Author's stretch spawns a 'new breed of thriller'

Patti Thorn, Rocky Mountain News

Friday, March 3, 2006

This time out, though, Gregory takes a back seat in the story, which White's publisher is billing as "a new breed of thriller." White underscores the departure, referring to this book as his "most ambitious, provocative and timely...It stretches the series form about as far as I know how to stretch it," he notes.

In advance of his appearance at the Tattered Cover tonight and Murder By the Book next week, we ask him about this and more via an e-mail interview.

Question: Can you tell us what is different about this book from your others?

Answer: While writing Kill Me, I forced the conventions of traditional series architecture as far as I knew how to bend it. The usual series protagonist (Dr. Gregory) is a secondary character in this book, and no other member of the series ensemble shows up at all.

"Kill Me is told primarily from the point of view of, and in the voice of, a new character - a 40something Denver entrepreneur - and his history and the story he tells are immaterial to the history or texture of the series that preceded it. For me it's the best of the both worlds - for readers new to my books, Kill Me reads as a stand-alone thriller, but for fans of the series, it has sufficient echoes to feel familiar.

Q: In press material, you describe the book's genesis as your meeting with Peter Barton, the Denver philanthropist who recently died of stomach cancer. Can you elaborate?

A: In 2003 some mutual friends asked me to meet Peter to discuss his wish to publish some of his writings before he died. I thought Peter was terrific and found his prose alluring. I suggested to him that he and Larry Shames would make a great team, and together they created Not Fade Away, a magical book that I heartily recommend.

Kill Me was inspired during a conversation with Peter a few months before he died.

I'd asked him whether he'd ever thought about putting an end to his suffering - just getting in a car and driving into the mountains and going over a cliff. He acknowledged the fantasy but immediately said that he couldn't do it - that his kids would wonder. He was insistent that his death, like his life, be an inspiration to them.

As I drove away from his house that day, I was the one who began to wonder: What if there were a way for someone in Peter's circumstances to do it - to hire someone to help him end his life so that his family wouldn't know, so that his kids wouldn't wonder? What if there were a way to have someone kill him when he'd reached a threshold of illness or disability that he had previously chosen not to tolerate? And that's how Kill Me was born.

Q: How has your own battle with MS affected your outlook on this topic?

A: Although I'm sure I fail at some level, I do try not to view the stories I tell through that lens. Regardless, I decided long ago not to discuss my health in public.

Q: Do you expect the topic to stir controversy?

A: First, I hope readers enjoy it. Controversy? I don't know. I'd be pleased if the book stirs discussion. The story is about concerns and fears that seem universal. Everyone I know has been part of a conversation - after a friend or loved one has become seriously ill, or suffered a terrible trauma, or begun feeling the ravages of dementia - when someone, maybe us, says, "If that ever happens to me, I wish someone would kill me."

I hope the book precipitates introspection and conversation about what quality means in quality of life and about what constitutes a good death.

Q: Speaking of death, after 14 books featuring Dr. Gregory, do you ever feel like knocking him off in evil ways? What would you do to him if you were feeling especially devilish?

A: I'm a lucky guy. Few writers get the privilege to write 14 books, and I suspect that most of those that do have written their share of series fiction.

I'm more grateful for the opportunity the series has offered than I am regretful about its boundaries. . . . And who knows? If I answered the question more directly, I might be giving away the conclusion to book 19.

Q: What is appealing about writing about the same character in each book?

A: Appealing? Making a living as a novelist is certainly appealing, at least to me. The success of the series - and the dedicated readership it has attracted - has granted me opportunities few writers enjoy. From a craft point of view, the familiarity of the characters and the opportunity to allow them to grow over great swaths of time is certainly appealing.

Q: There must also be frustrations. Can you talk about some of these?

A: The same familiarity that is appealing can also at times feel confining, but I've consciously chosen to view the constraints of series fiction as creative challenges. Over the course of 14 books, I've written first- person narrations in four different voices and I've written stories in the third person. I've featured six or seven different protagonists. I've written about hot-button contemporary issues and about small things that fascinate me. I try to make the series work to my advantage and find ways around the obstacles.

Q: Do you ever foresee a non-series book?

A: I have two in my head. One is a historical thriller; the other is a contemporary thriller that I would have to twist like a pretzel to make work for the series. But given the economics of the business, it's unlikely I'll write either book until the series runs its natural course. Not too many crime-fiction series have extended out toward 20 books, so I assume that the end is in sight.

Q: I'm assuming that means we'll see Dr. Gregory again?

A: The 15th book in the series is almost done, and it is a much more traditional series book than is Kill Me. Most of the ensemble will be in it.