A New York State of Mind: Bob Sloan Writes Big Apple Murder Mysteries from the Solace of Leelanau County

July 30, 2003

“This is where I started the first Lenny Bliss novel,“ says
mystery writer Bob Sloan with a sly grin. We‘re sitting on his deck with a
majestic view of Lake Michigan. A tern flies gracefully past, a gull dives
for fish. To the south are the Manitous. To the north, Fox Island. It‘s a
wonderfully serene spot where Sloan writes decidedly un-serene mysteries.
Sloan will sign his newest mystery, *The Middle of Nowhere,* at Horizon Books
in Traverse City on Thursday, July 31 at 7 p.m. The third in his Lenny Bliss series,
this last one features an ex-boxer trying to make it as a private detective,
a group of wretched uptown kids cursed with waaay too much money, a
potty-mouthed real estate mogul, and a Filipino nanny. In the center of it
all is the bemused, melancholic, yet cavalier presence of homicide
detective Lenny Bliss.
“Bliss isn‘t necessarily a tough guy, but he‘s got a toughness about him,”
Sloan says. “He does think too much for his own good. But then again, a lot
of us do that. Like most older cops, he’s definitely seen too much bad
stuff, but rather than make him brittle, his experiences have given him just
enough wisdom to be slightly less stupid than the rest of us. That‘s his
edge.“

NEW YORK PERSONA
Sloan, a tall man in his mid-40s, sports a beatnik‘s goatee and a shock of
curly, mostly black hair. He looks like a New York writer, or at least the
way a New York writer would be drawn in an old Mad Magazine comic. He lives
a slightly schizophrenic life, teaching theatre at a prestigious, private
New York City school, and spending summers writing books in Leelanau County.
But it’s New York City that plays a major part in all three of Sloan‘s
books. More than just a backdrop, it is an active participant, strongly
influencing the lives of the characters. I wonder how the empty shoreline of
Lake Michigan could be the place where Sloan‘s jazzy, urbane mysteries are
written. Sloan explains he needs to empty his mind before filling it up
again with his vivid New York personas.
“When I sit here among the trees, I see New York in sharp focus in my head,
the details, the sights and sounds and smells, even as the squirrels are
chattering and the waves are lapping and the alewives are rotting on the
beach.“
Sloan and his family have spent summers here for the last 22 years.
His wife grew up in Detroit and came up north as a child, staying at
farmhouses like the Homestead when it was still log cabins (it‘s now
condos).
“My father-in-law was prescient enough to buy two acres on the lake 30
years ago. We could never afford it now. It‘s been a haven for us every
summer since we first met.“

COOKING TOO
Besides the Lenny Bliss mysteries, Sloan has also written
several cookbooks, including *Dad‘s Own Cookbook,* which is now in its 12th
printing and intended for perennial beginners like me (and I use it ALL the
time —- the recipes really turn out great).
“I came to cookbooks through a catering company I ran in New
York. I was also teaching then, too.“ Sloan teaches at the Dalton School
where his wife also works as head of the dance department. “I would teach my
classes during the day, run home after school, gather the food together,
change into my whites, and head to the party. There are neighborhoods in
Manhattan where no one seems to cook. Ever. The labels are still on their
pans. They use their stoves to boil water -- maybe. For dinner, they order in
or, if guests are coming over, they hire someone. Like me.“
He smiles as he remembers a time he got back home after a dinner
party he catered and discovered one of his large serving bowls was missing.
“It was a very large bowl, hard to miss. I called the client and asked her
to let me know if she found it. A month later she called me back. ‘I found
the bowl. It was in the oven.‘ A whole month and she hadn‘t opened her
oven.“
As soon as the last bell rings, Sloan and his family load up the
car and drive to Leelanau. “Our friends send us letters addressed to
Minnesota, Montana, Missouri -- one of the ‘M’ states. It doesn‘t matter to
them. All they know is we‘re outta town.“ While here in Michigan, he‘s
written, by his account, a large portion of the eight books he‘s published -— three
cookbooks, two humorous looks at men‘s style -- one about the 30s and 40s,
the other about the classic ‘50s bachelor -- and the three Lennie Bliss
mystery novels.
Somehow he got from cookbooks to mysteries.
“They have little to do with each other,“ he says. “Hopefully my
mysteries are not formulaic and the recipes in my cookbooks are not
mysterious. Also, there isn‘t much character development in a cookbook,
though some have more character development than many mysteries I‘ve read.“

NOVELS FIRST
His favorite crime novelists are the usual hard-boiled guys -- Elmore Leonard,
George V. Higgins, James Lee Burke, Charles Wellford, John D. MacDonald, and
the more refined writers like Alan First. And of course Highsmith and Graham
Greene. But Sloan admits to not being a genuine mystery buff. He tries to
think of his books as novels first and mysteries more incidentally. “I know
I‘m not alone in this. I know many genre writers who think of themselves as
novelists who happen to write mysteries. I guess I‘m one of them. But what I
most want to be associated with is the great tradition of writing about New
York.“
Sloan has another Bliss novel in the can and is just finishing
up a new cookbook called *Great Burgers.* “We‘ve been eating only burgers
pretty much since we arrived. I had to do all the grilling here because our
city neighbors complain when I fire up the charcoals on our little patio.
Ah, well.“
He sits back and relaxes for a moment. Gulls cry overhead. The
waves lap lazily on the shore. “We have a bald eagle nesting nearby. If
we‘re lucky, it will fly past.“ he closes his eyes for a moment. “It‘s a
long way from the city,“ he says. But he‘s already thinking about his next
mystery, which will no doubt be very gritty and street, smart and very much
about New York.