Paul
L. Gaus was born and raised in Ohio, and has lived for the past 33 years in Wooster, Ohio, where he taught
chemistry at the College of Wooster. He took an interest in writing fiction in
1993 and, with the advice and encouragement of author Tony Hillerman, he began to
write mystery novels set in Holmes County, Ohio, among the Amish. The first of
Gaus's mysteries, Blood
of the Prodigal: An Ohio Amish Mystery,
was published in June 1999 by Ohio University Press; a total of six novels have
appeared in this series. Plume is republishing them as trade paperbacks, retitled the Amish-Country Mysteries,
beginning with Blood of the Prodigal,
Broken English and, due out November
30, Clouds Without Rain.
On your nightstand now:
I finished a manuscript recently, and then I got myself out to a fine bookstore, looking for something to read besides my latest. So, this list is a little longer than usual. The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson, The Gutter and the Grave by Ed McBain, One Fearful Yellow Eye by John D. MacDonald, The Tourist by Olen Steinhauer, Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger, City of Thieves by David Benioff, Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley and Dressed for Death by Donna Leon.
Favorite book when you were a child:
That's an easy one--any western by Zane Grey. I read the hardcover first editions that my father collected, and I couldn't get enough of them. Ride through the west on a horse with a six-shooter? That seemed like freedom to me.
Your top five authors:
I promise to work really hard to limit this to five. The list includes Tony Hillerman (especially the early work), James Clavell, John le Carré, Pat Conroy (but not particularly My Losing Season), F. Scott Fitzgerald, John D. MacDonald (his Travis McGee series), Dennis Lehane (anything, everything), Stephen R. Donaldson (particularly the Thomas Covenant series), Alex Haley and a constellation of the darker Russians (Dostoevsky, Pasternak, Tolstoy and Solzhenitsyn). Is that five? I think it is. Close enough.
Book you've faked reading:
The Emergence of the New South, 1913-1945 by Tindall (for a college history class).
Book(s) you are an evangelist for:
Two, which I consider to be among the most important American works of their era: The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy and Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. These two books capture slices of American culture with the same power and flare as The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Book you bought for the cover:
I don't remember it, and I can't seem to find it in my library, but there was once a book titled something like The Structure of the Molecular World. Fantastic cover. Didn't read it. That's got to mean something about covers.
Book that changed your life:
Shōgun by James Clavell. Mariko-san's love letter from the grave to Pilot-Major Blackthorn set me on a new path.
Favorite line from a book:
Again from Shōgun: "It may come to a choice, my love: Thee or thy ship. So sorry, but I chose life for thee.... This ship is nothing. Build another. This thou canst do."
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson.