Mystery Mania

Carl Brookins Reviews The Good, The Bad

2012-01-30T07:00:00.001-06:00

Veteran Minnesota mystery writer and reviewer Carl Brookins has checked in with this review of The Good, The Bad and The Murderous:

This is Campbell's seventh novel of crime fiction. There are a number of strings to the plot and a sub-plot or two as well. They are all nicely balanced, in that the main crime, murder and Medicare fraud remains at the center of attention. Sid Chance is a private investigator in Tennessee. His occasional assistant is a wealthy ex-cop improbably named Jaz LeMieux. LeMieux has inherited a successful retail travel business. In this story, she's besieged by erroneous reports of having made damaging racial slurs and as the book develops she shares some risks with her buddy, Sid.

Chance is a former Special Forces veteran, a former Forestry ranger and small town police chief. Now he's dipping an experienced toe into different waters as he establishes himself as a private investigator. When a young man, fresh out of prison, is arrested for a murder, the case appears to be a slam dunk. But the accused man has a fervent supporter in his grandmother and she appeals to Jaz who turns to Sid. And as Sid remarks, "Do I sense Messers Pro and Bono arriving?"

Things spiral out of control as the motive for the murder becomes much more than originally considered and both Sid and Jaz are targeted. The writing is straightforward and very believable. There's plenty of detail but it's rarely more that we need. Characters, setting, plot points are all rational and nicely handled. Readers won't finish this novel musing over revealed heavy philosophical truths, but they will have a bang-up satisfying time skulking about and sliding through dark tunnels with Sid Chance and Jaz LeMieux.

Librarian Janet Ohles Reviews Good, Bad

2012-01-21T15:27:00.000-06:00

Janet A. Ohles, Associate Director of Library Services at Western Connecticut State University, wrote the following review of the second Sid Chance mystery, The Good, The Bad and The Murderous:

Djuan Burden, recently released from a prison term for murder, is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He finds himself arrested and again charged with murder. Sid Chance agrees to assist his friend Jaz LeMieux in proving Burden's innocence, although at the outset he believes him guilty. Within the first few chapters, we are sure that good will prevail. And, it does. But, how many will die first? As the two friends delve into the investigation and get close to finding out the truth, others fall victim to the killer.

This novel deals with the serious issue of one cop on the take. Yet, it manages to honor, acknowledge and respect the majority of the force -- the ethical, good cops. What makes this novel especially appealing is that it addresses a flawed character and allows good to triumph over evil -- without the pitfall into which many authors fall -- it does not preach.

What the novel does, and does well, is to engage the reader on a variety of levels. The character development is superb. Hard decisions are made by realistic characters. Are these really just characters in a book? They seemed so real to me. In my mind's eye, each character has a face, a body, a voice.

The plot development is equally well done. The plot moves along and keeps one engaged. Finally, an author whose plot and characters are strong. They do not require the addition of contrived boiler plate romances or terrifying scenes. Nor will you find any boiler plate scenes in the book.

Like a fine wine, a very satisfying read. Sid Chance is definitely worth investigating, be prepared to fall in love with the characters. I did. And, now, I am reading the first Sid Chance novel and awaiting the next.

Bill Crider's Ebook Triple Play

2012-01-15T10:00:00.001-06:00

The first three books in Bill Crider's PI Truman Smith series are now available for the Kindle at $2.99. The author of the popular Sheriff Dan Rhodes mysteries, now numbering eighteen, started the Tru Smith series in 1991 with Dead on the Island. It was nominated for the Shamus Award for Best First Private Eye Novel.

In this first novel, Smith returns to his hometown of Galveston, Texas, to investigate the disappearance of his sister. He gets sidetracked by an old buddy from his past, who wants hm to look into another missing girl. Tru thinks she may have run away until her boyfriend shows up dead. More bodies and an attack on Truman keep things lively.

Publisher's Weekly said Smith was "another well-drawn protagonist, this time a moody, introspective PI in the finest tradition, who works in a seamy city smoldering with old and dangerous secrets."

The second in the series now available as an ebook is Gator Kill. When a family friend who is protective of wildlife finds the butchered carcass of an alligator on his property, he persuades Truman to find who was responsible. It turns out to be somewhat more difficult than the semiretired PI's usual job as a house painter. Publisher's Weekly described the plot this way:

"Soon the brooding gumshoe is stumbling over the bodies of dead humans, is shot at and run down by a souped-up four-by-four as he's embroiled in a plot complete with crooked police, a possible land-grabbing scheme and bad guys who, but for their lack of redeeming good nature, could be Damon Runyon inventions."

The third book is titled When Old Men Die. Tru Smith is called on by his old friend Dino from book one to look into another missing person, a vagrant called Outside Harry who has connections with Dino's family. Smith gets shot at and roughed up and some other characters wind up dead while the action uncovers some unsavory business taking place around Galveston.

As Crider himself describes it, "Does anybody care when old men die? Private Eye Truman Smith does, and he's going to find out who's responsible, even if it kills him."

If you're ready for some good tough PI adventures on your Kindle, check out the Truman Smith series.

A Real Page Turner

2011-12-31T11:22:00.000-06:00

The Good, The Bad and The Murderous got a nice Five Star review on Amazon Kindle from Pat Browning, the talented author of Absinthe of Malice. Here's the review:

Opening line: "He was a young man, dark as the back side of the moon, dreadlock tentacles crawling down his shoulders, brooding eyes filled with questions."

The man is dead. Djuan Burden discovers the body in a small medical equipment store where he has gone to settle a disputed bill. Just out of prison, Djuan is arrested for the murder by a couple of cops who, if not downright crooked, are at least seriously bent. The arrest sets off a chain of events involving PI Sid Chance and his colleague, Jaz LeMieux.

Sid's background includes service as a Green Beret in Vietnam, plus a long career as National Park Service ranger and small town police chief. A false charge of bribery cost him his job but he is building a good reputation as a private investigator.

Jaz LeMieux's checkered career includes a few years as a Metro Nashville policewoman and a stint as a professional boxer. She's now chairman of a lucrative chain of truck stops called Welcome Traveler Stores. Not concerned with day-to-day operations, she works occasionally as an associate with Sidney Chance Investigations.

Djuan's arrest is serious business. He was only 12 when first arrested for murder and is now 25 years old, arrested as an adult for a murder he did not commit and possibly facing the death penalty. A couple of young lawyers in a high profile firm want to take on his defense pro bono, with Sid and Jaz doing the investigative work.

Between them, Sid and Jaz have helpful contacts in several phases of law enforcement, and they call on all of them as their investigation turns up Medicare fraud, dirty cops and a hired assassin working for a drug cartel.

The story moves at a brisk pace, with interesting characters doing interesting things. There's not a dullard in the bunch. It's not often I can call a crime novel a fun romp, but THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE MURDEROUS has some of the best aspects of vintage TV shows like "The Rockford Files" and "Mission Impossible." The novel is highly entertaining and justice is served.

There'/s another review that sounds like a Four or Five Star review but only shows Three. You can read all the reviews at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FZ2WU6.

An Early Page in My Writing Career

2011-12-21T18:11:00.000-06:00

My first really drastic move into the writing business took place about this time of year, many years ago. I wrote about it on the Make Mine Mystery blog last Friday. Since it's a chapter in my writing story that I've not explored in a long time, I decided to repeat it here with only minor editing. This is how it goes:

I saw The Miracle on 34th Street in the TV listings and got to thinking about something almost as miraculous I was involved in at this time forty-nine years ago. We were putting the final touches on the "Premier Issue" of Nashville Magazine, the city's first slick-paper monthly. Our office was located on Union Street in downtown Nashville.

At right is the cover of that issue. That the magazine continued to appear monthly under my direction for six years and three months is certainly worthy of the miracle designation. I had worked as a newspaper reporter for nine years, sandwiched around a sojourn in Korea for the north-south unpleasantness, put in a short time free-lancing for national magazines, then spent two years at a PR agency. When I was "downsized" there, I lucked into a job with the State of Tennessee. That was late summer of 1962. I was told my job would be short-lived as the governor was leaving office at the end of the year. I was hired to write speeches for the governor, and my boss said as long as I got the speeches done, he didn't care what I did the rest of the time.

This sounded ideal as I had come up with the idea of starting a local magazine. Impressed by the highly-successful Atlanta Magazine, published by the Chamber of Commerce, I visited with the editor and learned what all was involved. Unsuccessful at getting the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce to sponsor my project, I decided to pursue it on my own. I was thirty-seven at the time, full of you-know-what and vinegar. I approached the former secretary at the PR agency, and she agreed to join me in m.c. publications, inc., for Mikie (Evans) and Chester (Campbell). We each put up $500, and that was our capitalization. Needless to say, this is not what I was told would be required.

I was referred to a graphic artist at the Methodist Publishing House who agreed to be art director. Since we had decided on a January launch, I needed to put things together in a hurry. Although the Chamber declined to help monetarily, a few prominent members assisted me with recommendations. I've never considered myself much of a salesman, but in retrospect, I seem have done a helluva job getting the magazine in print.

I traded advertising for a lot of the necessary services. I found a printer who agreed to be paid after the second issue came out (he also took an ad). My art director was friends with a three-man art studio that did a lot of gratis artwork (one of them painted the downtown view for the cover). An engraver took an ad to cover most of our halftones, and I did an article on a young guy who ran an electronic data service (this was in the days of punch cards). He handled our mailing labels. I also provided an ad for a photographer.

I paid nothing for articles, but I called on several friends from my newspaper days to write for me. They were happy to help the magazine get started and found the new venture a unique opportunity. I had worked for the Nashville Banner and talked its sports editor into contributing an article on the city's minor league hockey team, the Dixie Flyers. Fred Russell was a regular contributor to The Saturday Evening Post and wrote its annual Pigskin Preview. As for the rest of the articles and features, I wrote much of that issue, as I did for each subsequent edition.

Subscriptions brought in a small amount of income, but the lifeblood of a magazine is advertising. I had to go after it myself. I convinced a couple of ad agencies to support the new venture, despite lack of a track record. One of them bought the full-color back cover. I also got full pages from the local electric service, the gas company, and a new luxury apartment project. A friend from my Air Guard unit bought an add for his import auto dealership, and the data service guy helped me get a half page from his father-in-law, owner of a finance company. I also wangled an ad out of the savings and loan association that owned our building.

I wound up with seven and two-thirds pages of advertising in that first issue, or a little more than 17 percent of its forty-four pages. Hardly in the ballpark for a break-even operation. It provided the start of many years of running hard to placate our creditors. After a couple of issues, I found an advertising manager and relinquished that part of the business. By the end of 1963, our forty-four-page issue had fourteen and one-half pages of advertising for a much improved 33 percent.

I had a great time with the magazine, despite fifteen-hour days. I came up with lots of great subjects to cover myself, in addition to assigning numerous others. I even ran some of my poetry anonymously. We published a few short stories by well-known local authors, without payment. But our circulation never got much beyond 10,000, and advertising was always a hard sell. We were about ten years ahead of our time. When our unpaid accounts got too far out of hand after five years, I turned to a good friend who was head of PR for Life & Casualty Insurance Company, one of Nashville's two large insurers. He talked the head of the company, wealthy former Ambassador Guilford Dudley, into bailing us out. We moved into offices on the twentieth floor of the L&C Tower and had money to pay contributors. But the guy they put over me as manager was a rehabilitation project, and it turned out to be more than I could take. After a few months I resigned. The new management didn't fare too well, and the insurance company dropped the magazine in less than a year.

But forty-nine years ago, I was as excited as a kid with a new toy. I was ready to make a miracle happen. And I did.

Dead Men's Harvest - a review

2011-12-11T17:30:00.000-06:00

A blurb on the cover of Matt Hilton's Dead Men's Harvest tells it all: "If you like Jack Reacher, you'll love Joe Hunter." Reacher can be counted on for a high body count, but Hunter's toll would keep an undertaker busy for a couple of months.

Unlike Lee Child's protagonist, Joe Hunter is no lone wolf. He has his own team of associates who can be just as deadly. Interestingly, Matt Hilton, like Child, is a Brit who writes action adventure that takes place in the U.S. Hilton still lives in England. His character is English, an ex-military man who was an anti-terrorism agent with the CIA.

In Dead Men's Harvest, Joe Hunter is called on to take out a psychopath who calls himself Tubal Cain, a man he thought he had killed in the first book of the series (this is number 6). It's non-stop action all the way to the ultimate face-off at the end.

The complex plot involves a wealthy businessman who is a drug kingpin. He hires Tubal Cain to find and kill Joe Hunter's half-brother, reported to be in the federal witness protection program to provide key testimony that would wreck the criminal mastermind's business. Hunter's old CIA handler sends him after Cain to save the case for the government.

The book is filled with interesting characters, both good guys and bad. It includes the sister of a woman Hunter loved who was killed earlier. The sister becomes his new love interest. He works to save her, as well as his sister-in-law who is abducted from her home in England.

Joe Hunter's actions are over-the-top at times, though probably not as much as Jack Reacher's. He's been trained to kill bad guys but has qualms about those who are little more than bystanders. If you like lots of action and nasty characters getting their comeuppance, get a copy of Dead Men's Harvest.

Fighting Cop Story

2011-11-18T09:41:00.001-06:00

The Fight Card series of novels is inspired by the boxing/fight stories in the sports pulps from the '30s and '40s, such as Fight Stories Magazine and Knockout Magazine as well as the Sailor Steve Costigan tales from Robert E. Howard. The series is written by a team of authors. The first one came out a few days ago from the pen of Paul Bishop. All of the books are written under the pen name Jack Tunney (remember Gene Tunney and the famous "long count" fight with Jack Dempsey in 1927).

Here's the setup for Felony Fists, the first Fight Card novel:

Los Angeles 1954

Patrick “Felony” Flynn has been fighting all his life. Learning the “sweet science” from Father Tim the fighting priest at St. Vincent’s, the Chicago orphanage where Pat and his older brother Mickey were raised, Pat has battled his way around the world – first with the Navy and now with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Legendary LAPD chief William Parker is on a rampage to clean up both the department and the city. His elite crew of detectives known as The Hat Squad is his blunt instrument – dedicated, honest, and fearless. Promotion from patrol to detective is Pat’s goal, but he also yearns to be one of the elite.

And his fists are going to give him the chance.

Gangster Mickey Cohen runs LA’s rackets, and murderous heavyweight Solomon King is Cohen’s key to taking over the fight game. Chief Parker wants Patrick “Felony” Flynn to stop him – a tall order for a middleweight ship’s champion with no professional record.

Leading with his chin, and with his partner, LA’s first black detective Tombstone Jones, covering his back, Patrick Flynn and his Felony Fists are about to fight for his future, the future of the department, and the future of Los Angeles.

Read more about Paul, including his hit TV series of the past summer, Take the Money and Run, at his blog Bish's Beat.

Check out all my books at Chester D. Campbell.com

13 Shots of Noir

2011-11-03T06:39:00.001-05:00

If you're a lover of noirish short stories, keep an eye out for this book, COMING SOON. It's from British mystery writer Paul D. Brazill, who now lives in Poland. To learn more about Paul, click this link to his blog:

You Would Say That, Wouldn't You?

Reviews: The Good, The Bad

2011-11-01T09:34:00.000-05:00

Everybody likes to get good reviews for their books, and I've been fortunate to get lots of them over the years. I just received a great one for The Good, The Bad and The Murderous. In a section headed "He Did It Again!" reviewer Sylvia Cochran at The Deepening wrote:

"Kind readers know that I am a fan of Chester Campbell’s writings. He 'gets' detective fiction on a gut-level. There is no contrived dialog, questionable literary tactic or predictable plot turn. Mystery buffs, who are strong aficionados of the Chekhov’s gun technique, most certainly celebrate the author’s solemn dedication to not litter the plot with confusing and pointless elements. Instead, there is no hole in the plot and all loose ends are tightened neatly before the last page. (Did I mention that this book is superbly edited?)"

I've never received a trashy review like some of the one-star diatribes I've seen on Amazon, but I've had a few that are a mixture of good and not so good. That's an interesting gray area. The conventional wisdom says to just forget it and move on. Be happy they mentioned your book.

Looking at the situation a bit more philosophically, it fulfills the reviewers job of giving an opinion as to the strong points and weak points in the story. What you have to remember is that this isn't rocket science. It's strictly one person's opinion. It's the same state of affairs you run into when querying an agent or an editor. What one person dislikes, another may praise.

In the case of this review, after saying how the crime was solved amounted to "a good study of methodical detective work," the reviewer concluded:

"If I’m going to buy a thriller I want foul language, aggression and sexual tension. But if I’m looking for a well-written murder mystery, this book would do fine."

I mentioned in an earlier post that the book started out like a mystery and ended like a thriller. Before the cover was finished, the publisher decided to call it a "Sid Chance Thriller." Thrillers seem to be the genre of preference these days. As I said, opinions differ. If throwing F bombs around like cigarette butts is a requirement for a thriller, I suppose I'll never write one. I see no need for it. In the few of his thrillers I've read, Harlan Coben didn't use a lot of foul language.

If several reviewers make similar critical remarks about a book, it's time to reevaluate. But debating whether something is or isn't a thriller hardly seems worth the effort. I'll just accept my reviews and be happy with them.

Let's Have a Party

2011-10-14T22:35:00.000-05:00

That's right, it's party time. A book launch party, to be exact. It'll take place from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. next Saturday, October 22, at Mysteries & More bookstore in the Lenox Village section of Nashivlle, at 6965 Sunnywood Drive. I'll have a few words to say about The Good, The Bad and The Murderous, the second in my Sid Chance PI series, and then I'll answer any questions the party-goers might have.

We'll have cookies and cake and punch and other goodies that are a hallmark of this remarkable little mystery store run by Mary and Gregg Bruss. One wall is plastered with photos and notes of congratulations from a horde of mystery authors that include New York Times bestsellers as well as not so widely known writers like me. They're as author-friendly as any people I've encountered. With the first three Greg McKenzie mysteries out of print, Mysteries & More is the only bookstore in the country where you can buy all of my books.

If you'd like to check them out (and you should), just click here Mysteries & More.net.

To learn more about The Good, The Bad and The Murderous check my previous blogs below. In addition to the launch party next weekend, I'll be signing the new book at Barnes & Noble Booksellers on Mallory Lane in Brentwood, TN from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 5.

If you're around the area, I'd love to see you at one of these events. You can read opening chapters and find out where to buy the book at my website, ChesterCampbell.com.

The Ultimate Bookstore

2011-09-16T22:20:00.000-05:00

It's a bookstore where you can buy a book in any form you like, whether in hardback, trade paper, ebook (pick your format), even an autographed copy. Sound enticing? I hope so. It's a new feature on my website called simply The Bookstore.

You can check it out right now by clicking on The Bookstore. There you'll find links to where you can buy each of my books in all available forms. A few can be found in hardcover, but all seven are ready to be purchased in trade paperback from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Books-a-Million.

The five Greg McKenzie mysteries and two Sid Chance novels are also available in almost every ebook format, from the Kinde (.mobi), Epub (for the Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo and most e-reading apps), Palm reading devices, PDF, RTF, LRF, HTML and JavaScript. Following these links will get you an ebook for only $2.99.

You'll also find a link to order a signed book. It gives you the option of paying by PayPal or ordering by mail.

Try the ultimate bookstore today and order copies of some great mysteries.

Beware the Jabberwock

2011-08-31T21:21:00.001-05:00

That's the title of the first book I finished after taking up mystery writing on retirement in mid-1989. It was an end-of-the-cold war thriller. After completing the manuscript, I sent out a few queries to New York agents and got a positive response from one. The agency began sending it to editors and sent me copies of their responses. One referred to it as "creepily plausible and nicely audacious." Another commented on the timeliness of the book but said their fledgling thriller line was taking a style and characterization different from the genre as a whole. An editor at the Berkley Publishing Group wrote, "It is a very well written thriller, but this genre is just too hard to sell in mass market at the moment. Maybe this would work well in hardcover." Another said, "It's a competent and entertaining piece of work." But it wasn't the type of novel published at his house.

After about six months, the assistant handling my manuscript left the agency. The principal agent wrote that she was concentrating on non-fiction and wouldn't be able to represent me. So the manuscript went onto the pile on my office floor. It had been created in one of the early word processing programs before I knew much about Windows. I later converted it to Word and it has been on a succession of hard drives since.

I followed Jabberwock with two more thrillers in a trilogy featuring disgraced FBI agent Burke Hill, who was hired to run a CIA spin-off disguised as an international public relations firm. The second book went to an agent who sounded like an old guy when I talked to him on the phone. He kept telling me post cold war spy stories were difficult to sell in those days (early nineties). After nearly a year, I tried to call him and found he had died. By then I had the third book finished and this one landed with a major New York agency (the one that handled John Grisham). I finally learned the manuscript had been sitting on the shelf until when it finally went to an editor, he wrote that it was too dated.

In the hindsight of two decades, the Cold War spy story has made something of a comeback. I'm too jaded now to venture back into the agent search business, however. So I decided to revise the manuscripts and make them available as ebooks. I have about completed work on Jabberwock and hope to get it up soon for the Kindle and on Smashwords for other ebook formats.

The character of Burke Hill was based on a former FBI agent I met back in the sixties when I was editing Nashville Magazine. His name was Jim Scott and he had quite a tale to tell. We talked about my writing his story for a book, and I taped a few hours of reminiscences. He wrote the FBI to get a copy of his files under the Freedom of Information Act. I still have a copy of the reply he received, asking for money to pay for making copies. But before anything came out of it, he moved on and I eventually lost touch with him. The last i heard he had died in his home state of South Carolina. My character followed Scott's story about being chosen by J. Edgar Hoover to attempt to infiltrate the Mafia. In preparation, he resigned from the Bureau and committed a few bank robberies to establish his bona fides. When he failed to get close to the mob, he went back to Washington and was rebuffed by Hoover. Then the FBI blocked his attempts to find another job.

Jabberwock opens in Vienna shortly before dissolution of the Soviet Union with a clandestine meeting of a high CIA official and a KGB general, where a plot is hatched that would change the course of the two countries.

2011-07-28T22:36:00.000-05:00

It's a good thing I'm with a small press, or my new book probably wouldn't have gotten published. The Good, The Bad and The Murderous starts out like a mystery and winds up like a thriller. Such cross-genre books often get turned down by New York publishers because they don't fall into a convenient niche for the marketing department.

Since Night Shadows Press has no marketing department, that's no problem. Like most authors these days, I'm the nearest thing to a marketer my books will ever see. I put them on Amazon for the Kindle and on Smashwords.com for the rest of the e-readers. And through blogs like this, my page on Facebook, various online lists, and appearances at a variety of bookselling venues, I try to get my name out and information on my books.

Getting back to The Good, The Bad, the mystery is pretty well solved within the first 100 pages. Then things start getting nasty for my protagonists, Sid Chance and his sometimes sidekick, Jaz LeMieux. At that point it becomes a matter of how can they keep their client off death row and save their own skins before the bad guys win out?

The book will be out in paperback this fall, but it will be available in ebook format within the next few weeks. Like a lot of writers currently, I'm selling more ebooks than paper books. The cover of the new book has been revised slightly from what appears here. Instead of billing it as Sid Chance Mystery No. 2, it is now called A Sid Chance Thriller. Inside it'll be identified as Sid Chance Novel Number 2.

2011-06-30T22:28:00.000-05:00

I finally wrote THE END to my new Sid Chance book, and it's now in the works for publication late this fall. We've had a slight change in the name. It's now The Good, The Bad and The Murderous. I suppose I subliminally thought of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly when I came up with the idea for the name, leaving off the three "the"s. My editor said if we're going to do a takeoff on the movie title, let's go all the way. So there you have it.

The book took some turns toward the end that I hadn't considered earlier. That's the beauty of plotting by the seat of your pants. The author is just as surprised as the reader the way things turn out. If you've read The Surest Poison, the first Sid Chance mystery (and if not, why haven't you?), you'll recall that the story began at the rustic hillside cabin in the woods where he had made his home for three years. Well, it turns out that the new book winds up at the same location.

The cover, shown above, is simple but dramatic. It features the hit man who is a central figure in the plot. For most of the book, he is a shadowy figure in the background. It's a lot like the antagonist in the third Greg McKenzie mystery, Deadly Illusions. Damon Saint, the bad guy in that book, didn't show his face until toward the end of the story.

Although the paperback edition of The Good, The Bad and The Murderous won't be out until late in the fall, plans are to release the e-book version by the end of the summer. So look for it in a couple of months.

In the next few weeks, I'll have another publishing landmark. My first book, Secret of the Scroll, which kicked off the Greg McKenzie series, has been out of print for the past few years since I parted company with my previous publisher. I got a supply of books from him and have made them available on Amazon.com and at various signing events. But they're now all gone. So the book is being re-issued by Night Shadows Press.

All of my books, of course, are available in e-book format on Amazon.com for the Kindle. Three are also currently on Smashwords.com in various other e-book formats, such as for Barnes & Noble's Nook. All of them will be available from Smashwords shortly.

Good, Bad and Murderous - a look ahead

2011-05-09T07:00:00.001-05:00

A murderer turns good, a cop turns bad, a remorseless assassin turns on a man tracking him down. That in brief is Good, Bad and Murderous, the second Sid Chance mystery/thriller. It starts with a young black man getting out of prison at twenty-five for a murder committed at age twelve. When he's accused of another homicide, his grandmother hires PI Sid Chance to find the real killer. Sid's sometimes-associate Jaz LeMieux helps out on the case, and things get dicey when a woman who accused her of making racially disparaging remarks turns up dead. Do a pair of homicide detectives have an agenda of their own? Sid must navigate a maze of lawlessness involving drugs and Medicare fraud and contract murder that leaves him and Jaz in mortal peril.

That's the plot blurb for the new Sid Chance book that's nearing completion. When I started working on the plot, I decided to deal with Medicare fraud. I had seen a piece on CBS about FBI agents in Miami hitting store front operations that bill Medicare for thousands of dollars for durable medical equipment, then disappear. I did a lot of research on the subject and learned that new regulations provided tighter requirements for firms that bill Medicare. However, some scammers still get around them, as my fictional company does.

Starting the story with a young black man being charged again with murder came out of a newspaper's coverage of what happens to child killers. The focus of the stories was on Nashville's youngest murderer, who had been out of prison a couple of years after spending most of his life behind bars. I based my character on his experience. He had shot a man during a late night drug sale while he was twelve years old. Despite his age, he was tried in Criminal Court as an adult and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Efforts have been under way to have such juveniles go to Juvenile Court and serve their sentences in a correction program designed for youths.

As with the young man in the newspaper stories, my character came out of prison determined to change his life and become a productive citizen. However, a month or so after the newspaper article, the real former prisoner wound up in jail for beating up a girl friend. My guy is more reliable.

Jaz LeMieux became a popular character with readers of the first book, The Surest Poison. She's a fun character to write, a young woman who overcame the odds and took over as board chairman of a national chain of travel centers. To give her a bit of a problem with this story, I had her accused of making racially disparaging remarks to a black company employee. When the woman is found dead, the tension ratchets up.

You'll have to read the book (hopefully it'll be out early this fall) to find out what else happens. I should have a cover to show shortly. Stay turned.

A Cop's Night at the Office

2011-05-01T20:33:00.003-05:00

I got a good look at what cops face on a daily basis when I did my ride-along (as a member of the Metro Nashville Citizen Police Academy) last Thursday on the second shift, 2:30 to 10:30 p.m. I was assigned to North Precinct Patrol Officer Joshua Mauzy. On the job I only heard him called Mauzy as cops refer to each other by last name. Around thirty, married with children, he was Officer of the Month in the precinct for February after chasing down a burglar.

We drew an old car (Chevrolet Impala) which was not as jazzily appointed as the newer models. Its computer didn't want to work at first, but Mauzy coaxed it into action. The radio channel with the dispatcher came from a speaker around the computer, while the officer talked with his colleagues on another channel using a mike attached at his shoulder. I presume cops, at least the younger ones, aren't too good at housekeeping as the floor on the passenger side was covered with papers and an empty drink cup. Having experienced that sort of thing with my stepson, I wasn't all that surprised.

During roll call, the lieutenant assigned duties and car numbers. We were Car 12. Our assignment was not to a particular zone but was called Enforcement. Basically we were driving around looking for trouble. We also served as backup when somebody else found it first. As it turned out, that happened on our first call. We had just pulled out of the parking lot and stopped for the traffic light when an ambulance roared past on Clarksville Pike. After it had headed across the Cumberland River bridge, Mauzy said, "We have to follow that ambulance."

He hit his lights and siren and swung out onto the street, which was five lanes wide, including a turn lane. He didn't believe in slowing much, if any, for cross streets. We swung in and out of lanes, but almost came to a stop at one intersection with a traffic light and two cars in the turn lane. The blaring siren convinced them to move out of the way.

We finally arrived at the scene where an ambulance and fire truck sat with another police car already there. The paramedics were bandaging a woman's leg as she lay in the front yard of a house. She told the officers three teenagers had thrown bottles at her. One broke and cut her leg. The ambulance crew said it was a deep cut. She claimed to have run from a street almost a mile away. We left her to be transported to the hospital. The two cops agreed it didn't likely happen as she reported. The first officer on scene would send in a report and let the detectives follow up.

Although Mauzy didn't have to file the detailed report, he pulled out his clipboard box and wrote an IR, Incident Report, giving the basic details of time and place and result of stop. This was required for everything we did.

We were assigned to generally patrol the County Hospital Road area. As we drove back in that direction, a car ahead of us at a stop sign had darkly tinted windows. Tennessee law requires side windows to allow at least 35 percent of visible light to pass through. On windshields, only a small strip at the top can be tinted. After the car pulled across the intersection, Mauzy hit his lights and siren and the car turned into a parking area.

He approached the car slowly from the back, remaining to the rear of the driver's window, which is standard practice. He checked the window tint with his light meter and found it on the dark side. He asked the woman for her driver's license and brought it back to the patrol car. Entering the details into the computer, he brought up her record. The license was valid, no outstanding warrants. He let her go with a warning.

When I told my thirteen-year-old grandson about that stop, he said, "Tinted windows are cool. I'd never stop anybody for that." For a cop on the lookout for trouble, there are two good reasons. One, darkly tinted windows are a threat to an officer who has to approach a car. He needs to see if anyone inside is armed. The two most dangerous situations for a cop are traffic stops and domestic violence calls. The second reason is that experience shows if a driver violates one law, he's probably violated others as well. Traffic stops are the main source of catching criminals. In a large percentage of traffic stops in Nashville, the driver has no license or a revoked license.

Whenever an officer makes a stop or answers a call, he reports it on the radio. If one of his fellow officers in the area is free, he heads for the location as a backup. We pulled in behind another cop on one occasion where the car he'd stopped had three people inside. The driver had a previous arrest for marijuana possession. Nobody in the car had a driver's license. You'd think somebody would go to jail, but not so. Because of the leniency of the local court system, you can be caught a couple of times without a license and get only a warning or a ticket.

We did one backup that resulted in sitting at an intersection for about fifteen minutes, listening to the radio and watching traffic pass by. Another officer had reported a fight in the block ahead, but we saw nothing. They finally decided the fight had ended or moved on. Mauzy filled out his IR and we took up our roving patrol. If you see a police car sitting alone at the side of the street, sometimes with the blue lights on if he doesn't bother to switch them off, the cop is likely filling out his paperwork.

Each time we would finish a task and find nothing of interest where we were driving, Mauzy would pull up the list of outstanding calls on the computer. They were listed with the time, location, and type of incident. Clicking on one would bring up the details. At one point there were twenty-seven 911 calls outstanding in North's territory. The precinct covers the entire north side of the county. Metro's total area is 526 square miles, so North's officers cover a lot of real estate. Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County includes several smaller municipalities, but MNPD has jurisdiction over the whole county.

We took one call involving a suspicious SUV in a driveway, but by the time we got there it was long gone. Another call involved a burglar alarm that went off. It indicated a back door involved. When Mauzy checked he found a man there who said the house belonged to his sister. Mauzy brought his driver's license back and looked him up on the computer. He had the same last name as the home owner and no criminal record, so we moved on.

We stopped for a dinner break at a Taco Bell not far from the precinct headquarters with five other officers, including a Tennessee State University campus cop. TSU is located in the North Nashville section which is the highest crime area for the precinct. The mealtime conversation covered peculiar people or incidents they had encountered. Officers enjoy chatting with each other. In our wanderings we occasionally came up on a patrol or an unmarked car sitting at the curb. Mauzy would pause by the window and say something to the officer.

As the evening wore on, the list of outstanding calls shrunk, and we took a recent one involving a man cursing fellow tenants at an apartment. The location was a one-story strip apartment more like a motel, across the street from a low-rent housing project. Mauzy had been there before on a complaint about the same tenant. He checked with the on-site manager and a woman standing outside, then knocked on the offender's door. It was a large black man who sounded fairly well educated but quite agitated at everyone who, he claimed, gave him no respect, accused him of all sorts or things, and called him names. Mauzy talked to him for twenty or thirty minutes, calming him down, advising him to forget what other people thought. Leave them alone, he said, and just mind your own business. The guy finally agreed that's what he'd do, and we headed back to Car 12.

It was getting close to the end of the shift when we turned onto Rosa Parks Blvd. behind the precinct headquarters and saw a car with its brake lights on. It turned onto Mainstream Drive, the brake lights still burning. Mauzy switched on the blue lights and siren. The car stopped at the curb and we pulled in behind it. Another patrolman arrived about the time Mauzy approached the driver, his flashlight probing the inside of the car. When he told the man about his brake lights, the driver said he'd been having trouble with a connection. But as Mauzy moved closer to hear him better, he smelled a strong odor of pot.

The driver admitted having smoked a "joint" but claimed it had been several hours before. The other cop said, "No way, man. That odor is too strong." They searched him, including stripping beside the road (about the only vehicles that passed were trucks or other commercial vehicles). He had enough "roaches" (marijuana cigarette butts) to make more than an ounce, which Mauzy dropped into an evidence bag. The man said he was on his way to work at a TV station nearby. Mauzy gave him a citation arrest, requiring him to turn himself in within three weeks for fingerprinting and booking. He put the guy in the secured rear seat while he did some of the car search and got on the computer to fill out all the information for the citation. Using a small printer that sat like an arm rest between the front seats, he printed out two copies, about two feet long, one for the arrestee and one for the file. The whole process took about an hour, while I sat in the car with the blue lights flashing.

It was an interesting day that concluded around 10:45 p.m. at the station, where I thanked Sgt. John Henry and Officer Mauzy for the experience. My driver was facing an extra shift on Saturday for the Music City Marathon. As I left, he said, "Come on back on a weekend and we'll have some fun."

Of Cops and Guns

2011-04-23T19:50:00.000-05:00

Sheesh! I can't believe I haven't posted on my blog since February. I've been working feverishly on Good, Bad & Murderous, the second Sid Chance book, but that's no excuse. I'm still not in sight of that magical THE END. Lately I've been attending the Metro Nashville Citizen Police Academy. It's only one night a week, but it has been quite interesting.

This morning I ventured out to the Metro Nashville Police Academy gun range and fired a few rounds. Shot the Glock 22 used by Metro police officers, an AR-15 from which the military M-16 rifle was derived, and a Thompson submachine gun. I had fired a "Tommy" gun while taking firearms training as a basic trainee in the Army Air Forces during World War II.

The officer who monitored my shooting kindly said I did good, that I had obviously shot before. Actually, I had fired on a range during MWA Florida's Sleuthfest mystery conference for a couple of years, though that's been awhile back.

Our police instructors gave high praise to the Taser (shown at right) as a defensive weapon, particularly for anyone who's unsure they have the will to use deadly force. Most of us think we would fire a pistol at someone who is threatening us, but when it comes time to pull the trgger, some have second thoughts.

The model cops use (at right) has a light and camera on it. Everything that takes place during use of the Taser is available for playback as a movie with sound. This is available for use in court to show how the weapon was deployed. It may include whatever threats the subject used against the officer. The smaller civilian model has no camera. Held in the hand, it looks much like a cell phone. Similar to the law enforcement version, it projects a red laser dot on the body where it's pointed. That's where the two barbs will hit when the trigger is pulled, giving a debilitating shock nineteen times per second.

The instructors debunked a lot of stuff shown on TV, such as a gunshot blasting a person backward. Also the one-shot kill. They said people have been shot multiple times and kept on coming at the shooter. Only three to four percent of people shot with a gun are killed. Frequently a shootout will result in no one being hit.

We were told how the Metro Police Department came to switch from a six-shot revolver to the Glock 22 with a magazine that holds fourteen bullets. Two officers went to a house looking for a fugitive with an outstanding warrant. His girlfriend said he wasn't there, but they searched and noticed scraps of insulation on the closet floor beneath an attic opening. They went up and found the man crouching in a corner. When they told him to come out, he opened fire, shooting numerous rounds with a crude-looking pistol that had an enormous magazine attached.

Both officers were hit but returned fire. One went down and the other jumped through the closet opening. Homicide detectives theorized that the fugitive thought the downed cop was dead until the oficer fired his last shot. Then the criminal stood over him and shot him in the head. The first officer went for help and the crook climbed down. When he heard more cops outside, he started firing indiscriminately through the front wall. They finally killed him.

The policemen complained to the chief that the officer might have lived if he'd had more rounds to fire, putting him on a more equal footing with the fugitive. The chief told them to find what they wanted. After testing and studying several guns, they decided on the Glock 22 and the department bought one for every sworn officer.

Though the cops are well armed now, they still suffer some disadvantages under the law. As one of them put it, "A mail carrier is better protected than we are. The penalty for punching an officer in the nose is the same as stealing bubble gum at Walmart."

Creating Secondary Characters

2011-02-09T21:54:00.000-06:00

Our main characters, the folks who are in charge of the story, have elaborate backgrounds that we bring out in various ways. They are described as they move through the pages, and we learn about relatives and friends, places they've studied, jobs they held, all sorts of interesting facts as the story calls for them. We insert a lot of this "backstory" in small doses to avoid slowing the pace.

But what about secondary characters? They can be just as crucial to the story, depending on the roles they play. So how much background should they have? I don't have rules for writing. That sounds too inflexible. But I have a modus operandi, to use a good crime-speak term, that I follow with below-the-top-tier characters.

a. Use some sort of physical description, not necessarily any of the usual height, weight, eye or hair color. Here's one I used for lawyer Arnie Bailey in the first Sid Chance book: "Bailey launched his short, chubby body through the door like a well-dressed groundhog storming out of hibernation."

b. Provide some background pertinent to the story. In A Sporting Murder, which involves a basketball franchise, I used this bit for Greg McKenzie's friend, Sam Gannon: "He grew up in a rural area south of Tulsa and met Wilma at the University of Oklahoma, where he played basketball."

c. Describe their relationship with one of the main characters. Sam Gannon's wife, Wilma, is the best friend of Greg McKenzie's wife, Jill. Here's a spot where I gave a little comparison of the two women: "The daughter of one-time missionaries to China, Wilma liked to say Jill was born with a silver spoon in her mouth while she arrived with wooden chopsticks."

d. If possible, show how they think, how their opinions differ or mirror those of the protagonists. Here's an example from The Surest Poison, where Sid reflects on his friend Patrol Sgt. Wick Stanley: "Without a feature unique enough to stand out in a crowd, he would have made a great undercover man, Sid thought. Wick had no interest in detective work, though. He liked to be out on the street, dealing with the rough and tumble of everyday life."

Walk-on characters who fill minor roles in the story need less description. When Greg goes to a delivery service to find out who sent him a bottle of Scotch laced with arsenic, I described the man he talked to this way: "An older man with an abundant white beard that made him resemble a character out of a nursery rhyme greeted us from behind the counter." The man, who had only three lines of dialogue, was described otherwise as squinting through large, round glasses.

As I said, these should not be taken as rules, just the way one mystery writer does the job. Other opinions may differ.

Writing a First Draft

2011-01-24T17:37:00.000-06:00

For years I read advice from novelists who said you should sit down and write your story straight to the end without pausing to look back. If you were unsure about something, keep plowing on and take care of it later. Finish the first draft, they said, then go back to check out questionable details, fine tune the language, and add all those exciting moments that would delight readers.

My mind never worked that way. Each time I sit down at the computer to continue a story, I read what I wrote last to set the mood. In the process, I'll spot some word or phrase I feel could sound better and make the change. Once in a while I'll go back all the way to the first page and read through to where I stopped. tweaking here and there. My chapters also get raked over the coals of my critique group, so that gets added into the mix. By the time I finish my first draft, it's actually a comprehensive revision.

After I started on my new WIP (work in progress, for the uninitiated), I thought about this method that others consider the best way to write. It was time to do some research I wasn't particularly interested in doing at the moment, so I decided to forget it for the present and keep on writing.

What happened? The next time I resumed work on the manuscript, I went back to the last chapter, read through it and...started making changes.

Old habits are hard to break. I've set a deadline of April 1 to finish the first draft, though, meaning I can't piddle around any longer. When I get through, I'll decide if it was worth the aggravation. Meanwhile, I'm plowing ahead like I knew what I was doing.

The Real Reason I Write Mysteries

2011-01-13T22:23:00.000-06:00

I'm sometimes asked why I chose to write mysteries. I usually give the conventional answer, about how I like books that set the world right. In the end, the good guys win, the bad guys lose. That's true, but on further reflection, I realize it is hardly the whole story.

My fascination with crime detection goes back to when I was a kid. I was an eager reader of Dick Tracy in the comics. I read Big Little Books about the fictional detective. I listened to radio shows about FBI agents on the Gang Busters programs, and I was also a fan of the Junior G-Men radio broadcasts. I dutifully ordered their badges and whistles and spy gear.

I thought about being a lawman before that idea got crowded out by the prospect of being and airplane pilot. I wound up being neither. After becoming an adult and a journalist, I switched my reading interest to a mystery sub-genre, the spy story.

I followed the adventures of Helen MacInnes' protagonists and those of John le Carre and Len Deighton. I read books about the Russian KGB and the CIA. The first novel I wrote (discounting one I did while still in college) involved the KGB chasing down a defector working as a professor at Vanderbilt University. This was back in the sixties.

I suppose I had a secret ambition to become a spy in those days. I fancied myself as being rather nondescript and able to move about without attracting attention. It was the thought of traveling incognito and ferreting out secrets that excited my imagination. I kept up with the shadowy activities of Cold War operatives, and when the Soviet Union came apart about the time I retired, I started writing post-Cold War novels in earnest.

After a lack of success with several spy novels, I segued into the detective story. My first effort, Secret of the Scroll, became my first published book. I found I was writing about guys doing what I would have liked to do. I made my hero bigger than me, bolder than me, more confrontational. He still thought a lot like me, but more important, he was an action guy, doing exciting things.

That, it appears, is the real reason I turned to writing mysteries. I wanted to experience vicariously the sort of life I might have lived. I'm happy with what I've accomplished in a long career as a writer, but it's fun playing the role of criminal investigator in my mind.

Goodbye Weird, Wacky 2010

2010-12-31T21:55:00.000-06:00

Weatherwise, and largely otherwise, the year 2010 is going out in a familiar pattern. Meaning no pattern at all. A couple of weeks ago we had snow and 7 degrees. Today it's been up almost to 70. Before the ball drops (or, in Nashville, the guitar) at midnight, storms will arrive, and the thermometer will begin its descent after daylight, ending up below freezing.

The TV folks spent most of their time this evening looking back at the wild and woolly year. Floods and tornadoes and earthquakes vied for attention with terrorists, spies who were never out in the cold but came in anyway, and, oh yes, Obamacare. Nashville had its share of water problems with a 1000-year flood in May. The other most-talked-about event was the election that considerably altered the landscape. For us in Tennessee, it brought a Republican governor, a Republican majority in the U.S. Congress (we already had two Republican senators), and a State Legislature with the largest Republican membership in history.

Personally, I'm not sure I can compete with any of the weirdness that marked the Year 2010. One of the more interesting experiences was attending the 60th anniversary reunion of my old Air National Guard unit that provided me the opportunity for a year's adventure in Korea during the war that hasn't officially ended yet. My fifth Greg McKenzie mystery, A Sporting Murder, came out from Night Shadows Press in September. I had a nice launch party, complete with cake, at Mysteries & More Bookstore in Nashville.

The weather curse caught me the following month, however, when I was invited to talk about my new book to the Nashville City Club Book Club. The threat of nasty weather kept the members at home while I had a nice dinner with the club president and his son.

I suppose the most significant event for me this year was turning 85 in November. I don't bemoan old age the way a lot of my contemporaries do, plus many of those not as long in the tooth as me. I think it's pretty cool to still be sailing along singing a song. Actually, I don't do much singing anymore. My one problem is a cough that has left my voice sounding like somebody with terminal laryngitis.

My most shocking accomplishment, maybe weird would work here, came earlier this week. In A Sporting Murder, one of the characters talks about gambling a few times with the murder victim at Harrah's casino on the Ohio River at Metropolis, IL. Greg McKenzie thinks:

"Jill and I made that trek up I-24 to the Illinois side of the river occasionally. We looked on it as a recreational thing and set a fairly modest limit for what we’d spend. Sometimes we came back winners. Most of the time we didn’t."

That was wife Sarah and my personal experience. This time we took our usual $400, realizing we might come back empty handed, but hoping otherwise. We had two free nights in the hotel and coupons for free meals. After day one, Sarah was about ready to pack it in, but I assured her I would win it all back (did I mention I'm an incurable optimist?).

The last day she suggested we play a small cluster of new Blazing 7's slots near the entrance. They were quarter progressive machines, meaning the jackpots constantly increased, though only a penny at a time, staring with a few hundred dollars. After playing a bit on my $20 bill, winning a few small rounds, watching Flaming 777's popping up above and below the payoff line, suddenly I looked and there were three of them lined up in the middle. The machine lit up with JACKPOT.

The guy who came to pay me off and reset the machine said it hadn't increased much since the last jackpot. We went and played some other slots, feeling much better though not winning a lot. Later, as we made our way back to the entrance, Sarah said, "Let's play these Blazing 7's again." Having never hit a jackpot before, I was sure my luck had been depleted. But I sat beside her at the same machine.

Before I had hardly spun the reels 10 times, up came three Blazing 777's and the JACKPOT sign flashed again. It was still paltry compared to what you'd get on a dollar machine, but to a guy whose luck had always been lousy at best, it was quite a thrill.

So I'm looking forward to 2011 with a new lease on luck. Meanwhile, I'll keep writing mysteries and plugging along as usual, weird or no.

It's Snowing for Christmas

2010-12-25T00:50:00.000-06:00

As I write this, the clock has just passed midnight, making it officially Christmas Day, and for the first time in 17 years, snow is falling on December 25th in Nashville. As my protag Greg McKenzie pointed out in the new book, A Sporting Murder, if you're looking for a white Christmas, this isn't the place to look. But here it is!

For the first time since I can't remember when, we won't be having a big crowd for Christmas dinner. Our brood has outgrown our house. Sarah and I joined two families when we married 11 years ago, and both of them have been busily expanding. Jointly, we now have 6 children, 11 grandchildren, and 7 great-grandchildren. Add 7 spouses to the mix and that totals 33 people, including us.

We split up for Thanksgiving, with Sarah's crowd gathering at one of her granddaughters and my crew dining here. For Christmas, my older son is staying in Pennsylvania, where he'll have his two sons and two grandchildlren for dinner. And my younger daughter stopped by Christmas eve on her way home to Oak Ridge with her four kids, for their first Christmas at home in years.

With snow on the ground, and in the streets, we plan to have a small dinner here with two of my kids and Sarah's grandson. We may miss all the usual hubbub, but it will be a time of relaxing and reminiscing. At our age, that's a good thing.

I'll close with my best wishes for all to have a merry and joyous Christmas, and may your best dreams come true in the New Year.

Infamy Isn't All Bad

2010-12-07T21:26:00.000-06:00

Let me start by saying I'm reasonably pleased with the way my life has turned out. For sure there are things I would have changed, had I known what I know now, but I'm quite happy with the overall result. At this point, you're probably thinking what the devil does this have to do with infamy?

It goes back 69 years to that fateful December 7, 1941. What happened that day put me on the path that led to where I am now. It was one of those blockbuster events that cause people to recall what they were doing when they heard the news. I was riding in my dad's car, listening to the radio. It was around 1:30 p.m. when the news broke on CBS Radio (WLAC in Nashville). I don't remember if I heard the initial announcement or a follow-up. But I remember the message.

The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. You can listen to the original radio reports at the Modesto Radio Museum website.

I had just turned 16 and gotten my driver's license. I didn't get to use the car much back in those days, and even less after gas rationing started in 1942. But like every other boy in my school, I couldn't wait to get out and join the service. My older brother was drafted after finishing his first year in college. I was only 17 when I graduated but promptly enlisted in the Army Air Corps Reserve, getting called to active duty a month after my next birthday.

In his famous declaration of war speech, President Roosevelt called December 7 "a day which will live in infamy." For me, it was a day that set the course for my life. That decision to join the Army sent me on a circuitous route around the Southeast Training Command. My final assignment was at Randolph Field in San Antonio, Texas.

While there I worked with a fellow Aviation Cadet who had studied a year at Yale before entering the service. We were talking one day about what we'd do when the war was over (it was winding down at the time), and he said if he had it to do over he'd have studied journalism. Up to that point I had never considered writing either as a hobby or a profession. But the idea struck a chord, and I decided to find a journalism school to attend.

One thing leads to another as things develop through life. If the Japanese hadn't bombed Pearl Harbor that day, I probably wouldn't have joined the Army Air Force, wouldn't have wound up at Randolph Field, and wouldn't have been steered into a writing career. So for me, that day of infamy started things in motion to produce a life that has been uniquely satisfying.

Currently I enjoy writing mystery novels and have no plans to break off in another direction. I've had a lifelong adventure with words. I tell the full story on my website in an essay entitled "Reflections on the Writing Life - my 60-year odyssey with the written word."

Book Signings Can Be Puzzling

2010-11-22T20:16:00.000-06:00

Awhile back, I did a book signing at a library in a small town south of Nashville where they had a large group of authors from the area. Last year at the same event, I sold enough books to make it well worth the trip. For some reason, that didn't happen this time. I didn't see a lot of signing going on anywhere around me. Not all that many people showed up. My single sale came when another author bought my latest book.

Signings are funny that way. You never know when one will knock your socks off and another will make you wish you had put on two pairs because the reception is so cold. But invariably you get to meet a number of nice people who make the experience worth experiencing.

When I'm doing a solo signing at a bookstore, my wife, Sarah, plays the role of a warm-up act at a night club. She stands at the entrance and greets people, handing out my small promo folders and telling them the author is signing at the table "over there." Sometimes, a customer will stop and chat with her about the books. That frequently results in a sale.

She gets most of the questions from people wanting to know the location of the restrooms, where to find the magazines, and who knows what else. I get the ones who want to talk about the book they'd like to write. If somebody is actually working on a book, I'm happy to give my advice on whatever they need to know. It's usually about finding a publisher or an agent. The only problem comes when I get a talkative person who stands there forever, blocking the way for people who might want a book signed.

When Sarah takes a break, I stand at the door and greet the customers. I ask, "Do you read mysteries?" and it's appalling how many come back with, "I don't read books." Makes you want to say, "What the hell are you doing in a bookstore?" Of course, some will tell you they just came for the coffee.

It's interesting to watch people's reactions. Some appear intimidated by the appearance of an author and shy away from the table. Others zip right by as if you weren't there. I used to set up an easel near the table with a large blow-up of the cover of my latest book. However, watching people's eyes, I rarely saw anybody notice the poster.

Invariably, someone will stop at the table, take a book, turn it to the back cover, look at the photo, then up at me. "That's you," they say with a look of surprise. "You wrote this." Duh, if I didn't, why would I be sitting here?

Those you never see enough of are the ones who charge up to the table, grab a book and say, "I want this one. Will you sign it for me?" Occasionally, at a signing like the Kentucky Book Fair, where I have all my backlist available, a reader will look them over and say, "I want one of each. I can start with the first and go right through them."

On the few occasions where sales have been almost non-existent, I found the person who invited me more distressed than I was. I've been around long enough to know these things happen. But the store manager will apologize profusely. I had one small independent owner who was almost in tears. Heck, everybody has a bad night once in awhile. You move on to the next one and hope for the best.

What They're Saying about A Sporting Murder

2010-10-07T21:45:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of reviews about the fifth book in my Greg McKenzie mystery series:

In the week before Christmas rumors have surfaced that something is amiss with a proposed deal to bring a National Basketball Association franchise to Nashville. Local P. I. Greg McKenzie, with his wife and partner, Jill, are hired to investigate by a group of hockey fans opposed to the NBA’s coming, fearing loss of the hockey team’s fan base. An informant promises information on the deal that will “blow your mind,” but turns up shot in the face instead. Is his murder the result of being in the wrong part of town or connected to the case? Greg and Jill determine to find out.

But this will be no ordinary Christmas week. Besides the murder and Greg’s finding the body, an old case rears it head in the person of a former Air Force lieutenant whom Greg had helped convict of drug-dealing back in his days as an OSI investigator. He’s out of prison, and still carrying a grudge. As the book moves along at a fast pace, the McKenzies are hard-pressed to unravel the events and dangers into which they are thrust. Are they connected to the NBA deal or to Greg’s old enemy? We are kept guessing until the disparate threads all come together on Christmas Day in a rousing and satisfying climax.

Readers of Mr. Campbell’s previous books will be pleased to be back in his Nashville with Greg and Jill McKenzie. His writing is clean and spare, giving us enough sense of place and character to feel as if we’ve settled in with friends, and then in turn ratcheting up the tension and suspense. Greg McKenzie is not a hard-boiled private investigator, but he’s tough and smart, well aware of the qualities Jill brings to the partnership. The way the case plays out against the backdrop of their lives gives them a genuineness that makes the reader feel these would be good folks to spend an afternoon with - or to have along in a gun fight. Once again, Campbell has hit the mark.

Copyright ©2010 Larry W. Chavis in The GenReview

Christmas, the NBA, Hockey, a mysterious informant and add murder. Mix well, with a cunning P.I. and his not so shrinking Violet of a partner wife and you have a not so cozy mystery. The past comes calling to bake the mix into a read to tingle the toes of all the fans Chester D. Campbell. New readers may find the landscape a bit bare so reading the previous books is suggested. A Sporting Murder kept this reviewer focused right to the spine jarring end. Read at your own peril. You might find it hard to get anything else done.

David Brown, Military Writers Society of America Reviewer