by Tj O'Connor
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| Temporary Cover Art |
For the past two years or so, I’ve blogged about my
characters, plots, and process surrounding my previous series, The Gumshore Ghost (a dreaded series
name). Oliver Tucker and his pals hunted murderers, thieves, and gangsters. Tuck
was a dead detective helping solve first his own, and then other murders along
the way. Each of those stories had a historical subplot and a paranormal twist.
And so does New Sins for Old Scores.
The difference in the story lines are unique—Tuck was
written in the first person, and New Sins
in the third. Tuck’s stories were very light-hearted mysteries whereas New Sins
takes a little more serious storyline, still with good humor, but it’s closer
to a traditional mystery. Lastly, and perhaps more noteable at least to me, it
takes on a serious subplot—human trafficking—and overlays a historical
real-life event to connect the past with the present. I truly believe history
repeats itself. I also believe we are slow to learn its lessons.
New Sins for Old
Scores makes us wonder if we’ve learned life’s most important lessons about
the past, trust, and honor.
The story begins …
Murder,
like history, often repeats itself.
When
it does, that kind of murder isn’t the byproduct of some psychotic break or an unintended
emotional frenzy. That kind of murder is conscious and considered. It is
deliberate.
History
is full of that kind of murder.
Richard
Jax was never a good student of history—but he knew murder well. He was more
pragmatic than philosophical, and except for watching the History Channel and
old movies, the past occupied little of his time. His time was reserved for
murder and violence. Yet, history taught him a very important lesson—an axiom
of parents with teenagers—that nothing good ever happens after midnight.
Jax
wasn’t married and had no children. But it was after midnight and he was alone.
Later on, Richard Jax is ambushed while on a stakeout
and lay bleeding out, alone and without backup. As his assailant approaches him
for the final kill shot, he meets Trick McCall …
A voice exploded in his head. “Get up.
Fight back. It’s not over. It can’t be—fight.”
Jax looked across the driveway. Someone lay
on the gravel a dozen feet away. The figure stared wide-eyed back at him. Then,
in strange, freeze-frame movements, the man stood. He looked around and brushed
himself off. He gave Jax a nod and then picked something up off the ground and placed
it on his head.
“Come on, Mac, fight. Don’t quit. You
can’t.”
Jax tried to focus but knew he was already
done.
“Come on, Ricky. You have to do this
yourself. Until you do, I can’t help.”
Jax watched the man across the parking lot
as the warmth pooled beneath his cheek. His vision blurred and he wasn’t sure
what he saw was right—a cone of light engulfed the man—just him. Everything
around the light was black and murky. The man was tall and lanky. He wore a
hat—a fedora—and a dark, double-breasted suit. Behind him was a 1940s Plymouth
with wide, squared fenders, and a dark green, four-door body.
Was he dead and heaven playing a film noir
festival for his arrival?
“Shoot ‘em, Ricky. Shoot or he’ll kill
you.”
Jax looked up at the silhouette standing
over him. The warmth that flowed from him minutes ago now left him cold and
spent.
The silhouette raised his gun for the final
shot.
“No,” Jax grunted. “No…”
A deafening crack and a flash of light.
Silence.
“Miles Archer, Ricky,” the fedora-man said
leaning over him. “Bogart’s partner was Miles Archer, ya know, in The Maltese
Falcon. I saw it open at the Capitol Theatre in D.C. in ’42. You did good,
Ricky—real good.”
Darkness.
Jax and Trick McCall have two things in common. They are
both disgraced—Trick believed to be a murderous traitor who killed his own men
for profit, and Jax a crooked cop who killed his partner and fiancé from
jealousy. Together they have to set the records straight —even if those records
began in 1942.
As with my previous novels, I intertwine history and the
present, proving the opening line, Murder,
like history, often repeats itself. The paranormal twist allows me to move between
past and present and explore the events that led to Trick’s death and his
disgrace. It also allows me to link events from the ‘40s with modern day
skullduggery. The outcome brings out all the character’s New Sins and helps them settle Old
Scores.
I’m anxious to get on the road to talk about this story. It
was fun writing and I think it’ll be fun talking about the plot and characters
to fans. But mostly, I love just talking books with readers. This one opens up
a new chapter in my own writing, another potential series that mixes my
favorite topics—murder and history. In these stories, I get to play with my own
sins and conjure up some old scores to settle, too.
We’ll talk again next month.
Tj O’CONNOR IS THE
GOLD MEDAL WINNER OF THE 2015 INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS BOOK AWARDS (IPPY) FOR
MYSTERIES. He is the author of New Sins
for Old Scores, coming in March 2017 from Black Opal Books, and Dying to Know, Dying for the Past, and Dying to Tell. He recently finished his
new thriller and is beginning three sequels to previous works. Tj is an
international security consultant specializing in anti-terrorism,
investigations, and threat analysis—life experiences that drive his novels.
With his former life as a government agent and years as a consultant, he has lived
and worked around the world in places like Greece, Turkey, Italy, Germany, the
United Kingdom, and throughout the Americas—among others. He was raised in New
York's Hudson Valley and lives with his wife and Lab companions in Virginia
where they raised five children. Dying to
Know is also the 2015 Bronze
Medal winner of the Reader’s Favorite
Book Review Awards, a finalist for the Silver
Falchion Best Books of 2014, and a finalist for the Foreword Review’s 2014 INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award.
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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