Mansions and Murder

During an interview with blogger David Thayer, Shamus-winning novelist Daniel Judson is asked about setting his new novel, The Darkest Place, in the Hamptons area of East Long Island--a place usually associated with vacationing rich folks, not killers and private eyes. Judson responds:

There are back streets in every town, and Southampton is no exception. It just amazes me that some people refuse to believe that the East End of Long Island has a seedy underbelly simply because it’s a playground for the wealthy three months out of the year. Like the wealthy are somehow above crime. And Southampton really isn’t all mansions and polo grounds. Working-class people live there year round--struggle to live there, to make a living and raise their kids and keep their homes. When I was out there I lived in border-line poverty, a wannabe writer scrambling to make rent. I saw my share of desperate people, felt my share of desperation. So for me writing about the back streets isn’t working against type, it’s telling it more or less how I saw it.

Read the whole interview here.