WICKER just won't go away

A few days back I wrote about WICKER by Kevin Guilfoile. I was talking to the friend who lent it to me and also the one that I handed it on to, about what has remained with me about it.

So, if you haven't read it, you may not want to go further here, just in case I spoil it for you.
What I'm going to do here is talk about some of the ideas about it that I have been mulling over.
I'm not going to repeat what I've already written either, so if you do want to read on, you might want to check my earlier "review" first.

First of all I think it is really two books in one. In fact it is divided into 2 distinct parts.

The first part is about cloning from DNA, the ethical issues that arise from that, and what you actually get when you clone a human.

• is the clone the twin of the earlier person, a duplicate perhaps?
• Is everything exactly the same? birthmarks, physical things like twitches
  
• is the mind/soul cloned too, or is there something outside the body that is the soul of the body? Is it possible therefore for a soul to have 2 bodies?
• what is the role of environment in shaping the child?
• is the baby born with "adult" intelligence, and just spends the years waiting for the body to catch up? Would their IQs be the same?
  
• Is there any sort of empathetic bond between the original and the clone?

The second part of the book is almost entirely about a virtual world called Shadowland, a game that people play. It is very similar to Second Life in being a 3D world inhabited by avatars.
However it differs from Second Life in the way it is constructed. Second Life is built by its inhabitants and often does emulate the real world, but is also often seen as place where the avatars can attempt things not possible in real life. The creators of Shadowland in WICKER have created a recognisable replica of the real world, and many of its inhabitants are TTLs (True to Lifers)

Here are some of the ideas explored

• a virtual world can be a release valve for people in the real world who have anti-social tendencies, or who want to understand "what it is like" to kill someone, or steal, or just drive a car extremely fast etc.
• Virtual worlds may have a beneficial social effect on the real world by keeping the crime rate down, or reducing the murder rate, by allowing players/avatars to commit these things in the virtual world, rather than the real one.
• A murderer may practice his technique in the virtual world, before he/she murders in the real one
• restraints that hold us back in the real world have been relaxed in the virtual one
• People may use the virtual world for establishing relationships in the real one.
• Life is cheap in the virtual world. Values as we know them don't exist.
  

There have been some interesting reports of this issue which perhaps Kevin Guilfoile had in mind.

• SL "represents an unhealthy disengagement from, and evasion of, the real world."
• Just Killin': Avatar Murder: the act of two consenting adults simulating murder, killing, and war are not only permitted without debate in SL, they are accommodated
• Virtual Rape is Traumatic but is it a crime?
• Hidden Virtual World Prison Revealed. Dubbed the "The Corn Field," the moonlit environment contains only rows of corn, two television sets, an aging tractor and a one-way teleport terminal allowing no escape.
• SL Community Incident Report: the crimes detected recently include assault, illegal gambling, littering, spamming, and use of a weapon
• Child abuse, pornography in Second life
  

Make you think doesn't it?

Peter Temple comes out tops

If you add the oz_mystery readers best reads for 2006 and 2007 together an interesting picture emerges
The top 5 are
BROKEN SHORE (THE), Peter Temple, 4+6
DIAMOND DOVE, Adrian Hyland, 5
DEVIL'S STAR (THE), Jo Nesbo, 3+2
RAVEN BLACK, Ann Cleeves, 1+3
ABOVE SUSPICION, Lynda La Plante, 4

Top by a long way is THE BROKEN SHORE with which Peter Temple has won the Ned Kelly award for Best Novel in 2006, and then the 2007 CWA Duncan Lawrie Award

oz_mystery_readers best for 2007

oz_mystery_readers follow the same practice as many online groups of asking members to submit their 10 or so best reads for the year. The results are than collated to give members books to look out for.

Here is the short list for 2007 of those that were mentioned more than once.
In all 112 titles were submitted by a dozen or so list members
The numbers after the authors names indicate the number of times the title occurred
*** indicate Australian authors

*** DIAMOND DOVE, Adrian Hyland, 5

ABOVE SUSPICION, Lynda La Plante, 4

*** BROKEN SHORE (THE), Peter Temple, 4

*** CROOK AS ROOKWOOD, Chris Nyst, 3

DEATH OF DALZIEL (THE), Reginald Hill, 3

DEVIL'S STAR (THE), Jo Nesbo, 3

*** BODY COUNT, P. D. Martin, 2

EXIT MUSIC, Ian Rankin, 2

HOUSE SITTER (THE), Peter Lovesey, 2

*** NIGHT FERRY (THE), Michael Robotham, 2

PRIEST, Ken Bruen, 2

REDBREAST (THE), Jo Nesbo, 2

SILENCE OF THE GRAVE, Arnaldur Indridason, 2

TIN ROOF BLOW DOWN (THE), James Lee Burke, 2

VOICES, Arnaldur Indridason, 2

WOODS (THE), Harlan Coben, 2

Some authors were mentioned more than once too
- more than one title that is

==============================

Alexander McCall Smith

Arnaldur Indridason

*** Brian Kavanagh

Colin Watson

Giles Blunt

Hakan Nesser

Harlan Coben

Karin Fossum

Ken Bruen

Louise Penny

Lynda La Plante

Peter Lovesey

*** Shane Maloney

Tess Gerritsen

Thomas H. Cook

John Connor

My second book for 2008. This time I listened rather than read.
I enjoy well read unabridged mysteries and thrillers on CDs. They usually take me some time to get through because I only listen as I am driving to and from work, about 20 minutes each way. But I decided this 10 CD set, 12 hours of it, was taking too long. I began it before Christmas. So tonight I listened to the final 2 hours through my computer's CD player.

This one was PHOENIX by John Connor, the first in Karen Sharpe series.

When her boss and a female informant are found murdered on the moors in the Pennines, Detective Constable Karen Sharpe realises she should be dead too. But for an anniversary she was observing at home alone, she would have been with them. The deaths have all the hallmarks of a drugs killing but Karen is pretty sure that there is more to it than that. What were they doing out on the moors? Last time she had seen them they were drinking in a hotel.
Detective Chief Superintendent Munro realises he needs Karen on his investigation team despite her close connections to the case. But he doesn't know what to make of her and she is difficult to control, not a team member at all.
And in her past Karen has a dark secret, something that surfaces annually, for Karen Sharpe is not who she seems. Half way through this story, just when you think all the riddles have been solved, you realise that you are only half way there. Murder investigation becomes strong, rapidly moving thriller. What Karen Sharpe did eight years before comes as a series of staggering surprises. Strongly read by Maggie Mash.

I was surprised to find out that this is the beginning of a series. I didn't expect to meet Karen Sharpe again. So I'll read another and Maggie Mash's voice will stay with me for a while yet.
1. PHOENIX (2003)
2. PLAYROOM (2004)
3. A CHILD'S GAME (2006)
4. FALLING (2007)

Once again, this won't survive to be on my best reads for 2008 but it will stay in my top 10 for a couple of months. The rate I am going, I'll be lucky to read 10 books in 2 months. :-)

Susan Hill

Finally I've managed to get around to finishing reading the first book for 2008. I'd heard a lot of good things about this book, and while it won't be my best read for 2008, it will be in my top 10 for a while.

THE VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN by Susan Hill
Detective Sergeant Freya Graffham has arrived in the small cathedral town of Lafferton to join DCI Simon Serrailler's team. She makes new friends in the town rather more easily than she expected, especially through Serrailler's mother who is a local social identity, and his sister, one of the town's doctors.
Angela Randall, a woman in her fifties has disappeared without trace while out walking on the Hill in the fog. Halfway up the Hill loom the Wern Stones, ancient standing stones, that loom "like three witches squatting around a cauldron". There is nothing to link this disappearance with any other case it seems, but there is also a young man who disappeared on the Hill while out jogging, and then there is Jim William's vanished dog Skippy. Simon Serailler's sister, Dr. Cat Deerborn has concerns of her own: a friend who has what seems to be terminal cancer, and then some alternative medicine practitioners whose practices can be downright dangerous.
I loved the way this book is structured: several voices clamouring for the reader's attention; new characters to be explored; and strands that don't quite come together until towards the end. #1 in the Simon Serrailler series.

I do like to start a series at the beginning and read them in order.
I feel excited at prospect of reading the next two:
THE PURE IN HEART (2005)
THE RISK OF DARKNESS (2006)
I have both lurking among the 20+ library books waiting on my shelves.
And then apparently there are two more to be published this year
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/susan-hill/

The world grows smaller

Yesterday I was struck by how much smaller the world has become. My daughter and son-in-law have recently moved to Abu Dhabi, yet there she was to chat with through Live Messenger. In the morning I had already had a chat session with members of another online reading group and there were people from US, Canada, Germany and Australia. Over 30 years has passed since I trekked from Kathmandhu to London on an overland bus, making many good friends. Recently one of them and I have re-discovered each other through FaceBook.

But nowhere is the shrinking of the world so clearly illustrated as in the choice of international authors, particularly in the crime and mystery fiction genre, now available to us in translated paperbacks.
Apart from a constant diet of Australian, British, Canadian and American authors, last year I read books by
Guillermo Martinez
Henning Mankell
Natsuo Kirino
Arnaldur Indridason
Helene Tursten
Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
Karin Fossum
Gianrico Carofiglio
and the list of new books by non-English authors grows annually as publishers discover best-sellers and prize winners in other languages.

Detective teams and Romantic involvement

This post is inspired by my current read, THE VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN by Susan Hill.
It is labelled as a Simon Serrailler crime novel - in fact it is the first in the series.
Detective Sergeant Freya Graffham has recently joined D. I. Simon Serrailler's team in the cathedral town of Lafferton and has realised that she has (almost at first sight) fallen in love with him. She has found out through a mutual friend that he has this effect on all women, and despite apparently extending friendship, never commits himself to romantic involvement. I still have about 200 pages to go, so am now wondering how Freya is going to resolve this. It is the last thing she needs at the start of her career.

The second novel that springs to mind is PHOENIX by John Connor. I am actually listening to it on CD and am about half way through. D.C. Karen Sharpe has newly come to the Pennines from London and joined a team being headed by D.C.S John Munro. Munro has taken up waiting outside Karen's house for her to come home late at night. He is obviously very attracted to her and she to him. They are sharing confidences but any relationship is in early days. Romantic involvement with him seems to be about the last thing she needs. She seems to have some deep dark secret in her past which is likely to affect any relationship she has.

Now the other example I have in my recent reading is CLEAN CUT by Lynda la Plante. This is the third in the Anna Travis series. Anna's romantic involvement with D.C.I James Langton began early on in ABOVE SUSPICION, the first in the series, continued in the second THE RED DAHLIA, and by CLEAN CUT they are living together, although they have not been working on the same cases for about 12 months.
When Langton is horrifically injured in a murder arrest that goes wrong, Anna becomes vital to his recovery. While Langton is still in hospital, Anna is assigned to a new case where a librarian is found dead by her twelve year old daughter returning from school. The suspect in this case is yet another violent rapist released from prison far too early. And then, perhaps a little predictably, the case Anna is working on and the one Langton was working on when he was attacked become linked. This a long and complex novel, with an ending that ensures there will be yet another sequel.

What other examples can you think of?
What is leading modern writers to include this sort of element in their plots?
Is it to make the point that romantic/sexual involvement between members of a team can impair sound decision-making? Surely we already knew that.
Or, and this may just be the cynic in me speaking, is it to make the crime fiction genre more palatable/attractive to those who like some romance/spice in their reading?
My other question relates to whether the author is assuming that readers will consume these books in order. Perhaps they are aiming at capturing an audience and then working within the framework that that audience enjoys.

Oz_Mystery History

oz_mystery_readers, an Australian group on Yahoo, turns 5 in about a month's time.
I created it in Feb 9, 2003
We have gained and lost members over that time, but the head count is now 114

We first began discussing books in December 2004
The first book we discussed was Ian Rankin's FLESHMARKET CLOSE.
7 people participated in the discussion, and we gave it a ranking of 4.7

At first we discussed books only every 2 months, but from June 2005 we began a monthly schedule

In the last 4 years we have discussed 44 books, with an average of 6.6 people joining in each discussion.
Once we got up to 13
15 of the books have been by Australian authors, and 9 of those have been in the last year.
The average rating is 4.25

We have given 2 ratings of 5
RAVEN BLACK by Ann Cleeves
DIAMOND DOVE by Adrian Hyland

Here are our top 10, with Australian authors marked ***
RAVEN BLACK, Ann Cleeves
***DIAMOND DOVE, Adrian Hyland
ABOVE SUSPICION, Lynda La Plante
FLESHMARKET CLOSE, Ian Rankin
SLEEPYHEAD, Mark Billingham
***THE BROKEN SHORE, Peter Temple
FLESH AND BLOOD, John Harvey
RED LEAVES, Thomas H Harris
***NO TRACE, Barry Maitland
THE DEVIL'S STAR, Jo Nesbo

Writers Festivals - Perth

Perth Writers Festival will be held 22-24 Feb
http://www.perthfestival.com.au/perthwritersfestival/

Seems a little light on crime/mystery writers but I found these in the "reading List":

• Douglas Kennedy, WOMAN IN THE FIFTH
• Shane Maloney, SUCKED IN
• Marion Halligan, MURDER ON THE APRICOT COAST
• Victoria Hammond, THE DEVIL AND MARIA D'AVALOS
• Christopher Koch, THE MEMORY ROOM
  

22 February, 2-3 pm, Shane Maloney and Marion Halligan discuss The Scene of the Crime
unfortunately set against a panel with Christopher Koch and others on Secrets and Lies

23 February, 12.30-1.30, Christopher Koch and others give readings from their latest novels.
2-3 pm, Douglas Kennedy is on a panel called Suspenseful Tales

24th February, 12.30-1.30, Victoria Hammond on a panel called Blurring the Lines

Now I haven't read any of those and I'm pleased to report that my local library network has them all in their catalogue (not that I need any more books to read)

New Year's Reflections

Many of the lists that I belong to are analysing the year that was. Some are collecting people's Tops and Bottoms and eventually will generate a collective "recommended reading" list. On others people are contemplating their achievements for the past year and making resolutions for the next.

My stats
I read 124 books last year - nearly all of them mystery
I have read 2649 books (that I've recorded titles for) in the past 33 years.
In 2007 I wrote 15 formal reviews and stored them at Reviewers Choice
In April 2007 I created my page at Library Thing and have added 165 records

I am currently reading THE HAUNTS OF VARIOUS MEN by Susan Hill.
Over on oz_mystery_readers we have begun discussing FRANTIC by Katherine Howell.

Best reads for 2007

The order is the order in which I read them
** Australian authors

THE DEATH OF DALZIEL, Reginald Hill
THE SECRET HANGMAN, Peter Lovesey
** THE NIGHT FERRY, Michael Robotham
VOICES, Arnaldur Indridason
** FRANTIC, Katherine Howell
THE WOODS, Harlan Coben
THE GOOD HUSBAND OF ZEBRA DRIVE, Alexander McCall Smith
DEAD COLD, Louise Penny
SILENCE OF THE GRAVE, Arnaldur Indridason
BLACK SECONDS, Karin Fossum
EXIT MUSIC, Ian Rankin
SCARED TO LIVE, Stephen Booth
** THE BROKEN SHORE, Peter Temple
THE HOUSE SITTER, Peter Lovesey
ABOVE SUSPICION, Lynda La Plante