The Streets of .... New York with Kevin Chapman's, NYPD Homicide Detective Mike Stoneman

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My new novel, Righteous Assassin (A Mike Stoneman Thriller) is the first in a series starring New York Police Department Homicide detective Mike Stoneman.  The first book is set in New York City (as will be most of the rest of the series, with a few road trips).  I lived in New York for 13 years and although there are many books and movies set in NYC, few of them get it right.  That’s what I love about writing these books – I have the chance to really capture New York for an audience that’s mostly not from there.  One of my favorite reviews said: “What I particularly appreciate as a native Manhattanite is that the author gets all the New York details exactly right, not only geographically (although that is certainly a big plus), but also the energy and pace and feel of the city.”

            



Detective Mike Stoneman lives in an apartment on the Upper West Side, 68^th street, to be

6th Avenue

exact.  He “lives” in the building where my wife and I lived for 9 years.  The surrounding city streets, Central Park, and even the 94^th street police precinct building, are places I’m recreating – and trying to be both honest to the facts and also honest to the spirit of New York and New Yorkers.  The sidewalk scenes, the stroll through Central Park, stopping at a push-cart for a bagel on his way to work in the morning – these are all the heartbeat of New York.  Forget about having a scene where the killer chases the cop up the Empire State Building – give me a scene in the little hole-in-the-wall dim sum restaurant on a hidden side street in Chinatown.

            For Mike, and his partner, Jason Dickson, New York is home, and the assault on New Yorkers is like an attack on the family.  New Yorkers should be able to go out for a steak without worrying if they will get murdered.  Even if the dead victim was a real scum-bag, New Yorkers want the killer captured (or killed) because it’s just wrong to murder a man while he’s

The Chrysler Building

eating his dinner.  That kind of New York attitude is what my characters have, and it makes me smile to think about it.  If you want to experience the real New York, read Righteous Assassin.

            The book cover for Righteous Assassin fits in with this theme.  It’s New York, but there are no obvious landmarks.  You just have to know that this street scene could not be anywhere else. (I’ve attached the original photo, as well as the way it came out on the book cover.)

            If you want to chat about New York, or the characters in my books, come join me at my website at www.KevinGChapman.com or visit the Righteous Assassin Facebook Page

The story follows NYPD Homicide detective Mike Stoneman as he and his partner, Jason

42nd Street

Dickson, track a serial killer who is knocking off New Yorkers whom the killer has deemed to be guilty of crimes for which the self-styled Angel of Death will exact divine justice.

The victims share no similar traits, have no connections to each other, have no common enemies, and were each killed in very different ways.  Stoneman and Dickson pick up the trail based on the coincidental timing of the unsolved murders – each of which occurred on the last Saturday of the month.  Could these assassinations really be the work of a single serial killer?  Why would a single killer choose such strange and disparate methods?  Why spread your victims across all of New York?  And most importantly, how do you track down someone with no discernable pattern?

Each new murder adds a piece to the killer’s jigsaw puzzle, but even unravelling the clues and finding the killer’s pattern may not be enough to catch him.  Mike and Jason bring in help from FBI profiler Angela Manning, and together they start to close in.  But will they be able to stop the elusive killer

45th Street

before he completes his decathlon of death?  Each month is a race against the calendar.  On the last Saturday of the month, there will be blood.

As a special bonus, included with Righteous Assassin readers will get the award-winning short story, Fool Me Twice, the very first episode in the Mike Stoneman saga.

Righteous Assassin is available on amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JJDZZC1 and is available in Kindle ebook format and paperback.  Readers can also order a personally autographed paperback edition by visiting Kevin’s website at www.KevinGChapman.com.

To My Audience:

            I hope that you enjoy my new crime thriller, Righteous Assassin (A Mike Stoneman

Thriller).  I am truly proud of this book, my third novel.  It is a fast-paced serial killer chase, but within the obvious plot there are complex relationships and (I hope) compelling characters.  The early reviews have been terrific!

            I am an attorney, and while my whole professional life involves writing briefs and argumentative position statements, my novel-writing career has been a long and slow process.  I wrote my first novel in 1991, after being laid off from my law firm job.  I had time on my hands and a story in my head – a private investigator mystery – which I finished a year or so later (after I was back working).  But, Identity Crisis: A Rick LaBlonde Mystery, was not published until 2003 when my wife paid for the self-publication through Xlibris as an anniversary present to me.  From there, beginning in about 2004, I set out to write the Great American Novel, and over the next ten years or so I did just that, finally self-publishing A Legacy of One in 2016 through Amazon’s Create Space self-publishing arm.  A Legacy of One is a serious work of literary fiction, about identity, self-determination, morality, and the consequences of our decisions, all set within a political drama.  The book was a short-list finalist for the Somerset award for literary fiction (Chanticleer International Book Awards).  The journey to finally publish my second novel, combined with my children growing up and

The Brooklyn Bridge

going off to college and their own careers, left me with an itch to keep writing, and enough free time to do it.

            I have written a few screenplay drafts and some short stories, but I set out to write my third novel in 2017 and went back to the detective-mystery-thriller genre, which is frankly more fun (as well as more likely to get read) than serious literary fiction.  My latest novel is, I think, my best effort to date and a truly good read.  The characters are well-developed and have deep back-stories, the interrelationships make a good sub-story to go along with the main plot, and the final plot developments provide a solid basis for the continuation of the characters’ stories into the next book(s).  I’m hoping that enough readers find Righteous Assassin that there will be interest in the next Mike Stoneman thriller.

            Please enjoy this book and pass the word along to your friends.

                                                                                    Kevin G. Chapman