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C.J. Box on the Modern Western & Crime Thrillers

April 27, 2018 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

C.J. Box is the bestselling author of 17 Joe Pickett novels, four standalones, and a collection of short stories called Shots Fired. He’s won multiple awards including the Edgar, the Anthony, the Gumshoe, and the Barry. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages.

He lives with his family outside Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Joe Pickett, the protagonist in the series, is a Wyoming game warden who often finds himself embroiled in perilous situations for him and his family.

In The Disappeared, the 18th installment in the series, the governor of Wyoming has asked Joe to undertake an investigation into the disappearance of a wealthy Englishwoman who vanished after checking out of a luxury dude ranch resort. But that isn’t the only trouble Joe must face: his old friend, outlaw falconer Nate Romanowski, has asked him to look into why the federal government is interfering with falconers’ rights. And, something suspicious is going on at a nearby lumber mill where neighbors have smelled the distinct odor of incinerated hair and flesh. These cases converge as Joe Picket finds himself in a vortex of greed, corruption, violence and deadly intentions.

Mark Rubinstein: Many people consider your novels to be modern-day westerns. Will you talk about that?

C.J. Box: I consider them contemporary western novels. From the first one, Open Season, I wanted to portray the traditional western, but have it set in contemporary Wyoming. If you live in and write about Wyoming, you want to get the cultural milieu right. People still wear cowboy hats, live on ranches, and enjoy traditional activities and culture. But at the same time, Wyoming is on the cutting edge of major issues such as energy development, wind turbines, environmentalism, preservation of the wilderness and all the other social and cultural issues that go along with these areas. I incorporate them into my novels, and especially in The Disappeared. Some other portrayals of the modern west have everyone as a laid-back rube, speaking ‘kinda slow’ but that’s not the case. Other elements of the western are present in my series: a good man trying to set wrongs right, often against overwhelming odds.

Mark Rubinstein: Your novels have various thematic elements, one of them being revenge for perceived wrongs. Is this a classic western theme?

C.J. Box: I think revenge is one of the three or four classic western themes. The bad guy comes back to town and the good guy must stand up to him. You see that in a movie such as High Noon. That being said, I think revenge is a predominant theme in all of crime fiction and really, in much of literature. Think of The Count of Monte Cristo or many of Shakespeare’s plays or the ancient Greek plays where revenge plays an enormous part in the plot. There are nearly always resentments people harbor toward one another, family frictions, and feuds between warring factions. Discord may seem magnified in westerns because of the relatively sparse population.

Mark Rubinstein: Would you characterize the Joe Pickett novels as thrillers, westerns, or both?

C.J. Box: I think they’re both. I like to think of them as contemporary westerns presenting adventurous tales. As in all thrillers, there is always danger for the protagonist. But geography alone doesn’t make a novel a western. I recall talking to George Pelecanos, whose books are mostly set in the mean streets of Baltimore. He considers his books to be westerns.

Mark Rubinstein: Lee Child views his Jack Reacher novels as westerns. Will you compare them to the Joe Picket series and talk about their commonalities and differences?

C.J. Box: There are certainly similarities between the Jack Reacher books and those about Joe Pickett. Some elements of our constructions are different. Mine are wilderness-based, but in many ways, Jack Reacher is very far removed from the character of Joe Pickett.

Jack Reacher is a huge man, a wanderer and loner. He’s an unmarried former military man and is something of a mystery. He has no family roots. He seems invulnerable and is a ruthlessly efficient brawler. Joe Pickett, on the other hand, is married, has children, has a stable life and job, isn’t a brawler, and isn’t even very good with a handgun. The major similarity—and what makes Reacher and Pickett prototypal western heroes—is that both series involve a good man rooting out the bad elements in a town. They have that commonality seen in many western tales. I’m reminded of books, movies and TV shows such as Shane, Cheyenne, and Have Gun Will Travel.

Mark Rubinstein: Speaking about Joe, he isn’t a gunslinger or a dangerous and silent man like the Clint Eastwood characters. He’s a family man with likable traits. How do you account for his immense popularity?

C.J. Box: Joe Pickett is really against the grain of many crime fiction protagonists. He’s a family man, he’s employed, doesn’t make much money, he’s out on his own but he isn’t a lone-wolf type of guy. Many readers empathize with him. Women tend to enjoy the family elements of the books and many men see themselves as something like Joe—they struggle to do the right thing and sometimes, it’s difficult to achieve. That’s what I hear from readers, and that’s the kind of character I wanted to create when I started writing about Joe.

Mark Rubinstein: After writing so many Joe Pickett novels, do you face any challenges when writing about him and his family?

C.J. Box: I think the biggest challenge is keeping the writing fresh and not allowing it to become formulaic. Thus far, there are seventeen books in the series, but because they’re written in real time where Joe, his wife and children are getting older; their life experiences keep evolving, which helps the characters stay fresh for me.

I think readers are very perceptive. They can tell when an author is starting to get tired of his own material. I know as a reader, I can tell when that happens with an author. I don’t want that to ever happen with my books. I try to change things up by including topics in the news and controversial themes and subject matter in the novels. I think that keeps things fresh for both me and the reader. Life demands that we adapt, so our characters must also adapt to changing circumstances. I like that the family members grow and change with time.

Mark Rubinstein: Joe Picket has been on the mystery-thriller scene for seventeen books. How has he evolved over the years?

C.J. Box: The books take place in real time, and he gets a year older with each novel. In the first book, he was thirty-four years old and was kind of naive. Over the years, he’s been in many difficult situations and has experienced so many betrayals, he’s developed a harder bark. He’s become a bit more cynical and somewhat less trusting than he once was. The one thing that’s remained the same from the first book is that when he gets involved in a case, he’s determined to follow it through, even if it leads to bad places.

As a reader, I don’t like when a series seems frozen in time. You’ve got to suspend disbelief for a series to work in the first place, but when a character doesn’t age and change, it tips things over the top. It loses credibility. I like the fact that everyone ages a year with each book and reflects the experiences they had in the previous one.

Mark Rubinstein: In The Disappeared, there’s a very real portrayal of a contemporary dude ranch and what can happen—both good and bad things. Tell us a bit more about this element in a contemporary western crime novel.

C.J. Box: Yes, the novel focuses on many things, one of which involves very wealthy and plugged-in people—celebrities, politicians—choosing to go to dude ranches in Wyoming and the west so they can put their smart phones down for a week. A new kind of vacation has emerged where people can “live off the grid” for a while. And of course, all sorts of things—good and bad—can happen in such places. Only this morning, I saw on Twitter that Ivanka and Jared flew the Trump jet out to Wyoming, where they’re spending a week on the very dude ranch I patterned the one on in The Disappeared. [Laughter].

Mark Rubinstein: I like your comparison of westerns and crime fiction to many themes found in much of literature.

Joe Box: Thanks. I think literature through the ages often deals with the same human dilemmas: murder, revenge, greed, hubris, human frailty and frictions. That’s the case whether you write an urban thriller, a western, a domestic thriller, a detective story, a literary or spy novel.

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Jonathan Kellerman and the Dark Psychology of Crime Fiction

March 21, 2018 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Jonathan Kellerman, the bestselling author of more than forty crime novels, is known to mystery-lovers everywhere. With a doctorate in psychology, Jonathan has applied his knowledge not only to his novels, but to those he has co-written with his wife Faye, and son, Jesse. All three are bestselling authors. He has also written children’s and nonfiction books.

He’s won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony Awards, and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. Along with the late Sue Grafton’s “Alphabet series,” Jonathan’s acclaimed Alex Delaware series is one of the longest running on the literary landscape.

Jonathan’s latest novel, Night Moves, opens with a baffling situation. How and why does the faceless, handless body of a murdered man wind up in the home of a suburban family? The man clearly was killed elsewhere; there’s no sign of blood or violence found in the house. Alex Delaware and his detective partner, Milo Sturgis, must deal with a horrified family.

Soon, another murder occurs, and it’s clear this suburban enclave has plenty of suspicious characters, secrets, and deceit. The novel becomes a taut police procedural as Alex and Milo sift through a tangled web of greed, betrayal, and treachery.

The dialogue in Night Moves is crisp and realistic. Talk to us about dialogue.

I learned to write dialogue from my wife. Faye’s like Rich Little: she’s a great mimic. Even her first novel had superb dialogue. The thing with dialogue is it has to sound like people talking, but of course, it cannot because the way people really talk is boring, repetitive, circular and filled with uhms and ahs.

In addition to writing, I paint. Actually, it’s what I’m naturally better at doing. I realize that both painting and writing are forms of trickery. In painting, I’m simulating three dimensions using two. It’s the same with writing. It’s a form tromp of d’oeil.

Having a doctorate in psychology and practicing clinical psychology, what made you turn to writing fiction?

I’ve been writing fiction since the age of nine. However, I never saw writing as a career. I was also attracted to science—and to music and art, which I continue to pursue. In college, I got a gig as an editorial cartoonist for the campus newspaper. That led to opportunities to write for the paper–columns, reviews, and straight reporting. I ended up as an editor, and essentially, had a dual identity: journalist and student of psychology. In my senior year, I won a literary prize and got an agent.

But that didn’t end my desire to become a child psychologist. While in grad school, I continued to write, publishing scientific articles, nonfiction, a short story, and my doctoral dissertation. At the same time, I was writing novels at night in my garage. Eventually, my first novel was published in 1985.

I loved being a child clinical psychologist and was reluctant to give up my practice. So, I continued to write and treat patients. I published five bestselling novels while in full-time practice, but eventually, working two jobs became untenable. In 1990, I became a full-time novelist.

But for five years, you had a dual identity: practicing psychology and writing fiction? What was that like?

It was rather manic. At that point, we had three kids and Faye and I were both writing. Thankfully, she’s Superwoman and handled so many things. I had three associates and we had a large practice in child psychology. I’d work all day seeing patients, then come home and spend time with my own kids, and at eleven in the evening, I’d go out to my office-garage and write for two hours. It’s the same routine I followed as a failed writer [Laughter]. Occasionally, if I had a cancellation, I’d sit down and work on my book. I was in my thirties and had lots of energy. I probably couldn’t do it today.

Do you ever miss your daily work as a psychologist?

At this point, I really don’t. I’m the kind of guy who loves something while I’m doing it, and then I’m able to move on. I loved helping kids and gave it up reluctantly. After leaving the practice, I did consulting and teaching, so I eased myself out of it.

As a psychologist, my time was strictly scheduled months in advance. As a writer, my time is very flexible and unstructured. I really enjoy the freedom I now have.

in Night Moves, a specific crime propels the novel, but the story also serves as a vehicle for commentary about life. Tell us about that.

I think that’s just naturally the way I see the world. Being a psychologist informs my writing. For example, as someone who worked with children in oncology, an event like a terrible cancer diagnosis can become a catalyst for unlocking all kinds of other issues. That awareness colors my writing in the sense that a specific crime can open up a Pandora’s box of reactions and situations. Every crime impacts people, and trauma can bring out the best or worst in them, whether in a novel or in real life.

Night Moves has an extraordinary number of plot twists and developments. How do you construct a novel that’s both complex yet linear, so the reader easily follows the storyline?

That’s the major challenge in writing a novel. I think my academic training helps in that regard. I learned how to organize. I outline my novels by jotting down impressions, ideas and notes. Then, I progress to creating a general outline, and then a chapter-by-chapter outline.

I hold off on the actual writing until I have a sense of control over my material. Ironically, I rarely consult the outline and often find the finished book is quite different from what I had plotted.

However, the outline helps me structure things. It’s like an architect’s plans for designing a house. The writing itself becomes the interior decoration, and it’s the fun part. Then of course, there’s the rewrite, which refines and sculpts the manuscript to a finely-honed edge.

Alex Delaware had a difficult childhood. As psychologists, both he and you know the indelible effects of the past on current functioning. How does Alex’s past affect his present life?

Alex evolved as I got to know him better by writing books about him. When I wrote the first one, When the Bough Breaks, which was published in 1985, I never thought I’d get it published, let alone that it would become the first book in a successful series. I learned about Alex, along with my readers, and things began falling into place.

I parcel out his childhood and his personal history very judiciously. In some novels, he’s a protagonist; in others, he’s a consulting psychologist. Of course, his past has impacted his interest in psychology and his wanting to set certain things right.

I know you’ve been asked this question before, but how much of Jonathan Kellerman exists in Alex Delaware?

I think the author is in every character.

It took five years for an Alex Delaware novel to be published, and I realized I’d be best off writing about what I knew, which was clinical child psychiatry. So, there are career parallels. But, Alex is younger than I am; he’s thinner; more athletic; and much braver than I am. I’m a coward, which describes many crime writers. We write about things which frighten us.

I’m married with four kids; he’s single with no kids. He’s free to engage in high-risk behavior while I’m not. There’s a lot of me in him and in Milo, and in the bad guys, too. In a sense, all fiction is autobiography.

I know you’re a huge fan of Ross Macdonald. Will you talk about that?

It was serendipitous that I discovered him. One day as I was driving to Children’s Hospital, I passed a bookstore with a sign that read, ‘Books on Sale, Cheap.’ I went in, browsed around and found a book called The Underground Man by Ross Macdonald. I’d never read any of the hardboiled writers, but the flap copy was really interesting.

Reading the book blew me away. He was a brilliant writer who wrote about psychopathology in Southern California, and his books were beautifully written. I thought, ‘maybe I could do that.’

In fact, Ross Macdonald’s style informed my writing, When the Bough Breaks so much so, that my editor said, ‘This is really great but there’s a little too much Ross Macdonald here. Try to establish your own voice a little more.’ That’s what I’ve done.

If you could meet any two fictional characters from all of literature, who would they be?

I’d love to meet Edmond Dantes of The Count of Monte Cristo because he was so interesting. He evolved from the depths of despair to triumph. I’d also love to meet Watson from the Sherlock Holmes stories. I don’t think Sherlock would be very good company, but Watson was a doctor and highly intelligent. I think I could relate to him better than I could to Sherlock Holmes.

Will you complete this sentence: writing fiction has taught me__________________.

Writing fiction has taught me humility in the sense that I may think I know something about people, but they’re always unpredictable. And, I’m humbled by the realization that often occurs when I’m writing a novel and think I’ve done a good job, only to see the manuscript needs a ton more work to be done.

Congratulations on penning Night Moves, a tense, tightly woven novel that not only deals with crime, but as do all the Alex Delaware novels, addresses many compelling issues of contemporary life.

Mark Rubinstein is a novelist, physician and psychiatrist. His latest novel is Mad Dog Vengeance, a psychological suspense-thriller.

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A Trial is Really All About Storytelling-My Talk with Scott Turow

March 7, 2018 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Scott Turow, the bestselling author of Presumed Innocent and other novels, graduated with high honors from Amherst College, receiving a fellowship to the Stanford University Creative Writing Center which he attended from 1970 to 1972. He then taught creative writing at Stanford. He entered Harvard Law School, graduating in 1978. For eight years, he was an Assistant United States Attorney in Chicago, serving as lead prosecutor in several high-visibility federal trials investigating corruption in the Illinois judiciary.

Today, he is a partner in an international law firm.

Testimony features former prosecutor Bill ten Boom, who at the age of fifty, walks out on everything he thought was important to him: his law career, his wife, Kindle County, and even his country. When he’s tapped by the International Criminal Court—an organization charged with prosecuting crimes against humanity—he feels drawn to what will become the most elusive case of his career. Bill must sort through various suspects in prosecuting war crimes during the Bosnian War. And very little is as it first seems.

Testimony is a bit of a departure for you since it leaves Kindle County and deals with a European case of mass murder rather than a ‘smaller’ crime. How did the idea for the novel come to you?

It came slowly. It began when I went to the Hague, the diplomatic capital of the Netherlands and the international justice capital dealing with war crimes. I found myself talking with a group of eight men and women who said, ‘You’ve got to write a book about this place.’ They found the cases fascinating. There’s diplomatic infighting within the courtroom and the international setting is quite unusual. These elements sounded intriguing and I kept the idea in mind.

It found myself thinking seriously about it, because this was a venue for a novel that would give me a chance to explore something that’s always been of interest to me—namely, the Roma people. I’ve always been immensely curious about them, so I combined the law with my interest and imagination.

Though ‘Testimony’ deals with elements of international politics, it’s basically a crime novel and legal thriller. What about the courtroom makes it such a great venue for novels?

Courtrooms are inherently theatrical. Drama and conflict take place with two sides fiercely disagreeing with each other. By its very nature, something very important is at stake in a trial: in a civil case, it’s money; in a criminal matter, it’s almost always someone’s liberty. In a jury trial, you add another important element: the intricacies and arcana of the law must be made comprehensible to a popular audience. All these factors make the courtroom a wonderful setting either for novels or film. It’s all right there.

The law is replete with stories, isn’t it?

Absolutely, but the narrative element of the law was not as consciously apparent to me when I was in law school. I’d give Gerry Spence, the renowned trial lawyer who never lost a case, credit for demonstrating the crucial importance of the narrative element in presenting a case to a jury.

Whether he represented the defense or the prosecution, he was a genius at figuring out the storyline of every trial. He turned every case into a compelling story. The story is what a trial is really all about. If you don’t have a story to tell in the courtroom, you’ll be out of luck.

To some extent, is “Testimony” also a novel about your protagonist’s Bill ten Boom’s midlife crisis?

Yes, I don’t know how to hide from that question, Mark. [Laughter]. Bill has decided at the age of fifty that he’s not comfortable with his life. He throws over everything: he moves out of his home, divorces his wife, leaves his law firm, and then leaves the U.S. At fifty years of age, he’s decided to change everything.

It’s a bit about the road not travelled.

Absolutely. He’s not hostile to anyone, but he simply doesn’t feel good about where his life has taken him and decides to change nearly every aspect of it.

“Testimony” is an important and timely book because, among many other things, it explores the savagery of people who turn on their friends and neighbors. We see this now in Syria, Myanmar, and other places. Will you talk about that?

The International Criminal Court was started by member countries of the United Nations because of the sad recognition that war crimes and atrocities are never going to end. We can hope for a day when that deplorable behavior stops, but unfortunately, the historical track record suggests that civilization will chronically break down somewhere. It seems to happen again and again. The crime detailed in Testimony is emblematic of these crimes. The reality is that today’s technology has dramatically enhanced the killing power of maniacs all over the world.

You once said, ‘I’m a big believer in the fact that all authors really write only one book.’ What did you mean?

This comment is sometimes attributed to Hemingway or to Graham Greene. I admire both of them enormously. It turns out that most writers have a universal obsession they’re working out through their novels. In my case, I think it’s about the use and abuse of power and the notion of justice found in the law. I don’t use it as an excuse for repeating myself in my books. For twenty years, I avoided writing again about Rusty Sabich because I didn’t want to write the same book again. But thematically, there’s no doubt the same leitmotif runs through all my books.

We all have a ‘home’ for a reason. Most people enjoy having familiar signposts in their lives—places and things they can call their own and with which they can measure their own lives. That’s true imaginatively as well; and that’s why every author’s book tends to resemble the books they’ve already written.

You’re still a practicing attorney. How do you find the time to work in the law and write full-length novels?

Since 1991, I’ve been a part-time lawyer. Initially, I was still trying lots of cases, but over the years, my caseload has diminished, and now my principle work is pro bono.

I’m on a quest to enhance the lives of and employment opportunities for people who’ve been released from prison and have been law-abiding for a long time.

What’s a typical day like for you?

Usually, by about ten o’clock in the morning, I’m in front of a computer, writing. I’ll sit for three to five hours a day and write. I don’t know of any author who writes for sixty minutes of each hour. I never have. I’m terribly distractible. My good friend, Richard Russo, says, ‘Every author experiences the temptation of finding his or her head inside the refrigerator and wondering what am I doing here? I’m not really hungry.’ [Laughter]. The reason is, of course, it’s the farthest point in the house from where the computer is. I use email to distract myself.

If I have to deal with something at the law firm, I do it. I’m perfectly capable of picking up the phone, talking at length to a client, then putting down the phone and going back to finish the sentence I was in the middle of writing. In the afternoon, I turn my attention to the more mundane things in life at the office.

Some people would say you invented the legal thriller.

Some people are kind enough to say that, but it’s probably an exaggeration if you think about The Merchant of Venice and the trial of Socrates. In terms of the contemporary approach of having a lawyer as a flawed protagonist, Presumed Innocent was the first novel to go down that pathway. I often think of the monk, Dom Perignon, who ‘invented’ champagne. He had no idea what he was doing when he drank this bottle of accidentally fermented wine. By legend, he fell down the stairs. [Laughter]. I sort of fell down the stairs.

But in a good way.

Yes, absolutely [More laughter].

If you could meet any two fictional characters in real life, who would they be?

I would love to meet Anna Karenina. She’s an amazingly brave and compelling woman. Among men, I’d like to meet George Smiley, though he’s pretty circumspect and I’m not sure I’d get much out of him. It might be really interesting to talk to Moses Herzog, Saul Bellow’s character.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

My number one pursuit, aside from spending time with my wife, is spending time with our grandchildren. I have four grandchildren who all live elsewhere, so we spend a lot of time travelling. Everyone says the same thing about being a grandparent—it’s the one thing in life that lives up to its advanced billing. It’s very fulfilling.

I also play golf when I can.

Will you complete this sentence: Writing novels has taught me________________?

It’s taught me everything. It’s taught me about psychological process. I’ve learned that you can’t ever really escape from yourself, which goes back to the notion of a writer really writing only one book. But, no matter how stuck or frustrated a writer may be, inevitably, the obsession will take the writer to where he or she was meant to go. So, writing novels has taught me—or rather, has made me aware—of my own psychological processes.

What’s coming next from Scott Turow?

I’m writing a novel called The Last Trial. It’s about the final courtroom episode in the life of Sandy Stern, who’s made appearances in every novel I’ve written.

Congratulations on penning ‘Testimony,’ a riveting novel which, as the ‘New York Times’ said, is ‘a thriller, an exposition of international law and an exploration of an intensely serious and nasty episode in recent history.’ It held me in suspense right from the beginning.

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‘Digging for Trouble,’ A Talk with Linda Fairstein

November 7, 2017 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Linda Fairstein, internationally bestselling author of the Alexandra Cooper novels and former Manhattan assistant district attorney for more than two decades, has combined her considerable talent, knowledge, and imagination to begin writing a series for kids between ages 8 and 12. Into the Lion’s Den, the first novel in the series, introduced us to Devlin Quick, an enterprising young sleuth.

In the second book, Digging for Trouble, Devlin and her best friend Katie are in the badlands of Montana with a team of paleontologists, digging up dinosaur bones. Devlin suspects something is wrong when the fossils Katie found are switched for fakes. The mystery takes Dev and Katie back to Manhattan—to the Museum of Natural History—where the case deepens and becomes more complicated.

I understand you were a voracious reader of the Nancy Drew books and penned your first caper for kids at the age of eleven. Tell us about that.

I discovered the Nancy Drew books because I have an older brother. I found a book about the Hardy Boys and realized he was reading a series. Someone told me there was a series of books about a girl who was a sleuth, so the Hardy boys led me to Nancy Drew. I discovered I loved reading about recurring characters to whom I became attached, which influenced my reading and ultimately, my writing.

I was involved in a creative writing club in the fifth and sixth grades. I loved writing stories. My elementary school librarian was a fabulous person who kept putting books in my hands.

Ten years ago, my mother died. She had hoarded a few things, among which was a story I had written and self-illustrated when I was eleven or twelve. It was called The Secret of Apple Tree Farm. It was about a girl sleuth solving a mystery. My publisher wanted to see it, and put it in a power point presentation for my talks at various schools. It’s the physical proof that I started writing mysteries at that age. The manuscript is a wonderful connection to my mother, and her having saved it was a great surprise to me.

I get the sense that partly because of Devlin’s friend Booker, the Devlin Quick series will appeal to boys as well as girls. Do you think that’s true?

Yes. Booker is in the books for two reasons. I wanted to reach both boys and girls. In my day, boys grew up reading the Hardy boys books. I put Booker in for that reason—to appeal to boys. And, if you go back to those early series of books written for kids, there was a lack of diversity and they were filled with stereotypes. The bad characters were described as ‘swarthy’ and were always ‘others.’ So, in the Devlin Quick books, Booker is an African-American boy. In the first book, Into the Lion’s Den, one student is from Argentina; and in this book, a Chinese student is also involved.

I know you spend time in Montana and have said you always hoped to dig up some dinosaur bones when you’re hiking there. Will you tell us a bit more?

You know, I had a great, long first marriage. My husband was much older than I, and he died in 2011. In 2014, I began dating and married my best friend of forty-five years, a man with whom I went to law school. He has a Montana ranch. I’d never been to Big Sky country which is magnificent. I’ve given Devlin my fear of rattlesnakes, but like her, I was also fascinated to learn about a vast inland seaway that covered a portion of Montana for eons. As a result of that geological feature, an area of Montana has the richest deposit of dinosaur fossils in the U.S.

Many of the digs are on government land—meaning the government gets to keep the fossils found there, but there are also some found on private land. Our ranch abuts a national forest, and it’s a great place to dig. I’ve applied to participate in a dig next July. When we’re at Martha’s Vineyard, I’m always looking for arrowheads. In Montana, I keep thinking I’ll turn up a triceratops.

So, one of these days, you too, will be ‘digging for trouble.’ [Laughter]

Yes, you could say that!

Devlin Quick is a smart, spunky, and edgy kid with lots of curiosity. Is she modeled on anyone you know?

I drew back to myself and my closest friends in creating Devlin and for capturing a kid’s curiosity at that age. My inspiration was Nancy Drew. I grew up in Mount Vernon, New York, a suburb near New York City. It was a safe place, in contrast to Nancy Drew’s hometown. Devlin’s curiosity is certainly mine, along with her desire to help people find justice, which I think gave rise to my career in the law.

Devlin’s independence was inspired by Nancy Drew. Many of these books for pre-adolescents involve one-parent households. Devlin’s father died and she never knew him, which explains her desire to solve mysteries. Having only a working mother means she has less supervision and can be out and about, trying to solve mysteries. That was a conscious decision I made which was different from my experience as a kid. I grew up in an intact, two-parent home with my grandparents there. Her boldness and curiosity are traits I learned from other fictional characters, and are traits I eventually learned for myself as a prosecutor.

As in the Alex Cooper series, each Devlin Quick book features a New York City landmark. In “Digging for Trouble,” it’s the Museum of Natural History. Tell us a bit about the museum.

I have strong memories of the Museum of Natural History as being the first cultural institution my parents brought me to visit. As an adult, it’s the first place I take out-of-towners to experience. It’s always been one of my favorite places to both learn and have fun. The president of the museum, Ellen Futter, is a friend of mine, and she’s done extraordinary work bringing the museum into the twenty-first century, including ensuring the high quality of the research done there. The head of the dinosaur division, Michael Novocek, had his staff take me through the exhibits, so I learned a great deal about dinosaurs. The museum is one of the magical places in New York City.

You must stay immersed in the world of twelve-year olds to write the Devlin Quick series with such authenticity. Tell us about that.

I do it with the help of family and friends. There are many kids in my family: nieces, nephews, great-nieces and nephews, and there are also the children of friends. When I’m around kids, I listen and learn new words, and as a result, I’ve been able to capture the voices of today’s twelve-year olds. As I do with adults, I listen to how kids talk and that forms the basis of the dialogue.

What’s coming next from Linda Fairstein?

The next Devlin Quick book takes place on Martha’s Vineyard and is called Secrets from the Deep. The twentieth Alex Cooper novel is in the works, and the working title is Bridge of Sighs.

Congratulations on writing “Digging for Trouble,” a furiously fast-paced story about a super-smart, curious twelve-year-old sleuth who’s a master at uncovering secrets and solving crimes. It’s a book boys and girls between ages eight and twelve will love.

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The Power of the Human Voice

October 4, 2017 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

When Timothy Campbell did his superb voice narration of the stories in “Bedlam’s Door,” I was astonished at his versatility in performing the voices of the characters. I was even more amazed in listening to the stories. It was a different experience from having read these true tales (which sometimes sounded like fiction). The characters truly came alive as they talked. It reminded me of being a kid listening to the radio and being sucked in by the drama conveyed by the voices.

Hearing the stories acted out took them to another dimension, one I could not have foreseen when I wrote them. It seemed I could appreciate the stories from another perspective.

Yes, when a skilled narrator reads a story, the human voice can convey thoughts, feelings, nuances, intonations, and subtleties that enhance a story. It’s a power that has mesmerized people for thousands of years.

Even when human beings lived in caves they wanted to be told stories.

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‘The Salt Line,’ A talk with Holly Goddard Jones

September 18, 2017 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Holly Goddard Jones, the author of The Next Time You See Me, received the Fellowship of Southern Writers’ Hillsdale Award for Fiction and the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award. She received her BA from the University of Kentucky and her MFA from Ohio State University. She teaches creative writing at UNC Greensboro.

The Salt Line is set in an undisclosed future. The U.S. has been divided into zones with metropolitan areas behind “salt lines,” rings of scorched earth to protect people from a deadly disease-carrying tick. People behind massive walls inside the salt line live a safe and comfortable life. Only adrenaline junkies venture beyond the lines into the American wilderness. When one group of thrill seekers ventures beyond the line, they find themselves not only facing deadly ticks, but are held captive by a community of outer-zone survivors determined to protect their own existence.

What made you choose to make ticks such a deadly force in a dystopian novel?

I’d finished my last novel in the summer of 2012 and was between projects. I’d read Scott Smith’s novel, The Ruins, which is a horror novel. I’d never written in the horror genre, and thought it would be fun to do between more ‘serious’ projects. I was in Tennessee and spent a lot of time hiking the trails. I was trying to think of a monster that was small in scale and an everyday phenomenon—one that takes you by surprise. Ticks seemed like a good choice. The feeling I had when I suspected I had a tick on myself was probably the closest I’d ever gotten in real life to that of feeling a monster was behind the door.

The book started out as sort of horror story with four characters going into the woods. But, because I was inexperienced in horror fiction, I began writing in a more literary style. When I started going down that path, I began adding dystopian elements into the story. I really sort of backed into the notion of these ticks having such deadly powers because I was trying to justify the horror element of the novel. Then, the dystopian aspect of the novel took over.

One can’t help but think of real-life current events when reading “The Salt Line.” Will you talk about that?

I started the novel in 2012, and finished the rough draft in 2015. I was influenced by the events in the news at the time, such as the Ebola epidemic and the notion of protective walls, which go back to ancient times. There were discussions in the news about the relationship between Mexico and the U.S. and drug trafficking. I was looking at that long before Trump became a serious political candidate and the notion of building a wall became part of the news.

In 2016, while revising the novel, Trump became a viable candidate for president. There were already coincidental elements in the book that paralleled things playing out on the national stage, but as I revised the novel, I incorporated more current events into the story. Seeing Trump get the Republican nomination influenced my portrayal of the characters in the book.

Your previous novel, “The Next Time You See Me” is more of a thriller/suspense read as compared to “The Salt Line” which is more dystopian. How did writing this novel compare to or differ from your earlier work?

I’ve been creeping toward genre writing over the course of my writing career. My first book was a collection of short stories with some crime elements. They were somewhat literary with dark themes, but they were handled in a conventual literary way. When I was younger, I read a great deal of genre fiction, but in graduate school, literary fiction was emphasized, so I got away from genre fiction both as a reader and as a writer. With The Next Time You See Me, I still approached writing in a literary way, but when I wrote The Salt Line, I knew much more about the craft of writing speculative fiction. In both books, I enjoyed writing in the third person and doing ensemble points of view in the narratives. I love getting into the heads of characters who aren’t obviously like me—that remained the same in the two books.

Your prose is quite lyrical. Who are your literary influences?

Margaret Atwood, who tries many different modes of writing, inspires me as a writer. From one novel to another, she may write speculative fiction, a thriller, or historical literary fiction. She’s one of my biggest inspirations. I love her work.

I grew up reading a lot of Stephen King’s books, and he’s also influenced my work.

Who are the novelists you enjoy reading these days?

Lately, I’ve been gulping down books. I’ve read all of Tana French’s books. I’ve enjoyed Fiona Barton’s two novels. I feel she has something of a Kate Atkinson vibe. I’ve been reading Ruth Ware’s books and loved Otessa Moshsegh’s book, Eileen.

If you could re-read any one novel as though reading it for the first time, which one would it be?

There are books you read when you’re young and unformed, like Stephen King’s The Stand. I adored it, but I think if I read it for the first time now, some of its magic would not work for me—especially the portrayals of women. I think the book I’d want to re-read would be either Cat’s Eye or Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.

What’s coming next from Holly Goddard Jones?

I have a contract for a book connected to The Salt Line. It’s not a sequel, but it’s set in the same world, with a different set of characters.

Congratulations on writing “The Salt Line,” a deeply imagined, dystopian novel with beautiful prose and a superb understanding of human psychology.

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‘The Hangman’s Sonnet,’ A Ta;l with Reed Farrel Coleman

September 13, 2017 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Reed Farrel Coleman, a bestselling author of many novels, has penned the popular Moe Prager series, the Gus Murphy novels, and other well-received books. He’s a three-time winner of the Shamus Award, and has won the Macavity and Barry Awards, among others.

Robert Parker, considered by many to have been the dean of American crime fiction, was the author of seventy books, including the series featuring Chief Jesse Stone.

After Parker’s death in 2010, Reed Farrel Coleman was chosen by the Parker estate to keep this immensely popular series alive.

In The Hangman’s Sonnet, Jesse Stone, Paradise’s police chief, is still reeling from the murder of his fiancée by the crazed assassin Dr. Peepers. Jesse learns a gala 75^th birthday party will be held in Paradise for folk singer Terry Jester, who has spent the last forty years in seclusion after the mysterious disappearance of a recording of the ballad, The Hangman’s Sonnet.

Suddenly, an elderly Paradise woman dies while her house is being ransacked. What were the thieves looking for? And what, if any, is the connection to Terry Jester and the missing recording? The bodies begin piling up and the town’s mayor fears a PR nightmare. Jesse must connect the cases before more deaths occur, and the town of Paradise becomes a killing ground.

In “The Hangman’s Sonnet” Jesse is mourning the death of his fiancée, which connects thematically to Gus Murphy’s plight in that series. You write about bereavement quite vividly. Will you talk about that?

Putting myself in other people’s shoes and imagining situations different from those in my life are exercises I enjoy.

I’m quite sanguine and philosophical about life and death, although I’m sure I’d be devastated if a child of mine died. Intense grief leaves a person at their most vulnerable point, and renders them off-balance and without emotional reserve.

This heightened state is what good thriller writing is all about, and I try to capture the intensity of emotions my characters feel when they’re distraught.

“The Hangman’s Sonnet” has Jesse going to Boston to meet with a PI named Spenser, the protagonist of a Robert B. Parker series being continued by Ace Atkins. Did you confer with Ace about that portion of the book?

Yes, I did. Ace and I write about Robert B. Parker characters who are in overlapping universes. Also, Mike Lupica, the sportswriter, has been signed to write Sunny Randall novels. That means three of us who’re writing Bob Parker characters, have protagonists who exist in roughly the same universe. We must talk to each other because anything I do in a Jesse Stone novel might affect Ace’s writing of a Spenser novel. And I’ll be talking with Mike if our characters overlap.

Jesse attracts many different women. What about him is so alluring to them?

First of all, he looks like a young Tom Selleck. [Laughter]. Secondly, he’s the classic self-contained man who is very much to himself. And, he’s wounded. There’s a long tradition in literature of women trying to heal the wounded man. There’s a real pain in his soul and that’s very appealing to women.

There are elements of dark humor in your renderings of Jesse Stone. Will you talk about the role of humor in suspense/thriller fiction?

I have a somewhat cynical take on the world and that attitude is just part of hardboiled fiction. For me, when there’s no humor in a mystery or thriller, the book becomes turgid. It’s important to have humor in a story, even if it’s dark or cynical. There was always some humor in Bob Parker’s books—especially in the banter between Jesse and Molly. I’ve expanded it a bit because I’m not Bob Parker.

Jesse was a minor league baseball player until a shoulder injury cut short his career. Your descriptions of baseball are spot on. Is there a connection to your own athletic background?

There’s a connection to my own athletic dreams. [Laughter]. I was a jock; I played high school football and played a lot of organized sports. To this day, I play basketball five days a week. I feel that connection and understand how a guy like Jesse would judge himself by his athletic prowess. Many of the guys I grew up with judged themselves that way. I’m still an avid sports fan.

It was easy for me to imagine what it would be like for Jesse Stone to have been a great athlete and have an athletic future projected for you—to be one phone call away from becoming a Dodger—and then, suddenly, within a second, it’s all gone due to an injury.

The dialogue in “The Hangman’s Sonnet” is very realistic. Talk to us about dialogue in your novels.

Dialogue in novels is a kind of para-reality. No one really speaks like they do in books. People talk over each other; they go off on different tangents, and they repeat themselves all the time. I try to create dialogue as close to reality as possible, which is really a pseudo-reality. When you boil it down, no one would want to read an actual conversation between people.

My idea of dialogue is a kind of short-hand reality. You must move the plot along. No one wants to read a real, unedited conversation [Laughter].

What’s coming next from Reed Farrel Coleman?

I’ve already written the 2018 Jesse Stone novel. It’s called Robert B. Parker’s Colorblind. I wrote it before the last election, but it addresses a situation just like the one that happened in Charlottesville.

The next big project is this: I was hired by the film director, Michael Mann, to write a prequel novel to his magnum opus film, Heat. We hope it will generate a screenplay and a film.

Congratulations on writing “The Hangman’s Sonnet,” another high-octane and suspenseful Jesse Stone novel that keeps this engaging character alive for the enjoyment of millions of readers.

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‘I Know A Secret,’ A Conversation with Tess Gerritsen

September 5, 2017 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Tess Gerritsen was a physician and Board-certified internist before turning her talents to writing. The Rizzoli and Isles series, featuring a homicide detective and medical examiner, propelled Tess to the status of an internationally bestselling author; and was the foundation for the popular television series of the same name.

Tess has written standalone medical and crime thrillers; and her books have been published in 40 countries.

I know A Secret involves two separate homicides with unrelated victims. In both cases, the bodies bear strange wounds, yet the actual causes of death are unknown. Concurrently, Jane is struggling to save her mother from a marriage that threatens to bury her, while Maura is grappling with the imminent death of her own mother—the infamous serial killer Amalthea Link.

The investigation of the two homicides leads to a secretive young woman and just when Rizzoli and Isles think they’ve cornered a fiendish predator, the long-buried past surfaces and threatens to engulf everyone.

When we last talked, you described how your standalone novel “Playing with Fire” arose from an unusual experience you had. What led to the idea for “I Know A Secret”?

This book was also based on a trip to Italy, during which I visited a number of art museums and saw many Renaissance paintings. I had read the book, How to Read a Painting, which taught me how to look at a painting and recognize the characters depicted.

For example, Saint Sebastian was always depicted with arrows in his chest; Saint Lucy with her eyes in her hands. These symbols denote who these figures are.

As a crime writer, I began thinking: What if a killer set up his crime scenes the way a Renaissance painter would have arranged his paintings? It struck me as a fascinating modus operandi—a killer would leave symbols for somebody to interpret.

While “I Know A Secret” isn’t a horror story, there’s a good deal about horror stories and movies in the narrative. Tell us about that.

When I was growing up, I loved horror stories. My mother loved them, too, and she took me to every horror movie ever made.

My son and I made a horror film, Island Zero, and it’s currently making the rounds of the film festivals. Being involved in indie-film making with a horror movie, combined with a life-long enjoyment of the genre, gave me the idea for Jane Rizzoli to be faced with the first victim being a horror-film producer; and the final clue leading to the identity of the killer deriving from a horror film.

In addition to medical forensics, “I know A Secret” involves plenty of psychology about child abuse and memories. Will you talk about that?

I became interested in false memory syndrome—a condition in which someone believes something happened when it didn’t. Yet, it’s “remembered” vividly. Elizabeth Loftus did research which showed you can implant false memories in about twenty-five percent of adults.

She gave the subjects three real memories based on what their families had told her, and then provided them with one false memory. She asked the subjects to describe these four incidents from their childhoods in greater and greater detail as the weeks went on. By the end of the experiment, some of the subjects couldn’t tell which were the true memories and which one was false.

In the late eighties and early nineties, there was a widespread belief that satanic circles were committing sexual abuse of children. People were being put on trial for nothing. I wanted to explore that issue in the novel.

Near the end of “I know A Secret,” Maura and Daniel are getting together once again. Do you have plans for them in the future?

I think I’ve set it up as an imperfect love. But, it is love, and that’s the way so many relationships are. Nothing is perfect. This is the happiest they’re going to be.

Which character in “I know A Secret” was most compelling to write?

Holly was very challenging for me to write. I’d never before delved into the psychopathic side of a character’s personality. Holly just views other people as being usable and disposable. She has no sense of empathy for anyone, and I found that difficult to write.

How do you manage to keep the Rizzoli and Isles series fresh after so many books?

I think what keeps it fresh is the two main characters are always evolving. Things happen to them and to their families, and they keep moving forward. For Jane, it’s to see what’s happening with her brother and parents. I also love the fact that her mom—who’s not a spring chicken—can still have a romance, despite her age.

The other thing that keeps it fresh is that every mystery comes from a different place—from an inspiration that’s unique. As I said, this one arose from Italian Renaissance paintings.

If you could read any novel again as though reading it for the first time, which one would it be?

One of the books I remember so well is Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove. I was so immersed in that story, I wish I could read it again as though it were for the first time. There are several books like that. I wish I could re-read The Lord of the Rings, as though for the first time. It’s an interesting thought: maybe if I reread some of these books, I’d probably discover new things about them.

For me it would have been “Watership Down.”

Oh yes. What a creative book. Can you imagine getting into the head of a rabbit? It was a fantastic book.

Will you complete this sentence: Writing novels has taught me________________?

It’s taught me to pay attention to my emotions. For me, what keeps a book going forward is the fact that characters aren’t settled. There’s something distressing about whatever situation they’re in. In order to write a well-paced novel, you must be cognizant of what’s bothering these people. Or, if I were in that situation—what would be bothering me? What would make me want to fix something?

In order to be in touch with my characters’ emotions, I have to be in touch with my own.

What’s coming next from Tess Gerritsen?

I’m working on a weird and different book. It’s an erotic ghost story.

It often drives my publisher crazy that I’ll jump from one genre to another. The book business wants an author to write in a single genre—the one in which you’re best known.

Well, when you’re Tess Gerritsen, you’ve earned the right to write what you want.

[Laughter] When you’re as old as I am, you realize there’s only a certain amount of time left to tell the stories you want to tell. [More laughter].

Congratulations on writing “I Know a Secret,” a fast-paced, dark, edgy mystery/thriller filled with unremitting suspense.

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‘Fast Falls the Night’ A Talk with Julia Keller

August 22, 2017 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Julia Keller earned a doctorate in English Literature at Ohio State University and is a former culture critic for the Chicago Tribune where she won a Pulitzer Prize for a three-part narrative series about a deadly tornado that struck a small town in Illinois. She is a recipient of a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University, and contributes on-air essays to NPR.

Fast Falls the Night covers 24 hours in Acker’s Gap, West Virginia, a town facing a wave of fatal heroin overdoses. Bell Elkins, a county prosecutor, realizes her Appalachian hometown is facing a terrible challenge because the fatal overdoses are caused by heroin laced with a lethal tranquilizer. The novel occurs against the backdrop of a shattering personal revelation that will change Bell’s life forever.

I understand the premise of “Fast Falls the Night” is based on a true event. Tell us about that.

I was in my hometown of Huntington, West Virginia on August fifteenth, 2016, The town has fallen on very hard times, which have been exacerbated by the ongoing opioid epidemic and escalating heroin use. The town was virtually unrecognizable to me. It was a singular day in the history of Huntington: it was the day when there were twenty-eight drug overdoses within twenty-four-hours. Two of them resulted in fatalities. A bad batch of heroin, laced with a lethal tranquilizer, had begun to circulate through the town.

You portray the Appalachian town of Acker’s Gap as a place of quiet desperation. You focus on a twenty-four-hour period of time. Tell us more.

Acker’s Gap is a fictional town, much smaller than Huntington, but I constructed it with my hometown in mind. I was so struck by what actually happened during the course of twenty-four hours in Huntington, I decided to scrap the format of the novel I’d already started, and began writing again, placing everything within a twenty-four hour period of time.

“Fast Falls the Night” is told through the eyes of different characters—a sheriff, a prosecutor, an EMT technician, a preacher, among others. What are the advantages of this method of storytelling?

In telling the story of Fast Falls the Night, I realized the novel had to be told from multiple points of view. I wanted to portray a shifting kaleidoscope of woe, so the reader sees everything that’s happening in the town—the troubles and tragedies—from multiple perspectives. It seemed a perfect template to explore one of the great moral issues of our time: with limited financial resources, what should we do? Do we rescue addicts for the eighth or ninth time, using our scarce resources, or do we say, ‘They brought this on themselves?’

This has been argued in state legislatures, and we each argue it in our heart and soul. What do we owe other people? To me, the answer is clear: we all deserve as many chances as we’re willing to ask for. There’s a great moral crisis in our country now—and the novel tells the story of what people owe each other, but on a smaller scale.

To go back to your first question, this novel was born out of reality but blossomed into fiction, which is where I believe social issues can be explored and debated in as worthy a manner as they can be in real life.

Tell us about your journey to becoming a published novelist.

I always intended to be a novelist. All the great twentieth-century writers I admired started out as journalists—Hemingway, Willa Cather, and Katherine Anne Porter—all had newspaper backgrounds. I thought that’s what you do: you work for a newspaper and learn about the world by putting yourself in experiences you would never otherwise have. That’s what I did and really enjoyed it. I worked for the Columbus Dispatch and then for the Chicago Tribune. After I won the Pulitzer Prize, I heard from agents who asked if I would be interested in writing a book. I said I would, but told them I wanted to write fiction. A few of them ran screaming from that notion, but some stuck around. I’ve always felt fiction is superior to non-fiction. Non-fiction lives for a day, but good fiction can live forever. After all, we’re still reading Homer. That was my journey to where I am now. I left the Tribune in 2012, and have been able to support myself by writing.

What’s a typical writing day like for you?

I’m an early riser. After copious cups of coffee, I sit down and write. I’m very much a morning writer. I’ve had to become an evening writer as well due to deadlines. [Laughter].

Your prose is quite lyrical. Who are your literary influences?

In the twentieth century, I would have to say the biggest influences for me have been Willa Cather and Edith Wharton. Reading Cather’s Song of the Lark was a revelatory experience for me. It has so much to say about young people and their dreams.

Which contemporary authors do you enjoy reading?

I enjoy reading books by John le Carre and I think Dennis Lehane is a great novelist. There’s also a British novelist, Sarah Hall, whose book I read recently and I’m now reading virtually everything she ever wrote. I also enjoy novels by Helen Dunmore, who recently died. I also love novels by an Australian novelist, Peter Temple. His sentences are beautifully sculpted.

If you could read any one novel again as though reading it for the first time, which one would it be?

That’s an easy one for me to answer: An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, which I read in high school. The emotional impact of that novel and the social issues it explored have stayed with me all these years.

What’s coming next from Julia Keller?

I’m writing a young adult trilogy. The first novel, The Dark Intercept, is set in a future world where the government can harvest and archive our emotions and when it seeks to control us, sends intense emotions back into us.

Congratulations on penning “Fast Falls the Night”, a beautifully crafted novel filled with insights about the human condition and populated by fully realized and tragic characters.

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‘Dark Light: Dawn,’ A Talk with Jon Land and Fabrizio Boccardi

August 3, 2017 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Jon Land is the prolific author of more than forty books. His thriller novels include the Caitlin Strong series about a fifth-generation Texas Ranger, and the Ben Kamal and Danielle Barnea books featuring a Palestinian detective and an Israeli chief inspector of police. He also has penned the Blaine McCracken series, many standalone novels, and non-fiction books. Jon was a screenwriter for the 2005 film Dirty Deeds. He is an active member of the International Thriller Writers Organization.

Fabrizio Boccardi, the creator of the character Max Younger, is an entrepreneur, investor, producer, and CEO and chairman of the board of King Midas World Entertainment, Inc. He’s also the creator and owner of the multimedia brand and franchise, the Tyrant.

Dark Light: Dawn introduces the reader to Navy SEAL Max Younger, a man with uncanny abilities to survive any combat situation. Max becomes involved in trying to stop a plot that could bring about an apocalypse of biblical proportions.

Victoria Tanoury, the only woman Max ever loved, is an infectious disease specialist working for the World Health Organization. She, too, is trying to stop the worldwide spread of a deadly pestilence.

Their paths meet as the lines between science and superstition become blurred, and they must deal with the evil of one man who wants to visit the end of days upon civilization.

This book is the result of a creative collaboration. How did it come about?

Jon: The original collaboration began in 2006. Fabrizio was looking for a writer to bring his vision to reality. When my publisher heard his concept—a rags-to-riches story about a penniless kid rising to the heights of power—he recommended me to Fabrizio. He put us together and we created a two-book series featuring Michael Tirano, ‘The Tyrant.’ In the midst of writing those two books, The Seven Sins and Black Scorpion, Fabrizio came up with the concept of Dark Light: Dawn.

Fabrizio: There’s a back story to that. I’m an investor and tried to purchase a casino company in Las Vegas. During that experience, I gained a great deal of knowledge about that town and wanted to create a character who would build the kind of casino I had wanted to build in Las Vegas. And, that’s how The Seven Sins came into being.

Among other things, “Dark Light: Dawn” involves geopolitical events, terrorism, and religious conflicts. How and why did you decide to address these elements in your storytelling?

Jon: It began with the concept of good versus evil. It’s a classic theme of much fiction and in particular, of horror fiction. We wanted to create a hybrid thriller involving science, superstition, action, and horror. If you look at all classic horror novels such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, and Dracula, they probe the issue of good versus evil and the nature of man. But none of them explored the origins of the battle between good and evil.

We wanted to address that issue in Dark Light: Dawn, while creating a ‘techno-bio-end-of-the-world-dystopian thriller.’

No one character in the story knows everything. But, if the reader adds up the points of view of each character, the entire story unfolds. The scope and sprawl of the story become evident.

Fabrizio: I’m fascinated by movies and books like The Exorcist. I always thought there’s a great deal of superstition in that story, but there’s also a great deal of paranormal activity in the world. In Rome, the Vatican has an exorcist. There are many strange and unexplainable things in this world.

I often question what we really know about the universe. People argue about whether or not God exists. The fact of the matter is there are many things we cannot know.

Jon and I wanted to write a story about good and evil; a story that taps into these issues, but that’s also action-packed and has at its core, the concept that we have the right to choose between good and evil. We have free will. We also agreed to incorporate a good deal of ambiguity into the story which makes it more interesting and frightening—as occurs in The Exorcist, where the audience doesn’t know how the evil came about.

The unknown is far more frightening than that which is understood.

Max Younger has extraordinary physical and mental abilities. The novel details various genetic anomalies contributing to his powers. He seems a perfect model for a superhero and a potential movie, television, or comic book character.

Jon: The great superheroes, starting with Batman, are based on the duality of their natures. There’s an evil side to them that they must control in order to do and be good. This is the nature of the classic Greek superhero and of superheroes in general. There’s always a flaw and a quest, but there’s always a temptation for the hero to go to the dark side. Batman dresses in black. In the book Shane, the hero dresses in black.

Every great superhero has a moment in his life that changes him forever. If you look at the classic qualities of a comic book superhero, Max has them all: conflict about his nature; the moment of change where he evolves into something different and greater than he had been; a purpose far greater than that of the common man; and the acceptance that purpose will change him forever. He knows can no longer live as he once did, if he accepts the responsibility of being a hero. If he’s going to save the world, he cannot live among men.

Fabrizio: Today, we see atrocities in the world. Our idea was to depict geopolitical events occurring in the world, and mix fiction and reality. There’s the concept of the devil wreaking havoc on earth, but rather than bringing God to fight the battle, we decided to depict a powerful energy coming to the world in the form of a man, Max Younger. He chooses of his own free will, to fight evil and clean house.

Jon: And by choosing to become a hero, Max cannot really be who he had wanted to be. He must sacrifice something, but I won’t say what it is and risk providing a spoiler.

Fabrizio: The ultimate idea behind this concept is that love can conquer evil.

“Dark Light: Dawn” has some of the most vivid action scenes out there. Jon, tell us your thoughts about writing such scenes.

These books—including The Tyrant series—are the foundation for multi-media franchises. They’re going to be movies. With that in mind, we approached this book in terms of its visual aspects. In a sense, it’s kind of like the novelization of a film. We have a rich tapestry of action scenes, but we strove to come up with action scenes never before seen in either movies or books. We’ve never seen an action scene staged with the abilities Max is starting to develop. What makes the action scenes pop visually and viscerally, is that with each action scene in the book, Max evolves more and more into who he will ultimately become. The action scenes are not just defined by their choreography, but also by their revelations about his character. Neither Max nor the reader realizes exactly what’s happening to him as the story unfolds.

It’s the classic movie and book theme of metamorphosis.

Fabrizio: The concept is also dealing with Max’s decision—by virtue of free will—not to bring horror to the world, but to fight evil.

Based on what you’ve both said and on my having read the novel, is it correct to assume this is the beginning of a series?

Fabrizio: Yes, and ultimately we hope to see this become a movie and see where it all goes.

For each of you, is there any one novel that may have influenced you in ultimately conceiving of this book.

Jon: I’m going to go with my favorite book of all time, The Stand by Stephen King, the original version. It’s King’s masterwork. It combines horror, thriller, and dystopian elements, and it still gives me chills.

Fabrizio: I love getting scared when I read novels. For me, the book would have to be The Exorcist. In a sense, that novel is partly what spawned Dark Light: Dawn, but I wanted much more action to interest a movie audience. I think The Exorcist is an excellent concept, extremely well written, and frightening because it’s inexplicable.

Congratulations on conceiving and penning “Dark Light: Dawn.” It’s a high-octane novel of epic proportions blending science, religion, current events, superstition, action, and adventure in a can’t-put-it-down tale.

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