The Radio Murders: The Collectors

It’s Always August

The five stories of The Radio Murders are always set in August. In the beginning it was just a good time to start a new tale. Summer was waning, but still fully summer. There were special birthdays toward the end of the month, one especially. And one of the greats of American letters is named August; August Wilson. I admired him for the persistence and purpose of his plays, his intimate intrusion into the black experience and the fact that his last play, Radio Golf set ostensibly around the time I finished The Radio Murders series. Mr. Wilson died after that body of work came full circle.

August has another purpose in the series. It is a time when most of the world is on an even footing atmospherically speaking. Vancouver is as pleasant at Key West, with some slight variation. The Radio Murders travels from Chicago to The Greek Isles to Southern Ohio to Minnesota to Florida when it’s all done. These places have their own smell, sounds and feels and to waste time with weather was just not an option.

We visited a couple of islands of Hawaii in January of 2002. It was truly a wonderful experience. But many of the locals wondered why we would choose winter to visit. Winter in paradise? After a time I began to understand what they meant.

So as the collection expands beyond The Collectors, and another year has passed in the lives of Crash, Jeffries, Barbicas, Dani and the rest, you’ll know that the summer of their discontent is there for a reason. In the Radio Murders, it’s always August.

 

Inside The Radio Murders

 

The Radio Murders: The Collectors has plenty of victims. But this is just a story, drawn from the imagination of a writer, nothing more. Sadly, there are real victims in our society because there is real evil. With that in mind the author and publisher of The Radio Murders: The Collectors have agreed to donate a dollar of every hardback and half that for trade paperback sold.

So Who Wrote TRM?

Sitting down and writing a full-feature mystery novel, or anything for the public, takes certain assumptions.

We are all storytellers in one way or another. But what makes this storyteller think this tale is worth your time?

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The Book

A Simple Idea

The Radio Murders is a simple idea; a radio talk show about real-time murder, As It Happens with a deadly twist.  How could such a thing exist? More importantly, how could it become an entertainment vehicle?

The latter is not so difficult to conceive. We have a bloodlust evident from the beginning. It took four short chapters of The Bible before we had our first murder mystery. It was predicated only by sex and betrayal. Sex has been regulated almost out of radio except in the most nuanced terms. Betrayal is a side dish at best.

So what’s left?

The Radio Murders: The Collectors vividly illustrates how greed, revenge and vanity deconstructs a suburban Chicago family, and draws a relative, a Chicago talk show host, into their deadly pursuits. As a result a home invasion and murder is actually aired, live during Bill "Crash" Kradich’s broadcast. The event is a ratings winner and sends some staff at radio station KCI on a mission to create and "own" the concept.

As part of the Janich family’s near demise, another group of men become involved. Known only as The Collectors, these men take greed to epic heights and will not stop until they acquire some very special items. The Radio Murders: The Collectors tells both stories as they move along parallel runaway courses only to collide in a stunning climax.

Are You Ready?

The Radio Murders is not for everyone. There is plenty of action in this story and it is adult in nature.

The Collectors is not a Romance, not a Cozy Mystery or light reading. "This is not a two-dimensional story," said one reader. "There are layers, each more interesting than the last." The Radio Murders is at times a story about desperate people doing desperate things. And the people you find here do what people do. There is sex, harsh language and graphic scenes of crime and murder.

If you enjoy the work of James Patterson, Michael Connelly, Tami Hoag, Jeffery Deaver, Patricia Cornwell and others who are not affraid to tell a difficult story, then you are exactly the person I am writing for.  The Radio Murders: The Collectors is not a story for the easily offended.

Just thought you should know.

-Chuck Collins

Coming Soon to Amazon.com

The Radio Murders will debut at on-line stores everywhere in December.

 

Now Available at Barns&Noble.com

The Radio Murders: The Collectors is now available at one of the nations' leading booksellers.

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