Category: Writing

FAR AWAY THOUGHTS

2/12/2022

Life seems to be pulling me in multiple directions these days. Some of this has to do with the chasing of goals, other times it feels like external forces are trying to push us onto one path over others.

2022 is shaping up to be a reassessment year: thinking back to the many past accomplishments (such as a teaching opportunity at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, whose campus is pictured above) and looking forward with excitement to the many opportunities to come.

Indeed, a lot seems in flux but rife for potential. Pursuit of a new job has been in progress for a few months, and I am starting to return to the society found in theater, academics, and, well, society. So I am cautiously optimistic, and I am excited to find a satisfying path in an increasingly divided and fractious world.

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BLACK CAT WEEKLY - Current issue features my short story!

1/9/2022

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What a lovely way to kick off the New Year!

Author and editor Barb Goffman contacted me a short while ago and asked for permission to feature a short story of mine, the Maine-set "The Last Ferry", in an upcoming issue of Black Cat Weekly. The e-zine is a marvelous mix of science fiction and mystery stories, and features both short pieces and two novels in this issue.

It is always exciting and humbling to have one's work singled out by another writer, and it certainly doesn't happen every day. I'm especially honored that the person taking an interest is Barb Goffman, whose lively crime fiction stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and scores of anthologies and themed collections.

Readers can purchase individual issues of Black Cat Weekly or subscribe for the year. "The Last Ferry" is featured in Issue #19, and you can visit the BCW site by following this link.

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Book Review: THE SUSSEX DOWNS MURDER (1936) by John Bude

12/7/2019

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John Bude is yet another Golden Age-era mystery writer enjoying a 21st century renaissance courtesy of Martin Edwards and the British Library Crime Classics series. Some of Bude's Superintendent Meredith books are back in print (and eBook) for a new generation of readers, and if 1936's The Sussex Downs Murder is representative of the output, the author delivers straightforward, enjoyable fare that offers equal parts humdrum, procedural, and travelogue elements. The mix is nostalgic and agreeable, even as its puzzle is not especially bewildering. Bude – the pseudonym of Ernest Elmore, a co-founder of the Crime Writers' Association – uses the countryside of West Sussex to great effect as he sets his plot amongst the dirt roads and chalk cliffs of the area.

Two brothers, gregarious John and saturnine William Rother, manage a lime kiln and make a living from the land. Then John leaves for a trip, and soon his car is found with blood on the seat but no driver in sight. Inspector Meredith becomes interested professionally and personally, and approaches the puzzle systematically and scientifically, running tests on driving distances and petrol levels and constructing a timetable from the testimony of some well-placed witnesses.

The plot thickens when fragments of human bones are found among the lime that passed through the Rothers' kiln. Tragedy strikes again when a body is found at the base of a cliff; but was it suicide or murder? Fortunately, among Meredith's local confidantes are an imaginative mystery writer and a curious anatomist, both excited to assist and learn new facts of the case.

I enjoyed a number of aspects of this story, from the detailed landscape descriptions and clear understanding of the chosen geography (Bude resided in this part of England) to the attempts at lighter humour. (One example: the author provides his grounded detective protagonist with an excitable son steeped in the latest gangster pulp fiction.) Just as with the output from fellow procedural plotters R. Austin Freeman and John Rhode/Miles Burton, The Sussex Downs Murder is admirable in its A-to-B-leading-to-C, quiet yet important clue discoveries and experiments that let its investigator doggedly follow the path to a solution.

The principal problem, for me, was that it takes the determined Superintendent Meredith far too long to arrive at that solution; I would presume that even casual readers of detective fiction would intuit the perception shift that takes Meredith nearly the whole book to see. I hardly ever traffic in SPOILERS in my reviews, but the circumstances that let the reader spot the "twist" well in advance are worth a brief discussion here, especially as steps could have been taken to obscure the revelation and give the reader a less linear puzzle to piece together.

SPOILER PARAGRAPHS BEYOND:

I feel like the problem begins with the scenario of a missing body and, later, skeletal remains, which new and veteran mystery readers rightly view with immediate suspicion. Nicholas Blake knew not to underestimate the intelligence of the mystery reader, which is something I dearly love about his Nigel Strangeways stories. His amateur sleuth will often express suspicions and hypotheses running parallel in the moment with the thoughts of the observant reader. In There's Trouble Brewing (1937), we have the spectacle of a corpse reduced to a skeleton after an intense night trapped in a brewery pressure boiler. But does the body truly belong to the missing tyrant who owns the company? Here Blake takes the smart approach. Strangeways is immediately skeptical about the skeleton's identity, and by stating this concern, the narrative accomplishes two things: 1) it allows the reader to trust that the detective is up to the task and that he's not overlooking the obvious, and 2) once stated, the possibility sinks again to a 50/50 prospect: either the body belongs to Eustace Bunnett or it does not.

With The Sussex Downs Murder, John Bude presents a missing body mystery, but never lets his earnest but unimaginative policeman wonder whether the skeleton fragments might belong to anyone other than the assumed victim. As a result, suspicion soon blooms for the reader, who wonders with each chapter why the stolid detective doesn't explore this possibility.

Another real handicap to Bude's story is his decision to offer up only three principal characters as suspects; because of this, the various combinations of criminality among the trio are quite limited. It would be simple to add some more people to the mix who could pleasantly complicate the picture, from an ex-employee with a grudge against the brothers to a cousin with scheming designs to inherit. Anyone who could increase the variables of plot possibilities would be welcome, especially since an anonymous figure known as The Cloaked Man seems to be a key to the solution. Instead, John Bude surrounds Meredith with colorful characters who really can't be considered suspects: they are witnesses and interested parties, but there is no earthly motive for murder between them.

END SPOILERS

All this may sound like The Sussex Downs Murder is a misfire, but it's not; more accurately, it feels like an opportunity missed. The book remains an enjoyable procedural tale from the height of detective fiction's Golden Age, and an entry from a prolific but often overlooked author within the genre. For seasoned mystery readers, it's simply that the garden path (pictured right) may appear frustratingly linear here.

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The Last of 2018 - and Looking Ahead from Here

12/31/2018

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Do I dare define 2018 in one word? If I were to be so bold, that word would probably be busy. Not chaotic, really, or exhausting – although it was a little of that – but just plain-and-simple busy would work best. It was this year that I moved from multiple adjunct teaching jobs to one full-time, office-hours academic advising job, which meant less grading but far more paperwork and student appointments. And I still teach an online class here and there, which further takes time away from personal projects.

Nevertheless, 2018 proved a very good year for writing, with three stories published (and/or e-published) and available to all. My new tale "The Last Ferry", which I wrote in February, appears in Landfall: The Best New England Crime Stories of 2018 from Level Best Books. And I was delighted to learn that "The Widow Cleans House", my first published short story in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, was chosen for reprint in the anthology Terror at the Crossroads, released in October by Penny Publications/Eris Press.

Also débuting this year was my first long-form effort, and my first LGBTQ romantic comedy to boot. Knights Erring, available from Less Than Three Press, follows three friends who bet each other that they can't uphold the tenets of chivalry (including poverty, chastity, and obedience) for two weeks. The story made it through multiple drafts and grew considerably, and I'm very happy with the current version.

My Reading List – an annual compulsion that I started in 2005 when I decided to note every book, script, or story collection I finished from that point forward – tells me that I read 64 titles this year, which is less than in previous years, but still surprising given the sheer busyness of 2018. (See Paragraph One.) I would note the following items as standouts:

Beartown (2016) – Fredrik Backman's unsentimental exploration of a small northern town that lives - and almost destroys itself - for its high school hockey team
The Moving Target (1949) – Ross MacDonald's first Lew Archer mystery
Exit, Pursued by a Bear (2012) – Lauren Gunderson's darkly comic play about a woman taking revenge on her abusive husband
The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House (2008) by Laton McCartney – why would this story of a corrupt president and a Republican congress trying to hide and bury illegal dealings seem familiar?

Honorable mentions go to Bodies from the Library (2018), a fun collection of lesser-known stories by famous classic mystery authors edited by Tony Medawar, and Gregory McDonald's buoyant sequel Confess, Fletch (1976), which is twistier and more satisfying than his solid earlier effort.

And it was great to return to a book by Gladys Mitchell. I haven't spent much time in her company lately, so I made the excuse to remedy that by launching the Mitchell Mystery Reading Group. I spent a wonderful (and busy) November discussing and dissecting the 1929 Mrs. Bradley whodunit farce The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop. I loved all of the topics and conversational roads that I likely would never have traveled if I had revisited the book on my own, and I am looking forward to the next group reading event, probably in March or April of 2019. I'll choose a 1930s title and announce it the month before; I already have some suggestions from fans, and there are a lot of solid tales to choose from in that decade!

Finally, I will end by offering a version of the familiar New Year's Resolutions. In addition to hosting another Mitchell Mystery Reading Group event (two if I can manage it), 2019 will be the year I finally submit an entry for the Black Orchid Novella writing contest, sponsored by the Rex Stout appreciation club The Wolfe Pack. Before that, I should deliver a completed Act Two (currently in progress) for a stage comedy that I'm writing for a regional theater company. I'd like to also push myself to complete two new crime-themed short stories next year. And I want to keep my eyes open for new writing and contest opportunities, something that I don't always look for as rigorously as I should.

I hope everyone has a 2019 that rivals, nay exceeds, the success and joy that 2018 (hopefully) provided. And if your 2018 was less than you wanted it to be, you have every reason to be optimistic as we flip the calendar and turn the page together!

Peace and best wishes,
Jason Half

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FAR AWAY THOUGHTS

BLACK CAT WEEKLY - Current issue features my short story!

Book Review: THE SUSSEX DOWNS MURDER (1936) by John Bude

The Last of 2018 - and Looking Ahead from Here

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