Crime Beat

Stray doppies

First up, there’ve been some changes at Crime Beat as the super sleuths will have noticed. For starters co-founder and opening blogger Barbara Erasmus has decided enough is enough. Almost three years ago, July 2007, she started putting up the first posts for Crime Beat (along with a blook version of her intriguing novel, Chameleon) as I was intent on keeping away from the technical end. But then the whole thing took off and I had to get Ben to give me lessons in posting. For two years Barbara and I (with help from first Dirk Jordaan and now Chanette Paul on the Afrikaans side) kept up a steady stream of info but that has cut back this year to three posts a week. No question about it without Barbara’s energy from the get-go, Crime Beat wouldn’t have got under way as early as it did nor would it have made the in-roads it has done internationally on the crime fiction blogging scene. So thanks, Barbara, for all the help and enthusiasm. You’ll still see her byline from time to time as she now has an emeritus position on the blog.

This evening at the Book Lounge witness the Dame (Margie Orford, who else!) chatting up international bestselling author Peter James. Be there at 5.30 pm to hear dark and dangerous stuff.

And finally Celine Jacobson at a blog called Court Reporter has posted one of those always fascinating 100 best crime reads which you can check out on her site.

Coming up in the weeks and days ahead: a bunch of krimiheads write on their best SA crime fiction; and an as yet unpublished short story from the man who begat the local version of the genre, James McClure.

Lots of stuff’s happening out there:

Margie Orford’s Daddy’s Girl has gone into a reprint and if you missed an interview with her on Litnet here’s the link.

Roger Smith’s Mixed Blood has been voted the number one crime novel of 2009 by the 19 German, Austrian and Swiss crime fiction revewers who make up KrimiWelt.

Jassy Mackenzie’s My Brother’s Keeper has been listed on the International Thriller Writers awards that will be presented at Thrillerfest V in New York in July in the Best Paperback category.

If you want to catch Deon Meyer in action this year he’ll be at the London Book Fair in April and at the Franschhoek Literary Festival in May.

For mad keen academics launching into the wild and weird terrain of crime fiction here’s a link to an academic journal called Clues which gives the highbrow lowdown on the genre.

Couple of weeks ago I called around the publishers to see what was upcoming for the 2010 crime fiction year. Well, it turns out that I’m kick-starting the programme with the publication of the second book in my Revenge Trilogy, Killer Country, and then next month comes the second thriller from Sue Rabie called Blood at Bay followed in April by Deon Meyer’s greatly anticipated Thirteen Hours. (more…)

One of the requests from participants at the Schlock Horror lectures during UCT’s Summer School two weeks back was for a list of hot shot crime novels and novelists. So here’s a list of sorts compiled by Joe Muller with some minor input from me. Below the list are links to some websites which are always interesting guides to current krimi fashions. And if you still want more click on the Top Ten Krimi button to the left of the Crime Beat blog. There you’ll find the top reads of almost all the local crime novelists. And that should be enough reading to last a lifetime.

Some suggestions

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Stick by Elmore Leonard
The Steam Pig by James McClure
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
The Hot Rock by Donald Westlake
On Beulah Height by Reginald Hill
Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
The Killing of the Tinkers by Ken Bruen
The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V Higgins
Down by the River where the Dead Men Go by George P Pelecanos

As well as all their other books, and in no particular order, anything by Vicki Hendricks, Don Winslow, Philip Kerr, Michael Dibdin, Nicolas Freeling, Richard Price, Robert Ferrigno, Julie Parsons, James Crumley, Daniel Woodrell, James Sallis, S.J. Sansom, James Ellroy, Louise Welsh, Ian Rankin, Donna Leon, Henning Mankell, Arnaldur Indridason, Johan Theorin, Karin Fossum, Peter Temple, Val McDermid, Edward Bunker, Jo Nesbo, the list goes on…

And then here are some website:

Top-100 Crime Novels of all Time
50 Crime Writers to read before you die
Murder They Write: 100 Masters of Crime

Here’s the last of the lectures given at the Schlock Horror series during UCT’s Summer School last week. I entitled this ‘The Naked City – exposed on the pavements of fear’ and it’s a look at the elements that went into building the krimi city we recognise in our crime fiction today. On Friday, Barbara Erasmus will post a report on the final panel discussion and on Monday next week we’ll list some hot shot krimi reads and links to a number of websites that deal in the controversial business of listing their top crime novels. (more…)

Here’s Margie Orford’s wonderful contribution to the Schlock Horror series of crime fiction lectures at UCT’s Summer School last week. Entitled Killing for Others: the ethics of writing crime, she takes a look at why we like reading and writing crime fiction. And, more importantly, are we morally in the clear when we indulge this guilty pleasure? (more…)

The Schlock Horror series at UCT’s Summer School wraps up tonight with a panel discussion featuring Joe Muller as the choirmaster conducting Jane Taylor, Margie – The Dame – Orford, Longnight Angela Makholwa and myself as we sing for our supper. The Blue Cocktail – aka Deon Meyer – is expected to be hiding in the audience. Last night I was asked what schlock meant as it didn’t appear in the dictionary. But you will find it in Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang where it is given as ‘cheap, inferior, in poor taste, ie, a piece of popular culture in poor taste’. IE, it puts crime fiction at about as far a remove from the literary snobs as you can get. Meanwhile here’s Jane Taylor’s contribution to the series entitled Do not cross. (more…)

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NEWSFLASH: Jane Taylor’s talk at the Schlock Horror discussions will be up on Crime Beat tomorrow.
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Last night Margie – the Dame – Orford presented a brilliant lecture to the Schlock Horror audience. She had ‘em rivetted, gasping with, you guesed it, horror, and laughing at her idea that when you wake up in Johannesburg you stretch enthusiastically, shout, “Yay! I haven’t been killed. Let’s go shopping.” Her paper will appear here in due course, so, as they say, watch this space.

Talking about Johannesburg, today Longnight Angela Makholwa flies in from the big smoke to get acclimatised before tomorrow night’s panel discussion. Will she wake up tomorrow morning with the typical Joburg shout, I wonder?

Anyhow, she was a tad rude about Cape Town in an email, referring to it as the permanently pregnant city. You know, referencing the Mother City tag, the tour operators love to bandy about. Not a little affronted I asked for an explanation. She chirped back that it’s an old joke that it takes nine months for anything to happen here, and then at the end of the nine months still nothing’s happened, so the city’s perpetually pregnant. Yeah, I know, it’s a real Jozi out-to-lunch joke.

I’m up tonight at the Schlock Horror series with a look at the Naked City. If you’re a dirty mac type then pop along – I’ve got a sleaze-list to die for.

After a few choice threats of violence, Crime Beat is now able to present the first of the four lectures happening this week at UCT’s Summer School. This one, entitled Gutted: an amateur exhumes the corpus is by Honorary Professor of Crime Fiction, Joe Muller. The title was recently conferred on him by a secret organisation. Tomorrow we’ll post Jane Taylor’s lecture: Do not cross: reading the evidence. (more…)

So you didn’t make it to the Schlock Horror talk last night and wanna know what went down? Okay, I’m gonna do yous all a favour and once I’ve extracted – it’s like pulling fingernails, man – Joe Muller’s talk from his determined clutches, I’m gonna post it here, on Crime Beat. Let him squeal about torture and his human rights, he’s lucky I didn’t contract someone to bash his hand in. Meanwhile, krimi authors, here’re a few points that came up from the audience, yeah, your readers. (more…)