Fan Mail

Fan Mail

By Joseph Lewis

Genre:-Thriller Crime

Blurb:-A barrage of threatening letters, a car bomb, and a heart attack rip apart what was once a close-knit family of adopted brothers.

Randy and Booby, along with fellow band member and best friend, Danny, receive fan mail that turns menacing. They ignore it, but to their detriment. The sender turns up the heat.

Violence upends their world.

It rocks the relationship between the boys and ripples through their family, nearly killing their dad. As these boys turn on each other, adopted brother Brian flashes back to that event in Arizona where he nearly lost his life saving his brothers.

The scars on his face and arms healed, but not his heart.

Would he once again have to put himself in harm's way to save them?

And, if faced with that choice, will he?

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Extract:-Fan Mail is similar to my other books, yet different in many ways. Like my other books, Fan Mail has most of the same characters readers have come to know and enjoy. Like my other books, Fan Mail is written in the thriller-crime genre. However, it is more than a thriller-crime novel. There is a coming-of-age story with an LGBTQ+ theme running in the pages. I am certain readers will laugh and weep throughout the book. I found myself doing that when I wrote it and again, when I edited it.

 In this scene, Vicky Evans, Jeremy's husband and mother to the seven adopted boys, is trying to find the trigger that caused Jeremy's heart attack. She is seeking answers from her sons, from a long-time family friend, and three detectives who are not only friends of Jeremy, but who are protective of the seven boys. Everything seems to point to the stress caused by the fan mail three of the boys are receiving. Like my other stories, there is always more than just what's on the surface.

 Vicky said, "What's stopping this person from going after Bobby and Randy? Even Danny, if Danny continues to ignore these letters?"

"Vicky has a point," Jeff mumbled. "Using your words, these letters are benign. What happens if they amp up to something more?"

Danny spoke up and said, "Then Jeremy said he was only a counselor, but someone who fixed on Randy, Bobby, and me didn't seen rational."

Eiselmann jumped in to rescue Graff. He said, "That's why the FBI is paying attention to this case. They are sure the same person sent each letter, even though the postmarks are from different parts of the Milwaukee Metro area. The behavioral science guys said the same language is used, along with the same phraseology. Even the same type of paper and envelope."

"This person is smart enough to use self-adhesive envelopes and stamps, so we don't have DNA. There are some latent prints, but they aren't in the system, " Graff said.

"It may not seem like it, but we are learning a lot about the sender,"Eiselmann.

Vicky said, "Yes, but will you know enough to stop this sick," she bit her tongue and said, "person before he or she does anything to one of the boys?"

"The best we can say at this point is that we're working on it," Graff said.

Jeff said, "That's when Jeremy nearly lost it. He sat back in the chair, his jaw clenched, and his arm folded on his chest,"

Jeff tilted his head first at Eiselmann and then at Graff, as if he had wanted to sy something else. In the end, he shook his head and said nothing.

Vicky said, "Yes, but will you know enough to stop this sick," she bit her tongue and said, "person before he or she does anything to one of the boys?"

"The best we can say at this point is that we're working on it," Graff said.

Jeff said, "That's when Jeremy nearly lost it. He sat back in the chair, his jaw clenched, and his arm folded on his chest,"

Jeff tilted his head first at Eiselmann and then at Graff, as if he had wanted to sy something else. In the end, he shook his head and said nothing.

The only cop in the room who had contributed nothing to the case summary was Pat O'Connor. He sat in his chair and listened. O'Connor kept his eyes on the boys, particularly Brian, watching how each responded.

The boys were bright, intuitive. Danny's intelligence was in the stratosphere. O'Connor had believed whatever was said in Jeff's study would have been shared with the other boys in the Evans family. There were no secrets among the boys. They shared everything, and often, the boys seemed to know stuff before anything was vocalized. Yet because of the body language and expressions of the boys, O'Connor suspected nothing much had been shared.

 That was both good and bad. Good, in that they were a tight-knit group of friends raised as brothers, who would be quick to defend one another. They were the eyes and ears the cops weren't able to be. Bad, because the boys needed to know exactly what Danny, Randy, and Bobby might be up against.

 Graff shared the one piece of information the three cops held from Jeremy. Jeff, and the three boys the night before.

He said, "The FBI believes the sender is someone at North High School, and we do, too. We believe the boys know this person, and we believe Jeremy knows this person. " He turned to Jeff and said, "Jeff, you might know this person." He turned to the rest of the boys and said, "We believe this person had or has interactions with Randy, Bobby, and Danny. Perhaps with each of you,"

O'Connor and Graff felt if the boys knew this information, they could be more watchful, especially George, Brian, and Brett, Those three had special abilities, and they seldom missed anything.

 "What do we do?" Randy asked Graff. His eyes flicked to O'Connor and then to Eiselmann before settling back on Graff.

Graff looked over at O'Connor. Pat said, "Keep your eyes and ears open. You've read letters. You know what's in them. If you hear someone mimic or parrot the same things in the letters. let us know. Let your parents know. Try not to be alone. Think of Noah's Ark. Two by two. More is even better." Randy nodded.

"Danny, you have an eidetic memory, right?" Eiselmann asked

"I have a pretty good memory," Danny said with a nod.

"You know those letters by heart. I would think it would be easy for you to pick up on what someone says that might match what is in them. Listen closely, and like Pat said, let one of us and your parents know right away,"