Historical crime novel set in County WEXFORD
Talking Location With author Len Joy – ARIZONA
5th March 2022
#TalkingLocationWith…. Len Joy, author of Dry Heat, set in ARIZONA
My new novel, Dry Heat, is set in Phoenix in the period from 1999 to 2014. Joey Blade is an All-American high school football star who plans to attend the University of Arizona on a football scholarship. His family owns the largest engine rebuilder in the southwest. On the day he turns 18, he learns his ex-girlfriend Mallory is pregnant, is betrayed by his new girlfriend, and after a road rage incident where he is the innocent bystander, he is arrested for the attempted murder of two police officers.
In 1988 I bought an engine rebuilder in Phoenix and for the next fifteen years I operated that business with my brother-in-law. My family stayed in Illinois and I flew back and forth to Phoenix, accumulating over a million air miles.
The early years we battled daily just to survive. I have to admit I looked forward to the flight home. I wrote a poem about the experience. The last stanza says it all:
The plane lifts off.
Turns east towards the sun.
Shoes off, seat back – three hours of freedom.
A glass of wine and a window seat.
It’s always sunny at thirty thousand feet.
The world below is small and clean and neat.
My house in Phoenix was next to the Phoenix Mountain Preserve. On weekends I would run the mountain trails, even in the summer. Just like Joey Blade:
“In July and August, the temperature seldom dropped below a hundred degrees during the day, and the blistering sun baked the land hard and brown. But now the desert teemed with life. Birds circled above the saguaro cacti that dotted the landscape. There were splotches of green everywhere. The land appeared almost habitable.
“It is pretty,” Joey said, “but I like summer. Can’t beat that dry heat.”
“You’re the only one I know who runs in the heat of the summer,” said Mallory.
Joey laughed. It was true. He would run the desert mountain preserve trails behind his house, sometimes at two or three in the afternoon. “Perfect time to run. No crowds. When the temp gets to 110, not even the birds come out. I love it. Can’t explain. It’s like I’m the only one left in the world. No sound but my feet hitting the trail stones.”
For weekend getaways, I would go with friends to Lake Pleasant. In my novel, Joey Blade’s world has been turned upside-down. He is desperate to find TJ, the drug dealer responsible for the attack on the police officers. He learns from Mallory that TJ is hiding up at Lake Pleasant.
“It only took fifty minutes to cover the forty miles to Lake Pleasant. The lake had been a large irrigation reservoir until the state built the Central Arizona Aqueduct in the seventies. The aqueduct diverted waters from the Colorado River into Lake Pleasant, tripling its size and turning it into a major recreation spot for Arizonans.
“That’s where Lua launches his boat,” Joey said as they passed a sign for Scorpion Bay Marina.
“You had a lot of fun up here,” Mallory said.
“What do you mean?” Joey asked.
“All the girls wanted a chance to ski with that tall, dark, and handsome football hero, Joey Blade.” She giggled.
“Shut up, Mallory.”
Phoenix has a great collection of country bars. I enjoyed the smaller places, like Handlebar J’s in Scottsdale, but back in the ‘90s for special occasions a group of us with head over to Graham’s Central Station. A raucous cavern and a totally unique experience.
After Joey fails to capture TJ at Lake Pleasant, he sets up a meeting at Graham’s with the notorious gang leader, Chico Torres, to ask for his help in finding the elusive drug dealer. It’s a fateful decision that changes the course of Joey’s life.
“Joey had never been in a bar before, but Graham’s was different from anything he’d ever seen on television. It was more like an amusement park. He walked through the swinging double doors of the lobby into a cavernous space as large as a football field. There was a whooping throng surrounding a wannabe cowboy trying to ride a mechanical bull. At the horseshoe-shaped bar there were two dozen bartenders handing out bottles of beer as fast as they could. The sign above the bar read, “Twenty-nine-cent longnecks.”
Dry Heat is a crime novel about a boy who loses everything but his heart.
Phoenix tips…
- Phoenix has a lot of easy-to-access mountain trails for hikers, mountain bikes and horses. For road bikers, there is a paved trail along the Arizona Canal that begins in Mesa and flows west through the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community to downtown Scottsdale, and all the way to Peoria. The trails are a great way to experience the Valley of the Sun and avoid the traffic.
- Graham Central Station is long gone, but Phoenix still has a great variety of country bars that welcome folks of all ages – locals and visitors. Many of them offer dance lesson mixers – which is good way to meet new people. My favorite is Handlebar J in Scottsdale.
- Dry Heat.I’ll let Joey have the last word on Phoenix weather: “The temperature was already into the eighties and the sun was still just below the horizon. It felt comfortable running. That was the danger of dry heat. Your body didn’t notice the heat like it did when there was humidity. Sweat quickly evaporated, making the body feel cool. But stay out there too long and the dry heat would kill you before you knew what hit you.”
About the Author:
Len Joy is the author of Dry Heat (2022). He has published three previous novels, Everyone Dies Famous (2020), Better Days (2018) and American Past Time (2014) and a collection of short fiction, Letting Go (2018).
Len is an All-American triathlete and competes internationally representing Team USA.
He lives in Evanston, Illinois with his wife, Suzanne Sawada. You can connect with the author via his website and Twitter
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