Tag Archives: Thriller

Author Encounter | Stuart MacBride

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Dear Harper Collins Canada: I love you! Thank you for bringing all these awesome crime, mystery and thriller writers to Toronto and for hosting fan events with them! First Peter James, and now Stuart MacBride. Do I dare hope for a Val McDermid, Martin Walker or James Rollins event on the horizon?

First, kudos to Harper Collins for such a killer event title (sorry, couldn’t resist). As a life-long mystery fan, how could I pass up the opportunity to plot a murder with a best selling crime author?

The evening began with a woman asking about Stuart’s writing process. Stuart turned the question back to the audience and asked how we read: in the bathroom, in bed, naked? Turns out he does sometimes, when the day is warm, write his books in the buff. Things you learn at these author encounters.

Stuart talking to us about murder

Stuart is just absolutely hilarious. He’s such a big, cheerful man, and the event felt more like a casual chat over drinks than an Author Event. At least until he mentions a fascinating fact that makes you wonder, how on earth could he know something like that? He’s probably best described by an audience member’s question: “You’re such a jovial man. Then I just read the first few pages of your book (Birthdays for the Dead, on-sale January 2012. Harper Collins kindly gave us all ARCs), and it’s horrific. How do reconcile the two Stuarts?” She sounded absolutely bewildered, and I can understand why. The first chapter of Birthdays is, in Stuart’s own words, “dark, nasty, and pretty damn twisted,” and hard to imagine coming from the man who repeated the question as “I’m such a handsome, sexy man. How do I write such dark stuff?”

"I didn't expect half this many people!" Stuart said when he entered the room.

We plotted a fictional murder with Stuart, which led to an interesting discussion on murder techniques. Someone in the audience came up with drowning as our murder method, and Stuart, the friendly, jolly man you can imagine having a beer with, said that a very effective way to drown someone is water boarding. He then drew a diagram and explained how the technique worked. “Trained CIA agents last 12 seconds under this.” An audience member points out that the method is ineffective because under those conditions, one would say anything. Stuart agreed and said that torture scenes in books and movies usually get it wrong. He then explained the most effective way to use torture to get information from someone. Then he gave an absolutely charming sheepish smile and said, “This is getting quite dark, isn’t it?”

Cory from Harper Collins gives Stuart his cake

So, given all this knowledge, how does Stuart MacBride get the information he needs for his books? “A couple of gin and tonics, and pathologists blab all the gory details.” He then goes on to explain why burying a victim in concrete is ineffective unless done properly. It was actually very scientific and, dare I say it, fascinating. This is actually a perfect Halloween event; an evening with Stuart MacBride is worth dozens of ghost stories in a dark room. Delicious horror.

Swag from Harper Collins Canada

Stuart also gave a reading. He chose a short story he wrote entitled “The Princess and the Pervert,” a re-telling of “The Princess and the Frog.” It was dark and twisted; I was squirming in my seat, and almost gasped out loud at the ending. You can read the story here and it’s a fantastic, well-written, creepy-as-hell piece. But you definitely missed out, not hearing Stuart read it live. He’s a fantastic performer; his reading brought his characters to life. Some parts were hilarious, other parts just really, really freaked me out. Then he told a few of us later on about a short, rhyming story he wrote for his nephew Logan (after whom Stuart’s series character Logan McRae was named). It was about a skeleton whose mother gave him a fuzzy pink sweater. Sweet, funny story, completely different from “Princess and Pervert,” and I at least can imagine a Tim Burton short based on it.

One of my favourite parts of the night was the contest to win the entire Logan McRae series by Stuart. To win, we had to write down the most creative way to kill someone. You get a few dozen mystery fans in one room, and you’ll get a range of quite gruesome ideas. Murder weapons ranged from a poisonous snake to fibreglass to Silly Putty. Best part is that after Stuart read each suggestion, he explained why it wouldn’t work and sometimes, how an idea could be made more effective. Again, I wondered how he knows so much about the subject.

I love Stuart's artwork! Here, fellow audience member Brenda gets a friendly ghost from Stuart.

Anyway, I won! 😀 Stuart was having a tough time deciding between my entry and the fibreglass one, and fortunately, Harper Collins said they’d give out two prize packs instead of one. Even better, Stuart laughed at my entry: Justin Bieber music videos played in a continuous loop until the victim kills himself. When he was signing my copy of Birthdays, he shuddered, looked at me and said, “That’s unnecessarily cruel.” From Stuart MacBride, that’s high praise. He then scribbled “Bieber!” and signed with a flourish.

That’s another thing about Stuart MacBride that I love: he personalizes the books he signs, or at least writes something different in each one. One of the women had a sketch of a dead teddy bear, and another had a drawing of a skull with a princess crown. Another woman had a copy signed for a friend who couldn’t make it because of work. Stuart wrote “Sorry excuse for missing this!” then said, “We had cake!”

Speaking of cake, Harper Collins served this fantastic treat. It was delicious, but more importantly, I love the Death figure! Isn’t it cute? Stuart noticed the Death figure has glasses and a beard and called the designer cheeky.

Stuart’s just such a friendly, wonderful person, and I’m so glad to have met him. He even agreed to sign the entire Logan McRae library I’d won. So, added to my “Bieber!” I also have a skull and crossbones and a bloody eyeball. Love it.

If you’re free and in Toronto tonight (Wednesday, October 26, 2011) or tomorrow, definitely check Stuart out for yourself at the International Festival of Authors. He’ll be reading from the latest Logan McRae, Shatter the Bones, tonight with Denise Mina, David Adams Richards and one of my favourite crime writers, Ian Rankin, and hosted by Andrew Pyper (event details). Tomorrow, he’ll be performing with a literary all-star cast at Fleck, A Verse Comedy, also at IFOA. He told me it’ll be a lot more formal than the Harper Collins event, and he won’t be discussing water boarding at all, nor will he be reading from “Princess and Pervert.” But it should still be a great event. He’s an amazing reader, and such a friendly man. If you’re already a fan, heads up on these events and if you aren’t, I do hope you check him out.

Thanks again to Harper Collins for such an amazing event! And most of all, thanks to Stuart MacBride for making the event so amazing. To cap the night off, a Harper Collins employee gave me a Hershey’s Chocolate World plastic bag to carry my new Stuart MacBride collection. Just an amazing, wonderful evening. Thank you.

[Final image courtesy of the International Festival of Authors website. All other images courtesy of Harper Collins Canada]

Review | In Session, M.J. Rose

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It all began when thriller writers Lee Child and Barry Eisler were chatting online about their characters, Jack Reacher and John Rain, taking each other on. Fellow thriller writer M.J. Rose suggested that her character, sex therapist Dr. Morgan Snow, psychoanalyze these tough men. Rose also got Steve Berry and his Cotton Malone on board, and the result is In Session. It’s a novelty e-book and audiobook rather than a full-fledged novel, and it is priced as such ($1.99 international price for the Kindle edition). The book is also for a good cause — all the proceeds of the audiobook and part of the proceeds of the e-book will be donated to David Baldacci’s Wish You Well Foundation, which supports family literacy. The stories aren’t thrillers, but fans of these characters may be interested in seeing their hidden, vulnerable side.

Full disclosure: I’ve never read any of these authors, though Lee Child and Steve Berry at least have been on my list of thriller authors to try. So for me, Rose’s stories provided a bit of an introduction to these characters. I love finding out in the Acknowledgements how involved these authors were in writing these stories; even if Rose wrote the stories, I’m at least assured that the characters are somehow still true to the originals.

I enjoyed the Cotton Malone story mostly because his partner, Cassiopeia Vitt, seems like such an intriguing character. What Malone reveals about his childhood also makes me want to find out more about him. Big bonus: Malone owns a rare book shop. That’s my kind of hero! Berry edited Malone’s dialogue and provided details of the rare book shop. I liked both, so I’m definitely checking out this series.

The John Rain story is my favourite. The introduction that brings Snow and Rain together is all right, but their conversation in the park is stellar — nuanced and realistic. Turns out Eisler co-wrote that scene with Rose on Google Docs in real-time, which helps explain why the dialogue flowed so naturally.

The Jack Reacher scene was my least favourite, and probably the most disappointing because Reacher was the one I most wanted to find out about. It was mostly a story within a story, which made Snow’s presence seem superfluous. Perhaps it’s because I also don’t know what Reacher does exactly that I spent the first few pages wondering why he was coming to Snow’s rescue. Did he just happen to be passing by, does he work in the area, or is he an Emergency Response specialist? Clearly, anyone familiar with Reacher wouldn’t have these questions, but it just felt more forced than the other two.

Snow herself was just okay, though in fairness she wasn’t the focus of any of the vignettes. Still, even though we see glimpses of her personal life, she just didn’t strike me enough to make me want to rush out and read more about her. Personal preference, and perhaps I just need to see her in a thriller setting to really get a feel for her character.

Overall, In Session is an inexpensive e-book and audiobook for a good cause, worth reading to get a peek into some of the contemporary thriller genre’s most well-known characters.

Review | Sanctus, Simon Toyne

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I read Simon Toyne’s Sanctus because of the above trailer. [Note: If you like zero spoilers, ignore the above trailer. It convinced me to read the book, but it also made the first few chapters seem slow, because I already knew what was going to happen.] Promotion for Sanctus focused heavily on its similarities with Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. To be honest, while I’m a thriller fan, the deluge of “next Dan Brown” conspiracy thriller books that came after Brown’s success has made me cynical about that type of book.

Still, the trailer did intrigue me enough to check it out. There are definite plot similarities to Da Vinci Code, though the cinematic quality of Toyne’s writing, especially at the beginning of the novel, also reminded me of James Rollins. Unlike Brown and Rollins, however, who both rely heavily on research for their books, Toyne chooses to locate Sanctus in the fictional Citadel, a Vatican-like city-state in Turkey. As well, rather than the Catholic church, it is a fictional religious order of monks that guards the novel’s big secret. This detracts a bit from the impact of the novel, as it then becomes easier to believe the whole thing fiction and therefore Toyne’s revelations didn’t have as much impact on me as Brown’s. However, this decision also frees Toyne to imagine a secret and a conspiracy far beyond the realm of the ordinary.

I enjoyed Sanctus. The novel began a bit slow for me. From the trailer above, I already knew what the monk was going to do. Also, with so many characters in the first few chapters, it felt like a montage of scenes, and I couldn’t find a character to latch on to and care about. Still, once the story gets going, I really enjoyed reading about Inspector Arkadian and Liv Adamsen.

Sanctus is about how one monk’s actions endanger the secrecy surrounding the mysterious Sacrament hidden from the public for centuries by a group of monks. The monk’s sister, Liv, might be an integral part of a prophecy surrounding this Sacrament, and she is hunted by the monks trying to keep the secret and a group of people who want the secret to be revealed.

Toyne writes well, and Sanctus is an enjoyable read. For most of the book, however, it just didn’t grab me as much as I thought it would. I think that’s because it felt so much like The Da Vinci Code, except with the bad guys belonging to a fictional religious group and the clues pertaining to a religious document that doesn’t exist (or at least makes no claim to exist) in the real world. So while I was gasping at Brown’s observations about the Mona Lisa or alternate gospels, I viewed the document in Sanctus with detachment.

It wasn’t enough of a fictional world to completely transport me (as, for example, the world in Lord of the Rings, where I take a prophecy as significant because it feels significant within that world), nor did it have enough hooks in reality to completely grip me (as in the best James Rollins books). I did care enough about the characters to want to keep reading about them, but not enough to make real emotional investment (as I did with Spycatcher). Sanctus is a good book, a well-written, well-paced thriller, but nothing about it really struck me.

At least, that was true until the big reveal. When I found out what the Sacrament was, and why it was significant, I was completely, utterly blown away. I think I was still expecting a Da Vinci type reveal, so I figured that whatever the Sacrament was, it would have the same impact on me as the monks’ sacred document did. Well done, Mr. Toyne. I absolutely did not see that coming. Also, I realized why it was a good thing that Toyne stayed away from the extensively researched worlds of Brown and Rollins.

Sanctus is the first volume of the Ruin trilogy, and I’m curious about where Toyne will take his story for the next instalment. To be honest, I can’t imagine how he’ll take this story to a full trilogy. Then again, as my experience of reading Sanctus showed, Toyne’s imagination can certainly trump mine.