So Much to Talk About

Steve Brewer returns to tell us about his pseudonymous series centered not on a single protagonist but on the varied denizens of a city : Can you write a series that doesn't have a continuing protagonist? Does that even qualify as a series? Those are the questions I asked myself as I wrote my new Duke City crime series for Random House/Alibi. I'm writing the series under a pen name – Max Austin – and felt like pushing the envelope. Books about crooks, with no white knight in sight. The novels have protagonists, of course, but each one features a different cast of criminals. Some minor characters and law enforcement types continue throughout, and Duke City – my hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico – is practically a character itself. But the protagonists change from book to book. Over my 20-year publishing career, I've drifted toward the criminal side of the crime novel. I've written about plenty of good guys, but it's always been the bad guys who interest me