We are delighted to welcome back author Carl Schmidt to Omnimystery News today.
Last week Carl talked about writing with humor, and we asked if we could spend some time with him discussing his first in series mystery Dead Down East (May 2016 trade paperback and ebook formats).
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Omnimystery News: Introduce us to your series character.
Photo provided courtesy of
Carl Schmidt
Carl Schmidt: The mystery/humor series that I am currently writing features a private investigator named Jesse Thorpe. Essentially each novel in the series can stand alone, but there is just enough continuation through the first three to make it a good idea to read them in sequence. The first two, Dead Down East and A Priestly Affair, have been published. The third, Redbone, is fully edited and will be published as soon as the cover design is completed.
The series is set in Maine and written from Jesse Thorpe’s point of view. Jesse is a likeable character in his mid-thirties, plays bass in a local rock band, holds a degree in physics from Colby College, and runs a fledgling private investigation business based in Augusta. He’s smart, witty and spirited, but kept somewhat in check by his plucky girlfriend, Angele Boucher, who holds a day job with a law firm in Portland. She does, however, find time to assist Jesse on cases when the going gets tough. Jesse also has a motley assortment of friends who, despite their shortcomings and proclivities, manage to back him up whenever risk escalates into danger.
The core characters are not idealized. Each has his or her flaws, but none is tragic in the Shakespearian sense. They pull together when the situation demands it, show heart and do the right thing … and they have a good time while they’re at it. Humor is a prominent feature in every chapter.
One author who read and reviewed Dead Down East compared it to the TV series, The Rockford Files, filmed in the US from 1974-1980. That, I think, is a fair assessment. I’d say that my series is slightly more cheeky, but in the end, good triumphs over evil in much the same way that it does in the James Garner series.
OMN: So … into which genre would you place the books in this series?
CS: In each of my first three novels people are murdered, but I have no fascination for gore. My novels are meant to provide smart entertainment, rather than a morose preoccupation with pain, death and dying. There is, of course, some suspense, but it moves along and builds at a leisurely pace; you won’t find a heart-stopping moment at every turn of the page. When police procedures are involved, I do the homework and describe it accurately, but this is not the driving force of the story. And the only paranormal activity is an occasional appearance of a local psychic, Misty Starbird, who offers some “insight” on the crime and/or criminals who might be involved. Like many of the characters who enter the story, she’s there to provides color and humor.
The category that probably best encapsulates the Jesse Thorpe mysteries would be Cozy, but with a caveat or two. Cozies generally avoid “adult situations.” You will find some sex in these novels, but it would not be described as overly explicit, kinky or pornographic. I think of it as zesty and wholesome. How others see it is up to them.
Actually, I don’t particularly like the “cozy” label, because, in my opinion, it suggests a plot that is overly simplistic. I like the story to have plenty of depth, and there is enough historical and scientific information added to the story to satisfy critical thinkers. But like cozies, there is a strong emphasis on humor. I want the reader to enjoy himself, and, hopefully, laugh out loud now and again.
OMN: How would you tweet a summary of the first book in the series?
CS: Dead Down East, a fictional murder mystery, is both detective noir and smart screwball comedy rolled into one.
OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in the book?
CS: It’s fair to say that Jesse Thorpe is a loose amalgam of my son and me. He has my son’s youthful vigor and good looks (which is why I put him on the cover of Dead Down East), and he has my scientific and literary background. Jesse enjoys life, lives it as fully as possible, and finds humor in small things. He’s free-spirited, yet classically faithful to the love of his life.
I spent a number of summers working in Maine, and I have drawn on that experience to share its natural beauty and its colorful personalities. Some of the situations in the book are based on real events, but the correlation is not particularly high. It is a novel in the truest sense of the word.
OMN: How do you go about researching the plot points of your stories?
CS: Some of my fact checking is based on my personal experience, and I rely on Google maps and Internet searches to fill in a lot of the details and to prevent obvious errors. The most challenging situation that I experienced in this regard happened while I was writing my third novel, Redbone. Julio Redbone is murdered (or has committed suicide) a month after his release from prison. Initially I had written that he had been paroled. The book was more than half finished when I learned that on May 1, 1976 Maine eliminated parole as an option for releasing convicted felons from prison. So I had to find another way to get him out of prison. If I had not changed that detail, the story would have sounded lame to those who know better. Fact checking is crucial. Critical reviewers will shred any author’s novel that contains that kind of blemish.
OMN: How true are you to the Maine settings?
CS: The settings in my novels are a mixture of real and imaginary, but I try to remain as true as possible to the geography and the environment of the area in general. For example, whenever the scene involves the outdoors, I have a look at the surroundings on Google maps. In this way I am immersed in the surroundings. If I choose a setting for a restaurant scene, I usually find an actual restaurant to help describe the surroundings, but I never use the actual name of the establishment…with one exception.
The first chapter in Dead Down East is set at Bear Spring Camps in central Maine on Great Pond. This is an actual location. I chose it for a couple of reasons. First, I have vacationed there dozens of times over the years, and for three summers when I was in college, I worked there as a handy man. I love the place and the people who have been operating it for more than a century. I know it like the back of my own hand. It was nostalgic for me to use it as a setting.
And second, because I know it so well, I knew I could describe it in such a way that the reader could close his eyes and “see” it. A number of readers have related to me that many of the settings, and especially the Bear Spring Camps, are vivid and easy to picture in their mind’s eye. Incidentally, I asked the current proprietors if they’d allow me to use the name in my novel, and they readily approved.
OMN: How did Dead Down East come to be titled?
CS: Choosing a title for your book is very important. Generally speaking, you want it to describe in a couple of words (or, possibly, just one) a core element of the story. I had given my first novel a working title before I had completed the first chapter. By the time I had completed the novel, however, I realized that the title was ambiguous and didn’t describe the narrative at all. I toyed around with several possibilities and eventually settled on Dead Down East. It does two things very effectively. You know from the beginning that someone is going to die, and, you know, more or less, where it’s going to happen. (Most informed readers understand “down east” to be upper New England.)
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Carl Schmidt resides in Sedona, Arizona, but for the first 30 years of his life he lived in eleven different US states, Newfoundland, Philippines, Japan and India. He studied mathematics and physics in both Denver and Brown Universities. He chose Maine for the setting of his Jesse Thorpe Mystery novels because of its natural beauty and her colorful personalities.
For more information about the author, please visit his website and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook.
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Dead Down East by Carl Schmidt
A Jesse Thorpe Mystery
Publisher: Carl Schmidt
Jesse Thorpe, a young private investigator operating out of Augusta, Maine, receives a mysterious phone call from a former client, Cynthia Dumais. She begs to be rescued from an island south of Brunswick, within a mile of where William Lavoilette, the governor of Maine, was assassinated the night before. She insists that her life is in danger, but is unwilling to provide any further information.
Reluctantly, he goes to fetch her.
— Dead Down East by Carl Schmidt
