Story
“This character-driven story explores identity, family, and ambition with absorbing detail and dark humor.”
Wallet, car keys, thirty-eight . . .
Neurodivergent 17 year old, Jo Retals, has always been an outsider. When the opportunity to gain respect comes his way, he can't resist. But he wasn’t prepared for rival dealers, jealous husbands and campus narcs. Set in the 1970s 'murder capital of the country', one question haunts Jo. Will he pull the trigger if he needs to?
Background
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Set in the dusk of Motor City’s eminence, Heat (1973) documents the demise of a personal empire in the context of a great city’s looming fall.
Like the behemoths of the financial sector in the early twenty-first century, the Detroit Mindset committed to unsustainable growth, despite market warning of imminent change.
In his suburban naiveté, the author steps into the world of illicit entrepreneurship, blind to the impediments that growing success will bring him.
In the era of Vietnam and Watergate, the author faces his personal disillusionment with family and society and the American Dream.
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Heat 1973 is a Crime novel, narrated by a naive, yet talented, criminal novice. The novel investigates why a white, suburban teen from an affluent home would willingly step into criminal enterprise.
The author’s internal journey is a coming of age story. The narrator faces the realization that the social institutions intended to support his development have actually been holding him back.
Based on actual events from the author’s life, Heat 1973 weaves parallel personal narratives – one an introspective confession by the narrator, the other a psychological profile by a narcotics detective.
