How After Hours Brought Martin

Scorsese Back From Brink Of Despair

On Thanksgiving Day 40 years ago, Martin Scorsese--highly acclaimed director of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull—was told by Paramount Pictures chief Barry Diller that the studio was essentially pulling out of The Last Temptation of Christ, his long-gestating passion project. As reported by Jake Malooley in Air Mail, “In pulling the plug on this project on which they had already spent millions of dollars, they were sending him a very clear message: go away.” As expected, the young director felt utterly demoralized and disenchanted with the motion picture industry. Then his lawyer handed him a script titled A Night in Soho. The screenwriter, Joseph Minion, was a young unknown, but a familiar name was attached: Amy Robinson, who had a memorable role in Scorsese’s 1973 breakout, Mean Streets. She was developing the project with her producing partner, actor Griffin Dunne. Scorsese was riveted by the tale’s many unexpected twists surrounding Paul Hackett [Dunne], a Manhattan office drone who leaves his blandly comfortable Upper East Side existence late one night to meet up with a mysterious and alluring woman (Rosanna Arquette). On the taxi ride to SoHo, his money suddenly flies out the window, leaving him stranded in what’s depicted as a seamy, rain-soaked village sparsely populated by artists, punks, gays, and criminals. The film gave Scorsese the kick-start he needed, and earned him a Best Director award at Cannes.

Crime Writer Lisa Black On CSI Schools That Teach Forensic Research

If you’re like most mystery and thriller enthusiasts, you’ve probably watched at least a few episodes of Bones and CSI. While many television shows cut a few corners in the interest of time, if you’re really into authenticity, there are more than a few forensic schools that will help you hone your medical examination skills. Crime writer Lisa Black wrote in a recent Crime Reads article that, “As labs are accredited and techs are certified, a certain amount of continuing education credits are required to maintain those standings. Students include cops, fingerprint analysts, drug lab techs, and death investigators with experience anywhere from a few months to a few decades.” In order to research her current mystery series, Black attended several CSI courses that included extensive classroom instruction as well as genuine field work. “In Basic Bloodstain Pattern Interpretation we spent days experimenting with horse blood (donated by living horses) by dripping it from pipettes. At a ‘buried body’ class we examined the grave of a small pig. In Crime Scene Reconstruction, we used colored string to lay a grid along a section of lawn where tossed bullet casings lay. We also observed qualified personnel fire bullets into vehicles to demonstrate how to tell the bullet’s direction of travel.” Just Google “crime scene investigation schools" to find one near you.

Finding The Knife’s Edge Between

Thrilling Horror & Horrifying Thrillers

William Gibson’s legendary novel Neuromancer was one of the earliest books to be categorized as cyberpunk, and features a plot best summarized as “a guy gets hired by a mysterious woman and is plunged into a shadowy world.” Since its publication it has sold more than 7 million copies worldwide, but it continues to defy genre classification. Is it science fiction? A mystery? Maybe a thriller? Those are the questions Andy Marino asks in Novel Suspects, noting that, “Plenty of fantasy novels employ political machinations and espionage to drive their plot engines, but nobody’s looking for John le Carré and George R.R. Martin in the same bookstore section.” Genre distinctions get more complicated, Marino says, when you consider the blurrier line between thriller and horror. Is The Silence of the Lambs a dark crime thriller? Does adding the word “psychological” mean that “horror” suddenly becomes a more fitting label? “It could just be a great example of ‘I know it when I see it,’ he continues. “In Silence, psychology is a plot point, thanks to Lecter’s profession. But ‘psychological horror’ has also become a catch-all to loosely mean ‘scary stories that don’t have ghosts.’ How about this: If the story features any kind of unreal element—the supernatural, monsters, haunted houses—it’s horror, full stop. Anything involving events that could happen in real life—even if they’re unbelievably horrific—is a thriller.”

Ten Twisted Thrillers With Unreliable

Narrators You Really Can’t Believe

When you really think about it, readers have to put a lot of trust in the narrators of the stories they are reading. As Murder-Mayhem’s Isabel Montero recently wrote, “It is the narrator’s job to act as our guide through the plot, and we often establish a connection with them since we are usually hearing their innermost thoughts and seeing the world through their eyes for the duration of the novel. But what happens when narrators use that power against us? When they exploit their charisma or refuse to grant readers crucial information, that would affect our entire perception of the tale they are weaving. Or, sometimes even more interesting, what if the narrator is battling a mental illness that prevents them from understanding the actual reality of a scenario and, in turn, presents false information to the reader unknowingly? In a way, we can all be seen as unreliable narrators who are limited to our own constricted perspectives. But thrillers, in particular, commonly use unreliable narrators to intentionally withhold information to confuse, intrigue, and blur the lines of reality, so that until the very last page, readers are left trying to decipher who they can trust.” To emphasize her point, Montero compiled this list of intriguing thrillers with unreliable narrators who mess with our minds!

Killer Nashville Awards Silver

Falchions To Mystery, Crime Writers

The Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award were bestowed on a number of mystery and crime writers August 19 in (where else?) Nashville, TN. Honorees weren’t announced by BunzelGram’s press time last week, but here are some of the winners:

• Best Book of 2022: Lynessa Layne, Target Acquired

• Best Mystery: Rich Zahradnik, The Bone Records

• Best Action Adventure: Angela Greenman, The Child Riddler

• Best Comedy: J. B. Manning, Richter the Mighty

• Best Investigator: James L'Etoile, Dead Drop

• Best Thriller: Jeneva Rose, One of Us is Dead

• Best Cozy: Lori Robbins, Murder in Third Position

• Best Historical: Carmen Amato, Murder at the Galliano Club

• Best Western: Terrence McCauley, Blood on the Trail

Congratulations to all winners and nominees. Well deserved!

Coming September 12:

INDIGO ROAD

“Indigo Road is a beautifully wrought, hard-biting story with elements of classic noir presented through a prism of modern sensibilities. A fantastic read.” –S.A. Cosby, bestselling author of Razorblade Tears 

While still slinging drinks fulltime at The Sandbar in Folly Beach, Jack Connor works a side gig as a licensed bounty hunter. One afternoon, as he's transporting his latest bail skip named Willis Ronson back to jail, his SUV is ambushed by a team of gunmen, killing Ronson instantly and seriously injuring his court-appointed attorney, Alisha Dupree. Connor can’t help but poke around the edges of the deadly incident and quickly learns that Ronson was a man of many secrets, including a mysterious woman from his past who has caused him to be sucked into a domestic terrorist fringe group.