Revenge | Mark Rubinstein Blog

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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‘Justice Burning,’ A Talk with Scott Pratt

July 31, 2017 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Scott Pratt is the author of the bestselling Joe Dillard series of legal thrillers which has sold over a million books. A former attorney, Scott worked as a criminal defense lawyer before writing his first novel, An Innocent Client. Although originally published by a major house, Scott decided to publish his novels independently, thus gaining control over the entire process.

Justice Burning is the second novel in a new series featuring criminal defense attorney, Darren Street. After having spent two years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Darren Street—now exonerated—is trying to rebuild his practice, restore his reputation, reconnect with his son, and build a deeper relationship with attorney Grace Alexander.

Though tormented by nightmares of his prison stay, Darren is making progress until trauma strikes once again: his mother is killed in an explosion, but the police (and Darren) believe he was the intended target. Darren quickly discovers he hasn’t so easily overcome the horrors of prison and must now take matters into his own hands and face a deadly new foe.

Darren Street is a new protagonist in what is now a two-book series. What made you decide to leave Joe Dillard and take on a new series?

I haven’t left Joe, I just wanted to expand a bit. I wanted to write about an anti-hero. Though Joe has some anger issues, he’s a straight-laced guy and a family man. I wanted to write about somebody a little edgier, and a bit younger. After eight Joe Dillard books, I wanted a change. I’ve already written a third Darren Street book which will be published in February 2018. But, I’ll be going back to Joe and staying with him for a while.

There’s no courtroom scene in “Justice Burning.” The novel is very different from all your previous ones. Tell us a little about that.

I wanted to stay out of the courtroom. Darren was in such a transitional stage he wasn’t really practicing law. He’d been in prison, been released and was starting to practice, but then his mother was blown up. He’d negotiated the overwhelming trauma of being falsely convicted and imprisoned, and was starting to recover. Suddenly, he’s hit with another trauma—the violent death of his mother. It becomes a question of how much can the human psyche endure? The police basically told Darren who they thought had killed his mother. He went off the deep end and took matters into his own hands.

I wanted to make people see how a person can be so traumatized, he will abandon his usual moral code. Not wanting to return to prison, Darren became very calculating as he planned to settle the score.

It’s a huge change from the Joe Dillard books because Darren is an anti-hero.

That’s always a risk with an anti-hero, isn’t it? By definition, an anti-hero has significant character flaws.

Definitely. But just like artists don’t want to paint the same picture over and over again, and composers don’t want to write just the same kind of songs, novelists don’t want to write the same type of stories again and again. I wanted to challenge myself by tackling something quite different from the Joe Dillard series, and my editor at Thomas and Mercer encouraged me.

“Justice Burning” deals partly with the concept of justice in our legal system. What are the differences between justice, fairness, and truth.

In our system, I think justice is a gussied-up term for revenge. There may be elements of truth and some fairness, and occasionally justice or revenge is tempered with mercy.

Victims and criminals view justice very differently. Victims look at justice as, Get me some state-sanctioned revenge. Criminals view justice and say, Look at and understand what I did, and temper your revenge with mercy.

Justice is different things to different people.

Darren Street is suffering from symptoms of PTSD. As a former defense attorney, you’ve probably seen a great deal of this disorder. Tell us about the capacity of prison to evoke PTSD in inmates.

A majority of inmates suffer PTSD to some degree. Prison is a horrific experience. There are gangs where you must stay with members of your own race or ethnic group. Inmates are totally powerless. They see and experience abuses normal people cannot understand. They see guard-on-inmate violence, inmate-on-inmate violence, and inmate-on-guard violence. They see things such as superheated baby oil thrown into someone’s face. They live with the constant threat of annihilation. An inmate is constantly on guard for his life. One can get shanked for something as inconsequential as looking at someone the wrong way. It’s a Darwinian existence.

As far as politicians are concerned, the criminal justice system is a bastard stepchild. They don’t want to fund or think about it. They don’t want to reform prisoners, and the way the system is set up, they might be right. By the time someone is a hard-core criminal, that inmate’s personality is irredeemable. The inmates are simply warehoused. Once they’re released, they cannot cope with freedom.

“Justice Burning” is such a fast-paced story it could very well become a movie. Has there been Hollywood interest in either the Joe Dillard books or in the two Darrel Street books?

There’s been interest in the Joe Dillard books but so far, nothing has developed. I’ve been told the Darren Street books are more likely to generate movie interest because they’re edgier.

As a bestselling author of legal thrillers, what has surprised you about the writing life?

I’ve been surprised by how anonymous the writing life can be. I’m glad for it because I’m a private person. Nowadays, I can write a bestseller from my writing room upstairs, and it can go out on Amazon and sell very well without my having to do a single book signing or appear in public.

What’s coming next from Scott Pratt?

The ninth book in the Joe Dillard series is coming after the third Darren Street book.

Congratulations on penning “Justice Burning” a hair-raising and propulsive thriller that raises questions about the law, the penal system, revenge, and what constitutes justice.

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‘Desert Vengeance,’ A Conversation with Betty Webb

February 17, 2017 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

As a journalist, Betty Webb has interviewed U.S. presidents, astronauts, and Nobel Prize winners, as well as homeless people, the dying, and polygamy runaways. The Lena Jones mysteries are based on stories she covered as a reporter. She is a member of the National Federation of Press Women, Mystery Writers of America, and the National Organization of Zoo Keepers.

Desert Vengeance, the 9^th Lena Jones mystery, begins with Lena waiting in the parking lot of a prison on the day when “Papa” Brian Wycoff is to be released. Lena has every intention of killing this man who raped her when she was 9 years old while living in the Wycoff home as a foster child.

The next day, Norma Wycoff, the perpetrator’s wife and enabler, is found dead, shot through the eyes. A few days later, Brian Wycoff’s body is found after he was tortured to death. Suspicion first falls on Lena, and then on Wycoff’s other victims, the now-grown men and women he abused when they were children in his care.

Events escalate and lead to a series of twists and turns in the story.

Lena Jones is an intriguing character. Tell us a bit about her.

Lena had a very traumatic childhood. She was found on a Phoenix, Arizona street with a bullet in her head when she was only four years old. From there, she began a journey through foster homes. In one of the homes, she was raped by a man she called Papa Bryan, her foster father. That added more trauma onto her pre-existing ones.

After having been a police officer, she’s now working as a thirty-nine-year-old private detective. Desert Vengeance begins with her showing up at the prison on the day her rapist is scheduled to be released. Lena’s carrying a hunting knife. She’s a haunted woman trying to deal with the hand life has dealt her. Vengeance is on her mind.

Desert Vengeance is the 9^th mystery featuring Lena Jones. How has she evolved over the course of time?

At the beginning of the series, in Desert Noir, she would have uncontrollable fits of rage. She began anger management therapy; it was somewhat successful. She also had a terrible fear of closets, which in the third book we learn derives from her foster father having hid in her bedroom closet, before jumping out to attack her.

After a great deal of therapy, she’s improved, but her anguish continues to haunt her.

Desert Vengeance is a classic mystery novel. What are the major elements of a mystery?

First, a crime is committed and we don’t know who did it. Conversely, in a thriller or suspense novel, you may actually see the killer do the crime and might even know his identity.

In a mystery, there’s usually a detective, and that detective is often more important than the crime. I like to see an exploration of the detective’s psyche as well as of everyone’s psyche the killer has harmed. In this novel, the victim is a perpetrator—he’s a serial child molester. I didn’t want to explore his psyche because I don’t really care why a man rapes children. But, I wanted to delve into the psyches of Papa Bryan’s many other victims, not only Lena’s.

I get many emails from former foster care children who assume I am a former foster care child. Fortunately, I’m not. It’s important to me to delve into the psychological impact a crime has had on its victims.

Mystery writers like to drop little clues throughout the novel. If the readers are clever, they often can solve the crime themselves along with the detective. To an extent, mysteries are formulaic. When I was younger, I read Agatha Christie’s mysteries. After reading several of them, I noticed she had a habit of dropping a clue approximately every eleven pages. More than half of those clues were red herrings.

In Desert Vengeance, I was able to drop many clues because a number of Papa Bryan’s victims were still around. As Lena Jones was interviewing them, they would drop what could have been real or false clues.

Do you have a specific method for creating a mystery novel?

Yes. I make a very detailed outline before I write the first word. I denote the length of each chapter; where the chapter takes place; who is involved in each chapter and what will take place. I do that until I have outlined the entire book. But, something happens every time I write another book: by the second or third chapter, I dismiss the outline and go rogue. Desert Vengeance is the only book in the entire series where the killer turned out to be the person I actually planned to be the killer. In my other books, someone else did the deed.

What do you love about writing fiction?

I was a journalist for twenty years. When I wrote a story, I would sometimes think the story was so weird, it couldn’t be made up. One of the things I love about fiction is that it must be believable.

Which writers have influenced you as a novelist?

I like reading J.A. Jance’s novels because she writes about Arizona, too. I love reading books by Peter Robinson. I worship the ground Kate Atkinson walks on. She blends genres; she’s almost a fantasist. She hides everything in a mystery, but when you get into one of her novels, you’re off to magic land. I enjoy reading writers who stretch the genre a bit.

What’s coming next from Betty Webb?

I have another series called the Gunn Zoo series. After retiring from the newspaper business, I returned to one of my early loves—animals. I began volunteering at the Phoenix Zoo. I decided to write mysteries set in a zoo. So, I set an entire series in a zoo. My sleuth is Theodora Bentley, a zookeeper, who lives on a houseboat in Monterey Bay. An animal is featured in each book. The next one is called The Otter of Death.

Congratulations on writing Desert Vengeance, a beautifully-crafted mystery featuring an intriguing protagonist and a book with some of the most unexpected twists in the genre.

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