Unused Finnish cover for Jason Starr's Fake ID

Can't believe I haven't posted this earlier.

Remember when I used to edit the noir paperback series for a Finnish publisher, with books by Duane Swierczynski, Christa Faust, Scott Phillips and others? Well, the story didn't end well, since the line was canceled after six books. The format was changed into hardcover, but that didn't help.

I'd already translated Jason Starr's excellent Fake ID over years ago and it was scheduled to come up next in the series, in hardcover. Ossi Hiekkala made this very nice cover illustration to go with it, but the book never came out, due to many reasons. I can't really tell you how sorry I'm for this.

New books out: Duane Swierczynski, Ken Bruen, JP Koskinen

I just won't stop putting out new titles! I received my translator's copies of Duane Swierczynski's The Blonde last Friday, alongside with Ken Bruen's London Boulevard and the Finnish writer, JP Koskinen's Eilispäivän sankarit (The Heroes of Yesterday), which I both had a hand in.

Here's Ossi Hiekkala's great cover for Swierczynski's book. The book is Vaaleaverikkö in Finnish, which is a literal translation. We would've gone for Blondi, but we didn't want the book to get mixed up with Joyce Carol Oates's Marilyn book. The cover wasn't an easy one. We wanted to avoid the easy Sin City banality of this cover, but doing a dramatic cover without any weapons or some such proved very difficult. I think Ossi did a fine job.

As for the Bruen, I only picked the book, located the agent and started the negotiations (and found the translator for it). Koskinen's book I commissioned, but I never edited it (someone else did. It's about an old criminal who's been inside for the last 30 years, and when he's finally getting out, he doesn't understand shit about the new world. It's a very touching book, with some heavy-duty violence and black humor.

This is a nice job, but the titles have been selling too poorly, so it looks like I won't be doing it anymore. There's still Jason Starr's Fake ID coming out, hopefully next year. (Hopefully especially, since it's my translation.)

More on the titles here, alongside with some other books.

Duane Swierczynski's The Blonde and Ken Bruen's London Boulevard out in Finnish in 2011

Commercial follows, in Finnish:

Arktisen Banaanin kevät 2011 pitää sisällään kaksi kovaa dekkariuutuutta: Keikkakuskin kirjoittajan Duane Swierczynskin hengästyneesti ryntäävä scifi-trilleri Vaaleaverikkö sekä irlantilaisen kovaksikeitetyn rikoskirjallisuuden supernimen Ken Bruenin ensimmäinen suomennos, kohta elokuvaksikin tuleva London Boulevard.

Vaaleaverikkö on raju kaahaus läpi öisen Philadelphian, 24 tunnin jännäri, jossa ei ole tyhjiä hetkiä. Naisella on veressään tappava virus ja uudeksi uhriksi joutuu viaton, avioero-oikeudenkäyntiä odottava toimittaja. Kirjasta sanottua: "OK, so we have hot girls, self-replicating killer-spy nanomachines, journo-suckers, affable hit-men, double-secret government cadres; are we forgetting anything? OH YEAH, a severed head in a duffle bag!"

Bruenin London Boulevard on ovela pastissi Billy Wilderin klassikkoelokuvasta Sunset Boulevard, mutta omillaankin toimiva kovanlyyrinen, haikean väkivaltainen rikosromaani. Elokuvan pääosissa ovat Keira Knightley ja Colin Farrell ja sen ohjaa Scorseselle käsikirjoituksia tehnyt William Monahan.

Vaaleaverikön kansikuvan on piirtänyt Ossi Hiekkala. Lisätietoa löytyy kustantajan sivuilta.

Two Ken Bruen films coming - and the first Finnish translation

Ken Bruen's excellent noir novel London Boulevard (2001) will be published in Finnish by Arktinen Banaani next Spring. The film based on the book will hit the big screen in the UK on November 26th and in the US February 2011. Which will probably be the European release date as well - and also the release date of the Finnish edition.

Here's the trailer and some more info for the film, written and directed by William Monahan, starring Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley. The book is a clever pastiche on Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, but also a hard-hitting crime novel in its own right.

Ken Bruen's other novel, Blitz (2002), will also be released as a film pretty soon. The film will star Jason Statham, which might turn some people away, but the trailer here seems as gritty as they come.

Kevin Wignall's Lipun varjo / The Dark Flag

I've been thrilled by Kevin Wignall's literary, but hard-hitting crime novels for some time now, and I've been more thrilled since we've had the opportunity to publish his work in Finnish with Arktinen Banaani. Who Is Conrad Hirst? was a critical success in Finland as Kuka on Conrad Hirst? Now we've published Wignall's second Finnish translation under the title of Lipun varjo ("The Shadow of a Flag"). The book's original title is The Dark Flag and this is, I believe, the first instance when the book is published in any language. It will be eventually published in English and it's coming out in German some time next year, but this is the book's first publication.

It's an excellent novel, just like its predecessor, but it's even more quiet than the previous works by Wignall. It has only a minimal amount of violence, but it still hits readers very hard. The emotional impact of the book is great. I said to Kevin when he was in Finland two weeks back that you feel like burst out crying on every page. He said: "Good, that's what I wanted to achieve."

The book is a 9/11 thriller, but not an ordinary one by any means. It's a book about human feelings, loneliness, sadness, the meaning of hidden truths. It's very political, but at the same time it's very apolotical and Wignall doesn't take any stances.

Here's a short interview with Kevin Wignall about Lipun varjo/The Dark Flag. Kevin also talks a bit about his future projects that include a Hollywood star.

What led you to write about 9/11? 

I had already started to plan a novel which had a conspiracy at its centre, but I was talking to a friend who was explaining to me why he believed 9/11 had been the result of a government conspiracy. When I doubted him, he asked me to come up with an explanation for various inconsistencies. I looked into it and came up with what I thought was a plausible explanation and that's what found its way into the book. I wondered whether I should write about it at all, but I think it's the duty of writers to tackle subjects that are current, even if it upsets some people. I hope I've handled it quite sensitively anyway.

How does your book differ from the usual 9/11 thriller?

Firstly, 9/11 only comes into my book near the end, and it's really back-story. My book is mainly set in Copenhagen and it's about a lot of other things - the nature of the lies we tell and our governments tell,
coming to terms with what you've achieved in life and what you've failed to achieve, the slippery nature of "the truth".

Yes, your book is about searching the truth and the futility of that search. Why does this kind of theme appeal to you, as it seems it's essential to your work?

It is a theme that crops up in my work, along with that of morality. Truth and morality are two things that are often talked about in absolute terms and yet they are both more flexible than we like to believe. That creates
fault lines which are interesting to explore.

What's your view about what has been going after the 9/11 in Iraq and other countries and especially the US?

The initial intervention in Afghanistan was probably acceptable, and might have worked if it had been kept short and sharp followed by a swift exit. The Iraq War was a disaster. The ongoing war in Afghanistan is a disaster. In the UK we're told that these wars were essential for maintaining security at home, yet until we launced these wars we had never experienced Islamic terrorism in the UK, whereas now there have seen a handful of successful attacks and a constant threat. We would be better served by disengaging from the Islamic world - it's worth noting that one of the main driving forces behind the creation of Al Qaeda was the continuing presence of US troops on holy Saudi Arabian soil after the first Iraq War, so how do you
solve that problem by having Western troops occupy several other Islamic countries?

You write very short books compared to contemporary blockbuster thrillers. Would you tell us about your reaction to reading Stieg Larsson?

I have to say, I did read the whole of the first Stieg Larsson book, which is saying something for me because I'm impatient with long books. It was pleasant reading and oddly old-fashioned, but nothing much happened. My only explanation for its success is that the two central characters are well drawn and I think people simply enjoy the company of the characters, so they don't mind that it's over 500 pages or that there's very little plot. I think it's sad that Larsson never lived to see the tremendous success he had with the books.

Can you tell us about the movie deal of For the Dogs?

I still can't and that's very frustrating. It's a big star and the project should be very exciting, and I'm hopeful there will be an announcement in the next few weeks, but that's all I'm allowed to say.

You, of all people, have a vampire book coming out. Can you tell us something about that?

My vampire book is the first of a trilogy being published for teenagers. The first book was written over four years ago (when several publishers liked it but thought the vampire fashion was coming to an end!) and it will
be published in the UK and US next September, with translation dates to follow. In many ways, the mood is very similar to that of my adult books but it has a rich mythology and covers a thousand years of history as well as being set in the present. I'm very excited about it. Oh, and like my adult books... it's short!

PS. Here's a link to Kevin Wignall's short story "A Death" in Finnish. "Kuolema" is a moving tragic tale about the morals of dying. And here's some additional information on Wignall in Finnish.

Q&A with Christa Faust

I finally got around to ask some questions from Christa Faust, the writer of the admirable Money Shot, out now in Finnish as Koston enkeli ("Avenging Angel") from Arktinen Banaani, with the cover illustration by Jukka Murtosaari.

Money Shot/Koston enkeli is about a former porn actress Angel Dare, who's now running an agency. She finds herself mixed up in an attempt to get back a bag of money belonging to the East European Mafia - she's beaten up, choked and thrown in the trunk of a car. She decides she'll get her revenge. It's a magnificently written piece of hardboiled pulp.

Christa Faust is a versatile writer whose career has ranged from hardcore horror written with Poppy Z. Brite to movie novelizations, like Snakes on a Plane. She blogs here and occasionally posts gorgeous examples of her collection of vintage shoes. She's been posting very interesting and enthusiastic comments on the Los Angeles Film Noir Festival screenings, so be sure to check out her blog!

You are one of the few female practitioners of the new hardboiled or neo-noir writers. Why do you think this genre doesn't gather more female writers - there were more in the past, like Leigh Brackett and Margaret Millar.

Maybe there aren't a lot, but there are strong, talented women writing hardboiled and noir fiction today. Women like Megan Abbott and Cathi Unsworth. What I really like about today's female noir authors is that they don't hide their gender with masculine cliche and try to write just like the boys. They bring a new, distinctly female perspective to the genre.

You've created an amazing character in Angel Dare. Someone might think that this kind of book - violent thriller about porn industry - would be about an ultracool vixen whacking men, like in the film Bitch Slap. Was this something you deliberately set out to do?

I never had any interest in telling a story like Bitch Slap, because that's already been done a thousand times. I wanted to create something a little more complicated. More grown-up. And more realistically female. I'm also very tired of superhero chicks that weigh 12 pounds, but can still magically kick a 200 pound man's ass. In high heels, no less. That's a porn scenario, not a real story.

You don't really criticize the porn industry in your book, and I've already received some negative comments on that. What would you say to that?

I portray both the positive and negative sides of the industry in a very realistic and even handed way, just like I would for any other setting. People are free to form their own opinions. As a pulp author, it's not my job to "criticize" anything, just to tell a good story.

The other characters in Money Shot also seem very real. How much did you use people you know personally?

I always use bits and pieces of people I know personally in my fiction, though never an exact copy.

You've already written a sequel to Money Shot. What is Choke Hold about?

Choke Hold, which may or may not be the final title of the new book, involves Angel getting mixed up with unsanctioned cage fighting and drug smuggling. It will be coming out from Hard Case Crime in February of 2011.

Who or what are your influences? You've dedicated your book to Richard S. Prather - can you tell us more about that?

I always had a thing for Prather's Shell Scott novels. They're addictive, like potato chips, and I love his outrageous sense of humor. When Hard Case Crime announced they were planning to reprint Prather's more serious novel The Peddler, I was very excited and posted about it on my blog. Hard Case Crime editor Charles Ardai read my post and asked me to submit a novel of my own. The rest, as they say, is history. I'd been a Prather fan for years, but it wasn't until I got accepted by Hard Case Crime that I got up the nerve to write to him and tell him how much I loved his books. He wrote me back, a single warm and encouraging letter that I have framed on my office wall. Sadly, we never had a chance to develop an ongoing correspondence. He died before Money Shot hit the stands.

Koston enkeli available in bookstores and through net shops, for example here.

Christa Faustin Koston enkeli ulkona!

Amerikkalaisen hardboiledin kovin naisnimi, Christa Faust, on saanut ensimmäisen suomennoksensa, kun hänen sensaatiomainen romaaninsa Koston enkeli (Money Shot, 2007) on juuri ilmestynyt Arktisen Banaanin julkaisemana.

Koston enkeli kertoo Angel Daresta, keski-ikää lähestyvästä pornoalan ammattilaisesta, joka joutuu keskelle väkivaltaista huijauksien peliä. Kirja alkaa, kun Angel havahtuu lähes kuoliaaksi hakattuna paskaisen auton takaluukusta Los Angelesin syrjäisellä parkkipaikalla. Kirja yhdistää B-filmimäistä toimintaa pornoelokuvan suoruuteen, mutta ei ole mikään Bitch Slap -tyyppinen itsetietoinen pastissi, vaan rehellinen kertomus haavoittuvan naisen matkasta kostoon. Faust kulkee pornoteollisuuden maailmassa kuin kotonaan - hän onkin entinen domina.

Tässä amerikkalaisen kirjailijan ja bloggaajan James Reasonerin arvio Koston enkelistä.

Koston enkelin kannen on tehnyt veteraani ja pitkän linjan pulp-harrastaja Jukka Murtosaari.

Kirjaa myytävänä kaikkialla missä kirjoja myydään, mutta valitettavasti on mahdollista, että joihinkin kauppoihin sitä joutuu tilaamaan. Paras paikka tilata lienee jokin verkkokauppa, kuten Booky. Hinta vain 8,90!

Scott Phillips: The Ice Harvest in Finnish

I finally got around to posting the interview I made with Scott Phillips, the author of the admirable The Ice Harvest, published in Finnish as Jäätävää satoa by Arktinen Banaani whose paperback series I edit. The cover is by Ossi Hiekkala, who's just as admirable as Phillips.

The Ice Harvest was your first novel. It's a remarkable accomplishment. How long did you write it and what goals did you have in mind?

I wrote the first part of it over the course of a year or so, in fits and starts. Then I decided to finish it and as I recall the second half went much more quickly. All I wanted to do was write the kind of pulpy novel I liked to read.

I've compared your book to David Mamet's writing and his axiom: enter late, exit early. Was this something you tried to do? Can you tell us something about your writing and plotting technique? Based on your other novels, you seem to be changing your technique and style from book to book.

No plotting technique at all, apart from creating a situation that allows oter things (bad ones, mostly) to happen. The styles and techniques change from book to book mostly because I get bored. My latest book is called "Supply Sarge," and it's very much inthe vein of the 1950s chapters of The Walkaway, and it's also very short like The Ice Harvest.

What other influences did you have, besides Mamet (if you had Mamet)?

I love Mamet, but if he's an influence it's unconscious. James Crumley and Charles Willeford, Richard Russo, who adapted The Ice Harvest for the movies, Derek Raymond, were all important to me early on. Lately writers I find myself cribbing from are Jack Pendarvis, William Gay, Ken Bruen...

The Ice Harvest is full of irony and black humour. Is irony something that comes naturally to you?

I don't know about irony, but I do find humor in dark things. I'm always in trouble for making jokes at inappropriate times.

There's been a lot of talk about noir renaissance of the 2000s and The Ice Harvest has been hailed as one of the most important novels of the movement. Do you feel there's a movement and what lies behind it?

There are a lot of good writers working that particular vein at the moment: Megan Abbot, Christa Faust, Vicki Hendricks and Anthony Neil Smith come to mind. There are also a number of people working in what you might call a noirish style writing about rural America: Chris Offutt, Daniel Woodrell, William Gay and Tom Franklin, as well as an up and coming group consisting of Frank Bill, Jedidiah Ayres, Kieran Shea, Greg Bardsley, Malachi Stone, Daniel O'Shea and a few others. In Scotland you have Allan Guthrie, in Ireland Declan Burke, in France any number of practitioners of the genre, loosely defined. So there's a lot of really good noir being written right now; it's just a question of whether the general public starts reading more of it or not.

Do you have any favourite books amongst the new noir books?

I loved Dope Thief, by Dennis Tafoya. He just sent me his latest in manuscript, which I'm very excited to read.

What did you think about the film that was based on The Ice Harvest?

I loved the movie, apart from the change in the ending. I have to admit that I supported that change along with everyone else at the time, because the studio thought they had a big hit on their hands (they didn't), but only if the ending was changed. Harold Ramis had a very good feel for the tension between the humor and the bleakness.

What are you working on now? I hear you have a novel coming out, can you tell us something about it?

The new novel is called "Supply Sarge," it's the story of a corrupt US Army quarter master who comes out of the army in 1946 and finds himself in Wichita trying to lead that quintessential postwar American life: husband, father, businessman. The trouble is that at heart he's a psychopath. His name is Wayne Ogden, and I've written about him before. In my second novel, The Walkaway, he was the villain. I found myself enjoying his voice so much that when [crime fiction publisher] Dennis McMillan asked me a few years later for a short story set in the 30s, I went back to Wayne's adolescence, when he was a bit more innocent but still a villain waiting to be born. Then I wrote another story, set in that same period, where Wayne and his friends kill a bald eagle. In this novel he's teereing on the brink between wanting to be a good citizen and feeling the need to be a pimp and a thug.

The Finnish Ice Harvest

Here's the Finnish cover for Scott Phillips's The Ice Harvest, done, again, by the great Ossi Hiekkala.

Review of Conrad Hirst

Ossi Hiekkala, the great illustrator of Arktinen Banaani's paperback series, found this very positive blog review of Kevin Wignall's Kuka on Conrad Hirst? The writer, blogger Kari Naskinen, compares, quite rightly, the book to Graham Greene's thrillers and says that Wignall's book could've well been published in the high-literary and prestigious Keltainen kirjasto series, which is quite a compliment. (Even though, with the exception of Brighton Rock, none of Greene's entertainments came out in that series.) He also compares Conrad Hirst to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which is pretty apt.

The writer ends his review: "The best book I've read in years."

He mentions that this was so good he rushed out to buy the other books in the paperback series: Duane Swierczynski's Keikkakuski aka The Wheelman and Allan Guthrie's Viimeinen suudelma aka Kiss Her Goodbye. He says about Keikkakuski thus: "Top-notch, represents the American hardboiled tradition at its best."

James Sallis's Kylmä kyyti (aka Drive) out in Finnish!

James Sallis's Kylmä kyyti (Drive) is the latest book in the paperback series I edit for the Finnish publisher, Arktinen Banaani. The book is just fresh from the printers and I'm not sure if it's available in bookshops as yet, but it will be soon. The book tells about a Hollywood stunt driver who's engaged into criminal activity on the side. He's fallen into a trap and the book follows both his past and his future almost at the same time, in vivid non-chronological narration. The Finnish title means literally "Cold Ride".

I asked some questions from James Sallis, who's been writing from the late sixties on and has been getting more widely-known, perhaps mainly due to the fact that Drive is just an excellent novel, one that combines hard-hitting violence and ballad-like beauty. I'll translate the interview in Finnish later on.

The excellent cover is again by Ossi Hiekkala, who's done the cover art for the earlier Banaani paperbacks as well.

Drive is a very lean book - the Finnish edition is only 208 pages, with a loose layout. Why did you want to write such a short book?

My intention from the first was to write a contemporary equivalent of the old original paperback novels that came from Fawcett Gold Medal and such: short, hard-hitting, muscular, with great momentum.

Have you always been interested in the world of stunt car drivers? What interests you in them?

Actually, I knew very little about the subject. Drive began with the character, with Driver; to write him, and to know him, I had to learn about driving. Some of it is from books, and some of it is from a friend who test drives cars for a living.

Drive is also a very beautiful book. In the end, just in the last lines, it transforms into a ballad. Was this something you set out to do?

Thank you. I had no idea, and in fact was concerned all along with how I’d be able to bring the book to a suitable end. The end came to me in a rush – the character had to take on a greater presence, become mythlike. Those final lines dropped into my head as I was out for one of many walks, and I hurried home to get them down.

Drive has a very difficult narrative technique, speeding back and forth in time. Were you influenced by Quentin Tarantino or was this something you've been doing for a long time?

From the first. If you look at a Lew Griffin novels, you may find one chapter detailing what happened today, the next chapter skipping ahead three days, the chapter after that returning to “tomorrow.” The most blatant example of this would be the conclusion of the second Turner novel, Cripple Creek, where I skip ahead to the aftermath and then, in the final chapter, return to what occasioned the aftermath. Let me emphasize, though, that this is by no means trickery; these are solutions I’ve found to my desire to tell the story as fully as possible. In our minds, we do not live in straight lines.

What were some of your other influences? Walter Hill's film The Driver, perhaps? You also name some European, more artful writers, like Celan. What's behind that? It's not usual for a crime writer to drop names like that.

Incredible as it seems, I didn’t know the Walter Hill film until after Drive was written; I’ve still not seen it. As for European writers, I’ve a long, long engagement with them, beginning when I lived in London in the late Sixties – and especially with French writers. I did, for instance, the sole English-language translation of Raymond Queneau’s novel Saint Glinglin. I’ve translated poetry by Cendrars, Yves Bonnefoy, Neruda, Jacques Dupin, Pasternak, and many others. I am also profoundly influenced by science fiction, which is what I first wrote professionally; most of my oldest friends are science fiction writers.

You are better known for your longer and more complex novels, for example those featuring PI Lew Griffin. Will you be writing more in the vein of Drive?

Drive was meant (like Death Will Have Your Eyes before it) primarily as homage, and as a gift to myself. None of us had any suspicion that it would prove so popular. The novel I’m finishing up now began as – I thought – another muscular, fast-moving novel, but it promptly changed course. And at this point I’m just kind of following it along, seeing where it wants to go.

There are rumours of a movie based on Drive, with Hugh Jackman in the lead. Do you know anything about what state is that in?

The option has just been renewed. They have what I’m told is quite an outstanding script. We’ll see. The six Lew Griffin novels, by the way, are also in development.

Thank you for your time, Jim!

Tuuli Rannikko's take on Conrad Hirst

During Kevin Wignall's visit to Finland the Kouvola Crime Fiction Festival we met the charming Finnish writer Tuuli Rannikko, who's been living in England for the last 20 years or so. She was very interested in Kevin's book, Kuka on Conrad Hirst? / Who Is Conrad Hirst? Earlier this week I received her short review on the book via Kevin:

Conrad Hirst was an interesting book, in a way a hardboiled thriller, on the other hand a touching description of a broken man. [The book's about] how futile are all our hopes and fears, how fate is laughing at us.

Tommi Aitio's review of Keikkakuski

Here's a quote from Tommi Aitio's very positive and knowledgeable review of Duane Swierczynski's Keikkakuski. It appeared in Kauppalehti on June, 23rd.

Älä ota kesäkissaa, hanki kesäkirja!

Kauppalehti luki puolestasi suven kiinnostavimmat kirjauutuudet - Duane Swierczynski operoi Jim Thompsonin, Charles Williamsin, Charles Willefordin ja Elmore Leonardin rajaamassa vaikutuskentässä, ja millä ketteryydellä!

Keikkakuski ei kenties luo kovan dekkarin perinteeseen mitään uutta, mutta tyylipastissina se on niin täydellinen, että sen soisi herättävän vaikkapa Tarantinon huomion. Virheetön suoritus, kerrassaan.

Hurmehommat Keikkakuski kuvaa kohtuullisen suorasukaisesti niin kuin valitun tyylilajin ilmaisulliseen perinteeseen kuuluu. Perinnetietoista on myös Swierczynskin tapa pyöräyttää luku luvulta tarinaan lisää henkilöhahmoja ja narratiivisia käänteitä. Lopulta porukkaa on paikalla lähes hallitsemattomasti, mutta tällaiset dramaturgiset haasteet Swierczynski voittaa tapattamalla muutaman tyypin pois juonenkulkua häiritsemästä. Autenttinen pulp-kirjailija, siis.

Kevin Wignall in Finland

As part of the new paperback series I'm editing for the Arktinen Banaani publishing house, we invited Kevin Wignall, the author of Kuka on Conrad Hirst? (Who Is Conrad Hirst, orig. 2007), over to Finland to promote the book. He came to Finland last Thursday when the weather had suddenly turned to worse, which he got to hear a lot. He said to me that the first person he met in Finland - the taxi driver from the airport to the hotel - apologized to him for the weather. "It's not your fault", Wignall said to the driver.

I met him early on Friday morning at the lobby of his hotel. He's enormously tall, almost two meters (which you'll see in a photo). There's a feel of an indie rock singer in him, maybe due to the fact he was wearing sunglasses almost all the time. First Wignall gave two interviews, to Helsingin Sanomat, the biggest newspaper in Finland and practically the only that's national, and the Ruumiin kulttuuri magazine, the magazine of the Finnish Whodunit Society (meaning Body Culture). Both of the interviewers had really liked Kuka on Conrad Hirst?, especially Janne Mäkelä, who writes for the Ruumiin kulttuuri magazine. I got to talk with him a bit about Conrad Hirst and he was really taken by the economy of Wignall's narration and his melancholy, but effective style. And he's absolutely right.

After those interviews, we had a press launch for the book which went fairly well, with Wignall wondering what on earth is the Finnish Donald Duck Magazine and what its editor is doing in a crime book launch. I interviewed Wignall shortly and we discussed Conrad Hirst and its relation to the Yugoslavian Civil War and the war's effect on the European self-consciousness. We also talked about his coming novel, Dark Flag, that's about the 9/11 conspiracies and sounds very, very interesting. The book hasn't found a publisher as yet, but it's more than likely that it already has a Finnish publisher. (Arktinen Banaani's publisher Harto Pasonen was very taken by how well liked Conrad Hirst was by all who had had time to read it and that's a perfectly serious novel. As if the earlier novels in the paperback series, à la The Wheelman, aren't serious!)

We also talked about writing short books, and I asked Wignall whether he sees there's a new generation that's concentrating more on short books. "Yes." Do you see anything particular behind the phenomenon? "No." Could you elaborate? "We are going in cycles. Long books have dominated the scene for long and now it's simply time for shorter books." I had wished we'd gone for a long discussion over hardboiled and noir masters who delivered great tales in 50,000 words, but clearly Wignall isn't nostalgic over old paperbacks. Instead he said that one of his big influences, Graham Greene, wrote short books. "I also remember hating Camus's The Stranger as a teenager, and after reading that I said to myself I never want to write anything like this, but after people have read my books, they keep telling me I remind them of Camus's The Stranger!", Wignall laughed and said that maybe it did leave an impact on him.

After the lunch we headed towards Suomalainen Kirjakauppa's (the biggest chain of bookstores in Finland) store where Wignall gave a short interview with me and signed some books for readers. One of the customers was Antti Tuomainen, the Finnish noir writer, and one was the series illustrator Ossi Hiekkala, but one of them was also a nice elderly lady who had already read the book and seemed having liked it quite a bit! Wignall said to me later that this was a success. "Usually in the UK the customers don't come asking for an autograph, the writer just signs the books in stock and walks away."

After this we went for a dinner at the classic Finnish restaurant, Elite, and talked about immigration, wines, climate change and publishing. Wignall had a share of nice anecdotes about publishers' stupidities, including some absolutely ridiculous stuff about advances - he mentioned at one point a female writer in the UK who was paid I believe 60,000 pounds (or was it even 600,000?) for the first two books and when they didn't sell "enough", they dropped her out and she's just sold her new book to a small press for 1,000 pounds.

Saturday morning we headed early to Kouvola where the Crime Fiction Festival takes place. I said to Wignall that it's a smallish town, but when we arrived to the town, Wignall was very taken by the town: "This isn't small by British standards." Wignall - who turned out to be very interested in modern architecture - said he liked the Kouvola theater building where the festival is held. (I should the building is from the early sixties. We could talk about architecture a bit, since that's the subject I'm very interested in.)

We had been thinking that maybe Kouvola isn't very important to us, it being small and all, but it proved out to be a success. Wignall said later that when he'll tell his colleagues how much audience he had, everyone wants to be published by Arktinen Banaani and have a panel at Kouvola: 150 listeners in the audience! Wignall laughed that Michael Connelly, who's one of the best known crime writers around the world, had only the audience of 60 at the Bristol crime festival. And we sold almost some 40 books which was way more than was anticipated, and there was a line leading to Wignall who signed the books patiently.

The talk before that went very well and we got pretty deep into Wignall's books, starting Graham Greene and Albert Camus and ending up in a long discussion over what he is aiming at in his books. Sounds serious, doesn't it? Actually we joked around a lot and kept the audience happy. And what is he aiming at? I should say that Wignall's main point in his books is to explore the short moment during which someone turns into a killer and the possibility to go back and start anew. In that he shares themes with Greene who was also interested in the idea of redemption.

There was a strange thing during and after the panel. I introduced the paperback series and said that these books are pretty tough and violent. I noticed a lady bursting out. After the panel, I was standing and waiting for Wignall's signing duty to end. An elderly lady came up to me crying and saying: "Why did you say the books are violent? I couldnt' stand it and had to go out. My neighbour beat me up and police can't do a thing about it. I listened to his [Wignall's] philosophy in the lobby and it was beautiful. Why did you have to spoil it?" I said I was sorry, and when the lady looked almost collapsing, I asked her if she was alright. She said that she is, which she cleary wasn't. "Here's hoping things turn better", I said. "No, they won't." It was a very sad exchange, but should I have lied to the lady? And when I said about this to Wignall, he asked: "What was she doing then in a crime festival?"

We talked afterwards with some people at the festival and met Tuuli Rannikko, a Finnish crime writer, a very charming lady who lives nowadays in London. She said she'd buy Wignall's book in English. Turned out that she has lived in Turku in the same building as we are now when she was young!

Then we ate at the local pizza place and Wignall couldn't resist a Rudolf, pizza with reindeer meat. And then we drove back to Helsinki and Wignall fed me with stuff I really can't go public with: the book he was supposed to like but didn't, a crime writer who's not what he says he is, the thing between the British officials and Wignall... We had still one gig at another store of the Suomalainen chain, but this time we sold only two books. The other went to a nice, but shy young woman, and the other one to a middle-aged man with a scruffy beard. Wignall: "I'm aiming for the afore mentioned, but end up having only the latter mentioned."

The store clerk however was genuinely interested in Conrad Hirst and books in general, which is rare in this particular chain. Wignall wrapped his fingers around the lady soon without being flirty - a thing which I really admired. I hope she continues keeping Kevin Wignall's books up!

Wignall left on a ship to Stockholm on Saturday afternoon, with plans to take a train to Britain, and I hope he's back safely. I had great time with him and we have been eager about inviting other writers in the paperback series to Finland. Over a cider we talked about other business plans with the publisher and there's a possibility we'll be seeing original Finnish books in the series. I have actually been promised two manuscripts... More on them later!

The pictures from the top: Kevin Wignall in front of the Kouvola municipal athletics building (right next to the theater; photo taken by me), Kevin Wignall and me on stage at the Kouvola crime festival, Kevin Wignall signing. (Photos by Jussi Katajala to whom many thanks!)

Kevin Wignall a storming success

As I write this, Kevin Wignall is on a ferry trip to Stockholm and probably can't read this, and I'm, to put it mildly, pretty tired at the moment after touring for two days with Kevin, so I'll make the long story short: Kevin Wignall is a great guy, a nice person, wonderful with ladies, prolific signer of the books, good speaker and an excellent novelist. His two-day tour stay in Finland was a success and I'm happy we brought him here.

More later, with photos.

Kevin Wignall Suomeen perjantaina

Kriitikoiden ylistämä Kevin Wignall Suomeen

Kuka on Conrad Hirst? on merkittävä romaani Jugoslavian sisällissodasta

Kevin Wignall on nouseva brittikirjailija, joka on jo saavuttanut kulttimainetta ja kriitikoiden arvostuksen neljällä omaperäisellä rikosromaanillaan. Wignall on erikoistunut kirjoittamaan palkkatappajista, mutta hänen tappajansa ovat epävarmoja ja yksinäisiä ihmisiä, joiden uraa talouden ja politiikan horjahtelut heilauttavat.

Suomeksi nyt ilmestyvä Kuka on Conrad Hirst? kertoo palkkatappajasta, jonka ura alkoi Jugoslavian sisällissodan hämärissä. Hirst haluaa lopettaa hommansa ja päättää ottaa selville, keitä ovat hänen salaperäiset työnantajansa. Hirstillä on vain yksi vihje, mutta sen seuraaminen tuottaa tuloksia. Yksitellen palkkatappaja päästää työnantajat päiviltä vain huomatakseen, että häntä luullaan vastapuolen vakoojaksi.

Alun perin vuonna 2007 ilmestynyt Kuka on Conrad Hirst? tuo tuulahduksen 1930-luvulta ja Graham Greenen ja Eric Amblerin vakoiluromaaneista. Kevin Wignall päivittää lajityypin vastaamaan 2000-luvun monimutkaisia globaaleja kuvioita.

Wignall saapuu Suomeen julkistamaan suomennoksen ilmestymistä. Perjantaina 5.6. on julkistamis- ja signeeraustilaisuus Aleksanterinkadun Suomalaisessa Kirjakaupassa klo 16.30 ja lauantaina 6.6. Kampin Suomalaisessa Kirjakaupassa klo 15.00. Lisäksi hän esiintyy Kouvolan dekkaripäivillä lauantaina 6.6. klo 10.15. Kouvolan teatterissa.

Kuka on Conrad Hirst? on osa Arktisen Banaanin tänä keväänä aloittamaa pokkarisarjaa, jossa ilmestyy uutta amerikkalaista ja englantilaista kovaksikeitettyä dekkaria. Aiemmat kirjat sarjassa ovat Duane Swierczynskin Keikkakuski ja Allan Guthrien Viimeinen suudelma. Ensi syksynä ilmestyvät James Sallisin palkintoja kahminut Ajo (Drive) sekä Scott Phillipsin elokuvanakin tunnettu mestariteos Jäätävää satoa (The Ice Harvest). Sarjaa toimittaa dekkariasiantuntija Juri Nummelin.

Wignallista lisää täällä.

Kevin Wignall's translation out

The paperback series I'm editing has a new book out, and it's one I'm personally very proud of: Kevin Wignall's Who Is Conrad Hirst? The Finnish title is simply Kuka on Conrad Hirst?, which is the literal translation.

Here's the cover by Ossi Hiekkala - and once again, it's great. I'll be posting more about Wignall and his book later, but here's a piece I wrote when I first read the book some time ago.

I'm also happy to tell you that Kevin Wignall is coming over to Finland next Friday and he'll be at the Kouvola crime fiction festival on Saturday morning.

The next two books in the series will come out in the Fall, and they are one of the best crime novels of the recent decade: Scott Phillips's The Ice Harvest (as Jäätävää satoa) and James Sallis's Drive (as Ajo).

Allan Guthrien Viimeinen suudelma ei ole kivaa kamaa

Allan Guthrien Viimeinen suudelma (Kiss Her Goodbye, 2005; suom. Mika Tiirinen) on toinen kirja Arktisen Banaanin uutta kovaksikeitettyä dekkaria esittelevässä pokkarisarjassa. Se on ankara kertomus Joe Hopesta, jonka työnantaja on koronkiskuri ja työväline baseball-maila.

Guthrie on skottilaisen dekkarin, ns. tartan noirin, mestari, jota on verrattu sekä Irvine Welshiin että Denise Minaan. Hänen muita romaanejaan ovat mm. rankka mustasukkaisuus- ja ristiinnaulitsemisdraama Hard Man ja silvotun ruumiin eri osien löytymisestä kertova Savage Night. Guthrien uusin romaani on tänä vuonna ilmestynyt Slammer.

Tuottelias Guthrie ehti vastata muutamaan kysymykseemme.

K: Viimeinen suudelma ei kerro sympaattisesta päähenkilöstä. Itse asiassa yksikään kirjoista ei kerro sympaattisesta päähenkilöstä. Miksi pidät sosiopaateista ja väkivaltaisesta käytöksestä, vaikka itse olet selvästi niin mukava mies?

V: No kiitosta vain - luulisin. Kirjoitan sellaisista ihmisistä, jotka kiinnostavat minua, ja minua kiehtovat epänormaalit persoonallisuudet. En voi kuvitella mitään niin epäkiinnostavaa kuin jostakusta mukavasta kirjoittaminen. Viimeisen suudelman Joe Hope on totisesti kaikkea muuta kuin mukava. Hän on koronkiskurin kovistelija ja hakkaa ihmisiä työkseen. Kun päätin kirjoittaa hänestä, se oli osittain reaktiota muutamaankin kirjaan, jotka olin lukenut - niissä gangsterit olivat loppujen lopuksi hyviä tyyppejä. Halusin kirjoittaa jostakusta, joka ei ollut vähäisimmässäkään määrin hyvis, koska se tuntui minusta realistisemmalta. Toivoin kuitenkin, että pystyisin luomaan henkilön, jota kohtaan lukija tuntisi empatiaa. Minun mielestäni se on mahdollista, koska huolimatta siitä että Joe Hope ei ole mukava tyyppi hänen tunteensa ovat vereslihaisia ja hän paljastaa lukijalle paljon omia heikkouksiaan.

K: Kirjoissasi on myös paljon mustaa huumoria. Miten onnistut löytämään niin paljon hauskuutta kaikissa kuvaamissasi hakkaamisissa ja tappamisissa?

V: Minusta olisi todella vaikea lukea jotain, mikä on pelkästään synkkää ja mustaa ja huumoritonta ja minusta olisi vielä vaikeampi kirjoittaa sellaista. Joskus yritän, mutta tuloksena on aina se, että henkilö joutuu johonkin absurdiin tilanteeseen ja siitä seuraa aina pelkkää mustaa komediaa. Minusta absurdi ja noir-kirjallisuus ovat lähellä toisiaan, melkein sama asia käytännössä. Absurdin tunne on tunne elämän merkityksettömyydestä. Noir kertoo siitä, että olemme kaikki tuomittuja. Kun ne yhdistää, tuloksena voi olla aika synkkää hupaa.

K: Kirjasi ovat myös melko lyhyitä (Viimeisessä suudelmassa on 255 sivua). Mikä sinua kiehtoo lyhyessä muodossa aikana jolloin rikos- tai jännitysromaanin vakiopituus on 400-500 sivun paikkeilla?

V: Kirjojeni pituus on yleensä jotain 60 000 ja 75 000 sanan väliltä. Kirjat varmasti tuntuvat lyhyemmiltä kuin ne oikeasti ovat, koska kirjoitan tiiviisti ja yritän pitää juonen niin nopeassa liikkeessä kuin mahdollista. Yleensä jännäreissä sankarille jää paljon aikaa parantua kaikista hakkaamisista, mutta minä en juuri anna sankarireppanoilleni paljonkaan rauhallisia hetkiä. Minusta olisi vaikea kirjoittaa 500-sivuista kirjaa. Olen tehnyt sitä joidenkin varhaisten versioiden kohdalla, mutta niissä on paljon roskaa ja ylimääräistä täytettä ja tarpeettomia kohtauksia, joten kirjat tulevat aina paljon ohuemmiksi jahka rupean käymään tekstiä läpi.

K: Suomeksi saattaa ilmestyä myöhemmin muitakin kirjojasi. Mitä voit kertoa meille uusimmasta romaanistasi, hyviä arvosteluja saaneesta Slammerista?

V: Slammer on tosiaan saanut pari hyvää arviota, mikä on todella mukavaa. Se on vankilakirja kokemattomasta vanginvartijasta, jonka elämä on nopeasti muuttumassa suunnattomaksi sotkuksi. Slammer kertoo vartijan yrityksistä päästä irti tuosta sotkusta ja niistä seurauksista, jotka hänen toimintansa aiheuttaa. Olisi upeaa nähdä kirja myös suomeksi. Arktisen Banaanin kirjoissa on todella upeat kannet ja olisi hieno nähdä, mitä kuvittaja Slammerista keksii.

Q&A with Allan Guthrie

Here's another short interview with an author whose work I've had pleasure getting to print inside the paperback covers of Arktinen Banaani's new crime series. Allan Guthrie is the writer of Viimeinen suudelma (Kiss Her Goodbye, Hard Case Crime 2005; translated in Finnish by Mika Tiirinen), a hard-hitting tale of Joe Hope, bad guy whose main tool is a baseball bat and whose daughter commits a suicide and whose ex-wife gets killed. (I'll be posting the interview also in Finnish, as soon as I get it translated.)

Q: Kiss Her Goodbye doesn't tell about a sympathetic character. None of your novels features a sympathetic character. Why do you like sociopaths and violent behaviour, while you're yourself such a nice man?

A: Why, thank you. I think! I write about the kind of people who interest me, and I'm fascinated by abnormal personalities. I can't think of anything more boring than writing about somebody 'nice'. Joe Hope in Kiss Her Goodbye is certainly not nice. He's an enforcer for a loan shark, and beats people up for a living. When I decided to write about him, it was in part as a reaction against a few novels I'd read around that time where the gangster was a good guy at heart. I wanted to write about someone who wasn't even remotely a good guy, because I felt that was far more realistic. I hoped I'd be able to create the kind of empathy that would enable the reader to feel something for the character nonetheless. I think it's possible, because despite the fact that Joe Hope's not a nice guy, his emotions are fairly raw, and he exposes a lot of weaknesses to the reader.

Q: There's also lots of black humour in your books. How can you find humour in all those beatings and killings?

A: I'd find it hard to read something that was consistently dark and bleak and humourless, and I find it just as hard to write. Sometimes I try, but what usually happens is that a character will get into an absurd situation and there's a bit of comedy as a result. But that's fine with me. I think absurdity and noir are very closely connected. Almost the same thing. Absurdity is about the ultimate meaninglessness of life. Noir is about the fact that we're all doomed. Put them together and you can have some dark fun.

Q: Your books are also very short. What attracts you in the short form now when the crime novels and thriller are almost always 500 pages?

A: My books range from 62,000 to 75,000 words. I think they probably feel shorter than they are. That's possibly because I tend to write quite sparsely and aim to keep the plot moving as quickly as possible. Most thrillers have significant downtime for the character to recover from the ordeal he's facing, but I don't give the poor guy much peace at all. I'd struggle to fill 500 pages, I think. I've done that with early drafts, but there's so much rubbish and padding and unnecessary scenes in those that they soon slim down a more athletic size once I start revising.

Q: We may have more of your books in Finnish in the near future. What can you tell us about your latest novel, Slammer, that has been getting lots of good publicity?

A: Yes, Slammer's had one or two nice reviews, which is most pleasing. It's a prison novel about an inexperienced prison officer whose life is rapidly turning into an almighty mess. It's about his attempts to extricate himself from that mess and the consequences of the choices he makes to do so. It'd be great to see it published in Finland. Arktinen Banaani's book covers are superb, and I'd love to see what the artist comes up with. Here's hoping...

Duane Swierczynski iskee lujaa

Vastikään ilmestynyt Keikkakuski aloittaa Arktisen Banaanin uuden pokkarisarjan, joka tuo suomalaisten lukijoiden ulottuville parasta uutta kovaksikeitettyä dekkaria Yhdysvalloista ja Englannista.

Keikkakuski on Duane Swierczynskin toinen romaani. Ensimmäinen oli outo paranoidista scifiä ja kovaksikeitettyä dekkaria sekoittava Secret Dead Men, joka ilmestyi PointBlank-kustantamolta vuonna 2005. Keikkakuski eli The Wheelman otti kuitenkin dekkarimaailman ällikällä ilmestyessään keskisuuren St. Martin’s -kustantamon kovakantisena kirjana vielä samana vuonna. Yhdistelmä rajua väkivaltaa ja sysimustaa huumoria puri erityisesti ylipitkiin ja löysiin trillereihin kyllästyneisiin lukijoihin ja tuntui tuovan kovaksikeitetyn lajityypin suoraan 2000-luvulle.

Kysyimme muutamia kysymyksiä kiireiseltä kirjailijalta.

Miten Keikkakuski syntyi?

Kirjoitin sitä huvikseni lukukausien välillä, kun opetin journalismia. En ollut vielä julkaissut mitään, mutta olin jo kirjoittanut Secret Dead Menin, joka oli jäänyt tietokoneen kovalevylle. Halusin kokeilla, onnistuisiko tiukan ja ilkeän rikoskirjan kirjoittaminen, enkä ajatellut, että se johtaisi mihinkään. Halusin yksinkertaisesti vain viihdyttää itseäni.

Keikkakuski on kunnianosoitus Richard Starkin (eli Donald Westlaken) Parker-kirjoille ja ylipäätään koko keikkalajityypille. Miksi keikkakuvaukset kiinnostavat sinua?

En oikeastaan ole keikkalajityypin suuri fani. Täydellisesti ajoitetun keikan suunnittelu ja toteutus ei innosta minua yhtä paljon kuin pieleen menneen keikan jälkiselvittelyt. Sen takia Keikkakuskikin alkaa muutamia sekunteja sen jälkeen, kun keikka on käytännössä jo hoidettu.

Oletko samaa mieltä, että kovaksikeitetty noir-dekkari elää nyt uutta nousukautta? Mistä se johtuu?

Minulla ei ole käsitystäkään. Sanoisin, että täällä USA:ssa pannaan jotain veteen, mutta vastaavia kirjoja on ilmestynyt viime aikoina paljon myös Englannissa ja Suomessakin, joten... Oikeasti olen sitä mieltä, että aina on lukijoita, jotka kaipaavat tällaisia synkkiä tarinoita. Ainoa asia, mikä muuttuu, on se, että kirjoille laitetaan erilaisia nimilappuja muutaman vuoden välein.

Onko sinulla joitain suosikkeja uusien kirjailijoiden joukossa?

Olin muutama kuukausi sitten aivan täpinöissäni Josh Bazellin kirjasta Beat the Reaper. Hän onnistui yhdistämään kaksi todella erilaista lajityyppiä, gangsterieepoksen ja lääkärijännärin, ja tuloksena oli jotain todella outoa, brutaalia ja väkivaltaisen hauskaa. En vieläkään ymmärrä, miten hän sen teki.

Keikkakuski on todella vauhdikas ja väkivaltainen kirja, mutta väkivalta tuntuu todelliselta, koska se sattuu. Miten määrittelisit eron sellaisen väkivallan välillä, joka on olemassa draaman takia, ja sellaisen, joka on pantu mukaan vain sen itsensä vuoksi?

Aina kun kirjoitan väkivaltaisen kohtauksen yritän saada aikaan jonkinlaisen tunteen lukijassa. Joskus haluan saadan heidät itkemään. Joskus hätkähtämään. Joskus nauramaan ja sitten tuntemaan itsensä syylliseksi.

Seuraavaksi sinulta ilmestyy suomeksi The Blonde (keväällä 2010 nimellä Vaaleaverikkö). Millainen kirja se on?

The Blonde on minun femme fatale -romaanini, sellainen jossa kaveri tapaa vääränlaisen naisen baarissa ja hänen elämänsä menee päin helvettiä. Tässä tapauksessa sankari Jack kohtaa naisen, joka sanoo, että jos hänet jätetään kymmeneksikin sekunniksi yksin, hän kuolee. Kenetköhän nainen pakottaa pitämään itselleen seuraa koko yön..?

Olet myös kirjoittanut Cable-, Iron Fist- ja Punisher-sarjakuvia Marvelille. Onko romaaneissasi vaikutteita sarjakuvista?

Ilman muuta. Minua kiehtoo ennen kaikkea laittaa henkilöt äärirajoilleen ja katsoa, miten he reagoivat niissä tilanteissa. Supersankarit kuten Cable ja Iron Fist eivät ole siinä mielessä erilaisia. Joskus minusta tuntuu, että olen kehitellyt juonet kirjoihini kaavalla: kiduta henkilöitäsi niin kauan että he melkein kuolevat.

Muutamia eriskummaisia faktoja Duane Swiercynskistä:

- kirjailijan sukunimi tarkoittaa kuusipuun lähellä asuvaa
- Duane ja hänen veljensä Gregg saivat nimensä Allman Brothers -bändiltä
- Duanen äidin sukunimi lyheni, kun hän meni naimisiin – hänen tyttönimensä oli Wojciechowski
- Duanen esikoispojan nimi Parker on kunnianosoitus Richard Starkin romaaneille
- Puolassa Swierczynskin nimi lausutaan ”Smith”