Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

In Agatha Christie’s Dead Man’s Folly, detective novelist Ariadne Oliver asks Hercule Poirot to investigate when she starts to suspect that something sinister is going on at Nasse House in Nassecombe. She’s there to plan one of the activities for an upcoming fête, and she believes something more may be going on. At one point, Poirot telephones her to discuss the case. Here’s what Mrs. Oliver says:

“I was just going out to give a talk on How I Write My Books. Now I can get my secretary to ring up and say I am unavoidably detained… I’d have made the most awful fool of myself. I mean, what can you say about how you write books? What I mean is, first you’ve got to think of something and when you’ve thought of it you’ve got to force yourself to sit down and write it. That’s all. It would have taken me just three minutes to explain that, and then the Talk would have ended and everyone would have been very fed up. I can’t imagine why everybody is always so keen for authors to talk about writing. I should have thought it was an author’s business to write, not talk.”

She’s got a good point, in that readers do want authors to write. But they also want to meet authors, hear their stories and ask questions. So, writer appearances have become an important part of what writers do. But it’s not always easy. Just a quick look at crime fiction should show you that anything can happen when writers do appearances.

In Carolyn Hart’s Death on Demand, we are introduced to Annie Laurence, who has recently inherited a mystery bookshop, Death on Demand, that’s located on South Carolina’s Broward’s Island. Each week, the bookshop hosts a meeting of the Sunday Night Regulars, a group of writers who live on the island. The custom is that each week, one of the writers does a reading, and then the group discusses it. One night, it’s the turn of Elliot Morgan, and Annie knows this is going to be a disaster. His upcoming release will be a tell-all, and he’s hinted that he’s going to share some secrets he knows. Annie tries to talk him out of it, but it’s no good; he insists on taking his turn. Just before he’s to do his reading, the lights go out and everything stops. The lights go back on again, but not before Morgan has been murdered. If she’s going to keep her bookshop open, Annie will need to help find out who the murderer is. And it doesn’t help matters that she’s a suspect.

One of the characters in Kate Atkinson’s One Good Turn is crime novelist Martin Canning. He’s a very shy introvert who has as little personal interaction with his readers as possible. But his readers love his series, so his publicist insists that he join a panel at the upcoming Edinburgh Arts Festival. Canning reluctantly agrees and makes the trip. While he’s there, he decides to attend an afternoon radio program, and goes to the station to buy tickets. He and a group of other people are waiting for the ticket box to open when they witness a blue Honda hit the silver Peugeot in front of it. The two drivers get out, and the Honda driver attacks the Peugeot driver with a baseball bat. Canning throws his computer case at the Honda driver to get him to stop and is soon drawn into a case that ends in murder. He does speak at the panel, but it’s not at all the ‘nothing to it’ experience his publicist had promised.

Judy Moore’s A Book Signing to Die For features Beck O’Rourke and her grandmother, who own Beach Read Books, in Manetee Beach, Florida. Everyone’s excited when the bookshop hosts an author talk and signing for famous mystery writer Marcia Graybill. The event goes off as planned, but late that night, Beck and her sister Lizzie are awakened by the police searching the alley behind the store. It turns out that one of the guests, Peggy Davidson, has been murdered, and an emerald ring she’d been wearing has gone missing. There are several suspects in this case, including Beck herself. So, she’s going to have to work to clear her name and find out who the murderer is.

And then there’s Catherine Ryan Howard’s The Nothing Man. Eve Black is a newly successful author whose book, The Nothing Man, is the true story of an attack on her family that happened when Eve was twelve. The attack left everyone dead but her, and the killer has never been caught. The police dubbed the killer ‘The Nothing Man’ because he left no traces, and no-one saw him coming or going. The book is a big success, and Eve goes on tour to promote it. It’s hard for her to relive the night of the attack, but she is hoping that if the story is widely told, she can do her part to catch the person who murdered her family. Security guard Jim Doyle learns about the book and Eve’s story. He doesn’t want the truth about the Nothing Man to come out because he is the nothing man. So, he determines to finish what he started, and murder Eve. He finds out that she’ll be speaking at a bookstore not far from where he lives, so he arranges to go there and stop her. Eve knows she’s taking a risk by possibly getting the killer’s attention, but she wants the story told.

Of course, not every author appearance leads to murder. But they are unique opportunities for authors to meet with readers and cement the relationship that starts when the reader picks up the author’s book. Just…make sure you’re careful at the next one you attend…

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Jackson Browne’s The Load-Out/Stay