"An author who speaks
about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her
own children." - Benjamin Disraeli
WHAT ARE YOUR BOOKS ABOUT? They're about this
high-wire without-a-net balancing act that American family life has
become. Since my main characters are lawyers
who have jobs in the criminal justice system and spend a good deal of
time trying to solve murders, I've tried to
disguised them as legal thriller mystery novels with a little political satire thrown
in.
In SPLENDOR BAY,
Bill Glasscock is a defense attorney whose marriage and career are in
ruins when the story begins. His life goes quickly downhill from there
as he becomes the main suspect in the murder of his soon-to-be ex-wife's
lover (who just happens to be the governor of this coastal state). As
the story opens, there's a body on the beach (the governor), and Bill's
girlfriend, the state's attorney general is missing, so there's a bit of
political intrigue and complicated romantic entanglements thrown into
the whodunit mold. Bill's wife and son enter the picture, forcing Bill
to a decision point -- forgive and forget and get on with life or become
a bitter imitation of a human being.
I think of SPLENDOR BAY as a coming-of-middle-age story
(based on the premise that we Baby Boomers will all live to be 100).
It's about that time of life when we finally realize we don't have all
the time in the world to get this life right, and we are, after all, the
only person in charge of the only life we get. There's pathos and
there's comedy told from Bill's wise-cracking point of view (I don't
know where he gets that!).
SPLENDOR BAY is as much about Bill's internal struggles
with who he is as a man as it is about solving crimes. But there are
plenty of crimes to solve, which Bill reluctantly does to save himself
and the people he loves from a murderer at large and the crushing jaws
of the criminal justice system. In the process, Bill regains his focus
and manages to turn his life around. I suppose you could best describe
SPLENDOR BAY as noir detective story meets romantic comedy with legal
and political intrigue and a West Cost beach setting.
In PROMISES TOWN,
Assistant DA Virginia Rodriguez is a single working woman with a teenage
son who has put her job ahead of her child and a personal life for too
many years. Virginia, described by one reviewer as a "bitchy, but
mostly likable, character" has just finished a major trial and
desperately needs a vacation to get her life in order. Instead, she sees
the career advancement potential of a high-profile murder and rushes
back on the job to prosecute the case.
Like many of us "working mothers" (as if there
is any other kind) do, Virginia feels guilty about the compromises she's
made between job and family and, since she is the sole breadwinner,
keeps making the same anxiety-producing choices. As the story develops,
Virginia is challenged by cagey defense attorney Leo Zachmann to look
behind the facts of the case to seek the truth and by a cop named Smitty
to look beyond her present choices to a different kind of life. I think of PROMISES TOWN as a story about how we women
sometimes let our own unreasonable expectations of ourselves and others
get in the way of being happy, with a high-profile murder, some political intrigue, and the
usual fireworks and crime-solving tricks thrown in.
