He was a killer from the very start. He
couldn't stand the truth because
there wasn't a Shred of Truth
in him. - John 8:44
Black is back in a whole new adventure. Less than a year
after the events of The Best of Evil,
Aramis Black finds himself living with a bona fide country music star. Johnny
Ray has finally hit the big time and is ready to take his show on the road. He
and Aramis are celebrating on the north end of Nashville's Music Row when
Johnny Ray disappears and is later found lashed to a statue, with the initials
AX carved into his back. Aramis thought his family’s dark past had come to a
resolution, but he soon discovers just how wrong he is.
And all of this just as Aramis was beginning to pick up the
pieces of his life once again. He'd even enrolled in college, and was taking a
class on truth and mythology. Now there's a killer on the loose and he is
demanding one specific item from the buried family treasure that Aramis
uncovered in The Best of Evil.
Aramis isn’t sure what a murderous sociopath wants with a
Masonic ring belonging to Meriwether Lewis, but the attacker is holding the
ultimate ransom, something that Aramis cannot just ignore. Apparently he’d
barely scraped the surface of his family secrets. Now, with an ever growing
list of suspects, Aramis must not only unmask his attacker but also discover
the reason behind the attack. And if and when he does find him, will he react
with the violence from his past or the new-found peace of the present?
A Shred of Truth
is a powerful follow-up to Aramis Black’s introduction in The Best of Evil. As always, Wilson crafts a powerful story of
suspense, masterfully weaving history amid the fiction and literally putting
the reader in Aramis’s shoes. The spiritual themes are strong, as Wilson
explores one man’s struggle against the temptation to the succumb to the old
man of his past, and serves to add to the depth and richness of the story. For
entertainment, for thought, for thrills, for reflection, A Shred of Truth serves
all these purposes. It’s a story that stays with you long after the book is
closed.
Mini Q&A with Eric
TCC: In
both this book and the first Aramis Black Mystery, there's a secret message
that the careful reader can discover. How did you come up with that idea and
how hard was it to implement?
Eric: It still surprises me how few people catch that secret
message. I tell you on the last page of each story how to decipher it, but
readers still miss it. I had fun putting those into the books. In the first, it
helped me get my chapters started, because I was confined to a specific letter
of the alphabet. The second was more difficult, but it was all part of the
challenge. And, of course, that final message is really the message of all my
books.
TCC: This book, as well as the book preceding it, has historical ties to Lewis and Clark and the Masons, among others, and literary ties to Alexandre Dumas. What sort of research goes into the historical tie ins, and how in the world do you manage to find such great literary tie ins?
I read between 500-1000 pages of research for each book I
write, but most of that never comes into my stories. I love finding history's
mysteries and exploring them. When people say we have such a violent culture, I
realize they must be very ignorant of history. Studying the past can give us
perspective for the present and direction for the future. It's been fun working
in themes about Rasputin, the Masons, and WWII into my books. Hopefully it will
give them some longevity beyond the suspense elements. Have fun exploring!
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