From Murderous Intent Mystery Magazine, Summer 1999

The Lions' Roar
Jessica Speart's Mysteries Raise Wildlife Awareness

By G. Miki Hayden

A New Jersey girl, mystery author Jessica Speart studied theater at Boston University School of Fine Arts, then moved to New York, where she attended the first-ranked Lee Strasberg Institute. Fully prepped to perform Shakespeare, Speart was sent out for tampon and dog food commercials. Although she tosses this off as a joke ("I knew all that hard work would pay off"), most actors would kill for auditions of that kind. In the end, Speart appeared in spots for Tupperware, Old Milwaukee Beer, and Gallo wine (politically incorrect at the time, but well-paid!).

Speart also made it to off-off Broadway (The Land is Bright by Edna Ferber in which she played Flora the floozy), and to "off-off-way-off-the-meter-Broadway" -- again coups which Speart downplays. Eventually she landed a real plum -- the recurring role of a bitchy head nurse on the soap opera One Life To Live. "That character popped up frequently for about two years, until she was killed off by a mad scientist with a fake arm!" Speart says.

Faced with another round of auditioning for Tampon commercials, Speart did what any sane woman would do -- she took what money she had and blew it all on a trip to East Africa to see the wildlife.

By the time Speart returned home, she knew what she wanted to do with her life. The first thing, was to not wear make-up (she doesn f need it) and not curl her hair every day for endless rounds of auditions.

Her second goal was to let people know about the problems facing animal species around the world. One day, while watching a news magazine, she saw a piece on Dr. Betsy Dresser whose life work is to save endangered species through the use of frozen embryo transfer. Speart began her "usual rant" about trying to help save wildlife, when her then-boyfriend (now husband) suggested she start writing about it. So, that's what she did.

"I called Dr. Dresser at the Cincinnati Zoo and put all my acting training to good use," Speart recalls. "In other words, I lied through my teeth." Dresser was kind enough to allow Speart to fly out and interview her. The resulting article soid to Omni Magazine, another sensational achievement.

Next, Speart was assigned by Omni to write about the first forensic lab in the world for wildlife, run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Ashland, Oregon. Speart was fascinated, and, after that, concentrated on the work of special agents of the Service.

"My first article on this topic had me hooked up with a wild-man agent in Louisiana, slogging through the bayous and chasing after poachers. That was it," exclaims Speart. "I became a Fish and Wildlife law enforcement groupie! Fortunately, most agents liked my enthusiasm and agreed to let me travel along with them on assignments."

Speart spent the next ten years doing investigative reporting that focused on endangered species. Her articles went into top publications, from Audubon to The New York Times Magazine, and covered such topics as drugs being smuggled into the country inside wildlife shipments and the poisoning of golden eagles by ranchers in the West. "The more involved I became, the more I saw what a handful of wildlife agents are up against and how the 'bad' guys get away with little more than a slap on the wrist," comments Speart. Rachel Porter, Speart's mystery protagonist, an agent with Fish and Wildlife, was born to even the score.

In the midst of writing a non-fiction book about the agency, Speart also pounded out her first novel, Gator Aide, which her agent assured her would never sell. "So, I sent it to Avon," Speart recounts. "They read it, called me up and offered me a three-book contract." Gator Aide went on to receive a starred review in Publisher's Weekly and a second print run.

After her years as an reporter, Speart was addicted to research in the field and didn't cut down any simply because she was now writing fiction. Her second book, Tortoise Soup, sent her driving aroand the Mojave Desert for weeks at a time in one hundred and ten degree heat. There, she hung out with ranchers involved in a standoff with the government over grazing rights. "Since they threatened to kill any law enforcement officers who stepped foot on their property, I headed out to see them alone," says Speart. She wound up on horseback for the first time ever, trying not to lose face -- or life or limb -- as she clambered down a bluff as high as the Empire State Building.

Speart's third book, newly out, is Bird Brained, set in South Florida. For this, she entered a cage with two mountain lions after being armed with a garden rake. "I've done articles on mountain lions. The way they attack is to get behind their victims and lock their jaws around the neck," Speart notes. "That suffocates their prey, and also breaks the neck after a few good shakes. Well, these two mountain lions took one look at me and must have had some good telepathy going. Both jumped off their perches and started to circle around me -- each taking a different direction. In other words, I looked good enough for lunch. I never turned around to run -- it would have been a big mistake -- but I slowly backed out of there as fast as I could, all the while holding that silly little rake in front of me."

Later, Speart fled to the relative safety of a large glass dome with five gigantic Burmese pythons. "Of course, then there was the stripper I met in South Beach along with her husband who'd just recently been released from prison, and who happened to share a cell with a wildlife smuggler I'd written about.... Needless to say, my husband has now taken out a large life insurance policy on me!" remarks Speart.

Speart has almost finished the research for her fourth Rachel Porter book, Border Prey, which is set in El Paso. So far, Speart has taken three trips from her Connecticut home into the dark heart of Texas. The last thing coming up is a visit to Fort Detrick where... (oh oh, look out, Jess...)

Since Speart began writing about wildlife some years ago, she has witnessed the growth of public awareness to the plight of endangered species. "Suddenly, we see stories about what's happening with the Air Force chimps, abuse of animals in circuses, all that sort of thing. That's what I'm trying to do with my books, but in a fictional way to reach a larger audience than the already-converted," Speart explains. "I want to entertain and yet make people conscious of problems at the same time."

Just because some of her characters are wacky doesn't mean her material is crazy or over-the-top. It's not. "I couldn't make up half the insanity that's going on out there," she states emphatically. As "X-Files" as some of her explanations in Tortoise Soup are, for instance, the government is really involved in questionable projects of the type she writes about, Speart claims.

"I receive great feedback from every Fish and Wildlife agent who reads my work," comments Speart. "They appreciate the fact that I truly believe in what they're doing."

Although Speart does some few interviews with the release of each book, she does so carefully. "Each book has a surprise ending -- something you didn't think was going on, which is the real issue." She doesn't want to tell too much and spoil her readers' total experience.

With all Speart's stepping in and out of cages and foraging in the wild, you'd imagine that she'd list any number of exotic critters as sharing her home. Not exactly. "What I do have are two noisy Bichons [dogs]. Although I do feed cracked corn to the deer outside." The deer are enough wildlife to make her less than popular with her suburban neighbors.

G. Miki Hayden, the author of By Reason of Insanity, teaches mystery writing at http://www.paintedrock.com.

Copyright © 1999 by Murderous Intent Mystery Magazine.