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Guest author - Julie Bozza
Apr. 22nd, 2019 03:54 pmDelighted to have my old mate Julie Bozza here today answering questions about her reissued little gem "The Definitive Albert J Sterne".
What makes this book different from other thrillers?
I think the main difference is the depth in which I explore the three main characters. There are chapters set during the childhoods of Albert, Fletch and Garrett. And we are there when Albert and Fletch first meet each other on an unrelated case, some years before they discover the results of Garrett’s crimes and launch the main investigation. Then towards the end, we stay with Albert and Fletch not only while they wind up this case, but also through two further chapters during which Albert meets Fletch’s family for the first time, and the two men sort out a whole lot of stuff relating to themselves and their relationship.
Which is a long way of saying this is a long novel! At the novel’s core is a serial killer thriller, a gay Silence of the Lambs. Around and throughout that is a love story about two very different men, bound together by a need to find this killer and end his career. And beyond that, the novel explores who each of the three men is, and what makes them tick.
It’s not only a thriller, but also a love story and a psychological drama.
Where do mysteries end and thrillers start?
This is an interesting question about two genres – or two related subgenres? – that overlap a great deal. Inevitably anyone reading this will come up with exceptions to anything I say! Mysteries and thrillers can both cover a lot of ground, too, and combine with other genres. So to keep things relatively simple I’ll compare the “whodunit” mystery and the “serial killer” thriller.
With a whodunit mystery, there is a puzzle to be solved. There is usually something curious or intriguing about the crime itself. The detective will try to work out what happened, and how and why. Answering these questions will lead the detective to the guilty party, eliminating other suspects and discarding red herrings along the way.
With a serial killer thriller, it tends to be a whole lot more obvious what has been done. While there is usually something macabre or gruesome about the crime, it doesn’t present much of a puzzle in itself. The detective still needs to find out who did it, but there is usually more of a disconnect between the crime and the criminal – or perhaps more significantly between the victim and the criminal. There is a random element to the killer’s choices and actions. The investigation therefore becomes more of a manhunt than a problem to be solved.
Even as I’m writing this, I’m thinking that these things can apply or not apply in all kinds of ways to different stories across both genres!
But perhaps there is one key difference between the two. A mystery keeps the identity of the criminal a secret until the big reveal at the end of the story, even if we have our suspicions and theories along the way, which may or may not accord with the detective’s theories. However, a thriller usually introduces the criminal to the reader quite early in the piece, so we often know far more than the detective does, and much of the thrill – or is that anxiety? – comes from wondering if the detective will manage to catch up before it’s all too late.
Albert Sterne, forensics expert with the FBI, is so obnoxious on the surface that no one bothers digging deeper. When he’s sent to Colorado to investigate the work of a serial killer, he encounters Special Agent Fletcher Ash and they end up reluctantly joining forces to unravel the case. It’s only a matter of duty, though; it can’t be more, because Albert doesn’t do friendship – and he certainly doesn’t do love!
What makes this book different from other thrillers?
I think the main difference is the depth in which I explore the three main characters. There are chapters set during the childhoods of Albert, Fletch and Garrett. And we are there when Albert and Fletch first meet each other on an unrelated case, some years before they discover the results of Garrett’s crimes and launch the main investigation. Then towards the end, we stay with Albert and Fletch not only while they wind up this case, but also through two further chapters during which Albert meets Fletch’s family for the first time, and the two men sort out a whole lot of stuff relating to themselves and their relationship.
Which is a long way of saying this is a long novel! At the novel’s core is a serial killer thriller, a gay Silence of the Lambs. Around and throughout that is a love story about two very different men, bound together by a need to find this killer and end his career. And beyond that, the novel explores who each of the three men is, and what makes them tick.
It’s not only a thriller, but also a love story and a psychological drama.
Where do mysteries end and thrillers start?
This is an interesting question about two genres – or two related subgenres? – that overlap a great deal. Inevitably anyone reading this will come up with exceptions to anything I say! Mysteries and thrillers can both cover a lot of ground, too, and combine with other genres. So to keep things relatively simple I’ll compare the “whodunit” mystery and the “serial killer” thriller.
With a whodunit mystery, there is a puzzle to be solved. There is usually something curious or intriguing about the crime itself. The detective will try to work out what happened, and how and why. Answering these questions will lead the detective to the guilty party, eliminating other suspects and discarding red herrings along the way.
With a serial killer thriller, it tends to be a whole lot more obvious what has been done. While there is usually something macabre or gruesome about the crime, it doesn’t present much of a puzzle in itself. The detective still needs to find out who did it, but there is usually more of a disconnect between the crime and the criminal – or perhaps more significantly between the victim and the criminal. There is a random element to the killer’s choices and actions. The investigation therefore becomes more of a manhunt than a problem to be solved.
Even as I’m writing this, I’m thinking that these things can apply or not apply in all kinds of ways to different stories across both genres!
But perhaps there is one key difference between the two. A mystery keeps the identity of the criminal a secret until the big reveal at the end of the story, even if we have our suspicions and theories along the way, which may or may not accord with the detective’s theories. However, a thriller usually introduces the criminal to the reader quite early in the piece, so we often know far more than the detective does, and much of the thrill – or is that anxiety? – comes from wondering if the detective will manage to catch up before it’s all too late.
Albert Sterne, forensics expert with the FBI, is so obnoxious on the surface that no one bothers digging deeper. When he’s sent to Colorado to investigate the work of a serial killer, he encounters Special Agent Fletcher Ash and they end up reluctantly joining forces to unravel the case. It’s only a matter of duty, though; it can’t be more, because Albert doesn’t do friendship – and he certainly doesn’t do love!
