Crime Genre

Roland March Audiobooks!

This week I received word that Brilliance Audio will be producing audiobook editions of the first two Roland March novels. That means you'll be able to listen to Back on Murder and Pattern of Wounds. The ink is still wet on the contract, meaning I have no idea when they'll release, but I'm pretty excited. 

And scared to death. Since the stories are told in first person with Roland March narrating, whoever reads these books becomes the voice of March.

When I read from the books myself, alone or in public, there's always a nagging reservation. My voice isn't March's, not at all, and I have no gift for pretending otherwise. I like the way I read, but nobody's going to mistake me for a hardboiled Houston cop. I'm just an author reading a story. I don't become the character. 

A good narrator really bonds with the character. Whenever I think of James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux, it's Will Patton's voice I hear in my head. Robert Hardy's narration on Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin books made them a pleasure to experience (not to mention rendering the ones Hardy didn't narrate impossible to love). 

So I'm waiting with bated breath and fingers crossed to see how the March novels turn out. I know one thing: it's going to be crazy listening to them for the first time.

A Study of Human Nature

A few passages in recent Amazon reviews of the March novels jumped out at me. First, here's one from a reader with law enforcement experience writing about Back on Murder:

It's seldom that I read a cop story that gives me goose bumps, but this one did. His description of a fight in the front seat of a car had me wanting to go for my off duty piece. The gunfight scene had me wanting to duck .... The narrative follows the detective's thought processes and does it very accurately .... If you've done police work you'll recognize your own patterns, if you never have, you'll gain insight into what it's like to be facing the crisis as well and the mundane and all of it filtered through department politics and personal, especially relationship, issues.

Read the rest here.

And this is a recent review of Pattern of Wounds which warms the heart of a Balzac-lover like myself:

Bertrand's characters are a microcosm of the world; the religious, the wicked, the observers, the reactors, the engaged and the disengaged, the political, and the humble. As this story unfolds these people appear as actors on the stage, and in them we see the people we know around us .... More than a mystery novel, Pattern of Wounds is a study of human nature. Read it and see how you find your own identity. 

Read the rest here.

Free Nook + ePub Versions of Back on Murder

When I mentioned that with the release of Pattern of Wounds, the Kindle version of Back on Murder would be available as a free download for a limited time, it turns out that was only half the story. If instead of a Kindle, you're rocking a Nook, have no fear: Back on Murder is available free on the Nook, too!

    Don't have a Kindle or a Nook? Then check out CBD, where they're offering the ePub version as a freebie. Now I don't know how long this promotion will last, so download it today ... and if you like it, let more people know. Hopefully a free introduction to the series will get you hooked. If so, you can download Pattern of Wounds and keep reading!

Back on Murder Takes the Prize

 
Back on Murder won top honors at the Grace Awards in the "Suspense /Mystery/Romantic Suspense/Detective Novel/Thriller" category. The announcement has just been made, along with an explanation from lead judge Tracy Krauss about why Back on Murder was chosen. Here's an excerpt:

Simply put, this book was masterfully written and a pleasure to read. There was plenty of intrigue, suspense and mystery – all the murder and mayhem that we would expect from a book in this genre, but Bertrand manages to balance this with some deep human elements as well. Detective Roland March is a disillusioned and misunderstood Houston cop, relegated to special assignments nobody else wants. His character is flawed, yet these imperfections only make us pull for him all the more. He gets his big chance for redemption when he is assigned to a missing person’s case - he thinks is connected to a drug murder; but proving it might just cost him his life. Bertrand's voice is fresh, descriptive, insightful and never cliché. The story unfolds at just the right pace and the suspense is high throughout.

I'd like to offer my thanks to the judges -- Tracy Krauss, Lisa Lickel, and V.B. Tenerey -- and to the intrepid reader who nominated Back on Murder in the first place. The award is very much appreciated.

Decompose Interview: Writing in Present Tense

Mike Duran has been reading Back on Murder, and he happened to notice the book is written in first person, present tense. Mike, whose novel The Resurrection comes out next year, once had a bad experience with first person present when his critique partners told him it was not an "acceptable point of view" for commercial fiction. That being the case, he had a question for me: Am I crazy? 

I thought we'd established that already when I posted my Self Portrait with Ice Spike.

Seriously, he had several questions, and the interview is now online at Decompose. Mike writes, "Not only is it a compelling police procedural that pulls you right in, Mark’s craft is exceptional." To which I say, thank you very much.

Booklist Reviews Back on Murder

Now Booklist has posted a favorable review of Back on Murder:

Roland March, on the verge of being cut loose from the Houston Police Department after suffering a personal tragedy that has affected his job performance, is given one last chance after he notices evidence of a missing female victim at a gang-related multiple-murder scene. March tries to connect the female victim with Hannah Mayhew, a teenager who performed outreach work for her church and who recently disappeared from a local mall; his superiors are unconvinced, but they agree to transfer March to the Hannah Mayhew task force. He continues to investigate the connection, working under the radar, with the help of a youth pastor, to prove his suspicions. In his personal life, March tries to reconnect with his wife, who is also suffering. Carefully drawn details of police work, well-delineated characters, multiple interesting cases, and a vivid Houston setting add to the strong mystery. -- Sue O'Brien

Thanks, Booklist!

 

Houston-area paper reviews Back on Murder

Sense of place is important to any crime series, mine included, which is why I got a kick out of seeing Back on Murder reviewed in the Conroe newspaper, which is just north of Houston (where the series is set). Here's an excerpt:

The writing contains great descriptive detail; the author carefully notes the characters’ emotional states, giving the reader an opportunity to better understand the psychological motivation for their behaviors. The crime sites are not pictured as pretty or stimulating; they’re just dirty, bloody, realistic and sad.

With the story based in Houston, author Bertrand was generous with his use of real-life places and things in the city. It was fun reading and easy to imagine the action in familiar settings.

The full review is online here: "Well-constructed 'Back on Murder' based in a Houston setting."

More Praise for Back on Murder

Over the summer, Back on Murder garnered praise from some highly respected sources. I'd like to share just a couple of examples. First, here's Richard Doster writing for Comment:

Back on Murder is a well-woven story. The reader, step-by-step with Roland March, searches for clues, deciphers meaning, sees connections—drawing ever closer to the surprising, yet believable, conclusion. Read it, and savour the fun of a good detective story.

Bertrand's got a pitch-perfect ear for dialogue. The cop-talk, for fans of the tough guy genre, hits the right note every time....

Page after page, Bertrand's command of rhythm and pace is an aesthetic delight. Each sentence builds anticipation; each scene leads deeper into the distinct but converging crimes....

I was delighted when Books & Culture editor John Wilson noticed Back on Murder:

To follow a series, you have to find the protagonist congenial. "Congenial" doesn't imply love and devotion, let alone complete sympathy with the character's opinions and predilections, but there has to be more than mere toleration: you will be spending a lot of time in his or her company. Other factors enter in too, of course: the locale and ambience of the series, the writer's way with words, and more. In comparison to many crime series protagonists, Roland March is cast on a refreshingly human scale. If you are weary of fantastic exploits, you may find this a welcome change of pace, as I did. The Houston setting is perfect for such a character.

 And this is from Derek Melleby, who actually dreamed about the characters:

Here’s the one word I would use to describe Back On Murder: flawless. Now I know that’s a strong statement, and certainly every book has flaws. But I really couldn’t ask for more from a novel. The good news is, there’s more to come!

Speaking of more to come, Pattern of Wounds, the next March book, will be out in Summer 2011. I've seen the cover and it looks fantastic. I'll have more to say about that anon.

Everybody's Missing Kid

During my podcast interview with The Christian Manifesto, Calvin Moore asked about "missing white woman syndrome" and whether I think it's a legit phenomenon. I do, which is why Back on Murder features just such a case at its core.  I've written before about the distorting effect of media attention. Paradoxical as it sounds, sometimes intense scrutiny seems to be a hindrance to the quest for truth. The question is, why do some stories excite the popular imagination while other, very similar ones don't? 

Roland March, my detective protagonist, ponders the question:

You can’t call yourself a jaded cop if you’re not cynical about the different treatment an attractive white suburban blonde gets when she runs into trouble. Her story makes the front page, beams out into millions of living rooms, and strangers everywhere look upon her as their own. They worry, they agonize — and above all they love, projecting all their frustrated hopes onto this inscrutably attractive teen. By losing track of their daughter, her parents have donated her to the public at large, and now she’s everybody’s missing kid.

Of course, he's not immune to the adoption process himself. It's no accident that it takes a case like this to galvanize the formerly apathetic March. 

As a novelist, I naturally spend a lot of time wondering what makes some books bestsellers. Insiders know that it isn't the quality of the prose per se. There are plenty of beautifully-written books that never reach the point of apotheosis. The boilerplate answer is that certain stories resonate, strike a nerve, and so on. They succeed not on the sentence level but on the story level, achieving some kind of mythopoeic transmutation not easily quantified. After all, books that seem to possess the exact same characteristics don't get the same attention. 

Maybe it's helpful to think of such books as media events, just like the story of a beautiful missing girl or the latest summer blockbuster. The event includes a story, but it isn't the story that makes the event. Certain event types (or genres) have a built-in appeal; others are unexpectedly popular. Perhaps there's some kind of formula involved -- but the formula doesn't create the widespread interest. There's more to it than that. 

What I'm suggesting is that the force that makes people tune in for a nightly dose of Nancy Grace is the same that makes them line up for the midnight release of the latest vampire romance, or the latest iPhone, or whatever. If I could bottle it, I probably would. Like March, we may be cynical about these phenomena, and at the same time caught up in them. Media phenomena aren't just about the object of interest; they're about the interested subject. Trying to unpack one such phenomenon in fiction is, I think, a way to better understand them all.

A Selection of Early Reviews

Back on Murder is officially out, which means people are finally getting a chance to read it. Some of them are reviewing it, too. From time to time, I hope to provide round-ups of the criticism, pro and anti. So let's start with a few select links.

First, here's Susan Olasky writing in the Notable Books section of the July 17 issue of World Magazine:

Writers of hard-boiled crime fiction often are good at describing the mean streets and warped people who live in a fallen world. Most of them, though, don't see much hope. Their fiction operates in a post-Edenic world as though a Redeemer never came. That's why Christian fans of the genre should be excited about this series by Bertrand. His protagonist is a troubled cop dealing with loss, a fragile marriage, and a career that's headed nowhere. He's fighting bad guys in the department while trying to solve a gang-style slaying and the disappearance of a teenager. Bertrand's well-plotted and tightly written novel offers glimmers of a world beyond the gritty Houston streets his cop must roam.

 

 

And this is Nicole Anderson's blurb from Christian Retailing:

Back on Murder: A Roland March Mystery is an engaging crime novel taking readers on assignment with Houston's best homicide detective. Detective March believes he is on his way out of the force because his peers trivialize his accomplishments — until he observes evidence at a major crime scene. Determined to find the victim and regain the respect he once held, he pursues his gut instinct to connect the victim with a missing, high-profile teen girl. Because of his rogue decision, he is taken off the murder case and put on the task force to find the missing teen. Refusing to give up on solving the murder case, March finds himself cracking an internal cover-up when a fellow officer approaches him with answers to the case. Bertrand captures a realistic view of a homicide detective's life, from the paperwork to life-threatening situations. Readers will relate to the struggles of his characters, their faltering faith and success.

Natalie Race, writing in Curator (a splendid online mag worth bookmarking), doesn't think Philip Seymour Hoffman will sign on to play March in the blockbuster film adaptation, but hits the nail on the head with her take on Back on Murder's Carter Robb:

When the search for a missing  teenage girl takes March to interview the staff of the suburban church where the girl’s mother works, Bertrand deftly describes the mega church that has become emblematic of today’s evangelical brand of Christendom.  He approaches evangelicalism sympathetically, but not as a promoter, and his portrayal of young youth pastor Carter Robb and the missing girl’s mother are surprisingly evenhanded.  It is rare to read a portrayal of the church in popular fiction that is neither satirical nor condemning nor dusted with sugared flower petals.  He even evades the Christian fiction convention of a conversion experience, allowing his characters a far more nuanced path of development than those renderings often allow.

Melissa Willis at The Christian Manifesto has some reservations about March, too -- which we explore a little in the podcast interview coming out this week -- and nice things to say about Robb:

I particularly enjoyed his inclusion of the youth minister and his ‘radical’ ideas.  The conflict between what is safe and what is right was nicely presented as well as enacted.  It’s a tough balance and I love how Bertrand included this two edged sword.  Not only do we get to see it carried out, we get to better understand the risks as well as the rewards.

I've joked more than once about opening a web store to sell Carter Robb's ironic t-shirts (all but one of which actually exist). Maybe I should really do it. He seems popular. Well, that's it for now. I'll post more later ... and if I miss any, feel free to point them out!