Guest Post: RESURRECTING JIMMY PIGEON by J. L. Abramo

Please welcome author J. L. Abramo to the blog today. His new book, Coney Island Avenue, was recently reviewed here by guest reviewer John Stickney. My own review is coming in the near future. In his guest post today, the author talks about his new book, the writing process, and much more…

RESURRECTING JIMMY PIGEON

"Mr. Diamond, I came here to talk about my husband."

"Of course you did, Evelyn," I said. I think my voice may have cracked. "Have you thought about going to the police?"

"Finding my husband is already of interest to the Los Angeles Police Department, Mr. Diamond. I was hoping you could help me locate him before they do."

"Why are the police interested in locating your husband?" I plowed on.

"They suspect he killed his business partner."

"And why would they think that?"

"My husband's gun was found beside the body."

"Did he do it?"

"I don't believe so."

"But the murder weapon was found at the scene, and it belonged to your husband. Any theories about that?"

"My husband kept the gun in his office. The victim was killed in the office adjacent to his. The police have little else to go on."

"And?"

"They seem unwillingly to grant that almost anyone could have taken the weapon and killed my husband's associate."

There you go, it could have been anyone. That should convince a jury.

"If your husband is innocent, why is he dodging the authorities?"

"I don't know. Perhaps he feels no one will believe him, he's always lacked persuasive ability. That is why I need to find him. Before he gets himself hurt. Someone suggested you could help."

Why me.

"Why me?" I asked, "There are plenty of very competent investigators in Los Angeles. I could highly recommend a good friend of mine down there. Jimmy Pigeon."

"I came to you, Mr. Diamond, because my husband's business partner was Jimmy Pigeon."

I managed to delay my reaction long enough to get the rough details from Evelyn Harding and then quickly sent her on her way—assuring her I would stay in touch. She was barely through the door before the surprise and shock of Jimmy Pigeon's death hit me like a sucker punch. I opened the top desk drawer and pulled out the ashtray and the bottle. This time it was the bottle of bourbon.

So ends the first chapter of Catching Water in a Net, the first novel in the Jake Diamond mystery series, where Jake discovers, from a total stranger, that his friend and mentor, the man who brought him into the PI business, is dead. And the book, winner of the St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye Writers of America Award for Best First Private Eye Novel, becomes Jake Diamond’s quest to find Jimmy Pigeon’s killer.

After writing three Jake Diamond novels, I decided to take a detour and write a stand-alone crime thriller set in the neighborhood where I grew up.  The result was Gravesend.

Writing the novel was a rewarding personal journey back to Gravesend, Brooklyn.

That accomplished, it was time to start thinking about Jake again, a fourth in the series; but without warning Jimmy Pigeon took center stage. Throughout Catching Water in a Net, and again and again in the subsequent novels Clutching at Straws and Counting to Infinity, Jake refers to Jimmy— recalling lessons learned from Jimmy and often posing the question, when an investigation hits a dead end, ‘What would Jimmy do?’

Jimmy Pigeon/Artwork by Jason Smith

At ThrillerFest in New York City, I sat on a panel entitled: Why Did You Kill Off My Favorite Character? 

Speaking for myself; killing off a character who the writer, and hopefully the reader, has come to care about, is never an easy decision.  And for me, it is never premeditated.  There comes a time in a story when something has to happen to raise the stakes, and sometimes a sacrifice is required.  And I am as surprised as the reader when a good guy or good gal is killed.  And I have often heard from readers of their disappointment. (Fortunately, I have never been confronted with a reader like Annie Wilkes in Stephen King’s Misery.)  But what about a character who is killed off before you even begin, who you never really meet, who you only learn about from fond reminiscence?  A character obviously very important to the main protagonist of your series. 

As his name kept popping up, I wondered more and more often—who was Jimmy Pigeon?

And here is the fun part. I could find answers to my nagging questions about Jimmy Pigeon by simply turning back the clock.  Suddenly I was writing a prequel to the Jake Diamond series, which finds Jimmy alive and at work as a Private Investigator in Santa Monica in 1994.  And the result was the novel Chasing Charlie Chan, published by Down & Out Books in 2013.

I have no illusions of grandeur, but being able—as a writer—to bring a character back from the grave, is pretty nifty.  It was a great exercise for me, and I believe it resonated with readers—with new readers as well as those Jake Diamond fans who have at times also wondered about Jimmy Pigeon.  Jimmy who said—among other things—When it comes to private investigation, nine times out of ten the client is your worst enemy.

In my latest novel, Coney Island Avenue, although I do not resurrect any corpses, I do revisit many of the characters who populated the pages of Gravesend.

About Coney Island Avenue

The dog days of August in Brooklyn and the detectives of the 61^st Precinct are battling to keep all hell from breaking loose.

Lives are taken in the name of greed, retribution, passion and the lust for power—and the only worthy opponent of this senseless malevolence is the uncompromising resolve to rise above it, rather than descend to its depths.

Shamus Award-winner J. L. Abramo’s follow-up to his highly acclaimed novel Gravesend continues the dramatic account of the professional and personal struggles that constitute everyday life for the dedicated men and women of the Six-One—and of the saints and sinners who share their streets.

Coney Island Avenue is a wild ride through Abramo’s native land—Brooklyn, New York. An emotionally packed narrative of good and evil, triumph and tragedy and—just below the surface—a universal tale of fathers, mothers, sons and daughters.

J. L. Abramo ©2017

J. L. Abramo was born in the seaside paradise of Brooklyn, New York on Raymond Chandler's fifty-ninth birthday. Abramo is the author of Catching Water in a Net, winner of the St. Martin's Press/Private Eye Writers of America prize for Best First Private Eye Novel; the subsequent Jake Diamond novels Clutching at Straws, Counting to Infinity and Circling the Runway, winner of the Shamus Award; Chasing Charlie Chan, a prequel to the Jake Diamond series; and the stand-alone thrillers Gravesend, Brooklyn Justice, and Coney Island Avenue.  

Abramo’s short fiction has appeared in a number of anthologies including Murder Under the Oaks, winner of the Anthony Award.

For more about J.L. Abramo and the work please visit:

www.jlabramo.com

www.facebook.com/jlabramo