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Message in a Bullet
Raymond Mackey is a struggling crime writer. His friends call him Mack. But friends are in short supply these days. Mack’s thirty years as a homicide detective came to the kind of abrupt, ignominious end that tends to make friends dry up and blow away. It matters little that Mack was never actually a mole working for a shadowy, seemingly omnipresent mob boss. Somehow, the evidence was there anyway and the scandal ended everything for him overnight. Lucky to stay out of prison, Mack lives in a netherworld of forced retirement, spinning his memories of old homicide cases into pulp fiction and working part time as a shopping mall cop. His wife Marlo, the greatest criminal investigator Mack has ever known, has been dead of pancreatic cancer for nearly five years. That leaves his ancient Smith-Corona Corsair, a pack of Camels, a bottle of Old Forester, and Marlo’s bourbon-loving cat, Phil, as Mack’s only company.
Almost. Because Mack also keeps himself company. The psychiatrists call it Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder. Mack calls it Triple-D. But crazy also works. It means he watches himself, usually from an overhead perspective, as though someone has tied a floating camera to a back beltloop on a long string. It makes him feel watched, and not by someone inclined to judge him kindly. So Raymond Mackey comes complete with his own Greek chorus. “Watch yourself, Mack,” people tell him. He has no choice.
When one of Mack’s old informants goes missing and Mack’s face turns up in a dead man’s camera, his past comes roaring painfully back to life. Now the police want him for questioning, the mob want him dead and it’s increasingly difficult to tell who, exactly, is working for whom. As a mercilessly hot Chicago summer finally breaks and it starts to rain bodies, Mack finds himself past his prime for this kind of action. Retirement has added weight and subtracted agility. He hasn’t fired a weapon in years. His antiquated cell phone will not stop ringing with a mysteriously blocked number. In the end, as Mack watches himself from above, it is razor-sharp instinct, cheap consumer electronics and his dead wife that offer his only hope.
Almost. Because Mack also keeps himself company. The psychiatrists call it Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder. Mack calls it Triple-D. But crazy also works. It means he watches himself, usually from an overhead perspective, as though someone has tied a floating camera to a back beltloop on a long string. It makes him feel watched, and not by someone inclined to judge him kindly. So Raymond Mackey comes complete with his own Greek chorus. “Watch yourself, Mack,” people tell him. He has no choice.
When one of Mack’s old informants goes missing and Mack’s face turns up in a dead man’s camera, his past comes roaring painfully back to life. Now the police want him for questioning, the mob want him dead and it’s increasingly difficult to tell who, exactly, is working for whom. As a mercilessly hot Chicago summer finally breaks and it starts to rain bodies, Mack finds himself past his prime for this kind of action. Retirement has added weight and subtracted agility. He hasn’t fired a weapon in years. His antiquated cell phone will not stop ringing with a mysteriously blocked number. In the end, as Mack watches himself from above, it is razor-sharp instinct, cheap consumer electronics and his dead wife that offer his only hope.
- GenresNovels
337 pages, ebook
Published September 30, 2021
21 people are currently reading
617 people want to read
About the author
Owen Thomas
58 books67 followersOwen Thomas is a life-long Alaskan living on Maui because life is too short for long winters. He has written six books: "The Lion Trees" (which has garnered over sixteen international book awards, including the Amazon Kindle Book Award, the Eric Hoffer Book Award, the Book and Author Book of the Year, the Beverly Hills International Book Award and, most recently, a finalist in the Book Excellence Awards); “Mother Blues,” (a novel of music and mystery set in post-Hurricane Harvey Texas); “Message in a Bullet: A Raymond Mackey Mystery,” (the first in a series of detective novels); "The Russian Doll" (the second installment in that series); "Signs of Passing" (a book of interconnected short stories, and winner of fourteen book awards, including the Pacific Book Awards for Short Fiction, also named one of the 100 Most Notable Books of the Year by Shelf Unbound Magazine); and “This is the Dream,” (a collection of stories and novellas that explore that perplexing liminal distance between who we are and what we want). Owen maintains an active fiction and photography blog on Facebook, Tumblr and on his author website at www.owenthomasliterary.com.
For the ninth consecutive year since he has been measuring his commercial success as an author, Owen has not won the Orange Prize for Fiction. Also, to great acclaim, he has not won the Man Booker Prize. Most recently, in April of 2020, Owen was not nominated for a Pulitzer.
Owen makes his home in Alaska and Hawaii. When he is not writing, Owen can be found recreating and taking photographs in the grandeur of these wonderfully picturesque locations. Some of these photos are posted on Owen's photo blog, 1000 Words per Frame.
For the ninth consecutive year since he has been measuring his commercial success as an author, Owen has not won the Orange Prize for Fiction. Also, to great acclaim, he has not won the Man Booker Prize. Most recently, in April of 2020, Owen was not nominated for a Pulitzer.
Owen makes his home in Alaska and Hawaii. When he is not writing, Owen can be found recreating and taking photographs in the grandeur of these wonderfully picturesque locations. Some of these photos are posted on Owen's photo blog, 1000 Words per Frame.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 16, 2021
Message in a Bullet delivered a likable but flawed lead character in Raymond Mackey.
Fighting for both his life and his ruined reputation the novel sees hard-bitten ex-cop Mackey struggling with his own mental health to both save his former informant and sort out once and for all who is responsible for his early release from the local police department on early retirement.
Now working as a mall cop Ray gets caught in the crossfire of the local Police and the Internal Affairs Dept as they go looking for the department mole who is passing info to the local mob boss.
I loved the style which was reminiscent of mid 20th Century Noir detective novels complete with the wisecracks.
The plot was fast paced and kept me guessing all the way through to the end. I'll be looking out for book 2
Fighting for both his life and his ruined reputation the novel sees hard-bitten ex-cop Mackey struggling with his own mental health to both save his former informant and sort out once and for all who is responsible for his early release from the local police department on early retirement.
Now working as a mall cop Ray gets caught in the crossfire of the local Police and the Internal Affairs Dept as they go looking for the department mole who is passing info to the local mob boss.
I loved the style which was reminiscent of mid 20th Century Noir detective novels complete with the wisecracks.
The plot was fast paced and kept me guessing all the way through to the end. I'll be looking out for book 2
January 21, 2022
I was always a big Mickey Spillane fan. I love those novels of gritty, tough P.I.’s and/or cops who ‘talk’ to the reader and make them feel as if they’re being brought along for the ride. In the same vein, I also love those old black-and-white TV series from the 1950s that had a narrator; the voice always sounded like he’d smoked eighty packs of cigarettes in one hour as he talked to the viewer about the crime committed, the cold, hard facts of the case, and how they eventually brought the slime responsible for the criminal act to justice. They were so much fun! So when I sat down and started to read this novel, my mind immediately produced that old black-and-white presentation for me to focus on, and I could almost hear the main character of this book, Raymond “Mack” Mackey, talk as he led me through one extremely cool crime.
Mack is one of those guys who has had to deal with tragedy, and that tragedy left its mark on his heart. Losing his wife too soon, he also lost his career as a homicide detective because of a series of odd events where he played the part of someone unjustly accused. Basically, Mack is one of those who’d quite easily fall in love with nothing else for the rest of his life but a bottle in a brown paper bag that was kind enough to give him relief for a few minutes before he blacked-out on the floor every night.
To say he’s scraping the bottom of the barrel is an understatement; even his attempt at writing books about his past cases isn’t going very well. And now he’s baking in the wretched heat and humidity of a Chicago summer. (Yuck!) Without giving anything away, let us just say that fate is not done with Mack. In a short span of time, an informant from his past is murdered and Mack’s face ends up on someone’s camera; these two things envelop him in a mystery of monumental proportions. Unfortunately, with his past pain, depression, psychological issues (aka, Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder…you’re gonna love that one), and because he’s growing older and not leaner by the minute, Mack must now find a way to not give up in order to clear his own name and solve a crime.
When Mack sits with his Smith-Corona trying to type a bestselling crime novel, while smoking Camels and sharing bourbon with his cat, Phil, he becomes one of those fantastic characters that, I swear, are from the old 50’s novels and TV shows. The author knows his vernacular to a tee when it comes to writing a great detective novel, but he also takes the process so many lengths further by developing the characters perfectly. Even a cast of supporting folks who are just as entertaining as the lead, make readers want to dive into another “Mack” mystery as fast as they can.
I can easily see this becoming a hit series in a very short amount of time. The plot was well-written, the ending was a surprise, and Mack does have the power to remain in a reader’s mind for a good long time after the book has come to an end. Watching Mack stare at his own life and “report” it to the rest of us in third person absolutely works. And having his backstory come to fruition carefully, expanding on his thirty years as a detective, his loving wife, Marlo, and even learning more about that fun feline Phil, allows readers to form a strong connection to the guy. This, alone, will make people come back again and again to check in on Mack and see what he’s up to next.
I commend the author for utilizing an idea from the past and making it entertaining for future generations. Owen Thomas has definitely landed a fan in me; I can’t wait to see what lies in Mack’s path for book number two. “5-Stars.”
Mack is one of those guys who has had to deal with tragedy, and that tragedy left its mark on his heart. Losing his wife too soon, he also lost his career as a homicide detective because of a series of odd events where he played the part of someone unjustly accused. Basically, Mack is one of those who’d quite easily fall in love with nothing else for the rest of his life but a bottle in a brown paper bag that was kind enough to give him relief for a few minutes before he blacked-out on the floor every night.
To say he’s scraping the bottom of the barrel is an understatement; even his attempt at writing books about his past cases isn’t going very well. And now he’s baking in the wretched heat and humidity of a Chicago summer. (Yuck!) Without giving anything away, let us just say that fate is not done with Mack. In a short span of time, an informant from his past is murdered and Mack’s face ends up on someone’s camera; these two things envelop him in a mystery of monumental proportions. Unfortunately, with his past pain, depression, psychological issues (aka, Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder…you’re gonna love that one), and because he’s growing older and not leaner by the minute, Mack must now find a way to not give up in order to clear his own name and solve a crime.
When Mack sits with his Smith-Corona trying to type a bestselling crime novel, while smoking Camels and sharing bourbon with his cat, Phil, he becomes one of those fantastic characters that, I swear, are from the old 50’s novels and TV shows. The author knows his vernacular to a tee when it comes to writing a great detective novel, but he also takes the process so many lengths further by developing the characters perfectly. Even a cast of supporting folks who are just as entertaining as the lead, make readers want to dive into another “Mack” mystery as fast as they can.
I can easily see this becoming a hit series in a very short amount of time. The plot was well-written, the ending was a surprise, and Mack does have the power to remain in a reader’s mind for a good long time after the book has come to an end. Watching Mack stare at his own life and “report” it to the rest of us in third person absolutely works. And having his backstory come to fruition carefully, expanding on his thirty years as a detective, his loving wife, Marlo, and even learning more about that fun feline Phil, allows readers to form a strong connection to the guy. This, alone, will make people come back again and again to check in on Mack and see what he’s up to next.
I commend the author for utilizing an idea from the past and making it entertaining for future generations. Owen Thomas has definitely landed a fan in me; I can’t wait to see what lies in Mack’s path for book number two. “5-Stars.”
October 30, 2021
MESSAGE IN A BULLET is a promising start to a detective series featuring Raymond Mackey, as eccentric and nuanced a sleuth as you might expect from a writer of Owen Thomas’s caliber. Mack is a former Chicago PD homicide detective now embarking on a second career as a genre writer, until the reality of his own messy past intrudes on his fiction. Adding another layer of complexity, Mack suffers from something called Depersonalization- Derealization Disorder which causes him to view his first-person existence with third-person detachment. It’s a fascinating device which allows Thomas to change point of view throughout the narrative without actually introducing another narrator.
And this is not the only literary flourish; Thomas’s prose crackles with apt figurative language and haunting description of person and place. Dialogue is snappy and hard-boiled, in the tradition of Chandler, Hammett, and Cain. While there are pages devoted to setting up Mack’s backstory and developing secondary characters, the plot hurtles forward like a cranked-up mouse crashing through a maze. There are some fantastic action scenes, one in particular where I really thought ol’ Mack was gonna die in his debut. He takes plenty of punishment but survives to unravel the tangled strands of the caper, and more importantly, feed his feline, Phil, his daily ration of Old Forester. Highly recommended!
And this is not the only literary flourish; Thomas’s prose crackles with apt figurative language and haunting description of person and place. Dialogue is snappy and hard-boiled, in the tradition of Chandler, Hammett, and Cain. While there are pages devoted to setting up Mack’s backstory and developing secondary characters, the plot hurtles forward like a cranked-up mouse crashing through a maze. There are some fantastic action scenes, one in particular where I really thought ol’ Mack was gonna die in his debut. He takes plenty of punishment but survives to unravel the tangled strands of the caper, and more importantly, feed his feline, Phil, his daily ration of Old Forester. Highly recommended!
January 6, 2022
This is the debut story for the main character’s series. In good dime store fashion he is a self-persecuting, redemption denying, relentless gumshoe from some of the toughest city streets and dirtiest halls of justice that America has to offer and none of it is softened by Thomas. Mack is just the kinda guy you would imagine having the nerve to work the streets of Chicago and just the guy that you would want on your side if you are in a bind. Additionally, now as a widower and “retired” detective he doesn’t have much to lose, but lots to gain, including his sanity.
My full review can be read at https://randomthoughtonlineblog.wordp...
My full review can be read at https://randomthoughtonlineblog.wordp...
March 3, 2022
I enjoined the overall premise of the main character and his perspective but the moody, sad tone of this book just wasn’t my favorite. Regardless of my personal preference, I think this has the potential to be a great series and this was a good start.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 3, 2023
This book is a great start to a detective series by this author, Owen Thomas. He creates colorful character. The main character suffers from a mental disorder called Depersonalization- Derealizative Disorder, the 3 Ds. This allows the character to change his point of view from first person to third person. It adds to the storyline. This is a great read for all. I highly recommend this book. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I have. I look forward to reading the second book in this survey, THE RUSSIAN DOLL.
July 2, 2023
I really liked the style of this story, which is a cross between literary fiction and a noir detective thriller. The plot is well-developed, with many layers and surprises. The narrative device used (i.e. this mental disease he refers to as Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder) that allows the main character to switch from first to third person is fantastic. And the tragic personal drama of the old wrecked detective and aspiring but failing writer is beautifully mixed with solving a crime, creating a very likeable character and a page-turning read.
April 21, 2023
**Goodreads giveaway
Great characters, writing, and storyline.
Overall a fantastic read! I love detective/mystery and this one delivered in a way I haven't read before, could not get enough
Anxious to read more in this series
Great characters, writing, and storyline.
Overall a fantastic read! I love detective/mystery and this one delivered in a way I haven't read before, could not get enough
Anxious to read more in this series
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews