by Libby Cudmore

Music is always one of the earliest components of a story I write. I find a song––sometimes on purpose, mostly on accident––that inspires a sensation of a story. Listening to Chris Cornell’s “You Know My Name” and Danny Elfman’s “Little Things” gave me an inkling of a pairing on the run, on the streets, wits and danger, and crimes afoot. Add in a little Dashiell Hammett, some Steely Dan, Ivy, and The Replacements, and the story started coming into focus––a PI and his assistant on the case, running from their pasts, dark alleys, and devilish dames. Thus, the Wade & Jacks PI series and the novel Negative Girl were launched.

Negative Girl follows Martin Wade, reformed rock & roll hellion turned private investigator and his tattooed assistant, Valerie Jacks, as they investigate the sudden death of the daughter of Martin’s former bandmate, confronting their own dark pasts, and opening long-locked doors in the process. And like my first novel, The Big Rewind (William Morrow, 2016), music plays a major part in the narrative.

Martin’s music most closely aligns with my own tastes. As an older Gen-Xer, he reaches for The Replacements, Elvis Costello, and Warren Zevon, and as a jazz-trained pianist, artists like Dave Brubeck or Bill Evans. In his earlier years, he was the frontman of the post-punk/proto-alternative band The French Letters (itself named––by me, not the band themselves––for a line in Elvis Costello’s “Man Out of Time”), and to create their elegant-but-edgy sound, I drew from bands like The Lemonheads (“If I Could Talk I’d Tell You”), the Manic Street Preachers (“You Stole the Sun from My Heart”), the non-swing songs of the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies (“Grand Mal” and “Flower Fight With Morrissey”), and The Housemartins (the latter recommended to me by actor Jay Karnes, who reads for Martin in the audiobook version). Like the songs he listens to, Martin presents himself as self-possessed, thoughtful, and intellectual, with a core of vulnerability that only people like his assistant, Valerie, see.

Meanwhile, the elder millennial Valerie draws from the music that surrounds her from her elders, like Martin, her Aunt Gina, a former drummer in the Riot Grrl band Icebox, and her metalhead older brother, Deacon. A millennial hipster and tough, where Martin is collected, I picture her with a playlist full of Franz Ferdinand, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and The Killers right alongside Hole, Garbage, and The Swans. And as I so often do, all three in the Jacks family are named for music: Aunt Gina and Deacon are both named for Steely Dan songs (“Lunch with Gina” and “Deacon Blues”), while Valerie’s name draws from three notable Valeries––Steve Winwood’s “Valerie,” Material Issue’s “Valerie Loves Me,” and Mark Ronson (with Amy Winehouse) covering The Zutons original. Their last name, Jacks, is another Steely Dan reference (“Jack of Speed”). What can I say? I was listening to Two Against Nature a lot.

The music Martin and Valerie listen to bind them as partners. It comforts them in dark times. It gives Martin a hobby––playing the piano––but also keeps him connected to the past. It’s a clue and a crutch, as essential to the story as the characters themselves.

Music doesn’t just help me write. It helps me tell the story; to take a few melodic moments to explore how a character might be feeling on the page. After all––if movies have soundtracks, why shouldn’t books?

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Libby Cudmore is a Shamus and Black Orchid award winner and the author of the acclaimed novel, The Big Rewind. Her Wade and Jacks stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Tough, and the Anthony-nominated anthology Lawyers, Guns & Money: Crime Fiction Inspired by The Music of Warren Zevon (co-edited with Art Taylor). Her other publications include stories in The Dark, Smokelong Quarterly, MonkeyBicycle, HAD, and others. She lives in Upstate NY with her husband and cats. To learn more, please visit her at libbycudmore.com.

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