Bestselling author Corey Lynn Fayman chatted about his new book “Gillespie Field Groove: A Rolly Waters Mystery.”
Fayman is the author of the five-book “Rolly Waters” mystery series. These books have won several awards over the years. He grew up in San Diego, California, where he later worked as a keyboard player and a live sound technician.
Fayman has taught at San Diego State, UCSD Extension, and The Art Institute of California, San Diego. A career highlight was being the sound designer for the world-famous Old Globe Theatre.
Gillespie Field Groove: A Rolly Waters Mystery is the fifth book in this mystery series. What was your inspiration for this popular series, and this book in particular?
A few years ago, my once creative corporate job had been reduced to something mundane and dreary. I needed a creative outlet. I had read a fair amount of detective stories at the time and the idea of a San Diego musician who was also a private detective started kicking around in my head as a possible book.
I started using my lunch hour to write up notes on the character, his friends and how I might work my hometown of San Diego into the plot and settings. That led to writing the first book in the series, Black’s Beach Shuffle.
I wanted to create something that provided a fresh take on the private eye story, keeping the necessary conventions, but updating the characters and plots to add humor and a contemporary sensibility to the genre.
Gillespie Field Groove begins with a riot outside the Jimi Hendrix concert at the San Diego Sports Arena in 1969 and then moves to the modern-day when the daughter of two people who met at that concert asks Rolly Waters to find a guitar her father once owned, a guitar that supposedly belonged to Jimi Hendrix.
That’s what I started with, but as I started writing and developing the characters, the sexism and corruption of the music industry became a big part of the story.
I started wanting revenge for what some of my characters had been through. I figured out a way to make that both satisfying and subtle while still keeping the mystery of the “lost” Hendrix guitar central to the story.
Rolly Waters is very intriguing. What is one of your keys for creating such a dynamic character?
I knew from the start I wanted Rolly Waters to be different from other private eyes and the first thing I decided was that he wouldn’t carry a gun. He’s not a tough guy, though he’s been in some tough situations.
Rolly lives next door to his mother, who is kind of watching over him after a tragic car accident for which he was responsible. He responds to a lot of his challenges with the long-suffering wit I’ve observed in a number of working musicians.
He also brings to his investigations the same kind of dedication and single-mindedness he needed to become an accomplished musician. The tension between his non-confrontational coolness and his doggedness in search of the truth are what make him interesting.
You have amassed a lot of fans through this series. What was the most interesting feedback you received about your books?
There have always been some strong and compelling female characters in the Rolly Waters books, but this one seems to have struck a particularly strong chord, if you will, with women readers.
A friend of mine said she cried at the end, which is not something I’d expected, but on further reflection I started to understand how the ending might provide a sense of relief. Justice was served in a unique and empowering way, I think.
How does it feel to be an author in the digital age (Now with technology being so prevalent)?
The best thing about the digital age is that it’s allowed for a much wider range of authors to get in the game and publish, which means that some good writers who might have had a hard time breaking in with the big commercial publishers can now find a market for their work.
On the less good side, it means there’s an even larger amount of crappy writing out there and sometimes it’s hard to sift through the noise to find the good stuff.
Is there a new book in the works you can tell us about?
I’ve just finished a new novel, my first that’s not part of the Rolly Waters series. It’s a historical mystery set in the affluent seaside resort of La Jolla, California, in the mid-1950s.
A rookie cop seeks to restore his family’s good name after his father’s suicide, but his high-minded principles are put to the test when the search for a stolen suitcase implicates the rich and famous guests of the Del Charro Hotel, including Raymond Chandler, J. Edgar Hoover, and Zsa Zsa Gabor.
“Gillespie Field Groove: A Rolly Waters Mystery” by Corey Lynn Fayman is available on Amazon by clicking here.
