Wednesday, November 02, 2016

A Conversation with Mystery Author Michael Mayo

Omnimystery News: Author Interview with Michael Mayo

We are delighted to welcome author Michael Mayo to Omnimystery News today.

Michael's third mystery in his Jimmy Quinn series is Jimmy and Fay (MysteriousPress.com; October 2016 trade paperback and ebook formats) and we recently had the chance to catch up with him to talk more about it.

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Omnimystery News: Jimmy and Fay is the third entry in this series. What is your favorite part of exploring his character?

Michael Mayo
Photo provided courtesy of
Michael Mayo

Michael Mayo: Learning more about everyday life in New York in the 1920s and '30s. The times were like our own in many ways — economic instability, massive changes in technology, intense political conflict — but the differences were profound, too. The more I learn about racial relations and the growing independence of women, the more I try to incorporate them into the novels. My books are entertainment. Jimmy is never going to be a crusader, but I want to make the reality of those times an important part of the story and let readers work it out on their own.

OMN: For readers new to the series, tell us a little more about him.

MM: Jimmy was born in either 1910 or 1911. His records are unclear. His parents were Irish immigrants who moved into a crowded Hell's Kitchen building owned by a woman named Mother Moon. She raised Jimmy after his mother died and his father wandered off. Due to his small stature, Jimmy was not a good thief like many of the other kids in the place. But she realized that he could run really fast and maneuver through city streets more skillfully than any adult. He also followed orders and so she hired him out as a runner/messenger for Arnold Rothstein. Working for AR, Jimmy was involved in many of the criminal activities of the day, from the fixing of the Black Sox World Series to the first large-scale smuggling of alcohol into New York from England and Europe.

From that background, he wound up owning a quiet little neighborhood speakeasy. It's a place where both cops and crooks are welcome, and unusual things tend to happen.

OMN: The series is set in Prohibition Era New York City. How do you go about researching the city at that time?

MM: I lived in New Jersey for years and became familiar with many of the places where famous and infamous crimes were committed — the stairway in the Grand Central Building where the gunmen who killed Salvatore Maranzano escaped, the drug store (now a pet shop) where Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll was tommygunned in a phone booth. (Both killings, by the way, are still officially unsolved.) Yes, the streets and buildings have changed but the past is still there just beneath the surface.

A subscription to The New York Times is an invaluable resource. Their TimesMachine web page gives you access to every page of every issue, complete with the ads. No more squinting at reels of microfilm in the back of the library.

OMN: Suppose Jimmy were to interview you. What would he ask, and how would you answer?

MM: Assuming that Frenchy and Marie Therese have the night off, Jimmy is working behind the bar. Early in the evening, I wander in from 22nd Street. Jimmy asks what I'm drinking. I answer, "Bourbon if you've got it." He says that he doesn't really trust the stuff his distributor sells him as bourbon, so I say, "Irish then, with just a splash of seltzer, and tell me, what's the story of that painting behind the bar, the lady who's looking so coyly over her naked shoulder?"

OMN: You have written about film for newspapers and have hosted national radio shows about movies. How did you get started in those fields, and what made you transition to writing mysteries?

MM: I loved movies even before I was tall enough to hand a quarter to the attendant. Later, the social aspect of movie-going with friends or a date was less important to me than the movies themselves. That's also why I watch my favorites over and over. So, I consider myself a student of film more than a fan. I started freelancing film reviews for The Roanoke Times in the 1970s. At the same time, I was working for a public library and part of my job was producing and hosting a weekly show on the new Public Radio station. It was a combination of book and film reviews and music.

Eventually, the newspaper work led to a series of books for Visible Ink Press's VideoHound film guides — Video Premieres, Horror Show, War Movies and the DVD Guides. I did a lot of television and radio interviews promoting those books. About then, I became involved with The Movie Show on Radio, a live syndicated show. It was the most enjoyable professional experience I've ever had. I worked with terrific people and every week something surprised me.

After that, I shifted gears and wrote American Murder: Criminals, Crime and the Media. Research on that led me to the wonderful world of Prohibition. Lacking the discipline and training to explore the subject as non-fiction, I decided to write suspense novels. It wasn't much of a stretch since so many writers, going back to Walter Winchell and Damon Runyon, freely mixed fact and fiction telling those stories.

OMN: What are some of your outside interests? And have any of these found their way into your books?

MM: I walk, swim and play racquetball, and I can't say that I use any of them in the books, though I always carry pen and paper when I walk because it's so conducive to good ideas.

OMN: As a reader, when selecting a book to read for pleasure, what do you look for?

MM: First, I look for an engaging voice. Particularly when I'm considering a new author, something about that first page has to grab my attention. And I have to admit that I'm attracted to unusual settings — unusual for me, anyway — like Ovidia Yu's Singapore, Lou Berney's Oklahoma City, Rachel Howzell Hall's Los Angeles or Julie Mulhern's '70s suburbia — just to name four really good writers I've recently discovered.

OMN: What's next for you?

MM: I'm working on Jimmy's Rules. Much of it concerns William Seabrook. Though he's hardly known now, Willie was one of the most popular and influential authors of the '20s and '30s. He wrote several best-sellers about his travels to Africa and Arabia. He introduced America to zombies with Magic Island, his book about Haiti. He was an early and vigorous proponent of what's now called "polyamorous" relationships. Later in his career, he was the first celebrity to reveal that he was an alcoholic and to describe his treatment in Asylum. He and Jimmy find their way into a couple of difficult situations.

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Michael Mayo has written about film for the Washington Post and the Roanoke Times. He was the host of the nationally syndicated radio programs Movie Show on Radio and Max and Mike on the Movies. He is the author of American Murder: Criminals, Crime, and the Media. Mayo lives in North Carolina.

For more information about the author, please visit his website at Mike-Mayo.com.

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Jimmy and Fay by Michael Mayo

Jimmy and Fay by Michael Mayo

A Jimmy Quinn Mystery

Publisher: MysteriousPress.com

Amazon.com Print/Kindle Format(s)BN.com Print/Nook Format(s)iTunes iBook FormatKobo eBook Format

In the midst of Prohibition, Jimmy Quinn joins forces with screen siren Fay Wray to take on a King Kong — size case of extortion.

It's March 2, 1933. King Kong is premiering at Radio City Music Hall, and Fay Wray is about to become the most famous actress on earth. So what's she doing hanging around a rundown Manhattan speakeasy? This Hollywood scream queen has come to see Jimmy Quinn, a limping tough guy who knows every gangster in New York — and does his best to steer clear of them all.

A blackmailer has pictures of a Fay Wray lookalike engaged in conduct that would make King Kong blush, and Fay's movie studio — with the cooperation of a slightly corrupt NYPD detective — wants the threat eliminated. Jimmy tries to settle the matter quietly, but stopping the extortion will cut just as deeply as Fay's famous scream, ringing from Broadway all the way to Chinatown.

Jimmy and Fay by Michael Mayo

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