December 1, 2024

Today marks the publication of my tenth novel and book #6 in the Mike Stoneman Thriller series. Or, as I’ve now clandestinely re-branded it, the Mike Stoneman Mysteries series. It has been three years since my readers have seen what’s happening in the lives of Mike, Dr. Michelle McNeill (the county medical examiner and Mike’s romantic interest), Jason Dickson (Mike’s partner), and Rachel Robinson Dickson (Jason’s wife). I don’t write general blogs much, but I want to take this opportunity to look back at the series, look forward to what’s still coming, and give my readers a little insight into what’s been happening in the backstory of these characters while we’ve been on a Covid-19 hiatus.

When we last saw our core characters, they were in Las Vegas, where Jason and Rachel were getting married in Perilous Gambit. That was January of 2020 in the timeline of the books, and late 2021 in my real life. We all were deep into the pandemic – eighteen months since the world came to a virtual stop. The shutdown of movies, theater, sports, and social gatherings made for some productive writing time, but “stir-crazy” was the mood in our house. (Don’t mention Tiger King.) As I was finishing the main drafting of the book in the summer of 2021, I knew in my heart that I did not want to immediately write another Mike Stoneman story, where my detectives would be investigating crimes during the pandemic, interrogating suspects while wearing facemasks, and generally needing to work social distancing into the narrative. Ugh. No, thank you.

 And so I took a break from the characters as far as writing their stories. I wrote two stand-alone mysteries that were not set in any specific year, but which existed outside of the covid-19 universe. This let me pretend that life was normal again. Both Dead Winner and The Other Murder were well-reviewed and both were recognized with book awards. I loved the departure from the Mike Stoneman series, although some of the Mike Stoneman characters appeared in the stand-alone books, which were set in New York City and inside the Mike Stoneman universe. I hope some of my readers appreciated the references to those familiar names and personalities. But, behind the scenes, I was always thinking about Mike and Jason and what they would be doing during those years.

When I finally sat down to write book #6 – Double Takedown – I needed to push the fictional timeline back into sync with my reality. During many walks around the block during the pandemic with my wonderful wife, Sharon (which have continued as part of our regular routine even now, since I’m frequently working from home), we discussed the events in the timeline. Sharon is as interested in my characters as I am – sometimes even more so! If I consider some plot possibility that involves someone in my story (particularly Michelle or Rachel) behaving in a way contrary to Sharon’s vision of what they would “really” do, she quickly shoots down the idea. I owe a lot to her guidance about my characters and their relationships.

One thing we both agreed on was that the next book should involve a scene at the birthday party of Jason and Rachel’s child. You may recall that the reason Jason and Rachel were getting married in Vegas was that Rachel was unexpectedly pregnant. They had become engaged in a really fun scene at a vegan French restaurant in the middle of Fatal Infraction (book #4). (The vegan French restaurant, known as Le Renard Currant (the funning fox) was totally Sharon’s idea. I loved it!)  The happy couple was scheduled for a summer wedding, but fate intervened. Rachel had just bought a gorgeous wedding dress and wanted to get married while she could still fit into it. So, it was off to Vegas for what turned out to be a much more eventful trip than they had planned, with Mike and Michelle serving as best man and maid of honor. But my readers were left with a pregnant Rachel, and would want to know whether the child was a boy or a girl.

As it turned out, the party scene for JJ’s third birthday (Jason, Jr.) was a perfect opportunity to put my characters in a natural situation where they would be talking to people they either didn’t know or whom they had not seen in a long time, particularly with the intervening pandemic. What would people at a 3-year-old’s birthday party chat about? “So, what have you been doing since I last saw you?” It’s totally normal and a way for me to get in a lot of backstory in dialogue rather than long blocks of narrative. It was a perfect idea. (Thanks, Sharon!)

Double Takedown starts with a scene more than a year earlier, in May of 2022. You can read as a preview on my website at https://kevingchapman.com/double-takedown-mike-stoneman-6/. This exciting scene also contains a few re-introductions, but the birthday party scene was my chance to really fill readers in on the events of the prior three-and-a-half years. The first draft of the birthday party scene was more than 5000 words. And it was boring. Even Sharon was bored, and she loves these characters. So, I had to cut and cut to get it down to something where the plot moves ahead a little bit (and there is dialogue about the upcoming murder trial, which is key) and where the backstory discussion is kept short and sweet. (For example, Jason and Rachel had moved in with Rachel’s mother in the house in Brooklyn, after Rachel’s father was a Covid-19 victim.) I hope that my readers got the important points within the flow of the new mystery (two case investigations, actually). But it can’t all be in the book.

So . . . If you’re interested (and why would you still be reading if you weren’t?), here are a few of the things that got cut from the new book or were significantly truncated, but which you may want to know. Everything I say here will need to be cannon for future books, so I’ll need to put them into the book’s “bible” where all the key historical facts are archived. (Thanks to one of my readers, Roxx, who compiled the Mike Stoneman bible during the pandemic.)

Jason and Rachel

                In the prior books, Rachel lived at home in Brooklyn with her parents, Olivia and Eddie. Rachel spent plenty of time at Jason’s apartment in Manhattan, and after the wedding, that was their mutual home. But Brooklyn always called to Rachel. When Eddie contracted Covid early in the pandemic, before there were drug treatments or a vaccine, it was a family crisis. Eddie’s death was quick, but left a huge hole in the family. With the baby on the way, it made sense for Rachel and Jason to move to Brooklyn, to take care of Olivia and so that Olivia could help take care of the baby. They moved, including Jason’s big King Sized bed (he’s six-foot-three, remember), which barely fit into Rachel’s bedroom.

                Meanwhile, Rachel was experiencing medical complications from the pregnancy. Her condition made it impossible for her to remain on the job as an EMT. The physical stress of the job was too much for her, so her bosses transferred her to dispatcher duty. She was great at it, but it kept her behind a computer console and a phone line and off the streets. During the early days of the pandemic, many EMTs contracted the virus while responding to emergency situations. These front-line responders were true heroes, but many of them didn’t make it through to the vaccine and Paxlovid. Because she was not riding around in an ambulance before anyone really knew how the virus was transmitted, she avoided infection. As Rachel will tell people later, the baby “saved my life.”

                After the birth, Rachel took some leave and then returned to work, leaving grandma Olivia to babysit, which she loved. Losing her husband of more than 40 years (I’ve never precisely pegged the year Olivia and Eddie were married), Olivia was adrift. But having a grand-baby at home was just the tonic to give her a purpose and keep her plenty busy. When Rachel was working, Olivia was their live-in child care. That’s a big deal in New York City. A nanny who doesn’t charge – and who makes dinner! It was a perfect situation for everyone involved.

                When Jason, Junior was born, he was called “JJ” from the start. They couldn’t have two “Jasons” and so the baby needed a nickname. They went with JJ rather than “Junior.” (Yes, they could have named him Eddie, but it was too soon after the death for them to go there, and Jason had insisted early on that, if they had a son, he wanted him to be Jason, Junior. Rachel had agreed, and so they started calling the baby JJ even before he was born. By the time we get to the birthday party, JJ is a very active little boy and the apple of his parents’ eyes.

                Rachel never did return to active EMT duty. She was so good as a dispatcher that her boss put her back in that role. The pandemic was still raging, and a new mom didn’t need to be exposed out on the streets. But Rachel never lost her drive to be helpful and nurturing. When an emergency medical situation arose during the Broadway Cares fundraiser, she leapt into action without hesitation.

                Jason, meanwhile, loved being a dad and continued his life as a homicide detective. But he had already started thinking about his long-term career plans. You may recall the bar scene during Lethal Voyage (book #3) where he talked with Mike about whether Mike was happy with his decision to be a career cop. At that time, he and Rachel were not engaged, but he was wondering whether a life with her was in his future and whether they could be happy and have a family if he remained a detective, with odd hours and sometimes high risk. The death of Jason’s temporary partner during Deadly Enterprise (book #2) still weighed on his mind. Jason had been thinking about his potential future for a while. We find out at the birthday party that Jason has been taking classes (virtual via Marist College) to get a Master of Public Administration degree. In the timeline, he will graduate in May of 2025. What will he do what that degree? He could become a city executive, or even a deputy police commissioner – or he could leave the department entirely. During the investigations of Double Takedown, Jason is still very much Mike’s partner, but there is an undercurrent of an uncertain future.

                Rachel’s kid brother and drag performer, Jackie, was forced to move away from Las Vegas after the events in Perilous Gambit. He’s back in New York City, still performing, and happy to be uncle Jackie to little JJ. Jackie is still looking for love, but has not found anyone special. It was Jackie’s connections in the performing arts community that allowed Michelle and Rachel to score tickets to the Broadway Cares charity gala where the events of Double Takedown begin. In the original version of Chapter One, Jackie was at the event also, but his lines got cut in editing and eventually his entire presence disappeared. (He’s still harboring resentment that he missed the opportunity to rub elbows with Broadway producers and casting directors.)

Mike and Michelle

                The big change for Mike and Michelle is that they are now sharing an apartment. (You should probably stop here and re-read the last chapter of Perilous Gambit, if you don’t recall what happened.) The decision to live in the same building where Mike had his one-bedroom on the eleventh floor made sense because of its location in walking distance from Mike’s precinct house, and an easy subway ride for Michelle down to the ME’s lab. (For those who don’t know Manhattan, Mike’s commute from Michelle’s apartment at Twenty-Third and Second Avenue would have been nightmarish.) But they needed a bigger space than either of them had. A two-bedroom unit in The Dorchester opened up, which Mike swooped on for their new joint home. It was on the second floor, with a little balcony off the main bedroom. (It’s based on the actual apartment of a very good friend who lived there when Sharon and I were also in that building.)

                A new apartment, of course, meant that they would need to furnish it. They both had a full apartment worth of stuff, which they needed to combine into their new place. As you might imagine, Michelle’s furniture and home decorations were much more tasteful than Mike’s. In fact, almost everything from Michelle’s place was nicer and more appropriate for their joint abode. Mike got the location, but Michelle got most of the furnishings.

                Living together after Mike’s long period of bachelorhood was a strain, and continued to raise issues during the narrative in Double Takedown. But they continued to work together. This also created some tricky situations. They had always shared information and collaborated on investigations. But now there was a more obvious possibility of an improper sharing of confidential information and potentially a conflict if one had to testify about the other’s professional activities. They were the talk of the precinct and the talk of the ME’s lab (of course). But mostly everyone was happy for them, and nearly everyone in their lives was already aware of their romance, which had started during the Righteous Assassin investigation (book #1). Now, it’s totally out in the open.

                Whether there is trouble in paradise will always be a source of departmental gossip.

* * *

                Double Takedown brings us back to the fall of 2023, so the timeline of the books is still lagging a bit behind real life. We’ll see how that plays out in book #7 (Treacherous Hack), where Mike and Jason will be caught up in murder investigation that is connected to an international data theft ring. This story happens in the dead of winter – the winter of 2023-24. But when will book #8 happen? That remains to be seen. But at least we’re beyond the Covid pandemic.

                I hope my fans are happy to see Mike & his cohorts back in action. All the side characters people love (with one notable exception) appear in Double Takedown also, along with some new additions. Please write to me and let me know your reactions, including any ideas you may have for what should happen to these now-beloved (by some) characters.

                Enjoy Double Takedown, and look forward to Treacherous Hack in 2025.

                                                                                                                                                                               KGC