In the
middle of next month, Kansas City
Breakdown, will be released by Cowboy Jamboree Press. The book by
M. E. Proctor and Russell Thayer is a sequel to their Bop City Swing of last year. Please
welcome back M. E. Proctor to the blog today as she explains how the new book came
to be in this guest post
Reprise - Kansas City Breakdown
by M.E. Proctor
When
Russell Thayer and I started Bop City Swing two years ago (already!),
neither of us had ever written a piece of fiction in collaboration. My only
experience with a vaguely similar joint effort goes back to producing a
200-page report with a colleague on the dry subject of alternative forms of
work organization (I’m not going to go into the nuts and bolts of that) when I
was on a research contract with a European university. I don’t remember how we managed
the writing part. What I recall is how much fun we had in the sandbox coming up
with wild ideas. And how much fun my research partner was. I can still picture
him. A dude tall as a giraffe, under thirty but with less hair left on his head
than a newborn chicken. He was quirky and brilliant. Christopher Lloyd in Back
to the Future. I suspect he smoked more than the cigarettes that he puffed
on constantly when we were together. Damn it, man, open the window! We
shared a tiny office, next to a rumbling mechanical room, blissfully remote
from the rest of the Economics Department and its stern director. We locked the
door to keep snoops away.
So
yes, I like to work with people. They should be a little mad and chaotic, to
balance my very organized mind.
If we
had sat down to ponder methods and objectives, Russell and I might never have
gotten out of the starting blocks. We just said, what the hell let’s do it, let’s
write a story featuring these two characters that we have put in a bunch of
stories already, and see where it takes us.
We created
an inciting incident, a political assassination in 1951 San Francisco, and threw
our characters into it. My protagonist, SFPD Homicide Detective Tom Keegan,
worked the case. The role of Russell’s leading lady—Vivian Davis aka Gunselle,
a killer-for-hire—was more of a head-scratcher. We brainstormed options,
discarded a bunch of them before landing on a promising one: Vivian was hired
to shoot the guy but somebody beat her to it. She’s pissed off because she was
robbed of a fat paycheck. Both Tom and Viv are hunting the killer. They each
have part of the solution. Eventually their paths will cross with explosive
results.
Bop
City Swing was conceived as a
stand-alone. Then we found a publisher (Cowboy Jamboree Press) and started
thinking about a follow-up. Tom and Vivian were great characters and deserved
another walk in the spotlights.
Follow-ups,
reprises, book #2 in a series can be tricky.
First
problem. The characters have a common history now. Supporting players have been
introduced. There’s a chronology of events, and continuity to think about. No
more meet-cute: he’s a cop and she’s a killer. Their interactions are ambiguous,
by definition. Add to that the attraction she feels for him and the temptation
she represents for him. The sexual tension between them added spice to the
first book. In the second one, it has to be picked up and given an extra tug.
To make things even more complicated, Tom is in a long-term relationship with a
spunky San Francisco Chronicle crime reporter.
Second
problem. The plot and the theme. Bop City Swing revolved around politics
and the misdeeds of the moneyed class. It was also a story of revenge and
trauma wrapped inside a murder investigation. Book #2 has to go in a completely
different direction.
One
way to mark a radical shift is to change locations. We left San Francisco and
decided to go to Kansas City. Jazz music, still, but with a side of barbecue. Then
we opened the Noir Codex on a couple of new pages. Under G and M for Gangsters
and Goons, Mobsters and Molls. And Russell and I went to work using our
favorite technique, the key questions:
Why would Vivian and Tom get together and what are they doing in Missouri?
As is
always the case when you put all the ideas in a big pot and stir vigorously, answers
come and keep coming as the plot progresses. Secondary characters walk on stage
and demand attention. Some almost get killed but survive because we like them
so much. Others aren’t so lucky. And the end is never exactly what you have in
mind at the beginning.
Here’s
how we answered our key questions.
The book starts with an FBI undercover operation. The plan is to infiltrate a
high-level Kansas City Mob meeting to gather information. A San Francisco
gangster is going to the conference and is considered a ‘soft’ target. He can
be seduced. A honey trap. If the right woman for the job can be found. Tom
knows somebody who could pull it off, but what will he have to do to convince
her? Vivian doesn’t work for the police. Tom has a stake in the success of the
mission. He’s her designated handler. His job is to get her out alive.
The
book is called Kansas City Breakdown.
In
music, according to Wikipedia, a ‘breakdown’ is a section of song characterized
by solo performances. Vivian and Tom have their starring moments. They also
play well together.
--
Latest Publication:
Kansas City Breakdown
By M.E. Proctor and Russell Thayer
Publisher: Cowboy Jamboree
April 2026
Paperback
eBook
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4sJcEnQ
M. E. Proctor ©2026
M.E. Proctor was born in Brussels and lives in Texas. She’s the author of
the Declan Shaw detective mysteries: Love You Till Tuesday and Catch
Me on a Blue Day (Shotgun Honey Books).
She’s the author of two short story collections, Family and Other Ailments and A Book to Live By. She’s also the co-author with
Russell Thayer of two retro-noirs: Bop City Swing and Kansas City Breakdown. Short fiction in Vautrin, Tough, Rock and a Hard Place, Bristol Noir, Mystery Tribune, Reckon Review and Black Cat Weekly among
others. She’s a Shamus and Derringer short story nominee.
Author Website: www.shawmystery.com.
On Substack: https://meproctor.substack.com.
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