Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Ed James

It’s been two weeks since our last visit to the Decades Library and I’d like to apologise for the unexpected interruption – though someone did contact me to say their TBR had breathed a small sigh of relief! What happened? Well I was having a super busy week at the day job and got half way through Thursday when I realised it was actually Friday and that I’d totally lost track of the days.

Rather than cut someone’s week short I decided to hang off for a week before passing Ed James the Library curators hat.

As ever I am mindful that this could be your first visit to the Decades Library so I’ll quickly explain why we are here. I am assembling the Ulitmate Library of books. I want my Decades Library to only house books which are loved by other readers. Each week I am joined by a new guest and I invite them to add more books to my library shelves. I ask that when they make their selections that they follow two rules:

1 – You Can Choose Any Five Books
2 – You Can Only Choose One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades.

Easy! Or so it may seem but I haven’t tried to select my own five choices (yet) so I can’t speak from experience.

This week I am delighted to welcome Ed James to my Decades Library. I reviewed Ed’s new book The Turning of Our Bones earlier this week (it’s almost like I try to plan these things) it’s a real corker – great twist on a serial killer story. You can read my review here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=7166 Over to Ed now – he’s why you’re here today….

I’m Ed James, the writer of *checks notes* over forty police procedural books over the last eleven years. While I’ve worked with some publishers over that time (Headline, Bookouture and Thomas & Mercer), I’m now focused entirely on being an indie author, which gives me much greater control over what I write and publish.And what I do write and publish is a few series set in different locations. The DI Fenchurch books are set on the gritty streets of East London, and further afield, starring a detective whose own daughter was abducted. Vicky Dodds is a single mother solving crimes in Dundee and Tayside, where I grew up. Recently, I merged the eight-book Scott Cullen, three-book Craig Hunter and six-book Cullen & Bain series into Police Scotland, my attempt at a precinct series with multiple starring cops. And this year sees the launch of the DI Rob Marshall series, with THE TURNING OF OUR BONES on the 1st February marking my first new series in seven(!) years, with another three to come this year.

DECADES

FiftiesCOP HATER by Ed McBainThere’s probably a massive article that could be written about this, but in my opinion this book is where the police procedural started. Sure, there were detective books before this and there were books about cops before this, but the genre – as we know it – roots all its tropes in this series. The 87th Precinct novels are set in Isola, as NYC as Gotham or Metropolis are, and had a huge influence on the TV flavour of police procedurals as well as selling a gazillion novels. The series is a tour de force, running to fifty-five books published between this beauty in 1956 until 2005. If I manage anything like that, I’ll still be publishing books in 2061!COP HATER is a sharp shock. A cop dies and Detective Steve Carella leads the chase to find the killer. As more cops die, McBain weaves in other POV characters, all fully fleshed out, and curiously incorporates genuine police documentation (forms, filled out for the fictional case). One of the ways this book is intriguing is in the way the hero, Carella, doesn’t appear in the second novel – what a way to show that this is an ensemble series. The writing is crisp and feels modern, with a few caveats. Also, the first twenty or so are pretty lean 30-40k jobs, so as easy to read in a sitting or two as a Maigret, say. And I’ve read them all.

SixtiesPOST OFFICE by Charles BukowskiOkay, so this might’ve been published in the 70s but it was written in 1969 so I’m claiming that for this decade. Bukowski’s loosely fictional Henry Chinaski is a low-life. His life is grim and the people he associates with even grimmer. He’s an alcoholic and a womaniser. There is nothing redemptive about his story; he gets worse, if anything, and descends in the sequels. But the writing is so spare and propulsive that you want to revel in the misery of late 60s LA. Chinaski returned for all of Bukowski’s novels, save for the surreal PULP, and each has the same grim beauty as this.

SeventiesLAIDLAW by William McIlvanneyOn this side of the Atlantic, McIlvanney’s LAIDLAW lay the roots for Tartan Noir. (Again, arguably, but let’s not have that argument just now, eh?) It’s all here – a driven detective in a gritty city investigating a brutal murder, but what McIlvanney does, that few others have done, is focus on the effect of the murder on the community. This is character over plot and the ripples of the plot throughout them, each rounded out and human. If you analyse it, you see that the titular hero only appears in a handful of the opening twenty chapters – compare that with the modern model of a victim/killer prologue and everything seen through the eyes of detectives, with some latitude for an additional victim to add a ticking clock. His lyrical flourishes are second to none, sharp and precise in their beauty. He could’ve written one of these a year and been rich, but he only finished another two (in 1983 and 1991 vs this in 1977 with a partial prequel completed during lockdown by Ian Rankin) and the success of Taggart on STV could easily have been his. But he chose another path.

EightiesTHE WASP FACTORY by Iain BanksAn absolutely mind-bending debut from yet another author tragically no longer with us. In its short page count, THE WASP FACTORY creates a tiny world, isolated from the rest of Scotland but beautifully realised. One of the few authors who I read absolutely everything by, this and the CROW ROAD are truly national treasures. His sci-fi novels bend the mind in other ways. Curious and economical, debuts don’t come better than this.

NinetiesBLACK AND BLUE by Ian RankinThis was the first police procedural novel I ever read. I picked up a copy my mum had got out of the library and didn’t set it down until I finished. Legend has it that this is Rankin’s breakthrough and you can see why – it’s got the highest of high concepts; Bible John, a real-life serial killer, comes back to hunt down a copycat. While its pages focus mainly on Rebus, that dour but drily witty detective who investigates while his private life is in tatters, the snatches from Bible John’s POV add a dimension that shows the high concept is met by high execution. I won’t spoil it here (even though it did come out almost 25 years ago…) but the twist ending is incredibly brave for a break-through novel and probably contributed to the success.

I’ve read four of Ed’s five selections and I loved each of them. If ever there was a sign that I need to read Charles Bukowski’s Post Office then this is it! Huge thanks to Ed for taking the time to make his selections, any time I get to feature an 87th Precinct book on the blog is a good day!

DECADES WILL RETURN

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May 7

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Douglas Skelton

For the first time in the Decades series I have a returning guest. Not someone who has already taken part in Decades but an author who has previously joined me as a guest to chat about books. Before this year I had not hosted any guests at Grab This Book for around three years. In the first four years of blogging I actually hosted many brilliant authors and ran some recurring features which have since been put out to pasture.

One of the features I ran was called Serial Heroes. I love an ongoing series with recurring characters and I invited authors to join me to chat about the ongoing series of books they enjoyed and looked forward to reading. That idea came from hearing today’s guest, Douglas Skelton, chatting to readers as part of the North Lanarkshire Libraries Encounters festival. Douglas told the audience that he had been a big fan of the Ed McBain 87th Precinct stories and my immediate reaction was: YES! I wanted to know which books were read by the authors I was reading. If you want some more fabulous book recommendations then pop “Serial Heroes” into the search box at the top, right of the page.

So I jumped the gun slightly when introducing Douglas Skelton. As a former journalist he will appreciate that I have checked these facts from two different sources:

Douglas Skelton has published twelve non fiction books and eight thrillers (many of which have received glowing reviews on this blog). He has been a bank clerk, tax officer, shelf stacker, meat porter, taxi driver (for two days), wine waiter (for two hours), reporter, investigator and editor.

You can find the Skelton book collection here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Douglas-Skelton/e/B001K7TR10?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1620335880&sr=8-1

If you follow Douglas on Twitter @DouglasSkelton1 you will know he takes some wonderful photographs and some of his favourites are on sale through his online store here.

He is one quarter of the hilarious “Four Blokes in search of a Plot” and visitors to Bloody Scotland cannot fail to have been impressed the year Douglas played a key role in the Scotland vs England football match (he was the pre-match announcer). He also wrote the 2019 sold-out show You The Jury which wowed audiences at the festival when a criminal trial was recreated with audience members invited to become members of the jury to hear the case and decide if the accused was guilty or innocent of the charges.

As is ever the case with Decades I asked Douglas to select five books he wanted to add to my Ultimate Library. He could only select one book per decade and he must make his selections from five consecutive decades.

I hand you now to Douglas Skelton…

DECADES

I have a problem whenever I try to pick favourite books because as soon as I decide on one title, I think of a few more. I once vowed to be more decisive but then I changed my mind.

Anyway, here goes:

The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler (1939)

I am a fan of US detective fiction and thrillers and, as you will see, I have been hugely influenced by both them and their movie counterparts. As anyone who has read the Dominic Queste books knows! I could have selected any one of Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe books but went with this rich, complex tale of family deception and murder, told with his customary wit and style, not to mention some plot confusion. Who did kill the chauffeur? Who cares? This is literature masquerading as pulp – or maybe even the other way round – and I love it.

Shane, Jack Schaefer (1946)

This selection will come as no surprise as I constantly name it as one of my favourites. Again, incredibly influential to my work, particularly Davie McCall. It’s a western and the story has become timeless, I can think of at least three movies that rip it off. First published in instalments in 1946 then in expanded book form in 1949, Jack Schaefer’s reluctant gunslinger resonated with me when I read it for the first time as a teenager and has stayed with me ever since.

The Temple of Gold, William Goldman (1957)

I stumbled upon this book as a teenager in a batch given to me by my gran, who we called Nana. I knew the author, William Goldman, from his screenwork, particularly Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (when pressed, that’s my favourite movie. Then, as with books, I think of a dozen more). This was his first novel, a funny, moving rite of passage story which I have read and reread many times – and actually have two copies. One is the original which was in no great state to begin with but is extremely fragile thanks to the many re-reads. The other is a much late reprint.

Fuzz, Ed McBain (1968)

If memory serves, this acted as my introduction to the work of Ed McBain, although I read it in the 70s after seeing the movie version with Burt Reynolds. It spawned in me a deep affection for the 87^th Precinct novels which remains to this day, even though McBain (or Evan Hunter, or Richard Marston or any of the other names he used – his real name was Salvatore Lombino) has left us. I still pick one up at random and have a read whenever the mood takes me.

Marathon Man, William Goldman (1974)

William Goldman again. He was, for me, the master of the reversal. Just when you think the story or a character is one thing, he suddenly twists it and you realise it’s something else entirely. He pulls a few such tricks in the book, most of which could not be replicated in the celebrated movie, although the celebrated – notorious – dentistry scene remains intact. Apart from that, this is a fine paranoid thriller that benefits greatly from Goldman’s use of humour as well as his ability to wrong-foot us! I wish I could write like that. Altogether now – is it safe?

I will add these classics to the Library. My deepest thanks to Douglas for his continued support and for choosing such great books.

You can see all the books which have been added to the Decades Library here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=5113

DECADES WILL RETURN

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December 15

Guest Post: Douglas Skelton – Serial Heroes

I live in the mostly unfashionable area of North Lanarkshire in Scotland. Surrounded by Glasgow (Aye Write), Edinburgh (the International Book Festival) and Stirling (Bloody Scotland) it is hard to see why authors would venture into the ‘Badlands’ of Airdrie, Motherwell Coatbridge and Bellshill – but they do!

North Lanarkshire hosts a cultural festival each October: Encounters and the magnificent organisation team encourage some amazing talent to visit our libraries and town halls. In 2015 I was thrilled to meet Paul Finch, Elizabeth Haynes and Douglas Skelton (while sadly missing Simon Toyne and Mason Cross when family responsibilities could not be shirked).

It was during Douglas Skelton’s Encounter that the idea for this feature was sparked.

Douglas was talking about the books he likes to read and he mentioned Ed McBain’s 87^th Precinct stories. My ears pricked up – I loved those books but seldom find other people who read them too…which just seems ridiculous given how good they are!

I often ask authors which books they find inspiring or what books influenced their writing but I never ask them which ongoing series they love to read. Personally I love an ongoing story – it stems from reading Spider-man comics as a kid (a story 50+ years in the telling and still going on). I always look for the next Rebus novel, the new Logan McRae or another Jack Reacher book – surely authors must also have their favourite collections too?

Well there was only one way I was going to find out. I contacted 5 authors and asked if they would like to write a short piece about the crime/thriller series that they love to read. Each person I had asked kindly agreed and (even better) they all picked a different series – phew!

Over the next few days I will introduce my guests and let them talk about the series close to their heart but it is only right that Mr Skelton kicks things off – it WAS his idea.

DOUGLAS SKELTON:

I was in my teens when I picked up my first 87^th Precinct novel by Ed McBain. Sufficient water has run under the bridge since then to refloat the Titanic so I can’t say with any certainty which one it was – possibly ‘Give the Boys a Great Big Hand’ – but I know I was immediately hooked.

I loved the no-nonsense storytelling with occasional lapses into poetry as he described his city. I loved the humour. I loved the ensemble of characters. I loved the fact that even characters who appear for only a page or two seemed to spring into life ready-made. I loved the occasionally staccato dialogue in interviews.

Now, years later, I love their brevity. No fat here. No padding. It’s SAS crime writing at its finest – get in, get the job done, get out again.

And his city. Isola. It doesn’t actually exist but boy, does it step off the page along with the bulls in the detective squad. You can hear the roar of the traffic, smell the petrol fumes, hear the grey waters of the Harb lapping on the docks. It’s a cliché to say that the setting is a character in a novel but these books prove there is truth in it. You believe this place is real. And that, my friend, is an achievement. I’ve read some books set in actual cities that don’t seem as real.

I’ve read and reread every one of the titles in the series, 51 in all. I still have most of them, in paperback and hardback, although I lost some when my home was flooded a few years ago. I generally go back to them before I begin a new novel, just to touch base, just to see if some of the magic will rub off.

McBain also wrote more ‘literary’ novels as Evan Hunter and some pulp as Richard Marston, although his real name was Salvatore Albert Lombino.

He wrote a slew of other novels as McBain, some good, some not so much, but it’s the 87^th Precinct books that have become my touchstone, my inspiration, the books I wish I could’ve written had I been able.

He died ten years ago this year but his novels remain alive.

Isola lives.

Douglas can be found online at: http://www.douglasskelton.com/

He also has his own Amazon page where you can find his novels and true crime books: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Douglas-Skelton/e/B001K7TR10/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1450140528&sr=8-2-ent

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July 23

Ed McBain – 87th Precinct: The Heckler

I had been online looking for something to read and I found that the last 87th Precinct novel (Fiddlers) was available for bloggers/reviewers to request. The book was actually published 9 years ago so I was surprised to see it offered for review, however, as a long-standing fan of Ed McBain and the boys of the 87th Precinct I had to submit a request.

Sadly it was not to be – my request for a review copy was declined. As it was one of the few books in the series I had still to read I was a tad disappointed. Still it whetted the appetite for a return to the fictional world of Isola. Turn to my Kindle and there I find a plethora of 87th Precinct stories all waiting to be read.

Over the course of a 5 year period in my late teens/early twenties I think I managed to pick up about 90% of Ed McBain’s books. Almost all the books I owned were second hand copies as I could never quite bring myself to pay £5 or £6 for a book I would read in one night. This remains true today, I am rebuilding my McBain collection on my Kindle but will only buy the books when they go into the sale (fortunately this seems to be quite a regular occurrence).

With over a dozen titles downloaded to my Kindle it was just a matter of selecting one I fancied. The Heckler won the day. One reason it beat off the other challengers was because I could not remember how the story panned out, but more importantly it was because it featured The Deaf Man – arch nemesis to Steve Carella and the other 87th Precinct cops.

The Deaf Man was a master criminal and a recurring character in McBain’s books – there are over 50 novels of the 87th Precinct and I seemed to recall the Deaf Man popping up quite often. However, a quick check of Wikipedia suggests he only actually features in 6 books (with name-checks in others). Clearly I built up the memory more than the reality!

No matter, The Heckler brought me everything I wanted. The squad-room dynamic was there, characters I had long forgotten were welcomed back into my imagination and the actual story was good fun with lots of Sherlock Holmes references thrown in for good measure.

My reading pile grows ever larger but there will always be time to step back and squeeze in one of Ed McBain’s books. The Heckler is 54 years old and it shows its age in places, however, at heart it remains a good story told by one of the masters of his craft.

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