#Titanuary #Q&A with…. Joanna Schaffhausen!

Happy publication day to the fabulous Joanna, whose third novel in her Ellery Hathaway series, ‘All The Best Lies’ is out in the UK!

Published by Titan Books, this time out, Reed Markham, FBI profiler is under the spotlight as he attempts to solve the mystery which has haunted him all his life-who killed his mother?

And who better to help him find out than Ellery, the girl he rescued from a serial killer when she was 13, and then grew up to be a formidable olice officer herself?

Ellery made her first appearance in ‘The Vanishing Season’, and followed that with ‘No Mercy’

I am a huge fan, so it was completely thrilling to be able to out the following questions to Joanna, as part of a publication day blitz!

Hi Joanna, thanks ever so much for agreeing to answer some questions about your Ellery Hathaway series. I’m a huge fan!

Thanks so much for having me! I’m delighted you enjoyed ‘The Vanishing Season.’

 

Did you envisage this being a series when you started writing ‘ The Vanishing Season’?

 

Yes, I figured it for a series. This was always a road block for me when friends and family would urge me to get published ‘for real.’ In the mystery world, authors are often asked to create a series. The pressure! You don’t have to imagine one good book. You have to think up several! It took me a long time to find characters I could envisage tracking over multiple adventures, and thus, Ellery and Reed were born.

 

Have you mapped out Ellery and Reed Markham’s story arc from the beginning, or are you a more spontaneous writer and see where the characters take you?

 

It’s both. I had certain ideas about where I wanted to take the characters, but they also take unexpected turns. The solution to Reed’s mother’s murder, for example, was not one I had imagined at first.

 

Music and Silence-do you need absolute calm or chaos to work in? Is there a soundtrack that you have to get into the writing zone, or to connect with various elements of the story that you are writing?

 

I’m a ‘total silence’ kind of writer. I can’t hear the voices in my head if the outside is too noisy.

 

‘The Vanishing Season’ was a huge success, it’s a wonderful take on the serial killer theme-did it take you by surprise that is was so well received?

 

I’m amazed and have been perpetually astounded since the beginning. The book came to be published through an annual contest run by the Mystery Writers of America and St. Martin’s Minotaur. I entered but never in a million years expected to win. There are around 400-500 entrants each year, so by odds alone, there’s a less than 1% chance of any book being declared the winner. I was shocked to get the call!

 

There are 10,000 new books published each month alone, so I am always humbled that a reader would choose one of mine. It’s a tiny miracle that touches me each day.

 

If you had to sell your latest book, ‘All The Best Lies’ in 3 words, what would you say?

Favorite final twist.

 

What is the book that you recommend above all others when asked for a book recommendation?

 

I don’t have a book that I prize above all other books. There are simply too many amazing books in the world! Right now, I am very much enjoying the Jane Prescott series of historical mysteries by Mariah Fredericks. The first is ‘A Death of No Importance.’

What is the most surprising feedback that you have to your writing?

 

I’ve had a small number of people tell me I shouldn’t include anything about rape because it’s too common in fiction or too horrible to imagine. A couple people have even suggested I should be raped myself so that I understand it isn’t a subject one should write about. Well, I was and so I am. There are millions of us out there. We’ll stop writing about it when it stops happening. Until such time, I’ll take control of the narrative, thank you very much.

 

Then there was a USA reader who looked at the cover and decided the woman on the front looked pregnant. She kept waiting for Ellery’s pregnancy to be revealed, and of course, it never was. She took two stars off for the misdirection. Ha!

 

Your background is in neuroscience-do you feel that this has been instrumental in getting inside the psychology of a survivor’s mindset-as a well as a killer? Ellery, for me, has a completely unique perspective due to her background and I wondered if that would have affected her suitability to be a police woman. The same with Reed, when he talks about the look of hope on parent’s faces that he will find their child, like he did Abby, I never thought about success in finding missing people being equated with such emotions. It was heartbreaking and offered such a deep insight into the character, and the nature of celebrity created by the media. 

 

Definitely all those psychology classes helped inform both characters. I’ve also read countless biographies from profilers and other law enforcement officials. I’ve read FBI papers on the study of serial offenders and arsonists, etc.

 

I’ve been writing publicly about sexual assault for years, and when I do, I invariably receive replies from survivors. Ellery is an amalgam of all our stories. She certainly has traits that would make her less than ideal for a police officer (most notably her raging case of PTSD), although she has some strong qualities to recommend her as well (her tenacity, her compassion). However, real-life officers are humans with a mix of good and bad traits as well.

Reed’s perspective is interesting to write, too. Ellery’s waking nightmare was his biggest success story. Part of reuniting with her is learning that the day of her rescue didn’t mark the end of her trauma. He stopped her from dying. Figuring out how to live in the aftermath is her hard work, not his. He can’t magically fix it. Ellery tells him at one point, ‘You catch these monsters and then you go home,’ but she eventually learns it isn’t this easy for him, either.

 

3 books in and the relationship that has developed between Reed and Ellery is a cornerstone of the stories. Do you have readers messaging you , asking you to get them together? They have a Mulder/Scully-esque vibe to them and I kind of do, and also don’t ,want that to happen! (I’m only about to start Book 2 so not sure if this has happened, apologies if it has and no worries of you don’t want to answer this or any of the other questions)

 

Oh, yes, I would say the crowd runs about 90% ‘they belong together forever’ and 10% ‘ew, that is so wrong!’ which makes them tons of fun to write. Both sides have a point! I think it’s Reed’s ex-wife who says, ‘What would you tell people about how you met?’

 

There are a hundred reasons why they wouldn’t make sense as a couple, but the big point in their favor is that they understand each other in a way the rest of the world does not. Each had their identity massively altered by this larger-than-life case and the public devours every detail. Everyone thinks they know the truth about Ellery, Reed, and the monster between them, but Reed and Ellery know better. They can be themselves together, scars and all.

 

Huge congratulations on the imminent publication of ‘All The Best Lies’, I am sure I am not alone in being incredibly excited to read it! If you could choose any living, or dead, author to blurb it, who would it be and why?

 

Thank you! It’s my favorite of the three, so I’m excited to see it make its way in the world. As to your question, gosh, that’s a tough one. I guess I’ll pick Ed McBain aka Evan Hunter, the author of the 87^th Precinct series. I cut my teeth reading his work and to have him sign off on my procedurals would be amazing.

‘All the Best Lies’ delves into the background of Reed Markham, the disappearance and death of his mother has had a huge effect on who he is and what he does. Parallels can be drawn with Michael Connelly’s detective, Harry Bosch, both are fuelled with a desire for justice that their own mothers never had. Was this an important story to tell,in order for him to move on? How difficult was it to write without, in a sense, winding his story up? It feels like the missing people that he is looking to return to their loved ones is an attemot at a karmic balance for what he went through as a child-as if he find enough people, solves enough cases, he will be able 

 

At core, all the books are about identity. What makes us who we are? Who gets to decide? Which are the experiences that shape you and which slide off like jelly on a sandwich? Reed has always known he was adopted as a baby after his biological mother was murdered. Diving into her life to find her killer, he comes to know her and learn what his life might have been like if she’d raised him. Part of what kicks of his search is a DNA test that reveals his true paternity. DNA, of course, also helps to determine who we are. But as Reed discovers, it’s not everything.

 

‘All the Best Lies’ is another step on Reed’s journey of learning the limits of his ability to fix things. His progress helps to heal his relationships with his family and with Ellery.

The serial killer who snatched Ellery as a child-will he make a return appearance in future books? The way that he was kept off stage, lurking in the shadwos with limited information threaded through ‘The Vanishing Season’  made him such a sinister presence, an absolute boogeyman. So many writers are quick to reveal all in  an expositional manner so this was brilliant and had me wanting to read on and on!

 

Thanks! Coben is indeed deliberately off-stage for most of the series but always a presence. People look at Ellery and Reed but see Coben. The whole concept for this series came years ago when I was reading one of the many books about serial killer Ted Bundy. This time through the Bundy story, I was struck by how many lives he’d altered. Not just the murdered victims’, but the law enforcement officers who hunted him, the victims who lived, his family, the women who were ‘near-misses’ and even his biographers. There’s a new Bundy book, TV series or movie at least once per year. The public never gets enough. Each time the story is told, the people who lived it are hauled out on display yet again. Bundy’s been dead for decades now but these people get no peace.

 

That said, yes, Coben finally gets his due in Book 5. He’s willing to grant Reed’s dearest wish—to bring home all the missing girls—but only if Reed will bring him Ellery.

How difficult was it to create Woodbury, the town that Ellery lives in? It seems so real and has captured all the nuances of small town life perfectly!

 

Not too hard! I live in Massachusetts, which can vary in territory quite dramatically in just a few short miles. Woodbury is fictional but based on real towns in the Western part of the state.

 

Last question,in Stephen King’s ‘Misery’, writer Paul Sheldon celebrates finishing a novel by drinking a single glass of champagne and smoking one cigarette. Do you have an end of book ritual that can be shared or is it a private experience?

 

I’m usually pretty spent by the end. I don’t have any close-of-book ritual, but I do have one for the launch of each book. I serve basset-hound cupcakes in honor of Ellery’s dog, Speed Bump. They are delicious and flippin’ adorable!

Thank you so very much for considering answering any of these questions , I am hugely grateful and hope that Reed and Ellery’s stories continue for many years to come!

 

Thank you! I hope so, too!

 

WOW!!! HUGEST thanks to Sarah at Titan and Joanna for her wonderful, insightful answers-a Speed Bump cake sounds the perfect way to round off a book, and Ed McBain would surely be a wonderful endorsement! Hopefully, if you haven’t read any of Joanna’s books, this might encourage to consider putting a reservation card in at the local library, or buying one of her books next time you are lookign for something to keep you up all night.

She truly has a wonderful gift of pulling you into her stories, making you care about her characters, and wanting more.

Here are her social media links in case you want to say ‘hello’, and keep up to date with her appearances and releases-

https://www.joannaschaffhausen.com/

Twitter @TitanBooks @slipperywhisper