We are delighted to welcome legal thriller writer Robert Bailey back to Omnimystery News today.
Last month we introduced you to Robert's latest legal thriller Between Black and White (Thomas & Mercer; March 2016 trade paperback and ebook formats) with an excerpt and we recently had the chance to catch up with him to talk more about his work.
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Omnimystery News: Give us a quick introduction to your series characters.
Photo provided courtesy of
Robert Bailey
Robert Bailey: Tom McMurtrie is a legendary retired law professor who has returned to the courtroom after forty years of teaching. Rick Drake is his impetuous young partner. Their mentor-mentee relationship is at the heart of this series. There is also an inevitable passing of the torch taking place in the novels, as Rick is transitioning into the prime of his legal career and Tom into the twilight of his.
OMN: Tell us something about Between Black and White that isn't mentioned in the publisher's synopsis.
RB: As this case takes Tom and Rick out of Alabama to Pulaski, Tennessee, they will have to associate local counsel. Their local attorney is Raymond "Ray Ray" Pickalew, an old teammate of Tom's on Coach Bear Bryant's Alabama football teams of the early 1960s.
OMN: How would you tweet a summary of the book?
RB: Tom McMurtrie and Rick Drake travel to Pulaski, Tennessee to defend their old friend, Bocephus Haynes, on charges of capital murder.
OMN: How true are you to the setting of the story?
RB: Between Black and White is set primarily in Pulaski, Tennessee, and I tried to keep my descriptions as authentic as possible. I did a good bit of research on Pulaski's history, particularly with respect to the town being the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan and recent reaction by townspeople to Klan marches. Also, I visited the town and inserted several local establishments — Kathy's Tavern, The Bluebird Café and Reeves Drugstore — into important scenes in the story. Finally, the Giles County Courthouse in downtown Pulaski is the setting for all of the courtroom scenes, and I tried to describe it as vividly as possible. The courtroom where the trial occurs is described exactly as I saw it during my visits.
OMN: How did Between Black and White come to be titled?
RB: Between Black and White was the title that popped into my head when the idea for this novel first hatched. Obviously, one of the ways the title relates to the story is the issue of race, and the fact that Bocephus Haynes' father was lynched by the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tennessee, the birthplace of the Klan. I thought the title also worked for its subtler implications, particularly the conclusion reached by the Sheriff's department and the lead prosecutor that Bo's guilt is a black and white, open and shut case. Tom, at one point, even tells the prosecutor that "[t]hings aren't always as black and white as they seem …
OMN: How involved were you with the cover design?
RB: I love the cover design, because the courtroom in the picture is eerily similar to the Giles County courtroom depicted in the story. Thomas & Mercer allowed me to have a lot of say in the cover design, and the resulting image — Tom McMurtrie in the well of the courtroom with the balcony visible in the background — gave me goosebumps the first time I saw it.
OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young?
RB: The first books I remember reading were the Bobbsey Twins stories. I particularly loved The Bobbsey Twins in the Country and The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore. As I got older, I loved the "Choose Your Own Adventure Books" as well as the Encyclopedia Brown kid detective series. I was also a big fan of Beverly Cleary (Henry and Ribsy!) and Judy Blume (Superfudge!) When I would finish a good book as a child, I would always be kind of sad as I had grown attached to the characters. With Encyclopedia Brown or Henry Huggins or the Bobbseys, I would get to revisit them again in future stories, which was like seeing an old friend. I suspect my early reading of series characters likely influenced me to write a series.
OMN: And what kind of books do you read today for pleasure?
RB: I love all variety of thrillers, especially anything by Michael Connelly, Stephen King, Greg Iles or Harlan Coben. I read a lot of series fiction, and my favorite recurring character is Harry Bosch from Michael Connelly. As Bosch has aged over the course of over twenty novels, he never ceases to be interesting. From his love of jazz, his star crossed relationships with women and his numerous partners on the LAPD, Harry keeps coming back better and more interesting.
OMN: What's next for you?
RB: I am about forty pages into my third book in the McMurtrie & Drake series. The working title is The District Attorney, and the story will pit Tom and Rick against their old friend, Powell Conrad, the newly elected district attorney of Tuscaloosa County, in a murder case with ties all the way to the Governor's mansion …
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Robert Bailey obtained a Bachelor of Arts in History from Davidson College in North Carolina. Law School at the University of Alabama followed, where Robert made Law Review, competed on the school's trial team and managed to watch every home football game. For the past thirteen years, he's been a civil defense trial lawyer in his hometown of Huntsville. He's married to the incomparable Dixie Bailey and they have two boys and a little girl. When Robert's not writing, practicing law or being a parent, he enjoys playing golf, watching Alabama football and coaching his sons' little league baseball teams.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at RobertBaileyBooks.com and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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Between Black and White by Robert Bailey
A McMurtrie and Drake Legal Thriller
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
In 1966 in Pulaski, Tennessee, Bocephus Haynes watched in horror as his father was brutally murdered by ten local members of the Ku Klux Klan. As an African American lawyer practicing in the birthplace of the Klan years later, Bo has spent his life pursuing justice in his father's name. But when Andy Walton, the man believed to have led the lynch mob forty-five years earlier, ends up murdered in the same spot as Bo's father, Bo becomes the prime suspect.
Retired law professor Tom McMurtrie, Bo's former teacher and friend, is a year removed from returning to the courtroom. Now McMurtrie and his headstrong partner, Rick Drake, must defend Bo on charges of capital murder while hunting for Andy Walton's true killer. In a courtroom clash that will put their reputations and lives at stake, can McMurtrie and Drake release Bo from a lifetime of despair? Or will justice remain hidden somewhere between black and white?
— Between Black and White by Robert Bailey. Click here to take a Look Inside the book.
