Chicago native and longtime resident of the Twin Cities, Brian Freeman, is an international bestselling author of psychological suspense novels. His books have been sold in 46 countries and 20 languages and have appeared as Main Selections in the Literary Guild and the Book of the Month Club. He is the author of The Cold Nowhere, a finalist for the 2014 Minnesota Book Award, Immoral, which won the Macavity Award in 2005, and Spilled Blood, the winner of the 2013 ITW Thriller Award for Best Hardcover Novel. He has also been nominated for many other awards, including the Edgar, the International Dagger, the Anthony, and the Barry.
Brian's new thriller, Marathon, draws inspiration from recent events to paint a portrait of crime in an American city that is also a dark reflection of national politics. With echoes of the Boston Marathon bombing, when people’s lives were forever changed at the finish line, this timely novel addresses some of the defining issues of our time: terrorism, fear of the other, and the raw power of social media to shape the public’s understanding of events.
When an explosion along the Duluth Marathon racecourse leaves dozens of people dead or injured, Duluth PD homicide detectives Jonathan Stride, Serena Dial, and Maggie Bei get to work sifting the debris for clues as to who’s behind the bombing. Soon the investigation is taken over by the FBI, whose lead agent is certain the act has all the hallmarks of Islamic terrorism. Complicating matters, the social media feed of a conservative First Amendment activist immediately floods the community with rumors and unfiltered information about the bombing, and a young Pakistani immigrant becomes the target of a massive manhunt. But are the answers behind the Duluth bombing more complex than anyone realizes? And can Stride, Serena, and Maggie get to the truth before more innocent people are killed in the spiraling confrontation between the Feds and the Islamic community?
Brian stops by In Reference to Murder today to discuss research and writing his novels:
Location research means making your setting come alive on the page. Sometimes it also means getting chased down by a guy on a moped.
I’ve always believed that setting enriches the drama of a mystery. The location of each chapter should add depth and atmosphere to the characters and the story. That means capturing what I call the “six senses of place.” I want to give readers a “you-are-there” sensation, in which they’re dropped into every chapter like an invisible observer and can feel, hear, touch, taste, and smell the action happening around them. But place is about more than physical reactions. It’s also about the memories and emotions that a location evokes. What does it feel like to be there? Does it scare you? Does it remind you of a summer romance? Does it fill you with sadness, longing, laughter, or regret? Those are the extra dimensions of a setting that make it come to life for the reader.
For me, there’s only one way to capture that authenticity. I have to be there. If I can stand where my characters stand—and feel what they feel—then I can bring the reader along for the ride. So in researching each book, I scout locations the way a film director would. I use real places—real businesses, real parks and trails, real landmarks, even real homes. In fact, I get e-mails from readers who love to follow along using Google Earth and Google Street View on every chapter of the book.
Usually, this kind of location research is pretty straightforward. I do an outline for the book, but I leave the location of each chapter open—so that I can visit different neighborhoods hunting for the right location to enhance the drama of each scene. That’s true whether I’m in Duluth (with the Jonathan Stride series), San Francisco (with Frost Easton and The Night Bird), or other areas like Florida, rural Wisconsin, or Las Vegas.
I never really considered the fact that the process may look a little strange from the outside. There I am, hiking through cemeteries, farmlands, ruined buildings, and suburban neighborhoods with my camera and voice recorder, making notes on the “feel” of each area and blocking out how the action of the chapter will take place. It works—but sometimes people get the wrong idea.
When I was scouting locations for my Jonathan Stride novella Turn to Stone, I was in the small town of Shawano, Wisconsin. I wanted a scene in an upscale neighborhood, so my wife, Marcia, and I drove up and down a street near the Wolf River, taking pictures and assessing the various homes for the book. For us, that’s normal. However, as we were leaving the area, I noticed a man on a moped behind me. I didn’t really think anything of it—but then I turned, and he turned, and I turned, and he turned again. He followed me all the way to our next location site at a boat landing on the river, and he pulled up right next to my driver’s-side door.
It turns out that he owned one of those homes we’d been scouting, and his daughters had been playing outside and had seen Marcia taking pictures. Well, they were convinced we were “casing the joint” and were going to come back to rob them. So—in a nice display of “Shawano justice”—the homeowner hopped on his moped and laid chase.
Of course, at that point, I had to convince the man that I was an author who was planning to set a book in his area. I’m sure he didn’t believe me for a minute and was ready to call the cops—but fortunately, I had some bookmarks in the car, so I think I was able to convince him that we were on the up-and-up.
I guess not everyone wants to have their home turned into a crime scene—but some people feel just the opposite. In my book The Burying Place, I used a home in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, as the location for a kidnapping—and when the owners sold that house the next year, they mentioned in the MLS listing that it had been “featured” in the book! Apparently, fictional crimes can also drive up your property value. Good to know.
Learn more about Brian Freeman and his books via his website, or follow him on Twitter or Facebook. Marathon is available now through all major online and brick-and-mortar bookstores.
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