When Kentucky Monthly Magazine published my short story, Leaves of Departure, in 1998, they asked me if I was working on anything else and I told them I was working on my first detective novel. It was an idea which floated around in my head for years. I grew up loving the Rockford Files, Columbo and other 70s detective shows and wanted to write something in the genre.

Then I found out writing a novel is hard work, and I punted. I found short stories more to my liking. Flash forward to 2011, when I attended an event where I pitched two novel ideas to three different publishers. Lucky for me, all three publishers wanted both books. One was the detective novel. The other an occult bounty hunter series. After signing with one of them, I asked which one they wanted first, and they chose the occult series.

And with that, Victor McCain and Samantha Tyler were born. Both characters star in their own book series, and are signed for their own streaming shows and have gone on to entertain thousands of fans in print, ebooks and audiobooks.

Yet the detective novel still held a spot in my brain, an itch I needed to scratch. Now, twenty-five years later, Jericho, the first in a new series with a PI of the same name, is finished.

One of my favorite book series are the Spenser novels, originated by Robert B. Parker, and continuing with several different writers following his death. I love the fast pace, the snappy dialogue and memorable characters: Spenser, Hawk, Susan, Vinny, Geno and many, many more.

Jericho is my homage to these novels. Jericho was a lot of fun to write and now that it’s finished, a feel a great deal of personal satisfaction. It only took me a couple of decades to complete. Earlier in the year, during a new pitch session, this time with a literary agent, I spoke of my love of the character, the genre and my plans for many more books in the series. The agent requested I submit the novel when finished, and I have done so.

Now we wait. I’d love for the agent to find a national home for Jericho and the other people who inhabit his world: Deano, Detective Augustus Tugbe, loan shark Robert King, and Mary, named for a childhood friend who inspired me to become a writer.

With the completion of Jericho, I will return to the world of Victor McCain and finish The Unit. I am also working on a screenplay based on Jericho, as well as a screenplay set in the world of bourbon.

And in the next week or so, I’ll be releasing a short story, The Dead Man’s Flood, a crime noir story set in Louisville during the great flood of 1937, and debuting my other new detective, Charlie Powell. It is written for the fans of the Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep and other noir stories.

All to say, if you enjoy my writing, there is a lot on the way. Happy reading.