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Message in a Bullet
A Raymond Mackey Mystery—Book 1
Message in a Bullet, my debut foray into the shadowy world of literary noir, is the first in a series of novels based on the same principal character.
Raymond Mackey is a struggling crime writer. His friends call him Mack. But friends are in short supply these days. Mack’s thirty years as a homicide detective came to the kind of abrupt, ignominious end that tends to make friends dry up and blow away. It matters little that Mack was never actually a mole working for a shadowy, seemingly omnipresent mob boss. Somehow, the evidence was there anyway and the scandal ended everything for him overnight. Lucky to stay out of prison, Mack lives in a netherworld of forced retirement, spinning his memories of old homicide cases into pulp fiction and working part time as a shopping mall cop. His wife Marlo, the greatest criminal investigator Mack has ever known, has been dead of pancreatic cancer for nearly five years. That leaves his ancient Smith-Corona Corsair, a pack of Camels, a bottle of Old Forester, and Marlo’s bourbon-loving cat, Phil, as Mack’s only company.
Almost. Because Mack also keeps himself company. The psychiatrists call it Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder. Mack calls it Triple-D. But crazy also works. It means he watches himself, usually from an overhead perspective, as though someone has tied a floating camera to a back beltloop on a long string. It makes him feel watched, and not by someone inclined to judge him kindly. So Raymond Mackey comes complete with his own Greek chorus. “Watch yourself, Mack,” people tell him. He has no choice.
When one of Mack’s old informants goes missing and Mack’s face turns up in a dead man’s camera, his past comes roaring painfully back to life. Now the police want him for questioning, the mob want him dead and it’s increasingly difficult to tell who, exactly, is working for who. As a mercilessly hot Chicago summer finally breaks and it starts to rain bodies, Mack finds himself past his prime for this kind of action. Retirement has added weight and subtracted agility. He hasn’t fired a weapon in years. His antiquated cell phone will not stop ringing with a mysteriously blocked number. In the end, as Mack watches himself from above, it is razor-sharp instinct, cheap consumer electronics and his dead wife that offer his only hope.
This is the Dream
Ten stories less about dreaming than not dreaming. Ten stories about pulling free the gossamer mask of illusion and seeing the face of what has been true – about ourselves, about the people we choose to love, and about our path through the woods – from the very beginning.
JOHN. The bus driver whose lunchtime encounter with Andromeda reunites him with the one person he has spent a lifetime choosing to avoid.
WYATT. The Appalachian who wakes from a dream that his wife has been abducted by aliens to find that she has gone missing and wishing the explanation could be so benign.
RUTH. The chocolate-quality inspector whose compartmentalized solitude threatens complete suffocation until a renowned romance novelist reveals the paper-thin wall that separates despair and hope.
KATHY. The identical twin, so desperate to be original that she sacrifices her authenticity to a stranger on a plane, lying herself a new identity without any thought to the consequences.
KATJA and JUNE. The novelist and the reporter, bound by history, separated by an ocean, and united in a struggle to reconcile their own hearts one letter at a time.
K.P. SORENSON The convention speaker with a renewed hope of becoming a literary demiurge, looking for validation from an audience of would-be fans, but finding instead the very last man she expects and the only woman who can separate fact from fiction.
DANNY. The laid-off, newly-separated factory worker whose life is in such dramatic contrast to that of his next-door neighbor, and George Clooney, that robbing a convenience store seems like his best option.
PETER. The teenager who, forced to spend Christmas in Hawaii with his younger sister, his parents, and the friends of his father not seen since college, discovers that reality is only a state of mind.
ZOE. The Hollywood intern, working on a movie about a superhero with random powers, managing a telephone relationship with an anonymous criminal, and excavating the secret structure of creation.
CALI. The high school loner whose dreams of a dead classmate lead her to the razor’s edge between living and not living.
Mother Blues
What if your childhood harbored a dire warning about your future? What if your life and the lives of dozens of others, including your future child, depended on you deciphering that warning before it is too late?
As Hurricane Harvey submerges Houston, Davis Payne escapes to the small desert town of Corbin, Texas. He is escaping much more than a 100-year flood. He is escaping a life of guilt and a childhood haunted by death. When Davis was ten, his mother drowned saving him from a boating accident. Years later, his first love – a schizophrenic twice his age who believed that Davis was destined to save her from a shadowy, universal malevolence – burned to death before he could reach her. Davis has no idea of any connection between these tragedies. He knows only that if he does not leave Houston and stop drinking, he will not live to see his late thirties. But Corbin is not the quiet refuge Davis expects. Beneath its dry, dusty surface Davis finds a town rife with terrible secrets, restless legacies of love and heartbreak, and life-and-death dramas that rival his own. There is no way for Davis to know that his terrible past is a key to resolving all that is unfolding in this tiny desert town, just as the residents of Corbin have no idea that it will be up to Davis to save them. Certainly no one suspects the future to hinge on the schemes of the Russian mob or the permeable veil that separates the living from the dead. Subversively feminist and environmental, Mother Blues is about the maternal relationships we never knew existed, the evil we never expect, and the redemption we never think possible.
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE from Owen Thomas Fiction
2020 BOOK EXCELLENCE AWARDS
AMAZON KINDLE BOOK AWARD
GLOBAL EBOOK AWARDS
BOOK AND AUTHOR.COM BOOK AWARDS
THE ERIC HOFFER BOOK AWARD
FIRST HORIZON BOOK AWARD
2019 READERS’ FAVORITE BOOK AWARD
BEVERLY HILLS INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS
LONDON BOOK FESTIVAL
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BOOK FESTIVAL
GREAT MIDWEST BOOK FESTIVAL
LOS ANGELES BOOK FESTIVAL
GREAT SOUTHEAST BOOK FESTIVAL
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AMSTERDAM BOOK FESTIVAL
THE NEW YORK BOOK FESTIVAL
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Table of Honor
Internationally Accredited Writing Competitions
Kirkus Reviews:
“[A] cerebral page turner…a powerful and promising debut.”
Alaska Library Association:
“The Lion Trees has the all hallmarks of a modern classic.”
The Eric Hoffer Book Award:
“A sweeping literary saga in the tradition of Dr. Zhivago, Gone with the Wind, and The Thorn Birds, this book has it all, including scandal, aspiration, treachery, and reinvention. Thomas’ fiction has a fresh feel—original and stirring—delivering a tale of monumental family dysfunction, which captures interest through numerous plot shifts, quickly alternate between poignant and humorous. By turns exhilarating and exhausting, Thomas creates compelling, rich characters. The ending is just as satisfying as the beginning. At 2,000 pages, the scope of the project alone is admirable.”
The US Review of Books:
“Owen Thomas’ Lion Trees… can be anointed any number of superlatives to showcase its brilliance; highly addictive, spectacular, and mind blowing will have to suffice. Thomas is a wizard of fiction, and his novel a captivating gem that engulfs the reader from the beginning. Whether it’s the reliability factor, exhilarating plot arcs, or the deep allegiances built with the characters, this novel is brought to life in the readers’ mind…. What makes this story a literary juggernaut is the fluidity of the prose and the impeccable pacing of the novel. Thomas gives readers just enough of each character’s perspective, and as that carrot is dangling seemingly within reach, he switches gears. Don’t let the length of the book deceive; there is never a dull moment, and the pages just seem to turn themselves. Ultimately, The Lion Trees is life personified. No man is either good or bad, but rather a tantalizing fusion of the two that makes life worth living.”
The Anchorage Press:
. . . .
Intoxicated by his prose, you gorge upon chunks of passages and while awestruck by the language’s majesty two discordant thoughts course through your brain: why is the book so long and then, superseding that sentiment, please don’t let it end. It is not often that a book like The Lion Trees graces our lives. Yes, making the commitment to engage in such a lengthy tome can be daunting. Here’s my response, throw caution to the wind, make this book your summer indulgence—it will be a vacation you’ll never forget.”
Book Ideas Reviews:
“In its structure and nature, [The Lion Trees] reminds me above all of John Updike’s wonderful Harry Rabbit novels and their ability to summarize the essence of change in American society across a decade at a time.”
Pacific Book Reviews:
…
This is a wonderful, well thought out, well written tale, worth every minute, every hour, and every day that you spend in it. Mr. Thomas’ style is straightforward and easy (even with the various dialects he employs perfectly). He uses simple, detail-oriented diction, creating a wonderful base on which to build such a story. The Lion Trees does what so very few great novels can: it will take a lot out of you, but leave you with much more than you had when you began.”
Readers’ Favorite Book Reviews:
Moterwriter.com:
Literary Litter.com:
….
[T]his was an astounding read for me. Not only was the story telling mesmerizing, but Owen’s writing style is inspiring. His writing is seamless and flawless and makes me yearn for more.
After reading both of these books, I’ve nominated [The Lion Trees] for Book of the Year Awards, I truly believe this is the best story that I’ve read this year, actually in a long time. This is what fiction and novels were initially created to be. It’s not only beautifully crafted, but it becomes a part of you.”
Signs of Passing
Accolades for Signs of Passing
PACIFIC BOOK AWARDS
WINNER
INDIE READER DISCOVERY AWARDS
WINNER
GREAT SOUTHWEST BOOK FESTIVAL
WINNER
NEW APPLE BOOK AWARDS
WINNER
NEW YORK BOOK FESTIVAL
RUNNER-UP GREAT MIDWEST BOOK FESTIVAL
RUNNER-UP
PACIFIC RIM BOOK FESTIVAL
RUNNER-UP
GREAT SOUTHEAST BOOK FESTIVAL
RUNNER-UP AMSTERDAM BOOK FESTIVAL
RUNNER-UP SHELF UNBOUND MAGAZINE
ONE OF THE 100 MOST NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2015
LONDON BOOK FESTIVAL
HONORABLE MENTION
GREAT NORTHWEST BOOK FESTIVAL
HONORABLE MENTION
NEW ENGLAND BOOK FESTIVAL
HONORABLE MENTION
LOS ANGELES BOOK FESTIVAL
HONORABLE MENTION
SAN FRANCISCO BOOK FESTIVAL
HONORABLE MENTION
PARIS BOOK FESTIVAL
HONORABLE MENTION
INDIE READER
4.5 STARS! “Thomas’ fully-realized characters are what make SIGNS OF PASSING a truly enjoyable work of fiction. ... SIGNS OF PASSING is a thoughtful and evocative collection of short stories full of memorable characters.”
