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Combining the careers of Assistant District Attorney and head of the Manhattan Sex Crime Unit with best-selling crime novelist is quite unusual. How did your interest in crime and in particular the sex crimes prosecution service come about?
As a college student in the '60's, I majored in English literature - with a lifelong interest in writing. When it came time to make career decisions, I chose law school because I wanted to spend some time doing public service. During my law school days, I became fascinated with criminal law and procedure, and knew that the Manhattan District Attorney's Office was a great training ground for young lawyers.
There was no "sex crimes unit" anywhere in the States in those days (1972 when I graduated from law school) - and very, very few women doing any kind of work in the criminal justice system. My law school professor helped "kick" the door of the DA's Office open for me, and I was the 7th woman to join a staff of 170 lawyers at the time. When the unit was created several years later, my boss asked me to take it over, because he thought it was important that a woman be at its head. Initially, I was reluctant - thinking it would be too grim, and too boring, with a steady stream of cases involving one basic issue. I couldn't have been more incorrect - the work is very uplifting and rewarding, endlessly challenging, and it is what has kept me in this office for 28 years.What motivated you to begin writing? You mention that your father introduced you to the crime genre as a child - perhaps this is where the seeds of both careers originated?In the mid 1980's, I was asked by a major publishing house in the States to write a non-fiction book about my work. I procrastinated throughout the prosecution of several high-profile cases the next few years, and finally completed the book. Sexual Violence was published in 1993, and had a wonderful reception here - it was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. That inspired me to do what I had always dreamed of doing… which was to begin to write the first in a series of crime novels, featuring a prosecutor who worked on the same
kind of investigations.As background, can you say what your (and Alex Cooper's) job involves? Why and when was the Sex Crime Unit set up? What is the unit's relationship with the NYPD? What is your role within it?Alex Cooper's job - like my own - involves the investigation and prosecution of all crimes of sexual assault, and frequently homicides, which occur in Manhattan. Our unit was formed in 1974 (the first of its kind in the USA) with 2 lawyers, and now has 40 senior attorneys who staff it. Like Coop, at the beginning of Cold Hit, we are usually called in as soon as a major crime has been reported, so that we work closely with the police detectives in the early phases of the investigation. As you can see from the fiction, my colleagues and the NYPD have an unusually close working relationship. As the chief of the unit, I supervise all the lawyers, participate in investigations, and am the liaison between my boss and the NYPD chiefs, too.Many people might imagine your job to be unbelievably depressing. To base a successful crime series around it seems a daunting task. Yet the Alex Cooper mysteries are exciting, witty and fun while also being informative and compassionate. We get glimpses of the tragic and sometimes bizarre events that surround lives wrecked by violence yet there is always the satisfaction that there is someone there to help the victims fight back. Being based on a real life Unit, they also reassure that something positive can be done. How important to you is this hands-on knowledge of what your write about? What made you decide to give Alex your own job?(I like this question, which compliments the books as "exciting, witty and fun" - which means a lot to me, since so many people hear the subject and may be put off...)Alex refers to changes over the last few years in the effectiveness of the prosecution system? In what ways have things changed, in terms of legislature, technology and attitudes? The changes in the system, since I came to this office, have been
extraordinary. First, we needed (all across America) to change the very archaic laws which governed this kind of prosecution. Then we started to work on educating the public, to change attitudes about these issues. And now - as I show in Cold Hit - we have brilliant scientific advances, like DNA technology, which have revolutionized this business, making it possible for computers to match genetic fingerprints to crime scene evidence, and solve
cases that even the best detectives were unable to close.Have you ever been in dangerous situations as a result of your job?Yes, I've been in some dangerous situations, but not nearly in as much jeopardy as Coop and her sidekicks. A little poetic license here, for dramatic effect.Do real-life incidents appear in your novels?All the murders in my books are fictional. I do draw from some real-life events, but I ficitonalize them to disguise the actual people involved.The characters in your novels ring strikingly true. Is this because you base many of them on your friends in real life? How much of you is there in Alex?There is a lot of me in Alex, and I'm glad you think the characters ring true. That's terribly important to me as a reader of other series, and of
course, as a writer. I think one of the things I like best about my work is the close relationships with my colleagues and friends here - and those relationships have certainly sustained me in my private life. So I'm pleased to be able to create figures who come to life for many readers, and I believe that's one of the strong features that has made the series succeed.What type of crime fiction did you read as a child and now as an adult? Have any authors influenced your own style of writing?I have read almost everything in this genre voraciously. I started with the Hardy Boys (because of my older brother) and then the Nancy Drew books - as a child. By adolescence, I was reading Poe and Conan Doyle (I still reread them constantly). And then on to Agatha Christie. I think no one does suspense and character better than John Le Carre, especially in his Smiley books. I adore PD James and Ruth Rendell, and all the great Brits who started this tradition.Do you ever find a conflict between your professions? Alex mentions that the sight of a real corpse is enough to put her off the crime genre for a couple of weeks. Do you think there is a problem with the crime novel as "entertainment"?I think the potential for conflict between my two jobs is real, and I am
vigilant about trying to prevent that. They are meant to entertain, but also to educate (which is one of the things that I like about the procedural sub-genre). In my books, as several critics have noted, the assaults occur "off-stage." They are not in the narrative to titillate. Coop and her colleagues deal with the aftermath, and that's important to me.What are your plans for the next Alex Cooper mystery? I for one, can't wait!I'm hard at work on the fourth book in the series, and quite thrilled to have fans tell me they're waiting for it. Nothing pleases me more than being part of this world of crime writers and readers, in and around bookstores and libraries, and thriving in this community, this tangled web. Thanks!Site and Page Design Copyright © 1998 TANGLED WEB
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