Rush Of The Day

"To put the Wade/Nichols case in some kind of perspective; it may have been the toughest one I’ve ever handled in my professional life of more than thirty years, and it wasn’t even criminal. I do criminal. My name is Jerry Kennedy and I don’t take civil cases. This is widely known -- I have made it so. I refer civil matters to civil lawyers, who very kindly don’t do criminal and therefore thoughtfully refer such nasty stuff to me. I am not myself uncivil, or try not to be, at least; I just prefer to play it smart, which means: do what I’m used to doing, and therefore know how to do, well --well enough at a minimum to convince civilians watching that I do know what I’m doing. So far that’s been good enough. That may be criminal, but it’s not forbidden by law. So: why did I take the mixed-breed Wade/Nichols case, the hardest case I never tried? Which looked like it was civil but was really criminal? And, when you come right down to it, de facto made me into what I’ve never been before in my whole life, a fucking prosecutor?"

That ladies and gentlemen, it’s the breathless and brilliant opening to ‘Sandra Nichols Found Dead’ by George V. Higgins. Here, in 2009, it comes across as Michael Clayton-eque, dunnit it?

Martyn Waites Interview

Martyn Waites, one of my favorite writers, talks social fiction, his work with young offenders, crime fiction and how all these things impact upon his own writing in this brilliant interview with the Yorkshire Post podcast.

I’ll have an article on Waites’ debut novel ‘Mary’s Prayer’ up shortly, over at The Rap Sheet.

When back covers do the job...

From the back cover of my newly purchased copy of Ed McBain’s Snow White and Rose Red:

“Sarah Whittaker, said her attorney, was nuttier than a fruitcake. When Matthew Hope visited her in the institution he was half-expecting some shaven-headed basket case in a uniform that looked like mattress ticking.

Instead Sarah Whittaker was wearing a wheat-colored linen suit and a saffron silk blouse open at the throat. She had a generous mouth and eyes as green as the Amazon jungle and Matthew Hope fell in love with her on the spot.

“So why are you here?” he asked.
“Ah,” she said, and started to tell him a story. And it certainly wasn’t the kind a mother would read to her children at bedtime…

McBain’s been part of my reading life for as long as I can remember, an omnibus of his material being amongst my fathers books. (my father, a police officer, had little time for crime fiction) I can’t recall the exact constitution of the collection, but it was 87th precinct stuff and included ’Fuzz’ (for the longest time, all I could remember of Fuzz was that it started with the station being redecorated and the cops being annoyed by this.)

I came to Matthew Hope in my late teens and found it hard to credit it to the same author. Sleezy, morally dubious and sexual… it was everything the more austere 87th Precinct stories weren’t.

So, when I saw this in a second hand stall today, I couldn’t resist. I wonder how we’ve aged together.

Got Carter?

My appreciation of Get Carter is now live at The Rap Sheet.

My contributions to TRS will be ramping up over next few weeks, including an appreciation of the Martyn Waites novel ’Mary’s Prayer’ and a take over of the ’Forgotten Books’ slot for the month of August. Stay tuned.

Four Play

Just noticed that my friend Cullen Gallagher tagged me in this ‘Four Play’ buissness, which is lovely. Cully would absolutely be one of the people I’d tag with this too.

Without further ado:

4 movies you would watch over and over:

Michael Clayton
The Godfather Part 2.
Miller’s Crossing.
Chinatown

4 places you have lived:

Leeds, West Yorkshire (born there)
Enfield, Middlesex (Back when I was a teenager.)
Aberystwyth, Wales (Read Intelligence Studies there.)
Manchester. (my home)

4 TV shows you love to watch:

The Wire
Deadwood
Mad Men
Criminal Justice.

Hmm, I appear to be a cynical man.

4 places you have been on vacation:

Cuba.
San Francisco.
Boston (I dig the crime fiction out of that city big time.)
New Orleans. (Mardi Gra, baby.)

4 of your favorite foods:

Chinese (generally)
Paella
Sushi
GOOD sandwiches (again, generally. But not crappy ones.)

4 Web sites you visit daily:

The Rap Sheet
Guardian
Twitter
NME (no, I don’t know why, either.)

4 places you would rather be right now:

San Francisco, thinking on how laid back and intense the place is.
Edinbrough, lecturing undergraduates.
Chillin’ with Sarah (Hi, Sarah.)
Catching up with Richard and Sarah in Quebec.

<<4 things you want to do before you die:>>

Get paid for literary criticism (yes, I know, best of luck.)
Sell the trilogy of novels.
Finalize this deal with the BBC.
Buy a Brownstone. (I love Brownstones.)

4 books you wish you could read again for the first time:

The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins.
The Glass Key By Hammett (awesome examination of small town politics)
The Devil’s Redhead by David Corbett.
The Winter of Frankie Machine by Don Winslow (a recent read, but holy god.)

Tag 4 people you think will respond:

Jed Ayres Of Hardboiled Wonderland
Ray Banks of The Saturday Boy.
Ali Karim of The Existentialist Man
William Landay of his own self.

The Wire: The Audacity of Comfort

So, here’s the thing: I’m watching both my Government disintegrate (live! On stage!) here and watching the British people’s general response be GLEE, both of which are freaking me out. (talk about the stupidity of schadenfreude: ’The Governments collapsed! We’re COMPLETLEY SCREWED! YAY!!)

So I need some comfort food.

This was my favorite promo ’The Wire’ ever had. Confident, spiky (it really might as well just say ’David Simon! George Pelecanos! Ed Burns! Richard Price! Dennis Lehane! Is YOUR writing staff that good?’) politicized, with a portentous soul classic by The Temptations bringing up the rear.

The Temptations were (completely) bandwagon jumping when they produced this track, but Damn.

Courousy of The Rap Sheet, I see that David Simon was on Simon Mayo this week.