Even while writing and promoting five books, award-winning author Lori Roy was taking day trips around Florida. She didn’t know exactly what she was looking for, but she knew old Florida was something she wanted to write about. Florida has that effect on writers.
One of her previous books, “The Disappearing,” was set in North Florida. And before the pandemic, the St. Petersburg resident spent a lot of time reading books by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gilbert King that recounted infamous Florida crimes.
“I read several things by him, especially ‘Devil in the Grove’ and ‘Beneath (a) Ruthless Sun,’” she said. Both books are about Lake County Sheriff Willis V. McCall and the abuses of power under his reign. “Gilbert King makes me want to be a better writer.”
While her Southern Gothic books are fictional, Roy likes to draw parallels with reality, especially Florida truths.
“I got really interested in the history and the (dynamics) in this one county smack dab in the middle of Florida, and I just held onto that for a long time,” she said about “Lake County,” her newest novel, which was released June 1 by Thomas & Mercer.
Roy visited Clermont, Tavares and Mount Dora several times to get a sense of what the county offered.
Hockta, the fictional town she created for “Lake County,” is a “culmination of all those little towns,” she said. “I like all the stuff that hasn’t changed in small towns, like the original architecture and the curbs that are really, really tall.”
The small-town backdrop helped shape her “Lake County” characters.
“Life is a little more contained in a small community, so if you are trapped, you are really trapped,” Roy said. “In a little town, you either fit in or you are out.”
Architecture and history closer to her home in Pinellas County also inspired elements of “Lake County.” In the book, she weaves together true and fictional stories of organized crime in Ybor City.
“I love the history of Ybor City,” Roy said. “Writing about the Mafia wasn’t exactly in my strike zone, but I found it very comfortable,” she said.
Included in the novel are stories of the notorious mobster Charlie Wall. He was a rival crime boss in the Florida Mafia who was brutally murdered in his home in 1955. His killer was never found.
“Organized crime bosses seem to be pretty analytic,” she said. “And I used to be a tax accountant.”
While writing the novel, she knew she wanted the main character, Addie, to have a famous aunt. Originally, she was thinking of using one of the B-movie actresses who’d visited Florida to film movies like 1954′s “Creature from the Black Lagoon” near Silver Springs.
But on a walk along St. Petersburg’s Central Avenue, she saw the mural of Marilyn Monroe by the Vitale Bros. and knew she had found her famous character.
“In college, I went through this whole Rat Pack stage where I read about Marilyn and Dean (Martin) and the gangsters,” she said. “I didn’t want Marilyn to be a gimmick, but I knew I wanted to try writing for her and then see if she had something to say.
“She came (to life) on the page, and the best way I can say it is, she’s happy to be there. She was very easy to write, and she said, ‘Hell yes, I’ve got something to say.’ It had to be something I felt only she could do,” said Roy.
Lately, Roy has been visiting some of Florida’s swamplands, researching her next book. “I recently went trekking through the Big Cypress swamps and had some scary moments with alligators,” she said. “The next book is (set) in the present day, so it’s a little different vibe although (it still has that) small-townish grit.”
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