Download a PDF of the Spring 2005 In a Mellotone newsletter

See the Playlist, Spring 2005

See the Events in the News page, Spring 2005

Ash & Bone,, the second novel featuring Frank Elder, is published here in the UK by William Heinemann on April 7th. American publication is scheduled to follow in December, under Otto Penzler’s impressive-looking new imprint at Harcourt.

In the novel, Elder is once again persuaded out of his self-imposed Cornish exile by circumstances beyond his control. Largely set in London, the story nonetheless allows some brief excursions to Nottingham, during the course of which Charlie Resnick makes more than one welcome appearance.

I shall be doing a launch reading for this at Waterstone’s in Nottingham on Tuesday, April 12th. Details under Events further on.

The first Elder novel, Flesh & Blood, has been enjoying considerable success here as an Arrow paperback, sailing into the paperback charts at number twenty and bobbing about for some little time since, prey to the vicissitudes of the market place and the lure of books for young readers on World Book Day, when children rush to the counters of W. H. Smith and Waterstone’s, Ottaker’s and Borders - and, indeed, their local supermarkets - free ¬£1.00 book tokens in their sticky little hands.

Seriously, this edition of Flesh & Blood has outsold anything of mine previously published, and the thanks for this are largely due to the efforts of everyone at Random House, the sales and marketing departments in particular. All I can do is provide the ammunition; they have to prime it, choose the right targets and follow through.

Buoyed up on all of this brouhaha, I’ve begun a third Elder adventure under the title, Darkness & Light, which, all going well, should see the, er, light, sometime in 2006.

Since moving back to Nottingham, it’s not too surprising that Charlie Resnick should be on my mind, not to mention my computer.

A new short story, The Sun, The Moon and the Stars, is scheduled to appear in Criminal Members, a collection of stories written by members of The Detection Club and edited by Simon Brett. This will be published by Orion in the autumn.

In this story, Charlie yet again crosses paths with the beautiful but troubled Eileen, whose gangster lover, Terry Cooke, blew his brains across the pillow they were sharing in the story, Work, and who made her last appearance in Billie’s Blues - both those stories, of course, available in the now-no-longer quite Complete Resnick Short Stories, Now’s the Time.

An even more recent Resnick story, Home, allows us a glimpse or two into the life Charlie is now sharing with Lynn Kellogg. A bleak little number, though not, happily, where Lynn’s and Charlie’s domestic life is concerned, this is due to see the light of day later this year in the pages of the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.

There are also, in case you thought I sat on my hands all day, a couple of new non- Rensick stories to mention.

A Jack Kiley story, Asylum, is to be found in Crime on the Move, a collection of stories by members of Crime Writers’ Association, edited by Martin Edwards, and published, with a spiffy-looking cover, by The Do-Not Press this Spring.

The Crime Writers’ Association, incidentally, should not be confused with The Detection Club, although there are some of us - a select few - who have the not-inconsiderable honour of belonging to both.

The CWA, which is responsible for the annual Dagger awards for the best work in the crime field, is closer to a professional association, though japes and social shenanigans are not discouraged. The Detection Club, with a more limited membership, is primarily a dining club, and a sartorially proper one at that, the gentlemen, at least, never sitting down to dine without suit and tie - a restriction which would not suit everyone, some writers not being averse to throwing both caution and the occasional item of clothing to the winds when approaching the dining table or, more especially, the bar. Well, it’s a stressful life and we all have to relax somehow.

The other new story, Snow, Snow, Snow, has an entirely new cast of characters, the main protagonist being an assassin for hire. This was written for a new collection being compiled and edited by the indefatigable Robert J. Randisi under the title Greatest Hits, which will be published in the US by Carroll and Graf, sometime in 2006.

I’m delighted to say that in France the redoubtable folk at Rivages are publishing both Flesh and Blood and the short collection that I edited, Men from Boys, in September.

The city of Lyon, I’m told, has a reputation for fine French cuisine, so I’m more than happy to have been invited to take part in the first crime writing festival, Noir Urbain, this April. In the world of French academia, meanwhile, there’s a three-day conference on Detective Fiction in Paris this May. On the first morning, Thursday, May 12th, Delphine Cingal will deliver a paper about my work under the title, “Bodies in John Harvey’s Novels”, and I am due to participate in a debate about crime fiction on the following day. More details below.

Finally, let me draw your attention to the BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial, The Raj Quartet, based on Paul Scott’s four-novel sequence chronicling the last days of British rule in India.

The dramatisation, by Shelley Silas and myself, begins on the afternoon of Sunday, April 10th and continues for eight weeks, each episode being repeated on the following Saturday evening. Some of the performances are truly heart-rending, and if you’re anywhere near a radio when it’s on, I couldn’t recommend it more strongly.

In the last issue of In a Mellotone, I drew attention to the CD Till It Shines, which features me reading with the jazz group, Second Nature. Most of the tracks were recorded some years ago, and were originally available on a limited edition audio cassette under the title, Ghosts of a Chance. Slowly keeping up with the technology, these tracks have now been remastered for this CD, together with four new unaccompanied readings from Still Water and In a True Light.

Many of the poems – which come from the collections Ghosts of a Chance and Bluer Than This – take jazz or jazz musicians as their subject – Chet Baker, Charlie Parker, David Murray, Thelonious Monk – and Monk features in one of the prose pieces, as does Milt Jackson.

Bop Noir, somebody christened this stuff, and as a label I think it works. Anyone interested out there – poetry fans, Resnick fans – anyone who simply wants to pour themselves a glass of something, dim the lights, sit back and listen to my mellifluous tones, could do worse than order a copy of Till It Shines now!

To order, please fill in the form in the Mellotone newsletter PDF