AGENDA
July/August 1998

“Murder, He Wrote”
by Lynn Conlee

UT Professor D.J. Donaldson has mystery writing down to a science.

In the literary world, an old adage exists; if you want to be a good writer, you have to read. Therein, D.J Donaldson encountered his first obstacle.

"I read early when I was young. I got good at reading because we traveled a lot and I would read the billboards as they went by," recalls this University of Tennessee-Memphis (UT) anatomy and neurobiology professor. "They go by fast, you know, so you've got to read fast. So I was a good reader young, but I didn't read that much fiction. And probably as an adult, I didn't read much fiction because you're always behind in science and there's always too much [else] to read."

Not to worry. Donaldson is reading today. He's reading the reviews of his six mystery novels; he's reading the fine print of publishing contracts and television options; and he's reading a future that promises to reserve a place for his seventh book in ten years. From the billboards of his childhood to the inner workings of a child's brain-the subject of his newest book-Donaldson has drawn on a lifetime of scientific learning to create some of the mystery genre's more enduring characters.

Through a series of New Orleans- based forensic thrillers centered on chief Medical Examiner Andy Broussard and criminal psychologist Kit Franklyn, Donaldson, 58, has conquered the odds in an industry considered one of the toughest to break into, much less survive. But while other mystery writers continue to capitalize on their bread and butter characters, Donaldson is defying logic again and striking off in the direction of a new character, a new premise, and a new publisher. For a mild-mannered, self-taught guy, Donaldson is long on chutzpah.

The decision to become a writer came at a time when Donaldson was experiencing great success in his scientific career. He was doing research in wound healing through a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, and teaching histology (microscopic anatomy) to freshman medical students at UT-a class he still teaches today.

"I had the grant, and suddenly woke up one day and it seemed like life wasn't exciting anymore," Donaldson says. "And I was just thinking, 'If I never do anything more in my life except what I'm doing now, will I be satisfied?' and the answer was, 'No.' And so for some strange reason I decided I wanted to write novels."

Donaldson's first book remains unpublished. He won't reveal how long it took to write because he says, "it's embarrassing." But when his agent began trying to sell the novel, Donaldson was advised to do what a real writer would do and begin work on his second. And so he did. The whodunit format proved successful for Donaldson's foray into writing.

"It seems to me that the structure is given to you in mysteries, for the most part," he explains, "You know the murder; the goal is to solve it, and then the impediments to the solutions are all these red herrings and things. What I didn't understand is that mysteries are one of the most difficult things to write. They have to work on so many levels."

Donaldson set about in his own fashion to parlay the multiple levels of suspense into a steamy, bayou reality. Putting his perceptive, analytical skills to good use he shunned writing courses. "I had this vague impression that there were a lot more people teaching writing than had published books," he says, "So, I figured I'd just teach myself. In science you do it all the time. Since then, I've discovered there's a lot a good writing teacher can teach you. But no writing teacher can teach you how to make the magic that gets you published."

Donaldson began by dissecting books, studying the component parts that make them up, and relying on some pretty solid instincts picked up through…reading. Old adages don't just come from nowhere.

From a scene in Pat Conroy's Prince of Tides, he learned a critical element for mysteries. "It taught me the value of surprise and the value of not giving the reader what they expect," he says. From Sue Grafton, he picked up the importance of strong characters. "If you're writing a series, the characters have to be interesting enough so that people want to know what they're doing next." From Joseph Wambaugh's Lines and Shadows, he recognized the nuances involved in descriptive detail. "There was a character in there whose one eyebrow just kind of went up every time he spoke, and I could see that guy and he just was in my mind throughout the whole book." Donaldson says.

When he combined all he'd learned, Donaldson ended up with Cajun Nights. Published in 1988, the book is a tale of death wrought by otherwise normal people, all of whom are overheard humming nursery rhymes just before the killing begins. He followed with
Blood on the Bayou (1991), No Mardi Gras for the Dead (1992), New Orleans Requiem (1994), Louisiana Fever (1996), and Sleeping with the Crawfish (1997). Reviews of Donaldson's books have been generally favorable, comparing him to other forensic pros such as mega-seller Patricia Cornwell.

It might have taken Donaldson until Sleeping with the Crawfish to fully capture in one sentence the lovable, lemon drop-eating Andy Broussard: "He was a self-contained man who found all the satisfaction he needed in good food, fine wine, old master paintings, Louis L'Amour novels, shoes that didn't make his feet sweat, and making sense of death." You can't help but love a guy who drinks fine wine while reading Louis L'Amour.

The idea for adding western writer Louis L'Amour to Broussard's repertoire of qualities came from the man to whom Cajun Nights is dedicated and on whom the character is based- Memphis forensic medical examiner James Spencer "Jim" Bell, who died before the book came out. "When Jim died, he had in his pocket a list of all the Louis L'Amour novels he'd ever read," says Donaldson. "And I thought that would be good for Broussard-that love of westerns, you know. That doesn't fit with a guy who loves the opera."

For all his finery, the overweight Broussard mostly loves his lemon drops. In Cajun Nights, he offers Kit Franklyn a lint-covered one pulled from his pocket. She declines, and a few books later, he starts carrying cellophane-wrapped drops, which Franklyn accepts. The lemon drop subplot, though unimportant to the plots themselves, reveals the essence of the two characters.

Franklyn came about as a counterpoint to the established Broussard. "I like this idea of people being put in brand-new situations that they're not totally prepared for," says Donaldson. "So I thought, Broussard's been around doing this for 30 years. Forensic people have a whole different way of looking at the world-they have a very clinical view and they're looking at people's brains every day-and I thought it would be good to have a young woman come into that environment so we could see what her reaction would be."

While the Broussard character has maintained an even keel throughout Donaldson's series, Franklyn has weathered the ravages of forensic life, her development working in opposition to Broussard's stability.

But in Donaldson's as yet untitled new book, there is no Broussard or Franklyn. The anatomy-instructor-turned mystery-writer again felt the need for change and he's doing it in a big way. "I've done six books with the other characters and the excitement's kind of gone out of it because-I don't know why, I guess you do anything enough times and it gets kind of stale."

Donaldson's new endeavor is longer than his Broussard/Franklyn books. It is a medical thriller that takes place in Memphis and New Orleans. To write it, he did extensive research, following the admitting team at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, tailing one of its pediatric residents, and spending hours in the office of one of the facility's attending physicians, talking about the treatments involved in pediatrics. The result is a 369-page manuscript that Donaldson acknowledges could be his breakthrough novel. Picked up in May by Berkeley Press, the book is due to be published as an original paperback sometime in 1999.

"I've had the same editor for 10 years," Donaldson says. "That's unheard of in publishing. It's all very comfortable. So I wanted to try a different kind of book. Could I write another character?"

(Having sneaked a peek at the manuscript, I'll tell you. He can. Sarchi Seminoux is a resident at Children's Hospital when her nephew is rushed in paralyzed for no explicable reason. A little known New Orleans clinic looms as his only chance for a return to a normal life, but that's where the straight-forward turns complicated and the rest, as they say, is potentially a huge advance, movie options, and infamy for the author. "Money talks, " Donaldson admits.)

It seems like such a fairy-tale story for someone to just up and decide one day to become a writer and actually achieve success. But Donaldson has developed a hard-core savvy about the business of publishing in the years since St. Martin's Press met Cajun Nights.

"There's no greater feeling in the world than the day when you get your first book deal because there's no assurance you'll ever do that," Donaldson says. "But then, you get past that and you start to see the realities of it. It's as brutal a business as any business is."

Mystery writing is a genre in which little publicity occurs for a book. "Publishers just throw them out there and then see what happens. Every once in a while, one will come to the top for some accidental reason. Maybe someone will get a movie deal. You get a movie deal, you've got it made," Donaldson say. Movie deals mean big name stars and publishing houses that slap the star on the cover.

Donaldson has had his share of near deals. The producers of the popular television detective series Cagney and Lacey purchased the rights to his characters and held them for five years. "I mean these are heavy hitters," he says. "Why it never happened, I don't know. They don't either. They said in their opinion, if it ever got on the air, it would run 10 years."

The CBS network went so far as to approve a screenplay for two of Donaldson's books-Blood on the Bayou and New Orleans Requiem- and while he profited financially from the deals, the movies never materialized. He says, "What TV does best is fail. And they fail in droves and the question is, just how far do you go before you fail?"

As he awaits the publication of his new book, Donaldson has given up his NIH grant and has become associate chairman of the Anatomy and Neurobiology Department at UT. He works from a small unassuming office on the campus and spends his free time at the Deliberate Literate bookstore.

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COMMERCIAL APPEAL, October 1st, 1999