Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Mark Pryor Talks Rubbish--Literally

DEBORAH CROMBIE: It is always a treat to have my friend Mark Pryor as a guest here on JRW, and he's here today to talk about (at least partly!) his new Hugo Marston novel, THE FRENCH WIDOW. I have been a huge fan of this series from the very first book, THE BOOKSELLER. Mark is an Englishman who lives in Texas, where he's a prosecutor, and his protagonist, Hugo Marston, a former FBI profiler, is a Texan who lives in Paris and works for the U.S. Embassy as head of security. It's a great international combination!


MARK PRYOR: I would like to begin with a nugget of wisdom that I’ve been sharing as widely as I can these past few months. It comes from a wise young woman aged just fifteen, and arose from our nightly chat about life, the world, and whatever else. We were talking about talking. About who we feel able to talk to, share our problems with. It was a winding, random chat that I couldn’t possibly recreate but I do know we agreed that there’s really only one person we both felt we could tell our trouble to, tell him absolutely anything, whatever was in our heart or our mind.

Now, Natalie, my daughter, isn’t just a philosopher she’s a budding artist, so for my birthday a few weeks after that chat she depicted our shared conclusion on a square of canvas, and I’m delighted to share it with you today. Feel free to use it, no charge whatsoever.


Can you argue with that? No, I didn’t think so….

Now, I should say something about writing, and I’m delighted to be able to do so on this wonderful blog. I thought I might write about Covid-19 and how I’ve been coping, but then I thought, No, we all need a break from that darned virus. So, other than the previous sentence, Covid-19 will not be mentioned. Oh, that sentence too… anyway, onward.

I know, let’s talk rubbish. Literally.

As a criminal prosecutor and a crime writer, one of the questions I get asked the most is: Do you take cases from your day job and use them in your fiction?

It’s a good question, because having prosecuted multiple murderers, robbers, thieves, rapists, and burglars, you’d think my bucket of ideas would be regularly topped up. But here’s the thing about real crime—it’s usually one of two things, either grotesquely mundane or too ridiculous to be believable. And yes, I have an example.

Imagine this: you’re working at a recycling center, a large warehouse of a space, and you’re at the far end of the conveyor belt, which is lined with people in heavy gloves sorting through the recycled items moving slowly toward you. You’re pulling off glass and cardboard, plastic and metal, throwing each piece in the right bin. Suddenly, the person next to you raises his voice over the hum of the belt and the clatter of goods hitting their respective containers, and he says, “Who the heck would recycle a mannequin?”

You look down the line to see what he’s talking about, and you see people pointing in horror. Someone hits the red button to stop the conveyor belt and everyone steps back, because it’s not a mannequin at all. It’s the crumpled body of a man in his fifties, broken and bloodied and partly covered with whatever else had traveled in the recycling can with him.

This happened, right here in Austin, and it was a murder case I prosecuted. Now, I will grant you, so far it sounds like a great start to a novel, right? And it gets better (for a while)….

The homicide detective responded to the scene and was smart. Brilliant even. Once the Crime Scene Unit had taken photos the CSU tech wanted to move the debris off the body to see if they could determine a cause of death. The detective told them not to.

Instead, she started looking closely at the papers on and around the body. Why? She wanted to find pieces of mail in the hopes they’d have an address on them. After all, if they were on the body they’d likely have been in the same can, and that could pinpoint the murder location.

Genius, because it did. Mail on top of the body led them to a barely-used little church, where they found a recycling can with blood on it. That blood was a match for the victim. Nearby video cameras caught several people, including the victim, hanging out there the previous day—a man and a woman. They were identified, and the man confessed to the murder.

Great story, yes? But here’s the thing, the nugget of reality that explodes this wee tale into too many pieces, the kernel of fact that would render this apparently clever tale into a disaster of crime fiction. Remember, they cleverly found the recycling can, right? Now can you guess what they found right next to the recycling can?


Yep. A trash can. You see, it’s very common knowledge here that if you put something (or someone!) in a trash can, it gets picked up by the automated arm on the trash truck, compacted inside it, and then dumped into a giant pit in the middle of nowhere. You put something of value in the trash can by mistake, that’s tough luck because you’ll never see it again. Gone for good.

So imagine the story I’m telling, with a murderer standing there in the night. He has a dead body over his shoulder, and he’s looking back and forth between a trash can and a recycling can. Why in heaven’s name would he choose the recycling can? Any half-skeptical reader would throw the book across the room if he did that in fiction. Quite rightly.

But this gentleman, in real life, did exactly that. I don’t know why, he just did.

Thereby both creating, and ruining, a jolly good crime story.

  

Mark Pryor is a former newspaper reporter from England, and now a prosecutor with the Travis County District Attorney's Office, in Austin, Texas. He is the author of the Hugo Marston mystery series, set in Paris, London, and Barcelona. The first in the series, THE BOOKSELLER, was a Library Journal Debut of the Month, and called "unputdownable" by Oprah.com, and the series has been featured in the New York Times and was recently optioned for film/TV. Mark is also the author of the psychological thrillers, HOLLOW MAN, and its sequel, DOMINIC.  As a prosecutor, he has appeared on CBS News's 48 Hours and Discovery Channel's Discovery ID: Cold Blood. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Here's Mark in Monmartre. Does that look like the perfect place to write???



More about THE FRENCH WIDOW
A young American woman is attacked at a historic Paris chateau and four paintings are stolen the same night, drawing Hugo Marston into a case where everyone seems like a suspect. To solve this mystery Hugo must crack the secrets of the icy and arrogant Lambourd family, who seem more interested in protecting their good name than future victims. Just as Hugo thinks he’s close, some of the paintings mysteriously reappear, at the very same time that one of his suspects goes missing.

DEBS: I can't wait to dive into this one! REDS and readers, just how much reality do you want in your fictional crimes? As Mark points out, most murders in real life are not very clever--but would we want to read about them?

48 comments:

  1. I don't know, I would buy that as a story. Honestly, it sounds like something they do on a TV show. And they'd play into the stupid criminal who just threw the body in the wrong bin in the final moments.

    Okay, so maybe it makes a better TV episode than a novel.

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  2. Can’t wait to read The French Widow, Mark! As for murder, too many of them are committed for stupid reasons or for no reason at all. Fiction can turn a crime into a clever puzzle we can enjoy solving. I’m afraid that most real life crime is pretty uninspiring in the details.

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  3. Congratulations on your newest book, Mark . . . it sounds quite intriguing and I’m looking forward to reading it.
    I chuckled over that recycling murder story . . . I guess it would work in a story if there were no trash can, but it’s a good thing that the real life bad guys aren’t too smart.

    I guess I have to vote for using the cleverer crimes in a story instead of the actual ones . . . .

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    1. Thanks, Joan, I hope you like it.
      Maybe if the trash can was teeny tiny it could work...?!

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    2. . . . or already filled to overflowing?

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  4. Congratulations on the new book, Mark. It sounds intriguing.

    You are absolutely right about real crime. I used to work in a prosecutor's office, and I read all the files I could in prep for one day writing a crime novel or two. I have never encountered a bigger range of stupid people in my life. The guy who needed money to pay his rent so, when he saw somebody breaking into a pawn shop, thought he'd mosey on in and ask if the burglar needed help. The guy who ran out of beer money, and used his employee key to get into the office where he worked and steal the microwave--thus losing a steady job and gaining a prison record. Case after case showed me that these guys had poor planning skills and made bad decisions right on down the line. Criminal masterminds? Hardly.

    Yep. I like my fictional criminals much better.

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    1. If they were, Gigi, I wouldn't be able to catch them...!

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  5. What a sadly stupid murderer, but it's a great story to tell.

    Your daughter sounds like a wise young woman - and I love the drawing.

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    1. Thank you, Edith. She's a lovely lovely girl. :)

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  6. Mark, welcome, I adore your daughter's painting! I could imagine a guy who maybe always had his wife take out the trash getting to the bins and not knowing for sure which is which...

    Looking forward to the book!

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    1. Lucy, too funny! I thought the same thing!

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    2. Or when the fictional trash bin is missing or broken, he has the body over his shoulder, and just thinks, "Screw it!" Into the recycling it goes.

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    3. The main takeaway for me was how smart the detective was. She'd just been promoted from the drug unit, and I guess that's why. Impressive.

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  7. Congratulations Mark on The French Widow. It seems to be a very good read.
    I like fiction and a good story doesn't have to come from reality as you demonstrate here.

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  8. Yes, I like my fictional criminals to be clever. Whether that is very realistic or not it is hard to say. I'm guessing that maybe there have been crimes committed by very clever individuals who were never caught but then there is no story. Gotta have a story. Looking forward to reading the French Widow.

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  9. What a pleasure to see you here on Jungle Reds, Mark - I've really enjoyed the Hugo Marston series!

    As for me, real life is difficult and challenging enough. I don't want too much of it in my fiction. I mean, I want the stories to be believable, and I'm fine with it if they deal with big issues of the world (as long as they don't become preachy.) But mainly, I just want engaging characters I care about to encounter challenging situations and prevail in a logical, credible way.

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    1. Thank you, Susan, much appreciated.
      Yeah, I get that - a little romance or escape with the crime, with you all the way. :)

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  10. That's what true crime books are about--the real cases and all of the stupidity, details, etc., that wouldn't be believable in fiction. I like fiction better, because in most fiction, no mater how clever, the bad guys almost always get theirs in the end. And Mark, love love your cover! Will be seeking out Hugo's latest. And yes, you can tell a frog anything and they won't judge you ;-)

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    1. Totally agree about true crime. I should write another one of those...
      And yes, you should hear some of the things I've told that frog...!

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  11. I was introduced to The Bookseller while on vacation in the Azores. It was in a small hotel, on a bookshelf that guests shared. I loved the book and went on to read the whole series. I have since recommended it to friends and to the library in our tiny New England town. Thank you, Mark!

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    1. Oh, for real? How col is that! Not only is one of my best friends from the Azores but we're hoping to take a family trip there next year. We shall see if it happens, but it looks beautiful.

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    2. A wonderful trip! I would also recommend going on to Madeira, if you have time. A little known Portuguese island, spectacular scenery, great food, and perfect weather year 'round.

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  12. Debs, you have the most interesting friends!!

    Congratulations on your new book, Mark. I totally trust Debs' recommendations, so I am excited to begin with book one, and read The Bookseller first.

    Thank you for sharing your conversation with your daughter and the painting that came afterwards. It is remarkable to watch our children grow into people we can speak with on so many levels. I love the idea of there being one person you can tell anything that is in your heart or mind. It has me wondering if there could ever be such a person.

    Thanks also for the stupid criminal story. If you were to write a true crime book, it could be an anthology of stupidly committed crimes, just some little vignettes of "slip ups" and "whoops, didn't-mean-to-do-thats." Just saying.

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    1. Judy, you will love Mark's books! And Paris, ah, just to be in Paris for a few hours in our imaginations is irresistible.

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    2. Hi Judy, I completely agree on Debs's taste in friends.. ;)
      And actually, that's not a bad idea for a book! I'll have to keep notes on all the dumb criminal mistakes I see. I hope you enjoy The Bookseller!

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  13. Mark, that cover is fabulous!! My copy is ordered and I can't wait to read it. My husband would agree with you about the real life crime. When he worked as a police officer and communications supervisor, he always said that most criminals are incredibly stupid. I like my fictional criminals so much better.

    Love Natalie's frog, too. I think we all need a frog at the moment...

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    1. Thank, Debs! Appreciate you hosting me here, as ever.
      Yep, if our fictional criminals were that dumb we'd all be writing short stories. :)

      As for how I'm coping... no complaints, really. We have space for everyone, the kids are old enough not to need too much from us (other than food and money!), and I know a lot of people have it SO much worse. We overtip, buy locally, get out an walk... like I said, no real grounds to complain.

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  14. Oh, and Mark, we'd also like to know how you've been coping!

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  15. You and your books are new to me, Mark, and I'm happy for the introduction here on JRW. As for criminals: I prefer mine in books, smart enough for a good story, and brought to justice by a smarter PI, detective or investigator of some kind!

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    1. Hi Amanda - much safer for them to stay in books, too, I suspect. I hope you get to try, and enjoy, the series, thank you for saying Hi here. :)

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  16. Mark you had me at "daughter" -- and I so agree, what happens in real life often defies believability. Reality is no excuse for putting it in a novel. That is so fascinating about the body on the conveyor belt and the super smart investigator. Wow. I think if you put it in a novel I'd skate right by the recycle-versus-trash-bin gotcha. I haven't read your novels but I'm going to order one right now!

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    1. Hallie, in my office I have twenty of her little paintings behind me on the wall. They make me smile every time, she's a love.
      I guess it skated by our criminal fella, too...!
      Thanks for trying Hugo, I hope you enjoy a well-deserved escape to Paris with him.

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  17. Well how fun to find one of my favorite authors here this morning! Mark, hi!!! I read your newest the day it was released and loved it (and what a great cover!). Hugo continues to rock. And please tell Natalie I share her philosophy and LOVE her art.

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    1. Hi Kaye! I'm so glad you're a regular here, the best writing blog out there.
      I'm so glad you liked the book AND the philosophy! Take care and stay healthy, my friend!

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  18. Congratulations on your new release!

    A body on a conveyor belt sounds like something right out of Midsomer Murders. Entirely believable, though.

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    1. Yes, it does, Margaret. Everyone thinks of Midsomer Murders as cozy, but they come up with the most gruesome ways to murder people!

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    2. That's one series I've not tried... which is amazing when you think about it -- I've watched all of Netflix and got to the end of the Internet!

      And thanks, Margaret, it's a weird time to be publishing but that was a good day. :)

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    3. Mark, I resisted Midsomer for years, even though the showrunner for the John Nettles series was a friend. I also didn't think I'd like Neil Dudgeon when he took over from Nettles, but it turned out that I love him. He has this wonderful sly twinkle about him. It is definitely escapist (and don't we all need that at the moment?) but they do come up with incredibly awful ways to kill people. They are all on Netflix or Acorn or something.

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  19. I love this story, and I agree - I have a cousin who spent her professional life as a public defender, and it ruined mysteries for her. She said she knew too well how dumb most criminals are.

    I'm seconding Kaye - the cover gods love you, Mark. The Hugo Marsten series has had some fabulous covers.

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    1. Thank you, Julia, I have been very fortunate for sure. :)

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  20. Love the Hugo Marsten series!!! Congrats, on the latest, Mark. I am actually - OMG - caught up to my deadlines and can't wait to read it! Yay!!!

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  21. Mark, your series keeps coming up on my recommendations page on Amazon. I will have to start paying attention and check out this series now.

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  22. Mark, welcome to Jungle Reds! I remember meeting you at Bouchercon in Toronto. I bought your book as a gift for a relative.

    Debs, it depends. Murder on the Orient Express reminded me of the Lindbergh kidnapping case and that happened in my grandparents' lifetimes. It depends on the real life cases.

    Diana

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  23. What a great surprise to find Mark Pryor on Jungle Reds this morning. I love the series. They are such a delight to hand sell at Copperfish Books. I love stories taken from the news.

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