Guest Blogger Kim Alden Mallin, M.D.

I was disappointed to find out that G. M. Ford's latest book Nameless Night was not part of his Frank Corso series. Over the years, I have come to enjoy the rogue journalist with his strong but sometimes misguided sense of justice and his photojournalist partner, Meg Dougherty (who also happens to be bizarrely tattooed over most of her body) ... but that's another story. Read the books.

Ford has written two series.

• Who in Hell is Wanda Fuca? introduced the Leo Waterman series about a bumbling, smart-mouth, rumpled Seattle private eye described as, "...the most likable private eye to make the scene since Travis McGee." In 2000, the sixth and last book of the series, The Deader the Better was published.

• Fury, the first of the Frank Corso series, appeared in 2002. In it a respected New York Times journalist (Corso) falls from grace and is booted from The Times after a highly publicized libel case. Now a renegade outcast, he ends up in Seattle where he becomes the "Harry Bosch of the Pacific Northwest." Blown Away, the Sixth and most recent Corso novel was based on an actual 2003 unsolved case and revolves around a series of deadly bank robberies.

Nameless Night is Ford's first stand-alone novel and is a new twist on an old premise ... amnesia. Kirkus Reviews writes:

A virtual sleepwalker for seven years wakes to a murderous reality. As a ward of the state, Paul Hardy has been living with a dozen other physically or emotionally impaired adults. Paul Hardy isn't his real name ... Who he is, or was, is a mystery, largely because he's never been known to utter so much as a syllable ... Hospitalized after being hit by a car, he ends up getting ... a new face along with a new set of synapses. And now he remembers a name: Wesley Allen Howard. Is it his ...? Suddenly, ill-intentioned men arise from a variety of alphabet agencies, and if he wants to stay alive, the ex-Paul Hardy had better find out why in a hurry. Yes, it's the old amnesia gimmick, but Ford (Blown Away, 2007, etc.) is such an ingratinting storyteller that you may well find yourself beguiled.

I found it a fast-paced and interesting read, but not exactly beguiling. I hope Corso returns soon.

I did find an interesting on-line interview with G. M. Ford Here, in which he talks about fulfilling his middle-aged dream of becoming a fulltime novelist and how he "didn't even have to endure the agony of rejected manuscripts or involuntary penury to achieve that position. He sold the first book he ever wrote within a year." I hate him. I have endured the agone of at least 100 rejection letters so far. Oh well, James Lee Burke's The Lost Get Back Boogie received 111 rejection letters, and John Grisham got 28 for A Time to Kill. I'm in good company.

Author Websites

This morning I had the latest newsletter from Stop, You're Killing Me! in my in basket. It is a twice-monthly posting about mystery authors, characters, and forthcoming books. The site was started by Bonnie Brown in 1998 and later taken over by Lucinda Surber & Stan Ulrich when Ms. Brown's health forced a change. Quoting from the site about why it was created:

“I love a good mystery! When I find new authors, I want to read everything they’ve written. I like to go back to the beginning title and follow the development of a writer's work. With the exception of Sue Grafton and her alphabet series, it can be difficult to find an author's first book. So I have searched online and in reference books to list the books featuring series characters in the order written. Of course, some good mystery and suspense writers don’t use a series character—these are included in the order written.

This site has a straightforward format. The books are arranged by author, series character, and by date written.”

I visit the site frequently when I want to see the complete bibliography of an author or to jog my memory about a character I remember but can no longer place with a title or an author. There are those of us who relish finding a new author that we like who has a long list of titles that can be savored and this is a great site to help with the search for the complete run of work for many authors. You can subscribe to their newsletter here.

Over the weekend I picked up an old favorite, Charles Willeford's New Hope for the Dead (Vintage, 2004) the third of four mysteries featuring Miami cop Hoke Moseley. You might have seen the Jennifer Jason Leigh/Alec Baldwin movie Miami Blues which featured Fred Ward as Sgt. Moseley, and which had some great film of Miami and Miami Beach. There is an introduction to the re-release of New Hope for the Dead by James Lee Burke in which he credits Willeford with helping him get his start in publishing. They taught together at Miami-Dade Community College. The Willeford books are not easy to find but they are a treat when you do. Some excerpts can be found here.