Walter Satterthwait, mystery writer,
Agatha Award nominee and winner of the French Prix du Roman
d'Adventures, is on a roll, literally. In a recent interview
he told me he is planning to paint the title of his new
historical mystery, Masquerade,
across a motor home and take it on a six month tour to every
mystery bookstore in the country. Honk if you see him!
Serious PR or guileless adventure, you get the feeling
Walter Satterthwait loves his life and is in for a wonderful
ride. His book jacket photographs and those on his Web site
-- which he says do not please him -- show a rugged,
sharp-featured guy in a serious scowl. Don't believe it. He
is charming and funny and a very nice guy.
I caught up with him in Florida and asked him about his
varied books. These include the Joshua Croft series of
contemporary mysteries set in Santa Fe including
Accustomed to the Dark (1996), and his literate
historical mysteries, the newest of which is
Masquerade.
Janice Farringer: Your first historical mystery was
Miss Lizzie. What do you find
interesting about writing this kind of book? Walter Satterthwait: When I wrote Miss
Lizzie, I wasn't thinking about doing a series of
historical mysteries. I'd always been fascinated by the
Lizzie Borden murders, and I wanted to do a book that used
them somehow. At the time, no one else was using historical
characters as sleuths, but it seemed like a cool idea to use
Lizzie that way. So I did. And then, later, when I was
finishing up the second Croft book, I had an idea for a book
featuring Oscar Wilde. Maybe, if I hadn't already used one
historical figure, I'd never have thought about using
another. And after writing Wilde West, I'd
established a pattern: a Croft book, then an historical,
then another Croft book. It was a pattern with which I was
comfortable, and I kept to it.
I don't know that I'm "attracted" to the writing of
historical mysteries. I was on a panel at ClueFest, in
Dallas, and everyone else on the panel was talking about how
much they enjoyed researching. I don't, mostly out of an
inherent laziness. But if you get an idea that involves an
historical personage, unfortunately you're going to have to
spend some time researching him or her, and the time in
which he or she lived. Otherwise you'll get a lot of snide
letters from more knowledgeable people, pointing out your
errors.
Of course, I do always put at least one major error into
each of the historicals, so that those knowledgeable people
can feel good about spotting it, and about writing me a
snide letter.
You've lived in six foreign countries, among them Greece
and Kenya. What took you to all those places to
live?
Airplanes, mostly.
The way it worked was that I'd write a proposal for a book
and get a small advance. Usually, the money wasn't enough
for me to stay here in the U.S. and write the book; not full
time, anyway. So I'd take the cash and hightail it for
someplace cheap, like Greece or Kenya or Thailand. Luckily,
those places weren't only cheap, they were also
beautiful.
And twice now -- once in Amsterdam and once in Greece --
I've been offered fairly long-term house-sitting situations.
Not having to pay rent is a nice incentive for living in a
country.
In Escapade and Masquerade, you used
historical figures like Harry Houdini and Ernest Hemingway
as characters. Do risk takers interest you?
I don't think that I'm particularly interested in risk
takers. You'll never see me bungee jumping. But I
am kind of interested in egomaniacs. A
murderer, almost by definition, is an egomaniac -- some
other person's life is, for a murderer, obviously less
important than his own. And I like the idea of using an
egomaniac to solve the crime. Oscar Wilde and Harry Houdini
are both egomaniacs -- although charming ones, I hope -- and
I enjoyed putting them into situations in which they had to
discover the identity of yet another member of that
tribe.
As for Houdini in particular, I've always been interested in
stage magic.
When I was a kid, I did it myself. It's a truism that most
people are disappointed when they learn how a specific magic
trick is pulled off. But, like Amanda in Miss
Lizzie, I get a big kick out of learning that.
And I think that there are certain similarities between
magicians and writers. They both invent worlds. They both
use distraction and sleight of hand. Amanda says somewhere
that magic is one of the few situations in which the
observer knows that he's being deceived. But
the same is also true of mystery novels.
Tell me about Joshua Croft [Satterthwait's Santa
Fe private detective] we saw him last in
Accustomed to the Dark. How does an author decide not
to continue with a successful series character?
The Croft series hasn't really been all that successful,
in terms of sales. The other series, represented now by
Escapade and Masquerade, has done
better. I like the Croft books, and I enjoy writing them;
but I like the other books, too; and, when you like doing
two things, but one of them sells better, it makes sense to
do that one.
St. Martin's, my publisher, has been very good about letting
me write whatever I want. They may not know what to make of
a book, once I finish it, but they've never suggested that I
write one sort of thing to the exclusion of anything else. I
have what I think is a very good relationship with my editor
there, Reagan Arthur, and I've enjoyed working with her.
A number of readers have told me that they'll miss Joshua. I
will, too. And maybe someday I'll miss him so much that I'll
bring him back. But clearly, as you probably realize if
you've read Accustomed to the Dark, his
relationship with Rita [his partner] will be
somewhat different.
Escapade introduces readers to a new couple, Jane Turner
and Phil Beaumont, both Pinkertons. They show up again in
Masquerade. Will there be a third book with
them?
Yeah. That one will be set in Munich in 1923, just before
the failed Nazi putsch. I'm looking forward to writing
it.
Escapade won the Prix du Roman d'Adventures. What it was
like to be honored for your writing in France and how do
French reviewers and readers differ from their American
counterparts?
It felt great. My French publishers threw a terrific
party, and took me out to a terrific lunch. I'm a big fan of
lunches, especially when publishers buy them, and I had a
great time.
I hate to say this, but I think that the reviewers in France
-- and in Germany, where my books do fairly well -- are
generally a little faster on their feet than American
reviewers. I've never really gotten a bad review here in the
States -- knock on wood -- but sometimes, even when
reviewers like the book, they don't really seem to
understand what I'm doing in it, or trying to do.
For example, it was a German reviewer, and not an American,
who pointed out that Phil Beaumont's name was stolen from
Chandler's Philip Marlowe and Hammett's Ned Beaumont, and
that Jane's was stolen from Miss Marple.
In the long run, I suppose, that doesn't matter. At least
they spell my
name correctly. Usually.
I don't speak French, so I haven't been able, really, to
talk to any of my French readers. Which is a pity. I'd like
to know what they think.
Finally, since we are after all online, do you think the
Web has affected writers and writing?
Sure. It has to. I love e-mail's ability to provide
inexpensive and instant communication. While I was in
Greece, I kept in contact with my agent, my editor, and all
my friends by e-mail. And I sent the entire manuscript of
Masquerade -- 418 double-spaced, Word 6
formatted pages -- to St. Martin's in less than 15
minutes.
Another example. When I was writing Masquerade,
I wanted to know which wines would be drinkable in France in
the year 1923. So I posted a message to the newsgroup
alt.food.wine and asked if anyone knew of a book that could
answer that question. I got a couple of replies, both of
which suggested I look for a certain book. I went to
Bibliofind, punched the title of the book into their search
form, found it, and ordered it online for $9.00, plus
shipping. In less than a week I had the book. A couple of
years ago, before the Internet, trying to locate and
purchase that book might have taken me several weeks.
So, yeah, the Internet is definitely affecting writers. This
one, anyway. I think it's great.
Is it affecting writing? I don't know. I know there are
sites which contain Internet-published novels, but I don't
know very much about them. | October 1998
Janice
A. Farringer
is a writer and creative writing teacher living in Chapel
Hill, North Carolina.
Walter Satterthwait welcomes e-mail
or you can visit his Web
site.
