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Like they say, write what you know.
Patrick Moore has taken his career as a private investigator and built a brand-new career as a novelist. His first indie-published book, “Cicero’s Dead,” has led to a new novel, “27 Days.” In this book, we meet PI Nick Crane, caught in a race against time to save his friend and business partner from alt-right power brokers and domestic terrorists who will spare no one to “Make America Safe Again.”
The terrorist group, “The Principles,” is led by Nick’s old enemy Marguerite Ferguson, who is out for his blood. When The Principles kidnap Nick’s friend and business partner Bobby Moore, Nick is informed that he has 27 days to surrender to Marguerite, and if he doesn’t, Bobby will be tortured and murdered. Help appears in the form of a young, idealistic female FBI agent named Carrie North who wants to arrest Marguerite for conspiring to commit domestic terrorist operations against the U.S.. Nick and Carrie join forces and the race against time to rescue Bobby Moore begins.
In this interview, Patrick talks about how one career led to another, Nick Crane’s progression as a character, and the topical aspect of the story.
Let’s begin with your choice to jump into novel writing. What prompted this?
I don’t really remember making a choice to write novels. It’s almost like it was just a given in my psyche, analogous in a way to Descartes’ famous dictum, “I think; therefore, I am,” only in my case it would be “I exist; therefore, I write novels.” The fact my parents read to us a lot when I was a child undoubtedly helped plant the seed.
In 2014 you indie-published your first thriller, “Cicero’s Dead.” How did that experience help with your new book?
“Cicero’s Dead” was my first Nick Crane crime thriller. It did fairly well and sold plenty of electronic downloads. Although many readers really enjoyed Cicero, I felt it had a few flaws, which I tried to correct in “27 Days.” First, I felt Cicero was a bit generic. The antagonist, Arnold Clipper, was a bit of a stock villain. Furthermore, he was offstage through most of the story. The reader only experienced him third hand. So, in “27 Days,” I took pains to make the villains highly visible. Also, I felt the text of Cicero arguably contained gratuitous violence, which I tried to avoid in “27 Days.”
Patrick Moore has taken his career as a private investigator and built a brand-new career as a novelist. His first indie-published book, “Cicero’s Dead,” has led to a new novel, “27 Days.” In this book, we meet PI Nick Crane, caught in a race against time to save his friend and business partner from alt-right power brokers and domestic terrorists who will spare no one to “Make America Safe Again.”
The terrorist group, “The Principles,” is led by Nick’s old enemy Marguerite Ferguson, who is out for his blood. When The Principles kidnap Nick’s friend and business partner Bobby Moore, Nick is informed that he has 27 days to surrender to Marguerite, and if he doesn’t, Bobby will be tortured and murdered. Help appears in the form of a young, idealistic female FBI agent named Carrie North who wants to arrest Marguerite for conspiring to commit domestic terrorist operations against the U.S.. Nick and Carrie join forces and the race against time to rescue Bobby Moore begins.
In this interview, Patrick talks about how one career led to another, Nick Crane’s progression as a character, and the topical aspect of the story.
Let’s begin with your choice to jump into novel writing. What prompted this?
I don’t really remember making a choice to write novels. It’s almost like it was just a given in my psyche, analogous in a way to Descartes’ famous dictum, “I think; therefore, I am,” only in my case it would be “I exist; therefore, I write novels.” The fact my parents read to us a lot when I was a child undoubtedly helped plant the seed.
In 2014 you indie-published your first thriller, “Cicero’s Dead.” How did that experience help with your new book?
“Cicero’s Dead” was my first Nick Crane crime thriller. It did fairly well and sold plenty of electronic downloads. Although many readers really enjoyed Cicero, I felt it had a few flaws, which I tried to correct in “27 Days.” First, I felt Cicero was a bit generic. The antagonist, Arnold Clipper, was a bit of a stock villain. Furthermore, he was offstage through most of the story. The reader only experienced him third hand. So, in “27 Days,” I took pains to make the villains highly visible. Also, I felt the text of Cicero arguably contained gratuitous violence, which I tried to avoid in “27 Days.”
How did your career as a private investigator and sentencing mitigation specialist inform the book?
Through working as an investigator and a sentencing mitigation specialist, I’ve become very familiar with how our legal system actually works, particularly at the federal level. I’ve worked on hundreds of cases, mostly criminal in nature. I’ve seen score of judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys in action, and I’ve interviewed countless witnesses. I’ve pored over Discovery, sometimes for days at a time. All of this experience has enabled me to write thrillers that are, hopefully, realistic in terms of how our criminal justice system works.
Were there any stereotypes or clichés of thrillers that you wanted to avoid?
I wanted to write a novel with social and political relevance, which is perhaps not typical of most thrillers. I wanted it to be more than pure escapism. On the other hand, I followed many of the standard conventions. I tried to create a page-turner steeped in unpredictability in order to keep readers on the edge of their seats.
Through working as an investigator and a sentencing mitigation specialist, I’ve become very familiar with how our legal system actually works, particularly at the federal level. I’ve worked on hundreds of cases, mostly criminal in nature. I’ve seen score of judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys in action, and I’ve interviewed countless witnesses. I’ve pored over Discovery, sometimes for days at a time. All of this experience has enabled me to write thrillers that are, hopefully, realistic in terms of how our criminal justice system works.
Were there any stereotypes or clichés of thrillers that you wanted to avoid?
I wanted to write a novel with social and political relevance, which is perhaps not typical of most thrillers. I wanted it to be more than pure escapism. On the other hand, I followed many of the standard conventions. I tried to create a page-turner steeped in unpredictability in order to keep readers on the edge of their seats.
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| Patrick H. Moore |
What writers do you feel really get the reality of criminal investigations?
Richard Price and Michael Connelly come to mind. Also Tana French, the brilliant American-Irish writer who has made Dublin her center of operations. And of course, there are many others. I think that Steve Hamilton, Dennis Lehane and James Lee Burke also have a good handle on the “reality of criminal investigations” filtered through their own potent imaginations.
The antagonists of the book want to “Make America Safe Again.” How do current events tie into the book? Was this always the plan?
The “Make America Safe Again” theme reflects the current ethos of the far right here in the United States, which I believe poses a “clear and present danger” to our democracy. The January 6th insurrection is a perfect example of this unfortunate mentality in action. I think the unhinged quality of the antagonists in “27 Days” reflects the “win at all costs” mentality of many present-day right wing elected officials and their enablers in the media. It was always my intention to depict a similar group of miscreants in action in “27 Days.”
In your opinion, what are the challenges of tying in current events without making the book all about your political viewpoints?
This is an excellent question. We’ve all read books where the storyline is simply a thinly-veiled attempt to “make a point” rather than to simply “tell a good story.” The key to avoiding this pitfall, which I was of course aware of, was to create compelling realistic characters (my protagonist Nick Crane and his crew) locked in a life-or-death struggle against their adversaries. The reader is welcome to simply enjoy a lively and suspenseful page-turner without giving much thought to the larger social implications of the story if they so choose.
Nick Crane and Marguerite Ferguson. Who are they and what happened to make them enemies?
My protagonist Nick Crane is a veteran LA private investigator. Although compassionate on the inside, he is one tough and determined SOB, more than willing to “throw down” when necessary. His main antagonist in “27 Days,” Marguerite Ferguson, is one of the principals, a shadowy group of wealthy and influential right-wing aristocrats. Nick has been a thorn in the side of the principals ever since he and his team brought one of their key members, a serial killer of women and “gentler, kinder torture” expert named Frank Constantine, to justice in 2011, eight years before “27 Days” takes place. In the prequel to “27 Days,” which is called “Rogues and Patriots,” and which will hopefully be published next year by my publisher Down & Out Books, the reader will learn that Nick has thwarted all of Marguerite’s previous attempts to destroy him, earning her undying enmity in the process. Marguerite is not used to having her plans foiled and she perceives Nick’s refusal to bow down to her and the principals as a resounding slap in the face.
Are Nick and Carrie North a good team? How do they complement one another?
Nick Crane has always been somewhat skeptical of law enforcement and he is initially highly suspicious of FBI Special Agent Carrie North and her intentions. Nick is used to bending or breaking the rules as he sees fit and reporting to no one. Nonetheless, Nick learns to accept Carrie based on the courage she exhibits, her firm belief that Marguerite Ferguson must be brought to justice for the good of America, and her willingness to help Nick rescue his partner Bobby Moore, who has been kidnapped by Marguerite and her crew. Carrie, on the other hand, gradually gets used to Nick and comes to accept his unconventional approach to “working a case.” As the story progresses, the reader sees that Nick and Carrie are, in fact, indispensable to one another.
I loved the cover! How did it come about?
I’m really glad that you like the cover, something that everyone seems to agree on. We wanted a dark and forboding cover that epitomizes the danger Nick finds himself in. The managing editor of Down & Out Books, Lance Wright, asked his sister Dr. Margo Nauert to design the cover and, to my delight, she did a brilliant job.
Will there be more Nick Crane books?
I certainly hope so. I believe that Down & Out Books will publish the prequel to “27 Days” early next year. It is called “Rogues and Patriots” and it will answer many of the questions readers of the current book have concerning what led up to the predicament Nick finds himself in at the beginning of “27 Days.” “Rogues and Patriots” is almost finished. There will be a third and final book in the “Nick Crane versus Marguerite and the Principals” series with the working title of Giant Steps. After that, I may write more Nick Crane thrillers but they will either be standalones or part of a new series with different antagonists.
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