Not your average mystery suitably describes Betwixt And Between; a tale set in New York City where reality is blended with imagination by a fledgling author who has not yet learned the mechanics of writing fiction.

Unlike my other books, I don’t recall how or when I came up with the premise for Betwixt And Between. One day it was under my radar and the next, I was fully engaged, tapping on a keyboard and racing to keep up with where my characters were taking me. Two of the biggest surprises were the physical appearance of a character called, The Fat Man, and the other, when Man In The White Suit takes it upon himself to kill Julie or Judy. Ok, he really had no other choice but still…

One of my favorite Hollywood movies is “Big Jake”, starring John Wayne. The story is about a grandfather, Big Jake, played by Wayne, who goes after a gang of cutthroats who kidnapped his grandson for ransom. Richard Boone, whose character name is, John Fain, is the leader of the gang and in a scene where Big Jake and Fain face-off just prior to the exchange of what is supposed to be the ransom money, Fain warns Big Jake with lines which, by themselves, are good but made stellar when Big Jake gets one-up on Fain and wraps the bad guy’s warning in his own, making it one of my favorite movie scenes.

Why am I telling you about dialog from a Hollywood movie? Well, when Tubby, one of the bad guys in Betwixt And Between, gets the draw on the story’s hero, Johnny Marathon, that scene in “Big Jake” popped into my head and I knew Tubby would say exactly what Boone’s character, John Fain, says in movie. I’m sure you will agree that Johnny’s repeat of Tubby’s lines, word for word, makes a good scene a great scene. Taking the use of Hollywood movie dialog a step further, I decided to salt all of my main characters’ dialog with lines from other Hollywood movies, both vintage and modern, as part of the storyline. And the rest, as they say, is history.

I hope you enjoy Betwixt And Between and have fun matching up plagiarized lines with the movies in which they were featured. Good luck.