From the Author:
I spent about 5 years working on Forgive Me, Alex. Why so long? Well, some of it had to do with market conditions at the time, but mostly I wanted to make it just right. I went through multiple revisions, then had several beta readers provide input, then had my editor take a final pass.
The end result is a book I'm pleased to offer, and one I hope you'll thoroughly enjoy.
I wanted to provide a glimpse inside the minds of the primary characters -- not just for the protagonist, Tony Hooper, but also for the antagonist, Mitchell Norton. Everybody loves the good guy, of course, but the bad guy needs some lovin' too! Or maybe some hatin'. Or maybe some gut-wrenching, oh-my-God-I-think-I'm-gonna-puke fascination.
What makes a serial killer tick? As the psychological sciences have taught us in recent years, any number of factors can serve as the impetus for serial murder, or torture, or sick, twisted, sadistic sexual rituals. I hope I've given you enough of a glimpse into Mitchell Norton so that you'll know him well, even if you don't want to. **This is me grinning.**
As to our hero, Tony Hooper... well, it's not that simple. I sought to paint a picture of what might happen to a basically all-American kid when outside forces turn his world upside down. He loves hard, and therefore loses hard. We humans are such a complex lot, and I hope you'll find Tony's complexity interesting and compelling.
Strong relationships lay at the core of this story, which is ultimately one of love and loss, fueled by such a wide range of emotions. I've grown to love some of these characters, and I hope you, dear reader, will too. I plan to bring many of them back in my next book.
From the Inside Flap:
An excerpt from Forgive Me, Alex:
Mitchell Norton, the man I've long considered the devil, smiles atop the courthouse steps and waves to the simmering crowd. He tilts his head back to soak in the sunshine and cool breeze of the late spring day, the tranquility of which stands in stark contrast to the circumstances of this event.
The mere sight of him pushes me to the dark edge of my mind, where sanity hangs like... like... like a balloon in a tornado!
I stand in shadow across the street, one amongst many in the crowd of curiosity-hounds gathered to watch a monster's release. As my face blazes, fists clench and teeth grind, I can easily imagine the onset of a stroke, an aneurism, a pulmonary embolism, a raging scream--
Control yourself, Tony!
I long to charge across the street to destroy him--no remorse--as if stepping on a cockroach. Only sheer force of will prevents my doing so.
For seventeen years, I assumed this day would never come. How could they even consider releasing this vile creature, this very personification of evil?
In 1978, Norton murdered innocent kids who'd barely tasted of life. He tortured two of them beyond the limits of rational imagination, for to imagine such deeds was to summon a devilry that we dared not face. Yet the jury held him not responsible, a victim himself to the ravages of an illness that drove him to insanity beyond our reckoning.
He thus resides forever in the darkest pit of my psyche, chained to me in perpetuity. Now only two choices remain: I must cast off those chains, or yank them tight around his neck. Yes, I must obtain satisfaction. The idiotic jury seventeen years ago, and today's flawed court system, has left little recourse. No one else seems willing to deliver him to justice.
I am willing. After all, this is what I do. It's who I am. Indeed, the devil himself made me into this hunter of monsters. What a sweet twist of fate this is, that I may still, finally, administer justice.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.