Snell Isle Resident is Lawyer by Day, Novelist by Night

Featured image: Pollack’s latest book is a Law-and-Order-meets-Wild Things novel based in Florida’s Rainbow River State Park. Photo courtesy of the FDEP

When Howard Pollack wrote his true crime novel based on the Long Island serial killer, he had no idea the fictional detail of DNA from a pizza box would turn out to be a near-life detail from the case. Maybe the intuitive thinking is due to his more than three-decade career as a lawyer – in Long Island. 

While he still has his New York accent, it’s been nearly 10 years since Pollack packed up and moved to St. Pete. While some aspects of his formally fast-paced life have changed, he hasn’t stopped writing novels. Oftentimes, the settings of his fictional worlds align with his own. 

“My genre of choice is always murder mysteries,” Pollack said. “I don’t have a full story in my head, I get through it while I write.” 

Pollack’s latest, Where the River Runs Red, features scenes from St. Petersburg and Florida’s Rainbow River State Park. However, Pollack’s second life as an author began long before he came to Florida. “I always loved to write and started with short stories 20 or so years ago,” Pollack said. 

Long Island Litigation 

Circa 2008, after long days in the city working as a lawyer, Pollack would come home to his young children and read them stories before bed. Unbeknownst to them, the subject matter was very exclusive. 

“I was writing a young teen novel, and I would write it chapter by chapter and write it before they would crawl into bed every night,” Pollack said. “I had to keep writing it, because they were in the middle of the story.”

That children’s book did get finished, but he never went through the process of having it published. It was years later that Pollack wrote his first published book, Wherever Tommy Goes, a mystery based on the real, terrifying events surrounding the case of the Gilgo Beach killings on Long Island. While suspect Rex Heuermann is still awaiting trial for the murders, after he was arrested, at least one detail became a case of life imitating art. Pollack realized that his plot point about DNA from a pizza box aligned with real evidence collected by police.

“This I didn’t find out until recently,” Pollack said, “obviously when it was public.” 

Pollack in St. Pete 

With a sunnier address, Pollack honed his craft with several murder mysteries based on real-life events, including Unmasked, a twisting mystery surrounding a super virus inspired by COVID-19, and one writers’ self-help titled, So You Want to Be an Author?Pollack’s most recent story follows a Florida teen convicted of murdering his girlfriend. A motley crew of characters looks into the case years later, opening a brand new can of worms. 

“It was the fastest book I ever wrote – it just poured out of me. I only started writing it a year ago,” Pollack said. “Much of the story takes place in Rainbow River, which is a couple of hours north of St. Petersburg. I vacationed there a few times over the years and swam, boated, and kayaked.”

While Pollack draws inspiration from his surroundings and the news, quick to point out that he’s stories are pure fiction: “Sure, I used inspiration from things I read in the papers, TV, but this is pretty much all me.” 

Between running his law practice and his family, Pollack’s biggest challenge can be finding time to write. He typically keeps late hours, heading to the page with inspiration between 9 pm and 1 am. Pollack’s currently working on a science fiction novel, something new that he’s discovering in real time. “If it doesn’t click, there’s something wrong there,” Pollack. “I know it when I feel the inspiration.”