Welcome author Topper Jones to Dawn's Reading Nook blog as we talk about his new book, Pismo Beach Sniper:
What inspired you to write this
book?
The
inspiration for each of my books has been a little different. For ALL THAT
GLISTERS, it was reading Coma, a medical thriller by Robin Cook, and
thinking to myself: If a doctor can write a medical thriller, why can’t a CPA
write a financial thriller? For OCEANO BEACH BEDLAM, it was a drive along the
shore of Oceano Beach, CA, and watching a guy on a tractor dragging a sand rake
across the beach to clean up debris. For PISMO BEACH SNIPER, it was a working
title—CowaBANGa!—a mashup of two popular exclamations that seemed incapable of
being together: (1) Cowabunga!—surf slang for “Dude, that was
Awwwwsome!”, and (2) BANG!, the sonic crack of a high-powered rifle.
What each
inspiration has in common is the germ of a preposterous premise—an idea that demands attention.
Here are
the preposterous premises for each book in the Thad Hanlon & Bri de la
Guerra Series:
ALL THAT
GLISTERS — What if a secret audit of the U.S. gold stockpile by two surfing
buddies found the gold was fake?
OCEANO
BEACH BEDLAM — What if a teen surf legend was in the wrong place at the wrong
time and learned of an impending eco-terrorism plot to blow up Moy Mell—the
California Central Coast spiritual haven nestled in the dunes—to liberate it
from desecration by ATVs and dune buggies?
PISMO
BEACH SNIPER — What if a deadly sniper starts using local surfers, waiting for
their next wave, as target practice?
Who designed your book cover?
A million thanks to Lea Schizas, my cover artist (and
multitalented editor) at The
Wild Rose Press, for bringing the PISMO BEACH SNIPER cover to
life.
Here’s the Cover Design Backstory
Working off the “sniper” theme suggested by the
book’s title, I created three simple mockups in Canva of surfers under threat.
The
first involved a pair of surfers carrying their boards to the water. From a
sniper’s perspective, easy targets.
The
second featured a surfer sitting alone in the lineup, waiting for a wave. A
sitting duck.
The
third showed a surfer emerging from a barrel wave, locked in the tube as the
crest cascaded overhead while a sniper steadied his rifle and centered his
sights.
Focus
Group Testing
One of
the perks of belonging to a weekly writing critique circle is having a built-in
focus group. I brought the three concepts to my writers' improvement group and
asked them to rank their favorites.
The vote was unanimous.
When it comes to a sniper
target, they preferred the surfer emerging from the barrel wave.
Barrel
wave. Rifle barrel.
Visual
irony. A memorable image. Unanimous approval from the focus group.
Hard
to argue with that.
What Is Your General Vision or Concept for the
Cover?
As part of the publication process, The Wild
Rose Press asks authors to provide cover design input. Here’s the description I
submitted:
PISMO BEACH SNIPER is the third volume in the Thad Hanlon & Bri de
la Guerra Mystery Series. This tale opens with a crazed marksman taking
potshots at Pismo Beach surfers during the California Central Coast Surf
Trials. Surf culture and the beach scene play an important part in the fabric
of the series’ imagery.
My vision for the cover is a brooding scene of a surfer emerging from
deep inside a barrel wave. The lighting is moody and high-contrast, with deep
shadows and a cold, glassy texture to the water, and spray frozen in sharp
detail. The surfer is a teenager, but not resembling any real person, wearing a
dark wetsuit with a blue surf competition jersey, face tense and focused, body
leaning forward on the surfboard as the wave begins to close around him. A
sniper rifle crosshair reticle is centered directly on the surfer’s head.
At the top of the cover is the mystery series
banner (Surfer icon followed by “A Thad Hanlon & Bri de la Guerra Mystery”).
Just below that is the author's pen name using a similar style font as was used
for ALL THAT GLISTERS and OCEANO BEACH BEDLAM. At the bottom of the cover is
the book title. I’d suggest a grunge or distressed font. If the lettering
allows it, a bullet hole through the “O” in Pismo would help emphasize the
danger presented by the sniper’s crosshairs.
From
there, Lea worked her magic.
She took
the written description and transformed it into the dazzling cover you see
today. Talk about attention-grabbing artwork! Lea perfectly captured the
tension, danger, and surf culture at the heart of PISMO BEACH SNIPER.
If you could spend time with a
character from your book, whom would it be? And what would you do during that
day?
Abril “Bri” de la Guerra. Why Abril? Bri, as she’s known to
her besties, is a sassy, kick-butt thirty-something woman who doesn’t know the
meaning of “No.” Her family hails from Spanish aristocracy that settled
California. As a member of the landed gentry owning swaths of the Central Coast
from Santa Barbara south to the Santa Susana Mountains, Bri always gets what
she wants, even if it means rewriting the rules.
Bri and I would do a little client development, prospecting
for new cases. With Book Three finished, I’m looking for the next big mystery
to solve in the Five Cities area. Maybe one of Bri’s contacts with a vicious
reputation and a temper to match, someone who’s been wrongfully accused of
murder—wrong place, wrong time, wrong victim. Could be interesting.
By day’s end, after having exhausted all the potential
prospects, we’d head over to Splash Café for fresh clam chowder, then walk down
to Pismo Pier to watch the sun drop into the Pacific.
Pismo Beach Sniper
A Thad Hanlon/ Bri de la Guerra Mystery Book 3
by Topper Jones
Genre: Private Investigator Mystery
Tropes: • Beach town detective story • Personal stakes
investigation • Sniper manhunt cat-and-mouse game • Family-driven suspense
thriller • Private Investigator Detective Duo
A sniper. A surf contest. A father with everything to lose.
When sniper fire erupts at the Central Coast Surf Trials at
Pismo Beach, private investigator Thad Hanlon is thrust into every parent’s
worst nightmare. His eleven-year-old son and two teammates are shot while
surfing—one critically injured—plunging the contest into chaos and terrorizing
the tight-knit Five Cities beach community.
The shooter disappears, torching his hideout, leaving only questions in his
wake. Random attack—or the first move in a deadly game? Why target young
surfers? And is the marksman finished…or just getting started?
Urged by desperate parents, Hanlon and his sharp-witted partner, Bri de la
Guerra, race to protect the kids as they train for the upcoming West Coast
Championships. But as the detective duo close in on the sniper, they uncover a
chilling truth: the surf team isn’t his ultimate target—and the nightmare is
far from over.
This gripping thriller will keep you turning pages late into the night.
What Critics Are Saying
“Engaging characters, wit, and suspense elevate this rip-curling
page-turner.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“Pismo Beach Sniper is a tense and fast-moving mystery
with real emotional stakes. The target audience is readers who enjoy mystery,
private investigator fiction, crime thrillers, action suspense, coastal noir,
and family-driven detective series. Readers who like Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole
and Joe Pike novels may appreciate the same mix of banter, loyalty, and
wounded-hearted heroism, though Jones swaps Los Angeles grit for Central Coast
surf and spiritual undertow.”
— Literary Titan
“It felt like I was reading something akin to James Patterson: fast,
frighteningly imaginative, and furious with action. Pismo Beach
Sniper is a deftly plotted story of a man doing everything to keep his
child safe in a world where not only waves can kill.”
—R. Oserio, Readers’ Favorite Reviews
Amazon * Author’s
Site * Bookbub * Goodreads
Book Links:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3RrUVo9
Author’s Site: https://topperjones.com/product/pismo-beach-sniper
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/pismo-beach-sniper-by-topper-jones
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/251709191-pismo-beach-sniper
Chapter 1
I was sitting under a beach canopy in the spectator
section of the California Central Coast Surf Trials, watching the first heat of
the semifinals, when I heard the sonic crack of a large firearm. Something
long-range like the scoped high-precision rifle my business partner, Bri, uses
to qualify at the Five Cities Shoot’n Center.
“What was that?” my son’s surf coach asked. Gev Burian
was sitting on my left. “Sounded like it came from behind us.”
Bri de la Guerra, on my right, stood to check things
out. “Cityside, yeah. I’m thinking .30 cal. Maybe three-oh-eight.”
I swiveled to scan the low-rise buildings of downtown
Pismo—the seafood cafes, souvenir shops, and beach rentals. Clumps of tourists
meandering down narrow Pomeroy Avenue stopped. Some gazed skyward, herd-like,
examining the highest roofline—the old Hotel Pier Vista. Others rushed indoors.
When a second blast didn’t happen soon after, I saw
pedestrians raise their palms in the classic “what’s up” shrug before
continuing their weekend saunter. Some, trailing well-groomed dogs on leashes,
took refuge in their smartphones.
I turned to face the Pacific as Bri sat in her folding
chair. Coach Gev got out his binocs and we rejoined the hundreds of other
parents, friends, and supporters along the beach to watch the tournament.
Three junior surfers, ages eleven to twelve—”grommets”
in surf jargon—were perched on their boards 100 yards offshore in the chilly
morning waters north of Pismo Pier. The contestants wore different colored
jerseys over their wetsuits. Red jersey had priority takeoff; the next wave was
his. As the kids waited for the sets to roll in, they bobbed in the mushy surf
like sitting ducks.
“Yellow’s down!” Coach Gev shouted. He handed me his
binoculars. “The kid’s slumped sideways off his board.”
“Cramp, maybe?” I pressed the field glasses to the
bridge of my nose, fiddling with the adjustments. “January water temps are
cold, fifty-three, fifty-four degrees. These temps? He should have worn a 5/4/3
mm instead. Maybe even a—”
There was a second sonic crack. I watched Yellow’s board
splinter into pieces. Chunks of the foam core ringed the downed contestant as
he struggled to keep his head above water.
Red jersey, closest to Yellow, dropped prone and paddled
with fury toward him. Just as he was about to grab Yellow’s arm, I heard shot
three. There was a splash near the tail of Red’s board.
Red turned turtle, flipping his tri-fin surfboard over
so the bottom faced the sky. Only his hands, gripping the sides of the
shortboard, were exposed.
Shot four took out Red’s middle fin. Shots five and six
took out the two outer fins. Red let go of his board and sank out of view.
That left the eleven-year-old in the light blue jersey
as the only contender sitting on the water. My son, Zael, was in full
competition mode, hyper-focused on The One Thing—a wave with his name on it. A
wave built by the sea gods just for him, for his performance, his tricks, the
ones he’d stick. The 10-rating he’d be awarded by all three judges. That
perfect ten.
Zael was in the zone, tunnel vision his ally. Chaos
bending to will. He had no clue what had happened to Red and Yellow.
I popped out of my beach chair, sprinted from our shade
canopy to the shoreline, and screamed as I waded in. “Duck and cover, Zael! Get
down! Now!” I waved my arms, zigzagging through the shallows.
My son wasn’t hearing me, wasn’t seeing me, wasn’t even
attuned to my panic despite his gift for sensing things unspoken. Zael paddled
hard for takeoff, slid into the three-foot wave breaking off the pier, and
dropped into the curl. He drove down the line, pumping his board to build
speed, then bottom turned, and angled toward the lip to launch into his
signature 360-degree air rotation and—
Blam.
Shot seven.
Zael’s right leg buckled. He lost balance and angled
into a dive as far away from his board as his leash would let him. When he didn’t
come up for air...
Series Reading Order:
All That Glisters
A Thad Hanlon/ Bri de la Guerra Mystery Book 1
When the facts don’t add up in his surf buddy’s bizarre
death, forensic consultant (and daddy-to-be) Thaddeus Hanlon investigates,
volunteering to go undercover to pick up where best friend Rafi Silva left off
in a secret probe of the U.S. gold stockpile—every last bullion bar.
Rafi’s spunky fiancée, Bri de la Guerra, has suspicions of her own and soon
joins Thad on the hunt for answers. Together, the two amateur sleuths delve
deep, stumbling onto a financial a-stock-alypse in the making, triggering a
brutal manhunt along the Eastern seaboard meant to silence anyone looking to
set the ledger straight.
Book Links:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4xmfbqt
Author’s Site: https://topperjones.com/product/all-that-glisters
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/all-that-glisters-by-topper-jones
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/193342668-all-that-glisters
Oceano Beach Bedlam A Thad Hanlon/ Bri de la Guerra Mystery Book 2
Hanlon & de la Guerra have gone full service. In this
second book in the surfing crime-fighter mystery series, Thad Hanlon and his
martial-arts-obsessed partner, Bri de la Guerra, hang out their shingle as
newly licensed private investigators. Now in addition to fraud-busting, the two
detectives do it all. Background checks. Surveillance. Even finding lost souls.
Just about anything that requires sleuthing or going undercover.
All they need is a client.
That’s when a former exotic dancer from Bakersfield CA shows up looking for her
surf prodigy son who’s gone missing in the wake of cult violence terrorizing
the California Central Coast.
Book Links:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4fOAidW
Author’s Site: https://topperjones.com/product/oceano-beach-bedlam
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/oceano-beach-bedlam-by-topper-jones
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223469821-oceano-beach-bedlam
About the Author
Writing
as Topper Jones, award-winning author Christopher G. Jones, Ph.D., delivers
detective fiction with a dash of romance, plenty of action, and memorable
characters. His Thad Hanlon & Bri de la Guerra Mystery Series has earned
Readers’ Favorite Five Stars and the Literary Titan Gold Book Awards.
Before
writing full-time, Jones taught financial reporting and business systems
development at the university level and worked in public accounting and
consulting. He is a member of The Private Eye Writers of America and
International Thriller Writers, and an affiliate of Mystery Writers of America.
To
stay close to family, Jones now lives in the southwestern desert rather than
his native California. But when the surf’s up, he’ll make the 450-mile trek to
the coast for a little “water therapy.”
Website
* Facebook
* X
* Instagram
* TikTok
* Bookbub
* Amazon
* Goodreads
Author Links
Website: https://topperjones.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TopperJonesAuthor
X: https://x.com/TopperJonesAuth
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/topperjones_author/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@topperjonesauthor
Bookbub:
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/topper-jones
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Topper-Jones/author/B0CCBWGV9D
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/42216168.Topper_Jones
Giveaway
$15
Amazon or PayPal
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