I’ve worked in History and museums for the better part of 20 years …
So, it was natural my cousin sent someone to me when they found something odd while removing an old chimney in an old house in Nebraska. “What is it?” they asked. It was a little card with some words and letters and numbers printed on it. The longer I looked, the less sense it made. I had no idea. In fact, it’s been a few years since they asked, and I still have no idea.
Running across this photo again I’d kept for reference, I got back in touch with the finder and asked if he had any answers — Still no.
I’d lost any details I’d had, so he kindly sent me more info: The card is 2″ wide, 3.5″ tall and totally blank on the back. Much smaller than I assumed it would be.
With an ornamental border it reads:
a 10 G. Robbins Miss Harrison, J. F. Hull Gracie Battis M
Did James Crumley write the greatest opening to a crime novel of all time?
Author James Crumley in 2005, via Wikipedia
October 12, 2019, would have been writer James Crumley’s 80th birthday had he lived to see it. He died in 2008. Long before then, his books had developed not only a cult following but critical acclaim as well, and today, they still don’t have the recognition they have long deserved. I don’t remember when I found Crumley, or how. He was probably referenced somewhere when I moved to Montana on a list of Montana writers or perhaps on a list of crime writers everyone should know. Either way, it would have been around the time of his passing in 2008. I also started to go deep into Mystery/Crime/Thriller writing, seeking mentors in text at that time. I found myself a copy of The Last Good Kiss right away at a defunct paperback exchange, and branched out from there, picking up copies of any of his books I found at used book shops whenever I found them.
Crumley seemed to have liked long openings too. His sentences are lush, but not long. There’s something of Steinbeck, even Faulkner in there, but not ponderous. Every bit as “Masculine” as Hemingway, but without the fragility of a man both attracted to women and repelled by them for their inherent threat to that sense of masculinity. I don’t get tired of Crumley. I can get hungover with him, though.
So, today, writing from my home, a ramshackle place just outside Sonoma, California, I remembered one of the truly great openings in crime fiction, from The Last Good Kiss. It’s one of Crumley’s shortest and is fairly widely acknowledged as one of the greatest openings of all time.
“When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon.” – The Last Good Kiss (1978), 4.06 avg rating — 6,112 ratings.
James Crumley’s Other Openings
James Crumley published eight novels in his lifetime. The openings for each of them is below, in chronological order. After the titles are the Goodreads numbers, a rating based on a 5-star system and the number of given ratings. (Even though I’m more of a LibraryThing man myself.)
“It’s funny how stories get around. Just the other day Captain Gallard mentioned that one about the car. He hadn’t spoken for several minutes, but had sat, staring out my window toward the sixteenth green running his fingers through his curly hair. When he finally spoke, his voice was low, drifting far from the Philippines, all the way back to Iowa and his childhood, as he told me about the mythic automobile of his youth.” One to Count Cadence (1969), 3.91 avg rating — 310 ratings.
“There’s no accounting for laws. Or the changes wrought by men and time. For nearly eighty years the only way to get a divorce in our state was to have your spouse convicted of a felony or caught in the act of adultery. Not even physical abuse or insanity counted. And in the ten years since I resigned as a county deputy, I had made a good living of those antiquated divorce laws. Then the state legislature, in a flurry of activity at the close of a special session, put me out of business by civilizing those divorce laws. Now we have dissolutions of marriage by reason of irreconcilable differences. Supporters and opponents were both shocked by the unexpected action of the lawmakers, but not as shocked as I was. I spent the next two days sulking in my office, drinking and enjoying the view, considering the prospects for my suddenly very dim future. The view looked considerably better than my prospects.” – The Wrong Case (1975), 4.01 avg rating — 1,423 ratings.
“We had been blessed with a long, easy fall for western Montana. The two light snowfalls had melted before noon, and in November we had three weeks of Indian summer so warm and seductive that even we natives seem to forget about winter. But in the canyon of Hell Roaring Creek, where I live, when the morning breeze is stirred off the stone-cold water and into the golden, dying rustle of the cottonwoods and creek willows, you could smell the sear, frozen heart of winter, February, or, as the Indians sometimes called it, the Moon of the Children Weeping in the Lodges, crying in hunger.” – Dancing Bear (1983), 4.08 avg rating — 843 ratings.
“When the 3:12 through freight to Spokane hit the east Merriweather crossing, the engineer touched his horn and released a long, mournful wail into the wet, snowy air of our second early fall storm in western Montana. It sounded a hell of a lot like the first note of a Hank Snow ballad. I slipped the dolly from under the jukebox and plug it into the extension cord. When I drop a quarter into the slot, the large machine burped, the bubbling neon tubes glowed softly in the night, and the machine seemed to settle more solidly onto the railroad tracks.” – The Mexican Tree Duck (1993) – winner 1994 Dashiell Hammett Award, 3.74 avg rating — 835 ratings.
“Maybe it was the goddamned suit. Tailor-made Italian silk, as light and flimsy as shed snakeskin. Or maybe my whole new clean and shiny wardrobe looked strange under my battered old face. A thin knit shirt under the suit coat, woven leather loafers — without socks, of course — and a soft Borselino felt fedora that made me look like a Russian Black Sea summer pimp. Not bad, though, I thought. For a pimp.” – Bordersnakes (1996), 3.89 avg rating — 523 ratings.
[In the Advance Reading Copy of Bordersnakes I happen to own, has the wonderful typo, “woven lather loafers.” Borsalino is also misspelled.]
The author’s collection of James Crumley novels
It was late November on the edge of the Hill Country, but I had learned very quickly that down here nothing was ever quite what it seemed. As I drove through northwest Austin that day, it might as well have been spring. The thin leaves of the pecan trees hadn’t turned. People still mowed their lawns in T-shirts and shorts. Or in this upscale neighborhood, watched various illegal aliens hustle like dung beetles back-and-forth across the thick Saint Augustine lawns through scattershot swarms of gnats. Overhead a brilliant afternoon sun floated in the rich blue sky polished cloudless by those soft southeastern breezes. A single buzzard overhead seem to be keeping a weathered eye on things. Winter seemed distant promise, bound to be broken. – The Final Country (2001), 3.89 avg rating — 412 ratings.
It was a lovely, calm Montana summer evening, a Saturday night after a long weekend of softball. The full moon rose blazing over Mount Sentinel, outlining the mall of the Hell Gate Canyon with silver fire. A streak of summer haze like a line of blood lay across the moon’s idiot face. The motel’s pool lights were reduced to dim glows. The hot tub shimmered around us like a pot of silver. The earlier August afternoon had been as hot as a fiddler’s bitch, and a molten slice of sunset still glowed with a hot golden flame along the jagged edge of the western horizon, but the early evening air had cooled quickly enough to draw vaporous swirls of steam from the heated water. The rising moon seemed to muffle the night for a moment. The only sounds are faint — the hiss of traffic over the Clark Fork bridge, the soft paddles from a gaggle of children in the pool, the romantic whispers of two young blond girls in oversize softball shirts leaning into each other, and the brazen chuckles squirting out of a coven of young men brewing drunken plots of disorder and early sorrow at a poolside table. – The Right Madness (2005), 3.69 avg rating — 456 ratings
What say you?
“You said he published eight novels, that was only seven.” You’re right detail-oriented reader. Crumley’s first novel, One To Count Cadence, is one I don’t own and couldn’t get a copy through inter-library loan quick enough for this post. I’ll update it later accordingly.
What are some of your favorite opening lines? Mystery, thriller, crime novel, or whatever.
About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes historical mysteries and works as a history museum curator.
Jacqueline Winspear came to Santa Rosa on Tuesday, 23 April 2019. Thank you to Copperfield‘s Books that sponsors such great visits from amazing and talented writers. Moving to the North Bay Area from the interior of the United States wasn’t only because I was given the opportunity for a dream job. It was also because moving here would mean nights like tonight. An otherwise boring Tuesday has been transformed into an evening for fandom (in the best ways) and even a dose of inspiration.
Copperfield’s Books at Montgomery Village in Santa Rosa, California, April 2019
Jacqueline Winspear is just as nice as you could hope. She’s very sweet. And even after years of living in California, she is still quite British (read: Charming).
Poster for The American Agent by Jacqueline Winspear.
The American Agent is book 15 of Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series. This latest book is set at the beginning of World War II during The Blitz, and Winspear, though born far too late to have experienced The Blitz first-hand, did have a personal connection to the historic events that unfold in her pages. When the 1969 film The Battle of Britain debuted with its blockbuster cast, the author asked her mother to take her to see it. Her mother replied, “No, I saw it the first time.” At first, she thought her mother was mistaken that the movie had come out earlier, but she later realized, no, she meant The Blitz itself. Her mother had been in a building that had bombed and collapsed and had spent “a significant amount of time” trapped. Her mother, understandably, remained claustrophobic the rest of her life.
Winspear shared stories of pioneering women war correspondents and members of the Women’s Voluntary Service. The women who served in this way worked to serve tea, give aid for shelter, and to identify the dead. They also had to write a daily report. Winspear spent lots of time in the archives of that organization reading these “searing reports” from the women who shouldered much of the recovery during The Blitz.
And, in the tune of helping people and making things, she’s created the book What Would Maisie Do? It’s a collection of favorite scenes and quotes from the Maisie Dobbs series, and the stories-behind-the-stories of those scenes. They are also reflections for the reader. This project was one that Winspear admitted had been in the making since the introduction of Maisie Dobbs. But when fellow writer, Amy Krouse Rosenthal passed away in 2017 she felt compelled to “make something” as Rosenthal encouraged all the time (the two writers shared an agent, and the three women have birthdays all in a row). “It’s really important to make things,” Winspear said.
In my next post, I’ll have a few more photos, but even better — answers from Winspear to a few burning questions. Click here for PART 2.
About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes and works as a museum curator.
In this sixth installment of Maggie Sullivan mysteries, Maggie‘s friend Rachel Minsky is accused of killing a man that “had it coming.” Rachel is an independent Jewish woman of means who runs her own construction company in Dayton, Ohio with a private nature. Why has Rachel’s loyal but dangerous right-hand man also disappeared? Why has Rachel kept so many secrets? Can she survive when they unravel around her? Once again, private investigator Maggie Sullivan finds herself surrounded by questions and too few answers.
Historical Fiction for the Historian
I spend a lot of time reading history in my day job so something I look for while reading historical fiction and especially historical mysteries is that the experience is immersive without beating me over the head with historical facts. Ruth Myers does this better and better with each installment. Some writers are justifiably proud of the immense amount of research that goes into writing good historical mysteries, but they are less deft at using that research to create their fictional world. Ruth Myers does this beautifully and that experience is what makes her books among the best of the genre.
Dames Fight Harder takes place in the early spring of 1942, a few months following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States official entry into World War II. The war and its global implications weigh on the minds of every character though this is done in such a realistic manner I only noticed my own mounting sense of dread about some characters in this context and only realized when I finished the book why that was. Uncertainties and enormous cultural upheavals are only beginning to be felt, let alone understood. Meyers does a wonderful job making the characters and the mystery at hand the focus. This isn’t a history lesson, but a strong female-driven mystery set in a fascinating time. As a reader, I felt like I was there on those eerily quiet construction sites or with the elderly lady planting beans in what magazines would come to call Victory Gardens.
New to the series?
Although this is book six of an ongoing series, new readers to the Maggie Sullivan series won’t be lost as Myers writes enough background into each to catch up, though I wouldn’t classify them as stand-alone novels as there are long story and character arcs running through the series as a whole.
Fascinated by World War II, the upheavals of the 1930s and 1940s and love a strong female lead story? Read all of Maggie’s stories, but feel free to start here on the newest one.
Delving into the details of the past to create a realistic world and a period-appropriate mystery in which challenges and obstacles arise from the mundane realities of life in New York City during the 1910s, is for me, one of the most enjoyable parts of researching and writing the Kitty Weeks Mystery series. So, for instance, in both A Front Page Affair and Murder Between the Lines the central mystery is connected with little-known actual events that occurred during the time, and these events feed into the plot right down to the day and date that they actually took place.
In Murder Between the Lines, the dead girl at the center of the mystery is known to be a sleepwalker and her sleepwalking is attributed to nervous tension brought on by too much schoolwork. That was a perfectly reasonable causal explanation in the 1910s! The schoolgirl’s death was inspired by a news story from late 1915, which I came across while scanning through the New York Times from November of 1915 to about February of 1916. I knew that was the timeframe in which I wanted to set the second book; about 3 or 4 months would have elapsed since the events in A Front Page Affair, and I wanted to open things up with President Wilson’s second marriage. While flipping through the papers I read about the “Girl Somnambulist Frozen to Death” and immediately knew I had found my crime/possible crime.
Most of my research is done through primary sources: newspapers, career guides, self-help books, medical books, etiquette guides, advertisements and so on… I also look at secondary sources, but then always pivot back to read the sources from the period that are referenced. In terms of writing historical fiction, one of the most interesting things for me is not presenting events as we might understand them today, but trying to understand how the same events were perceived during their time. So, in the case of the sleepwalker found frozen to death, in the 2010s, we would immediately question “too much schoolwork” as a cause, but in the 1910s, that opinion was backed up by doctors and medical books. And in fact, in the course of Kitty’s investigations, she speaks to a “nerve specialist” who tells her that girls who study too hard or work too much (like herself) are prone to all sorts of diseases. She has to get past that in order to solve the mystery.
About the Author:
Radha Vatsal is the author of the Kitty Weeks mystery series. Her latest book, Murder between the Lines (Sourcebooks), was published May 2.
The White House Wedding: A Solve-the-Mystery Blog Tour by Radha Vatsal.
At 8:30 PM on Saturday, December 1915, President Woodrow Wilson married Mrs. Edith Bolling Galt. The new Mrs. Wilson would go on to become one of the 20th Century’s most powerful first ladies and shepherd the United States through turbulent times. In the course of this blog tour, I describe four different aspects of their wedding plan: The Location on Jane Reads, Guest List and Attendants, Ceremony and Officiants, Dress and Flowers. The wedding went off as arranged, except for one significant last-minute change. Your mission is to guess what changed and why. The answer will be revealed in the final blog post. For more on the president and Edith Bolling/Wilson’s relationship, see the Introduction on Katherine’s Chronicle.
BLOG POST #3: GUEST LIST AND ATTENDANTS
The president and Mrs. Galt planned to keep the ceremony simple and limit it to only the two families, devoted staff, Dr. Ruffin—the Bolling family physician, Dr. Grayson—President Wilson’s personal physician, and Altrude Gordon—who was staying with Edith at the time. All three of the president’s daughters attended along with their husbands. No friends or White House aides would be invited, not even Colonel House, heretofore the president’s most trusted friend and advisor. There would be no attendants. No best man, no matron of honor, bridesmaids, flower girls, or pages. No heads of state, foreign dignitaries or cabinet members, except for William Gibbs McAdoo, the Treasury Secretary and Wilson’s son-in-law.
Did the couple stick to this plan? Did Wilson insist that Colonel House who had been his “right-hand” man attend? Did Edith Galt open the event to other friends or White House officials? Was there someone who at the last minute was so offended not to be invited that the couple had to relent?
The new First Lady and Woodrow Wilson make a dramatic appearance in Murder Between the Lines, the second novel in the Kitty Weeks Mystery series, which features the adventures of bold newswoman Capability “Kitty” Weeks in World War I era New York. For more historical surprises, sign up for the Kitty Weeks newsletter: radhavatsalauthor@gmail.com
I haven’t read all the nominated books this year, not even close, and I’ve reviewed even fewer — However, there are two especially I’d like to draw your attention to.
Come Twilight by Tyler Dilts is up for best paperback original (I read it as an ebook without harm). You can read my full review of Come Twilight by Tyler Dilts, the latest installment in his contemporary mystery-thriller series featuring Long Beach, California police detective Danny Beckett. Sorry for the dark cover, but it’s a screenshot on my darkened phone while reading in bed. Yes, it’s that good.
Earlier this year, I also read, loved, and reviewed Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye. If you haven’t already heard of this book, it’s a wonderful, edgy exploration of Jane Eyer’s story. You won’t be sorry you picked up this one, or frankly any other book by Lyndsay Faye. It also happens to have one of the most beautiful and interesting covers of the year as well.
Congrats to all the wonderful mystery writers on this list, and congratulations to us fans of mystery novels — we’re spoiled for choice!
About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes historical mysteries and works as a history museum curator.
I love a good series of mysteries and I fall absolutely in the “Read Series Books In Order” camp. I’ll even research an order to a series if the author says there is no order. When left without an authorial order, or a fan derived one, I default to publishing chronology. Yes, I’m a big ol’ nerd. Then, I at least get a similar experience as original fans of the series.
A great place to figure out series order is on LibraryThing. Just type in the title of the book and under it will appear the name of the series and a number. Click that link and it will take you to a series page (here’s the page for Laurie R. King‘s Mary Russell – Sherlock Holmes Series). I love that the orders for series are largely sorted out, but also include things that maybe you’ve missed — like short story appearances in out of the way anthologies.
Mary Russell – Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R. King
I hate spoilers and in the past when I’ve jumped to a later book and it’s like: “Why was she here? What business did she have, placing flowers on the grave of my beloved side-kick…” NOOOOOO!!! What happened!?? GAHHH!! SIDEKICK IS DEAD!!?? Yep. They were killed as punishment for my skipping around, that’s why.
That said, I’ve been doing it again, and haven’t been stung too bad so far. Since I’ve started writing myself, I have discovered another layer of enjoyment reading a good story that takes the sting out of my misdeeds. I’m coming to see the mechanics of the story a little more. Sort of like my experience as a museum curator and visiting museums on vacation and admiring mounts, signage, and good interpretive tools.
What about you? Do you skip around within a book series, or are you a ‘no exceptions’ order reader? Leave a comment and let me know, or request to join my new Facebook Group and we can all share!
About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes historical mysteries and works as a history museum curator.
Tyler Dilts’ latest installment in his current Long Beach Homicide series is fantastic.
Long Beach homicide detective Danny Beckett has had it rough, but things are starting to look up. That is until someone tries to kill him by blowing up his elderly Toyota Camry. The people around him, his fellow officers, his partner, and even his girlfriend do what they can to keep him safe from the mysterious people who have targeted him. And he hates it.
RECOMMENDED
I’m new to the series, which usually means I don’t get the ‘inside jokes’ and things, but it felt more like spending time with a group of great people, old friends, after hitting it off with a member of the group who is nice enough to include and accept you. I felt comfortable jumping in so late in the series and look forward to future books from Tyler Dilts.
I received a free ebook copy for review.
About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes historical mysteries and works as a history museum curator.
No, you did not. UNLESS your name is Linda F. and your AOL email address starts with JDC. Thank you, Linda and everyone else that entered to win A Front Page Affair.
Linda, please get in touch! I’ve tried emailing you and it appears you’re not seeing those emails (probably because I have words like “You’ve Won!” in there.)
Historical Fiction for the Historian
Most of my research is done through primary sources: newspapers, career guides, self-help books, medical books, etiquette guides, advertisements and so on… I also look at secondary sources, but then always pivot back to read the sources from the period that are referenced. In terms of writing historical fiction, one of the most interesting things for me is not presenting events as we might understand them today, but trying to understand how the same events were perceived during their time. So, in the case of the sleepwalker found frozen to death, in the 2010s, we would immediately question “too much schoolwork” as a cause, but in the 1910s, that opinion was backed up by doctors and medical books. And in fact, in the course of Kitty’s investigations, she speaks to a “nerve specialist” who tells her that girls who study too hard or work too much (like herself) are prone to all sorts of diseases. She has to get past that in order to solve the mystery.
No, you did not. UNLESS your name is Linda F. and your AOL email address starts with JDC. Thank you, Linda and everyone else that entered to win A Front Page Affair.