"COMING UP WITH A FRESH IDEA FOR SUCH A STORY IS NOT EASY": TALES OF THE IMPOSSIBLE'S BILL PRONZINI

Bill Pronzini is one of those master craftsmen who can deftly apply his craft to almost any genre and subgenre. He recently broadened my opinion of the locked room (or impossible) mystery with his collection Tales of the Impossible. He was kind enough to take some questions from this newbie to the genre.

SCOTT MONTGOMERY: Can you write a locked room on demand or can you only do it when you have most of the puzzle pieces in mind?

BILL PRONZINI: I’ve never written an Impossible Crime story on demand, so I don’t know if I could.  It’s possible, I suppose, but not too likely.  Coming up with a fresh idea for such a story is not easy.  I usually have to wait until the concept for one occurs to me and stirs the creative juices.

S.M.: Do you have a different approach to it thay the other genres you write in?

B.P.: No, not really.  I’ve always been a voracious reader in all the genres and I have a hyperactive imagination.  All sorts of ideas come to me triggered by different sources; I try to pick the most intriguing of them to write no matter what the genre. 

S.,M.: You kicked it off well with "The Arrowmount Prison Riddle". Have you wanted to use your sleuth, enigmatic puip writer Buckmaster Gilloon, in other stories? He's such a great character.

B.P.: Initially I intended Gilloon to be a series character, but I could never think of another story that suited his oddball talents.  I wish I had; it would have been a pleasure to write more about him.

S.M.: I was surprised how well your Nameless Detective worked in the genre. Is there something ab

out him, more than other hard boiled private eyes, good for locked rooms?

B.P.: Well. I don’t consider him a hardboiled detective in the classic sense.  His cases are less violent and more character-driven and cerebral than those of most other PIs, so it’s in character for him to be confronted with and solve an occasional Impossible.

S.M.: Many of the stories feature your Quincannon character. What do you enjoy about wiring for him?

B.P.: San Francisco in the 1890s, for one thing; the research is a pleasure and provides an array of period characters, settings, and story ideas.  The style is different from that of the Nameless series too.  Quincannon's adventures are less serious and wryly tongue-in-cheek; he considers himself the "greatest detective west of the Mississippi, if not the entire country” and constantly tries in vain to seduce his partner and former Pinkerton op, Sabina Carpenter. 

S.M.: I mentioned in my review this collection kicked me out of my way of thinking that this subgenre was more plot than character and style. Who are some other authors you'd recommend for those new to locked room mysteries?

B.P.: The undisputed master was John Dickson Carr and his alter ego, Carter Dickson, who inspired me and to whose memory I dedicated TALES OF THE IMPOSSIBLE. He wrote scores of the very best novels, short stories, and radio plays of this type. The most prolific and accomplished of the modern writers was Edward D.Hoch.  He too wrote scores of first-rate Impossibles, most of which were solved by his series character, Dr. Sam Hawthorne.  Of Carr’s contemporaries I highly recommend the novels and stories of Clayton Rawson.