Math and mystery
add up to fun reads
By Rhonda Van Pelt
Pikes Peak Bulletin
Bonnie
Pinkwater is returning to Manitou Springs. Actually, her creator, Robert
Spiller, is heading to one of his favorite places to sign his latest book
starring the mystery-solving math teacher.
Spiller
was a longtime mathematics teacher who retired in 2010 after working in Monument,
Ellicott and Denver. He launched several previous books at Black Cat Books, the
bookstore formerly owned by Manitou Art Center director Natalie Johnson. In the
process, he said, he and his heroine have made a “slew of friends” in Manitou.
His
teaching career supplied the prototype for the aforementioned Ms. Pinkwater.
“I
taught mathematics with a fantastic woman, Susan Smith. Besides being a
terrific teacher, she had a phenomenally logical mind coupled with a memory
that astounded, and occasionally annoyed, me,” Spiller said. “So when I turned
my hand to mysteries, it seemed someone with her qualities would be perfect for
my sleuth.”
However,
he said that Smith, his muse, is much too nice to be plausible as a book
character, so he mixed in a bit of his own personality.
“Thus
was born the wonderfully caring but also wonderfully snarky Bonnie Pinkwater,”
he said. “We have been best friends through five books.”
When she
isn’t teaching in the fictional town of East Plains, Colo., a pseudonym for
Ellicott, Pinkwater is using her knowledge of historical mathematics to solve
crimes.
“My most
recent outing, ‘Napier’s Bones,’
features John Napier, who not only invented logarithms and eventually the slide
rule, but was also an alchemist,” he said. “The man even owned a jet-black
rooster who, he claimed, could read minds. What could be more fun than that?”
He loved
teaching and misses the interaction with his students.
“I am a
huge fan of teenagers, particularly middle-school teenagers. I find their
directness and honesty refreshing. I am also delighted in how incredibly
strange they can be. They never fail to surprise.”
Spiller,
an “incredibly social person,” admits that going from a classroom full of 13-year-olds
to a much more solitary life with his keyboard was an adjustment.
But he’s
still a teacher at heart, both as a tutor in algebra, geometry and
trigonometry, and an author.
“Many of
my former students are now avid readers,” he said, “and regularly they write to
tell me how they didn't really like math until they had me for a teacher.”
Spiller
has ideas for future Pinkwater mysteries, but is now working on a novel he’s
had in mind for a a few years and describes it as “this book of my heart.” Once
that’s done, he’ll decide what’s next for his mathematician/sleuth.
“One of my favorite things is to get
email from folks telling me how they love Bonnie Pinkwater. I have
friends in far-flung places who write to me how Bonnie seems like someone they
would like to know and how much they admire her.”
He’s
also working on a Young Adult mystery series featuring a protagonist named
Tucker Gamble that should be released in the next few years. They’re set in
1967 Philadelphia, against the backdrop of that turbulent time.
“I am
very high on these because Tucker is a very complex character, a survivor from
an abusive home who carries the scars of those times,” Spiller said.
You
might think that Spiller’s mathematical mind would be an advantage while
organizing his thoughts and ideas into a narrative, but no.
“I seem
to be hindered and blessed with many of the traits that bedevil a lot of
writers. I can find a hundred and one things to do other than write — I am
particularly susceptible to the lure of movies and video games.”
But,
once he knuckles down, his math skills come in handy to organize his plot as he
would a mathematical proof.
Either
way, Spiller’s work is all about solving problems.
What Spiller Reads
“As for
mystery, I read Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Jeffery Deaver and am a sucker
for historical mysteries like Brother Cadfael by Ellis Peters. But recently I
read a wonderful book by Gabrielle Zevin titled “The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry.” A love song to books and
writing, it is a simple tale about a bookstore owner in New England that tells
profound truths. As for my favorite book of all time, it has to be “The Lord of the Rings” by JRR Tolkien.”
If you go
1-4 p.m.
Saturday, June 13
Book
launch party/signing at the Manitou Art Center, 513 Manitou Ave. Danny
Pitcher of Danny and the Fried Shrimp will perform the blues and William
Thayer will juggle. Spiller also promises “copious disks of delectable
sweetness and light” – aka cookies.
More
information about the author and his books: www.rspiller.com.
