"Fun & Games" by Duane Swierczynski (2011)

Duane Swierczynski is the Wile E. Coyote of crime fiction. His novels are filled with chases, explosions, and, amidst all the mayhem, a dash of philosophy about the absurdity of existence. His first novel, Secret Dead Men, appeared in January 2005 from the small but solid indie publisher Point Blank Press, but it was his follow-up in October of that same year that announced his arrival with a big kaboom. The Wheelman is about a mute Irish getaway man, who blacks out after a heist goes sour and wakes up in a body bag that some musicians are trying to dump down a Jersey drain pipe. From there, things only get worse (for him) and better (for us). The book is violent, twisted, and frequently funny as hell, yet its characters are strangely endearing. They're capable of the most brutal acts, but are also incompetent, entirely human, and believable. That's the Swierczynski touch: he makes apeshit chaos seem par for the course.

Swierczynski's latest novel is Fun & Games, and it's 100% Acme approved. This first volume in a trilogy introduces us to Charlie Hardie, an ex-cop-turned-housesitter whose latest job embroils him in a Hollywood assassination attempt by "The Accident People." Their latest target: Lane Madden, a B-list action actress who knows something she shouldn't. From its opening high-speed chase along the Decker Canyon Road, to the tense cat-and-mouse pursuit through the Hollywood Hills, to the epic, bloody finale, this book shows Swierczynski at his pulpy and imaginative best.

NoirCon 2012 Lawrence Block and Duane Swierczynski

Here is an excerpt of Lawrence Block and Duane Swierczynski's conversation from NoirCon 2012.

Recorded Saturday, November 10, 2012 at the Society Hill Playhouse in Philadelphia, PA.

NoirCon 2012: Saturday Panels

How could NoirCon 2012 get any better after Friday's panels and the awesome party at the Awards Ceremony? By having Wallace Stroby, Dennis Tafoya, Alison Gaylin, and Megan Abbott talk True Crime. Four of the best and smartest crime novelists out there today, gathered around a table, sharing their knowledge. They're all such good conversationalists and so well-read in their subject, it was a joy and an education to listen to them speak.

"True Crime pulls the lid off the world," Abbott said in her introduction. For True Crime Neophytes such as myself, the panelists were gracious enough to provide a True Crime Canon. I'll put the panelist's name in parentheses after the book.

The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer (Alison Gaylin)

Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger (Alison Gaylin)

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (Megan Abbott)

Murder Machine by Gene Mustain and Jerry Capeci (Wallace Stroby)

My Dark Places by James Ellroy (Megan Abbott)*

People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman by Richard Lloyd Parry (Megan Abbott)*

The Poet and the Murderer by Simon Worrall (Dennis Tafoya)

True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa by Michael Finkel (Dennis Tafoya)

Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi (Wallace Stroby)

*added in conversation after the panel ended

The Keynote Address was delivered by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler. His speech centered around the tools of narrative, and the shared language mechanics of literature and film. Comparing examples from Sam Peckinpah, Charles Dickens, Dashiell Hammett, The Bible (The Book of Judges), and The Matrix, Butler shows how the core concepts of slow-motion, establishing shots, visual movement, and montage are not just cinematic components, but the basic building blocks of storytelling. Butler concluded his address by expressing how "The intellectual electricity in this room is wonderful." He was dead-on. One of the things that makes NoirCon so wonderful is that it isn't just a writer's conference, or a gathering of fans, or a reading series, or an academic conference -- there's a little bit of each of those, but they add up to something much greater. Passion and community, as much as creativity and scholarship, form the crux of NoirCon. Its relatively small size (about 100 people), and welcoming and supportive atmosphere, mean that everyone gets to meet each other, and there's no pretensions to make anyone feel left out. It's a remarkably open atmosphere, and a great place to meet people and have genuine conversations.

Next, Kenneth Wishnia, William Lashner, and Jay Gertzman took the stage to discuss Jewish Noir. Wishnia went all the way back to the Old Testament. Lashner read an excerpt from Kafka's The Metamorphosis and discussed how that book, along with The Trial, could be seen as the forerunners to Noir. Gertzman discussed religious and spiritual tropes in Goodis' fiction.

Before the next panel, Ed "Philly Poe Guy" Pettit and his world-class beard handed out some raffle prizes. Lulu Lollipop and Charles Benoit assisted. The money from the raffle will go to Project H.O.M.E., an organization that helps the homeless in Philadelphia.

After some great prizes went to their respective winners, NoirCon took a sensual turn: BURLESQUE NOIR. The panelists included photographer Frank De Blase; Dr. Susana Mayer, Ph.D., founder and host of the Erotic Literary Salon; Lulu Lollipop, a burlesque dancer and director with the Peek-A-Book Revue; and sexologist Timaree Schmit, Ph.D. 

The panelists discussed the art, craft, and history of burlesque and its relationship to changing social and sexual mores in the US. It was a surprise to learn that in the 1930s, burlesque was more liberal and less conservative than in the 1940s and 1950s. The four panelists had a blast on stage with each other, riffing off each other's comments, weaving a provocative and enlightening discussion about sexual politics and history, and the artistic craft of burlesque. It's interesting to think about the history of pulp and paperback fiction in regards to their discussion, and the changing presentation of sexuality and the evolution of language and written images. Frank De Blase even read a passage from one of Richard Prather's Gold Medal novels. 

After the panel, Ed's duties as co-Master of Ceremonies compelled him to pose with two of the Burlesque panelists. All in the name of duty.

Concluding Saturday's panels was an event that soon become the stuff of legend and lore: a conversation between Duane Swierczynski and Lawrence Block. Not only are they both phenomenal novelists, but they're also damned funny. I've never heard so much laughter at NoirCon -- Block's droll delivery and Duane's improvisational quips are well known, but when combined the effect is simply awesome. They build off each other, instinctively setting up punch lines for the other to execute. Seriously, if they want to take this act on the road, I think Block and Swierczynski have a second career in comedy in the works.

But the dynamic duo did more than just make us laugh -- they delivered an impressive and insightful interview about one of crime fiction's most distinguished careers. As Otto Penzler pointed out in the Q and A, what was so unique about the conversation is that the obvious subjects of Matthew Scudder and Bernie Rhodenbarr weren't mentioned at all. Instead, Duane grilled Block about his early days as a reader for Scott Meredith, his early books for Gold Medal, as well as his many sleaze novels under pseudonyms for Beacon, Nightstand, Midwood, and others. When I asked about the editorial processes for those paperback houses, Block told me that at Midwood and Nightstand there were almost no edits because they hired writers who didn't need it. At Beacon, however, the editor there was under the assumption that everything needed editing ... lots of editing. Even if it didn't. He had a team of editors whose job it was to edit and re-write and change things, often needlessly. Block recalled one novel where all of his compound sentences were split in two. The editors made the edits because, if they didn't, they would have been out of a job.

When asked by Otto Penzler to select his favorites among his own books, Block chose When the Sacred Gin Mill Closes and Small Town.

During the Q&A, Wallace Stroby asked Block, "Can writing be taught?" Block responded, "I don't suppose so. What an instructor can do is create an environment in which a writer can teach himself." Good advice, indeed.

That brought Saturday to a close ... the panels, at least. That night, we gathered at the 10th floor bar of the Hilton Garden Inn and talked until Sunday morning came around. I went home a little after midnight because, at that time, I turn into a pumpkin. Pumpkins need rest. Plus, there were still two more panels on Sunday morning, and more raffle prizes!

Stay tuned for more on NoirCon 2012.

NoirCon 2012: Friday Panels

Friday morning when I arrived at the Society Hill Playhouse, I found the backroom abuzz with this year's participants. A nice-sized crowd that filled the room without feeling overcrowded. There was enough room to take a look at Farley's or Port Richmond's books without having to resort to murder.

First up was Heide Hatry and "The Art of Noir." She showed slides of her body of work, including many of the performances shown on the opening night for participants who weren't able to make it out. Lots of blood and pig skin in the name of provocative, political performance art. Heide imparted a few important noir lessons from her career. First, don't leave dead animals in your luggage when traveling -- the authorities always take them away. Your backpack is much safer. And second, if you live in a shared apartment building, don't leave dead animals in the communal freezer in the basement if you don't want the cops to show up thinking they've located a serial killer.

Next, I humbly took the stage to moderate a conversation between S.J. Rozan and Wesley Stace (aka John Wesley Harding) called "Career in C Minor." Stace's most recent book is a classical music-themed mystery called Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer -- it's a terrific book, just imagine Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus with a little more murder. Rozan's latest is Ghost Hero, the 11th in her Lydia Chin / Bill Smith private eye series, another stellar NYC novel fueled by an art-related murder that goes back to the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Stace and Rozan discussed their respective backgrounds in music and architecture and its affect on their subsequent work as novelists. Stace also graced us by singing two songs.

"Good Country People: Deranged Preachers, Crazed Cops and Other N’er Do Wells of Southern Noir" followed. Jonathan Woods, Vicki Hendricks, Jake Hinkson, Joe Samuel Starnes, and Peter Farris discussed a wealth of Southern Noir writers whom they admired. These are just a few of the topics. Jonathan Woods presented on how obsession and "mad, first person narrators" links Poe with Jim Thompson. Joe Samuel Starnes discussed the noir side of Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom. Jake Hinkson talked about religion, noir, and The Night of the Hunter and Flannery O'Connor. And Vicki Hendricks spoke about Harry Crews and his advice to young writers that that "If you can be discouraged, you should be discouraged."

After lunch, Lawrence Block, Anthony Bruno, Ed Pettit and Duane Swierczynski took the stage for "The Movie Was Better," a discussion about which films have influenced these writers. Anthony cited Chester Himes' Cotton Comes to Harlem. Duane mentioned that seeing Faces of Death at age 9 had a profound affect on him and was, perhaps, one of the reasons why he turned in decapitation stories while attending Catholic grade school. Some of the nuns loved it, he mentioned, but some of them were terrified. "Nuns are my target audience still," Duane joked -- or maybe he was serious? Block mentioned that the anthology television shows of the 1950s "taught me something about dramatic instruction." He mentioned one particular episode whose program title he can't remember -- it was about a group of people plotting an assassination. At first, you are rooting for them, but at the end it is revealed that it was Lincoln's assassination they were planning, which makes you re-think everything you previously felt. "Your sympathies were inverted in a wonderfully tricky fashion," said Block. The mysterious nature of the show continues to intrigue Block, but not in the same way that it used to. "The fact that it has disappeared from the public consciousness has tempted me to write it." Here's hoping he does.

Duane recalled working with Brett Simon on an adaptation of his novel Severance Package. In a reversal of the cliche, this time it was Duane who wanted to make a lot of changes to his novel and Simon who wanted to be more faithful to the source material. Sadly, the studio's initial enthusiasm mysteriously disappeared and the project fell through. Sigh ... well, I still have my fingers crossed the movie will see the light of the projector soon, as I'd love to see that. Block also mentioned that Hammett's style increasingly moved towards "prose screenplays" because he realized that movies were the future of his income as a writer. Block also shared this wisdom that too many filmmakers and screenwriters don't realize: "When you have good actors, you don't have to have the words do all the work."

Robert Polito and Joan Schenkar, two of Noir's finest and most original scholars, shared some of their great findings. Polito recontextualized Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon as a Noir film, and Joan enlightened us with maps of Patricia Highsmith's literary murders and real-life lovers -- it's chilling how they line up when compared!

"Noir is the spider that sits on top of the world," said Schenkar -- that's one of the best definitions of Noir I've heard.

Author and former Private Eye Writers of America president Jeremiah Healy interviewed Otto Penzler, winner of the Jay and Deen Kogan Award for Literary Excellence. Their conversation covered the beginnings of Penzler's career, from his small apartment in the Bronx in the 1970s when he was a one-man operation, writing receipts, fulfilling orders, editing manuscripts, and shipping the first Mysterious Press books. When Penzler began his limited edition, cloth-bound, signed editions, it was groundbreaking for the mystery field. Of course "literature" and "poetry" had been treated so ceremoniously before, but never crime fiction. Since then, Penzler has continued to give crime writers, and readers, the respect they deserve, both through his Mysterious Press and Bookshop.

The Bookshop is a miracle that couldn't happen today. With only $2050 in his bank account, Penzler found a partner to buy a building behind Carnegie Hall for $177,000. Penzler's contribution to the down payment was $2000 -- the other $50 he kept to celebrate. His idea was that the first floor would be all paperbacks, the upstairs all hardcovers. All the publishers told him that readers didn't buy mysteries in expensive hardcover edition. History proved Penzler right, and his good judgement has kept him at the front of the field for many decades since.

The conversation was truly great, and I could have listened all day and night to Healy and Penzler. Among my favorite parts were when Penzler gave his list of favorite books. Here's what he listed:

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White
Raymond Chandler
4/5s of Hammett ("The Dain Curse is silly.")
Fredric Brown ("The Night of the Jabberwock is so fascinating ... a tour de force.")
Ira Levin's A Kiss Before Dying
Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series
Michael Connelly
Rober Crais ("Consistently wonderful.")
Lee Child
Dennis Lehane
James Crumley's The Last Good Kiss ("The best Hardboiled novel.")
Charles McCarry ("The best American Espionage writer.")
"I love too much," Penzler said. "I could go on all day."

As Penzler's list shows, he's a man of great taste, and his publishing record is astonishing. I'm happy he won the award and very pleased that he was able to come out to NoirCon to speak.

And now, some candid shots of the NoirCon crowd from throughout the day.

2012 Retreat to Goodisville NoirCon David Goodis Memorial Video

Here is a slideshow video I made from pictures at NoirCon's 2012 David Goodis Memorial, aka "Retreat to Goodisville." This year, we convened on January 7 in Philadelphia, PA. Unlike last year, however, it was freezing cold and the streets weren't covered in snow or ice. It looked strangely like spring... Anyway, we all still had a blast spending the day driving around the city in the NoirConMobile (aka a big bus filled with booze), listening to Lou Boxer, Duane Swierczynski, Ed Petit, and others talk about Philly's rich noir heritage, from Charles Brockdon Brown and Poe (thanks, Ed!) up to Goodis himself.

The song I'm using in the video is one of my own. "Adagio" by Modern Silent Cinema, from the album "Fresh Elk." I'm not sure why I called the album that, but I think it had something to do with an amazing Shepard's Pie I ate while visiting Maine...

If you didn't make it out to the 2012 Goodis Memorial, start making your plans now for next year's celebration. Saturday January 5, 2013!

2011 NoirCon David Goodis Memorial Video

Here is a video slideshow I put together of pictures from the 2011 NoirCon David Goodis Memorial in Philadelphia, PA. January 9, 2011 was a freezing cold day, the ground was covered in snow, and wind ripping through out clothes -- in short, it was perfect, Goodis-appropriate winter weather. The song in the video is one I recorded a few years ago called "A Dirge For Goodis." It appeared on the Modern Silent Cinema album "Goes Awry."

Thanks to Lou Boxer, Duane Swierczynski, and the NoirCon vets for making it a memorable outing!

"Hell and Gone" by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland Bokos, 2011)

 “This was a new low. Hardie’s new life was smaller and more pathetic than he ever thought possible.”

When we last saw Charlie Hardie, the ex-cop-turned-house-sitter from Fun & Games, he was having a really bad day. After arriving in the Hollywood hills to look after a house, he stumbled into an assassination attempt by “The Accident People” on has-been action actress Lane Madden and wound up on their hit list, as well. By the end of the book, Hardie was wanted by the cops for murder, and leaking blood all over the place. It didn’t seem that things could get any worse for him…but this is Duane Swierczynski we are talking about, and that dude thankfully has a limitless imagination for madness, mayhem, and dismemberment.

As soon as I opened Hell & Gone, I knew I was going to enjoy this. Who else but Swierczynski would preface a book with quotes from both Dante (in the original Italian) and Frank Stallone? It’s emblematic of the way he merges high and low culture in a dizzying, magical, and totally bonkers crime story.

(Side note: I’ve also been known to sporadically quote Frank Stallone. So, Duane, you are not alone.)

In Hell & Gone, Hardie wakes up in one of the worst places imaginable: a secret, underground detention center. Even worse: he’s the new warden. As he surveys his new surroundings, things just don’t add up. There are only four prisoners, all of whom are forced to wear masks; the guards seem more demented and violent than the prisoners; Hardie’s only communication with the outside world is to a nameless, faceless voice that comes through his headset; and the only possible exit supposedly sets off a death device that will blow-up the entire facility. Who can Hardie trust, how can he escape, why is he in charge, and—most importantly—what the hell is going on?

Once again, Swierczynski manages to top his pervious work, which isn’t an easy feat, considering the awesomeness of books like The Wheelman, Severance Package, Expiration Date, and Fun & Games. But with Hell & Gone, Swierczynski doesn’t just up the antics or the violence—actually, it’s less gory than some of his earlier work. Instead, he challenges himself to go in the opposite direction of his previous books. Whereas Fun & Games was his most epic canvas of action yet, in Hell & Gone Swierczynski takes a more minimalist approach, setting nearly the entire book in the underground prison. The location may be limited to only a few rooms, and the cast to only a few characters, but Swierczynski’s imagination is on hyperdrive, and he’s never at a loss for new ways to explore the space or to pit the characters against one another.

One of the things I like most about Swierczynski’s writing is that, even with all the action and joking going on, there’s still room for some good old fashioned philosophical inquires, like this:

“Was that something in his lizard brain, the lizard brains of all men, dating back to the dawn of time? Did prehistoric men wake up and realize how alone they were, how tenuously they clung to life, how everything they knew and loved could be snatched away from them by a smiling predator, teeth gleaming?”

Also, no matter how far-fetched and fantastic the plot becomes, the characters never lose their average-joe mentality. Even the arch villains seem like someone you’d run into at the slushie machine at 7-11.

“You do realize this is a prison, Warden? Maximum security and all that. Do you think the designers of this place would leave anything to chance, and let some prisoner shimmy up a vent or something? Do you think the designers of this place haven’t seen Star Wars?”

Hell & Gone is another homerun for Philadelphia’s mad hatter of crime fiction. And judging by his track record thus far, Point & Shoot—the third and final entry in the Charlie Hardie series—is going to be even better. I can’t friggin’ wait to see what the twisted imagination of Duane Swierczynski has in store for readers next.

"The New Faces of Suspense" at Mysterious Bookshop with Megan Abbott, Duane Swierczynski, Q.R. Markham, and Lawrence Block

Last night at the Mysterious Bookshop in Tribeca, four of crime fiction's brightest and best gathered for a panel entitled, "The New Faces of Suspense." Discussing their latest books were Duane Swierczynski (Hell and Gone, Mulholland Books), Megan Abbott (The End of Everything, Reagan Arthur Books), and Q.R. Markham (Assassin of Secrets, Mulholland Books), with MWA Grandmaster Lawrence Block (A Drop of the Hard Stuff, Mulholland Books) moderating. When you get four writers as talented--and witty--as these together on the same stage, you know you're in for a treat. This crime fiction crew certainly did not disappoint.

Block's opening remarks referenced a Fred Allen quip about Ed Sullivan, and how anyone could do his job, even a dog, as long as you rubbed meat on the performers. Without missing a beat, Duane chimed in, wondering why no one had rubbed meat all over him yet? Block's classy retort was that, if Duane hadn't done it himself yet, there was nothing he could do about it now. All four writers had a terrific and comical rapport with one another, and they were cracking wise all night long.

Megan talked about how at first The End of Everything seemed an unlikely follow-up to her earlier period novels, but how ultimately she was able to locate the heart of noir in the world of teenage girls in 1980s Midwestern Suburbia. Noir really is universal and inescapable! Megan's books keep getting better and better, and if you haven't read this one yet, you're really missing out! Duane discussed his first attempt at writing a sequel, and his need for creative challenges. After finishing the first book in the Charlie Hardie trilogy, Fun and Games, he decided to set the new book, Hell and Gone, largely in a prison. I haven't read this new one yet, but Fun and Games was...well, "fun and games," but the bloody, violent, explosive kind, which is precisely the kind I like! (Read my reviews of both Megan and Duane's books here at the Los Angeles Review of Books.) Q.R. Markham discussed Assassin of Secrets, the first in his trilogy about Cold War-era spy Jonathan Chase, and how it was inspired by his love for both classic espionage fiction (like Ian Fleming and Eric Ambler) and for men's action novels like The Butcher and The Penetrator. I haven't read this one yet, but I've been looking forward to it for a long time now, so I'm excited I finally was able to buy a copy at the reading! There will be a review here at Pulp Serenade once I finish it.

Some of the highlights of the Q&A included what music each of the writers listened to while working. Megan listened to what she described as music you'd hear in a 7/11 parking lot in the late '70s/early '80s, such as Mott the Hoople; Duane said he stuck mainly with soundtracks and music without lyrics; Q.R. originally intended to listen to nothing but spy soundtracks by Hugo Montenegro and Lalo Schifrin, but that wound up being too cheesy, so he such with Dub and Reggae for the first book in the series, and Samba and Bossa Nova for the second. Each of the authors was also asked to name their book of choice to convert a "literary snob" into a crime fiction fan. Megan chose Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely; Duane suggested Don Winslow's The Power of the Dog, or something by George Pelecanos; and Q.R. went with Graham Greene's "entertainments," Eric Ambler's Coffin for Dimitrios, or Chandler's The Long Goodbye.

And what's next for these authors? Megan hinted that she is working on something about the "dark heart of a cheerleader"; Duane is working on something lean in the style of James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice; and Q.R. is finishing up his Jonathan Chase trilogy. And what about Lawrence Block? "It's a secret," he cleverly answered.

All in all, a terrific reading! Here are some more pictures from the event.

"The Criminal Kind" Debuts at The Los Angeles Review of Books

Over the weekend, my new crime fiction column, "The Criminal Kind," debuted over at The Los Angeles Review of Books. In this first installment, I reviewed five books:

Duane Swierczynski

Fun & Games
Mulholland Books, June 2011. 304 pp.
"Duane Swierczynski is the Wile E. Coyote of crime fiction. His novels are filled with chases, explosions, and, amidst all the mayhem, a dash of philosophy about the absurdity of existence. "

Jason Starr
The Pack
Ace Books, June 2011. 352 pp.
"The Pack is one of Starr’s most realistic and relatable novels yet."

Megan Abbott
The End of Everything
Reagan Arthur Books, July 2011. 256 pp.
"The End of Everything is Abbott’s most refined and rapturous offering yet. "

Sara Gran
Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, June 2011. 288 pp.
"Claire’s journey through New Orleans is thick with atmosphere, and while she herself might be interested in heady concepts, the people she meets have complex problems that are all too recognizable, and that don’t lend themselves to easy solutions."

Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins
Kiss Her Goodbye
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, May 2011. 288 pp.
"Dexterous and dynamic plotting, swift and explosive action, snappy dialogue, graphic metaphors, and energetic characters that come alive: this is action-mystery par excellence."

To read more, check out The Los Angeles Review of Books.