Author Profile: Anne Perry kicks off Out Loud Author Series

Talking to Anne Perry is a bit like talking to a philosopher, and one with a lovely English accent at that. She's most insightful when discussing the popularity of literature genres.

'The world is pretty chaotic at the moment; it's very frightening to anyone that thinks at all,” Perry said. 'Mystery stories have the element that something dreadful happens, and we don't understand who did it and we don't know why but the detective is sort of a knight errant because he comes in and discovers why and shows you what happened and why it happened. And usually whoever is responsible gets some kind of punishment.

'In solving the mystery and understanding what happened, we can't undo the dreadful thing, but it gives us a feeling of more control. It's the feeling that someone is out there and is going to find justice and put it right,” Perry said.

The international best-selling author of more than 50 novels is best known for her historical mysteries. Perry's first series of Victorian crime novels, featuring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt, began with 'The Cater Street Hangman” back in 1979. The latest in this series, 'The Angel Court Affair” published last year, is her most recent of many appearances on the New York Times best-seller list.

Perry said that she tries to address a social evil or ethical quandary in all of her stories.

'In Victorian times, the human nature problems behind the trials are just the same as they are today,” she said. 'We still have exploitation of vulnerable people. We still have horrible crimes based on money and the abuses it produces. There's so much to explore and there are situations that mirror situations today. Wanting to say something about that is what drives me and a lot of writers I think.”

Her next book in her Monk series, out later this year, will explore post-traumatic stress syndrome.

'We think it is sort of modern, but, heck, it isn't,” she said, noting that her character is a man who was a surgeon during the Crimean war and witnessed horrible things.

Named by The Times to the list of the 20th Century's 100 Masters of Crime, Perry knows a thing or two about putting together a thrilling tale. She said she returns again and again to her series and enjoys writing stories that readers continue to want to follow with character they become attached to.

'I like to like something about all of my characters,” Perry said. 'And from what they say, it's the moral quality of the characters that my readers enjoy. They admire certain people, particularly Hester and Pitt and their qualities of courage and compassion and humor.”

Humor is essential, Perry added. 'Someone with no sense of humor is hard to live with,” she said. 'And I think that a sense of humor is related to a sense of proportion. It's when things get out of proportion that we find them funny. And the ability to have a sense of proportion is very important to have judgment and balance in life.”

Speaking of sense of humor, Perry chuckles when you mention how long she's been writing but knows she found her niche.

'I wrote various other things before mystery novels but couldn't get them published,” Perry recalled. 'So when they finally accept something, you make the next work as much like it as possible without repeating yourself. Mystery novels have a definite structure. Something bad happens, and slowly you unravel who is responsible and what happened and why. And that gave me the formal structure which made the plot so much stronger.”

Perry said she gets her story ideas from watching the news and hearing stories from people she knows and meets and making them her own. 'Human nature doesn't change, circumstances do,” she said. 'You just think of how a person might have responded to a situation; you play the ‘what if' game. What I find most interesting in writing the story is not whatever the crime is, but how other people react to the investigation. And it's not the original offense that gets them in trouble, it's the lies they tell after and the effects it has on other people concerned. It's not just who did what. It's so much more than that. It's all the reactions and self-examinations that come under the pressure of ripping the masks off. Just there you can see possibilities of all kinds for stories.”

Perry will be in Cedar Rapids Friday evening to kick off the 2017 Out Loud! Author Series presented by the Metro Library Network. The native Englishwoman visited Iowa many years ago - and has been to 36 other states - is looking forward to an evening spent with readers.

'I just enjoy meeting people - intelligent, responsive, interested people who've got opinions - and I've always found library patrons to be bright, alert and intelligent people. They are always a pleasure to speak to.”

These days, Perry is not only penning new novels but also sharing the writerly knowledge she's gained over some 50-plus years as a writer herself, things she said she wished she'd know all along the way.

'I think one of the single most helpful things you can do is plan your outline before you start,” she said. 'If it's a mystery, it helps you get the plot straight, and I've never heard it fail to stop writers block. Writing is trying to get the structure right to begin with and then putting in those little things that humanize everybody.”

The second bit of advice she shares is the importance of rewriting.

'Rewriting can seem like a drag at the time but it isn't,” she said. 'It's like finding some beautiful piece of silver that is all tarnished and then brightening it, polishing it. You find something beautiful in the end.”

Perry's fans would likely agree.

IF YOU GO

What: Author Anne Perry speaks at the The Metro Library Network Out Loud! Author Series

When: 7 p.m. Friday ► , June 9 ◄

Where: The Hotel at Kirkwood Center

Cost: Free

Details: Registration required at www.eventbrite.com/e/out-loud-author-series-anne-perry-tickets-33163100727