Writing MY Boston – A New Take on a Familiar City By Bridges DelPonte
For decades, Boston has been a popular “scene of the crime” for a wide range of well-known mystery and crime novels. From hard-boiled PIs and gritty Irish mobsters to trendy Back Bay urbanites and posh Beacon Hill Brahmins, this city of distinct neighborhoods has played an important role in many famous works. Years ago when I told a friend that I was starting to write a mystery series set in the Boston area, she asked, “Why bother? Boston has been so done.” I understood her reaction, having admired these earlier novels set in my hometown. But I knew that the famed Boston archetypes in those books did not capture my Boston. My Boston wasn’t in Southie, Back Bay or Beacon Hill, but across the river in the tight-knit Portuguese community of East Cambridge. My grandparents, who emigrated from Madeira and the Azores, lived the rest of their lives in this neighborhood. My parents met and married there before taking their growing brood ...