J. D. Kerrigan: Author of GREED, a mystery novel

It’s been reported that the Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who attempted to bomb a plane on Christmas, has been talking to investigators since he was mirandized. Is this really true or are we being pacified to calm our outrage that he is being treated like any other U. S. citizen?

Umar is not a U. S. citizen. He is by his own admission an international Al Qaeda terrorist instructed to blow up nearly 300 people on that plane to Detroit. He is a war criminal and should be tried in a military court.

Our Supreme Court has not yet ruled about such cases. Nor should it have to. Forget that Bush tried other attackers in civilian court. Bush had made mistakes about a lot of things, including this one.

Unger rules of the Geneva Convention, he is a foreign enemy and may be tried in a military court.

Let’s get on with it. Why do we have to make every issue so complicated?

Of course he is. Based on the evidence presented at his trial, the jury deliberated for 37 minutes before finding him guilty of premeditated, first-degree murder for putting a gun to the head of Dr. George Tiller and pulling the trigger. Roeder even confessed to the crime before, during, and after the trial; he said it was justified to save the lives of unborn children.

Why is that surprising? Or unjust? Regardless of where you stand on abortion, murder is murder. In this country we don’t allow people to kill others simply because they don’t agree with their views. That went out when the Wild West was tamed.

Had Roeder been found innocent, the jury would have sent a signal to anyone who has an axe to grind, regardless of the reason, to kill. Hubby fooling around? Shoot him. Boss didn’t give you a raise? Blow up his office. Neighbor’s stereo too loud? Burn down his house. 

This country was founded on the rule of law. The killing of another human being just because you disagree with his political views puts us in league with a Banana Republic.

Roeder used the court as a platform to expound his views about abortion. Why not pursue the issue in a court of law? The Supreme Court has ruled on the issue. Don’t like the decision, work to change the law, but don’t go around killing people just because you oppose his or her beliefs.   

Roeder testified in court that he considered other schemes to stop the doctor, including chopping off his hands, crashing a car into him or sneaking into his home to kill him. Roeder said he went to Reformation Lutheran Church three other times to kill Tiller but the doctor was not in church at the time.

Prosecutors wanted to avoid having the trial became a stage for abortion debate. They wanted to try Roeder for the crime he committed. Murder. And they were right to do so.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here. After my book was published, I have been busy with book signings and talks at book stores. I’ve promised myself that I will devote more time to the blog now that things are slowing down.

We are still dumbing down our schools. After Russia launched the first orbiting satellite in 1957, the U. S., realizing we were woefully behind in space technology, put millions of dollars into math and science programs in our schools. Although the Russians beat us to the moon in 1959, we caught up and were the first to put a man on the moon in 1969, gaining supremacy in space. All of that and more is at risk once again.

 The 70’s came and we lowered our standards to accommodate students with lesser ability from poor and disadvantaged communities. We’ve been doing it ever since. It’s one thing to lower standards but it is another thing to not provide opportunities for gifted students who all too often are held back by the lesser achievers. More and more classes for gifted students are being cancelled. These students are forced to read books in math and science classes while the other children catch up. (more…)

         I’ve been asked how long it took to write, GREED. While I have written magazine articles, short stories, and dabbled in some poetry, I never seriously tried to write a novel. I took a whack at a couple years ago but didn’t do anything with them—except consign them to a dumpster somewhere. My excuse was that I was too busy writing magazine articles and ad copy. A pretty lame excuse.

         How long for GREED? A couple of years. The reason is that I wrote the first draft off the top of my head. I got the idea to focus on child molestation and sexual predators and just took off on my laptop—once upon a time and went on from there.

         It had been many years since I’d written and published any fiction and much longer since I sat in a classroom at Pitt where I was taught that there is such a thing as plot and structure.

         I ripped through the first draft in about six months and then let it sit awhile. I gave it to some friends who said they loved it. There’s a problem with that. If they are your friend they aren’t going to tell you it’s lousy. Then, I sent it off to an agent who was very kind. She said she thought I had a very good writing style and voice but the story lacked structure.

         So, I bought a couple books on writing fiction (I’d probably written hundreds of thousands of words for print ads and TV), but I concluded I didn’t know squat about structure.

         All novels have structure and regardless of the genre, the structure is almost the same. Boy meets Girl. Boy faces roadblocks and hurdles to get Girl. In the end, he does or doesn’t as the case may be. The writer has to know how to introduce tension and conflict and time it all. Just about every novel you read (few exceptions) has three parts—a beginning, a middle, and an end. How well the author does his job of handling the middle (many writers call it the muddle in the middle) and end will give him a good story or not.

         Mysteries are in a class of their own. Timing, presentation, conflict and tension have to be very carefully crafted. You want the reader to identify with your protagonist, be on his side as he faces one crisis after another, and at the climax, you want the reader to be screaming, “You can do it. I’m pulling for you”.

         And that’s about it. I said I wrote the first draft in about six months. It took me another eighteen months to get it right. I had to throw away big chunks of the first draft (very much like killing one of your children). When it was all done, I felt that GREED starts of with a bang, holds your interest through the middle by raising the stakes for the protagonist, and well…I won’t tell you about the end. I’d like you to find out by reading the book.

         Another idea is already taking shape in my mind for the next one.

Just got great news from my publisher. Amazon has included my book — GREED–in its listings. You can find it at Amazon by searching for GREED. J D Kerrigan.

 Grady Skinner, the protagonist in my novel Greed, is a jazz musician. Advice to writers is often: Write what you know. That’s why Grady is a musician. I am also a musician. When I was in the Navy, I was a member or the Navy band. So, when it came to giving Grady an identity, I chose to have him play tenor sax with a jazz quartet.

I chose jazz because it is my favorite, especially the early to mid-50s. I guess that reveals my age. Some of the greats of that era were John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, and Stan Getz on tenor sax and on alto I liked Charlie Parker, Art Pepper, and Paul Desmond. Of the six, four were considered be-bop musicians. Getz and Desmond played a cool-jazz style. (more…)

I’ve lived in Jacksonville, Florida, at two different times in my life—once, in the mid 50s and now, fifty-four years later.

A lot has changed—not just the landscape and population, but everyday life. People didn’t lock their houses or cars then. Murders were not every-day newspaper headlines.

But now, just eight miles from my home, a seven-year-old girl, Somer Thompson, went missing. Her body was found the next day in a Georgia waste-dump/land-fill. She is but the latest in a string of such cases here in Florida and around the nation the past year. It seems like every week children go missing or are found murdered by some psycho deviant. (more…)

I have just approved the final proof of my novel–GREED--a murder mystery set in Florida. In it, Jazz musician Grady Skinner’s girlfriend wants a commitment but he can’t give it until he deals with a ghost from his past. He’s ready to sail his sloop, Mindsweeper, to the Abacos Islands off Florida’s south east coast to put the past behind him once and for all, but on the eve of the trip his brother is killed at a drug bust.  Knowing that is impossible, he postpones the trip to find out what really happened. He quickly runs up against corrupt and powerful men who will go to any length to prevent him from exposing human traffickers that enslave children in a thriving international sex ring. With his 14-year-old daughter at risk, he plunges into the mean streets of Jacksonville, Florida’s murder capital, where sinister twists challenge him at every turn. Betrayed by an old friend, nothing is what it seems.  Just when he thinks he’s unraveled the mystery, his primary suspect winds up dead. Seemingly back at square one, he discovers a fresh clue on his brother’s laptop that points him in a new direction, a path from which he must escape before catching his brother’s killer.