Holiday Gift Ideas For the Crime Writer in Your Life…

The holiday season is fully upon us now, and at this time of year, people often get stressed out as they worry about what to get for the various people on their shopping lists. Well, I’m here to help make your load lighter by suggesting some things you might consider for the crime fiction writer in your life. After all, most of us behave ourselves (erm – reasonably well, anyway) all year long. So we deserve to get more than coal!

 

So here are some….

 

Gift Ideas For the Mystery Novelist in Your Life

 

• A trip to the scenes of some famous crime novels and series. Your special mystery novelist will love a tour of Donna Leon’s Venice, the Baker Street tour of London, or the Wolfe Pack’s tour of Rex Stout’s New York. And what better way to really understand Fred Vargas’ Adamsberg series than a trip to France, starting with Paris?

 

• A Guided ‘Behind the Scenes’ Tour. Crime writers want to be accurate. So a chance to follow an FBI, RCMP, AFP or Met investigation would really be welcome. Oh, and any crime writer will tell you that a chance to listen in on ‘phone calls, hack computer accounts (especially of wealthy banking clients) or break into a suspect’s home might be both helpful and interesting. What? Illegal? Oh, all right! Moving on…

 

• Lessons in the Use of Weapons. Most crime writers are gentle souls at heart, and aren’t really accustomed to using weapons. So learning how to use specially-designed knives and firearms, concoct poisons, create and set off bombs and so on could only help make your special mystery novelist’s next work better. Watch list, you say? Picky, picky!!!

 

• A Brand New, Custom-Made Writing Room. Come on, mystery novelists. Wouldn’t you love to have someone in your life present you with your own private writing room? With a door that closes? And everything in the room designed to your specifications? You know you would! So folks, thrill the mystery novelist in your life with his or her specially-designed ‘writing haven.’ What’s in it for you? Your special crime writer will be out of your way so you can get on with your life while she or he disappears into a fog of fiction creation.

 

• Maid/Valet Service. That special crime fiction writer in your life cannot possibly craft award-winning plots if she or he is also going to the dry cleaner, paying bills, cooking, shopping and so on. Right? So support the mystery novelist in your life by arranging for a concierge/valet/maid to do all of those things. Just – erm –  prepare the maid or valet for muttered comments about plots to kill, mysterious trips to the police station ‘for research’ and so on. No need to worry the staff unnecessarily is there?

 

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll remove my tongue from my cheek. There, much better. Now, in all seriousness, here are some things you can do and give that will really be appreciated by the crime writer in your life:

 

 

• A Gift Card From an Office Supply Store. Yes, those places are irresistible to us writers. They really are. Many of us have already gotten letters from our banks forbidding us to go into them any more. That doesn’t stop us. So be an enabler; think ‘gift card.’

 

• A Gift Card From a Coffee Shop.  There’s nothing like an occasional trip to a coffee shop (preferably with WiFi) to get a writer’s creative juices flowing. And there are all sorts of opportunities there to ‘people watch,’ write, plan and oh, yeah, partake of the lifeblood of most of us: coffee or tea. So make your special writer smile: give her or him a coffee shop gift card. When your special writer becomes internationally famous, a plaque with your name on it may be placed in that shop as a reward. You never know.

 

• Snacks. Yes, I mean it. Writing makes you hungry. And it’s always nice to have a little treat to give you writing energy. So find out what the crime writer on your list likes best for a treat (like, um, chocolate-covered almonds – whoops! Did I say that out loud? Sorry!). Then give that writer an energy boost. You may get a character named after you – it could happen.

 

• Books.  That’s right. Books. The best writers also read. Voraciously. Writers learn from one another’s work. And there are lots of good books out there on the craft of writing. So find out who your special crime writer’s ‘top ten’ authors are. Get one of their releases. Find a good book on the craft of writing (Need ideas? Email me: (margotkinberg(at)gmail(dot)com). Trust me. The crime writer on your list will appreciate it!

 

• A Year’s Membership in a Professional Writing Organisation. Just about all of the crime writers I know are on budgets. But that doesn’t mean we don’t know the value of joining professional groups. There are dozens and dozens of choices of group. So find out which group the crime writer in your life belongs to or would like to join. Give a year’s membership. You may be allowed past the velvet rope when your special crime writer wins an international prize.

 

But of all of these things, the one thing that mystery novelists want more than anything else is……

 

• Your Support. How do you do that in a practical way? Here are a few ideas, and most of ‘em don’t cost much, if anything. Spread the word about the author on your list. Tell your friends. Ask your local library or bookstore to carry that person’s books. Use your social network presence if you have one to ‘talk up’ the writer in your life. Most of us do not like to ‘toot our own horns,’ but these days, promotion is a big part of getting one’s name ‘out there.’ So help out. You can also write online reviews of your special crime writer’s books. I can guarantee that your support will be very much appreciated. It doesn’t take much time, but it can make all the difference.

 
 

So there you have it. A few tongue-in-cheek and several not-at-all-tongue-in-cheek ideas. See? Don’t you feel less stressed already?  You’re welcome    Hey, fellow writers: anything you’ll like to add????

I’m Just Like You, Baby, I’m on the Hunt*

One of the things I love about the blogging community I’m privileged to be among is that I’m always getting inspired by things others say. For instance, an interesting comment from Sarah Ward at Crimepieces has got me thinking about the way crime fictional victims’ bodies are discovered. That can be a tricky business actually because in real life, most of us go about our daily business without poking into empty abandoned places where bodies might be discovered. So the crime fiction author has to create a scenario where the body (bodies) would be found in a believable way. One of the ways that happens (and this is where Sarah’s comment inspired me) is when pets do the discovering. Just a quick look at crime fiction and you’ll see what I mean.

As anyone who’s ever been owned by a dog knows, dogs need regular opportunities to go for walks. And most dogs can’t resist the opportunity to follow an interesting scent. Trust me. Some dogs are diggers and burrowers, too. So it makes sense that fictional dogs would play a big role in finding bodies. That’s what happens, for instance, in Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders. In that novel, Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings work with Scotland Yard and the local police to solve a set of murders that looks like the work of a serial killer. The second victim is twenty-three-year-old Elizabeth “Betty” Barnard, whose body is found on a beach near her home in Bexhill-on-Sea. Her body is discovered when Colonel Jerome takes his dog for an early morning walk. As you can guess, the dog follows an interesting scent that leads Jerome to the body. The only apparent links between Betty Bernard and the other victims are cryptic warnings that Poirot receives before each murder and the fact that an ABC railway guide is found near each body. Bit by bit, Poirot and Hastings discover who the murderer is and what the motive is, and no; it isn’t a case of a psychopathic killer. In a way that makes the murders even more chilling.

The real action in Martha Grimes’ The Anodyne Necklace begins when a stray dog who’s been mooching off the villagers of Littlebourne makes a grisly discovery: a human finger. When Augusta Craigie realises what the dog has, she contacts the police and it’s not long before Superintendent Richard Jury is sent to Littlebourne to find out where the rest of the body is and who the dead person is. As it turns out, the finger belongs to Cora Binns, who worked for a London temporary secretarial agency. Jury tells his friend amateur detective Melrose Plant about the case and Plant travels to Littlebourne to help find out why and by whom Cora Binns was murdered. Together, the two discover a connection between Binns’ death and a brutal attack on sixteen-year-old Katie O’Brien, also a resident of Littlebourne. They also discover that both of these incidences are related to a robbery that occurred in Littlebourne a year previously, and a death that followed that robbery.

In Margaret Truman’s Murder at the Kennedy Center, we meet Georgetown Law School professor Mackensie “Mac” Smith. He’s taking a late evening walk with his dog Rufus one night when Rufus discovers the body of Andrea Feldman, who’s been shot. He immediately calls the police, but it’s not long before Smith is a lot more deeply involved in the case then he thought he would be. Feldman was a staffer for U.S. Senator Ken Ewald, a very promising candidate for the U.S. presidency. The police soon discover that the gun used in the murder belonged to Ewald, so he becomes a suspect. So do the other members of his family, all of whom have motive. Smith has been a friend of the Ewald family for a long time, and when Ewald asks Smith for legal help, Smith agrees. Then, Ewald’s son Paul is charged with Feldman’s murder. Now, Smith has to unravel the complicated relationships between Feldman and the various members of the Ewald family. He also has to look into the rest of Feldman’s personal life and her professional life as well. When he does, Smith discovers that more than one person had a very good motive for wanting Feldman dead.

And then there’s the Snowball, the “office cat” in Fred Vargas’ Commissaire Adamsberg series (Thanks, Sarah, for reminding me of this ). In This Night’s Foul Work, Snowball shows that cats can be extremely effective trackers and can dig up things just as dogs can. Adamsberg and his team are faced with several cases that could be connected. Two drug dealers have been found with their throats cut. Their deaths bear the “calling card” of Claire Langevin, a district nurse who also happens to be a serial killer. Adamsberg had her put away two years earlier, but she’s recently escaped and might be mixed up with these deaths. And then there are the brutal killings of some Normandy stags, which might also be involved in this complex case. In the midst of all of this, Lieutenant Violette Retancourt goes off to follow some leads, and doesn’t return. At first, the Snowball seems to be the only one concerned about her, because she is the Snowball’s favourite human. After a while, the rest of the team also begins to wonder what’s happened to her and finally, the decision is made to let the Snowball track her. Sure enough, and in spite of some dire predications and comments about the Snowball’s lack of intelligence, the “office cat” leads the team to Retancourt, and we discover what’s happened to her and how that is connected to the other threads of this plot.

In Carola Dunn’s Black Ship, DCI Alec Fletcher and his wife, the Honourable Dasiy Dalrymple Fletcher, have inherited a house on the outskirts of 1925 London from Fletcher’s Great-Uncle William Walsall. The couple moves into the “fixer-upper” with their children and begin to settle in. Then, the family dog Nana discovers the half-buried body of an unknown man in the communal garden of their circle of homes. Daisy alerts the police, who begin an investigation. It turns out that the dead man is Michele Castellano, who, we learn, may have been involved in illegal smuggling of liquor to the United States where, during the 1920’s, the importation of alcohol was illegal. Things get very awkward when it also turns out that the Jessup family, with whom the Fletcher family has made friends, may be involved in the smuggling and may be connected with the murder. It’s not Daisy Dalrymple’s way to sit back while her husband does all the work of investigating, so she begins to ask questions and in the end, we find out who really killed Castellano and why.

There are other examples too of novels where the author lets dogs and cats do what they do naturally and discover things – including bodies. It’s only natural, I suppose .

 

Ps. By the way, the ‘photo is of one of the dogs that owns me. That’s Mr. Metoo, our half-Bassett “detective,” discovering something in those bushes. It wasn’t a body, though, in case you were wondering…

 

 

 

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s On the Hunt.