"...A DEPTH AND COMPLEXITY I WASN'T EXPECTING.":THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ROSE DOUCETTE'S HARRY HUNSICKER

Harry Hunsicker's latest, The Life And Death Of Rose Doucette follows private eye Dylan Fisher trying to solve the murder of his ex-wife with the help of Mia, the lawyer he works with, and Tito the man the wife left him for. He delivers all the things we love about a hard boiled detective novel as well as a strong emotional resonance. Harry, an old friend, was kind enough to take time to talk about creating the book with The Hard Word.

SCOTT MONTGOMERY: The basic idea of a man looking into the murder of his ex with her current husband is such an inspired idea, How did it come about?

HARRY HUNSICKER: That idea was inspired by a rewatching of LA CONFIDENTIAL, which has a plot element three cops who hate each other combining forces to investigate the same murder. I was drawn to that concept, people diametrically opposed to each other forced to work together to accomplish a greater good. But instead of cops from different parts of the police force, I chose two men battling for the affections (metaphorically) of the same woman.

S.M.: Dylan's relationship with Mia is both compelling and complex. How did you construct her as a character?

H.H.: In the outline, Mia was a generic character, little more than a placeholder, as characters in outlines sometimes are. As I wrote the book, she came alive, much like Dylan’s affection for her child did. During the writing process, both Mia and the child became Dylan’s surrogate family. And, like in most families, there’s bound to be some friction, which helped give depth to both Dylan and Mia.

S.M.: You did a great job of making the victim a full character, even though she wasn't alive through most of the book. Can you talk about how you approached portraying her in death?

H.H.: I knew what Rose’s secret was before I started writing the outline, which certainly helped make her a full-fledged character. Also, early on I realized that Dylan was not over the divorce, that he was still grieving the death of his marriage. So he began to peel back the onion on what he knew about Rose. Trying to solve her murder was one reason. But a second was his desire to understand what had happened to them as a couple. Seeing Rose through Dylan’s eyes, and then learning about her from other sources, really gave Rose a depth and complexity that I wasn’t expecting.

S.M.: You make Dallas a very vivid place for Dylan and Tito to operate in. Besides familiarity, what else does the city provide for your writing?

H.H.: There was an old black-and-white TV show that had as a tagline: "There are eight million stories in the naked city. This is one of them.” 

That’s how I feel about Dallas. There’s a lot of story gold to mine.

S.M..: You have been focusing more on screenwriting between your last book and this one. winning awards at it. Did you notice any effect it has on your prose?

H.H.:The screenwriting had definitely helped me craft a story. But when I’m writing a novel, I find myself having to work at putting more into the descriptions since I keep reverting to the terseness of a screenplay.

S.M.: Do you have any further ideas for Dylan, Mia, or Tito?

H.H.: I have a couple of rough ideas bouncing around. We’ll see what happens.