Episode 77: Michael Bowen – Locked Rooms and Courtrooms

In June, 2019, a nice young man in a blue suit asked me “when was the last time you smoked marijuana, ma’am?” I told him the truth – semester break during my sophomore year at Tulane – because you don’t lie to the FBI.

I have no objection to the truth, but I don’t let it push me around.

-- False Flag in Autumn, Michael Bowen

I love a good locked room mystery almost as much as I love the Nick and Nora Charles dynamic. Author Michael Bowen combines both of these in several of his nifty, "plucky couples" series, starting with his first mystery, Badger Game.

But he is also the author of thrillers, and his latest book, False Flag in Autumn, pits a savvy political operative against evil -- and her own conscience. Complex characters and high stakes ignite this story, the second in the Josie Kendall series.

We also chat about the books that shaped his writing, and his life (turns out Perry Mason had an influence on Michael's choice of career). We're both fans of Agatha Christie (Alert! Spoilers for Murder on The Orient Express), Raymond Chandler, and Erle Stanley Gardner, among others.

You can learn more about Michael's books on his author page. As always, if you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy!

-- Laura

******************************************************

Laura Brennan: Michael Bowen started writing while working as a trial attorney. While not playing Perry Mason in court, he was writing mysteries across genres including locked rooms, puzzle mysteries, and thrillers. Now that he's retired, we can look forward to many more books from Michael. Michael, thank you so much for joining me today.

Michael Bowen: Well, thank you for having me. I'm really looking forward to this.

LB: Tell me a little bit about your career pre-writing. How did you decide to get into law?

MB: Well, as I was growing up, I had basically two possible career paths. One was to become a journalist and the other was to become President of the United States. And I knew I couldn't start at President, so I had to do something to earn a living. So I settled on practicing law because that's the way Abraham Lincoln did it. He practiced law and then he became President. And I had a very healthy sense of self-esteem back then.

So, basically, I turned to law because I decided I wanted to be one of the people doing things that people write about instead of one of the people doing the writing.

In the first series that I began, it's a "plucky couple," and the male half of the plucky couple had to surrender his license to practice law because of some shenanigans that he engaged in. And the female half was what back in the sexist, early 1960s was called a Girl Friday for a law firm. So she wasn't a lawyer, but she did stuff that people found helpful.