Matt Cost dives into the rebirth that is the Roaring ‘20s

By Max Bowen

If you’re into rum runners, jazz musicians and mysteries, this is the book for you. Author Matt Cost debuts private investigator 8 Ballo in his new book, “Velma Gone Awry.” In it, 8 Ballo is hired to find the daughter of a wealthy businessman. The search will lead him to cross paths with Dorothy Parker, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Coleman Hawkins, Bugsy Siegel, Babe Ruth, and many more.

In this interview, Cost talks about the origin for the characer and his unique name, the lengthy research for this eclectic time period, and his writing process after 12 books.


I’d like to begin with setting this book in the Roaring ‘20s. Why this time period and how does it influence how the story goes?
Quite simply, the Roaring ‘20s was the most exciting time in the history of America, if not the world, and no place as fascinating as Brooklyn. Coming out of the Great War, World War I, it is a time of shattered dreams being rebuilt, a rebirth and reawakening of new ideas, books, music, gender roles, and so much more. All of this is incorporated into “Velma Gone Awry.” Prohibition and rum runners such as Busy Siegel and Meyer Lansky. Flappers challenging typical gender roles such as Dorothy Parker, Zelda Fitzgerald, and Mae West. Legendary jazz icons such as Coleman ‘Bean’ Hawkins and Fletcher ‘Smack’ Henderson. The Roaring ‘20s as witnessed by PI 8 Ballo is an incredibly storied era.


What was it like to research this time period? Any favorite things about it?
As mentioned above, there are so many prized pieces to dig into. There are gangsters, flappers and jazz musicians. But also, it was an incredible time for baseball, and we are introduced to Babe Ruth and others. The moving pictures had caught hold and was holding the nation rapt with attention. Street cars, automobiles, and yellow cabs zipped up and down the streets around wagons and pedestrians. I was able to read the Brooklyn Eagle online for every day of the year in which “Velma Gone Awry” takes place, 1923, and immerse myself within that time and place.

Who is 8 Ballo and what leads him to become a PI?
8 Ballo is the eighth child of Hungarian immigrants living in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City. His mother is so certain that he is going to be a female to balance the scales of his four older brothers and three sisters, that she does not have a name prepared for him when he is born male. With his father out to sea, she writes down the number 8 as a placeholder, meaning to change it, but never does. He grows up incensed with status and racist roles exhibited by his father and others, believing wholly in equality of all himself. He is college educated, jilted in love, and jaded by ‘Kaiser Bill’s War.’ This is what sends him down the path of becoming a PI after returning home from Europe.

This book has Ballo interacting with a lot of famous figures. How did you get into their heads?
Research, research, and more research. With some of the characters, such as Dorothy Parker, I was even able to incorporate a fair amount of her famous quotes into things that she said. With the gangsters Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky, I visited some of their more famous haunts such as the back of The Back Room in Lower Manhattan. This is a task that I don’t take lightly and I try very hard to not overstep nor misrepresent.

Did any of these strike a chord with you?
The Roaring ‘20s was so amply ripe with colorful figures that writing the book was much like making cuts for the Olympic Men’s Basketball team. Every character was carefully chosen to walk the pages of “Velma Gone Awry” simply because they could not be left out. Dorothy Parker becomes a strong presence in the book and will be back for the sequel, “City Gone Askew,” in April 2024. As will several others, while some, like Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, are not around, having gone to Paris. But new people such as Louis Armstrong blow into town, so the roar of the music continues.

You’ve been writing mystery books for years. After all this time and so many books, do you have a set process?
I published my first historical fiction book, “I am Cuba,” with Encircle Publications in March of 2020. “Velma Gone Awry” is my 12th published book since then. It is the debut of a third mystery series. In other words, I have been writing a lot, which means, every day, so that I can publish three books a year. So, yeah, my set process is mostly just to write and then write on.

What inspired your love of history and mystery?
I started off reading the Hardy Boys when I was 8 years old. This evolved into Nancy Drew, Encyclopedia Brown, Elmore Leonard, Robert Parker, and Carl Hiaasen to name a few. History has always fascinated me, once I learned that it was just a series of dates and events, but real flesh and blood human beings living out the greatest story ever told. With three historical fiction books and eight mysteries, this is my first foray into a historical mystery based up a PI in 1923 Brooklyn.

I read that you owned your own mystery bookstore, which I think is amazing! What was that like and what are some of the more memorable moments?
The Coffee Dog Bookstore lived some 25 years ago in Brunswick, Maine. Although the actual shop has been gone for some time now, it lives on in the pages of my Mainely Mystery series, where the protagonist, Goff Langdon is a PI AND owns The Coffee Dog Bookstore. And while a few zany things may have occurred when I owned the store, far many have sprung to life on the pages. The fifth book in the series, “Mainely Wicked,” will be published in August.