QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS WITH DIETRICH KALTEIS

One of my favourite authors, Dietrich Kalteis kindly dropped by to answer a few questions on his latest book, Under an Outlaw Moon.

Your latest offering, Under an Outlaw Moon has just dropped from ECW. Can you sell it to new or old readers in 50 words or under?

Under an Outlaw Moon is the true story of Bennie and Stella Mae Dickson. He’s out for kicks and she longs to feel wanted. When they pull a bank robbery to celebrate her sixteenth birthday, the ensuing fireworks are more than they ever bargained for.

It's another dip into the past. Was there one spark or germ of imagination that got you up and running with this one?

In 1938, Bennie and Stella Dickson robbed two banks shortly after her sixteenth birthday. They did it without a shot being fired, yet soon found themselves the focus of a nationwide FBI manhunt, wanted dead or alive. The punishment didn’t fit the crime, and that was the spark.

I've probably asked before, is it a different kind of process writing 'historical' as opposed to contemporary crime?

There was more research and fact-checking involved in following actual events as opposed to writing contemporary fiction. Since Under an Outlaw Moon was based on a true story, I kept to the actual timeline of events. Once I got to know the couple through the research, I fleshed out the characters, and I just started writing.

Was it a book conceived in lockdown, or did it's creation pre-date the madness of the COVID/post-COVID world?

I came upon an old news story of Bennie and Stella while doing research for Call Down the Thunder, which was set in the same era. This was in 2018, and I set the idea aside until I finished my work in progress. By the time I started working on it, we were in the early stages of lockdown.  

How has the pandemic impacted on you and yours? Hopefully you have all been safe?

My family and I have stayed safe. And I’ve been able to stay focused and able to disappear into my stories. That said, I sure miss gathering with friends and family, and I sure miss taking part in public reading events too.

Did lockdown have any discernible effect on your creativity?

The trick has been to stay positive so I can focus on my writing. So far, so good.

Regarding Under an Outlaw Moon, how long did it take from the first word to last to complete?

From the time I started gathering research to the time I laid out the timeline and wrote my way through several drafts, it took about nine months. Then there was another month or so spent on story and copy editing.  

Is it the same book you anticipated when setting out, or is it markedly different?

Since the story followed actual events, it turned out as I expected. I was pleased with how the scenes I made up flowed in, and how the characters came to life through their interactions and dialogue.

I believe it's your ninth book. Is it your best work?

I’m too close to it to say it’s my best work. I do think it’s consistent with everything I’ve written to date. And I can say I’m more sure of my writing now; I don’t second guess myself as much as when I started, and I’m better at knowing when a novel is done, and when it’s time to send it to my publisher.

Do you have a favourite of the nine? Which would you press into a new reader's hands first?

I don’t have a favourite. When anyone asks about my books, I try to find out what they’re into, and hopefully I’ve written something that might appeal to them.  

What's next?

Nobody from Somewhere is set to be released by ECW Press next June. It’s a crime story set in present-time Vancouver. Here’s the pitch: 

When long retired cop, Fitch Henry Haut, sees two men forcing a runaway girl into their vehicle, he steps in and gets the upper hand. He and the girl escape in his broken-down Winnebago, and as Fitch listens to her story, he realizes the men will come after them. A bond forms as he and the girl struggle to escape out of town. Anyone interested can find out more on ECW’s website here.

Thank you for inviting me over, Col.

Many thanks to Dietrich for his time.

Check out the his latest and thank me later!

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Under an Outlaw Moon

Meet Depression-era newlyweds Bennie and Stella. He’s reckless, she’s naive. Longing for freedom from tough times, they rob a bank, setting off a series of events that quickly spin out of their control

Under an Outlaw Moon is based on the true story of Depression-era bank robbers Bennie and Stella Mae Dickson. She’s a teenage outsider longing to fit in. He’s a few years older and he’s trouble. They meet at a local skating rink and the sparks fly.

They marry and Stella dreams of a nice house with a swing out back, while Bennie figures out how to get enough money to make it happen. Setting his sights on the good life, he decides to rob a bank. Talking Stella into it, he lays out his plan and teaches her to shoot. The newlyweds celebrate her 16th birthday by robbing a local bank.

They pull it off, but the score is small, and Bennie realizes the money won’t last long, so he plans a bigger robbery. What lays ahead is more than either of them bargained for. After J. Edgar Hoover finds out they crossed state lines, he declares them public enemies number one and two — wanted dead or alive. So much for the good life. The manhunt is on, and there’s little room for them to run.

You can catch up with Dietrich at the following haunts.

www.dietrichkalteis.com

www.dietrichkalteis.blogspot.ca
http://7criminalminds.blogspot.ca

2 BY BRIAN M. WIPRUD

 A couple from US author, Brian M. Wiprud. 

I read Wiprud's debut Sleep with the Fishes sometime between 2000 and 2009  and enjoyed it, without being blown away. I think when I bought that and these I was seeking something similar to a Carl Hiaasen vibe. I'm not sure that Fishes quite got there.

Twelve years is a long time, so I ought to give these a work out.

Pipsqueak (2002)

Tuning forks, thugs in plaid cummerbunds, digital TV, a dead biker, a stuffed loon and an old cartoon show? What's all this got to do with a ratty old squirrel puppet? That's the Pipsqueak story, featuring Garth Carson, a New York City taxidermy collector, and his gal Angie. After a murderous melee in an obscure antique store, the puppet goes missing and they find themselves entangled in a deadly swing band conspiracy and Soviet-era secrets.

"...the wildest mystery to come down the pike in a stuffed squirrel's age." --Publishers Weekly

Crooked (2006) 

Nicholas Palihnic is a natty, tweed-suited hustler who knows every nook and cranny of New York - and a thousand ways to break a girl's heart. Beatrice Belarus is a Manhattan art dealer with an insatiable appetite for money - and for anyone who gets in her way. And a painting titled Trampoline Nude, 1972 has neither nudity nor a trampoline. But when Nicholas is hired by an insurance company to find the recently stolen painting, a murdered art thief points him to a trove of gold buried beneath Manhattan - and suddenly all roads are leading back to Beatrice. As fortune hunters, lovers, and other strangers gather around him, there's one thing Nicholas must remember above all else: in this business, it's better to be crooked than dead....

2 BY EDWARD BUNKER

 A couple from the legendary Edward Bunker ...

Eddie Bunker wrote six novels, one of which was published posthumously in 2007. Bunker had passed in 2005. From his biography page at Fantastic Fiction it's clear he led an interesting life ...

Edward Heward Bunker was an American author of crime fiction, a screenwriter, and an actor.

He wrote numerous books, some of which have been adapted into films.

Bunker was a bright but troublesome child, who spent much of his childhood in different foster homes and institutions.

He started on a criminal career at a very early age, and continued on this path throughout the years, returning to prison again and again.

He was convicted of bank robbery, drug dealing, extortion, armed robbery, and forgery.

A repeating pattern of convictions, paroles, releases and escapes, further crimes and new convictions continued until he was released yet again from prison in 1975, at which point he finally left his criminal days permanently behind and became a writer.

Bunker stayed out of jail thereafter, and instead focused on his career as a writer and actor.

I enjoyed seeing him in Reservoir Dogs, many years ago. Pretty sure I've read and enjoyed most of his books - including these two, but not that I can recall them too much. My last outing was back in 2010 with his short story collection - Death Row Breakout & Other Stories. The novels have all been saved for a re-read sometime.

The Animal Factory (1977)

Drawing on a lifetime's experience of the sordid, horrifically violent world of America's prisons, Edward Bunker's novel The Animal Factory tells a tale of two convicts. 

Ronald Decker, guilty of a minor drug dealing charge, is put away in San Quentin. 

Earl Copen takes it upon himself to instruct the younger man in the brutal protocol of San Quentin and the strategies essential for survival. 

Their growing friendship is tested when Ron's rejection of a homosexual advance by another con leads to an act of fatal violence, and they seize upon a remote chance of escape. 

The Animal Factory is the ultimate prison novel.

Dog Eat Dog (1996)

three men ... two convictions ... one last score ... no more chances!

Troy, an aloof mastermind, seeks an uncomplicated, clean life but cannot get away from his hatred for the system. 

Diesel is on the mob's payroll and interest in his suburban home and nagging wife is waning. 

Mad Dog is possessed by true demons within, that lead him from one explosive situation to the next.  

One more hit, one more jackpot, and they'll all be satisfied ...

'A relentless freight train of a novel, obsessively readable, driven and dark' - Los Angeles Times

G. L. RIX - BROWN (2019)

Synopsis/blurb ....

Name: Brown (just Brown, ma’am)  

Physical Appearance/Demeanor: Bear (That’s grizzly - consider yourself warned.) 

Occupation: Private Dick 

Clients: 

San Antonio’s Finest 

Area’s most notorious gang boss 

Hitmen 

World renowned artists 

Olmos Elementary School entire third grade class

 

Cases: 

Find some body and return them to their forever home.

Find wife-beating boyfriend before contracted hitman does.

Perform background checks on the bad guys.

Find lost animals.

Most admired: Columbo 

Brown: Private Eye - At Your Service

Some you win, some you lose. One plus was I got to spend some time in the company of entertaining narrator Theo Holland, even if the words that spewed from his lips left me indifferent.

We started off ok. Our main character is a PI named Brown and he is in a car park with the corpse of a grafitti artist. And then it all went downhill.

One case, kind of slid into another, then another, followed by a different one. There was no real drama, tension, mystery, humour or intrigue. It was all pretty pointless. A total mess that led nowhere, unfortunately. 

The writing was ok. The main character and some of the underlings were interesting enough as individuals, or might have proved to be if there was any real purpose to their movements. There wasn't. There was some scope for drama between Brown and Mrs Casey. There was a real spark of sexual chemistry that offered some possible respite from the rest of the nonsense the book was, but that went unconsumated and the opportunity was lost.

Oh well. I won't die wondering. I liked the cover. I didn't hate the book, I just kind of wondered the whole point of it was. Writing for writing's sake. 

Rix has written a second book, Browner which I won't be touching. I think a better title for this one would have been Brown Stuff.  

2 from 5 

Read - (listened to) November, 2021

Published - 2019

Page count - 168 (5 hrs 25 mins)

Source - Audible

Format - Audible

PETER ROBINSON - SEVEN YEARS (2018)

 

Synopsis/blurb ...

A gripping novella from the New York Times best-selling author of the Inspector Banks Mysteries and a "master of the art" (Boston Globe)

Retired Cambridge professor Donald Aitcheson loves scouring antiquarian bookshops for secondhand treasures - as much as he loathes the scribbled marginalia from their previous owners. But when he comes upon an inscription in a volume of Robert Browning's poetry, he's less irritated than disturbed. This wasn't a gift to an unwitting woman. It was a threat - insidious, suggestively sick, and terribly intriguing.

Now Aitcheson's imagination is running wild. Was it a sordid teacher-pupil affair that ended in betrayal? A scorned lover's first salvo in a campaign of terror? The taunt of an obsessive psychopath? Then again, it could be nothing more than a tasteless joke between friends.

As his curiosity gets the better of him, Aitcheson can't resist playing detective. But when his investigation leads to a remote girls' boarding school in the Lincolnshire flatlands, and into the confidence of its headmistress, he soon discovers the consequences of reading between the lines.

Peter Robinson is one of a long list of authors whose work I want to give some proper attention to, but never actually consider when choosing what to read next, or even next week/month. I'm pretty sure I read either his first Inspector Banks book, or an early standalone years ago, but then moved on. My memory fails me and the recording of my reading was only instigated in 2010. I guess I'll never know unless I happen to re-read it and I recognise elements.

An opportunity to get stuck into something from him not overly long and on Audible (with the flexibility that format affords me) was worth a punt. The fact that it was a mystery from the Bibliomystery oeuvre and centred around books was a bonus.

We have a somewhat crusty retired academic, doing some sleuthing after reading a sinister dedication in a recently acquired book. Professor Aitcheson, nosey old git that he is might wish he hadn't bothered by the end of it. Conversely he may be glad he did. 

It was an enjoyable couple of hours nearly, with some book shop browsing, some white lies told, some amateur sleuthing, the odd pub lunch, a girl's boarding school, an unlikely alliance with the possibility of something more in the future, a quarry located, an interview, a confession, and several unexpected consequences.      

 

I quite liked the story, though it was maybe a bit of a stretch initially buying into the creepy inscription  triggering everything that followed. I've read names, dates, dedications in books before and they never induce more than a fleeting thought. I think my favourite find at the start of a book is a library stamp and its borrowing history - that gets me thinking. But hey that's just me.

The pace was fairly pedestrian, but I was happy getting where we were going in the author's own sweet time. I liked the style of writing, even if the main character was a bit of an odd-ball. That element probably added to the sense of enjoyment as opposed to detracting from it.  

Overall 3.5 from 5

I'll have to keep Robinson in the forefront of my mind when figuring out 2022's reading plans.  

Read - (listened to) November, 2021

Published - 2018

Page count -  50 at a guess (1 hr 46 mins)

Source - Audible 

Fomrat - Audible

NIGEL BIRD - AIN'T THAT A KICK IN THE HEAD (2021)

 

Synopsis/blurb ....

This year, the fireworks will be red hot…

Skates Farrington is a changed man. Gone are the smart suits, the dull meetings and the extra pounds. Nowadays, he gets his thrills at the skate park and from whatever substances his dealers send his way. The only thing missing from his life is his ex-wife. She’s shacked up with a respectable partner in an isolated farm and striving to create the perfect life. Skates is convinced that she will come back to him when she sees his new self, but when attempts to win her heart all over again are thrown back in his face, he decides a little gentle persuasion is in order. Now he can include murder and abduction among his new-found skills.

DI Oliver Wilson, leading the investigation, has more than a few things on his mind. The case and imminent arrival of his third child should be at the forefront of his thoughts, but the arrival of a sequence of unusual gifts is making him nervous. The packages are sending him a message, he just can’t work out what they’re trying to say.

Ain’t That A Kick In The Head is the explosive follow up to Let It Snow and My Funny Valentine.

Praise for AIN’T THAT A KICK IN THE HEAD:

“Nigel Bird knows his characters inside and out—what they want, how they think, how they grow and how they fail. Ain’t that a Kick in the Head might be his best work yet. A convincing, engrossing portrayal of what life is like for cops and criminals alike.” —Chris Rhatigan, All Due Respect Books publisher

Ain't That a Kick in the Head is the third in Nigel Bird's Rat Pack series. Just putting it out there - it's one of my favourite contemporary crime fiction series. (For a sense of completism; Let it Snow and My Funny Valentine are the two earlier entries.)

Here the focus is on solving a murder and the search for a missing woman - Justine, the girlfriend of the murdered man. From the police's perspective she's possibly a suspect, possibly a kidnap victim. We have the same team of cops investigating as those encountered in the previous books, though it's a slightly pared down team with less characters than before. DI Oliver Wilson. DI Mike Marsalis and DS Sue Nolan are our main cop characters. Our local king-pin villain, Johnny Yen, a constant and sometime confidant of one of our cops also makes a welcome appearance.

Marital disharmony, jealousy, regret, obsession, delusions, and some extreme measures taken to woo back a partner who has grown up, moved on and left you behind. If a six stone weight loss, a new lifestyle and some gentle persuasion won't win Justine back from new love Colin, perhaps Skates Farrington might need to go a bit nuclear. Ergo murder, kidnapping, drugging and incarceration in his basement until the apple of his eye comes around to his way of thinking.

As a reader we know who's done what and to whom plus the why, but it's fun seeing the cops trying to catch up. Particularly when they are a little bit distracted by impending fatherhood and some odd happenings (DI Wilson I'm thinking of you) and in the case of Marsalis and Nolan, an ever increasingly confusing friendship set ablaze by sexual tension and scorching testosterone levels with restraint competing against reckless impulse. It's a wonder any investigating got done!

Quite fast-moving. Plenty of dark humour in the dynamics of the police relationships and in the time spent inside Skates Farrington's head. We get a satisfying conclusion to the drama, realistic as opposed to happy. There's also an answer to Wilson's bizarre deliveries, which is some fallout from one of the earlier books.

Ain't That a Kick in the Head works well as a separate entity, but I think it would be slightly more satisfying if it were read after the two earlier books. It's a short series. My advice, get on board now. 

4.5 from 5

Read - October, 2021

Published - 2021

Page count - 196

Source - review copy from a generous author

Format - PDF read on laptop

DOROTHY GILMAN - MRS POLLIFAX PURSUED (1994)

Synopsis/blurb ....

A missing salami leads Mrs. Pollifax to a shocking discovery: a woman is hiding in her house. Even more unsettling is the revelation that ever since the young woman had a chance encounter with the heir to the throne of Ubangiba, she has been followed by deadly hitmen. What do these men want?

The last thing Mrs Pollifax expects to find in her closet is a young woman hiding.

Kadi Hopkirk insists that she is being followed by two men in a dirty white van. Under the cover of darkness, Mrs Pollifax tries to drive Kadi back home, only to have a dark green sedan give them a run for their money and, she begins to suspect, their lives.

Ever resourceful, Mrs P. puts in a call for help to her CIA colleague, Carstairs, who installs them in a safe house. Before she knows it, a dash to safety expands into an assignment that leads to hair-trigger violence in exotic places ...

Armed with only an open mind and a little karate, Mrs Pollifax is the most unlikely and lovable of international spies.

Mrs Pollifax's eleventh outing as Dorothy Gilman's unlikely CIA operative was my second time with the series and author. The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax, the series opener was enjoyed a month or two ago. 

Here Emily Pollifax is drawn into a mystery concerning a high profile kidnapping and a pursued girl, both connected to the unstable African country of Ubangiba.

Car chases, salami, a travelling circus, millions of dollars and a thirst for power all feature in another fun adventure featuring our aged agent. We have a bit of hide and seek in the US, before our drama plays out at the Presidential Palace in Ubangiba with Emily's CIA boss, Carstairs taking a rare trip into the field to pull the strings.

Best book ever? No, but enough to keep me amused and entertained throughout. I enjoyed the narration by Barbara Rosenblat, who brings Emily to life for me. In the first book, Mrs Pollifax was widowed. Here she has acquired herself a new husband, presumably a consequence of one of her earlier adventures. Calm, unflappable and capable of adapting to whatever strange circumstance she finds herself in, Mrs Pollifax is a recent discovery for me and a welcome one. 

3.5 from 5

Read - (listened to) November, 2021

Published - 1994

Page count - 242 (5 hrs 58 mins)

Source - Audiobooks

Format - Audible