Ten Questions for Magaret McLean with Andrew McAleer

In her debut Boston novel, Under Oath, Margaret McLean produced the most authentic courtroom thriller to come along in decades. Now McLean shares her thoughts with Crimestalker in. . .

A Crimestalker Casebook Exclusive:

McAleer: In your first book Under Oath you use an interesting literary device where readers are able to see what goes on in the minds of the jurors during a criminal trial. As a former prosecutor, did you ever have the opportunity to discuss cases with jurors after a trial?

McLean: Yes. On several occasions when I tried drunk driving cases before a jury of six, the judge permitted the attorneys to speak with the jury panel upon agreement of all parties. I was astonished at what factors led to the verdict.

McAleer: In Under Oath you use some well-established Bostonian names like Callahan, Twomey, and Kelly. James M. Cain held that name selection is critical in fiction. Would you agree?

McLean: Absolutely. The name has to fit the character. Sometimes it takes weeks to come up with the right name.

McAleer: Fans seem to enjoy your seasoned criminal defense attorney Buddy Clancy in Under Oath. Can we expect to see more of Buddy?

McLean: Buddy barges into the courtroom, arriving late for the first day of trial in Under Fire. In the last big case his bus got hit by a Duck Boat. Buddy’s excuse this time? The Big Dig. Buddy is up to his old tricks again as he defends a first degree murder and arson case with his young and spunky niece, Sarah Lynch.

McAleer: And his bow tie?

McLean: Buddy has increased his wardrobe of bow ties, including a rat tie when he cross-examines an informant, and an outer space tie to demonstrate “the great beyond” or beyond a reasonable doubt. In fact, people have spotted Buddy in Charlestown walking his dog, Rehnquist, in a matching bowtie.

McAleer: If Perry Mason and Clancy had a cup of joe together what might they discuss?

McLean: The art of cross-examination and all the stories that go with it.

Ten Questions for William G. Tapply with Andrew McAleer

McAleer: Not too long ago Poisoned Pen Press republished a fine edition of your first Brady Coyne novel, Death at Charity Point and in your updated Introduction you mention that the first person narrative is what ultimately introduced you to Brady’s voice. James M. Cain took the position that the first person narrative has a ring of truth to it that the third person does not. Would you agree with Cain’s assessment here?

Tapply: I think an author’s choice of point of view is one of the most important writing decisions she can make -- and, in my experience, it’s rarely given serious thought by beginning writers. POV gives readers a place to stand and eyes and ears for experiencing the events of the story. First person gives readers a specific person as a guide. Third person gives them . . . an author. In fact, I stumbled on first person by trial and error. When I tried it, it sounded right and felt comfortable. This makes sense. The first-person POV gives me a voice, a way of seeing the story’s world. And it enables me to present a mystery honestly. With third person, no matter how well done it is, readers are always aware of The Author out there manipulating things, pulling strings, revealing only what she wants to reveal, dipping into and out of the heads of various characters, sharing and withholding information at will. I think that’s what Cain means by third person lacking the complete honesty that a candid first-person narrator conveys. First person is a conversation between a trustworthy narrator and trusting reader. It’s really a speaking voice, not a writerly, literary voice.

McAleer: In Dead Meat there seems to be a high rate of chewing tobacco usage. As an avid outdoorsman, do you ever take a chaw?

Tapply: I stuffed a chaw into my cheek once. Chewed for about a minute, gagged, and spit it out. Never again. In the out of doors, tobacco addicts sometimes can’t smoke because of the fear of forest fires, so they chew. I smoked cigarettes for close to 35 years. Quit three months ago.

McAleer: How would you rate the Nero Wolfe stories?

Tapply: I like them enormously. Archie, the first-person narrator, is actually one of my favorite mystery characters. Subconsciously, probably, he’s a model for Brady Coyne, my narrator. I wrote an introduction to a paperback reprint of The Second Confession. Your father and my friend John McAleer wrote the definitive biography of Rex Stout. I enjoyed it tremendously.

McAleer: Your knowledge of the day-to-day workings of a small law practice seems as authentic as my granddaddy’s old leatherback editions on Negotiable Instruments. As a lawyer in private practice I know. Did you ever work in a law firm?

Tapply: Never. I just made it all up based on casual conversations with lawyer friends of mine plus how I imagined it might be. When the books started coming out, I got a lot of good feedback from practicing attorneys telling me that finally somebody got the day-to-day inner workings of a small law practice right.

McAleer: Brady hangs his shingle right in Proper Boston. Was there a special reason why you chose the Boston setting?

Tapply: Boston is hardly proper, of course, although that is one of its delicious contradictions. When I began writing, I’d lived in eastern Massachusetts all my life, and Boston was the only city I knew well enough to write about. I make up characters, but most of my setting material is authentic. I could’ve put Brady in a suburb, but that seemed to me to limit my possibilities. I think of my novels as New England stories, not Boston stories. But still, Boston is a wonderfully diverse city ethnically, socially, economically, politically, even geographically, where anything can happen.

McAleer: What might Brady’s reaction be if his secretary, Julie, took a week’s vacation and the employment agency sent in Miss Marple as her replacement?

Tapply: Brady would promptly take his own week’s vacation. That would be this author’s prerogative . . . I never much liked Miss Marple. In one early book Julie took a maternity leave, and Brady took on a clerk named Xerxes Garret. Zerk became an ongoing character in my stories.

McAleer: Your better half, Vicki Stiefel recently published a top-notch Boston-based suspense novel, Body Parts. Can fans expect another soon?

Tapply: Oh, yes. We’re thrilled that her publisher has made an offer for her second novel. She is almost done with it. Right now its title is The Dead Stone and they want to bring it out in March 2005. (Editor’s note: The Dead Stone is now available.)

McAleer: Have you ever read the Mr. Tutt stories by Arthur Train?

Tapply: No. There is a lot I haven’t read, I’m afraid. On the other hand, there’s a lot I have read, too. If you recommend these stories, I will check them out.

McAleer: You knew George V. Higgins and in The Vulgar Boatman you mention his first novel, The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Can we gather from this that you have an appreciation for his work?

Tapply: Absolutely. George created terrific Boston characters, and he wrote the best dialogue ever. Eddie Coyle was a great book — and a great movie, too. But I liked all George’s stories. I’m sure I’ve read all of them at least once.

McAleer: There might not be any writer in the crime fiction genre today who knows his restaurants better than you. Any truth to the rumor that you might be the Phantom Gourmet?

Tapply: I better not answer this question . . .

McAleer: Thanks, Bill. Whomever you are.

McAleer: Your Jesse Stone novels and movie series are a real hit.  Tom Selleck is not only starring in the role as Jesse, but he is doing some of the screenplay work as well.  Does Selleck ever consult you on what Jesse might do or not do?

Parker: Rarely.  

McAleer: Say or not say?

Parker: Rarely.

McAleer: One back story concerning Jesse Stone is that he was a great shortstop.  If Jesse and Spenser were in their prime, what are the chances that Spenser could slip a single past Jesse?

Parker: Spenser would hit it high and far, and it wouldn't be an issue.

McAleer: The “boss of bullet-lettres,” George V. Higgins thought very highly of your work.  Did you and George ever talk shop?

Parker: George and I were friends, and talked a lot but rarely shop. Most writers talk deals, and book tours, and movie rights, as well as the usual sex and baseball. But almost never do we talk about writing.

McAleer: Raymond Chandler fans are indebted to you for completing Chandler's unfinished manuscript, Poodle Springs.  But even though the end result was McCoy, was stepping into Chandler's shoes a daunting task?

Parker: I don’t daunt very much. I was aware that it might be challenging, and I suspected that critics would talk about how presumptuous I was; but I expected to do it well.

McAleer: In The Godwulf Manuscript Spenser consumes five McDonald's hamburgers while on stakeout.  How might Susan Silverman react if she got the dope on this?

Parker: With Horror.

McAleer: Not too long ago Helen Hunt thought she might like to bring your Boston-based PI, Sunny Randall to the big screen.  Any scoops here?

Parker: Nope, Helen has talked of producing it (though not starring) for TV. We'll see. We do have a deal with Ed Harris to do Appaloosa. Ed would direct and play Virgil Cole. Viggo Mortenson is attached to play Hitch, and Diane Lane is attached to play Allie. I've seen the screenplay and its very good. They are working at the moment on financing.

McAleer: If Sherlock Holmes ever came out of retirement as a beekeeper do you think he could ever spread shoe leather with Hawk?  (Assume for this question that the Baker Street Irregulars cannot work because of child labor laws and that Watson is lost on the Tube.)

Parker: Hawk would find Sherlock amusing . . . for a junkie.

McAleer: Do you think Spenser could ever cook a meal that might survive Nero Wolfe’s scrutiny?

Parker: No.

McAleer: What advice might you give new authors?

Parker: Same old advice, write your novel and send it to someone who can publish it . . . maybe they will.

McAleer: Good advice. We look forward to the movie Appaloosa. Great book, too.