Babydoll by Allyson Roy
Big Thrill contributing editor Karen Harper recently had a chance to chat with the writing team of Allyson Roy about their newest thriller, Babydoll.Can you give us a short synopsis of your story? The title is really intriguing.
Babydoll is the second book in our Saylor Oz series of crime adventures set in Brooklyn's Dumbo neighborhood. We call our style Madcap Noir because we mix wacky, over-the-top comedy with gritty, urban, sexy suspense.
Three models shot in the head. A womanizing agent. A burned out porn actress with a grudge. A pretty boy Irish illegal who's goodwith a knife. It would all be just another tabloid headline to Saylor Oz--except the young Nuyorican artist wrongly convicted of the murders is the brother of Benita Morales, Saylor's best friend. And Saylor is convinced someoneis reenacting the murders from a retro X-rated movie called Bad, Bad, Babydoll.But no one else thinks so, not even the sexy P.I. on the case. In her hunt tofind the killer, Saylor ends up being part of a genius designer's zany plan totweak the fashion world -- and becomes the killer's next target.
(And for those readers asking for more of boxer/high-rise window washer, Eldridge Mace, he's back!)
Your dynamic duo of detectives sound like a unique pair. How do their strengths and weaknesses play off each other? And is the last name Oz of your heroine supposed to remind readers in any way of the upside-down world in The Wizard of Oz?While our two sleuths, Saylor Oz and Benita Morales, bicker and banter like a stand up comedy team, they also portray two women with a deep and abiding friendship that's lasted longer than their relationships with men. Saylor, a psychologist, sex therapist, and perfume aficionado, is a warmhearted oddball whose most lethal weapons are her fast mouth and her determination to come through for people who need her. More cynical, Benita is an obsessively frugal financial analyst, hard line do-it-yourselfer and a pro boxer. Her ring name is Binnie the Bitch, and she's not afraid to get physical with obnoxious pendejos. So while Saylor is a nurturer who thinks nothing of following her intuitive hunches, Benita challenges her with hefty doses of reality testing, except when her own buttons are pushed.
As to the last name of Oz, yes, the choice to use it was deliberate. There is always something interesting in having a lead character with a name that automatically conjures up certain qualities or images. In this case it adds to Saylor's unconventional nature, but also provides our height-challenged heroine with a horrific nickname: "munchkin." I mean, who wants to be the shortest kid in the class plus have the last name of Oz? So her last name became instrumental in developing Saylor's character. Being a feisty underdog growing up, she developed her empathetic qualities and learned early how to use her wits to stand up for herself.
Speaking of strengths and weaknesses of a dynamic duo, the fact you are a husband/wife team brings to mind all sorts of questions. Can you tell us a bit about your writing style and how you balance two strong minds with one voice? How is your (double) background in the arts reflected in your Saylor Oz novels? Your bio on your very informative website mentions "plenty of theatrics that go on off the page" as you write together. Do you actually act scenes out? Role-play characters to get to know them better?
Roy, like many artists with ADHD, tends to think outside the box. With a standup comedy background, his forte is filling a blank page with an onslaught of wild characters in creepy surroundings, then tossing Saylor into the mix and seeing what happens next. Enter Alice, the former choreographer, to go about restructuring and rearranging what's on the page, adding in her own visions and ideas. And while Roy is in charge of the macho department, Alice runs the love department, taking care of the boy-girl stuff.
As to theatrics off the page? Us? Bicker? No matter where we go, for better or worse,people seem to catch our act. The Alice and Roy Show features head butting, fast comebacks and sweet makeups. So why should it be any different when we're huddled together over a computer? Of course we hear people say, "I'd be divorced if I ever tried writing a book with my spouse!" We look at it this way:relationships are all a tricky work in progress, so why not use it to bring home the bacon, right?That said, we actually do amazingly well and share plenty of laughs and high-fives while writing as a team. And since our styles compliment each other, when one of us falters, the other usually comes up with a solution. As to role-playing and scenes, we don't consciously set that up, but there are usually more than two voices floating about our office when we're writing.
What can we look for from this series in the future?
More crime and more comedy.Urban setting and hip characters. Bad things happening to good people. Danger skewed with zany situations.
Speaking of which,people often expect a mystery laced with humor to automatically mean cozy.That's not us. We're darker and sexier, and our storylines include protagonist-in-peril suspense elements as well as who-done-it mystery elements.While we're not as hard boiled as many serious thrillers, we like to represent crime for what it is -- ugly, mean and nasty.Which is why we call it Madcap Noir.
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
ITW's annual celebration of the thriller world is the largest event of its kind, a meeting place for authors, readers, budding writers, and publishing industry professionals.
For 2010, we’ll be back in the heart of New York in July with the ThrillerFest conference including CraftFest and AgentFest.
ThrillerFest V will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.
The dates will be July 7-10, 2010. Watch this space for important conference and hotel registration information.
- ThrillerFest
- CraftFest
- AgentFest
- Latest News
- Special Guests
- Schedule
- Programming
- Attending ITW Members
- Prices
- Registration
- ThrillerFest Sponsors
- Thriller Awards
- Press
- Contact ThrillerFest
Support Independent Bookstores
