Continued from yesterday’s post, this is the second half of an interview with Allister Thompson, Editor at RendezVous Crime, who fired some pretty direct questions about my upcoming novel, The Tanglewood Murders.
Q: While this is a crime novel and a mystery, the novel explores the mechanics of loss, guilt and grief through the perspective of various characters. Could it be said that this melancholy is the most important underlying theme of the book?
I don’t think I’d say melancholy is the most important theme. It’s certainly an important aspect. Very few of the characters are in a place where they really want to be. Some are struggling to escape the future they see, and others are trying to escape their past. There are a lot of lies and deceptions being revealed as the story progresses. Most of these stem from people lying to themselves, rather than necessarily trying to deceive others. And these are the hardest to deal with, aren’t they?
If you lie to someone, that’s one thing, but when you lie to yourself, and then try to convince yourself that you’re speaking the truth to others, you’ve pretty well given yourself a full-time job. You’ve painted a veneer over your life that needs to be maintained every single moment. And when someone comes along and starts scratching away at that veneer, and it starts peeling off, you’ve basically been forced into a state of introspection because all the stuff that you were holding back is now out in the open, spilling all over the floor. Guilt and grief are necessarily a part of that process of introspection.
Now if you add to all of that the fact that someone you know is suddenly dead – murdered – and murdered by someone you probably know… there must be grief and meloncholy. You can’t avoid that. It’s a central part of being human.
Do you see this as a one-off, or is Ben Taylor planning to come back as a series protagonist?
Well of course once a character has been given a couple dozen pages, they pretty well take on a life of their own. So, yes, Ben is planning to come back. He wants to come back. His bags are packed, waiting for his next posting. But the guy’s been through a lot, you know. Not just the events of this novel, but the events previous to it as well. I mean, he was just at the end of a long healing process when this novel erupted around him, and he never had the chance to fully heal. He’s a resilient character, but he has a lot of stuff to deal with, so I don’t know yet if he’s going to be the same man you met in this novel. I’m still waiting to see.
What’s next for David? More mysteries, or do you have other fiction plans as well?
More mysteries, yes! The book I’m currently working on is also a mystery. And I’ve begun making notes on a third after that. That third one is looking like it’s going to be a straight whodunnit, and I can’t wait to get at it because its looking like its going to be a lot of fun to write. But this current manuscript, I don’t know what it is quite yet. In The Tanglewood Murders, there’s a lot going on with all the characters, and they have pretty complex lives and each with distinctly different outlooks on life. This current manuscript is like that too, but even more so. I mean, yes, it begins with a murder and an RCMP investigation, but then as you get into the characters’ lives your really looking at their psychology, their personal mythologies, their faiths, and belief systems. Few of them are even sane, you know? And I actually put the story away for a while because of this. But then I saw Shutter Island and I guess that’s let me breathe a bit easier now. It’s like, hey, you know if people liked that film, this could really be a great book… as long as I don’t screw it up!
Part of RendezVous Crime’s mandate is not only to publish Canadian writers, but also to promote the use of Canadian settings in a market overflowing with British and U.S. mysteries. Do you think it is important that Canadians have access to books that reflect they world they see every day? Does Canlit make a palpable contribution in general to our national “identity”?
Yes. Without a doubt. We relate to each other and reflect each other through our stories. Unfortunately, I think most Canadians relate this way only through news stories, because… well, honestly, what else do they have? Or, I should say, what else do they know they have? Most of what is considered good Canadian Literature is actually what I would call academic literature – books written by academics, discussed and reviewed by other academics and placed on mandatory reading lists in the universities. Whenever I ask someone to name five Canadian novelists, its always the same. They usually get stuck after three or four, and the names I hear always seem to have an office at a university somewhere, or they are on one of those mandatory reading lists. Then, of course, when you start asking about those books…. few people have actually finished them. With a lot of exceptions, of course. And yes, I am being completely unfair, of course.
But there are a lot of great books out there. You know, I mentioned Peter Robinson earlier, and one of his books I picked up recently started off in the traditional murder mystery English village setting. Which to a Canadian I think would always seem a bit exotic. Then next thing you know, you’re flying to Toronto and – bang! – here we are on Bloor Street. Walking down the streets many Canadians know first-hand, and which I know from living in Toronto, going to bars I’ve been to many times… And I think this does two things. It makes the literature a richer experience when you can connect visually to the places, and you have an understanding of the culture the characters are immersed in. It makes the story much more intimate. I like London and New York, but I’ve yet to live in those cities, so in a way when I read a book set there, I’m really looking at a beautiful stranger. When a story is set in Canada, I know most of these places being described and often I know them very well. So instead of a stranger, its like looking at a husband or a wife. Or, in the case of Toronto, an ex-wife. Because – hey! – I know Toronto. Sure! I lived with Toronto for more than six years. So – yeah! – I can relate to this. I know what she’s like first thing in the morning!
On the flip side of that, I think its great for people who have never been to Canada, because now the New Yorkers and the Brits get to read about something that’s going to seem just a bit exotic to them. They can be the ones rushing to Google instead of us, trying to figure out what a loonie is worth and what the hell a “double-double” is supposed to be.
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