Meeting with mystery novelist Robert Crais at Vromen’s bookstore in Pasadena during a book tour appearance, was a treat.
I arrived to a standing-room only audience of loyal fans eager to hear the successful novelist speak. He was celebrating the success of his just released, fifteenth book, Taken, featuring his beloved main characters; Elvis Cole and Joe Pike.
When asked how he comes up with the angle for this book, Crais shared with the audience “Eighteen months ago, I read about mass graves being found South of the Texas border, so I did more research.” Crais discovered that the violence wasn’t from the drug cartel, but from bajadores. The victims were mostly immigrants from India, Asia and Europe who came up through Central America on their journey to Mexico to enter the USA illegally. Bajadores find out which buses are filled with immigrants, kidnap the people at gunpoint and milk them for money. “People smuggling is a huge business,” announced Crais. “Bajadores kidnap, bring their prey to remote ranches and try to collect as much money as they can from families or employers. When the hundreds and thousands of dollars stops coming, the person is killed and buried in a mass grave with others of no value to the bajadores.”
Crais learned how to write successful novels from being a Screenwriter. He wrote scripts for the successful television hits: Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey and Miami Vice shows. Twenty-two years ago, he left the lucrative entertainment field as a producer and contract writer to follow a dream of writing his own novel. Crais hit the jackpot with his first Elvis Cole novel, The Monkey’s Raincoat.
When asked how novel writing is different than screenwriting, Crais replied, “The dialogue and format don’t change, just the pacing.” He went on to tell the group, “To write a novel, you don’t have to be visual. With screenwriting you do have to be visual.” What he enjoys most is the freedom he has as a novelist.
Crais doesn’t give a lot of physical description of his characters because he doesn’t see them. He told his fans “I can see their outline and the scuff marks on their shoes, but as the camera rises, my characters become a blur.”
A lady asked Crais where does he get his material to write his books? He replied with a smile “Writers cannibalize their life. They suck in and take everything around them.”
Another fan asked him how he developed his main characters Elvis Cole and Joe Pike? He looked out into the audience and said “I created two guys that I wished were my friends. I’d like to hang out with them. I enjoy thinking about them.”
Crais received a big laugh when he described his worst book tour. He was at a Barnes and Noble in Pittsburgh, PA. The bookstore was kind enough to set up 40 chairs, a podium and signs. When he arrived and was introduced, there were only three people in the audience. Two women sat near the front and one gentleman was in the back of the room. Instead of talking at the podium into a microphone, he invited the gentleman to sit next to the two ladies. Crais grabbed a chair and sat with them to chat about his book. “The man declined to move up and the ladies giggled when I sat down,” shared Crais. “They didn’t know who I was, and told me they were just resting their feet for a moment before continuing on with their shopping.”
His book, Taken, is set in Palm Springs and Los Angeles. A young couple happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and are kidnapped by bajadores. Elvis Cole and Joe Pike come to the rescue.
Before signing books, Crais told us “I like Joe Pike’s depth and complexity. I haven’t even touched the surface of Joe Pike.” Lucky for his readers, Elvis and Joe have many more adventures ahead with Crais at the reigns.
Jill's Book Reviews 