Jake is a well-known writer of noir novels, but sometimes it feels like you are the one who discovered him, but it’s not the case. His novel, Hell on Church Street was awarded the French Prix Mystère de la Critique in 2016. No Tomorrow was awarded the Grand Prix des Littératures Policières in 2018. He is published widely in both America and France and to critical acclaim. He is also one of the most respected authors I know, and I rarely, if at all, find a word out of place in his work. He’s both a brilliant storyteller and a surgeon at the keys.
I came across him like a lot of people do nowadays on social media. I bought a couple of his books, and I was hooked. Later, I discovered he’s a film nut, it seems he’s at the movies six days a week. Over the last year or two we started talking a bit more. More than likely because we are both rat enthusiasts. Yes, the tragically misunderstood animals that we both keep as pets. Do keep on the lookout, rats are gaining in popularity.
What I like most about Jake’s work is each story is its own. He releases the work, promotes it, but he doesn’t change who he is as a person. Sadly, fame and even the smallest bit of notoriety can change a person, especially a writer, for the worse. It’s refreshing to hear a voice that’s both humbled and talented. He lets the work speak for itself, and it certainly does. If you haven’t read any of his books you should. I cannot recommend Dry County enough. Honestly, pick up any of his books you’ll be glad you did. If you are a fan of crime, noir, even pulp, you’ll dig his work. Each book, each sentence, is a masterclass. I was excited to learn his latest book, which is currently only available in France, will be coming out later this year in America. Read on to find out!
– Frank Reardon
FR: Tell me about the new book in France. What’s it about and why is it only available in France?
JH: It’s called The Way of The World. It’s about a married woman named Alice who’s having an affair. Leaving her boyfriend’s apartment one night she’s attacked on the street. In the struggle, she wounds her attacker and runs back to the boyfriend. They decide to go check on the man to see if he’s died, but when they get there, he’s disappeared. Complications ensue.
It’s only available in France right now because I have a decade-long relationship with a great publisher there. To be blunt about it, I’m more successful there than I am here, so when I have a new book, it’s got an immediate readership in France. In America, I kind of have to find the right publisher for the right book, and that takes more time. I’m happy to say that Crooked Lane books is putting out The Way of The World later this year. October most likely.
FR: Dry County, yeah, one banger of a book I couldn’t put it down. If there’s an actual debate on what makes a book noir, this one answers it. I’d like to ask about Richard, who is he at his core? Did you know a Richard or two in your life growing up? Tell us a bit about Dry County for those who haven’t read it.
JH: Dry County is about a preacher named Richard Weatherford who is having an illicit relationship with a young man in his church. When the young man demands money to leave town, Weatherford has to scramble to find the money and keep his life from falling apart. The book’s really about what he’s willing to do to keep his position, to keep up his image as a respected man of god.
I grew up Southern Baptist. I’ve known a few preachers I respect, but I’ve known more than a few that I despise. This book is a composite of some of the ones I despise.
FR: You have a vast knowledge of both noir in books and film. If someone’s new to noir, give them five essential noir books to read, and five essential noir films to watch from the library of Jake.
JH: Okay, here’s the Jake Hinkson noir starter pack:
Books
- Savage Night by Jim Thompson: The king. I could just list five by JT and be done with it. My favorite changes, but as a starter, this one is hard to beat.
- The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding: She was Raymond Chandler’s favorite crime writer, with good reason. This one is her best and one of the best novels (crime or otherwise) of the 1940s.
- Of Tender Sin by David Goodis: Goodis was pitch black noir. This one might be his darkest.
- Twisted City by Jason Starr: We don’t talk enough about what a noir god Jason Starr is. He’s the best noir writer alive, by my reckoning. This nightmare of a novel is a great place to start.
- Dare Me by Megan Abbott: The other greatest noir writer alive. She’s completely herself while being so steeped in the classics.
Movies
- Detour (1945): The best film ever made on Poverty Row. My favorite film noir. My favorite movie, period.
- Caged (1950): The best women in prison flick. Just a masterpiece of acting, directing, writing.
- Night of the Hunter (1955): Robert Mitchum as an evil preacher. What’s not to love?
- The Maltese Falcon (1941): I can’t think of a more perfect film. The studio system is at its best. Bogart is God-level.
- Roadblock (1951): Here’s an obscure one. Not a perfect film, but it’s kind of my favorite man-meets-a-woman-and-they-destroy-each-other flick.
FR: What I like about your work is that you don’t waste anything. It all feels perfectly placed. You make it seem effortless. What’s the process like? Do you have an office at home? Do you take a ton of joy from it or is it an epic struggle? Constant rewrites?
JH: Well, I take that as a big compliment from you because you don’t waste your words, either. Yeah, man, it’s a joy. Writing is the only thing I like to do. The great pulp writer Gil Brewer said something once along the lines of “The terrible truth is I’m only happy when I’m writing.” That’s me, too. I have a little office at home, or I sit on the couch, in coffee shops, at the library. I’m either writing, or I’m thinking about something I’m writing. I’m virtually monomaniacal.
FR: Find Him, another one of your books that I loved. Another book with religion at the center. I grew up Catholic in Boston, and even though I don’t practice it anymore it’s an important part of character’s lives, it’s what makes them go. It makes for a better book when you don’t make them the typical stereotypes. You don’t judge your characters, which seems to me, and sadly, a growing plague in literature. Elaborate on the people in the novel, the religiosity in their lives.
JH: I was a Pentecostal for a few years after I left the Baptists. The church in the book is somewhat modeled on the congregation I attended. It was rural, almost aggressively anti-intellectual, and totally focused on the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues. Naturally, it seemed like a good place to set a crime novel. (And it’s that kind of savvy commercial thinking, by the way, which explains why I’m now a billionaire author.)
I wanted to tell a story set in that world that would also be a pretty accurate description of that world. People aren’t cliches. No one perfectly fits into a stereotype, even when they commit their whole life to being a stereotype. So, I wanted to tell the story of this preacher’s daughter who finds herself pregnant, who needs to track down her missing boyfriend before her whole world comes falling down.
FR: Completely switching gears here. You and your wife, Sophie, are fellow rat owners like me. It’s hard to find rat owners, never mind other writers who have rats as pets. I spend a lot of time with my rats, training them, etc. They release stress. They are funny, smart, and they are full of love like any other animals. They are also violently misunderstood creatures. Tell us about your rats, names, what they are like?
JH: Sophie got me into rats because she’s their queen. If the apartment caught on fire, I’m pretty sure she’d get them out first and then come back for me. Rats are such fascinating creatures, though. They’re the most despised animals on earth, and yet they’re sweet and smart, very affectionate, and playful. Watching their group dynamics is like watching the best TV show you’ve ever seen. I’m going to write some kind of essay about them at some point, I think, because I have a lot of thoughts on them as creatures and on their relationship to humans. The guys we have now are Mitchum, Leland, Duke, Bernie, Sid, and Dwayne The Rat Johnson.
FR: You and Sophie go to the movies often. Often classic films, but since 2019, the last five or six years, what have been your five favorite movie going experiences for films since 2018/2019?
JH: Well, my favorite film of the last few years would have to be Paul Schrader’s First Reformed. That’s my movie right there. It holds up really well with repeat viewings, and I think it’s going to stand as his masterpiece. This year, I loved The Substance. Last year, my favorite was Poor Things. I loved both Tar and The Holdovers in 2022. Not a lot of great crime movies in the last few years, sadly.
FR: I could be wrong here, but I believe you are from Arkansas. How has your home state shaped you and made you into the writer you are? Will future work be Chicago-based, like a Chicago-only noir novel?
JH: I am indeed Arkansas born and bred. As for how it shaped me, I mean I can’t really imagine who I’d be if I’d been born anywhere else. I grew up in the Ozarks in a deeply religious, conservative atmosphere. That formed me in ways good and bad, I suppose. Mostly good, I think. I grew up working construction with my dad and brothers, going to church, riding around in trucks. The kind of place where you’d see a dead deer strapped to someone’s hood in the parking lot of Walmart. I knew a guy who rode his horse to church. He’d tie the horse to a tree and come in for services. You know what I’m saying?
Having said that, I’m about to turn 50, and I’ve now lived outside of Arkansas for almost as long as I lived there. I’ve been in Chicago for 10 years now, and I love it. The new book is set in Chicago. The next book will, too. Chicago’s a fascinating place and a fun place to write about.
FR: Anything new in the pipe writing-wise? Or are you busy promoting the new book in France only? How have your experiences been with French publishers Vs American? They love books over there, and over here reality stars sell more books than James Ellroy, which is sad.
JH: France is great. The single strangest thing that has happened to me in my life is I became this minor literary star in France. I met my wife there and probably 60% of my career (maybe more) is there. So, I’ve kind of always got one foot in France. I’ve only ever had one publisher there, Gallmeister Editions. It’s been the most important relationship I’ve had in my professional life.
FR: There’s a lot going on in Dry County, religion, the wet and dry vote, the brutality, extortion, but in the backdrop of the 2016 election. People are spinning out of control, which makes for some good fiction. But what I find most interesting is the hypocrisy, which feels like the world we live in. One giant hypocritical stew. How did the climate shape the characters? Did you take from the mad world around us that has been unrelenting since 2016?
JH: I’ll tell you something I don’t know that I’ve ever said before. I wrote Dry County after the 2016 election, and I remember I was kind of in the middle of writing it when I realized it was about the triumph of evil. It’s about how the American church sold its soul and handed over the keys to the kingdom to the money-changers. I think it’s my best book.
BONUS QUESTION: Orson Welles calls you from the telephone of the dead. He says, “Jake, bring me five of the best noir films since the 1990s.” What are you going to bring?
JH: I love that it’s Orson Welles calling me up. Did you know that in addition to being one of the great noir directors he wrote some now lost pulp novels in his youth? Crazy.
Anyway, my favorite film noirs since 1990:
- After Dark My Sweet (1990): The best noir of that decade and the best Jim Thompson adaptation. A perfect film.
- The Grifters (1990): The other best Jim Thompson adaptation. It might even be an improvement on the source novel since it streamlines the plot a bit.
- A Simple Plan (1998): This is it, man. Study this movie if you want to know how to plot a crime story. It’s also an improvement on its (excellent) source material.
- Gone Baby Gone (2007): I love how this starts, how it develops, and I’m in awe of where it ends up, with the protagonist making the decision he has to make even though none of us—including him—wants him to make it.
- Nightcrawler (2014): We don’t get as many great pitch-black noirs as we used to. This one is so of its time while also having the feel of a classic.