Photo by Megan Bean
Michael Kardos is the author of the new novel Fun City Heist. His other books include the novel Bluff. He lives in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Q: What inspired you to write Fun City Heist, and how did you create your character Mo?
A: Although Fun City Heist isn’t autobiographical, it’s a mashup of several things that are personal and important to me. I was a fully committed drummer for most of my 20s. I played in an original band, cover bands, even a Springsteen tribute. I knew lots of guys like the characters in Fun City Heist. I understand their dreams, dreads, and heartaches. Also, the beach town/boardwalk setting was key. Boardwalk life is sort of hard-wired into my skull.
I wanted to write a rock-band book that “gets it right”—that is, one that gets to the heart of being a musician, or more broadly, the heart of being any artist where one’s passion and ambition and love bump up against the realities of a world that is essentially indifferent to one’s passion and ambition and love. Mo Melnick, my narrator, embodies all that. Plus, he has an understanding of the baked-in absurdity of the world he inhabits.
The crime-novelist part of me couldn’t resist the fun of a “band of musicians” becoming a “band of thieves,” especially when they are fundamentally ill-prepared for the job. There seemed to be a real similarity between a band trying to beat the overwhelming odds of making it in the music business and pulling off a successful heist. In both, you have to go on faith, to some degree, because the odds are way against you. (And what better alibi is there than being on-stage, performing?)
Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Mo and Johnny?
A: Chapter one in the book describes their relationship like this: “We were never pals. For a long time, we were much closer than that, childhood best friends who’d started a band, and then we were at each other’s throats, and then he left me and the other guys and betrayed us all.” Mo and Johnny are kind of like brothers who have to work together after 12 years of estrangement.
Q: The writer Peter Swanson called the book an “expertly paced thriller, equal parts thrills, low-key comedy, and well-earned heart.” What do you think of that description?
A: Well, Peter Swanson is a hell of a thriller writer, so his depiction means a lot. The book is essentially about relationships: between the band, and between Mo and the daughter he’s never known, so I especially appreciate the “well-earned heart” part.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: I started writing Fun City Heist in the dark days of 2020—I found myself reading authors whose humor and ethos were fundamentally humane and were, for me, an antidote to what I saw as a prevalent cruelty and nihilism. Same with the TV/movies that I, and lots of others, gravitated toward: There’s a reason why Ted Lasso became so popular.
Now it’s 2025, and we’re experiencing a new, different set of dark days. I have no clue where we’re headed. My hope is that this book will do for readers, in some small way, a bit of whatever it’s done for me.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m working on a hodgepodge of things: new novel, a couple of short stories. I’ve also been working on a couple of middle-grade books that I hope will see the light of day at some point because I really like them.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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