Q & A: Gabriel Cohen

Gabriel Cohen’s debut novel, Red Hook, was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. He wrote three more mystery novels featuring Brooklyn South Homicide Task Force detective Jack Leightner: The Graving Dock, Neptune Avenue, and The Ninth Step.

All four titles are now available as ebooks.

A brief Q & A with Cohen:

How would you complete this line: "You might well enjoy my books if you like..."?

I hope you might enjoy my books if you like Lawrence Block, Ian Rankin, John Le Carré, Martin Cruz Smith, or The Wire. I’ve tried to create a fairly realistic, human, complicated main character, and to use his investigations as a way of exploring a rich, vivid setting. (In my case, that’s Brooklyn.) When you get down to it, most crime novel series have some un-real elements (real detectives don’t catch exciting, baffling crimes every time), but I still try to ground my writing in real details about what it’s like to do the bizarre job of homicide investigation, or how people to struggle to get along when they’re packed into cities. And I think crime novels can do more than just provide a momentary mystery (whoddunnit?) or thrill—I like writing that explores the mysteries of human behavior and character.

What is your second favorite art form?

When I was in my twenties I had rock star ambitions (I was the lead singer/guitarist for an indie rock band), and I love movies (I have two brothers who are indie filmmakers). Like a lot of people these days, though, I’m excited by the possibilities of the long-arc TV series: the opportunity to create complex, multi-dimensional main characters; the chance to let them develop and change over time; the ability to build and explore a rich, multi-leveled world for them to live in. (I’m thinking of shows like The Wire and The Sopranos.)

About ten years ago I visited Honoré de Balzac’s writing studio in Paris, which was described as a kind of hideaway where he could escape his creditors. (I guess it’s never been easy to make a living as a writer!) All the way around the walls of the room where he sat at his writing desk, the curators of the little museum had stenciled a flow chart of the interrelations of the many characters of his multi-volume Human Comedy. I think it’s great that a modern art form can attempt that kind of rich panorama.

Learn more about the author and his work at Gabriel Cohen's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Graving Dock.

My Book, The Movie: Red Hook.

The Page 99 Test: The Ninth Step.

--Marshal Zeringue