Thanks for the opportunity to introduce Sweetie Bogan’s Sorrow, the fifth book in the Elder Darrow jazz mystery series, to the SinC audience. Sweetie was published on October 2, 2020, by Encircle Publications.
The Elder Darrow series is the story of an alcoholic who walks into a dive bar in Boston called the Esposito and decides to buy it. Elder believes that being around drinkers and alcohol all day and night might give him a better chance of controlling his desire for single-malt Scotch in deadly quantities. It’s not an approved twelve-step program, but it give him some (tenuous) hope, where nothing else has worked. At the same time, he wants to turn the Esposito, the dive bar, into a jazz night spot—he is a rabid fan of the music.
What was the a-ha moment that made you write this story?
I read a great deal of jazz history and I’m particularly interested in the history of jazz singers. The deeper I got into the history of singers, especially female ones, the more I saw how badly many of them were taken advantage of personally, professionally, and financially. It occurred to me that Elder, being an aficionado of the music and a good soul, could find himself embroiled in a situation where female singers were being taken advantage of and try to correct that situation. What made me very happy was the emergence of a female singer in the book who had resisted all attempts to exploit her and provided a counterpoint to the narrative of singers being exploited.
Who is your favorite character and why?
My favorite character in the book has to be the Sweetie Bogan of the title. She is an aging jazz singer, a star unwilling to give up too much of what she’s had in the way of success, but very aware that the years and changes in the jazz scene have caught up to her. Her star is fading, but she’s not letting it go without a fight. She’s trying to do some good for her younger peers, but the attempt to do some good for people backfires with deadly results.
What is the hardest part of writing a book?
For me, the hardest part of writing a book is fighting my sense of hurry at getting down everything I want the book to contain. I don’t plot out a book in advance, which makes me eager to find out what happens, which contributes to my hurry. After five books, I would have thought I’d developed some patience in my process, but especially in writing the first draft, I’m in such a swivet to get it all down that I fear I miss connections and possibilities that might make the story stronger and deeper.
Were there indispensable people without whom you couldn’t have written the book?
I don’t want to call out people by name without their permission, but suffice to say that, after the publication of the fourth book in the series, I was at a loss as to where I wanted to go next. A brief conversation with a friend at a writers’ conference about new trends in music set a seed and I probably would have wound up writing a very different book without that. And I always shout out my publisher’s cover designer, who has the uncanny ability to extract the essence of my books into a single image that blows me away every time.
What meal and drink do you think would pair well with your book?
Of course, if it’s Elder eating and drinking, we’d have to leave off the Scotch and the wine, but I think Sweetie Bogan’s Sorrow would pair nicely with a double shot of Macallan 1926 single-malt, a prosciutto and fig appetizer, New York strip medium rare with creamed spinach, a half bottle of good Burgundy, and a snifter of Graham’s Tawny Port (the 40 year old) for dessert. Of course, in the Esposito before Elder changes it over to a sophisticated jazz night spot? A draft of Kreuger Cream Ale and a rotisserie hot dog.
Richard Cass graduated from Colby College and earned an MA in Writing from the University of New Hampshire. His short fiction has won prizes from Redbook and Playboy. He’s published a book of stories called Gleam of Bone and four novels in the Elder Darrow Jazz Mystery series. The first book, In Solo Time, won the 2018 Maine Literary Award in Crime Fiction. Kirkus Reviews called the fourth book, Last Call at the Esposito, “an immersive and satisfying addition to the category of Boston crime fiction.” The fifth book in the series, Sweetie Bogan’s Sorrow, was published in October 2020. He lives in Maine, with his wife and a feral Maine coon cat.