Saturday, October 20, 2007

Robert Crais answers my question

Have you ever wondered, as I did, why THE LAST DETECTIVE begins with Joe Pike hunting a killer bear in Alaska? Eight months after he'd been shot twice in the back, and the bullets had shattered his shoulder blade, "spraying bone fragments like shrapnel through his left lung and the surrounding muscles and nerves," Joe is after this eleven hundred pound, rabid, rogue bear.

And when he finds him, and knows the bear may soon discover him, the strength in his shoulder and arm holding the rifle fail. Despite a philosphy of always meeting the charge, Pike admits defeat and leaves.

These pages are beautifully written. You're right there in Alaska, hearing the snapping jaws of the bear as it prepares to charge. I loved these pages, but I couldn't understand why the book opened this way. It had little to do with the book, which is Cole's story, not Pike's.

I had my answer recently. Crais spoke at my Romance Writers meeting, and as he was signing my copy of THE WATCHMAN, I asked.

His answer was he'd shown a dangerous, primordial wilderness in Alaska. And he was showing that Los Angeles is also dangerous, primordial wilderness. He smiled. "I think too much."

I said I'd thought it was Joe coming to terms with the severity of his injuries.

"That too."

So, there you have it.

Dee Ann
heists2683@mypacks.net
http://www.deeannpalmer.com
http://www.myspace.com/deeannpalmerwriter
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