Q&A with J.A. Jance

 

 

 

J.A. Jance is the author of the new novel The Girl from Devil's Lake, the latest in her Joanna Brady series. Her other books include the J.P. Beaumont series. She lives in Seattle. 

 

Q: What inspired the plot of your new Joanna Brady novel?

 

A: Over the years I’ve watched a lot of true crime on TV. As a mystery writer, I’ve used that to learn a lot about police procedures and forensics both. 

 

In the last few years, I’ve been encouraged to see how advances in DNA have made it possible to find solutions to long unsolved case, finally bringing answers, if not always convictions, to grieving families.

 

Along the way I’ve noticed how those long unsolved cases have affected the officers involved, especially in situations where the missing or murdered victims are children. 

 

The officers carry those haunting cases with them for the remainder of their lives, and that was the inspiration for writing this book—showcasing some of those officers and families.

 

Ironically, in this case it’s old technology rather than forensic genealogy that finally brings down a vicious killer.

 

Q: How would you describe the relationship between Joanna and her daughter Jenny?

 

A: Jenny was 9 years old in the first Joanna Brady book, Desert Heat.  Her father was a sheriff’s deputy when he was shot and killed, and her mother has been sheriff for more than half of Jenny’s life. 

 

For years Jenny expected to grow up to be a veterinarian, but the kidnapping of a college roommate several years ago, inspired her to follow in her mother’s footsteps. 

 

As mother and daughter, I think Joanna and Jenny have a good relationship. Joanna is proud that Jenny is now a rookie cop, but as a mother, she can’t help but worry about the kinds of things her daughter is likely to encounter along the way.

 

Q: How did you create your character Steve?

 

A: Some people are born evil, and that’s Steve Roper in a nutshell.  After getting away with murdering his step-grandmother at age 11, he embarks on a life time of murdering people. 

 

We meet him in Fertile, Minnesota in 1956. His long history of crime evolves as a kind of backdrop over the years while Joanna’s life is occurring in the present. It takes time before their two paths cross, with explosive results.

 

As for how did I create him? One step at a time. I don’t know everything about a character when I begin writing about him or her. I pick up details as they move along, and that leaves me to be surprised right along with my readers. 

 

I was astonished by Steve’s brief visit with his father, and blown away by his courtroom appearance. I didn’t see either one of those coming. In other words, I don’t outline my books or my characters—I start at the beginning and write to the end.

 

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

 

A: I try to create characters who feel like real people rather than superheroes. They are ordinary people who are sometimes called upon to do extraordinary things. They may be cops, but they are also people who have families and friends and loved ones they care about. 

 

They’re not all-knowing. Sometimes they make mistakes.

 

And at the end of each book, I try to find a little piece of reconciliation—as Joanna does at the end of this one with her nemesis, Marliss Shackleford.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m working on the editing process for the next Ali Reynolds book, Smoke and Mirrors, and I’ve begun work on the next Beaumont book, Fools Errand.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: My first J.P. Beaumont book, Until Proven Guilty, was published 40 years ago, in June of 1985, and it’s still in print. I’ve been writing books for more than half my life.

 

I’m always happy when one of my books makes the New York Times List—the U of A Creative Writing professor who wouldn’t let me into his program in 1964 because I was a “girl” is probably spinning in his grave whenever that happens.

 

But the truth is, my goal in writing has nothing to do with making the list. I don’t consider myself a novelist. I’m a storyteller. I write to entertain—to take people out of whatever’s going on in their lives right now and into a different reality. 

 

I write for people who are sitting in hospital waiting rooms while a loved one undergoes surgery. I write for people who can’t sleep because their spouse, for one reason or another, is no longer in their lives. I write to entertain people sitting in jail cells for whom the written word can offer a welcome window to “outside.” 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with J.A. Jance.