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I do love a plan.  I particularly love a plan that might mean I get my monthly reading numbers back on track.  I've been a bit slow off the mark so far this year, and it really is time to get organised.  It's not like there's anything on summer TV worth watching, and goodness knows I've unpacked more than enough boxes for a while.  Besides I'm running out of places to put stuff - so it will just have to stay in a box until we build the "dream house" (which probably means forever the way we get organised :) )

But - yesterday I piled up the planned books on the bedside table - which pile now just about totally obliterates any light from the bedside table lamp - but I didn't say it was an effective plan.  Anyway - I started on Gentle Satan by Alan Saffron which is his book about his father Abe Saffron.  Before that I did finish Vanishing Point by Pat Flower - which I will write up in a little more detail this week, as well as incorporate into a larger article I'm working at the moment.  Having read that book first when it was released this time I struck by what a good example of delusional obsession it was.

But the rest of the planned line up includes:

Punter's Turf by local author Peter Klein - released in March so I'll hold my full review until then.

Same story with Move to Strike by Sydney Bauer which also is due out in March, as is Bait by Nick Brownlee - which is particularly interesting with another South African setting.

After that The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas is one I'm particularly looking forward to and then a new to me author - The Paris Enigma by Pablo De Santis which has one of the best covers I've seen in ages.

I've also got to finish a few re-reads - Crisscross and Shadow Show by Pat Flower, Force and Fraud by Ellen Davitt and Madame Midas by Fergus Hume are all in that stack.

And in the "special maybe birthday all day sit under a shady tree treat" pile is The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson - I've been carefully avoiding all of the chat about this book as I want to draw my own conclusions, although I do confess to a bit of a peep at a couple of comments from reviewers who I really respect and it would seem that it holds up well against the first book.

All all in all - it looks like a plan.  It's a big plan - but a girl's gotta dream.

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The earliest Australian Crime Fiction book I've ever found reference to is Ellen Davitt's Force and Fraud which was originally published in 1865, but for sheer numbers and prolific writing Fergus Hume is somebody that needs mentioning.

Starting with The Mystery of the Hansom Cab published in 1886, Fergus Hume went on to have about 137 books published up until 1932.

Fergus Hume (1859-1932) was an English lawyer who emigrated to New Zealand with his parents - Dr James Collin Hume and Mary Ferguson (from Glasgow originally).  (James was responsible for founding the first private mental hospital there as well as Dunedin College). Fergus completed his education in New Zealand, and was called to the New Zealand bar in 1885, before moving to Melbourne later in the same year.

Whilst determined to become a play writer, he worked as a solicitors clerk in Melbourne, remaining mostly unknown.  Desperate to gain the attention of local theatre directors, he found that the most popular writer of books at the time was Emile Gaboriau and his detective works.  Hume used these books as a point of study and came up with his own first effort in 1886 The Mystery of the Hansom Cab.  Hume, being based in Melbourne, set his first book firmly in the city - set amongst the laneways and streets of the city and the "outer" suburbs of St Kilda and Brighton.  The book has a number of interesting elements to it - firstly for the clear and very stark depiction of the fledgling colonial city, and then of the society itself within that city.  Slightly controversial at the time, it managed to offend by drawing a pretty stark portrait of the extremes in Melbourne society and even, albeit somewhat obliquely in some places, incorporating some social commentary along the way.

The book was undoubtedly a very good book at the time - and it remains extremely readable today which is quite something given that much early crime fiction doesn't necessarily hold up well with the passage of time.  Hume must have been extremely frustrated at his inability to get the book published - mostly being rejected by publishers for reasons similar to "no Colonial could write anything worth reading".   Ultimately, he had the book published privately - selling the publishing rights for £50.  Luckily he retained the dramatic rights which allowed him to make a reasonable profit from long theatre runs in both Australia and London.

Hume wrote one other novel set in and around Ballarat and the Australian gold mining fields - Madame Midas which was published in 1889.  Many many books followed from there (the full list of his books is included below), but Hume himself left Australia and settled in Essex, England where he remained until he died from heart failure in July 1932.

Project Gutenberg includes a number of Fergus Hume's works that you can access on line: http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/h#a1057

Bibliography

• The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886)
• Professor Brankel's Secret (1886)
• Madame Midas (1888)
• The Girl from Malta (1889)
• The Piccadilly Puzzle (Also published as: Dowker - Detective) (short stories 1889)
• The Gentleman Who Vanished (US Title: The Man Who Vanished) (1889)
• The Man with a Secret (1890)
• Miss Mephistopheles (Also published as: Tracked by Fate; or, Miss Mephistopheles (1890)
• Whom God Hath Joined (1891)
• Monsieur Judas (1891)
• A Creature of the Night (1891)
• The Year of Miracle (1891)
• When I Lived in Bohemia (1892)
• The Island of Fantasy (1892)
• The Chronicles of Faeryland (1892)
• Alladin in London (1892)
• The Fever of Life (1892)
• The Black Carnation (1892)
• The Harlequin Opal (1893)
• The Chinese Jar (1893)
• A Speck of the Motley (1893)
• A Midnight Mystery (1894)
• The Nameless City (1894)
• The Gates of Dawn (1894)
• The Best of Her Sex (1894)
• The Lone Inn (1894)
• The Mystery of Landy Court
• (US Title: From Thief to Detective) (1894)
• The Crime of 'Liza Jane' (1895)
• The White Prior (1895)
• The Carbuncle Clue (1896)
• Tricked by a Tattoo (1896)
• The Expedition of Captain Flick (1896)
• The Dwarf's Chamber and other stories (short stories) (1896)
• A Marriage Mystery (1896)
• Claude Duval of Ninety-Five (1897)
• The Tombstone Treasure (1897)
• Hagar of the Pawn-Shop (short stories) (1898)
• Under One Cover (1898)
• The Clock Struck One (1898)
• Lady Jezebel (1898)
• The Rainbow Feather (1898)
• The Devil-Stick (US Title: For the Defense) (1898)
• The Silent House in Pimlico (US Title: The Silent House) (1899)
• The Red-Headed Man (1899)
• The Indian Bangle (1899)
• The Crimson Cryptogram (1900)
• A Traitor in London (1900)
• Shylock of the River (1900)
• The Lady from Nowhere (1900)
• The Bishop's Secret (US Title: Bishop Pendle; or, The Bishop's Secret) (1900)
• The Vanishing of Tera (1900)
• A Woman's Burden (1901)
• The Golden Wang-Ho (US Title: The Secret of the Chinese Jar) (1901)
• The Millionaire Mystery (1901)
• The Mother of Emeralds (1901)
• The Crime of the Crystal (1901)
• The Turnpike House (1902)
• Woman: The Sphinx (1902)
• The Pagan's Cup (1902)
• The Guilty House (1903)
• The Jade Eye (1903)
• The Miser's Will (1903)
• A Coin of Edward VII (1903)
• The Yellow Holly (1903)
• The Silver Bullet (1903)
• The Wheeling Light (1904)
• The White Room (1904)
• The Mandarin's Fan (1904)
• The Red Window (1904)
• The Lonely Church (1904)
• The Fatal Song (1905)
• The Scarlet Bat (1905)
• Lady Jim of Curzon Street (1905)
• The Opal Serpent (1905)
• The Secret Passage (1905)
• The Wooden Hand (1905)
• The Black Patch (1906)
• The Dancer in Red (short stories) (1906)
• Jonah's Luck (1906)
• The Mystery of the Shadow (1906)
• The Yellow Hunchback (1907)
• The Purple Fern (1907)
• Flies in the Web (1908)
• The Sacred Herb (1908)
• The Sealed Message (1908)
• The Mystery of a Motor Cab (1908)
• The Crowned Skull (1908)
• The Green Mummy (1908)
• The Amethyst Cross (1908)
• The Top Dog (1909)
• The Disappearing Eye (1909)
• The Solitary Farm (1909)
• The Devil's Ace (1909)
• The Spider (1910)
• The Mikado Jewel (1910)
• The Peacock of Jewels (1910)
• The Lonely Subaltern (1910)
• The Rectory Governess (1911)
• The Steel Crown (1911)
• The Pink Shop (1911)
• High Water Mark (1911)
• The Jew's House (1911)
• Mother Mandarin (1912)
• Across the Footlights (1912)
• A Son of Perdition (1912)
• The Mystery Queen (1912)
• Red Money (1912)
• The Blue Talisman (1912)
• Seen in the Shadow (1913)
• In Queer Street (1913)
• The Thirteenth Guest (1913)
• The Curse (1913)
• The 4 P.M. Express (1914)
• Not Wanted (1914)
• The Lost Parchment (1914)
• Answered: A Spy Story (1915)
• The Caretaker (1915)
• The Red Bicycle (1916)
• The Silent Signal (1917)
• The Grey Doctor (1917)
• The Black Image (1918)
• Next Door (1918)
• Heart of Ice (1918)
• Crazy-Quilt (1919)
• The Master-Mind (1919)
• The Dark Avenue (1920)
• The Other Person (1920)
• The Singing Head (1920)
• The Woman Who Held On (1920)
• The Unexpected (1921)
• Three (1921)
• A Trick of Time (1922)
• The Moth-Woman (1923)
• The Whispering Lane (1924)
• The Caravan Mystery (1926)
• The Last Straw (1932)

Postscript:

Whilst the parts of Victoria that Fergus Hume wrote about have mostly been spared thus far, this has been a dreadful week and the ongoing bushfire situation isn't going to end anytime soon.  Whilst those of us lucky enough to be safe and out of the worst of the areas, are chatting away about what is, after all, pure entertainment, spare a thought for the army of volunteers and paid workers trying to pull these fires up.  Spare a thought for how many of them have lost everything themselves, and yet they are still out there fighting these fires. 

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This really isn't a week when I can talk about crime fiction as entertainment.  We've been incredibly lucky but the rest of Victoria hasn't.  Yesterday large parts of our home State went up in flames and the human death toll is currently rising rapidly, to say nothing of the devastating loss of animals and huge areas of land.

I often think that really really good crime fiction can give an insight into that horrible cliché "the human condition".  But nothing comes close to real life.  Luckily, as in all disasters, there are glimpses of the magnificent side of human nature - we listened last night to the police in a central Victorian city as they tried to clear people out of harms way - as they performed acts of enormous personal courage "in the line of duty".  We listened to CFA representatives calmly trying to describe the enormity of the situation, to make people aware of the real danger.  We listened to CFA controllers worry and worry and get so emotional about the safety of the firefighters (a large percentage of whom are volunteers).  And we spared more than a thought or two for those volunteers - many of whom left their own homes and families to go out into the unimaginable.  Conversely we listened to the utter total and inexplicable stupidity of people.  Whilst it might be possible (if you work hard at it) to regard an arsonist as simply ill - what on earth do you call people who go SIGHTSEEING in fire zones.  Crime fiction can't even get close to describing the soaring heights of human nature or the utter depths - the deep into the core of the earth type depths of stupidity, self-involvement, lack of awareness and the total unthinking lack of concern for others.

Needless to say, books are a little way away from my mind at the moment.  Whilst we're safe (and profoundly grateful for decisions made when we were deciding where to move to), reading for enjoyment didn't work yesterday. 

Having said that I did finish Deadly Intent by Lynda La Plante last week and I'll write something up on it later in the week.  I have picked up Pat Flower's Vanishing Point (as mentioned in a recent posts), but to be frank I read the first chapter many many times last night because it simply wouldn't sink in.

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It's an interesting phenomena that in a country that used to pride itself on it's rugged outdoors / country style heroes, the vast majority of the population live on the coast - in large cities.

It's no secret around here that the rural inland is struggling.  Populations have continued to decrease and small rural communities are really struggling to survive, although hopefully the Tree-Change phenomena is starting to help with that a little.  But you quickly become aware of the fact that the "city dwellers" forget we exist.  A lot of this is reflected again in our crime fiction (with the exceptions of The Broken Shore by Peter Temple and Diamond Dove by Adrian Hyland).

We track locations in books on AustCrime (in the Right Hand Menu you'll see an option "By Category" - hover over Story Location and you'll see not only the locations but the number of entries here that mention that location).  Having said that - some of those numbers are really interesting (the number of articles is in brackets after each location).

Victoria (5) being the whole state in which Melbourne (87) is the capital city and in direct competition with Sydney (176) which has always been Sin City - Melbourne's just trying to catch up.  Country NSW (16) is the state in which Sydney sits (and I think Robert G Barrett's probably got a stranglehold on a lot of those locations).  Canberra (20) is another capital city and the countries parliamentary capital city into the bargain whereas Arnhem Land (3) is about as outback as you can get.  We've also got a more generic setting of Australian Outback (12), many of these entries I would imagine we can thank Arthur Upfield for.  As a comparison Country QLD (1), Cairns (3), Great Barrier Reef (1) and Brisbane (3) so obviously there's just not enough books being set in Queensland full stop.  Adelaide (8) is another capital city, Tasmania (9) as the whole state and Western Australia (2) to stack up against it's capital city Perth (5).  The Northern Territory (1) is currently very under-represented.  One location I've just noticed is Mallee, Australia (1) - (excellent - that's nearly local, I must go see what that article is about!)  (Remembering that these numbers could change as things are added to the site).

Not all these articles relate directly to books obviously, but it is interesting to consider the way that the setting for our crime fiction has changed.  Arthur Upfield, S H Courtier and others tended to set their books in rural / outback locations, at the same time that so much fiction was being set in Melbourne and in Sydney.  Maybe that's because of the circumstances of where they came from, but also because of the sensibility of the nation at the time. 

It's a little bit of a sad outcome that we've never really attained a very wide ranging use of settings throughout the entire country.  We went from the rural to the city, and we've never had what you'd call a comprehensive current day set of books that encompass the entire place.  Now it's obvious that writers tend to write what they know / where they live, it's going to make getting your settings a lot more accurate if you're gazing out the window (so to speak), but if our crime fiction is to evolve to be as wide ranging as other countries, then surely, at some stage, somebody's going to have to turn inland.  Not to the absolute outback, but to the smaller country cities, the smaller states, the country towns, the rural areas, the food bowls, the rivers, the creeks, the hills, mountains and the plains.  Of course, our publishers have to take a role in this as well - books that reflect the entire country may not necessarily be the big blockbuster sellers, but what Australian Crime fiction is.  But there are lots of readers who don't do the mean inner city streets - an increasing number of us are in the dustbowls along the major highways.

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I've got a fascinating book here that I've been dipping in and out of for quite a while now (and some of the authors mentioned will come up again in my Wednesday Waffles), but it's called The Anthology of Colonial Australian Crime Fiction - written by Ken Gelder and Rachael Weaver.

The book starts off "The early colonial period in Australia saw the establishment of a number of local publishers, printers and booksellers, all of which played a crucial role in the development of a thriving popular literary culture".  As those of you who read my most recent Feature post on the trailblazing women of crime fiction here will have noticed, the timeframe of their writing goes back to some of the very early times of Australian white / colonial history, and this book expands on even more of these writers - male and female.

There are so many names in this book that should be better known to Australian crime fiction fans, but alas, they seem to have been largely forgotten - or least it would seem by the blogosphere anyway, but names like Rolf Bolderwood (Thomas Alexander Browne), Norman Lindsay, Coo-ee (William Sylvester Walker), Francis Adams, Mary Fortune, Ernest Favenc and so on have sort of disappeared into the mists of bookshelves of only the most dedicated fan and followers I guess.

But congratulations has to go to Gelder and Weaver for putting together this Anthology which must do something towards remembering that we have our own back catalogue and our own back stories which deserve ongoing attention.

On current reading matters - A Darker Domain by Val McDermid is possibly one of the best of her books that I've read in a long long time.  Not as dark as the Wire in the Blood series, this is a solid police procedural with a hefty, and subtle dose of social commentary and was - frankly - a stonkingly good read.  I've also finished (and will write up a review once I've had a bit of thinking time) Witch Doctor's Vengeance by Andy L Semple - local debut author / thriller about killing politicians unless they return power to the people (now that's got to be a topic that sings to the hearts of one or two of us).

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