George Clooney lookalikes and Mumbai eunuchs: an interview with Vaseem Khan

Kia ora and haere mai, welcome to the latest weekly instalment of our 9mm interview series for 2021. This author interview series has now been running for over a decade, and today marks the 221st overall edition. 

Thanks for reading over the years. I've had tonnes of fun chatting to some amazing writers and bringing their thoughts and stories to you. 

My plan is to to publish 40-50 new author interviews in the 9mm series this year. You can check out the full list of of past interviewees here. Some amazing writers.

If you've got a favourite crime writer who hasn't yet been featured, let me know in the comments or by sending me a message, and I'll look to make that happen for you. Even as things with this blog may evolve moving forward, I'll continue to interview crime writers and review crime novels.

Today I'm very pleased to welcome cricket-loving crime writer Vaseem Khan to Crime Watch. Vas is the author of two crime series set in India. The Baby Ganesh Agency series (five novels and two novellas) brings classic crime stylings to modern-day Mumbai. The 'cosy' series stars retired Mumbai police Inspector Ashwin Chopra and his sidekick, a baby elephant named Ganesha. While the series has struck a chord with critics and readers, hit the bestseller list, been translated into 15 languages, won a Shamus Award, and seen Vas appear on BBC television, as Vas notes in our interview below, it was a long road to his breakout debut, THE UNEXPECTED INHERITANCE OF INSPECTOR CHOPRA. 

Most recently Vas published an historical mystery that introduced a new hero, Inspector Persis Wadia of the Bombay Police, India’s first female police detective. Set in 1950, "just after Indian Independence, the horrors of Partition and the assassination of Gandhi", MIDNIGHT AT MALABAR HOUSE got great reviews and is set to kickstart a new series. 

But for now, Vaseem Khan becomes the latest author to stare down the barrel of 9mm. 

9MM INTERVIEW WITH VASEEM KHAN

 

1. Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?

Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly. Bosch is an LAPD detective with an unerring sense of mission. I call him the last gunslinger in Hollywood. Connelly creates great plots, but it’s the character of Harry Bosch that draws me back. Lean, mean, and answerable only to his own sense of justice. 

One of my author highlights was meeting Connelly at a book signing in London. He and I shared a publicity agent and she introduced me to him so we could have a chat. And by chat, I mean so I could mumble inane superfan ramblings about how incredible his books were, how amazing the buttons on his shirt were, etc etc. You know the drill. He was kind enough to sign a book for me, made out to the lead character of my own Baby Ganesh Agency series, Inspector Chopra of the Mumbai police. 

I told Connelly that Chopra is driven by the same relentless sense of justice that drives Bosch, in a country where if you have money, power or fame you can often escape the consequences of your actions. Mumbai, as the home of Bollywood, has that in common with LA.

 

I think Connelly liked the comparison.

2. What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?

WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams. I read this as a kid and was hooked on the story of Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig, and the other rabbits, forced to leave their warren and travel across the English countryside to find a new home, encountering every conceivable danger on their epic journey. I especially loved the villain of the piece, General Woundwort, a huge, terrifying, murderous rabbit dictator who didn’t give a rat’s arse what anyone thought and wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything: “Dogs aren’t dangerous!” 

3. Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) - unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?

Have you got a box of tissues handy? I wrote seven novels over 23 years, the first when I was 17, a comic fantasy in the Terry Pratchett mould (I’m a huge fan of the Discworld novels). All sent to agents, all rejected. I’ve got over 200 rejection letters. Literary novels, historical, sci fi, fantasy, even a dodgy contemporary romance (where contemporary means ‘erotic’ – only mine was fifty shades of shit). The one thing I learned: when you start off writing you think you’re Hemingway, but you’re actually closer to that guy who writes crap Christmas cracker jokes. The good news? The more you write, the better you get. Write a million words, complete half-a-dozen (unpublished) novels, and you’ll surely reach a standard good enough to publish. All you need now is a big idea and some luck. 

4. Outside of writing and writing-related activities (book events, publicity), what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?

Cricket. The greatest sport ever invented. What other game can last five days and you still might not get a result! I play all summer, usually get injured halfway through, then sulk and sit on the sidelines writing and yelling snide remarks about my friends’ on-field performances. I watch a lot of film and like reading about film. I’m a bit of a movie buff. I love SF, but I also love old black and white films – I’m told this is unusual for a person of my heritage. ie. Brown people aren’t supposed to like Casablanca or Citizen Kane!

5. What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?

Well, I grew up in east London, a tough neighbourhood, so visitors should buy a stab vest – they don’t tell you that in the tourist brochures when they’re going on about pie and mash in good old east London. But if you do come to Forest Gate, eat at one of the authentic curry houses on Green Street. The food is soooo good. 

I also lived in Bombay for a decade, so it’s a sort of second home for me. If you go there, don’t be frightened of the eunuchs at the traffic lights. They can seem intimidating at first but they’re just earning a crust in a society that hates them, fears them, humiliates them, and marginalises them. Also, don’t mess with cows. Never mess with cows. They’re holy to Hindus and you’ll cause a riot. Go to the Taj Palace Hotel even if you’re not staying there and have a mooch around. There’s some great history there, including a hundred years of signed celebrity pictures on the walls. 

Both my crime series are set in Bombay, one in modern Mumbai (as it’s now called) and one in 1950s Bombay. Bringing the city to life in my books has given me endless pleasure. Read the books and you’ll see that joy translated onto the page, in between the darker descriptions of the city.

6. If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?

Only George Clooney. If they put some makeup on him to make him less attractive and sawed off his legs to make him shorter. But I feel he’s generally a good egg, and I think I am too. At least, I’ve tried to go through life with a sense of humour and perspective and a minimum of ego. So, if Mr Clooney is too damned busy to play me, then someone like that, I guess…. Oh. You have a suggestion?... Who?... No. Not Danny DeVito.  

7. Of your writings, which is your favourite or a bit special to you for some particular reason, and why?

My first series, the Baby Ganesh series (five books and two novellas, beginning with THE UNEXPECTED INHERITANCE OF INSPECTOR CHOPRA) is sold around the world and gave me a great career. But when I wanted to branch out and do something new I really had to wrack my brain. My first few ideas were summarily thrown out by my publisher. I felt like a schoolboy who’d failed his exams. Or a puppy that had just shat the bed. But then Persis Wadia, the heroine of MIDNIGHT AT MALABAR HOUSE, came to me, almost fully formed. 

Persis is India’s first female police Inspector and finds herself tasked to solve the politically-charged murder of a senior British diplomat living in Bombay in 1950. Persis is ambitious, smart, tough, and not prone to social niceties. A woman in an intensely patriarchal society. Writing her wasn’t easy, but the reception the book has received from national critics and readers has left me feeling it was the right thing to do. It’s a story for our times, even though it’s set seventy years in the past.

8. What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?

I was at work. My agent called me to tell me I had a four-book deal with Hodder for the Baby Ganesh Agency series. I let out a little shriek, the sort of sound you make when your bits get caught in your pant zipper. A couple of months later I was shoved onto the BBC Breakfast sofa with six million people watching to launch THE UNEXPECTED INHERITANCE OF INSPECTOR CHOPRA. Now that was an incredible feeling!

9. What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?

I went to a book festival in Newcastle from London on crutches. I’d broken my ankle playing cricket but had committed to speak and I NEVER pull out of an event even if I have to crawl over broken glass to get there (it’s disrespectful to both organisers and readers to advertise that you’re coming and then not show up).

Other unusual happenings: a very elderly man napping in a wheelchair at an event I was speaking at woke up and told me to be quiet as I was disturbing his sleep; Mick Herron, the brilliant spy thriller writer, bought me an ice cream at Harrogate after we were on a panel together; I’ve been mistaken multiple times for the only other brown writer at an event; I once broke down with fellow crime author Abir Mukherjee, and we had to juggle tennis balls on the side of the road to earn money for petrol. (OK. That last one is a lie, but we did break down, and a kindly passing motorist who knew about cars told us we were out of oil.) 

Thank you Vas, we appreciate you chatting to Crime Watch. 

You can read more about Vaseem Khan and his writing here, and follow him on Twitter. 

Review: WORST CASE SCENARIO

WORST CASE SCENARIO by Helen Fitzgerald (Orenda Books, 2019)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Mary Shields is a moody, acerbic probation offer, dealing with some of Glasgow’s worst cases, and her job is on the line.

Liam Macdowall was imprisoned for murdering his wife, and he’s published a series of letters to the dead woman, in a book that makes him an unlikely hero – and a poster boy for Men’s Rights activists.

Liam is released on licence into Mary’s care, but things are far from simple. Mary develops a poisonous obsession with Liam and his world, and when her son and Liam’s daughter form a relationship, Mary will stop at nothing to impose her own brand of justice … with devastating consequences.

A heart-pounding, relentless and chilling psychological thriller, rich with deliciously dark and unapologetic humour, Worst Case Scenario is also a perceptive, tragic and hugely relevant book by one of the most exciting names in crime fiction.

“Every time Mary tried to relax in the bath, a paedophile ruined it.”

The opening line of Helen Fitzgerald’s latest-bar-one thriller sets the tone, as the Glasgow-based Australian once again offers something very fresh and original to crime fans. There's a wonderful spark to Fitzgerald's writing as she veers across an array of excellent standalone thrillers rather than having a central series or recurring character. Darkness laced with humour; a gleeful puppet-master. 

WORST CASE SCENARIO centres on an unforgettable main character. Mary Shields is a menopausal probation officer in Glasgow with a messy life, fondness for drink, and hatred of office bureaucracy. With nearly three decades on the job, Mary's life is a blur of dealing with the 'dregs' of society on a daily basis, armed with various government-provided powers and a healthy dose of sarcasm. 

She's ready to pull pin on her career, when she gets a particularly tricky case dumped in her lap: wife killer Liam Macdowall, who while in prison became a poster boy for men’s rights activists after publishing his private correspondence as a book, Cuck: Letters to My Dead Wife. For Mary it makes a wee change from paedophile parolees, though perhaps just a different flavour of dogshit. 

Newly released Liam becomes a dangerous obsession for Mary, which only worsens when her son gets into a relationship with Liam’s daughter. Determined to mete out her own justice, Mary comes up with some hare-brained schemes and kicks over a Jenga tower of consequences that fit the book’s title.

Carnage ensues, and Fitzgerald keeps twisting the dial higher in this energetic and darkly hilarious tale. WORST CASE SCENARIO is a wee slice of brilliance - though it may not be for everyone, in fact that's almost guaranteed - with Fitzgerald being unafraid to delve into tricky issues and sensitive topics, and the kinds of things you don't regularly see on the page. There's an eccentricity in a way - it's 'all a bit mad', but in the best possible way. Both Mary and the overall tale. The revs are kept high as the pages pass, and readers may feel, like Mary, that they're barely clinging on throughout. 

A terrific, near diabolical tale. Strap in, hang on, and enjoy the ride. 

Craig Sisterson is a lapsed Kiwi lawyer who now lives in London and writes for magazines and newspapers in several countries. He’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at festivals on three continents. Craig's been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards, McIlvanney Prize, is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. His book SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, was published in 2020.

Review: KATIPO JOE: BLITZKRIEG

KATIPO JOE:BLITZKRIEG by Brian Falkner (Scholastic, 2020)

Reviewed by Alyson Baker

Young Joe is living in pre-WWII Berlin, with his British father and NZ mother, attending school and witnessing the excitement of his friends who are enthusiastically joining the Hitler Youth Movement. Joe feels uncomfortable with the growing mistreatment of local Jews, and after the arrest of his father as a spy, he is forced to escape from Berlin with his mother. Joe is separated from his mother and evacuated to New Zealand, and, while war looms in Europe, he is frustrated by his distance from the action, and his inability to do anything about finding his father. After a harrowing route back to Europe, Joe attempts to infiltrate the Hitler Youth movement in Germany while at the same time searching for his mother and father in wartime Berlin.

Joseph St George is enjoying his life as the son of British diplomats in late 1930s Berlin. His only regret is not being allowed to wear long trousers like his older friend Klaus, and not being old enough to join the Hitlerjugend, the Hitler Youth. But then things change suddenly – his father is arrested. Joe is shocked and worried, but he has good mates at school and enjoys bullying other kids as much as his friends do. He even joins in when they decide to harass the local Jewish baker, but when Joe sees brown-shirted soldiers beating the baker and making him and his wife clean their own blood off the cobbles, he can’t help but intervene.

Klaus comes and helps Joe to defend the baker, which is probably the only reason the brown-shirts stop, and the boys get away – Klaus is Martin Boorman’s nephew. Joe and Klaus become blood brothers. But soon after Joe and his mother must flee, and his mother seems to have extraordinary skills at evading followers. They have a nerve-wracking escape, and afterwards Joe is sent to New Zealand out of harm’s way. Joe doesn’t appreciate the peace of rural Aotearoa and can’t stand the idea of being away from all the action, so he stows away on a vessel taking food to besieged Londoners. He has an adventure on the high seas when the boat comes under fire from German U-boats.

Once in London, Joe befriends a group of kids and they help him trace his mother, who appears to be up to some strange goings-on. London during the Blitz is getting a bit too much for Joe when he manages to escape – by being kidnapped! He eventually ends up being enlisted into MI5, Joe’s fluency in colloquial German making him a valuable asset. After rigorous training, including how to kill people, he is sent on a top-secret mission to Paris. Joe finally gets to be a member of the Hitler Youth and re-unites with Klaus.

KATIPO JOE is a rip-roaring adventure story; we first meet Joe on the torpedo-threatened cargo vessel, and apart from when he is being billeted by a lovely young woman during his training, he is never really out of danger for the rest of the book. Joe soon finds out that there is a huge difference between the life of the spies he reads about in his adventure books and the life of a real spy. And he ends up confused and guilt-ridden rather than feeling himself a hero. And this is where KATIPO JOE is so good; at pointing out the blurriness around goodies and baddies, and the sometimes-horrific things people do to further what they see as the greater good.

The book is poignant in a way, we see glimpses of the childhood and friendships Joe might have had, had not things gone insane. And you really do get a feel for the surreal as Joe wanders around London: him seeing a zebra wandering through Camden Town; seeing his mother shoot someone; seeing the immediate ghastly results of the bombing of London, and the long term results, with many of those he meets having lost people. There is a great scene in a bomb shelter when Winston Churchill’s rallying speech receives a less than enthusiastic response. For Joe “The world is a crazy place and it is slowly driving him insane.”

Through the book there is a clear demarcation those who have enlisted to fight and innocent bystanders, and what motivates Joe is that the latter are as much in the firing line as the former. And what distresses him is that the indiscriminate killing is happening on both sides. And there is a shocking act by Joe that really gets you thinking through the rights and wrongs of it all. But this is all background to a thrilling read, and Joe acquits himself extraordinarily well, he reminded me of Alex Rider. And it appears this is not Joe’s last outing – a series is in the offing. The book is suitable for older children and YA readers, and is illustrated, and has a glossary and bibliography.

Alyson Baker is a crime-loving former librarian in Nelson. This review first appeared on her blog, which you can check out here. 

Review: MURDER SEES THE LIGHT

MURDER SEES THE LIGHT by Howard Engel (Penguin, 1985)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Canadian P.I. Benny Cooperman (Murder On Location, etc.) takes to the woods in this one - Algonquin National Park, where he's staying at primitive Petawawa Lodge and keeping an eye on super-successful evangelist Norbert Patten, head of the Ultimate Church. Patten's hiding out as he waits for a Supreme Court verdict on the validity of his church, hoping to dodge some bitter enemies at the same time. His return to the locale of his youth seems to trigger some macabre happenings. 

When the body of stoic Indian guide Aeneas DuFond is discovered in a culvert, Benny takes a closer look at some of the lodge's visitors - among others, we have commanding Maggie McCord and her nasty, no-good son George; Aeneas' schoolteacher brother Hector; illicit lovebirds Des and Delia and gorgeous, mysterious Aline Barbour.

I've read and really enjoyed a diverse array of Canadian crime writing over the last dozen or so years I've been blogging about books. Canada is one of my favourite countries to spend time in (feels familiar to us Kiwis, just more spread out), and they also have some terrific crime writers - many who fly below the global radar (akin to terrific Kiwi and Aussie writers, or Irish writers etc, until recent years) in a marketplace so long dominated by British and American storytellers. 

But for whatever reason, I hadn't yet gotten to a legend of the Canadian crime writing scene: Howard Engel. I'd heard his name mentioned by Canadian authors I'd interviewed, or via contacts I had with Crime Writers of Canada etc. Engel garnered some global recognition too, with his books published in 20 countries. A founding member of CWC in the 1982, the Toronto storyteller was the author of more than 20 books, and was particularly known for his long-running series starring Ontario private eye Benny Cooperman. Engel won the Arthur Ellis Award for this book, MURDER SEES THE LIGHT, and was later the recipient of the Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to the mystery genre, and became the first-ever recipient of the Grand Master Award from Crime Writers of Canada in 2014. 

When I was last in Canada a few years ago I nabbed several local crime novels, including this one (from a secondhand store - the image above is the cover of my book). And recently I plucked it off the shelf to give Howard Engel a try. It's interesting reading a book that was published 35 years ago, with the absence of so much modern technology but still a few decades more modern than the interwar and wartime classics from the likes of Christie, Marsh, Hammett, and Chandler et al. 

The fourth in the Cooperman series (14 novels published between 1980 and 2008) sees the private eye heading into the wilderness of Alqonquin Park, a rugged place of interconnecting lakes and waterways more suitable for canoe-driven excursions than multi-day hiking trips. It's a bit of a fish out of water situation for urbanite Cooperman, who has to adjust to his surroundings while trying to keep an eye on the leader of an evangelical church who is in hiding. There's a cast of interesting characters, and Cooperman has to sift through a variety of events and personalities to piece things together.

I spent a couple of days canoeing through Algonquin several years ago, and enjoyed revisiting the Park via Engel's storytelling. It is a special place. There's a nice tone to Engel's writing, and I came away from my first taste of the Cooperman series seeing it as a bit of a softer Canadian take on the classic hardboiled private eye tale, with the added twist of the rural setting in this instalment moving things further from the mean streets. The mean gravel roads, hiking trails, or lake currents, perhaps.

As Engel is reported as saying over the years, he was inspired to write private eye tales by the likes of Chandler and Hammett, but his Benny Cooperman tales were more soft-boiled than hard-boiled. 

Cooperman comes across as the sort of thoroughly decent investigator who it would be enjoyable to spend time with over several books. A Jewish Canadian private eye who relies more on his brains than brawn. The story flows smoothly, and Engel has a nice unobtrusive prose style that still has a touch of personality to it. The mystery storyline itself knits together well as things unfold in an enjoyably leisurely (more than fast-paced, page-tearing) way - with some nice cleverness along the journey. 

Along with a lovely dose of wit and humour threaded through proceedings. 

Overall, I finished my first taste of Howard Engel's Benny Cooperman series with a smile on my face. Like a sunny day on the lake, there was just something lovely and pleasantly enjoyable about it all - even with the murders and dark deeds thrown in. A book and series worth (re)visiting. 

Craig Sisterson is a lapsed Kiwi lawyer who now lives in London and writes for magazines and newspapers in several countries. He’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at festivals on three continents. Craig's been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards, McIlvanney Prize, is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. His book SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, was published in 2020.

Review: THE GETAWAY

THE GETAWAY by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, narrated by Kate Mara (Audible Original, 2020)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

A weekend at the Lakewood Retreat is exactly what Chloe Powell needs. Freshly unemployed after her boss loses a re-election campaign, the former press secretary desperately wants a break from the bustle of Washington DC. A flier posted at her yoga studio leads her to the getaway, which looks amazing: organic meals, celebrity testimonials, and a serene private property within driving distance of the city.

It's so perfect, in fact, that Chloe's barely bothered by the intensely personal questions she's asked in her application, or the unnerving social experiments her enigmatic host, Sebastian, imposes on her once she arrives at his remote cabin. But when a mysterious new guest shows up, Chloe can no longer suppress her rising panic: This place is not at all what it seems.

Enjoying a run of audiobook crime, mystery, and thrillers on my lockdown and level-whatever socially distanced nature walks, I stumbled across this Audible Original a while back. The name Sarah Pekkanen rang a wee bell, though I hadn't heard of the #1 New York Times bestselling writing duo Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen (A reminder that now matter how 'finger on the pulse' many people think some of us critics, awards judges, and crime 'aficionados' are, we're all only ever getting to a slice of what is out there. Some of us just devour bigger or more diverse slices than others, but still a slice.)

So I thought I'd give this short novella length Audible Original a go. Premise sounded intriguing, and I'd enjoyed narrator Kate Mara's performances onscreen (eg We Are Marshall) - note I believe there was an earlier audiobook version with a different narrator, but it was re-done with Mara. 

At two and a half hours in length I thought it may be a good 'one sitting' (ie one longer walk) listen too. 

After her boss loses an election campaign and her personal life has had a few bumps, Washington DC political staffer Chloe Powell desperately needs a break. She takes a chance on a yoga retreat that had come highly recommended online, only to instead find herself lured into something far more sinister. 

Overall this was a decent listen that didn't really blow me away, but kept me somewhat intrigued throughout. Hendricks and Pekkanen set the hook well so you want to know what happens, if Chloe can escape, and just what the truth is behind the Lakewood Retreat. Is charming-at-first host Sebastian a cult leader taking advantage of guests, or is something far more targeted going on? What really brought Kate, and other women before her, to Lakewood? A life-changing place, if not how they first hoped. 

Frankly I found that THE GETAWAY, smoothly narrated by Mara, required a decent dose of suspension of disbelief, as it was one of those domestic-style thrillers where the plot, tension, and suspense of the story may be at risk of falling apart if an otherwise smart and (seemingly) highly capable character or two didn't make some boneheaded and foolish choices. So the 'author hand' or architecture may be a little too obvious for keen crime readers. Having said that, THE GETAWAY still engendered a decent degree of tension, fear for the characters, and 'want to know/what will happen' suspense. 

So it fell into the okay/good rather than great zone for me. There were things I enjoyed about THE GETAWAY - and I could see flashes of what may have made Hendricks and Pekkanen's other collaborations so popular with American readers (I found out later Hendricks was Pekkanen's editor, then they teamed up on some domestic thrillers and hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list).

While some of the characters were frustrating at times in the choices they made, there was a decent degree of peril throughout THE GETAWAY, and things came together rather well and built to a strong conclusion in the closing stages; secrets and motivations revealed, and a good showdown where the women were able to utilise their smarts and capabilities rather than being cowed or easily duped. 

I'd read more from Hendricks and Pekkanen, while not rushing them to the top of the TBR. Worth a listen if you really love this type of sub-genre, or are looking for an intriguing tale to while away a couple of hours without stretching you too much. 

Craig Sisterson is a lapsed Kiwi lawyer who now lives in London and writes for magazines and newspapers in several countries. He’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at festivals on three continents. Craig's been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards, McIlvanney Prize, is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. His book SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, was published in 2020.

Review: HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE

HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE by Kellye Garrett, narrated by Bahni Turpin (Dreamscape Media, 2020) 

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Dayna Anderson doesn’t set out to solve a murder. All the semi-famous, mega-broke black actress wants is to help her parents keep their house. After witnessing a deadly hit-and-run, she figures pursuing the fifteen-grand reward isn’t the craziest thing a Hollywood actress has done for some cash.

But what starts as simply trying to remember a speeding car soon blossoms into a full-on investigation. As Dayna digs deeper into the victim’s life, she wants more than just reward money. She’s determined to find the poor woman’s killer too. When she connects the accident to a notorious Hollywood crime spree, Dayna chases down leads at paparazzi hot spots, celeb homes and movie premieres. She loves every second—until someone tries to kill her.

And there are no second takes in real life.

You often see reviewers and readers saying things like 'this book made me stay up all night, I just had to read more', but in this case my first taste of award-winning American author Kellye Garrett's crime writing made me walk for miles and miles. Living through the COVID pandemic in London, I've taken to daily walks through local parks; it's great to be around some nature (trees, creeks, pigeons and crows, a few squirrels or the occasional fox, recently the first flowers of spring, etc) and walking is just flat-out good for mind and soul as well as body. As my walks got longer as the pandemic lengthened I started listening to audiobooks at times too, enjoying a great story among the fresh air and scenery. 

I was enjoying HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE so much I lengthened my daily walks that particular weekend and finished the whole thing (10+ hours of narration, though I may have sped it up slightly, but still 8-9 hours) in two days. Lots of miles under the feet that weekend!

Garrett's debut novel made quite the splash following its paperback release in 2017, going on to win an impressive quartet of awards (Agatha, Anthony, Lefty, and IBBY prizes for best first novel) along with nominations for the Barry and Macavity Awards. That's a huge haul, and a rare feat for any author. 

Lighter in tone than many of the crime and thriller tales I read, HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE has a rich vein of humour and some memorable characters that had me smiling and intrigued throughout. 

After having her 15 minutes of fame as the face of Chubby's Chicken, now-retired actress Dayna Anderson is struggling financially and living in a small room at a friend's house. 

Scraping together jobs for fuel and food, and desperate to find money so her parents don't lose their home, Dayna embarks on a scheme to earn the $15,000 reward for information on a deadly hit and run, leading to a series of hilarious and dangerous situations. 

I got into this more and more as I read (listened). Bahni Turpin's narration is on point, and there's just something eminently enjoyable about Garrett's storytelling. Dayna and her pals - fashionista and wannabe reality star Sienna, computer geek Emme who's an identical twin to an A-list actress, and budding TV cop drama star Omari - are a hoot. There's hijinks and humanity. 

Garrett crafts an intriguing vibe with the characters she creates and throws together, and the situations they stumble into. Dayna's hunt for the reward, then deeper thoughts of justice, takes readers (listeners) all over Hollywood. The reality not just the glamour seen on screen. From mansions to cramped rooms, TV sets to auto mechanics. The fame and the falling short (for so many). 

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE, and fully intend to read the other two books in what became a trilogy, in future (HOLLYWOOD ENDING and HOLLYWOOD HACK). 

Craig Sisterson is a lapsed Kiwi lawyer who now lives in London and writes for magazines and newspapers in several countries. He’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at festivals on three continents. Craig's been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards, McIlvanney Prize, is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. His book SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, was published in 2020.

Birdsong and unconventional heroes: an interview with Mercedes Rosende

Kia ora and haere mai, welcome to the latest weekly instalment of our 9mm interview series for 2021. This author interview series has now been running for over a decade, and today marks the 220th overall edition. 

Thanks for reading over the years. I've had tonnes of fun chatting to some amazing writers and bringing their thoughts and stories to you. 

My plan is to to publish 40-50 new author interviews in the 9mm series this year. You can check out the full list of of past interviewees here. Some amazing writers.

If you've got a favourite crime writer who hasn't yet been featured, let me know in the comments or by sending me a message, and I'll look to make that happen for you. Even as things with this blog may evolve moving forward, I'll continue to interview crime writers and review crime novels.

Today I'm very pleased to welcome award-winning Uruguayan lawyer, journalist, and author Mercedes Rosende to Crime Watch. She is the author of the darkly comic thriller CROCODILE TEARS, a devilish tale of heists and betrayals set in the author's hometown of Montevideo. That book - her first translated into English - won the LiBeraturpreis in 2019, a German literary prize that celebrates the best books from female authors from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Arab world. It was made available for English-speaking readers this year thanks to Bitter Lemon Press and translator Tim Gutteridge.

I've read several Latin American crime writers over the years, from a variety of countries (even Bolivia), but CROCODILE TEARS was my first ever from Uruguay (a country where I farewelled 2007 and said gidday to 2008, during four months in South America). As I said in a review earlier this month, CROCODILE TEARS is "a real cracker. A darkly comic story of weak men, strong women, and a heist gone horribly wrong. A sort of Latin American calamity noir; shades of Fargo - though shifted to the grimy heat of Montevideo rather than the icy climes of the American Midwest."

As part of winning the LiBeraturpreis in 2019, Rosende - who also lives in France - received financial support to help implement a literary project for women or girls in Uruguay. She has won several other prizes for her novels and short stories, including the Premio Municipal de Narrativa for ‘Demasiados Blues’ in 2005, and the National Literature Prize for ‘La Muerte Tendrá tus Ojos’ in 2008. 

But for now, Mercedes Rosende becomes the latest author to stare down the barrel of 9mm. 

9MM INTERVIEW WITH MERCEDES ROSENDE 

1. Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?

I have several crime fiction heroes but one of the first that really fascinated me was Georges Simenon’s detective, Maigret, who I initially read as an adolescent and I’ve continued to reread (or rewatch on TV) ever since. Later, I became more Latin American in my tastes and I was also drawn to less conventional heroes, people living outside the law, women. And that’s how I came up with Ursula, the protagonist of my own novels. But Maigret will always have a place in my personal pantheon.

2. What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?

I read books for younger readers that were generally translated into or, at best, written in European Spanish, which is not the same as the Spanish we speak in Uruguay. My first “grown-up” book was Montevideanos by the great Uruguayan author, Mario Benedetti, and it showed me it was possible to write in “Uruguayan”, in the language I used with my friends and family.

3. Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) - unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?

Before I wrote my first crime novel, I had written short stories – but hardly any of them were crime stories – and I’d published one book.

4. Outside of writing and writing-related activities (book events, publicity), what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?

I love having free time, I cope very well with having nothing to do, I enjoy it without either feeling guilty or having the urge to fill every minute with activities to replace work. I enjoy gardening, I like watching movies with friends, and I really love travelling. I also do occasional work for an NGO monitoring elections in other countries. It’s completely different from my work as a writer and I really enjoy it and put a lot of passion into it.

5. What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?

The best time to visit Montevideo is in early January, when the city is silent and abandoned, there are no cars on the streets, no people on the pavements. It’s the summer holidays and a lot of people leave town for the beach, although Montevideo also has its own beaches. In fact, I’m answering these questions in Montevideo in January, and every day I’m woken up by the deafening sound... of birdsong.

6. If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?

It would need to be a Uruguayan actress because I’d like them to talk like me, in my local language.

7. Of your writings, which is your favourite or a bit special to you for some particular reason, and why?

My most recent book is always my favourite, so just now the one that feels special to me is a collection of short stories called Historias de mujeres feas (Stories of Ugly Women).

8. What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?

I was walking down a street in the centre of town, my first book had just come out, a book of short stories called Demasiados blues (Too Many Blues). I went past a small bookshop and there it was, sitting in the window. I was amazed but I also felt like a bit of an imposter. And I still feel like an imposter, like someone who’s passing herself off as a writer.

9. What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?

Taking part in the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2018 and 2019 was one of the most amazing experiences of my life: I went from a tiny fair, in Montevideo, to the largest in the world. Without any stopovers in between!

Thank you Mercedes, we appreciate you chatting to Crime Watch. 

You can follow Mercedes on Twitter here, and nab a copy of CROCODILE TEARS here. 

Review: THE CUT

THE CUT by Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown, 2021)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Millie Spark can kill anyone.

A special effects make-up artist, her talent is to create realistic scenes of bloody violence.

Then, one day, she wakes to find her lover dead in her bed.

Twenty-five years later, her sentence for murder served, Millicent is ready to give up on her broken life - until she meets troubled film student and reluctant petty thief Jerry.

Together, they begin to discover that all was not what it seemed on that fateful night . . . and someone doesn't want them to find out why.

Since Chris Brookmyre jolted crime readers with his first Jack Parlabane tale back in the mid-1990s, the Scottish storyteller has delivered plenty of fresh takes and distinctiveness. Whether it was his quirky early tales that were a sweary Scots take on comic crime to the darker places some of his later books treaded, whether it's mysteries in Victorian Edinburgh co-written with Marisa Haetzman under the name Ambrose Parry or twisted space station whodunnits, Brookmyre always entertains. 

So I was very curious about his new standalone, THE CUT. 

Unsurprisingly, I came away impressed and delighted, after an engrossing few hours reading. 

Brookmyre seasons the stew and delivers plenty of fresh flavour with an unusual tag-team of sleuths trying to work out what happened in the past while surviving the present (I guess making this a thriller with a murder mystery component too), and an intriguing dive into horror movie fandom and some behind-the-scenes wizardry and machinations of the European film world. Having said see ya to her sixties a couple of years back, Millicent Spark is shuffling through life and prepping to bring her own curtain down a little early. A quarter century ago Millicent was Millie, a renowned makeup artist on the horror movie scene. She created magic onset, impressing everyone with gruesome deaths. 

Until she lived through the horrors of a gruesome death herself. One morning Millie woke up to a blood-soaked scene to rival those she created on film. Her lover dead, she went to prison. 

'The Video Nasty Killer' screamed the tabloids, stoking public outrage about horror films and their influence. Proclaiming her innocence for years, Millie-now-Millicent served a very long sentence, and doesn't know how to live in the modern world now she's finally out. A shell of her former self, fearful and anxious, yet sharp even brutal with her tongue. Out of place and off-kilter. 

Meanwhile Jerry is a film-loving fresher at a Glasgow University who's said goodbye to his days as a petty thief and burglar after the deaths of two elderly people forced a crisis of conscience. Somewhat. And not if his dangerous past associate has his say. Struggling with life in the halls, Jerry answers an ad to live with three old ladies, including the sharp-tongued Millicent. Two people split by more than five decades, but both harbouring secrets and guilt and feeling like they can't find their footing. 

When Millicent is jolted by an old photo, the duo try to uncover a truth from long ago, kickstarting an unlikely adventure across Europe where film fan Jerry get an up-close experience with movie history, but may not live to write about it. THE CUT is a true delight, a fast-paced thriller with strong characterisation and a good sense of its world, that takes readers behind-the-scenes of an industry that can seem glamorous from afar but is full of grime (and far worse). Brookmyre also raises some interesting issues about depictions of violence onscreen and how that is seen, or used as a political football or scapegoat by politicians and others looking to distract from larger issues or embarrassments. 

Well-drawn characters (beyond our Spring and Autumn heroes) create further tension and laughs - the cast is deep and good. Overall, THE CUT is a very good read from a very good storyteller. Thoroughly enjoyable, a thrill ride that also makes you think. Superb. 

Craig Sisterson is a lapsed Kiwi lawyer who now lives in London and writes for magazines and newspapers in several countries. He’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at festivals on three continents. Craig's been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards, McIlvanney Prize, is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. His book SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, was published in 2020.