A Natalie McMasters Mystery, Book 7
Crime Fiction
Date to be Published: Dec 5, 2022
Publisher: Tekrighter, LLC
What do you do when you find out your twin sister is a stone-cold killer? Love her anyway!
Twentysomething detective Natalie McMasters comes face-to-face with the awesome power of money and privilege in her latest adventure. After she finds out that she has a twin sister who’s committed a heinous crime, her son Eduardo falls into the clutches of a perverted billionaire who plays with peoples lives for sport. Getting into his futuristic walled estate is a piece of cake, but getting out again is another matter entirely. While her friends and fam battle endless frustrations trying to convince the cops and the courts that Nattie and Eduardo are in deadly danger, she plays a risky game with a malignant narcissist, his venomous consort, and some unexpected houseguests, fighting for the souls of her sister and her son. How can she ever succeed against such impossible odds? The twisted ending packs a punch you won’t soon forget!
Sister! is the perfect read for fans of Karin Slaughter, Ruth Ware and Mary Kubica.
Is There a Message in Your Novel That You Want
Readers to Grasp?
The overall
message in Sister! is that money is power, and power can unfortunately be used
for good or ill, whether it is wielded by an individual, law enforcement or the government. The events
portrayed in the novel are drawn from recent headlines—if you’ve kept up with
the news, it will not be difficult to identify who the principals are. Additionally,
all of the Natalie McMasters Mysteries are family-focused, because family is
the most important thing in our lives. The novels illustrate that family can
take many forms; what’s really important is the love and commitment between the
family members and their willingness to sacrifice for each other.
Is there anything you find particularly
challenging in your writing?
The Natalie
McMasters Mysteries are dark, and each successive story seems to be darker than
the last. Sister! is the darkest book I’ve written. I’m trying to highlight
some of the ills of contemporary society—the challenge is how far to go to
depict reality without turning off my readers entirely. My guideline has always
been to go with what I’ve seen on prime-time TV and in the news, and believe
me, that allows me to go pretty far indeed. Some have said that the books need
trigger warnings, but I think those would be spoilers. My fans know what they’re
getting when they read my books.
How many books have you written and which is your
favorite?
So far, I’ve
written eight novels—seven Natalie McMasters Mysteries and an H.P. Lovecraft
pastiche entitled The Legacy of the Unborn under the nom de plume
of Silas K. Henderson. I’ve also written about a dozen Sherlock Holmes stories
that have been published in various places, including one in the prestigious Strand
Magazine. My fave Natalie McMasters Mystery is the third book in the
series, Trafficked!, probably because the setting is New York City. I’m
also very partial to Legacy. It took quite a bit of research because it’s
set in 1931 in New York City, and is very different from the Natalie stories.
If you had the chance to cast your main character
from Hollywood today, who would you pick and why?
Hands down, Lili Reinhart, the gorgeous young
actress who plays Betty Cooper on the hit CW series Riverdale. Betty and Nattie
have a lot in common. Both characters are young and blonde, intelligent but
impulsive, and highly principled. Each tends to wear her heart on her sleeve
and think the best of people, but is slowly becoming more cynical as life experiences
batter them.
If Lili’s just too busy to take on another
project, my second choice would be Jennette McCurdy. Her I Carly character Sam
definitely had Nattie’s attitude.
A recent edition of my newsletter included picks
for all of the Natalie McMasters Mysteries characters, including Lupe, Danny, Eduardo,
Uncle Amos Murdoch, M.B. Woodrow, Leon Kidd and Nattie’s mom Judy. If you’d
like to subscribe, you can do so here.
Lili, if you see this, give me a call. I think
Nattie would be killer on the big screen, and you would absolutely do her
justice!
When did you begin writing?
Sometime when I
was in grade school. I remember writing novels about the Man From U.N.C.L.E.
and Jonny Quest in longhand in marble-backed copy books. I actually
finished several, and I wish I still had them today.
How long did it take to complete your first book?
The answer depends
on which book is considered my first one.
The Legacy of the Unborn began life as a scenario for the game Call of Cthulhu about thirty
years ago. I always thought it had potential as a novel and took several cracks
at it, but at the time, work and family made it very difficult to find the time
to complete a novel. When I finally buckled down to write it in retirement, it
took about six months.
Stripper!, the first of the Natalie McMasters
Mysteries, began it’s life as a short story. I tried to publish it in the commercial
mystery magazines, but it was probably way too sexy for them, and Nattie’s
potty mouth didn’t help, either. After I decided to make it a novel, it took
about six months to complete. I wasted another year trying to go the
traditional publication route by finding an agent before publishing it myself
on Amazon. That was one of the best decisions I ever made!
Did you have an author who inspired you to become
a writer?
I
read voraciously as a kid. Starting with the old, politically incorrect Hardy
Boys stories (which I still love to this day!), I moved on to Rick Brant and
Ken Holt, then Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Tarzan and John Carter and Lester Dent’s
Doc Savage. I also began reading Louis L’Amour’s westerns about this time. Burroughs,
L’Amour, and Dent were master storytellers and inspired me to want to be one
too! I started on classic mysteries when I was ten or twelve, with Ellery
Queen, Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr, Dorothy Sayers, S.S. Van Dine and of
course, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I discovered Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe when I was
in high school, and spent hours scouring the book stores in New York City for
out-of-print editions I did not have. All of these people and many other made
me want to create my own series, which I finally did in retirement.
What is your favorite part of the writing
process?
Writing! There is
nothing better than being in the zone when the words are flowing like hot
mulled wine into a cup, and you know exactly where the story is going and how
to get it there.
Describe your latest book in 4 words.
Money, Power, Narcissism,
Family
Can you share a little bit about your current
work or what is in the future for your writing?
I’m currently working
to put out a volume of my Sherlock Holmes stories called Ten Steps from
Baker Street, which will contain nine stories previously published elsewhere
(including The Camberwell Poisoner, published in The Strand Magazine)
and a story written especially for this volume, The Wizard of Montague
Street. I hope to have it out by March. The working title of the next
Natalie McMasters Mystery is Shooters! and will hopefully be out next fall.
About the Author
Thomas A. Burns Jr. writes the Natalie McMasters Mysteries from the small town of Wendell, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife and son, four cats and a Cardigan Welsh Corgi. He was born and grew up in New Jersey, attended Xavier High School in Manhattan, earned B.S degrees in Zoology and Microbiology at Michigan State University and a M.S. in Microbiology at North Carolina State University. As a kid, Tom started reading boys’ mystery series with the Hardy Boys, Ken Holt and Rick Brant, then graduated to the classic stories by authors such as A. Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers, John Dickson Carr, Erle Stanley Gardner and Rex Stout, to name a few. Tom has written fiction as a hobby all of his life, beginning with Man from U.N.C.L.E. stories in marble-backed copybooks in grade school. He built a career as technical, science and medical writer and editor for nearly thirty years in industry and government. Now that he’s a full-time novelist, he’s excited to publish his own mystery series, as well as writing stories about his second most favorite detective, Sherlock Holmes. Tom’s Holmes story, The Camberwell Poisoner, appeared in the March–June issue of The Strand Magazine in 2021. The sixth book in the Natalie McMasters Mysteries, Killers!, was released in September, 2021, and won the Silver Falchion award for best action/adventure book of 2021 at the Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference. Tom has also written a Lovecraftian horror novel, The Legacy of the Unborn, under the pen name of Silas K. Henderson‒a sequel to H.P. Lovecraft’s masterpiece At the Mountains of Madness. In addition to publishing the seventh Natalie McMasters Mystery, Sister!, he is currently working on a book of Sherlock Holmes stories.
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