Episode 13: Julia Keller

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Later next month, just in time for a good Labor Day read, Summer of the Dead—the third in Julia Keller’s series about Raythune County, West Virginia prosecuting attorney Bell Elkins—will be released.

 

CT keller_bks.jpgSummer of the Dead

 

If you haven’t read Ms. Keller’s previous two works A Killing in the Hills and Bitter River, I suggest you start reading now. If you are already waiting for Summer of the Dead, I suggest you download the e-short story, “The Devil’s Stepdaughter,” a look into Bell’s back story. Consider it a concentrated chill.

This is a long interview. Although I had no troubled editing down my ramblings, Ms. Keller speaks as eloquently as she writes: every anecdote is worth listening to. At the end we discuss the work of T. Jefferson Parker and Stuart Neville and Ms. Keller perfectly describes how important place and setting are to crime fiction, and I feel she knows whereof she speaks, for there are few better practitioners.

Photo of Julia Keller ©Mike Zajakowski

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The Pause that Refreshes

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Speaking of Mysteries is taking a short break to catch up on its reading and to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday.

In the next few weeks we plan to have interviews with Pulitzer Prize winning author Julia Keller (A Killing in the Hills, Bitter River) to talk about Summer of the Dead, the third mystery in her series about Acker’s Gap, West Virginia Prosecutor Bell Elkins.

SoM also plans to talk to Charles Cumming about his newest thriller, A Colder War. Ex-MI6 agent Tom Kell, still on the road to redemption, is back working for his former employers in the politically charged atmosphere of Turkey. The novel has been out in the UK since April, but is due to be released stateside in mid-August.

David Rosenfelt newest novel, Hounded, featuring attorney—and dog lover—Andy Carpenter, is due out July 22. SoM plans to speak to him in early August.

We have other asks out as well, including Becky Masterman, whose first mystery, Rage Against the Dying, was nominated for an Edgar Award this year.

 

 

 

Episode 12: Paul Doiron

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Toto, I don’t think we’re in Cabot Cove anymore.

For the most part, popular culture associates the intersection of mysteries and the state of Maine with Murder She Wrote. You know, the circa ‘80s episodic TV series that featured the quite brilliant Angela Lansbury as a bicycle-riding, Miss Marple-esque mystery writer in a fictional Maine seaside hamlet, surrounded by quirky, but good-hearted, friends and neighbors.

That is not the Maine of Paul Doiron’s series.

 

Doiron, Paul_CREDIT Credit © 2012 Lori Traikos_Bad Little Falls_massacre pond

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Doiron’s Maine is actually two Maines, the more affluent, suburban coastal areas and the interior and northern sections of the state that are less well known and traveled. To paraphrase Paul’s description, these are the parts of Maine that are on the way to Canada by routes no one takes.

This is the world where Paul’s character Game Warden—and in the fifth book, The Bone Orchard— former Game Warden Mike Bowditch, lives and works. It’s a world that’s full of beautiful—but indifferent—nature that contrasts with the cruelty of humans against both other humans and the world in which they live.

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Paul Doiron: Our Maine Man

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Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch is back in The Bone Orchard, the next installment in the series.

 

Doiron, Paul_CREDIT Credit © 2012 Lori Traikos_Bad Little Falls_massacre pondBone Orchard[1]

 

Former editor in chief of Down East: The Magazine of Maine and registered Maine guide specializing in fly fishing (who has also been nominated for Edgar, Anthony, Macavity and Thriller Award, as well as winner of The Maine Literary Award) Paul Doiron talks to SoM about the fifth installment in his series, The Bone Orchard, due out July 15.

And for those of you who are wondering, as I did, how to pronounce Mr. Doiron’s surname, I suggest reading his tongue-and-cheek explanation on his website. You will have to listen to the interview, which will be published on Monday June 23, to see if I get it right.

 

Photo of Paul Doiron © 2012 Lori Traikos

Episode 11: Megan Abbott

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“The suburbs are filled with secrets.”
–Megan Abbott

 

1R_Megan_Abbott_(credit_Drew_Reilly)[1]Abbott.TheFever_final jacket

 

Read any of Megan Abbott’s last three books and you’ll find there is no darker heart than that of a teenage girl. I think she’s invented a genre: teenage girl suburban noir. Reading one of Megan’s novels is a little like looking at the American dream from the inside out: all the nasty bits that are usually hidden are revealed. Don’t just take my word for it,  Entertainment Weekly called The Fever one of the “10 Must Summer Reads.” I think that’s an understatement.

In mid-September, Megan is appearing at Bloody Scotland in Stirling, Scotland on a panel with another doyenne of dark, Scottish crime novelist Louise Welsh. It’s worth going to Bloody Scotland for that talk alone, let alone all the other great writers scheduled to appear.

Megan is without a doubt one of the country’s best novelists, but she’s pretty darn good as a magazine writer as well. Below are links to some of the pieces she wrote for LA, The Los Angeles Times Magazine.

“Q+LA: Elmore Leonard”

“Pretty Tough”

“Robert Crais: Man of Mystery”

“Human Touch”

“On the Edge of Nothing”

 

A special shout out to Thom Meredith, without whose technical wizardry and patience, this podcast in particular–and Speaking of Mysteries in general–would not be possible.

Photo © Drew Reilly

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Distaff Darkness

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Yeah, yeah, deadlier than the male.

Thanks then to Sarah Weinman, whose Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives: Stories from the Trailblazer of Domestic Suspense Paperback, reviewed in LARB by Cullen Gallagher, gives us stories by some of the best noir writers regardless of  gender (but who happen to be women): Patricia Highsmith, Margarat Millar and Dorothy B. Hughes. As Gallagher concludes, “Weinman’s anthology is only the first word on the subject, and far from the last.” Amen to that.

Episode 9: Annie Jacobsen

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The New York Times best selling author on her book that delves into the secret program the U.S. employed to sanitize the relocation of Nazi scientists to America after the end of World War II.

Annie Jacobsen at LATFOB

Annie Jacobsen and I sat down at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books to discuss her most recent book, Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program to Bring Nazi Scientists to America. Along the way we also discussed the TV adaptation of her Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base by Chris Carter of X-Files fame as well as who has optioned Paperclip. Spoiler alert: His partner optioned—and is directing—the film version of Unbroken.

I also mentioned some of the articles that Annie Jacobsen wrote for LA, The Los Angeles Times Magazine when I was its editor in chief. Links to articles written by Annie Jacobsen are directly below:

“What Plane?”

“The Road to Area 51”

“Camping with Qaddafi”

“Element of Surprise”

“What Lies Beneath”

“Kabul Lullaby”

“From Mojave to the Moon”

“Out of Iran: One L.A. Dentist’s Great Horseback Escape”

Photo of Annie Jacobsen by Nancie Clare

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