Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 2 20 THAN ROBICHEAUX. IT IS WORTH NOTING THAT CRAIG JOHNSON, ALSO INTERVIEWED IN THIS ISSUE, HAS WALT LONGMIRE, HIS OWN DETECTIVE, READ LITERATURE TO KEEP HIS MIND LIMBER. HOW HAVE THE GREAT WORKS INFLUENCED YOU? I've always believed that great writers are the only ones we should read. That's it. It's like watching bad basketball or bad tennis. You watch those, and it messes up your own game. Read the good ones. ARE THERE ANY CURRENT CRIME OR THRILLER WRITERS YOU PARTICULARLY ADMIRE? I think one of the best, of course, is Michael Connolly. He's an old friend of ours. Stephen King is a theologian if you look inside his themes. And that fellow Tarantino is another one. OK, I KNOW OUR READERS WILL WANT TO KNOW: FAVORITE TARANTINO FILM? Pulp Fiction. Stylistically, changed filmmaking forever. He tells the ending before the beginning. How many guys do that? THOUGH YOU HAVE BEEN A WRITER YOUR ENTIRE LIFE, THE BLOCKBUSTER SUCCESS THAT HAS CHARACTERIZED YOUR LATER WORK ONLY CAME TO YOU IN YOUR MIDDLE AGE. HOW DO YOU FEEL THAT THIS EXPERIENCE HAS AFFECTED YOUR WORK? I think it's just nomenclature. All discovery fiction is about crime. Let's go back to Genesis. It's about crime. FIND ME A NOVEL WITHOUT A CRIME IN IT SOMEWHERE. Right. The issue, again, is Dave Robicheaux seeking out the or- igins of human cruelty. He never solves the riddle. I can't either. I don't know anyone can. I think human cruelty occurs when you allow others to do the unthinkable and hide it from us. When we allow them to hide the unthinkable from us and the most important word is allow. Dachau. Nanking. Hiroshima. YOUR DAUGHTER ALAFAIR IS AN EDGAR AWARD-NOMINATED NOVELIST IN HER OWN RIGHT. DOES THE FAMILY RIVALRY CONSUME YOU BOTH? She's always been her own writer. She's been writing since the first grade. She's extremely talented. Her IQ is not mea- surable, that's a fact—only two in a million have her IQ. I tell this to people, and they say, "your wife must be so intelli- gent!" (Laughs) "You've got to listen. "You've got to listen. YOU'VE GOT TO LOOK AND SEE. IT'S RIGHT AROUND YOU. IT ALWAYS IS. GREAT STORIES ARE TWO FEET AWAY." 334 Town Center Avenue 406-995-6995 | BigSkyMedicalCenter.com NONSTOP HEALTH CARE UNDER THE BIG SKY Emergency Department 24/7/365 Family Medicine Pharmacy Lab Services Ultrasound and Imaging

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