SURREAL TRAPDOOR: Who was Mo Hayder?

Mo Hayder, the author

 

 

 

 

 

 

About 25 years ago, I picked up, Birdman, a new crime fiction book that was getting a lot of buzz: I would soon regret it. Sadly Birdman is one of those few books that despite excellent writing and a gripping narrative I simply found too intense to finish. It’s not every day when frank torture porn and SM hit the main stream, but when they do so successfully, it can mean mega sales and mega bucks. (Think 50 Shades of Grey…)

Birdman, the debut novel of author, Mo Hayder, was described by its publisher, Transworld, as one of the most powerful and violent books they had ever come across. (I can’t disagree.) Released in December 1999, it became an international bestseller. Hayder went on to write another 10 novels, many of them bestsellers and many nominated for the prestigious CWA Dagger awards. Her seventh book, Gone, won the Edgar Award in 2012. As of 2021, her novels have sold more than 6.5 million copies.

So who was Mo Hayder? What lay at the heart of her dark, violent fantasies?

Hayder was born Clare Damaris Bastin on January 2, 1962 to John Bastin, an astrophysicist (!) and Susan Hollins, a teacher. She was blessed / cursed with knock-out good looks and left home for the big city of London before age 16. By 1982, at age 20, she’d won the Miss Nude Beauty Pageant and been a “Page 3” topless model in the notorious British tabloid, The Sun.

She turned to acting under the stage name, Candy Davis and became – you’ll never guess – secretary Miss Belfridge in the longstanding British sitcom, Are You Being Served?, which ran from 1972 to 1985.

Candy Davis and Nicholas Smith, the bumbling manager

One of the running jokes of the show was that “young” Mr. Grace, the elderly owner of Grace Brothers department store, always had a gorgeous secretary and/or nurse who was the near-death of him. By today’s standards, that humor seems sexist and crass, but at the time, audiences enjoyed it. 

Hayder joined the show in 1983. By then the actor who played “young” Mr. Grace had retired so she became inept manager, Rumbold’s assistant instead. She remained a regular cast member  until the show ended in 1985. Here’s a clip of her performances from YouTube.

It seems Hayder’s acting career never materialized after that. She married briefly in 1985 then at age 25, in 1987, she moved to Tokyo, Japan. There she appears to have had an adventurous, perhaps a risky, life, working as a waitress at a nightclub and as amateur filmmaker. What happened in that span of 14 years until she emerged as one of crime fiction’s darkest authors in 1999? That, too, will remain a mystery. 

In 2021, Mo Hayder died  young at age 59 of Lou Gerig’s disease.

 

The Mesdames and Messieurs of Mayhem’s New Anthology: The 13th Letter

I’m delighted to announce the Mesdames and Messieurs 6th anthology, The 13th Letter, edited by Donna Carrick and published by Carrick Publishing. The title and theme of our book is one of Donna’s many brilliant ideas.

You see, “M” is the 13th letter of the alphabet. What could line up better with our brand of “13”? The leading crime writers in this collection have used “M” to stand for mayhem, mischief, mystery and of course, murder.  Very happy that my story, “The Boy in the Picture”, is one of the 22 tales in this book.

“The Boy in the Picture” was inspired by my visit to Calgary to attend the multi-genre conference, When Words Collide. I took the opportunity to visit one of the three houses I lived in during my unsettled childhood. My house was long torn down, but the street, including the one heritage home on it, was exactly as I remembered it.

Once again, amazing artist, Sara Carrick has created the cover that’s not only visually arresting but reveals how “M” is the 13th letter.

The 13th Letter will be available for pre-order later this month or in early October. Look for it on Amazon in hard cover, soft cover and ebook!

And if you are in the Toronto area at 2 pm on Saturday, November 2nd, drop in to our real world launch at the fabulous bookstore, Sleuth of Baker Street, 920 Millwood Road.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Dear Readers,

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Thank you so much for your support during 2023, a challenging year with many peaks and valleys, but we got through it!

Authors would not be here without you. Wishing you all good things in 2024 and hope to meet you in the Real World.

Big Holiday Hugs,

Madeleine

NEWS! NEWS! NEWS! Launch of Snake Oil and Other Tales, Nov 4th, 2 pm, Sleuth of Baker Street

Greetings Readers!

The launch of Snake Oil and Other Tales, my second collection of crime stories is this coming Saturday, November 4th at Sleuth of Baker Street Bookstore, 907 Millwood Road, Toronto.

The paperback edition of Snake Oil will be available for sale. Sleuth’s will always be happy to take your order, too.

I’d love to meet and chat with you in person. And do take the opportunity to browse Sleuth’s unrivaled collection of vintage mysteries and buy that book you’ve always been looking for.

With huge bears hug and thank you’s to my publisher and editor, Donna Carrick at Carrick Publishing; to Sara Carrick for her fabulous cover and to Marian Misters and J. D. Singh of Sleuth’s for hosting!

NEWS! NEWS! NEWS! Interview Friday!

Greetings Readers!

Today I’m both delighted and honored to be interviewed by two great supporters of their fellow authors.

Joanne Guidoccio

I’m visiting Joanne Guidoccio’s Friday page to share 10 tips on short crime fiction writing: the hills, valleys and rewards of pursuing this literary form. Here’s the link.

Do subscribe to Joanne’s blog. It’s a great way to discover new authors. And her interesting blogs range from humour to confidence-building to life observations.

 

Rosemary McCracken

And I’m also a guest on my dear friend and leading crime writer, Rosemary McCracken’s  blog, Moving Target,  talking about writing on the dark side. Here’s the link.

Subscribing to Moving Target is another excellent way to discover new crime fiction authors. Rosemary is the author of the popular Pat Tierney financial mystery series and a widely published short story writer.

NEWS! NEWS! NEWS! Snake Oil and Other Tales Now Available!

Greetings Readers!

My second collection of crime stories is now LIVE on Amazon. It’s available in Kindle ebook, paper back and hard cover format.

Here’s the link

With a huge bear hug and big thank you to my publisher and editor, Donna Carrick at Carrick Publishing and to Sara Carrick for her fabulous cover!!

NEWS! NEWS! NEWS! My Interview with Melissa Yi!

Greetings Readers!

Delighted to be interviewed by my friend and fab author, Dr. Melissa Yi, about my upcoming book, Snake Oil and Other Tales.

I’m excited to be part of Melissa’s kick-starter for her new Dr. Hope Sze mystery, Sugar and Vice, Book 3 of the Seven Deadly Sins series. Hope attends a festival that celebrates dragon boat racing and food, an unusual pairing made sinister by a warning that someone is about to die.

Read our interview here and do check out Melissa’s kick- starter here.

 

NEWS! NEWS! NEWS! Snake Oil and Other Tales Available for Pre-Order!

Greetings Readers!

I’m delighted to tell you that my second collection of crime stories is now available for pre-order on Amazon. It’s in Kindle, paper back and hard cover.

Here’s the link

With a huge thank you, as always, to my publisher and editor, Donna Carrick at Carrick Publishing!

EAT MORE BOOKS!! Back to the Dark Side – New Works by S. A. Crosby and and Sam Wiebe!

I finally bagged a copy of Sam Wiebe’s new thriller, Sunset and Jericho, the fourth book in the Dave Wakeland PI series. Thank you Sleuth of Baker Street bookstore! 

Sam is a personal friend. We were both up for the CWC Best Unpublished Manuscript Award (Sam won) and later both of us were nominated for Best First Novel. We lost to Steve Burrows and his bird-watching detective, Jejeune. Sigh. We finally met in person at Portland Left Coast Crime and bonded over our love of Noir.

Sam is passionate about his home city, Vancouver and in each of the Wakeland novels, he explores a serious social issue impacting the lives of its citizens. In Sunset and Jericho, he takes on the housing affordability crisis and the increasing socio-economic wealth gap.

 Wakeland’s life is ruled by violence, both perpetrated by and inflicted on him. He survives an amazing number of near-death beatings and is finally told by his doctors to quit his PI job or die. There’s no resolution to the social ills depicted in this book – just like real life. A master stylist of the PI genre, Sam keeps you reading through to the devastating twist at the end.

Sam’s next book is a standalone and he’s hinted that Sunset and Jericho may be the last is the Wakeland series. Hopefully not. I’m eager to read more of Wakeland’s adventures.

 

Sean Cosby is the author of four stand-alone thrillers and the winner and finalist of numerous leading awards, including the Anthony and ITW Thriller award. In each book, he explores the social ills affecting our society from an African-American perspective.

A master of style and substance, All the Sinners Bleed, is possibly Sean’s best book to date. (Stephen King gave it a rave review in the New York Times.) The book is a police procedural set in the Southern USA. It transcends the genre in the masterful first two pages about the blood-soaked, evil history of Charon County.

On the surface, the story is about the pursuit of a serial killer by Titus Crown, the first black sheriff elected in Charon. Titus, a former FBI agent, allegedly moved back home to look after his elderly father, but he left the FBI under a cloud for taking justice into his own hands. Cosby takes on financial corruption, political weaseling, cult religions and socio-economic inequity while creating a tense thriller that’s impossible to put down.  It’s a tough book, violent and unsparing in its depiction of crime and social evils rooted in America’s undying racism. One of the best crime fiction books of 2023.

I love dark reads, me!

Eat these books! Highly recommended. Both 5 stars.

 

 

 

MY NEW BOOK! Snake Oil and Other Tales

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Cover reveal soon!

I’m excited to announce that Carrick Publishing will be bringing out my new book, Snake Oil and Other Tales. Launch date is slated for October in keeping with the tradition of the Mesdames of Mayhem anthologies.

Snake Oil brings together ten of my stories and novellas published since the release of my first collection, Glow Grass and Other Tales, Carrick Publishing, 2016. Many of the stories were finalists for the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence.

Stand by for the cover reveal by talented artist, Sara Carrick. I’m especially delighted by this one!