The Inspiration Behind Abe & Duff

Sherlock meets Psych and Beyond

Aberforth “Abe” Allard and C.S. “Duff” Duffy came to life because a buddy of mine wanted to make a TV pilot. He and I were in college together, both of us in the Radio, Television, and Film program at UW-Whitewater. I went with the Broadcast Journalism focus, and he was more in the Filmmaking focus.

Back around 2018 or so, he said, “Write a pilot script for me so I can shoot something.” He was looking to pad his resume and get something pitch-worthy to show streaming companies in an attempt to break into the bigger leagues. Indie film is where his heart lay, but just as in indie publishing, it didn’t pay the bills.

So, I spent a couple of days figuring out a crime series, because that’s what I watched the most on television, and I always wanted to write my own. My premise was simple: What if Holmes and Watson were lower-middle-class schlubs from Chicago?

I wrote the first draft, polished it a bit, and gave it to him. He loved it. He set about trying to gather a cast and production capital to start production, but gave up on it after a few months. He got busy with other things and texted me one day, saying it would never happen.

While disappointing, I understood. But I had this pilot script that I really liked, so I revamped my original premise, fleshed it out a bit more, and turned it into a novel. I did this by getting very serious about the craft.

I took Craig Johnson’s book, Hell is Empty (probably my favorite of the Longmire series), and really broke down every chapter. I studied the hell out of it to see how the man did what he did. Then, using a base understanding of his methods and framework, I set about to subvert typical thriller tropes, create a pair of weird, Type B, sad sack heroes, and make them solve mysteries.

My final product was something I was proud of, and I felt like maybe the rest of the world might care. Turns out, most of the world happily ignored them, but that was to be expected, I suppose.

I queried it to agents and publishers for most of 2019, but couldn’t get any takers. I got a lot of “this is great, but I can’t sell it” responses. And one agent told me to turn Abe and Duff into a lesbian couple and send it back to her.

What the hell do I know about being a lesbian?

And how would I have dealt with Abe’s wife coming out of the closet? Would she have been a lesbian who just decided that she was suddenly really into dudes?

It was clear that trying to subvert tropes by creating unheroic heroes wasn’t going to fly in the mainstream, so I was left to figure out the next steps alone.

I threw The Single Twin into the world late in 2019. December 2, if you’re keeping track. I expected exactly nothing from it. I knew the growing audience I was getting from the success of The Survivor Journals probably wouldn’t follow me to my new crime fiction endeavor, so I figured it wouldn’t go anywhere. But at least I wrote a book I really liked, and more importantly, my dad liked it.

I went with a two-tone color because I really had no idea what should be on the cover. I took some inspiration from some of the ‘80s crime novels I’d read, and just made it simplistic but bright.

I started to hack away at a second book in the series, not really expecting to ever finish it. I figured no one would buy The Single Twin, and I’d go back to trying to write fantasy novels or something.

Then, I got an email in late February of 2020 that changed my mind. A TV producer emailed me out of the blue and said he wanted to option Abe & Duff and try to pitch them for a potential series at various streamers. At first, I thought it was a hoax, because this sort of thing never happens. But I researched him, and if it had been a hoax, it was a good one because he had websites, a LinkedIn page, and IMDb credits.

He asked for shopping rights. Now, that’s a fun form of optioning that means the writer gets absolutely no money unless some company secures the streaming rights.

…which didn’t happen.

The timing was terrible. I signed the contract for this on March 9, 2020. On March 12, the world went into lockdown for the next year. Anyhow, nothing happened, the rights reverted back to me, and life continued.

And I continued to write. I banged out Fourth and Wrong, Where Art Thou, and Bought the Farm over the next three years. With each book, they got better. As with any new IP, sometimes it takes a bit to really find the groove. Sitcoms, especially, usually stink until about the sixth or seventh episode. That’s when the writers and actors have lived with the material long enough to really start making the characters sing. The same thing happened with Abe & Duff. As they became more coherent in my own head, they got better on the page.

Since no one starts a new project completely fresh, and everything is just imitations of everything else, let’s take a look at a few of the movies and television shows that I leaned on heavily while writing these five books.

Psych

I think it’s abundantly evident that Abe & Duff owe a lot to Shawn & Gus.

From the very first episode of Psych, I was hooked. James Roday Rodriguez’s slacker detective with insane observational skills was an impetus for Duff’s take on the world, and their relationship with Tim Omundson’s Detective Lassiter was, no doubt, my reason for creating Det. Malcolm Betts. I don’t remember thinking about Lassiter during the writing process, but looking back, it had to be a subconscious thing.

While Duff was highly misanthropic and coarse in The Single Twin, I think I softened him over the next few books until he is what he is now: a sad, lonely, haunted man with a bizarre wit and a laissez-faire attitude toward life and other people.

More than anything else, Psych helped shape the tone and the voice of Abe & Duff.

Cougar Town

What? I hear you saying in your head. How did Cougar Town factor into this series? But it’s true. Cougar Town, hereafter referred to as CT, was a huge part of Abe and Duff.

I am a massive Bill Lawrence fan. Spin City, Scrubs, Ground Floor, Ted Lasso—I have loved everything Bill Lawrence has ever done. And when he turned a Carl Hiaasen book into a TV series last year, I knew why. The dude and I are on the same wavelength. His sense of humor is my sense of humor.

I know a lot of people bailed on CT because of the stupid title. At the time, ABC was really pushing for a show about “cougars” because hot, middle-aged women on the prowl for younger men was a big thing back in 2009, as gross as it is to think about that now. The execs forced the title onto the show, and the show mocked the title consistently in the opening credits for the next six seasons.

However, if you stuck with CT beyond the first six episodes (which weren’t all that great), what happened was it evolved into one of the tightest and funniest sitcoms in years with great cast chemistry.

One member of the cast was Bob Clendenin, a wonderful character actor known for roles in Longmire, Scrubs, and Quickdraw. I’ve said it before, but if you want to know where Abe Allard came from, it’s Bob’s portrayal of cul-de-sac associate Tom Gazelian on CT.

Neighbor Tom was an outcast. He wanted to be part of the Cul-de-Sac crew in the worst way, but he was awkward and weird, so they kind of shunned him. He was so desperate to belong, he would stand at Jules’s open kitchen window and stare in at the group, interacting in any way they would let him.

That was Abe’s foundation. The only thing he has ever wanted was to belong, and he has never fit in. He is a hapless, luckless, smart guy with no social skills whose confidence was destroyed after his divorce because he knows what he is and how he looks, just like Tom in CT.

Abe’s look, voice, and some of his mannerisms are all cribbed from Bob’s performance on CT.

In fact, when the show was being shopped in 2020, I made it clear to the producers that if someone bought it, Bob had to play Abe.

He would have been brilliant at being Abe.

He might still be. The dude doesn’t age. He might still be able to pull it off if the show goes into production tomorrow.

Running Scared

One of my all-time favorite movies is Running Scared. Released in 1986, the pairing of Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines as wisecracking Chicago cops was not widely understood by the audience at large. They were used to crime movies being either solely comedies (Beverly Hills Cop) or solely dramas. The odd tone of the movie, with everyone except Crystal and Hines playing it like a drama, didn’t sit well with the audiences or critics.

But it landed with me. In my 11-year-old brain, this was the perfect movie. I remember watching on VHS (because I’m that old) with my dad, and adoring the interaction between Hines and Crystal.

Even watching it now, it holds up. It’s a delight. (It’s on Tubi for free as of 5/23/25, so go watch it if you’ve never seen it!)

If Hollywood came at me and said, “We can’t do Abe & Duff, but we’ll give you carte blanche on something else—what have you got?”

—I’m making the sequel to Running Scared.

Even all these years later, I am desperate for more of Detectives Hughes and Costanzo. I would write a Running Scared novel if someone would let me. I would write the reboot. I would turn it into a TV series if they don’t want to do a movie. I would write a limited series.

Whatever—just give me more.

In much the same way Running Scared functions, that’s how I write Abe & Duff novels. I’m always looking for serious moments that Duff can completely ignore for their severity, and instead, I have him make odd non sequiturs.

Real Genius

My sister and I watched Real Genius at least a thousand times.

That’s not an exaggeration. My mom bought two VHS players so we could pirate movies we rented. We had a copy of Real Genius, and we watched it endlessly. It was probably my favorite movie during my adolescence. Well, that and Ghostbusters, of course.

A lot of people point to Doc Holiday in Tombstone as Val Kilmer’s best role, but not me. For me, nothing was better than his performance as Chris Knight in Real Genius. (Followed closely, of course, by his performance as Nick Rivers in Top Secret!) I had that movie memorized at one point. I still remember most of it, too.

"I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, ‘…I drank what?’”

Mitch: You know, um, something strange happened to me this morning...

Chris: Was it a dream where you see yourself standing in sort of sun-god robes on a pyramid with a thousand naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at you?

Mitch: No...

Chris: Why am I the only one who has that dream?

Moles and trolls, moles and trolls, work, work, work, work, work. We never see the light of day. We plan this thing for weeks, and all they want to do is study. I'm disgusted. I'm sorry, but it's not like me. I'm depressed. There was what, no one at the mutant hamster races? We only had one entry in the Madame Curie look-alike contest, and he was disqualified later. Why do I bother?

Kilmer’s dry delivery and sarcasm formed the base of my sense of humor. And strangely enough, James Roday Rodriguez is on record saying his performance as Shawn Spencer in Psych is 100 percent a tribute to Val Kilmer in Real Genius.

When Duff delivers lines in the book, I hear Val Kilmer’s voice from this movie in my head.

Rest in peace, Val.

You made your mark in this world.

Brett Newski

Brett is a musician from Milwaukee, Wis., and a solid guy. He is an indie rocker who has opened for the likes of Barenaked Ladies and Nada Surf. Brett’s a bit younger than I am, but I was introduced to his stuff about ten or twelve years ago, and I really took to it. The guy knows how to write a song.

My favorite of his records is his Land Sea Air Garage album that came out in 2016.

While I was writing The Single Twin in 2018, I remember listening to this album, and the third track, Mind at Large, came on during a pivotal break from typing. I remember listening to that song and realizing that it fit the tone I meant for the books perfectly.

Since then, Mind at Large has been the unofficial theme song for Abe & Duff books.

I even told the TV producers that I wanted it as a theme song.

Even now, I listen to the song frequently during the writing process. It has the vibe I feel in my bones while I work on the books. Highly recommend listening at loud volumes.

Go on, crank it up to eleven. If the neighbors complain, tell them I said it was okay.

By the way—Brett just announced he’s going to become a dad this summer, so if you see him, tell him congrats.

I’m sure it will open up a whole new world of songwriting for him.

And support indie musicians. Taylor Swift doesn’t need your money. They do.

Wrapping Up

Anyhow, that’s enough of my rambling for tonight.

BRING THE HEAT comes out June 24, 2025, on Kindle.

Personalized paperbacks are up for pre-order on my website. They should be out before the eBook is. Personalized paperbacks also get Allard and Duffy Investigations and Spilled Inc. Press coasters and some stickers for your laptops (because if you don’t have laptop stickers, are you really even a writer?), and the new bookmarks!

I’m adding value!

I love writing these books, these characters. And Bring the Heat has three of the best lines I’ve ever written.

I hope it lives up to the hype.

Thanks for reading.