Thoughts on Q & A with Anthony Bidulka (Dos Equis)

Last week I posted my review of Anthony Bidulka’s new book, Dos Equis. Russell Quant split his time between Saskatoon and Mexico. On Wednesday I posted Q and A with Anthony. Tonight is a post with my thoughts on those Q and A.

I started by asking Anthony why there was no connection in the book with The Most Interesting Man in the World advertising character. As he pointed out not everyone knows The Most Interesting Man in the World. For readers who do not watch sports in the United States and Canada on T.V. The Most Interesting Man in the World is in ads for Dos Equis beer. He makes gentle mockery of the pretentious man of the world attitude. Wikipedia has a good article about the character who is played by Jonathan Goldsmith. To see him action you can check him out on a compendium of the ads on youtube.

I asked Anthony if he was considering a cookbook featuring Russell. In the books Russell savours his mother’s hearty Ukrainian cooking. Colourful Mary’s eclectic restaurant is a continuing meeting place for Russell. When he travels Russell seeks out the best local food available. In real life Anthony loves food just as much as Russell. I think Anthony could come up with a cookbook that would rival any in the world for variety. I know they would all be personally tasted.

On Russell spending little time discussing fees I understand Anthony’s rationale in giving Russell some money to avoid the situation too often in crime fiction where sleuths without incomes solve crimes for free. At the same time I think it is interesting to read about detectives working out fees for their services. Nero Wolfe was only motivated by money and Rex Stout created intriguing scenes where Wolfe demanded and received large sums to take on cases. I think Russell should require significant retainers from clients.

Anthony indicated he was not sure of my question when I asked if he would ever have Russell accompany a Saskatoon based gay mystery author to a mystery convention. Anthony wondered if I was asking if he would have someone pretend to be Russell and go with him to a convention. I understand his negative response. What I actually meant with the question was whether Anthony in one of Russell’s mysteries would create as part of the plot a trip where Russell went with a fictional Saskatoon based gay mystery author to a warm weather destination. Thus we would have Anthony able to portray himself as he would like himself to be as a fictional character. Anthony could even go so far as to arrange his own fictional death for Russell to solve.

On Anthony commenting that writing went faster once he created scenes for the ongoing characters but that the overall time for a book was about the same because he was looking for challenging scenes and new characters was a good explanation for why the series remains fresh to me. While the formula of a mix of locations between Saskatoon and some exotic locale continues from book to book the circumstances and people keep changing. Having Jane die in Dos Equis and J.P. come into the series is a good example.

Anthony said he had not realized that there were few children in the series. Most crime fiction does not involve children as meaningful characters. Gail Bowen, in the Joanne Kilbourn series, has always had children as significant characters. I think Russell could have an excellent adventure with a favourite niece joining him. Anthony has a niece I know in Melfort who might inspire him. Now Russell has a sister but she is far different from Anthony’s real life Melfort sister. With Russell reaching 40 I think the youthful exuberance of a niece would be nice.

If you did not follow Anthony’s amazing trip for his 50^th birthday drop in on his blog and take a look.

Questions and Answers with Deon Meyer (Trackers)

After reading Trackers by Deon Meyers and posting my review I had an interesting comment from Maxine of the excellent Petrona blog. She asked:

"I love your list of 'trackers'! I wonder if the author had something like this before he started writing, and determined to include one of each in his novel?"

Her comment prompted me to email Deon. He graciously answered that question and a few more. My questions and Deon’s answers in bold are in the following email I received from him:

Hi Bill:

Thanks for the privilege. Here goes:

1.)    In my review I set out 26 different types of tracking that take place in Trackers. Did you plan to feature so many different ways of tracking in the book? If you did I would appreciate knowing how many methods of tracking you inserted as I am curious as to how close I came to finding all of them. (Maxine from the book blog Petrona inspired this question through a comment on my review of the book.)

I wish I was clever enough to do that much detailed planning. My intention was much more modest: to simply draw an analogy between animal tracking and habits, and the human equivalents. My source (Louis Liebenberg’s ‘The Art of Tracking’) was so rich in material that it did the rest on its own.

2.) I thought Trackers was a perfect title. Who chose the title and how was it selected?

The original Afrikaans title was ‘Spoor’, which, in its narrowest sense, means ‘track’. But the influence of African environment on my mother tongue (and the close interaction with that environment by the first speakers of the language) gives the word a deeper, wider meaning for which there is not English equivalent. Because I have three English publishers (Canada, UK and USA), the translated title is a collaborative decision between all of us. ‘Trackers’ was the closest we could come to the original.

3.) Were you / are you a tracker in rural and/or urban South Africa?

I grew up on the edge of a small town on the high veldt of the North West Province, and spent a lot of time in my youth in the bush, hunting and fishing, so I know the basics of animal tracking. And aren’t we all trackers in the urban jungle, even if it is only to hunt down a bargain … ?

4.)    In P.D. James’ book Talking About Detective Fiction she said her books start with a location. In my review I summarized her approach:

She said a setting will be in the inspiration. She gave the example of standing on the North Sea coast and looking to the south and seeing a nuclear power plant. The book grew from that location.

Could you tell me how you start a book?

I start book development with a story idea, or a curiosity about something, and each book’s origin is very different. With Trackers, it was my fascination with the dictatorship of the genre’s traditional structure, and the interesting links between organised crime and terrorism. Setting is almost incidental at first.

5.)    Do you have a length of book set in your mind when you start to write? If not, when in the process do you determine length?

I don’t determine the length at all (or think or worry about it much)  – each story has its own length, to be revealed in the writing process.

6.)    There are quite a few South Africans of Afrikaner descent living in Saskatchewan. My family doctor grew up in Namibia and took his medical training in South Africa. Might Lemmer and Emma ever travel as far as Saskatchewan on an adventure involving former South African residents?

You never know, although I doubt it. South Africa is such a dynamic, dramatic and dynamic backdrop, and it has become part of what my brand as an author represents …

Best wishes

Deon Meyer

I appreciate Deon’s thoughtful answers and look forward to reading more thrillers from this superb author.

Thoughts on Questions and Answers with David Rotenberg

            Making the hero a Canadian rather than an American when part of the story is set in the United States is so uncommon I do not think I have read another mystery with a comparable hero. Had he not already had a successful series I expect David would have been pushed hard to make Decker an American.

            Decker displays a trait common to Canadians. He is knowledgeable about America. Canadians normally do not find the converse true. To take a simple example where almost all Canadians can identify the American President, there is a much smaller percentage of Americans able to name Canada’s Prime Minister.

            I agree with David’s statement that Canadians are outsiders to the United States. I go further to state that we could hardly be a sovereign land if we were not outsiders to America.

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            On Decker being a thriller hero substituting brain power for brawn and weapons I admire David’s decision. In his latest book, Junkyard Dogs, Craig Johnson has his hero, Sheriff Walt Longmire, actually physically challenged by the accumulation of his injuries. It was uncommon enough fictional recognition of the consequences of repeated injuries for me to take note.

It is hard for me to recall another thriller hero who “understands the diminishing returns of violence”. It is tiring to read of fictional heroes being battered about and then swiftly rising again to smite the bad guy. At times I think there is evolving a new rule for thrillers that it cannot be a thriller without a massive body count.

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            At the core of what makes the book interesting is the presence of the synasthetes. It is intriguing to read of individuals with exceptional, almost unworldly talents. Daniel Tammet is an amazing individual with special gifts in mathematics and languages. Seeing numbers in colours, shapes and sizes is beyond my comprehension. Learning conversational Icelandic in a week is even more amazing. His website is optimnen.com.uk.

The reference to the inspiration for the movie, Rainman, was to Ken Peek. His photographic memory allowed him to recall the contents of at least 12,000 books! Since he started memorizing just before he was 2 years old he was averaging 217 books a year for the remaining 56 years of his life. How many bloggers can even remember all the books they read a year ago? Decker is more socially adept than most synasthetes.

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For non-Canadian readers CSIS is the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service. Certainly they could use a truth teller as much as America’s NSA.

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On David’s simple answer that his hero has a family because he is a father and he has a son is logical. I am sure most thriller writers are parents yet their heroes infrequently have families.

As evident by recent posts I have long been interested in the issue of sleuths and families especially the increase in characters with families. David puts the reasoning in favour of families at its most direct. Everyone has a family.

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            I enjoy sagas. Stieg Larsson’s trilogy was great partly because of the ongoing story lines through the three books. While not expressed to be a set Louise Penny’s most recent books in the Inspector Gamache series are close to being a saga with the ongoing plots.

Questions and Answers with David Rotenberg

On Monday I posted my review of The Placebo Effect by David Roteberg. Today I join the blogger tour for the book. I thank David for his frank and interesting answers. I invite readers to check out further stops on the blogger tour through the links at Simon & Schuster. My Questions and Answers with David are:

1.) Why a Canadian action hero in a book that bounces between Canada and the United States? My reading experience would generally have the hero an American if the series was even partially placed in the United States.

Having the lead character as a Canadian allows a perspective on America that often Americans don’t have. I lived in the United States for many years. My wife is a Puerto Rican American. Both of my kids are dual citizens. One lives in the States; the other has the knee jerk hatred of America that is pretty common here.

Our relationship with the elephant down there is pretty darned important for us to understand past the knee jerk stuff. Hence, start in Toronto and work south. I was born and raised in Toronto, although I left for 15 years I’ve been back for 22, and this is the first I’ve been able to write about Toronto. Although, to be honest, it’s more about the Junction than Toronto.

Your insight is true, and there are times that publishers want to push for American Heroes. Decker’s an outsider, we as Canadians are outsiders to the world’s most powerful entity, crumbling as it may be.

2.) I have been reading a number of new thriller series this year including Michael Harvey’s Third Rail and Noah Boyd’s The Bricklayer. Both feature strong powerful physically aggressive characters with Boyd’s sleuth, Steve Vail, also being a thoughtful analytical hero. Decker Roberts lacks both brawn and skill with weapons. Why was Decker created with his mind his primary resource?

Partially because he’s an outsider. Partially because I’ve got pretty sick of cops and sleuths altogether. How many times can a guy be hit on the back of the head and get back up on his feet and continue? Talk to Mr. Crosby about hits to the head.

Decker in fact doesn’t like police officers of NSA people. He’s a loner who’s used his head to keep ahead of the inherent violence all around him. He’s not a weakling or a coward; he just sees and understands the diminishing returns of violence.

Yeah, we created drone planes to attack terrorist sites-and lots of folks are cheering this-but-surely the bad guys will eventually get hold of that access to violence. Then where will anyone be safe?

3.) Where does your interest in synaesthetes come from?

I’ve always written about people with special abilities, the five Zhong Fong novels are about a man with exceptional talent in a world where special talents are not honored. When I directed the first Canadian play in the People’s Republic of China the first thing the Artistic Director of that theatre said to me was, “You must remember that you can always be replaced”-a fine hello, how was your flight!

Synesthesia simply gives and access to the ‘other.’ There is a lot of material on synesthesia; some of the most interesting is actually the documentary on Mr. Tammet and his extraordinary abilities. There is also a gentleman called the human camera, you can find YouTube stuff on both, and BBC documentaries. As well Mr. Tammet has an interesting book.

Rainman was based loosely on the man who Mr. Tammet thought of as his spiritual father-he passed away a few years back.

4.) In doing a little research on synaesthetes I found only references to individuals who have such traits as seeing colors when they view letters. Is there a source on the net for particulars of synaesthetes such as Decker with the gift of divining the truth?

See above

5.) Is there a reason why the Canadian government, especially CSIS, was not seeking out Decker to enhance our country’s security by using his talents to assess truth telling?

I’ve tinkered with this, but there are only so many enemies for Decker. The collusion of CSIS with the NSA is hinted as in the chapter at Pearson airport. Thanks, this might be a worthwhile place for me to put some thought.

6.) It is rare for a thriller hero to have children let alone a child, Seth, with a difficult relationship with the hero. What took you to giving Decker an adult child in a real relationship with his father?

I’m a father, I have a son. 

7.) The book had a significant number of unresolved issues such as the future of Seth. The book is described as the first in the Junction Chronicles. Is the book intended to be read as part of a set of books with individual book plots set within an overall plot fully unfolding over a series of books in the same way Stieg Larsson created the Millennium Trilogy?

Yes

If so, why did you write a multi-book plot?

The baseball season is a multi-plot book. Tolstoy is a multi-plot book. All the major HBO series are multi-plot books. Just seemed the right time to write something that people would look forward to year after year.

(My review of The Placebo Effect was posted Monday. On Friday I will post thoughts on Questions and Answers with David.)

Questions and Answers with Chad Barton

On Tuesday I posted my review of The Goodbye Man. Tonight I am posting a letter with questions I put to the author about criminal law issues. His answers are in bold. On Saturday I will put a post of my thoughts on the questions and answers.

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Chad

As you will see from my review I do not agree with Jack Steele’s vigilante approach to justice. I did appreciate the chance to read your book. I would like to give you the opportunity to expand upon your views. For my blog I have chosen not to conduct oral interviews. I have preferred to send written questions and invite authors to have time to reflect before responding. I hope you will answer the following questions, which include some comments, so I can put the answers up in a further post. Sometimes I do a third post containing my thoughts on the answers.

My questions are:

1.) Do you believe in the death penalty?

Yes

2.) If you do, what crimes should carry the death penalty?

Pre-meditated murder, rape, murder of a child.

3.) Should there be discretion for a jury on whether to impose the death penalty?

Yes

4.) Do you believe citizens should be able to conduct vigilante justice?

No

5.) If you do, who selects the vigilantes?

N/A

6.) If there should be vigilantes do they act in groups or as individuals?

N/A

7.) In the book there is reference to a law imposing mandatory maximum sentences which I understood provides that individuals convicted of abusing children should receive mandatory life sentences without possibility of parole. Do you support such a law?

I do support it when child molesters are sadistic and violent.

8.) If you do, what is the nature of the abuse which draws a mandatory maximum sentence?

Murder and rape

9.) Would a teacher having sexual intercourse with a young teenage student draw the mandatory maximum?

No

10.) Would it matter if the teacher were male or female?

No

11.) Would a doctor or priest fondling several young boys receive the mandatory maximum?

Yes

12.) Would a man or woman who sexually rubs a child one time while impaired by alcohol receive the mandatory maximum sentence?

No

13.) As stated in the review, in my experience, most abuse cases involve family members. Does it make a difference if the case is the abuse of one member of a family?

No

14.) Should there be a mandatory maximum sentence for children who abuse elderly parents?

I do not have an opinion

15.) Do you believe an abuser can ever be rehabilitated?

Not a violent, sexual sadist

16.) Should a family be allowed to forgive another family member who is an abuser and, after the abuser has served a term of imprisonment, reconcile so they can resume life together?

No opinion

17.) My province of Saskatchewan struggled with the case of a father who killed his severely disabled (cerebral palsy) 12 year old daughter by carbon monoxide poisoning because he said he could no longer stand to see her suffering. Is he a monster who should be executed?

No

Thank you for considering the questions.

Yours truly,

Bill Selnes

Suggestions for Gail Bowen on losing court cases

In the post below of Questions and Answers with Gail she put a question to me on ideas for losing court cases for her character, Zack Shreeve. I took up the challenge and this post is my answer to her.

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Gail

I have been considering your question back to me in your answers to my questions. You stated:

I think it would be good for Zack to lose a big case, especially if the case was one readers really wanted him to win and felt he deserved to win.  Any suggestions?

Thank you for the challenge.

Lawyers do not like to think about losing cases. Asking a lawyer to remember cases lost is to bring back painful memories. Reading the question instantly made me reflect on my personal experiences.

Every trial lawyer seeks to have some distance from a client to remain professional and objective but as I stated to students at the College of Law in a lecture I gave concerning my AIDS infected called “Representing the Dead and Dying” lawyers are not and should not be robots.

When you spend the tremendous amount of time with a client required by a major case you develop a special closeness. It is very hard when a client, who you consider credible, testifies and the court finds against them because the judge finds an opposing party the reliable witness.

The situation is compounded if the court does not reject evidence supporting your client but simply accepts evidence supporting the other side.

More directly responding to your question I have a few suggestions for cases Zack could lose.

First, there is a medical negligence action where Zack’s client, a university student, complains of back problems and is x-rayed. The radiologist misses a tumour which grows undetected until it is untreatable. There is strong expert evidence of physician error but at trial there is some expert evidence, accepted by the trial judge, stating it is not clear, that even if detected properly, there could have been successful treatment and the claim is dismissed. During the trial it is learned that the student is dying.

Second, a different scenario would involve Zack being asked to be a special prosecutor in a criminal case because of a conflict of interest for Public Prosecutions as the victim is a prosecutor. The case is a charge of assault arising from a confrontation in a bar provoked by the accused who is larger and younger than the victim. The evidence is overwhelming that the accused struck the victim repeatedly. The accused is the only witness to claim the victim made a threatening gesture towards him before he hit the accused. Opposing Zack is a young lawyer conducting her first jury trial. To the shock of all the accused is acquitted. The next day Zack, though not allowed to question the jury about their deliberations, runs into a juror while shopping who tells him the jury knew it was the young lawyer’s first jury trial and decided to acquit to give her a good start to her career. (Lest you think it incredible I read that John Diefenbaker won his first jury trial about 1920 for this reason.)

Thirdly, a mother has custody of a child with the father having lots of access since they live in the same city. The father hires Zack to seek custody when the mother proposes to move to South America with the child to pursue a new relationship. The child does not want to leave father, school, friends and other family members. Limited family finances mean he would see his father once a year but no one else in the family. The stepfather has a history of short term relationships. The trial judge leaves custody with the mother concluding she should be able to live with the child where she chooses to make her residence. On appeal the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada uphold the decision. (A variation of these facts and decision was an actual case out of Saskatchewan.)

Devastating for Zack but a reality for lawyers would be to have him lose all three cases in a row.

If any more good losing case ideas come to mind I will send them to you.

Thanks for your answers. They were great responses.

Best wishes.

Bill Selnes

Questions and Answers with Gail Bowen

Former university English professor, Gail Bowen, is one of my favourite authors. Her mysteries set in Saskatchewan featuring Joanne Kilbourn are consistently excellent. Recently I sent her five questions and she provided great replies. The questions and answers are:

1.) As a Saskatchewan lawyer in his late 50’s whose practice includes litigation I was excited when Zack Shreeve, a Saskatchewan litigator in his 50’s became an important character. Why did you add a lawyer to the series?

Zack Shreve was introduced in The Last Good Day.  The inspiration for the group of lawyers who form the law firm Falconer Shreve Altieri Wainberg and Hynd was a chance comment from a friend of mine who studied law here in Saskatchewan and is now a judge.  My friend said that when she was in first year law, the students knew at the end of the first six weeks who was going to be significant and who wasn’t.

    

I found the assessment a little chilling, but also fascinating. So in The Last Good Day, we meet ‘The Winners’ Circle’, five lawyers who 25 years earlier had come together because they realized they were the best and brightest in their class. After graduation, they became law partners, and professionally they have been extremely successful.  Their personal lives have been less successful and that, of course, is what draws me to them as characters.

In The Last Good Day one of the partners commits suicide. In his determination to find out why, Zack appears as a somewhat menacing, controlling character. He’s a brilliant but ruthless litigator and privately he lives on the edge. He’s fond of liquor, three-day poker games, women and fast cars.  He and Joanne Kilbourn, my protagonist, are as different as two people can be and yet, in a curious way, each completes the other.  They becomes lovers and within six months of their first meeting, they’re married.  As Joanne says, their marriage is not an easy one but it is a good one.

2.) Was there an inspiration for making the lawyer disabled? I do not know any Saskatchewan litigators who are paraplegic.

Zack is a paraplegic.  I modeled him in some ways after Charles Ruff, the paraplegic lawyer who defended Bill Clinton in his impeachment trial. He was brilliant, and the President was acquitted.  During the impeachment hearings, I’d been struck by Ruff’s eloquence and his ability to present a complex argument in terms that a layperson could understand and respond to.  I’d also been struck by his statement that he’d chosen the law because ‘it was a sedentary profession’.  Unlike Zack, Charles Ruff was self-effacing, but if you watched him closely you could see that he had a pretty healthy ego – a prerequisite, I understand, for any trial lawyer.

3.) While I have the occasional comment about how you portray court proceedings I have been impressed by your legal knowledge. Do you sit in on trials?

I’ve sat in on a couple of trials, but I have two close friends who are judges and I know a number of lawyers.  They all like to talk about the law and they all have war stories – although the judges’ war stories are all about their days as lawyers.  I like to listen. I’m also grateful to the lawyers who check out ‘the law’ in my books.  Truly this is a case where the errata are my own.  They give me good advice, and occasionally I ignore it.  Writers of fiction are mercifully freed from some constraints.  As Peter Robinson says, ‘never let the truth get in the way of a good story.’

4.) Every lawyer loves to talk about their successful cases. At the same time no one wins them all except in fiction. Can you see yourself writing about Zack losing a major case?

I think it would be good for Zack to lose a big case, especially if the case was one readers really wanted him to win and felt he deserved to win.  Any suggestions? (I am taking up the challenge and will be providing suggestions and posting them next week.)

5.) When you write about a case in the series do you adapt an existing case in the manner of many episodes in The Law and Order television series or are the cases original to you?

Because my books are driven by character, the cases are original.  For my purposes, the case has to ‘fit’ the character.  The crime has to grow out of what a particular person is and what combination of circumstance and character flaw might drive him or her to commit murder.  I can’t cite any specifics without a ‘spoiler alert’ for people who haven’t read the books, so I’ll just have to let people who have read the Joanne Kilbourn Shreve series cast their minds back.

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SEE POST BELOW THIS POST FOR ANSWERS TO GAIL'S QUESTION ON POSSIBLE LOSING CASES FOR ZACK.

Thoughts on Questions and Answers with Gordon W. Dale

I have been thinking about Gordon’s Answers to my Questions and today's post contains my thoughts. Tomorrow I conclude my quartet of posts involving Gordon W. Dale and his book, Fool's Republic, with a short autobiography. My thoughts are:

1.) With regard to the world of white prison I have been in a monochromatic environment. It would be hard not to have the mind dulled. I do expect to hear in real life of a prisoner being tormented by being put in all white prison.
I have had sensory deprivation when I had a spinal anesthetic during surgery. The bottom half of my body was no longer there. I felt I was half a body floating in nothingness.

2.) Wyley dropped out as a youth rather than turning to the violence of the SDS. Today the excesses of the War on Terror have not roused the national student upheavals that took place in the late 1960’s against the Vietnam War. As with most people Wyley is moved to action on his principles by a personal event. Rarely do we take on the forces of authority because of abstract convictions.

3.) Gordon chose not to make his hero a male immigrant of Arab descent to emphasize the risks to everyone in society. The War on Terror is indiscriminate. The reliance on computers to pick out persons considered risks adds to the fear factor. Where once we were at the mercy only of humans in authority now we are also at the mercy of machines in authority.

His reference to Bradley Manning is to the young American soldier accused of leaking confidential American information to WikiLeaks. He was held in solitary confinement for over a year and has still not had a trial.

4.) Gordon indicated his prison was not a copy of any existing prison. He did create a prison so real I had wondered if it actually existed. I hope no authorities are inspired to turn the imagined prison of white into a real prison.

5.) Gordon obviously has a wide and varied vocabulary. Wyley is certainly a puzzle to his interrogators. I am sure it has been a rare day during the War on Terror when they questioned a detainee learned in philosophy. It is intriguing to have a character befuddle those questioning him by his command of the English language.

6.) Gordon “would like to say not” on whether his novel could have been set in Canada. He is right to be careful. I equally hope not but Canada has its own history of arbitrary detention in wartime. During World War I we interned Ukrainian and German Canadians. In World War II there was the shameful confinement of Japanese Canadians. I worry what would happen to our rights and freedoms if there was a 9/11 style attack in Canada. When a few FLQ terrorists took action in Quebec in the early 1970’s the Federal Government swiftly enacted the War Measures Act.

Questions and Answers with Gordon W. Dale

This week I have a series of posts involing  Fool's Republic. Today's post is a set of Questions and Answers with author, Gordon W. Dale, with regard to his thriller. Yesterday's post was a review of the book. Tomorrow I will be posting my thoughts on Gordon's Answers. I will conclude on Friday with an autobiography of Gordon.

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1.) Have you experienced a closed world of white comparable to the prison of white in which you placed Wyley?

The closest thing to the white world of Wyley's prison that I have personally experienced—and it's a common experience—is being a patient in a hospital operating room. It gives the same feeling of powerlessness and, of course, you’re bathed in bright light and subjected to forces beyond your control.

When I started writing Fool’s Republic, I knew it was likely that Wyley would be subjected to some sort of sensory deprivation. The choice was to place him in either an unlit room, like a dungeon, or a room of white light. Of the two, I find the idea of unrelenting white light far more sinister.

I started with the first line: “I float in an eight-by-eight cell of the purest clinical white: white walls, white sheets, white toilet, white sink, white light.”, and then wrote the character into existence, figuring out who he was and what was happening to him as I went along. I think this sense of discovery is transferred directly to the reader. Many readers have told me they sped through the book in a couple of days; some have read it in a single sitting, staying up all night to do so. And reviews of the book commonly talk about how gripping it is.

2.) In creating Wyley were you thinking of the privileged children at the core of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) who adopted violent protest against the American establishment a generation ago during the Vietnam War?

That’s an interesting question. While there are similarities between the way Wyley felt about society when young and what the students who comprised the SDC probably believed, Wyley didn't take direct action. Instead he dropped out. It wasn't until he was quite a bit older, and a tragedy he blamed on the government befell him personally, that he decided he had to do something concrete. Up to that point he just wanted to be left alone.

3.) Why was Wyley a middle aged white man when the War on Terror has concentrated on young Arabic men who are often immigrants?

While it's true that there has been a focus on male immigrants of Arab descent, particularly by the media, I believe the war on terror has been a war on all of us. We all live in a world where our freedom has been compromised in the name of security. What happens to Wyley could happen to any of us, regardless of race or background. Bradley Manning is a current example of that. That was one of the points I hoped to make.

4.) A couple of years ago I read The Torture Team by Phillipe Sands. Your book reminded me of his descriptions of the environment and interrogations at Guantanamo. Was America’s Cuban prison an inspiration for the book?

I'm pleased the prison seemed authentic to you, because I felt that whatever happened to Wyley had to be believable. However, while the novel is certainly informed by Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, Fool’s Republic is not a piece of reportage. The institution in which Wyley finds himself is not modeled on any particular prison—mostly because I didn't want to get caught up in trying to reproduce each institutional detail with complete accuracy. Wyley is held in a prison that might be. I was looking for a context in which I could explore the uses of, and resistance to, authority.

5.) As a lawyer and a reader I am interested in words. Your book with words such as “aleatory” and “teleological: and “deontology” has more unfamiliar words than any recent work of fiction I have read. Are these words part of your vocabulary or did you seek them out for Fool’s Republic?

Certainly I seldom use “aleatory” and “deontology” in everyday conversation, although they are words I'm familiar with. I've read a considerable amount of philosophy over the years and as Fools Republic is written from the point of view of a character with an interest in that field, I chose words I felt were appropriate to the way he would think about and describe situations. He uses words as a defense, as a way to distance himself from the people around him, particularly people in authority. In that regard, his use of language is an important facet of his character.

6.) Could the book have been set in Canada?

Being born in Canada, I would like to say not. I still find Canada to be a kinder and gentler place in most respects. Mind you, it would have been inconceivable to set Fool’s Republic in the United States of a generation ago, so I suppose it doesn't do to become complacent.

Questions and Answers with Robert Rotenberg

Today I am participating in the blogger tour organized by Simon and Schuster for Robert Rotenberg's book, The Guilty Plea. It is my second post in three days with Robert Rotenberg. Tomorrow I will post some thoughts on Robert’s Questions and Answers. My review of the book is below this post. Robert, a Toronto lawyer, actively working as a criminal defence lawyer provided vivid answers to my questions. I thank him for his candour. The Questions and Answers are:

1.)    DiPaulo never discusses his fees with Samantha. Every Toronto lawyer and every Saskatchewan lawyer I know would make that a topic during the first meeting. Most fictional lawyers are unconcerned about money. Why is there no discussion and agreement on fees?

Interesting you asked. I wrote a number of scenes in the first two books when the lawyers talked with their clients about money. How to put this gently? They sucked. They were the most boring scenes you could imagine. But, trust me fees are very much on my mind – every client, every day. So in Book Three, Nancy Parish has a long rant about how when you do a big murder trial for a client on legal aid your whole financial (and personal) life goes out the window.

2.)    While I have seen a few Ontario judges none of the judges I know appear to be models for your fictional judges. Were your judges inspired by actual judges?

I so love my judges. They are such great fun to create and write about. The tremendous writer Giles Blunt says he often judges (that word) a writer by the strength of their minor characters. Of course these are not based on actual judges – none of the characters are. But that is not to say I don’t slice little bits of people I see and splice them together. My real goal is that no character be a cliché. Maybe a bit over the top sometimes, but real people. In The Guilty Plea, I had the opportunity to show Judge Summers had another dimension. (To brag just a bit, the scene when Ari Greene goes to see Summers in his the judge’s chambers is one I am very proud of. You will see that I ended a key section of the book with it.)

A funny story: After Old City Hall came out, a judge stopped me in the hall one day and said: “Robert, that lawyer in the book, Nancy Parish, I know exactly who you based her on.” “Oh,” I said, smiling a bit to myself I must admit, “Who?” He then named a female lawyer. “Funny you should say that,” I told the judge. “You know, I’ve never heard of that woman in my life.” We both laughed. Here’s the kicker – it was true. I’d never heard of her before.

3.)    Most legal mysteries concentrate on either the prosecutor or the defence counsel. Why do you focus equally upon them?

Great question. I didn’t know a great deal about mysteries when I started Old City Hall. Never really thought of it as a mystery, indeed still don’t. But I did start reading a number of so called ‘legal thrillers’ as I went along. I always found when the Crown, or the judge, was the nasty bad guy it always seemed so cliché. Not real. I’m only interested in trying to tell the story of this city, this time, as I see it.

Nice note: I went to speak to a grade ten English class a while ago. They’d studied Old City Hall, and it was amazing. At one point I asked, “Who is the hero of the book?” A question I don’t really have the answer to. Kids said Greene, Brace, Kennicott…then one shy boy put up his hand and said “I think it was Albert Fernandez’s father. He’s the one who influenced his son to do the right thing.”

The answer totally blew me away. Brings tears to my eyes even as I write this.

I guess that’s the best answer of all.

4.)    Can a legal mystery which is not weighted to Crown or defence end in a conviction?

Happens every day in real life.

5.)    Juries and judges want a plausible alternative to the accused being the killer. In The Guilty Plea the alternative did not come until the very end though all the lawyers and police were very thorough in their investigations. It would have been more credible to me to have the alternative introduced earlier in the plot as in Scott Turow’s book Innocent. Could you explain the plotting decision to have the alternative at the end?

Well we need a very long lunch to talk about plot. The toughest thing. Plotting decisions. That’s a new term for me. Thanks, now I won’t sleep tonight!

I know there are some people who read these answers who will not have read the book, so I’m choosing my words carefully. I think if you look back again at the book you’ll see that in fact I did cover all my bases.

6.)    Having a 4 year old, Simon, as a key witness brought back memories for me of a case where I questioned a 4 year old. I sent the accused out of the courtroom during the evidence as I could not figure out how the accused should look while the child testified and wanted the jury to focus on the evidence not my client’s reaction to the evidence. In my case, unlike your case, the police and social worker had not asked neutral questions in their interview. Had you considered making Simon an actual trial witness?

I did but it was very clumsy. And I try to always change things up for the reader. If you flip through either of my books, you’ll see that each chapter starts in a very different way.

Same goes for the courtroom scenes. It is boring to just read about witness after witness. By doing it this way, the video almost becomes a character. There’s the making of the video, the feel and sound of playing the video, and Greene’s reaction to seeing himself on tape. I think this is much stronger, richer.

And, this is evidence introduced at the bail hearing. A child would never testify at that stage in the proceedings.

Thanks for the informed questions

Thoughts on Questions and Answers with Jill Edmondson

This weekend’s Jill Edmondson posts conclude with an essay on her answers to my questions posted last night. After reading Jill’s essay Spenser to Yeats I had a better understanding of the origins, character and actions of Sasha Jackson.

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In her essay Spenser to Yeats Jill quotes Raymond Chandler’s wonderful 1944 definition of the hardboiled detective:

Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.  … He must be a complete man and a common man, yet an unusual man.  He must be …a man of honor.  He is neither a eunuch nor a satyr.  I think he might seduce a duchess, and I’m quite certain he would not spoil a virgin.  If he is a man of honor in one thing, he’s that in all things.  He is a relatively poor man, or he would not be a detective at all.  He is a common man or he could not go among common people.  He has a sense of character or he would not know his job.  He will take no man’s money dishonestly and no man’s insolence without due and dispassionate revenge.  He is a lonely man, and his pride is that you will treat him as a proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him.

She looks to author Jon L. Breen to add to the defining of hardboiled:

Urban atmosphere, the tough slang, the p.i. code of honor, the snappy repartee, the colorful villains, the contrast of low life and high society, plenty of physical action… and vivid violence, gallows humour, picturesque prose (including similes)…

Jill’s thoughts on assorted fictional hardboiled detectives led me to reflect on their nature. Tough girls and guys see little grey in the world. They live in the stark absolutes of black and white. Sasha is no exception. She has an opinion on every subject and has no doubt she is correct. Compromise is not in the vocabulary of the hardboiled.

Jill provides her own assessment of the genre:

Toughness and raw, pared-down characters and styles seem to be uniformly present within hardboiled fiction, but those characteristics alone do not identify or define hardboiled fiction.  Many of the genre’s hallmarks have to do with the characters’ attributes and conduct (Blade 69), both of which are, or have in recent years become, malleable and elastic.  One feature, however, is stoically present in all hardboiled fiction, whether classic or contemporary.  Eclipsing habits and foibles as hardboiled imperatives is the “moral code” or “code of honour” (Blade 70).  The private eye may drink or not, he may have a family or not, but the one inviolable tenet of the prototypical hardboiled detective is the ever present, often unique and occasionally contradictory moral compass.  Chandler stated this moral compass may permit the spoiling of a duchess, but commands respect for a virgin; in doing so Chandler defined by omission the unfailingly amorphous internal value system that guides a hardboiled sleuth in all matters.  

I have long admired Spenser’s strong sense of integrity as he solved mysteries around Boston. Hawk was far more flexible with personal morals but equally strong when wrong had been done.

Sasha is strong in her moral code but does have what Jill referred to in her essay as an “ethical elasticity”. It is most evident in Sasha’s readiness, even eagerness, to commit break-ins during investigations. Were she not the hero her actions would be called home invasions.

Hardboiled detectives are often noted for their quick retorts and sharp wit. Jill’s essay quotes W. Russel Gray’s description of hardboiled language as “blue-collar poetry”.

Humour brightens the hard edged world of the tough detective. Jill speaks of Stephanie Plum. I loved the casual humour of Elvis Cole, especially in the early books of the series. Sasha, especially in Dead Light District, is funny. Were it not for her humour Sasha would be a grim and bitter creature.

I think of Elvis Cole rather than Spenser when I compare Sasha to leading tough guy characters (I was going to say “tough person” but it sounded pretentious in the hardboiled world and too conscious an effort at political correctness). Spenser is a generation older than Sasha. If I ever read Sasha has cartoon momentoes and knickknacks in her office I will know she is a soul mate of Elvis. In the female world of detection she is a worthy Canadian cousin for Stephanie Plum.

One of my regrets with many current hard boiled heroes is the extremely high body count they leave in their wake. I hope Sasha can remain a tough girl without littering her adventures with mounds of bodies.

Jill sets out in her essay that the gun is not a requirement of being a hardboiled detective. With strong laws against carrying handguns it is no surprise that Sasha does not tote a gun around Toronto.

Sasha is more like Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone in turning killers over to the authorities rather than meting out personal punishment.

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I think the Danforth is a wonderful neighbourhood. My best friend in Toronto lives just off the Danforth. Sharon, myself and our family have enjoyed many fine meals in the Greek restaurants along the street. Long may it stay a bastion of independent businesses.

Just across the Don Valley is my favourite bookstore, Sleuth of Baker Street.

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I cannot see a tough guy detective on foot. There is something in the male psyche that would make it almost impossible for a tough guy to walk around a city. Walking would diminish the tough guy image. It works well for Sasha to have time to think while walking and her tough girl persona remains intact while she walks (I almost said strolls) across Toronto.

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Jill’s comment today sets out her action after receiving the condom covered cucumber. If the story should appear in Sasha’s future I am sure Sasha will tell the “movie producer” where he could place the item.