Interview by author, Murdoch Hughes, with his Mystery character, Harley Wolf, a vegan werewolf detective. You can learn more about Harley in The Seattle Barista Killer, available now from Mundania Press, LLC.

So Harley, what does a vegan werewolf eat?

Very funny! You want me to use that tired line you throw out at readings? I stalk the wild asparagus? There, you happy, dogboy?

Ouch, your bark bites. People can't help being interested in the whole vegan thing.

Yeah sure. There are no stupid questions, just stupid people. There are billions of vegetarians and vegans in the world, whole nations even. But some little arrogant shit-burger eating fatboy thinks I'm weird. Oh it's okay for me to be a werewolf, but that whole vegan thing is too weird? Sure. Do you know why they recommend that hamburger be thoroughly cooked? It's because all meat has feces on the outside of it. When you cook a steak the harmful bacteria are on the outside and are killed off. But with hamburger the feces is ground into the meat so the feces, otherwise known as shit, has to be well done. It's still feces, however, but at least it's pure poop.

Okay, okay, enough with all that. Let's talk about the "Seattle Barista Killer."

You talk about the book. It's what you do best. You do write darn good werewolf characters.

Uhmm…well, how about coffee? You're known as something of an espresso snob. Why is the Pacific Northwest such a huge espresso consuming area?

So there really are dumb questions. Okay. This is the first region in this country to have readily available fresh gourmet coffee. People love coffee and they even drank that horrible stuff that was pre-ground and sealed up in those tin cans. I'm not sure anyone could have actually liked the taste of that stuff. They probably drank it for the legal buzz they got off of it. Legal buzzes are hard to come by. Coffee tastes best when you use the highest grade of freshly roasted coffee beans and only grind them just before you make it. It's best when infused with steam and consumed immediately. The reason is, the best of the aroma and flavor is contained in oils in the beans. The oils deteriorate with time and begin to evaporates after it is ground. However, even the best grade of beans slowly roasted by a maestro, can be ruined if not prepared properly.

We in the Northwest are lucky to have many good things, as well as a continually cleansing, rainy environment. Fresh is the word. And we have the ocean, mountains and the largest remaining number of werewolves, to name just a few of the things that make this area so special.

Speaking of werewolves, your girlfriend Helene is a fantastic character, if I do say so myself. Do you think she should get a spin-off and have her own series?

Grrr!!! Now you want to steal my girl? We work great together. Why mess with a good thing? Of course I wouldn't want to hold her back if readers really want something like that. She's amazing. In fact that's why I agreed to go along with this whole story idea of yours. I wasn't so sure it was a good thing to let everyone know that werewolves were alive and living in the Northwest. Mob mentality still exists. I also liked the chance to dispel all those old myths about us, but the main reason I went along was the chance to work with Helene. She's fantastic.

So you like the love scenes?

Yeah sure, you think I'm crazy? That's the best part. Ar-ar-arrrroooo! You know what they say about riding a Harley.

Review in the January 24 issue of "The Stranger"

January 23, 2008
Books
Furry Justice
The Hero of Murdoch Hughes's Noir Novel Is a Vegan Werewolf
by Paul Constant

The Seattle Barista Killer
by Murdoch Hughes(Mundania Press) $12.95

Ed McBain made only one real mistake with his 87th Precinct series, but it was a mistake hardwired into the core of the books, one that tainted every one of the dozens of novels that followed. Rather than setting his fictional police precinct in a real city, all the action takes place in The City, an unnamed metropolis that many people assume is a direct analog for New York but which actually contains elements of Chicago, Boston, and even St. Louis.
Some people would claim that this geographic detachment frees McBain's stories from becoming dated, and makes them more lasting works of fiction. These people are wrong. There's nothing more lasting than rooting a story in a specific time and place. Imagine Dickens without soot-crusted London streets, or Dostoevsky without hopeless, frozen Russia: It's impossible.
Murdoch Hughes understands this, and he's chosen the perfect setting for his newest mystery, The Seattle Barista Killer. Seattle, still in its post–tech boom hangover and on the cusp of a housing depression, is an ideal backdrop for a noirish mystery. This book meanders through specific locations (Everett, First Avenue in Pioneer Square, the view down Denny Way "with the Space Needle pointing up through the mist to hidden stars above, like some giant compass needle showing the way to infinity") so clearly that an overachieving reader could take a map of Seattle and draw out the action as it takes place.
Armed with this specific sense of place, Hughes creates a private investigator that embodies The Seattle Man in 2008. His name is Harley Wolf—as improbable a name as Spillane's Mike Hammer or Hammett's Sam Spade—and, much like Seattle, he is composed of contradictions. Wolf is a Harley-Davidson-motorcycle-driving man with a lust for, well, lust. He's a man who knows how to fight for justice with his bare knuckles. And he's a werewolf.
At the same time, Wolf is an avowed vegan who thoughtfully prepares eggs for his lover after a long night of passionate lovemaking. He's a bit of a triple-espresso-quaffing coffee snob whose heightened sense of smell can barely stand corporate-chain coffee. And he feels like an outsider compared to the rest of the highly uncouth local werewolf pack. He's a pacifist, or at least he tries to be.
But when a serial killer known as The Barista Basher starts mauling female coffee clerks—"These baristas are like princesses around here," explains an SPD officer at the scene of the third attack—Wolf, brought on the case as an outside consultant, takes it personally, and he vows to track down the killer and bring him to justice.
Killer is clearly intended as the first book in a series, and the colorful supporting cast is introduced as Wolf's hunt grows frenetic. The most colorful of the lot is an ancient cowboy named Greg who lives in the U-District and buys his Stetsons off eBay: "Why auctions are probly old as the human race, and the fact it's on some new gadget that looks a lot like a typewriter hooked up to a telyvision shouldn't stop no one."
The most important character, though, is Seattle, and we learn about its history as Wolf prowls the streets: "The streets I walked had begun as a settlement for logging the nearby hills, with the huge trees cut down, stripped, and skidded down the muddy slopes to the salty waterway, where they were shipped south to supply the rapidly growing population of California."
As Killer moves along, too, the language becomes more exciting. This is clearly an author having a tremendous amount of fun: "'Ohhh,' she moaned, moving slowly, like melting chocolate dancing a tango. Metaphors mixed and flowed through us, one to another until language couldn't keep up, our words slipping into the sweet primordial liquid of our origins."
As the case explodes into a Spillane-style climax that includes violence, S&M, a hostage in peril, giant dildos, and jealousy, it becomes obvious that Killer is about more than just solving a crime. It's about the weird state of modern semimonogamous sexual relationships, boundless corporate greed, the changing idea of masculinity in polite society, and the importance of good coffee. It's about everything that makes Seattle what it is today.
constant@thestranger.com
More articles in Books »


Also by Paul Constant
Constant Reader
The Acrid Stench of PoliticsPosted Jan 15, 2008

Mysteries by Murdoch Hughes

Let your inner wolf howl

Hey, we all have a bit of wolf in us, hopefully. Is it the big bad wolf eating those yummy three little pigs? Or the kinder and gentler vegan type like Harley in "The Seattle Barista Killer". Or maybe you're more the domesticated variety. It's hard to imagine those weiner dogs were once wolves. Of course we probably would look pretty wimpy next to our Neanderthal ancestors.

Whatever kind you might be, the next full moon, get out there and howl, even if it is a quick one in your backyard. Ar-arrrroooo!

Come and join me for a good howl, at the Camano Island, WA. Public Library on January 24th, 2008, at 6:30 PM. The full moon will be out so I expect my werewolf friends will be there for the reading of "The Seattle Barista Killer."

Werewolf Biker Gathering Oyster Run

Werewolves, vegans, Northwesterners, motorcycle riders, Harley owners, tattooed Mystery authors and readers, tattoo admirers, leather lovers and sniffers, or any combination of the above, I'll be doing a booksigning during the annual Oyster Run, a gigantic motorcycle gathering in Annacortes, WA., on September 23. I'll be signing books in front of Watermark Books, 612 Commercial Ave., from 12 PM-1 PM, for sure, and probably all afternoon as long as there is interest. If you're in the area, bike or no bike, it's fun to see a few hundred motorcycles all in one place. I'll be riding my new Road King Harley-Davidson. The vegan werewolf protagonist of my new Mystery, "The Seattle Barista Killer", rides a much hotter bike, the Harley-Davidson Night Rod, and he will be there too. And no, he doesn't eat oysters, but hide your veggies if you come...

Do not feed the werewolf...meat...he's a vegan.

His name is Harley Wolf, and he’s a werewolf detective. Might as well tell you right off. He’s also a vegan. Go ahead, laugh. Make your jokes. Like, what does he do, “stalk the wild asparagus?” Or: “Vegan? Isn’t that the old Indian word meaning, bad hunter?” Yeah, he’s heard them all. Lucky for you he is a vegan, because when the full moon kisses the sky, you might not think werewolves are funny any more. Especially if you’ve been killing baristas in Seattle. Harley loves his espresso and reveres the baristas who have mastered the dark arts of the coffee bean. Of course, if you like espresso too, or werewolves, or baristas, or Mysteries, you can go along for the ride as he fires up his Night Rod Harley-Davidson motorcycle, hot on the trail of the killer. Be careful though, Harley is in no mood for bad jokes when there is a real monster on the loose. Think about it! An angry werewolf high on a quad shot of espresso is not something anyone wants to meet late at night in an alley.

Or be brave and read "The Seattle Barista Killer" by the light of a full moon. Give it a howl...

Murdoch

"The Seattle Barista Killer" hot off the presses...Murdoch

My new Mystery series with Harley Wolf, a vegan werewolf detective, has been released by Mundania Press, http://www.mundania.com/ . I just returned home to Seattle from a promotional tour in Michigan. The booksigning/reading I did at the St. Louis, Michigan public library was fantastic. The entire library was howling with me...ar-ar-arrrooooooo. Everyone got into the werewolf spirit. No shushing from the librarians either, because they were howling with us. What a fantastic place.

You can howl along with Harley Wolf when you read the book available from the publisher at http://www.mundania.com/ . It's also available at http://www.amazon.com/ (just search: author/Murdoch Hughes) or you can order it at your favorite local bookstore if it's not on their shelves. It's best for me if you buy directly from my publisher, cutting out the middlemen who take a big slice from the author's royalties. Also, it's nice to support independent publishers and local independent bookstores. The main thing though, is that you get to read the book, so if you can't afford to buy one, check it out from your local library. I know you're probably not rich either.

You can also buy and read my books in ebook format, where you download them direct to your computer, including notebooks, laptops, PDA's, dedicated readers, and maybe even your cell phone. Downloadable ebooks are less expensive and you don't have to leave your cubicle, or get up from poolside on your vacation. What a fantastic world we live in!!!

More later...