By Anthony Stoeckert
Thomas Reeder’s work as a film scholar involves him writing articles for magazines and journals, as well as some books that delve into lesser-known chapters of movie history.
But the Hopewell resident also is a fan of mysteries — on the page and on the screen — and he has recently published his first novel, Poetic Justice (Words Take Flight). It wasn’t just a love of reading, and mysteries, that led to the book, but also the time Mr. Reeder spends on the Jersey Shore.
”I’ve always loved mysteries and I love noir films and movies in general, so I thought it would be a fun diversion to write a mystery,” Mr. Reeder says. “I’ve owned a house at Long Beach Island since 1990, and when I moved there, I just fell in love with the island and the history of the island, and imagined what it would be like in the 1930s, when the island was in a more pristine state.”
Poetic Justice is set in Beach Haven in 1936. It’s main character is Lewis Porter, who owns a tap room and who came to the island 10 years earlier in order to escape his past.
”He keeps his past a secret from everybody around him,” Mr. Reeder says. “He’s trying to turn over a new leaf but he really can’t escape his past, and he finds himself being pulled into the disappearance of a friend of his wife. And then there are some murders that take place. He finds himself sucked into this investigation and reverting back to some of his old talents and his less-than-admirable habits in obtaining the truth behind the mysteries.”
Mr. Reeder could have made up details such as names of stores but he wanted his book to portray 1930s Beach Haven accurately. Through an ad in the Beach Haven Times, he found a man who lived there from the 1920s through the ‘40s, and he also read past issues of the newspapers.
”The primary mystery itself is pure fiction, but I tried to put in as much historical fact as possible, for my own fun and hopefully for the readers’ fun as well,” he says.
Mr. Reeder studied film at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and got a master’s from NYU’s cinema studies department. His first book was about B-movie producer Ben Pivar. He’s currently working on a book about Henry Lehrman, silent comedy pioneer.
When asked if Poetic Justice is inspired more by his love of old movies or books, Mr. Reeder says it’s a combination of the two.
”I love the old films of Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, and Anthony Mann, and a number of other directors who dabbled in film noir,” he says. “And I always loved B-movies, the lower-budget movies that filled out a bill and were made on a shoestring but as a result were made with a lot more passion and imagination.”
He’s also an avid reader of mysteries. From Arthur Conan Doyle to Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane, and more modern writers such as Stephen Hunter.
”I guess those are my inspirations in many ways,” he says.
He says there were challenges not only to writing the book, but also to getting it published. He didn’t want to self-publish and got his share of rejection letters — many by publishers who asked if he had any young adult novel ideas to submit. He then found Words Take Flight, an independent publisher based in Mercerville.
Writing a mystery also had its challenges in that he had to pay close attention to details.
”It’s a big challenge, it’s a fun challenge,” he says of writing a mystery. “There are a number of red herrings in the book. There are interconnecting plots that seem independent of each other but the stories kind of come together… It’s kind of like juggling, keeping all the pieces in the air and making sure you don’t drop them.”
He also wanted the mystery to make sense, which he says he achieved.
”I think it makes ironclad sense,” Mr. Reeder says. “It might not be the most plausible story in the world but it all makes sense.”
Poetic Justice is available at Amazon.com and other retailers. For more information, go to www.wtfbooks.net.
