Falls writer visits the scary side of hometown
Story follows detective, grad student tracking a series of murders against a local Mafia kingpin’s family
If the world isn’t scary enough right now, Niagara Falls-born writer Justin Joschko is also dealing with mobsters, supernatural killers and the creepy side of his hometown.
It’s all in his latest novel “Whitetooth Falls,” which recently won gold at the Book Publishing Association’s annual Benjamin Franklin Awards.
The book follows a homicide detective and Brock University grad student tracking a series of murders against a local Mafia kingpin’s family. The kills are particularly savage, and always done during a full moon.
Joschko, who now lives in Ottawa, describes the book as a “twisted love letter” to his hometown. He has also written for literary journals, short story collections and the first two novels of his futuristic “Yellow Locust” adventure series.
The Review: You’ve written a few other books, but this is the first set in Niagara Falls. Did you always plan on returning home with your writing some day?
Joschko: “It wasn’t exactly a plan, but when I first had the idea for ‘Whitetooth Falls,’ Niagara was a natural place to set the story. Partly because I grew up there and can picture it easily, but I also think it fits the tone of the book really well. I’ve written other stories before and since that are also set in Niagara, but they don’t feel as intimately tied to their setting as this one does. Part of that might have been what made ‘Whitetooth Falls’ so fun to write — I got to go home and visit for a while, even if it was just in my imagination.”
The Review: Is there a dark side to the Falls that just lends itself to horror stories?
Joschko: “There’s definitely something about the place that lends itself to stories of the bizarre or macabre, at least in my eyes. Whenever I’ve travelled and told people where I’m from, I’ve been struck by how famous yet unknown Niagara is at the same time. Every city with a lot of tourism has a visitor’s side and a resident’s side, but in Niagara that divide seems particularly stark. People come in droves, but they don’t really see the city, they see the falls and the parkway and Clifton Hill. Something about that contrast of glamour and neglect fascinates me. I wanted to cut past the clichés and describe the city as I actually saw it growing up, not a collection of tourist attractions.”
The Review: What horror writers inspired you growing up?
Joschko: “I’ve always had a pretty broad taste in books and as a teenager I probably read more science fiction and fantasy than outright horror. That being said, I read an absolute ton of Stephen King as a kid, so he’s definitely been an influence. Shirley Jackson is an author I came to a bit later but whose work I love, and Flannery O’Connor, while not a horror writer, has an unparalleled knack for writing outsiders that I admire greatly and have tried to emulate. There’s also an element of noir and crime fiction to ‘Whitetooth Falls,’ and I drew inspiration from Raymond Chandler, Dennis Lehane and especially Elmore Leonard. Derek
McCulloch, the mouthy but sly hit man, particularly strikes me as an Elmore Leonard kind of character.”
The Review: How did you celebrate winning the gold at the Benjamin Franklin Awards?
Joschko: “Covid kept things pretty low key, obviously, but I watched the livestream announcement with my family and joined the webcast for a few words when I won. I also cracked an extra bottle of beer, which I started brewing at home this January — good timing, as it turned out.”
The Review: More creepy stuff on the horizon?
Joschko: “In the near future, definitely. I have one novel written and another in draft, and both have their feet firmly in the horror camp. Beyond that, though, I can see myself drifting more to fantasy or science fiction for a while. I’m not one to stick to a single genre in my reading, and my writing’s the same way. I like to mix it up. Also, my first two novels were part of a postapocalyptic series, and I plan on revisiting that world at some point to conclude the story.”