Author Tj O’Connor: How The “Boo” Put The “Who” In My Whodunnits

In this month’s instalment of “Author(ized) Accounts of the Paranormal and Unexplained,” Tj O’Connor, author of New Sins for Old Scores, will tell us about how paranormal experiences have influenced his writing…

I’ve written many times that my first published novel—and first book series contract—all began with a twenty-plus year nightmare. Following my work as a military federal agent running anti-terrorism operations—in particular during the First Gulf War—I began having a recurring nightmare three times a week or so. The nightmare was that I was murdered by terrorists during an operation and I returned, as a spirit, to hunt them down. One evening, I was telling my adult daughter, Jean, about these nightmares. We laughed about it—sort of—and suggested I write a murder mystery based on the nightmare. Except, to make the lead character a local detective in Winchester, Virginia where we live. Oh, and make it a little funny and have historical plots. Things that reminded her of me and my life. So I did.

I banged out the novel, just for her, in a couple months—Dying to Know. The story followed Oliver Tucker—Tuck—as he hunted his killer with his best friend and partner, Bear, and his brilliant historian wife, Angel. Oh, and Hercule, his trusty Black Lab companion. The story had a historical subplot that I used Tuck’s rather odd condition, er, him being dead and a spirit back among the living, as a tool to move between the past and the present. My daughter and her book club (as I recall it), loved the story and I decided to send it out.

Poof. It landed me my brilliant literary agent, Kimberley Cameron, and a three-book deal with Midnight Ink under the terrible moniker, The Gumshoe Ghost. What followed were Dying for the Past and Dying to Tell.

Yikes, oddly enough, that nightmare ended shortly after the second book in the series was released. But shortly thereafter, when I learned Midnight Ink was ceasing business and Tuck and friends wouldn’t continue, I began with another paranormal nightmare—something I’ve never told anyone before and never written about it for personal reasons.

This new trauma included my mentor, Wally F. Wally was one of the last Office of Strategic Services (OSS) operatives from World War II. OSS was a precursor to the CIA. He was also a former Deputy Director at CIA before his retirement. In the early 1990s, he became my boss, friend, mentor, and best critic. Except he absolutely hated the Ghost Gumshoe. See, Wally had little wild imagination as I did. He didn’t believe in the occult or the paranormal. Though, he was immensely proud when I finally published it. Secretly, I know he read the books but he always dismissed the notion to me. Funny, I MC’d his 90^th birthday party and he was telling the room about the plots. Pretty good for a guy who never read them. Right?

Anyway, this new recurring nightmare was that I was nearly killed during an investigation with the company we ran, and Wally had been. He and a pal of his returned as spirits from the OSS days to help me catch a spy ring operating nearby. The dream was even more real to me than the nightmare that had given rise to Oliver Tucker and his cases. Unlike Tuck’s dreams, this one was dark and often scary. I often woke to stop the terror. When I told Wally about the dreams, he laughed at me and said there was no such thing as dream—premonitions. 

Then the reality of those nightmares hit. In 2015, I received the call that Wally was in the hospital and dying. I spent the weekend in his room when I heard he would not leave there. We laughed and joked and told old stories of our escapades together. And I made him a promise—I would finish the paranormal book I was writing and return to writing The Consultant—what would become my first published thriller. In the middle of that night, he told me if there was anything more after he died, he’d let me know. He winked and fell asleep. He died the next morning.

For years, I always thought he was being melodramatic—paraphrasing from the life of Houdini one of his childhood heroes. Ah, not so fast, Watson. . .

One afternoon, years later, I was writing a blog as a memorial to him. Upstairs in my bedroom, an old antique radio turned on playing 1940’s swing music. So? You might ask? So, it wasn’t plugged in and the batteries were dead and crusted over. And, it was decades old and didn’t have any timer or alarm feature.

Okay, Wally. I heard you.

Unsure if this were an omen, one of his ridiculous taunts or jokes, or just something very weird, I finished New Sins for Old Scores and my brilliant agent sold it. The story follows Detective Jax—you guessed it—a modern-day detective who is ambushed and saved by the spirit of a World War II OSS Operative, Trick McCall. Together they hunt for the killers, who seemingly have a connection to both the attempt on Jax and Trick’s 70-plus year-old murder. The two betrayals are tied to Operation Paperclip—the WWII OSS operation to bring Nazi scientists into the US.

New Sins for Old Scores remains one of my favorite novels. Mostly because I absolutely modeled Trick McCall after Wally. But also because, while I tell myself I’m a thriller writer, and not a paranormal mystery author, I love the genre.

Recently, Kimberley-agent-extraordinaire, is on the cusp of getting the original Oliver Tucker books republished under the new moniker, The Dead Detective Casefiles, and led by my new, fourth in the series, Dying With A Secret. No, this one is not based off another premonition-dream, but it is based off a real-life treasure hunt in the Virginia countryside and a series of strange, paranormal events.

So, stayed tuned to Tuck, Bear, and Angel as they chase the famous Beale Treasure in the new Dead Detective Casefiles.

Author Interview

The Night Librarian: This is such a sweet and slightly spooky tribute to your old friend. Can you tell us the wildest source of inspiration for your latest project?

Tj:  My first published novel and series, Dying to Know and the Dead Detective Casefiles, was all based on a twenty-plus year nightmare I suffered after the First Gulf War. For details, read my true account, How The Boo Put The Who in My Whodunnits. But the wildest sources of my novels don’t end there.

Dying With A Secret, my fourth installment in the Oliver Tucker series, The Dead Detective Casefiles was inspired by a series of family events. Tuck’s first three stories were published under The Ghost Gumshoe—a horrible moniker—several years ago. Now, with my rights back, I hope to have his exploits rekindled this coming year and relaunched with Dying With A Secret.

Since my kids were very young, I put on a murder mystery or similar family event for Halloween or over their summer breaks. The event was accompanied by a big dinner party and lots of family and friends. A few times, I put on complex treasure hunts mixed in with a diabolical murder plot. It was in planning just that theme for my adult kids and grand kids that I fell upon the true story of the Beale Treasure, and voila, Dying With A Secret was hatched.

The Beale Treasure is a real mystery and could well be a real treasure—depending on who you ask. It is allegedly a hidden treasure of more than $65 million in gold, gems, and other loot hidden in Virginia. The real-life sage involves secret letters, hidden clues in of all things the Declaration of Independence (for real!) So, while modeling my Halloween murder mystery treasure hunt after the Beale treasure mystery, I got the idea for Dying With A Secret. You see, all my Dead Detective Casefiles have a true historical subplot and I use Tuck’s demise—him being a dead detective—to move between the historical mystery and the modern-day case. Dying With A Secret blends the Beale Treasure mystery, with a modern day plot to compromise a young girl, gifted with psychic abilities, to find the treasure. Of course, there’s murder and mayhem included, but you wouldn’t expect anything less from me.

The Night Librarian: It sounds like you have many fascinating sources of inspiration! Why don’t you tell us about how your profession influenced your writing?

Tj: I am an international anti-terrorism consultant supporting the Department of Homeland Security. I’ve been in the anti-terrorism business most of my adult life, and I think my family will say I’ve been in it since birth. In my travels as both a former military federal agent in the anti-terrorism world, and as a private security consultant for both DHS and the private sector, I’ve seen my share of mayhem. In my professional lifespan, I’ve worked homicides, other violent crimes, embezzlements, and armored car robberies; investigated attempted shooting-down of military aircraft in the US; protected untold senior US and foreign officials in high-risk areas; helped defend US facilities and people; chased terrorists; helped in the capture/location of terrorists; and been targeted by terrorists.

So, yeah, writing murder mysteries and political thrillers is sort of in my blood. The characters, plots, and themes of my stories are all based on my life’s work and past. My stories try to portray the real side of murder and terror, except the part where Oliver Tucker is dead, mind you. Sure, that part is made up. I think. And in my thrillers, the plots, character personalities, and the manner in which the “operations” unfold is as true as I dare write it. Any truer, and I might be giving the bad guys a roadmap to a successful attack. A disclaimer here—no specific characters are real. Well, three are. I have admitted in the past that my mentor of 24 years, Wally F was Doc Gilley in the Oliver Tucker Dead Detective Casefiles, Trick McCall in New Sins for Old Scores, and—to a T—Oscar LaRue in The Consultant. Otherwise, no, my characters are an amalgam of good guys and bad guys from my past. With Dying With A Secret, my friend, mentor, and best critic—Wally F—will live on for a while.

The Night Librarian: Are you working on a new project right now? What can you tell us about it?

Tj: There are two big projects in the works—four if you count sequels.

First, my hero-agent, Kimberley Cameron, is in the process of reselling the Oliver Tucker series, The Dead Detective Casefiles, and relaunching it with Dying With A Secret. Once done, I’ll begin working on book 5 of the series, currently titled, “Dying With I Have No Idea What the Title Will Be.”

Next, Kimberley also has in the market, The Whisper Legacy, my latest thriller. The Whisper Legacy follows Lowe Trapp, a down and out ex-private intelligence operative struggling with life in his 50s. He was nearly killed in his last mission fifteen years prior, and now a lonely PI, is drawn back into that crisis and fighting for his life and his past. The blurb for those interested is,

Trapp’s enemies thought he was dead.

They were wrong.

He thought his past was left on the Voula Beach Road.

He was wrong.

Now, that nightmare is drawing his enemies out.

The halls of power are being targeted—but by who?

Is the secret of the Voula Beach Road behind the chaos?

Trapp knows the answer.

It’s all in The Whisper Legacy . . .

And, of course, I’m already into Trapp’s sequel and launching him into another death-defying and wild thriller where danger, political intrigue, and foreign spies test his aging mind and body to the breaking point.  

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