AUTHOR PROFILE
ROGER STELLJES
The bestselling crime thriller author and practising lawyer tells Margaret James about writing what he knows
Margaret James
TheAmerican novelist Roger Stelljes is a practising lawyer and devoted family man who also finds time to write bestselling crime fiction set in Minnesota, the US state where he was born and still lives ‘I write about what I know,’ he says. ‘Minnesota is my home, and I’ve lived here my whole life. The twin cities of St Paul and Minneapolis, where I set my Mac McRyan novels, are big, diverse and cosmopolitan. My Tori Hunter stories are set in the wonderful lakes country of northern Minnesota.
‘I started writing my first book, The St Paul Conspiracy, in July 2002, and it was published in September 2006. It’s a crime thriller set in St Paul and is about the murder of an investigative reporter who had been looking into a corporate conspiracy. It also features a serial killer who is terrorising St Paul and, in the end, the two investigations are tied together.
‘The main protagonists of my two crime series, Mac McRyan and Tori Hunter, aren’t necessarily composites of people I know or have met. But they both have characteristics that I feel make people honourable, heroic and interesting. I like to think that Tori and Mac are characters for whom readers will cheer and will want to see succeed.