Interview: Mystery Novelist Robin Burcell

Novel: The Bone Chamber 

By Mark Young

Author Robin Burcell’s main character, FBI forensic artist Sydney Fitzpatrick, returns in The Bone Chamber trying to hide from psychological wounds inflicted in the past. However, Sydney is dragged from her hiding place—an FBI academy classroom on the Quantico marine base where she teaches—to help in another baffling case filled with secrets, lies, and murder.

Readers: If you think Robin was tough on you in Face Of A Killer, wait until Sydney starts eluding the bad guys in this novel.

And readers better pack a bag. This time Sydney travels to exotic locations in Italy to find clues that only The Bone Chamber might reveal. The story begins with a skull, resting on a table in a closely-guarded room at an FBI facility at Quantico, where Sydney reluctantly performs her artistic magic. Her painstaking recreation only makes the case more dangerous as she unlocks facts that everyone fears.

Mysterious Special Agent Zachary Griffin manipulates Sydney’s life—thwarting her Thanksgiving holidays with family in San Francisco, for example— to get at the truth of this murder. Sydney soon realizes even Griffin—if that’s his real name—may want to uncover the murder, but everything else about his life is a lie. Who can she trust?

You’ll have to read The Bone Chamber to find out.

Robin joins us today to talk about this latest mystery novel and her writing career.

MARK: This second Sydney Fitzpatrick novel is packed with thrills, intrigue and conspiracies. Robin, I’ve tried to tell our readers a little about The Bone ChamberT without giving away too much. What did I miss that you think they need to know about this mystery?

ROBIN:  I think you’ve about covered it. Heck, you made me want to pick it up and read it! 

MARK: This international thriller starts at the FBI academy in Virginia and the nation’s capitol, finally traveling from San Francisco to Italy and back again. The story raises all kinds of conspiratorial theories that might even date back to biblical times. This must have been an interesting research project. Where did you travel for background and what sources of information did you glean for this story? Tell us a little about this journey.

ROBIN:  Originally I did most of my research at the library and on the internet. Especially concerning the historical aspects of the books.  But in order to bring that sense of actually being there, I came to the realization that someone was going to need to go to these locales and make sure my depictions were accurate. (And why not me?) Actually, it was my mother who pointed out that the book would be far better if I personally visited the places in the book. She’d lived there for several years, researching the ancient columbaria, and so I had depended on her to vet some of the scenes to get the flavor right and make sure they were accurate. But it seemed time and again, I’d have a scene written, and she’d tell me it couldn’t happen that way, because my vision (from internet tours) and the reality of the actual place were … very different. She suggested I travel there, and said she’d play tour guide (since she speaks Italian.)  It was a great setup. We traveled to each of the locations set in the book, and I was able to see where some scenes needed to be changed for accuracy, and how I could ramp up other scenes to make them better.  It was amazing how much it added to the tension in the story.

MARK: What was the best part of your research?

ROBIN:  Besides traveling to a foreign country in the name of research? The food!  It was fantastic! One restaurant, Hostaria Antica Roma, which was right up the street from one of the key scenes, was so memorable, that I rewrote my restaurant scene to include the meal and setting. The owner and I still correspond via e-mail and Facebook.  I’m telling you right now, if you go to Rome, visit that restaurant. You won’t be disappointed! 

MARK: At end of The Bone Chamber, you wrote a fascinating article titled “Fact or Fiction” regarding the Freemason's possible ties to the Templar Knights, and a politically-explosive conspiracy in Italy that piqued the public’s interest. What did you find most interesting about all this? And …. how much do you believe this is true?  

ROBIN:  By far, the most fascinating aspect is the history and scandal of the Italian Freemason lodge, Propaganda Due (also known as P-2). Granted this lodge was just one of many, many lodges throughout the world at the time, and by no means representative of what the Freemasons are or were about, but its history in the 1980s of how the men involved with this lodge nearly toppled the Italian government and banking system, even infiltrated the Vatican, due to such widespread corruption (with ripples felt around the world), well it was the perfect example of conspiracy theory.  It’s something that most people would say could never happen in today’s world.  And yet it did happen just a few decades ago.  It’s also a lesson learned that we hope won’t be repeated. My book continues on with the assumption that today a few key players from P-2 are still attempting to manipulate both the Italian government and the U.S. government. 

MARK: For our readers who’ve not had the pleasure of reading Face Of A Killer, give us a little back story on Sydney. What is she trying to recover from in the past? What is it that drives her to hide in an FBI classroom as an instructor?

ROBIN:  The story opens on the 20th anniversary of her father’s murder, with the killer about to be executed (finally) in ten days time.  Sydney, now a seasoned FBI agent, was 13 at the time, and the case always haunted her. It was, in fact, why she went into law enforcement. She decides to interview the killer before his execution, if nothing else to hear why he murdered her father. Even though her mother and everyone else is against this idea, it’s her way of getting on with her life. What she doesn’t expect is to leave that interview suddenly doubting the guilt of the man accused of murdering her father and setting the fire to cover up the crime—even though they have incontrovertible evidence.  His execution is in 10 days. That’s 10 days to prove his innocence or guilt. After all, if he did it, so be it. If he didn’t, the killer is out there still.  But the investigation takes a sudden twist when the government comes after Sydney trying to stop her from digging into something they’d hoped was dead and buried. 

It’s another case of conspiracy theory, based on some real pieces of history involving our government, this time in the U.S.

MARK: Is there a little bit of Sydney in you, Robin?

ROBIN:  Well, we’re both artists, and in law enforcement, and we have the same strong morals, so I’d have to say yes in that respect. But Sydney’s a lot more kick-ass than I ever was!  And, where Sydney doesn’t mind hopping on a plane, putting her job at risk, I like sitting in my nice safe living room over dealing with black op government agents (or anyone else) who are hell bent on trying to kill me. 

MARK: I understand that you may have inherited a desire to write from your grandfather. How did your writing career evolve? How did you manage this writing career while still holding down a very active law enforcement job?

ROBIN:  My grandfather was a very well-respected sports writer in his day, and so that gene of loving to write must have trickled its way down. I actually started off wanting to be a journalist, but never quite made it down that track. But the love of writing never left me, and I was forever penning stories on pads of paper (most not very good), a habit that didn’t leave even after I started in law enforcement.  In fact, driving around on patrol on those dark and lonely nights, sometimes I’d see or hear things that would set my mind spinning in interesting directions. This person would make a great character, or that story is too great not to write down. Imagine if this happened instead of that.  Finally I decided that I needed to stop thinking about writing, and get very serious about doing it. I bought a computer and started transcribing all those pads of paper.  Unfortunately, they were pretty bad attempts. So I began the process of learning the craft, joining writers organizations, networking, reading books on writing… and giving up TV. 

MARK: Beyond perfecting your writing craft, how did you break down the publishing barrier to get your first novel on the book shelves?

ROBIN:  At the time I was on a romance kick. I was in love with reading them, and decided I was going to write one—with the mistaken notion that a romance would be easier than other genres.  I joined Romance Writers of America, and entered the first couple books in a contest they had called the Golden Heart. The finalists of said contest landed on the desks of five editors of major publishing houses for the final judging.  This was a way to avoid the dreaded slush pile of hundreds of other manuscripts submitted.  An editor at HarperCollins was one those judges, and she asked if she could see the entire manuscript. She bought it as a result.  I’ve been with HarperCollins ever since, writing under their various imprints.

MARK: Is that first published novel still fresh in your mind? Did you have any time to celebrate or did you immediately focus on getting the next novel ready?

ROBIN:  I remember it well. I told my husband that I now had my foot in the door of the publishing world, and we could try for that second child. I ended up pregnant with twins, which sort of put a damper on writing anything, much less romance!  It was two years before I wrote again, and this time I decided that murder and mayhem was a better fit. My next book, which came out four years later, was a mystery.  I’ve been writing mysteries and thrillers ever since.

MARK: Your police background must provide a wealth of material to draw upon, including a variety of people you encountered on the job.  Did any people you worked with in the past emerge as models for your characters? Can you share your most memorable model from law enforcement or should we leave this well enough alone?

ROBIN:  (Cue in the evil laugh…)  Yeah, we’ll just say that sometimes I’ve thrown in a character or two who needed to be dealt with—and doing it fictionally seemed the wiser course of action.  But I have written friends in cameo roles, used their names when I’ve needed officers to populate scenes. Sometimes I’ll use the whole name, sometimes partial. It’s been fun.

MARK: What advice can you give aspiring novelists who struggle to write about crime fighting with some semblance of reality? Where should they go for research? Short of becoming a cop, how can they get this kind of exposure?

ROBIN:  Watch CSI.  Then make sure you don’t do anything they’re doing. There are actually a couple good and easy resources.  One, contact your local police department and ask if they have ride-along programs (though many have cut back because of budget issues). The FBI usually has a local citizen’s academy in which one can attend several classroom sessions to learn about what they do.  There are a number of good books out there, such as police officer Lee Lofland’s Police Procedure and Investigation, A Guide For Writers, and he has a blog in which he interviews experts (or discusses police work himself).  And there is also Yahoo Group’s Crimescenewriter, in which one can ask questions of the experts on the list, former CSI, cops, FBI, fire, ambulance and medical types. 

MARK: What does your writing schedule look like? Early writer, late writer, somewhere in between? And how much coffee do you require?

ROBIN:  While I was working fulltime, I would come home, turn on the computer and write for an hour or two each day, until I was so tired (breaking for dinner, etc.) that I was falling asleep at the desk. I also kept paper in my car to write during any down time. (Waiting in doctor’s offices, waiting to pick up kids at school, that sort of thing.)

Now that I’m writing fulltime, I drop the kids off at school, come home, write at least a page or two, then check e-mail. Then go back to writing. Pick up the kids, deal with after-school stuff, write until dinner, maybe watch TV unless I’m on deadline and then write some more.  I actually have a little TV at my desk, so I will often do e-mail and watch an evening show at the same time.  If I don’t get my work done, no TV for me, though!

One important note that has really changed my production schedule. I am now writing first before reading e-mail, or going on Facebook, or anything else. I have found that my most productive time is that first hour or two, which I used to spend answering e-mail. Now that I spend it writing, when I do break for e-mail and then go back, I have doubled my page count per day. (The same can be said for computer games. I pulled those off my computer years ago. I found that the I’ll-just-play-one-game-of solitaire really cut into my writing time). When you have only a good solid hour of writing time per day, even 15 minutes doing e-mail or games is a big, big time suck. 

MARK: Some writers believe you should write every day to perfect the craft. Do you find this to be true, or are there parts of the year you must put writing aside and focus on other matters—marketing, promotion, family?

ROBIN:  It’s definitely true. I sit down at the computer nearly every day.  If I’m not home, I have a notebook in my purse, or paper in my car. I pull it out and write by hand. (Sometimes when I’m stuck on a scene, changing how/where I write, really helps. So writing by hand, while slower, seems to free up my mind.)  While I was on book tour this year, I took a laptop, thinking I’d write on that. I found that I worked better writing by hand.  I wrote in the airport waiting for flights, on the plane, and if I wasn’t too beat, in the hotel at night.  What I’ve found is that writing is like running.  If you don’t do it all the time, you get out of shape, and it is much, much harder to keep a good pace—especially writing a novel with a complex story line. You end up having to go back and review the story so often that you lose too much forward momentum if you put it down for anything longer than a day or two.

MARK: I understand you are putting the finishing touches on another novel. What can you tell us about this new book to piqué our readers’ interest? When will it be released?

ROBIN: I’ve just finished the third FBI thriller in the series. It is, as of now, untitled. I’m hoping it will be out next year, but haven’t heard yet …

MARK: Lastly, what is the most important writing advice you ever received?

ROBIN: A page a day is all it takes, and you have a book done in (about) a year!  This is probably the best advice I ever received, because one of the most daunting things a new writer faces is the blank page. And how can one fill 85,000 words while working full time? A page a day…

Robin Burcell is the author of the Anthony Award winning SFPD Homicide Inspector Kate Gillespie novels and the Sydney Fitzpatrick novels, an FBI agent who uses her forensic artist skills to unravel the most difficult murder scenes. You can find out more about Robin Burcell and her writing career at this author’s web site.

Robin Burcell

Detective, Negotiator, Forensic Artist and ... Published Novelist?

Interview with Robin Burcell, novelist with a badge

By Mark Young

Award-winning author Robin Burcell brings a unique background to her crime novels. For more than two decades, she served as a police officer, detective, hostage negotiator and an FBI-trained forensic artist. Can you imagine what she brings to her novels? (Robin will discuss her writing career in an interview to be posted on Thursday, October 7).

Today, we are focusing on Robin’s experiences in law enforcement, a career that spanned twenty-seven years. She served with the Lodi Police Department in central California for many years before transferring north to Sacramento County as an investigator. She recently retired from law enforcement and is pursuing a full time writing career that took off well before her retirement.

MARK: Robin, thanks for joining us to share your experiences in law enforcement. Many of our readers are mystery readers and writers and do not often get an opportunity to have an expert share actual crime-fighting experiences. One questions I always get nailed with from young people—particularly boys—is: “Did you ever shoot anyone?” Let us skip that question and go to these questions most sane adults often want to know: Why did you want to be a cop? What made you decide to take that risk?

ROBIN:    My path to law enforcement was probably not as direct as others in the field. I was one of those kids who wanted to be a lot of things, and most were directed to the artistic field. My problem was that I was good at a little bit of everything, (writing, painting, drawing), and had received some very bad advice as to how to use those talents for a career, the end result being that I didn’t know what I wanted to do.  One of the things I was fairly certain that I couldn’t do was be a cop. While still in high school, I specifically remember seeing the police station in one city, wondering… then dismissing the idea. Girls like me had no chance at a job like that.

It so happened that while pursuing a dream of becoming a professional ice skater (I was working part time at the skating rink, so that I could skate for free), the wife of a sheriff’s deputy became very insistent on me applying to the police department. She thought I’d make a good cop. Not sure where she got this idea, but she wouldn’t let it go. Her kids took lessons every day at the rink, so I ran into her a lot. Truthfully I applied at a couple agencies just to get her to quit going on about it (and, let’s face it, the writing was on the wall—my dream of being the oldest Olympic ice skater was about as likely as my dream of becoming the next Rembrandt).

This same friend mentioned that the California Highway Patrol (CHP) was going to be doing a mass hiring, so that Friday I picked up an application. The very next day, I was following a CHP officer off the freeway. I saw him stop a car, then as I passed the vehicle, and was looking right into the driver’s window of that car, a man pulled out a gun. The CHP officer grabbed it, and the two struggled for the weapon. The man shot the officer, who then ran back to his car. At this point, I watched in my rearview mirror and saw the officer firing at the suspect. Suddenly the suspect vehicle sped onto the road and was right behind my car—which wasn’t going near fast enough, even though I had it floored. I pulled off to the side into a drive concealed by bushes, thinking so many things, praying he didn’t see me and wouldn’t follow.  He kept going and we returned to help the officer. Unbeknownst to us, the suspect crashed into another car farther up the road, took hostages in their car, and was eventually killed as the police set up a road block.

I never turned in that application for the CHP. In fact, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t make a good cop. In the months that followed, I rather forgot about the application I’d already put in at Lodi and had interviewed for. I knew that I’d never get the job. I’m pretty sure I was as shocked as everyone else when I did get hired as the first female officer for Lodi.

MARK:  Tell us a little about the city of Lodi, the department, and the community in which you worked?

ROBIN:  Way back when (in 1983), Lodi was a small city of 25,000 people with a department of about 25 sworn officers on patrol. Surrounded by farmland, with Stockton to the south and Sacramento to the north, Lodi was considered a bedroom community. They rolled the sidewalks up at five PM and on Sundays, and there was a church on every corner. That’s not to say there wasn’t crime, just that in a town that size, they had a better handle on it. When I left Lodi, there were about 80 sworn officers, the city had grown to about 60,000, and many of the businesses now stay open on Sundays. And, sadly, the number of churches per corner has dropped significantly, which, whether you attend or not, was part of that small town feel.

MARK: I understand you were the first female police officer at Lodi PD. A few weeks ago, recently retired Sergeant Betsy Brantner Smith visited us on this blog to talk about her career in a large Chicago suburban police department and the challenges she faced in the early 1980s as a woman in law enforcement. As a male officer working in this career in the early 1980s, I saw firsthand the challenges women faced. My hat goes off to those women who survived—and those who tried. Can you relate to some of these challenges?

ROBIN: Oh boy, can I ever!  My first day at work, one of the captains was taking me around, introducing me to everyone. We walked into detectives, he made the introductions, and one of the guys in the back stood up, saying, “I’m not ready for women in patrol.”  Everyone stood there sort of shocked, and the captain (sort of) recovered, saying, “And over here, we have…” then quickly led me out.

On one of my first nights on patrol, the time where the guys riled up a suspect, until his veins were popping and you knew he was going to kick someone’s ass. Imagine my shock when one of the officers then turned to me saying, “Arrest him.”  It had been pre-planned, as they knew he had a warrant. I walked up to this guy who towered over me, as his fists were clenched, and you could see the anger in his eyes. I was shaking inside as I asked him, “Could you please turn around and put your hands behind your back?”

He did. I cuffed him, put him in the car, and was secretly pleased to see them all standing around speechless, as I am quite certain that was not their expected outcome. I had no intention of getting my ass kicked if I could at all help it, and I quickly learned that there was a way to approach these macho suspects.... Unfortunately the officers and the supervisors didn’t know what to make of this quality. In fact, my first evaluation states right on it that they couldn’t give me a “meets expectations” mark, because they had “never seen me in a physical fight.” Apparently you don’t get extra points if you’re good at talking your way out of a physical confrontation, but that was how I survived. Gift of gab.

I could go on and on, but let’s just say it was a rocky road, and I somehow made my way along it. And that guy I met on that first day, who wasn’t ready for women on patrol? I changed his mind. He was actually my second field training officer, and we ended up becoming very good friends.

MARK: What led you to leave LPD and work as an investigator for Sacramento County?

ROBIN: At the time I had three young kids, a burgeoning writing career, and the shift work was killing me. I dreamed of evenings spent at home, weekends off, all very idyllic, and it paid way, way more.

MARK:  One of your main characters, Sydney Fitzpatrick, in your last two novels was a former police officer who became an FBI agent and trained as a forensic artist. I understand this is similar to your own situation. Was this a skill you learned while in law enforcement? What is a forensic artist and how did you become one?

ROBIN:  While working at Lodi PD, I had sketched a portrait of one captain’s grandchild, and he showed it to the captain of the investigations division (where I was working as a detective), saying that I’d make a really good police artist. He agreed, and we researched and found out the FBI had a forensic art course that they paid for completely at their academy in Quantico. The only catch was that you needed to be on call for the FBI for the next three years if they needed you. This was the deal of the century for a small department, and so I went, learning how to do not only sketches from witness descriptions, but also forensic sketches, such as from a dead body that needed to be identified, or even a skull that needed to be identified. We also dabbled in photo retouching and aging (all before the computer age and Adobe Photoshop!)  I ended up being the forensic artist for all the surrounding agencies, and the FBI used me on a number of their cases well beyond the three years required. I have to say that it was a very enjoyable aspect of my work.

MARK: Are there different situations a forensic artist might be called in to help? Can you give a range of these call outs?

ROBIN:  A variety of calls that usually came at oh-dark-thirty. The sort where you’re sleeping and the dispatcher on the phone says there was a murder and such and such agency wants to know if you’ll come out and do a sketch from a witness. The majority in our own agency were witness sketches from robberies or rapes. The foreign agencies were usually homicides, where they’d have a witness. But every now and then they’d have a body that needed to be identified, usually a floater, or someone who’d been dead a while, with no leads (and you can’t just put a dead person’s photo in the paper). The FBI calls were usually bank robberies, as that’s what they tended to handle the most in our county. But every now and then the Bureau would have something interesting thrown in there.

MARK: What was one of your more memorable cases as a forensic artist? How did you prepare for this and how long did it take to accomplish? What was the end result?

ROBIN:  It’s funny, because I’ve done so many drawings over the years, when I look back at the majority of them, I don’t remember the details, and it seems as if I should. After all, I usually spent about three hours with a witness. The ones I do remember usually had some interesting investigative detail or twist to them. Like the robbery victim whose sketch looked an awful lot like me (except it was a male suspect), and then we later find out that his brother robbed the place and he’d helped set it up.

Probably the most memorable was the rape of three girls, after which one, a twelve-year old, was kidnapped. I did several sketches from the two other victims and one neighbor witness, picked the one I thought was the best, and we posted it on every store front in town as well as the neighboring cities. The little girl had been missing overnight by this time. Sometime the next morning, a woman walked into one of the stores, saw the bulletin with the sketch on the local WalMart door and said she thought it looked like her neighbor’s grandson who was visiting from out of town. We went out to the house, found his driver’s license, put together a lineup and the victims identified him, all because of the sketch. Thankfully the little girl was found safe several hours later as was the suspect (miles and miles away).  

MARK: Did you have to develop some kind of relationship with eyewitnesses while doing these sketches while at the same time distancing yourself emotionally in order to get the job done?

ROBIN:  Absolutely. As any cop knows, if you don’t have that rapport, it’s hard to get past the tough questions, or get cooperation, and details can be missed. The beauty about doing the sketch art is that sometimes, because of this rapport and the continual banter while sketching, trying to keep the victim or witness talking so they’re not bored to death in the three hours it takes, the interview process helps the victim remember some of these important salient details that weren’t brought out in the initial investigation. This is a bonus for the investigators.

MARK: The public sees the television version of forensic artists crafting 3-D recreations from computers,  using software that practically draws images themselves, and having access to other nifty tools to re-create the face of a suspect or victim. In real life, what materials did you actually work with as an artist?

ROBIN:  Pencil and paper.  Maybe after the budget is balanced in real life, we might catch up to the fictional world and get those cool gadgets.  But they sure make for fun TV viewing.

MARK: Your interesting law enforcement career included a stint as a hostage negotiator. I would imagine this could be a very stressful assignment in real life even when nothing appears to be happening during a barricaded suspect call. For example, I remember one call out when the armed suspect went silent for hours and we did not have eyes or ears into the place. We found out hours later he took a nap. What kind of training did you undergo as a hostage negotiator, and what kind of calls did you respond to as a negotiator? How did you manage the stress?

ROBIN:  Several weeks of hostage negotiation training by the pros (FBI, etc.), then additional training throughout the years is the standard for our negotiators. Additionally, our teams would meet monthly for training, making sure our skills were kept up.  Our calls ranged from the simple barricaded subject (often a suicidal person who only intends to harm himself) to the full-on hostage situation, where someone is holding someone else. I’ve conducted negotiations through a closed door, over the phone sitting in my patrol car, and even in person in a face-to-face situation.  I found the training invaluable not just in hostage or barricaded suspect situations, but also on patrol when responding to calls that seem to spiral out of control due to a subject’s declining emotional state.  As mentioned, the calls can be stressful, but you don’t really think about it. You are so busy trying to stay one step ahead of whomever you’re negotiating with, your own stress becomes irrelevant.  It isn’t until after it is resolved, that your stress catches up to you.  

MARK: How was your hostage negotiation team comprised? How were the duties broken down?

ROBIN:  We had a couple teams of four. We would rotate who was on call (for vacations and such) so that there was at least one at the ready 24/7.

MARK: How did you train to stay in practice as a negotiator?

ROBIN:  We came up with scenarios and did a lot of roll playing, as well as catching up on the latest real life cases from throughout the country, analyzing what went right and what went wrong. Additionally, we worked closely with SWAT, attending many of their training sessions so that in these real life situations, we all knew what was expected of the other. This was particularly important because some of our negotiators were dispatchers, who didn’t often work in close training with officers in combat roles.

MARK: Do you ever see hostage negotiation scenes on television, in the movies, or in novels that make you wince because they lack credibility? Can you give examples?  Can writers educate themselves about these situations so that they might write with authenticity?

ROBIN: I think that TV and movies (and books by non-police) get the flavor of it, but often miss the mark for realism.  Sometimes you have to gloss over things you know wouldn’t be done in real life for the sake of the story. And since in real life, it’s the 90 percent down time when it’s just the ordinary and ten percent when the

$#&* hits the fan, which would make for some boring fiction, we writers tend to flip that, so that it’s 90 percent edge-of-your-seat action, and 10 percent down time.  My suggestion is don’t do your research on TV or the big screen. Take a cop out to lunch. They’ll tell you about anything if you feed them.

MARK: Recently, you wrote a very entertaining article for the Mystery Writers of America’s newsletter, The Third Degree. In that article, you compiled a list of Top Ten Stupid Cop Things in novels and listed your number one pet peeve as Bad Officer Safety. Can you give examples where authors went awry on this issue?

ROBIN:  Where do I start?  Going to places no cop would ever go without back up.  You gotta give ‘em a logical reason to be doing that for it to become believable. Like purposefully going into the house where you know there’s an armed suspect, even with your partner, when any sane officer would back off, call it in, and get SWAT out there.

MARK: You retired from law enforcement a short while ago. How are you adjusting to this change in life?

ROBIN:  I thought I’d get a lot more done and faster.  I have to learn how to budget my time and treat my writing like a real job instead of the part-time job it used to be.  But I’m actually doing much better.  I’ve had to make habit changes. (They say 21 days to form or change a habit.)  So I’m checking e-mail after I start writing for the day. This has probably been the biggest difference and has doubled my page count per day. It’s amazing how much creative energy one can spend answering e-mail, then when faced with the book stuff, end up staring at the page because your brain has been zapped.

MARK: Looking back over your police career, what are you going to miss most about law enforcement? What are you going to miss the least?

ROBIN:  The most?  The excitement about being in the thick of things. Seeing the red and blue lights reflecting off the shadow-filled buildings, or connecting that missing link that brings a case together. The least? Probably the same as everyone else on the job. The piddly bull$#!+ that drives a cop crazy, be it politics, supervisors, or John Q Citizen who thinks because he pays his taxes, he can call the shots.  (I especially hate that JQ Citizen can have a bad day and get in your face, but heaven forbid it’s the other way around. And why is it against the law to lie to a federal agent, but not the locals?)

MARK: What was one of the most tension-filled moments in your police career? How did you cope?

ROBIN:  You mean besides the routine calls that go to hell faster than you can describe in words? Things like the high speed pursuits (my first ending in a crash, when the suspect we were chasing rammed a sheriff’s vehicle then spun into my vehicle) or the face-to-face negotiation with the suspect who drew a knife on us?  You walk in, thinking, yeah, another family disturbance right before lunch. No problem. Be done in about 10 or 15. Then wham. 

Really, though, it’s hard to say. Twenty-seven years on, they start to blend in.  Undoubtedly the shooting before my career even started was the most tension-filled, and almost led me to do something else completely for a career.  But time has a way of making those memories fade. The problem arises when new events bring those former events back to the forefront of your mind, culminating in some serious post traumatic stress. (I certainly had my share.)

The way I coped was turning to fiction. I found that writing became very cathartic. Let’s just say that I now prefer creating fictional tension-filled moments. It’s a lot more fun when no one really gets hurt—and I have to admit being paid for it is a nice bonus.

Look for our next interview with Robin Burcell as she talks about her writing career. Robin is the author of the Anthony Award winning SFPD Homicide Inspector Kate Gillespie novels and the Sydney Fitzpatrick novels, an FBI agent who uses her forensic artist skills to unravel the most difficult murder scenes. You can find out more about Robin and her writing career at her web site http://www.robinburcell.com/.

Novels To Read

Mystery Novels To Warm Up Autumn

The Bone Chamber by Robin Burcell

 (Editors Note: Interviews with Robin Burcell, retired police officer and novelist, are scheduled for the coming weeks ahead. Robin, also a trained forensic artist, writes from experience.)

Special Agent Sydney Fitzpatrick, forensic artist to the FBI, returns to Quantico to help identify a brutally murdered young woman. But when Sydney’s friend and colleague, the forensic anthropologist who assisted her, is killed in a hit-and-run, a covert government team takes over the investigation, and Sydney is suddenly removed from the case. Certain her friend’s murder is connected to the first case, Sydney investigates. She discovers that the first victim was not only an archeological student, but also the daughter of the ambassador to the Holy See. Just before she was killed, the ambassador’s daughter claimed to have found one of three keys that just might lead to a map of the long lost Templar treasure. Sydney’s search for answers takes her to the streets of Rome, and into the underground crypts and caverns in Naples, one step ahead of a ruthless killer. Time is running out for Sydney as a fellow government agent is kidnapped. And the ransom demanded? The Templar map.

The Black Madonna by Davis Bunn

Art historian Storm Syrrell and rugged treasure hunter Harry Bennett travel to Russia to search for and investigate another historic art treasure with significant contemporary implications: The Black Madonna. 

And as before, their efforts to shed light on the mystery surrounding the murder of Storm's grandfather, Sean Syrrell, and the contents of his frayed leather journal, puts their own lives in grave danger. 

Formula for Danger by Camy Tang

Her life was on the line.

Someone wants dermatologist Rachel Grant's latest research, and they'll do anything to get it. Including trashing the plants needed for her breakthrough scar-reducing cream—and trying to run Rachel down. Desperate for help, she turns to Edward Villa, the only man she trusts. But the greenhouse owner knows too much about Rachel's research, and now he's a target, too. Break-ins, muggings, murder...the would-be thief is getting desperate—and getting closer. Edward vows to protect Rachel at all costs. Yet with time ticking away, Edward knows they have to uncover the madman shadowing Rachel before their chance for a future is destroyed.

Think Of A Number by John Verdon 

Arriving in the mail one day is a taunting letter that ends with a simple declaration "See how well I know your secrets-just think of a number." Eerily, those who comply find that the letter writer has predicted their random choice exactly. For Dave Gurney, just retired as the NYPD's top homicide investigator and forging a new life with his wife, Madeleine, in upstate New York, the letters are oddities that begin as a diverting puzzle but quickly ignite a massive serial-murder investigation. Brought in as an investigative "consultant," Gurney soon accomplishes deductive breakthroughs that have local police in awe. Yet, with each taunting move by his seemingly clairvoyant opponent, Gurney feels his tragedy-marred past rising up to haunt him, his marriage approaching a dangerous precipice, and, finally, a dark, cold fear building that he's met an adversary who can't be stopped.

GHOST: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent by Fred Burton

(Editor’s Note: Okay, this is not a mystery novel … but it reads like one. Fred Burton—one of the world’s foremost experts on security, terrorists, and terrorist organizations—will be a guest here on this blog in the coming weeks).

For decades, Fred Burton, a key figure in international counterterrorism and domestic spycraft, has secretly been on the front lines in the fight to keep Americans safe around the world. Now, in this hard-hitting memoir, Burton emerges from the shadows to reveal who he is, what he has accomplished, and the threats that lurk unseen except by an experienced, world-wise few.

In the mid-eighties, the idea of defending Americans against terrorism was still new. But a trio of suicide bombings in Beirut–including one that killed 241 marines and forced our exit from Lebanon–had changed the mindset and mission of the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), the arm of the State Department that protects U.S. embassy officials across the globe. Burton, a member of DSS’s tiny but elite Counterterrorism Division, was plunged into a murky world of violent religious extremism spanning the streets of Middle Eastern cities and the informant-filled alleys of American slums. From battling Libyan terrorists and their Palestinian surrogates to having to face down hijackers, hostages, and Hezbollah double agents, Burton found himself on the front lines of America’s first campaign against Terror.

In this globe-trotting account of one counterterrorism agent’s life and career, Burton takes us behind the scenes to reveal how the United States tracked Libya-linked master terrorist Abu Nidal; captured Ramzi Yusef, architect of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; and pursued the assassins of major figures including Yitzhak Rabin, Meir Kahane, and General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the president of Pakistan–classic cases that have sobering new meaning in the treacherous years since 9/11. Here, too, is Burton’s advice on personal safety for today’s most powerful CEOs, gleaned from his experience at Stratfor, the private firm Barron’s calls “the shadow CIA.”

Told in a no-holds-barred, gripping, nuanced style that illuminates a complex and driven man, Ghost is both a riveting read and an illuminating look into the shadows of the most important struggle of our time.