Q&A with Matt Cost

 

 

 

Matt Cost is the author of the new novel Pirate Trap, the latest in his Clay Wolfe mystery series. He lives in Brunswick, Maine.

 

Q: What inspired you to write this new Clay Wolfe story?

 

A: I suppose I’ve always had an affinity for pirates, starting with Peter Pan, developing into Treasure Island, and taking off from there.

 

So, when I came across a news story that Captain Black Sam Bellamy had visited Machiasport, Maine, on a regular basis to rest up, and that it was thought he may have buried his loot there—my wheels started turning. A modern-day treasure hunt for a long-lost booty based upon new information was too good of a story to pass up.

 

Throw in a motorcycle club and a sex doll maker and the ingredients for the perfect Molotov Cocktail have been mixed and are in need of stirring.

 

Q: Did you need to do any research to write the book, and if so, did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: I delved deeply into the history of the area where my fictional town of Port Essex is located (roughly Boothbay Harbor, Maine).

 

I had to research the Abenaki Natives who first lived in that region and then the arrival of European settlers and the dynamics that touched off. Of course, I had to walk the plank in pirate research, lost Armadas, Blackbeard, and so many more.

 

This all had to be filtered into Port Essex, populated with Clay, Baylee, Crystal, and gang, and have life breathed into it so the words would leap off the page and come to life.

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Clay and his partner, Baylee?

 

A: Clay and Baylee have been on a slow burn for the first four books in this series. There is huge mutual attraction, physically, mentally, emotionally, and every which way, but life has had a way of complicating them ever consummating this magnetic chemistry until… not to give a spoiler, but there is a very good chance that Pirate Trap is going to be the catalyst that ignites that spark into a full-on blaze.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?

 

A: Pirate Trap is first and foremost a mystery novel with a twisting plot and flavorful characters that makes for an escape to a different world.

 

That place is the coast of Maine, and the pages are filled with motorcycle gangs, pirates, and various entities desperately trying to be the first to find this incredibly lucrative treasure if it even exists.

 

In past books, I have made statements about the dangers of heroin and fentanyl trafficking, cults, genome editing, and unexplained aerial phenomena. This one is about Clay, his gang, and PIRATES.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am marketing my second Brooklyn 8 Ballo mystery, City Gone Askew, which is pubbing on July 31. I am editing the sixth book in my Mainely Mystery series, Mainely Mayhem, and I am writing a new historical PI mystery series set in 1950s Raleigh, North Carolina.

 

1955 revolves around a PI named Jazz Jones who is a product of WWII and the Korean War who becomes embroiled in a civil rights case that evolves into something much more complicated.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Only that there is a special bond between writer and reader. An intimacy develops over time, especially if the reader follows along through a series or other books by that author.

 

A world is created, and the writer invites the reader to join them in that world. For the course of the book, the characters, plot, and setting are a shared experience.

 

This is a cherished moment for the writer to have others to share these lives and stories with others, and I thank the readers out there for joining me on the many journeys we take together.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Matt Cost.