Contemporary Thrillers DOUBLE-CROSSED with Eliot Parker

Recovering from the emotional and physical damage of his last case, Ronan McCullough is trying to put his life back together. But when a federal agent’s charred remains surface, linked to a professor’s encrypted money laundering scheme, Ronan becomes embroiled in a high-stakes game of life and death with someone who is willing to kill everyone that knows anything about the encryption codes.

Ronan soon uncovers several dark secrets and learns that nobody is being honest with him, including the people he trusts the most. When the encryption codes are stolen and Ronan learns their real purpose, he finds himself in a race to stop a plan that will make it nearly impossible to stop the funding of dangerous crimes.

As the body count rises and secrets are unearthed, Ronan must navigate a web of deceit to uncover the truth. How will Ronan succeed when the main suspect is a set of numbers?

Eliot Parker recently sat down with The Big Thrill to discuss his latest contemporary thriller, DOUBLE-CROSSED.

Eliot Parker

Can you pinpoint a moment or incident that sparked the idea for this book?

I wanted to write a book where cybermetrics and cryptocurrency was featured as part of the plot. I am fascinated by those two fields and I did a lot of research into what they are and how they work. More importantly, I learned how criminals are using this digital currency to hide their money laundering and other activities from the police and other authorities. This book was challenging, but fun to write.

Were there any particular books, movies, or songs that were knocking around in your head while you were writing this one?

Billy Idol’s “Mony Mony” bounced around in my thoughts a lot while I was writing this book along with Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” was a song I thought about a lot as I was writing. In terms of movies, The Fugitive with Harrison Ford is something I thought about as Ronon was having to pursue and track down suspects.

When you first created your protagonist for this book, did you see an empty space in crime lit that you wanted to fill? What can you share about the inspiration for that character?

I wanted to set a story in my hometown of Charleston, West Virginia, that depicted the city accurately, both positively and negatively. In addition, I wanted to write a story that featured a gay cop having to struggle with balancing his job responsibilities with his personal life, including keeping his sexuality a secret. These secrets are meant to help Ronan keep his job, but also protect his family. He consistently discovers that balancing everything is a challenge and he doesn’t always manage it well. I also wanted to create a protagonist that was flawed and be a character that could resonate on many levels with readers.

In addition to a great read, what do you hope readers will take away from this story?

I hope readers will take away from this story that family is not always those individuals connected by blood. In fact, the idea of what constitutes a family permeates much of the action and plot of the novel. The characters in this story love and fight one another like all blood-related families do. More importantly, I want to further try to answer this question: Can Ronan and his boyfriend Ty, two men from different backgrounds, find love and happiness amidst all of the violence that surrounds their lives?

What can you share about what you’re working on next?

I am working on another stand-alone thriller novel, tentatively titled The Same Difference, which will be set in Mississippi (where I live and work now). I’ve also finished outlines for my next Stacy Tavitt thriller and I’ve just finished the outline for the fourth book in the Ronan McCullough thriller series. I’m really excited to start writing!