SCHMOOZING WITH ROBIN SPANO

1. Who has influenced you the most in your writing career?

RS – That changes each day. Right now, Robert Rotenberg has been helping me take my writing to the next level. He's a master craftsman and a natural born teacher.

2. What are you working on now?

RS – A few things. My novel-in-progress is either a medical thriller or science fiction. (Hopefully once it's done I'll know the answer.) I'm writing Rob Ford fan fiction on Wattpad, which is kind of off the wall but great to vent strong emotions through the lens of an obnoxious misogynist. And I'm devoting a chunk of time/writing energy to a local environmental cause, in opposition to the BC government who wants to turn the wild, serene fjord where I live into an industrial alley with smog and pollution.

3. In what ways is your main protagonist like you? If at all?

RS – Clare Vengel is a combination of the fearless chick I wish I was and the reckless twentysomething I used to be. We both ride a motorcycle, we both abhor being boxed in by rules and social conventions. And we're both much more sensitive than we try to let on.

4. Are you character driven or plot driven?

RS – Both drive me equally.

5. Are you a pantser or a plotter?

RS – I fly by the seat of my pants through my first draft, then try to outline from there.

6. What do you hope readers will most take away from your writing?

RS – Depends on the book. Dead Politician Society was pure fun, so my only goal was entertainment (and maybe some political jabs at public figures who frustrated me). Death's Last Run was a bit darker but still fun, exploring issues like drug laws and addiction. The one I'm working on now is also a fast-paced adventure, but its tone is far more serious than any of the Clare series. I guess I hope a reader takes away the emotion I put into a book, whether that's rollicking laughs or an exploration of evil. Or both. I also want to leave them sleep deprived—my favorite compliment is “I was up all night flipping pages.”

7. Where do you see yourself as a writer in 10 years?

RS – Right here in my office, overlooking what I hope is still serene wilderness with fishing boats and dolphins arcing instead of a smog-filled industrial alley. I don't really care if I achieve crazy sales or bestseller status, but I do want to push myself forward as a writer, trying new things and taking more chances, to keep trying to write the best books I can as I get older.

8. What is one thing your readers would be most surprised to know about you?

RS – I am not a risk taker. A lot of people have read the Clare books and thought I must be wild at heart. I do love adventure, but I approach new things with extreme caution. Just ask my husband, who rides the black diamonds while I cruise easy runs on my snowboard, and who would love to take our boat across the Strait of Georgia to the west coast of Vancouver Island, but is waiting for me to lose my fear of open water. (Which will happen as soon as I've studied charts and statistics to comfort myself. And I'll probably insist we wear survival suits.)

9. What do you like to read for pleasure?

RS – Smart, fast-paced contemporary female fiction. Gone Girl was a recent favorite, as was Kim Moritsugu's The Oakdale Dinner Club.

10. Give us a summary of your latest book in a Tweet

RS (borrowing from DJ McIntosh's blurb of Death's Last Run) – A racy tale of drugs and murder in Whistler's snowbound fast lane.

Robin Spano is the author of the Clare Vengel mystery series published by ECW Press. She lives with her husband in Lions Bay, BC, where she's hard at work on her next novel in between gardening breaks.

MYSTERY REVIEW

DEATH PLAYS POKER
by Robin Spano
ECW Press

Robin Spano's second Clare Vengel Undercover novel takes the intrepid undercover cop from Niagara Falls to Vancouver on a poker tour where the highest stake is murder!

Straight from a successful undercover assignment which netted the police the killer in some political murders at the University of Toronto campus, Vengel has been seconded to the RCMP. She's filling in for an undercover cop whose cover was blown, and he's now dead. Vengel knows poker but it's her cover as the spoiled Tiffany, whose trust fund is her bank role that gets her into the action at the table and on the trail of the Poker Choker.

Her job's on the line though as she pits her smarts up against a quirky array of players. There's Mickey, the long-time pro who takes her under his wing; Joe, consistently in the money and always on the look-out for an easy conquest; Elizabeth is his girlfriend and she hates Tiffany from the get-go; Fiona, the TV commentator who's more involved than she should be; George the crime writer; Noah, the new guy on the tour; Nate, the one who's hiding something...but then again, aren't they all?

The plot works its way through all their stories, following the trail of a cheating scam, as one by one, the players are killed. Vengel is a bit out of her depth. She doesn't know who to trust. Her handler saves her butt on several occasions, keeping her in the game when the RCMP want to pull her out. Because she could lose her job...and, she could lose her life.

Robin Spano obviously is a player. And I'm not. She sits the reader at the table and plays out each hand and even though the terms mean zilch to me, I'm there routing Tiffany/Clare on. Spano has also captured the buzz and excitement that surrounds the poker tour, where money is just a commodity and there's a lot of hard living going on, too. She's got the dialogue down pat and the tension builds throughout the book until it's Tiffany vs killer.

Death Plays Poker will appeal to anyone who's ever sat through a poker game...and those of us who love sitting through a fast-moving crime novel.