Al:  I have two series characters.  Steve Asher is an amateur sleuth schoolteacher who first appeared in Murder at Walden Pond.  At the time that I wrote this novel I was a full time teacher and many of my educational experiences appeared in the book although I had never been a suspect in the murder of a student’s sister like Steve.  Asher is much like I am with his laid-back attitude and slanted outlook on life’s foibles.  When I created James Callahan who is a Boston Homicide Detective I wanted to write about an occupation I knew little about, but many of Callahan’s inner traits are similar to mine.  Callahan is a loner who prefers to work without a partner yet he has a strong love of family.  When a crisis strikes those he loves he doesn’t let rules or the opinions of others stop him from his single-minded pursuit of justice.

Nancy Marie: Was it accepted or did you go back to the drawing board a few times?

Al:  The first publisher I sent The Iscariot Conspiracy to rejected it saying he thought it was a good story but just not a good fit for his publishing house.  The second publisher I sent it to accepted it in four days.

Nancy Marie:  Where did the idea for The Iscariot Conspiracy come from?

Al:  I was watching a show about the Mormons on the Discovery Channel.  It told about a letter allegedly written by Joseph Smith that called into question many of the basic Mormon beliefs.  The letter turned out to be a forgery.  The Iscariot Conspiracy has nothing to do with Joseph Smith or Mormons but I twisted facts and played “what if” with the characters to create my basic plot.  In the opening scene a high Vatican official in Boston on a secret mission is killed in a car bombing.  James Callahan, who was raised in Northern Ireland, and knows a lot about this type of crime, is called in to investigate.  Most of the plot comes from looking at the historical facts with my “writer’s eye” and creating a story.

Nancy Marie:  What types of research, if any did you have to do for this book?  And if so, where did you get this information?

Al:  The first thing I needed was information on Boston Homicide Detectives.  The Internet is a wonderful source of facts as are various books but nothing substitutes for the real thing so I talked to several Boston cops about my novel.  I also did a lot of research on Christianity and a car bombing plays a pivotal role in the case.  Although my knowledge of how to build one was not essential for writing the book I felt that knowledge of how to make one would give the book a more realistic feel.  Unfortunately there are hundreds of websites that show you how to build just about anything.  As I sat in front of my computer checking out the various sources I wondered if the FBI would monitor the sites I visited and I’d find my name in an FBI file someday.

Nancy Marie:  The characters in “The Iscariot Conspiracy” are amazingly real.  Are they based on individuals you know or have met?

Al:  Writers take bits and pieces of people they know as well as parts of themselves to create characters.  James Callahan is not based on a real homicide detective but parts of several.  Before I start a novel I write full biographies of the major characters in my books.  I know everything about them; their strengths, weaknesses, favorite food, favorite color, etc.  Most of what I know doesn’t appear in the book but it helps me make decisions about the plot.  When someone reads my work I want them to feel the characters act naturally and the twists and turns of the plot are a result of my characters beliefs and not a plot gimmick by the author.  A good mystery should not just be about a crime but about the inner and outer conflicts the protagonist is going through so the when they explain and solve a crime they are also explaining and solving something about themselves.  This, I believe, is character development.

Nancy Marie:  Is writing mysteries, your genre of choice, or are you or have you branched out into other genres?

Al:  I started as a short story writer and wrote not only mysteries but also horror and science fiction.  When I was growing up I read The Hardy Boys and Agatha Christie so when I decided to write my first novel a mystery was the logical choice.  A good mystery writer is like an illusionist trying to fool the reader.  All of the clues to solving the crime should be in plain sight but cleverly hidden.  I enjoy creating this type of puzzle.  When the reader gets to the end of my books, if I did my job well, they didn’t figure out who did it but should be able to say, “Of course.  How come I didn’t see the solution.”

Nancy Marie:  Tell us about your next book.

Al:  I have two books coming out in 2002.  The second Steve Asher novel is called The Mad Season.  In it Steve’s best friend is the major suspect in a murder and the “two buddies” set out to find the real killer.  I tried to create an odd couple type of mystery with two people with completely different personalities setting out to solve a crime.  The second James Callahan novel is called The Disappearance of Jenna Drago and finds this former big city homicide detective in a small town in western Massachusetts trying to figure out why an old college friend’s daughter disappeared.

Nancy Marie:  “The Iscariot Conspiracy” is based on a plot against the Catholic Church.  Did your religious beliefs or upbringing have anything to do with developing the ideas and plot for the novel?

Al:  I was raised a Catholic but as the years passed drifted away from the church.  A book I read in college called “The Passover Plot” influenced the direction the novel took and the rest was just my writer’s eye playing the “what if” game with my characters.
 
Nancy Marie:  Do your fans comments and letters influence you in any way?

Al: I enjoy getting fan comments but they don’t influence me as a writer.  I know my characters and when I’m mapping out the plot of a book I let the characters influence the direction my writing goes.

Nancy Marie:  Was there one thing you learned, or one thing that you took away from the writing experience that has stuck out in your mind, changed your beliefs, or changed who you are as a person?

Al: One thing a writer has to do is get inside the head of their characters.  As a mystery writer very often my characters are dealing with conflict and tragedy and in order to make their emotions real I must try to understand their inner feelings.  It’s one of the hardest things I have to do as a writer but when someone who has gone through a similar experience says I got it right that’s very rewarding.

Nancy Marie:  How may readers contact you?

Al:  They can visit my website at  http://www.alblanchard.com or email me at:alblanchard13@aol.com     

Take one good cop and one bad cop, add one dead priest and one reticent priest, mix in a rocky marriage caused by a drunken one-night stand, stir in one confused teen-ager, a kidnapping, a dishonest antiquities dealer, and a document that is supposedly 2000 years old, and you have the recipe for a great murder mystery.

And from there things only get more complicated. The Vatican is unwilling to disclose what it knows about the murdered priest's business. A secret society, called the Society of Iscariot, whose sole purpose is to bring down Christianity in all its various shapes and sizes, appears to behind the whole mess.

Blanchard's characters are drawn with precise reality with all their flaws and foibles exposed. The characters are so believable that, at times, the reader will have a hard time remembering that The Iscariot Conspiracy is only a work of fiction.

The Iscariot Conspiracy by Al Blanchard is a page-turning murder mystery with a dash of international intrigue. Its plot is as complicated and mind-twisting as the coils of a giant anaconda, making it fun, exciting, and well-worth reading.

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Nancy Marie is the author of "When You Wish Upon A Star."