Interview with Joshua Cohen, author of Past Imperfect

Today it gives the Indie Crime Scene great pleasure to interview Joshua Cohen, whose novel Past Imperfect came out on March 15th.

We first met private investigator Benjamin Gold in your debut novel, The Best Assassination in the Nation. In your latest novel, Past Imperfect, he has a new  mystery to solve. What can you tell us about Benny? What kind of man is he? 

In some respects, Benny Gold is a typical hard-boiled detective. He drinks too much and does his job in a cynical, detached way. But Benny also has another more sensitive side. He lived through a bad marriage that alienated him from his own family and made him feel like a traitor to his Jewish heritage. More than a decade after-the-fact, he remains tortured by memories of what he witnessed in liberating the camps in Europe. And much to his dismay, he also has a conscience. Benny spends a lot of time grappling with the conflict between handling things expediently and doing the right thing. 

The stories are set in Cleveland, Ohio. What is the significance of Cleveland as a setting for the books and why did you choose it? 

Several years ago, I found myself reading a lot of detective fiction from the Forties and Fifties. I was also watching a lot of the contemporaneous film noir at the time. Almost all of the private eyes that populated these novels and movies came from big cities, typically Los Angeles or New York or Chicago or San Francisco. But none haled from my hometown, Cleveland, a metropolis known as the “Best Location in the Nation” during the era. I created Benny Gold to fill this void. I wanted to write about a Clevelander operating in the city before its name became synonymous with burning rivers and extreme poverty  and pathetic sports teams.

The books are set in the 1950s. Why did you choose that era and how difficult is it writing a mystery set in the past? 

I wrote the Benny Gold stories as an homage to the crime and detective fiction of the Forties and Fifties, so it was only natural that I chose the same era as my setting. Doing so relieved me of having to learn the technical complexities of modern-day forensics and weaponry. In that respect, writing about the Fifties is easier. It does require extensive historical research to ensure that the cultural and geographical references aren’t anachronistic and that the characters are speaking in idioms used at the time.

You mention your love of film noir and crime fiction from the 1940s and 50s.  What do you feel about the influence of figures like Raymond Chandler and  Dashiell Hammett? 

Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe and Hammett’s Sam Spade defined the prototype for private eyes in Forties and Fifties detective fiction. I very consciously gave Benny Gold some (but not all) of their signature  qualities, but with a Jewish (and neurotic) twist. 

Benny Gold starts out as a lawyer, but he can no longer work as one. What  drove him to leave the law and why did he become a private investigator? 

Benny didn’t leave the law by choice. His crack-up at the end of the War prevented him from practicing for several years, and by the time he recovered, his skills as a trial lawyer had atrophied to a point where he needed to find another line of work. A law-school classmate began giving Benny small assignments to investigate aspects of cases on his own docket. One thing led to another, and Benny ended up with his own one-man P.I. firm. 

In Past Imperfect, Benny is called on by his rabbi to investigate Mendel Kahn,  accused in synagogue at the Yom Kippur service of being a Nazi collaborator.  Kahn is an outwardly respectable member of the community, but Benny uncovers a murky present. What can you tell us about the premise of the novel  and the significance of Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement)? 

Good guys in noir fiction often hide secrets about a sinister past. In this tradition, Mendel Kahn is an upstanding member of the Jewish community who is concealing his history as a Nazi collaborator during the War. Yom Kippur seemed like the appropriate occasion for exposure of the truth about Kahn. It’s the Day of Atonement for Jews, and Kahn had much more to atone for than most people would have suspected. As for Kahn’s “murky present,” I didn’t want the novel to pit Kahn-as-an-absolute-saint versus Kahn-as-an absolute villain. His dirty dealings as a businessman created a third alternative that I hope makes for a more interesting story. 

What dangers does Benny face as he starts to unravel Kahn’s past? 

The dangers Benny faces come from Kahn himself. He does not like being investigated and siks his goon upon Benny to convince him to drop the case. Benny also faces legal jeopardy when the investigation goes awry and Kahn sues him for defamation.

How important is your background as a lawyer in researching and writing  crime novels? Does it give you a particular insight? 

I don’t practice criminal law, so my profession hasn’t given me any special knowledge about the subjects of the novels in that regard. But my training as a lawyer has honed my research skills, which I’ve drawn on in learning about Cleveland and popular culture in the Fifties. To the extent Benny Gold handles civil litigation as a lawyer in future novels, my legal background could provide important insight. 

What impelled you to write the story of a Jewish private eye and why are there  relatively few in the canon? 

I originally wanted to write about a Jewish private eye for comedic reasons. Think of a shlemiel playing Sam Spade. He may not be able to get the gun to fire. He could get lost on his way to the scene of the crime. The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that a compelling story could be told about a mid century detective with Jewish sensibilities. And I believed no one had ever created such a character. After publication of The Best Assassination in the Nation, I discovered the three Jack LeVine novels by Andrew Bergman. Those are masterpieces and realize my general idea far better than I ever could have. 

Are you working on a sequel to Past Imperfect? 

I’m in the early stages of outlining a third novel. The recent demands of my law practice have prevented me from working on the project as much as I’d like. 

How do you see the series developing? 

Benny Gold is a private eye with a law degree. I think future novels will address Benny’s legal work more prominently than the first two, although he did file a couple of cases in Past Imperfect. Going forward, I’ll continue trying to develop stories around issues and themes relevant to the Fifties: the Cold War, the civil rights movement, middle class conformity, and the like. I’ve already begun toying with a plot involving the quiz-show scandals from the later part of the Decade.

How does the theme of atonement and memory affect Benny himself and his  own struggles? 

In his life before the War, Benny married into a wealthy Gentile family and tried wholeheartedly to assimilate into their way-of-life. His marriage failed, but not before it irreconcilably alienated him from his parents and his brother. Benny believed he betrayed his heritage, and while liberating the camps in Europe psychotically equates his doing so with the war crimes committed by the Nazis. Benny believes he has much to atone for, and he’s never far from the memory of the misdeeds he committed. He does what he can to redeem himself but always seems to have one foot on a banana peel. 

What authors of crime and mystery do you enjoy reading? 

My favorite old-time writers include James Cain, David Goodis, Patricia Highsmith, and Thomas B. Dewey, the author of the “Mac” private-eye detective stories. With respect to contemporary fiction, I’ve enjoyed reading the crime and mystery novels of Peter Swanson and S.A. Cosby. I’m also a big admirer of The Plot by Jean Korelitz. 

If you could choose any director, past or present, who would you choose to  direct a film of Past Imperfect? 

I’d choose Billy Wilder, who directed several classic film noirs, including Double Indemnity and Ace in the Hole. He emigrated from Europe to escape the Nazis and could sensitively treat that aspect of Past Imperfect. He also had broad range as a director and could capture the full spectrum of Benny Gold’s personality.

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About Joshua Cohen:

Joshua Cohen lives with his wife, Marci, in Cleveland, Ohio, where he practices law at a small firm specializing in complex civil litigation. He grew up in San Antonio and attended the University of Texas both as an undergraduate and for law school. Josh is an avid fan of film noir and crime fiction from the 1940s and 1950s. He is the author of The Best Assassination In The Nation. Past Imperfect is the sequel to that novel.

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