This pestilence
that has swept the globe, COVID-19 has disrupted so many activities that there
seems little it can’t impact upon; including delaying the next instalment in
the disturbing adventures of Charlie Parker –
that singular creation from Irish literary crime / horror writer John Connolly.
At the risk of cliché, it seems only yesterday that
John Connolly’s debut crime novel Every
Dead Thing [1999], was awarded best debut Private Eye novel in 2000 by The Private
Eye Writers of America [PWA]. This achievement made all the more poignant,
that it was the first time a non-America writer received this accolade. Some
would argue that the PI Genre was at the heart of the American Golden Age of
Crime Fiction, so for an Irishman to be acclaimed by his American peers is remarkable.
And now we come full circle with August 20th
2020 release by Hodder and Stoughton of The Dirty South, the latest
Charlie Parker adventure which goes back in time, to those early days of Connolly’s
troubled protagonist, before the millennium, and well before the ubiquity of the
Virus that is in the air around us -
It is 1997, and someone is slaughtering young
women in Burdon County, Arkansas.
But no one in the Dirty South wants to admit it.
In an Arkansas jail cell sits a former NYPD
detective, stricken by grief. He is mourning the death of his wife and child,
and searching in vain for their killer. Obsessed with avenging his lost family,
his life is about to take a shocking turn.
Witness the dawning of a conscience.
Witness the birth of a hunter.
Witness the becoming of Charlie Parker.
Available in the US from Emily Bestler Books
/ Atria October 20, 2020
Available in Ireland from Hodder &
Stoughton August 20, 2020
Available in the UK and elsewhere from
Hodder & Stoughton, August 20, 2020
An extract is available
HERE
Shots Ezine’s Spanish Correspondent and book reviewer John
Parker has been sitting on his hands, having read
The Dirty South earlier this year, before COVID-19 delayed the release, and
as John Parker had a few [socially distanced] questions for John Connolly,
which Shots Ezine are happy to share with our readers -
From the pages of John Parker’s notebook -
John Parker: Hello John,
it’s great to speak to you again. Congratulations on the publication of THE
DIRTY SOUTH.
John Connolly:
And great to talk again.
John Parker: So without further
ado, tell us how difficult was it to go back and write about a character who
has lived through as much as Charlie Parker? Were you worried about continuity
or using language that was not prevalent 20 years ago, for example?
John Connolly: Actually, it was quite pleasant to write without the accumulated history of seventeen books! As I grow older, the hard part is keeping track of everything that’s already happened, especially in a series which has a larger story arc progressing in the background.
The hard part was the research, given that The
Dirty South is effectively a historical novel. It’s one thing going to Arkansas to walk the
ground, as it were, but another to recreate it as it was decades earlier. Thankfully, I had some help from longtime
residents, but it’s a stressful business.
One turns into a version of Donald Rumsfeld, trying to distinguish
between known unknowns and unknown unknowns.
As for language, I decided to adopt a kind of
heightened, stylized speech for all of the Arkansas characters. In a sense,
it’s an echo of the approach to language in Every Dead Thing, although
it’s more conscious and perhaps less in thrall to literary influences than in
that first novel.
When I began writing Every Dead Thing in
my twenties, I was very much in the shadow of a particular style of American
mystery writing, and it’s taken me two decades even to begin to find my own
voice. Dipping into Every Dead Thing
to check matters of consistency or continuity was very difficult for me,
because my style has changed so much since then. I hope it’s improved, although some might
differ.
One issue that was problematical was the status
of women and people of color during the period in which the book is set. The setting is a society largely dominated by
white males, and to some degree the novel has to reflect that, even as it tries
to find a way to examine and interrogate it.
That’s a delicate, fraught exercise.
John Parker: There has
been an unfortunate delay in publication due to the pandemic. But, perhaps,
this makes the book more relevant than ever. Clearly black lives don’t matter
to some people in Cargill. Would you care to comment?
John Connolly: The problem
never seems to go away, does it? In that
sense, the book is still depressingly relevant.
One only had to witness the evidence of voter suppression during the
recent Kentucky primary – and Donald Trump’s astonishing acknowledgement of the
necessity of voter suppression if the Republican Party is to have any hope of
remaining in power – to recognize the shadow that the subject of race continues
to cast over American democracy.
But the book is as much about poverty as it is
about racial inequality, and the compromises that a poor community has to make
in order to have any prospect of improving its situation. The history of
industrial development in the South over the last fifty or sixty years is quite
fascinating, in that what revolutionized the South, New Deal liberalism and
hefty tax breaks apart, was the invention of air-conditioning. Before that, high-tech industries couldn’t
really consider Southern states for investment because of the semi-tropical
weather – not only the difficulty of keeping workers indoors in terrible heat,
but the impossibility of manufacturing technologically demanding products in a
humid environment.
After all, you can’t
just leave a window open.
But A/C changed all that, and suddenly big
companies – including aerospace and defense contractors – have access to a
low-cost, union-free labor force in states with a fairly lax approach to environmental
standards. The result is towns literally
selling themselves to corporations for the promise of jobs, better schools, and
an improved standard of living. That’s
the opportunity the town of Cargill is trying to secure in the book, and it’s
only the chief of police who really understands the likely implications of this.
John Parker: Did you actually go down
south to research the book? If so, how was the experience?
John Connolly: I did,
because research is both a necessity and, thankfully, a pleasure for me. I can’t write about a place I haven’t
explored. Arkansas was a part of the
United States that was wholly unfamiliar to me, so I was able to start with a
blank slate. I received only the most
generous of help throughout, particularly from a wonderful man named J.R.
Howard, who is now retired but had worked right across Arkansas law enforcement
during his career; and a young couple named the Webbs, who were fans of my
books and reached out via Twitter when I posted about being in the state. In the end, I think J.R. suggested only one
correction to the text, which related to a model of gun. Otherwise, he very kindly said that he felt
he’d worked with a lot of the lawmen in the book, and the ones he hadn’t worked
with, he knew. Most of that, though, was down to my listening quietly to him as
he talked, and taking copious notes of everything he said. As I grow older, I’ve learned how and when to
keep my mouth shut, except to ask questions.
John Parker: When
we met last summer in Avilés, Spain, you were in the middle of a book
promotion tour. You said you hoped to be able to spend a little more time at
home afterwards. Your wish came true. So, how did you cope with the lockdown?
John Connolly: I was okay
with lockdown, the general stress of it apart.
My sons are both in their twenties and can largely take care of
themselves, so I didn’t have the kind of distractions that come with younger
kids. It was, rather selfishly, nice not
to have to find ways to say “no” to things.
I travelled too much last year, and it’s more tiring than it used to
be. Also, travelling so much means that
I struggle to get as much writing done as I would like. Lockdown presented an opportunity to work
without interruption, and perhaps get a little bit ahead for the first time in
twenty years. Routine suits me, I think.
I secretly struggle with disruption.
John Parker: Your legion of fans was lucky
enough to be treated to more Parker in the online novella, The Sisters Strange.
Was that a story you already had in the back of your mind or was it inspired by
your wish to do something good for people under lockdown? Would you ever do it again?
John Connolly: I decided on
the spur of the moment that I should try to produce something as a distraction
for readers, and to make up for the postponement of publication of my books in
a number of countries. It wasn’t
something I had in a bottom drawer. I simply came up with a title, and then
wrote to that title as an experiment, albeit one conducted in public. It was an odd experience, but not a million
miles away from how I write anyway: I usually only know the opening of a book,
and then discover the story and the characters by writing very slowly every
day. Only at the end of the (very painful)
first draft do I go back and begin revising.
The process for The Sisters Strange was similar, except that it
was all done in full view of readers, I had to live with every decision I made,
and there was no possibility of going back and rerouting if I went in a
seemingly unpromising direction.
Would I do it again?
Ha, probably not! Apart from
being quite stressful, and leaving my flaws exposed, it was also a pretty
expensive exercise. We ended up
publishing the daily extracts in six languages, which meant that I was paying
five translators as well as my son, Cameron, who took care of layout and
publication. I was happy to put work the translators’ way, though, and they and
Cam did a wonderful job under very difficult conditions.
John Parker: Can you tell us what is
coming up next? What lies in the future for Parker?
John Connolly: Well, the
next novel is pretty much done, and I’m just polishing it for delivery. It’s an Angel & Louis book, with a cameo
or two from Parker, and picks up on an incident mentioned in A Book of Bones. As with every novel I write, it’s a reaction
to the one that preceded it. The
Dirty South is almost entirely set in one small Arkansas county, but the
next book – The Nameless Ones – ranges across four continents. After that, a revised and probably extended
version of The Sisters Strange will appear in some form, either as one
of two Parker novellas or as a separate publication.
John Parker: I was mightily impressed by
your talk at Celsius 232 last summer which you gave in Spanish. Are you still
working on your Spanish or are you learning other languages?
John Connolly: I’m still
practising my Spanish each day, although comprehension and vocabulary remain a
problem. I’m improving, I think, but I suspect
my Spanish still causes native speakers to wince a bit.
I have some French, but I wanted to focus on Spanish
because I probably do more promotion for my Spanish editions than for any
others, English-language apart. I was
embarrassed by my inability to communicate with Spanish readers directly, or to
conduct interviews and presentations in the language. I’m always embarrassed by that when I go to a
new country, but it’s just not possible to be fluent in every language, so I
made the decision to concentrate on Spanish. I’d dabbled in conversational
Spanish a few years ago, but I decided to try to get to the point where I could
do an entire session in the language, however halting it might be. Spanish readers have been very forgiving of
my mangling of their native tongue, although I think they appreciate the
effort.
But doing a public interview or presentation in
Spanish is nerve-racking, and quite exhausting, because I keep running into
words or terms for which I don’t necessarily have the vocabulary, or not
yet. I’ll get there, though – I hope. At the very least, they say that learning a language
can help stave off dementia.
John Parker: Last question - I heard a
rumour that you were going to come back to Celsius 232 this summer? Alas, it
could not be! Will you be back in the future?
John Connolly: I’d love to return to that
festival at some future date, and on a practical level I do need reasons to
continue working on, and improving, my Spanish. Everyone at Celcius in Avilés (and Gijón,
which I attended during the same visit) was hugely kind and generous, and it’s
a lovely town. Also, I really appreciate
the fact that so many Spanish festivals are free to attend, thanks to an
enlightened view of the relationship between taxation and culture. And the food and wine are great. I’m not sure I’d go every year, though. I think that might rather lead people to get
a bit tired of me…
John Parker: Thank you for your time John,
as ever
John Connolly: My pleasure,
thank you for your questions and see you soon, stay well.
Additional Resources
A guide to the Charlie Parker series can be accessed HERE
John Parker’s review of THE DIRTY SOUTH is online HERE
John Parker’s conversation with John Connolly from last year’s Celsius Festival
Click HERE
BBC audio ghost stories by John Connolly –
And a trailer for the Kevin Costner movie THE NEW DAUGHTER from
2009, based on the story by John Connolly and the directorial debut of Spanish
screenwriter Luis Berdejo
And previous reviews and interview features with John Connolly from Shots
can be accessed HERE
Shots Ezine would like to pass our thanks to Hodder and
Stoughton and John Connolly for their help in arranging this interview and also
to our Spanish Bureau’s John Parker.
John Parker is a Graduate-qualified English/Spanish
Teacher, owner and director of CHAT
ENGLISH, an English Language Centre in Avilés on the north coast of Spain. John is a voracious reader, and has loved horror fiction for many, many years. He is also an avid beekeeper.
Editor’s Note: One of the most engaging reading
experiences from John Connolly’s body of work for me is “He” an extraordinary piece
of literature and here’s why: CLICK HERE
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