A Taste of Things to Come – A Teaser for My Next Novel, ‘Mystery White Boy’

I had a great opportunity on Sunday to read an excerpt of my work in progress, Mystery White Boy, at a four-author event at Kennett Brewing Company in Kennett Square, Pa.

At first, I was a little unsure what I was going to read. But after some soul-searching and review of the MWB manuscript (as it stands so far), I figured reading from it would go over much better with the folks who would be paying to hear “thriller” writers talk about what they do.

The term “thriller” can be used a lot of ways, from horror to detective to espionage/suspense. You could certainly attach it to Immaculate Deception – there’s lots of action and intrigue folded in with the metaphysics and general weirdness – but the novel I’m working on now fits much more easily into that category. It’s spooky, suspenseful (I hope), a little sexy and features a rogues gallery of fun ghosts.

Those in attendance seemed to enjoy it, as did a couple of the establishments employees and even the lead singer of the band that came on after the authors.

The event gave me enough confidence to officially put out there what will be – or at least close to what will be – the “back page” copy for the book, also known as the bit you read when you’re deciding whether you want to buy it.

So, without further ado, I offer you a tiny morsel of what you can expect from Mystery White Boy.

Bond DeLoach is less than thrilled about his first big story as reporter at his hometown newspaper, The Carlton Call – a business puff piece on a ghost tour company started by two entrepreneurial Junior League ladies.

But Carlton, S.C. – known as the second most haunted town the state – holds secrets, not the least of which is that the restless spirits who inhabit it are suddenly turning it upside down and causing the residents to doubt their own sanity. Stranger still, the dead – who include a repentant Confederate general, a slave girl, a randy Redcoat, his forlorn lover, a colonial-era Native American chief and a Basset hound from hell – are communicating directly with the tour guides and informing them of a criminal plot being hatched in Carlton’s historic cemetery.

Bond, assisted by his neighbor, flamboyant photographer Yashica D, and a host of colorful small-town characters, must defy his own skepticism while maintaining some semblance of journalistic integrity to find out the truth behind the alleged plot. It’s “The X Files” meets “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” in this rollicking and hilarious paranormal thriller.