AUDIES AWARDS FINALISTS ANNOUNCED

The Audio Publishers Association has announced the finalists for its annual Audies Awards gala. The June 1 event, which considers audio titles released between November 1, 2005, and October 31, 2006, will be hosted by actor and audiobook narrator Jim Dale.

Fiction, Unabridged
Restless by William Boyd, narrated by Rosemund Pike, Audio Renaissance
Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen, narrated by Carol Monda, Recorded Books, LLC
Telegraph Days by Larry McMurtry, narrated by Annie Potts, Simon & Schuster Audio
The Prestige by Christopher Priest, narrated by Simon Vance, Blackstone Audio Inc.
The Two-Minute Rule by Robert Crais, narrated by Christopher Graybill, Brilliance Audio
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, narrated by David LeDoux and John Randolph Jones, HighBridge Audio

Biography/Memoir
Diana by Sarah Bradford, narrated by Katie Kelgren, Penguin Audio
Dispatches from the Edge by Anderson Cooper, narrated by Anderson Cooper, HarperAudio
Elizabeth by J. Randy Taraborrelli, narrated by Lynne Maclean, Hachette Audio
Sound and Fury by Dave Kindred, narrated by Dick Hill, Blackstone Audio Inc.
Teacher Man by Frank McCourt, narrated by Frank McCourt, Simon & Schuster Audio
The Great Escape by Kati Marton, narrated by Anna Fields, Tantor Media Inc.

Children's Titles for Ages 8-11
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The End by Lemony Snicket, narrated by Tim Curry, HarperChildren's Audio
Behind the Curtain by Peter Abrahams, narrated by Colleen Delany, HarperChildren's Audio
Jumping the Scratch by Sara Weeks, narrated by Stephen Spinella, HarperChildren's Audio
Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan, narrated by Bianca Amato, Recorded Books LLC
Two Weeks with the Queen by Morris Gleitzman, narrated by Morris Gleitzman, Bolinda Publishing Inc.

Judges' Award: Politics
Faith and Politics by former senator John Danforth, narrated by former senator John Danforth, Listen & Live Audio Inc.
Hubris by Michael Isikoff and David Corn, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki, Blackstone Audio Inc.
In Time of War by Pierce O'Donnell, narrated by Raymond Todd, Blackstone Audio Inc.
The One Percent Doctrine by Ron Suskind, narrated by Ed Herrmann, Simon & Schuster Audio
Wake Up Call by Kristin Breitweiser, narrated by Kristin Breitweiser, Hachette Audio

AUDIES AWARDS FINALISTS ANNOUNCED

The Audio Publishers Association has announced the finalists for its annual Audies Awards gala. The June 1 event, which considers audio titles released between November 1, 2005, and October 31, 2006, will be hosted by actor and audiobook narrator Jim Dale.

Fiction, Unabridged
Restless by William Boyd, narrated by Rosemund Pike, Audio Renaissance
Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen, narrated by Carol Monda, Recorded Books, LLC
Telegraph Days by Larry McMurtry, narrated by Annie Potts, Simon & Schuster Audio
The Prestige by Christopher Priest, narrated by Simon Vance, Blackstone Audio Inc.
The Two-Minute Rule by Robert Crais, narrated by Christopher Graybill, Brilliance Audio
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, narrated by David LeDoux and John Randolph Jones, HighBridge Audio

Biography/Memoir
Diana by Sarah Bradford, narrated by Katie Kelgren, Penguin Audio
Dispatches from the Edge by Anderson Cooper, narrated by Anderson Cooper, HarperAudio
Elizabeth by J. Randy Taraborrelli, narrated by Lynne Maclean, Hachette Audio
Sound and Fury by Dave Kindred, narrated by Dick Hill, Blackstone Audio Inc.
Teacher Man by Frank McCourt, narrated by Frank McCourt, Simon & Schuster Audio
The Great Escape by Kati Marton, narrated by Anna Fields, Tantor Media Inc.

Children's Titles for Ages 8-11
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The End by Lemony Snicket, narrated by Tim Curry, HarperChildren's Audio
Behind the Curtain by Peter Abrahams, narrated by Colleen Delany, HarperChildren's Audio
Jumping the Scratch by Sara Weeks, narrated by Stephen Spinella, HarperChildren's Audio
Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan, narrated by Bianca Amato, Recorded Books LLC
Two Weeks with the Queen by Morris Gleitzman, narrated by Morris Gleitzman, Bolinda Publishing Inc.

Judges' Award: Politics
Faith and Politics by former senator John Danforth, narrated by former senator John Danforth, Listen & Live Audio Inc.
Hubris by Michael Isikoff and David Corn, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki, Blackstone Audio Inc.
In Time of War by Pierce O'Donnell, narrated by Raymond Todd, Blackstone Audio Inc.
The One Percent Doctrine by Ron Suskind, narrated by Ed Herrmann, Simon & Schuster Audio
Wake Up Call by Kristin Breitweiser, narrated by Kristin Breitweiser, Hachette Audio

Awards: Borders Original Voices

The awards honor "emerging and innovative" authors and musicians. Winners receive $5,000. Borders store employees and corporate office employees made nominations; winners were selected by a panel at the corporate office. The following were the four book winners of the 2006 Borders Original Voices Awards, with comments from the selection committee:

Fiction: The Brief History of the Dead (Knopf). "A powerful first novel. The language was poetic and the intertwining stories were the most lyrical accounts of death ever read."

Nonfiction: The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan (Houghton Mifflin). An "extraordinary story of the 1935 Dust Bowl."

Children's picture book: Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser (HarperCollins). "A cute, playful story with a lot of colorful vocabulary making it fun to read aloud. It's the perfect book for parents and grandparents to read to the aspiring princess in their lives."

Young adult: Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock (Houghton Mifflin). A novel about "a young girl learning to be comfortable with herself while juggling caring for her uncommunicative family, boys and sports."

Barbara Seranella

I'm sad to say that Barbara Seranella passed away on January 21 after a long hard fight. Many members of the mystery community feel the loss and have posted their thoughts on various mystery related listservs. They have been collected in a lovely memorial posted here:
http://moldy-cockroach.sakienvirotech.com/Barbara%20remembered.htm

Another reason I love Boston...
Tobin wants a city poet, if council's not averse
By Matt Viser, Globe Staff January 24, 2007

O Mayor, my Mayor!
Or: To get betimes to Boston town, I avoid the I-90 connector.

Saying it is time to update the extensive but somewhat musty canon of poetry about Boston, a city councilor is proposing that a poet laureate be appointed to record in verse the ins and outs of local life.

In addition to composing works about Boston, according to a proposal by Councilor John Tobin, the city's poet laureate would be charged with educating the public about the ancient art form. He or she would also compose poems for functions such as the State of the City address, swearing in municipal officials, and high school graduations.

"It would bring another special quality to major city events and chronicle the everyday happenings of the city, from a poetry point of view," Tobin said.

According to his measure -- which he has asked a local poet to put into verse for presentation to the City Council next week -- Boston's poets laureate would be selected by a committee of city officials and representatives from arts communities. They would serve terms of one or two years. Tobin said he is unsure yet whether there would be a stipend.

Despite a rich tradition of poetry in New England, neither Boston nor Massachusetts has had a poet laureate. But in recent years, cities across the country increasingly have been designating official bards, possibly a reaction to war and a widespread sense that these are momentous times.

"People are searching for something that has some more meaning to it," said Doris Stengel, president of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies.

Thirty-nine states have poets laureate , and in the last year St. Paul, Vancouver, and Santa Fe have all established poet laureate positions. Legislation pending in the Massachusetts House by Representative Paul K. Frost, an Auburn Republican, would create a state post.

The quality and prestige of the positions seem to vary across the country, as does the pay. The poet laureate in Denver gets a $2,000 stipend, while the position in Queens, N.Y., is purely honorary.

There has been controversy. A New Jersey poet laureate, Amiri Baraka, was asked to resign after he wrote a work titled "Somebody Blew Up America" that some considered anti-Semitic. When he refused to resign, the Legislature eliminated the position.

Tobin said he wants Boston's poets to have the authority to write about whatever they want, even if that involves negative imagery or emotions, for instance, violence in Roxbury or resentment in Allston over Harvard's expansion plans.

"They would capture moments in time," Tobin said. "It's kind of a chronicler of events that happen in the city."

Boston has a long history of poets who have used the city as their muse . Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a poem about the USS Constitution in 1830 that was credited with saving the ship. Walt Whitman wrote "A Boston Ballad," and T.S. Eliot wrote "The Boston Evening Transcript." Robert Lowell's mournful lament "For the Union Dead" features images of digging an underground parking garage at the Common and industrial decay in South Boston.

John B. Hynes, Boston's mayor in the 1950s, wrote a 13-stanza poem titled, "Boston." ("Don't you love this city with its wrinkled brow/ And its streets laid out by the wandering cow?")

Local poets are excited about the idea of creating a poet laureate job, but say the position should be structured to allow the poets to write about what inspires them, not just ceremonial events.
"Very often when a poet writes something on deadline, it doesn't really work out," said Benjamin Paloff, poetry coeditor at Boston Review, a literary magazine.

One challenge, some say, would be in filling the new position . The area is full of poets, but Cambridge is considered the hotbed.

"If you just want to do people who reside in Boston, it may be harder than you think" to find one suitable for the job, said Jeff Robinson, founder of the Lizard Lounge Poetry Jam and host of the biweekly radio show "Poetry Jam" on WMBR-FM (88.1).

Some area residents aren't so sure about the whole idea.

"I don't even know what that is," said Dave Hutchinson, a downtown worker ordering coffee at Starbucks.

"It's nice and makes everybody feel good, but there are telling things that need to be addressed before something fluffy like this," said his friend Kevin Cronan.

"I'm sure there will be opposition to this," Tobin said. "And knowing how smart Boston is, it will probably be in poetry."

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.



Tobin wants a city poet, if council's not averse - The Boston Globe

Raves For Sale
How to buy a favorable book review
By Bonnie Goldstein

Posted Friday, Jan. 19, 2007, at 3:43 PM ET
Slate.com

Vanity presses for amateur writers who want to see their manuscripts in print were once limited to a small group of publishers. The service, now called "books-on-demand" or "print-on-demand," has proliferated in the digital era. Amazon.com's recently acquired print-on-demand division, BookSurge.com, offers several tiers of publishing programs with menus of services starting at $99.

The most interesting add-on BookSurge offers is, for $399, a personally crafted review written by "New York Times bestselling author, Ellen Tanner Marsh." (Ellen Tanner Marsh's bodice-rippers Reap the Savage Wind and Wrap Me in Splendor graced the New York Times trade- paperback bestseller list in 1982 and 1983.) Not surprisingly, many BookSurge titles boast enthusiastic reviews by Marsh. "For anyone seeking a health program that really works ... a motivating and significant book," Marsh gushed about The Beer Drinkers [sic] "Diet". "We are drawn into this seaboard existence, seeing the stars pronging the sails at night, the flying fish that land on deck, and even the birds that fly, unaware, into the mast," Marsh cooed over The Last Voyage of the Cosmic Muffin. Some of these paid-for raves turn up on Amazon. "This well-organized, fun and fact-crammed guide will make any parent a hero … exploring and enjoying all that Long Island has to offer," Marsh enthused about Be the Coolest Parent on Your Block: Your Guide to Long Island and the Internet For Families

To read the rest of the article, see a sample review and an email about how authors may "help" with the wording of their review, go here:
Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2157866/

Astonish Me
By JOE QUEENAN

No one was more excited than I was when Maureen Corrigan of National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air” described Alice McDermott’s new novel as “astonishing.” Several years ago, overwhelmed by the flood of material unleashed annually by the publishing industry, I decided to establish a screening program by purchasing only books that at least one reviewer had described as “astonishing.”

Previously, I had limited my purchases to merchandise deemed “luminous” or “incandescent,” but this meant I ended up with an awful lot of novels about bees, Provence or Vermeer. The problem with incandescent or luminous books is that they veer toward the introspective, the arcane or the wise, while I prefer books that go off like a Roman candle. When I buy a book, I don’t want to come away wiser or happier or even better informed. I want to get blown right out of the water by the author’s breathtaking pyrotechnics. I want to come away astonished.
Thus, I was overjoyed to get the great news about McDermott’s “After This,” because while I’d heard wonderful things about her previous books, I could not recall anyone anointing them “astonishing,” which meant that I never bought any. Having recently picked up Alice Munro’s new story collection, “The View From Castle Rock,” which The Seattle Times described as “astonishing,” and the Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee’s “Slow Man,” deemed “an intense, astonishing work of art” by no less an arbiter of taste than O, The Oprah Magazine, I was rounding out the year in solid fashion with a troika of masterpieces that promised to be nothing short of astonishing.

These are good times for the astonishable reading public. Among the masterpieces by Orhan Pamuk, who won last year’s Nobel Prize for literature, was “The New Life,” described by The Times Literary Supplement as “an astonishing achievement.” Pamuk’s Nobel coincided with the premiere of a Court TV series based on James Ellroy’s “My Dark Places,” a book that had been quite accurately described by The Philadelphia Inquirer as “astonishing ... original, daring, brilliant.” Not long before, Ayelet Waldman came out with “Love and Other Impossible Pursuits,” which, while apparently not astonishing in and of itself, did include a character that the novelist Andrew Sean Greer described as “astonishing.” Then, Abigail Thomas published “A Three Dog Life,” singled out by Entertainment Weekly as “astonishing,” and an “extraordinary” love story — “Grade: A.” Personally, I find the Grade A business redundant; if a book is astonishing, you’re obviously not going to give it a B.

The Book Review itself has not been hesitant to use the word “astonishing,” which appeared recently in reviews of books by Thomas McGuane and George Pelecanos. Some people may protest that it’s ridiculous to make book-buying decisions purely on the basis of a single adjective. I could not agree more. But let me stress that while I buy only books that have been designated “astonishing,” I do not buy every single “astonishing” book.” For instance, Kurt Eichenwald’s “Serpent on the Rock” may very well be the “astonishing inside story of a blue-chip Wall Street firm whose massive securities fraud decimated the savings of a half a million people,” but that wording was supplied by the author’s publisher, not by some amazingly sophisticated person at O or Entertainment Weekly. So it could be a case of an entry-level cheerleader in the publicity department choosing the word “astonishing” when “hair-raising” or “jaw-dropping” might have been more appropriate.

For similar reasons, I shied away from M. T. Anderson’s “Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation,” even though it won last year’s National Book Award for young people’s literature. Just because the author himself uses the term “astonishing” to describe his subject doesn’t automatically make the book astonishing; it could be merely stellar, sensational, breathtaking or un-put-downable. For somewhat different reasons, I avoided Kate Atkinson’s “One Good Turn,” because even though it was described as an “astonishing thriller” in an ad in The New Yorker, this assessment came from one Linda Grana of the Lafayette Bookstore in Lafayette, Calif. Linda Grana may be a critic of the first water, on the same level as Samuel Johnson and Dale Peck, but if the word “astonishing” does not appear as part of a review by a designated cognoscente in a mainstream publication, I do not buy the putatively astonishing product. I can’t be buying books just because somebody in a bookstore somewhere said they were astonishing. I’d go broke.

One personal idiosyncrasy is that while I adore books that are astonishing, I do not feel the same way about other genres. Films as varied as “The Queen,” “The Last King of Scotland,” “The New World,” “Catch a Fire” and “World Trade Center” have all been labeled “astonishing,” but for me the word does not resonate in a celluloid context. And while it may be true that “Half-Nelson,” “Gabrielle” and “X-Men: The Last Stand” are all astonishing motion pictures, I have not seen any of them, as I personally do not enjoy “astonishing” motion pictures.

I prefer movies that are haunting, visually sweeping, mesmerizing or thought-provoking, and am highly partial to films that take no prisoners, challenge me in a way a good piece of speculative fiction should, or make me want to stand up and cheer. “The Squid and the Whale” did not make me want to stand up and cheer, even if Laura Linney is a national treasure; it was the kind of film that did in fact take prisoners. I feel the same way about music; I don’t care how astonishing Maurizio Pollini’s technique is, particularly when he’s playing Lizst’s Sonata in B minor; pianists with astonishing technique are a dime a dozen. Anyway, I prefer pianists who play with icy, laconic detachment.

Are there ever times when I worry that my obsession with the word “astonishing” prevents me from buying a great book? Sure. But, the truth is, if nobody describes a book as astonishing, it probably isn’t astonishing, and if it isn’t astonishing, who needs it? Marilynne Robinson’s long-awaited “Gilead” has been described as “poignant,” “absorbing,” “lyrical,” “meditative” and “perfect.” It’s also been called “magnificent,” a “literary miracle,” “Grade A” and, yes, “incandescent” by Entertainment Weekly. But nowhere have I seen anyone officially call it “astonishing.” I’ve already explained how I feel about incandescent books; if I had a nickel for every incandescent novel I’ve ever read, I could retire tomorrow. But I don’t, so I can’t. First book that doesn’t leave me astonished, your mistake; second book that doesn’t leave me astonished, my mistake. Sorry, Ms. Robinson, close but no cigar.

Joe Queenan’s most recent book is “Queenan Country: A Reluctant Anglophile’s Pilgrimage to the Mother Country.”

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

2007 Edgar Allan Poe Awards Nominations Announced by Mystery Writers of America

New York, NY--January 19, 2007
--Mystery Writers of America is proud to announce on the 198th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, its Nominees for the 2007 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television and film published or produced in 2006.

The Edgar Awards will be presented to the winners at our 61st Gala Banquet, April 26, 2007 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.

BEST NOVEL
The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard (HarperCollins)
The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Gentleman and Players by Joanne Harris (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
The Dead Hour by Denise Mina (Hachette Book Group - Little, Brown and Company)
The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard (Random House – Ballantine Books)
The Liberation Movements by Olen Steinhauer (St. Martin's Minotaur)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson (Random House)
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (Crown - Shaye Areheart Books)
King of Lies by John Hart (St. Martin's Minotaur – Thomas Dunne Books)
Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith (St. Martin's Minotaur)
A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read (Warner Books – Mysterious Press)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
The Goodbye Kiss by Massimo Carlotto (Europa Editions)
The Open Curtain by Brian Evenson (Coffee House Press)
Snakeskin Shamisen by Naomi Hirahara (Bantam Dell Publishing – Delta Books)
The Deep Blue Alibi by Paul Levine (Bantam Dell Publishing – Bantam Books)
City of Tiny Lights by Patrick Neate (Penguin Group – Riverhead Books)

BEST FACT CRIME
Strange Piece of Paradise by Terri Jentz (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger (W.W. Norton and Co.)
Finding Amy: A True Story of Murder in Maine by Capt. Joseph K. Loughlin & Kate Clark Flora (University Press of New England)
Ripperology: A Study of the World's First Serial Killer by Robin Odell (The Kent State University Press)
The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe and the Invention of Murder by Daniel Stashower (Dutton)
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson (HarperCollins – William Morrow)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
Unless the Threat of Death is Behind Them: Hard-Boiled Fiction and Film Noir by John T. Irwin (Johns Hopkins University Press)
The Science of Sherlock Holmes: From Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fear by E.J. Wagner (John Wiley & Sons)

BEST SHORT STORY
"The Home Front" – Death Do Us Part by Charles Ardai (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company)
"Rain" – Manhattan Noir by Thomas H. Cook (Akashic Books)
"Cranked" – Damn Near Dead by Bill Crider (Busted Flush Press)
"White Trash Noir" – Murder at the Foul Line by Michael Malone (Hachette Book Group – Mysterious Press)
"Building" – Manhattan Noir by S.J. Rozan (Akashic Books)

BEST JUVENILE
Gilda Joyce: The Ladies of the Lake by Jennifer Allison (Penguin Young Readers – Sleuth/Dutton)
The Stolen Sapphire: A Samantha Mystery by Sarah Masters Buckey (American Girl Publishing)
Room One: A Mystery or Two by Andrew Clements (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
The Bloodwater Mysteries: Snatched by Pete Hautman & Mary Logue (Penguin Young Readers – Sleuth/Putnam)
The Case of the Missing Marquess: An Enola Holmes Mystery by Nancy Springer (Penguin Young Readers – Philomel/Sleuth)

BEST YOUNG ADULT
The Road of the Dead by Kevin Brooks (Scholastic – The Chicken House)
The Christopher Killer by Alane Ferguson (Penguin YR – Sleuth/Viking)
Crunch Time by Mariah Fredericks (Simon & Schuster – Richard Jackson Books/Atheneum)
Buried by Robin Merrow MacCready (Penguin YR – Dutton Children's Books)
The Night My Sister Went Missing by Carol Plum-Ucci (Harcourt Children's Books)

BEST PLAY
Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure by Steven Dietz (Arizona Theatre Company)
Curtains by Rupert Holmes (Ahmanson Theatre)
Ghosts of Ocean House by Michael Kimball (The Players' Ring)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY
The Closer – "Blue Blood", Teleplay by James Duff & Mike Berchem (Turner Network Television)
Dexter – "Crocodile", Teleplay by Clyde Phillips (Showtime)
House – "Clueless", Teleplay by Thomas L. Moran (Fox/NBC Universal)
Life on Mars – Episode 1, Teleplay by Matthew Graham (BBC America)
Monk – "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink", Teleplay by Hy Conrad (USA Network/NBC Universal)

BEST TELEVISION FEATURE/MINI-SERIES TELEPLAY
Conviction, Teleplay by Bill Gallagher (BBC America)
Cracker: A New Terror, Teleplay by Jimmy McGovern (BBC America)
Messiah: The Harrowing, Teleplay by Terry Cafolla (BBC America)
Secret Smile, Teleplay by Kate Brooke, based on the book by Nicci French (BBC America)
The Wire, Season 4, Teleplays by Ed Burns, Kia Corthron, Dennis Lehane, David Mills, Eric Overmyer, George Pelecanos, Richard Price, David Simon & William F. Zorzi (Home Box Office)

BEST MOTION PICTURE SCREENPLAY
Casino Royale, Screenplay by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade & Paul Haggis, based on novel by Ian Fleming (MGM)
Children of Men, Screenplay by Alfonso Cuarón, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby, based on a novel by P.D. James (Universal Pictures)
The Departed, Screenplay by William Monahan (Warner Bros. Pictures)
The Good Shepherd, Teleplay by Eric Roth, based on a novel by Joseph Kanon (Universal Pictures)
Notes on a Scandal, Screenplay by Patrick Marber (Scott Rudin Productions)R

OBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD
William Dylan Powell"Evening Gold" – EQMM November 2006 (Dell Magazines)

GRAND MASTER
Stephen King

RAVEN AWARDS
Books & Books (Mitchell Kaplan, owner)
Mystery Loves Company Bookstore (Kathy & Tom Harig, owners)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
Bloodline by Fiona Mountain (St. Martin's Minotaur)

Third Annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival
January 24-27, 2007

Schedule of Public Events

Wednesday, January 24
8:00-10:00 p.m. Quincy Troupe & Dorianne Laux Reading*

Thursday, January 25
10:00 a.m.-12:00 noon Craft Talks*: "The Marriage of Music and Meaning" by Dorianne Laux "Love's Artifice and Fernando Pessoa" by Stephen Dunn

8:00-10:00 p.m. Thomas Lux & Heather McHugh Reading*

Friday, January 26
3:00-5:00 p.m. Florida Poets Reading: Barbara Hamby & David Kirby*

8:00-10:00 p.m. Alan Shapiro & Mark Doty Reading*

Saturday, January 27
10:00-10:30 a.m. Palm Beach County High Schools Poetry Contest Awards Ceremony (Public free event)

10:30 a.m.-12:00 noon Reading by Workshop-Participant Poets (Public free event)

3:00-5:00 p.m. Favorite Poems by Others Read and Discussed by Mark Doty, Thomas Lux, Heather McHugh, Alan Shapiro, Quincy Troupe, & Ellen Bryant Voigt*

7:30-9:30 p.m. Ellen Bryant Voigt & Stephen Dunn Reading*

9:30-11:30 p.m. Coffee House where jazz, art and language meet: Featured readers: Jeffrey McDaniel & Patricia Smith**

Tickets now on sale at the Crest Theatre Box Office
51 North Swinton Avenue, Delray Beach, FL 33444
Call 561 243-7922 ext. 1

*Denotes Crest Theatre ticketed event open to public; ** Denotes Vintage Gymnasium event, admission payable at door. Book signings follow every reading.

Eight authors hit the Richard and Judy jackpot
By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent, Telegraph.co.uk
Last Updated: 3:03am GMT 05/01/2007

Eight authors were handed virtual blank cheques yesterday when they were chosen as the finalists for this year's Richard & Judy's Book Club Best Read Award, the biggest marketing phenomenon in British book sales.

The eight include the comedian Griff Rhys Jones, a Yale law professor who has previously written only academic books, an American socialite and the British novelist William Boyd.
They are guaranteed huge sales that will push their novels close to the top of the best-selling charts this year.

The Richard & Judy award, which gives plugs for each of the finalists' books on prime-time Channel 4 television, has overtaken better-known — and more highbrow — prizes such as the Man Booker and the Costa (formerly Whitbread) awards in influencing reading habits.

In last week's best-seller list, 21 of the top 100 titles were by authors chosen in the past year on Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan's show. The 21 titles represented sales of 6.5 million books, or 26 per cent of sales of the top 100 list.

As testament to the influence of the TV couple, Kate Mosse's novel, Labyrinth, picked as best read last year, and Victoria Hislop's debut novel, The Island, winner of Richard & Judy's companion Summer Read competition in 2006, were number one and number two respectively on the list with sales of 851,389 and 625,449.

By contrast, Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss, winner of the 2006 Man Booker, did not even make it to the top 100.

The Best Read gives astonishing power to the selectors. Remarkably, it is concentrated in the hands of one woman, Amanda Ross, 44, sister-in-law of the BBC interviewer Jonathan Ross. Mrs Ross — she is married to Simon Ross, Jonathan's brother — runs Cactus TV with her husband, which makes Richard & Judy for Channel 4. Unlike a traditional literary prize, there are no external judges. Not even Madeley and Finnigan are involved in the books' selection.

Publishers are allowed to enter six titles each, so a total of 750 were entered this year.

Mrs Ross and some of her TV researchers whittle the numbers down by reading publishers' synopses or "a couple of chapters" before picking a shortlist of 50 titles. Only then Mrs Ross reads the remaining contenders in full.

"You can tell a lot about a book by picking it up and having a feel of it, then reading a little bit of it," she said yesterday. "If you think it's worth pursuing, you read a bit more. That way getting rid of the first 200 is easy."

Her principal criteria is that a book must be "a cracking good read".

In a dig at prizes such as the Man Booker, she said: "I don't know what a literary book is. As long as it's got a good story, who cares?"

Though the programme favours more commercial fiction, it does not discriminate against "literary fiction". Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell, won the Richard & Judy best read prize in 2004. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker and to the surprise of many did not win.

Finnigan said yesterday her prize was for the ordinary reader. She said: "Most literary programmes, which are on late at night and concerned with 'Literature', intimidate lots of people. For some, that a book has been Booker-nominated is actually a turn-off."

The eight books are:

The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
The Girls by Lori Lansens
Restless by William Boyd
Love in the Present Tense by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Semi-Detached by Griff Rhys Jones
This Book Will Save Your Life by AM Homes
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson

Note: Not all of these titles are available in the US yet.

Murder on the Beach Mystery Bookstore, Delray Beach, Florida

Bestsellers: Year 2006

Hardcover:
1. Dark Light by Randy Wayne White
2. Echo Park by Michael Connelly
3. Murder Unleashed by Elaine Viets
4. Death Dance by Linda Fairstein
5. Eye of Vengeance by Jonathon King
6. Two Minute Rule by Robert Crais
7. Escape Clause by James Born
8. Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen
9. Big Bamboo by Tim Dorsey
10. Murder by Deadline by Mel Taylor
11. Under Orders by Dick Francis
12. Short Straw by Stuart Woods
13. South Beach Shakedown by Don Bruns
14. Sunstroke by Jesse Kellerman
15. No Good Deeds by Laura Lippman
16. Hostage by W.E.B. Griffin
17. Ethical Assassin by David Liss
18. Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter by Blaize Clement
19. Human Predator by Katherine Ramsland
20. Whale Season by N.M. Kelby

Paperback:

1. An Unquiet Grave by P.J. Parrish
2. Suspicion of Rage by Barbara Parker
3. Dirty Harriet by Miriam Auerbach
4. High Heels are Murder by Elaine Viets
5. Dead Roots by Nancy Cohen
6. Miami Noir by Les Standiford
7. Pelican Park 2 by Frank Cerabino
8. Shock Wave by James Born
9. Deep Blue Alibi by Paul Levine
10. Entombed by Linda Fairstein
11. Kill All the Lawyers by Paul Levine
12. Deadmans Poker by James Swain
13. Last Witness by Jilliane Hoffman
14. Delilah Complex by M.J. Rose
15. Getting Old is the Best Revenge by Rita Lakin
16. Deadmans Bluff by James Swain
17. Gulf Coast Cookbook by Randy Wayne White
18. To the Power of Three by Laura Lippman
19. The Closers by Michael Connelly
20. Geographers Library by Jon Fasman

Bio-Optic Organized Knowledge Device

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BOOK is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of paper (recyclable), each capable of holding thousands of bits of information. The pages are locked together with a custom-fit device called a binder which keeps the sheets in their correct sequence.

Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows manufacturers to use both sides of the sheet, doubling the information density and cutting costs.

Experts are divided on the prospects for further increases in information
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BOOK never crashes or requires rebooting, though, like other devices, it can become damaged if coffee is spilled on it and it becomes unusable if dropped too many times on a hard surface. The "browse" feature allows you to move instantly to any sheet, and move forward or backward as you wish. Many come with an "index" feature, which pinpoints the exact location of any selected information for instant retrieval.

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Bookmarks fit universal design standards; thus, a single Bookmark can be
used in BOOKs by various manufacturers. Conversely, numerous BOOK markers can be used in a single BOOK if the user wants to store numerous views at once. The number is limited only by the number of pages in the BOOK.

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Portable, durable, and affordable, BOOK is being hailed as a precursor of a new entertainment wave. BOOK's appeal seems so certain that thousands of content creators have committed to the platform and investors are reportedly flocking to invest. Look for a flood of new titles soon.

America's Hidden Problem: Literature Abuse
by Michael McGrorty

Once a relatively rare disorder, Literature Abuse, or LA, has risen to new levels due to the accessibility of higher education and increased college enrollment since the end of the Second World War. The number of literature abusers is currently at record levels.

Social Costs of Literary Abuse

Abusers become withdrawn, uninterested in society or normal relationships. They fantasize, creating alternative worlds to occupy, to the neglect of friends and family. In severe cases they develop bad posture from reading in awkward positions or carrying heavy book bags. In the worst instances, they become cranky reference librarians in small towns.

Excessive reading during pregnancy is perhaps the number one cause of moral deformity among the children of English professors, teachers of English and creative writing. Known as Fetal Fiction Syndrome, this disease also leaves its victims prone to a lifetime of nearsightedness, daydreaming and emotional instability.

Heredity

It has been established that heredity plays a considerable role in determining whether a person will become an abuser of literature. Most abusers have at least one parent who abused literature, often beginning at an early age and progressing into adulthood. Many spouses of an abuser become abusers themselves.

Other Predisposing Factors

Fathers or mothers who are English teachers, professors, or heavy fiction readers; parents who do not encourage children to play games, participate in healthy sports, or watch television in the evening.

Prevention

Pre-marital screening and counseling, referral to adoption agencies in order to break the chain of abuse. English teachers in particular should seek partners active in other fields. Children should be encouraged to seek physical activity, and to avoid isolation and morbid introspection.

Self-Test for Literature Abusers

How many of these apply to you?

1. I have read fiction when I was depressed, or to cheer myself up.
2. I have gone on reading binges of an entire book or more in a day.
3. I read rapidly, often 'gulping' chapters.
4. I have sometimes read early in the morning, or before work.
5. I have hidden books in different places to sneak a chapter without being seen.
6. Sometimes I avoid friends or family obligations in order to read novels.
7. Sometimes I re-write film or television dialog as the characters speak.
8. I am unable to enjoy myself with others unless there is a book nearby.
9. At a party, I will often slip off unnoticed to read.
10. Reading has made me seek haunts and companions which I would otherwise avoid.
11. I have neglected personal hygiene or household chores until I had finished a novel.
12. I have spent money meant for necessities on books instead.
13. I have attempted to check out more library books than permitted.
14. Most of my friends are heavy fiction readers.
15. I have sometimes passed out from a night of heavy reading.
16. I have suffered 'blackouts' or memory loss from a bout of reading.
17. I have wept, become angry or irrational because of something I read.
18. I have sometimes wished I did not read so much.
19. Sometimes I think my fiction reading is out of control.

If you answered 'yes' to three or more of these questions, you may be a literature abuser. Affirmative responses to five or more indicates a serious problem.

Decline and Fall: The English Major

Within the sordid world of literature abuse, the lowest circle belongs to those sufferers who have thrown their lives and hopes away to study literature in our colleges. Parents should look for signs that their children are taking the wrong path-don't expect your teenager to approach you and say, 'I can't stop reading Spencer.' By the time you visit her dorm room and find the secret stash of the Paris Review, it may already be too late.

What to do if you suspect your child is becoming an English major:

1. Talk to your child in a loving way. Show your concern. Let her know you won't abandon her -- but that you aren't spending a hundred grand to put her through Stanford so she can clerk at Borders, either. But remember that she may not be able to make a decision without help; perhaps she has just finished Madame Bovary and is dying of arsenic poisoning.

2. Face the issue: Tell her what you know, and how: 'I found this book in your purse. How long has this been going on?' Ask the hard question--Who is this Count Vronsky?'

3. Show her another way. Move the television set into her room. Praise her brother, the engineer. Introduce her to frat boys. 

4. Do what you have to do. Tear up her library card. Make her stop signing her letters as 'Emma.' Force her to take a math class, or minor in Spanish. Transfer her to a college in Alabama. 

You may be dealing with a life-threatening problem if one or more of the following applies:
* She can tell you how and when Thomas Chatterton died.
* She names one or more of her cats after a Romantic poet.
* Next to her bed is a picture of: Lord Byron, Virginia Woolf, Faulkner, or any scene from the Lake District.

Most important, remember, you are not alone. To seek help for yourself or someone you love, contact the nearest chapter of the American Literature Abuse Society, or look under ALAS in your telephone directory.

And the best mystery of 2006 is …
by Oline Cogdill

(alphabetical by author)

December 17, 2006

Ordinary people swirl in the tapestry of George Pelecanos' riveting urban crime fiction. Greek immigrants, a proprietor of a diner, a record shop owner, a dog catcher and assorted private investigators and cops live in the nation's capitol, but not within the shadow of politics.

Pelecanos has been acting as a social historian, dealing in a multicultural milieu since 1992 with A Firing Offense. His early novels King Suckerman, which had been optioned by Sean Combs, and The Big Blowdown won Pelecanos a fervent group of fans; his later novels such as Drama City earned him an Edgar nomination and this year's The Night Gardener landed on several best-seller lists.

The author's cinematic approach to his novels also can be seen. He had a stint as a producer, screenwriter and story editor on HBO's brilliant series The Wire, for which he received an Emmy; he will be one of three writers on the upcoming miniseries The Pacific War, a 10-hour sequel to Band of Brothers.

In The Night Gardener, Pelecanos delivers a complex novel that spans 20 years in the lives of three cops whose lives converge at the scene of a murder. The author's 14th novel also illustrates the successes and the fallibility of crime detection, and the far-reaching effects of crime.

The Night Gardener takes the spot for best mystery of 2006, but the two novels in the No. 2 spot could easily have made it a three-way split.

1) The Night Gardener. George Pelecanos. Little, Brown. Three cops whose lives are forever affected by one specific moment vie for redemption in this briskly paced police procedural. Pelecanos continues to display his strength at writing about race and the color lines that divide and unite.

2) The Two Minute Rule. Robert Crais. Simon & Schuster. While the action-packed novel revolves around the life of a former bank robber, The Two Minute Rule explores choices, regrets, rehabilitation and the bonds between parents and children. Giving his wise-cracking private detective Elvis Cole a break, Crais examines a man trying to change his life and reconnect with his son.

2) Echo Park. Michael Connelly. Little, Brown. It's almost becoming a cliche to heap praise on a Michael Connelly novel. In Echo Park, Connelly expounds on the intertwining of politics and police detecting and how a simple mistake made during an investigation can have tragic consequences.

3) No Good Deeds. Laura Lippman. Morrow. No Good Deeds spins on what seems like a simple theme: Is there such a thing as a purely selfless act? The author superbly weaves in a look at class struggle, abuses of government power and media coverage while illustrating the changes and social inequities of Baltimore.

4) Promise Me. Harlan Coben. Dutton. The return of Coben's popular wise-cracking sports agent Myron Bolitar after six years would be, on its own, a cause for celebration. But Coben doesn't rest on his reputation, putting his character into an edgy well-plotted story.

5) Kidnapped. Jan Burke. Simon & Schuster. The corruptive forces of money, power and sibling rivalry meld when a cloistered family's good deeds go horribly wrong, after the publication of an intrepid reporter's story.

6) Piece of My Heart. Peter Robinson. Morrow. Two murders, decades apart, set the plot in motion. But the novel's main thrust is a perceptive view of the generations, of gaps and bonds between parent and child, and how music can unite, or drive a wedge between age groups.

7) Prisoner of Memory. Denise Hamilton. Scribner. Questions of identity, tradition and heritage swirl in Prisoner of Memory as Russian émigrés ignite a reporter's memories about her own background.

8) Stripped. Brian Freeman. Minotaur/St. Martin's Press. Freeman's Immoral was one of 2005's best debuts, so it's doubly exciting that his second novel is just as riveting. Stripped travels through the strata of old and new Vegas society with a solid plot and involving characters.

9) Silence of the Grave. Arnaldur Indridason. Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press. Technically, Arnaldur Indridason's novel shouldn't be here because Silence of the Grave was published several years ago in Iceland, where it was a best seller. But Americans are just getting a taste of these evocative novels that look at the changing landscape of Iceland and its history.

10) A Garden of Vipers. Jack Kerley. Dutton. Image is everything to a steely matriarch and her unstable sons who come under the scrutiny of Mobile, Ala., detectives Harry Nautilus and Carson Ryder.

11) Killer Instinct. Joseph Finder. St. Martin's Press. Political thrillers and spy novels are tame compared to what goes on in the cubicles and offices of Finder's business thrillers. Unchecked ambition can be a true war.

12) A Long Shadow. Charles Todd. Morrow. A hint of the supernatural settles over Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge's case as this shattered WWI veteran tries to solve a murder and keep his sanity.

13) White Shadow. Ace Atkins. Putnam. Consider this classic historical Florida noir as Atkins looks at 1955 Tampa, where corruption seeps through the streets, Sicilian and Cuban criminals vie for control of the city, and a retired bootlegger and gambler is bludgeoned in his home.

Debuts

Chinatown Beat. Henry Chang. Soho Press. The police procedural aspects take a distant back seat to the social issues inherent in the various Asian cultures that a Chinese-American cop encounters.

The Merlot Murders. Ellen Crosby. Scribner. Don't be surprised if you crave a soothing, full-bodied glass of wine while reading this story of a woman finding herself, coming to terms with her disability and reconnecting with her fragmented family.

The First Cut. Dianne Emley. Ballantine Books. Emley takes many risks in her debut -- weaving in the paranormal, showing the villain early in the story, and giving the heroine a vulnerability that could overtake her personality. But each gamble pays off.

King of Lies. John Hart. Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press. The next John Grisham, Hart shapes a legal thriller that is a compelling look at greed, power, cruelty and the vagaries of families.

The Shadow Catchers. Thomas Lakeman. St. Martin's Press. Disappearing children, an isolated Nevada town with too many secrets, and a suspended FBI agent make for a fascinating dark story with touches of the western and horror novels.

The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril. Paul Malmont. Simon & Schuster. A cleverly conceived history of pop culture taps into the pulp era of comic books and making heroes of authors such as Walter Gibson (The Shadow), Lester Dent (Doc Savage), H.P. Lovecraft, L. Ron Hubbard and Chester Himes.

A Field of Darkness. Cornelia Read. Mysterious Press. Read succinctly mixes wit and sarcasm, social commentary on the rich and entitlement, and the eccentricities of family for a character-rich plot set in 1988.

Short story collection

A Merry Band of Murderers. Various authors; edited by Claudia Bishop and Don Bruns; includes CD. Poisoned Pen Press. An impressive array of writers, including Rupert Holmes, Val McDermid, Peter Robinson, Jeffery Deaver and John Lescroart, provides both stories and song, bringing new meaning to each. The stories are sturdy enough to stand on their own; the songs are entertaining enough in their own right.
Copyright © 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

The Evolution of Figurative Writing in Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction,
as examined through three texts: The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, and Black Money by Ross Macdonald

I recently completed a course in hard-boiled detective fiction. One of the requirements was to write a paper about how the genre evolved over time, using three of the texts we read in class. I am delighted that I got an "A" for the course, and due to a few requests, I'm sharing my paper. Comments and constructive criticism are always welcome. -- Stacy


The hard-boiled detective novel has at its core a certain consistency that has lasted from its inception in the early 1920’s through contemporary times. Unlike its British predecessors that centered on class distinction and formulaic mystery, hard-boiled detective fiction considers much more. These writers often had a political agenda, and by taking into account harsh realities of life in America, and a gloomy outlook along with a new distrust of authority, the genre became known for being believable while still maintaining simplicity, and in some instances for offering more of a sense of realism than that which came before it.

This change was first seen in the stories published in The Black Mask, founded by Henry L. Mencken. The stories reflected heroes who had a strict moral code that may or may not have been widely accepted by society. However, their primary concern was the quest for justice by any means; consequently the heroes of these stories were usually tough guys and loners. Writers like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler got their start at the pulp magazine but went on to create hard-boiled detective novels that are now considered to be literature worth studying, primarily due to the use of figurative writing.

Dashiell Hammett, with his “blond satan” detective, Sam Spade, in The Maltese Falcon, broke new ground with his harsh hero and the amount of violence portrayed. Hammett used similes and metaphors to create more vivid descriptions and to describe the new genre. He was quickly followed by Raymond Chandler, who took the genre another step forward by using metaphors that emphasized the setting and character motivation, unusual similes and terse dialogue in his Philip Marlowe series. We can see further growth in the genre when we get to Ross Macdonald and his use of thematically related metaphors in the Lew Archer private detective series – a nod to Hammett and the partner Sam Spade lost in The Maltese Falcon.

In The Maltese Falcon, Hammett appealed to the strong masculine image with his hero. He describes Spade in the opening paragraph:

“Samuel Spade's jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth. His nostrils curved back to make another smaller v. His yellow-grey eyes were horizontal. The v motif was picked up again by thickish brows rising outward from twin creases above a hooked nose,...He looked rather pleasantly like a blond satan" (3).

He is also described as “wolfish” throughout the novel, and indeed this opening description could be that of a wolf.

Hammett used metaphors and similes sparingly in comparison to the authors who came after him, but when he used them he did so very effectively. He described Flitcraft’s mysteriously quick disappearance: “He went like that,” Spade said, “like a fist when you open your hand” (62). In fact, the Flitcraft parable can be construed as a metaphor for the new hard-boiled genre that appears to be a reaction to the world events and goes off in a new direction, yet ultimately is still detective fiction.

Hammett continues proving Spade’s tough guy masculinity. He has Spade talk about his way of detecting, of gaining new information. He scares Brigid when he tells her, “My way of learning is to heave a wild and unpredictable monkey-wrench into the machinery. It’s all right with me, if you’re sure none of the flying pieces will hurt you” (86).

By using a third person objective narration, we have to rely on the description of Spade’s face to get a hint as to his thoughts, which are never shared with the reader. We learn by reading his facial reactions to what is going on around him: “Spade said nothing in a blank-faced definite way” (43); “Spade’s voice was as empty of expression as his face” (45); “Spade smiled at the boy. His smile was not broad, but the amusement in it seemed genuine and unalloyed” (181).
Hammett used vivid imagery in his character descriptions. Spade confronts a young man who was following him, who is described as having “a voice as colorless and composed and cold as his young face” (93), an alliterative and intuitive description.

Undoubtedly the most memorable description we get is Gutman’s, whose name is a metaphor of his description: “The fat man was flabbily fat with bulbous pink cheeks and lips and chins and neck, with a great soft egg of a belly that was all his torso, and pendant cones for arms and legs. As he advanced to meet Spade all his bulbs rose and shook and fell separately with each step, in the manner of clustered soap-bubbles not yet released from the pipe through which they had been blown” (104). This description is diametrically opposed to Spade’s own, putting even more emphasis on their differences that surpass just looks alone, but go directly to their oppositional mindsets. Using such description as metaphor is one of the defining structural components of the genre.

Building on what Hammett started, Raymond Chandler’s writing is rich with metaphor and simile. In The Big Sleep, we get a detailed opening description of some art: “there was a broad stained-glass panel showing a knight in dark armor rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree and didn’t have any clothes on but some very long and convenient hair. The knight had pushed the vizor of his helmet back to be sociable, and he was fiddling with the knots on the ropes that tied the lady to the tree and not getting anywhere. I stood there and thought that if I lived in the house, I would sooner or later have to climb up there and help him. He didn't seem to be really trying.” (3). The knight is a metaphor for Philip Marlowe, and is self-referential as the novel is written in the first person. He is referred to again later on when Marlowe goes home and finds Carmen nude in his bed, rather like the nude damsel in the stained glass. Instead of focusing on Carmen, we get this: “I looked down at the chessboard. The move with the knight was wrong. I put it back where I had moved it from. Knights had no meaning in this game. It wasn't a game for knights” (156). Then he throws Carmen out of his room, adhering to his chivalrous moral code of not sleeping with the client’s daughter.

Chandler used figurative writing as subtle reminders of his California setting as well. He describes the cabinets in his office as “full of California climate” (56). Eddie Mars’s place has a parquet floor “made of a dozen kinds of hardwood, from Burma teak through half a dozen shades of oak and ruddy wood that looked like mahogany, and fading out to the hard pale wild lilac of the California hills” (135-136). Chandler gets even more specific when writing about the porn industry: “Everybody knows the racket exists. Hollywood’s made to order for it” (81).

Chandler also expanded on a recurring description of a character that first appeared in Hammett’s Red Harvest, “the gray man” (12), and shows up regularly throughout the hard-boiled genre. Chandler took it further: “He was a gray man, all gray, except for his polished black shoes and two scarlet diamonds in his gray satin tie that looked like the diamonds on roulette layouts. His shirt was gray and his double-breasted suit of soft, beautifully cut flannel. Seeing Carmen he took a gray hat off and his hair underneath was gray and as fine as if it had been sifted through gauze. His thick gray eyebrows had that indefinably sporty look. He had a long chin, a nose with a hook to it, thoughtful gray eyes that had a slanted look” (68). In this instance, Chandler is describing the gangster Eddie Mars, but a “gray man” appears in many other hard-boiled detective novels.

Ross Macdonald also used a character that could be described as a “gray man” in Black Money: “A man was sunk in an armchair by the windows, reading a book. His hair was gray, and his face very nearly the same colorless color” (22). Macdonald also used figurative writing in his descriptions, creating instant visual flashes of clarity for the reader.

“The man behind the wheel wore rectangular dark glasses which covered the upper part of his face like a mask” (14).

“A tired–looking hostess offered me the temporary use of her smile” (75).

“His face was swollen tight and mottled, like a sausage” (107).

However, Macdonald often closely tied his metaphors and similes thematically to the plot, bringing the genre to yet another level. A recurring theme running through Black Money is marriage. Mrs. Tappinger is first introduced as, “A woman was bowed over the sink in a passive-aggressive attitude, peeling potatoes” (38). We learn about Archer too, from this: “A married woman with young children wasn’t exactly my dish, but she interested me” (42). Later Archer leaves Bess to take a taxi home: “She looked at me as if I was abandoning her to a fate worse than life” (138).

But marriage isn’t always bad in Archer’s world. Dr. Sylvester says, “the girls with bad cases of romanticism turn into realists. Like my dear wife here” (66). The photographer, Eric Malkovsky, doesn’t want to work late because he and his wife have tickets to a film and he tells Archer, who offers to reimburse him, “That’s not the point. I hate to disappoint her” (70).

Macdonald’s apparent interest in literature is another theme running through Black Money. Tappinger is a professor with “the professional habit of nonstop talking” (39). He is trying to write a book on Stephen Crane and tells Archer, “But that wouldn’t interest you” (39). Later on Archer finds several variations of manuscripts that he describes as “gibberish” and the most recent as a “hopeless manuscript” (231). There is also a reference to the three fates of Greek mythology in a conversation Archer has with Martel.

Finally, an argument about Black Money’s theme of literature and use of metaphor wouldn’t be complete without mentioning that the novel is often viewed as an updated version of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Martel is the Gatsby-esque figure, a dreamer who is young and poor when he falls in love, reinvents himself then comes back, successful, to get the girl. Archer is the Nick Carroway character, the innocent bystander who tells the story.

Archer isn’t as hard-boiled as Spade or Marlowe, at least in Black Money. He doesn’t drink, other than some champagne with Bess Tappinger, and he doesn’t carry a gun unless he needs it. When he does carry it, we get this: “I pushed the front door wide open and walked in, conscious of the gun bulging like a benign tumor in my armpit” (192).

Yet all these private detectives have something in common; a code of honor that is explored and examined throughout each book. Spade, who may or may not be in love with Brigid O’Shaughnessy but nonetheless, has no qualms about turning her in to the police because she was a murderer. Marlowe offers to give the client his money back because he didn’t solve the case the way he intended to, and he throws a naked woman out of his apartment because she’s the client’s daughter. Archer tells us, “It was a moral hardship for me to walk away from an unclosed case” (207).

It is these moral dilemmas that helped shape the hard-boiled detective fiction into a unique genre, while the violence, realism, and politics also add to its mystique. Yet it is the figurative writing found within these detective novels that force them to break free of the shackles of “genre,” and push hard-boiled detective fiction into the wider realm of mainstream literature.

Sources:

Chandler, Raymond: The Big Sleep, Vintage Books
Hammett, Dashiell: The Maltese Falcon, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
Hammett, Dashiell: Red Harvest, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
Macdonald, Ross: Black Money, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard