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!

The Truth about TRUTH BE TOLD

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  It’s “what we’re writing” week!  And I am deeply in the midst of (you heard it here first) WHAT YOU SEE, the next Jake and Jane novel.

I am also deeply into author-crazy.  TRUTH BE TOLD comes out October 7 (you may hear a bit more about that around these parts), and the author-crazy comes from knowing the reviews are about to start.  And I’ve just received advance notice of two of them…and I’ll reveal (!!!) below.

But first.  There’s a question that some authors loathe...but I love. And that is: where do your stories come from? Some authors answer with caustic throw-aways—Schenectady, says one very famous guy. The grocery, says another.

But I think “where do your stories come from” is fascinating. I recently heard Jacqueline Winspear talk about her new book, and she has an amazing book-birth story.  Hallie, too. And Susan.

And as for TRUTH BE TOLD, (And oh, did I tell you it it’s a Library Journal Editor's Pick? Whoo hoo!) I can tell you exactly where it came from.

It’s a puzzle of four parts.

The first? My husband is a criminal defense attorney. When we first met, I asked: Have you ever had a murder case where the defendant was convicted, but you still thought they were innocent?" His eyes softened a bit, and then he said: “Yes.”   The man was charged with murder in the death of a young woman—the prosecution said he had lured her to a forest, and tied her to a tree.  

The first time Jonathan represented the man, the case ended in a hung jury. The state brought the charges again, and again Jonathan represented him, and again, a hung jury.

The state brought the charges again, and the defendant—well, let’s just say he decided he wanted to handle the case his own way this time. Jonathan disagreed.  The man got a different lawyer. He was convicted, and is still in prison.

Jonathan told me he still, to this day, thinks the man is innocent.

Hmmm.  Idea.

Another puzzle piece? Another of Jonathan’s cases. A man in prison, incarcerated with a life sentence for shaking a baby to death, recently confessed to a cold-case murder. It’s very unlikely that he actually did it—so why would he confess? 

Hmmm. Idea.

Another puzzle piece.  We recently did a big story on abandoned homes in Boston. They are all places the banks have foreclosed on, where the owners have been evicted, and the houses are now empty. All are for sale.  Many of them are neglected, with broken windows and overgrown lawns. But some are in good shape.  While I was interviewing the head of Boston’s Inspectional Services Department about this, I began to wonder. What could be going on inside those forgotten empty houses?

Hmmmm.  Idea.

I also thought about the people who had been evicted from those homes. People who’d gotten mortgages from banks with lots of money, but who through some failure of their lives, some catastrophe or disaster, some wrong decision or bad luck had not been able to keep up the payments.  Wouldn’t there be something that could have ben done to prevent that? If a banker-type really cared about their customers, wouldn’t there be something that could be done to keep people out of foreclosure?

Hmmmm.  Idea.

And finally, I was sitting at the computer in my TV station office, writing a story, and thinking about why I do what I do as a reporter.  It’s making history, I decided. It’s creating the record of what happened in our lives, the comings and goings, that issues and the solutions, the documentation of how we live.  And people believe it, right? What’s on TV and in the newspapers becomes a resource by which all is remembered and relied on.

And then I thought—what if some reporter decided not to tell the truth? Not big discoverable lie, but simply—little things. A sound bite, a reaction, a quote.  Who would know? What difference might that make?  And what would happen when the truth was finally told?

Hmmm.  Idea.

And in the way we all do as authors, by spinning and polishing and twisting and turning, and shooting it full of a lot of adrenaline and a little romance, I got the key elements of TRUTH BE TOLD:

  
 A mortgage banker turned Robin Hood decides to manipulate bank records to keep people out of foreclosure, a murder victim is found in a foreclosed home, a man confesses to the unsolved Lilac Sunday murder, and a reporter makes stuff up.   

And when it all comes together in the end: TRUTH BE TOLD.

And now you know exactly where it came from.

Reviews? So far—so fabulous.  Publisher’s Weekly says:

"Smart, well-paced…Ryan cleverly ties the plot together, offers surprising but believable plot twists, and skillfully characterizes the supporting cast."

And whew, Kirkus says:

"Foreclosure fraud entwines with a 20-year-old murder case in the latest knotty, engrossing mystery-thriller by an award-winning Boston journalist...  Ryan seasons her mix with vivid Boston local color and caustic observations on new media—which one would expect from a journalist who's won even more awards for her TV reporting than she has for her mysteries. Ryland and Brogan are such a cute couple that you wonder how long it'll be before somebody makes a TV series out of them." 

And here’s a tiny bit from Chapter 2.

                                                        Chapter 2

          “Why would he confess if he didn’t do it?” Detective Jake Brogan peered through the smoky one-way glass at the guy slumped in the folding chair of Boston Police Department’s interrogation room E. What Jane would probably call “skeevy,” too-long hair scraggling over one ear; ratty jacket; black T-shirt; tired tan pants. Thin. Late thirties, at least, more like forty. How old would Gordon Thorley have been in 1994, when Carley Marie Schaefer was killed? Late teens, at most. Around the same age as Carley. “This guy Thorley just shows up here at HQ and insists he’s guilty? You ever seen that? Heard of that?”

 “Let’s get some lunch. Ask questions later.” DeLuca jammed his empty paper coffee cup into the overflowing metal trash bin in the hall outside the interrogation room. “Sherrey will get all we need, give us his intake notes after. Could be a bird in the hand.”

“Not exactly ‘in the hand,’” Jake said. “If he’s a whack job. There’s also that old ‘innocent till proven guilty’ thing.”

HANK: So, Reds and readers, do you like to know where a story came from? Or would you rather believe it’s all a product of the author’s imagination?

And pssst. I have an ARC of TRUTH BE TOLD for one commenter!