How close is your Eliot Ness to the character Robert Stack played on the classic TV show, The Untouchables?

Robert Stack actually looks a great deal like the real Eliot Ness, but acted nothing like him.  Stack portrayed an obsessive, edgy, almost psychotically driven crimebuster.  Ness was obsessive about his work, but he was generally quiet, soft-spoken, easy-going with friends and co-workers, funny, and given to such extreme expletives as "gosh" and "gee whiz."

So Robert Stack and Kevin Costner have played Ness on TV and the movies.  Whom would you cast for the Ness we see in Nemesis?

I think Matt Damon would be very good.  I'm sure there are other talented actors who could play the part, too.

Nemesis is set in the 1930's.  What research did you do to get the atmosphere right?

A great deal, but it was all fun.  I love that era.  I specifically did research in Cleveland so I could get the city right.  I am particularly indebted to my friend John Wooley who is an expert on the period and a great devotee of the pulp fiction associated with it.
 
What do you want the reader to take away from Nemesis?

What I most hope people will realize is that calling this case Ness's great failure is extremely unfair.  He was not a homicide detective and catching murderers was never supposed to be part of his job as safety director.  Furthermore, at that time, no one in law enforcement knew anything about serial killers.  Today we have the vast knowledge assembled by the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Division, but Ness did not.  He was charged with a case he simply did not have the tools to solve.
 
Have you read Max Allan Collins' The Mad Butcher, which is set against the same background.  What did you think?

I have not, but I admire Max's work a great deal.  My understanding is that his book is entirely fictionalized and uses a composite character rather than Peter Merylo, the primary homicide detective associated with the case who worked on it for years, often on his own time.  I wanted Merylo to get the credit he deserves.
 
Do you really live in Tulsa?  Do you have to overcome any snobbery among fans, readers, publishers, colleagues?  Are there advantages to writing there over New York, Boston, San Francisco, LA, or Chicago?

I've never detected any snobbery and don't know why there would be any--Tulsa is a great city and a particularly fine place to raise children.  I think most readers are too smart for that sort of petty snobbery.  If there are advantages to living in the Big Five I don't know what they are.  Actually, when I think of all the major thriller writers, I don't know many who live in those mega-metropolises.
 
You're a writer without a day job, right?  Take us through a typical day.

I get my kids ready for school, drop them off, stop by the gym for an hour, then park myself in my chair and write, usually until well in the afternoon.  If I have time left over I will work on HAWK Publishing projects or the various writing seminars I teach throughout the year.
 
I have a son named Harry, too.  He's ten and wants to read my stuff.  Do your kids read yours?  What do they think?

My daughter Alice is fourteen and she has read a few of my books (including the galleys for Nemesis).  She did mention that it wasn't as "Dad-like" as she expected it to be.
  
The book publishing biz seems to be suffering right along with the economy.  What changes have you seen in your almost two decades as a published author?

I think I've seen a great deal more constancy than change.  I think formats may adjust over time but I don't believe people will ever stop reading books.  There is simply an emotional and spiritual charge delivered by a good book that no other medium comes near.

What are your working on now?  What's next?

I've already finished the next Ben Kincaid novel, due out this fall, and I'm working on another stand-alone book which I tentatively have titled "The Idea Man."  I should probably finish it and see if I like it before I say more.

Contributing editor Keith Raffel wrote DOT DEAD, "without question the most impressive mystery debut of the year" according to Bookreporter.com.