INTERVIEWS & ARTICLES

Interviews with Jonnie:
Interview with Jonnie from the newsletter of MWA, Northern California Chapter
A Conversation with Jonnie Jacobs about her Kate Austen Series

Articles by Jonnie:
Mystery Readers Journal, Summer 2002: "Lure of the Law"
"Be Your Own Best Editor"

Mystery Readers Journal, Fall 2008: "Murder and More By The Bay"

I'm a native Californian, born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, so it's probably not surprising I write about the area.  But beyond that, the locale offers a terrific palette for writers of crime fiction.  Rich in character and ripe with diversity of just about every sort imaginable, the Bay Area is many places all at once.

We have oceans, beaches, and mountains with abundant open space, as well as high rises and heavily congested roadways.  We've got quaint towns (think Carmel and the Napa Valley, for example), sprawling new developments, comfortable city neighborhoods of distinct ethnic and/or life-style complexion, and hard core urban blight with some of the highest crime rates in the country.  Even our weather provides variety.  If you don't like the temperature where you are, just go a couple of miles in any direction and it will be different.  I can drive from the coast to the inland valley in less than an hour, and see a change of thirty degrees—along with a change in topography and culture.

But the real diversity is found in the people who live in the Bay Area and the lives they embrace.  From quirky local politics to technological innovation, the Bay Area is often on the cutting edge (some would say over the edge), but all of this makes for a lively and exciting existence, and that's grist for creative thought of all kinds.

What fascinates me as writer is the drama of human life.  I didn't set out to write crime fiction per se.  I wanted to write dramatic, engaging stories about flawed yet very human characters in complex situations.   Mysteries provide a wonderful framework for poking into human behavior at its worst and at its best.

My Kali O'Brien series features an East Bay attorney whose cases have involved her in everything from pursuit of a serial killer (Cold Justice), the fallout from date rape (Motion to Dismiss) and private adoption gone awry (Witness for the Defense), to a more personal journey involving family loyalty and secrets (The Next Victim).  She's traveled the mean streets of the inner city, the minefield of local politics, and the heights of Lake Tahoe (not really San Francisco, but a favorite haunt of San Franciscans).  And while I've had fun portraying dramatic (and sometimes climatic) scenes at San Francisco landmarks and romantic dinners at local restaurants, the inspiration for each book came from the kind of questions we all ask ourselves when we read about the ways lives can become tangled and about the horrible things people can do to one another.  The crime is a catalyst for questions, and the questions are was drive my interest in writing.

Kate Austen, the sleuth of my domestic series, lives in Walnut Hills, a fictional suburb of San Francisco.  Through Kate, I can explore another side of Bay Area life, and prod human behavior and personal secrets from a different perspective.  In Murder Among Neighbors, Kate reacts to the murder of her neighbor, a situation which was inspired by a real life experience in my own life.  In Murder Among Us , it's the murder of a teenager who was one of Kate's students, and in Murder Among Strangers, it's Kate herself who is abducted and sucked into an eddy of violence.

My non-series book, The Only Suspect, is set a little further afield near Sacramento but the broad influence of the Bay Area is still apparent.  As is my interest in the fallout from crime on those affected.  Sam Russell, who was saved from conviction for the murder of his first wife by a hung jury, finds himself a prime suspect in the murder of his second wife, as well.  What he discovers, of course, is not at all what he expected. 

One of the great things about San Francisco is that there is no one San Francisco.  There's a tough city and a genteel city, there's the homeless population and there are those who live in mansions.  There are young professionals, wide-eyed idealists, and families of all kinds.  Books by local authors reflect that diversity.  If it weren't for the mention of specific street names or landmarks, you'd be hard pressed to read some of these books side by side and know the authors were writing about the same locale.  Yet each author's depiction of the city rings true.  The challenge to an author is deciding which San Francisco to write about.  So far I've dipped my foot into several of the many possibilities, and the wonderful thing is, more await.

 

© Jonnie Jacobs. Web site by interbridge.