Interview with Brad Meltzer

from The Vault: Brad Meltzer is the author of six New York Times bestsellers, his seventh being THE BOOK OF LIES, narrated by Scott Brick. A graduate of the University of Michigan and Columbia Law School, Meltzer was once an intern on Capitol Hill, and currently lives in Maryland with his wife and son. Or Florida.

JONATHAN LOWE: Just finished listening to your new novel "The Book of Lies." Until I heard it, I was wondering how on earth you'd link up the premise about finding the first murder weapon used by Abel to kill Cain with the real life murder of the father of the creator of Superman. Congrats on an enjoyable journey of following clues bolstered by the father-son theme.  

BRAD MELTZER: Thanks. My editor asked the same question when I started.

LOWE: Am curious about your research. Did the premise arise organically from your boyhood love of comic books, and your curiosity about their authors? And how did your investigations proceed within your usual two-year time frame to write a novel?

MELTZER: Every writer has a story they've been waiting their whole life to tell. This is mine.  I know this because I first pitched The Book of Lies over a decade ago. When my first novel, The Tenth Justice, was published, my original pitch for the follow up was a story involving Cain. Exactly. My editor at the time smartly told me: “You’ve just established yourself as a bestselling author of legal thrillers. Do you really want to risk it all by suddenly switching to kooky things like Cain?” It was a moment I’ll never forget. I caved right there. I was twenty-seven years old and barely had paid off my student loans. I caved in no time at all. In fact, I set the record for caving. But it took me until now to come back to it.

LOWE: It really is still partly a mystery--the murder, and the genesis of Superman--isn't it?

MELTZER: Absolutely.

LOWE: There's a website to explore about this?

MELTZER: It’s all at bradmeltzer.com, including a video ad for the book.

LOWE: Why did you first choose to write about the Supreme Court fiction earlier, anyway? Did you have a lawyer or politician in the family?

MELTZER:  No, actually I was the first in my family to go to college, so we certainly didn't have a lawyer there. When I was in law school I found out about the Supreme Court, and what some of the clerks do up there, so the way it happened, I was daydreaming in one of my law school classes when all of a sudden like a lightning bolt or gift from God, it came to me, and I wrote on the back of my calendar the words "Supreme Court" and the word "clerk" and "book idea." And that was where "The Tenth Justice" was born. There are these nine justices on the court, and these clerks do so much work for them, with so much influence, they're called the tenth justice. So the book came from my fascination with these young people on the nation's highest court.

LOWE:  You do character sketches and a lot of research, but do you produce a full outline for every novel, or do you prefer to surprise yourself?

MELTZER:  I definitely prefer to surprise myself, but I eventually wind up with a full outline.  What I do is outline only about fifty to a hundred pages at a time. Then I write those fifty pages, and then outline another fifty. So I know where I'm going, but it allows me to makes changes over the course of the two year period it takes me to write a book.

LOWE: Scott Brick, our mutual friend, told me how enthusiastic he was in reading Book of Lies, and now, after hearing it, I can see why he would be, since he's a huge comic fan who is also narrator of your previous novels for what is now Hachette Audio. Scott told me you guys participated in a fun panel discussion at ComicCon in San Diego, too. Did you discuss Book of Lies, and were you frustrated that your novel wasn't yet released so you could sign it there?

MELTZER: I actually signed galleys there too, so was thrilled to do that. Free books are always fun.

LOWE: A couple of quotes that you used in the novel struck me as memorable, one being something about you can't see the rainbows in your soul without first seeing tears in your eyes. Another was a Buddhist quote about only losing those things which you clutch. Where did those quotes come from?

MELTZER:  Native Americans and Buddhists. They’re so darn quotable.

LOWE: I see that Dennis Kao was producer and director of the audio version. I've met and interviewed Dennis in the past, regarding how audiobooks are made, and about one of my favorite thrillers with sound effects, "The Breathtaker" by Alice Blanchard. He's worked his magic here on your book as well, with the unobtrusive Mahler and Elgar clips, and the PDF of illustrations included on the final disk. Have you heard the companion soundtrack to your audiobook?

MELTZER:  Those are directly from the soundtrack we did for Victor Records. It’s on iTunes and Amazon — and we actually scored the key chapters of the book so you can play certain chapters and hear exactly the song that conveys the emotion of that chapter.

LOWE: Scott's dramatic performance alone is reason to listen, of course. Are any of those character accents a result of your throwing him a curve ball, and do you think he batted it out of the park?

MELTZER: Scott is my hero. It’s why I actually asked him to come back and rerecord my first two books. If my name is on it, so is Scott’s. He makes me sound handsome. Plus, I’ll get him with an accent he can’t do sooner or later.

LOWE:  You wrote the movie "Jack and Bobby," about the Kennedy boys before they grew up. Is Universal doing anything with your novel "The Zero Game"?

MELTZER: Nope.

LOWE: You grew up reading comics, too, and graphic novels, like from Alan Moore and Warren Ellis and Frank Miller. Any more graphic novels of your own in the works, like "Identity Crisis"?

MELTZER: "Last Will & Testament" should be out as you read this. How’s that for service?

LOWE: What can we expect from you next time, in two years, or haven't you considered that yet? And where you going on book tour?

MELTZER: Working on the new one now.  See them all at my website. (The Lightning Rod, The Nazi Conspiracy, The House of Secrets, The President's Shadow, The Fifth Assassin, plus children's titles.)