Tj O’Connor
New Sins for Old
Scores is my latest murder mystery with a paranormal twist—the twist is
that one of the lead characters is dead.
Yup, read it again. He’s dead. And this story is packed with a band of
characters, each with their own agenda, and each trying to either sin or settle
an old score. A couple are doing both. The secret to the story is, as you might
guess, who’s sinning and who’s settling scores. When you find out who’s doing
both, you’ll know who the killer(s?) is/are.
You see, I’m one of those authors who plot out the story and
ready a cast of characters to do my dirty work. Schemers and dreamers, haters
and lovers, do-gooders and killers. Unlike most authors, there are also the
present-day players and the historic players—dead ones, too.
Like you’ve probably heard other authors say, once I start
writing, my characters takeover and do what they want. No really, it happens. I
start out with a cast and each one has a story to tell—the story I plotted out
for them. By the time I’m done with the first draft, they’ve gone their own way
and created their own stories, often ignoring me completely. Some of them do a
better job than I can, too. Some of them I had high-hopes for have become evil
and dastardly and have gone and sinned on their own. Others, well, they are in
the midst of settle scores that I didn’t even know existed.
Before I give you a snapshot of these page-players, let me
explain what New Sins for Old Scores
is about—at least, on the surface:
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. Now, after years as a cop, he was about to get the lesson of
his life.
As Jax lay dying after being
ambushed at an old inn on a stakeout, he's saved by Captain Patrick
"Trick" McCall—the ghost of a World War II OSS agent. Trick has been
waiting since 1944 for a chance to solve his own murder and prove he wasn’t a
traitor. Soon, Jax is a suspect in a string of murders. The murders are linked
to smuggling refugees out of the Middle East—a plot similar to the World War II
“Operation Paperclip,” an OSS operation 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 old games? Is history repeating itself?
Together, they hunt for the link
between their pasts, confronted by some of Washington's elite and 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 Jax and who wants
Trick's secret to remain secret? The answer may be, who doesn't?
New Sins for Old
Scores is my fourth published novel. It was written a few years ago in the
middle of another series I was writing—Oliver Tucker’s Gumshoe Ghost (I hate
that moniker) mysteries. Since, I’ve also completed my thriller, The Consultant: Double Effect that will
be out in May, 2018 from my new publisher, Ocean View Publishing. Each of these
stories has been plot driven with strong characters that always have secrets to
hide. In each, I provided the plot and my characters jump in and do the rest.
Oh, I give them all names like Jax and Trick (New Sins), Tuck and Angel (The
Gumshoe Ghost), and Jonathan Hunter who is The Consultant. With each of
these, I drafted the outline and the characters drove the story
chapter-by-chapter and character-by-character. By the end of my novels, the
characters had become people I didn’t even recognize—the good ones and the evil
ones. New Sins for Old Scores was no
exception. Let me give you a peak at who’s who in my stories.
Special Agent Richard Jax and OSS Captain Patrick “Trick”
McCall: New Sins centers on these two
accidental partners joined in the chasm of 75 years. Jax must come to terms
with being the chief suspect in a double murder. He’s lost his love, his best
friend, his career, and perhaps his mind—he’s seeing and taking advice from the
spirit of Capt. Trick McCall, after all. Yet, Trick doesn’t quite see their
friendship as a problem what so ever. Sure, he’s dead and all, but he’s a
1940’s man and who else can help solve a 75 year old murder case? Especially
when it’s his! Trick must adjust to the modern day—2011—with computers and cell
phones, the internet, and of course, the casual, often risqué lifestyle of the
21st century. Both men are hunting killers. The question is, is it
the same one?
Surrounding Jax’s homicide investigation is the Virginia
Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI) Task Force. Once his friends and
colleagues, they’re now a collection of the trusted and the devious. First,
there’s Mike Martinez, the BCI chief. He and Jeremy Levin—a Princeton Lawyer
who oddly joined the state police—are under the spell of FBI Agent H.P.
MacTavish. MacTavish is a duplicitous figure who arrived right after Jax’s
ambush with claims of WWII treason and all the while hiding behind the veil of national
security. Then there’s Detective Dylan Finch, a local sheriff’s deputy thrown
into the mix. Finch clearly doesn’t want to be part of the circus. He doesn’t
trust any of the BCI agents and while he’s worried about the BCI finding the
killer, he has his own agenda that is more important. The wild card on the Task
Force is Christie Krein. She’s young, pretty, smart, and doesn’t believe for a
moment that Jax is a murderer. She also doesn’t believe he’s seeing ghosts.
Throughout the story, each of these characters is hiding secrets and each has their
own reason to be chasing the killer—or protecting him. They all have one thing
in common: they think Jax is a little crazy.
Just when Jax thinks he understands what’s happening around
him—Trick McCall included—Professor Alexandra “Alex” Vouros appears. Alex is as
beautiful as she is brilliant, and yes, she has her own agenda, too. Alex is searching
for evidence to prove or disprove Trick McCall’s innocence as a traitor and
murderer back in 1944. She’s in league with John H. Singleton—one of the few
survivors from Trick’s failed attempt to capture Harriet, the elusive double-agent
responsible for smuggling illegal Nazi’s into the US during the war. Singleton,
along with other OSS survivors, all have a stake in the outcome of Alex’s
research. The trouble is each one wants a different outcome, for a different
reason. Each is willing to do anything to get their way. Not all of them want
Harriet’s true identity discovered. All of them want the past to remain in the
past. Secret. Gone. Dead.
Finally, there is young Ameera, a pretty Afghani refugee
being secreted from safehouse to safehouse by a gang of Latino thugs. She and
her family are on the run and their only protection is the dangerous street gang,
the Salvadorian Muchachos. Ameera
faces danger at each turn and she’s not sure which is the most threatening,
those hunting her or the Muchachos
protecting her. But she knows the secrets connecting 1944 and Richard Jax—who
the murderer is and who was there to cover it up.
Now, after reading about these characters in New Sins for Old Scores, you might be
thinking I’ve got too many characters. I don’t think I do. In a murder mystery,
having too few makes it easy to figure out whodunit. Right? In New Sins,
because of the historical subplots, you have to figure out whodunit now and
whodidit then. So the more characters the better.
Of this band of characters—past, present, and those living and
dead—there are those still sinning and those settling old scores. The question
is—who’s who? The answer is not what you think.
For more on New Sins
for Old Scores or my other paranormal mysteries, check out my world at
www.tjoconnor.com
Bio
Learn about Tj’s
world at:
Web Site: www.tjoconnor.comFacebook: www.facebook.com/tjoconnor.author
Blog: http://tjoconnorbooks.blogspot.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7148441.T_J_O_Connor
