Joe Serpe returns in The Fourth Victim from Reed Coleman
Contributing editor Karen Harper recently chatted with Reed Coleman about his new thriller The Fourth Victim written under the pen name Tony Spinosa.Publisher's Weekly magazine says of your writing, "The author makes us care about his characters and what happens to them." Can you give other authors a tip or two about how to achieve this in their writing?
Instead of thinking of characters as fictional characters, I try to think of them as real, as living beyond the page and free of my mind. If they feel real to me, they feel real to the reader. Once you've accepted a character as real, your writing a description of what he or she does instead of inventing everything they might do.
The Fourth Victim features Joe Serpe, a disgraced NYPD detective turned truck driver. In what ways is your real-life bio reflected in this character's interests or endeavors?
Although I've never been a law enforcement officer, disgraced or otherwise, I did deliver home heating oil on Long Island for seven years. What I noticed was that deliverymen are invisible. Or as I like to put it, people know more about their mailbox than their mailman. This seemed like an interesting concept to explore, especially from the point of view of a former narcotics detective. As a deliveryman, I was privy to all sorts of things people would normally never let a stranger be witness to: drug use, violence, people in all manner of undress. It was amazing. And time in the truck alone gave me a lot of valuable space to think about my work.
How does having Joe be a former detective and one who was disgraced set him up as a compelling main character as opposed to having him a currently successful detective? It's more the reason for Joe's disgrace that makes him compelling. His ex-partner, best friend, and godfather to his son developed a coke habit. Out of loyalty, Joe hid the problem until it got so his partner began doing more than taking product to feed his habit. Just as Joe was about to turn his partner in, he was arrested and forced to testify against his partner in open court. When that happened, Joe lost everything. Now he uses his job as an oil deliveryman to try and redeem himself by solving crimes either no one cares about or no one wants any part of. The journey back to grace is far more compelling than grace itself.
How did writing this book change you as a writer and/or as a person?
Well, it's my second book written under Tony's name. The first, Hose Monkey, introduced Serpe and his reluctant partner, Bob Healy. It changed me as a writer because it afforded me an escape from my Moe Prager series. I love Moe, but Moe and Joe are different creatures. I also write the Spinosa books in third person whereas I write most of my other stuff in first. Just that skill development has made me a better writer. And writing at arm's length in third person has taught me a lot about perspective. Oddly enough, I think it's helped my first person writing. As a person, I now have credit cards in Tony Spinosa's name! Kidding, just kidding.
Do Reed Farrel Coleman and Tony Spinosa have things in common in their work or mostly differences?
Tony's bio states that he was the product of an affair between a capo in the Gambino crime family and the blind daughter of a Brooklyn rabbi. So Tony and I have very similar backgrounds. Actually, that Tony and I are both from Brooklyn is about the only thing we share.
Tony Spinosa is the open pen name of two time Edgar, Shamus, Barry and Macavity nominee Reed Farrel Coleman. Reed is the former Executive Vice President of MWA. He has won the Shamus, Barry and Anthony Awards. He has written 10 novels in three series. His eleventh, Tower, co-authored with Ken Bruen, is due out in Spring '09.
New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Karen Harper
has been published for 25 years. She is the winner of the 2006 Mary
Higgins Clark Award. A former college and high school English
instructor, Harper currently writes contemporary suspense for Mira
Books and historical novels for Putnam. She and her husband divide
their time between Columbus, Ohio and Naples, Florida.ThrillerFest
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