Bookpleasures.com welcomes our guest, Kevin G. Chapman, whose newest novel, TheOther Murder,has just been published.

Kevinis an accomplished attorney specializing in labor and employment lawand a prolific independent author. 

Currentlyimmersed in the creation of the MikeStoneman Thrillerseries,Kevin’s debut novel, RighteousAssassin (MikeStoneman Thriller #1),earned accolades as one of the top 20 Mystery/Thrillers of 2019 bythe Kindle Book Review and was a finalist for the Chanticleer BookReview CLUE award. Since then, Kevin’s books have been thewinners of the 2021 Kindle Book Award (LethalVoyage,Mike Stoneman #3), the 2022 CLUE Award - best police proceduralFatalInfraction,Mike Stoneman #4); and the 2023 CLUE Award - best suspense/thrillerDeadWinner). 

Residingin central New Jersey, Kevin is a proud graduate of Columbia College’83), sharing a graduating class with Barack Obama. Additionally,he holds a degree from the Boston University School of Law. 

Goodday, Kevin, and thanks for taking part in our interview.

Norm:How did you develop the idea for TheOther Murder,andwhat inspired you to explore the intersection of media, lawenforcement, and personal biases in the narrative?

Kevin: I’ma lawyer who works for a media company and writes crime thrillers, sothe three most significant elements of my professional life all cometogether in TheOther Murder.

Thestory sprang from my non-original observation that pretty, affluentWhite girls who are missing or killed tend to dominate the newscycles. 

We often hear statistics about the number of murders andviolent crimes in a particular city, but seldom (if ever) seesignificant media coverage given to a minority victim who isn’trich and famous. 

This phenomenon, could be called “unconsciousbias,” but is likely more a conscious choice by producers and mediaexecutives to feature stories that will tend to get the biggestratings. 

Particularly in broadcast news, including 24-hour cable newsnetworks, getting eyes on your story is the most important thing. 

Thestory that can be made sensationalistic and which involves a victimthat your viewers will sympathize with and relate to is the story youfeature. 

That’s good economics, but leads to a slanted presentationof the world. I wanted to make this murder mystery a story that getsinside that culture and lets my readers see all sides of the story asit unfolds.

Norm:Thestory involves two journalists and two homicide detectives. How didyou approach developing these characters, and what challenges did youface in creating complex relationships between them while navigatingthe intricacies of the murder mystery?

Kevin:Thereal “leads” of this story are the two journalists. Each of themhas positive and negative attributes and each makes choices that areboth selfish and noble – the two being not mutually exclusive. 

Iwanted my cable news producer to be understood in the context of herjob, her bosses, and her ambitions. I wanted the print journalist tobe understood as someone who could have a “better” job, but whohas a calling both to journalism and to his community. 

Theirinteractions disclose their similarities and differences as well asthe nature of the business in which they work. And, of course, it’sa murder story so there must be cops. 

Here, the cops don’t have allthe information and need the help of the journalists. The twopartners have their own problems, including a recent incident thatset them at odds. 

Through their eyes, the reader learns things thejournalists don’t know and sees the way the media coverage affectsthe police investigation. Making the characters the focus of thestory lets me tell the mystery story through interesting eyes.

Ihave always loved the mysteries of Sara Paretsky, whose charactersare the heart and soul of her books. In the Mike Stoneman Thrillerseries, I had a fixed set of main characters to be my narrators. 

They, and their minor-character companions, gave me a universe ofbackstories to weave into the mysteries. Here, in this stand-alonestory, I had to create brand new characters and get my readers torelate to them and care about them. 

My goal, like Ms. Paretsky, is tomake my readers as interested in the stories of the players as theyare about the underlying “main” plot. 

The plot needs to hold themtogether, but the characters need to behave in a way that is bothrealistic and interesting.

I’malways disappointed in a book when the characters are stupid, makeirrational decisions (for the sake of advancing the plot), and wherethe logic of the story doesn’t hold together. 

I want my plots tomake sense – in the context of the fictional facts. This past yearI read a best-seller called Justthe Nicest Couple,byMary Kubica, who has a big publisher and whose new book sold azillion copies based on her stellar reputation. 

But the plot was amess, the characters made nothing but bad decisions, the key bits ofinformation made no sense, and the ending was entirely unsatisfying. 

And, along the way, none of the characters were likable. I didn’tcare whether they all ended up dead or in jail because they were allidiots. I’m hoping nobody thinks that about TheOther Murder.

Norm:Howdid you handle the portrayal of racism in the novel, and what messagedo you hope readers will take away from this aspect of the story?

Kevin:Themain plot here involves the subtle racism that permeates the mediaand, to some extent, the police and the city officials, who aredriven by publicity (positive or negative) and public perception. 

When the media tells the public that a situation is a horribletragedy and an example of a huge problem that needs to be fixed,crowds gather, memorials are created, politicians and activists makespeeches, and the media feeds on itself to amplify the story.Government officials like the mayor and the police commissioner reactby making that crime a priority and devoting resources to solving it. 

Catching that killer matters because everyone is watching. In thisstory, the second murder involves a Latino boy with a history of gangmembership. 

It garners no media attention and would have generatedminimal police interest – until the cops discover that JavierEstrada’s murder may be connected to the White girl, AngelicaMonroe. 

The immediately reported story is that Angelica was aninnocent victim of urban gun violence. She becomes a saint. JavierEstrada is ignored.

Meanwhile,the two detectives on the cases are a White man and a Hispanic woman.Mariana is the only character involved in the police investigationwho cares about Javier’s story. 

Similarly, only Paulo Richardson,the local newspaper reporter, cares about Javier’s portrayal in thepress. Paulo wants to make people see the truth about Javier. 

Marianawants her colleagues to see that the White girl isn’t always thevictim and the Latino boy is not always the criminal. 

Theinvestigation also lays bare the recent rift between Mariana and herpartner, Dru Cook, arising from an incident of police brutality. Wasthat incident racially motivated? Dru didn’t think so. Mariana sawit differently.

Inthe end, once the reader has all the facts (or, at least all thedifferent versions of the facts), the question of who is a little bitracist and where motives and biases get mixed together makes things alot less clear cut. 

My hope is that the reader not only enjoys thestory and cares about the characters, but that the tale makes themthink a little bit about their own perceptions.

Norm:Thestory involves two murders on the same night—one garnering intensemedia attention and the other mostly ignored. How did you balance thenarrative between these two cases, and what narrative choices did youmake to ensure both stories were effectively told?

Kevin:Itwas fun weaving together the four points-of-view in the story.Through each one (and the two detectives are one joint POV), thereader has more information than any of the individual characters. 

Ihad to deconstruct the story at one point and separate out each POVinto its own sub-story to make sure that all the events and factsstayed straight. 

When the POVs collide at different points in thebook (and all of them together in the climax), it was a juggling actto make each story compelling while allowing the reader to “view”the action in a coherent way so that it all made sense.  It waseven more of a challenge when narrating the audiobook, where I wasjumping back and forth between the voices!

Partof the challenge was making sure there was enough of a mystery forthe reader to try to figure out, and how to keep them guessing.

Norm:The novel challenges readers to guess what happened, indicatingmystery and suspense. How did you craft the tension in the narrative,and what techniques did you employ to keep readers engaged in solvingthe mystery?

Kevin:Inthe first draft of the story, chapter one gave the reader a view intoall the events that happened leading up to and including the murdersof Angelica and Javier. 

I’ll be publishing that chapter as a“deleted scene” on my website after the book has been out for awhile. I realized after the first draft was done that letting thereader know what happened and then following the investigations bythe police and the journalists with that knowledge was not fullysatisfying as a mystery. 

The story was: “how are they going tofigure it out?” rather than “what happened?” 

So,I went back and deleted most of that first chapter and re-wrote thestory so that the journalists and the police (along with the reader)are piecing together the facts, without knowing for sure who isgiving them good information, which of their assumptions are correct,and what information they are missing. 

This allows the reader toguess where the characters have it right, and what might be wrong.Even at the end, nobody (including the reader) can be 100% sure theyknow the whole truth.

Elementsof the plot changed to the point that I sometimes got confused aboutwhat had happened in the earlier chapters of the current version. 

Ihad two of my typokiller readers point out where one of thecharacters made an important observation – that was not true in theversion of the facts that they could have known. (Thank you to all mytypokillers and Beta readers!)

Norm:Thenovel highlights the danger of the truth. Can you elaborate on thesignificance of this theme and how it plays into the challenges facedby the characters, particularly Hannah and Paulo, as they uncoverdisturbing facts?

Kevin:Thetag line of the book was one of the first things I wrote afteroutlining the basic story. “Sometimes, the most dangerous thing . .. is the truth.” 

It is a common observation that humans aresignificantly influenced by what is called in psychology “recencybias.” Your strongest memories and emotions are attached to thethings that happened most recently.

It is also true in media that thefirst story is the one that gets imprinted in people’s memories,particularly if it sparks strong emotions. When asked whether one oftwo things is true, the one you heard first is the one you are morelikely to believe.

Oneof the core messages of TheOther Murderisthat people need to be careful about believing the first narrativethey hear. But the reality is that, once a set of facts is in yourhead, it is hard to push it out. This is especially true when theoriginal narrative reinforces your personal views and politicalobjectives. Telling people who are emotionally, financially, andpolitically invested in one version of a story that the story theyheard and want to believe is really a false narrative – is adangerous thing to do.

Inthe media world, once you have established your narrative and“hooked” your audience, it’s hard to switch gears and retainyour viewers if you suddenly try to tell them that what you had beentelling them is false and that there’s a new truth they shouldswitch to. They are likely to switch – to a different news sourcethat will reinforce their belief in the original story. That is partof the challenge facing Paulo and Hannah.

Norm:Wherecan our readers learn more about you and The Other Murder?

Kevin:TheOther Murderisnow available (as of February 29th) as an ebook for your Kindle viaAmazon.com. Amazon can also sell you a paperback or a hardcover. 

Paperbacks andhardcovers are also available through select independent bookstoresand via Bookshop.org, which supports local bookstores. 

The audiobookversion is available via CHIRP, iTunes, Googleplay, Roku, NookBarnes & Noble), LIBRO.FM (which also supports independentbookstores) and on Audible. All my other titles are also available atall the same retailers. 

Readers can contact me and see all my contentat My Website

Norm:As we conclude our interview, the novel challenges readers to guesswhat happened, indicating mystery and suspense. How did you craft thetension in the narrative, and what techniques did you employ to keepreaders engaged in solving the mystery?

Kevin:Inthe first draft of the story, chapter one gave the reader a view intoall the events that happened leading up to and including the murdersof Angelica and Javier.

I’ll be publishing that chapter as a“deleted scene” on my website after the book has been out for awhile. I realized after the first draft was done that letting thereader know what happened and then following the investigations bythe police and the journalists with that knowledge was not fullysatisfying as a mystery. 

The story was: “how are they going tofigure it out?” rather than “what happened?” 

So,I went back and deleted most of that first chapter and re-wrote thestory so that the journalists and the police (along with the reader)are piecing together the facts, without knowing for sure who isgiving them good information, which of their assumptions are correct,and what information they are missing. 

This allows the reader toguess where the characters have it right, and what might be wrong.Even at the end, nobody (including the reader) can be 100% sure theyknow the whole truth.

Elementsof the plot changed to the point that I sometimes got confused aboutwhat had happened in the earlier chapters of the current version. 

Ihad two of my typokiller readers point out where one of thecharacters made an important observation – that was not true in theversion of the facts that they could have known. (Thank you to all mytypokillers and Beta readers!)

Norm:Thanks once again and good luck with all of your endeavors

Follow Here To Read Norm's Review of The Other Murder