with R. M. Cartmel
We are delighted to welcome novelist R. M. Cartmel to Omnimystery News today.
R. M.'s debut mystery is The Richebourg Affair (Crime Scene Books; July 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats). the first of a trilogy set in and around Nuits-Saint Georges, following Paris police Commander Truchaud through three different wine-related scandals over the course of a year in the Burgundy vineyards.
We recently had the opportunity to catch up with the author to talk about his new book.
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Omnimystery News: Introduce us to your new series.
Photo provided courtesy of
R. M. Cartmel
R. M. Cartmel: In The Richebourg Affair, the main recurring character is the sense of place, and Commander Truchaud personifies that place.
The second book is in the can, and is being edited at the publishers, and I am working now on the third. They cover 6 months of the ripening season of the vines in Burgundy. If he becomes a fixture, I imagine he will develop over time, and I am sure he will stay in Burgundy, though I am not averse to his taking a holiday somewhere else!
OMN: How do you see Truchaud developing as a character?
RMC: At this stage I can't really answer that. I have only written three books so far, and they were in far more control of me than I was of them. Commander Truchaud tells me what to write, and I just do as I'm told. The research that I do, both locally in Burgundy, and also with lawyers, forensics experts etc., just informs me when he has got it right, and allows me to correct him when he's mistaken; it happens, he's a policeman.
OMN: Why choose a Paris policeman investigating crimes in Burgundy?
RMC: Truchaud is a local boy from Nuits-Saint-Georges, and went off to Paris to be a policeman and climbed the ladder in the capital, but he has always been a Bourguignon [Burgundian] at heart.
OMN: How would you describe the genre of your books?
RMC: It is a Pinot Noir / Cozy police procedural, with a bit of historical fact slotted in for good measure.
OMN: Give us a summary of The Richebourg Affair in a tweet.
RMC: Wine beyond the value of gold, from Burgundy, stolen, and found by a shabby detective. [See I don't tweet!]
OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in your books?
RMC: I haven't shot anyone yet! [And I have never ever handled a pistol.] When I was a kid in school I was allocated a Lee-Enfield .303 rifle and 10 rounds a term to fire at targets without the use of any ear protectors. I think the school expected Russian Troop carriers to be blown off course by the wind, and that the kids at my school would be the final defence. It wasn't that far away from my school that Alfred the Great put up his last stand against the Viking invaders in 870AD and won!
As far as the wine and the Burgundy air is concerned, sure, and I'm fairly sure there's a chunk of me in Truchaud, but he's smaller and younger than I am.
OMN: Describe your writing environment.
RMC: I am sitting in a small room with a laptop at a desk surrounded by books. They are mostly reference books, and mostly about wine, particularly by Hugh Johnson. To my right is a door, open, into the living room with a couple of Lay-z-boys, where I can go and sit with the printed out copy of what I've just written, and cover it in pink ink, so I can then go back ion my study and type in the corrections. Most active writing days involves a minimum of four such journeys of 10 yards!
OMN: Tell us a little more about your research. Any particularly exciting topics?
RMC: By far the most exciting — I find myself sitting chatting to the Burgundian Vintners, over a glass of their own masterpieces.
OMN: How true are you to the setting in your books?
RMC: I had planned to invent a little village in Burgundy and slot it in the Cote de Nuits somewhere. There response I got from the winemakers was unanimous! Why? Haven't we got enough villages here ourselves without you inventing another? I have been a little vague exactly where Truchaud's house is, but it is on the west side of Nuits-Saint-Georges, somewhere among the higgledy-piggledy streets there. The surface geography of Nuits is exactly how it is, but under those streets is a different question altogether. There is a warren of cellars, and the river, such as it is, also disappears under the town too. A mystery that no one will tell me, they shrug Gallically and look away sucking their teeth! I have used a touch of my own fantasy to fill in the blanks.
OMN: If you could travel anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, to research the setting for a book, where would it be?
RMC: Monterey CA. I have no plot in mind, but I am sure if I had an all expenses paid sojourn there one would come to me. I fell in love with the place, and the sense of the place, at Left Coast Crime this March.
OMN: What are some of your outside interests? And have any of these found their way into your books?
RMC: I have very catholic tastes in music. I can listen to Classical Music, I am not averse to Southern Fried Rock and Roll, or the English variety, and I certainly listen to the blues and jazz. Roughly once a month, one of the 'burbs near where I live opens its doors to ShakeDown, and we get to see an hear an American Blues musician who is on tour of our island.
Needless to say, I am a wine collector, and above all I love Burgundy wine both red and white, but I may not admit it in Burgundy, but I am more than partial to wines from other parts of the world, like California, South Australia, and even stranger places like Lebanon, Spain Italy and Bordeaux!
I am into movies, and television, particularly of the Science Fiction bend, such as Star Trek, and I have been told that one day I will one day write a detective story set in space!
OMN: What is the best advice you've received as an author?
RMC: Write what you know about. And if you don't know about it, either don't write about it, or find out about it.
OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a mystery author and that makes me …".
RMC: I am a mystery author and that makes me an observer of the human condition, what makes us laugh, what makes us cry and what makes us bleed from time to time.
OMN: Is R. M. Cartmel a pen name?
RMC: R. M. Cartmel is the name and the initials I was born with. The R is short for Richard and the M for Michael. However as the new cult is for authors of the female persuasion, such as J. K. whatever her name is, and they use their initials, maybe people will consider I might be female if that's their bag.
OMN: How did The Richebourg Affair come to be titled? And were you involved with the cover design?
RMC: The book introduced itself to me with that name, when it told me that it had picked me to turn it into print. The publisher and I thought that doing the title as a label on a bottle was just the thing, especially as it could be repeated!
OMN: What kinds of feedback have you received from readers?
RMC: It has all been embarrassingly positive so far, anyone would have thought they were all from "Rabbit's Friends and Relations", but some of the 5 star reports on Amazon are from people I have never met, and I find that very exciting.
OMN: Suppose your series were to be adapted for television or film. Who do you see playing the part of Truchaud?
RMC: It always struck me that of all the English actors still alive and active, Ben Miller would be the right to play Truchaud, but I am sure my cousin Tony Austin would have words to say about that. [He is an equity card holding actor!]
OMN: What kinds of books did you read as a child?
RMC: My immediate question here was define child! As a child I mixed reading modern Literature such as Somerset Maugham, and Scott Fitzgerald, both of whom I read from cover to cover. I read adventure, such as Alistair MacLean, and pulp, when my parents weren't watching, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler.
OMN: And what do you read now for pleasure?
RMC: I'm currently reading Faces of the Gone by Brad Parks, but I will have finished it by tonight. I saw him perform as the Toastmaster at Left Coast Crime in March, and bought one book, which had won an award, The Good Cop. I liked that, so I have bought the rest of his series. Do I read series fiction? Kinsey Milhone, yes. Stephanie Plum, yes. Falco by Lindsey Davis, Charles Paris by Simon Brett, Bruno by Martin Walker, and Commissaire Adamsberg by Fred Vargas, all of whom I buy when a new one is released. What appeals to me, I think all of them are likeable and get the job done despite … [and the despite is an important word. That despite makes them human]
OMN: Have any specific authors influenced how and what you write today?
RMC: The name that leaps off the page at me is Martin Walker, whose detective stories are set in the Dordogne. I was half way through writing the first draft of The Richebourg Affair, when I picked up Bruno, Chief of Police, which nearly stopped the writing process totally. It seemed to have all the flavour that I was looking for, and I thought, dammit, somebody's got there first. But you know something? There's room in the bookshop for both of us! I still love his books.
OMN: Do you have any favorite films?
RMC: Casablanca. The best film ever. [Sorry Orson].
Galaxy Quest wins hands down both in the comedy and the space travel genre.
Le Phantome de Liberte by Luis Bunuel, the surrealist masterpiece.
Battle Royale, the japanese dystopian masterpiece, the blackest humour of all.
Sideways, the only film I have ever seen where you can taste the wine while watching the movie!
Duck Soup, the Marx Brothers.
And for musicals it has to be Singing in the Rain, and Gold Diggers of 1935 for the best musical number I have ever seen [The Lullaby of Broadway with Wini Shaw].
I have all of those on DVD at home and you may well find me watching one of them or a bit of one when I should be working.
OMN: Create a Top 5 list for us on any subject.
RMC: Top 5 Burgundy Wines that I would share with you today if we were sitting in my garden, and it wasn't raining, which it is right now …
1. Gevrey Chambertin VC Les Evocelles 2007 [this week].
2. Le Clos Blanc de Vougeot 2005 1erCru. I know the 2011 recently won an international award, but I think I'm going to leave that one to sleep for the time being.
3. Musigny GC 2007. Not the best year I have but it's the only one I wouldn't feel horrified about drinking today.
4. Corton-Charlemagne GC 2007. [Got a couple of those.]
5. David Clark's 2009 VC Vosne Romanee. [And I have NO idea why he sold up and wandered off.]
[Notes: VC = Village Cru, 1erCru = Premier Cru, GC = Grand Cru.]
Here's another list …
1. Test Cricket. It is a game that meanders on for 5 days with any one of four possible results including "No Result" which is what a draw is in Test Cricket. A Tie [scores level and the game finished] is intensely rare and extraordinarily exciting happened twice in 130 years of test cricket. Test match that finished yesterday was a very one sided affair. When I was a kid I batted in the middle order and bowled unorthodox off spin. [Not of course in a test match, but I did occasionally represent my College at Oxford.]
2. Celtic Hurling. A completely bonkers team sport they play in Ireland. A combination of baseball and field hockey. How they don't have several fatalities per match I have no idea. [I have never played this game, and I have to say I don't think I would have the courage to have done so even in my youngest and silliest, but what a spectacle!]
3. Rugby Union. I was a second row forward in Rugby Union when I was a kid. It's like American Football, I guess without the armour plating, and there are much fewer stops.
4. Motor Sport. I was for many years a member of the medical team at various circuits in the UK, and the first Grand Prix I ever went to was the 1969 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Until fairly recently, I was medical Director at Santa Pod Raceway, which is Britain's Drag Racing track. I have never been to an American speedway, but I have seen a few on the TV in the UK. You're just as crazy on your side of the circuit.
5. Ice Hockey. I only ever played field hockey but somehow Ice hockey is the more exciting spectator sport.
You will notice an absence of Soccer. Ninety minutes for 1 scoring moment? Puhlease. Basketball, baseball, American football, Australian Rules, Rugby League, T/20 Cricket [Too short and no time to develop the subtlety of a game before it's all over] …. So did I.
OMN: What's next for you?
RMC: Bonne Mares Incident, the third book in the trilogy. [The publisher already has the second in her workshop.] The title may change, however, as I need to discuss with the local Gendarmerie whether Bonnes Mares vineyard is within their sphere of influence. If not then the vineyard may change again closer to Nuits Saint Georges, as I want to use Captain Duquesne, Lenoir the maniac driver and Mac Montbard again.
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R. M. Cartmel has been a writer one way and another since being a medical student at Oxford. After a long career as GP, he decided to retire from practice and dedicate himself full-time to the creation of crime fiction.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at RMCartmelAuthor.com or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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The Richebourg Affair
R. M. Cartmel
A Commandant Truchaud Mystery
