Bill's Best of 2015 - Most Interesting and Non-Fiction

In my first post of 2016 I set out my favourite fiction reads of 2015. I intended to make my next post my list of Bill’s Best Most Interesting and Non-Fiction of 2015. However, we are in Nuevo Vallarta at a lovely resort and I was distracted by the beach. I refuse to take my computer to the beach though I see electronic devices filtering their way to those lounging in the sun. There are still far more books than electronics on the beach which I consider a positive. Now to the picks.

BILL’S MOST INTERESTING

Most Interesting is my personal category for books I enjoyed and had something unusual about them but were not the best in fiction or non-fiction:

1.) The Ingenious Mr. Pyke by Henry Hemming – The easy winner is this work of non-fiction that I ruefully admit I thought was a work of fiction for over 100 pages. I could not believe all the twists and turns Geoffrey Pyke took in his life were not fictional.

He infiltrated Germany at the start of WW I as a journalist and made a dramatic escape from an internment camp. He made and lost a fortune as a commodities trader in copper. He established an elementary school that actually studied the students.

Yet what was most amazing was his WW II concept of a giant aircraft carrier made of frozen wood pulp and water – a substance called pykrete. The wildly imaginative concept was actually possible.

2.) The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley – Flavia de Luce is my favourite new character. The precocious 11 year old scientist and sleuth is both her age and well beyond her age.

While many 11 year olds think about poisons few have made a study of them and actually concocted them in a personal family lab.

When a stranger expires before Flavia in the family garden she is not satisfied to just have the police investigate the murder. She applies her scientific curiosity to the problem.

3.) Last of the Independents by Sam Wiebe – It has been awhile since I found a new hardboiled detective, Michael Drayton, I have enjoyed. At the same time how many private investigators live with their grandmother.

I found it a nice touch that he is aided by the Hastings Street Irregulars. (His office is on Hastings Street in Vancouver.)

His main investigation in the book is with regard to the sexual violation of corpses at a funeral home. I confidently state I have not read of another such investigation. It is reflection of Wiebe’s talent that he makes the investigation interesting but does not sensationalize the topic.

NON-FICTION

My choices are:

1.) Tough Crimes edited by C.D. Evans and Lorene Shyba – This book was irresistible to me as it featured stories from well-known Canadian criminal lawyers, prosecutors and defence counsel, about a memorable trial in which they appeared as counsel. Each lawyer was asked to pick a trial that was “perplexing or disquieting, had weird or surprising turns, or presented personal and ethical issues”.

What is special is that the lawyers set out how they felt and reacted during these trials. Readers gain understanding of what is like as a lawyer to go through the stresses of a major trial.

The lawyers in this book are my contemporaries at the bar in Canada and I know two of the contributors.

Beyond reading the book because of the excellent stories I recommend the book to all crime fiction writers who will include a lawyer in their work because they can learn how real life lawyers do their work.

2.) 41 by George W. Bush – The 43rd President of the U.S. writes an affectionate, not fawning, biography of his father, the 41^st President of America.

George Bush is an unusual combination of Northeastern patrician and Texan oil man. His family was distinguished, members of American aristocracy, and George had an easy future on Wall Street. Instead, he became successful in the oil business and then turned to politics becoming president in 1988.

He is a good man who has great integrity. He has been married to Barbara for over 70 years which I also believes reflects his character.

It is a good biography.

Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham

In my previous post I discussed Sebastian Rudd, the star (I use the word deliberately) lawyer of The Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham. This post will actually discuss some of the cases in the book.

In the book’s opening case Rudd is defending a young man charged with murdering a pair of young girls in a small town some distance from his home city. Rudd is furious. The police have manufactured evidence, the prosecutor is exaggerating the evidence and the judge is not restraining the legal assault upon his 18 year old client.

While not material to the defence Rudd is convinced his client is actually innocent. He is being railroaded to appease a frightened and vengeful community.

A series of alibi witnesses are credible in their evidence but ignored because of their lifestyles on the fringe of society. Thwarted at every turn Rudd desperately knows he must solve the murders to save his client.

Fortunately, there is a realistic alternative. Defence counsel dream of having a believable option other than the accused. Grisham, in Rogue Lawyer, goes further than a different plausible suspect. Rudd finds the evidence that proves his client did not commit the crime.

In defending such a pariah it is probable that Rudd had to actually solve the crime to save the client. I thought of the real life Saskatchewan case of David Milgaard convicting of murdering a nurse while he was still a teenager. While evidence piled up that cast doubt about the verdict it was not until DNA evidence identified the actual killer that Milgaard was released. He spent 22 years in jail.

The only difference between Grisham’s fictional character and Milgaard is that Grisham’s accused would have been dead long before 22 years as he was facing the death penalty in the trial.

Unlike most legal mysteries Grisham goes through several cases with Rudd during the course of the book. Dealing with multiple files is what real life lawyers experience. No lawyer I know handles a case at a time as in most legal mysteries. While a lawyer may concentrate on a case the lawyer is constantly dealing with dozens of other files.

Few books talk about cash flow and overhead. In Rogue Lawyer there is a constant discussion of money as there is in real life legal practice. Rudd is daily making sure he has enough money coming in to meet his obligations. It was somewhat unreal how much money he is willing to put into defending people who have no ability to even pay expenses. Large firms may do expensive pro bono defences but for a solo practitioner it would be reckless to spend the amounts Rudd does on defending those who cannot afford him.

Grisham, as with Michael Connelly, has a gift for hooking the reader. The second story is titled the Boom Boom Room. Rudd explains the name:

I follow two guards dressed in full military gear through a maze and come to the Boom Boom Room. It is nothing more than a large holding cell where the condemned is placed precisely five hours before his big moment. There, he waits with his lawyer, spiritual adviser and maybe some family. Full contact is allowed, and there can be some pretty sad moments when Momma arrives for the final hug. The last meal is served precisely two hours before the final walk, and after that only the lawyer can hang around.

In a riveting story he is with his mobster client, Link Scanlon, in the Boom Boom Room on the evening Link is about to be executed. In an incredibly compelling saga bombs start going off around the state as the moment for execution nears. I raced through the chapter as fast as I could read, even faster.

The title of the chapter immediately brought to mind a boom boom room in real life Saskatchewan. It involved a rec room in a house in Prince Albert, a gay judge, a criminal defence lawyer and young Indian men from northern Saskatchewan. It is not hard to determine it was a different boom boom room. Maybe another day I will discuss the Saskatchewan boom boom room.

Some of the cases are more exaggerated than customary in a Grisham book but they are fascinating. As well, some of the cases such as the first in the book discussed above, have a real life equivalent.

Rudd is not a saint. He is unethical at times which troubled me. What is left of a legal system if all involved are unethical.

Grisham turned his imagination loose with Sebastian Rudd. There are moral issues addressed in the book but the drama of the narrative will only let you reflect upon the injustices of the American criminal justice system after you have finished the book. I recommend you read the book before it appears on the big screen. It is No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list  and I expect will be there for many weeks in 2016.

****

Grisham, John – (2000) - The Brethren; (2001) - A Painted House; (2002) - The Summons; (2003) - The King of Torts; (2004) - The Last Juror; (2005) - The Runaway Jury; (2005) - The Broker; (2008) - The Appeal; (2009) - The Associate; (2011) - The Confession; (2011) - The Litigators; (2012) - "G" is for John Grisham - Part I and Part II; (2013) - The Racketeer; (2013) - Grisham's Lawyers; (2013) - Analyzing Grisham's Lawyers; (2013) - Sycamore Row; (2014) - Gray Mountain and Gray Mountain and Real Life Legal Aid; (2015) - Sebastian Rudd; Probably hardcover

Sebastian Rudd in Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham

Sebastian Rudd in Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham – I am confident I have just read the next Grisham book to be made into a Hollywood feature film. Sebastian Rudd is a larger than life criminal lawyer swashbuckling his way through the criminal and occasionally civil courts of an unnamed 1,000,000 inhabitant mid-America city.

Rudd is fearless. He challenges the police, opposing counsel, witnesses, judges and clients. Anyone looking for a fight he will make it a brawl.

He despises the tactics and actions of overly aggressive and unethical district attorneys and police.

Rudd has a brutally wicked wit that he rarely restrains in and out of court.

Rudd is as far from the grey suit clad lawyers occupying the towers of corporate law in Manhattan as possible in America.

He is the second American fictional lawyer to function from a rolling office. Where Michael Connelly’s lawyer, Mickey Haller, practises criminal law in Los Angeles from the back seat of a Lincoln it is a custom equipped van for Rudd. While Haller chose mobility Rudd was forced out of his office by a firebomb.

Rudd has a compelling driver in Partner, a physically imposing black man who, after being successfully defended by Rudd, has taken on the challenge of protecting and assisting the hyper-aggressive defence counsel.

Rudd has a monastic home life in a high rise tower. It is harder for a disgruntled _______ (pick any of the above he has confronted) to attack him in such a residence.

To while away the sleepless hours he regularly endures Rudd has a full size pool table occupying his den / living room and plays games against himself.

While he has little time in his hectic life for the ladies he is the father of a 7 year old boy, Sketcher, who is surprisingly normal despite his father’s chaotic life and his mother’s tumultuous lesbian relationship.

Rudd is really the type of daring courtroom lawyer all litigators wish we could be if we did not care about consequences. He is dancing on the edge every day.

And, by the way, he is a part owner of an upcoming professional cage fighter looking to reach the upper echelons of mixed martial arts. Rudd wears a brilliant yellow jacket and cap as one of the fighter’s handlers.

What leading male actor in Hollywood would not leap at the opportunity to play Rudd in the movies? Grisham thinks Rogue Lawyer and Rudd would be better suited to being a T.V. series. It has been a decade since one of his books has become a movie. Grisham, in a CBS interview, provided encouraging news that he hopes Rudd will return in future books as he has lots of adventures to tell readers.

My next post will actually discuss the type of cases undertaken by Rudd.

Bill's Best of 2015 Fiction

The start of a new year brings to me to a pair of my happiest posts of the year as I put up Bill’s Best of Fiction, Non-Fiction and Most Interesting. Those posts involve reviewing all my posts for the previous year. The process always brings back good reading memories. In 2015 I read 45 books which is below my annual goal of a book per week. The time I spent on newspapers and facebook took time away from reading last year. I am going to read hard in 2016 to get back to a weekly book.

Of the works of fiction I read my favourites were:

1.) The Blackhouse, The Lewis Man and The Chessmen by Peter May are the Best of 2015. It is the second time I have had a trilogy featured as Best. In 2009 it was the first two books in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire. I justify choosing a trilogy as the Best book of the year as my personal right to define the terms of my awards. As well they are one long story in three parts.

May’s Hebridian trilogy took me deeply into a part of Scotland that I had not been reading about for over 30 years when I read Lillian Beckwith’s autobiographical works of fiction of her life in the Hebrides.

In reading May’s books I felt the bite of the wind off the Atlantic, saw the dazzlingly blue sky swept clear of clouds and felt the unique texture of walking in peat bogs. If the Hebrides were even 2,500 km instead of 7,500 km away from me I would be sure to visit them.

May, in Fionnlagh (Finn) McLeod, has created a character as vivid and compelling as any author in recent memory. The former Edinburgh police officer has his personal troubles but they do not leave him a wreck of a man. After 20 years he returns to the Isle of Lewis and solves a trio of murders.

I have never accepted Thomas Wolfe’s dictum that you can’t go home again. You cannot go back to the same home but you can go home. The returnee will still have profound connections with the past.

Best of all the murders in the trilogy are all related to life on the island, its geography and its history. They could not have been written in a different setting.

2.) Killing Pilgrim by Arlen Mattich was a finalist for the 2015 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Fiction novel in Canada. It did not win the Award though in my analysis of the shortlist I thought it was the best and deserved to win the Award. Maybe being 2^nd on Bill’s Best of 2015 Fiction will be a modest recompense.

The book opens with the assassination of Swedish Prime Minister, Olof Palme, by a Yugoslavian secret service agent. I had never appreciated the number of theories that exist on who killed Palme until I did some research after finishing the book. I do not think the real life killer was a member of Yugoslavia’s intelligence agency but Mattich has put together a compelling story.

Killing Pilgrim is the second book in a series with Marko della Torre, a member of the Yugoslavian secret service, who is now coping with the breakup of the country and his role as a Croatian.

The book also features a dangerous American woman agent who destroys gender lines in her lack of morality and affinity for violence.

3.) The Secret of Magic by Deborah Johnson ties for third this year. In mid-year if I had been asked what I expected to be the great legal mystery of the year set in the American South I would have said without hesitation Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee. Instead, The Secret of Magic was by far the better book.

Regina Mary Robichard, a brand new Negro New York lawyer, is sent by Thurgood Marshall to rural Mississippi in 1946 to investigate the death of Lt. Joe Howard Wilson. Being a war hero could not save Joe Howard from being brutally beaten and killed because he did not keep his place in southern society as he returned from the war.

In Mississippi Ms. Robichard stays in the guesthouse of fabled children’s author, Mary Pickett Calhoun, who is a staple of local society. Mary Pickett wants to do what is right but it is hard in the Deep South of that era.

3.) Joining The Secret of Magic in third position is Another Margaret by Janice MacDonald. It is the second of two books written by Canadians on this year’s Best of Fiction list.

Another Margaret is an excellent academic mystery but it became a Best of the year book for two reasons.

With the lead character, Randy (Miranda) Craig, an Alberta university professor of English the book is filled with references to Canadian literary figures and their works. I enjoyed seeing how many I recognized.

Most important MacDonald had Craig write about the life and novels written by Margaret Ahlers, an Alberta English professor, who was reclusive to the extreme.

To have Craig study the literary work at a university level meant MacDonald created detailed plot lines for five additional books within Another Margaret.

Had the ending been as good as the rest of the book Another Margaret would have been my choice for Best of 2015 Fiction.

I had a good year or reading and hope your year went as well. Happy New Year for 2016!

The Women of Skawa Island by Anthony Bidulka

The Women of Skawa Island by Anthony Bidulka – The second Adam Saint thriller opens with an apocalyptic scene. A ship in the south Pacific stops near a small island. The passengers are told a cataclysmic event is threatening all the continents of the earth. A group of 112 men and women are transported to the deserted island and left there. Ten years later a yacht visits the island snd a gay couple go ashore to frolic on the beach. They meet 3 young women and a young boy who ask the men to contact the CRDA (Canadian Recovery Disaster Agency).

The CRDA is a part of IIA (International Intelligence Agency) in Canada. The message comes as a shock to Maryann Knoble, head of the Canadian IIA. There is no record within the organization of an operation being carried out by the CRDA on the remote island but the CRDA is the owner of the island. Knoble’s predecessor, Sergiusz Belar, purchased the island before succumbing to early onset Alzheimer’s.

She visits Belar in a nursing home but his damaged mind can offer no more than the cryptic phrase “Rex save Julia”.

While intensely frustrated at her inability to find out what has happened at the island Knoble realizes she cannot leave the call for help unanswered.
 

Unsure she can trust any active CRDA agent to undertake the task she reaches out to Adam Saint living on his father’s farm near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. When he turns down her request to take on the assignment she entices him to come to Toronto by telling him there may actually be a cure for the terminal brain cancer with which he was diagnosed in the first book of the series. (Knoble continues to cruelly conceal from Saint that he is not suffering from any illness.)

Alexandra, his lovely, though crude and emotionally unstable sister, accompanies him to Toronto.

Saint receives a treatment as promised by Knoble and then leaves with Alexandra for the South Pacific. They travel to Tubuai, another small island, about 50 km from Skawa. It is the nearest inhabitated island to Skawa.

With the aid of a colouful Australian they fly to Skawa where they soon encounter the women and child and arrange for them to be returned to Tubuai.

As they explore Alexandra and Saint determine life on Skawa over the previous 10 years has been horrific. I thought of Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

Saint starts pulling at threads of information. He calls upon the computer skills of his nephew, Anatole, to aid him in the investigation.

In the first book of the series, When the Saints Go Marching In, I had difficulty with disbelief. With The Women of Skawa Island, while ultimately the story came together I found myself really struggling to suspend enough disbelief. In the book there is no contact with the 112 people left on the island for 10 years. The island is a decent size and but 50 km from Tubuai. To think there was no contact was very difficult for me. It is much harder to have a deserted island story set in the 21^st century than it was for books set centuries ago as in Robinson Crusoe or Swiss Family Robinson.

After brief appearances at the beginning of the book and their rescue the women of Skawa island do not become actual characters until approximately 200 pages into the book. I wish they had been given a greater role earlier.

 

I was glad to see the members of Saint's family playing an important part in the story. They are intriguing characters.

 

As with all the works of fiction Anthony has written he works into the plot stops in different parts of the world. As a disaster recovery agent Saint has good reason to be familiar with locations as diverse as Estonia and New Orleans.

 

The whole premise of the recovery disaster agent remains intriguing. They travel the world helping citizens of their respective countries in disaster situations. I wish Saint would undertake such a rescue operation in the next book of the series.

 

At this time I regret to say Adam Saint has not captured my reading enthusiasm as Russell Quant engaged me. I think The Women of Skawa Island is the weakest of the books Anthony has written.

****

Adam Saint series - (2013) - When the Saints Go Marching In 

Merry Christmas!!

Tracking Santa!

Merry Christmas! Sharon and I are in Calgary with our sons, Jonathan and Michael. It was a long day yesterday as I worked during the morning and we then drove 815 km to Calgary during the afternoon and early evening. For most of the way we listened to Street Legal - The Betrayal by William Deverell.

It is a special Christmas for Jonathan as he married Lauren on November 14.

We are getting ready to go to Midnight Mass and will be having turkey supper tomorrow evening.

The above photo is from NORAD and here is a link to a story on how NORAD has been tracking Santa since 1955 - http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/norad-tracks-santa-1.3361426

Best wishes to all!!!

Deadly Dunes by E. Michael Helms

42. – 839.) Deadly Dunes by E. Michael Helms – MacArthur McLellan, inevitably known as Mac, is a retired Marine First Sergeant  in his 40’s living in a travel trailer on the “Forgotten Coast” of Florida’s panhandle. To fill his retirement Mac has become a private investigator. He is a trim 190 pounds and 6’2”.

Readers of crime fiction will keep thinking of Travis McGee, a Floridian sleuth of a genearation ago, when reading about Mac. Travis was also a physically imposing former soldier living in a form of trailer, the famed Busted Flush houseboat, while taking his retirement in chunks and pursuing difficult cases. Add that each loves fishing and has a strong moral code and there is a strong likeness.

They differ in family and personal relationships. Mac has twin children in university while Travis had no known children for almost the entire series. Mac has a serious stable relationship with Kate Bell while Travis was never able to sustain a relationship.

The greatest contrast is in intellect. Travis is a philosopher sharing his thoughts through the books. He thinks deeply and provides insights into life. Mac’s limits are illustrated by his lack of knowledge of Fernando de Soto. Where Mac had no cluse about the 16^th Century explorer of Florida I am sure Travis would have known a fair bit about de Soto.

In the opening of Deadly Dunes, the third book in the series, Mac meets with Jessie Lofton to discuss the death of her brother, Jake Loften. Killed by a bullet to his right temple the police investigation concluded that he committed suicide. Beyond the forensic evidence supporting a self-inflicted wound Jake’s marriage had recently broken up and there are major psychological issues in his past.

Jessie is convinced it is murder not suicide. Jake, an archealogist, had just started upon a personal project to prove a band of de Soto’s men had spent time on what is now known as Five Mile Island. With some skepticism Mac agrees to investigate Jake’s death.

He is stunned that same evening to learn Jessie is dead. A tire on her new Mustang has exploded and she lost control of the car.

Though he has no paying client Mac is determined to find out what happened to Jake and Jessie. He believes they were murdered.

A half million dollar insurance policy payable to Jake’s separated wife, Laurel, offers a motive for the non-grieving widow. She is already spending the proceeds.

While keeping an eye on Laurel he looks to what is happening on Five Mile Island where Jake had started looking for proof of the Spanish explorers.

In a departure from virtually every other fictional private investigator he takes on an assignment to shadow a philandering husband to earn some money while carrying on his unpaid murder investigation. It had always seemed unbelievable to me how private investigators in crime fiction disdain divorce work when you know it is a staple of the industry.

Mac gradually penetrates the deceit around the deaths of Jake and Jessie.

The book had one of my least favourite solutions. Characters kept dying until basically only the killer was left as a suspect.

It was interesting how the story became more unpredictable as the story progressed. Still Deadly Dunes was an average mystery. It is not bad but it is definitely not great. I am doubtful I will read another in the series. Mac is not going to succeed Travis McGee as a great Florida crime fiction character.

An Exchange of Letters with Max Everhart

After reading Ed, Not Eddie by Max Everhart I wrote a letter with some questions to the author. I appreciate his prompt letter in response. Our exchange of letters is below.

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Dear Max:

I enjoyed reading Ed, Not Eddie and will be posting a review tonight or tomorrow.

Occasionally for my blog I like to ask a few questions of an author but I have come to prefer asking them during a letter rather than as a series of questions.

I love baseball. The joy of the game has kept me playing ball for 55 years. My family has been playing ball in Saskatchewan for over 90 years.

In each of the Eli Sharpe mysteries there are moments when Eli returns to his ball playing days for memories of his performance or lack of performance in games yet the books have not delved into the game experiences of the individual ball players featured in your books.

Your themes have been taken from the business of baseball – the impact of big contracts on young players in Go Go Gato, the value and importance of baseballs from significant major league moments in Split to Splinter and the professional prospects of a talented woman pitcher in Ed, Not Eddie.

There is a moment of on field action with Ed but less than an inning. I would have been very interested to see how you would have described her play in several games and reactions to the game action.

I thought The Art of Hitting by Chad Harbach was a great book. Chad combined the joys and challenges of playing the game with the issues of life off the diamond.

I would be interested in knowing why you have not given actual game action a significant  role in your series.

I would further ask if you are contemplating the addition of game action to future books in the series.

I was intrigued, more appalled, by the religious based protesters objecting to Ed becoming a professional ballplayer.

Do you think such a protest would happen in real life in America? I would have thought with the number of young women in every state at university on sports scholarships and other women playing professional sports it would not be an issue even in the southern states.

In Saskatchewan there would not be such a protest.

In addition to playing ball I am an inductee as a builder in the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame and currently First Vice-President.

Through the Hall I was able to meet the 24 women from Saskatchewan who played in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1940’s and 1950’s. I admired their determination to be professional ballplayers.

The women of that league were accomplished players and drew good crowds to their games. I have often wondered where women’s ball would be in the sports world if the league had continued.

About 20 years ago the Hall held a special induction dinner to induct all of the women from Saskatchewan who played in AAGPBL into our Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame.

Alison Gordon wrote a fine mystery, Prairie Hardball, focused on and around the real life banquet.

Have any of your books been inspired by a real life event?

If you have time to reply I would be glad to post it with this letter.

Best wishes.
Bill Selnes

****

Dear Bill:

Cheers for reading and reviewing Ed, Not Eddie. I’m delighted you enjoyed the book.

When I originally began writing this series, I envisioned the stories moving very quickly, so describing actual game action was not something I felt I could (or should) include.  Too, while I love baseball and could discuss—at great length—the endless subtleties and nuisances of the game, I wanted (and want) the novels to appeal to more than just baseball fans. The Art of Fielding is also one of my favorite novels, and there are some wonderful and poetic descriptions of baseball, but, alas, that book is not about baseball—and neither are my Eli Sharpe books. All that said, now that I’ve established Sharpe’s character in the first three novels, I feel like I’m free to delve into his past and, possibly, show him in action. We’ll see. These books are homages to the classic P.I. stories I began reading and loving in graduate school. Chandler. MacDonald. Crumley. Cain. The flawed characters, especially Sharpe, and the keep-em-guessing plots are what's most important to me. But really, as long as readers enjoy them, I'm a happy camper.

As for the protests in Ed, Not Eddie. . .regrettably, yes, they could happen here in America, particularly the Deep South where this novel is set. I’m not suggesting that all southern states and cities would have a similar reaction to a star female athlete, but having lived in the south my whole life (North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama, namely), I can assure you that there are some unenlightened people who would feel strongly about a woman playing a so-called man’s game.  Anyway, in the fictitious town of Cook, South Carolina, where the story is set, the protests are real, and important to the plot.

I don’t draw on real life events for plots, but I definitely draw on real places. Cook, South Carolina, for example, is a reworked and hyperbolic version of Hartsville, South Carolina, where I live with my wife and son. I drew on a real life place again in a forthcoming novel of mine entitled Alphabet Land. That one is set in a corrupt, crime-ridden neighborhood where all the streets are named after letters. There is a similar place in a town near where I live, except it is called Alphabet Hill. I've been warned by a friend of mine to never go down there. . .ever.

The Eli Sharpe series is, more or less, just wish fulfillment. When I was a kid, I wanted to either be a professional baseball player or a private eye. Then, during college, I discovered hard-boiled detective stories and I loved writing, so I just tossed all those ingredients into a pot, simmered them for a while, and Go Go Gato was what I came up with. Oh, and I, like Eli Sharpe, am obsessed with Richard Nixon.

Thanks.
Max

****

Everhart, Max - (2014) - Go Go Gato; (2015) - Split to Splinters and How Much is a Baseball Worth?; (2015) - Ed, Not Eddie