Crime Bake 2016 is behind us now, but it was, as expected, a
solid event for writers and readers, with several memorable moments. I'll focus
on two today.
We were happy to see the new incarnation of the Level Best
Books anthology, now in the hands of four new editors. Kimberly Gray, Verena
Rose, Harriette Sackler, and Shawn Reilly Simmons have edited thirty-two
stories, arranged by state and New England, as the seventh category. They have
continued the tradition carried on by Mark
Ammons, Kat Fast, Barbara Ross, and Leslie Wheeler, and begun by Skye Alexander
(and later by Ruth McCarty), Kate Flora, and myself in 2003.
It is very gratifying to see something that began as a
single anthology live on its current form. The new editors, though not living
in the area, came to Crime Bake and continued the tradition of holding a
signing for all the writers whose work is included. Windward: Best New England Crime Stories offers familiar as well as
new names in the crime-writing world. The anthology also continues the
tradition of publishing the Al Blanchard story, won this year by P. Jo Anne
Burgh for "Bagatelle."
The guest of honor this year was William Kent Krueger, whose
Cork O'Connor series mixes the local lore of the First Peoples of Krueger's
beloved Minnesota with complex stories and deft investigation. At Crime Bake
and other conferences, the guest of honor is usually interviewed by another
writer, but this year Kent broke with tradition. He gave a lunch-hour talk that
had many of us ignoring our lunches to listen better. I jotted down a few
notes, but mostly I listened.
Kent opened with one question. The DaVinci Code is the best selling American fiction. But what did
it replace? The names tossed out by the audience were many and varied, and
almost everyone reading this now will come up with the same titles. But the
answer was a surprise. Brown's book replaced The Valley of the Dolls. No one named that one.
The two best-sellers will be forgotten in the near future,
Kent pointed out, because they reflect a moment in time. They depend on plot.
The books that most of us thought of and called out--Tom Sawyer, Gone with the
Wind, and others--will be remembered and read well into the future because
they depend on character.
Mysteries, he said, allow us to talk about important social
issues. We can explore current events and timely questions, looking at them
from the perspective of the overarching question of justice and fairness. Kent
also made the point that we no longer have social novels. We don't have writers
like Upton Sinclair (The Jungle),
Mark Twain (Huckleberry Finn), or
John Steinbeck (The Grapes of Wrath)
writing fiction around certain issues. These novels have been replaced by
mysteries.
Kent's talk was one of the most interesting and stimulating
I've heard in a long time, and I know I'll be returning to my notes, perhaps
for another post.
