The Radio Murders: The Collectors

Resolute

Written by Chuck Collins

It’s New Year’s Day and I begin 2011 with tons of doubt. It’s like an errant eyelash you just can’t seem to get out of your line of sight. There are many things I do well. Frankly, I am fortunate in so many ways. But I am always second guessing myself. I am, in many ways, my own worst critic, often muting the notion that I am on the right path.

The facts do not support this voluntary veil. In nearly 58 years the balance of this man’s life has been heavy on the plus side. I have a home, a family who loves me—although non-traditional which in many ways makes it even better. Most of my working life has been in one creative industry and I have excelled in it to what can be considered an above average level. Few would argue that I am good at what I do. There are always detractors, but without them there would be little jump-start to progress.

Last year I finished my first novel and placed it on the market. It is a limited run for now. But this is an important part of my goal to establish these characters and the broader concept so that the other books will find a larger audience. This is not a business for the frail or the uncertain. Neither is radio.

As I found new readers, new supporters, another reality set in: a great minority will even finish the story, not to mention enjoy it. Even fewer will recommend it. I have to believe it is not a reflection of the quality, it is just a simple fact. When I hear nothing from someone I know has the book my doubt daemon translates that into these words, “it’s not very good.” Some may hold that opinion, but not all. That is just not possible.

This will be a very interesting and pivotal year. Some things will happen early that will make a significant difference. I’m not entirely sure what that is just yet, but I am confident, just as my personal history has indicated, that these new and exciting things will bulk up the plus side.    

Turn the page.

 

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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