Crime Fiction Dossier

Ask the Critic: Can you identify this book?

I couldn't... But maybe you can.

The main character is an L.A. detective (recently promoted, I believe), and the book starts quickly with him witnessing the murder of a criminal by his senior peers, iirc in a parking garage, and he is troubled by how to handle it. This is one plot, intertwined with that of a serial killer on the loose. I cannot recall how it all comes together, but basically the young detective winds up in a race to catch the serial killer before being killed or framed by his senior peer detectives, and also to catch the killer before the killer catches him. He tracks the killer to Europe, is helped by a detective over there (Russian I believe). Another sub-plot is this detective has an adult sister who had some trauma so he cares after her... and it turns out the killer is some sort of Duke or something who is about to marry her in Europe..and a big blazing shoot-out in a train garage was one scene. Also the end came together at a museum.

Sounds pretty silly the way I described it, but it actually was a pretty good read...kept me turning pages...

Any ideas?

Ask the Critic: Book trailers -- yea or nay?

A reader wrote in yesterday to ask my opinion of book trailers. I answered that I don't think very much of them. In my opinion, they're not terribly effective and probably a waste of money. (Although, if they can be produced cheaply, they probably won't hurt.)

When pressed for an explanation of why I think they don't work, I shared the following reasons (off the top of my head):

• Most book trailers are amateurish.
• They appear to be advertising something other than a book (e.g., a movie) and are thus confusing to the consumer.
• Most of the audience is unfamiliar with or unaware of book trailers, and thus their impact is minimal.
• Most readers don't seem to like them very much. I've never heard readers talk about them and never seen them generate word of mouth.
• They're a form of "push marketing" and thus have to be combined with additional forms of marketing in order to be effective -- but most authors don't use them that way. They post the trailer on their website and on YouTube and that's it. But how is the prospective audience supposed to find them?

I do think book trailers can be somewhat effective when used as part of a larger marketing campaign -- the kind of thing done for bestselling and other high profile authors. But for most writers, especially midlist and debut writers, I believe they're better off spending their (very limited) promotional dollars elsewhere.

But what do you think? Do you like book trailers? Do you ever watch them? Have you ever bought a book based on one?

Ask the Critic: Time spent reading/writing

C.T. Henry asks:

How many books do you read in a week?  How much time do you spend writing vs. reading?

I already shared some numbers in my post summing up my stats for 2007. But, in general, I try to read 3 books per week. I didn't quite make it there this last year, but I was close. It takes me a fair bit of reading time to get to that, as I'm not an especially fast reader.

I don't spend much time writing reviews in an average week. Although I'm a slow reader, I'm a fast writer, and can produce a column or single-book review in a couple of hours at most. So I spend far more time reading the books than writing the reviews.

Ask the Critic: Do critics request books or are they sent automatically?

In the comments to the post below about my TBR stack, C.T. Henry asks an interesting question that I pulled out to answer here:

Did you request most of these books or were they just sent to you?

Usually, publishers send me the books automatically, without me having to request them. That's the easiest way to operate and it ensures that the books are at least considered for review.

Sometimes, though, the system doesn't work so smoothly and I have to seek out the books and request them. This is a lot more inefficient and doesn't always work particularly well. For one thing, it means I have to be aware of the book in the first place. (I try to keep up with everything, but often books slip through the cracks anyway.)

Also, it means I have to either figure out who the publicist is or just start querying people at the publisher to try to track the book down. For those publishers where I have good, ongoing relationships with the publicists, this is pretty easy to do. But if all I know is that a book is published by Random House, getting my hands on a copy can sometimes be more trouble than it's worth.

(As with all things, some publishers do a lot better job of sending books than others. This has a real impact on which books get reviewed. Too often I'm not even able to consider a particular book for review because I never got a copy.)

In this particular case, most of the books were sent to me, but a few I had to request.

Ask the Critic: Best Rex Stout book to start with?

Robyn asks:

What's the best Rex Stout book to start with? Critics seem to differ in their favorites, but often say one or another of his books is "good for beginners." I'm confused!

One of my favorite writers! Rex Stout and his wonderful Nero Wolfe series don't seem to be talked about much these days, but they were early favorites of mine and have retained their appeal over the years.

(Note that Stout did write a handful of books other than the Wolfe series, but I haven't read any of them, and they're not supposed to be especially good.)

The quick answer is to say that I don't think it matters a whole lot which of the Nero Wolfe books you begin with. The characters don't really change much over the years, and there isn't a great deal of continuing story matter in the books. So you should be safe reading pretty much any of them.

However, there are some plot lines that continue (most notably the Arnold Zeck books: And Be a Villain, The Second Confession and In the Best Families), and some details that carry over from book to book, so I would recommend you start reading some of the earlier novels in the series and then move on from there.

So...Try picking up one of the early books and see what you think. Titles that I recall enjoying include The League of Frightened Men, Black Orchids,  Too Many Cooks, Some Buried Caesar...Really, most of them are quite good, so it's hard to go wrong.

Happy reading!

Ask the Critic: Mysteries suitable for a 14-year-old?

A reader asks:

My 14 yr old niece has devoured all of her grandmother's Nancy Drew. She has been looking for similar types of books which must be father approved (no slashers, vampire, psycho-killer stuff, oh yeah he has issues with sexual content). Are there any mystery/thriller authors that can satisfy my brother-in-law as a well as entertain/challenge my niece?

Most of what I read probably wouldn't fit the bill... So I'm calling on you folks to help. Any suggestions? I was thinking of Agatha Christie...

Ask the Critic: Can you identify this book?

Donna Ginther writes:

Do you know of a mystery series where the main character is a female FBI agent whose supervisor is a man named Riveria and her family owns an apple orchard in the Northeast?

That stumped me -- but I'm sure one of you knows the answer. Help?

If you've got a question for Ask the Critic, please send it in.

Ask the Critic: Attending writers conferences

Anonymous writes:

Is it worth it to attend a conference mostly to pitch a book or are the publishers present really there to sell books not to buy new ones?

I think most writers conferences, especially the larger ones like Bouchercon and ThrillerFest, probably aren't much use when it comes to pitching publishers. You can make contacts at them -- they're a good place to meet agents, for example -- but the hectic, frenetic nature of such conferences really doesn't lend itself to any kind of formal pitching. Also, editors generally attend to support their authors; they're not really looking for someone to hand them a manuscript.

Some of the smaller conferences, however, do schedule pitch meetings with representatives from publishers. They do that at Love Is Murder, for example, where attendees can register for pitch sessions with Bleak House Books, Tekno/Five Star Books and Echelon Press. If you're interested in one of those publishers, then attending the conference might prove to be a great deal of help.

I think that, for aspiring writers, conferences are most useful for making contacts, learning more about the craft and the business of publishing, talking shop and just enjoying the camaraderie of fellow writers. For that, they can be invaluable.

If you've got a question for Ask the Critic, please send it in.

Ask the Critic: Contacting reviewers

Anonymous asks:

I'm published by a small, reputable press that doesn't do a lot of mailings. My publisher will, however, send out ARCs or review copies if I request them. How best can I approach critics to ask if they would consider a copy? Is there any way to do this without annoying and alienating them?

I have long maintained that it is perfectly acceptable for authors to contact reviewers to inquire about sending a book for possible review. I've never heard anyone complain about this, as long as it's done in a polite, respectful and non-pushy manner. (I even did a poll of prominent reviewers to confirm this a couple years ago.)

I would recommend a simple email like the following: "I have a book coming out November 15th from Five Star Press. It's called Blah, Blah, Blah and it's about this, that and the other thing. May I have the publisher send you a copy?"

That's it. Don't make a sales pitch, don't say how great it is, don't include blurbs, don't refer them to your website or attach a press release. Just be concise, give the basic info and take your shot.

If someone's going to get upset about that, they're probably a grump and wouldn't review your book anyway.

If you decide to do this, make sure to include the following information: Author name, book title, publication date, publisher and a brief synopsis. Those are the facts that I need to know in order to make a decision.

If you've got a question for Ask the Critic, please send it in.

Ask the Critic: Writing query letters

Anonymous asks:

I am preparing a query letter in the hopes of getting an agent for a novel I've just completed. I have all sorts of contradictory advice from various Internet sites to sort out. Do you have any advice?

I have thoughts on writing query letters and soliciting agents, but I'm hardly an expert on the subject. So I turned to someone who is: Jeff Kleinman, one of the founders of Folio Literary Management and a top-notch agent. Below, Jeff responds to Anonymous' specific questions.

Q. Should the query letter try to start out with something clever, or just be straightforward and business-like?

A. Either works. There isn't a right or wrong answer with queries. The question really is: what letter opening will most grab the agent's attention? Obviously that may depend on the agent. But starting off too cleverly may be off-putting. I think a simple "here's how I heard about you," and then having some targeted info about the agent (books she's represented, etc.) is often best.

Q. Should the query include the page count?

A. The query should include word count, not page count. And word count should be rounded up or down: so not "92,193 words" - saying "about 92,000 words" is fine.

Q. Should the writer compare themselves to other writers? (For example, "my work is like Tess Gerritsen's" or whatever.)

A. REALLY depends on the other writer. If it's a bestselling, brand-name author (Stephen King, Dean Koontz, etc.), probably not. If it's a breakout first novelist, maybe, depending on if the comparison's really accurate. An easier way of doing it is to write "My book will appeal to readers who like Tess Gerritsen's."

Q. Should the writer let the agent know they have sought him out exclusively, or should they send the letter out to many agents?

A. DEFINITELY let the agent know it's exclusive - agents assume it's nonexclusive unless they're told otherwise, or unless they ask to see the materials exclusively.

If you've got a question for Ask the Critic, please send it in.

Ask the Critic: Availability of UK editions in the U.S.

Carol W. Penney writes:

Why do we in the U.S. have to wait months or years for U.K. or Canadian books?  We can order, for example, the latest Rankin or Stephen Booth from the U.K. or the latest Peter Robinson from Canada, but why can't we obtain them locally?  Is it illegal for Amazon U.S. to get a supply of these books for us?  I prefer to have them "untranslated", as I like a British book to sound British.

Excellent question! As for the first part, the UK publishers are separate from the US publishers, so they purchase publication rights for their respective territories separately. (For example, a book might sell to one publisher in the U.S. and a different publisher in the UK.)

As a result, the timing of releases -- and, in fact, whether or not a book is released at all -- is a business decision that they make individually, based on the mysterious ways of the publishing industry. (In other words, there's not necessarily any rhyme or reason to it.)

As for the second matter, U.S. bookstores do sell UK editions of books. You're not likely to find any UK editions at the local B&N, but mystery bookstores, for example, often carry a few, and they're available online. The problem is, they are expensive. (Presumably because of the cost of freight and the question of returnability.)

For example, Amazon will sell you a copy of the British edition of Meg Gardiner's much-acclaimed China Lake, which is not currently available from a U.S. publisher. However, even though it's a paperback, it still costs $25.

That's why these stores often won't carry UK editions once the American versions are available. There isn't a large enough market to justify the expense. So for those books, you probably need to order directly from a foreign bookstore, like Amazon UK.

If you've got a question for Ask the Critic, please send it in.

Ask the Critic returns

I used to have a feature on the old blog called Ask the Critic, where I invited readers to write in with their questions, about reviewing, publishing, writing, books...whatever strikes your fancy.

So, if you've got anything you want to ask, shoot me an email.