Central City received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Indy Perro.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
Central City was published in May of 2020.
What’s the book’s first line?
The man’s shadow spread across the snow, tinted gold by porchlight.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
Detective Vinnie Bayonne and ex-con Kane Kulpa appear to be on opposite sides of the law, but when Bayonne realizes that the unsavory murder he’s investigating is actually just one in a succession of brutal acts, his search for a serial killer pulls him into Kulpa’s world of seedy bars, whorehouses, and a terrifying villain.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
I wanted to expand the mythology of the midwestern, post-industrial American city, which often exists in film, television, and fiction as the failure of progress, a place of crime and degradation, where human life has been commodified. I grew up in a working-class neighborhood, and I see the city as a metaphor for relationships-a melting pot where people go out in public to be alone. The city nurtures along with family and friends, and the electricity of the environment, the rhythm of the cars, the subway, the voices, the music, and the smell of ground beef and onions, all combine to make a city home. A child of the city can’t sleep in silence. I wanted to tell that story by toying with clichés and subverting expectations.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
Every word serves a purpose.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
Kane Kulpa, the career criminal, is a good man without a conscience. Vincent Bayonne, the police detective, has too strong a conscience, might not be a good man, and certainly is a lost man.
When did you first decide to become an author?
Around the time I realized I couldn’t afford Harvard Business School.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
It’s the first book I’ve written worth reading.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The best? I’m in charge of everything. I love the responsibility, and I’ll live or die according to my choices, my decisions, and my labor.
The hardest? An indie author can’t only be a writer. We have to understand business, marketing, and book design. Inevitably, we’ll make mistakes. Fortunately, a lot of resources are available, but publishing’s not for the squeamish.
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
Developing what we have to say is every bit as important as how we say it and the fact that we say it.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
I’m open to anything that will help me write and publish today in such a way that I can do so again tomorrow.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
I want to be the best writer that I can be.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
Elmore Leonard understood the craft of storytelling as well as any American writer ever has. Raymond Chandler understood language specific to his niche. Joseph Conrad lived an interesting life and brought his experiences to life on the page.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. I believe it to be a perfect novel, not a single word out of place.
There are perfect sections in Richard Ford’s Independence Day, sections that make me feel a multitude of emotions at once. Envy tinged with shame rises to the surface quickly followed by enthusiasm, sheer will, and drive.