Back in America after some time in Dublin, Ireland. Visited family (thanks for everything, Emily and Michael, Lois and Jerome), had a jar or two with the lads (great North Side pub known locally as “Gravediggers”), tromped the cliff walk in Howth, watched Guardai with a snitch (C.I.) in Temple Bar. Cops are cops are cops. Popped into Murder Ink, the bookstore, to make sure they had my books. And made a mental note to pass on some tips just gleaned from Patrick at The Poisoned Pen mystery bookstore (the best in America) just before I left for “the Dubs.”
Patrick is Patrick Millikin. He knows a lot (understatement) about crime novelists writing in the UK and its fringes. We chatted by phone. Here’s what I remember of his recommendations, off the top of my head:
Deon Meyer, writer from Cape Town, South Africa. A magical, mysterious and disturbing city in a magical, mysterious, and disturbing country. I was there in October, 2001. First time I was advised to deny my American citizenship as we approached some some angry guys on a street corner. I bit my tongue. You gotta do what you gotta do.
Patrick says Meyer is the real deal. Meyer’s website had photos of scenes from his books, including 13 Hours. An interesting technique. Meyer says he does is location scouting with a camera and a GPS.
John Harvey is from Nottingham, in England. If you don’t know his work, you should seek it out. The Frank Elder series, set in Cornwall, comes highly recommended. If you like it, dig in. Harvey has written 90 (not a typ0) books. A master.
Derek Raymond was the pen name of Robin Cook, not the bestseller writer. Raymond put the grit in gritty. Born into a rich English family, Cook quit Eton to see the world, as long as it included money launderers, burglars, pornographers and other sundry criminals. Patrick loves his books; Cook’s dead but his life is a movie.
Stuart Neville is writing from Belfast, Northern Ireland, where they know a thing or two about crime. The truce is uneasy there; the crime is unrelenting. I’m ordering these tomorrow.
Check them out. Above all, keep reading. DAMAGED GOODS, the new McMorrow, is coming in February. Jack, Roxanne and Sophie, their daughter. Hell no know fury like the parent of the child threatened! More soon.
In PORT CITY SHAKEDOWN, the first Brandon Blake novel, Brandon gets a full dose of bad guys. A brawl in a funeral home introduces him to Joel Fuller, a sociopathic hustler. Fuller is fresh out of jail and determined to take Brandon out—after Fuller and his sidekick Kelvin shake him down.
Rocky isn’t a tough guy. He’s a skinny little kid with crooked glasses, and he shouldn’t be homeless in Portland, Maine. When McMorrow and Roxanne pluck him from under the stomping feet of a gang of street kids, Rocky latches onto McMorrow–and drags him into a world of murder, both old and new. Why is McMorrow protecting Rocky? The cops want to know. Why is Rocky on the run? McMorrow wants to know. Why does death follow in Rocky’s wake? Jack and Roxanne need to find out before they’re added to the list. 
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