The Desert Dago
THE DESERT DAGO:
I'm in the final stages of publishing my newest novella, The Desert Dago, a story based on a character from Bullet City, a hard-boiled crime fiction novel set in 1937 with a very salient noir atmosphere which I published in 2015. The novella follows Detective Phillip Randall after moving from Bayside City to Tucson, Arizona. Needing to escape the threat of death from the Italian mob on the East Coast, he transplants his wife and two children to the dry heat of the Southwest with his cop partner Dick Devereux. They open a private detective agency. For a few years things go well, until tragedy strikes when Devereux is mortally wounded as they are tracking a violent fugitive. Randall closes the business and is hired by the Tucson Police Department.
The novella is set some twenty years later, in 1960, when Randall is now a functioning alcoholic who has given up on life: his wife has recently died of cancer and he doesn't have contact with his estranged daughters, who blame him for her death. A chance meeting with some mobsters in a Tombstone, Arizona diner changes Randall's life forever. The wiseguys are connected to Joseph Quatrocchi, mob boss of one of the five families of New York. Quatrocchi's character is based on the real-life mobster Joseph Bonanno, head of the Bonanno crime family. Bonanno had moved to Arizona because of the treatment his oldest child, Salvatore Vincent "Bill" Bonanno got for a Mastoid ear infection. Eventually, the family moved out there full time, and Joseph Bonanno left the day-to-day running of his criminal empire in New York to others.
The Desert Dago follows Randall on his chase for justice against Quatrocchi's men in Tucson. I think it's one of my better books, but I always say that anyway. My last book is always my best. I don't like to look at things I've already written, and rarely read over my books once I've finished them. The great American soldier and statesman George Marshall once said: 'When a thing is done, it's done. Don't look back. Look forward to your next objective.' I believe in this philosophy wholeheartedly.
If I have to compare The Desert Dago to any other books in the genre, those by the eminent scribes James Ellroy and Dennis Lehane come to mind. Though I am in no way attempting to elevate myself to the crime fiction pantheon that these two men find themselves in, if you enjoy their style, you may also take pleasure from mine, too. Simple, staccato-like dialogue that is as realistic as it gets - added to the fact I am not the kind of writer who loves exposition - makes for a story that another of my all-time favourite writers, Elmore Leonard, would be proud of. Only time will tell. The independent writing community realizes, as I do, how hard this game is.
The last step in the process, which is now well underway, is preparing the book cover. I have employed the help of the graphic design department of Solihull College, where I work as an English teacher. In the past, I have usually hired professional graphic designers, but I thought this time - because of cost and others intangibles - I would give the chance to some students. I think this is a win-win situation, anyway, as I get a book cover for a reasonable price and the graphic design students gain on-hands experience and the chance to add to their nascent portfolios.
Happy Reading!