JD Rhoades on Psycho Buddies and The Wrong Color Blue

At the beginning of the year, I decided to read as many crime novels written by first time authors coming out in 2005 as I could. The very first one I read was The Devil's Right Hand by J.D. Rhoades. Damn. Good. Book. Eleven months later, J.D. agreed to answer a few questions for the First Offenders.

FO: Hurry. Tell us about The Devil’s Right Hand.

JDR: Don’t rush me, man.

FO: How did the book come to be a reality?

JDR: A few years ago, I read a Dennis Lehane short story called “Running Out of Dog”, which was set in the South. I closed the book and thought two things. One, as always, was “damn, that Lehane boy can flat-out write!” The other was, “but he doesn’t quite have the South done right.” Now, mind you, I don’t blame Lehane for that; he’s a Yankee, bless his heart, and he does what he can with the tools God gave him. But it got me thinking about a style I eventually came to think of as “redneck noir.” Later, I was riding through Robeson County, North Carolina, on the way to a week at the beach with my family. My wife was driving, and I was in the front seat reading George V. Higgins’ The Friends of Eddie Coyle. I started thinking about putting those kinds of small-town criminals in that landscape. Sometime that week, I wrote the first scene of The Devil’s Right Hand. The second scene, the one with the guy in the strip club looking for a bail jumper, I had written as a fragment a while before that. I put them together, and it took off from there. Once it was written, I started shopping it around to agents. It went nowhere for a long time and I was getting really depressed. One night I was surfing the Web and came across a site called everybodywhosanybody.com or something like that. It was a list of agents who were seeking new clients and who took queries by e-mail. One of them was Scott Miller at Trident Media Group. I had had a few drinks and was in a what-the-hell mood, so I tossed out the “standard” query letter –you know, the one all the “how to get published” books tell you to write, and let fly. Scott e-mailed back and said “sure, send me the book.” I did, he liked it, we talked, he sold it.

FO: Your protagonist, Jack Keller, is a pretty messed-up guy, who makes for great reading. How did you come up with him?

JDR: In most PI novels, the protagonist has what I call the “psycho buddy” , the dark and violent sidekick usually with a violent past, who ends up doing the mean nasty stuff that the PI is too noble to do. Matt Scudder has Mick Ballou. Myron Bolitar has Win. Elvis Cole has Joe Pike. Robert Crais did a great job of exploring Joe Pike’s head in L.A. Requiem, which, for me, planted the seed of the idea that the “psycho buddy” could be a fully rounded character in his own right. Eventually, though, I decided that I wanted a PI-type character who does his own wet work. The challenge is in making him sympathetic, explaining why he is the way he is, and showing why you should love him anyway.

FO: What is your process for writing? Do you write every day, outline, etc?

JDR: I set a goal of at least a thousand words a day. I rarely reach it, unfortunately. But I try to write at least some every day. This latest book, the one I’m writing now, is the first one I ever did an actual outline or synopsis for, because the folks at St. Martin’s wanted to see something before they bought it. It put me in a position I’d never been in before, in that I knew how it ended. That almost did me in. It took a long time before I could work on it again. It had lost all its surprise for me. But I got over that.

FO: Who are some of the writers that you consider influences?

JDR: William Faulkner’s story “Barn Burning”is the original redneck noir tale. For showing me the kind of emotional depth that P.I. fiction is capable of, I thank Robert Crais and Dennis Lehane. For showing me that where I lived could be a viable setting for crime fiction, I thank my friend Katy Munger (if you can snag any of her Casey Jones series, do it). I don’t think it’s possible to have read as much John D. McDonald as I did without it sinking in. I love the grit and the dialogue in George V. Higgins’ early work. Some of my main influences aren’t prose writers. I got the title of The Devil’s Right Hand from one of my favorite Steve Earle songs, and I played his “Copperhead Road” album constantly while writing the book. Quentin Tarantino’s also a big influence…I love that over the top violence. The opening conversation in Devil’s Right Hand is an homage to the opening of Reservoir Dogs. And by “homage,” I mean “direct thievery.”

FO: What’s been the biggest thrill of your writing career so far?

JDR: Going to signings and conferences, meeting readers, booksellers and other writers. I really don’t understand writers who kvetch about being on the road. Spending time with people who love books and love talking about books? Oh, please don’t throw me in dat briar patch! I got to meet and hang out with Ken Bruen, who’s one of my idols, and one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. I also got to meet this Jeff Shelby fellow, who’s a real up-and-comer.

FO: You’re an attorney – perhaps your initials left you with no choice. Seems like half the crime-writing community is practicing law. What’s up with you people?

JDR: Well, practicing law in pretty much all its forms is about words, so that may have something to do with it. It can also be a damned miserable and aggravating way to make a living, which is why a lot of people in the profession are looking for something else to do.

FO: Tell us a little about your book coming out in March, Good Day In Hell, and what else is in the works.

JDR: Good Day in Hell is about people who’ve gone over the edge of sanity, each for their own reasons. It’s about Keller trying to adjust to having people in his life who he cares about, after being in self-imposed exile for so long. It’s also about him trying to hold on to his own sanity while dealing with an increasingly insane and violent situation. I’m working on the third book right now. The working title is Safe and Sound, and it’s about the extremes Keller and Marie will go to protect the people they love, and what that does to them.

FO: Finally – you live in North Carolina. Powder blue (wrong answer) or Duke blue(correct answer)?

JDR: What is this “powder blue” nonsense? It’s Carolina Blue, dude.

Ignore J.D.'s inability to answer the final question correctly. Go pick up The Devil's Right Hand and keep an eye out for Good Day In Hell. You can learn more about J.D. and his books at his website and at his blog.

Jeff

Comments

[JDRhoades]

Thanks, Jeff. And perhaps we should lay aside which Blue is the "correct one". Discussing matters of religion online is rarely productive.

And BTW, I just finished Jeff's first novel, "Killer Swell". Wonderful stuff. A very appealing protagonist and sidekick wrapped up in a swift moving and absorbing plot. It's everything you want in a PI novel, and more. It sure as hell doesn't read like a first effort.

[David Terrenoire]

For anyone who wants to spend a great evening, with or without alcohol, look up Dusty and his wife, Lynn, a woman who knows a good short story when she hears it. Thanks, Lynn.

And for an extended visit, pick up Devil's Right Hand (and Killer Swell for that matter). I wish I could write like these guys when I was their age. Hell, I wish I could write like these guys now.

[Rob Gregory Browne]

Scott Miller is the man. A guy who knows what he likes and runs with it.