Hockensmith update

I've started reading Steve Hockensmith stories in preparation for the interview we're going to spring on the world in a few days. I've read four so far and I have to say they're very different from what I expected. This is a structural difference that I'll go into in greater detail when I've read a couple more. Suffice to say that the whole mystery writer's rule about "dropping the body in the first page or two" seems to be of no concern to the man. The stories are wonderful (so far; there's no telling if there's a turn for the worse coming for another day or two yet) but I guess "unconventional" is a good general way to describe them. Let me get a bit more specific.

"Tricks" is a Det. Larry Erie (ret.) story - quite light in some places - a missing monkey is the crux here. "Erie's Last Day" has the same protagonist but is quite dark, somber. "Wolves in Winter" is a Western mystery starring the Amlingmeyer brothers. They also star in the novel "Holmes on the Range" coming out from Minotaur which I just got today. (I read the first five or so pages - there's a guy who's been ground into... ground beef by... beef. This will be good I think.) I've also read "The Macguffin Theft Case" which was published alongside my own story "UFO" last year in AHMM . This story is an outlandish comedy - a man walks into a pizzeria with a poison dart in his wooden leg, having fought off a bunch of murderous ninjas (is there another kind?) and he's NOT the center of the story.

Each of the stories is excellent in its way. Part of the interview will therefore focus on who it is Hockensmith pays to produce these tales since clearly no one man could bring all of these forth without help... Unless he had two brains.

More later.