Q&A with Reed Farrel Coleman, author of Sleepless City
By John Valeri
July 11, 2023
More than thirty books into a celebrated career, New York Times bestselling author Reed Farrel Coleman—named a “hard-boiled poet” by NPR’s Maureen Corrigan—is writing a new chapter with the publication of Sleepless City, the first novel to feature undercover NYPD cop and Afghan War veteran Nick Ryan. It follows six contributions to Robert B. Parker’s famed Jesse Stone canon; Coleman has also originated series featuring popular characters Moe Prager and Gus Murphy as well as standalones, a collaborative novel, and a multitude of short stories, essays, and poetry. A four-time recipient of the Shamus Award, Coleman has also won the Anthony, Audie, Barry, and Macavity Awards and is a four-time Edgar Award nominee. He makes his home on Long Island.
The author generously took time away from his pre-publication blitz to indulge questions about world building vs. the continuation of a series, the appeal of complex and vulnerable characters, the use of fiction in mirroring reality, and the importance of cover art as representation of a book’s tone. Coleman also discussed the relationship between poetry and prose and the work ethic necessary to sustain a fulfilling career in writing; he also teased Nick Ryan’s next case.
John Valeri: Sleepless City is the first book in a new series following your contributions to Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone saga. What are both the most challenging and liberating aspects of originating a new world to inhabit?
Reed Farrel Coleman: First, I have to say that filling Bob Parker’s shoes was a great experience. It was also a valuable experience in terms of writing Nick Ryan, the protagonist of Sleepless City. Understandably, readers tend to focus on the protagonist in a new series. But one of the most enjoyable aspects for a writer in creating a new series is building the world in which your characters will exist. Jesse Stone’s world was already built for me and I had to learn to operate within its confines, though I did expand Paradise, Mass beyond what Bob had laid out. With Nick, I had free rein to create a new world, Nick’s world. His New York is a different New York than the one I used for Moe Prager, Gus Murphy, Dylan Klein, or Gulliver Dowd. Since Nick’s job is to fix the city’s problems, he might one day be operating in the grit beneath the city’s fingernails or having dinner on a penthouse garden on Billionaire’s Row. In Sleepless City, readers will find Nick in a used tire store in the South Bronx, a Sutton Place apartment with a bridge view, a Coney Island housing project, an abandoned row house in East New York … I can’t wait for readers’ reactions to Nick and his world.
Valeri: Your protagonist, Nick Ryan (a war veteran), is the epitome of a “complex” character. What draws you to writing about moral ambiguities–and how do you hope Nick’s high stress, high stakes lifestyle will resonate with readers who find themselves living in the gray areas that exist between black and white?
Reed Farrel Coleman: Thank you for saying that about Nick. I have a motto I’ve lived by for thirty-two novels: “It’s the character, stupid!” Sure, plot, setting, tone, pace and all that jazz matter, but without a powerful, complex character to build a series around, what have you got? Ask a reader about the plot of a novel two weeks after they’ve finished and they struggle. But if I’ve done my job right, they will still be thinking about the protagonist as if he was alive. Bottom line is, we are all complex creatures. The simplest among us is complex. The thing is, most of us have opinions about moral issues, yet very few of us are faced with having to act on them. Although Nick is more complex than most, more competent than most, drives a cooler car, etc., I want the reader to ask him, her, or themselves what they would do faced with the nearly impossible situations Nick has to deal with. You, the reader, stand in his shoes. I love and admire Larry Block and Walter Mosley, but they use a device I call the psycho ex machina. Mouse, for example, in Walter’s Easy Rawlins novels, does the dirty work that would taint Easy. I want my protagonists to not have that option. If there’s to be blood on anyone’s hands, Nick, and by extension the reader, has to own it. At the beginning of Sleepless City Nick is sure he knows the difference between right, wrong, and justice. I hope the reader is wondering if that’s still true or not when they’re done with the book.
Valeri: You introduce supporting characters–including a former girlfriend, Shana, and an intrepid reporter, Callie–whose presence reveal a more vulnerable side to Nick. In what ways do these peripheral figures serve to help humanize him while also heightening the narrative stakes?
Reed Farrel Coleman: Let me tell you a story. My oldest brother went to an ultra exclusive graduate school. While there, he was friendly with someone who had one of the highest IQs ever recorded. I was with them once in the presence of my sister-in-law and two of her sisters. And I watched this genius seem like a fool. That lesson has never been lost on me. Beauty and attraction have a strange effect on people. It strips away their veneer. Although I wouldn’t say Nick has a weak spot for women, he is not immune from the power of beauty, love, and attraction. That tough veneer or mask we show the rest of the world is at the very least counterproductive around the people we’re attracted to. To be calculated about it, I’m not interested in invulnerable characters. Invulnerable makes you boring. Shana and Callie let the the readers see Nick under a different kind of light.
Valeri: Policing has remained a hot button topic given the abuses we’ve seen in the age of social media and the 24/7 news cycle. How do you endeavor to balance entertainment value with social consciousness–and in what ways does Nick’s positioning as a fringe operative compliment this juxtaposition?
Reed Farrel Coleman: I’ll be honest with you. Sleepless City’s plot changed because of what happened during the pandemic. It gave me the opportunity to explore those difficult moral situations you alluded to earlier. Whether you’re a Defund the Police supporter or someone who has a Blue Lives Matter bumper sticker, I don’t believe there’s anyone out there who believes we don’t need the police. Given that, I put Nick in a position where he has to walk a moral tightrope between those two extremes. As readers will discover, Nick is left with an impossible situation in which he must decide how to split the baby. But he isn’t Solomon the Wise. As super competent as he is, as experienced a cop and soldier as he is, he is forced to make a decision I hope none of us is ever forced to make. I want the reader to ask: “What would I do?”
Valeri: We’ve all been cautioned not to judge a book by its cover and yet artwork is often our basis for a first impression. In Sleepless City’s acknowledgments, you thank Stephanie Stanton for the best cover you’ve ever had. How does her visual contribution evoke the style/tone of the story contained within (or: in what ways does her imagery enhance your words)?
Reed Farrel Coleman: I’ve had some great covers before, but the tone of Sleepless City is perfectly captured by the cover. It’s a dark and moody cityscape. You can almost feel the steam coming off the blacktop, smell the garbage on the streets at night. The character depicted at the center (Nick Ryan by proxy) is holding a gun, but that gun is facing down. It symbolizes a threat, but not an imminent one. He’ll use it, but with reluctance. His face is in profile as he looks for danger around the corner. But you wouldn’t say he’s happy, anxiously looking to show his power. It speaks to Nick’s complexity and to the world in which he operates. I’ve come to think of Nick as a prince of the city who operates in its shadows.
Valeri: You’ve been bestowed with the title “hard-boiled poet.” In your opinion, what is the relationship between poetry and prose–and how does noir lend itself particularly well to this symbiosis?
Reed Farrel Coleman: It’s a title I’m proud of, but it can be a curse. Lee Child, who, as the blurb would indicate, is a fan of my work, once half-jokingly said to me that if I cut three words out of every sentence, I’d be a huge seller. Alas, we write how we write and the only formal writing training I ever received was in poetry. It was the beauty in the language of Chandler and Hammett that attracted me to crime fiction to begin with. I saw in their writing all the techniques I had learned in poetry. Mostly, I felt the rhythm and meter in their writing. In most great prose writing there is poetry. Great writing is economical, evocative in image and sensuality (as in the five senses). Great writing pushes you along and that’s often done with meter, even if the reader is unconscious of it. I don’t sit there and count out iambs (Shall I) (compare) (thee to) (a sum) (mer’s day). All writers have a natural rhythm. And I confess, I have a weakness for beautiful writing beyond just getting the work done.
Valeri: Publishing is a notoriously volatile industry. Given your experiences as a veteran writer, what do you feel comfortable sharing about the sacrifices and the payoffs–and what words of caution or guidance would you offer to others about finding fulfillment in creative pursuits?
Reed Farrel Coleman: I have always been willing to sit in a room alone for hours a day working on something about a hundred thousand words long that no one besides my agent might ever read. I’ve never been in it for the glory (ha!) or the money. I’ve made a thousand dollars a book and much more than that. It’s always been about the work. As long as it’s about the work, you have a chance. Publishing may change by the minute, but you have no control over that. You can’t control anything except what goes on the page and the sooner you realize that, the better off you’ll be.
Valeri: Leave us with a teaser: What comes next?
Reed Farrel Coleman: Nick Ryan’s next adventure is Blind to Midnight. When someone close to Nick is murdered for no obvious reason, it begins a tale stretching back to the Balkans War and to WWII!