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COPS WRITING CRIME! - Another member for The Squad.

30/11/2017

The ongoing project to discover cops or ex-cops who have taken to writing crime fiction - The Squad as I've named us!

Today, I've added another new member to the permanent index for The Squad on my website: another American, Nick Jacobellis.

The Squad now numbers 47 in total:

26 American, 11 British, 6 Australian, 1 French, 1 Canadian, 1 Bahamian, and 1 New Zealander.

I'll keep adding more as I come across them, and if you know of any others please feel free to drop me a line.
Check out The Squad: Also: Cops Writing Crime

And please remember, my list is only for CRIME FICTION - not all the true crime and/or memoir writing by cops and ex-cops that's out there (as good as so much of that is).

Cheers,
ABP

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A TEASE - Cover preview of the forthcoming "Harry's Quest" by A.B.Patterson

28/11/2017

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A bit of a teaser, given that the cover artwork was finalised this week for Harry's Quest.
Now I've just got to finish the damned book!!!
Seriously, the manuscript is just about to reach that last page - currently penning the second last scene of the fifth episode. And that's out of five total.
A lot of editing and proofing work to follow, as all my fellow writers will be intimately an painfully familiar with.
So, expect the copies to be available in February/March.
But couldn't resist sharing the cover.
My thanks again to Sailor Studio for their great design work - loved the cover for Harry's World, so I had to go back to them.

I'll throw some content teasers out soon! But the back cover blurb sets the scene!

Cheers,
ABP

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COPS WRITING CRIME! Another 4 members for The Squad.

21/11/2017

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The ongoing project to discover cops or ex-cops who have taken to writing crime fiction - The Squad as I've named us!

Today, I've added another 4 new members to the permanent index for The Squad on my website. We have 3 more Americans - Dennis Griffin, Jack Jenkins and Angela Amato - and 1 more Brit, Nicholas Rhea, who sadly passed away earlier this year. The famous TV series Heartbeat was based on his books.

The Squad now numbers 46 in total:

25 American, 11 British, 6 Australian, 1 French, 1 Canadian, 1 Bahamian, and 1 New Zealander.

I'll keep adding more as I come across them, and if you know of any others please feel free to drop me a line.
Check out The Squad: Also: Cops Writing Crime

And please remember, my list is only for CRIME FICTION - not all the true crime and/or memoir writing by cops and ex-cops that's out there (as good as so much of that is).

Cheers,
ABP

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COPS WRITING CRIME! 2 new members join The Squad!

20/11/2017

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The ongoing project to discover cops or ex-cops who have taken to writing crime fiction - The Squad as I've named us!

Today, I've added another 2 new members to the permanent index for The Squad on my website. We have another American, Bruce Robert Coffin, (former Det.Sgt.) with over 25 years on the job in Portland, Maine, as well as the FBI, and we welcome our first New Zealander, Nathan Blackwell, formerly a detective in Auckland.

The Squad now numbers 42 in total:

22 American, 10 British, 6 Australian, 1 French, 1 Canadian, 1 Bahamian, and 1 New Zealander.

I'll keep adding more as I come across them, and if you know of any others please feel free to drop me a line.
Check out The Squad: Also: Cops Writing Crime

And please remember, my list is only for CRIME FICTION - not all the true crime and/or memoir writing by cops and ex-cops that's out there.

Cheers,
ABP

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More great noir crime from Preston Lang - "The Sin Tax"

16/11/2017

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I've become a big fan of Preston Lang since I discovered his work in Switchblade magazine. This is the second of his novels I've now read, and my enjoyment of his work just continues to grow. This tale, full of seedy individuals, is a great hard-boiled and noir read. As usual with Lang, there are flawed protagonists who struggle with their lives and you want to get behind them. There are also a fair selection of arseholes who you want to see go down, painfully. I do love the way Lang does his characterization, and his story plotting is up there, too. As always from me, no spoilers, but suffice to say I didn't see this end result coming.
Great work, Preston, and my copy of The Carrier is already here on my TBR pile!
Cheers,
ABP

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The personal crime library of A.B.Patterson! # 4

16/11/2017

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And here is shelf 3, the last one.
This shelf houses predominantly my French and Australian authors, along with some more English, and a scattering of various other Europeans, and one American in the "classics" group.
So here's the line up of fellow Aussies:

Peter Corris
Peter Temple
Carter Brown
Marele Day
L.A. Larkin
Nigel Bartlett
A.C. Efverman
Bruce McCabe
Tara Moss
C.S. Boag
P.M. Newton
Michael Robotham
Tanya Chandler
Candice Fox
Robert G. Barrett
Gabrielle Lord
Zane Lovitt
Leigh Redhead
John Dale
And some anthologies.

And here is the line up of French and other Europeans, plus one American (Poe):

Laurent Guillaume
Georges Simenon
Jean-Patrick Manchette
Léo Malet
Fred Vargas
Jean-Claude Izzo
Sébastien Japrisot
Frédéric Dard
Pierre Lemaitre
Didier Daeninckx
Chantal Pelletier
Virginie Despentes
Gérard de Villiers
Wolf Haas
Julian Symons
Donna Leon
Tim Krabbé
Imre Kertész
Cara Black
Louise Doughty
Luke Delaney
Maj Sjowall
Per Wahlöö
Giorgio Scerbanenco
Jean-Pierre Alaux & Noël Balen
Boileau-Narcejac
Agatha Christie
Edgar Allan Poe
Arthur Conan Doyle
E.C. Bentley
And some anthologies.

So that's the personal crime library of this crime writer. Of course, not a month goes past with a new addition to it. There are definitely worse addictions to have!
The question is, will I ever actually catch up by reading them all? Now there's a delicious challenge!

Cheers,
ABP

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The personal crime library of A.B.Patterson! # 3

15/11/2017

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So here is shelf 2!
Plenty of Americans again, but joined now by Irish, Canadian, Scottish and English. Here's the line up:

James Crumley
Christa Faust
Frank De Blase
Ken Bruen
Jason Starr
Elliot Chaze
Preston Lang
Derek Raymond
Gordon DeMarco
Elissa Wald
David Goodis
Max Phillips
Travis Richardson
Horace McCoy
Carroll John Daly
Rob Reuland
George V. Higgins
Rob Errera
Howard Engel
Jill Edmondson
Matthew Stokoe
Stuart MacBride
Martin Walker
David Schow
Lawrence Kelter
Ray Bradbury
Bill Cameron
Jonathan Ames
George Pelecanos
L.S. Hilton
Jake Arnott
L.L. Thrasher
Paul Cain
Plus some anthologies, and my magazine anthologies:
Switchblade, Pulp Modern, Thug Lit

And you'll find my first short story in a volume of Switchblade!

Cheers,
ABP

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Vale, Senator Jacqui Lambie. And thank you, for being a much-needed human being in Parliament.

14/11/2017

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Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Australian democracy has been sliding, if not cascading, into serious farce territory for some time. Section 44 of the Constitution, with all the dual-citizenship fiascoes, has made a mockery of our country. And what a tragedy for our democracy. I'll save my rant on s.44 for another time.

No, today, I am actually saddened by the demise of a politician. Yes, I know that's hard to believe about me, with my utterly undisguised contempt for our political charade, and most of the players within it.
But today, the ridiculous s.44 debacle claimed the scalp of Senator Jacqui Lambie. And I think that is a tragedy for Australian politics.

Now, to be clear at the outset, I don't agree with some of the views that Senator Lambie has espoused, don't get me wrong. However, let's look at the person who is the politician here.
Jacqui Lambie has been a genuine, heart-felt human being in our Parliament. Plenty of the people in there are just self-serving wankers. Even if you don't agree with her views, if you take the trouble to listen to her efforts in the Senate - her speeches for veterans, for people on welfare, for those at risk in society - here is a politician who IS a human being and who CARES. How bloody rare is that? And she's also been a soldier serving our country - even more credit to her, in my view.
So, Jacqui Lambie, I say this to you: I don't agree with everything you've said, but I do love you as a politician. You're an authentic human being, someone who actually cares about others (and not just themselves, like most politicians).
I don't live in Tasmania, so I can't vote for you. But I tell you this: if I could vote for you, then I would, even with my differences of opinion with you. Why? Because you're a decent and genuine human being. You are what an elected politician should be in a healthy democracy. Not like the usual egotistical strokers we get served up with.
I'll probably never meet you, but I give you my very best wishes, and I sincerely hope to see you on the political stage in the future.
Cheers,
ABP

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The personal crime library of A.B.Patterson! # 2

14/11/2017

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So the really important stuff - what's actually in my crime library?

Well, this is shelf 1 - and it's all American. Here's the line up, starting with my two favourites. And it was Chandler who got me started in the hard-boiled school, both reading and writing!

Raymond Chandler
Ross Macdonald
Dashiell Hammett
Jim Thompson
Joseph Wambaugh
William Ard
James M. Cain
Chester Himes
Mickey Spillane
Michael Collins
Kinky Friedman
Richard Neely
Richard Stark
Charles Willeford
Lawrence Block
Max Allan Collins
Stephen King
Meyer Levin
Stephen Lewis
Carl Hiaasen
Michael Avallone (aka Troy Conway)
James Lee Burke
James Ellroy
William F. Nolan
And there are some anthologies as well.

Oh, and it you look closely, you'll spot a certain non-American nestling comfortably next to Chandler. Yes, my two original copies of Harry's World live there! (The first copy from each print run).

Cheers,
ABP

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The personal crime library of A.B.Patterson! #1

13/11/2017

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I got around to tidying up my crime bookshelves the other day, so thought I'd share what my collection looks like. I haven't actually counted, but there's probably around 300 books or so, and they range widely across the genre. Needless to say, the hard-boiled and noir are the dominant group. And many different countries are represented as well.
More on each of the 3 shelf sets shortly!

And sitting above them is one of my favourite movie posters I found in Paris years ago - my favourite actress, Romy Schneider, baring all for the poster of Les Innocents aux Mains Sales (The Innocents with Dirty Hands), from the book by Richard Neely (which is also on my shelf and is a great crime read, with a love triangle - Romy did seem to do several films with love triangles! More on Romy another time).

Oh, and to answer the obvious question... Have I read all these books? Well, no, but I'm going hard at it. I have read the majority, certainly, but I do have a penchant for buying books on impulse, or when I hear about another crime title/author that interests me, so I think I'll always have a large TBR pile!!! But there are worse ways to live one's life.

Cheers,
ABP

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"Switchblade" Issue # 3 SPECIAL EDITION - Oozing noir and hard-boiled thrills!

10/11/2017

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Another superb offering from Switchblade and its editor, Scotch Rutherford.
Now, in the interests of transparency, I do have a story included in this Special Edition, so my review comments here relate to all the other authors in the set. (I'll let others comment on my work! But it is an honour to be joining such a fine group of noir and hard-boiled artistes!)

This anthology has 9 short stories, 3 flash pieces, and a poem! Yep, I hadn't thought about poetry in the noir context before, but the short poetic offering from J.L.Boekestein hits the hard notes.
I really, really enjoyed all the pieces in the collection. Personally, I prefer short stories over flash fiction, I think because there's more story development by definition, but everything here was very good indeed. The short story set opens with Preston Lang, already a firm favourite of mine, and he delighted darkly as always with "Press It Down". Nice twist as usual, loved it. (I've actually just finished another one of Preston's books, The Sin Tax, so a review - excellent - is on its way).
Another stand-out for me here was "The Lateral Line" by Scotch Rutherford, the editor. It was the first short story of his I've read and it was smoking hot, complete with a porn star called Jizzy Chasm! How good is that?! And Scotch's depiction of seediness is just brilliant. "Crawdaddy" by J.D. Graves is noir at its best with great characters, bent cops, and twisted tragedy all round! And for more twisted mayhem with outstanding female sexual predators, Calvin Demmer's "The Lioness Must Hunt" is femmes fatales taken to a new level - I don't want to meet those ladies, ever! There were also great short stories from Charles Roland, Eric Beetner, Ehren Baker, and Morgan Boyd. Oh, and there was this Aussie in there, some A.B.Patterson bloke with "Little Rich Street Girl"!
Then the flash fiction rounded it out, with pieces from J.L.Boekestein, Richard Risemberg and Michael Loniewski.
Yep, as we are coming to expect, if you love noir and hard-boiled, then Switchblade delivers, both barrels at once!
Great work again, Mr Rutherford!

And I've got some more authors to get hold of novels from!
Cheers,
ABP

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CORRUPTION TALES! Issue # 2 - NSW Department of Community Services

7/11/2017

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In this issue, as promised in my intro issue, I'm going to relate my experience of the NSW Department of Community Services (DoCS).

Corruption Central!

I was deluded enough to take a job at DoCS after I decided to leave ICAC. Given my extensive child protection background, when I saw a job advertised for a new function reviewing child deaths within departmental care, I actually thought I might be able to make a difference. Well, we all live and learn.
As a side note, whilst I've left various jobs feeling somewhat disenchanted with them, in hindsight I've never regretted taking a job, except for this one at DoCS. I only spent 12 months there.
I should have listened to my gut feeling at the two job interviews I had, as the senior DoCS members on the panels came across as some of the coldest people I've ever met.
Anyway, that urge to do good things overrode my instinct and I took the job - Assistant Director for Child Death Reviews.
Fool was I.
Things started innocuously enough, with setting up systems, collating data, etc. But it rapidly became clear that DoCS was not remotely interested in properly "reviewing" deaths of children in its care. What the DoCs senior management appeared to want was a thorough and detailed justification of the Department's actions, regardless of the outcomes.
Of course, those "outcomes" were dead children. Dead because of all sorts of reasons, but the one thing they all had in common was that they were under DoCS oversight as these were the seriously vulnerable and at-risk children in our society.
Now, before you think I'm writing off every single person within community services, I'm not. In my short time at DoCS, I met many front-line staff who were trying their hardest to do a damned difficult and thankless job. And I applaud those dedicated and caring staff.
But DoCS head office was another culture completely. This was the culture of cover up and deception and document destruction; the culture of avoiding responsibility and accountability at all costs.
Things came to a head for me with the case of a baby who was beaten to death in a town in country NSW. The child had been placed with supposedly carefully selected carers, who both happened to have extensive records of alcohol and violence. The DoCS office didn't carry out proper checks, it turned out, and then placed the infant in the custody of these clearly unsuitable people. The little child was murdered, no glossing over that. The DoCs office then claimed they had done the checks, even "creating" records to try and establish this, but came unstuck in the review as, for one thing, the police records simply didn't correspond.
When I wrote my review report, I obviously highlighted this appalling negligence in not doing the checks, and then the egregious malfeasance in trying to cover up the fact. To cut a long story short, I was called in by DoCS senior management, and directed, loudly and aggressively, to remove the damning portion from my report. I was told that I could find fault with systems used, but under no circumstances was I to make any negative findings about DoCS personnel.
Yeah, I've never been that ambitious - I refused. That wasn't exactly what you'd call a "career move". However, I didn't foresee what was in store for me; should have guessed it was going to get nasty.
Three weeks of daily sessions (had been weekly meetings previously, but it seemed I suddenly deserved special attention) with senior management followed, being yelled at and denigrated, along with other punitive tactics. It was all intended, no doubt, to make me cave in. I didn't last longer than the three weeks, and I left. Not my proudest professional day. Rather than my resolve to stand my ground surrendering, it was finally my health that gave out, following the constant bullying, and I left in an ambulance (literally!).
I never saw the final review report, but I'd bet it was nicely sanitised and the "inconvenient" evidence collected had probably gone into a shredder.
And there were other aspects I saw which reflected endemic corruption at DoCS head office, including discussions about removing documents from files before the NSW Ombudsman viewed them. It was, simply put, an entirely corrupt culture.
Whilst this sort of corruption has nothing to do directly with money, I think on many levels it is far more serious. It's all about protecting the Establishment power structure from all scandal and criticism, let alone legal culpability. And innocent, vulnerable members of our community are the victims.
If you're prepared to cover up the true facts around a child's death, then I would suggest that you are utterly morally bankrupt; you have sunk to the lowest level of gutter corruption possible; and you have surrendered all human decency to serve your own venal needs, and perhaps those of others (in this case, the government of the day - as they never like scandals under their watch).
Yes, whilst I've seen a lot of corruption in my time, in terms of a sheer moral abomination, nothing has ever topped what I experienced at DoCS.
May all those responsible for this type of corruption truly rot in hell.
Cheers,
ABP

P.S.1: More Corruption Tales coming!

P.S.2: In case you've read the above and are wondering if I tried to do anything outside DoCS... (and a fair question).
I subsequently tried twice to contact a senior officer at the Ombudsman's office with oversight responsibilities for DoCS - my calls were not returned. To set the context at the time, the government had recently given a $4B funding injection to DoCS. I don't think anyone wanted to rock the boat, that's my speculation. Or maybe that person was just bad at returning calls. Who knows?
After I left DoCS, there was a Commission of Enquiry into child protection matters. I did make a submission. One of their lawyers contacted me and said they would need me to produce some documents or evidence to support my submission, if they were to be able do anything. Yeah, given the nature of my leaving, I wasn't exactly collating documentary evidence on my way out the door.
So, the lesson to me was that our oversight mechanisms can be very "selective" in their oversight urges.
Sad but true.
Oh, and whilst I was in the process of resigning, I did formally complain to DoCS about the way I had been treated. Result? Nothing. Not that there were any surprises there.

Cheers,
ABP

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