Debut Author Snapshot: Suzanne Rindell

Short skirts, short hair, and even shorter love affairs—channel the deliciously scandalous lives of 1920s flappers in debut author Suzanne Rindell's historical mystery, The Other Typist. At first uptight and prudish, narrator Rose Baker prides herself on being tough enough for her work as a police precinct typist on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, recording the confessions of hardened criminals. She soon loosens up when she becomes fast friends with Odalie, another typist whose charisma gives them entrée to the jazz clubs and speakeasies of Prohibition-era New York. But Odalie is keeping secrets, and Rose's growing obsession with her flirty new friend may prove deadly.

A New York City resident and a Ph.D. candidate in American modernist literature at Rice University, Rindell shares with Goodreads some of the period atmosphere that inspired her characters.

Goodreads: Would you have been a flapper had you lived during the 1920s?

Suzanne Rindell: Flappers were true rebels, and I'd like to believe I would've been one, but I'm not sure I'm that cool in real life—I've always been kind of shy. Flappers were gutsy; they liked to break rules. Part of a flapper's sex appeal was her ability to shock and scandalize, all while maintaining a girlish, breezy, blasé attitude. She always knew how to make it look like she was having fun and didn't give a hoot what people thought!

In general I find the 1910s and 1920s captivating because it was an era of oppositions. There was a sizable generation gap between the young people of the day and their Victorian parents, and I believe this is always a key ingredient to any vibrant counterculture. In the 1910s and 1920s, you've got the older generation trying to carry on conservative traditions, instructing their children to behave like proper ladies and gentlemen, to mind their p's and q's and all that business. Meanwhile the younger generation is coming of age in a world that is rapidly changing all around them—modern innovations like electricity, telephones, and cars are changing daily life, and the world has been through its first "modern" war. In my opinion, the disconnect between generations ultimately translated into a period of social liberation, and along with great social liberation came greater freedom of expression and heightened creativity. I've always loved the ethos of the writers, artists, and designers of that era: Hemingway, Picasso, Coco Chanel, etc. There were a lot of major trendsetting trailblazers who were unafraid to bend the rules.

And...I suppose it also doesn't hurt that there was a lot of money and champagne flowing in the Jazz Age! I'm kind of a sucker for glamour, and the speakeasy scene, down-and-dirty though it might've been, still conjures up all kinds of glamorous images in my imagination.

GR: Rose Baker has a very distinct voice. How did you get inside her head and develop that unique perspective?

SR: I was doing research for an academic dissertation on early 20th-century literature and culture, and one of the things I came across while sifting through various historical documents was an obituary for a woman who had worked as a typist in a police precinct during the 1920s. I was already fascinated with how the proliferation of the typewriter after the turn of the century meant more and more women were entering the workplace, and that this often meant women were working in places—like the police precinct, for instance—that had been historically dominated by men. After coming across the obit, I began imagining what it might've been like to work as a typist in that particular environment: all the things this woman must've seen and all the crime reports she must've typed up. Shortly thereafter, I started hearing Rose's voice, and I couldn't help but follow where that voice led me. I was further intrigued when I realized Rose was not exactly what she seemed. Hers is a distorted perspective. As I wrote, I became increasingly aware that she is an emotionally unstable individual, and I focused on working out the sources that account for how and why. From there, the book pretty much wrote itself.

GR: What's the secret to setting up twists in mystery writing? Any favorite novels with plots that surprised or impressed you with their craftiness?

SR: Well, I think it helps if you like puzzles. There's a lot of misdirection in The Other Typist, and I had to constantly remind myself which narrative threads were the false ones, so as not to get confused! I've also learned you really need to be unafraid to cut and edit things, even if it means having to reengineer a great deal of the rest of the plot. Have you ever played that game Jenga? Editing a mystery is kind of like that—you pull the wrong piece from the bottom of the stack of blocks and the whole thing falls down. But you can't be afraid to do it. When something needs to be cut, it needs to be cut.

In terms of favorite books that juggle a great many plot puzzle pieces, well, I've always loved Margaret Atwood, and I remember the impact Alias Grace had on me when I got to the end. And like the rest of the planet, I was very impressed with the layered plot of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. The kinds of books I like best are always character driven. I don't think you should contrive to outline what will happen in the plot; it's better to let the characters reveal what they're going to do and trust that it will all come together in the end.

GR: What's next for you as a writer?

SR: Right now I'm going like gangbusters working on a second novel. I don't want to say too much about it at present, but I will say it revolves around the Greenwich Village literary scene of the 1950s, and I'm having great fun with this new batch of characters!