Hey, There's A Dead Guy in the Living Room

Not my top 10 list

‘Tis the season for Top 10 book lists, something I’m not really good at. Partially because I’ve never been able to work up any enthusiasm for maintaining a precise database of reading past, present and TBR to work with. I’d rather just read. And partially because, while the list is supposed to be books that meant a lot to me, the reason you publish it is to help others find something they’ll enjoy. Unfortunately those two don’t always walk hand in hand along the yellow book road. While The Zen of CSS may have rocked my world by completely changing how I thought about some things, let’s face it, there’s a highly limited group of people likely to share that experience.

So instead of a top 10 list, here are a handful of the books that made a big impression on me this year. While they aren’t all new releases, part of the reason they stood out is that they are all new authors for me or something different from known authors. No particular order here.

The Collaborator of Bethlehem by Matt Beynon Rees is a mystery set in modern Palestine, full of conflicted loyalties and increasingly entrenched beliefs on all sides amidst just too many everyday horrors. Ok, fine. It’s tragic, but been there, seen that on the nightly news. The difference here is that it’s all happening to real people who could easily be your friends or neighbors, people you care about and genuinely experience those horrors through in a way that doesn’t happen with anonymous flickers on a TV screen. Taut, evocative writing, gripping and memorable. I could wish the only American in the book wasn't quite such a negative stereotype since he is the only American, so it just reinforces the stereotype. But it's not as if the stereotype doesn't exist or is extremely rare. Darker than my usual taste, but a book I would hate to have not read.

My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme. Two pages in I was already wondering why on earth I waited so long to read this. Julia’s nephew helped her write and publish this but the voice is 100% Julia: exuberant, forceful, full of life and shamelessly opinionated about everything from the proper way to cook a chicken to the government’s treatment of her diplomat husband. The woman who could laugh freely at herself and at Dan Aykroyd’s hilarious impression of her but also be relentless when dealing with publishers over Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Don’t read it while hungry.

Red Sox Rule: A Season in the Life of a Manager by Michael Holley isn’t the typical sports book. This is more of a character study, covering first what went into creating the person named Terry Francona (and no, not in typical sports book “my 2nd grade teacher and junior high coach were my heroes” fashion), who helped turn the Red Sox from perennial also-rans to winners; then offering a fascinating, “through the eyes of” view of what it was like to be, not anyone, but that particular person in the madhouse that is baseball in Boston. It’s the insight, which wasn’t all directly about sports, that made this stand out for me, not the “insider” info for the fan (yes Manny drove Francona crazy long before he ever publicly acknowledged it). Things such as Francona relaxing during his job interview only after it was clear how prepared and knowledgeable those interviewing him for this job were—I could really relate to that, and it brought Francona alive as a person in a way that reciting great managerial calls couldn’t.

Snake Agent / The Demon and the City / Precious Dragon are the first three books in Liz Williams’ Inspector Chen series. I started the first and barely came up for air before finishing the third. These are mystery / fantasy crossovers set in a near future where cities are franchised—Inspector Chen is assigned to Precinct 13 in Singapore Three—and where it is possible, if not easy, for people such as Chen to travel between heaven and hell and earth. Obviously there’s a certain woo woo factor involved, something I usually avoid like the plague, but it’s very well done here. It’s also the basis of a fair amount of the dry humor that is wound all through the books, including such things as a demon cursed with a conscience (he’s going to have to consider therapy when he has a chance). Action filled, fast paced reading that’s a lot of fun and definitely something different.

Moneyball by Michael Lewis is another of those books I should have read a long time ago. Problem is the book was reportedly all about relying on stats per se over perceptions and instincts. I’m a sports fan / former data analyst and even I find that boring. However, what it's really about is determining which are the right stats, the ones that really matter to winning and losing vs the ones conventional wisdom has always focused on. Take the basic stats and slice and dice them into component parts like the securities industry does to create derivatives—an analogy I could relate to since I once worked with derivatives (yes, alright, so we’re talking checkered career here)—then extrapolate to see what they can tell you. And remember that while stats may not lie, how you interpret / misinterpret them can have the same effect, which is a key truth all too often ignored when people insist that they've proven something beyond question just because they can cite stats. You need an understanding of the game to pick the right stats and get the most out of them, while you need the right stats to understand what’s really happening despite what instinct and watching tell you you’re seeing. I think I fell in love.

A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley (aka Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip) isn’t the best mystery I’ve ever read. It’s doorstop thick and meandering. But it’s also a great, refreshing combination of old and new that is rock solid, combining a huge, engaging Botswanaan detective with a classic, Golden Age approach to constructing a mystery / detective story. All while practically glowing with the life and energy of its unique setting and appealing hero.

So sorry, no top 10, but hopefully some varied ideas for some good reading instead. And hey, if you're into web design and haven't read The Zen of CSS yet...

In their own words

Robin Agnew

I interview authors all the time for our newsletter & website - and often, not surprisingly, they have interesting things to say.  I'm including a few of their thoughts for today.

S.J. Bolton (author of Sacrifice and Awakening.  NB, Jamie is a horse).  "In the beginning of the book, when Tora is grieving over Jamie's death, she talks about the night her boyfriend dumped her and she wept on Jamie's nose.  This is a true story - I did it myself one night, with my sister's horse, Bree.  My husband says Bree was probably asleep (men!) but I believe to this day that he sensed my need for comfort and was prepared to offer it."

Megan Abbott: "In my personal favorite noir or crime novels/movies, the crime or mystery is the machine that sets something in motion, something internal, the exposure or bubbling up of a buried feeling, a hidden perversity, a latent desire that emerges and throws everything into chaos."

Jeff Cohen:  "Comedy, for it to work, has to SEEM effortless, so people think it really is.  Believe me, there's sweat and tears behind it (not so much blood - we save that for the murder.)"

Kathryn Casey (Casey is a gifted true crime writer, and hers is one of my favorite interviews I've ever done):  "Murderers are narcissistic personalities.  They believe that their desires, whether for money, power, control, or sexual pleasure, takes priority over another person's right to live."

Thomas Cook: "...dead writers die hard, and once someone's in your brain, as Faulkner is in mine, it's hard to keep him out."

Ellen Hart: "In a way, I put the characters on a stage, and watch them behave...The surprises, the twists and turns, make me want to get up every morning and write, just the same way the story makes you want to read."

There are plenty of other interviews, and the complete text of these interesting people's thoughts, on our website.    Interviewing people like these is definitely a job perk!

10 Ways to Raise the Bar on Book Promotion

Book promotion today isn’t what it was 20 years ago. Or even 10 years ago. The industry keeps changing and evolving, making it increasingly difficult to get your book to stand out amongst the tens of thousands that are published each month. Once upon a time, that was the publisher’s concern. Today, that’s no longer the case. Authors now must excel in an additional arena, since writing a great book isn’t enough to assure record sales.

 

The good news is it doesn’t take a lot of effort to rise above the ordinary.

 

1.       Go back to the good old days. In today’s fast-paced, digital age of communication, there’s something to be said for a hand-written thank you note or a friendly phone call. Authors who take the time to say thank you after a signing event, book review or a broadcast interview are still in the HUGE minority. In a time when just about everyone I know has, at one time or another, been annoyed at too many emails or text messages, I’ve never once heard anyone complain upon receipt of a sincere “thank you.” Sure, you might say, that’s a nice thing to do, but does it really help promote my book? If you’re one of a handful of authors among hundreds or even thousands who make a good impression by going that extra mile, who do you think that bookseller will remember favorably?

·         Handwritten, snail mailed Thank You cards to booksellers or other industry professionals when appropriate

·         Take snacks or goodies to the staff at book signings

·         Volunteer to help out at industry get-togethers or local stores

2.       Recognize your activities as a business, not a necessary evil or something that just has to be done. You may feel that way, and have every right to feel whatever you feel, but as my Daddy taught me when I was small, you don’t have to tell everything you know. Sometimes, in book promotion, what you DON’T say can be as important as what you do.

·         Develop an overall business plan, and a promotional campaign plan for each new title

·         Use a 12 month planning calendar to help you stay on track.

·         Keep your activities varied with specific goals in mind.

3.       Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.

·         Read others’ books.

·         Attend book signings whenever possible.

·         Join local writing groups/organizations and support other members.

4.       Make sure to schedule writing time and personal time. Promotional activities can consume huge quantities of time. It’s best to set a regular schedule that allows appropriate time for both.

·         Use your 12 month calendar to plan promotional activities, spacing them out as needed.

·         Even though time allotted for promotion will increase around the time of a new release, limit the number of days or weeks that you shelve your writing altogether.

·         All work, no play – you know the drill.

5.       Shop around. You want independent booksellers to shelve your books and recommend them to their customers? Make a point of ordering from those booksellers periodically.

·         Place orders from independent booksellers

·         Offer contests or giveaways to booksellers for their newsletters/customers

·         Consider featuring booksellers on your blog or website

6.       If you want something you’ve never had, you’ve got to do something you’ve never done. OR if you want to keep getting what you’re getting, keep doing what you’re doing. Either way, the point is that if you want to move up to a new level, you’re going to have to climb out of your comfort zone somewhere along the way.

·         Plan a new talk about the writing process or other topics and offer to give them at local libraries or clubs

·         If you’re not confident as a speaker, join Toastmasters or other groups designed to help hone your skills

·         Consider a session or two with a media coach to build confidence in interviewing skills

7.       Make connections with others in the industry who do things the way you’d like to do them. Ours is a very giving industry so don’t hesitate to ask questions, but it’s important to know the source. In other words, if you’re wondering how to make your book signing events more successful, don’t ask at random. Ask authors who consistently have successful signing events.

·         Identify authors who handle their public appearances in a manner that appeals to you

·         Study their methods and websites. Ask questions when possible.

·         When you see someone at a convention or event that handles him/herself the way you’d like to, make a note to get to know them.

8.       Study the craft of promotion and make it personal. What works for one doesn’t work for all. It’s important for you to learn your strengths, staff your weaknesses and improve any areas that are unfamiliar. If you’ve not had broadcast experience (and most of us haven’t), take time to study the art of giving a good interview. If you’ve only attended one or two signing events in all your life, there’s really no excuse. They’re everywhere. Get out there!

·         Find and read recommended books about book promotion.

·         Remember no one has all the right answers for you.

·         OJT can be good, but observation is good too – both of those who do it well and those who don’t.

9.       Social networking – it won’t kill a career if you don’t use it, but it can certainly enhance one if you do and do it right.

·         Status comments create a reputation for you. Be careful what you say.

·         Sharing personal information is important, but it’s critical that you discern between public personal and private personal.

·         Maintain a consistent presence but don’t let it suck up your time.

10.   You’ve got to spend money to make money. It’s an old adage, but carries a measure of truth. Promotional dollars are hard to come by these days, and advances aren’t enough in most cases. So how much should an author plan to spend, and how should he or she spend it?

·         Buy and use promo items wisely (bookmarks, postcards, gimmicks)

·         Don’t cut costs on promotional photographs

·         Spend to staff your weaknesses

Yesterday I Set My Cat On Fire

No, that is not a metaphor.

Yesterday morning, as I was shuffling around the home office, attempting to wake up enough to make coffee, which would then wake me up fully, I set my cat on fire.

I hope that it goes without saying, but, you know, it was by accident.

Also, for those of you who won't want to read this if it's sad: She's fine. Absolutely, totally fine. Not even fazed, as if she'd been set on fire every other Wednesday for years.

Here's what happened: Princess (her full name is Princess Chamomile Sweet Tart, though I tend to refer to her as Baby Girl) has recently decided that the stove top is her own personal belly-warmer. For about a month now, I've found her sitting between the burners every morning, and occasionally in the afternoons if it's not sunny and her normal bed-crossing sunbeam is absent.

And I've been thinking, well, whatever, she wants to stay warm, and though I have the heat on in my apartment, there aren't any floor grate vents for her to claim as her own, the stove top is not a  great solution but it's probably fine, it's ok. There have been one or two instances of her jumping up and hiding in the cubby next to the stove -- while I've been cooking -- but she's steered clear of the frontmost burner and again, it seemed ok, I guess. Or when I do the dishes (which, by the way, I do while wearing my new rubber gloves, and not only do I feel kindof like a Mad Men wife [is that good or bad?], it is so incredibly nice to keep my hands dry -- I strongly recommend yellow rubber gloves for your dish-washing needs), Baby Girl will jump up and perch on the stove and keep me company.

Ok, mostly she's probably just waiting for me to feed her.

In any case, and back to the terrifying events of yesterday, I filled the teapot with water after cleaning out the french press, and put it on the front right burner. Baby Girl was in her spot on the stove top, looking at me balefully (because she can't help it, that's just what he kitty face looks like), and I thought to myself, Well, I need to turn this burner on, but Baby Girl is up here. I, evidently non-convincingly, said to her, "Pumpkin, please get off the stove, I need to make coffee." She didn't move. And I thought, Ok, so, she's not moving. She's not that close to this front burner, it'll be ok if I just turn it on. Fire can't just jump, right?

This was a poor decision.

She's a medium-hair cat, and so has mostly short fur, but with some longish flyaways. It was those flyaways which I did not realize were close enough to the fwhoom of the lighting burner. In what amounted to less than two seconds, flames licked up the outer edges of her fur -- it looked a lot like what happens when you set a sock on fire. Like this. (If you have ever in your life hung around guys who are in college, you've probably seen that trick.)

So Baby Girl sits up and jumps down off the stove, while I'm screaming, OH MY GOD MY CAT IS ON FIRE, and before all the words are even out of my mouth, she's on the ground and no longer on fire, sniffing at her singed fur with disdain. I run after her, babbling incoherent ARE YOU OK HOLY COW BABY GIRL ARE YOU OK and meanwhile, my other cat is meowing becuase he gets upset when I'm upset.

I grab her up and inspect her fur and skin, and brush off the singed bits. Her whiskers on one side have a slight curl to them, and the flyaway, long bits of fur along her right side are now as short as the rest of her fur.

But she's fine, obviously fine, and so I start to calm down, though it's clear that I'll no longer need that coffee to wake up.

So here's the lesson I learned: Carelessness and laziness, while easy, are not a good idea. I mean obviously, right? But sometimes I need a little reminder.

Had I nipped her stove top sitting habit in the bud, had I encouraged her to find another warm spot in the apartment (I've since bought her a little heated pet bed), had I not allowed myself to be used to the sight of her up there in the mornings, had I spent the time to lift her off the stove ... I was careless and lazy and let a not-so-great idea become a habit.

Are you writing a manuscript? Have you allowed yourself to fall into careless, lazy habits within the text? Don't let yourself be lazy -- if you do, the next thing you know, your cat may be on fire.

p.s. Taking yesterday's incident to heart, today I skipped making coffee entirely and picked up a chai from the coop:

Other involved parties have not yet learned their lesson:

So now I'm keeping her close by, which means her new perch is on my laptop's keyboard:

And it's goodbye from them...

I’ve spent the last year or so doing my best to avoid looking at the economic situation, partly because it was just too depressing, but mainly because a positive approach is the only way forward whatever the outside influences. A huge advantage of running your own very small company is that there’s no one to make redundant; we’ve had to find ways to cut costs, but at least no one is out of work as a direct result of those ways.

 

But now that Borders UK are about to disappear into the great bookshop in the sky, it’s getting harder to ignore. (I stress UK for the benefit of American blog-followers – Borders US has been a different company for a couple of years now, and things appear to be looking up for them.) The book trade seems to have suffered more than its fair share – certainly more than I expected here in the UK. There have been swingeing staff cuts at all the big publishing houses; the collapse of Woolworths almost took one of our biggest wholesalers with it; a couple of small specialist chains have disappeared; and news of library closures is far too frequent for comfort.

 

I’m sad about Borders. As chain bookshops go, they were the good guys. When we started out five years ago they had a central buying system, and for the first half-dozen books we could rely on them for a useful chunk of orders. They proved author-friendly too; their in-store reading groups gave ours a warm welcome, and their events organisers were always delighted to set up the kind of signing session which meant authors got to talk to potential readers, or murder mystery evenings which allowed us to introduce our books to a captive audience. Sometimes they’d even call our authors and ask them to take part in a week-long promotional event. And whenever any event was imminent, the books were on endcap displays and banded with bookseller recommendations, with no demand for marketing fees. Best of all, they hardly ever returned anything they ordered.

 

I suppose we should have seen it coming. But then again, why should we? The management buyout back in October 2007, which separated the UK operation from what had been the US parent company, was headed up by a guy who was highly respected in the book trade and acknowledged as a canny businessman as well as a devoted booklover. The involvement of  the owner of Pizza Express seemed like good news too.

 

But trouble loomed in Paradise all too quickly, and the highly respected bookseller took his devotion and expertise elsewhere. Then a few months ago the Pizza Express guy decided he wanted out, and the dreaded word ‘refinancing’ kept appearing in those useful little book trade newsletters that pop into my in-box each morning.

 

Until a few weeks ago I really thought they could struggle on until the economic tide turned. The people we were in touch with – events organisers, store managers – still seemed positive; events were still happening; books still weren’t being returned. There was the occasional blip in the money chain; they’d be late settling an account and distributors would (briefly) stop supplying them until it was sorted. But it was sorted. Usually.

 

Then we held a launch in one of their stores – the first time we’d ever done it – and found we needed a special dispensation to get copies of the book supplied. Soon afterwards I picked up on a rumour that they weren’t going to make it to Christmas – and up here in my Derbyshire fastness, well outside the gossip-factory in London, I don’t hear rumours until they’re well established.

 

I keep telling myself that ‘in administration’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘about to disappear’. If the administrators work at it, they could pull a phoenix out of the ashes and persuade someone to buy it as a going concern. But if I’m honest I don’t think it’s going to happen.

 

So I have to bid a sad farewell to Michael, Simon, Ailsa and all the other supportive, bookloving people we met when Borders was thriving. What’s happened certainly isn’t their fault, and they’re hurting at the moment – not just because they’ll be looking for new jobs in a few weeks. The saddest comment I’ve read in months was this: It’s very distressing. The place looks more and more like a cheap book store and some of the customers are showing no respect for stock or staff. There’s no excuse for that. Books are still precious even when they’re cut-price.

 

And good booksellers are worth their weight in gold. Borders, we’ll miss you.

You Put Your Whole Self In

By Barbara Poelle

The Fourth Annual Poelle Polish Turkey Trot and Gobble Wobble ™ on Thursday was a shining success. Again, won by Husband, but extra points to the Minnesota contingency for style.  (I wish I could post the picture of my lovely mother carrying a bottle of rum over the finish line, but this is a family show.) HOWEVER! To add adventure to athleticism, this past Black Friday was host to:

The First Annual Poelle Scavenger Hunt and Manhattan Mêlée™

Sponsored by

Root International: If You’re Reading This, I Sold it.

Oh yes, you have correctly deduced the above. A colleague of mine, whom we’ll call Wolly Goot, designed a Scavenger Hunt for Husband and me, which took place on the hilly isle of inebriation (those Ojibwa sure can name stuff) on Friday.  The list was as extensive as it was impossible and when the big and the little hand met at twelve, IT. WAS. ON.

I thought about posting the list, but it is just so dang good that my goal is to convince her to design one for each city and then I will turn around and sell THE GREAT BIG BOOK OF WOLLY GOOT SCAVENGER HUNTS for a skertillion dollars. It truly was stupefyingly fantabuliffic.

Not only was it a hilarious way to spend the day, but it really played on the strengths of Team Poelle. Each section was grouped by how many points it was worth to secure a photo of/object from/ autograph by, with the first grouping worth 1 point, the next 2-5, the next 15 etc. Now, one of us burst out the front door of Root International, camera flailing, and began wildly careening down the street looking for someone wearing leggings who shouldn’t be and a car with multiple parking tickets on the windshield. Meanwhile, the other strolled quietly in tow, creating a comprehensive mapping system with corresponding locations and subway lines in order to achieve maximum coverage in minimum steps. While “the doer” snapped the closest parallel park without touching and 5 cabs in one frame, “the thinker” was deducing the clue which read: I said, “It is better to be a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without” go to my square and take a picture of me. While one of us sprinted down 5th bellowing “I think I see a lady using a stroller in an inappropriate manner!”  The other calmly documented where 4 cemeteries lay beneath 50^th St…and this is why Team Poelle works! Everyone understands that the best way to accomplish a goal is by working with our individual strengths in order to create a vortex of scavenger dominance. With this, we were able to finish with a score of TWO MILLION TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY SIX POINTS.

(Yes, one of the clues was worth two million points and therefore you know that:

a)      I HAD to get it, or die trying

 and

b) we will never, EVER, speak of it again. Ever. Good day.

I SAID GOOD DAY.)

We could have had two million two hundred and thirty-eight points, but I- wait for it- couldn’t get a nun to hug me. It’s true. Three different nuns SHUNNED me when I asked. Although I came kind of close when one of them pressed a bible to my forehead and kept screaming THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU while I spat and hissed. That should be worth at least a point. Because oh, how it buuuuuurned.

The craziest thing? Husband and I kind of set aside the things we thought would be easy “gets” to do at the end, and they turned out to be the hardest ones.  And Husband turned to me at one point and- bless his HEART!- said, “You should blog about this, because this is kind of what it is like for your authors, the hardest edits can sometimes be the easiest ones to do, you just have to trust it will all work out.” And then he shoved me through the swinging door of a restaurant kitchen and snapped a photo. (The expression on the chef’s face in the background should by itself be worth 3 points.)

Later that evening, while I was hugging a fireman in front of Ghostbusters headquarters, I reflected upon what he said and realized that the whole experience was indeed the perfect analogy for how your publishing team works. Everyone from your agent to your publicist to your editor has a specific strength that they play to and whether they do it loudly and with much swearing, or with quiet panache and dignity, the combined team work might just quite possibly get you to House of Brews by 9:57 pm with over 2 million points.

And that, my dear friends…well, forget the Hokey Pokey, because THAT’S what it’s all about.

 

Questions

Jeff Cohen

What was so great about sliced bread? I mean, was it THAT HARD to get a knife and cut it yourself?

How happy ARE clams?

Shouldn't Superman have been looking for a girl who was bright enough to recognize him even WITH glasses?

Why isn't the rest of Earth more like Disney World? I mean, after I get done having any experience whatsoever, I expect to end up in a gift shop, don't you?

If it's true that "if you can remember the Sixties, you weren't there," then why doesn't Rock N' Roll ever forget?

For that matter, how do we know that elephants never forget? Did someone ask the elephants? What if they forgot, and were just covering?

They say "nothing's older than yesterday's news." How about the news from the day BEFORE yesterday?

Why is it called Rhode Island? It's not an island.

How come people say they're going to get "the skinny" about a hot news item? What does that even MEAN?

If Joe Lieberman gets a proprietary project in his home state, can we still call it "pork?"

Why do TV networks assume I think I can dance? I KNOW I can't dance!

Isn't it time to rename the New Testament? 

If a stand up comedian uses a chair, what do we call him?

When was the last time a Best Picture Oscar winner was fun to watch? (And if you talk to me about Slumdog Millionaire, I'm going to mention the abject poverty, the children being tortured and the overall sense of despair until the end--I'm not saying I didn't like the movie; I'm talking about it being FUN to WATCH.)

What do Abraham Lincoln and George Washington have to do with carpet sales?

What are Catches 1-21? 

What if there was a playwright even BETTER than Shakespeare, but we never got to read his stuff because nobody bothered to publish it after it closed at the Globe?

What are late night comedians during the day?

How come non-fiction isn't called REALITY BOOKS?

Why aren't playwrights called playwrites? 

And as the holiday season begins, one last question: How come the big Christmas songs are written by Jews?

What’s so funny about that?

Which is the problem with a lot of recommendations I get for humorous mysteries. If I’m lucky, it takes as many as three chapters into the latest "you'll laugh until it hurts" before I realize that one weak smile is going to be about it. I used to think it was me, because I'd see books I thought were decidedly unfunny praised all over various forums. But then a couple years back when I reviewed the first book in his Double Feature series, Some Like it Hot-Buttered, our own Jeff Cohen helped me figure it out. (No, that’s not the blatant brown-nosing it looks like, honest. He really did.)

Jeff’s hero, Elliott Freed, loves comedy so much he’s put all his money into creating a movie theater dedicated to it. But he hates the jokes friends continually email him, because comedy and jokes aren’t the same thing and he’s just not all that into jokes. To paraphrase my own review of Jeff’s book, comedy is about wit and humor, while jokes are contrived stories to set up a punch line.

Comedy and jokes aren't the same thing... epiphany time. The next time a new, much praised humorous mystery left me grumbling rather than laughing—and wondering why—I realized that same division was the problem here. Yes I know it should be obvious, but you think of jokes as, well, jokes. Short set up / punchline pairs that stand on their own. You might read a character telling a joke, but you don't naturally think of jokes as part of the structure of a novel. But that was indeed what too many of the newer comic mysteries seemed to be built from. Instead of real comedy and humor based in absurd situations or wit that is an organic part of the story, they rely on jokes and jokey set ups for the laughs. In the worse cases, the story becomes little more than a strong to hold together a bunch of build ups to various punch lines. And in the absolute worst cases, those were all too predictable punch lines—there was a series of travel based mysteries written a few years ago which everyone swore I would love, because it had mystery and comedy and travel, all of which I do love. But the humor was based on stereotypes that were trite even then, with punchlines you could see coming three pages before they arrived.

What got me thinking about this again was the pleasure in a few recent reads—two by modern authors, one a Golden Age classic—that get it right. Genuine comedy and humor rather than jokes.

I mentioned Donna Andrews and Swan for the Money last week. While I don’t love all her books equally (there are two I absolutely adore—Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon and We’ll Always Have Parrots—with The Penguin Who Knew Too Much only slightly below, and the rest ranging across a couple of tiers below that), I love how she does them. The humor is situational, built from the sort of people who might be your family and neighbors doing absolutely outrageous and absurd things as if they were totally commonplace, or having such things happen to them. The humor is in the situation, with nary a punchline in sight. Take the Tennessee Belted Fainting Goats I also mentioned last time… now consider what it would be like to chase an intruder through a field filled with goats who stiffen and keel over without warning when even slightly alarmed or excited. Go ahead and laugh, I saw that grin.

The humor is heightened by a beautiful foil in smart and sensible heroine Meg, a calm, tolerant but appreciative audience who treats most of the madness around her as normal. Which of course in her world it all is; it's our kind of normalcy that would be really weird.

The other recent book isn’t a mystery, although there are puzzles aplenty inside. Gail Carriger has a new alternate history comedy of manners out, titled Soulless (first in The Parasol Protectorate). Her heroine is even more phlegmatic, and while there are some silly situations, the humor here is more in the language and the style of it all. Not jokes, but witty banter and language that stylishly provides some wonderfully absurd juxtapositions while taking things to their logical absurdities. Think witty Regency style romance (although the setting is Victorian) meets new style urban fantasy. Werewolves and vampires and teacakes, oh my!! For example, when classic prim and proper spinster Alexia is attacked by a vampire, rather than wailing and falling into a helpless swoon, she sharply chides him on his manners (they haven’t even been introduced!) while feeling more upset about the treacle tart she'd been looking forward to—now ruined—than the attack itself. Her scientifically inquisitive approach to personal discovery about relations between the sexes is an absolute riot. The entire book is simply a hoot, full of wicked fun that stands a couple of genres on their ears through the author's wonderful ear for using language to maximum comic effect.

The classic combines wit and situational humor—Edmund Crispin’s The Moving Toyshop—which I recently re-read. I love Crispin and wish he’d written more, although I've never had good luck recommending him to others. There’s wit in the banter between characters, such as a silly characters in literature bar game, while the story also has some wonderful situational humor, such as the "University steeplechase” pursuit of a suspect and its water filled ending. Genuine laugh until it hurts stuff if you've any appreciation for the absurd.

Here's hoping we see more of the situational comedy and wit that once used to dominate humor in mysteries. And until we do, my heartfelt thanks to a handful of newer authors like Donna Andrews and Gail Carriger and Jeff himself, who help keep my funny bone nicely polished.

Auntie Mame

Robin Agnew

I know most people have books they re-read now and then for comfort.  I have a rotating list, but one of my favorites is Patrick Dennis' 1955 classic Auntie Mame.  For those of you who have only seen the pretty terrible movies (one with Rosalind Russell, an even worse one with Lucille Ball) the book is a breezy, refreshing delight that is funny every time I re-read it.  I recommend it.

My own reading copy was a pathetic mess.  It was an old paperback from the late 50's, the pages were all falling out, and I could see the glue on the spine if I took a quick peek.  Recently my husband found me a beautiful new reprint copy, with an intoroduction and an afterword by Patrick Dennis' son.  This was manna to me.

I was interested to discover that Patirck Dennis (a pen name fore Edward Everett Tanner III) wrote many novels (I have only read two) and when his literary career fizzlied he took up a career as a butler, working for Ray Kroc.  This sounded like something Patrick Dennis, the character in the novel, might do.

For those of you unfamiliar with this masterpiece, it's a slight conceit - a young boy (Patrick Dennis) loses his remaining parent and he goes with his Irish nurse to live in New York city with his Aunt Mame, a fate his father told him he "wouldn't wish on a dog, but...beggars can't be choosers."  So Patrick, at 10, is unprepared for the sight of his glamorous, nightclub hopping, literati elbow rubbing Aunt, a dyed in the wool liberal and authentic intellectual.

The story is never a polemic but for the mid 50's Auntie Mame's views are pretty radical, and she clashes regularly with Patrick's staid trustee, Mr. Babcock, who seems like a more typical 50's denizen.  What sets this episodic novel apart from mere froth (each chapter covers a stage in Patrick's life - school, first love, college, going to war, etc.) is the detailed look at upper class life and it's dissection of class and status.  It has the zing of real verisimilitude.

What Patrick ends up wanting is a staid life in the suburbs; apparently the same thing the real life Patrick Dennis wished for and never achieved.  The fictional Patrick Dennis finds steady happiness, though you're left wondering at the end of the book if he made the right choice.   In any case the book always hooks me in the first chapter when little Patrick's Dad tells him "Pipe down kid, the old man's hung."  I settle in happily for the duration, looking forward to another reading of what is really an American classic.

My top ten

Sharon Wheeler – keeping PJ Nunn's seat warm!

OK, so this might be jumping the gun a tad, but my excuse is that I'm just leaping off the substitutes' bench today to replace PJ Nunn, and I'm not sure when I'll be picked for the first team again! And I can't possibly pass up the opportunity to select my top ten books of 2009. Yes, I know there's another month to go before the end of the year, and yes, I might well find another gem during that time (although if you'd seen what's in my review pile, you'd understand why I'm feeling a tad pessimistic). And anyway, if 'best of' lists are good enough for some of the UK national papers before the end of November, they're good enough for Dead Guy!

So, here goes … The books are in no particular order, complete with brief cryptic comments. I've linked to my full reviews on RTE in case anyone's interested.

The Girl Who Played With Fire

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest – Stieg Larsson

It's pretty unusual to have two books released by the same author in the same year (unless you're the wonderfully prolific Ken Bruen), but this is no ordinary series. Just in case you happen to have been living in a cave for the past couple of years, Larsson's trilogy featuring a Swedish journalist and an anti-social computer hacker was published posthumously and has quite rightly gone supernova.

Flipping Out – Marshall Karp

Karp's good-humoured series features a couple of wise-cracking Los Angeles cops, whose cases seem to have a movie or literary theme. The doctor should prescribe them when readers are feeling down.

If It Bleeds – Duncan Campbell

The title's from the old newspaper adage – if it bleeds, it leads. And Campbell, a veteran UK journalist, takes us on a highly enjoyable romp through the life of a permanently bemused crime hack who's finding all this new technology just a bit too much.

Winterland – Alan Glynn (review to come next week!)

This is a second novel for Irish writer Glynn, and it's tremendous. It takes us on an intense journey through modern Ireland, where politics, business and crime all collide.

The Dark Vineyard – Martin Walker

Walker's debut novel, Bruno, Chief of Police, was on my 'best of' list last year. The second in the series, set in deceptively idyllic rural France, shows a dark side beneath that relaxed village life.

Sanctuary – Ken Bruen

I'd read Ken Bruen's shopping list – and, come to think of it, he'd tell a better and sharper story on it that a lot of writers do in 300 pages. Sanctuary is the next instalment of the Jack Taylor series. Noir at its total best.

A Tribute to Zed Beddington – Nick Wray

A gem of a crime debut novel, published by a small indie UK publisher. I can do no better than point you the – for once – uncannily accurate blurb: "… a tale of sex and drugs and Transit vans, motorways, amplifiers, ripped-off lyrics, creative accountancy, Mozart, life after death, home improvements and finding love where you least expect it."

Midnight Fugue – Reginald Hill

Hill's 24 books into his Dalziel and Pascoe series, and his footwork is still as deft and fancy as ever. He should teach masterclasses in how to retain your enthusiasm.

The Redeemer – Jo Nesbo

Another example of class storytelling from the creator of maverick Oslo cop Harry Hole. After reading it, you'll want to steer clear of vacuum cleaners …

There were near-misses for John Connolly's The Lovers and Graham Hurley's No Lovelier Death. And I promise to keep my bottom ten books of the year to myself!