Archive for the A Hard Death category
The High Road to A HARD DEATH
by Jonathan on May 7th, 2011
I’ve started the West Coast tour for A Hard Death. Since I’ll be driving a lot, I’ve made a, uh, driving mix. It’s fast, noisy, straight-ahead rock’n'roll music. For many people, it’ll be unlistenable. Also, at times it is enthusiastically profane: consider yourselves warned. It’s really not suitable for kids, unless they’re bad kids. Here’s the download link , and here’s the tracklisting:
THE HIGH ROAD TO A HARD DEATH
Mason Williams, “Classical Gas” (not obscene)
The Soledad Brothers, “Break ‘Em on Down”
The Cramps, “Human Fly”
The Gun Club, “Ghost on the Highway”
The Jesus & Mary Chain, “Never Understand”
Motorhead, “The Ace of Spades”
Ministry, “Jesus Built My Hotrod”
Charlie Gracie, “Guitar Boogie”
Clinic, “Walking with Thee”
Mclusky, “Whoyouknow”
Mclusky, “Lightsabre C***sucking Blues”
Bad Brains, “Pay to Cum”
One more thing: PLAY LOUD!
Dirty, Filthy Benjamins…
by Jonathan on May 1st, 2011
At mystery or thriller festivals, I’m often asked about the importance of accuracy in the genre. I think authors should take whatever liberties they need to tell their stories – after all, these are thrillers, not forensic textbooks. The important thing is that the world of the story must have an internally cohesive reality – Harry Potter is pure fantasy, but feels real because of the consistency and integrity of the characters and universe that JK Rowling has created.
That said, I personally can’t let myself distort the science – I want a character who is shot, strangled or impaled to appear and behave as they would if it had happened in real life. I create situations that are more extreme than those we usually see in our work as medical examiners, and present those scenarios as realistically as possible; I want the reader to mutter, “Whoa!”, both because the situation is extreme, and because it is also palpably real.
While I like to crank up the intensity in my novels, I need everything I use to exist in the real world. A number of elements in A Hard Death may seem over the top, but they’re all based on real world events, from Maggie Craine’s back story to the way the drug trade is depicted. A reader emailed me the other day asking me about the drugs and money in the book, wondering if I was overstating things. But turn on your TV and it’s all there – drugs shipped in homemade submarines, drugs jammed into shark carcasses, drug packets stuffed into live snakes. And it’s all because the money is just incredible.
How incredible? Well, have a look at this collection of photographs from 2007, taken when Mexican government forces, in a joint operation with the US Drug Enforcement Agency, raided the home of a methamphetamine king pin. A private zoo with seven lions, panthers and tigers, an armory replete with gold and gem-encrusted firearms, and cash jammed into cupboards, walls, suitcases and strongboxes: in all $205 million in one hundred US dollar bills…
(Music: Evil Nine, “All the Cash”)
Book Launch in T minus *4* days and counting…
by Jonathan on April 10th, 2011
Here’s the flyer for the Thursday launch in Tribeca:
A HARD DEATH – The National Book Tour
by Jonathan on April 2nd, 2011
I’m going to be hitting the road soon, preaching the gospel of A Hard Death. You’ll be able to confront me at:
Saturday, April 9, 2011 Easton, CT – Murder 203 Mystery Convention www.murder203.com
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 New York, NY – Mystery Panel Event with Alafair Burke, Linda Fairstein and Robert Knightley Mid-Manhattan Library (Fifth at 41st St) – 6:30 PM
Thursday, April 14th, 2011 New York, NY – Barnes & Noble Tribeca, 97 Warren Street – 7pm
Thursday, April 28th, Waltham, MA – Back Pages Books, 289 Moody Street – 7pm
Saturday May 7, 2011 Seattle, WA – Elliott Bay Book Company – 1521 10th Ave – 7pm
Monday May 9, 2011 Seattle, WA – Seattle Mystery Books – 117 Cherry St. – Noon
Monday May 9, 2011 Bellingham, WA – Village Books – 1200 11th St. – 7pm
Tuesday May 10, 2011 Portland, OR – Powell’s Book Store Cedar Hills – 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton – 7pm
Thursday May 12, 2011 San Mateo, CA – M is for Mystery – 86 E. Third Ave – 7pm
Saturday May 14, 2011 San Diego, CA – Mysterious Galaxy – #302 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd – 1pm
Tuesday May 17, 2011 Phoenix, AZ – The Poisoned Pen – 4014 North Goldwater Drive – 7pm
Saturday May 21, 2011 Naples, FL – Barnes & Noble – Waterside Shops 5377 Tamiami Trail – 2pm
Thursday May 26, 2011 Chappaqua, NY – Chappaqua Library 195 South Greeley Avenue – 7pm
And you will know him by the trail of A Hard Death…
Jenner’s back! A HARD DEATH is finally coming out in the USA…
by Jonathan on April 1st, 2011
Stumbling around here, trying to figure out how this is done – damn these HTML-ignorant fingers of mine! I’m trying to announce that the US edition of A Hard Death is released on April 12th, and it’s good. The UK version was strong, but I had some down time, so I went back and polished a couple of things I wasn’t satisfied with in the original.
Pre-publication reviews been strong – I particularly liked Booklist, who went with “This is a CinemaScope novel, in technicolor and surround sound: bloody murders, hot sex, decadence, incest, drug cartels… a story of depravity that both chills and fascinates.” Because, really, who could ask for anything more?
Please consider pre-ordering it: publishers love pre-orders! It’s part of what makes them keep a writer on their roster. Order it from your favourite Indie bookstore, or go with one of the behemoths:
Via Barnes & Noble, or for the Barnes & Noble Nook
I now have these slickly horrific buttons for Amazon purchasing:
Or on Kindle:
Live, in Person!
by Jonathan on September 19th, 2010
I’m a terrible blogger, with an unprofessional blog – case in point: my thriller writer friends’ blogs all have ample coverage of their upcoming appearances. I appear, but I never wake the town and tell the people that I’m appearing.
That all changes now!
Some upcoming appearances:
September 24 – 26, 2010: The Writers’ Police Academy, Jamestown NC: I’ll be giving a lecture on forensic pathology for writers. And hopefully, at some point, gettting tased.
October 14 – 17, 2010: Bouchercon by the Bay, San Francisco, CA: I’m on serial killer panel on Saturday morning, plus walking around looking dazed for the rest of the session.
February 21-26, 2011 American Academy of Forensic Sciences, Chicago, IL: I shall be lecturing on suicide. This is a professional meeting, so you pretty much have to get through years of training, experience and accreditation. Although I’ve never noticed them checking IDs.
March 24 – 27, 2011: Left Coast Crime, Santa Fe, NM.
April-May, 2011: I’ll be doing a West Coast tour for A Hard Death. This will likely kick off with an event at the New York Public Library on 42nd Street, with a couple of local readings, then a reading in Naples, FL (the inspiration for the fictional town of Port Fontaine), and then probably San Diego, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.
May 19 – 21, 2011, Crimefest, Bristol, UK.
July 6 – 9, 2011, Thrillerfest, New York, NY.
I’ll do my best to update this info as it, uh, evolves. Or devolves, as the case may be.
Covers – continued
by Jonathan on July 18th, 2010
A German reader let me know that the German edition of A Hard Death is now available for pre-order, with an October publication date. Droemer-Knaur have given the book a snappy new title, and used a cover that recaptures the graphic spirit of their edition of Precious Blood (German title: Martyrium).
I like the cover, and am entertained by the new title, TORTUR, the English translation of which is – I’m going out on a limb here- TORTURE.
I don’t think I quite appreciate how brutal my books are in the eyes of some readers. I’m fairly matter of fact about violence – I approach violent death with scientific detachment, a detachment essential for understanding the facts of a homicide without being distracted by my emotional reactions to its brutality. My life as a forensic pathologist involves extreme contrasts – torture, murder, Bach, lobster; in my writing, I try to present that collision of sudden, unspeakable violence with everyday life.
Anyway, welcome, TORTUR!
I just wonder what the hell they’ll call Jenner 4, now that they’ve already used TORTUR…
Cover Stories
by Jonathan on July 2nd, 2010
I’ve just learned that the U.S. publication date for A Hard Death will be April 12, 2011; I don’t understand the complexities of publishing, and have to admit that I’m a bit disappointed that it’s taking so long to come out here. I’m going to do my best to make sure that the third book, tentatively titled City of Rust, arrives a little more promptly.
The delay is actually a bonus: I’m using the time to tighten and polish. There’s an old writing adage that “a novel is never finished, it’s abandoned” – it’s a real luxury to have the time to touch up an already “abandoned” project…
I really like both the new US hardcover jacket for A Hard Death (above) and the paperback cover for last year’s UK release. The two covers are carefully designed, reflecting local taste and the practicalities of marketing a book on a bookshelf – I suspect that the UK cover wouldn’t have played as well with US readers as it did with those in the UK.
The US cover for A Hard Deathis more literal, a watery swamp forest bathed in a golden red glow; that intense colour will make the book “pop” on the shelf. Unlike the clean, urbane font used for the US Precious Blood jacket, where the story was set largely in New York City, the designer has gone with a battered, almost Western/vintage-style font that, by coincidence or design, evokes the UK cover, particularly the font used for my name.
The UK cover is visually edgier, bristling with visceral style. It’s of a piece with the UK cover for Precious Blood, which reminded me of blood spatter on an abatoir floor. For the new book, the concrete has been swapped out for an impressionistic backdrop of light filtering into a clearing through rotted trees, perfect for the Florida Everglades setting of A Hard Death. Since it’s a paperback, and smaller than a hardcover, the title and author name are much larger, easily legible across the bookshop.
I have to admit that my initial reaction to the UK cover for Precious Blood was a little like one of those movie scenes where a character is sitting for hours, having her portrait painted. The bearded, beatnik artist paints furiously, eyes flicking repeatedly from subject to canvas as he captures her likeness in minute detail. Finally, he pronounces the work a finished masterpiece. The sitter approaches the canvas only to discover that it is an incomprehensible mess of drips and spatters. After my initial surprise, I quickly grew to like the cover – I think it’s very effective, the style working well at a gut level to convey the brutality and violence of serial murder. I did feel that, while the design captured the book’s urban mayhem, I peronally saw Precious Blood in very deep rich colours, full of expressive, nuanced visual detail; to me, the UK cover felt a little reductive, the story distilled to blood on concrete. I think I liked the UK cover for A Hard Death better both because it was more literal and more organic (yeah, the trees may be dead, but, still – trees!), and also because I had a clearer idea of what to expect.
I really loved the very direct cover for the German edition of Precious Blood. The Gothic text works really well, I think; indeed, I was a little surprised by how much I liked the simple, graphic style. Note that they decided to go with another title – Precious Blood has, I believe, richer connotations in English than in German.
The Dutch cover kind of baffled me – I won’t tell you what I thought it was the first time I saw it! But I do love the title in Dutch; my first unaccompanied trip as a kid was to the Netherlands, and I hold a special place for the country in my heart.
There were a couple more editions in German. This one was for the Austrian market – quite chaste in comparison with the second German edition that follows it! Note: the book is not this tiny in real life…
This is the cover of the most recent German edition. In her review of Precious Blood, USA Today critic Carol Memmott was kind enough to use the phrase “nail-biting masterpiece”, but they captioned the cover photo “like a literary equivalent of horror flick Saw“! Those of you who know me know I’m too much of a wuss to ever watch that film…
Anyway, yes, this cover looks like it would be perfect for the literary equivalent of horror flick Saw…
Finally, my friend Kevin Krooss had his own ideas about how the Precious Blood cover should look:
Of course, when Kevin learned there would be a Swedish edition, he couldn’t resist having a crack at that, too…
Audio: Interview on Irish Radio
by Jonathan on December 1st, 2009
Last week, I was on Moncrieff! – not literally on Sean Moncrieff, but on his popular afternoon show on Irish talk radio.
Sean Moncrieff: The work of a pathologist is often characterized as somewhat ‘glamorous’, yet this is a person who, on a daily basis, cuts up dead bodies – who would do such a thing? Well, Jonathan Hayes, for one. He’s a novelist and has worked as a forensic pathologist in the U.S. for over twenty years…
My Life in Blood – a gallery
by Jonathan on November 23rd, 2009
I have a long article about blood in the UK newspaper the Independent today. It’s a bit of a curious thing, hopscotching around the place, covering how I became a forensic pathologist, the Cuban white and black magic I saw in Miami, realism in crime fiction, the meaning of blood in different religions, blood spatter forensics and vampire movies.
Since I don’t know how they’ve illustrated it, I thought I’d add a few photos to support the story. I gathered these from around the internet when I first started working on them, and have lost the links – if they’re yours, please let me know so I can credit you.
I’ve tried to do it in sequence to correspond to the story. Obviously, if you’re squeamish, you probably shouldn’t look at this post. Although, really, if you’re squeamish, what are you doing on my blog?
In Israel, a ZAKA operative wipes blood after an attack:
A Durer portrait of Christ suffering:
A Cranach crucifixion – Christ’s blood anointing the faithful…
A devout Filipino being crucified on Good Friday:
Shi’a Muslims marking the Day of Ashura; others sacrifice by donating blood.
An nganga, a cauldron filled with mystically significant metal, wood and leather objects, and blood, and, here, a human skull. For practitioners of palo mayombe, the dark form of the syncretic Caribbean religion of santeria, the nganga is the ritual equivalent of an altar.
Technicians clean up an nganga discovered in New York City, ritual markings on the wall. In Miami, when we encountered santeria or brujeria (palo) artefacts, the cops would scoff at them, but most would refuse to touch them.
