Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...

What crime novel would you most like to have written?
James Lee Burke’s IN THE ELECTRIC MIST WITH CONFEDERATE DEAD.

What fictional character would you most like to have been?
Robert Crais’ Elvis Cole.

Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
Jerry Healy.

Most satisfying writing moment?
Oh boy, there’s more than one! I don’t know if it would be beginning the first page, or ending the last page. Maybe being happy with what I’ve written when I shut down the computer at the end of the day.

The best Irish crime novel is …?
I’ve read some good Irish crime novels, but the one that impressed me, and this ain’t suckin’ up, folks, is THE BIG O. Knocked the socks off me!

What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
Ken Bruen’s THE KILLING OF THE TINKERS.

Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Worst, being stuck at the end of a good paragraph with a blank mind; best, rereading a chapter I’ve finished and realizing it does everything I wanted it to.

The pitch for your next book is …?
CHASIN’ THE WIND is just coming out, so, for that I’d say corruption at the highest levels of government vs justice in the hands of some eclectic Key West characters.

FREE RANGE INSTITUTION, which I am finishing up now, is about drugs and corruption in Key West City government, the DEA, and how it brings murder and mayhem to the tropics.

Who are you reading right now?
I read a few books at a time, it kind of frees my over-active mind. I just finished Jimmy Breslin’s new non-fiction book, THE GOOD RAT. I am rereading Bob Morris’ JAMAICA ME DEAD, another Florida writer, and Christa Faust’s MONEY SHOT.

God appears and says you can only write OR read. Which would it be?
The gates of Hell, which would mean I had lived a life of sin, but maybe one worth reading about.

The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Key West eccentric.

Buy Chasin' the Wind at your local independent bookstore.

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