with Lawrence Friedman
We are delighted to welcome back professor of law and novelist Lawrence Friedman to Omnimystery News. Lawrence first visited with us last October, providing us with a backstory to The Book Club Murder, one of the Frank May Chronicles.
Lawrence has a new entry in this series, Death of a One-Sided Man (Quid Pro Books, April 2013 trade paperback and ebook formats), and we recently had the opportunity to chat with him about his books.
— ♦ —
Omnimystery News: Give our readers an overview of the series.
Photo provided courtesy of
Lawrence Friedman
Lawrence Friedman: They're called the Frank May Chronicles and they all have the same main character, Frank May. He's a lawyer, with a small office in San Mateo California. He also tells the story, and comments on what's going on; it's all seen through his eyes. Frank is in his 40s, he's married, with two teen-aged kids. He doesn't much change from book to book. That's the power we authors have: we can freeze time — alas, real life can't do that.
Frank is a lawyer, but he's not a courtroom lawyer. He does mostly wills, trusts, and things of that sort; but his clients have a funny way of either getting murdered, or getting somehow involved in a murder; and then Frank, inevitably gets dragged in.
Four of the Chronicles have been published already. There are four more that the publisher, Quid Pro Press, plans to bring out in the next year or two. The latest to appear in print is Death of a One-Sided Man which just came out about a month ago.
OMN: How would you categorize this series in terms of genre?
LF: The San Francisco Bay area is very much a character in the novels. Also, I've tried very hard to sprinkle humor about, in the Frank May Chronicles; and I've tried very hard, too, to make the characters and the plots believable. Of course, somebody gets murdered — that's essential to the plot; but there's a minimum of the blood and guts; there are no vivid descriptions of autopsies, and nobody gets knocked unconscious. I actually hate the term "cozy;" it seems to me to be a kind of put-down, as if hard-boiled novels are the only ones worthy of the reader. In my opinion, the greatest mysteries of all time have been "cozies." Still, I suppose if my books have to have a label, "cozy" is the term which best fits.
OMN: Tell us something about the book that isn't mentioned in the publisher synopsis.
LF: The latest in the series, Death of a One-Sided Man, deals with a very eccentric family, the Mobius family. Old man Rupert Mobius is very rich, very eccentric; he lives in a dreary slum in San Francisco; and somebody kills him. His strange will, and the foibles of his quarreling relatives, are the hook on which I hang a number of satirical scenes that are, I hope, genuinely humorous but also convincing; and the solution is also, I hope, both logical and surprising. I don't want to give away the plot: but it does involve a kind of life after death — at least the kind that frozen sperm can provide.
OMN: How much of your professional or personal experience do you include in your books?
LF: I am a member of the faculty of law, at Stanford University; I've been a tenured profession there for many years. And for many years I taught trusts and estates; I've also written about the subject, including a book called Private Lives, which is a social history of the field. I've also written about family law (and criminal law, for that matter). The plot of Death of a One-Sided Man turns in part, as I said, on the fact that a man can reproduce with frozen sperm long after he is dead; courts are just now wrestling with the legal tangles that can result. I also write about the places I know: I live on the San Francisco peninsula, and all the action takes place in the region. I wouldn't dream about setting my books somewhere I don't know well.
OMN: Describe your writing process.
LF: I start with an idea — a gimmick, either about the crime, or the solution, or the setting. I write a kind of outline. Then I expand the outline — make it into sketches. Usually I write a couple of scenes in more detail, before I actually do the main writing. Then I go back and rewrite. I generally need three or four drafts; in some ways I'm never satisfied. Interesting to me is the fact that the story always seems to have a mind of its own. It changes and develops as I write — sometimes it almost seems as if somebody else is inside the computer, directing and manipulating, and dictating the story, almost against my own inclinations. The end product is often very different from what I expected at the start.
OMN: How much research do you do for the stories?
LF: Frankly, I don't do much research when I write my novels. This is because I write almost exclusively about things, people, and places that I know personally. Frank May is a lawyer, and legal issues play a part in some of the books. I have had to refresh my memory about certain points of law, but I can't honestly call this research.
OMN: You mentioned that San Francisco is the setting for the series. Have you had to make changes to the area to fit any of the storylines?
LF: The geography, the climate, and the general culture of this marvelous area are really important to the Frank May Chronicles. I take minor liberties, of course, with buildings and locations; but not as a rule. In one of my books (not the latest one), the plot refers to a California earthquake (in southern California) which had not actually happened. But for the most part, I try to stay true to the time and the place.
OMN: What is the best advice — and maybe the harshest criticism — you've received as a writer?
LF: The best advice: write clearly and simply. The harshest criticism: hard to say. People who don't like the books generally keep their mouths shut. But I have always tried to follow the advice about clarity and simplicity. An author's worst sin is to bore the reader.
OMN: What kinds of questions do you get from readers?
LF: I least enjoy being asked whether Frank May is really me. He is and he isn't. I most enjoy (not surprisingly) when people tell me that they loved my books, and ask how on earth I thought of this or that plot line.
OMN: Suppose you're the casting director for a film based on the series. Who would you have in mind for the key roles?
LF: Yes, I have a mental image of the characters in my books. I can see them in my mind's eye. Each one tends to look like somebody I know. They are sometimes (not always) based on friends, acquaintances, and colleagues in other ways as well. People tell me they think Frank May is based on me — on the way I talk and think. I'm not sure. He's a lot younger than I am. The movie role? I wish! Tom Hanks would be right for the part, I think; he often plays somebody in the movies that is at least a bit like Frank May.
OMN: What are some of your favorite series characters?
LF: People today underrate Agatha Christie. I love her work. Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple are among the greatest series characters of all time, in my humble opinion. My favorite author today is Michael Connelly; he is as good as it gets, and I like his character, Harry Bosch very much.
OMN: You have a full-time faculty position at Stanford Law School, have authored many scholarly works, and write the Frank May Chronicles. Do you have time for anything else?
LF: I have written or edited 32 books on legal subjects; one of them was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. Writing fiction is, to be honest, more of a side-line than action in the main ring of the circus. But I do love writing mystery fiction. I also love (classical) music; and I play the piano for fun (very badly, to be sure). The law, as I've said, does creep into my books; and my main character is a lawyer whose legal work parallels some of my own.
For pleasure I read semi-popular history; Victorian novels (I've read all 48 of Anthony Trollope's wonderful books); and (of course) mysteries, both modern and classic.
And I love movies; I particularly like film noir, and the classic movies of the 30's and 40's; also some of the great foreign films. Have these influenced my writing? Not in any obvious way; but who can tell, really.
OMN: Give us your recommended list of the top five films to see.
LF: Citizen Kane (of course); Umberto D (magnificent Italian movie by De Sica); Forbidden Games (wonderful, touching French movie); The Dead (John Huston's last movie, and a subtle masterpiece); fifth, almost anything by Buster Keaton — the only comedy on this list.
OMN: What's next for you?
LF: I am hard at work on a new Frank May Chronicle — his dentist's receptionist is murdered, and Frank naturally but reluctantly gets involved. And I'm working on another book, related to my other life, the law professor life — a book about major criminal trials over the last century or so.
— ♦ —
Lawrence Friedman, the Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor of Law at Stanford University, is a prolific author on crime and punishment, and his numerous books have been translated into multiple languages. He is the recipient of six honorary law degrees and is a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1968, he was a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and at Saint Louis University School of Law.
You can learn more about the author on his Stanford University directory page.
— ♦ —
Death of a One-Sided Man
Lawrence Friedman
The Frank May Chronicles
Frank May practices law, but not the glamorous kind. His bread and butter is the sedate sort — writing wills and handling estates. Or more to the point, handling heirs.
Even so, where there's a will there's a death. Try as he might, Frank just can't avoid some of the more unsavory sides of human existence. And of heirs.
There's more than one unsavory side to the family Mobius, and Frank has front row seats to watch the quirks and squabbles of the various Mobiuses, after two older family members die. One, at least, was murdered in his squalid San Francisco apartment, while sitting on a family fortune that appears to be left to a fringe foundation connected to the victim's bizarre neighbor. Did she kill the old miser, or was it one of the loving children? Or perhaps the old man's arrogant attorney … or a pregnant woman who dropped in from Australia?
Frank would prefer not to ask himself such unsettling questions — this is not the bland practice he signed up for. But the questions hold the key to unraveling the massive Mobius estate. And Frank is knee-deep in Mobius debris.
Click on the Amazon button to see also the special Whispersync offer associated with this title.
