Author Dave Hugelschaffer's new book One Careless Moment combines mystery and suspense with scientific details of forest-fire investigation.

One Careless Moment (Cormorant, 2009) is the second book in Hugelschaffer’s Porter Cassel mystery series and finds the eponymous Cassel in Montana, on loan from the Alberta Forest Service, to help with an outbreak of fires. Things turn ugly fast when a sudden burnover claims the life of a firefighter during an arson investigation and Cassel is blamed for the death and ordered to go home. But before he can leave town Cassel is confronted by the victim’s daughter, who believes her father’s death was no accident.

Hugelschaffer weaves together elements of the mystery and suspense genres and skillfully combines them with the scientific details of forest-fire investigation to create compelling stories that the layman as well as anyone with intimate knowledge of the rigors of forest firefighting can enjoy.

Recently Fire Fighting in Canada spoke with the author about researching his works, his time fighting fires and his work on the third novel in the Porter Cassel series, Whiskey Creek.

Forensic sciences and investigations of this nature are very technical and detail-heavy. How much of your writing process is strictly research?

I think the research sometimes is actually a lot more fun than doing the writing. With writing there’s a creative part and an editing part and I tend to do a lot of research even at the conceptual stages. I have a bit of experience and that helps me to decide if a story will work or not, then I might have question to do with major plot lines. With the first book, Day Into Night (Cormorant, 2006) I did a lot research with the bomb-squad in K-Division out of Edmonton. I had questions about the dynamics of clues with the explosives and sometimes that research will help a great deal to shape the plot.

Is that what led you to the experiments with the incendiary devices you have documented on your website www.davehugelschaffer.com?

(laughing) Yes, I was a little worried about putting the incendiary devices on the web but I think it helps give the readers some contextual information. I also do a lot of research with fire investigators and the RCMP.

For the new novel I’m working on, Whiskey Creek, I interviewed some forensics experts in ident in Red Deer. One fellow I interviewed had spent 11 years as a structural fire investigator so he gave me some information on the nuances of a structure fire that a forensics unit might not normally look for.

Is it difficult to incorporate the technical details into the novels while keeping them accessible to a general audience?

It’s a balance and thankfully something I haven’t many issues with, but in reading other mysteries and whodunits sometimes it’s not hard to see where an author got too excited in the research, found it so interesting that they had to cram it all in, but it’s a balance between the reader’s desire to learn something and be part of the procedural world and advancing the story as well, so the best way to do that is to embed the forensics info that drives the plot forward.

The first person present point of view is a bonus even for something as dry as forensics because the reader gets to experience the tactile and personal experiences of the investigator rather than a detached description of what’s happening, which makes it much more immediate

One Careless Moment is the second in the Porter Cassel mystery series.

Porter Cassel seems to share a few of your skill sets. How much are your characters based on yourself or people you’ve met?

I would have to say most of them are, but they’re amalgamations. There is no particular character identical to anyone I’ve met, or myself. You tend to take the personality traits or quirks and combine them into a character. When it comes down to it, people always write what they know, even if it’s subconsciously, so you take a lot of the stuff that you’ve seen and learned and the personalities you’ve encountered and you roll them up into different characters and stories, so they’re all composites, although I do joke with some of the people I work with –  I tell them not to piss me off or I’ll kill them off in my next book!

You recently rejoined the Alberta Forest Services. Are you still involved in fire fighting? And how did you get your start in forest fire fighting?

I’m an operational section head. I was fighting fires actively up until about five years ago. My first job with the forest service was with an initial-attack crew and I found it very exciting, especially the initial attack crew, it’s sort of the glory job, I found it interesting and exciting and for a student you make quite a bit of money – that was my first exposure to it. Fighting fires is one of the core aspects of being a forest ranger. When I first started it wasn’t like it is today. They weren’t separated – you did everything: timber management; land use; reforestation; firefighting. So I had the opportunity as a part of my regular work load every summer to be involved with fires. It just became an integral part of my job.

You’re working on the third Porter Cassel mystery, Whiskey Creek, which will be set in FortChipewyan, Alta. How has it been coming along?

I never have as much time as I like, but right now I’m about one-third done the first draft. It’s a bit like a glacier – it’ll arrive eventually.

One Careless Moment and Day Into Night are both available from Cormorant Books.

For more information on Dave and the Porter Cassel novels visit: www.davehugelschaffer.com or www.cormorantbooks.com

Carey Fredericks is the editorial assistant for Fire Fighting in Canada and Canadian Firefighter and EMS Quarterly magazines.