The Amazing Randisi

A couple of months ago, I received a very polite email from author Robert J. Randisi. It read "Found your site and enjoyed it" (woohoo!) "but was disappointed to see that I was not in your list of authors." (doh!) I quickly rectified that omission, and Mr. Randisi (or "Bob", as he's called by people who actually know him) graciously agreed to an email interview. So, without further ado...

Bleeker Books: What writers did you read when you were growing up? What were the influences on your writing? How did you become such a big fan of PI fiction?

Robert J. Randisi: I read all of the classic mystery writers in my teens: Hammett, Chandler, Christie, Sayers, Carr, Queen. I became a P.I. fan from watching the Warner bros. P.I. series of the 50's--Sunset Strip, Surfside 6, Hawaiian Eye and Bourbon Street Beat. The biggest influence on my becoming a P.I. writers, though, goes to Paul Newman, Lew Archer and Ross Macdonald. When I was 15 I saw Paul Newman in Harper. After the movie I went out and got Macdonald's The Moving Target on which the film was based and discovered that "Harper" was actually "Lew Archer," and I was hooked. I read all of Macdonald, and then kept reading P.I. fiction--Spillane, Henry Kane, Frank Kane, Thomas B. Dewey, Richard S. Prather, Michael Collins, Bill Pronzini and on and on. At 15 I decided I wanted to write for a living by the time I turned 30. I graduated from High School at 16 in 1968, didn't go to college, and eventually began writing full time at 30.

BB: Tell us a little about your series characters for your New York series: Miles Jacoby, Henry Po, and Nick Delvecchio.

RJR: Po came out of my love of horse racing. I wanted to combine P.I. fiction with the Sport of Kings. I was also a big Dick Francis fan at the time. Jacoby was born in a short story, first, and when the Po thing didn't work out after the first book--The Disappearance Of Penny-because of the vagaries of the publishing world, I took Jacoby and wrote Eye In The Ring. Then I took that same short story, "The Steinway Collection" and made it into the second novel. Delvecchio was born because I wanted to set a PI series in Brooklyn. I grew up in Brooklyn in an Italian/Puerto Rican family, and decided to use the Italian background for Delvecchio's family, as well.

BB: You were a civilian employee at the New York City Police Department. What sorts of work did you do? Did any of it find its way into your writing?

RJR: I was a Police Administrative Aide, which is a very broad job title. Specifically I worked in a precinct taking reports of crimes from people who came in off the streets and either closing them out or referring them to the detectives. I did the same thing with the reports the uniformed patrol force took while on the street. They turned them over to me and I either closed them out or referred them to the Squad. In my job I worked with both Uniformed Patrol and the Detectives. It was a learning experience, one I used to a very small degree in my early work, but moreso since the writing of Alone With The Dead (1995). That book drew heavily on my experience, and was also set in the building and area where I actually worked. The same is true of The Sixth Phase.

BB: What prompted the founding of the Private Eye Writers of America, and what were the circumstances of its creation?

RJR: In was 1981 and I was corresponding by mail with a lot of the top PI writers at the time--Pronzini, Michael Collins, Sue Grafton, Stuart Kaminsky, Jonathan Valin and others. I decided it might be easier to keep in touch with all these people through an organization. I came up with PWA and asked each person to send me a quarter if they were interested. I did a mailing, and asked for a dollar . . . and so on . . . I then asked Bill Pronzini if he would be the first President, and I became the first Vice-President. I came up with the Shamus award, which we gave out for the first time in 1982--and the rest is an ongoing history.

BB: Although you're from New York and your writing is most associated with that city, you now live in St. Louis. Do you still write about New York? Is it any different now that you've left?

RJR: I write about St. Louis now because that's where I live and it's fresh. I still have some books I want to write about New York, but my attitude toward the city has changed since I left--and so has the city. When I go back to Brooklyn now I can't believe how dirty it is. The same goes for Manhattan. New Yorkers tend to think that they and their city are the center of the universe. It's a shock when you leave there and find out it's not true, as I did.

BB: You've recently started a new series set in St. Louis. Tell us a little about it, and about whatever else you're working on these days.

RJR: The first book in the "Joe Keough" series was Alone With The Dead, and it was set in NY. When I moved to St. Louis I decided to take Keough with me rather than start over with a new character. The results have been good, with the publication of the "Arch" books--In The Shadow Of The Arch, Blood On The Arch and next year, East Of The Arch. Sales have been very good, as have reviews, and it was interesting to have Keough discover a new city, as I did. I'm also working on anthologies, and another St. Louis series about "Gil & Claire Hunt," which I write with my fiance and partner Christine Matthews. In 1999 we published Murder Is The Deal Of The Day and in January The Masks Of Auntie Laveau will come out. These are different for because they're not hardboiled. I also had a short story collection, Delvecchio's Brooklyn, out a couple of months ago. In addition I write a lot of westerns each year, under pseudonyms as well as my own name. Miracle Of The Jacal will be published next year. It's about Elfego Baca, the most famous Mexican lawman. Also, I'll be doing Curtains Of Blood. My first horror novel, which features Bram Stoker and Jack the Ripper. It will be published in 2002. My last anthology was The Shamus Game, and Mystery Street will be out in October.

BB: The private investigator has been called a twentieth century cowboy. Do you think that's why many prominent PI authors (Pronzini, Estleman, Reasoner, you) also write westerns? What are some of the difference in the two fields?

RJR: There are more similarities than differences in the two characters. Of course, the major difference is 100 years, but both men are loners taking on the bad guys for the good of society. You've got to throw Ed Gorman into that mix, too. (editor's note: duh) I think the five of us have done most of the crossover work in those genres.

BB: Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe came out at the end of the 1980s, marking a high point in the PI resurgence and pointing the way for the 90s. Tell us your opinion of Chandler and the writing of "Locker 246".

RJR: I think Chandler stands at the top of the heap of PI writers. Marlowe was the first true series PI. As for the writing of my story, it was an enjoyable conceit to think that I could pull off writing a Marlowe story. I'll be forever grateful that I was part of that book with so many of my friends and colleagues.

BB: What do you think of today's PI fiction? Where do you think we're headed?

RJR: I think some of the best writing today is being done in the PI genre, by men and women alike. I do not, however, think that it is the best writing that is necessarily being recognized and rewarded, as such. However, the cream does rise to the top, and ten years from now certain writers will still be active, and others will have fallen to the wayside. The work of some will be reprinted, and of others will be forgotten. That maybe the best indication of who the best of the best truly were.