Chen and Castilblanco…
[This post is a bit repetitive with one back in 2020. Consider it an encore for the detectives. They deserve it. And today you get a two-fer, this post plus the following book review. Enjoy.]
I have a few series (at last count six; or seven, if you count A. B. Carolan’s “ABC Sci-Fi Mysteries”), so every once and a while I pause and take stock of that part of my oeuvre. None of my series are as long as Sue Grafton’s; I stopped reading hers at “C,” I believe, and she never made it to “Z.” It’s not that I tire of writing a series and end it. Okay, maybe a bit, but the end of a series for me, if it truly ends, is more determined by the way I write. When I start a story, I don’t even know whether it will be a dash (short story or novella) or a marathon (novel). The same goes for a series, where I sometimes decide the main characters deserve more stories because they’re so interesting as human beings (I sometimes describe that as a collaboration between them and my muses, who are really banshees with Tasers, all encouraging me to write more). Plots, themes, and settings change from story to story and novel to novel; series’ books are just independent stories with the same main characters.
The “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco” series is my longest so far (seven books), and its main characters have become dear and respected friends. I don’t know if there’ll be an eighth, and, in a sense the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series of five novels, the novella :”The Phantom Harvester” (available as a free download—see my “Free Stuff & Contests” web page), and the novel The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan all represent continuations of Chen and Castilblanco’s series with the detectives just having cameos.
Diversity is a key theme in all the C&C novels. The detectives’ cases start in NYC; some stay there while others explode to have national and international proportions. NYC is often considered the capital of the world, and it’s very diversity adds to that fame—more than eight hundred languages are spoken there. C&C reflect that diversity. Chen is a Chinese-American from Long Island; she’s a true conservative (not like today’s fascist Good Ole Piranhas) driven to pursue criminal elements and set things right for their victims. Castilblanco is Puerto Rican; he’s a progressive whose motivations echo Chen’s, if not more so. Chen is a stoic who shows her emotions from time to time, her thin smiles leading Castilblanco to call her his Asian Mona Lisa; he is more excitable and often stressed (he’s addicted to Tums to ward off ulcers), but he’s also cerebral, going beyond his Catholicism to become a Buddhist.
Politics also play a role in these novels, but in a good sense: Contrary to our current national political chaos, I intended to show in the very first novel, The Midas Bomb, how a conservative and progressive can work together to better the human condition. That goes beyond the fluff of the good guys vanquishing the bad guys so prevalent in today’s mystery and crime stories.
There are causes too. For example, environmental ones in the last novel, Gaia and the Goliaths, where I try to show that the solution to global warming is reducing fossil-fuel usage with Castilblanco insisting that nuclear power is part of that solution. He reflects more my views; Chen better reflects the extremist view in this case, that of environmental activists who are rabidly anti-nuclear as well. (This discussion, appropriately enough, is never resolved in the novel.)
The final series item I’d like to mention is our shared humanity. We need more of C&C’s empathy towards their fellow human beings. Both detectives would wear masks and get vaccinated, for example (I wrote the last novel before Covid), to protect others as well as themselves and their families. There’s no doubt about that. They’ve shown concern for their fellow human beings in spades throughout their cases in the series. We need more people like that.
Of course, this article is more a presentation of the themes this series considers. They’ll be transparent to most readers and reviewers who will just enjoy these mystery/thriller crime stories. Maybe it’s time for you to try one?
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Comments are always welcome.
“Detectives Chen and Castilblanco.” Binge-reading who-dun-its with enough action, suspense, and twists to entertain and educate any reader, most of these two NYPD homicide detectives’ cases start in NYC, but they often expand to national and international proportions. Castilblanco is the gentle Puerto Rican progressive who lives on antacids and becomes a Buddhist; Chen is the serious Chinese lady with that Asian Mona Lisa smile. Together the two make a great crime-fighting team. These novels can be found wherever quality ebooks are sold.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
