One of my preoccupations over the last few years has been to write pulp detective novels. The genre appeals to me, since it offers a low standard of literacy, loose morals, and is a place where eccentric characters are welcomed, including authors. All pretenses to civility are eschewed and cussing is damned encouraged.
This was born of a notion to create a protagonist who would be fun to hang out with, and who was a tough guy capable of handling unpredictable criminals. Naturally, he would be attractive to every woman on the planet, would be unself-conciously stylish, yet be complex enough to be worth writing about. This particular character happens to be an ex-FBI Art Crime special agent. He has a practical streak wide enough to hit fifth gear driving his Mustang through, but is fascinated by artists and the dark circus that is today’s art market. He is a widower, a trauma he is handling– badly, and grapples with his own consternation about the immediate problems of America, such as drug dependencies or the environment, yet has a long view of history. He is the kind of hero I have been wanting to read about for a long time.
Unlike other art-related mystery stories with their sometimes ponderous investigators, our man Buck Madison, a Virginian educated at William and Mary College, by the way, is a man of action, even rash action at times. Naturally, this leads to entertaining complications, including entanglements with a bevy of female partners, who appear intriguingly like Angels, or victims. His other partners emerge from the streets, or the world of the FBI. The most prominent of these is Cole Harris, Buck’s longtime best friend, who leads a private investigation agency ready to protect Buck’s six as he probes the art-related cases that get him into so much trouble.
So here it is…enjoy!