Celebrate Halloween with "The Great Pretender," my new Hector Lassiter novel centering around the storied friendship of author Hector Lassiter and Hollywood whiz kid Orson Welles.
A good portion of the action of the book unfolds in realtime against the broadcast of Welles' infamous "War of the Worlds" radio adaptation. You can listen to that piece of history here.
The morning-after press conference Welles gave (also depicted in "The Great Pretender") is worth a look, too...
Nazis, black magic and secret history collide in Craig McDonald's "The Great Pretender." In 2007, McDonald launched the Hector Lassiter series with the Edgar Award-nominated debut, "Head Games," pairing the globetrotting, larger-than-life crime novelist with equally legendary filmmaker and amateur magician Orson Welles. "The Great Pretender" fits the capstone on the Lassiter/Welles legend, spanning their decades-long, uneasy association from the run-up to Welles' infamous "War of the Worlds Panic Broadcast of 1938" to the set of the noir classic "The Third Man" and the ruins of post-war Vienna. The novel finds the actor and author in a race for a lost holy relic promising its possessor infinite power but a ghastly death if lost. Hector and Orson's competitors in their quest for the 'Spear of Destiny' or 'Holy Lance' include German occultists, members of the Third Reich, a sensuous Creole Voodoo priestess and a strangely obsessed J. Edgar Hoover.
Also available for the first time ever: "Roll the Credits" (Hector Lassiter #5), the epic World War II adventure narrated by Hector himself. (More here).
Here's a Friday night cover sneak peek. Coming in December, THE RUNNING KIND: A brand new Hector Lassiter novel, including the Kefauver Committee, the Ohio Mob, Eliot Ness, the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run and Rod Serling. More soon...
At the urging of our mutual publisher, Hadley Colt and I recently engaged in some charla profunda. Chiefly, we talked shop about the challenges and dark enticements of writing about writing and putting authors down on the page. Hadly's new book is about a mysterious cult writer who may not be quite as south of the sod as the literati wish to think. My new novel is about Hector Lassiter and fellow author Brinke Devlin poking around some Key West skullduggery while pounding out their own fictional works. You can find our two-handed interview here. Also, do please check out Hadley's PERMANENT FATAL ERROR and consider making a visit to her blog. You should also please consider following Hadley Colt on Twitter here and Facebook right here. This is the trailer to Hadley's new novel. I frankly envy the sucker:
Irish-born, Cleveland cop Jimmy Hanrahan is my most-frequently re-visited,
fictional sidekick, not just in the Hector Lassiter series, but in my books about Lassiter forerunner
Chris Lyon, journalist-turned-novelist-turned-vigilante and uneasy family man.
In ROLL THE CREDITS, Jimmy’s third of his five significant
appearances in my fictional universe, reciting from government files, OSS agent
Duff Sexton at last gives a little official background on the man:
“James
Butler Hanrahan,” Duff said. “Born March 17, 1902, to Stephen and Molly
Hanrahan in Rathgar, Ireland. Your father was an English professor who moved
the family to the States when he accepted a teaching position at Western
Reserve University in Ohio in—”
That tells
you at least a little more about the man.
Actually,
in a fictional sense, Jimmy was born about 1990 when I was writing my first
novel—not first-published novel mind you—called PARTS UNKNOWN.
After many
years lost ala Hector, struggling to
write the literary novels I thought I was obligated to write but which I was
not particularly passionate about, sparked by James Ellroy’s THE BIG NOWHERE, I
at last turned my hand to so-called “crime fiction.”
For
subject matter, I cast back to a historical fiend who stalked northern Ohio
during the hard years of the Depression, a homicidal whack-job dubbed variously
the “Torso Slayer” and the “Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run.”
Taking two
actual cops who chased the Mad Butcher—one of those detectives did so long-past
his official badge-carrying days—I melded the two men into Irish cop Jimmy
Hanrahan.
Jimmy was
tarnished reporter Chris Lyon’s sidekick in two long-ago written novels a solid
decade before he shouldered his way into three Lassiter novels, including ROLL THE CREDITS, THE RUNNING KIND (coming soon) and PRINT THE LEGEND.
(If you
look closely, you’ll catch a glimpse of him in the latter pages of the
forthcoming HEAD GAMES graphic novel.)
There’s a Website
I’ve contributed more than a few pieces to, called MY BOOK, THE MOVIE. If I was
to write a piece about Jimmy for that site, my ideal actor to play the role would
have been Charles Durning. When I write Jimmy, when I hear his voice in his
head, it’s Durning I’m seeing and hearing.
(Jimmy's other significant appearance comes in CABAL, #3 in the Chris Lyon series.)
Here’s a blast from the past: I’m pretty sure Vince Keenan, brave and
kind soul that he is, holds the record for interviewing me the most times. This
one first appeared on his site in 2011 when “One True Sentence” debuted in
hardcover. This is a slightly shortened version of that interview. You can also
reads Mr. Keenan’s review of OTS here.—Craig McDonald, October 13, 2014
What can you tell us about “One True Sentence”?
It’s 1920s Paris. It’s stands
as the first Lassiter novel,
chronologically. It’s crime novelist/screenwriter Hector Lassiter at ground
zero. It’s the book in which he finds his writer’s voice, his path as a genre
author, and in which he meets the woman who more or less “invents” the
man/character of Hector Lassiter as we’ve come to know him in the three
previous novels.
How do you feel the Lost Generation of expatriate American artists in
1920s France are viewed today? What fictional works depict that era best?
I think “The Lost
Generation” has become almost a kind of brand that typifies a way of careless
and carnal living as much as the (mostly perishable) writing produced by that
generation.
As to works that catch
that world, in terms of literature, I’d go with Hemingway’s “A Moveable Feast,”
which poses as a memoir, but which Hemingway invites readers to regard as
fiction. I personally take the book as a mixture of fact and fiction — as much
novel as reminiscence.
My favorite film on that
era, and one that has inspired to a degree “One True Sentence” and the earlier
“Toros & Torsos,” is the Alan Rudolph film, “The Moderns.” It’s set in
mid-1920s Paris, as Hemingway is between wives and “The Sun Also Rises” is just
making its mark. It’s a mix of fictional and real characters including
Hemingway and Gertrude Stein and a scathing look at art and the tension between
life and the page (or canvas). It’s dark comedy punctuated with hot sex, a
dreamy flavor of camera work and blurring of times, all set to a terrific,
seductive score by Mark Isham.
You’ve said this book wraps up a loose trilogy within the Hector
Lassiter series about Hec’s friendship with Ernest Hemingway. What effect does
the popular conception of Hemingway have on your treatment of him as a
character? Does his larger-than-life image make it easier or more difficult to
write about him? Conversely, what challenges are posed by writing about
real-life figures who are lesser known to contemporary readers, like Ford Madox
Ford?
I try to write Hemingway
as I think he must have been — warts and all, struggling with what was probably
a fatal bi-polar condition and self-medicating as best he could with writing
and alcohol. I’m frankly astounded he survived into his sixties. I’m not sure
how widely Hem is read these days by those under, say, age 40, and if he is, I
suspect his image as a man is probably shaped by comments by partisan
professors and a few lines of biography at the back of his books.
In the 1980s, particularly
after his last wife died, there were scores of Hemingway biographies published;
a mini-series of his life in which Stacy Keach appeared. That all kind of
tapered off in the late 1990s. I don’t think a major biography of Hemingway has
appeared in the past decade or so. So I think his actual personality and
biography are receding in the collective unconscious again. A piece of trivia:
this summer will in fact mark the 50th anniversary of Hem’s death.
In terms of writing Ford
and Gertrude Stein and the like, I essentially tried to portray them in a
manner consistent with Hemingway’s portraits in “A Moveable Feast,” and,
really, as simply other characters. In that sense, “One True Sentence” was
essentially conceived to be a crime novel recasting of Hemingway’s “Feast.”
A recurring theme in the book is the distinction between literary and
genre writing, and between types within genre (crime fiction versus mystery
fiction). How seriously were such distinctions taken in the salons of 1920s Paris?
What about today?
One of the first books
Gertrude Stein gave an unknown Hemingway to read was the crime novel “The
Lodger,” Marie Belloc Lowndes’ Jack the Ripper novel. Stein regarded it as a
mystery but of a higher level than most. Hem shared her take. Stein really was
an unabashed mystery fan and called her favorite mystery writers “mystifiers.”
Hemingway biographies and letters to his publisher requesting novels to be
shipped to him include books by Ian Fleming, Raymond Chandler and Georges Simenon,
among many others. Hem dug crime fiction, in his way.
The great tension of the
time — then and I guess even now — was the conflict between literary and genre
fiction. Hemingway was a critical darling when he was unpaid and writing for
little magazines and publishing with obscure presses that printed books in runs
of under 200. As soon as he signed with Scribner’s and entered the mainstream,
Hem was vilified by the Left Bank literati. Going from an Indy to a major house
can be a real risk for an author who doesn’t quiet keep a foot comfortably in
either pond, and Hem took it from several nasty directions for making that
change to a mainstream outlet. Paraphrasing, Hem said he aimed to be read by
the low- and the high-brows. And you
know, in the end, he pulled it off.
What authors inspired Hector Lassiter? Are there real-world antecedents
for Hec’s paramour and fellow writer Brinke Devlin?
Hector is a an amalgam of
various writers including James Crumley, Jonathan Latimer (a short-lived
Hemingway friend in Key West) and a couple of others I’m not quite prepared to
identify yet.
And Brinke? Brinke Devlin
is modeled on a real woman, but recast to resemble Louise Brooks and to write a
bit like Craig Rice. Brinke is, in a sense, the female version of Hector and,
as it proves out, a kind of template for Hector’s own writer’s persona. Not to
say she’s his one true love, but she is the
pivotal woman in his life, that simple.
You wrote all eight books in the Lassiter series, of which “One True
Sentence” is the fourth, before the second was published. At what point did you
realize the scale of this project? Has that scale affected the publishing
process?
I wrote the first, “Head
Games,” and figured I was done with Hector. So I wrote a standalone novel
that’s scheduled to appear later this fall (“El Gavilan”). After I finished
that, I got the idea for “Toros & Torsos” and realized it required Hector
as “hero.” From there, I just kept writing them until I knew I had completed
Hector’s arc. The ninth and last novel (“Three Chords & The Truth”) will
bring us something like full circle, finally revealing what ever happened to
Hector Lassiter. A lot of old faces will appear in that one from the first
book. It really is a circle-closer.
The tricky thing is,
because all the books exist, there’s a second-guessing and a re-sequencing that
has happened as a result of editors coming, going and changing their minds. The
first two novels followed my chosen sequence. “Print the Legend,” the
third-published novel, was originally intended to be the next-to last book. OTS
was always meant to be number three. I think we’re firmly back to my original
sequence, now. The novel that should appear after “One True Sentence” (“Forever’s
Just Pretend”) comes right off the end of OTS.
What Hector book will we be seeing next?
In terms of another novel, “Forever’s Just Pretend” is set
across several holidays in 1925 Key West. It’s a love story, centrally; very
character-driven. It’s also a bit of a change from the other books in that no
historical figures appear in the novel. What we get instead is the
deepest, hardest look into Hector Lassiter, the man, we’ve seen. It’s also the
only thing akin to a true sequel across the nine novels.
Movie Question: What’s the best cinematic adaptation of Hemingway’s
work?
That may be impossible to
answer in the sense they all pretty much blow. Nearly every one I’ve seen has
been baaad. “For Whom the Bell Tolls”
has some good moments and a stirring score. But Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman
are too old for their roles. On the other hand, that one had the courage to use
a Hemingway downbeat ending which doesn’t happen very often. “Islands in the
Stream” is kind of interesting in that George C. Scott is essentially
portraying Hemingway more than Hem’s character of Thomas Hudson. The first
version of “The Old Man and the Sea” is mostly notable only because Hem and
fourth wife Mary appear in a background scene at one point. “The Killers” is
iconic as a film noir and the only movie based on his own work Hemingway ever
really liked, but it also had to shovel on acres of material to pad out the
short story upon which it is based. I know there’s a version of “Garden of
Eden” looming, but that’s not exactly regarded as a true Hemingway novel since
it was edited to a fraction of its original length by Tom Jenks.
Baseball Question: You live in Central Ohio. Reds or Indians?
Like Hector, I’ve never
been much of a baseball fan. It was the Reds growing up, and I went to a game
or two (Cincy is 100 miles due south of my hometown). As a kid, I sat in the
stands and watched Hank Aaron phone it in at Riverfront Stadium so he could
break the home run record in his next game
in his native state — that further soured my attitude for the game, a bit. The
only televised sport I really ever watched consistently was billiards when
they’d put the old hustlers like Utley Puckett and Luther — ahem — Lassiter up against one another in the 1980s. And that, in fact, is
the man who gave Hector his surname.
Cocktail
Question: You’re in a well-stocked bar. What do you order?
Back in the day, I went through a Glenmorangie craze; some other single
malts. I got married in Scotland and sort of sampled the local fare across the
Highlands for a couple of weeks. Now it would probably just be a potent and
well-made margarita on the rocks, with salt. I’m no beer drinker, and I detest gin. Like Hector, I have an
inexplicable but deep-seated distrust
of gin drinkers.
Publishers Weekly has weighed in on the first new Hector Lassiter novel in three years. The short-form verdict? PW says: "Entertaining...a must read for series fans and a solid introduction for new readers." Read the entire review HERE.
The Adventures of Zana O'Savin continue! Pulp fiction for our time in the spirit of Doc Savage, The Shadow & The Avenger.
THE BLOOD OGRE
Prolific pulp novel legends Lester Dent (Doc Savage) & Walter B. Gibson (The Shadow) both had the actual experience of witnessing their characters come to life, a chilling historical claim that sets the stage for this new series of neo-noir pulp adventures!
WRITE FROM WRONG
Hector Lassiter, Black Mask Magazine legend, crime novelist and screenwriter rubs shoulders with a who's who of 20th Century legends including Ernest Hemingway, Doc Savage creator Lester Dent, Walter B. Gibson of Shadow fame and Orson Wells.
HEAD GAMES, THE GRAPHIC NOVEL
A pulp-noir adaptation of the Edgar Award-nominated novel introducing Black Mask author, crime novelist and screenwriter Hector Lassiter.
Edgar®/Anthony/Macavity/Gumshoe/Crimespree nominated novelist of HEAD GAMES: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL, ONCE A WORLD, WRITE FROM WRONG, ONE TRUE SENTENCE, FOREVER'S JUST PRETEND, TOROS & TORSOS, THE GREAT PRETENDER, ROLL THE CREDITS, THE RUNNING KIND, HEAD GAMES, PRINT THE LEGEND, DEATH IN THE FACE, THREE CHORDS & THE TRUTH, EL GAVILAN, PARTS UNKNOWN, CARNIVAL NOIR, CABAL and ANGELS OF DARKNESS. Nonfiction titles include ART IN THE BLOOD and ROGUE MALES: CONVERSATIONS & CONFRONTATIONS ABOUT THE WRITING LIFE.
ONCE A WORLD — The acclaimed prequel to the Hector Lassiter series
Hector Lassiter's story begins, from his journey into Mexico to catch Pancho Villa, to the bloody trenches of World War I.
ONE TRUE SENTENCE (Hector Lassiter Series #1)
Hector Lassiter Series: #1 Bestseller, Amazon.com.au; One Of BookPeople's Top 10 Of 2011 & Poisoned Pen Staff Favorite. "Vivid, remarkable characters... Absolutely gripping!"—Diana Gabaldon
FOREVER'S JUST PRETEND (HECTOR LASSITER SERIES #2)
Hector Lassiter Series: #3 Bestseller, Amazon.com.au! "Entertaining...a must read for series fans &...for new readers."—Publishers Weekly
TOROS & TORSOS (HECTOR LASSITER SERIES #3)
Hector Lassiter Series: #4 Bestseller, Amazon.com.au! Named to numerous Year's Best Lists! "A bold, ambitious, genre-bending novel."—George Pelecanos
THE GREAT PRETENDER (HECTOR LASSITER SERIES #4)
Hector Lassiter Series: #2 Bestseller, Amazon.com.au! "McDonald cagily splits up the action, with Welles in full enfant terrible mode in the first half of the book—much of the story unfolds on the night of the infamous War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938—while the second takes place in the late 1940s as the filmmaker's star is already burning out."—Vince Keenan, author of DOWN THE HATCH
ROLL THE CREDITS (HECTOR LASSITER SERIES #5)
Hector Lassiter Series: #5 Bestseller, Amazon.com.au! "A writer of truly unique voice, approach, and ambition, Craig McDonald delivers again with ROLL THE CREDITS. Not to be missed." —Michael Koryta
THE RUNNING KIND (HECTOR LASSITER SERIES #6)
"Just the right amount of history, suspense, action and familiar faces to make his alternative history fascinating."—Terry Bowman, author of FIONA'S RULES
HEAD GAMES (HECTOR LASSITER SERIES #7)
Hector Lassiter series: Edgar & Anthony Awards Finalist! #5 Bestseller, Amazon.com.au! Coming autumn 2017 as a graphic novel from First Second! "Smart, it's funny, and it moves like a roach when the lights go on."—James Sallis
PRINT THE LEGEND (HECTOR LASSITER SERIES #8)
Named To More Than A Dozen Year's Best Lists; the most translated of the internationally best-selling series of novels! "An epic masterpiece.”—Michael Connelly.
DEATH IN THE FACE (HECTOR LASSITER SERIES #9)
The penultimate Hector Lassiter novel with 007-creator Ian Fleming; selected by The Rap Sheet as a 2015 novel of the year; praised by Publishers Weekly and Booklist!
THREE CHORDS & THE TRUTH (Hector Lassiter series #10)
The climax of the Hector Lassiter series, from Betimes Books. "With THREE CHORDS & THE TRUTH, Craig McDonald has crafted a remarkable coda to the series."—Steven Powell, author of JAMES ELLROY: DEMON DOG OF CRIME FICTION; "Grabs the reader by the throat." —Publishers Weekly. Get your copy here https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N0D4UFX
BORDERLAND NOIR
Now Available from Betimes Books
EL GAVILAN
Starred Review From Publishers Weekly! PW Pick of the Week. "As sobering and as urgent as tomorrow's headlines."—Publishers Weekly
PARTS UNKNOWN (CHRIS LYON SERIES #1)
#1 in Chris Lyon series of eBook exclusive thrillers, now available
CARNIVAL NOIR (CHRIS LYON SERIES #2)
#2 in Chris Lyon series of eBook exclusive thrillers, now available.
CABAL (CHRIS LYON SERIES #3)
#3 in Chris Lyon series of eBook exclusive thrillers, now available.
ANGELS OF DARKNESS (CHRIS LYON SERIES #4)
#4 in Chris Lyon series of eBook exclusive thrillers, now available and featuring Hector Lassiter!
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