By Donna Kortes, SBF volunteer and Low Country Sisters in
Crime member
If the Big Bad Wolf knocked at your
door, what would you do? This is the question behind John Katzenbach’s latest
thriller Red 1-2-3, a suspense filled
page-turner that pits three redheaded females against a very skillful villain.
Donna Kortes: Your thrillers are known
for tight timelines with escalating suspense. Red 1-2-3 is a masterful match of both. How difficult is it to
juggle those two elements?
John Katzenbach: This is a really good
question, as it goes to the heart of thriller writing. The balance between timelines
and suspense is what makes or breaks a thriller – because a reader has to feel
that the action matches the psychological state of each character. In other
words, there has to be an emotional logic to each step – which is, in my
opinion, the most crucial aspect of a thriller. If a character behaves in an
inconsistent manner – well, readers have a way of punishing those sloppy
authors, no? They close the book with a thud, and a snort, toss it to the side
and decide to tune in to Downton Abbey and we’re lost, or, as my kids say DTM.
As in dead to me.
DK: The reader’s emotional connection
leads to my next question. Red 1-2-3
allows your audience to experience the story through the killer and victim’s
point of view. Was one POV a particular challenge to write? And did you have a
favorite POV character?
JK: Shifting POV – from bad guy with
undeserved confidence to good guys with ricocheting doubts – was really the
most fun part of writing Red 1-2-3.
Each point of view from each character presented unique writing challenges,
because there are changes in tone for each. How each perceives either the
threat they face, or in the case of the bad guy, his desire for fame, required
shifts in my thinking and writing. Obviously, a 17-year-old girl won’t see a
deadly threat in the same way that a 50-year-old physician will – although the
threat may be the same. Now – was any POV harder than the others – well, not
exactly. There are moments in the book where putting my head in their
predicament was more difficult – but that only serves to increase the tension –
I hope. Now, as to the second part of your question – well, the only moment
that the POV of a character exceeded the others in overall deliciousness was in
the final couple of pages of the book. But giving those away would be a
mistake.
DK: Cellphones, the Internet, and crime
scene investigation has changed dramatically since your first novel, In the Heat of Summer, was published in
1982. Has that made plotting a mystery/thriller easier or harder?
JK: Actually, the thing that has made
mystery/thriller writing harder is what I call The CSI Exaggeration. Readers get these outlandish notions of what
modern technology can accomplish in the world of crime detection. On a
television show – where a single hour has to present a crime, a suspect, a
clever bunch of cops and Voila! Solutions! Well, this is not really reasonable,
nor does it lend itself to a novel. But folks have these TV-generated
expectations that all we have to do is a nifty little DNA test and there you
have it. Case solved. All is right with the world. It’s not that easy in real
life, nor is it on the pages of a novel. So the problem for novelists is about
expectations. Of course, you need to be cautious about details. Cell phone
towers can ruin a good story. One has to keep in mind current technology lest
one get zapped by complaints from alert readers. Here is an example that also
serves as a cautionary tale: When I got a transponder for my car so I could
eagerly zip through the fast lanes at toll booths a friend of mine said,
“Great. Now the government knows where you are…” He was a little on the
paranoid side. I think. Regardless, no characters of mine have transponders in
their cars. They pay their tolls with cash.
DK: Red
1-2-3 is your 13th novel. How has your writing process evolved
over the years? Do you approach each novel differently?
JK: Leaving aside all superstition
about a 13th novel, I think everyone’s writing has to evolve over
time. I like to try slightly different styles, evoke characters in different
ways. I hope I approach each book by asking myself the question: What is the best way to tell this story?
This (I hope once again) brings some freshness to each novel. I really want to
avoid writing the same thing over and over. With Red 1-2-3, I really wanted to examine failure and fear – and that
absolutely required some explorations of style. As an aside, I have a dear
friend – Philip Caputo, wonderful novelist, memoirist and journalist – who once
said that your first book is probably your best
idea – but that there ought to be a law that allows the author to go back and
re-write that book after they’ve
written at least 4-5 other novels – because at that point you actually know
what you’re doing.
DK: As an aspiring writer, I’m not sure
if that makes me feel better… or worse. What about your first novel? What inspired
you to write that first book and what sparked Red 1-2-3?
JK: Inspiration for #1 – In the Heat of the Summer: a
conversation with my journalist wife when we were both working in Miami back in
the days when newspapers actually mattered in a major way. I was railing about
calls I would get from people post-arrest. You know, the tiresome “I’m innocent. I’m being railroaded. The
cops have it all wrong…” sort of calls. I turned to her and said, “You know
what would be interesting… to get a call from someone who hasn’t been arrested, in the midst of a series of crimes…” She
looked at me. I looked at her. Seems romantic, but was actually one of those Aha! moments for a writer. I started
work on the book within a few weeks, when the paper gave me a leave. Now Red 1-2-3 came about in a different way.
A friend was complaining (whining, really) about the lack of recognition for
his work… and I started to think about that – and what could someone who writes
and kills do about it. That became the genesis of the book.
DK: When developing a character, some
authors say they end up knowing more about the character than ever ends up in
the finished novel. Is there a piece of backstory or a personality quirk about
a Red 1-2-3 character that your
readers might find interesting?
JK: You know, this is an interesting
question. I’m not sure that I fully agree with the notion that writers actually
know more about their characters. This is categorically true for actors either
on stage or in film. They truly do know more because it informs their
performance. But I think that an author pretty much puts is all out there. And
if he doesn’t, then those eagle-eyed and savvy readers, bloggers and critics
tend to note the psychological holes in the character. This is a scenario one
tries to avoid. Desperately. So, for me, those people you meet on my pages are
who they are – if that makes sense.
DK: Have you been to Savannah before
and what are you most interested in seeing and doing while you are here?
JK: Nope. Never been to Savannah
before. All I want is for the temperature to be above freezing – as where I
live in New England has experienced a pretty nasty series of what the
forecasters like to call weather events.
As if that captures the snow, ice, more snow and more ice we’ve been dealing
with.
DK: I promise – no snow, no ice. What’s
next for you?
JK:Next? I have a book coming out in
the fall from Grove/Atlantic/The Mysterious Press called The Dead Student. It’s about deep-seated revenge and very
unforeseen consequences. I’m also optimistic (probably foolishly) that two of
my other books will go in front of the cameras in 2015. These would be The Analyst which is being developed by
this truly cutting edge Spanish company in Barcelona, and The Madman’s Tale which is my own adaptation, with a particularly
dedicated and quite brilliant Australian director and crew. Interesting how the
movie world has become international.
DK: Thank you John. To read more about Red 1-2-3 and John’s other heart
pounding thrillers go to http://www.johnkatzenbach.com
and be sure to catch his presentation at the Savannah Book Festival February 14th
. (Chippawa Square – First Baptist Church Fellowship Hall 11:40--12:40).
* * *
John
Katzenbach
began his writing career with the Times of Trenton (N.J.) before
moving on to the Miami News and subsequently the Miami Herald.
He won prizes for his coverage of the criminal courts in Miami during the
height of the drug trade. He then transferred to the Herald’s TROPIC
Magazine, where he wrote about PTSD-suffering Viet Nam vets, grandmothers
unjustly accused of first degree murder and disk jockeys on quixotic journeys. He
left journalism following the publication of his third book.
Gordon and Ella Mae Rayner were
high school sweethearts. Ella Mae became an RN and Gordon did a three year
stint in the Marine Corps before he joined the Border Patrol and later became a
Narcotics Agent with the DEA. These
years provided him with many war stories to be told and retold, including their first work, Foreign
Service Family Style.
