Tony Denn's Blog - Posts Tagged "first-novel"
Never the Sinner - My First Novel
Never the Sinner is my first novel. At least, the first novel that I feel ready to show the world, and to have the confidence to people charge money to buy.
It’s making me rather nervous.
Introducing…
When Detective Roland Recht is assigned the murder of a local cult leader, it seems obvious that a former member must be responsible.
But when Recht suffers an off-duty personal attack, he and his partner follow the trail from their small Nevada town to the heart of Reno, where the truth behind the murder grows murkier at every turn.
As Recht’s superiors and even the FBI push to attribute the killing to a hired gun and close the case quickly, Recht’s devout religious beliefs drive his conscience in a different direction, forcing him to choose between true justice and the need to see justice done.
The Beginning
Never the Sinner is a story that started sometime after I completed my second novel-length work, and I somehow found myself thinking about protagonists and the sort of detectives I have read in the past. Pretty soon I got to wondering about religion (don’t ask me why) and how this affects a person’s work, and I liked the notion of a man of absolute cast-iron faith doing a job that requires absolute proof.
I “umm”ed and “ahh”ed and wrote out several ideas, mini-treatments where the detective happens to be a religious type, but during the investigation he loses/questions his faith and regains it in time for the final showdown, blah, blah, blah…
I know. You’ve seen it all before, right? Yeah, me too. So I didn’t do that.
I started to craft the notion that Recht himself verbalises in the novel: “Being a cop is what I do. Being a Christian is who I am.” Which left me with the question of how religion affects a person’s work.
And the simple answer is: it doesn’t. Or shouldn’t. Not really.
At least no more than other outside elements inform the sort of coffee shop barista you are, or the sort of bus driver or orthodontist or midwife or teacher or postman or movie director or… or whatever you choose to do. A person’s religion, no matter how devout, should only affect their work, really, if the personal and the professional cross paths.
So this, first and foremost, is a detective novel. But in all detective novels, the personal must impact the professional, whilst not overwhelming it. The readers will be the judge of whether I succeed or not.
The Audience
An early beta reader said to me that I was writing in a similar genre to her – Christian Mystery Fiction. This was news to me, as I didn’t even know that was a genre (or sub-genre). It hadn’t struck me until then that readers of Christian fiction would be all that interested.
Yes, I know Christian literature isn’t all stereotypical happy-clappy feel-good stuff. I know works like William P. Young’s The Shack is also an excellent fantasy-drama and Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins’ Left Behind saga is as compelling as any supernatural thriller you might care to mention (I’m working my way through the series right now), so why shouldn’t I include the Christian readers in my audience?
I hope I don’t dehumanise anyone by stating this, but it’s a large market, so I shouldn’t simply ask crime fans to enjoy my work. There may be some cross-over, with fans of crime and Christian fiction enjoying this on the same level. My worry is, of course, that the thin intersection of the veng diagram in my head is all the audience I will attract, but as I said, the readers will be the ultimate judge.
In a Nutshell
Recht is a devout man in a violent world that makes less sense the more you think about it, and this is what the novel explores.
There are themes of sacrifice, of right and wrong, of personal faith, but it is set in the real world. That means occasional violence (albeit not teeth-grindingly gratuitous), strong swearing in appropriate places, and a number of sexual references. It is about a man’s struggle to find his place amongst all that, whilst staying true to his faith.
Oh, and solving the murder. Plenty of solving the murder.
It’s making me rather nervous.
Introducing…
When Detective Roland Recht is assigned the murder of a local cult leader, it seems obvious that a former member must be responsible.
But when Recht suffers an off-duty personal attack, he and his partner follow the trail from their small Nevada town to the heart of Reno, where the truth behind the murder grows murkier at every turn.
As Recht’s superiors and even the FBI push to attribute the killing to a hired gun and close the case quickly, Recht’s devout religious beliefs drive his conscience in a different direction, forcing him to choose between true justice and the need to see justice done.
The Beginning
Never the Sinner is a story that started sometime after I completed my second novel-length work, and I somehow found myself thinking about protagonists and the sort of detectives I have read in the past. Pretty soon I got to wondering about religion (don’t ask me why) and how this affects a person’s work, and I liked the notion of a man of absolute cast-iron faith doing a job that requires absolute proof.
I “umm”ed and “ahh”ed and wrote out several ideas, mini-treatments where the detective happens to be a religious type, but during the investigation he loses/questions his faith and regains it in time for the final showdown, blah, blah, blah…
I know. You’ve seen it all before, right? Yeah, me too. So I didn’t do that.
I started to craft the notion that Recht himself verbalises in the novel: “Being a cop is what I do. Being a Christian is who I am.” Which left me with the question of how religion affects a person’s work.
And the simple answer is: it doesn’t. Or shouldn’t. Not really.
At least no more than other outside elements inform the sort of coffee shop barista you are, or the sort of bus driver or orthodontist or midwife or teacher or postman or movie director or… or whatever you choose to do. A person’s religion, no matter how devout, should only affect their work, really, if the personal and the professional cross paths.
So this, first and foremost, is a detective novel. But in all detective novels, the personal must impact the professional, whilst not overwhelming it. The readers will be the judge of whether I succeed or not.
The Audience
An early beta reader said to me that I was writing in a similar genre to her – Christian Mystery Fiction. This was news to me, as I didn’t even know that was a genre (or sub-genre). It hadn’t struck me until then that readers of Christian fiction would be all that interested.
Yes, I know Christian literature isn’t all stereotypical happy-clappy feel-good stuff. I know works like William P. Young’s The Shack is also an excellent fantasy-drama and Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins’ Left Behind saga is as compelling as any supernatural thriller you might care to mention (I’m working my way through the series right now), so why shouldn’t I include the Christian readers in my audience?
I hope I don’t dehumanise anyone by stating this, but it’s a large market, so I shouldn’t simply ask crime fans to enjoy my work. There may be some cross-over, with fans of crime and Christian fiction enjoying this on the same level. My worry is, of course, that the thin intersection of the veng diagram in my head is all the audience I will attract, but as I said, the readers will be the ultimate judge.
In a Nutshell
Recht is a devout man in a violent world that makes less sense the more you think about it, and this is what the novel explores.
There are themes of sacrifice, of right and wrong, of personal faith, but it is set in the real world. That means occasional violence (albeit not teeth-grindingly gratuitous), strong swearing in appropriate places, and a number of sexual references. It is about a man’s struggle to find his place amongst all that, whilst staying true to his faith.
Oh, and solving the murder. Plenty of solving the murder.
