A neighborhood bar in midtown Manhattan that is known worldwide. It was a favorite watering hole for the Madison Avenue crowd, back when they constituted a crowd. Lawyers and their clients discussed strategy over oysters. Agents and their artists bickered over percentages. P.J.’s opened in 1884 and is a time capsule of a bygone New York. I moved out of the city two decades ago, but just walking through the saloon’s doors on the corner of 55th and 3rd makes this “Old Yorker” feel like a New Yorker. Today I am here to meet with a former U.S. ambassador. A diplomat, who has dined all over the world and I are about to convene over two BBQ BLUE burgers – with crispy onions!
My soft spot for this enduring NYC iconic saloon is why I made it a location in my new thriller, Ask Not!
It was the perfect setting for a 1993 meeting between a free-lance magazine writer and his agent to discuss the biggest break of his career. Uncharacteristically, the 10 percenter turns down the opportunity to represent him in this “bombshell” article that the writer wants to auction off to the highest bidder. The writer protests, “But this is history-changing stuff!” Adamant, the agent wants no part of it. In fact, the agent, obviously terrified, tells him to drop it.
Of the two men seated at actor Peter Falk’s regular table, across from what Nat King Cole dubbed, ‘the Cadillac of burgers,’ one man’s wise decision to opt out is why he lived to enjoy his grandkids. The other not so much…
Well, no. That’s me. But I love planes and think pilots are an incredible lot. Many have served in the military and bring a cool calm and professionalism to a very serious business which is also…Fun!
I doubt very few pilots just decided one day to answer an ad for “pilot wanted.” I suspect for many of them, it started with, “Varoom, Eaaahhh, Schooo.” The noises they made when they were six with a model plane or balsa wood glider in their hand. I have known many great men and woman pilots and each one has a subtle swagger and ‘Air’ of confidence that slicing through the air, in a “heavier than air” craft imbues.
So naturally when I wrote my new book, Ask Not, the only choice for my main character was an airline pilot. Captain Hank Larson suffers a family tragedy that is compounded by suspicions of murder. Not just the shock that his younger brother was a murder victim, but allegations that his brother, was himself, a murderer. His love and natural protection instincts for his sibling catapult him into a dark and nefarious world of conspiracy, assassinations, and shadow governments. Ruthless and powerful men that are out to take him out. They aren’t sure if he is now in possession of the kompromat that got his brother killed, but they aren’t taking any chances. After all, they killed JFK to keep all this secret. 30 years later, some bumbling, and bereaved, airline pilot isn’t going to threaten their power. But do they underestimate him at their own peril? Order now!
I’m offering a chance for the world to get all their JFK Conspiracy theories in one entertaining and engaging place; my new book, Ask Not! But I don’t want you, my loyal subscribers, to be left out.
In case you are not familiar with my new JFK Thriller, I weave a murder mystery thriller in and out of all the controversy and contradictions of the crime of the (last) century – which is still a conundrum to this day. We’re giving away 10 SIGNED COPIES of this intriguing, ‘can’t put it down,’ breathless chase across the country, and the years, as an airline pilot, Hank Larson, sets out to clear his brother’s name only to end up in the crosshairs of the powerful men who killed Kennedy.
Just type “Pick Me” in the comments and you’ll be enrolled in the giveaway contest, but best of all, you’ll receive a free copy of, “Tom’s Top Ten JFK Conspiracy Theories,” an illustrated mini eBook that will make you go “Hmmm?” (or “Nah.”)
You can also receive an additional entry for each of the following (yes, an your name goes in for EACH):
Comment on any of my giveaway social media posts using #AskNotGiveaway
Contest winners will be notified by email, and their personalized signed edition of Ask Not! will be shipped in time for Xmas.
If you would like to help me get the word out, I’d appreciate it if you shared the giveaway with thriller enthusiasts you know. You can share this post or one of the giveaway posts on my social media pages. People who share will also get the eBook!
In my new thriller, Ask Not!, my main character, Hank Larson, traverses the country on a mission to absolve his brother of murder charges. Luckily, he’s an airline pilot so he can hop flights like trolley cars in San Francisco, as long as he’s in uniform.
My sister-in-law says, “There’s something about a man in uniform.” In that way that tells you it brings out ‘har-moans’ that lie dormant except when a good chick-lit novel or steamy romance flick comes her way.
As an author, I am blessed to have a Mastermind Group. Professionals and experts who are knowledgeable about, the various professions, ideas, and practices the characters in my novels encounter. They read my raw manuscripts for accuracy as I sketch my characters and plots outside the lines of the many lives that I have never lived but write about with authority. They reign in my estimations of those lives into a focused realism that passes muster with other readers of that ilk. You never want to alienate a plumber by using a spanner wrench on the wrong pipe joint, or a nuclear physicist by introducing the wrong isotope into an atomic cocktail. (I actually do have a nuclear physicist and a master plumber in my Mastermind Group along with a cop, a politician, a mobster (ret.), judges, psychologists, engineers, locomotive engineers, secret service agents, etc.)
There is another group of about ten, just as precious to me who are critical readers who approach the book in general, they are known collectively as ‘Beta-Readers.’ Beta is a term brought out by the industrial release of a trial product. These intrepid souls slog through my unpolished work pointing out stumbles, knots, inconsistencies, and lots of other nasty artifacts that pollute the work of one mind writing one novel. But I never got a note like this.
“There’s a lot of sex in this bookl.”
I don’t think so. But again, I wrote it. However, now that he mentioned it, maybe there is a lot of guiltless, no-consequence (good or bad) casual sex in the book. See: Man in uniform.
For example: Deep in the heart of Texas, Hank meets Carla, a bartender who is a free spirit. She has a very healthy attitude about men, life, and sex. Their brief encounter is easy, comfortable, and satisfying, surprisingly free from guilt or self-conscious emotions. For Hank, it’s the kind of experience that he’s sure would have most people picking out sofas and deciding whose rent is cheaper. Instead of going down the path of longevity and keeping a great thing like this going, Carla celebrates her freedom and her life as it is. She’s not looking for a change. Hank isn’t either, but he’s never experienced the same sentiment coming at him after such wonderful moments together. Oh, and in the morning, he sees police uniforms hanging in her open closet. Turns out she’s a cop during the day.
This puts him in a frame of mind that is perfect for when he meets, Chris DeMarco, another woman in uniform. They immediately… oh wait…I think I see what he meant.
Apparently I have now created a new class of beta readers. The master-beta reader. A new expertise that I guess could come in handy in any author’s work.
The day President Kennedy was assassinated. The day when many say America lost its innocence. The day Camelot and the New Frontier vanished along with the promise of new, youthful energy replacing the old stogey establishment generation. “The Torch has been passed to a new generation…” Kennedy proclaimed. He was against those things that held us back from being a more perfect union. His agenda was in part, no intervention in regional wars, like Vietnam. No invasion of countries we didn’t agree with, like Cuba. No racial segregation in our society, like in Alabama. No coddling of wealthy industries like oil and military contractors for political support. No mob control of culture and vice.
He stood for much. He was cut down for most of it. Anyone who was above the age of 8 remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. I was in 4th grade. I remember the hollow feeling – a chill. Many teachers, who understood the gravity of the moment, were seen with moist eyes as we were let out of school early. We all shook with nerves as we waited for the dreadful Air Raid sirens to start wailing out their warning of instant, immolated death. A flash of light that would leave all of us as shadows of ash to mark where we died. It was the Cold War. The threat of nuclear annihilation was ever present as we routinely “ducked and covered” under our school desk, facing away from the windows, as if that made any difference to a supersonic nuclear fireball disintegrating everything in its path with the heat of a thousand suns. Kennedy was out to stop all that… ’til he was stopped.
For nearly 40 years I have shared the national “Assassination Fascination” that grips America. Today is the birthday of the founding of that cottage industry of conspiracy theorists and their hundreds of books, movies, TV shows, and articles all trying to make sense of the senseless killing of a man trying to be sensible about our world and America’s place in it.
My new thriller, Ask Not, is in many ways an homage to the national obsession with those 6 seconds in Dallas – six seconds whose devastating effects have lasted 60 years. My hero must sift through the world of conspiracy and fact to try to avenge his brother’s death – a brother who was deep into the assassination craziness.
Recently, during a coast-to-coast radio interview, I was asked where I was when the shots rang out in Dealey Plaza on that day. Here is a short video of my response.
It’s a great read, a smart thriller and also a quick refresher course on JFK’s assassination and the controversy that has followed to this day. – Anonymous
In 1993, 8 out of 10 Americans didn’t believe the official account of the Kennedy assassination, namely that it was carried out solely by Lee Harvey Oswald, that only 3 shots were fired and there was no conspiracy, 80%!
One of the other 20% is airline pilot, Hank Larson. He never thought about it and couldn’t care less. That is until a family tragedy catapulted him into a living nightmare. Soon conspiracy theorists, researchers, wingnuts, and shady operatives will threaten his life and the life of the innocent woman who just wanted to help him.
Does he unwittingly hold the key to solving the biggest crime of all time? Or will he be just another suspicious death in what some say are over 200 witnesses and dissenters who have met an untimely demise?
Hank Larson is thrown into the deep end of a history-changing event, 30 years after it shocked the world. Now, he must think fast and act faster lest he himself becomes…history.
Tom Avitabile | Best Selling Author, Book Coach, and Screenwriter 