You’d think he’d have the hang of it by now, wouldn’t you? Yet Bryan Gruley, who just finished the first draft of the third novel in his Starvation Lake mystery series, “The Skeleton Box,” says writing a novel is always a challenge.
“Readers frequently ask if it’s easier to write the second or third book. Maybe it is for other writers. Not for me,” confesses Gruley, who lives on Chicago’s North Side. “I know the main characters and the setting well. I have an idea of the mystery’s major secret and I know essentially where the story begins.”
Yet the success of his first two novels, “Starvation Lake” (2009) and “The Hanging Tree” (2010), means, Gruley adds, that he’s never alone at his writing desk these days. “I’m buffeted by voices in my head that I did not hear while writing my first book: Will this one be better than my last? Are the main characters growing? Am I merely repeating myself? Do I need to blow up a car?”
Gruley’s series is set in a small Michigan town at the edge of a lake. Gus, formerly a big-city newspaper reporter who returned to his hometown to lick his wounds after a mistake that cost him his job, now writes for the local rag and finds himself in the midst of mysteries. The men in Gruley’s books love hockey — as does the author.
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When he’s not writing novels, Gruley runs the Chicago bureau of The Wall Street Journal — and frets about further revisions to “The Skeleton Box,” which is due out from Touchstone in February. He finished the first draft about a month ago. “Some authors report feeling giddy and relieved at that point,” he says. “I felt neither, because I have a lot of work to do.”
Bryan Gruley will read from and sign his books at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Oak Brook Public Library. Call 630-368-7725.