Christine Carbo is the author of the new novel The Confession Artist. She also has written the Glacier Mystery Series. She lives in Montana.
Q: What inspired you to write The Confession
Artist, and how did you create your character Crosbie Mitchell?
A: I had completed a four-book crime fiction, ensemble
series called the Glacier Mystery Series where each book stands alone and secondary
characters are picked up in each new book, à la Tana French (the Dublin Murder Squad series). I play through the entire arc of the protagonist in each but,
in essence, all four are part of the same universe.
I wanted to continue writing stand-alones set in
Montana, but I wanted to try something new with a different voice, pace and
energy. I also hoped to try something a little more “high-concept” in nature.
But coming up with a “high-concept” idea is no easy
task. I was struggling to land on a crime-based idea that really intrigued me
when one day my son and I were hiking and chatting about composite sketches and
how lots of people can resemble a composite.
From there, the idea for The Confession Artist, a
thriller about a serial killer terrifying the nation by announcing their next
victim six days ahead by releasing a sketch of in the individual.
My protagonist, Crosbie, a strong-voiced, somewhat polarizing
character, materialized as I began writing. I knew I didn’t want a police procedural
structure, but I love how detectives and law enforcement characters in
procedurals have built-in ways of following breadcrumbs based on the very work
they’re hired to do.
So, I compromised and made Crosbie a former cop who’s
left the field because of a whole host of issues: harassment, backlash, guilt…
.
Of course, what’s the obvious next step for a young
former cop? A PI. So, from there, I had a character who carries emotional baggage,
has investigative skills, but who I can still treat like a domestic-suspense or
psychological thriller protagonist in many ways since she operates alone and is
the target of The Confession Artist.
Crosbie’s personality was born from all these currents
mixing together and she became a character who could add layers of
complications.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you
started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: I did not know how it would conclude. I started it
first just to get writing. I am more of a panster, but I’m the kind of panster
who needs to know where I’m ultimately headed.
E.L. Doctorow’s famous quote comparing writing a novel
to driving a car at night and seeing only as far as the headlights suits me
well. We can drive in the fog or the dark with only seeing as far as the end of
our headlights and still make our destination.
But even in the dark most of know—at least in general—
where we want to end up. Are we driving to a store, to a different town, to three
states over, to a friend’s house? I usually don’t know what lies immediately
ahead, but I need to understand my endpoint.
So, after a few chapters in, I wanted to determine who
the Confession Artist is and whether my protagonist will figure it out before
they meet, and if so, how? With this said, the ending did get altered slightly
from my original vision, but not all that much.
Q: The novel is set in Montana--how important is
setting to you in your writing?
A: Very important. In fact, I can be a little obsessive
about it. I enjoy the benefit of landscape, urban or rural, acting as an avatar
for characters’ emotions. In other words, setting can communicate things
characters might not say or do out loud, or things narrators don’t want to hit too
square on the nose.
For example, a mudslide blocking your protagonist’s
car might show how they’re feeling constrained while also showing how they
react in such a situation.
Smaller, rural communities turn out to be ripe for
mystery and thriller dynamics. Everyone seems to know each other or think they
do. Memories are selective. Outsiders stand out. Grudges get nursed. Secrets
are held. Protectionism runs thick, sometimes at a cost.
For a mystery writer, the balancing act between a wild
backdrop and the intimacy of the community can become a pressure cooker.
But as rich as these elements are, one of the biggest
challenges I face is not how well-written or gorgeous a certain description is,
but how to keep readers from getting bored with descriptions and settings, or
to not the descriptions interfere with pacing.
I try to ensure the setting somehow collides with the
psyches of the characters in interesting ways, in the connection between place
and character. I enjoy the challenge of accomplishing this while also giving
the reader a glimpse of the stunning—and sometimes stark—landscape surrounding
me in Montana.
For Crosbie, she lives alone in a house surrounded by
fields on one side and forest on the other. I aimed to connect her sense of
isolation—while being targeted by a serial killer—to the portrayal of each
spot, linking these places to her dread, vulnerability, survival instinct,
anger, and understandably heightened paranoia.
Q: A Publishers Weekly review of your writing says, “Carbo
paints a moving picture of complex, flawed people fighting to make their way in
a wilderness where little is black and white...” What do you think of that
description?
A: This description is for my Glacier Mystery Series,
but I feel like it’s applies to all my writing, including The Confession Artist
and even the book I’m working on now, another stand-alone also set in NW
Montana.
However, I do feel that since I was purposely trying
for something a little different in The Confession Artist, there is bit less of
a tie-in with the wild setting than in my Glacier series.
The Confession Artist could be played out in any
location, urban or rural. I just happened to set it in NW Montana because I
love to write about the area and how humans construct rules and morals to be
able to be in community with one another and how that jives with the
surrounding wilderness which has its own set of systems.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: A stand-alone featuring another female protagonist
who steps away from a very overlooked and politically delicate job in the
Montana justice system as a death row mitigator after she, against her ethical
and professional standards, develops strong feelings for a murderer.
But nine months after she steps away, a dead woman,
another death row mitigator, is found near the remote cabin where she lives and
she gets dragged back into this world that she’s trying to take an emotional
break from.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Thank you so much for having me on your blog! The
Confession Artist comes out June 1. For more updates and news on events, you
can find me on Instagram (@christine.carbo) or on my website at christinecarbo.com.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
