Cartoon of the Day: The Plea

 

PLOT vs CHARACTER: Guest Post by Will Ferguson

WILL FERGUSON is the author of the literary thriller 419, which won the prestigious Giller Prize for Literature, and The Finder, which received the Arthur Ellis Award for Crime Fiction. His new novel, Officer Shimada and the Disappearing Girl, is out now. He lives in Calgary, Canada, and is the father of novelist Genki Ferguson.

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“People pick up a novel because of the plot. They keep reading because of the characters.” 

This was the sage advice I received from an editor when I first moved from travel writing to crime fiction. I’d worked as a travel writer for many years, and although it shares a lot of similarities with fiction—a central protagonist, a journey, a sense of place, the artful use of the telling detail—travel writing was still constrained, at least partly, by the truth. If I was writing a memoir about hitchhiking across Japan or walking across Northern Ireland, I could tweak the timeline, juggle events, exaggerate some of the encounters for comedic effect, but I couldn’t, say, kill someone along the way just to liven things up. Not unless I really did it, which would have been frowned upon. 

In contrast, crime fiction—or murder mysteries, or detective stories, or thrillers, or cozies, or whichever iteration you prefer--requires a corpse. Impossible crimes, or “locked room” mysteries as they are known, fascinated me. These are the ultimate puzzle mysteries, not so much a whodunit? as a “How’d they do it?” John Dickson Carr was the master of the locked room mystery, outselling Agatha Christie in his day, yet he is now all but forgotten, while Christie’s novels continue to be read, adapted, celebrated. Why? The problem lies in the nature of the locked room genre itself. Carr’s plots involve complex solutions that are often too clever by half. He gets so caught up in the mechanics of it that he forgets the human element. He tends to employ stock characters—the sassy flapper, the harumphing British uncle, the reclusive wealthy heir—to the detriment of the story itself. Christie’s characters are more layered, more eccentric, more contradictory. It’s why she is still read and Carr, for the most part, is not. It was a lesson I took to heart. 

I’d become obsessed with a news story I misread while living in Japan. A young woman, working as a hostess in a club on the fourth floor of a bar building, had gone missing. Her friends came by to meet her at the elevator after her shift, but she had, in their words, “disappeared.” They meant it figuratively. When they showed up, she was already gone. She had “disappeared.” The story ended tragically, but that initial misunderstanding on my part stayed with me. How could someone disappear from inside an elevator?

I set about solving this conundrum, first sealing off the elevator from any escape hatches or back doors, and then adding witnesses at each floor to ensure she didn’t slip out along the way. I wanted to eliminate the obvious, and eventually I came up with a solution to the puzzle. But that’s all I had: a puzzle. In my editor’s words, I had a reason for people to pick up the book—“A girl disappears from a crowded elevator late at night,” is certainly a solid hook--but did I have a reason for them to keep reading?

I spent years with that puzzle percolating in the back of my brain, but it wasn’t until I asked the crucial question, “Who was she, this girl on the elevator? Who was waiting for her at the bottom?” that the story finally came into focus. I had lived in southern Japan for five years, the first two on the remote Amakusa Islands, so I made her the daughter of a fisherman, a domineering man who sends her fifteen-year old brother over to bring back his sister after they’ve found out she’s been working as a hostess. The brother arrives, but the girl vanishes between floors. The boy returns to face his father’s ire. What would that do to you? It haunts the boy. He becomes a police detective specializing in missing persons cases. 

And from these characters came the heart of the story. Officer Shimada and the Disappearing Girl is meant to be that rarest of creatures: a character-driven impossible crime novel. I leave it to readers to decide whether it succeeds.

 

Crime Fiction Book of the Year Shortlist: An Post Irish Book Awards

The shortlists have been announced for the 2026 An Post Irish Book Awards. There are multiple categories, but here's the one of import to mystery readers.

CRIME FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

• The Truth About Ruby Cooper, by Liz Nugent (Sandycove)
• Everything She Didn’t Say, by Jane Casey (Hemlock Press)
• One of Us Is Guilty, by Steve Cavanagh (Headline)
• Such a Nice Girl, by Andrea Mara (Bantam)
• In Glass Houses, by Edel Coffey (Sphere)
• The Keeper, by Tana French (Viking)
• Never to Be Found, by Jo Spain (Zaffre)
• If These Walls Could Talk, by Michelle McDonagh (Hachette Ireland)

Winners of this year’s prizes are set to be revealed during a special ceremony in Dublin on Tuesday, December 1.

HT: The Rap Sheet

VETERANS DAY CRIME FICTION

Veterans Day, November 11, was originally known as Armistice Day (also known as Remembrance Day). Veterans Day commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front, that took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning — the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" 1918.

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed Armistice Day on November 11, 1919. The U.S.  Congress passed a concurrent resolution seven years later on June 4, 1926, requesting the President issue another proclamation to observe November 11 with appropriate ceremonies. The 11th of November is"a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'." It was later changed to Veterans Day.

I love to read mysteries that reflect regions and holidays, so I'm reposting my Veterans Day list with some new additions. 

Julia Spencer-Fleming's Once Was a Soldier,  Jacqueline Winspear, Renie Airth, and Charles Todd's mystery series are at the top of my list of Veterans Day Mysteries. There's also the Joe Sandilands series by Barbara Cleverly. And Bulldog Drummond is a WWI veteran in the Sapper/H.C. McNeile books. Add to that Walter Mosley's WWII Vet Easy Rawlins. Don't miss Marcia Talley's All Things Undying in which Hannah Ives helps to locate the grave of a WWII serviceman. James Lee Burke is another great mystery author whose Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux is a Vietnam Veteran. And, of course, the Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers.

BV Lawson's 2007 post of Veteran's Day Mysteries is great. No need to duplicate her efforts. Be sure and read her blog, as well as all the comments. 

 

I also did a Memorial Day post here on Mystery Fanfare that covers some of the same territory. It is  a good resource, as many of the books overlap.

You'll want to read J. Kingston's Pierce's article 9 Mysteries Set in the Immediate Aftermath of WWI on CrimeReads.

Wikipedia has an entry about Veterans Day Mysteries. Several hardboiled heroes have been war veterans. Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer and many others from World War II, and John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee from the Korean War. "The frequent exposure to death and hardship often leads to a cynical and callous attitude as well as a character trait known today as post-traumatic stress characterizes many hardboiled protagonists."

ADDITIONAL VETERANS DAY MYSTERIES with Veteran Protagonists

River of Darkness by Rennie Airth

Mark of the Lion by Suzanne Arruda

Billy Boyle series by James R. Benn

Dying in the Wool by Frances Brody

Veterans' Day by James Buckner

Nick Petrie novels by James Lee Burke

Tom Clancy Oath of Office by Marc Cameron

The Bee's Kiss by Barbara Cleverly

Quarry; The Million Dollar Wound by Max Allan Collins

Long Shot by Jack Coughlin

Foul Trade by B.K. Duncan

One Killer Force by Dalton Fury
Young Blood by Matt Gallagher

The Man Who Won the Medal of Honor by Len Giovannitti

The Sleepwalkers by Paul Grossman

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

Direct Hit by Mike Hollow

A Gentleman's Murder by Christopher Huang

Operation Burning Candle by Blyden Jackson

Berlin Noir: March Violets, The Pale Criminal, A German Requiem by Philip Kerr

Lone Jack Trail by Owen Laukkanen

After the Rain by Chuck Logan

Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal

Hystopia by David Means

First Blood by David Morrell

Veterans Day by Mary Jane Morris

Devil in a Blue Dress, and other novels by Walter Mosley

A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee

The Odd Angry Shot by William Nagle

The Sympathizer by Viet Than Nguyen

A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn

Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien

The Given World by Marian Palaia

The Drifter by Nick Petrie (and others in the Peter Ash series)

Underbelly by Gary Phillips

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

Whose Body?; The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L Sayers

Dog Day Afternoon by Vern E. Smith

The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller

Veterans Day by Jack Stewart

Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone

All Things Undying by Marcia Talley

A Test of Wills and others; A Duty to the Dead and others by Charles Todd

Dragonfish by Vu Tran

Soldier's Heart by Vance Voyles

Maisie Dobbs; Messenger of Truth; The Mapping of Love and Death; and others by Jacqueline Winspear

For the young set, one of the first Veteran-related mysteries: 
Cherry Ames: Veterans' Nurse by Helen Wells. 

Have a look, too, at StopYou'reKillingMe.com, Military Mysteries for more titles.

As always, let me know any Veterans Crime Fiction that you recommend.

Read a Veterans Day mystery and remember the men and women who have served our country. Thank you for your service.

In Memory of Veteran - Major Joseph Rudolph, M.D., WWII

MURDER IN WARTIME: Veterans Day

For Veterans Day, I thought I'd post a link to Mystery Readers Journal: Murder in Wartime. Check out the Table of Contents and links below. Great articles and reviews by and about your favorite authors. 110 pages! Thanks to everyone who contributed to make this such a terrific issue. Buy this back issue! Available in hardcopy or downloadable PDF.

MYSTERY READERS JOURNAL: Murder in Wartime (Volume 33:2)

Buy this back issue! Available in hardcopy or as downloadable PDF.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• World War II and the Golden Age Tradition by Kate Jackson

AUTHOR! AUTHOR!

• The Making of Heroes by Suzanne M. Arruda
• It Never Happened by Mary Adler
• On Edge by Albert Ashforth
• Between Lost and Dead by Rona Bell
• A Half Century Later, Vietnam Is Still a Mystery by R.G. Belsky
• Harry Lime Was Wrong by James Benn
• My Wartime Connection by Cara Black
• The Secrets of Bletchley Park by Rhys Bowen
• Passing On the Memory of Wars I Never Knew by William Broderick
• Don’t Mention the War by Frances Brody
• Why Care About a Murder in Wartime? by Rebecca Cantrell
• The Green Corn Rebellion by Donis Casey
• War Is Hell… but Hell Makes Good Mysteries by John A. Connell
• Murder and Ancient War by Gary Corby
• The Real and Recent Wars Behind My Fiction by Diana Deverell
• Spoils of War by David Edgerley Gates
• You Say Conflict, I Say War by Chris Goff
• Mystery in The First World War by Dolores Gordon-Smith
• Civil War Crime by Paul E. Hardisty
• War Stories by Libby Hellmann
• Body of Evidence by Graham Ison
• Wartime in England by Maureen Jennings
• The Mysteries of War by Kay Kendall
• From Bomb Shelters to a B&B by Kate Kingsbury
• Bombs and Short Legs by Joan Lock
• Rough Cider in the Making by Peter Lovesey
• If It’s War, It Can’t Be Murder? by Michael Niemann
• Echoes of Vietnam by Neil Plakcy
• When the Investigator Wears Boots by Ben Pastor
• His Debts Were Settled At Last by Mary Reed
• Murder in Wartime by Gavin Scott
• The Time Traveler As Writer by Sarah R. Shaber
• A Coin for the Hangman: The Home Front and the Returning Soldier by Ralph Spurrier
• The Solitary Soldier by Kelli Stanley
• Wartime in New York by Triss Stein
• Writing About War by Charles Todd
• It’s Not Our War: Writing a WWI-Era Mystery Series Set in New York by Radha Vatsal
• Fading Away by Sharon Wildwind
• Bloodshed Behind the Lines by Sally Wright
• Fate, Facts, and War Stories by Ursula Wong

COLUMNS

• Mystery in Retrospect: Reviews by Kristopher Zgorski, Craig Sisterson, L.J. Roberts, Sandie Herron, Kate Jackson, Kate Derie
• Khaki Cops by Jim Doherty
• True Crime in Wartime by Cathy Pickens
• The Children’s Hour: War Mysteries by Gay Toltl Kinman
• Just the Facts: The Military Mutilator by Jim Doherty
• Crime Scene: Murder in a Time of War by Kate Derie
• From the Editor’s Desk by Janet Rudolph

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Are You Astir, Mr. Poe? by Edgar Award Winner John McAleer

Edgar winner John McAleer’s following essay, discussing Poe’s alleged obsession with premature burial, first appeared in the MWA’s Mystery Writers Annual (1984). Thanks to his son Andrew, this amusing piece makes its first appearance on-line exclusively for Mystery Readers International’s “Mystery Fanfare.”   

Are You Astir, Mr. Poe? by Edgar Award Winner John McAleer

 

Variations on the theme of premature burial were constant with Edgar Allan Poe—“The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Black Cat,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “Thou Art Man,” and “Premature Burial” itself are some of the tales that come immediately to mind. 

Poe’s detractors count this theme as an obsession, affirming his morbidity. His admirers think it laudable. Allen Tate, indeed, said it proclaimed Poe’s belief in the survival of the soul after death. Maybe so but we should remember that in prior centuries no one could be absolutely sure he would not be shoveled under before his time had come.

            

When the body of the Christian mystic, Thomas à Kempis, was exhumed in the eighteenth century, it was observed that he had clawed the underside of the lid of his coffin and so, presumably had been buried alive. True enough he had already lived some ninety-two years before he was interred—but even so! Coming closer to the present, within the last dozen years when a nun in Ireland died at the age of one hundred, her story was retold in the world press. At eighteen she was thought to have died of the flu. While her funeral was in progress, an older sister arrived from a distant village and asked to look one last time upon her face. When the coffin was opened the “corpse” stirred. In gratitude for her preservation she gave the rest of her life to the service of humanity. Probably apocryphal, however, is the story of the man whose wife revived when her coffin collided with a pew as she was being borne into the church. Another three years went by before death claimed her. As once more her body was borne into the church, her husband cried out to the pallbearers—“Watch that pew!”

            

It was A.C. Bradley who suggested that King Lear died not of grief, but of joy because death came as, bending over the corpse of his beloved Cordelia, he thought of the feather he placed before her lips was bestirred by the breath of life. In the nineteenth century it was not unusual for people to exhume their dead long after their decease to ascertain that no mistake had been made. Emerson’s father personally dug up his father fifteen years after his death, and Emerson himself opened the coffins of both his first wife and his first son, on separate occasions, years after they had departed. Dumas’s Camille begins with her lover, Armand, bribing a cemetery attendant to let him see her corpse. Only then can he be sure death has claimed her.

            

Supposedly we find it hard to relate to Poe’s anxieties in that era when science has eliminated all the guesswork and a death certificate can be taken at its word. Sure, now and then you hear of an occasional slip-up. There was that case in New York City back in the 1930s when a morgue attendant sought to supplement his meager, depression era income by extracting the gold teeth from corpses given in his care. One night when he took a mallet to a client the guy sat up. The morgue attendant became an instant folk hero and even got interviewed by Robert L. Ripley on a nationwide broadcast. Lately, though, I’ve learned we have more to worry about than I thought we had. After my father’s funeral a few years back, I stopped back at the undertaker’s to settle up the bill. His assistant appeared from below stairs, an amiable fellow who looked like he could be Don Knotts’ kid brother.

            
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” he said. “A case just arrived.”
            
“I guess he won’t mind being left on his own for a few minutes,” I said tentatively.
           
 “Guess not,” young Knotts agreed. “In ten years I’ve only had a couple revive on me.” 
            
My eyes bugged. “A couple…?”

            

“Yeah. One was a grandmother. Doctor had to be in surgery. Told the family she wouldn’t last the morning. ‘Send her along when she goes,’ he said, ‘and I’ll sign the certificate later.’ About eleven they decided she was gone. I came and got her. Had her on the slab when she burped. That ain’t unusual. Then she started batting her eyelids at me, like a vamp. I had an ambulance over here on the double. Got her back six hours later though so the business didn’t suffer.”
            

“That’s fine,” I lied. “You said there was another one?”

            

“Yeah. That was something else. Doctor signed the death certificate. That bird sat up on the litter as we were carrying him downstairs. We haven’t got him back yet and that was two years ago come Labor Day.”

            

And that’s what I learned debriefing just one embalmer. Think of the stories I could pick up at a mortician’s convention. Who was the guy who insisted on being buried with a bell in his coffin just in case the occasion arose when he could ring it? Is that what Edgar was talking about when he wrote about “The bells. The bells, bells, bells”? Me? I want to be buried with a CB radio, and maybe a tuba.
John McAleer – Edgar Allan Poe Award-winning author of the Henry von Stray British crime classics. His book The Sifted Few: Boston’s Blue Blood Murders will be released in December.  www.henryvonstraymysteries.com

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John McAleer – Edgar Allan Poe Award-winning author of the Henry von Stray British crime classics. His book The Sifted Few: Boston’s Blue Blood Murders will be released in December.  www.henryvonstraymysteries.com