Modus operandi
This blog will be devoted to interviews with authors of mysteries and thrillers who have a particular connection with a city or locale. Think Simenon and Paris, Conan Doyle and London. Now think extant writers: Cara Black and Paris, Philip Kerr and pre-war Berlin, Matt Beynon Rees and Jerusalem, Donna Leon and Venice, Jason Goodwin and early nineteenth-century Istanbul, Leighton Gage and contemporary Brazil, and yes, yours truly for Vienna 1900.
Do not expect a daily blog. I am a working writer with novels to write. But I hope to have regular interviews with other working writers, talking about spirit of place and how locale can become a major character in our favorite mysteries. Please feel free to make suggestions of books and authors. And please feel free to start or add to conversations on the comments pages about what makes for great mysteries and thrillers.
I also irregularly post a series of writings on my life in Cold War Europe; these are archived under the “Diverse” section of the “Categories” heading on the right hand scroll. Here you will find tales from my life in a cave in Crete to a strange friendship with a blue-eyed African perched in a Viennese tower. These are essais in the truest sense: attempts at memoir and a fond look at past times.
Hi there, Syd. Just getting in touch following the comment you left on Lizzy’s Literary Life. Yes, I’d be very happy to do an interview. I look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes
Roger
Hello Mr. Jones,
This is Carmen Abrego with Arte Público Press, the oldest and largest publisher of U.S. Hispanic Literature based at the University of Houston.
We are familiar with Scene of the Crime, and find it to be a great read.
The Name Partner by Carlos Cisneros is our latest title that would be a perfect novel to bring to the attention of your online audience. In this legal thriller, set in South Texas’ border region, a trial lawyer finds himself defending a drug company accused of making a deadly new drug.
We know the setting of this novel differs from your other featured locales, but this novel truly engulfs itself in the South Texas culture. The protagonist is mainly located in the cities of Laredo and Houston, which are the areas of Texas the author is from.
According to Booklist: “This thriller lands firmly in John Grisham territory. But Cisneros makes the material his own.”
We would welcome further interest in you interviewing the author, and if you have any questions or particular requests, please feel free to contact me.
Carmen Peña Abrego
Marketing Coordinator
713-743-2999
carpen@uh.edu
This blog is wonderful and explains why I have come to love murder mysteries. I have subscribed to your email updates. I especially like your interviewing technique; you’re very good at getting your partners in crime to talk.
Ruth Paget 🙂
Ruth,
So glad you like the blog. As you review books, perhaps you could recommend authors from time to time. I love the input.
Best,
Syd
Syd,
I’d be happy to do that. Meanwhile, I will be reading and, dare I say it, learning from your blog. I like your Diverse category with the Vienna musings on it, too.
Best wishes,
Ruth 🙂
May I suggest an interview with John Burdett, the author of four mysteries set in Thailand? His detective provides interesting insights into Thai thinking as well as what Thais think of westerners. I particularly enjoy his stories because I’m a frequent visitor to Thailand and recognize many of the settings.
Hey Tom–
Your wish is my command–John was posted November 29, 2010–just click under the November 2010 archives and hes’ at the top of the list–I’ve got to figure out how to list an archive in alphabetical order of the writers–this is not searchable at all and there are over 100 interviews now.. Thanks for the comment. Feel free to recommend any other writers, too..
Best,
Sd
Very interesting blog SD. I plan to come back tonight and dig a little deeper! Tom
Love to include an article by you for Mystery Readers Journal (Vol 28:1): Mysteries Set in France. 500-1500 words. Loved your post
Janet,
Many thanks for the comment. Re the Mystery Readers Journal, I would be happy to work with you. I will email you.
Best,
Syd
The theme of your blog is great, Syd, very much good reading here! It’s interesting to read novels connected to a place or a location. I love to travel so thank you so much for taking me around!
Greetings from the North
Dina
Dina,
Glad you stumbled upon the site–yes, there are enough interviews here to keep you reading for quite some time!
Best,
Syd
That’s for sure! 🙂 Have a great new week.
Love
Dina
Syd….in the spirit of place…you have to interview Aaron Elkins….not about his Gideon Oliver series…but his art mystery novels…not primarily about the Chris Norgren’s but his standalone LOOT (1999).
His protag Ben Revere, Boston-based art historian, ex-curator, ex- Harvard professor…has just stumbled on a lost Velazquez in a seedy South Boston pawnshop…and is now on page 109) peering from his room on the fifth floor of the Hotel Imperial in Vienna. Seems the painting was lost on its way to the Altaussee Salt Mine in 1945. Ben is in Vienna to consult with a certain Count Steffan who says he is the rightful owner of the painting.
The book’s background is the MFAA-Monuments Men group-allied soldiers assigned by President Roosevelt to find the rightful owners of the Nazi’s stolen art. A movie about The MONUMENTS MEN is coming out in December 2013 starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett based on a rather dry nonfiction book (473 pages) by Robert M. Edsel.
Elkins’ book is so much shorter…and more fun! Along with his Chris Norgren art/mystery trilogy….he must have been before his time writing these tales about lost art and intriguing mysteries.
P. S. I won an ARC of Ruin Value….it’s next on the TBR pile…
Jane
Jane,
Thanks for the tip on the Elkins book and sorry to be so long in replying. Have been up to my nose in rewrites for the next Vienna book and with promo stuff. I will definitely give Loot a look. And bravo for you winning a copy of Ruin Value. Hope you like it.
Hey there, I was in Matala in 1968 on my way to Israel to work on a kibbutz. Didn’t take the Orient Express, just hitchhiked through Yugoslavia. I like your bit about respectable passengers. I got treated like shit everywhere, the beard, the long hair, the dirty khaki shorts. Those were the days. Got down to Sharm el sheik via Israeli navy barge from Eilat, hitched a ride up past the Suez Canal and then via El Arish to Gaza and back to the kibbutz. I wonder if anybody hitchhikes anymore but I doubt it. I’ll have to read your books, although if I get too nostalgic it might get me depressed. Take a look at my FB page David Alan Kraul, there are two of them, don’t ask me why, but maybe you’ll recognize some scenes. I enrolled at the U. of Vienna in 1968 after returning. Great to find your site!
Wow–if you will pardon the old-fashioned expression. Very cool to hear from someone with so many coincidental connections. I’ll have to email you.
I’d love to do an interview about writing mystery book with a strong connection to place. In my latest book, ‘Shades of Light and Darkness’ the action takes place during a honeymoon vacation in Israel. The location is as important as the characters. In ‘Treasons and Spoils’, Southie, the Boston Irish stronghold is long gone, but the memory is an important part of the story. ‘A Conventional Murder’ is pure Back Bay Boston, ‘The Dream Catcher’ takes place in the Maine woods. ‘Murder in Wyoming’ – well that one is self evident. Until I started to write this post, I was not aware of how much the sense of place is central to most of my books.