Meet teen detective Jack Lime

By Kate Watson - The Weekly News
Thirty-seven-year-old Dartmouth native James Leck is many things: a high school teacher, a world traveler and a recently published novelist.
His book, The Adventures of Jack Lime, published by Kids Can Press, is a series of three interconnected stories aimed at kids between ages nine and 14.
While Leck had planned to write mysteries for kids that were "a mix between Sherlock Holmes and Scooby Doo," he says that what emerged from his writing was a very young private investigator who's a throwback to the hard-living, wisecracking detectives of the 40s and 50s.
In this interview from Kuwait, Leck talks about his talented yet flawed teen detective, Jack Lime.
Weekly News: Why did you choose to write a detective novel?
James Leck: I've always been a huge fan of mysteries, from Sherlock Holmes to Columbo to Jacques Clouseau. Detective novels tend to be fairly structured, which suits my writing style, but at the same time you can have fun creating sinister villains and slipping in plot twists and red herrings.
WN: Tell us a little about Jack and his adventures.
JL: Jack is a 15-year-old hardboiled detective reminiscent of Philip Marlow or Rocky Fortune.
He investigates crimes at his school and charges by the favour, never money. In The Adventures of Jack Lime there are three mysteries he tries to solve.
In the first case he tries to track down a missing bicycle, the second is a about a kidnapped hamster, and the last one revolves around the star player on the trivia team going missing just before the big game.
In the tradition of all heroes, I gave him a debilitating flaw: for Jack, it's his narcolepsy that kicks in at the worst possible times.
WN: Where is the story set?
JL: The story is set in the fictional town of Iona. Iona is a gated community that's owned by a multinational corporation named Luxemcorp.
Luxemcorp has tried to create the ultimate suburban small town, which is generic enough to exist anywhere in North America. Jack, of course, finds Iona repulsive in its artificiality.
WN: How did you feel when your manuscript was accepted for publication?
JL: Flabbergasted; it's not that easy to get published, so when you finally get accepted by somebody it's a moment you never forget.
WN: Why are you in Kuwait? How do you (and your family) like it?
JL: My wife, Heather, and I lived in Japan for a year before we had kids, and so we've both been bitten by the travel bug.
We'd always talked about working abroad again, and so, when the opportunity to teach in Kuwait came up we decided it was a good time to go. We've had an incredible experience living and working in a very different culture. Plus, Kuwait is a great place to travel from, so we've been able to visit Oman, Jordan, France, Prague, and we're off on a Nile cruise in April.
I think it's also been a great opportunity for our children, Zoe and Isaac, to see some amazing places.
WN: What are you working on now, writing-wise?
JL: I'm currently working through a second Jack Lime book.
Hopefully, it'll be as good as the first. I'm certainly having fun writing it.
k-watson@ns.sympatico.ca