Interview with Jan Rehner
author of On Pain of Death

Q On Pain of Death is set in France during the German occupation; what inspired you to choose this setting? Can you describe the research you undertook for this book?

A I have always been fascinated by stories involving resistance in World War II — I remember a couple of BBC television series that I was especially intrigued by. One was very long with many episodes: it was called Secret Army and was set in Belgium. The other was Wish Me Luck, about English women who were sent as agents into France. There is also a great deal of historical information available now about women in the French Resistance — Lucie Aubrac, Marie Louise Dissard, and Marie Madeleine Fourcade to name a few. But my inspiration really came from visiting the many local resistance museums in France — they are full of information about day to day life under the Occupation and have photographs of ordinary people who did extraordinary things.

Q Your first novel, Just Murder, won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Crime Novel. Can you tell us about that experience?

A Winning the award was a great surprise and very encouraging. I'd always wanted to write a mystery novel so just to have achieved that goal was very satisfying. The award was a lovely bonus.

Q How do you create such strong vibrant characters — did you base the courageous women in this book on historical figures, or anyone else from real life?

A Marie Madeleine Fourcade (known as Hedgehog) makes a brief appearance in the novel. But the two main characters, Juliette and Gabrielle, come from my imagination. I wanted to show the moments when they cross the line from passivity to active resistance, and the reasons that would motivate someone to do that. And I also wanted to avoid romanticizing the resistance. I wanted to show their moments of doubt and fear. I think anyone interested in resistance must ask at some point what they might do if faced with a similar set of circumstances. That was the starting point, and then the characters themselves become real to you and dictate to some extent what would be emotionally authentic for them.

Q Tell us about your writing process; how did you devise such a complex interwoven set of plotlines? Do you spend a lot of time planning the plot beforehand, or does it evolve as you are writing?

A I teach writing, so I know that everyone's process is a little different and very seldom neat. In my case, I tend to have a broad, fairly general plot line in mind, but the details evolve as the writing occurs. And sometimes the writing begins with a voice rather than an event. In On Pain of Death, I knew I had to start with Juliette's voice, with the perspective of a young Canadian whose dream of Paris becomes a reality and then a nightmare. I also wrote a great deal of Juliette's story before going back to pick up Gabrielle's, but I always knew that at some point they would meet. It's not easy to explain what happens during the writing process. You might know that character A needs to get to place A but have no idea how to do that. Then you sit down and start to write and somehow the logic and emotion of the words takes you there. And, of course, every writer rewrites. I changed the ending three times with the help of Jennifer Day who was a wonderful editor.

Q Although both of your mysteries are written in the same accomplished style, and feature strong female protagonists, they are very different in setting — Just Murder set in contemporary Canada, and On Pain of Death in historical France. Do you plan to follow either of these precedents for your next novel, or will you be breaking new ground once again?

A Actually, I plan to use both settings. I have an idea in mind that begins in contemporary Toronto and involves a mystery from the past that leaks into the present and takes the main characters to Southern France — both the France of World War II and contemporary France.