Bøker av Robert Franklin Jackson

It is predawn as a young boy and girl sit on a hillside, awaiting the sun's first rays to expose an outcrop of granite that, from a distance, resembles the profile of a man.The outcrop has been called for centuries the Old Man of the Mountain, or the Great Stone Face. (Note: For centuries, it has been a prophecy by local Indian tribes that a great man would appear some day with the same profile.) The young girl, Becky, believes the prophecy to be that if a young girl first sees the profile at dawn on the first day of summer, she will, in time, marry the Great Man when he arrives. Along for support, the little boy, Ernest, is pulling for himself as the eventual person whom Becky weds.Five years pass, and the first of three possible candidates to fulfill Becky's prophecy appears. It is Mr. Midas Gathergold, the world's richest man, but unscrupulous business deals send him running. Becky is disappointed.Another five years pass, and the second of three possible candidates to fulfill Becky's prophecy appears. It is Gen. B. T. "Blood 'n Thunder" Beauxcamp, the nation's greatest military man, but prejudice and bigotry send him running too. Becky is, again, disappointed.Five more years pass, and the third of three possible candidates to fulfill Becky's prophecy appears. It is Stonham "Stony" Phiz, the nation's most popular politician, but waffling on issues and womanizing sends him running too. Becky is, once more, disappointed.By the time yet another five years pass, Ernest, through his reading and wisdom becomes widely known as a noted philosopher. Among his favorite authors is Walden Wordsworth, a sagacious poet. Since Wordsworth has an equal appreciation of Ernest's beliefs, he decides to visit Ernest.The two meet, share ideas, and their mutual admiration of each other grows. Ernest informs Becky that her prophecy will no doubt come true tonight as he intends to make the announcement to the town that the poet is indeed the Great Man. Becky smiles knowingly.At the meeting, as he introduces the poet as the Great Man, the poet says, "Townspeople, can't you all see? I am not the Great Man. Ernest is." The town explodes into shock.

WeWillFindYouaMatch.com, a computer romance, was written by your author when his son started looking for a mate and found a wife. As you might expect, computer dates often don't work out. Your author thought it might be interesting if Angus Morgan, our computer dater, had five dates that were disasters before he found success. Their romance started in Oroville, California, and continued in the British Isles and, eventually, in Paris.In 1992, your author and his editor wife, Bobbi, spent twenty-one days driving in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, England, and Scotland. Angus Morgan and his lady will follow the 1992 path taken by your author and Bobbi. Scenes at the Red Lion in Skeffington and England were memories your author relived through Angus.Your author always wanted to travel to Paris, but it was not to be, but the scenes Angus experienced in France were what your author envisioned Paris might be.

Your author would like to make three points. First, he believes if he can visualize the exciting climax occurring in the last chapter of a book, he can write the chapters leading up to that ending. Not so with The Last House on the Left. You author thought that the title could lead to an exciting plot he started writing without an ending in sight-a different approach. We will let you decide if it worked.Second, the plot did develop. The series of murders occurred when the leader of a Russian mafia heroin connection was trying to eliminate anyone implicating him. The Portsmouth cop prevailed, and this success in episode 6 led to the unexpected ending in the last chapter of episode 8, The New Guy in Town. This led to episode 8, Is Nappy Back in Town, and a new plot development. Instead of one police squad trying to solve one crime, partners of an experienced officer and a rookie are trying to solve one of several crimes all happening at once.Third, your author added a new character, Madison "Madi" March, a rookie who was hired for her forensic skills. If the title The Last House on the Left was not so important to the plot of episode 6, Introducing Madison "Madi" March would a better title.

In William Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, a speaker, Marcellus, a guard, talks to his philosophical comrade, Horatio, saying, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." The reason of his saying this is just not that Denmark was facing dirt, but the situation in Denmark was similar to a fish that rots from head to tail, or in other words, it shows that everything was not good at the top of the political hierarchy.A similar situation is happening in Portsmouth as Chief Tim Slone is battling murder and corruption in his society. Portsmouth's mayor, William Beasley, is ambitious and greedy. He is facing election and needs financing from labor and lobbyists. Powerful and ruthless forces from the state capitol usually make these donations happen, but Beasley has been neglecting his responsibilities and has entered into illegal activities involving toxic waste and call girls. Beasley has become a political liability, and the decision was made that he must be eliminated. Officer Alice M. Combs is instrumental in bringing down the call girl operation, and a vengeful killer vows that she must pay for killing his sister. Alice M. Combs faces danger and certain death until Rufus Malone, owner of Good Golly (Malone's restaurant), comes to her rescue and asks for her hand.

If you haven't read episode 7, The New Guy In Town, you should. Between 2001 and 2012, your author penned six mysteries using Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as the setting. The Portsmouth police force was very small-a chief, a lieutenant, two detectives, several other officers, and a dispatcher. They worked night and day, weekday and weekends, trying to solve a very compelling crime. The villains included two serial killers, a serial kidnapper, a pair of very wealthy sociopaths, a corrupt mayor, and a ruthless Russian heroin dealer. This was the format of many TV shows: the Law and Order shows, CSI shows, and The Closer for example. All great shows but not realistic. There must have been other crimes being committed and other officers solving them. Therefore, your author turned to another community, the imaginary community of Cypress, California, in imaginary Coast County. Again, a great police force focusing on a series of related murders. When the murders were solved, your author was so enamored with the law enforcement officers, he couldn't bear to forget them. He had Chief Beth Van Dyke in Plymouth hire the deputy chief and an FBI agent and their girl friends and brought them to Portsmouth.

The New Guy in TownEpisode SevenThe Case of Uncovering UndercoversThe setting is a roadhouse, The Lumberjack Inn, located in Cypress, a coastal town in Northern California. Cypress's only entertainment is drinking at the inn on Friday nights. The Friday night crowd includes a reserved table for four of the surviving members of Cypress's 1999 League Championship basketball team, including four of the cheerleaders. The missing teammate died in Iraq, allegedly by friendly fire. An empty chair and a mug of beer reserves his place at the table.The plot darkens as one by one the teammates die, a heroin ring of vicious Latinos is exposed, and a mysterious new guy comes to town. Your authors had planned to take a break from the Portsmouth PD, but the characters were so compelling that they could not be abandoned in Cypress. Therefore, a Portsmouth connection was added when an investigation finds that the source of the heroin is in Portsmouth. The two chiefs of police, Beth Van Dyke, PPD, and Bert Adams, CPD, communicate. Expect to see four Cypress characters appear in Portsmouth in Episode 8.

Penelope and AntigoneTravails of a German Immigrant FamilyYears ago, the author was acting in a college play and mispronounced Penelope as Pene-lope. The cast chided then laughed. The author thought the mispronouncing was worth remembering.Years later, when studying Greek mythology, the author came across the character Antigone and realized that using Penelope and Antigone as characters might prove to be humorous. Twin sister, but what about a surname?Once again, the author goofed. When reading about German philosophers, he read Goethe but mispronounced Goethe, rhyming it with sloth. Your author's twins, Penelope and Antigone Goethe, now needed a book to come alive.The author, also the family genealogist, traced his Eplers back to Germany to an area known as the Palantate. He then realized that the Eplers and the Goethes could be friends immigrating to the colonies together. Therefore, we have the travails of two German immigrant families. Johannes Goethe was the first of ten generations of Goethes descending down to Penelope and Antigone Goethe.During the tale of their travails, they faced many hardships: the ocean voyage, indentured servitude, second class citizenship, internment during the two world wars, and kidnapping by an evil civil servant.

The Truth BookIn 1995, the author was invited to attend the fiftieth reunion of the eighth grade class of School No. 54 Indianapolis, Indiana, located at Tenth and Dearborn streets. It was a marvelous evening filled with connecting name badges with faces (and bodies) that have changed greatly during that period of fifty years, remembering long, almost-forgotten experiences, laughter, and dancing, but all came to an end too quickly.The author, a writer of murder mysteries and is in need of a plot, decided to use the 1995 fiftieth reunion of School No. 54 and Arsenal Technical High School as the setting.That is where similarities end. The author has created a fictional cast of classmates who will have entirely different appearances, relationships, interests, and personalities than those of the author's 1945 friends.The reunion will start out as a fun evening but will end in murder.