Early in her career, Sandra Parshall had one of the most prescient jobs a future author of crime fiction could have—newspaper obituary columnist. She moved from there to work for newspapers in West Virginia and for The Baltimore Evening Sun, covering a variety of issues that varied from school board meetings to a mining disaster, health care in prisons, poverty in Appalachia, and the experiences of Native Americans.
Parshall's first published novel, Heat of the Moon, won the Agatha Award for best first mystery in 2006. It featured veterinarian Rachel Goddard, who has turned up in all three of Parshall's novels, including the recently-released Broken Places.
In the latest outing with the southwest Virginia veterinarian, Rachel is drawn into a murder when she's an "earwitness" to the murder of Cam Taylor, whose wife Meredith is also found murdered shortly afterward. The number one suspect is a childhood friend of Rachel's, Ben Hern, and Rachel sets out to prove him innocent. The victims' scheming daughter, Lindsay, has other ideas as she pushes for Ben's arrest and initiates a campaign of intimidation against Rachel, her rival for the affections of Deputy Sheriff Tom Bridger. As Rachel digs deep into the past, she uncovers buried secrets that could well make her the next victim.
Sandra took time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions for IRTM.
IRTM: Your protagonist, Rachel Goddard, is a veterinarian. You've mentioned on one occasion that if you had to start over, you wouldn't mind being Jane Goodall. Is that why you chose a veterinarian as a main series character, or do you have a little veterinary school in your background?
SP: No, I haven’t been to vet college, but I do love animals, and making my protagonist a veterinarian allows me to have them in every book. I don’t write the kind of mysteries in which pets solve crimes, but I’ve found ways to make them important to the stories. A dog, for example, plays a role in the climax of Broken Places. A poignant scene earlier in the book shows how much Rachel will risk to save an animal she loves.
IRTM: In the second installment of your series, Disturbing the Dead, you included Melungeon culture. They're a fascinating people with a history few know about (it's even been said Elvis had a touch of Melungeon blood). Did this come from research conducted during your newspaper career?
SP: I grew up in upstate South Carolina, within sight of the mountains, and later I lived in West Virginia, so I had heard about the Melungeons and other mixed-race groups in the region. Whatever they were called – Melungeons, Redbones, Brass Ankles, gypsies – I was sure they had a fascinating history I would never learn about in any classroom.
IRTM: Speaking of your newspaper background, it comes into play for your latest novel, Broken Places, which has 1960s activists turn up as the murder victims. Did you get this idea from the War on Poverty you covered as a cub newspaper reporter?
SP: I tried for years to fashion some kind of fictional story around the young antipoverty workers of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, but I couldn’t pull it together. In writing Broken Places, I asked myself what those young people might be like 40 years later. Most went on to ordinary lives. But suppose one or two stayed in the mountains and never let go of their idealism? How would the passing years – decades – have affected them? Like other characters in Broken Places, Cam and Meredith Taylor have been broken by lives that didn’t turn out as they’d hoped.
IRTM: How did you decide to switch from journalism to novels, and did you have any writer role models who inspired you to try your hand at a mystery?
SP: I’ve always wanted to write novels, from the time I was a child. Newspaper jobs were a way to support myself. I wrote fiction for years without selling any of it. The work of Thomas H. Cook and Ruth Rendell inspired me to try writing a psychological suspense novel.
IRTM: Which is easier for you, non-fiction journalism or fiction writing?
SP: Nonfiction is easier because all I have to do is arrange words in a way that is clear and makes sense. It’s not a challenge. Fiction is a constant challenge in every respect, but much more fulfilling.
IRTM: Is there anything from your experiences with writing obituaries that has found its way into your work?
SP: Not really, but doing obits made me wonder about the lives behind those short notices. It seemed sad that an entire existence could be reduced to a few dry sentences. I was always curious about the whole story.
IRTM: You won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel, but you've said awards don't make a big difference in sales. (I especially love your anecdote about the woman who asked if the Agatha was for female mystery writers and the Edgar for men.) Do awards still have relevance?
SP: I don’t see any correlation between awards and sales. Many mystery writers who sell well have never even been nominated for awards. Receiving an award is certainly a boost for a writer’s ego, but I don’t think we should attach too much importance to winning. We certainly shouldn’t assume that an award makes us special, better than other writers.
IRTM: Despite the fact Publishers Weekly complimented you on "a suspenseful tale distinguished by its sharp prose," you had a 28-year-old editor at a major publisher describe your writing as "old-fashioned." I found this puzzling since I keep hearing young people are turning away from reading and most mystery fans are middle-aged and older.
SP: If I could explain what’s going on in N.Y. publishing, I’d be very popular at dinner parties! The book business is changing – drastically, by all accounts — and we might see publishers going after particular markets such as younger readers. But they’d be crazy to ignore the older readers who are keeping traditional publishing alive.
IRTM: Many unpublished authors think the Holy Grail is to be published by one of the big houses. What do you think a smaller house like your publisher, Poisoned Pen Press, brings to the experience that larger houses can't?
SP: I can only talk knowledgeably about the one press I’ve worked with, but I think being with a smaller publisher relieves the writer of a lot of pressure. You have to sell enough books for your publisher to make a profit on your work, but no one will expect you to rack up huge sales to justify your place in the catalogue. There’s not so much pressure to write for the commercial market. It’s okay to be a “niche” writer and concentrate on doing what you do best. Some brilliant writers are publishing wonderful books with small presses these days. Many of those writers used to be with bigger publishers but were dropped because they couldn’t make the leap to bestsellerdom.
IRTM: What's next with your writing? More in this same series, or perhaps a standalone?
SP: The next book will be another in the series. After that, who knows? I have other ideas I’d like to explore, other characters I’d like to get to know.
Broken Places received a starred review from both Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. It was published recently by Poisoned Pen Press. For links to book information, check out Sandra's author site. You can also catch her postings on the multi-author blog Poe's Deadly Daughters.
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