9mm: the story so far...

As I'm looking to restart regular 9mm interviews here on Crime Watch, pressing onwards to the 100 interview mark and beyond, I thought I'd take a look at where things stand right now. Following on from the round-up post yesterday listing all of the interviewees thusfar (72 published interviews from 80+ interviews conducted), I've noted a few things.

Here's a cherry-picking of a few interesting points, taking a step back and looking at the spread of the interviews so far:

1. New Zealand-ish-ness: one of the themes of Crime Watch is highlighting great crime fiction from around the world, but particularly featuring New Zealand authors who may not get as much coverage elsewhere. With 24 Kiwi authors featured in 72 interviews, that seems to be going well!

2. The deadlier of the species: 20 of the 72 interviewees are female. Clearly I need to improve this - although I'm not gunning for 50:50 necessarily, it would be good to get it up a lot higher than 28 per cent. I do have four female authors in the next batch of interviews to be published, so that's a start at least.

3. Anzac brotherhood?: surprisingly perhaps, I've only published one 9mm interview with an Australian crime writer - the fantastic Michael Robotham (who sets his books in England). This definitely needs rectifying: there are many terrific Australian crime writers penning great crime tales set Downunder. I have interviewed Peter Corris, but not for 9mm. Given I'm now living in Sydney, I'd better get my A into G, as we'd say down this way, and pepper the upcoming instalments with some of my Ocker brothers and sisters.

4. The big two (USA and UK): 31 out of 72 interviewees are from the UK or the USA, which is pretty good I think, considering how dominant those markets are in English-language fiction. I've loved crime fiction from the UK and United States since I was a kid, but I've consciously tried to include lots of authors from other countries too in 9mm (not just New Zealanders), so I'm pretty pleased that 'the big two' only make up 43 per cent. I'm also pleased that the US interviewees cover 14 different states too, so there's some nice geographical spread beyond the traditional New York/California hot beds.

5. Geographic spread: speaking of spreading it around, geographically, I'm relatively pleased that I've covered 13 countries so far. It could be more, of course and I definitely need to make more of an effort to include Asian, African, and Latin American authors, though of course the language barrier can make that tough. Thirteen countries is a good effort, but now the bar has been set I should try to raise it. There are some great authors in translation from other countries too. If you have any recommendations, please do share them - I'd love to extend things beyond what we have covered so far.

6. Big names and lesser-knowns: Another of my goals for the series was to expose Crime Watch readers to a wider range of quality crime writers, from the brand-name bestsellers through to critically acclaimed but lesser-known established authors, and new or up and coming writers. Looking down the list of 72 interviewees, I'm pretty happy that I've achieved that. I've got to interview some hugely popular authors, as well as featuring other authors I've loved but who aren't as well known, and introduced myself to new authors too. Everyone has been so generous with their time, and patient with my questions. There is a special vibe in the wider crime fiction community, and I'm really glad and grateful to play my small part in it.

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What do you think of the 9mm series so far? Are there authors you've love to see interviewed?

Seventy per cent

At the start of this year I decided to set myself the goal, as part of a reading challenge on the Good Reads website, of reading 100 books during 2011. Last year I read 65-70, and a similar amount in 2009. For most people, this is a phenomenal amount of novel reading - and for me it's a lot, particularly when I also do so much reading of other things as part of my at time very hectic hectic job. I know there are several other bloggers, reviewers, and readers for whom 100 books a year wouldn't necessarily be that big a number. For me, however, it was a stretch, so I thought it was a good target to set myself.

As of today, I'm right on target - 70 books read. Here's the line-up so far (in reverse order), with links to my reviews or articles, where they are available online. The titles marked with a (*) are 'new to me' crime writers in 2011:

• THE LOCK ARTIST by Steve Hamilton
• LUTHER: THE CALLING by Neil Cross
• A MAN YOU CAN BANK ON by Derek Hansen*
• BITTERROOT by James Lee Burke
• SIX SECONDS by Rick Mofina
• THE AFFAIR by Lee Child
• THE ACCIDENT by Linwood Barclay
• RETRIBUTION by Val McDermid
• THE DARK END OF THE STREET edited by Jonathan Santlofer and SJ Rozan
• CROSS FIRE by James Patterson
• THE RIDGE by Michael Koryta
• THE COLOR of LAW by Mark Gimenez
• FLASH AND BONES by Kathy Reichs
• SHELTER by Harlan Coben
• GOOD AS DEAD by Mark Billingham
• NGAIO MARSH: HER LIFE IN CRIME by Joanne Drayton
• THE SILENT GIRL by Tess Gerritsen
• COLLECTING COOPER by Paul Cleave
• TABOO by Casey Hill*
• THE FAT BURNING KITCHEN by Mike Geary
• LETHAL DELIVERIES by Ken Benn*
• BY ANY MEANS by Ben Sanders (plus feature article)
• THE TROUBLED MAN by Henning Mankell
• BACK OF BEYOND by CJ Box
• THEODORE BOONE: THE ABDUCTION by John Grisham
• RED WOLF by Liza Marklund
• IT’S NOT HOW GOOD YOU ARE, IT’S HOW GOOD YOU WANT TO BE by Paul Arden
• EXACERBYTE by Cat Connor
• MYSTERY by Jonathan Kellerman
• THE WRECKAGE by Michael Robotham
• THE KILLING PLACE by Tess Gerritsen*
• BLEACHERS by John Grisham
• LIFE’S GOLDEN TICKET by Brendon Burchard
• KILLING HOUR by Andrew Gross*
• IRON HOUSE by John Hart (plus feature article)
• CARTE BLANCHE by Jeffery Deaver (plus feature article)
• NO OPPORTUNITY WASTER by Phil Keoghan
• THE ATHENIAN MURDERS by Jose Carlos Somoza*
• BLACK WATER by T. Jefferson Parker*
• DROP SHOT by Harlan Coben
• THE JANISSARY TREE by Jason Goodwin*
• CITY OF BONES by Michael Connelly
• CURLY FROM SHIRLEY by Emma Pullar
• SMILING JACK by Ken Catran*
• SHADOW SISTER by Simone van der Vlugt*
• PAYBACK by Simon Kernick
• MIXED BLOOD by Roger Smith*
• THE FIFTH WITNESS by Michael Connelly (plus feature article)
• LOVE YOU MORE by Lisa Gardner*
• THE CRIME OF HUEY DUNSTAN by James McNeish*
• CANDIED CRIME by Dorte Jakobsen*
• YOU’RE NEXT by Gregg Hurwitz (plus feature article)
• LIVE WIRE by Harlan Coben
• SHAOLIN BURNING by Ant Sang
• FRIENDLY FIRE by Michael Wall*
• HOLLYWOOD HILLS by Joseph Wambaugh*
• THE SENTRY by Robert Crais
• THE MOON AND FARMER MCPHEE by Margaret Mahy
• FOLLOW THE MONEY by Peter Corris*
• SHATTER THE BONES by Stuart MacBride
• A POLITICAL AFFAIR by Andrew Porteous*
• BORDERLANDS by Brian McGilloway*
• STILL MISSING by Chevy Stevens*
• BOUND by Vanda Symon (plus feature article)
• BURIED ALIVE by JA Kerley
• THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN by James Lee Burke
• THE EXECUTIONER by Jay Bennett*
• THE PROMISED LAND by David Hewson*
• IN PLAIN SIGHT by CJ Box
• LAST CAR TO ELYSIAN FIELDS by James Lee Burke

I'll follow up with some thoughts on the overall range of titles I've read so far this year, in another post soon. Feel free to share your thoughts on any of the above titles or authors. Have you read any/many of these books this year? What have been your favourite books so far in 2011? Who are your 'new to you' writers this year? What is the best debut novel you've read? Who is the author you have read the most?

Ten years on, Connelly and others remember 9/11

While the calendar has ticked over, here in New Zealand, overseas it is still September 11 - a date that carries so much more meaning than simply a month and a number. 

A decade after the tragic events that made the day go down in history, and changed the world forever, commemorations have been held, all around the globe. Although centred on New York and Washington, DC, it was much more than an American tragedy, and it rocked the entire world. Much like my parent's generation can starkly remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard JFK had been assassinated, I think my generation will still be able to recall, well into our dotage, where we were when we heard, or saw, that planes had crashed into the World Trade Center.

In New Zealand, I'd just returned from a university party, and unable to sleep, in the wee small hours of the morning, I turned on my computer to look up some sports news etc. Bizarrely, the CNNSI sports website had a picture of smoke billowing from a skyscraper. Confused, I momentarily thought I'd put in the wrong website address. When I tried again, the same thing. Ditto the ESPN website. It dawned on me that something much bigger than sports had just happened. I raced to the lounge and turned on the TV - and then found myself tranfixed, stuck to the couch, unable to peel myself away over the next few hours. Needless to say, any effects of the earlier party wore off very quickly. I was shocked, and trying to process just what this all meant. I saw the towers come down, live, while many other Kiwis slept. I vaguely knew of a handful of people in New York, friends of friends, and worried for their safety. I was so far away, it wasn't even my country, and it just seemed so unreal, but I still felt so wound up about it, as the story unfolded as reports and more information flooded in over the hours and days ahead.

It really is something I will never forget, and nor should I. 2,977 innocent people lost their lives that day, and many hundreds of thousands more have been directly affected by the events of that day, and the consequences since.

Here in New Zealand we are of course currently hosting one of the biggest sporting events in the world, the Rugby World Cup (reportedly the third biggest sporting event, globally, after the Olympics and FIFA World Cup). It was September 11 yesterday, and the US rugby team was playing their first game. A commemorative church service was held before the game, which the US team attended, and there were also other services and memorials - such as from New Zealand fire fighters, remembering their US colleagues who fell a decade ago, trying to save the lives of others - around the country.

The New York Daily News has spoken to a number of authors, including leading crime writer Michael Connelly, about their feelings, and memories, of 9/11. Connelly had meant to be heading to Paris on 10 Sept, but was grounded in Cincinnati, so woke to the news on American soil. You can read his thoughts, and those of the other authors, in the article here.

Do you remember where you were, ten years ago?

So busy I missed my blogging birthday....

Oops - things have been so frantic the past few weeks at work and with preparations for the  2011 Ngaio Marsh Award, etc, that I actually overlooked the fact that Crime Watch passed it's two year anniversary earlier this week, on Tuesday.

Two years of blogging - it's weird, it seems to have both gone very, very quickly, but at the same time 9 August 2009 seems a very, very long time ago - since so much has happened between then and now. Birthdays are usually an interesting and opportune time to reflect, and last year I did just that, looking back at some of the statistics, posts, and interesting tidbits about Crime Watch in its first year (see here).

I won't go into the same depth this time around, but will just note a couple of things from what seemed like a 'consolidating' year for Crime Watch in its 'sophmore season', as my sports-loving US buddies would say:

• 382 posts were published on a variety of crime fiction news, reviews, issues, and happenings (compared to 463 posts in Crime Watch's first year) - still averaging more than one per day, even with more than a month on holiday during that time.
• Just over 55,000 visits to Crime Watch during its second year (up from just under 30,000 in the first year) - a steady increase without being stratospheric.
• Crime Watch was consistently ranked in the Top 100 Book Blogs (out of more than 15,000 book blogs), by the Technorati website - which looks at influence and other factors, not just visitor numbers etc. Crime Watch is currently ranked 35th out of 15,036 book blogs, and has never been outside the Top 200 since it started being ranked in the past year (ie always in the Top 2 per cent worldwide).
• The 9mm series has grown to more than 50 quickfire interviews with a variety of fantastic crime writers from around the globe.
• The Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, which in some ways grew out of the Crime Watch blog, has gone from strength to strength in the past 12 months, and been featured and/or mentioned in or on a variety of New Zealand's biggest mainstream media outlets - newspapers, magazines, even radio (not yet TV, as far as I'm aware), as well as international online media.
• The bibliographical list of Kiwi crime writers and books - historic and contemporary - collated on Crime Watch over several months via research etc has grown to more than 100 authors and 250 books - much more than most people would realise have existed in New Zealand literary history.

So all in all, not too bad. Sure, there are things I would like to see improve, and new things I'd like to add to provide a better viewer/reader experience - to give more to you guys - but hopefully I can continue to take steps forward here. I'm always open to suggestions, in fact I welcome them, along with your comments.

What would you like to see on Crime Watch in the coming year, it's third? What are the good things you'd like to see more of (interviews, reviews, news, events)? What are you not so fussed on? I'd love to read your feedback. I appreciate all of you who have visited in the past two years, and hope that you'll continue to find something that interests you here on my little website.

Crime Watch enters 2nd year on blogosphere!

Wow, how quickly a year flies by! I was just tootling along this morning, busy with several work, writing, book-related, and other-life things, when I realised that Crime Watch's birthday must be coming up soon.

Checking the calendar, I then realised that today is actually Crime Watch's first birthday, for it was on 9 August 2009 that this blog was birthed into the (blogosphere) world, with my opening post, "Haere mai" (meaning 'welcome' in Maori). Wow. One whole year already. Time does fly.

It's funny looking back on what I said in that opening post, and all that has happened in the 12 months since, both here on the blog, and elsewhere, particularly when it comes to New Zealand crime and thriller writing.

Since birthdays, like New Years' holidays, are times for a bit of reflection, I thought I would take a look back and share a random selection of facts, stats, and moments etc with you all:

• 463 posts have been published on a variety of crime fiction news, issues, and happenings;
• There were just under 30,000 visits to Crime Watch in the first year, and daily and weekly visits now average 3-5 times what they did in the first few months;
• The three most-visited days were those relating to the Lee Child 9mm interview (the first in the series), the PD James birthday and 9mm interview, and the James Lee Burke feature article - the latter recently topped the Lee Child 9mm interview as the most popular of all during the first year of Crime Watch;
• The post with the most comments was, unsurprisingly, one of the competitions I ran to win some Kiwi crime fiction;
• Encyclopaedic-style biographies have been written for 12 New Zealand crime and thriller fiction authors - contemporary and historic - and more than fifty other such Kiwi authors have been 'discovered', discussed and/or linked to on Crime Watch - far more than I would have ever thought possible when I started;
• Fifteen novels that could come within a broad definition of Kiwi 'crime, thriller or mystery fiction' were published during 2009 and discussed or linked to on Crime Watch - several having got little to no attention elsewhere on the Internet or in other media;
• I have interviewed 29 authors thusfar for the popular 9mm series of quickfire author interviews (that are exclusive to Crime Watch), ranging from relative unknowns to big-name bestsellers and crime fiction legends. Who would have thought this time last year that I would have the likes of PD James answering questions exclusively for you?
• Crime Watch has been part of some terrific series - including 27 posts for Kerrie's excellent Crime Fiction Alphabet series, successfully completing the Expert Level of Dorte's fantastic 2010 Global Reading Challenge (I am closing in on the extreme level), and casting my eye over how well several New Zealand bookstores support local crime writing;
• I have included 24 full crime fiction reviews on Crime Watch, while linking to dozens and dozens of others, both New Zealand crime fiction and international books; and
• Guest posts and guest reviewers have recently been introduced, as well as other features like the linkbar at the top, embedded YouTube videos, and links to radio/TV broadcasts.

It's been a hell of a fun ride thusfar, and I hope you are all enjoying it, feel that you are getting something from reading Crime Watch, and that I am accomplishing at least some of what I set out to do back on 9 August last year. I'm always happy to get feedback, good or critical - so please feel free to leave some comments re: what you've liked or disliked from the past year, and what you would like to see in future. Kia Kaha.

So, New Zealand doesn't have a history of crime writing?

Over the past few weeks and months, I've gradually been building up my home library of Kiwi crime, thriller and mystery fiction. As you may have noticed on this blog, the list of Kiwi authors keeps getting longer and longer, as I stumble over more and more crime and thriller writers from both recent times, and days (far) gone by.

About 18 months ago, I was aware of more Kiwi crime writers than most people, but I still would have been in the majority of booksloving New Zealanders who even if they were aware that we produced some great crime fiction, thought our crime writing heritage pretty much consisted of Dame Ngaio Marsh, then a bit of a surge in the late 1990s and early 2000s with Paul Thomas, Chad Taylor, and one-off books from the likes of Simon Snow, Michael Laws, and Nigel Latta etc, then a recent welcome renaissance with authors such as Vanda Symon and Paul Cleave turning out multiple titles.

I took this picture this morning of some of my bookshelves at home. All of the books in the picture could be called 'Kiwi' crime and thriller titles (whether they are set in New Zealand or not - they have been written by people who live in New Zealand or otherwise have a strong connection to this country, eg born here or grew up here even if they are now based overseas, etc). There are around 120 titles there in the photo, which is impressive enough as it is (and far more than most people would think could be collected under the Kiwi crime banner), but I also should point out that:

• None of Vanda Symon's three Sam Shephard books are in this photo;
• None of Paul Cleave's four Christchurch set thrillers are in this photo;
• Only about 1/4 of Dame Ngaio Marsh's Inspector Alleyn titles are in the photo (I could have four entire shelves filled up with Marsh - I only have one at the moment);
• None of Edmund Bohan's five Inspector O'Rorke tales are in the photo;
• Only one of Joyce West and Mary Scott's five co-written thrillers published from 1960-1965 is in the photo;
• Only two of Freda Bream's 13 Reverend Jabal Jarrett mysteries (published between 1982 and 1997) are in the photo;
• Only one of John Dunmore's six crime thrillers (four written under the pseudonym Jason Calder), published between 1964 and 1981, is in the photo;
• Only one of Gaelyn Gordon's mysteries is in the photo;
• Only one of Colin D. Peel's numerous thrillers is in the photo;
• Only one (perhaps two) of Elizabeth Messenger's thrillers (she published several, circa 1960s) is in the photo;
• None of Norman Berrow's 20 mysteries are in the photo;
• None of Rose Beecham's many Amanda Valentine mysteries are in the photo;
• None of the crime novels, mysteries, or thrillers written by the likes of Chad Taylor, Charlotte Grimshaw, Patricia Donnelly, Jeannie McLean, Yvonne E. Walus, and several other 'Kiwi' authors, are in the photo (see sidebar list for more names).

So, a little more than Dame Ngaio Marsh and some modern-day stuff eh?

If you have any information, suggestions, or tips re: sourcing more hard-to-find and out-of-print Kiwi crime, mystery and thriller fiction (or titles/authors I haven't mentioned at all), please do let me know. In the meantime, what do you think of my bookshelves, and the list of others not there? Does it surprise you that there has been so much Kiwi crime fiction, now and in the past, flying well under the radar? Have you perhaps read some of these older titles without realising the Kiwi connection? Which authors have you read? Heard of? Thoughts and comments welcome.

Crime Watch evolves - new features etc

Kia Ora everyone. Thanks for reading Crime Watch over the past month. It's been great getting some feedback and comments etc about how the site is going. As you will have noticed, I've been steadily adding things, tweaking things, and re-arranging things - trying to give you, the readers, the best and most user-friendly experience when it comes to learning a bit more about NZ crime fiction, and keeping up to date with crime and thriller fiction happenings in New Zealand and abroad.

Of course, as I add more to the site, it can become a little more unwieldy to find particular things that might interest you. So today I've added some new features , along with re-arranging a few things that will hopefully make it easier for you to find information. These include:

• a search function at the top of the sidebar;
• using hyperlinks in posts rather than posting entire http addresses (this will also mean that from now on there is likely to be far more links in my posts - I hope this is useful);
• sidebar links to some great 20-30mins audio files of radio interviews that top crime writers have done with Radio New Zealand (clicking on these should immediately play the audio file) and also links to radio book reviews, and TV interviews with visiting writers;

• sidebar links to the Bookstore Reviews - which will become a more regular feature
• sidebar links to information about authors I have met/interviewed - where possible I will link to any external article or blog post relating to the meeting/interview (some are upcoming, so just currently link to the author's website);
• re-arranging the myriad of sidebar links and info more 'thematically' - now the top third of the side-bar is everything to do with NZ & crime fiction (e.g. international author visits and other events, recent releases, general info about NZ authors), the middle part relates more to me/this blog and reviews etc (e.g. competitions, my reviews of books and bookstores, mags I write for, authors I've interviewed, etc), and then the lower part is links to many other great blogs, and other crime fiction related websites (authors, publications, organisations).

Hopefully some of these changes and additions will make it easier for you to find what you're most interested in amongst a rapidly growing amount of information and links. The overall idea is that this blog provides you with some crime/thriller fiction information you may not have been aware of, both in terms of new information on this blog and also being a portal to make it easier for you to find other relevant information on the web (e.g. the cool radio interviews).
What do you think? Feedback welcome.