Locked in by Marcia Muller

Marcia Muller has long been one of my favourite crime writers. She published her first Sharon McCone mystery in 1977 (Edwin of the Iron shoes) and Locked in is #26 in the series.

Sharon doesn't actually do much in this book. She is returning to the office one night (flat tyre, cell phone left in office). As she enters her office she is shot in the head.

She is diagnosed with locked in syndrome - a neurological disorder which means she can see & hear everything that is going on around her but is unable to move or communicate.

So the story is told from multiple points of view. Her husband Hy's pov, the povs of her operatives, friends, & family.

All are determined to find out who shot Sharon and which case (if any) caused the shooting.

This is Muller at her absolute best - even though Sharon is not out there asking questions it's interesting to see the characters of Craig and Adah (for example) developing and becoming main players rather than supporting cast.

I suspect this novel will rate highly in the 2009 Golden Fiona awards.

For the term of his natural life

Under a glorious blue sky surrounded by lush greenery and beautiful water views it is, at first, difficult to imagine Port Arthur as a penal settlement. That impression soon changes as you explore the remaining buildings and read about the brutal way of life there.

Having just returned from Tasmania and a visit to Port Arthur I was inspired to re-read Marcus Clarke's novel For the term of his natural life.

I almost bought the book at Port Arthur (but didn't) which was just as well cos when I got back to Auckland I saw it in Dymocks as part of the $9.95 penguin classics series - so I bought that edition.

The story centres around a young man Rufus Dawes who is wrongly convicted of murder and transported to Australia. It tells of the harsh life facing the convicts and of a group of them who escape from Port Arthur only to become prisoners of the wilderness.

I would almost go so far as to say that For the term of his natural life should be required reading for everyone who has visited Port Arthur or is intending to visit Port Arthur - it rteally gives you a taste of what Port Arthur the penal settlement was really like.

Felony & Mayhem Press - my new best friend

It's not like I don't have enough books - yet still I find myself buying more.

Recently I was frolicking on the web and I stumbled across the Felony & Mayhem Press website.

And they had republished the only Marissa Piesman books that I did not already own (major win for me) so of course I had to buy them.

This is what they have to say about themselves...

Felony & Mayhem Press was born out of irritation. I’m one of the owners of Partners & Crime, a mysteries-only bookstore in New York’s Greenwich Village, and I had spent years recommending books to my customers. I got a big kick out of this, but that kick kept getting harder to find, as mass consolidations in the publishing industry meant that thousands of good books were being taken out of print. Time and again, I would find myself saying “I have the perfect book for you! And…we can’t get it anymore.” This made me cranky.

Then I read an article in the New York Times about a machine invented by some fellow in Florida. With a name like Bookmaster 15000, it was a loony, Rube Goldberg-like contraption involving computers, printers, glue trays, paper cutters, laminators, thermostats, pulleys, and a partridge in a pear tree. The inventor claimed it could produce a paperback book in seven minutes. It cost $30,000, had no service contract, and was roughly the size of a small mobile home, but for one brief, shining moment I was captivated: We could get the rights to these out-of-print books, manufacture them in our basement, and sell them at Partners & Crime! My partner put the kibosh on the idea, in part by pointing out that we had room in the basement for perhaps two large shoeboxes. But the idea of bringing out-of-print books back to life had taken hold.

From there it was merely a matter of making an insane number of phone calls, borrowing a terrifying amount of money, and mailing out catalogs. We launched officially in June 2005, and now have more than 100 titles in print. Many of them, including some of our bestsellers, are reissues, but we also publish an increasing number of first paperback editions of books previously published in hardcover, and (particularly) first U.S. editions of books that initially came out overseas. We are not at present publishing original work, but we never say never, and yes, we do look at everything that’s submitted.

The list of authors they have published so far is eclectic, and wonderful - as yet you can't purchase direct from the website but you can buy their books through Amazon (a plus for me given the cost of U.S. postage). Authors include Sheila Radley, Barry Maitland, Karin Alvtegen, Reginald Hill, L.R. Wright and many, many more.

I suspect they will be receiving my hard earned $$ for a while to come.

About the Boys

The Youth Services Team at the library service that employs me has, for the past few years, run a program called About the Boys. It's a series of event for boys aged 10+ and their dads, or mums, or carers. There are book talks, author talks, games etc all aimed at boys, blokes and books. (my interpretation btw)

I'm not a member of the Youth Services Team so all my knowledge of the program came from minutes, emails, etc.

Anyway this year I was invited to talk about some books at one of the sessions. And what an eye opener it was.

Beforehand I wondered what sort of kids would be there?

Would they be dragged there kicking and screaming by a parent who wanted to force them to read?

Would they be precocious little darlings who wanted to discuss Sun Tzu's art of war and it's effect on the global economic crisis?

And so on (stereotypes abound)

I come from a family of readers - my brothers and my nephews all read voraciously - but they all tell me they're in the minority. Well I can tell them - they're not.

The session was great fun.

The boys knew their books (as evidenced by the fact that they got the "Who am I's" long before I did).

They were also prepared to talk about the books they were reading and the sorts of books they and their dads enjoyed.

Bookboy talked about some of the Jnr & Teen books he's been reading, as did Rita. I acted out facing the first ball of the Boxing day Test at the MCG - (I was talking about a series of books about cricket - it was relevant - trust me).

I wish more staff could see these sessions in action. It was way better than I had imagined (and I knew it would be great). If more staff were encouraged/able to spectate on these sort of activities it would,I think, improve staff knowledge of our programs making marketing and promotion more enthusiastic and spontaneous. (imho). And yes I do try and promote it to families visiting the library but it will be so much easier now that I know what it is rather than being told what it is.

Anyhow congrats to the YS team for a great program (and for inviting me to take part) it was great fun.

PS. The YS team also run "About the Girls" sessions as well.

PPS. More details here.

PPPS. About the Books Blog here.

Photo: Bookboy tries live blogging via thoughtwaves.

Look again (Lisa Scottoline)

So I snaffled from work (borrowed on my library card) the new Lisa Scottoline Look again (it's ok it was reserved for me)and started reading it when I got home from work last night.

As always with Scottoline, it's a damn fine read.

The main character is Ellen Gleason - she's a newspaper journalist and she has an (adopted) three year old son named Will.

One night after work she's going through her mail- in amongst the envelopes is a flyer put out by an organisation that tries to trace missing children.

Ellen notices that one of the children on the flyer looks like her son Will.

She keeps coming back to the resemblance between the kid on the flyer (Timothy Braverman) and her son. At first she figures they're related - after all her adoption of Will was legal and above board - he had heart problems as a baby and his mother gave him up for adoption beacuse she couldn't deal.

But Ellen keeps coming back to the photo on the flyer and does some more digging, trying to avoid the questions - does her son really belong to another family, and if he does, should she keep him or give him up?

The book was good, but I did work out the ending well before I should have but this didn't detract from the suspense or the story at all.

The brain - use it or lose it

Dr Norman Doidge at the Sydney Writers Festival.

Dr Doidge is the author of The brain that changes itself.

I'd never heard of the 'brain that changes itself until late last year when I spoke at the Kew booktalk about a crime novel in which the protagonist is asked to find a killer who has had 'alterations' made to his brain.

After the talk one of the audience came up to me and mentioned that there was a non-fiction book on a similar subject (the brain, not the crimes) by Norman Doidge.

When I went to reserve it at my library there was already quite a long waiting list for it and that piqued my interest somewhat.

Anyway back to the SWF.

Dr Doidge was in conversation with broadcaster Caroline Baum, who is one of those truly excellent interviewers.

There was a huge crowd in attendance and the line for book signings was about a mile long so didn't get a book signed. But hey.

Doidge is an enthralling speaker, he talked about how the brain was once thought to be quite rigid and that brain trauma was absolutely final; but now the brain can change itself and/or adapt to changes which has lead to different ways of assesing brain function after events such as strokes.

According to Doidge it is essential that we exercise our brains - if we don't use our minds to continue to learn then we may well suffer from 'mental stagnation'.

The Librarian in me was pretty pleased to hear Doidge recommend reading as a way of improving and maintaining cognitive function. Yay.

So there you have it - head for your local library and read, read, read.

Reading keeps your mind active and helps save you from mental stagnation. (Now there's a library week slogan!)

Check out Dr Doidge's website at:http://www.normandoidge.com

Dr Doidge has had a varied writing career, winning prizes for poetry and journalism as well as a stint as editor-in-chief of the Canadian Review of Books.

Must commend Caroline Baum on her 'in conversation with' skills - she was obviously very familiar with his work but let him have the lead, occasionally asking a pertinent question, to get him 'back on track'. A great session.

Laura Lippman at SWF

Event 116. Laura Lippman in conversation with Christine Cremen.

Laura Lippman has long been one of my favourite crime writers so I was pretty stoked to be able go along to the Sydney Writers Festival to hear her speak.

She was being interviewed by critic and broadcaster Christine Cremen (who has obviously read Lippman's books). The session started with Laura reading a passage from her newest (standalone) novel Life sentences.

The first question looked at the similarity of reasons for writing crime fiction between Sue Grafton & Lippman. (Grafton wrote her first crime novel so she could 'kill off' an ex-husband; Lippman wanted to 'kill' the boss of her then boyfriend.)

Lippman's series featuring P.I. Tess Monaghan is currently up to ten books and Laura gave us a heads up as to why there will be probably be a longer gap than usual before #11 is published.

*****SPOILER ALERT***** (highlight to read)

Laura has written a serialised Tess novella for a newspaper - and it opens with Tess being seven months pregnant (yes the baby is Crow's) - and Laura needs to work out how Tess is going to deal with being a P.I. with a young child...

*****END SPOILER ALERT*****

Baltimore is an integral character in all Laura's books and it is hard to imagine Tess Monaghan anywhere else.

Laura gave a brief overview of Edgar Allan Poe's relationship with Baltimore and how one year she wangled her way onto the viewing group for the annual mysterious visit of the 'Poe Toaster' - a cloaked stranger who, every year (since 1949), visits Poe's original grave marker on January 19 (the anniversary of Poe's birth) and leaves red roses and a half bottle of cognac.

She is also not afraid to have a dig at Charm City - quoting a former Mayor, orPolice Chief who madethe boast(!) that Baltimore doesn't have drive-by (shootings) anymore - it has executions!

Laura was a great speaker and it was a shame that there was only 40 or so of us there to hear her speak.

*****

Her advice to aspiring writers - READ. If you don't read how can you write?

*****

I would have loved to hear Laura in conversation with Sue Turnbull - I think they could have had an awesomely wide ranging discussion.

*****

Crime writer Tara Moss was in the audience taking notes.

*****