ziskin deftly manages the political upheavals and the chaos of India while giving up a wonderfully plotted and executed thriller. If you haven’t read him yet, now’s your chance.
Non crime:
The Stasi Poetry Circle – Philip Oltermann
A great book on the real-life poetry group set up by members of the Stasi – East Germany’s feared secret police. Yes, I’m as shocked as you are.
How Civil Wars Start (and How to Stop Them) Barbara F Walter
An interesting book analysing the state of the US today in the context of other societies which have experienced civil wars. A rather sobering read. Maybe best read after a few drinks.
Money Men – Dan McCRum
The story of the Wirecard fraud. Wirecard was, until last year, the darling of the German FinTech industry, hailed as a European success story in a field dominated by US tech companies. It went from a small software house to one of the most valuable stocks on the German bourse. Except it was all a lie. Smoke and mirrors and shady accounting. One journalist, Dan McCrum of the Financial Times in London wasn’t convinced by the glitz and hype surrounding the company. When he started asking awkward questions, the company went after him, employing spies and co-opting the German financial regulator BaFin. Like the Elizabeth Holmes case in America, this is the byzantine true story of the power of big companies built on lies.
Ones coming soon
Strange Sally Diamond – Liz Nugent
One of the most original and spine-tingling books I’ve read in ages, Liz Nugent’s Strange Sally Diamond draws you in to the close, claustrophobic world of rural Ireland and the life of an emotionally withdrawn woman whose dark, hidden past is coming back to haunt her. Crackling with tension, this book with have you turning the pages late into the night. An absolute triumph.
The last dance – Mark Billingham
I’m reading this at the moment. The start of a brand new series from one of the all time legends of crime fiction, Mark Billingham. Murder and intrigue in Blackpool, the capital of the UK’s ballroom dance scene. Detective Declan Millar has a secret – when not investigating crimes, he’s cutting a rug on the dance floor. Still grieving the death of his partner, a double murder causes Millar to return to work. Can he find the answers where his colleagues have failed?
There’s a reason why Billingham has been a number one bestseller for more years that anyone can remember- it’s because he’s supremely talented. I am loving this so far. Full review to come soon.
Independence Square – Martin Cruz Smith
Haven’t read it yet, but I’ve just received a copy and Arkady Renko is one of my all-time favourite detective creations. This latest instalment will be my Christmas treat.
And that's it. Thanks for reading my posts this last year. May I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very very happy 2023.
Abir
Thursday, December 15, 2022
Some Really Good Books I Read in 2022 From James W. Ziskin
I’m not crazy about the Best Books of the Year lists. To be clear, I don’t object to the great books on those lists. They deserve accolades. I only wish the reviewers could use a better description for their annual lists. Kristopher Zgorski of BOLO Books does exactly that. He’s always careful to note that he’s not proclaiming his choices as “the best books of the year.” He calls them instead his “Top Reads” of the year.
For the past few years, I’ve been listing the books I particularly enjoyed over the previous twelve months.
HERE ARE SOME BOOKS I READ—AND LOVED—THIS PAST YEAR
(In no particular order)
A ruthless and clever killer haunts the Metropolitan Opera and the hidden recesses of Lincoln Center. Violinist Julia Kogen, a rising star in the pit, must unmask the murderer or become a victim herself. Erica Miner’s richly satisfying Aria for Murder delivers a compelling mystery, replete with devious characters, glorious music, and plenty of behind-the-scenes dirty laundry. A musical and dramatic triumph. Bis! Encore! |
Wanda M. Morris’s Anywhere You Run is a powerful, emotional, heartbreaking tale of love and survival and redemption. Much more than an entertaining thriller, this is an essential read that chronicles the injustices suffered every day by blacks in the Jim Crow South—and the supposedly progressive North—of 1964. Brilliant and deeply moving. Don’t miss this thrilling novel. One of the best I’ve read in a long time.
I found this novel to be remarkable in several ways. First, the voice. Or the voices. The three narrators tell the compelling story from different points of view with quite different voices. Second, the plot. Nugent weaves a tight, at times painful story, that does not flinch when it comes to taking dark turns. Third, the book draws the reader into the suspense, almost as a participant. We know what’s happened, what might happen at the end, and still we’re surprised by the twists. This is a dark, disturbing story. Lying in Wait is brilliantly creepy. So very good. |
Happy holidays and happy reading!
Wednesday, December 14, 2022
Yule love these
This week we’ve been asked for our favorite reads from the past year.
by Dietrich
Here’s my list. They’re not all new releases, and not all fiction, but they’re all highly recommended.
The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy; Knopf, 2022. It’s his first since The Road — and wow, what a book. It takes one twist after another while centering around a salvage diver who’s being chased by feds; all the while he’s haunted by thoughts of the schizophrenic sister who killed herself.
Fairy Tale by Stephen King; Scribner, 2022. King’s in fine form spinning his own fairy tale about good versus evil. It takes place in an alternate world that only a master like King could create.
City on Fire by Don Winslow; William Morrow, 2022. The first in his new Danny Ryan trilogy. I’m a longtime Winslow fan, and this is one’s right up there with his best.
Like a Rolling Stone by Jann S. Wenner; Little, Brown and Co., 2022. The tell-all by the founder of Rolling Stone Magazine takes readers deep inside the music, culture, and politics of a generation.
Start Without Me by Gary Janetti; Henry Holt, 2022. Real life stories from a very funny writer. When I wasn’t laughing out loud, I was captured by Janetti’s wit throughout.
A Book of Days by Patti Smith, Random House, 2022. A visual book looking into the artist's life. Photos shot over a year, on and off the road, her travels around the world, her heroes, train stations, out of the way cafes, and a whole lot more.
Deacon King Kong by James McBride; Riverhead Books, 2020. Another awesome crime novel set in NYC in the mid-sixties. A powerful voice along with some great dialogue.
Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton; Harper Collins, 2017. Set in the days of the Wild West, a pair of palaeontologists go head to head, sabotaging each other in what becomes known as the Bone Wars. If you’re a Crichton fan, you’ll love this one.
Star Island by Carl Hiaasen; Knopf, 2010. The sixth book in the Skink series. Skink’s the somewhat disturbed former governor of Florida; in this one he becomes a deer in the headlights of the celebrity fast lane. It’s pure Hiaasen gold.
Irish Thunder: The Hard Life & Times of Micky Ward by Bob Halloran; Lyons Press, 2007. A brilliant account of an underdog on a hard road to becoming a champ.
The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson; Penquin, 2006. The first in the Walt Longmire series, a tale of vengeance — one not to be missed by another great contemporary writer.
Down to the Dirt by Joel Thomas Hynes; Killick Press, 2004. One moment it shows a lot of heart, the next it hits as hard as a fist. A debut novel from a true Canadian talent.
Catch Me if You Can: The true story of a real fake by Frank W. Abignale; Mainstream, 2003. An unbelievable story that’s all true. Frank the con man poses as an Pan Am pilot, the supervising resident of a hospital, a college sociology professor, and he practices law without a license. Cashing over $2,5 million in forged cheques, he eluded the law of 26 foreign countries and all 50 states. What a ride.
The Man who Invented Florida by Randy Wayne White; St. Martin’s Press, 1993. It’s the third Doc Ford mystery, and this time around his crazy uncle discovers the Fountain of Youth, well, sort of. It’s a riot of fun in White’s twisted vision of southwest Florida.
To the writers and the readers here at Criminal Minds, I wish you all the very best over the holidays and for the coming year.
—
The Get
Lenny Ovitz has plenty of secrets. He works for a volatile crime boss, is drowning in debt to the wrong people, and he’s certain his soon-to-be ex is aiming to screw him over. Somebody is going to have to get whacked.
Coming June 6th, 2023 from ECW Press.
Check it out now and preorder your copy here.
Tuesday, December 13, 2022
A Few Good Titles
I admit that I don’t like writing end-of-year recommendations. Why? Because I read so many good books during the year, and it’s hard to list only the best of the best when there are some second-tier ones that had some special moments,. And it’s so subjective. More than once I’ve been excited to read a book that “everyone” is gaga over, only to find that it just doesn’t work for me. And also the opposite—books I’ve read that I never heard of, that seem should be at the top of best-seller lists.
Sunday, December 11, 2022
Holiday Reading + Gift Ideas!
Happy Holidays, everyone! Brenda starting off this week's round of book recommendations.
As always, I'm in awe of the quantity of books my fellow Minds have read this past year and encourage you to look back to last week's posts and the ones following mine to get some great gift ideas -- or books for your own to-read pile. My list of suggestions is somewhat more modest in comparison :-)
I started off the year with a file titled 'Books Read in 2022'. Alas, I only recorded two books and nothing else. Since I constantly have a book on the go and also belong to a book club, I admit that my record-keeping needs work, but happily I recall a couple of other novels from this past year that you might enjoy.
I know that you must be curious about what two books I dutifully recorded (and a good thing I did or I never would have remembered) so let's start there.
The first is Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz. I'd never read any of his books before and enjoyed the mystery although I wrote in my notes that while the writing is good, I found the two storylines confusing. Still, I would read another of his books without hesitation.
The second book to make my list (if two books equal a list) is The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly. Rene Ballard is the lead character with retired Harry Bosch pulled in as a consultant. Another good read in a series I consistently enjoy. If you haven't watched the Bosch series on Amazon Prime, it makes a great way to spend some holiday time as my husband and I did a few years back.
From there, I decided to read the entire Benny Griessel series by South Africa's Deon Meyer. I ordered the first four books and haven't gotten around to getting the last four, but have to say that the series is fabulous. I particularly liked book four, Cobra, and fully intend to read the last of the series in 2023. You'll have to wait an entire year to see how I do.
In the thriller category, I was fortunate enough to get a signed copy of The Island by Adrian McKinty when he was here as part of the Ottawa International Writers Festival. The first three-quarters of the book is non-stop tension ... well, maybe the entire book ... and not one to be read right before bed. If you like an original story that keeps you on the edge of your seat, this book is for you.
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Friday, December 9, 2022
Books I Read Because I Write, by Josh Stallings
I read for many reasons, for pleasure sure, and also for research. I started a new book this year and for inexplicable reasons I knew John Steinbeck was part of the key to the book’s tone. Along the way I read East of Eden two and a half times. It is a dark deeply rich generational novel. I discovered Steinbeck’s Journal of a Novel — The East of Eden Letters, a journal he wrote every day before writing on the novel as a way of warming his writing muscles up for the chapter ahead. It encompasses lots of good writerly advice and a chance to see that Steinbeck stumbled just as often as any writer.
Steinbeck’s Sweet Thursday, is a comic gem. The sequel to Cannery Row, it is charming and oddly romantic.
Half of the novel I’m working on takes place in Southern California and a second story line takes place in Ecuador. Fifteen years ago my father, my son, and I went to Ecuador to visit a shaman in the Andes and the Shuar people in the rainforest. I knew a little, but I find fiction helps me get to the truth of a place, so I looked for some Ecuadorian authors.
Poso Wells by Gabriela Alemán. A Brazil-born Ecuadorian writer, Alemán delivers a truly original crime novel. People are disappearing from a town built on garbage. No one cares until a politician goes missing. I’ve seen it described as “a noir, feminist eco-thriller”. That’s accurate but any label may be reductive. It’s a thrilling trip into a world I need to know more about. Her short story collection Family Album is equally brilliant.
Along with research on setting and tone for my currant MS, I am always reading books to learn more about the craft of writing. I work intuitively. I don’t break down a book and look under its hood, the learning comes from reading a book I love that does something I don’t do, and letting it seep into my subconscious. I often learn more from books that reside far afield from my work.
I wanted to discover how multi character and multi timeline stories work. David Mitchell and Emily St. John Mandel are two writers who continually create complicated tales that work seamlessly.
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell, is about a rock band forming and climbing its way to semi stardom in the 1960s - 70s. It’s about very different musical artists before they came together and after. It adds to historical reality with cameos from David Bowie, Jerry Garcia, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Cass Elliot and more. It also has supernatural and Sci-Fi elements that are better read than explained.
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, in a macro sense is about a Bernie Madoff style Ponzi scheme and the price paid by individual investors and living in the world of senseless wealth. It’s also about a young woman and her half brother stumbling through life and trying to discover themselves. It is more than anything I can say about it. And a perfect example of how a book can be not about what it’s about, and still be perfection.
Creative Quest by Questlove, is about writing without being about writing. I picked this up on audio book to listen to while driving to Mexico to see my dentist. I love the Roots, a band he co-founded, and was charmed by his documentary Summer of Soul. What I didn’t know was how much thought he’s given to the creative process. He talks about the creative process of chefs and film makers and I am reminded when we take out the details it’s all the same job.“[Creativity] is about finding your own unique way of fitting into the continually repeating human experience.”
I have returned, or at least stumbled back into the poetry section of the library lately. As a young man my wife and I loved poets enough to name our first born after Dylan Thomas. Somehow as I grew older poetry felt less relevant, how wrong I was.
Dead Burying the Dead Under a Quaking Aspen by David Cranmer. David Cranmer is an editor and publisher for BEAT to a PULP. He published Blow Jobs, one of my favorite short stories. So when I saw he had a book of poetry out I grabbed it. I’m glad I did. It is a mix of personal and political pieces. All strong in voice and tone. The last piece in it is Daughter, where he describes his work as a place for her to live when he is gone.
Book of Gods & Grudges by Jessica L. Walsh. Hard as nails, as profound as punk rock. In short tight lines she speaks to how I feel. “When My Daughter Tells Me I Was Never A Punk” is the perfect Riot Grrrl scream explaining a life well lived can be the most punk answer to a world that wants you on your knees. Jessica L. Walsh delivers a novel worth of story in one page. I think this is because she, like most poets knows the best stories live beyond, before and after, the plot we are telling.