Author and Buffalo native, Robert Brighton knows how to tell a good story. A former speech writer, graduate of the Sorbonne in France, and avid traveler, Brighton’s experiences have enriched his imagination, and have informed his love of research. His new work of historical fiction, Current of Darkness, is now available, and is, in Brighton’s words, “a tale of industrial espionage set in turn of the last century Niagara Falls, and also in Buffalo,” during the period known as The Gilded Age.
Growing up in Buffalo, Brighton was a voracious reader, who took to adventure novels as a way to explore the world, and satiate his desire to travel. He obtained a degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering, and worked for DuPont as a speech writer. It was at that position, walking up the stairs that Brighton decided he wanted a different kind of life afforded by a 9-5 job.
“I was walking up these wonderful stairs inside the DuPont building. It’s an art deco building. Even the stairs are all marble. You know, it’s beautiful. And what I noticed, as I was trudging up the stairs to the 9th floor, was that these hard marble stairs had been worn. That they had a dip or a divot worn in them by the passage of countless feet, innumerable feet, going up and down these same stairs over…however long it had been around. It hit me with the force of an epiphany, that I was just another pair of feet wearing my tiny little grain of marble away, up and down those stairs. And I thought that’s not the way I want to live my life… By the time I got to the 9th floor, I’d resolved that I would sell everything. I would quit my job and travel around the world with a backpack on my back, and that’s what I did.”
Brighton traveled the world, and returned home, but felt the call to become a novelist. “I just decided that while I had done a lot of writing in business and some for fun, I just got to the point where I thought, ‘You know, if my whole life passes by, and I’ve never really tried this, I think I would feel the same way I felt when I was walking up those stairs in the DuPont building. That I had somehow squandered the most precious gift of all, and that’s the gift of time, the gift of our lives… So, in the little time that I’m here, I want to make the most of it.”
In order to start to prepare to write, Brighton did some primary source research.
“I picked 3 Buffalo newspapers and one New York City newspaper. and I read them from 1898 to 1902… I mean articles, op ed, ads, comics, whatever. I read. I read all those newspapers cover to cover. It took four years. And by the time I was done, I had really been steeped in the vernacular of the time…I finished the 1902 newspaper, and I was really sad when I finished reading the last page of the last newspaper in 1902, and I thought ‘Oh geez, you know, I’ve got to stop this research and get serious.’ And then I decided that I would just read a couple more months. ‘I’m going to open up 1903, and do a few more months.’
So, I get to February 1903, and I trip across, quite by accident, the biggest unsolved crime in all of Buffalo’s history… So, I resolved that my first book, The Unsealing, would be the fictionalized solution to this famous case,” said Brighton, adding, “Well, I needed a detective. And so, I don’t know how these things happen, but Sarah Payne, who’s my heroine and lead detective for the eventual Avenging Angel Detective Agency, which is a series that got going, you know, just sort of knocked on my door one day and announced herself, and inserted herself into this project.”
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The Unsealing was followed by the second book in Avenging Angel Detective Agency series, A Murder in Ashwood, and the recently released Current of Darkness. The historical fiction series is set in the Buffalo/Niagara region, and features recurring characters, including the aforementioned Sarah Payne. Fans of the series are thrilled to see the characters return, and excited to more deeply dive into the history of the region. Brighton believes that people like his characters because they are, “people that have extraordinary gifts in some dimensions, but also are very ordinary people in many others. They’re people that you would want to get to know. They’re people you’d want to spend time with, they’re people you’d want to maybe learn from, and there are some things that they can probably learn from us. I think the charm of The Avenging Angels Detective Agency lies in the fact that they are very real people and warts at all, and they’re people that my readers seem to want to keep learning about as they go.”
According to Brighton, readers can start with Current of Darkness, or can begin with The Unsealing to start the series. “I’m writing standalone books too [like The Buffalo Butcher], so it’s not just [Avenging Angels Detective Agency ] series, and I specifically designed the series so that people don’t have to start at the beginning, and read them all in order. You could drop in anytime. They’re all free standing. You’ll be rewarded if you start at the beginning. You should have a deeper understanding of the long arc of these characters’ lives, but at the same time you don’t have to.”
Robert Brighton’s next book, The Phantom of Forest Lawn, will be released in the fall, just in time for Halloween. His books are available at all retailers. Here’s a link to his Amazon Author page: Robert Brighton, Author
The post Unsolved Crimes & Avenging Angels: Author and Buffalo Native Robert Brighton Weaves Local Lore Through Gilded Age Fiction (Podcast Included) appeared first on Buffalo Rising.