mystery

An Undercover Mystery Writer Revealed

Don Easton, author of three Jack Taggart mysteries, answers questions about his writing and future plans.

Tell us about your book.
The primary story of Angel in the Full Moon is about two Vietnamese children (sisters) who are being smuggled into Canada. Their father, who remains in Hanoi, believes his children are being adopted by an American family. The reality is they are being purchased by a sadistic pedophile. The secondary story is about another young Vietnamese woman who is smuggled to Canada in the belief she will be working in the hotel industry but is forced into prostitution instead.

How did you come up with the idea for this work?
As an RCMP officer, I spent over 20 years working undercover, including 7 years with an RCMP Intelligence Unit. There were times when I was targeted by both RCMP and Municipal police forces who were unaware of my real identity. In my role as an undercover operative, I socialized with pimps and prostitutes. I saw how organized crime controlled prostitution by whatever means necessary. I witnessed violent acts and saw young girls being recruited into prostitution. I saw prostitutes develop drug dependencies as their lives deteriorated. I watched as people haughtily walked past prostitutes, or some who would stop their cars to honk and taunt, before speeding off. The idea for this work, to better inform the public, became a necessity.

How did you come up with the title?
Shhh … it’s a secret, best discovered by reading the novel.

Tell us a little about the overarching theme of your work, and why you felt compelled to explore it.
The theme is to expose the tragic lives of people who are being sexually abused and to encourage people to come forward to stop the abusers. In my role as an undercover Mountie, I was a trusted confidant of many prostitutes who did not hide from me the emotional, and sometimes physical harm that befell them. I learned intimate details of their background, including what their lives were like as children. Sometimes I met their families. Some came from good homes, but most didn’t. I saw the contrast as to how they honestly felt compared to how they had to hide their sorrow and true feelings with customers. I often watched, unable to expose my cover, as pimps would beat those who did not make enough money.

After retiring, I discovered that my own father was a pedophile, something which I reveal in the novel through the protagonist (Jack Taggart). My father had countless victims, but none had the courage to come forward and put a stop to it. So, like so many others, he was allowed to continue molesting new victims. I hope that by writing about sexual abuse and exploitation, I might encourage victims to find the courage to come forward to help put pedophiles and pimps in jail.

I also wish to better educate the public so they might sympathize with these victims. In particular I hope to inform the customers of prostitutes, who ease their own guilt by choosing to believe the charade the prostitute must put on in their presence. In reality, the customer is promoting a continuance of physical beatings, drug overdoses, murder and suicide.

What was the creative process like for you?
The creative process is relatively easy for me. I developed creativity as a child to survive growing up. As an adult working undercover, I had to be creative to gain the trust of criminals as well as gaining the trust of confidential sources to assist me in my investigations. In the past, I would equate creativity with my own personal survival but now I find it to be an enjoyable process in that I use it as a tool to both entertain and enlighten my fans.

Describe your ideal writing environment.
When coming up with ideas on what to write about, I prefer to interact with the outside world as it stimulates my thought process and often reminds me of things I have forgotten. An example is the sound of someone racking pool balls reminded me of an undercover situation I was in where I witnessed a person bludgeoned to death near a pool table. Seconds after the body was hauled out into a back alley, another person who had witnessed the murder nonchalantly racked up the balls as if nothing had happened. I describe this situation in my second novel, Above Ground.

Other examples are the sight of a pencil reminds me of a broken pencil protruding from a man’s esophagus (Above Ground). An Asian massage parlor reminds me of what I wrote about in Angel in the Full Moon. The sight of a homeless person reminds me of a proposition/test a member of an organized crime family told me about when I was undercover as described in my fourth novel (not yet released) entitled Nobody.

It may sound odd to even think I could forget such incidents, but I have led an unusual life and I think the brain intentionally forgets unpleasant experiences. It is often a sound, smell or perhaps the sight of a young child or some other everyday occurrence that wakes the past from its sleep.

Once I have decided on what to write about, I prefer the quiet sanctuary of a room with a computer to get my thoughts down.

What was your first publication?
My first publication was accepted by Dundurn and is entitled Loose Ends. It is the first in a series. I have to admit I was nervous writing this novel. After twenty years of working undercover, the experience of exposing myself and my personal ideology was unnerving. I expected harsh criticism but instead I found support and came to a realization that many people accept why “Jack Taggart” behaves the way he does in the novels. My writing for me has become a cathartic process.

Loose Ends was followed by: Above Ground and Angel in the Full Moon. I have completed a fourth novel in the series entitled Nobody and am currently close to completing my fifth novel.

In your own work, which character are you most attached to, and why?
The main protagonist (Jack Taggart) is based on me. To say I am ‘most attached’ to a character who is me would be narcissistic. The characters in my novel that I am most attached to are based on real people. These people are not in all my novels, but are truly friends and as such, I won’t say who my ‘favorites’ are.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received as a writer?
Perseverance!

Describe the most memorable response you’ve received from a reader.
It happened when I was autographing copies of Loose Ends in a mall. There were about a dozen people waiting for me to sign copies, along with the normal requests of personalizing certain copies as gifts. I looked up to see an elderly lady (in her eighties) standing at my table and looking at a copy of my novel. Not wanting anyone to buy my novel who I do not think would like it, I said, “Oh, madam, this novel is not for everyone. It is a very gritty crime novel containing extreme violence and some foul language.” I expected her to quickly put the book down. Instead she replied, “Oh, I know Dearie! I bought it yesterday and am already on chapter four! I love it and was wondering if you would sign it. Also, would you mind if my daughter takes your picture?”

I posed as her daughter took a picture of the two of us together. Months later at another book signing the daughter came to tell me how much her mother enjoyed the novel and had sent her to ask me when the sequel would be out. Despite twenty years of undercover experience and “fooling” people, I learned that you really shouldn’t judge a book by its cover!

What is your next project?
With my synopsis and much of my writing completed for my fifth novel, I am starting to think about writing a sixth novel, perhaps based on a personal experience I had working with an American law enforcement officer in Texas and Mexico. His perception of a Mountie was someone in a red jacket atop a horse and it was nobody he wanted to be involved with in what was an extremely dangerous assignment. As it turns out, we both learned a lot about each other and became friends.

© 2008 Defining Canada.