Les Roberts came to Cleveland in 1987, after more than two decades working in television in Los Angeles, to help start the Ohio Lottery’s Cash Explosion TV show. While here, he fell in love with the area and has made it his home since — as well as the setting for the bulk of his novels, including 19 featuring private detective Milan Jacovich. His most recent novel, Sierra Bravo, came out earlier in the year. He’s got another set to come out next year and is working on two more.
Cleveland Magazine: You’ve done a lot of writing for television, for shows as varied as The Andy Griffith Show, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Hollywood Squares. How did you branch out into novels?
Les Roberts: A guy came to me and said he wanted to be a producer and wanted to make a private eye movie like Casablanca. I didn’t have the heart to tell him Casablanca wasn’t really a private eye movie. So I wrote an outline, and they loved it. The deal fell apart, but I still wanted to write the screenplay. So I sat down and wrote about 30 pages, and I heard a voice say, “This is a book, schmuck.” I submitted it to a contest at St. Martin’s Press. I sent it in August, and in October, they called me and said, “You won.” I got paid $10,000. I loved it so much that I kept writing.
CM: What’s the writing process like for you?
LR: When I start a book — people ask me this all the time — I know who gets killed, I know who did it, and the rest of it I make up as I go along. Robert Crais writes the Elvis Cole mysteries. We lived near each other in Los Angeles, and we both published books the same week. He would write a 60-page outline of each book. I said, “While you’re writing those 60 pages of outline, I’ve written 60 pages of a novel.” He said, “I couldn’t write without it.” I said, “I couldn’t write with it.”
CM: You’ve written a total of 19 Milan Jacovich books but none since 2016. Are you done with the character?
LR: I’ve stopped writing the Milan books. He’s been my best friend, but I reached the end with it because when I was writing the 19th book, I didn’t hate it, but I thought, There’s more to my life than a fictional Slovenian American private eye in Cleveland, and I’ve explored other areas since then, and I’ve a fun time doing it.
CM: At 87, you’re at an age where most people aren’t writing books. What keeps you at it?
LR: Everyone assumed I was going to stop writing when I turned 80, but James Michener published his last book at 90, and I said if he can do it, I can do it. I write a little slower than I used to. I used to do a book in five or six months. Now, it takes closer to a year. But I love doing it, and I’ll keep writing until I can’t anymore.
CM: What is it about Cleveland that appeals to you as home and as a setting for your books?
LR: There are so many things that go on here. There’s a music scene and a sports scene. At one point, all the local politicians were getting put in jail, and that really inspired me. This place excites me, it pisses me off and it’s fun. When I leave Northeast Ohio, it will be in an urn.
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