C Solimini: Across the River
Book Club Discussion

You can't tell by my initial or my given first name, Cheryl, but you bet I'm Italian and proud of it--which is why I chose not to take my husband's surname. (That, and the fact that "Cheryl Farawell" is a tongue twister. Just trying saying it three times fast.)

Across the River very much reflects my life growing up in tiny Edgewater, New Jersey—called "Undercliff" in the book. It is literally three blocks wide and three miles long, confined by the Hudson River and New York City on the east and the Palisades' sheer cliffs on the west. But so much went on in that constricted space, and the town has such a rich history, that it seemed the perfect setting for a mystery series. In fact, the movie Copland, starring Sylvester Stallone, Robert DeNiro and Harvey Keitel, was filmed almost entirely in my hometown, so I'm not the only one who recognized its potential for suspense!

The South End was industrial, with abandoned piers and factories. The center of town housed mainly blue-collar workers, with first-, second- and third-generation Italian, Irish, Jewish and Polish families, as well as descendants of the original Dutch settlers. The North End became a magnet to the emerging middle-class and professionals, and below that was an exclusive community on the riverbank (muckraker Geraldo Rivera, supermodels and local major league sports stars have had homes there). Now the town has exploded into a bedroom community of Manhattan, with skyscraper-high apartment buildings and condos that block the river views of long-time residents. Across the River is set in that transitional time, around the 1990s, when the old and the new, white collar and blue, started butting heads. More then a decade later, they are still at odds, but a strong sense of community also continues.

The idea for Across the River began as a dream I had around that time. In it, I walked into the tavern around the corner from my childhood home to meet a classmate from my Catholic elementary school. We were both adults. The only other time I'd been in that bar, I was dressed as a cowboy—I was 11, it was Halloween and I'd been dared to go inside. (I won the bet and got a SlimJim from the bartender.) In the dream, a beautiful little girl was sitting next to my classmate. All I knew was that she was dead, that he was a cop trying to find out who did it, and that I had to help. That led to the first two pages of the book, and a resolution to never eat spicy food so close to bedtime ever again.

Back then, I was also working as a writer and editor for Mary Higgins Clark Mystery Magazine, and had had a conversation with Ms. Clark about who had killed JonBenet Ramsay. So the murder of a beautiful little blonde girl might have been on my mind.

Like Andrealisa Rinaldi, I moved from my hometown at age 12 and had little contact with anyone from there for many years, despite happy memories. So most of Andie's reminiscences are my own, but I twisted these personal anecdotes around to serve the mystery. For instance, the jujitsu move Andie learns from an old '60s TV show and uses to disarm assailants in the past and the present—well, I've used it too. Unfortunately, at age 9, I tried it on my 3-year-old brother, and fractured his wrist! But he's forgiven me and at least it turned out to have some more beneficial use in fiction.

I’ll also confess that I once worked for a publication not unlike celebrity tabloid that employs Andie, and I was ashamed to admit it paid my rent. But unlike Andie, I started looking for a new job within two weeks and was gone in four months.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with C Solimini

Little did I know that fact would soon imitate fiction. Amazingly, in the middle of writing Across the River, an E-mail arrived in my Inbox with the heading "Did You Go to Holy Rosary School in Edgewater????" After 35 years, my best friend from grammar school had found me via the Internet, and we've been in contact again ever since. I even spent a milestone birthday with her at her home in Arizona. She provided the class picture that's up on my website.

While doing research, I found out that two childhood classmates were cops in town and consulted them for technical details. Once the book was published, they spread the word and I've gotten E mails from former classmates from around the country, several came to my book-signing in town, and another invited me to her reunion of the high school I WOULD have graduated from if I'd stayed in town. I went and had a great time, and we're planning a reunion for our grammar-school class too.

Remember, I hadn't seen most of these folks in 40 years! But I feel like I've been reunited and embraced by my long-lost brothers and sisters. So the answer to the question posed on my book jacket—Can you go home again?—is YES!!!!!!

Book Club Discussion: Interview with C Solimini

I'm also a big fan of the TV show Monk (I would watch Tony Shaloub in anything, even if he were only reading the phonebook). But as a medical journalist, I also know that the show's depiction of those who deal with OCD or any mental disorder is totally unrealistic. Who is paying his psych bills? Why isn't he taking his medications? How can he afford to have a nearly fulltime caretaker with so few cases? Then there are the legions of books and movies that often portray the mentally ill as crackpots or villains.

I have relatives with mental-health issues and they are the smartest, funniest, bravest people I know. Every day is a challenge that they meet head-on. On the outside they may seem "normal" but they battle demons created by their brain chemistry. Unlike other disabilities, theirs are misunderstood and even feared. Worse, mental-health programs are outrageously underfunded or unsupported by insurance plans and government agencies. Even with appropriate treatment and medication, most mentally ill have difficulty maintaining jobs and a social life. Perhaps too because of my journalistic background, I wanted to get this message out, and show that the mentally ill are not eccentric but successful detectives or murderous menaces.

Caretaking by family members can be emotionally and financially draining, even under the best of circumstances and with unlimited resources. Andie needs a job to support both of them, but couldn't do that if she had to deal with worrying where she was at every moment. Estimates are that at least one in four people is affected by mental illness, either directly or indirectly. So this is obviously a widespread issue that few people talk about.

Most families are not trained in mental-health issues and may even do the wrong things out of love and concern. Despite good intentions, relatives can also hold back their loved ones from making progress on their own or living independently, which is what group homes like those set up by some county mental-health agencies and Fountain House (http://www.fountainhouse.org) are for.

Cat has difficult issues, but she's funny and resourceful and makes no apologies, and I want everyone to root for her. There is no "why" to her problems—it could be childhood trauma or genetic predisposition, but sometimes there’s no identifiable cause. Maybe that's what is so disturbing to others.

Nothing was more gratifying to me than having the sister of a woman with schizophrenia recommend Across the River to her support group and include it in the mental-health newsletter she edits for the National Alliance for Mental Health (http://www.nami.org).

Book Club Discussion: Interview with C Solimini

What surprised me was that a few agents and publishers turned the manuscript down—some without reading the entire manuscript—simply because of the child's death. Some praised the writing and characters and humor, but couldn't get past that. Yet, Mary Higgins Clark's first thriller, the best selling Where Are the Children? puts TWO sets of children at risk! Many other very successful mystery writers have kids killed or placed them in horrifying situations that I could never put on paper. So go figure.

Ironically, a mother of four told me she loved Across the River, and the child’s death didn't bother her at all. The story was more important. "I also read these kind of books all the time, to see how I can keep my kids safe," she said.

But please, all this sounds so cruel and dark and dreary! Mostly what I hear about is how funny and moving Across the River is! Which is my experience of life: No matter how much tragedy you experience, you have to hold on to your sense of humor and hope.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with C Solimini

For Andie, these touchstones help her reconnect with her old friends too. I wanted to have that Boomer sensibility, but not have the characters be middle-aged, to give them more options, so I set it in 1992. The '90s were a transitional time for many of my age—getting married or divorced, settling into careers or trying new ones, and having to take on other "adult" responsibilities. This was another way to tie the characters into the transitions and changes that were going on in her hometown. How much of the past do you want to hold on to and when should you move on?

Book Club Discussion: Interview with C Solimini

But I think there comes a point where journalism doesn't say what you want it to say or do what you want it to do. For me, after 30 years in the business, I felt as if I were writing the same magazine article over and over again. There also comes a time for when you want to write in your own "voice" instead of as an objective reporter. Plus I find the dialogue I create much more amusing than the bland statements that I usually have to pry from the experts I interview.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with C Solimini

But I have begun the second in the Andie and Cat series, Under the Bridge. I want all my titles to start with prepositions. There are at least 27 prepositions—above, among, behind, between, etc.—which is one more than there are letters in the alphabet. So eat your heart out, Sue Grafton!

Book Club Discussion: Interview with C Solimini