Recently, I was given the privilege and honor of an interview with one of today’s best and brightest mystery novelists, Jean Sheldon. She is the author of The Woman in the Wing, about the beginnings of women pilots during World War II and spies trying to sabotage an aircraft factory, and her latest novel, Seven Cities of Greed. Set in the present day, it is about a hand-carved leather journal found at Zodiac’s Rare & Used Books in Chicago, and a tight-knit group of friends who try to use the journal’s clues to find a treasure trove of gold in New Mexico before before they are defeated by the rich and ruthless Samuel Barnes and his henchmen.
Without further ado, Jean, let’s get to the questions!
Douglas R. Cobb: Jean, first I’ll ask you a question about your latest novel and about your background. Seven Cities of Greed takes place in Illinois, primarily Evanston and Chicago, and also New Mexico. You write with great authority about each region, as if you have done a lot of research, lived in each state, or both. Have you lived in either of the two states?
Jean Sheldon: Hello Douglas, and thank you for your kind words. I was born in Chicago and lived there until I was thirty when I moved to New Mexico. I spent twenty-five years in that fascinating state and it was a delight to wander around and let my imagination and my characters run wild.
Douglas R. Cobb: In Seven Cites of Greed, a close-knit group of friends who met at Northwestern University some thirty years before the events and their adventures in the novel are all co-owners of the Zodiac Rare & Used Book Store. It is named after the Zodiac (also known as Zoey), a black cat who is the pet of one of the co-owners, Pat Sexton.
I was curious if you also had a cat.
Jean Sheldon: Ha. I am cat owned and have served several of them over the years.
Douglas R. Cobb: The newspaper that Samuel Barnes is looking for goes to the highest bidder, which is Jacqueline (Jackie) Tracy, one of the bookstore’s co-owners and its main patron.
Why is Barnes so relentless in his efforts to get the diary, who is Father Marcos de Niza, and what terrible thing happens to Jackie a second time?
Jean Sheldon: Let me start with Jackie. She had the dubious honor of being kidnapped twice in her life, almost 40 years apart. In the book, his nemesis Samuel Barnes maintains the profile of a successful Chicago businessman, but is a sociopath who lacks empathy and morals. He developed a passion for all things conquistadors and believes the journal contains the location of Cibola’s treasures and is meant to be his. Father Marcos de Niza was a real-life Franciscan priest who conducted the original quest for the Seven Cities of Cibola in the northern New World. He claimed the land that is now Arizona and New Mexico for Spain.
Douglas R. Cobb: One more question about Seven Cities of Greed, if you don’t mind, I’ll move on to some questions about your other novels.
At the same time, Barnes is trying to go after Jackie and her friends to get the journal, even having his men track them down in New Mexico, someone else is trying to get back at Barnes and posting photos of him dressed as a conquistador on the internet. .
Who is doing this to Barnes and why?
Jean Sheldon: Barnes’ brutality has earned him many enemies over the years, and more than one of his former conquests is out for revenge.
Douglas R. Cobb: He has written a whole series of mystery novels starring police detective Kerry Grant. They include the novels A Chilling Goodbye, Should Old Conquaintance be Dead, and Identity Murder. I haven’t read these novels yet, but I’ve heard they’re very good reads, and if they’re anything like his other novels, I’m sure what I’ve heard is true.
Why did you name your heroine Kerry Grant? Are you a fan of actor Cary Grant? Also, could you describe her a bit here and maybe tell us briefly about one or more of her novels?
Jean-Sheldon: Thank you. The Kerry Grant books were the first I created when I started writing at the age of 53 and I love Kerry and her friends. Why the name Kerry Grant? I really do not know. Her name and her character just grew. Kerry is a computer-savvy Chicago police detective whose bad temper is often tempered by her loyal partner and friends. There are actually four full books in the series, the fourth, Bidder Regrets, on online fraud, has never been published. The series is out of print, but I expect all of them to be reissued in the near future.
Douglas R. Cobb: You are very good at creating strong and intelligent female characters in all of your novels. Furthermore, his novels often have as their main aspect something to do with history. There’s the story of Cortés, Padre Marcos and the Seven Cities of Cibola in Seven Cities of Greed, for example, and her novel The Woman in the Wing portrays the struggles and tribulations of young women during World War II trying to become pilots. in the WAFS and WASP forces.
One of the main characters in The Woman in the Wing is Char Mercer, and another is her friend, Maxine (Maxie) Davies.
What are some of the obstacles and sexual prejudices they have to overcome that you mention in the book?
Jean Sheldon: I enjoy researching as much as writing. I was stunned when I started The Woman in the Wing and learned how much women had to overcome to work for their country. And not just the pilots. Factory workers faced the same kinds of ridicule and prejudice. They were doing what many considered ‘man’s work’ and were being called everything from sinners to anti-Americans. As for the pilots, there were actual incidents where sugar was found in the gas tanks of women’s training planes, and some male officers admitted to becoming trainers to prevent women from flying. The good news, of course, is that they overcame prejudice and were great pilots. It is heartwarming to see the pilots finally receive recognition for their services. In 2009, President Obama signed a bill awarding the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest civilian honor, to the Women Pilots of the Air Force Service of World War II.
Douglas R. Cobb: German spies/sympathizers make sabotage attempts at the aircraft factory Char and Maxi work at, undercover for the FBI. Are these attempts based on actual attempts that you have heard or read about?
Jean Sheldon: My research showed very little actual sabotage being done in this country. Many of the events that occurred in the story are fictional, though descriptions of the setting, such as the messengers on roller skates, are true.
Douglas R. Cobb: Two-woman teams were used in airplane factories like the one Char and Ellie work at.
Why, and could you also tell us who Hannah Brown was in her novel and tell us her fate?
Jean Sheldon: Most of the jobs in the plants required teamwork, like the riveters. One person fired the rivets with a pneumatic riveting gun and the other held something called a bucking bar, which stopped the rivet and formed a cap for a seal. Hannah Brown was a fictional WASP pilot who was originally sympathetic to Germany. She finally realized where her loyalty lay and she became instrumental in preventing a bomb planted by the German agent from exploding. To the best of my knowledge, there were no pilots whose loyalty was ever in question.
Douglas R. Cobb: Who are some of your favorite authors and which ones would you say have had the most influence on your own writing style?
Jean Sheldon: Wow, I have so many. I’ll start with Cather, Markham, Vonnegut, Salinger, Woolf, Paretsky, Collette, Alcott, Sayers, Christie, Greenan, and many others. They have all influenced me as a person and, in turn, my writing. That’s what makes reading so wonderful.
Douglas R. Cobb: Finally, could you tell us if you’re currently working on a novel, if we can expect you to write more Kerry Grant books, and when your next novel might be out in bookstores and/or on Amazon?
Jean Sheldon: I just finished a great whodunit called Flowers for Her Grave. I hope to have him and Monet’s Palette, an art forgery mystery, available in 2010, and yes, I hope Kerry is back in action very soon.
Thank you once again for agreeing to do this interview, Jean! It has been a pleasure and I look forward to reading more of your books in the future!
Jean-Sheldon: Thank you!
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