Jilliane Hoffman

BIO

Author Jilliane Hoffman served as Assistant State Attorney prosecuting felonies in Florida from 1992 to 1996. Until 2001, Ms. Hoffman was the regional legal advisor for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, advising more than one hundred special agents on criminal and civil matters in complex investigations including narcotics, homicide, and organized crime.

INTERVIEW

January 9, 2004

In the second half of a two-part interview conducted by Bookreporter.com co-Founder Carol Fitzgerald, and reviewers Joe Hartlaub and Bethanne Kelly Patrick, Jillianne Hoffman talks about her love for Miami and its people, some of her favorite authors, and what readers are saying about her debut novel RETRIBUTION.

BRC: You write about life in the boroughs of New York with great description. Did you spend time in the city?

JH: I grew up on Long Island and attended both undergraduate and law school at St. John's University in Queens. I interned for both a judge in Brooklyn and for the District Attorney's Office in Queens, and I worked for a civil law firm in NYC.

Oh, and I lived in Bayside, Queens with my husband. Right there on Rocky Hill Road, just a few minutes from the LIRR train station.

BRC: You also write with great detail about Cuban Miami. You have so many colorful bits and scenes with pastelitos, cafe Cubana and The Pickle Jar restaurant. What do you like about this area?

JH: When writing about Miami, you can't ignore the people in it. Cubans, Columbians, Brazilians --- they all influence the flavor of the city. Even in the Miami courthouse, Cuban coffee is served alongside pastelitos, and in every Publix you can find loaves of Cuban bread, fresh baked. I wanted the reader to experience Miami exactly the way it is, in all its delicious, colorful splendor. Because you can't drive down Eighth Street without hearing Latin music and seeing cafeterias, and you can't get bad frijoles negros in Little Havana.

BRC: What are you working on now and when can readers see it? Will readers see CJ and Dom again in a later book?

JH: I am working on a sequel to RETRIBUTION. I can't tell you who'll be in it, because I don't want to spoil the surprise(s). I believe it will be published next year (2005).

BRC: Clearly CJ has a lot of issues based upon her rape. What are the challenges in writing a relationship for a character who is a damaged woman?

JH: You have to think like one. You have to constantly be aware of what she has faced and how that will affect everything from where she eats dinner to how she returns her lover's kiss.

BRC: RETRIBUTION explores the subtle distinction between justice and revenge, as well as the nexus where the two concepts can, and often, intersect. The ending might be considered controversial in some circles, while very satisfying in others. Will CJ's actions in RETRIBUTION have any repercussions in future novels?

JH: I was not concerned with a happy ending. I wanted people to get to the end of the book, close it and turn to the guy next to them (who also hopefully just read it) and talk about it. I wanted to incite conversation and debate, and for people to wonder if justice really was had. C.J. has to live with all she has done and all she has failed to do, as well as the consequences of her decisions. Mighty heavy luggage to cart around…

BRC: You never took a writing course. But surely you read a book or two before you started RETRIBUTION. Which were most helpful? What author is your role model?

JH: I wrote something that I, myself, would like to read. With that in mind, my favorite authors are John Grisham, James Patterson and Thomas Harris. Grisham is King of the Courtroom, Patterson is a page-turner and Harris scares me. I'd have to say I admire all three for different reasons.

BRC: How did you feel when you saw the finished book for the first time?

JH: Awed. Then proud.

BRC: What are you hearing from readers about RETRIBUTION?

JH: Most people tell me that it scared them, some so much that they could not read it when alone or at night. But then those same people tell me that they simply could not put it down, and I have heard of many people reading it in one sitting. That makes me feel great! I am also hearing from readers that they love the metamorphosis that Chloe goes through --- from happy, optimistic law student to a scared and paralyzed victim to a woman capable of engineering retribution. And the courtroom scenes --- a lot of people can't believe the realities of the criminal justice system: the statute of limitations, search and seizure law, evidence suppression. Truth is stranger than fiction I suppose.

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PAST INTERVIEW

December 19, 2003

Jilliane Hoffman's background in law enforcement helped serve as the inspiration for her debut novel, RETRIBUTION. In Part One of a two-part interview conducted by Bookreporter.com Co-Founder Carol Fitzgerald, and reviewers Joe Hartlaub and Bethanne Kelly Patrick, Hoffman discusses why she made sex crimes the topic of RETRIBUTION, the development of her characters and why she wrote some scenes as graphically as she did.

BRC: You were Assistant State Attorney in one of America's crime capitals. Why not a nonfiction book? What led you to write fiction?

JH: While I often find truth in the law to be stranger --- and sometimes crueler --- than fiction, with fiction you can be more creative with the facts to intensify the suspense and color the characters. You create the story and the people, and you control the events. That's challenging.

BRC: You were an advisor for The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and dealt with both civil and criminal matters. When one --- at least one who lives outside of Florida --- thinks of crime in Florida, one thinks of drug trafficking. What was the impetus for you to make sex crimes, as opposed to drug trafficking or smuggling, the topic of RETRIBUTION?

JH: As the RLA for The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) in Miami, I helped rewrite Florida's sexual predator and offender notification laws (The Public Safety Information Act) and worked closely with FDLE special agents and the local police departments tracking offenders and notifying the public of their presence. As a prosecutor, I prosecuted a serial rapist and worked closely with many sexual battery victims. I know the physical and emotional damage inflicted on their victims and the psychological fear that grips a community when they are at large. I thought it a more interesting and socially compelling dynamic than drug smuggling.

BRC: The secondary characters in RETRIBUTION --- the judges, the policemen, the defense counsel, and particularly Marisol Alfonso --- seemed very true to life. Did you model anyone in the book directly on any of your acquaintances? Without naming names, of course!

JH: Every character in RETRIBUTION is flavored by the people who I have met in law enforcement. I would not say that any one person is representative of a particular character; rather I have borrowed certain distinctive attributes and idiosyncrasies from friends and associates that I have come across, mixed them together and created unique true-to-life characters.

BRC: Let's ask the obvious. How much of you is there in C.J. Townsend?

JH: You write what you know, so there is a great deal of me in C.J.

BRC: There's a great --- clearly fictional --- twist in the creation of your main character. But was the story itself inspired by a real case?

JH: No. While I can't say that all I have seen and heard in my years of law enforcement did not somehow make it into the book, there was no one case that inspired me.

BRC: As a woman who knows sex crimes victims from the prosecutor table, how hard was it to write the rape scene in RETRIBUTION?

JH: As a prosecutor, when you explain a set of facts to a jury, you have to do more than just that. You have to take them back there --- to the scene of the crime, into the bedroom --- and let them live the moment and feel the terror that your victim did, so that they can truly understand it. Understand her. I have listened to a lot of victims tell their horrible stories, each one different, and yet strangely similar. As a woman, I think all you need do is close your eyes and imagine one of your greatest fears happening in the privacy, sanctity and isolation of your own home, and the scene will play for you and the words will come.

BRC: Is RETRIBUTION a legal thriller? A suspense book? How would you characterize it?

JH: Both, and then some. I call it a legal, psychological suspense thriller.

BRC: A thriller. A sex crime. A psychiatrist. That's SILENCE OF THE LAMBS --- and RETRIBUTION. How conscious were you of that earlier book as you planned the character of Dr. Chambers?

JH: Conscious in the sense that I admire Thomas Harris and loved SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. But the dynamics in RETRIBUTION are different, and without giving anything away, the motivations of Dr. Chambers are not that of Hannibal Lector.

BRC: Again and again, we read that men who commit sex crimes rarely stop at one. It's an extension of government that would violate civil rights … but would women sleep better if all men had to give police a DNA sample?

JH: Rape is a crime of power and control, not passion. The fear of getting caught will not stop a sex offender. A DNA sample will help law enforcement find an individual --- if he has left a sample of himself behind --- but it will not stop the crime itself from occurring.

BRC: Reading your book, we thought, "It seems that if you're an attractive young woman, you should go through your day thinking that life is dangerous and you, in particular, aren't safe." Do you believe that? If so, what can women do to protect themselves?

JH: I think no one is immune to crime. With that in mind, I take certain common-sense precautions. I don't walk or jog alone at night, or in areas that are deserted or isolated even during the day. I make sure my home is secure before I go to sleep, and I am aware of my surroundings at all times. If my gut tells me something is amiss, I listen to it.

BRC: RETRIBUTION has received a lot of attention before publication. What is it like to have your manuscript become The HOT Debut Book of the year?

JH: It is an amazing feeling, really. I never imagined it would happen, so I appreciate every piece of good news that I get, thinking it can't get any better than this. The big test is the reading public.

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