Charlotte Carter - In a world of jazz with Nanette Hayes

 

New Yorker Nanette Hayes the main protagonist in Charlotte Carter's excellent noir jazz infused series is a young black jazz musician who not only has a lust for life but an aptitude for solving crimes. Set in streets of New York this acclaimed series has just been republished by Baskerville with some glorious covers by Bristol based artist Lucy Turner who was asked to redesign the covers. Originally published in the 1990s this underrated but brilliantly written series when first published pointed me in the direction of a character who was not only funny with a sense of humour that made the series stand out but also showed that there could be strong sexually confident women who knew what they wanted and be a dab hand at solving crimes as well. 

At a time when there were not (in my opinion) enough black female crime writers visible within the genre (we did have Eleanor Taylor Bland, Barbara Neely, Valerie Wilson Wesley, and Grace F. Edwards) coming across Charlotte Carter made me realise that one had to dig deeper to find these gems to read and also the fact that this series was and still is a delight, whether you are reading them for the first time or whether you are reacquainting yourself with them like I am. Any author who uses Theolonius Monk song titles as chapter headings is is certainly worth reading.

The first book in the series Rhode Island Red sees jazz loving Nanette offering a fellow street musician a bed for the night. Finding him dead the following morning Nanette is soon involved with a strange and sinister couple, a fellow jazz lover who just happens to be a gangster as well and who is someone that she could easily fall for as well as trying to solve what might be the mystery that the jazz world has been trying to solve for quite sometime. Rhode Island Red was clearly inspired by Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, which being one of my all time favourite crime novels is another reason to enjoy this book so much. Furthermore, Charlotte Carter's love of film noir also comes shining through in her prose.

The second book in the series is Coq Au Vin and this time it sees Nanette in the city of love that is Paris. Nanette is trying to find her aunt Vivian who has disappeared. As Nanette hooks up with André a self-taught violinist from Detroit (who is also in Paris) as she searches for her bohemian aunt she finds herself once again deep in the midst of danger, this time in the dark side of historic Paris and at the centre of attention of some extremely dangerous people. Once again Charlotte Carter has continued to share her love of jazz by giving the chapter titles the names of songs sung by some very impressive jazz artists including Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, John Coltrane, Billy Strayhorn and Clifford Brown to name a few. 

© Ayo Onatade

Like Rhode Island Red, Coq Au Vin is an intensely jazz filled book. Jazz is certainly the main narrative that is seen via both Nanette and André and their interactions with each other. This time around one has the added love affair, that of the relationship between Paris and Black Americans. One cannot forget that some of the best jazz musicians for example Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, Nina Simone, Theolonius Monk and Charles Mingus all spent time in Paris during their lives. 

The third book in the series is Drumsticks and after a rather tragic sojourn to Paris, Nanette is back in New York drowning her sorrows metaphorically and figuratively and just about managing to make ends meet. Things start to look up when she receives a Voodoo doll as a present. Could her luck be changing after all? It falls to Nanette to investigate when the lady who sent her the doll is found dead. Who killed her and why? Liking up with some unlikely allies sees Nanette delving into the life of Ida the dead women who had rather a large number of dark skeletons in her cupboard.

Whilst it was great to see Nanette in Paris in the second book in the series seeing her back in her usual haunt of New York was a delight. There was slightly more grittiness in the dialogue (which I loved) which was not so evident in Coq Au Vin, but the descriptions of New York were just as vivid as those of Paris. Charlotte Carter certainly knows how to draw her readers into a city. Her descriptions are profound, lush and very much part and parcel of this trilogy. Again Charlotte Carter does not disappoint us when it comes to her chapter titles, with song titles from the Nat King Cole Trio, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Horace Silver, John Coltrane, Chet Baker and Dexter Gordon.

Nanette's ability to be ferocious in what she delights in whether it be falling in love with men (decent or not) fine wine and food and of course the best of jazz music and not forgetting her innate ability to solve mysteries is what makes this series amongst the best music inspired series to read. 

It is an utter shame that we readers only have a trilogy to read about Nanette Hayes. I certainly wish that there were more. Charlotte Carter not only managed to write a thrilling series with a strong, sexy female character but she also brought jazz to life and enthused this series with jazz music that would delight anyone whether or not the are a novice when it comes to their love of jazz or a longstanding lover of Jazz. 

One of the best things of this series which always makes these books worth rereading is the great sense of place, characterisation and the love of jazz and jazz history that flows through the pages. I love the fact that jazz songs are cited, it makes you want to go and seek out all of them, You don't have to be a fan of jazz to enjoy this series but it does help and its incredibly easy to immerse yourself in reading this series with jazz playing in the background.

If you haven't read this series before then do so. They may have been originally published in the 90s but that has not stopped them from being great reads today. Welcome to the world of sexy, sassy Nanette Hayes, who if anything will bring jazz to life as she solves a number of mysteries. Re-reading these have been a joy. 

Charlotte Carter's Nanette Hayes series has been re-issued by Baskerville a John Murray Press imprint. More information can be found here.

Dick Francis Statue to be unveiled at Aintree by HRH The Princess Royal

Dick Francis life-size statue to be unveiled at Aintree

by HRH The Princess Royal on Thursday 7th April

Aintree Racecourse, home of the Grand National, is honouring Dick Francis, former Wartime RAF Pilot, Champion Jump Jockey, Bestselling Author, and Trustee of Aintree Racecourse for 20 years, with the installation of a life-size bronze statue, sculpted by renowned sculptor, William Newton. The instigator of the statue is Peter Johnson, lifelong fine art dealer, former point-to-point rider, Dick Francis fan, and founder of the British Sporting Art Trust.

The statue will stand at the top of the steps outside the Aintree weighing room with Dick looking out across the parade ring and the winner’s enclosure. It will be unveiled by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal at 2pm on Thursday 7th April, during the first day of the 2022 Grand National meeting.

The statue depicts Dick in his time as a jockey. It was inspired by the photograph taken of Dick in the parade ring with Her Majesty The Queen and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother before he rode the ill-fated Devon Loch in the 1956 Grand National. Even though, as we all know, that particular race ended in a disaster when Devon Loch collapsed just 40 yards from certain victory, it was still the defining moment in Dick’s life and, as such, that day is immortalised in the statue. 

In all Dick rode thirty-five times at Aintree during his riding career, including in eight Grand Nationals, and won three times over the Grand National fences — in the Topham Trophy Handicap, the Molyneux Chase and in the final running of the Champion Chase at Aintree in 1950 before the race was transferred to Cheltenham. Dick missed attending only one Grand National in the sixty years from 1947 to 2007, and acted as ‘expert summariser’ to Peter Bromley’s BBC radio commentary of the race for almost forty years until Peter’s retirement in 2001.

However, it is mostly because of his instrumental role in the 1982 Grand National Appeal to purchase the racecourse, and hence save it from becoming a housing estate, and his subsequent twenty years as a Trustee, that Dick Francis is being honoured by Aintree. And also because, as was said when he was inaugurated into the Cheltenham Racecourse Hall of Fame, “Through his many racing mystery novels, he introduced more people worldwide to British steeplechasing than any other single individual." 

For more information, and/or interviews, contact Felix Francis – felix@felixfrancis.com

Call for Papers:- Victorian and Edwardian Mysteries

CFP:  Victorian and Edwardian Mysteries 

(Special Issue, Victorians Institute Journal)

The long nineteenth century (1789-1914) produced a wealth of works, literary and non-literary, concerned with mysteries, secrets, enigmas, and the unknown. Sensing that they stood on a threshold, that the shadowy borders of new knowledge and understanding lay almost within reach, literary figures, philosophers, and scientists struggled with a variety of mysteries arising from their interests in crime and criminology, medicine and disease, science and pseudoscience, industry and technology, gender and sexuality, travel and empire, religious faith and doubt. 

The Victorians Institute Journal invites submissions for a special issue on Victorian and Edwardian mysteries. Papers should be 5000-8000 words in length and must follow the Chicago Manual of Style.  

Submissions (in Microsoft Word) and inquiries should be emailed to the editors (Don Richard Cox and Maria K. Bachman) at vij@mtsu.edu

The deadline for submissions is 1 February 2020.

2015 David S Thompson Award

Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, is proud to announce that the recipients of the 2015 David S. Thompson Award are Bill & Toby Gottfried. 

The David S. Thompson Award, named for the late beloved publisher, bookseller, and crime fiction reader advocate, is presented by the National Bouchercon Board torecognize EXTRAORDINARY efforts to develop and promote the mystery and crime fiction community. Nominees include writers, publishers, readers, editors, and fans.

Extraordinary Efforts: Who best to receive this award than that extraordinary couple, Bill and Toby Gottfried, who have promoted mysteries and crime fiction through their involvement in mystery conventions, books groups, book buying, discussions and so more more. Bill and Toby exemplify what's best about the Mystery Community.

Toby and Bill have attended almost every Bouchercon since 1985. Their involvement in the mystery community goes far beyond attending conferences and buying books. They have actively participated on multiple Bouchercon committees and have chaired two Left Coast Crime Conventions. They plan vacations and travel around mystery conventions. At each convention, they make authors and readers feel welcome, breaking bread with them, and welcoming them in every possible way into the mystery community as friends and family.

Their involvement in the mystery community is driven by a love of people intellect, mystery, history, and fun.

The David S. Thompson Award will be presented at Bouchercon 2015 in Raleigh, NC, on Saturday, October 10, 2015.

For more information, contact Janet Rudolph at janet@mysteryreaders.org

Poirot and Me

Today's guest blog is by author and journalist Geoffrey Wansell who in conjunction with David Suchet wrote the recently published Poirot and Me. 

David Suchet and I first met in the most unlikely of places, Bryher, the smallest of the Isles of Scilly, in the spring of 1988. I was the executive producer of a movie for Twentieth Century Fox called When the Whales came, based on a wonderful Michael Morpurgo story about a set of narwhals that beached on the island. The stars were Paul Scofield and Helen Mirren. David was playing the third lead, a fisherman called Will. It was nine months before he first appeared on television as Poirot, but – even then – the little Belgian was peering over his shoulder.

David and I became friends at once, and have remained so ever since. He had just been offered the role and was carrying a pile of paperbacks of Dame Agatha’s stories about the detective around with him as he was determined to discover every single thing there was to know about the man he was about to portray. He had even started to make a list of Poirot’s characteristics on sheets of lined paper, a list that eventually reached 93 separate idiosyncrasies. He carried it around with him for the next 25 years – showing it to every director, producer, cameraman, make-up lady, costume designer and prop man that he worked with.

It was while we were sitting in the little hotel suite I had on the island that David first told me he had been offered the role of Poirot and asked me what I thought.

I said that he shouldn’t hesitate and take the part, but I also said: ‘It will change your life. You will go through a door and never be able to get back through it again’.

‘Don’t be so silly’ David said firmly. ‘I’ll still be exactly the same person I am now: an actor. That’s all I ever want to be’.

Looking back now, I think we were both right.

David has remained the character actor he always was, and has never allowed Poirot to consume him completely. He has played so many other great roles on television and in the theatre, from Augustus Melmotte in the BBC’s adaptation of Anthony Trollope’s The Way We Live Now, to Robert Maxwell in another BBC drama. He has played in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf in the West End, Salieri in Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, both in London and on Broadway, and, most recently, starred in Eugene O’Neill’s masterpiece Long Day’s Journey into Night.

But Poirot has made him a worldwide star, and changed his life forever. There is hardly a person in the world who does not recognise him so successful has the series become. It is now shown in almost 200 countries, translated into 80 languages and it has been estimated that at least 700 million have seen his performance. Believe it or not, Poirot is playing on television somewhere in the world every second of every single day.

When we first talked about it neither David nor I knew it would become the television phenomenon that it has – but over the years we both came to realise that it was something that deserved to be captured in a book - which is why we wrote Poirot and Me together.

When ITV announced that were going to film the last five Poirot stories of the seventy that Dame Agatha Christie created, we knew it was time to describe the journey that David had taken with little Belgian. After all, he has now played a single figure in a television series longer, we believe, than any other actor in television history – longer than Peter Falk played Colombo, longer than Raymond Burr played Perry Mason and Ironside put together, longer than Telly Savalas played Kojak and John Thaw played Inspector Morse.

We both wanted to capture that experience in a book, which is exactly why we are both so thrilled that the result is Poirot and Me.

More information about Geoffrey and his work can be found on his website.

The Cambridge Spies – 400 Years Back!

Today’s guest blog is by John Pilkington who writes historical novels for both adults and young readers. Marbeck & the King in Waiting is the second book in the series featuring Martin Marbeck, government spy, a man whose swordsmanship, cool courage, acting skills and ability to survive against the odds will be put to the test repeatedly in a turbulent era.

We think of the Cambridge Spies as a 20^th century, Cold War phenomenon – Philby, Burgess, MacLean and the rest: malcontents persuaded by foreign powers to spy against their country. In similar fashion, bright young people were sometimes recruited at university by our own Intelligence Services. But it may surprise readers to know that the first Cambridge Spies were hired by the Secretary of State, Sir Francis Walsingham - in the 1580s.

Of course spies have always existed - the Romans had them. But in Britain the first truly effective - and state-funded - system was set up in Queen Elizabeth 1st’s reign, and continued under James 1st. Walsingham and his successor, Sir Robert Cecil, were shrewd, pragmatic men, ruthless in their methods and  bent on preserving the nation’s interests at all costs. At its peak the espionage service had over fifty agents and informers scattered across Europe as far away as the Levant. Then as now it was a dangerous, murky world of false identities, ciphers and codes, deception and betrayal.

The spies or ‘intelligencers’ were a mixed group. Some, particularly those from the universities, were educated men with a taste for excitement. The most famous was the Cambridge scholar and playwright Christopher Marlowe, recruited in 1587. (In fact Marlowe was absent from his studies so often that the university were going to refuse him his degree, until the Privy Council wrote to tell them he had been serving the state in secret and should not be penalised). Other spies were misfits or adventurers, while some were undoubtedly ‘the dregs of society’, who would inform on anyone for a price. Such men might be placed in prisons to befriend fellow inmates – particularly Catholics – and worm information out of them. Others posed as anything from merchants to private tutors. A few, like Marlowe, were linked to the theatre: acting skills have always been useful for espionage. Some of them, perhaps, would have enjoyed the sort of role-playing and double-dealing they might be obliged to undertake.

This is the world of my Crown Intelligencer, another ex-Cambridge man: Martin Marbeck. Marbeck operates in a twilight world of danger, mistrust and suspicion. His world, more often than not, is one of dark city streets, government chambers and prisons, the grand houses of the wealthy and powerful. He moves fast and among all classes, but forms few attachments; the only one who commands complete loyalty from him is his spymaster, the clever little hunchback Sir Robert Cecil.

We first encountered Marbeck in 1600, as a century dawned in which England was at war on two fronts (with Spain, and in Ireland). The spies of that era may have lacked our everyday resources like smart-phones and the Web, news only travelling as fast as a horse (or sailing ship) could carry it. But every man carried a weapon, and state officials could apply for a Torture Warrant to extract information; there was no need to resort to Extraordinary Rendition. Such practices, far from being limitations, create possibilities for an author of historical mysteries. 

More information about John Pilkington and his books can be found on his website.