Afterword
An author shouldn’t confuse the reader.
I read this comment in a review of an earlier version of Trigger Finger, the reviewer making generally positive remarks but describing a less-than-stellar reading experience in connection with the ending. Of course, I wanted to write it off with a you just don’t get it. Clearly, I was one brilliant sumbitch and some of these jokers out there just couldn’t handle me. After hearing the same thing several times, however, I understood it: people weren’t getting it because I’d written a bad ending. I didn’t like admitting that, because there’s an element of criminality in writing a novel and leaving important questions unanswered. If it’s not criminal, it’s at least a civil cause of action for breach of contract—a contract where you give me your time and I give you a quality reading experience. For some people, I’d fallen short of full performance.
Providing a quality reading experience, like any task, is all about the end game. A mechanic can spend days meticulously rebuilding an engine. He can create a maximum-security garage environment where not one speck of dust makes its way into the cylinders and he can use only the highest quality replacement parts. He can create something instead of merely repairing it, deploy his expertise in such a way that the motor isn’t just rebuilt but reborn. None of this counts, though, with the customer who drives the car for two or three hundred pages only to have the motor blow because somebody forgot to tighten the oil pan drain plug. That last little turn of the wrench—or lack thereof—can ruin everything.
End game.
In Trigger Finger, Kevin Swanson creates an alternate reality for himself after a brutal home invasion results in the death of his family. This reality crumbles as he picks and pulls at the edges with the assistance of Dr. Koenig—a man who isn’t a doctor at all, but rather the prosecutor working on a murder case. After several revisions to the ending to make it more clear, I’ve reached the limits of my abilities. I hope that I’ve improved the experience for those who disliked it because of a lack of clarity and that I’ve now pared Trigger Finger’s detractors down to those who disliked it because they saw the ending coming a mile away, because it was riddled with typos and formatting errors or because That-Was-All-Bullshit is a lame way to end a book. Spin the wheel; there’s something for everybody.
The home invasion that forms the core of the story is a mashup of two incidents that occurred in 2006 and 2011. In the first, a family in Virginia were accosted in their home by a pair of young men and a female accomplice. The men restrained them, took them down into the basement, killed them and then set their house on fire. Five years later, a different pair of men attacked a doctor and his family at their home in Connecticut. They made their way in through an unlocked basement door, beat the doctor nearly to death with a baseball bat they’d found in the yard, then went upstairs and corralled his wife and two daughters. Miraculously surviving the assault, the doctor crawled out of the basement and made his way to a neighbor’s house, and somebody there called the police. Sadly, his family didn’t make it.
These are highly simplified summaries of complex, gut-wrenching cases. The intruders were all caught and successfully tried, but the victims are still dead. And even if the guilty die in prison or run out of death penalty appeals, I don’t believe you can call it an eye for an eye in any sense of the phrase. The Code of Hammurabi required an equal exchange; attempting redress with the lives of these perpetrators feels a lot like trying to pay for a Cadillac with Monopoly money. Their currency is worthless.
A husband and father myself, I have something in common with the patriarchs in each of these cases, and so they affected me deeply. As I watched these things unfold in the news, I caught myself analyzing what the victims had done wrong—what I would have done differently, thereby bringing about a different result. I sat in the comfort of my home or car, resplendent with the benefits of hindsight, and criticized the people whom evil took by surprise. On some level, I knew then—and know now—that Monday morning quarterbacking is the easiest job in the world. Once you know what happened, identifying what someone should have done as something you yourself would have done in the same situation is a nice way to make yourself feel better. To assure yourself that this or that tragedy wouldn’t happen to you, because you’re different. You’re resourceful. You’re courageous. You think quickly on your feet and rise to the occasion in the face of a threat, because you’re one hard son of a bitch and nobody’s taking you by surprise.
Maybe you are. And maybe you’re not. Personally, I hope to never learn the truth one way or another.
I hope you enjoyed Trigger Finger. I invite you to leave me a review on Amazon, Goodreads or any other site you care to visit. This is my first novel; as such, I need all the help I can get putting the word out there. I welcome all opinions, good and bad. I also welcome helpful suggestions, so if you’ve seen any mistakes in the text, reach out to me at [email protected]. Indie publishing means you’re on your own in the marketing world, but it also means you can make quick alterations to your manuscript when a reader points something out. Nothing’s irrevocable.
If you enjoyed my first novel, check out my short stories The Demon and The Man At The Fence, and my novella, Just Hang On. I’m currently at work on my second novel. Since I change projects—and titles—as frequently as I change socks, I’ll refrain from identifying it here. If you’d like me to notify you when I release it, or if you’d be interested in serving as a beta reader before release, send me an email.
Thanks for reading, and take care.
And lock your doors
-Jackson Spencer Bell
Also By Jackson Spencer Bell
Novellas
Just Hang On: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KM1Z2P0
Short Stories
The Man At The Fence: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K6O74YK
The Demon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K389CBM
Trigger Finger Page 24