‘Rizzoli and Isles’ Author Tess Gerritsen on Her New Book ‘The Spy Coast’ and Living Among Spies in Maine
Tess Gerritsen, author of the beloved Rizzoli and Isles series, is back with a new crime-solving team—ex-spies living in a small Maine town—in The Spy Coast. Gerritsen spoke with Parade about her latest book and what it’s like to live among former spies.
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What should readers know about The Spy Coast?
It’s about a group of retired spies living in Maine. One of them, Maggie Bird, is already haunted by something that happened in the past. Then, a dead body shows up on her driveway, and she realizes it is a calling card from an operation that went badly wrong.
What was writing this book like for you?
I was focused on the emotional aspects of what it’s like to be retired from a very demanding job—what does that do to your sense of worth? I’m getting older, and I feel this sense of people not paying attention to us because we’re over the hill.
Writing The Spy Coast was a very emotional journey for me because I started with a feeling that there’s a deep sadness in Maggie Bird. Something terribly wrong happened in her past. I was navigating by feeling her emotions, and I wanted to show the toll it takes to work in the kind of field where you can’t be honest with everybody. What does that do to your personal relationships? That was what pulled me forward. It wasn’t the spy craft, although that’s interesting. It was really about what does it do to you as a person.
You were inspired by your own community for this book?
I live in this part of Maine, and the CIA has a history here. I didn’t know that until we moved here 33 years ago. Then, we discovered that there were retired spies everywhere. The parents of my kids’ friends, people on our street. They seem to have migrated to Maine.
The rich part about having them here is that we have informed, intelligent people who know the history of their operations. Every year, we have something called the Camden Conference, which brings in speakers to talk about foreign affairs. I thought, How does this little town of 5,000 attract all these people from around the world? How does it attract politicians and leaders in the dead of winter? Obviously, it’s all the context. I’m impressed, when I attend the conference, by my neighbors—they ask the most complex questions. I think, How do you know that?
Some of them say they chose Maine because it’s a beautiful place. Others say there are no nuclear targets here and people respect your privacy. But I think it also has to do with the history of safe houses in the region, and there was a branch of one operation that was right here in the Mid-Coast.
An operation in Maine?
Yes—there was a branch of an operation that happened right here. In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, there was a project called MKUltra, which was about seeing if hallucinogens could be useful for interrogations. We had our own little group here. We also had a facility here that manufactured listening devised for the CIA under the guise of “making hearing aids.”
How do your friends and neighbors feel about you fictionalizing your home?
Well, the actual spies don’t talk. Everybody else who is aware of our community, they have a twinkle in their eye and they say, “At last, somebody’s writing about it.” It’s treated with amusement and nodding heads whenever I do a book signing here. When I talked about this project last year, I saw a lot of gray-haired heads nod and say, “We’ve known about this for years.”
There’s been a surge in mysteries in recent years—your book, The Thursday Murder Club series and Killers of a Certain Age, to name a few. Why do you think that is?
My readership has always been in the older age bracket—the majority are over 45. We’ve gotten older together. I think it has to do with the aging of the American population and readership.
I believe most fiction is read by older people, and we want somebody we can identify with. We’re tired of all these glamorous, beautiful spies that run around in stilettos and short skirts. I’ve had enough of that. I want to see a real person on the page.
I want older readers to feel they’re never too old for a new adventure. That’s what happens in this book. There are always new adventures ahead. Age can be a state of mind—let’s get past that.
Is The Spy Coast the start of a new series?
I’m already on the second draft of the next book in the series. It’s called The Summer Guests, and it takes place more firmly in this town. I bring the local police chief Jo Thibodeau more deeply into the story. I love this conflict between Maggie and the spies compared to the townies and how they learn to work together.
Your Rizzoli and Isles series delighted readers and viewers. What was it like to see it on the screen?
It’s funny because I wrote them as ordinary-looking women, and then—all of a sudden—they are these two glamorous ladies on television. As a writer, you have to learn to let go of your own inner vision of your characters because Hollywood will change everything. That was jarring at first, but after a while, I realized they were taking it in a fun direction. There was a lot of humor. It was related to the source material, but it’s not the same and I learned to let go.
Do you have any interest in returning to the series?
There is another story in Rizzoli and Isles. I already know what’s going to happen. But I’m having so much fun with Maggie and her group that I’ll probably write the next few books about them.
Are there books you want to recommend?
There’s a book I’ve been I’ve been pushing for a while because I love nonfiction crime fiction—Trailed by Kathryn Miles. It’s about the killings in Shenandoah Park in Virginia and the serial killer who committed them. The author is a journalist who I think found the killer that the FBI never did. It was eye-opening as to how dangerous the wilderness is for women hikers. We think we’re safe out there, but there have been a number of crimes that have never been solved in the woods.
