11 October 2020
Dr. Obenson: Doctor and Detective
10 October 2020
Kyle in Payables Has Been Binge-Watching, and Now You Need to Care About Zettabytes
KYLE IN PAYABLES HAS BEEN BINGE-WATCHING, AND NOW YOU NEED TO CARE ABOUT ZETTABYTES
by Robert Mangeot
Here’s
Kyle again, five minutes late for the 8:00AM St. Healthcare Payables
team Zoom huddle. He’s bleary-eyed--again--and slurping coffee (“Kyle,
can you mute, please?”) after all-nighter binge watching the
just-dropped Wicked Streaming Show That Has People Talking, season two.
WSS.2, in Kyle-ese. He’ll gush baggy-eyed over each and every spoiler if
anyone hangs on the Zoom too long. Usually, we can’t stay mad at him.
Kyle is bedrock here in Payables, first with the virtual high fives and
the loudest voice singing “Happy Birthday.” This morning, though, the
coffee isn’t kicking in yet, and he’s digging this new email promising a
GIFT CARD!!! if he clicks there and takes this important HR survey.
Gift cards? Hello, WSS merch.
Don’t do it, Kyle. Don’t.
Kyle does it. Clickety clickety click. He’s heard about email scams and stolen files and that stuff. They do training in Payables, thank you very much. But this email seems legit. The logos and fonts are right for HR (they are), the linked website looks like HR (it kinda does, those smiling nurses), and the password log-in seems fine (it’s so not). Anyway, his melatonin is off this morning.Let’s call the malware BigBummerExpress. Kyle’s computer doesn’t slow to a crawl processor-wise. It doesn’t flash the Blue Screen of Death. It doesn’t laugh a super-evil laugh like that cray hacker episode from WSS.1. BigBummerExpress is loaded and running, sure. And yeah, there’s patient information on his computer for the grabbing.
Kyle isn’t who BigBummerExpress is after.
#
Meet the United States healthcare system. We Americans spend $3.6 trillion annually on all things medical and surgical, much more per capita than most other industrialized nations. Three trillion isn’t the largest number involved in this caper, but it’s the motivating number.However we got here and whatever your opinion about it, U.S. healthcare is a huge market. Most money is spent well enough or at least well-intendedly. As for the rest, there’s a reason that entire professions--including mine--have spun up to chase bad actors. And lately, there’s the bad actor golden ticket: ransomware.
To be clear, I am not a technology expert. I’m not involved in cybersecurity. I’m a humble regulatory nerd who barely understands how my laptop crunches its ones and zeroes. But with cybersecurity being crucial to those regs, I try to stay hip on the trends.
In September, Universal Health Services--a giant at 400 facilities--announced a major cyberattack had taken down clinical systems. Universal is not releasing details, but if it sounds like ransomware, it probably is. Patient appointments were rescheduled, test results were delayed, and patients inbound to their ERs were diverted elsewhere.
Universal is hardly alone in the cyber battles. In 2019, hospitals and clinical practices reported nearly 1,000 successful ransomware attacks. What makes healthcare an outsized target over other sectors? Large health organizations can find the pay-off money somehow. Paying up may be a care imperative. Also, medical software products are often older and assembled as a patchwork. Lastly, a patient record contains a more comprehensive set of personal data than your average retail outlet. Such records are so valuable that the Dark Web apparently coined its own term: Fullz.Health data has grown to mind-boggling size and mushrooms further each year. Experts predict that cumulative health data about you and me will reach 35 zettabytes this year. A zettabyte is tech-speak for one sextillion. That’s roughly one byte for all the grains of sand on all the Earth’s beaches--multiplied by 35. Or to see all the commas, we’re talking 35,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes of health data out there.
And the problems usually start with phishing.
#
A month has passed since Kyle did that vendor survey thing. He’s forgotten about that gift card or reporting a concern because, bless him, rumors go WSS.3 will be the full throttle, slam-bang finale. In that month, BigBummerExpress has used his system credentials to cruise the company IT platforms and learn where that sweet data is, how it’s structured, what protects it. To the Security people, if they spot any oddness in Kyle’s activity, it looks like him accessing places he’s authorized to access.
It’s encryption time.
8:15AM, the Zoom huddle and Kyle slurping coffee. His boss is asking Kyle to mute when everyone’s Payables screens flicker off. Text messages start flying. His boss manages to say, “I gotta go.”
#
It’s no wonder that crime fiction often involves a cyber angle. The technology and its human implications can be fascinating, and it brings plenty of cat-and-mouse games. If anyone is mulling a healthcare cyber tale, here’s a general lay of the land for 2020 realism.
To read the industry studies, hospital ransoms used to be small, way cheaper than fighting the protracted fight. A volume business. Fast forward to 2020: Those studies put asking prices in the millions. Today’s ransomware isn’t just encrypting data natively but stealing it on threat of release, so that companies can’t plug in the back-ups and refuse to bargain. Big game hunting, in the lingo.
Healthcare providers have layers of serious defenses in place. Be assured the good guys are damn good—and have to be. Federal regs (anyone remember the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act?) require detailed IT security plans and regular self-assessments, at the pain of major fines and enforcement should personal health information be jeopardized. Europe’s laws are even tougher.Cybercriminals are such an everyday threat that it’s an insurable risk. Of course, no underwriter goes on the hook for potential millions only to stay out of the response and prevention discussions. Like I said, serious defenses.
That can have a weak link.
#
It was awesome.
It’s been weird at St. Healthcare. HR sent an actual email with an actual performance warning. It took forever to get the Payables and medical record interface back running, and while it’s not been on the news, Kyle figures somebody must’ve coughed up for the hackers to go away.
Hackers. Big money. Affiliations. What Kyle’s thinking, this would make full throttle WSS fan fiction.
09 October 2020
Quotes from F. Scott Fitzgerald
I never heard F. Scot Fitzgerald say this things, of course, but these have been attributed to him.
"That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong."
"First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you."
"Cut out the exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke."
"Writers aren't people exactly. Or, if they're any good, they're a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person."
"All writing is like swimming underwater and holding your breath."
"Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind."
"Often I think writing is a sheer paring away of oneself leaving always something thinner, barer, more meagre."
"Mostly, we authors must repeat ourselves – that's the truth. We have two or three great moving experiences in our lives – experiences so great and moving that it doesn't seem at the time that anyone else has been so caught up and pounded and dazzled and astonished and beaten and broken and rescued and illuminated and rewarded and humbled in just that way before."
"You can stroke people with words."
"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function."
"Action is character."
"Nobody ever became a writer by just wanting to be one."
"Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy."
The last line of THE GREAT GATSBY. It always moves me.
Ernest Hemingway once described F. Scott Fitzgerald this way. "He is the great tragedy of talent of our bloody generation."
08 October 2020
The Evidence in the Case
by Eve Fisher
A few weeks ago, when the Atlantic article came out saying that Donald Trump had called people in the military "losers" and "suckers", I got into it on-line with someone about evidence. They didn't approve of anonymous sources. So I posted the video of Trump calling McCain a loser and "not a war hero":
And the Howard Stern interview, where Trump called STDs his "personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave soldier."
And said that I thought we could perhaps extrapolate future behavior from prior statements. Now I wouldn't have minded an argument on freedom of speech - I'm always ready to defend that one - or even the validity of judging someone by their past behavior. BUT the reply I got was that "the videos are just circumstantial evidence." So I blew a gasket. Because of course no, they're not.
BTW - one of the great examples in literature of historical arguments (and how much analysis, deduction, argument, and debate they require) is not Dan Brown, but Tom Stoppard's 1993 play Arcadia, which deserves far more productions (and at least one movie! Please!) than it has gotten. Alternating between the mid-1800s and the present, the present scenes show dueling historians arguing over the following primary sources: mid-1800s "game books" (i.e., hunting records at a country house), a diary (by a young girl), and a number of letters and notes tucked into a poetry book which itself was heavily underlined. All of which seem to indicate that Lord Byron killed minor poet Ezra Chater in a duel over Chater's wife at this country house where they were all guests at the same time, and after which Mr. Chater disappeared, and Lord Byron fled to the Continent for two years. Solving what belonged to whom (including who did all that underlining) is a masterclass in historical deduction and detection.
Also, I would give almost anything to have seen the 1993 production: directed by Trevor Nunn with Rufus Sewell as Septimus Hodge, Felicity Kendal as Hannah Jarvis, Bill Nighy as Bernard Nightingale, Emma Fielding as Thomasina Coverly, and Harriet Walter as Lady Croom (Wikipedia).
07 October 2020
The Inspiration Panel
I can't help you with the bars, but maybe I can cause you to miss the panels a little less. Last year I wrote a play inspired by many panels I attended at mystery, science fiction, and library conferences. I present it here for your amusement. (And by the way, if anyone wants to perform it... contact me.)
Jewish Noir panel, Raleigh Bouchercon* |
THE INSPIRATION PANEL
The stage is set for a typical conference panel: two tables together lengthwise, covered with black tablecloths. Water pitchers and five glasses. Three microphones. Five chairs behind.
EVE walks onto the stage, with a great sense of purpose. She is forty, dressed flashily, but not expensively. She carries five name tents which she carefully places on the tables. From left to right they read: EVE BROCKHURST, CHARLES LEMMON, DEBORAH DRAKE, BILL FONTANA, AMY KITE.
As EVE is going around the table to her seat DEBORAH arrives. She is in her thirties, dressed in business attire. She reads the tents, stiffens, and then switches her tent with CHARLES’. As she comes around to her seat the others arrive, read the tents, and take their places.
After a beat EVE looks down the line, nods at the panelists and then smiles at the audience.
EVE
Welcome, everyone! Have you been enjoying our annual writer’s conference? Good, good! This is the Inspiration Panel, just in case you boarded the wrong flight. (She laughs at her own joke.) My name is Eve Brockhurst and I am the author of six books of poetry, including The Falling of the Dew, which our local newspaper called “remarkably sincere.” The fact is, I was surprised to be asked to moderate a panel, even one as distinguished as this. I figured the committee would need me to speak on the Poetry Panel, or the Nature Panel. Or even the Marketing Panel. (Brightening by sheer will power.) But Fraser, our dear director, told me that what he needed most was a strong personality who could keep these ferocious characters in line!
Readers Recommends panel, Toronto Bouchercon |
She gestures at her panel.
DEBORAH looks irritated.
CHARLES is slumped in his seat. He is sixty years old and wears a sports coat with no tie.
BILL is all coiled energy. He is in his thirties, dressed in business casual.
AMY is glowingly happy. She is in her late twenties and dressed younger.
EVE
But that’s more than enough about me. It’s time to introduce our wonderful panelists who will inform and, dare I say it, inspire you today. First on my left is Charles Lemmon. He is-
She looks left and realizes for the first time that DEBORAH is sitting next to her. She does a quick check down the line to see that everyone else is there.
EVE
Whoops! My mistake. Someone did a little shuffle on me. (She sorts her notes.) First in line is Deborah Drake, the author of the new romance novel—
DEBORAH
Women’s fiction.
EVE
Excuse me?
DEBORAH
Women’s fiction. It’s about real-life problems. Not the kind you can solve by going to bed with a man whose chest size is higher than his IQ.
EVE
O-kay. I can see you have a lot on your mind today. Deborah’s woman’s fiction -- Woman’s?
Short story panel, Bouchercon 2017 |
Women’s.
EVE
Thanks. It’s about a woman suffering from Reynaud’s Syndrome and it’s called The Girl With Cold Fingers. The first time I met Deborah was at a conference just like this three or four years ago. She came up after a panel to tell me how much she had enjoyed my book The Dancing of the Leaves, and I complimented her on her taste. It’s so wonderful to see a person one has mentored becoming a success. Deborah, our subject is inspiration. In general, what inspires you?
DEBORAH
Great question, Eve. I find that there are sparks all around if you know how to look for them. I’m thinking right now that my next book might be about a woman with a stalker, maybe a former lover who is too self-centered and frankly too thick to take no for an answer.
BILL is getting more and more agitated.
EVE
Well, that is certainly the sort of real-life problem many of us women have had to face. Is this based your personal experience or something you’ve heard about or…
DEBORAH
As you said we all face this sort of thing from time to time. Men who think they have a right to your attention, who don’t understand when they are not wanted—
BILL
What about the men who have been led on?
DEBORAH
Sometimes a man simply refuses to—
EVE
Just a moment, dear. Bill – this is Bill Fontana, everyone – You had something to add?
BILL
I just think a writer needs to look at all sides. Modern readers don’t want set pieces with cardboard characters where one person is all right and the other is all wrong. If you’re writing for grown-ups characters need to be nuanced.
DEBORAH
In your latest book the villain tried to strangle a kitten. How nuanced is that?
EVE
Bill, you’ll have your chance. Deborah, do you want to finish your thought?
DEBORAH
That would be nice, wouldn’t it?
EVE
I’m sure. Our next panelist (DEBORAH does a doubletake.) is my dear friend, one of our most distinguished, most senior, a veritable elder statesman-
CHARLES
Please! I’m not dead yet.
EVE
Of course not. I just wanted to point out that you have written so many books. Even more than my six volumes of poetry. Charles Lemmon, your most recent book is historical fiction, The Battle of Sattleford Creek. What’s it about?
CHARLES
(Pause.) It’s about the Battle of Sattleford Creek.
EVE
I might have guessed that, I suppose. So many titles are ironic these days, don’t you think? My book The Fire Sonnets contains no sonnets, and never mentions fire! I suppose that’s why the critics found it so surprising. One of them said “Eve Brockhurst has-”
CHARLES
Eve?
EVE
Yes?
CHARLES
How are we doing on time?
EVE
Good point. Charles, at this place in your long career, how do you still manage to find inspiration? What moves you to keep writing?
CHARLES
The credit card companies. Something moves them to send me bills.
EVE
Oh, come now. Do you really mean you are only writing for the money?
CHARLES
I’d better not be, because there’s precious little of it. And security, don’t make me laugh. You teach English at the college, don’t you?
EVE
I do. I have the honor of opening up the minds and hearts of—
CHARLES
You can get tenure. Then you have work for the rest of your life if you want it. What I wouldn’t give for that. A publisher can kick you out in the snow after you give them the best years of your life.
BILL
Wow, that is one bad cliché.
CHARLES
Shut up, Bill.
DEBORAH
I’m glad I’m not the only one he interrupts.
EVE
Actually. I’m an adjunct professor. No tenure, I’m afraid.
CHARLES
Then you’re in the same boat as us professional writers. I don’t know how a publisher can sleep at night, when they fire an editor you’ve been working with for – well, a long time, and suddenly you’re an orphan and no one wants to promote your book because the last guy picked it.
EVE
So do you find that—
CHARLES
No ads. No tours. No publicity. And you know damn well that when the book doesn’t sell, they’ll say it’s the fault of the writing. Never the publisher’s, oh no. I might as well give up on quality and start self-publishing crap.
EVE
Now, come on, Charles! That attitude is very old-fashioned.
CHARLES
Don’t call me that!
EVE
Some of the best, most original work coming out today is self-published. My fourth book--
BILL
And a lot of the worst stinkers, too.
DEBORAH
You’d know about that.
BILL
Oh, I’d forgotten. Men aren’t allowed to talk at this panel. Go right ahead.
EVE
Come on, Bill. We value everyone’s opinion.
BILL
Hell of a way of showing it.
DEBORAH
Bill isn’t very good at taking cues, I’m afraid. At understanding what people are trying to tell him.
EVE
All right, Bill. Since you’re so eager to talk, tell us. How do you find inspiration?
BILL
That’s a stupid question, Eve. Isn’t it really just the old cliché: how do you find your ideas?
Short stories panel at Left Coast Crime, Vancouver |
DEBORAH
See? He doesn’t listen.
BILL
Not so, Deborah! A good writer, a great writer, is always listening. That’s how he comes up with dialog that sounds true.
EVE
So you get your inspiration from the people around you…
BILL
That’s right. And I get so much more. Like insight into personality. How a person will say one thing and mean something completely different. For example, maybe they’ll claim for months that they want to leave their husband and start a new life, but when their lover offers to take them up on it, it turns out they were just teasing him along—
DEBORAH
And this is your idea of honest observation? No wonder Kirkus hated your last book.
CHARLES
Kirkus hated everybody’s last book.
EVE
You know, I think we’ve been neglecting one of our panelists. Amy Kite is a fresh new face on our city’s literary scene. She is the author of The Dragons of Zanzanook—
AMY
(Correcting the pronunciation) Zanzanook.
EVE
Sorry! Her book is a fantasy novel which has attracted major support from the publisher. There’s an ad in the Times.
CHARLES
Oh my God.
EVE
An author’s tour.
CHARLES moans.
EVE
And I believe you are booked on one of the morning shows next week. Is that right?
AMY
Two, actually.
CHARLES
Jesus.
EVE
Sorry. I must have missed one. Let’s talk about what inspires you…
AMY
Thank you so much, Eve. I just want to say how inspired I feel simply by being here with all of you today. What an honor! This is my first time at a writer’s conference, you know, and here I am with Charles Lemmon! I’ve been reading his books since I was a little girl.
CHARLES
Well, that’s wonderful. You young whippersnapper.
AMY
And Deborah, what was the name of your novel about the girl with Irritable Bowel Syndrome?
DEBORAH
Twists and Turns.
AMY
Yes! My mother loved that one!
BILL
Oh, I can hardly wait.
AMY
Mr. Fontana.
CHARLES
Here it comes.
AMY
When I needed a break from writing my book I would read your novel in which the psychotherapist turns out to be the serial killer.
BILL
Which one? I wrote two of those.
AMY
Three actually.
BILL
I didn’t… Oh yeah.
CHARLES
And there it is.
Setting as Character panel, Left Coast Crime, Vancouver |
I’m afraid I don’t remember which one I read most recently.
CHARLES
Boom.
BILL
Let’s not forget our moderator, Amy. What do you think of Eve’s poetry?
AMY
I’m afraid I haven’t read it yet.
EVE
You probably don’t read poetry. So few young people do these days.
AMY
Oh, but I do! I must get around to yours.
BILL
Yes. Do get around to it.
EVE
Well, that’s very sweet, Amy. Let’s start another round. Deborah, what is the inspiration for the book you’re working on now?
DEBORAH
We covered that, remember? Stalker?
EVE
Oh. Right. (Checking her notes.) Well, what inspired you to start writing in the first place?
DEBORAH
I’d say it was Greg. My darling husband.
BILL
Oh, brother.
DEBORAH
He is my biggest cheerleader. He knew from the moment we first met that I was a creative soul and he has always encouraged me to—
BILL
Point of order.
CHARLES
Point of order? Is this a congressional hearing?
EVE
What is it, Bill?
BILL
I’m just wondering if this is the same husband you told me hasn’t opened a book since he got his MBA.
DEBORAH
I never said any such thing. And frankly, I resent you constantly interrupting me.
EVE
Well, Fraser was certainly right about this group needing a strong hand, wasn’t he? Deborah, I think it’s wonderful that you have such a supportive husband.
Ecology Panel, Left Coast Crime, Vancouver |
I can’t imagine how I could go on without him. We truly are soulmates.
BILL
I thought you didn’t write romance fiction.
DEBORAH
You know, Bill, I think I know why you model all your villains on your psychotherapists.
EVE
I think we’re running out of time, so we had better move along. Charles, can you tell us a little about what inspires your current work in progress?
CHARLES
I’m not sure I have one, Eve. I write historical fiction and that means two or three years of research for each book. By the time my next one is ready my publisher will probably have burned through five or six editors, and all that any of them care about are the latest trends. The new expert, straight out of some Ivy League day care center, wants me to write a Civil War novel with zombies.
BILL
You’re kidding. Zombies are like five years past their sell-by date.
EVE
And Bill, you already talked about your plans, so any other thoughts about inspiration?
BILL
Great question! As a thriller writer I’m concerned with revealing the truth of the human heart. By which I mean that people are totally and remorselessly evil.
CHARLES
Jesus. I thought zombies were depressing.
BILL
That goes doubly so for the female heart, of course.
CHARLES
And publishers.
EVE
Moving right along. Amy.
AMY
Yes, Eve?
EVE
Let’s get back to your debut novel, The Dragons of Zanzanook-
AMY
Zanzanook.
EVE
Thank you so much, dear. Would you say you were more inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien or George R.R. Martin?
AMY
(Laughing.) Neither one, Eve. My starting point was my doctoral dissertation on late medieval monasticism in a military context. I just threw in dragons to make it commercial.
CHARLES
(Inspired.) Damn it, girl, we have to talk!
Short Story panel, Left Coast Crime 2015 |
I’d love that!
EVE
Now we have time for a few questions from the-- Oh, I’m told we don’t.
BILL stalks off in disgust.
EVE
Please join us in the vendors’ room, where all the authors will be happy to sign their books for you, and I will be happy to take pre-publication orders for my seventh book of poetry, Life, Be Not—
The microphone is shut off. She frowns at it.
06 October 2020
Coast to Coast Noir - The Many Shades of Noir
Amazon |
I’m happy to announce that the third volume in our Coast to Coast crime fiction series dropped last week. (See how cool I am: “dropped”.) I’m also happy to say, we’ve had some success with the first two volumes, Coast to Coast: Murder from Sea to Shining Sea and Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea. When the last volume came out I did a piece here on editing for it: click here. For this volume—Noir—I’m going to talk a little about noir, what we decided our definition of it is, and a little tease about each author’s story.
The authors in this volume are: Colleen Collins, Brendan DuBois, Alison Gaylin, Tom MacDonald, Andrew McAleer, Michael Mallory, Paul D. Marks, Dennis Palumbo, Stephen D. Rogers, John Shepphird, Jaden Terrell, Dave Zeltserman.
Coast to Coast: Noir from Sea to Shining Sea is the third in our series of Coast to Coast crime anthologies from Down and Out Books. The first two Coast to Coast collections garnered fifteen nominations and/or awards between them. Hopefully we’ll keep our record going with volume three. We have twelve terrific writers and stories.
The way that all the books have been laid out so far is that the stories start on the West Coast and each succeeding story moves a little farther east until we hit the East Coast. The thinking on this, at least in my mind, is to move left to right because that’s how we read on a page and it just seems comfortable.
From the intro to the book and pretty much what we suggested to the authors:
“What we asked for was noir in the classic tradition of David Goodis and Jim Thompson or movies like Double Indemnity. Our definition of noir is basically somebody tripping over their own faults: somebody who has an Achilles heel, some kind of greed, or want, or desire that leads them down a dark path. But within that the authors could be as down and dirty as they wanted. Time frame wasn’t an issue either. The stories could be set anywhere in time from now till back when.
We also don’t think noir has to be the dark of a rainy night or ominous shadows from Venetian blinds. There doesn’t even have to be a femme fatale. But one definite thing about noir: No one is safe. There’s no place to hide in this collection of twelve stories from the dark side of the American Dream. Noir can happen anywhere to anyone who’s just a little greedy, a little too proud, or a little naive. It can happen to a college student working at a steel mill or the chef-owner of an upscale Greek restaurant. Even the most pure of heart can succumb: a correctional officer at a maximum security prison or a father seeking justice. And it’s not always about money, sometimes it’s about power, fame, revenge, payback.”
So here’s a little tease for each story, in author alphabetical order:
Look your Last by Colleen Collins
Location: Denver, Colorado
Story: A young woman follows in the footsteps of her P.I. father who was murdered. She takes on a case that has ties to her father’s murder.
Noir themes: private eye, revenge, fate, the past haunts the present.
The Dark Side of the River by Brendan DuBois
Location: rural Massachusetts
Story: An ex-con trying to get on the right track again is persuaded by his brother to help him in a drug scheme.
Noir themes: femme fatale, ex-con trying to reform, family and loved ones can drag you down.
Where I Belong by Alison Gaylin
Location: Hudson Valley, New York
Story: A teenager leaves home after a video of him beating up his stepfather makes him an internet sensation.
Noir themes: outsider, loner, greed, some people are born bad.
Nashua River Floater by Tom MacDonald
Location: Nashua, New Hampshire
Story: A detective is hired under the table by a state trooper to investigate a homicide of a criminal who was recently released from prison. He uncovers some secrets from the past.
Noir themes: private eye, secrets from the past, alcoholism.
On an Eyeball by Andrew McAleer
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Story: A woman C.O. at a high security prison endures sexual harassment in her job. She isn’t happy about it…
Noir themes: femme fatale, sex, revenge is best served cold.
The Dark Underside of Eden by Michael Mallory
Location: Springfield, Missouri
Story: A reporter for a local radio station looks into the apparent suicide of a young intern at the station who he was having an affair with.
Noir themes: sex, power, corruption, the innocent are sacrificed.
Location: Santa Monica/Venice Beach, California
In 1965, a guy working at the DMV sells information on the side and causes a young woman’s murder. It affects him more than he thought it would…
Noir themes: greed, the innocent are sacrificed, you can't escape fate.
Steel City Blues by Dennis Palumbo
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Story: A young college student works in the local steel plant and finds himself embroiled in a steamy affair with the foreman’s wife. But nothing is quite as it seems.
Noir themes: sex, seduction, greed, femme fatale.
Detour to Dolmades by Stephen D. Rogers
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
Story: The chef-owner of a high-class Greek restaurant is the master of her domain, until she lets her defenses down.
Noir themes: homme fatale, gangsters, pride can bring you down.
Pandora’s Box by John Shepphird
Location: Los Alamos, New MexicoA young college student is seduced into joining a group of grifters in a plot involving the Los Alamos National Laboratory and a Grateful Dead rock concert.
Noir themes: sex, drugs, loss of innocence, a con man luring a young woman into crime.
Sins of the Father by Jaden Terrell
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Story: A former Night Stalker special forces helicopter pilot comes to his daughter’s rescue…
Noir themes: mistakes made in the past, regrets, revenge, redemption.
The Long Road by Dave Zelsterman
Story: A husband can’t remember what happened before he was in a car accident. His wife discourages him from thinking about it, but he won’t leave it alone.
Noir themes: lies, deception, you can never escape your own past.
We also did a Zoom panel with 9 of the 12 authors you might want to check out:
So there you have it. This collection shows that noir can be many different things in many different settings. And, much as I like classic noir films and books, the stories don’t have to have unceasing rain, Venetian blind shadows or flashing neon signs. But I think there is a theme to them and that theme shows up in each of these varied stories.
And now for the usual BSP:
“On one level it’s a mystery where Bobby Saxon, with secrets he wants no one to find out, works to solve a murder and clear his name under extraordinary racially tinged circumstances. With a lot of twists and turns, this is an excellent mystery. It takes place in World War II-era Los Angeles, and the author does a brilliant job that brings the long-gone era alive with memorable characters, scents, descriptions, and most of all, jazz. Highly recommended."
Buy on Amazon or Down & Out Books
05 October 2020
A Touch of Frost
by Janice Law
Inspector Frost with one of many new sergeants |
The service has an assortment of good programing, but, especially in this time of virus and isolation, I've been favoring Gardener's World and A Touch of Frost. The latter was a long running UK favorite, originally from Yorkshire TV, starring David Jason as Inspector William "Jack" Frost, a self-described street copper with a nose for crime and good-sized problems with bureaucrats and authority.
He's old fashioned and quick-tempered and not altogether loath to cut corners, characteristics that look less desirable in cops these days than they probably did back at its debut in '92. His saving grace, besides being an excellent, even obsessive, investigator, is his sympathetic knowledge of his community, including the many poor but decent folks who wind up in difficulties.
David Jason in A Touch of Frost |
And he had good scripts. These are formulaic, unsurprisingly, given that some 42 episodes were made, but well done, nonetheless. Most episodes had two cases running simultaneously, one involving a death, the other less serious. Although there was a solid cast of regulars, the Inspector was frequently paired with new sergeants and constables, some of whom seem to have been assigned with the express purpose of exasperating him, others for whom he comes to feel genuine affection.
Frost expects all of them to work hard, and there is a good deal of cooperation and delegating of duties except for the last twenty minutes of most episodes, when, despite his years of experience, Inspector Frost rushes off on a hunch of his own, confronts various bad guys and winds up in an obstacle laden chase or facing a gun or a serious fight.
Even at the start of the series, Jason, small and a bit plump, was getting up in years, so it is not too surprising that he finally retired from the role at 68, noting that a real detective would have been off the force eight years earlier. During his long run with A Touch of Frost, however, Jason managed to finesse the problem of his advancing years with the vigor of his performances and the robust physicality of his acting – catch the pop eyes and flushed face when he's angry or the sly twitch of a smile when he has outsmarted some crook.
Frost's nemesis, Superintendent Mullett |
There's enough surprise to keep the stories interesting, and enough familiarity in Frost's unending struggles to thwart Superintendent Mullett, to rescue the romance of the moment, or to finish his mostly rushed and unwholesome meals to make the show relaxing of an evening. This is definitely one of the better mystery imports.
04 October 2020
Small Claims 0
by Leigh Lundin
My friend Geri lived a mile from me and I watched over her house when she vacationed. Often she’d schedule work while she was away, and this time she wanted to replace her fence.
Thanks to hurricanes and moisture, fences have short life spans in the Sunshine State. Fences were a concern for me too, so I researched ways to give fences extra years, a realm of excitement beyond words. The following are the fruits of my labor, otherwise called ‘best practices’:
- Embed posts in concrete.
- Shape the concrete into a dome to run off water away from the post rather than collect moisture around it.
- Don’t install panels at ground level, but elevate them an inch or so above.
- Don't use staples or ordinary nails. Use ring-shank nails to resist winds.
I typed a list of the above and sketched a diagram of setting posts in concrete. These I stapled to the sales proposal given Geri and agreed to the extra charges and signed off. The installer missed their start date, so on her way out of town, Geri asked a neighbor to phone me at work whenever construction commenced.
The First Hint
The neighbor gave me a heads-up at eight the next morning. By the time I arrived, workmen had already set several posts… without concrete. After I explained they were supposed to use cement, a worker with a garden trowel spread dry sandmix around posts.
No, I said, they’re supposed to be set in concrete shaped to aid water runoff. I returned to work leaving them to it.
I flew to Miami and returned the following afternoon. The job had been wrapped minutes before my arrival. Except…
The pickets (paling panels) rested directly on the ground. Grounded palings made wood rot more quickly, wicking moisture from the soil up through the grain.
The crew had removed and reset only the first post in concrete; they hadn’t bothered with the others. Many showed a sprinkling of dry concrete but nearly as many went without.
Now suspicious, I looked closer. On the plus side, they hadn’t used staples but, after pulling one nail, I discovered they’d used ordinary smooth box nails. They company had completed none of the requirements they’d agreed to.
I’d let Geri down. I was so ticked off, I missed the most obvious mistake of all.
“Uh,” said the neighbor. “Why did they install half the fence backwards?”
“What?”
“Half of the fence is inside out.”
The workmen had installed the left side of the fence facing out and the right side facing inward. Stick with me if you can handle the excitement.
03 October 2020
A Semifinal Word on Semicolons
by John Floyd
Semicolonoscopy [sim-i-co-lun-OS-cah-pee] – An examination to detect abnormalities in the use of a certain mark of punctuation.
A popular topic recently at one of the writers' forums (fori?) was semicolons--their use, their overuse, etc. Should fiction writers even include them at all?
When edited, writers have saidSemicolons are something they dread;What if someone had stolenOne half of your colonAnd plugged in a comma instead?