Richard Hawke takes on Celebrities, Sex, and Avenging Cops
"I had no idea (in hell) what I was going to write about until I sat down and began stirring the pot for the new book, says Richard Hawke, author of A Cold Day in Hell, his second Fritz Malone mystery. (Speak of the Devil, came out in 2006).
Sitting on his couch in New York City, his home for more than 20 years, Hawke says he considered and rejected a number of book-opening murders, essentially wandering around New York City in his head, he says, looking out his window at a light snowfall, until his eyes settled on his sweetheart's rolled up yoga mat hanging from the doorknob.He wrote: "On the last day of her life, she took a yoga class."
It's the opening line of A Cold Day in Hell, in which a popular and charismatic late night talk host, Marshall Fox, is arrested and jailed for the murder of two women with whom he was having affairs. During trial deliberations, a yoga student, Robin, is brutally murdered in her New York apartment. The murder is a carbon copy of Fox's double murder that took place in Central Park.
How could Fox murder someone while locked
behind bars?
Enter Fritz Malone, a wisecracking, Big Apple detective unimpressed with celebrities, to help NYCPD detective, Megan Lamb, solve the case. "Fritz stands decidedly outside popular culture" says Hawke, "and is refreshingly frank on the whole celebrity adoration phenomenon."
Lamb has her own issues, it turns out. Back from a leave of absence after killing a serial killer, whose victims included her lover, Lamb is still in deep pain. It becomes apparent to Fritz that Lamb's fervor in tracking down the yoga student-also a former lover of the talk host-may well include a little retribution bloodlust.New York city is an undeniable presence in A Cold Day In Hell, and though the novel doesn't include photos, Hawke invites readers to take a photo tour of places Fritz and his cast of characters visit. Here's one spot that offered Megan Lamb a warm respite from the cold. Check out more photos here.
Richard Hawke got the writing bug while reading Batman comics as a young kid. Cold Day in Hell is the second book in his Fritz Malone series.
