The launch of BODY ON THE STAGE

On Saturday night, in amongst all the deadline-related work and marathon training, I managed to get along to the Pumphouse Theatre on the North Shore to celebrate the launch of local writer Bev Robitai's third crime/thriller novel, BODY ON THE STAGE. It was great to see a big crowd there - and it was a very fun book launch, with theatrical and dance performances, as well as Robitai (pictured right) reading an intriguing and funny passage from her latest theatrical murder mystery.

BODY ON THE STAGE, which is available in ebook form and print-on-demand, is the second in Robitai's 'theatre mystery' series, following MURDER IN THE SECOND ROW.

On stage, Robitai mentioned that her favourite crime writers were Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh - which makes sense, as Robitai's style is more of a 'modern cosy' than the darker serial killer tales that fill many crime fiction shelves nowadays. Lots of mystery and intriguing characters, with little to no gruesome violence. Plus, of course, Dame Ngaio was heavily involved in the theatre, and set several of her acclaimed Inspector Alleyn tales in that very setting.

In BODY ON THE STAGE, Dennis Dempster has let himself go. Living alone, he has put on weight and retreated from life, but thanks to his sister's nagging, that's about to change. He joins the theatre group, which happens to be staging a production of Ladies Night (a famous play about male strippers, that inspired the producers of the film The Full Monty) and gets swept up in the world of gyms, muscle-building and fitness. In the course of his transformation, Dennis finds new friends. He finds love. And then he finds a dead body...

I thoroughly enjoyed MURDER IN THE SECOND ROW (see my review here), so I'm looking forward to giving BODY ON THE STAGE a read. The passage Robitai read, about when Dennis goes to the gym for the first time, was certainly quite compelling and amusing.

As well as being a talented storyteller, Robitai is also becoming quite a positive force for a large group of local writers, helping them get published online on websites such as Smashwords, along with getting print-on-demand hard copies of their books (and getting them professional edited, raising the standards, etc). It's great to see creative people getting their stuff out their in the world for people to read and see etc. It was a lot of fun to be at the book launch on Saturday, to be in a room of positive, interesting people to celebrate creativity.

I also had the added pleasure of catching up with an old friend, Grae Burton, who performed a piece from his acclaimed one-man play, Coffee with Eelco, which is about a colourful and iconic cafe owner from my hometown of Nelson. It was rather bizarre chatting to 'Eelco' during the night - Grae does a great job with the voice, accent and mannerisms (pictured left). I'm looking forward to seeing the full show at the Pumphouse in August.

All in all, it was a terrific night - several dozen people had a wonderful time, the energy was palpable, and lots of books were bought and signed. It's great to see local grass-roots crime writing in such good health.

You can read the Mysteries in Paradise review of MURDER IN THE SECOND ROW here, and the Reactions to Reading review here.

You can buy an e-version of BODY ON THE STAGE here (and at only US$2.99, it's a bargain for those overseas readers who sometimes find it hard to source Kiwi crime fiction at reasonable prices).

ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL wins Last Laugh Award

In news just in this morning NZT (hat tip to Janet Rudolph of Mystery Readers International), Irish crime writer and blogger (Crime Always Pays) Declan Burke has won the Last Laugh Award for best comic crime novel at CrimeFest, for his novel ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL.

To give you a taste of the comic nature of Burke's acclaimed creation, here's the blurb:

Who in the right mind would want to blow up a hospital?

“Close it down, blow it up - seriously, what’s the difference?”

 Billy Karlsson needs to get real. Literally. A hospital porter with a sideline in euthanasia, Billy is a character trapped in the purgatory of an abandoned novel. Deranged by logic, driven beyond sanity, Billy makes his final stand: if killing old people won’t cut the mustard, the whole hospital will have to go up in flames.

 Only his creator can stop him now, the author who abandoned Billy to his half-life limbo, in which Billy schemes to do whatever it takes to get himself published, or be damned …

Congratulations to Declan Burke on winning the Goldsboro Last Laugh Award, which consists of a £500 prize is sponsored by Goldsboro Books, and a commemorative award courtesy of Bristol Blue Glass. It's great to see the full spectrum of crime - including comic and caper-esque novels - being recognised and appreciated by readers, reviewers, and awards judges alike.

The other nominees for this year were:

• Colin Cotterill for Killed at the Whim of a Hat (Quercus)
• Chris Ewan for The Good Thief's Guide to Venice (Simon & Schuster)
• Christopher Fowler for Bryant & May and the Memory of Blood (Doubleday)
• Carl Hiaasen for Star Island (Sphere)
• Doug Johnstone for Smokeheads (Faber and Faber)
• Elmore Leonard for Djibouti (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• L.C. Tyler for Herring on the Nile (Macmillan)

You can read more about ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL here, and purchase copies here.

COLLECTING COOPER released in New Zealand today

Today sees the release in New Zealand of Paul Cleave's fifth dark crime thriller, COLLECTING COOPER - a book which has greatly  impressed US and European readers and reviewers in the past few months. Due to a change in international publishers (when Cleave was picked up by a big UK agent and US publisher), and all the to-ing and fro-ing that goes along with such things, this book was released in the United States last year, but not in Cleave's home country.

Now, at last, we have a New Zealand version and release. Here's an official backcover blurb:

"People are disappearing in Christchurch. Cooper Riley, a psychology professor, doesn’t make it to work one day. Emma Green, one of his students, doesn’t make it home. When ex-cop Theodore Tate is released from a four-month prison stin...more From the international bestselling author of Blood Men comes a gripping new thriller that paints a brutally vivid picture of a killer's mind.

People are disappearing in Christchurch. Cooper Riley, a psychology professor, doesn’t make it to work one day. Emma Green, one of his students, doesn’t make it home. When ex-cop Theodore Tate is released from a four-month prison stint, he’s asked by Green’s father to help find Emma. After all, Tate was in jail for nearly killing her in a DUI accident the year before, so he owes him. Big time. What neither of them knows is that a former mental patient is holding people prisoner as part of his growing collection of serial killer souvenirs. Now he has acquired the ultimate collector’s item—an actual killer.

Meanwhile, clues keep pulling Tate back to Grover Hills, the mental institution that closed down three years ago. Very bad things happened there. Those who managed to survive would prefer keeping their memories buried. Tate has no choice but to unearth Grover Hills’ dark past if there is any chance of finding Emma Green and Cooper Riley alive.

For fans of Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island, Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs, and Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter series, Collecting Cooper is another “relentlessly gripping, deliciously twisted, and shot through with a vein of humor that’s as dark as hell” (Mark Billingham) novel by this glimmering new talent in the crime thriller genre."

It is a very, very good crime novel - if you can handle the darker edge of the genre. Exceptional and vivid writing that has real energy and 'voice'. But some of the events may be too much for some readers who prefer their crime fiction of the 'lighter' or softer variety. As I said in a review of the US version for NZLawyer last year:

"Despite the darkness, Cleave is no schlock-meister; the blood and brutality amongst his pages is merely one part of a compelling tale (although it may be too much for some). He even raises important issues such as violence against women, the lack of support for those with mental difficulties, and the public’s fascination with serial killers – but rather than screaming such issues from the rooftops, they’re just woven through a tale that fizzes with ferocity. They’re texture, not message, in an exciting book where characterisation, such as Tate’s stumble vaguely towards some sort of redemption, shines brightest of all."

In a starred review, Publisher's Weekly said of COLLECTING COOPER:

“A pulse-pounding serial killer thriller.... The city of Christchurch becomes a modern equivalent of James Ellroy's Los Angeles of the 1950s, a discordant symphony of violence and human weakness. Cleave tosses in a number of twists that few readers will anticipate, but the book's real power lies in the complexity of its characters, particularly the emotionally tortured Tate.”

You can see Cleave talking about COLLECTING COOPER in this recently released vid below:

"Stunningly well written but truly awful" - Graham Beattie reviews Vanda Symon's THE FACELESS

This morning, my fellow Ngaio Marsh Award judge, Graham Beattie, reviewed Vanda Symon's new thriller, THE FACELESS, on Radio New Zealand's Nine to Noon programme this morning.

Beattie is one of the most experienced and knowledgeable people in the New Zealand books world - the former head of Penguin books, an acclaimed blogger, consultant, and awards judge for various books prizes. His Beattie's Book Blog is a must-read for those interested in publishing and books industry in this part of the world. In his review (listen above), Beattie was very impressed - if pretty disturbed - by Symon's transition from her compelling crime series starring fiesty young Dunedin police detective Sam Shephard, to a grittier, darker, multi-perspective standalone kidnapping tale set in Auckland. He says:

"I had been warned in advance of reading this latest book, The Faceless, that it was not crime fiction and that it did not feature Sam Shephard. It was in fact that it was a stand-alone thriller. I wasn’t warned though that I would find the book an uncomfortable, disturbing, even frightening read. This is the stunningly-well written but truly awful story ...

... This is probably the most powerful and ambitious writing the author has achieved but believe me it is evil stuff – something of a cross between the gritty crime fiction of Christchurch author Paul Cleave and the horror of Stephen King... The Faceless is a wonderful achievement and I salute the author for it but readers be warned this is not a book to be read at night if you home alone."

You can read a transcript of Graham's full review at his blog here.

Like Beattie, I have read and very highly rate THE FACELESS. It is a very disturbing story, but an excellent one. I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes reading the grittier side of crime fiction, combining nasty deeds with thought-provoking and very human themes beneath the storylines.

Have you read THE FACELESS? What do you think of Symon's turn to the darker side?

Want to write crime? Free workshop sessions starting...

For those in the wider Wellington region:

To find out more about Cat Connor, the author of the 'byte' series of crime novels, starring FBI Agent Ellie Conway, click here.