Use the comments section to discuss or to ask questions about Use the comments section to discuss or to ask questions about ..
Comments
Use the comments section to discuss or to ask questions about Use the comments section to discuss or to ask questions about ..
Welcome to the Spoilerville page of my debut novel, the Malice Award-winning murder mystery MURDER IN EXILE. The book is the first of (currently) four in the series, and here’s what Marilyn Stasio said in The Sunday New York Times when MURDER IN EXILE came out:
The fully dimensional world of a long-running series is harder to find in a first mystery. There’s nothing tentative, though, about Vincent H. O’Neil’s debut novel, MURDER IN EXILE, which drops an engaging young sleuth into a sleepy little burg in the Florida Panhandle and hands him a tough case to cut his teeth on. Frank Cole landed in the coyly named town of Exile when his computer company up North went bankrupt and a nasty judge attached his future earnings. Frank is keeping his head down doing background checks for an insurance company when his investigation of a hit-and-run accident uncovers evidence of corporate corruption. Although you’d never guess it from the silly jacket art that makes his book look like an absurdist Carl Hiaasen knockoff, O’Neil is a polished storyteller with a breezy style and some interesting things to say about abandoned sons and their surrogate fathers. (Article by Marilyn Stasio)
When I read that review I wanted to have it tattooed on my back . . . so who’s got the first question about fact-checker Frank Cole in his new home of Exile, Florida?
Vinny O’Neil
PS – Please click on my name under the “Author Websites” heading on the left to read sample chapters and reviews of all my books at my website.
What does Frank Cole look like?
Hee hee — I can always count on West Point classmates like Vanessa to stump me! Actualyl it’s more accurate to say that you caught me, because I didn’t really go into great detail about what Frank looks likes.
I did this on purpose, because just before I wrote MURDER IN EXILE I’d read GET SHORTY and was impressed that Elmore Leonard doesn’t tell us very much about what Chili Palmer looks like. We know he’s tall and dark, but what we learn about Chili (that he’s cool, he’s tough, he’s sardonic, he’s determined) is from what he does and how he talks.
I adopted that outlook with Frank, only telling the reader that he’s tall without being terribly tall, that his hair is brown and that he’s reasonably good-looking. Everything else we learn about Frank is from his thoughts (the entire series is first-person singular) his conversations, and his actions. So far people seem to like him, so I guess Elmore Leonard was right.
I am re-reading “Murder in Exile” to help remember the different cases from each book. I am also currently unemployed. Mr. O’Neil: I need to know what are some of the ways/methods to have a part time career as a fact checker?
I’m also interested why more companies do not check the facts or do a background investigation. A few times a year there is an news blurb about a person who stated int their resume that they do have the required college degree or the required experience. Years later the truth is uncovered that there was no degree in that field or job experience.. Obviously background investigations and fact checking is needed more often. Why isn’t it done? Are there organizations you recommend to contact to work as a fact checker for?
Hi Frankie, sorry to hear about the job scene but I was recently there myself and so I can sympathize. There is a great reference book that I used to write Murder in Exile called THE COMPLETE IDIOT’S GUIDE TO PRIVATE INVESTIGATIONS and it’s loaded with advice about how to enter the field and how important peripheral jobs like fact-checking can be.