A Conversation with Mystery Author Les Roberts

We are delighted to welcome author Les Roberts to Omnimystery News today.

Les has a new Milan Jacovich out this summer — the 18th in the series! — titled The Ashtabula Hat Trick (Gray & Company; August 2015 hardcover and ebook formats). We recently had the opportunity to spend some time with Les to talk more about the book, the characters, and the series overall.

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Omnimystery News: Introduce us to the principal cast of characters in The Ashtabula Hat Trick.

Photo provided courtesy of
Les Roberts

Les Roberts: Milan Jacovich, my leading character in eighteen novels (so far), started out as being what I wished I was: Younger (of course), 6'3", a native Clevelander, VERY law-abiding, a really nice guy until someone touches a nerve, courage and then some! Naturally I was NONE of these, nor have I ever smoked cigarettes, and only drank a Stroh's beer once in my entire life.

I introduced K.O. (Kevin O'Bannion) four books ago because I felt Milan, growing older (as I have, too) needed a younger guy to get into the physical stuff that he's aged himself out of. Also, K.O. is VERY different than Milan, being angry and abused and an almost fanatic protector of animals.

Tobe Blaine, appearing three books ago, is the kind of significant other Milan has been looking for all his life. First, she's a police detective sergeant, knows all the ropes, and other than physically, she is far tougher than either Milan OR K.O. Secondly, she's African American, and I really enjoy exploring the joys and the problems of an interracial love relationship.

OMN: With such a diverse cast of characters, how do you go about finding the right voice for each?

LR: I know a great many women, especially those who are mature, and I don't think I have a problem writing them, giving them their OWN voice. At the moment I'm working on what I believe, at this moment, to be a stand-alone with a female protagonist. Of course, if it turns out to be a gigantic best-seller, I'll probably continue the series. But to my long-time readers, fear not: I will NEVER stop writing Milan Jacovich, nor will I "kill him off." I learned the hard lessons taught to Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming, killing off Sherlock Holmes and James Bond and then being FORCED to resurrect them.

OMN: You're also the author of many other books outside the Milan Jacovich series. When starting a new book, how do you decide whether it will be a series title or a stand-alone?

LR: I sometimes think of a plot or situation I want to write that does not FIT my Milan character, i.e. The Strange Death of Father Candy and Wet Work. Milan would never find himself in ANY situation like these, although Dominick Candiotti began as a stand-alone protagonist but one I felt I had to bring back for Wet Work. Will I write another Dominick book? I dunno — ask me a week from next Thursday!

OMN: Into which genre would you place this series?

LR: Sometimes it's a private eye novel, sometimes not. I refuse to categorize them any further than that.

OMN: Tell us something about The Ashtabula Hat Trick that isn't mentioned in the publisher's synopsis.

LR: There are three subjects that drive my latest novel. The first,of course, was virulent homophobia — but as I got further into the story I realized, probably from what actually goes on in the USA right now, that there's a shocking amount of racism — and let's face it, I have a romantic/professional relationship between a Caucasian man and an African American woman, so that gave me more "meat" on which to chew. (I'm actually vegan, i.e. I don't eat meat, but the "meat" I mention here is emotional.) Thirdly, I know that MANY prisons in this country have become privately owned, which means they are even MORE savage to their prisoners so they can earn more dirty money — and also means that many prisons are run on the INSIDE by very bright and very powerful inmates who make a great deal of money and actually "tip" the wardens. So there you go with The Ashtabula Hat Trick.

OMN: How much of your own experience have you included in your books?

LR: Until about six months ago, I never personally KNEW any murderers (and had lost touch with this one for several years previously), nor am I a cop or a private eye. But often, real events spark a plot in my head — much more now than when I began writing crime novels almost thirty years ago. I have changed, the world has changed, my books have changed. That's life.

OMN: Describe your writing process for us.

LR: I never outline, although I will occasionally write a few paragraphs of story synopsis before I begin the actual work. The plots "cook" in my head for months before I begin, even when I'm still writing the current story. The most creative moments for me are while I'm sitting in front of my laptop (as I am, obviously, at this very moment),so I will think of a more fascinating plot twist, a NEW character that will enhance the story (and they always do). I don't think I've ever really removed a character, but I'll sometimes realize they aren't nearly as interesting as I thought they'd be, so I demote them into background.

OMN: Where do you most often find yourself writing?

LR: At the best of times, I'm in my own office at home, with no one else around. 95% of the time I don't answer my phone until late in the afternoon unless it's someone I know well, or love, or my publisher/publicist/agent. I most often don't listen to music when I'm working, as I adore music and will often stop working to just listen and enjoy. There is always a cup of coffee at my right hand, sitting on a warming device. However, there HAVE been times when I had to sit in a coffee shop (usually Panera's or Starbucks), or when I'm traveling somewhere — and I never go anywhere without my laptop.

OMN: How do you go about researching the plot points of your stories?

LR: I do as LITTLE research as possible. After all, I do write FICTION. But I do check things on the Internet, sometimes drop by the library to look something up in a particular book. And I CALL lots of people when I need to, i.e. cops, doctors, art experts, etc. I OFTEN leave the house and go somewhere I'm writing about to make sure I get some of the things right. Naturally I know Cleveland much better than many who've lived their entire lives here because of my research. And while writing The Ashtabula Hat Trick, I actually visited a church I'd never dream of visiting otherwise, which gave me a great deal to write about in the book. (BTW, it was nowhere near Ashtabula.)

OMN: How true are you to the settings in your books?

LR: Most of my books, whether Milan Jacovich or not, are set somewhere in NE Ohio — basically Cleveland and its close environs. Ohioans are different than anyone else, and really different from one another. Cleveland, for instance is as little like Cincinnati or Columbus than Omaha, Nebraska is like Sofia, Romania! I try to capture ALL the Ohioans as the characters occur in my novels.

OMN: If we could send you anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, to research the setting for a book, where would it be?

LR: There's a catch here. "… to research the setting for a book" is VERY different from where I'd love to travel anywhere in the world, all expenses paid. As said earlier, all my books for the past twenty years have been set in Northeast Ohio. If I were to do another Dominick Candiotti — and whether I will or not is questionable — I'd choose somewhere in South America. But to travel where I'd REALLY like to go, all expenses paid (are you rich folks out there listening????), I'd either choose Spain, probably Barcelona, or much of the rest of Europe — Prague, Germany, and Ireland — and naturally, Slovenia! (That's where Milan Jacovich's ethnic roots are.)

OMN: What are some of your outside interests?

LR: I'm a relentless movie-goer — NEVER lost a game of Movie Trivial Pursuit. Ask me ANYTHING about American movies, I dare you. I used to cook VERY WELL, but since switching to vegan foods, I don't cook all that often. I've played piano, mostly pop and jazz, since I was six years old, PROFESSIONALLY for ten years, and I love some of the Great American Songs — by the Gershwins, Richard Rodgers (I knew him personally and was awed by him every time I saw him — another story, sometime), Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Steven Sondheim, etc. At one time I could probably play about 7,000 songs WITHOUT sheet music. So music — listening to it and MAKING it, is one of my big hobbies.

OMN: What is the best advice you've received as an author?

LR: I've gotten much advice from other writers, many of whom I never met. "Write lean and mean." "Show, don't tell." "If you don't grab the reader by the second page — change it so it DOES!" "There are more than 100,000 words in the English language. Choose the BEST one — for every word you write!" "The best writing any author will EVER do is RE-writing." MY advice, which I frequently give to aspiring author-wannabes: just four words. "SHUT UP AND WRITE!"

OMN: Have you ever written under a pseudonym?

LR: I've never used a pen name. Why would I? Possibly if I decided to write a romance novel, I'd give myself a female name (look for an author named "Rosemary" in the future). And those who DO use pen names — well, come on, now, Erle Stanley Gardner and Nora Roberts (no relation) and Stephen King, we all KNOW who you are!!!!

OMN: Was The Ashtabula Hat Trick your working title while you wrote it?

LR: Many times there IS no working title for the book, except for myself, i.e. "Milan #15." Sometimes, I know what the title will be before I even type Chapter One, as in The Ashtabula Hat Trick. Many of my Milan books had titles very early, but a few of them I changed halfway through — or else my publisher wpuld suggest another one.

OMN: How involved were you with the cover design?

LR: The cover designs for my first twenty books were designed by the publishers, mostly in New York, and I didn't have a damn thing to say about any of them. For instance, in the original publication of Deep Shaker, the only item on the cover is a Christmas ball (the ones you hang on a tree) even though the book had NOTHING to do with Christmas other than one of the characters had the first name of Christmas. When I moved over to Gray & Company publishing, they thought a recurring theme for ALL the Milan jackets would be a great idea, mostly the downtown Cleveland skyline — and they've changed the colors in all eighteen of my Milan books. Wet Work was their design, which I really loved — but I imagine if I'd despised it, they would have tried something else. I believe that unless you're REALLY famous, i.e. Grisham, King, Mary Higgins Clark, you have very little to do with the actual publication of the book. You write it, sign the contract, cash the advance check, and shut up. That's why I'm really grateful to be with a small, VERY supportive pub house like Gray & Company.

OMN: What kind of feedback have you received from readers? Any that you particularly enjoyed — or maybe least enjoyed — hearing?

LR: LEAST enjoyed: "Where do you get your ideas?" (I have a little old guy in New Jersey; I send him twenty-five bucks and he sends me back ideas for books) "Why don't you have Milan Jacovich do such-and-such?" (Because when I write fiction, I am GOD, and he does whatever I tell him to do.) "Why don't you set a book in (FILL IN THE CITY IN WHICH YOU LIVE)? (Gee, I don't know why not — maybe because the word BORING springs to my lips?)

MOST enjoyed: when a reader comments about what I've written that makes me believe he/she really "gets it".

OMN: Suppose the Milan Jacovich books were to be adapted for television or film. Who do you see playing the lead role?

LR: Robert Mitchum, far and away, for Milan Jacovich Unfortunately he is DEAD — and were he still alive he'd be 96 years old. Christopher Meloni, probably, or Michael Madsen (although he was my first choice more than ten years ago and he might have grown too old). I've newly grown fond of the work of Dean Winters, who was in the one-season Gross Point last year. Trust me, though; if a Hollywood movie company wanted to film one of my books, I wouldn't have a damn thing to say about casting — or anything else — one way or the other. I've often said to other authors whose work has been optioned for Hollywood: "Don't worry, you WILL get screwed! Just make sure you get KISSED first." Witness the movie adaptation of Lawrence Block's Burglar, based on his clever, witty stories of a Jewish New Yorker named Bernie Rodenbarr who ran a used bookstore by day and was a very successful cat burglar by night. When they made the film, they moved it to San Francisco, and Bernie became "Bernice," played by a non-Jewish African American woman named Whoopi Goldberg (and "Goldberg," though very Jewish in origin, is not the real name of this enormously talented actress). Then there was Jack Reacher (6'5" in the books, played by 5'9" Tom Cruise in the movie), Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawsky, which violated almost everything about the leading character (played by Kathleen Turner), and several others.

OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young?

LR: As a child I read the classics: Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, etc. When I grew older, probably the work of John Steinbeck made me desperate to become a writer, and Hemingway, whose THEMES really disgusted me (war, bullfighting, animal cruelty), taught me the lean-and-mean theory. I also read a LOT of crime novels, beginning in my early teens.

OMN: Have any specific books or authors influenced how and what you write today?

LR: The Grapes of Wrath. Anything by Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Dorothy B. Hughes, John D. MacDonald, Ross McDonald, the early Robert B. Parker Spenser novels, and believe it or not, Mickey Spillane!

OMN: What do you generally read today for pleasure?

LR: Mostly crime fiction. Love characters created by James Lee Burke, Karin Slaughter, Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, Lawrence Block, Megan Abbott, although I like stand-alones as much, if not more, than series.

OMN: What do you look for when selecting a book to read?

LR: Plot, characters, and a nodding relationship with reality. Not really into sci-fi, horror, or romance, although I very much enjoy Stephen King and Ray Bradbury. NO vampires or werewolves, please, but as far as zombies are concerned, I do LOVE the TV series The Walking Dead.

OMN: You mentioned you're a fan of movies. What kind do you most enjoy watching? Any particular favorites?

LR: I love crime films AND westerns, but mostly the older ones. I still watch Chinatown and am blown away by the plot twists. Favorite movies? Probably over 100, but to name just a few: Casablanca, Singin' In the Rain, The Searchers, The Godfather (I and II), Some Like It Hot, On the Waterfront, The African Queen, Warlock, Bringing Up Baby, almost ANY Hitchcock film, especially Notorious and Vertigo, and without doubt, the totally brilliant The Maltese Falcon. In fact, some years back, I was about 125 pages into writing a book before I realized I was RE-writing The Maltese Falcon. I changed most of it.

OMN: What's next for you?

LR: I've finished Milan Jacovich #19. Currently 35,000 words into the one after that, a stand-alone featuring a female police chief in a well-to-do Cleveland suburb. Another Milan/K.O. after that one, all up there in my head, percolating. Then? Maybe another Dominick, depending on if more people reading these words find and enjoy Wet Work. So that's THREE books waiting to be written. After that, who knows, although I find new plots and ideas several times a day. Just be assured that as long as I'm able to sit up straight in front of my computer and able to write MORE than what I had for breakfast this morning, you'll always have something of mine to read.

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Les Roberts is the author of 18 mystery novels featuring Cleveland private eye Milan Jacovich, as well as 11 other books of fiction. The past president of both the Private Eye Writers of America and the American Crime Writers League, he came to mystery writing after a 24-year career in Hollywood writing and producing television shows. He has been a professional actor, a singer, a jazz musician, and a teacher. A native of Chicago, he now lives in Northeast Ohio.

For more information about the author, please visit his website at LesRoberts.com and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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The Ashtabula Hat Trick by Les Roberts

A Milan Jacovich Mystery

Publisher: Gray & Company

The people of Queenstown, Ohio, don't take kindly to strangers. But they have no choice in the matter after a man's body is found in a local park, pants unzipped and stabbed through the heart―and a second man's body turns up days later, his head bashed in. Local law enforcement needs help with the town's first-ever murder investigation.

Private investigator Milan Jacovich (pronounced MY-lan YOCK-ovitch) tags along when his main squeeze, Cleveland homicide detective Tobe Blaine, is dispatched to rural Ashtabula County to handle the case.

Word travels fast in the small town, and the mixed-race couple receives a cold welcome. The motel manager doesn't like their looks, the coroner conveniently forgets key details, and patrons at the local watering hole flaunt their disrespect for Tobe's out-of-town badge and her skin color.

Milan enlists his young assistant, Kevin "K.O." O'Bannion, to glean information from the town's teens, who tell tales of their parents' fervent devotion to their local pastor, an outspoken bigot. Did homophobia factor in the murders?

Looming over the case is nearby Conneaut prison―privately run, overcrowded, and rumored to employ some questionable methods (as well as many local residents). Inside its walls, a powerful convict known as "The Prophet" just might have the information Tobe and Milan need to solve the case―if they can get him to talk.

Queenstown might only be an hour's drive from Cleveland, but Milan, Tobe, and K.O. find themselves strangers in a strange land. They also soon find themselves neck-deep in serious trouble.

— The Ashtabula Hat Trick by Les Roberts