Please welcome Anthony Flacco to Gather and the Mortalis Mystery Group! Anthony joins us to discuss his second and latest book, The Last Nightingale (Mortalis, 2007).
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ABOUT The Last Nightingale
San Francisco, 1906. The great West Coast city is a center of industry and excitement–and also, to many, of sin. When the Great Earthquake hits, some believe it is the day of reckoning for the immoral masses.
Meanwhile, twelve-year-old Shane Nightingale is witness to the violent deaths of his adoptive mother and sisters–not from the earthquake, but at the hands of a serial killer. As Shane wanders the city appearing to be just another anonymous orphan, he keeps what he has seen a secret. But when his path crosses that of Sergeant Randall Blackburn, who is in pursuit of the killer, the two become an investigative team that will use both a youth’s intuitive gifts and a policeman’s new deductive techniques and crime-fighting tools to unmask a vicious murderer whose fury can be as intense as that of Mother Nature herself.
“From its opening pages–when we are plunged headlong into the terrifying chaos of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906–to its riveting climax, The Last Nightingale offers an abundance of those page-turning pleasures readers seek in historical thrillers.”
–Harold Schechter, author of The Devil’s Gentleman
“Atmospheric, chilling and with more twists and turns than crooked Lombard street, The Last Nightingale has it all. I couldn’t put it down.”
–Cara Black, author of Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis
“Set in a world on the edge of Armageddon, this gripping and completely original thriller will raise the hair on the back of your neck.”
–William Bernhardt, author of Capitol Threat
ADDTIONAL READING
A MILLION TINY SLAPS TO THE HEAD by Anthony Flacco
"The Last Nightingale" by Anthony Flacco: A Book Review by Christine Zibas
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Comments: 56
And, who are your favorite fiction writers?
Thanks,
The next book in the series is already written, and takes place in the year 1915, when Shane is 21 and Vignette is 19. This was the year of San Francisco's great world's fair, called the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition, which forms the backdrop of the story. In this story, Shane is not yet a criminal profiler, but the book leads the readers up to how he becomes one -- which he will be in Book #3.
As for changes in the profiling methods used to catch sexual killers, every new case adds a bit more to the body of work used in understanding these people, but the savage truth is that they, also, are evolving in their sophistication. Human nature just seems to have this built-in streak of evil to it, and it surfaces no matter what we do to contain it.
There are so many fine fiction writers -- my favorites include John Steinbeck, James Clavell, Clive Cussler, and Camille Paglia.
And to any Gather members who have stopped by, please feel free to jump in with a question for Anthony.
I work from my professionally camouflaged literary bunker hidden in the hills above Los Angeles. With Steve Jobs and Bill Gates determined to take the books out of every hand in America and replace them with handheld electronic entertainment devices, those of us who love to write and to read have to take every precaution not to fall victim to the digitalization of civilization. It used to take a bunch of tatoos to declare to the world that you are different, a radical. Now if you really want to be a radical -- carry a book around...
As for my process, I work primarily late at night, from eleven at night until around sunrise. The quiet and isolation of those hours really help the concentration!
San Francisco is my favorite American city. I love the fact that it's only about 160 years old, so that the city's entire history can be studied and grasped by any interested person. 1906 was chosen as the time frame because the aftermath of the Great Earthquake left the region in a very similar paranoid mindset as the 9/1 attacks did for the rest of the country. The setting reflects my personal conviction that no matter how bad things get, we can and will overcome.
Thank you for the review. As for the plague attack, I don't want to reveal a spoiler, but any historical novel must contrain its plot to fit the facts of history, otherwise it becomes a Sci-Fi or Fantasy book.
Research is impossible to estimate, because for me it is all-consuming while I am at work. I just stay with it until the learning curve that I need to do the work has been reached. But I can tell you that the research is one of my favorite aspects of historical writing. The sense of learning and growing is powerful.
As for your interest in other books, there are three in English currently on my website at www.AnthonyFlacco.com, with the sequel to "The Last Nightingale" coming next year.
So far, my books also include True Crime and Biography. I am just now finishing a novel about the great Serbian inventor, Nikola Tesla. There is so much to do. I love this work...
Only my agent Sharlene Martin sees my work. Otherwise, you get "too many cooks" and all that...
Sure, the story would make a great film, but we also have to acknowledge that historical dramas are tremendously expensive to produce. The only way a story as costly as this will see a film adaptation is if the public demand justifies it.
I'll always be a screenwriter, but the solo crafting of a piece of longform fiction is an experience unto itself. My hope is to continue doing both, and I always make it a point to write with a strong visual sense. This is how screenwriting has affected my narrative writing style. I took an MFA in screenwriting from the American Film Institute here in Los Angeles some years back, and I love the place. I still drop by and visit people there from time to time.
Yes. Please visit my site at www.AnthonyFlacco.com. I'll write in any genre other than romance or sci-fantasy.
Your is a question I'd love to answer, but it would take all our time and much more. However, in general, I can tell you that I do not think that there are any special pitfalls that I know of to mystery writing which do not also exist in any other nnovel form. The only way I've ever found to avoid them is to write, write, write, and then edit, edit, edit. Ahhh, the glamor!
I love King's "On Writing, " and will certainly do a nonfiction book about the writing process in the future, but not for awhile. In the meantime, I love to give seminars and to speak at book clubs, which is how I represent for the writing world these days. Feel free to contact Sharlene@MartinLiteraryManagement.com for a Reading Guide.
Fun facts about me: No prison record; blood type O+; heterosexual; addicted to hill running; love animals; don't use tobacco; no political party but always vote; and as you may have noticed, prefer to type without running spell check -- Oh, yeah, I live on the EDGE, baby!
And thank you to all the Gather members who participated. Until next time!
Great question. The internet has VASTLY affected the way that books are promoted and marketed, as we're demonstrating here. The best aspect of that is that the tyrany of a central medium is circumvented. I love the free-form aspect of the internet, and especially love the fact that the internet is helping writers and readers to stay in touch in spite of the non-literate pressures of the computer and digital world!
I hope that readers finish my books feeling that even though the evil in human nature has been explored and examined, the strength and nobility of that same human nature is revealed when a person's moral character is seriously challenged. I believe that it is under great duress when the glory of humanity surfaces.
And thank you for your interest and participation. Please visit the site: www.TheLastNightingale.com
Bye for now!
-- Anthony Flacco