Crime Fiction Masters: Ian Rankin

Ian Rankin, OBE, DL (born 1960) is a Scottish crime writer. His best known books are the Inspector Rebus novels. He has also written several pieces of literary criticism.

Born 28 April 1960 in Cardenden, Fife, Rankin attended Beath High School, Cowdenbeath. After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, he moved to Tottenham, London for four years and then rural France for six while he developed his career as a novelist. He was a literature tutor at the University of Edinburgh, where he retains an involvement with the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

Before becoming a full-time novelist he worked as a grape-picker, swineherd, taxman, alcohol researcher, hi-fi journalist, college secretary and punk musician.

Rankin did not set out to be a crime writer. He thought his first novels Knots and Crosses and Hide and Seek were mainstream books, more in keeping with the Scottish traditions of Robert Louis Stevenson and even Muriel Spark (the subject of Rankin's uncompleted Ph.D. thesis).

He was disconcerted by their classification as genre fiction. Scottish novelist Allan Massie, who tutored Rankin while Massie was writer-in-residence at the University of Edinburgh, reassured him by saying, who would want to be a dry academic writer when "they could be John Buchan?"

Rankin's Inspector Rebus novels are set mainly in Edinburgh. They are considered major contributions to the Tartan Noir genre. Ten of the novels were adapted as a television series on ITV, starring John Hannah as Rebus in Series 1 and 2, with Ken Stott taking on the role for Series 3-5.

In 2009, Rankin donated the short story "Fieldwork" to Oxfam's Ox-Tales project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Rankin's story was published in the Earth collection.

In 2009 Rankin stated on Radio Five Live that he would start work on a five or six-issue run on the comic book Hellblazer, although he may turn the story into a stand-alone graphic novel instead. The Vertigo Comics panel at WonderCon 2009 confirmed that the story would be published as a graphic novel called Dark Entries, the second release from the company's new Vertigo Crime imprint.

He is a regular contributor to the BBC Two arts programme Newsnight Review. His 3-part documentary series on the subject of evil was broadcast on Channel 4 in December 2002. In 2005 he presented a 30-minute documentary on BBC Four called Rankin on the Staircase, in which he investigated the relationship between real-life cases and crime fiction. It was loosely based on the Michael Peterson murder case, as covered in Jean-Xavier Lestrade's documentary series Death on the Staircase. The same year he collaborated with folk musician Jackie Leven on the album Jackie Leven Said.

In 2007, Rankin appeared in programmes for BBC Four exploring the origins of his alter-ego character, John Rebus. Titled "Ian Rankin's Hidden Edinburgh" and "Ian Rankin Investigates Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde," Rankin looks at the origins of the character and the events that led to his creation.

In the TV show Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, he takes a trip through Edinburgh with writer/cook Anthony Bourdain.

He lives in Edinburgh with his wife Miranda and their two sons Jack and Kit.

Awards and honours

Elected Hawthornden Fellow
Won the Chandler-Fulbright Award.
Two Crime Writers' Association (CWA) Dagger prizes for short stories
1997 the CWA Macallan Gold Dagger for Fiction for Black and Blue (which was also short-listed for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for best novel).
2002, made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Golden Jubilee Queen's Birthday Honours for services to literature.
2004, Edgar Award for Resurrection Men.
2005, CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger to mark a lifetime's achievement in crime writing.
2008, ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for Author of the Year, for Exit Music.
He has honorary doctorates from the University of Edinburgh, the University of Abertay Dundee, the University of St Andrews and, in 2005, from the University of Hull.

Rankin's novel Exit Music was shortlisted for Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award 2009.

To date he has written at least 25 novels, two short story collections, one Original Graphic Novel and a non-fiction book. He has also written an entry in Quick Reads 2009.

Novels
1986 The Flood 
1987 Knots and Crosses - first Inspector Rebus novel
1988 Watchman 
1990 Westwind 
1991 Hide and Seek second Inspector Rebus novel
1992 Tooth and Nail third Inspector Rebus novel
Strip Jack 4th Inspector Rebus novel
A Good Hanging and Other Stories Short Stories
1993 Witch Hunt (writing as Jack Harvey)
The Black Book 5th Inspector Rebus novel
1994 Bleeding Hearts (writing as Jack Harvey)
Mortal Causes 6th Inspector Rebus novel
1995 Blood Hunt (writing as Jack Harvey)
Let it Bleed 7th Inspector Rebus novel
1997 Black and Blue 8th Inspector Rebus novel
(won Macallan Gold Dagger for Fiction)
1998 The Hanging Garden 9th Inspector Rebus novel
1999 Dead Souls 10th Inspector Rebus novel
2000 Set in Darkness 11th Inspector Rebus novel
2001 The Falls 12th Inspector Rebus novel
2002 Resurrection Men 13th Inspector Rebus novel
(won The Edgar Award )
Beggars Banquet Short Stories

2003 A Question of Blood 14th Inspector Rebus novel
2004 Fleshmarket Close 15th Inspector Rebus novel
2005 Rebus's Scotland: A Personal Journey (Non-Fiction) Awarded CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger
2006 The Naming of the Dead 16th Inspector Rebus novel
2007 Exit Music 17th Inspector Rebus novel
(won ITV3 Crime Thriller Award)

2008 Doors Open 
2009 A Cool Head Quick Reads 2009

The Complaints First Malcolm Fox novel
Dark Entries Vertigo Crime featuring John Constantine (Hellblazer)
2011 The Impossible Dead second Malcolm Fox novel
2012 Standing in Another Man's Grave 18th Inspector Rebus and third Malcolm Fox novel

Crime Fiction Masters: George P. Pelecanos

In the 1990s, my good friend Joltin' Jay Weesner introduced me to many of the contemporary crime fiction writers I enjoy, including Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, Greg Rucka, and George P. Pelecanos. Like Pelecanos, I was born in Washington D. C., only two years earlier. However we soon moved, and I enjoy reading what "might have been." Along with Dennis Lehane, George P. Pelecanos has spearheaded a contemporary approach to "hard-boiled" or "crime noir" fiction. When I was reading my fisrt GPP novel, I would enjoy pacing around my appartment exclaiming, "The big blowdown --- the big blowdown -- the big blowdown."


Cribbed from Wikipedia, "George P. Pelecanos (b. 1957) the Greek-American author whose works are mostly in the genre of crime fiction are set primarily in his hometown of Washington, D. C. He's also a film and television producer and a television writer. He worked extensively on the superb HBO series The Wire.

Novelist Pelecanos's early novels were written in the first person voice of Nick Stefanos, a Greek D. C. resident and some-time private investigator.

After the success of his first four novels, the Stefanos-narrated A Firing Offense, Nick's Trip, and Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go, and the non-series (though some characters do cross over) Shoedog, Pelecanos switched his narrative style considerably and expanded the scope of his fiction with his D. C. Quartet. He has commented that he did not feel he had the ability to be this ambitious earlier in his career.The quartet, often compared to James Ellroy's L. A. Quartet, spanned several decades and communities within the changing population of Washington. Now writing in the third person, Pelecanos relegated Stefanos to a supporting character and introduced his first "salt and pepper" team of crime fighters, Dimitri Karras and Marcus Clay.

In The Big Blowdown, set a generation before Karras and Clay would appear (the 1950s), Pelecanos followed the lives of dozens of D.C. residents, tracking the challenges and changes that the second half of the twentieth century presented to Washingtonians.

King Suckerman, set in the 1970s and generally regarded as the fans' favorite, introduced the recurring theme of basketball in Pelecanos' fiction. Typically, he employs the sport as a symbol of cooperation amongst the races, suggesting the dynamism of D. C. as reflective of the good will generated by multi-ethnic pick up games. However, he also indulges the reverse of the equation, wherein the basketball court becomes the site of unresolved hostilities. In such cases, violent criminal behavior typically emerges amongst the participants, usually escalating the mystery.

The Sweet Forever (1980s) and Shame the Devil (1990s) closed the quartet and Pelecanos retired Stefanos and the other characters that populated the novels. (Stefanos and other characters do re-appear in subsequent works.)

In 2001, he introduced a new team of private detectives, Derek Strange and Terry Quinn, as the protagonists of Right as Rain. They have subsequently starred in the author's more recent works Hell to Pay (which won a Gumshoe Award in 2003) and Soul Circus. While these books have cemented the author's reputation as one of the best current American crime writers and sold consistently, they have not garnered the critical and cult affection his D. C. quartet did. Rather, they seem to be continuing the author's well received formula of witty protagonists chasing unconflicted criminals behind the backdrop of popular culture references and D. C. landmarks.

Perhaps sensing this, Pelecanos again switched his focus in his 2004 novel, Hard Revolution, taking one of his new detectives, Derek Strange, back in time to his early days on the D. C. police force. In another interesting move, Pelecanos attached a CD to the book itself, emulating Michael Connelly who included a CD with his 2003 Harry Bosch book Lost Light.

In 2005, Pelecanos saw another novel published, Drama City. This book revisited the examination of dogfighting begun in his book Hell To Pay. Pelecanos is a dog owner and has written about his views of dogfighting.

In 2006 he published The Night Gardener, which was a major change of style and which featured a cameo of himself. Pelecanos has also published short fiction in a variety of anthologies and magazines, including Measures of Poison and Usual Suspects. His reviews have been published in The Washington Post Book World, The New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere.

The Turnaround was published in 2008, reflecting a return to his roots, as the novel opens in the seventies in a Greek diner, and a continuation of his more modern style in the portion set in the present.

Film and television

Pelecanos has written and produced for HBO's The Wire and is part of a literary circle with non-fiction writer and The Wire producer David Simon and novelist Laura Lippman. Simon sought out Pelecanos after reading his work. Simon was recommended his novels several times but did not read his work initially because of territorial prejudice; Simon is from Baltimore.

Once Simon received further recommendations, including one from Lippman, he tried The Sweet Forever and changed his mind. The two writers have much in common including a childhood in Silver Spring, Maryland, attendance at the University of Maryland and their interest in the "fate of the American city and the black urban poor". They first met at the funeral of a mutual friend shortly after Simon delivered the pilot episode. Simon pitched Pelecanos the idea of The Wire as a novel for television about the American city as Pelecanos drove him home. Pelecanos was excited about the prospect of writing something more than simple mystery for television as he strived to exceed the boundaries of genre in his novels.

Pelecanos joined the crew as a writer for the first season in 2002. He wrote the teleplay for the seasons's penultimate episode "Cleaning Up" from a story by Simon and Ed Burns.

Pelecanos was promoted to producer for the second season in 2003. He wrote the teleplay for the episodes "Duck and Cover" and "Bad Dreams" from stories he co-wrote with Simon. He remained a writer and producer for the third season in 2004. He wrote the teleplay for the episodes "Hamsterdam" and "Middle Ground" from stories he co-wrote with Simon.  Simon wrote the teleplay for the episode "Slapstick" from a story he co-wrote with Pelecanos. Simon and Pelecanos' collaboration on "Middle Ground" received the show's first Emmy Award nomination, in the category Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.

Pelecanos left the production staff of The Wire after the show's third season to concentrate on writing his novel The Night Gardener. His role as a producer was taken on by Eric Overmyer.

Pelecanos remained a writer for the fourth season in 2006. He wrote the teleplay for the penultimate episode "That's Got His Own" from a story he co-wrote with producer Ed Burns. Simon has commented that he missed having Pelecanos working on the show full-time but was a fan of The Night Gardener. Simon also spent time embedded with a homicide unit while researching his own book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. Pelecanos and the writing staff won the Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award for Best Dramatic Series at the February 2008 ceremony and the 2007 Edgar Award for Best Television Feature/Mini-Series Teleplay for their work on the fourth season.

Pelecanos returned as a writer for the series fifth and final season. He wrote the teleplay for the episode "Late Editions" from a story he co-wrote with Simon. Pelecanos and the writing staff were again nominated for the WGA award for Best Dramatic Series at the February 2009 ceremony for their work on the fifth season but Mad Men won the award.

Following the conclusion of The Wire Pelecanos joined the crew of the HBO World War II mini-series The Pacific as a co-producer and writer. After a lengthy production process the series aired in 2010. He co-wrote "Part 3" of the series with fellow co-producer Michelle Ashford. the episode focused on Marines on leave in Australia and featured a displaced Greek family in a prominent guest role. Pelecanos saw the project as a chance to make a tribute to his father, Pete Pelecanos, who served as a Marine in the Philippines.

Novels:

Shoedog (1994)
Drama City (2005)
The Night Gardener (2006)
The Turnaround (2008)
The Way Home (May 2009)[36]
The Cut (August 2011)

The Nick Stefanos Series:

A Firing Offense (1992)
Nick's Trip (1993)
Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go (1995)

The D. C. Quartet Series:

The Big Blowdown (1996)
King Suckerman (1997)
The Sweet Forever (1998)
Shame the Devil (2000)

The Derek Strange and Terry Quinn Series:

Right as Rain (2001)
Hell to Pay (2002)
Soul Circus (2003)
Hard Revolution (2004)
What it Was (2012)

Crime Fiction Masters: Robert Crais

Robert Crais is one of my must-read crime fiction novelists. His P. I.s, Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, partner to form yet another classic "buddy" team. The early Elvis Cole romps were told with a much more lighthearted and satirical slant than the later books, but every Crais novel is an enjoyable read. Crais' last few novels have shifted the focus over to Joe Pike, with Elvis appearing in a supporting role. Robert Crais is not a book factory like some of the other best-selling mystery writers. Each of his books is well-crafted and fast-moving. The supporting character, geeky LAPD criminalist John Chen, is a hoot.

From yee ol' Wiki: "Robert Crais (b. 1953) began his career writing scripts for television shows such as Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, Quincy, Miami Vice and L.A. Law. He lists amongst his literary influences the authors Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Ernest Hemingway, Robert B. Parker and John Steinbeck. (Note from Donno: How can you go wrong with that list?)

Crais's usual protagonist and first-person narrator is private detective Elvis Cole, an ex-Ranger. Cole's partner is Joe Pike, a former Marine. Except for Demolition Angel, Hostage and The Two-Minute Rule, all of Crais' books feature Cole and Pike, with The Watchman (2007), The First Rule (2010) and The Sentry (2011) centering on Joe Pike.

The author tackles a variety of subjects in his novels. Free Fall was inspired by the Rodney King riots and Sunset Express dealt with a killer who bore an uncanny resemblance to O. J. Simpson. The most frequently recurring theme in Crais's books is the value of honesty; in his works, the long-term value of coming clean always outweighs the short-term benefits of covering up the problem. Crais also delves into issues of family and loyalty

Robert Crais has stated that "Thematically, again and again my books are about people who are trying to be better than they have been."

In 2005, Bruce Willis appeared in Hostage, the first Hollywood adaptation of one of his books. Crais has no plans to sell the rights to his Elvis Cole novels, preferring to allow his readers to keep their own personal conceptions of the characters."

Elvis Cole/Joe Pike novels:

The Monkey's Raincoat -- 1987
Stalking the Angel -- 1989
Lullaby Town -- 1992
Free Fall -- 1993
Voodoo River -- 1995
Sunset Express -- 1996
Indigo Slam -- 1997
L. A. Requiem -- 1999
The Last Detective -- 2003
The Forgotten Man -- 2005
The Watchman -- 2007
Chasing Darkness -- 2008
The First Rule -- 2010
The Sentry -- 2011
Taken -- 2012


Other novels:

Demolition Angel -- 2000
Hostage -- 2001
The Two-Minute Rule -- 2006

Crime Fiction Masters: Berlin Noir: Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther Novels

Philip Kerr is the author of many novels, but perhaps most important are the ones featuring Bernie Gunther—A Quiet Flame, The One from the Other, and the Berlin Noir trilogy (March Violets, The Pale Criminal, and A German Requiem). Kerr lives in London and Cornwall, England, with his family.

The Philip Kerr Bernie Gunther  mysteries are exciting and insightful looks at life inside Nazi Germany -- richer and more readable than most histories of the period. We first meet ex-policeman Bernie Gunther in 1936, in March Violets (a term of derision which original Nazis used to describe late converts.) The Olympic Games are about to start; some of Bernie's Jewish friends are beginning to realize that they should have left while they could; and Gunther himself has been hired to look into two murders that reach high into the Nazi Party. In The Pale Criminal, it's 1938, and Gunther has been blackmailed into rejoining the police by Heydrich himself. And in A German Requiem, the saddest and most disturbing of the three books, it's 1947 as Gunther stumbles across a nightmare landscape that conceals even more death than he imagines.

The Bernie Gunther novels:

March Violets. London: Viking, 1989.
The Pale Criminal. London: Viking, 1990.
A German Requiem. London: Viking, 1991.
The One From the Other. New York: Putnam, 2006.
A Quiet Flame. London: Quercus, 2008.
If The Dead Rise Not. London: Quercus, 2009.
Field Grey. London: Quercus, 2010
Prague Fatale. London: Quercus, 2011

Crime Fiction Masters: A Titan of Thrillers: Lee Child

I started reading this crime/thriller series, and I got so hooked, I read every book in the series obsessively, one after the other, until I had finall read them all to date.

Jack Reacher is the fictional character created by British author Jim Grant who writes under the pen name of Lee Child.

Lee Child is the author of sixteen Jack Reacher thrillers, including the New York Times bestsellers Persuader, The Enemy, One Shot, and The Hard Way, and the #1 bestsellers Worth Dying For, 61 Hours, Gone Tomorrow, Bad Luck and Trouble, and Nothing to Lose. His debut, Killing Floor, won both the Anthony and the Barry awards for Best First Mystery, and The Enemy won both the Barry and Nero awards for Best Novel.

The Jack Reacher novels:

1. Killing Floor (1997)
2. Die Trying (1998)
3. Tripwire (1999)
4. Running Blind (2000)
5. Echo Burning (2001)
6. Without Fail (2002)
7. Persuader (2003)
8. The Enemy (a prequel, time frame occurs before Killing Floor) (2004)
9. One Shot (2005)
10. The Hard Way (2006)
11. Bad Luck and Trouble (2007)
12. Nothing to Lose (2008)
13. Gone Tomorrow (2009)
14. 61 Hours (2010)
15. Worth Dying For (2010)
16. The Affair (2011) another prequel to Killing Floor

Crime Fiction Masters: Charles Willeford

Perhaps my favorite crime fiction author is Charles Willeford, with his outstanding Hoke Moseley novels. The 1990 film, Miami Blues, starring Fred Ward as Hoke (who gets second billing to Alec Baldwin as the sociopathic Frederick J. Frenger Jr.) was a first-rate adaptation. It's a shame no sequels were made.

The book critics rightly rave:

“If you are looking for a master’s insight into the humid decadence of South Florida and its polygot tribes, nobody does it better than Mr. Willeford.” —The New York Times Book Review“Extraordinarily winning. . . . Pure pleasure. . . . Mr. Willeford never puts a foot wrong.” —The New Yorker“No one write a better crime novel than Charles Willeford.” —Elmore Leonard“A tempo so relentless, words practically fly off the page.” —The Village Voice“The prose is clean and tough and flows easily.” --The New York Times Book Review“A Graham Greene-like entertainment, but tougher and funnier, softened by neither simile nor sentiment. This is probably as close to the real now Miami as any thriller is likely to come.” --Donald Justice“Terse, scary, and evocative, Miami Blues is a thriller with cold blood. . . . Snap up Miami Blues.” --The Philadelphia Inquirer“Nobody writes like Charles Willeford . . . he is an original–funny and weird and wonderful.” --James Crumley“A nasty crime-comedy that’s full of casual violence, outrageous coincidences, and hilariously rude dialogue. . . . Willeford has a marvelously deadpan way with losers on both sides of the law.” --Kirkus Reviews“Absolutely brilliant in every regard–the definitive Miami novel.” --Stanley Ellin“Bone-deep satire . . . terrific.” --Publishers Weekly