And it is with Labour Day that we bring “Dundurn’s Summer of Murder and Mayhem” to an official close. It’s been a great few weeks of reviews, giveaways, and inside info on your favourite Dundurn detectives. We’ve had great feedback from authors and readers alike, and must thank you all for your participation.

It’s back to regularly scheduled blogging next Tuesday, but keep checking back for more murderous tidbits. After all, crime doesn’t stop with daylight savings, and sometimes the Winter blues can take on a whole new meaning….

Tom chatted about his first adult mystery novel, Nightshade, the debut of his detective, Sam Montcalm, and how his own experiences have inspired his writing.

Check out part one and part two of Tom’s interview at the Dundurn website.

We’re happy to announce that for a limited time, you can get the very first Jack Taggart Mystery, Loose Ends, in e-book format from Kobo for only $1.99. ONLY $1.99! That’s less than your afternoon latte!

There’s no better way to get acquainted with Taggart and his ridiculously amazing undercover skills than to cozy up with his first case. Published in 2005, Loose Ends remains a Dundurn favourite.

But like we said, this is a limited offer, so don’t miss out!

All you have to do is tweet/Facebook/Post the correct answer to the following question:

What is the name of the biker gang that Jack Taggart investigates in Loose Ends and Above Ground?

First correct answer wins!

It’s a great, indepth look at the man behind Jack Taggart, giving great insight into the journey Jack has travelled so far, and where he might end up in the future.

Check out part one and part two of the interview, currently posted on the Dundurn website!

Tell us about your book.

Tell us a little about the overarching theme of your work and why you felt compelled to explore it.
Freedom is the theme that permeates throughout my book – the agitation for freedom by enslaved Africans throughout the New World, the legislation of freedom for slaves by the British government, the fight for equality during the Civil Rights era, and the ever-changing meaning of freedom to African Canadians in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

What was the hardest part of writing your book?
The most difficult part was accessing some resources at particular collections, museums, and archives. For a variety of reasons I was not able to establish contact with some institutions, which I naively thought would be automatic and that everywhere I reached out to would be eager to be of assistance. Unfortunately, this inaccessibility perpetuates the hiding of African-Canadian history, prevents this rich history from being learned and puts it in jeopardy of being lost to future generations. I had to come to the realization that while many people are working to preserve Black-Canadian history, not everyone is in the business of sharing the information to keep the history alive.

What inspired you to write your first book?
I always had a keen interest in uncovering Black history in Canada. As a Canadian-born student in elementary and high school I hoped to learn about the African-Canadian experience in school and that it would help me to develop a strong sense of self at that crucial point of my life. However, very little Black history was being taught in my school, which was and continues to be the case today. The primary focus has always been popular African-American history like Martin Luther King Jr. during a saturated Black History Month.

So to gain an understanding of my ancestral history in Africa and the Caribbean, I started reading a wide array of books and while this quest answered many of my questions, I was still left with the questions of what it meant to be African-Canadian and whether or not African-Canadians had any history in Canada.

Then I began researching on African-Canadian history and came across lots of facts and information, which I was eager to share with my peers, so I formed a Black history club in high school and approached my community centre to start a Black history summer camp for children.

I became intrigued to learn more and when I went on to pursue my university degrees I majored in Anthropology and African Studies. It took almost fifteen years for me to gain any substantive exposure to my African heritage within the educational system. Later as an educator, I encountered the difficulty of the lack of resources that recognize and acknowledge the perspectives, experiences and contributions of Blacks to Canada and throughout the Diaspora. I decided to participate in solving these concerns through curriculum development initiatives, which included developing and marketing African-focused curriculum resources. In my capacity as a curriculum consultant I created educational materials for teachers to support expectations of the Ontario curriculum. I have developed educator guides that accompany two groundbreaking African-Canadian history exhibits, “…and still I rise: A History of African Canadian Workers in Ontario 1900 to Present” by the Ontario Worker’s Arts and Heritage Centre and “Enslaved Africans in Upper Canada” by the Archives of Ontario in partnership with the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration. In 2008 I developed web content and designed supplementary teaching materials for the Committee to Commemorate and Memorialize the Abolition of the Slave Trade (CMAST) for the organization’s education initiative on marking the 200th year anniversary of the end of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

The current curriculum documents that my teaching colleagues and I must implement fail to address the complex impact of people of African descent on Canada’s nation-building and social development. For example, the topic of the enslavement of Africans in Canada, whose eradication is the main focus of my book, is still very much unknown or receives only an oversimplified account. Canada is not implicated in the forced migration of Africans across the Atlantic Ocean nor linked to the Transatlantic Slave Trade through the selling and buying of African captives, in the building of ships that were used by British traders to transport them, or in the exchange and consumption of slave-produced goods. The recognition of slavery in Canada deepens ties to the colonial powers, and rightfully labels Canada as a slaveholding society like our neighbours to the south.

The physical hardships of slavery have not been emphasized. The causes and consequences of slavery are not addressed and the impact of slavery on Canadian history is avoided. Most importantly, the information is not contextualized; why were enslaved Africans used? Why was slavery legally and culturally sanctioned for over 200 years in Canada? What was the experience of an enslaved African in Canada was like? How did they resist their imposed status? What did they do once they were liberated? How did they observe the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 that granted them their freedom? More resources that tackle the continuous omission of the African Canadian story, African-Canadian student disengagement, the persistence of stereotypes of Blacks in Canadian culture, and the ignorance of the Black experience and contributions to Canada are needed and I always wanted to make a contribution to this field.

I have constantly sought to expand the platform that I had for sharing the rich, diverse heritage of African Canadians. From my personal experiences, I know this would serve to combat the negative impact of an exclusionary curriculum that causes Black students to feel that they don’t belong and would help to replace the negative images they receive because of this exclusion or misrepresentation. A disconnection occurs for many African-Canadian children on a daily basis who ask their teachers about the presence of Black settlers in Canada, only to be misinformed that no one looking like them was part of Canada’s first colonies. A distortion of African-Canadian history affects Black students’ self-image, their racial group identification, and how they interpret their place in Canadian society. More accessible books and resources would permit them to learn about their ancestors, enhancing pride, self-worth, and a sense of belonging. It can empower African-Canadian students to set and pursue higher goals as they become more engaged in their learning and uncover examples of African-Canadian determination, success, and courage. The ability to name and lay claim to their predecessors and heritage through the acquisition of cultural knowledge is liberating, the idea that is highlighted in my book. They are also given permission to rightfully claim Canada as their own. Learning about ones cultural history during the formative years is important in the shaping of an individual’s identity because persistent exclusion has been found to result in the underachievement of some students. Cultural relevance has been substantiated to improve learning for a significant portion of students, and reduce the alienation that many are subjected to.

I want people to recognise the relevance of the historical context of the African-Canadian experience to today’s issues such as the unacceptable levels of intolerance and cultural ignorance at all levels of our society. It would also assist in a deeper understanding of the unfairness, injustice, and the human rights infringements that people of African descent along with Whites and Natives fought against and overcame to the benefit of all Canadians. An acknowledgement of the roots of racism and discrimination embedded in Canadian history is necessary to effect some social change today. We need a more inclusive Canadian story for everyone to become more enlightened, fostering understanding, tolerance, and appreciation of our historically diverse nation. My book helps to provide some of the history of Black Canadians for those who have missed it during their formal education. I endeavoured to capture and achieve all of this in my book, the opportunity for which found me.

In early 2009, after conducting a workshop on how to incorporate African-Canadian history into the Ontario curriculum, I was approached by Barry Penhale and Jane Gibson of Natural Heritage Books about writing a book on Emancipation Day celebrations in Canada. I truly appreciate the opportunity to contribute to the growing body of African-Canadian literature.

Who did you read as a young adult?
I read anything and everything – fiction, mysteries, romance novels, and historical non-fiction, particularly books on the African Diaspora. I enjoyed the Choose Your Own Adventures, Sweet Valley High books and other fiction series in middle school. In high school, I gravitated to Black fiction writers such as Toni Morrison, Walter Mosley, and Alice Walker, personal narratives like The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Roots, and history books like Great Black Leaders, Ancient and Modern, The Philosophies and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, and Freedom Seekers: Blacks in Early Canada.

What are you reading now?
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill. This book artistically follows the journey of an African woman, Aminata Diallo, who was captured, enslaved, and brought to North America. It traces her story and the deep history of a large group of Africans from a British military ledger called the Book of Negroes, which documents the names and vital statistics of 3, 000 Blacks – free, enslaved, and indentured – who served in the British Army during the American Revolution and received free passage to places like England, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. Hundreds of these settlers were the pioneers of Black communities in eastern Canada who made valuable contributions to the development of our nation. The Book of Negroes appeals to me because it successfully provides more depth and meaning to African-Canadian history.

Natasha Henry is the Director of Programs and an elementary teacher at a private school in Vaughan. Natasha is also a curriculum consultant and speaker, specializing in the development of learning materials that focus on the African experience. Natasha has developed the educational programs for two innovative exhibits on African Canadian history, …and Still I Rise: A History of African Canadian Workers in Ontario 1900 to Present, and Enslaved Africans in Upper Canada. She lives in Mississauga, Ontario with her family.

Tom sure has been spending a lot of time with Sam Montcalm, so it seems only fitting that the two sat down for a one-on-one chat… you know, to get the real story about one another.

Tom Henighan interviews Sam Montcalm, private investigator and hero of his novel NIGHTSHADE.

(Image Taken from Google Images)

T.H.: I find it a bit strange, interviewing a character from one of my books. Makes me feel a little schizophrenic

S.M.: Don’t sweat it—writers have to be slightly schizophrenic, don’t they? They have to be able to wriggle right out of their own skins, to become other people. Look at it from my point-of-view—my very existence depends on you. That’s a lot more frightening.

T.H.: Yeah, I see what you mean. On the other hand, fictional characters sometimes get free of their creators. Conan Doyle doesn’t control Sherlock Holmes—it’s the other way around. Shakespeare is just a shadow compared with Lady Macbeth. Even Mark Twain nearly has to take a back seat to Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.

S.M.: Tell me more, I love it. I may have a future after all!

T.H.: (laughs) It’s time for some questions. Would you call yourself a “hardboiled” or a “noir” character?

S.M.: Those characters—those private eyes of Hammett, Chandler and others–belong to a certain moment in the past—the 1940s and 1950s– when disillusionment had set in with the American way of life and the big cities. I’m not that kind of character. I share some things with those heroes, but there are huge differences. “Mean streets” aren’t my specialty. I deal with the rich and successful. I may be tough, but I’m not a “tough guy,” one who wallows in macho sentimentality. I’m not a spoof of the past, I’m a contemporary guy, one who isn’t afraid of thought, sensitivity, and culture. It’s true that I’m an individualist, with my own code of values. But so are most sensible people these days.

T.H.: Sam, I’ve been thinking about you for years and I’m still not sure that I understand what makes you tick.  You’re a private investigator—would you say that  fulfills a boyhood dream, or is it something you just stumbled into?

S.M.: I grew up in California. When I was a boy I wanted to be a surfer, but after a few close calls I chickened out. I was taken to the Hollywood Bowl and wanted to be a famous pianist or conductor. It never happened. I liked to read about famous explorers, but by the time I grew up there was nothing left to explore, except outer space, which doesn’t interest me. I wanted to be a research scientist specializing in forensics, but I flunked chemistry every time. That’s right—I just stumbled into investigating.

T.H.: You were born in California of a Quebecois father and an Anglo-Canadian mother. How do you reconcile these very different roots? Do you consider yourself American, Canadian, or what?

S.M: I feel American by nature but I’m enthusiastically Canadian by choice. Like any immigrant to Canada with a strong background elsewhere, I have a special perspective on things, a kind of blended vision.  I keep hoping that one day I’ll plant both feet firmly in a recognizable soil, but the ground underneath me keeps shifting. To venture a bad pun—you could say that at least it keeps me on my toes.

T.H.: You do a lot of work on infidelity cases and other sleazy aspects of the elegant Ottawa life. How do you feel about that?

S.M: I see that as just another aspect of the politics that enmeshes us all. We’re all living in a civilization that will soon be washed up. Personal rottenness takes on a special quality in an age of decline. As you see, I try to distance myself from the sleaze through philosophy. It doesn’t always work.

T.H.: Some people seem to think that you’re a romantic, especially in relation to women. What’s your take on that?

S.M: My passions aren’t in bondage to my brain– if that’s romanticism I’m a romantic. But I try to turn a critical eye on everything—that’s why I’m an investigator. But I like Romantic energy and striving and pursuit of beauty. That kind of passion—for me at least– goes a long way toward making life worth living. Of course I find women fascinating, and beautiful women alluring. But I like beauty in many forms—I revel in whatever seems beautiful to me– music, art, poetry, natural scenes, even food, so why not beautiful people? All forms of beauty give us a glimpse of eternity. Didn’t Plato say something like that?

T.H.: De Quincey wrote about murder as a fine art. Do you think that murder can be a fine art?

S.M: There are all kinds of murders—as I’m sure De Quincey knew. The murders that detectives like to deal with are the tricky ones, the ones that don’t compute, the ones that reveal human nature at its strangest and deepest, that bring you face to face with the depths of human passion, striving, and frustration. People are fascinated by the way that the collective and the personal intertwine. What is the killer’s mind like? That’s one question. But there are other questions. How does he or she relate to the larger forces—corporations, countries, international gangs, the police, ordinary citizens, and so on? And how is the situation unique to the modern world? How does technology figure in it? Is this part of a pattern of conspiracy or secrecy that dwarfs the individual? What the detective wants to do is to clarify things by unraveling or cutting the Gordian knot that binds the killer (and the rest of us as well) to all these weird and sinister social factors. That’s why it helps when—as in my case—the detective has links to different aspects of modern society.

T.H.: Why do you make a big thing of living in Ottawa. Some people think it’s a boring, bureaucratic city!

S.M: Ottawa is bureaucratic, of necessity, but increasingly less boring these days. In fact, it probably never was boring, just a little straight-laced. But dig into any city and you find fascinating realities. Places affect what happens and how we interpret it. Books that lead us through a superficial, generalized dance of connections are a little boring. Important modern crime novelists have set their stories in New York, Florida, the Ozarks, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Africa, you name it– and the settings count. It’s not just “setting” either—it’s the conveying of a concrete local world within the big world of modern communications and power structures. A stop at a local café, bar, or laundry can be as important as a visit to the Louvre.  The place the detective inhabits or visits conveys his uniqueness, his place in this big buzzing world of ours. It can’t be glossed over.     

T.H.: Last question. What’s the place of humour or comedy in crime fiction?

S.M: Its place is to be part of the story, not laid on with a trowel. Real comedy derives from plausible actions that touch on the exaggerated or absurd. The language of wit and the comedy of exploded contradictions is fine for crime stories. But please let’s not try too hard to be “funny.” That kills the terror, and the terror is what’s important—it’s what makes the story compelling. Fear and desire are the two key emotions that underlie all stories. And if you follow my life and adventures, you’ll find those potent twins in spades. 

****

Tom Henighan is an Ottawa writer and editor. His fiction includes The Well of Time, shortlisted for the Seal Books First Novel Award; Mercury Man, shortlisted for the Red Maple Award; and Doom Lake Holiday, a teen mystery set in Ontario’s Rideau Lakes.

I expect there are a few hundred thousand like me, somewhere, but it was a welcome surprise to have these half-formed aspirations played out in a mystery novel I came across the on the Castle Street shelf. Death of a Sunday Writer by Eric Wright, creator of the indomitable Charlie Slater, casts part-time librarian Lucy Brenner as the unlikely sleuth in this uncommon tale.

Inspired by the many detective novels she’s lapped up in the past, a host of Agatha Christie’s best among them, the unassuming Lucy decides to don the mantle of the private eye and operate the detective agency left to her by her deceased cousin.

And as she embarks on a series of adventures any wannabe gumshoe would thrill to be involved in, unravels an intriguing mystery set against the backdrop of Toronto’s horse racing industry.

Read how Lucy fares, and while you do you may also want to check out the other mystery titles that feature on Dundurn’s bestseller list.

Here are the current top 10:
1.    Blood and Groom
2.    Samurai Code
3.    Loose Ends
4.    Nightshade
5.    Free Form Jazz
6.    Above Ground
7.    Angel in the Full Moon
8.    Innocent Murderer
9.    Body Blows
10.    On the Head of a Pin

ANGEL IN THE FULL MOON
Chapter Thirty-Eight

Laura answered her cellphone again.

“I could use some help,” yelled Jack. “I found Linh.”

“You what? Where? Is she okay?”

“Yeah, but I’m not. Get in here! Leave the guys in the car and go around back of the house. The door’s open. Just follow the noise!” 

“What noise?” asked Laura, while stepping out of the car onto the quiet street.

“It sounds like this,” said Jack.

Laura heard a long, high-pitched scream over her phone and Jack said, “It’s the sound of a guy getting his nuts crushed. Want to hear it again? Listen …” 

Moments later, Laura saw Jack’s gun and picked it up as she scrambled through the passageway door with a gun in each hand.

“Who are you? Two-gun gringo?” asked Jack, as she entered the room.

Laura saw a naked man on his hands and knees as Jack knelt beside him with one hand clenching the man’s scrotum.

****

Don Easton, author of the Jack Taggart Mystery series, worked as an undercover RCMP officer over a span of twenty years. He worked in foreign countries and assumed numerous false identities and witnessed horrific crimes. He survived several contracts on his life and was often targeted by both sides of the law. Past reviews by the media note that Easton is clearly writing from experience. He takes us into a world that few would dare to enter.

Sam is a self-described “lone wolf,” with complicated relationships and a deep cynicism towards humankind. Has he always been so brash and hard around the edges?

Justine Mencken, Sam’s ex-wife, weighs in on the real Sam Montcalm.

Sam Montcalm: In the Flesh
(A Few Words from Justine Mencken)

The other week, when I was stopping in Victoria B.C., I had a visit from two tight-lipped, steely-eyed suits. Two men, of no particular age or character, men in black who said almost nothing, but conveyed as soon as I opened the door that they intended to talk to me. It didn’t appear I had a choice—they were CSIS agents, of course– and they’d come along, it turned out, to ask me a few questions about Sam Montcalm.

My name is Justine Mencken, and I was married to Sam for while, quite a few years ago. I guess the agents knew about as much about our marriage as I did—or so they thought. Actually, they knew nothing very important about anything. They had some facts, but no insights, no intuitions, no imagination. Maybe that’s why they looked like zombies.

They wouldn’t tell me why they wanted to know about Sam, so I made up a lot of stuff and fed it to them, pretending that I hated the bastard and was happy to expose his failings. My guess is that they were sent to talk to me because Sam had irritated one of the Rockcliffe politico types that he sometimes worked for. That wouldn’t be surprising, because Sam irritated a lot of people. Also, he was scared of no one. But I wasn’t going to give them anything to beat him with.

After they left I sat down and thought: what would I have told them if I’d decided to be honest. Maybe something like this:

Sam Montcalm is a complicated man, strong and vulnerable, rough-cut and elegant, easy to know but somehow aloof. He has a few unconditional loves, namely, nature, music and art– not that he can’t be critical and suspicious of his own enthusiasms, since he’s always testing his feelings, trying to come to terms with what he encounters. He enjoys people, especially people who are honest, funny, and who make an effort to connect. He doesn’t mind simplicity but hates people wrapped up in their own self-images, people who enjoy power, or pretentious fools. He’s tolerant of harmless phonies, liars and anyone who surprises him with a new side of human nature. He thinks modern government is a swindle, and that politicians are generally corrupt, self-serving and useless. He likes some traditional rituals, noble old buildings, colourful neighbourhoods, and hates suburbia, shopping centres and developers. I don’t have to tell you that he has an eye for interesting women, but he’s too much of a romantic to be a real Don Juan. It would never occur to him to think of his liaisons in terms of number.

All of this is pretty general. So let me tell you how I did with the guy. I loved him of course and thought he was the most interesting man I’d ever met. At the same time I hated the bastard, because he could be irrational, moody, jealous, fickle, and stupidly possessive. We made love, listened to music and watched flicks together. We smoked pot, argued, and threw dishes at each other.

He tried to do so much for me that I was becoming helpless and stupefied. I needed to find myself outside of him. So I turned to other guys and that was the deal-breaker. The uproar was tremendous. We were lucky no one got killed. After a while a girl needs a little freedom, peace and silence, so I took off. I think of him almost every day, good thoughts, but I’d never go back. It was a phase for me, and maybe for him– I hope it was for him, although I doubt it.

I’m not sure the guy will ever change, but if he does, I’d like to be around to see it.

****

Tom Henighan is an Ottawa writer and editor. His fiction includes The Well of Time, shortlisted for the Seal Books First Novel Award; Mercury Man, shortlisted for the Red Maple Award; and Doom Lake Holiday, a teen mystery set in Ontario’s Rideau Lakes.