This is hardworking Maine, poverty Maine, where the local economy of the town of Androscoggin is ruled by the paper mill...It's where Jack McMorrow, a former "New York Times" metro reporter has come to take over the local weekly...When a seemingly friendless and ineffective staff photographer is found drowned in the river, McMorrow wonders why, and wonders why the local police don't wonder more...The rhythms of the weekly newspaper work a wonderful counterpoint to the building tension of McMorrow's investigation, and the writing is sharp and evocative without being showy.
Like many crime novelists I began my writing career in newspapers--the best training ground ever. After Colby College, I knocked around, including stints as a roofer, a postman, and a manuscript reader at a big New York publisher (thumbs up for the roofer gig, thumbs down on the publishing job).
My first reporting job was with a weekly in the paper mill town of Rumford, Maine. It was there that I left my sweaty mark on high-school wrestling coverage. But there was lots of small-town crime in Rumford. I would later mine my Rumford time for my first novel, DEADLINE.
After a few months it was on to the daily Waterville, Maine Morning Sentinel, where editors gave me a thrice-weekly column and I wrote about stuff I saw in police stations, courtrooms, in the towns and cities of Maine.
And all the while I was making up stories on the side, typing away on a Smith-Corona electric typewriter.
DEADLINE came out in 1993and the books came steadily after that. McMorrow and I grew up together, though at different rates.. I continue to live in a small village in central Maine, making regular trips for book research. My deal with Jack: I'll send him into some pretty dangerous places, but I'll scout them out first. I walk point; Jack has my back. Brandon Blake and I are still feeling each other out.
