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Missing Context
Lagniappe revolves around a former Marine and covert operative in search of a quieter life who discovers that the child he thought died years prior may, indeed, still be alive. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I wanted my protagonist, Brock Beckett, to confront a fundamental conflict; his anger after his sister’s death on 9/11 and his love for the family he had in Jolene and Cissy. That required a confrontation that allowed both things to continue to develop throughout the book, and frankly, through the series. The confrontation was realized in Cissy, so I introduced it as what seems to be a chance meeting in the opening of the book.
Which scene was the most emotionally difficult for you to write, and which was the most rewarding?
The exchange of gifts between Beckett and Cissy at the Christmas party was difficult to write because it required the gifts to represent a number of things: Acceptance between Beckett and Cissy, discovery of the unknown between them, commitment, and the expression of their love as father and daughter. The most rewarding scene of the book is the ending; the irony and the impression of closure.
Several characters are forced to confront long-buried secrets. Why are hidden histories such a compelling storytelling tool for you?
Mysteries are based upon missing context, which does not need to be confined to the overarching mystery that drives the plot narrative. The mystery in Lagniappe and The Destiny, Arkansas Series involves more than Brock Beckett.
What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?
The second book in The Destiny, Arkansas Series is Gravitas, which I hope to publish by the end of August. Brock Beckett returns, and former prosecutor Winston Cordell, reporter Candy Pilgrim, troubleshooter Rusty Knight, and Destiny Police Chief Harley Randle are introduced to unravel the threads of a decade-old murder that will test the “gravitas” of Destiny, Arkansas.
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The discovery of a “sniper’s nest” on the Nelson property leads Beckett and Destiny Mayor Lloyd Nelson to believe Mendez was “collateral damage” to an assassination plot as retired Chinese army General Huang Do-Lin announces plans for a new industrial project in Destiny. Soon, Beckett realizes Huang was never a target and he and Nelson have been deceived.
Beckett begins to look over his shoulder believing that he is the target of another sniper. When Beckett realizes how Mendez’s murder was orchestrated, he confronts his former commander, retired General Pierpont Maxwell, to learn the truth. As Beckett speeds back into Destiny, dodging bullets in his Jeep Cherokee, he has one chance… one shot. But, Beckett must risk a “lagniappe,” something extra, to save an innocent life.
Lagniappe
Lagniappe follows Brock Beckett, a former Marine and covert operative who arrives in Destiny, Arkansas, hoping to return to the quieter life of a literature teacher, only to discover that Cissy Nelson, the teenage daughter of the town’s mayor, may be the child he was told had died years ago. What begins as a reunion story soon widens into a mystery-thriller shaped by military secrets, small-town loyalties, buried grief, and the dangerous remnants of Beckett’s past. Destiny may look like a modest Arkansas town of cafés, churches, ranchland, and school-board politics, but the book steadily reveals that even a peaceful place can become a firing line.
I enjoyed the way the novel balances domestic tenderness with tactical menace. Beckett could easily have been written as a simple hard-edged veteran archetype, but McLemore gives him bruised restraint, moral exhaustion, and a surprisingly literary mind. His conversations about Gone with the Wind and Giant are not ornamental; they show how he measures history, power, loyalty, and change. Cissy, meanwhile, brings warmth and velocity to the story. She is not just a lost daughter or a plot device; she is sharp, capable, and emotionally alive, the kind of character who can make a reunion scene feel dangerous because so much love is at stake.
The Blue Bird Café, the Nelson ranch, Miss Esther’s apartment, the Black church, the river country, and the town’s old family names give the book a lived-in texture. The prose leans into exposition and martial detail, but I found that density part of the book’s temperament. It wants to be both a family drama and a sniper-scope thriller, both Sunday dinner and classified after-action report. That combination gives the story its peculiar charge: a man trying to become ordinary again while everyone around him slowly learns how extraordinary, and how dangerous, he has been.
This book will appeal to readers who enjoy military thrillers, crime fiction, mysteries, small-town suspense, political intrigue, and family drama, especially when those genres overlap rather than stay in their lanes. Fans of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels may recognize the appeal of a dangerous, hyper-competent outsider entering a small community, though Lagniappe is more rooted in fatherhood, faith, and local belonging than Reacher’s lone-wolf drift. It is a story about second chances bought at a high price. Lagniappe is a hard-edged thriller with a homesick heart.
Pages: 347 | ASIN : B0FP47CSV8
