Chapters Peterborough Meet and Greet / Book Signing

Attention crime / thriller / suspense fiction readers in Peterborough! I’ll be at Chapters Peterborough on Saturday September 20 (11 AM – 3 PM) for a Meet and Greet and book signing. I’ll be signing copies of my two crime thriller novels, A Case Against the Clock and The Ghosts of Willow Beach. For each copy of A Case Against the Clock sold, I’ll be donating $1.00 (CA) to ALS Canada.  

Fun Fact:  A Case Against the Clock contains a Peterborough connection to the plot.  

 

I’m thrilled to announce the launch of my second crime thriller novel, The Ghosts of Willow Beach. It’s a darkly disturbing story about a grisly discovery made inside a dead man’s basement, which prompts an investigation led by homicide detective Dieter Gorman. Shocking revelations about key suspects will expose a decades-long mystery and forever alter Gorman’s perceptions of good and evil. 

A special thank you to Jaret Fattori, Emma Fattori, (the late) Rod Urquhart, Amy McIntyre, Anna Di Meglio, Kathy MacLellan, Darryl Oreskovich, Diane Brousseau and Sigrid Macdonald for their professional assistance, and to the many friends, family members and fellow authors who have provided support, encouragement and inspiration.

The Ghosts of Willow Beach is available as an e-Book and a paperback on Amazon. Stay tuned for news about upcoming book signings in the spring and summer of 2025.

Click Here To Order

I'm excited to announce that my new crime thriller novel, The Ghosts of Willow Beach, is scheduled to be released on Mardch 1, 2025. The book will be available as a Kindle Edition and as a paperback, on Amazon. The Kindle editon is currently available on pre-order at the link below. 

Here's a brief plot summary:

A small fishing boat with two men aboard washes ashore in the sleepy community of Willow Beach. One man doesn’t speak, and the second man – a reclusive scrap dealer – is dead. In conducting his investigation, Homicide Detective Dieter Gorman makes a grizzly discovery at the dead man’s home. In the basement, he’s confronted with a scene of unimaginable horror.

Gorman is drawn into a darkly disturbing case that is impeded by a suspect who is unable to communicate, and by a retired newspaper reporter who might hold important clues but who suffers from Alzheimer disease. In his search for answers, Gorman relies on his savvy street smarts and on LSD, a potent hallucinogenic which has helped him in prior investigations.

Will Gorman’s investigative skills and acid tripping be enough to solve the biggest case of his career? Whatever the final outcome, shocking revelations about key suspects will expose a decades-long mystery and forever alter Gorman’s perceptions of good and evil.

Here is the link to pre-order: Click Here 

 

Hiaasen's Tourist Season Is Satire at its Best

Carl Hiaasen’s Tourist Season is a flat-out hoot of a novel that delivers all you’d expect from one of America’s wittiest novelists. The story involves a zany but engaging plot, a crew of outrageous characters, biting satire, hilarious dialogue and a sprinkling of social commentary. Published in 1986, in the pre-internet, pre-smartphone era, Tourist Season begins with several bizarre and seemingly unrelated deaths in Miami, Florida. A former reporter turned private eye, Brian Keyes, suspects that these deaths are more than random. His investigation leads him to the Miami Sun, and eventually to a group of reactionaries hell bent on fomenting enough fear and panic to drive tourists (and future economic development) out of the Sunshine State. This ragtag group is led by a popular (and deranged) Sun columnist and includes a former pro football player, an ex-Cuban militant and an indigenous entrepreneur with a score to settle. From the opening scene when a visiting Shriner goes missing to the final pages where a coral isle is about to be blown to smithereens, Tourist Season is a fun, lively romp that will keep readers entertained and laughing all the way.

I, The Jury - Sheer Escapist Fun

"I hate too hard and shoot too fast.” Mickey Spillane, I, The Jury

First published in 1947, I, The Jury by Mickey Spillane introduced a private detective named Mike Hammer. Hammer, who appeared in twenty-two novels and short stories, and in numerous films and TV series, embodies the classic elements of a noir private eye: he’s equal parts charming, cynical, tough guy, hard drinking, and intolerant of anyone who gets in his way. He’s like a one-man wrecking ball, pursuing leads and hunches with pit bull determination in an effort to ferret out the truth. In I, The Jury, a close friend and war buddy of Hammer’s, Jack Williams, is murdered, and suffers a particularly cruel and painful end. Hammer vows to avenge his friend’s death by meting out his own form of justice. As the story unfolds, and suspects are mysteriously killed, Hammer finds himself falling in love with a beautiful psychiatrist named Charlotte who might hold clues about Williams’s murder. There is a whiff of cheesiness about this novel, but it’s quality cheese nonetheless. Spillane’s writing is sparse, gritty, fast-paced and devoid of sentimentality or pretensions of reality, but in terms of sheer fun and escapism, I, The Jury delivers a one-two punch of reading pleasure. 

Crime Thriller Novel, A Case Against the Clock, Is Now Available!

 I’m delighted  to announce the launch of my debut novel, A Case Against the Clock. It’s a thriller about a criminal profiler, Reg Battie, who has been retained by police to help identify the person responsible for three vicious murders. But, Reg has a challenge – he’s battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive and fatal neuromuscular disease.

 A special thank you to the many friends, family members and colleagues for their support and feedback in helping to bring this novel to life.

A Case Against the Clock is available from Amazon as an eBook and as a print-on-demand paperback. See link below. For every book sold, I’ll be donating $1.00 (CAD) to ALS Canada.

Click Here To Order 

 

A Case Against the Clock Set for February 26, 2024 Release

I’m excited to announce the upcoming launch of my debut novel, A Case Against The Clock. It’s a thriller about a criminal profiler, Reg Battie, who has been retained by police to help identify the person responsible for three vicious murders. But, Reg has a challenge – he’s battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive and fatal neuromuscular disease.

On the book’s launch date, February 26, 2024, A Case Against The Clock will be available from Amazon as an eBook and as a print-on-demand paperback. I’ll be donating $1.00 (CAD) for every book sold to ALS Canada. More book launch details to follow in February.  #als #alscanada #crimefiction #detectivefiction #author

The Maltese Falcon is as hardboiled as it gets

If there is a such a thing as a perfectly-written crime novel, you'd be hard pressed to find a more worthy recipient than The Maltese Falcon. More than eight decades after its original release, in 1930, the book remains a true classic in the genre of hardboiled crime fiction.

Written by Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon is a well-plotted, well-written detective story that has been enjoyed by generations of readers, and inspired generations of writers as well. The book has been adapted twice for the big screen, most notably a 1941 film noir, starring Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre. It has spawned several TV parodies as well.

There are so many aspects of The Maltese Falcon that make this a delightful read. The precise use of language, the clever plotting, the subtle humour, the dingy San Francisco streets of the '20s and the lowly band of characters all make this a delightful and entertaining story, which stays with you long after you've finished reading it.

The main protagonist is Sam Spade, a cynical, cigarette-rolling private detective whose work partner, Miles Archer, has just been murdered. Some believe that Sam might have had a hand in Archer's death because of his affair with Archer's wife, Iva. The police question Spade about his potential involvement in the murder and believe him to be a suspect.

The death of Spade's partner triggers a series of events involving an amusing cast of characters, some of whom are intent on obtaining a rare and priceless figurine/bird. Among those wanting to find this bird are Brigid O'Shaughnessy, an attractive and duplicitous blond who tries to win the affections of Spade; and Casper Gutman, a heavy-set and charismatic art collector who has been trying to acquire the bird for 17 years.

Readers must remember that Hammett wrote this novel in the 1920s, when social attitudes about gender equality were much different than they are today. In The Maltese Falcon, Spade views women as little more than sex objects, and his actions towards them are mistrustful and misogynistic, as illustrated in this scene in which O'Shaughnessy is literally throwing herself at Spade:

Their faces were a few inches apart. Spade took her face between his hands and he kissed her mouth roughly and contemptuously. Then he sat back and said: 'I'll think it over." His face was hard and furious.

At many times while reading The Maltese Falcon, I felt myself cringe at scenes like this one. I know Hammett was writing for a different audience, but that doesn't make Spades' demeaning attitudes and actions towards women any more palatable. Indeed, they don't call this hard-boiled fiction for nothing.

When it comes to describing his characters, Hammett pulls no punches and has no qualms about calling a spade a spade (pun intended). Here is the author's no-holds-barred description of Gutman when we first meet this character:

The fat man was flabbily fat with bulbous pink cheeks and lips and chins and neck, with a great soft egg of a belly that was all his torso, and pendant cones for arms and legs. As he advanced to meet Spade all his bulbs rose and shook and fell separately with each step, in the manner of clustered soap-bubbles not yet released from the pipe through which they had been blown.

Hammett rarely misses an opportunity to call attention to Gutman's obesity, frequently referring to him as "the fat man." In Hammett's hands, such descriptions serve both as comic relief and the advancement of plot. Gutman remains a sly and calculating character in appearance, mannerisms and speech, and you know that he'll say and do anything to win the bird. That's part of what makes him so likeable and endearing.

The story advances with a steady and sometimes quickened pace, and with each chapter, readers feel closer to discovering the true motivations of the characters and the mystery of the rare figurine. Hammett does an exceptional job tossing all of the plot twists into the air, juggling them for our amusement, and making sense of them at the end.

There is a reason why The Maltese Falcon is still deemed such a pioneering work of fiction, decades after its original publication. For those who haven't had read it, you're missing a unique reading experience. 

Past and present collide in The Lighthouse by P.D. James

The Lighthouse

A novel by P.D. James

Published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2005

On a privately-owned island off the coast of Cornwall, England, a man's body is discovered hanging from a lighthouse railing. Was it murder? A suicide? An accident? That's what Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team at New Scotland Yard must determine in this slow-paced and carefully-plotted crime novel by P.D. James.

As a straight-up whodunnit, The Lighthouse is a solid work of fiction by one of the world's renowned crime novelists. James (1920 - 2014) methodically builds suspense and moves the action forward with studied calmness and surgical-like precision.

At first glance, Combe Island appears haunting and mysterious, as Dalgliesh and his colleagues arrive by helicopter to investigate the death of Nathan Oliver, a popular novelist and infrequent resident of the island who has come here for rest and relaxation. James writes:

"The middle of the island was a multicoloured scrubland with clutches of bushes and a few copses of spindly trees crossed by track so faint that they looked like the spoor of animals. The island did indeed look inviolate; no beaches, no receding lace of foam. The cliffs were taller and more impressive in the north-west where a spur of jagged rocks running out to the sea like broken teeth rose from a turmoil of crashing waves."

The island serves as a retreat for people who want a break from the pressures of everyday life. But the island also has a murky past, and as the story unfolds, James reveals the various histories and relationships among the main players (inhabitants and visitors alike), dropping clues and sprinkling details in a gradual building of suspense. It's up to Dalgliesh to discover how the island's history connects with the death of Nathan Oliver.

As with all good crime fiction, James introduces several characters who serve as possible suspects. There's bad blood between Oliver and a prominent animal researcher (Mark Yelland), who happens to be visiting the island when Oliver's death occurs; there's the boyfriend of Oliver's daughter whose life would be happier with Oliver out of the picture; and a shadowy figure named Jago, a resident boatman who bears a decades-long grievance involving Oliver's father.

The story unfolds with systematic thoroughness. But Dalgliesh's ability to lead the investigation is compromised when he is suddenly sidelined with a serious illness, and so the role of lead detective falls to his young colleague, Detective Inspector Kate Miskin. Can Miskin overcome her own fears and insecurities and solve the case before the local authorities are called in? The decisions she makes now will have a bearing on her career with Scotland Yard. Miskin and her colleague, Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith race against the clock for answers before the island guests start leaving and outside help steps in.

James builds the story to a fairly satisfying conclusion, although I was somewhat surprised at how abruptly the disparate pieces of this mystery are tidily pieced together within a few paragraphs. I haven't read enough P. D. James to know if this kind rapid-fire resolution is consistent in her fiction.

Nonetheless, the writing, the characterization, the plot twists and the slow deliberate pacing of The Lighthouse made for a satisfying read, and together these ingredients have whetted my appetite for more of P. D. James's fiction featuring Adam Dalgliesh.