John Hoda is the author of the FBI Agent Marsha O’Shea procedural series and the Gwendolyn Strong Cozy series. He’s working on his next book, Hyde. You can find out more about him on his website, www.johnhoda.com, or by clicking here, read his last post here, and buy his books here.
Before I donned a police uniform in 1976 (below), I was an avid reader of police procedurals, notably Joseph Wambaugh and Patricia Cornwell. They inspired to me and taught me how to be emotionally prepared for some of the more gut-wrenching parts of the job.
Serpico by Peter Maas which was later turned into a movie starring Al Pacino served as my True North when I was faced with situations involving petty graft and corruption. Sadly, the police academy was silent on those touchy subjects.
I received over 480 hours of instruction, but probably less than an hour on observation skills. I read The Complete Sherlock Holmes (below) from cover to cover and it opened my eyes (pun intended) to what Holmes deduced from he saw at crime scenes.
Later, when I became an insurance fraud investigator, I read Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch, Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan and Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder. I learned how to be more curious in my cases. I marveled how they took disparate clues and put them together to reveal the bad guy’s identity. I would build a thesis and tear it down as more facts came to light, only to create new hypothesis, much like my fictional heroes did.
Martin Cruz Smith’s Arakady Renko found a way against all odds to discover the truth. Like Renko, I worked alone and did not have the benefit of squad of detectives to bounce ideas off of. These heroic characters were my peers and colleagues.
My investigative career soared as I added more tools to my tool box, such as cognitive interviewing and forensic linguistic analysis. I traveled the country going to investigative conferences learning investigative techniques by day and closing the bar at night absorbing ‘how I solved it’ stories from top-gun investigators from across the country. On the airplane ride home, I might be finishing a Hammett, Chandler or Ross MacDonald novel.
In 1997, I scratched my entrepreneurial itch and went out on my own as a licensed private investigator. Quickly, I grew my staff and territory. Over time, my work changed from Insurance Fraud Investigation to Forensic Genealogy (finding missing heirs) to Criminal Defense and Wrongful Conviction Exonerations. I continued to pile up headline-making cases with the last one where my son and I helped walk a man out of prison after twenty-six years for a murder the defense team argued he didn’t commit.
Forty-eight years of street investigations informed my writing. My cases offered hundreds of settings, plot twists. and so much realistic dialogue that Elmore Leonard could have wrote what I was hearing.
In 2020, I wrote my first police procedural about Marsha O’Shea, an FBI agent trying to get her mojo back and followed with five more. I was so impressed with Joan Livingston’s amateur sleuth, Isabel Long written in first person present, I wrote the Gwendolyn Strong Small Town Traditional Mystery Series. (Both my series are available in ebook and print on Amazon.)
Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache, Val McDermid’s Karen Pirie and Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad rotate on my kindle and nightstand. As I wind down my investigative career, I spend more time on my writing. I moderate a writing craft study group and am a member of a critique group on steroids. All of this is to say after 17 books which included four how-to’s for private investigators, my reading informed my investigating and my investigating informed my writing. I can’t separate any of it apart.
My latest offering will be on Kickstarter in September. I have titled it Hyde. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Hunt Jack the Ripper. This full-length historical mystery is a mash-up of Robert Louis Stevenson’s iconic novella with the crimes of the century. I have the working cover, but final edits, formatting and printing will occur in August. I will be creating a limited number of signed super deluxe first edition hardcovers to celebrate.
Stay tuned.
Wow, what a fascinating background you have. And what a good lesson you offer on basing books not just on your experience but what you’ve learned from other writers. I think a curiosity to learn more is one of the most important qualities a fiction writer can have.
Agree 100% on being curious.
John, thank you for sharing your interesting background with us! And congratulations on the new book. Something to celebrate for sure! I would love for you to do a mini-presentation at a Blackbirds meeting on cognitive interviewing. Sounds fascinating!
Sure. Glad to. I created a DVD on this subject. I should upload it to Bookfunnel.
How interesting! So much of fiction has influenced your illustrious career, and you’ve passed on what you’ve applied in real life to your own fiction. May art always imitate life and visa versa!
So intertwined and I can’t separate where or from whom I learned what.
What a great post! You’re a valuable resource for other writers. Good luck with your books!
Thanks. Happy to help.
Your background is fascinating, John. And since I’m a huge fan of historical mystery, I can’t wait to check out Hyde, when it’s available! Thanks for sharing!
I will let all the blackbirds know when the Kickstarter campaign kicks off.
Congrats on the forthcoming story, John. Isn’t it great how art imitates life which imitates art? 🙂
Tru dat!
This is fascinating. And now I’m curious to see how your curiosity, experience, and perpetual learning have manifested in your books. It reminds me that no part of our lives is truly ‘separate’ from what we write. Great post!
Thanks. My reading definitely informed my investigative career and my career impacted my writing. Wondering how my writing will help me in my final cases.
As Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote in his epic poem “Ulysses”, “I am a part of all that I have met,” often holds true for what we writers compose. Being a history-mystery writer and reader myself, I look forward to “Hyde.” Best wishes on its launch. BTW, I have that same copy of “The Complete Sherlock Holmes,” including its worn cover! Thanks, John.
Unfortunately, my copy sat out on a shelf in the garage for about 15 years, It was rescued and sits next to an annotated copy of Chandler’s Farewell My Lovely in my living room.
The irony of a policeman’s learning procedure from a fiction author, instead of the other way around, is fascinating. It all makes sense, though. What is reading, but learning from vicarious experience? In this case, you are both teacher and learner.
Dry college textbooks or classroom training works on some levels , but the emotional connection a reader has with a protagonist works on a different wavelength. Why was your favorite teacher so memorable?
What a great line-up of authors and a wonderful tribute to all those who led you to where you are today! Hyde sounds riveting!
Getting copyedits and a second proofread back in August for Hyde. I’m inspired by the authors I read. How they got me emotionally attached to the protagonists I can learn from.
Fascinating. I forwarded this to a client who’s an FBI agent working on his rewrite. Practical stuff. Thank you. ~JD
This is a wonderful story about the power of fiction in practical situations. Thank you so much for sharing, John!