Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Derek Farrell

It is a thrill to welcome Derek Farrell back to Grab This Book, particularly as I can welcome Derek in his latest publication week. The new Danny Bird novel, Death at Dukes Halt, released yesterday and the book with accompanying (very cool) merch is available from the Fahrenheit Press website.

Full introduction and purchase links in a second, first a quick introduction to the challenge I set Mr Farrell.

This is Decades. I am inviting book lovers to join me and asking them to help me assemble the best library of books. I began this quest back in January and I had no books on my library shelves. Each week I invite a guest to join me and they are asked to select five of their favourite books to be added to my Ulitmate Library.

Now picking five books is a little too easy so I add a second rule which governs the choices each guest makes. They can only select one book per decade over five consecutive decades. I am told this leads to some angst.

So it is time to hand you over to Derek to introduce his selections. One of my all-time favourite reads is in the mix today, can you guess which?

Derek Farrell is the author of the Danny Bird mysteries ‘Death of a Diva’ ‘Death of a Nobody,’ ‘Death of a Devil,’ ‘Death of an Angel,’ and ‘Death at Dukes Halt,’ as well as the novellas ‘Death of a Sinner,’ and ‘What goes around.’

Derek is married and lives with his husband in West Sussex. They have no cats dogs goats or children, though they do have every Kylie Minogue record ever recorded. Twice.

He can be reached on twitter @derekifarrell or via his website www.derekfarrell.co.uk

His books can be purchased directly from the publisher here https://fahrenheit-press.myshopify.com/search?type=product&q=derek+farrell

Or from Amazon here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Derek-Farrell/e/B06XJ9C6XB?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1603393406&sr=8-1

DECADES

Thanks so much for having me on this feature. I’m honoured to have my submissions joining those of so many amazing contributors before me.

I have always loved libraries and in fact my first book ‘Death of a Diva’ was dedicated to my dad, who took me to the library and gave me a universe to play in. Public Libraries are what made it possible for a kid like me to read any- and everything I wanted, to find the stuff I loved, and to dream of being a writer.

But it was my dad who showed me that reading is a joyful activity, and should always be joyful. “Read the classics, if you want to,” he told me once. “Or don’t, if you don’t want to. The key thing is to love what you read.”

My choices are below, and I hope they inspire some of your readers to find some new loves.

60s – The Jewel in the Skull by Michael Moorcock (1967)

What’s it about: In a post-nuclear holocaust future, where science and sorcery co-exist. the Dark Empire of Granbretan  is expanding across Europe. Baron Meliadus, an emissary of the empire, is sent to the castle of Count Brass to try to persuade him to side with the empire against the other European courts. While in the castle, he begins to court the Count’s daughter, Yisselda, but she refuses to elope with him. Meliadus attempts to kidnap her, but is defeated by Count Brass and swears an oath on the legendary Runestaff to gain power over Count Brass, gain Yisselda and destroy their lands.

In order to achieve these ends, he sends a newly-captured Rebel – Duke Dorian Hawkmoon Von Koln – to the castle, and to ensure Hawkmoon does not betray him, he uses dark sorcery to embed a black jewel in the middle of Hawkmoon’s skull, the jewel acting as a camera that will transmit everything Hawkmoon sees and hears back to Meliadus…

Why it should be in the Library: I discovered these books in the early 80s, having never been much of a sci-fi or fantasy fan. I’m still not a huge reader of those genres, but I spent a summer reading this seies (“The High History of the Runestaff”). The stories, the characters and the feeling of just HAVING to know what happens next, has never left me. This book taught me that regardless of genre, a great story is a great story, and these are great great stories.

70s – Curtain by Agatha Christie (1975 – or was it?)

What’s it about? The novel features Hercule Poirot and Arthur Hastings in their final appearances in Christie’s works. It is a country house novel, with all the characters and the murder set in one house. Not only does the novel return the characters to the setting of her first, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, but it reunites Poirot and Hastings, who last appeared together in Dumb Witness in 1937 as they hunt for a serial killer who has already gotten away with murder five times. But this time, Porot is determined that justice will be served.

Christie actually wrote this book in the middle of the Blitz as bombs rained down around her. A sign of how deeply a writer can become enmeshed with their characters is that instead of worrying about her own safety, she began to worry about what would happen to Poirot if she were to be killed in a bombing.

So she wrote the final Poirot novel, which was delivered with instructions that it was to be published only after she had died. The manuscript was then then kept in a safe (with a copy in a similar safe at her New York publishers) for over thirty years.

Why Should it be in the Library? Because whatever your feelings about Christie’s work, her impact on the crime genre is unarguable, and Curtain is a wonderful mystery novel, the clues woven seamlessly through an admittedly somewhat contrived scenario. Poirot has always been an old man, but here he’s close to decrepit, wheelchair-bound at times, and raging at the cruelty of time that can decay a body but leave his little grey cells as vital as they ever were. Plus, the ending <no spoilers> is a genuine GASP moment that stays with anyone who knows Poirot long after the book.

80s – Blue Heaven by Joe Keenan (1988)

What’s it about? Philip Cavanaugh is surprised to hear that his best friend Gilbert is engaged to be married to Moira. There are two reasons for his surprise: Gilbert loathes Moira with every fibre of his being. But more importantly, Gilbert is flamingly gay.

Gilbert finally confides in Phillip that the entire marriage is a sham designed to maximise the cash gifts from the family of his new Italian-American stepfather, and by the time the trio realise that said family are the Mafia, and that their little attempted fraud may well end up with the three of them wearing concrete overcoats and taking a dip in the East River, they are in too deep to walk away.

Joe Keenan wrote three novels featuring Gilbert and Phillip as well as a rather sweet Broadway musical before becoming a writer and Executive Producer for Fraser and working on Desperate Housewives and Glee.

Why Should it be in the Library? Because it’s quite simply one of the funniest and best plotted / paced / written books of all time. I read it they year it was first published and it has never been off my bookshelves since.

90s – The Burglar in the Library (1997)

What’s it about? For Bernie Rhodenbarr, bookseller and compulsive burglar, a weekend at a country bed & breakfast inn takes an unexpected twist when a valuable book is stolen and dead body turns up in the library.

Why Should it be in the Library? In the early 2000s I attended a crime fiction course at City Lit in London. On the first night we each had to declare our favourite crime writer. I, of course, made my case for Agatha Christie. But a woman who would eventually become a dear friend and mentor to me talked about this guy called Lawrence Block – an American who had written dozens of books and won dozens of prizes. Block’s not James Joyce. His career was not built on groundbreaking origination, but on consistently and conscientiously producing excellent work within a genre he clearly loves. This has to necessitate, at times, playing with the tropes of that genre, and here we find Bernie in basically a Golden Age country house mystery. Every character is not only a suspect, but suspicious; everyone has both a motive and an alibi; and circumstances conspire to ensure that the murderer must be one of the people trapped in the inn.

Block is normally recognised for his darker Matt Scudder novels, but I think that the Bernie the Burglar books more openly reflect his sheer joy in the genre. This one’s playful but fiendishly well plotted, and I’m putting this one in to the library because it’s a book that has given me much joy by a writer whose work I admire greatly. And really, if you can’t love the books in your library, what’s the point in having a library?

00s – The Lost Army of Cambyses by Paul Sussman (2002)

What’s it about? 523 BC: the Persian pharaoh Cambyses dispatches an army across Egypt’s western desert to destroy the oracle at Siwa. Legend has it that somewhere in the middle of the Great Dune Sea his army is overwhelmed by a sandstorm and lost forever.

Two and a half millennia later, a mutilated corpse is washed up on the banks of the Nile at Luxor, an antiques dealer is savagely murdered in Cairo, and a British archaeologist is found dead at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara.

The incidents appear unconnected, but Inspector Yusuf Khalifa of the Luxor police is not so sure.

And so he begins an investigation that will lead him into the forbidding, barren heart of the western desert, and the answer to one of the greatest mysteries of the ancient world…

Why Should it be in the Library? Because it’s a brilliant thriller nobody’s ever heard of from a writer who was taken from us tragically early. Paul Sussman was an archaeologist, a journalist and an author whose Middle-Eastern set thrillers mixed high octane page turners with genuine humanity, and confronted the heart-breaking complexities of the region while never losing sight of their primary function: To keep you turning those pages.

He died of a ruptured aneyurism just weeks before his 46th birthday, and days before his final novel “The Labyrinth of Osiris” was published. That book, in particular, is one of the best and most heartbreaking thrillers I’ve ever read.

Sussman’s work is pacy, tight, thrilling, and human. It carries a vast amount of historical research so lightly that the reader doesn’t even know how much they’re learning as they read these hugely enjoyable books. And his tragically early death is a reminder to each and every one of us to strive every day to live the best life possible, and to write the best book we possibly can.

Huge thanks to Derek for adding a great mix of titles to my Library. I know each week someone’s TBR grows thanks to the recommendations of my guests – I hope that you will also add Death at Dukes Halt to your shopping this week.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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March 31

Book Chains 2.1 – Derek Farrell

A couple of years ago I started a Q&A feature which I called Book Chains. The idea was that I would chat with a guest and ask my guest to nominate the next guest – chaining together a sequence of interviews.

I broke my own chain when work interfered with blogging and my planned interview with Derek Farrell (as nominated by Mark Hill) never saw the light of day.

Until Now.

Book Chains is back – this is the second chain (as I broke the original) and it only seemed right that I begin afresh by FINALLY catching up with Derek Farrell.

Hi Derek. My first Question is always the same, I ask you to introduce yourself and give you the floor to shamelessly promote your books…

Hi. I’m Derek Farrell, and I write The Danny Bird Mysteries, which are a series of contemporary crime novels set in London and centering around the Grimiest Gay Bar in the world.

I grew up in Dublin a couple of streets from the Guinness brewery, but moved to London many years ago, and have lived in – and fallen in love with – most parts of the city over the years, while still managing to hold down a range of jobs as a Burger dresser, Banker and David Bowie’s paperboy. And now I wrangle Danny and the gang at The Marq.

Next I have to ask for another introduction – can you tell us about Danny Bird?

Danny Bird is an everyman character. He’s smart and he’s loyal and he’s funny. And he has a very developed sense of justice and a pronounced aversion to injustice, which makes him a great detective to have in a series like this. Unlike certain other detectives, he’s not always entirely convinced of his own ability to navigate the world, which is why he needs his family and his friends around him. I very much wanted to make Danny – right from the start – part of a community; someone who wasn’t a lone wolf, but who was loved by – and loves back – people.

Death of an Angel sees Danny drawn into the centre of events for reasons he doesn’t immediately understand. Is it more fun to screw with your character and place them under suspicion than having them take the “outsider looking-in” approach to an investigation?

Oh, always. I think we’ve all been unfairly accused of stuff in our lives. And outside looking in gives you the option to walk away. Unfairly accused tends to suck you in so that you either prove the accusation unfounded or you’re haunted by it – and the repercussions – for the rest of your life.

Is it fair to say that your books offer readers an alternative to the domestic thrillers where families with 2.4 children keep their secrets securely hidden behind their privet hedges? Why do you feel there a reluctance for publishers to look to different family or social dynamics in the books they release?

Actually, all my books are about family secrets, in one way or another. Danny’s family is a really close unit – his dad is a huge part of the first couple of books, his nephews are fan favourites, and as we progress, the rest of his family are becoming more present in the stories; on top of this he has his found family too – Caz, Ali, Nick and so on – and so I’m fairly happy saying that at the heart of every Danny book is family or community. I’ve talked before about how Death of a Diva was dismissed by some in the industry as “Too gay,” “Too camp,” etc, but to be honest, I think most industries – especially those in the creative space, where success is dependent on so many variables – tend to look for something that resembles something else that’s already been successful, hence the reluctance to put investment behind a book with a more overt LGBT lead than the average Dan Brown. But things will change.

The “Death Of” series now comprises four books, Death of an Angel reaching readers within the last few weeks. Is there more Danny to come or would you consider a stand-alone story at some point?

There’s more. Number 5 is currently Death of a Title Pending, but is well under way, and number 6 has a slot in the diary. In between I’m going to work on something else – a non Danny novel, with crime and dark secrets at its heart, but that’s all I’m going to say about any of those projects for now.

When Death of a Diva first released was it always your intention to go on to develop a series of books?

One of my totems all along, to be honest, has been the Tales of the City books by Armistead Maupin. I loved the idea of exploring London at first and possibly the world through the eyes of these characters, and of their family becoming family to the readers over time, but honestly, when Diva was written I had no idea it would ever be published. My approach was to write really detailed character sketches for each of the characters (including the pub itself) and so by the time I started the book I already knew their life stories, their familial relationships, what they loved in and wanted from life, and what terrified them. So – as a result – I had a bunch of ideas for other stories in my head which had come out of their histories. But when I pitched Diva to Fahrenheit press I hadn’t got beyond a plot sketch for Death of a Nobody.

They, of course, asked if it was a series, and I said “Oh yeah. Absolutely. Second one’s almost done,” then wrote furiously in terror they’d ask to see it.

Your publisher, Fahrenheit Press, are one of the most vocal and…lets go with edgy… publishing houses on Social Media. They have their devoted following of Fahrenistas. Likewise, Karen Sullivan’s Orenda Books have a very dedicated fanbase amongst bloggers and readers. Do you feel Indy publishers have to operate as a more supportive network and does that make it more fun?

So my only direct experience is of the indie publishing world, but I have friends who are published across the spectrum from self to indie to trad to big 5 to Thomas & Mercer, and almost every single author I have met has been welcoming and funny and humble and I can not thank the universe enough for getting me to this place. My husband and I were talking a week or two ago. Many people know that Diva was accepted for publication a few months after my mother died, and that her death was an almost impossibly dark time for me. I really didn’t know how I’d go on from that, and my husband commented on how from so much darkness this brilliance has come: I’m making art that people have fallen in love with, “And you’ve found your tribe,” he said, smiling.

And I knew exactly what he meant.

Writing – making any art and putting it out into the public sphere – is scary. It really is. But being surrounded by other people who are doing it – who are succeeding and failing and trying – is an amazing and genuinely beautiful thing. And getting to do events – in the next few months I’ve got a panel at Newcastle Noir with some great mates, I’m reading from Danny at Noir At The Bar in Newcastle, and I’m part of a Polari Salon in Morecambe – is brilliant because everyone – readers, bloggers, authors, publishers, editors – gets along, has fun, and makes amazing memories (none of which can ever be written about. Them’s the rules.)

Lets do a few quick fire questions.

Where was your first author appearance?

Iceland Noir. Reykjavik. 2016. I was on the Swearing panel with Val McDermid, Craig Robertson, James Law and moderated by Grant Nicholl. The other three ate me alive.

Your bookcases are on fire and you can save one single book from your collection – which book?

The Aztec Skull by Anthea Goddard. I read it when I was 8 or 9, and then borrowed it from the library every month for about a year. A few years ago I got an old copy via EBay and it still makes me cry when I read it, but it’s out of print now so would be hard to get hold of.

Lord of the Rings. Epic fantasy classic or load of old tosh?

Not for me, thank you. I love me some epic fantasy – the Dorian Hawkmoon / Count Brass books by Michael Moorcock are some of my favourites of all time, but they are all story, and I find LOTR, well, isn’t.

Beyoncé or Kylie?

Kylie. Every time. Her mere existence makes me so happy.

Last film you saw at the cinema?

Captain Marvel. I loved it – it had a plot and didn’t spend an hour and a half referencing other MCU movies I couldn’t remember seeing.

First record you bought?

First one I loved: The OST of My Fair Lady with Audrey and Rex on the cover. First one I bought: The 7” single of Mama Mia by Abba (I was 7 years old so probably bought with birthday money). I still have the single cos I am an inveterate hoarder.

Give me an unpopular opinion which you will argue blind to defend?

David Bowie’s 80s output wasn’t as bad as people think it was.

Huge thanks to Derek for taking the time to answer my questions. He has a lush new website where you can discover more about the man himself (and I am sure his books get a mention or two as well). https://www.derekfarrell.co.uk/

Derek has very kindly nominated my next guest. If this new Book Chain is to continue beyond a single “link” then his nominated author will need to agree to chat with me. Fingers Crossed!

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July 25

Guest Post – Derek Farrell: Serial Heroes

When I see an author photographed in front of their bookshelves I know that I am not the only person that scans the books in the background to see what they read. Rather than wait for authors to share their “shelvies” I decided it was much quicker to ask them directly which books they enjoy reading the most.

This is the third run of my Serial Heroes features but you can catch up on Season 1 here. (Ed McBain, Jo Nesbo and Val McDermid all feature).

Season 2 is here and we had some love for James Bond, Stephen King and Batman (the ultimate serial hero)

Just after I finished the last run of Serial Heroes I fell into a Twitter chat with Derek Farrell about our mutual love of a series of stories we first read more than a couple of years ago. I asked Derek if he would join me to explain why this particular series appealed so much. Fortunately for the future of this feature he agreed – over to Mr Farrell…

I was a quiet kid, with an obsession for books of all kinds.

I didn’t make friends easily in the real world, but I made friends with the anthropomorphic cats and bears in Richard Scarry’s works, waded my way through the Famous Five books, was mates with The Hard Boys and Nancy Drew. And then something amazing happened:
My Dad bought me one of the Three Investigators books. It was The Mystery of The Laughing Shadow (Book 12 in the series), and there are a number of reasons why he might have thought the book would appeal to me:

My dad and I loved Alfred Hitchcock, and the books – in an early approach to celebrity endorsement / branding – were introduced by the Auteur, who often featured as a character in them. They were published by the same people who published the Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew books, and they had similar formats and cover designs.

Whatever the reason, he picked right, and a loyal and true friendship that began in 1977 has endured to today.

By the time I was introduced to Jupiter Pete and Bob, the series had already been running for 13 years, having commenced in 1964 when Robert Arthur – who had previously edited several short story collections attributed to Alfred Hitchcock – sold the idea of a series of teenage mysteries to Random House.

Over time, other writers had contributed to the series, principally William Arden (who wrote The Laughing Shadow amongst others), Nick West, and Mary Virginia (MV) Carey, who wrote many of my personal favourites.

The head investigator, Jupiter Jones, lived with his Aunt and Uncle in a vast salvage yard, and had built – amongst the scrap and salvage – an operations centre with hidden entrances; a true boy’s den. The boys, too young to drive, were driven around – thanks to a competition win – in a chauffeur driven limo, and in “The mystery of The Magic Circle,” Carey dealt with the sad isolation of faded Hollywood Fame in the same stark fashion as ‘Sunset Boulevard,’ while the animosity between the boys and their sworn enemy, the perma-cocky Skinny Norris, whose bullying attempts to spoil their plans felt, so often, like a replay of my daily life, resonated with me.

And, through all that, the boys got to hang out with Alfred Hitchcock; they seemed, permanently, to be on some extended school vacation; they lived in Southern California, and their ability to move around the entire county on only pushbikes was simply taken for granted).

Many of the normal mundanities of life – school, homework, the general depressions of a childhood in 1980s Dublin – could simply cease to exist for as long as my nose was buried in a Three Investigator book.

I stopped buying them in 1986 when I moved to London and began working. I guess I figured I was grown up now, and it was time, as they say “To put aside childish things.”
But some years later, on a visit back to Dublin, I packed my entire collection into a suitcase and brought them back to London with me, their presence in my flat symbolising the fact that I had settled, that where I was – now that The Three Investigators were there with me – was finally home.

The investigators are lead by Jupiter Jones, a chubby, smart mouthed intelligent kid, who is a former child actor named “Baby Fatso” (although he hates it when people mention this). Jupiter is a prolific reader, often rubs his peers up the wrong way and is driven by his own morality and belief in the power of logic and creative thinking (So: not much psychology required there to figure out why I fell for this series).

Jupiter was joined by Pete Crenshaw, the athletic leg of the trio, more likely to be the one who tackled the escaping criminal to the ground, though Pete was never drawn as being pure brawn without brains; he was as capable of challenging assumptions and of suggesting possible motives or viewpoints as the lead investigator.

Bob Andrews made up the trio. The researcher, who – in pre-Google days – would scour newspaper morgues, school libraries, and interview witnesses face to face, produced, often, the killer clue that Jupiter and Pete would then extrapolate into a solution to the mystery. Bob did all of this, in the early books, while wearing a leg brace to heal multiple leg fractures, thus – in late 60s / early 70s fiction – presenting a disabled person as a positive independent and equal contributor to the endeavour, and doing so in a way which never felt shoehorned in.

From Derek's own collection — From Derek’s own collection

In fact, the boys also faced off against menace, threats of racism, fatism, classism and all the other ‘ism’s which, whilst entirely present in much of today’s YA market, were definitely unique at the time.

I can barely imagine any of Enid Blyton’s detective gangs facing down someone trying to swindle a Mexican family out of their ranch purely because of their race, let alone the Secret Seven dealing with obsession or the supernatural (Whispering Mummy), and as a result, for me, these books became an escape. When life was too dull, or too stressful, or when I felt lost or unsure of how / if I would ever fit into the world, Jupe, Pete and Bob would be there, to welcome me home.

The books were written by the various authors in a style that could be described as Pulp-Lite. The story started almost on the first page (if not the first line), the writing was snappy and direct. There were outlandish titles (“The Secret of Skeleton Island,” “The Mystery of The Moaning Cave,” “The Mystery of The Headless Horse” to name a few) designed to pull the readers in, and explanations that – at the end of the book – made absolutely perfect sense in light of what had been planted through the plot up to that point.

Chapters ended, mostly, on cliffhangers, and the danger was real. In “The Magic Circle,” for example, Bob is bashed on the head, knocked unconscious, dumped in the trunk of a car in the middle of a scrap yard in Southern California, and left to die of heat stroke. Beat that, Famous Five.

And the victory – when the villains are finally unmasked and the case resolved – all the sweeter for being logical, just, and a fair response to the threat created earlier in the book.
And now I write books. Mystery books. Books peopled with characters who run the gamut from loveable to quirky to monstrous, and who are all (or mostly) comfortable in their own skins.

In Death of a Diva and Death of a Nobody, Danny Bird – my detective – is an average Joe, who just at the point when he thinks he’s lost everything, finds a new purpose in life. He’s accompanied by his best friend, a ridiculously glamorous yet heartwarmingly fallible gorgeous blonde, and surrounded by family – made as well as birth – who bicker, bitch, backbite and yet – when the chips are down – are there for each other.

All ideas that – now I think about it – were instilled in me by The Three Investigators, by a series of books that didn’t talk down to their audience, but which made the assumption that their audience were smart, generous, and along for the ride.

I owe Robert Arthur and MV Carey particularly a great debt, and one I hadn’t fully realised until recently.

The books have been somewhat bogged down in legal wrangles in recent years, but I still firmly believe they have a place in the pantheon next to other more recognised series’ and can’t imagine my life – as a kid, as an adult, or as a writer of crime fiction that entertains and celebrates life in all it’s difference – without The Three Investigators.

Death of a Diva (Hyperurl.co/Diva)
Death of a Nobody (Hyperurl.co/Nobody)
Publisher: Fahrenheit Press (@fahrenheitpress on Twitter).
My website is derekfarrell.co.uk
Twitter: @derekifarrell

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