BACK COVER DESCRIPTION
In this town, nobody goes missing for long . . . Sooner or later, a body is found.
In March 1990, after kissing his wife and boys goodbye, Barry Jones departed his small town home and headed to work in the city.
He never arrived.
Now seven years later, in order to collect his life insurance, Cathy Jones is set to have the courts declare her absentee husband dead once and for all.
Enter P.I. Steve Cassidy – a man with a checkered past and looking for a second chance.
Hired by Global Insurance to take a fresh look at this cold case, Cassidy must try to uncover new clues to Jones’ disappearance. However, with the court date looming, there is precious little time to complete his investigation.
Steve Cassidy, a disgraced ex-cop with a broken soul, had his work cut out for him. He knew this time around, he had one final shot at redemption, and could blame no one but himself if he failed to solve his first big case.
BEHIND THE STORY
Barry Jones’ Cold Dinner – Steve Cassidy Mystery
August 2008 – Windsor, ON.
A Delicious Mystery is Served Author publishes the first book of an exciting new P.I. series “An enthralling mystery all the way through, Barry Jones’ Cold Dinner is a finely crafted work of the genre, and a great choice for fans.”
- The Midwest Book Review–
The tagline on the cover of Canadian author John Schlarbaum’s new cold case mystery novel, Barry Jones’ Cold Dinner states, “You never know where you’ll find the truth . . . or where it will find you” – a reference to the trials and tribulations about to face the story’s main character. Billed as a Steve Cassidy Mystery, the storyline follows a troubled private investigator’s quest to locate the elusive Barry Jones, a family man who disappeared without a trace seven years earlier. With Mr. Jones’ wife petitioning the courts to declare her chronically absentee spouse dead, P.I. Cassidy is hired by her insurance company to determine the truth behind the mysterious vanishing act.
After working for years as a Private Investigator, the writer clearly knows his way around the field of insurance cases.
“I let the reader get inside the head of a P.I., as he methodically pieces together each clue one step at a time,” Schlarbaum states. “As in all cold case files, the investigator inevitably has to deal with the faulty memories of witnesses, and track down new leads, no matter how insignificant some appear on the surface. For all the dead ends Steve Cassidy pursues, usually a new avenue of inquiry is revealed along the way, propelling the storyline forward.”
Although the novel is a straightforward mystery, it is also a richly detailed account of one man’s journey to restore a sense of normalcy in his life. After years of substance abuse, a failed and dishonorable career as a cop, and a broken marriage, P.I. Cassidy finds himself back in his old hometown, which he had left many years earlier.
After writing the first chapter in a conventional third person narrative, Schlarbaum opted to try his hand at composing his mystery in a first person style, with the narrator being Steve Cassidy. “It permitted me to bring Steve’s true feelings to light,” Schlarbaum says, “and allowed the reader to connect with him in a more personal way. It also gives the reader an opportunity to figure what happened to Barry Jones in real-time, even before the main character does.”
Combining his love of writing, his P.I. experiences, and the chance to “virtually” revisit his own former small town life, was a rewarding experience for Schlarbaum, which shows in each chapter.
With a second Steve Cassidy Mystery in the works, the author believes Barry Jones’ Cold Dinner will be the beginning of a very popular series of books for years to come.
