Q&A with Houston Author Rebecca Saltzer

West U resident Rebecca Saltzer’s second novel, Not Accounting for Murder, published in 2024. Anne Scott is a rising star on Wall Street who navigates the ever-changing seas of finance with deft precision. But in the high society inhabited by her boyfriend's family, she feels like a fish out of water. These two worlds collide when she dumps the stock of a highly regarded company and its CEO blames her for causing the share price to plummet. 
Tom Coffey, author of Public Morals, states: "Anne Scott, the plucky heroine of Rebecca Saltzer's latest, provides an up-close look at the world of the one percent -- which, despite appearances, isn't pretty. As she navigates that treacherous world, facing both professional and personal peril, Anne offers all of us one all-important lesson: Money is murder." This is the second in a mystery series featuring Anne Scott. 

Rebecca Saltzer worked as a bond analyst on the trading floor at Lehman Brothers in New York City in the financial heyday of the '80s. Like the protagonist in her novel, she sometimes encountered fraud and other questionable business practices, except in real life none of it led to murder. In 2021, Rebecca received the William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant for unpublished writers. When she’s not writing, she enjoys hiking with her two rescue dogs and exploring the great outdoors. 

Rebecca answers some questions that I posed to her about Not Accounting for Murder:

What do you hope your readers take away from your book?

That the world of Wall Street is fascinating. It’s where big money meets greed and temptation…and all sorts of things can go wrong. The cutthroat nature of the business provides the perfect setting for murder.

You worked on the trading floor at Lehman Brothers. What were the traders like?

They’re extremely intense individuals, basically a breed unto themselves. They often resort to bullying if they don’t hear what they want, and have no qualms about publicly chewing someone up and spitting them out with a string of obscenities hurled in the process. There’s a good reason most are under the age of 40. Like fireworks, they flash bright and burn hot, but then fizzle.

Back in the '80s, when I was a young research analyst, their idea of a fun birthday celebration sometimes included a stripper performing on the trading floor. As a woman, I didn’t exactly appreciate their choice of entertainment. That said, Wall Street is one of the few places I’ve found that’s a true meritocracy. No fancy pie charts or schmoozing the idiot boss. Your worth is measured in dollars – how much you contribute to the company’s bottom line. It’s merciless. You either add value and are paid a huge bonus in return or you’re shown the exit door. End of story.

What is the most difficult part about writing for you?

That it’s solitary. You work for long periods of time, alone. To make sure I’m not writing in a vacuum, I link up with fellow authors through various writing organizations and belong to a critique group. It’s a great place to get candid feedback about which parts of the narrative work and, more importantly, which parts don’t. 

Is there any one thing you always put in your books? 

Independent, smart women. They’re fun to read about and are the type of people I choose as friends.

Are you working on anything at the present that you would like to share with me?

I’m in the midst of writing the third book of the series. This story takes the reader out of New York City to the Rocky Mountains where a huge gold deposit has been found. Investors provide capital to get a mining operation up and running and my protagonist’s firm provides some of the initial funding. When she starts digging into the details, she finds inconsistencies. Then fraud. And of course, murder. Because after all, a lucrative goldfield provides A Golden Opportunity for Murder.

What are you reading now and what have you read recently that you loved?
 
My West University book club recently read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It’s a darkly, humorous novel that I really enjoyed because it was narrated by such an unusual character (death). I’m currently reading The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline. It does a wonderful job of showing how hard life could be for lower-class women in the 1840s but is also uplifting in that the characters are strong and manage to overcome brutally unfair conditions to make a better life for themselves.

For more book recommendations and bookish thoughts, see Cindy’s monthly Buzz Reads column, her award-winning Thoughts from a Page Podcast or follow @ThoughtsFromaPage on Instagram.