James Sulzer is the author of the new novel All That Smolders. His other books include The Voice at the Door. He lives in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
Q: What inspired you to write All That Smolders, and how did you create your character Peter Christie?
A: I was inspired to write All That Smolders in memory and in honor of my mother, who loved mysteries and was a huge Agatha Christie fan. Like Agatha Christie in some of her books, I set this mystery on an island.
I did so for a number of reasons. For one thing, who doesn’t love reading about a beautiful island? Also, an island is a place where people think they know everything about each other but are often ignorant of their deepest secrets—a situation which creates all sorts of interesting points of tension and intrigue.
My family and I have lived on Nantucket Island for over 40 years, so I know a bit about island life. But I didn’t want to copy characters I knew here. Instead, in creating the characters for this novel, I drew on my knowledge of the ways that the dynamics of island living affect people and their interactions.
I created the character Peter Christie largely by feel. I sensed that he needed to begin the story in a not-great place, that is, incomplete as a person in some ways. A person who knew he had messed up and needed to turn his life around but didn’t really know how to do that.
I also thought it would be interesting if Peter Christie’s personal growth could, in some way, help him solve the central mystery in the story, the murder of the lawyer Chester Danville.
I thought it would be a nice nod to Agatha Christie to have Peter be her (fictional) great-great-nephew. That allowed him to reflect on mysteries in general and, more to the point, to refer to the brilliance of his ancestor as he looked for help in solving the murder—and also, he hoped, in winning back Haddie.
Q: What influence did Agatha Christie’s writing have on the novel?
A: In getting ready to write this book, I read a baker’s dozen of Agatha Christie’s novels, hoping to understand her artistry and the workings of her smooth sleight of hands.
I picked up some major guidelines: have five to seven possible suspects, each with motives and opportunity; embed a few seemingly minor details that turn out, in retrospect, to be crucial to solving the murder; give the characters an edgy realism (that is, don’t sugar-coat them).
Style-wise, I appreciated Agatha Christie’s relatively simple, direct sentences and selective but meaningful descriptive details. She lets her characters’ hidden motives lurk behind the sentences, creating a world with depth and complexity. Naturally, I tried to emulate all that in All That Smolders.
Q: Did you know how the story would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: I did not know how the story would end before starting to write it. I had a sense that the story would build to an exciting climax and, probably, that the murder would be solved. In truth, I didn’t even know about most of the characters until they showed up in the course of writing the story and they began to take on weight and importance.
Here’s one thing that didn’t turn out as planned: I had thought that writing a mystery would force me to pre-plan the chapters and clues, which might be good discipline for me. But already by the time I completed the first chapter, my outline for the novel had fallen completely apart.
As it turns out, my writing is probably at its best when the story insists on taking its own shape.
Which brings us back to a question about Agatha Christie. In her mystery writing, was she always a pre-planner extraordinaire? It was a surprise to me to learn that no, she was not. In fact (as the narrator in All That Smolders informs us) Agatha Christie later said she was halfway through The Crooked House before she knew who the murderer would be.
Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Peter and Haddie?
A: Troubled but hopeful. Though Haddie is a few years younger than Peter, she is more mature, and also more certain about what she expects from a relationship. I think at first she doesn’t realize the extent to which Peter is carrying baggage that keeps him from being anything close to a model boyfriend.
For her part, she’s a bit of a hard-edged New Englander of the old style, despite her gentle ways—a trait that might not always be helpful in starting a relationship.
Peter is starting to realize the extent of his dysfunction, and the arc of the story is defined by his attempts to transcend the trauma of his past. He gives it his all to solve the murder, in part because he hopes to show Haddie that he is worthy of her.
This is a tricky scenario for him, as there’s no guarantee that he will find success either in solving the murder or in getting her back—and it turns out to be a perilous situation as well.
Toward the end, I think Peter has a sense that he’s making progress as a person, but he still isn’t sure where he stands with Haddie. The last scene or two probably gives some clarity on that. Peter seems hopeful. And Haddie? We will see in the sequel.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am writing the sequel, entitled All That Matters, set in the year 2000 on the same island, with many of the same characters 20 years later.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: The first scene—Peter as a young boy outside his parents’ bedroom, overhearing sounds of abuse and suffering—is a direct transcription of what I heard when young.
I guess by the time I approached this novel, many decades later, my life had reached the point where I could finally write about this freely—the event and its effects on a child growing up. Recreating this painful memory unleashed a well of deep emotion, which I hope gives the novel some real depth and feeling.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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