It's Time for My New Sins ...

by Tj O'Connor

Temporary Cover Art

My sins are surfacing. They’re on the horizon, inching ever closer, and it’s time I dealt with them head-on. Like many a wild and crazy-guy, my sins come with scores to settle, too. There’s nothing better than a good battle of new sins and old scores. Nothing.

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.

 In February 2016,  I had a brief discussion about my new novel. I’ll try not to rehash it here. It suffices to say that these new stories will also have murder with a paranormal twist, but in this case, the paranormal side will be the secondary character—Trick McCall, the spirit of a long dead, disgraced WWII Office of Strategic Services (OSS) operative. Trick is the sidekick in these stories, not the primary hero as in Oliver Tucker’s Ghost Gumshoe series. And this series is a little more traditional—albeit with the paranormal twist—and not quite as light-hearted as Tuck’s stories, either—though Trick does tend to have a little fun at the expense of the bad guys.

 The novel is based on some real events—or more accurately, real historical events—which I took license with and molded into a modern murder mystery. The story follows a disgraced detective, Richard Jax, who must prove his own innocence in a multiple homicide and stop an international plot of human traffickers and murders.

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:

Web Site:  www.tjoconnor.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/tjoconnor.author
Blog: http://tjoconnorbooks.blogspot.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7148441.T_J_O_Connor

 

Dying to Tell - The Stories Behinds The Story

December already? Ugh … the crush of the holidays, the long nights, and shortened days. Less business days to work and no less demand to produce. It’s the time of year that makes me scream for more time to write. All this and my new book, Dying to Tell, the third book in the Gumshoe Ghost mystery series, launches January 8^th.

As anyone who’s read Oliver “Tuck” Tucker’s books, each novel has three elements: a traditional murder that launches the story, ala Agatha Christie style; a historical subplot that is spirited into Winchester where the stories take place; and Tuck’s continuing family saga of past lives and adventures that, with his spirit-skills, forms the nexus between past and present murders to culminate in a twisty, winding conclusion. It’s a tricky business weaving the past into the present and traversing two storylines so that they wind up on the same page. And often, it gives me a headache just trying to sort out the details and keep true to the characters. But, in the end, I think it adds some fun and adventure to a traditional murder mystery—albeit with a paranormal twist.

I travel a lot for my books and take every opportunity to talk about my writing and stories. In fact, I’ll go pretty much anywhere to find an audience. In the past year, I’ve spoken to dozens of forums including mystery conferences, book festivals, charity organizations, monster-fan conferences, and bookstores. I get a lot of great questions, but the most common question is, “Where do you get the historical subplots to your books?”

Great question … and the subject of this post.

Hekmet Fahmy

In Dying to Tell, the story follows the discovery of a reclusive bank executive found murdered in his secret bank vault. Surrounding William’s fate is a treasure trove of Egyptian antiquities. Now those relics are missing. Also surrounding William are secrets that began in Cairo, Egypt, during World War II, and a Nazi Abwehr spy operation called Operation Salam. The Abwehr, or Nazi Military Intelligence, tried sneaking two German operatives, Johannes Eppler and Hans Gerd Sandstede, into Cairo to spy on the Allies in 1942. The mission carried Eppler and Sandstede across Libya and Northern Africa and into Cairo where they infiltrated the nightlight in Cairo with help from Egyptian Nationals friendly to their cause. One in particular was a famous belly dancer—and real German spy—Hekmet Fahmy, a beautiful seductress who could get Allied soldiers talking with a wiggle of her veils—a very deceptive honey trap. Eppler and Sandstede set up their operation out of a houseboat on the Nile and they worked the Cairo nightlife trying to gather intelligence. Unfortunately for Eppler and Sandstede, they were captured by the British just a few months after arriving in Cairo. Interestingly, all they really accomplished was to spend a lot of money and have a good time on the Cairo nightlife—very little if any actionable intelligence was gathered.

Shepheards Hotel, Cairo

But in Dying to Tell, I asked the question, what if there were three Abwehr spies that went into Cairo and this mysterious third spy was never captured? What if this third spy got involved in a local murder and tangled with OSS—Office of Strategic Services, the mother of the modern day CIA? And, what if OSS Operative, Oliver “Ollie” Tucker was hot on his trail? What would happen if the German spy’s misadventures were never revealed and led back to the US? How much fun and mayhem could this bring to Bear Braddock and Tuck while trying to solve the modern day murder of William Mendelson? A lot.

And so my historical subplot was devised. Tuck’s grandfather, Ollie Tucker, enters the series as a younger version of Doc, the ever-critical spirit-guide that keeps Tuck moving forward, and backward, chasing two killers—the murderer from World War II Cairo and one from present day Winchester. He’s chasing the spy who got away and someone who got away with far more than just murder. He hasn’t rested yet and won’t until revenge is served—cold.

And because I’ve always loved Egyptian archeology and its culture, I had to have a little fun with it, too. Tuck is menaced by Seth—a statue of the Egyptian God. And as Angel Tucker points out to him, “Seth is the Egyptian God of chaos and destruction—other things, too ... I think Seth was related to my dear departed husband.” And he picks up clues from the Shepheard Hotel—a real World War II Cairo landmark for the Allies to hang out, drink tea, and feel normalcy amidst war. And there is the Kit Kat West club, a new jazz joint in Winchester that brings back the nightlife like the original Kit Kat in Cairo where the beautiful seductress, Hekmet Fahmy, twirled her beads and veils and other assets. Throughout though, Tuck has to admit that other than his spirited-visions of Cairo here and there, his grasp of Egyptian history comes from watching Charlton Heston and the History Channel. Not much help in solving his latest case.

In the end, Dying to Tell continues the footprint that Tuck’s previous cases, Dying to Know and Dying for the Past, set down. Tuck’s spirit skills traverse past and present murder cases all based on real historic events—with a twist of my imagination, of course. And, in the end, the collision of history with the present has a few more twists and turns in it. Right up to the end, you’ll be counting the suspects and wondering when the next shoe will drop—and in this case, whodunit should be whodidn’tdoit.

We’ll again chat next month …

Tj O’CONNOR IS THE GOLD MEDAL WINNER OF THE 2015 INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS BOOK AWARDS FOR MYSTERIES. He is the author of Dying to Know and Dying for the Past, available in bookstores and e-books from Midnight Ink. His third paranormal mystery, DYING TO TELL, will be released January 2016. He is currently working on a traditional mystery and a new thriller. 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:

Web Site:  www.tjoconnor.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/tjoconnor.author
Blog: http://tjoconnorbooks.blogspot.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7148441.T_J_O_Connor