Welcome to Between the Cover Summer series.

We are putting the spotlight on South Florida authors.

Joining me with his first novel is Len Getz Len was a career IRS agent.

And the book is a crime story.

And the main character is none other than an IRS agent.

The title is Innocent Spouse.

Welcome.

Thank you very much for being here.

Well, thank you for having me.

It's my pleasure to be here.

I want to start with the title because I learn something.

Innocent spouse isn't just the title.

It is an actual kind of financial relief.

And if you would explain that from your put on your IRS hat.

For a moment.

Got it.

I've known that in a long time.

So, yes, it's the spouse is a something that I think a I as any spouse can can, can make.

If you do not know and the reason to know about your spouse's unreported income or or inflated deductions and you can be relieved of the tax consequences of that part of the tax.

As long as you don't weren't aware.

Of it.

As long as.

That's right.

As long as you weren't aware of.

That's right.

That's right.

So if there is a code and the IRS says and since.

Most innocent spouse and these are the cases that your protagonist, Ivan Samuels, is dealing with in the book.

Correct.

So who is Ivan?

Give us the snapshot.

Well, Ivan is an IRS agent.

He's been there for many, many years.

He's not me.

But, you know, you write about what you know, so I know about him and he's the agent who's been in his whole career.

He's in a lot of different cases, lots of high, high level cases, high profile cases, large cases.

And for doing that most of his career.

But lately, he's kind of like he's actually he was also a manager and he decided he's had enough of being a manager after his his wife passed away.

He just wanted to make life easier for himself.

So he decided he was just going to do as in spouse cases, and that was going to be it until he did and hopefully post the rest of his career doing that.

Well, that's what he thought.

That's what he thought.

Did you ever think because you already said you are not Ivan.

Ivan is not you.

Did you ever think when you were at the IRS you're doing audit that did something go, wow, this has the makings of a crime novel?

Well, I've always wanted to be a novelist.

And and one of my favorite authors is a is a is an attorney who lives in Philadelphia.

He writes about his his taxes is attorney who fights crime.

So I'm thinking, you know, if I'm going to write a novel, which I've always wanted to do in my whole life, and I wanted to and I wanted to to be some that people will read.

Exciting crime, a crime mystery.

So if he can see if a lawyer can fight crime, can fight mysteries, doing his work, why can't IRS agent out as possible?

So I felt really hard about how that could be done.

And I came up with a lot of different scenarios and I came up with one and then I tossed it.

Then I came up with one that I thought would work where he'd be and he'd be he'd be tapped to do an audit of the biggest newspaper in Philadelphia.

And in the course of doing that, he would discover clues to the murder of its investigative journalist.

And there were some things in my life that, you know, that that I used to kind of like involved in and now and spice up the, you know, the novel.

Ivan is a single dad.

He has a college aged daughter.

He also has this young, vivacious assistant, Kasia.

I want to know, was it a challenge or was it just a ton of fun to develop two young female characters?

It was actually fun.

And again, I wanted for some reason I always people have a bad rap.

I don't know.

Why.

I don't know why I.

Got I get by So so right to make him a likable to make it personal.

I thought male making him making him a single dad would make him more likable and bring people in, you know, get engaged, engage more people.

So a single dad.

And then I thought of a daughter of a maybe have more more interest.

And she's a perky college student who's also, you know, tried to find her way in life.

She's affected by her mother's death.

So and now so.

So I haven't has to play mom and dad.

And it turns out she's a journalist, too.

And there's a connection to the dead.

That's right.

She actually is a she's gone to journalism school at Temple University in Philadelphia, and her her adjunct professor instructor happens to be Sandra Wolfe, who is the journalist for the Philadelphia Times.

Who is who is that's who was murdered.

And, of course, that that's her, too, because she lost her mother and now she loses her best friend.

I found Keisha especially fascinating.

Now, Ivan Acacia.

Both are multilayered.

They are complex.

But give me a little more about Keisha.

She's an interesting woman.

So Keisha is his assistant at the IRS.

She was actually in his training program.

She was at C was a trainee and at the time, she was a C young black woman who was very vivacious in life and had lots of questions.

But then over the course of time, she becomes a muslim and she's very perky.

And I'm thinking that we have to give some some some some more interest in this.

However, I have a character that to add something to the novel because, you know, there's lots of lots of issues out there with regard to Islam and the Jew and the Muslim community.

But the things that I misunderstood, so I thought I'd bring another facet in there to to counteract, you know, some of the some of the Islamic fundamentalism that you hear so much that's you know, that's so prevalent in the in the news.

I thought that that was a very well weighted to craft her her story.

Are there challenges in, let's say, fictionalized in the same IRS agency that you know so well?

And I'm curious at the same time, are there considerations that you had to make to navigate the IRS, to make it entertaining, to make it a fun book to read?

So so obviously, doing a doing a tax work is kind of tedious.

So nobody wants to read about someone who's just going through large letters and books.

So, you know, I came up with something, something more interesting.

So, for example, unreported income, that's something that has to be discovered.

Yet it's not there in the books, not there.

And it's out there somewhere.

So I came up with this idea, and yet you'll read it and send them a little off the beaten track.

Like, for example, at some point he he tells Kesha to get a copy of last year's Times from Thanksgiving.

And this is coming from Kenneth and Thanksgiving.

Let's compare them now.

Let's see if they're the same.

And this said, well, no, they're not the same.

This year's is a lot smaller, but yet they're making a lot more money this year.

How can that be?

So this is another that's another interesting way of of of delving into the tax issue and to develop a tax issue.

But it's not you know, but it's also a little bit off for you.

It's outside the.

Box and to make it entertaining.

What is it that you hope that readers are going to take away from this book.

A good story that know that there's problems out there in the world, You know, that that need to be there need to be addressed now.

You know, you see, this is is Islamic fundamentalism is a problem.

It's here in this country and you should be aware of it.

But at the same time, you know, that's that's a it's a it's a but that's a that's a minority, although it's a very, very verbal and active and vocal minority.

But but it has to be addressed and it could be anywhere.

And so and so people should be more aware of that.

And, you know, and also and also, you know, we talk about newspapers and, you know, right now there's lots of foreign moneys into universities as possibly foreign money isn't into newspapers, that that's going to affect the way things are written, you know, other than other going to, you know, have an impact on how the story is being is being is being spun.

So people need to be aware of these things, you know, and the outside, you know, in the world.

Well, speaking of stories, I do hope that we get to see these characters in a future story.

The title of this book is Innocent Spouse, Len Getz it has been a pleasure to have you here.

Pleasure's all mine.

Well, thank you very much.

I’m Ann Bocock, please join me on the next Between the Covers.