Interview with Crime Writer Robert Crais – S. 5, Ep. 4

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Robert Crais on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below, or if you’re in a rush, download a copy! Debbi [00:00:13]: Hi, everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense and thriller writing. I'm your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two e-books for sale; the nine-book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website, www.debbimack.com under the “Crime Cafe” link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. Debbi [00:01:02]: Hi everyone, I'm pleased to have with me today an author whose books I'm quite familiar with and whose writing inspires me. His latest novel is ‘A Dangerous Man’, the 18th book in the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series. He's also written other series and non-series books. Our guest today is bestselling author, Robert Crais. Hi, Robert, thanks for being with us today. Robert [00:01:28]: Debbi, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you. Debbi [00:01:31]: That's awesome. Well, I am thrilled to have you on. Before I get to your latest book, tell us about Elvis and Joe. Who are these guys and what brought them together as a team? Robert [00:01:42]: Well, Elvis Cole, my core character, the guy I'm known for most I guess, is a private investigator in Los Angeles. You know, when I created—I go back with crime fiction for a long time. I mean, I discovered Raymond Chandler when I was a kid and he was my gateway drug and I fell in love with this world. And I knew and always wanted to create a private investigator of my own and that was in the cards for me from early on. And when I created him, I guess you could say I took little bits and pieces—you remember Calvin and Hobbes, and Calvin had this cardboard box and he called it his transmogrifier. And he would get into the box and it would change; it would become a fighter plane or a speed boat or a motorcycle, whatever it was because it was his transmogrifier, this magical device. All writers have a transmogrifier, and I took little bits and pieces of myself and my sensibility and my worldview and I transmogrified myself very loosely into Elvis Cole. You know, he likes to talk, he's verbal, he's funny but he's so much better than me. And he’s one of these people I think I aspire to be, I wish I were more like Elvis Cole. Believe me, he lives a much more adventurous life than I do; I sit in a room and type. "All writers have a transmogrifier, and I took little bits and pieces of myself and my sensibility and my worldview and I transmogrified myself very loosely into Elvis Cole. You know, he likes to talk, he's verbal, he's funny but he's so much better than me." But I have also always been a fan of buddy pictures, going back to buddy comic books, you know, and buddy stories of all kinds. I think partnership is a natural order of things. And I wanted Elvis to have a partner and I thought, well, you know, what would be the most interesting partner is a partner who was completely different from Elvis. If Elvis is verbal, then Joe Pike is going to say very little; and if Elvis is funny and wears his heart on his sleeve, Joe Pike is going to show more emotion. And I began the creation that way. But what became apparent to me after a while is that there were reasons that Joe was so silent and Joe held his emotions in check and was such an internal character. And I began to sense that there was a well of great sadness in Joe and maybe even pain, and that made him enormously fascinating and interesting to me. Because what I've done over the course of all these books, 18 books now, is explore these two characters, to try to reveal little bits and pieces of why they are the men that they are; why is Joe that way; why is Elvi...