Omnimystery News is delighted to welcome Kent Westmoreland as our guest blogger. Kent's debut mystery, Baronne Street (CreateSpace, Trade Paperback, September 2010, 978-1-4537-0271-0), introduces Burleigh Drummond, a New Orleans "fixer".
Today, Kent writes about what influences led him to create the character of Burleigh Drummond.
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Photo provided courtesy of Kent Westmoreland
After a recent reading some members of the audience suggested we continue the discussion of Baronne Street over a cup of coffee. My wife says I love to pontificate. She must be correct because I accepted the offer without hesitation.
For those who aren’t familiar with Baronne Street, the protagonist is Burleigh Drummond. Twenty-eight year old Drummond is the fixer New Orleans bluebloods and politicians run to when their problems become too complicated for their titanium-hearted lawyers.
In Baronne Street Drummond must employ his Machiavellian skills to solve and avenge the brutal rape and murder of Coco Robicheaux, an ex-girlfriend. As Drummond investigates he discovers Coco lived a clandestine existence in the city’s netherworld and had been drafted as an unwitting pawn in a plot to disrupt the upcoming mayoral election. As often happens with pawns, she was sacrificed.
During the discussion the most interesting question posed was “What were the influences that led you to create the character of Burleigh Drummond?”
I have lived with Burleigh Drummond through four short stories, a novel, and outlines for several more of each. His biography, his life events, his motivations are what I think about. It had been quite some time since I had given any thought to how the character was developed.
Even before fleshing out the character I knew the key ingredient was setting. I wanted the series to be set in a small city with an insular society. A city controlled by the old money crowd who fears progress may disrupt their lives; for that reason they will thwart progress by any means necessary.
Initially I had planned to base the series in Palm Beach, but Lawrence Sanders beat me to that locale with his Archie McNally series. In retrospect Palm Beach would have been the wrong choice. Palm Beach is less of a city and more of a winter vacation community for the ultra-wealthy; they only stay for “The Season”. And then there is all that beautiful sunshine, white sand, and crystal-blue ocean. Burleigh Drummond needed to operate in a dark city with darker secrets.
Then I discovered New Orleans. A city filled with secret societies whose members don masks once a year and toss trinkets to the masses. The bluebloods make backroom deals to restrain new business and influence politicians. The politicians bleed every dime from the city coffers and do nothing for the city. Then the bluebloods and politicians dance together at formal balls while the city decays.
New Orleans was the perfect location for Burleigh Drummond to set up shop.
An early decision was to create a character who went against type for the hard boiled genre. He wouldn’t carry a gun or get involved with fisticuffs. His primary weapons would be brains, charm, and aplomb. Occasionally trickery, blackmail, and bribery would be used; I never intended for Drummond to be a choir boy.
For irony I chose to call the character Burleigh Drummond because it sounds like a tough guy’s name.
During the discussion I remembered three fictional detectives are in Drummond’s DNA: James West from the TV series The Wild, Wild West, Sherlock Holmes, and Phillip Marlowe.
What I always loved about James West is wherever he went people said “There’s James West, secret agent for the Secret Service.” It was so absurd. But I realized this would happen to Burleigh Drummond since he operates in a small city which only has three degrees of separation as opposed to the standard six. So I worked that concept into the stories. He seldom engages anyone who doesn’t know him or know of him. In one of the short stories a police detective mentions Drummond’s clients consider it a status symbol to say “Burleigh Drummond is fixing the situation for me.”
Many people think Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are middle-aged or older; probably because older actors have primarily been cast in those roles. (At forty-five Robert Downey Jr. is middle-aged.) Holmes began his career as a consulting detective after graduation from college; he was twenty-three. He was twenty seven or twenty-eight when he met Dr. Watson and Watson began chronicling their adventures. Watson was few years older; in addition to being a physician Watson was an ex-military man who missed the excitement of war.
Also more often than not Holmes’ clients were wealthy blokes and government officials asking him to fix a situation for them (italics mine).
Baronne Street begins when Drummond is twenty-eight and has been working as a fixer for three years. His best friend and occasional partner, Morgan Cross, is obviously ex-intelligence, though it is never explicitly stated. Like Watson, Cross knows his way around guns and death.
Phillip Marlowe – How could he not be an influence? Marlowe is the platinum standard for the hard-boiled genre. He is cool, hip, a great wisecracker, and obsessed with the truth while seeming not to care. Still he is haunted by his inability to make things right in an imperfect world. Just like Burleigh Drummond.
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Kent Westmoreland drifted into New Orleans several years ago and immediately immersed himself in the dark underbelly of the city. He has been known to hang out with neo-Mafia types, cops, political flunkies, and the occasional blueblood. His associations with these unsavory types are the basis for his Burleigh Drummond fiction.
His award winning Burleigh Drummond short stories have appeared in the magazines Blue Murder, Tangled Web, Thrilling Detective, and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Baronne Street is his first novel. The follow up is in progress.
You're welcome to continue the discussion with Kent about his book or character at Kent@KentWestmoreland.com. Or simply visit his website at KentWestmoreland.com for more information.
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About Baronne Street: Love means sometimes having to solve your ex-girlfriend's murder.
Burleigh Drummond, a fixer, ignores a voice-mail plea for help from his ex-girlfriend Coco Robicheaux. She broke his heart when she dumped him, so why should he care? He goes about his job of manipulating the imbroglios of bluebloods and politicos. Still, Drummond misses Coco and regrets not answering her call. The next morning he is rousted from bed by two extremely unpleasant homicide detectives with the news that Coco has been raped and bludgeoned to death. The detectives also share they have been instructed to do nothing about the case, but should he provide them with evidence ...
As Drummond investigates he discovers Coco lived a clandestine existence in the city's netherworld and had been drafted as an unwitting pawn in a plot to disrupt the upcoming mayoral election. As often happens with pawns, she was sacrificed. When threats cloaked as friendly warnings escalate to an old-fashioned beating, Drummond enlists a reputed mercenary, a black-separatist reporter, and a computer hacker to assist in his investigation and, eventually, revenge.
As Drummond negotiates through the maze of deception and he finds himself at odds with his blueblood clients, the police chief, the mayor, and a gay crime syndicate.
