My novel, The Tanglewood Murders, will be released in just a few more weeks. I thought I’d share a portion of an interview I had with Allister Thompson, Editor at RendezVous Crime.
Q: You are known as a poet. What compelled you to choose crime fiction as your first long fiction endeavour?
A: I’ve never really tried to limit my reading or my writing to any one genre. I originally began writing poetry when I was a teenager, hoping it would be a way to improve my grasp of the language, because, well… at the age of thirteen, I wasn’t very pleased with my prose. Though it took a few years before I was pleased with my poetry either! The Tanglewood Murders actually had its inception in a couple poems I’d written. The character Anna, for example, first surfaced in my writing in a poem called “Mary”, which was published in First Stirrings.
Q: Do you read a lot of mysteries? Is it a scene that you are familiar with?
Oh, yes. I usually read a couple books at a time. Right now two of them are mysteries. I’m halfway through The Summer that Never Was, which is one of Peter Robinson’s Inspector Banks novels. I love his work. I’m also reacquainting myself with Agatha Christie. Then there’s P.D. James, Ruth Rendell, John Grisham and a few others I’m very fond of.
And I grew up on mysteries. The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and especially Encyclopedia Brown. I was so taken with Encyclopedia Brown that when I was nine years old, I decided to start my own detective agency. I made business cards and passed them all around town. That came back to haunt me a few years later!
What was the inspiration for Ben Taylor, a well-drawn and complex character?
Well, Ben came pretty naturally to me. I think Ben is the guy I’d like to be, if I was an inch or two taller, had broader shoulders, and had decided to become a cop instead of a writer.
This novel shows an intimate knowledge of life on an Ontario vinyard, including all the social groups and relationships that exist there. Does this come from personal experience?
Yes it does. I spent my summers working on farms when I was in high school, including a vineyard. Then, during the recession, rather than going on unemployment, I decided to work on a couple of the farms just outside town. I learned a bit of Spanish working with the migrant workers. I learned what it was like working a hundred hours a week on farm minimum wage, without any overtime. And I had the opportunity to see the world a bit through their perspective. It was a real eye-opener. Most people who live in rural towns have no idea who the migrant workers are, or what they’re like. They’re a completely separated community. In some cases the conditions they live in are horrifying. Not always, but in some cases its like being in the third world right here in Canada. It was very disturbing.
In addition to the nitty gritty of a crime investigation, there also a strong romantic element to the novel in the form of the unbreakable bond between Ben and Jennifer. Does this mean that David Weedmark is a romantic who believes in true love?
Absolutely. Love, romance and passion are the fuels of life. That’s something that Ben and I have very much in common.
Was talking about prejudice against migrant farm workers a motivation in plotting this novel or just a device to be exploited, drawn from the social environment in Ontario wineries?
Well there are two aspects to Tanglewood Vineyards – the vineyards and the greenhouse operations – and its a fictional place, but those two aspects are representative of my experiences. The vineyard I worked at was a great place to work, as were some of the greenhouses. Great people, honest, and concerned about their employees. But that’s not the case everywhere, and its actually the opposite of some places. One farm I worked was very disturbing. I had no idea that people in Canada could legally be subjected to such conditions. Most people don’t. Most people drive by acre after acre of white plastic walls with no clue what’s on the other side. There is very little protection for migrants working in Canada, except that they are free to leave the country if they don’t like it. What I described in the novel was pretty tame compared to some of the things I saw. Written as fiction, I honestly don’t think it would be believable.
I don’t think writing about these things is an exploitation by the author, by any stretch of the imagination. This is where the novel is set, and this is the reality people live in. It can’t just be ignored. When you read the book, you’ll see that Ben tried to ignore a lot of the things he saw. The exploitation is happening right now. Writing about it isn’t an exploitation. Ignoring it is.
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