Great Movie Plot: "Derailed"

Copyright © 2013, Steven E. Houchin. All rights reserved.

I saw a great thriller the other day: the 2005 movie Derailed, directed by Mikael Håfström. So many movies that bill themselves as thrillers disappoint, with predictable and overused plots -- or violence and special-effects masquerading as a plot -- and characters that are a bit too heroic for ordinary mortals. Derailed thankfully avoids that.

Really great mystery/thrillers fool the reader into thinking they know what's coming next. The protagonist starts out as an innocent Joe who is sucked into violent or dangerous circumstances beyond anything he's encountered before. As the story progresses his life is thrown into turmoil. But little by little, he becomes hardened and more savvy. He learns to fight back. And there's a plot twist.

In Derailed, Charles, a married man with a chronically ill daughter, meets a sexy woman named Lucinda (Jennifer Anniston) on a commuter train. Within a few days, their innocent encounters go further, drawing them to a cheap downtown hotel room. But as they are about to consummate their adulterous act, a thug bursts into the room to rob them. Charles is beaten into unconsciousness and the woman is raped. Later, she refuses to allow Charles to call the police; her husband will divorce her and take away the children.

But, the criminal isn't done with them: he has their wallets and knows where they live. He demands money. Charles pays, thinking that will end it, while desperately trying to conceal the affair from his wife. But the harassing calls keep coming, as do the demands for more blackmail money. He takes Lucinda hostage, demanding $100,000. Charles feels guilty that Lucinda was raped, and will pay anything to protect her.

Charles enlists the help of an ex-con he knows, who works in the company mail room. The ex-con's plan is to frighten the blackmailer with a gun when the money is to be paid. Instead, he is murdered while in the car with Charles. Charles escapes, but the police are now investigating the murder and question him.

As the story nears the end, we discover the robbery and blackmail are not what they seem. Charles becomes suspicious when Lucinda vanishes, and finds she didn't have the high-powered job and family she claimed. He soon discovers she and the thug are a team of scam-artists, and Charles was their latest mark. He then hatches his own plan to trap them in their next scam.

The plot twist -- the scam -- comes as a total surprise because the viewer has invested so much sympathy in Lucinda. Charles' character is slowly transformed from a naive, frightened victim into a determined, cunning schemer bent on revenge. In the final scene, where the sneering thug has Charles right where he wants him, Charles turns the tables, and the thug realizes he's the one who has been set up, making for a thoroughly satisfying ending.

Book Review: The Chase, by Clive Cussler

Copyright © 2012, Steven E. Houchin. All rights reserved.

The Chase, written by Clive Cussler, is the first offering in his Issac Bell series. It is set in 1906, where Bell is an ace detective for the Van Dorn detective agency of Chicago.

The plot centers around a clever bank robber who murders all witnesses in the target bank, earning him the nickname Butcher Bandit. The crimes take place mostly in small western mining towns on the very day a large payroll lies in the vault. His escapes bewilder local authorities; he seems to vanish without a trace.

Issac Bell and the Van Dorn agency are called in to solve the case. Bell is independently wealthy, heir to a Boston banking dynasty, who foregoes the banking business to instead chase criminals for Joseph Van Dorn’s agency. Working from the Denver office, he assembles a small team of detectives and sends them off to the affected towns to scour for any information that may help. They gather a few sparse clues that eventually lead them to San Francisco, drawing them tantalizingly close to their villain.

The Chase contains many enjoyable historical details about towns in the West, the railroads, and the raunchy lifestyle of San Francisco. A few historical characters make cameo appearances, such as author Jack London. And, of course, the climax coincides with San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake.

The book begins and ends in April 1950, where a salvage crew attempts to raise a submerged train from Flathead Lake, Montana. As the 1906 plot unfolds, the reader is drawn closer and closer to the event in Montana that results in the sunken train.

The plot is excellent, pulling the reader forward from chapter to chapter. However, the writing itself is somewhat crude, especially Cussler’s annoying overuse of adverbs with dialog tags. Phrases like “she said sincerely” or “he said pessimistically” litter the pages by the dozens and dozens. Also, I found several obvious errors, such as using the wrong person’s name on dialog tags or in narration, leading me to believe this book was never professionally edited before publication. These flaws aside, The Chase is a good read for a lazy weekend.

Abused Dialog Tags

Copyright © 2012, Steven E. Houchin. All rights reserved.

I recently read a short article about ways that many newbie novelists abuse dialog tags. For example:

“I’m so glad you’re here!” she smiled. -- (You don’t smile words.)
“Hell is too good for you!” he scowled. -- (You don’t scowl words.)
“You’ve got to be kidding,” he laughed. -- (You don’t laugh words.)
“I just saw a rat!” she shrieked. -- (You can shriek words, but there's a beter way to say this.)

Here are alternatives to the examples above:

“I’m so glad you’re here!” She beamed a sweet smile that seemed completely genuine.
“Hell is too good for you!” His brow furrowed into a deep scowl.
He let out a terse chuckle. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
She let out a shriek and pointed to the corner. “A rat!”

Some argue that the only tags you need are ‘said’ and ‘asked.’ The reader’s eyes just skip over these tags, and thus do not distract from the actual dialog. While I am sympathetic to this view, and generally agree, I believe other tags are also appropriate, if used sparingly. For example, it seems reasonable to tell the reader that the speaker muttered, whispered, yelled, cried [out], or snapped. I also sometimes use ‘responded’ and ‘commented’ when it appears the lines of dialog are peppered with too much of said, said, said in a row.

Of course, the deaded adverb often intrudes into dialog tags, giving an impression of over-the-top writing by the author. For example:

“I didn’t really notice,” he said evasively.
“You’re such a bitch!” she said angrily.
“What would I ever do without you?” she responded adoringly.

Consider the alternatives to the above:

He averted his gaze. “I didn’t really notice.”
She bared her teeth and leaned close. “You’re such a bitch!”
“What would I ever do without you?” She tilted her head and gave an adorable smile.

Note that, in all of the alternative lines I’ve composed above, the dialog tags have completely disappeared. The speaker is inferred by the accompanying gesture or facial expression, and the reader is given a richer picture of the character’s emotions.

Book Review: Rogue Island

Copyright © 2012, Steven E. Houchin. All rights reserved.

Rogue Island is a sarcastic alias used by Rhode Island locals; an affectionate reference to the state’s rampant corruption and mob influence. In Bruce DeSilva’s excellent crime novel, jaded Providence newspaper reporter Liam Mulligan is losing at love, is harassed by his soon-to-be ex-wife, and chafes at his boss’s mundane assignment to do feel-good stories about dogs.

But somebody is burning down buildings in the Mount Hope section of Providence where Mulligan grew up. People are killed - civilians and firefighters. Mullgan knows some of them. Despite his boss’s objections, he sets off on his own investigation, not trusting the city’s arson investigators, whom he publicly belittles as Dumb and Dumber.

As the number of fires mount, Mulligan begins to doubt they’re dealing with a classic pyromaniac, despite a much-touted FBI profile of the arsonist. The fires are confined to a specific rectangle of the neighborhood. And a few obscure real estate companies have been buying up properties in the same area. Homeowners who have been approached to sell are among the arsonist’s victims.

Rogue Island lays on a heavy dose of hard-bitten language and wisecracking dialog. Mulligan find himself on everyone’s bad side as he steps on plenty of toes to push his investigation forward. The cast of characters, the clues, and the action keep coming at a brisk pace, urging the reader to keep turning the page. At about 300 pages, it is a thoroughly enjoyable quick read.

Book Review: Harvard Yard

Copyright © 2011, Steven E. Houchin. All rights reserved.

Part of his Peter Fallon series, Willian Martin has crafted a fascinating novel that follows a Boston family with a secret through many generations.

In 1604, Robert Harvard turns to his friend Will Shakespeare, needing advice on just the right words to express his love for Katherine Rogers. Shakespeare conjures up a few phrases, such as “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Two years later, Will Shakespeare gives the couple a gift for their new son, John: a handwritten play named Love’s Labors Won, a companion to another play, Love’s Labors Lost. In 1625, when the plague is about to take Robert’s life, he tells his son “a man is known by his books”, and extracts a promise that John will cherish all of Robert’s books, especially Love’s Labors Lost.

Twelve years later, John Harvard arrives in Puritan Boston, bringing with him his father’s books. Thus begins a story of the founding of Harvard College and a missing Shakespeare play that spans 400 years, told through the lives of the fictional Wedge family of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 1638, John Harvard dies at 30 without an heir and wills his trunks of books to a student he had sponsored at the new college, Issac Wedge, and also gives an £800 donation to the college itself. When cataloging the books, Isaac discovers the play and decides it must be hidden from the Puritans, who believe plays are evil.

In the present day, antiquarian book dealer Peter Fallon is on the trail of the possible lost play. But, he soon finds others will kill to possess it. As Fallon discovers each new clue to its location, the scene changes to the past - and another Wedge descendant - where the origin of that clue is revealed.

Harvard Yard is a long read (600 pages or so), but well worth it if you like historical novels.

PNWA Author Panel: Poisoned Pen Press

Copyright © 2011, Steven E. Houchin. All rights reserved.

Last month, I attended the September member meeting of the Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association. The program consisted of a five-person panel of authors who have published books with Poisoned Pen Press of Scottsdale, AZ, which is an independent publisher of various mystery genres. According to the panelists, the editors are Barbara Peters and Annette Rogers. Unlike the big New York publishers, they take unagented submissions. They accept works between 60,000 and 90,000 words.

The panelists raved about how the editors spent a lot of time with them to get their book just right. In general, they recommend that authors start out querying small, independent presses because the author has a good chance of receiving good feedback on their work, even if rejected. Like any other publisher or agent, 99% of submissions will be rejected; they receive a lot of poorly-written submissions.

Poisoned Pen’s advances aren’t large: about $1000. But, there isn’t a lot of deadline pressure, and they won’t necessarily drop you as an author because of poor sales. After your book’s first print run, they utilize Print On Demand for subsequent orders, and distribute through Ingram Publisher Services. This means your book never goes out of print. From day one, your book is published in hardcover, trade paperback, audiobook, and large print.

On the subject of marketing your book, the panelists emphasized the importance of sending out advance, pre-publication review copies to the big industry reviewers, such as Library Journal or Booklist. Poisoned Pen will send out the review copies. Once the book is published, these reviewers will not look at the book. They only review advance copies. Unfortunately, most newspspers no longer review books. Ones that do: LA Times, Seattle Times, Washington Post.

Also attending the meeting was a man (I didn’t get his name) from New Libri Press, a small publisher in Mercer island, WA.

Book Review: Operation Mincemeat

Copyright © 2011, Steven E. Houchin. All rights reserved.

The subtitle of this non-fiction book draws you right in: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory. Author Ben MacIntyre doesn’t disappoint in this true tale of British intelligence operatives who came up with an ingenious scheme to deceive the Nazis.

The year is 1943. The Allies have defeated the Nazi army in North Africa and are planning their next strike at the Axis: the invasion of Italy. If successful, they hope to knock Italy out of the war and secure Allied naval dominance of the Mediterranean. But the key to victory in Italy first requires the conquest of the island of Sicily, so that its large contingent of German and Italian troops and planes aren’t left in the Allies’ rear during the campaign. An attack on Sicily was obvious. Everyone knew it, including the Germans, who were expected to massivly fortify it in advance, making its invasion a costly, bloody affair.

Enter a couple of screwball-thinking intelligence officers in London: Ewen Montague and Charles Cholmondeley. They came up with an audacious and risky plan to make the Germans think the Allied attack would occur in Sardinia and Greece: dress up a corpse as a high-ranking military officer, plant fake invasion documents on it, drop it in the sea, and let it float into enemy hands. Operation Mincemeat was born.

MacIntyre’s book is filled with wry humor and short biographies of the numerous characters involved as he describes in amazing detail the operation’s inception, planning, execution and aftermath. He tells of the trouble finding and preserving a suitable corpse whose body won’t be missed; the planning for how to drop a corpse at sea so that it will drift to just the right target area (in Spain) where it is sure to be noticed by Germans (but not be too obvious); and the anxiety whether the Germans will buy the ruse and reposition their forces.

Once I started reading, I couldn’t put the book down, finishing in just a couple of days. The research to uncover all the details seems to be exhaustive. The history is fascinating, and the characters colorful and believable. It even mentions the participation of a British intelligence officer named Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond.

Even though Operation Mincemeat is non-fiction, it reads like a spy thriller and is definitely worth the read.