Crime

An interview with DAN NEWMAN

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Today’s interview is with Dan Newman, the author of The Clearing (published today by Exhibit A, the crime/thriller imprint of Angry Robot Books). To mark the release of his book, he was kind enough to answer a few questions…

NewmanD-TheClearingLet’s start with an introduction: Who is Dan Newman?

Stefan, thank you for the opportunity to stop by… with a new novel in the market I really do appreciate the chance to be part of your blog.

As for who I am, that’s probably best defined through my experiences growing up in-transit around the globe. My father worked in international development, so we moved a lot, and lived in some wonderful places. I was born in England, and currently live in Canada, but in between there’s been a tidy little list of places in Africa and the Caribbean. I was at a friend’s party a few days ago and a childhood pal of his spoke about how they had known each other and remained friends since they were four or five years old. That seems incredible to me, and something I can’t say of anyone, given how I grew up. Still, life’s a constant trade-off, and I what I missed in long-held childhood friends, I made up for in places around the world where I can stop in for a free meal and a night on the couch.

I thought we’d start with your fiction: Your latest novel, The Clearing, was published by Exhibit A in October 2013. How would you introduce the novel to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

The Clearing is really a book about our past, and how, if left unaddressed, it can inform every part of our future lives. It’s about being a parent, about being an adult, and about recognising youth as a root system that feeds the lives we grow into.

The Clearing was written such that it could stand alone as a complete story, but there are a number of things I’ve set in there for a sequel – which I’m just completing now. It follows Nate Mason at three key periods in his life, and traces the path he’s compelled to take back to his childhood to deal with a formative tragedy that happened there. It dabbles a little in the occult, a little in psychological thriller territory, and a little in crime.

What inspired you to write the novel? And where do you draw your inspiration from in general? Also, what made you set it in the 1970s, as opposed to a contemporary setting?

This particular novel leans heavily on personal experience, and certainly the setting and mood were dictated by real life events. The plot is largely fiction, but the backbone of the story comes from an experience I had as a kid growing up on the island of St. Lucia in the 70s – hence the time setting. As an eleven or twelve year old boy, I spent a week-end at this very creepy old plantation estate house set deep in the St. Lucian rainforest. The local lore held it that the estate, like all the great plantations, was protected by a small and devilish creature called a Bolom – something we all had heard about as kids. It was kind of a Caribbean boogeyman. But that weekend, something came into the old house in the middle of the night, and ran through the place with these short, sharp footfalls. I was just plain terrified, and it stuck with me. Was it real? Was it a Bolom? The kid that was there absolutely believes it was. Years later that experience came through in The Clearing. It’s at the heart of what the story’s about.

How were you introduced to genre fiction?

SmithW-WhenTheLionFeedsIf I go back to what really got me reading, it’s all down to Wilbur Smith. Among the places where I grew up was Southern Africa – the Kingdom of Lesotho specifically. Wilbur Smith’s early work was all set in that area, and dealt with action and adventure on the African velt – which was right outside my door. His books are a fabulous introduction to genre fiction, and I still love to go back and rip through some of his novels. If you’ve not read his early stuff, I can guarantee it’ll be time well spent.

How do you enjoy being a writer and working within the publishing industry? Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?

This may sound strange, but the whole idea of being a writer is a concept I have great difficulty with. I see it as a lofty title, and one that people have to work damn hard to acquire. I’ve been writing seriously for sixteen years, and I’ve yet to call myself a writer. I think with the publication of The Clearing and a second book in the offing I’m a little closer, but I still feel like I have some earning to do. When I think of writers, I see a very exclusive group of people who I greatly admire. I’d love to be among them, but I still have a lot of work ahead of me.

As for the practicalities of writing, I find regularity quite important. That’s not to say I eat a lot of bran – but rather I try to write every single day and move the story forward. I’m also really bad at falling asleep, so when I go to bed it’s an hour of plot revisions in my head. And, almost without fail, I manage to untangle the knots I tie myself into plot-wise while staring at a darkened ceiling.

When did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing? Do you still look back on it fondly?

Growing up we travelled a lot. My father was in international development, so we moved from country to country and I changed schools – and friends – frequently. Writing was a constant from place to place, and something I always felt came easily. That’s not to say I did it well, but I enjoyed it. And probably because of that I kept at it.

My first crack at a full novel was about sixteen years ago. I wrote a novel called The Cull – a very Wilbur Smith-ian effort set in Africa where I had lived for about ten years or so. I really loved writing it, and the satisfaction of having a full blown manuscript in my hand was just plain magical. I still love the story, the characters in it and the setting. It is a deeply flawed manuscript, filled with all kinds of issues and problems, but there’s purity to your first full-tilt effort that’s hard to explain. I plan to re-write it one day, but I’ll keep the original version close forever.

What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?

This is a really interesting question and one that’s a little problematic for me. Strictly speaking my publisher is a crime imprint, and I think I do fit into it, but right at the very edge of the genre. When I read some of the other authors published by Exhibit A, (and there are some fantastic titles in the line up), I realize that I am definitely over to one side of the genre bucket. I suspect that’s by design by the publisher, so as to broaden the appeal. One thing I will say about genre fiction, is that I think a lot of the authors I read get a bum-rap because of the word “genre”. There’s some really technically and creatively excellent writing in a lot of the novels that populate genre fiction, and because of that handle I think they get glossed over in terms of the quality of the writing itself. Genre fiction produces some first rate literature… along with outstanding story tellers.

What other projects are you working on, and what do you have currently in the pipeline?

Right now I’m finishing up the sequel to The Clearing. It’s the first time I’ve tackled a sequel, and it’s going very well in terms of progress. I’m discovering that the investment I’ve already made in really knowing the characters is incredibly helpful as I push them onto something new; I innately know how they would react to a given situation, rather than having to sit and ponder their actions. I was also surprised at how apparent the storyline was; it was all kind of there staring me in the face when I started – although I will admit to having left a few important hooks in the first book to help me along.

What are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?

I just finished Steven King’s 11/22/63. I’m a big fan of Mr. King (but really, who isn’t?). I’m about to get into Richard Parker’s Scare Me, which has been sitting on my bedside table for quite a while now. I’m also half way through Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth, but with the recent book launch and my efforts to finish off the sequel, I’ve not read nearly as much as I’d like to lately.

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What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?

Well, as a youngster I played semi-professional football in Swaziland, Southern Africa – which is kind of interesting in itself… but more than that was the fact that the team had its own witch doctor. It was fascinating, and before every game there were numerous incantations, practices and potions that had to be honoured before we could suit up for the match. When we won, he was there standing tall, nodding and pounding his chest. When we lost, well, he apparently had somewhere else to be at the final whistle…

What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?

With The Clearing having just come out, I’m on a steep and wonder-filled learning curve. There’s so much more to learn than you realize while standing on the outside looking in, and listening to those who have been there before me is a large part of my game plan for the next twelve months – that and putting together the next book for the publisher. As a rookie I have to say that my first publishing experience has been super – thanks in no small part to the outstanding people at Exhibit A.

I’ve also been advised to enjoy the experience of having my first book published – which at first seems patently self-evident. But once you hop on the ride and get stuck into the practicalities of book launches, marketing plans and the minutia of publishing as a business, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that you hit a major personal milestone. So that simple sounding advice is actually pretty sage; I plan to heed it, and see what those roses actually smell like.

Thanks for letting me stop by.

“The Secret History” by Donna Tartt (Vintage/Penguin)

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TarttD-SecretHistoryI finally get around to reading the mega-hit novel of a mysterious group of college friends

Richard Papen arrived at Hampden College in New England and was quickly seduced by an elite group of five students, all Greek scholars, all worldly, self-assured, and, at first glance, all highly unapproachable. As Richard is drawn into their inner circle, he learns a terrifying secret that binds them to one another…a secret about an incident in the woods in the dead of night where an ancient rite was brought to brutal life…and led to a gruesome death. And that was just the beginning….

Another quick review, this (I’m still trying to figure out how best to review literary fiction). The Secret History has been an international mega-hit, and is frequently listed on Must Read books of the decade, your life, and so forth. As a result, it has been on my radar for years. But, because I am never lacking in reading material, I just never got around to buying it. After a particularly acute bout of book-restlessness, I decided it was time for a change from the SFF genres, and picked this up. I read it over a few very satisfying days, evenings and one night (I ended up finishing it at around 3am). It’s not perfect, but it is certainly engrossing and well-written.

The Secret History is a great novel, in many ways. It’s excellently written, and engagingly told. The characters are varied, quirky, and fun to read about (or, as is the case a coupleof times, uncomfortable to spend time with). This characterisation of college students is rather cliché, but I suppose it suits the story – I refer to the peripheral characters, here (drunks, drug-taking, not particularly bright or upstanding). The wild debauchery of Hampden College is merely a backdrop to the main attraction, despite them partaking in it as well. The focus of the novel are the five students in the exclusive Greek classes, and also our narrator, Richard.

There was something that didn’t ring true for me with this group, though: that everybody liked Bunny. Throughout the novel, he is an obnoxious, irritating presence, and I could never quite put my finger on why any of these characters professed to like him. Not a thing he did or said was redeeming or remotely attractive. It does, however, make it easier to believe how quickly our protagonists could turn on him (as we’re informed in the prologue). There were some affectations that didn’t ring true at all – although, because it was difficult to place the novel in a specific time/decade, I may have misunderstood the occasional thing.

The novel is pretty long, but it rarely felt like it was rambling or bloated. I appreciated Tartt’s attention to detail, and the way she realised the world and characters on the page. It is sometimes self-consciously intelligent and pretentious, but that can be forgiven, as it’s perhaps meant as a reflection of her characters (they are a group of young people who are oh-so-prone to affectations and pretentions). The narrative is sometimes disconnected, but always gripping. The final half of the novel, in particular, was riveting, and I stayed up well into the night to finish it off – thinking “one more chapter” at the end of each and every one.

This is a story of betrayal, loyalty and ultimate sacrifice. The way the characters must hide and tip-toe around what they have done, to hide it from their peers, the police and their mentor is plotted very well. Their tension and anxieties felt realistic and palpable. The ending was a tad melodramatic, and I’m pretty sure it didn’t have to end so. I can’t fault Tartt’s ‘world-building’, though.

I’m extremely glad I read this. It’s not the best novel I’ve ever read, but it has certainly added another author to my must-read list. As soon as I finished this, I bought the eBook of The Goldfinch, Tartt’s latest novel. I’m not sure exactly when I’ll have the time to read it, but I hope it is very soon.

Recommended.

“Con Law” by Mark Gimenez (Sphere)

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Gimenez-ConLawAnother great Texan political thriller from Gimenez

John Bookman – “Book” to his friends – is a tenured professor at the University of Texas School of Law. He’s thirty-five, handsome and unmarried. He teaches Constitutional Law, reduces senators to blithering fools on political talk shows, and is often mentioned as a future Supreme Court nominee.

But Book is also famous for something more unusual. He likes to take on lost causes and win. Consequently, when he arrives at the law school each Monday morning, hundreds of letters await him, letters from desperate Americans around the country seeking his help. Every now and then, one letter captures his attention and Book feels compelled to act.

In the first of a thrilling new series from the author of international bestsellers The Colour of Law and Accused, Book investigates a murder in the corrupt world of deepest, darkest Texas.

I’m a big fan of Gimenez’s novels. In the early years of his career, he was (too) often compared to John Grisham (another of my favourite authors – and I will admit that’s why I first tried Gimenez’s novels). Personally, I think he carved out an authorial identity all his own far quicker than some other critics. From The Perk onwards, at least, he has been producing some highly addictive, well-crafted thrillers. Con Law, the first in a new series featuring Book, is another excellent example of the author firing on all cylinders. I blitzed through this, and can’t wait for the next book.

Set in Texas, Gimenez crams in a lot of political and social commentary into his novels. As with his previous novel, The Governor’s Wife, Con Law is heavy on the political and social commentary. But, far from being a screed or polemic, the author lets all of his characters have their say. Unlike some writers, who caricature those who don’t agree with them for comic relief, Gimenez offers levity through nostalgia and Nadine, Book’s new intern who has some very strange ideas and habits. Also unlike The Governor’s Wife, this new novel feels far more focused – there is no mid-way shift in style or sub-genre. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of Gimenez’s novel thus far, but Con Law felt particularly polished and confident.

The plot is fast-paced, and there are a number of twists and turns, as Book and his intern get to know the people and local politics of Marja. The social divisions, the tensions, and more all come crashing together, stirred up during their investigation. Not everyone comes out unscathed. I’m not really sure how to talk more about the plot without ruining things, so all you need to know is that this is fast-paced and on-the-edge-of-your-seat gripping.

Texas is a fascinating state: its politics, society, and culture are often quite different from other states, even its neighbours. Through the story, the author covers a lot of ground: the state of academia, Texas Republicans and their stranglehold on politics, corporate law in Texas (the easy condemning of land is particularly important, here), the generally conservative temperament and politics of Texans, and how it butts up against transplanted liberals (in Austin, in Marja). Central to Book’s investigation is also fracking, which has become a politically charged issue not only in Texas and the US, but in any country/region with natural gas and oil deposits. Gimenez handles it all very well, and in a deft and fair manner – nobody is made out to be a cartoon, nobody is “right” or “wrong” in their positions, instead we see every side of the arguments, presented as is. It isn’t difficult to ascertain the author’s own mind, of course, but he is not preaching. Given Book’s profession, we also get a couple of scenes set in the classroom, discussing hot-button Supreme Court decisions (Roe v. Wade and Obamacare, of course), and I’m pleased to say, despite devouring a considerable amount of news coverage on those decisions, Gimenez still presented a couple of arguments and interesting tidbits that surprised me. Very pleasant surprise, too.

The characters are well-rounded and quite fun to read about. The working relationship between Book and Nadine is often amusing – despite being relatively young, he finds some of Nadine’s habits confounding. Sometimes she comes across just a little cartoonish, and her lack of certain general knowledge didn’t ring quite true. Nevertheless, it’s easy to forgive this minor niggle, as Gimenez’s writing and plot just pull you along.

Academia, politics, jobs, fracking, social disruption, communities… Con Law touches upon pretty much everything. As a politics and thriller junkie, it felt almost tailor-made for my tastes, and exceeded my high expectations. On the surface, it’s a great story of small-town Texas life and justice. But it also has depth, is intelligent and is expertly crafted. One of his best, I’m glad this is going to be a series. I can’t wait for the next book.

Highly recommended for all fans of thrillers.

Also by Mark Gimenez: The Color of Law, The Abduction, The Perk, The Common Lawyer, The Accused, The Governor’s Wide

An Interview with REBECCA ALEXANDER

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AlexanderR-SecretsOfLife&DeathUK

Rebecca Alexander is the author of the much-anticipated The Secrets of Life and Death, which was published today by Del Rey UK. I caught up with the author, and asked her about her novel, her writing practices, and more…

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Rebecca Alexander?

I’m a writer with one foot in the occult and the other in crime. This is perfectly normal for a psychologist, I used to meet the most interesting people in my job. I’ve worked with people in all categories of prison; with people in the community who ought to be in prison; and some very intriguing people who explore the occult. I’m also fascinated by folk beliefs and magical thinking – the belief ordinary people have in magic that they are not always aware of. Once you’ve literally had tea and biscuits with a pair of heathens, a few druids and a chaos magician the lines between real life and fantasy get blurred.

Your latest novel, The Secrets of Life and Death, is published by Del Rey UK. How would you introduce the novel to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

Secrets is the first book in a three book series about sixteenth century sorcery used to keep people alive (who should be dead). I’m a huge fan of Kelley Armstrong, and I loved her world of inter-related characters. Her first books were about werewolves, then the next about witches, and so on. I’ve written the first two books of the Secrets trilogy for Del Rey UK, and hope to complete book 3 this year. But I also have a prequel called A Baby’s Bones about the archaeological discovery of a dead baby in a well, and a plan of book 4 which focuses on one of the smaller characters, Pierce, who may or not be quite human.

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What inspired you to write the novel? And where do you draw your inspiration from in general?

I was partly inspired by working with dying people who had outlived their expected life span, and would describe it as “living on borrowed time”. I also cared for my own daughter through a terminal illness and remembered that desperation to try something, anything that would save her. If someone had proposed a spell I would have tried it. At that point I probably would have sold my soul to save her, it’s what parents do. 

How were you introduced to genre fiction?

I fell in love with science fiction (H.G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs) before my teens. I progressed through historical romance (Georgette Heyer), fantasy (Bram Stoker, Ursula Le Guin), and horror (Dennis Wheatley) before my brain really processed that it wasn’t all real. I have carried on reading across all sorts of genres, and find some of the best crossovers in children’s fiction (like Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book and Patrick Ness’s The Knife of Never Letting Go). It’s not surprising that I write across a couple of genres at a time.

AlexanderR-CrossOverExamples

How do you enjoy being a writer and working within the publishing industry? Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?

I found transferring from a ‘hobby’ writer, to a professional writer quite easy, as far as the writing went. I had developed a writing habit of a minimum of 500 words a day when I started doing an Open University course a few years ago, and that built up to 1000 words a day during my MA.

But the publishing industry was completely different to any I’ve ever worked within. It turned out to be a very small world of people, many of whom have a lot of influence, and seem to know lots of other agents, editors, publicists etc. That’s not a bad thing, just strange to me. If I started a new job as a psychologist I would be employed, have a line manager, supervisor and strict hours and conditions, clinics and appointments. I have to be proactive and disciplined to write and edit the books, but I also have to be reactive to suggestions from the publisher. It’s all good, but it seems strange at first not to hear from people for weeks or even a month or two, then suddenly there’s a flurry of emails or calls about editing a book or the launch. It keeps the excitement levels up.

When did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing? Do you still look back on it fondly?

I can’t remember not wanting to be an author. Living within a world like Narnia or down the rabbit hole with Alice for hours at a time develops the imagination. I started writing books as soon as I could write (sadly, not legibly, so I don’t have any of my first stories).  I started writing seriously in my teens. I was also an insomniac, I still am, and started telling myself stories to get to sleep. I still do, I’m presently ‘working’ on a retelling of a legend of a ghostly hunt by bronze age people on Dartmoor. It may end up in book 4. Or I may get some sleep.

What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?

WintersonJ-TheDaylightGateFantasy is a huge genre. I’m at the urban, realism end but it can go so far I wouldn’t know how to describe the breadth of it. I recently read The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson – beautiful writing with a vein of poetry, but also a fantastical story (even more overt fantasy that mine) so even “literary” writers invest time in fantasy. I aspire to write something as imaginative and vivid as that. I love fairy tales, at the back of a lot of fiction are the stories we were told as children by authority figures. There’s a healthy dose of crime and historical fiction in my books – fantasy lends itself to many crossovers. I think fantasy is in a very exciting phase of development, and women writers are very prominent in it.

What other projects are you working on, and what do you have currently in the pipeline?

I have books 4 and 5 planned and because I can’t plot properly, I create scenes that are islands that I aim for as I write. I’m also writing a ghost story about the strange over-dependant relationship between twins. I write two books a year, and create odd characters and scenes for possible future books as I go along. I’m also writing a musical with my songwriter husband, just for kids, based on the four horsemen of the apocalypse. ‘Satan’s Song’ is coming along nicely.

What are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?

I’m reading lots of non-fiction research into Dartmoor’s legends and about Barbary Coast corsairs for book 3. Who knew that pirates raided the Devon and Cornwall for thousands of slaves in the 1600’s, as well as capturing hundreds of ships? How can you read that kind of research and not want to create a story about it? Or at least dress up and buy a cutlass. The fiction I’m enjoying is partly crime by Lisa Gardner and also fantasy by David Wellington: 23 Hours. And Terry Pratchett’s The Long War is next.

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What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?

People think of me as a chatty, gregarious wife and mother of six, who teaches, participates in groups etc. but I have a streak of curmudgeon that means I love to be left alone – for weeks at a time. I used to sneak off to our caravan by the sea, just write, and not speak to anyone for days. Eating, sleeping, hygiene optional. Then I come back to full on family life, refreshed. I’ve also, except for the anomaly of being born in Malta, never used my passport.

What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?

More than anything, finishing the trilogy. Having created (or found) my characters, their story is so vivid and real I feel I may have just left them around the house. Sadie in front of the telly, Jack hiding in the study watching the crows, Kelley bigging up his adventures to the kids by the woodburner. I hate the idea of not completing strands I started way back in early drafts of book 1. I’d also like to do some research somewhere that requires a passport!

“Silken Prey” by John Sandford (Putnam/Simon & Schuster)

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Sandford-23-SilkenPreyUKMurder, scandal, political espionage, and an extremely dangerous woman. Lucas Davenport’s going to be lucky to get out of this one alive.

Very early one morning, a Minnesota political fixer answers his doorbell. The next thing he knows, he’s waking up on the floor of a moving car, lying on a plastic sheet, his body wet with blood. When the car stops, a voice says, “Hey, I think he’s breathing,” and another voice says, “Yeah? Give me the bat.” And that’s the last thing he knows.   

Davenport is investigating another case when the trail leads to the man’s disappearance, then — very troublingly — to the Minneapolis police department, then — most troublingly of all — to a woman who could give Machiavelli lessons. She has very definite ideas about the way the world should work, and the money, ruthlessness, and sheer will to make it happen.

No matter who gets in the way.

I’m a huge fan of Sandford’s Minnesota-based crime thrillers. In fact, I would say that he’s probably my favourite thriller author bar none. Silken Prey is the 23rd novel in his Lucas Davenport series, and the series just keeps firing on all cylinders. This time, Sandford turns his attention to politics, which always offers new and ‘exciting’ ways in which an investigation can become muddled, dangerous, or even impossible. Lucas is tasked by the Democratic governor to investigate what appears to be a political framing of the Republican Senator. Making things really tricky, of course, is the fact that they are all in the middle of the election. Party politics, dirty tricks, extreme suspicion, and a deadly killer (or two) operating on the sidelines? This is Davenport. He can handle it. Maybe…

The novel displays Sandford’s easy, inviting prose style, the wry humour that has always made this series stand out, and also his engaging and endearing characters. The friendship between Lucas and his various colleagues feels very natural – after 23 novels, how could it not be? The antagonists of the piece are well-drawn, avoiding cartoon-ish cliché or exaggeration. It was nice to see Kidd and Lauren make an appearance, as it feels like a really long time since we saw them last (the two of them had their own, four-book series earlier in Sandford’s career – and I would highly recommend those, too). The novel is uncluttered, unpretentious, and very focused. It’s not a blockbuster thriller, with a focus on character way more than guns or action-scenes.

The ending was just a smidge muddled, as if the author felt he needed to wrap things up relatively quickly, but I think he nevertheless manages to pull it off, and it wasn’t dissatisfying. It didn’t feel rushed, actually. The conclusion also leaves things open for further exploration in a later book (which I really hope Sandford does). I get the feeling that Sandford has some big plans for Davenport’s future, and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series. This far into a series, it is a testament to the author’s exceptional skill as a writer that he manages to make each new novel as gripping and addictive as the last. Long may this continue!

A short-and-sweet review, this. I don’t want to delve too much into the story, as there are a couple of switches and changes at certain points of the narrative. The synopsis, above, should suffice to give you as much as you need. All I can say is that John Sandford is a superb writer, and Silken Prey is yet another strong addition to his beloved series. I will really have to catch up with the companion series, which follows Davenport’s protégé (of sorts), Virgil Flowers. I’ve read the first in that series, but have six more to catch up on. I may plan to do that over Christmas and New Year.

Very highly recommended for all fans of crime thrillers.

“Floating City” by Sudhir Venkatesh (Allen Lane)

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VenkateshS-FloatingCityA thoroughly engaging study of hustlers, strivers, dealers, call girls and other lives in illicit New York

After his insider’s study of Chicago crack gangs electrified the academy, Columbia University sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh spent a decade immersed in New York’s underbelly, observing the call girls, drug dealers, prostitutes and other strivers that make up this booming underground economy.

Amidst the trust-funder cocktail parties, midtown strip clubs, and immigrant-run sex shops, he discovers a surprisingly fluid and dynamic social world – one that can be found in global cities everywhere – as traditional boundaries between class, race and neighbourhood dissolve. In Floating City, Venkatesh explores New York from high to low, tracing the invisible threads that bind a handful of ambitious urban hustlers, from a Harvard-educated socialite running a high-end escort service to a Harlem crack dealer adapting to changing demands by selling cocaine to hedge fund managers and downtown artists. In the process, and as he questions his own reasons for going deeper into this subterranean world, Venkatesh finds something truly unexpected – community.

Floating City is Venkatesh’s journey through the “vast invisible continent” of New York’s underground economy – a thriving yet largely unseen world that exists in parallel to our own, at the heart of every city.

I first came across Sudhir Venkatesh’s name in Freakonomics – as, I’m sure, did many non-sociologists. In Levitt’s book, Venkatesh contributed a small selection of his work with the crack gangs in Chicago. This study would go on to form much of Gang Leader For A Day, the author’s previous book. Venkatesh is a rare academic: he can write in such an engaging, riveting style, that his books read almost like novels. In Floating City, the ethnographer turns his gaze on New York City and its underground economy. This is, while flawed in minor ways, easily one of the best non-fiction works I’ve read in a number of years.

It would be easy to share quotations and detailed descriptions of so much of this book and the people Venkatesh got to know. It is a wonderfully-told narrative – from the first chapter, in which he discovers a long-time acquaintance from Harvard is also a high-class New York madam, to the final chapter in which he effectively bids farewell to his contacts and, in truth, new friends. I read the book in three days, blitzing my way through the chapters.

Venkatesh touches not only upon the criminal activities his contacts take part in, but also the economic and social repercussions of the lives they find themselves living. It is sometimes inspirational, but often it is also heart-wrenching, seeing the damage (personal and collateral) that the lives of call-girls, drug smugglers, illegal immigrants, and so forth can cause. True, one must have been living under a rock (or, perhaps, the rarefied penthouses along Central Park) to not be aware, even superficially, in the plight of the poor, the difficulties that face those who are forced by situation to operate in the black markets. Venkatesh is a sympathetic, eloquent guide to the New York underbelly.

The author writes with an almost cheeky sense of humour, too. Amused at the situations he finds himself in, and also the system in which he is operating – from the academic strictures of Columbia University to the illicit systems he sees at work during his fieldwork – which include strip clubs, porn stores in Hell’s Kitchen, Midtown bars in the company of escorts and ‘managers’, to name but three. He doesn’t glamorize what he is reporting on, but nor does he inflect his words with judgement. In fact, as he admits, he

There are a fair few poignant moments, and events that Venkatesh witnesses which are near-universal experiences for those from broken or unhappy homes. For example, he joins a contact’s family for dinner. Because of their difficult situation, however, a fight breaks out, and Venkatesh says he’ll put their awakened son back to bed. The scene is very affecting:

“Joshi refused my offer to read and got down on the floor and took a plastic soldier in each hand, speaking to them softly while moving them across his raised knees. The sight shot the ache of an old memory through me. So many times I did the exact same thing, hiding in my room while my mother raised her voice against my father… With the raised voices of his parents beating through the door, Joshi put his soldiers on sentry duty and got into bed. Would he | remember this moment for the rest of his life? Would part of him always be ten years old and anchored to the battlefield of his bedroom floor, fighting an imaginary war to distract himself from the source of pain?”

VenkateshS-FloatingCityUSThe author frequently mentions and discusses his struggles against academia’s, and especially Columbia’s disdain for “popular” sociology books and articles, aimed at reaching wider markets. If not targeted solely at fellow academics, a study will be dismissed as “journalistic”, as if that were the height of criticism. As someone who very much does not write in a conventional “academic” style, partly due to journalistic training, and partly my belief that hoarding knowledge is a guaranteed path to academic and professional destruction and irrelevance, I found Venkatesh’s style refreshing and quite brave. (True, the events and research he details in the book are from a decade and more ago, but still.) At one point in the book, the author recounts a conversation with the chair of Columbia University’s sociology department, who cautioned him, “It will never take the place of real, deep sociology… Just don’t be confused about that.” Nevertheless, I am very grateful that Venkatesh chose to aim for a broader audience.

His inviting style and approach does often place him at the centre of certain scenes. That does pose issues of academic and/or scientific detachment (recognised by the author), but also move this book beyond pure, accessible sociology and somewhat into the memoir genre. As he says at the end, the book is intended as a research memoir of sorts. It works, in my opinion, and I welcomed the personal reflection, and the Schrödinger-effect his participation clearly created in certain situations. If not for his research, for example, would his drug dealer contact have ever met up with his secretly-a-madam acquaintance at the art gallery? You get a sense of his professional anxieties, how his desire to really pull back the curtain of New York’s illicit subculture for a wider audience, hamstrung by some of his tenured colleagues’ disdain for letting non-academics getting a look at the goods (if you will).

“… tale[s] of improvisation in a world of shifting values and social roles. And if the upper-end madam and the ghetto thug were both improvising their supposedly fixed social-roles, if their way of relating and even their styles were subject to such rapid revisions – as if they were merely a fiction agreed on between two people – then it was a short step to admitting that succeeding in a life of crime wasn’t so different from making art. The global city, like the canvas, provided the structure, but the rest was in the individual’s hands, making each [person]… a kind of artist whose art and job consisted in crafting the latest, most up-to-date version of themselves and offering it to a city for final judgement. Is this the ‘me’ that will finally make it?”

To observe something is to change it. Through Venkatesh’s observations, and the wealth of detail and data he has compiled, perhaps we will see a genuine and positive change in the way society, city and national governments address and understand criminal activity, the ‘war on poverty’, and also the American Dream in the ever-changing, ever-more-complex 21st Century city.

Very highly recommended.

***

Floating City is out now – published by Allen Lane/Penguin in the UK, and Penguin Press in the US.

Upcoming: “The Tournament” by Matthew Reilly (Orion)

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ReillyM-TheTournamentJust spotted this on Amazon UK (was trawling for interesting upcoming titles in “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” ribbons…). I’m a big fan of Matthew Reilly’s action-adventure thrillers – especially the Jack West, Jr. series (Seven Ancient Wonders, Six Sacred Stones, and Five Greatest Warriors). Reilly is firmly in the same sub-genre as James Rollins and Dan Brown (leaning more towards the former than latter). With his next novel, however, he seems to be taking a different path. The novel, The Tournament, look like a historical thriller (with a bit of playing about with real events and historical figures)…

England, 1546. A young Princess Elizabeth is surrounded by uncertainty. She is not currently in line for the throne, but remains a threat to her older sister and brother.

In the midst of this fevered atmosphere comes an unprecedented invitation from the Sultan in Constantinople. He seeks to assemble the finest chess players from the whole civilised world and pit them against each other.

Roger Ascham, Elizabeth’s teacher and mentor in the art of power and politics, is determined to keep her out of harm’s way and resolves to take Elizabeth with him when he travels to the glittering Ottoman capital for the tournament.

But once there, the two find more danger than they left behind. There’s a killer on the loose and a Catholic cardinal has already been found mutilated. Ascham is asked by the Sultan to investigate the crime. But as he and Elizabeth delve deeper, they find dark secrets, horrible crimes and unheard-of depravity. Things that mark the young princess for life and define the queen she will become.

The Tournament is published by Orion in the UK in January 2014. As someone who has long been interested in the history of Constantinople/Istanbul (not to mention lived there for a few years), I am very much looking forward to reading this. The author’s website offers a slightly more sensational synopsis, just in case you need further convincing:

The year is 1546.

Suleiman the Magnificent, the powerful and feared Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, issues an invitation to every king in Europe:

YOU ARE INVITED TO SEND YOUR FINEST PLAYER TO COMPETE IN A CHESS TOURNAMENT TO DETERMINE THE CHAMPION OF THE KNOWN WORLD.

The English delegation – led by esteemed scholar Roger Ascham – journeys to the glittering city of Constantinople. Accompanying Ascham is his pupil, Bess, who is about to bear witness to events she never thought possible.

For on the first night of the tournament, a powerful guest of the Sultan is murdered, and against the backdrop of the historic event, Ascham is tasked with finding the killer.

Barbaric deaths, unimaginable depravity and diplomatic treachery unfold before Bess’ eyes, indelibly shaping her character and determining how she will perform her future roll… as Queen Elizabeth I.

EVEN A PAWN CAN BECOME A QUEEN

I really must remember to get around to reading Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves, Reilly’s previous novel. I have been very lax, recently, with my thriller reading.

An Interview with SETH PATRICK

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Anyone who’s been keeping an eye on the SFF online community and blogosphere can’t have totally missed Seth Patrick’s debut, Reviver. I’ve seen posters on rail platforms during my commute into London, and seen mentions in print magazines. It is clearly a hotly-anticipated novel of the year. Despite this, I’ve been slow about getting around to reading it. (Shame on me!) Nevertheless, I’m happy to share with you today a quick interview with Seth, in which he talks about writing, the novel and more…

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Seth Patrick?

I’m a games programmer by day (on the Total War strategy series for PC), writer by night; father of two; book fan, movie fan, comic fan. Usually lacking sleep.

I thought we’d start with your fiction: Your debut novel, Reviver, was recently published by Macmillan. How would you introduce the novel to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

Reviver is a supernatural crime thriller, the first of a trilogy, set in a world where some people have found they have the ability to revive the recently dead, but only briefly. Just long enough for their loved ones to say goodbye, but – more importantly for the novel – for forensic specialists to learn as much from murder victims as they can. Jonah Miller is a young forensic reviver, one of the best working for the Forensic Revival Service in the US. While reviving the victim of a brutal murder, he encounters something terrifying that makes him question everything he knows.

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What inspired you to write the novel? And where do you draw your inspiration from in general?

The novel began in a creative writing class hosted by the crime author Peter James, back in 2004. At the time, Peter’s background had been as a horror writer, but he was just launching his first crime novel, a transition that showed in the homework he set the class for the first week: write the first page of a horror novel, introducing your protagonist and a murder weapon.

I wrote the first page of Reviver, and it’s hardly changed since.

The idea itself came from the discovery that I share my birthday with Edgar Allan Poe. Two Poe tales came to mind: The Facts in the Case of Monsieur Valdemar, in which the terminally ill Valdemar is hypnotised at the point of death, but continues to speak long after he’s died; and Murders in the Rue Morgue, widely considered to be the first modern detective fiction.

SethPatrick-InspirationsPoe

These two stories fused, and I had an image of the detective from Murders in the Rue Morgue interviewing the dead Valdemar.

In general, my inspiration is almost entirely from being a constant daydreamer. My mind likes to wander, and continually slams disparate ideas together with absolute glee. I end up with a palette of images and scenarios, snippets of story that I can then use to forge a narrative.

How were you introduced to genre fiction?

My first big reading frenzy started when I was eight, in a bookshop for a Tom Baker signing, where I bought Doctor Who and the Giant Robot. That led to me ploughing through a million Doctor Who novelisations, and 2000AD, then moving on to Stephen King, Greg Bear, Arthur C Clarke, Clive Barker, Alan Moore.

How do you enjoy being a writer and working within the publishing industry? Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?

I’m still a total noob, and awed by every aspect of the process. It’s great to meet so many people with such a love of books, and it’s a huge thrill to hang out with other authors.

I’m only on my second novel, and with Reviver I was winging it, learning the craft as I went, so my working method is evolving pretty fast – it has to, really, since the first book took me six years to write, but each of the sequels have less than a year.

But I’m still winging it. It’s fun.

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When did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing? Do you still look back on it fondly?

As a ten year old kid, my favourite homework was always when we could write anything we chose. I’d have asteroid impacts, or being shrunk to the size of a Lego man, all in four sides of scrawled handwriting.

As I got older, doing it in my own time, I struggled to finish anything and had no confidence in what I turned out. Really, I just didn’t appreciate how much work had to be put in after the point I thought something ‘finished’. I ended up trying out other forms, like screenwriting, and my first taste of success was being shortlisted for a BBC competition, with a ghost story screenplay. I’m proud of it; some of the ideas for Reviver were harvested from there.

What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?

Reviver is a blend of the Horror, SF and Crime genres, but I’m far more a fan of Horror and SF than crime. I think that’s just because of the total freedom to explore interesting ideas.

Today, genre fiction is strong and varied, possibly more so than it’s ever been. There’s a certain confidence in the field, too; there’s also a degree of insecurity, which means that the old argument about genre-vs.-literary keeps rearing its head.

It stems from the long-standing cold shoulder that genre novels get from the mainstream press, but rather than engage with the underlying reasons for that, some try to push the idea that novels can be both genre and literary, as if that’s the important thing.

It drives me mad, certainly, when ‘literary’ notions are presented as the only thing of any real value, yet are largely equated with being difficult or inaccessible. I’ve no problem with people who rate style and tone over plot and pacing, even to an extreme – that’s when personal taste comes into it – but trying to have genre recognised as having that rather limited kind of merit seems to miss the point of just how wide-ranging its merits actually are.

Genre fiction is easily strong enough to stand on its own terms, chock-full of intelligent and exciting fiction that covers all tastes.

My own work is firmly at the accessible and entertaining end, of course, but genre really does have it all.

What other projects are you working on, and what do you have currently in the pipeline?

Right now, books two and three of Reviver are taking up my full attention, but like I said, I’m a constant daydreamer. I have a few notions for what follows Reviver, enough to know that picking just one will be tough.

What are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?

I’ve just finished the excellent London Falling by Paul Cornell, I’m nearly through the also-excellent You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney, and next up for me is Greg Egan’s The Clockwork Rocket.

SethPatrick-Reading

What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?

One of my top five movies is Muppet Christmas Carol. My absolute favourite is John Carpenter’s The Thing, though. Less of a surprise.

Muppet Christmas Carol has one of my favourite scenes in it – when they ask for more coal, are denied, and “HEATWAVE!” Cracks me up every time…

One final question: What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?

It’s going to be busy! Hopefully, there’ll be movement on the Reviver movie; I’ll have finished Book Three, seen Book Two out in hardback, and Book One will be in paperback. I’m also going to the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton in October, by which time I may have convinced myself that this is all real.

*

Be sure to check out Seth’s website and Twitter for more information about his books and writing.

Reviver is out now, published in the UK by Macmillan and Thomas Dunne in the US.

Upcoming: “Drakenfeld” by Mark Charan Newton (Tor)

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Longtime readers of the blog will know that I am a big fan of Mark Charan Newton’s work. His debut series, Legends of the Red Sun, just got better and better with each new book, until the brilliant conclusion in The Broken Isles. Today, Mark unveiled the artwork for his next novel, Drakenfeld:

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I think we can all agree that it’s very eye-catching. The novel is the first in a new series, and sounds pretty fantastic. Here’s the synopsis:

“I am Lucan Drakenfeld, second son of Calludian, Officer of the Sun Chamber and peace keeper. Although sometimes it seems I am the only person who wishes to keep it …”

The monarchies of the Royal Vispasian Union have been bound together for two hundred years with treaties and laws maintained and enforced by the powerful Sun Chamber. As a result, a long harmony has existed, nations have flourished, and civil wars are a thing of the past. But corruption, deprivation and murder will always find a way to thrive…

Upon receiving news of his father’s death and recalled to his home city of Tryum, Drakenfeld is soon embroiled in a mystifying case. King Licintius’ sister, Lacanta, has been found brutally murdered during a night of festivities – her beaten and bloody body discovered in a locked temple. Despite hundreds of revellers, no one saw anything. With rumours of dark spirits and political assassination, Drakenfeld soon has his work cut out for him trying to separate superstition from certainty.

With his assistant, Leana, he embarks on the biggest and most complex investigation of his career, revisiting the ancient streets of his past, tracking down leads, interviewing suspects and making new enemies in his search for the truth.

His determination to find the killer soon makes him a target, as the underworld of Tryum focuses on this new threat to their power…

Drakenfeld will be published in the UK by Tor in October 2013. Which is also the month that Scott Lynch’s Republic of Thieves is being published. So, it’ll be one of the best months ever…

More on CR: Reviews of The Nights of Villjamur, City of Ruins, The Book of Transformations, The Broken Isles; Interview with Mark (2011) & Catch-Up Interview (2012)