Bookreporter.com - Author Profile: Reggie Nadelson

Reggie Nadelson

BIO

Reggie Nadelson is a New Yorker who also makes her home in London. She is a journalist and documentary filmmaker, and the author of two previous Artie Cohen novels, RED HOT BLUES and HOT POPPIES.

INTERVIEW

February 11, 2000

Author Reggie Nadelson is an international woman of mystery --- a native New Yorker, she loves and lives part-time in London, and writes mystery novels featuring Russian born New York City cop, Artie Cohen. In her third Cohen book, BLOODY LONDON, Nadelson shoots back and forth from London to Manhattan and keeps us guessing all the way. TBR Writer and author herself, Dianne Day, interviewed this touted mystery writer. Find out what makes Nadelson's novels so realistic, how she acquired her Russian knowledge, when we can expect to run into Artie again, and much more. If you haven't read anything by Nadelson before, here's your introduction.

TBR: BLOODY LONDON is the third book you've written with your Russian-American protagonist Artemy Maximovich, or Artie Cohen. How do you do your research for these books?

RN: BLOODY LONDON is the third book I've written with Artie Cohen (aka Artemy Maximovich Ostalsky), my Russian born New York cop, and the way I do research for these is the same way I do journalism. In fact, I usually get my basic idea from some journalism I've done and then focus on a particular area. Then I invent a story for Artie to pursue. Then I let him loose. But the research itself can be anything from going out to a restaurant in Brighton Beach (quietly taking notes) to spending time with a friend of mine who's an NYPD Detective. Once he took me to a gambling den in Chinatown and said, as we waited on the stairs, "Make like a police person."  I thought, who, me?

TBR: Much of the current book reads like facts that are really thinly veiled as fiction -- especially in the first half of the story. Will you tell us how closely factually based your work is?

RN: BLOODY LONDON may sound like fact thinly veiled as fiction, but that's because of the journalism, I suspect. Most of the facts are constructions based on stuff I know about the New York property market, for instance, but as the great Elmore Leonard once said, "I write fiction." I think if you pay close attention to things going on around you, it's pretty easy to get the detail right and then it all seems like fact.

TBR: If this is as factual as it seems, does it ever make you paranoid?

RN: I'm not the paranoid type and, as I said, the things I write are constructs. You can look at the world and always be paranoid if you pay attention, but most of the time we, in the West at least, generally live in a pretty nice cocoon.

TBR: Given that it's sometimes more difficult for a woman author to write in a male narrative voice, why did you choose to make your protagonist a man?

RN: I didn't really choose to make the protagonist a man. In fact, the main character started out as Lily Hanes, and she met a cop named Artie Cohen, and I just became attached to him. Someone said, "If you're going to do a series of books, make sure the main character is someone you can live with a long time." So I fell for Artie. And it was fun, anyhow, to see if I could pull it off, writing from a man's point of view. It made me pay a lot more attention to guys I know.

TBR: Your bio tells us that you live both in New York and London, which certainly accounts for your intimate knowledge of these cities. But you also seem to have in-depth knowledge of the Russian communities in both cities. Is this also from personal experience?

RN: In the late '80s and early '90s, I spent a good deal of time in the former Soviet Union doing journalism and documentaries and that's how I became intrigued with the subject. I've stayed friendly with quite a lot of Russians I see there, and I often go to Russian neighborhoods in New York when I need material.

TBR: If you had to choose one place to live all year round, where would it be --- New York or London? (Don't worry, if you choose London, we won't take offense --- in fact, many of us, if asked, might choose London!)

RN: I don't think I'd like to choose between New York and London. New York's my home.  I was born a few blocks from where I live; it's the place that I know best and feels real. It's New York and it's also, just home. But I'm really lucky because London is my second home and I adore it. I think it's a ravishingly handsome city.  I like its humor and eccentricity, I like the current buzz --- it's become a fabulously modern city --- and I have lots of friends there. Also, I think life is more laid back and a bit less formal than New York, and the conversation can be very good. Also, because I was an English major and a sort of genetic Anglophile (my mother was Canadian); even after all these years, I still get a kick out of the history stuff.  A friend of mine is now in the House of Lords and it's not without its charms going there for a drink in the bar.

TBR: BLOODY LONDON will be a hard act to follow. Do you plan any more Artie Cohen books? Will you give us a preview of your next project?

RN: Thanks. I'm glad you think BLOODY LONDON will be a hard act to follow, but I have at least three more Artie Cohen books I want to do. All you can do is try to do something a little different and a lot better and keep on trucking. The next one, which I'm finishing now, will focus on Artie and Lily's relationship and will take Artie to the blackest crime scene in the middle of Europe.

TBR: What is your writing process like? Take us through one of your typical writing days, or nights.

RN: Writing process? How to start. I try to keep ordinary work hours, early morning up, to the desk, write as long as I can go on, stop, then do some journalism and other kinds of work. I hate writing at night. At the end of the day there's too much stuff in my head and if I start having doubts at the work, it's worse. I like early mornings when I can put myself on auto pilot and just go for it.

TBR: What authors have influenced you? What mystery and suspense authors in particular?

RN: Well, I was an English major so I had all the usual tastes --- Jane Eyre, I adore Trollope, Jane Austen, Shakespeare. Modern authors I love include John Updike, who I think is America's great living novelist. Graham Greene was a hero; also, Evelyn Waugh. As far as mystery and suspense authors I started with the Brits, and I still think Josephine Tey and Dorothy Sayers are wonderful; also, early PD James. Ross McDonald is brilliant (and Chandler, of course). Of more contemporary writers, I really like Walter Mosley a lot. And James Lee Burke. I loved GORKY PARK. I'm not sure I can say who influenced me.  I don't really think of it like that, but I suppose the writers you love get under your skin. I suppose, though, if I were going to be influenced; I would like it to be by John Le Carre because he transcends genre.

TBR: If one of your books could be made into a film, which one would you like it to be?

RN: I think if one of my books were to be made into a film, I'd like it to be BLOODY LONDON; in part because it draws together the two cities I love, New York and London.

TBR: What are you reading now?

RN: I'm currently reading HEADLONG, a novel by the English writer Michael Frayn, A CHANGE OF CLIMATE by another English writer Hilary Mantel; though I usually read less when I'm in the thick of finishing a book. Normally I have about eight books going at one time.

TBR: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

RN: Aspiring writers? Enjoy it. And rewrite it. And read a lot. It's the only way to learn the trade --- for my money, it's probably more useful to read non-genre books, novels, biographies; but if you read too many mysteries, you'll start copying and lose your own voice.