Wes Browne
They All Fall the Same
An organized crime boss in Kentucky believes money and power are everything until his enterprise collides with a family tragedy in this gripping noir thriller perfect for fans of S.A. Cosby and Eli Cranor.
The Writer’s Dossier 6/2/2025 – The Wes Browne interview
Send guns, money, and lawyers
DOSSIER: Being a criminal defense attorney in central Kentucky and Appalachia, you’ve said that people have offered to pay for your legal services in some unorthodox ways. What kind of things have you accepted and are there any rules about it?
BROWNE: Honestly, I can’t remember everything I took as fee. As long as you account for the value received and the underlying transaction is for legal goods or services, you can take just about anything. A lot of the time, I just held the property as collateral, and other times it was a straight exchange.
There was one year I didn’t pay for dry cleaning. I took a whole lot of guns. I took jewelry. At one point, every TV in our house came from a client. I took vehicles, which was a pain in the ass and never worth it. I took a riding lawnmower that I held until the fee was paid. My client left it all winter and finally showed up with the money in the spring when his grass got long.
One time, my client was in jail. He agreed to pay me cash and a television. I checked his house key and his debit card out of his property at the detention center. I met his ex-wife and gave her the debit card so she could get me the cash. Then I went to his apartment to get the TV. It turned out he had forgotten to lock the door before he went to jail because he was on a bad bender—which is how he wound up there—so I locked his door for him on my way out. I got a nice TV, and we pled his felony down to a misdemeanor, so it worked out for all parties.
Be authentic
DOSSIER: When you sat down to write THEY ALL FALL THE SAME, was it more important to craft a compelling crime story set in Kentucky or an authentic Kentucky story with crime in it?
BROWNE: I don’t know if I ever thought about it that way, but I’d say I split the difference. I place a high value on being authentic to Kentucky life and people. I place an equally high value on telling an entertaining and engrossing story. The great thing about writing Kentucky crime is, Kentucky is a very colorful place. I don’t have to go outside the bounds what could really happen here. If you get the details right, that’s what makes the stories compelling.
Finding the right spot
DOSSIER: Where and when do you like to write? You have a writing shed down by the creek or do you prefer a quiet corner of your family’s pizza shop?
BROWNE: What I wouldn’t give for a writing shed, but alas.
My sons are both off to college, so I claimed a little corner of our basement that used to be their play area as my writing space. My space used to be in the guest bedroom, which was fine, but it was almost too isolated, and the energy wasn’t exactly magic in there. I couldn’t fill it with all my weird personal knick-knacks.
I’ve also been known to write with my laptop on my lap in our main room when nobody else is up and about. I think it messes up my back though.
I tend to start writing late at night when the house is quiet and go into the early morning hours. Sometimes I take afternoon naps just so I can stay up. If I have time, I get up in the morning and revise what I’ve written, and maybe write a little more before I get into my day.
That voice starts with a good ear
DOSSIER: Writers who come from a strong regional environment often have a special voice in their writing. How has being in Kentucky shaped your writing style into what it is today?
BROWNE: I moved to Kentucky in 1996 when I was 22 years old. I’m 51 now. My entire adult life has been spent here either in law school, or practicing law. My wife is from the far edge of Eastern Kentucky. I came to know Kentucky, and especially Appalachian Kentucky, by total immersion. If I am to write what I’ve lived—especially as it applies to crime fiction—it’s going to be Kentucky.
If you are going to write authentically about any place, you better have a good ear, and you better take the time to absorb the world around you. To me, that means stopping, and lingering, and engaging with the places where you spend your time. I have always made it a point to do that. I suspect that some of what I fixate on about Kentucky and Kentucky people is slightly different from writers who have lived here from childhood, because we’ve experienced it in different ways. It was not my status quo.
This region is packed full of great storytellers. I have always valued storytelling and it is valued here. That may be how I came to feel so at home. I fell in with people who see things like I do, and I felt valued. I will also say, the well of talent here is incredibly deep. You can throw a rock and hit a great writer. I hope you don’t, though.
The Last Word
DOSSIER: Is there anything else you’d like to reveal in your Dossier today? (We like headline-making breaking news and it gives our graphics department something to do other than play video games all day.)
BROWNE: My next novel isn’t set in Kentucky!
It’s a crime novel with a romantic subplot set in the desert in Nevada and California. I’ve done a ton of research and gone out there a couple times to take pictures and notes. It’s got a “Hiassen in the sand” vibe to it with a lot of action. It was fun to write and the feedback so far is it’s fun to read. It’s titled Twenty Nine Palms Highway.
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