While he was teaching English and creative writing to students at Peoria’s Spalding and Notre Dame high schools, Thomas Laird was also establishing his career as an author.
Laird credited a creative writing course he took at Bradley University with encouraging him to write fiction. Armed with those lessons, he began writing short stories in the 1970s and progressed to writing novels in the 1990s. He has published 20 novels and works primarily in the crime and suspense genre.
“I chose crime because it was like pants that fit perfectly,” Laird said. “I feel most comfortable in that genre.”
One of Laird’s early efforts, a story called “Detective,” proved to be the genesis of Jimmy Parisi, a second-generation homicide detective who served as the protagonist in several of his novels including the newly published “Coldest Case.”
“Jimmy just resonated with me,” said Laird. “He’s an honest Italian-American who despises The Outfit. Jimmy is a bulldog. When he encounters evil, he just won’t let go.”
Parisi’s relentless tenacity serves him well in “Coldest Case,” where he becomes involved in the 1981 murder case of two teenaged girls. The victims were found in a snowbank near Willow Springs near the ditch where the bodies of two other teenaged girls were found murdered in 1956. The case fell into the hands of Parisi’s father, Chicago homicide detective Jake Parisi, who identified several suspects, but was unable to secure the evidence he needed to arrest any of them.
In his pursuit of justice for the 1981 murder victims, Parisi and his partner Doc Gibron encounter a case reminiscent of the 1956 cold case. A suspect from the 1956 case comes to Parisi’s attention as a person of interest in the 1981 murders. Despite dead ends like those his father encountered 25 years earlier, Parisi doggedly persists in his search for the killer.
“Coldest Case” was published last November by Penmore Press LLC. Laird held a book signing for the novel earlier this month at the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Peoria. He said he is currently engaged in pre-publication work for “Malignant,” a new Jimmy Parisi thriller that he hopes will come out through Penmore Press this summer or fall.
“I’m thinking of doing a new Parisi novel called “Prowler,” Laird added. “I haven’t started on it yet.”
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: From teacher to novelist, Peoria author carves out space in crime genre
Reporting by Mike Kramer, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
