The Matthias Jones Mysteries
Who is Matthias Jones and what is he doing here? Jones is not a forensic expert or a crackerjack private investigator. He does not possess overwhelming analytical abilities and relies on hunches. Matthias Jones is one of us.
Jones does not seek to solve murder cases, but is inexorably drawn into the accumulating evidence. The people that drop into his murder scenes appear to be bumblers and are terribly annoying, yet they contribute surprisingly cogent assessments the crime. I have always been amazed at people's depth and abilities below the everyday superficialities. A murder investigation involving Coach Jones is laced with humor, a small town flavor, and solid relationships.
I was ready to expand my genres into mystery writing, but I wanted a few chuckles brought into in the endeavor. Why would I write a mystery series with an athletic coach solving murders in a small town? I must say I really did not have the answer until I was well into the series. When I was a boy we had no great political or social concerns in my small Massachusetts town. We did not have a mayor but had a coach. From my perspective and the perspective of my friends, athletics and sports teams at the high school were overriding themes. Even as kids we were in awe of our coach and spent our Saturday afternoons walking along the buzzing crowd and chanting cheerleaders during our football games at the park.
The humorous characters assisting Jones are not duplicates of people I knew when I was growing up, however, the tempo of the 1950's-60's hamlet was in remarkable contrast to the suburban sprawl and political correctness of today. Everyone seemed to have a nickname, a history, and a unique and sometimes flamboyant personality. Character foibles were the talk of the town, but in the end everyone was accepted as a member of the community. And we did have a founding family, benefactors to the town that became the Fletchers in the Jones books.
Given that initial framework Hamilton evolved around the town common I knew so well in my college days. Jones'colonial, the streets and Hamilton College certainly were constructs of my imagination. Hampton Beach, New Hampshire occupies the geographic space of Hamilton. In the real world there are no Devonshire Hills separating Hampton Beach and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The actual hills hug the valley around my college town. Prince William is reflective of larger cities near the towns where I have resided and I have lived along the ocean. Hamilton is a conglomeration of my sojourns on the planet and I am Matthias Jones.
The House Series Mysteries
Strange things happen to my mind when I'm away from home. Maybe my imagination gets the better of me. Nights away on business find me lying in bed at 2 a.m., my mind wandering into the shadowy crevices of contrived life threatening scenarios. I'm a writer and I admit my mind is constantly abuzz, constructing plots, characters, and when in the mystery realm: deadly tales.
I liked the consistency of a mystery series taking place in houses with various motifs and located in different geographic areas. There is certain vulnerability, albeit subconscious and probably not valid, of being alone in a house far away from home. Settings are not familiar and I am reminded of the lines from the old Jim Morrison song: People are strange when you're a stranger, Faces look ugly when you're alone.
In the series an underlying tension is critical once one is alone in the distant house. Something in the conscious or even in the unconscious remains unresolved and preys upon the vulnerability of the lead character. Supplemental characters have the power of residing in the area surrounding the house. The problem must be solved, but with deadly consequences.
I would like to say I have photographs of the houses and the locales in my House Series books. I would eagerly place them on the web. The houses and geography of the House Series are purely a construct of the mind. Yet, these images are oddly as real as anything in my own past. I have often wondered if I have lived in or have visited these places in another time and place.
Remember, next time you're alone, watching the shadows creep across the wallpaper sometime after midnight, there is a price to be paid by those leaving their familiar surroundings. That price is deadly danger and it awaits everyone in a house far away from home.
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