On Writing — Fiction As History

The Early Shanahan novels

Occasionally I receive comments from people who have read some of the early books in my Shanahan mystery series.   These notes usually come from people who live or have lived in Indianapolis. Rarely are the comments about the plot, though critics at the time were complimentary. Some are about the main characters – Deets Shanahan and his love, Maureen.  But most of the sentiment is about bringing back memories. The 11 novels in the series set in Indianapolis cover 25 years in the life of the Circle City beginning with The Stone Veil in 1980. History is an unforeseen, but happy consequence of fiction.

I haven’t been the only one.  In fact I wasn’t the first one or necessarily the most prolific.  The acclaimed Michael Z. Lewin not only originated the first series featuring a fictional Indianapolis P.I., but is also credited with popularizing the idea of a regional P.I. series. Many others followed.  My Deets Shanahan character also came after Lewin’s Albert Samson.

Michael Z. Lewin

Lewin and I are roughly the same vintage. However he began writing younger in his life.  Counting his Leroy Powder cop series, Lewin has used Indianapolis as a setting for 11 crime novels with a history going back to 1971 with his first Samson novel, Ask The Right Question, among those being re-released as I write.

Re-released

I have inadvertently been part of recording this city’s history when, as its first editor, I helped found NUVO Newsweekly, the longest serving alternative newspaper in the city’s history. Long after I was gone it continues to chronicle my hometown and is a powerful, on-going historical reference. However, I would suggest that fiction could go beyond the news as a historical document in many ways by creating the mood, the ambiance and an in-depth characterization of its neighborhoods, restaurants, transportation and particularly its inhabitants.

There are those, of course, who dismiss genre fiction, including the P.I. novel as something less than respectable. The Shanahan mysteries are definitely genre fiction, as are the Samson novels. We gain a sense of the place in time in a way that may not be academic, but in a fluid, experiential way.

Book Notes – News: Indianapolis Names Park After Noted Hoosier Writer

Kurt Vonnegut

When we think of great writers and where they’re from, we’re likely to think of New York or L.A., or perhaps “The South.” Many great storytellers came from below the Mason-Dixon line. Outside of Chicago, cities in the vast Midwest may not come to mind.  In Indianapolis, few writers have become celebrities.  Most likely we have our own roster of celebrities, most likely a bank robber or a basketball player – not that there is anything wrong with that.  But writers?  Not so much. I’m not sure what they thought when Indianapolis born Kurt Vonnegut and his strange relationship with reality and his powerful defiance in the face of convention first blew the lid off by becoming an international literary legend.

Booth Tarkington

We Hoosiers have a hard time identifying with the arts in general, it seems.  There is an area in Indianapolis known as Butler Tarkington, partly in honor of the university located there and Indiana writer Booth Tarkington who wrote The Magnificent Ambersons. This was a book and movie set in the city’s Woodruff Place when it was at its grandest. And there is a Riley this and a Riley that, alluding to poet James Whitcomb Riley, known for a kind of folksy poetry children are supposed to like, and sadly stereotypical of what it means to grow up in folksy Indiana, very different from Hoosier Dan Wakefield’s most known work, Going All The Way.

In the last few years, as Indianapolis seems to blossom, the city is finally taking note of its wordsmiths. The city hosts the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library.  Much more needs to be done. However, in the last few days, the city park at 61^st and Broadway has been named the Dan Wakefield Park. Wakefield, now 83, returned to his hometown to work on a book about his good friend, Vonnegut. A comprehensive and worthwhile story about this Hoosier native appeared in this Indianapolis alternative newspaper, NUVO News Weekly.

Dan Wakefield 

Congratulations to Dan Wakefield and to Indianapolis, a city that seems to be awakening to its own greatness.

Book Notes — Killing Frost Released Today, Reviews Coming In

Blatant Self-Promotion:  Today is Launch Day.  This is the official release date for Killing Frost, Indianapolis P.I. Deets Shanahan’s last case. I apologize in advance for posting the news everywhere I can today. Some of you may get this more than once; but I promise to contain myself once the day is over.

The goal here is to sell books.  On the other hand, hardback prices are steep. Remember, your local library is your friend.  Let them know and they will get it for their collection and you can borrow it. If you’d like to purchase a copy and want to support your local, independent bookstore and it’s not on the shelf, they can order it for you. It’s also available through regular on-line booksellers as well.

In 1990, Stone Veil, my first Deets Shanahan mystery novel was nominated for a Shamus Award. Since then, there have been ten more novels in the series with positive nods along the way from The New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, Deadly Pleasures Magazine, The Houston Post, The Indianapolis Star, Mystery News, Thrilling Detective and The Library Journal.

Killing Frost celebrates Shanahan’s 11th mystery and caps the series in its 25th year.

Killing Frost — Synopsis


At seventy-two, Deets Shanahan, still reeling from brain surgery is ready to check out.’  But fate has other plans. As he waits for the arrival of a mysterious, unwanted, yet insistent new client, he spies a car pull in his driveway.  From his window, he sees a woman head toward his front door. This is the first time he sees her and the last time he sees her alive.

Her death leaves too many questions. What did she want with Shanahan? Why was she killed? And what can he, in his condition, do about it? Shanahan’s obsessive search for answers will uncover a disturbing trail of greed, lies, ambition, sibling rivalry and police corruption.

Twenty-five years ago Shanahan embarked on his first case. Killing Frost is likely his last, a touching story of age, infirmity — and love.

Killing Frost — Early Reviews

“The real prize here is the tone, which Tierney keeps expertly hovering between compassionate valediction and civic outrage.”  — Kirkus Reviews

“This entry is a tribute to human decency and one man’s refusal to give up in the face of age and inevitable physical deterioration.”  — Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)

An Indianapolis native, I now live in San Francisco, the setting for a second P.I. series — the Paladino-Lang mysteries and for a new mystery novella, Blue Dragon, which will be released this fall. For more information visit www.ronaldtierney.com.

Second Blatant Promotion In A Row

Those who received or gave Nooks, Kindles or iPads as gifts over the holidays might want to consider some highly praised, but inexpensive mysteries to go along with them.  Here are some suggestions — all $3.99 or less.

Good to the Last Kiss — San Francisco Inspector Vincent Gratelli is charged with finding the killer of young women – all murdered in the same way, all left with the with a mysterious mark. The most recent victim is beaten and raped in her weekend cabin. There appears to be only one difference – she is still alive. There are two questions. How can these murders be stopped and how does the killer feel about unfinished business?

“Tierney serves up a dark, twisty little gem…. Every year the genre has its Goliaths, bigger and better ballyhooed than this modest entry. Come Edgar time, however, Tierney’s well-written, tidily plotted, character-driven David of a book deserves to be remembered.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Bullet Beach — Seventy-one-year-old Indianapolis private investigator, Deets Shanahan, takes on the search of a lifetime. With only a snippet of news found on the Internet, he learns his brother — who disappeared when they were kids — could be somewhere in Thailand. Eager to tie up the loose ends of his life, Shanahan and lover, Maureen, embark on a journey to find the errant sibling. But this is more than a story of a missing person who wants to stay missing. Treasure, deceit and murder are at play on the streets of Bangkok and on the beaches of Phuket.

“Tierney is as entertaining as ever. In particular, thumbs up for the nice, understated septuagenarian love story.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Tierney... adds spice to the story with eccentric characters, wry humor, and a spare but compelling writing style. Engaging and entertaining.” — Booklist

Also available for e-book gifting are two mystery novellas — Mascara, Death in the Tenderloin and Death in the Haight.  San Francisco P.I. Noah Lang takes on missing person cases in these two legendary neighborhoods.  In both cases, things are not what they appear — and that is a serious understatement.

Booknotes — Banned Books Update

We’re in the middle of Banned Book Week.  Independent Bookstores and libraries are busy promoting books that many people don’t want you to read — books by such legends a Mark Twain, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Ray Bradbury.

Banned Book Week

September 22 — 28

North Carolina was right on time when, according to the Los Angeles Times, a county school board member joined the majority to ban Ralph Ellison’s classic about American racial attitudes.  Invisible Man won the National Book Award in 1953.  One of the board members couldn’t “…find any literary value” in a book that a national critics’ poll (1965) declared the “greatest American novel written since World War II.”

It’s not all that surprising to hear about literary censorship in the South, particularly if the subject is at least partially about racism. It is more fun to talk about the unexpected.  NUVO, an alternative weekly in Indianapolis, reported some strange goings-on in the red state’s capitol.  Not only did the anti-evolution, anti-gay governor Mike Pence officially proclaim Banned Book Week in Indiana, the first lady read from the often-banned children’s book Harriet the Spy at the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library.  The book has been criticized and challenged for its alleged portrayal of the main character as a disobedient child with lesbian overtones (or undertones?).

Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, Indianapolis

Indiana’s previous governor, Mitch Daniels, now president of Purdue University, was in the censorship spotlight recently by revelations that while in the state’s highest office he searched for ways to remove books by historian Howard Zinn from college curriculums.

Incidentally, the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library honors the Indiana author of Slaughterhoue Five, banned by the state of Missouri and one of the most challenged, as well as honored books in American literature.  The library, featuring a week-long program on the subject of censorship, opened two years ago.

September 26, 2013 UPDATE:  The decision in North Carolina to ban Invisible Man was reversed today. The book is back on the shelves.