Paris writer John Pearce is the author of the bestselling TREASURE of SAINT-LAZARE, "a novel of murder, betrayal, and greed -- and of love lost and found".
This week we talk with John about looted art, seventy-year old mysteries, and the art of writing fact-based thrillers.
What got you interested in Nazi looted art?
I’ve been interested in World War II history for as long as I can remember, certainly since the years I lived in Germany in the 70s. The looted art is one of the illuminating sidelights of the war – it’s insignificant when you compare it to the human loss, which was tragic on a scale we really can’t imagine today, but because it deals in tangible things with market value it has legs. Even George Clooney is making a stolen-art movie now, from the non-fiction book The Monuments Men. There are echoes of the Monuments Men in my novel Treasure of Saint-Lazare.
You’re a journalist, used to writing non-fiction. Why did you decide to write a thriller instead of non-fiction?
There’s something liberating about the process of creating an entire new world. I’ve never been much attracted to long-form journalism, but somehow the process of writing 100,000 words about a subject important to me was immensely appealing. And, full disclosure, I left journalism a while back to pursue a business career, so I have been away from it a while and was looking forward to writing something — anything — again.
How much of the story is anchored in fact?
The entire back story of Treasure of Saint-Lazare is history. There was a Raphael self-portrait called “Portrait of a Young Man,” and it may or may not still exist –you won’t learn that from me here. It was looted from the Czartorski Museum in Cracow at the beginning of the war and Hans Frank supposedly shipped it to his home in the South of Germany in early 1945, but it didn’t arrive. There has been a lot of speculation about where it went, some of which I reflect in the novel. I chose the story because it had a strong factual foundation.
What were the difficulties you encountered writing The Treasure of Saint Lazare?
The biggest one was that I got well into the work and realized I had no idea how to write a long novel. I had to back away and spend a year learning. It was during that time that I read (and very much enjoyed) your book Sorbonne Confidential, plus hundreds of how-do articles and blog posts. Then in early 2011 I was ready to attack it in earnest.
What was the part you enjoyed the most?
That is a tough one. My readers tell me they like the chapter about transporting the painting from Poland to Cracow just before the Allies liberated Paris, and I’d have to say I had a good time writing that. But I have literary ambitions, too, so I had a good time developing the Eddie Grant character into a fallible modern man working his way through a lot of knotty problems, including the murder of his father, wife and son, and coming out the other side as a whole person, or at least doing his best.
Do you have any insight as to why it took so long for the story of Nazi looted art to be told? Is there still more we don’t know?
It’s been told in bits and pieces over the years but one of the problems is that it’s a very confusing story – for every painting that’s still missing there is one that has been found, but its owners are missing.
It also carries a huge burden of guilt for everyone who was involved. And there’s the element of mystery. Many, many pieces have just disappeared, and we don’t know whether they were destroyed in combat or were stolen by the Russians and now lodge in some bank vault in St. Petersburg, or whether they’re in bank vaults in Geneva or Houston. It’s a sad fact that a lot of the looting done at the end of the war was done by our soldiers, as I reflect in the novel.
How did you begin your career as a writer?
I started college as a pre-law student but got sidetracked into political science and journalism. In a year or two I was working for the local TV station, then the local daily newspaper, and when I graduated I was hired by Associated Press and sent to Jackson, Mississippi, just in time for the crest of the Civil Rights movement there. My car was burned during the riots when Dr. King was assassinated.
What brought you to Paris?
My very international wife, Jan. We went there the year we were married and we’ve been back almost every year since. We’re now Part-Time Parisians, and I even had a blog by that name for a few months this year, until I decided I could either blog or write my books, but not both.
If you could name one thing that makes you ridiculously happy, what would it be?
May I mention two? A 43-year marriage and Paris, pretty much in that order.
What are you working on now?
I’ve begun writing a sequel. It will take Eddie Grant into the shadowy world of the money that funds international terrorism and bring back many of the characters my readers met in Treasure. Again, it will be a novel of Paris but some of it will take place in Germany. My target date for publication is mid-2013. (Treasure fans note: Jen will be back.)
I’m already plotting the third book, a prequel that will focus on Eddie Grant’s father Artie, who was a dashing U.S. intelligence officer behind the lines during the war, when he first met his future wife Margaux. She was then the 11-year-old daughter of a Resistance leader and went on to become a major character in Treasure. Early 2014 is my target.
I’m working on something entirely different to follow that one.
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Bio:
John Pearce divides his time between Paris and Sarasota, FL, the cities featured in his first novel Treasure of Saint-Lazare. He was an Associated Press reporter in Jackson, MS, and Washington, then moved to Germany where he wrote on business and financial topics for the International Herald Tribune. After returning to the United States, he and his wife Jan moved to Florida, where they recently sold their business, freeing his time for writing
You can follow John on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TreasureOfSaintLazare or JohnPearceFL and on Twitter @JohnPearceFL
For more information, you can Download Sell sheet MASTER 2012-11-06
