Edinburgh Cuckoos
Q & A
Q—What is your inspiration for this story?
A—Having done my share of historical detective work I enjoy the process of deduction. Bill Reyner is the pseudo detective I always wanted to be. Like me, he’s just not quite up to his own aspirations. The story of Fiend’s Gold came to me while I was sailing the Georgian Bay among the very islands where the mythical Fiend’s Rock would be. All the stories of Bill were inspired by the actual locality in which they took place.
Q—Who is your target audience?
A—The books of the series are dedicated to my grandchildren, who range in age from 28 years down to six months. Any person, male or female, who can read English should find something interesting in the adventures of Bill Reyner.
Q—What is your favourite section in the first book?
A—My favorite part of Fiend’s is Bill’s unhappy time in Westdale with his dragon landlady and fruitless jobs.
Q—Who is your favourite character?
A—Gran has to be my favorite character in Fiend’s, but later I came to really enjoy Newf, who appears in every story after Fiend’s Gold.
Q—Which author would you most like to be compared to and why?
A—I love P.D. James, and Ruth Rendell and have read everything Rita Mae Brown has written, yet I prefer to think of myself as an aspiring H. G. Wells.
Q—What made you decide to write a Murder Mystery?
A—Having researched the real life murder of Ethel Kinrade I became fascinated by life’s spiral into depravity. Nothing is more interesting than another person’s reason to kill. The tangled web is only tangled when approached from behind. Unraveling it is easier when you find the beginning.
Q—Are the characters based on anyone you know?
A—Just about all the characters are based on real people. Spadafora is my Commanding officer when I was in the Far East. Jane Overland, Wow! I used to live next door to the lady. Gran, God bless her is the split image of my paternal Grandmother, She was very highly educated, never used contractions in her speech and had an uncanny ability to see through walls.