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WORK TITLE: Fade to Black
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NATIONALITY: British
http://kiwicrime.blogspot.com/2016/03/review-fade-to-black.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:London School of Economics and Political Science, M.A., 1990.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Journalist. International Herald Tribune, freelance reporter, 1998-2000; McKinsey and Company, freelance editor, 2000-02; Wunderman, copy writer, 2002-04; Converging Media, editorial director, 2002-08; brand-e, Thinktank International Research, content director, 2009-.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Journalist Steve Mullins received a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science and went on to work variously as a reporter, editor, copy writer, and editorial director at International Herald Tribune, McKinsey and Company, Wunderman, and Converging Media. In 2009 he became content director for brand-e, Thinktank International Research.
Fade to Black
Mullin’s first novel is a crime story based in modern-day London. Focusing on a radio show host and film buff who discovers that a director who was declared dead two years earlier may not be so, the novel builds in tension as the protagonist becomes entangled in a murder plot.
Mullin’s stylistic choices in Fade to Black elicit an atmosphere of old-fashioned film noir, “magnifying the stylish and cinematic aspects of the capital city as it flows along on honeyed prose,” wrote Craig Sisterson in Crime Watch. While the story takes place throughout London, there is a particular emphasis on the Thames River and its history, along with affectionate descriptions of the various boroughs of London. The geographical descriptions in the novel seem to make London itself a character, providing a distinct sense of setting.
The protagonist of the novel is Root Wilson, a film buff and host of a popular radio show and a blog writer. Wilson’s radio show focuses on film, music, food, art, and obscure London history. As a film fan, film and those who make it are a main passion for Wilson. The story takes off after Wilson begins to suspect that a film director who died two years earlier may actually be alive.
For Wilson, this isn’t just any film director. Wilson is a superfan. He knows obscure details about the director and regularly references the man’s films in his radio show. At the time of the director’s supposed death, Wilson wrote a glowing obituary. One night, as Wilson is out in London, he shakes hands with a man he believes is the director, Philip Hegley. From what Wilson can tell, it seems that Hegley faked his own death and now seeks to secretly make a new movie.
Instead of blowing Hegley’s cover, Wilson decides he will write a biography of the man. This task proves difficult. After that initial brief encounter, Wilson is unable to find any sign of Hegley. Wilson begins investigating the life of Hegley outside the movies to learn more about him for the biography and, he hopes, to see the man in person again. As his investigations dive deeper, Wilson learns of Hegley’s unsavory reputation and begins to fear that his searching may lead to Wilson’s own murder. John Cleal in Crime Review described the book as “well-paced, driven by the one central mystery, but if you’re an old thriller hand, it’s not too difficult to unravel.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 1, 2016, Bill Ott, review of Fade to Black, p. 28.
Publishers Weekly, September 5, 2016, review of Fade to Black, p. 55.
ONLINE
Crime Review, http://crimereview.co.uk (October 15, 2016), John Cleal, review of Fade to Black.
Crime Watch, http://kiwicrime.blogspot.com (March 27, 2016), Craig Sisterson, review of Fade to Black.
Fade to Black
Bill Ott
Booklist. 113.3 (Oct. 1, 2016): p28.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
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Full Text:
Fade to Black.
By Steve Mullins.
Nov. 2016. 240p. IPG/Contraband, paper, 514.95 (9781910192252).
Crime stories that draw directly on film noir for both mood and plot own a special little corner of the genre, appealing to both lovers of darkness in general and to the black-and-white-movie crowd in particular. Here's a fine addition to the short list. Root Wilson is a noir buff and radio host who aspires to direct a movie. His ticket to ride appears to arrive one night in Bloomsbury when he shakes hands with a dead man--not just any dead man but legendary noir director Philip Hegley. Turns out Hegley faked his death but now wants to make a new movie secretly, with Root's help. Fans will quickly realize that Root's life is turning into a remake of his favorite movie, The Third Man, with Hegley as Harry Lime and Root as a cooler version of Holly Martins. Yes, it could be dangerous, but you do what you have to do to get the movie made. Or so Root thinks until Hegley, like Harry Lime, turns out to be a very different sort of man than Root imagined. Cue the zither music and enjoy.--Bill Ott
Fade to Black
Publishers Weekly. 263.36 (Sept. 5, 2016): p55.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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Fade to Black
Steve Mullins. Saraband (IPG, dist.), $14.95 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-1-910192-25-2
Media freelancer Root Wilson, the 30-year-old narrator of British author Mullins's unfortunate first novel, has a popular radio show, a blog, and a movie in development. At a trendy London art gallery, he encounters Philip Hegley, a believed-deceased film director whose obituary he penned two years back. Rather than grab the opportunity to scoop his competitors and turn this stroke of luck into cash, Wilson announces that he's going to write the man's biography. Of course, after that onetime showing, Hegley remains frustratingly elusive. Meanwhile, Wilson looks for clues to Hegley's disappearance by dissecting one of the filmmaker's masterpieces in tedious detail. Just about everywhere he runs into someone who hated Hegley. With its minimal tension and cast of lackluster secondary characters, this mash-up of L.A.-style noir and London hipster talk (Wilson refers to the BBC as the "Beeb") may have limited appeal to an American audience. (Nov.)
SUNDAY, MARCH 27, 2016
Review: FADE TO BLACK
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FADE TO BLACK by Steve Mullins (Saraband, 2016)
Reviewed by Craig Sisterson
The mysterious return of a ‘deceased’ film icon forces media man Root Wilson, the director’s obituarist, to hit London's streets in search of the truth. But powerful forces are determined to stop Root, and he soon finds that he’s a murder suspect himself … and even worse, maybe the next victim.
Longtime journalist Steve Mullins' first novel reads like an ultra-cool love letter to London, magnifying the stylish and cinematic aspects of the capital city as it flows along on honeyed prose. It's a tale that sparkles with atmosphere and originality, while at the same time having a rather old-fashioned noir sensibility.
Root Wilson is his own man, a bit of a maverick who hosts an eclectic radio show where he curates things he loves and thinks his listeners will too, ranging from music to film references, food, art, and little-known London history. His world is tipped when he suspects a dead film director whose work he very much admired - to the point of writing a glowing obituary and referencing regularly - may actually still be alive, having pulled the wool over everyone's eyes, for whatever reason.
The situation ascends from puzzling to dangerous when Root is confronted by sinister figures; our hero seems to have stumbled into his own noir film, complete with henchman, femme fatales, and mysterious forces lurking in the shadows. Just what the heck is really going on?
This is not your typical British crime novel. Mullins has created something that, like several of his characters, is a little eccentric. Full of culture and plenty of film references, it's a very visual tale; as readers we glide along in Root's world, at times feeling like we're in a classic black and white film. Root is an engaging protagonist, even if at times he seems to be blundering through life in a haphazard way. Mullins brings various areas of London vividly to life, but the setting and story both centre strongly on the Thames River; its waters bisecting the capital like a glittering snake.
There's a good sense of pacing to Fade to Black as the mystery unravels, and Mullins surrounds Root with plenty of fascinating and well-developed characters. Overall the book is an impressive first effort, a jazz lick of a debut - fast-moving, offbeat, and shot through with a sense of cool.
Craig Sisterson is a journalist from New Zealand who writes for magazines and newspapers in several countries. He has interviewed more than 140 crime writers, discussed crime fiction at literary festivals and on radio, and is the Judging Convenor of the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel. Follow him on Twitter: @craigsisterson
Fade To Black
by Steve Mullins
The apparent return from the dead of a cult film icon forces media man Root Wilson – who wrote his obituary – to search for the truth. A series of twists ensure Root becomes a suspect for murder himself – as well as a possible next victim.
Review
You’ll have to make up your own mind about former ad-man Steve Mullins’ debut offering. It’s either such a brilliant send-up of the mee-jocracy, disguised as a thriller, that makes Private Eye’s Psueds’ Corner read like a shopping list. Or, he actually expects the reader to take it seriously!
It reminded me of occasional awful evenings I spent as a ‘company husband’ while my wife stormed the ad agency world. The mee-jah sessions were the worst! Self-important, self-deluding poseurs, writers, film makers, radio or TV people, those whose business it was to comment on them, dressed by the oh-so-cool designer of the moment, boring on in phony Notting Hill accents about ‘progressive’ 1930s films, books which were remaindered almost as soon as printed and – of course, their latest project which was going to make them into a household name!
Mullins is a specialist writer on the mee-jah and a former ad agency copywriter – and he has this world off to a T, even down to its ghastly language. The shallowness, the vanity, the amorality and sheer unimportance of it all, leap out from every page.
After the most compelling opening line I’ve read: “In Bloomsbury I shook hands with a dead man” we meet mee-jah man Root Wilson and follow his journey through London’s streets, the Essex marshes and northern Kent in search of the truth behind that statement.
The dead man in question is a film director who, since his disappearance from a Channel ferry, has become a cult figure. Root soon finds that others are keen to stop his search and he finds himself suspected of murder – and possibly a likely next victim.
The story is inspired by The Third Man, and also owes plenty to the pulp writers of the 1950s. But Wilson is no Harry Lime and despite Mullins’ attempts to borrow smart-ass, slick dialogue from the likes of Ed McBain and Mickey Spillane, it’s all too self-conscious. So too is what appears to be the complete script of the director’s most successful film, complete with shooting directions, plus scripts for Wilson’s dreadful radio show – an absolute must for Sunday mornings on Radio 4!
The best and most convincing part is Wilson’s obsession with the Thames and its history and the loving descriptions of London from Borough market to Soho or the posh ghettos of Peckham and Notting Hill. The capital and its river becomes almost a major character, certainly a good deal more convincing than many others, particularly a dull and stupid police inspector!
The plot, such as it is, is well-paced, driven by the one central mystery, but if you’re an old thriller hand, it’s not too difficult to unravel.
Reviewed 15 October 2016 by John Cleal