Paul Heald has just published his third novel, Courting Death – the third legal thriller in his compelling mystery series, the Clarkeston Chronicles. His previous novels include Death in Eden (2014) and Cotton (2016). We sat down with Heald to discuss his novel writing, research, and the future of the Clarkeston Chronicles.
First, let me ask the obvious. You’re a law professor writing fiction. How has your legal research informed your fiction writing?
I’ve always looked at writing legal briefs and law review articles as a form of storytelling – you start off in a particular place with a partner or a judge and you want to take them somewhere. Of course, you’re trying to convince someone of something, but the legal, technical language of the law shouldn’t get in the way of telling an story, either in a brief or in a novel. In a novel, you’re getting the audience on board and the rhetorical goal is the same, but you need to speak a different language. No one wants to read a novel that sounds like it was written by a law professor!
When I lived in Georgia, I taught a Law & Literature seminar for federal judges. One year, they really got into Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and actually came back the next year and said they behaved differently in court having read that book. It’s an example of what can be achieved with good fiction and the overlap between the literary mind and the legal mind
Novels are like briefs in one other way. Once I publish a book, it’s out there – it belongs to the audience and means what they want it to mean. Same with submitting something to a judge: You lose control over your meaning as soon as its filed. That said, lawyers often get a second chance to argue face-to-face with a judge. It’s a real mistake to argue with the readers of your fiction.
Which of your three novels is your favorite?
Courting Death is really personal to me. I had a challenging clerkship in the deep South in the 80s [ed. with the Hon. Frank M. Johnson, Jr., played by Martin Sheen in the recent movie Selma], where much of the work focused on capital punishment, going through files and writing memos about who would be executed on Friday. Nothing can prepare you for that. In the book, I wanted to give a sense of what it’s like for young graduates to be put in those circumstances.
On the other hand, Death in Eden was fun, light, and humorous – it is much more of the personality that my friends would recognize.
What character has been your favorite to write about?
Melanie is my favorite. She’s tough minded and caring, but not sentimental (I hate sentimentality in novels). The book I’m writing right now has a 15-year-old girl who is quite feisty – she’s growing on me a lot. We’ll see what happens to her. All hell could break loose.
The role of women is a strong subcurrent throughout your books: Three of four murder victims are women; there are strong female characters in each installment; and we see a wide range of female roles – law clerk, attorney, single mom, beauty queen, and porn star,, to name a few. Can you talk about this theme and your reasons for it?
What I hate is stereotyping, so my readers may start thinking they can make assumptions about someone based on their status, but as in real life, people are constantly transcending their jobs and their other social roles. I want my characters to transcend their professions and locations and just be who they are. And for some reason, the women in my books do a better job of breaking molds. And it’s more fun for me to inhabit the perspective of female characters – a more interesting journey.
What made you pick a fictional town in Georgia as the setting for your books?
Well, I wrote a lot while living in Athens, Georgia – such an atmospheric place. It’s comforting spending time in this made-up town which is a mélange of the most interesting places I’ve lived in the South. In one of the books, there’s a house that’s almost a character, and it’s a carbon copy of one I owned in Lexington, Georgia.
You mentioned your new book – any teasers?
The new book is titled Raggedly Land, and it picks up with James buying a storage unit outside Clarkston that is full of nasty, disturbing stuff. It gives James an excuse to call Melanie and Stanley to investigate and track down the former owner. It’s good, clean, twisted fun.
Any final thoughts?
I’ll leave it at that. There’s nothing more tedious than an author talking about his books (laughter).