 |
| Daniel Tessy at Cuffed Festival, March 12 2016 |
On my second day attendance to Cuffed Festival at Performance Works on Granville Island I again learned that I should pay closer attention to Marilyn Statio’s now a tad more infrequent column on mystery books in my Sunday’s NY Times Book Review.
When you hit over 70 (I am 73) I seem to thrive on comfort
music (Gerry Mulligan) and comfort crime writers like Colin Dexter, Reginald
Hill, P.D. James, Michael Dibdin and Arthur Upfield. The problem with those
writers is that they will not be writing any more books. But I do enjoy some of
the still alive ones like Ian Rankin, Jerome Charyn and that now almost
forgotten Canadian treasure J. Robert Janes. Unfortunately that other fave of
mine Paco Ignacio Taibo II (whom Alma Lee brought to Vancouver some years ago)
no longer writes crime novels. So I depend on Donna Leon, Arturo Perez-Reverte
and of course Andrea Camilleri.
But until now I never got to know or meet brand new (and
very exciting) crime writers and particularly a large crop of Canadians. Many
of these writers have been recommended by Marilyn Stasio but I have to confess
that in the last few years I avoided the names of authors that I did not know in her
column. Obviously I have been an idiot and I can now correct my ways.
And that is going to happen thanks to the Cuffed Vancouver
International Crime Writers Festival.
In today’s program in Event 3 – Take Us Away I was
pleasantly surprised by Caterina Edwards (she is married to a Sicilian) who
writes about mafia doings on that island as they relate to (!) Edmonton, Ian
Hamilton (the yet to be outed spy) whose protagonist is a Canadian/Chinese forensic
accountant who happens to be a lesbian and third in that list is my
author/actor/playwright/swordsman C. C. Humphreys whose latest novel is about a
serial murderer during London’s plague. Globe & Mail Western Arts
Correspondent, Marsha Lederman was a most efficient moderator who ran
everything like clockwork in a busy newsroom.
The second event of my day was New Sisters in Crime which featured four female writers Kristi Charish, Claudine Dumont and Rachel Greenaway (a first novelist) and Ausma Zehanat Khan whose Middle Eastern heritage has now brought us one protagonist a Muslim policeman. This is a nice contrast to Greenway’s experience in telling us about BC’s North from her point of view of having been a court reporter in Nelson and beyond. Claudine Dumont, who writes her novels in French (she is from Quebec) but has English translations spoke in a beautifully evocative English. I also know she is a photographer and has just started a cafĂ© in Montreal. I have a special affinity to Dumont because I too, get very dizzy in anything that moves and if I don’t drive the car I am in I would coat the interior. Kristi Charish writes something (new to me!) called urban fantasy that features zombies, ghosts and vampires in real cities. She has impressive diplomas in esoteric and difficult sciences but I was also impressed by her brilliant red hair (and alas I was not close enough to notice if I could have admired her freckles). But salient in the too short one hour session was their urbanity and intelligence. Moderator (also an author) Robin Spano was effusive in her enthusiasm to question and contribute to the session.
William Deverell was the moderator of two journalists (Terry
Gould a freelancer) and Kim Bolan (a Vancouver Sun reporter) who specialize in
investigative reporting. Both journalists have received death threats and Gould
has traveled to places where his life could have been sold for next to nothing.
Impressive for me (Bolan’s slide presentation was brutally effective) was Bolan’s
feeling that investigative journalism is here to stay and Gould seemed to have
an almost permanent smile of enthusiasm for what he does. In different ways
both writers showed a passion for getting the story. In Gould’s case there was
that extra question to find out, the why people who are bad may do good things
and why good people will do bad things. Deverell (why has nobody seen the
connection between this man who shares those manly qualities that Norman Mailer
had but with much more understated elegance) made the session seem to go much
too quickly. I wanted more. I proudly told Bolan that I have been subscribed to
the Vancouver Sun since 1975 and no matter what others might think about the
decline of Vancouver’s journalism standards, Bolan is ample proof that good
things happen in our city papers.
The last session of today Saturday featured three men with style who
(because of my above mentioned ignorance) were completely new to me. These are
Linwood Barclay (who could easily have a career in stand-up comedy), John Farrow
a man of perfect diction who could have lectured me about economics for hours
and I would not have fallen asleep, and Zagreb-born Alen Mattich who just may complement
that investigative book Balkan Ghosts by Robert D Kaplan.
If anything this crop of Canadian and writers from other
countries is proof that books are not moribund. It is much too easy to think
that all the above were lucky in finding publishers and agents and to be given good
contracts. The reason has to be that quality must rise to the top and every one
of these writers is a testament to this. Alma Lee is correct in thinking that Vancouver is a sophisticated enough city to have room not only for a Writer's Festival but one dedicated exclusively to crime.
During the morning and afternoon I kept hearing, before and after the sessions one of my
desert island jazz records, Money Jungle featuring Duke Ellington on piano,
Charles Mingus on bass and Max Roach on drums. I had to enquire who was in
charge of the sound. One of the sound men is Daniel Tessy. He chose the record
and I was astounded to find out he is under 30! Yes, God exists!
Few would know that C.C. Humphreys wrote his swashbuckler Jack Absolute while crashing for the duration in Alma Lee’s house. And even fewer would know that Terry Gould’s teeth are perfect because he was a poster boy (and TV) for Colgate Palmolive toothpaste in his pre-teens.
I look forward to Cuffed Festival’s last day tomorrow Sunday and I hope the festival comes roaring back real soon.
Cuffed Festival and William Deverell