You awaken from a nap disoriented. Momentarily panicked, you wonder what day it is. What time is it? Is it day or night? After a few moments, the fog lifts in a flood of remembering, and you breathe a sigh of relief.
But what if you woke up into a nightmare of disorientation that didn’t seem to end? In fact, what if every moment you were awake, the nightmare of confusion only grew greater?
In Centralia¸ Peter Ryan wakes up in his home, but he can’t seem to find his wife and daughter. A thorough search of his home lends him no clues. In a panic he calls his close friends, only to hear them tell him that his wife and daughter are dead—and have been dead for some time. From that point, Peter’s life becomes a massive man-hunt as he searches for his family while his enemies search for him.
Thus begins Peter’s roller coaster journey through a maze of memories and lies—and memories that are lies. We, the reader, are allowed to join Peter on his quest, only to experience confusion, danger, and Bourn-esque escapades right along with him.
The answers seem almost impossible to find. Peter amazes himself by behaving in ways foreign to his current understanding of who he is. His firm belief that his wife and child are alive drives him forward through the maze of danger and deceit. With only a cryptic hidden note left behind by his daughter, Peter sets his face toward his goal—Centralia.
Will he find the answers to his questions in Centralia? Who can he trust along his journey? What did he do in a life outside his memories that makes him a danger to so many? As you participate in Peter’s journey, you will find the answers along with him as he fights his way toward his destination.
The story is fast-paced, but it is not a quick read. What you discover on this roller-coaster ride fraught with danger is the indomitable spirit of a man who has no memories of who he is or what he is—a man determined to find his family, and in the process discovers WHOSE he is.
Having discovered the writings of Athol Dickson, and I am immediately captivated by his writing style. Where many authors who write Christian works always wrap their stories up in neat little packages and “happily ever after” endings, Athol’s writings do not, because life isn’t always about happy endings. His stories are honest, often involving gut-wrenching story lines; and while we aren’t left hanging and turning empty pages wondering where the rest of the story is, we are left with an ending that is realistic. For me, this is extremely satisfying. It helps me identify with the main character honestly. I’ve never been dissatisfied with any of Athol’s story endings.
I am honored to be a part of a blog tour for Athol Dickson’s latest book, JANUARY JUSTICE. It is a bit of departure from his other writings, in that it is a murder mystery. As well, JANUARY JUSTICE is the first in a series of books whose main character is Malcolm Cutter—quite an interesting individual! Athol explains below why he decided to write a series of murder mysteries:
WHY I WRITE MURDER MYSTERIES (Athol Dickson)
Recently I read a fascinating article in The New York Times about what may well be the first true murder mystery novel ever written. Conventional wisdom holds that the honor belongs to Wilkie Collins, who published The Moonstone in 1868, but the author of the Times piece discovered a novel written six years earlier called The Notting Hill Mystery, which he claims has all the ingredients of a modern murder mystery, and deserves the credit as Whodunit Number One.
The novel was published in serial fashion in a periodical, as was common in those days, and the author used a pseudonym. But apparently there’s good reason to believe The Notting Hill Mystery was written by Charles Warren Adams, one of the publishers of the periodical. Hopefully, Adams will one day receive the full credit for his invention of my favorite genre. It was a monumental achievement.
But intriguing though this is to a mystery aficionado like myself, the real meat of the article for me came almost as an aside near the end, where the Times piece says, “Adams was also notably religious, which points to an unexpected characteristic of the first detective novel: it’s profoundly moral. It asks not just how evil exists, but what is to be done about it. Detective novels, like sermons, can offer gratifyingly simple answers to those questions, or thoughtful and troubling ones.”
I was delighted to read those words, because here I am, one hundred and fifty-one years later, writing murder mysteries for the same reason.
It seems to me we love a good murder mystery because in the end they’re the stories which touch most directly on death and justice.
Death is the ultimate mystery of real life. What is it, exactly? Why must it exist? What should we do about it? Even the best of murder mysteries can’t answer those questions completely, but the best murder mysteries all explore the possibilities.
And when we start exploring death, something in us cries out that it isn’t right. We all long for justice, don’t we? That’s the other thing a good murder mystery delivers: a little imitation justice. The bad guy gets his in the end, or else someone has the guts to stand and rage against the second greatest mystery of all, which is why injustice exists in the first place.
I love that about murder mysteries. It’s why I’ve read, oh, about a thousand of them. And it’s why I’m writing “The Malcolm Cutter Memoirs.”
I can identify with the sentiments expressed above, and this is exactly one of the reasons I love the writings of Athol Dickson.
Please be sure to check out his book. Like all his other works before, it’s a winner in every sense of the word, and you will be happy that you did.
Check Athol’s Facebook page and LIKE him to keep up with what he’s up to. AND you can sign up to receive the Malcolm Cutter newsletter.
I read JANUARY JUSTICE last year and wrote a review for it on Amazon. Feel free to read my thoughts on the book.
Hey, folks, if you haven’t read this book, I would like to encourage you to do so…
A Thousand Sleepless Nights is a bittersweet tale of illness–both physical and emotional. Nena Hutching was determined to keep the land left to her by her father, but she lost her children in the process. Continue reading →
For years Vera Gamble carried the guilt of having let her autistic brother walk away from their home, never to be heard from again. Then, 13 years after Siggy disappeared, Vera received a phone call that changed her life forever. Siggy’s body had been found. In just a matter of days, Vera left the comfort of logical numbers in her CPA world and entered the little town of Winter Haven to identify and claim her brother’s body. Her discovery that Siggy appeared to be the same age as the day he had left home 13 years earlier set off an investigation into the mystery and unleashed a few of the strangest days of Vera’s life. Continue reading →
Pilotville is a town built on stilts and lies. It’s the place where Hale Poser, who was raised in an orphanage, arrives looking for answers to his past—“his mother, or his father, or at least a tombstone with their name—his own name, whatever that might be.” What he discovers is a town that is full of contradictions, with whites and blacks who associate in everyday life, yet worship separately; and a town benefactor who is extremely kind and giving to the folks of Pilotville, yet has a horrifying secret life. Continue reading →
e awake, the nightmare of confusion only grew greater?