Meet Trey Fontaine, FBI Special Agent In The Upcoming Novel: ULTIMATE JUSTICE, A Trey Fontaine Mystery

While writing ULTIMATE JUSTICE, A Trey Fontaine Mystery, I pictured David Boreanez as FBI Special Agent Trey Fontaine. He is thirty-two years old, six feet tall, and has light brown eyes and dark hair.  Trey has been an agent for nine years. When he was twelve, his dad, a cop in his hometown of Raven Bayou, was killed on the job. His dad’s partner was Russell Coleman, who was featured in a previous article. Russell is Trey’s godfather. Russell has a new partner who brings back vivid memories for Trey.

Trey was a good student, a college football player, and a cop in Raven Bayou while waiting to be old enough for the Bureau. In college, he studied Linguistics and Ethnicities, so he can tell a lot about a person by their syntax, word choice, and accent, as well as being able to give an educated guess about ethnic origin.

He drives a Hummer called Streak. He has a distant relationship with his mother, who changed drastically when her husband, Trey’s dad, was killed.  He’s single, very career minded, and has no time for a long-term relationship.

At the story opens, Trey is on limited duty as a result of a gunshot wound, and playing handler to a female agent who is undercover at a local casino trying to get information on the whereabouts of several young women who have disappeared.  They are in his home town. He is strong and intelligent. I think you’ll find Trey Fontaine can be a really good guy. When he’s not being bad.

Meet Russell Coleman, Homicide Detective in the upcoming book: ULTIMATE JUSTICE

I wanted to give readers an opportunity to meet some of the characters who live and/or work in Raven Bayou, Louisiana, the setting for the upcoming book, ULTIMATE JUSTICE. The book is set in 2005.

While I was writing, I envisioned Morgan Freeman as Russ, an African-American man in his sixties, who has been a cop on the Raven Bayou Parish Sheriff’s Department for close to forty years. He has a high school education, but he’s intelligent, and street smart. Russ believes in gut instinct. He reads people really well.

He was married at twenty-five to a lovely young lady named Julie. After thirty-seven years of marriage, Julie died as the result of an automobile accident. She was the only one in her car, and the driver of the other car was charged with involuntary manslaughter. That was three years ago, in 2002.

As ULTIMATE JUSTICE starts, that man’s trial has come to an end, and Russ is waiting for the verdict. This is only one of the things on Russell Coleman’s plate. His godson was injured on the job and is recuperating in town. Russ is handling a homicide case, the first one in Raven Bayou in years, and is also working the case of a teenage girl who was beaten and raped. And there’s more to come. The killing continues. And so do the attacks on girls and women.

I think you’ll like Russ. He’s pretty easy, and laid back. He doesn’t talk a lot, but what he says is usually important. He makes allowances for the mistakes of friends and relatives, and has always been faithful to those he loves. Except for that one time, years ago.

But that’s for later.

RAVEN BAYOU, LOUISIANA

I thought it was time to introduce you to ULTIMATE JUSTICE, A Trey Fontaine FBI novel. This psychological mystery is set in Raven Bayou, Louisiana, a fictional town modeled after many small towns in the state. Raven Bayou is situated about half way between the northern border and the Gulf, on the westernmost side of the state, not far from the border of Texas. It’s far enough south for Spanish moss hanging from the trees, boggy bayous, aligators, and frog leg dinners.

The population is under eight thousand, large enough for strip malls and two casinos, small enough to  have its police force made up of Sheriff’s deputies working out of a city building. There is a town square in the center of which is the Courthouse, built in 1825. The four streets surrounding the Courthouse are all one-way, with other city buildings, a parking lot for the jury, a small park with a gazebo in the middle, and small businesses including: Knit One–Pearl Two, a craft and fabric shop, Tammy’s Lunchenette, The Hair Raising beauty parlor, and The Dog House Bar and Grill. And in the summer old Sam, the black lab that belongs to Tammy, usually lies in the middle of the street, requiring drivers to swing around him while he enjoys the sunshine on his old bones.

Most of the characters in book one, ULTIMATE JUSTICE, were born in Raven Bayou, though not all stayed. As I write about each one, you will learn a lot about their histories. The town is somewhat divided, with those of Cajun blood living near the bayou, in the poor part of town, and others living in nicer and nicer areas as their socio-economic class allows. The farther away from the center of town, the less compact the neighborhoods, with houses separated by large pieces of land a couple of miles from downtown, while a small, compact yards, with small compact houses sit a couple of blocks from the Courthouse.

The bayou for which the town was named is only a few acres in size, situated just outside the city limits. And less than a mile from the bayou is a large park bordered by woods on two sides, with a baseball diamond on the side closest to town. Boudreaux Park is named after the richest family in town, the patriarch of whom is Alton Boudreaux. His ranch is located on the north edge of town and his thourough breds are known at all the race tracks in the country.

On the main highway there are several restuarants, including a Waffle House, The Crab Shack, a Sonic, The Donut House, and a Golden Corral. This is where the gas stations, convenience stores, and the two motels can be found.

Thanks for coming. I hope you will enjoy visiting Raven Bayou many times in the years to come.

REVISION OF A WIP: Step 4–Missing Pieces

The editor and I finally finished the first edit of the entire manuscript today. It is now her turn to read through the entire thing, looking for holes in the plot, areas where the reader doesn’t get enough info, or where I’ve given too much away.

I’ve really had to rack my brain to fix some of the problems she found on the first round and I’m glad to have it finished. Over all, the plot was good, but there were some sagging middle chapters that needed to be tightened up, or cut, and some areas where I knew exactly what I was talking about, but the reader would have been lost (the editor was lost), so I needed to fill in some stuff. Now she will be looking to see if I answered all of her questions, if what I added makes sense, and if what I took away didn’t leave another gap.

I can’t say enough about the editor who is working with me. She is patient and kind, honest but gentle. She is well educated and experienced. And above all, has told me several times that in the end this is my book and I have to decide to take her advice, or to ignore it. She doesn’t ‘give me ideas’ unless I ask for her help on a specific issue. She doesn’t want me to use her words. She wants me to use MY words. I have had a great experience so far with LL-Publications, its leader, and my editor.

I should have final approval on the chosen title by tomorrow and hope to send out a quick note letting you all know the name of this WIP. We are still shooting for publication in April, 2011, which is comingup fast.

Hope everyone has a wonderful new year, filled with success and joy. Please submit questions and comments. I’d love to hear from you.