Fictional Detectives

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles-Part 1

The Chronicles of Barsetshire by Anthony Trollope was the first novel series in English.

Trollope had not intended writing a series, but after writing The Warden and Barchester Towers, he found himself returning again and again to the English county of Barsetshire that he had created. And thus, the novel series was born.

The Chronicles is a set of six loosely related novels all set in the imaginary county of Barsetshire. The novels can easily be read as standalones. However, they share a core set of characters, along with the town of Barchester and its environs. Over the course of the six novels, the various subplots eventually find a resolution and bring the series to a close.

In April of last year, I was at a virtual writers conference and learned of the multi-author book series. Immediately, I thought of Trollope and Barchester.

I proposed the idea of a multi-author series to my fellow Underground Authors, and nine of us were able to work the project into our schedules.

We then had to come up with a unifying factor, something that would hold the series together. After much discussion, and taking a cue from Trollope, we created the town of Magnolia Bluff, set in the beautiful Texas Hill Country.

Each of our books would be set in Magnolia Bluff. We’d have our own key characters as major players in our individual story, but we’d also make use of each other’s characters as we saw fit. And while each story would be as individual as the author who wrote it, the town of Magnolia Bluff would be there to hold together our diverse imaginations.

In effect, this was a riff on the approach we took with our short story anthology Beyond the Sea. There, each author used the same picture as inspiration for his or her story. And we got a dozen very different tales.

We hadn’t planned on crime also being a unifying factor. That just happened. We came up with stories that all involved murder, and thus, the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles was born. (There’s a bit of a pun there, too, as the town’s newspaper is called the Chronicle.)

So how does a multi-author series work? Don’t things get messed up?

Well, they certainly could. But we derailed that problem by making sure we talked to each other so that we were all on the same page regarding geography and how we portrayed each other’s characters.

There has to be a spirit of community and cooperation, while at the same time maintaining our individual voices. Every step of the way we’ve hashed out issues and problems, coming to a consensus. It helps to have a project first attitude, as well.

Next week, I’ll talk about the first three books in the series; which are launching April, May, and June.

I have to say, if you like murder mysteries that have you scratching your head trying to solve the puzzle, and that keep you awake at night due to the suspense, as well as tickle your funny bone — then you were going to love these books.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright, award-winning poet, and a fictioneer; as well as an armchair philosopher, political theorist, and social commentator. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

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The Ghostbusting Duo

There’s nothing better than reading a mystery that has a ghost or a monster in it. And that’s essentially what the occult detective genre is. A fusion of the traditional detective whodunit and the horror story.

Now, I will admit my description is a bit of an oversimplification. But for now, let’s run with it.

The prince, if not the king, of the ghostbusters is undoubtedly Jules de Grandin. Only Thomas Carnacki is perhaps more well-known.

Carnacki was the creation William Hope Hodgson. And Carnacki pastiches are almost as numerous as those of Sherlock Holmes. I’ll talk about Carnacki in another post.

Jules de Grandin and his “Watson”, Dr Trowbridge, were the creation of Seabury Quinn. They appeared in 92 stories and 1 novel, in the pages of Weird Tales magazine. From 1925 to 1951, the exploits of this dynamic duo thrilled readers of the Unique Magazine like no other.

GW Thomas, on his now defunct website, archived here, summarized de Grandin in this way:

Jules de Grandin is the master of the outrageous detective genre. Everything about him is over-the-top from his Hercule Poirot moustache to his outbursts of stilted French. De Grandin and his Watson-like companion, Dr. Trowbridge, live in Harrisonville, NJ, a town haunted by monsters, mad scientists and all manner of weird phenomena. As with Carnacki, not all of de Grandin’s adversaries were supernatural. The de Grandin stories appeared only in Weird Tales, where they were the most popular of all characters, beating even Conan the Cimmerian and Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos.

From what I’ve read, Mr Thomas was spot on. Of all the writers who contributed to Weird Tales, Seabury Quinn was the most popular and, as a result, was paid at a higher rate.

Of all the characters to appear in WT, de Grandin was the most popular. And it was the promise of a serialized Jules de Grandin novel that held off the debt holders from shutting the magazine down in 1931.

Seabury Quinn and Jules de Grandin dominated Weird Tales. Quinn’s only real challenger was Allison V Harding in the 1940s.

Yet, Quinn was unfairly maligned and minimized by the Lovecraft Circle (because HPL didn’t like Quinn’s style and perhaps the fact that he wrote for money) and it has only been within the last dozen or so years that Quinn has come under reassessment. And I’m glad he has, because he was a good writer and should not be forgotten.

What I find interesting is that for all of de Grandin’s popularity, he was the product of having to meet a deadline. Quinn, himself, wrote:

One evening in 1925 I was at that state that every writer knows and dreads; a story was due my publisher, and there didn’t seem to be a plot in the world. Accordingly, with nothing particular in mind, I picked up my pen and — literally making it up as I went along — wrote the first story which appears in this book.

I don’t know what collection of stories GW Thomas got that quote from, but I find it simply delightful. Necessity is indeed the mother of invention.

I own the 5 volume Nightshade Books edition of The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin. You can, of course, find them on Amazon.

I’ve read over a dozen of the stories and I like them. The fun quotient is high and each story will give you an enchanting hour’s worth of entertainment. What more can you ask from a story?

Should you begin reading the de Grandin tales, and I encourage you to do so, keep in mind they were written for a monthly or bimonthly magazine. The storylines are somewhat formulaic. Certainly written to an established pattern. But then, so were the tales of Sherlock Holmes’ exploits.

I would recommend not reading more than a couple stories at one sitting in order to keep their charm and appeal fresh. Plus, doing so, will give you many, many days and weeks of reading pleasure. And who doesn’t want that?

Seabury Quinn was a superb storyteller. He had over 500 publishing credits during his lifetime, and was himself a magazine editor.

Approaching Quinn as a reader, I can say that he delivers the goods. He succeeds in transporting me to another time and place, and provides the entertainment value I’m looking for.

Approaching Quinn as a writer, I sit at the feet of a master and learn the craft of how to tell a story so that it will move the reader.

Last Christmas, I read Quinn’s Roads (his classic Christmas tale) to my sister and nephew. So captivating was Quinn’s prose that my nephew, at one point, uttered an interjection of awe. If only all of us writers could have that happen!

The occult detective genre is rich with exciting and spooky and chilling stories. The exploits of Jules de Grandin and Dr Trowbridge deliver on all counts.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

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Snippet Time

It’s been a while since I’ve offered a snippet of one of my works in progress.

At present, I’m writing two Justinia Wright mysteries, and editing a third.

Today’s snippet is from the Justinia Wright novella I’m working on. (Please note: this is the initial draft prior to any editing.) Enjoy!

***

We were in the office digesting our lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches, and cream of kale and butternut squash soup, when the doorbell rang.

On the doorstep, was a tall, heavy-set fellow. He wore a dark brown suit. His shirt was white, and his tie was intricately patterned with irregularly shaped orange-red dots.

I opened the door and asked what he wanted.

“I’d like to see Justinia Wright. My name is Helmar Johanson. I’m on the orchestra’s board of directors, and I understand Ms Wright is investigating the death of Juliette Boudreau.”

“Wait right there. I’ll see if Miss Wright is available.”

Back to the office. I poked my head inside the doorway. “Helmar Johanson from the orchestra’s board is here to see you. Shall I let him in?”

Tina looked at her cigar, turned her gaze in my direction, and with a frown on her face, said, “Yes.”

Back out to the front door. I let in our guest, took a look at the curb, and had to pick my jaw up off the floor. At the curb was a white sports car.

As I took Johanson’s jacket, I asked as calmly as I could, “Is that car out front, yours?”

“The Porsche?”

I nodded, and hung his jacket on a peg.

“Yes, it’s mine. Why do you ask?”

“Just curious. Do you like it? Does it handle well?”

“Of course. It’s a Porsche.”

I nodded, led him into the office, made introductions, and indicated he should sit in the oversized oxblood wingback. The chair was certainly not oversized for him.

“What may I do for you, Mr Johanson?” Tina asked.

“I’m on the chamber orchestra board, and I contribute significantly towards the operating expenses.”

Tina shrugged. “Okay, I’m impressed.”

A look of surprise swept across his face and disappeared. “I want to know what you are doing to find Miss Boudreau’s killer. Are you, in fact, doing anything?”

“Is there a reason I should tell you?”

This time incredulity swept across his face, lingering a moment before disappearing. Apparently, Mr Johanson wasn’t used to people talking to him that way.

“I just told you I’m on the board. I have a right to know.”

“Is this right written down somewhere?”

“What do you mean? Of course it’s not written down.”

“Then what makes you think you have the right to know?”

“What? Of course I do.”

“Of course you don’t. We have no contractual obligation to each other. Therefore, you have no right to demand anything of me. Natural rights do not infringe on another person’s freedom. In other words, they are not coercive. Free speech takes nothing away from anyone. It is not coercive.”

“What the hell are you going on about?”

“Just this, Mr Johanson: you have no right to demand that I give you information about my client and his case. In other words, you have no right to know anything. You may earn the privilege of my willingness to share. Or you may simply ask me to share. But you have no right to know anything about my investigation.”

“I help fund the orchestra. I’m on the board.”

“So?”

“I’m entitled to know what’s going on.”

“Who says so? I don’t. You have no right, legal or moral, to the information that I have about my client. I may choose to share it with you. And for me to consider doing so, you must ask. Demanding will get you nowhere. However, you must realize that I have a duty to protect my client’s interests — and that may mean I tell you nothing.”

Now, my sister has resorted to a lot of tricks to get people to leave her office, but when she opened the humidor and took out a cigar that was a first.

“Are you going to smoke that thing?”

“That is what one generally does with a cigar. Personally, I don’t like chewing on them.”

“I have a lung condition.”

“No one is forcing you to stay.”

“Well, I’ll be…” He looked at me, I suppose expecting I come to his aid, both of us being men and all. I just shrugged.

He stood, opened his mouth, no words came out, so we closed it. He turned around and left. I followed to make sure he didn’t forget his jacket and that the door got closed, which it did after I watched his white sports car drive off.

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The World of Justinia Wright

About a month ago, I wrote a post announcing I’d been given an award by international bestselling authors Caleb and Linda Pirtle. You can read that post here. I’m still excited at being named One of the Top 25 Mystery Writers You Need to be Reading.

There are currently 7 books in the Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mystery Series. Vampire House and Other Early Cases of Justinia Wright, PI, which I’ve numbered Book 0, doesn’t get included on the Amazon series page due to Amazon’s quirky rules.

I’m in the middle of doing line editing and proofreading on Book 7 (actually the 8th book in the series) and hope to publish it by Christmas. More on this book in a future post!

So what is it about the Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mystery Series that makes it worth reading? I thought I’d let some of the reviewers tell you what makes the series so fun to read (and for me, to write!).

Richard Schwindt, who has an excellent amateur sleuth trilogy — The Death in Sioux Lookout Trilogy — and an equally excellent occult detective trilogy — Tony Price: Confidential — wrote this about the world of Tina and Harry Wright:

Some fictional universes are just places you want to be, and I have been so moved by the world CW Hawes has created for private detective Justinia Wright and her brother Harry. Although Hawes has a demonstrated penchant for the scary and grotesque, and can frequently be found (at least in his fiction) underground, he has shown a remarkably light and airy touch in Trio in Death-Sharp Minor. Tina and Harry’s world comes complete with music, art, excellent food and drink. I would drop by their house any time, if only for a glass of Madeira. The three mysteries are deftly written and include an adorable and sexy love affair between Harry and Bea, one of the bereaved from the first story. If you want to check out a good cozy mystery, without the annoyingly twee failings of the genre, you could do much worse than this series. Highly recommended for mystery lovers and anyone looking for an escape with a light touch.

And that is exactly how I feel when I write these mysteries: Tina and Harry’s world is where I want to be.

Another mystery writer, Joe Congel, who writes the superb Tony Razzolito PI Mysteries, wrote this about Tina and Harry:

[But Jesus Never Wept] is the third book in the Justinia Wright Private Investigator series, and it is a top-notch addition to a top-notch series, written by a top-notch author. If you’ve been following the brother/sister PI team, you already know this series is rich in storyline and character development. If you are discovering the Wrights for the first time in this book, you will not be disappointed. However, treat yourself, and go back and read the first two books in this wonderful series.

In this installment, the author mixes religion, the Japanese mob, and high-end prostitution, and wraps it all up in a very engaging murder mystery. But what truly drives this story is the relationship between the main characters – Justinia, Harry, Bea, and Cal. The subplot of their lives is intertwined masterfully with the main plotline of the book, which is the mystery that needs to be solved. And although the idea of an intriguing mystery may have brought you here, the well thought-out, fun, realistic, characters are what will bring you back for more. A great murder mystery will make a great book, but a deeply developed cast of reoccurring characters is what makes a great series… and this is a great series.

I loved the first two books, and this one is no different. It’s why I bought the whole series. I look forward to seeing what the Wright’s get themselves into between the pages of the next book. But don’t take my word for it, try them for yourself – just don’t be surprised if you become addicted.

For me, the story is all about the characters. The plot, or storyline, is simply the characters doing their thing in a particular situation.

I find it very satisfying when my fellow mystery writers have such a glowing opinion of Tina and Harry. They are telling me I have accomplished what I set out to do: to create a world that is as cozy and enjoyable as the one Rex Stout created with Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.

I love Tina and Harry. They were my first children, as it were. In fact, they are older than my daughter! I love the world that Tina and Harry inhabit: a Minneapolis that is akin to the real city, and yet is its own world.

If you desire to travel anywhere in the world right from the comfort of your favorite chair, if you want to entertain yourself at your own pace, if you want to put your worries and problems on a shelf for awhile and lose yourself in someone else’s world — then I encourage you to explore the world of Tina and Harry Wright. It’s a world filled with comfort, good food, and lots of adventure. Live a little from the comfort of your favorite chair, at your own pace.

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