By Anne W. Semmes
Greenwich’s Deborah Goodrich Royce, a former actress, has distinguished herself as a “bestselling” author, having embraced her mystery genre in 2019 with her first novel, Finding Mrs. Ford, then with Ruby Falls, winning the Zibby Award for Best Plot Twist, and Reef Road named as “one of the best books of the year by Kirkus Reviews.
Her newest work is entitled Best Boy, described as “a gripping psychological thriller,” making its debut on February 24. On a recent phone call Royce addressed the influence of her movie career upon the germination of Best Boy and spoke of the locations she places her “slow burning” thriller, first in her hometown of Detroit, then Los Angeles (as in her movie-making days) and lastly to Greenwich.
Best Boy’s book jacket tells succinctly the plot’s overview: “Buried secrets of a teenage trauma and a troubled history are unearthed when a woman is contacted by a man from her past who may – or may not – be who he says he is.”
Q: So, how did this plot line originate from you?
A: I received an email years ago, from a man who said, “Remember me, I was your best boy (job title on a film set) on the film Survival Game.” I didn’t remember him. He had these various touch points that we had shared, ‘Do you remember when we ran into each other at the Cannes Film Festival’… chit chat, chit chat, and that was the end. But when it happened, I got to think about, in a weird way, how often it happens that we meet people and they’ll say, do you remember this or that and it’s a blank for you or can be for me. So, that was the genesis of the Best Boy story. I wanted to explore the idea of memory, and how that affects our identity. We are our minds more than we are our bodies. So, if you remove memories, what does that change of our sense of ourselves or other people’s senses of us? That was the kickoff.
Q: You seem to be flowing in this mystery-making storytelling of captivating tales and traumas, whatever. Did you think that was going to be what you would do as a writer?
A: No, and I’m glad you mention the trauma part. I do seem to dig a little bit into that idea of trauma. When I wrote my first novel Finding Mrs. Ford I wanted to explore female friendship. I had known a girl many years before in the college years, whose life went off track badly. She was dazzling. She was incandescent. How is it that we are attracted to another person? I do not mean sexually, but someone who is fun and dynamic and somebody we want to be around – and how do we misread that? So, that was the genesis of that novel.
Then, my agent at the time said, “You have a beautiful piece of literary fiction with a doozy of a twist in the middle. Would you consider bringing it more into the realm of a thriller?” And that became a series of edits and revisions that took it farther into that territory. Since then, in the following three books, the twists and turns just came. I was always exploring identity issues. Who are we? What do we really reveal about who we are? What do we conceal? And that’s been of great interest to me. I have also written a cozy mystery with another writer, hopefully to come out next year. And I’m working on another slightly cozy mystery.
Q: What is a cozy mystery?
A: There’s a real formula to writing a cozy. Agatha Christie is a cozy mystery writer. The general format is there’s a murder. There are multiple suspects. There’s an amateur sleuth who’s very often smarter than the cops. And it never gets too dark. So that’s the format of a cozy, and think of all the Agatha Christie novels, the television series Murder She Wrote, or Only Murders in the Building. But I don’t know if with Best Boy I’ve completed my cycle of darker, “twistier” identity thrillers. I always like my books to be funny, even when they’re dark. There are moments of humor that come through. With cozies, I’m getting to explore more humor.
Q: You address the role of “twists” in your mysteries?
A: So, my first three novels have head-spinning twists. Best Boy has twists, but it doesn’t have a twist as extreme as in earlier drafts. This is a big conversation. How far can you go with a twist? At a certain point you don’t want your reader to see it coming, but when it comes, you have to have your reader able to say, “Oh, I see.”
Q: So, the book cover of Best Boy features a house similar to ones in Greenwich?
A. It’s a stock photo that the graphic department used. A lot of people are asking if that is the house from the movie Home Alone. But to me, a Detroit girl, it’s a much more Midwestern looking house… But I think it evokes a beautiful Greenwich.
Q: In Best Boy the timeline is similar to yours, growing up in Detroit, graduating from college, then going right to Hollywood, having an acting life, and then to your married life in Greenwich, as did the character Vivica. For those who know you, it was fun to see that.
A: That’s the thing. I have fun utilizing what I know. I feel I can write with vivid details, like when Viveca takes a walk from her house, I describe the purple asters that are blooming. I can write with precision and clarity because I know the place, and I think those details make it come alive. I don’t think it’s diminished if you don’t know me or know Greenwich, but those are the fun little Easter eggs in there. And of course, Viveca’s boy Theo goes to the boy’s school. I don’t mention it by name. The family belongs to a club. I don’t mention it by name. Those are certain things that I skirt around, like the name of restaurants, and main streets. Things like that are super private.
Q In reading Best Boy there were characters that really popped like Viveca’s friend Rachel.
A: I’m going to tell you because you’re a writer, you’ll understand this. Rachel is a character that developed. She was going to be just a minor reference in Vivica’s former life as an actress and Vivica was going to have a little phone conversation with Rachel. Rachel came alive on the page. Once I started describing her and her big loose dresses and her oversized jewelry and the things she said, I’m like I’m going to write a little bit more of Rachel, and just a little bit more. Then having her at the end. And I think that’s the joy of writing a novel, a character like that suddenly presents herself and demands time on the page.
Q: So, in your words you have spelled out the art of mystery, how you started writing after being an actress, and you just flowed into the art of mystery.
A: Well, I’ve always loved reading a good mystery!
Deborah Goodrich Royce will address her new book, Best Boy at a “Power Breakfast Book Launch,” in conversation with Avery Carpenter Forrey, author of the book, Social Engagement at the Greenwich Historical Society, on next Tuesday, February 24, from 9:30 to 11. For tickets call 203-869-6899.
