If you like Don Winslow’s THE FORCE…

Don Winslow’s epic cop novel The Force is one of the must-reads of the summer. If you’ve gotten caught up in intricate tales of police plagued by moral ambiguity we suggest these three books on three different continents.

Doing The Devil’s Work by Bill Loehfelm

The third in Loehfelm’s Maureen Coughlin series has the newly minted NOPD patrol woman dealing with gangs, white supremacists, and her corrupt fellow officers, all connected to one New Orleans. Loehfelm shows the difficulty in navigating through a corrupt police force and staying clean yourself. You can find copies on our shelves and via bookpeople.com. 

The Night Of The Panthers by Piergiorgio Pulixi

The head of an Italian police that also works for one mafia family cuts a deal with an ambitious government agent to stop a war between the families right when his men kill an officer when breaking one of their own out of a police van, forcing him to play every dangerous end against the middle. You can find copies on our shelves and via bookpeople.com. 

Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama

American crime fiction sometimes seemed defined by intentionality – cops are either effective or corrupt, but certainly never incompetent. Not so in Japanese crime fiction, or at least, in this sprawling Ellroy-esque take-down of a vast police conspiracy designed to cover up a single, stupid mistake. After a botched kidnapping rescue resulting in the death of the victim, a department’s urge to prove professional competency plus the need to save face lead to a cover-up that goes all the way up to the top. Years later, a cop transferred to media relations puts aside his former departmental loyalties to continue the kidnapping investigation and discover the shocking truth behind the initial investigation. You can find copies on our shelves and via bookpeople.com. 

MysteryPeople Review: CAST THE FIRST STONE by James W. Ziskin

• Review by MysteryPeople Contributor and Mystery Maven Meike Alana

Cast the First Stone is the latest installment in James Ziskin’s Ellie Stone mystery series featuring newspaper reporter Ellie Stone.  Ziskin joins us here at the store to speak and sign his new installment in the series on August 26th, when he’ll be appearing with another favorite from Seventh Street Books, Mark Pryor. 

Ellie’s bosses may sometimes assign her the fluff pieces, but as Ziskin’s latest begins, Ellie lands an assignment sure to be interesting throughout. For once the paper’s publisher has a meaty story for her to cover—the New Holland Republic is going to send her to Los Angeles to profile local hero Tony Eberle; the actor has just landed his first starring movie role in the latest beach-themed Hollywood blockbuster.  But when Ellie arrives on the studio set to interview her subject, he doesn’t show up for filming and is promptly fired from the production.   

Ellie refuses to return to New Holland without a story, so she sets off to find the actor and help salvage his career.  But things become complicated when the movie’s producer is found murdered and Tony may have been the last one to see him alive. As Ellie searches for the actor and delves deeper into the circumstances surrounding the producer’s life and death, she confronts the seedier side of Tinseltown-aspiring actors who will do anything to land that big role, and the power players who won’t hesitate to exploit them.  Along the way she uncovers secrets with potentially devastating consequences for more than one big name in the Hollywood movie machine—secrets that someone would go to any length to keep hidden. 

Ellie is a fantastic character (perhaps my personal favorite in the genre) and Ziskin has perfectly paced the revelation of her dichotomy throughout the series.  On one hand she’s young and inexperienced, and her parents’ financial security has sheltered her from some of the world’s starker realities.  But she’s intensely brave and not afraid to blaze forth and face the world head on; she doesn’t shy away from danger or discomfort, and has continued to mature and evolve.  

In each novel Ellie has observed social and political issues that have challenged her innate beliefs and prejudices.  In Cast The First Stone she is confronted with homosexuality and the taboos still associated with that in Hollywood of the 1960’s—gay individuals, a strong presence in Hollywood, remained largely closeted, subject to beatings and even imprisonment were they to be open about their sexuality.  Ellie herself is fairly progressive for that era in terms of her own sexuality, and she comes to examine her beliefs and attitudes about the sexual identity of others.  In its pitch perfect examination of sexual identity issues of the 1960’s, Cast The First Stone is a timely read given the conversations surrounding LGBTQ  issues of today.  

Cast The First Stone is the fifth installment in James Ziskin’s Edgar-award nominated series which includes Styx and Stone, No Stone Unturned, Stone Cold Dead and Heart of Stone.  A linguist by training, Ziskin is the former director of New York University’s Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimbo, where he collaborated with an impressive catalogue of writers, journalists and academics on cultural and educational events.

You can find copies of Cast The First Stone on our shelves and via bookpeople.com. 

James W. Ziskin joins us on Saturday, August 26th, at 6 PM, to speak and sign his new Ellie Stone mystery. He’ll be joined by fellow Seventh Street author Mark Pryor, with his latest Hugo Marston novel, The Sorbonne Affair. 

Go Down to the Basement: MysteryPeople Q&A with Meg Gardiner

Meg Gardiner comes to BookPeople to launch her latest on Monday, June 26, at 7 PM. She’ll be in conversation with Jeff Abbott. You can find copies of UNSUB on our shelves starting Monday, June 26th – one day before the official release date!

Molly Odintz: You have a Hemingway-esque talent for communicating far more about your characters than would seem possible from the word count—how do you balance creating fully formed characters with the need to always move a thriller’s plot forward?

Meg Gardiner: Plot is what the characters do. Characters spring to life when I put them into action, in conflict, under pressure. What do they want? What do they fear? What will the heroine do when the antagonist threatens the people she loves? In UNSUB, young cop Caitlin Hendrix is hunting a legendary killer. The choices she makes when she’s put to the test—and the choices everyone in the novel make—reveal their character. Revelation is always most powerful when it unfolds through action.

And I’m honored by the comparison to Hemingway. I can only strive to approach the vivid economy of his writing.

MO: There’s a lot of grisly creativity that went into your latest. How did you come up with all those different murder scenarios?

MG: I took what frightens me and turned it into fiction. Slithering things. Sharp blades. Creepy dolls. Betrayal. I also reread a lot of classic literature. Epic poets, I tell you—they wrote some bloodcurdling stuff.

I follow Stephen King’s advice: “Go down to the basement.” Dredge up the dark stuff. Put it on the page. There, it can give readers the kind of thrill they get on a roller coaster.

MO: My favorite character in your latest was the internet savvy housewife who spends her time tracking down serial killers—what was your inspiration for the character?

MG: Thanks to the internet, amateur crime enthusiasts can now run sites dedicated to solving cold cases. Zodiology—the study of the Zodiac killings—is a world unto itself. I’m impressed by the dedication of these online sleuths. They inspired Deralynn Hobbs, the mom in UNSUB who runs FindTheProphet.com. Deralynn is committed to tracking down the killer—maybe obsessed with it—but her heart is in the right place.

“In UNSUB, a legendary killer returns after 20 years. The evidence in the cold case is old. And it’s analog. Memories have faded. Witnesses have died. Physical evidence has been lost or stolen. And the killer is sophisticated enough to turn 21st century technology against the cops.”

MO: UNSUB takes us through reworking a 90s case with current tech—how has crime-solving changed since the initial Zodiac murders, and how did those changes affect your latest?

MG: DNA profiling has irrevocably changed criminal investigation. DNA evidence is definitive—you can’t hide from your chromosomes. Criminals know this, of course. If the Zodiac ever writes another letter to the papers, I doubt he’ll lick the stamp.

Today, video cameras are ubiquitous. Computer forensics can trace a cyber trail across the globe. But CCTV, blood spatter analysis, and cell tower tracking haven’t eliminated crime. Human nature compels some people to keep on killing.

In UNSUB, a legendary killer returns after 20 years. The evidence in the cold case is old. And it’s analog. Memories have faded. Witnesses have died. Physical evidence has been lost or stolen. And the killer is sophisticated enough to turn 21st century technology against the cops.

Criminals have worn masks for centuries. In UNSUB, the killer learns to slip on a new, digital disguise. It puts Caitlin and her fellow investigators at a disadvantage.

MO: You’re a writer who’s done numerous stand-alones, each distinct, yet always featuring a strong female protagonist for your thrillers. I love the focus on strong female characters, and it seems to me there can sometimes be a lack of strong female protagonists in thrillers. As someone who’s immersed in the genre, what do you think is the state of representation of women in the genre today?

MG: The thriller genre has created some exceptional female characters recently, and readers love them. But I want talk about the term, “strong female protagonist.” A friend thinks it’s often shorthand for “Not a girly story.” It can imply that the protagonist is a hard-ass who just happens to be a woman. But I think “strong” means something different. It means the protagonist has brains, guts, skills, and emotional intelligence that she uses to solve problems. It means she has empathy—and that her empathy spurs her to courageous efforts to bring about justice.

My novels feature plenty of action. And my heroines jump into the fray. But “strong” doesn’t mean coldhearted. It doesn’t mean brutal. In UNSUB, it certainly doesn’t mean that Caitlin takes bad guys down without feeling the human cost. In my books, “strong” means that the heroine is resourceful, decisive, and loving—to the point that she’ll risk herself to help others.

My female characters must dig deep and rise to the occasion. That’s what strong means in my book.

MO: Do you get a lot of reader response to your work? From an author’s perspective, what do thriller readers care about most?

MG: Thriller readers love suspense, but they only consider a book nail-biting when they care about the characters. A novel can have car chases, skyscraper shootouts, and explosions, but if readers don’t care about the characters’ pain and longing, the book fails. If readers don’t care about the characters’ desperate attempts to put things right, then it’s just shallow spectacle. A boring one.

“My novels feature plenty of action. And my heroines jump into the fray. But “strong” doesn’t mean coldhearted. It doesn’t mean brutal. In UNSUB, it certainly doesn’t mean that Caitlin takes bad guys down without feeling the human cost. In my books, “strong” means that the heroine is resourceful, decisive, and loving—to the point that she’ll risk herself to help others.”

MO: You started writing crime fiction when you were living in England, if I’m correct—does Texas provide a different kind of inspiration for your writing?

MG:The vast scale and diversity of Texas encourage me to open up my storytelling—to expand its scope, its immediacy, its sweep. At a nitty-gritty level, if I work late, I know Torchy’s Tacos is open until 10 p.m. That spurs me to keep going. And when I go hunting for tacos, Gary Clark Jr. will be blasting on the radio.

Sections of the novel I’m currently writing are set in Austin. How’s that for inspiration?

MO: So I frequently describe your novels as hard to put down, and I’m wondering if you’ve ever gotten a particularly amusing response from a reader in terms of what they missed out on in their own lives when they were busy finishing your books.

MG: One reader wrote to me, saying she got so involved in my novel, she forgot to feed her children. I told her that warmed my heart.

MO: Take us through fact checking for your novels. Do you have a bunch of cops and hackers on speed-dial, ready to answer all your questions? How much does your legal background factor in to your writing?

MG: To get it right, I call on lawyers, internet wizards, rock climbers, pararescue jumpers, psychiatrists, martial artists, and, though you can’t tell anybody this, a couple of spies.

My background as a lawyer gives me a solid understanding of how the court system works. And it’s taught me to write persuasively. Every legal case is a story, and lawyers must tell their clients’ side in a compelling way, to convince the judge or jury of the justice of their case.

MO: It seems to me (without giving away any spoilers) that the end of UNSUB sets us up for a (highly anticipated by me) follow-up novel. Will you be continuing with the same characters, or will you be bowled-over busy with plans for a TV adaptation? (I saw CBS bought the rights—congrats!)

MG: Thanks! I’m thrilled about the CBS deal. I’m currently finishing the sequel to UNSUB. It’s titled Into the Black Nowhere. Caitlin Hendrix is recruited by the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, and engages in a cat-and-mouse game with a charming, devious killer as she hunts him across the west.

Meg Gardiner joins us for the official book launch of UNSUB on Monday, June 26th at 7 PM.We’ll have copies of UNSUB for sale a day earlier than the official release date of June 27th – if you’d like an early bird copy of UNSUB, pre-order now or stop by the store on Monday, the 26th.  She’ll be in conversation with Jeff Abbott, so those who’d like to meet Austin’s two most eminent thrillerists, come on by for what promises to be a fascinating evening. 

Crime Fiction Friday: “Lena” by Preston Lang

 

• Selected and Introduced by Crime Fiction Coordinator Scott Montgomery

With it being International Crime Fiction Month, we will be offering some selections from Akashic Press’ Mondays Are Murder blog series. The series challenges authors to write a short crime story under 750 words with a distinct setting. First we stop off at Heathrow Airport with Preston Lang’s tale of con artist correspondence.

“Lena” by Preston Lang

“My dear. My sweetest intimate. I long to be with you. We will touch with a profound fondness. You are the house of my soul. I count on you to send the funds so that we may be together—85,000 United States Dollars….”

Read the rest of the story.

MysteryPeople Review: UNSUB by Meg Gardiner

• Review by Director of Suspense Molly Odintz

Meg Gardiner takes the Zodiac killer into the 21st century with her (frankly) terrifying new thriller, UNSUB. Now represented by Shane Salerno’s Story Factory, Gardner’s already signed a deal with CBS to turn UNSUB into a series, and when you sit down to read this pulse-pounding thriller, you’ll immediately understand why. Gardiner’s escalating violence, well-crafted characters, and creative murder scenes will keep you turning the pages as fast as you can (and staying up later than you should – but hey! It’s summer!).

The start of a new series, UNSUB models its Mercury-obsessed murderer off of one of the most eternally befuddling unsolved killers in US history – the Zodiac Killer. Caitlin Hendrix’s father failed to catch a serial killer known as the Prophet during his time in the force, and now it’s Caitlin’s turn to track down the vicious predator when the Prophet resumes his murderous activity after a twenty year hiatus. Unsure if she’s chasing the original killer or a copycat, Caitlin’s sure of one thing – she was born to solve this case. Hendrix and The Prophet play a game of cat and mouse, switching roles back and forth as the Prophet gets personal with his messages to Caitlin, elevating their relationship to nemesis status and heightening the tension of their inevitable confrontation.

This time, the technology has evolved almost as much as the witness statements. Armed with new information and better weaponry, Caitlin works with her colleagues, her father, and some surprisingly effective civilian assistants to track down her ever-more-vicious target. Caitlin must bring together the analogue files of the first investigation with the digital speculation of internet message boards for a fascinating look at the puzzle-like aspects of an investigation. Meanwhile, the killer has access to just as much new technology, putting neither cops nor criminals at a complete advantage.

Caitlin shines as a strong lead, a fine addition to Meg Gardiner’s pantheon of powerful female protagonists. Her single-minded dedication to her case gets her in plenty of trouble in her personal life, but she also makes good use of her friends, family and community to keep her sanity and solve the case. Gardiner’s work is filled with brief appearances by scene-stealing characters who we get to know far better than the word count might suggest, and while I appreciate Gardiner’s leads, I like her quirky secondary characters best. UNSUB is no exception – Caitlin recruits a cheery housewife with an encyclopedic knowledge of the Prophet and the message boards dedicated to his work; the contrast between her bubbly demeanor, dark obsessions, and heroic behavior was at turns charming, admirable and amusing to read.

Meg Gardiner writes thrillers, pure and simple; if you like the genre, you’ll adore her latest. Gruesome murders, creative killers, heart-pounding chase sequences, and poisonous explosions together check off many of my summer-read boxes. Realistic characters, quirky interactions, beautiful language and careful plotting elevate this one to a classic-thriller-in-the-making, perfect for these paranoid times.

Meg Gardiner joins us for the official book launch of UNSUB on Monday, June 26th at 7 PM. We’ll have copies of UNSUB for sale a day earlier than the official release date of June 27th – if you’d like an early bird copy of UNSUB, pre-order now or come by on Monday, the 27th.  She’ll be in conversation with Jeff Abbott, so those who’d like to meet Austin’s two most eminent thrillerists, come on by for what promises to be a fascinating evening. 

A Dangerous Game of Espionage: MysteryPeople Q&A with Barry Lancet

• Interview by MysteryPeople Contributor Scott Butki

Barry Lancet has done it again: he’s written another thriller that crosses from America to Japan to North Korea and China, educating readers about cultural and political issues in the four nations.

The Spy Across the Table is Lancet’s fourth in his series about Jim Brodie, who works as an expert on Japanese art (often selling it to rich Americans) and runs a detective agency in Japan that he inherited from his father. As with the other books in the series there’s plenty of hooks, twist and surprises in addition to a variety of interesting characters.

One of the things I like about Lancet’s series is he has a section in the back of each book called About Authenticity, separating truth from fiction. As a former journalist who likes his fact and fiction kept separate this is a move I’d like to see more writers doing.

As this book starts Brodie has arranged for one of his American friends to meet a Japanese friend of Brodie’s. After their meeting, both are found murdered. Despite his shock, Brodie pursues the killer and others responsible, a chase that will take him across several countries. Meanwhile, the First Lady, a college roommate of one of the victims, enlists Brodie to find the killer.

Lancet was kind enough to be interviewed for his new book. I previously interviewed him here for his prior book, Pacific Burn. 

Scott Butki: How did you come up with this story for this book?

Barry Lancet: I asked myself what’s keeping me up at night? As an American expat living in Tokyo on the far edge of the Pacific, I didn’t have far to look. The North Koreans were once again rattling their sabers and spouting off about going nuclear, while the Chinese were grabbing new territory, paving over uninhabited atolls to build airstrips. Everyone in Asia was on edge, though the rest of the world paid attention only sporadically. That was 18 months ago. I had no idea that these two countries would soon be grabbing major U.S. headlines as they have of late.

SB: Would you set the stage for readers?

BL: Jim Brodie is at the Kennedy Center in D.C., attending a special performance of a Kabuki theater troupe from Tokyo. He introduces his Hollywood set-designer college buddy to the renowned Tokyo stage designer of the Kabubi show, who Brodie also knows. As Brodie takes in the play, his two friends go backstage to talk shop and are inexplicably gunned down.

Brodie goes into shock and vows, using all his connections in the U.S. and Japan, to track down the killer, then unexpectedly finds himself dragged into a dangerous game of espionage. Trying to sort through the intrigue, he stumbles onto a covert plot by North Korea and China to grab the personal secrets of America’s most influential leaders—secrets so damaging the foreign governments will stop at nothing to get them.

SB: I last interviewed you for Pacific Burn, which alternated between the U.S. and Japan. What made you decide for this one to also include action in North Korea and China?

BL: I wanted to pull away the curtain and show readers what’s really going on in North Korea and China. How and why the countries are at loggerheads. I also wanted to lay out the nightmarish plight of every North Korean defector once he or she decides to escape. For starters.

SB How did you research this book, especially the North Korea and China parts?

BL: I visited South Korea for the fourth time and went to the DMZ, a frightening place. It’s worse than the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie were. There’s a sequence in the book that captures the intensity of the place. I talked to experts on North Korea. And, of course, I made the rounds in Japan as well. I toyed with the idea of going to North Korea but everyone in Japan talked me out of it, since snatching American visitors seems to have become a new North Korean pastime.

SB: How similar are you to the protagonist, Jim Brodie?

BL: We both speak Japanese. We both have gotten into our share of scrapes. We have many of the same interests (travel, art, a general curiosity about most things). His daughter is younger than mine, and I have a son as well. He has fewer fillings than me…I think.

SB: For your last book you mentioned that “many readers have told me that they learn something along the way, and they’re happy. For me, I offer that as a bonus to what I hope is an intriguing, fast-paced story.” Are there educational parts in this book? Do you try to keep it historically accurate?

BL: Yes to both questions, but it’s all woven into the meat of the story and I promise you it’s painless. Through Brodie’s eyes, you’ll be able to get inside the head of the Chinese and North Koreans and into the two countries’ extraordinarily tense relationship. There are plenty of surprises.

SB: What would you hope readers take away from this book?

BL: First and foremost, I want to write an entertaining story. Along the way I add things I’ve seen in my travels and life abroad. I hope some of the deeper details will resonate long after they close the book.

SB: I understand you have a planned Brodie back story? What’s the status of that one?

BL: It’s in the works. It’ll answer a number of lingering questions, such as the last days of Brodie’s father in Tokyo, how the top yakuza enforcer known as TNT came to be in Brodie’s debt, and much more

SB: What’s the status of a movie adaptation of one of your books?

BL: Abrams held onto the option for two years for a proposed TV series, then he was swallowed whole by the Star Wars franchise and rumor has it that only his doppleganger has been sighted since. At the moment, my agent is in touch with another Hollywood producer, though I haven’t signed on the dotted line as yet.

SB: What are you working on next?

BL: Aside from the Brodie prequel, I’m working on a standalone novel with a new main character, living in a new place and wrapped up in an entirely different world.

You can find copies of The Spy Across the Table on our shelves and via bookpeople.com.

Check out Scott Butki’s blog for more interviews with great mystery writers. 

MysteryPeople Q&A with Don Winslow

• Interview by Crime Fiction Coordinator Scott Montgomery

This week fans of crime fiction or good fiction in general will be hitting bookstores in droves for Don Winslow’s eagerly awaited masterpiece (and our MysteryPeople Pick Of The Month) The Force. This story – both intimate and epic – focuses on Denny Malone, a New York cop who heads up an elite unit and who’s corrupt practices catch up with him. The book gives a detailed view of today’s New York through police eyes. Don was kind enough to talk to us about the book and the world that inspired it.

 

MysteryPeople Scott: The Force shares some DNA with Seventies-era NYPD books and films like Serpico, Prince Of The City, and The Seven Ups. What was the main difference of the of the police force at that period and the post 9-11 one you write about?

Don Winslow: I was really influenced by both the books and the films of The French Connection, Serpico and Prince of the City. They’re part of the reason I became a crime writer. In some ways, things haven’t changed – police work is still police work and cops are still cops. But 9/11 did change things, especially in New York City. As the primary target of that attack, the city shifted a lot of resources from organized crime to anti-terrorism. Because of that the Mafia, which had been on the verge of extinction, made something of a comeback. Another major change has been one that has impacted society as a whole – computer-generated data. Police have largely adopted the ‘metrics’ that we see in business and sports, using sophisticated crime statistics to assign personnel, patrols and other resources to high-crime areas. The other major change is also technologically driven – the rise of personal cameras in mobile phones. Police used to work in relative obscurity, but now everyone is a journalist, putting police under an intense public scrutiny which has changed the public perception of police. Police shootings and brutality have always existed – the difference now is that they’re on social media.

“Police used to work in relative obscurity, but now everyone is a journalist, putting police under an intense public scrutiny which has changed the public perception of police. Police shootings and brutality have always existed – the difference now is that they’re on social media.”

MPS: It may be unfair, but you’re often associated with Southern California. Did the New York setting effect your writing or the story any different?

DW: I don’t think it’s unfair, I love Southern California. However, I was born in New York, have worked in New York at various times during my life, usually on the street. So those streets and alleys are part of my DNA as a writer. I was on those streets long before I was on the beach. I’ve always wanted to write a New York cop book. But of course location affects style – the language – the music, if you will – of SoCal and NYC are very different and I wanted to make sure I had the voice right, the feel right. It had to be more clipped, more terse, edgier, tighter. It wasn’t hard – New York City is extremely evocative for me, I hear that voice, that music, in my mind.

MPS: You really feel the lives and the world of these policemen. What kind of research did you do?

DW: In some ways I’ve been researching this book my whole life. I’ve worked with cops, hung out with cops, with their families. I used to frequent a few bars in New York where you couldn’t turn around without bumping into an off-duty cop. But specifically for the book I talked to cops, sat down for drinks and dinners. I went out on the streets with them. I listened to their stories, their frustrations, their victories and defeats, their hopes, their disappointments, their fears. I read a lot of books, a lot of journalism. And I spent time in New York, prowling the neighborhoods in which the book is set.

MPS: Denny is a character full of contradictions. As a writer, how do you approach a character like that, so they don’t read like inconsistencies?

DW: A cop’s life is full of contradictions. They both love and hate the public they serve. They’ll break the law to uphold the law. They’ll commit violence on some people to save others from violence. If they’re undercover, they often feel more connected to their targets than their bosses. Denny is more conflicted than most, but it’s the conflicts that make him interesting for a writer. I don’t find the conflicts difficult to write because internal conflict is part of the human condition. We always torn between our best and worst instincts, but it usually isn’t a simple matter of choosing good or evil. Sometimes we’re tempted to do ‘bad’ things on the service of a greater good – a constant struggle for cops. The difficult characters to write are the ones with no conflicts, no internal contradictions. They become monochromatic, robots. And I tend to push back against this demand for consistency. I think editors are more concerned about that than readers. Readers get it – people are complex, we do contradictory things. It drives me nuts when editors ask me, especially about a criminal character. “Why would he do that? It makes no sense?” Prisons are full of people who have done things that make no sense. Believe, I’ve talked with a lot of them. I’ve knows guys who escaped when they had literally a few weeks left to serve. You ask them why and they shrug. I know one who robbed a gas station on his way home from prison, twenty minutes after he’d been released. Why? Shrug.

“I’ve always wanted to write a New York cop book. But of course location affects style – the language – the music, if you will – of SoCal and NYC are very different and I wanted to make sure I had the voice right, the feel right. It had to be more clipped, more terse, edgier, tighter. It wasn’t hard – New York City is extremely evocative for me, I hear that voice, that music, in my mind.”

MPS: The main drug in the book is heroin, which is coming back. Has the return of the old narcotic changed the narcotics trade at all?

DW: Yeah, ‘meet the new boss, same as the old boss’. The heroin trade is the same as it was before in the sense that it relies on prohibition to produce a profit. So when marijuana was universally illegal, it was a profitable drug to export. When it was legalized in several states, the profit went out of it and the cartels turned back to heroin, largely because the market had already been created by pharmaceutical opioids and the cartel could undercut by lowering price and increasing quality. The heroin trade has changed in the sense that the drug being produced now is more potent than it was before. An addict can get high for less of the drug and less money, but the danger lies in the heightened danger of overdose. Also, the cartels are competing to raise the potency of their product, so they’re increasingly mixing in fentanyl – increasing the potency by a factor of fifty –and other synthetic drugs. In the past few months, for instance, we’re seeing elephant tranquilizers mixed with heroin. So an addict who thinks that he or she is shooting one product might be shooting something much stronger, which is why we’re seeing an explosion in the number of overdose fatalities. The current chaos in the Mexican drug world, a by-product of the demise of Joaquin Guzman and the Sinaloa Cartel, means that there will be no product consistency (as we saw, for instance, with methamphetamine when the cartel took it over) for the foreseeable future.

MPS: What do you hope people who read The Force take away about the police?

DW: It goes back to your question about contradictions. Society demands that police do contradictory things: We want perfect security at the same time that we want absolute privacy; we want the police to protect us from vicious people by using the techniques of saints; we want them to enforce some laws and ignore others; we want them to be incorruptible in a sea of corruption. The contradictory demands are impossible.
I hope that readers see that the demands have a real effect – cop genuinely feel things, (even as they’re forced to pretend that they don’t) they take their work home with them. Day after day they deal with the worst parts of our society, they do the things that we don’t want to do, and it takes a toll.

You can find copies of Winslow’s latest on our shelves and via bookpeople.com.