Q&A with Detroit Noir contributor Joe Boland

Joe Boland was born in Detroit, and has lived and worked in the area his entire life. He is currently writing a crime novel.

Stoner had a bad feeling: He knew exactly what Hawkins was getting at.
"I'm serious. You look like a cop to me."
"That's just the uniforms, in the dark."
"That's what I'm saying." Hawkins dragged on his smoke. "I think we oughta take a little walk around, see what we can do."
"Man, what are you talking about?"
"We wouldn't have to be good cops, dude," he said, grinning now. "That's what I'm talking about."

--From "The Night Watchman Is Asleep." by Joe Boland

What is it like to write about Detroit?
Growing up around here, and being a big reader and a fan of crime fiction, made it harder, if anything. Loren Estleman, Elmore Leonard, Tom Kakonis – they really nailed down Detroit, twenty-odd years ago. They were big boys, and they scared me off.

Have you written other fiction set in Detroit?
No. “The Night Watchman Is Asleep” is my first published story.

What attracts you to the (broadly-defined) Noir style?
Like anyone else, I grew up reading stories with heroes, and that’s what my lizard brain still expects whenever I crack open a book. Noir is a sucker punch every time. The protagonist always winds up less than heroic, to put it mildly, and you always feel implicated in the bad stuff that happens. There’s always a point where I think: That light at the end of the tunnel is a train; you should put this book down and walk away…but I never do. I love that feeling. It’s cathartic in the worst way. It’s a let’s-drink-up-the-rent-money feeling. It’s a great corrective to the insipid lengths America will go to concoct a hero for every situation.

Is your story based on, or overtly influenced by, actual events?
The bit about posing as cops to rob people: I’m sure it happens in a lot of big cities, but it seems to happen regularly in Detroit. And the background noise in the story about the mayor and his security team is still playing out in the news.

If you could write anything and see it published, what would it be?
I’d like to see the novel I’m working on published. It’s crime fiction.

Is there any particular effect you want your writing to have on the reader? Why?
I’ll often sit down to read with the television on, and music on the stereo, and the next time I lift my head out of the book the ball game’s long over and I can’t recall what album was playing. I want to have that effect on a reader. Anything beyond that is gravy.

Please tell us an author you admire whose work isn't as well known as it should be.
The novel that really grabbed me this year was The Art of Losing by Keith Dixon. It has a lot of familiar noir elements, but takes them new places, and it gave me a case of the deep Catholic jitters.

What’s the second-best book in the Akashic Noir series?
Dublin Noir is just brutal.

Detroit speed round: Eminem or the White Stripes?
The White Stripes. Get well soon, Meg.