M.E. Proctor: Kansas City Breakdown – Guest Post

I wish there was more romance in contemporary crime fiction. Love seems to have retreated with flowers and chocolates to the quaint gardens and cottages of the cozy mysteries where meet-cutes and tender attachments are de rigueur. Current crime books have very little seduction in their pages.

On the other hand, violence and abusive relationships abound. Bad break-ups and obsessive behavior leading to mayhem are all over the bookshelves.

With these domestic thrillers that make you check that your door is locked and your cell phone charged. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good scare and a resilient protagonist who wins in the end, but can we have sane relationships from time to time?

One of the reasons why I like Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series is that the guy has a regular girlfriend who’s smart and funny. And he’s a good cook too. I believe the two are related. Which is probably why I make sure that my male protagonists aren’t complete boobs in a kitchen.

Tom Keegan, my San Francisco PD homicide detective, knows his way around a frying pan. He’s also engaged to a spunky crime reporter. I mention this because the girlfriend matters a lot in Kansas City Breakdown, the new retro-noir I co-wrote with Russell Thayer.

Last year, Russ and I released Bop City Swing. The book features Tom Keegan and Vivian Davis, aka Gunselle, a killer-for-hire. Russell writes Vivian’s point of view, and I write Tom’s. In Bop, the two protagonists become unlikely allies. The chemistry between them is explosive. Vivian is a knock-out, with or without a sniper rifle. Their first meeting sizzles. Sexual tension is a lot of fun to write.