Introduction
Tess Gerritsen is a best selling international author of over 30 novels. Her series of novels featuring the homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the hit TNT television series "Rizzoli & Isles,". The Martini Club series has been optoned for a television series by Amazon Studio. Tess Gerristen has won the Nero Wolfe Award for her novel Vanish and the Rita Award for The Surgeon.
Ayo:- The Spy Coast sees you venturing out from a traditional mystery into the world of spy thrillers. What made you want to want to change tack and venture into the world of spies?
Tess:- I was inspired by a peculiar feature of the small Maine town where I live. Soon after moving here, 33 years ago, I discovered this town seems to be a haven for retired CIA agents. My husband, who was starting a medical practice, had a number of patients who "used to work for the government" but couldn't talk about it. A real estate agent later told us, "oh, they're all retired spies." I wondered what, exactly, spies do in their retirement. After interesting lives abroad, do they have book groups? Cocktail parties? Do they get bored? And that's how the character of Maggie Bird, the heroine of Spy Coast, popped into my head. She's in her 60s, and she left the CIA after her last operation went terribly wrong. Now she's trying to remake herself as a chicken farmer, but that last operation has come back to haunt her. And she has to call on her friends -- also retired spies -- to help her
Ayo:- What are the most important thing readers should know about Spy Coast?
Tess:- It's also about how older people become invisible and undervalued. Maggie and her gang still have their skills, but because of their gray hair, they're overlooked by younger people. I've found that myself as I get older. As Maggie says, "There's no better disguise than gray hair," because you can move through the world unnoticed. We see that conflict between young and old in Spy Coast, in the way Maggie spars with Jo Thibodeau, the young policewoman in town, who's baffled by these older people and their ability to outthink her at every step of the way.
Ayo:- How important is setting and place in your books? What made you decide on Maine?
Tess:- The Maine setting is key to this story because this state truly is a haven for ex-spies. It's also where I live, so I'm writing about my own backyard. It's a place of harsh weather and beautiful scenery and small towns, and the setting adds to the atmosphere of isolation.
Ayo:- Diana Ward and Maggie Bird are both spies, but they are also two different people. Can you explain the differences between the two of them?
Tess:- Maggie Bird is a woman with a conscience, a woman for whom there are ethical lines she won't cross. Yes, she's good at her job and she wants to accomplish the mission, but she sometimes has moral qualms about what that mission requires. Diana Ward is coldly efficient and good at what she does -- but she suffers no attacks of conscience about the harm she causes in achieving her goals. They both have the same goals -- Diana's just willing to do whatever it takes to get there. And, frankly, she's also a bit of a sociopath.
Ayo:- The Martini Club sounds fascinating a group of retired spies. How important are they to the overall storyline?
Tess:- These are Maggie's friends, her tribe. She's known them for decades, since CIA training, and she trusts them. In the shadowy world of espionage, I wanted Maggie to have people she can depend on, and that's exactly what she does when her own life is in danger. They bring their special skills to the problem, and each contributes in his or her own way. And most important, I found them fun! They'd make great dining companions, and certainly great drinking companions.
Ayo:- In reading Spy Coast there is a certain element of antagonism between the Martini Club and Police Chief Jo Thibodeau. How would you describe the relationship between them?
Tess:- Wary, but eventually respectful. When Jo first meets Maggie, she sees a gray-haired woman in her 60s, and she makes assumptions. Just a granny, a chicken farmer, no one of particular consequence. But she soon discovers that secretive Maggie has a high-tech security system in her home, that she's strangely calm about the murdered body on her property, and that she has friends, also retirees, who seem to know their way around a crime scene. These "old" folks have skills that surprise Jo -- and make her wonder who they really are.
Maggie looks at Jo as an annoyance. She's dealing with deadly repercussions from her past as a spy, and this local policewoman keeps nosing around, probing into areas that Maggie needs to keep secret. So yes, there's antagonism at first -- until the two women learn they can trust each other.
Ayo:- How would you describe the two girls Callie and Bella?
Tess:- Callie is Maggie's neighbor, a 14-year-old home-schooled farm girl who lives with her grandfather, Luther. Against her will, Maggie has come to love this girl for her sweetness, her kindness, and her craving for a maternal figure. Maggie wants to protect her -- and in the end, is ready to sacrifice her own life for Callie's.
Bella, like Callie, is also a teenager, and a girl that Maggie comes to care about, but Bella comes with a dangerous complication. She's the daughter of Phillip Hardwicke, who is Maggie's target for investigation. In order to insinuate herself into Hardwicke's circle, Maggie has to befriend Bella, a move that leads to moral qualms for Maggie.
Ayo:- There is a lot of food in Spy Coast was this deliberate and are you a foodie?
Tess:- I'm definitely a foodie! My father owned a restaurant in San Diego, and I'm of Chinese heritage, so of course food is something I think about a lot! Also, my fictional Martini Club all worked abroad, so they have adventurous palates, something that's reflected in the dishes they bring to their book group potluck dinners.
Ayo:- How has the book been received locally?
Tess:- People in Maine really embraced it, because they know it's about our state, and about some of their neighbors. It was a #1 bestseller here for several weeks. There's also a lot of wink-wink, nod-nod about the subject matter, because we know some of our neighbors are spies, and I've had a number of people come up and whisper stories about who did what, in which country. I recently saw one letter to the editor in our local paper, in reaction to my book, with the information that "the least accomplished spies retired to Bethesda, the middling spies retired to Florida, and the cream of the crop settled in Maine."
Ayo:- Over the last couple of years there has been an increase in the number of books that feature older protagonists. These books have certainly been well received. Why do you think there have been an increase in these books?
Tess:- Maybe because publishers have finally recognized there's a readership? I know that for decades, no one in Hollywood wanted to adapt any books with old characters for TV or film. I wrote a book years ago called Life Support, that featured several older characters, and one film agent told me, "there are too many old people in this." I think the hunger for these books has always been there, but the industry wasn't ready to embrace it. Hollywood has made us think that only the young and beautiful are interesting.
Ayo:- What next for the Martini Club and Police Chief Jo Thibodeau?
Tess:- I'm writing the sequel, called The Summer Guests. Jo and Maggie and her gang will be back, but this time the mystery is much closer to home, about events in Purity, Maine.
Ayo:- When you started writing Spy Coast did you already know which way it was going to go?
Tess:- No, I never do. I'm a seat-of-the-pants writer, and all I knew was that Maggie's a haunted woman, that something awful happened during her career and she's trying to forget it. And then a dead body ends up in her driveway, and she has to figure out what it means. That's all I knew!
Ayo:- How much research did you have to do for Spy Coast?
Tess:- I needed to know at least a minimum about the CIA and covert operations, and I approached it by reading memoirs of retired agents. I wanted to focus not so much on the tradecraft, but on the psychological and emotional challenges of being covert. We're so used to seeing spies as James Bond-type superheroes, but I wanted to look at them as human beings. How stressful is it to live a life when you can't tell the truth? What does it do to your friendships and your marriage? What if you have to do something you're morally opposed to? I also did research on the London laundromat, on Russian infiltration into the UK, etc.
Ayo:- Whilst you were writing Spy Coast and doing your research did you find out anything that you thought that if you included some of this in the story it would not be believed?
Tess:- I myself found it hard to believe how thoroughly Russian money has corrupted British society, and how many bankers have mysteriously "fallen" out of windows or "accidentally" ended up dead in suitcases. But this is straight from the news, so it would not be unfamiliar to readers.
Ayo:- What is the best thing that you found whilst doing research?
Tess:- That so many spies do their job with dedication and true patriotism. They go unnoticed and unpraised, and they fade into retirement without others ever knowing the sacrifices they made. I came away from my research with new respect for them, and for their service.
Ayo:- Do you think you would have been able to be a spy?
Tess:- No. I'd be a terrible spy. I wouldn't be able to lie convincingly.
Ayo:- Have we seen the last of Rizzoli and Isles?
Tess:- I'm not sure. I do have a story in mind for them, but right now I'm having a great time writing about Maggie and her friends.
Ayo:- You have also written standalone novels. If a suitable storyline come up, would you write more standalones?
Tess:- Absolutely. If an idea excites me, then that's what I want to write about.
Ayo:- Do you have a fun part when it comes to writing?
Tess:- Writing is sometimes such hard work, and often so frustrating, that the fun part is writing "the end," hitting "send," and mixing myself a martini. But the most fun part, during the actual writing, is coming up with the premise. That's when I get to play with the story, before I actually have to sit down and struggle with the words.
Ayo:- You have written several different types of books. Is there any type of book that you haven’t written that you would like to?
Tess:- I think it would be fun to write a fantasy novel, but I don't think I'm clever enough!
The Spy Coast by Tess Gerristen (Transworld Publishers)
Maggie Bird is many things. A chicken farmer. A good neighbour. A seemingly average retiree living in the seaside town of Purity. She's also a darned good rifle shot. And she never talks about her past.But when an unidentified body is left on Maggie's driveway, she knows it's a calling card from old times. It's been fifteen years since the failed mission that ended her career as a spy, and cost her far more than her job. Step forward the 'Martini Club' - Maggie's silver-haired book group (to anyone who asks), and a cohort of former spies behind closed doors. With the help of her old friends - and always one step ahead of the persistent local cop - Maggie might still be able to save the life she's built.
More information about her work can be found on her website.
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