Chris Mele, former editor of the Pocono Record, writes crime novel
Christopher Mele, former editor-in-chief of the Pocono Record, has written his first novel, drawing on his decades of experience as a journalist to create a realistic crime story.
Mele, now an assistant editor on the breaking news team at The New York Times, began his career in the Adirondacks and set “Goodwill’s Secrets” in a fictional Adirondack village.
Its main character is newspaper reporter Alex Provetto, who reports on the disappearance of Raven, a teenager from Goodwill.
He never expected to write fiction, especially not a novel. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mele had an idea for a short story, and as he thought more about developing the characters, setting and backstory, “it just became more than a short story.”
Coming from a background in news, he found writing novels to be “a real brain transplant,” but that fact-based background still influenced his invention of people, places and events.
He aimed for what he calls “fictional realism” – a story without shortcuts, hand gestures or logical gaps. He wanted the fictional disappearance and investigation to play out in a way that would sound believable to a real investigator, lawyer, judge or reporter reading the novel.
Mele described the book as “a kind of love letter to local reporting and local journalism” and, through its main character, the reporter, shows “the fundamental and important work that reporters and editors of local newspapers do every day.”
With newsrooms shrinking and news deserts growing, Mele wanted to “remind people that the reporters and editors in these smaller newsrooms – whether they’re daily or weekly newspapers – are doing important work in rural and suburban areas that don’t necessarily get the attention and affection of larger metropolitan areas.”
He also chose the less densely populated setting because it gave the story more suspense. A disappearance that might be “swallowed up” in a big city has a different effect in the sparsely populated Adirondacks.
“It’s not a densely populated place. There’s a sense of community. It can be very bleak. People look out for each other. There’s a close bond,” Mele said. “So there’s a certain underlying tension, if you will, that could be built into the story by having something bad happen in a place where you don’t expect it.”
Earlier this month, he returned to the Adirondacks for a writers’ festival, which gave him the opportunity to reunite with old colleagues and community members and meet other local authors.
“I was a kid from the Bronx who went straight from there to the Adirondacks to work. It was quite a culture shock. But this community really embraced me, I tell people,” he said.
Mele will speak to the Blue Fox Creative Writing Group on Thursday at 1 p.m. at the Pike County Public Library in Milford.
Self-promotion was unusual for Mele, and during the two and a half years and four drafts it took him to complete Goodwill’s Secrets, he often had to battle his inner critic.
“But now I’ve contracted the virus and am actually starting to work on the second one, believe it or not,” he said.
The self-published book is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and can be ordered from independent bookstores. Mele’s website is chrismeleauthor.com.
Kathryne Rubright is editor in chief of the Pocono Record and the Tri-County Independent. You can reach her at [email protected].
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