Posted by Cat on July 17, 2015

Where do you begin a story? By writing what you know? For author Ausma Zehanat Khan, it can all begin with a name and what she knows—or how little she knows—about the life behind it. Here she explores the names that inspired The Unquiet Dead, her powerful debut centered on the Bosnian War.

Guest post by Ausma Zehanat Khan

When I began writing The Unquiet Dead, I knew I would be writing about difficult issues that most people wouldn’t choose for their reading pleasure. War crimes, genocide, mass rape—I’d been the only person in small, stuffy cubicles in various libraries dissecting this material, so when it came to writing a mystery, I had to ask myself—how could I interest others in this story?

After several failed attempts at getting inside the world of my book, I realized the best way in was through character development. People whose lives and personalities were as damaged and diverse as one might expect from a mystery about a war criminal, might tell the story in ways that were easier to digest. The detectives were no trouble—I’d been speaking to Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty in my head for a disturbingly long time. The real challenge was to create a believable cast of characters whose lives revolved around the actions of my murder victim.

I try to begin with names and have various techniques for finding the names that suit my characters. I’ll spend a morning looking up names in the phone book, and then applying a history to the ones that I like. Charles Brining? He was born to be a finicky lawyer in a high-rise building made of glass. Melanie Blessant? Oh the glories of this name—rich, plump, ripe with possibility.

Or I might snatch names from my personal acquaintances and reverse their genders. Favorite teachers or childhood friends could find themselves cropping up as truly hideous characters in my stories. My gorgeous, jet-setting cousin Yasmin became a portly busybody in an earlier work. One of my good friends at the girls’ school I attended became a male reporter in the tradition of His Girl Friday.

Names point me in the right direction. I knew Melanie Blessant was destined to be a blonde bombshell with the intellectual depth of a wafer. I imagined a Real Housewife of La La Land, but one who didn’t have money. She was so devastatingly sexy that men just couldn’t function around her. From reader response, I quickly learned how much people—especially women—hated poor Melanie. So I have to admit, I considered whether I had written her too lightly. I remembered something my talented editor had once said to me: “Melanie’s whole outfit is leopard-print? Really?” She was dressed in a bra and leggings, along with a leopard-print hoodie. In a later draft, I made the hoodie white. The other characters were still dazzled.

And then, of course, Melanie went on to reveal her slightly more complex nature in ways that made it exciting for me to write her.

When I know my characters’ motivations and their internal contradictions, I’m ready to begin. Usually, I think I know exactly who they are, but then the characters start to speak and show me things I hadn’t anticipated. I imagined that Esa Khattak would be irresistibly remote. He turned out to be much more human. I planned for Rachel to be suave and self-confident. She’s a junk food-guzzling, hockey-playing woman of many mysterious parts. By coming into their own and speaking up for themselves, Esa and Rachel helped me create a world I hope is much more engaging for my readers.

Posted by Hilli on July 16, 2015

Farmer's markets and backyard gardens are full of ripe summer produce right now, and it can feel like a race against the clock to use it all while it's fresh. This Summer Minestrone with Mint Pesto from Charlie Palmer's American Fareis a quick and comforting one-pot fix.

SUMMER MINESTRONE WITH MINT PESTO

Serves 6

Having grown up in upstate New York, where there are long winters and a short growing season, I still am amazed at the year-round bounty of California farmers. So, although this soup has summer in its title, I can now make it almost all year long in Sonoma, while folks in the East have to wait for warmer weather. While a winter minestrone is a heavy soup with root vegetables and pasta, this is a minestrina, a thin soup with a light broth and barely cooked vegetables that say "local and sustainable" in a bowl. The pesto is not absolutely necessary, but it does add a whole new dimension to the soup

Place the tomatoes in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and process to a smooth puree.

Combine the tomato puree with the vegetable broth in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the beans, carrots and onion. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes or just until the beans begin to soften. Stir in the yellow squash, zucchini, peas and corn and again bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 12 additional minutes or until the vegetables have softened slightly, but remain a bit crisp. Add the lemon juice, taste, and, if necessary, season with additional salt and pepper.

Remove from the heat and ladle into large shallow soup bowls. If using, spoon a dollop of pesto in the center and serve.

Mint Pesto

Makes about 1½ cups

Combine the mint with the garlic, nuts and cheese in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and process just until the mixture is thick and paste-like. With the motor running, slowly adding enough of the oil to make a textured, but not chunky, thick sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

Use immediately or store, tightly covered and refrigerated, for up to 3 days.

Posted by Cat on July 16, 2015

Excellent book-centric mysteries and thrillers always hit the sweet spot for big whodunit readers. This year has given readers several standouts, from creepy authors to cozy bookshop owners:

Finders Keepers by Stephen King
"King has long been interested in literary obsessions, and the divide between author and fan or creator and creation—think Misery, The Dark Half or Secret Window, Secret Garden. Finders Keepers continues to explore these ideas and adds another dimension: Pete and Morris are both willing to do a lot to hold on to Rothstein’s works. At what point does the hero become the villain?" Read the rest of our review.

Antiques Swap by Barbara Allan
"The mother-daughter writing and sleuthing team in Antiques Swap may share genes, but their methods are poles apart. Fans of the Trash'n'Treasures Mystery series will recognize the entertaining way level-headed narrator Brandy Borne’s sensible tone clashes with her mother's cheerful disregard for the rules." Read the rest of our review.

Pride v. Prejudice by Joan Hess
"Semi-retired bookstore owner Claire Malloy is back with her signature snark in this witty 20th installment of Joan Hess’ series. Though the distractible Claire can’t be bothered to address the alarming rate at which her bookstore inventory walks out the door on its own, she is more than willing to throw herself into a murder investigation when the prosecutor makes a grievous error: He humiliates Claire in public." Read the rest of our review.

Don't Go Home by Carolyn Hart
"Best-selling author Alex Griffith has mined his childhood home, Broward’s Rock, for all it’s worth, fictionalizing the island’s secret affairs, dirty deals and suspicious deaths in his novel Don’t Go Home. The golden boy is out of ideas, though, which is how he lands in the hands of bookstore owner Annie Darling." Read the rest of our review.

The Truth and Other Lies by Sascha Arango
"Most readers probably imagine their favorite author as thoughtful and deep—someone bursting with insight into life and empathy for all creation. From the outside, that’s what Henry Hayden appears to be. Modest despite the five-and-counting bestsellers that bear his name, he seems to be devoted to his wife, loyal to his friends and eager to sign books for the fans who travel to his remote village just to meet him. But he’s a fraud: Every word of his novels was written by his publicity-shy wife, Martha." Read the rest of our review.

Disclaimer by Renée Knight
"It seems the reading world can't get enough of these psychological thrillers starring deceptive, unreliable female characters. Knight plays with our allegiances in this juicy domestic noir, already in the works to become a film with 20th Century Fox. Her debut tells the story of Catherine, a successful documentary filmmaker who receives a manuscript that describes in excruciating detail a day from her life she has tried so hard to forget." Read more, plus an excerpt from Disclaimer.

Coming soon: Trust No One by Paul Cleave
Cleave's new novel, coming August 4 from Atria Books, stars a well-known crime novelist, Jerry Grey, who has early-onset Alzheimer’s. As the disease progresses, the line between reality and fiction becomes fuzzier, and soon he's convinced that his novelized murders actually happened.

It’s Private Eye July at BookPage! All month long, we’re celebrating the sinister side of fiction with the year’s best mysteries and thrillers. Look for the Private Eye July magnifying glass for a daily dose of murder, espionage and all those creepy neighbors with even creepier secrets.

Posted by Cat on July 15, 2015

Readers return to 1800s Scotland for the fourth mystery in Anna Lee Huber's Lady Darby series—yet another winner for fans of historical mysteries, sweet romance and strong female characters. Lady Kiera Darby is now engaged to her investigative partner, Sebastian Gage. While painting the portrait of Lady Drummond, Kiera—still healing from the emotional wounds caused by her previous husband, a wicked man—all too well recognizes the signs of an abusive marriage. She wants to help Lady Drummond but finds that her good intentions are too late. The lady is found dead, and though it's ruled a natural death, Kiera is convinced that Lord Drummond is to blame.

I glanced up and down Hanover Street, my arms wrapped around me as I shivered in the cold wind. What was taking so long? I reached up to pound the knocker on the door of Number 99 once more, bouncing on my heels, trying to warm myself. Normally, the Drummonds' ever-efficient butler, Jeffers, was prepared to let me in before I'd even climbed the steps, but this morning I'd been waiting for at least a full minute, possibly longer, for someone to answer the door.

I looked back at Philip's carriage still parked on the street. The coachman and footman stared up at me, awaiting further instructions. I offered them a weak smile and then turned to rap on the door for a fourth time.

A sinking feeling settled in my stomach as the royal blue door remained closed. Something must be very wrong for the staff to ignore my knocking for so long. Or perhaps Lady Drummond had ordered them not to answer. If so, how badly had Lord Drummon hurt her?

No. That couldn't have been it. If she hadn't wanted to see me, for whatever reason, she simply would have sent a note to cancel today's portrait session. It must have been something else.

Unless Lady Drummond was too incapacitated even to write.

What are you reading?

It’s Private Eye July at BookPage! All month long, we’re celebrating the sinister side of fiction with the year’s best mysteries and thrillers. Look for the Private Eye July magnifying glass for a daily dose of murder, espionage and all those creepy neighbors with even creepier secrets.

Posted by Trisha on July 14, 2015

What is left to say about Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman? In the five months since the “discovery” and planned publication of the manuscript was announced, countless pages and social media streams have been dedicated to debates over the 89-year-old author’s agencyin the decision and discussions of what the book, written as an early draft of To Kill a Mockingbird but set some 20 years later, might reveal about some of literature’s most beloved characters.

Well, the book is out now, and it turns out there's still plenty to talk about. Our first reaction, without spoilers: Watchman is a messier and more complicated story than To Kill a Mockingbird, both in its themes and its execution. Which is to be expected for a basically unedited manuscript that Lee herself reportedly described as "a parent" to the classic, and also for a story that took on heavy racial topics as they were unfolding. Readers who pick up Watchman with this in mind will find it a fascinating and thought-provoking look into the development of a modern classic—and the characters it featured.

Watchman has insightful things to say about seeing the places and the people we come from for who they are and not what we want them to be, and though it was written years ago, the debates it frames about race, state's rights and the 10th amendment have resonance today. Though it is marred by some underdeveloped plot lines and occasionally uneven pacing, the characters and subject matter are rich. With the sort of editorial guidance that Mockingbird reportedly received, it might have been an equally enduring classic.

Despite the novel's shortcomings (and potential disappointments for Atticus acolytes) there is plenty to enjoy. The feelings Scout—or Jean Louise, as she's known these days—has upon her return to Maycomb will ring true to anyone who's ever come home after time away and seen it differently. And Lee's talent for capturing the small-town South is on full display in many little moments, like Jean Louise's observation about the "Coffees" given for girls who came home: "Such girls were placed on view at 10:30 am for the express purpose of allowing the women of their age who had remained enisled in Maycomb to examine them. Childhood friendships were rarely renewed under such conditions."

Check out these other early takes from around the web (warning: most include spoilers).

Posted by Cat on July 14, 2015

Anne Trager, translator and founder of the translation publishing house Le French Book, discusses translation and her encounter with Eric Giacometti, one of the authors of Shadow Ritual.

Guest post by Anne Trager

I always get a little nervous when I meet an author whose book I’m translating. After all, the job means I have to get inside their heads and interpret their intentions. It’s a very personal kind of business I’m in.

But this time it was different. I had fangirl symptoms when I found out Eric Giacometti was going to be in Toulouse, France, when I was there. I got butterflies in my stomach and my palms started sweating. Was it because the series he writes with Jacques Ravenne has sold 2 million books worldwide and they are rock stars among French thriller writers? Or was it because I was caught up in the translation, fascinated by the idea of esoteric secrets, and here I was going to meet someone with inside knowledge about a secret society?

As I waited for him to show up, I ordered a coffee at a café on the Place du Capitole, looking over the eight-columned neoclassical city administrative building across the way. I half expected to see Giacometti walking across the vast pedestrian square with a following of groupies. When he showed up, alone, with a five-o’clock shadow, his coat collar turned up against the chill in the air, and gave me a firm handshake, I relaxed a little. Then, early in the conversation he said something many French writers tell me: “I love American thriller writers—they are so professional.”

The formalities over, I couldn’t hold back any longer. I had to ask. I knew the real story that had inspired them to write this novel: During World War II, the Nazis raided French Freemason headquarters in Paris and stole trainloads full of archives, which were sent to Berlin. After the war the Soviets nabbed them, and they were only returned to France in 2000. I had read all about wartime spoliation, about Alfred Rosenberg’s task force, about Nazi interest in occult secrets and the Vichy government persecution of Freemasons. I knew that Jacques Ravenne is a high-level Freemason, so they had seen the stolen archives and even viewed Benjamin Franklin’s signature on some of the papers.

But I was fixated on one detail in the book that was disturbing my sleep. Inspector Antoine Marcas and Jade are assigned a black ops office in a building (in Paris) once occupied by the Gestapo and it is described as full of leftovers from a 1940 anti-Freemason exhibit held at the Petit Palais. This scene was haunting me. My experience from living in France—scars from WWII running deep and popping up in unexpected places, along with the typical aberrations linked to bureaucracy—made it entirely plausible that such a place existed. I had to know if it did.

What did Giacometti tell me? Well, there is no international Masonic conspiracy. The Iron Maiden was a very real instrument of 16th-century torture. And the office full of anti-Freemason memorabilia? I now know the answer, but can’t share it. Some things are still top secret.

Posted by Cat on July 13, 2015

Historical mysteries work double-duty, entertaining readers with whodunit twists while transporting them to another time. But there's something especially enjoyable about a book that includes real-life historical figures—especially when those fictional portrayals feel authentic and exhaustively researched, as with historical fiction by Paula McLain and Nancy Horan. This year's crop of historical mysteries star a number of real-life people, in roles big and small. Check out a few of our favorites:

The Harvest Man by Alex Grecian and I, Ripper by Stephen Hunter
It seems that Jack the Ripper may haunt us forever through literature. The serial killer is a secondary figure in the newest in Grecian's Scotland Yard Murder Club series, but you can dive deep into his twisted, bloody mind in Hunter's standalone. Read our reviews of both novels.

The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons
What if Henry James, author of The Turn of the Screw, teamed up with one of literature’s most beloved characters, Sherlock Holmes, to solve a murder mystery in turn-of-the-century America? It's a fantastic mix of history and literature, including a cameo by Clover Adams, granddaughter-in-law of John Quincy Adams. Read our review.

Too Bad to Die by Francine Mathews
In real life, author Ian Fleming was an assistant to Britain’s director of naval intelligence; in the new novel from the author of Jack 1939, he's caught up in a plot to assassinate all three Allied leaders at a conference in Tehran. Read our review.

Second Street Station by Lawrence H. Levy
Brooklyn's first woman detective, Mary Handley, finds herself tangled in a mystery in the late 19th century, just as the notorious Edison/Tesla feud over the electricity market unfolds. Go Behind the Book with Levy.

Leaving Berlin by Joseph Kanon
To clear his Communist past, Jewish writer Alex Meier must clear his name by becoming a spy stationed in Berlin. You can expect major doublecrossing and bloodshed in this stellar espionage thriller—as well as real-life characters such as poet/playwright Bertolt “Bert” Brecht. Read our review.

Ostland by David Thomas
Equal parts police procedural and courtroom thriller, this novel is based on the horrifying true story of Georg Heuser, one of the Holocaust's worst Nazi war criminals. It's a truly fascinating mix of fact and fiction. Read our review.

Posted by Lily on July 13, 2015

Taylor Stevens is the best-selling author of the the Vanessa Michael Munroe series, which features the brooding and deadly Vanessa in a variety of pulse-pounding situations. In the latest installment, The Mask, Vanessa is forced to use all of her many skills to secure the release of her lover, who has been framed for murder. Our reviewer writes, "This is an excellent addition to an already excellent series, acclaimed by critics and readers alike." (Read the full review.)

Continuing our celebration of Private Eye July, we asked the mystery author to tell us about three books she's enjoyed reading lately.

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Each workday thrusts me into a world of knives and guns and chases, where I’m fully invested in the lives of people who have to figure out how to survive the horrible things happening to them—and I’m the one making those bad things happen! Reading the same type of book for escapism isn’t as much fun as it used to be, so I tend to read a lot of nonfiction. Behavioral economics books are among my favorites, and at the top of that list is Dan Ariely. I love everything he’s written and always come away from his books feeling a little more aware of myself and the world around me—and wishing everyone else would read his work too so that we could all be smart together. Ha.

Swerve by Vicki Petterssen

In the thriller genre we have action heroes like Jack Reacher, Jason Bourne and James Bond. There aren’t many women in that constellation, which might have been why it was such a big deal when Vanessa Michael Munroe entered the scene. Yet fantasy is full of such larger-than-life women, and Vicki Petterssen had been writing bad-ass females for a while, which made me really eager to get my hands on her first mainstream thriller. Swerve is a true cat-and-mouse chase. The tagline sums it up: One woman. One road. One killer. This book is intense. Way intense.

Black-Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin

Every once in a while a mystery or thriller comes along that leaves me in awe of the skill unfolding before me. Manipulated by a master at work, I’m unable to put the book down. That’s how I felt reading Julia Heaberlin’s first two novels, Playing Dead and Lie Still. She’s a magnificent storyteller. Black-Eyed Susans, the story of a near-murder victim who has no memory of the event but begins to doubt that the correct man will be executed, takes her work to a whole new level. (In stores Aug 11)

It’s Private Eye July at BookPage! All month long, we’re celebrating the sinister side of fiction with the year’s best mysteries and thrillers. Look for the Private Eye July magnifying glass for a daily dose of murder, espionage and all those creepy neighbors with even creepier secrets.

Posted by Cat on July 10, 2015

What people talk about when they talk about the way New York City used to be: the dark, graffitied alleys you absolutely never went down, the overwhelming crime, the grit and the grime. Rob Hart is the kind of guy who remembers this NYC fondly, and he memorializes it in his debut, New Yorked, a noir murder mystery about part-time PI Ash McKenna, who has just been implicated for the murder of his girlfriend.

Hart takes us on a tour of his NYC through books, film and art.

Guest post by Rob Hart

You could live your entire life in New York City—beginning to end, without ever leaving—and never catch the full breadth of this place. It’s unknowable, moving at the speed of light, shifting under your feet. And because of that, everyone’s viewing angle will always be entirely and wholly unique to them.

My experience will never be your experience.

There are things we can share. Places we love to eat. Those secret spots it seems like the hordes haven’t yet discovered and stripped bare. That swell of pride at making it another month in a full-contact economy, where so many prone bodies are being carted off the field.

Another thing we can share is art. The books and films and music that bottle up the spirit and essence of New York.

These are my favorite pieces of art featuring New York, as an inspiration, or a backdrop, or a feeling. The things that inspired me to give it a go and try to capture my experience of this impossible city in New Yorked.

In the City of Shy Hunters by Tom Spanbauer
This novel by Tom Spanbauer, published in 2001, is the best book ever written about New York City. Full stop. Will Parker, a shy boy from Idaho, moves to the city during the height of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. He falls in love with a six-foot-five African-American drag queen and performance artist named Rose, and watches as the city thrashes and convulses around him.

This is a portrait of a city that’s gone. The Bad Old Days as literary fairy tale. It cuts to the charcoal heart of New York with more grace and precision than anything else I’ve ever read.

The Warriors, directed by Walter Hill
Directed by Walter Hill and released in 1979, this movie is a fever-dream interpretation of New York City’s gang culture. The Boppers in their shiny purple vests, the Baseball Furies in their pinstripe uniforms and mime makeup.

This movie (based on the 1965 novel by Sol Yurick) took the most terrifying thing about the New York City of that era—roving bands of gangs and criminals behind the sky-high crime rate—and moved it into comic book territory. Something goofy and colorful that plays out like a Greek myth.

Here Is New York by E.B. White
It’s stunning that this slim volume, a love letter to the Big Apple written by E.B. White and published in 1949, feels so modern. It could have been written yesterday. And at less than 60 pages, it’s the perfect keepsake or gift—a blazing-fast read worth revisiting for the ensuing well of nostalgia.

White’s introduction so perfectly acknowledges how futile it is to write about this town, noting that to “bring New York down to date, a man would have to be published with the speed of light… it is the reader’s, not the author’s, duty to bring New York down to date; and I trust it will prove less a duty than a pleasure.”

Death Wish (film AND book)
The 1974 film Death Wish is the polar opposite of The Warriors. Gone are the goofy armies of street gangs, replaced by a staunch liberal twisted into a ruthless vigilante by a brutal attack on his wife and daughter. As the body count builds you’re brought to the conclusion that violence is the only answer.

The book it was based on, written by Brian Garfield and published in 1972, takes a different path—same liberal character whose wife and daughter are attacked, but his path to vigilantism results in a far more thoughtful examination of justice (and the movie’s gleeful violence so upset Garfield that he wrote Death Sentence as penance).

Girl Walk // All Day
This 70-minute music video, directed by Jacob Krupnick and released in 2011, turns New York into a dance stage. From the Staten Island Ferry to the Apollo Theater, and all points in between, three dancers—the Girl, the Creep, and the Gentleman—slink through the streets and inspire the denizens of New York to dance.

The video is scored to the music of Gregg Gillis, a.k.a. Girl Talk, a DJ known for mashups (you will find yourself awed at how well hip-hop group UGK’s song “One Day” matches up with “Imagine” by The Beatles). It’s New York through and through—a melting pot of musical styles, a guerilla production (they were tossed out of Yankee Stadium for filming a sequence during a game), and, most importantly, a pure explosion of joy that shows the city in it’s best light: As a hub for creative expression.

The art of Stephen WiltshireStephen Wiltshire is a British architectural artist with an incredible gift—he can look at something once, and then produce an intricate, detailed portrait of the subject. He’s best known for cityscapes, and has rendered cities like London, Tokyo, and, of course, New York, in minute detail. This, after only partaking in a brief helicopter ride.

New York is a grand city. No one needs to be convinced of that. That Wiltshire took something so big and produced such an accurate portrait is remarkable. And he didn’t just capture the buildings. You can feel the energy—the life pulsating under the lines. Seeing the city through his eyes is like seeing it for the first time.

Shortbus, directed by John Cameron Mitchell
This 2006 film, written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell, is not for the prudish. The movie explores the lives of several people orbiting an underground artistic/sexual salon. The sex scenes, both straight and gay, are not simulated. If that doesn’t scare you, you’ll find a thoughtful examination on sex and relationships. The story culminates in a citywide blackout that demonstrates that great, overlooked quality of New Yorkers: Our ability to come together in times of crisis.

This is the New York as it exists for non-rich, non-fantasy people. And the movie also features a stellar performance (and musical number) by Justin Vivian Bond, who served as the inspiration for Ginny Tonic, the drag queen crime lord in New Yorked.

Gogol Bordello
Gogol Bordello’s 2005 album Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike sounds like the beating heart of New York City. It’s a glorious mix of styles that occasionally drops into other languages but never strays from the familiar punk rock energy that once thrived on the Lower East Side.

It’s loud and fun and sharp and scrappy. It’s a stroll through the city set to music. Favorites include “Avenue B” and “Oh No,” the latter featuring—like Shortbus—New Yorkers uniting during a blackout. Though, listen to “Start Wearing Purple” and discover one of the most fun songs you’ll ever hear in your life.

Rob Hart is the author of New Yorked, now available from Polis Books. You can find him on Twitter at @robwhart and online at www.robwhart.com.