Patrick H. Moore is a Los Angeles based Private Investigator, Sentencing Mitigation Specialist, and crime writer. He has worked in virtually all areas including drug trafficking, sex crimes, crimes of violence, and white-collar fraud. Patrick holds a Master’s degree in English Literature from San Francisco State University where he graduated summa cum laude in 1990. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, he was lead vocalist and played rhythm guitar for Crash Carnival, a San Francisco rock ‘n roll band, and experienced the "naked lunch" of life on the streets for more than a decade. In February of 2013, Patrick started All Things Crime blog, a true crime and crime fiction website, which for several years was one of the most popular crime blogs in the U.S.
In 27 Days, Patrick's first traditionally published thriller, it's the spring of 2019 and veteran LA PI Nick Crane is on the run in the Pacific Northwest, pursued by a cabal of wealthy right-wing power brokers and domestic terrorists (the "Principals") led by Marguerite Ferguson and Desmond Cole. Things get worse when Nick’s close friend and business partner Bobby Moore is kidnapped by Marguerite and the Principals. Nick is then informed that he has twenty-seven days to surrender to Marguerite. If he does not turn himself in, Bobby will be sent to Scorpion prison in Egypt to be tortured and murdered, but if Nick surrenders, Bobby will be released. Help appears in the form of a young, idealistic female FBI agent named Carrie North who wants to arrest Marguerite for conspiring to commit domestic terrorist operations against the United States. Nick and Carrie join forces, and the race against time to rescue Bobby Moore begins.
Patrick stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about his work and writing:
The Making of 27 Days
by Patrick H. Moore
It is of course a curious thing that writers are able to take the wisp or thread of an idea and turn it into a full-length novel. I imagine every writer has his or her own distinctive method of moving from start to finish. In the case of 27 Days, my new Nick Crane thriller, I combined my own “lived history” with knowledge I accrued working as a Sentencing Mitigation Specialist for a PI firm in Los Angeles for the last 19+ years.
My Lived History
During my formative years, I spent a great deal of time roaming around the hardscrabble streets of California. This period of “in person” research was instrumental in giving me many of the necessary tools to write thrillers and crime fiction.
What did I learn on the streets? First, I learned that the world is full of colorful, eccentric characters––the sort of folks who do not appear in polite sit-coms or attend PTA meetings. I learned that many of these characters have utter disrespect for law enforcement and little respect for the ordinary mores of middle-class society. At the personal level, I learned that the cops are often not to be trusted. I also developed a great love for the vernacular of the streets.
At the age of 30, I made the decision to go to college. I had always wanted to be a writer, and while in college I wrote a couple of decent books including the memoirs of a PTSD Vietnam veteran named Warren Larry Foster. Warren became the inspiration for Bobby Moore, my protagonist Nick’s Crane’s sidekick and loyal friend. I met Warren in 1982 in an English class at Foothill Community College in tony Los Altos, CA. There he was, a big, tough muscular badass wearing shorts and a pink prosthesis on his right leg, which had been amputated just below the knee due to a war wound. Looking like he chewed nails for breakfast, Warren stood out like a sore thumb.
I was scared, I kid you not. Imagine my surprise when Big Warren insisted that we become pals. I got to know him and within a year I was writing his Vietnam memoirs. Based on the strength of this work, I landed an East Coast agent who shopped our book around New York unsuccessfully for the next two years.
My Legal Work and Education in Criminal Matters
Fast forward 20 years. In 2003, I moved from the Bay Area to Los Angeles to take a job as an investigator and sentencing mitigation specialist at a small LA firm. Here, on the job, I met scores of serious and accidental criminals of all stripes. As a sentencing mitigation guy, I learned the Law at both the state and federal level as it pertains to criminal matters. Over the last 19 years I’ve personally handled literally hundreds of federal criminal cases ranging from fraud to drug offenses to sex crimes. In the course of my LA education, I’ve learned that there are dirty cops everywhere and that the best thing a person can do is to simply give them a wide berth. Yet, I’ve also learned that at the individual level, most cops are good guys. I’ve represented plenty of them (after they’ve taken a fall, of course).
One of the most important things I’ve learned is how wicked and violent this world can be. One of my early cases was representing a dude facing serious federal charges for smuggling heroin into a state prison. As part of my workup, I interviewed him extensively at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. I learned his mother was a raging alcoholic and his father was a most cruel junky. I learned the local cops shot and killed his older brother after a ruckus at a house party. All of this was fascinating, but perhaps the single most interesting tidbit was this: One day when he was about 17, he and his homies got loaded on PCP and went out shooting. Shooting, you say? Yes, shooting, but not at a gunnery range. Rather, they grabbed a couple of handguns and went driving around town firing randomly into other vehicles and at passing strangers. According to my client, they shot at 18 different groups of people that afternoon. Damn, that’s a lot of lead flying around town!
27 Days
This brings us to my current novel, 27 Days, which is a political thriller in which my protagonist Nick Crane is locked in a life and death struggle with “the principals,” an alt-right group of domestic terrorists. 27 Days is part of a series. Its prequel, Rogues and Patriots, will probably be published in sometime in 2024. I chose this basic set-up because I found it intriguing and highly relevant to our world.
In planning 27 Days, I made two important decisions. First, I decided to put my protagonist Nick Crane in a truly impossible situation. His partner Bobby Moore has been kidnapped by Marguerite Ferguson, a fiendish member of “the principals” who despises Nick. He is given 27 days to turn himself into Marguerite, who will then torture him as a prelude to execution. If he doesn’t surrender, Bobby Moore will be sent to the infamous Scorpion Prison in Cairo, Egypt, to be tortured and murdered. It is the devil’s own choice.
This led me to my second decision. Nick knows he needs help. He joins forces with an idealistic young FBI agent named Carrie North who is obsessed with bringing the evil Marguerite to justice. Thus, we have a sincere young FBI agent, who naturally tends to do things “by the book,” locked in uneasy alliance with Mr. Crane, who does virtually nothing “by the book.” Yet they need each other and learn, at first grudgingly, to work together. Over the course of a few short and desperate weeks, they learn to respect and even like one another.
In Conclusion
To conclude, 27 Days was made possible by my early years on the mean streets of America, my 19 years of working in criminal defense in Los Angeles, my belief that the alt-right poses a clear and present danger to the United States, and my decision to put my protagonist in such a treacherous position that he has no choice other than to make common cause with a certain progressive faction within the FBI.
You can learn more about Patrick Moore and his books via Down & Out Books, and follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and the All Things Crime blog. 27 Days is available today via Down & Out Books and all major booksellers.
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