Authorpreneur Dashboard – Geoff Loftus

Geoff  Loftus

Double Blind

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

A New Yorker goes on blind dates with two women and is lost in a tangle of Mafia, Federal agents, violence, sex, betrayal, and murder. Exactly what you'd expect from a book about blind dating and the Mafia.

Book Bubbles from Double Blind

Getting Past the Secrets

DOUBLE BLIND is now in Paperback (at CreateSpace.com and Amazon.com) and E-Books (Barnes and Noble, Amazon). DOUBLE BLIND is a story of two beautiful, dishonest, and potentially lethal women. When one of them lets down her guard, it makes you wonder if she's trusting Peter (our hero) or duping him. The reader finds him or herself in the same place as Peter -- excited and scared all at the same time.

Two beautiful women. Two deadly secrets.

Once upon a time, I was like the hero of DOUBLE BLIND, Peter Galligan: divorced and clueless about women. Then, with no effort at all on my part, I had two dates suddenly arranged on two successive nights. Unlike Peter, my two dates did not lead to a spiral of sex, lies, and violence. And neither of my dates had connections to organized crime or murderous intentions. At least, I don't think they did . . . Available at Amazon, Barnes

Danger Is An Aphrodisiac

One of the running themes of DOUBLE BLIND is that danger is a powerful aphrodisiac. Just when the hero should be running for his life and/or hiding from the two women who are pursuing him (and lying to him), he gets pulled into sexual encounters. He knows he should run, but he just can't help himself. . . .

What Led to My Writing Double Blind?

NOW in PAPERBACK (at CreateSpace.com and Amazon.com) as well as E-BOOKS (Barnes and Noble and Amazon)! Like anyone who was once single, I've always been fascinated by the back and forth between two people in the very early stage of their relationship. Is she being modest? Or manipulative? Is she really shy, or is this a come-on in disguise? Am I reading her correctly or utterly mistaken? Is this the beginning of something special, or am I horny and rationalizing my feelings? The starting point of the novel is something that actually happened to me: I was set-up for two blind dates on the same day. Then, as I wrote the novel, I took the two dates to a dark place: What if both women are very attractive? What if the hero is in a post-divorce state of romantic doubt? What if both women are lying? What if one of them is lethally dangerous? And that’s how I came up with Double Blind . . .

Engaged to Kill

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

"If my best friend hadn't killed his mistress, I wouldn't have had a prayer with his fiancee. Funny how things turn out." The story is a Hitchcockian thriller about a deadly competition between two men. Set in New York City; it's filled with sex, money, lies, violence, and murder. All the things that make life worth living.

Book Bubbles from Engaged to Kill

Finding the Victim

When your protagonist stumbles onto his first dead body, it's a big moment. Shock. Fear. Followed by anger or sorrow. This is especially true in a thriller where the hero is your nice, average guy and not some law-enforcement type with a background in violence. In this excerpt, Jack Quincannon goes to the apartment of his lover -- who also happens to be the mistress of his best friend and discovers a lethal reality he's not prepared for. Available at Amazon, Barnes

Lethal But Friendly Competition

Some men compete with each other in everything they do: Careers. Amassing wealth. Helping others. Romance. Seduction. Sports. Violence. And many men compete with their friends. Sometimes, the better the friend, the more intense the competition. ENGAGED TO KILL is about that all encompassing, friend-to-friend competition. The book's opening captures this struggle: "If my best friend hadn’t killed his mistress, I wouldn’t have had a prayer with his fiancee. Funny how things turn out." This excerpt shows the hero, Jack, making a play for the aforementioned mistress of his best friend -- and most intense competitor. PAPERBACKS at Amazon.com and CreateSpace.com. E-BOOKS at Barnes

What inspired me to write Engaged to Kill?

I think most writers thrive on conflict -- I know I do. Conflict motivates characters and drives plot. And I knew from personal experience that much as l liked some of my friends, I often felt as if I was competing with them. Who had the prettiest girl? Who was most successful in school or in career? Not very enlightened of me, but the truth. I took the natural best-friends conflict and ratcheted it up a notch: what if my hero was in love with his best friend's fiancée? What if the hero knew that the best friend was cheating on the fiancée -- should he tell her? Or stay loyal to his friend? What if the hero believes the friend may have killed his mistress? What if the hero is the only one who suspects? At Amazon, B

Murderous Spirit

Murderous Spirit

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Jack Tyrrell was a burn out. A former Green Beret and U.S. Marshal, he’s become a drunken loser who, once upon a time, accepted a bribe and was shot by the people who bribed him. Tyrrell survived the shooting. His wife, Maggie, did not. Five years after her death, Maggie appears to him as a ghost and offers him a chance to make things right. She introduces Tyrrell to Harry, who may literally be heaven-sent. Tyrrell, with Harry working as his case manager, sets out to help a veteran who’s suffering from PTSD and has assassinated a pair of Wall Street CEOs. Action, murdered Wall Street titans, the Russian mafia, and a beautiful woman mix with questions regarding free will and what constitutes moral behavior to give this thriller a spiritual edge. "Can one author combine a thriller, a romance and a ghost story? Geoff Loftus does so admirably in his fast-paced, well written and engrossing new novel about a man given a second chance from a wholly unexpected source: his dead wife, whose murder he holds himself responsible for. Let this one-of-a-kind story teach you something about love, forgiveness and even faith." - James Martin, SJ, bestselling author of "A Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything" and "The Abbey" The mix of Charles Dickens, Philip K. Dick and a terrific action story told by a sad, yet funny narrator is wonderfully entertaining and spiritually engaging. A great read.

Book Bubbles from Murderous Spirit

The Bad Guys Get Really Nasty

Sooner or later in a thriller, the hero meets a situation that shows him what he's really made of. Getting captured by the bad guys and tortured is one of those situations -- a test of faith. Faith in yourself, or better yet, in a higher power . . .

Playing by the Rules with the Client

Jack Tyrrell's client is a beautiful woman -- of course she's beautiful, that's a requirement of the thriller genre. But the rules of engagement given to Tyrrell by Harry Mitchum are simple: Don't get emotionally involved with the client. No way, no how. Don't. But when you're a lonely widower, and the client is beautiful, well . . . it can be so damn difficult.

Sometimes, things get rough

When you write a thriller, you find that you need to have your hero mix it up with the bad guys occasionally. And this excerpt has the hero, Jack Tyrrell, mixing it up with two very unappealing bad guys in a very satisfying fashion.

Doing Right By Others

In many thrillers, the hero has some kind of case manager -- the police lieutenant overseeing the detectives or the head of some FBI division or CIA unit -- and MURDEROUS SPIRIT has a case manager for its hero, Jack Tyrrell. However, Harry doesn't work for the police, FBI, CIA or any other law enforcement or intelligence agency. Harry works for the Chairman. And yes, Harry might be more than Tyrrell's case manager -- he might be his guardian angel. MURDEROUS SPIRIT is available in paperback at CreateSpace.com and in e-book and paperback at Barnes and Noble, Amazon.

The First Victim in MURDEROUS SPIRIT

When the reader discovers the first victim, or in this case, witnesses the killing of the victim, it's the first time the villain shows his or her hand. The villain may not be the one pulling the trigger, but the top bad guy is definitely behind the murder. As you can imagine, this is a big moment in any thriller. . . . MURDEROUS SPIRIT is available in paperback at CreateSpace.com and in e-book at Barnes and Noble and Amazon as of January 20th.

Why Write A Ghostly/Spiritual Thriller?

I guess I had grown a bit tired of thrillers with tough-guy heroes, who drink too much or can't form normal relationships. And I was inspired by Charles Dickens's masterpiece "A Christmas Carol." Ebenezer Scrooge is told by the ghost of Jacob Marley that Mankind is his Business. I wanted to write about a hero who is making things right in his own life by doing right for others. Of course, if the hero is going to make things right in his own life, the story starts with his life as a complete mess. MURDEROUS SPIRIT is available in paperback at CreateSpace and in e-book and paperback at Barnes and Noble as well as Amazon.

Dark Mirage

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Just weeks before Christmas, Marissa Carvajal wakes up naked and soaked in blood, a billionaire's corpse next to her in bed. She has no memory of the night before, no memory of his murder. And she’s agonizing over the horrible possibility that she killed the man. Jack Tyrrell, former Green Beret and U.S. Marshal, and Harry Mitchum, Tyrrell's guardian angel, will do whatever they can to save her, racing against the NYPD, a private security force the size of a small army, and a group of lethal, Chinese spies ― all of whom want to catch Marissa and send her to prison. Or worse. A gorgeous, troubled woman, a dead billionaire, action, high tech, and national security combine with questions of free will and moral responsibility to give this thriller a spiritual thrust.

Rough-Cut Book Bubbles from Dark Mirage

Dealing with Heavily Armed Hostiles

This is the moment when Tyrrell has to take a very deep breath, suit up and prepare to take on the bad guys. No matter how many of them there are. No matter how well armed they are. No matter what. . . .

Evading the police. And the bad guys.

Jack Tyrrell has to hide his client, Marissa Carvajal, from the police and from the bad guys, who are equipped with all kinds of security devices and cameras, with lots of guns, and with a lot of men and women with very ugly dispositions who are only too happy to use any and all of their tools on Marissa and Tyrrell. Life is far from easy when it seems everybody is out to get you.

Stuck in a tight, ugly spot

In a thriller, there's always a moment or two where the hero has to confront his deepest fears. At a moment like that, the hero has only two choices: break in the face of his fear . . . or pray. Or both.

It's Always Something

Jack Tyrrell and Harry Mitchum listen in as the police analyze the body of a murder victim: a very wealthy man found dead in a pool of blood in his penthouse apartment. The victim lived in an extraordinarily secure apartment in a n extremely secure building on Central Park West in Manhattan. How did the killer get past all the security? The victim escorted the killer inside. And everything points to a gorgeous woman whom Tyrrell is trying to save from the NYPD, from Chinese spies, and from a private security force the size of a small army.

Waking up, covered in blood

Just weeks before Christmas, Marissa Carvajal wakes up naked and soaked in blood, a billionaire's corpse next to her in bed. She has no memory of the night before, no memory of his murder. And she’s agonizing over the horrible possibility that she killed the man. Jack Tyrrell, former Green Beret and U.S. Marshal, and Harry Mitchum, Tyrrell's guardian angel, will do whatever they can to save her, racing against the NYPD, a private security force the size of a small army, and a group of lethal, Chinese spies ― all of whom want to catch Marissa and send her to prison. Or worse. A gorgeous, troubled woman, a dead billionaire, action, high tech, and national security combine with questions of free will and moral responsibility to give this thriller a spiritual thrust.

The Last Thing

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon in May, a professional assassin targets a newlywed couple as they emerge from church. It's a perfect shooting solution, but Jack Tyrrell, former Green Beret and U.S. Marshal, happens to stroll by just as the shooter prepares to fire. Tyrrell saves the bride and groom, but the assassin escapes to resume his serial killings of newlyweds. Why would a professional hitman target couples as they exit their wedding ceremonies? And why, six years earlier, was his first-known target Tyrrell's wife Maggie? Was she part of the serial murders? Tyrrell, with the help of his guardian angel, Harry Mitchum, will do whatever he has to do to catch his wife's killer. Even if it's the last thing he ever does. “If Dostoyevsky had created an action hero, that hero would be Jack Tyrrell. He’s a good man who did a horrible thing and suffers the consequences for years afterward. Tyrrell’s conscience not only never leaves him, it drags him down — he can rationalize his past behavior, but he can’t forgive himself for what he did. In The Last Thing, Geoff Loftus has mixed Crime and Punishment with a blam-blam action protagonist, and the result is another soulful, action-packed story in the Tyrrell series.” - Theodore George, author of The Deadly Homecoming and The Murders on the Square

Book Bubbles from The Last Thing

Finding the Killer

Sometimes, to do the right thing, you have to sup with the devil. So to speak. In this book bubble, Tyrrell confronts the Mafia family that ordered the hit on his wife and destroyed his life.

Getting Info From the Bad Guys

Sometimes the only way to find a killer is to have a conversation with a bunch of very unsavory types. Sometimes when you have such conversations, things get violent. Which is fine with Tyrrell . . .

Talking to the police

After the chase, Jack Tyrrell has to explain to a police detective how he let the bad guy get away. But that's not the worst of it -- he has to explain it to his girlfriend as well.

The Assassin Strikes

Jack Tyrrell is out for a stroll on a lovely Saturday in May. He's enjoying the weather and his thoughts, on his way to meet his girlfriend, when he spots a flash of light on a rooftop. He's seen that flash before -- sunlight bouncing off a rifle's telescopic sight. It meant the shooter was careless or didn't have much choice when it came to picking the shooting location. But there's no time to wonder, the assassin's targets, newlyweds, are about to leave the church, forming a perfect shooting solution for the killer . . .

The Dark Saint

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

A legendary serial killer terrorizes Block Island, killing Catholics. His opponent: the recovering-alcoholic police chief of the tiny New England community—a man struggling with his own demons. A deadly villain, a desperate hero, a gorgeous woman, a beautiful beach location, and grotesque murders make this the perfect thriller.

Book Bubbles from The Dark Saint

Inches Away From Death

THE DARK SAINT now in PAPERBACK (CreateSpace.com, Amazon.com) as well as E-BOOK (Barnes and Noble, Amazon). In this excerpt, the serial killer, Kessler AKA The Dark Saint, goes hunting for a victim and finds himself very close to being discovered by the police chief. Very close to being forced to kill the man who is hunting him.

Cat-and-Mouse with the Killer

THE DARK SAINT, now in PAPERBACK (at CreateSpace.com and Amazon.com) as well as E-Books (at Barnes and Noble, Amazon) -- When you're writing a story about a serial killer, it seems required that you have a moment where your hero plays cat-and-mouse with the killer. Instead of setting my hunt in a dark, close building or house, which seems like standard procedure for this kind of set-piece, I set it outdoors on a rainy afternoon. The blood starts pumping when two intense, soaking-wet men with weapons are trying to catch or kill each other.

The First Corpse

When you're writing about a serial killer, the first victim should announce your murderer to your readers. It's your big chance to scare them and grab their interest, to make sure they read to the end. At least that's how I felt when I was writing The Dark Saint. The hero, the local police chief of the very small town on Block Island, hears about the murder when one of his officers calls him while he's attending an AA meeting. Right away the reader knows that the killer is a big time, lethally competent maniac, and that the hero is a guy struggling with his own demons and chasing the murderer with limited resources. AVAILABLE at Amazon, B

Inspiration for The Dark Saint

What inspired me to write this thriller: I've been going to Block Island, the location for The Dark Saint, since 1963. It's beautiful and being an island, away from the normal cares of everyday life. In 1975, the movie Jaws came out and thrilled me along with everyone else in America. The story of a small New England island threatened by a monster just offshore struck a chord with me. I wanted to do a monster story featuring Block Island, only in my story, the monster is on the island: a legendary serial killer opposed by a tiny police force with a recovering alcoholic for its chief. This excerpt introduces both the hero and the killer . . .

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