A Smoking iPhone
When I first began outlining my new novel, Devil’s Gate, I set out to create three
separate plotlines that would converge into a single, sizzling finale.
At its heart, Devil’s
Gate is a ghost story. My
protagonist Kane Pryce must discover why Pasadena’s Colorado Street Bridge,
also known as Suicide Bridge, is haunted.
He must uncover what dark forces lure
hopeless victims to leap from the bridge and what power keeps their souls trapped
there.
Second, it’s a story about the seedy underbelly of
the Hollywood music scene. Kane is the
lead guitarist in a band that is on the verge of landing a record deal. Though the road ahead for Kane’s band, Astral
Fountain, is paved with gold, the obstacles to success for Kane and his merry
band of wannabe rock stars are plentiful—sex, drugs, ego, jealousy, insecurity,
and. . . more sex and drugs.
But third, and what I’m most proud of, is that Devil’s Gate is a genuine, bona fide
murder mystery.
The murder plotline in Devil’s Gate novel was the most challenging part of the book to write. My goals in writing this plotline were:
The murder plotline in Devil’s Gate novel was the most challenging part of the book to write. My goals in writing this plotline were:
1) To have it stand on its own as a real world crime,
to not ground it in the paranormal, as there would be enough of that in the
other parts of the book. It couldn’t be
a nefarious ghost. This had to be a real
murder with a real killer.
2) Like any mystery writer, I wanted the identity of
the killer to shock and surprise readers.
And
3) I wanted to write something unique to the time—to create the first murder mystery centering on the pervasive and inescapable presence of social media and tech gadgets in our daily lives.
Without giving specific plot details away, I’ll
offer this glimpse of the murder mystery I created for Devil’s Gate. The murder itself
isn’t committed with a knife or gun, but rather a new kind of weapon—a weapon
in the form of the social pressures of Facebook, especially those felt by
today’s teenagers. In Devil’s Gate, social networking becomes
social deathworking. The murderer isn’t
lurking in dark alleys or secret lairs, but instead in Wi-Fi hubs or streets
outside houses or businesses with unprotected networks. The detectives in Devil’s Gate aren’t dusting for fingerprints; they’re tracking a
smart phone via user logs and GPS signals.
And in the end, the killer isn’t exposed via a hard-nose interrogation,
but rather by a thoughtless slip up regarding a pop culture reference.
When I started plotting the book in early 2010, I
consulted with a well-known hacking legend.
Nearly three years later, some of the shocking things that I learned
from him then are only now coming to light—that our online identities are
astoundingly vulnerable, that our reputations can be unjustly destroyed in
short order by vindictive forces who have mastered major social media outlets,
that our smart phones are basically homing devices that track and log our every
move, and that many apps available for purchase let predators, crooks, and
enemies spy on our lives.
As we all march through life with our devices,
loaded with apps, always in hand, we’re all vulnerable targets for tech-savvy
criminals. And we’re all in seeming denial
regarding this vulnerability.
Today, it’s hard to say what’s really more
dangerous—a smoking gun or a smoking smart phone.
FJ,
ReplyDeleteWhat a provacative use of words in which to describe 'Devil's Gate'! The hairs on the back of my neck have let me know their presence. You are so spot on about the misuse of technology for scandalous opportunistic reasons that have been beautifully and creatively disguised. Deep within the "chip souls", a Devil lurks...
Debra Thomas
That's a great phrase Debra! Thanks for writing.
ReplyDelete