Reading : The Big Score by Peter Corris

I’m currently reading the latest Cliff Hardy book by Peter Corris, The Big Score. This is another collection of short stories featuring the tough Sydney private enquiry agent.

The stories are obviously fairly recent because Cliff has the use of a mobile phone, doesn’t smoke, uses Viv Garner as his solicitor and is going out with Lily. But they also fall before his last novel, Appeal Denied, because Cliff still holds his PEA license.

I am partway through the 5th of 11 stories that make up the book and they have all been consistently punchy, running to around 10 pages per story. As in real life, not all of Cliff’s investigations end neatly or satisfactorily, often times we just have to content in knowing who dunnit and how rather than the fact that they are going to pay for doing it.

Each story exhibits the usual display of guts and/or ingenuity on Hardy’s part and, for fans of the series, continues on the solid tradition that has made the series so popular for so long in which Hardy wades in boots and all and bugger the sensitivities of those around him.

Book Details:
The Big Score by Peter Corris
pub. Allen & Unwin
ISBN. 9781741752236
214 pages

Six Sacred Stones - The Comic

In a nifty promotional idea, Simon and Schuster have announced a competition for US and Canadian residents in which you are asked to create a comic strip based on Chapter 1 of Matthew Reilly's new action thriller 6 Sacred Stones. The competition website includes a link to an excerpt of the first chapter so budding comic writers be inspired to create a masterpiece.

The winning entry is going to be included in the mass market edition of the book. You've got until 11:59 ET on March 1, 2008 to get it in so get cracking and do Reilly's non-stop action proud.

Ross Duncan Review and Interview

The folks over at The Compulsive Reader have been busy with a steady stream of reviews and interviews. One of their more recent subjects has been Ross Duncan, author of All Those Bright Crosses. The transcript of the interview conducted by Magdalena Ball can be read on The Compulsive Reader website or, alternatively, you can sit back and relax and listen to the audio version of the interview.

Accompanying the interview is a review of All Those Bright Crosses in which Magdalena effecitvely captures the unmistakable strengths of the book.

Garry Disher Answers the Parker Question

A few days ago I posted about Garry Disher's articles at the State Library of Victoria Great Summer Reads Blog. Peter from Detectives Beyond Borders put the question of the relationship between Disher's Wyatt and Richard Stark's Parker to him.

Garry Disher has wasted little time in penning his response to Peter and it makes for still more fascinating insight into Wyatt the character as well as the place of the criminal as protagonist in the crime genre.

In another post Disher spoke (among many other things) about the popularity of his books in Germany which prompted the question from one reader asking him why he thought he had won such popularity from the German readers. It's a question that he again goes to great lengths to answer.

Spinetingler Award Nominations

Many crime fiction fans would already be aware of, and have devoured, each on-line edition of Spinetingler Magazine and so would be aware of the new set of awards that were feted a few months ago. The nominations for the inaugural Spinetingler Awards have now been announced with the usual “Best Novel” type categories joined by one or two new ones not seen at the Edgars, Anthonys, etc.

All the details of the awards and the nominees are listed on the CrimeZine site, but of interest to Australian readers are the inclusion of Text Publishing, picking up a nom in the Best Publisher category and Daniel Hatadi earning a Special Services to the industry nomination for his wonderful Crimespace site.

(Added later 'cos I'm not quite as up on things as perhaps I could be) As Sandra Ruttan has pointed out, Amra Pajalic has also received a nomination in the Best Short Story On the Web category for her story The Living Dead which appeared in Spinetingler Magazine.

These awards are interactive in that we can all vote for them by sending an email to Sandra Ruttan at Spinetingler Magazine. Voting is open now and will remain so until December 30, 2007. Only one email will be accepted per person so you need to send your votes in for all categories in the one message. Sandra has listed all the pertinent instructions at CrimeZine so pop on over and check it out.

Garry Disher Tells All

I came across this extremely interesting article by Garry Disher on the State Library of Victoria blog today. In it he examines in great depth the ideas, planning and characters that go into his two series, the Wyatt series and the Challis and Destry series.

Of particular interst to me was his discussion of the persona of Wyatt and his own theory about why he thinks a criminal protagonist is so appealing to readers. He also slips in the tantalising news that he is in the process of writing a 7th Wyatt book. (The speculation / rumours from earlier in the year are true).

The six Wyatt books are : Kickback, Paydirt, Deathdeal, Crosskill, Port Vila Blues and The Fallout

He then turns his attention to the Challis and Destry books listing the main elements of the series and how he comes up with ideas for the crimes contained in each book. He also eplains why the series has expanded from being known as "The Challis Series" to "The Challis and Destry Series".

The four Challis & Destry books are : The Dragon Man, Kittyhawk Down, Snapshot and Chain of Evidence.

A couple of days earlier, Disher contributed another article to the SLV blog titled "Becoming a Fiction Writer...get some tips from Garry Disher". This reads as more of a bio on Disher explaining his background and upbringing before going on to give a few tips on how he thinks talented young writers might succeed at their craft.

As I said earlier, the two articles make for some very interesting reading, particularly if you are a fan of Disher. And if you're not (yet) but enjoy top quality hardboiled crime fiction, it's well worth the effort to track down the books listed above.