Lawrence (Larry) Kaplan grew up in a middle class section of Union, New Jersey. A child of the 1950s, he says that he “played punch ball in the street, didn’t go to camp, and didn’t talk back.”  It was a world where kids rode their bikes to get where they needed to go, mothers stayed home, and no one had two cars. “And most important,” Larry notes, “people gave a damn about each other.”

His dad was a dental technician; this inspired Larry to go into dentistry. He's been in solo practice in Scotch Plains, New Jersey since 1983.

But as "a self-confessed history junkie," Larry was drawn to the subject of World War II.  "I have read more than a hundred books on the most destructive period in world history," he said. 

His interest in writing, Larry says, began, "When I realized I could write as well as the people I was reading."

His two interests combined upon hearing the stories of his late mother in law, about her memories of American bomber jets flying over Auschwitz where she was being held prisoner.  She often asked, “Why didn't they target the camps?”

Larry set out to discover the reason. His original plan was to write a book of non-fiction about it.  Research was tedious and difficult. He spent hundreds of hours researching in Princeton's library; he interviewed people; he searched for information wherever he might find it. 

Somewhere during that time he became concerned, "I had DDS after my name, not a PhD in history," he said.  He feared that publication of a non-fiction book might be difficult without the scholarly credentials.  So Larry began to frame all the research and information he had gathered into a book of fiction. He had already begun work on a book in what he hoped would be a series of detective novels, about a "washed-up Westfield NJ Police Department Detective, Joe Henderson." 

He put his first book aside and worked instead to shape the World War II material into a mystery/detective framework, ultimately giving life to House of Ghosts.  With the completion of this book, Larry manages to combine the solidity of an historical novel with the excitement and mystery of the detective genre.  It's a laudable first offering in what will be a long series of Joe Henderson books, from a unique new voice in the world of fiction.

Larry Kaplan on Radio WDIY in Bethelem, PA:

Part 1:

Part 2: