For 22 books, through romances and thrillers and bestsellers, including the hit
For 22 books, through romances and thrillers and bestsellers, including the hit series with homicide cop Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles, Tess Gerritsen hid the fact that she was Asian-American.
But for “The Silent Girl,” released this month, Gerritsen turned to her Chinese roots, weaving Chinese lore, a mysterious female wushu grandmaster, and the myth of the Monkey King into a tale of murder set in Boston’s Chinatown.
Working with Rizzoli and Isles for the first time is Johnny Tam, an ambitious Chinese-American detective with a chip on his shoulder and a secret of his own.
Gerritsen speaks about Asian-Americans in fiction and writing a series so successful it has inspired its own TV show, the second series of which has just started.
In this book, the interesting character is Johnny Tam.
Yes. You know, I have hidden my race for 22 books. I have hidden behind my married name, which is very Caucasian, because I didn’t feel safe coming out with it. I didn’t feel that the market would really accept me. I think I felt it’s time to start bringing in an Asian-American point of view.
Why did you feel you had to hide your background?
Mostly it was the marketplace. I did not feel there was a big market for the Asian-American voice.
The other thing that happened was that years ago, when I started writing romantic thrillers, I had an editor tell me that every time they had an Asian-American major character in the book, it didn’t do well. I followed her advice at the time.
I also thought that the majority of my readers are white, and I think they want to read about white characters. I was reluctant to hurt my career or in any way get in the way of the sales. I have minor characters who are Asian-American, and I’ve been using them throughout my career, but they’ve never taken center stage, they’ve never been really powerful, they’ve never expressed some of the experiences I had growing up in the US Johnny Tam is the first one.
Was it set in Chinatown to bring him in?
I needed a reason for this young man who is not on Homicide to be brought into the story. They would ask for a translator, even though he speaks Mandarin and doesn’t speak Cantonese.
I also wanted a male. My brother often complains to me about the ‘angry Asian male’ in the United States. As a female, I haven’t encountered this, but Asian-American men are angry. They’re angry because, for so many years, they’ve been neglected as sex symbols.
Asian women have it much easier, I think, we’re accepted into various circles. But my brother has complained that Asian American males don’t get respect… on the dating market, anyway.
So I wanted to have a sexy Asian male in this story, somebody who would maybe catch Maura’s eye, who would be heroic, who would be multi-faceted, and who would have a secret.
But aren’t some aspects of this Asian-American setting almost feeding stereotypes, such as the martial arts?
I’m glad you mentioned this, because people go ‘yeah, right, Asian-American martial arts woman.’ It is inspired by a real woman. Her name is Bow-sim Mark. She is a grandmaster in Wushu, and she introduced Wushu to the Boston market, she has her own studio there. She’s one of the few female grandmasters in the world.