Scene of the Crime with Author Sam Millar

This week on Scene of the Crime, I'm very pleased to interview award-winning Irish writer Sam Millar, author of mysteries featuring Karl Kane, a private investigator in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Sam has had a remarkable life, and if you'd like to know more about it, the best thing to do would be to get a copy of his book, On the Brinks, and read it.

Millar is a man of undisputed talent and conviction, and by paying attention to the links he shares via Facebook and Twitter, I've become more aware of what's going on in the world around me.

Sam Millar

The two books in the Karl Kane mystery series are: Bloodstorm (2008) and The Dark Place (2009), and Millar is also the author of non-series books Dark Souls (2003), The Redemption Factory (2005), and The Darkness of Bones (2006).

If you'd like to know more about the author...

Sam Millar's website

Sam Millar on Facebook

Sam Millar on Twitter

Now let's get on to the interview!


What was the very first book you remember reading and loving? What makes that book so special?

The very first book I remember reading was Noddy in Toyland. The book was very special for me as I was able to ‘hide’ in it, along with all its fascinating and wacky characters. My mother walked out on us when I was eight, and that book helped save my sanity (though some people would say not entirely…).


Outside of your writing and all associated commitments, what do you like to do in your free time?

I do voluntary work with mental health and depression sufferers. Neither I - nor my family- realized at the time that when my mother walked out on us never to be seen alive again, she suffered from chronic depression. Very little was known in those days about chronic depression. Working with people in the mental health profession has become very cathartic for me, and given me a better insight into the suffering depression causes.


If I were to visit your hometown, where would you recommend that I go? (I like seeing and doing things that aren't in all the guide books.)

I would say the Cave Hill, a very famous but overlooked ‘beauty spot’ in Belfast. It’s a large cliff area with a prominent rock formation known locally as Napoleon’s Nose. I have based some of my crime novels there, and of late it has started getting the recognition it deserves. Though according to the Tourist Board of Ireland, no thanks to my grim crime novels.


You have total control over casting a movie based on your life. Which actor would you cast as you?

Jeremy Renner

Sean Penn had been tipped to play me in Warner Brother’s direction of my controversial memoir, On The Brinks. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration became embroiled in it, and the film was put on hold. For me, the perfect actor would now be Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, The Town).


Who is your favorite recurring character in crime fiction?

Apart form my own Karl Kane, of course! I’ve fallen in love with Caitlin Strong from best-selling author Jon Land’s brilliant Strong series (Strong At the Break, Strong Justice, et al). Caitlin is a very strong female, and a great role model for young women. My two daughters love her. Secretly, I think my wife is jealous of her.


Before your very first published mystery, what else had you written (short stories, articles, unpublished manuscripts)?

I was lucky to have written short stories before learning the craft of novel writing. Some of the short stories went on to win literary prizes in Ireland (Aisling Award for Art and Culture, Martin Healy Short Story Award, Brian Moore Award for Short Stories and the Cork Literary Review Writer’s Competition). Others went on to be performed by the BBC. I have always loved writing short stories; unfortunately, it’s tough finding a publisher willing to take a chance on short story collections.


What did you do the first time you saw one of your books on a shelf in a bookstore? How did you celebrate when you first heard you were to be published?

When I finally was told my first book, Dark Souls, was to be published, I could hardly breathe. Coming from a working-class family, I could only daydream of ever becoming a writer in Ireland. Then it happened. When the book went on sale in the local bookstore, I remember bringing all my family and friends to come and look at it sitting there with all the other published books. Looking back now, it was probably very embarrassing for them, standing there staring at my book! I celebrated by going out for a nice meal with my family, at a local restaurant.  I don’t think I remember the conversation, because I was still floating on air.


I don't know if you've seen it, but I love Parnell Hall's video about book signings. What is the most unusual experience you've had at a book signing or author event?

The most embarrassing book signing I did was in Dublin. A woman came up with a book, and asked me to sign it for her. Then I realized the book was not mine, but another fellow Irish crime writer called Cormac Millar (no relation). I signed the book, anyway, and thanked her, as I hadn’t the heart to tell her that wasn’t my book she had just bought.


The way some people talk, the only way to read now or in the future is with some sort of electronic device, like my husband's Nook. What is your opinion of eBooks, and how will they affect you as a published author?

Two years ago, I was very skeptical about Kindle. I said it would never catch on. Of course, the rest as they say is history. Ebooks are here to stay and authors and publishers ignore them at their peril. One of my early crime books, The Darkness of Bones was released last month on Kindle. Within three days, it had topped the Amazon.co.uk best sellers in Kindle format. I was totally shocked, as little publicity was created for it. Word of mouth on the Internet did all the selling. I am a true convert to ebooks. [Congratulations!]


Thank you so much for taking the time for this interview, Sam. May you have many best sellers to come!

Don't forget to stop by next Monday when my guest on Scene of the Crime will be Ann Purser, British author of the cozy Lois Meade mystery series. See you then!

Celebrating Mysteries: Irish (Private) Eyes

Last weekend I had fun telling you about some of my favorite Irish historical mysteries. This weekend it's the turn of a very special breed: the private investigators. The very best of them aren't in it for the money. They seem to be in it for the thrill of the chase, the fun of solving a puzzle, and the rush of bringing a villain to justice. Their hours are even more uncertain than those of their cousins, the police, and the lack of sleep brings a grittier feel to the proceedings.

More than any other sub genre of crime fiction, the terms most associated with private investigators are noir, violent, and hardboiled. There can be a strong sense of moral ambiguity, and although justice may be reached, the world remains an unfair place. In many ways, this is a sub genre that tends to be preferred by men-- but there are women (like me) who don't mind an occasional walk on the wild side.

Love 'em or hate 'em, private investigators are a major part of crime fiction, and Ireland has some of the best. For this installment of Celebrating Mysteries, I'd like to bring attention to three of them: Ed Loy, Karl Kane and Jack Taylor.

Declan Hughes

Ed Loy is the creation of Irish playwright Declan Hughes, and is the sort of P.I. who would rather fight his way out of a situation than sit around and think about it. He's been based in Los Angeles, California, for twenty years, but the death of his mother brings him home to Ireland to settle her affairs in the first book of the series, The Wrong Kind of Blood, which won the 2007 Shamus Award for Best First Novel.

There are currently five books in this series, which has been praised for the development of its main characters as well as its vivid portrayals of the streets of Dublin:

The Wrong Kind of Blood (2006)

The Color of Blood (2007)

The Price of Blood (2008)

All the Dead Voices (2009)

City of Lost Girls (2010)

Here's what Booklist had to say about Hughes' first Ed Loy book, The Wrong Kind of Blood:

PI Edward Loy returns to Ireland from California to bury his mother and lands himself in a knotty thicket of iniquity, as the Irish real-estate boom unearths old corpses and creates a few new ones. Retained by a profligate lady friend to find her missing husband, Loy wades into the labyrinthine dealings of two conspicuous families, the land-developing Dawsons and the drug-dealing Halligans, who may have more in common than either would like to admit. Loy is the sort of brash PI who would as soon use his head for inflicting blunt-force trauma as for cogitation. Hughes vividly conveys the sights, sounds, and smells of the Dublin streets.

Sam Millar

Author Sam Millar has a life fit for the movies. His memoir, On the Brinks, tells (amongst other things) the true story of one of America's biggest robberies-- and a pardon from President Clinton.

His creation, Karl Kane, is a likable, non-sexist, and non-violent man living in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but once he is placed in a violent situation, he does what needs to be done.

So far, there are two Karl Kane books, and I know of many readers who are eagerly awaiting a third.

Bloodstorm (2008)

The Dark Place (2009)

Here's what Publishers Weekly had to say about the first book in the series, Bloodstorm:

At the start of this powerful first of a new crime series from Irish author Millar, wild dogs finish off a battered gang-rape victim, left for dead in a unused quarry outside Belfast one summer day in 1978. Decades later, someone is picking off the men responsible for this outrage. At the behest of a shadowy employer, PI Karl Kane investigates the death of one of the rapists, whose body turns up in the city's Botanic Gardens. Flashbacks to the 1960s, when a young boy witnessed his mother's murder and narrowly escaped death at her killer's hands, help build suspense as their relevance to the present-day murders slowly and chillingly comes into focus. Millar adds police corruption to the mix to make Kane's search for the truth even more troublesome.

Ken Bruen

I have to be honest with all of you and admit that my favorite Irish P.I. is the third on my list-- Jack Taylor. He doesn't even like to be called a private investigator because, to Irish ears, it sounds too much like "informer".

As written by award-winning author, Ken Bruen, Jack Taylor is a man so beset by demons that even those readers with little tolerance for such lost souls can't help but be moved and hope that-- somehow, some way-- things will finally go Jack's way. Jack Taylor is a character who walks right off the page and into a reader's mind and heart.

Currently there are eight books in the Jack Taylor series. All are lean, mean, and beautifully written.

The Guards (2001)

The Killing of the Tinkers (2002)

The Magdalen Martyrs (2003)

The Dramatist (2004)

Priest (2006)

Cross (2007)

Sanctuary (2008)

The Devil (2010)

Here's what the Library Journal had to say about Jack Taylor's first appearance in The Guards:

Jack Galway's life is spiraling downward. Dumped from the Garda Siochana ("the Guards"), Ireland's elite police force, he now passes his days drinking in a friend's bar. Enter Ann Henderson, a woman searching for her missing daughter. Jack agrees to take on her case, learning about Ann's daughter as well as other young women who have recently disappeared. Soon, he becomes personally involved with his client and her plight and works toward resolving it despite a strange sense of hopelessness that hangs over the action. While there is ultimately some form of resolution, first novelist Bruen makes no effort to tie everything up in a neat and happy ending. The writing is less hard-boiled than lyrical, with a definite edge that perfectly fits the story.

Are any of you fans of Hughes, Millar or Bruen? Speak up if I totally ignored your own favorite Irish P.I.!

Next weekend, I'll continue to Celebrate Irish Mysteries by taking a look at some Irish police officers. Bring your own list, and we'll compare!