The TRUTH about TRUTH BE TOLD!

 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I’m sure I didn’t get one bit of sleep last night. It’s pub day for TRUTH BE TOLD—and the reviews are beyond stellar!

**A starred review from Booklist says” In Ryan’s adroit hands, with her brisk prose and appealing protagonists, even foreclosures can be sexy!”

**And a starred review from Library Journal says  “Packs a powerful punch—drop everything and binge-read until the mind–boggling conclusion.”

Whoa. Thank you!

So silly me, when my sister Reds asked if they could interview me on pub day, I said sure, ask me anything! So—they did.  And they made me think about things that were brand new.

Plus—there are important questions for YOU at the end! (With a big giveaway.)

LUCY BURDETTE: Yay, Hank!! It's such a big deal to have a new book out, no matter how many have come before it. Now that it's published, what do you love the most about TRUTH BE TOLD--not counting the moment you wrote "the end"?

HANK:  I have a secret thing I do. Which I will reveal, here in the sanctity of Jungle Red. When I get

The first signing of TBT at BEA

he advance copy of me new book, I open it, to a random paragraph on a random page, and see if it’s good. Then I do it again and again, in a ridiculously perverse experiment to see how long it takes to find something I wish I could change. (We all have our idiosyncrasies.)

In TRUTH BE TOLD I couldn’t find one thing!  I can tell you, and I say this with some level of goosepbumps, I loved every page. 

Can I just say? It’s surprising, and timely, and compelling. The amazing Laura Lippman challenged us, recently, to be truly honest about something that was good about ourselves. Okay, then. This is a really good book. It fascinating because I see now what a journey this is. I adore my other books, each has its own unique and innovative and  original idea. But TRUTH BE TOLD--may I just say it here? Is pretty darn good.

That’s the best part, Lucy, to realize that now after all these years, at age almost 65, I am beginning to get it.  

I am so grateful, and so inspired, and so ridiculously proud of it. If I can just say.

HALLIE EPHRON: I'm curious to know whether you did an investigative report on shady foreclosures, and were inspired by what you discovered?

At Channel 7 news

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Yes, absolutely. And that’s another  thing that’s so wonderful about my dual careers as an investigative reporter (40 years!) and  a newish crime fiction author.

I have done several stories about mortgage fraud, and foreclosure fraud. And here in Massachusetts, three new laws were passed as a result of our Emmy winning series on manipulation and deception  in the banking and mortgage world. We got peoples homes out of  foreclosure! And millions of dollars in refunds and restitution. So, that’s great.

But one day, my photographer and I were shooting video of an eviction. I can confess to you --there’s a lot of that going on here today! --we didn’t know who the owner of the home was that day. We were simply getting pictures of an eviction to illustrate the dire consequences when someone is unlucky, or misled, or has a catastrophe, or a disaster, or makes a mistake. It is devastating.

At one point, a deputy came to the front door of the almost-empty house. I remember he was silhouetted in the door, his entire body the shape of unhappiness and confusion. Head hanging, his outstretched arms one each side of the open door, as if having to hold himself up.

What was making him so upset, I wondered?

I said to my photographer—who is used to my author musings—“What if they found a dead body in there?”

And then I realized what that would mean. The deputies had been in that home clearing it out,  cleaning it up, yanking out the possessions and throwing them away.

What if, I thought, the law enforcement officers themselves had ruined a crime scene? Obliterated the evidence, trampled on everything, wiped the place clean? And then…

Oh. What if the cops ruined their own crime scene!

I was riveted by that idea. And now that is part of the scene that opens TRUTH BE TOLD.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I can't think of many things worse than losing your home. Did you feel a very strong emotional connection to the plight of the foreclosure victims in the story?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Ah, yeah, it’s horrible.  In my TV stories, we discovered a pattern of mortgage fraud in the low-income areas of Boston. A fraud that was resulting in people being manipulated into home improvement deals that were linked to their mortgages--well, long story. But it’s all illegal now.

But as a result of that story, I met a lot of people who had lost their homes, or were about to.

And I went back to my little condo in Brookline, and looked at it so differently. What would I do if someone tried to take it from me? What would I do to keep my home? Or my family’s home?

This year's Emmy awards

And why did banks, I wondered, not work to help people--instead of  slamming the door on their lives?

So when I got to write a fictional story it all, I created a lovely wonderfully compassionate banker as a main character. What do you think happens to her?

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Yesterday, we talked about sex and the single detective. So, since I LOVE the Jane and Jake stuff, how do you feel about writing their relationship? How do you mix the romantic part of the story with the crime and investigation? 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Well, you’re the master of it, dear Julia!

And I don't see it as a separate thing.  Romance… Or lack of it, is such a part of a real person's life, right? Since my characters are real, living breathing longing human beings, each of whom is attractive and single, romance an sex are going to be a part of their being.

It's terrific fun for me to hear how they talk to each other, and how their double-meaninged conversations emerge. Since I don't have an outline, I don't exactly know what is going to happen between them. Jane gets really sexy around Jake, which was such a surprise to me!

And cool hip smart strong Jake gets a little nervous around Jane. And certainly jealous.

DEBS: And what's this about a possible rival to Jake??? Can you tell us a little?

HANK: Exactly! And that was one of the joys of this book. Not only the arrival of…well, you'll see. He's the new guy. And not only how Jane reacted to him, but how Jake felt about him.

  

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: How does your being a journalist affect your definition of "truth"? What effect (if any!) did it have on TRUTH BE TOLD?

#HANKONTOUR At Mystery Lovers Bookshop

HANK: Oh my goodness, Susan, so brilliant. That's what it's all about! My books are all about perception, and each person's version of the truth. It’s why in an objective news story, you tell both sides of it, right? Because each side things what they think is true.

Often there is a "true " but the effects of that truth are also what’s interesting. Being a journalist has made me listen to people more carefully, and my authorial voice has been honing that to a fine point!

And when I thought about what we do as journalists-- that we are the historians of our lives--that became very profound to me. So when it appeared that something nefarious was going on at Jane's newspaper… it gave me a way to illustrate the deep responsibilities journalists have to themselves and to the public.  And to history.

I'm always searching for truth.

RHYS BOWEN: In your real life job, how do you manage to stay emotionally detached when you are covering horrible events and scummy people?

HANK: Oh Rhys , you are so funny! I am not emotionally detached, not in any way. I am trained to be very objective in covering stories, and my brain calculates "who what when where why" almost automatically now. And I am constantly fascinated by it.  I try to stay compassionate, and thoughtful, and open-minded.

I was the one at my station who first announced the breaking news of the Boston Marathon bombing, on live TV, before anyone really knew what was going on. Can you imagine?  I remember my knees being shaky. Inside, I was terrified!

But I thought to myself, very specifically: Just tell the story. You're a storyteller, that's what you do.  

And that's what I did.

HANK (again):  Reds, on this day I am so especially grateful to you. There’s not a moment in the universe like the publication day of a book. I am on the verge of tears and on the verge of laughter every minute.

Please click here for my schedule—I’ll be travelling the county for the next month, and dearly hope to see you at your local bookstore or library! Okay?

Will you share this blog for me? And tweet it? It makes SUCH a big difference. (Every tweet or share is entered for a fabulous prize--wait til you hear!)

And biggest of all--though it’s probably not said aloud in polite company—might I ask you to buy TRUTH BE TOLD?  (And if you love it, tell a friend? Or two?) NO pressure, of course. It’s just my…career….

(And don’t forget to click here:  THE OTHER WOMAN is (briefly) just $2.99 in all platforms.)  

Easy comments today—just say what city you live in! so #HANKONTOUR can come your way. (And I will choose a few lucky commenters for another wonderful prize! )

Thank you, dearest Reds!

Who Is THE OTHER WOMAN? Ask Hank --

JRW: Our own Hank Phillippi Ryan's much anticipated "The Other Woman" launches today and Jungle Red is thrilled to welcome it in style!  

As for Hank, she's seeing stars (starred reviews from Library Journal and Booklist; IndieNext Great Read). So we had to haul her down to earth to talk about this fabulous suspense novel that's being compared to the work of Harlan Coben and Lisa Scottoline, but which in truth is uniquely her own.

On the (gorgeous!) cover of the book it says: You can choose your sin but you cannot choose your consequences... Readers will be repeatedly taken by surprise at where the story leads.
 
So welcome, Hank! (And we'll give away a copy to a lucky commenter!)

Hank, this book it's so different from your Charlie McNally novels which are thrilling, of course, and suspenseful, and funny, like The Other Woman -- but somehow this seems bigger. Were you consciously trying to shift into higher gear?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Well--I didn't really think about it as “higher gear.”  I thought about telling this story--and how it needed be told to make it as suspenseful and full of tension as possible.  The story was so big and so juicy that I realized that it couldn't be told from a single first-person viewpoint, because the reader had to know things that some of the characters didn't know. That meant I had to craft the story in a different way. So the form came from the essence of the story.

JRW: This novel has five viewpoint characters, as many plots and subplots, and, not to spoil anything but a huge number of breathtaking twists, some of them coming right on top of each other. And yet reading feels seamless. How did you keep everything straight?

HANK: That is one of the magical things about writing this book. I had the whole book—every word and every theme-- in my head the whole time. Like those plates on sticks on Ed Sullivan, I had to keep all the plots spinning. And keep each one understandable. When I neared the end of the book I actually made a list of all the loose ends that had to be tied up, and one by one I crossed them off.

And I was constantly surprised. Each time I figured out what happened, I would say  WOW I had no idea! So when readers are surprised at the outcome--well, I was, too..

Practically speaking-- if writers are interested--I made a scene-by-scene chart which included what happened at the end of each scene. So then when I went back I'd know the last thing that POV character knew.  

JRW: This book is so full of surprises for the reader, too! You start the book thinking: "The other woman" -- Oh, I know what that means. This is the "philandering politician" story told from the viewpoint of the mistress. Only it isn't. Well, it is but it isn't, which so cool.

HANK: (Laughing) Thank you! Yes, I was 100% conscious of that! I love being able to play with readers' perceptions. First, remember that I didn't know what was going to happen.

After that, it's sort of all happening on three levels-- I know what I know as an author. I know what the reader expects. And I know if I don't do what the reader expects, that's what reader expects, too. So I have to do something else.  I wanted the reader to go into the book thinking one thing and then—after turning pages as fast as they can-- come out thinking, whoa, that's not what I predicted at all.

JRW: Jane Ryland, your hero, is a reporter who will do anything to protect a source and suffers for it. Have you had times when you had to do something personally risky to protect a source?
HANK: I'm trying to think if there's anything that I can actually tell...

JRW: Is that your final answer?

HANK: Yes.

JRW: Can you tell us where you got your names, especially Jane Ryland and Jake Brogan? Because they sound awfully familiar...

HANK: Oh, this is so hilarious. I needed a name for this character. I knew her name was Jane, that was set from the moment I had the idea for the story. But what was her last name? So I'm on the Acela from Boston to New York, thinking like crazy, very frustrated, and I gave up. I said to myself:  Fine. The next name I see on a building or billboard is going to be the name. Zooming through Connecticut I see billboard that says Ryland Industries.

So I think, perfect. I love it! Jane Elizabeth Ryland. And it never crossed my mind that it was like Ryan. Never never never. Until I read the advance bound manuscript that the publisher sent. And I thought holy moly – Ryland is kind of like Ryan. A year and a half after I started writing the book!

Jake Brogan. I needed his name to be similar to Jane's (you’ll see why when you read the book!) so Jake works perfectly. His name had to be Irish, because his grandfather was a police commissioner in Boston. (Which is why Harvard-educated Jake is a cop. I envisioned them watching Hill Street Blues together!)  I went through all of the Irish-sounding names, and they were too obvious, too predictable, not quite right. Then one day I thought--Brogan!  Detective Jacob Dellacort Brogan. Jake Brogan. Perfect. And it wasn't until later I thought--oh no!  Jan!  

JRW: With your Charlie McNally series, you've said that Charlie is an TV news reporter who worries about what she's going to do when the camera doesn't love her any more. Here you are, six years later, still a glamorous investigative reporter on TV with what certainly looks to all of us like your breakout novel.

HANK: Aw. Thank you. Crossing fingers. Remember what I said about spinning the plates? I love my work as an investigative reporter. I've done it for 35 years and I'm still thrilled every day coming to work. As an investigative reporter you never know what's going to happen and you can work to change the world and get some justice and help the good guys win. 

But as for the novel writing—and remember, I started that at age 55!--there's never been anything that I love as much as that. The walls fall away and I’m in my own world when I’m writing. So what will happen next? As in my books, I just don't know.

JRW: Well, we all feel like we're in the last inning of a no-hitter, holding our breaths, and hoping you shoot the moon.

Here’s the video about The Other Woman— like the book itself, it’s not what you’d expect! And it’s getting a lot of buzz. 

So, gentle Reds, join the conversation! You know Hank will answer any question... well, almost any. And remember--we're giving away a copy to one lucky commenter!