The Brilliant Gabriel Valjan

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Like gravity, or quantum physics, Gabriel Valjan is a force of nature. If you know him, you are cheering right now to see him here on Jungle Red. He's the most generous, most thoughtful, most outrageously supportive author in our writing-reading world. With no reason other than his true and honest passion, he constantly promotes and shares and publicists other authors' events and books and successes.

Most authors secretly whine a bit about how much promotion is necessary and expected for their books--but Gabriel, the amazing Gabriel, not only does it without being asked, but does it spectacularly!

Follow him here on Twitter, and be amazed. And awed.

So now,  Reds and readers, the person whose face in in the dictionary when you look up "generous"--has a new book of his own.    

"Wrung their bread from stocks and stones"
    by Gabriel Valjan

The line above is from one of Robert Lowell’s lesser known poems, “Children of Light.” Ephesians 5:8 inspired his poem. I plucked the phrase for two reasons. 

One, Lowell confronted the violence that is the history of New England. Two, I admire the metaphor of finding sustenance from common but difficult materials. Boston is a city haunted by history, most of it unpleasant, but rich for an author of crime fiction, such as myself.

I write about Boston in the 1970s, a time of systemic corruption and institutional racism. A murder in Boston’s Red Light District inspired my third Shane Cleary novel, HUSH HUSH, but I take the details in a different direction.  (If you’re interested in both historical context and the crime, consult Jan Brogan’s Combat Zone.)

Like the poet, the mundane fed my imagination. Located on Columbus Ave. in Shane Cleary’s South End, Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe has been serving customers since 1927. The young Sammy Davis, Jr. used to dance for change outside its doors. For decades, Charlie’s was the only place in Boston where black and white diners could sit and eat together.

To give you a sense of how bad race relations were in Boston, a riot broke out at Carson Beach in 1975 when black protestors tried to use the beach, and the desegregation of Boston schools and public housing was not completed until 1988.

Shane’s South End was a hotspot for traveling African-American and Latino performers who worked the club circuit in town and the burlesque houses in Scollay Square. Charlie’s was a safe space according to The Negro Motorist Green Book. If you know Charlie’s location, then you’re aware that Back Bay Station is nearby.

On the second floor, above Charlie’s, was the office of the first black union in the nation, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. This union, under the leadership of A. Philip Randolph, organized strikes and campaigned for labor laws and racial equity, despite threats of violence. It is from Randolph that his protégé, a theology student at Boston University named Martin Luther King, Jr., had the dream of a March on Washington.

In HUSH HUSH, this history is folded into exposition without becoming didactic. The scene in Chapter 2 that unfolds becomes tense and relevant for readers. You can read it online in the Look Inside feature at Amazon for HUSH HUSH. A man double-parks his Cadillac in front of Charlie’s, two police officers stop, and the Q &A that ensues sounds procedural but it’s all subtext. Shane witnesses it and feels compelled to examine the facts of a case.

Bread wrung from stocks and stones.

History is all around us if we look for it. We should examine both the heights and depths, the dark and the light.

It doesn’t have to be as monumental as the Boston Massacre. It’s often forgotten history that fuels the imagination of writers, like how the Boston Common is the resting place of the colonial American and British dead, or that there’s a small plaque honoring an elm tree in the middle of the Common.

The tree is gone, and a memorial states that the Sons of Liberty assembled there, but it omits one sinister detail. The tree was where criminals, Quakers, and Native Americans were executed.

Has a page from forgotten history or an important public place inspired your writing?

HANK:  That is such a thought-provoking question. And every time I walk on the Common, or in the Public Garden, I think about the people in history who have walked in the same place. It's either inspirational--or chilling.  In The Murder List, the Boston Common bandstand provides  a pivotal moment...for the very reason you suggest, dear Gabriel! 

How about you, Reds and readers?  Or is there a place you think about in a different way because of a book? Or a place you wish you could visit because of a book?

Gabriel Valjan is the author of the Roma Series, The Company Files, and the Shane Cleary Mysteries. He has been nominated for the Agatha, Anthony, and Silver Falchion Awards, and received the 2021 Macavity Award for Best Short Story. He lives in Boston.

Pamela Wechsler on the Boston Public Garden and MISSION HILL

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL:  Today I'm delighted to introduce debut novelist and Bostonian Pamela Wechsler. Her novel, MISSION HILL, set in Boston and featuring homicide chief Abby Endicott, has been getting rave reviews. Publishers Weekly says, "Though the swiftly moving plot offers plenty of surprises, it’s the realism with which the author, a seasoned Boston criminal prosecutor who’s now a legal consultant for TV shows, depicts varied worlds from Brahmin glitzy to Roxbury gritty that will make readers eager for Abby’s next adventure." 

 

And Associated Press says: "Screenwriter, TV consultant and former prosecutor Pamela Wechsler skillfully eases into "Mission Hill," her debut legal thriller featuring the intriguing Abby Endicott, chief of the Boston district attorney's homicide unit. Wechsler's multilayered plot realistically touches on legal ethics, political intrigue and construction double-dealings with aplomb with plenty of twists." 

 

I was lucky enough to get to read an advanced copy of MISSION HILL and loved it, especially tough yet vulnerable protagonist Abby. Here's a little about the book:

 

Abby Endicott is chief of the District Attorney's homicide unit in Boston, where she investigates and prosecutes the city's most dangerous killers. She attended the elite Winsor School, graduated from Harvard Law School, and has been known to change into an evening gown amidst bodies in the morgue. She loves her job, and is committed to it, but among Abby's many secrets is her longtime affair with fellow prosecutor Tim Mooney, a married father of one.

One night, Abby is awakened very late by a phone call from her favorite detective, who reports that there has been a horrific murder but is vague about the specifics. When she arrives at the crime scene and discovers the identity of the victim, she knows the terror and tragedy are only beginning.

Debut novelist Pamela Wechsler delivers a gripping and very human portrayal of a woman who will stop at nothing to find out the truth, even if it challenges everything she believes about justice.

SUSAN: Welcome, Pam!

PAMELA WECHSLER: I’m a fan of any book that uses Boston, not as a setting, but as a character. That’s why Robert Parker and his Spenser series are among my all time favorites. I’ve always enjoyed Parker’s sharp dialogue and minimalist style, but it’s the way he wrote about Boston that kept me coming back for more. I loved reading about my home city, and all of its familiar landmarks, through Spenser’s eyes.

When I was growing up, my father had an office in the Back Bay, not far from where the fictional Spenser lived and worked. Sometimes, I’d visit my dad at work, and when I was waiting for him to finish a phone call or wrap up a meeting, I’d peer out his conference room window and look across Berkley Street. If I concentrated hard enough, I could picture Spenser and Hawk, guns drawn, running up the Commonwealth Ave mall, chasing after a bad guy.

Recently, I found myself passing through Spenser’s turf. I took a walk up the center of the Commonwealth Ave. mall, past my father’s old office, and into the Public Garden. Usually, I use the park as a short-cut; it’s the quickest route when I have to get between Beacon Hill and Back Bay. Yesterday, it was a destination.

The Public Garden represents so much of what Boston has to offer; it has history, charm, quirkiness, and natural beauty. The scale is more manageable than its neighbor, the Boston Common, and it doesn’t host any commercial ventures, except an occasional film crew. There are no hot dog vendors or concerts, and so far, no Hemp Fest.

I used to come to the park when I was a child, and very little appears to have changed. The Make Way for Ducklings statues weren’t there yet, but for me, they might as well have been—the image of that line of ducks was etched in my mind long before 1987, when the sculptures were installed. Like all Boston children, my mother used to read the Robert McCloskey book to me and my brothers night after night, at bedtime.

The swan boats are exactly as I remember; in fact, it looks like they haven’t been renovated since they were first launched in the lagoon in 1877. Well, maybe the price is a little steeper, and the railings have a fresh coat of red paint, but the worn wooden seats look pretty much the same.

A couple of live swans even made an appearance on the lawn, along the perimeter of the lagoon.

The park is the oldest botanical garden in the country and May is the perfect time to take a stroll here, even when the weather is raw and wet, and the sky is foggy. Yesterday, the petals on the pansies and tulips were wilting from the change in temperatures, but the colors still held vibrant and bold.

Most of the trees in the park are adorned with plaques, identifying each species. My favorites are the Crabapples, especially the light pink and white Tea Crabapple.

There are scores of Belgian Elms, with gnarled roots and knobby trunks, and droopy Weeping Willows. A  European Beech is marked with carvings—names, initials, and what looks like hieroglyphs.

Wendell Phillips, Champion of the Slave, stands tall on a pedestal, facing the Four Seasons Hotel. He’s standing at a podium, facing Boylston Street, as though he’s delivering an oration to the diners in the Bristol restaurant.

Many of the benches in the park have memorial plaques. It felt almost disrespectful to sit on the wooden bench that Janet dedicated to her beloved husband, in recognition of his ‘quiet strength and easy ways’.

I settled into the bench for a few minutes, and watched a couple of toddlers offer scraps of bread to the ducks. Joggers, dog walkers, tourists, and locals swirled around me, but all I could hear were quacking ducks and chirping birds.

As much as I love the area, I knew I’d overstayed my welcome when my allergies kicked in, and I started to sneeze. On my way out of the park, a bride and groom posed for their wedding photos in front of the imposing statue of George Washington on his horse. As far as I can remember, Spenser never married his longtime girlfriend Susan Silverman, but if he did, this would have been the perfect spot.

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: As someone who once lived in Boston, I loved your tour of the Public Garden (which I also preferred to the Common). Reds and lovely readers, how important is setting to you? Does it seem like another of the novel's characters in the hands of some authors? What makes a setting come alive for you? Please tell us in the comments!

PAMELA WECHSLER spent over fifteen years working as a criminal prosecutor at the local, state and federal levels. She has served as an assistant district attorney and assistant attorney general in Boston, and she was a trial attorney for the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. She has investigated and prosecuted a wide variety of crimes, including: murder, witness intimidation, sexual assault, drug trafficking, stock market manipulation, and political corruption. 

About ten years ago, Pam moved to Los Angeles to work as a legal consultant and writer for network television shows. Her credits include: Law and Order; Law and Order: Criminal Intent; Law and Order: Trial by Jury; Conviction; and Canterbury's Law. 

Pam grew up in the Boston area and is a graduate of Tufts and Boston area and is a graduate of Tufts and Boston University School of Law. Currently, she is consulting on television shows, and working on the second Abby Endicott novel.