I’m so pleased to host Terry Shames for a Sunday Spotlight. I’ve been a fan of her Samuel Craddock series since 2013 when she came out with A Killing at Cotton Hill. It went on to win the 2014 Macavity Award for Best First Mystery. Shames launched a second series featuring Jessie Madison. But, her latest Samuel Craddock, The Troubling Death of Maddy Benson, is due out this week. I’ve already read, and loved it, so I asked Terry to answer some questions.
Thank you, Terry.
Terry, would you introduce yourself to readers? Tell us about your
background and the background to the Samuel Craddock series. And,
introduce us to the new Jessie Madison series, please.
I grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast and went to college at the University of Texas in Austin. Later,
after I moved to California, I got an MA from San Francisco State. I’ve lived in California for
much longer than I lived in Texas, but where I grew up, Texas, is deep in my subconscious. It’s a
very different place these days. Enough said.
I was always a writer, with a few short stories in small, literary magazines when I was in college.
But my heart was in mystery writing. Despite being taken on by a couple of “big” agents, I
couldn’t seem to break in with the mysteries I wrote. Then, I took a weekend workshop in
which one of the leaders gave a talk about writing from deep inside. I’d heard that many times,
but for some reason she framed it in a way I “heard.”
A month later, I thought about what I knew deep down, and I realized it was the deep, abiding
attraction I had for the town where my grandparents lived when I was a child. On the surface
it’s an awful place—viciously hot and humid in summer, gloomy and damp in winter; seemingly
every bug known to the world is found there; an abundance of poisonous snakes; water that
tastes terrible; and a lingering smell of creosote from the railroad tie plant. On the other hand,
it was a place where children could run free. Not only were we allowed outside, but
encouraged not to come in until it was mealtime or dark. We roamed all over the place, playing
pranks, doing what I now know where probably dangerous things, running wild. I had an
extended family that I knew loved me. There were family barbecues, fish fries, endless games of
Monopoly with cousins. My family knew everyone in town. And bottom line? My grandfather
and I were bonded. A big, gruff man, he liked that I was independent and not afraid of him. He
liked that I would laugh at his stories. We understood each other. His name was Samuel, but
everyone called him Sam, or Mr. Sam or Popo.
Recalling all that, I knew I had my setting and my main character. I’d call him Samuel, but never
Sam. I still cringe if someone calls Samuel Craddock, “Sam.” He’s Samuel. Craddock? The
married name of one my grandfather’s sisters. Jarrett Creek? Based 100% on the people and
setting of that small town, Somerville, Texas. If you go there, you won’t recognize a lot of it. I’ve
fictionalized it to suit my stories. But you also would be surprised to actually “know” some of
the places—the high school, the railroad tracks, some of the stores, the lake. And the people.
None of my characters are based entirely on real people, but they “exist.”
One of the things I always knew about my grandfather was that he was a fair man, and a man of
empathy with his fellow human-beings. He said, “I don’t care what color a man is, if he can work alongside me, he’s okay by me.” The other thing was, he was a story-teller. He would perch his hat back on his head and start telling a story—usually a humorous one. And he’d laugh along with everyone else. My mother was often scandalized that I adored him. She thought he was too rough. I didn’t care. He did things. He was busy. He was his own man. He
took responsibility. He had great admiration for education (because he only went through third
grade). I admired him. When I wrote Samuel Craddock, I took the best of my grandfather’s
traits for my protagonist.
There was one other element to the writing of Samuel Craddock. My grandfather was a
physically active man into his 80s. I was tired of reading books in which older people were seen
as decrepit. I knew they didn’t have to be. I decided to make Samuel a retired man. He’d been a
chief of police in this early years, but then had been a “land man” (working for oil companies)
for years after that. I decided in the first book to introduce him as the ex-chief of police, who
decides to take on an investigation because he doesn’t trust the current police chief.
In book three, I decided I wanted him back as chief of police, and he has been ever since. As
chief, he feels responsible for the well-being of his town. He has empathy for those who feel
backed into a corner and think their only way out is murder. But even if he feels empathy, his
sense of justice prevails. He gets along with other lawmen. And he likes women. He relies on his
chief deputy, Maria Trevino. But for clues, he relies on his neighbor, Loretta Singletary—a
“church lady” who likes to know all the gossip, but isn’t mean-spirited.
In every one of my books, I feature some social justice issue, and the latest, The Troubling
Death of Maddy Benson may be the most difficult I’ve written. Texas has changed a lot since I
was growing up there, and one of the hardest things for me to understand is the movement
toward reining in women. Texas women were always considered tough, strong-minded, and
independent. Somehow, that independence seems to have begun to trouble people in the
state, and they’d apparently like to see women go back to the days when they were chained in
the kitchen with a lot of kids underfoot because birth control didn’t exist. Their draconian anti-
choice laws are appalling to me. The latest novel tackles that issue. It was a hard novel to write
because I wanted to allow people their different stances on the subject, for their different
reasons. But I have strong opinions on the subject, and it was important to me to honor my
own understanding to the issue.
Regarding my new series:
A number of years ago, I started writing an adventure story about a young woman, Jessie
Madison, a dive instructor in the Bahamas, who gets into trouble. The story changed a few
times and eventually became a new thriller, tentatively titled, Island Ice. When I turned it in to
my agent, she said it begged to be a series. Yikes! Who knew? Severn House picked it up and
retitled it Perilous Waters. It’s meant to be a lighter series than the Craddock series—a “beach
read.” Because it’s such a departure, some readers have noted that it’s very different from the
Craddock series. Yep. It’s designed to be. It’s about adventure in different places in the world.
That brings its own set of problems. When I write about Jarrett Creek, I know all the people and the setting. In subsequent books, Jessie is a member of the FBI Dive Team, and will be sent to
various places in the world investigating underwater events.
The second Jessie Madison, Deep Dive, is set in the Aeolian Islands, north of Sicily. A far cry
from Jarrett Creek, Texas. It’s an exotic location with a cast of characters I had to assemble from
scratch. Working to a contract, I don’t have the luxury of taking ten years to let it develop.
Yikes!
Here’s the tough question. Tell us who your favorite author is, and why.
The question of who my favorite author is can’t be reduced to one, because I read widely—non-
fiction as well as fiction. Sci-fi, mainstream, historical. And mystery books have wide-ranging
categories from cozy to police procedural, to thriller, spy novels, suspense, historical,
humorous, private detective, metaphysical…is that enough?
And then there’s the question of whether I read for pleasure or to learn something, whether
I’m in a mood for dense prose or light-hearted reads.
So…I’m going to say that Mick Herron is my current favorite. His books include so many
elements of good crime fiction—they have intricate plots, suspense, thrills, and a good dash of
humor. His writing is top-notch. It’s lyrical at times, staccato at times, sometimes poignant. I
keep a stack of unread Mick Herron books for when I really need a good, solid read that
engages me from the first page. Herron doesn’t pull punches. His characters get into terrible
trouble, and sometimes characters I really like don’t make it out alive. I admire that. They aren’t
for everyone. Some people can’t abide Jackson Lamb. I happen to think he’s one of the great
characters of all writing—not just crime writing.
Thank you, Terry!
The Troubling Death of Maddy Benson by Terry Shames. Severn House, 2024. ISBN 9781448311828 (hardcover), 256p.
