Bouchercon 2021 Cancelled

Due to Covid-19 Concerns

By now there isn’t a mystery writer in America who doesn’t know that this year’s Bouchercon—dubbed Blood on the Bayou—has been cancelled due to the surge of the Delta variant of Covid-19. Those of us who had registered for the conference received an email last week which, in part, said, “While it saddens us to cancel, we feel it is best. We wish to keep our members safe and have them back for future conventions without the danger of a rising health situation.  If anyone should be stricken with this horrible virus at our event, it would forever be a cloud of regret. We will still hold the Anthony Awards this year; you will receive a ballot on August 11th and have until August 14th to vote. Everyone registered after July 1st will receive a ballot. Details of the Anthony Awards will come in the next few weeks.” Hope to see you next year in person in Minneapolis, and/or San Diego in 2023.

A Brief History Of The Legal Thriller

If you enjoy a good mystery and have told a lawyer joke, chances are you like legal thrillers. Take a solid yet convoluted plot, throw in a cast of colorful and devious characters, meld it with scandal and calumny, and you have the foundation of a page-turner. But…why such a fascination with courtroom dramas, especially when there seems to be a widespread aversion (almost comical enmity) toward members of the bar? John Grisham—perhaps the most well-known attorney writing in the genre today—says, “You throw an innocent person in there, get ‘em caught up in a conspiracy, and you get ‘em out.” As author Manning Wolfe recently wrote in Crime Reads, “Modern readers are most likely to think this explosion of the genre is a recent phenomenon, but before [Scott] Turow, there was a history of lesser-known lawyer-writers. The predecessors were attorneys who collected true crime, case law, and trial stories of eighteenth-century Europe, all providing the foundation of the genre today.” In fact, as early as the mid-1500’s, scandalous trials were the focus of many printed stories and theatrical performances…and sometime later, the legal thriller was born. “Lawyers seem to be divided into a schizophrenic split of good guys and bad guys, depending on the reader and their experience of the law in real life. One thing is for sure, everyone knows at least one good lawyer joke, and no one calls for their mommy when they’re in big trouble—they call their lawyer,” Wolfe says.

REVIEW

S.A. Cosby’s Blacktop Wasteland

Is Pure, Extraordinary Genius

I arrived a bit late to the party of crime fans who have discovered the writing genius of S.A. Cosby. I’d bought a copy of Blacktop Wasteland last spring, and it finally worked it way to the top of the pile about a week ago. In a word, I can only describe it as “extraordinary.” Since I have more words than that, however, let me explain why this is the best new thriller I’ve read in five years. The depth of characters that populate this book is amazing: not just the main players we meet (Beauregard, Kia, Ronnie, Richie, Quan), but every minor role, as well. Each individual comes to life with stunning dexterity and genuine dialogue, as he or she propels the reader through a complex tangle of wrong and right, greed and vice. Their desperate actions evoke a true empathy as they (and we) struggle to make sense of their lives, and their personal trials weigh on us as we see them strive to find their way. The paths they take are real and honest, their decisions natural yet tormented, their hope and despair raw and palpable. Not even a classic Plymouth Duster—evocative of an earlier time of innocence and optimism—escapes unscathed. Blacktop Wasteland is storytelling at its gritty best, certain to launch Cosby into the crime-writing stratosphere. Next up: Razorblade Tears.

Seven Mysteries And

Thrillers Set in Isolation

It’s a tale almost as old as time itself. A trip starts out like the perfect vacation, as Mom and Dad bundle the kids into the car and head off into the mountains. Guests check into a roadside motel in the middle of a torrential downpour. A bunch of dumb camp counselors head off to a remote lake and they start getting picked off. (We all know that one.) Maybe a snowstorm seals a group of strangers in an inn without power, and people start to go missing. Or an avalanche buries a ski party in a cabin, and one by one, the hapless captives begin to die. Or hikers who think they’re alone in the woods suddenly find themselves the target of a murderer. Who will survive? How? Why? If you have an appetite for mysteries set in isolation, these seven books—presented by Novel Suspects—push their protagonists to the very edge of sanity until they question who they can trust…or if they can even trust themselves.

The What, How, When,

And Why Of Epigraphs

If you’re a reader, how often do you read a book’s epigraph? If you’re a writer, how often do you include one? For the uninitiated, an epigraph is the short quote that is best described as “a short quotation or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter, intended to suggest its theme.” As noted by author James Scott Bell, the purpose of an epigraph is one or more of the following: To a)hint at the theme of the novel; b) help set the tone; c) create curiosity about the content; and/or d) put a wry smile on the reader’s face. EG: The epigraph from Mario Puzo’s The Godfather reads, “Behind every great fortune there is a crime. — Balzac” By contrast, this is the epigraph Harper Lee used to begin To Kill A Mockingbird: “Lawyers, I suppose, were children once. — Charles Lamb” Then there’s Ray Bradbury’s selection at the front of Fahrenheit 451: “If they give you ruled paper, write the other way. — Juan Ramón Jiménez” Of course, not even the greatest of authors have these quotes swimming in their heads. Like the rest of us, they research them…as Bell outlines in this informative and witty Killzone blog. [Personal note: I included an epigraph in my first novel, Pay For Play. The publisher cut it, and I’ve never bothered since.]

     “Reed Bunzel hits all the right notes in Seven-Thirty Thursday (Suspense Publishing), an intensely personal tale that has echoes of both Greg Isles and John Hart. 
     "Rick Devlin is living proof of the old Thomas Wolfe adage that you can’t go home again, especially in the wake of his mother’s murder at his father’s hand in his once-beloved Charleston, South Carolina. That is, until new evidence surfaces suggesting that his father may be innocent, leading Devlin to launch his own investigation. It turns out pretty much everyone involved is hiding something, and it’s up to him to sort through the grisly morass to get to the truth.
     “This is Southern gothic writing extraordinaire, establishing Bunzel as a kind of William Faulkner of the thriller-writing world. His effortless prose crackles with color and authenticity as the brooding Charleston skies set the stage for the storm that’s coming.”

—Providence Journal