One of Publisher’s Weekly’s “Best New Debut Mystery Novels”
An Amazon Editors’ Pick for “Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense”
Pignon Scorbion & The Barbershop Detectives (Blackstone Publishing), Rick Bleiweiss’ new murder mystery, is a whodunit with an unforgettable Police Chief Inspector Pignon Scorbion at its center. In a style reminiscent of Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, we enter the fictional town of Haxford in the English countryside, circa 1910, where Pignon (born in Paris), our idiosyncratic inspector, has just arrived in Haxford and is setting up his investigations in the local barbershop. What follows is Scorbion’s talent for detective work, assisted by a group of striking and unique characters, including a young reporter, the barbershop owner and his employees, and an attractive, brilliant female bookshop owner.
Mood and setting matter in this period piece as we’re drawn to Pignon’s expertise — and hooked from the start. There are several layers to the book: it begins with the actual mystery at hand, followed by how Pignon’s instincts guide him and are deepened by long-buried secrets. This mix keeps us guessing throughout. No spoilers, but over the course of the book, three crimes are uncovered: a fortune seeker, a murder at a circus and a crime of passion. While reading this historical mystery novel, one relishes human nature set against simpler days, long before cell phones and DNA analysis.
Rick Bleiweiss has kindly taken time from his busy schedule to answer my questions below.
Q & A WITH RICK BLEIWEISS
Q: Your career has been in the music industry where you were a GRAMMY-nominated record producer and as a publishing executive. What compelled you to write your first novel?
A: I have always been writing, starting when I was about 12 years old when I wrote a sports newspaper and sold the three carbon copies to my neighbors. Then, over the course of my life, I’ve written a play, a science fiction rock opera, many songs, and newspapers and magazine articles and columns. When I moved to Ashland, Oregon, in 2003 from NYC, my next-door neighbor was in a writing group and asked me to join. So, I started writing short stories, and when I wrote one about Pignon Scorbion, well, the group loved it so much they encouraged me to expand it into a novel. That short story became the basis for this book.
Q: Your book is a specific genre — a classic detective novel. What appealed to you in writing this story?
A: I have always enjoyed reading those types of books, including most everything by Agatha Christie, Conan Doyle, Hammett, Chandler, Himes, Stout, Queen and others. When the idea for this book/story popped into my head it had to have been planted there by all of the books I had read in the past. And once I started writing it, the characters became my friends, and the mysteries just flowed out of me. It felt very natural.
Q: The details are precise and there is a distinctive sense of the era and the place. Did you do research to create Haxford and the inhabitants?
A: Tons! I wanted it to seem like it could have been real to a reader. I knew that to accomplish that, everything had to be spot on and that the details would matter. I did way more research than I ever would have imagined when I started to write the book. I really had to nail the era’s names, places, events, clothing, businesses, language, towns, transportation, communications, inventions, art, literature and so much more.
Q: Writers are always curious about how other writers create their work. Did you plot the book ahead, work from an outline and have a character who was always in your head?
A: It totally played out in my head like a movie. I found that my task was to capture what I was seeing and type it out so that a reader read exactly what I was witnessing in my brain. I did no outlining or anything like that. However, as I went along, I would continually go back and reread the manuscript and add clues, red herrings or even characters and scenes to make the story hold together.
Q: The campaign for Pignon Scorbion & the Barbershop Detectives is cutting-edge and described as ‘an innovative transmedia storytelling approach’. Can you tell us about it?
A: Over the course of my career in the music industry, I did a great deal of marketing for superstars, developing music acts and film soundtracks. For this book launch, I applied what I learned from those experiences using a multi-media approach. I know how to extend brands.
In addition to the traditional way to start a book off (like bookstore visits, whether virtual or in-person, etc.), I wrote and recorded a Scorbion theme song so that his presence was multi-sensory (sight and sound), created an author logo, made a video trailer, created a Scorbion “Find The Hidden Objects” video game (available in the Apple and Google Play app stores), made t-shirts for people and dogs, did a massive social media campaign, ran contests and started a show on my YouTube channel (Rick Bleiweiss’ Chapter & Verse) on which I interview best-selling authors and industry figures, talking about their careers and offering advice to aspiring authors.
Q: While reading your novel, I kept imagining it on screen. Were this to become a film or series, what actors do you imagine as the leads?
A: The book is currently being looked at by film and TV producers, and I expect that there will be a deal for it in the not-too-distant future. At least, I hope so. But I have no idea what actors might play what parts. Rather than coloring readers’ imaginations with preconceived ideas, I’d rather the producers tell me who they think should be in a film/tv version. Some people have already said that they could have seen Scorbion played at some point in their careers by George Clooney, Sean Connery, Denzel Washington and Omar Shariff, while Katherine Hepburn, Kathleen Turner, and Louisa Jacobson (Gilded Age) have been mentioned as a possible Thelma. Not bad company to be in.
Q: What writers do you like to read, and do you have a new book in the works?
A: I love reading mystery stories. In addition to those I already mentioned above, I love Robert B. Parker’s Spenser books, Perry Mason, Nero Wolfe, Zafron’s Shadow of the Wind, and many more. Because I work at a publisher, Blackstone, I’m constantly reading books by new authors and authors I’ve signed, and I wouldn’t want to single any out over others – I love them all in the same way I love both my sons equally.
As to what I’m working on, I just completed the first draft of the next Pignon Scorbion & the Barbershop Detectives book, which is tentatively titled Murder in Haxford. I have a story in an anthology of mystery short stories that Blackstone is publishing in May called Hotel California, along with pieces by well-known authors Heather Graham, Amanda Flower, Reed Farrel Coleman, John Gilstrap, Jennifer Dornbush, Don Bruns and a new Jack Reacher story by Andrew Child. My story is about a contemporary NYC hitman who has a hit put on him, but escapes to Maui and engages in a cat-and-mouse game there with the hitman sent to finish him off. Lastly, I am starting on a third Scorbion book, with the hope that the first two books will do well enough to warrant another in the series.
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About Rick Bleiweiss:
Rick Bleiweiss is an Author, Publishing Executive, Former Music Industry Executive and GRAMMY Nominated record producer, who is released his first novel, Pignon Scorbion & The Barbershop Detectives. Bleiweiss started his career as a rock performer and songwriter and then produced over fifty records as a record company senior executive in New York City. He’s worked with music industry legends, including Clive Davis, Melissa Etheridge, the Backstreet Boys, Kiss, U2, Whitney Houston, the BeeGees, and many others. Since 2006 as a publishing company executive, Bleiweiss has acquired works by bestselling and award-winning authors including Rex Pickett (Sideways), James Clavell (Shogun), PC Cast (House of Night), Gabriel García Márquez (1982 Nobel Prize in Literature), Leon Uris (Exodus), Natasha Boyd (The Indigo Girl), Andrews & Wilson (Tier One) and Nicholas Sansbury Smith (Hell Divers), among others. For the latest news, follow @rickbleiweissauthor on Instagram and/or visit https://www.rickbleiweiss.com/
