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Lies masquerading as truth: Brad Meltzer talks new book and why he loves Clark Kent

By Cornelius A. Fortune

Novelist and comic book writer Brad Meltzer’s imaginative worlds have finally collided. With the newly released thriller The Book of Lies, the New York Times bestselling author has brought his love of Superman and Clark Kent front and center.

The book might be displayed in the “new release” section of your favorite bookstore, but The Book of Lies has been floating around as an idea for 11 years.

Right after the success of his legal thriller The Tenth Justice, Meltzer was ready to follow that one up with a Cain and Abel story, exploring the unnamed murder weapon, and what many Biblical scholars referred to as “The Mark of Cain,” a mark the Creator had given him for slaying his brother.

“I wanted to do a modern (day) story of Cain and Abel,” Meltzer says. But the publisher had other ideas. They were marketing him as the next John Grisham and a book about the Mark of Cain wouldn’t exactly fit his newly acquired audience. “I caved faster than the history of failing.”

The Superman material came later, during the Book of Fate tour. A woman in the audience stood up and questioned his knowledge of Superman. Of course, Meltzer’s retort was that he knew everything there was to know about his favorite superhero. She then went on to tell him about a murder he’d never heard of – the one that drives the mystery of the book even more than the Cain part – the mysterious death of Mitchell Siegel, the father of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel. “Jerry Siegel is my uncle,” she added.

The woman’s name was Terri Siegel, and it got Meltzer thinking again about his other idea about the first murder in human history, and maybe there was a connection.

This is what he came up with: in Chapter four of the Book of Genesis, Cain kills Abel. It is the world’s most famous murder. But the Bible is silent about one key detail: the weapon Cain used to kill his brother. That weapon is still lost to history.

In 1932, Mitchell Siegel was killed by three gunshots to his chest. While mourning, his son dreamed of a bulletproof man and created the world’s greatest hero: Superman. And like Cain’s murder weapon, the gun used in this unsolved murder has never been found.

For his comic fans, The Book of Lies might be the one book of his worth trying. “If this one doesn’t interest you, I have nothing for you,” Meltzer says.

Meltzer has written such graphic novels as the best selling Identity Crisis, Justice League and Green Arrow. He recently published the DC Comics one-shot Last Will & Testament. Even with his experience playing in the DC Universe, Meltzer still finds Superman the hardest character to write, mainly because it’s Clark Kent that interests him as a writer.

“We’re all ordinary and boring, and that’s the beautiful part of the tale,” he says. “For me, the interesting part has never been the Superman story; the interesting part is Clark Kent – the idea that all of us, in all our ordinariness – can change the world.  That theme is in every single thing I’ve ever worked on, from the novels, to the comics, to Jack & Bobby. I love the idea that the story of Superman may have come from a place of vulnerability than strength.”

Last Will & Testament and The Book of Lies were written around the same time, during his mother’s battle with breast cancer; a battle she eventually lost.

“I don’t think it was a coincidence that it was started when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer,” he says. “It really was what was happening in my life – it gave me a sense of honesty I never had in my writing.”

When he visited Cleveland, Ohio, the birthplace of Superman, he knew he’d find some Rockwellian structure in honor of the Man of Steel. What he found was nothing of the sort.

“It was beat up; it was heart breaking,” he says of the house that was literally on the verge of collapse. But the best part of the trip was meeting Jerry Siegel’s wife, Joanne, who was the model for Lois Lane. “She’s a total spitfire,” he says, “like Lois.” He’s started a restoration site to gather support at www.ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com.

For Meltzer, moving between novels, comics and television (he co-created the WB series Jack & Bobby) is all approached from the same motivation: character.

“I don’t treat any medium different. It’s a different palette to paint with, and in novels, I have to paint with just words,” Meltzer says. “In comics, I love the crutch of having an artist. It’ll take me two days to describe a bar and I have to struggle (with it). In a comic (script) I just go: smoky bar; make it cool. TV is like trying to push water, but again to me, comics, novels, and TV is all about character, character, character.”

By now, most people have probably seen the book’s trailer at www.bradmeltzer.com and may have heard that he’s released a soundtrack to go along with the book.

“Does a novel need a soundtrack? No. Of course it doesn’t. But music is manipulative,” he says. “I loved that we could get together with Sony Music and give you the experience of what it’s like to listen to the songs that play in my head. I love that you can listen to what I was thinking.”

Every book he’s ever written has been a “book of lies trying to masquerade as the truth.” He writes books he himself would love to read, and in the end, that’s all that really matters. After 11 years, he’s finally written the book of his career.

“I try in every book to find what I love,” Meltzer says.

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