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QUESTIONS FROM READERS

Jodi Compton, Bookreporter.com's featured Suspense/Thriller Author for March, answers readers' questions about the difficulties of writing her second novel, why she chose Minneapolis as the locale for her series, and the differences between herself and her main protagonist.

austadj@aol.com: Where do your stories come from? Is there a basis in your own life?

Jodi Compton: Not hardly. I have a really boring life, like a lot of writers. The stories just come from somewhere deep in my mind. I learned to read at about age two, and I think my brain just got wired up differently because I did so much fiction reading so young.

Sandn2shoes@aol.com: How do you feel about this book compared to your first?

Jodi Compton: SYMPATHY was a little harder to write. Everyone says that about second books, but I think the issue was that SYMPATHY has multiple storylines and an ensemble cast. It tells stories within stories, like Cicero's history, which he lays out in a series of Sarah's visits, or the story of Sarah's decision to become a cop. There were a lot of balls to keep in the air.

rongardner4@comcast.net: Have you ever lived in the Twin Cities? If not, why did you pick this locale for your series? I lived there for a few years, so it's enjoyable for me to read stories that take place there.

Jodi Compton: I lived in Minneapolis for nearly three years, long enough to use it as a locale but not long enough to rhapsodize about it like a native (as Lehane and Parker do with Boston), which is why the description is fairly dry. By the time I started writing about Sarah Pribek, I was living in California (where I'm from), and people asked me why I didn't set the first book in LA or San Francisco. But when you mention San Francisco, people get a very specific mental image: foggy, insular, wealthy, caffeinated, tech-heavy, with colorful Asian enclaves. And when you mention LA, people have another: sprawling, smoggy, jaded, Chandleresque, full of palm trees and police brutality. Neither of them fit Sarah, who's an inlander, a veteran of highways and bus terminals, not airports. She's never seen the ocean, in fact. Minneapolis just suited her. Not to say that it isn't cosmopolitan, but I could see Sarah standing on one of Minneapolis's many bridges watching a flatbed barge out on the river, the way I used to. It was a very different feeling than having her looking out at the Bay, or standing on the boardwalk at Venice Beach.

JPerry@epicor.com: Do you think that law enforcement officers get away with murder as depicted in the book?

Jodi Compton: The way it happens in my book? No. If you wanted to look at the issue more broadly, there are dark periods in American history when legally sanctioned lynchings were fairly common. Even today, racial justice advocates can tell you unsettling stories about suspects who die in arrest situations or in custody, and that the officers or guards in question are almost invariably found to have used "justified force" by a panel usually composed of other law enforcement professionals. I haven't yet written about a situation like that, because I tend to avoid writing about heavy social issues, although the story Cicero tells about his brother Ulises's death, in SYMPATHY, is drawn from cases like that.

EOROSZ@aol.com: Do you intend to continue with Sarah in future books? Is there any of Sarah in you?

Jodi Compton: I'm trying to put together a third novel about Sarah right now. She's like a photonegative of me --- she has strengths where I have weaknesses and vice-versa. She's good in a crisis, but bordering on reckless. I'm a much more careful person, sometimes tending to overthink. One of my favorite parts of THE 37TH HOUR is when Sarah says that she dislikes writing, which is, of course, one of my favorite things to do.

landis@arm-tek.net: I am curious to learn where you might next take Sarah because I think you really have a good character to develop.

Jodi Compton: I'm mostly keeping that under wraps, but it's safe to say that Sarah's life will never be a million laughs. If you like your crime fiction dark, stick around, you'll have fun. I'm glad you like her, by the way.

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