Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Crazy Rhythm
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.twemoryauthor.com/
CITY: Seattle
STATE: WA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
https://www.twemoryauthor.com/contact https://www.twemoryauthor.com/blog
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2015095819
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no2015095819
HEADING: Emory, T. W.
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035 __ |a (OCoLC)oca10223635
040 __ |a NN |b eng |e rda |c NN |d DLC
053 _0 |a PS3605.M68
100 1_ |a Emory, T. W.
370 __ |a Seattle (Wash.) |2 naf
372 __ |a Detective and mystery stories |2 lcsh
373 __ |a Authors |2 lcsh
375 __ |a male
377 __ |a eng
670 __ |a Trouble in Rooster Paradise, 2015: |b title page (T.W. Emory) book jacket (b. in Seattle, Washington; enjoys cartooning as a hobby)
PERSONAL
Born in Seattle, WA.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Drywall contractor and author.
AVOCATIONS:Cartooning, history, vintage comic strips, reading, sociology, philosophy.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
T.W. Emory holds a wide variety of interests. His main profession is drywall contracting, but he also dabbles in cartooning, reading, social sciences, philosophy, and history. He is also a novelist, specializing in the mystery genre.
Trouble in Rooster Paradise
Trouble in Rooster Paradise serves as Emory’s literary debut. The novel focuses on Gunnar Nilson—a man who, by the start of the narrative, is entering his twilight years. Nilson finds himself stuck at a nursing home after suffering a serious injury. His time at the nursing home is meant to help him recuperate, and he decides to pass the time by chatting up the staff about his old exploits back during his time as a detective. One staff member by the name of Kirsti seems particularly interested in Nilson’s stories, and takes it upon herself to sit and record her conversations with him regarding his past. The novel teleports back in time to the ’50s, during Gunnar’s youth. At this point, he is a thriving in his career, who suddenly finds the most peculiar case right in his lap. He is approached by a jeweller who has recently lost an employee by the name of Christine—not to firing or layoffs, but to murder. Clues currently point to Christine’s beau, who may have been jealous of the flirting Christine may have had to put up with while on the job. The strangest element of the case, however, is that a business card belonging to Nilson was found on Christine’s body. With no other leads or resources to turn to, the jeweller that originally hired Christine wants Nilson to investigate as secretly as possible. The jeweller’s reputation is on the line, as if the circumstances around the murder get out to the public, their business could be heavily impacted. It is up to Nilson to decipher the case, but what he uncovers may turn out to be a lot of grime underneath a polished surface.
A reviewer in Publishers Weekly stated: “Emory’s first novel vividly evokes the ambiance of classic American hard-boiled crime writing.” Reviewingtheevidence.com contributor Meredith Frazier remarked: “Whatever happens, readers will want to follow this detective and his delightful supporting cast of friends.” On the NW Book Lovers blog, Jim Harris said: “Not only is this a fine mystery, it is also a look into Seattle’s mid-twentieth century lifestyle and history.” He added: “I urge you to read this.”
Crazy Rhythm
Crazy Rhythm is the follow-up book to Trouble in Rooster Paradise. It picks up with a similar framing device to the first, setting the stage for an entirely different mystery. After being hired by a client looking to make a deal, Nilson stumbles upon his client’s dead body. The motive behind the murder becomes the real question. Originally, the client wanted to recoup their earnings from a game of pool that had yet to be properly paid. All the client received was a pocket watch, made out of solid gold. The watch itself has now vanished, but the clues make little sense to Nilson. He begins looking into what truly happened on his own. His first tip is the connections he has to this client beyond work: the fact the brother of the client and Nilson were members of the same army unit during their time spent during in World War II.
However, in the midst of pursuing the case, Nilson is presented with another job from a very wealthy client, whose future bride has been on the receiving end of various threats. Nilson goes ahead with pursuing both cases, but soon finds he may be in for more trouble than he initially anticipated. When he meets with his new client’s fiancee, she suddenly switches from being nothing but refined to everything but, throwing Nilson entirely off guard. What’s more is the two cases Nilson seeks to solve may have more in common than just the detective getting to the bottom of them. Nilson regularly confides in his neighbors at the boarding house he resides in, all of whom have backstories that are just as colorful as Nilson’s own. One Publishers Weekly contributor remarked: “Fans of throwback PI novels will find plenty to like.” Vicki Weisfeld, a writer on the Crime Fiction Lover blog, said: “Writing a pastiche of someone as revered as Chandler is brave, and Emory carries it off well, with a style that’s aptly embodied in the novel’s title.” She went on to call the book “a perfect novel for a long airplane flight!” On reviewingtheevidence.com, Susan Hoover expressed that “readers will be looking forward to what happens to Gunnar, his friends and girlfriends, and where his job will take him next.” A writer on the Mysteries in Paradise blog commented: “The novel is filled with interesting characters particularly those who live in the boarding house where Gunnar resides.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, May 18, 2015, review of Trouble in Rooster Paradise, p. 67; November 20, 2017, review of Crazy Rhythm, p. 78.
ONLINE
Crime Fiction Lover, https://crimefictionlover.com/ (January 25, 2018), Vicki Weisfeld, review of Crazy Rhythm.
Mysteries in Paradise, http://paradise-mysteries.blogspot.com/ (January 23, 2017), review of Trouble in Rooster Paradise.
NW Book Lovers, https://nwbooklovers.org/ (August 19, 2016), Jim Harris, review of Trouble in Rooster Paradise.
reviewingtheevidence.com, http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com/ (July 1, 2015), Meredith Frazier, review of Trouble in Rooster Paradise; (November 1, 2017), Susan Hoover, review of Crazy Rhythm.
T.W. Emory Website, https://www.twemoryauthor.com (March 22, 2018), author profile.
ABOUT ME
T.W. Emory was born into a blue collar family in Seattle, Washington, and raised in the suburbs of the greater Seattle area. He’s been an avid reader since his early teens. In addition to fiction, he likes biographies, autobiographies, and the writings of certain essayists. He also enjoys reading secular and religious history, and is a dabbler in philosophy and sociology, but he also likes to read some reprinted collections of old comic strips such as Thimble Theatre (aka Popeye), Moon Mullins, Captain Easy, and Li’l Abner.
After working at various jobs he ended up doing drywall finishing and eventually became a small-time drywall contractor. In addition to writing, he enjoys cartooning as a hobby. He’s a second-generation Swede on his mother’s side and a third-generation Norwegian on his father’s, which helps explain the little bit of Scandinavian flavoring in his first novel, Trouble in Rooster Paradise.
Print Marked Items
Crazy Rhythm: A Gunnar Nilson Mystery
Publishers Weekly.
264.47 (Nov. 20, 2017): p78.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Crazy Rhythm: A Gunnar Nilson Mystery
T.W. Emory. Coffeetown, $15.95 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-60381-752-3
Gunnar Nilson, from an assisted living home in Everett, Wash., in 2003, relates another tale of his days as a
PI in Seattle to his caregiver, Kirsti Liddell, in Emory's solid sequel to 2015's Trouble in Rooster Paradise.
One July day in 1950, Nilson agrees to go to a meeting that night as backup for shady-operator Rune
Granholm, who wishes to collect the $300 he won from a stranger playing pool but who didn't have the cash
and instead gave him a gold Cartier watch as collateral. When Nilson stops by Granholm's place that
evening, Granholm is lying dead on the floor, shot in the chest. The gold watch is missing, though Nilson
doesn't believe the guy would have been murdered over a watch. Since Granholm's late older brother was a
WWII buddy of his, Nilson decides to investigate. Meanwhile, a slick lawyer hires Nilson to keep an eye on
his fiancee. This new case only temporarily distracts Nilson, an old-school gumshoe, from trying to figure
out what scheme Granholm was up to that got him killed. Fans of throwback PI novels will find plenty to
like. (Jan.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Crazy Rhythm: A Gunnar Nilson Mystery." Publishers Weekly, 20 Nov. 2017, p. 78. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A517262103/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=36a7f9b2.
Accessed 5 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A517262103
Trouble in Rooster Paradise: A Gunnar
Nilson Mystery
Publishers Weekly.
262.20 (May 18, 2015): p67.
COPYRIGHT 2015 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Trouble in Rooster Paradise: A Gunnar Nilson Mystery
T.W. Emory. Coffeetown (coffeetownpress.com), $ 14.95 trade paper (254p) ISBN 978-1-60381996-1
Despite its ungainly title, Emory's first novel vividly evokes the ambiance of classic American hard-boiled
crime writing. While recovering from an injury, aging gumshoe Gunnar Nilson regales his nurse with a case
he solved-decades before. In 1950, a beautiful young woman, Christine Johanson, is murdered in Ballard, a
Seattle suburb then heavily populated by Scandinavian immigrants. Christine worked at a high-end jewelry
store that seemed to encourage its male clientele to flirt with the salesgirls. Suspicion initially falls on
Christine's hot-headed boyfriend, Dirk Engstrom; but Nilson--brought in to minimize bad publicity for the
store-- suspects other customers at the jewelry shop who were also Christine's admirers. Emory, a Seattle
native, captures the period setting well, but irrelevant digressions and a tendency to dwell on the cultural
artifacts of 1950 slow down the action. One hopes Nilson's second outing will have a tighter plot. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Trouble in Rooster Paradise: A Gunnar Nilson Mystery." Publishers Weekly, 18 May 2015, p. 67. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A415324385/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=a0324019. Accessed 5 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A415324385
If you need a break from serial killers and world-at-risk mayhem, TW Emory’s Gunnar Nilson mysteries may be a perfect, lighthearted alternative. Crazy Rhythm is entertaining, engaging, and written with tongue in cheek and a big tip of the grey fedora to Raymond Chandler’s wisecracking private eyes.
PI Gunnar Nilson lives in the rain-soaked northwest United States. In the current era, he’s a resident in the Finecare assisted living facility in Everett, Washington, north of Seattle, recuperating from a broken leg. But in his early 1950s heyday, he was a private eye in the city itself. He has stories to tell, and what’s even more gratifying for an old man, attractive Finecare staff member Kirsti Liddell, aged about 20, wants to hear them.
This is the second book having this set-up, and author TW Emory moves you smoothly back to the post World War II era with its ways of talking and living. Nilson, the detective, lives in a heavily Scandinavian boarding house with his landlady, Mrs Berger, a former fan dancer with the photographs to prove it, and two other men, one of whom is a useful sounding-board for Nilson and his theories.
In the story he tells Kirsti, he’s approached by Rune Granholm, the younger ne’er-do-well brother of an old friend, who wants Nilson to attend a meeting with him where a significant amount of cash will be exchanged for an expensive Cartier watch. The whole set-up sounds fishy to Nilson, but he agrees to go out of loyalty to his dead friend and an understandable dab of curiosity. When he arrives at Granholm’s apartment to meet up prior to the exchange, he finds Granholm shot dead.
He doesn’t tell the police everything he knows about Granholm’s circumstances, intending to do a little sleuthing himself, but is soon distracted by a potentially lucrative case dropped in his lap. A lawyer in town wants him to investigate threatening phone calls his fiancée, a wealthy heiress, has been receiving. Delving into this woman’s complicated past reveals, well, complications.
Suffice it to say, Nilson is soon embroiled in more than one difficult situation, several of which involve beautiful women who seem rather more ardent than informative. At these points, Kirsti breaks in to remind Nilson that her mother, to whom she recounts their conversations, finds his many supposed romantic conquests entirely unbelievable.
Some blood is spilled – Granholm’s certainly – but the whole effect is more charming than nail-biting. Nilson’s evocation of Raymond Chandler is also entertaining, such as, “…it was guys like Rune who eventually got me to believe that the human race was for me to learn from, when I wasn’t bent over laughing at it.” The book is full of such wry comments and while, very occasionally, they get to be a little too much, for the most part they’re handled deftly, leaving you smiling to yourself.
Emory develops a set of colourful characters, male and female, in laying out the key questions: who’s making the threatening calls to the fiancée and why? What is the lawyer who hired him really up to? Oh, and, who killed Rune? Nilson is never wrong-footed as he pursues these investigations, and it’s fun to watch him in action.
I wish he hadn’t named two characters Douglas Eagleson and Dag Erickson, but, whatever, it’s a small quibble. Writing a pastiche of someone as revered as Chandler is brave, and Emory carries it off well, with a style that’s aptly embodied in the novel’s title. A perfect novel for a long airplane flight!
Set in 1950s Seattle, CRAZY RHYTHM is the second of the Gunnar Nilson Mysteries. Gunnar is a shamus who has recently solved his first crime and is waiting for more business when he discovers the body of a pre-war acquaintance, Rune Granholm. Gunnar was very fond of Rune's brother with whom he served in the war. He feels a sense of responsibility to follow up on the crime, even though Rune is a shady character, to say the least.
Then he receives a call from a lawyer looking to hire him. At their meeting he learns that Ethan Calmer's fiancée, Mercedes Atwood has been receiving threatening phone calls. Mercedes is the heir of a lumber Baron who was an eccentric world traveller and art curio buyer. Gunnar goes to investigate, meeting Miss Atwood, a cold and very controlled woman, who surprises him later with some uncharacteristic behavior.
Returning to his boarding house, Gunnar shares the situation so far with a motley group of boarders, including a WWI vet with a damaged face but a brilliant mind, his landlady, a retired fan dancer in burlesque, and her nephew, another WWII vet trying to make sense of post war Seattle.
As the plot thickens, the murder and the Calmer/Atwood case appear to be somehow connected and Gunnar and his pals must work through a large cast of characters to make sense of it all.
T. W. Emory emulates the noir novels of the 50s in his books – a cast of shady characters, a dark troubled city slowly recovering from war, a hero who treads the line between honorable and dishonorable behavior, especially when it comes to the women he encounters. He has very decided taste in women's breasts (not too big and not too small),) but always seems to prefer the girls to be "very pretty in a no-nonsense way." He admires the older women who have done something with their lives, whether as Rosie the Riveters or fan dancers. Most of the girls he meets are secretaries, of course - what else is there in his world?
Choosing to set his noir fiction in the 50s, its heyday, allows Emory to hark back to a world where men were men and girls were girls, a place that 50% of the population at least is extremely happy to have escaped. Emory and his character, Gunnar are good guys with hearts of gold. The crimes get solved and readers will be looking forward to what happens to Gunnar, his friends and girlfriends, and where his job will take him next.
After a fall from his roof, breaking his leg, Gunnar Nilson (who must be at least in his late 70s) is spending some time in an assisted living home in Everett, Washington. The date is Monday June 2 2003. He aqppears to have been in the home for a week or two.
His new caregiver is young Kirsti Liddell, working at the home for the summer. Kirsti finds out that Gunnar was once a private investigator in Seattle. She persuades him to spend time with her when she is off duty telling her about one of his cases. She proposes to make a written record of her interviews which she can submit for an extra credit paper in her college course.
Gunnar chooses an investigation into a murder that began over 50 years earlier, June 7, 1950.
This provides an interesting plot construct. Kirsti records Gunnar's story on a tape recorder so that she can transcribe it. Their interviews take place over a number of sessions.
Seattle has changed a lot in 50 years, and of course in 1950 the second World War is only just over, so Gunnar is able to talk about how the war affected various people, and what life was like then. The novel is filled with interesting characters particularly those who live in the boarding house where Gunnar resides.
Take any writing class, and you'll be told to avoid clichés like the plague. And, in most cases, that's good advice. In TROUBLE IN ROOSTER PARADISE, T.W. Emory proves the rule by being the exception. Gunnar Nilson, Emory's clove-chewing gumshoe with an eye for the ladies is every cliché in the book when it comes to hard-boiled detective stories, but to great extent that's what makes this novel such a pleasure.
Nilson, now past retirement and convalescing, tells his story to his young nurse (affectionately known as Blue Eyes), flashing back to Seattle of the 1950s and regaling Blue Eyes with tales of his exploits.
When murdered salesgirl Christine Johanson is found with Nilson's card in her possession, Nilson's friend Detective Sergeant Milland summons Nilson to the scene and wants answers. Nilson has none and sees no reason to get involved until the godson of a wealthy client is accused of the murder, and that wealthy client makes it Nilson's business to conduct a discreet investigation and keep the powerful businessman and his connections out of the limelight. As Nilson delves into Christine's life, he uncovers a dark side to the fashionable store where rich clients shop as well as a mess of interlocking lives and well-nursed revenge.
The characters in the 1950s sections (which make up the bulk of the book) are well-drawn, quirky, and a lot of fun to get to know. The setting - Seattle in the 50s when it was a working-class backwater - is also evoked well with Nilson living in a boardinghouse, driving an old Chevy, slipping in references to both WWI and WWII, and generally portraying a time that may seem simpler than our own on the surface but a time which, as all times do, harbors all the complications of a human soul. And those complications lead to multiple murders, attempts on Nilson's life, and lots of heartache, all of which, luckily for us and for Blue Eyes, is nicely tied up at the end. The way it's wrapped up is however a tad unbelievable, with Nilson having lots of time for explaining that isn't entirely needed: by the time he's explaining things, the reader is already right there with him, although Emory does do a good job tossing in red herrings that lead both Nilson and the reader astray and keep the mystery surprising almost all the way through.
Overall, fans of hard-boiled detective fiction will find very little to quibble with. Nilson is a smart, tough, engaging gumshoe who behaves exactly as expected but does a great job of solving a mystery in a setting that's entertaining to visit. The one criticism I have is the bouncing back and forth between the present and the 50s using the device of having Blue Eyes record the story for an extra-credit paper. The whole novel could have been set in the 50s and left at that. On the other hand, this novel is billed as Book 1 of the Gunnar Nilson series, so presumably there will be more (the ending also indicates that will be the case). Perhaps Emory is laying the groundwork for Nilson to solve current-day mysteries based on his past experience. Or maybe future installments will be set in other decades. Whatever happens, readers will want to follow this detective and his delightful supporting cast of friends.
Trouble in Rooster Paradise is a fun mystery set in 1950 Seattle and in 2003 in a Seattle area injury rehab center. 83 year old retired shamus (private detective) Gunnar Nilson is laid up in 2003 in a nursing home with a busted gam (leg). Josephine Tey used a similar gambit in The Daughter of Time, which led me into a lifetime study of Richard III, 15th century King of England. Hopefully author T.W. Emory will write more books featuring Nilson.
One of Gunnar’s caregivers, a twenty-something young lady named Kirsten, takes a shine to him (likes him as a friend) and gets him to talk about his career. Gunnar starts his tale with the story with a series of murders in 1950 Seattle. Gunnar had survived WWII and had resumed his career as a private eye after the war. This case revolves around the rich and famous of Seattle as well as the city’s early fashion industry (and gorgeous dames). Fashion models are being murdered. Why and by whom? Gunnar’s investigation takes him to the mansions of The Highlands (a gated community for the wealthy) and the dives and bars of midtown Seattle. Gunnar is hired by one of wealthy citizens he ends up investigating.
In an era before personal electronic devices, it is wondrous to watch Gunnar as he travels around Seattle, using phone booths (with working phones!) to communicate with the various characters. He has a secretary reminiscent the women with whom the great writers of this genre in the 1930s and 1940s populated their stories.
Gunnar lives in a boarding house (before there was AIRBNB) with his landlady, a former burlesque queen; her nephew, Sven; and Walter, a friend, who was severely burned in the war and who paints lead soldiers as a business. Walter is also helping Mrs. Berger (the proprietor of the boarding house) to write a play about her career. He aids Gunnar in his tracking down of the shysters (bad guys).
Not only is this a fine mystery, it is also a look into Seattle’s mid-twentieth century lifestyle and history. I urge you to read this.
GO! BUY! READ!