“A medieval Sam Spade, a tough guy who operates according to his own moral compass.”
***The Boston Globe on Veil of Lies
HANK: Noir and hard-boiled fiction seem to be in Jeri Westerson’s blood. Reporter, would-be actress, graphic artist, she was born and bred on the mean streets of Los Angeles--but then created the hardboiled detective, Crispin Guest. He's an ex-knight turned PI, solving crimes on the mean streets of fourteenth century London. Ah. Fourteenth century...ex-knight. Ah. You see Jeri's challenge.
JERI: How do you write a fourteenth century ex-knight detective and make him sympathetic to today’s audiences?
Whoa. A what?
See what I mean?
In many ways the century doesn’t matter. We share the same emotions, the same fears and longings as medieval people. Losing all you have and suffering a very public humiliation is something we, as twenty-first century people, can certainly relate to, perhaps particularly at this time when proud men find themselves with pink slips in hand and navigating the foreign land of unemployment.
My hero, Crispin Guest, is like that manager who gets sacked. But worse. It’s as if the CEO of your company can also blackball you and make sure you don’t work for anyone else, either. He takes away your company car, your business suits, your portfolio, your cell phone, your ability to network, even your golden parachute. You are completely screwed.
And so is Crispin. He made the wrong choice, backed the wrong horse. The ten-year-old Prince Richard (to become Richard II) was to take the throne and Crispin felt that the prince’s uncle and Crispin's mentor the duke of Lancaster was clearly the more qualified statesman. It was jumping the line of succession, but Crispin loved the duke like a father and threw in his lot with some conspirators set on putting a crown on the duke’s royal noggin. Unfortunately, they were discovered and all were executed in the usual nasty way for a traitor. Only Crispin was spared because the duke begged for his life.
But everything else was forfeit, his title, his wealth, his lands. He was set loose in London with nothing but the clothes on his back. And like many of us these days in tough times, he re-invents himself, not as a new executive, but using his skills as a knight and an educated man as a medieval private eye called “the Tracker.” The thing about Crispin is his intense sense of justice and his inability to lose his chivalric code. He’s a knight at heart and he just can’t help himself, with all the prejudices and largesse associated with the class.
Now that’s Crispin. But how does a middle-aged, overweight, short Jewish woman become the dark and brooding sexy ex-knight? That’s the magic, isn’t it? It starts out with years of research into the time period, immersed in books and archives and just generally intrigued by the whole male mystique of that “band of brothers.” I’m an observer. I’m one of those people at a party, who, after a while of talking with this person and that, fades back and just watches everyone else. There is a lot to be learned about human behavior that way, a little like Jane Goodall.
And then there are the weapons.
Yes, I’m a big fan of medieval warfare and weaponry. Once a tomboy always a tomboy. I began collecting medieval weapons when I started writing medieval mysteries. Writing the mysteries was probably the excuse to collect this stuff. But no matter. I had me a sword! And then it progressed to daggers, a flail (one of those nasty spiked balls attached to a chain which is attached to a stick), a battleaxe, and a helm—someone stop me! To experience the feel of these everyday items that a man would wear on his person certainly gives you insight into the hearts and minds of the people of the period. So does wearing the clothes and eating the food and drinking the beer. I also did those things. It doesn’t matter who I am on the outside. On the inside, in the theatre of my mind, I am a medieval man down on his luck, righting wrongs, just living day to day, trying to keep my tattered honor in tact.
Ain’t fiction grand?
HANK: Yes, indeed! Questions, ideas, thoughts--so Jeri, when you're walking down the street in LA--where are you really? And how did you learn to speak, um, medieval?
Jeri Westerson plays with her weapons in the privacy of her home office when she writes her series of Medieval Noir novels. Her 2008 debut, VEIL OF LIES, garnered nominations for the Macavity Award for historical mystery and the Shamus Award for Best First PI novel. Her second, SERPENT IN THE THORNS, is also a 2010 finalist for the Bruce Alexander Historical Mystery Award, and her third, THE DEMON’S PARCHMENT is due for release October 12. You can read an excerpt of her latest, SERPENT IN THE THORNS, on her website www.JeriWesterson.com.