S.A. Cosby grew up watching magicians on TV – and still loves trying to figure out the tricks. Readers, he says, feel the same way.
“Magic and mystery writing have a lot in common,” says the novelist. “Mystery writers can learn a lot from magicians.”
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Cosby, whose well-regarded work got a boost after former President Obama put him on his summer reading list last year, is the author of “Blacktop Wasteland,” “Razorblade Tears” and his latest novel, “All the Sinners Bleed,” which focuses on Titus Crown, the first black sheriff in a small Southern town. While investigating a school shooting, Crown discovers that a trio of serial killers has been using his county as a dumping ground.
Over the course of two wide-ranging conversations, the author discussed mystery and crime fiction, the middle-grade novel he co-wrote with Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, and the real-world social issues that affect the lives of real people and characters alike.
“You have to tell the truth. And the truth is always in season. It doesn’t always have to be pretty,” says the Virginia-based author.
Novelist and TV writer Jordan Harper is a friend, and he says Cosby not only pushes himself to greater heights with each book but he also uses his success to help others.
“He’s such a generous guy and that echoes through everything he does, including when he writes about some of the darkest stuff,” says Harper, who spoke by phone while walking a WGA picket line. “It’s a real testament to his talent and his heart.”
Cosby will be in conversation with Harper at Vroman’s on June 21. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Q. How would you describe the new book, “All the Sinners Bleed”?
I’ve said this before, I think crime writing is like the gospel of the dispossessed; it’s the most readily available vehicle to talk about a lot of various human experiences. So “All the Sinners Bleed” is sort of my attempt to have a conversation about good and evil and about the people who stand in the gap between the dark and the light.
Q. The book touches on dark topics, including school shootings and serial killers. What is it like exploring that material – and living with it as you write about it?
I don’t like darkness. But I’m fascinated with examining it. I’m fascinated with trying to make sense of it.
In the real world, I feel like sometimes our hands are tied; there’s not a lot we can do to fight those things. I mean, you can march; I’ve done marches. I’ve donated money to organizations. I’ve spoken at county board of supervisors’ meetings, but I always feel like I just come up short of actually making a difference. And so when you write about those things, you can right the wrongs in your books.
Q. It’s apparent that you have compassion for your characters.
I definitely aim to have incredible empathy for my characters, all of them: the good guys, the bad guys, side characters. I think “All the Sinners Bleed” is probably the most expansive example of that because it’s a huge cast of characters.
Every character has their own story, their own history, their own things that shape them and make them who they are. And if you give short shrift to that, you do the reader a disservice. And so when I write, I always try to make sure that everybody gets their moment to be a person, a human.
In “All the Sinners Bleed,” there’s a character who is the de facto leader of the Confederate apologists who want to hold a parade in town – that’s another problem that Titus has. I don’t have any sympathy for that character; I don’t like that character. But as a writer, it’s my job to understand that character.
Q This new book is more of a mystery than a crime novel. What was it like writing it?
I’m a mystery fan like I grew up reading Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, Ellery Queen, Walter Mosley, Dennis Lehane, Robert Crais, all those folks. And I’m a fan of TV shows. My grandma loved “Columbo,” “Perry Mason,” “Matlock,” “Harry O,” “Dan August” and all these old ‘70s police dramas and detective shows and stuff. And also, I’m a big fan of Father Brown mysteries on PBS.
To me, as a reader or a viewer, the most exhilarating moment is the last five minutes when a detective does that big wrap-up or when they figure it out. And so I was happy with the book because when you get to that point, I feel like we earned it. Titus has been through so much, he’s gone through so much, he’s lost stuff. And when he gets to that point, when he clicks those gears into place, it’s exhilarating.
If you get to that point, honestly and fairly, that’s all that matters. That’s all the reader wants. They want to get there with you.
Q. There’s a scene where Titus speaks to the mother of the victim. It’s brief, but it gives readers a deeper understanding of him and what’s at stake.
We debated about keeping that scene in when I was talking to my editor. I said, I really think it drives home the humanity of the victims, that they had families, and maybe they didn’t all come from the best backgrounds, but they still were loved. They still were missed.
It’s easy to write a tough man who’s not sensitive, a tough man who doesn’t feel, who just moves forward like a shark. It’s hard to write a tough man who has feelings, a tough man who is empathetic, emotional and not perfect. As a writer, you want to challenge yourself to do that.
Outlaws don’t have any rules – they just don’t have to get caught. They can do whatever, they can ride around town breaking people’s fingers or slamming people’s hands in car doors and doing that sort of evocative, visceral action. When we have to write a character who, for the most part, has to try to stay within the rules and who takes that seriously – a character who feels guilt and shame when they don’t stay within the rules – I think that’s a more complex trick and I wanted to try it with Titus. And I think for the most part, he came out pretty good.
I don’t know if I agree with him on everything – I definitely know I don’t – but I definitely admire his desire to do the right thing.
Q. In the book, you address hot-button issues like Confederate statues and institutional racism. Did you plan to do that or did it arise out of the writing?
I’m African American, a black man from the South of a certain age; those things are a part of my everyday experience. So writing about them in a tertiary way is not so much an affectation, it’s just the way I deal with it. When I go to my dad’s house in the next county over, I have to go past a gentleman who has, like, a 40-foot flagpole with a Confederate flag on it. Every time I go see my dad, I have to pass it and I know my dad sees it.
So when I talk about it in the book, I know that’s not the experience of everyone – that’s not even the experience of most people. Those are things that I think you have to give a mention to, but it’s so ingrained as a part of your life that it’s almost like you can’t spend too much time on it.
There’s also a lot about where I live that I love, that I really am connected to. I love being able to experience nature firsthand. I love the community and camaraderie among my friends and the people that I care about. And there is that sort of small-town support, you know, that you get. And so when I write, I want to give the whole tapestry, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Q. You just published a middle-grade sci-fi novel with Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, ‘The Rhythm of Time.’ How did that come about?
“The Rhythm of Time” was a really great experience. I got to write a kid’s sci-fi book with Questlove, Ahmir Thompson, is just the most gracious, creative, interesting person to be around. I’m working on part two; there’s going to be a trilogy.
Questlove came to me with the book idea; he just wanted someone to help him sort of flesh out the more complex storytelling aspects of it, which is funny to me because I really was known at that point as just a crime writer – you know, my brand is people getting hit in the face with wrenches. So I didn’t know how that was going to translate into a kids’ book.
I love the fact that the protagonists are two kids of color, who are, for lack of a better word, nerdy and geeky. But that nerdy and geekiness doesn’t take away from their friendship or from their characterizations.
Q. A Washington Post study looking at recent school book bans shows books with LGBTQ characters and characters of color are being banned in large numbers. Did you have concerns about that?
There are people who are twisting themselves in a knot to ban books about LGBTQ, African Americans, or people of color, but they don’t care about high-capacity magazines being in schools and blowing kids’ faces off.
Nothing can make you gay, just like nothing makes you straight or makes you nonbinary or makes you trans. You are who you are, you are who you are meant to be. So, you know, they can ban books; it’s not going to stop kids from finding their identity as a gay man or a gay woman or as a trans man or trans woman or non-binary person. It’s not going to stop you from knowing the history of America, both the beauty and the grotesqueness of it. If anything, the only thing it does is it drives kids back underground.
We live in the information age. It’s almost quaint that they think, Oh, by banning these books, the kids will never learn about it. It’s like the kids can go and see anything on Google now. I think it’s ultimately fruitless. I think deep down inside, those people know it. Sometimes people like to do things so people see them doing them, not because they have any long-lasting effect.
Knowledge is like water; it just takes a trickle. It will come out. You can build all the dams you want; it’s still going to make its way out.
