Authors Electric

'The Silver Pigs' - Davis (Long blog warning. Sorry, couldn't curb my enthusiasm.) Got any book tokens left over from Christmas? Just in case, I’ll pass on this advice, which was given to me, at regular intervals, by my good friend, Karen Bush. “Read the Falco books.” Karen, excellent editor and avid reader, put me onto many great reads: most notably the ‘Song of Fire and Ice’ sequence by George R. R. Martin, and the wonderful ‘Six Duchies’ books of Robin Hobb. Also, Hobb’s lesser-known, but excellent ‘Soldier Son’ trilogy. Karen and I often exchanged notes about what we were reading (both of us were always reading something ) and then she’d demand, “Have you read the Falco books yet?  No?— Well, read them .” Karen had regularly proved that she  knew a good book when she met it, but still, I never got around to Falco. I think I'd got it into my head that they were an Ancient Roman version of the Brother Cadfael series: that is, 'murder-mysteries' set i...

Phyllis Page hero, writer Nellie Bly, 1888 Frank saw her as a pest at first. They met about halfway into Oddly Dead , my second Phantom Eye mystery novel. One-eyed PI Frank Ritz was questioning the caretakers of a hideaway aerie tucked into a chaparral-covered canyon high above Beverly Hills searching for its missing owner, 1960s all-American screen sweetheart Sally Pope. Someone else had the same idea.  “This is Phyllis Page. She’s from the L.A. Times ... ,” said one of the caretakers.  “Sorry for barging in. Your front door was open.” The young woman excused herself too shyly for a reporter. She was round-faced, with short-cropped, auburn bangs and freckles, wearing blue-jeans and a white shirt with a yellow kerchief, high-top tennis shoes, and carried a note pad under one arm –  too collegiate for the City Room, I thought – a regular Nancy Drew who would turn glamorous when she took off her steel-rimmed glasses.  I'm terrible at planning, organizing and outlinin...

I've been asked if Frank Ritz - the Hollywood private detective in my recently released novel, The Phantom Eye and its forthcoming sequel, Do or Die - is me. I do identify with him in several ways, and we do share some characteristics and attitudes, but my answer is a qualified no. I didn't intend Frank Ritz Mysteries as a memoir, even though lots of its major characters and events are drawn from real life. Among things we share: We're both devout, and soft-hearted cynics whose views blow leftward. We're both feckless, introspective and drawn to outcasts and eccentrics. Frank and I grew up in the Hollywood District of Los Angeles during the noir film era. Both our moms were stage and screen performers. Frank's mother, however, is also a little person, modelled on a departed actress friend. And we've both suffered from depression. Circumstances divide us dramatically, however, starting with age: Frank is of my father's generation having served in World War ...