City Problems
Rural detective Ed Runyon looks like Heath Ledger and lives in a trailer overlooking a pretty lake in the Ohio countryside. But he’s uneasy.
Runyon had bolted from the NYPD after a runaway teen case fell through the cracks and turned into a gruesome murder. Now, he investigates tractor theft, barn burglaries and marijuana grow houses.
At the opening of City Problems by Steve Goble, Runyon is called to work on his day off when a Columbus Police Department detective comes to his neck of the woods, searching for a girl who vanished after a pop-up party. When the girl’s shattered phone is found at the side of the road, Runyon is reminded of the botched New York case. His guilt deepens.
Author Goble says about his troubled hero, “Runyon is caught between wanting a world where nothing bad would ever happen to kids and the world as it is, where that sort of thing does happen. His job is to prevent crime, but circumstances prevent him and the tension grows.”
Goble has wanted to write about Ed Runyon ever since his freshman creative writing class at Ohio State University. He drafted the first few chapters of a man trying to solve one case, while haunted by another.
He chose the name Runyon for its Midwest authenticity. Goble is a lifelong Ohio resident who lives one hour southwest of Cleveland. “Runyon is the name of a family in Pike County, Ohio, where I grew up,” he explains. “It’s a fairly common name. I wanted it to be familiar to readers. Ed is for Ed McBain, the crime writer.”
The novel is chock full of memorable descriptions, like this one: A broad-shouldered man who seemed made up of mostly beard and sweat stepped out of a rusty blue Chevy pickup.
There are also some laugh-out-loud scenarios. Ollie smelled like old socks soaked in cat piss and sprayed by a skunk, writes Goble. Soon he is in a bar fight with a stranger and calls him “a stupid piece of shit.” Recounting the incident, Runyon remarks about the epithet, “The marketplace of ideas in all its glory, the epitome of civil debate. Like Twitter, only you could actually smell it.”
And Goble is not above a little bathroom humor.
… The judge said the warrant would be on my desk before I could take a dump.
It was delivered within ten minutes. I actually did take a dump in the meantime.
But Goble has a deeper purpose than writing entertaining whodunnits.
Demonizing police isn’t confined to cities, as Goble demonstrates in City Problems. “I hope people take this novel as seeing police officers in a realistic light,” Goble says. “They are human like anyone else.”
For example, Runyon and the cops worry about confronting heavily armed, belligerent, anti-government fanatics holed up in a fortified barn:
We will be on surveillance cameras the whole time we are out there, and probably be blasted on their website an hour later, even if we behave with impeccable professionalism.
Goble formed positive impressions of the police during his first job as a cub reporter when he was guided through bloody crime scenes by “detached and professional” police officers. “Not everyone can do what they do,” he says. “They’re amazing.”
“I met the gamut of police officers,” he explains. “From wonderful to wondering whether they had wanted to get a badge to push people around a little.
“But others are so inspiring. One matched Big Brothers to boys in the community and actively recruited men who would take boys out to the zoo, play catch.
“Another one was a boxing champ in the Navy. He was a big brawny guy. He saw two guys in a bar fight and would gently pick up one and move him away. He was also known as Smoky the Clown, wearing a costume and entertaining children at fairs and in hospitals.”
Goble has signed a three-book “Ed Runyon Mystery” series deal with award-winning indie house Oceanview Publishing. It remains to be seen whether the series takes off beyond that, of course, but Goble is off to a strong start.
“My dog, Edgar, is named after the Edgar Awards,” Goble says. “That way, no matter what happens, I will always have an Edgar.”
To learn more about Steve Goble, visit his BookTrib author profile page here.
