Social tensions, long walks, and religious cults

Vaseem Khan, Kellye Garrett, and Ed James onstage at Capital Crime

Craig every second Tuesday

Kia ora and gidday everyone,

So last time I talked about the then-upcoming Capital Crime festival in London, along with restarting my (previously) long-running 9mm interview series after quite a hiatus. I'm pleased to report reality matched anticipation with Capital Crime; even though this year I was only able to pop in for a few hours each day rather than staying all day every day like I often do at festivals, it was really terrific. A great vibe, wonderful authors. Lovely to catch up with some old friends I hadn't seen for months, and meet some new-to-me authors and booklovers too. 

It was a great week all 'round, really, which was particularly lovely for me given Miss Nine and her mother were away in New Zealand for her maternal grandfather's 80th birthday (I didn't join them for the short trip), but rather than being lonely in London I through fate and circumstance had several overseas friends visiting, from various eras and chapters of my life (law school, summer camp, crime fiction, etc) and various countries.

Taking visiting Australian author and pulp noir scholar Andrew Nette
to the fabulous Goldsboro Books store in central London

So lots of catch-ups and lots of walking around London - which is a great walking city, despite so many people tubing everywhere - playing tourist and tour guide in 'my own city', from Abbey Road to Tower Bridge, and lots of places in between. Long walks, good books, friends old and new; it was a good week for the soul.

One of the main highlights for me was getting to meet award-winning New Jersey author and Crime Writers of Color co-founder Kellye Garrett in person. I'd had the pleasure of doing multiple video chats with Kellye in recent years, for magazine articles and podcasts etc, but we hadn't hung out in person before. So it was really lovely I got to show her (and her mother) around London a little - her first visit to the city - ahead of her appearance at Capital Crime.

Kellye Garrett and her Mom on the Millennium Bridge

One of the coolest things about crime fiction - alongside the great stories - is the wonderful people in the genre. I'm one of many who've discussed this in various places, but crime writers as a whole are a great bunch of people, perhaps because they get all the darkness out on the page. Overall there's a great sense of collegiality at events, less of the scarcity mindset I've seen elsewhere in the arts, and lots of everyone lifting others up. A rising tide.

Capital Crime itself was another terrific example of that. 

Although I couldn't attend the whole weekend, I had a great time at the panels I saw, including CWA chair Vaseem Khan, Kellye and Scottish author Ed James discussing the fine balance between exploring social tensions and providing entertainment in crime fiction, a great discussion on the supernatural in crime with William Hussey, Kristen Perrin, and Stuart Neville, and a hilarious and fun 'in conversation' with John Connolly and Mark Billingham. There were also some really lovely offstage catchups with various authors and readers. An unexpected surprise was getting to sign a copy of DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER 2, which keen reader Peter Murray had brought to the festival in the hopes of seeing me, even though I wasn't part of this year's onstage programme. 

Peter Murray surprises me with DDDU2

Given the book has just come out in recent weeks and I haven't done any events or festivals since its release, this was actually my first reader signing (I'd signed a few copies for friends and family). Again, how cool are crime folks?

I also conducted a few offstage interviews with some crime authors, which will be popping up in various magazines and websites in the coming weeks and months. Always a pleasure to chat books, crime fiction, and life with authors. 

On that note, I thought I'd share another 9mm interview here with you today, with CWA Gold Dagger and Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year winner MW Craven, who's taken British crime writing by storm in recent years. I caught up with Mike at Capital Crime, and we chatted about his new novel THE MERCY CHAIR, among other topics. It's a hell of a read, taking his Tilly and Poe series in a new direction, somewhat... 

But for now, here's MW Craven, staring down the barrel of 9mm.

9MM INTERVIEW: MW CRAVEN

After decades in the Army and Probation Service, punk rock loving storyteller MW Craven scooped the prestigious CWA Gold Dagger in 2019 with his debut, The Puppet Show, which introduced Cumbrian detective Washington Poe and brilliant, but socially awkward, civilian analyst, Tilly Bradshaw. The fourth novel in that series won the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, the fifth scooped last year’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. 

1. Who is your favorite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?

Commander Sam Vimes, Ankh-Morpork City Watch. I’ve been obsessed with Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld for as long as I can remember, and the City Watch books are my very favourites. Most people have Guards! Guards! as their favourite, but I prefer the later Night Watch, as the cast of characters is wide and fully developed. There’s a touch of Vimes in Poe – how could there not be? – and a touch of Captain Carrot in Tilly . . . 

2. What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?

Watership Down by Richard Adams. I was given this book by my parents – who encouraged me to read from a very young age – as they’d mistakenly thought that a book about rabbits was suitable reading for an eight-year-old . . . Wrong. It’s barely suitable for an adult. I read it at least once a year. 

3. Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?

Nothing. Born in a Burial Gown, first published by Caffeine Nights in 2015 (under the name Mike Craven), was the first real thing I had written. And on the back of that I got my agent. I sometimes feel a fraud when I’m talking to fellow authors and they discuss rejection letters etc, as I never had any . . . 

4. Outside of writing and writing-related activities (book events, publicity), what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?

I collect books – first edition Ed McBains, unusual editions of Watership Down, first edition Stephen Kings, and I’m still trying to complete my first edition hardback collection of the Discworld novels. I’m getting there, but it’s a slow process. Other than that, I read, I socialise with my friends, and I go to gigs. The next two big ones are Stiff Little Fingers in Belfast and Iron Maiden in New York. 

5. What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?

They should go to Poe’s local – the Kings Head on Fisher Street (and if they’re lucky, Spun Gold will be on) – and then they should visit my local independent bookshop, Bookends. It’s a smart shop with friendly, knowledgeable staff, but the real gem is the second-hand part of the business, Book Case. I think I’m right in saying that there are 39 rooms in that part of the building.

6. If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?

Sean Bean. He’s unashamedly northern and this shines through in whatever role he plays. He’s also gruff, no nonsense, sarcastic and craggy. 

7. Of your writings, which is your favorite or a bit special to you for some particular reason, and why?

I have a soft spot for the second Poe book, Black Summer, as it’s kind of the forgotten novel. It didn’t receive the marketing that The Puppet Show did (which was the debut) and the series didn’t really take off until book 3, The Curator. But I like the simplicity of the central concept – a woman Poe knows is dead walks into a police station and proves beyond scientific doubt that she is who she claims to be. How someone can be both dead and alive was such a fun thing to do. It also has that opening chapter . . . 

8. What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?

I celebrated with extra chicken when I found out about my first publishing deal (my wife and I were having a Nando’s in Gateshead). I had been hopeful, as Caffeine Nights had been making all the right noises about Born in a Burial Gown, but looking back, we celebrated getting that start-the-ball-rolling email quite stoically. A kind of ‘right, let’s do this’. Little did I know that the email would go on to change my life. I met my future agent the following year and gave him a just printed, not-yet-out, copy of the book, and, after reading it overnight, he asked me to send him the very next book I wrote as an exclusive submission.

9. What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?

There are two that stand out – being onstage at Newcastle Noir when a woman collapsed to the floor (she lived, thankfully) and the (won’t name him unless you feed me beer) author who had the mic just carried on talking as if nothing was happening. 

And at Bradford Literary festival in 2018, a woman in the audience repeatedly heckled me, Imran Mahmood and Rebecca Fleet. First, she wanted to know if we had all written the same book. Then, when it came to readings, she heckled again and asked why she, as a respectable woman of impeccable character, should have to listen to extracts from crime books. And finally, she asked why we all couldn’t just talk about Harry Potter instead. Imran and I still laugh about this.

Thanks, Mike, we appreciate you having a chat with us. 

Until next time. Ka kite anō.

Whakataukī of the fortnight: 

Inspired by Zoe and her 'word of the week', I'll be ending my fortnightly posts by sharing a whakataukī (Māori proverb), a pithy and poetic thought to mull on as we go through life.

“Ko te manu e kai ana i te miro nōnā te ngahere, ko te manu e kai ana i te mātauranga nōnā te ao.”

(the forest belongs to the bird who feasts on the miro berry, the world belongs to the bird who feasts on education)