Local author tackles timely social issues

Not one to shy away from tough social issues of the day, Boynton Beach author Robert Brink tackles racism, police brutality and issues of legal justice in his latest legal thriller, “Blood on their Hands,” set in South Florida.

Inspired by a true-life meeting with a black man who came to repair his computer and recounted a story of being roughed up by the police for sporting an Obama bumper-sticker, Brink uses the incident as the catalyst for his suspense-filled narrative that is at once compelling and surprisingly humorous.

“This is a tale replete with both pathos and humor, steeped in sex, suspense, intrigue, and violence all leavened by a tragic love affair,” says Brink. “Perhaps most important, it is a story of redemption.”

Brink took inspiration from two of his favorite films, the 2008 Clint Eastwood film, “Gran Torino” and the 1992 classic, “My Cousin Vinnie,” (“my favorite comedy of all time”) starring Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei. He borrowed themes from both films and used them as inspiration for this novel.

Brink’s previous books include the coming-of-age novel “Breaking Out,” “The Way It Was: Short Stories and Tall Tales,” and “A Tale of Two Continents,” a ghost-written memoir.

“I’m fascinated by true crime stories,” says Brink, whose last book was “Murder in Palm Beach: The Homicide That Never Died,” about a Standard

Oil career executive, Richard Kreusler, who was gunned down at the front door of his Palm Beach home in 1976.

In “Blood on Their Hands,” a racist attorney (Hiram Garbuncle) eventually finds redemption when he defends his client, an immigrant from Trinidad, brutally beaten by police. While it goes against the defense attorney’s grain to defend a black man from a charge of violently resisting arrest, he discovers incriminating evidence on the two cops, and rises to the challenge to keep himself and his client alive pending a new trial.

With police shootings of unarmed black men making headlines on a regular basis, “Blood on Their Hands” is a timely exploration of how bigoted feelings and perceptions play a role in racial profiling.

“It personalizes the issue of racial discrimination, helping the reader to comprehend the makeup of a bigot,” Brink says. “The book also provides a glimpse into how the legal system may be stacked against minority members of our society.”

Brink exploits a quirk in criminal law and his character makes use of this controversial tactic, one in which the defense attorney serves as a witness for the defendant.

“It’s very rare, but can be done,” says Brink, who spent hours researching the issue and speaking to criminal attorneys about the issue.

A mid-westerner by birth and temperament, Brink is a former journalist and worked for the Palm Beach Post where he covered police and criminal trials. He’s also written for Palm Beach Illustrated magazine and The Associated Press in Chicago.

Brink received two offers from traditional publishers and chose Touchstone Press he says, because several of their authors have won awards.

What advice does he have for other would-be authors?

“Get the basics right first, and move on to such salient elements as showing versus telling, point of view (which still baffles me), and command of dialogue.”

By Jan Engoren

The Art of Murder

Mystery writer takes her series to a South Florida historic landmark


by Monique McIntoshcourtyard 

Among towering royal palms and floating water lilies, the serene escape tucked away in Fort Lauderdale’s historic Bonnet House Museum & Gardens is the last place you’d expect a set up for a whodunit murder. But for local mystery writer Elaine Viets, the South Florida landmark and the city’s booming art community made the perfect backdrop for her new novel “The Art of Murder” – the latest release from her ever popular “Dead-End Job” mystery series.

For her gumshoe private investigator Helen Hawthorne, this mystery doesn’t travel the familiar pathways of crime plots set in old, grand family homes – no devious butler or conniving cousins seeking the family fortune here. “Instead,” Viets said, “the novel became an ode to the home’s rich artistic legacy forged by Chicago artist Clay Bartlett.” Constructing this winter home with wife Helen in 1920, the Bonnet House quickly became a creative canvas for Bartlett and later his second wife, fellow artist Evelyn Fortune Lilly. In addition to their collections of classic works by Pablo Picasso and Paul Gaugin, both filled their home with festive murals along the floor and ceilings, and decorative art crafts, including rescued, hand-carved merry-go-round animals perched around the courtyard, and a dining room filled with taxidermied fish that guests could point to when ordering their preferred dinner.

“Like most people, I thought [the Bonnet House] was one more rich person’s house. So many of those are lifeless, dreary accumulations of art and treasure,” Viets said. “[But] my husband, Don Crinklaw, persuaded me to visit the place and I was enchanted. Bonnet House has life, color, and humor. I love that the artist-owners, Frederic Clay Bartlett and his wife, Evelyn Lilly Bartlett, mastered the art of living. It shows a monument to their love for each other, and Evelyn worked hard to make sure that their home would be preserved.”

So with many nooks and crannies to explore, Viets’ usual dive into a local bonnet-house-museum-gardens-fort-lauderdaleprofession (which she does as research for every “Dead-End Job” novel) was an escapade itself. She even volunteered as an official greeter for the museum.

“Elaine wanted to come on as a volunteer to learn more about Bonnet House and what made it special,” said the Director of Education and Volunteer Programs for the Bonnet House, Linda M. Schaller. “She worked as a greeter meeting every guest who came in on her watch.”

It was also as a volunteer that Viets discovered why the Bonnet House made the perfect backdrop for a mystery, naturally attracting the many local characters (almost too good for fiction) that call South Florida home.

“Bonnet House attracts such interesting, sophisticated people who have traveled the world,” Viets said. “I met a retired surgeon, a funeral director, a flight attendant, a community activist who cares for the stray cats in her neighborhood, and so many more.”

The museum’s popular art classes in particular made “a good setting for a mystery,” Viets said. “The classes attract people of many talents and backgrounds, and they’re at the museum long enough that Helen can get to know them.”

Though the home didn’t turn out to be an artistic refuge for the novel’s murder victim, Annabel, Bonnet House has become the nexus for Broward County’s growing art scene, which is also featured prominently in the novel, from hot exhibits at FAT Village to the ever popular monthly art walks.

In fiction and the real life, this vintage canvas by the sea perfectly reflects the city’s enduring quirky, artistic spirit. “Readers accept that people in South Florida are more eccentric than the rest of the country,” Viets said. “This region is wonderfully diverse. Plus, we’re all slightly touched by the sun.”