Callinan's New Series/Main Character is Winner!

The Immortality Plot:


a Mike Delaney Thriller




By David Callinan




In a recent article, David Callinan talks about whether a villain should ever be continued. Callinan had just published the first novel in this new Mike Delaney Thriller. I do enjoy series, and Mike Delaney is a man who definitely is one to capture your attention!...

The Villain? Well, he wasn't caught in the first book, so even though he was worthy of hatred, I believe he should at least be "captured" before readers will be happy.

Although...this villain is quite unique and very good in The Immortality Plot...

The media has dubbed him "The Priest" which is rather ironic since Mike Delaney is using The Monk as a moniker... By the way, I've read all four of Callinan's thrillers so far and have been intrigued with his use of some sort of spiritual connection for each of his main characters, the latter because he has spent time studying in an oriental monastery... I'll let you find out why and how the villain has been so named, but I will tell you that he leaves absolutely nothing behind and is a contract assassin, but he also is a serial killer who murders for fun as well...

The concept of searching for immortality by the rich and powerful is not new, but everything else in this novel is, at least in my experience. As mentioned earlier, Mike Delaney is definitely unique--a sympathetic character who is easy for both men and women, I am sure, to enjoy. Mike had been saved during time in the service by his friend Bob Messenger, who was hit by a sniper instead of Delaney. Messenger is an important minor character, at least in this first novel. He is now confined to a wheel chair and has started a computer site which pulls together people across the world to gather, work or talk about unsolved crimes. It is Messenger who contacts Mike to get him involved in the latest of a series of murders of young women.

A tape has been loaded on their site from someone who claims to have murdered Maria Montalban (Mike's wife who worked under a different name). There was no choice--Mike Delaney would find this villain!

I love when there are a number of different plots to move a story forward. There is the relationship between Mike and Messenger, who saved his life... Then there are those that are "waiting in line" to be next to be given the immortality they crave, no matter that it takes another's life to do it...and then there is the villain! Although there is not much sexuality in the book, the multiple characters played by The Priest (he is a transvestite) is fascinating and, having created such a unique character, it is no wonder that the author is wondering whether to keep him to torture us throughout the series. I vote to go for it! But please make sure he's suitably disposed of by Mike before the series ends! I want to be there! This novel is a prime example of the good and evil in humanity. Fortunately, The Monk has The Priest on the run as this novel closes... Can't wait to see what happens!

Highly recommended!


GABixlerReviews

Callinan Shares About Writing - Developing New Character...

Plotting my new Mike Delaney thriller

Although I say it myself, the character of Mike Delaney could have the attributes of a long standing fictional kickass hero. At least, I would like to think so. But he is more than a lookalike Jack Reacher or Jason Bourne. I deliberately sculpted the character of this Irish-American tough guy with a conscience to include what could be described as metaphysical, philosophical and spiritual elements.

This didn't prove to be as straightforward as it seemed at the outset. The immediate result of this personality shaping was to throw up all kinds of conflicts; his hopefully serious pledge to never kill another human being while being inevitably thrust into life and death situations.

In the first book, The Immortality Plot, the bad guy or antagonist was an equally powerful character; a transvestite killer with a narcissistic nature and a teddy bear fixation. I just couldn't bear to get rid of Lucius Gynt at the end of the book. So, rather like the one-armed man in 'The Fugitive', Hannibal Lecter or Sherlock Holmes's Moriarty, I decided to bring him back as Delaney's nemesis in another book.

But, should that be the follow up book or another book down the line? 


I struggled with this question and I still am.

My first instinct was to write a different story and then revisit Lucius Gynt in book three and that is what I have been doing. But I am still not certain I am right.

The book I am working on is tentatively titled 'Good Girl Bad Girl' set in the US and in Ireland. In fact, I have set a section of the action in the city where I was conceived but not brought up; the city where my parents were born, grew up and emigrated from to the UK. The city of 'Angela's Ashes': Limerick.

I am using for the first time a book writing program called Scrivener and it is proving to be very valuable as a way of keeping everything together. I have also created a new bad guy that has me writhing in my seat as I write: Oswald Dante, a bookseller, poisoner who keeps his preserved and adored mother in a sepulchre.

Although I tend to let my imagination and my characters take me where they will, with a thriller as intricate as this one that needs to appear simple on the surface, I find I need to do a lot of plotting and research. I am now on the last third of the plot where I need to extricate Delaney from some impossible situations and hold the reins of half-a-dozen plot threads before weaving the climax.

Wish me luck.