To celebrate the release of Black Night Falling I used my super book powers (well you know, I asked them nicely) to magically have super legal eagle and scarily good crime writer Neil White appear and have a chat to (the equally scarily good even if he’d be useless in a legal crisis) Rod Reynolds – all about his follow up to (what just happened to be my no 1 book of 2015) The Dark Inside featuring reporter Charlie Yates. Loved this interview and of course having two of my favourite people on the blog at the same time is something pretty magical in itself! Enjoy. Book details and normal shenanigans at the end….and with that I’ll do a disappearing act and hand over to Neil.
One of the thrills of being a crime writer is not only meeting the stars of the genre but also spending time with the emerging stars, and it is my pleasure today to chat to one of the real new talents in the genre, the very suave Rod Reynolds.
Rod might have written a highly-acclaimed debut, The Dark Inside, and then had the temerity to follow it up with the much-anticipated Black Night Falling, but that doesn’t mean he gets an easy ride. I’ll get straight to the point.
I’m from the north of England and decided to set my books in the places around me, choosing the familiar over the exotic, spending my time in descriptions of derelict mills and rolling Pennine hills. You’re very much a London boy but have chosen to set your novels in the States. The Dark Inside was set in Texarkana, and Black Night Falling is set in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
The question is, therefore, two-fold: why set them abroad, and what made you choose those places as opposed to all the other places available, including your own fictional version?
Well firstly thank you for the very kind words – although I’m not sure I recognise that description of myself and can only assume ‘suave’ is an autocorrect that slipped through!
I’ve always been drawn to the States – the history, the geography and, especially, the culture. I grew up watching The A-Team, Knight Rider and Airwolf, and everything seemed bigger, more glamourous, more exciting (and sunnier) than what was on English telly. Compare the opening credits of the A-Team and Eastenders and you get my point. So I had a natural inclination to set my books in the States from quite early on – even though I needed to find the right story.
So when I stumbled over the real life murders that went on to inspire The Dark Inside – and started researching about Texarkana itself – it was such an unusual place, I never thought about setting the book anywhere else. Furthermore, even though my story was loosely based on the true crimes, the plot is entirely fiction, so I wanted to ground the novel in reality as much as possible in other ways – hence the choice of period and setting.
What about you? As you say, your books are set in the part of the world you know best; are you ever tempted to write something set more far-flung? If so, where?
Like you, I’ve always been a big fan of all things American. My father had a real interest in American history, so our family bookcase was always filled with books about the Civil War and Native Americans. Added to that was my father’s love of Johnny Cash, so his deep Arkansas drawl filled the house most weekends. In fact, I travelled very close to the two places you have written about when researching a soon-to-released novel using Johnny Cash’s life as a template for the plot.
Due to this, my first two attempts at writing were set in America. I relocated them to the UK because I couldn’t sell them, and I’ll come to your route to success shortly. I wrote a book about shooting baseball players during games, which became my first published novel when I changed baseball players to footballers, Fallen Idols, and a book based around the Salem witches, which became Last Rites when changed to the Pendle witches.
As you’ve raised it though, can you tell us a little more about the murders that inspired The Dark Inside, and also what inspired the plot for Black Night Falling?
The Texarkana Moonlight Murders, the case that inspired The Dark Inside, was a series of brutal killings in 1946 that were never solved. The killer – dubbed The Phantom by the local press – preyed on young couples parked up on Lovers Lanes late at night. He attacked eight and left five dead – although there is some question as to whether all the attacks were the work of one man, which is a theme I pick up on in the book. Researching the case, there were so many aspects of what went on that leant themselves to crime fiction: the fact that there were multiple law agencies stepping on each others toes; that there were rumours of police cover-ups; that some officials believed the first victim knew her attacker and was hiding his identity; and that the town, a transfer point for returning soldiers, was therefore full of transitory GIs. Without being insensitive to what was a genuinely horrific and tragic case, it did provide me with a lot of material to develop into a novel.
Black Night Falling partly came out of the plot of The Dark Inside. I’ve always enjoyed it when authors pick up on loose ends while weaving that with a new plot to create a sequel, that idea of unfinished business – and it’s very much what I’ve tried to do. However, Black Night Falling also takes some inspiration from real life, in that it’s set in Hot Springs, a small town in Arkansas that was, in 1946 when the book is set, a place where gambling and prostitution flourished with official sanction (despite being illegal) and that was also the mob’s chosen vacation spot. Al Capone took over the entire floor of The Arlington Hotel on his regular visits, and Bugsy Siegel used the town as inspiration for his vision of Las Vegas. The biggest draw for me, though, was that it was all -allegedly – overseen by a man born in a terraced house in Leeds -Owney Madden, who rose to prominence as one of New York’s biggest racketeers during prohibition.
I didn’t know that about Hot Springs. Looks like I’m going to enjoy Black Night Falling.
I’m guessing the answer to the first part of my next question, but I’ll ask it anyway.
One of the hardest things about setting out on a writing project is choosing settings and characters, and I can understand why you were drawn to Arkansas. My own experience was that I started to look around me and saw beauty in places where I hadn’t previously. I can guess that you set the books in the era that you did, the forties, because that is the era of the stories that inspired. But what is it about that era you like, as a writer, and what is your journey to becoming a writer?
You’re right about Arkansas, Neil – it’s not as immediately beautiful as somewhere like California, but if you spend any time there you start to really notice it. I think you’d like Hot Springs – the whole area is studded with lakes and waterways created when they built Carpenter Dam on the Ouachita River – really picturesque.
In terms of choosing the 40s, you’re spot on that it was because that’s when the real life events took place. And in the case of Black Night Falling, set 6 months after, because that book is so much about the consequences and fallout of TDI, it only made sense to set it soon after. I also like writing in that period because the whole world was in flux after WW2, and even in America, untouched by the fighting (but not by the war), there was a palpable sense of unease and uncertainty – one of those times in history when it was obvious to everyone that they were at the dawn of a new era. And that’s a powerful backdrop to write stories against.
I started writing just before I turned thirty, partly looking for a way out of my corporate career, partly looking for a new challenge, partly because I was blown away by James Ellroy’s books, and partly because I read so much crap that I thought I could immediately do better than. (NB – I couldn’t.)
I took a distance learning course and wrote a novel in two months, had it widely rejected by agents – but with enough encouraging feedback to make me try again. Then in 2012 I signed up for Creative Writing MA at City University and started writing a novel I’d been researching for a couple of years – that went on to become The Dark Inside.
I’m curious about how you came to writing – having seen you in action with your legal hat on (and if ever I’m in trouble with the law, I know now who I need to call) what drew you to something so different (particularly as I can’t imagine it’s a job that leaves you with a lot of time on your hands)?
I don’t mean this to sound arrogant, and I don’t mean it that way, but I always thought it was the one thing I could do. I did well in composition at school, usually coming top of the class, and it was always my strength at university, cobbling together words to make a legal assignment sound barely coherent. The law was just something I trained to do, and I still enjoy the law, whereas writing was something I was determined to do, and it became about proving I could do it.
What I did find out fairly quickly, however, was that being able to put words on a page isn’t the same as writing fiction, and it was really just trial and error and perseverance until I felt I had something that was comparable to what I read on the shelves. I learned even more quickly that it was nowhere near comparable, I’ve got the rejections to prove it, but the door was always opening a little more and this encouraged me.
Now that you’re up and running as a published writer, how do approach your writing schedule and how hard do you find fitting it in within your own life?
Its tricky as I’m also a full-time dad to two very young kids, and they’re not usually up for sitting quietly for six or seven hours while daddy sits at the laptop. So I generally only get to write in naptimes and evenings, as well as one full day a week. It’s helpful in some ways as it means I have to be disciplined – the second my youngest is asleep at lunchtime, I get cracking. But it can be hard to go from playgrounds and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star to murders and crime writing.
Because the amount of time I get to write varies each day, I have a daily and weekly word target, which I generally stick to. The days I’m busiest, I plan a token amount – maybe 200 words – which is really just to get me down to the computer because, as you know, once you get started, it’s easy to get sucked in and I usually end up writing more. I try to write at least six days a week when I’m writing because, again, momentum really helps and it’s a bugger to get going again if you lose it.
What lies next for Rod? Where are you heading in your books geographically and what factual events are you looking at for future, as yet unplanned, books?
I’m working on a third Charlie Yates book at the moment, which will be set in LA and Las Vegas. Bugsy Siegel plays a part in Black Night Falling, and he went on to build the Flamingo Hotel & Casino around that time – which was the first proper Las Vegas hotel as we know them today. So I have done and am doing a lot of research into the early days of Vegas when it was, like Hot Springs, essentially a mob-run town.
Beyond that is somewhat down to my publisher. Although the first three Yates books will form a trilogy (in my mind at least), I do have plans to take the series on – if the business and the readers want me to. If not, I have ideas for other novels that I’m keen to explore. I’m a big fan of Miami and the Florida Keys, so I have an outline for a novel set there in the Miami Vice era, but I’m also a lifelong Londoner, so I’ve always felt I’ve got at least one ‘big’ London novel in me. Whatever happens, as long as I can keep on writing, I’m happy.
Rod, it’s been an absolute pleasure, as I knew it would be. Thank you for the insight into your life and writing. To everyone else, if you haven’t discovered Rod, do so. For those of you who’ve already had the pleasure, you’ll love Black Night Falling.
OOH LOOK books (thats me back again by the way)
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As for that there Rod Reynolds –
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To purchase Black Night Falling try HERE
Or The Dark Inside HERE
Rod is also currently on (blog) tour. Check out the great posts
Happy Reading!
