Chris Pavone

Interview

Lynne Patrick talks with Chris Pavone

Most writers struggle for years before making the breakthrough into the big time, but Chris Pavone was that rare publishing phenomenon, a genuine overnight success. Then again, he clearly has something special to make critics say things like a propulsive A-train of a thrill ride and a whirlwind story that will keep you up well past your bedtime, and already acclaimed fellow authors describe him as the new best thing (Michael Connelly) and already one of the best in the thriller business (Joseph Finder); and his work as smart, clever suspense, skilfully plotted (John Grisham) and one of the most accomplished debuts of recent years (John Connolly).

Chris had a small advantage over most first-time authors; he had been working in publishing for nearly 20 years. I kicked off by asking him if it had proved useful to know how the system worked, and maybe who were the right people to approach.

Chris: Of course! I suspect that book publishing is like any other endeavour, whether documentary filmmaking or nonrepresentational painting or for that matter real-estate development or investment banking: it always helps to know the culture of the business, and the people in it. Conversely, I suspect it’s awfully difficult to break into almost anything as a complete outsider.

Lynne: You’ve worked with books and writers most of your adult life; have you always been a writer at heart? Is that why you chose publishing as a career – to stay close to words and stories?

Chris: Yes, I think so. But for a long time I wanted to write a novel in the same way that many millions of people want to do a dream job: in the abstract, without taking much action to make it a reality.

Lynne: Not many writers are able to give up the day job; for most people the kind of success you’ve achieved takes years of hard graft. You’ve been one of the lucky ones. Has the swift success you’ve achieved with your first two novels allowed you to become a full-time writer?

Chris: There are people who get up every day at 4:00 a.m. and write a thousand words before the rest of their family awakens. Those people are heroic, and I admire them immensely, and I’m afraid I could never be one. My wife was posted overseas, so I was basically obliged to not have a day job for a while, during which I started The Expats. That interlude gave me not only the opportunity to write, but also the material. I was very lucky.

Lynne: What do you get out of writing fiction, apart from the money, of course?

Chris: I love the actual writing. I also love some of the revising—that is, until it gets tedious. I love going out to promote the books, in bookstores and libraries and radio and television, meeting passionate booksellers and readers. I also really, really love not having a day job; I had a lot of them, and I was nearly always dissatisfied. I’m much happier as a writer than I was as an editor. 

Lynne Who do you write for? Who is the reader in your mind when you write a new novel?

Chris: My reader is me! There are a few different genres of books that I really enjoy reading, and in my writing I’m trying to combine all those types of books into one.

Lynne: How do you go about it? Detailed synopsis first? Just plunge in? Do you know how it’s going to end before you begin?

Chris: I’m in the midst of writing my third book, so it’s not as if I have a long-term well-honed process. I’m still figuring that out. But so far, it looks like I (a) plunge in, then (b) write an outline, then (c) push forward while revising the outline, toggling back and forth between re-planning and writing. And I do know how the story is going to end, but then along the way I change my mind, and end it a bit differently, which means going back and changing the beginning, etc. This is why I can’t write a new book every year. My process is not efficient. But I’m working on it.

Lynne:  How does a new book start in your mind?

Chris:   I have a lot of different stories floating around in my imagination, and by the time I decide to turn one into a book, I know a lot about it already.

Lynne:  You must have handled hundreds, if not thousands, of books at various stages of the process. Do you remember the moment when you first held your book, your own book?

Chris:   It was wonderful and terrifying at the same time. There’s a very long moment—a half-year, at least—between the end of an author’s work on the text and the book’s actual publication. During that period there was nothing I could do to make the book any better, and I was essentially just waiting for publication day, for success or failure, I had no idea which was upon me. The waiting was dreadful.

Lynne: Did it feel familiar – or completely different from the manuscript you initially sent out? Did you re-read it?

Chris: I think I read The Expats ten times in process. By the time I held the finished book in my hands, I never wanted to read that goddamned thing again, and I haven’t.

Lynne: What about your characters? Where do they come from? Are they people you know? People you’ve met? Composites? Or pure imagination?

Chris: There are tiny kernels of real people I’ve met in many of my characters, but not more than tiny; the real people are not people I know well, and the fictional characters are not recreations of the real people. The real people are jumping-off points of maybe one percent; the balance is imagination.

Lynne: And what about the victims? Are they your way of dealing with real-life grudges?

Chris: There’s a single phrase in one of my books that’s based on a real-life grudge, but it serves a purpose in the plot. Otherwise, I don’t really think novels are the appropriate place for me to grind personal axes. I have plenty of them, to be sure, but they’re not of any interest to readers.

Lynne: Your books are partly set in Europe, yet you’ve spent most of your life in New York. How do you go about getting the background detail right?

Chris: I lived in Luxembourg for a year and a half, which is where I started writing The Expats, a book that takes place mostly in Luxembourg. Then, when I was touring for The Expats, I spent an unnecessary few days in Zurich, with nothing much to do except walk around and imagine myself disappearing into that clean quiet city, and so that’s what one of my characters does in The Accident. Then just a few months ago, when I was out promoting The Accident, I visited some places I’d never before been—Dublin, Edinburgh, Stockholm—which all appear in my next manuscript . . .

Lynne: I don’t suppose for a moment that you’ve spent much time living in the shadowy underworld of spying which many of your characters inhabit. Do tell if you have access to inside knowledge! Or is it pure imagination?

Chris: Pure imagination, but honestly not that much of it. My books are about characters who find themselves in conflict, not about tradecraft or geopolitics or the intelligence community.

Lynne: Is there anything you wouldn’t write?

Chris: I wouldn’t write most things. I’m a particular reader, and I’m a particular writer. 

Lynne: What’s next? What are you working on at the moment – or are you too busy promoting The Accident to think about the next project?

Chris: I was promoting The Accident for a good half-year, but that ended at just the right moment when I was growing sick of it. I’m now in the late stages of a new manuscript, which with any luck should be published in early 2015. It’s about an accidental spy.

The Accident

As dawn approaches in New York, literary agent Isabel Reed is turning the final pages of a mysterious, anonymous manuscript, racing through explosive revelations about powerful people. In Copenhagen, veteran CIA operative Hayden Gray, determined that this sweeping story be buried, is suddenly staring down the barrel of an unexpected gun. And in Zurich, the author himself is hiding in a shadowy expat life, trying to atone for a lifetime’s worth of lies and betrayals while always looking over his shoulder.

Over the course of one long, desperate day, these lives will collide as the book begins its dangerous march toward publication, toward saving or ruining careers and companies,
placing everything at risk—and everyone in mortal peril . . .

www.chrispavone.com

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years, and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives on the edge of rural Derbyshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.

‘The Ranger’ by Ace Atkins

 Published by Corsair, 

14 March 2013. 

ISBN: 978-1-4721-0031-3

Quinn Colson, Army Ranger, returns to his Mississippi home town from a tour of duty in Afghanistan to find that his uncle, the Sheriff, has committed suicide while  the house and farm left to him by the uncle is in the hands of a crooked smooth-as-butter wannabe-politician who started out life on the wrong side of the tracks.  This story is classic deep-south noir:  the loner returning home from the wars, determined to set things right, at least in his own patch, the general sense of small-town corruption, everyone scratching everyone else's back and looking out for Number One, the evil drug-running psychopath with his gang of wild and brutal followers.

However, this book stands out from the others in this sub-genre because it's peopled with a number of real – and amusing – eccentrics, from a mad old preacher to a crazy sex-mad octogenarian. This is trailer-park country, and Atkins does a good job of displaying the seediness and hopelessness that infest such communities, particularly for the women. 

When the rumours begin that the Sheriff uncle did not after all kill himself, when the farm that is rightfully his is burned down, when the cattle grazing on his fields are killed, when bodies start falling left, right and centre, Quinn Colson realizes he has a job to do, and sets out to do it.

Atkins writes really well, and I was drawn deeply into a part of the States where I would most definitely watch my back!"

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Reviewer: Susan Moody

Ace Atkins is the New York Times Bestselling author of more than a dozen novels, including the forthcoming The Broken Places and Robert B. Parker's Wonderland
A former journalist who cut his teeth as a crime reporter in the newsroom of The Tampa Tribune, he published his first novel, Crossroad Blues, at 27 and became a full-time novelist at 30. In addition to numerous awards, Ace was selected by the Robert B. Parker estate to continue the bestselling adventures of Boston's iconic private eye, Spenser. As a reporter, Ace earned a Pulitzer Prize nomination for a feature series based on his investigation into a forgotten murder of the 1950s. The story became the core of his critically acclaimed novel, White Shadow, which earned raves from noted authors and critics. In his next novels, Wicked City, Devil's Garden, and Infamous, blended first-hand interviews and original research into police and court records with tightly woven plots and incisive characters. The historical novels told great American stories by weaving fact and fiction into a colourful, seamless tapestry. The Broken Places, The Lost Ones, and The Ranger -- all part of the unfolding Quinn Colson saga -- represent a return to Ace's first love: hero-driven series fiction. Colson is a real hero--a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan--who comes home to north Mississippi to fight corruption on his home turf. The stories, contemporary tales with a dash of classic westerns and noir, are currently in development for a major television series.
Ace lives on a historic farm outside Oxford, Mississippi with his family.

Susan Moody was born in Oxford is the principal nom de plume  of Susan Elizabeth Donaldson, née Horwood, a British novelist best known for her suspense novels. She is a former Chairman of the Crime Writer's Association, served as World President of the International Association of Crime Writers, and was elected to the prestigious Detection Club. Susan Moody has given numerous courses on writing crime fiction and continues to teach creative writing in England, France, Australia, the USA and Denmark.  In addition to her many stand alone books, Susan has written two series, on featuring PI Penny Wanawake (seven books) and a series of six books featuring bridge player Cassie Swan.

‘The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons’ by Lawrence Block

Published by Orion,
15 May 2014.
ISBN: 978-1-4091-5355-9

Bernie Rhodenbaar rides again! Or, rather, burgles again.  This time he has been asked to obtain a special silver spoon, decorated with a special button, for a rabid collector of buttons.  Buttons in any shape, name or form.

A rich old lady with sophisticated tastes comes home early from the opera, and is later found dead in her apartment, which has been trashed by the intruder she apparently surprised.  Something odd about the trashing, Bernie thinks.  Something ever odder about the cause of death: anaphylactic shock caused by a peanut allergy. 

The plot is a little more elaborate than usual, which merely adds to the enjoyment.  As always with Block, the book is hugely entertaining, especially the hilarious dialogue between Bernie and his lesbian best friend, Caroline Kaiser, the Poodle Parlor lady.  Definitely one to add to your bookshelves. 

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Reviewer: Susan Moody

Lawrence Block was born in Buffalo, N.Y., He attended Antioch College, but left before completing his studies; school authorities advised him that they felt he’d be happier elsewhere, and he thought this was remarkably perceptive of them. His earliest work, published pseudonymously in the late 1950s, was mostly in the field of midcentury erotica, an apprenticeship he shared with Donald E. Westlake and Robert Silverberg. The first time Lawrence Block’s name appeared in print was when his short story You Can’t Lose was published in the February 1958 issue of Manhunt. The first book published under his own name was Mona (1961); it was reissued several times over the years, once as Sweet Slow Death. In 2005 it became the first offering from Hard Case Crime, and bore for the first time LB’s original title, Grifter’s Game. LB is best known for his series characters, including cop-turned-private investigator  Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.  He has been writing crime, mystery, and suspense fiction for more than half a century.  He has published in excess (oh, wretched excess!) of 100 books, and no end of short stories. Because one name is never enough, LB has also published under pseudonyms includingJill Emerson, John Warren, Wells, Lesley Evans, and  Anne Campbell Clarke. LB and his wife Lynne are enthusiastic New Yorkers and relentless world travellers; the two are members of the Travellers Century Club, and have visited around 160 countries. He is a modest and humble fellow, although you would never guess as much from this biographical note. He’s not hard to contact.

Susan Moody was born in Oxford is the principal nom de plume  of Susan Elizabeth Donaldson, née Horwood, a British novelist best known for her suspense novels. She is a former Chairman of the Crime Writer's Association, served as World President of the International Association of Crime Writers, and was elected to the prestigious Detection Club. Susan Moody has given numerous courses on writing crime fiction and continues to teach creative writing in England, France, Australia, the USA and Denmark.  In addition to her many stand alone books, Susan has written two series, on featuring PI Penny Wanawake (seven books) and a series of six books featuring bridge player Cassie Swan.

‘Fatality in Fleet Street’ by Christopher St John Sprigg

 Published by Oleander Press.
(First Published 1933) 

ISBN: 978-1-0909-34975-9

This book has long been out of print but Oleander Press have reprinted it in their London Bound series.  The book, though published in 1933, is set in Autumn 1938 so the author is able to imagine events and political characters for 5 years ahead.  He postulates the possibility of war but against Russia not Nazi Germany (presumably not quite in existence when he was writing).    He suggests that Lord Carpenter is a Press baron of such power that he has manipulated news over a year to develop opinion to the edge of war and, as the book opens, is about to report an atrocity that will precipitate Britain into war against Russia.  He further postulates a law having been passed that prevents criticism of Foreign Policy on the radio.

The murder of the aforesaid Press baron is the centre of the story.  Since he is an unpleasant bully and a womaniser there are many suspects.  Charles Venables, the Crime correspondent of the paper, the Mercury, pursues a parallel investigation to that of the police.  At first the various newspaper reporters and other workers are a little difficult to differentiate but the story is an engrossing one which soon makes them clear.  It is a successful detective story with many of the features of others of that era - a gnomic Chinese who uses homely Confucian-style aphorisms, a damsel in distress, a detective who uses a monocle and a Bolshevist cell full of argumentative Slavs in London.  A book that is well worth reprinting.
The writer also wrote serious political books as Christopher Caudwell.  His obscurity to modern readers could be because he wrote only a small number of books and because he was killed in the Spanish Civil War at the age of 29.  At the moment none of his other detective stories are in print.
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Reviewer: Jennifer S Palmer

Christopher St John Sprigg  (Aka Christopher Cauldwell)  was born 20 October . He was born into a Roman Catholic family resident at 53 Montserrat Road, Putney. He was educated at the Benedictine Ealing priory School, but left school at the age of 15 after his father, Stanhope Sprigg, lost his job as literary editor of the Daily Express. He  moved with his father to Bradford and began work as a reporter for the Yorkshire Observer. He made his way to Marxism and set about rethinking everything in light of it, from poetry to philosophy to physics, later joining the Communist Party of Great Britain in Popular, London. In December 1936 he drove an ambulance to Spain and joined the International Brigades there, training as a machine-gunner at  Albacete before becoming a machine-gun instructor and group political delegate. He edited a wall newspaper.  Fatality in Fleet Street was first published in 1933, but is set several years later, on the eve of what history tells us was World War II. The supreme irony is that St John Sprigg could have predicted neither this nor his own untimely death on 12 February 1937. He was killed in action on 12 February 1937, the first day of the Battle of the Jarma Valley

Jennifer Palmer Throughout my reading life crime fiction has been a constant interest; I really enjoyed my 15 years as an expatriate in the Far East, the Netherlands & the USA but occasionally the solace of closing my door to the outside world and sitting reading was highly therapeutic. I now lecture to adults on historical topics including Famous Historical Mysteries.