About the Book

Book: Letters to the Editor

Author: Paul Michael Garrison

Genre: Mystery/Suspense

Release Date: November, 2019

Writing is hard. Editing is murder.

Editor Nathanael Carver has made a career out of exposing corruption and publishing people’s dirty secrets. From his hate mail, it seems one of his high-profile enemies wants revenge. But the person with murder in mind may be someone closer to home.

Carver enlists the help of Kate Baxter, a police detective with problems of her own: disapproving parents, sexist coworkers, and a smoking habit she can’t seem to kick. The support of her tribe and ample time at the gun range help to keep her sane. As her personal life and the case bleed together, Kate gains insight into Carver’s world, keeping her eye on those closest to him. Kate is on the cusp of progress when Carver, against her advice, drops the case—only to be viciously attacked. Now it’s Kate’s turn to drag everyone’s dirty secrets into the light, but not before at least one body hits the floor.

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About the Author

Originally from the Midwest, Paul Michael Garrisonhas spent roughly half his life in Upstate South Carolina. His published novels include Letters to the Editor and its sequel, The Lies People Publish. He holds degrees in publishing, theater, and creative writing (MFA). He has written for the stage, and his short fiction has appeared in The Windhover, Quantum Fairy Tales, and Heart of Flesh. Paul Michael frequently performs with the Greenville Shakespeare Company. Whether on stage or in writing, he enjoys the art of becoming someone else.

More from Paul Michael

The Creation of Kate Baxter: Meeting the Detective of Letters to the Editor

How do you come up with your characters?

It’s one of the most frequent questions I (and probably a lot of authors) get at book events. Some authors talk about their characters as creations, while others insist their characters come to them fully formed, gradually revealing themselves to the writer. As with most writing philosophies, I personally tend to fall in the middle.

But I can tell you that Detective Kate Baxter in her trademark trench coat did not spring from my imagination fully formed like Athena from the mind of Zeus. Several thoughtful factors came into play during her creation.

The Mystery Came First

For many novelists, the character comes first, but Letters to the Editor began with the mystery. I imagine that’s common for mystery writers. It was an idea I’d had for some time, just simmering in the back of my brain.

It wasn’t until I signed up for a novel-writing class that I decided to actually flesh the mystery out and put it down on paper. So, if I was going to write a classic mystery, I was going to need a detective.

The Professional Detective

Cozy mysteries can be great fun, but in a series (and they usually end up as series) I find the trope of the amateur detective who constantly stumbles into one mystery after another a bit strained. Requiring a high suspension of disbelief, it works best in comic, here-we-go-again scenarios.

I wanted to create a world that felt more grounded and to leave the window open for my detective to come back (which she did in The Lies People Publish). And that’s one reason Kate serves on the Fulton Springs Police Department.

The Girl Next Door

I recall feeling bombarded at the time by burned-out detectives, whether in literature, film, or television. The investigator whose life is an unholy shambles, who’s nursing a substance abuse problem (usually alcohol), whose family or private life is completely shattered. I kept seeing these broken-down characters, and they just depressed me. I struggled to relate to them in any way. With their addictions and psychological damage, I questioned how legitimately they could function in everyday life, let alone track down murderers and other criminals.

I wanted a more relatable detective, not a beleaguered trainwreck nor a genius human computer of the Sherlockian variety. I wanted someone who, even if you couldn’t relate to her directly, you could imagine her living next door.

When an interviewer referred to Kate as a bit of a hot mess, I must admit I got defensive for a moment. And then I realized that she probably is—the way all of us are in the right light. She struggles with her relationships and goals and with living out her values and beliefs as most thoughtful people do.

When I began the novel, I had a female friend who was a police officer. Kate is not based on her, but I won’t deny that my friend (and her stories) inspired some of Kate’s characteristics, her tribe of friends, and even a few anecdotes that worked their way into the story.

Midwestern Woman of Faith

While I live in the South, I grew up in the Midwest. At the time of writing, I felt I could more accurately capture the Midwestern sensibility than a Southern one, both for Kate’s character and the setting in general. Plus, my publishing background (I was a book editor at the time) was going to inform the novel’s setting, and the Chicago metro area seemed a more likely representative of that world.

My writing instructor called Kate “a church-going detective,” which made me laugh a little. If, in forming Kate, I was reacting against the broken-down detective, I was also reacting against the portrayal of Christians in the arts. There seemed to be two extremes: in Christian fiction, the Pollyannaish Christian who lived a sanitized version of life, and in mainstream literature, religious hypocrites and wackadoos. I realize that may be a tad reductive, but that’s how it felt. Why couldn’t we have something a little more authentic, more fair, more nuanced?

While not necessarily tackling a spiritual journey, I wanted to show Christians in real-world, everyday contexts. I know some readers may find Kate’s faith alienating, but no reader is going to agree or sympathize with every character they read. That’s only natural. But as I researched the genre, I found mainstream novels with detectives with all kinds of worldviews, so why not a mainstream novel with a Christian detective?

Introducing Kate Baxter

These influences formed the initial skeleton of Detective Kate Baxter, but they don’t begin to paint the entire picture of the character she developed into—the insecurities and challenges she faces as a single woman; her love for her friends, her pets, and classic literature; or her belief that the best therapy is found at a gun range. If you haven’t already, I hope you’ll pick up a copy of Letters to the Editor and meet her yourself.

My Impressions

“…there are secrets that don’t do anybody good to know…But then there are secrets that if you keep them, they will swallow you up whole.”

Letters to the Editor by Paul Michael Garrison is a mainstream fiction book with a detective who struggles with her faith as she and her partner investigate threats against a local editor. A crime mystery, thriller, and detective novel with a bit of psychological suspense thrown in, this book is not my usual reading fare. It did snag my interest. As the Detective Kate’s and Detective Potter’s (of Fulton Springs-Olivet police department) list of suspects shrinks, the suspense becomes more palpable. The action and storyline are quite believable. Expecting a more sanitized story, after reading the author’s notes about his purposes, I could better see why he used the descriptions, language, and situations he did.

The question is: who is after book editor Nate Carver? Is the apparent threat serious? What is Amelie Carver hiding? Nate Carver has made a career out of exposing others’ secrets. Now we see not only him, but the players in his life around him being stripped bare and exposed of their secrets. Whose secret will be fatal to someone? Whose secrets will ruin a career or careers? And do real people struggle with their faith and emerge with an intact faith, or does life demand a shedding of that faith? Can the reader figure out the answers before all is slowly, torturously, revealed?

I received a copy of the book from the publisher and CelebrateLit. I also bought my own copy. No positive review was required, and all opinions are my own.

Notable Quotables:

“‘It sounds like a coping mechanism.’ Danny held up the pack. ‘You turn to these for comfort, instead of turning to God.’”

“The answers are easy; accepting them is not,”

“‘We just have to trust that God’s timing is perfect.’ ‘Even when it doesn’t feel that way.’ ‘Yeah, even when it doesn’t feel that way.’ ‘That’s most of the time, you know?’”

“Maybe it’s not always best for the truth to come out. Some secrets bear no profit when revealed, right?”