Is Truth Stranger Than Fiction? by David Handler
Whenever I speak about my Stewart Hoag series to library groups, mystery convention attendees and other gatherings of avid readers they tend to stare at me in wide-eyed amazement, because they find Hoagy’s history so totally bizarre.
Actually, my entire career has been totally bizarre. I’ve written thirty crime novels and never intended to become a crime writer. I started out to be a journalist. Began my career as Broadway critic and New York cultural correspondent for the Scripps-Howard News Service. Along the way, I ghosted a bestselling celebrity memoir about a major tabloid murder that took place in 1979 in Room 100 of the Chelsea Hotel. Does the name Sid Vicious ring a familiar bell?
I was still in my 20s at that point. Within a year I’d pivoted and joined the original writing staff that created the Emmy Award-winning sitcom Kate and Allie, said goodbye to journalism and hello to television and films. Writing for TV and films is tremendously exciting and insane. I did it off and on for twenty years, but it wasn’t how I really wanted to spend my life.
I wanted to be a novelist. A literary novelist, mind you.
And so, in 1987, when I was in my early 30s, I published “Kiddo,” a funny, sad coming-of-age novel about my Los Angeles boyhood that was very well received. In fact, it got a whole glowing page to itself in the New York Times Book Review.
For my second novel, I decided to draw upon my eerie, unusual experience as that ghostwriter of a celebrity memoir. My protagonist was a witty, sophisticated writer named Stewart Hoag whose wildly successful first novel had made him such a celebrity that he’d married a movie star named Merilee Nash, bought an apartment on Central Park West, got a red 1958 Jaguar XK-150 and a neurotic, breath-challenged basset hound named Lulu — as well as a terrible case of writer’s block. The pressure of producing a second novel was too much for him. He crashed and burned, lost Merilee and ended up back in his crummy, unheated fifth floor walk-up on West 93rd Street with Lulu, no money and no prospects – until his agent suggested he try helping a famously volatile comic from the 1950s named Sonny Day write his memoir. It seemed that Sonny had fired every ghost who’d taken a crack at the job so far.
I envisioned a novel that was filled with humor but also revealed some dark secrets about Sonny’s past and helped Hoagy on his road to finding his own voice again. I called it “The Man Who Died Laughing” and it was turned down by 24 publishers. The only editor who liked it was Kate Miciak, a young mystery editor at Bantam, who loved my first-person voice and absolutely adored Lulu. But Kate pointed out that I would need to inject much more jeopardy for the book to work as a murder mystery. I explained I’d never intended it to be a murder mystery. Didn’t have the slightest idea how to write a murder mystery, although I did enjoy reading them. But Kate was nice enough to sit me down in her office and talk to me about how to make “The Man Who Died Laughing” succeed as the first of a fresh, different series of mystery novels about a celebrity ghostwriter and his basset hound sidekick.
That’s right, the Stewart Hoag series was entirely her idea, not mine.
Armed with her notes, I re-wrote the novel, Kate signed me to a two-book contract and, to my utter shock, The Man Who Died Laughing was a finalist for an Anthony Award. To my even greater shock, my third Hoagy novel, The Man Who Would Be F. Scott Fitzgerald, actually won an Edgar Award, which meant that the mystery community actually seemed to think that I was meant to be a crime writer.
I published eight Hoagy novels between 1988 and 1997 before I decided to end the series. The rapidly changing world of technology had made juicy, tell-all celebrity memoirs obsolete. Think about it, in 1988 there was no e-mail, no cell phones, no Internet, no 24-hour cable news. It was still possible in those days for major stars to keep secrets. No longer.
So I waved a fond farewell to Hoagy and Lulu, and moved on. Published a couple of thrillers. Wrote a new series of eleven novels set in my quaint, historic Connecticut coastal village featuring the romantic odd couple of Mitch Berger and Desiree Mitry. It was a popular series and I enjoyed writing it, but I cannot tell a lie. I missed Hoagy and Lulu.
I was still missing them in 2015 when I was at work on the second book of another new series featuring Benji Golden, a young, pint-sized New York City private detective who specializes in finding runaway teens. One day my agent, Dominick Abel, phoned to say he’d just had lunch with Dan Mallory, an executive editor at Morrow, who’d told him that I was the author of his all-time favorite series mystery series ever – the Stewart Hoag series – and wanted to know if he could convince me to bring Hoagy and Lulu back.
Dominick explained to him that I’d ended the series because of the arrival of the Internet and so on, that I would probably say no, but that he’d ask me. He asked me. I said no. But Dan was not to be denied. He showed “The Man Who Would Be F. Scott Fitzgerald” to a couple of editorial assistants who were in diapers when the book first came out and they loved it — especially the vintage pop culture references, fashion and style. Dan called Dominick back and suggested I pick up the Hoagy series again but write them as period novels set way back in, say, 1992, which was before the arrival of America Online.
Right away, I started tingling all over. I did wonder if I’d be able to re-create the period, but after a whopping two-minute search on the Internet I found a website that had the front page of the National Enquirer for every week of the year 1992. Right away, the Long Island Lolita — Amy Fisher and her married boyfriend Joey Buttafuoco — came roaring back from the tabloid past. Suddenly, 1992 didn’t seem that long ago. It wasn’t that long ago. Hell, I was still wearing a lot of the same clothes. I called Dominick back and told him I was intrigued. And when Dan offered me a two-book deal I was all in.
So just like that – after a brief hiatus of twenty years – Hoagy and Lulu were re-born.
When I sat down to start writing Hoagy’s return in “The Girl With Kaleidoscope Eyes” I was terrified. What if I couldn’t find Hoagy’s voice again after so many years? His trademark witty observations were crucial. Without them I’d be toast. After sixty seconds my worries vanished. I didn’t have to find Hoagy’s voice. His voice is my voice. He is me. He still flowed right through me.
I also wondered if I’d still have as much fun writing Hoagy and Lulu as I used to. Again, no worries. If anything, I found myself having more fun. So much fun, in fact, that I’ve written six of them. The latest, “The Girl Who Took What She Wanted,” came out in March. Dan moved on from Morrow to become the mega-bestselling author of the thriller “The Woman in the Window under the pseudonym AJ Finn. I’ve been blessed to land with the legendary Otto Penzler at Mysterious Press and have signed a contract to write two more. I couldn’t be happier.
Totally bizarre, right? Because things like this don’t happen in real life.
Except for when they do.
David Handler (b. 1952) is the critically acclaimed author of several bestselling mystery series. He began his career as a New York City reporter, and wrote his first two novels—Kiddo (1987) and Boss (1988)—about his Los Angeles childhood. In 1988 he published The Man Who Died Laughing, the first of a series of mysteries starring ghostwriter Stuart Hoag and his faithful basset hound Lulu. Handler wrote eight of the novels, winning both Edgar and American Mystery Awards for The Man Who Would Be F. Scott Fitzgerald (1990).
The Cold Blue Blood (2001) introduced a new series character, New York film critic Mitch Berger, who fights his reclusive nature to solve crimes with the help of police Lieutenant Desiree Mitry. Handler has published eight novels starring the pair, with another, The Snow White Christmas Cookie, due out in 2012. In 2009 Handler published Push To Play, a standalone novel about an investigative reporter. He lives and writes in Old Lyme, Connecticut.
“Hoagy and Lulu tickle your funnybone and touch your heart.” – Carolyn Hart, New York Times best-selling author of the Death on Demand mysteries
“If I could get Stewart Hoag to ghostwrite my books they’d sell better, and I’d laugh myself silly. David Handler is a hoot, and his books are just the thing for what ails you.” – Parnell Hall, author of You Have the Right to Remain Puzzled
“Handler’s breezy, unpretentious and warm-hearted hero provides a breath of fresh air in a world of investigative angst.” – Publishers Weekly