Lisa Lutz has written some of the century’s most simultaneously enjoyable and empowering mystery novels. She made a name for herself in 2007 with the publication of The Spellman Files, a comical mystery about a (slightly dysfunctional) family of private investigators. In addition to writing the novel’s five sequels, she co-wrote the novel Heads You Lose, with David Hayward, as well as the standalone novels The Passenger and How to Start a Fire. Having produced a pantheon of shrewd, sharp, and independent female protagonists, she’s contributed so meaningfully to a relatively new tradition in crime fiction: complex, brilliant, and capable women investigators and protagonists who are “cool” in way that used to be reserved exclusively for male sleuths like Sam Spade. I asked Liza Lutz a few questions about strong female characters, literary puns, and her new novel The Swallows, now out from Ballantine Books.
Olivia Rutigliano: During the last few years, you’ve written some of the most memorable women protagonists in crime literature. They all, also, seem like they might get along well with one another, if they all shared a universe (especially Izzy Spellman and Alex Witt). How do you write your women characters—are there essential qualities you feel a good female protagonist must have?
Lisa Lutz: I don’t know. It really depends on the story. I mean, sure, there are similarities—I don’t tend to write about women who put on a front, whether it’s physical or emotional. There’s enough of that bullshit in life. I like my characters to be difficult, amusing (in varying degrees), slightly insane (also to varying degrees). Write what you know, they say.
I also have to admit that when I write women I’m thinking about what I want to put out in the universe. I’m not saying that I think Isabel or Alex would be anyone’s role model, but if they help one person be a little less uptight or more themselves (because sometimes uptight is your personality, and I think you should own that) then I’ve done my job or part of my job.
OR: The Swallows engages with serious issues that are relevant to today’s #metoo movement, but you’ve set the novel a decade ago, in 2009. Why? What does that setting allow you to do? What argument does it allow you to make?
LL: I started the book around 2014/2015. It wasn’t prompted by the #metoo movement. I had a couple of reasons back then for setting the book in 2009—one reason was eventually cut from the novel, so I won’t mention it. But there were a few others: A) That era was around the time that many of the private school scandals came to light, so it felt reasonable that Stonebridge Academy was still part of that culture of silence. B) 2009 was before social media took over our lives. While I appreciate books that address the world we live in, I didn’t want to deal with Tweets or have to describe an Instagram photo or Snapchat. I didn’t want the story to get lost in the weeds of social media.
OR: You’ve set this novel at a historic New England boarding school—why? How does the image of an elite, prep-school factor into the culture you’re condemning? Also, at Stonebridge, all the buildings are named after British literary luminaries—how does this kind of veneration of old, dead, (mostly) male writers factor into the culture you’re responding to?
“I understand the sense that the #metoo movement has woken people up, but I’m not sure we’ve evolved as a society as much as people think.”LL: I think setting the story in a boarding school was always linked to the idea of a gender war—that description may simplify the story to some people, but I always used it as a framework for the way conflicts can escalate. The private school setting just makes sense because there’s an autonomy to those schools, and they have their own culture and quirks. I suppose any boarding school is elite to a certain extent, but I wasn’t trying to critique private school culture. As far as I’m concerned, Stonebridge could be anywhere. I understand the sense that the #metoo movement has woken people up, but I’m not sure we’ve evolved as a society as much as people think. This shit is still going on at schools, colleges, and workplaces around the country. So long as Trump is president, I know that we, as a society, are miles from where we should be, where I thought we were, and where we need to be.
As far as the nomenclature of the school buildings is concerned, I really just wanted to flesh out the setting of Stonebridge Academy and I was amusing myself with the Graham Greenehouse and the Waugh Way. I’m afraid it wasn’t more complicated than that.
OR: You’ve been dabbling in various crime/mystery subgenres over the last few years. But given the similarities between Alex Witt, Gemma Russo, and Izzy Spellman, I’m wondering if The Swallows marks a kind of return to a vibe from your early work. Do you think Alex Witt is a detective? Would she be a good PI? What about Gemma?
LL: I think the similarity is related more to tone than story. While there are very dark elements in The Swallows, I still allowed more humor in the story than I have in recent books. While I think there’s a definite Linny/Rae connection, I don’t see Isabel in Alex or Gemma as a PI.
OR: You’ve said in the past that The Spellman Files series began as a screenplay… and definitely, The Swallows, with its shifting perspectives and narrators, seems very cinematic. How, if at all, did your film background factor into it?
LL: Whether it’s a book or a screenplay, it’s always great if you can generate a sense of place, have images that stick in the readers’ heads. I just got lucky with The Swallows. When I think of Gemma, in all her rage, chopping down a tree, that feels so visceral and perfect. But it doesn’t have anything to do with me having written a screenplay twenty years ago. In a way, because our culture is much more focused on film/TV than books, it doesn’t hurt if the reading experience offers some cinematic elements.
OR: The Swallows has been described as having a “boys vs. girls” battle or a “gender war”—but that seems to be far too simple a schematic to explain what you’re doing, here, especially because the young women at Stonebridge are fighting a culture of exploitation. You make it clear, with characters like Martha Primm, who don’t present themselves as allies for women, that there is much more going on than simple gender division. What did you want to explore about allies and gender?
LL: Women can’t be exploited if other women aren’t complicit to some extent with that exploitation. Predators (and that can be men or women) can’t exist in society without enablers. There’s a documentary called Hunting Ground that deals with rape culture in college, among other things. There are so many interviews with female students who reported their rapes to female administrative official and those officials blatantly silenced the accusers, sometimes suggesting that it was their own fault.
I wasn’t trying to place blame on men or women. We’re all part of the problem and the solution.
