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Checking in with the mysterious James Patrick Hunt.
James Patrick Hunt is the perfect detective novelist’s name. Elmore Leonard, Ed McBain, Raymond Chandler, famous mystery writers all, can’t hold a candle to the moniker James Patrick Hunt.
Hunt, a Tulsa attorney, hasn’t reached the literary heights of the authors above, but he’s catching up. He has a body of work.
His latest release, “The Assailant,” is his sixth published novel. The last three published by St. Martin’s Press feature Lt. Detective George Hastings, a tough, no-nonsense, macho, lady-killer (no pun intended) in the St. Louis Police Department. Hunt writes in the best tradition of the hard-boiled genre.
As Hastings tries to understand what makes a serial killer tick in “The Assailant,” I want to ferret out what makes a seemingly normal guy write about murder and mayhem.
“Just the facts, ma’am, and only the facts,” about Hunt: 45-year-old single attorney who specializes in police/labor union law. One of nine siblings growing up in Ponca City, Oklahoma City and Baltimore.
His father’s engineering job moved them around. He was born in Surrey, England, and lived a few years there before returning stateside. At St. Louis University, he earned his undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering and his law degree at Marquette University. A car buff, he owns a Jag, a Mercedes and a BMW. He resides in Tulsa to be close to family.
Obviously, he is a student of crime writing. He follows Elmore Leonard’s rules. For instance, never open a book with the weather. Or never use a word other than “said” in dialogue. Or, in general, if it sounds like writing, rewrite.
“It took me two months to write ‘The Assailant,’ full-time,” he says. “When I start, I don’t know the plot. I let the character and situation guide me, although I knew the villain was a doctor/killer before starting.”
Edith Wharton is his favorite writer — in particular, her novel “Age of Innocence” about 1920s upper-class New York society. He lists, also, mystery writers of legend, but to single out Wharton is curious.
Why he writes what he writes? He is experienced in the law with command of the language and loves the hunt.
