Critical Mick

Dear Critical Mick,

On that dark and stormy night last week, I manipulated the TCP/IP computer protocols and landed upon your criticalmick.com site. I just wanted to say: you read a lot! Me too. Reading and computing, we have lots in common. Do you like whiskey? If so, isn't the coincidences just freaky! One of those Lincoln/Kennedy things I guess.

(Your FAQ says that you live in Ireland. Lincoln and Kennedy were presidents elected in 1860 and 1960 here in America and both were killed by gunplay.)

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for all the book recommendations! Do you do much historical stuff? I'm a tick on a hound for history. Thanks again!

Your friend,

Hi There Friend,

Many thanks for your kind words! Unless you are about to offer that we exchange links, and the site you are trying to drive traffic writhes with naked Russians. I don't go for crappy spam, and hey! Criticalmick.com is a site both bloke- and family-friendly.

Do check out my new interview with UK-based up-and-comer Michael Stone and do keep an eye out for my forthcoming review of Linda Weaver Clarke's second all-ages novel, Edith and the Mysterious Stranger.

Cheers again for dropping me a "hello" and apologies if I my forceful opinions have offended a friend I have not yet met. I am known for these blunt and forceful opinions of mine. (It's cause for concern to my auntie and cousin, actually. They keep telling me, give people a chance! Even if on the surface these people don't seem to be your type or use your type of language!)

Sincerely,

Mick, the Strong Minded

My Dear Charming Friend,

(That is sarcasm because you are blunt and stuff, Mick!) No, rest assured!! I am a life-long reader and even an hi-tech author. Though a lot of people tell me to stick to day job. But right now it is Friday night! I don't want to go into the whole topic of everyday labours, I just want to talk about books.

Linda Weaver Clarke- I have not read any of hers. Is she good?

I have read that book about the German submarines that landed saboteurs on Long Island during WWII. That rocked!

Your friend,

Howdy,

Linda Weaver Clarke writes historical fiction that is accessible to all-ages. A bit like Laura Ingles Wilder, but with emphasis on romance, and one thousand miles west of that Little House on the Prairie. Her novels are set in southern Idaho's Bear Lake Valley. (Yes, we here in Ireland are familiar with the US's geography and its history. There's a portrait of Kennedy hanging in Kenny's pub, down in my village.)

I read Clarke's first novel, Melinda and the Wild West, back in 2006. Melinda is worlds away from the crime novels I usually read, but it has a winning sincerity.

Like Francine Biere's debut, it has its flaws and won't ever be found on the New York Times Bestseller List. Still, step off the beaten track and explore for yourself! Melinda remains a character, setting, outlook and plot that my wife and I have chosen to make a part of our lives. We can't eat roast beef without one or the other of us asking, "yes, but was that as tender as the roast beef Gilbert cooked for Melinda?"

Mick my Dear Friend,

Have no fear but fear itself. My only ulterior motive in getting you to reveal your soul is to gradually obligate you into reviewing my own forthcoming hi-tech novel. It will be both hi-tech and artistic. And roller-coaterish.

After reading your interview and visiting http://www.lindaweaverclarke.com, I have become intrigued by this Linda Weaver Clarke. Is Edith and the Mysterious Stranger. a righteous read? Beware: I study history for fun. European Art and Biblical. Some old as the hills.

Good Day Sir,

Potted plot of Edith: Melinda's cousin Edith, finds her turn-of-the-century nursing skills in demand when Melinda enters a difficult pregnancy. While attending the medical needs of 1904 Paris, Idaho, this spunky young lady begins receiving letters from a secret admirer. Will Melinda's pregnancy end in another miscarriage? Will evil reward the the cattle rustlers who have secretly implanted a spy on Gilbert and Melinda's ranch? Will Gilbert's daughter find love on the cattle drive? Who is Edith's mysterious correspondent?

Of course, the answers to all questions are fairly obvious to anyone who's read a few books. Edith is written to be deliberately accessible to all ages. The parts I found interesting were the details of everyday life on a Western ranch and the oddities that seemed a direct inclusion of real-life experience into fiction.

What in the world do you mean?

There's a running theme about an uncle (a minor character in the first novel) who's losing touch with what he used to be. His progressive deterioration is mentioned several times, but is left unresolved. "This theme is something," I said to myself, "that was on the author's mind. It demanded to be added in." Sure enough, Linda Weaver Clarke's Author's Note (one of the extras following the novel itself) reveals that this is a real-life experience she included.

Perhaps I am reading too much in, but that's what's great about books. There's what the author puts on the page, and what each reader reads. Good novels engage each individual reader on whatever level they are ready to read.

There's also a chapter about a cowboy who got ripped half to death on a bull's horns. Because the town doctor was not around, nurse Edith (assisted by one of the two main suspects for her admirer) was pressed to try to patch the poor dude up. Did he live? Die? The novel ends without resolution. That's either a lapse of literary convention or an actual event.

Critical Mick, you will never guess what parts of my own forthcoming novel are historical and what are parts that happened to me!

Your friend,

Do you include mention of Butch Cassidy or The Wild Bunch, like Edith does? And manage to include actual lesser-known historical outlaws like The Tall Texan?

No. Just computer protocol stuff and history and a love interest. It begins with our hero being awakened by an urgent phone call.

Busted! You're not a mysterious stranger at all, Dear Friend! You're someone I know well!

You are Langdon R. Danbrown, the cliché-addicted sci-fi wannabe who has appeared in my reviews of Angels and Demons, Death of an Irish Sinner, The Black Echo, The Mermaid's Singing and Mind's Eye!

Mick my Dear Friend,

Ok, I confess! I keep a copy of Melinda under my Star Wars pillow, and do hereby promise to read Edith and the Mysterious Stranger. I am a sap for books with kissy bits, gosh durn it.

Critical Mick, I want you to get to know my soul rather than my antics. Will you please read my long-awaited forthcoming novel? It begins with a late-night phone call, deals with tantilizing international conspiracies, and mentions the names of several well-known artworks, historical entities or institutions. It will sell 18 million copies the first weekend it is out.

Your friend,

No promises, Danbrown. There's this Maine-based feller named Peter Clenott who (like Linda Weaver Clarke) writes from the passion within, not because he's a multimillion selling brand name. Let me read Clenott Hunting the King and then see if I still have any appetite for Biblical techno-thriller adventures.

Curses! Foiled again!