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Such Terrible Crimes
Everywhere That Tommy Goes follows a young man accused of being a serial killer who has to uncover the truth about his mysterious friend and troubled past before he discovers whether he’s innocent. The novel is inspired by actual events. How did those events influence the story, and how did you determine where to introduce fictional elements?
The inspiration for Everywhere That Tommy Goes came, in part, from the horrifying discoveries surrounding the Gilgo Beach murders on Long Island, New York. Having lived on Long Island for many years, I found the idea that such terrible crimes could occur in seemingly ordinary surroundings both fascinating and deeply disturbing.
But I never intended to write a fictionalized account of those actual murders. Instead, I wanted to explore something that I found even more unsettling: What happens when someone is accused of horrific crimes and can’t be entirely certain of his own innocence?
That’s where Tommy Sullivan’s story began. I took the atmosphere of fear, suspicion, and mystery surrounding real events and built an entirely fictional psychological thriller around it. Tommy’s troubled childhood, his mysterious friendship with Troyer Savage, and his increasingly disturbing memory lapses all became pieces of a much larger puzzle.
As a novelist, I believe reality provides the inspiration, but fiction gives us the freedom to explore the darkest corners of human nature. My goal was to create a story in which readers would constantly question what was real, what was imagined, and who could ultimately be trusted.
How does the contrast between Tommy’s insecurity and Troyer’s confidence shape the power dynamics of their relationship?
I think the relationship between Tommy and Troyer is one of the most intriguing psychological elements of the novel. Tommy is a deeply troubled young man, emotionally vulnerable and haunted by experiences from his childhood that he doesn’t fully understand. Troyer, on the other hand, appears self-assured, charismatic, and completely comfortable in his own skin.
That contrast creates an immediate imbalance in their relationship. Tommy sees in Troyer many of the qualities he wishes he possessed himself. He’s drawn to Troyer’s confidence, and that admiration makes him particularly susceptible to Troyer’s influence.
But there’s an important question running beneath their friendship: Is Troyer genuinely trying to help Tommy, or is there something more sinister behind his interest in him?
I wanted readers to recognize how easily admiration can turn into dependence and how someone searching for friendship, acceptance, or answers can become vulnerable to manipulation. As the story progresses, the balance of power between these two characters becomes increasingly complicated, and readers begin to realize that appearances can be dangerously misleading.
Of course, saying much more would risk giving away some of the novel’s biggest surprises, and I certainly don’t want to do that!
What do you hope readers consider about the reliability of memory, the nature of innocence, and the assumptions people make about others?
One of the central questions I wanted to explore in Everywhere That Tommy Goes is whether we can always trust our own minds. Most of us take our memories for granted. We assume that what we remember is what actually happened. But memory is far more complicated than that. It can be fragmented, distorted, suppressed, or influenced by experiences we don’t fully understand.
Tommy’s dilemma takes that uncertainty to a frightening extreme. Imagine being accused of murder and not being able to remember enough of your own past to confidently defend yourself. How do you prove your innocence when you can’t even trust your own recollections?
I also wanted to challenge the assumptions we make about people. We’re often quick to judge someone based on appearances, behavior, or circumstantial evidence. An awkward, troubled young man like Tommy can easily become an object of suspicion, while someone charming and confident may receive the benefit of the doubt.
After more than three decades practicing law, I’ve come to appreciate just how different perception and reality can be. What appears obvious on the surface isn’t necessarily the truth, and the most convincing explanation isn’t always the correct one.
Ultimately, I hope readers finish the novel questioning not only what they believed about Tommy and the other characters, but also how quickly they formed those beliefs in the first place.
And, naturally, I hope the ending catches them completely by surprise. After all, what good is a psychological murder mystery if the reader figures everything out halfway through?
An attractive young bartender goes missing from a popular New York City hot spot and the only evidence found at the scene points to Tommy Sullivan. Fearing arrest, he runs, and is secretly followed by his new friend Troyer Savage. When an even more horrific murder occurs, and Troyer vanishes in its wake, Tommy is left in a stupor, bathed in the victim’s blood.
As his blackouts and memory lapses multiply, Tommy becomes lost between nightmare and reality. Things only get worse for him when the police build a case that links him to bodies buried in shallow graves among the sand dunes at Gilgo Beach on Long Island.
With the police in hot pursuit and the psychological tension building by the minute, the action never lets up as Tommy pieces together parts of the puzzle from clues buried deep within his tragic childhood. However, the dark secrets from his past may belie the actual truth.
Touched By Crime
In and Out of the Wild Side of Life follows a former FBI profiler as she navigates a dangerous drug investigation, ominous dreams, and personal fears while fighting to protect her family and community. What were some sources that informed this novels development?
First and foremost, the characters run the engine of the story and plots. Dreams and subconscious ideas from me, from previous work with attorneys creates a natural progression of the series and where the characters take the story as a natural flow from me. The characters feel real to me, so I think of their lives in a broad stroke of reality. What would touch their lives – the same things that touch other people every day who are touched by crime.
Samantha Wright is both a skilled investigator and a fiercely protective wife and mother. How do these roles challenge and redefine her sense of identity?​
As with all women, identity is multi-faceted; family first then you have a support base committed to investigation. Her awareness of the human side of things is keener now having a family and a tribe that supports her endeavors. No one can do it alone without a strong foundation of family and friends being there to give her confidence, to cheer her on and catch her if she falls. Her sense of identity has never been what she does, but who she is.
Will’s desire to devote more time to raising their children challenges traditional expectations of masculinity. What inspired you to explore this shift in his character?​
Will is a self-assured man and strives for the same fulfillment of family that Sam having more day-to-day interaction with the children has and that requires his presence. He’s found his priorities of family, friends and love by almost losing them. Family grounds him and in turn he wants to support his family with himself other than just financially. Nothing says strength than going against type and taking on those things others might think detracts from him, when it actually makes him more well-rounded as a human being. Ask any women, a man who shares in all facets of family life is a sexy man.
Your novel blends criminal investigations with romance, humor, grief, and everyday family life. How do you balance these elements while maintaining emotional depth and suspense?​
Replace the words “criminal investigations” with the word “job or work or career” and it makes the balances seem easier. Sam’s path in life has been treacherous and dangerous but for all of us, life is fragile.
Suspense is the unknowing how the case will work out, what toll it will take, but if you have a strong network and part of the so-called job is to protect, then the object of what is causing the suspense can be clearer. Sam and Will need to protect those they love but also those who don’t have a voice as a victim. Skill, experience, and insight versus the crime and those orchestrating it – the balance of risk can be maintained. Above all, laughter, jokes and self-deprecating humor brings a calming effect to the lot. Emotional depth is letting the characters evolve and grow even when it sometimes makes them less than perfect.
In and Out of the Wild Side of Life: A Samantha Wright Crime Series #4
Love, danger, family, and the things we carry from our past come together in Theresa Janson’s In and Out of the Wild Side of Life, a deeply personal installment in the Samantha Wright Crime Series. Samantha Wright has spent much of her life confronting the darkest sides of human behavior. A former FBI profiler, forensic psychologist, and investigator, she knows how to recognize danger, understand its origins, and fight for people who can’t fight for themselves. But her life has grown into something much bigger than her career. She’s a wife, a mother, a friend, and an important part of a close-knit Cheyenne community. When troubling dreams begin to suggest a threat to her husband, Will, and a dangerous drug operation raises concerns about the surrounding area, Samantha finds her professional instincts colliding with her greatest personal fears. Janson draws readers into a world where the stakes are intensely personal, and where protecting the people you love can be the most demanding responsibility of all.
I was enamored with the relationship between Samantha and Will Little Bear. Their marriage is passionate, playful, fiercely devoted, and sometimes complicated by emotions neither can easily contain. Janson gives their relationship considerable attention, exploring the ways love can be both a source of strength and a doorway to vulnerability. Will’s desire to spend more time raising their children introduces thoughtful questions about masculinity, identity, and what it means to be a good husband and father. Samantha, meanwhile, must balance her instinct to protect everyone around her with the reality that even the strongest relationships require difficult conversations. Their intimacy is expressed through physical affection, candid dialogue, humor, and moments of genuine emotional exposure. These scenes give the story much of its character, showing two people who continue discovering what it means to share a life after years of longing, loss, and change.
Janson also creates a vivid sense of community through the extended circle of family and friends surrounding Samantha and Will. The Cheyenne reservation, the stables, the nearby wilderness, and the familiar gathering places provide a meaningful backdrop for a story rooted in loyalty and belonging. Characters such as Franklin, Jess, Clarence, Christian, and Brandon bring their own perspectives, histories, and emotional struggles into the narrative. Their connections reveal how personal decisions can ripple through an entire community. Alongside the family dynamics, Janson weaves in police investigations, criminal activity, forensic details, and the unsettling possibility that dreams can reveal truths beyond ordinary understanding. The presence of departed loved ones adds another emotional dimension, inviting readers to consider how grief, memory, and spiritual connection continue shaping the living. It’s an expansive combination of crime fiction, romance, family drama, and spiritual reflection, held together by the relationships at its center.
I think what makes In and Out of the Wild Side of Life especially engaging is its interest in the lives people build while navigating uncertainty. Janson understands that a family is shaped by everyday gestures as much as extraordinary circumstances: a child demanding pancakes, a husband reaching for his wife’s hand, a friend offering forgiveness, or someone finding the courage to speak an uncomfortable truth. Her conversational storytelling allows humor and tenderness to coexist with fear, conflict, and suspense. There’s also a recurring appreciation for second chances, emotional honesty, and the importance of being present for the people who matter. Readers who enjoy character-driven crime fiction with mature romance, strong family connections, and a touch of the supernatural will find a story with plenty to feel and think about. Theresa Janson writes with the conviction that life’s greatest adventure isn’t facing danger, but loving deeply enough to have something worth protecting.
The Biggest Unsolved Series of Crimes
Killing Time follows a gifted past-life investigator who is looking into a series of modern London murders that echo the crimes of Jack the Ripper. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story? What made the Jack the Ripper mystery particularly suited to the world you’ve created?
I was a Crime scene photographer for the Met police for 24 years, which means yes, I’ve seen awful sights in my time. I’ve also seen a lot of good forensic work and met a lot of skilled investigators in my time. So when I was looking for a new project to include my world of Awakening that I’d set up in my first book, The Many Lives of Adam Capello, I felt it was time to use my experiences to tell a tale of 2 investigations – one from the past and one in the near future. The mystery of Jack the Ripper is probably one of the biggest unsolved series of crimes in history, with a HUGE amount of interest. What better case to do my dual timeline investigation?Â
Awakening is all about discovering and confronting our past. Fantastic if you can pick up knowledge and past skills such as speaking languages, but at what price. What if you found out you’d once been Jack the Ripper? What if the shock was so terrible, your present day mind shut itself off, only to be replaced by the monster within?
What were some driving ideals behind Jason’s character’s development, and what makes him particularly suited to investigating crimes involving past lives?
Jason has a natural talent for reading body language and went on to study the subject in high detail – he excelled. His ability makes him a great Awakening investigator, able to push further and harder into people’s traumatic past lives to find who murdered them. He knows he’s putting his clients through a lot of pain for a good reason, but it still hurts him too.
Jason is, at the heart of it all, a really nice guy with a conscience. In crime writing that’s a huge no no! We want our detectives to be as complicated and flawed as their quarry to add as much character and drama to the story. So I wanted this skills to play havoc with his love life, as he over analyses everything. And inside he’s very shy, so the extraordinary expert in body language becomes and ordinary guy who can’t read a thing when he really likes someone. He’s just as clueless in those circumstances as the rest of us.Â
What interested you about placing the possibility of redemption alongside the idea that a violent past might literally return?
At first I just wanted the idea of a two timeline investigation with the Ripper, but as in any good film / novel, the antagonist must have redeeming features just as the protagonist has a dark side. The more I went into the Ripper’s mind, the more I wanted to find a reason for his savage attacks. It became a mission for me to twist the reader into having some sympathy for this monster, if only to confuse us. Where do our loyalties lie? What on earth could justify that level of violence? That’s what makes this more than just a historic murder mystery, it becomes psychological as well.
How does Killing Time expand the possibilities of the Awakening world established in The Many Lives of Adam Capello, and where do you see the series going from here?
Isambard Smythe is such an interesting character. I’d love to give him his own case to solve, possibly with 19th century royal connections. Sabina Bjorkman is also a very strong character, even just at the basic, ball busting, beautiful, scary DCI keeping ahead of her ‘superiors’. I’ve committed the sin of writing two related stories in different genres and from different perspectives. Both the novels are connected and yet they run alone as well. They intertwine to develop of their own accord. The next Awakening novel? Either Adam’s next adventure or another crime novel would be sensible – though I do have a great idea for a comically dark story reflecting my film work as a film stand-in. Watch this space.
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Now, a gifted detective questions his conscience as he hunts for Jack the Ripper through his reincarnated victims.
Let The Crime Break In
Echoes from the Fjord follows an architect visiting the Glass Lodge for a summer of diving, friendship, and work, only to discover his friend has been murdered and the crime scene staged as an accident. Why did you want Cole’s return to the Glass Lodge to begin with such a strong sense of home, only to disrupt it with Mike’s death?
I wanted readers to feel what Cole stands to lose before the story takes it from him. The Glass Lodge is the one place where Cole belongs without having to explain himself: his friends, his dogs, the dives before the tourists wake up, and a fjord that is finally recovering after years of struggling. If readers feel at home there too, Mike’s death lands as a real absence and not just a puzzle to solve. The mystery works because the people and the place matter, so I started with warmth and let the crime break it.
What interested you about creating an investigator who naturally thinks in terms of structures, patterns, and inconsistencies, and how does Cole’s grief for Mike reveal parts of him that the investigation alone could not?
Architects choreograph how a person moves through a building to evoke specific emotions, using light, shadow, and scale to build a physical “plot.” That made an architect a natural way to investigate a death, because Cole already reads a scene the way he reads a building: foundations, loads, sight lines, and the cosmetic work hiding what’s underneath. He is also someone who takes in other people’s feelings more easily than he voices his own, so the investigation lets him stay useful and a little hidden. Grief is what takes that away. He can follow every clue, but he can’t deduce his way through losing Mike. The investigation shows how Cole thinks, and the grief shows what he feels.
Environmental stewardship plays a significant role in Mike’s legacy. Why was that important to the story?
Mike’s lifelong commitment to conservation was a central part of the story in the first book in the series, When Shapes Take Hold, so by Echoes it’s already part of who he is. When he dies, I wanted that work to be what he leaves behind, and I wanted that inheritance to matter more than the money. The oxygen readings, the orcas, and the land he cared about give the characters something to protect after he’s gone, and they give the murder a motive rooted in the place itself. Hood Canal isn’t a backdrop in these books. It has its own pressures and stakes, and I wanted the story to show that caring for a place is a kind of loyalty to the people who loved it.
What larger themes or relationships are you interested in continuing to explore through Cole and the Cascadia Mystery series?
Belonging, chosen family, and what we owe the places and people we call home. Cole is learning to let himself be part of a community, and the relationships around him, including Sam and the dogs, keep deepening from book to book. I also want to keep exploring how a landscape shapes its community and how conservation and development pull against each other. Each book gets a new mystery, but I’m most interested in the people and the place holding the series together. In the next book, Winterlight Ridge, there will be a new community with new characters and some recurring ones, but the same themes will resonate. But don’t worry, Cole will still be returning to the fjord every summer.
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The water was its own country — and for the first time in seven years, it was healing.
Architect Cole Walker has come back to the Glass Lodge at Octopus Cove — the Hood Canal resort he designed, and the closest thing he has to home — for a summer of long days on the trails with his beagle Murphy, quiet dives before the tourists are up, and the satisfaction of introducing two fellow professors, strangers to each other despite years on the same campus, because Cole could see what they couldn’t yet: that they belonged together. The oxygen readings are rising at last, the orcas are close, and the Lodge’s little family has never had more to celebrate.
Then, on a quiet June morning, a scream empties the dining room: a diver is found floating face down beneath the dive stairs — one of the Lodge’s own.
The county deputy calls it a careless accident. But Cole has checked gear beside this diver for six summers, and he knows what he’s looking at: fins on the wrong feet, a hood left unsealed, no drysuit in fifty-degree water. Whoever staged the scene knew the vocabulary of diving — but not the grammar. And the victim never dove alone. Not once.
Reunited with Captain Sela Blackwell of the State Patrol, who helped him expose an environmental crime the summer before, Cole follows the keycard logs — and his own uncanny sense of what people carry beneath the surface. A debt-ridden developer measuring the shoreline in profit. An heir a little too sure of what’s coming to him. A timestamp that says someone lied. A stranger in a wide-brimmed hat bent on revenge a year in the making. And Cole holds secrets he swore to keep — secrets that could upend every motive on the list.
Throughout the investigation, Cole is there for Sam — the Lodge’s sharp-eyed manager — as the case forces open a question she’s never let herself ask: whether the family that chose her holds as fast as one she was born into, and whether the person who broke it might already be sitting at her table.
As the truth starts to surface, threatening notes are slid under Cole’s door: BACK OFF, then KEEP IT UP AND YOU’RE DEAD. First his dive gear is sabotaged. Then the Loop Trail footbridge is sabotaged and gives way as Cole is about to step onto it. He pulls Sam back from the edge with seconds to spare from what would have been certain death for both of them.
Cole isn’t going anywhere.
Set among orcas, deep cold water, and a community that refuses to let one of its own be written off as a careless accident, Echoes from the Fjord is a mystery of chosen family, the weight of secrets, and a legacy someone was willing to kill for.
Literary Titan Gold Book Award: Fiction
The Literary Titan Book Award honors books that exhibit exceptional storytelling and creativity. This award celebrates novelists who craft compelling narratives, create memorable characters, and weave stories that captivate readers. The recipients are writers who excel in their ability to blend imagination with literary skill, creating worlds that enchant and narratives that linger long after the final page is turned.
Award Recipients
Vanished Twin by Lawrence Hoffman
POINT FIRST by Nannette Potter
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
Literary Titan Silver Book Award
Celebrating the brilliance of outstanding authors who have captivated us with their skillful prose, engaging narratives, and compelling real and imagined characters. We recognize books that stand out for their innovative storytelling and insightful exploration of truth and fiction. Join us in honoring the dedication and skill of these remarkable authors as we celebrate the diverse and rich worlds they’ve brought to life, whether through the realm of imagination or the lens of reality.
Award Recipients
Walking Away by Richard Michael O’Meara
Pulsar: The Time Traveler by Alexander Heed
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
Accidental Tribes
C. S. Pascoal’s Accidental Tribes begins with eight students stuck in a classroom that smells of dirty socks and poor decisions. At New York City’s Mariah Wilson Public School, Room 359 is where trouble goes to sit, and this group has supplied plenty of it: addictive games, fake academic records, humiliating social media posts, and unauthorized schemes. Their advisor, Dr. Miryam, has arranged an experiment intended to keep them in school and help them imagine who they could become. The Director has her own agenda. What follows is an illustrated young adult novel that combines school satire, friendship, family struggles, and a mystery about the adults running the place. It’s an energetic setup, with enough friction between the students to make their eventual cooperation feel worth watching.
The book’s strongest moments come when someone’s irritating behavior starts to make emotional sense. David’s devotion to assignments becomes especially affecting once we understand that school gives him the predictability his home life can’t. Dev’s confidence hides years of loneliness, while Antoni’s imitation of his father leaves him struggling to picture a future of his own. Jamie stands out because her longing for friendship exists alongside anger that doesn’t disappear just because someone apologizes. Her history with Patty gives the story some of its hardest emotional questions. I also liked Nia’s gradual discovery that leadership involves listening and making room for people. These relationships give substance to the students’ projects, including an app inspired by Leo’s overwhelmed mother. Their inventions grow out of recognizable needs, and their teamwork develops through arguments, mistakes, and small gestures of care.
Louis Sachar’s Holes makes a useful comparison. Both books place young people inside a punitive environment, surround them with adults whose motives deserve scrutiny, and show friendships forming under pressure. They also share a taste for exaggerated authority figures and humor that sits close to cruelty. Pascoal brings that dynamic into a world of smart glasses, AI tools, group chats, and audiences that can turn a schoolyard insult into something enormous. Her characters are navigating identities that exist both in the hallway and on a screen. The book is particularly sharp about how a joke can keep hurting someone long after its creator has moved on. That gives its central question, who you’d want to meet as your future self, a practical urgency.
Pascoal’s writing has a chatty and mischievous rhythm, helped by short chapters and expressive illustrations. Dr. Miryam’s commentary supplies plenty of wit, though her explanations sometimes spell out lessons the scenes have already made clear. Longer speeches about belonging, technology, and courage can slow the story, especially when the dialogue starts sounding like advice prepared for an audience. Her own willingness to manipulate events also creates an interesting tension with her confidence in the experiment. The closing chapters move quickly through grief, adult futures, and a lingering mystery, leaving some developments needing more breathing room. Still, the students’ uneasy loyalty stayed with me. The discussion prompts at the back extend the book’s invitation to think about friendship, ambition, and responsibility. Accidental Tribes is an earnest, sometimes unruly story whose appeal comes from watching young people discover what they can build together and what they owe each other along the way.
Pages: 180 | ASIN: B0HFXFBMWH
