Interview: Hollywood Star
Meeting the Mistress of Murder and Mayhem by Brian Young (November 2004)
Nothing appeared out of place as I parked my Sentra in the garage at John's Landing. Clutching my valise in one hand and my assigned reading in the other, I crossed the cobblestone bricks of the courtyard that led to a local joint called Capt. Billy Bang's. A curious name for a bar that didn't have one pirate or sea hag in sight. Not even a drunken sailor. An over-aged busboy lazily refilled water glasses. Behind me, two hipsters with horn-rimmed glasses exhaled columns of American Spirit smoke. The Barbie doll waitress passed me twice, an expression of “I'm so above this job” planted on her face. Nothing to do but wait for my contact. I was early but when murder is the name of the game, it pays to be early.
Nothing happened for twenty minutes. Then a mermaid walked into Billy Bang's. Katy King. Author. Lobbyist. All Woman. She had a devilish grin on her gorgeous face and wore a colorful sarong-style skirt that would've made Dorothy Lamour steam with envy.
King is the author of the murder mystery City of Suspects. I'd read the book, blazed through it, thinking so this is what they mean by “page turner.”
City of Suspects is your traditional, private-eye murder mystery. Expect the private eye is a smart, sexy dame named Jane Lanier. Instead of being your typical glamour girl, this hottie has a wardrobe of old jeans and tennis shoes and lives on a steady diet of drive-through cheeseburgers. In chapter one she avoids getting strangled by one man only to find the body of another slumped behind her desk. The rest of the book clips along a lightning speed, a series of short chapters detailing Lanier's encounters with missing millions, car bomb explosions, more murder and a rogue's gallery of dead casino bosses, loony widows, and a disgruntled youth with a penchant for arson.
King grew up in Northeast Portland, so it isn't surprising the book features several local landmarks, including the mansion on Northeast Klickitat, the cemetery across the street from Central Catholic and even the QFC on 33rd. As a child, King attended Madeleine and St. Mary's Academy schools before enrolling at Gonzaga University and finishing her English degree at the University of Oregon. Today she works for the State Department of Human Services as a liaison representing health services and frequently finds herself in Salem lobbying.
Her novel started taking shape some ten years ago as an assignment in a mystery writing course at Portland Community College. As she continued to work on the novel for several years she also took a writer's publishing class where she acquired some valuable advice.
“The professor said there are three things you need to get published.” King said. Talent was number 88 on the teacher's list. Luck was number two. Number one was persistence.
King knew from the get go that she wanted to create a modern day private eye who was tough, self-deprecating, and female. Influenced by writers Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky, King created a main character that falls into a world reminiscent of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, “with a wink to Nancy Drew.” King said.
The manuscript was completed in 1998. King's first agent tried for two years to sell the mystery. No dice. Then King met New York agent Janet Reid at a gathering of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. The ladies hit it off. “She had to talk to the nutty girl wearing the black boa.” King said about that meeting. Six months later, Reid snagged a publishing deal with Oak Tree Press. King's second Jane Lanier mystery, Bright Hot Light, is ready to hit the streets.
As we exited Capt. Billy Bangs, I noticed King was on foot and offered her a lift, but she preferred to hoof it. With a cheery handshake and a final flash of that electric grin, Katy King, the modern mistress of murder and mirth, slipped off into the darkness of her “city of suspects.”
