Iceland Noir

I've returned from my first ever trip to Iceland. It's a country I've wanted to visit for years, but I never seemed to get round to it. Then a few months ago, I was invited to take part in the local crime festival, Iceland Noir, and the temptation proved irresistible. All the more so because I was asked to take part on a panel about Golden Age detective fiction moderated by the Prime Minister of Iceland, Katrin Jakobsdottir - see above: it was once in a lifetime opportunity!

My first glimpse of the country wasn't entirely encouraging, mind you. The drab weather was warmer and wetter than I'd anticipated - it seemed all too Mancunian, really. But I soon found my way around, and the weather gradually improved. The festival was held at Idno, which combines a theatre space with a nice cafe, just across the way from the City Hall, which like Idno is on the edge of the "pond", or "lake", a pleasing stretch of water right in the city centre.

Katrin Jakobsdottir proved to be charming and extremely knowledgeable about Golden Age fiction. She was an excellent moderator, and the panel was great fun. Also taking part was that terrific young writer Ragnar Jonasson, and Katrin's brother Armann Jakobsson, a prominent academic who is also a great fan of the genre's classics. Both Armann and Katrin had read The Golden Age of Murder, and had nice things to say about it, which of course I found hugely gratifying. I also reflected that the occasion was something else that I never dreamed might happen while I was labouring over the book...

I was also glad to be invited to take part in a very convivial dinner meeting with members of the AIEP/IACW international group of crime writers, and discuss future plans for the organisation. More about this in due course; meanwhile, thanks to Nina George for the photos. Then it was back to sight-seeing, and a "Golden Circle" tour, taking in a volcanic crater, shifting tectonic plates, the original geyser, a horse show, a tomato-focused meal in a greenhouse, and a close-up of a spectacular waterfall. It was a fantastic trip. That just left half a day to go to the top of the Lutheran church tower and survey Reykjavik, and then look round a fascinating exhibition of the island's archaeology. A great place, Iceland, and I'm so glad that I went there.

A Macavity and more...

I've returned from a week in St Petersburg - the Florida version, rather than the Russian one - which was the venue for this year's Bouchercon. And I am in exuberant mood, because not only did the past few days see the publication (in the UK, but not as yet in the US) of Gallows Court, and a gratifying flow of wonderful reviews, but I also managed to win a Macavity award, presented on behalf of Mystery Readers International.

My plan was always to combine Bouchercon with sight-seeing, and to hope that no hurricanes struck. There were plenty of rumblings of thunder and flashes of lightning, but apart from getting caught briefly in one downpour, the weather was mainly sunny and humid. I liked St Petersburg, which has a rather nice tourist trolley bus called the Downtown Looper, and I was hugely impressed by the Dali Museum. As anyone who has read Gallows Court will be aware, there is a modern art ingredient lurking in the background of the story, and my visit also gave me a few ideas for the book's sequel (because there will be one!) relating to surrealism and Dali's early work. There are hidden meanings in his pictures, just as there are in a good crime story.

The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books has been nominated for five major awards, which is highly gratifying, but such is the strength of competition this year that I thought it unlikely that the book would win anything; so to receive the Macavity for best non-fiction book at the Bouchercon opening ceremony was a real bonus, all the more delightful for being so unexpected. And on the same day that Gallows Court came out, too!

As ever, the chance to meet up with old friends was a major highlight of the convention. Lunch one day with Paul Charles and on another with Ragnar Jonasson offered a great chance to catch up, and the same was true of several dinners with a host of lovely people, including Art Taylor, Bruce Coffin, Shawn Reilly Simmons, Kathy Boon Reel, Alan Orloff, Shelly Dickson Carr, Gigi Pandian, and Elly Griffiths. And it's always good to meet nice people for the first time, including Lesley Thomson, a fellow Head of Zeus author, Zack Urlocker, and Christina Kovac.

I did a couple of panels, and in the bookroom I somehow managed to restrict myself to buying only three vintage books, but they were good finds, and you'll be hearing more about them at a later date. On the tourist trail, an absolute highlight was a sunset cruise, catching glimpses of dolphins and soaking up the scenery. And the long flights gave me the chance to read seven books and watch four films, including the excellent On Chesil Beach. All in all, it was a wonderful time and I felt not only exuberant but also very fortunate.

Honolulu Havoc Left Coast Crime in Hawaii

Right now, I am adjusting (rather slowly) to British Summer Time after a trip which took me to the other side of the world. The jetlag was definitely worth it - I had an amazing time, and feel fortunate to have spent just over a fortnight globe-trotting after my previous travels in recent weeks. The reason for this jaunt was that the Left Coast Crime convention, which I've attended once before, in Seattle, was being held in Hawaii this year. I felt that Honolulu Havoc presented a once-in-a-lifetime chance, so I grabbed it.

The convention was fun. I moderated one panel, on the theme of criminal justice, with four American panellists whom I hadn't met before but, who to my delight, proved to have plenty of great stories to tell. And I took part in a Golden Age panel, very well moderated, with colleagues including Ragnar Jonasson and Steve Steinbock. This was tremendous fun, with a very good crowd. It seems almost incredible, but in the last six months I've talked about Golden Age mysteries in New Orleans, Madrid, Dubai, and Hawaii.

There was also the chance to catch up with a range of old friends, including my delightful American publishers, Rob Rosenwald and Barbara Peters, who were in grand form. As I've said before, the social side is what makes conventions, in my opinion, so well worth the time, effort, and cost. As friendships grow, and mutual understanding develops, opportunities for worthwhile writing and other projects can sometimes emerge, and this is often very exciting. I enjoyed meals with my publishers, with Laurie R. King, Bill and Toby Gottfried, uber-Sherlockian Les Klinger, among others. I was also glad to have a chat with Jonathan and Faye Kellerman, whom I hadn't met before, and another guest of honour, Colin Cotterill. Steve and his wife had agreed with us that we'd share each other's company on three Hawaiian islands, and this worked out wonderfully well. One of our dinners even took place in a restaurant named in tribute to Charlie Chan.

Honolulu is on Oahu, and it's a busy place, overflowing with tourists, but beyond the skyscrapers and the beaches there is also a lot of history. I learned much more about the tragic events at Pearl Harbour, and also went on a trip round the south part of the island, After four days, I was sorry to leave. So will I be writing a story set in Oahu? I doubt it. But Kauai, our next destination, was a different story...  

,

Snowblind - Ragnar Jonasson's guest post

Ragnar Jonasson is a talented Icelandic crime writer, one of whose short stories I had the pleasure of including in a recent CWA anthology. His recent novel Snowblind has been published by Orenda Books to much acclaim. Ragnar's English is,I have to say, immeasurably better,than my Icelandic, but in fact his book has been translated by another excellent novelist based in Iceland, British-born Quentin Bates (who, as it happens, has just contributed a terrific essay to a non-fiction CWA book, Truly Criminal.) I invited Ragnar to contribute a guest post telling the story of how he came to write his story:

"I spent my childhood summers in the wonderful, small, northern-most town of Siglufjörður in Iceland, where the days are long and bright in summer (but equally short and dark in winter). When I started writing crime fiction, I felt compelled to write a book set in this place. The village, nestled by the fjord, is closed off on every side by high mountains and the only way to get there is by tunnel or by sea. I always felt it was a very fitting setting for a crime novel, a sort-of locked room in the shape of a small town. It’s not unusual for avalanches and heavy snowfall to close off the roads and, indeed, any access, into town in winter (which, of course, happens in the book as well).

 I also had more personal reasons for writing about Siglufjörður. My father grew up there, during the era when the town was the bustling centre of herring fishing in Iceland, where people worked day and night to bring the fish in from the sea. My grandparents lived there for most of their lives, and my grandfather wrote a series of books about the history of Siglufjörður.

I have been a fan of Golden Age crime fiction for years; I started by reading, and later translating, Agatha Christie, and also enjoying books by a variety of other authors of that era, such as Queen, Van Dine and Marsh. The factors that drew me to Christie – and the Golden Age in particular – are, to a large extent, her plotting and use of setting, and I wanted to try to create a story that could in some way be a juxtaposition of the Golden Age and the much newer Nordic Noir. That, too, is a genre that has influenced me, and I have many favorite authors, including Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo. Another influence is the amazing P.D. James, whose characterization is second to none. I really admire the way she created memorable characters with complex backgrounds, all of whom stay with the reader long after the story is finished. In Snowblind, I set out to create a small gallery of suspects, all of whom have back stories that are revealed – little by little. We see the story evolve in part through their eyes, as well as through the eyes of the lead detective, Ari Thor.

In addition to the above, a key factor behind my decision to write Snowblind was also – of course – the fact that I felt I had a story to tell; the story of a group of people living in a remote place, the story of a young man adapting (or not adapting!) to a new and fairly hostile environment, and little plot twist that I hope I’ll manage to conceal until the very last pages."

I particularly like Ragnar's point about combining GA type writing and Nordic Noir!.