Sharp hook, fresh bait
Fisherman and author Linda Greenlaw boats her first murder mystery
BY MARLI GUZZETTA INDEPENDENT ARTS EDITOR
Linda Greenlaw's writing is so salty, you could use one of her books to rim your margarita. In her non-fiction works ("The Hungry Ocean," "The Lobster Chronicles" and "All Fisherman are Liars"), she used the ocean to catch plot twists the way she uses it to catch fish, which is why it's no surprise that a dead body washing up on the shore of Green Haven, Maine signifies the start of mystery and intrigue for Jane Bunker, protagonist of "Slipknot," Greenlaw's first piece of fiction - which she will introduce with a reading and lecture at the Coffin School on Monday.

Greenlaw first found notoriety as a boat caption in Sebastian Junger's "The Perfect Storm." Soon after, she took to writing her own stories, waking before the sun and writing for three or four hours before she went out on the water to haul lobster traps in her 35-foot, inshore lobster boat.

The advances came in with the lobster.

"My heart says I'm a fisherman. My checkbook says I'm a writer," said Greenlaw, who comes to Nantucket this week to promote "Slipknot," which promises to be the first in at least three Jane Bunker books. (Greenlaw recently signed a contract for two more.)

The series opens with Bunker leaving her job as a Miami-Dade County detective to move to Maine, where she spent her early childhood. She takes an entrylevel job as a marine insurance agent in a "sleepy little fishing community," as Greenlaw described it, where, on her third day on the job, Bunker finds the body of the "town drunk" washed up on the shore and finds herself picking up old professional habits.

Making Bunker's new vocation a marine insurance inspector allowed Greenlaw to use what she knew as a fisherman. ("A lot of 'Slipknot' takes place in or around a boat," she said.) The author even used her own insurance company as a resource. But Greenlaw had to do her own detective work on detective work, using the internet as a primary resource.

As for the research she did on the convention of murder mysteries - it was intentionally limited to the ones she read while steaming to the fishing grounds.

"As far as the conventions go, guess what, I don't even really know what they are," she said. "I know I've been told there are formulas for mysteries, but I don't want to know that the first clue has to be on page 7 and a red herring has to be on page 75."

Greenlaw based her characters on people she knew, with fictional embellishments ("I do love the characters.") and based her writing on her gut and on an indefatigable work ethic.

"I've been on book tour for a month already, and I've had pretty good turnouts. The people who've read my other stuff are saying they've glad they've made the leap with me to fiction," Greenlaw said. "It's still my voice and sense of humor, and they're still learning about the fishing industry."

With her burgeoning new career as a fiction writer, Greenlaw has no intention of jumping ship as a fisherman.

"When some total stranger asks what I do for a living, I always saying fishing

first," Greenlaw said. I
When: Mon., July 30, 8 - 9:30 p.m.
Where: Coffin School, 4 Winter St.
Cost: $5 general admission; Free
for Egan members
For more information, please call
228-2505.