Looks Are Deceiving received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Bill VanPatten.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The novel is Looks Are Deceiving and it was published in the fall of 2021.
What’s the book’s first line?
–Isn’t this a surprise.
–I’m not here for a social visit.
What the reader comes to understand quickly is that the opening dialogue takes place after the crime has been solved and the murderer is being interviewed by someone.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
In the hot summer of California’s Central Valley, the bodies pile up. Are they victims of hate crimes—or something else?
Forty-nine-year old Will Christian, ex-academic turned sleuth, stumbles across a body during a routine bicycle ride. As other murder victims turn up—all Latino, all gay—Will wonders if his town is confronted with a series of hate crimes. Driven by insatiable curiosity and the haunting memory of the unsolved murder of his best friend, he enlists the help of his new boyfriend, José Torres, to track down the killer—setting him on a search for a killer in the secretive underside of the down-low lifestyle in a small, Central California town.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
I was riding my bicycle one morning and I stopped at an intersection. To my right was a large area—and untended field of hundreds of acres. The dry summer brush was knee high. As I looked out on the drought-ridden landscape, I thought “Good place to dump a body.” And the story was born.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
It is fast paced and makes for great plane reading or poolside reading. The novel will keep you guessing until the end. Most importantly, the main character is an unlikely hero, a half-breed Latino and gay, with a wit and a sometimes wise-cracking nature. He defies stereotypes. Throughout the book, there is a social message embedded in the story that never takes central stage, though. So the book does something that a lot of murder mysteries don’t do: it subtly weaves in contemporary social issues while never losing site of the fact that it is a good old whodunnit.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
The main character is Will Christian, my alter ego. His most essential traits are his quick mind and his insatiable curiosity. Once he gets involved with the first murder, he just can’t let go. He is haunted by the memory of the unsolved murder of his high school best friend from years prior. Like everyone, he has a story to tell—should he choose to tell it.