Crime Fiction in the Wilderness

Fresh from a revitalizing pint of the black stuff at the Crown bar in Belfast the Wyoming-based author, CJ Box, looks very comfortable as he sits by the window of the first floor lounge in the Europa hotel. He sets his Stetson to one side, crown down to protect the brim, and offers a firm handshake and easy smile. In a few hours, he’ll launch his latest novel, BACK OF BEYOND, at No Alibis bookstore on Botanic Avenue, but for now, he’s happy to discuss his latest release and the Joe Pickett series which is currently being published by Corvus at a rate of one a month.

BACK OF BEYOND, set in Yellowstone National Park, features an alcoholic detective by the name of Cody Hoyt and he’s the polar opposite of his series character, Joe Pickett. Box believes it’s easier to write the more traditional flawed hero in crime fiction than a family oriented man. For one thing, they have so much freedom in that they don’t have to go home at night to check in with the wife and kids. Cody Hoyt is ‘stripped down’ and unpredictable and so the reader will never really know how far he might go in a given situation. And Box has enjoyed immensely the opportunity to explore a dark side through this broken man.

Box himself could be a character from one of his wilderness thrillers. He’s a keen fisherman and has been on the kind of outfitting adventure featured in BACK OF BEYOND. And his experiences very much inform his writing style. One of his strengths lies in the way he can bring nature to life through prose. Does he go on hikes with a notebook in hand?

“No, just like it’s easier to write about the summer in winter it’s easier to write about the wilderness when you’re not in it.”

An interesting element to Cody Hoyt’s back story is that he’s a keen crime fiction reader and one of the writers he’s a fan of is Ken Bruen. This is a little Stetson-tip to Box’s friendship with the Galway writer. They met at Bouchercon, an American crime fiction convention, a few years back when Bruen introduced himself as a fan of the Joe Pickett series. Since then, they’ve sent each other their novels and share a mutual respect. In fact, CJ Box described Bruen’s novel, AMERICAN SKIN, as his ‘…biggest, boldest, most sweeping and heartfelt novel yet.’

When asked if any other Irish writers have captured his imagination he cites Adrian McKinty and in particular his Colorado-set novel HIDDEN RIVER.

‘I was kind of blown away by his dark Irish sensibility in sunny Colorado. It’s very well done.’

And like so many others he believes McKinty’s work should be much wider read. And in fact, there and then in the Europa lounge, he jots down a reminder on a napkin that he should download McKinty’s FIFTY GRAND when he gets back to his Kindle.

He may be a man of nature but he has not shied away from the new e-publishing phenomenon. The first of a series of short stories available in electronic format can now be downloaded. The information and links can be found on his website, as well as a full bibliography of his printed novels. It’s an impressive backlist and a reader could do much worse than get stuck in at the start of the Pickett series with the thrilling debut, OPEN SEASON.




A burned out cabin in the woods. A dead body. A dinner table set for two

Detective Cody Hoyt is called to the scene. A brilliant cop, Cody is also an alcoholic struggling with two months of sobriety. So it doesn’t help that the body in the cabin is his AA sponsor Hank Winters. It looks like suicide, but Cody is convinced it’s foul play.
So who was at Hank’s cabin? Data pulled from Hank’s fire-damaged hard drive leads Cody to a website running wilderness adventures deep into the most remote parts of Yellowstone National Park. Their big trip of year has just left – a two-week horseback journey into the wild. The very same trip that Cody’s estranged teenage son, Justin, has signed up for.

Cody has no choice but to trek deep into the wild himself. In America’s greatest wilderness, Cody is on his own, he’s out of time, he’s in too deep. He’s in the Back of Beyond!

CJ Box is the author of nine novels including the award-winning Joe Pickett series. He’s the winner of the Anthony Award, Prix Calibre 38 (France), the Macavity Award, the Gumshoe Award, the Barry Award, and an Edgar Award and L.A. Times Book Prize finalist. Box was named 2007 Writer of the Year by the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. His short stories have been featured in America’s Best Mystery Stories 2006 and limited-edition printings. The novels have been national bestsellers and have been translated into 13 languages.

A Wee Review - Hidden River by Adrian McKinty

We just can’t get enough of this Adrian McKinty bugger here at CSNI. And Hidden River offers the same standard of hard-boiled, poetic prose that jumped off the pages of the Michael Forsythe trilogy. But Alex Lawson is a very different protagonist to Michael Forsythe, and to me, I found Hidden River all the more appealing because of it. An ex-RUC detective at the tender age of twenty-four with a heroin habit and some seriously hard men keeping a close eye on him, Alex is a superbly interesting individual. Where Forsythe deals in lead, Lawson is all about the leads. Hidden River’s body count is a fraction of what you’d encounter in any of the three Forsythe novels, but what it lacks in shootouts and explosions, Hidden River makes up for in plot twists and red herrings.

Carrickfergus man, Alex Lawson, jumps at the chance to take a trip to Denver Colorado when he learns of the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Victoria Patawasti. Victoria’s father doesn’t think the Denver police have arrested the right man, and he knows that before his mysterious resignation, Alex was a high-flying detective in the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Who better to go learn the truth? And of course, Alex really needs to get out of Northern Ireland.

Writing from experience, McKinty shows us Denver Colorado through the eyes of a Northern Irish man. Like most cities, there’s smooth and rough, and we see both here, though mostly the rough. Alex and his friend John find a nice place to stay on Colfax Avenue, where a good hooker or drug dealer is only a stone’s throw away. As the boys find their way around, they help the reader establish a very definite sense of place. Nothing takes place in the white void. Well, except for the odd scene that sees Alex on a heroin nod. One can’t help but wonder, whose experience are these powerful scenes written from?

I’ve said it once, and no doubt will say it again, McKinty’s novels ooze elegant prose and poetic internal dialogue.

As has always been my experience when reading McKinty’s work, I blazed through this novel like nobody’s business. It’s not that the books are short. He just seems to have a knack for planting a lovely cliff-hanger at the end of most chapters. And he does the odd wee bit of foretelling, which is used to very good effect. At one point in Hidden River, he gives up the jig and lets the reader know that one of the characters is doomed. Rather than spoil the impact of the player’s final moment, the tension is heightened at every point of danger. You know that panicky, hitching feeling you get in your chest seconds after you almost crash your car or that adrenaline-spiked moment before a bar brawl kicks off? Well, McKinty’s suspenseful writing can recreate that lovely feeling for you. Incidentally, so can three cans of Red Bull.

The final chapters are a great lesson in how to mess with the reader. When it seems that it will take the “road less travelled”, a final twist/turn/revelation throws out something all the more satisfying. There’s little more I can say here without skirting spoiler territory. Just know that the fecker keeps you guessing right up to the final page.

So, Hidden River is a standalone in every respect. Written between Forsythe novels, there’s a different feel to the characters and the situation here, but everything about it is further proof of the quality of Adrian McKinty’s work. From start to finish, the writing draws the reader in and holds him in a white-knuckled grip until the final revelation. It’s so good I’ll end on a cliché. Hidden River is a must read!

A Titanic Among Young Men (and Women)

My reading pile has gotten ridiculous. At this point, 43 books remain unread. And the thing is, I’ll not be able to justify buying anything else until I’ve reduced the mountain to a molehill. So I’m on a self-imposed crusade to read a book a week.

So far so good. This week, I’ve read Hidden River by Adrian McKinty. Last week it was Colin Bateman’s Titanic 2020. A review of Hidden River will follow in a day or two, when I’ve digested the final chapters a little, but what of Titanic 2020? It’s written by Colin Bateman, so it probably deserves some publicity here. But it’s young adult fiction, and not crime at all. It’s almost science fiction, but there’s very little science. Post-Troubles fiction? Well, there’s no reference to the Troubles, though the main character, young Jimmy, is a Belfast born scallywag. Maybe post-apocalyptic fiction is closer to the mark? Yeah, a little; that’s the backdrop but not the defining theme, if you ask me. It’s an adventure story, with a few scoops of Bateman’s excellent wit, less some of his more colourful language.

Whatever the label, Titanic 2020 is a great book.

So, it’s not quite getting the full CSNI Wee Review treatment, but I will take the time to recommend it. If you’ve a young ’un, say 12-ish or older, buy this for them, read it yourself and badger them into reading it too. It’s a fun, easily-read smart Alec of a book, and an award winner too! I wish there’d been books like this and Skulduggery Pleasant when I was a kid.

Ten and Fifty Thousand

With the passing of the 10,000th page visit to Crime Scene NI (can I get a woo hoo?) comes news of Adrian McKinty's latest publishing development. Fifty Grand's UK release will be published by the ultra-cool Serpent's Tail; the UK independent publishers who brought us The Dead Trilogy by Adrian McKinty, Hidden River by Adrian McKinty, The Semantics of Murder by Aifric Campbell, The Red Riding Hood Quartet by David Peace and The Prophet Murders by Mehmet Murat Somer, among many others.

Nice.

Serpent's Tail have confirmed that they aim to publish Fifty Grand by next summer. Better get your finger out and finish the darn thing, Mister McKinty.