Tustin Library BookBite: January 2012

From: Lisa R

Sent: Tue 1/10/2012 11:31 AM
To: Nancy Pea
Subject: FYI for our mystery readers

Didn't know if you saw this, but some avid mystery sleuths might like this :). See you next Tuesday for the book club selection meeting -- Lisa

When Elizabeth George published her first mystery in 1988, she was a first-time novelist who wouldn't have had a single book signing but for a small kindness by fellow Orange County writer T. Jefferson Parker, who at the time had his second thriller on bookstore shelves.

There was no book tour planned, no public events, and that was just fine, says George, of the low-key arrival of "A Great Deliverance," the first in a long-running series of mysteries starring Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley.

"I knew, or believed, that no one was going to come to a book signing for this unknown author," George says of her hesitation when a Santa Monica bookseller tracked her down to ask her to hold a signing at the shop. "So I was very reluctant, but then I said, 'Look, Jeff Parker has a new book out' -- this was 'Little Saigon' -- 'and if Jeff will do a book signing with me I will do one with him."

Parker, who'd first met George as she searched for a literary agent, agreed. The signing was held. A friendship strengthened. And now both of these best-selling authors are teaming up again for a pair of appearances to promote "Believing The Lie," George's 17th Inspector Lynley mystery, and "The Jaguar" Parker's fifth thriller with Deputy Charlie Hood.

They'll appear at the Aliso Creek Inn in Laguna Beach on Sunday, Jan. 15, in an event hosted by Laguna Beach Books. (A day earlier they will be at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, and Parker will appear solo in Corona Del Mar on Tuesday, Jan. 17.)

All of this, of course, seemed a good reason to ring up the two O.C. expats -- Parker now lives in Fallbrook in San Diego County, while George moved to Seattle and then nearby Whidbey Island a few years back -- to check in on new books and an old friendship.

'BELIEVING THE LIE'

In George's new book, Lynley is dispatched to the Cumbria and the Lake District in northern England to investigate what appears to be an accidental drowning but might possibly be something more sinister. He's joined by longtime friends Simon and Deborah St. James, and of course, his colleague Detective Sgt. Barbara Havers is involved in the story, too.

For inspiration, George went back almost 20 years to a real-world crime about which she didn't want to share all that much.

"I can't say too much about it because it would give away the plot," she says when asked about her inspiration for the new novel. "Many years ago, I was at a book fair in Sweden, and staying just down the hall from me was an individual who was promoting a book that was a true story that was very, very compelling.

"I immediately felt there were elements in this true story that would make a great novel, and it's taken me this long to write that book."

As is her usual practice, George traveled extensively in the region where she planned to set the book, trying to find and capture settings that would be relevant for the story.

"I will say it doesn't get any easier, because one of the things that's always been important to me as an artist is not to write the same book twice," she says of finding herself 17 books into the Lynley series. "So every time I try to take an approach that's different than whatever I did before. It might have to do with the organization of the book -- it always has to do with the subject matter -- and since I attempt to move the characters forward slowly through time, so that their lives continue to change, there's always that, too."

As with the inspiration for "Believing The Lie," George also only hinted at a few of the twists and turns her characters will experience this time out. A few years ago, upon killing off a popular character, some readers were outraged. This time there will also be a bit a jolt for longtime fans, George says.

"There is an 'Oh my God!' moment," she says. "And I will say it's a big 'Oh my God!' moment."

'THE JAGUAR'

Unlike many writers of mysteries and thrillers, Parker says he never set out to create a long-running series anchored by a heroic protagonist and a revolving cast of complementary characters.

"Writing a series character is more difficult for me than writing a series of standalone characters," he says of his Charlie Hood stories of which "The Jaguar" is the fifth of a planned six books. "I think most authors would say the opposite, but for me it's difficult. My hat goes off to any writer who can do that."

The new book is the third to be set amid the U.S.-Mexico drug wars, though this time Hood heads away from the border and south to the state of Veracruz.

"I wanted to set 'The Jaguar' in a place other than the dirty, dusty borders I've been prowling in the last couple of books," Parker says. "I wanted a feeling of heat and humidity and claustrophobia and atmosphere -- just a whole other side of the country, a tropical side."

And so, like George, he headed into the field, traveling with his family to Veracruz to soak up the sights and sounds ("The Jaguar" is a particularly music-infused story) of that oldest of New World cities.

"It's like the proverbial window being thrown open in your mind," Parker says of researching and incorporating new terrain into this book. "And it was fun to go down there with a fresh reporter's eye."

The drugs-and-gun-fuelled violence that has ravaged Mexico in recent years is heartbreaking, and there's always the risk of veering toward a feeling of hopelessness, he says.

"That just kind of goes against my nature," Parker says of giving into despair. "So through Charlie Hood I try to give some credence to the idea that optimism and grit and loyalty to a code of conduct is enough to at least carry a person into battle.

"And the only answer to hopelessness is hope, and the only answer to death is art. The book is about making art, and how only art will save you in some circumstances.

"I truly believe that," Parker says. "And that's what I keep striving to accomplish -- to not only entertain, but to make some small statement that hope can work."

OLD FRIENDS

George says she met Parker through a common friend, Steve Mitchell, who worked at the Daily Pilot newspaper in Costa Mesa, where Parker had been a reporter before leaving to write books fulltime. Mitchell had read George's early unpublished manuscripts, liked them, and told her she needed to meet Parker.

"At that point, I'd written my third attempt at a British novel, which I felt was a pretty good one," says George, who before her writing career taught high school English in Orange County. "I was looking for a literary agent, and (Mitchell) felt that Jeff might give me an introduction to his. And Jeff said, sure, he would do that if he could take a look at the book."

George says she drove her manuscript over to Parker's place in Laguna Beach, and soon heard back that he'd be happy to recommend her to his agent -- who hated it, she says, laughing.

"Jeff was very cute, he said, 'Ah, don't worry about it, she hated mine too,'" George says. "He's such a prince."

Parker says he was impressed with George even before he read that manuscript, which despite his agent's opinion eventually appeared as George's debut.

"My early impressions of Susan (George uses her middle name Elizabeth as her pen name) were she's very bright and very funny and self-effacing," he says. "I liked that about her a lot. I remember thinking that she seemed like a pretty assured person and a person with her feet on the ground. And when I read her first book I thought, 'Oh, wow, she's really settled into this.'"

Though they write in different flavors of their genre -- George's books are classic British mysteries, Parker's typically feature Gary Cooper-esque men of honor -- they're mutual admirers of each other's work.

"I think there's a tremendous sense of place to Jeff's books," George says. "I used to tell him he was the only writer who could make Orange County feel like an interesting place.

"And there's always a wonderful vulnerability that he brings to his characters, and a real sense of honesty on the part of his characters that kind of sings through all of his work," she says.

"The very center of (her) strength as a novel writer is her characters and I think people really like the characters that she's invented," Parker says of George's work. "Susan's a crafty plotter -- she tells a good mystery -- and she's great at surprising you and holding back things and bringing you along in a state of suspense, which we all appreciate.

"It's really good to fall into the hands of a writer like Susan."

Their current book tours will interrupt only slightly their works in progress.

For Parker, that includes wrapping up the sixth and final Charlie Hood book, continuing talks with Hollywood over development of his "LA Outlaws" and "The Fallen," and then starting on a new standalone novel.

"I want to write about our country as seen through the eyes of a small town like Fallbrook where I live," he says. "I want to talk about the way our country has changed from 9/11 to now."

George is equally busy.

"What I have going on right now is the 18th Lynley novel and the second novel in a young adult series I'm working on," she says. "The first (young adult book) is coming out this September. It takes place on Whidbey Island where I live, and has an element of mystery to it.

"It's part of a series that if I hope will be eight novels, that will take follow the time in high school here on Whidbey of a young girl who is mysteriously dropped on the island by her mom."

Contact the writer: 714-796-7787 or plarsen@ocregister.com

Tustin Library BookBite

Thursday, January 19, 2012

2012 Reading List

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

FYI for our mystery readers