Scott Thornley Introduces Your New Favourite Detective Series

Lovers of mystery and detective fiction have a new a favourite to discover in Detective Superintendent MacNeice, the protagonist of Scott Thornley's Erasing Memory (House of Anansi Press). The story opens with MacNeice called to a crime scene where a beautiful young violinist has been found dead. Gracefully posed and wearing an evening dress, she could almost be asleep - except for the strange detail that one of her fingers has been positioned to interrupt the needle on a record player as it plays a Schubert tune. It's a disturbing enough tableau to begin with, but given that MacNeice's late wife was also an accomplished violinist, it hits even closer to home. 

Plunged into the strange, darkly ingenious case, MacNeice soon finds himself on the wrong side of violent Eastern European criminals. The book has been praised as "Sherlockian" and "a first-class mystery," with MacNeice compared to P. D. James’s iconic detective Adam Dalgliesh. 

Erasing Memory is the first of four books in the MacNeice series - three were published simultaneously in June, meaning you don't have to wait to follow MacNeice's adventures after devouring Erasing Memory. A fourth instalment, Vantage Point, is due out in Fall 2018.

We're excited to welcome Scott to Open Book today to introduce us to MacNeice through our In Character interview. He tells us where MacNeice's name comes from, how he took a dislike of clichés to a murderous conclusion, and reveals who he'd love to see cast to play his complicated detective in a film adaptation. 

Open Book:

Tell us about the main character in your new book.

Scott Thornley:

Erasing Memory is the first book in the MacNeice series. MacNeice is Detective Superintendent of Homicide in Dundurn, Ontario. He’s a birder, a lover of jazz and fine Grappa, and he’s widower haunted by the death of his wife, Kate. Vantage Point, the fourth instalment in the series, will be publishing in November.

OB:

Some writers feel characters take on a "life of their own" during the writing process. Do you agree with this, or is a writer always in control?

ST:

While I don’t suffer from a personality disorder and I do realize MacNeice’s every word or gesture come from me... something very special does happen: Mac seems to know if I put words in his mouth that he wouldn’t think, let along say. He and I get quiet until I correct myself.

OB:

Do you find yourself gravitating to one narrative point of view (e.g. first person, third person)? If so, what do you like about building a character in that particular format?

ST:

I don’t consciously guide the narrative one way or the other. MacNeice is very reflective, but even that can be expressed differently.

OB:

What is your approach to crafting dialogue, particularly for your main character? Do you have any tips about writing dialogue for aspiring and emerging writers?

ST:

My dialogue is, I think, natural. I don’t reach for complex words when common words in an uncommon situation works. I can say that I loathe clichés. I hunt them down anytime they sneak onto the page. In the third book, Raw Bone, the villain chose a victim in part, for her incessant use of clichés.

OB:

Do you have anything in common with your main character? What parts of yourself do you see in him or her, and what is particularly different?

ST:

MacNeice was named after Irish Poet and Playwrite, Louis MacNeice. He was a friend of mt uncle’s. I loved the look of the word—disregarding as it does, i before e—and I liked the man’s stature—tall, slender and elegant. My wife once referred to me as ‘an observationist’ for picking up details in…well pretty much everything. She wasn’t necessarily thinking of it as a compliment. Mac is an observationist—and we share nature, jazz, grappa, clouds, seasons, the way someone walks, the signs of use in people’s lives—worn steps to worn curtains.

OB:

How clearly do you see your characters' physical appearances while writing, and how relevant are their appearances to your writing process?

ST:

I work hard to flesh out, to paint all of my characters so readers sense that they’re alive. Because, in their odd way, they are alive. Over the four books, I have paid particular attention in this regard to the villains. I don’t want them being one-dimensional. I want the reader to accept that, at any time, there could be a knock on their door by any one of them.

OB:

How well do you "know" your characters? Is it relevant to you to know a lot of information about them that doesn't appear on the page?

ST:

Absolutely. Though unsuccessful, I actually considered a way to describe for readers the smallest of details of the characters—those that wouldn’t make it to the page necessarily, (though a lot of that information does). For example, Mac’s bird-watchers guide to the Dundurn escarpment and, of course, a list of the jazz recordings and the fine Grappa that helps MacNeice sleep. 

OB:

What actor would you most love to cast to play your most recent main character?

ST:

Brilliant question. An actor with the ability to reveal an interior life: Clive Owen for example, the Canadian actor, R.H. Thomson. Historically, Alec Guinness would be terrific.

OB:

How do you feel about the characters from your earliest work now?

ST:

MacNeice and his colleagues in Division One have evolved. Am I writing them, or are they writing me? They’ve grown closer. I think what attracts those characters to MacNeice, is that they trust him. They are at times in awe of the leaps he makes, but they’re also protective of him and concerned as he increasingly puts himself at risk.

OB:

What are you working on now?

ST:

Book five, tentatively titled: Run, Jack. Run.

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Scott Thornley grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, which inspired his fictional Dundurn. He is the author of four novels in the critically acclaimed MacNeice Mysteries series: Erasing Memory, The Ambitious City, Raw Bone, and the forthcoming Vantage Point. Thornley divides his time between Toronto and the southwest of France.