One Sad Farewell and One WTF

By David Nemeth

There was sad news in the publishing world – heartbreaking news for many – that Midnight Ink will only be publishing "in-process" titles through the Summer of 2019. As Terri Bishoff wrote in Facebook, "As some of you may have heard, Midnight Ink will be shutting its doors after the Spring/Summer 2019 season." J. Kingston Pierce has her complete post at The Rap Sheet.

As of now, all we have is speculation about whey Midnight Ink is closing. Bishoff also wrote, "I’m still in a little bit of shock. I didn’t know this was coming. I’m sure there will be much activity and a lot of questions in the near future. I will answer as best I can." I hope that Midnight Ink's parent, Llewellyn Worldwide, will be forthcoming with the whys and hows of their decision. Not so that we can satisfy some odd thirst, but rather so that the community can learn from the mistakes, if any, of Midnight Ink's tenure.

. . .

Meanwhile, across the pond and a few days ago, another small press began its descent down a path of ruin with one simple tweet.

As you can imagine the book blogger community responded immediately. But you can read the responses as easily as I can post them here. You can also read Caffeine Nights' spineless backtracking in the thread.

Let's chat a bit about this tweet. And before I get into it, let me say that I review books on a blog called Unlawful Acts which I guess makes me a book blogger and I have also participated in a few blog tours.

What struck me was the first line, "Stepped away from social media for a few months." I'm sure Ashley Lister, author of "Doll House" that was published by Caffeine Nights in August 2018, was thrilled by that statement.

The next two lines: "Have to say, I haven't missed it. Closed our FB account haven't missed FB at all." Social media does have its problems, Facebook definitely does. But a small press, social media offers you to reach out and inform one's base of news and releases. From my experience, social media drives 50% of traffic to my site. Depending on the whims of social media, sometimes Facebook could generate 25% to 75% of social media traffic. It's a crapshoot, but it does get my site out there. So when a small press publisher doesn't "miss" social media, is that a small press one would want to publish your book? (They might have the Amazon algorithms down to a science. Who knows?)

Let's get into the meat of the tweet, "Quick word about blog tours . . . save your money for something that works." Had the man behind the Twitter account communicated efficiently, he could have written something like, "We recommend not using blog tours as we have found that they don't help our author's sales." Then their problems would have been less.

Lastly the kicker, "Most bloggers have no reach or influence. They just think they do. 😂"

No way around this, this was mean-spirited and the LOL emoji, a final kick in the teeth.

Book bloggers are part of the ecosystem of the small press world. Our influence may be small, but I know from personal experience authors and publishers dig what we do. Well, except for Caffeine Nights. I enjoy reading and reviewing books, but most of all, I love pimping the shit out of books I love. That's what Caffeine Nights and its authors will be missing in the future, not only from me but, my guess, from a majority of book bloggers.

The Crooked Beat by Nick Quantrill

Across three books Nick Quantrill's Joe Geraghty series has put the city of Hull firmly on Britain's crime map, delving into the area's recession blighted streets and the pockets of tentative regeneration, the kind of places where a private investigator can operate more successfully than the police.  

The Crooked Beat sees Geraghty jobless and drifting, carrying the burden of his wife's death along with the cumulative weight of spent chances and broken personal connections.  All he has left now is his family and they're about to be put under the cosh.
 
Geraghty's brother Niall, in need of cash to get their father's pub up and running again, has unwisely involved himself in a cigarettes smuggling operation, taking a few quid to store a consignment until they can be picked up, but when the lock-up is broken into and the cigarettes stolen the debt falls on Niall and he's incapable of paying up or tracking down the theives.  And this isn't the kind of situation where the rightful owner will shrug and walk away.  It falls to Geraghty to get them back.
 
While he's on the trail another job comes in.  A local accountant, who he's worked for in the past, asks Geraghty to do some delving into his wife's movements; standard marital business Geraghty figures.  The wife is the head of a literacy charity, seemingly the height of respectability but her past is anything but and links to some unsavoury characters begin to emerge, making Geraghty wonder if there might be more to the case than simple mistrust.
The search for the stolen cigarettes takes Geraghty from Hull's bustling port to its seamy underbelly; decrepit terraces housing just as derelict people, seedy bars offering even seedier extras, run by small time gangsters all dancing to the tune of a the city's Mr Big, Frank Salford, a man who Geraghty has tangled with before, and whose business has already touched the Geraghty family with terrible consequences.  As he gradually uncovers the scale of the smuggling operation it becomes clear that the only way out of the mess Niall has got them into is to take the full burden on himself.
 
The British P.I. walks a very different beat to his American counterparts, the crimes are smaller, the guns and femme fatales thinner on the ground, but these limitations have led to a school of writing which is more character driven, less reliant on the old cliches and ultimately very satisfying.  While Quantrill's Hull may lack the glamour of Los Angeles or New York it embodies the post-industrial decline common to many northern British cities, largely forgotten by politicians and left in the hands of gangster-businessmen.  It's fertile ground for crime fiction and Quantrill has drilled deep into it across the Joe Geraghty trilogy, establishing himself as a major talent in the Brit Grit school.
 
The Crooked Beat is a highly accomplished novel, written in terse prose which perfectly reflects the grubby brutality driving the plot and the character of Joe Geraghty, a good man caught up in bad business.  This is a world where a victimless crime quickly snowballs into extreme violence, where nobody can be trusted, especially the police, and even the oldest bonds can be broken in a moment.   I was hugely impressed with this book and the assured manner of Quantrill's writing.  Whatever comes next for him I think he's going to be a name to watch.

(You can read an interview with Nick here.)

Interview with Nick Quantrill

Today I'm joined by Nick Quantrill, author of the Hull-based Joe Geraghty novels, Broken Dreams and The Lates Greats.  This month sees the release of the third in the series, The Crooked Beat, with Geraghty doing what he does best, finding trouble and making it his own.


So Nick, can you tell us a bit about The Crooked Beat?

 “The Crooked Beat” is the third Joe Geraghty novel, and although it wasn’t initially conceived as a trilogy, it effectively sees the PI back to square one and ready to start over. With no paying work to take care of, he finds himself trying to dig his brother out of a serious hole when a consignment of smuggled cigarettes goes missing from his lock-up. What Geraghty can’t foresee is that taking his brother off the hook for the debt will extract a high personal price from himself.


One of the things I loved about the book was how it hinges on an unflashy crime, what attracted you this kind of subject matter over something more glamorous?

More than anything, I think it’s an awareness of writing about Hull, an isolated city on the north east coast of England. It’s what feels real to me when I look at the place. I do like the idea of what starts as a relatively low-key crime rippling outwards and exploding across a range of characters. If I had to pinpoint three authors whose work I really admired, I’d go for George Pelecanos, Graham Hurley and Ray Banks. It seems they all have that strand of realism running through their novels. Many years ago, I studied for a degree in Social Policy and Criminology, so maybe I took more from that than I anticipated.


Do you consider yourself a politically motivated writer?

I don’t consider myself to be motivated by politics. Motivated by anger? That sounds more likely. The first Geraghty novel, “Broken Dreams”, essentially used the death of the fishing industry in the city as a backdrop. Although it happened in the mid-1970s, it was a situation which came about after decades of struggle. Both political parties have to share the blame. 

From the moment I started to think about the story, I wanted to examine the trickledown effect on the city in the present day, the idea of loss of work and purpose. I do like to play with themes of urban decay and regeneration simply because it’s a real issue in a city like Hull. You only have to look at how such cities in the north of England have been disproportionately hit by government funding cutbacks to understand the ongoing struggle.



Why a P.I. rather than police?

The truthful answer is that I couldn’t make a police character work. I dabbled with one in an unpublished novel and it didn’t quite gel. It’s such thoroughly explored terrain, you need to find an interesting angle to make the character compelling. I’d hopefully make a better fist of it if I tried again, but a P.I. seemed a nice compromise. I owe Ray Banks a debt of gratitude, as he showed with his Cal Innes series that you can make the P.I. a relevant character. 

I didn’t want Geraghty to be crossing paths with femme fatales and wisecracking his way out of situations. I wanted him to be a man grounded in a northern city in the 21st century. Of course, as a writer you can have a lot of fun with a P.I., too. You’re not tied to procedure and rules like in a police novel.


You've recently been working as writer in residence at Hull Kingston Rovers rugby club, how has the experience been?

I had an amazing year working with the club. I was brought up a KR fan and was taken to games from a young age, so it was a real thrill to be offered the role. One of my jobs was to write flash fiction pieces featuring Joe Geraghty (he’s an ex-player) for the match day programme. It was definitely a challenge. 

The real thrill, though, was going into schools to work on short story writing with pupils. I had an amazing response and the link between sport and literature seemed so obvious. It’s a cliché, but trying to engage boys is the hardest thing, and this was perfect. I’m hoping to do more stuff in the community in the near future and I would recommend it to any author. What’s better than sharing a passion for reading and writing?


What's coming up next for you?

I’m fighting on two fronts. Part of my time will be spent promoting “The Crooked Beat” at events around Europe. I can say ‘Europe’, as I’ve received an invite to talk at Iceland Noir! It’s a really exciting opportunity for me. Hull is twinned with Reykjavik and there’s plenty of shared history, so it feels right. I’ll also be talking about the book at several equally cold places around the north of England over the coming months. The rest of the time will be spent writing. I’m well on with the next novel, which is crime (of course) and set in Hull, but features a different protagonist(s).