Behaving Badly follows a fearless reporter who, while investigating the disappearance of a missing girl, discovers that the case may lead her straight to her husband’s killers. What drew you to Depression-era Hollywood as the setting for this particular mystery?

My love of Los Angeles history coupled with hiking through the urbs and burbs of Los Angeles on weekends immersed me in my setting from street level and literally kept me in the story as I wrote. So much of L.A.’s groundbreaking architecture, like the Examiner building near downtown L.A. to the old concrete streets, bridges, and staircases on nearby hills still exists, open for exploration as Tess would experience them. 1932 L.A. sat at the center of a liminal period—the depression ending to the wild 20s, the bother of prohibition, uncontrolled crime, and the dark cloud of war in Europe on the horizon. Los Angeles highlighted the contrasts—oil baron mansions, Hollywood Boulevard lights, the glamor of the silent era overtaken by talkies, modern architecture like the Oviatt building, movie theaters lining Broadway in DTLA, and the depression driven poverty of Hoovervilles, the lawlessness of Prohibition tunnels beneath downtown, running at the same time as prep for the summer Olympics, and unchecked crime, coexisting in a city that exploded in population since the turn of the century. In 1932 Los Angeles, poverty, crime, and glamor ran unchecked, side by side. As a mystery writer, I liked the fact that Tess lacked the luxury of a cell phone or computer to solve mysteries and crimes. She needed smarts and guts. 

How did you approach developing Tess as a capable, determined journalist who is also navigating the emotional consequences of losing her husband, and what made a newspaper reporter the right protagonist for this story?

Credentials, a paycheck, and deadlines defined crime beat reporter as the career for Tess. Her press credentials gave her access to people and places an amateur sleuth could not easily attain. Deadlines and assigned stories kept Tess in action without manufacturing mysteries for her to solve, and the paycheck legitimized her efforts then became a necessity to pay the rent as a widow in a depression society. The hyper activity of a newsroom provided an atmosphere for her to bury her grief and provided distraction. Tess modeled other real life female journalists of the era in Los Angeles like Aggie Underwood, Charlotta Bass, Louella Parsons, and Florabel Muir, who typified the strong, educated, modern women of the progressive movement at the turn of the century.

What interested you about exploring the relationships between organized crime, corrupt law enforcement, and powerful social institutions?

Digging deep, I saw how everything intertwined. Money and power in a depression society allowed special treatment for the missing children of the wealthy while the missing children of poor families were often abandoned or sent away to fend for themselves. Low paid cops bent their ethics to feed their families. The ungodly large amount of money wagered on gambling ships by people who couldn’t afford their rent. Corrupt politicians, seduced by power, exchanged favors for dollars or more power. During the depression, people made daily choices between pride and ethics or food and shelter. Even widowed Tess, now lacking the second paycheck that paid half the bills when her husband was alive, faced choices between looking away for her own survival, literal or financial, or standing on her principles.

Can you tell us more about what’s in store for Tess Hammond and the direction of the second book?

A cliffhanger at the end of BEHAVING BADLY sets the tone of the second Tess Hammond novel. Tess finds herself going deeper into the social politics of 1932 Los Angeles—racism, prostitution, and the conservative movement create social roadblocks to Tess’s determination to report on and solve a crime. The 1932 Olympic games’ start date is near, tensions over safety are high, and the upcoming 1932 national elections are looming.

Author Links: GoodReads | X | Facebook | Website