Chuck Logan
October, 2014
Conquill Press
I’ve been in this business now long enough to know that I’ll never figure it out. Why Chuck Logan’s Fallen Angel couldn’t find a home in traditional publishing is beyond me. Chuck, after shopping his manuscript around, was finally advised just to let it go and move on. Then Millennium Pictures re-optioned Logan’s Homefront and green-lighted a feature film, which encouraged Logan to self-publish Fallen Angel as an eBook in December 2013. It took local upstart Conquill Press to actually show some editorial intelligence and gumption by bringing it out in this impressive trade paperback edition. For character-driven thriller fans in general, and Logan fans in particular, the wait has been worth it.
Hidden deep within the darkest corridors of power (if you believe the rumors) is what is affectionately known as the “Department of Perfect Crimes”. Their chief operative is Morgan Jump—“a truly talented sociopath”, in the words of a CIA psychologist who culled him out of Special Forces six years ago. Purely by happenstance, Morgan is in the Iraqi desert disposing of a problem when North Dakota National Guard pilot Jesse Kraig’s Blackhawk flies in for a looksee. The unspoken directive for any of Morgan Jump’s operations, after the “We’ll disavow all knowledge of your actions” bit, is “NO WITNESSES”. Hence, Jesse and her crew are about to become “collateral damage”. The Blackhawk crashes and Morgan murders what’s left of the crew. But on account of all the smoke, fire, and commotion, he doesn’t get Jesse. The crash is ruled an accident; pilot error is suspected.
Jesse, suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury, is shipped stateside to the Ft. Snelling VA Hospital in Minnesota. She remembers nothing. With TBI cases, given enough time and therapy, some, if not all memory may eventually return. Morgan deploys himself to the VA to clean up this mess of his “perfect crime” before that can happen. But as my lovely wife and partner Pat often reminds me: never underestimate the resourcefulness of a North Dakota girl. And never—never—piss her off.
Gary Schulze
Once Upon A Crime bookstore
