Ed Gorman was an underappreciated writer of commercial
fiction. His novels are thoughtful, complicated and often illuminated with a bleak
melancholy that never fully overtook the story due to an understated humor and
a grudging admiration of humanity. Grudging because it was the humanity—weakness,
ambition, sorrow, perseverance, strength—of his characters that both betrayed
and buoyed them.
Mr. Gorman died in October 2016 leaving behind a legacy
of more than 150 published novels in a career spanning more than thirty years.
He wrote in multiple literary genres, including crime and mystery, suspense,
western, horror and science fiction. What is likely his last novel, Backshot (1902), was published in 2015.
The following interview was conducted and appeared at Saddlebums in October 2007. It is annotated with additional detail
about the books and stories that are discussed. The additional material is identified with brackets. The questions
are in italics.
I’m
impressed with your works overall diversity. You have successfully written in
the western, mystery, horror and science fiction genres. Is there a specific
genre you most prefer to work in?
Mystery and suspense, I
suppose. But I’ve worked in horror and science fiction with great pleasure.
I
want to talk a little about your publishing history, what is the first novel
you published? Was it a long time coming, or did you hit print pretty quickly
once you decided to write it?
I wrote a lot of stuff
for men’s magazines in the Sixties and Seventies. I could never come close to
finishing a novel until I met Max Allan Collins who gave me two great pieces of
advice—look at each chapter as a story and never look back until you’ve
finished the book. Then worry about revisions. I finished Rough Cut and shopped it around. Agents felt that the narrator was
more psychotic than the villain. I sent it to St. Martin’s Press where it was
fished out of slush and bought. This was 1983.
When
did you realize you wanted to be a writer?
Probably around age
eight. The nuns fed me Jack London and I discovered Ray Bradbury on my own. After
reading those guys I never faltered in wanting to be a published writer.
Most
of your western fiction is non-traditional. You seem to use many of the same
elements as one would find in a crime novel. Is this an effort to move away
from the traditional western, or simply expand the definition of what a western
is? Do you think these novels would be more popular if they were marketed as a
western mystery rather than a traditional western?
I think you have to find
a special angle to sell crossover books. Steve Hockensmith with Holmes on the Range brought something
fresh and exciting to the crossover and has been very successful for doing so.
Is
there a book, or a few books, that you have written and are particularly proud
of?
My favorites are The Autumn Dead, Blood Moon, The Night
Remembers, and Cage of Night in
suspense; Wolf Moon and Ghost Town in westerns.
[Editor’s note: The Autumn Dead (1987) is the fourth (of
five) novels featuring part time security guard, actor, and private eye Jack
Dwyer. An omnibus edition of The Autumn
Dead and The Night Remembers
(1991) was published by Stark House Press in 2015, which included an
Introduction I wrote.
Blood
Moon
(1994) is the first (of four) novels featuring consultant and former FBI
profiler Robert Payne. These novels are a mixture of suspense and crime and are
some of Mr. Gorman’s most entertaining novels.
The
Night Remembers is the first and only novel featuring
aging private eye Jack Walsh. Heavy—wonderfully so—on working class angst, it
is one of Mr. Gorman’s most melancholy stories, which is saying something. It
is included in the Stark House omnibus mentioned above.
Cage
of Night (1996) is Mr. Gorman’s best horror novel. An
expansion of his 1995 short story, “The Brasher Girl,” it is a tightly
developed masterpiece of psychological suspense.
Wolf
Moon (1993) was a paperback original published by Fawcett
Gold Medal that had elements of the western, horror and crime genres. Ghost Town (2001) is one of ten novels Mr.
Gorman wrote for Berkley between 1999 and 2006, and one I haven’t read.]
Most
writers are voracious readers, and I’m wondering what you read for pleasure?
On my nightstand
presently I have the Collected Short
Stories of William Faulkner, Ten
Stories from Detective Aces pulp magazine, a history of the Homefront
during World War Two and a huge volume of the original Jonah Hex comic book
stories by Michael Fleischer.
Now
I want to turn to the western genre specifically. What first led you to the
genre?
Mine is the last
generation that really grew up on westerns. I saw them in the theaters and on
television and I read them in comic books and paperbacks. Writing them came
naturally. I owe Bob Randisi a lot for first getting me published as a writer.
What
are a few of the western writers who have most influenced your work?
Max Brand, Elmore
Leonard, Loren D. Estleman, Clifton Adams, Dorothy Johnson would be a few of
them.
If
you could bring back the work of one western writer who would it be? Is there a
specific title?
I’d bring back six or
seven of the best Clifton Adams novels.
You
also write mysteries, and it seems there has been—both historically as well as
today—a significant number of authors who do good work in both genres. Do you
think there is a relationship between the mystery and the western that promotes
this crossover, or is it simply the economics of professional writing?
Again, I think it’s
generational. You don’t find many—or any that I can think of—of the
Thirty-somethings writing westerns and mysteries today. Loren is the last of
the breed. He’s in his Forties I think. And he’s one of the all-time best, too.
[Editor’s note: Loren D. Estleman continues to write and publish Western novels. His latest is the fine The Long High Noon (2015).]
The
mystery genre is thriving, but many believe the western is in decline. What do
you think about the western genre today, and what do you think the future holds
for the western story?
I’ve been asked this a
couple of times. I wish I had some wisdom on the subject. But I don’t. To me
cops replaced cowboys.
Okay,
now let’s get down to your current work. What is your latest novel?
My current novel is Fools Rush In. This is my take on how
small town Iowa responded to the Civil Rights movement of the early Sixties. I
have another novel called Doom Weapon,
the last in my Cavalry Man series coming in paperback from HarperCollins. It’s
probably out now though I haven’t seen a copy. In the Spring I have a St.
Martin’s novel called Sleeping Dogs,
a political whodunit. I used to write speeches for [a] congressman. Lots of
anger in this book.
[Editor’s note: Fools Rush In (2007) is the seventh (of
ten) novels featuring small town lawyer and private investigator Sam McCain.
Mr. Gorman told me he planned to write another title in the series, but due to
illness and then his death in 2016 it is unlikely we will ever see the planned
title.
Doom
Weapon (2007) is the third (of three) novels in the Cavalry
Man series featuring Federal Agent Noah Ford. These novels are westerns, but
the stories and character always reminded me a little of Sam McCain, which is a
great thing.
Sleeping
Dogs
(2008) is the first (of four) novels featuring political consultant Dev Conrad.
Mr. Gorman mentioned it is laced with “[l]ots of anger,” which is true, but
there is also humor and a very nicely rendered traditional mystery. Similar to
the Sam McCain series, Mr. Gorman planned to write another Dev Conrad title,
but likely never finished it due to illness in the final few years of his life.]
Can
you tell us about the novel—or any other projects—you are working on now?
My next novel will be in
the suspense realm. I never talk about work in progress.
[Editor’s note: This novel
was the paperback original, The Midnight
Room, published by Leisure in
2009. A serial killer story that departed from the standard—blackmail, revenge,
class struggle—featuring a vividly rendered dark cast of victims and demented
but uncomfortably human villains.
It is Ed Gorman’s final
suspense novel capping a successful body of work in the genre that includes Run to Midnight (1992) and Now You See Her (1993) as by Chris Shea
McCarrick, Shadow Games (1993) Cold Blue Midnight (1996), Black River Falls (1996), Runner in the Dark (1997), The Silver Scream (1998), The Poker Club (2000).]
I
have one last question, and I must warn it is a little vague. If you could choose
any project to work on, what would it be?
That’s a good question
and you know, I have no idea. My best stuff seems to have just happened without
much planning on my part. I wrote three or four novels that were part of a Big
Plan to increase the size of my audience. I think they were adequate, one of
them I like, but somehow they weren’t as much fun to do as the work that
somehow seems to get done on its own.
[Editor’s note: The “Big
Plan” books were The Marilyn Tapes (1995),
The First Lady (1995), and Senatorial Privilege (1997). All three
were published by Forge. Each of the novels, except Senatorial Privilege, have
been released in ebook form, which makes me think Mr. Gorman thought very
little of it.]
A few of my favorite Ed Gorman novels:
