Settling on the name of a novel can be a challenge. Sometimes the title just comes to you, other times you change the working title as the novel progresses, and still other times the title is what inspires the story.

In the case of City of Broken Lights, the latest edition to the Thomas Sullivan Hardboiled Noir From The Future series, the title is a play on noir conventions of storytelling.

The city the story take place in, New Paris, is a play on the actual nickname of the actual city of Paris, The City of Lights. Like any major city, the real Paris or New Paris 500 years in the future, there is a grimy underbelly that people would prefer to ignore. Like any other city, past, present, or future, the people who live in these neighborhoods are a mixed lot. You’ll find some bad characters, quite a few who are “grey,” with the remaining largely being good people trapped in circumstances beyond their control.

The name New Paris works with two common themes in the noir style stories. One is the duality of man, humanity is capable of both good and evil, light and dark, but the most common character trait is to be grey, a mixture of both. Throughout City of Broken Lights characters appear who are varying shades of grey. Some were once good and are now bad. Others are bad but have moments of light, where the character’s remaining good shines.

Many of the people in New Paris are victims simply because they live in the city. Other’s a victims because of poor choices they made and still others are victims because of the actions of others they cannot control. Tragedy simply enters into their life and in classic noir fashion, there is nothing the character can do to stop tragedy from striking.

The Private Investigator is often the protagonist in a noir story. This convention is used frequently because the P.I. can be both good and bad, light and dark. His intentions are good, but if necessary to achieve his goal or to save the victim, the P.I. can and will break the law.

Sully, and his partner Sarah, are unique in many ways, not just because he’s part cyborg and she’s a clone. Both are officers of the law who from time-to-time work as private investigators. Sarah is prone to going where she wants and ignoring the fact a search warrant is required. Sully has no qualms about beating information he needs out of someone, nor does he think twice about pulling the trigger if it means saving the life of someone he thinks deserves saving.

Father Nathan, a man with a murky past of his own, usually serves as Sully’s conscience, helping the cynical cop to see what is just and good. Both men live by a moral code not recognized by society. Sully seeks justice and truth. Our good Father lives by God’s teachings, an ever more difficult task as humanity expands into the galaxy and turns its back on what was once the basis of human society in western civilization.

Like any good hardboiled noir hero, the two friends souls are darkened by the shadow of shades of grey. Threaten an innocent individual, break the law, or live in an unjust manner, Sully has no qualms about giving the individual a beating, shooting them, or destroying their lives. More restrained than his lawman friend, Father Nathan has a pair of fists and knows how to use them. Threaten one of his flock of disadvantaged and lost souls and see what happens.

Sarah lives in constant conflict, both internal and external. Her very existence is against the law. For reasons ranging from harvesting her internal organs to her original owners tracking Sarah down, she has reasons to be wary. Naive at times due to her actual, chronological age, Sarah is very aware sexual predators are attracted to her because of her looks and the vulnerable air she possesses as an outcast from society.

Internally, Sarah struggles with anxiety and doubts about her humanity because she is a clone. Anxiety she in part deals with by exploring faith in Father Nathan’s parish church.

Like Sully and Father Nathan, the beautiful clone has a good heart. Cross Sarah, threaten Sully, or reveal you’re a sexual predator, and the darkness in her heart emerges. Never challenge a clone who has the ability to hide in plain sight to a fight!

Just as the three main characters of the series are shades of grey, many of the characters of City of Broken Lights reflect the shadows cast upon their own lives. Many are the broken streetlights in New Paris, reflecting the imperfections of the rich and powerful as well as the poor and downtrodden. Even where the lights shine brightly, the shadow of wrongdoing is cast.

Crime noir as a genre examines the darkness of humanity, the cruelty of the human existence, and the haphazard way the innocent are caught up in events not of their making. Often the end is not a happy one.

Death comes to many in the noir genre and the cast of characters in City of Broken Lights is certainly not spared this fate. Nor are the human institutions of government, politics, community, and the church. Even the institutions of humanity take part in the struggle between good and evil, light and dark.

City of Broken Lights will be available from Amazon on June 4th, 2019!

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