This is pretty cool. Check out this press release by my good buddy Peter Peterson:

MANSFIELD, OHIO: The ethnic neighborhoods of Cleveland serve as the stomping grounds for Les Roberts’ fictional private investigator Milan Jacovich. New Orleans is a backdrop for James Lee Burke’s novels featuring retired homicide detective David Robicheaux. And now the blue-collar city of Mansfield, Ohio sets the stage for small-time crook Curtis Monroe in the crime series Tombs.

ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year award-winning author TJ Vargo has recently released his novel Tombs, the first in a crime series featuring a cast of crooks and thieves that live, steal, fight and die in the bars, neighborhoods, and churches - yes, you heard that right - churches of Mansfield. "The church actually plays a pivotal role in the first novel," said Vargo. "It's where the gold is."

The gold Vargo references is a major plot point in the novel, which revolves around Curtis Monroe, a low-level criminal who has been stashing stolen cash for years in hopes of saving enough to move out of town and escape his life of crime. The novel begins with Monroe pulling his last heist and making his final preparations to leave town. Unfortunately for him, this is a crime novel, so his plan is doomed from the start. By the time the novel hits the final stretch, it’s apparent that Monroe’s getaway with a sack full of loot isn’t likely, but the odds of him meeting his maker are looking pretty good.  
        
Using Mansfield for the backdrop of a novel may seem to be a stretch when compared against the other big-name cities that lurk as backdrops in contemporary fiction. It’s not hard to see the allure of having The Big Easy, or The Big Apple, or The Windy City, serve as the canvas for a fiction writer’s imagination. But Mansfield?
          
“The city is called ‘Tombs’ in the novel, but it’s based on Mansfield,” said Vargo. “There’s more than enough fiction out there that’s set in bigger, more cosmopolitan cities. What I envisioned was something more intimate. I wanted to take the reader into the small neighborhood bars and neighborhoods of Mansfield and show how these crooks live. The atmosphere of a small blue-collar city like Mansfield helped me add a layer of realism that wouldn’t have been possible with a city like New York that’s already been used a hundred times before.” Vargo warned, however, that readers of Tombs shouldn't expect a travelogue through Mansfield. “This isn’t a cozy mystery,” he says, adding, “The characters are criminals. There is a fair amount of language and adult situations. If it was a movie, it would have an R rating.”
           
A major point of interest is Vargo’s plan to release Tombs as an ebook. “I’ve done my research,” Vargo said. “I’ve gone the traditional publishing route in the past, but the publishing world has reached a tipping point. In May of 2011, Amazon announced that their sales of ebooks surpassed their print book sales. Major authors like Barry Eisler have decided to forego traditional publishing and release their work strictly as ebooks. Amanda Hocking, an unknown author only a few years ago, has over $2 million in ebook sales. With the exploding proliferation of ereading devices like Nooks and Kindles, the time is now when it comes to epublishing.”
            
For more information about the crime series Tombs or author TJ Vargo, visit
www.tjvargo.com.
Add Comment