Tag: Regency England

Crime & Culpability: A Jane Austen Mystery Anthology
by Regina Jeffers, Riana Everly, Jeanette Watts, Michael Rands, Linne Elizabeth, Emma Dalgety, and Elizabeth Gilliland

I am delighted to welcome Michael Rands
to Escape With Dollycas today!

What is Noir?
by Michael Rands

This was the question at the heart of a seminar I took in grad school. This class proved to be one of the most enjoyable and memorable, not least because I would frequently sit next to my then crush, now wife. As the old saying goes: Couples who bond over Noir, bond for life.

But really what is noir?

It is one of the easiest and most difficult genres to define. Easy, because, well, you know when you’re watching film noir. Difficult, because you would have a hard time explaining why you know this.

Comedy, you laugh.

Romance, you swoon as two people fall in love.

Horror is… horrifying.

Noir? There’s a guy in a coat and a hat, a seductive woman with evil intentions, and a crime.

It’s a rather bizarre definition, but it’s a start.

Noir arose quite suddenly, with many of the most famous American noir films shot within a few years, and almost all shot within a decade. Several of the classics were shot during or just after the Second World War: The Maltese Falcon (1941), Double Indemnity (1944), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).

A real darkness permeates these films. Shot in black and white, the images are shadowy, nightmarish. The characters inhabit a dark world. The most famous stock character associated with this genre is the femme fatale—a deadly woman who uses her sexuality to lure men into sin and destruction. The villainous men, it should be noted, seldom require much persuasion.

In Double Indemnity (a candidate for the noiriest of noir films) Phyllis Dietrichson, convinces the insurance salesman Walter Neff, to help her kill her husband after she takes out a policy on his life. The story (like many other in the genre) is filled with betrayal, murder, doomed sexual liaisons, and downward spirals that end in the destruction of all the schemers. The world is dark. The characters are dark. The story circles around the sinkhole of nihilism, and yet there is some form of justice. This justice however seldom comes at the hand of a redeemer, a white knight. Instead, the perpetrators of the crimes tend to implode under the weight of their own misdeeds.

Agents of order are often as morally dubious as the villains they pursue. Detective Sam Spade of The Maltese Falcon, played by Humphrey Bogart, is the quintessential example of such a man. He smokes, drinks heavily, engages in intimidation and violence. He’s gruff and nasty. He is at least a partial influence for the many troubled detectives we’ve come to love in books and on screen.

Spade, like most characters in the “noir-verse” began in the pages of a short novel. Dashiel Hammet (Spade’s creator), along with James Cain and Raymond Chandler, pioneered the genre of Hardboiled Detective Fiction a decade or so before the boom in noir films. Their stories and characters provided the blueprints for most of the classic films, with Chandler additionally writing many famous screenplays. All this is to say that noir, one of the most visually distinctive film genres, has its roots in fiction, in the written word.

The city of Los Angeles plays an important role in the Noirosphere. Of course, the early films were shot in the city, but many of the most influential writers including the three mentioned above, spent some time in L.A. Contemporary Neo-noir writers like Walter Mosley have set their stories there too, perhaps in homage to these early pioneers.

Despite the short duration of the original crop of noir, the genre has had an outsized influence on film and literature. Every hard drinking detective, femme fatale, and nihilistic double-crosser, owes at least some noirish debt. Writers as un-obviously noirish as Cormac MacCarthy have dipped their toes in noir-blood, and celebrated directors like Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers are openly influenced by the genre.

I’m sure it’s obvious to see how Jane Austen fits into all of this.  Born and raised in Los Angeles, the daughter of a private detective and a failed insurance salesman…

But no, there is some logic. For one, we’re writing about Jane Austen and Crime. And, if it’s not obvious yet, I am an unapologetic fan of this shady genre. Austen’s famously adaptable characters have taken on countless lives across time, space and genre, and I could not but help see them putting on their noir-garb, and heading out to L.A. Mr. Wickham, the shady, manipulative, semi-criminal womanizer, was all but begging to be cast in a noir retelling of his story. Lydia Bennet, a few years older, jaded and hardened from her earlier experiences hanging out with a sociopath and his rough friends, might find herself noirified, too. As for Lizzie Bennet and Mr. Darcy, I tread carefully, for fear of making enemies. But, there is a place for them. I hope you’ll take a chance on this and see how it all fits together.

Thank you!

Thank you, Michael, for visiting today with a great topic!

Keep reading to learn more about Michael and Crime & Culpability.

About Crime & Culpability

Crime & Culpability: A Jane Austen Mystery Anthology
Cozy Mystery Anthology
Settings –  (Regency England, modern-day America)
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bayou Wolf Press (September 10, 2024)
Print length ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0D6JQN6JL

“No one can withstand the charm of such a mystery.” – Jane Austen, Persuasion

Jane Austen mysteries have become a popular subgenre of Austen variations, but this is more than just a trend. Austen was a masterful storyteller who embedded clues within her stories for her readers to follow, inviting readers to read between the lines and “gather the evidence” to follow her intricate plotlines.

In this anthology, various authors who are also fans and admirers of Austen’s work have taken the challenge to add some mystery to Austen’s stories and characters. From Regency sequels to film noir retellings to cozy art heists, Crime and
Culpability: A Jane Austen Mystery Anthology explores the many faces of Austen and all of her
enigmas.

Featuring stories by Regina Jeffers, Riana Everly, Jeanette Watts, Michael Rands, Linne Elizabeth, Emma Dalgety, and Elizabeth Gilliland, with a foreword by Regina Jeffers and an introduction by Elizabeth Gilliland Rands.

About the Authors

Elizabeth Gilliland: Elizabeth Gilliland is the author of the Austen University Mysteries series, including What Happened on Box Hill, The Portraits of Pemberley, and two prequel novellas, Dear Prudent Elinor and Sly Jane Fairfax. (Look out for book three sometime next year!) She has written and presented at various academic confer‐ ences on Jane Austen and wrote her dissertation on Jane Austen adaptations, dedicating herself to watch the lake dive scene as many times as necessary for scholarly pursuit. She also writes Gothic horror as E. Gilliland and romance as Lissa Sharpe, and she is the co-founder of Bayou Wolf Press.

Author Links

Website    Twitter (X)   Facebook    Goodreads   Blog    Newsletter   Amazon

Regina Jeffers – Regina Jeffers writes books about corsets, rakes, daring heroines, dashing heroes and all aspects of the Georgian/Regency era. She is an award winning author of cozy mysteries, historical romantic suspense, and Austenesque vagaries. Jeffers has been a Smithsonian presenter and Martha Holden Jennings Scholar, as well as having her tales honored by, among others, the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense, the Frank Yerby Award for Fiction, the International Digital Awards, and the Chanticleer International Book Award.

Author Links: 

Every Woman Dreams (Blog)   Always Austen (Group Blog)    Facebook    Twitter    Amazon Author Page   Pinterest   BookBub   Instagram   Regina Jeffers Website 

Riana Everly: Riana Everly is an award-winning Canadian author of Austenesque fiction, both Regency and contemporary. Her historical mystery series, Miss Mary Investigates, has quickly become a favourite of Jane Austen fans and cosy mystery fans alike. Trained as a classical musician, she also has advanced degrees in Medieval Studies, and pretended to be an academic before discovering that fiction doesn’t need footnotes. She loves travelling, cooking her way around the world, playing with photography, and discussing obscure details with her husband and children. Possibly in Latin. She can be found in the usual places and loves connecting with readers, so please give her a shout!

Author Links:

Newsletter   Website   Facebook    Instagram  Amazon

Jeanette Watts: Jeanette Watts is a dance instructor, writer, seamstress, actress, and very, very poor housekeeper. With books on historical fiction, modern romantic comedy, LGBTQ romance, Jane Austen-inspired stories, and she is contemplating writing steamier works, what do all these genres have in common? Jeanette writes about people with a secret. Secrets are fun. Keep up with the various parts of Jeanette’s brain at her YouTube Channel, “History is My Playground,” and her webpages, Jeanette‐ Watts.squarespace.com and DancingThruHistory.com.

Author Links

Instagram     Facebook     Twitter      Linked In      Website 1     Website 2     Goodreads     Jeanette_Watts Amazon Author Page

Michael Rands: Michael Rands is the author of the novels The Chapel St. Perilous and Praise Routine Number Four, co-author of the economic satire The Yamaguchi Manuscripts, and Kamikaze Economics (a story of modern Japan). He’s co-author of the humorous dictionary Stay Away from Mthatha. He co-created the audio drama The Crystal Set and co- hosted the podcast Detours Ahead. In South Africa he worked in television as a writer, director and producer. He taught English in Japan. He holds an MFA from Louisiana State University, and currently teaches English and Creative Writing at the college level. He is the co-founder of Bayou Wolf Press. He lives with his wife, son, and labrador, in Alabama. His new novel, When the Witch Calls, comes out in November 2024.

Author Links

Facebook    Twitter    Instagram    Blog

Linné Elizabeth: Linné Elizabeth is an English instructor at Utah Tech University, a freelance content writer, and an award-winning author. When she’s not devouring chocolate while nose-deep in a book, you can find her playing in the russet desert of southern Utah with her four incredible – sometimes feral – kids and her handsome husband. Check her out on Instagram: @library4one or on Facebook: @linneelizabeth 

Author Links

Website   Instagram: @Library4One   LinkedIn    Facebook    Blog

Emma Dalgety: Emma Dalgety grew up in Mobile, Alabama. She received a BA in Music and English from the University of Mobile in 2023. As a musi‐ cian and a writer, she has performed violin across the Southeast and internationally, finding creative inspiration and filling notebooks with story fragments throughout her travels. When she isn’t writing, she is researching interdisciplinary connections in literature as she works towards an MA in English, or teaching music lessons in her private studio.

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