DEATH BECOMES HIM

Writer Dean James publishes his latest murderous mystery

by Olivia Flores Alvarez

As I sit down with Dean James in a cramped office at Murder by the Book, the mystery bookstore he manages, I notice he’s wearing a Rice University shirt. That seems fitting since his alma mater is the setting for his latest book, Death by Dissertation.

His 13th book and one of three to be released in 2004, Death by Dissertation (Silver Dagger Press) revolves around the murder of a Rice University graduate student, Charlie Harper. Andy Carpenter is unlucky enough to find the body, and when Rob Hayward, who once broke Andy’s heart, becomes the primary suspect, Andy steps in to help clear Rob’s name.

Olivia Flores Alvarez: You set the story at Rice University.
Dean James: Yes, it’s set in the history department of Rice. None of the characters in the book are based on real people, of course, but I used the physical layout of the library and offices and so forth.

OFA: Some of the action also happens in Montrose.
D.J.: A little bit, yeah. There’s not much, because so much takes place in the history department at Rice and in the library, but there are a few scenes in the neighborhood.

OFA: There’s a bookstore one character visits that seems very familiar.
D.J.: That was basically Crossroads Market. That’s now gone, sadly. I didn’t use names for anything, but I’m sure some people will recognize the bookstore.

OFA: You have a degree from Rice in medieval history, which is true for your lead character as well.
D.J.: Yes, my degree is in medieval history, with a specialty in England. I gave my character Andy that same specialty because that’s what I know best. It was fun to make him a medievalist and have him work with those kinds of topics.

OFA: Some of your other books are set in England.
D.J.: Right, the series about the gay vampire is set in England. That character, Simon, is a medieval historian by training, and he writes nonfiction books about medieval England. He also writes mysteries and romance novels under a pseudonym.

OFA: I’m not going to ask you if he’s based on you. Since I’ve seen you in the daylight, I’m going to guess you’re not a vampire.
D.J.: No, no, I’m not. [Laughs] We’re both gay, we’re both medievalists, and we both write books, but other than that we’re very different.

OFA: A lot of gay fiction has only gay characters doing only gay things in only gay settings and is meant for only gay readers. Your work isn’t like that at all. The world you create is very much like the real world. Some characters are gay, some are straight, some we don’t know about. You have a mix of characters with different sexualities, from different backgrounds, of different races and personalities.
D.J.: I just went to a writers’ conference in New Orleans, the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival. It’s all gay writers in all different fields, everything from poetry to erotica. Being among them, I sometimes felt that my characters aren’t gay enough. Everyone is so political and writes lots of explicit sex and all this stuff. I write for a fairly broad audience.

I want to reach mystery readers, not just gay mystery readers. I write for anyone who likes this type of cozy mystery, where there isn’t a lot of violence. Grandmothers can read this and not be upset because there isn’t a lot of gore or torture or anything like that.

I try to write for people who love mysteries. That’s my audience, that’s who I think of when I write.

OFA: I can see where people who aren’t gay would want to read this.
D.J.: My thought, and not to get too political about this, but my thought is that we have to get along with everybody. I don’t see the sense of bashing people over the head with this. This is a light book. I’m not trying to push an agenda down their throat. If I were writing an essay, maybe that would be different. But this is written for entertainment, and my job here is to entertain people.

Maybe people who are not gay will pick this up, maybe even someone who is a little homophobic will read it and then think, “Hey, these characters aren’t that bad after all.” Maybe.

The main thing is this is written to entertain. And it’s not about gay characters vs. straight characters. It’s all mixed up. There are some gay characters that are good, some gay characters that are bad. Some of the straights characters are nice, some are awful. Just like real life, there is some of everything.

OFA: One of your gay characters that is very, very bad is Charlie Harper, who, it seems, harps a lot. He is a nasty piece of work, isn’t he?
D.J.: He is. [Laughs] I enjoy writing nasty characters; they’re fun to play with. Plus I think I write them well. I’m sure that says something about me, but I’m not sure what.

OFA: This book is out from Silver Dagger Press.
D.J.: Yes, it’s a small press that’s doing Southern mysteries. The family that owns it is actually Baptist, so them doing a gay mystery is kind of unusual. But they wanted books that weren’t too violent and that didn’t have explicit sex. Those aren’t the kinds of books I write anyway, so one day I called them up and talked to the person who acquires titles for them and told her about this book and that the main character was gay. I asked if I could send it to her and she said, “You know, that might open up a whole line of marketing for us.” And then they accepted it for publication.

They’re very broad-minded, which surprised me. That isn’t my experience with most Baptists, but maybe I’m not their experience of most gay people. Maybe we surprised each other.

Olivia Flores Alvarez, who contributes regularly to OutSmart, interviewed k.d. lang for the April issue.

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