The Story Behind the Story with Author Jordan Buchanan of Northern Ontario, Canada.

 

Looking for the next new book?

 

Jordan and I connected through an mutual author friend.

He has kindly accepted our invitation to share the SBTS of his novel with you and he’s treating us to an excerpt.

Stick around! 

 

 

I live off grid in Northern Ontario on a beautiful lake near the City of Greater Sudbury. I began writing in College and University and tried my hand as editor of the Canadian Association of Police Polygraphists Journal for two years, I decided to try a career as a novelist in my late 50’s after a 30 year career in policing. While a police officer, I spent 18 of those years as a detective in the Criminal Investigation Division working as an Intelligence Officer, General Investigations, Homicide, Sexual Assault Investigator, Forensic Polygraph Examiner and Major Case Manager.

 

Today I enjoy canoe trips, kayaking, SUP board, hiking, quadding, snowmobiling (I drive a trail groomer on nightshift in the winters as a part time job now). I love to read, play guitar and write. It was always a lifelong passion to become a writer and with publishing my first novel, I have reached that dream.

 

 

Title: Past Ghosts Echoed

 

Synopsis:

Detective Staff Sergeant Enoch Brown’s life takes an unthinkable turn after a lightning strike during a solo canoe trip. When he awakens, he’s haunted by vivid, fragmented visions, memories that don’t belong to him. Desperate for answers, he turns to a psychiatrist who, through hypnosis, unlocks an astonishing discovery: Enoch has inherited “echo memories,” vivid recollections passed down from his parents and grandparents, all of whom were police officers in Sudbury, Ontario.

Each echo memory opens a window into unsolved cases from his family’s past, stretching across a century of policing. Driven by a deep sense of justice, and the unshakable connection to his family’s legacy, Enoch reopens these long-cold cases. Using cutting-edge forensic techniques and modern investigative methods, he uncovers truths his predecessors could never have imagined, solving crimes that have lingered in the shadows for decades.

This novel masterfully weaves a heartfelt exploration of family legacy with the evolution of law enforcement, from horseback patrols to high-tech crime labs. Past Ghosts Echoed is a deeply human story of memory, duty, and the enduring pursuit of truth that bridges generations.

 

 

The Story Behind the Story:

I spent 10 years thinking about the story. I was trying to find a way of tying historical periods of policing in the Sudbury area. I also wanted to write what I knew about policing today. I came upon the idea of “echo memories”, something I invented for the novel. I give theories and elude to concepts of how these “echo memories”, of the main character’s parents and grandfathers who were all police officers, came about. In the end, the reader can decide which theory they believe. 

I did about a year of research into the various time periods of policing. I spent time outlining the book and having what I call idea noodles, small notes of things that might go in the book. I sat down to write the book in about 4 months. It then took another 5 months for editing, polishing and publishing. 

The locations and police procedures are real. The cases are fictionalized but are based on real cases in Sudbury. The modern forensics and policing techniques I used are all ones that I used in my policing career. 

The novel is a historical novel, police procedural, thriller and mystery. I like to place it in the realm of what I call Maple Leaf Noir. A genre of Canadian noir novels like Tartan Noir and Nordic Noir. I hope the audience will be international but I am happy to see it reach Canadians who may relate to it.

  

Website: Please go HERE.

Buy it HERE.

 

Scribbler: Tell us about your writing habits, Jordan. Morning, late night, anytime? Music or solitude? What is your beverage of choice while writing.?

Jordan: For writing, I have two offices for summer and winter. Both are unique spaces surrounded by books and music. An office in my home and one in a large shed (10’ x 16’) I call my pod. I also enjoy writing in coffee shops and at various libraries.

I like to write in the morning and early afternoon with a cup of coffee, of course.

I am very messy with piles of papers of scribbled ideas. It matches my thinking which is scattered. I have the uncanny ability to reach into any pile and pull out exactly what I am looking for and need.

I love to outline my stories first, giving me a template that I do not religiously follow but more meander as though walking beside a stream changing things as I find something more interesting on my journey.

An Excerpt from : Past Ghosts Echoed

“My name is Jane McDonald, I am a police woman with Sudbury Regional Police. I was an OPP officer but I changed jobs in 1973 when the Sudbury Regional Police was formed. I recently joined the Grubbies really known as the Old Clothes Detail (OCD). I was partnered with another officer and they still considered this my training. I would stay for 2 or 3 years then back to Uniform. I would sometimes work with other Units like the Intelligence Branch and the Drug Unit. We sometimes even worked with the RCMP and OPP. 

I was working an afternoon shift from 4 pm to 2 am with my partner and 2 Morality Squad detectives doing bar checks. Looking for underage drinkers, people smoking and selling drugs, checking licenses and capacity numbers for the fire department. A call came over the radio of shots fired on Durham Street downtown. We were on Lisgar Street heading up the alley toward Durham Street when I saw someone crawling around the corner. It was a guy I had arrested a few weeks before selling weed. He had blood on his leg and hands. He was fast crawling like an alligator for his life. 

As we got closer I saw he had nothing in his hands. My partner was driving so I jumped out drawing my .38 Smith and Wesson Chief snub nose revolver. I ordered him to stop. He yelled at me, “They fuckin’ shot me. Help.” 

“I said to stop. Don’t move. Let me see your hands.” 

My partner called for an ambulance and a Sergeant to attend the scene. I passed the wounded druggie and peeked around the corner toward the Coulson Hotel. I saw no one on the street and no vehicles. 

“Hey stop crying,” My partner told the guy. “Who shot you?” 

“I don’t know,” he replied. “But it was two guys and they left on foot toward Minto. I ran around the corner then fell down and crawled to the alley. I never saw them before and I can’t describe them.” 

 A likely story. 

He was Tony Vincent, date of birth August 12, 1954. Currently on charges for trafficking for selling me weed in the Ledo Hotel bar. He had a criminal record or CNI (Criminal Name Index) under CPIC for break and enter, theft and drugs. A stellar citizen to be sure. My partner, Joe MacDonald, used Tony’s t-shirt to stanch the blood on his wound. Tony was crying and appeared to be in shock. Joe gave out on the radio what little description we had and suggested since we came from Lisgar that they either ran all the way up Cedar Street or more likely into Memorial Park which was dark and not well lit. Uniform units attended there. 

I stayed at the corner of the alley with my gun out to cover my partner and the victim in case the shooters returned. 

“Hey Mick, you have quite the maternal instinct there,” said the Sergeant as he pulled up in his marked station wagon Sergeant’s vehicle with his window down smoking a cigarette. My short time as a Grubbie working with Joe has led to us both getting new nicknames that stuck. McDonald and MacDonald. They called us Mick and Mack. Too cute. I wanted to barf but you don’t get to pick your nickname when you’re a cop. 

I said, “With respect Sarge, fuck you.” 

“Haha. You’re too much Mick. The ambulance is coming. I’ll have a car go to the General Hospital or Memorial Hospital as soon as they tell us which Emergency Room they’re heading too,” the Sergeant responded. 

“It’s 10 pm. Memorial stops taking new patients and closes their Emergency Room at midnight,” I replied. 

“Well they can tell us anyway before I send a cruiser.” 

“Speaking of time, pretty quiet for this time of night here. Like everybody left before we got here,” said Mack. 

I winced at what he said. “Why the fuck would you say the Q word?” 

Sheepishly, my partner looked at me saying, “Sorry Mick.” 

Now we were jinxed for the rest of the shift. No good ever came from the Q word in any context. I just shook my head. Mack and I had been cops the same amount of time but all his time was with City of Sudbury Police and when they became Sudbury Regional Police Force, he became a Grubbie. So he had two years on me in Old Clothes and was training me. We worked well together and got along great. 

He also knew my secret. I was seeing a Detective in CID.

 

Jordan: Thank you for your consideration of my new novel “Past Ghosts Echoed”. The main character, Enoch Brown, will return in my second novel that takes place in New York, 2002, in the aftermath of 9/11 working with the NYPD to catch a serial rapist and serial killer.

  

 

 

 

 

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