It is no surprise the Hamptons draws retirees to its sandy shorelines and famed East End light for a little rest and relaxation. But neither Walter Marks nor Rich Scholer see themselves anywhere near the days of kicking back and throwing in the professional towel. New crime novels by both these local seniors hit bookshelves this year, proving one is never too old to take on a new career.
In 2011 at her home in Manhattan, documentary filmmaker Joan Brooker-Marks was reading another one of the crime mystery novels she always seemed to have on her.
“You know, you should write one of these things,” her husband, Walter Marks, had suggested.
“Well, I’d write one, but I’m no good with plot,” Ms. Brooker-Marks said.
“If I give you a plot, will you write it?” her husband challenged.
She gladly accepted when Mr. Marks brought home the storyline of a psychological thriller reminiscent of “The Silence of the Lambs” by Thomas Harris, the couple recalled during a recent interview at their second home in East Hampton. She gave it some thought. And she realized this story would be better suited for someone else.
“Me?” Mr. Marks had asked. “I don’t write fiction. I’m a songwriter.”
Ms. Brooker handed her husband—whose songs have been performed on Broadway, as well as recorded by Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson and The Temptations, among others—a stack of books by notable mystery novelists, including James Patterson, George Pelecanos and Dennis Lehane.
“Do what I tell my students—just write one paragraph,” said Ms. Brooker-Marks, who teaches screenwriting and directing at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. “Can you write one paragraph?”
“Well, one paragraph?” Mr. Marks had said. “I can do that,”
That paragraph was the seed of his first novel, “Dangerous Behavior,” published in 2002.
Twelve years later, Mr. Marks released his second novel, “Death Hampton,” in May and is finishing its sequel, “The Battle of Jericho,” to be released at the end of the year, at age 80.
In “Death Hampton,” Mr. Marks introduces Detective Neil Jericho, a former NYPD homicide detective who transfers out from the big city to East Hampton—a seemingly tranquil community. He finds anything but, navigating through the backdoor dealings of Montauk’s elite, among them Susannah Cascadden. When her husband goes missing, Detective Jericho is thrown into a web of lies and romance as he tries to untangle the details, while navigating the convoluted politics of the Hamptons.
“It’s like doing a puzzle,” Mr. Marks said of his creative process. “I have a sort of strange way of writing, which is that I figure out what would be a good opening, but I don’t know what the next chapter is going to be.”
The author draws from historical events to make his novels realistic in their settings, he explained. His research has brought him to the Shinnecock Reservation, all around East Hampton Village—where he can often be spotted running—and even out on the ocean in a Montauk party boat.
“I have a really strong sense of place,” Mr. Marks said.
Meet private eye Michael “Mickey” Ross. He owns houses in the Hamptons; Armonk, New York; and on the Treasure Coast of Florida.
Meet his creator, Rich Scholer, who also owns homes on the East End, in Armonk and Florida. In fact, the tough, complex character of Mickey is a literary reincarnation of Mr. Scholer, with one major exception: Mickey is divorced, whereas Mr. Scholer has been married to the “girl of [his] dreams,” he said, for 46 years.
Sitting across from Susan Scholer in their Hampton Bays home, with a panorama of Shinnecock Bay peeking through their bright living room windows, Mr. Scholer adjusted his hearing aid. At age 77, he has recently published his seventh novel, “Wards Island”—the first time the author has benched Mickey and turned to pure fiction.
The six books featuring Mickey are, for the most part, memoirs, explained the retired detective, who joined the New York State Police Department in 1962. Writing fiction has allowed him to embellish his own memories of working on Wards Island with drama only his imagination could conjure up, he said.
“I don’t do it for the money,” Mr. Scholer said.
“You do it for the stardom,” Ms. Scholer chimed in, seated in a recliner.
“Yes, I like to see my name in lights,” Mr. Scholer concurred. “But, I’m not willing to pay the price for it.”
Mr. Scholer, without help from a professional editor, has printed all of his books with his own publishing company, Park Lane Graphics, Inc., which he started after retiring from the police force in 1980. He began writing at age 68 when he started losing his hearing, he said. It is his way of getting his memories down on paper, without the risk of spilling the secrets of others, he said.
“The only feedback I’d be getting would be coming from the grave,” he said of the real-life people who appear in his novels. “It’s a part of history that’s gone. It’s over.”
Mickey relives the events of Mr. Scholer’s own life, while taking on new cases in each of his New York- or Florida-based backyards—the product of the author’s creative ingenuity, he said.
“Why is ‘A story based on a true story’ and not ‘A true story?’” he mused. “Because maybe the true story doesn’t have the zing that a ‘Based on a true story’ does.”
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on Aug 18, 2014