B.R. Stateham discusses his journey with Turner & Frank

[Giovanni Gelati]

 My Two Old Friends

            As a writer, characters come and go.  Sometimes writers create a single novel.  They populate it with intriguing characters and an interesting plot.  Yet once it's finished they pop it off to their publisher and wash their hands of it.  The novel is down.  The characters forgotten.  Time to move on to the next project.

            Not me.  Since the moment I wrote my first story there were two things I wanted to achieve; create unforgettable stories---and more importantly--create unforgettable characters who, by the force of their personalities, are so compelling they will not go away.  They demand a series to be built around them.

            Turner Hahn and Frank Morales are my first creations who fit this bill.  Homicide detectives.  Close friends.  Big framed.  Hard as nails yet with a genuine sense of humor that constantly bubbles up even in the worst of situations.  Uniquely individualistic yet equal in intellect.  Equals in their abilities.  Neither one a Dr. Watson to the other's Sherlock Holmes.

            They came into existence sometime around 1981.  Two under paid, over worked cops working multiple homicide cases in a city that was raw, hard, and mean.  They came to me already close friends.  The stories I've wove featuring the two turn out to be as much a 'buddy-novel' as much as they are a good 'whodunit.'  The goal was to create two characters so interesting you (the reader) didn't want the story/novel to stop.  The characters were no two-dimensional card board cutouts but complex, devious personalities who held their own secrets and surprises.

            I think I've accomplished this with these two characters.  Other characters have come along.  Characters I have developed a fondness for.  But none can replace the feelings I have for Turner and Frank.  I hope you agree.  I hope you read the first tale featuring Tuner and Frank and realize you can't put your Kindle or Nook down until you've read them all.

            And if I succeeded, I want you to contact me.  Demand from me more of Turner and Frank.  I'll be happy to oblige.