A crime drama about dreams being torn away and ripped apart.
To tell a story. Shattered Dreams isn’t like my other novels in that it is in no way science fiction or horror. It is just crime drama of a man with dreams who brought them to life. It is something that could really happen. There are no zombies or vampires and no magical formulas being produced. Only a man, his dream, and the enemy who hates him.
So, let me begin with my main character, Jimmy O’Brien. From the beginning, Jimmy is a good kid who just wants to help those around him, the offspring of a loser Irish father and devoted Italian mother. From as far back as Jimmy can remember, he has had a single dream: To be a cop and fight the bad guys. He makes all the right choices, even from youth, to obtain his goal. Unfortunately, when it comes to life, none of us are able to dictate our circumstances or outcomes, and Jimmy learns this lesson in one of the hardest ways.
When an old school rival of Jimmy’s comes back into the picture as a runner for the Mexican cartel, things take a terrible turn. And Jimmy’s life and dream that he tried so hard to accomplish are threatened.
The things that happen to Jimmy at the hands of others are much less impactful if the reader doesn’t have a firm grasp on who this young man is, morally speaking. This is someone who would rather die than do harm to another. This is someone who really couldn’t tell a lie if he wanted. Jimmy is trustworthy, soft-hearted, compassionate, and hell-bent on doing the right thing. His every action is motivated by a solid desire to operate out of integrity and a strong moral compass.
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As far as Jimmy is concerned, he is a character that I have a certain amount of love for, in a literal way. I admire the man I made, and as I created his life and heartaches, I hurt for him. I have put much into creating this character, much of myself as well as many hours have gone into him and his life. I found myself infuriated with the bad guys I put in his life, but at the same time, I realized I wasn’t willing to bail him out of his injustices, I had created his life and all of his struggles and now he had to find his way out of them and to his own ending.
This is the life I created for Henry James O’Brien, and this is his story.
I think readers will like this crime drama book, not because it is frightening or abstract; but because of the level of reality, they will find in its pages. I also think they will feel the same way about Jimmy that I do, and I believe they will experience anger at the unfairness and injustice that goes on in his life.
So many of us have also felt the heartbreak of a broken dream, some may have dreamt of being a musician only to find themselves in a 9-5 desk job that they hate. Some may have wanted to become a crime scene investigator or a cop like Jimmy, and we can live through the people in these books and dramas.
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As Jimmy is the picture of an ideal human, he does everything right, yet even he wasn’t immune to the hardships and dire situations that will damage the life that he worked so hard to earn.
In the end, Shattered Dreams is a highly relatable crime drama for anyone who decides to venture into its pages. Read it on Kindle Unlimited.
