Arriving at his friend Carlton Marsh’s house, Declan Shaw finds a police inquiry. Marsh, a veteran war correspondent had committed suicide.
Shaw had contracted to do research for Marsh’s book about the wars he had reported on, and he knew quite well that Marsh wasn’t suicidal.
The manuscript of the initial chapters hints of a deep problem in Old Mapleton, Connecticut. Deep enough, that whatever the connection between war in far flung countries and a small New England town, it resulted in Marsh’s murder.
However, Old Mapleton won’t give up its secrets easily. Shaw must work to interpose himself into this world. He needs answers from wherever he can find them from the country club to the fishing boats.
Overarching this mystery, is Declan Shaw himself. There is something irretrievable in his personality. Charming, yet closed off, he can switch between these two traits as needs must.
His behaviour may seem contradictory at times but not mercurial. His conversations are never arbitrary and with sharp intelligence he waits for someone to bite at the bait he dangles.
Proctor handles this all deftly, with writing that shows a composed yet convoluted man. Such an excellent read and a great follow-up to Book one: Love you Till Tuesday.
Click Here to read that review.
The Interview
M.E. Proctor was born in Brussels and lives in Texas. She’s the author of the Declan Shaw detective mysteries: Love You Till Tuesday and Catch Me on a Blue Day. She’s the author of a short story collection, Family and Other Ailments, and the co-author of a retro-noir novella, Bop City Swing. Her fiction has appeared in Vautrin, Tough, Rock and a Hard Place, Bristol Noir, Mystery Tribune, Shotgun Honey, Reckon Review, and Black Cat Weekly among others. She’s a Shamus and Derringer awards short story nominee.
Website: shawmystery.com on Substack: meproctor.substack.com.
How did you arrive at the Declan Shaw character?
In a weird way … The name came first. I usually have a plot idea and what the characters are called comes afterwards. This was different. I’d just told my husband I wanted to write a crime novel. The last book of my science fiction series had been published, and I wanted to step out of that world, write something contemporary and realistic. That was eleven years ago, by the way.
So, I thought … mmmhh … crime … who’s the main character? Declan. It popped up and I liked how it sounded. What’s the last name? Something short, for balance. Shaw. I said it aloud a few times and it felt natural. Then I wondered, with that name what does he do for a living? I thought of making him a lawyer. I took a few classes in college but I’m not familiar with the job. A journalist maybe? I freelanced for a while, but I was thinking ‘series’ and what are the odds a reporter would be involved in crime cases on repeat. I definitely didn’t want to make him a cop. Procedures, hierarchy … not his vibe. His personality was already taking shape, and I hadn’t written a single line.
Private investigator. Okay, it fits. Classic, with a twist. Put him in Houston (where I lived), no guns, no murder (the police handle those), give him a shaky youth (that he doesn’t talk about), a smart mouth, and a restless disposition. Then I sat down to write, and it was a murder, of course, but a cold case that everybody except the widow has given up on. That book is in a folder on my hard drive and will remain there. Love You Till Tuesday, published last year is Declan’s official debut. It’s actually the fourth novel I wrote with him in the starring role. After writing a million words, I know the man pretty well. Catch Me on a Blue Day that came out in September is Book 2.
How do you see him evolving in the series?
Each book needs to be able to stand on its own, with a specific set of characters, even if a few are recurrent, like Moira Perkins, Declan’s partner in the agency. She keeps the business going when he’s in the field. Readers don’t need to keep track of who did what before. That’s something I have to worry about, for continuity purposes. The same applies to Declan’s biography. I know what happened to him in the past that helps understand his behavior, in particular the need to control his environment.
He also has trouble with relationships, and it all goes back years. Each story peels off a layer and reveals a facet of his personality. In Love You Till Tuesday, we learn why he hates guns. Catch Me on a Blue Day gives a peek at the kind of guy he was in college. I insert little flashbacks like pieces of the puzzle. There’s a book set later in the series where he makes a massive life-changing commitment. And he will eventually have to deal with those who put his life on its current trajectory. Cross fingers my publisher will want to continue the journey.
Who could play Declan in a series/movie?
Its not something I think much about. I didn’t have anybody in mind when I created Declan. I made him as tall as my brother because I loved dancing with him, and we were well matched in height. We could do fancy rock steps without getting stuck. Personality-wise, he is quite a bit like me, impatient and stubborn and trying to hide it. Other things too that I’d rather keep to myself! So I don’t know … Chris Pine maybe, for the twinkle of irony. Declan is a good-looking guy who doesn’t take himself seriously. His friends rib him about it. For a PI, he has a hard time disappearing into the woodwork.
Anything left out of the final draft of Catch Me on a Blue Day that might be used in another book?
I always keep my cuts, but I rarely look at them again. The only time I used one was when I changed the entire premise of a book and the chapter I dropped became a short story. The book is in the ‘in progress’ folder but the story was published. On the other hand, I’m likely to cannibalize an unpublished manuscript. I lifted an entire scene from my first Declan story and dropped it in Love You Till Tuesday. The flashback in what will hopefully be Book 3 also comes from an older text. It’s a heartbreaking piece of writing that says a lot about the character, and it needed the right emotional set-up. Book 3 is more introspective than its predecessors. I believe the fragment works well in that context.
You write a lot of short stories, how do you decide what to work on?
There is some method to my madness. When I work on a book, there isn’t much time for anything else. It means three months of total immersion. I will write an occasional guest post and do my Substack newsletter every two weeks, but I won’t write any fiction. I can’t. This is a case where multitasking does not work for me. Once I have a draft done, I need to let it sit. For a couple of months, sometimes longer. That’s when I write short stories. This year was a series of staggered projects.
During the first trimester, I worked with Russell Thayer on the follow-up to Bop City Swing, our retro-noir collaboration. Spring was mostly short stories for magazines and anthologies. The entire summer was spent on Declan Book 3, getting it back from beta readers, rewriting and polishing. Then the launch of Catch Me on a Blue Day and the writing that goes with it. Now I’m back in short story mode and putting the final touches on a collection that will come out early next year. I’ll go back to Declan soon, it’s about time. There’s a story taking place in West Texas … it’s a mess of divergent ideas right now. All pretty cool, but I need to make choices.
Catch Me on a Blue Day in a few lines?
The hunt for a killer, across time and borders. At the root, there’s a thirty-year-old cold case and a connection to the Salvadoran civil war. Both events have dramatic repercussions in the present. The story starts with the suspicious suicide of a veteran frontline reporter. He was writing a book on Central America that promised to be explosive. He’d asked Declan Shaw, an old friend, to help with research for the book. The action takes place in Connecticut. Declan is on unfamiliar terrain in this one.
The publisher, Shotgun Honey, made the book available in a bunch of formats, both paper and digital. Click Here to see the listing.
~ June Lorraine Roberts
Murder in Common is #21 on the Feedspot Top 80 Crime Novel Website
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