Patrick Canning
Author Interview - Patrick Canning
Author of For Your Benefit
Teddy Lint is the kindest private investigator on the planet, committed to seeing the best in everyone he meets. The detective agency he runs out of a Los Angeles strip mall with his brother Ralph has seen a strange case or two before, but never anything like this.
A man claiming to work for the CIA hires the Lints to find a shipping container of radioactive Agent Orange that vanished over fifty years ago. He insists someone is planning on using an army of drones to drench L.A. with the deadly chemicals before the week is out.
The Lint Brothers enter a maze of bizarre suspects, from nefarious ad executives, to anarchistic Boy Scouts, to a toga-clad militia fighting for exclusive rule by women. The propaganda-obsessed society that seems to be running the world is probably worth looking into as well.
The power of empathy collides with the dangers of disinformation as Teddy fights to save the people he loves. Our beloved detective doesn't give up easily, but any Angelenos with an aversion to death by herbicide might want to dust off that umbrella, just in case . . .
Author Interview - Patrick Canning
Author I draw inspiration from:
Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle is my favorite but they're all so great!
Author Interview - Patrick Canning | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
Bubble bath or the lakefront in Chicago
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
I like each for different things: ebook for traveling, audiobook for dog walking/folding laundry, hardback for building upper arm strength, and paperback for everything else
The last book I read:
Deep by James Nestor. Great non-fiction book about free diving, but it has all sorts of interesting departures into things like whale speech, which are super interesting
Author Interview - Patrick Canning | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
Computer, but I've heard writing longhand can be great (at least the first draft). I'm curious to try it at some point
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
Sherlock Holmes—I'd be a great Watson because we're both amazed by Sherlock's deductions
Author Interview - Patrick Canning | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
Astronaut. Maybe standards will fall far enough in my lifetime that I have a shot...
Favorite decade in fashion history:
1950s/60s, probably because I watch a lot of Mad Men. I say we keep the fashion, lose basically everything else
Place I’d most like to travel:
Norway. I don't have any great reasoning, it's just always sounded like a cool place to me!
My signature drink:
Fresh coconut water is by far the greatest beverage on the planet. For some reason I don't like the canned/bottled versions.
Favorite artist:
Bill Watterson
Number one on my bucket list:
having a garden
Find more from the author:
@catpanning (Instagram)
About Patrick Canning:
Author Interview - Patrick Canning
PATRICK CANNING is the author of For Your Benefit (2024), Cryptonalia (2021), Hawthorn Woods (2020), The Colonel and the Bee (2018), and Cryptofauna (2018).
His work often blends genres, combining elements of humor, adventure, fantasy, and mystery into stories with imaginative settings, quirky characters, and typos.
Patrick lives in Chicago with his Australian Shepherd, Hank. When he isn’t writing, he enjoys walks on the lakefront, being excited/worrying about AI, and eating his bodyweight in potatoes.
