Author Mark de Castrique Visits Library

Local mystery writer Mark de Castrique visited my library recently for a special program in arrangement with the adult summer reading program for Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.  Billed the "Writing a mystery series," program,  de Castrique talked about development of his mystery series and components for effective fiction writing. 

De Castrique has two adult mystery series under his belt which are set in North Carolina. Combining the concepts that appealed to him to share in a narrative story and in locales he likes, the first series features a funeral director named Barry Clayton (Mark's father was a funeral director).  It is set in a fictional mountain town, resembling his childhood hometown.  Adding built-in personal conflicts for Barry to confront (such as self-sacrifice) along with murder investigations--a mystery series was created.  The second series features an Iraq veteran Sam Blackman set in Asheville.   

Some other points de Castrique shared included:

Mark de Castrique  (photo by blogger)

• likes to connect people and stories from the past to a present day story with interesting characters
• had worked from outlines to develop stories in earlier novels but works mostly from following the characters' stories now
• likes to include irony in stories
• when writing, he likes to pose the "what if" question
• hopes to write another Barry Clayton novel in the future
• works to be careful that too much research shared in a book doesn't turn it boring
• looks to a book editor to help shape a novel about when it should start and when it should stop
• "I'm a big believer everyone reads a different book" by the nature of experiences one brings to the story

de Castrique (photo by blogger)

De Castrique's newest book is the recently released is The 13th Target and set in Washington D.C. with a new central character former Secret Services agent Russell Mullins. De Castrique lived in the nation's capital briefly in the 70s and likes visiting the area.  He gave his first public reading of a passage from the new book which included a storyline about the Federal Reserve which interested him.

And de Castrique is careful to check facts in his writing as he shared this little story: in a pivotal scene for his newest novel, he wanted to re-examine a scene for accuracy so he took a day trip from North Carolina to Washington to settle the matter.  After arriving in the capitol, within an half hour the goal was accomplished to de Castrique's satisfaction.  Then he was free to visit family in the area--a second reward of the trip.

Book club discusses "House Rules" [December]

In December the book club ended the year with a book discussion of a topical thriller set largely in Washington, D.C. with fictional character Joe DeMarco. A lawyer by profession, DeMarco works secretly for the Speaker of the House as a troubleshooter--or "bag man" depending on how one would explain his work--and gets involved in some hair-raising adventures.

House Rules by Mike Lawson was the book club's selection with DeMarco running down the possible reasons for a certain family's involvement in a Muslim-based terrorist attack in the United States. Here's a photo of Lawson from his website.

Speaker of the House John Mahoney has long-time ties to that Muslim family and he dispatches DeMarco to investigate their connection to the incident. And his work also coincides with an ambitious senator pushing for legislation to have extensive background checks on all Muslims in the United States.

DeMarco's legwork stretches to cover a series of attempted Muslim terrorist attacks. Along the way, DeMarco begins a new long distance relationship and enlists the aid of one very resourceful ally while also getting the services of a unlikely (and much undesired) ally .

Some observations included:

• rounding up all Muslims would be a logistical nightmare when attempting to determine if each person actually is a Muslim
• the novel had some nice touches with the set-up with a hidden meth lab and surprising murders
• another nice touch--tough women characters on both sides of the law
• the novel ends with a satisfying resolution for a long running subplot throughout the book
• one attendee enjoyed this book more than the past three previous novels
• some attendees expected more suspense in the story
• one attendee who read all books in the series said the newest book House Secrets is the best of the series.