If I were running Hell, I’d reserve the toastiest part for self-published authors. Satan would make them read each other’s books.
Yet once in a great while a self-published book comes along that is not the bane of one’s existence. Not only is “Old Debts” such a welcome exception, it’s set in Stockton.
“My wife was headhunted, and we had two cities to go to: Dayton, or Stockton,” said author Matt Abraham, 48. Abraham has family living nearby so, “We kind of crossed our fingers. I’ve fallen in love with it.”
In “Old Debts” Los Angeles private investigator Jake Carter returns to Stockton, where he once worked as a cop, to investigate the murder of his former partner, Scudder Brigg. Brigg once took a bullet for Carter, hence the book’s title.
Carter teams up with a Delta College forensic science instructor Nafissa “Issa” Rayan. She, too, has an old debt to repay. Together they hunt a serial killer murdering and mutilating homeless people.
It’s like ‘Sam Spade Does Stockton,’ only Carter is more of a wiseass. He trades barbed ribbing with everyone he encounters. But he reserves his best zingers for Officer Ramirez, a female cop who hates his guts (many cops falsely believe Carter ran from a shootout back in the day). Officer Ramirez arrives on the scene right after Carter gets clubbed in an unexpected encounter with the serial killer.
“Meter maid Ramirez,” Carter greets her. “Thank God you’re here. I saw a truck double-parked a block away. Can you handle it yourself, or do you want to call for backup?”
Ramirez replies, “I like what you’ve done to your face. It’s a real improvement.”
Abraham writes short, fast-paced chapters — “Old Debts” has 56 of them — in which Carter careens through a series of familiar Stockton locations: the police department, Brookside, the Miracle Mile, the Stockton Arena (during StocktonCon), the Children’s Museum of Stockton, Dentoni Park, and a chaotic climax at St. Joseph’s Medical Center.
Everywhere he stumbles into trouble — hostile cops, vengeful gangsters, half-mad homeless people, mean dogs, even a wild raccoon — often giving him what he calls the “Stockton Special:” an ass kicking, though he always manages to escape and continue pursuing the killer.
Abraham said he learned from, “the classic pulp authors. It was always ‘put your character in trouble and keep your character in trouble all the time.’ I don’t ever want to hear from a reader that my book was easy to put down.”
As Carter battles his way deeper into the mystery (wearing a “Straight Outa Stockton” t-shirt scrounged when his good shirt was bloodied), the contours of a possible City Hall cover-up emerge. Who’s guilty? Abraham keeps the reader guessing.
“I assume that every single person who reads my book is more intelligent than me,” said Abraham. “So I have to work my ass off to trick them.”
Born in Wilmington, Delaware, raised in Philadelphia, Abraham has lived in Oahu, Singapore, and Ningbo, China, following the career of his wife, an sought-after educator who helps universities recruit exchange students.
At the University of Singapore, where he earned a masters in public administration, Abraham took a leadership class in which the teacher told students to imagine they were dead and looking back on the one thing they wish they had done.
“For me it was no question, I wanted to write a book. So then the next day I started, and the name was “Villain.” And it is arguably the worst book ever written.”
But unlike most self-published authors, who seem to think getting published is more important than getting good, Abraham devoured books on writing. He joined writer’s groups, “cutting away my ego to improve my talents,” and developed his skills. He loves talking about writing. Internal conflict, story arcs, classic fictional structure; pulling the rug out from under readers who think they know whodunit. He learned the craft.
And gets off some good lines, like this one about a homeless encampment of tents: “Between them, broken bicycles dotted the ground like bleached cattle bones …”
Still, though, no publisher. “I have written more query letters in my life that I honestly care to admit.”
If there’s one spot in “Old Debts” that doesn’t work, it’s a scene where a man who feeds the homeless gives a long speech about how the homeless aren’t all dope fiends or layabouts but ordinary folks who’ve suffered misfortune. Abraham’s homeless characters could have made that point without the pedantry. But this is a sincere cause for Abraham, who donates 5% of all proceeds from the book’s sales to fight food and housing insecurity in Stockton.
“It’s not a lot, but I feel if everybody does a little something we can accomplish great things,” he said.
For the Stockton area reader, the fun is not just in the action or the mystery, but in seeing it all unfold in familiar locations. Abraham can be … well, very Stocktonian, in his take on certain parts of the city.
On driving through town: “…they passed by a countless number of strip malls, each with a similar array of fast food restaurants, liquor stores, and nail salons, with the occasional insurance company thrown in for added flair.”
On the Magnolia Historic District’s Victorian homes: “Nowadays, many of them seemed abandoned, their siding, roofs and porches were chipped, rotted and barely connected by rusted nails, and instead of standing tall and proud, they slumped like tired mules whose mangy lawns were surrounded by fences so tall and spiky they’d intimidate a Viking horde.”
But the book amounts to a noirish “Here’s looking at you, kid,” to the city.
“As an adult with children, I think it’s ideal. The food’s amazing, the people are great. I’m going to hopefully die of old age here,” Abraham said.
Even hard-bitten Carter sees promise in his rough old hometown.
“When I left Stockton,” he says near the end, “it felt like it had no future. But now, I don’t know. It’s different. More optimistic. New businesses are starting up. Existing ones are expanding. Seems the town’s reaching for … I don’t know. Its potential.”
“Old Debts” is available on Amazon at $4.99 ebook, $12.99 paperback, $24.99 hardcover.
Michael Fitzgerald’s column runs on Wednesdays. On Twitter and Instagram as Stocktonopolis. Email: mfitzgeraldstockton@gmail.com.
Hey Mike, where is your review of my book?