Steve Liskow is a panelist and
mentor for both Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime and has been
named a finalist for both the Edgar Award and the Shamus Award. His next novel,
The Nowhere Man (hello, Beatle fans),
will be published in May. Learn more about Steve and his books at his website.
Rock & Roll Mystery
When I started college, I was a big British Invasion fan. I also liked
the Monkees and Paul Revere and the Raiders, all of which helps you guess my
age. In the fall of my sophomore year, I took a date to see Martha and the
Vandellas, and the opening act was some guys called the Muddy Waters Blues
Band. I’d never heard of them, but they blew me out of the water and I dropped
my teeny-bopper allegiance and became a blues fan on the spot.
About two months later, I bought my first guitar, slightly better than
what you’d find at Toys ‘R’ Us now, and began struggling to fingerpick the
blues. I wanted to become the next Charley Patton, but sounded more like
General Patton. Small hands, a lack of talent, and a wrist broken playing
football didn’t help, but I still play. Since then, I’ve bought, sold or traded
about twenty-five guitars and I can’t even guess how many amplifiers. I perform
at local open mic nights, and I love it.
The writing epiphany came several years ago when my wife and I returned
to Michigan for my high school reunion and I met a classmate—a woman I never knew
then—who was now a session keyboard player in Detroit. In fact, her escort was
the former drummer from Bob Seger’s Silver Bullet band. That meeting inspired
my Chris “Woody” Guthrie PI series, set in Detroit. I envisioned the character
as a guitar player and set out to list song titles that might also suggest a
mystery. Right now, that list is five pages long and most of my published titles
use songs or a line from a song.
The manuscript collected over 100 rejections under four different titles
and dozens of revisions. Woody’s name changed three times, too, but the basic
premise never varied. Years later, one of my musician friends commented that it
sounded like the Bobby Fuller murder in 1966, and I admitted that I hadn’t
thought about that at the time. I self-published the book in 2013 as Blood On the Tracks (the title of a Bob
Dylan album), and it placed in the top ten of over 1500 entries for the
Writer’s Digest Self-Published Novel Awards.
Now, Chris “Woody” Guthrie has his own series. He and girlfriend Megan
Traine, an ex-keyboard player, get involved in cases that have a music slant.
The first book solved the cold case of a rock star who died in his car years
before, and it got some decent reviews. Oh
Lord, Won’t You Steal Me a Mercedes Benz involves a car thief, the Detroit
Mob, and a pregnant stripper. One of the important clues is a Gibson Les Paul
guitar, which a man bought only weeks before someone kills him. Under one of
his earlier names, Woody solves the murder of a rock singer in “Stranglehold,”
which won the Black Orchid Novella Award for 2009, too.
I gave Woody my general appearance and musical preferences, so he plays
a Fender Stratocaster for electric and a Gibson Hummingbird for acoustic. Now
that he’s hooked up with Megan, a real musician, he practices more often and
he’s a much better player than I am. In the third book, slated for fall of
2016, he’s learning to play “Crossroad Blues,” a classic by Robert Johnson, the
King of the Delta Blues (You may know Eric Clapton’s reworking of it with
Cream). Johnson was murdered at the age of 27, and a line from that song is my
title: Dark Gonna Catch Me Here.
Music helps me write because a good song involves rhythm and harmony,
too. The chords and rhythm in a
song are like the subplots and pacing in a good story, and I like to change
points of view so everyone gets a solo.
Does it work? Well, I know the title of the fourth Woody Guthrie book that
I won’t start writing until next fall. And I still have about 325 song titles
left on my list.
Oh Lord, Won’t You Steal Me a
Mercedes Benz
When “Hot Rod” Lincoln steals a Mercedes, he doesn’t know Tony Fortunato’s
dead in the trunk, but the Detroit cops charge him with murder anyway. He turns
to PI Chris “Woody” Guthrie for help, and Guthrie discovers that Tony, who
married into the Mob, may have been embezzling—talk about biting the hand that
feeds you.
Everyone wants that money, but nobody knows where it is: Tony’s cheating
wife, his pregnant stripper girlfriend, his crime boss uncle…or whoever really
killed him. Guthrie needs to find the money and the killer before the meter
runs out.
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4 comments:
Loved the post. Thanks for mentioning all of my "old" favorites.
Enjoyed the post of a fellow Guppy, Steve. I love blues and soft jazz, and my youngest son is a bass player who used to have his own band. Your blog brought back some good memories (I grew up in Detroit). Did you know that Detroit declared the jazzy Baker's Keyboard Lounge a historic district on Tuesday? Best wishes for great success with your novels. (Marilyn / aka cj petterson)
Marilyn, I didn't know about the Baker's declaration, but it's great news. Thanks for posting.
I never likened a song to writing a story, but now I do after reading this blog post. Good point. I always wanted to be a guitarist and play in a band, but it didn't happen. I was in a Dixieland band in high school though--trumpet player. Enjoyed meeting you at the Writers Chatroom. Best wishes with your upcoming release!
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