Literary Mystery Novelists— BAD LITTLE FALLS by Paul Doiron

Click here to buy BAD LITTLE FALLS

Paul Doiron, Bad Little Falls (Minotaur Books) 320 pp. 

ISBN-13: 978-0312558482  Pub date: August 7, 2012

 

Readers of this blog and the Literary Mystery Novelists series will be familiar with Paul Doiron since I featured an interview with him on this blog after his first novel, The Poacher’s Son, was published to rave reviews and a swarm of award nominations. So for information about this author beyond the short bio given here, check that out.

Paul Doiron’s third mystery novel featuring Maine game warden Mike Bowditch offers the virtues readers of this series have come to expect from the author—evocative descriptions of Maine’s rough terrain, an appealing yet troubled young protagonist, nail-biting suspense, and some of the less-picturesque social problems of the state’s remoter areas.

Mike Bowditch is exiled to the most isolated and undesirable outpost on the Canadian border for the Maine Wardens Service due to his having embarrassed the powers-that-be in the two earlier books in the series, The Poacher’s Son and Trespasser. In his new home territory, his strict interpretation of the law immediately stirs up hostility from local wrongdoers who nail a coyote pelt to his trailer door as a warning and a sinister reminder that wardens were killed in this locale in an uprising against game wardens in the 1880s.

Mike’s supervisor seems as hostile as the community surrounding him. The only human connections he manages to make are with the local veterinarian and a beautiful woman with a gifted but troubled young son. When a deadly blizzard shuts down the whole area, Mike is called to a secluded cabin where a half-frozen man has appeared out of the night, deliriously claiming his friend is lost in the blinding snowstorm. The rescue mission finds a violent drug dealer murdered, and Mike is unable to just assume that the frozen friend killed him as the state police claim.

As the beautiful woman and her strange, gifted son grow important to Mike, he realizes that they, especially the boy, who keeps a secret notebook/journal, are also involved in some way. Under constant attack himself, Mike sees himself when young in the boy and, fearing for the child’s safety, tries to protect him from a hostile environment full of feuding smugglers and drug dealers.

Doiron uses his gift for language that evokes the environment surrounding his characters to make this northernmost part of Maine another character within the book. As usual, his plot is complicated and full of suspense and surprising twists, and his characters are multifaceted and well-drawn, making sometimes questionable choices due to unfortunate relationships. One of the real pleasures of Bad Little Falls is watching the development of Mike Bowditch. In the first books in the series, Mike was likable, but self-destructively impulsive with severe anger issues. In this book, he has the same problems, but he’s seriously trying to control them, not always successfully. Doiron offers a very realistic portrait of an engaging and troubled young man who is slowly and painfully maturing.

Doiron’s first two books have received much critical praise justifiably, but this one tops them in the quality of its writing, plotting, and characterization. Expect more praise and award nominations for this gifted author.

 

Bio

Paul Doiron is the author of the Mike Bowditch series of crime novels, including The Poacher's Son, which won the Barry Award for Best First Novel and the Strand Critics Award for Best First Novel and has been nominated for an Edgar Award, an Anthony Award, a Macavity Award, and a Thriller Award for Best First Novel, and the Maine Literary Award for "Best Fiction of 2010." His second book in the Mike Bowditch series, Trespasser, won the Maine Literary Award for crime fiction, was an American Booksellers Association Indie Bestseller and has been called a "masterpiece of high-octane narrative" by Booklist. The Poacher's Son received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and Library Journal, and Trespasser received starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal. Bad Little Falls received a starred and boxed review from Publishers Weekly.

Doiron is the editor in chief of Down East: The Magazine of Maine, Down East Books, and DownEast.com. A native of Maine, he attended Yale University, where he graduated with a degree in English, and he holds an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College. Paul is a Registered Maine Guide specializing in fly fishing and outdoor recreation and lives on a trout stream in coastal Maine.

Great First Crime Novel Contests--No Fee

Beginning next week, I'll return to my usual schedule of Books of Interest by Writers of Color posts on Mondays and Literary Mystery Writers posts on Fridays.

Today, though, I want to draw the attention of all the writers out there who've never published a novel before to the quartet of free competitions offered by St. Martin's Minotaur in collaboration with various mystery organizations. These contests are not only fabulous to win, but they are also a good way to get your manuscript before the editors at one of most important publishers out there--if you're good enough to make the finals.

These competitions are open to anyone who hasn't published a novel before and whose novel fits the guidelines for that particular contest. There is no fee to enter, and the prize for each of the four competitions is $10,000 and a standard publishing contract with St. Martin's Press.

All that is pretty enticing right there, but also if you win, you get to work with some of the top professionals in the field located in the historic Flatiron Building in New York City. That's important when you're starting out as a novelist. It's even  more important now while publishing is going through such major changes.

I know entering the St. Martin's/Malice Domestic Competition changed my life. So I encourage all my writer friends out there to consider these competitions. Especially all my writer friends of color.

The four competitions--St. Martin's/Tony Hillerman, St. Martin's/Private Eye Writers of America, St. Martin's/Malice Domestic, and St. Martin's/Mystery Writers of America--have different guidelines and deadlines--June, July, October, and December. Check them out!

And good luck! I'm looking forward to reading the next award-winners.

Happy 2012: Jacket copy for EVERY LAST SECRET and EVERY BROKEN TRUST finished

I hope the holidays were splendid for all of you. I was able to spend them with all of my grown kids back in town, and then all of us trekked to Topeka, Kansas, to my sister's for for a warm, lovely Christmas with extended family. I'm so grateful as we start a new year for my wonderful husband, Ben, and my great kids, Crystal, Niles, and Joseph--and my terrific foster-son Gustavo, his partner Erika, and their sweet baby Becquer. And for my sister and her two sons and my brother. That's one of the glories of the season is that it brings us back together with far-flung family.

2012 is making a strong beginning for me. Later this month, review copies of Every Last Secret: A Mystery will be sent to reviewers and other promotional outlets. If you had offered to review the book, please email me your mailing address, so I can make sure you receive your review copy.

It's interesting to look at who is publishing my book. This book is being published by St. Martin's Press/ Minotaur Books and also Thomas Dunne Books. Thomas Dunne Books and Minotaur Books are both imprints of St. Martin's Press, which is, in turn, a part of Macmillan. A little confusing, I admit. But the nice thing is that all of these publishing entities have such a reputation for quality.

I had promised to post the jacket copy for my forthcoming book, Every Last Secret: A Mystery, in late December, but I was so engrossed in finishing the next book in the series, Every Broken Trust, that I forgot to post it. I did finish the draft of Every Broken Trust shortly before Christmas and am now in the throes of the revision process. I hope to have the finished manuscript off to my agent and editor later this month. So here belatedly is the copy that will appear on the dust jacket of the hardcover Every Last Secret: A Mystery.

JACKET COPY FOR EVERY LAST SECRET

Flap:

"Rodriguez’s debut is an action-packed ride featuring an intriguing heroine you won’t quickly forget."--Sally Goldenbaum, author of The Wedding Shawl

Half-Cherokee Marquitta “Skeet” Bannion thought she was leaving her troubles behind when she fled the stress of being the highest ranking woman on the Kansas City Police Department, a jealous cop ex-husband who didn’t want to let go, and a disgraced alcoholic ex-cop father. Moving to a small town to be chief of the campus police force, she builds a life outside of police work. She might even begin a new relationship with the amiable Brewster police chief.

All of this is threatened when the student editor of the college newspaper is found murdered on campus. Skeet must track down the killer, following trails that lead to some of the most powerful people in the university. In the midst of her investigation, Skeet takes up responsibility for a vulnerable teenager as her ex-husband and seriously ailing father wind up back on her hands. Time is running out and college administrators demand she conceal all college involvement in the murder, but Skeet will not stop until she's unraveled every last secret.

Linda Rodriguez’s debut novel introduces a unique and capable heroine. With its intriguing cast of characters and complex mystery, Every Last Secret is sure to delight traditional mystery fans.

Bio:

Linda Rodriguez is a winner of the Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Competition. As a poet, she has won the Thorpe Menn Award for Literary Excellence, the Elvira Cordero Cisneros Award, and the Midwest Voices and Visions Award.

Linda enjoys knitting lace shawls, spinning alpaca wool, weaving tapestries, and gardening with herbs and native plants. She is currently working on a book of poetry based on teachings from her Cherokee grandmother and another mystery novel about Skeet Bannion. Linda lives in Kansas City, Missouri, with her husband, a Plott Hound, and a domineering cat.

Visit her Web site at http://lindarodriguezwrites.blogspot.com

Back cover:

Advance Praise for Every Last Secret

"There's a new cop in town and she has smarts, courage, and a good heart. Mystery readers will find a new favorite in Chief Skeet Bannion."--Nancy Pickard, author of The Scent of Rain and Lightning

“Every Last Secret offers that rare and startling thing in the universe of thrillers: a truly fresh voice. Rodriguez's tale spares nothing. Skeet is an all-too-human heroine, and we just want more, more, more.”--Jacquelyn Mitchard, #1 national bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean and Second Nature: A Love Story

“Linda Rodriguez has created a captivating female detective with a mind for justice and a heart for those who’ve been unfairly treated.  Skeet navigates university politics and a nest of deadly secrets to find the truth, even when it means investigating people she cares about.”--Carolyn Haines, author of Bones of a Feather

“Murder on a college campus, plenty of bad people, and all kinds of puzzles to solve. Linda Rodriguez has written a highly enjoyable procedural introducing a rough and tender heroine, Skeet Bannion.”--Kathleen George, author of The Odds and Hideout

I'm very excited about the prospect of holding an advance copy of Every Last Secret in my hands soon. I'm also thrilled and relieved that my beta reader thinks the second book in the series is as strong as the first. Any time you're writing a book after the earlier one received an award or won a competition, you're always fighting the fear that this book won't measure up to the last one. So hearing that Every Broken Trust is up to the task is a great relief.

How is your 2012 beginning? What are you excited about seeing or doing in the early months of the new year?

Literary Mystery Writers—Kathleen George

For the initial profile in this series, Kathleen George seems perfect. Her fiction career started with a critically praised collection of literary short fiction, The Man in the Buick. George, who is an academic, did not follow that with a literary novel in the usual manner of academic writers. Her first novel was a tightly plotted, well-written thriller, Taken, which has turned into a highly regarded series of thrillers set in Pittsburgh. Her latest, Hideout, has just been released, but George kindly took time in the middle of book tour to do an interview for this series.

Kathleen George was born in Johnstown Pennsylvania. As a child, she wanted to be a writer. She wrote stories and plays in high school and in her undergraduate years as a creative writing major at the University of Pittsburgh. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in Theatre (also at Pitt). By then she had made her home in Pittsburgh. For eight years she taught theatre at Carlow College, where she directed many plays. Then she accepted a teaching position at Pitt where she continued to direct and teach dramatic literature and playwriting; in the early 80s, she began to add fiction writing back into the mix. In 1988, she earned an M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing (also at Pitt!) on the side. She is a Professor in the Theatre Arts Department.

Book-length fiction publications are: THE MAN IN THE BUICK, a collection of stories, BKMK press, 1999; TAKEN, a novel, Delacorte 2001 (also translated into French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Danish, and Norwegian); FALLEN, Dell 2004; AFTERIMAGE, St. Martin's Minotaur 2007; THE ODDS, St. Martin's Minotaur 2009, PITTSBURGH NOIR, Akashic, 2011, and HIDEOUT, St. Martin's Minotaur, 2011.

George has been granted fellowships at artists' colonies, including the VCCA and MacDowell. Her short fiction has appeared in journals and magazines which include Mademoiselle, Cimarron Review, North American Review, New Letters, and Alaska Quarterly Review. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and one story was listed among the Distinguished in Best American Short Stories.

Her theatre publications are: Rhythm in Drama, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1980, Playwriting: The First Workshop, Allworth Press, 2008 (first in print with Butterworth (Focal Press) 1994), and Winter's Tales: Reflections on the Novelistic Stage, University of Delaware, 2005.

For those new to your series, can you describe the Pittsburgh Richard Christie mysteries?

Yes. Christie is a Commander in the Homicide Squad. He’s very well loved by his workers. He has a natural charisma. He’s not a party guy. He drinks but only in moderation. He once thought he would be a priest. So he’s bit of an odd bird. He’s naturally drawn to people and their stories, their needs. But he’s not as dull as that might sound. He has a big ego, which he’s always wrestling with. He has to force himself to toe the line when he often feels he knows what is best for people or for a case.

Other regulars on the squad and in the novels are Artie Dolan, a really good detective, and also Colleen Greer (new, smart, workaholic, sexy), and JohnPotocki, very smart, very literate.

Pittsburgh provides a rich setting for the series. There are so many interesting places—from parks to restaurants to ethnic neighborhoods. We have more bridges than Venice, lots of great old mansions, and whole neighborhoods with boarded up buildings. A lot of everything.

What was your inspiration for this series?

Some of the older crime novels. I’ve recently been aware of how much I was influenced by Marjorie Allingham’s The Tiger in the Smoke, and by Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock. And look what happened recently? Brighton Rock has been updated and adapted to a new movie. What I loved about these novels was the depth of character and the mix of good people and very bad people—both sides complex enough to keep the story from being a simple morality tale. I love that.

How would you describe Hideout to someone who has not read any of your previous novels?

There are some quiet sections in which you really get to know the characters and then there are scenes of hair-raising tension, so both moods and paces are part of my palette. The trigger event is a murder/accident. Ryan Rutter, high on drugs, drives to terrorize and when he hits a young mother going to work, he has to be on the run. He is helped in this by his younger brother Jack. Where do they go? Two hours north of Pittsburgh to a lake property where they break in to a house they once rented years ago. Just down the road lives Addie Ward, almost 83, up in her property alone since she wanted to get her garden in early. She’s nice, she’s vital, she’s . . . generous. She doesn’t deserve violence but it comes into her life in the person of Ryan.

What's your writing process? What is a typical writing day like for you? Do you keep to a set schedule? What are your writing habits?

I like to write every day, bad or good--who knows what the sentences are when you first get them down. I prefer to write from 4 a.m. to about 8 am. and then to move on to a regular day, but this schedule means going to bed early and that isn’t always possible. Sometimes the writing day has to be 6-9. Especially now that there is so much journalism about how good sleep is for the health.

What projects, literary or otherwise, are occupying you at the moment?

Soon I will get my editorial letter for SIMPLE, which is the next novel (been done and sold for over a year now) and I will revise that. It’s got a political setting. I never did one of those before. And I actually have a new one drafted which I plan to revise a bit. It’s called BLOOD. I haven’t shown it yet. I have several more projects but I don’t know if I can get to them—essays and a text. We’ll see.

Who were your literary influences growing up? Are there any authors (living or dead) that you would name as influences?

Growing up? Steinbeck, Hemingway, whatever my teachers told me to read. But after that, when I started studying and teaching theatre, the models became Chekhov, Shakespeare, Ibsen. I directed a good deal of Shakespeare and, man, did he know everything or what? I love that he puts the villains on stage and lets them tell you why they are malcontents and whom they want to hurt.

You started with literary short fiction. Your collection, The Man in the Buick, was highly praised. What inspired you to write your first novel, Taken? Had you always wanted to be a writer?

I had always always wanted to be a writer. No question. And I love short fiction. So I was happy writing it. But even though the stories in BUICK are kind of sober, I also wrote a comic story that got published in Mademoiselle and so many people loved my character and wanted me to write her into a novel that I spent many years trying to write a comic novel. One summer I gave up (too many drafts that didn’t fly!) and decided to entertain myself by teaching myself plot. So I began to make notes for a mystery. Then I wrote the mystery. That was TAKEN. It was a two-book contract so I had to write another one. I always do what is expected of me. Two mystery novels under my belt—that defined me.

Do you belong to a critique group of other authors. Or does your marriage to writer Hilary Masters help in that regard?

I hang out with other writers but we don’t critique. We laugh, we grumble, and some try out ideas. Once they did a round of critiques but I bowed out because I do that for a living. I tend not to show Hilary what I am doing unless and until it is very far along. He feels the same way. He likes to work in privacy.

What is your advice to aspiring writers? How important is it for a young writer to be a reader? What would you recommend they read?

I’d say read the kind of thing you would like to write. Not every writer agrees with this advice. Some fiction writers don’t read fiction. I do. I love falling into a story. I’d say read all the time, read every day. It really helps. We’re all in a conversation with other writers. That’s what we’re doing when we write.

What has been the hardest part about being a writer?

Hard? Not enough time. Never enough time. I often fantasized that if I got arrested and jailed I would at least be able to read and write non-stop. But then I visited a jail for research and I lost that fantasy. Jail is stinky and physically uncomfortable. I think I have to stay above the law.

Next post in this series on Friday will be Sandra Parshall. Monday will be the next in the Writers of Color series. Have a great weekend!