James Lee Burke On A Boy’s Memory Of America Amid The Coronavirus Epidemic: The Author Recalls How The Nation Rallied When World War II And The Polio Epidemic Threatened.

The Tampa Bay Times offers an essay by James Lee Burke on how America weathered earlier crises: 

Author James Lee Burke is best known for his bestselling books about Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux, crime novels that delve into some of humanity’s darkest impulses. In this essay, Burke, who at age 83 has vivid memories of his childhood during World War II and the polio epidemic, writes about our better angels. 

The essay first appeared on Burke’s Facebook page and is printed with permission. Burke’s 40th book, and his latest about Robicheaux, A Private Cathedral, will be published by Simon & Schuster on May 26. — Colette Bancroft, Times book editor.

Hello, everyone. These are depressing times, but I would like to share with you some memories and lessons I always found helpful in dealing with what Gram Parsons called In My Darkest Hour.

I remember how frightened I was when, on December 7, 1941, at 1:15 p.m., a radio music program was interrupted in the little cafe where I was eating Sunday dinner with my parents. A news broadcaster informed everyone the Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor. No one moved or spoke, as though they were inside a motion picture film and the projector had frozen the image on the screen. When a child sees fear in the faces of adults, the fear transfers to him like a contagion, magnified many times.

But I learned a quick lesson about the country I was born in. Men and women all over the nation stood in long lines to volunteer for the armed services. Every week President Franklin Roosevelt had one of his Fireside Chats with over 100 million people, assuring us that the only fear we needed to fear was fear itself. Food and gasoline were immediately rationed, but no one complained. My family’s ration book allowed us one small chicken and one small roast a week. It was impossible to buy sugar or butter. In four years I saw only one instance of hoarding. A man down the street was caught with a garage full of canned goods and fined heavily. He also lived the rest of his life in disgrace.

We had other problems as well. My family lived in the polio capital of America. Nobody knew what caused it or the origins of the virus. At age 8 I spent almost one year in bed with perhaps a case of polio or perhaps rheumatic fever or perhaps both. Diagnostic medicine was often based on speculation and was nothing like it is today. But I felt very sick and lived in fear of diseases that had control of my body, but could not be confronted or medicated or even adequately defined.

You can read the rest of the essay via the below link:

https://www.tampabay.com/arts-entertainment/2020/04/03/james-lee-burke-on-a-boys-memory-of-america/ 

You can also read my Washington Times On Crime column on James Lee Burke via the below link:

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2020/04/my-washington-times-on-crime-column-on.html

And you can read my post on the Polio epidemic via the below link:

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2020/03/a-look-back-at-polio-disease-that.html 

Bosch With No Badge: Crime Writer Michael Connelly Talks About ‘Bosch’ Seasons 5 And 6, His True Crime Podcast And His Next Novel

Colette Bancroft at the Tampa Bay Times offers a piece on crime writer Michael Connelly and his Amazon Prime Bosch series.

When Season 5 of Amazon Prime Video’s longest-running series, Bosch, drops on April 19, fans will see Harry Bosch as they’ve never seen him before.

“This is something different,” Michael Connelly says, “Bosch with no badge.”

Connelly is the author of a series — 21 and counting — of international bestsellers about the Los Angeles homicide detective. He’s also deeply involved in the TV series as an executive producer and writer, splitting time between homes in L.A. and Tampa, and between the solitary practice of writing books and the collaborative process of making television.

In earlier seasons, Connelly says by phone from L.A., “we were mining earlier books” for the TV series’ plot arcs. “This time we jumped all the way forward” to the 2017 novel Two Kinds of Truth for the Season 5 story. (The first five episodes were released to reviewers.)

In the first scene of the opening episode, viewers will see a grubby and limping Bosch (played by Titus Welliver) climbing off a cargo plane with a group of dazed-looking street people. They’ve arrived in the middle of the night at a scruffy campsite of old trailers and school buses, guarded by armed thugs. 

“We thought it worked well coming off of Season 4,” Connelly says of the scene. “Bosch had lost his former wife, who he still had a thing for, and he was teetering emotionally. People will wonder what happened” to get him to the camp.

Two Kinds of Truth, like all of Connelly’s books, weaves together complex strands of plot. Its main strands are a new case involving a violent ring of opioid dealers and an old murder case of Bosch’s that’s being reviewed because of new evidence, which could threaten his career.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.tampabay.com/books/michael-connelly-talks-about-bosch-seasons-5-and-6-his-true-crime-podcast-and-his-next-novel-20190411/

You can also read my Washington Times review of Two Kinds of Truth via the below link:

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2017/12/my-washington-times-review-of-michael.html 

And you can read my interview with Michael Connelly via the below link:

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2010/04/killers-cops-and-crime-reporters-q-with.html  

Bancroft: Despite his thorny place in culture, Raymond Chandler remains a great love

Colette Bancroft, the Tampa Bay Times book editor, offers a column on the late, great crime novelist Raymond Chandler’s continuing influence.

Some writers you enjoy, some writers you admire.

A handful of writers you love, and one of my handful is Raymond Chandler.

His seven novels, published between 1939 and 1958, were transformational for me when I first read them in the 1970s. They sparked my enduring fascination with crime fiction and led to my unfinished doctoral dissertation about his work that has long been tucked away in a desk drawer. 

My crush on Chandler endures: My dog is named Marlowe, after his great character, gallant, wisecracking Los Angeles private detective Philip Marlowe.

I’m just one of a legion of fans and followers. Chandler died in 1959, but his style and substance have deeply influenced countless writers in the mystery genre and beyond. The early generations of his successors included Ross Macdonald, John D. MacDonald and Robert B. Parker. How many contemporary crime fiction writers follow in his footsteps? Let’s name a few alphabetically: Megan Abbott, Ace Atkins, Benjamin Black, Lawrence Block, James Lee Burke, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, James Ellroy ... you get the idea.

The 130th anniversary of Chandler’s birth came around on July 23, and it was marked by the publication of two books: The Annotated Big Sleep, a new edition of Chandler’s first novel, edited by Owen Hill, Pamela Jackson and Anthony Dean Rizzuto; and Only to Sleep: A Philip Marlowe Novel by Lawrence Osborne, the third author commissioned by the Chandler estate to write new novels about the private detective. (The others were Parker and Black.)

The anniversary was also noted in "The Big Seep: Reading Raymond Chandler in the Age of #MeToo," an essay published in Slate by bestselling author Megan Abbott, whose own new novel, Give Me Your Hand, gives one of Chandler’s recurring themes a radical twist.

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

https://www.tampabay.com/features/books/Bancroft-Despite-his-thorny-place-in-culture-Raymond-Chandler-remains-a-great-love_170359256

You can also read my Crime Beat column on Raymond Chandler via the below link:

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2009/11/on-raymond-chandlers-influence-on-crime.html 

Crime Writer Michael Connelly Looks To The Past In 'Wrong Side of Goodbye,' And To The Future

Colette Bancroft, the book editor of the Tampa Bay Times, offers a piece on crime writer Michael Connelly and his new crime novel, The Wrong Side of Goodbye.

Michael Connelly's new novel is in many ways a turn back to the past, for him and for his series character Harry Bosch.

"He's retired. I turned 60 this year," Connelly says. "It felt like time to look back at what formed me as a writer."

Connelly sets his internationally bestselling books in Los Angeles but lives in Tampa. Fresh off a flight from California a week ago, he talked about his characters and craft over burgers (pickles, onions and lots of ketchup for him) at El Cap in St. Petersburg.

The Wrong Side of Goodbye, Connelly's 29th novel, finds Bosch working as a private investigator after three decades in the Los Angeles Police Department. That job, the book's title and other elements are all nods to crime fiction icon Raymond Chandler, one of Connelly's biggest influences.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://cars.tampabay.com/features/books/festival-of-reading-michael-connelly-looks-to-the-past-in-wrong-side-of/2301146

Note: The above photo of Michael Connelly was taken by Mark Coggins.

Michael Connelly's Crime Thriller "Bosch" Appears On Amazon

I just watched the pilot episode of Michael Connelly's crime thriller Bosch free on Amazon.

I liked it and I hope to see more of the series.

Colette Bancroft at the Tampa Bay Times offers a review of the online series.

How well does the pilot episode of Bosch translate bestselling author Michael Connelly's tough but beloved series character to the screen?

As a longtime fan of the 18 novels about the hard-boiled Los Angeles homicide detective, I would say: Nailed it.

Connelly, who lives in Tampa but sets his fiction amid the sweet dreams and mean streets of L.A., had major involvement in the development of this potential series about Hieronymous "Harry" Bosch, and it shows in every frame of the hourlong pilot. From the casting of Titus Welliver (The Good Wife, Deadwood) as Bosch to the atmospheric portrayal of the city, the pilot captures the tone and details of Connelly's fiction, which has sold many millions of books worldwide.

It's unusual for an author to have so much input into a screen version of his books. Also unusual is the show's venue and the direct importance of audience input. The pilot is one of 10 available now for free viewing through Amazon Instant Video (see box), and everyone who watches Bosch becomes part of a focus group that could greenlight the series. The more viewers who watch and rate it, the better the chances that more episodes will be made for Amazon Studios.

After watching the pilot, I'm rooting for it — I want more.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.tampabay.com/features/media/review-amazons-bosch-pilot-captures-michael-connellys-iconic-detective/2164410

Bosch is streaming now for free on Amazon Instant Video (USA). You can watch the episode via the below link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I3MPDP4?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Influencer&utm_campaign=Bosch

You can also read my interview with crime writer Michael Connelly via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2010/04/killers-cops-and-crime-reporters-q-with.html