Interview with J.L. Doucette, Author of the Dr. Pepper Hunt Mysteries

The Indie Crime Scene is pleased to interview J.L. Doucette, author of the Dr. Pepper Hunt Mysteries. This interview was conducted by Dennis Chekalov.

How did you turn to a writing career?

I've been writing for a long time, since I was a teenager. I began writing poetry and continued with it through my twenties, learning from other poets through workshops and writer's groups. I moved on to fiction and short stories and started a novel in 1989 which I set aside for 20 years and finally wrote a first draft in 2009 through the magic of Nanowrimo.

At this point I've written two novels and I still have a full-time private psychology practice. It's getting clear that something has to change in order to do justice to a writing career because there's the writing and then there's the business of managing a writing career and both take time.

You have a doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Boston University; how did your scientific education and background help you in your writing? 

Writing a dissertation was great preparation for writing a novel because it required committing what turned out to be years to the exposition of a single hypothesis. Each step of the process was critiqued by an adviser and two other psychologists, so there was significant editing and rewriting. I learned how to use feedback to improve my thinking and writing and how to stick with a challenging intellectual project when things got tough. I came away from the process of completing the dissertation and earning a doctorate much more confident.

Training in the scientific method of thinking helps me to always be in a questioning mindset and to consider multiple explanations for why things are happening. That's relevant for plotting Mysteries and developing complex characters. 

Please acquaint us with your main character, Dr. Pepper Hunt.

She's a bit of a haunted character because of some things that happened in her past. She's in the process of building a new life for herself in Wyoming, a place she chose almost by accident, but as it turns out it's the right place for her. After her husband's death, she chose to leave rather than stay and face the changed circumstances of her life.

Leaving is the decision of a person who can't deal with the pain of loss. She protects herself from getting hurt by keeping an emotional distance from others.

In the second book there are signs she is getting ready to open up to life again and the subsequent books will reveal more of her past as she makes the journey to a fuller engagement with life.

Detective Beau Antelope “was born to be a detective, a job that kept him tied to the pain of the world.” Could you explain it to us? What does it mean, being “tied to the pain of the world”? Why is it important for Beau Antelope?

Beau Antelope is a character who has the quality of resilience, something that's recently been identified in psychology. It's the ability to transcend difficult circumstances rather than be taken down by them. He grew up on the Wind River Reservation which is known to have one of the highest rates of violent crime in the country. He's saddened by the poverty and hopelessness of addiction he saw all around him.

Despite that he has a basically optimistic core and is determined to do his part to work for justice. He has courage and willingness to engage criminals and the heartache they bring to their victims.

And the best thing about Beau is he knows what side he's on, but he also knows it could have been different---he could have been on the other side.

What is your book, Last Seen, about? Is it mostly a thriller, a whodunit, or a human drama?

 

Last Seen is a mystery about a Native American woman who disappears. She's a crime reporter covering a big story about a serial rapist.

She happens to be in a personal crisis that brings her into therapy with Dr. Pepper Hunt. Beau Antelope ends up being the lead detective on the case and when things get complicated the Sheriff's Department contracts with Pepper Hunt, who treats all the sex offenders in the county, to sort things out.

Your first book won the 6th Annual Beverly Hills Book Award for Mystery in 2017, the Silver Award from Independent Press for Mystery, was a finalist in the Next Generation Book Awards. How do you feel about this recognition?

I'm thrilled about this recognition and grateful every day it happened with the first book. It was unanticipated and gave me confidence to write the next book. There's nothing better than recognition by people who know the industry standards. 

Your second book, On a Quiet Street — what are its similarities and differences with the first one?

Like the first book, On A Quiet Street, is a mystery that centers on a crime that comes about because of a psychological issue in the character who commits the crime. And as in the first book, the secondary characters are all closely connected to the victim and each one is complicated and burdened by their own issues.

I don't see any major differences between the first and second book. The landscape features strongly in both books because it is such a powerful force and affected me greatly when I lived there.

Last Seen takes place in the two weeks before and after Christmas. I pretty much exhausted every way to describe winter in Wyoming, so On A Quiet Street begins on the day of the summer solstice.  

May we expect the third book about Dr. Pepper Hunt? Would it be a long series?

 

I'm writing the third book in the series now. Like the first two, it was a 50k Nanowrimo draft. But also, like the first two, it will be interesting for me to see how much of the first draft makes it to the final draft. Especially since years have elapsed since I wrote the draft.

I'm hoping for a long series. I like all the series characters and they all need a chance to develop their stories.

 

How psychology can be used in writing to create memorable stories and characters?

The discipline of psychology presents several ways of looking at the development of the mind and personality. Motivation and personality traits combine to create behavior and understanding the connection between these three will lead to writing complex and credible characters. Actions are not isolated events and to resonant for the reader they must conform to a consistent narrative arc.

What is your opinion about the image of psychologists in the mystery genre? Could you name any myths and false stereotypes?

 

I actually haven't seen many psychologists represented in the mystery drama. The one I'm most familiar with is written by a psychologist Jonathan Kellerman. Dr. Alex Delaware, is very accurately drawn. Stephen White is another clinical psychologist who has written mysteries and the same is true for him. 

 

As a psychologist, what do you think about human nature? Are we naturally good or bad? Why?

 

As a psychologist who was trained in Freudian theory, I understand that the human psyche is composed of three parts: the id, the ego and the superego. The ego and superego manage the aggressive and sexual impulses deriving from the id. We all have the capacity for both good and bad.

 

Are we using the full potential of psychology to prevent potential crimes? If it possible to build a society without crimes?

I'd say we are definitely not using the full potential of psychology to prevent crimes.

The most current and obvious example is the argument over whether to require psychological screening before being allowed to purchase a lethal weapon.

Another problem is the way mental health laws have shifted to protect the rights of the mentally ill and to avoid unnecessary hospitalization. While the intention was good, the pendulum has swung too far, and it is extremely difficult to get a person committed to a psychiatric hospital who is a danger to others. There are countless examples of the system failing and lives that could have been saved have been lost.

I'm not sure why there is such resistance to the wisdom that psychology has to offer.

In a perfect world there would be no crime, but it seems we've lost our way as a society.

However, a study conducted in 2007-2010 showed a reduction in homicide rates of 5.3 percent per year and urban violent crime rates of 4.6 percent per year in US cities where the number of transcendental meditators exceeded the number predicted to reduce negative trends.

Which is kind of amazing because it suggests the brain activity of the meditators was affecting the behavior of others nearby.

I wonder what Freud would think of the idea that the ego of one person could moderate the I'd impulses of another?

About J.L. Doucette:

Rhode Island based psychologist, J. L. Doucette is the author of the Dr. Pepper Hunt Mysteries. Her new novel, On a Quiet Street, is the second in the series following her award-winning debut, Last Seen. After earning a doctorate in counseling psychology from Boston University she moved to southwest Wyoming. The stark landscape of the high-desert, where a constant wind stirs crimes of passion, is the setting for her psychological mysteries.

 

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