Then, the dark clouds part. The light shines. The music plays. I know just what to do. It’s simple, really. Very, very, simple.
I start a new blank page, copy and paste the template of my title page,
set up the footers and headers, and start with CHAPTER ONE of a new novel … and
I’m off. Another adventure awaits. Someone has to die. A hero has to catch a
killer or track down a spy. There is no choice. No one can stop it. Murder and
chaos must reign once again.
Oh, wait. I better close my last book and save it into the back-up
before I start this one. Oops.
For those of you wondering, there are three more Tuck mysteries planned
and I’m going to start one of those this coming summer. For now, I’m finishing
up my ninth novel, a thriller about domestic terrorism, and I’m reviewing New Sins for Old Scores, the first of a murder
mystery series I wrote a couple years ago (my agent is shopping this around as
we speak).
New Sins was originally
completed about three years ago after my agent, the amazing Kimberley Cameron,
signed me for Dying to Know. She
wanted a second series with a historical subplot and a paranormal
storyline. It took me four months to
craft New Sins for Old Scores, the
story of Richard Jax, a Virginia BCI detective saved by the spirit of a disgraced
OSS operative, Trick McCall, who was killed in 1944 on the very spot Jax was
ambushed. My website summarizes New Sins
the best:
Murder, like
history, often repeats itself. And when it does, it's the worst kind of murder.
Detective Richard Jax
was never good at history. But after years as a cop, he was about to get the
history lesson of his life.
After Jax is gunned
down and lay dying at an old inn while on a case, he's saved by Captain Patrick
"Trick" McCall—the ghost of a World War II OSS agent—who’s been
waiting since 1944 for the chance to solve his own murder. Soon, Jax is a
suspect in a string of murders—murders linked to smuggling refugees out of the
Middle East—a plot similar to the World War II OSS operation “Operation Paper Clip” that brought
scientists out of war-torn Europe. With the aid of a beautiful and brilliant
historian, Dr. Alex Vouros, Jax and Trick unravel a seventy year-old plot that
began with Trick's murder in 1944. Could the World War II mastermind (code
named Harriet) be alive and up to new sins and old scores? Is history repeating
itself?
Together, Jax and
Trick McCall hunt for the link between their pasts that will lead them to Washington's
elite and to one provocative, alluring French Underground agent, Abrielle
Chanoux. Somewhere in Trick's memories is a traitor. That traitor killed him.
That traitor is killing again.
Who framed Richard Jax
and who wants Trick's secret to remain secret? The answer may be, who doesn't?
As I began re-reading New Sins
looking for opportunities to refine and improve it, it struck me that my evil
mind had recreated the foundation of Tuck Tucker’s Gumshoe Ghost series—a traditional murder mystery surrounding a
historical subplot that culminates into a grand, surprising ending. Oh, but in
Tuck’s stories, he’s a dead detective telling the story in the first-person, er, first-spirit, and in New Sins, the story is delivered in
third-person and shares both Richard Jax’s and Trick McCall’s point of view
throughout the story. Similarly, there are scenes with a historic subplot that
follow Trick’s 1944 OSS operation that lead to his death and disgrace. Those
chapters form the connection between past and present and lay the foundation for
several characters involved in the modern murder plot for which Jax is the
prime suspect. In the end, it’s the settling of the past’s old scores that sets
the stage for present-day new sins.
I’m looking forward to digging back into New Sins for Old Scores and updating the storyline. I began reading
it late one evening last week and found that I still love this story and characters.
I’m looking forward to finding a home for it on bookshelves.
Strangely, while I’ve written eight novels and four of them are
mysteries with a paranormal twist, I never set out to be a mystery writer. With
my life and background in anti-terrorism and security consulting, I see myself
as more of a thriller writer. I’m finishing a new thriller now and penned three
before Dying to Know, the book that was
accidentally written for my daughter, and that also became my first published
work. Just yesterday at a book signing for my latest release, Dying to Tell, I responded to a question
about my work saying, “No, I’m really a thriller writer …” then I felt silly
and added, “Except I’ve written four of these mysteries all with a paranormal
subplot. So, I guess I am a mystery writer. Yeah, that’s me, a mystery writer.”
Nothing proves that more than my return to New
Sins for Old Scores in the middle of working on my thriller. And while New Sins has both the mystery and
thriller touch and feel, it’s certainly more mystery.
How twisted is my mind when I’m working a thriller and a mystery at the
same time? Don’t answer that. I already have my own diagnosis.
So as winter progresses into spring, I hope time does not get in the
way of finishing both new projects in a timely manner. I’m anxious to get them out
into the light of readers and fans. New
Sins is chomping at the bit for an audience.
As you can see, I have more projects than time. If only I hit the lotto
or found the lost Templar treasure I could write full time and make my life
complete. But alas, I don’t play the lotto and have no clue where the treasure
might be. (I know for certain it isn’t under my back deck.) So for the
forseeable future, I’ll be consulting by day and writing novels by night.
Hopefully, New Sins for Old
Scores will be out there for you to read this year or next. In the interim,
I’ll finish my thriller and launch into one of the other dozen novels I’ve
planned.
What choice do I have?
We’ll again chat next month …
Learn about Tj’s world at:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/tjoconnor.author
Blog: http://tjoconnorbooks.blogspot.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7148441.T_J_O_Connor
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