I’ve read detective fiction for as long as I’ve been able to read, practically. I started with the classics: Holmes, Queen, Marple, Poirot. But then I picked up a new classic: Spenser. I’ve read others in the genre, including other characters created by Robert B. Parker. Jesse Stone, Sunny Randall, and Parker’s Western heroes, Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, are excellent examples of this genre I’ve enjoyed, as are Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire, and, of course, Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe and Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade and Nick and Nora Charles. I could go on and on, but those are the biggies.

I can’t say the others haven’t influenced me, but Parker and Chandler are the two that have had the greatest impact on my style. That being said, my main character is definitely not a simple echo of them. Parker’s Spenser is different from Chandler’s Marlowe in that he’s in a long-term stable relationship, but their world view is largely the same. That’s where my main character, lately renamed Jamie Halloran, is different. Not only is he in a stable relationship, he is married to his soulmate, Pip, who is his partner in the sleuthing business. But the big difference in world view is that Jamie’s view of the world is a much more positive one than Spenser’s and Marlowe’s. Those two characters see themselves as knights born out of time. Same with my Jamie. The big difference, though, is that my character’s mission is borne of his belief in a moral absolute that is outside of him, namely God. Both Spenser and Marlowe would almost certainly identify themselves as agnostic, where Jamie and Pip are Christians. As such, they believe in an absolute right and wrong and that there is hope in the world. Marlowe and Spenser have a vague sense of being good and fighting evil in the world, but both good and evil are so nebulous to them, it’s often hard to decide whose side to be on. That’s not to claim they have all the answers about the right thing to do, but they have guiding principles that are bigger than them, whereas all moral decisions are completely up to those without an external moral guide.

So, if you read my books, you’ll hear Jamie and Pip talk about God, and even to God, and you’ll see them in church and you’ll encounter less adult language than you will in Parker and Chandler and pretty much all other modern detective fiction. To be honest, you will encounter some relatively steamy love scenes, but they fall short of being graphic and also they are always between Jamie and Pip. Part of what I want to depict in this story is a healthy relationship between a man and a woman and the fact that sex is not dirty, but is instead a beautiful gift of God when it is done right. So, my books aren’t, strictly speaking, Christian books, but they are definitely books written by a Christian with a world view that matches that. Jamie and Pip are far from perfect, and they’ll do and say things that don’t match their understanding of right and wrong, but that’s because they’re human and therefore flawed to no greater or lesser extent than anyone else.

And so, while you’ll find, I hope, my stories are entertaining, with some mystery, some romance, and some suspense, you’ll also find, I hope, that they are a little lighter and more positive than many other books in this genre. That’s not to say things never get dark. They most decidedly do. But no matter how dark a place they go, they will always be seeking each other and they each and both together will always be seeking the light. It may take a while for them to find it, but it’s there.