Straddling the Centuries

"Pintoff's debut...will remind many of Caleb Carr at his best... The period detail, characterizations and plotting are all top-notch..."

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)





HANK: I love Caleb Carr's mysteries. The Alienist and The Angel of Death. And E.L. Doctorow's The Waterworks. And Ragtime, of course.



From the first moments of Stefanie Pintoff's debut mystery, I was transported to the same places and time. We met at Malice (introduced by the inimitable Vinny O'Neil). I got her book. And I was hooked.

And we're so happy she's visiting Jungle Red.

(Especially since she's often got part of her brain in another century.)

HANK: Tell us a little about your book – what's it about? Where did the idea come from?

STEPHANIE: IN THE SHADOW OF GOTHAM is about Detective Simon Ziele, who leaves NewYork City to rebuild his life in a small Westchester town following the loss of his fiancée in the Slocum steamship disaster (the worst disaster to strike the city prior to 9/11).

But the brutal murder of a young woman draws him right back in – and his investigation isfurther complicated when noted criminologist Alistair Sinclair becomes involved. Alistair is convinced the killer is someone he interviewedin the course of his experimental research into the criminal mind.They make an unlikely pair: Alistair is a high-brow society figure with a consuming passion for understanding criminal violence, and Ziele is a pragmatic investigator with Lower East Side roots and a remarkable affinity for each victim he encounters. Though he remains suspicious that the solution may not be as simple as Alistair thinks, Ziele proves himself more than up to the task of adapting tried-and-true detective methods to the sometimes unorthodox innovations of a new age in forensics.

My idea for the book started with Alistair – who is loosely based on one of my former law professors with a larger-than-life personality! Then I thought: What if … there had been a terrible crime?

And what if … there was a criminologist who believed he knew the killer responsible because he had interviewed him?

And what if … that criminologist had been more involved than he initially let on? Those questions kept coming until I had conceived not only of my dedicated but self-absorbed criminologist, Alistair Sinclair – but also the detective who would more than be his match.

HANK: Lots more questions for Stephanie--but she has such an interesting method of research..and her thought processes are so fascinating. Let's just let her talk...

STEFANIE: I’ve always loved newspapers, and as a historical mystery writer, I read them a lot – but I’m usually a hundred years behind the times. That’s because my new mystery series is set in New York at the turn-of-the-last-century. Today I’d like to give you a glimpse into that world by sharing with you some New York Times front-page stories from this past week – in 1905.

- A ten-foot snake caused a stampede on Fifth Avenue and 18th Street.

- Carbonic acid was thrown into the face of a twenty-five year old Brooklyn girl (the newspaper’s language, not mine) by an unknown assailant.

- A bomb, presumed to be the work of the Black Hand, was thrown into the window of a building in the heart of Little Italy – destroying that building as well as its nearest neighbor.

- John D. Rockefeller just bought his first car – a touring vehicle – for $5,000

- Two ferryboats collided: the New York of the Fulton Line and the Maryland of the New Haven line.

- A man was found dead of opium poisoning in a hansom cab.

- President Teddy Roosevelt garnered high praise for the way he handled a worker’s strike.

Also in 1905, the following advertisements appeared in numerous papers.
One for a toothache remedy:

Another for Bayer’s Heroin, used to treat strong coughs:

Research like the above may never make it to the pages of my novel, but it’s essential – and fun! All historical fiction creates a world that’s part-real and part-invented. In fact, I think that blend –of the true and the imagined – is a huge part of its appeal. I’m often asked how important historical accuracy is to my work.

Of course it’s important, but my primary goal isn’t just to incorporate much that’s true from 1905 into my novel. It’s to capture the spirit of the times in everything I invent. If I do it well, then my readers will always feel grounded in my story’s era – even when what carries them is the flight of my own imagination.

To capture that spirit of the times, I look at many resources, but I find nothing to be more helpful than a contemporary newspaper; it’s a virtual snapshot of the interests and concerns of a particular community. What were the headlines? What made the police blotter? Who was in the society column? What shows were reviewed in the arts column? And what products were advertised regularly? As the headlines from only one week in 1905 suggest, this was a time period full of danger as well as exciting changes. When I read what my characters would have, I can better understand their world-view.

My own research centers on turn-of-the-century New York, but the world-building that results is what all writers do. We each have our favorite resources – maybe a friend at the NYPD who helps us check current police procedure, or a new contact at a hair salon who helps us with our next book involving a stylist, or simply our local coffee shop, where we can observe the mix of personalities on a given day.

As a writer, how do you negotiate the tension of balancing the real and the invented? And as a reader, what do you think is most important in grounding a story and giving it texture and life?

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Stefanie Pintoff became the inaugural winner of the St. Martin's Minotaur/MWA Best First Crime Novel Competition with her novel, In the Shadow of Gotham. A graduate of Columbia Law School, she also has a Ph.D. in literature from New York University. Her second novel, The Darkest Verse, is forthcoming in 2010.

What Lynne Wanted to Be

"Griffin’s carefully crafted characters ring heartbreakingly true and her finely wrought plot will snare readers from the first page."

**Publishers Weekly starred review of Life Without Summer

Rhys wanted to be a lion tamer. Ken wanted to be an astronaut. Susannah, a ballet dancer. (So did many of us.) We were talking out our childhood ambitions yesterday, and how we got where we are. Or where we thought we would go. How does it happen?

Lynne Reeves Griffin--whose Life Without Summer is getting raves--has been thinking about this, too.

Life with Lynne

After graduating from high school, I had aspirations to attend college for theater arts, but in the seventies girls were still strongly encouraged to choose teaching, nursing, or business occupations. So, I attended nursing school and later earned a Master’s degree in counseling.

Early in my career as a family life expert, I knew I would write a book on parenting. I have strong opinions on contemporary issues affecting families and have written articles and newspaper columns for years. When it became harder to capture my thoughts in those limited venues, that’s when I knew it was time to tackle a full length guide. Hence, the nonfiction title, Negotiation Generation, published in 2007 by Penguin.

As for fiction, though I was an actress in high school and college, sang professionally for a time, and have always journaled as a means of personal reflection, I’m a relative newcomer to writing stories. I began writing fiction five years ago and was part of a wonderful writers’ group with author of Tethered, Amy MacKinnon. I wasn’t half-way through a draft of Life Without Summer when I realized I’d found the artistic outlet I’d always been searching for. I am completely at home writing fiction. Though I certainly took a circuitous route to the art—these many years later a debut novelist—my healthcare, psychology, and education backgrounds have informed my fiction in countless ways. I have to believe my journey played out as it was meant to.

Life Without Summer is a story told in alternating voices, following the experiences of bereaved mother, Tessa, who is swept up by an increasingly bleak search for answers after her four-year-old daughter is killed in a hit-and-run accident, and her grief counselor, Celia, whose efforts to help Tessa are marked by painful family memories and emotions she’s tried to keep hidden from her family, and herself, for years.

Writing this story gave me the chance to explore the fears that plague mothers. The experiences the women face when their parental identities are shaken and loss threatens to break up more than just one family highlights not one, but two distinct paths toward grieving after loss.

In truth, Life Without Summer started off as a portrait of two families whose lives converge unexpectedly after a tragedy, but it became so much more. It's about the choices people make when faced with unbelievable pain. It's about what really holds relationships together when they're tested. It's about the choice we all have to forgive. I hope the novel’s strongest message is that there is hope in healing.

JRW: How does the reality of being an "author" differ from what you thought it would be?
LRG: I never imagined that it would be so fiercely competitive. Not author against author per se; more that there’s a lot of jockeying for media coverage, book store placement, and the like. I suppose I had romantic notions, along the lines of write a good book and you’re golden. It is painstaking work to find your readers.

JRW: So it's a mystery?
LRG: I once heard Hallie say that all novels are either mysteries or romances—so if that’s true, it’s a mystery. Yet I don’t see it as a mystery in the true sense. It’s been labeled psychological suspense, upmarket fiction, and women’s fiction. Yet my intention was simply to write a story about two women who have grief stories that echo one another’s. And I knew from the beginning that their lives would converge unexpectedly when lies and betrayals were revealed.

JRW: What's one bit of advice?
LRG: Learn to accept ambivalence. There’s a lot to be hopeful about when you’re launching a book into the world, but there’s a lot you must become resigned to. You can control what you write and the public image you portray. Yet you can not control whether or not you’ll get reviewed or whether or not you’ll schedule worthwhile events. There is so much that is out of your control.

JRW: Lynne is also a monster at promotion--she'll be here to answer questions. And I'll bet Lynne she'll have some thoughts about raising kids, too. (HANK: She's changed my life as a Grammy, that's for sure!)

At Hallie's launch: Barbara Shapiro, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Amy MacKinnon, Hallie Ephron, Kate Flora, and Lynne Reeves Griffin.

Lynne Griffin writes about family life. Her debut novel, Life Without Summer (St. Martin’s Press, 2009) is in bookstores now. She is the author of Negotiation Generation (Penguin, 2007) and appears regularly as parenting contributor on Boston’s Fox Morning News. To learn more about Lynne, visit her website, LynneGriffin.com.