Hugh Lessig, Author of Fadeaway Joe

 Hugh Lessig spent more than 30 years as an award-winning newspaper reporter, covering everything from city council meetings to the earthquake in Haiti. Along the way, he’s met people at the highs and lows of life, interviewed accused murderers and governors, welders and lawyers, and old men who fought our nation’s wars. Born in eastern Pennsylvania, he moved to Hampton Roads, Virginia in 1997.

 

Hugh’s short stories have appeared in Thuglit, Shotgun Honey, Crime Factory and Needle, as well as the following anthologies: Mickey Finn 21st Century Noir, Volumes I and II; Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties and Guns & Tacos. Fadeaway Joe is his first novel.

 

One Bite at a Time: Welcome to One Bite at a Time, Hugh. This is your first visit, so I’ll be gentle. Your new book, Fadeaway Joe, drops August 22 from Crooked Lane. Tell us a little about the book.

 

Hugh Lessig: First off, thanks for being gentle. I am a fellow Pennsylvanian, after all.

 

The central character of Fadeaway Joe is Joe Pendergast, an aging bouncer and tough guy. He works for a small-time loan shark and gambling ring operator. But when Joe is diagnosed with early-stage dementia, his boss abandons him. Now Joe wants revenge, conscious of the clock ticking inside his head.

 

His plans are complicated through a chance meeting with Paula Jessup, a 22-year-old wisecracker on the run from labor traffickers. She’s freed a woman from the traffickers’ grip and needs protection, the kind that Joe can provide. Even with his diagnosis, Joe is not someone to mess with.

 

Meanwhile, Joe is having a hard time devising a revenge strategy, other than “beat my old boss to death before I end up in a nursing home.” Not much of a plan. Paula has ton of street smarts and she’s devious. She helps Joe concoct a scheme to financially ruin his boss, which will hurt more than a right cross. They end up depending on each other.

 

As the story progresses, Joe finds himself worrying more about Paula’s fortunes than his own. He’s looking back at the choices he’s made. Maybe putting Paula on a path to success is more important than exacting his pound of flesh.

 

 

OBAAT: Joe Pendergast finds himself in an interesting situation. Give us a little insight into Joe and how things got this way.

 

HL: Joe is in his mid-60s. He has spent all his adult life working for his boss, Maxie Smith, a man he considers an older brother. The two go back to Joe’s childhood days, when Joe worked in his parents’ cut-rate store and Maxie came in, flashing cash and telling Joe to keep the change. Over the years, Joe has worked the door at Maxie’s bar, fetched his dry cleaning, mixed his martinis, and collected his debts. He’s beaten men. He’s killed. All for Maxie.

 

But then Joe began screwing up. He missed assignments and his collections didn’t square with what is owed. Maxie accused Joe of skimming and the two men brawl. There’s nothing quite like two tough-as-nails old men going at it with haymakers. Joe ends up in the hospital with a concussion, and tests reveal further problems that lead to the diagnosis of early-stage dementia.

 

As the story opens, Joe has been banished from Maxie’s operation and he’s moved back to his old neighborhood. He’s eking out a living by running a food truck.

 

OBAAT: Paula Jessup is an unorthodox sidekick. What’s her deal? Is she more of a help or a hindrance to Joe?

 

HL: At the outset, she’s a pain in the ass. Paula fancies herself a detective, which gets her in trouble. I can’t say exactly how she hooks up with Joe Pendergast, because it would give away a key point, but it comes after a bloody act on Paula’s part.

 

She’s also homeless, living in a vintage 1975 Chevy Nova. She is oddly fascinated by Joe’s penchant for casual violence and throws herself into developing his revenge plan. Her philosophy: Killing someone is easy. Ruining them, that’s hard.

 

Another thing: Paula is biracial and sports a Mohawk. Joe is a grumpy old white guy who never had kids and whose father was Klan. They have a few things to work through.

 

OBAAT: You’ve been around for a while as a short story writer. What made you decide to write a novel?

 

HL: The guardrails of a short story give me comfort. It requires economy and conciseness. Fadeaway Joe started as a piece of flash fiction in Shotgun Honey – different characters and settings, but a similar idea of cross-generational relationships in a criminal landscape. Honestly, the idea just kept expanding and I wanted to try it. (I’ve written two novels that ended up in the drawer before this one, including a science fiction novel.  So, I’m batting .333.)

 

OBAAT: Who do you consider to be your primary creative influences? Authors, books, movies, TV, whatever.

 

HL: For authors, I love the rural noir of David Joy and Daniel Woodrell. I enjoy stories set in the country or in small towns, maybe because I grew up in a tiny Slate Belt town in Pennsylvania. (Think coal town, but with slate quarries.) Elmore Leonard of course. I still love the old Black Mask Boys – Dashiell Hammet, Raymond Chandler, Frederick Nebel, Norbert Davis, and others. Those guys wrote to the end of the scene, then started another.

 

Currently, I’m holding high Eli Cranor, Rachel Howzell Hall, and Adrian McKinty. S.A. Cosby holds a special place. He lives about 45 minutes up the road from me in Virginia, and I interviewed him in 2018 for “My Darkest Prayer” when I was still a newspaper reporter.

 

OBAAT: Authors shopping their first book always want to know this, so how did you get hooked up with Crooked Lane?

 

HL: I wish I had a dramatic story to tell. I looked up the agents who attended Thrillerfest because I knew they were open for submissions. The list included Sara Henry, an editor at Crooked Lane. I sent a query letter to that group, tailored for agents. (“I am seeking representation for . . .”)  I really should have changed the opening line for her. But she picked that letter off the slush pile, loved it and the rest is history. She deserves a big thank-you for helping to get the story into shape.

 

OBAAT: The standard closing question: What’s next?

 

HL: It’s back to short stories for the near future. I have a story included in an anthology of private eye tales set during Prohibition. Watch for “Prohibition Peepers” in September from Down & Out Books. I also have a novella included in an upcoming series from Down & Out where every story is centered around a chop shop in Dallas. The series is called Chop Shop and my story is titled “Hunka, Hunka Burning Rubber. It features a car thief who steals a vintage Stutz from the parking lot at an Elvis Presley tribute convention.

 

 

An Interview with Jeffrey James Higgins

 Jeffrey James Higgins has been a journalist, deputy sheriff, federal agent, writer of both fiction and non-fiction, and a restauranteur. In his copious free time he appears at conference and readings, as well as organizing writer’s events at the restaurant he and his wife operate, Elaine’s. (More on that later.) I have served on conference panels with Jeff and had drinks with him, so I speak from experience when I say he’s not only smart and articulate, but a hell of a nice guy who has that too-rare ability to make you feel like he's glad to see you, as in “you personally as opposed to anyone else.” It was a treat to get to talk with him for the blog.

 

One Bite at a Time: Jeffrey, welcome to One Bite at a Time. To say you’ve been around is putting it mildly. Please give us a capsule description of what you did before you got into writing fiction.

Jeffrey James Higgins: Thanks for having me as a guest. I’m a big fan of your work, and I always enjoy chatting with you at conferences. It’s an honor to be interviewed and to share my work with your readers.

 

I always wanted to be an author, but after working as both a newspaper reporter and editor, I took a 25-year detour into law enforcement. As a deputy sheriff, I worked in patrol, auto theft, street crimes, and the organized crime bureau. As a DEA special agent, I investigated transnational criminal groups in New York, but that changed on 9/11 when I was first to arrive at the WTC’s north tower after it collapsed. Standing in the rubble, I vowed I’d find a way to hunt terrorists. I accepted temporary assignments on the Joint Terrorism Task Force and as a liaison at the Department of Homeland Security. When DEA’s nascent Kabul Country Office opened, I became assistant country attaché and led Afghan police on operations. As a member of FAST, DEA’s international tactical team, I fought in combat with special forces and made the first narco-terrorism arrest. I spent years chasing terrorists around the world with the Special Operations Division’s Narco-Terrorism Group. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to serve my country.

 

OBAAT: Your books are all standalones that cover a wide range of topics:

• Furious: Sailing into Terror. Civilian protagonists hoping to assuage the grief over their daughter’s death by sailing across the Indian Ocean, only to find trouble there.
• Forsaken: A Novella. An Army medic presumed dead and left behind the lines in Afghanistan.
• Unseen: Evil Lurks Among Us. Political thriller.
• The Interrogation. (Long Story) Two Florida sheriff’s deputies in a drug-related homicide investigation.

How did your prior experience affect the creation and development of these books?

JJH: Personal experience influences the work of every writer because we view the world through lenses colored by the past. I’ve traveled to over 50 countries and fought for my life dozens of times, and I used those experiences to infuse my work with gritty realism. My published work and upcoming novels are all grounded in personal and professional experience. I understand how agents and cops behave, which tools they use to target criminals, and what it feels like to have bullets and RPGs fly over my head. All that makes my characters and plots more authentic.

 

OBAAT: How much of what you saw or did in your previous professional life is in these books?

JJH: My novella, Forsaken, is set in eastern Afghanistan where I spent years hunting terrorists. My protagonist is also a medic, which was my collateral duty, so the story is realistic. My protagonist in Unseen is a detective, and in two soon-to-be-published manuscripts, my protagonists are federal agents, so all of those are also rooted in my professional experience. I chased terrorists and criminals through many of the countries where I set my novels. The opening scenes in my thriller, The Forever Game, is loosely based on one of my real-life missions. That book comes out on February 29, 2024, which is a cool launch date. Even my books not involving crime or war have personal elements embedded in them, like blue-water sailing in Furious. 

 

OBAAT: You’re retired now, but did any of your books require vetting by the security agencies before publication?

JJH: The short answer is no. I’ve written one nonfiction book about the first narco-terrorism case, and I’m considering another book with true cop stories, but I mostly write fiction. When I describe the military or intelligence agencies in my books, I stay away from classified material, and I reveal nothing that would harm national security. I wanted to be a writer all my life, but during 25 years in law enforcement, the government prohibited me from publishing. Now that I’m retired, I appreciate my freedom to tell stories.

 

OBAAT: Apparently writing didn’t keep you busy enough, so you and your wife have opened a restaurant in Alexandria, VA. Tell us about Elaine’s.

JJH: Thank you for asking about it. Elaine’s serves modern Mediterranean cuisine, which is Middle Eastern with French, Greek, and Italian influences. Elaine’s offers semi-fine dining at 208 Queen Street, Alexandria, VA, one block from the Potomac River in the heart of Old Town’s Historic District. My wife, Cynthia, is a terrorism expert and an author, but she grew up in a restaurant. When she was 12 years old, she promised her grandmother she would own a restaurant and name it after her. Opening Elaine’s was one of Cynthia’s dreams, and though it took a while, she did it. Check out the beautiful decor and food at Elaines-Restaurant.com.

 

OBAAT: You hope for Elaine’s to become more than a restaurant, especially for the writing community. What are your plans there?

JJH: Elaine’s is fast becoming the literary hub for the Washington, DC area. We offer free space to authors for book launches, interviews, signings, and readings. We also host several writing groups and will soon launch other literary events like Noir at the Bar and a monthly happy hour for mystery and thriller writers. My wife and I understand how hard it can be for new and mid-list authors to find venues to celebrate their books, so we’ve made Elaine’s a home for all writers. Authors can email me at jeffrey@jeffreyjameshiggins.com to discuss scheduling an event.

 

OBAAT: What’s next on your writing agenda as things calm down after getting Elaine’s up and running?

JJH: My wife oversees Elaine’s, and I only run the literary events, which frees me up to write novels. I recently signed with a new literary agent, Jackson Keeler at Inkworks, and we’re working on a trilogy with an eye on Hollywood. I have two novels coming out with different publishers in 2024. The Forever Game is a techno-thriller and Shaking is a murder mystery. Once they’re available, I’ll post links to them on my website (JeffreyJamesHiggins.com). I also have a psychological suspense novel on submission, and I’m editing two new thrillers. My goal is to publish at least two books each year.    

 

We Have a Winner! Well, at Least a Participant.

 The winner of the signed copy of The Spread is Ef Deal, with three points. EF and I will get together at this year’s C3 conference to make the handoff.

 

The answers are below:

 

“They’re against the wall! Skip on down.”

--Robert Redford (The Sundance Kid), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

 

“Hold up your badge. So they’ll know you’re a policeman.”

--James Cromwell (Captain Dudley Smith), L.A. Confidential.

 

“I was misinformed.”

--Humphrey Bogart (Rick Blaine), Casablanca

 

“I like talking to a man who likes to talk.”

--Sidney Greenstreet (Kasper Gutman), The Maltese Falcon

 

“I can’t wait for you to be dead.”

--Delroy Lindo (Bo Catlett), Get Shorty

 

“Come on, you lazy bastards!”

--William Holden (Pike Bishop), The Wild Bunch

 

“In my case, an accident of birth. But you, sir, you’re a self-made man.”

--Lee Marvin (Henry "Rico" Fardan), The Professionals

 

“Those guys are spending money like the Russians are in Jersey.”

--Gene Hackman (Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle), The French Connection

 

“in this world there's two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig.”

--Clint Eastwood (Blondie) The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

 

“That some bad hat, Harry.”

--Roy Scheider (Chief Martin Brody) Jaws

 

 

Win (Earn) a Signed Copy of the New Penns River Book, The Spread

 Penns River Book 8, The Spread, drops next Monday (July 31) from Down & Out Books. In a break with all tradition, and everything I hold dear, I’m giving away a free, signed book to one lucky person. (Or unsigned, if you think my signature will decrease its value.)

 

It won’t be all luck; you’ll need some chops. Below are ten of my favorite movie quotes. Not the greatest quotes of all time. Not even the ten I think are the greatest of all time, Not even even necessarily my ten favorites. Ten of my favorites. To receive the book, reply in the comments with the following information about each:

·       The actor who speaks the line.

·       The name of the character played by that actor.

·       The film it is from.

 

There are ten quotes, so 30 possible points. The person who earns the most points by midnight Eastern Time on July 31 gets a book. It’s that simple. In case of a tie, the person whose comment has the earliest time stamp is the winner.

 

Sure, you could scour the internet and find all the right answers, but what fun would that be? Is it worth saving a few bucks to have to live with the gnawing guilt of knowing you violated the spirit of a friendly competition, one that may involve friends of yours, just to get ahead? Only you can judge that.

 

The winner will be announced in next Friday’s blog. Have at it.

 

1.) “They’re against the wall! Skip on down.”

 

2.) “Hold up your badge. So they’ll know you’re a policeman.”

 

3.) “I was misinformed.”

 

4.) “I like talking to a man who likes to talk.”

 

5.) “I can’t wait for you to be dead.”

 

6.) “Come on, you lazy bastards!”

 

7.) “In my case, an accident of birth. But you, sir, you’re a self-made man.”

 

8.) “Those guys are spending money like the Russians are in Jersey.”

 

9.) “In this world there's two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig.”

 

10.) “That some bad hat, Harry.”

 

The Spread Drops July 31

 

My eighth Penns River novel, The Spread, drops July 31 from Down & Out Books. (It’s currently available for pre-order.) The Spread sets up a bit of a new direction for the Penns River books, and the series will go dark for a while as I research what I need to know to make sure I don’t paint myself into a corner. That’s all I’m going to say about that now.

 

(It’s not like I won’t have anything going on. The next Nick Forte story, Off the Books, is ready to go, and I’m deep into research for a Western.)

 

Here’s a bit of what The Spread is about:

 

School is back in session in Penns River, which means it’s football season in Western Pennsylvania. The Penns River team is loaded after a few substandard campaigns and the town is so revved up a new gambling ring opens to allow PR supporters to put their money where their hearts are.

 

The “entrepreneur” responsible has no idea how to set point spreads and nowhere to look for help; it’s not like Vegas handles small town high school football games. The vast majority of money put down is on the locals—who bets against their own kid, or the one next door?—and the team covers all the spreads; the cash paid to winners far exceeds what the operation takes in. Only organized crime offers loans to cover the shortfall, which opens the door to a whole new world of problems, including murder.

 

If only this was the only problem facing detective Ben “Doc” Dougherty and his fellow police officers but

• A motorcycle gang is solidifying its position in town.

• A civilian ride-along sparks controversy and an official complaint that re-opens an old wound for the department.

• A baby shower turns violent.

• A routine investigation leads to signs of possible police corruption.

• Doc’s cousin, Chicago-based private investigator Nick Forte—a man not prone to leaving things as he found them—comes to town to visit his parents.

 

Welcome to Penns River, where incomes rarely increase and crime rarely decreases. This would be bad enough if it were the same old crimes, but the changing criminal landscape constantly demands more from a police department in transition.

 

Not to blow my own horn, but the pre-release comments have been beyond flattering.

 

“Dana King writes in a gritty crime noir style with a modern flair all his own. His books grab you from the first page and don’t let you go.” —Terrence McCauley, award-winning author of thrillers, crime and westerns

“Readers who like police procedurals will love Dana King’s The Spread—the latest in his Penns River Crime series—and they will have to know, page after page, what happens next! ” —G. Miki Hayden, Writers Digest mystery and thriller writing instructor and author of the how-to Writing the Mystery

“If Joseph Wambaugh and Ed McBain adopted a child and raised him in the 87th Precinct, that kid would grow up to be Dana King. The Spread is a joy for people who love to watch police work and hear cops talk.” —Tim O’Mara, author of the Raymond Donne series and creator of “Murder in Halifax”

“Dana King is an attentive student of the crime novel who knows the formula: how to end a chapter with a cliff hanger, how to write snappy, wise-cracking dialogue, when to introduce intriguing and quirky characters, and to surprise the reader with a plot twist. If you enjoy crime fiction, but want something a bit more challenging and, in my opinion, much more inventive and artful, this is the novel for you. The Spread will broaden your notion of what a crime novel can do.” —Ron Cooper, author of All My Sins Remembered

“Plot is king in The Spread. Sharp, crisp characters, and dialogue that snaps to a snare-drum cadence move the reader through this hard-rushing police procedural.” —Joe Ricker, author of All the Good in Evil

I have a few events scheduled around the release.

·       July 28 (next Friday) – I’ll go against every fiber of my nature and give away a book to the blog reader who correctly identifies the origin of several of my favorite movie lines. This once in a lifetime (probably) opportunity is available to everyone on the planet. (Those of you on the International Space Station will have to wait till you get home. I’m not paying Elon Musk to fly one up to you. I’m willing to give away a book, not blow it up.)

·       August 6 – My dear and long-time friend Elizabeth Bruce hosts a private event in her home to celebrate both the launch of The Spread and the new book of poetry by her husband, Michael Oliver. (Yes, this marks the first time a book of mine and “poetry” appear in the same sentence. I checked.)

·       August 26 – I’ll be interviewed by Jeffery James Higgins at Elaine’s Restaurant, 208 Queen St, Alexandria, VA at 1:00 EDT.

 

The Spread will be available at the Creatures, Crimes, and Creativity conference, September 8 – 10 in Columbia, MD, where I’ll be appearing.

 

Hope to see you soon.

Sleuthfest 2023

 Last week The Beloved Spouse™ and I made our first trip to Sleuthfest. It’s an annual event put on by MWA’s Florida Chapter and their experience shows. I’ve never been to a better run conference.

 

Unlike readers’ conferences such as Bouchercon and Left Coast Crime, Sleuthfest is a writers’ conference, where craft is king. Craft discussions are what I enjoy most about such get-togethers, and I was not disappointed.

 

The agenda is a combination of presentations (essentially classes put on by a single individual), panels, and speeches by featured guests. To be frank, the presentations are probably of more benefit to less experienced writers. I’ve been writing seriously for over twenty years, so I already knew much of what was presented. Not all, but enough that the primary benefit I got was a reminder that I didn’t always know these things. Someone taught me. The less advanced authors are not necessarily less talented or less serious or not as smart; they’re just not as far along on the same journey. It’s an exercise in humility and a reminder that a conscientious practitioner of any craft has an obligation to steady the ladder for those on the way up.

 

(An exception to this was Bruce Robert Coffin’s police procedural presentation. I’ve read Bruce’s books, shared panels, and spent hours in bars with him. He can speak knowledgeably about this stuff for hours. The seventy minutes we got here barely scratched the surface. He’s also a laugh a minute. If you get a chance to hear him speak, jump on it.

 

The panels were as thorough as any I’ve experienced.

 

PACING – THE STORY KILLER

James D.F. Hannah, Terrence McCauley, Alan Orloff, Aggie Blum Thompson.

Micki Browning, moderator.

 

Key takeaways:

Aggie Blum Thompson – watch the video of Matt Stone and Trey Parker talking about “therefore…but” storytelling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGUNqq3jVLg

 

Micki Browning quoted an author whose name I can’t read in my notes. The Interwebs have differing opinions on who it is. Absent solid evidence to the contrary, I’m crediting Micki. Whoever said it first, the advice is solid: “Make them laugh, make them cry, make them wait.”

 

Aggie Blum Thompson tries to answer one question in each chapter and ask another.

 

James D.F. Hannah quoting Neil Gaiman: “The goal of the second draft is to make it look like you knew what you were doing in the first draft.”

 

RESEARCHING FOR AUTHENTICITY

Marty Ambrose, Lisa Black, M.E. Hilliard, Eliot Kleinberg, Alyssa Maxwell.

Rena Koontz, moderator

 

Alyssa Maxwell – Facebook has groups for everything.

 

Eliot Kleinberg – check into newspapers.com. (Pay site.)

 

Eliot Kleinberg – a lot of expensive resources can be accessed for free at a public library.

 

Lisa Black – documentaries on streaming services are useful. Not just History Channel.

 

Eliot Kleinberg – jstore is a good source for well-sourced, academic writing.

 

DECISIONS TO MAKE BEFORE SITTING DOWN AT THE KEYBOARD

Lynette Austin, Micki Browning, Bruce Robert Coffin, K.L. Murphy, Charles Todd.

Alan Orloff, moderator.

 

This was a well-paced panel that served mostly to reinforce things I’m already doing, so my notes are less than copious, as I was busy posting ideas that came to mind. A key takeaway was a reminder to do a light edit of yesterday’s work when writing the first draft. I’ve gotten away from that and returning will save me time in subsequent drafts.

 

I was a member of the other panels I attended, which tends to fully occupy my attention. Suffice to say the other panelists were well received and none of the fruit hurled my way made contact.

 

Other events included an excellent Noir at the Bar, speeches by Neil Nyren and Guest of Honor Melinda Leigh, interviews with Lori Rader-Day and Rachel Howzell Hall, and free food every evening. And it wasn’t good just because it was free. It would have been good even if I had to pay extra for it.

 

I’d like to talk a bit about the extended panel times. Conferences seem to be moving toward shorter panels with more authors, trying to get as many people as possible onstage. I appreciate the intent, but the effect on the audience is to dilute what the panelists can get into. Seventy-minute sessions are much more satisfying. I realize this could mean a large readers’ conference may have fewer writers on panels, but let’s be honest: if you want to be on a panel at Bouchercon or Left Coast or one of the big ones, you should have to show a little game first. Self-publishing a novel or two that sank faster than the Titanic may make you an author, but it doesn’t necessarily make you panelist material. I’d rather be passed over myself than see things diluted any kore than they are. Except here at Sleuthfest. Well done.

 

Having gone to conferences for 15 years now, my best memories will be of renewing friendships and making new ones. I’ll not name names here for fear of leaving anyone out, but rest assured, if we interacted last weekend, I have fond memories, and the more we interacted, the fonder the memories.

 

See you next year.

 

 

An Interview With Reed Farrel Coleman, Author of Sleepless City

Reed Farrel Coleman has won more awards than Tom Brady. (See below.)  Called a hard-boiled poet by NPR's Maureen Corrigan and the "noir poet laureate" in the Huffington Post, Reed is the New York Times bestselling author of thirty-two novels including six in the Jesse Stone series for the late Robert B. Parker. He is a four-time recipient of the Shamus Award for Best PI Novel of the Year and a four-time Edgar Award nominee in three different categories. Reed has also received the Audie, Scribe, Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards. His latest novel, Sleepless City, will be published July 11 by Blackstone Publishing. He lives with his wife on Long Island, and it’s a real treat to have him on the blog.

 

One Bite at a Time: Reed, we’ve known each other quite a while, but this is the first time I’ve had

you on the blog. Welcome, and thanks for stopping by. Your new book, Sleepless City, drops July 11 from Blackstone. Tell us a little about it.

Reed Farrel Coleman: Thanks for having me, Dana. Ooh, “tell us a little bit about it.” Danger, Will Robinson!!!! That’s a trap for an author. Over the years I’ve found it best not to directly fall into that trap. I hope my answers to your other questions give the people reading this a better sense of the novel than I could with some pithy or longwinded response.

 

OBAAT: You’re best known for your Moe Prager books, though I like the Gus Murphys at least as much. How is Nick Ryan different from either Moe or Gus?

RFC: Nick is different from them in ways both latent and manifest. Neither Moe nor Gus ever made detective. Both spent their careers in uniform. So, when it came time, either out of choice or circumstance, to try their hands at PI work, they were ill-prepared for the task. Competent as they were at their jobs in uniform, they stumbled around as detectives, making all manner of missteps and mistakes. Nick on the other hand, is still on the job. Unlike Moe and Gus, he’s a detective and a damned good one. He’s superb at UC (undercover) work. The best on the NYPD. Furthermore, Nick, having spent two tours in Afghanistan, has a different sense of right, wrong, and justice from Gus and Moe. Nick is not afraid to act alone and to take matters into his own hands. Whereas Moe and Gus were stumbling about, Nick is a natural leader of men. He’s younger than Gus and Moe and he’s unattached. Well, at least he thinks he is. But when it comes to heart and protecting the lost and less fortunate, he’s not unlike them at all.   

 

OBAAT: Sleepless City is a departure for you. While it still has the same moral dilemmas that made your other books so compelling, Prager and Murphy often had to find ways to work with, or around, the system; Ryan has the juice to bend the system to his will when necessary. What sent you in that direction?

RFC: It grew out of a discussion with my agent, Shane Salerno. Shane, a famous screenwriter in his own right, and I were kicking around the idea of a different kind of protagonist. One who could both work within the system and outside the system. One who had the full power of the system behind him when he needed it, but who could still be a lone wolf when the situation called for it. You alluded to Moe Prager and Gus Murphy in your question. I loved writing those guys, but as I stated in my previous answer, they were both stumblers, sometimes barely able to tread water, guys almost always in over their heads. In Nick, I finally got the chance to write someone who wasn’t afraid to swim with the sharks, a character whom the sharks themselves might fear. It was a revelation to me to write a competent character, but one who still has the interest of the little guy at heart. That’s why the book works, I think. Nick may draw outside the lines, but he never forgets who’s important.

 

OBAAT: You’ve been called the “noir poet laureate” with good cause. While Sleepless City does not lack hard-boiled poetry, I sensed more of an edge to the writing than typical in your work. Was that deliberate for this book/series? Or is your style evolving in this direction?

RFC: I hope I never stop evolving as a writer and I hope I never stop being inspired and influenced by other writers. It’s impossible for me to state the importance or how much I have learned by reading other authors’ work. As to Sleepless City, I did make a conscious decision to be a bit more plot driven and action oriented. One of my early readers called Nick Ryan the love child of WB Yeats and John Wick. I think that sums it up perfectly. One of the challenges of taking this on was to see if I could write a Jack Reacher-ish novel and still maintain that lyrical quality of my style. Lee Child once said to me that if I left three words out of all my sentences, I’d be a bigger seller. He said it with a smile. I understood what he meant, but I write how I write.

         More importantly, I wrote a portion of this novel during the pandemic and in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death. Anyone reading Sleepless City will immediately recognize the influence outside events had on my work. I usually try to shut out the world when I’m working on a novel because the only world I want to think about is the one in my head, the one I’m creating. Only here that was impossible. During that period it seemed the entire world was all sharp edges and moral dilemmas. How could I ignore it?       

 

OBAAT: I mentioned earlier that you were best known for the Moe Prager books, as the list of awards and nominations earned by that series attests. In fact, you may well be better known to the general public for carrying on Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series. As self-assured as your writing always reads, what was it like to have to write in someone else’s universe?

RFC: I love answering this question. To do what I did with Jesse Stone or what Ace Atkins did with Spenser, you have to do two things: find a way into someone else’s character, and, more importantly, find a way to make that character your own. My way into Jesse Stone was through struggle and disappointment. Jesse struggles with alcohol. We all struggle, some of us with weight, some with drugs, some with our emotions, our relationships. But struggle is a common and unifying human quality. So, it was easy for me to relate to Jesse’s struggles, though I’m not an alcoholic. Jesse was also one phone call away from being the starting shortstop for the Dodgers. But he hurt his shoulder in a meaningless exhibition game. Talk about disappointment! Again, like struggling, who hasn’t dealt with big disappointments in life? Who doesn’t carry around those “What if …” questions with them? It took me three books until I really felt as if Jesse were my character. Although I’d gotten inside him, it took a few books to feel as comfortable with him as a character as say, Moe or Gus.  

 

OBAAT: You’ve said your greatest influencer was your college poetry professor, David Lehman, in part for helping you to learn how to self-edit. Please talk a little about that. (Full disclosure: My first agent, the late Pam Strickler, did the same for me. I use her lessons every day, so it’s a topic, and skill, near and dear to me.)

RFC: Writing and reading poetry are perhaps the best teachers for future prose writers. Poetry teaches you several important lessons: economy, rhythm, power of language. Poets sweat each word that goes on the page. I have often wondered how many drafts it took William Carlos Williams to write “The Red Wheelbarrow”, a sixteen-word poem or how many drafts it took Ezra Pound to write “In a Station of the Metro”, a six-word title for a two line, fourteen-word poem. On the other hand, “Prufrock” was once almost twice as long as the version we all know. The most important thing David taught us was to think of ourselves as writers. He had us take an oath that from that day forward, regardless of what we did to earn a living, we would always think of ourselves as writers. When many years later I went to a book signing of David’s, he said he had totally forgotten the whole oath thing. 

 

OBAAT: What’s next for you?

RFC: I’ve already written Nick Ryan #2, Blind to Midnight. And the pandemic has given me ample time to complete Gus Murphy #3, All Buried Things and two other standalone novels. Where Gus and the other stuff gets published is yet to be determined.