Q: How are your attitudes regarding America reflected in your novel?
A: While in writing this mystery I intended to tell an entertaining story, which I hope I did, I also wished to address certain important contemporary issues.
Q: In what ways does your work address these issues?
A: The novel is set in coastal southern California where our nation's traditional ethnic groups are mixing uneasily with more recent migrants from every corner of the world.
Q: Your protagonist is a Latino private eye named Jesse Ascencio?
A: Jesse Ascencio is a complex figure. A fictional PI, he stems directly from the Hammett/Chandler/Macdonald tradition - my major literary influences. Yet, he also represents the future of America. He is a highly educated Hispanic professional. He has a varied career background and a social conscience which he is not shy about expressing. Within a handful of years, Latinos will make up the largest minority group in the United States. Currently, in southern California, where THE WONDERLAND MURDERS takes place, Hispanics already are the dominant racial group. Latino culture, social traditions, intellectual concerns, political priorities, and economic power are making as huge an impact on traditional California lifestyles as traditional California lifestyles are having upon the growing Hispanic population. It is a symbiotic relationship, and both cultures are becoming far stronger and much better because of their mutual interaction and transmutation.
Q: Do members of additional ethnic groups play important roles in your mystery?
A: Without a doubt. Jesse's friend and fellow investigator is an African-American. They trust each other completely. They are loyal to each other and deeply concerned with each other's welfare, despite their racial differences.
Q: What about other groups?
A: A murder of a woman of Japanese ancestry opens the novel. Another woman of Vietnamese birth is crucial to the criminal investigation.
Q: European-Americans?
A: Jesse is married into a wealthy and well-connected Anglo family. The Wonder family owns the Orange Country amusement park in which most of the murders occur, hence the name Wonderland. Jesse's children, who are also featured prominently in the novel, are symbolic of the brightest hopes for America - they are privileged heirs hailing from diverse cultural backgrounds with futures of unlimited opportunities.
Q: You mentioned murders?
A: Yes. There are several in the novel. THE WONDERLAND MURDERS is a character-driven mystery with a taut plot. In fact, one of the murder victims is an immigrant to California from the American Midwest.
Q: An immigrant from the American Midwest?
A: The type of immigrant to the Golden State that many people were a generation or two ago. My parents, members of the World War II generation, moved to California during the economic boom of the 1950's. They built fine lives here. They were not alone. In many ways, all Californians are immigrants.
See a list of Kent Braithwaite's scheduled appearances
 |
| The Wonderland Murders |