with Michael J. McCann
We are delighted to welcome crime novelist Michael J. McCann to Omnimystery News today.
Michael's third "Donaghue and Stainer" crime novel is The Fregoli Delusion (The Plaid Raccoon Press, November 2012 trade paperback and ebook formats).
We recently had a chance to talk to the author about his new book.
— ♦ —
Omnimystery News: Tell us a little more about Donaghue and Stainer.
Photo provided courtesy of
Michael J. McCann
Michael J. McCann: When I began developing the characters of Hank Donaghue and Karen Stainer, I wanted them to come from different backgrounds, have different personalities and different approaches to law enforcement, and live separate lives. I spent a great deal of time developing their back stories so I'd have a very strong sense of who they were and where they're going. As a result, when the reader starts a new Donaghue and Stainer novel, they're greeted by two characters who jump off the page and lead them into a world they haven't experienced before. Neither Donaghue nor Stainer could be described in a sentence. A paragraph doesn't really do them justice. Each novel reveals a little more of their backgrounds and motivations, but only over the course of the series will their full stories be told.
OMN: Where is Glendale, the setting of your books?
MJM: The city of Glendale is a product of my imagination, but I've located it in Maryland (somewhere south of Annapolis), and I do my best to create an environment people in Maryland wouldn't find laughingly unrealistic. Maryland's prosecutors are called state's attorneys, they use the medical examiner system and not the coroner system, and they have the death penalty, for example. They're divided on whether they're a northern or a southern state, but not a lot of them like the compromise of being "Mid-Atlantic". I research everything I can think of, including the regs for tinted glass in automobiles and the windshield stickers issued by the DOT. I can do whatever I want with Glendale — because it doesn't exist — and more or less get away with it, but at the state level I'm hoping to achieve a certain level of verisimilitude. I still have to try the crab cakes, though.
OMN: The books are described as "crime novels". What does that mean to you … and what should readers expect?
MJM: The Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novels are police procedurals. The stories are told almost exclusively from the point of view of the homicide investigators working the cases at the center of each novel. When I'm giving a reading or a presentation I explain up front, for example, that the dialogue is realistic. Cops sometimes get excited when they do their job, and suspects sometimes get a little hot under the collar when they're being interrogated, and their choice of words is often less than polite. As well, when someone's shot to death or a body is examined on the autopsy table, the description needs to convey a realistic sense of what's happening. I don't indulge in graphic violence for shock value, and there are no scenes involving sex, but the narrative still might be a little upsetting to someone who prefers reading cozy mysteries set in small towns featuring elderly amateur sleuths.
It's my understanding that cozies are much easier to sell than procedurals, and I'm not sure I've hit on the right marketing strategy yet to reach as wide a target audience as possible with my procedurals. That's definitely a work in progress. What I do do, though, is write the stories in such a way that a wide range of readers will enjoy the characters, they'll find them compelling, funny, mysterious and dynamic in turn, and they'll want to come back for more. High-quality writing should contribute something to the marketing of books, shouldn't it? It's certainly worked for Michael Connelly, at any rate.
OMN: Your biography mentions that you worked for Canada Customs for many years. Did that experience help you when you started this series of crime novels?
MJM: Before leaving public service to write on a full-time basis, I worked for fifteen years for the Canada Border Services Agency, where I was a training specialist, project officer and national program manager. I had an opportunity to rub elbows with a remarkable assortment of law enforcement professionals, not only in Customs but from other agencies such as the RCMP, provincial police, Corrections, U.S. Customs and many others. I was a sponge: I kept my mouth shut and my eyes and ears open. These people shared their knowledge and their experiences with me, in some cases quite freely, and I learned about things like interview techniques, arrest procedures, safe firearms handling, even note-taking and report writing, all of which helps me to create a realistic environment for my stories. As a manager in Customs, I also learned what it's like to run a national program with a shrinking budget and too few people, and since many police departments these days are faced with serious cutbacks, especially in cities staring down bankruptcy, I've been able to explore this aspect of policing from a very personal perspective.
OMN: Describe your writing process.
MJM: I write a complete outline before beginning a novel. It's essential that I know exactly what will happen and in what sequence it will be presented before I tell the story. I need to be sure that all the pieces will fit together into a plausible whole before I can get down to the actual writing. I also write character backgrounders for important new characters who will appear in the novel. I need to have a good feel for who they are before I turn them loose in the story. I feel very strongly that a novelist should not behave like a reader and "discover" the story as it unfolds. A novelist should behave like an architect and a construction contractor combined: start with a complete plan, understand what you're building, build it with care and attention to detail, and make darned sure it won't collapse in a heap when people set foot inside it.
OMN: You mentioned earlier that you were a "sponge", soaking up everything you could from law enforcement professionals. What other resources do you use to fact-check your books?
MJM: I do a great deal of research before and during the writing process. Thanks to my previous experiences as a graduate student, an editor and a training specialist, I have good research skills and enjoy spending time learning new things. Thank goodness for the Internet. It's amazing how many informative documents have been put there, including policy and procedure manuals for municipal police forces in an attempt to be more transparent to the public they're serving. I also have a growing collection of reference books covering subjects like forensic testimony, pathological evidence, eyewitness reliability, forensic evidence, gunshot wounds, street survival and other relevant topics. A few of my former colleagues read the manuscripts to help with technical details, and I have contacts with the Ottawa Police Service who are more than willing to answer my questions. Additionally, for Blood Passage I corresponded with Dr. Jim B. Tucker, whose book Life Before Life inspired my story, and he graciously read the manuscript and suggested corrections. For The Fregoli Delusion, I exchanged e-mails with Dr. Ramin Mojtabai, an expert on Fregoli syndrome. At the end of the day, though, all errors are my own, of course.
OMN: If your books are optioned for film, do you have any thoughts on who you'd like to see play the lead roles?
MJM: I confess that for many of my characters, I browse Google looking for reference photos to match the image of the character inside my head. When I was developing Hank Donaghue, I settled on a photo of Jeremy Sisto, because I wanted the frizzy hair and the brooding eyes. Jeremy is about eight years too young to play Hank, though, so he'd have to have a bit of gray put into that hair to play the part, and I think he's only 6'1", where Hank is 6'3". As far as Karen Stainer is concerned, I don't actually know whose picture I grabbed from Google. She's an actress, but I'm not sure which one. I'd much prefer that readers cast their own favorite in her role.
OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young?
MJM: When I was a kid I was definitely a bookworm. I was the one walking home from the public library on Saturday morning with a large stack of books tucked under my chin. I read sports juveniles, science fiction, historical fiction, whatever I could get my hands on, but it was almost always fiction. I've always been a sucker for a good story. My love of narrative has stayed with me and definitely influenced my decision to write novels in a genre I've always enjoyed reading as an adult: crime fiction.
OMN: How do you interact with your readers?
MJM: I enjoy doing book signing events, because it gives me a chance to get out and meet readers. I'm a great people-watcher, so even if they're not interested in my table in the slightest, I'm still enjoying myself. I don't mind answering any questions at all, as long as they're not too personal. Most people ask me how long it takes to write a book or why I haven't set the series in Canada. I don't do many readings, though, because I don't like doing them. I don't particularly enjoy listening to other authors read from their work, and I definitely don't feel comfortable reading from mine. Besides, to do a really good job I'd have to try to imitate Karen's Texan accent. That would be just … well, wrong.
OMN: Will there be a fourth book in the series?
MJM: The next Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel will be called The Rainy Day Killer. It centers on the appearance of a serial killer in Glendale who's the subject of an open FBI case after murders in Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Missouri. Karen Stainer's fiancé, FBI Special Agent Sandy Alexander, is the local coordinator for the FBI's National Center for Analysis of Violent Crime, and he arranges for a consultation with a behavioral specialist from the BAU to provide a profile of the killer. Unfortunately, this all happens while Karen and Sandy are finalizing arrangements for their impending wedding in Virginia, and the situation becomes very complicated when the killer decides that he's developed a sudden fondness for the bride-to-be.
— ♦ —
Michael J. McCann was born and raised in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. He earned a B.A. (Hons.) in English from Trent University and an M.A. in English from Queen's University.
In addition to the Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel Series, he is also the author of The Ghost Man, a supernatural thriller.
Before becoming a full-time author, Michael served as Production Editor of Criminal Reports (Third Series) with Carswell Legal Publications, then spent fifteen years with Canada Customs as a training specialist, project officer, and program manager in Ottawa.
For more information about the author and his work, visit his website at MJMcCann.com. If you're interested in reviewing one of his novels, please contact him at michaeljmccann@mjmccann.com.
— ♦ —
The Fregoli Delusion
Michael J. McCann
A Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel (3rd in series)
When billionaire H. J. Jarrett is shot to death on a bike path in prestigious Granger Park, the killer is seen running away by a man who is apparently in the right place at the right time. However, Lieutenant Hank Donaghue and Detective Karen Stainer discover to their dismay that their only eyewitness suffers from a rare psychotic disorder that makes his testimony useless.
As Donaghue's investigation focuses on the top one percent of Glendale's social and economic strata, including close friends of his own mother, Stainer finds herself alone when her gut instinct tells her that their eyewitness is right after all.
Click on the Amazon button to see also the special Whispersync offer associated with this title.
