Clea's Bookshelf
What I'm reading now...
Where Memories Lie by Deborah Crombie - William Morrow, 2008.
I am finding this Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James mystery very moving. I think this is due partly to my recent journey to Dresden, which involved revisiting, in a way new to me, the human realities of World War II, and partly being wholly drawn in by the scenes with Erika Rosenthal and Inspector Gavin Hoxley. A particularly rich thread...
The Locked Room: The Story of a Crime by Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo - Pantheon Books, 1973.
My parents really liked this Swedish series; I have a distinct memory of seeing many of the Sjowall and Wahloo titles along the bookshelves at home when I was growing up. This copy belongs to my parents and the story is a classic mystery but I am taken by Martin Beck: his deadpan statements, his style of questioning that reminds me of an insect trying to find a way into a wall, his total calm when things (a scene examination, an autopsy) just aren't done properly by those who should have done them properly. I like picturing Martin Beck. I like imagining Swedish swear words going through his head and I wonder how he keeps himself from saying them out loud.
Police Interrogation and American Justice by Richard Leo - Harvard University Press, 2008.
This comprehensive book was loaned to me so I could see how well my law enforcement characters from Freezing, Scott and Eric, fit within reality when they're interrogating Wayne (and that's all I'm saying about Wayne), but I'm also interested in the processes that can lead to false confessions and how much psychology plays a role when there's a lack of physical evidence to associate someone with a crime.
I am finding this Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James mystery very moving. I think this is due partly to my recent journey to Dresden, which involved revisiting, in a way new to me, the human realities of World War II, and partly being wholly drawn in by the scenes with Erika Rosenthal and Inspector Gavin Hoxley. A particularly rich thread...
The Locked Room: The Story of a Crime by Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo - Pantheon Books, 1973.
My parents really liked this Swedish series; I have a distinct memory of seeing many of the Sjowall and Wahloo titles along the bookshelves at home when I was growing up. This copy belongs to my parents and the story is a classic mystery but I am taken by Martin Beck: his deadpan statements, his style of questioning that reminds me of an insect trying to find a way into a wall, his total calm when things (a scene examination, an autopsy) just aren't done properly by those who should have done them properly. I like picturing Martin Beck. I like imagining Swedish swear words going through his head and I wonder how he keeps himself from saying them out loud.
Police Interrogation and American Justice by Richard Leo - Harvard University Press, 2008.
This comprehensive book was loaned to me so I could see how well my law enforcement characters from Freezing, Scott and Eric, fit within reality when they're interrogating Wayne (and that's all I'm saying about Wayne), but I'm also interested in the processes that can lead to false confessions and how much psychology plays a role when there's a lack of physical evidence to associate someone with a crime.
My favorite authors (of mysteries, etc)...
Deborah Crombie. Crombie's story-telling has inspired me since I read her first Duncan Kincaid-Gemma James mystery, A Share in Death, in 1994 and I've been trying to spread out reading the series so it lasts me my whole life. This involves re-reading ones I've already read (admittedly, this is a theme for me) and getting lost in them, and in England, all over again.
Charles Todd. How this writing duo has woven Post Traumatic Stress Disorder into Inspector Ian Rutledge's world is just brilliant. I love how, whenever Rutledge is driving, he stops bothering trying to - or just can't - keep a barrier between 'reality' and 'his reality' and he responds aloud to Hamish. I can relate to this and it also reminds me of when my character, Steelie, talks about 'Jayne's Law' in Freezing. Legacy of the Dead, set in 1919 in Scotland, is my runaway favorite of the Ian Rutledge series.
Arnaldur Indridason. I read Arctic Chill - A Reykjavik Thriller when my brother gave it to me last year and I can't wait to read more of Indridason's books. I loved the pace and the realism of the dialogue but I also loved the silence, the humor, the empathy and the details. This is my kind of book.
Arthur Upfield. The author of the Napoleon 'Bony' Bonaparte mysteries. Bony is a mixed Aboriginal and white Australian Detective Inspector of the 1930s. I love Bony and his powers, which border on those of a superhero (but a part-Aboriginal superhero! Fantastic), and how he masks them. When I lived in Australia, I made a point of visiting places Upfield wrote about. I looked for indigenous plants mentioned in the books. I bought a billy can in which to brew tea just like Bony does when he's out bush...except I wasn't out bush myself. Yes, I had a problem but I admitted it and eventually went back to using a tea pot.
I'm a big fan of John Creasy's Richard Rollison (or 'The Toff' to those of you in London's East End in the 1940s-60s) - one of my favorites is The Toff at Butlin's.
Josephine Tey. The Daughter of Time sparked for me a major interest in Richard III (so major that friends of mine became quite tired of hearing me rant about about what I was learning; all made worse by the fact that I've idolized Sir Thomas More since seeing 'A Man For All Seasons' in high school and if you don't know what I'm on about, you should really read The Daughter of Time as a start. Ah. Well, you see why my friends got tired. Moving on...) One of my favorite Tey's is A Shilling for Candles.
Sue Grafton. I've learned a lot from how Grafton handles the passage of time in her Kinsey Millhone series, but I also appreciate what Grafton's said in interviews about making the transition to novel-writing from other kinds of writing (in her case, screenwriting). It's interesting because sometimes those around writers think this particular transition is like a screeching right turn executed without turn signals and barely missing that pedestrian in the crosswalk. But to those of us making the transition, it feels like the most natural thing in the world: we knew the right turn was coming and the acceleration is just us powering through. This is leaving aside the joy I have in taking a ride with Kinsey Millhone, being in her office (very inspired by the old-school PI feel here) and best of all, the way Grafton plainly pointed her readers to the real case behind the Jane Doe in Q is for Quarry.
Charles Todd. How this writing duo has woven Post Traumatic Stress Disorder into Inspector Ian Rutledge's world is just brilliant. I love how, whenever Rutledge is driving, he stops bothering trying to - or just can't - keep a barrier between 'reality' and 'his reality' and he responds aloud to Hamish. I can relate to this and it also reminds me of when my character, Steelie, talks about 'Jayne's Law' in Freezing. Legacy of the Dead, set in 1919 in Scotland, is my runaway favorite of the Ian Rutledge series.
Arnaldur Indridason. I read Arctic Chill - A Reykjavik Thriller when my brother gave it to me last year and I can't wait to read more of Indridason's books. I loved the pace and the realism of the dialogue but I also loved the silence, the humor, the empathy and the details. This is my kind of book.
Arthur Upfield. The author of the Napoleon 'Bony' Bonaparte mysteries. Bony is a mixed Aboriginal and white Australian Detective Inspector of the 1930s. I love Bony and his powers, which border on those of a superhero (but a part-Aboriginal superhero! Fantastic), and how he masks them. When I lived in Australia, I made a point of visiting places Upfield wrote about. I looked for indigenous plants mentioned in the books. I bought a billy can in which to brew tea just like Bony does when he's out bush...except I wasn't out bush myself. Yes, I had a problem but I admitted it and eventually went back to using a tea pot.
I'm a big fan of John Creasy's Richard Rollison (or 'The Toff' to those of you in London's East End in the 1940s-60s) - one of my favorites is The Toff at Butlin's.
Josephine Tey. The Daughter of Time sparked for me a major interest in Richard III (so major that friends of mine became quite tired of hearing me rant about about what I was learning; all made worse by the fact that I've idolized Sir Thomas More since seeing 'A Man For All Seasons' in high school and if you don't know what I'm on about, you should really read The Daughter of Time as a start. Ah. Well, you see why my friends got tired. Moving on...) One of my favorite Tey's is A Shilling for Candles.
Sue Grafton. I've learned a lot from how Grafton handles the passage of time in her Kinsey Millhone series, but I also appreciate what Grafton's said in interviews about making the transition to novel-writing from other kinds of writing (in her case, screenwriting). It's interesting because sometimes those around writers think this particular transition is like a screeching right turn executed without turn signals and barely missing that pedestrian in the crosswalk. But to those of us making the transition, it feels like the most natural thing in the world: we knew the right turn was coming and the acceleration is just us powering through. This is leaving aside the joy I have in taking a ride with Kinsey Millhone, being in her office (very inspired by the old-school PI feel here) and best of all, the way Grafton plainly pointed her readers to the real case behind the Jane Doe in Q is for Quarry.
My favorite television and film mysteries & procedurals...
Luther. Two words: Idris Elba.
Zen. I keep hoping that BBC One will hear all of us who don't want to survive on just three episodes of this adaptation of Michael Dibdin's books.
Prime Suspect. The original, with Helen Mirren in the ladies' room, trying to eat a sandwich in peace. You know it was the first chance she'd had to eat lunch - or perhaps any meal - in, like, two weeks.
The Wire. Yes, Idris Elba stars in this one too but I swear it's the writing that hooked me.
Inspector Lewis. Before anyone complains, this list is in no particular order (even though something with Idris Elba is at the top - and did I just type his name again?), so it's not blasphemous to have Lewis ahead of Morse.
Inspector Morse. Here he is.
Foyle's War.
Sherlock Holmes. The series with Jeremy Brett.
Poirot. For me, he is embodied by David Suchet.
Sherlock. I thought I was a purist about Sherlock Holmes until I saw this.
Rebus. The series with Ken Stott.
The Day of the Jackal. From 1973, with Edward Fox.
Enigma. The film of 2001.
Columbo.
Miss Marple. The series starring Joan Hickson.
Blood Work. Clint Eastwood's 2002 film of Michael Connelly's book.
The Lincoln Lawyer. Speaking of Michael Connelly! I loved the way Brad Furman's 2011 film of Connelly's novel made Los Angeles a character in itself.
Speaking of Los Angeles: Southland. Wow. I have arrived late to the party, and have to thank the Los Angeles Times for writing about Southland recently, but the flip side is that I can see more episodes more quickly than if I had seen this from the beginning. (I am wondering, however, if the rock I've been under was more like a boulder, because I also came late to The Wire. So late that people looked at me funny when I was rockin' out to that whole scene. But I know thousands of you can still hear the music. Don't leave me out here by myself.) In Southland, LA looks great - in a real way - and it's recognizable to me as an Angeleno, the stories problematize the world cops inhabit, and there's space for the good and the bad to evolve in ways that remind you to check your assumptions at the door. A great PTSD theme, too, and humor of the sort that has you missing what the next guy says because you're still laughing over what the first guy said.
Y'know what? I think this whole list is way too revealing. May have to go back under my rock. Dragging my DVDs.
- Clea
Zen. I keep hoping that BBC One will hear all of us who don't want to survive on just three episodes of this adaptation of Michael Dibdin's books.
Prime Suspect. The original, with Helen Mirren in the ladies' room, trying to eat a sandwich in peace. You know it was the first chance she'd had to eat lunch - or perhaps any meal - in, like, two weeks.
The Wire. Yes, Idris Elba stars in this one too but I swear it's the writing that hooked me.
Inspector Lewis. Before anyone complains, this list is in no particular order (even though something with Idris Elba is at the top - and did I just type his name again?), so it's not blasphemous to have Lewis ahead of Morse.
Inspector Morse. Here he is.
Foyle's War.
Sherlock Holmes. The series with Jeremy Brett.
Poirot. For me, he is embodied by David Suchet.
Sherlock. I thought I was a purist about Sherlock Holmes until I saw this.
Rebus. The series with Ken Stott.
The Day of the Jackal. From 1973, with Edward Fox.
Enigma. The film of 2001.
Columbo.
Miss Marple. The series starring Joan Hickson.
Blood Work. Clint Eastwood's 2002 film of Michael Connelly's book.
The Lincoln Lawyer. Speaking of Michael Connelly! I loved the way Brad Furman's 2011 film of Connelly's novel made Los Angeles a character in itself.
Speaking of Los Angeles: Southland. Wow. I have arrived late to the party, and have to thank the Los Angeles Times for writing about Southland recently, but the flip side is that I can see more episodes more quickly than if I had seen this from the beginning. (I am wondering, however, if the rock I've been under was more like a boulder, because I also came late to The Wire. So late that people looked at me funny when I was rockin' out to that whole scene. But I know thousands of you can still hear the music. Don't leave me out here by myself.) In Southland, LA looks great - in a real way - and it's recognizable to me as an Angeleno, the stories problematize the world cops inhabit, and there's space for the good and the bad to evolve in ways that remind you to check your assumptions at the door. A great PTSD theme, too, and humor of the sort that has you missing what the next guy says because you're still laughing over what the first guy said.
Y'know what? I think this whole list is way too revealing. May have to go back under my rock. Dragging my DVDs.
- Clea
© 2012 Clea Koff
