Brits don’t like me…
It all started with a British review of Rembrandt’s Angel that torched that novel: I thought the British reviewer’s critique could be summed up by the following: How dare I, a Yankee author, write a crime story set in the UK? I took that as sour grapes—the novel had good reviews here in the States, so that critique certainly wasn’t about quality. The reviewer just hated the idea that someone could write about a British character mucking around in a British setting (Esther Brookstone travels a lot outside Britain too). Okay, maybe it wasn’t fanatically anti-American or rabid British patriotism either, just another sniveling troll (one finds a few among reviewers, especially on Amazon and Goodreads, which, for practical purposes, are the same thing) who can’t write a damn thing but loves to criticize those who can.
But I imagine that the snarky critiques will continue with later novels in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series (there are nine now) because I’ve dared to “kill” Queen Elizabeth! I’ll try here to head some of that criticism off by pointing out that Esther’s adventures are in the near future, not sci-fi by any means, but futuristic enough that the Queen, now 96, is unlikely to still be among the living. I salute her and wish her well during her platinum jubilee year, but I suspect that someone else will soon be on the throne.
The question is: Will she be replaced by Charlie or Willy? Will Charlie abdicate in favor of his son? I assumed he wouldn’t when I wrote the novels. He seemed like an upstanding fellow in Clancy’s Patriot Games, albeit a bit helpless if not spoiled, but that was before Diana’s demise and Camilla’s taking her place. That alone might mean he’s just another self-centered royal who’d want at least a few years of kingly fame before soon also handing the crown over to Willy (he’ll be turning seventy-four, after all!). (In Celtic Chronicles, Charlie has his eyes on a Russian oligarch’s yacht! Nothing wrong with that, I suppose—they’re nice little boats!)
I have no idea why Brits think they have a monopoly on mystery stories. America’s tradition is at least as long as Britain’s! (Edgar Allan Poe was writing them long before Agatha Christie! That’s acknowledged by the Edgar Awards.) Plenty of other American authors have written good ones (see the list in the Sleuthing, British-style series of short fiction), even ones set in merry olde England like mine. (And the whole hard-boiled movement started here before P.D James!) Actually, as I stated, Esther’s adventures take her all over the world, from Peru in Rembrandt’s Angel to Turkey in Son of Thunder, with even a sojourn in NYC at the end of Intolerance and the beginning of The Klimt Connection. I didn’t see any American reviewers complaining about her trips to America! She’s lot more the globetrotter than Miss Marple and a sprier woman to boot, a true twenty-first century sleuth grounded in the twentieth (she was an MI6 spy in East Berlin during the Cold War).
PMs (Prime Ministers) and MPs (Members of Parliament) don’t fare well in Esther’s series—what would that disgruntled reviewer say about that?—a lot worse than Queen Lizzy, that’s for sure. An MP is the major villain in Palettes, Patriots, and Prats, and an MP who becomes PM has questionable ethics in the last few novels. Of course, a real-life PM indirectly accepted campaign contributions from a Russian oligarch—the oligarch’s son-in-law was that PM’s campaign chairman (I shall not name names, but that PM with the haystack haircut is known to have had lavish parties even when such events were banned during Covid). The old Queen was never embroiled in such scandals (one son, that friend of Epstein’s, did that in spades), but her and Phillip’s treatment of Diana was highly questionable if one is to believe a (made-for-TV?) movie about the events surrounding Diana’s death (old Phillip didn’t come off well in that one either).
Besides being American, I have enough Irish in me to wonder why any sensible, modern nation would tolerate any royalty, but I suppose reducing royalty to a powerless pomp-and-circumstance role in a democracy is more acceptable than the alternative (why we had our revolution). I certainly enjoyed old Lizzy’s disdain for a certain US ex-president who probably still has royal aspirations, to say the least. One has to wonder if she ever approved of any fascist monsters this world has produced. Britain certainly showed its democratic credentials during World War II by standing up to Hitler while the US delayed its entry into the war. That existential war against fascism might have otherwise ended a lot earlier, one way or the other.
It’s sad to think the Brits don’t like me. Perhaps it’s my Irish surname (O’Moore, to be complete)? Or maybe just because I’m a Yank? I like them, and they all fascinate me. They share traditions passed down from Angles, Britons, Celts, Normans, Saxons, and Vikings and have given us some of the best writers and poets in the world. I’d be stupid to overlook that or deny it.
In any case, I hope the Brits won’t hold any grudges with respect to Esther’s series. The rational ones among them will hopefully recognize that old Liz inevitably will leave this mortal coil and that democracy, not royalty, is far more important to the world right now. What lies ahead for the future of the royal family is unknown and might bring surprises that are stranger than fiction.
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Celtic Chronicles. Novel #9 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series is special: It’s the last novel in the series, and what a series it’s been with Esther and Bastiann taking us all over the UK and Europe and even to the Third World, from Peru to Turkey. (Yes, like Russia, the latter is Third World—nothing wrong with that; it’s just a fact.) In this novel, Esther and Bastiann volunteer to work at an archaeological dig near their modest castle outside Edinburgh. A student also working there is murdered. Police Scotland finds a Russian oligarch’s number on the lad’s call-list. That Russian is on his yacht anchored off the Scottish coast. As the investigation continues, everything becomes more complex, other characters come into play, and the intrigue and suspense increase. Available wherever quality ebooks are sold (but not on the grand Bezos bot’s Amazon). Enjoy!
Note: The above novel and others are distributed by Draft2Digital that supposedly merged with Smashwords March 1 (even before, they more or less distributed to the same online retailers). Supposedly these D2D novels will appear listed on Smashwords. I see no evidence of this. Progress is often akin to a snail trying to climb up a greased window pane.
On pubprogressive.com yesterday: “Common-Sense Gun Control.”
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
