Blatant, But Somewhat Restrained Self-Promotion

San Francisco Mysteries Part of Rapid Reads Growing Novella Program

And now a word from our sponsor.  What my Canadian publisher Orca offers in its Rapid Reads program are “quick, engaging reads by bestselling authors’ — works that can be read in one sitting — possibly a flight from L.A. to New York, or just a satisfying read that won’t keep you up all night. The direct writing style makes these books accessible to the “reader on the go,” the reluctant reader, as well as those with English as a second language.

Here is a comment from an early reviewer of The Blue Dragon: "What an incredible beginning to a new mystery series by Ronald Tierney... [This was] my first introduction to “Rapid Reads” and I am enthralled not only by the individual title selection experience but also for the incredible discovery of this reading series.”

What I hope to create with the Peter Strand series is to re-imagine the plot-oriented mystery in the tradition of Rex Stout and Agatha Christie, a story with minimal violence and with emphasis on the puzzle aspects of the crime. The book allows the reader to sleuth along with the detective. Here is more information about my first two books in the Rapid Reads series:

The Blue Dragon — A murder at a small apartment building in San Francisco’s Chinatown, prompts the absentee owner to hire Chinese American Peter Strand to calm the anxious tenants. But Strand isn’t exactly what he appears to be. Neither are the tenants who, on the surface, seem to be regular people going about their lives. Strand, a forensic accountant by trade, doesn’t intend to investigate the murder, but he soon realizes that this isn’t a gang-related killing, as the police believe. The murder was committed by one of the tenants. Finding out which one exposes the secrets of The Blue Dragon and brings Strand face-to-face with a few ghosts of his own. The Blue Dragon is available in paperback and e-book.

 

The Black Tortoise – Peter Strand is asked to investigate a San Francisco-based nonprofit arts organization located in a pier on San Francisco Bay near the Ferry Building. There he meets a cast of colorful, quirky characters who all seem to be hiding something. Peter soon finds evidence of a probable fraud, but is it the fraud that leads to murder? Or is it something else? Whatever it is, a suspicious drowning draws Strand deeper into a murky mystery. The murderer is finally unmasked, but at what personal expense? The Black Tortoise is the second book in the Peter Strand mystery series. Preorder available now for a March delivery.

Consider these two San Francisco mysteries as gifts, one in time for the holidays and one for right after.

Opinion — Parker, Mankell? Who Got It Right?

It’s not a new question, but it came up recently. Thinking about the idea of a recurring protagonist in a mystery series, how many books are too many? I happened to tune in on the PBS documentary called “Nordic Blast.” The program discussed the current popularity of mysteries set in Scandinavian countries. And while I believe the Irish will challenge the Swedes in the end, the usually dark, cold and brooding mysteries of Scandinavia seem to be on a roll, and, in fact, were gathering fans and starred reviews even before Stieg Larsson set the world on fire.

In the documentary, there was a brief mention of the earlier and much heralded Martin Beck series and how it had started a Swedish tradition of authors voluntarily ending their series at 10 books. Swedish writer Henning Mankell, who created the Wallander series seems to abide by the idea, He recently published his last Wallander — the 10^th of the internationally successful series.

As Mankell is getting the buzz about the last Wallander, much is being written about the recent release of the late Robert B. Parker’s Sixkill, the last Spenser to be written by Parker, but the 39^th in the series. Over the years — at Bouchercons and Edgar Award ceremonies — there seemed to be resentment among more than a few writers who suggested Parker had been phoning it in for years. Was this just jealousy over such an obvious (and seemingly effortless) success? Or was it because it was so difficult to believe that anyone could sustain a series for so long without running out of steam or ideas?

Actually, Parker is not alone in this prolificacy. The highly respected Bill Pronzini is about to release Camouflage, the author’s 38^th and always well-received Nameless Detective book. Rex Stout created 47 Nero Wolfe novels and 40 more Wolfe novellas. Sue Grafton is at V for Vengeance. X, Y and Z cannot be far away. (What she does at the end of the alphabet is anyone’s bet; but the periodic tables have already been taken.) And it’s not just American overachievers. Of the more than 200 novels Belgian Georges Simenon wrote, 75 of them featured Maigret.

I suspect that any debate about how many books in a series are too many can be rationally debated and might very well conclude that there should be no maximum number, provided the author can maintain the quality that allowed the series to be that popular in the first place. No doubt my curiosity about the subject is predicated on my own series. Bullet Beach is the 10^th Shanahan. Keeping in mind I’m 1/8^th Norwegian, what should I do?