Shaina Steinberg is the author of the new novel Echoes of Infamy, the third in her Bishop & Gallagher series. She is also a film and television writer, and she lives in Los Angeles.
Q: Echoes of Infamy is the third novel in your Bishop & Gallagher series--do you think your characters have changed over the course of the series?
A: My characters have changed a lot. Under The Paper Moon, the first book in the series, is set in 1948 Los Angeles. It follows two spies, Nick and Evelyn, who fell in love while working together behind enemy lines in World War II. At the end of the war Nick seemingly betrays Evelyn, leaving both of them alone and heartbroken.
When we first meet Nick, he’s a mess of a human. Still devastated over losing Evelyn, he’s been fired from the LAPD and is drinking too much. There’s a sense of hopelessness about him, like he’s given up and has decided that life is something to be endured instead of lived.
Meanwhile, Evelyn is trying to find her place in Los Angeles. She was raised to be a socialite who was a good wife and mother. Even as a child, she knew that was never going to be a comfortable role.
However, after her time working as a spy, there was no chance she could go back to playing tennis and organizing charity events. War was awful, but it was also when she felt fully alive. Working as a private investigator is her way of keeping that part of herself while she tries to figure out her future.
Evelyn and Nick reuniting is a huge catalyst for change. Nick has to pull himself together to become the man Evelyn deserves. Evelyn, meanwhile, deals with an extraordinary betrayal and learns that not everything, especially in relationships, is black and white.
In Echoes of Infamy, the third book in the series, Evelyn is now the president of an aeronautics company, but sometimes outside voices creep in, trying to convince her she’s not good enough. Evelyn learns to trust herself and her judgement, in a time and place where expectations are stacked against her.
Nick confronts dark secrets from his past that would have broken him when he was younger. He’s learned how to channel his anger and pain so he can protect others.
Both characters started the series as fairly lonely people who did not know how to move forward. When we end Echoes of Infamy, they, along with the people in their lives, have become a family.
Q: What inspired the plot of Echoes of Infamy?
A: I’ve always been interested in the question of what comes next? How do people rebuild after a trauma? How can they trust the world again when they’ve seen the worst in humanity?
When I was a child, my father read me Elie Wiesel way too early. I was impressed, not just by his survival, but that he was able to build a life after surviving hell.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of instances, both present-day and historical, of people being rounded up and thrown into detention centers/relocation centers/work camps. These disingenuous names mask the cruelty of innocent people being imprisoned in horrifying conditions.
One of the great American sins was rounding up people of Japanese ancestry after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. A group of people, including small children were ripped from their homes and communities for reasons described as “National Security.”
Those who lived in the exclusion zones on the West Coast were given 48 hours to pack up what they could carry. Homes, businesses, and personal belonging were often liquidated for pennies on the dollar. Many times, their land was sold at auction because of dubious legal claims like unpaid taxes or mortgages in arrears, despite the owners never having received notice of missing payments.
When people were finally released, they often did not have a home or livelihood to which they could return. Their original communities were sometimes scattered across the country or they returned to neighborhoods filled with people who had watched them be taken away, without protest.
Starting over after loss and trauma is difficult. It requires incredible strength. I deeply admire the people who keep going.
Q: The Publishers Weekly review of the series says, “Steinberg smoothly integrates real history into a fair-play whodunit that’s tense and sad in equal measure.” What do you think of that description, and what did you see as the right balance between fiction and history as you worked on the book?
A: That is a wonderful review from Publishers Weekly and I’m glad that the balance between fiction, history, mystery, and character worked out well. It can be hard to tell when I’m in the middle of writing.
One of the great things about historical fiction is that there is such a wealth of events to drive the story. For this one, the incarceration of Japanese Americans is an important and timely story.
I really enjoy the process of research that goes into the initial stages of writing. It’s so tempting to show off everything I’ve learned. (And yes, I was that girl who always raised her hand first in school.)
One way to prevent that is that I tend not to take notes. If the historical facts will serve the story, they tend stick in my brain and make their way into the plot in an organic way. Later, if I need specific details, I can go back and look them up.
The most important part of my work is the characters. As a reader, if I fall in love with someone, I will follow them almost anywhere. With Evelyn and Nick, I tried to create people I would like in real life.
While they have particular skills they learned as spies during the war, they’re also very human. They struggle with loss, insecurity, and fear. Joy can be hard-won and relationships are complicated.
Like all of us, they are products of their time and environment. Evelyn is based on my grandmother. Back then, many women’s lives involved becoming a wife and mother. Evelyn actively chose something different, which required a great deal of courage.
Nick, meanwhile, had to discard society’s expectation of the man being the breadwinner and head of home. He broke the cycle of violence that existed in his childhood. Together, he and Evelyn formed a remarkably modern relationship of equals, despite societal pressure.
Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: When Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke on December 8, 1941, he described the attack on Pearl Harbor as “a date which will live in infamy.” The tragedy of that day is not just the lives lost, but also how it was used as an excuse to incarcerate a group of innocent people. The echoes of this terrible injustice can still be heard today.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Unfortunately, my mother died the day after my first book was published. I lost my father to cancer 23 days later. There was a horrible juxtaposition between what should have been a happy, exciting experience with the worst time of my life.
I wrote Echoes of Infamy while dealing with intense grief. There were so many times when I did not think I would be able to finish it, but it was also a blessing to have work I love and a deadline to help drag me out of bed every morning.
I’m still grieving my parents, but that first year after a loss is a very particular, intense experience. It changed me in a way I did not expect for both better and worse.
My next novel deals with grief. It is based on my father’s experience of losing his father when he was in college. In the book, a family with two adult children in their early 20s, have to deal with the sudden death of their father.
He was a complicated, difficult man, who did not always know how to show affection. The children realize they will never get the acceptance and love they have always needed from this particular person. It’s about letting go of the dream of how things might have been and learning to accept and even embrace the way things are.
Q: I’m so sorry for your loss…
Is there anything else we should know?
A: While my novels are written as a series and build upon each other, it is possible to start with any one of them. My goal has always been to write entertaining stories that feel like a worthwhile way to spend time. Someone once complained to me that they stayed up way too late to find out what happened, and I think that is the greatest compliment a writer can receive.
In addition to novels, I also write screenplays. I can be found on Facebook @ShainaSteinbergWriter; Instagram @shainasteinberg and online at shainasteinberg.com.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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