Interview Ben Douglas

by

Carol McPhee

1) Shadow of Malice sounds like a spooky story. Is this the first suspense story you’ve written? How long have you been working on it?

This is the third book in the Lanny Boone mystery series. I have others in the works. It took me about seven months to write Shadow of Malice.

2) I’m always interested in what drives a writer to write. How long have you been at it?

I’ve been writing almost all of my life. I wrote nonfiction early on. During the last ten years I’ve written both fiction and nonfiction.

3) What’s your writing schedule like?

I get up around 6:30 a.m., eat breakfast, shave, shower and go straight to the word processor--no radio, newspapers, nothing until I’ve written at least one page. I write five days a week, Monday through Friday, never on the weekend.

4) Do you write your story by using an outline or are you a seat-of-the-pants writer?

A little of both. I know where the story is going but the characters take me to some interesting places along the way.

5) Where did your inspiration for this story come from?

An irate patient murdered a well-liked physician in a nearby hospital. My niece, also a physician, was the first on the scene and tried to save him. I wondered what would happen if a physician that few people liked was mysteriously murdered.

6) Have you another story in the works?

Yes. The fourth mystery in the Lanny Boone series is scheduled for release in October. I have finished numbers five and six in the series. I’ll be submitting them as soon as I complete the rewrite.

7) Did you have to do much research for Shadow of Malice? If so, what and where?

I had to learn about silencers for guns, and about the cocaine route from South America to central Mississippi.

8) Can you tell us something about the main characters?

Lanny Boone is an intelligent, analytical detective lieutenant. Sergeant Ken Crawford, a former university linebacker, is Boone’s rough, tough sidekick--but a pussycat around his wife and kids. Laura Taylor is a reformed prostitute who puts Boone on to some illegal doings. Henry Snider is a ruthless businessman who doesn’t mind bending the rules. Wayne Bowen is the narcissistic physician that’s murdered. There are others.

9) What is your background and where do you live?

I have a doctorate in physiology and biophysics. I’ve written several hundred scientific articles, and numerous newspaper columns and articles. My first book was about high blood pressure during pregnancy. My three children having flown the coop, I live with my wife, three cats and a hound dog in Madison, Mississippi, a small town ten miles north of Jackson, the state capitol.

10) Are your family and friends surprised that you write and are they supportive?

I don’t think my family and friends are surprised at anything I do. Supportive? I’m more inclined to think they tolerate my passion for writing.