AN INTERVIEW WITH NICK HOFFMAN FROM AUTHOR LEV RAPHAEL'S NICK HOFFMAN MYSTERIES

Today we sit down for a chat with Nick Hoffman from author Lev Raphael’s Nick Hoffman Mysteries. 

What was your life like before your author started pulling your strings?

I was happy teaching my classes at the State University of Murder (SUM) and minding my own business before he decided to involve me in murders. Why me? I'm a native New Yorker who was never even mugged and suddenly I began stumbling over corpses. I may have been a fan of crime novels, but I never expected to be caught up in any.

 

What’s the one trait you like most about yourself?

I'm a Taurus and I'm stubborn. That kept me working on my bibliography of Edith Wharton for five long years and it's also helped me do criminal investigations I never thought would become habitual. I guess research is research.

 

What do you like least about yourself?

I can be impatient, which also sometimes makes me quip happy and I'll offer a jibe to the wrong person at the wrong time—like a campus police detective at SUM. These guys don't have a sense of humor. They despise us faculty to begin with, almost as much as they disrespect students, so mouthing off to them does not go over well.

 

What is the strangest thing your author has had you do or had happen to you?

I'm not a gun person but he sent me off to a gun shop in Burning Down the House when someone close to me was threatened. And the shop wasn't remotely what I expected, though, because the owner was a former nurse and it felt like a boutique. The owner even made me tea!

 

Do you argue with your author? If so, what do you argue about?

His favorite Humphrey Bogart movie is The Maltese Falcon and mine is Casablanca. 

 

What is your greatest fear?

I thought it was fear of dying, but I survived a mass shooting on campus in Assault With a Deadly Lie, so I feel weirdly freer than before.

 

What makes you happy?

I'm glad my author tells the story of my adventures in crime solving so that each book can stand alone. People can read them in sequence if they like, but it's not essential. Oh, and cooking—the kitchen is my favorite room! Pasta is my favorite comfort food and I just made Spaghetti Carbonara the other night. 

 

If you could rewrite a part of your story, what would it be? Why?

I wish I hadn't been stalked and almost killed, but I think it's made me more reflective as well as easing my fear of death: I'm thinking of writing a memoir. 

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one bugs you the most? Why?

Dean Bullerschmidt is the typical contemptuous, overbearing, and overpaid administrator who bullies everyone around him from behind a way-too-expensive desk. He thinks he's a king and everyone in the College of Arts and Letters is a churl.

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one would you love to trade places with? Why?

Juno Droomgoole, the professor of Canadian Studies, is foul-mouthed and over-the-top in every way and I admire her brass. And her fashion sense. I was going to say she gets away with murder, but that's probably not the best way to put it. . .

 

Tell us a little something about your author. Where can readers find his website/blog?

Lev Raphael has published more than me: 27 books, one of which has sold 300,000 copies and been translated into over a dozen languages. I'm proud to say I take up a lot of space at his website in the section on mysteries. He loves teaching as much as I do, and he left academia to mentor, coach, and edit writers at writewithoutborders.com.

 

What's next for you?

I've been wondering about following my author's path and leaving the academic world which is crazier than outsiders can imagine. Short term, given my new job and how stressful it is, I need a very long vacation with some great books to read while I'm gone. What can you recommend?

 

Department of Death

A Nick Hoffman Mystery, Book 10

 

In Department of Death, English professor Nick Hoffman has been unexpectedly installed by his dean as chairman of the English department, a position he never wanted. He can't seem to make anyone happy and can't get a handle on his new responsibilities as an administrator. Then a troubled student seeking his help is murdered and Nick becomes a prime suspect. Hounded by campus police, the local press and social media, Nick wonders if this could finally be the end of his career—and how he can manage to stay out of prison.

 

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MYSTERY AUTHOR LEV RAPHAEL ON HOW RESEARCH CAN BE MURDER

Lev Raphael is the author of 27 books ranging from mystery to memoir. He edits manuscripts, teaches writing workshops, and coaches writers at Write Without Borders. Learn more about Lev and his books at his website.  

Research Can Be Murder

In Department of Death, the latest Nick Hoffman mystery set in the wilds of academia, Nick has become chair of his university's English Department--but nobody reading the series could have predicted that would ever happen. It's definitely not something that Nick ever wanted. 

 

I introduced Nick to mystery readers in Let's Get Criminal as an English professor who wasn't respected in his Midwestern department for way too many reasons. To start with, he was a spousal hire, which meant he got his position only because the university wanted to hire his partner. Giving him a job, too, sweetened the deal.

 

Spousal hires at a university can arouse a lot of animosity in their new colleagues even when they're well-qualified, because they're basically just part of a package deal. In most cases, they would never have been hired on their own at that point in time. Other professors will feel they're intruders, unworthy of joining the rarified club whose membership they guard so zealously. And let's face it, it doesn't take much to anger highly combustible professors anyway in an environment where grudges flourish like feral hogs, walking catfish, Burmese pythons, and other invasive species that are ruining the Everglades.  

 

Nick was also looked down upon because he enjoyed teaching the most basic course the department offered: composition. His peers would do anything to avoid being stuck with it. That kind of course put him at the level of graduate assistants and adjuncts, and liking the hard work involved in helping students strengthen their writing skills created suspicion and even contempt: who was he trying to kid?

 

And then there was his scholarship: Nick is a bibliographer. A bibliographer of Edith Wharton. That means that he's not only read every single book, story, review, and essay that Wharton wrote, he's read everything that's ever been written about her. In every language. The project took him four solid years. He's annotated each item and created multiple indexes for the bibliography which is a splendid guide for anyone doing research about the American author who was the first women to win a Pulitzer for Literature.

 

That might sound significant, but to his new colleagues, it's grunt work, uninspiring--and worse than that, his book is useful. Unlike their own books which are written in abstruse critical jargon that only appeals to miniscule audiences.  

 

I chose this focus for Nick's scholarship because my college writing mentor was a Wharton bibliographer and I wanted to honor her years of research. And it appalled me how that book did not get her promoted to full professor when she should have been.

 

Nick has had a different path, pockmarked by murders of course. He did get promoted to full professor; a visiting authors' fellowship was established in his name by a grateful student who struck it rich; and through a bizarre twist of fate in the 10^th book of the series, he's heading up a department filled with people who loathe him more now than ever.

 

He regrets having agreed to become chair before the first week in his new position is over. What happens? Nick is unexpectedly privy to a bribery scandal that threatens to blacken the name of the university. Nick himself is the object of intense administrative harassment and spying. And of course, he becomes involved in yet another murder. 

 

Can his research skills and his love of crime fiction help him out of this tangle of problems? They always have, no matter how little respect they've earned him from his colleagues.

 

In classic mystery form, the murderer and motive are revealed at the very end of the book amid a scene of crazy academic chaos unlike anything Nick has ever witnessed or dealt with before. 

 

Department of Death

A Nick Hoffman Mystery, Book 10

 

Nick Hoffman has been unexpectedly installed by his dean as chairman of his English department. It's a wildly unpopular choice and Nick is now the focus of more animosity from his colleagues than ever before. He can't seem to make anyone happy and can't get a handle on his myriad new responsibilities as an administrator, a position he never wanted. Tragedy strikes when someone seeking his help is murdered, and Nick becomes a prime suspect. Hounded by campus police, the local press, and social media, Nick wonders if this could finally be the end of his career—and if he can manage to stay out of prison. Department of Death is Lev Raphael's most blistering satire yet of the perversities of academic life.

 

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--MYSTERY AUTHOR LEV RAPHAEL COOKS UP ONE OF HIS SLEUTH'S FAVORITE DISHES

Lev Raphael is the prize-winning author of twenty-seven books in genres from memoir to mystery, and his work has been translated into more than fifteen languages.  In recognition of his stature as an American author, Michigan State University's Library has purchased his literary papers for its Special Archives and updates that collection yearly. Learn more about Lev and his books at his author website and at Write Without Borders. 

Nick Hoffman at the State University of Michigan loves to cook and loves to eat. Focusing on food helps keep him centered despite the perpetual chaos in an English department filled with academic jackals snapping and snarling at each other over things as trivial as sharing an office.  And then there are the murders....

 

Cooking and enjoying a good meal give Nick and his spouse a perfect time-out to reflect and strategize. It makes their well-pointed kitchen an island in a storm of raging egos and all kinds of bad news. Nick is a bibliographer and loves teaching, so the last thing he expected on his bucolic midwestern university campus was a persistent crime problem with himself not only often involved, but worse than that, a suspect. Homicide is something that was only a news item when he was growing up in New York or subject matter for a TV series.

 

In Department of Death, Nick's life has changed dramatically once again because he's ascended to a position he never wanted: he's now chair of the department, peremptorily installed there by the dean who despises him. Does the malicious administrator have some hidden agenda? Of course. On the way to figuring that out and dealing with the latest suspicious death on campus in a climate of paranoia and authoritarianism, Nick and his spouse eat one of my favorite meals, sausages with grapes and onions. It sounded improbable when I first encountered the recipe, but it's terrific.

 

My version below is adapted from Melissa Clark's food column in the New York Times. Clark does a lot of roasting; I simplified everything by a switch to stove top prep. This serves four people and goes well with a sparkling wine.

 

On book tours for the Nick Hoffman series, I've often been asked if I eat as well as my hero. The answer is not all the time, because I don't get to the gym as regularly as he does (and not at all right now. But if Nick prepares or reheats an interesting meal in the series, I've tried it and liked it enough to share it with my audience, which is why Nick enjoys it in Department of Death.

 

Sausages with Sautéed Grapes and Onions

 

Ingredients:

1 large Vidalia onion, thinly sliced

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

4 cups seedless red grapes, halved 

1 teaspoon crushed fennel seeds

1 pound sliced chicken sausages

2 tablespoons chopped or snipped chives

2 tablespoons  sherry vinegar

 

Toss together onion slices, 2 tablespoons oil, salt and pepper and sauté in a large pan until translucent.

 

Add grapes, fennel seeds, and the remaining 2 tablespoons oil and cook until the grapes soften.

 

Add sliced sausages to heat through, and stir well.

 

Transfer sausages, grapes, and onions to plates.

 

Add vinegar and chives to pan and scrape up anything left in the pan, then drizzle the juices over each plate.

Department of Death

A Nick Hoffman Mystery

 

Years ago, Nick Hoffman was given a position in the English Department at the State University of Michigan because SUM wanted to hire his partner as writer-in-residence, but now he's been unexpectedly installed by his dean as chairman of that department. It's a wildly unpopular choice, and he's suddenly the focus of more animosity from his colleagues than he's ever dealt with before. He can't seem to make anyone happy and can't get a handle on his myriad new responsibilities as an administrator, a position he never wanted. Then tragedy strikes again way too close to home: Someone seeking his help is murdered, and under the shadow of another recent murder, Nick is a prime suspect. Hounded by campus police, the local press, and social media, Nick wonders if this could finally be the end of his career. That is, if he manages to stay out of prison.

 

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--GUEST AUTHOR LEV RAPHAEL ON THE INSPIRATION FOR HIS LATEST MYSTERY

Lev Raphael is the author of twenty-six books in a dozen different genres. His work has been translated into fifteen languages. He teaches writing workshops at writewithoutborders.com. Today Lev joins us to discuss the real-life events that inspired him to write his most recent mystery. Learn more about Lev at his website and blog. 

Teaching at a Toxic University

Back in 2011, the chair of the English Department at Michigan State University emailed to ask if I’d consider teaching there. His email was serendipitous. Less than a week before, I’d returned from a book tour in Germany where some of my venues were classrooms and I came home missing the interaction with students I’d had years ago before leaving academia to write full time.

As the chair pointed out when we met for coffee, I had published more books than the entire creative writing faculty put together, so he thought the match was ideal. I was happy to return to the classroom, and not only taught fiction and creative nonfiction, but literature courses packed with books I loved. Better still, I worked independently with talented writing students doing a senior thesis and got to pass on the kind of mentoring I received in college.

My office mate, a recent Ph.D., was friendly and hardworking, and chatting with her about books and pedagogy was always rewarding. Then one day, she walked in looking very upset and when I asked what was wrong, she told me about a frightening incident that had just happened. Her ex-boyfriend had burst into her apartment, knocking the door off its hinges, and roughed up her current boyfriend while she was locked in the bathroom calling 911. Apparently her ex- had been stalking her up to this point.

Not long afterwards, one of my best writing students FB messaged me that she was being stalked. I made sure she was safe and urged her to call the campus police. As she told me more about what was going on, it turned out the guy was a graduate student instructor who had taught one of her classes and sounded very much like the man who'd attacked my officemate's friend. A few questions later, it was clear this was the same person, and I put her in touch with my officemate for support.

I wasn't thinking of fiction then, I was worried about her safety, the safety of my officemate, and even my own. What if the stalker came to the office we shared looking for her and attacked me, too, for whatever reason? He sounded violent and unstable—anything was possible. I got a description so that I could be on guard, though to be honest, defending myself in a tiny office the size of a walk-in closet would have been close to impossible.

And then I watched over many months as both women were badly treated by the MSU office tasked to handle assaults, and let down by the legal system as well. My officemate eventually gave up academia, and my student left MSU in senior year before getting her degree because she didn't feel safe there anymore. Personal Protection Orders don’t mean much if someone is willing to violate them, or is stalking you via social media.

Shock doesn't begin to describe what I felt as their cases started being reported on in print and on air. They seemed more terrible with wider dissemination. And their stories sadly aligned with what I read about other campuses in the U.S. where people who should have helped were not responding swiftly or humanely in similar situations. A larger question that emerged was a depressing portrait of arrogant or out-of-touch administrators at all levels, who either ignored what was going on or responded inadequately.

That kind of malfeasance and mendacity fuel the plot of my 26^th book State University of Murder. It fields the same sleuth as in eight previous mysteries, English professor Nick Hoffman, but involves him more deeply than ever before with administrators who care more about their own position than the needs of the students and faculty they’re supposed to serve. I drew on stories people at other universities had told me and on newspaper reports from across the country.

State University of Murder isn’t a transcription of actual events, but it’s certainly inspired by them, and so is the character I created who’s coping with sexual assault. She’s a tenured professor, because anyone is vulnerable to exploitation, harassment, mistreatment--and worse. It’s all about power, and power plays out in unique but identifiable ways on college campuses in every state.

Michigan State University has made the news recently for much more stunning tales of abuse and what feels like corruption, but the two stories I heard from the victims needed to be honored just the same. I was already disillusioned by how I saw people treated at MSU, and what happened to my officemate and my student made the idea of continuing to teach there less and less tenable. Setting up my own website has been the perfect antidote.

State University of Murder

A Nick Hoffman Mystery

Still reeling from having escaped a mass shooting on campus, English professor Nick Hoffman finds himself on the receiving end of confessions by one colleague after another. All of them have good reason to hate the new department chair, Dr. Napoleon Padovani, who throws his weight around capriciously and cruelly. Resentment mounts on campus -- with an inevitably fatal result. Chaos and confusion reign among the faculty, which then turns on its own. Can Nick and his spouse Stefan restore order and save the day? Raphael has described the university as "a unique combination of the vanity of professional sports, the hypocrisy of politics, the cruelty of big business, with a touch of organized crime thrown in."

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