Charles Salzberg is a novelist, journalist, and acclaimed writing instructor. He is the author of the Henry Swann detective series, including Swann’s Last Song which was nominated for a Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel and Devil in the Hole, which was named one of the best crime novels of 2013 by Suspense magazine. He has taught writing at Sarah Lawrence College, Hunter College, the Writer’s Voice, and the New York Writers Workshop, where he is a Founding Member. His writing has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Times, Esquire, New York Magazine, and GQ. He lives in New York City.
In Salzberg's critically-acclaimed literary thriller Devil in the Hole, detective Charlie Floyd was obsessed with catching an abominable murderer. In the sequel, Second Story Man, Floyd is not-so comfortably settled into being recently retired when he's abruptly drawn back into the game by Cuban-born Miami police detective Manny Perez, who is on a mission to catch a notoriously elusive thief. Working together as an unlikely team, Perez and Floyd act on a rumor that Hoyt is about to depart the wealthy homes of Florida to begin a string of robberies in the northeast. Confident they are hot on their prey's trail, the two detectives embark on their quest only to have Hoyt elude their grasp time and time again.
Salzberg stops by In Reference to Murder today to take some Author R&R about researching and writing the book:
Unlike most of my novels, Second Story Man began with research as opposed to beginning with a character or plot. In the past, I’ve relied heavily on interviews with experts, which is where my experience as a magazine journalist kicks in. For instance, for Swann Dives In, which takes place in the world of rare books, I interviewed a rare book dealer. But this time around, I found it more useful to rely on the Internet for my research.
Years ago, I read an article in The New Yorker about a burglar named Blane Nordahl. Nordahl was a master at his chosen trade: breaking into the homes of the very wealthy and stealing only their valuable silver. No plated trays for him. Only the good stuff, especially if it had a provenance, like something made by Paul Revere. Nordahl was acknowledged as one of if not the best in the business, and with good reason. He rarely left forensic “footprints,” and in a long career the clever, athletic thief racked up a number of memorable heists, including, as I recall, Ivana Trump’s silver. The article also told the tale of the lawmen who were obsessed with bringing him to justice.
The first step in my research was finding and rereading that article. By the time I finished, an idea for a novel begin to take form.
For some time, I’ve been fascinated (and disturbed) by Americans’ need to be the best and to win, often at all costs. Perhaps, I thought, I can base create a master burglar and use him to examine this obsession with winning.
I knew very little about breaking and entering (this is a good thing, right?) so I began to research the subject, using Google to find newspaper and magazine articles. Along the way, I read about a fellow named Alan Golder, another master burglar, but with a twist. He only hit at dinner time, when he knew his victims would be home (along with all of their valuables) and most likely having dinner downstairs, while their jewelry and other items of value, sat upstairs, unguarded. Like Nordahl, Golder was also a master at what he did, also making him extremely difficult to catch.
As a result of my research, I was able to create Francis Hoyt, a very loose combination of Nordahl and Golder, adding, of course, a healthy dose of imagination (the character’s backstory and actions are completely made up).
I needed someone to pursue Hoyt, someone just as obsessed with “winning.” Here, I cheated a little by “borrowing” two characters from a previous novel, Devil in the Hole, which was based on a true crime: a man named John List who murdered his three children, wife, mother and the family dog and disappeared into thin air. For that novel, most of my research centered around the actual crime, especially how the bodies were found, since several weeks passed before anyone knew they were dead and List was on the lam. This led to going back to my own earlier novel to research the two other characters, Charlie Floyd and Manny Perez. Floyd was a major character, a cocky Connecticut State investigator, while Manny Perez, a Cuban-American Miami police detective, was so minor he only appears briefly in one chapter of the book. These two men, I decided, would team up to bring down Hoyt. I reread Devil, so I could make sure Floyd would be consistent with his earlier self (for the new novel, I had him as recently retired from his job), while with Perez, I had a little more leeway, since very little was known about him.
Once I had my three major characters, I set out to research the art of burglary. Using articles I found on the web, I learned how to bypass alarm systems (if someone checks my browser history they could make a pretty good case tagging me as a burglar in training), as well as other handy burglary tips. I also used a book called, 400 Things Cops Know, paying special attention to the things pertaining to breaking and entering.
The novel takes place primarily in and around Miami, Florida, as well as in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. Obviously, being a native New Yorker, I didn’t need much help there. Ditto with New Jersey and to a lesser extent Connecticut, since I fictionalized Floyd’s hometown of Sedgewick. But still, I needed help with specific places. For instance, the opening scene takes place at the Fountainbleu Hotel, where I’d briefly visited once in my early 20s, but I needed to check it out on the web to get a good picture of what the hotel was like now. And then, on his bus journey from Miami to New York—you’ll have to read the book to find out why a bus rather than a plane, train or car—Hoyt stops in Charleston, S. C., a place I’ve never been. And so, back to the web, where I found maps and descriptions of the city—and even watched a news feature on Charleston, so I could fix in my mind how parts of the city and area looked. I also checked on local bus routes, since Hoyt makes a “special” tour of the city before he continues his trip north.
You can find out more about Charles Salzberg and Second Story Man via his website or Down & Out Books, or follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. Second Story Man is available via all major bookstores in both print and ebook formats.
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