A Conversation with Historical Mystery Author John A. Connell

We are delighted to welcome author John A. Connell to Omnimystery News today.

John introduces U.S. Army criminal investigator Mason Collins in the historical mystery Ruins of War (Berkley; May 2015 hardcover, audiobook and ebook formats) and we recently had the opportunity to spend some time with him talking about the book.

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Omnimystery News: Tell us a little more about Mason Collins. What is it about him that appeals to you as writer?

Photo provided courtesy of
John A. Connell

John A. Connell: Mason Collins is a U.S. Army detective — criminal investigator in army parlance of the time — for the CID, or Criminal Investigation Division. He is heart and soul a detective. That's one reason he decided to stay in Germany after the war despite his traumatic experiences as a POW at the hands of the Nazis. He can't get a detective position Stateside after being blackballed for attempting to expose corrupt fellow detectives in the Chicago police department, which makes the CID Mason's last, best hope for becoming a detective again. What he didn't count on was a murder case that will end up threatening his army career, his friends, even his own life.

Mason's training as a cop and soldier makes him lethal, but he uses his wit and intelligence more often than brawn. With no witnesses or evidence from the murder scene, Mason has to outwit intransigent army superiors demanding everything go by the book, and wrest testimony from resentful Germans who see any American as a persecutor not a protector. He tends to be a loner and combative, and has more than a dash of cynicism, but who could blame him after all he's been through? He credits his grandmother for instilling in him compassion and a strict moral code, and those have served him well, keeping his darker side in check — most of the time … But he is willing to use violence against a perpetrator if he knows the person is guilty, and he's not afraid to chuck out the army CID manual to get what he wants, even treading dangerously outside the rule of law.

I like Mason's dogged determination in the face of what seem to be hopeless odds, his no-nonsense approach, and his readiness for self-sacrifice to protect others. All these will be tested to the limits during his hunt for the psychotic killer. He can be intense, even spooky at times. I like that he has a dark side that threatens to come to the surface if provoked — which happens with a few lowlifes in the story. And though he's been through some soul-crushing events in his life, he's kept his humanity intact, albeit with a razor-sharp edge.

OMN: How do you see him developing over the course of the series?

JAC: I envision a long arc for Mason that will be spread out over several novels. I prefer not to elaborate here, as that's something I want readers to discover. In series I enjoy reading, I like characters that remain relatively the same, at least their core personality traits. It's like visiting an old friend, taking comfort in that familiarity, while realizing that a person will inevitably change to some degree through time and experience.

With each book I plan for Mason to go through a smaller arc, either by challenging his assumptions about himself or life, while remaining true to his inner core. One thing I would like to explore is him turning dark at some point in the journey, something that pushes him to abandon his strict moral code, and see if he can ever get back again.

OMN: Tell us something about the book that isn't mentioned in the publisher's synopsis.

JAC: Mason meets the love of his life, Laura McKinnon, an AP correspondent reporting on the occupation of Germany. During the war, she went on many dangerous missions, from riding in a B-24 bomber on a raid over Germany to being on the front lines in the U.S. Army's push to the Rhine. She's as tough as Mason, and isn't afraid of giving him a verbal right cross when he needs it most. While both know that a cop and a reporter is a volatile match, and their relationship swings wildly from romantic to adversarial, they continue to be drawn back to each other despite every reason to walk away.

Laura McKinnon is an amalgamation of several true-life women war correspondents. They bucked the gender social norms, taking a "man's job," and armed with nothing but a pad and pen, they sought out the dangerous front-line fighting to tell the stories of the men who fought and died to conquer Nazi Germany. I was amazed at these women's stories, who not only put themselves in the line of fire, but had to battle the sexism and gender bias behind the front lines as well.

OMN: How true are you to the setting of the action in the story?

JAC: I believe any historical novel should remain true to its time and place, and I try as much as possible to be accurate. Ruins of War takes place in Munich, Germany seven months after Germany surrendered. I read personal accounts, and studied historical photographs, maps, and records to be as accurate as possible. However, there were times when I was obliged to make educated guesses to fill in certain gaps in the records. Those first many months after the war, places and situations changed rapidly, and often enough for there to be conflicting facts or gaps in the records. Some records were lost to time, and some only began when the chaos died down — that is, after my story takes place.

OMN: How important is this setting to the character and plot?

JAC: Cop and killer stories are ageless, but the setting for Ruins of War during the post-WW2 years in war-torn Germany had a huge influence on my characters and plot. Germany had been bombed back to the Middle Ages. Death by famine, disease and murder had replaced the bullets and bombs. Chaos reigned supreme: no infrastructure, records scattered or destroyed, over 10 million people brought into Germany as slaves, along with the tens of thousands of POW and concentration camp survivors, were all suddenly freed. The conquering armies, the Americans, British, French and Russians, wielded ultimate power over a desperate population, and a typical soldier could barter for almost anything with a single pack of cigarettes. The black market thrived, and gangs of deserted allied soldiers, former POWs and corrupt DPs roamed the countryside. I chose Munich because it sustained around 70% damage due to the fire bombing raids. Unlike some cities where they were almost reduced to rubble, the damaged buildings in Munich were mostly burned-out shells. A perfect hunting ground for a psychotic killer, with thousands of places to lurk and hunt legions of easy prey.

Mason Collins was actually a villain in an earlier novel that will remain in a cyber drawer, but I found he was so compelling that I decided to make him the hero. Mason's experiences during WW2 as a soldier and POW had a strong impact on him. Plus, he was German born and feels anger toward the Germans for bringing Hitler to power and turning a blind eye to the Nazi barbarism. I wanted to put Mason in a situation where he now has to protect the very people he was trained as a soldier to kill. And after being a POW under the Nazis, he has — to put it mildly — a difficult time seeing Germans in uniform, but that's just what happens when he has to work with the German police in finding the killer.

OMN: If we could send you anywhere in the world to research the setting for a book, where would it be?

JAC: I'm strongly considering having Mason end up in Jerusalem for my next book — I have already finished book two, and book three is in the works with most of the research already completed. The years 1946-47 marked the turbulent birth of Israel. Many Jews turned to violence in confronting the British over the immigration of Jewish holocaust survivors. At the same time, violence between Jews and Arabs raged. Bombings and assassinations were rampant. What better place for Mason to get into plenty of trouble!

OMN: Suppose Ruins of War were to be adapted for television or film, an industry with which you are very familiar. Who do you see playing the key roles?

JAC: This is much harder than it sounds. I don't have a crystal-clear image of Mason in my mind. I imagine his intense eyes, the strong jawline, a face shaped by his experiences. And I prefer that readers imagine what Mason looks like for themselves. For me, it would be easier if I were allowed to pick vintage actors. In that case: Burt Lancaster for Mason Collins, probably because I happened to watch "The Killers" the other night. Burt Lancaster had that aura, that look in the eyes, of someone who could feel deeply, but just as soon turn dangerous if provoked. For Laura McKinnon I would have to say Lauren Bacall, because ... well, just because.

But okay, today, if I were asked to suggest casting for a film adaption, and I could stretch Mason's age just a little, I would say Viggo Mortensen. Then for Laura, hands down, Eva Green.

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John was born in Atlanta then grew up in Ohio, New York and Virginia before ending up in Atlanta again at the age of 13. He has a BA in Anthropology, and has been a jazz pianist, a stock boy in a brassiere factory, a machinist, repairer of newspaper racks, and a printing-press operator. He then moved to Los Angeles to work as a motion picture camera operator for film and TV. While he was working on the hit TV show NYPD Blue as a camera operator, his wife (who is French) was offered an excellent opportunity in Paris. They jumped at the chance, though they had just bought their dream house, and John had the French language proficiency of a two-year-old. He'd always wanted to live in Europe, particularly Paris, and it provided him the opportunity to devote full time to writing. He still takes occasional film jobs in the US, but with one novel just out, another in the queue for February, and feverishly working on a third, writing is pretty much full time these days. He now speaks French moderately well, though hardly a day goes by when his wife doesn't roll on the floor with laughter at his attempts. Currently, he lives and writes in Paris, where he working on the 3rd novel in the Mason Collins thriller.

For more information about the author, please visit his website at JohnConnell.com and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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Ruins of War by John A. Connell

A Mason Collins Novel

Publisher: Berkley

Winter 1945. Seven months after the Nazi defeat, Munich is in ruins. Mason Collins — a former Chicago homicide detective, U.S. soldier, and prisoner of war — is now a U.S. Army criminal investigator in the American Zone of Occupation. It's his job to enforce the law in a place where order has been obliterated. And his job just became much more dangerous.

A killer is stalking the devastated city — one who has knowledge of human anatomy, enacts mysterious rituals with his prey, and seems to pick victims at random. Relying on his wits and instincts, Mason must venture places where his own life is put at risk: from interrogation rooms with unrepentant Nazi war criminals to penetrating the U.S. Army's own black market.

What Mason doesn't know is that the killer he's chasing is stalking him, too …

— Ruins of War by John A. Connell