Laurie R. King

Award-winning, bestselling, thought-provoking mysteries

LAURIE'S NEWSLETTER

…And a Year Later: Edgar!

by 2 Comments

Part of February’s month-long celebration of A Grave Talent, my Edgar-winning first novel.

**

A year after A Grave Talent was published, my first venture into publishing took me to the annual Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards banquet, when it was nominated in the Best First Novel category. I went with my daughter (then 14) and my agent, Linda (whom I talked about here in a recent post)

I was somewhat stunned to be in the same room as so many REAL writers. I sat at my publisher’s table along with another nominee, this one for Best Novel, Minette Walters.

Reader, I won. (So did Minette. It was a good night for St Martins Press.) I think I only put the statue down when we were back in the hotel room and I had to phone my family in California.

And when I got home, I found that my local bookshop was happy too.

Since then, I’ve been nominated a number of times, and won other awards. I’ve been on several Edgar committees, too, which is great fun–working with writers you respect, knowing that at the end of the process will be a grin like the above.

**

Read about A Grave Talent (with order links), see the other Martinellis,

or order a signed copy.

Love for Lockdown

by 6 Comments

My friends at Deadly Pleasures Magazine have given Lockdown a lovely long review.

I hope they don’t mind, but I think I’ll post the whole thing here–and, they named it one of their Best Novels of 2017. Thank you, Deadly Pleasures!

Readers would be justified in thinking that with a title like Lockdown, the new Laurie R. King novel was going to present a thriller about a school under siege; and in a way, that is exactly what is provided – though hardly via the expected method.

It is career day at Guadalupe Middle School. It should be a day when the students examine what the future holds for them, but instead the tensions that lie just under the surface of this societal microcosm threaten to erupt.

Lockdown is a true ensemble piece. Laurie R. King puts into place a collection of characters with enough secrets, scandals, suspicion, and lies to keep readers guessing throughout the unfolding of this tragic incident. There is such diversity presented on the page – a true reflection of the melting pot that is America – and each character is vividly drawn.

King structures her novel by starting chapters with time-stamps documenting the day’s activities from multiple points of view in a steady movement forward. Readers know immediately that this a device used as a virtual countdown clock to impending trouble. Occasionally, King will recount past events that have a bearing on the current plot. Among other things, these include details of a student’s death the previous year, the principal’s time spent in Papua New Guinea, and a controversial trial that is taking place across town.

About two-thirds of the way Lockdown, King presents a series of chapters that are inspired by the opening line of the principal’s career day lecture. The leader of the school starts out by alluding to the school population as a tapestry of unique threads. This leads to each of our ensemble cast reflecting on what that phrase means in relation to themselves. It is beautifully executed and had it ended there, it would have been the highlight of the novel – but King goes even one step further. At the end of this section, the school principal modifies her metaphor in a way that takes it from stuffy and erudite to gritty and modern. The shift is not forced and seems so obvious after the fact, but when it happens, the moment is extremely powerful and marks a decided shift in the nature of the narrative. This short collection of chapters alone is a master class on unifying a narrative and the characters involved while also exposing the more global aspects of a theme.

The violent incident towards which the entirety of Lockdown is leading does not occur until very late in the novel. This reinforces the idea that the denouement, while an important part of the work as a whole, is not as important as the “why” that causes it.   Incremental actions leading to massive reactions is something we are seeing more and more of in today’s modern world and by recounting this in a small, enclosed environment, King is able to document the dangers involved in such decisions.

The brevity of the violence in Lockdown may surprise some, but it is clear from the novel’s structure that this was not King’s focus. If I have one complaint about the novel it would be that the lack of bloodshed seems unrealistic given what we have seen occur in similar real-life situations. But this is not a book about the attack; this is a novel about people, about society, and about interaction. As such, longtime fans of Laurie R. King will delight in the brief appearance of Kate Martinelli and Brother Erasmus – beloved characters from her earliest series. They are only a tiny part of Lockdown, but their arrival helps to expand the canvas of the novel, reinforcing the idea that this type of thing can happen anywhere, at any time.

Laurie R. King’s Lockdown is a timely novel, meticulously written, and sure to have readers thinking long after the story is told. 

Edgars symposium

by Leave a Comment

If you’re interested in crime, or writing, or crime writing—and especially if you’re anywhere near New York the end of this month—you should seriously consider the MWA Edgar symposium.

This year is a particularly strong set of offerings, including Jeff Deaver, Alafair Burke, Megan Abbott, Reed Farrell Coleman, Lyndsay Faye, Charles Todd–oh, and that Laurie King woman–and many more, taking about:

Best First Novel nominees: writers who will rule the genre in the next generation

Max Allan Collins interview: this extraordinary writer has done pretty much everything—including this year, himself get named Grand Master

Just the Facts: researching your book, whether fiction or nonfiction, by five nominees for this year’s Edgars awards. Moderated by Laurie R. King herself.

Young Adult mysteries: how the same, and how different, from adult crime?

Liars Club: protagonists, antagonists—sometimes they’re the same person, and always the writer needs to make them sympathetic.

#AuthorLife: the opening doors of writing crime—agent or no? Outline or no? Big Five or indie?

Ellen Hart interview: this year’s other Grand Master dishes the secrets

**

This is going to be a powerful learning experience—and, need I say, a whole lot of fun? Come join us, and bring your notebooks and several #2 pencils!

Here’s the complete schedule:

9:00 – 9:50:Meet the Class of 2017 – Best First Novel Nominees

Moderator:  STEFANIE PINTOFF, 2010 Best First Edgar Winner (City on Edge, Bantam)
Panelists: Flynn Berry (2017 Best First Edgar Nominee – Under the Harrow, Penguin Books)
Bill Beverly (2017 Best First Edgar Nominee – Dodgers, Crown Publishing)
Joe Ide (2017 Best First Edgar Nominee – IQ, Little, Brown & Co – Mulholland Books)
Nick Petrie (2017 Best First Edgar Nominee – The Drifter – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Lili Wright (2017 Best First Edgar Nominee – Dancing with the Tiger – Marian Wood/Putnam)
Heather Young (2017 Best First Edgar Nominee – The Lost Girls – William Morrow)

10:00 – 10:50: From the Writer’s Desk, Part 1
Grand Master Max Allan Collins interviewed by Charles Ardai

11:00 – 11:50: Just the Facts – If you’re not writing what you know, you’re writing what you want to know – and today’s savvy reader will send you a note if you get it wrong. How do writers of fiction and nonfiction crime approach research? When do they know they’ve researched enough?

Moderator: LAURIE R. KING, MWA NorCal Chapter President (Murder of Mary Russell – Bantam)
Panelists: Ruth Franklin (2017 Best Critical/Bio Nominee – Shirley Jackson – W.W. Norton)
Laurence Leamer (2017 Best Fact Crime Nominee – The Lynching – William Morrow)
Kate Summerscale (2017 Best Fact Crime Nominee – The Wicked Boy – Penguin Press)
Caroline (Charles) Todd (2017 MHC Award Nominee – The Shattered Tree – William Morrow)
James Ziskin (2017 Best PBO Nominee – Heart of Stone – Seventh Street Books)

11:50 – 1:00 Lunch Break (On Your Own)

1:00 – 1:50: Nursery Noir – Writers of mysteries for young readers may have the toughest audience of all. How do dark stories translate for the teen and tween set? How do writers get into the minds – and hearts – of kid readers?

Moderator: LORI RADER-DAY, MWA Midwest Chapter President (The Day I Died – William Morrow)
Panelists: Brent Hartinger (2017 Best Young Adult Nominee – Three Truths and a Lie – Simon Pulse)
April Henry (2017 Best Young Adult Nominee – The Girl I Used to Be – Christy Ottaviano Books)
Sarah Lariviere (2017 Best Juvenile Nominee – The Bad Kid – Simon & Schuster BFYR)
Claire Legrand (2017 Best Juvenile Nominee – Some Kind of Happiness (Simon & Schuster BFYR)
James Ponti (2017 Best Juvenile Nominee – Framed! – Aladdin)
Billy Taylor (2017 Best Young Adult Nominee – Thieving Weasels – Penguin YR – Dial Books)
Susan Vaught (2017 Best Juvenile Nominee – Things Too Huge to Fix by Saying Sorry – Paula Wiseman Books)

2:00 – 2:50: Liars Club – Liars, cheats, thieves, murderers – and, sometimes, those are the protagonists. How do writers create characters that keep readers up at night? How do they create empathy in characters who make bad guys look pretty good?

Moderator: JEFFERY DEAVER, 2017 MWA President (The Burial Hour – Grand Central Publishing)
Panelists: Laura Benedict (2017 Best Short Story Nominee – “A Paler Shade of Death” – St. Louis Noir)
Alafair Burke (2017 Best Novel Nominee – The Ex – HarperCollins)
Robert Dugoni (2017 Best PBO Nominee – The 7th Canon – Thomas & Mercer)
Lyndsay Faye (2017 Best Novel Nominee – Jane Steele – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Alison Gaylin (2017 Best Novel Nominee – What Remains of Me – William Morrow)
Martha Hillier (2017 Best TV Episode Nominee – “Dark Road” – Vera)

3:00 – 3:50: #AuthorLife – There’s no one way to be a crime writer. Agent/no agent. Small press/big five. Plotter/pantser forever. How did these authors get into the life of crime – and what advice do they have for aspiring writers taking a stab at mystery?

Moderator: MARK STEVENS, MWA Rocky Mtn Chapter President (Lake of Fire – Midnight Ink)
Panelists: Megan Abbott (2017 Best Short Story Nominee – “Oxford Girl” – Mississippi Noir)
Patricia Abbott (2017 Best PBO Nominee – Shot in Detroit – Polis Books)
Reed Farrel Coleman (2017 Best Novel Nominee – Where it Hurts – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Tyler Dilts (2017 Best PBO Nominee – Come Twilight – Thomas & Mercer)
Adrian McKinty (2017 Best PBO Nominee – Rain Dogs – Seventh Street Books)
Wendy Corsi Staub (2017 MHC Award Nominee – Blue Moon – William Morrow)

4:00 – 4:50: From the Writer’s Desk, Part 2
Grand Master Ellen Hart – Interviewed by Oline Cogdill

Cost:  $95 members, $125 non-members – with a $15 retroactive discount for those who join Mystery Writers of America within 30 days after Symposium.

 

Sign up here, and I’ll see you in NYC!

Echoes of Sherlock Holmes

by 2 Comments

Something with my name on the cover has just appeared in the Publisher’s Weekly list of

Top Ten Mysteries for the FallEchoesOfSherlockHolmes

Back in 2009, Les Klinger was in charge of the Left Coast Crime Sherlock Holmes panel. And being Les, he did not go just for the usual suspects (ie, me) but for guests of honor Jan Burke and Lee Child, and multiple prize winner Michael Connelly as well.

Afterwards, a little light went on in his fevered brain and he said to me, What if you and I edited a collection of Holmes stories written by people who aren’t known to be Holmes aficionados? The result of that came in 2011: A Study in Sherlock.  Three years later, we did a second volume, In the Company of Sherlock Holmes.  Those two books had a number of nominations and awards, including the 2015 Anthony.

And now in 2016, huzzah and hooray, Echoes of Sherlock Holmes looks to be following that pattern!

The stories here range wide, as you might expect with authors from Cory Doctorow to Anne Perry, Gary Philips to Tasha Alexander, William Kent Krueger to Catriona McPherson, David Morrell to—well, look at the entire flabbergasting list of contributors here. These are amazing writers, who play the Sherlockian game with panache and brilliance.

You can pre-order Echoes on Amazon/Kindle, Barnes&Noble/Nook, or signed by Les and me at the Poisoned Pen when we go there in early October. There’s also a gorgeous, completely signed limited edition from Mysterious Books, here.

Me & Edgar & Agatha & friends

by 31 Comments

That shriek that rattled the country just before 10:00 pm EST was me reacting to the sound of my name from the podium at the Agatha Awards: Malice Domestic’s choice of Best Historical Mystery is Dreaming Spies, by Laurie R. King!

IMG_0293

I was nominated for an Agatha once before (for The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, in 1995) and the convention chose me as their Guest of Honor three years ago, but the award teapot (this convention, after all, focuses on the Traditional Mystery) eluded me until now.

Best of all, I got to sit at a table with the awards of three other friends on it: one each for my friends Barbara Peters and Rob Rosenwald, joint recipients of the Poirot award (for which I got to conduct the conference interview, which ranged over subjects from the state of modern publishing to whether or not they had the requisite RomCom “meet cute”–which, it turns out, they did, over accusations of cheating at cards)LRK, Barbara, Rob

…and also on the table was Margaret Maron’s Agatha for Contemporary Mystery (for the gorgeous 20th and—alas!—final Deborah Knott story, Long Upon the Land.) Here are three of the four of us winners:

IMG_0294

In general, Malice Domestic is a really fun conference, casual and filled with dedicated book-lovers. I was pleased this year to hear that Good Friends Alice W. (who took a couple of these pictures) and Merrily T. would be going,LRK, Alice, Merrily

along with more-or-less locals like Bill M. and eminent Sherlockians Peter Blau and his wife Bev Wolov (a Smithsonian lace expert!)

My trip to DC came on the heels of a quick 36 hours in New York, during which I fit in dinner with friends, meetings with Picador (who do the stunning paperbacks of the early books) and Random House’s enthusiastic Team LRK, and the Edgars Awards banquet of the Mystery Writers of America. There I had the honor of giving the Ellery Queen Award (for work in the mystery-publishing field) to my friend Janet Rudolph, whose passion for Crime is exceeded only by the joy she takes in fine chocolates.  I introduced her by saying:

It’s not often a person is given the chance to speak for an entire community.  I am so pleased to be the one to stand up here and say, Janet, we love you. We honor and respect you. We stand amazed at your unflagging energy, your unfailing good will and optimism, and your endless creativity in celebrating the genre.

We, the world’s scribblers, give you our thanks, our affection, our Ellery Queen Award–and, more to the point, our chocolate.

Janet Rudolph.

And then handed her the MWA statue, along with a box of chocolate truffles.

The Edgars banquet also involves, of course, drinks in the bar before and after with friends like SJ Rozan and Dan Stashower and Laura Caldwell and—well, it wouldn’t be a black tie party without Les Klinger.IMG_1365

You can read about MWA’s 2016 awards, here.

And think about joining us for the fun, in New Orleans or Honolulu!

Agatha and me

by 12 Comments

The list of nominees for this year’s Agatha awards is now up on the Malice Domestic web site.banner

Malice, which takes place in Bethesda the first weekend in May, celebrates “the traditional mystery,” and Dreaming Spies is one of the attendees’ top choices for “Best Historical Mystery.”  This is a great honor–I mean, just look at the others in just this one category:

Best Historical Novel:
Malice at the Palace, Rhys Bowen (Berkley)
The Masque of a Murderer, Susanna Calkins (Minotaur Books)
Dreaming Spies, Laurie R. King (Bantam)
Mrs. Roosevelt’s Confidante, Susan Elia Macneal (Banntam)
Murder on Amsterdam Avenue, Victoria Thompson (Berkley)

Voting takes place during the conference.  The entire list of nominations, offering a lot of weeks of great traditional crime stories, is here.

If you'd like to hear about my upcoming events and publications, sign up for The Buzz, here.

Sign up!