Loose Ends

NOTE FROM AUTHOR

NOTE FROM AUTHOR:

I've used many aliases in my past, but my real name is Don Easton. Over a span of twenty years, I worked as an undercover operative. I lived in a world of lies, deception, treachery, and extreme violence ... including contracts on my own life.

Let me explain what real undercover is. Undercover involves living and working out of apartment buildings, often in cities or foreign countries where very few police officers know your real identity. Your identity is kept strictly secret – even from the police.

I taught my children to lie as soon as they could talk about what their real names were and what our cover story was. Undercover is seeing the fear on my wife's face and her grabbing our children and locking the doors when it's discovered another contract has been placed on my life. It's going to bed at night with a loaded gun under your pillow. It's teaching your children to call out to you in the night if they're going to the washroom so you don't shoot them by mistake.

This is what I call undercover. You often work alone and seldom carry a gun when you're with the bad guys.

What was my profession? I was a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for twenty-five years. Seven of those years were spent on an Intelligence Unit battling organized crime. Part of my mandate was to develop high level informants. People risked their lives by placing their trust in me. It was a job I took serious. So serious that some horrific crimes I'd witnessed or knew about I kept to myself to protect the informant's identity.

When I first went undercover, I tended to view the world in black and white. Back then I thought it was simple –– if you broke the law you faced the consequence. I soon learned that the world wasn't black and white. Criminals weren't always bad people. Some had been dealt horrific hands when it came to the game of life, yet still had compassion and tried to maintain a moral – if not legal – code. Other people I encountered in the judiciary or law enforcement, turned out to be criminals. At times, my cover was exposed by the very people I was supposed to trust.

Life wasn't what I expected. What was morally right and what was legally right were often at odds with each other. I've worked with informants who'd committed murder, yet were in a position to provide information on people who were worse than themselves. Lines of right and wrong became blurred and at times I was targeted by both sides of the law. I had to set my own moral compass. It was what I called the grey zone.

Upon reflection, I realized that the path I followed provided me with an inside look at a world that few people know anything about – including police officers, judges, jurists, politicians and the general public. Unfortunately their naivety, although understandable, was also cause for a great deal of frustration on my part –– particularly when vicious criminals walked free. So ... I decided to do something about it.

Upon retirement, I took to writing. Part of the reason was to educate people. Doing so has been cathartic. The frustration and stress had grown like a cancer inside me and it felt better to get it out. It was also a tribute to some of the victims I'd encountered and who I shall never forget. There was also another reason. I'd often questioned decisions I'd made in the grey zone. Hard choices often had to be made. Would the protagonist in my series, who closely mirrored my own work, be crucified by the public for the actions he took? Would people understand the decisions that were made as to who should live or die? I decided to find out.

I've written a series called the Jack Taggart Murder Mystery series. It's about an undercover RCMP officer attached to an Intelligence Unit in Vancouver. Dundurn Press published my first novel in the series, Loose Ends, in 2005. This year a milestone has been reached. The tenth novel in the series, A Delicate Matter, has now been released by my publisher! It is also the novel where certain 'loose ends' carried over from the first novel are tied up after years of a cat and mouse relationship between the protagonist and his nemesis.

Loose Ends will be added to Wattpad, five chapters at a time, until the entire novel is there for your reading pleasure. For those who become interested in my series, the rest of the series is available through amazon or your favourite bookstores. The complete version of Loose Ends will be available on Wattpad from October 17, 2016 until December 17, 2016. Enjoy!

My novels are sold internationally, have been translated into Spanish and currently optioned for a movie/television series. That being said, in an effort to gain wider circulation, starting now I'll post a few chapters of Loose Ends on this website on a weekly basis until the complete novel is posted. After a few months it will then be removed.

WARNING: My novels are not for the faint of heart. They are gritty, realistic and in places violent. Particularly the first chapter of the first novel! I tend to tell it like it is. Numerous professional reviews that applaud my work carry a common theme - the writing clearly depicts a realism that could only be achieved through real-life experiences. By someone who has looked into the eyes of murderers and victims alike.

Where the line of fiction and fact cross is only known to me... I hope you enjoy the novel and I welcome any feedback you may have. For those seeking more information, visit my website at: www.jacktaggart.wordpress.com 

Sincerely,

Don