In six weeks I will have two new stories in print. The first, The Price of a Lie, will be for sale on Amazon on February 4th. The second, the first in the Capital City Characters series, will be Friends In Low Places.
The Price of a Lie is the seventh installment in the Inspector Thomas Sullivan Thriller series and will see our favorite trio encounter their most challenging case yet. Those who’ve had a chance to read a preview copy have declared The Price of a Lie to be the darkest of the Sullivan series as well as the most revealing story when it comes to Sully, Sarah, and Father Nathan.
Set on a moon cursed with a dystopian society, the race to discover the answers their client hired them to find is the most difficult case yet.
The Price of a Lie will be for sale on Amazon February 4th, 2020. For those who want a Kindle edition delivered the minute The Price of a Lie goes on sale, click here to pre-order!
On March 3rd, my new spin-off series, Capital City Characters, will see the first novella in the series become available for sale. Titled Friends in Low Places, this novella provides the backstory for one of the most important characters in the Sullivan thriller series, Joe Maynard, the owner of Joe’s.
Fans of the Inspector Thomas Sullivan Thriller series will be able to learn more about the main secondary characters that play key roles in each of the Sullivan stories. Friends in Low Places kicks off the series by telling Joe’s story, without whom there would be no meeting place for Sully, Sarah, and Father Nathan. Like The Price of a Lie, Friends in Low Places is also available for pre-order on Amazon.
When a reader sits down to enjoy a good, well written story, they are seldom aware of the fact that the final, polished story is the resort of more than just the author. I want to take this opportunity to thank the following individuals whose efforts all contributed to an improved version of The Price of a Lie. A special thanks goes to Chery Deariso, Robin Ludwig, Rosemary Kenny, Heather Wamboldt, Gail Hart, Peggy Hacket, and Darcy Yarsh.
In an earlier survey to pick the title for Episode IV of Capital City Characters, the respondents managed to produce a tie. As you can see by Sarah’s expression in the illustration below, she is not a happy clone!
Until the title is finalized, it won’t be possible to proceed with the cover design or interior production files to be made so the novella telling Sarah’s story can be published.
What you see above is a snippet from the digitized version of the original hand drawn sketch of Sarah by the illustrator for the story, Sadie Rose du Vigneaud.
To participate in the vote to pick the title for Sarah’s story, please click on the link to Survey Monkey to cast your vote.
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.
The Fractured Man is available now from online book retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and others! It is available in both paperback and ebook versions!
The first of two prequels to the Inspector Thomas Sullivan Thriller Series will be released this March! The Fractured Man tells the story of Sully’s days as a Space Marine, an SP, and his early days as a civilian inspector. Written it the style of classic pulp crime stories with a crime noir flair, readers will enjoy this futuristic thriller.
It has taken me awhile to get things set-up for my author’s newsletter, The Inspector’s Report. I’m not a particularly computer savvy individual so it’s to be expected I suppose.
The Inspector’s Report will be e-mailed periodically. I promise to NEVER share anyone’s e-mail who signs up.
You can unsubscribe at anytime AND you can not feel guilty about it!
The Inspector’s Report will give updates on the availability of the latest offering in the Universe of Inspector Thomas Sullivan and his friends (enemies too). Back history for characters and places on Beta Prime will be provided to answer those nagging questions readers have about this detail or that.
Short stories will be a part of the newsletter on a semi-regular basis and will often feature supporting characters such as Ralph, Alice or Joe.
If you are a fan of science fiction and/or crime noir/mysteries, I will include my thoughts on a regular basis in the form of lists or reviews of books I have read.
I would love it if readers of The Inspector’s Report would ask questions and contribute content as well.
The late film critic Roger Ebert liked film noir movies. Let’s be honest, some of Hollywoods best films from the Golden Era were noir. The film many critics say is the best American film ever made, Casablanca, is a noir.
Ebert penned a list of what he believed to be the ten characteristics that made a story a noir. Not all film noir movies fit all ten and the same is true for novels. The list however is a great starting point to determine if a film or novel fits the noir genre.
Here’s Ebert’s list:
1. A French term meaning “black film,” or film of the night. 2. A movie which at no time misleads you into thinking there is going to be a happy ending. 3. Locations that reek of the night, of shadows, of alleys, of the back doors of fancy places, of apartment buildings with a high turnover rate, of taxi drivers and bartenders who have seen it all. 4. Cigarettes. Everybody in film noir is always smoking, as if to say, “On top of everything else, I’ve been assigned to get through three packs today.” 5. Women who would just as soon kill you as love you, and vice versa. 6. For women: low necklines, floppy hats, mascara, lipstick, dressing rooms, boudoirs… high heels, red dresses, elbow length gloves, mixing drinks […] 7. For men: fedoras, suits and ties, shabby residential hotels with a neon sign blinking through the window, buying yourself a drink out of the office bottle, cars with running boards, all-night diners […] 8. Movies either shot in black and white, or feeling like they were. 9. Relationships in which love is only the final flop card in the poker game of death. 10. The most American film genre, because no society could have created a world so filled with doom, fate, fear and betrayal, unless it were essentially naive and optimistic.
Signup for The Inspector’s Report Newsletter! Keep up with Inspector Thomas Sullivan and his friends. Get updates on when the next book will be published. Enjoy the occasional short story and read author K.C. Sivils’ musings about science fiction, crime noir and what ever else is on his mind.
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