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CORRIDOR
OF MYSTERY |
DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 2, NO. 10 |
 Kate Flora |
KATE FLORA a.k.a. KATHARINE CLARK |
Flora put away her law books
to create sexy sleuth Thea Kozak
By
RON MILLER
of The Columnists.com
IN A SWELTERINGLY HOT New England church in September of 1994, American mystery lovers first met a remarkable young woman named Thea Kozak. She was suffering that day--partly from the heat because she was wearing a jacket she felt compelled to keep on. After all, this was a funeral service.
But she was suffering even more from her conflicting emotions--grief, of course, but also her growing anger. You see, the person in the coffin was her little sister Carrie, a "lost soul" whose death would change Thea's life forever.
"I prayed, as I sat there bent over my clenched hands," she told us, "that today or tomorrow, or someday very soon, the police would call and tell us they had found Carrie's killer. I prayed that he would be tried and convicted of first degree murder. I hoped he fried."
That growing anger kept building in Thea--and when it began to look as if the police never would find Carrie's killer, she decided to tackle the job herself. That vow filled the pages of "Chosen for Death" (Forge, 1994), which launched the amateur detective career of educational consultant Thea Kozak--and the literary career of her creator, Kate Flora.
Flora didn't know it at the time she finished "Chosen for Death," but she was then in the early stages of creating a very special sort of modern American detective hero: A bright, resourceful and often reckless young woman who reflects the longing of young female mystery readers for a detective who sees the world the way they do--as a place as much the domain of women as it is for men.
"For those of us who grew up in the '60s and spent the '70s breaking down doors and smashing glass ceilings wherever possible," says Flora, "the idea of a strong woman character was enormously appealing."
Flora's Thea isn't just "strong" in the sense of her determination and character. Lots of female sleuths in mystery's history have been that kind of "strong." Thea's also physically strong. She's a tall, fit and occasionally truculent woman. She not only doesn't suffer fools gladly, she's also capable of punching out their lights. For all that, though, she's immensely appealing to men. Think of a young Kathleen Turner a year or two before "Body Heat" and you get the picture.
"She's kind of like my gladiator," Flora explains. "She goes out there and does things I'm certainly not brave enough to do. And sometimes, like a mother, I wring my hands and think: 'Oh, Thea! Be more careful!'"
In five novels from "Chosen for Death" in 1994 through "Death in Paradise" in 1998, Thea Kozak has rather rudely ignored her creator's advice, putting herself into really dire situations time after time. In "Death in Paradise," while investigating the murder of a much-disliked colleague at a convention in Hawaii, Thea was attacked by a scuba diver who nearly drowned her before she inflicted enough damage to break his potentially fatal stranglehold. Yet no sooner was she out of the hospital than she was dodging a car trying to run her down at a late night rendezvous.
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 "Death in Paradise" (1998) is fifth in the series and last published to date. |
"She's a Xena, Warrior Princess-sort of person," says Flora. "She has a superwoman complex and feels she must protect the smaller and weaker. I think I tried to do that by being a lawyer, but she does it physically. She gets an endorphin high from that. It's something women of my generation never got to have: To sort of delight in your own strength."
What makes Flora proud is that Thea appeals to younger women who read mysteries. She says teen-age girls write to her, saying they "love" Thea and consider her a role model. That makes Flora believe they really "get" what Thea's all about.
Also satisfying is Thea's acceptance by male readers. She remembers going to one book signing where a male fan told her his wife had given him permission to go out with Thea.
"I was very flattered he was so attracted to her," says Flora.
Though Flora insists Thea isn't her, they do share most points of view and both have what it takes to turn men's heads whenever they enter a room. (Flora is unassuming about it, though, which means I've probably burned more than a few bridges by teasing her about once being a runnerup in the Maine Blueberry Queen competition!) Flora describes Thea as "big and intimidating," which makes her Flora's polar opposite.
"I've got the world fooled into thinking I'm 5-5," Flora confesses, "but I'm probably about 5-3 1/2 or 5-4. There's a lot of wishful thinking that goes into these things."
Thea and Flora also come from the world of professional working women. Flora was a practicing lawyer and former deputy attorney general for the state of Maine before leaving her law books to raise her two sons, now aged 17 and 21. Restless for work after a time, she took up writing. She wrote three unpublished novels before "Chosen for Death."
While crafting that novel, Flora decided to make Thea the co-owner of a consulting firm that works with schools. At the time, she didn't know enough about police procedures to feel comfortable making Thea a cop or private eye. Now she's happy she picked the right field for Thea.
"It was part of the job description," she explains. "I needed a protagonist who could go into a lot of different places--to avoid what we mystery writers call the Cabot Cove syndrome."
(Cabot Cove is the fictional New England village where mystery writer Jessica Fletcher solved a murder each week during the long run of TV's "Murder, She Wrote.")
Often Thea's work is complicated by the stodgy bureauacratic behavior of the brass at private schools--or their apparent incompetency, as in her 1997 novel "An Educated Death," which involves the murder of a female student at a private school. Flora swears that's all make believe, but seems to have her fingers crossed. However, she says one of her sons currently attends a rather well-known academy "and I pretty much think they all walk on water up there."
Though she grew up on Nancy Drew mysteries, Flora says she wasn't a real mystery fanatic until she was at law school where "it was a wonderful antidote to a world that takes itself so seriously." She eventually devoured much of the classics by Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh, then graduated to the harder-edged mysteries. Her six mystery novels published to date tend to work the outer limits of the traditional "cozy" mysteries and probably represent a hybrid form--with enough puzzle content to satisfy the "cozy" fans, but enough tougher elements to hold the interest of readers who crave more realism.
Her lone non-Thea novel published to date--"Steal Away" (1998) from Ballantine--is a thriller about a child who's kidnapped. Though it's a suspenseful read, it also contains a great deal of character development as Flora explores the impact of the kidnapping on the heroine, Rachel Stark, a book illustrator, and her philandering husband. He's sexually involved with Rachel's flaky younger sister, who's living with them temporarily. It has a much stronger tone than the first five Thea books. Flora published it under her maiden name, Katharine Clark.
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To go more in the direction of suspense would be one choice for Flora, who's well aware the mystery publishing business is now going through a sea change. She recognizes there's not as fertile a market for mid-list series mysteries today because the conglomerates now controlling book publishing all are aiming for best sellers and the kinds of gimmicky books she calls "bright and shining objects."
Yet she believes mystery readers really want series heroes and she still has a deep affection for Thea Kozak. Now it appears that affection soon will be put to a test that could bring an end to the series.
"I wrote the next Thea book right after the Hawaii book," she says. "My editor thought it wasn't a mystery and rejected it out of hand."
At the windup of the Hawaii book, "Death in Paradise," Thea has agreed to marry Andre, the police detective who's been her longtime lover. There's also the chance she's expecting a baby. Fans have been pushing for the two to make it legal for some time, but Flora has been getting pressure from the other side to avoid that at all costs.
"The advice they give you when you embark on a series is: Keep your hero footloose and fancy free," she says.
Flora keeps mum about what actually happens in the new Thea book, tentatively titled "Libery or Death," but she says it involves a militia group in Maine and certain events that take place the day Andre and Thea are supposed to marry. She says it's "a totally over-the-top" book, but argues that, upon serious reflection, she's certain what takes place in the new book is what must happen in Thea's life. She has rewritten the manuscript, but hasn't received any response from her editor at Tor Books. (You can read the first two chapters on her website. Click the link at the bottom of this page.)
"If Tor decides to stop the Thea Kozak series, I feel confident somebody else will pick it up," says Flora. "I went on and tried to write the next one in the series--and I'm about 10 chapters in."
Meanwhile, Flora has created a new series concept with a male hero named Joe Burgess, which she will publish under a male pseudonym. It's now in the hands of some agents in New York. Flora says this hero is "around 50, overweight, grouchy and absolutely work-obsessed, but I'm completely in love with him."
Flora's husband didn't flinch at the love scenes she wrote for Thea and Andre, nor is he bothered by her admitting she's "mad about" Joe Burgess. In fact, he thinks her Joe Burgess book is the best thing she's ever written. When I kidded her that maybe her husband is just pretending and actually has hired a private eye to watch her closely, Flora thought that was a pretty silly notion.
"If he had a P.I. following me around, he'd have the world's most boring day," she says. "He'd sit outside my house all day while I write, then around 4 o'clock he could follow me to the grocery store. Once in awhile, we might go on an expedition to the Salvation Army Thrift Store. You see, I don't need a life because I have one in my imagination."
© 2001 by Ron Miller. The photo of Kate Flora is from her website and is used with her permission. "Chosen for Death" is from Forge books, "Death in Paradise" from Tor Books, "Steal Away" from Fawcett Crest Books (Ballantine).
TO READ MORE ABOUT KATE FLORA & ORDER HER BOOKS, GO TO HER WEBSITE BY CLICKING HERE: KATE FLORA
You can
contact Ron Miller with an email to: talkback@thecolumnists.com
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