Jorge Maria
Shawville July 28, 2021
Calvin Watters was once a bad guy. A towering figure at six-foot-five, muscled and tattooed, a man like him was made for football or intimidation. After a knee injury killed his football career Watters found himself in the Las Vegas underworld working as debt collector. When you break legs for a living, it’s easy enough to be framed for murder.
This is the setup for local author Luke Murphy’s first book, Dead Man’s Hand, which is the first introduction of his popular character, Calvin Watters. By the book’s end — spoiler alert — Watters has cleared his name for murder and is well on the path to redemption. After that first book, Watters didn’t want anything to do with his old life, but the dark places he’s been are never far away. In Murphy’s sixth book, Finders Keepers, our anti-hero turned hero has to use his connections to Las Vegas criminals.
The book centres on several escort murders. The Las Vegas Police Department is sure the murders are related, but they are unable to determine the cause of death. In all cases the women have been experimented on prior to being killed. It’s grim work, but with no leads, they reach out to Calvin Watters for help. Watters used to work in the red light district and other seedy areas as an enforcer. The LVPD ask him to draw on that chapter of his life so they can solve the crimes.
Choosing a protagonist with a questionable past was a risk for Murphy “I had no idea how this character would go over with readers, because he was kind of a bad guy,” he said.
“[He became] a bill collector, leg breaker. But I wanted readers to be able to sympathize with him, because he didn’t like his life. He didn’t like himself, he wanted to turn it around, become a better person”
Murphy chose Las Vegas because the city is exciting and well known, a playground for the types of characters he writes, but it is very far from his experience growing up in small town in Western Quebec. That’s where first hand research comes into play.
“As a fiction writer, you want things to be as real as possible. I want real streets. And I want real places,” he said.
But he needed first-hand experiences, things he couldn’t find on the internet. For his first book, he took a research trip to Las Vegas and still maintains contacts in the Las Vegas police department. For his previous book, Red Zone, which involved the murder of a cheerleader on the University of Southern California campus he interviewed USC football coaches.
“I have a lot of contacts,” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate to meet a lot of people not face to face, but online who have expertise in certain certain areas that are very helpful.
Murphy doesn’t waste any time starting the action in Finders Keepers. After the events of Red Zone, the previous book, he returns to Las Vegas and is immediately approached by the police. A hitman seeking revenge is in the city to kill him, the police warn. The hitman isn’t just in the city, he’s at the airport waiting for Watters. A firefight ensues. These are the first few pages of the crime thriller.
If Murphy’s preious novels are any indication, this new book promises to be a page-turner.
Finders Keepers has been up for sale on Amazon since July 23.
