Official Interview: Marcel Marquié

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Today's Chat with Sarah features Marcel Marquié author of Parisian Detective Tales, A Trilogy.

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1. What do you do when you aren't writing?

I am now retired, and I, therefore, can write at leisure, but I also have ample time to ride my bicycle and my motorcycle (like Toni). Being a cinema lover, I spend a great amount of time watching movies.

2. What does your writing process look like?

I am not a multitasker, so when I write, I just focus on my writing day in, day out.

3. Let's discuss your book, Parisian Detective Tales, a Trilogy. Can you give us a brief synopsis for those who don't know?

Two Sisters is the first part of a trilogy. The story is set in 1947, when France had just started to recover from years of Nazi occupation. Toni Bonnet is a former POW who has just opened his detective agency. He is not a risktaker, and he only works on cases of marital infidelity, but her stumbles across murders committed by two young women. The older is a former Resistance hero and her younger sister has a baby fathered by a German officer during the war. The second and third parts of the trilogy (The Child and The Mother), follow the same characters throughout.

4. The reviewer discusses how Toni is not brave or tough but "refreshingly human." Why did you decide to write him so differently from most protagonists in crime novels?

I like the idea of a character who is quite good at what he does but who also has foibles and is not always in control of the situation... like most of us. To me at least, that makes him more credible.

5. The book is set in Paris after the Nazi occupation. Why this time and place?

I have long been fascinated by this murky period of French history, when people had shown their true colors during the Occupation. It had been a complex mix of bravery and patriotism, selfishness and collaboration, and suffering for most citizens.

6. What was your intention behind the strong emotional content in the book?

The emotional content was important to reflect the ambiguities of the circumstances, but I wanted it to be mitigated by touches of humor, sometimes dark humor. I hope I was successful in that respect.

7. Was there a message that you wanted to convey to your readers?

Not a message, but perhaps the need to reflect on human nature.

8. What's next for you?

The trilogy is the start of a longer series that features some returning characters (Toni, of course), and some new ones. So far, I have completed two more stories, which have not been published yet, and I have started working on a sixth one.

I like to end with fun questions.

9. What's the weirdest thing you've ever had to research for a book?

If not weird, at least surprising. One example is the pneumatic mail system of Paris that allowed the delivery of letters through pressurized air conduits. It dated back to the second half of the 19th century and was greatly developed after WWII. So in 1947, it was in its heyday for Toni and fellow Parisians to use it.

10. Do you ever Google yourself?

I have done it on occasion, but it's not something I normally do.

11. If you could have any fictional character (from any book) as your writing buddy for a day, who would it be and what would you two get up to?

Sam Spade is such the opposite of Toni Bonnet that it might be fun to have him tell me what he thinks of Toni's approach to problem solving. I could even imagine putting them both in a story where they would conduct an investigation together. They would be quite an odd couple.

12. What is your life verse or motto?

I'm not sure I have one, but being mindful of others while always thinking critically would be close to it.