By now, fans of author Les Roberts know Milan Jacovich pretty well. The private investigator has been the main character in Roberts' crime series since 1988. In his latest book, The Cleveland Creep (Gray & Co., $24.95), Jacovich tries to locate a 28-year-old with a camera fetish.
Q| What sparked an interest in mystery and crime? Probably watching all those Alan Ladd, Robert Mitchum and Humphrey Bogart movies. I never wanted to be a cop, but I was always amazed at how crimes get solved. And there's nothing more dramatic, in terms of fiction, than some sort of crime.
Q| Is Jacovich your alter ego? In a way. He's Slovenian, and I'm not. He's 6 feet 3 inches tall and 235 pounds, and I'm not. He played football, and I didn't. But he and I are very much alike sometimes in looking at life as black and white. ... You're either a good person, or you're a bad person.
Q| What's next for Jacovich? I'm currently working on a book about local Cleveland politics. It's fascinating because every day I watch the news and read the paper and think, Oh my god, I've got to put that in there, too. I think every Greater Clevelander will know what I'm writing about.
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