A few years ago, I was in a hotel room. While lying in bed, I saw that there was a trap door in the ceiling. I remember thinking that someone could hide anything up there--maybe a bomb. As I thought further, I realized that you got metal detected and body scanned boarding a plane, but that you could check into a hotel room toting a backpack nuke. That was the genesis of Checkout Time, a novel I hope to get published in the next year.
I’ve included a jacket blurb below if you’re as intrigued by the idea as I was. Stay tuned!
Checkout Time
Handsome scientist Thomas Tomacinski’s easy-going style has the ladies talking, but beautiful FBI agent Sally Butterworth doesn’t want to join the conversation. Not until they land in the same hotel where an extortion bomber with the mysterious pseudonym Conrad Hilton sparks their romance with a bang. Conrad is looking to make a killing from a consortium of hotel owners -- and is not above killing to make a point.
It won’t be easy stopping Conrad, a genius with a method actor’s ability to assume new identities and personalities. And when this chameleon takes a special interest in Tom and those he cares about, nobody gets much sleep. Tom-tom and Sally Pancakes, as they are affectionately known, are led a merry chase through the scenic backroads of Kentucky and Tennessee, with more plot twists than a country lane. They fall in and out of danger while falling in and out of bed, learning tough lessons about love, loss, and themselves.