Margaret Joyce asked Bill Engleson:

What influences were particularly instructive for you in the no doubt amazingly difficult process of structuring /limiting your wide expanse of 1st hand material?

Bill Engleson Hello Margaret. The novel initially was conceived of as a series of short stories. I wanted to tell crisp clean poignant vignettes. My protagonist, Wally Rose, is not unlike a number of fictional detectives. I am an avid reader of detective fiction starting from Chandler and Hammett and running through James Lee Burke, Henning Mankell, Robert Crais and a host of others. Once I had his voice, and a specific belief that a good way to approach telling child welfare stories was to use the inner voice conceit of detectives, well, that was, in a nutshell, the key influence for me. I also wanted the book to be accessible, entertaining, and as realistic as possible. Hope that answers you question.

flag