Joe Café
by JD Mader
Genre: Psychological Crime Drama
40,000 words
The murder at Joe Café is an abomination. It stops the entire universe. For Michael, it tarnishes everything, including his badge. For Chet and his hostage, it is the beginning of a chase that will lead them through dingy motels and the darkest corridors of their minds. Dogan just wants Sara back. Jimmy the Cat wants to make up for all the time he has wasted. Frankie wants to live a ‘moral’ life, erasing everyone in his path who does not live up to his standards. Conventional notions of good and evil quickly blur as they are all forced to look into the mirrors they have avoided for so long. Chilling and horrifying, whimsical and wretched, Joe Café’s cast of broken characters try to find their way in a world they never understood to begin with…for the Chens, it is easy. They are dead.
This title is available from Amazon US and Amazon UK. (FREE the 8th and 9th)
JD, how did you come up with the title for your book? Does it have any special meaning?
Joe Café is the name of the diner where the book (and the drama) begins. It is the catalyst for everything that unfolds. It is a character unto itself. I had no plan for the plot when I started. The idea was to take a gruesome event and take it from there. That event took place at Joe Café.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Chet (the killer) is, by far, my favorite character. I would not want to have him for a roommate, but he is psychologically interesting and the most intriguing character in the book. Most readers seem to feel this way, too. In a way, it became Chet’s book as I wrote, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Does your book have any underlying theme, message, or moral?
I play around with the idea of ‘good v. evil’ a lot. I think we are shaped by our environments and that means that a lot of evil is in conditioning. A lot of “good” people have never been tested. We tend to try and make the distinction cut and dried because that is more comfortable – but it is not that simple.
What would/could a reader or reviewer say about your writing that shows they “get” you as an author?
Beneath the ugliness and seediness of the ‘surface’, ‘Joe Café’ is a book about truth and beauty and human frailty. It is about us all.
Give us an excerpted quote from your favorite review of this book:
After the first chapter it is extremely hard to put down. You are pulled into the maelstrom of events sparked off by the abduction. Mader has a native elegance to his prose that offsets the more disturbing aspects of the novel. – Richard Godwin
Where can people learn more about your writing?
www.jdmader.com
My review will be timely. 🙂
Word!